microsoft word 9. zuhal guvener poems.docx epiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 4 spring 2010   poems  by  zuhal güvener      sarajevo     in this city  only walls speak  openly  while tomorrow beckons  with her siren song  walls picket for remembrance  but  laughter shies away,   skittish as a war‐worn heart    in this city  only walls have memories  while cooler heads caution and counsel peace  walls raise their mute song in defiance but  hearts  shy away, heavy  as a war‐torn land    in this city  the eyeless watch over the careworn  the heartless rule over the hatelorn     time  cat‐padded evenings  strung around the swan neck of my lady time  shine darkly glorious in their inexorable passage  each jewel  burning kitten‐clawed  drift past  a slow slow waltz  lashing their feather touch  137    on my face  i  cradle   in my arms  each forgotten dream  and   sip  each  inky  drop  alone  apart  but for   my lady time     life in the city  the fog is calling    shades drifting    walking  walking  walking    no soul safe  no soul in sight    the fog is thick  no stars shine  no moon to brighten the daze    walking walking walking    no owls hooting, the silence deafening, shades drifting drifting drifting    no promise of morning         thornbird  you  are  a thorn  138    in my heart  with each beat  pulsating  pain  i   sing  sweeter     *in the book thornbirds, by colleen mccullough, a thornbird refers to a mythical bird that searches  for thorn trees from the day it is hatched. when it finds the perfect thorn, it impales itself, and sings  the most beautiful song ever heard as it dies.     funeral  i haven't saved  my tears in a bottle  ill‐fitting tribute  i thought  acid as they were  pasted together  in a wreath  i'm giving you  my smiles  instead     * tear bottles were prevalent in ancient rome and egypt, when mourners would collect their tears  and bury them with loved ones to show honor and devotion, or send them with their lovers or  husbands when they went to battle.    microsoft word 8. mirsad serdarevic poem.docx epiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 4 spring 2010 poem  by  mirsad serdarevic      why i do not want to feel  sarajevo, october 4, 2009  because i already do  as i did all these years  feel and feel and feel  and  peal, and peal and peal  because i will feel anyway  feelings are given  why invite them?   because when i do i will remember him  my father, i feel  and no feeling will make him physically touchable  no feeling will bring him back  feelings will make me want him to be here  so that i can hear his voice  i do not want to want  i do not want him disturbed because of my wants  no  i would rather let memories of him simmer quietly in my consciousness   and  in my dreams  i do not want to feel  and peal  away, my soul  odometer of my feelings has many zeros on it  they are no more virgin feelings  no freshness that once was  at the site of a girl, for instance  134 projecting onto her all the best  all that she is not, some things she might become  no, there is no more spark  odometers do not lie  vehicle that is my soul is a diesel engine now  no more fast starts, just a subtle vessel to take you from a point  a  to   point  b  nothing fancy  i'd like to tell them that they are  getting secondhand stuff  not my best... far from it... comfort is that it has a record, sort of a history of  reliability  so i do not want to feel   because i do not want to be disappointed   because i do no want to disappoint  the dead, the living, casual ones or   the serious ones  i do not want to disappoint myself  only i already did  so?  then, i may as well feel  bruised?  so what?  scared?   who isn't?!  tired?   get over it!  now  i do not want to not want to feel  for what else would be the bridge between me and others?  between me and you  between me and the world  i am not alone in my unfortunate experiences  we might all be mingling around  scrap metal yards  135 but  even old metal may become something   new  so i continue feeling  because that is what we humans do  alice manuela martins guimares* today we live an unprecedented audio visual culture, where images exert the role of mediator between subject and culture. most of young people form their intelligibility of the world from images. actually nowadays, children and adolescents deal much easier with imagery language than with writing. thus in the current context of technological innovations produced by the revolution of computerization and the spread of audiovisual media, digital and electronic teaching materials have gained new dimensions in its form, in its content and in its use. in this regard, mitry stated (2000) “t is our belief that cinema is not just an art, a culture, but a means to knowledge, i.e., not just a technique for disseminating facts but one capable of opening thought onto new horizons.” the inclusion of media instruments in different levels of education during the second half of the 20th century, was a necessary measure and tailored to students’ cultural characteristics of modern society where the global communicative phenomenon took a huge social, cultural and educational relevance. in this context, cinema becomes a powerful teaching tool since it is a form of narrative that brings together a visual and auditory language whose connection provides a simultaneous dialogic and polyphonic epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies volume 7, number 2, 2014 p-issn 2303-6850 e-isnn 1840-3719 light ! camera! education: the use of cinema to enhance education and learning abstract in our time film making is regarded as a powerful teaching tool. jean mitry and alain bergala, amongst other filmmakers and writers associated with cinema, advocate that filmmaking is not just an art or a way to express culture, but it’s also a way of acquiring knowledge. bearing these thoughts in mind, we intend in this paper, to point out how learning and education come together in willy russell’s film, educating rita. this film is based on the social constructivist notion advocated by piaget (1896-1980) and vygotsky (1896-1934), in which the determining factors for cognitive development interact with the physical and social environment, with human symbolism and with social interactions. educating rita refers to the social, historical and cultural context of the united kingdom during the70’s, and conveys how the educational process turns out to be a social practice. in this film the student is given a primary role, namely he is responsible for his own learning and proves he can find ways to achieve his goals and being responsible for the consequences of his choices, in a process of experiencing, reflecting and transforming himself through and educational experience he undergoes in adult. in addition to the importance of social context in education, the film focuses on the affective and educational issues and calls up a reflection on the affective dimension during the teaching-learning process. keywords: cinema; media; learning and education. *corresponding author: alice manuela martins guimares, humanities department, open university, portugal; e-mail: aligui2@hotmail.com language. the spectator gets vocal inflections, facial expressions and sounds which contribute to enhance the narration of the story. the film provides us living details of settings and locations that we may never have experienced before and it shows us all this in few minutes. therefore the use of cinema as a vehicle and tool for teaching and learning promotes the approach of cultural, historical, political and literary aspects, providing its integral vision as an educational media. any film portrays the thought and the human creation of a specific social model and of a specific historical moment, therefore it educates who assists, giving rise to a reflection and a subjective impression on the world. several filmmakers and writers associated with film research have developed opinions about cinema advocating that filmmaking is not just an art or a way to express culture, but it’s also a way of acquiring knowledge. in this context, they defend the insertion of cinematic art in the school space as a pedagogical practice. among these stands alain bergala who defines cinema as creation of knowledge and not just as pure consumption oriented to a bare entertainment. one of his the main contributions in his work ,the hypothesis – cinema (2006), is the idea that this art is an encounter with alterity. another great supporter of a partnership between pedagogy and cinema is henry a. giroux. according to giroux, the popular movies are nothing but a “form of public pedagogy – a visual technology that works as a powerful teaching machine” (giroux, 2002:6). he also stated that (…) it is a view that seems particularly out of date, if not irrelevant, given the important role that popular culture, including film, now plays pedagogically and politically in shaping the identities, values and broader social practices that characterize an increasingly postmodern culture in which the electronic media and visual forms constitute the most powerful educational tools of the new millennium (p. 6). for giroux, the film exerts an important influence on the public’s imagination, since it produces ideologies and shapes individual and national identities. giroux, in its combination of narratives, metaphors and images from popular culture, focus on the use of movies, supporting their arguments in the use of film as “pedagogical text.” the italian researcher pier cesare rivoltella, also adds that, once the cinema sets itself up as crossing of several socio-cultural practices, it becomes an “agent of socialization” that allows several and different meetings, such as: people with people into the cinema room; people with themselves; persons with the narratives of the movies; people with cultures within the various movie depictions; persons with multiple imaginaries, etc. (rivoltella, 2008: 75). this “socialization agent” includes grown up population, in the context of lifelong learning. jean mitry corroborates that “cinema is not just an art, a culture, but a means 106 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.m.m. guimares the use of cinema to enhance education and learning to acquire knowledge, i.e., it is not just a technique for the dissemination of facts, but a technique able to broaden the thinking towards new horizons.” it is precisely through this technique of expanding knowledge and broadening our critical thinking that we can inscribe willy russell’s film educating rita. in 1980, the play of the same name, originally written to be represented in the theatre, had won the laurence olivier award for the best comedy. three years after the debut in 1983, the text of russell would be adapted for cinema. willy russell, author of the screenplay, highlights the importance of the social context in education, conveying the social constructivist perspective of learning as advocated by piaget (1896-1980) and vygotsky (1896-1934). this theoretical current emphasizes that the development of human intelligence is determined by mutual actions between the individual and the environment. it also suggests that the student is part of a social group and must have initiative to question, to discover and to understand the world from the interactions with the other elements of the historical context he belongs to. the main goal of a teacher is to encourage social interaction, stimulating the exchange of information in the pursuit of a collective and shared knowledge construction. in the socio-constructivist perspective, the individual responds to external stimuli acting on them to build and organize his own knowledge. the student builds his knowledge, acting, running, building it from his social environment and from his relationship with the teacher(s). in such a relationship (between student/teacher) both of them are able to learn. it is this socio-constructivist approach that pervades rita’s learning and evolution in russell’s film educating rita. in this film, rita, the main character, builds her knowledge as an adult student. here the focus is given to the student who is responsible for her own learning and is able to find the paths to realize her potential, becoming responsible for the consequences of her choices, in a process of experiencing, reflecting and transforming herself. the film celebrates the potential freedom of education, as a force that allows people to open the doors of reality and of the vitality, of the working class to rise socially. at the same time, as does the main character, it is as a vehicle to discover herself, evolve intellectually and learn to make her own decisions. michael caine starred as frank, the tutor of rita. julie walters starred as rita (or susan, her real name) and she is a restless student, hairdresser by profession, a married woman with no children, whose dreams were to break free from her social environment, become educated in order to find herself in life and have the freedom to make her own choices. rita also dreamed of becoming a refined person. for this purpose, she renounced to her origins and adopted a different name (rita 107 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.m.m. guimares the use of cinema to enhance education and learning in honor to rita mae brown). this change, displays the enormous admiration that rita had for the author of the book she was reading at the moment. rita mae brown, the famous american writer, was a feminist activist, a great and a tireless fighter for the civil rights, who took part of the movement against the vietnam war during the 1960s. the choice of this name shows rita’s dream of becoming an educated woman traveling the same path as the writer. in its multi-faceted features educating rita addresses the difficult social issues of traditional beliefs about gender, class system and education. in this context, it reflects some of the epistemological issues of education, such as: who is the real agent in the educational process; the student’s autonomy; the relationship between student and teacher; the reproduction of social practices and the voices of the participants involved in the learning process. another relevant issue is the importance of critical thinking and of selfrespect as gateways to self-esteem and social acceptance. although educating rita is a fiction, it no longer provides us an authentic illustration of the english society of the 1970s. nevertheless, the film has a gorgeous delicacy, dealing with the physical and spiritual desolation of dr. frank bryant, the college professor and with the vividness and intellectual curiosity of his student who made him rise out of a deeply decay and face the change as well. the plot revolves around the relationship developed between rita and frank, the middle-aged college professor, during the school term, at the open university. the action took place at liverpool where rita, dissatisfied with her working routine and social life, enrolled in the course of english literature, searching for her inner growth. in this process, teacher and student developed an immediate understanding and the difference between their different worlds stimulated interest and mutual curiosity. frank was a selfdestructive teacher, a person who seemed to be unable to maintain relationships and whose frustrations in life were shown through his profound drunkenness and incapacity to write the poetry he would like to produce. nevertheless he was an experienced teacher, smart and so unconventional that rita immediately found out a similarity with her irrepressible desire to study. thus she didn’t hesitate when, at the beginning of the film frank suggested her to get another tutor. in fact, initially, the teacher did not accept to be her tutor, but soon he would become rendered to her insistence, determination, purity and sincerity. these features were something that frank wasn’t being able to find anymore, even in his personal and professional life. everything about rita was genuine, beginning with her pronunciation that informed her social origin, her typical accent from liverpool, the use of slang in her speech, her personal outpourings, her dreams, the naive way of writing and telling what she was thinking about, etc. 108 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.m.m. guimares the use of cinema to enhance education and learning her only trick was the nickname she used but that she explained naively. susan, as it was her real christian name, intended to become a counterpart of rita mae brown. suddenly the school started and sometimes frank proved to be a much better teacher than he had ever thought. rita´s unassuming enthusiasm and honesty impressed him, making him (re-) examine his attitudes and positions in life. this enthusiasm of rita would revitalize his numbed passion for teaching. on the other hand, the lessons with frank opened rita a new horizon, and she gradually acquired more self-esteem and selfconfidence. socially, rita represents the lower class – the mass which culture influences society’s operations. as a working-class woman, she was socially and sexually confined. social origins limited her choice to work, as well as all the other things in life – friends, relationships, romance, language, etc. in addition, her biological gender subdued her to her husband’s domination, whose social backgrounds required him a masculinity that resulted in occasional domestic violence. actually the first time her husband (denny) was presented on screen, he was demolishing the house while rita was trying to write an essay, unsuccessfully. these details can suggest his husband’s objection to study as well as a somehow sexist domination that was prone to physical violence. this violence was confirmed when he burned rita’s book. nevertheless, rita refused to accept these limitations imposed by birth and education. she rebelled against the conventionality of her class and broke up with it. instead of having babies and settling down, as the traditionalist behavior of her class required, she decided to get an education so that she could have the opportunity to discover herself, to grow inward, to “sing a better song” as she put it in the film. so, she learnt to dress up and talk with the accurate pronunciation and proper language, she gave up using slang, she learnt not to speak everything she thought but to think before to speak. this was something that reminds us eliza doolittle, the main character of george bernard shaw’s pygmalion. rita realized that certain members of society had to “act”, to be in tune with their lifestyles. we realize rita’s transformation when she felt the need to dress up to go to frank’s house at his invitation, and felt absolutely intimidated when she looked inside and listened to educated people talking in the lobby. she told frank that she hadn’t been brave enough to come in because she wouldn’t know what to speak. however, frank just answered her: “nobody asked you to play a role! i only wished to have you there, just the way you are.” in which concerns socio cultural contrast, the film confronts: on the one hand, the pleasures of frank and his friends brian, his girlfriend julia, and trish, rita’s roommate – as representatives of literature. their academic formalities mask their social pretensions. on the other hand, rita’s natural liveliness dominates the representation of lower social 109 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.m.m. guimares the use of cinema to enhance education and learning class. we need to point out her joy, enthusiasm and determination as opposed to the academic class that seduced rita so much. frank’s contempt for the academic world is displayed through the bottles of whisky hidden behind the endless rows of literary books in his office – a place that scared rita on her first visit. to highlight these social contrasts, russell uses both the liverpool accent, used by rita and her husband and the accent of london, used by frank and his friends. once rita comes from the working class she uses heavy accent and colloquial speech continuously. in this film, willy russell explicitly wants to criticize the social representation that makes each individual, an actor on the stage of life. here, people learn how to behave according to their social class, they also learn what to wear and what to buy (rita: dresses, frank: books) everything seems to be written into the script of their social lives as if every individual had pre-written functions, dialogues, costumes and actions that are expected to be followed to keep on this performance until a possible resolution may be reached. rita and frank descriptions are convincingly realistic and are portrayed subtly in such an idiosyncratic way. russell emphasizes their psychological depth, imbuing them with peculiar features which are neither transparent nor predictable. the two characters remained complex and multifaceted along the plot. rita is impetuous but very sensitive. frank is tired of teaching and is cynical but sometimes is sincere and sentimental. he is disillusioned with his job because he sees students as mere apprentices of all what had already been proven, not possessing an original thought. he’s also an alcoholic who, among other factors, causes problems in his relationship with julia, the woman with whom he lived with and in his professional life as well. rita belongs to the working class and feels ashamed of her roots. in her own words, “the only way to improve her home is through bombing.” she had to go through an arduous process of education, to achieve her goal, which was to be able to display the intelligent discourse of scholars and the culture and elegance of the upper classes. all she wanted was to escape the life of her trivial family, neighbors and colleagues. once her husband disapproved her decision to acquire other options in life radically, he burned rita’s books when he discovered that she was taking contraceptives. rita’s determination in pursuing her studies would cost her marriage because denny decided to leave her. as rita became more and more educated she also increased her confidence and frank, ironically, felt increasingly insecure. when she acquired “other teachers”, for example, her summer school tutors or trish, her roommate, frank felt shaken because rita’s devotion was divided by other educators. he then found out escape in the usual bottles of whiskey and one day, after a discussion with his colleagues in university, he decided to go away to australia. rita was improving academically; however, she would naturally lose her naturalness and spontaneity. 110 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.m.m. guimares the use of cinema to enhance education and learning she learnt and adopted the necessary things that allowed her to “talk about things that really matter” — things than a cynic, even if a realistic one as frank, would disdain. frank witnessed rita’s transformation with a sad repudiation. in the process of educating herself, she lost the exclusivity that frank more admired her genuineness. and, at the end, when frank asked her to go to australia with him, suggesting a fresh start for both, she was evasive about starting a new life with him. now she is polite so, as she put it, she had already the ability to choose and decide: “i might go to france. i might go to my mother’s. i might even have a baby. i dunno. i’ll make a decision, i’ll chose. i dunno”(russell, 1998:72-73) throughout her learning process as an adult, rita received guidance on literary theories and conventional critical thinking. she learnt to question and address literature objectively and critically. the ability to discuss and to argue gives her a broader view about her options in life and provides her what she had set out seeking life choices. this film explores much more than the simple matter of education. relations between student-teacher and the common sharing of experiences and learning, which are assumptions from the socio-constructivist approach of education, are some of the matters the film informs. in fact, we realized the way rita and frank could influence each other. the relationship between rita and frank calls up towards, not only the mutual friendship, but also towards the mutual intellectual support. frank learns much about rita, as she learns from him. while rita gains self-confidence, through the awareness that her options are no longer limited, frank gets his self-esteem back through the respect that rita had for him. the teacher finally learnt to respect and to believe in himself. furthermore, he learnt to respect his students when he realized that each ability to learn is unlimited, and that not all students were so terrible as he had thought. to sum up, educating rita explores the multiple issues relating to choices, relationships, social classes and education. the main character of the film is an excellent example of a working-class citizen of the 70s society in the united kingdom, living in a city with a huge level of unemployment and trying to make her choices in life through education. rita figured out that only education would help her to raise socially and to have a better quality of life. she then tried to meet herself through education. in the multitude of possible discussions due to the richness of russell’s screenplay, this essay has chosen to explore the idea of liberal education designed by divergent views and the way in which this type of education can fulfill dreams and ensure changes in people’s lives. in addition, it focuses on the relationships of affectivity and complementarily between student and teacher which foster the evolution of each person and raise change. maybe the specific topic of change is the one that most calls together both the student’s character within the plot, as the viewer, inside the cinema. in general the film educating rita, stresses the importance of critical 111 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.m.m. guimares the use of cinema to enhance education and learning thinking and self-respect as gateways to self-esteem and social acceptance. the film displays how the way educational process turns out to be a social practice and how cinema and education can come together in the teaching process. references: bergala, alain. 2006. l’hypothèse cinéma: petit traité de transmission du cinéma à l’école et ailleurs. [a hipótese-cinema: pequeno tratado de transmissão do cinema dentro e fora da escola. tradução: mónica costa netto, silvía pimenta, rio de janeiro: booklink; cinead-lise/fe/ufrj, 2008]. giroux, henry, a. 2002. breaking in to the movies: film and the culture of politics, basil blackwell press, oxford, uk. mitry, jean. 2000. semiotics and the analysis of film, the athlon press, uk. rivoltella, píer cesare. 2008. a formação da consciência civil entre o “real” e o “virtual”, in: girardello, gilka e fantin, mónica, liga, roda, clica: estudos em mídia, infância e cultura, campinas, papirus. russell, willy. 1998. educating rita (film), singapore: longman group ltd. a.m.m. guimares the use of cinema to enhance education and learning 112 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences 227 is communication really food? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences what does the european union’s (eu’s) new approach bring to bosnia and herzegovina (b&h)? edita dapo international university sarajevo (ius), faculty of business administration (fba), department of economics. ognjen riđić international university sarajevo (ius), faculty of business administration (fba), department of management. abstract bosnia and herzegovina has been lacking the collective political power to address the reforms that were necessary for progress towards eu over the years. the b&h politicians could not agree upon any effective coordination mechanism on eu issues. the lack of coordination mechanism has negatively affected the country’s interaction with the eu. beside the coordination mechanism the other political issues could not be resolved. the eu commission intensively facilitated resolution of the sejdić-finci ruling of the european court of human rights that b&h has to implement, but without any success. the political actors have also been unable to agree upon countrywide strategy required for instrument for pre-accession assistance, in sectors, such as: agriculture, energy, transport and environment. these negative developments led to a substantial reduction of funding in these areas. political disagreements have caused economic stagnation on moving towards european standards. in february 2014, widespread, citizen-led protests have occurred. these protests have underlined the fragility of the socio-economic situation. the eu commission has launched a new approach for b&h towards eu aiming to shift the focus towards economic reforms and issues of direct concern to citizens. this included development of a ‘compact for growth and jobs’. the compact is supposed to be the yardstick for the necessary economic reforms. in this paper we will explain the importance of the new approach for b&h, as well as what ‘compact for growth and job’ brings to b&h. key words: eu new approach, economic reforms, compact for growth and jobs, bosnia and herzegovina 228 e. dapo, o. riđić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction bosnia and herzegovina (b&h) is post-conflict country with very complex political system that provides opportunities for political elite instability. the country has fragmented society, complicated state structure and week institutions. b&h has been lacking the collective political power to address the reforms that were necessary for progress towards eu over the years. the b&h politicians could not agree upon any effective coordination mechanism on eu issues. the lack of coordination mechanism has negatively affected the country’s interaction with the eu. b&h is the first and only country ever that lost pre-accession funds. it is the only case when the eu redirected its pre-accession funds from b&h to kosovo. the political actors have also been unable to agree upon countrywide strategy required for instrument for pre-accession assistance, in sectors, such as: agriculture, energy, transport and environment. these negative developments led to a substantial reduction of funding in these areas. beside the coordination mechanism the other political issues could not be resolved. the eu commission intensively facilitated resolution of the sejdić-finci ruling of the european court of human rights that b&h has to implement, but without any success. political disagreements have caused economic stagnation on moving towards european standards. in february 2014, widespread, citizen-led protests have occurred. these protests have underlined the fragility of the socio-economic situation. political instability negatively affects investments and economic growth causing poverty and dissatisfaction of the people. peoples’ dissatisfaction brings social unrests which again have effects on stability of the government. in order to assist b&h, the eu commission has launched a new approach for b&h towards eu aiming to shift the focus towards economic reforms and issues of direct concern to citizens. this included development of a ‘compact for growth and jobs’. the compact is supposed to be the yardstick for the necessary economic reforms. in this paper we will explain the importance of the new approach for b&h. the main purpose of this approach is to make consensus about the goals of main economic policies between all levels of b&h government and to work together in order to fulfilling those goals. the second purpose of the new approach is to help b&h citizens regain the confidence in their governments which is an essential factor for economic development. the paper is organized as follows: section 1. represents the introduction. section 2. gives the review of the previous literature. section 3. presents the back229 what does the european union’s (eu’s) new approach bring to bosnia and herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences ground on b&h and eu relations. section 4. analyzes and explains the importance of the eu’s new approach to b&h, and section 5.represents the conclusion. previous literature on the political instability and the economic growth the growth theory of a new political economy considers the political stability to be a necessary condition for the economic growth. the thematic literatures usually distinguish two kinds of political instability: 1.) non-elite political instability (i.e. violent coups, riots, revolutions, civil wars, etc.) and elite political instability (e.g. cabinet changes, government crises, instability due to frequent instances of minority governments, etc.). rodric (2000) stated that development and improvement of democracy ensures a high-quality growth. in his paper the author pointed out the importance of institutions and stated which institutions are deemed to be significant and crucial for the economic growth. alesina et al. (1992) stated that the political instability represented a negative element for the economic growth. they used a sample of 113 countries from the period 1950-1982 and showed that the economic growth was lower in countries with high probability of government collapse. similarly, aisen & veiga (2011) used a sample covering 169 countries, in the period 1960-2004 and found a negative relationship between the political instability and the economic development. they stated that the political instability, viewed as cabinet change, reduces the gdp growth rates, significantly. political instability has a negative effect on total factor productivity, also affects growth through the physical and human capital accumulation. the paper suggests that the countries need to address the political instability. jong-a-pin (2009) offered a survey on how to measure the political instability and its impact on the economic growth. he distinguished four dimensions of political instability: civil protest, politically motivated aggression, instability within regime and instability of the political regime. in his paper the author questioned the credibility of the political instability in regards to single proxies as viewed through the cabinet changes. political elite instability and institutional weakness in b&h are causes that country is unable to formulate and adopt the appropriate policies that encourage long-term growth and needed unique and innovative policies toward joining the eu. background on b&h and eu relations in the early 1990s, the collapse of the centrally, and by only one, communist 230 e. dapo, o. riđić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences party, planned self-managed economic system and the transition to a market economy started with the disintegration process of former yugoslavia. as a result of the breakup, there emerged seven countries: slovenia, croatia, bosnia and herzegovina, serbia, montenegro, kosovo and former yugoslav republic (fry) macedonia. slovenia joined the eu in 2004 and croatia in 2013. serbia, montenegro and fry macedonia are candidate countries, while bosnia and kosovo are still the potential candidates. as other countries in the region, bosnia and herzegovina is still in the process of transformation from a socialist, previously self-managed economy, to a modern market economy. this process started in 1989, but was interrupted by the aggression and internal warin bosnia and herzegovina from 1992-1995. the process of the transformation restarted in 1996, immediately after the dayton peace agreement was signed. bosnia and herzegovina was economically growing and progressing towards the eu membership. as a result of that progress the stabilisation and association agreement (saa) between b&h and the eu was signed in 2008 and ratified in 2011. while bosnia-herzegovina signed the saa with the eu in 2008 it has lagged behind its neighbors. ongoing ethnic tensions in bosnia-herzegovina have prevented that country from carrying out the necessary reforms for euro-atlantic integration. however, saa has entered into force in 2015, when the eu switched its approach towards b&h. the political system in bosnia and herzegovina is defined by the dayton peace agreement. the agreement outlines the constitution of the state. there were established two entities (i.e. the country was divided into the two parts – one is the federation of bosnia and herzegovina (f.b&h) and the other is republika srpska (rs)). later, in 2000, a new administrative unit district brcko was established. the government is highly complex. bosnia and herzegovina has around 14 governments (1 at the state level, 2 at entity level, 10 cantonal in fb&h and 1 for the district of brcko). beside different levels, in order to ensure the ethnic representation the government on each level requires the participation of different ethnic groups. decision making process is very complex and it gives the possibility to the elected representatives to protect the members of their own ethnicity. however, the possibility of protection, the right to veto and the right to protect the vital interests has been overused and become main weapon of the political elites to stop certain changes or economic progress. for these reasons b&h’s government cannot make prompt and adequate decisions regarding any issues. this complex situation causes delays in the policy realization, slows down and largely brings to the halt the economic growth. the political environment in bosnia and herzegovina was unstable during the whole transition period but it was highly unstable during the mandate from 231 what does the european union’s (eu’s) new approach bring to bosnia and herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences 2010-2014. fifteen months was needed to form the state government (i.e. council of ministers, and in the period of three years there were four changes of the coalition partners). thus, the coalitions were changed several times at the different levels, as well. by 2014, the eu insisted in b&h’s fulfilling the copenhagen political criteria, which required the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities. the european commission undertook the intensive facilitation efforts to b&h in order to resolve the sejdic-finci ruling of the european court of human rights. the sejdic-finci vs. bosnia and herzegovina is the legal case, ruled in december of 2009, which proclaimed the ethnic discrimination for representation in the institutions of the country for persons not belonging to one of the three constituent peoples (i.e. bosniak, serb and croat). the ruling has not been implemented due to narrow political parties’ or ethnic interests. having not implemented the sejdic-finci ruling, the country has not yet ended the discriminatory practice whereby citizens of bosnia and herzegovina not declaring themselves as belonging to one of the three constituent peoples are prevented to run for the presidency and/ or the house of peoples’ of bosnia and herzegovina. thus, the legislative processes, in general, remain extremely slow, due to the lack of political will to reach necessary compromises. the frequent use of the urgent procedures to introduce laws in the parliamentary assembly of bosnia and herzegovina resulted in an extensive use of the vital national interest procedures. due to the lack of political agreement, the legislations were often blocked by using the entity veto. furthermore, b&h lacks an effective government coordination mechanism on the eu issues. political tensions within the ethnic groups related to the division of competences across different levels of government have continued. this unfortunate situation has been compounded by the complexity of the institutional arrangements in the country. the political actors have been unable to agree on countrywide strategies required for the instrument for pre-accession assistance in sectors, such as: energy, transport, environment and agriculture. a failure by the authorities of b&h to agree upon pre-accession assistance for agriculture and rural development (ipard) structure, has forced the eu to suspend funds for this purpose. in 2013, 45 million euro in pre-accession assistance funds for b&h has been redirected to kosovo. it is the first case that the eu redirected its pre-accession funds from one country to another. moreover, constant political disagreements led to a substantial reduction of funding in different areas. in that sense, the new eu approach would help b&h’s government to reach the necessary agreement on economic issues. this will open the way for bosnia and herzegovina to benefit fully from the 232 e. dapo, o. riđić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences available pre-accession funding. a lack of collective political will to address the reforms necessary for progress on the eu path is the main obstacle in b&h. there has been very limited progress on the political and economic issues and on moving towards reaching and/ or accepting the european standards. the economic stagnation and an increase of poverty brought widespread, citizen-led protests in february of 2014. the demonstrators’ demands and complaints were about the economic and social issues. unemployment, difficult living conditions, dysfunctional local administrations, reviewing corrupt privatizations of local companies and lowering salaries for official were some of the concrete demands of the protesters. furthermore, the severe floods, which hit the country in may of 2014, have had a considerable socio-economic impact on the whole country. the eu provided the immediate and substantial rescue and relief efforts and organized a donors’ conference in july of 2014. significant recovery assistance pledges were made from the international community for the recovery and reconstruction phase. in order to facilitate b&h, the commission has launched three initiatives to shift the focus towards reforms that b&h needs and on addressing the issues of direct concern to citizens. it has expanded the eu’s initiative calledbosnia and herzegovina structured dialogue on justice, in particular, the fight against corruption. it has set up a joint eubosnia and herzegovina working group to accelerate the implementation of the eu’s funded projects. it has focused on strengthening the economic governance in b&h. this included development of a ‘compact for growth and jobs’, an economic agenda that was developed together with the domestic experts, as well as with the international financial institutions. what does the eu’s new approach bring to b&h in late may of 2014, the european delegation organized the forum for prosperity and jobs for b&h, in order to identity the economic reform package for b&h. it became clear that b&h’s authorities could not agree upon any important political issue. these disagreements halted the country’s economic growth and caused severe social unrests. people and society become frustrated and irritated with flagrant irresponsibility of the politicians. constant changes at all levels of the b&h’s government, the initiatives of policy makers who tried to take benefit of the position they have, various disagreements regarding the sejdic-finci case and constitutional changes among political party leaders without the discussion at the parliamentary assembly, as well as inability to use the ipa funds for certain sectors 233 what does the european union’s (eu’s) new approach bring to bosnia and herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences created a serious uncertainty with the respect of institutions’ functioning. the eu realized that a large unemployment in b&h and stagnation in socio-economic reforms had to be addressed. the eu delegation in b&h facilitated the various governments’ levels in b&h with creation of the compact for growth and jobs and an announcement that the eu is shifting its approach towards b&h, (i.e. switching from the political to the economic roadmap). the compact for growth and jobs is the document that defines several socio-economic areas that have to be reformed in b&h. these documents define six measures (e.g. taxes on jobs, barriers to registration of the companies, increasing competitiveness, restructuring enterprises, fighting corruption and providing social protection) that are intended to spur investment, accelerate the creation of the jobs, encourage the fight against corruption, properly define and target for social protection. dapo & ridic (2015) explained how a new economic initiative “compact for growth and jobs” may influence the economic growth and accelerate the transition process in b&h. the main purpose of this economic agenda created by the eu is to eliminate the political instability that exists due to the complexity of decision-making process in b&h, to regain the confidence of the people in their governments and provide the citizens with the vision for the existence of the better and brighter future. in political economy literature, it is known that “nothing is more damaging to successful development than incompetent, irresponsible and corrupt government; nothing brings development more effectively to an end, indeed so effectively reverses it, as an internal conflict” (galbraith, 1994). many post-conflict societies are defined by the political instability, an endemic corruption and lack of the effective state institutions (collier & hoeffler, 2004). b&h is not exempt from these characteristics that reversely affect the economic development. corruption is increasing and presents a key obstacle to the necessary economic reforms and the establishment of the rule of law in bosnia and herzegovina (dapo & ridic 2015).the previous literature review shows that the political instability is one of the factors that negatively affect the economic development. both, domestic and foreign investors are discouraged by the threat of political upheaval and changes in the policies. political instability scares away new investments, and, in case of b&h, it stops the pre-accession funds needed for development of the country. soubbutina & sheram (2000) explained that the existence of the political instability prevents a faster economic growth and improvements in people’s economic welfare, causing even more dissatisfaction, which causes more demonstrations and again, through a new social conflicts, it increases the political instability. as a result, a country falls into a vicious 234 e. dapo, o. riđić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences circle of political instability. falling into the vicious circle of political instability can seriously impede the efforts to boost the economic development. in order to reduce the political instability in b&h and positively influence the economic development, the new eu initiative presented as “the compact for growth and jobs” was created in a way that all levels of b&h’s government should maintain a consensus about the goals of main economic policies. the new eu initiative was supposed to break the vicious circle that the country was falling in (see figure 1). its goal was to achieve the political stability regarding the economic issues. having consensus regarding the economic policies should relax the relations between different ethnic groups and different entities. political stability regarding the economic policies would be the advancement on the roadmap towards the eu and these achievements would accelerate the pre-accession funds which are quite needed to b&h. figure 1. the new eu initiative breaking the vicious circle of political instability the other important purpose of the new eu approach towards b&h was that various b&h’s governments regain the confidence of its own people in institutions. the confidence of people and their support presents an essential factor for the development (kohama, 2003). b&h’s government should maintain a consensus about the goals of economic policies. those goals should be transparently presented and explained to the public. this would motivate the people and would help them to easily accept various measures. this is the way for b&h to improve the functionality and efficiency at all levels of the government and to include its social partners into the decision-making processes. governments need to focus on addressing the socio-economic priorities, adopt countrywide strategies for various sectors and im the new eu initiative 235 what does the european union’s (eu’s) new approach bring to bosnia and herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences plement the pre-accession assistance. this is the way, as to how b&h may meet the eu standards on the economic development. after fulfilling these standards, in order to join the eu, b&h must meet the eu standards on the political freedoms. conclusion in this paper we explained the importance of the political stability for the economic development of the country. b&h was progressing on its way towards the eu, until, 2008. later, due to the internal political disagreements it stays far behind its neighboring countries. political instability has the negative influence on the economic growth, which usually causes poverty and dissatisfaction of the people who try to make changes through the social unrests, which again cause the political instability. this is the way how the country falls into the, so called, vicious circle of the political instability. in order to help b&h, the eu introduced the new approach for b&h towards the eu. introduction of the new approach towards b&h presents the eu creativity. the eu was taking into account the specific problems that b&h was faced with. in this way, the eu contributes more actively to the solution of country’s problems by facilitating the government to take the right path towards the eu. the eu facilitates the b&h government by defining the key areas that should be reformed. in the new agenda, “the compact for growth and jobs”, the priority is on the improvement of the b&h’s economy. another important aim of the new agenda is the fight against corruption. improvements in these areas would provide b&h with the resources offered by the instrument of pre-accession assistance (ipa funds). this initiative should bring the economic reforms that b&h badly needs to make a complete transition to the market economy, the economic growth in order to bring b&h closer to the eu. 236 e. dapo, o. riđić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences references: aisen, a. & veiga, f.j. (2011). “how does political instability affect economic growth?” imf working paper, wp/11/12. alesina, a., ozler, s., roubini, n. & swagel, p. (1992). “political instability and eco nomic growth” national bureau of economic research working paper no. 4173. brochure: compact for growth and jobs in bosnia and herzegovina http://europa. ba/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/delegacijaeu_2014090816171626eng.pdf collier, p. & hoeffler, a. (2004). “greed and grievance in civil war” oxford eco nomic papers 56, 653-595. dapo, e. & ridic, o. (2015). “why is b&h stuck in the transition process and what “compact for growth and jobs” eu initiative may bring?” internation -al conference on modern research in management, economics and accounting, istanbul. dapo, e. & ridic, o. (2015). “corruption in bosnia and herzegovina”, yeni turkey. galbraith, j. r. (1994). competing with flexible lateral organisations, second edi -tion, reading mass, addison-wesley. jong-a-pin, r. (2009). “on the measurement of political instability and its impact on economic growth” european journal of political economy 25 (1), 15-29. kohama, h. (2003). external factors for asian development, second edition, japan institute of international affairs and asean foundation. rodric, d. (2000). “institutions for high-quality growth: what they are and how to acquire them” national bureau of economic research working paper no. 7540. soubbutina, t. p. & sheram, k. a. (2000). beyond economic growth: meeting the challenges of global development, the world bank, washington d.c. 67 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the development of language competences with future croatian teachers within croatian education system katarina aladrović slovaček faculty of teacher education, university of zagreb anita mazej osnovna škola augusta cesarca, zagreb anđelka ravlić trgovačka škola, zagreb abstract in the document “eight key competences for life-long learning” the first and the most important competence is communication in the mother tongue. if we have good knowledge of mother tongue, then we will be better in the process of foreign language learning. language competence means to know the language on the level of phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicology, orthography and orthoepy. we have linguistic competence (knowledge about language) and communicative competence (using of language). at this moment, when we speak about european society, it is very important to have good competences in ict and foreign language speaking. for these reasons, we made this research about language competences in mother tongue (croatian language) and english in primary school and the attitude of children to croatian and english language and the way they learn them or not. the research includes 3 primary schools in zagreb (n = 120) in the first two periods of learning (1st 6th class). our aim is to measure linguistic and communicative competence in croatian and english and how pupils are different in terms of sex, age and attitude. we expect that children in the first two periods of primary school have better developed linguistic competence (theory of language) than communicative competence (using language in everyday situations). it is expected because of methods of teaching and learning. croatian teachers are more focused on theory than functional literacy in the process of teaching and learning of croatian language. it is easier with english because teachers of english are more focused on using english in different situations. also, we expect better results from girls than boys, from older than younger pupils as well as from pupils who have more positive attitudes to croatian and english language. key words: teaching of croatian language, language competences, eight key competences, primary school teachers, motivation 68 k.a. slovaček et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction in the time of educational changes and the reform initiated in the republic of croatia this year (2015), it is important to place the development of language competences to the key position. as early as 2005 european commission drew up the document „eight key competences“ defining the communication in mother tongue as the first and key competence and the communication in foreign language as the second key competence. obviously, is the child masters its own mother tongue, especially all types of language activities: listening, speaking, reading and writing, it will be much easier for them to acquire the contents of other subjects, including the foreign language. it is, therefore, necessary to place the teaching of mother tongue (croatian) and foreign (english) language to the key position in the curriculums of primary schools. in order to analyze the situation and the current knowledge of pupils, this paper is expected to determine the level of language (linguistic) and language communication (communicative) competence of pupils during the first two educational periods (2nd – 6th) grade. for this purpose the tests were made for croatian (mother tongue) and english (the first foreign language) checking the knowledge of language on both levels. the results were analyzed and compared in order to identify the necessary changes which should be part of the reform of croatian educational system and language teaching. the said reforms, stimulating the enhancement of quality of the educational system, lead towards the goal of croatian national educational framework, which is the knowledge oriented society. the knowledge oriented society is defined as the one based on the „types“ of knowledge in the areas of innovation, research, education and training which should be the pivotal pillars within the european union. the basic goals enabling achievement of such society are: to make a large number of illiterate people within the global population able to read and write, to make the learning available to everybody through the life-long learning, to improve the quality of education and introduce new technologies to education (e-learning, etc.). redefinition of knowledge, in terms of the continuous learning process on defined educational levels, has a direct influence on reformation of educational policies with the aim to offer better possibilities of access to knowledge for all citizens, regardless of their age, place of residence and social status. about croatian language croatian language is one of slavic languages (sub-group of south slavic languages) spoken by 4.5 million people in the country and as many abroad. since it is a small language, it can be said that the preservation of the language as the means of identity of the entire nation is important and therefore it is necessary 69 the development of language competences epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences to develop the awareness of its correct use. just as all slavic languages, croatian language is morphologically rich: it has seven cases, three different genders, two different numerals, four past tenses, one present tense and two future tenses. the verbs are differentiated according to the verbal aspect, subject of activity, mode, status and aspect. the adjectives, as the changeable type of words, are differentiated according to the gender, number, case and aspect. the adjectives can be both declined and compared. croatian language encompasses seven types of pronouns as well as numbers, numeral nouns, numeral adjectives and numeral adverbs (silić and pranjković, 2007). regarding the area of phonetics and phonology, it is special for its sounds with diacritic signs which can be troublesome for the speakers both in speaking and writing. as for the written forms of expression, special problems are found in writing of the reflex of the proto-slavic yat which has four different alternations: ije/je/e/i. the area of syntax is somewhat simpler since the choice of words and their position in the sentence is free, though the structure: subject + predicate + object is a classic structure which always functions in all forms of discourses. croatian language differentiates five different functional styles of expression: scientific, administrative-business, conversational, literary-artistic and journalistic. each functional style has its own rules of writing which apply to the manner of writing, forming of text and choice of style and vocabulary. the lexis of croatian language includes many words from turkish, german, hungarian and italian languages due to historical, political and geographic circumstances in which the country lived in the past. today, the influence of english language is significant in all areas of public life, including the spoken and written language and especially the public language, the language of the media. one of the basic goals of the mother tongue lessons on all education levels is the development of language competences, especially the language communicative competence, therefore it is the target of this paper to present the results of research of language competences with croatian students in primary school. position of croatian language as a school subject in croatian education system the standard form of croatian language is started to be taught when the children enter school which usually happens about the age of seven. croatian education system is divided into: kindergarten and preschool, primary school, secondary school and higher education. the children start learning the standard croatian language when they enter the kindergarten, but this learning is done through different games and it is not systematic. the preschool period starts about the age of six and then the children in croatian kindergartens start to prepare for initial reading and writing which is taught in the first grade of the primary school. at the age of 70 k.a. slovaček et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences seven, when they enter school, the children start with institutional learning of croatian language as the mother tongue. the primary school is divided into two parts: junior grades (from the first to the fourth grade) and senior grades (from the fifth to the eight grade). in the first six grades, croatian language is taught for five periods per week and in the final two grades for four periods per week. the secondary school education is divided into gymnasiums (comprehensive schools), vocational and art schools. croatian language as the mother tongue is taught for four periods per week in gymnasiums and for three periods per week in other secondary schools. in primary school, the focus of teaching of croatian language as the mother tongue is on grammar and orthography as well as the development of language communicative competence since the pupils until the age of 12 (according to piaget, 1977) are in the concrete operations stage. in the secondary school, the focus is on teaching the literature, with only few hours left for teaching the language (grammar and orthography) and language expression (written and oral). croatian language as a school subject is divided into four areas: language (grammar and orthography), language expression, literature and media culture. on the academic level, croatian language is taught only at faculties where future croatian teachers are taught (faculties of philosophy, faculties of teacher education). considering the importance of literacy in the mother tongue which is also stressed by the document “eight key competences for lifelong learning”, a need emerges for croatian language to be introduced as a subject to all faculties. however, this is only an idea which, after numerous analyses, research and recommendations, has still not been implemented. about english language english is a member of the germanic family of languages, while germanic is a branch of the indo-european language family. it has a rich history going back over a millennium and has been influenced by many languages, such as celtic, french, latin, greek, scandinavian languages such as old norse, dutch, spanish, italian, indian, german, hebrew, yiddish and arabic. nowadays, english is the single most important language in the world, being the official or de facto language of the united kingdom, the united states of america, canada, australia, new zealand, south africa and dozens of others, and being the lingua franca of the internet. many varieties of english are spoken around the world – from lectures in graduate school in holland to parliamentary proceedings in papua new guinea – but interestingly the vast majority of the variation lies in pronunciation and vocabulary. the number of differences in grammar between different varieties of standard english is very small indeed relative to the full range of syntactic constructions and morphological word-forms. 71 the development of language competences epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences nevertheless, there undoubtedly are differences of this kind that need to be noted. for example, the use of the verb do following an auxiliary verb, as in i’m not sure that i’ll go, but i may do is not found in american english, and conversely the past participle verb-form gotten, as in i’ve just gotten a new car, is distinctively american. the regional dialects of standard english in the world today can be divided into two large families with regional and historical affinities. one contains standard educated southern british english, henceforth abbreviated bre, together with a variety of related dialects, including most of the varieties of english in great britain, australia, new zealand, south africa, and most other places in the british commonwealth. the second dialect family is referred to as american english, henceforth ame – it contains the dialects of the united states, canada, and associated territories, from hawaii and alaska to eastern canada. position of english language as a school subject in croatian education system croatian children make their first official school contact with english language at the moment when they enter primary school. however, all of them have already heard or even spoken the language before. some have attended foreign language courses for pre-school children, some have relatives or friends who speak english and almost absolute majority has heard it on tv and the radio. from the 1st to 4th grade (junior grades) of primary school, english language is taught for two lessons of 45 minutes per week which adds up to 70 lessons per school year. in the 1st grade, the teaching methods are very similar to the ones used in pre-school courses. there is practically no writing, almost all language content being oral and taught through songs, simple games and tpr (total physical response) activities. writing and reading is gradually introduced from the 2nd to the 4th grade, the emphasis still being on orally transmitted contents. from the 5th to 8th grade (senior grades) of primary school, english is taught for three lessons of 45 minutes per week which adds up to 105 lessons per school year. all four language activities, speaking, listening, reading and writing, should be equally represented with one sole aim: to enable pupils to be able to communicate. very little linguistic competence is required in terms of language theory. this aim does not change in secondary school, though the final achievement and the level of communicative competence of students will generally depend on their choice of school. there are two types of secondary schools in croatia: gymasi72 k.a. slovaček et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences ums or comprehensive schools where english is mostly taught for 3 lessons per week in all four grades and vocational schools with 3 lessons per week, but only in the first two grades. for this reason, there is generally a significant difference in the national exam results (matura) of gymnasium and vocational school students. on the academic level, english is taught at all croatian faculties, its curriculum depending on the particular faculty. as a conclusion, it should be pointed out that, as it concerns english language, one common feature is shared throughout croatian educational system and that is communicative competence, while linguistic competence is reserved for future english language teachers only. language competences (defining and targets) the word “competence” comes from the latin word “competare” (verb) which means achieve, be better (anić, 2001). the language competences are divided into the linguistic (language) and communicative (communicative language) competence. both of them are important and therefore stimulated, especially through the teaching of croatian language, but also through other subjects. the communicative competence was formed in the 80’s of the 20th century when dell hymess (1980) defined it as the ability of the speaker to choose the most appropriate out of different language sub-systems. the communicative competence implies application of language knowledge in actual situations. it includes practical and functional language knowledge while the common european framework of reference for languages: learning and teaching, (2005) considers that the communicative competence consists of the linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence. linguistic competence implies knowledge of language and its rules, sociolinguistic implies use of these rules in certain discourses defined by the society, while the pragmatic one implies use of language in certain functions, for example through language activities of speaking, listening, reading and writing. different authors define the communicative competence in different ways, so martinet (1982) defines the communicative competence as a capacity on the level of functional language application (functional linguistics). yule and levinson (2003) define the communicative competence as pragmatics which includes applicable and pragmatic knowledge of language. canale and swain (1980) define the communicative competence as a synthesis of the basic system of knowledge and skills necessary for communication (three types of knowledge: about basic grammar principles, how the language is used in social contexts and how communicative functions can be connected in view of the discourse principles). trask (2005) defines the communicative competence 73 the development of language competences epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences as the ability of appropriate expression in social circumstances. as opposed to the communicative competence, chomsky defined the linguistic (language) competence as the knowledge of language, language rules and standards. he makes a difference between the language performance which would be adequate to the communicative competence (it implies communicative knowledge of language) and the language competence (which implies theoretic knowledge of language). the basic target of croatian language teaching on all education levels is to train the student for language communication which would enable them to learn the contents of other subjects and to be included into the lifelong education. among other targets, we can single out the one which says that it is necessary to develop language communicative abilities, which implies the development of language competences. speaking about the students of the faculty of teacher education, it can be said that it is necessary to develop both competences: the knowledge of language implied by the linguistic competence and the use of this knowledge in actual situations implied by the communicative competence. unambiguously, language competences would imply the knowledge of language and the ability of communication, both written and oral, in a certain language. research targets of research the basic target of the research was to investigate the language competences of croatian pupils in english and croatian. in accordance with the basic target, five problems – targets of the research have been set: 1. to investigate whether there is a statistically significant difference in the results of the linguistic and communicative competence in the knowledge of croatian language. 2. to investigate whether there is a statistically significant difference in the results of the linguistic and communicative competence in the knowledge of english language. 3. to investigate whether there is a statistically significant difference in the knowledge of grammar of croatian language (phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicology) and the orthography of croatian. 4. to investigate whether there is a statistically significant difference in the total knowledge of croatian and english, the level of communicative and the level of the linguistic competence in relation to age and sex. 5. to investigate the attitude of students about croatian and english language as a school subject. 74 k.a. slovaček et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences hypotheses of the research in connection with the research targets, the following hypotheses were set: 1. it is expected that there is a statistically significant difference between the linguistic and communicative competence in the knowledge of croatian language. 2. it is expected that there is a statistically significant difference between the linguistic and communicative competence in the knowledge of english. we expected the level of communicative competence in english to be more developed. 3. it is expected that there is a statistically significant difference in the knowledge of grammar and orthography of croatian language (the students know the grammar better). 4. it is expected that there is a statistically significant difference in the total knowledge, the level of linguistic and communicative competence depending on the sex and age. girls and older students are expected to be more successful. 5. it is expected that the examinees consider croatian and english language as very important subjects in their education. methodology of research the sample consisted of the students from three different primary schools in zagreb (n = 120). all examinees wrote a written examination of knowledge by which the communicative and linguistic competences were assessed, according to the following grammar areas: phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicology as well as orthography and language history. after the test of knowledge, the examinees completed an on-line questionnaire on their attitude to croatian language and english as school subjects in general. the data have been processed in the spss statistics programme by means of parametric methods (analysis of variance, t-test) and non-parametric methods (h2 test, arithmetic means). the research results the knowledge of language competences croatian the language competences, which have already been defined as the ability to use the language in actual situations and the knowledge of language theory, have been tested with the students of primary school to the 6th grade. the t-test shows that there is a statistically significant difference in the results of the linguistic and communicative competence on the significance level of 5% (chart 1). since the croatian education system is directed more to learning the language theory and less to development of communicative competence as the language application, the expected results are in favour of the linguistic competence. to conclude, the students 75 the development of language competences epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences know the language theory (definitions, theorems) better than the application of the said theory in actual situations. a similar research was made with primary school pupils (pavličević-franić, aladrović, 2009) and the results showed that the primary school pupils also know the language theory better than the application of the said theory in actual communicative situations which is obviously reflected in the future education and probably influences the manner of teaching of croatian language as the mother tongue. the above-mentioned data point to the fact that the first hypothesis stating that the difference between the linguistic and communicative competence in knowledge of croatian language is expected to be statistically significant has been confirmed. chart 1 results of linguistic and communicative competence in knowledge of croatian the knowledge of language competences – english the t-test shows that there is a statistically significant difference in the results of the linguistic and communicative competence on the significance level of 5% (chart 2) in the process of learning english. better results were achieved on the communicative competence level which implies the functional knowledge of language. this is no surprise considering the communicative manner in which english language is taught throughout croatian schools, primary and secondary ones. the sole aim of the learning process is to enable the pupils to communicate, both orally and in writing. teaching methods are adapted to this aim, including a lot of conversation, games and game-like activities. very little linguistic content is required and only for the purpose of better explanation of communicative activities. therefore, as expected, the second hypothesis was confirmed. 76 k.a. slovaček et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences chart 2 results of linguistic and communicative competence in knowledge of english difference in knowledge of orthography and grammar the results are divided into grammar contents (phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicology), orthographic contents and the contents from the history of croatian language. the results show that the examinees best solved the tasks related to lexicology (79% of the tasks solved) and then the tasks related to the knowledge of phonetics and phonology (65% solved). the pupils also show a solid knowledge of language history (62% of the test solved). it is interesting that the worst solved was the part of the test related to the knowledge of syntax (43% of the test solved). morphology, one of the most demanding areas of grammar, was solved on the 59% level. the orthographic rules (sounds č and ć, dž and đ, writing of diphthong ije/je, capital and small letter, punctuation) also caused a lot of trouble to the examinees, therefore the test was solved on the 55% level (table 1). the area of croatian language curriculum test results (in %) phonetics and phonology 65% morphology 59% syntax 43% lexicology 79% history of croatian language 62% orthography 55% table 1 test results in grammar and orthography 77 the development of language competences epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences when, through the t-test, the test results are compared regarding the grammar knowledge (phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicology) and the knowledge of orthography, the result is the difference which can be announced statistically significant on the significance level of 5%. the examinees show statistically significantly better results in knowledge of grammar than the knowledge of orthography (chart 3). another large problem for students is writing of the words with the sounds č and ć, dž and đ and writing of the diphthong ije/je, as well as the writing of capital and small letter and punctuation. this can be a proof of the third hypothesis which states that a statistically significant difference is expected in knowledge of grammar and orthography of croatian language (the students know the grammar better). the reason for this can be orthographic ambiguities which have still not been resolved and which confuse the examinees and the students who learn croatian language. difference in knowledge and language competences with regard to the age and sex the f-test shows that there is a significant difference in the total results, depending on the age, on the significance level of 5% (table 2), but the f-test also shows that there is a statistically significant difference in the results depending on the age in relation to the test of communicative and the test of linguistic competence, i.e. the results are very close to the level of significance, therefore they can be proclaimed statistically significant. the t-test shows that there is a significant difference in the total results depending on the sex. girls are better in total results than boys and in results on the test of communicative and linguistic competence. this partially confirmed the fourth hypothesis assuming better results of girls and older pupils. f-test sig. (p < 0,05) t-test sig. (p < 0,05) total results 3,29 0,026 2,58 0,002 test of communicative competence 2,62 0,058 3,45 0,005 test of linguistic competence 2,61 0,060 1,25 0,004 attitude/opinion of students about croatian language and english the results show that pupils prefer croatian to english language as a school subject. the assumption is that english language is foreign to them and requires more effort and work in the early learning phase. though positive atti78 k.a. slovaček et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences tude towards both subjects is generally frequent, it is important to stimulate and motivate such attitude through both croatian and english language lessons. chart 3 the attitude to english and croatian as school subject (liker scale 1 to 5) self-estimate of students about own knowledge of language all examinees completely agree with the statement that the knowledge of croatian language is important for them. however, they estimated their knowledge as very good and they very similarly estimated their competence for their future. this would mean that the examinees consider the knowledge of mother tongue important, but they do not feel competent about this knowledge (chart 4). the estimate of own knowledge or the self-estimate was the hardest task that the examinees had to perform since it is always subject to bias. however, most of examinees consider themselves the most competent in orthography, which can hardly be related to the real knowledge of orthography which the examinees showed at the test of knowledge. it is assumed that most of examinees wish to be communicatively competent since this competence is set as one of the key competences for facing the everyday life situations and therefore most examinees estimated themselves as communicatively competent person (chart 4). along with the communicative competence and the knowledge of orthography, as an important element of their knowledge, the examinees point out their grammar knowledge which, just as in the case of orthography, is not in correlation with the results which the examin79 the development of language competences epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences ees showed at the tests of knowledge. it is interesting that in their self-estimate, as the fourth, very strong element, they point out the written competence which, on the higher level, unifies all language and text competences. however, this competence has not been checked by this test, therefore no correlation can be done. chart 4 estimate of own knowledge of croatian language the results confirm the fifth hypothesis which assumed that the students would estimate their knowledge of croatian language as very good, which they did, on the average (chart 4). conclusion communication in mother tongue is the first and the key competence for lifelong learning, therefore sufficient attention has to be paid to its stimulation and development on all education levels, including the academic level. it is especially important to work on this competence in mother tongue with the students who will themselves in the near future be in the position to develop the same language competences in mother tongue with their own pupils. the learning of language implies the language activities of reading, writing, speaking and listening in mother tongue, which, apart from learning the mother tongue, also help in acquisition of other contents and even in learning of other foreign languages. the knowledge about the importance of communication in mother tongue and development of language competences should be seen through the curriculum of the faculty of teacher edu80 k.a. slovaček et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences cation. as already mentioned, students of the faculty of teacher education, have only four language courses in their entire schooling, while the students attending the croatian language module have eight obligatory courses from the area of their mother tongue. absurdity of this situation lies in the fact that all students, after graduating from the faculty, work as primary school teachers from the 1st to the 4th grade and teach five hours of croatian language per week, croatian language being the most comprehensive subject of the school curriculum. the curriculum should be changed and the students of the faculties of teacher education should have more language courses so they could, through their studies, develop their language competences on a higher level. the students are aware of the importance of quality knowledge of the mother tongue, but they are also aware of their lack of knowledge and therefore they do not feel fully competent for their future job. for this reason, it is necessary to work on improvement of the quality of education in the mother tongue, increase of the number of mandatory courses, but also the elective courses which would provide all interested students with the opportunity of additional work. it is especially important that the students develop communicative competence in all areas of their mother tongue because good understanding stimulates transfer of knowledge in a quality manner. this research also opens one of the problems of the concept of the plan and programme of the faculty of teacher education after the bologna process implementation. the change of the curriculum and introduction of a larger number of language courses would make the future croatian teachers feel more competent for performance of their future teaching profession and thus create “a quality school” where each and every pupil will feel accepted and happy, while the teacher will feel secure and competent. 81 the development of language competences epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences references anić, v. (2001). rječnik hrvatskoga jezika. zagreb: liber. canale, m. and swain, m. (1980). theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second lanuguage teaching and testing. applied linguistics 1, 1–47. chomsky, n. (1967). knowledge of language: its nature, origin and us. new york: praeger. curriculum (2006). zagreb: mzos. (12th june 2010 www.mzos.hr) european framework of references for lifetime learning, teaching goals and methods: comunicative competence. 12th september 2010 http://www.ucrlc.org/essentials/goal methods/goal.htm hymess, d. (1980). etnografija komunikacije. beograd: bigz. martinet, a. (1982). osnove opće lingvistike. zagreb: grafički zavod hrvatske. pavličević-franić, d. (2005). komunikacijom do gramatike. zagreb: alfa. pavličević-franić, d. and aladrović, k. (2009). rano učenje hrvatskoga jezika 2. d. pavličević-franić i a. bežen (ur.), psiholingvističke i humanističke odrednice u nastavi hrvatskoga jezika. zagreb: ecnsi i učiteljski fakultet sveučilišta u zagrebu, 165– 186. piaget, j. (1969). intelektualni razvoj deteta. beograd: zavod za izdavanje udžbenika. pilić, š. (2008). obrazovanje u kontekstu tranzicije. zagreb: biblioteka školskog vjesnika. silić, j. and pranjković, i. (2007). gramatika hrvatskoga jezika. zagreb: školska knjiga. trask, r. l. (2009). temeljni lingvistički pojmovi. zagreb: školska knjiga. unesco-ovo svjetsko izvješće. (2007). prema društvima znanja. zagreb: educa. zajednički europski referentni okvir za jezike: učenje, poučavanje, vrednovanje (2005). zagreb: školska knjiga. yule, g. (2003). the study of language. cambridge: cambridge university press. huddleston, r. and pullum, g.k. (2002). the cambridge grammar of the english language. cambridge: cambridge university press. 39 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction the prospect of membership in the european union has a powerful transformative effect, as it invites positive democratic, political, economic and societal changes to be brought.1 these changes entail the alignment of the acceding country’s legal, economic and political system with the framework of the european union and its legal system. this process has come to be known as europeanization, and has gained in significance as countries that were formerly ruled by autocrats started their path of european integration. europeanization of law, i.e. the changing of the country’s legal system in the perspective of accession to the eu, is a consequence of the influence of european integration on the domestic legal systems of countries aspiring to eu membership. the constitution is by no means free from this influence, which is why we can talk about the europeanization of a country’s constitution and its constitutional law (vorpsi, 2016, pp. 166-167).these changes emerge from the fact that the 1) communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the region. eu enlargement strategy. brussels, 10.11.2015, p. 2. constitutional reform in serbia in the perspective of eu membership: europeanization of serbian constitutional law andrej stefanovic university of belgrade abstract this paper deals with the process of constitutional reform in serbia in the context of european integration. serbia has officially started the negotiations process for european union membership, something which will require serbia to conduct fundamental changes to its legal, economic and political system. changes will also have to be introduced to serbia’s constitution. these changes, ultimately, will lead to the europeanization of serbian constitutional law and should enable this country’s smooth and transparent transition towards membership in the union. keywords: europeanization; european integration; constitution; constitutional reform; european union; serbia; enlargement d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 23 9 40 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences eu is no ordinary international organizationrather it is a supranational sui generis entity, based on a set of rules embedded in its founding treaties, which are considered a ’constitutional charter’ (les verts, case 294/83, [1986] e.c.r.). the eu legal system is therefore considered an autonomous, independent legal order, often leading to the union being characterized as a quasi-federal construction (borchard, 2010, pp. 31-32). serbia has gone a long way from being the only western balkan (wb) country that was denied european perspective and the status of a potential candidate country, to having opened the negotiations with the eu and seeking to fulfill all of the obligations stemming from the accession process by the year of 2020. it has been noted, both in international2 and domestic3 publications, that serbia would not be able to enter the union with this kind of a constitutional framework. this is why serbia has already pledged to conduct changes in some parts of the constitution, in order to meet the criteria of rule of law and sustainability of democratic institutions. on the other hand, there are also other constitutional deficiencies that need to be addressed, if serbia is to secure for itself a smooth and legal transition towards eu membership.4 serbia’s european integration path before becoming an independent state, serbia was part of the socialist federative republic of yugoslavia (sfry). during the cold war, the communist bloc in eastern europe, as a response to the formation of the european economic community (eec), established its very own organization for economic cooperation, named the council for mutual economic assistance. nevertheless, yugoslavia did not participate within this structure, since it had a more independent and neutral foreign policy 2) european commission for democracy through law (venice commission).opinion on the constitution of serbia.march 2007. 3) antonijević, m. et al (2013).ustav republike srbijesedam godina pravne neizvesnosti i pet prioriteta za promenu.beograd: yucom (lawyers’ committee for human rights). 4) there is an intense discussion developing on whether serbia will have to leave out the reference to kosovo from the preamble of its constitution, where it is stated that kosovo is an autonomous region within serbia. it has been pointed to the fact that the ‘erasing’ of kosovo from the preamble is a demand that stems out of the process of comprehensive normalization belgrade is conducting with pristina, situated within chapter 35 of the accession negotiations. however, this issues, although widely significant, not only for serbia’s internal affairs, but also for the international community as a whole, will not be analyzed in this paper, but only those changes that will affect serbia’s constitutional system and its constitutional law. a. stefanovic 41 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences orientation, than the other countries of the eastern bloc. therefore, it had an opportunity to cooperate with the west as well, something which yugoslavia took advantage off in 1967, when it established diplomatic and political ties with the eecas the two partiessigned the declaration on mutual relations. the relations were upgraded in the early 1970s with the signing of two trade agreements which granted yugoslavia multiple trade concessions, as well as preferential treatment on the eec market. these relations reached their peak in 1980 with the signing of the cooperation agreement, which regulated not only trade and economic cooperation, but covered such issues as agriculture, traffic, science and research, etc. the further advancement of relations came in 1990 as the eec pledged to support yugoslavia in the restructuring of its banking and finance control system. however, with the outbreak of war in yugoslavia, the cooperation agreement was suspended and the eec, which would in this period become the european union (eu), joined in the united nations security council sanctions against serbia (miščević, 2009, pp. 171-175). with the dissolution of the sfry, serbia and montenegro formed a new federationthe federal republic of yugoslavia (fry). however, since the country was up until 2000 ruled by slobodan milosevic, there was no real possibility of reviving the relationship with the eu. on the other hand, due to conflicts on the territory of ex-yugoslavia, the european commission decided to envisage a new type of enlargement strategy towards this region (named the western balkans at this point). having in mind the complexity of the situation in the wb, the commission proposed a new type of a relationship within the countries of this regionthe stabilization and association process (sap)and confirmed the status of potential candidate countries to all wb states, with the exception of yugoslavia. after the democratic revolution of 2000, yugoslavia was admitted to the wb group and its european perspective was confirmed by the commission (crnić, 2016, pp. 12-13). problems were evident that the federal ties between serbia and montenegro were in trouble and that the very existence of the federation was under question. the eu stepped in, in the form of javier solana, then the high representative of the union for foreign policy, and the decision was taken to reprogramme the country into a state union, where it would be allowed to conduct a referendum of independence after three years have expired. that is exactly what happened, and in may 2006 montenegro declared its independence after a successful referendum. serbia nevertheless continued with the sap, and in april 2008 signed the constitutional reform in serbia 42 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences stabilization and association agreement (saa) with the eu. new trouble followed, as the ratification process was severely prolonged, sincesome member states of the eu had considerations, mostly bilateral in nature, which induced them into not ratifying the saa with serbia. despite this, serbia decided to unilaterally implement the obligations stemming from the saa. finally, the saa came into force in september 2013after lithuania’s ratification of the document (crnić, 2016, pp. 18-19). montenegro’s independence was also a trigger for serbia to adopt a new constitution. even though it was expected that constitutional reforms are going to be performed as early as 2000, i.e. with the fall of the milosevic dictatorship, nevertheless these changes were postponed all the way until 2006. many politicians even stated that the constitutional order inherited from the past does not prevent the new democratic government from functioning (antonijević, 2013, p. 12). nevertheless, montenegro’s exit from the state union meant that the constitutional charter was not in effect anymore, and serbia needed to regulate within a new constitution all of the areas previously regulated by the constitutional charter. this is why the government opted for the drafting process to be swift and quick, and the constitution was drafted in a matter of weeks. however, this meant that the public was largely unaware of what was happening behind closed doors and could not express its approval or dissatisfaction with the proposed constitutional reform. after a successful referendum, the constitution was proclaimed on the 8th november 2006. with the slowdown in the association process, serbia turned to making further steps in the accession process. following the application for membership made in 2009, the european council granted serbia the status of candidate country in march 2012 and decided to open the accession negotiations in june 2013, while the negotiations were formally opened in january 2014 when the first intergovernmental conference was held.5 thus far, four negotiating chapters have been opened, among which three are crucial: chapters 23which deals with judicial reform and human rights, 24encompassing policies that fall within the area of justice, freedom and securityand 35normally reserved for ‘other issues’, but in serbia’s case refers to the normalization of the relations between belgrade and pristina. 5) european commission, serbia progress report, 2014, p. 3-4. a. stefanovic 43 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the reform of the judiciary and the prosecution the european commission’s enlargement strategy towards wb was changed in 2012, so that the enlargement policy was re-shifted towards core issues such as rule of law, fundamental rights, strengthening democratic institutions, including public administration reform. the new approach was coined ‘fundamentals first’, and emerged as a need of ensuring that acceding countries are fully transformed in accordance with these core values of the eu, before they actually become full-fledged members.6 the new approach was a consequence of the experiences the commission acquired with past waves of enlargement which involved central and eastern european countries, some of which went through severe crises with regard to the stability of their democratic institutions. thus, on a more practical level, wb countries are faced with a new structure of the enlargement process. namely, chapters 23 and 24, which cover core issues of rule of law, human rights and security, will be opened at the very beginning of the negotiations, and will be closed only at the very end of the process. moreover, the commission has introduced a mechanism, called the ‘disequilibrium clause’, which allows the commission to suspend the entire negotiations process if the country does not fulfill obligations stemming from chapters 23 and 24 (petrović, stojanović, turkalj, 2015, p. 18). the rule of law principle represents one of the key values enshrined in the eu treaties (article 2 of the teu). with the reforms brought to the enlargement strategy, it is nowadays found at the heart of the accession process. since the rule of law principle remains very broad, covering a whole range of issues, it needs to be narrowed down and operationalized in order to make it possible to assess the progress wb countries achieve in the accession process. since most of these countries experienced significant problems with their judicial systems, which are not fully independent, but a target of political and criminal influence, strengthening the rule of law is particularly important in terms of improving the functioning and independence of the judiciary. eu primary law itself envisages the value of an independent and impartial judiciary, since the rights to fair trial is stipulated in article 47 of the charter of fundamental rights of the eu, a document which has the 6) communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the region, eu enlargement strategy, brussels, 10.11.2015, p. 5-6. constitutional reform in serbia 44 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences same legal standing as the founding treaties. progress in the field of creating an independent an impartial judiciary in the wb countries is not going to be made without strong political will that will lead to tangible results.7 in a broader sense, this means that there ought to be commitment to eliminating external influence over the judiciary and to devote adequate financial resources and training. legal guarantees need to be put into place for fair trials.8 in serbia’s case, the independence of the judiciary is guaranteed by the constitution, foremost by article 4 which provides for the separation of powers. serbia’s version of the right to a fair trial can be found in article 32 of the constitution, which declared the right for every person to a public hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal. also, article 152 proscribes judges from entering politics. functional immunity for judges is guaranteed by article 151. nevertheless, the constitution does allow political influence: the national assembly not only elects the president of the supreme court of cassation and presidents of all other courts in the country, but it also elects to the post of a judge those persons who are elected to this position for the first time. all of this is done on the basis of proposals made by the high judicial council (hjc). even though envisaged as an independent body, the hjc’s composition and the election of its members reflects strong political interference, and the hjc has failed to react publicly in protection of judicial independence in cases of political interference in the work of judges.9 the composition of the hjc is, de facto, entirely determined by the national assembly: it elects 8 out of 11 members of the hjc, while the other 3 members-who are members ex officioare also tied to the national assembly: two of them also elected by the national assembly (the president of the supreme court and the minister of justice) and one is a member of the national assembly, in charge of the committee competent for judicial matters. severe political interference is even more visible when it comes to public prosecutors: the national assembly elects all prosecutors of all levels, including the state prosecutor, even though the constitution stipulates that the prosecution is an independent state 7) communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the region, eu enlargement strategy, brussels, 10.11.2015, p. 5. 8) european commission. screening report serbia: chapter 24justice, freedom and security. 9) european commission. country report for serbia 2015, p. 12. a. stefanovic 45 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences body (article 156), and that all public prosecutors enjoy functional immunity (article 162). thus, the state prosecutorial council (spc), which gathers all prosecutors from the country, is entirely made up of officials directly elected by the national assembly. gaps that exist in the independence of the judiciary are to be addressed through the proper amending of the constitution and, subsequently, trough adapting the current legal framework with new constitutional provisions.10 in order to remedy the situation and to respond to all of the deficiencies the eu had identified, serbia in its action plan for chapter 23 has declared its readiness to amend the constitution in those parts that are with concern to the independence of the judiciary and the prosecution. these changes ought to be made on the basis of analysis of european best practices, as well as a response to the criticism of the venice commission with regard to the 2006 serbian constitution. this task is to be given to a special working group for judicial reform. the final result, i.e. the adoption of the constitutional changes, is to be done in the last quarter of 2017, after which a new constitutional law (i.e. a constitutional act that implements new constitutional provisions) should be put in place.11 both serbia and the european commission acknowledge that constitutional changes will not automatically lead to an independent judiciary and prosecution, but that changes need to take place in the legislative framework, as well as in granting greater financial autonomy to the hjc and the spc, in order for them to conduct their affairs in an independent manner. however, constitutional changes represent the backbone of this process, without which there would be no sufficient and sustainable guarantee that there is separation of powers and the prohibition of interference of the legislative and the executive in judicial affairs. establishing the constitutional basis for membership one of the most urgent constitutional changes that are needed, when the accession to the eu is in sight, is the introduction of the ‘integrative clause’, i.e. a constitutional provision which would set forth the possibility of transferring constitutional powers to the eu. even though the eu was created as an international organization, through the years it has moved a lot from this point, and has created structures that are unprecedented in international institutional law. it has acquired competences in various 10) european commission, country report serbia 2015, p. 50. 11) ministry of justice of serbia.action plan for chapter 23, p. 30-31. constitutional reform in serbia 46 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences fields, all of which came about through member states transferring their powers to eu institutions. the treaty on the functioning of the european union (tfeu) groups these competences (article 3-6) from those where the eu has exclusive competence, through those competences that are shared between the eu and member states, all the way to those areas where the eu conducts the coordination of state policies, and, ultimately, areas where the eu offers support and supplement actions of member states. a broad spectrum of powers which the eu enjoys entails that states pursuing a membership within this organization ought to have in place legal instrument which would govern the transfer of powers. furthermore, as the competences of the eu increased over the decades, it seemed important to broaden the constitutional basis for the transfer of sovereign powers for those member states that already had an ‘integrative clause’. an example is germany, which, until the creation of the eu in 1993, based its participation in european integration on article 24 of the basic law. unlike article 24, which south to legalize the internationalization of federal sovereign powers of germany, as a consequence of the antinationalistic approach of the post-war era, the new article 23 adopts the ‘open statehood’ approach for europeanizing national policy fields through the transfer of competences to the eu (arnold, 2016, pp. 1-2). the absence of such an ‘integrative clause’ is evident in the serbian constitution, and it was noticed first of all by the venice commission. nonetheless, the venice commission opinion on the serbian constitution acknowledges that article 97 of the constitution could act as a possible legal basis, if an ‘integrative clause’ was not introduced by the accession date.12 article 97 (1) regulates the fields of competence of the republic and it outlines that “the republic of serbia shall organize and provide for: sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and security of the republic of serbia, its international status and relations with other countries and international organisations”. however, it would be a leap of faith to consider this provision sufficient in establishing a legal mechanism for the transfer of sovereign powers. in order to justify this argument, one can take the example of croatia, which changed its constitution precisely for this reason: to introduce an ‘integrative clause’. the croatian constitution beforehand contained a provision that allowed croatia to enter with other countries into associations and alliances (article 135). despite this, it was realized that a new provision 12) european commission for democracy through law (venice commission). opinion on the constitution of serbia. march 2007, p. 7. a. stefanovic 47 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences should be introduced which would explicitly refer to the transfer of sovereign powers to the eu, as well as to regulate rights and obligations that stem out of the membership status (article 141a). therefore, the absence of such a provision would possibly endanger serbia’s accession to the eu, since it would put into question the constitutionality of such a move, indeed because the membership in the eu cannot be equaled to membership in ‘classic’ international organisations. if the issue of the ‘integrative clause’ is resolved, the focus moves on to the problem of relationship between the two legal systemsthe european and the serbian one. basis for this kind of a regulation can be found in articles 16 and 194 of the constitution. by analyzing article 16 it can be concluded that serbia opts for a monist approach towards international law, considering that this provision envisages direct effect of international agreements. if this recognition of direct effect could be extended from international agreements to legislative acts of eu institutions as well, there would be no problem with accepting one of the fundamental principles of eu lawdirect effect. as always, the devil is in the detail. unlike article 16, article 194 does not mention that international agreements have direct effectrather it only states that they represent a part of the serbian legal order. problems which emerge through simultaneously reading the two articles is something that the venice commission refers to in its opinion on the serbian constitution. such inconsistencies could prove problematic for proper interpretation.13 with the accession to the eu, not only the status of the country, but also the status of individual citizens will be affected. namely, citizens of an acceding country will become citizens of the eu and will be afforded rights that stem from such a status. european citizenship is given to every individual who has the nationality of a member state. however, european citizenship is additional and does not replace national citizenship. therefore, member states are still in charge of defining conditions for acquiring and loss of citizenship. however, constitutional significance of european citizenship has been emphasized by the ecj in cases such as rottmann, case c-135/08,[2008], where it stipulated that the conditions laid down by member states should not affect the rights conferred to citizens through eu law, and that cases referring to these issues can be subject to judicial review in light of general principles of the european legal order. 13) european commission for democracy through law (venice commission). opinion on the constitution of serbia. march 2007, p.7. constitutional reform in serbia 48 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the need for introducing special constitutional provisions for regulating rights of european citizens was recognized in the process of croatia’s accession to the eu, and a new article was introduced to the croatian constitution, which enumerates basic rights european citizens enjoy (article 146).the croatian solution in addressing this issue might be a good path for how serbia should handle it: on the one hand, granting serbian citizens’rights and freedoms stemming from eu law, and, on the other hand, guaranteeing other european citizens the same rights and freedoms on its territory. issues for further debate: supremacy of european union law apart from the direct effect principle, eu law, according to the jurisprudence of the european court of justice (ecj), is supreme in its interactions with national legal systems. this principle was inaugurated in a famous judgment in the costa v enel case, and was further elaborated in internationale handelsgesselschaft, simmenthal and other cases. in the costa judgment, case 6-64, [1964], e.c.r, the ecj solved the issue of hierarchy of norms between the union order and the national legal orders. supremacy of union law was founded upon the importance of its uniform application in national legal systems, as well as the fulfillment of the necessity to combat potential infringement upon the authority of this supranational order (čavoški, 2013, p. 88). afterwards, the ecj went beyond what it conceptualized in costa, ruling in internationale handelsgesselschaft, case 11-70, [1970], e.c.r,that eu law takes precedence over the national law as a whole, including constitutional law. however, in taking the endeavor of introducing the concept of supremacy, the ecj was faced with the task of determining the faith of national norms that contradict and conflict the union legal order. the answer was found in the simmenthal, case 106-77, [1978], e.c.r, case, where the ecj said that the principle of supremacy renders all conflicting national law inapplicable and precludes the valid adoption of new legislative measures which would be contradicting to union law. the serbian constitution, apart from adopting a monist perspective towards the relationship between international and municipal law, also accepts the notion of supremacy of international agreements over national legislation. this relationship stems from article 194 which envisages that laws and other general legal acts must be in conformity not only with the constitution, but also with international agreements. however, a. stefanovic 49 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences international agreements are of lower legal value than the constitution and must be in conformity with it, whereas the constitutional court is charged with ruling on the constitutionality of treatiessomething which has been criticized as a possible trigger for international accountability of serbia, since the constitutional court can assess the constitutionality of treaties only after they have been signed and ratified.14moreover, when this constitutional solution is put side by side with eu law, other problems can be detected as well. this kind of authority of the constitutional court allows for the possibility for it to adjudicate the cases on constitutionality of eu founding treaties, as well as to interpret them. this is a clear breach of primary eu law, since the ecj is the only institution afforded with the task of interpreting and assessing the validity of eu law, and even it cannot pass judgments on the validity of primary eu law, but can only interpret it. even though it does happen from time to time that national constitutional and supreme courts take on cases where they interpret eu law and even impose restrictions on its effect, nevertheless these kind of situations, for the sake of legal certainty, should be dismissed as soon as possible. it should start with abolishing the ex post assessment of constitutionality of international agreements, which would be replaced with ex ante constitutional review. since articles 16 and 194 of the constitution lay the basis for creating a supra-legal effect of international agreements, and, therefore, the eu law itself, the question remains should future constitutional changes go the next step and acknowledge the supremacy of eu law over the whole of serbian law. supremacy of eu law has been formulated and developed in the case law of the ecj, and, so far, it has not been codified in primary eu law (with the exception of the failed constitutional treaty which did contain a provision which stipulated the supremacy of eu law). therefore, there are no specific requirements on this issue for acceding countries. due to this, member states range from those which jealously still cling to the traditional concept of national and state sovereignty (e.g. poland), through those member states that have positioned themselves somewhere along the concept of constitutional pluralism, which entails the acceptance of a special status for eu law, all the way to member states which have constitutionally subordinated their legal system to eu law, through welcoming the full effect of the principle of supremacy of eu law (chalmers, davies, monti, 2009, pp. 190-197). 14) european commission for democracy through law (venice commission). opinion on the constitution of serbia. march 2007, p. 6. constitutional reform in serbia 50 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences further debate should be conducted on these issues. of course, serbia does not face any hard conditioning as far as supremacy of eu law is concerned. there are no obstacles even if serbia decides to keep the current constitutional solution, or even if it decides to take the path of adopting a dualist approach towards the relationship between international and municipal law. however, this could lead to dangers of conflicts between the two legal systems and would possibly, as it did in poland, manifest itself in the form of constitutional court challenging many of eu acts that are not in conformity with serbian laws. nonetheless, at this point it would be too much to suggest that serbia should reform its constitution towards a broad acceptance of the principle of supremacy of eu law. the solution should, as always, be found somewhere in the middle. namely, it could be considered that constitutional review should be arranged in the same way the legislative competences between the eu and member states is done. in the area of exclusive competences, where the legislature has no competences in passing laws anymore, the principle of supremacy of eu law should completely be accepted. following this line of argument, the constitutional court should be stripped of its powers to interpret eu law and to decide upon its validity in this field. as far as shared competences are concerned, the national legislature operates only if the eu decides not to practice its powers in the given area, or if it decides to task the national legislature with the power to regulate the given area. serbia ought to invest in applying a form of the approach guided by the constitutional pluralism doctrine, which grants eu law a special status, but within a framework of fundamental principles set forth by the constitution, such as fundamental rights, rule of law, separation of powers, etc. this would mean that the constitutional court would conduct the ultra vires control of activities of eu institutions, i.e. check whether they are acting within their legally established lines of competence. through such a function, the constitutional court should perform the task of safeguarding the principles that represents the core of the national constitutional system (chalmers, davies, monti, 2009, p. 197). conclusion serbia has already pledged to adapt its constitution in accordance with the requirements laid down in the accession process. however, the set of planned reforms is not going to be sufficient. serbia is not only going to have to tackle the issues of safeguarding the independence and a. stefanovic 51 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences impartiality of its judiciary and the prosecution, but it will also have to address some key constitutional issues, even those that are at the heart of a country’s constitutional identity, such as the transfer of sovereign rights, supremacy and direct effect of eu law, limiting the competences of the constitutional court on some matter, etc. since on many of these issues there are no hard conditions set out, nor strict rules that acceding countries have to abide by, serbia can easily pick and choose with elements to implement and which to ignore. however, serbia should also keep in mind that, through acceding to the union, it is also entering a completely different international legal regime, which sits on its own rules.conducting a wholesome change to the constitutional system could be beneficial, as it would eliminate many of the problems that could occur in cases of emergence of conflict between two legal systems jurisdictions. references antonijević, m. et al (2013). ustav republike srbijesedam godina pravne neizvesnosti i pet prioriteta za promenu. beograd: yucom (lawyers’ committee for human rights). arnold, r. (2016). limitation of sovereignty by european integration: the german experience in a comparative view.   limitations of national sovereignty through european integration, iusgentium: comparative perspectives on law and justice, 1-13. borchardt, k. (2010).  the abc of european union law. luxembourg: publications office of the european union. čavoški, a. (2013). odnosprava eu i nacionalnog pravaznačaj načela suprematije. basic concepts of public international law: monism and dualism, institute for international politics and economic, belgrade, 8595.chalmers, d., davies, g. t., & monti, g. (2010). european union law: cases and materials. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. crnić, m. (2015). the european unionwestern balkans relations.studia juridica et politica jaurinensis, 1, 12-22. miščević, t. (2009). pridruživanje evropskoj uniji. beograd: službeni glasnik. petrović, v., stojanović, s., and turkalj, k., vodič kroz izveštaj o skriningu za poglavlje 23pravosuđe i osnovnaprava. beograd: giz. vorpsi, a. (2016). the europeanization of albanian constitutional law.  limitations of national sovereignty through european integration, iusgentium: comparative perspectives on law and justice, 166-167. constitutional reform in serbia 52 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences documents: communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the region. eu enlargement strategy. brussels, 10.11.2015. european commission. country report for serbia 2015. european commission for democracy through law (venice commission). opinion on the constitution of serbia. march 2007. european commission. screening report serbia: chapter 24justice, freedom and security. ministry of justice of serbia. action plan for chapter 23. legal acts: charter of fundamental rights of the european union constitution of croatia constitution of serbia treaty on the european union treaty on the functioning of the european union case law: judgment of the court of 17 december 1970. internationale handelsgesellschaft mbh v einfuhrund vorratsstelle für getreide und futtermittel. reference for a preliminary ruling: verwaltungsgericht frankfurt am main germany. case 11-70. judgment of the court of 9 march 1978. amministrazionedellefinanzedellostato v simmenthalspa. reference for a preliminary ruling: pretura di susa italy. discarding by the national court of a law contrary to community law. case 106/77. judgment of the court of 23 april 1986, parti ecologiste “les verts” v. european parliament, case 294/83 a. stefanovic 133 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences socioeconomic status of parents and the achievement of children on readiness for school tests anela hasanagić, international univeristy of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina. abstract this article examines whether socio-economic status and geographic location impact children on readiness for school tests in bosnia and herzegovina. the sample used in this study consisted of 296 children: approximately half of the children were from rural areas and the other half from urban areas in bosnia and herzegovina. tests that were used included: differences test, similarities test, numerical test, trace test, knowledge test, questionnaire for measuring socio-emotional maturity, and goodenough’s draw-a-man test. results show that there are statistically significant differences between children from different socio-economic background on these tests. children whose parents are low educated have lower results on readiness for school test, compared to children whose parents have finished high school or college. the results showed that geographic location was not as significant a factor in readiness for school tests. there were differences between village and town children only on goodenough’s draw-a-man test and on similarity test, while on other tests showed no significant correlation between this variable. keywords: socio-economic status, socio-demographic characteristics, readiness for school, academic achievement. 134 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. hasanagić introduction socioeconomic status is an important factor in many aspects of living as in academic achievement as well. many researchers have shown that there is a correlation between academic achievement of parents and academic achievement of their children. (brody, stoneman and florr, 1995) according to papalia and olds, more educated parents were more involved in education of their children, and they also had higher income. families with higher income have tendency for higher rate of support and concordance. children are raised in positive atmosphere; their mothers show the support and are willing to help in achievement, and those children tend to develop better self-regulation, and also to have better academic achievement. luster and mcadoo found that academic achievement is not determined by socioeconomic status by itself, but socioeconomic status impacts on family, and that family structure and support is important factor for academic achievement. (luster and mcadoo, 1996) they did a longitudinal study among afro-american children who live in poor families. they found differences among these children in terms of family support structure. children with stronger support networks had higher iq’s, were more motivated, and at the same time they had mothers who were more educated and interested in cooperation with teachers. rothenberg (1969) discovered obvious differences in conservation among children from different socioeconomic status. horvat (1986), based on his research and similar research findings of dolanc (1971) and kolar (1971), concluded that there are differences among children from different socioeconomic status, from differently educated parents and that those differences are evident from the age of six or seven years, and that also, there are differences in school achievement among these groups of children whose parents are low or highly educated. children whose parents are more educated are more motivated for further development; they have goals that help them to have higher achievement. residence is also important factor in academic achievement, often with residence, one only considers the cultural differences among certain population. it was thought that some cultures (or subcultures) are more deficient compared to others. but, nowadays, we are more like to think about cultural differences in term of the differences that are result of living in certain life circumstances. in bosnia and herzegovina, we usually think about the context of residence, actually about the differences between children who live in village (rural) or in town (urban areas). many of researches that have been done about this topic, mandić and gajanović (1982) showed that there are differences between children 135 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences socioeconomic status of parents and the achievement of children on readiness for school tests from towns and children from villages on tests of intelligence, and tests of academic achievement. in bosnia and herzegovina, because of these differences, we had different standards for measuring the readiness of urban and rural children. many things changed following the 1992-95 war in bosnia and herzegovina. many people from rural areas moved to urban ones because of better educational and career opportunities. a lot of people from villages have college degees due to necessity. also, rural areas are not like they used to be. globalization now makes everything available in rural areas just like in more urban areas. children in rural areas now have computers, internet, cable tv etc. preschool children, go to kindergartens, and their parents are more educated. considering those facts that took place over last twenty years, it is necessary to check whether different standards of testing children from villages and towns, and different expectations from children in school, are still valid, or it is safe to assume that children from urban and rural areas have the same potential for starting the elementary school. hypothesis: h1. we hypothesize that children whose parents are highly educated will have statistically significant better results on the readiness for school tests. h2. we hypothesize that there are no statistically significant differences between children from urban and rural areas on readiness for school tests. methodology this research was planned like combination of quasi-experimental and correlational research that included method of systematic observation. participants: this study’s n-size consisted 296 early elementary school children: 147 boys and 149 girls. table 1. frequencies of educational level of parents, according to the nomenclature of educational lever adopted in bih. father mother frequencies percentage frequencies percentage nk (nonqualified) 23 7,8 64 21,6 kv (qualified) 39 13,2 33 11,1 vkvhigh qualified) 47 15,9 20 6,8 sss (high school) 141 47,6 151 51,0 136 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. hasanagić vs (undergraduate) 22 7,4 18 6,1 vss (graduate) 18 6,1 8 2,7 mr or dr (ma or phd) 1 0,3 total 291 98,3 294 99,3 missing 5 1,7 2 ,7 total 296 100 296 100 table 2. frequencies of sample considering the residence as an independent variable. frequencies percentage urban 149 50,3 rural 147 49,7 total 296 100,0 instruments: for the purpose of this research, researcher used a battery of tests and a questionnaire for parents. tests • differences test was taken from thorndike’s modified test of intelligence, which was previously applied by mandić and gajanović (1971). in this instrument participants were asked to find the picture that is totally different from other pictures among the five pictures. the test has 12 items. • similarity test – was also taken from thorndike’s modified test of intelligence, and which was previously applied by mandić and gajanović (1971). the participant needs to find two pictures that are similar to each other among five pictures. it has 11 items. • numerical test – the idea of this test is taken from research that was made by vlahović-štetić, et al. (1995), but some items are added, because of the measuring conservation of number. it measures conservation, counting, simple summarizing, ordinal numbers, half of something etc. it has 9 questions. • trace test – it measures the oculo-motor coordination and fine motor skills when mapping some objects. it has five items for evaluation. on each item, better drawing is evaluated, and it can be evaluated with 0,1 and 2 points. maximum is 10. total score was calculated like simple linear combination of those four tests (sum of scores on difference test, similarities test, numerical test and trace test). • goodenough’s“draw-a-man” test measures intelligence on children. it evaluates how many elements a child drowns on assignment: draw a man!” 137 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences socioeconomic status of parents and the achievement of children on readiness for school tests • knowledge test – measures the knowledge about colors, shapes, letters, reading and understanding the materials that is read. it has 6 parts, and maximum is 58. questionnaire • questionnaire for parents – socio-emotional questionnaire, which measures socio-emotional readiness for school, but also some socioeconomic facts about family. it has 37 items, and parents answered on questions. procedure: the research was conducted in may 2011. for all children that were a part of research informed consent from parents was taken. results testing the statistical significant differences of achievement on readiness for school tests considering the level of education of parents like the independent variable, by using the anova for two independent variables. table 3. intercept anova with two independent variables (mother and father educational level) and dependent variables source dependent variable type iii sum of squares df mean square f sig. correct-ed model difference test 254.471a 12 21.206 2.760 .001 similarities test 118.244b 12 9.854 1.405 .163 numerical test 105.769c 12 8.814 1.677 .071 trace test 138.532d 12 11.544 2.125 .016 total score 1137.884e 12 94.824 3.153 .000 knowledge test 4934.211f 12 411.184 2.093 .018 socio-emotioanal q 705.876g 12 58.823 1.796 .049 goodenough’s drow a man 9958.033h 12 829.836 3.270 .000 intercept difference test 2727.600 1 2727.600 354.975 .000 similarities test 2118.042 1 2118.042 301.958 .000 numerical test 2239.989 1 2239.989 426.217 .000 trace test 3385.389 1 3385.389 623.224 .000 total score 21151.703 1 21151.703 703.390 .000 138 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. hasanagić knowledge test 36111.050 1 36111.050 183.827 .000 socio-emotioanal q 12789.662 1 12789.662 390.410 .000 goodenough’s drow a man 750110.440 1 750110.440 2955.630 .000 fathers’seducat-ional level difference test 8.495 3 2.832 .369 .776 similarities test .865 3 .288 .041 .989 numerical test 20.327 3 6.776 1.289 .278 trace test 47.301 3 15.767 2.903 .035 total score 57.688 3 19.229 .639 .590 knowledge test 1249.956 3 416.652 2.121 .098 socio-emotioanal q 249.131 3 83.044 2.535 .057 goodenough’s drow a man 1332.692 3 444.231 1.750 .157 mother’s educat-ional level difference test 59.696 3 19.899 2.590 .053 similarities test 25.983 3 8.661 1.235 .297 numerical test 11.776 3 3.925 .747 .525 trace test 13.736 3 4.579 .843 .471 total score 164.775 3 54.925 1.827 .143 knowledge test 350.882 3 116.961 .595 .618 socio-emotioanal q 76.091 3 25.364 .774 .509 goodenough’s drow a man 1391.940 3 463.980 1.828 .142 father’s educat-ional level * mother’s educat-ional level difference test 11.093 6 1.849 .241 .963 similarities test 39.461 6 6.577 .938 .468 numerical test 8.164 6 1.361 .259 .955 trace test 69.952 6 11.659 2.146 .048 total score 108.901 6 18.150 .604 .727 knowledge test 431.362 6 71.894 .366 .900 socio-emotioanal q 419.485 6 69.914 2.134 .050 goodenough’s drow a man 703.113 6 117.186 .462 .836 error difference test 2120.761 276 7.684 similarities test 1935.964 276 7.014 numerical test 1450.522 276 5.256 139 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences socioeconomic status of parents and the achievement of children on readiness for school tests trace test 1499.247 276 5.432 total score 8299.618 276 30.071 knowledge test 54217.546 276 196.440 socio-emotioanal q 9041.639 276 32.760 goodenough’s drow a man 70046.147 276 253.790 total difference test 12387.000 289 similarities test 10758.000 289 numerical test 10761.000 289 trace test 11946.000 289 total score 93367.000 289 knowledge test 209422.000 289 socio-emotioanal q 65388.000 289 goodenough’s drow a man 2772113.000 289 correct-ed total difference test 2375.232 288 similarities test 2054.208 288 numerical test 1556.291 288 trace test 1637.779 288 total score 9437.502 288 knowledge test 59151.758 288 socio-emotioanal q 9747.516 288 goodenough’s drow a man 80004.180 288 a. r squared = .107 (adjusted r squared = .068) b. r squared = .058 (adjusted r squared = .017) c. r squared = .068 (adjusted r squared = .027) d. r squared = .085 (adjusted r squared = .045) e. r squared = .121 (adjusted r squared = .082) f. r squared = .083 (adjusted r squared = .044) g. r squared = .072 (adjusted r squared = .032) h. r squared = .124 (adjusted r squared = .086) 140 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. hasanagić table 3 shows statistically significant differences in term of interaction appeared for differences test, trace test, total score and socio-emotional maturity questionnaire, and goodenough’s “draw a man” test. particularly educational level of father is important factor for trace test, while the other results in this manner were not statistically significant. because of that one way anova was done, which showed statistically significant differences in term that children whose fathers are more educated (first or second university level) had better results that children whose fathers are not that educated. also c coefficient of correlation was done (table 4), and it showed that there is statistically significant correlation between the level of education of fathers and success of their children on readiness for school tests. the correlation was not significant only on goodenough “draw-a-man” test. the one way anova for educational level of mothers showed statistical significant differences between children whose mothers have finished only elementary school, compared to children whose mothers finished high school and university level. also there is a correlation between level of education of mothers and success in differences test, similarity test, numerical test, total score and knowledge test. the same significance was shown by one way anova. table 4. c coefficient values between level of education of parents and dependent variables educational level of father educational level of mother c-coefficient sig. c-coefficient sig. differences test ,383 ,049 ,383 ,046 similarities test ,373 ,043 ,372 ,048 numerical test ,385 ,004 ,327 ,035 trace test ,352 ,043 ,315 ,346 total ,484 ,041 ,524 ,038 knowledge test ,611 ,048 ,635 ,002 socio-emotional iq. ,428 ,025 ,368 ,431 goodenough’s ,676 ,067 ,670 ,104 table 5. t-test for big independent samples for testing differences between children from urban and rural areas leven’s test t-test f sig. t df sig. two tailed difference m st. error differences test 2,683 ,102 ,638 294 ,524 ,211 ,331 similarities test ,525 ,469 4,047 294 ,000 1,230 ,304 141 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences socioeconomic status of parents and the achievement of children on readiness for school tests numerical test 2,422 ,121 -1,160 294 ,247 -,313 ,270 trace test 2,670 ,103 -1,422 294 ,156 -,398 ,280 total 5,133 ,024 ,918 294 ,359 ,732 ,797 knowledge test 3,271 ,072 -,673 294 ,502 -1,121 1,667 socio-emotional q ,443 ,506 -,135 294 ,893 -,092 ,682 goodenough’s 2,750 ,098 4,020 294 ,000 7,623 1,896 the t-test for big independent samples showed that there are no statistically significant differences between children from urban and rural areas in all subtests but similarity test, where children from town had statistically significant higher scores, as well as in goodenough “draw-a-man” test. discussion since the beginning of measuring the intelligence, it has been shown that there are some statistically significant differences between different ethnical groups, or socio-economical groups. at first, those differences were observed in term on differences between races, but further research showed the importance of socio-economic status as an independent variable on educational achievement. arthur jensen (1969) tried to show how unsuccessful compensatory programs which were organized for low socio-economic status children (mostly black population) actually were, with conclusion that there is no such program that can compensate low genetic potential. similar conclusions were found by herrnstein and murray’s (1994) where they claim about advantages of white nation in intellectual potential. these attitudes were pretty controversial, and we can find a lot of scientific evidences that go against these statements. in that term sternberg (according to zarevski, 2000) states a lot of research findings in which it is approved that differences between white and black population are not result of different genetic potential, but rather because they are result of different socio-economic status. whites and blacks from the same socio-economic group will have the similar results on intellectual abilities tests. many researches as a result have significant correlation between socio-demographic variables and academic achievement. socio-economic status is often determined as an educational background of parents or income of family. ‘a family’s socioeconomic status is based on family income, parental education level, paren142 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. hasanagić tal occupation, and social status in the community (such as contacts within the community, group associations, and the community’s perception of the family)’, note demarest, reisner, anderson, humphrey, farquhar, and stein (1993). families with higher socio-economic status are more successful in preparation of their children for school, usually because they have more resources for encouraging and support of child development. they can provide good environment for their children, and they seek for information how to provide all of benefits for their children. families with low socio-economic status often have the lack of social, financial and economic support. they do not have adequate approach to resources which provide the support to child development, as well as to information which will help them to encourage their children in terms of better preparation for school. similar research findings like rothenberg’s who had discovered obvious differences in conservation of number between children of different socio-economic status (education of parents), lead us to conclusion that education of parents and differences in socioeconomic status lead to differences in cognitive abilities of children even at the preschool age, and also on academic achievement. those differences are hardly to compensate after they start with school. vlahović-stetić, et. al, found correlation between educational level of parents and achievement of their children on readiness for school tests from 0,17 to 0,22, and those coefficients are interpreted as better family environment can result with better readiness for school. tovilović and baucal (2007) put the special accent on children from marginalized population which is highly deprived in socio-economic meaning. sirin (2003) did and meta-analysis of all research conducted from 1990 till 2000 year. in more than 50 studies there were statistically significant correlations between ses and school achievement, in which average correlation is 0,29. horvat (1986) also claims that there is correlation between ses of family and child development, in term that children from better socio-economic status have better results in all questions including piaget’s examples. results from this research also show that socio-economic status is important factor of achievement of a child on readiness for school tests. in this research, educational level of parents (mother and father) observing like interaction model, is important factor for achievement in difference test, trace test, total score, knowledge test, social-emotional questionnaire and goodenogh’s draw a man test. 143 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences socioeconomic status of parents and the achievement of children on readiness for school tests also our one way anova, considering the father’s educational level showed statistically significant differences in all dependent variables, as well as mother’s educational level (figures 1 and 2). figure 1. graph of means of all statistically significant variables in term of father’s educational level. fathers who finished high school or university level are more able to provide better environment for children development compared with fathers without school, or only elementary school or vocational school. level of education of mothers showed as important factor too, in determining readiness for school of children. differences appeared between children from different socio-economic levels on difference test, similarity test, numerical test, total result, knowledge test, and goodenough’s “draw a man test,” and post-hoc test showed that those differences are mainly in direction that more educated mothers (high school and university level) provide more supportive environment for child development than less educated mothers (no elementary school, elementary school and vocational school). (figure 2) 144 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. hasanagić according to crnic and lamberty (1994) the segregating nature of social class, ethnicity, and race may well reduce the variety of enriching experiences thought to be prerequisite for creating readiness to learn among children. social class, ethnicity, and race entail a set of “contextual givens” that dictate neighborhood, housing, and access to resources that affect enrichment or deprivation as well as the acquisition of specific value systems. ramey and ramey (1994) describe the relationship of family socioeconomic status to children’s readiness for school: families with low socioeconomic status often lack the financial, social, and educational supports that characterize families with high socioeconomic status. poor families also may have inadequate or limited access to community resources that promote and support children’s development and school readiness. parents may have inadequate skills for such activities as reading to and with their children, and they may lack information about childhood immunizations and nutrition. 145 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences socioeconomic status of parents and the achievement of children on readiness for school tests we conclude that socio-economic status is an important factor for determining readiness for school of children when it is operationally defined like parent’s educational level. this conclusion should have help teachers and other educational professionals when working with children to provide better insight into environmental factors before making diagnosis. children from different socio-economic statuses cannot be observed from the same point of view and professionals need to give them a help and to encourage their development which was deprived because of the environmental factors. sometimes as socio-economic variable cultural differences are observed, and so another question from this research was about differences between children form urban and rural areas. cultural differences can be different and they differ from society to society. in historical perspective of this topic, it is important to mention, that all until now, different standards were used in evaluation of readiness for school of children from urban and rural areas. different standards were used, because it was scientifically proven that there were differences between children from urban and rural areas. gajanović i mandić (1982) found that there are statistically significant differences between children from town and from village and in that way they provided different standards for measuring readiness for school of children. those differences were not differences in intellectual or cognitive functioning, but they were a product of different environment, in term that children from rural areas, because they grow up differently had the lack of knowledge, academic skills, and socio-communicational skills, but they were better in physical skills. this research did not show statistically significant differences on most of the subtests between village and town children. statistically significant differences appeared only on similarity test and on goodenough’s “draw a man” test. in bosnia village life has significantly changed in recent decades. people in rural areas have more opportunities to educate themselves and to work better jobs than ever before. globalization has leveled the playing field in terms of technological access between cities and villages; regardless of where one resides, they will still have access to educational and technological opportunities in ways previously unimaginable. bosnia and herzegovina is similar to many other developing countries in terms of educational achievement over the past few decades; children from villages more often go to university than thirty years ago. previously, females were finishing elementary school and only some of them went to high school. males usually were finishing vocational school and started to work. now, females and males from villages go to university. 45 years ago, toličić (1970) found differences between urban and rural children in educational achievement in yugoslavia. here we could make and as146 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. hasanagić sumption that before the war in area of ex-yugoslavia, there were some differences, but after the war those differences disappeared or because of the migration of population, or because of the globalization, or because of the education of youth from villages, or all of those factors together caused those results and conclusions. due to these results, it is not valid anymore to use different standards in evaluation of readiness for school of children from villages, and from towns, same standards should be used, as the same expectations as well. conclusions: 1. the educational level of parents is an important factor in determining achievement of a child on readiness for school tests. higher educated parents provide more stimulus for their children, resulting in those children have higher result on these tests. level of education of parents should be considered when working with children. teachers and professionals should make even greater efforts to provide an welcoming atmosphere for children who came from more interllectually deprived environment. 2. socio-demographic characteristics are not important factors in determining achievement of child on readiness for school tests. most of the independent variables tested in this study showed that there were few statistically significant differences between children from urban and rural areas. teachers and professionals who work with children should have this in mind; children from rural and urban areas should be approached in the same objective, open-minded manner and be given equal opportunities for educational success. references: adžibaba-gajanović n. (1982.), psihički razvoj djeteta i vaspitanje, svjetlost, sarajevo albrow m. & king e. (1990) globalization, knowledge, and society, sage publications, buggle f. (2002.), razvojna psihologija jeana piageta, naklada slap, jastrebarsko bukvić, a. (1980), predviđanje uspeha u školi, “psihologija” br. 4, beograd crnic, k., & lamberty g. (1994). reconsidering school readiness: conceptual and applied perspectives. early education and development 5(2), 99-105. available online http://readyweb.crc.uiuc. edu/library/1994/crnic1.html ćehić e. (1997.), indikatori zrelosti djece za polazak u školu, psihoteka, sarajevo, demarest, e.j., reisner, e.r., anderson, l.m., humphrey, d.c., farquhar, e., & stein, s.e. (1993). review of research on achieving the nation’s readiness goal. washington, dc: u.s. department of education. [online]. available: (http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/earlycld/ea7lk5. htm) demetriou a., doise w. i van lieshout c. (1998), life-span developmental psychology, john wiley & sons, west sussex, duncan g., claessens a., huston a.c., pagani l.s., engel m., sexton h., dowsett ch.j., magnuson k., klebanov p., feinstein l., gunn b.j., duckworth k., japel c. (2007.), school readiness and later achievement, developmental psychology, vol. 43. no. 6. 1428-1446. 147 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences socioeconomic status of parents and the achievement of children on readiness for school tests duran m. (1995.), dijete i igra, naklada slap, jastrebarsko, farrar e, goldfeld s, moore t. (2007.) school readiness, children’s research institute, melbourne. australia, ferenčić j, keresteš g. i bratko d. (2005.), roditeljske implicitne teorije dječije inteligencije: razlike u funkciji spola i obrazovanja, suvremena psihologija 8(2005),2, 147 – 161. furlan i. (1991.), čovjekov psihički razvoj, školska knjiga, zagreb, gardner h., kornhaber m.l. i wake w.k. (1999.), inteligencija, različita gledišta, naklada slap, jastrebarsko, herrnstein, r. and murray, ch. (1994). the bell curve: intelligence and class structure in american life, new york: the free press, horvat l. (1986.), predškolsko vaspitanje i intelektualni razvoj, zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, beograd, jan, m. (2009), key issues and dimensions, globalization of media 29.1 : 66 75. eurojournals publishing, inc. 2009. jensen a r. (1969).how much can we boost iq and scholastic achievement? harvard educ. rev. 39:1-123, klarin m. (2006.) razvoj djece u socijalnom kontekstu, naklada slap, jastrebarsko, mandić p. i gajanović n. (1982.) teorijske i praktične osnove upisa djece u školu – priručnik uz instrumentarij, svjetlost, sarajevo, mandić p. i gajanović n. (1991.), psihologija u službi učenja i nastave, grafokomerc, tunjić, lukavac, papalia d. e. i wendkos olds s. (1998.) human development, mcgraw hill, sedmo izdanje, piaget j. i inherdel b. (1988.), intelektualni razvoj djeteta, zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, beograd, piaget j. i inherdel b. (1990.), psihologija deteta, dobra vest, novi sad, ramey s.l. & ramey c.t. (1994). the transition to school: why the first few years matter for a lifetime. phi delta kappan, 76(30), 194-198. research brief, child trends (2001.) school readiness: helping communities get children ready for school and schools ready for children, washington, dc research brief, the initial effect of kindergarten program traits on studentachievement, march 30, 2004 | volume 2 number 7. seefeldt c & barbour n. (1994), early childhood education, macmillan publishing company, englewood cliffs, usa, sirin s. r.(2003.), the relationship between socioeconomic status and school outcomes: meta analytic review of research, 1990--2000, boston college dissertations and theses smiljanić č.v. i toličić i. (1976.), dečja psihologija, zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, beograd, starc b., obradović č. m., pleša a., profaca b., letica m. (2004.), osobine i psihološki uvjeti razvoja djeteta predškolske dobi, golden marketing, zagreb, tovilović s. & baucal a. (2007.), procena zrelosti za školu, centar za primenjenu psihologiju, beograd, vasta r., haith m.m., miller s. (1998.) dječija psihologija, naklada slap, jastrebarsko, vlahović-štetić v., vizek-vidović v., arambašić l., miharija ž. (1995.) priručnik za test spremnosti za školu, naklada slap, jastrebarsko, zarevski p., (2000.), struktura i priroda inteligencije, naklada slap, jastrebarsko. 79 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences conflict and identity as a major impetus in escalating or de-escalating conflict jared o. bell international university of sarajevo abstract identity is a complex phenomenon and so is conflict. when examining the two together we can understand why some of the world’s most difficult ethnic conflicts are long term and protracted. this paper aims to analyze how identity and conflict could prevent and manage conflicts, caused by different perceptions of the identity. after all, identity can be used to escalate conflicts and connected with power and resources, identity can also be used to de-escalate conflicts as well. the purpose of this paper is to make a comparative study of the relationship between identity and conflict. keywords: conflict; identity; power; conflict resolution. the relationship between identity and conflict identity and conflict are inextricably linked. throughout our lives, even before we are old enough to comprehend what we are being taught, we are socialized to believe in a series of established set of ideas, principles, values, and belief systems which come to constitute not only our culture, but in many cases our national, ethnic, and religious identities. this is what social scientists across many disciplines have termed the collective identity. according to midlarsky (2000) people with collective identities or ethnicities typically share common proper names, a myth of common ancestry that denotes common origin in time and a place, shared historical memories in the form of shared memories of a common past, elements of a common culture tend to include religion, customs, and language, a link with a homeland imagined or real, and a sense of solidarity (p. 26). these identities become one of the foremost ways we come to make senses of not only ourselves, but, the rest of the world. pruitt and kim (2004) maintain that, when people identify themselves with a particular group, they find favor with their own group, its members, and favor one’s own group in order to enhance their self-esteem, which is part d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 24 7 80 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences of the social identity theory. furthermore, pruitt and kim (2004) also argue that inter-group conflicts occur when these different groups frustrate each other’s goals and/or aspirations (p. 30). folger, poole, and stuntman (2009) add to this point by asserting that the impetus of intergroup conflict lies in the fundamental human necessity for identity. social categorization therefore is the, basic social process whereby people define themselves by identifying the groups that they and others belong to (p. 92). folgers et. al., also (2009) points to the importance of not only how our membership in certain groups defines us, but how our lack of membership, in other groups, is equally as important (p. 92) one of the most dominating senses of identity that has caused conflict is nationalism, in particular civic nationalism and ethnonationalism. religious identity may also be a great source of conflict and can be wed with the two other terms, especially ethno-nationalism. moreover, civic nationalism is based around state sovereignty. this form of nationalism is based on individual citizenship, which demands loyalty of the individual to the state rather than a particular ethnic group. in such cases, the actors can belong to multi-ethnic group what ties them together is being a citizen of a particular state. however, ethno-nationalism attempts to mobilize the members of one ethnic group for seeking a particular goal. when loyalty or cohesion to the national identity is threatened or when one ethnic group feels that their identity is repressed conflict ensues. identity conflicts can be inter-state and intra-state; however, inter-state conflicts have decreased significantly since world war ii, while intra-state conflict continues to rise with incidences of armed conflict, political violence, genocide, etc. historians and scholars posit that world wars i and ii were fueled by nationalism, where the great powers competed against one another for land, influence, resources, and power. however, in the later part of the 20th century, the bloodiest conflicts that took place where within states, among different civic and ethnic cultural groups. one major example that includes both was the breakup of yugoslavia, when the multi-ethnic country made up of 6 republics splintered across ethnic lines. as the various republics began to declare independence, the serb dominated yugoslav federal government acted forcefully to stop secession, especially in croatia and bosnia, countries that had a number of ethnic serbs living within their borders. in addition to this, there were also ferocious battles within the republics as various ethnic and secessionist groups aimed to divide the republics along ethnic lines even further. j. o. bell 81 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences identity and escalation of the conflict identity can escalate conflict when one is repressed or discriminated against compared to another. if we look throughout the globe, we can find many examples of racial and ethnic discord where one ethnic or racial group decries inequalities and injustices that they perceive to be based on unfair treatment due to their particular identity. most members belonging to a national or ethnic group, also as discussed above tend to have common markers of culture, language and origin. however, what happens when there are those who were not socialized within the context of that group identity, such as immigrants or people who have ethnic identities which eclipse their national identity? there can be major issues, where those groups may feel isolated, or on the margins of society. also, people who adhere to the main national identity may harbor ill-will or feelings towards those that do not. a great example of this is second generations of muslims of north african and the middle eastern decent, still struggle to fit into and the french national identity. and feel that they are treated unjustly and forced to live on the margins of society. many in france see most of the conservative religious ideas they are raised with as incompatible with traditional french and european liberal ideas. especially as of lately, as france has suffered terrorist attacks. nevertheless, terrorist attacks are more complicated than bad people just want to hurt good people. it’s much more complicated than this, to look at why french youth are being radicalized we have to look at the conditions in the environment from which they come after all as folger et al (2009) points out above a lack of membership in a certain aspect is also just as important as membership. due to the way groups operate, it is often easy for one group to separate themselves from others, whether it is based on national identity, language, culture, etc. often we begin to draw lines between “us” and “them” often making the “us” the more superior and this “us” mentality can be furthered and fueled by ideas like nationalism or ethnic hegemony. nationalism or ideas of ethnic superiority may push those who identify as “us” to ostracize and ridicule those who identify as “them”, for being different, which will further lead to perhaps strong animosity and in some cases lead to discrimination and repression. this falls along the lines of the idea of moral exclusion. moral exclusion is the notion that some individuals and groups fall outside the limits of what our societal standards of what is morally right or fair. christie et. al., (2001) explain conflict and identity as a major impetus 82 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences that our morals spell out our senses of justice by identifying what we owe to whom, whose gets what, when, why, and to whom this does not apply or fall within our scope of justice or community morals. another way of considering the issue of identity gives us frames that come with a sense of morality when we feel people operate outside of this context; we feel that they do not deserve to benefit from the best aspects of our moral code, like justice. however, moral exclusion is a dangerous concept, excluding people is subject to what one particular group thinks another should have, be, or possesses for fairness. this could include, race, gender, sexuality, religion, etc. moral exclusion can be justified often in a variety of ways and can be used to justify social and economic inequalities like structural violence. morally excluding certain groups from societal narratives and norms of justice are great sources of conflict and often times pushes latent conflicts to escalate when those on the receiving end of moral exclusion have finally had enough. moral exclusion also lays the foundation for certain groups to be legally and economically exclude. this is what gatling (1979) terms structural violence. another way of looking at this is through the theory of structural violence. galtang (1969) coined the theory of structural violence to explain harmful factors in societal structures that may disenfranchise or repress. “there may not be any person who directly harms another person in the structure, the violence is built into the structure and shows up as unequal power and consequently as unequal life chances” (gatling, 1969, p. 171). these systematic aspects leave the exclude groups feeling hurt, angry, frustrated, and ignored to the point where the conflict may turn armed violence or terrorism. identity, conflict, and power another important aspect in understanding how identity contributes to conflict is grasping the aspects of identity and how it relates to power. one of the ways we can see and understand how identity, conflict and power work in relation to each other. let us explore the parable of the tribes concept. the parable of the tribes concept is a social theory that paints the following scenario: a group of many neighboring tribes which, initially, live peacefully and amicably with another, until at one of these tribes becomes aggressive and attempts to conquer their neighbors. this theory maintains that the neighboring non-combative tribes have one of four outcomes: the tribe is conquered, and all its inhabitants are annihilated; the tribe is conquered, and its surviving inhabitants j. o. bell 83 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences are forced to subordinate their wills to the will of the conquering tribe; the tribe flees to an inaccessible or inhospitable region, abandoning its territory, which is appropriated by the conquering tribe. the tribe resists conquest, and defeats its would-be conqueror (smookler, 1995). the point of the parable of the tribes is that all four possible outcomes to this situation result in the expansion of the ways of power among humans, at the expense of the ways of peace. in order for the fourth option to take effect, the conquest-resisting tribe is forced to adopt at least some of the ways of power initiated by the would-be conquering tribe, because (schmookler, 1995) argues, power can only be countered with power. the parable of the tribes theory of social evolution, which shows that power is like a contaminant, a disease, which once introduced will gradually yet inexorably become universal in the system of competing societies (smookler, 1995). more important than the inevitability of the struggle for power is the profound social evolutionary consequence of that struggle once it begins. a selection for power among civilized societies is inevitable (smookler, 1995). moreover, according to schmookler (1995), any tribe at any time opting for the ways of power, or the ways of war, thereby imposes this one-way evolutionary path, sooner or later, upon all others, and the fate of the human race is thereby sealed. he further argues that, once introduced, not only do the ways of war gradually foreclose upon the ways of peace; they also progressively foreclose upon the freedom of choice. when the parable of the tribe is applied to identity conflicts, it allows for a deconstruction of what some identity conflicts may actually be based around and that is a struggle for power and resources. peoples of different identities may not be in conflict solely for the simple fact that they are different, but, because they are often times competing with one another and it is that resources, power, equality are not shared properly. after all, conflict is defined as a divergence of interests. maintaining power is a very important as the parable of the tribe suggest, because power can only be fought with power. and power is the only way any group to protect their interest. interest and identity are as linked as conflict and identity. perhaps, maintaining and protecting certain interest can become very much be a part of one group’s identity. just like a group protecting and maintaining their identity may very well important to that group’s interest also. as discussed above identities come with collective memories and stories. different ethnic, cultural and religious groups all have important hallmark events, values, chosen traumas that are a defining part of that identity. conflict and identity as a major impetus 84 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences a great example is hitler’s rise to power in germany. hitler exploited the fact that germany had been punished unjustly for world war i and therefore not only had to avenge the wrong that was done to them, but, also repossess land in central europe that they once possessed. hitler, preached that a travesty had been committed against the german people and the german identity therefore, they had to match force with force and power with power, to have their interests met. and as the parable of the tribes indicates the little peace that came after world war ii was destroyed by one belligerent nation’s quest for power. of course out of the four scenarios discussed the allied powers chose fight hitler’s quest for power in order to survive. and like hitler, the allied powers also tied their battle against nazi expansion to national identity. the nazi’s weren’t only threatening the balance of power in the world, but, they were also threatening national identities. the evidence of identity being a central part of world war ii is evident in war time propaganda, which usually consisted of material that defamed the national identities of their enemies. identity and de-escalation of conflict since having discussed how identity can breed conflict, now it is important to discuss how identity de-escalates conflict. the same way identity can breed conflict it can de-escalate it and that is through the same collective identity process. as earlier, identities are shared among people who have collective memories, ideas, values, origins, etc. these similarities and values can be exploited to avoid conflict. renan (1996) argues that more valuable by far than common customs posts and frontiers conforming to strategic ideas is the fact of sharing, in the past, a glorious heritage and regrets, and of having, in the future, [a shared] program to put into effect, or the fact of having suffered, enjoyed, and hoped together (p. 42). these are the kinds of things that can be understood in spite of differences of race and language. where national memories are concerned, grief is of more value than triumphs, for they impose duties, and require common efforts (p. 42). moving beyond the example beyond what seems to be provided as a domestic example to one in a more international context, the eu (european union) is a great example of sharing in an identity, which therefore reduces the room for conflict. europe before the formation of the eu had a series of wars and battles over the centuries that were based around nationalism and power. since the formation, there is a sense of cohesion and common j. o. bell 85 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences identity, where all of the member states have stake in what goes on and they work together to main their common goals and their identity as the eu. if two states were to be in a violent conflict, other eu states will suffer too as they are adjoined economically and politically. so developing and maintaining a culture of peace is very important. conclusion understanding identity and conflict, does not just help those who are studying conflict determine how identities can be used for and in neutralizing conflict, it us helps individuals, communities, societies, and nations be able to understand the nature of conflicts that may or may not be centered on different aspects of identity. in helping individuals, communities, and societies understand the nature of their conflicts that maybe identity based, we lay the foundation for possible opportunities to overcome these conflicts through dialog and discussion about what aspects of one groups identity (whether it be beliefs, notions, and norms ) threatens another. bringing those who have different points of view together does more than just change opinions, biases, and ideas, it also provides chances for once conflicting parties to find commonalities, develop new relationships, and perhaps maybe even plan for a better future. this better future could be more fulfilled individuals, prosperous communities, or even more tolerant and accepting societies. references christie, wagner, & winter, (2001). peace, conflict, and violence: peace psychology for the 21st century. englewood cliffs. folger, j. p., poole, m. s., & stutman, r. k. (2009). working through conflict. boston: pearson. galtung, j. (1969). “violence and peace.” journal of peace research, 167-191. midlarsky, m. i. (ed.) (2000). identity and conflict. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. pruit, d.g., & kim, s.h. (2004). social conflict: escalation, stalemate, and settlement. 3rd edition. new york: mcgraw-hill. renan, e. (1996). “what is a nation?” in eley (ed.), becoming national: a reader. new york and oxford: oxford university press. schmookler, a. b. (1995). the parable of the tribes (2nd ed.). albany, ny: suny press. conflict and identity as a major impetus 75 the relationship between motivation components and preferred learning components epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the relationship between motivation components and preferred learning components among students at international university of sarajevo almasa mulalić international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina nudžejma obralić international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina abstract motivation plays an important role in all forms of the success, especially in language learning. motivation in english language learning often conditions the academic achievement of the students. this and similar predicaments led sla researchers to develop different methodologies to determine the level of motivation among different types of students. therefore, this paper aims to determine motivation components of english language learning; preferred learning components/methods; and the relationships between motivational components and preferred learning components/methods among ius students. for testing the main research questions, smidth’s (2006) adopted questionnaire was distributed to 70 students at the international university of sarajevo. the research findings indicated that extrinsic motivation (m = 34.15) was the highest motivational factor for the students. expectation as a motivational factor (m = 26.4) was at the second place for the students. motivational strength with the (m = 13.00) followed as the next motivational factor. intrinsic motivation (m = 12.97), stereotypical attitudes toward americans & british (m = 12.15), personal psychological needs (m = 9.06) with their means as shown in the brackets were the least influential factors in students motivation. we have also found the correlation between the motivational components and the preferred learning components. keywords: motivation components; second language acquisition; preferred learning components/methods; stereotypical attitude; international university of sarajevo introduction motivation represents the feelings of the learner towards the particular target language, its culture and the individual pragmatic reasons for learning a foreign language (horwitz, 1990). according to keller (1983) “motivation refers to the choices people make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid and the degree of effort they will excerpt in this report” (p. 389). tackling the motivation and language learning emerged out of the curiosity of the researchers to investigate and evaluate motivation in foreign language learning at international university of sarajevo (ius). since learning foreign language is inherently difficult it would be of a great satisfaction if we, researchers, uncover problems and difficulties that foreign language learners face on their path in foreign language learning process at the international university of sarajevo. certainly, research results will reveal the problems and offer solutions that would help students overcome the obstacles that hinder their language learning. researchers identified different types of motivation that students have while learning the language. gardner and lambert (1972) addressed two types of motivation: integrative epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 21 2 76 a. mulalić & n. obralić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences and instrumental. the integrative motivation encompasses learning the language with the intention of participating in the culture of its people. integrative motivated learners want to learn the target language for better understanding the people who speak the language and mingle with the people from a new culture. integrative motivation refers to “an openness to identify at least in part with another language community (gardner and masgoret, 2003, p. 126). learners with an instrumental motivation learn a language because they have different reasons, such as getting a higher salary or acceptance into a college. gardner and lambert (1992) considered instrumental motivation as a means to get social and economic reward through l2 learning. in addition, instrumental motivation insinuates that a learner learns the language due to opportunities and chances in their future carriers and jobs. since they have great impact on language learning, these two types of motivation can affect and direct the procedure and outcome of learning. cook (2000) further believes that the integrative and instrumental motivation suggested by gardner and lambert is useful and effective factor for second language learning. in the further classification of the motivation researchers talk about extrinsic motivation due to some external rewards, while intrinsic motivation is the motivation that comes from within an act we perform. woolfolk (1998) defines intrinsic motivation as, “motivation that stems from factors such as interest or curiosity“(p. 374). santrock (2004) also argues that “extrinsic motivation involves doing something to obtain something else (a means to an end)” (p. 418). matching motivation in english language learning and learner’s preferences with classroom activities is inevitable for an effective language acquisition. learning second language, from students’ perspective is sometimes different from the instructors’ perspectives. there has been a lot of research on how to achieve the effective outcomes while learning second language. what are the common effects related to second language acquisitions? what are the most important core effects in the terms of students’ learning success and ways of acquiring knowledge? what is the unique formula for effective teaching and learning? what students need while learning second language? since there has been no enough investigation on what really affects students and the learning process while learning second language in the context of learning process, we decided to apply the investigation at the international university in sarajevo in bosnia and herzegovina. it has been a dilemma about effective impacts of effective second language learning, thus, we have noticed that the particular components of motivation are precisely important for achieving positive outcomes. therefore, this study examines: • motivational components of foreign language learning among ius students; • preferred learning components/methods among ius students; • the correlation between motivational components and preferred learning components/methods. motivation and foreign language learning the study of motivation has been a prominent area for research in psychology and education for many years (dörnyei, 2001a). this interest may be related to a wide spread perception of classroom teachers who tend to regard student motivation as the most important factor in educational success in general (dörnyei, 2001b). regarding the literature on l2 motivation there are two main divisions. the first one is composed out of research based on gardner’s socio-educational model in which the role of integrative motivation (comprised of integrativeness, attitudes toward the learning situation, and 77 the relationship between motivation components and preferred learning components epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences motivation) was largely elaborated as a prerequisite of l2 attainment. the other stream is more interested in the implementation of a new proposed aims in l2 motivation (crookes & schmidt, 1991). crooks and schmidt (1991) proposed a number of alternative models with an attempt to gain a more in-depth understanding of l2 learning motivation within mainstream education. the first branch in this kind of research investigates causal relationships among possible individual-difference variables with various l2 achievement measures. however, the second stream attempts to identify possible variables that could influence learners’ motivations within the immediate l2 learning context. in this paper, researchers will review some of the most influential literature in l2 motivation. engin (2009) argued that instrumental motivation is based on a pragmatic approach whereas integrative motivation depends on personal willingness and desire to achieve certain goal in a life. motivation plays a crucial role in willingness of students to obtain knowledge and capabilities to use l2 for variety of purposes. moiinvaziri (2009) argued that english language learners were motivated instrumentally as well as integrativelly. this claim was in conflict with the researchers who claimed that only instrumental motivation is important in sla. he concluded that in english language learning, both instrumental & integrative motivation are important. then, al-hazemi (2000) argued that desire to learn english language should arise from within the learner. in an ideal situation, learners should have very high desire to learn foreign language. according to him, the strong desire for l2 learning contributes to a high degree of competence and success in language learning. dornyei (1994) stated that the nature of social and pragmatic dimensions of target language depends on who, what and where i.e. who learns the language, what language and where. oller et. al. (1977) argued that motivation in l2 acquisition is very important. in their research they concluded that chinese learner were integratively motivated while learning english while mexican american were instrumentally motivation. according to their research, instrumental motivation is the best predictor of language proficiency in sla. they also draw attention to the obvious difference between second language and foreign language contexts as well. then, in the two subsequent studies of japanese learners of efl, the relationship between attitudes and attained proficiency in english was much weaker than with the esl learners and was also less easily explained by existing theories. the weaker relationship, of course, was in accord with our hypothesis that the relationship ought to be somewhat weaker in a foreign language setting. researchers most often talk about anxiety as one of the factors that hinder second language acquisition. when we suspect anxiety among our students, we usually relate it to the trait with variation in the experience of the unpleasant emotional state associated with subjective feelings of tension, apprehension, and worry as well as activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system. according to macintyre (1999) foreign language anxiety is “worry and negative emotional reaction aroused when learning or using a second language” (p. 27). indeed, learning a foreign language is a stressful activity for many learners (hewitt & stefenson, 2011). therefore, many researchers have examined the role of anxiety in language learning since early 1970s (e.g. phillips, 1992; gardner, 2005). their research has shown that there is a negative relationship between fl anxiety and the level of achievement. one of the variables affecting second language acquisition and hinders language comprehension is the stereotypical attitudes toward americans and british. there are many different opportunities in today’s world for traveling and interaction with different 78 a. mulalić & n. obralić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences people. this is because of the technological advances and globalization. there are many researchers coming from different ethnic backgrounds, and interacting with different people around themselves. when this happens, and when a person communicates with a person from different culture, they tend to see in that person a representative of the country or the community. this is called prejudice and is an unfair negative attitude toward a social group or a member of that group. according to stangor (2001), prejudice is a negative attitude toward members of a group. dörnyei (1990) underlines the limited scope of attitudes toward the native speaker community to explain learner behaviors in a foreign language setting when the target language is an international language. gardner (2002) argues that learners’ attitudes toward foreign language speaker groups influence their motivation and proficiency (p. 64). furthermore, according to the acculturation model for second language acquisition by schumann (1978), attitude is an important social factor, which facilitates learning in a second language-learning context where learners and native speakers have positive attitudes toward each other. this type of attitude merely focuses on the native speaker group, which makes gardner’s typology restricted to second language contexts where learners and native speakers frequently encounter in formal and informal contexts. however, in foreign language contexts learners have fewer opportunities to interact with the members of the foreign language community. maslow (1962) proposed the most prominent model of personal psychological need. maslow wanted to understand what motivates people to be successful. he proposed that people are equipped with a set of motivation system unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires. people’s personal psychological needs will be met if they live in the environment that suits their personality, and when they engage in a proper behavior in relation to other people. similarly so decy and rayan (2002) argue that people’s satisfaction of their needs for autonomy depends on their experience in their social and cultural environment, especially when their bosses, teachers and/or parents listen to their opinions and are supportive of their choices. research also shows that people’s needs for autonomy and competence are better satisfied when they are engaged in behaviors that are intrinsically motivated. research methodology the study was carried out at the international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina. ius is the international and multicultural institution of higher learning, having the goal to educate new generations who will lead their countries towards sociopolitical, scientific and economic progress and prosperity. the university also represents a unique opportunity for the young people to get education from highly qualified and prominent professors and researchers. the focus group was comprised of 70 students (n=70) attending eng 111 freshman english courses during spring semester, 2014/2015. this course aims to enhance student’s academic writing skills, research skills, public speaking, and presentation skills. the first part of the course deals with scanning, skimming, clustering, prewriting, drafting, and revising techniques. such techniques will be applied to various forms of writing and research. the second part of the course deals with academic research skills, whereby students will learn how to organize research papers and how to incorporate different types of materials and sources into writings. public speaking strategies will be explored profoundly by involving student’s in-class presentations. students will be evaluated on 79 the relationship between motivation components and preferred learning components epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences their ability to construct sentences in grammatically correct manner and on their correct use of english vocabulary words. the instrument used in this study was adapted from r. schmidt, d. boraie and omneya kassabgy who designed it to test the research questions and hypothesis stated in their research. the questionnaire was composed of 50 items, which implied motivation of students, and 22 items for the preferences and instructional activities, with a rating scale from one to five. the questionnaire consisted of background information questions and 72 questions to probe into students’ attitudes (schmidt, richard, boraie, deena, & kassabgy, omneya, 1996). before data collection, the students were asked for permission to participate in this research and they agreed to do it. the procedures for the distribution of the questionnaire took place during the usual classes and were completed by all the students attending the freshman courses. with the instrument, students at ius identified preferences towards the motivational components such as: 1. extrinsic motivation; 2. expectations; 3. anxiety; 4. motivational strength; 5. intrinsic motivation; 6. stereotypical attitudes toward americans & british; 7. personal psychological needs. besides, the instrument also identified the components of learner preferences for specific classroom practices and activities: 1. balanced approach; 2. the silent learner; 3. individualistic and cooperative learning situations; 4. challenge and curiosity; 5. feedback; 6. direct method. the questionnaire was composed of 72 statements, with a rating scale from one to five. students answered the questions as they applied to their study of english on a 5-point scale, likert scale. spss was used to perform the analysis. a pearson correlation matrix and the descriptive characteristics of the sample group on students were used. data presentation and analysis the research question 1 aimed to define motivational components of foreign language learning among ius students. in order to define the components, we applied the descriptive characteristics of the sample group on students. we found out that the most preferred motivational factors for ius students is extrinsic motivation (m=34.15) and the least is personal psychological needs (m = 9.06). table 1 below clearly indicates the preferred motivational components: 80 a. mulalić & n. obralić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences table 1 motivational components of foreign language learning motivational components mean extrinsic motivation expectations anxiety motivational strength intrinsic motivation stereotypical attitudes toward americans & british personal psychological needs 34.15 26.4 18.76 13.00 12.97 12.15 9.06 the students at ius stated that extrinsic motivation is essential for their second language learning because: english broaden their view, their parents want them to succeed, they want to show off, english will improve their social status, s/he wants to complete studies in english-speaking country, travel abroad, meet new foreign friends, become more educated, read books in english, pass examinations, get better job, have a marvelous life. this implies that the students at ius are motivated by external factors, factors around them, from the close environment. it is also significant that the ius students showed least preference towards personal and psychological needs while learning l2. personal and psychological needs include learning english in order to learn it more than s/he did it in the past, be better than his/her classmates, have good relationship with a teacher, get well on with classmates. the research question 2 aimed to identify preferred learning components/ methods among ius students. we found out the most preferred classroom practices and activities for ius students are balanced approach (m=13.15), and the least preferred is direct method (m=4.48). below is the list of the preferred components of ius learner preferences for specific classroom practices and activities: table 2 preferred learning components/methods preferred learning components mean balanced approach the silent learner individualistic and cooperative learning situations challenge and curiosity feedback direct method 13.15 11.79 8.52 7.36 4.58 4.48 according to table 2 the students prefer balanced approach in the l2 classrooms. balanced approach stands for the teacher who maintains discipline during the class, students telling their teachers the reasons why they are studying english to be more relevant to their studies, students asking questions when there are not able to cope with the lectures, improving language competences and skills. the least preferred is direct method which is related to the teacher-centered approach. it is also well known that this method is being replaced by student-centered approach. the research question 3 aimed to identify significant correlation between motivational components and preferred learning components/methods. 81 the relationship between motivation components and preferred learning components epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences correlations preferred learning components motivational components preferred learning components pearson correlation 1 -,146* sig. (2-tailed) ,031 n 219 217 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). we obtained the significant correlation between the motivational components and preferred learning components. this implies that the students who preferred balanced approach, the silent learner individualistic and cooperative learning situations, challenge and curiosity feedback and direct method while learning are motivated by extrinsic motivation, expectations, anxiety, motivational strength, intrinsic motivation, stereotypical attitudes toward americans & british and personal psychological needs. table 4 significant correlation between motivational components and preferred learning components preferred learning components motivational components the silent learner anxiety, intrinsic motivation, personal psychological needs individualistic and cooperative learning situation approach anxiety challenges and curiosity motivational strength balanced approach personal psychological needs, motivational strength, expectations significant correlation between preferred learning components and motivational components is presented in the table 4. according to the data collected in this research, the students who preferred the silent learner approach are motivated by anxiety, psychological and personal needs and intrinsic triggers. the silent learners, in our case, prefer a teacher to do most of talking and participate in the class just in case they are called upon. what’s more, they think that communication activities are a waste of time in the class, and they need to be exposed to the activities which will directly help them pass the examinations. those students will sit and listen, and mind if they are forced to speak in english. worry and negative emotional reaction aroused while learning or using a second language is recognized among students who are triggered by anxiety. those students do not feel comfortable if they have to speak in english, hesitate to volunteer answers in the class, care about teachers’ opinion and attitude towards them, and they are afraid of failure at exams. for this reason, their behavior in class actually makes them the silent learner. intrinsically motivated students are usually motivated in activities due to their own sake. variables that affect learner’s intrinsic motivation are defined as interest, enjoyment, feeling competence, affiliation toward the target language and a learner’s wish to learn l2. it has also been defined as motivation from ‘within’. thus, we can say that intrinsically motivated students prefer to be the silent learner. the research also showed that students, who are anxious about learning l2, prefer individualistic and cooperative learning situation approach. for this type of students, the challenge of a task can be high, whereas in most cases the performance is low. therefore, 82 a. mulalić & n. obralić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences these students prefer to be involved in the class activity individually or in pairs, groups, rather than teacher-centered activities. creating activities which are challenging for the curious students who prefer activities and materials that really challenge them so they learn more, activities that allow students participate actively are meant for the students with motivational strength. those are students, who will enroll and attend the course under any circumstances, study in english for as long as possible, take another english course after completing the current one, work on the strategy to improve his/her english, put best effort into trying to learn english. the research also showed that the students who are motivated by personal and psychological need, motivational strength, and expectations, are more likely to favor the balanced method. balanced approach considers a teacher as a model and facilitators in the class, teaching styles and learning styles are met, the aims and the goals of the course are clear and relevant to students’ goals, all skills are improved, the course is much tailored rather than curriculum based. we can say that the majority of students prefer balanced method for learning a second language. in another words, the students struggle to learn more english than they have done in the past, perform much better than others, have good relationship with a teacher and classmates; the students who enroll an attend the course under any circumstances, study in english for as long as possible, take another english course after completing the current one, work on the strategy to improve his/her english, put best effort into trying to learn english. what’s more, students that are extrinsically motivated in a way they believe that learning l2 will broaden their views, have expectations from the social environment, show off, improve social status, study in an english-speaking country, and broaden general knowledge using sources in english. balanced method is observed as a learner-centered approach rather than teacher fronted classroom method. the traditional method focuses on the idea of frontal teaching. teaching program was aimed to transfer information from teacher to students. exchanging information between teachers and students has consisted of short questions and answers. motivation in this form of teaching seems to be unnecessary. classes which inspire students, make them feel curious, creative and encouraged to think individually, trained for emotional intelligence and social skills (communication, self-control, self-evaluation, etc.), may at the same time provide encouragement and atmosphere for demonstration of student’s personality, have an opportunity to change educational way and prepare students for life. instructors should ‘’involve learners throughout the entire instructional process. involving the students in deciding on the class direction is likely to create the kind of classroom atmosphere that promote optimal learning’’ (j. k. richards and w. a. renanadya, 2002, p. 362). conclusion and recommendations the approach recommended in this paper is designed to meet the goal of successful language learning. the prospect of tailoring language instruction that accommodate different learning styles might appear very difficult for the language instructors. teaching styles are made up of the methods and approaches with which instructors feel most comfortable, most probably thought in the similar manner throughout their education. when instructors are forced to change their instructional methods, they would also find themselves in an unfamiliar environment and method. this might end up with disastrous results. fortunately, instructors who wish to address a wide variety of learning styles need 83 the relationship between motivation components and preferred learning components epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences not make drastic changes in their instructional approach. while learning a second language, the challenge seems to be the primary determinants of motivation. the challenge and stimuli can trigger an individual and make the process of learning more productive. many experts agreed that challenge is considered as a form of intrinsic motivation. besides direct method, feedback was not recognized as a preferred learning approach, and was not triggered significantly by the motivational components. feedback with error corrections specify errors and mistakes students make. in order not to discourage students, teachers tend not to correct their students. it is observed that feedback needs to be provided only if it will be beneficial for students. in another words, if feedback can signal improvement, then it is motivating. in this particular research, 70 students from ius participated and responded to the questionnaire. the research findings indicated that extrinsic motivation (m = 34.15), was the highest motivational factor for the students. expectation as a motivational factor (m = 26.4), was at the second place for the students. motivational strength with the m = 13.00 followed as the next motivational factor. intrinsic motivation (m = 12.97), stereotypical attitudes toward americans & british (m = 12.15), personal psychological needs (m = 9.06) with their means as shown in the brackets were the least influential factors in students motivation. the results indicate that students are greatly motivated by external factors to learn the language. when it comes to learners preferences for specific classroom practices and activities ius students showed preference for balanced approach (m = 13.15), and the least preferred method was direct method (m = 4.48). the correlation between the motivational components and the preferred learning components was significant. we believe this study will contribute to the academic community, academic staff at international university of sarajevo and the students. references al-hazemi, h (2000) lexical attrition of some arabic speakers of english as a foreign language: a study of word loss. tesl journal. http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/articles/al-hazemi-attrition/learning. language learning 38, pp. 75-100 brown, h. d. (1987). principles of language learning and teaching. new jersey: prentice hall. brown, h.d. (1994). teaching by principles. new jersey: prentice hall. cook, v. (2000). linguistics and second language acquisition. beijing: foreign language teaching and research press and macmillan publishers ltd. crookes, g. and schmidt, r. (1991) motivation: re-opening the research agenda. language learning 41:469– 512. dornyei, z. (1990) conceptualizing motivation in foreign language learning.language learning 40, pp. 46-78. dornyei, z. (1994). motivation and motivating in the foreign language classroom.the modern language journal, 78,3, pp. 273-284. dörnyei, z. (2001a) teaching and researching motivation. harlow: longman. dörnyei, z. (2001b) motivational strategies in the language classroom. cambridge: cambridge university press. deci, e. l., &ryan, r. m. (2002). overview of self-determination theory: an organismic dialectical perspective. in r. m. ryan & e. l. deci (eds.), handbook of self-determination research. rochester, n.y.: the university of rochester press. engin, a. (2009). second language learning success and motivation. social behavior and personality, 37(8), 1035-1042. gardner and masgoret (2003). attitudes, motivation and second language learning: a meta-analysis of studies conducted by gardner and associates, language learning. 167-21. gardner, r., lambert, w. (1972). attitudes and motivation in second language learning. rowley, ma: newbury house. gardner, r. c. (2002). social psychological perspective on second language acquisition. in r. caplan (ed), 84 a. mulalić & n. obralić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the oxford handbook of applied linguistics. 102-199. new york, ny: oxford university press. gardner, r. 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(1998). educational psychology (7th ed.). boston, ma: allyn & bacon (660 pp.). 91 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction the roots of the european idea and the creation of the european community after the second world war lie in the desire to prevent further war between european nations. according to lucia (2012) one of the main goals of the original idea of european integration is defined as preserving peace in the member states. thus, the europeans had seen the grave ramifications of war on the european territories. more than two decades, the concept of a new balkan community emerged as a counterweight to new aggressive and defensive nationalisms. the consequent idea to promote a common history of the region was also launched in political and intellectual environments, the balkans and the european union samuel abu-gyamfi, edward brenya & samuel gariba kwame nkrumah university of science and technology (knust), kumasi-ghana abstract the balkan question is both a historical and a political one. with the coming together of some european countries to form the european union (eu); it became necessary for these countries to forge head both on the economic and the political fronts. this in essence has accentuated the gains made by these european countries but it has had its attendant ramifications. this notwithstanding, the idea of european integration on the principle of peace, common history, cultural and economic development cannot be fully realised since some sectors of europe is neutral or isolated. the literature on the nature of such integrations especially the need for the integration of the balkan regions should continue to be discussed and implemented. this paper however, looks at the literature from a social and political history point of view and projects the necessary turns that europe has made and the need to come to a useful end in the discourse that leads us to observing or witnessing a united europe whose socio-economic, political and military complex holds its own against the odds but also for the common good of humanity. keywords: european union; europe; balkans; integration. d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 24 2 92 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences which was the brainchild of european leaders. however, it important that the reconstruction of the balkan history would not be a new construction to supersede the significance of national histories and the roles they play. it stands better to be a new interpretation of the national pasts based on a common balkan cultural and institutional heritage. and it implies the introduction in history teaching of supranational elements as a counterweight to ethnocentric or even nationalistic historical narratives (rudolph, 1992). the clash between the historical approach and the mythological approach in the balkans raises clear problems because it puts in contact and even in conflict two opposing political cultures (ibid.,). at the same time the situation is complicated by the fact that in the balkans preindustrial (tribal) societies coexist with industrial (national societies) and post-industrial (cosmopolitan) societies. clashes between these political cultures and the confrontational character of their relations breed terrorism, corruption, and organised crime, coupled with lack of economic development and incomplete democracy. this, according to lowenthal (1996) is the third stage of the balkanization or rather the third balkanization, that is, balkanization after balkanization after balkanization, which makes any prospect of a stable, positive and rational order in the region even more problematic. in the midst of all these challenges the region faces the big question of her status in the european union (eu). the balkan region has been in deep struggle trying to define their status in the eu. over a decade now, various measures have been instituted to europeanise the balkans of which the enlargement has become a hook in the neck. greece in particular is becoming a burden on the eu. greece might have failed the eu by its poor economic performance or probably the eu might have also failed greece for refusing their own member a bailout. this is one of the pendulums hanging around the eu’s neck. the recent signal that britain is pulling out of the eu is another pendulum. the position of the balkans in relation to the eu is an important issue for consideration and must therefore be discussed. this article discusses the possibility of balkan integration into the eu and the impact of this integration on balkan national politics, domestic economies, and the way forward with such a region with several national minorities. it attempts to establish the possibilities of peaceful cooperation and cohabitation among the balkans in the eu. 93 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences theoretical background the balkan region have been engulfed in serious controversies over the definition of nationalities and citizenship. balkanisation and debalkanisation have taken a swipe at the regions peace, stability and economic prosperity. the european union is currently battling with its own challenges as britain makes moves to dismember. in the midst of this, the balkan region still beckons for solutions to its problem of integration. the current status of the balkan region in the eyes of the european union still hangs around the neck of the eu. we therefore seek to make a case for the mechanistic integration of the balkan region into the eu. we want to analyse the controversies, challenges and possibilities of the successful entry of the balkan integration into the european union. therefore, this study has been conducted by reviewing research articles and key policy documents of the eu to arrive at logical conclusions on the future of the balkans with the eu. considerations have been given to peculiar circumstances that apply to a particular group of balkan countries and also unique circumstances. anastasakis (2005), argues that “despite many negative predispositions towards the balkans and the pejorative notion of balkanization, there is no doubt that the region is part of europe and that the current eu ied reform genuinely aims to bring the region back into europe’s fold.” anastasakis believes that, europeanisation took a new turn after the fall of communism where the eu began to expand to the balkan region. however, the eu is nearly getting tired instituting stringent measures for europeanisation of the balkans. brennan (2013) posits that the eu is now not only a direct neighbour of the western balkans, but also the most important economic, political and geopolitical actor in south eastern europe. like anastasakis (2005), brennan believes that the eu in a period of “expansion fatigue” with its successive enlargements coupled with protracted economic crisis, which has enveloped the eurozone since 2008 and has thrown the very survival of the eu into doubt. from a widely acclaimed perspective, vesnic-alujevic (2012) argues that the major problem effecting relations between the countries remains the public discourse on wars, which is still segregated according to partisan sides. grabbe et al. (2010), at the european council on foreign affairs, think that the eu has been pursuing a wait-and-see policy. they argue that in the midst of a huge economic crisis, the eu leaders may be 94 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences tempted to put off any further decisions on enlargement. however, now that some of the western balkan countries have tested the eu’s commitment by formally applying for membership, they believe the wait-and-see approach is unsustainable. as a matter of fact, the eu has kept six of the countries of the western balkans–albania, bosnia-herzegovina, kosovo, macedonia, montenegro and serbia – waiting for a decade. and these countries have are good examples of the eu’s wait-and-see tactics. the eu has asked them to take on difficult and ambitious reforms to prepare them for membership. however, balkan leaders are no longer even sure that the eu members really want them in the club. as a result, grabbe et al. (2010) opines that the eu’s credibility is fading in the balkan region. the balkans in europe policy advisory group(policy paper may 2014) has indicated that the western balkans had experienced more than a decade without armed conflict and were eligible to accession but for the expansion fatigue (brennan, 2013; grabbe et al, 2010). at this point, the western balkans has experienced more than a decade without armed conflict. that the violence of the previous decade has taken its toll on the region, not only in terms of death and displacement, but also by delaying the region’s ability to catch up with the democratization process, which began a decade earlier, has been corroborated by brennan (2013).the groups’ assertion that controversies over the war past of post-communist central and eastern europe, whilst controversies over the past continue to haunt political debates could therefore be logical. according to lasheras (2016) competition continues to take shape as europe and the balkans struggle to deal with a refugee crisis of unprecedented scale. he adds that eu has been slow to assist the countries along the balkan migrant route and has largely failed to craft joint solutions (brennan, 2013; grabbe et al. 2010; balkans in europe policy advisory group, 2014). lasheras continues that the crisis has in a sense reversed the traditional roles of the eu and the balkans as the eu has become a net exporter of instability to the region. thus, the legions of refugees who entered the balkan region in 2015 came from a member state – greece – and ended up being stuck in the region as eu member states further north blocked their passage. lasheras believes that the crisis has strained bilateral relations, fuelled long-standing animosities, and strengthened illegal networks and organised crime. s. abu-gyamfi, e. brenya & s. gariba 95 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences consequently, the eu’s reluctance towards europeanisation of the balkans has become more conspicuous. thus, out of all the western balkans, only succeeded in joining the union in 2013; some 13 years after the launch of a formal process to expedite actions on integrating the balkans. the rest of the region remains still distant from accession for the foreseeable future and some countries, for instance turkey, has less hope due to “enemies from within”. in addition to the challenges of political and economic transformation, albania, bosnia and herzegovina, kosovo, macedonia, montenegro and serbia remain weak states with dysfunctional institutions, notwithstanding the considerable diversity among them. grigor’ev and severin (2007) also argue that in favour of the balkan stability as a the paramount reason for not seeing their dream come true. according to lehne, there are several explanations for the marked differences in the progress of the west balkan countries in the stabilization and association process. one factor is the historical accident. serbia and montenegro, for instance, could only begin the process after the fall of milosevic in october 2000, at a time when negotiations on a stabilization and association agreement with former yugoslav republic of macedonia were well under way (morari, 2012). grigor’evand severin, furthermore, holds the position that the current power disequilibrium in the balkans has a strategic character and it still has, at least in the medium term, the capacity to destabilize the entire continent of europe. they claim that the solution for the frozen, active or latent balkan crises is to be found at the intersection of the conflicting interests of the regional and global actors with the conflicting interests of the local actors. grigor’ev and severin are skeptical where the conflicting interests are placed in this circumstance? to this extent, the balkan dilemma is a still a problem under discussion. the issue of balkans and the european union have gain some level of recognition by several researchers. some of the researchers discussed here focused on individual balkan experiences. it is the aim of this work to present a composite picture of the fate of the entire region in their attempt to join the european union. the balkans the term “balkan” comes from a turkish word meaning “a chain of wooded mountains”. the balkan peninsula may be defined as an area of southeastern europe surrounded by water on three sides: the adriatic the balkans and the european union 96 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences sea to the west, the mediterranean sea (including the ionian and aegean seas) to the south and the black sea to the east. its northern boundary is often given as the danube, sava and kupa/kolpa rivers. the term “the balkans” covers not only those countries which lie within the boundaries of the “balkan peninsula”, but also include slovenia, and romania. slovenia, which was part of yugoslavia from 1919 to 1991, lies partially north of the danube-sava line and therefore outside the peninsula, but prior to 1991 the whole of yugoslavia was considered to be part of the balkans (ibid.,). in most of the englishspeaking world, the countries commonly included in the balkan region are: albania, bosnia and herzegovina, bulgaria, croatia, greece, macedonia, montenegro and serbia. other countries sometimes included are moldova, romania, slovenia, turkey. (ibid.,). zemon (2010), has said some balkans trace their heritage to egypt. according to him egyptian cults and their monuments were highly present in the balkan peninsula during the roman empire. he continues that some of the egyptian monuments were brought by roman legionnaires, officials, servants etc. on the other hand, the croatian egyptologist selem (1987) states that around that time assimilated egyptians could be found among the balkans citizens in provincial colonies and municipalities, as slaves or equal people, and egyptians that are not assimilated do not accept hellenistic-roman forms of their gods, intending to keep their monuments in the native egyptian language but were in a socially excluded position. zemon stresses that this situation was characterized for “egyptians in salona (near split) and near islands, belonging to the lower classes”, who were probably small traders or craftsmen. in fact, europeanization as an identity formation project can be defined by its relationship or juxtaposition with the civilizational “other” (anastasakis, 2005). therefore, zemon’s position on the identity of the balkans suggests that the balkans might be a different ‘breed’ whose historical background flaws their european identity. the issue of the balkan egyptians’ identity, ethno-culture and history is one of the hardest scientific problems. bearing in mind that a history is not an issue of the past, but an answer to the needs of modern life, it is also very important to find a way, how a particular historical context or tradition is used in the current process of construction of identity (ibid.,). often times in history, the people of the balkans are portrayed as war-like and blood thirsty. this is because the region has recorded high s. abu-gyamfi, e. brenya & s. gariba 97 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences levels of instability than any other in europe in modern times. before world war i, the area was known as ‘the powder keg of europe’ and the assassination of archduke franz ferdinand is often seen as the trigger that led to the first world war which still hangs around as a matter of controversy. as to whether or not the people of the balkans region are incapable of peace, time will surely tell. the balkans and the european union on november 1, 1993, the treaty on european union (also known as the maastricht treaty), established the modern-day european union (eu) which encompassed the european community. the maastricht treaty established the eu with three main pillars as the guiding principle: an expanded and strengthened european community; a common foreign and security policy; and common internal security measures. the maastricht treaty also contained provisions that resulted in the creation of an economic and monetary union (emu), including a common european currency which is the euro (£). the roots of the european idea and the creation of the european community after the second world war lie in the desire to prevent further war between european nations. one of the main goals of the original idea of european integration is defined as preserving peace in the member states (schuman declaration of 1950; vesnic-alujevic, 2012). and this was to be the ground preparation for a broader agenda of a buoyant and prosperous european community. however, this prosperity was not designed for the entire european region from the onset as the balkans for the equation. the eu was not always as big as it is today. when the european countries decided to cooperate economically in 1951, only 6 countries (belgium, germany, france, italy, luxemburg, and the netherlands) participated. over time, more and more countries decided to join. the eu reached its current size of member countries with the accession of croatia in july 2013. indeed, the journey of the balkans to the eu has much to talk about. at the thessaloniki summit in 2003, the european council declared that “the future of the balkans is within the european union”. there was no ambiguity that this political commitment taken by eu heads of state and government—together with those of the western balkans—was a clear promise. it provided for a strong incentive for the societies of the balkans by the eu and seemed to entail the promise that the future the balkans and the european union 98 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences of the region will be stable, prosperous, and within the eu. however, more than a decade later, the promise is still yet to come to fruition. of the seven countries of the western balkans, only croatia has succeeded in joining the eu (european communities, 2005; balkans in europe policy advisory group policy paper, may 2014; grabbe et al., 2010). successive u.s. administrations and many members of the u.s. congress have long backed eu enlargement, believing that it serves u.s. interests by advancing democracy and economic prosperity throughout the european continent. over the years, the only significant u.s. criticism of the eu’s enlargement process has been that the union was moving too slowly, especially with respect to turkey. some u.s. officials are concerned that “enlargement fatigue” as well as the eu’s economic and financial troubles, which have hit the countries that use the eu’s common currency (the euro) particularly hard, could potentially slow future rounds of eu enlargement (archick and morelli, 2014; brennan, 2013). after five successful waves of enlargement, the european union, despite all debates, is still poised for action to receive new members. at present, clear prospects for european union membership have the countries of the western balkans – croatia, former yugoslav republic of macedonia (fyrom), serbia and montenegro followed by potential candidates albania, bosnia and herzegovina as well as kosovo. western balkans countries first had to extricate themselves from the shackles of colonialism. after obtaining their independence, they had to face a lot of problems that became more distinguishable along with the decision to join the european union. the western balkan countries have opted for europe. the stabilisation and association process (sap) is the eu’s political strategy for the european integration of the western balkan countries, all the way through to their eventual accession. regional cooperation amongst the western balkan countries constitutes a key element of the sap: constructive regional cooperation is recognised as a qualifying indicator of the countries’ readiness to integrate into the eu (european communities, 2005). from the eu perspective, it is important to underline that croatia is the first candidate country that actually acceded to the eu according to the ‘regatta principle’. it is also worth mentioning that the croatian accession has taken place at the moment when the eu itself is facing considerable internal problems and rising enlargement fatigue, coupled with the reformation fatigue among the countries in the region. therefore, its accession represents an important signal that the s. abu-gyamfi, e. brenya & s. gariba 99 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences enlargement process has not ended (croatian membership in the eu – implications for the western balkans, 2013). however, the fact that the accession process has been successfully concluded opens the possibility for political elites and citizens alike to scrutinise the reforms and accession process critically and exercise additional pressure onto respective governments to intensify efforts for the reforms which is a process far from over. the improvement of the social and economic situation of these states were noticed mainly after the stabilization and association process was started by signing of the stabilization and association agreements, that were adopted by european union in the 1999 and represents the european union’s renewed long-term commitment to the region. the agreements have the mission to bring closer the western balkan countries to the european union by introducing european values, principles and standards in the region and create such a favourable context for accession (morari, 2012 cited from serbos, 2008, p. 97). association agreements are signed with central and eastern europe countries and then action plans are prepared in the scope of these agreements. neighbourhood policy foresees the benefiting of neighbour countries from eu enlargement with regards to stability, security and welfare. this aim is to emphasized in the european security strategy approved in 2003. strategic aims which are indicated in the european security strategy document forms the basis of which “european neighbourhood policy broader europe: a new framework for relations with southern and eastern neighbourhood” was prepared by the commission in march 2003 and european neighbourhood policy strategy document was published in may 2004. according to ledge (1993), through this document, eu has put forth how close links may be provided with the countries qualified as neighbours (karluk, 2015, pp. 57-70). the first stabilization and association agreements were signed with former yugoslav republic of macedonia on 9 april 2001 and croatia on 29 october 2001. both of states started the implementation of the agreements before they came into force. this is an indication of desperate balkan countries yearning to enter the eu. the situation of the other western balkan countries is different, the progress being more modest. albania signed the stabilization and association agreement only in 2006, montenegro in 2007, bosnia and herzegovina in 2008, as well as kosovo and serbia. serbia was conferred the candidate status on the balkans and the european union 100 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences 1 march 2012 (european commission, 2012; karluk, 2015). in 2011, a novel and more rigorous approach was proposed by the european commission, and endorsed by the council, building mostly on lessons from the eu’s eastward expansions. the eu’s increased focus on ‘good governance’ criteria (such as maintenance of rule of law, independent judiciary, efficient public administration, the fight against organised crime and corruption, civil society development, and media freedom) was visible already during croatia’s accession. however, this is the most critical condition that appears most balkans may find difficult to meet, bearing in mind that these countries are fragments of former nations and hence, young in self-governance. yet this new strategy was for the first time reflected in a formal manner in the framework adopted in june 2012 for negotiations with montenegro, which foresees that chapter 23 (on judiciary and fundamental rights) and chapter 24 (on justice, freedom and security) are opened in the early stages of the talks and closed only at the very end of the process. the same approach was then fully integrated in the eu’s negotiations with serbia, which kicked-off in january 2014, and will continue to be observed in all future accession talks with the remaining countries in the balkans. moreover, the heavy weight of rule of law issues can be felt now also before the actual negotiations, as was amply demonstrated, for example, by the key priorities set out in past years with a view to allowing montenegro and albania to advance on their respective eu paths (stratulat, 2014). the way forward the european union’s enlargement process has entered a new phase. the completion of accession negotiations with croatia, opening the way to membership in mid-2013, perhaps, have vindicated the policy adopted in the aftermath of the devastating balkan conflicts of the 1990s, which aims to bring peace, stability, democracy and ultimately eu membership to the whole region. this may be good evidence for the transformational power of the eu’s enlargement policy, since it provides new momentum for reform in all enlargement countries (european commission report, 2011). the turbulent history of the region is the reason why the eu defines as its main priority the preservation of peace, democracy, good governance s. abu-gyamfi, e. brenya & s. gariba 101 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences and stability, on which basis each country builds its political and economic life. monitoring the political climate which main characteristics are good governance, political stability and effective dialogue between the institutions within each country is extremely important for the future of the region as a whole (aleksieva and panayotova, 2011. this combination of anxieties related to institutional, political and economic pressures inside the eu, as well as to daunting regional and country specific issues in the balkans, led to a more complex mosaic of eu demands on the balkan countries, and to a more exacting method of applying the enhanced membership conditionality. the criteria formulated by the 1993 european council in copenhagen remain the blueprint for accession and require any aspiring country to have stable democratic institutions, a functioning market economy and the capacity to adopt and implement the ever-larger body of eu law (the acquiscommunautaire).1 however, these conditions have acquired a very precise meaning for the balkans (balkans in europe policy advisory group policy paper, 2014). presently, they are all declaratively representative democracies showing higher or lower levels of applied democratisation. however, there are many bilateral issues between neighbouring countries within the region. the relations between these states are still burdened by the past wars. one of the major issues that these countries need to deal with in order to advance bilateral relations, and also in order to gain access to the european union, are border issues between the respective countries. this has been the very cause of most of their wars. the problem with borders appeared in the context of the question of whether the post-second world war borders should be kept or whether the situation was to be returned to the period before the second or even the first world war, that is, before the creation of the kingdom of serbs, croats and slovenians in 1918. countries are raising these issues because of potential profit to be gained from it in terms of, for instance, access to the open sea, roads, maritime roads, and so on (vesnic-alujevic, 2012). also, is the problem of refugees and internally displaced people. the refugee crisis has been both internal and external problem of the european community. greece for once produced refugees in the 1) the acquiscommunautaire is the accumulated body of eu law and obligations from 1958 to the present day. it comprises all the eu’s treaties and laws (directives, regualtions, decisions, declarations and resolutions, international agreements and the judgments of the court of justice. the balkans and the european union 102 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences balkan region recently, coupled with the refugees from the arab spring. another issue which is related to the past wars is the problem of the residual emotional trauma still being confronted by the citizens of these states (vesnic-alujevic, 2012). for one, the eu’s overall approach to the region is based on a strong security dimension, with its own repertoire of action, including various peace agreements, international agreements2 and political agreements starting from the stabilization and association process; and the multilateral stability pact for southern europe – replaced by the regional cooperation council in 2008. these set additional and politically-sensitive conditions – the “copenhagen plus” criteria – to be fulfilled by the countries of the region before accession, when the eu has learned that its leverage was most (balkans in europe policy advisory group policy paper, 2014). a successful journey into the eu would also entail a study economic environment among the balkans. at least for most balkans, regional trade liberalisation is progressing. a network of bilateral free-trade agreements among the countries of the region, including romania, bulgaria and moldova, has been established, thus creating a free-trade area of 55 million consumers. this sends an important signal to the investor community, which will find a market of high absorption potential for industrial and consumer goods. to reap the full benefits of trade liberalisation in the region, the free-trade agreements need to be fully and efficiently implemented. the countries of the region committed themselves to complete the network of free trade agreements (european communities, 2005). trade among south-eastern part of europe is fully in keeping with the eu perspectives of the different countries in the region, independently of where they stand on their way to membership. trade liberalisation and facilitation isone of the pillars of the stabilisation and association process (sap): a main instrument of the sap is the autonomous trade measures that the western balkan countries enjoy which includes free access, without quantitative limit, to the eu market for practically all products (european communities, 2005). this usefulness of this opportunity will be highly dependent on the balkan’s ability to produce. they should brace up for hard work; they should be prepared for high levels of industrialization to match up the european economic area; whiles been aware of the political terrain of the european communities. 2) such as un resolution 1244 and the dayton, kumanovo, ohrid, and belgrade agreements, and the normalization of serbia-kosovo relations s. abu-gyamfi, e. brenya & s. gariba 103 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences most countries who have undergone or qualifies for enlargement process have maintained overall prudent macroeconomic policies. fiscal consolidation and the reform of labour markets remain the most urgent short-term priorities, reflecting largely similar challenges to those presently faced in the eu. more structural reforms would be needed to boost competitiveness and improve the investment climate, which will attract foreign direct investment, fostering job creation and ensuring the sustainability of growth. significant progress is being made on forming a regional energy market and rebuilding infrastructure. the projected south-eastern europe regional energy market, which should provide modern and liberalised gas and electricity systems, will be key to a regional energy market based on european standards, transparent rules and mutual trust, and it will set the right environment for the optimal development of the energy sector. the agreement governing energy trade will substantially contribute to attracting investment into this strategic sector. this new economic environment would require a comprehensive transport policy with effective cost-sharing definitions, bearing in a region that still recovering war trauma. an integrated regional transport strategy, consistent with the trans-european networks and taking into account the pan-european corridors, should be a high priority. the eu has been noted supporting projects of regional significance and regional initiatives in the areas of environmental protection, science and technology, information and communication technology, and statistics. this will be a cause worth supporting, to expedite actions towards the integration of the region. conclusion in a nutshell, aspiring countries must now get a head start on rule of law reforms, develop a solid track record of results and adopt inclusive democratic processes (accommodating parliaments, civil society and other relevant stakeholders) to support their national european integration effort. stabilisation of the balkan region and ensuring prudent security measures, development of sound economic policies, are paramount to successful eu integration. the western balkans, in particular have the responsibility to, improve the capacity of public administration, and strengthening the rule of law, including by reforming the judiciary the balkans and the european union 104 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences and combating widespread corruption present particular challenges. progress in these areas would also be conducive to the business environment and the balkan region would not be far from seeing their dream come true. references adam fagan and indraneel sircar (2015). judicial independence in the western balkans: is the eu’s ‘new approach’ changing judicial practices? maxcap working paper no. 11. alex n. grigor’ev and adrian severin (2007). debalkanizing the balkans; a strategy for a sustainable peace in kosovo, ipg 1 balkans in europe policy advisory group policy paper (2014). the unfulfilled promise: completing the balkan enlargement, european fund for the balkans – centre for southeast european studies, policy paper, may 2014. center for democracy and reconciliation southeast europe (2002). clio in the balkans: the politics of history education, krispou 9, anopoli, typeset and printed by petros th. ballidis & co. thessaloniki, greece. d. lowenthal, (1996). “identity, heritage, and history.” in j. r. gillis, commemorations: the politics of national identity. princeton: princeton university press. european commission (2005). regional cooperation in the western balkans: a policy priority for the european union. brussels: european communities. heather grabbe, gerald knaus and daniel korski (2010). beyond wait-andsee: the way forward for eu balkan policy, policy brief – european council on foreign affairs, ecfr/21. (www.ecfr.eu) kristin archick and vincent morelli, european union enlargement, congressional research service, 7-5700-rs21344 (www.crs.gov) nevena aleksieva and kalina panayotova (2011). western balkans’ accession to the european union: mission (im)possible, centre for european and international studies (ceis). othon anastasakis director of south east european studies (2005). the europeanization of the balkans, university of oxford. richard l. rudolph (professor) (1992). national minorities in east central europe and the balkans in historical perspective, minnesota: university press. ridvan karluk (2015). “membership perspective of european union for balkan countries and membership problem of turkey.” international journal of economics. vol. 6. no. 5, 57-70. s. abu-gyamfi, e. brenya & s. gariba http://www.ecfr.eu http://www.crs.gov 105 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences rosa balfour and corina stratulat (2011). the democratic transformation of the balkans, european politics and institutions programme, epc issue paper no.66, issn 1782-494x . rubin zemon (2010). history of the balkan egyptians, balkan egyptians and ashkali history (inter culturalism and the bologna process), council of europe, 1.0. stratulat c., konitzer a., sošić m., marović j. bandović i., vujačić m. kacarska s., barbullushi o., bodo w., (2014). eu integration and party politics in the balkans, european politics and institutions programme, epc issue paper no.77. vesnic-alujevic lucia (2012). european integration of western balkans: from reconciliation to european future. brussels: centre for european studies. the balkans and the european union microsoft word 1. adriano elia multiculturalism and contemporary british fiction.doc epiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 4 spring 2010 multiculturalism and contemporary british fiction:  londonstani and the islamist    adriano elia   university of rome “roma tre”     in  order  to  analyse  all‐encompassing  issues  such  as  ‘europe’,  ‘black’  and  ‘white’,  at  the  beginning  of  the  21st  century  a  reification  of  post‐colonial  and  cultural  studies  theoretical  tools  is  made  possible  by  an  ever‐increasing  permeability  of  the  boundaries  between  subjects  such  as  literature,  sociology,  contemporary history, political  science,  international  relations, anthropology. by  pursuing  an  interdisciplinary  and  pragmatic  approach,  one  finds  it  difficult  to  identify a persuasive idea of ‘europe’ when even its ‘capital’ brussels has to face an  identity compromise between flemish and walloons (alsayyad, castells 2002: p.  3); by the same token, it is hard to imagine that, say, scottish people would define  themselves  first  as  europeans,  and  then  as  british  and  scottish  −  the  opposite  sequential  order  is much  more  likely.  traditional  categories such  as  ‘black’ and  ‘white’  are  also  being  repeatedly  challenged  and  disrupted,  witness  the  recent  publication  of  novels  such  as  gautam  malkani’s  londonstani  (2006)  and  ed  husain’s the islamist (2007). the former displays a religion‐free kind of identity  describing the life of apolitical british‐asian teenage rude‐boys; the latter, instead,  is  based  on  a  real  account  of  a  british  muslim  who,  after  becoming  an  islamic  fundamentalist,  rejected  political  islam  and  returned  to  normal  life.  bearing  in  mind the diverse colonial histories and the dangers of historical revisionism, my  essay  aims  to  investigate  the  anti‐essentialist  condition  of  the  ‘black’  british  community, at times erroneously seen as a monolithic entity.1   1 a noteworthy (and controversial) example of historical revisionism and counterfactual history is niall ferguson’s book empire: how britain made the modern world (2004). 2 racial  essentialism  involves  the  attribution  of  a  particular,  fixed  and  immutable character  to a group of people:  in other words,  it  is a homogenising  mental construction imbued with preconceptions and stereotypes. it is beyond the  scope of this paper to contribute to the discussion around the complex and nuanced  issue of racial essentialism. a  lively debate on this notion was triggered, among  others,  by  scholars  such  as  paul  gilroy  and  his  critique  of  racial  purism  and  absolutism; salman rushdie’s idea of racial essentialism as the consequence of an  old‐fashioned exoticism that sees any ethnic community as a homogenous whole;  or gayatri spivak’s ‘strategic essentialism’, a profitable, if provisional, strategy by  which an ethnic group deliberately ‘forgets’ the differences between its members in  order to claim its group identity for political purposes.2  what  i  would  like  to  offer  here  instead  is  some  concrete  evidence  of  the  multifaceted  state  of  affairs  of  the  ‘black’  community  in  britain.  indeed,  contemporary british fiction may reveal the striking mutual differences between  people supposedly belonging to the same community, and may thus offer a valuable  cultural space to approach the idiosyncracies of londonstani’s ‘apolitical rudeboys’  and of ‘ex radicals’ like ed husain in the islamist. then, on this basis, i will engage  in  a  brief  discussion  of  multiculturalism  in  the  united  kingdom  and  its  alleged  death by cultural relativism and political correctness after the july 7 2005 london  bombings.  londonstani  is  the  debut  novel  by  gautam  malkani,  a  journalist  born  in  hounslow,  west  london,  in  1976,  educated  at  cambridge  and  director  of  the  creative business section of  the financial times. londonstani  is a coming‐of‐age  novel set in hounslow.3 the narrator is jas, an 18‐year old ‘londonstani’, a resident  of ‘londonistan’. he is trying to fit in with a gang of affluent middle‐class teenage  2 gilroy (1993: pp. 99-103) transcends the binary opposition between racial essentialism and antiessentialism, moving towards an ‘anti-anti-essentialism’. see also rushdie (1991 [1983]: p. 67); spivak (1996 [1985]: p. 214); and <http://www.english.emory.edu/bahri/essentialism.html>. 3 the following details on the plot are taken from a range of written and web interviews with malkani. further information on the novel is available on the web, notably at the following links: <http://www.gautammalkani.com/about_londonstani.htm> <http://www.myspace.com/londonstani> <http://www.timeout.com/london/books/features/249.html> 3 mummy’s boys struggling to be tough men and pretending to be more ghettoed  than they actually are. the gang leader is the sikh bodybuilder harjit, who likes to  spell his name with a ‘d’, hardjit, to suggest he is hard (malkani 2006a, p. 116). he  makes sure that his sikh ‘bredrens’ do not go out with muslim girls even though he  knows  nothing  about  the  historical  reasons  behind  that  conflict  (i.e.,  the  1947  partition). the second‐in‐command is amit, a hindu more mature than the others;  then we have ravi, one who is a ‘sheep’, the typical copycat following the others’  behaviour and suppressing his own personality. while retaking their a‐levels, these  wanna‐be rudeboys are obsessed with macho and consumerist symbols like facial  hair,  designer  fashion,  mobile  phones,  hip‐hop.  they  cruise  hounslow  streets  driving german luxury cars belonging to their parents, and make money out of a  mobile phone scam involving reprogramming stolen mobiles.  inspired by novels  such  as  s.e.  hinton’s  the  outsiders  (1967)  or  rumble  fish  (1975),  londonstani  offers an insight into the conflict between desis (south‐asians), goras (whites) and  coconuts  (those black outside, white  inside,  that  is, black people  imitating white  people). the language used is a striking, challenging and incessant mixture of slang,  texting, panjabi, hindu, mtv base slang and gangsta rap.   the first point i would like to make is about racial profiling and identity. as  jas, the narrator, observes at the beginning of the novel: “people’re always trying to  stick a label on our scene. […] first we was rudeboys, then we be indian niggas,  then rajamuffins, then raggastanis, britasians, fuckin indobrits” (malkani 2006a, p.  5). in the end the gang is happy to be called ‘desi’ rudeboys, ‘desi’ being a ‘cooler’  and ‘stronger’ version of paki.4 as malkani (2006b) himself puts it, “the word ‘desi’  literally means countrymen [...] it is broader than terms such as indian, pakistani,  hindu, sikh or muslim, and yet narrower than the term asian or even south asian.  it acts as a self‐determined alternative to […] the offensive word ‘paki’ [...] trying to  4 “desi is a word originally from sanskrit literally meaning ‘from the country’ or ‘of the country’ […] used colloquially to mean south asian immigrants and their descendants. it is mainly used by those of south asian origins themselves, rarely by the majority population, and carries a subtext of inclusiveness and unity […] its connotations are positive, alluding to the shared values, bonds and experiences of descendants of the entire region. this self-referential colloquialism was created in the united kingdom during the early 1960s”. see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/desi> 4 turn it into a positive the way black kids have done with the word ‘nigger’”. even  more than goras (whites), the desis despise coconuts, that is,  ‘poncey’, effeminate  black guys brown on the outside, white on the inside. here is a telling description of  a coconut: “you could tell from his long hair, grungy clothes, the poncey novel an  newspaper on his dashboard and coldplay album playing in his car that he was a  muthafucking coconut. so white he was inside his brown skin, he probably talked  like those gorafied desis who read the news on tv”. (malkani 2006a: pp. 20‐21).  such  aversion  towards  coconuts  is  not  provoked  by  the  fact  that  they  act  like  whites: coconuts were despised because they were affected and effeminate, and  rather than listening to ‘masculine’ hip‐hop they campaign against environmental  pollution and listen to ‘poncey’ bands such as u2, r.e.m., radiohead and coldplay  (malkani 2006a: p. 167). but such process of  identification is doomed to change  very quickly. in fact, in 2007 one of the most important, if mainstream, black hip‐ hop stars, jay z, one of the heroes of our londonstanis, asked coldplay singer chris  martin to collaborate on a track called ‘beach chair’. this collaboration is evidence  that the rudeboy trends and stereotypes are always changing very quickly.    it is now useful to reflect on the title of the book, that is, londonstani, and the  way its meaning has shifted throughout the years. in the beginning, the novel was a  piece of academic research, and in the mid‐1990s malkani interviewed a couple of  british‐asian kids who referred to themselves as  ‘londonstanis’, a kind of  ‘desi’,  south‐asian, slang for ‘londoner’. unlike the term ‘londoner’, which in malkani’s  opinion sounded  ‘victorian and cockney’,  for malkani  ‘londonstani’ was a much  more relevant  term to a 21st‐century society, and therefore he thought  it would  make a perfect title for his book. back in the 1990s this term conveyed a positive  connotation: being a ‘londonstani’ meant being a proud londoner of british asian  origin embodying a positive celebration of london’s multiculturalism not dissimilar  from what sammy’s often quoted words in hanif kureishi’s sammy and rosie get  laid suggest: “we love our city and we belong to it. neither of us are english, we’re  5 londoners you see” (kureishi, 1988: p. 33); that is, a positive, vibrant way of living  in the city, generating a strong sense of belonging.5   therefore, rather than being stereotypical subservient members of society, or  post‐7/7 icons of muslim radical islamism, the british‐asian apolitical rudeboys in  gautam  malkani’s  londonstani  reflect  a  different,  religion‐free  kind  of  identity  ironically  embracing  the  traditionally  opposed  black  hip‐hop  culture. this novel  shows  yet  another  aspect  of  the  multifaceted  contemporary  black  british  community as seen in today’s ‘londonistan’ and a strong anti‐essentialist notion of  the south‐asian community in london, as these teenage desis are obsessed with  macho and consumerist symbols and do not care much about religion: instead, they  use racial identity as a proxy for masculine identity and as a way to reaffirm their  masculinity.  since  the  july  7  2005  london  bombings,  the  terms  ‘londonstani’  and  ‘londonistan’ have taken on more negative connotations. in fact, ‘londonistan’ had  already  been  used  by  french  security  services  in  the  1990s  to  denounce  the  significant number of radical muslims and political exiles in london. also published  in  2006  like  londonstani,  the  book  londonistan  by  melanie  phillips  is  a  harsh  denunciation of  the policy of appeasement  that allegedly  fostered the growth of  radical islam in britain. for a wide sector of british public opinion, now the term  ‘londonstani’ does not  convey  the  idea of a  ‘positive’ multiculturalism,  but  it  is  rather  a  potentially  ‘dangerous’  inhabitant  of  “londonistan”,  the  capital  of  ‘eurabia’.6  5 also the words of karim amir, the protagonist of kureishi’s the buddha of suburbia (1990) deserve to be quoted at length: “in bed before i went to sleep i fantasised about london and what i’d do there when the city belonged to me. there was a sound that london had. it was, i’m afraid, people in hyde park playing bongos with their hands; there was also the keyboard on the doors’s ‘light my fire’. there were kids dressed in velvet cloaks who lived free lives; there were thousands of black people everywhere, so i wouldn’t feel exposed; there were bookshops with racks of magazines printed without capital letters or the bourgeois disturbance of full stops; there were shops selling all the records you could desire; there were parties where girls and boys you didn’t know took you upstairs and fucked you; there were all the drugs you could use. you see, i didn’t ask much of life; this was the extent of my longing. but at least my goals were clear and i knew what i wanted. i was twenty. i was ready for anything” (kureishi 1999 [1990], p. 121). 6 melanie phillips was voted the most ‘islamophobic’ journalist by the islamic human rights commission in 2003. the neologism ‘eurabia’ refers to a europe which becomes subsumed by the arab world. this term was publicized (with a negative connotation) by the writer bat ye’or in her 6 these remarks aptly introduce a brief mention of the other novel, ed husain’s  the islamist. unlike malkani’s suburban well‐off craving for new objects of desire,  this  novel  is  based  instead  on  a  real  account  of  a  british  muslim  who,  after  becoming  an  islamic  fundamentalist,  rejected  political  islam  and  returned  to  normal life. the subtitle of the book is very eloquent: ‘why i joined radical islam in  britain,  what  i  saw  inside  and  why  i  left’.  therefore,  this  interesting  memoir  provides  us  with  a  remarkable  account  of  his  own  experience,  updating  the  situation of radical islam in britain which started with the notorious 1988‐89 book‐ burning of salman rushdie’s the satanic verses and ayatollah khomeini’s  fatwa  against him.7  ed husain is the pen name of the british writer mohammed mahbub hussain.  he was born in 1975 in london. his father and mother were born in india. when he  was sixteen husain became an islamic fundamentalist, attending the east london  mosque  (frequented  by  many  radicals)  rather  than  the  moderate  brick  lane  mosque,  and  joining  groups  such  as  hizb  ut‐tahrir,  the  ‘party  of  liberation’.  a  sunni political party founded in 1953 by taqiuddin al‐nabhani, an islamic scholar  and  judge  from haifa, hizb ut‐tahrir’s goal  is  to unite all muslim countries  in a  unitary muslim state or caliphate, ruled by sharia (islamic law) and headed by a  caliph,  an  elected  head  of  state.8  hizb  ut‐tahrir  has  spread  to  more  than  40  countries, is very active in the united kingdom, and is estimated to have about one  million members. in husain’s own words: “they like to call themselves a political  party. they are a group of individuals who have members right across the world  who  are  dedicated  to  overthrowing  every  single  arab  government,  every  single  muslim government, and setting up an expansionist global state in the middle east.  and, in their words, it's a launch pad for a jihad to go out to other countries. so it's  basically  creating  an  islamist  empire.”9  drawing  on  husain’s  experience  as  a  book eurabia: the euro-arab axis (2005). see “bagehot in praise of multiculturalism”, the economist, june 14th 2007; and also <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/eurabia>. 7 on december 2, 1988, the first book burning of the satanic verses took place in the united kingdom. 7000 muslims attended a rally in bolton during which the book was burnt. 8 see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hizb_ut-tahrir> 9 see the transcripts of a cnn video interview (may 2 2007) with ed husain: <http://transcripts.cnn.com/transcripts/0705/04/cnr.02.html> 7 recruiter  in hizb ut‐tahrir, the islamist  is a valid socio‐historical document that  explains  the  appeal  of  extremist  thought  and  the way  radicals  infiltrate  muslim  moderate communities. this book  is  important also because  for  the  first  time a  former  member  openly  discusses  life  within  radical  islamic  organizations.  the  story of ed husain is very useful in revealing how it is possible to have home‐grown  terrorists willing to kill their fellow citizens in the name of radical islam.   as  we  have  seen,  londonstani  and  the  islamist  unveil  an  anti‐essentialist  condition  of  the  british‐asian  community  in  london  involving  huge  mutual  differences between malkani’s ‘apolitical rudeboys’ and husain’s ‘ex‐radicals’ due  to social, cultural and religious background diversities. i would like to conclude by  considering briefly the main positions that have emerged lately in the debate on  multiculturalism in britain. after the july 7 2005 london bomb attack, the debate  on multiculturalism has become more passionate than ever. two positions have  emerged in the public opinion: those who are against multiculturalism out of fear of  radical islam and wish to foster social cohesion and a strong sense of belonging to  the  mother  country;  and  those  committed  to  multiculturalism  on  the basis  of  a  mutual exchange of cultures and traditions as a privileged path to a more tolerant  society. a third position could be that of the protagonists of londonstani: a peculiar  one, as  these desis manage  to be committed  to  their own cultural and religious  background while at the same time showing ignorance, indifference and mistrust  toward politics and the political system. when their teacher asks them: “’have you  watched  the  news?  are  you  familiar  with  the  debate  around  multiculturalism?  asylum policy? us foreign policy?’”, hardjit, the leader of the gang, replies: “’forget  it, man, dis politics shit, it all bout poncey, grey‐haired bald people talkin posh n  getting off wid their secretaries, man’” (malkani 2006a: p. 130). at the same time,  though, they feel a strong sense of belonging to their own culture. despite the fact  that he knows virtually nothing about the conflict between india and pakistan over  kashmir,  hardjit  feels  strongly  against  muslims,  and  always  wears  a  ‘khara’,  an  indian bracelet round his wrist to show he is a sikh (malkani 2006a: p. 9).  8 the  rise  of  radical  islam  has  led  british  and  european  writers  and  commentators  such  as  gilles  kepel,  trevor  phillips,  melanie  phillips,  yasmin  alibhai‐brown, the archbishop of york john sentamu, and many others to declare  the death of multiculturalism that, by giving everyone the freedom of encouraging  difference, has turned london into londonistan.10 the shock of watching a suicide‐ bomber’s  video  testament  delivered  in  a  yorkshire  accent  after  the  bombings  probably spelled  the end  for multiculturalism. nearly everyone now agrees  that  multiculturalism has failed. the centre‐right wing have always considered it a naive  and dangerous idea. britain’s new prime minister david cameron warned against  the  dangers  of  ‘cultural  separatism’,  and  blamed  multiculturalism  as  a  failed  doctrine threatening national unity and weakening the british collective identity’.11  the same views are shared by contributions such as the above‐mentioned book  londonistan  by  melanie  phillips,  blaming  tony  blair’s  policy  of  appeasement  towards religious extremism. similar positions emerge even from the supposedly  more  progressive  centre‐left  wing.  a  commission  on  integration  and  cohesion,  directed by the labour mp ruth kelly, was established after the bombings to advise  on  segregation  and  radicalism  and  recommended  that  less  money  be  spent  on  providing  civic  information  in  urdu  and  arabic,  and  more  on  non‐multicultural  english  lessons.12 even  former prime minister gordon brown has suggested  the  creation of an annual holiday to recreate a renewed sense of britishness. labour  and tory policies on multiculturalism and security seem to be chasing each other.  however,  despite  all  its  failings  and  shortcomings,  others  keep  celebrating  multiculturalism, claiming it would be wrong to blame it for the rise of radical islam  in britain, because there are far more pertinent reasons why some young muslims  have  become  radicalised,  such  as  the  british  policies  overseas,  especially  the  country’s involvement in the war in iraq.  in  conclusion,  given  this  complex  socio‐political  scenario,  it  is  difficult  to  define  a  new,  post‐multicultural,  21st‐century  brand  of  ‘britishness’,  and  the  10 see <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article592693.ece> 11 “bagehot in praise of multiculturalism”, the economist, june 14th 2007. 12 “bagehot in praise of multiculturalism”, the economist, june 14th 2007. 9 efficacy of steps such as those advocated by the above‐mentioned commission on  integration and cohesion  is debatable. these provisions  involve a better cultural  preparation for the new arrivals to be assessed via a sort of  ‘britishness test’, to  award citizenship only to selected candidates by helping them understand issues  such as the british philosophy of queuing and the importance of avoiding beards  and  rucksacks.13  in  britain  and  abroad,  tolerance  and  mass  xenophobia  have  recently  acquired  new  connotations.  security  has  become  a  top  issue  on  the  political agenda, with the revival of restrictive measures such as more  ‘stop and  search’ power to the police, and a  longer pre‐charge detention period for terror  suspects. paul gilroy (2006, p. 35) has successfully defined this new socio‐political  scenario  as  ‘securitocracy’,  europe’s  first  answer  to  the  growing  crisis  in  race  relations.  for younger british‐asians, living in britain can involve some very different  approaches. radical muslims – as ed husain himself used to be – can react violently  against the host society and the fellow ‘integrated’ members of their community.  they  fight  against  consumerism  and  the  decadence  of  western  society.  the  protagonists of londonstani, instead, crave for the very objects despised by radical  muslims. hyper‐materialism is at the core of their credo. they use violence as a  way to reaffirm their masculinity, not as a way to rediscover traditional religious  doctrines.  they  do  not  care  about  religion,  even  though  the  conflict  sikhs  vs  muslims becomes useful for them as an excuse to get into yet another fight, never  mind their lack of historical awareness of the reasons behind that conflict. their  racial  assertiveness  is  not  aimed  at  religion  or  politics, but  towards  the  idea  of  belonging to a  ‘desi’ subculture redeeming via machismo and hyper‐materialism  13 in an article, writer mohsin hamid reports the peculiarity of the questions in this test, whose answers are quite unfamiliar even to british people: “i am reading from pages 24 and 26 of the british citizenship test study guide. this, for those who are unfamiliar with the foundational text of our common culture, is ‘a comprehensive study guide containing official material, study advice and sample questions’. so far, each of my [british] colleagues has on average been able to answer only about one in three questions correctly.” here follows one example: “q: if you were visiting a welsh home during the new year, what tradition might be observed? a: in wales, on the stroke of midnight, the back door is opened to release the old year. it is then locked to keep the luck in, and at the last stroke, the front door opened to let in the new year.” see mohsin hamid, “the british inquisition”, the independent, february 25, 2007. 10 their former status of second‐class citizens. the protagonists of londonstani and  the  islamist  have  thus  shown  that  the  anti‐essentialist  notion  of  the  second‐ generation  immigrant  community  in  contemporary  britain  can  be  scrutinised  through notable examples of contemporary british fiction, examples that help shed  light on the current debate on multiculturalism in the united kingdom.                                                     11 works cited    ‐ “bagehot ‐ in praise of multiculturalism”. the economist, june 14th 2007.    ‐ alsayyad, nezar; castells, manuel. “introduction: islam and the changing identity  of europe”. in n. alsayyad; m. castells (eds), muslim europe or euro­islam –  politics,  culture  and  citizenship  in  the  age  of  globalization,  lanham:  lexington books, 2002, pp. 1‐6.    ‐ ferguson, niall. empire: how britain made the modern world. london: penguin  books, 2004 (allen tate, 2003).    ‐ gilroy, paul. “multiculture in times of war – an inaugural lecture given at the  london school of economics”. critical quarterly, vol. 48, no. 4, 2006, pp. 27‐ 45.    ‐ gilroy, paul. the black atlantic: modernity and double consciousness, cambridge,  mass.: harvard university press, 1993.    ‐ hamid, mohsin. “the british inquisition”. the independent, february 25, 2007.    ‐ hamid, mohsin. the reluctant fundamentalist. new york: hartcourt, 2007.    ‐ husain, ed. the islamist – why i joined radical islam in britain, what i saw inside  and why i left. london: penguin books, 2007.    ‐ kureishi, hanif. sammy and rosie get laid. new york: penguin books, 1988.    ‐ kureishi, hanif. the buddha of suburbia. london: faber and faber, 1999 [1990].    ‐ malkani, gautam. londonstani. london: fourth estate, 2006a.    ‐ malkani, gautam. “mixing and matching”. financial times, april 22, 2006b.    ‐ phillips, melanie. londonistan – how britain  is creating a terror state within.  new york: encounter books, 2006.    ‐ rushdie, salman.   “‘commonwealth literature’ does not exist”. in   imaginary  homelands: essays and criticism 1981­1991. london: granta books, 1991  [1983], pp. 61‐70.    ‐  spivak,  gayatri  chakravorty.  “subaltern  studies:  deconstructing  historiography”.  in  d.  landry,  g.  maclean  (eds.),  the  spivak  reader:  12 selected  works  of  gayatri  chakravorty  spivak.  london:  routledge,  1996  [1985], pp. 203‐236.    ‐ ye’or, bat. eurabia: the euro­arab axis, cranbury, nj: fairleigh dickinson  university press, 2005.      webliography    <http://www.english.emory.edu/bahri/essentialism.html>    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/desi>    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/eurabia>    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hizb_ut‐tahrir>    <http://transcripts.cnn.com/transcripts/0705/04/cnr.02.html>    <http://www.gautammalkani.com/about_londonstani.htm>    <http://www.myspace.com/londonstani>    <http://www.timeout.com/london/books/features/249.html>    <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article592693.ece>  microsoft word 6. eu enlargement dzevada article ready epiphanyepiphanyepiphanyepiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 2 spring 2009 ©2009, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved eu enlargement and the case of bosnia and herzegovina1: a brief historical sketch dzevada šuško international university of sarajevo introduction whenever bosnia and herzegovina´s political issues are discussed, the starting point is the dayton peace agreement signed in december 1995 (chandler; bieber 2006). however, already in may 1992 with the beginning of the aggression, bosnia and herzegovina applied for a special guest status at the european council aiming to prevent human rights abuses as a result of war. during the first months of the aggression it became obvious that the bosniaks were systematically executed, expelled and brought to concentration camps. yet, guest status to bosnia and herzegovina was not given until january 1994. finally in april 2002 bosnia and herzegovina was accepted with full membership to the european council (solioz 2006 98). nonetheless, the dayton peace agreement is often seen as the milestone for the relationship between the european union (eu) and bosnia and herzegovina. besides the presidency of the eu and the european commission, some eu countries such as france, germany, italy and united kingdom were already involved in the dayton peace agreement and the subsequent creation of the peace implementation council (pic).2 dealing with the high number of bosnian refugees in eu countries and bringing political stability in the eu region were 1 i would like to thank dr. ali gunes and mustafa bal for kindly supporting me in publishing this article. furthermore, i am thankful to dr.mirsad karić and dr.muhidin mulalić who reviewed the manuscript and offered constructive comments. 2 the pic represents 55 countries and agencies that were involved in the dayton peace agreement in order to give financial support, provide troops or run directly operations in bih. the london conference nominated canada, france, germany, italy, japan, russia, united kingdom, united states, the presidency of the european union, the european commission and the organization of the islamic conference represented by turkey (ohr general information). eu enlargement and the case of bosnia and herzegovina: a brief historical sketch 100 surely the pic’s main goals (for germany´s insisting on the question of return in dayton see bendiek 2004, 89). since the dayton peace agreement is designed to “end a war not to build a state”, as the former ohr high representative lord paddy ashdown (15) contended, it is obviously now the task of the eu ‘to build a state’ with solid and stable institutions. this means that the economic, political, juridical and civil transition of bosnia and herzegovina from communism, aggression, ethnic cleansing and genocide to a democratic peaceful state is closely linked with its adaptability to be a part of the eu. this process evokes usually a variety of questions: are bosnian state institutions eu-adaptable? what are the main obstacles? how much time will take a full membership to the eu? what advantages and disadvantages will bosnia and herzegovina have with eu membership? the resources used for this research paper originate to a great part from the internet, starting with documents from the websites of the international community: ohr-office of the high representative in sarajevo, european union, council of the european union, european commission in brussels and in sarajevo as well as the bosnian directorate for european integration (dei). few bosnian authors explicitly deal with bosnia and herzegovina and the eu, such as nerzuk ćurak, nikola kovač, mirko pejanović and emir hadžikadunić. as far as nonbosnian authors are concerned, florian bieber, solveig richter, marie-janine calic, christophe solioz, robert belloni, bruno sergi and qerim qerimi as well as graham timmins and dejan jovic delivered relevant contributions. david chandler, though, gives a critical analysis of post-dayton bosnia including its approach to the eu. whereas chandler advocates a less interventionist approach by the international community to stabilize democracy other scholars like richter and calic tend more to the view that the lack of consensus among the political elites in bosnia and herzegovina requires a rather strong hand from outside to impose the needed constitutional changes in bosnia and herzegovina and hence to clear the path for the eu. as soon as a feasible constitution is set, then the state system of bosnia and herzegovina has a real chance to start functioning properly. dzevada šuško 101 this research analysis will offer mainly a historical overview of the relations between the european union and bosnia and herzegovina. furthermore some reconsiderations regarding the above mentioned metaquestions of the process are given. a prelude to membership as far as the eu in general is concerned, there are three main bodies that decide on the enlargement strategy of the eu and thus about the membership of bosnia and herzegovina. they include the european commission representing common eu interests, the european parliament representing the people of europe, and the council of the european union representing national governments. although, the views of individual member states towards the integration of bosnia and herzegovina differ to great extent3. the openness to integrate bosnia and herzegovina to the eu is confirmed in june 1998 with the “declaration on special relations between eu and bih”4. thus the primary condition is fulfilled. in terms of membership conditions, the 1992 treaty on european union signed in maastricht, article 6, says that any european state which respects the principles of liberty, democracy, human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law qualifies for eu membership. furthermore, the copenhagen meeting in 1993 added requirements which new members must have achieved before entering the eu. hence, these copenhagen criteria include: stable institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities; a functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces 3 this issue cannot be discussed in detail at this point. a critical assessment of british foreign policy in the region was provided by brendan simms’ unfinest hour. britain and the destruction of bosnia, (london: penguin 2002); for a comparative perspective stressing also differences within the countries brian c. rathbun’s partisan interventions: european party politics and peace enforcement in the balkans, (ithaca et al.: cornell university press 2004). 4 in comparison to turkey the eu is reluctant in accepting turkey as a partly asian state. the openness to integrate bih to the eu is confirmed in june 1998 with the “declaration on special relations between the eu and bih”. eu enlargement and the case of bosnia and herzegovina: a brief historical sketch 102 within the union; the ability to take on the obligations of membership, including support for the aims of the political, economic and monetary union; furthermore a public administration capable of applying and managing eu laws in practice as it was underlined by the madrid european council in 1995 (european council in copenhagen. conclusions of the presidency). 1995-1999 extension of powers of pic high representative bosnia and herzegovina is a special case: since world war ii genocide and concentration camps experienced a repeat on european soil. according to the report “repairing reconstructing reconnecting” from 1998, the eu had to deal with 750.000 refugees from war zones while 1.2 million citizens had to flee abroad. after signing of the dayton peace agreement, bosnia and herzegovina had to deal with a complete devastation of the infrastructure, high unemployment, displaced people, and a ruined economy. these conditions seriously threatened the region’s stability. consequently, the eu committed itself with donations to reconstruct bosnia and herzegovina, to provide democracy and a viable market economy. the first parliamentary elections held in 1996 were seen as the first step towards democracy building in bosnia and herzegovina. since then, four more parliamentary and presidential elections have been held (1998, 2000, 2002, 2006; bieber 2008). apart from the dpa -architecture, the eu and ec have become strong partners with bosnia and herzegovina and cooperate intensely with the office of the high representative (ohr), united nations (un), un high commissioner for refugees (unhcr), the nato stabilization forces (sfor) and the organization for security and co-operation in europe (osce). eu governments even insisted that the office of the high representative should be run by a european representative (cousens and cater 46). chandler states that the dpa was made so flexible that it has in fact facilitated external regulation rather than restricting it. dpa, as chandler continues, thus enabled international actors to shape and reshape the agenda of post-war transition: dzevada šuško 103 dayton´s flexibility has been the key actor enabling external powers to permanently postpone any transition to bosnian ‘ownership’. the only transition which has taken place has been from the ad hoc policyownership of self-selected members of the peace implementation council (pic) to direct regulatory control under the aegis of the european union (eu). (chandler 30) during the first period, 1995-1999, pic extended the powers of the high representative but with little clear policy direction or end point for the ad hoc international administration. pic was established to provide international legitimacy in absence of un involvement and to include eu and cohere international management in the dayton process. several pic meetings such as in florence (june 1996), paris (november 1996), sintra (may 1997), and bonn (december 1997) enabled pic to rewrite its own powers and those of the high representative (ohr). for example, it was decided at the sintra meeting that obstructive bosnia and herzegovina representatives may receive visa restrictions on travel abroad, and any media network or programme which was counterproductive to dpa may be suspended (pic sintra declaration). the socalled “bonn powers” are until today often mentioned, especially in everyday politics because the high representative was since then empowered to impose legislation giving international officials executive and legislative control over bosnia and herzegovina (pic bonn conclusions). this included the dismissal of elected representatives and government officials who obstruct the implementation the dpa. from 1998 to 2005, following the webpage of the office of the high representative (www.ohr.int), there were in total 117 officials which were removed by the high representative from their respective posts, out of which were 48 serbs, 45 croats and 24 bosniaks. therefore by 1999 the pic and ohr had accumulated an array of powers, particularly the bonn powers, unforeseen in 1995 when dayton agreement was signed. on the other hand there are disputes and severe doubts on the pda“constitution” which was designed most of all “to end a war” and is not yet eu enlargement and the case of bosnia and herzegovina: a brief historical sketch 104 functioning properly in respect of bosnia and herzegovina’s future as a member state of the european union. the ethnic division of the country even among the youth is deeper than ever before and confirms these doubts. kasim trnka, a jurist and legal scientist, stated that for the past 12 years after the war 279 laws were passed. additionally, 112 laws were imposed by the high representative. furthermore, 260 bills were discussed in parliament and were not passed. 136 bills were not approved by the house of representatives due to entity voting. out of these 136 bills, 20 bills were vetoed by entity voting in federation and the left 116 bills were vetoed by entity voting in republika srpska (tv debate on bht1 in december 2008). interestingly, the main objective of the house of peoples (upper house) is to protect vital national interests. however, only four times since the first establishment of parliament in 1996 constituent peoples have used veto in house of peoples and stopped passing the law. no one of these has been used by serbs because the serb national interest can be protected in the house of representatives which is supposed to promote and protect individual rights and not national interest of one ethnic group. consequently, many political actors have realized that there is urgent need for constitutional changes. and this has even been said by the parliament of the european council in 2007: for the international community, the adoption early on in the new legislature of the already agreed constitutional amendments remains as the precondition for any serious attempts to embark into the more far-reaching reforms which are necessary to consolidate the statehood of bih and its full integration in european and transatlantic structures. (council of europe. information documents sg/inf(2006)16final 7 february 2007) the “regional approach” in 1997 established political and economic conditionality for the development of bilateral relations between bosnia and herzegovina and the eu, in terms of trade, financial assistance and economic cooperation. bosnia and herzegovina´s official approximation towards the dzevada šuško 105 membership of the eu, though, started on 8 june 1998. at the luxemburg council the declaration on special relations between the eu and bosnia and herzegovina was adopted and the eu/bih consultative task force (ctf) established. the aim was increasing cooperation and assisting in policy-making in the crucial fields of judicial reform, education, media, good governance and economic reform (pic luxembourg declaration). nonetheless, chandler states: “however, despite an increasingly direct eu input into policy-making, the eu played a subordinate and supporting role within pic dayton framework rather than dictating its own terms” (chandler 35). still the dpa was of major importance and the impact of the eu was more on civilian level then. after the nato intervention in kosovo (march 1999) new approaches for stabilizing the whole region were required. they were drafted in the stability pact for south-eastern europe, which was agreed in cologne on 10 june 1999 between the states of south-eastern europe, the eu, the us and russia (http://www.stabilitypact.org/about/constituent.asp). the idea was to link improvement of intraregional cooperation between the countries, with the perspective of membership to the european union – accompanied by political and economic conditionality. in the following years the most effective instrument became the stabilisation and association process (sap), which should via a subsequent stabilisation and association agreement (saa) finally pave the way for all the countries to full membership. with this perspective and the financial assistance of the cards programme, from 2000 on the influence of the eu in the region became increasingly greater. 2000-2007 transformation of external regulative mechanisms this period saw within the post-dayton process a gradual transformation of external regulative mechanisms to bosnian ownership under the leadership of the eu. thereby mechanisms of regulation shifted informally from the pic to the eu, and dayton became subordinate to the requirements for an eventual eu membership. eu enlargement and the case of bosnia and herzegovina: a brief historical sketch 106 the road map announced in march 2000 by eu commissioner chris patten was a first step for bosnia and herzegovina in the stabilization and association process (sap). this document contained 18 conditions which bosnia and herzegovina had to fulfil beginning with the preparation of a feasibility study which would set the framework for the stabilization and association agreement (saa). these conditions were related to elections, civil service, state institutions, border services, judiciary, trade regulations, foreign direct investment, property laws and public broadcasting. the shift from dpa to eu accession was constantly confirmed on summits and meetings. in june 2000, the feira european council declared all southeastern european countries as “potential candidates” for eu membership. the zagreb summit in november 2000 introduced a community programme of assistance for reconstruction, development and stabilization (cards) and a programme of eu technical assistance for bosnia and herzegovina (final declaration). the cards programme supported bosnia and herzegovina with € 240 million (chandler: 36) focusing on public administration reform (customs and taxation), justice and home-affairs (police reform, border management, judicial reform) and investment climate (trade, education, environment, infrastructure). furthermore, in 2001 the european commission adopted a country strategy for bosnia and herzegovina for the period of 2002-2006. in november 2000, an autonomous preferential customs regime between eu and bosnia and herzegovina was adopted allowing products from bosnia and herzegovina to enter eu duty free. however, statistics of the foreign trade chamber of bosnia and herzegovina shows that this policy has increased trade deficit in favour of eu and at the cost of bosnia and herzegovina and its citizens (pregled uvoza i izvoza bih-eu 2000-2007). the gradual transfer of power from the pic to the eu became more evident in ohr´s 2002 reform when joint actions were adopted for the appointment of an eu special representative and the launching of the eu police mission (eupm). thus, ohr lord paddy ashdown (2002-2006) became the first eu special dzevada šuško 107 representative and simultaneously the high representative. a board of principles was established chaired by the eu special representative as a weekly meeting in sarajevo to coordinate the activities of the ohr with sfor, osce, eupm, unhcr, ec, world bank, imf and undp. ohr´s growing dependence on the eu is also indicated by the ohr´s financial contributors. in the current term (2008/09) eu provides 53%. further contributions stem from usa (22%), japan (10%), russia (4%), canada (3%) and the organisation of islamic conference (oic, 2,5%). however, the oic does not seem to have any visible influence on decision-making process (office of the high representative. general information). within bosnia and herzegovina, the eight month rotation of the chairman of council of ministers (com) was abolished after the elections in 2002. since then the com remained for the whole legislative period (the first was adnan terzić, 2002-2007), adopting a high level of executive authority and becoming de facto bosnia and herzegovina’s prime minister. this was important because com´s task was besides coordinating strategies and policies among state institutions, ensuring harmonization bosnia and herzegovina’s laws with the acquis communautaire of the eu. in april 2002, bosnia and herzegovina was accepted to the european council and adopted the european convention on human rights. in september that year the “road map” was adopted as “substantially completed” by the european commission. soon the directorate for european integrations (dei), founded in early 2003, has become the main partner to the ec in the stabilization and association process. dei has been tasked with negotiating and supervising the implementation of further agreements made with the eu, especially the feasibility study, which should estimate its capacity to implement the saa during 2003. on the thessalonica summit in june 2003 the eu committed itself to integrate countries from the western balkans presenting additional instruments to enhance eu regulation. the most important tool were the new “european partnerships” made to strengthen the sap (chandler: 36-38). eu enlargement and the case of bosnia and herzegovina: a brief historical sketch 108 on the basis of the results of the feasibility study presented in november 2003 as the “report from the commission to the council on the preparedness of bosnia and herzegovina to negotiate a stabilization and association agreement with the european union”, the eu decided in june 2004 for a first “european partnership” with bosnia and herzegovina to define the country’s political, economic and other priorities preparing saa negotiations. the bosnian government was expected to respond to this partnership by working out and implementing action plans with a timetable and details of how they intend to address the partnership’s priorities. particularly, the intensity of eu engagement in bosnia and herzegovina necessitated the reinforcement of (a) meetings of eu/bih consultative task force to assist in annual reports and annual action plans (established already in 1998) and (b) the coordination board for economic development and eu integration as the main steering body between the central government and the entities. the same year, the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe reviewed the quality of bosnia and herzegovina´s democracy. it demanded the strengthening of central state institutions and questioned the extent to which the current role of the high representative is compatible with the membership of bosnia and herzegovina in the council of europe (“strengthening of democratic institutions in bosnia and herzegovina”). a further step toward the empowerment of the eu was the replacement of nato´s sfor with eufor (althea operation) in december 2004 which meant the end of the un international police task force (iptf) (chandler 39). the negotiations on saa between bosnia and herzegovina and eu were officially opened on 25 november 2005 in sarajevo. the main stakeholders in negotiations were the directorate general for enlargement of the european commission headed by olli rehn and the dei, the negotiating team of bosnia and herzegovina, under the leadership of osman topčagić. bosnia and herzegovina’s domestic problems which are visible through a lack of consensus among the elected political elites who represent the three constituent peoples of the country dzevada šuško 109 lead to a lack of progress in implementing necessary reforms. thus it took two years to conclude the negotiations on saa. new instruments of monitoring, consultation and steering had to be defined. in 2006, the consultative task force (ctf) was re-named reform process monitoring (rpm) to mark the start of a new phase in eu-bih relations, the start of negotiations of a saa. a year later the cards programme was replaced by the instrument of pre-accession (ipa) which focuses on institution building and socio-economic development. in the end of 2007, the bosnia and herzegovina progress report was made including the council enlargement strategy and main challenges 2007-2008. 2007 first serious step to eu: saa the informal process of eu regulation became a contractual one when bosnia and herzegovina initialled the stabilization and association agreement (saa) on 4 december 2007. the meaning of that step was then pointed out by dimitris kourkoulas, head of delegation of the european commission to bosnia and herzegovina: “the saa is the first step in the eu integration process. it confirms that the prospect of eu membership is open for bih” (tv debate 13 dec 2007). for the implementation of the agreement the european commission required progress in six key priorities which are (1) icty cooperation, (2) police reform, (3) establishment of a public self-sustainable broadcaster, (4) public administration reform, (5) uniting the entities’ economies to a single economic space, and (6) providing conditions for the work of all institutions in terms of financing, personnel, equipment. after having been signed on 14 june 2008, the agreement becomes enforceable when it has been ratified by the bosnian government, european parliament and the national parliaments of eu members. the adoption of the saa in the bosnian state parliament was a prerequisite for its ratification in eu countries. in october 2008, the bosnian state parliament's house of representatives and the house of peoples gave their consent for ratification of eu enlargement and the case of bosnia and herzegovina: a brief historical sketch 110 the saa. under the bosnian constitution, saa had still to be ratified by the bosnian state presidency as well. the saa is an international agreement entailing mutual rights and obligations that has precedence over any other law of the country and is seen as starting point for further constitutional amendments which are necessary for the future normal functioning of the country. the eu special representative and the executive policy-making institution of the directorate of european integration maintain full regulatory control over the sap. for the coming period of 2007 to 2009 the multi-annual indicative planning document (midp) provided bosnia and herzegovina with € 226 million in order to realize bosnia and herzegovina´s development strategy to eu integration. furthermore, the saa, if properly implemented, is regarded as the first rung on the long path towards the membership of the 27-member bloc. accordingly, bosnia and herzegovina has legal obligations in the fields of saa within strict time limits. these necessary conditions are named in the 10 chapters of the saa such as political dialogue, regional cooperation, free movements of goods, movement of workers, business plans, provision of services, capital, justice and home affairs. these chapters include 1.200 regulations and directives which must be gradually transposed from european legislation in order to meet the criteria for an eu membership. the main advantages of the saa to bosnia and herzegovina are credibility building among the international public, establishment of a free trade zone between bosnia and herzegovina and eu which should increase investments and employment, better efficiency of institutions, liberalization of a visa regime, and democratic-political as well as economic stability in general. furthermore, the struggle against organised crime and corruption is a serious problem to be solved since the achievements of these objectives depend to a large part to the country’s own political will to align with european standards and values. bosnia and herzegovina’s adaptability to the european union dzevada šuško 111 eu interests are strategic in terms of integrating south-eastern european states in eu structure and global in terms of security and peace all over the european continent, as the international commission on the balkans stressed: we should clearly bring the region into the eu. rather we need to establish the sequence of policy steps to be undertaken and the structure of the incentives that will make them work. we need policies so that the region can get on, get in and catch up with the rest of europe. (the balkans in europe’s future 9) the eu is the main trade partner of bosnia and herzegovina as it is visible in the regularly updated statistics about bosnia and herzegovina and its bilateral trade with the eu and trade with the world. in 2007, imports coming from the eu made up 66.7% of total imports by bosnia and herzegovina, while exports to the eu accounted for 71.4% of its total exports. in the same year, eu imports from bosnia and herzegovina grew by 6.1% year on year to reach over 1.8 billion euros, while exports to bosnia and herzegovina grew by 8.3%, reaching over 3 billion euros. exports go mainly to italy, germany and slovenia and imports originate from these countries, and to some extent from austria. in terms of reforms toward the eu, bosnia and herzegovina’s approach to the european council needs to be included. according to solioz, until february 2006, 51 treaties were signed and ratified, 21 treaties were just signed but not ratified yet, and there were still 129 treaties neither signed nor ratified. several reports monitoring bosnia and herzegovina indicated problems with the implementation and with self-responsibility during the realization of reforms (solioz 99-100). on the other hand, topčagić claims that greatest progress has been made in the fields of border management, migration, asylum; internal affairs; judiciary through establishing the court of bosnia and herzegovina, the high judicial and prosecutorial council, the prosecutor’s office of bosnia and herzegovina; establishment of independent regulatory bodies such as the regulatory communications agency (bulja and subasic 3). this progress was also eu enlargement and the case of bosnia and herzegovina: a brief historical sketch 112 confirmed by the european commission in november 2007 (enlargement strategy and main challenges 2007-2008). in bosnia and herzegovina there are still many internal obstacles and challenges to face. the police reform was finally achieved (richter), but the constitutional reform in today’s perspective decides the fate of the present twoentity structure. while the bosniak politicians consider the republika srpska a genocidal creation, serb politicians threaten with secession from bosnia and herzegovina and croats ask for a tripartite bosnia and herzegovina where every constituent people has its own federal unit (loza 1-4). this implies that there is a need of a stronger intervention from the eu with a clear vision of bosnia and herzegovina’s state configuration when it comes to the constitutional changes. the bosnian constitution set up by the dayton peace agreement established a “complicated, non-efficient and expensive state” as srđan dizdarević contends (90). whereas usually other states spend about 14-16% of the budget for the administration, bosnia and herzegovina spends 60% of the gdp for its heavy administration which has 14 governments and 180 ministers (dizdarević 90). no doubt that this dysfunctional system must be radically changed. the constitution is to begin with, it is actually the main obstacle within bosnia and herzegovina for the development of stable, transparent and efficient democratic institutions. the constitutional reform was planned after the local elections are held in october 2008. as soon as the constitution gets successfully changed to the benefit of a sovereign state of bosnia and herzegovina, the adaptability to eu standards is no more questionable. conclusion and perspectives the european union is routinely involved in every aspect of bosnia and herzegovina. this is also the main critique for the transition work does not go towards bosnian ownership. on the other hand, bosnia and herzegovina such as all the other former communist countries from east and south-east europe dzevada šuško 113 experienced what it means to live in the world of borders, thinking barriers, prohibitions. therefore the citizens of these countries expect from the eu opening up of societies, elimination of all kinds of barriers and obstacles to free and unconstrained exchange of ideas, of people, of goods and services, and of money. furthermore with the eu and investments from outside bosnian citizens expect economic prosperity and more employment which should reduce the number of youth exodus. citizens also expect political stability and political consensus of governing political powers about character and development of the country which will make the return of displaced persons easier and reduce nationalist rhetoric to a preference of civil values. bosnia and herzegovina has still to fulfil several conditions, which are strategic and institutional, in order to enter eu. strategic conditions are a stable peace, defence of human rights on european standards5, economic renewal, return of refugees and displaced persons6, social transition, building democratic institutions whereas institutional conditions include a modern and efficient state of bosnia and herzegovina. of strategic importance is the membership in nato´s program “partnership for peace” in december 2006 which aimed to increase peace and security in bosnia and herzegovina and decrease national and secessionist tensions. the integration into nato makes a final integration to eu more secure. basically, when talking about integration, it can be concluded that integration occurs on three levels: (1) internal political, economical, and cultural; (2) regional – pact of stability of south-eastern europe and (3) europeanintegration to the eu (pejanović 159). when it comes to eu, timmins and jović (1) note that: although the eu has aspirations to develop a military dimension to its external identity, its international presence continues to be articulated predominantly through soft power, for example, diplomatic, economic 5 an extended elaboration of human rights in the eu and bih can be seen at sadiković (197-206). 6 pejanović argues that it will take 50 more years to realize the return of all displaced people according to the actual dynamics (2005 160). eu enlargement and the case of bosnia and herzegovina: a brief historical sketch 114 and normative foreign policy instruments. the next wave of eu enlargement … therefore represents a crucial contribution both to the continued creation of a stable european order and the credibility of the eu as an effective international actor. furthermore, there are indications that eu is suffering from an enlargement fatigue after the mammoth enlargement in 2004. hence, next to bosnia and herzegovina´s internal obstacles, there might be not sufficient will to enable the necessary institutional and financial reform that would allow the eu to continue to expand its membership (timmins and jovic 3). nonetheless even before 2004, the european council and the european commission should have emphasized more the political dimensions of state-building in bosnia and herzegovina instead of paying too much attention to technical and administrative aspects (solioz 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(foreign trade chamber of bosnia and hercegovina. overview of import and export bih-eu 2000-2007). 01 dec 2008 dzevada šuško 119 http://komorabih.ba/userfiles/image/eu_razmjena.pdf zagreb summit. final declaration 24 november 2000. 10 nov 2008 http://ec.europa.eu/ enlargement/enlargement_process/accession_process/how_does_a_country_join _the_eu/sap/zagreb_summit_en.htm yucel ogurlu* introduction technological developments on the eve of the twentieth century reshaped almost every aspect of human life and significantly influenced almost every academic discipline. information and communication technologies restructured not only the way we understand the concept of government in classical terms, but also it changed the way governments and public administrations operated and functioned. internet, perceived as one of the major achievements of the information revolution, singled out itself as the most important tool for restructuring the public administration due its high potential in optimization, efficiency, productivity, accountability and transparency. public administration changes fostered by the information and communication revolution led to the transformation into new forms of government usually referred as e-government, electronic or digital government. the concept of e-government could be seen as ambiguous; however generally it is defined as the use of technology as a tool to deliver government services to its customers which can be citizens, businesses, other epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies volume 7, number 2, 2014 p-issn 2303-6850 e-isnn 1840-3719 “e-government portal” and e-services in turkey abstract likewise in other developed countries, e-government in public administration in turkey has been introduced with an aim to improve state’s administrative efficiency and competency. these modern administrative approaches and opportunities from technological innovation will inevitably provide high quality services and participation at all levels of the public administration. for this purpose, turkey established e-government portal, (e-devlet kapısı) a virtual structure which enables access to digital public services. the aim of the e-government portal is to provide its users service through only one website and safe digital media. since accessing the services through only one website makes access easier, high speed and system security are required too. the security system requires identity verification, password and e-signature. turkey has successfully implemented the e-government project and with sub-projects such as the national judiciary information system turkey received many international awards. other than public services similar to e-hospital, e-municipality and e-tender, other social service institutions can also use same administrative approach as to make their service available. therefore, this paper shortly analyzes technical and legal challenges and technical, administrative and legal solutions of the e-government portal. keywords: e-government; e-signature; e-service; digital public service and electronic service. *corresponding author: yucel ogurlu, full professor, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: yogurlu@ius.edu.ba governments, ngos, etc. (means and schneider in yildiz, 2002 pp. 41-57). today, e-government encompasses a wide range of meanings from policies related to the development of information structures to the measures for the improvement of the public administration’s functions (linz, 1996). one of the major aspects of e-government is how to bring customers (citizens, business, other governments and ngos) closer to their governments aiming at simplifying procedures but keeping the privacy and security of its clients. therefore, there are four main, very broad, categories or models which e-government encompass that represent the scope of e-government: government-to-citizens (g2c), government-to-business (g2b), government-to-government (g2g) and government-to-ngo (g2n). e-government, contrary to tradition governments, aims at reducing and minimizing the bureaucracy in order to ensure that governments functions more accurately, efficiently and transparently. in the e-government system there is no mediator between citizens/ business and information, that enables quick flow of information, reduced workflow and reduces the error rates (stamoulis, 2001). one of the major provisions of e-government is e-services which represent its ultimate goal, but not aiming to replace the traditional services. rather, they are perceived as complementary aiming at reducing the lines and providing the services 24 hours per day, seven days in a week. according to the united nations e-government survey 2012 five world leading countries in implementation of e-government initiatives are republic of korea, the netherlands, united kingdom, denmark and united states, with the e-government development index higher than 0.85. source: un e-government survey 2014. y. ogurlu e-government portal and e-services in turkey 18 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e-government in turkey development of e-government in turkey started in early 1990s with the establishment of information society and knowledge-based economy (sayan, et al. 2004). the purpose of information society was to increase turkey’s competiveness focusing on innovation, science and technology and strengthening ict capacities and capabilities in turkey (oecd, 2007). the first phase was characterized with simple application of ict techonologies usually providing basic information to citizens via official websites that could be considreder only as electronic user manuals of institution that countinued to provide services in traditional manner. late 1990s and by the begining of 2000s mainly were characterized by the initivatives and developmental plans for implementation of e-government services which led to broad discussion of governement, academic, ngo, business and public sector. in the past several years’ turkish officials argued that it is necessary to develop so-called prime ministry management information center in order to provide services and information through only one website on the model of usa firstgov portal (fletcher patricia and torok, 2003, pp. 268-281). those pioneers of e-administration in turkey were arguing that without such an integrated service stipulation, e-administration would appear as isolated from each other, independent and scattered. therefore, because of the complexity of this structure, public service users refrained from using e-administration services and relayed more on classical procedures. in this regard, there was always a need for integrating portal throughout the country. the prime ministry directorate general for personel and policies initiated the establishment of the board of technical public network formed (genelge, 1998). in 2002, the board of technical public network, within the framework of e-europe and e-turkey, managed to transform traditional system of government to e-government. new e-government model aimed to provide “efficient, transparent, fast and continuous” services by using information and communication technology. then, in order to comply with the needs of information society, e-government also aimed to incorporate statecitizen relationships into digital media by establishing e-institutions and “government e-portal” (state planning organization, 2002, p. 1). there are many works on the implementation of e-government (ogurlu, 2010); however for the sake of a brief illustration the “ninth development plan” (2007-2013) summarized e-government implementation as follows: mernis project is information system which keeps citizen identity information based on single number and these information are shared with other public institutions. tax and customs transactions procedures y. ogurlu e-government portal and e-services in turkey 19 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences are significantly introduced in electronic environment and its usage is continuously expanding. national jurisdiction network project and e-declaration that include social security proceedings have been implemented. budget management information system that is supporting budget preparation and operations is being efficiently implemented by public administrations. all legal and administrative infrastructures for e-signature have been created and it is already in public use. e-government portal that was introduced in 2005 continues its efforts towards integrating the service delivery to citizen from single point (pp. 51-52). in the aforementioned development plan, e-government basic infrastructure was envisioned. actually, there are views that since 2005 initial steps towards e-government portal and further gradual developments provided “integrated service delivery” from one internet point. in this regard, according to mernis project, a single number, based on citizens’ identity information and information held information system created to be shared with other public institutions started. a tax and customs operation with a large extent is presented and the use of electronic media has become widespread. e-declaration applications including the national judiciary network project and the social insurance transactions, have been carried out. the budget management information system that supports process of budget preparation and operational support, has been using by public administrations effectively. for the use of e-signature in the public sector, legal and administrative substructure were created and the application was begun (ninth development plan (2007-2013), 2006, p. 52). according to the survey result, www.turkiye.gov.tr was adopted as yet another name for the portal that will be created. e-government digital public service opportunities users of digital public services should possess “password, electronic signature and mobile electronic signature,” as to verify their identity. since this information is accessible only to people who can provide identity verification, they are completely safe. then, other most important advantages of e-government and digital public services are user-friendly applications and confidentiality. in this regard, for the identification of a particular user a variety of means could be used from credit cards to password, e-signature and m-signature (mobile signature) (ninth development plan (2007-2013), 2006, p. 52). it is worth mentioning that this model, that provides services and infrastructure through e-government, is familiar to the users of other countries, especially neighboring countries (devletin kısayolu-turkiye.gov.tr). y. ogurlu e-government portal and e-services in turkey 20 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences at this moment, e-government home portal (e-government portal) is a system which gives access to digital public services through a single web site. e-government portal aims to provide the services to the public through a single address and in a safe digital environment. in order to approach other services, single identification confirmation is enough. in the article 2, paragraph (i) of the “draft of the law on e-government and information society” prepared by the prime minister, “e-government portal” is defined as follows: “the e-government portal: information system provides users a single access point to services of e-government public institutions and organizations” (devletin kısayolu-turkiye.gov.tr). in the twenty-first article of the draft titled e-government portal, it is planned to give a more superior regulation: (1) e-government portal, as common e-government service, is regulated within the guidance and supervision of the agency. the mission, authority and responsibilities of manager of e-government portal are determinate by regulations prepared by agency. (2) services of e-government portal are offered in the way that users can easily benefit from it; it is simple and functional. (3) agency gives priority to public institutions and organizations that take place in e-government commitment service and it sets services through e-government portal. the services will be integrated into e-government portal and indicated separately in e-government service commitment of related institution. the integration of established services to e-government portal is provided by manager of e-government portal and institutions providing the related service. (4) while providing supplement to projects, the agency takes into consideration studies of integration to e-government portal. agency has the authority to take the necessary measures in order to complete all activities regarding the integration of public services into e-government without the delay. (5) the content presented through e-government portal and service-related changes are at the same time forwarded to the operator of e-government portal to be published by the institution responsible for the content. the institution providing given content and e-government portal manager are both responsible for up-dating the information. (6) in e-government portal identity verification is done at various levels. for which services and at what level identity verification will be made is determined by responsible institution according to principles and procedures published by the agency. according to the community information strategy (2006) it is determined that change in ’citizen oriented’ public services will be redesigned and during implementation of this strategy, as the main principle, public service and “user satisfaction” with work y. ogurlu e-government portal and e-services in turkey 21 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences processes will be considered. here, it will be useful as well, to set a goal defined by strategy: “the primary aim of the service in conversion is not to move data to electronic location without the improvement of current work processes, but redesigning it by combining and simplifying it according to users’ needs and in the way that is efficient, fast, continuous, transparent, safe and integrated. in order to simplify access of the citizens and businesses to electronic public services, access to these services from single point and different platforms will be secured (bilgi toplumu stratejisi belgesi (2006-2010)). e-government portal and digital public services e-government portal gives opportunity to public institutions to share information and documents with each other. public institutions and public services of the organizations and all those associated with these services are opened to share “correct and update information” (“devletin kısayolu-turkiye.gov.tr”). it is easy to make payment transaction for digital public services (tax, fees, etc.) through “payment unit service” of “e-government portal” (e-government home portal). this step meets an important precondition in running the e-government and it is a basic step for carrying out the financial work. on this site, with cooperation of totally 17 institutions, 122 services and facilities have been offered. the services provided through e-government portal can be grouped according to their type in following six titles: information services, digital public services, payment systems, shortest way to access institutions and organizations, up-dated information and notices and messages from institutions to the public (information society strategy document (2006-2010), p. 29). there are different information and articles on services that are given by e-government portal and home portal links in turkey. 1. individuals and society: access to information on topics such are homeless children, social assistance and solidarity, female gender issues, housing and gambling games. 2. legal procedures, rights and defense: law measures, voter procedures, protection of the consumers, system of address registration, access to public notaries, application and required information. 3. birth: information and services such as birth registration, prenatal and post natal permits, maternal and infant health. 4. military service and mobilization: such procedures are military operation, officer ranks and reserve military, abroad or payment in foreign currency for military service. 5. education: kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, distance learning y. ogurlu e-government portal and e-services in turkey 22 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences education, higher education and services provided by student selection and placement center. 6. traffic: traffic safety, motor vehicle operations, driving license procedures, highway control. 7. health: family health, public health, oral and dental health, nutrition information and scheduling appointments at hospital. 8. citizens with disabilities: health, education, employment, social rights and services, home-care services. 9. turkish citizens living abroad: information and services such as e-consulate, population registrations, diploma equivalency, military service and marriage. 10. art, culture and sport: information and services such as cultural heritage, cultural activities, theaters, festivals, sport activities, fairs and local activities. 11. job and career: social security institution services for employees. 12. family: information and application forms for marriage, family health, population registration, children and teenagers and children rights. 13. travel and tourism: general information about turkey, types of tourism in turkey, service for turkish citizens living abroad, information about railway and highway transportation. e-government portal institutional usage besides providing informative services such as weather forecast turkish state meteorological service also interactively downloads forms, keeps tracks of documents and follows their online phases or makes payments by filling out the declaration statements. it is a remarkable fact that, just like uyap portal (national judiciary information system), ministry of justice also supports a trial service that uses the public services. similar forms of e-government portal services are provided by the ministry of labor and social security, turkish national police, revenue administration department e-tax registration certificate inquiry, turkish employment agency (i̇ş-kur), general directorate of coastal safety, the ministry of finance, ministry of defense, general directorate of civil registration and nationality, post office, the ministry of health, the ministry of industry and commerce, general directorate of civil aviation, general directorate of land registry and cadastre, turkish state railways and ministry of transportation. when designing e-government portal, people with disabilities were not forgotten and system was made easy for them to use. recommended by european union and accepted in all european countries, easier access for disabled people to public digital services was taken into consideration while designing the portal. it should be noted that it is not possible to make successful parallel infrastructure expansion and advertisement on this matter. being able to apprehend reasonable and realizable goals is also important for later goals and plans. y. ogurlu e-government portal and e-services in turkey 23 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences one of the goals for the year of 2010, as it is presented in the information community strategy document (2006-2010), is ‘people oriented service transformation’ that uses information and communication technology to present public services in digital media in effective way. while doing this, we need to have in mind those who benefit from such preferences and requirements, since the goal is to make easier approach to digital services, increasing its usage rate and increasing the satisfaction of those using the services. in the strategy report planned till the year of 2010, it has been emphasized that these basic goals should be achieved: increasing the number of public services offered in digital media and raising their level of development. increasing the use of public services presented in digital media, increasing the level of satisfaction of those benefiting from the use of public services offered in digital media services (bilgi toplumu stratejisi belgesi (20062010). in the above mentioned document, among the other goals that will be carefully considered by the year of 2010, there is realization of 70% of public services that were feasible to be offered digitally have been provided, improvement of presentations’ “level of development” and “benefit-cost rates”. priority will be given to “high income services” and resources that are intensively and efficiently used (information society strategy document (2006-2010) p. 30). according to data gathered from under-secretariat of state planning organization, in the annexed action plan and in turkey’s community information strategy that is planned to be completed by the year of 2010, at the beginning of 2009 only 4 out of 74 planned activities were used effectively, showing the necessitate to start with more pragmatic plans when it comes to their realization (bilgi toplumu stratejisi eylem planı, 2006; “e-devlet ve bilgi toplumu kanun tasarısı taslağı”nın genel gerekçesi, 2009). in the year of 2010, it is expected that one out of three public service transactions made by citizens would be conducted through electronic ways, and in 2010 consumers’ satisfaction shall rise to 80% (information society strategy document (2006-2010), 2006, p. 30). conclusion digital public services and its preparatory digital facilities are related to its quality. it is necessary to consider digital public service as services that has benefited from classic public services and one that facilitates services. new possibilities and opportunities provided by information and communication technologies determinate natural border that will be provided through digital services environment. certain public services are comprised of steps such as informing, downloading a form, filling and exercising a form. since some actions require accurate and executive steps, it is not possible for these services to be provided by digital environment. public services such as garbage collection, y. ogurlu e-government portal and e-services in turkey 24 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences physical intervention to provide public order, and medical examination are not possible to be transmitted through digital environment. even in classical public services such as safety, health and education, information and communication technology possibilities and opportunities are considered an auxiliary element. some public services can be completely provided through digital environment. it is impossible to imagine and predict in advance what kind of service models will appear in the future. mobile phones and security cameras we watched in science fiction movies, which were made 20 years ago, became part of our lives today, so it is difficult to imagine new models we are to see in the future. services such as radio and tv broadcasting, communication services, telephone and fax, education, jurisdiction and preventive medicine are most likely to be transmitted to digital environment in the near future. the classic education and court activities are gradually beginning to be transmitted to distance learning education and e-courts. it has also become a support element for the public services which are not suitable to provide mobese cameras in security, computer aided planner statistics program in collecting garbage, medical services, data collection, storage, monitoring, evaluating and keeping statistics, in digital environment. besides this, looking from the administration law point of view, e-administration eased the job of municipality services such as subscription, objection, filling out statements, paying taxes, applications for administration and application tracking. tens of countries started to use e-administration in period before turkey but they are still looking for solutions related to e-administration problems. within the framework of this problem and solution efforts, digital public services should be integrated throughout the country; responsibilities about the establishment, operation and management of e-administration should be undertaken; gained momentum should be maintained; focus of the program should not be diverted; the aim of drawn plan and strategy should be preserved; cooperation between public service users and administration comprising e-administration parties should be established; continuous renewed technical components should be introduced to service users and public staff. references behire esra çayhan, 2008. “implementing e-government in turkey: a comparison of online public service delivery in turkey and the european union”, the electronic journal on information systems in developing countries. 35, 8, 1-11. “bilgi toplumu stratejisi belgesi.” (2006-2010) , rg.28.07.2006, s.: 26242, s.28. “devletin kısayolu-turkiye.gov.tr”, (çevrimiçi); türkiye’de e-devlet çerçevesinde i̇dare hukuku anlayışında değişim “devletin kısayolu-turkiye.gov.tr” https://www.turkiye.gov.tr/portal/dt?channel=bilgilendirme&bilgilendirme.bilgitipi=sikcasorulanlar. et.28.03.2009. diamond fletcher patricia; torok andrew g., 2003. “creating the front door to government: a case study y. ogurlu e-government portal and e-services in turkey 25 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences of the firstgov portal,” library trends, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 268-281. genelge. 1998. republic of turkey prime ministry directorate general for personel and policies, number: b.02.0.ppg.0.12-320-04993. ibrahim akman, ali yazici, alok mishra, ali arifoglu. 2005. “e-government: a global view and an empirical evaluation of some attributes of citizens”, government information quaterly, 20. information society strategy document (2006-2010), rg.28.07.2006, number: 26242. “ninth development plan” (2007-2013), dated on 1 st july, 2006 mükerrer official gazzette (number.: 26215). oecd (2007), oecd e-government studies: turkey 2007, oecd publishing. ogurlu, yücel. 2010. “i̇dare hukukunda “e-devlet” dönüşümü ve dijitalleşen kamu hizmeti”, oniki levha publications, istanbul. state planning organization, “e-devlet’e geçiş sürecinde kamunet çalışmaları,” kamunet technical board passingto information age state, state planning organization, management information center department (kamunet technical board chairmanship), november 2002. türksel k. bensghir and mete yildiz. 2001-2002. “perceptions of e-government in turkey”, turkish public administration annual, vol. 27-28, p. 41-57. un e-government survey. 2014 un publishing, available at: http://unpan3.un.org/egovkb/portals/egovkb/ documents/un/2014-survey/e-gov_complete_survey-2014.pdf d. stamoulis, d. gouscos, p. georgiadis and d. martakos, 2001 “revisiting public information management for effective e-government services”, information management and computer security, vol.9 no.4, mcb university press, pp. 146-153. y. ogurlu e-government portal and e-services in turkey 26 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 129 edward albee’s thesandboxin the light of new historicism elmira bazregarzadeh1 abstract history is an important part of human being’s life in that it plays an important role in shaping our private, public, and political viewpoints. it serves as a mirror to life because it connects past events with present ones and may at times affect the future as well. likewise, history enables us to ponder about the reason behind some past events and their influence on the individuals’ present lives. the wide range of history and its broad coverage of different causes and effects of life events are the two focal issues that open the readers’ eyes to the inherent features of the new historicists’ examinations of various works of literature. with this critical standpoint in mind, the present paper intends to study edward albee’s play the sandbox to reveal the existing factors that link the play with the previous historical events present in the american history of the time. by choosing new historicism as the main model, the paper will shed light on such issues as power, resistance, and subversion put forward by such leading figures of this critical approach as michel foucault and stephen greenblatt. key words: new historicism; history; edward albee;power; thesandbox 1 islamic azad university, tabriz, iran 130 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies new historicism is a critical approach to literature based on the assumption that a work of art is the product of its historical, social, and cultural background that cannot be analyzed as an autonomous literary work. this new approach emerged in the late 1970s and the early 1980s and found its roots in the reaction to the new critics who “focus the interpretive process on the text itself rather than on historical, authorial, or reader concerns” (bressler, 1999, p. 212); therefore now historicists maintain that literature and history are inseparable. their main argument highlights their emphasis on the interrelationship between literature and history, meaning “in literature can be found history and in history, much literature” (p. 214). the seeds of new historicism are believed to have been terminated with the publication of stephen greenblatt’s renaissance self-fashioning and louis montrose’s essay “eliza, queene of shepheardes”. such leading new historicist critics claim that we should read literature “in relation to culture, history, society, and other factors” to reach “a text’s meaning” (p. 215). they also argue that the new critics could not provide the reader with a clear-cut definition of “what the term literature really means” (p. 217). hence, in an effort to break with the previous modes of thought that argued “texts had some universal significance and essential historical influence to impart, ”new historicists tried to “break down the simplistic distinction between literature and history and open up a complex dialogue between them” (brannigan, 1998p. 3). vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 131 the influences on the afore-mentioned critics were the result of the efforts of such key figures as michel foucault on the one part and marxist scholars-walter benjamin, raymond williams, and otherson the other part. they shared the same viewpoint with foucault by “questioning the nature of literature, history, culture, and society … they refused to accept the traditional, well-worn answers” (bressler , 1999, p.217). marxist critics, also, taught them the notion of “interconnectedness of all life” and that “history is shaped by the people who live it” (p. 217). thus, we can infer that new historicism is a reconstruction of the past with a present perspective. as veeser asserts, “new historicists have evolved a method of describing the culture in action (1994, p. xi). in his essay, “professing the renaissance,” louis a. montrose concedes that new historicism is concerned with “the historicity of texts” and “the textuality of history” (as cited in booker, 1996, p.136). he defines “the historicity of texts” as “the cultural specificity, the social embedment, of all modes of writing” and by “textuality of history” he means “we can have no access to a full and authentic past” (p. 136). the two notions express the need for a fresh examination of the literary works in the historical and cultural milieus in order to uncover the inherent historical and culturebound meanings and their interrelationships. that is why it is always said that new historicism eschews “those methods and materials that gave old-fashioned literary study its immense interpretive authority” (veeser, 1994, p. xii). therefore, the new historicists’ tendency to put forward “the parallel reading of literary and non-literary texts” is the main reason for 132 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the application of this approach to albee’s “the sandbox” within this short research paper (barry, 2009, p.116). as the product of the american playwright, edward franklin albee (1928-2016), thesandbox (1959) is a modern one-act play that opens with a bright day the young man is doing calisthenics near a sandbox at the beach. mommy and daddy have brought grandma to the beach and placed her in the sandbox, waiting for her imminent death. the other player in the play, the musician, is presented playing on and off as the other players command him. while, throughout the play, mommy and daddy do not pay attention to grandma and treat her in a cold manner, the young man treats her well and he is the one who smiles on her. as time passes and the deepest night is around the corner, mommy and daddy acknowledge that grandma’s death is near. when grandma notices their indifference and lack of attention,she takes the toy shovel throwing sand at her. as daylight sets, mommy weeps shortly near the sandbox and exits the scene with daddy. upon their leaving, grandma finds herself half buried in the sand and unable to move. then the young man stops doing calisthenics and approaches her and asks her to “be very still” (albee , 2006, p.1061). he says, “i am the angel of death. i am … uh … i am come for you” (p. 1061). though he seems to be an amateur, grandma compliments him and closes her eyes with a smile. set in an american context, the play serves as a satire on the ideal american family life. albee pokes fun at the american dream and the situation of the family in his time. he satirizes lack of love and empathy felt within familial relationships. as the play opens, the audience sees the vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 133 imposing character, mommy, followed by her subservient husband, daddy. from the very beginning, the audience notices that mommy and daddy cannot communicate with each other because they do not have anything meaningful to say. besides, if the conversation starts on the part of mommy, the only thing daddy can do is to approve of her words. a good case in point is the part following mommy’s talking about the place as a good one and asking for daddy’s opinion, which goes as, “ whatever you say, mommy” (albee, 2006, p. 1057). the submissive character of the husband, daddy, is an evident sign of albee’s poking fun at the principles of the american dream whose ideals were grounded in equality of all the american people. as mccarthy (1987) puts it, the sandbox betray[s] first-hand experience of the emasculating tensions of the marital couple, and throughout his work the struggle of powerful frustrated women and their indeterminate, morally weak partners is exploited in the creation of his family settings. (p. 5) the passive role of daddy and the commanding figure of mommy showcase the fact that family as the fundamental organization of love, mutual respect and understanding has lost its value and coherence; as a result, what we see is the loss of familial bond. moreover, the subversion of the accepted beliefs pertaining to familial issues in favor of the authoritative roles ends in the death of the merits that grant meaning to life and result in the soulless life of mommy and daddy. in line with albee’s concern with the absence of the true values 134 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies within the families, the character of grandma gains importance here due to the fact that she is the image of the so-called traditional codes of behavior. in the middle of the play we are informed that following the marriage of the fifty-nine-year-old mommy with the rich daddy, grandma has been forced to sell her farm and move to the city where mommy and daddy “… fixed a nice place for me[grandma] under the stove … gave me an army blanket … and my own dish … my very own dish!” (albee, 2006, p. 1059). mommy and daddy’s cruel treatment of grandma echoes devaluation of life and grandma is cognizant of that too, asserting “there’s no respect here” (p.1058). she, additionally, criticizes their marriage since it is based on “… money, money, money” (p.1059). grandma’s criticism is again albee’s attempt to deride the hypocrisy and clichés of the good life prevalent in the 1950s society. albee’s main struggle in the play is to challenge the hot norms of the time through his emphasis on “the meaninglessness of the american life” (canaday,1966, p. 28). in such society, family members grow farther and farther from one another and life gets discolored. so, the way albee exposes us to identify ourselves with the characters is quite different from what was expected to be. we are faced with an uncaring mommy figure who is the anti-american ideal woman of the time. on the word of mccann, “edward albee’s plays are ferocious attacks on lethargy and complacency in american society” and “a savage denial that everything is just dandy” (as cited in canaday, 1966, p. 28). mommy’s treatment of everyone in the play is demanding. her vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 135 feeling superior to daddy shows her disregard for his personality and dignity. and her relationship with grandma is a scene of complete cruelty towards the mother who did not give up after the death of her husband and despite all the agonies she went through, she raised her daughter all alone. as harris claims, albee “attempts to satirize a situation which he sees as both painful and irremediable” and so his work is “a negation of the possibility of meaningful human action” (p. 31). a working example highlights the part grandma mentions her daughter and son-in-law’s ill-treatment of her when she says, “so, what have i got to complain about? nothing, of course. i’m not complaining” (albee, 2006, p. 1059). grandma’s words shed light on albee’s lack of hope for the future. as miller acknowledges, “sadly, however, we cannot say that albee’s outlook produces any … hope” (as cited in canaday, 1966, p. 31). that is why grandma refuses to complain anymore and comes to terms with her doomed life. as mentioned earlier foucault’s ideas regarding power and its influence on human beings have been a source of inspiration for new historicists in that “the paradoxical circumstance of trying to control the uncontrollable is played out in the new historicism” (harpham, 1991, p. 360). however, how foucault treats the notion of power is worth mentioning here since “his work is very critical of the notion that power is something which a group of people or an institution possess and that power is only concerned with oppressing and constraining” (mills, 2003, p. 33). as seen in the play, mommy is the one who is in control of everything and power is at her disposal. yet, grandma in a way disdains her domineering role, 136 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies addressing her as a “kid” or a “cow” and asking her to “be brave” (albee, 2006, p.1060). this shows the productive aspect of power to bring about “new forms of behavior rather than simply closing down or censoring certain forms of behavior” (mills, 2003, p. 2). this view of the role of power justifies grandma’s sweet smile in the sandbox since, as foucault claims, “individuals are the vehicles of power, not its points of application” (as cited in mills, 2003, p. 35). another important aspect of foucault’s elaborating on power casts light on the fact that albee’s mommy tries to gain the liberal thinking and power through her marriage with the obedient daddy who is looked down on by grandma, believing her daughter has married money. though she has married the rich and powerless man, she cannot communicate with him because she is living a dull life. undoubtedly such view of life is the emblem of albee’s frown on the hollow rituals and america’s desire for pleasure, wealth and satisfaction. the choice of nameless characters is very telling as well since they are presented as dehumanized individuals who are just types. as reported by stenz (1978), in the sandbox: all the characters self-consciously play roles in a ceremony which is being put on for the sake of appearances. mommy and daddy, after all, are not concerned with expressing real feelings. they are dedicated to the principal of comforting outwardly to what they believe other people expect of them. (p. 34) as kolin further clarifies, “the sandbox encapsulates such familiar albee targets as anti-momism, hollow rituals, failure to communicate, vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 137 sterile couplehood, complacency, and hypocrisy (as cited in bottoms, 2005, p. 26). kolin’s mention of “anti-momism” is another principal point in the new historicist reading of the play owing to the fact that it originates from albee’s childhood and being adopted by the wealthy reed a. albee and his wife, frances cotter with whom he did not have a good relationship. this play reveals albee’s main concern with families because they are the first institutions that form a child’s identity. the only honest character in the play is grandma, who is the symbol of the old rural values, juxtaposed with mommy and daddy’s modern marriage. thus, we may infer that grandma is the only realistic figure in the play aware of the hollowness of life. her understanding of acceptance of her imposed death shows that “to albee, the official culture is both rotten and irredeemable” (samuels, 1964, p. 189). this negative view of life and culture is, according to kolin, the reason behind mommy and daddy’s treating grandma “like a dog” (as cited in bottoms, 2005, 27). considering albee’s method of writing and his stage effects, one may wonder about his absurdist attitude as opposed to the conventions of the realist theatre of his time. his choice of the word players rather than characters shows the sandbox is, in kolin’s opinion, “a witty performance of a performance” (p. 27). his players refer to the audience directly as when grandma breaks away with the theoretical conventions demanding, “don’t put the lights up yet … i’m not ready; i’m not quite ready” (albee, 2006, p. 1060). in line with that, the young man undercuts the realist conventions when he says, “uh… ma’am; i… i have a line here” (p. 1061). 138 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies even the sounds coming from off-stage activities that mommy and daddy infer as a signal for grandma’s death time in reality showcase the theatrical aspect of the play. albee’s goal in so doing, in kolin’s view, is to draw our attention to “the artificiality of role-playing in the theatre of realism” (as cited in bottoms, 2005, 27).in the same manner, stenz argues, “the author deliberately parodies theatrical conventions in order to satirize the vacuity and hypocrisy of a death watch” (1978, p. 34). again and again we witness that what albee intends to do is to turn a blind eye to the status quo and this aim, based on kolin’s argument, is achieved through the employment of satire and breaking up with the realist “conventions, deftly, comically”(as cited in bottoms, 2005, 27). the significance of studying the play through the lens of new historicism in this short research paper was owing to the fact that it shows that albee had not been ignorant of the existing moral issues of his time and his writing method is, actually, an effort to mirror the lost values and nostalgia human beings face in modernity. his dramatic art provides the reader with a deep understanding of the link between past and present and how these two may at times challenge our mindsets regarding the oftquoted and accepted rituals. as explained in depth, albee, like other dramatists, was concerned with the follies of human beings in their private and social lives and how they got through their lives. he was greatly affected by family and familial issues; that is why we witnessed the harsh treatment of marriage in the sandbox. his depiction of grandma as the most aware character in the vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 139 play reveals, “grandma looks death in the face and accepts it without fear” (stenz, 1978, p.36). while, on the other hand, this unsympathetic “experience does not touch them [mommy and daddy]” and in the end, they “leave the scene with the same indifference and insensibility with which they arrived” (p. 36). to make it short: in all of albee’s plays the moral imperative is the obligation for everyone to live with awareness. the demands of institutions and the barriers people build around themselves prevent them from seeing the realities of their condition and foster the creation of self-destructive illusions. (p. 132) then, we can conclude that albee’s writing was a total break with the traditional modes of writing. in his review of albee and stoppard’s recent plays, brantley mentions: mr. albee and mr. stoppard are directly descended from beckett. like him they consider the meaningless of a life that knows its own extinction, of being in the face of nothingness. they share this worldview with that other great successor to beckett, harold pinter. (as cited in bennett, 2011, p. 7) thus, with the new historicist reading of the play, the reader can reach a thorough understanding about the cultural and historical issues that were the outcomes of the failed american dream, at the core of which such notions as the ideal american family life and unflawed american marriage were supposed to provide all individuals with equality, mutual respect, and positive attitudes towards one another and consequently lead to a productive life both privately and publically. as a result, the main conclusion that can be drawn from this short paper is that edward albee’s the sandbox has 140 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies a lot to offer about the socio-historical conventions that were dominant in america and how they affected familial relationships, leaving people with hollow grounds and uncertain feelings about what happiness, prolific life, and success were really meant to be. likewise, the new historicist examination of the play can provide the reader with a new angle that casts light on the fruitless promises of the american dream of the 19th and 20th centuries. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 141 works cited albee, e. (2006). the sandbox. in thomas r. arp & greg johnson(ed.), perrine’s literature: structure, sound, and sense,pp.1056-61. barry, p. (2009).beginning theory: an introduction to literary and cultural theory. manchester, uk: manchester up. bennett, y. m. (2011).reassessing the theartre of the absurd: camus, beckett, ionesco, genet, and pinter. new york: palgrave macmillan. booker, m. k. (1996).a practical introduction to literary theory and criticism. new york: longman publishers. brannigan, j. (1998).new historicism and cultural materialism. london: macmillan press ltd. bressler, c. e. (1999). literary criticism : an introduction to theory and practice. upper saddle river, n.j.:prentice hall. canaday, n, jr. (1996). albee’s the american dream and the existential vacuum.the south central bulletin26(4), 28-34. retrieved from http:// www.jstor.org/stable/3187819. harpham, g. g. (1991). foucault and the new historicsm.american literary history3(2), 360 75. retrieved from,http://www.jstor.org/ stable/490057. kolin, p. c. (2005). albee’s early one-act plays: a new american playwright from whom much is to be expected, in stephen bottoms (ed.),the cambridge companion to edward albee (pp. 16-38). new york: cambridge up. mccarthy, g. (1987).modern dramatists: edward albee. london: mcmillan publishers ltd. mills, s.(2003).routledge critical thinkers: michel foucault. london: routledge, 2003. samuels, c. t.(1964). the theatre of edward albee. the massachusetts review6 (1), 187-201. retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/ 142 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies stable/1125030. stenz, a. m. (n. d.).edward albee: the poet of loss. retrieved from https://books.google.com/books. veeser, h. a. (ed.).(1994). the new historicism. london: taylor and francis ltd. 101 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences reconsidering the self in social thought: existentialphenomenological and dialogical perspectives charalambos tsekeris, academy of athens, greece. abstract the present article attempts to draw a general analytical framework within which to reconsider the notion of the self in the wide interdisciplinary field of social thought. this reconsideration pertains to the self as a fluid social process and as an interrelational meaningful outcome constituent of lived experience, which is neither intrapsychically located, nor able to be defined in isolation, as something “in and of itself ”. the self is therefore seen as paradoxically both autonomous and interdependent, that is reflexively open, socially embedded and interactively constituted. our critical historicising interrogation also highlights the inherently dialogical nature, character, and dynamics of the self in contemporary society, thus opening up the conceptual space to better grasp, theorise, and evaluate the irreducible complexity of self-formation. keywords: self-formation; existentialism; phenomenology; social saturation; dialogical self and reflexivity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences 102 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences c. tsekeris introduction in general, theorising the notion of the self does not pertain to a clear, coherent, and commonly agreed history, and is indisputably not an easy thing (see levine, 1985; ormay, 2012; barresi, 2002; tsekeris, 2015). additionally, in spite of the large number of relevant studies, the social scientific understanding of the self ’s “influence on behaviour, remains far from adequate” (spinelli, 2005, p. 76). nowadays, however, it is strongly and interdisciplinarily acknowledged and accepted that the individual self is social to the core “because the processes of mind are the same as social processes. both are processes of communicative interacting and power relating between human bodies in which individual minds form and are formed by social relations at the same time” (stacey, 2003, p. 17). as jean-francois lyotard in his influential postmodern condition has imaginatively put it, “no self is an island; each exists in a fabric of relations that is now more complex and mobile than ever before. young or old, man or woman, rich or poor, a person is always located at ‘nodal point’ of specific communication circuits, however tiny these may be” (lyotard, 1986, p. 15). hence, the self is relational through and through (donati, 2014), that is, simultaneously subjective and social (goffman, 1959; simmel, 1971; cooley, 1907), rather than a reified, separate, and lonely individual possession, that is, an entity “intrapsychically located, or able to be defined in isolation (as something ‘in and of itself ’) or that it is the impetus to consciousness” (spinelli, 2001, p. 43). the issue of reflexivity is crucial here. according to the pragmatist perspective of george herbert mead, in particular, meaning is not based on the mere psychological (esoteric) constitution of the individual, but rather on the relational and interdependent “structure of social praxis” (mead 1973, p. 69). therefore, any human act indeed produces meaning if only it sufficiently contains an element of social reflexivity, which ensures the presence of symbolic consciousness (mead 1973, p. 90). the everyday lifeworldly process of thinking and internalising the generalised other is “the very first stage of experience in the creation and development of the self ” (mead 1973, p. 147). as charles cooley comprehensively put it, “self and society go together, as phases of a common whole” (cooley 1907, p. 678). self and otherness constitute a mutually constitutive process. in the same spirit, the croatian protestant theologian miroslav volf (1996) perceptively elaborates on the innovative and influential conception of the other as occupying the self in the unceasing synergetic process of self-construction: the human self is formed … through a complex process of ‘taking in’ and ‘keeping out.’ … a result of a distinction from the other and the internal 103 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences existential-phenomenological and dialogical perspectives the article then moves to briefly describe and discuss the rich and complex historicity of the self, as well as to highlight and assess some of its current epistemological elaborations, namely the existential-phenomenological framing and the notions of “social saturation” and “dialogical self ”. historicising the self within contemporary social science, many scholars variously promote the idea that the self is a discursive, cultural, or historical construct, or relate it to human nature, personality, personhood, subjectivity, cognition, memory, or consciousness (the experience of self-awareness). some others, who follow the neurobiological approach, define it exclusively in terms of the brain and neuro-anatomy, or theorise it as a product of the genome (churchland, 2013). de villiers and cilliers (2004) integratively “model” the self as an evolutionary and material entity, “an emergent property of the complex system that consists of our mental apparatus, environment and language” (de villiers and cilliers, 2004, p. 52). in general, since william james’s principles of psychology (1900), our theoretical and methodological understanding of the concept has changed significantly (barresi, 2002). but the roots of the self can be traced back to classical antiquity. although not explicitly using the word “self ”, socrates was the first who delineated a comprehensive ontological, epistemological and ethical framework for the systematic scholarly study of it, “through introspection and dialectic – through the interpersonal pursuit of truth. thus, socrates’ implicit notion of the self is relational; the self is discovered in the process of discourse and dialogue with others” (levin, 1992, p. 14). the intriguing reflexive imperative to know thyself, as it was written in the front of the famous temple of apollo at delphi, has exercised an enormous intellectual impact, as well as an “enduring moral fascination on generation after generation of thinkers” (pels, 2000, p. 1). knowing yourself is for socrates a unique virtue, not a kantian descent into hell; it is therefore the central task for each person, since the unengaged, impassionate, and “unexamined life is not worth living” (levin, 1992, p. 14). exercising his own reflexivity, nietzsche perceptively maintains that any great theoretical system equals to a self-confession on the part of its author “and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir” (nietzsche, 1996, p. 37). within such analytical contexts, reization of the relationship to the other; it arises out of the complex history of ‘differentiation’ in which both the self and the other take part by negotiating their identities in interaction with one another (volf, 1996: 66). 104 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences c. tsekeris flexive inquiry arguably pertains to an implicit notion that there is “a complexity and mystery about the self, that the self is a largely unexplained continent, the rivers, fields, and mountains of which are unknown to us” (levin, 1992, pp. 14-15). furthermore, the irreducibly complex and nonlinear “nature” of the self seems to go hand in hand with its essentially conflictual character (see spinelli, 2001). in his famous dialogue phaedrus, plato (1961) was the very first to depict the self as conflictual, “as being constituted by what freud called ‘agencies of the mind’ … self here is split and in constant conflict between opposing forces and tendencies” (levin, 1992, p. 15). in phaedrus, more specifically, plato imaginatively describes a tripartite model of the self, “using the metaphor of the chariot driver trying to control two spirited steeds. the chariot driver represents reason and control, a function akin to that of freud’s ego; one steed represents appetite and is a close relative of freud’s id, while the other steed represents ambition (i.e., the pursuit of narcissistic gratification). the second horse is also to be understood as the ‘spirited’ part of the self. there is no parallel to freud’s superego in plato’s model. the chariot driver is in perpetual need of establishing control over his horses” (levin, 1992, p. 15). in direct opposition to both platonic perfection (idealism) and cartesian reductionistic simplicity and cognitivism (or mentalism), freud (1949) originally conceptualises human inner life as pertaining to a hugely complex system that contains a mysterious and unconscious dynamics, that is, a hidden deterministic dynamics of libidinal, instinctual, and emotional character. in the contemporary epoch of late or high modernity, the self has rapidly become more emotional, but also more active, more intentional, and more transparent (yet complex and nonlinear), pertaining to a continuous open reflexive project (giddens, 1991), or biographies of choice (beck, 1992). as a consequence, identity (the traits possessed by a self ) is now radically transformed “from a given into a task” (bauman, 2001, p. 144; see also elliott, 2001). nowadays, individuals are increasingly obliged to cope with chaos, uncertainty and living at risk, to find new life styles and design new life strategies, to seek to maximise their creativity and life chances, to take action in order to increase the quality of their lives, and to act prudently in relation to themselves and others. as life has become a strategic enterprise, the social and theoretical categories of health and illness have become vehicles for re-inventing the self and exercising subjectivities endowed with the faculties of choice and will (greco, 1993). as active biological citizens, we are also required to diligently pursue life-long learn105 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences existential-phenomenological and dialogical perspectives ing and perpetual self-assessment, to constantly monitor our health, and to carefully manage emerging risks and susceptibilities. the formation of the self now inevitably takes place “in the languages and rhetorics of contemporary bioscience and biomedicine. citizenship takes on new biological colourations and hope becomes bound up with scientific truth” (rose, 2001, p. 12). thus, the self becomes more relational. existential-phenomenological considerations relationalism overtly stands against any philosophical or sociological attempt to “essentialise” or “substantialise” the self (tsekeris, 2013). the so called “relational reason” (donati, 2014) consistently refrains from any old epistemological claim for a transcendental observer of all observers, which would rather amount to a contingent attempt to reduce the complexity and contingency of the self and the social world. in the same dynamical spirit, the existential-phenomenological tradition informs contemporary social science and champions the inherently protean, nonlinear and processual nature of the self, over against both totality and individuality/separateness, as well as both a false transcendence and an empty concreteness. most characteristically, soren kierkegaard’s original and substantial philosophical approach to human subjectivity perceptively includes both objectivity and subjectivity, the world and the self, as grounded in concrete, lived human existence: “the self is the ‘intermediate determinant’ between psyche and soma and relates itself to both ... kierkegaard’s individualism is not egotistic or narcissistic; rather, it is relational in both relating itself to itself and relating itself to the power that constitutes it. kierkegaard explicitly warns against narcissistic self-absorption and schizoid withdrawal” (levin, 1992, p. 126; see also stewart, 2011). this processual, anti-essentialist and anti-substantialist worldview is also obvious in ernesto spinelli’s “meta-dialogical” existential-phenomenological reconstructions on the relationally dependent self (spinelli, 2001; 2005). existential-phenomenological reconstructions overtly signify that the self is contradictory, “paradoxical” or “polarised” (schneider, 2013). most importantly, we are not closed, distinct and separate entities, but open (heideggerian) beings-in-the-world, deeply immersed in the inescapable conflicted complexity of a networked social reality. the meaningful lived perception and experience (in the here and now) of ourselves and others “emerge of, and through and irreducible grounding of relatedness … no self can be ‘found’, nor individual ‘emerge’ other than via the a priori interrelational grounding from which our unique sense of being arises” (spinelli, 2007, pp. 12, 14). for spinelli, who follows a sartrean existential line of thought, relatedness essen106 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences c. tsekeris tially entails anxiety, uncertainty, and nonlinearity, as well as “co-operation with one another not because we have eradicated the conflict between us, but rather because our attempt at ‘being for’ one another arises through the mutual recognition of the inevitable conflict between us” (spinelli, 2004, p. 62). both cooperation and uniqueness emerge from our (unresolved) shared relatedness. this explicitly rejects both the scylla of subjectivism and the charybdis of objectivism, in favor of a promising relational intersubjectivity, as famously echoed by the intersubjective existential-phenomenologist martin buber and his reflexive distinction between “i-it” and “i-thou” (buber, 2004). that means, “i can experience and relate to another as an object of my experience and self-consciousness and whose meanings can be reshaped and reformulated via the imposition of my preferred meaning stance” (spinelli, 2005, p. 123). for buber (1947), dialogue implies that you cannot be the same as the other. having difference is an essential precondition to relationally bridge to another. this dialogics of self interprets and reconstructs “the self as ‘becoming’ on the boundaries of self and other, identity and difference” (tziovas, 2003, p. 8). the complex interrelational relationship between identity and otherness paved the radical philosophical way for the introduction of second-person intersubjective methodologies, such as the bohmian interhuman dialogue, leading to innovative forms of dialogic consciousness (bohm, 1985; see also tsekeris, 2012). ultimately, any original human experience is intrinsically grounded in an interpersonal relatedness between interacting social subjects: “one cannot become a human being in the abstract […] embeddedness is endemic to human experience – i become the person i am in interaction with others. the way i feel it necessary to be with them is the person i take myself to be” (mitchell, 1988, pp. 275-276). this profoundly posits once again the indispensable level of meaningful social interaction (in the living present) as the fundamental level of individual and collective behaviour, as well as of the personal and societal dynamics (stacey, 2003). in addition, the emergent interrelational notion of the self-as-process radically transcends habituated scholarly dualisms and explicitly incorporates uncertainty as a ubiquitous feature of human social existence. as jerome bruner rightly observes, “when we enter human life, it is as if we walk on stage into a play whose enactment is already in progress – a play whose somewhat open plot determines what part we may play and toward what denouements we may be heading” (bruner, 1990, p. 34). also, the self-as-process directly opposes to the “traditional” or “received” linear 107 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences existential-phenomenological and dialogical perspectives notion that our “inside” consists of different, separate and distinct levels or zones, functioning autonomously of each other and capable of being studied autonomously. psychoanalysis, for instance, traditionally and erroneously tends to think of the “unconscious“ – perceived as an “id” – as the most important thing in the whole psychological structure (elias, 1982, pp. 284-285; see also spinelli, 2001; 2005). over against process reduction and the old obsolete model of homo clausus, in norbert elias’s (1970) scholarly latin, our individuality is of necessity infused with our networked social existence, and vice versa; they are both mutually involved in an ongoing relational process of simultaneous (nonlinear) co-evolution, an “endless dance of co-emergence” (waldrop, 1992, p. 75). social saturation and the dialogical self this interdisciplinary line of relational argumentation is imaginatively followed and furthered by kenneth gergen’s (2001) influential phenomenological and constructionist concept of the saturated self, which is strongly supported by a series of experiments (gergen, 1971). the saturated self refers to the dramatic explosion of nonlinear relations (real, virtual, and imagined) in which the social individual is increasingly engaged. in a sense, this notion of the human self pertains to a huge “expansion and complexifying of the individual’s repertoire of ‘ways of being’ (e.g., attitudes, values, opinions, moralities, styles of relating), a compounding of evaluative standards applied to the self, an infinite expansion of opportunity, and an expanding sea of obligations. one becomes multiphrenic” (gergen, 2007, original italics). social saturation and irreducible relational embeddedness, inseparability, and interdependence intimately amount to a major epistemological and historical shift in the well-respected romanticist and modernist (individually-centred) conceptions of the self. these are now actively and irreversibly replaced by “a postmodern conception of the self as inseparable from relationship. replacing descartes’s centerpiece of the enlightenment, ‘i think, therefore i am’, life in a socially saturated world invites the conclusion, ‘i am connected, therefore i am’” (gergen, 2007). in other words, individual selfhood has a foundational inter-relational grounding. but although the saturated self ambitiously starts to offer a kind of promising alternative to the self-serving, static, atomistic and narcissistic self, it seems difficult to avoid the common postmodern pitfalls of the self as a (reductionist) mode of linguistic construction, as well as of the tenuous, decentered, provisional, inconsistent/incoherent and fragmented social agency (see stepnisky, 2006). 108 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences c. tsekeris this is rather more adequately addressed by the social psychological and epistemological concept of the dialogical self, originally conceived by hermans, kempen and van loon (1992) and heavily inspired from american theorists of the self, like william james and george herbert mead, as well as from the russian dialogical school in the tradition of mikhail bakhtin’s innovative theory of dialogism and heteroglossia in literary creation (see barresi, 2002). in general terms, the dialogical self refers to a dynamic interrelational multiplicity of i-positions within both internal and external interchanges. in a synthetic and integrative manner, this dialogical notion overtly acknowledges and celebrates both the modern emphasis on critical self-agency and the postmodern analytical focus on social construction, language, discourse, and power relations (richardson et al., 1998; hermans, 2014). the self, including the cyberself, is interdisciplinarily conceptualised here as socially embedded, relationally dynamic, and entirely open to an ambiguous otherness, continuously moving toward an uncertain, unforeseen, and unpredictable future, without however reaching a final and safe destination. this general uncertainty is fundamentally coupled with a permanent nonlinear sense of playfulness, experimentation, fluidity and flexibility. although the dialogical self is always bound to particular positions in time and space (including cyberspace), it also has the unique critical-reflexive capacity to imaginatively change or modify positions in accordance with various nonlinear fluctuations in situation and time. fruitful dialogical and nonlinear relations between different positions (possibly pertaining to unequal power) can subsequently develop, because each position is endowed with a voice (perhaps a critical one). according to such relational dialogical reconstructions, “there is no inner and outer, only a body of context and experience which expresses itself in a ‘consummate reciprocity’ in which we discern ourselves through the other” (gordon, 1991, p. 43). human beings can thus be better understood, studied and theorised in the analytical intersubjective context of the complex dynamic interdependencies with their multiple selves, as well as with each other, within a constantly changing social and cultural environment. the creative, fragile, and uncertain process of self-construction, in the particular form of story-formed identity, profoundly signifies an ongoing nonlinear interplay between subjective aspects of one’s self (i.e. voiced self-aspects or i positions), as well as a never-ending interrelational dialogue between internal i positions and the significant others, with whom the reflexive individual is strongly communicating and interacting (hermans et al., 1992; hermans, 2014). arguably, the relational existence or appearance of these “significant others” 109 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences existential-phenomenological and dialogical perspectives (actual, imagined, or implied) is completely integral to the evolutionary reflexive (spontaneous) emergence and development of dialogical selfhood. yet, in the original social interpretivist sense of g.h. mead’s theory, the “other” is not only the other (significant) person, “but another perspective: another way in which the world is judged or appreciated” (natanson, 1956, p. 64). conclusion the relational conceptions of “social saturation” and “dialogical self ” seem to be in parallel with the advent of liquid modernity (bauman, 2000), within which the self is always and everywhere on the move, flexibly enacted in and through ongoing complex and multiple relations. this also strongly highlights the existential-phenomenological features of contemporary self-formation. human beings reflexively constitute their relational selves through active dialogical engagement in emergent nonlinear processes of practical interdependency. we thus derive relational goods and relational evils from acting together (archer, 2013). the good and the evil dialectically coexist in selfhood and our emerging networked social worlds (including the virtual ones). in complexity terms, the self has the relational capacity to adapt, learn and change, to employ appropriate adjustment mechanisms, to maintain diverse and multiple nonlinear strategies and tactics, to explore its relational space of creative possibilities, and to encourage dialogue, variety, innovation, and surprise. in times of acute personal and social existential crisis, in particular, where the flow of information becomes too fast and the world seems to lose its hitherto predictability, controllability and shape, the nonlinear system of the self may disintegrate into instability, fall into stagnation, or leap to a new meaningful level of order or organisation (dissipative structure), given the relational empowerment provided by surrounding networks (tsekeris, 2015). in this analytical context, contemporary social science, instead of being a “detached observer” of human affliction and social loss, must responsibly equip individuals and groups with critical skills and practical dialogical competencies to exploit increased social complexity, nonlinearity, turbulence, and chaos. it must also empower the suffering individual self to reflexively re-connect with the social and its support mechanisms, as well as to effectively search for new fruitful configurations regarding social, political and economic citizenship (given the general disaffection towards old or traditional forms of citizenship). for contemporary social science, in some sense, this is a heavy task of 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an introduction to phenomenological psychology. london: sage. spinelli, e. 2007. practising existential psychotherapy: the relational world. london: sage. stacey, r. 2003. complex and group processes: a radically social understanding of the individual. london: routledge. stepnisky, j.n. 2006. ‎narrative and selfhood in the antidepressant era (unpublished doctoral dissertation). college park: university of maryland. stewart, j. 2011. kierkegaard and existentialism. aldershot: ashgate. tsekeris, c. 2012. advances in reflexive sociology: theory, agency and dialogical inquiry. italian sociological review, 2(2), 66-75. tsekeris, c. 2013. norbert elias on relations: insights and perspectives, in: c. powell and f. dépelteau (eds) conceptualizing relational sociology: ontological and theoretical issues. new york: palgrave-macmillan, 87-104. tsekeris, c. 2015. contextualising the self in contemporary social science. contemporary social science, 10(1), 1-14. tziovas, d. 2003. the other self: selfhood and society in modern greek fiction. lanham, md: lexington books. volf, m. 1996. exclusion and embrace: a theological exploration of identity, otherness, and reconciliation. nashville: abingdon press. waldrop, m. 1992. complexity: the emerging science at the edge of order and chaos. new york: simon & schuster. 95 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences george orwell’s pessimistic vision of 1984 or francis fukuyama’s optimism: the future of higher education exemplified by british universities marek smoluk zielona góra university, poland abstract a new report on higher education, which marks the 50th anniversary of the robins report, reveals that academics, instead of devoting more time to teaching, actually prioritise their research. further, it is claimed that two-thirds of students receive no feedback. these findings have been publicised in a pamphlet which at the same time, discloses new predictions, including a huge increase in the number of university entrants by 2035. the analysis of these findings, confronted with subsequent reasoning which may have caused them, should allow the establishment of the present trends that have been formed in higher education and are bound to be followed; especially by the ‘newer’ united kingdom universities. thus this paper’s main aim is to identify possible challenges and pitfalls which may well await these universities in the future. also, such an evaluation becomes quintessential in view of the fact that at present students’ fees have risen to circa £9,000-10,000 for the very same courses which were available at the time when such tuition was free. the paper provides evidence that the underlying reason for many of the present problems these ‘less prestigious’ universities are experiencing, is chronic under-funding. as the current pattern of expansion appears to be occurring even more speedily than expected, one needs to bear in mind that distortion usually results when such goals wish to be achieved with a minimum effort and more importantly, at minimum possible cost. keywords: higher education, british universities, future of higher education 96 m. smoluk epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences my plenary lecture delivered in vienna in september 2013 during the academic fiction in anglo-american perspective research seminar was entitled current expansion and distortion of higher education in the united kingdom and it focused on drawing an outline of higher education from its most remote times to the present day (smoluk 2014: 17-24). on the basis of this history, analyses show how through the centuries (recent decades in particular) higher education has expanded and led to numerous misappropriations and misunderstandings in the use of the expressive “higher” education. the following presentation entitled modularisation and commodification of higher education in the united kingdom was delivered last year at the university of bucharest and it referred mainly to the identification of merits and demerits of the modular degrees and credit accumulation programmes and subsequently, the evaluation of their impact on ‘commodifying’ education. as the past and present assessment of higher education has already been presented, and in order to make this series complete, the 2nd international conference on education, culture and identity, held at the international university of sarajevo in october 2015, has enabled me to talk on recognition of these modern trends which influence universities these days and which require examination in order to provide a basis for speculation on the challenges and dangers awaiting higher teaching institutions in the future. when over a hundred years ago a few british universities began to introduce new courses as subjects of study for a degree such as english literature or later, engineering, these decisions on the extension of subjects offered by universities were regarded as pioneering. not in wildest dreams was it thought then, that over the forthcoming century the curriculum would be expanded and revolutionised by the inculcation of courses in genetics, biotechnology, microbiology, business studies, management studies or computer science, et cetera. the above examples illustrate that making certain predictions for what a university ought to look like half a century ahead poses a major risk of misjudgment and invites errors. anything may happen and as hans van ginkel, rector of utrecht university, notes, the future of universities can follow either george orwell’s pessimistic vision of 1984 or francis fukuyama’s optimism, and, whichever version proves correct, this will be determined by changes in society, “both at an economic level and in socio-political terms” (ginkel 1994: 67). allowing for the foregoing, this paper does not attempt to speculate whether future universities will have few buildings and that such teaching will be carried out by international networks – symptoms of which are already risibly visible by the setting up of more and more popular distant teaching institutions. neither is its aim to ascertain whether universities will be confined to a “barracks” in which lecturers, researchers and scholars will continue their work. instead of drawing unpredictable visions, the paper’s aim is to recognise present tendencies 97 the future of higher education exemplified by british universities epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences whereby higher education evolves and – as already mentioned – on such bases make pertinent speculations apropos possible challenges and pitfalls. consequently, this should help us to reflect and possibly prevent those in authority from making decisions that may, in the long run, turn out to be harmful for higher education. one of the trends referring to future higher education was formed with the acceptance of the dearing report of 1997, in which, amongst numerous recommendations, this one stated that over the next twenty years a steady increase in student numbers should be secured. this government’s declared policy has proven very successful as by the year 2000 the number of students had more than doubled (gombrich 2000: 10) and within the last ten years this figure has risen by 25% to 2,5 million students, both undergraduates and postgraduates . prospects for the future are even more optimistic. in a report revealed on behalf of the social market foundation think tank in october 2013 david willetts, minister for universities and science, appears to anticipate a steep increase in the number of students entering higher education by 2035 due to rising birth rates, as well as growing interest of the young in getting a university education. according to mr willetts, these demographic and social changes will result in 460,000 young entrants entering universities every year by 2035, which is up by a quarter from 2011 (graham 2013:6). such an anticipated increasing rise in demand for places at british universities is much in tune with the government’s commitment to guarantee that every “motivated and qualified applicant is offered a place in a uk university” (graham 2013:6). laudable – in its very essence – as this expansion of university students sounds, the trend lays out pitfalls for future and may bring about considerable distortion in the idea of higher education. with tuition fees skyrocketing during the last few years, a fundamental question arises what this average £9,000+ gets for a potential student? the pamphlet, which has been published recently for the social market foundation to mark the 50th anniversary of the robbins report on higher education, reveals sensational findings. these can be useful when answering the above question. according to this study commissioned by the department for business, present lecturers at red-brick universities, it is claimed, spend 40 per cent of their time teaching and 60 per cent “facilitating” research, whilst half a century ago the ratio was almost the opposite: 55 per cent was spent on teaching and 45 per cent on research (garner 2013: 2). it becomes self-evident that the proportion of total academic time devoted to teaching has shrunk significantly and such figures should be viewed with a meas98 m. smoluk epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences ure of caution, especially when contrasted with the growth in the number of students at these universities. the less time devoted to lecturing is not the only notable decreasing figure in this report. another finding refers to the average time spent by students being taught; this has dropped from 14.8 hours a week to 12.2 – with an increasing number of lectures conducted in auditoriums with up to one hundred students (garner 2013: 2). last but not least an horrific figure relates to written assignments. in 1963 the average student would usually hand in one piece of written work. at present this has fallen to one a fortnight. not only in the quantity of assignments but also in the quality of feedback, universities are lagging far behind the times compared with a century ago; nowadays 77 per cent of written work is handed back to students with only written feedback and a grade, whilst in 1963, 61 per cent of more frequent assignments received both written comments and oral feedback (garner 2013: 2). figures released in the pamphlet indicate one more trend of england’s present higher education: undergraduates assignment papers are usually marked as pass or fail, and there is little chance that they would be of any constructive feedback since their essays or projects are usually handed back when the students have moved on to the next module (hussey, smith 2010: 35). in view of such findings released recently, it should not be surprising to hear why students’ parents keep asking more and more insistently questions such as “do you really only get three hours of lectures a week? how much time do you spend in the lab? what do you mean you haven’t sat down with any of the professors yet?” (garner 2013: 2). questions of this calibre are perfectly understandable, but who and/or what should be blamed for having such issues raised? the title of richard garner’s article what the £9,000 fee gets you: less teaching time prompts the reader to a straight answer: it is the academics who ought to be blamed for teaching less and worse than was done half a century ago. are these recriminations which are claimed to echo in english society, substantiated and do they truly reflect the current state of higher education in the united kingdom? as student contact time is reported to have decreased in the last fifty years, it should be remembered that the gigantic rise in student numbers within the last few decades has not been matched by a proportional increase in teaching/lecturing staff. due, simply, to lack of proportions maintained, current academics seem to be buried under administration and paperwork, which, in fairness, their colleagues of the 1960s were perhaps lucky enough to do without, or at least not in such volume. this additional burden on the lecturers’ shoulders is well described by professor pete dorey who writes: 99 the future of higher education exemplified by british universities epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the soviet-style managerialist regime imposed on universities by successive governments means many academics spend up to 40% of their time on form-filling, box-ticking, business plans, quality assurance frameworks and countless ‘strategy’ meetings or reviews (dorey 2013: 39). in light of teaching staff-student ratios becoming reversed during the periods under discussion, and this coupled with a “different” kind of paperwork, increasing substantially now, but virtually non-existent half a century ago, present claims of decreasing student contact time and less effective feedback, even if correct, have their justification in the different circumstances in which universities were operating in the 1960’s compared with the present. another finding of the recent study reveals that academics place the priority of facilitating research over lecturing. it is suggested that they should ‘tuck’ this part of work into their spare time so that their main mission of teaching is not affected. the report, however, does not mention that according to the research excellence framework (ref) – formerly the research assessment exercise (rae) introduced by the thatcher government, academics are under obligation to do research. first, only such academics who are active in research can feel competent enough to prepare course syllabuses which enable them to examine their students and finally to award appropriate degrees for the graduates. second, not only does research enrich students’ experience but it also exposes researchers and their students to global challenges, which consequently, may transform our lives beyond recognition. third, from the universities’ viewpoint, research is co-related to international prestige and league table rankings and above all such scholarly activity determines, to a large extent, the funding available to the departments. last but not least a crucial factor is that career progression depends on one’s research results. whether an academic is promoted or made redundant will be dependent upon his/her devotion and research ‘outputs’ (dorey 2013: 39). in view of the above, the question arises whether less time devoted to teaching and more to research is as a result of teachers’ negligence or simply a consequence of the circumstances in which the “collective” responsibility for higher education has voluntarily or indeed in-voluntarily cornered itself ? according to sally hunt, general secretary of university and college union, the primary function of a university is “to produce well-rounded, engaged individuals able to reason and question. that capacity makes someone employable, but it also makes them a more engaged citizen too” (2013: 39). it should be added at this point that it is assumed the aim of higher education lies in its mission not only to educate the young but also to facilitate research, both to the highest standards. in 100 m. smoluk epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences order to be able to both maintain and improve these standards, clearly adequate funding is required. like in any typical household, one should buy such chattels or get involved in such financial enterprises which are at least affordable. the uk governments, running this ‘household’ on a macro level, seem to have overlooked this maxim and throughout the last century, have launched four waves of higher education expansion. first, by the nineteen twenties, in the period of the ‘redbricks’ foundations, the already existing number of universities in the kingdom increased to just over twenty. the era of the robbins report (1960s) more than doubled this number. the third wave of university expansion came with the passage of the further and higher education act of 1992 which permitted all polytechnics to become universities. the new millennium ushered in another period of thirty six polytechnics, colleges and higher education institutes receiving university status, thus all in all there are about 120 universities in the united kingdom, out of which 78 are in england alone. this recent rapid growth in the size of the educational sector and its beneficiaries i.e. students, has not gone along with their adequate financial support. as a result of the policies of successive governments, the 90% cut in teaching budgets imposed by the government is supposed to be offset by the £9,000+ fees. not in even the most pessimistic visions promulgated in 2006, did anyone anticipate that within a few years tuition fees would triple from £3,000. as a consequence of such policies, not only for a student in england has a university education become the most expensive in europe, but more sadly these higher teaching institutions have, on the pretext of modernisation, been compelled to act as competitive corporate enterprises. as competition is a discipline of the market economy, this economic rule, it was thought, could be applied to universities. it was argued that thanks to the application of competition, teaching institutions would be encouraged to make more effort towards self-maintenance and if their performance was still unsatisfactory, this could call for reforms, and finally, if they still could not get their act together, this would force them to suffer the consequences by closing down the ineffective ones. in the world of academic competition, effectiveness and the efficiency of teaching institutions are now measured in part by the number of applicants who are admitted to studies, and this, in turn, determines their treasury grant. the irrational thinking behind the turning of the higher education system ‘upside down’ was that potential students were believed to obtain a wider choice of being educated at lesser cost incurred by the taxpayer. this was – as hussey and smith call it – ‘the political equivalent of turning base metals into gold’ (2010: 3). what was, however, overlooked in the whole operation was one tiny nuisance i.e. there is a huge discrepancy between for instance companies making and selling paper and universities which buy and use this paper for facilitating research and im101 the future of higher education exemplified by british universities epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences parting knowledge. with the competition wheels being set in motion in the 1980s, the survival race and more and more frustrating struggle for finances at universities had begun. the side effects of this university revolution are countless. suffice it to say, universities use all possible tricks in order to attract students and once they get hold of new entrants, they are prepared to do their utmost to smooth their passage through the system. should any student fail an examination, the regulations allow for a number of solutions so as to prevent him from dropping out. this has already given rise to the dumbing down of traditional degrees. as a result, what is achieved is not what is desired: illiterate and incompetent graduates with ‘mickey mouse” degrees, which are given away by – as b. brecher (2002: 18) and other scholars (s. baker, brian j. brown 2007: 124) call them – “disneyland” universities. has anyone in authority given any thought if it is a mere coincidence, or does some correlation exist between a growing number of students who graduate from universities with first class honours, and an increasing number of prospective employers who point to cases of illiterate and incompetent graduates, who have to be trained from scratch before they are capable of work? one can feel less remorse if the re-training of a supposedly qualified graduate should be practical or even possible, but who should take the responsibility for allowing a graduate who himself lacks knowledge and thus imparts scraps of information in a haphazard way to young children at school? thus in this context, what many claim that “the whole thing is too expensive and inefficient and that it is educating the wrong people in the wrong way and for the wrong jobs” (hussey, smith 2010: 35) seems to have appalling examples of such inexcusable practices in real life. from the above it becomes self-evident that what we witness is confused decadence in higher education, but the question remains; to what is this decline due? the pamphlet recently published for the social market foundation and mentioned here several times, reveals, amongst other findings, an increasing number of lectures that are run in auditoriums with up to one hundred students (garner 2013: 2). this should not come as a surprise why universities with their cash-stripped budgets take such measures. clearly, it has become economically viable to teach – or rather lecture – large groups since this method saves a lot of teaching hours which would have to be paid for if the teaching took place in smaller groups. thus the struggle of academics to provide a good quality education has been replaced with their struggle for survival. for the sake of argument, should we take the assumption that all the successive governments from the 1960s to the present day have had a clear vision of how the system of higher education should have evolved with a view to its improve102 m. smoluk epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences ment, their success can only be measured in quantitative terms, resultant in the foundation of several dozen universities and a similar number of conversions of one time polytechnics and colleges into universities. with the expansion of universities, there has been a corresponding rapid growth in the number of students, which, as already stated earlier, is predicted to continue. in contrast, the funding, both that paid to the centres of higher education and that paid to their students, has been reduced whilst their fees increased drastically. fifteen years ago it was already admitted in the dearing report that “the expansion was [...] much faster than the government had envisaged and there was insufficient thought about the potential effects of a progressively reducing unit of funding” (dearing 1997: 3.115). this admission seems to have gone unheeded since tampering with the system of higher education has continued. yet subsequent steps have followed in precisely the opposite direction to that which the facts in the dearing report indicated in terms of action required. under such financial strictures, questions as to what sort of good quality education can be offered to an immense horde of students? how can academics impart knowledge, instil critical thinking, understanding and develop their enthusiasm as students rush to, tick off their modules and move to the next one with the often doubtful quality of estimated results, becomes a rhetorical question. when mass higher education is offered at least possible cost to the national budget, such problems arise, and will escalate in their intensity in the future,. on the one hand, academics are expected to produce lots of research results and teach to the best of their abilities whilst on the other hand, cuts in teaching budgets are imposed. surely if sufficient funding was guaranteed, berating academics for prioritising research over teaching or scolding them for not providing their students with sufficient feedback, would be unnecessary. amongst the numerous problems that have formed the present trends, especially those implemented by these ‘newer and less prestigious universities’, one thing appears to be common to both categories of university: chronic under-funding. so long as these fundamental problems remain, any/all future reports on the state of higher education will inevitably have to take into account the current problems outlined in this paper. should they not be resolved fast, they will multiply and corrode the entire creaking fractured system. such a failure to fulfill our duty to the young of today, will have disastrous consequences and ramifications. and little consolation will be that other universities in europe have shared the same fate. 103 the future of higher education exemplified by british universities epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences references baker s., b. brown, rethinking universities, the social functions of higher education. london: continuum international publishing book 2007. brecher b., fast food is no substitute for an intellectual feast. the times higher educational supplement, june 7th 2002 dearing r., higher education in the learning society. the report of the national committee of inquiry into higher education. norwich: hmso 1997. dorey pete, academics do not neglect teaching for research. the guardian, october 25, 2013. garner richard, what the £9,000 fee gets you: less teaching time. the independent, october 21, 2013. ginkel hans van, university 2050: the organisation of creativity and innovation [in:] universities in the twenty-first century. london: latimer trend and company ltd. 1994. gombrich f. richard, british higher education policy in the last twenty years: the murder of a profession. tokyo 2000 available from http://indology.info/papers/gombrich/ uk-higher-education.pdf retrieved may 2015. graham georgia, universities need to grow by 25pc to meet demand, says minister. the daily telegraph, october 21, 2013. hunt sally, academics do not neglect teaching for research. the guardian, october 25, 2013. hussey t., p. smith, the trouble with higher education. a critical examination of our universities. abingdon: routledge 2010. smoluk marek, current expansion and distortion of higher education in the united kingdom, [in:] d. fuchs, w. klepuszewski (ed.) academic fiction revisited. selected essays. koszalin: wydawn ictwo uczelniane politechniki koszalińskiej, 2014, s. 17-24 9 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences external and domestic challenges and prospects for turkey as a regional power and the role of the european union selcen öner bahçeşehir university-i̇stanbul, turkey abstract turkey, which has a democratic and secular political system with a predominantly muslim population and an eu membership prospect, had an increasing influence in its region which increased its soft power. however, after the start of arab uprisings, uncertainty in the middle east and stall of the negotiations with the eu challenged turkey’s soft power. this article discusses challenges and prospects facing turkey’s regional power, especially since 2011. it firstly analyses the role of soft power in turkish foreign policy and evaluates the series of soft power instruments. secondly, it discusses the external factors challenging turkey’s regional power, particularly the role of arab uprisings, particularly syrian crisis and domestic challenges that negatively influence turkey’s regional power, particularly stagnation in the reform process, polarisation of the society, freedom of media and the rise of terrorism. lastly the role of eu in turkey’s soft power in spite of its decreasing transformative power over turkey in recent years will be evaluated. keywords: turkey; regional power; soft power; syrian crisis; european union d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 22 2 introduction joseph nye (2008) defined power as ‘the ability to affect others to obtain the outcomes you want’, with three main ways to affect the other’s behaviour: ‘threats of coercion, inducements and payments and attraction that makes others what you want’. the term ‘soft power’1 was first used by nye (2004, p. 5), who defined it as ‘the ability to shape the preferences of others’. if others follow the lead of the power holder due to the power of attraction, we can speak of soft power. soft power resources include cultural attraction, ideology and international institutions. 1) this concept was introduced by joseph nye in his 1989 book which is called “bound to lead”. 10 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences legitimacy and credibility are necessary conditions for the existence of soft power, because ‘if a state can make its power seem legitimate in the eyes of others, it will encounter less resistance to its wishes’ (nye, 1990, p. 167). while ‘hard power’ assumes an emphasis on the agent, ‘soft power’ emphasises the significance of others’ perceptions of the agent (oğuzlu, 2007, p. 82-84). nye (2008, p. 106) argues that part of the usa’s soft power comes from the openness of its society and its free press, congress and courts that can criticize and correct government policies. while soft power was firstly introduced to counter the belief in the us’ global decline, it has been also used in relation to ‘the foreign policy discourse of mid-range regional powers like turkey’. in particular, many turkish foreign policy scholars claim that turkey’s soft power, particularly in the middle east, has increased in the first decade of the 21st century2 (demiryol, 2014, p. 7). if a country has soft power, other countries want to follow it as an example, admiring its values, level of prosperity and openness. in international politics, soft power usually depends on a country’s values, the example set by its domestic policies, and its relations with others. public diplomacy is an instrument that governments use to communicate with and attract the publics of other countries. however, it should be emphasized that ‘if the content of a country’s culture, values and policies are not attractive, public diplomacy that broadcasts them can not produce soft power’ (nye, 2008, p. 94-95). nye (2008, p. 101-108) also argues that ‘good public diplomacy has to go beyond propaganda’. while providing information and selling a positive image is part of public diplomacy, the latter also involves building the longterm relations that create an ‘enabling environment for government policies’. in this way, public diplomacy can be used as an instrument to promote a country’s soft power. in 2003, nye (2009, p. 160-161) introduced the concept of ‘smart power’ in order to counter the misunderstanding that only soft power can produce effective foreign policy. while nye defines hard power as ‘the use of coercion and payment’, he defines ‘soft power’ as ‘the ability to obtain preferred outcomes through attraction’. the major elements of soft power include a country’s culture and values, so long as they 2) for further detail see tarik oguzlu, “soft power in turkish foreign policy”, australian journal of international affairs, vol. 61, no. 1, 2007; meliha benli altunışık, “the possibilities and limits of turkey’s soft power in the middle east”, turkish studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 2008. s. öner 11 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences are attractive, and its policies, if they are practised in a consistent way and perceived as legitimate and inclusive. the instruments of soft power include public diplomacy, development assistance and exchange programmes. however, he also argues that there is a necessity for smart strategies that combine the instruments of both hard and soft power. he proposes that these can be combined as ‘smart-power strategies’ that can be used together, although this requires ‘contextual intelligence’, based on realistically understanding both the strengths and limits of the country’s power. nye (2008, p.94) argues that public diplomacy is also an instrument of ‘smart power’, but ‘smart public diplomacy requires an understanding of the roles of credibility, self-criticism and civil society in generating soft power’. during the cold war era and in the 1990s, turkey was considered mostly as a ‘hard power’. in the first decade of the 21st century, several internal and external developments have positively contributed to turkey’s soft power. as a secular, democratic state with a predominantly muslim population, an official candidate of the eu since 1999, turkey developed a growing regional influence since september 11. especially, after the arab spring, there were discussions on whether turkey’s political and socioeconomic transformation can provide an example or an ‘inspiration’ for opposition forces in the arab world (benli altunışık, 2011, p. 1). while in its first (2002-2007) term of office, the justice and development party (jdp) government gave priority to the eu accession process, in its second term (2007-2011), it developed a multi-dimensional approach to turkish foreign policy.3 in particular, turkey tried to contribute to regional peace through constructive engagement and mediation efforts in its neighbouring regions. turkey’s ‘zero problems policy’ also contributed to its soft power, including a liberal visa policy with its neighbours and increasing economic, political and cultural communication and cooperation. turkey was constructed in the first decade of the 21st century as a ‘central country’. turkey has started to use public diplomacy to communicate with various countries, with turkish language courses and cultural centres being established in different parts of the world. there has also been a rise in interest in turkish language 3) for further detail see selcen öner, “europeanization of turkish foreign policy and increasing multidimensional approach”, eurorient, “turquie: la nouvelle politique exterieure turque entre le mythe ‘europeen’ et la nostalgie ‘ottomane’” (the new turkish foreign policy between the european myth and the ottoman nostalgia”), no:35-36, 2011, p.217-236. external and domestic challenges and prospects for turkey 12 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences and culture, especially with the rising popularity of turkish soap operas in the middle east and the balkans. during the third term of the jdp government (2011-2015) the arab spring was the main challenge for turkey’s soft power. the strategy of promoting and projecting turkish culture externally, is insufficient as long as hard power and uncertainty dominate in the middle east (benli altunışık, 2011, p. 2-3). turkey’s soft power in the middle east has also been challenged by other countries that perceive this region as crucial for their own geostrategic interests (beng, 2008, p. 38). as oğuzlu (2007, p. 95) argues, if threats and challenges to turkey’s own security continue to increase, it will lead to an increase in turkish tendencies to revert to acting as a hard power. for example, growing tensions between turkey and syria, stalled negotiations with the eu, and the loss of momentum in turkey’s domestic reform process, particularly regarding freedom of speech and media, have negatively influenced turkey’s soft power. turkey’s ability to exert soft power in the middle east is also dependent on ‘undertaking necessary reforms at home to make turkey’s development attractive and persuasive to others’ (beng, 2008, p. 22). for turkey’s regional soft power to recover, will require its domestic reform process to regain its earlier momentum and improvements in its democratic credibility. this article discusses the challenges and prospects facing turkey’s soft power, especially since 2011, during the jdp government’s third term and the fourth term since 2015. it firstly analyses the role of soft power in turkish foreign policy and evaluates the series of soft power instruments. secondly, it discusses the stagnation in the reform process and the domestic challenges facing turkey’s soft power, particularly deficiencies in freedom of speech and freedom of press, and lastly the role of external factors which include the role of arab uprisings, particularly syrian crisis and the role of the eu in turkey’s soft power. the development of instruments for turkey’s soft power turkey used various foreign policy tools in dealing with neighbouring regions, including public diplomacy, and developmental assistance. the primary institutional instruments of turkey’s soft power are tika (turkish international cooperation and development agency), which provides developmental assistance to many countries, and the institute of public diplomacy, which plays a crucial role in ‘promoting turkey’s image s. öner 13 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences abroad’ (demiryol, 2014, p. 9). in addition, yunus emre turkish cultural centres have been established in different parts of the world, especially in neighbouring regions, to promote turkish language and culture abroad. in 2010 the office of public diplomacy was established within the turkish prime ministry. turkey’s public diplomacy has two main pillars: ‘from state to society’ and ‘from society to society’. the first focuses on explaining turkish government policies and activities to an international public. the second uses civil instruments, such as csos, research institutes, the press and universities (kamu diplomasisi, 2010) for communication activities. the goal of this public diplomacy is to increase turkey’s visibility in international public opinion. activities involve science and technology, economy, tourism, culture, arts, foreign aid and media, which help to inform world public opinion about turkey. by coordinating these activities, the office of public diplomacy tries to support turkey’s strategic efforts to communicate and promote itself effectively internationally (vizyon ve misyon, 2010). i̇brahim kalın (2011, p. 5-10), former head of the office of public diplomacy, defines public diplomacy as a platform for the implementation of soft power, arguing that its influence extends from the balkans to the middle east and central asia. the activities of turkish public diplomacy include conference series of ‘wise men’, journalist group programs, country programs, meetings with representatives of the foreign press, promotional activities, public diplomacy panels, foreign policy workshops, europe meetings and the i̇stanbul global forum, held for the first time in october 2012 with the participation of politicians, academics, writers, journalists and artists. the conference series of ‘wise men’ aims to bring foreign politicians, intellectuals, journalists and specialists to turkey, such as seyyid hüseyin nasr and george friedman, while the journalist groups program aims to invite journalists from the foreign press to turkey so that they can attend meetings with turkish journalists, media representatives and research institutions. the goal of meeting representatives of the foreign press in turkey is to give them a chance to come together regularly with turkish decision-makers, who can inform them about various policies and recent developments in turkey. the country programmes involve meetings held abroad that aim to bring together foreign researchers and specialists on turkey with their turkish colleagues. public diplomacy panels that include specialists and high-level bureaucrats are organized each month in a different turkish city with the cooperation of the local university. foreign policy workshops are also held in different cities and external and domestic challenges and prospects for turkey 14 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences include academics and foreign policy makers. europe meetings involve academics and thinkers specialised on european identity and culture to conduct discussions about the future of europe (faaliyetler, 2010). by abolishing visa requirements for citizens from neighbouring countries like syria, egypt, lebanon and iran, turkey strengthened its soft power by increasing interactions with these countries. for example, it allowed turkish civil society organisations (csos) and business organisations to become more active in neighbouring regions. as a state institution operating under the turkish prime ministry since 1992, tika is regarded as a key foreign policy instrument for increasing regional cooperation in the middle east, caucasus, central asia, balkans and africa (kaya and tecmen, 2011, p. 13). tika deals with a range of projects in education, health, restoration, agricultural development, tourism and industry, with programme offices being established in 12 other countries in 2002, before expanding to 33 offices in 30 countries in 2012. whereas turkey’s development funds amounted to 85 million us dollars in 2002, by 2011 it reached 1.273 billion us dollars (tika, 2013). according to the 2013 global humanitarian assistance report, turkey was the fourth largest humanitarian aid donor in 2012 after the usa, the eu and the uk (cited in aydın-düzgit and keyman, 2014). this overseas development assistance programme is in accordance with turkish foreign policy’s rhetoric of a ‘historical responsibility’ towards neighbouring regions (elman, 2013, p.3). for example, a scholarship programme was incorporated in tika that enables an increasing number of overseas students from turkey’s neighbourhood (kirişçi, 2011, p. 42). turkey’s cultural diplomacy is carried out within the scope of turkish foreign policy under the jurisdiction of the ministry of foreign affairs, although the ministry of culture and tourism also participates in the promotion of turkish culture abroad (kaya and tecmen, 2011, p. 18), not only to foreigners but also to turkish communities abroad. in accordance with a multi-dimensional foreign policy, the government has implemented a multi-dimensional strategy to promote turkey abroad, covering a broad spectrum ranging from economy and trade to culture, from social development to education and cultural diversity. in order to promote turkey internationally, exhibitions, ‘turkey week’ and ‘year of turkey’ events and festivals are organized; turkey also participates in each country’s existing festivals and cultural events, while conferences on turkish foreign policy are organized and promotional publications and documentaries are produced. for instance, in 2003, 2008, 2009 and s. öner 15 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences 2013, a ‘year of turkey’ was proclaimed in japan, russia, france and china respectively. in 2009, which was proclaimed as ‘turkish season’ in france, 600 cultural, social, political, economic and scientific activities were organized, constituting the most comprehensive and longest series of events and promotion campaign realized abroad by turkey in an eu country. turkish cultural centres, established by the ministry of foreign affairs, have the goal of promoting ‘turkish culture, language and art and to contribute to bilateral relations between turkey and other countries, as well as to help turkish citizens in their adaptation to the country in which they live’. in addition, turkish language and literature departments and turkish courses have been established in foreign universities, supported by lecturers and technical equipment provided by turkey (ministry of foreign affairs, 2012). as well as these initiatives, the yunus emre institute was established in 2007 to promote turkish culture, society and language abroad. it aims to conduct research to improve the promotion and teaching of turkish culture, history, language and literature, and to support scientific studies by cooperating with various foreign organizations and informing the wider public by publicizing the results of such activities. it also contributes to the training of academics and researchers concerned with turkish language, history, culture, art and music and provides training through certification programmes. the institute helps to establish yunus emre turkish cultural centres to promote turkish language, culture, arts and history in several countries. these centres promote turkey through cultural activities, scientific projects and courses, while aiming to increase cultural exchanges with other countries (yunus emre institute, 2013). the locations of the centres reflect an emphasis on the middle east and the balkans which fits with the common cultural heritage approach of turkish foreign policy (kaya and tecmen, 2011, p. 11). chairs for turkish studies have also been established in prominent universities abroad to increase the number of studies on turkey in international universities and to establish a discussion platform about turkey in the public opinion of foreign countries. one example is the establishment of the ‘chair of contemporary turkish studies’ at the london school of economics (lse) (ministry of foreign affairs, 2012). thus, turkey successfully introduced several new institutions and instruments in the first decade of the 21st century that contributed to turkey’s soft power, such as the office of public diplomacy and yunus emre centres, especially in neighbouring regions. however, turkey’s external and domestic challenges and prospects for turkey 16 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences soft power faces several recently emerging internal and external challenges. externally, these challenges became more obvious after the arab uprisings, particularly after the syrian crisis while there was stagnation in the negotiations between turkey and the eu, domestically the challenges include the problems in the field of freedom of speech and freedom of media and the rise of terrorism. external factors challenging turkey’s soft power several internal and external developments strengthened turkey’s soft power during the first decade of the 21st century. the main internal development that changed turkish foreign policy was that the jdp party, which has an islamist origin, came to power in 2002, bringing with it a new political and bureaucratic elite and political agenda (bilgin, 2008). in its first term of office, the government made turkey’s eu accession process the main priority of turkish foreign policy, starting formal accession negotiations with the eu on 3 october 2005. many reforms were introduced, including in the fields of minority rights, abolition of death penalty, human rights and the kurdish issue, especially between 2000 and 2005 (which includes the pre-jdp coalition government’s term in office). during the jdp party’s second term (2007-2011), the government emphasized cultural proximity with neighbouring countries. meanwhile, turkey’s democracy and growing economy provided a political and discursive basis for a new multi-dimensional and proactive foreign policy in addition to the country’s geostrategic importance (keyman, 2009, p. 5). the logic of jdp party’s foreign policy approach was to play a leadership role in the muslim world while it was trying to participate in initiatives with the west, such as the dialogue of civilisations (öniş and yılmaz, 2009). at the same time, the government attempted to construct turkey as a ‘centre’ country. thus, turkey became more active in international organizations like the g-20, the organization of islamic cooperation (oic), and it became a temporary member of the un security council for 2009-2010 period. due to its growing economy and proactive foreign policy in various parts of the world, turkey sometimes became referred to as a ‘model country’ or an ‘inspiration’ for other countries in the islamic world (keyman, 2009, p.12). kirişçi (2011, p.35-45) argues that turkey’s ‘demonstrative effect’ is based on three developments: firstly, turkey’s rise as a ‘trading state’, which makes it more visible through trade s. öner 17 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences and investment; secondly, the diffusion of turkey’s democratization experience; and thirdly, turkey’s new foreign policy paradigm which includes policies encouraging regional integration through free movement of goods and people between turkey and the middle east. for example, visa requirements for moroccan and tunisian nationals were lifted in 2007, and for syrian, lebanese and jordanian nationals in 2009. turkey also mediated conflicts between several regional actors, and between them and the west. inspired by the eu as an international actor, for which the term soft power is frequently used, turkey has in turn become an inspiration for other countries, especially in the middle east (kahraman, 2011, p. 711). turkey’s regional and global engagements have even expanded to africa, asia and latin america. however, this increasing proactivity in regions like the middle east and the balkans has also been criticized as reflecting a ‘neo-ottomanism’ (ulusoy, 2005, p. 245), although kalın (2011, p. 10), the former head of the office of public diplomacy, rejects such claims about turkey’s recent foreign policy; he considers these tendencies as representing a reconciliation between turkey and its history and geography. more recently, turkey’s self-confidence has increased by its ability to maintain economic growth during the financial crisis in the eurozone and its proactive foreign policy. in the third term of the jdp government (2011-2015), turkey acted more as an independent regional power in the middle east while emphasising mutual economic interests and a common muslim identity (öniş, 2014, p. 5). however, turkey’s rising soft power faced challenges, especially after the arab uprisings in that the new foreign policy paradigm, based on ‘zero problems with neighbours’, has had to deal with the realities of international politics (kirişçi, 2011, p. 46), especially with respect to syria. whereas, at the beginning of the arab spring, there were discussions as to whether turkey can be a ‘model’ or an ‘inspiration’ for those countries4, after a while, these discussions were replaced by critiques of turkey’s over-engagement in the domestic politics of several arab states, as it became more deeply involved in their internal sectarian conflicts. 4) tesev’s public opinion surveys in the arab world show that turkey has been quite attractive in the region. this attractiveness comes from a proactive turkish foreign policy, the perception of turkey’s successful socio-economic transformation in the last decade and an increase of turkish cultural products, particularly turkish tv series in the region. the popularity of these series has been influential in raising the number of visitors to turkey from arab countries (benli altunışık, 2011, p. 1). external and domestic challenges and prospects for turkey 18 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences turkey’s increasingly friendly relations with syria between 1999 and 2008, which led to the lifting of visa requirements, was one of the main examples of how turkey’s soft power was rising in the region. however, a civil war then started in syria with the anti-government uprisings in 2011. the authoritarian political leader basher el-assad has been able to hold on to power, in spite of strong resistance from various societal forces (lesch, 2013; cited in öniş, 2014, p. 2). currently, turkey’s relations with syria are as securitised as they were in the 1990s, and turkey’s foreign policy towards syria has been transformed from soft to hard power (demiryol, 2014, p. 10). nevertheless, at the same time, turkey has played an important role in providing humanitarian aid and welcoming a large number of syrian refugees. however, the jdp’s proactive foreign policy has not succeeded in facilitating regime change in syria, nor has it helped establish and maintain a democratic order in egypt; on the contrary, it has moved more towards entangling turkey in the region’s sectarian conflicts and deeply engaging it in the domestic politics of certain arab states (öniş, 2014, p. 1). in the case of egypt, its first democratic experiment with an elected government ended with a military coup that removed the democratically-elected president morsi and the muslim brotherhood from power. in libya, the post-qaddafi situation is very uncertain, with extreme polarization in libyan society. only in tunisia have several positive steps been taken towards political liberalisation (öniş, 2014, p. 2). given this context, one of the main challenges for turkey’s soft power has become how to balance its relations with authoritarian and reformist regimes. this is also related to the question of which political forces will gain power during the transition process in these countries. this new context requires differential treatment of turkey’s neighbours and consideration of their local characteristics. in addition, it is now necessary to balance ‘turkey’s historical/cultural and idealist vision with more pragmatism and realpolitik’ (kahraman, 2011, p. 706). as a result of its involvement in the arab spring, turkey is no longer seen as a neutral actor in the region (akdeniz, 2013, p. 5). as öniş (2014, p. 2) argues, turkey has been an ‘increasingly assertive regional power’ in recent years, who is usually perceived as a country that takes sides in the internal problems of middle eastern countries. yet, despite its foreign policy activism, turkey’s ability to influence the political transformations in the middle east has been very limited. the overactivism of turkish foreign policy, especially in egypt and syria, has s. öner 19 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences led to several criticisms both by some domestic actors, particularly the opposition parties, and within the international community. turkey’s recent interventionist and sectarian foreign policy understanding has contradicted the traditionally peaceful and non-interventionist nature of its foreign policy and its role as a mediator (elman, 2013, p. 3). according to the turkish think tank tesev’s reports on the ‘perception of turkey in the middle east’ in 2011 and 2012 (2013, p. 6), it was the most favourably-thought-of country. however, in 2013 the united arab emirates was the favourite (67%), followed by saudi arabia (60%) and then turkey (59%). however, in 2013, turkey is still perceived as a regional model with 51%, although syrians had the least positive perception of turkey as a model with 22%. respondents viewing turkey as a regional model emphasize its economy and democratic regime. thus, there are several internal and external factors that have influenced turkey’s soft power in the 21st century. the main external development is the arab uprisings because it has made turkey’s neighbourhood more insecure, which in turn has made it harder for turkey to act as a soft power. another external crucial challenge is the stagnation in turkey-eu negotiations, which has influenced the decline in the momentum of the reform process in turkey. this has reduced turkey’s attractiveness as an ‘inspiration’ to other middle east countries. the role of the eu in turkey’s soft power after the helsinki summit in december 1999, when turkey was given official candidate status, the europeanization of turkey, which was the priority of the jdp government’s foreign policy during its first term of government (2002-2007), positively influenced turkey’s soft power, especially through the introduction of several reforms in the areas of democracy, human rights and minority rights. these reforms decreased the military’s political influence and strengthened turkish civil society. öniş (2009, p. 8-9) argues that these reforms lead to a closer involvement of new actors in turkish foreign policy, such as business organisations and csos. the eu also played its part in these reforms by providing funds for turkish civil society projects and opportunities for new interactions between civil society in turkey and eu member states, thereby increasing the number of turkish csos and professionalisation of turkish civil society. however, following their launch in october 2005, the eu accession negotiations rapidly stalled because of the cyprus issue and the resolute external and domestic challenges and prospects for turkey 20 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences opposition to turkey’s full membership by the french and german governments, who are the major motors of european integration. till now, sixteen chapters have been opened but only one could be provisionally closed. in addition, the level of support of turkish public opinion for the eu process has decreased in parallel with these developments.5 especially during the second term (2007-2011) of the jdp government, turkey developed a proactive multidimensional foreign policy. although declining in recent years particularly after the economic crisis, only turkey’s relations with the eu exert transformative power over turkey. therefore, these relations are crucial if turkey wants to act as a key actor for promoting democracy in its neighbouring regions (öniş, 2014, p. 15). the arab world started to take a closer interest in turkey, especially after membership negotiations started with the eu, and several public opinion surveys show that turkey’s contributions to the region’s stability, economic and political development are closely linked to turkey’s relations with the eu (kirişçi, 2011, p. 34-49) and progress in the reform process in turkey. the customs union between turkey and the eu since 1996, and the prospect of eu accession raised the competitiveness of turkish industry and improved turkey’s position as a destination for foreign direct investment (fdi). meanwhile, there has been an increase in turkish trade with its non-eu neighbours, which has led to a reduction in the eu’s share of turkish exports from 56% in 2002 to 38% in 2012. however, the future of the turkish and eu economies will remain intertwined (the independent commission on turkey, 2014, p. 27-31). in spite of a decline in recent years, turkey’s primary trading partner is still the eu, accounting about 40% of its total trade in 2012. the eu is also the largest foreign investor in turkey, accounting for three-quarters of fdi inflows to turkey (akdeniz, 2013, p. 1). the arab spring created a much more difficult foreign policy environment for both turkey and the eu in their common neighbourhood. developments in turkey’s neighbourhood have brought to the forefront its relations with europe in political and security terms; the eu has become the priority for turkey again also economically with the setbacks in economic relations with its neighbours. thus, the acceleration of the momentum of domestic reforms and economic growth can regenerate turkey’s soft power potential (akdeniz, 2013, p. 5). 5) for further detail, see eurobarometer surveys. s. öner 21 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the latest report of the independent commission on turkey (2014) stated that, although the turkish government has remained in principle committed to the eu accession process, it has seemed to attach less importance to the eu process since 2007. while there has been an ongoing transformation processes in the middle east, turkey has been seen as an ‘inspiration’ because of having a secular democracy while having a predominantly muslim population. one of the main sources of the legitimacy of turkey’s role as an ‘inspiration’ has been its domestic transformation in accordance with eu values and norms during the eu integration process (oğuzlu, 2013, p. 11). that is, as aydındüzgit and keyman (2014) argue, it is mostly turkey’s eu membership prospect that makes it an attractive example of regional democracy. the eu and turkey have established a regular foreign policy dialogue which has intensified in recent years. the eu’s former high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, catherine ashton and turkish former prime minister ahmet davutoğlu had regular constructive talks since 2010, on issues including the western balkans, middle east and north africa, russia and central asia (the report of the independent commission on turkey, 2014, p. 43-44). in spite of the intensification of this political dialogue between the eu and turkey concerning international issues of common interest, turkey’s alignment with relevant eu declarations and council decisions has remained at only around 50% in recent years. there are many divergent turkish and eu positions on key issues, such as military intervention in egypt. on the other hand, the ‘positive agenda’ was initiated by the commission to complement the negotiation process. in december 2012, the commission prepared a road map for visa liberalisation with turkey, which includes the requirements that need to be fulfilled by turkey, including implementation of the readmission agreement. turkey signed the readmission agreement in december 2013 and the visa liberalisation process will take place in three years’ time, if the necessary steps for implementing readmission agreement will have been taken by turkey (akdeniz, 2013, p. 2). especially since the crisis in the eurozone and stagnation in the negotiation process, the desirability of becoming an eu member has gradually decreased in turkey, which has weakened the eu’s role as an anchor of democratic reform in turkey (cenker özek and oğuzlu, 2013, p. 697). yet, in spite of these challenges, the eu still provides the best anchor for turkey to consolidate its democracy and improve freedoms, develop economically and increase its regional influence (akdeniz, external and domestic challenges and prospects for turkey 22 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences 2013, p. 10). indeed, several scholars, including keyman, aydın and açıkmeşe, consider that this anchor is still crucial.6 however, turkey also needs some positive signals from the eu because the enthusiasm of turkish public opinion for the eu has decreased significantly in recent years. lifting of schengen visas for turkish citizens could be an important positive signal. in addition, opening new chapters, especially chapter 23 on judiciary and fundamental rights and chapter 24 on justice freedom and security, may help revitalize the reform process in turkey in these policy fields, where there are still crucial deficiencies. domestic challenges facing turkey’s soft power the ‘image’ of a country is crucial for its soft power. to improve its image, turkey has to maintain its economic growth and develop towards a pluralist democracy. as oğuzlu (2013, p. 12) puts it, ‘soft power begins at home’, adding that ‘legitimacy and attractiveness abroad comes with legitimacy and attractiveness at home’. the jdp government emphasizes turkey’s internal transformation as the most important source of turkey’s soft power abroad. turkey’s ability to influence regional developments and to become an ‘inspiration’ for the other countries depends on its ability to continue the reform process and evolve into a pluralist democracy. thus, turkey’s internal characteristics and its domestic transformation process play a crucial role in its soft power. turkey’s attractiveness as a source of ‘inspiration’ for transitional regimes in the middle east will be influenced by whether turkey maintains its high economic growth rates while continuing to democratize. as oğuzlu (2013, p. 15) argues, ‘plural democracy, rather than majoritarian democracy needs to take root at home’. moreover, inconsistencies in the government’s policies and rhetoric in foreign policy and domestic politics have reduced its reliability. for example, the jdp government harshly criticized the military coup in egypt, and was critical of eu leaders for not being equally critical and responsive. however, this high level of sensitivity and prodemocratization rhetoric towards events in other countries are not credible and consistent because of crucial deficiencies in turkey’s own democratic credentials and pluralist political order (öniş, 2014, p. 15). 6) for further detail, see fuat keyman, “globalization, modernity and democracy”; mustafa aydın and sinem a. açıkmeşe, “europeanization through eu conditionality: understanding the new era in turkish foreign policy”, journal of southern europe and the balkans, vol. 9, no. 3, 2007, p. 263-274. s. öner 23 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences external and domestic challenges and prospects for turkey on the other hand, in recent years, freedom of expression and freedom of the press has narrowed in turkey. in february 2014, for example, the turkish parliament passed a new internet law which allows the telecommunications authority to block any website within 24 hours and requires all internet providers to store data on users’ activities and make it available to authorities on request. while, in 2005, turkey ranked 98th out of 178 countries in the reporters without borders’ annual index of press freedom, it dropped to 154th in 2013 (the report of the independent commission on turkey, 2014, p. 15). because of all these internal problems, eu membership prospect still has a crucial role for democratization of turkey. the deepening polarisation in turkey between political actors and within society also hinders the consolidation of its democracy (the report of the independent commission, 2014, p. 46). moreover, the rise of pkk terrorist attacks and daesh terrorism in turkey, have increased the role of security and have challenged the balance between freedom and democracy especially since july 2015. thus, in spite of its deficiencies, the eu accession process is still crucial for turkey for sustaining its transformation and democratisation. concluding remarks turkey, which has a democratic and secular political system with a predominantly muslim population and, since 1999, the prospect of eu membership, has had an increasing influence in its neighbouring regions especially during the first decade of the 21st century. the first and second jdp governments tried to contribute to regional peace through constructive engagement and mediation efforts. turkey’s ‘zero problems policy’ approach contributed to turkey’s soft power, which includes a liberal visa policy with its neighbours and increasing communication and cooperation in the fields of economics, politics and culture. however, the strategy of externally promoting and projecting turkish culture, which lies at the core of the country’s soft power, is insufficient as long as hard power and uncertainty dominate in the middle east (benli altunışık, 2011, p. 2-3). as oğuzlu (2007, p. 95) argues, when threats and challenges to turkey’s own security go on, it will probably lead to an increase in its tendencies to act as a ‘hard power’. similarly, growing tensions between turkey and syria, the rise of terrorism, stalled negotiations with the eu, and the loss of momentum 24 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences of the reform process, particularly regarding freedoms of speech and the media, have reduced turkey’s soft power in recent years. as kaya (2013, p. 57-59) argues, there is a difference between the ways in which the jdp government and the pro-european groups perceive the sources of turkey’s becoming a regional soft power. the jdp emphasizes cultural and historical ties in its neighbouring regions, while pro-european groups in turkey mostly believe that ‘turkey’s growing regional influence derives from its european perspective’. as öniş (2014, p. 14-15) argues, turkey can have crucial influence in its region by becoming a reference point through its level of economic development and by improving its democratic credentials. thus, turkey’s ability to act as a ‘role model’ for the region will depend mostly on maintaining and improving its economic situation and overcoming its democratic deficits by consolidating its democracy. especially during the third-term of the jdp government, turkey has implemented a more interventionist proactive foreign policy in the region with increasing self-confidence. however, turkey’s foreign policy in the middle east after the arab uprisings, especially towards egypt and syria, show the ‘limits on the constructive impact of unilateral activism’ (öniş, 2014, p. 15), which indicates the importance of ‘cooperative action through multilateral channels’. the recent failed coup attempt which on 15 july 2016, shows that in spite of the polarisation in the society different parts of the society and all of the political parties represented at turkish parliament stood against the coup attempt. the developments after the coup attempt will be very crucial for turkish democracy and turkey’s position as a regional power. in order to be an influential regional power which promotes peace and stability in its region turkey needs to overcome polarisation within the society and go on the reform process particularly in the fields of freedom of speech, freedom of media and rule of law. consequently, there are several internal and external challenges influencing turkey’s regional power in the second decade of the 21st century. the biggest external challenges include the syrian crisis and the growing influence of extremist islamist groups, such as daesh (the report of the independent commission on turkey, 2014, p. 42). one of the main domestic factors which influence turkey’s soft power is the kurdish issue, which is also influenced by external regional developments. secondly the integration of syrian asylum seekers in turkey is crucial. thirdly the attitude of the government regarding freedom of speech, freedom of the media and individual liberties will s. öner 25 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences also influence turkey’s soft power. if turkey can re-start its reform process in these fields then this will help turkey move towards a more pluralist democracy. these developments would also bring a new dynamic to the stalled negotiations with the eu. improvements in these domestic fields will improve turkey’s soft power. thus, the eu anchor is still crucial in turkey’s transformation process for overcoming all these domestic challenges which will make turkey more a country of ‘inspiration’ in its region. as nye (2009, p. 162-163) argues, in today’s world, success is not only based on ‘whose army wins but also of whose story wins’. to create its own successful story, which is crucial for soft power, turkey has to overcome its deficiencies in its democracy, improve its economic position, increase its economic growth rates and develop a more constructive, balanced, multilateral and consistent understanding of turkish foreign policy. references akdeniz, a. (2013), eu-turkey relations, towards a constructive reengagement?, tesev publications. aydın-düzgit, s. and e. f. keyman (25 march 2014), democracy support in turkey’s foreign policy, carnegie endowment for international peace, available at: http://carnegieendowment.org/2014/03/25/democracysupport-in-turkey-s-foreignpolicy/h5ne beng, p. k. (2008), turkey’s potential as a soft power: a call for conceptual clarity’, insight turkey, vol. 10, no. 2. benli altunışık, m. (june 2011), challenges to turkey’s soft power in the middle east, istanbul: tesev pub. bilgin, h. d. (2008), foreign policy orientation of turkey’s pro-islamist parties: a comparative study of the akp and refah, turkish studies, vol. 9, no. 3. cerem i., c. özek, and t. oğuzlu (2013), beyond the institutional logics: international level systemic analysis of eu-turkish relations’, turkish studies, vol. 14, no. 4. demiryol, t. (2014), poverty of soft power: evidence from turkish foreign policy in the middle east, european journal of research on education, special issue: international relations. elman, p. (july 2013), ‘turkey at a tipping point: why the eu should use gezi to rebalance ankara’s foreign policy, the polish institute of international affairs policy paper, no. 17 (65). external and domestic challenges and prospects for turkey http://carnegieendowment.org/2014/03/25/democracy-support-in-turkey-s-foreignpolicy/h5ne http://carnegieendowment.org/2014/03/25/democracy-support-in-turkey-s-foreignpolicy/h5ne 26 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences faaliyetler (activities) (2010), başbakanlık kamudiplomasisi koordinatörlüğü (turkish prime ministry public diplomacy office), available at: http:// kdk.gov.tr/faaliyetler/15 (accessed 16 february 2013). kahraman, s. (december 2011), turkey and the eu in the middle east: reconciling or competing with each other?, turkish studies, vol. 12, no. 4. kalın, i̇. (autumn 2011), soft power and public diplomacy in turkey, perceptions, vol. 16, no. 3. kamu diplomasisine bakış (2010) (looking towards public diplomacy) , başbakanlık kamu diplomasisi koordinatörlüğü (turkish prime ministry public diplomacy office), available at: http://kdk.gov.tr/sag/kamudiplomasisine-bakis/21 (accessed 28 january 2013). kaya, a. (july 2013), yunus emre cultural centres: the akp’s neo-ottomanism and islamism, perspectives, heinrich böll stiftung turkey representation, istanbul. kaya, a. and a. tecmen (2011), the role of common cultural heritage in external promotion of modern turkey: yunus emre cultural centres, working paper, no. 4. keyman, e. f. (december 2009), turkish foreign policy in the era of global turmoil, seta policy brief, no. 39, kirişçi, k. (2011), turkey’s ‘demonstrative effect’ and the transformation of the middle east, insight turkey, vol. 13, no. 2. ministry of foreign affairs of turkey. available at: www.mfa.gov.tr (accessed 18 november 2012). nye, j. (autumn 1990), soft power, foreign policy, no. 80. nye, j. (2004), soft power: the means to success in world politics, new york: public affairs. nye, j., (2008) public diplomacy and soft power, the annals of the american academy of political and social science, vol. 616, no. 94. nye, j. (july-august 2009), get smart: combining hard and soft power, foreign affairs. oguzlu, t. (2007), soft power in turkish foreign policy, australian journal of international affairs, vol. 61, no. 1. oğuzlu, t. (july 2013), the gezi park protests and its impact on turkey’s soft power abroad, ortadoğu analiz, vol. 5, no. 55. öniş, z. (2014), turkey and the arab revolutions: boundaries of regional power influence in a turbulent middle east, mediterranean politics, vol. 19, no. 2, doi: 10.1080/13629395.2013.868392. s. öner http://kdk.gov.tr/faaliyetler/15 http://kdk.gov.tr/faaliyetler/15 27 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences öniş, z. and ş. yılmaz (spring 2009), between europeanization and euroasianism: foreign policy activism during the akp era, turkish studies, vol. 10, no. 1. tesev report (january 2014), tesev foreign policy programme, m. akgün and s. senyücel gündoğar, the perception of turkey in the middle east 2013, i̇stanbul. the independent commission on turkey, 3rd report (march 2014), ‘turkey in europe: the imperative for change’. ti̇ka (türk i̇şbirliği ve koordinasyon ajansı başkanlığı). available at: http:// www.tika.gov.tr/tika-hakkinda/1 (accessed 12 february 2013). ulusoy, h. (october 2005), a constructivist analysis of turkey’s foreign and security policy in the post-cold war era. phd thesis, middle east technical university. vizyon ve misyon (vision and mission) (2010), başbakanlık kamu diplomasisi koordinatörlüğü (turkish prime ministry public diplomacy office), available at: http://kdk.gov.tr/kurumsal/vizyon-misyon/8, (accessed 12 february 2013). yunus emre institute. available at: http://yunusemreenstitusu.org/turkiye/ index.php?lang=en&page=68&aniicat_1=0&aniiitm_1=1 (accessed 15 february 2013). external and domestic challenges and prospects for turkey http://kdk.gov.tr/kurumsal/vizyon-misyon/8 53 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences legal and economic environment for foreign investments in bosnia and herzegovina: advantages and obstacles azra brankovic international university of sarajevo emir sudzuka international university of sarajevo abstract investment is one of the most important generators for growth and development of national economies. in case of b&h there is a great need for domestic as well as international investments. therefore, it is necessary to improve, in the first place, the legal environment including ease of company registration, unification of rules at the state level, simplification of administrative procedures etc. it could attract more domestic and international investors to invest in important projects and to improve overall economical situation in b&h. to achieve this goal, it is necessary to meet the essential requirement for successful implementation of various reforms related to macroeconomic stability, financial and technological infrastructure, openness to international trade and transparency of political and legislative environment. the reform agenda for bosnia and herzegovina was adopted in 2015 and provides, among other things, the creation of conditions and appropriate environment for increase of investments and modernization of the b&h economy, with the aim of economic growth and creation of new jobs. it also assumes strengthening the rule of law, administrative capabilities and increase efficiency in public institutions at all levels of government. in order to contribute to enforcement of this document and to present current advantages and obstacles for investments in bosnia and herzegovina, this paper analyzed the provisions of applicable laws relating to foreign investments and economic indicators as a consequence of such legal framework and current position of b&h. research findings indicate that the implementation of the abovementioned structural reforms is a condition sine qua non for increase of foreign direct investments in bosnia and herzegovina as well as for its path towards integration with the european union. keywords: foreign direct investments; legal environment; economic growth; reforms; reform agenda; european union; bosnia and herzegovina d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 24 0 54 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction foreign investments are an important part of modern economies and legal systems. domestic firms undertake most investment, but international investment can provide additional advantages beyond its contribution to capital stock. it can serve as a conduit for the local diffusion of technology and expertise, such as through the creation of local supplier linkages and by providing improved access to international markets (oecd, 2015). foreign investment involves the transfer of tangible or intangible assets from one country to another for the purpose of their use in that country to generate wealth under the total or partial control of the owner of the assets (sonarjah, 2010). according to the encyclopedia of public international law, it can be also defined as a transfer of funds and materials from one country (called capital-exporting country) to another (called host country) in return for a direct or indirect participation in the earnings of that enterprise. there have been encouraging trends in development of foreign investments in legal and economic theory. by the end of the century, foreign direct investment was being undertaken by enterprises both large and small with a wide range of concerns. the option of investing in another country has become a normal part of strategic growth plans for enterprises. individual investors are now seeking investment opportunities outside their own currency region as a matter of course. moreover, mutual funds make these kinds of investments available to small investors. investment flows have increased dramatically. for many developing countries, foreign direct investment has become the most important source of capital inflows, overtaking both official development assistance and the funds made available by multilateral development banks. in developing countries, between a third and a half of private corporate investment is undertaken by affiliates of foreign corporations. investment flows from oecd to non-oecd countries have finally become positive, with large outflows from more developed to less developed markets. between oecd countries, traditionally the recipients of the largest amounts of foreign investment, the number of enterprises that participate and the range of projects being funded have grown dramatically (moltke, konard von, 2000). bosnia and herzegovina has a great need for domestic as well as international investments. the current economic situation is not favorable. there are many reasons for that. the constitution of bosnia and herzegovina was agreed upon in dayton, specifically in anex iv of the 55 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences general framework agreement for peace in bosnia and herzegovina. after the dpa adopted the constitution at the state level, it created a complicated and cumbersome structure with many administrative levels. power is dispersed between many levels and usually exercised by administrative levels too small to fulfill its functions effectively (brankovc, 2016). the minimum number of regulations is enacted at the state level because of the competence of the entities for regulation in this area. substantive provisions on the status of companies, for example, are at the entity of the federation of bosnia and herzegovina, republika srpska and brcko district. procedural regulations governing the procedure for establishing the company were also adopted at the entity level, but at national level there is the framework law on registration of business entities, which stipulates the obligation of harmonization of procedures in the entities with their procedural rules. an agreement on stabilization and association of bosnia and herzegovina with the european union came into force in 2015, and started some reforms with the aim of harmonizing the laws of bosnia and herzegovina with the european union acquis communitarie. this will surely be a long and difficult process due to the absence of a single legal and economic space in bosnia and herzegovina. the same is reflected primarily in the fact that competences in very important areas are granted to entities, which results in a large number of laws. regulations are often different and prevent subjects from setting up the company under the same conditions and operating in the entire territory of bosnia and herzegovina (sudzuka, 2016). the legal system of bosnia and herzegovina in the post-war period and the period of transition is experiencing transformation in different aspects. there is no doubt that the consequences of transition reflect on the economic and legal system of bosnia and herzegovina. along with solving these problems, bosnia and herzegovina is trying to follow modern trends in the development of economic and legal systems and to harmonize regulations of various areas with the legislations of developed countries, especially within the integrated regional community, including neighboring countries and the eu member states. bosnia and herzegovina participates in the stabilization and association process and is a potential candidate for eu membership. in december 2014, the eu initiated a new approach to bosnia and herzegovina with regards to fulfilling the eu conditions; this led to the signing of enforcement of the stabilization and association agreement on the 1st of june 2015. it replaced the interim agreement which had 56 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences been in force since 2008. in february 2016, b&h submitted the official application for eu membership. joining the eu will require institutions at the state level to be far more effective than they currently are. bosnia and herzegovina has to have strong institutions at the state level with necessary capacity and expertise to deal with the wide range of issues covered by such agreements (brankovic, 2016). all these abovementioned issues are closely related to the legal and economic framework for foreign investments in bosnia and herzegovina. investors are interested to have good business climate in the area where they want to invest. moreover, they are not ready to deal with complicated and long administrative procedures and very strict requirements for conducting business. the country’s decentralized government structure creates a complex and multi-layered network of public institutions, administrations and regulations. it is difficult for investors, especially foreign ones, to navigate through this regulatory network, which applies to all aspects of corporate operations, including business registration, licensing and permitting, inspections and direct taxation. this regulatory burden is identified by most observers and as the greatest deterrent to foreign direct investment (unctad, 2015). this paper will give an overview of the legal framework for foreign investments in bosnia and herzegovina with special emphasize on regulations regarding company formation and taxes. also, the authors will present the advantages of investing in b&h and the current position of investments. methodology the most important task of this research is the study of current theoretical and practical aspects of the foreign investments as a modern model of financing and improving of modern economies, and their effects on the legal and economic system of bosnia and herzegovina. therefore, the main hypothesis can be determined as follows: bosnia and herzegovina has great potential for attracting and hosting foreign investments due to its favorable geographic position, natural resources and labor force. however, there are also significant obstacles for further economic development: complicated regulatory and administrative system, high rate of corruption in public administration and existence of legal particularism in regulation of different aspects of business at different administrative levels. a. brankovic & e. sudzuka 57 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences a number of methods will be used in the scientific research, formulation and presentation of the research results in this paper. it is necessary to combine general scientific methods and legal methods that are appropriate for this type of research. in order to realize the objectives of the research and demonstrate the hypotheses, methods for collecting the primary and secondary data will be used. the method of analysis will interpret in detail the traditional and new approach to the foreign investments, and methods of synthesis will be used for the purpose of concretization of attitudes. the descriptive method will show the results of the research. the statistical method will be used for processing, display and analysis of data obtained in the framework of the primary research conducted. the use of this method will enable the testing and evaluation of the basic hypotheses. the compilation method will show the results of scientific research, observations, opinions and conclusions of other author with due reference to the source. during the research of this dissertation topic, the normative method will be intensively used in all its forms. in doing so, in first place is the logical-normative method that connects all legal norms relevant to the research of the area. in second place is a formal-normative method that is used to define a hierarchy of sources, according to their legal force in order to systematize the sources that regulate foreign investment law in bosnia and herzegovina. advantages for investments in b&h b&h has been trying to attract foreign direct investments because of their importance for the economy of the country, growth, development and solving of unemployment problem. there are many advantages for investing in b&h from the foreign investor’s point of view. the greatest advantage for investing in b&h is its work force. employees in b&h are well educated, skilled, have high computer literacy, and speak foreign languages. it is easy to find young well educated employees, as well as senior experienced employees, due to the current labor market situation and high unemployment rate in the country. educated employees in b&h are much cheaper in comparison with the united states, and the eu countries. primary research undertaken on turkish companies which invest in b&h, in the frame of the international university project: “bosnia and herzegovina’s legal and economic environment for foreign investments in b&h 58 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences commercial relations with turkey: the status of b&h economy and recommendations for the future”, in the spring of 2016, shows that the main reason for investing in b&h is the availability of educated and cheap labor. a turkish company from the information and technology field reported that they have established a company in b&h because of the availability of young, educated people who produce software exclusively for other countries, mainly us and the eu (ganic & brankovic, 2016). b&h has an abundance of water, energy and raw material. some turkish companies in the abovementioned project stated that they invested in b&h due to the availability of relatively cheap and accessible raw materials, electric power and water. turkish manufacturing companies in b&h reported that raw materials were of high quality, and that there was a very good electrical supply system and an abundance of water (ganic & brankovic, 2016). b&h is situated in south east europe and has an excellent geographic position for foreign investments. turkish exporting companies in b&h participating in the abovementioned project reported that the position of b&h was very important for them. as they export huge quantities of products to the eu market, the proximity of b&h to the eu was of great importance (ganic & brankovic, 2016). foreign investors want to invest in a country where the rule of laws is respected. the signing of the stabilization and association agreement between b&h and the european union and process of harmonization b&h’s legislation with eu acquis is a clear sign for potential foreign investors that there is safe legal environment to invest in b&h. b&h signed a lot of multilateral and bilateral agreements. thanks to that, all companies that operate in b&h have the opportunity of exporting to a market of approximately 600 million people without paying any customs duties (fipa, 2016). legal and economic environment for foreign investments b&h’s accelerated economic reform process has contributed significantly to a greatly improved business climate. the aim of b&h is to eliminate legal and administrative obstacles for doing business in b&h, as well as to create the most attractive business environment in the south east europe. the main goal of b&h is eu membership. bosnia and herzegovina is a potential candidate country for eu accession and b&h has signed the stabilization and association agreement with the european union, which is a step a. brankovic & e. sudzuka 59 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences toward eu membership. bosnia and herzegovina has signed the central european free trade agreement (cefta), creating a free trade zone with access to a large consumer market. also, the process of negotiation to join the world trade organization is underway (fipa, 2016). however, it is necessary to conduct very important reforms in the legal system of bosnia and herzegovina, although there is a wellestablished legal environment for foreign investments. in july 2015, the country adopted a reform agenda aimed at tackling the difficult socioeconomic situation. its implementation has started meaningful progress in the implementation of the reform agenda necessary for the eu to consider the eu membership application of bosnia and herzegovina. only a strong state can assure economic reforms (brankovic, 2016). with regards to the legal environment, there are a few very important fields that should be regulated properly in order to assure an adequate regulatory framework for foreign investments. besides foreign investments themselves the regulation of company formation, taxation, privatization, concessions, social security contributions etc. are of great importance. legislation in the field of foreign investments in b&h includes international sources and sources of domestic law related to the matter. the first group of sources includes multilateral convention which b&h signed, accepted, and concluded bilateral agreements. the second group of sources includes the constitution, laws and by-laws in the field of foreign investment (ganic and brankovic, 2016. p. 72.). in the context of domestic legislation, it is important to stress that regulation of foreign investments is well regulated. at the state level they are regulated by the law on the policy of foreign direct investments of bosnia and herzegovina (hereinafter: lpfdi) published in the official gazette of b&h, 17/98, 13/03, 48/10 and 22/15. the law on the policy of foreign direct investment has been in force since 1998. it regulates the basic policies and principles of the participation of foreign investors in the economy of bosnia and herzegovina. the law grants foreign investors the same rights and obligations as domestic investors. the following articles of the law (the law on the policy of foreign direct investment of bosnia and herzegovina, 2015) stressed out the most important rights of foreign investors as follows: • foreign investors shall be entitled to invest, and to reinvest profits of such investments into any and all sectors of the economy of bosnia and herzegovina, and in the same form and under legal and economic environment for foreign investments in b&h 60 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the same conditions as defined for the residents of bosnia and herzegovina under the applicable laws and regulations of bosnia and herzegovina and the entities and brcko district of bosnia and herzegovina (lpfdi b&h. a.3) • subject to the provisions of this law, and subject to other laws and treaties of bosnia and herzegovina and the laws of entities and brcko district of bosnia and herzegovina, foreign investors shall have the same rights and obligations as the residents of bosnia and herzegovina. • bosnia and herzegovina, entities and brcko district of bosnia and herzegovina shall not discriminate with respect to foreign investors in any form, including but not limited to their citizenship, residency, religion, or the state of origin of investment. (lpfdi b&h. a.8) • foreign investors shall have the same property rights in respect to real estate as the citizens and legal entities of bosnia and herzegovina (lpfdi b&h. a. 12) • the law makes clear that the rights and benefits of foreign investors cannot be terminated or overruled by subsequently passed laws and regulations. the rights and benefits of foreign investors granted and obligations imposed by this law cannot be terminated or eliminated by the subsequently passed laws and regulations. if such subsequently passed laws and regulations shall have been more favorable to foreign investors, they shall have the right to choose under which regime the respective foreign investment will be governed. (lpfdi b&h. a. 20) • foreign investors shall have the right, for the purposes of their investments, to open accounts on the territory of bosnia and herzegovina in any commercial bank denominated in the national or any freely convertible currency. according to article 11, foreign investors also have the right to transfer abroad income from investments received in the form of profit, dividends, interest, and other forms (lpfdi b&h. a. 11a). • foreign investors are entitled to freely employ foreign nationals, with respect to the labor and immigration laws in b&h. subject to the labor and immigration laws in bosnia and herzegovina, foreign investors shall have the right to freely employ foreign employees (lpfdi b&h. a. 14). a. brankovic & e. sudzuka 61 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences • foreign investors are protected against nationalization, expropriation or requisition unless it is a question of the public interest. • foreign investment shall not be subject to any act of nationalization, expropriation, requisition or measures which have similar effects, except in the public interest in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, without any type of discrimination and against the payment of appropriate compensation. (lpfdi b&h. a. 16a) • the only limitation to the foreign investment is related to the military equipment and media. article 4(a) states: notwithstanding the policy of free admission of foreign direct investment into bosnia and herzegovina set forth in article 3 of this law, foreign equity ownership of business entity engaged in the production and sale of arms, ammunition, explosives for the military use, military equipment and media shall not exceed 49% of the equity in that business entity. there are also laws relating to foreign investments at the entities level. foreign direct investments are regulated at the level of fb&h with the law on foreign investments of fb&h published in official gazette of fb&h no. 61/01, 50/03 and 77/15. in rs it is regulated with the law on foreign investments of rs published in official gazette of rs no. 25/02, 24/04, 52/11 and 68/13. notwithstanding that this area is well regulated, the problem is that there are too many regulations for such a small country, as a consequence of the constitutional organization. the legal framework of company formation is also a very important aspect for the overall legal frame of foreign investments. this issue is very specific in bosnia and herzegovina due to different competencies of different state levels. formal registration of companies has many immediate benefits for the companies and for business owners and employees. legal entities can outlive their founders. resources are pooled as several shareholders join forces to start a company. formally registered companies have access to services and institutions from courts to banks, as well as to new markets. and their employees can benefit from protections provided by the law. an additional benefit comes with limited liability companies. these limit the financial liability of company owners to their investments, so personal assets of the owners are not put at risk. legal and economic environment for foreign investments in b&h 62 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences where governments make registration easy, more entrepreneurs start businesses in the formal sector, creating more good jobs and generating more revenue for the government (doing business, 2016). the founding, operation, management and termination of businesses in b&h are regulated by the law. the company law of the federation of b&h published in official gazette of fb&h no. 81/15 regulates such matters in fb&h and the company law of republic of srpska published in official gazette of rs no. 127/08, 58/09, 100/11 and 67/13 regulate such matters in rs. the current legal framework and regulations are adapted to the international standards applicable in the european union and other developed market economies. the following table provides an overview of the basic organizational form of the company according to the current legal framework in b&h. types of companies federation of bosnia and herzegovina republic of srpska unlimited joint liability company (d.n.o./o.d.) founded by the establishment contract of 2 or more partners, domestic or foreign, natural persons only; founders are liable to use all their assets, including personal property; there are no requirements for minimum or maximum contributions. founded by the establishment act of 2 or more domestic/ foreign natural and/or legal partners who commit to do certain activity under the same company name, with their own solidary liability for company commitments; there are no requirements for minimum or maximum contributions. limited liability company (d.o.o.) founded by the establishment act or establishment contract by 1 or more domestic/foreign natural and/or legal entities with initial capital divided in parts; a member in a limited company is liable for the value of his investment in that company; minimum initial capital is 1,000 bam (approx. 500 eur). founded by the establishment act of 1 to 100 domestic/ foreign natural and/or legal entities; a shareholder in a limited company is not personally liable for any of the debts of the company, other than for the value of his investment in that company; monetary part of the basic capital of liability company is 1 bam (approx 0.50 eur). limited partnership (k.d.) company founded by the establishment contract of 2 or more domestic/foreign natural and/or legal entities; there must be at least 1 partner with full liability (including private property) and at least 1 partner with limited liability, the liability being limited by the value of his share in that company. there are no requirements for minimum or maximum initial capital. founded by the establishment act of 2 or more domestic/ foreign natural and/or legal entities; one person at least has unlimited liability for the company, and one person at least has liability to the amount of his investment in the company; there are no requirements for minimum or maximum initial capital. a. brankovic & e. sudzuka 63 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences joint-stock company (d.d./a.d.) legal entities founded by the establishment contract of 1 or more domestic/foreign natural or legal shareholders with initial capital divided into shares; 1. open joint-stock company is a legal entity (banks, insurance companies, or companies with minimum initial capital of 4 mil bam (approx. 2 mil eur) and 40 shareholders at least), whose shares may be publicly listed; 2. closed joint-stock company is a legal entity whose shares are distributed among a limited number of shareholders. the minimum initial capital is 50,000 bam (approx. 25,000 eur). legal entities founded by the establishment contract of 1 or more domestic/foreign natural and/or legal entities with initial capital divided into a defined number of shares; 1. open joint-stock company is a legal entity whose shares may be publicly traded, i.e. offers its shares for sale upon the open market and they are listed on the stock exchange and other public markets. minimum initial capital is 50,000 bam (approx. 25,000 eur). 2. closed joint-stock company is a legal entity whose shares are distributed among a limited number of shareholders. minimum initial capital is 20,000 bam (approx. 10,000 eur). table 1. types of companies in b&h source: fipa, 2016 in harmonizing the laws of bosnia and herzegovina with eu legislation in the field of company law, as the initial phase, freedom of establishment is the most important area (saa, art. 50-57.) it is one of the most important categories of company law in the european union bearing in mind that represents a conditio sine qua non for the free movement of people, goods, capital and services. the right of establishment of natural and legal persons constitutes a legal basis for the free exercise of commercial activities on the territory of eu member states. this involves the pursuit of economic activities through an existing company or performance of such activities through the establishment of new companies. freedom of establishment assumes that all forms of restrictions and discrimination are abolished by introducing the so-called national treatment for established companies, before the establishment of the european union as well as the introduction of obligations phasing out of national law in the transitional period. according to professor horak, establishment means the right of legal or natural persons who are nationals of a member state of the european union to establish a legal person or company in the territory of a member state that is not his own, and includes the initiation and performance of independent activities. the definition of freedom of establishment resulting from the treaty on functioning of eu and is part of the freedom to provide services (horak, 2013). the legal basis for the harmonization of company law is contained in the provisions of the primary legislation of the european union. legal and economic environment for foreign investments in b&h 64 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences company laws are incorporated primarily in the corpus of national law. analyzing the attitude of european and national legislations, one should keep in mind several factors with regards to that national law, not only regulations, but also the case law and doctrine. given that the matter of company law is not a static category, there is a need for continued convergence and harmonization of national law in order to achieve market freedoms, in particular freedom of establishment and movement of capital in the internal market of the eu. in the case of bosnia and herzegovina, it is not easy to achieve this harmonization because of the existence of regulations on different administrative levels. that is not a problem only for approximation and accession to eu but also for all other potential and interested foreign investors. according to the applicable laws in b&h, beside formation of a subsidiary company, foreign entities can establish a representative office in b&h for performing market research, informative and promotional activities and for its own representation. the representative office does not have the status of a legal entity, i.e. the representative office cannot conclude agreements on behalf its founder, except representative offices of foreign air transportation companies which can sell transportation documents in accordance with bilateral agreements and international conventions signed by b&h. the representative office becomes operational after entering into the register of foreign representative offices kept by the ministry of foreign trade and economic relations with b&h. the business environment in b&h has significantly improved in recent years. a set of new economic laws in b&h were adopted in accordance with eu standards. b&h has a well-established economic environment for foreign investment. b&h is a financially stable country, with privatization possibilities in strategic sectors, a well regulated tax system, free trade zones, and other various measures to support and facilitate in foreign investment (ganic, m., brankovic, a. 2016). recognizing the importance of creating a favorable business environment to attract investment, and given the increasing competition when it comes to attracting fdi, below, we provide an overview of the relevant legislation regulating the legal and financial environment, and tax system and employment legislation related to foreign investments in b&h: a. brankovic & e. sudzuka 65 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences laws related to investment and business: cleansed text of the law on the policy of foreign direct investment of bih (official gazette of bih no. 17/98, 13/03, 48/10 and 22/15) law on foreign investments of rs (official gazette of rs no. 25/02, 24/04, 52/11 and 68/13) cleansed text of the law on foreign investments of fbih  (official gazette of fbih no. 61/01, 50/03 and 77/15)company law of the fbih (official gazette of fbih no. 81/15) company law of the rs (official gazette of rs no. 127/08, 58/09, 100/11 and 67/13) laws related to taxes law on value added tax of bih (official gazette of bih no. 09/05, 35/05 and 100/08) instruction on conditions for and methods of vat refund to foreign persons of bih (official gazette of bih no. 01/07) law on corporate income tax of fbih (official gazette of fbih no. 15/16) law on corporate income tax of rs (official gazette of rs no. 95/15) laws related to free zones law on free trade zones of bih (official gazette of bih no. 99/09) law on free zones of rs (official gazette of rs no. 65/03) law on free zones of fbih (official gazette of fbih no. 2/95, 37/04 and 43/04) laws related to business registration framework law on registration of business entities of bih  (official gazette of bih no. 42/04) excerpt from the law on registration of  business entities of rs (official gazette of rs no. 67/13 and  15/16) law on registration of business entities of fbih  (official gazette of fbih no. 27/05. 68/05, 43/09 and 63/14) legal and economic environment for foreign investments in b&h http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.cleansed%20text%20of%20the%20law%20on%20the%20policy%20of%20foreign%20direct%20investment%20in%20bih.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/cleansed%20text%20of%20the%20law%20on%20foreign%20investments%20rs.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.cleansed%20txt%20of%20the%20law%20on%20foreign%20investments%20of%20fbih_eng_october%202015.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.fbih_company_law.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.fbih_company_law.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.law%20on%20business%20companies%20rs.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.law%20on%20vat.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.instruction%20vat%20refund.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.instruction%20vat%20refund.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.profit%20tax%20law%20of%20republic%20of%20srpska.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.law%20on%20free%20zones%20in%20bih.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.law%20on%20free%20zones%20in%20republic%20of%20srpska.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.law%20on%20free%20zones%20in%20federation%20of%20bosnia%20and%20herzegovina.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.framework%20law%20on%20registration%20of%20business%20entities.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.law%20on%20registration%20of%20rs.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.law%20on%20registration%20of%20business%20entites%20federation%20of%20bih.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/10%20fbih%20law%20on%20registartion%20of%20business%20entities.pdf 66 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences excerpt from the decision on establishment and work of foreign representative offices of bih (official gazette of bih no. 15/03) laws related to employment: labour law of fbih (official gazette of fbih no. 26/16) labour law of rs (official gazette of rs no. 1/16) law on foreigners of bih (official gazette od bih no. 88/15) this list shows that the most of the areas relevant for foreign investments are regulated with two or more laws which are in most cases similar, but not completely equal. in the theory of law, this is called legal particularism and pluralism. this phenomenon is undesirable because it makes starting and conducting business for foreign investors very complicated. therefore it is necessary, among all other reforms, to perform a constitutional reform in order to ensure safe place and legal environment like in other eu member states and to attract as much foreign investors as possible. that is for sure the only path for development of b&h economy and overall conditions for the normal life of its citizens. current position of b&h – data presentation and analysis the 2016 doing business1 report ranks b&h 79th out of 189 economies that were included in the rankings. data for ease of doing business shows that business rank of b&h has been decreasing over the period 2012 2014. the business situation improved in 2015 and continued improving in the year 2016. the rank in 2016 improved 3 positions compared to the previous year. (see figure 1. on next page) in order to better understand the position of b&h regarding business regulations, it is necessary to analyze the components of ease of doing business. there are ten following components: starting a business; dealing with construction permits; getting electricity; registering property; getting credit; protecting minority investors; paying taxes; trading across the borders; enforcing contracts; resolving insolvency. the ranking of the components of “ease of doing business” for b&h are presented in figure 2. on next page. 1) the doing business project is world bank group’s project that provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement in 189 economies. a. brankovic & e. sudzuka http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.excerpt%20from%20decision%20about%20foundation%20of%20the%20representative%20office%20of.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.excerpt%20from%20decision%20about%20foundation%20of%20the%20representative%20office%20of.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/zakoni/05.08.2016.labour%20law%20fbih_eng_2016.pdf 67 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the ranking of the components of “ease of doing business” shows quite a different picture in comparison to the general rank. the worst situation is in the area of starting a new business. b&h is ranked 175th out of 189 countries regarding the start of new business. it is ten positions worse compared to the previous year. legal and economic environment for foreign investments in b&h figure 2: components of ease of doing business ranked source: author’s elaboration on world bank group data, 2016 figure 1: doing business rank in b&h source: author’s elaboration on world bank group data, 2016 68 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences starting a business in b&h requires more time, money, capital and procedures than in many countries in eu and central asia. (see table 2. below). indicator b&h eu&central asia oecd high income procedures (number) 12 4.7 4.7 time (days) 67 10 8.3 cost (% of income per capita) 14.8 4.8 3.2 paid-in min. capital (% of income per capita) 28 3.8 9.6 table 2. starting a business in b&h source: world bank group, 2016 it is interesting to note that all countries of ex-yugoslavia have a better rank than b&h. serbia is on the 59th position, montenegro on the 46th position, croatia on the 40th, slovenia is 29th and macedonia is 12th. these countries have similar competitive advantages to b&h. they all have a well-educated workforce, raw materials, water and energy. they all have an excellent geographical position, similar to b&h. they are either members of the eu like slovenia and croatia or well advanced toward eu integration compared to b&h. taking all this into account, b&h’ priority should be to make reforms and improve its legal and economic environment for foreign direct investment. conclusion b&h needs international investments in order to solve its economic problems, huge unemployment and enhance economic growth and development. there are many advantages for investing in b&h. in the first place, it is its well-educated and cheap work force, with language and computer skills. there is an abundance of raw material, water and energy. b&h’s favorable geographic position, many bilateral and multilateral agreements, as well as advancement toward the eu make b&h a desirable destination for foreign direct investments. however, there are also obstacles for foreign direct investments. the country’s decentralized government structure creates a complex and multi-layered network of public institutions, administrations and regulations. it is difficult for investors, especially foreign ones, to a. brankovic & e. sudzuka 69 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences navigate through this regulatory network, which applies to all aspects of corporate operations, including business registration, licensing and permitting, inspections and direct taxation. because of all these problems, b&h is ranked on the 79th position in world bank’s “doing business” project, well behind neighboring countries that have similar comparative advantages to b&h. it is necessary for b&h to improve, in the first place, its legal environment, including ease of company registration, unification of rules at the state level and simplification of administrative procedures. the phenomenon of legal particularism exists in b&h. it is undesirable because it makes starting and conducting business for foreign investors very complicated. therefore it is necessary, among all other reforms, to perform a constitutional reform in order to ensure safe place and legal environment like in other eu member states and to attract as much foreign investors as possible. the reform agenda for bosnia and herzegovina was adopted in 2015 and should provide the appropriate environment for increase of investments and modernization of the b&h economy, with the aim of economic growth and creation of new jobs. it also assumes to strengthen the rule of law, administrative capabilities and increase efficiency in public institutions at all levels of government. references brankovic, a. (2016). administrative structure of bosnia and herzegovina, in yucel ogurlu and ahmed kulanic (eds), bosnia and heryegovina: law, society and politics, international university of sarajevo doing business, (2016). measuring regulatory quality and efficiency, economy profile 2016, bosnia and herzegovina http://www.doingbusiness. org/data/exploreeconomies/bosnia-and-herzegovina/~/media/giawb/ doing%20business/documents/profiles/country/bih.pdf fipa (2016). investment opportunities in bosnia and herzegovina, http://www. fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/brosure/io_24.03.2016.pdf ganic, m. and brankovic, a. (2016). bosnian and herzegovinian’s commercial relations with turkey: the status of b&h economy and recommendations for the future, international university of sarajevo; horak, h. (2013). sloboda poslovnog nastana trgovackih drustava u pravu europske unije, ekonomski fakultet zagreb. oecd (2015), policy framework for investment 2015 edition, oecd publishing, paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264208667-en legal and economic environment for foreign investments in b&h http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/bosnia-and-herzegovina/~/media/giawb/doing%20business/documents/profiles/country/bih.pdf http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/bosnia-and-herzegovina/~/media/giawb/doing%20business/documents/profiles/country/bih.pdf http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/bosnia-and-herzegovina/~/media/giawb/doing%20business/documents/profiles/country/bih.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/brosure/io_24.03.2016.pdf http://www.fipa.gov.ba/publikacije_materijali/brosure/io_24.03.2016.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264208667-en 70 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences sonrajah, m. (2010). the international law of foreign investment, 3rd ed., cambridge university press. stabilization and association agreement (2008). http://europa.ba/wp-content/ uploads/2015/05/delegacijaeu_2011121405063686eng.pdf sudzuka, e. (2016). europeisation of bosnian and herzegovinian company law in the absence of a unique legal and economic environment, conference paper, europeization of croatian private law, faculty of law split. unctad (2015). investment policy review –bosnia and herzegovina, http://unctad.org/en/publicationslibrary/diaepcb2015d1_en.pdf a. brankovic & e. sudzuka http://europa.ba/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/delegacijaeu_2011121405063686eng.pdf http://europa.ba/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/delegacijaeu_2011121405063686eng.pdf http://unctad.org/en/publicationslibrary/diaepcb2015d1_en.pdf 57 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the treatment of violence in martin amis’ money and pinters’ the caretaker almasa mulalić, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina abstract towards the end of 1960s there was a huge hippie movement which was marked as turbulent decade. in britain the labor party gained power in 1964, in france the protests in 1968 forced president charles de gaulle to leave the country. for some people in europe, may 1968 meant the end of traditional collective action and the beginning of a new era to be dominated mainly by different social movement emerging at that time throughout the world (brinkley, 1997; erlanger, 2008). harold pinter’s the caretaker (1960) and martin amis’ money: the suicide note (1984) are embedded with violence and mistreatement among the main characters. with an attempt to reflect social dimensions of the society of that time, both novels deal with violence between very close people who have family or very close friendship ties. the cartaker is the play in which people are portrayed as living on the edge, and are ready to accept any possibility presented in order to fulfill their individual psychological needs. the money is a novel about john self, a film director, a man who makes deals, spends a lot of money, abuses alcohol, tobacco, pills, pornography, and as a result he is portrayed as extremely violent. this paper attempts to analyze the question of violence that is presented and described in these two works. more importantly, this paper uses socio-psychological approaches and the historical context in analyzing violence in these two works. an analysis of absurd and satirist worlds presented by pinter and amis is especially valuable because of their relevance for describing and tackling present-day violence in our societies. keywords: violence; suicide; abuse; the caretaker; money and john self. 58 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. mulalić the background of pinter’s the caretaker (1960) clearly presents the circumstances within which this play had originated and why he was excessively using language of violence in his play. actually, pinter’s early plays were not popular; they were rejected on the ground of being indistinct and without clear meaning. michael codron, decided to present pinter’s second play, the birthday party, at the lyric hammersmith in 1958. the result was one of the most famous disasters in postwar british theatre. the play was roundly dismissed by the daily critics and taken off at the end of the week. pinter’s only consolation was that harold hobson in the sunday times wrote a glowing encomium claiming that pinter possessed “the most original, disturbing and arresting talent in theatrical london” (billingtone, 2008). the obvious character and the brevity of scenes in which language manipulation was often linked to the state of violence and mental torture characterized pinter’s early plays. then, apparent illogicality and confusion also characterized his first plays (pinter, 1965: p. 28). his early writing was considered as illogical, because there was no clear development of narration through his plays. within such background and particular social circumstances, pinter’s characters were often confused and misunderstood. for instance, in the caretaker, his main scenes and characters are portrayed in a single room whereby strangers are invited and at the same time, are portrayed as invading somebody’s private space. these strangers in pinter’s plays are presented as being invited, perfectly acceptable and without visible signs of violence (pinter, 1965: pp. 6, 7, 8). however, whatever comes from outside is dangerous according to common believes, therefore people inside are not aware of it and they let others inside without questions, being later caught unaware.1 due to the style and structure of his plays, pinter’s the caretaker became associated with the theater of the absurd. the theater of the absurd emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a reaction to chaos and social turmoil (bigsby, 365; metz, 2001; esslin 1961). in the theater of the absurd, language is used in a manner that heightens the audiences’ awareness of the language itself. there is apparent lack of plot and action and there is always a notion that something will happen, but it never does. this particular work expresses the belief that, in a godless universe, human existence has no meaning or purpose and all communication between the main actors apparently break down. according to coe (1975) the theater of the absurd is a designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction, written by a number of primarily european playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as to the style of theatre, which has evolved from their work. logical construction and argument gives way to irrational and illogical speech and to its ultimate conclusion, silence. therefore, plays of absurd proposed that the language used in these plays 1. i would like to thank prof. dr. srebren dizdar, prof. dr. metin bosnak and assist. prof. dr. julie bates for reading and reviewing this paper and for providing me with valuable comments and suggestions 59 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the treatment of violence is completely paralyzed in the modern world, hence it often fails to transmit meaning between the speaker and the listeners (gale, 2002 p. 3). harold pinter’s plays are specific for their cruelty and violence. for example in the room there is the scene in which a blind innocent man is brutally bitten. in the birthday party as well the scene of abduction is very violent and spread terror around (gale, 2002 p. 2). the caretaker presents the main themes, actors and characters of the world in 1950, especially that of england. the caretaker as a play, even though confusing at the first glance, appears to be very simple. for instance, aston, mick and davies as the main characters represent their own isolation from the outside world with a sense of intensity. the isolation of the main characters is both forced upon them and purposefully accepted. the characters do not allow themselves to form good relationship with others due to their particular personality in which they cannot accept friendships. such multiple character presentations are clearly illustrated in the play: being accused of making noise during the sleep davis defends himself “i tell you what, maybe it were them blacks.” this shows that he doesn’t trust people and then aston informs davies that he is going out, but invites him to stay if he likes, indicating that he trusts him, something unexpected by davies; for, as soon as aston does leave the room, davies begins rummaging through aston’s “stuff.” this also shows that he is not a person on whom you can rely or trust (pinter, 1960, pp. 21). here, it is obvious that beneath the nonsense and irregularity in sequences humor of absurdist theater lurks an element of cruelty often revealed in dialogue between characters but manifested in acts of violence as well (gale, 2002 p. 2). from the very beginning of the play, the realistic details of everyday life and occurrences were emphasized. aston lives in an apartment room, which is owned by his brother mick. though they are brothers, there is no proper communication among them, the reason being that aston is handicapped in a way and mick too occupied with his business. aston lives the life of mentally retarded human being because of the electric shock treatment given to him (pinter, 1960 p. 64.) the very isolated condition of aston suggests the critical existence of a man in the modern world, who may live the life as mentally retarded person like aston. aston not only rescues davies but also helps him by providing him with tobacco, a pair of shoes, bed and above all allowing him to share a room with him. aston’s activities of helping davies express aston’s need for companionship. he expects davies to stay with him. aston realizes his isolation and when he gets the opportunity to end it, he tries to cherish it. davies is also badly in a need of companionship (pinter, 1960, pp. 34). the realistic details of everyday life and a complexity of the relationship are presented in pinter’s play. throughout the play, there are numerous instances of violence and aggression among 60 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. mulalić the main proponents. these hints of violence and brutality might be connected to a pinter’s perception of the world as insecure, not only presented by his play characters, but also in the real world. for instance, the fate of mr. davis as presented in the play can be compared to current world situation characterized by bloodshed, destruction, insecurity, and violence. in essence, there is no security and safety in relation to any aspect of the everyday life, which is the major answer to the question why pinter was emphasizing writing about violence in his plays. different predicaments and problems are associated with each actor in the play, in such a way that all of them have some kind of a dilemma invisible at the first sight, but visible deeply from within. with the progression of the play the signs of violent traits become more and more visible. among the signs of the violence is the monologue by aston: this monologue, about aston and an institution, is both very convincing and terrifying. however, it is necessary to indicate that aston’s perception and experience have two sides of the truth. his story indicates that he was victimized in that institution, but throughout the play aston is seen as mentally disabled and handicapped anyway. nevertheless it is noticeable, especially at the end of the play, that aston actually made davis to believe that he had mental problems. for instance, this has been proven through devises’ behavior when he sided with mick in order to deceive aston and kick him out of his own home. therefore, it is possible to assume this situation as a kind of a game between two brothers, in which they select suitable victims from the street in order to exercise a sadistic fantasy of power. according to inan (2005) the elder brother’s account of his brain-operation is highly detailed and circumstantial. however, is it true? if it is true, why there is no pinter’s writing about how serious social play denounce the cruelty prevalent in mental hospitals? in addition, if it isn’t true, why does it take the crucial place in the text – the climax of act two? actually, the situation as such has mulone day they took me to a hospital, right outside london. they… got me there. i didn’t want to go. anyway… i tried to get out, quit a few times. but… it wasn’t very easy. they asked me questions, in there. got me in and asked me all sort of questions. well i told them… when they wanted to know… what my thoughts were. hmmnn. then one day… this man… doctor, i suppose… had one… he was quite a man of distinction… although i wasn’t sure about that. he called me in. he said they’d concluded their examination. that’s what he said. he said… he just said that, you see. you’ve got this thing… this thing. that’s your complaint. and we’ve decided, he said, that in your interest there’s only one course we can take. he said… but i can’t remember… how he put it… he said, we’re going to do something to your brain. he said… if we don’t you are going to stay here for the rest of your life, but if we do you stand a chance (pinter 1960 p. 64). 61 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the treatment of violence tiple interpretations. one of those interpretations is an improvised attempt by two brothers to haul innocent people into the confines of their home and indulgence into all kinds of abuses over the new comer. however, this is purposefully committed for the sake of reducing everything to a play and an absurd situation. there is also an expression of a physical violence from mick’s side towards davis, the old tramp. his behavior towards his own brother is not at a high level either. he is portrayed wearing leather jacket, which could be perceived as a sign of a people who are violent and unpredictable. mick’s first act on davis, on their first encounter is to take him unaware and force him to the floor before subjecting him to interrogation (rogers, 1987). the following citation from the book, illustrates his violent behavior: mick is violent, erratic, and unpredictable. he cannot take behavior of his brother anymore, so he might be thinking of setting him the trap by siding with the old tramp. it seems here that mick wants to create tensions and reveals his true nature. for instance, this can be noticed when he smashes figure of buda, which was placed in the room (pintar, 1960, p. 83). the buddha is one of the main props used by pinter. the buddha stands for enlightenment, peace and compassion. in the play it was almost symbolic of the character of aston. the crack in the statue of the buddha recalls the smashing of the statue by mick, who cannot control himself and reflects it on the statue. a crack in the buddha symbolizes a crack in the belief of aston on the idealities of peace and compassion. unable to connect with davies and betrayed by him, he no longer rely on peoples sincerity and compassion and is deeply disappointed. throughout the play, mick is expressing signs of violence towards davis without much reason for that king of a behavior. his brother aston also has small rationality in his actions. he is very shallow, unable to express himself and to communicate. however, mick’s violent behavior towards his brother can be associated with mick’s inability to face his brother’s problems (pintar, 1960, p. 35). socialization with other people and inability to cooperate among each other is another theme in this play, which might be the reason for violent behavior among the main actors. at the very end, it appears that the brothers are turning davies, an old homeless man, out of what may be his last chance for shelter, mainly because of his (and their) mick slides across the room. davis half turns, mick seizes his arm and forces it up his back. davis screams. uuuuuuuhhh! uuuuuuuhhh! what! what! what! uuuuuuuhh! mick swiftly forces him to the floor, with davis struggling, grimacing, whimpering and staring. mick holds his arm, puts his other hand to his lips, than puts his hand to davies lips. davis quietens. mick lets him go. davis writhes. mick hold out a warning finger. he then squats down to regard davis. he regards him, then stands looking down on him. davis massages his arm, watching mick. mick turns slowly to look at the room… (pinter, p. 28-29). 62 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. mulalić inabilities to adjust socially to one another, or their respective ante-social qualities. the aspect of physical, mental, psychological, and verbal violence was highly expressed throughout the play. the psychological violence might influence all aspects of people’s lives. according to burman, margolin and john (1993) psychological violence may be characterized as carrying an implied threat of physical violence, or attempt to intimidate or control the other person. whether this distinction between psychological violence and emotional abuse is real or arbitrary, the fact remains that, in a rudimentary way, these distinctions are an attempt to begin to differentiate the concept of psychological violence (burman, margolin and john, 1993). psychologists agree that there are three main divisions of violence, psychological, sexual and physical (sokin, 1985; stoudeur and still, 1989; duton, 1988). in the reference to the above play it is obvious that there is an act of deviant behavior among the main actors in the play. with regards to martin amis’s money the suicide note it is important to consider main circumstances that played significant role in scope and style of a novel. in the 1960s the united states underwent drastic social and political changes. there were marches and protests, under the leadership of martin luther king, to eliminate racial discrimination as well as the protests against the vietnam war. a drastic development of sub-cultures significantly influenced and shaped areas of art and entertainment. towards the end of 1960s there was a huge hippie movement which was marked as turbulent decade. in britain the labor party gained power in 1964, in france the protests in 1968 forced president charles de gaulle to leave the country. for some people in europe, may 1968 meant the end of traditional collective action and the beginning of a new era to be dominated mainly by different social movement emerging at that time throughout the world (brinkley, 1997; erlanger, 2008). therefore, all these controversies and changes influenced a number of writers during that time, including martin amis. in money the suicide note the narrator of the novel is john self; the symbolism of the name is more than obvious. he is 35 years-old british tv commercial producer. the novel starts with a suicide note, which is a post modernism trick to make story more interesting and intriguing. usually most of literary works are based on a simple story, a person or as in this case on an intriguing note (amis, 1984, section 1 pp. 5-23). to antonia this is a suicide note. by the time you lay it aside (and you should always read these things slowly, on the lookout for clues or giveaways), john self will no longer exist. or at any rate that’s the idea. you never can tell, though, with suicide notes, can you? in the planetary aggregate of all life, there are 63 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the treatment of violence however, in this work a suicide note was perfectly presented as an introduction to a novel, which provides to the readers hints about what is to follow in the novel. besides, a suicide note sets psychological, economic, social, and literary contexts of a novel. money’s plot is very complicated and far from simple. an english director of campy television commercials, john self has been hired by an american producer, fielding goodney, to direct a screenplay, alternately titled, good money and bad money. rennison (2005) points out that john self, a protagonist, is, willing to sell what remains of his soul, in exchange for receiving all the immediate gratifications that consumer culture offers, and that is excess. excess is what this culture offers, if one has money to pay for it, and excesswhether for booze, drugs, sex or foodis what self craves (p. 8-9). the movie, self is about to produce, is doomed to failure, part of an elaborate scheme to trick self out of his money. in the course of the novel, self hesitates between extremes of self-indulgence and self-improvement (amis, 1960). he craves autonomy, yet laments his apparent lack of free will; he acknowledges his actions in the role of victimizer but fears, correctly, that he is the victim of some powerful malevolent force; and in the end, despite his numerous attempts at improvement, events collude to frustrate him, and the book culminates in a whirlwind of deceit and painful recognition (keuluks, 1984). carlos silva (2004) for example, argues that money “combines a complex web of postmodern tricks and narrative devices with an accurate depiction of the 1980s and its materialist philosophy of self development through material success” (p. 88-9). the story itself contains a number of complex ideas. amis’ novel creates suspense and trills readers to expect a surprise in almost every line. john self is in a way of attempting to use everything to satisfy his appetites. he is a bit bulky, enjoys consuming everything; food, drink, and heroin (amis, 1960, p. 24). he is obsessed with pornography and finds real pleasure in it; however, he does not finish any of his movies. this means that he is dedicated to instant pleasure and uses films for another past time. representation of pornography in the novel is a kind of frame of early predicmany more suicide notes than there are suicides. they’re like poems in that respect, suicide notes: nearly everyone tries their hand at them some time, with or without the talent. we all write them in our heads. usually the note is the thing. you complete it, and then resume your time travel. it is the note and not the life that is cancelled out. or the other way round. or death. you never can tell, though, can you, with suicide notes. to whom is the note addressed? to martina, to fielding, to vera, to alec, to selina, to barry — to john self ? no. it is meant for you out there, the dear, the gentle. m. a. london, september 1981. (amis, 1984, section 1 p. 1). 64 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. mulalić ament and representation of pornography and its support for modern way of life. this notion is also product of globalization, which sheltered the whole world. here pornography, sex, and violence are being gradually introduced as acceptable social norms. there has been a worldwide revolution in the perception of moral values in recent years, involving profound changes in the way people think and act. the communications media have played and continue to play a major role in this process of individual and social change as they introduce and reflect new attitudes and lifestyles. despite many charges of sexism, amis has always asserted that he does not consider money to be a misogynist or even a sexist novel. once he simply stated: “i was a feminist when i wrote money, which i think is too programmatic a feminist book, although of course it was criticized as sexist at the time” (radio interview by james noughty, 2001). on some other occasions, he has called himself one of the declaratively feminist writers of his generation. however, the description of john self ’s character as loose, greedy, with low self esteem, afraid of everything and at times very violent and unpredictable neglects the justification of amis’ claims. money is definitely an aggressive text, which readers with tender sensibilities should probably avoid; underneath john self ’s sexist surface, however, the novel’s theme is declaratively full of pornography, bad language and overly programmatic (amis, 1960, p. 4). regardless of how much money he has, self is denied the advantage of intellect, reason, and logic. in this respect, he suffers from the “terror of ignorance.” even though he holds a respectable position of producer, he seems not very clever. cultural modification will forever evade self because such things come only from understanding unselfish impulses within society. self never allows the reader to become comfortable; he accomplishes this by rapidly shifts in style. consider the scene in which he attempts to rape his girlfriend in very inconsiderate and violent way, selina street. here is the extract from the book in a very straightforward, matter-of-fact manner: so then i tried to rape her. in all honesty i have to confess that it wasn’t a very distinguished effort. i’m new at this and generally out of shape. for instance, i wasted a lot of time attempting to control her hands. obviously the proper way to rape girls is to get the leg question sorted out and take the odd slap in the face as part of the deal. here’s another tip: undress before the action starts. it was while i had selina’s forearms in my right hand and the belt-clasp in my left that she caught me a good one with the bony fist of her knee. i took it right in the join of my splayed and aching tackle. whew, that was a good one, i thought, as my back hit the deck. arched and winded, i lay there with the lampshade in my face. i felt i was slowly turning green from the toes up. then at last i crawled next door like a knackered alligator and roared for many 65 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the treatment of violence self acts more as a narrator than as a rapist. he criticizes his own effort and tries to explain “the proper way to rape girls.” after he fails, the language becomes more eloquent as self apologizes to selina, until she forgives him and, repentant, self “lay there with the breathing bundle in my arms, and sadly listened to the subsidence of her sighs (amis, 1960, p. 84). the reader is lulled to sleep by the alliterative rhythm and self ’s moral repentance. there is a blank line, and then the following single sentence paragraph is uttered: “then i tried to rape her again.” by following this unforgivable, unforgettable sentence with a long paragraph of narration, one can speak into the true nature of john self. therefore, self in his own right tries to fulfill all his lasts no matter what are the consequences. in his attempt to rape his girlfriend, he goes even further in his sadistic and violent manner in order to satisfy his animal instinct (amis, 1960, p. 89). his attitude towards female characters is illustrated with the text full of conflicting messages. he portrays women as sexually vulnerable and passive on one hand, but in some instances, they are portrayed as having position that is more modern. the intellectual shortcomings of self are numerous. for example, when he was confronted with the dancer in the bar, who was supposedly studying english language, he could not answer a very simple question. ‘ i mean are they mainstream novels and stories or thrillers or sci-fi or something like that?’ ‘what’s mainstream?’ she smiled appraisingly and said, ‘that’s a good question . .. i’m fucking my way through college? english literature, at nyte? you write novels? that’s what you do? what did you say your name was?’ (amis, 1960 p.3). this is an indication of his intellectual and physical problems. for example, he prefers not to read, because it hurts his eyes, and given the choice between the pain and not reading he chooses not to read. the intellectual humiliation is an act of violence from the writers’ side that he inflicts on self. this can clearly be seen from the description of self ’s physical disorders and use of animal imagery. he is most often described as having problems with tooth decay and his gums are traumatized. his hair is very thin and he loses it in some places. he is also fat and heavy. furthermore, he hears strange sounds and all of the time he has attack of amnesia. he is dreaming of a major overhaul and that he should perform a surgery in order to fix himself. “i need my whole body drilled down and repaired, replaced. i need my body capped is what i need. i’m going to do it, too, the minute i hit the money” (amis, 1960, p. 103). humiliation and violence on self is further inflicted through the animal images associated with self. when he is frightened, self ’s face is like the face of a fat snake (amis, p. 106). when he wakes up in the morning he feels like a cat run over (amis, 1960, p. 5). the most captivating feature in the novel is the fact connected to the self treatment of himself and his own body. he gorges himself on junk food and alcohol, is prone to casual violence and pornographic fantasies. this is directly moons into the wind tunnel of the can (amis, 1960. p. 84). 66 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a. mulalić connected to the authors’ treatment and satarization of the social system and of the consumerism of the western society that made self what he is (diedric, 1995). since 1950s, torture and violence become major issues worldwide and as a result, pinter’s earliest dramas were entirely based on increasing interest in depicting torture and campaign against it in profound literary way (luckhurst, 2005). he examined the theme of violence and torture explicitly in his plays and even in some of his plays which do not represent torture and violence pinter stubbornly relates his writing to the role of cruelty and power on familial and erotic relationships. some of his plays with the above mentioned themes are: the homecoming (1965), landscape (1969) and betrayal (1978). there have been claims that writers were influenced by the circumstances and conditions that were shaping human society. in this regard, pinter argued, “violence has always been in my plays; from the very beginning…we are brought up every day of our lives in the world of violence.” therefore, by declaring violence as a part of human life pinter skillfully put it in literary and psychosocial contexts. harold pinter was called “the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation” and “one of the few modern playwrights whose name instantly evoke a sensibility” (1) by the new york times. pinter had remarkable carrier and left mark in the british drama as the most important dramatist because his skill in language and pattern is very poetic. his provocative insights into human’s being place in the universe provokes one to deeply re-think the role of a man in today’s society. these characteristics portray him the most profound writer of this time. martin amis also wrote about violence in his novels, but he used different perspective. he produced many novels on violence. however, in his novel moneythe suicide note violence was expressed in different way. in this novel violence is not directed, for the most part, towards the people but it is rather internal and personal. for instance, internal and personal violence self illustrated in the consumption of food, alcohol and drug. amis was very successful in criticizing excesses of young people and contemporary society. amis in his writings revels in catastrophe and obscenity. he enters into the violent happenings in the streets of his own town and decides to write about it in his novels. his vision of england, oftentimes very critical, is incorporated into his writing: he covers all the major topics, from black culture to high culture. martin amis and harold pinter are two authors who wrote their novels being influenced by the circumstances in the world and around them. in their novels a profound reflection on the vices in the society are interwoven and presented to the readers. both of them use violence in their writings in order to protest against discrimination and injustice in the society. they both quest for the novelty and they 67 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the treatment of violence draw readers deeply into their writing and let reader decide, evaluate and judge for themselves conditions in which people waste or purposefully use their time. references amis, m. 1985. money: a suicide note. new york: penguin books. billingtone, m. 2008. harold pinter. the guardian. thursday 25 december 2008 14.24 gmt http:// www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/dec/25/pinter-theatre retrieved on 20 march, 2015. brinkley, a. 1997. the unfinished nation: a concise history of the american people. new york: the mcgraw-hill companies, inc. bigsby, c. w. e. 2000. modern american drama 1945-2000. cambridge: cambridge university press. billington, m. 2008. harold pinter. the guardian. uk edition. retrieved on 20.03. 2015. http:// www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/dec/25/pinter-theatre burman, b., margolin, g., and john, r. s. 1993. america’s angriest home videos: behavioral contingencies observed in home reenactments of marital conflict. special section: couples and couple therapy. journal of consulting & clinical psychology, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 28-39. coe, m. r. 1975. “logic, paradox, and pinter’s “homecoming,” educational theatre journal, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 488-497. diedric, j. 1995. understanding martin amis. university of south caroline press. esslin, m. 1961. the theatre of the absurd. middlesex, england. penguin books. erlanger, s. 2008. may 1968 a watershed in french life. new york times. retrieved 23 march 2015. gavin, k. 1984. the amises on realism and postmodernism: stanly and the women (1984) and money: a suicide note. oxford: oxford university press. gale. 2002. the gale imprinting group. absurdism. farmington hills usa: the gale group inc. gussow, m., brantley, b. 2008. harold pinter, nobel-winning playwright, dies at 78. new york times, december 25, 2008. retrieved on 15 march, 2015. inan, d. 2005. “public consciousness beyond theatrical space: harold pinter interrogates borders and boundaries.” nebula, vol. 2.2, pp.33-34. luckhurst, m. (ed.) 2005. a companion to modern british drama 1880-2005. blackwell publishing. metz, w. 2001. “what went wrong”?: the american avant garde cinema of the 1960s. history of the american cinema series. new york: charles scribreres sons. pinter, h. 1960. the caretaker. london: eyre methuen. rennison, n. 2005. contemporary british novelists. london and new york: routledge. rogers, p. 1987. the oxford illustrated history of english literature. oxford: oxford university press. silva, c. 2004. through the looking glass: america in martin amis’s money: a suicide note. universidad autonoma de barcelona. 9 using blogs to promote student interaction and learning in efl classes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences using blogs to promote student interaction and learning in efl classes izela habul-šabanović faculty of pedagogy, university of sarajevo abstract this paper addresses the application of a class blog in an efl (english as a foreign language) teaching context in order to promote student interaction and learning. a weblog, or blog, is an interactive homepage easy to set up and manage, which permits publishing online. although it was not initially provided for pedagogical purposes, a blog has a great potential to be used as a tool in efl classes, especially to motivate students to engage in online exchanges, thereby expanding their language study and learning community beyond the walls of a physical classroom. this small scale action research explores the usefulness of incorporating a blog project into an efl class as it provides an effective means of facilitating greater learner interaction and reflection on language skills development. a class blog was envisaged as an out-of-class project aimed at motivating students to practice language skills and communicate with others via this new computer-based learning platform outside the classroom. the participants for this study were the third and fourth year students (n= 52) of the pedagogical faculty in sarajevo attending an efl elective course. the research mainly focused on the students’ attitudes and perceptions of using a class blog to support their english language learning and foster student interaction in an online learning community. the project lasted for two semesters and data were collected from students through a questionnaire at the end of the term. the results of the questionnaire reveal that students had an overall positive attitude towards using a class blog as an appropriate medium for practicing both their language and social skills. keywords: blogs, efl, student interaction and learning, online learning community, students’ attitudes and perceptions 10 i. h. šabanović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction modern information and communication technologies not only influence the ways in which we share and gather information, or communicate, but they also inevitably bring about changes in the ways we learn and teach as well. the invention of web 2.0 applications (e.g. wikies, blogs, social networking, etc.) has emphasized the interactivity and social aspect of technology usage, so it has fundamentally changed the way people interact on the internet, making them contributors of information, instead of consumers. the internet users are thus enabled to create its content independently, publishing their own thoughts and opinions and exchanging their experiences with other people from all over the world, thus creating a new online platform for virtual interaction and collaboration. web 2.0 technologies have a great potential to introduce innovations in foreign language teaching, especially english, which no doubt can be considered a language of modern information and communication technologies. unlike the traditional education model mostly relying on the ‘talk and chalk’ method, computer assisted language learning (call) supported with these cutting-edge and sophisticated, but still user-friendly technologies, offers numerous opportunities to promote students’ active and autonomous learning and foster their critical thinking and social interaction. the teaching and learning process is thus replaced outside the walls of a traditional classroom into a cyber space of a virtual learning environment, where all communication takes place via computer, whether in real or asynchronous time. this paper explores the use of a blog, as a representative example of web 2.0 technologies, in english as a foreign language (efl) teaching, emphasizing its great potential for the improvement of the quality of interaction between efl teachers and students and the raise of motivation to learn english. this paper first provides some background information and a brief overview of the relevant literature on the educational value of blogs in efl teaching. we start with the definition of a blog, its basic characteristics and types, and explore the numerous possibilities for its application in efl teaching. this paper also reports on a research project where a class blog was integrated into an efl course at the university level, along with the survey targeted to examine the participants’ perception of the learning experiences afforded by the use of a class blog as a means to support social interaction and learning motivation, and also to supplement in-class learning activities. blogs a blog (short for weblog) is a frequently updated website which mostly functions as a personal online journal. it is ‘easy-to-create’ and ‘easy-to-maintain’ 11 using blogs to promote student interaction and learning in efl classes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences (pinkman 2005: 14) since it requires only a minimum technical background and basic access to the internet to make use of a software that enables users to create, design and maintain their own blog with ease. hosting websites such as blogger. com, first introduced in 1999 and offering a free-of-charge and simple automatized procedure of creating a blog, have made this effective medium of communication even more popular. according to godwin-jones (2003: 14), ‘ they offer a great deal of flexibility and the potential for creativity in the construction of the site, yet still feature the ease of use of a template-based system.’ blogs differ from other types of computer-mediated communication (cmc), i.e. they are unique websites in the form of electronic journals where authors post their writings in reverse chronological order, with the most recent at the top, and thus create a new topic for discussion for each post (richardson 2006) and they are innovative in that they require interaction, i.e. ‘for blog users, or bloggers, the computer is simply the medium for communication’ (pinkman 2005: 14). kennedy (2003: 1) defines blogs as ‘part web site, part journal, part free-form writing spaces [that] have the potential to enhance writing and literacy skills while offering a uniquely stylized form of expression.’ huffaker (2004: 1) distinguishes these basic features of a blog: (i) instant publishing of text or graphics to the web without sophisticated technical knowledge, (ii) ways for people to provide comments or feedback to each blog post, (iii) the opportunity to archive past blog posts by date, and (iv) hyperlinks to other bloggers. a typical blog is thus a combination of text, images, audio, video and other multimedia contents, also including links to other blogs, web pages and media related to its topic. these specific features distinguish blogs from other forms of cmc, especially because they support creative expression and provide new opportunities for people to present themselves online and share their experiences, opinions or creations with millions of other internet users worldwide. ever since they first appeared in 90s, having the form of a personal online diary at the time, blogs have evolved in more sophisticated forms mostly due to the advancement of ‘tools’ for arranging the web content. blogs have become popular platforms for presenting new ideas, online discussion and exchange of thoughts, therefore their number and purpose is growing fast every day, e.g. blogs of popular magazines and tv broadcasts, blogs of public people, blogs of political campaigns, comercial blogs, travel blogs, etc. based on their specific features, blogs can be distinguished in different types, e.g. individual or collaborative, personal or thematic, etc. some authors, like herring et al. (2005: 6), suggest a somewhat different classification, according to the primary purpose of a blog: (1) a personal journal, presenting the author’s personal life and attitudes, (2) a filter, in which the author offers links and commentaries on the contents of other web pages, (3) a know12 i. h. šabanović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences ledge log or k-log, in which the basic content consists of information and observations focused on an external topic, a project or a product, and (4) a mixed blog, which combines the functions of the three previously mentioned types. blogs have a great potential to be effectively and purposefully applied in education, especially in language teaching, ‘because of their multimedia features, simple web publishing, interactivity, and ability to support cooperative and autonomous learning’ (ahluwalia et al. 2011: 30). campbell (2003) suggests three types of blogs that could be used in language teaching: (1) the tutor blog, lead by the teacher and whose content refers to the curriculum, information about the course, useful links to other related contents on the internet, assignments, homework, etc.; students can also make comments on their teacher’s posts; (2) the learner blog, lead by individuals, or smaller cooperative groups of students, and representing students’ own online space for individual expression, and at the same time a great opportunity to practice reading and writing through managing a personal blog or posting comments on other students’ blogs; (3) the class blog, as a common online space for teachers and students, for out-of-class discussions, supporting project learning, and even international exchanges while connecting with other students and teachers from all over the world. blogs in efl education although blogs were not initially intended to satisfy pedagogical purposes, their simple user-friendly interface makes them an effective medium in educational settings, especially in the foreign language classroom. carney (2009: 299) suggests that ‘theoretically speaking, blogs offer promise in several key areas of language education including motivation, authenticity, collaboration and literacy.’ generally, blogs foster interaction and collaboration between teachers and students as they provide a viable online space for exchange and discussions. teachers are given opportunities to design their course in an innovative and creative way, and therefore motivate and encourage their students for additional learning, critical thinking and research even outside the classroom. blogs can also enhance the sense of community between students while they exchange information about themselves and their interests, and respond to their classmates’ posts. blogging also provides opportunities for shy students to ‘be heard’ in class discussions on blogs. assuming the fact that blogs have only recently gained their popularity in education, the possibilities and the results of their application have not been sufficiently explored yet (pinkman, 2005, carney, 2009). however, the number of studies indicating their usefulness is growing fast. for example, huffaker (2004) suggests that the effectiveness of blogs in education is achieved by their promotion 13 using blogs to promote student interaction and learning in efl classes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences of critical literacy skills, including reading, writing, self-expression, reflection and creativity. campbell (2003: 1) confirms the educational value of blogs by stating that ‘similar to an open journal, the accumulation of writings and other content creates both a record of learning and a resource for others’. many authors report about the positive attitudes of students towards the use of blogs in english language teaching, e.g. ahluwalia et al. (2011) and blackstone et al. (2007). teaching and learning via blogs are not limited by time and space, since communication can be asynchronuos, and what is more, learning becomes more autonomous and independent, more student-centered and adapted to his/her needs and interests. according to weiler (2003: 74): ‘weblogs can become an extension of the classroom, where discussions and collaborations continue long after the bells have sounded and students have left for home. this makes weblogs an excellent vehicle for student-centered learning.’ lee (2011: 102-103) reports about promoting learning autonomy and intercultural competence through blogging in education: ‘overall, students found that blogging supported self-directed learning, as they individually and socially constructed meanings to develop their intercultural knowledge and skills. according to the post-survey findings, blogging promoted learner autonomy through self-regulation and self-management.’ blogs can also be beneficial for teachers, e.g. they provide oportunities for better communication and cooperation with students, easier and faster exchange of information and teaching materials, possibilities for work with students who are not able to attend regular classess for whatever reason, the use of blogs as an electronic portfolio for students’ writings and easier assessment of their progress, possibilities for cooperation with parents and other teachers, etc. blogs have numerous advantages for their usage in efl teaching and it is up to teachers and their skillfulness and creativity, bearing on mind their own and their students’ needs, how to make best use of blogs in their teaching. many authors offer some useful ideas on how to use blogs in english language teaching, e.g. for practice in reading and writing (zhang, 2009, ducate and lomicka, 2008, ward, 2004), for study in literature (morrison, 2008), to foster reflection and social interaction and cooperation (ray & hocutt, 2006), as a journal run by teachers and students, providing space for comments, reactions and reflections on what has been done in class to be published; an online space to exchange intercultural projects and represent an online community of teachers and students (dieu, 2004), etc. keeping in mind the idea that effective learning environments require some form of social interaction, blogs can be a good example since they provide its users a sense of connection with their peers (richardson, 2003). many researchers have pointed out the importance of active exchanges with others to enhance student performance and satisfaction (gunawardena & zittle, 1997; moore & 14 i. h. šabanović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences kearsley, 1996; etc.). according to richardson (2003: 5), blogs are ‘a way to communicate with students ..., ‘manage’ the knowledge that members of the school community create’. blogs also provide space to deliver course content, including syllabi, assignments, links, or other updates (downes, 2004; roberts, 2003). thus, while posting on their blogs, educators and other users potentially create an on-line resource for their peers to refer to for guidance (campbell, 2003). according to moore and kearsley (1996), there are three types of interaction that allow students to achieve effective learning in distance learning environments: (i) learner – content interaction, (ii) learner – instructor interaction, and (iii) learner – learner interaction. while focusing on these three types of interactions, teachers may overcome potential shortfalls caused by a ‘transactional distance’ in such learning environments, which is due to the fact that teachers and learners do not interact in the same physical and temporal space. all three types of interactivity promote engaged learning and help develop collaborative learning experiences. gunawardena and zittle (1997), researchers in the area of social presence and computer-mediated conferencing, refer to the collaborative aspect of computer-mediated learning as ‘social presence’, which is defined as the experience of immediacy and intimacy in social exchanges and found to be a strong predictor of student satisfaction with the class. based on these findings, the current study focused on the creation of an online learning environment via a class blog that offers opportunities for learnerlearner interaction and creates an atmosphere in which students are motivated to learn and become part of a learning community with their classmates. methodology rationale of the study this project was initiated as a small scale action research study. the author implemented a blog project into an elective efl course in order to fulfill the following objectives: • to determine the usefulness of using blogs to foster social interaction between students and encourage out-of-class learning. • to provide students with a suitable platform to express their attitudes and opinions, engage in critical thinking and discussion with others, while reflecting on topics that had been covered in class and repeated on our class blog. • to motivate students for autonomous learning and additional reading or research on topics discussed. • to provide insights for other efl professionals into the possibilities of using blogs in the foreign language classroom. 15 using blogs to promote student interaction and learning in efl classes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences generally, the efl course goals were as follows: • to increase students’ motivation to learn and use english as much as possible. • to develop students’ confidence in using english more both in-class and outof-class. • to improve students’ english language skills – speaking, writing, reading and listening, and strengthen their ability to use english more efficiently. • to provide more practice in grammar and vocabulary as well. • to develop students’ communication skills and encourage interaction and cooperation among them both in in-class and out-of-class activities • to encourage students for autonomous learning and taking the responsibility for their own progress in learning english. • to enhance their critical-thinking and creativity. • to improve their web searching skills and make them use new technology tools both for their english learning and professional needs. • to improve their english for academic purposes, providing more practice in academic writing, research skills in the field using new technology, discussion strategies and formal oral presentations. participants and context the participants were 52 third-year and fourth-year bachelor level students of the pedagogical faculty in sarajevo, at the department of elementary school teaching and the department of preschool teaching. they were all females, their average age was 20-22, and their mother tongue bosnian. they learned efl and it was a compulsory general english course at the first year of their studies with only 2 lessons (2 x 45 minutes) per week in both semesters. at the third and the fourth year it was one of their elective courses, also represented with only 2 lessons (2 x 45 minutes) per week each semester. it was a mixed-level group related to their proficiency in english. although their average level of english was pre-intermediate to intermediate, there were some of them either below or above this level. our lessons were held in the computer lab, fully equipped and with a stable internet connection. procedure the concept of a blog was first introduced to the target group of students through a power point presentation, providing details about its design and usage, explaining the basic rules for successful blogging and posting comments on a blog, and discussing the benefits of using a blog in language teaching. for the purpose of this project, a special class blog ‘let us learn english online’ was designed 16 i. h. šabanović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences and used. the students were instructed how to access our class blog and its content and how to post their comments. after the introductory session, the project was conducted as an out-of-class project. our class blog was used for further discussion and posting comments on various topics, based on what we did in-class. the students were also encouraged to do some individual research and study independently at home, using the links provided on our class blog. the students were responsible for writing at least one comment on their own for each topic of discussion, and commenting on at least two or three of their classmates’ comments. the contents of their entries were to be based on provided topics of discussion and expressing their personal attitudes and opinions. the project lasted for two semesters. at the end of the project period, the students were asked to complete a questionnaire anonymously to evaluate the class blog project. the survey instrument in order to collect data on the students’ attitudes and perceptions of using a class blog to support their english language learning and foster student interaction in an online learning community, the researcher designed a post-project questionnaire to be completed at the end of the term. there were 20 items in total on the survey instrument, mostly focusing on student perceptions of social interaction (statements 1-9 and 11-13) and learning via a class blog (statements 10 and 1417), but also including a few statements (statements 18-20) aimed to determine overall class satisfaction. respondents were asked to mark their agreement with the statements on five-point likert-type scales ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). all of the 52 students completed the questionnaire. results and discussion results of the survey, as presented in table 1, indicate that overall student perceptions of social interaction and learning via a class blog as well as class satisfaction were positive, i.e. most students agreed or somewhat agreed with the statements describing high levels of social exchange and learning via a class blog. statement 1(%) 2(%) 3(%) 4(%) 5(%) na (%) (1) a class blog is an excellent medium for social interaction. 84.61 7.69 1.92 1.92 3.84 0 17 using blogs to promote student interaction and learning in efl classes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences (2) i think there was a lot of interaction between the participants in this course. 38.46 42.30 13.46 1.92 1.92 1.92 (3) i felt comfortable introducing myself and conversing with other students via our class blog. 65.38 26.92 0 1.92 5.76 0 (4) this interaction enabled me to form a sense of being part of an online learning community. 71.15 15.38 5.76 1.92 3.84 1.92 (5) i felt comfortable to actively participate in our course discussions. 76.92 11.53 3.84 3.84 3.84 0 (6) i really enjoyed the exchanges with other students. 82.69 7.69 1.92 1.92 5.76 0 (7) i am satisfied with the quality of exchanges that occurred in this class. 65.38 23.07 5.76 1.92 3.84 0 (8) the discussions we had in our class blog were valuable to me. 75 17.30 1.92 0 5.76 0 (9) i felt that my point of view was acknowledged by other participants in the course. 38.46 44.23 7.69 3.84 3.84 0 (10) i learned a lot from other participants in the course. 57.69 32.69 1.92 3.84 3.84 0 (11) i got to know the other participants better through our online discussions. 44.23 40.38 9.61 3.84 1.92 0 (12) i learned to value other points of view. 73.07 19.23 0 3.84 3.84 0 (13) i am satisfied with the level of social interaction in this online course. 69.23 23.07 3.84 1.92 1.92 0 (14) i was able to learn through the medium of a class blog. 73.07 17.30 1.92 5.76 1.92 0 (15) i think that my level of learning english has improved in this online course. 65.38 17.30 9.61 3.84 3.84 0 (16) i was stimulated to do additional reading or research on topics discussed in our class blog. 55.76 30.76 5.76 5.76 1.92 0 (17) the diversity of topics presented in our class blog prompted me to participate in the discussions. 53.84 34.61 5.76 3.84 1.92 0 (18) overall, our class blog met my learning expectations. 67.30 25 0 3.84 3.84 0 (19) overall, i enjoyed having been a member of this class. 86.53 5.76 1.92 1.92 3.84 0 (20) as a result of this experience, i would like to participate in another online course in the future. 80.76 9.61 3.84 1.92 3.84 0 1 – ‘strongly agree’; 2 – ‘somewhat agree’; 3 – ‘undecided’; 4 – ‘somewhat disagree’; 5 – ‘strongly disagree’; na – ‘no answer’ 18 i. h. šabanović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the following results relate to assessments of student perceptions of social interaction via a class blog. as for the statements with the highest percentage of responses ‘strongly agree’, 84.61% of students strongly agreed that a class blog is an excellent medium for social interaction and 82.69% of students really enjoyed the exchanges with other students. seventy-five percent of respondents strongly agreed that the discussions on our class blog were valuable to them and 76.92% of students felt comfortable to actively participate in our course discussions. furthermore, 73.03% of students strongly agreed that they learned to value other points of view and 71.15% of students strongly agreed that this interaction via a class blog enabled them to form a sense of being a part of an online learning community. besides that, 65.38% of students strongly confirmed that they felt comfortable introducing themselves and conversing with other students via our class blog, with the same percantage of those who were satisfied with the quality of exchanges that occurred in the class. overall, 69.23% of students were satisfied with the level of social interaction in this online course. these results seem to indicate that our structured online discussions via a class blog positively affected student perceptions of social interaction between the participants of this efl class. our class blog has proved to be a useful tool to foster student active participation and personal involvement in our class discussions and to make them feel that they are part of a learning community. generally, the results may imply student perceptions of high overall class interaction and class satisfaction. nevertheless, there were two statements related to student perceptions of social interaction via our class blog which were not equally ranked with a high percentage of responses ‘strongly agree’ compared to the other statements of this category. namely, 42.30% of students somewhat agreed with the statement that there was a lot of interaction between the participants of this course, whereas 38.46% of students strongly agreed with that. similarly, 44.23% of respondents somewhat agreed that they felt their point of view was acknowledged by other participants in the course, but still 38.46% of them strongly agreed with that. besides that, 44.03% of students strongly agreed with the statement that they got to know the other participants better through these online discussions, whereas 40.38% of students somewhat agreed with that. these percentages are particularly noteworthy in that students perceived that the amount of interaction between the participants in this online course was slightly lower than expected and they were not fully satisfied with the level of acknowledgement of their points of view by other participants. these results could be explained by the fact that this was a pilot project mainly envisaged as an out-of-class activity to support english language learning and foster student interaction, and it lasted only for two semesters. class blog discussions followed our in-class activities and they obliged students to spend some extra time outside the classroom to prepare for and actively participate in a purposeful online exchange with their col19 using blogs to promote student interaction and learning in efl classes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences leagues. obviously, they perceived this new type of activity as something completely different from what they were used to do, not only in their english classes, but in other study courses as well. although it was a positive change and they did their best to become active members of an online learning community via our class blog, they need more time and opportunities to get used to this innovative efl approach. although students confirmed that they enjoyed the exchanges with other group members and that the online class discussions were valuable to them, they still did not value our class blog as highly in terms of peer-to-peer learning opportunities. the results indicate that most students strongly agreed that they learned to value other points of view (73.07%), but they still need more confirmation and acknowledgement from their peers, and more opportunities to get to know them better. the following results relate to assessments of student perceptions of learning via a class blog. generally, 73.07% of students strongly agreed that they were able to learn through the medium of a class blog and 65.38% of students strongly agreed that their level of learning english improved in this online course. besides that, the results indicate that our class blog motivated students to learn since 55.76% of students strongly agreed that they were stimulated to do additional reading or research on topics discussed and 53.84% of students confirmed that the diversity of topics presented in our class blog prompted them to participate in the discussions. it is also noteworthy to observe that 57.69% of students strongly agreed that they learned a lot from other participants in the course, which is a clear indication that our class blog was valued highly in terms of providing opportunities to learn from others. these results seem to support the idea that a class blog could be used as an appropriate medium for english language learning and practice in efl classes. the results related to the overall class satisfaction reveal that students had a positive attitude towards using a class blog to foster their learning and social interaction with their peers. specifically, 67.30% of students strongly agreed that our class blog met their learning expectations and 86.53% of students enjoyed having been a member of this class. as a result of this experience, 80.76% of respondents strongly agreed that they would like to participate in another online course in the future. conclusion as has been stated above, the aim of this small scale study was to assess the attitude of a group of efl students towards the integration of a class blog in the efl classroom and its potential to enhance social interaction between students and support their efl learning. the results of the evaluation questionnaire not only showed the positive response of all students in the group towards using a class blog in the efl classes, but also confirmed that they are more motivated and in20 i. h. šabanović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences terested in learning when engaged in meaningful tasks with the authentic material. a class blog has a great potential to be used as a tool in efl classes, providing opportunities to motivate students to engage in online exchanges with their peers and expand their language study and learning community beyond the walls of a physical classroom. students experience a greater feeling of learning and achievement as they are given chances to learn both by themselves and from their peers. they are expected to construct their own knowledge and become responsible for their own progress, but they also share a common goal with the others in the group. a class blog provides them a unique opportunity to enjoy rich and repeated exchanges with their classmates which may enhance students’ overall class experience, being part of a larger learning community and enjoying the class in general. at the same time, the teacher gets a new role, as he/she is no longer a presenter of information but a facilitator to assist and direct his/her students. a class blog has proved to be a powerful teaching and learning tool in a modern efl classroom and it can be effectively used to promote student interaction while they actively participate in an online learning community. besides, a class blog offers numerous opportunities for efl learning and language skills development. the results showed that most students are motivated to learn if they are provided with authentic tasks and resources, and given opportunities to express their creativity, sociability and productiveness. however, it seems important to point out that the present study is of an exploratory nature which limits its generalizability to other settings and student populations. therefore, to determine whether or not blogs indeed foster social interaction and student motivation to learn beyond the classroom, more research needs to be done. nonetheless, it is hoped that this paper will provide some insights into numerous advantages of using blogs in efl classes and inspire foreign language teachers to make use of this interesting and authentic medium of computer-based communication. 21 using blogs to promote student interaction and learning in efl classes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences references: ahluwalia, g., gupta, d. & aggarwal, d. (2011): ‘the use of blogs in english language learn ing: a study of student perceptions’, in profile vol. 13, no. 2, october 2011, bogotá, colombia, pp. 29-41. blackstone, b., spiri, j., naganuma, n.(2007): ‘blogs in english language teaching and learning: pedagogical uses and student responses’, in reflections on english language teaching, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 1–20. blood, r. (2000). ‘weblogs: a history and perspective’, http://www.rebeccablood. net/essays/web log_history.html campbell, a. p. (2003). ‘weblogs for use with esl classes’. tesl journal, ix(2). http://iteslj.org/ techniques/campbell-weblogs.html carney, n. (2009): ‘blogging in foreign language education’. in m. thomas (ed.), handbook of research on web 2.0 and second language learning (pp. 292–312). igi global. churchill, d. (2009): ‘educational applications of web 2.0: using blogs to support teaching and learning’, british journal of educational technology, 40(1), pp. 179–183. dieu, b. 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(2004): ‘bridging the gap: a genre analysis of weblogs’, in proceedings of the 37th hawaii international conference on system sciences – 2004 huffaker, d. (2004): the educated blogger: using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom, first monday, vol. 9, no. 6, http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/ view/1156/1076 lee, l. (20011): ‘blogging: promoting learner autonomy and intercultural competence through study abroad’, in language learning & technology, volume 15, no. 3, pp. 87-109; http:// llt.msu.edu/issue/october2011/lee.pdf 22 i. h. šabanović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences luehmann, a., macbride, r. (2009): ‘classroom blogging in the service of student-centered ped agogy: two high school teachers’ use of blogs’, in then journal, issue no. 6; summer 2009. morrison, a. (2008): ‘blogs and blogging: text and practice in a companion for digital literary studies, ed. susan shreibman and ray siemens. oxford: blackwell. http://www.digitalhu manities.org/companiondls/ moore, m. g., & kearsley, g. (1996): distance education – a systems view. belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing. nardi, b. a., schiano, d. j., & gumbrecht, m. (2004): ‘blogging as social activity, or, would you let 900 million people read your diary?’, in j. d. herbsleb & g. m. olson (eds.), proceed ings of the 2004 acm conference on computer supported cooperative work new york, ny: acm, pp. 222–231. pinkman, k. (2005): ‘using blogs in the foreign language classroom: encouraging learner inde pendence’, the jalt call journal, 1(1), 12–24. ray, b., hocutt, m. (2006): ‘teacher-created, teacher-centered weblogs: perceptions and practices’, journal of computing in teacher education, volume 23, number 1 fall 2006. richardson, w. (2003): ‘web logs in the english classroom: more than just chat’. english journal, 93 (1), pp. 39-43. richardson, w. (2006). blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. thou sand oaks, ca: corwin press. ward, j.m. (2004): ‘blog assisted language learning (ball): push button publishing for the pu pils’, tefl web journal, vol 3, no 1 2004, pp. 1-16. weiler, g. (2003): ‘using weblogs in the classroom’, the english journal, 92(5), 73–75. yang, s.-h. (2009): ‘using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice’, educa tional technology & society, 12(2), pp. 11–21. zhang, d.(2009): ‘the application of blog in english writing’ in journal of cambridge studies, vol 4. no. 1 mar 2009, pp. 64-72. 115 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the use of collocations by b1, b2 and c1 level students of english as l2 at the university of zenica edina rizvić-eminović university of zenica, bih kamiah arnaut-karović university of zenica, bih abstract the paper presents a research into the use of collocations by b1, b2 and c1 level students of english at the university of zenica conducted by analysing student’s examination papers. collocations represent an important segment of the knowledge of a foreign language and its vocabulary. they appear in many different forms and learning them might be seen as the most difficult task of l2 learning. difficulties in using collocations appear even at advanced levels of language learning. a preliminary study into the use of collocations by b2 level students of english showed that the students used proper lexical collocations in about 60% and proper grammatical collocations in about 50% of the cases. in view of those results, a research was conducted among b1, b2 and c1 level students of english at the english department of the university of zenica to investigate their use of collocations. student translations were analysed with a focus on the different types of collocations. the translations were produced as a part of their final examination in the contemporary english courses 1 through 8 corresponding to the different cefr levels analysed. we assumed that the results of the students in all four years of the english studies would be consistent with the results of the preliminary study, and that there would be no significant difference between the use of grammatical and lexical collocations. key words: collocations, lexical collocations, grammatical collocations 116 e. r. eminović, k. a. karović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction definitions of collocations are numerous. all of them imply “some kind of syntagmatic relation of words” (nesselhauf, 2004: 11). the simplest definition would be the one by mccarthy & o’dell (2006)who state that“a collocation is two or more words that often go together” (p. 6). “collocations are semantically arbitrary restrictions which do not follow logically from the propositional meaning of word” claims baker (1992: p. 47). they represent the “co-occurrence of words at a certain distance” (nesselhauf, 2004: 11), however, frequent co-occurrence, more frequent than randomly combined words in a language. they are “a type of word combination… that is fixed to some degree but not completely” (nesselhauf, 2004: 12). gelbukh et al. (2013: iii) restrict the definition of collocations to lexical relations only. some examples are: give a lecture, make a decision, and lend support. in addition to the term collocation, they use the term ‘restricted lexical co-occurrence’ to describe “expressions in which one word chooses another one to convey a particular meaning in an unmotivated, unpredicted way” (gelbukh, 2013: 4). the definition of collocations adopted in this paper is the one proposed by benson et al. (2010)that collocations are words that “regularly combine with certain other words or grammatical constructions” (xiii). they are recurrent and semifixed, which implies that idiomatic expressions are excluded. collocations are divided into grammatical and lexical. lexical collocations consist of a combination of two lexical words. grammatical collocations consist of a dominant word, usually lexical and a preposition or a grammatical construction. words paired in a collocation are referred to as collocates. collocates are “co-selected by the speaker or writer and they are not a chance co-occurrence” (cheng, 2012: 77). the collocates of a word are words which most frequently appear several words to the left or right of that word, the number of words ranging from four to seven, depending on the author. citing firth’s understanding of the term collocation, taylor (2012: 106) notes that “collocation is a matter of “mutual expectancy” (firth 1968 [1957]: 181), of “the company [that a word] keeps” (p. 179)”. taylor (ibid) further adds that “very often, the use of a word or expression generates expectations as to the surrounding words in the discourse”. according to him (taylor, 2012), the knowledge of collocational preferences constitutes an aspect of “an idiomatic command of the language” (p. 107). the knowledge of collocations is also referred to as ‘collocational competence’ (mukherjee (2009) in cheng, 2012: 172). second language learners have to acquire this knowledge and their intuition in this regard is usually unreliable. 117 the use of collocations by b1, b2 and c1 level students of english as l2 at the university of zenica epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences collocations are highly important in language studies. meaning of words cannot be established by examining them in isolations. cheng (2012) notes that a “collocation is a good guide to meaning” (p. 8) as collocations may reveal meanings of words which are often associated with specific contexts. o’keeffe (2010: 203) notes that collocations help us explore the different senses or uses of words, which usually appear in different phraseological patterns and structures. additionally, o‘keeffe refers to ‘semantic prosodies’ or the specific meanings that collocates can take on (2010: 66) in different contexts. elaborate procedures have been developed within the field of corpus linguistics in pursuit of the frequency of words occurring together. computerized or manual, small-scale, corpora are set up to that end given that a single pairing of words is usually not sufficient (viana, 2011: 23). the principle of language economy teaches us that perfect synonyms or words that can be used interchangeably in any context hardly exist in any language. big and large, for example are synonyms in english. however, “you prepare a big (#large) surprise for someone and pay a large (#big) amount of money for something” (taylor, 2012: 108). consequently, collocations are important for language teaching because of the principle of “more frequent = more important to learn” (leech in meunier et al., 2011: 12). more frequent words are thus more useful to the learner both for comprehension and for production. collocations have a great deal of relevance to language teachers in preparing teaching materials, designing tests or explaining subtle differences in language use. some studies have shown that it is important to study collocational patters, even of more frequent words. although such words are commonly considered easy or well-known, a study such as that of nesselhauf (2004) has indicated that a group of norwegian learners of english have not mastered them even at an advanced level. the importance of collocations for bosnian learners of english is stressed in riđanović’s contrastive grammar of english and bcs (2007), particularly in the context of adjectives which may be attributed to nouns. one such example is the use of heavy with rain in english, and the inadequacy of its most frequent translation equivalent teška with kišain bcs (p. 11). riđanović (2007) dedicates an entire chapter to the ‘company that words keep’ (pp. 352-61), which abound with examples of contrastive differences in the use of collocations in the two languages. studies investigating the use of english collocations among bcs learners are rare, however, almost non-existent since the field of corpus linguistics has not yet become established among linguists in the region. this paper is thus among the first 118 e. r. eminović, k. a. karović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences to present the results of an analysis of the collocation comprehension and production among different learner levels. difficulties in using collocations appear even at advanced levels of language learning. nevertheless, learners need to be aware of frequent collocations or exceptions. a preliminary study into the use of collocations by b2 level students of english conducted by the authors showed that the students used proper lexical collocations in about 60% and proper grammatical collocations in about 50% of the cases. in view of those results, this research was conducted among b1, b2 and c1 level students of english at the english department of the university of zenica to investigate their use of collocations. student translations were analysed with a focus on the different types of collocations. the translations were produced as a part of their final examination in the contemporary english courses 1 through 8 corresponding to the different cefr levels analysed. we assumedthat the results for the students in all four years of the english studies would be consistent with the results of the preliminary study, and that there would be no significant difference between the use of grammatical and lexical collocations. given that there is insufficient research into the use of collocations by bcs learners of english as l2, and having attested constant difficulties the students encounter in producing collocations at all levels, the authors have set out to carry out a study with the aim to: 1. quantify the use of correct or appropriate collocations, both lexical and grammatical, among the target group of english as l2 students; 2. identify the types of collocations that present the most difficulties for students of the different levels analyzed; 3. establish whether there is any difference in the comprehension of english collocations when translating them from english to bcs and their production when translating them from bcs to english; 4. identify, where relevant, the contrastive differences between the two languages that might contribute to the incorrect use of some types of collocations; 5. offer a classification of collocation mistakes that might help bcs teachers of english in teaching collocations; 6. establish the possible intralinguistic factors that affect the use of appropriate collocations; 7. based on the results of the above analyses, attempt to make predictions regarding the appropriate use of the different types of collocations among the bcs learners of english in general; the secondary aim of the study is to: 1. collect a corpus of mistakes in using collocations (the so called deviant colloca119 the use of collocations by b1, b2 and c1 level students of english as l2 at the university of zenica epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences tions) to be used in further investigations and contrastive analyses of the two languages. the results of the study have implications for teaching collocations at the university level. by quantifying the data, the study offers an insight into the types of collocations which seem to be the most difficult to acquire to bcs learners of english and enables generalizations about the collocation comprehension and production of bcs learners of english as l2. method the study is set up within the frameworks of applied linguistics as defined in cook (2009: 1). it identifies and analyzes a specific practical problem of language, that of the comprehension and production of collocations by b1, b2 and c1 level students of english as l2. it also touches on some principles of corpus linguistics, as it includes a collection and analysis of a learner corpus. collocations are generally studied by analyzing both large computerized corpora and small learner corpora. this paper is a result of collecting a small-scale corpus of learner translation of collocations comprising 169 collocations analyzed in a total of 1395 instances of use. the learners are students of english in the first, second, third and fourth year of studies at the english department of the university of zenica. the corpus of student translations was analyzed with a focus on the different types of collocations. the translations were produced as a part of their final examination in the contemporary english language (cel) courses 1 through 8 corresponding to the different cefr levels analyzed and cover a range of topics. based on the university curriculum of the english language and literature studies, the students completing the cel1, cel2 and cel3 courses are b1 students. the students completing the cel4, cel5 and cel6 courses are b2 students, and the students completing the cel7 and cel8 courses are c1 students. the cel7 examination papers have not been included in this study though, since under the cel7 course syllabus the students are not required to produce any translations as a part of their final exam in the course. the papers were selected randomly from the groups of papers in cel1 through cel8, cel7 excluded, regardless of the student score and grade. the papers analyzed were written over a time span of eight years, from 2008 to 2015. the 120 e. r. eminović, k. a. karović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences collocations were extracted manually. the study therefore relies on the production data. a total of 349 papers have been analyzed. all types of collocations were analyzed, both grammatical and lexical, identified in the student written translations. the lexical collocations included the following 6 combinations: verb + noun; adjective + noun; noun + verb; noun 1 + of + noun 2; adverb + adjective; verb + adverb. the grammatical collocations included the following 8 combinations and structures: noun + preposition; noun + to infinitive; noun + that clause; preposition + noun; adjective + preposition; adjective + to infinitive; adjective + that clause; verb + preposition. not all combinations were identified in all of the groups of papers. average correct or appropriate use was calculated for each of the above combinations within the groups of lexical (lc) and grammatical collocations (gc). then the average was identified for the group of lcs and the group of gcs separately to establish whether there is any difference in the use of the two. the results indicate in percentage only the average correct use, as the numbers for the incorrect use would be redundant. this procedure was applied first to quantify the correct use of lcs and gcs in the student translations from english to bcs, namely to identify the degree of their collocation comprehension. the same procedure was then applied to the translations from bcs to english to identify the degree of the student collocation production. once all the averages were obtained for all the cels courses individually, the average lc and gc comprehension and production were calculated for each of the cefr levels analyzed, namely b1, b2 and c1. results as shown in table 1 below, the analysis of the student written translations as a part of their final examination paper in cel 1 through cel8 (cel7 excluded) comprised a total of 169 collocations, analyzed in 1395 instances of use. the results are presented separately for the lexical and grammatical collocations. a total of 60 collocations were extracted at all of the three levels and analyzed in 634 instances of use in the student translations from english to bsc. this data refers to the collocation comprehension. the data referring to the collocation production, on the other hand, included a total of 109 collocations analyzed in 761 instances of use. since the syllabi for cel1, cel2, cel3 and cel4 do not incorporate translation from english to bcs into the final examination, the lines provided for those courses remain empty. 121 the use of collocations by b1, b2 and c1 level students of english as l2 at the university of zenica epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences table 1 numbers of lexical and grammatical collocations, as well as instances of their use for each contemporary english course note. e = english; bcs = bosnian/croatian/serbian; lcs = lexical collocations; gcs = grammatical collocations; inst. = instances; cel = contemporary english language; cefr = common european framework of reference for languages; b1, b2, c1 refer to cefr levels;σ = the total number of collocations or instances. 122 e. r. eminović, k. a. karović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences table 2 below was produced by analyzing the percentages of correct collocation use for each of the six types of lcs and eight types of gcs referred to in the method section andidentified in the texts assigned for translation. not all of the types of collocations were identified, however, in all the different cel translation assignments. as in table 1, the empty lines are due to the lack of translation assignments from english to bcs in some cel courses. table 2 percentage of correct collocation comprehension and production per contemporary english courses and the corresponding cefr levels note. lcs = lexical collocations; gcs = grammatical collocations;cel = contemporary english language; cefr = common european framework of reference for languages; b1, b2, c1 refer to cefr levels; χ= the average. figures 1 through 4 below present the data extracted from table 2. figure 1 com 123 the use of collocations by b1, b2 and c1 level students of english as l2 at the university of zenica epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences figures 1 through 4 below present the data extracted from table 2. figure 1 compares the correct use of gcs and lcs in the student translations from english to bcs, measuring their comprehension at b1, b2 and c1 level. it indicates that the students’ comprehension of gcs is better than their comprehension of lcs by about 50% at b1 level, by only 6% at b2 level and by 20% at c1 level. figure 1 comparison of comprehension of lcs and gcs for different cel courses note. lcs = lexical collocations; gcs = grammatical collocations; cel = contemporary english language. as opposed to the previous figure, figure 2 compares the correct use of gcs and lcs in the student translations from bcs to english, measuring their production. it indicates that the average students’ production of gcs too is better than their production of lcs. the difference in the case of production, though, is less significant than in the case of comprehension and ranges from about only 0.1% at b1 level, through 7% at b2 level to 2% at c1 level. 124 e. r. eminović, k. a. karović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences figure 2 comparison of production of lcs and gcs for different cels note. lcs = lexical collocations; gcs = grammatical collocations; cel = contemporary english language. figure 3 compares the average percentage of comprehension and production of both lcs and gcs at the different levels analyzed. it shows that, at b2 and c1 levels students are more successful in comprehending than in producing collocations by about 12% and 7% respectively. they are almost equally successful in comprehending and producing collocations at b1 level, the difference being a mere 0.5% in favor of the production. figure 3 comparison of comprehension and production for different cefr levels 125 the use of collocations by b1, b2 and c1 level students of english as l2 at the university of zenica epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences note. cefr = common european framework of reference for languages; b1, b2, c1 refer to the cefr levels analyzed in the study. figure 4 compares the students’ overall competence in lcs and gcs at the different levels when using them both when translating from english to bcs and vice versa. it indicates that, in general, students are more competent in using gcs at all levels than in using lcs, the difference ranging from about 22% at b1 level, through 6% at b2 level to 11% at c1 level. these results are contrary to the results of the preliminary study. figure 4 the percentage of correct use of lcs and gcs at b1, b2, and c1 levels discussion in view of the aims set in the study as well as the results obtained in the course of the analyses, numerous observations can be made and conclusions drawn referring to the aims of the study. as shown in figure 4 above, the students display greater competence in both the comprehension and the production of gcs at all the three levels analyzed. what is significant is that these results are not consistent with the results of the preliminary study, where b2 level learners showed a better mastery of lexical collocations by about 10%. a conclusion may be drawn that, when analyzing collocations, it 126 e. r. eminović, k. a. karović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences is important to include more collocations as well as instances of their use and to set up a larger scale corpus when making generalizations about student collocation competence. one of the drawbacks of the study, however, may be that it lacks elicitation tests for students. such tests would serve as a control test for this study and the correspondence of the results of such tests would make this study more reliable. the students’ greater competence in the comprehension of gcs at all the three levels may be ascribed to the fact that gcs contain combinations such as noun + to infinitive or noun + that clause, which are commonly translated with clausal constructions into bcs and hardly contain an alternative translation. their efforts to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty… is translated as …njihovi napori da izbave stotine miliona ljudi od siromaštva… or assumptions... that china only supports dictatorship is translated as pretpostavke… da kina samopodržava diktatorstvo. the same is the case for the production of gcs as in snaga da istraju, the only translation of which is with clausal construction the strength to endure. lexical collocations, on the other hand, consist of different combinations of lexical words. poor vocabulary has been identified as the reason for lower success rate in the comprehension and production of lexical collocations. this conclusion also applies to the third aim set in the study. based on the results of the correct translation of both lcs and gcs, the following ranking list of the top three combinations for the comprehension of lcs may be made: 1. adverb + adjective, as in equally important (bcs: jednakovažan); 2. verb + noun, as in its aid brings no benefit to ordinary people (bcs: njena pomoć nedonosi nikakvu korist ljudima); 3. adjective + noun, as in free flow of information (bcs: slobodan protok informacija). in terms of the comprehension of gcs, the combinations are ranked as follows: 1. verb + preposition, as in stared at him (bcs: zurio u njega), 2. adjective + that clause, as in i was aware that black would… (bcs: bila sam sigurna da će black…); 3. noun + that clause, as in assumptions... that china only supports dictatorship. in terms of the production of lcs, where the success rates are generally much lower than in the case of gcs and do not exceed 40%, the list is as follows: 1. adjective + noun, as in široki konsenzus (e: broad/wide consensus); 2. verb + noun, as in udahnuti život (e: breathe life into); 3. verb + adverb, as in silom ukloniti (e: remove forcibly). the ranking list for the production of gcs is as follows: 127 the use of collocations by b1, b2 and c1 level students of english as l2 at the university of zenica epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences 1. noun + that clause, as in nada da će moj budući svijet biti oblikovan… (e: the hope that my future world would be shapes); 2. noun + to infinitive, as in snaga da izdržim (e: strength to endure); 3. adjective + that clause, as in oduševljena što može doći (e: delighted that she could come). the most difficult for production seem to be the constructions containing a preposition, as in the verb + preposition combination (e.g. učestvovati u događaju, translated incorrectly as participate *at an event) or the preposition + noun combination (e.g. u to vrijeme, translated incorrectly as *in that time). these ranking lists may be applied to all the target levels. however, the success rates are not identical at all three of them. in view of the extensiveness of the study, the authors believe that the above ranking lists apply to the collocation competence at b1, b2 and c1 level bcs learners of english in general, which is a conclusion that refers to the sixth aim of the study. the following paragraphs contain the conclusions drawn in respect to the final four aims of the study, based on the analysis of the mistakes the students made in the comprehension and the production of collocations. the reasons for the mistakes are varied. for example, a single translation equivalent in bcs covers two or three expressions in english that may or may not be synonyms or near-synonyms. synonymous expressions in english usually have certain shades of meanings, for which reason some synonymous expressions are not always mutually interchangeable in all the contexts. the usual mistakes found in the corpus are related to the following: • poor comprehension of these shades of meaning; • a single translation equivalent in bcs that can cover different contexts with the same expression in l1. one example is the english pick up/lift/raise/elevate and bcspodići. in bcs the single expression podići may be used in different contexts. however, in english, the three above-stated verbs are not always mutually interchangeable. therefore, the following phrase was translated in some cases with an incorrect near-synonym: podići kofer? raise/?carry a suitcase. these collocations are marked as semantically questionable not because they are not possible in english but because they might be acceptable and fit into different contexts other than those found in the corpus. 128 e. r. eminović, k. a. karović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences another example is the phrase: transform the impulses into sound. the synonyms change and convert are found in the corpus. however, these two cover much broader contexts in english, whereas the expression transform is more appropriate for the texts referring to physics and physical phenomena. in some cases, however, the synonymous pairs were mutually interchangeable and completely acceptable, such as in lažna brada and false/fake beard. another reason for the student mistakes was their poor command of vocabulary. the students employed the following strategies in translation: • complete omission of the expression; • replacing the word with a similar word not a synonym or near-synonym but an expression with much a broader meaning (sometimes a hyperonym) the examples for this claim are phrases such as gole pesnice (e: bare fists) translated as bare ?hands; veličanstveni predjeli (e: magnificent landscapes), translated as magnificent? areas/country/fields; or sredstvo komunikacije (e: means of communication) translated as ?instrument/device/tool/type of communication. • literal translation for the petrified and fixed expressions the learners offered literal translations, as in netaknute prašume (e: virgin rainforests), which was translated as ?untouched/ intact rainforests. • paraphrasing or descriptive translation compounding is a very productive morphological operation in english which is not the case in bcs. bcs makes much more use of phrases. an example is the phrase hrana bogata vlaknima (e: fiber-rich food), which was translated in the majority of cases asfood rich with fibers or višenamjenski kućanski aparat (e: multi-purpose appliance), translated as an appliance for multiple purposes. as indicated above, the results for gcs are generally better. nevertheless, a certain percentage of mistakes mostly refers to usage of prepositions and prepositional phrases. one significant difference between the two linguistic systems refers to the realization of transitive verbs whose direct objects are realized by pps not nps. bcs and english show a number of differences in the case of some very frequently used transitive verbs. while some transitive verbs in english take pps, such as: laugh [at smb.]/wait [for smb.], in bcs the same verbs take nps: smijati se [kome]/čekati [koga]. therefore, frequent mistakes in the corpus in reference to gcs were the following: • the omission of the required preposition in english which can be ascribed to literal syntactic transfer from bcs. on the other hand, there are some bcs transitive verbs that take pp objects whereas their english equivalents take nps. for example the english equivalents of bcs odgovoriti na/sastati se sa/pasti na have a different syntactic realization and re129 the use of collocations by b1, b2 and c1 level students of english as l2 at the university of zenica epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences quire an np answer [np]/meet [np]/fail [np]. in such cases,the learners’ translation most frequently involved: • insertion of the preposition into the english translation, as in *answer on the question/*meet with friends/*fail on/at the exam some verbs in bcs are intransitive but usually followed by pp adverbial. their english equivalent is a typical transitive verb requiring an np object. in such cases, the english transitive verb was usually converted into intransitive (following the bcs pattern) and the preposition was inserted, as in zakasniti na voz (e: miss the train), translated as *miss on the train. the reasons for the above strategies may be ascribed to the following factors: • poor vocabulary; • poor comprehension of the shades of meanings of synonyms or near-synonyms; • poor production caused by literal transfer of collocations from l1. the most common mistakes identified in the corpus will serve as a basis for future elicitation tests in this field. finally, the fact that the student overall collocation competence increases with the increase in the student level indicates that a more extensive and longer exposure to language as well as a better command of the language in general contributes to a better command of collocations. 130 e. r. eminović, k. a. karović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences references nesselhauf, nadja(2004). collocations in a learner corpus. amsterdam/philadelphia: john ben jamins publishing company. taylor, john, r. (2012). the mental corpus, how language is represented in the mind. oxford: oxford university press. meunier, fanny et al. (2011). a taste for corpora. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins pub lishing company. cheng, winnie (2012). exploring corpus linguistics, language in action.london: routledge o’keeffe, anne and mccarthy, michael, eds. (2010).the routledge handbook of corpus linguistics. london: routledge. riđanović, m. (2007).praktičnaengleskagramatika. sarajevo: šahinpašić. viana, vander et al. eds. (2011).perspectives on corpus linguistics. amsterdam: john benjamins publishing company. gelbukh, alexander and kolesnikova, olga (2013).semantic analysis of verbal collocations with lexical functions. berlin: springer. mccarthy, michael and o’dell, felicity (2005).english collocations in use. uk: cambridge university press. baker, mona (1992). in other words.london: routledge. benson, morton et al. (2010) the bbi combinatory dictionary of english: your guide to colloca tions and grammar. amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins publishing company. cook, vivian, and wei li, eds. (2009). contemporary applied linguistics, language teaching and learning, v1, london: continuum international publishing group (microsoft word serdar ozturk kipling\222s ecclectic religious identity) epiphanyepiphanyepiphanyepiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 3 – special issue: identity fall 2009 ©2008, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. kipling’s ecclectic religious identity serdar öztürk erciyes university rudyard kipling’s religious identity is really difficult to trace to a certain religion, but he is deeply a religious man because he believes in one absolute god, and a divine purpose behind the creation of man. philip mason claims that kipling is very religious (113), yet it is difficult to see where his religious faith lies. he was not a christian though both his grandfathers were wesleyan ministers (knowles 13). he was also not a hindu as some kipling scholars used to think. he was not a muslim or not a buddhist. shortly, he was not an adherent of any institutionalized religion. yet, he was not an atheist because it is possible to see a religious heterogeneity in his works. hs works focused on themes of god, love and truth, eternity and the meaning of life. according to philip mason, “kipling was a religious man at heart, not that he took part regularly in any form of public worship or adhered to any formal creed, but because he thought much about death and eternity and the meaning of life” (113). mason, commenting on kipling’s views about religion, adds: “because he was so essentially an intuitive his religion expressed itself in stories, fables and verses, rather than in a creed or a reasoned philosophy”(113-4). it is a fact that rudyard kipling is an intuitive writer. the main reason he never subscribed to any particular religion is that he was basically a seeker with an independent mind. he “detests the prig, and hates above all the religious prig” (knowles 37). belonging to any particular religion or faith meant forfeiting his freedom of thought and that would serdar öztürk 67 impede his search for truth. commenting on kipling’s personality, t. thruston hopkins says: one thing is certain: kipling does not attach himself to any particular creed or party. he evidently thinks that to belong to any party is to be owned by it. kipling’s soul revolts at life in a groove. he dislikes typical men – their ways of life, their sophistry, their stupidity. he likes to be free of all party restrictions, so that he can study in his own sweet way – when at school he was distinguished from other boys by his independence (40). the contradictions in kipling cannot be explained if one does not have the imaginative sympathy to understand the incidents that shaped his personality and the context in which he presented his works of art. rudyard kipling has a complex personality. some events in his life left a lasting impression on him and forged his personality. philip mason asserts that there are “many inconsistent aspects of his personality and a great deal of tension between them” (84). among the contradictions in kipling the most common is his attitude towards christianity. while kipling is critical of christianity, he seems to subscribe to its basic principles, such as love, compassion, forgiveness, repentance, sacrifice, grace, selflessness, mercy and “unflinching faith in a personal god who he calls the great overseer” (kipling life’s handicap 308). at the beginning of the poem ‘l’envoi’, kipling beseeches the great overseer: if there be good in that i wrought thy hand compelled it, master, thine; were i have failed to meet thy thought i know, through thee, the blame is mine. one instant’s toil to thee denied stands all eternity’s offence, of that i did with thee to guide to thee, through thee, be excellence. ... kipling’s ecclectic religious identity 68 the depth and dream of my desire the bitter paths wherein i stray, thou knowest who hast made the fire thou knowest who hast made the clay one stone the more swings to her place in that dread temple of thy worth it is enough that through thy grace i saw naught common on thy earth. (5-12, 17-24) at the first glance, readers of ‘l’envoi’may think that kipling embraces christianity; but it is a fact that he does not believe in any particular institutionalized faith. yet, in a letter he wrote, it is possible to infer that he was a christian. the letter was written when he was flirting with caroline taylor whose father was anxious about kipling’s lack of orthodoxy. kipling wrote this letter in order to satisfy caroline and her family: i believe in the existence of a personal god to whom we are personally responsible for wrongdoing – that it is our duty to follow and our peril to disobey the ten ethical laws laid down for us . . . i disbelieve directly in eternal punishment . . . i disbelieve in an eternal reward . . . i believe in god the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and in one filled with his spirit who did voluntarily die in the belief that the human race would be spiritually bettered thereby (qtd. in mason 249). perhaps it is a mistake to give much credence to this letter. kipling scholars like philip mason and charles carrington do not attach importance to this letter. however, it is a fact that kipling’s knowledge of the bible was extensive and as a man and artist he was deeply under the influence of the bible. philip mason maintains: [a]ll the evidence suggests that he continued all his life to believe in a personal moral responsibility to some kind of divine purpose. and his knowledge of the bible often influenced his reactions to serdar öztürk 69 circumstances in ways he did not attempt to define or formulate. he was always aware of the majesty of the hebrew vision of god in the old testament – the sanctity of the law, the purpose of god for mankind, the balance that must be restored by punishment or sacrifice, the sense of man as somehow knitted into family and people (253). rudyard kipling firmly believes that the human being in its entirety in some mysterious way is knitted into a community. he underlines the brotherhood of all humanity regardless of their nation, race, gender, color and especially their religion. every human being is equal for kipling’s standpoint. it is easy to see the influence of the new testament in kipling’s works. kipling alludes to the new testament in his ‘the miracle of purun bhagat,’ the day’s work, and kim. kipling asserts that suffering on behalf of others purifies and ennobles the self (mason 257). moreover, he frequently uses christian symbols and his works contain many biblical allusions. his literary style is deeply influenced by the authorized version; he uses a biblical language “by repeatedly going to holy writ for sonorous expression” (hopkins 43): “when i was a king and a mason-a master proven and skilled / i cleared me the ground for a palace such as a king should build” (‘the palace’ 1-2). kipling also alludes to king solomon in a biblical language in his poem: "one man in a thousand, solomon says, will stick more close than a brother," "once in so often," king solomon said, watching his quarrymen drill the stone." "king solomon drew merchantmen because of his desire for peacocks, apes, and ivory from tarshish unto tyre. with cedars out of lebanon which hiram rafted down, but we be only sailor men that use in london town” (‘king solomon’ 1-12). kipling’s ecclectic religious identity 70 kipling’s many biblical references and his frequent adoption of biblical language can be accepted the evidence of his sympathy towards christianity. kipling was highly critical of christianity. in the first short story from plain tales from the hills ‘lisbeth’ begins with the following stanza: look, you have cast out love! what gods are these you bid me please? the three in one, the one in three? not so! to my own gods i go. it may be they shall give me greater ease than your cold christ and tangled trinities (3). chaplin’s wife tries to rationalize the situation here in orthodox terms and remarks: “there is no law whereby you can account for the vagaries of the heathen, and i believe that lispeth was always at heart an infidel” (8). rudyard kipling makes a sarcastic remark and comments: “seeing that she had been taken into the church of england at the mature age of five weeks, the statement does not do credit to the chaplin’s wife (8). in the story, ‘baa, baa, black sheep’, kipling is even more critical of christianity. in this story, he depicts the life of a small boy, punch, whose feelings reveal “what kipling thought happened to him at southsea. for that reason kipling sympathizes and empathizes with punch. perhaps every incident was not policecourt truth that can be sworn to, but the whole is poetic truth and represents what he came later to feel had happened” (mason 32). punch was very unhappy because he was separated from his parents and home. the following extract summarizes punch’s thought about christianity: harry might reach across the table and take what he wanted; judy might point and get what she wanted. punch was forbidden to do either. the grey man was his great hope and stand-by, for many months after mamma and pappa left, and he had forgotten to tell judy to ‘remember mammma’. serdar öztürk 71 this lapse was excusable, because in the interval he had been introduced by aunty rosa to two very impressive things . . . and a dirty brown book filled with unintelligible dots and marks. punch was always anxious to oblige everybody. he therefore welded the story of the creation on to what he could recollect of hid indian fairy tales, and scandalized aunty rosa by repeating the result to judy. it was a sin, a grievous sin, and punch was talked to for a quarter of an hour. he could not understand where the iniquity came but was careful not to repeat the offence, because aunty rosa told him that god heard every word he had said and was very angry. if these were true why didn’t god come and say so, thought punch, and dismissed the matter from his mind. afterwards he learned to know the lord as the only thing in the world more awful than aunty rosa (239). in this extract, kipling does not introduce a merciful and compassionate christian god. even in life’s handicap, ameera is not sure of the mercy of god, and when her small boy dies she complains, “[i]t was because we loved tota that he died. the jealousy of god was upon us. we must make no protestations of delight, lest god find us out” (147). in his later years, kipling frequently uses christian symbols to expose his religious sensibilities. in his short story ‘uncovenanted mercies’, there is a character named gabriel, who is responsible for all guardian spirits, azreal (the angel of death) and satan, working together. as a servant of mercy, satan is not the satan of paradise lost, but the satan of the book of job, whose mission is to test human beings. one of his duties is to recondition human souls for re-issue as guardian spirit, so he has to work in collaboration with gabriel. in the story ‘without benefit of clergy’ in life’s handicap blind chance controls man’s fate. some phrases in the story like ‘blind chance’, ‘blind gods’, and jealousy of god’ remind of thomas hardy’s conception of the immanent will “that neither good nor evil knows and it is the motive power of the universe. this will is kipling’s ecclectic religious identity 72 an indifferent and unconscious force and the results of its impulses are almost invariably disastrous” (pinion 82). the cold indifference to the “screaming conches in the hindu temples, service in the great mohamedan shrine, unceasing call to prayer from the minaret” and “ the shriek of a mother who had lost a child and was calling for its return” (life’s handicap 151) display a merciless god. of course, this is the paradox of the idea of christian deity. thomas hardy “never ceased to complain of chance and change”, which cause human suffering (pinion 83). however, kipling was “naturally predisposed to postulate an incomprehensible power at the head of affairs to keep chaos at bay” (hopkins 113). unlike thomas hardy who “spent too much time shaking his fist at a man-made creator, who existed vaguely in his own mind” (pinion 82), kipling seems convinced of an incomprehensible power which has created the orderly universe. for kipling, god is not a cold and metaphysical being, but very much a caring god. rudyard kipling’s idea of christianity seems to be based on a binary principle: “the world of love and the world of work” (mason 26). the world of love is a source of pleasure, whereas the world of work exposes man to pain and suffering, though human suffering in kipling’s system of reality is not a sport of “the presidents of immortals” (hardy 489). for kipling, pain and suffering have a purpose to serve, because personal suffering ennobles the soul and makes the heart tender and compassionate. mahbub states that “shared sorrow creates a new bond of love and suffering on behalf of others that has an ultimate value of its own” (kim 157). in ‘without benefit of clergy’, kipling deals with the importance of pain and work in man’s life and the change from the personal world of love to the impersonal world of work. it is possible to see the same theme in his later works but the main source is available in this story. when tota the son of ameera and holden dies, initially ameera is driven mad with sorrow (life’s handicap 146). in the state of pain ameera serdar öztürk 73 says unpleasant things to holden, but later she makes amends for it and says, “i love more because a new bond has come out of the sorrow that we have eaten together, and thou knowest” (147). as for work, kipling maintains: “one mercy only was granted to holden. he rode to his office in broad daylight and found waiting him an unusually heavy mail that demanded concentrated attention and hard work. he was not however, alive to this kindness of the gods” (145). mason claims that kipling “has a permanent natural contact with the oldest and deepest layers of human consciousness . . . this deep archetypal welled – i suggest – intermittently to the surface . . . the contrast between the world of love and the world of work comes surely from such a level” (26). besides christianity, rudyard kipling often alludes to indian religions and indian cultures in his works. the religions in india and indian culture had a deep impact on kipling, and “of all aspects of indian culture the one which fascinated kipling most was probably religion. indian items falling into the realm of religion can be seen in almost every one of his works” (husain 188). rudyard kipling introduces hindu mythology to show that human efforts mean little in the face of eternity in ‘the bridge-builders’. there is a bestiary in the story. the story begins with findlayson, an engineer, who had worked extremely hard for four years on his bridge, which symbolizes human efforts to make progress, joining the present with the past. later, a flood comes and finlayson finds himself in a very difficult situation. he goes over his calculations and finds that his “side of the sum was beyond question, but what man knew mother gunga’s arithmetic?” (21). the line refers to the belief that the blind chance controls man’s fate and that man is incapable of understanding the gods who punish at random. in a state of dream or trance, finlayson gets into a boat and then finds himself on an island, where he is the spectator of a punchayat (a kind of council) of the gods discussing the kipling’s ecclectic religious identity 74 complaint made by mother ganga against the insolent people who built a bridge over water. after a long philosophical consultation, indra, the father of the gods, says that it is useless to fear because “brahm still dreams and till he wakes the gods die not” (the day’s work 38). in this context, there is a simple message: all is illusion, the dream of brahm, which is a hindu belief to which rudyard kipling apparently adheres. nevertheless, the boat returned the next morning and findlayson was rescued. he went back to the world of men to perform his work. although human efforts amount to nothing but “the dirt digging at the dirt” (32), man has to work hard in order that the bridge stands. he must join the present with the past. unselfish work is among the most important deeds in hinduism. kipling also attaches a great importance to unselfish work. c. s. lewis asserts that “kipling is the poet of work and it is his creed that the job must be done well and that this worth scarifies but does not say anything about the purpose of the job, thus producing a sense of weariness because of vagueness at the centre” (qtd. in mason 20). ‘the bridge-builders’ questions the idea of human effort, displaying its futility and tininess. ants are far better than human beings in this respect. men try to do something, but in the face of eternity their work is really of no importance. the importance of work is seen in kipling’s in another story ‘the miracle of purun bhagat’. the protagonist sir purun das is the prime minister of a native state and renounces the world for the salvation of his soul. because of his humility and love for life purun bhagat calls even animals ‘my brothers’ and they respond to his love. his low call of ‘bhai! bhai!’ draws the animals from the forest if they are within earshot. at last, purun das dies, sacrificing his life to save the lives of the villagers. kipling shows a great respect for the spiritual strength of purun das for he was no longer a holy man even at the critical moment, but sir purun das, a man serdar öztürk 75 accustomed to command, going out to save life. it is the most noble good deed in hinduism. for mason, sir purun das, who believes in hinduism, postulates three different ways to realise god and to achieve salvation: athe karma-marga (the path of duties or work, bthe jnana-marga (the path of knowledge), which postulates the use of meditative concentration (yoga) in order to realise the absolute and cbhaktimarga (the path of devotion) which means devotion to a personal god. hinduism, at the same time, postulates that the universe is a cosmos. vedic man was convinced that the universe is an actually existing organised cosmos (sat) governed by order and truth (rta) and it is always in danger of being damaged or destroyed by the power of chaos (asat). purun das was a yogi, who renounced the world to use his time in meditative concentration “with a view to gaining a supra-intellectual insight into his identity with brahman, but it did mean that he could ignore his duty of saving life only to continue his mediation (154). he would have seriously destroyed his chances of salvation because he had been indifferent to the impending death and destruction of life. purun das gave up his meditative concentration and contemplation and became an active administrator. this means he was no longer a holy man but he only acted in harmony with, in a real sense, his hindu belief. rudyard kipling attaches a great importance to hard work and shows admiration for administrators. for him, hard work is to be “something worshipped of its own sake” (mason 131). in this context, the purpose of the job can be questioned. why should man work hard if his efforts amount to nothing but the dirt digging at the dirt and are of no significance in the face of eternity? why should the english, who were intruders in india, work hard there when in a thousand years their work will be forgotten? unfortunately, kipling does not provide any satisfactory answer. he does not formulate any philosophy for hard work. kipling’s emphasis on kipling’s ecclectic religious identity 76 hard work and the significance of work (karma) are rooted in his understanding of hinduism. in kipling’s novel kim, it is possible to meet the lama in the quest of the river of arrow, which symbolizes the greatest achievement of mankind according to buddhism. it is significant that there is a miraculous river of the arrow in buddhism (montgomery 20). the lama’s quest for the river of arrow was inspired by a dream. in this dream, he was informed that he could reach salvation by washing himself in the river. when he saw kim and recognized him as his chela (disciple) (56), he intuitively thought that kim had been sent to him by god. nevertheless, the lama is critical of his religion of lamaism: “‘it was in my mind that the old law was not well followed; being overlaid, as thou knowest, with devildoms, charms and idolatry . . . the books of my lamassary i read, and they were dried pith; and the later ritual with which we of the reformed law have cumbered ourselves – that, too, had no worth to these eyes!’ (kim 57). just like the lama who is quite critical of his religion of lamanism, rudyard kipling is critical of christianity. however, unlike the lama, he is sarcastic in his attack on christianity in his early years of his career. in the lama’s final sacrifice, kim, having attained union with the great soul, withdrew his own soul “with strivings and yearnings and retchings and agonizes not to be told” (59). thus, kim learns the way, the exact way of buddhism. however, rudyard kipling never called himself a buddhist, because he always showed respect to other religions. he was sympathetic to buddhism and hinduism and often alluded to hindu/buddhist gods and goddesses in his stories and novels. f. l. knowles rightly maintains that it would be absurd to think that kipling believes in buddhism and hindu mythology any more than shelley believes in greek myths (166). he also serdar öztürk 77 does not know enough about buddhism, “although his father tells him a great deal about the early tradition of buddha gatama’s sayings and travels in india (mason178). perhaps, kipling tries to reflect the common denominators of some of the different religious’ faiths in his works. consequently, as montgomery rightly observes “a great deal that masquerades behind buddhism is primarily hinduism and to a considerable extend sufism and christianity” (190). kipling sometimes alludes to islam in his works with lucid affirmation: living and dying are only referred to allah, the most merciful creator. the dominant themes such as sacrifice and forgiveness are both islamic and christian elements in kipling’s literary works. in islam pain and suffering have also some kind of redemptive value as they do in christianity. sin and repentance occupy a place in the basic design of the creation of human being. mason rightly remarks that “repentant sinners hold important place in islam” (267). as a matter of fact, repentance holds a vital place in islam, for allah almighty says in quran: “pardon them, and ask god to forgive them, and accept their repentance (3 159). “indeed he is oft returning and most merciful” is among the oft repeated verses of quran. repentance and forgiveness are a more powerful motivation than brute compulsion in kipling’s literary works. kipling seems to come close to some concepts of sufism because he thinks that there is a veil between man and his lord in his poem ‘helen all alone’, “a veil ‘twixt us and thee, good lord, / a veil ‘twixt us and thee” (646).kipling believes it is possible to gain knowledge of the nearness to god by means of spiritual effort. the creator does not want men to be too near him lest he should become unfitted for his work in the world. it is men’s intense love for him that enables them to find him in others, and that is why service to god includes serving his reaction. since man is his creation, service to mankind is extremely important to a sufi. since he is a real kipling’s ecclectic religious identity 78 lover, he does not run away from anything or anyone for any reason. man finds his beloved everywhere. in serving his creatures he serves his beloved, and in return the beloved shows his mercy and grace on him which enables him to face pain, suffering and even death in content. suffering and pain only make man more purified. kipling knows all that and has faith enough in mercy and grace to save himself the fall into pelagianism. pelagianism is a kind of sin or arrogance first introduced and defined by philip mason (251). it appears that in pelagius’ opinion man is perfectible by his own efforts. a pelagian has nothing spiritual about himself. a pelagian is reluctant to talk about death and sin. if no one interfered with man, he would be perfect. it is possible to achieve absolute happiness on earth if certain external obstacles like kings, priests, politicians or capitalists are removed. kipling rejects pelagianism, for he believes that death is a natural inescapable fact. pain and sorrow are two undeniable facts of life. moreover, kipling asserts that man is responsible for his acts. man is created full of desires and he has to be educated and controlled, because “the man who truly deserves the name of man is under discipline and master of himself, even though his self-command is something that has to be watched and jealousy preserved. he is like the captain of a pirate ship, for whom mutiny is always close” (mason 252). for kipling, watchfulness is just not enough, sometimes fate and metaphysical factors may devastate him. as a fragile element civilization may be easily destroyed. history witnesses that civilization fell into fragments when men deviate from modesty. kipling believes that man’s merit depends on his suffering and integrity in the face of trial, so he needs mercy. this is what the sufi believes (jackson 14) and probably kipling knows something about sufism. it does not mean that kipling is a sufi, for there is no evidence that he ever embraced sufism. kipling is aware of the significance of repentance, forgiveness and mercy in islam. every muslim is obliged to pray to the serdar öztürk 79 lord at least five times a day. in every part of each prayer, he has to recite fatiha from quran: “in the name of allah, most gracious, most merciful. / praise be to allah, the cherisher and sustainer of the worlds; / most gracious, most merciful (1 1-3)”. in another verse in quran, god explains the unique aim of sending his messenger: “and we have not sent you but as a mercy to the worlds” (21 107). the lord in islam is the most merciful, the most kind and oft returning. there is an affectionate invitation from the lord to man to come to the way of prosperity in every call to prayer. to sum up, kipling believes that there is a consciousness of death and of the smallness of man in the face of eternity and of a vastness of power beyond man’s comprehension. in his early stories, he emphasizes on chance, for gods chastise at random. however, in his later works, he believes in something incomprehensible but it is not chance. for kipling, pain and evil have a place in the purpose of the creation of man. mercy and forgiveness are two important merits and the greatest triumph of human beings is self-sacrifice. he believes in an unknown god as a creator but he is agnostic about the explanations, formulation and description of god. although he is faithful to the creator and some divine motive in the creation of man, he is skeptical about some opinions and interpretations of god. although rudyard kipling uses a lot of christian symbols in his works, he is not a christian. in some of his stories, he shows a unique insight into the redeeming power of love, which is the main pillar of sufism. he also accepts some of the islamic precepts, though he is not a muslim. he is very sympathetic to buddhism and hinduism and always alludes to hindu gods and goddesses, but he does not believe in hinduism or buddhism. briefly, rudyard kipling, who uses a lot of religious themes, motives and symbols in his works, does not subscribe to any particular religious views at all, though he is deeply religious at heart. kipling’s ecclectic religious identity 80 works cited hardy, thomas. tess of the d’uubervilles. middlesex: penguin, 1987. holy quran, the. trans by. paul jackson. bombay: st. paul press, 1985. hopkins, r. thruston. rudyard kipling. london: simpkin marshall co., 1916. husain, s. s. a. the indiannes of rudyard kipling. london: cosmos press, 1983. jackson, paul. s. j. the way of sufi. delhi: st. paul press, 1987. jones, r. t. the collected poems of rudyard kipling. hertfordshire: wordsworth, 1992. kipling, rudyard. life’s handicap. middlesex: penguin, 1987. ............................plain tales from the hills. new york: ams, 1970. ............................we willie winkie. new york: ams, 1970. ............................kim. harmondswoth: penguin, 1987. ............................the day’s work. london: macmillan, 1964. knowles, frederick lawrence. a kipling primer. new york: haskell house, 1974. mason, philip. kipling, the glass, the shadow, and the fire. london: jonathan cape, 1975. montgomery, j. a. religions of the past and present. london: j. b. lippincott, 1918). pinion, f. b. thomas hardy and the modern world. dorchester: thomas hardy society, 1974. 41 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences knowledge, ethics and choices: theorizing the functional matrix of literature as a humanities discipline bhumika sharma central university of rajasthan, india abstract one may inaugurate the contemporary post-theory era with thinking beyond the theoretical aspects of literature. or, in other words, it may facilitate a revision of literary theories in terms of exploring their functionality. but, a complex question involved here is, what may be its implications. how may it affect various disciplines especially the humanities which are, unlike sciences, deal with the abstract issues like truth, reality, ethicality, justice and many more like that? with these questions, the present paper endeavours to addresswhat is the nature of the knowledge created by humanities’ disciplines like literature and how can it be used for renovating existing socio-political structures. are the disciplines of humanities required to be more interactive with the sciences in the present technological age? does such interaction give a more ‘holistic’ view of knowledge essential for creating a sustainable society? comprehending the dialogic process of what it is and what it should be, the paper probes into the interactive epistemology of interdisciplinary knowledge. since the disciplines of humanities like literature are directly linked to the behavioural pattern that is always subject to change, it explains their functionality in a game-theoric framework. a game-theoric model by virtue of its play with ‘relativity’ serves as an appropriate model to explore the functional possibilities of literature as an academic discipline. the knowledge produced in humanities stream helps to understand the underlying ‘relativity’ of varied constituents of socio-cultural designs. with reference to the game-theoric account of well-known theorists like lewis, nash, edna ullmann-margalit, the present paper highlights the role of speculation and anticipation in formulation of socio-cultural ethics and its strategic role in creating cultural choices. perhaps, the functionality of literature lies in, understanding the mathematical equations of knowledge, ethics and cultural choices that work out institutional structures and generate systems. it pushes literary theories for being more equilibrium oriented and provide working strategies than merely becoming critical and assuming a perfectionist disposition. keywords: knowledge; functionality; interactive epistemology; relativity; game theory; socio-cultural ethics; strategies beyond theory: literary criticism in row the wide ranging discourse on plethora of literary theories over the years has generated a number of critical schools with their set theoretical assumptions and defined positions and commitments. but, today one can observe an evolving self-reflexivity in various theoretical postulations engendered within the framework that shape them. does it articulate a dissent from within the epistemological domain of literary ‘theory’? or it is a collateral impact of constant mulling over the problematic that a theoretical approach deals with but finds difficult to solve. does it portend the high time to break literature free from its theoretical garb and make it more application oriented? where does literature stand in the whole attempt to purge theory from its abstract nature and focus on its applied aspects? does it manifest a desire to make literary text instrumental for the desired social epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 19 9 42 b. sharma epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences and cultural change or the present exhaustion with theory simply indicate a wide ranging boredom with the frequent perspectival shifts that leave a literary text just an unstable open ended discourse with no final say. with these questions at the centre, one may inaugurate a move towards post-theory era which advocates thinking beyond the theoretical aspect of the literature. or, in other words, it may facilitate a revision of literary theories in terms of their substantiality to give concrete and tangible output finding the functional aspects of a literary text. but, a more complex question involved here is, what may be its implications. how may it affect the literature as a discipline of humanities which is, unlike sciences, deal with the abstract issues like truth, aesthetics, reality, ethicality, justice and many more like that? paul de man, in his essay “the resistance to theory” states: for a method that cannot be made to suit the ‘truth’ of its object can only teach delusion... these uncertainties are manifest in the hostility directed at theory in the name of ethical and aesthetic value, as well as in the recuperative attempts of theoreticians to reassert their own subservience to these values. (273) does literature need to find out its objectives in social context first before being placed at the high altar of aesthetic formulation? what are the fundamentals prescribed for being categorised as truly theoretical or purely practical? as de man further suggests: the normative principles of such a literary ambiance are cultural and ideological rather than theoretical, oriented towards the integrity of a social and historical self rather than towards the impersonal consistency that theory requires (275). what does man endeavours to highlight in the above statement about his theoretical postulation? in the contemporary era of science and technology the disciplines of humanities and social sciences require being more scientific in nature or at least more productive in terms of its socio-cultural output. these disciplines are expected to seek solutions rather than being obsessed with the rolling critical intent involved in the formulation of mere theories. the pressing demand on theory, especially in the discipline of humanities in general and literature in particular is, to prove its validity and talk about its applied consequences in the contemporary post-modernist world. it requires an introspective visit to the functional aspects of literature for finding out the answers. interactive epistemology of knowledge: science and humanities what are the possible dimensions of literary functionality is a long cherished subject of critical deliberation right from aristotle to dryden and pope, further from 19th century critic matthew arnold to 20th century frankfurt school of criticism. literature is generally associated with its cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, and ethical impressions that it is capable to produce.some times it is viewed existing with the objectivesto amuse and instructwhereas on the other hand, it is found as a close ally of capitalism. knowledge has always been a chief concern as well as an endless pursuit in this regard. but, knowledge is dynamic in nature. along with the growth of academics as an institution, knowledge is defined, categorised, privileged and politicised as per the spirit of time. with a concern to comprehend the dialogic process of what it is and what it should be, there has been an intent probing into its epistemological functions. whatever the presumptions, no era can finally limit knowledge into one single disciplinary dominion. having acknowledged the malleability of knowledge, one may wonder what constitutes the intellectual element of knowledge as a source of information. what has been the rational perception of knowledge while seen as a canon established over the years. moreover, how is it created? is it collective or fragmented? what has been its transitional trajectory; linear or cyclic? the creation of knowledge itself has always been a crucial question to know about. 43 knowledge, ethics and choices epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences after centuries of exploration, we have various academic disciplines demarcating the knowledge in terms of the defined areas of studies and its associated objects of intellectual enquiry. it resulted in the simultaneous development of a condescending approach, one discipline posing itself over the other in terms of knowledge. the long known scuffle between humanities and sciences to allege the true nature of knowledge and its efficacy is one of its examples. each discipline claimed the superiority of knowledge created in the respective disciplinary domain. in the words of joe moran: those in the sciences (still) tend to criticise humanities scholars for disregarding empirical methods and relying on subjective interpretations; those in the humanities attack scientists, in turn, for a misguided faith in the possibility of absolute objectivity, a narrow conception of useful knowledge and an unwillingness to interrogate the broader social, political and cultural implications of their work (moran, 150). according to him: many of these disagreements can be traced not only to the different scope and subject matter of the sciences and humanities but their contrasting assumptions about how the knowledge should actually be accumulated (moran, 150). but, it is a matter of epistemic investigation, how far the created disciplines could have remained isolated and justified in boasting of their self-reliance? to what extend the knowledge produced in multifarious fields could validate the respective claims of its completeness in absolute term? even the most contrasting demarcation of science and humanities, which have always raised fierce debates over the different subject matters and divergent methodologies, could never uphold their respective exclusiveness. has either of them ever succeeded in proving its validity without being leaned on other for its implicational justifications? it is a matter of critical estimate. the unabated pace of civilisation moving from its primitive natural state to industrial capitalistic mode has proved the disciplinary interdependence bringing both the theory and praxis into one ambit of knowledge. over the years, on the one hand, scientific theories became applicable in terms of meeting the demands of humankind; whereas, on the other hand humanities frequently embraced scientific methods to develop valid models to testify their socio-political and cultural outcome. theses disciplinary boundaries could never compartmentalise either of the two or prevent an incessant epistemic percolation of knowledge at both sides. knowledge has proved borderless travelling from one sphere to other structuring and restructuring disciplinary boundaries and constructing the edificial paradigms either to believe in or to reject or may be to further rectify the constructed models at various historical stages. celebrating a rich and variegated legacy of knowledge, if perceived from the lens of literary and cultural theories, the present post-modernist world stands closer to an interdisciplinary understanding of knowledge. it is marked with an accommodative epistemic tolerance, yet it still needs to move further to erase the selfenclosed categorisation. in the endless addition of ‘post’, ‘post-post’, ‘post-post-post’ phases of theories, the process of knowledge production somewhere is translated into the recurring shifts from empirical objectivity to inventive subjectivity and vice versa. but, in fact, the creation of knowledge can never be affixed with the abstraction of theory or factuality of empiricism. to put into aijaz ahmad’s word: facts require explanations, and all explanations, even bad ones, presume a configuration of concepts, which we provisionally call ‘theory’. in other words, theory is not simply a desirable but a necessary relation between facts and their explanations (ahmad, 34). in the contemporary epistemic structure too, a theoretical disposition does not 44 b. sharma epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences afford its separation from the empirical testing, and at the same time, an empirical analysis too embrace the inferring summation into the form of theory? in ernesto laclau words: what we have, instead, is a process of mutual contamination between ‘theory’ and ‘empiria’ the former having abandoned its aspirations to constitute a ‘superhard transcendality’ and the latter having lost the innocence associated with pure ‘data’ (post theory, “preface”, vii). in the contemporary cultural format, the academic disciplines seem to stand at a point where universal generalisations dissolve into contextual sensitivity and contexts appear paving the way to identify the unmitigated patterns of generalisation. it is time for the literary theory to imbibe this interactive epistemology and review the analytical mode of literature in its new functional dimensionality. contemporary academics need to understand the common body of knowledge that could decipher ontological and epistemological meaning without rigid disciplinary presumptions. in view of the world for being existed in relative terms; the academics cannot seek answers in isolation. it is a strategic orientation which literature, especially as a disciplinary practice in the realm of literary criticism, needs to take before being lost in the overwhelming noise of selfvalidation or refutation as an authentic source of knowledge. coding the behavioural interplay: that’s how literature works “how does literature work?” it is an oft-posed query while talking about the functionality of literature. indeed, literature does not and, of course, cannot work as science through applied research whittling industrial output. the disciplines of humanities and social sciences are directly linked to the behavioural pattern that is always subject to change. it attends to the issue, why does a literary text, especially in the domain of humanities, fail to give an absolute solution or quantifiable output in terms of its functionality. the nature of a literary text is always distinct depending upon its emotional and ideological underpinning. it may be neoclassical, romantic, structuralist, feminist, postcolonial, deconstructive in character but in each case it encodes the behavioural interplay and postulates set objectives from a specific socio-cultural or aesthetic position. many critics have strongly criticized the discursive nature of literary and cultural discourses for being merely theoretical. in their view, the rumbling nature of the critical discourses does not lead to clarity but ambiguity that moves them away from practical application. does it mean a complete failure of literature or literary and cultural theories at the level of praxis? or it portends to a sensitive slit that needs to be identified and addressed as well as fixed more cautiously than ever before. if science stands as ‘value free’ and humanities as ‘value bound’ knowledge that affects their functional efficacy, it is urgently required to understand the working of both in the game-theoric framework. in this regard, both the disciplines produce knowledge as the study of ‘relativity’ and hence, stand, if not with the same intensity, vulnerable to the ‘value’ imposition. although the discipline of humanities remains more precarious in comparison to science, yet it never closes its opportunity to be more logical and practical. in the words of gregory derry as posted in chapter 7, “thinking straight: evidence, reason, and critical evaluation” of his book what science is and how it works: when issues turn on differences in values, faith, cultural background, and so on, then we are obligated to isolate these differences and identify them clearly. differing values are no excuse for bad logic and lack of evidence. valid argumentation in the murky and ambiguous issues of human affairs is not essentially different from valid argumentation in the esoteric realms of science; it is just more difficult. (derry, 90) responding to various accusations generally laid upon on the ground of ‘differences in value’, derry, inadvertently, evinces a possibility that brings science and humanities 45 knowledge, ethics and choices epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences almost on equal ground. it brings into account the inevitable conception of ‘relativity’ which underlies every creation irrespective of its ontological or epistemological nature. perceiving the nature of a ‘creation’ as an ever evolving design, it becomes a disciplinary imperative to understand the game of ‘relativity’ not simply at the level of atoms and molecules or energy principles as done in the sciences but also in terms of human behaviour that constitute the subject matter of humanities and social sciences. literature as a discipline helps to read the underlying relativity in terms of human relations at individual as well as at the level of groups, class, and cultures. ‘relativity’ defines the interrelationship of constituents in every design, whether animate or inanimate, subjective or objective, theoretical or practical, contextual or context free. it is just the matter of; how perfectly a literary text can comprehend the underlying mathematics of relativity before formulating its various propositions in its disciplinary domain. it is also to be discerned what parameters it would set to address the volatility attributed to the unavoidable ‘relativity’ involved in the structural designs of behavioural interplay. literature as a discipline of humanities not only focuses on ‘humanity’ but also expands its scope with regard to ecology and cosmic schema? concerning with the ‘life experiences’ as the subject matter of literatures, these interconnections, while placed in a game-theoric framework, view the life from the lens of ethicality especially with regard to specific socio-cultural contexts. it brings out the unending game of speculations. it may lead to various strategic decisions, which are examined in their holistic implications before being promulgated as a theoretical stand for further practical implications. humanities and sciences go hand-in-hand. the contemporary cultural crux necessitates this idea to function both at the levels of theory and praxis. is it a new ‘development’ or just ‘old wine in new bottle’? how can it be comprehended in present academic design? would a game-theoric view of ‘interdisciplinary relativity’ explain it? does it portend the new academic orientation towards a concept of ‘holistic’ knowledge? is it perceivable? let’s understand the whole notion with the help of a case study in indian context. an innovative measure in recent years in indian educational system has ensued the increasing importance and deliberate inclusion of humanities courses in the institutions of science. for instance in an article appeared in times of india the author refers to the study made on the recent developments in the academic curriculum in indian iits (indian institutes of technology). it states: but over the last decade, at several of the iits, the hss (humanities and social sciences) schools have junked their ‘service-course department’ status -equipping hardcore techies with a smattering of culture and running phd programmes. the published study includes the case of several indian iits including iit, delhi, iit, mumbai, iit madras, and others like the newly founded one in gandhinagar. the article quotes the views of faculty and students over the recent trend of interdisciplinary undertakings and increasing intervention of humanities in the established institutes of sciences. while interviewed, bhaskar ramamurthi, director, iit madras, stated that humanities students “bring a different flavour to activities outside of class, to the institute’s literary and theatrical activities.”on the other hand, yashasvini rajeshwar, in her fourth-year of development studies at madras, said “our ways of thinking are moulded differently and our problem solving approaches probably vary. but at the root of it, when we are handing out, we cease to be the arts major and the engineers and become friends just like any other group of 20-something year-old.”similarly, giving a glimpse of new set-ups like iit, gandhinagar, which is established in 2008, the study further reveals: 46 b. sharma epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences here, 20%-25% of the courses btechs take are, in the liberal arts and the type of content is different. there are courses in urdu poetry 75 students took that and in classical indian music,” says achal mehra from the department of humanities. the safety centre (particularly the behavioural safety section) and archaeological sciences centre too use inputs from the humanities departments. how should one view such novel drifts in academic discipline? what do these new models of knowledge production suggest? is it a move towards holistic knowledge, required for the realisation of much proclaimed motto of ‘sustainable’ development with its triumvirate structure of ecological, economic and cultural sustainability? how could these novel academic trends be explained at the level of theory? what could be the future orientation of these new educational formats? would such intended holistic knowledge help to better explain the prerequisites of obligatory policy imperatives that affect the overall socio-cultural system and its institutions? where do humanities in general and literature in particular stand in this regard? these are the questions subject to deep probing and intense investigation. perhaps, they may be better understood through the game theory models that explain the relation of knowledge with multiple choices which the canon knowledge always opens. a sustainable society needs to decipher this functional matrix of knowledge, ethics and choices in the act of decision making and find out how it works in case of literature as a cultural agency. a literary text reveals the nuances of socio-cultural systems and its impact on various individual/groups’ behavioural interplay. with reference to the game-theoric account of well-known theorists like lewis, nash, edna ullmann-margalit, one may see the role of speculation and anticipation in formulation of socio-cultural realities. here lies the role of literature in the era of science since as a discipline of humanities it addresses those speculation and anticipation and imparts the much required complementary ‘knowledge’ and managerial ‘ethics’ that the level-headed streams of science may lack. modelling multiple choices: a game-theoric account much famous and widely appropriated, ‘game theory’ as a mathematical model somewhere suggests the need to think in terms of interactive epistemology: what it means for a collective to have common beliefs or knowledge, and what are the consequences of this knowledge for the social outcomes resulting from agents’ interactions. many philosophers like bicchieri (1989), skyrms (1990), and stalnaker (1999) worked in this area to understand the mathematics underlying the social practices and cultural norms.but before undertaking the review of their models, first begin with the elementary understanding of a game-theoric framework. while explaining the theory of nash equilibrium in his book an introduction to game theory, martin j. osborne defines a strategic game as “a model of interacting decision makers.” it consists of “a set of players, a set of actions for each player and preferences over the set of actions profile for each player” (11) replicating the model in socio-cultural contexts, we have the groups or communities as social players of various strategic games at collective level. these games are designed to capture fundamental conflicts present in a variety of situations where an action may be called a strategy. the game is important not because one is interested in understanding the pay offs or incentives for the players for their choice of action but because many other situations have similar structures. while extended to understand the coordination-conflict situations of socio-political nature, it reckons the mathematics underlying various socio-cultural codes and its resultant normative modes. a game is designed to expound the ‘relativity’ 47 knowledge, ethics and choices epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences involved in the construction of a socio-cultural matrix. there are two key concepts which help to explicate the structural design of any strategic game. first is contractual nature of ‘relativity’ that always perceives a negotiating approach among the players to safeguard the interests of all. the second component is the utilitarian principle which determines the incentives for players for their choice of certain strategic move. since each player is aware of the possible harm and uncertainty involved in the game, one prefers to explore rational choices to uphold collective common interest. at socio-cultural level, these choices can be designated by any name such as morality, ethics, law or may be any other nomenclature depending upon the type and intensity of the force associated with. as per the first principle, i. e., the contractual nature of ‘relativity’ morality consists of a set of rules that individuals voluntarily agree to abide by. it resembles the signing of a contract which covers the interests of those who accept its terms. even the interests of those, who lack the ability to understand it and cannot sign, are protected by those who are in position to sign it. it is the game of coordination that generates ethics in the form of common belief and common move. to quote tom regan: according to crude contractarian position, morality consists of rules that people agree to abide by. these are the people who have the power to enforce the rules that are drawn up in the contract.. now it requires the purgation of the contractors of their bias or prejudices to extend the sense of justice even to those who are not the part of contract signatories. (regan, 14) the conception of ethics is an amalgamation of the direct and indirect duties to each other for being connected through an undeniable bond of ‘relativity’. it works out the ethical principles on humanitarian ground. it is to ensure the humanitarian idea of justice at rational level. as cited by john rawls in his well known work a theory of justice, the theory of justice is set forth as a version of contractarianism. it endorses a move from personal to common or, in other words, from subjective to objective. it forces the involved parties to ignore the accidental features of being a human beingfor example, white or black, male or female, a genius or modest intellect, since only by ignoring these differentiating features, as rawls believes, we can ensure the underlying principles of justice in the contractarianism. a judicious approach makes a contract free from bias or prejudices. let’s bring forth the other important criterion for the judgement of social ethicalitythe ‘utilitarian’ principle. a utilitarian concept involves two moral principles. the first is ‘equality’ and the other ‘utility’. the professed egalitarianism as the first objective counts everyone’s interest with same weightage, whereas the second notion of ‘utility’ tries to work out the best balance between satisfaction and frustration for everyone affected by the outcome. since in the two-person zero-sum game one person’s gains exactly equal the net losses of the other, it becomes crucial to determine the point of equilibrium which could do justice to both the parties. the utilitarian principles of social ethics justify the moral code on the ground of the final product of the utilities. some popular illustrations of game theory like the prisoner’s dilemma represent an apparent conflict between the morality and self-interest. the game-theoric version of social relations throws light on the conflict-coordination bond of ‘relativity’. it explains why ‘conflict’ is an underlying reality which could not be denied of, in any bilateral or multilateral social relationship but how, at the same time, it makes cooperation a prerequisite to preserve self-interest. literature presents the sum game of ‘life’ in its portrayal of life’s loss and gain from different perspectives. it does not come out simply as a portrayal of life dilemmas in narrative mode but also as 48 b. sharma epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences strong ideological commitments of the author/text. they propose the creative theoretical postulations. the wide spectrum of literature consists of multiple models of individual and collective behavioural patterns suggesting the possibilities of innumerable choices and the game of conflict-coordination in socio-cultural decision making. humanities and mathematical reasoning it is still convenient to view the knowledge produced by humanities in a game theoric framework but one may wonder how far this knowledge could be subjected to mathematical reasoning for socio-political decision making. following the modern game theory as propounded by john von neumann, which began with the idea regarding the existence of mixed-strategy equilibria, a socio-cultural ethical code can chooses the option which is most likely to bring about the balance of totalled satisfactions over totalled frustrations in a specific socio-cultural context. it may be infused with a totalitarian apprehension. but it is what the mathematical approach of the game theory tries to undo. understanding the mathematics of ethics through literary texts as well as theory is to purge the decision making of its totalitarian element. a totalitarian norm is always answerable to the cultural forces for its corrupt intensions. it makes them liable and context sensitive with a counsel for more precautions. its aggregative nature demands a cautionary move to ascertain an amount of flexibility and accommodation at collective level. the application of literary studies lies in comprehending the mathematics of ethics. it can be reckoned through the accurate calculation of aggregate utilitarian output within the contractarian framework of cultural formulations. now, the socio-political question interlaced in such design is how to designate the correct cultural agency for working out the mathematics of ethics. who or which agency is authorised to lay down and execute a ‘contract’ and work out the aggregate result of positive and negative values of ‘utilities’? what could be the appropriate criteria to judge the religious or secular, egalitarian or concessional element of such designated agency? does it evoke the same power-contest among various socio-political and cultural institutions? are all attempts to work out the correct mathematics of ethics, bound to end with corrupt power politics? the nature of the question, no doubt, makes it political yet, one may accept the fact that a game, on account of its strategic nature, is always bound to be political at certain level. yet, still maintaining the impersonality of the game itself, if not of the players involved, one may state; it is precisely the study of power equations that facilitates a constructive cultural discourse. since these propositions enable a host of dictums to serve as obligatory norms over given time span, by identifying the socio-cultural conditions with the structural design of the strategic games, somewhere, one may trace the foci of equipoise. it acknowledges, despite the integral conflicts, the possibility of a point of equilibrium, howsoever short lived and unstable, yet capable to suggest a strategic action to maximise the pay off in the given situation. a sustainable socio-cultural community always endeavours to attain that point of balance. it is the same point that has a potential of being adapted into a common belief or well accepted judicious law. it is innocent in its constitution till the time the players keeps it detached from the differentiating features what rawls excerpts in his book theory of justice. but, indubitably, its vulnerability to corruption always keeps it in flux subjected to the whims and antics of power. it generates a structural susceptibility. in fact, it is always the disruption of the strategic point of equilibrium, which prop up rigid power structures and its associated exploitative practices. 49 knowledge, ethics and choices epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences to bring out the ideological play that underlies the game-theoric models in humanities, one may draw attention to althusser’s concept of political and cultural hegemony. althusser’s conception throws light on the duality of forces which nurture various socio-political ideologies and their schematic execution in socio-political structures. manipulation of ideologies results in the structuring of non-innocent games. althusser’s conception of ideology presents it as an ‘unconscious’, he describes it as a system, with its own logic and rigour, of representations, which is executed in the ‘lived’ relation between men and the world. but these ideologies are incapable to remain static. in the words of althusser: if, as marx said, history is a perpetual transformation of men’s conditions of existence, and if this is equally true of socialist society, then men must be ceaselessly transformed so as to adapt them to these conditions: if this ‘adaptation’ cannot be left to spontaneity but must be constantly assumed, dominated, controlled, it is in ideology that this demand is expressed... (althusser, 235) hence the birth of every new ideology is a strategic move to be played in the power game. it is the ideological clash that strives to transmute the game structure. in fact, each socio-cultural change indicates the revision of the matrix of game to formulate novel ethical and moral norms which will be the new rules for the game to be further continued. whether it is a drift from colonial imperialism to postcolonial resistance or from patriarchal set up and heterosexual societies to gender equity and lgbt rights, the power structures are made to mould for strategic restructuring. the mathematical tangency of the gametheoric account prerequisites the separation of the political content of ideology from the apolitical structural framework of any cultural design. the mathematics of ethics does not allow space for political corruption while formulating the common belief or a judicious cultural norm. following the mathematical construct of the game theory, one can examine the nash equilibria from a nonaligned perspective to understand its humanist strain. nash equilibria help to understand how a game-theoric model functions. it emphasises on two essential components. first, the players of apolitical game, given their beliefs about the other players’ actions, always act in accordance with the theory of rational choice. secondly, there is a common approval that these beliefs are correct. precisely, nash equilibria result from transforming a mixed-motive game into a coordination game. its definition is designed to model a steady state among experienced players. while applied in the socio-cultural domain, what an adroit and judicious cultural agency is expected to do is to correctly comprehend the calculation of varied variables involved in the formulation of a socio-cultural matrix. in fact, a sustainable society emanates from the same principle of transforming the game of conflict into a coordination game. the notion of sustainability is expected to identify the points of socio-cultural equilibrium for being altered into legal and ethical code for ensuring cultural sustainability. although expressed differently, yet following what nash equilibrium embodies, it exhibits the quest for identifying stable ‘socio-cultural’ norms, which means if everyone else adheres to it, no individual wishes to deviate from it. in other words, it implies that all players’ ‘expectations are coordinated’. here what is important to note is that nash equilibrium does not in general correspond exactly to the idealised setting. examples show that some games have a single equilibrium, others possess no equilibrium and many others may have many. same is true with regard to diverse cultural contexts which have sundry possibility of equilibriums yet always remain in need of their being stabilised in one or the other form. but, whatever 50 b. sharma epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the context, a game-theoric view expects an analytical examination of human behaviour manifested in game. its knowledge is essentially reliant on the profound understanding of ‘relativity’ and finding out how does it result in strategic decisions. literature being the repository of human behavioural patterns always serves as a rich source for strategic decisions with regard to extant multiple choices in specific cultural contexts. towards a functional theory of literature following lewis’ (1969) game-theoretic account of conventions, edna ullmann-margalit (1977) and bicchieri (2006) have developed theories of social norms. ullmann-margalit relies on the apparatus developed by schelling and lewis to show that norms can be generated by coordination situation without the aid of explicit agreement among the parties involved. it indicates how the strategic moves in a game take shape of sociocultural practices and ethical traditions. it is the historical nature of socio-cultural practices that result in the invention of traditions. although talking in architectural context, yet christopher n. matthews precisely quotes eric hobsbawn (1983) while recognising the parallel between the social practice and the invention of tradition. in his words: ...traditions require social practice, hobson illustrates that we can observe both the origins and modifications of traditions by exploring and contextualising their actualisations over time... what was it about certain ways of doing things that made them traditional when they were in fact quite arbitrary and novel, and why would (and how could) something so timeless change? what is relevant here is that traditions, as they refer to a past, materialise cultural formations and modes of knowledge in a very specific way that allows their expression to go without critique. (“preface”, xi) the socio-cultural norms transform into tradition as an outcome of allied game of relativity. hence, the social ethics heavily depend on the structural design of the game played than anything else. so there is a need to understand the game, to identify its structure and render its mathematical modelling to find-out its socio-political significance. and, it is the function of literature to render the knowledge of common beliefs and possible strategic moves accessible to the various cultural agencies. the issues which remain relevant in this context are; may the game-theoric understanding of ‘relativity’ serve as the basis of the socio-political and cultural decision making theory. how precisely a cultural agency can calculate the cultural payoffs of socio-political ethics to design the other strategic game of contemporary relevance? the mathematical modelling of socio-cultural ethics may give the required theoretical knowledge for a more strategic understanding of diversified cultural praxis. what it anticipates, especially in contemporary calculative technological age, is a need to understand the mathematical equations of social designs that work out institutional structures and generate systems. it is all about identifying the socio-cultural patterns and how do these patterns create and re-create traditions. what the discipline of humanities and social sciences need to examine is, both the political and apolitical aptness of those patterns which define specific socio-cultural behaviour. it is the mathematical understanding of cultural ethics that may work to sustain a society. the mathematical reasoning behind common beliefs and traditions not only explain the contractarian and utilitarian purpose of their constitution but also helps to resolve the dialectics of conflict and coordination in specific socio-cultural contexts. since it is high time for humanist disciplines like literature and literary theories to perform, rather than simply issuing fixated statements, the historical consciousness is 51 knowledge, ethics and choices epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences expected to go hand in hand with the study of structural designs. it is important to trace the socio-cultural patterns and identify the trajectory of changing socio-political designs and the mathematical matrix behind it. literature’s engagement with the game-theoric view of relativity emphasises to explicate the cultural decision making. a humanist theory is never complete till it provides certain pragmatic tools to give strong and constructive policy frameworks. the present dilemma appears to push theory for being more equilibrium oriented and provide working strategies than merely becoming critical and assuming a perfectionist disposition. in truth and the ethics of criticism, christopher examines the way in which literary theory has redefined itself in a contemporary hermeneutic circle concerned with epistemological rigour and cultural critique. norris argues that literary theorists can implement a series of correctives that may yet infuse the theoretical project with much needed doses of pragmatism and social relevance. norris characterizes that paradigmatic shift as ‘the retreat from high theory’(1), as an era in which ‘a great deal depends on where one happens to be in terms of the wider socio-political culture and the local opportunities for linking theory and practice in a meaningful way.” (5) references ahmad, aijaz. (2010). “literature among the signs of our time” in theory: classes, nations, literatures. new delhi: oxford university press. 1-42 althusser, louis. (1977). for marx. london: new left books. bicchieri, c. (1989). self refuting theories of strategic interaction: a paradox of common knowledge. erkenntnis, 30. 69-85 chowdhury, shreya roy. “service departments’ no more, humanities, social sciences getting a leg up in iits” times of india. | tnn | sep 26, 2014, 01.57 pm ist http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/service-departments-no-more-humanities-socialsciences-getting-a-leg-up-in-iits/articleshow/43515606.cms culler, jonathan. (1997). literary theory: a very short introduction. new york: oup. derry, gregory n. (2011). what science is and how it works. new delhi: overseas press. laclau, ernesto. (1999). “preface” in post theory: new direction in criticism. ed. martin mcquillan, graeme macdonald, robin purves & stephen thomson. edinburgh: edinburgh university press. lewis, david. (1969). convention: a philosophical study, cambridge: harvard university press. man, paul de. (2001). “the resistance to theory”. modern literary theory. ed. philip rica & patricia waugh. london: hodder arnold. (4th edition) matthews, christopher n. (2002). an archaeology of history and tradition. new york: kluwer academic/ plenum publishers. moran, joe. (2007). interdisciplinarity. new york: routledge. norris, christopher. (1994). truth and the ethics of criticism. new york: manchester university press. peterson, linda h., john c. brereton & joan e. hartman. (2000). the norton reader. new york: w. w. norton & company. (10th edition) rawls, john. (2005). a theory of justice. cambridge: harvard university press. regan, tom. (1985). “the case for animal rights” in defense of animals. ed. peter singer. new york: basil blackwell. 13-26. schelling, thomas c. (1981). the strategy of conflict. cambridge: harvard university press. skyrmas, brian. (1990). the dynamics of rational deliberation. cambridge: harvard university press. stalnaker, robert. (1999). context and content: essays on intentionality in speech and thought new york: oxford university press. http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/osborne/igt/nash.pdf the emergence of norms by edna ullmann-margalit. reviewed by: adrian m. s. piper. the philosophical review, duke university press. article doi: 10.2307/2185102. stable url: http://www.jstor.org/ stable/2185102 99-107. weatherson, brian, “david lewis”, the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (fall 2014 edition), edward n. zalta (ed.), url = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/david-lewis/>. microsoft word 5. raskolnikov's desire for confession and punishment epiphanyepiphanyepiphanyepiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 2 spring 2009 ©2009, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. raskolnikov’s desire for confession and punishment reyyan bal international university of sarajevo much criticism about dostoevsky’s crime and punishment has focused on the variety and ambivalence of raskolnikov’s motives for committing the crime or transgression of the title. sergei hackel, in his article “raskolnikov through the looking-glass: dostoevsky and camus’s l’etranger”, sums up the various motives that have been discussed in relation to raskolnikov’s crime as follows: in fact, it is the multiplicity of possible motives that makes raskolnikov so convincing a presence. was he seeking money to help his family? or simply seeking money? was he putting his concept of the napoleonic superman to the test? or killing to relieve the tension created by introspection in his claustrophobic room? was he mentally or physically ill? tempted by satan? was he expressing his resentment against society? or attempting to bridge the gulf between society and himself by attracting the former's attention? or by killing, and thus utterly possessing, one of society's representatives? or seeking punishment to allay some subconscious guilt? indulging a will to suffer? (196) considerably less criticism has focused on raskolnikov’s motives for confessing his crime and accepting punishment, although the greater part of the novel is devoted to this process. indeed, after the crime committed early on in the plot, the rest of crime and punishment deals with raskolnikov’s vacillation between his instinct of self-preservation and urge for confession and punishment, with the eventual triumph of the latter. according to priscilla meyer, dostoevsky planned crime and punishment as a confessional novel. as evidence for this, she cites a letter written by dostoevsky to his brother: raskolnikov’s desire for confession and punishment 83 in a letter to his brother written in 1859, dostoevsky excitedly reported his intention to write a confessional novel, “ispoved-roman,” which he had thought up in prison…to be called the confession (ispoved). the commentators to the collected works consider that the title refers to notes from underground…i dispute their argument…there appears to be insufficient evidence to controvert grossman’s earlier conclusion: “hints sprinkled throughout dostoevsky’s letters and notebooks show that by ‘confession’ he meant the story of raskolnikov.” (236) just like his crime, raskonikov’s confession is also a result of multifarious motives and “has long since become one of the classical episodes in the literature of psychology” (squires 491). in his work on criminal psychology, hans gross describes confession as “a very extraordinary psychological problem” and makes a long yet inexhaustive list of motives behind criminals’ confession, everything from vanity, to the desire to receive care and lodgings, to the noble desire to protect someone else, to the pressure of conscience (1-2). in the case of raskolnikov, it will perhaps be helpful to analyse the motives leading him to his eventual confession(s) in relation to the three planes of experience, the social, the psychological, and the spiritual planes. raskolnikov is profoundly affected on all three levels of experience as a result of his crime, and these effects are what gradually lead him towards confession. from the beginning of crime and punishment, raskolnikov is presented as a character who has isolated himself from society. he fears meeting his landlady, dreads coming across any of his friends, and looks on the people around him with scorn. the reasons for this isolation seem to be a curious mixture of pride and projected self-loathing. raskolnikov is handsome and intelligent, and we later learn that he was a successful law student, but had to give up his studies due to lack of money. instead of finding ways to earn money and continue his studies, like his friend razumihin does, raskolnikov has imprisoned himself in his tiny tomb-like room in a poor neighbourhood and there given vent to neurotic reyyan bal 84 thoughts that have further distanced him from society. his article “on crime” reflects his pride, his disdain of others – the common populace – and his dissatisfaction with the social conditions of his country. according to the article, certain superior, extraordinary individuals, such as napoleon, have the right to transgress legal and moral boundaries in acts that sacrifice a relatively small number of people to the greater good of the greater number, as advocated by utilitarianism. it becomes evident that raskolnikov sees himself as capable of being one such superman, and his plan to kill alyona ivanovna and use her money to help poor people is based on his wish to prove this to himself. he confesses this to sonia: i wanted to become a napoleon, that is why i killed her ... i … murdered her, following his example … i … resolved … to build up a completely new career and enter upon a new life of independence … he who despises most things will be a lawgiver among them and he who dares most of all will be most in the right! so it has been till now and so it always will be … i...i wanted to have the daring…and i killed her. i only wanted to have the daring, sonia! that was the whole cause of it!...i know it all now…understand me! perhaps i should never have committed a murder again. i wanted to find out then and quickly whether i was a louse like everybody else or a man. whether i can step over barriers or not, whether i dare stoop to pick up or not, whether i am a trembling creature or whether i have the right. (406) “is there, in all literature, a more terrible confession of social impotency than this?” asks peter chatham squires in his article “dostoevsky’s ‘raskolnikov’: the criminalistic protest”. raskolnikov’s crime is both the result of this social impotency, and the cause of its increase to an unbearable level, for, not only does he discover as soon as he commits the murder that he has failed in his attempt to become a superman, but both this discovery and the nervous state caused by his crime disable him raskolnikov’s desire for confession and punishment 85 from being able to carry out even the simplest social gestures. following his crime, raskolnikov becomes seriously ill for days, showing both his physical and psychological weakness, and becomes very nervous in the presence of other people, especially porfiry petrovic, but also in the presence of those dearest to him. although he discovers that he is one of the common multitude, raskolnikov has erected a seemingly insurmountable barrier between himself and this multitude – including his close friends and family – due to his crime. in a letter to his editor, dostoevsky remarks that “the feeling of separation and dissociation from humanity which he [raskolnikov] experiences at once after he has committed the crime, is something he cannot bear” (qtd. in beebe 157). as long as he protects his freedom by hiding his crime, raskolnikov will always remain alienated from the people around him. the appearance of his mother and beloved sister dounia, together with his friend razumihin – all of whom try to help and support him – serves to emphasize this terrible isolation. “mother, sister – how i loved them! why do i hate them now?...i can’t bear them near me...i went up to my mother and kissed her, i remember...to embrace her and think if she only knew” (235). these are people that raskolnikov does not despise, people who he can relate to, but he has made it impossible for himself to relate to them or to accept their help and support. he has become like a louse among them – “yes, i am certainly a louse” (234) – just as alyona ivanovna was a louse in the community. the only way for raskolnikov to overcome this social impotency and become re-integrated into society is by confessing his crime and accepting his punishment. in a world that is harsh and unattractive, yet, as he is to discover, neither utterly alien nor entirely incoherent, people turn out to have more significance for him than he expected: "you can't do without us," as porfiry petrovich points out to him. his thoughts on the question of a superman morality never liberate him altogether from the claims of alternative moral attitudes, attitudes of which his mother, sister, reyyan bal 86 girlfriend constantly remind him. there is a tension within him; and his confession, expiation, and rather tentatively suggested regeneration are the way out of this tension. (hackel 194) a deeper level for raskolnikov’s desire for confession and punishment is the psychological level. in their discussion about crime, razumihin harshly criticizes the socialist doctrine, according to which “human nature is not taken into account, it is excluded, it’s not supposed to exist” (219). this disregard for human nature is also true for raskolnikov’s theory of crime, at which razumihin is appalled, expressing his “horror...that you sanction bloodshed in the name of conscience” (225). razumihin is proven right, and human nature reveals itself in raskolnikov as soon as he commits the crime. despite his continual rationalizations of the crime, and despite his denial of his feelings of guilt – claiming that he has only transgressed legally and not morally – raskolnikov does in fact feel guilty. regardless of her character or her significance, alyona ivanovna was a human being, and he killed her brutally; moreover, he also killed the simple, innocent and harmless lizaveta. raskolnikov’s initial pride, which convinced him of his superiority to other people, and especially a “louse” like alyona ivanovna, rapidly diminishes after his crime. he realizes his own lack of strength and the baseness and crudeness of his crime and the actions following it. he is not at all a superman like napoleon. too late, he emerges from his trance with the realization that the superb will-to-dare possessed by the man of austerlitz and st. helena is not for him, that he is nothing but a weakling. “i am just such a louse as all the rest.” he admits himself to be “vain, envious, malicious, base, vindictive and…well, perhaps with a tendency to insanity.” (squires 484) raskolnikov imagines porfiry petrovic mocking him on this point – actually projecting his self-mockery onto porfiry – asking him whether a napoleon would raskolnikov’s desire for confession and punishment 87 crawl under an old woman’s bed to search for her purse (234). this disintegration of his pride and self-worth causes raskolnikov to feel that it is not worthwhile to protect his freedom; in his own eyes, he is not worth preserving. as raskolnikov finds out, committing a crime and escaping punishment for it requires ceaseless energy and strength. for the rest of his life, he will be pursued by the relentless fears and dilemmas caused by his efforts to hide his crime; he will never be free of suspicion and apprehension. therefore, physical freedom comes at the cost of psychological burden and imprisonment. raskolnikov realizes that he will not survive much longer under this strain (134). in fact, suddenly feeling clear-headed and determined after his bout of illness, he decides to bring an end to his torture, presumably by confessing: “he had one thought only: ‘that all this must be ended today, once for all, immediately” (134). after this resolution, he encounters zametov in a restaurant and practically confesses to him; he has a change of heart half-way through, however, and pretends to have been joking. stating that “dostoevsky embodied his entire philosophy of guilt and redemption in [raskolnikov],” john d. simons analyses raskolnikov’s state of mind after the crime as follows: in preparing the way for raskolnikov's regeneration, dostoevsky first showed that raskolnikov's reaction to the crime was not one of remorse, but an indefinable mood which made him uneasy. although alone, he had never been able to feel alone; he seemed aware of an uneasy presence near him. it did not frighten him, but greatly annoyed him. the feeling of despair grew in raskolnikov until it tortured him to delirium. (168) in a way, confessing his guilt will free raskolnikov’s mind of these dilemmas haunting it. since his life outside of prison is not really a free one either, with his cell-like room, his poverty and his lack of meaningful occupation, he eventually decides to at least set his mind free, by seeking punishment through confession. reyyan bal 88 none of these psychological reasons for his desire for confession are recognized by raskolnikov consciously. they emerge in his dreams and underlie his thoughts and actions. ruth mortimer discusses dostoevsky’s use of dreams in crime and punishment in her article “dostoevski and the dream author(s)”: it is in the novel crime and punishment that this technique of the dream is presented most artistically and most completely. there are four fully told dreams which concern the chief character, raskolnikov. each of these dreams leads into the next, illustrating both the significance of the dream in the complex psychology of a character like raskolnikov and the use of the dream for dramatic atmosphere. in creating these dreams, dostoevski has repeated events or reshaped ideas in terms of the unconscious of the character who is dreaming. thus the succession of dreams forms a psychic pattern of motivation as valid as the course of external episodes. (108) this “psychic pattern of motivation” is one of the most important factors that eventually lead raskolnikov to confess and accept punishment. the first dream that raskolnikov sees before he commits the murder is a foreshadowing of the remorse that he will feel after the crime. in the dream – based on a childhood memory – a drunk, sadistic man beats an old mare to death while the child raskolnikov looks on in horror. he is incapable of preventing this crime, but he feels great pity because of it, taking the dead horse’s head onto his lap and kissing it (49-53). rahv points out that in the dream “raskolnikov is both the compassionate little boy and the murderous mikolka. he is also the nag, himself a victim, which he implies by his remark to sonya: ‘i didn't kill the old woman-i killed myself’” (qtd. in marchant 8). waking up from the dream, he cries “good god!...can it be, that i shall really take an axe, that i shall strike her on the head, split her skull open...that i shall tread in the sticky warm blood” (53). although he ends up actually carrying out these deeds, his feelings during and after the dream foreshadow his feelings after the crime. mortimer remarks that, raskolnikov’s desire for confession and punishment 89 [t]he terror which raskolnikov experiences as a child over the death struggles of the helpless mare predicts his loss of control over the act of murder. the early emotions aroused in the dream are still within him. the basic feelings of pity and compassion, natural to the child, must still exist in raskolnikov if he can suffer them so acutely in a dream. when, at the end of the dream, the boy rushes at mikolka in a frenzy of hatred, he actually is confronting himself, the mature raskolnikov, his victim lying at his feet. the conclusion of the dream, the child weeping in his father's arms, suggests the scene near the close of the novel in which raskolnikov kneels before his mother when he knows he will confess his crime. (111) in another dream, raskolnikov’s sense of weakness, inadequacy and humiliation after his crime becomes evident. in the dream, he sees himself performing the murder of alyona once more, but this time no matter how many blows he hits her with the axe, she does not die and laughs at him instead (237). this dream is concentrated upon raskolnikov himself performing the act of violence, whereas, in the preceding dreams, the murder was so far repressed that the furious peasant, mikolka, and ilya petrovitch were the assailants. this repression was caused by an unconscious refusal to admit his own crime. the murder dream implies an extremely intricate psychic motivation: at the moment when raskolnikov is able to recognize his act sufficiently to reproduce it as his own, the final impression is of failure. here he finds himself incapable of murder, from a purely physical standpoint. under the blows of the axe, the old woman sits as though made of wood and only laughs at his vicious attempt. the fact, here reduced to its simplest terms, is, in actuality, the growing realization that psychologically raskolnikov cannot endure the effects of the murder. (113) thus, this dream brings to raskolnikov’s consciousness not only the realisation of his humiliation at his weakness, but also his realisation of his act for what it was, reyyan bal 90 a violent, meaningless, cowardly deed, and also the fact that he is unable to cope with this reality. together, these unconscious psychological motivations produce in raskolnikov an unconscious desire to be caught. this desire is manifest in several of his actions. one of these is his revisiting of the crime scene. while walking around the city disturbed, he suddenly finds himself there. since raskolnikov knows that this act will incriminate him, his involuntarily performing it reveals his unconscious desire to be caught. porfiry petrovic, an expert at criminal psychology, becomes aware of all of these psychological motivations in raskolnikov, and he uses them and even plays with them to instigate his confession and redemption. he tells raskolnikov: it’s not merely that he has nowhere to run to, he is psychologically unable to escape me, he-he!...through a law of nature he can’t escape me if he had anywhere to go. have you seen a butterfly round a candle? that’s how he will keep circling and circling round me. freedom will lose its attractions. he’ll begin to brood, he’ll weave a tangle round himself, he’ll worry himself to death!...he’ll fly straight into my mouth and i’ll swallow him. (iv.5.289) porfiry is masterfully manipulating raskolnikov. his words act on three levels: they describe general criminal psychology, they describe raskolnikov’s particular psychology and they condition raskolnikov’s future actions. inspector porfiry subjected rodion to the most terrifying of all methods of inquisition: torture purely mental. he jokes with his prey, he cajoles him. of course he is “only joking”; but then, you know, a man guilty of a crime can at last find freedom only in prison. needless to say – so runs on the inspector – he would not dream of accusing rodion. but doesn’t rodion think that whoever is guilty would be wise to confess and thereby obtain a favourable bargain with the law? (squires 491) raskolnikov’s desire for confession and punishment 91 porfiry petrovic presents raskolnikov with the path to deliverance from the darkness caused by his psychology, and his intelligence and kindness make raskolnikov respect him and pay heed to his advice. in fact, porfiry is not only concerned with catching raskolnikov, but also with saving him. “his purpose is to convince raskolnikov that he should surrender and confess the crime, because porfiry knows that raskolnikov needs the punishment and suffering to such an extent that, even if he ran away, he would return of his own accord” (simons 169). porfiry wants raskolnikov to confess, not only so that they can punish him, but because he wants raskolnikov to be saved, morally and psychologically, and the only way is for him to confess and accept punishment for his crime. “when porfiry says ‘give yourself up and confess,’ he is advising raskolnikov both to give himself up to human law as well as to find faith in god” (meyer 242). as has been mentioned, raskolnikov’s psychological dilemmas take place unconsciously, surfacing in his dreams and motivating his actions without him being consciously aware of them. however, these dilemmas also confront him in physical form, through characters that embody the different aspects of raskolnikov’s personality. “dostoevsky examines the hero’s movement toward confession by embodying his motives in different characters” (meyer 242). maurice beebe explains dostoevsky’s technique as follows: because his protagonists are usually split personalities, the psychological and philosophical drama in a dostoevsky novel is expressed in terms of a conflict between opposite poles of sensibility and intelligence, spirit and mind, passiveness and aggressiveness, selfsacrifice and self-assertion…or, sometimes, "good" and "bad." to dramatize this conflict, dostoevsky often gives his characters several alter egos or doubles, each projecting one of the extremes of the split personality… according to most interpretations of crime and punishment, the struggle within raskolnikov becomes physical, external action as he wavers between svidrigailov, epitome of self-willed evil, and sonia, reyyan bal 92 epitome of self-sacrifice and spiritual goodness.” (1512) through his encounters with the two characters, sonia and svidrigailov, who embody the polar aspects of his own personality, raskolnikov is able to see more clearly and concretely the choice before him. one side of his psychology – the side that pushed him towards his crime and that is now motivating him to protect himself by concealing his crime – if followed, will lead him to become like svidrigailov. the other side – the side that led him to save a child from fire, to give the last money in his pocket to the marmeladovs, and the side that is urging him towards confession – will lead him to become like sonia. it is through these characters that raskolnikov is able to consciously confront the unconscious aspects of his personality. both sonia and svidrigailov are transgressors like raskolnikov. unlike raskolnikov, however, both of these characters seem to be free from feelings of guilt – as, indeed, raskolnikov should have been had he been a superman. yet, both sonia and svidrigailov’s reasons for transgression and their reasons for not feeling guilty are in complete contrast to one another. sonia transgresses physically, but never spiritually, with the sole motive of feeding her starving family. this is the reason for her freedom from guilt: she is certain that she will be forgiven because hers is an act of self-sacrifice. svidrigailov, on the other hand, transgresses due to his self-interest, his desires and his disregard for what happens to other people in the fulfilment of those desires. he does not feel guilty, because he is amoral, he has completely suppressed his conscience. even his acts of kindness prior to his suicide are easy acts, requiring little effort and sacrifice, and giving him the self-satisfaction of having performed them. svidrigailov and sonia represent the psychological dilemma that raskolnikov is struggling with: he will be freed from his feelings of remorse and uncertainty, either by succeeding in repressing his conscience, or by confessing, receiving punishment, and thus making peace with his conscience. edward raskolnikov’s desire for confession and punishment 93 wasiolek, in discussing the structure of crime and punishment, argues that “sonia and svidrigaylov stand in antithetical relationship and that both are probably objectifications of the opposing moral principles that raskolnikov carries within him” (132). according to wasiolek, he can now proceed to organize his life cynically for the naive self-confidence in his power to organize his life wholly according to will and reason has been destroyed according to a new plan based on these principles; or he can organize it according to the other set of principles within him, which had been suppressed in the first half [of the novel] but which had welled up on a number of occasions to oppose the ruling principles. he can in short follow the path of svidrigaylov or of sonia. sonia represents the negation of the principle that had led to the murder of the old woman; svidrigaylov, the "man of bronze" who can do evil without pangs of conscience, represents the ultimate disastrous consequences of such a principle. (133) likewise, peter marchant describes svidrigailov as “the angel of darkness, representing skepticism, sybaritism, and hopeless rationalism” and sonia as “the personification of grace through which raskolnikov is saved” (5). the personification of the paths before him makes it easier for raskolnikov to see the implications of both and – because he is disgusted by svidrigailov and drawn to sonia – to choose the path of redemption through confession and punishment. raskolnikov’s choice of the path of sonia leads him towards the deepest level of his eventual desire for confession and punishment, the spiritual level. according to alexandra rudicina, crime and punishment follows the archetypal pattern of transgression followed by a fall and suffering, followed by rebirth. “this underlying pattern reflects the archetypal scheme of rebirth through transgression followed by suffering, or expiation, which informs the central myth of christianity, the fall of man and his redemption” (1065). fittingly, reyyan bal 94 raskolnikov’s sin is pride; he believes that he has the right to take the life of another human being, based on his interpretation of her as worthless “vermin”. his wish to rob and murder the old pawnbroker that he may administer justice by distributing her ill-gotten riches to the more deserving poor or, more probably, that he may finance the education that is to make him a benefactor of mankind…is rooted in raskolnikov's dominating characteristic, the egoistic pride that makes him want to play god. (152) the gradual disintegration of this pride during his suffering after his transgression is an essential part of raskolnikov’s path towards redemption and rebirth. the most important step he must take in order to be redeemed is that of confession; only after he confesses his crime and truly feels remorse for it can he be reborn. the eastern orthodox tradition of confession is different from that of the catholic church: within the eastern orthodox and eastern catholic churches, it is understood that the mystery of confession and repentance has more to do with the spiritual development of the individual and much less to do with purification. sin is not seen as a stain on the soul, but rather a mistake that needs correction. in general, the orthodox christian chooses an individual to trust as his or her spiritual guide. in most cases this is the parish priest, but may be…any individual, male or female, who has received permission from a bishop to hear confession. this person is often referred to as one's "spiritual father" or "spiritual mother". once chosen, the individual turns to his spiritual guide for advice on his or her spiritual development, confessing sins, and asking advice. orthodox christians tend to confess only to this individual and the intimacy created by this bond makes the spiritual guide the most qualified in dealing with the person, so much so that no one can override what a spiritual guide tells his or her charges. what is confessed to one's spiritual guide is protected by the same seal as would be any priest raskolnikov’s desire for confession and punishment 95 hearing a confession…orthodox understand that the confession is not made to the priest, but to christ, and the priest stands only as witness and guide. (internet 1) this sheds light on the relationship between raskolnikov and sonia. despite being a prostitute, sonia is portrayed as a saintly character throughout the novel. raskolnikov is first attracted to her “because of her great suffering”, as he tells her, and also because he sees her as a fellow transgressor who will therefore be able to understand him. from the moment their relationship begins, sonia has a redeeming influence on raskolnikov; she represents the compassionate, altruistic, loving aspects of his own character and helps to strengthen these characteristics. the first time raskolnikov goes to her apartment, he asks her to read the story of the raising of lazarus from the new testament, a story which has been reminded to him purposefully by porfiry. this scene is a foreshadowing of raskolnikov’s eventual rebirth through the influence of sonia. when raskolnikov decides to confess his crime to sonia, he effectually chooses her as his “spiritual mother.” as raskolnikov’s spiritual mother, not only does sonia bring about his spiritual salvation, but she also assists his social and psychological redemption. “it is sonia who understands raskolnikov and points the way to redemption. he must go and stand at the crossroads, bow down, kiss the earth which he has defiled, and then bow down to all the world and say that he is a murderer” (simons 169). in this one gesture that she tells raskolnikov to perform, sonia is aiming at his making peace spiritually, psychologically and socially. spiritually, he will have crushed his pride and asked the earth for forgiveness for his sin. psychologically, he will have honestly confronted himself, accepted that what he did was wrong, and relieved himself of his psychological burden by openly declaring this. socially, he will have broken the wall that he has constructed between himself and other people by confessing his crime and accepting punishment for it. raskolnikov does not carry out this gesture; he is not yet ready reyyan bal 96 for it psychologically. however, he does surrender himself to the police and accept his punishment, even refusing to defend himself during his trial. thus, before the beginning of his imprisonment, raskolnikov has confessed spiritually, to sonia, and socially, to the police. however, neither of these is complete before his psychological confession, his full acceptance, unconsciously as well and consciously, of the fact that what he did was wrong. even in prison, raskolnikov still declares that his crime was a mistake and not a sin and that his confession was due to weakness and not repentance, and he is once again socially alienated from the other prisoners. sonia is still with him, however, providing a link between him and his family and also between him and the other prisoners, who all admire her. with sonia’s continued support, the psychological confession finally takes place, appropriately, via a dream. this is the final dream of the novel, the allegorical dream in which he sees society inflicted with a plague – a virus that causes people to think that they are the sole possessors of truth and to tear each other apart as a result of this. the dream makes it evident that, unconsciously, raskolnikov has finally realised how dangerous and damaging his previous theories had been. after this dream, while sitting hand in hand with sonia, raskolnikov experiences the moment of recognition that constitutes his full psychological confession, and as a result, he breaks into tears, embraces sonia, and realises that he loves her; that evening, he takes out the new testament that she had given him from under his pillow. raskolnikov’s psychological acceptance has finally brought about his full redemption, socially, psychologically, and spiritually. sonia, his spiritual mother, has been the catalyst that has brought this about. in conclusion, in crime and punishment we witness raskolnikov’s process of confession and his gradual transformation after his act of transgression. “we find that raskolnikov goes from pride to humility, hate to love…and from separation from his fellow men to communion with them” (wasiolek 132). in short, we witness his spiritual, psychological, and social transformation. this transformation is both the cause and result of his eventual confession. the raskolnikov’s desire for confession and punishment 97 complex and multi-faceted motives for raskolnikov’s confession are rooted in these three planes of his existence and his confession and punishment serve to relieve the tensions that he experiences in these areas. only after he has accepted his crime and sin on all three of these planes – social, psychological, and spiritual – and accepted the punishment and suffering that come as a result of it, is he able to be raised from the dead like lazarus and be reborn. “but that is the beginning of a new story,” as dostoevsky writes, “the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life” (epilogue 462). works cited primary source: dostoevsky, fyodor. crime and punishment. trans. constance garnett. kent: wordsworth, 2000. secondary sources: beebe, maurice. “the three motives of raskolnikov: a reinterpretation of crime and punishment.” college english, vol. 17, no. 3. (dec., 1955), pp. 151-158. <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-0994%28195512%2917%3a3%3c151% 3attmora%3e2.0.co%3b2-6> gross, hans criminal psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students. trans. horace m. kallen. new jersey: patterson smith. <http://emotional-literacy-education.com/classic-books-onlinea/crmsy10.htm> hackel, sergei. “raskolnikov through the looking-glass: dostoevsky and camus’s l’etranger.” contemporary literature, vol. 9, no. 2 (spring, 1968), pp. 189-209. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1207491> marchant, peter. “the mystery of lizaveta.” modern language studies, vol. 4, no. 2. autumn, 1974), pp. 5-13. <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0047-7729%28197423%294%3a2%3c5% 3atmol %3e2.0.co%3b2-c> meyer, priscilla. “crime and punishment and jules janin’s la confession.” russian review, vol. 58, no. 2 (apr., 1999), pp. 234-243. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2679577> reyyan bal 98 mortimer, ruth. “dostoevski and the dream.” modern philology, vol. 54, no. 2 (nov., 1956), pp. 106-116. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/435051> rudicina, alexandra f. “crime and myth: the archetypal pattern of rebirth in three novels of dostoevsky.” pmla, vol. 87, no. 5. (oct., 1972), pp. 1065-1074. <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00308129%28197210%2987%3a5%3c1065%3 acamtap%3 e2.0.co%3b2-4> simons, john d. “the nature of suffering in schiller and dostoevsky.” comparative literature, vol. 19, no. 2 (spring, 1967), pp. 160-173. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1769432> squires, paul chatham. “dostoevsky’s ‘raskolnikov’: the criminalistic protest.” journal of criminal law and criminology (1931-1951), vol. 28, no. 4 (nov. dec., 1937), pp. 478-494. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1136780> wasiolek, edward. “on the structure of crime and punishment.” pmla, vol. 74, no. 1 (mar., 1959), pp. 131-136. < http://www.jstor.org/stable/460394> internet sources: 1. “confession.” wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 30 nov 2007, 15:32 utc. wikimedia foundation, inc. 4 dec 2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=confession&oldid=174843628> 9 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction revealing the causes of violence amongst man for the seventeenthcentury english political philosopher thomas hobbes in the state of nature, iain hampsher-monk (1992: 24) states that: it is instructive to notice...the causes of this violence. it derives from the very qualities which are commonly thought of as being the basis of human political sociability, our supposed equality and rationality. the hobbesian trap and the harem abstract this paper will demonstrate that for thomas hobbes, man has the right of self-preservation and the obligation to act in accordance with that right. the problem of this obligation is that there can be no objective method for an individual to determine an existential threat, but only a subjective one. it is the subjective judgment of the individual that leads to the problem of pre-emptive violence or the hobbesian trap. as the individual is left to determine a threat to his life, he has the obligation to neutralize that threat regardless of the intention of this supposed treat and regardless of whether he wishes to act violently. this paper will also examine how, by expanding the concept of the “self ” that is obliged to be defended in accordance with an observation of hobbes, the hobbesian trap can additionally encompass perceived threats to one’s self-regard or honor. this paper will reveal that within the frame story of the thousand and one nights, such a broad-based hobbesian trap is in operation in the action of shahriyar in his execution of his newly-wedded wives on the morning after consummating his marriages to them. it will demonstrate that he acts pre-emotively to protect what he regards as potential threats to his honor. it will finally show that one method for defusing the hobbesian trap is through trust-building, and that shahrazad wins the confidence of shahriyar thus causing him to spare her life and abandon pre-emptive bride killing. keywords: thomas hobbes; the thousand and one nights; preemptive attack; shahriyar; shahrazad. fatma dore afyon kocatepe university, turkey d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 22 7 10 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences although hobbes uses the device of a state of nature, the conflict in it does not arise because men there are intellectually primitive or beastlike; quite the opposite: it arises from their equality, and a presumption of their equal skill and sophistication at reasoning. not the least of hobbes’ paradoxes is that the worst features of human life derive, not from their lapses into beastliness, but from their very humanity. the idea of equality and rationality being a cause rather than an inhibitor of violence is, at first thought, a shockingly unexpected one. violence is often regarded as an act of domination compelled by irrational drives. for instance, writing on the subject of what he calls “irrational violence in america”, franklin a. zimring (1998) avers that “[t]hose who believe that human behavior is governed by rational principles are hard put to explain much of america’s violent crime.” nevertheless, violence becomes far more disturbing when it not only cannot be explained away by a deficient use of the mental faculties of its initiators, but is actually results from their rationality. it becomes more disturbing still if it is thought that rationality can lead these initiators into violence against otherwise peaceful inclinations. yet, this is precisely what the concept known as “the hobbesian trap”, which as its name suggests is solidly based upon the philosophy of hobbes, affirms the possibility of. this paper will demonstrate that for thomas hobbes, man has the right of self-preservation and the reason-based obligation to act in accordance with that right (hobbes, 1985: 189). the problem of this obligation is that there can be no objective method for an individual to determine an existential threat, but only a subjective one. this subjective method is not irrational however; quite the contrary, it entails reasoning upon necessarily limited information. this subjective judgement of the individual leads to the problem of pre-emptive violence or the hobbesian trap. as the individual is left to determine a threat to his life, once he has done so, he has the obligation to neutralize that threat regardless of the intention of this supposed threat and regardless of whether he wishes to act violently. this paper will also examine how, by expanding the concept of the “self ” that is obliged to be defended in accordance with an observation of hobbes, the hobbesian trap can additionally encompass perceived threats to one’s self-regard or honour. this paper will then show an example of this wider-based hobbesian trap exists within one of the great works of world literature. it will reveal that within the frame story of the thousand and one nights, such a broad-based hobbesian trap is in operation in the action of shahriyar in his execution of his f. dore 11 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences newly-wedded wives on the morning after consummating his marriages to them. it will demonstrate that he acts with subjective rationally to pre-emptively protect what he regards as potential threats to his honour. it will finally show that one method for defusing the hobbesian trap is through trust-building. this too is evidenced in the frame story of the thousand and one nights1*(dawood, 1973: 405) with shahrazad winning the confidence of shahriyar thus causing him to spare her life and abandon pre-emptive bride killing, which is “salvation” for him. the hobbesian trap the hobbesian trap reveals how violence can logically ensue from a situation in which the actors are only interested in self-defence. superficially of course, if the actors in a situation are only interested in defending themselves, it would appear than violence were impossible, as self-defence can only occur when an actor is actually attacked. in order to reveal how the hobbesian trap expands the potential to violence, the concept and context of self-preservation for hobbes needs to be examined first. hobbes, as befitted a post-montaigne thinker, had a sceptical and relativistic view of ethics. unlike locke, he did not believe in the existence of a natural moral law. instead, save for one caveat, he, in the words of tuck (1992: 172) regarded “any belief ” as being “possible.” yet, his caveat is that he did recognize what he saw as a universal value and this he regarded as a natural right; the only natural right. it is that of selfpreservation. hobbes (2008: 78-9) explains why this is the natural right: [f]orasmuch as necessity of nature maketh men to will and desire bonum sibi, which is good for themselves, and to avoid that which is hurtful; but most of all that terrible enemy of nature, death, from whom we expect both the loss of power, and also the greatest of bodily pains in the losing; it is not against reason that man doth all he can to preserve his own body and limbs, both from death and pain. and that which is not against reason, men call right, or jus, or blameless liberty of using our own natural power and ability. it is therefore a right of nature: that every man may preserve his own life and limbs, with all the power he hath. by this, hobbes (ibid) means that man he may rightfully “do whatsoever action is necessary for the preservation of his body.” he states (1985: 189-90 my italics) that “there is nothing he can make use 1) this work from hereon will be abbreviated as ton. the hobessian trap and the harem 12 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences f. dore of, that may not be a help unto him, in preserving his life against his enemyes” and that “[i]t followeth, that in such a condition, every man has a right to everything; even to one another’s body.” thus the right of self-preservation, yet only this right, can entail the termination of the threat to his own existence, and is the reason hobbes (2008: 104) asserts that “nothing but fear can justify the taking away of another’s life.” the problem of the right of self-preservation is that there can be no objective method of determining an existential threat, but only the subjective outlook of each individual. with “the condition of man” in his natural form “is a condition...in which case everyone is governed by his own reason”, this subjective outlook is rational. it is merely necessarily limited in what it is able to reason upon (hobbes, 1985: 189). for instance, hobbes (1985: 192) makes the point that “a man cannot tell, when he seeth men proceed against him by violence, whether they intend his death or not.” moreover, in dealing with what an individual regards as an existential threat, he once again only has his own rational judgement to rely upon. thus, hobbes (1985: 189) affirms that: the right of nature, which writers commonly call jus naturale, is the liberty each man hath, to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say of his own life; and consequently, of doing anything, which in his own judgement, and reason, hee shall conceive to be the aptest means thereunto. indeed, this right is in fact an obligation: a law of nature (lex naturalis,) is a precept, or generall rule, found out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to do, that, which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same; and to omit, that, by which he thinketh it may be best preserved (hobbes, 1985: 189 my italics). this obligation is reaffirmed by hobbes’ (1985: 192) assertion that “a man cannot lay down the right of resisting them, that assault him by force, to take away his life; because he cannot be understood to ayme thereby, at any good to himself.” hobbes (1985: 190) reduces his argument to “the summe of the right of nature; which is, by all means we can, to defend our selves.” hobbes, as has been seen, raises the question of an attack in which it is unclear whether the individual’s death is intended or not. the individual himself is left to determine the nature of the threat. there 13 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the hobessian trap and the harem is a wider implication though and that is that the individual is obliged to act in self-defence simply if he feels that his life is threatened. this is regardless of what is actually passing in the mind of the person he has identified as an attacker. richard tuck (1992: 173) provides the following theoretical example: suppose i see you walking peacefully through the primitive savannah, whistling and swinging your club: are you a danger to me? you may well think not: you have an entirely pacific disposition. but i may think you are, and the exercise of my natural right of self-preservation depends only on my assessment of the situation. so if i attack you, i must be justified in doing so. this enables him to subjectively indentify as a threat someone that objectively is not. this is because within the question of the obligation of self-preservation, there is the problem that there can be no objective method of determining an existential threat, but only the subjective outlook of each individual. and, hobbes demonstrates why the making a subjective judgement of this kind is rational. hobbes (2008: 79) states that: [e]very man by right of nature is judge himself of the necessity of the means, and of the greatness of the danger. for it be against reason, that i be judge of mine own danger myself, then it is reason, that another man be judge thereof. but the same reason that maketh another man judge of those things that concern me, maketh me also judge of that that concerneth him. indeed, the logic of subjective self-preservation would suggest that the individual take out his potential threats before they are in a position to do the same to him. it is this element to the right of self-defence that leads to what tuck calls “radical instability” as it means that even if all have peaceable or good intentions, violence can still rationally ensue due to each individual making his own judgement about threats to himself. similarly, pinker (2003: 322) notes the possibility of a person concluding that “the only option for self-protection may be to wipe out potentially hostile neighbors first in a preemptive strike.” this would be a logical conclusion and not one reached through a desire to cause harm, thus pinker notes that “[t]ragically, you might arrive at this conclusion even if you didn’t have an aggressive bone in your body.” instead it is brought about through the logic of self-preservation. it is to be stressed here that the motivation that brings about violence is “fear” (baliga and sjöström, 2010:6), and a necessary lack of comprehension of the “true” state of the other (ibid:7). 14 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences this is the concept of “the hobbesian trap”. the hobbesian trap has generally been examined within the context of international relations; that is, conflict between states. steven pinker’s definition of the hobbesian trap thus places its stress upon wars between countries. pinker (2000) states that: the ‘’hobbesian trap,’’ in which a nation is tempted to attack a neighbor out of fear that it would otherwise attack first, like an armed homeowner who surprises an armed burglar, tempting each to shoot first to avoid being shot. the “hobbesian trap” is thus a pre-emptive self-defensive action motivated by fear. but pinker’s definition reveals that the concept of the “hobbesian trap” has relevance in conflicts between two individuals, and it is in fact upon such a basis that the concept ultimately rests. this paper has already demonstrated that, for hobbes, man has a right, indeed an obligation, of self-preservation. it has shown that he is free to decide what to do about a threat to himself. and it has shown that he is to determine by himself what constitutes a threat. there is a further destabilizing element in connection with a rational obligation to self-defence. it is the question as to what aspect of the “self ” is to be defended, and as to whether it is to be limited simply to his life. hobbes explicitly recognizes that human beings come into conflict for a wider range of reasons than simply self-preservation understood in its strictest terms. this is because for human beings “self ” is defined more broadly that just mere existence. self-regard is significant for an individual’s sense of self. hence, hobbes (1985: 185) explicitly recognizes that concern for “reputation” underlies one of the “three principall causes of quarrell” that exist “in the nature of man.” those for whom “reputation” matters “use violence...for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other signe of undervalue” which can be “direct in their persons” or even “their name” (ibid). “reputation” is equivalent to “honour” (baliga and sjöström, 2010:1). if this broader sense of the “self ” is given the obligation to be defended by the individual then the hobbesian trap sees a far greater element of tuck’s “radical instability”. as it is the agent himself that is left by hobbes to decide upon supposed threats to himself, it has to be the case – as there is for hobbes no higher authority to determine it for him – that he may decide too what “self ” is to be defended by him. in f. dore 15 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences this case, the hobbesian trap can be sprung into operation not simply by a subjective determination of a potential threat to the actor’s life but also to his self-esteem or honour. the possibility that self-esteem is tied up in the hobbesian trap is entered into by sandeep baliga and tomas sjöström. in their paper (ibid: 1) on “the hobbesian trap”, which examines the hobbesian trap through “game theory”, these two authors examine “why a reputation is worth fighting for.” of course, closely connected with this is the question of why reputation is worth killing for. hence, the concept of “honour violation” can be understood to be a cause for violence, and as the threat of “honour violation” is left to the judgement of the individual, it can be dealt with pre-emptively. honour for the example of the broader-based hobbesian trap in this paper, the element of self-esteem to be looked at is that of the concept of a man’s honour resting upon the chastity of his wife. of course, this is not to say that such a concept is accepted by hobbes as something with an intrinsic value. indeed, as a moral-relativist he cannot hold such an outlook. hobbes (1985: 187) himself states that “[t]he desires, and other passions of man, are in themselves no sin. no more than the actions, that proceed from those passions.” hence a wife’s infidelity cannot be regarded as immoral and any supposed impact to a man’s self-esteem from it is meaningless. hobbes, as has been mentioned, accepts the existence of only one value and that is the right of self-preservation. the reason for this being the only value is that it is the only value natural to all human beings (tuck, 1992:172). honour tied to spousal chastity is not something that is valued by all human beings and as such is a relativist value. indeed, at certain times and places the idea of man’s honour being connected to his wife’s chastity would even be an alien one. an example can be found in the travels of marco polo. polo (1958: 88) relates that in the province of kamul: i give you my word that if a stranger comes to a house here to seek hospitality he receives a very warm welcome. the host bids his wife do everything that the guest wishes. then he leaves the house and stays away two or three days. meanwhile the guest stays with his wife in the house and does what he will with her, lying with her in one bed just as if she were his own wife; and they lead a gay life together. the hobessian trap and the harem 16 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences polo (ibid) adds that in this way “[a]ll the men of this city and province are thus cuckolded by their wives; but they are not in the least ashamed of it.” actually, by revealing that they feel no shame, it is almost certain they see nothing wrong in what they do and thus the idea that the men are “cuckolded” is almost certainly polo’s and not their own. and, even if polo’s account is to be treated with scepticism, in modern times, wifelending among “certain isolated ethnic groups” has been documented in indonesia, for instance (pangkahila, 2004:536). in other times and places, the existence of the concept of a man’s honour being connected to his wife’s chastity may coexist with little to no emphasis being placed upon it. for instance, in his novella the girl with the golden eyes, the nineteenth-century french writer honoré de balzac (2012: 83) asserts that “fidelity as such was rarely, and is hardly ever likely to be, fashionable in paris.” however, moral relativism allows for each individual or society to place value upon what it wishes. and there have been times and places in which male honour seen as being dependent upon spousal chastity has been of existential importance. for instance, in the england of the time of hobbes, francis bacon (2008: 353) rates wifely qualities as being “chastity and obedience” to her husband. the idea that wives deserved death for violating their chastity was also not an alien one. within not too distant memory was the example of henry viii who had put to death two of his wives for supposed adultery. in the english literature of hobbes’ time, the tragedy of the murder of desdemona in the play othello by william shakespeare would surely have been regarded as justified had desdemona actually been unfaithful to her husband. othello’s slaying of his former friend cassio and wife desdemona is evaluated by him as making him “[a]n honourable murderer” since “nought did i in hate, but all in honour” (shakespeare, 2000: 293, 294). the tragic element in the play for the audience at the time is that othello has been deliberately misled into believing his wife and friend had conducted an affair. moreover, in the islamic world, in which the thousand and one nights was developed, there is a long tradition of male honour being dependent upon the chastity of their spouses. indeed, it has been dependent on even more than just their literal chastity. ebru boyar and kate fleet (2010: 255 my italics) state that in ottoman istanbul “[t] he danger of unseemly female behaviour was clearly felt keenly by their husbands, whose honour would be stained by any unsuitable actions of their wives.” this outlook has remained effectively unchanged in certain f. dore 17 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences parts of turkey, if not necessarily in istanbul itself, into the republican era. the legal expert habibe yılmaz kayar, explains how this outlook leads to murder in what is known as “honour killing”. this occurs when “men” who “believe they have the right over” the “women” they are related to, among which are obviously numbered their “spouses”, feel that their “honour and dignity” has been “denigrated”. this, to them, denigration is deemed to have been brought about through their women having acted against “the dominant tradition or moral values” of their society.2 but for the broader-based hobbesian trap to operate, it is the individual who decides what a threat to his fundamental self is, and moral relativism allows him to regard a violation of his honour as just such a threat. it also enables him to rationally act pre-emptively to prevent such a violation. moreover, the idea that gender-relations can get caught up in the hobbesian trap – albeit not necessarily with fatal consequences – is touched upon by étan levine. levine (2009: 123 – original italics) states that “any ideology teaching the inevitability of struggle between the sexes is a ‘hobbesian trap’ wherein persons are moved to dominate out of fear of otherwise being dominated.” such an example of the broader-based hobbesian trap in operation occurs in the frame story of the thousand and one nights. before examining how it provides an example of the broader-based hobbesian trap in operation, a brief summary of the frame story is given here. the hobbesian trap in the frame story of the thousand and one nights the main focus of the frame story is on shariyar and his younger brother shahzaman, sons of a powerful sassanid king. shariyar has inherited his enormous kingdom, while shahzaman separately rules over samarkand (ton:15). the two brothers are close. hence, when, after a two-decade period of ruling “happily” in their respective realms shahzaman is invited to visit shahriyar, he enthusiastically accepts (ibid). however, soon after setting out on his visit, shahzaman realizes he has forgotten something in his palace, returns there without being announced, and catches his wife in flagrante delicto with a slave. having slain the two, he sets off again, but his visit to his brother is soured by what he has seen and he remains in his brother’s palace in a state of depression. he is so dispirited that he rejects an invitation to go 2) http://www.turkhukuksitesi.com/showthread.php?t=8905 the hobessian trap and the harem http://www.turkhukuksitesi.com/showthread.php?t=8905 18 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences hunting with his shahriyar, in whose absence he unexpectedly witnesses his wife also being unfaithful with a slave (ton:17). having been told of this, shahriyar remains sceptical until, through means of a ruse, he has witnessed his wife’s infidelity for himself (ibid). this leads shahriyar to get his brother to agree to “roam the world” together “looking to see if any other king has ever met with such disgrace” (ton: 18). after prolonged travel, the two kings take a rest, and witness a jinnee with a casket rise out the nearby sea. the casket contains a girl who had been abducted by the jinnee on her wedding night and who is let free while the jinnee sleeps (ibid). she forces the two reluctant kings to have sexual intercourse with her by threatening to wake the jinnee if they do not accede to her demand (ibid). it turns out that the girl takes a gold ring from each of her conquests, and with the rings now presented to her by shahriyar and shahzaman she has a total of a hundred. she then tells the kings that despite the jinnee keeping her locked away in the casket “he little knew how cunning we women are” (ton: 19). the two kings then return to shahriyar’s palace where shahriyar slays his wife and her accomplices (ibid). full of the belief of the perfidy of women but seemingly not willing to renounce a life of the flesh, shahriyar devises a method by which he can remain sexually satisfied without facing the risk of infidelity. it is stated that “he made it his custom to take a virgin in marriage to his bed each night, and kill her the next morning” (ibid). indeed, he continues with this action until, three years having passed “a clamour rose among the people, some of whom fled the country with their daughters” (ibid). this unendurable situation is resolved through the action of shahrazad, daughter of shahriyar’s vizier. she requests that her unwilling father give her to the king in marriage in the belief that she can bring his wife killing to an end (ibid). she weds him, but following the consummation of their marriage, through a prearranged plan, her sister turns up and asks to hear a story (ton:22-3). as shahrazad, “a highly educated” (wiesner-hanks, 2011: 85) and “learned and thoughtful young woman” (clinton, 1989:43) is such a consummate story-teller, and as she leaves her tales “with cliff-hanger endings” (wiesner-hanks 2011:85), shahriyar does not have her put to death as he is avid to hear more. indeed, this story-telling period lasts for 1,001 nights – hence the title of the literary work – and it gets the king to alter his opinion of women, or at least of the potential of shahrazad. in any case, the period f. dore 19 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences of woman killing is over, and as such, shahriyar comes to name her “the salvation of my people” (ton: 406). shahriyar falls into the borader-based hobbesian trap laid out above. his pre-emptive killings of his wives following on the morning after the consummation of his marriages to them can be regarded as rational as he presumes them to be a threat to his fundamental self. he wishes to neutralize the threat they pose to him before they are able to act on their potential. it is the discovery of the unfaithfulness of two women in particular that convinces shahriyar that wives in general are potential threats to a man’s honour. the first is when he witnesses his wife’s adultery with his own eyes (ton: 18). this has an impact of what jermone w. clinton describes as “destructive force” (clinton, 1989:36). clinton (ibid: 36-7) states that: shahriyar’s wife has chosen not only to cuckold him, an act of tremendous hostility by itself, but also to do so with a man who is as opposite and inferior to him as islamic society can provide, a black slave. she has made her act of infidelity a kind of rite of the harem involving forty of her male and female slaves. moreover it is a rite that she apparently celebrates every time the king leaves the palace. and in especial regard to the question of honour, it is to be noted that “although it is carried out in the apparent seclusion of the harem, with so many privy to the secret, it can hardly have been a secret at all, except from shahriyar” (clinton, 1989: 37). thus, he is probably shamed within the capital of his kingdom as although he has only just discovered the truth, he must feel that “what has only now become known to him has long been common knowledge in the court” (ibid). there is a further symbolic element to what shahriyar would regard as an assault on his honour. clinton (ibid) states that: as shahriyar looks down on his wife and her attendants, he is observing what was for him both the most secret and secure point in his kingdom. the garden is at the heart of the castle and protected by its walls, and the walls of the castle are protected both by his twenty years of just rule and by those of his father as well. the garden is not simply a quiet and beautiful place within the palace, it is a symbol and metaphor both for shahriyar’s psyche and self, and for the quality of his performance as ruler of his kingdom. shahriyar’s wife has invaded, violated and betrayed him in the very center of his personal and public being. the hobessian trap and the harem 20 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the second unfaithfulness is that of the girl kept by the “gigantic jinnee” (ton:18). having heard the jinnee call the girl “[c]haste and honourable lady” (ibid), shahriyar learns that whilst the jinnee is asleep she has in fact betrayed this spirit with ninety-eight other men preceding her forcing shahriyar himself and his brother to have sexual intercourse with her (ton:19). these two situations are interpreted by shahriyar as, in the words of clinton (1989: 40), “final and unarguable proof that all women are evil and bent on the betrayal of men, and that all men are, like him, vulnerable to their power.” having executed his queen, shahriyar enters the logic of the broader-based hobbesian trap. regarding all possible future spouses as potential threats to his honour and seemingly unwilling to forgo the pleasure of sexual relations, he resolves to physically satisfy himself with them and then remove them as threats before they are able to act. the text states that “[t]henceforth [shahriyar] made it his custom to take a virgin in marriage to his bed each night, and kill her the next morning” (ton:19). it is certainly the case by doing so he becomes “a monster of injustice” (clinton, 1989:36). but it is also averred that he “goes mad” (dols, 1992:2) or “has gone mad” (clinton, ibid) and has fallen into a “murderous and violent psychosis” (clinton, 1989: 40). indeed, the frame story itself, described by michael w. dols as “a story of madness” (dols 1992:2), suggests that shahriyar is in a psychotic state as his exit from it is described as a “salvation” (ton:405). this may be the case, but in the light of the broader-based hobbesian trap, shahriyar’s action, however repellent it may be, is not irrational but rather based on reason, and as such even more unsettling. clinton acknowledges that shahriyar’s action is a “draconian policy by which he hopes to prevent another such shattering and humiliating betrayal” (clinton 38). if, for shahriyar, his self-esteem is central to his fundamental self, and as such threats to his honour are effectively existential ones, then by falling into the hobbesian trap he has in fact found a rational solution to his problem. having seen women deceive their spouses, he is aware that he cannot know what their secret thoughts and intentions are. thus, he is left to evaluate them as potential threats to his honour. and, it is rational for him to eliminate those potential threats before their threat can be actuated. in order to demonstrate that the broader-based hobbesian trap is at work in the frame story of the thousand and one nights it is necessary f. dore 21 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences to prove that it is a self-regard as to honour that motivates shahriyar. if he is simply suffering from a feeling of emotional betrayal by his original queen then his actions in wife killing cannot be explained by the broader-based hobbesian trap. they would then be some kind of irrational vicarious revenge upon women in general. for the hobbesian trap to be sprung, shahriyar needs to feels effectively existentially threatened. the text however, gives sufficient evidence to suggest that shahriyar, and indeed his brother shahzaman as well, are affected by the infidelities of their wives through considerations of honour and not emotional betrayal. nevertheless, that the infidelities of their wives affect both men in a profoundly emotional manner is not in doubt. for shahzaman, it is stated that “the world darkened before his eyes” on beholding his wife in the embraces of the slave (ton: 15). also, his eagerly anticipated visit to his brother is entirely overshadowed by it, as he remains “pale and sick at heart” (ton: 16) and describes his condition as “a painful sore” and “melancholy” (ton: 16, 17). as for shahriyar, the sight of his wife taking part in her orgy left him “[h]alf demented”, and inspires him to temporarily give up the affairs of his kingdom (ton: 18). yet, there are no textual considerations that support a supposition that this emotional distress is brought about through feelings of emotional betrayal. they exist however the supposition that it is brought about through considerations of honour. most explicitly and as has been already mentioned, shahriyar, in the immediate aftermath of having seen the behaviour of his wife, describes it as a “disgrace” in relation to himself and not to her (ibid). moreover, having lost his violent rigidity after having heard shahrazad’s tales for a thousand and one nights, he is now able to praise a woman, and that is his wife shahrazad. he praises her both within the privacy of their own quarters and in public. in the first case, he glowingly describes her as “chaste and tender, wise and eloquent” (ton: 405) and in the second case shortens it to “chaste, wise and eloquent” (ton: 406). her wisdom and eloquence are indeed manifest in the work, as she has been able to entertain and enlighten the king consecutively night after night with tales that have been described by a modern critic as “masterpieces in the art of story-telling” (dawood, 1973:7) for a period of almost three years. that shahriyar chooses to praise her qualities of wisdom and eloquence after praising her chastity shows the central concern that this plays in relation to women within the hobessian trap and the harem 22 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences his psyche. and an obsession with chastity strongly implies an obsession with honour, as the two terms are almost synonymous. indeed, the jinnee that emerges from the sea with the casket ignorantly addresses his captive girl as “[c]haste and honourable lady” (ton: 18 – my italics). particularly strong evidence for considerations of honour rather than emotional betrayal being of sole importance to the kings is revealed by their altered emotional state after having witnessed a greater victim of infidelity. whilst it is probable that a victim of infidelity may take some solace from finding that he is not alone in his condition, it is extremely improbable that it would cure him of his state of depression and even make him happy. yet this is precisely what happens in the cases of both kings. having witnessed the orgy of shahriyar’s wife, shahzaman – the lesser of the two kings – exclaims that “by allah, my misfortune is lighter than this” and is not only “dejected no longer” but in his “altered condition” is actually “restored to good spirits and full health” (ton: 17). as clinton puts it “shahzaman’s deep depression was cured because he saw that his older, more powerful brother had suffered an even worse humiliation than he had” (clinton, 1989: 40). similarly, shahriyar on having seen and learned how the “mighty jinnee” has been repeatedly deceived by the girl in the chest, he, along with shahzaman regard their “own misfortune as light indeed” (ton: 19), and it immediately brings to an end their melancholic pilgrimage.3 before ending with this section it is also to be noted that both wives are punished with death by the kings (ton: 16, 19), the only punishment that is regarded as acceptable in cases of honour violations as will be examined below. there is another factor present in the frame story that supports the contention that shahriyar enters the broader-based rational hobbesian trap. it is that outside of questions relating to his honour he cannot be regarded as in any way a psychotic ruler. on the contrary, not only prior to his discovery of his wife’s infidelity is he described as having “governed” his kingdom “with such justice that all his subjects loved him” (ton: 15), but following his redemption through shahrazad he is also described as having “reigned over his subjects in all justice” until his death (ton: 407). it is also noted by clinton that even during his 3) it is to be noted here that clinton (1989, 40) sees shahriyar’s supposed return to equilibrium as “really a deeper madness masquerading as a cure” and that he is in fact “made worse” by his encounter with the jinnee and the girl. however, this paper takes shahriyar at his own word as it fits the pattern of emotional restoration already set by his brother shahzaman. f. dore 23 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences period of wife murder he is “not completely lacking in compassion” as he does not prevent shahrazad from calling in her sister to bid farewell to her4 (clinton, 1989: 44). he is thus a king that is generally in a stable frame of mind, and in line with this, his three-year period of killing of his newly-wedded wives reveals a chilling logic rather than psychopathy. conclusion in conclusion, this paper has demonstrated how the concept of the hobbesian trap is developed from the philosophical outlook of thomas hobbes in which self-preservation is the only right, and one that a person is obliged to engage in. it has shown that the hobbesian trap is sprung through a necessarily subjective rational response to perceived threats – which as such can objectively not be threats at all – and that the concept itself can be widened to encompass threats to a person’s essential selfregard as well as his life. it has shown that the idea of honour dependent on spousal chastity can constitute one such type of self-regard, though it is not a universal value. this paper has shown that such a broadbased hobbesian trap is evident in the actions of shahriyar in killing his wives on the morning after consummating his marriages to them. it has shown that as such shahriyar’s action, however abhorent, is as such rational, and moreover that it should not be regarded as stemming from a feeling of emotional betrayal by his first queen. it is the case of course that the hobbesian trap is not limited in its manifestations to literature. even limiting the concept to self-defence as defence of life, it underpins a central plot development in a recent blockbuster film.5 yet, its functioning in the real world is what makes it so disturbing. hobbesian traps can be regarded as responsible for the unnecessary loss of human life, from the killing of individuals wrongly considered to be threats – such as the shooting by police in the uk in 2005 of jean charles de menezes erroneously thought by them to be a suicide bomber in a case of “mistaken identity” (siddique, 2016) – to the 4) clinton (1989, 44) also notes that were he to lack this compassion shahrazad “would have no hope of initiating her plan.” 5) in batman v superman: dawn of justice, the decision taken by the character bruce wayne to attempt to kill the character of superman uses the rationality of the hobbesian trap. recognizing that superman has “the power to wipe out the entire human race”, bruce wayne concludes that “if we even believe there is even a 1 percent chance he is our enemy, we have to take it as an absolute certainty and we have to destroy him” (qtd. in rothman, 2016). the hobessian trap and the harem 24 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences eruption of conflicts costing millions of lives such as the first world war. it could even have led to the ending of civilization as we know it on this planet had the cuban missile crisis reached its potential conclusion.6 yet, this example also reveals how the hobbesian trap can be defused. and, it is the case, as baliga and sjöström (2010: 8) have demonstrated, that the hobbesian trap once entered into can indeed be “mitigated” and “almost completely escaped” (ibid: 10), and as such it does not have to inevitably lead to violence. it is the inability to know the intention of the potential threat that causes a pre-emptive strike. and it is impossible to fully know a potential opponent’s intentions. however, “confidencebuilding measures” (pinker, 2003: 335), such as “communication” (b&s. 8), help to reduce the aura of threat around a potential opponent. thus, symbolically, the hobbesian trap of the cuban missile crisis, in which “[t]he importance of open communication between superpower leaders became evident (schier, 2008: 87) – ended with the establishment of a direct telephone link – or “hotline” – between the white house and the kremlin7 (ibid). the example of the hobbesian trap in the frame story of the thousand and one nights is resolved in a similar way. whilst shahrazad engages in her style of suspenseful storytelling to keep herself alive (wiesner-hanks, 2011: 85), she is also encouraging the king through her tales to recognize what clinton (1989: 44) calls “the variety and complexity of human personality, both male, and in particular, female.” as the nights of tales progress, shahriyar’s confidence in her rises and she enters what pinker8 calls the “moral circle” (pinker, 2003: 335) of the king, whilst she is also implicitly undermining his “war on women” with the subjects of her stories9 (clinton, 1989: 46). as shahrazad is humanized for shahriyar, he consequently no longer regards shahrazad as a threat to his honour, and in addition “his negative opinion of women” (wiesner-hanks, 2011: 85) appears even to be changed. thus, shahriyar’s “salvation” (ton: 405) in the story can be regarded as his being adroitly led by shahrazad out of the broad-based hobbesian trap – in accordance 6) pinker (2003: 334) notes that during the cuban missile crisis, the leaders of both the us and the ussr “understood they were in a hobbesian trap.” 7) this “hotline” was also designed to be used in such a way as to limit the possibility of inflaming tensions during communications. helga schier states that “[t]he hotline relies on the written word rather than voice or video transmission. this allows for time to think before responding and to avoid the potential misinterpretation in tone of voice and body language” (schier, 2008: 87). 8) after peter singer. see: pinker, 2003: 166-8. 9) see: clinton, 1989: 45-8. f. dore 25 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences with her earlier stated aim of becoming “the cause of ” the “deliverance” of “the daughters of moslems” (ton: 19) – back to being the king famed for justice that he once was. references bacon, f. (2008). brian vickers (ed.), the major works. oxford: oxford university press. baliga, s., & sjöström, t. (2010). “the hobbesian trap”. retrieved from: http:// www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/baliga/htm/hobbesiantrap.pdf balzac, h. (2012). the girl with the golden eyes and other stories. peter collier (trans.). oxford: oxford university press. boyar, e., & fleet, k. (2010). a social history of ottoman istanbul. cambridge: cambridge university press. clinton, j. w. (1989). “madness and cure in the thousand and one nights”. ruth b. bottigheimer (ed.), fairy tales and society: illusion, allusion, and paradigm (pp. 35-52). philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press. dawood, n. j. (translated with an introduction, 1973). tales from the thousand and one nights. middlesex: penguin books ltd. dols, m. w. (1992). majnūn: the madman in medieval islamic society. dianna e. immisch (ed.), oxford: clarendon press. hampsher-monk, i. (1992). a history of modern political thought: major political thinkers from hobbes to marx. oxford: blackwell publishers. hobbes, t. (2008). human nature and de corpore politico. j. c. a. gaskin (ed.). oxford: oxford university press inc. hobbes, t. (1985). leviathan. c. b. macpherson (ed.). middlesex: penguin books ltd. levine, é. (2009). marital relations in ancient judaism. weisbaden: harrassowitz verlag. pangkahila, w. i. (2004). “indonesia (republik indonesia) part 1: national and urban perspectives.”robert t. francoeur & raymond j. noonan (eds.), the continuum complete encyclopedia of sexuality (pp. 533-43). new york: the continuum international publishing group inc. pinker, s. (2000). “all about evil”. new york times book review. retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/10/29/reviews/001029.29pinkert.html pinker, s. (2003). the blank slate: the modern denial of human nature. london: penguin books ltd. the hobessian trap and the harem 26 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences polo, m. (1958). the travels of marco polo. ronald latham (trans.). middlesex: penguin books ltd. rothman, m. (2016). “‘batman v superman’: new clip explains why the two superheroes are fighting.” retrieved from: http://abcnews.go.com/ entertainment/batman-superman-clip-explains-superheroes-fighting/ story?id=36500581 schier, h. (2008). the cuban missile crisis. minnesota: abdo publishing company. shakespeare, w. (2000). othello. cedric watts (ed.). hertfordshire: wordsworth editions limited. siddique, h. (2016). “who was jean charles de menezes?” the guardian article. retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/ mar/30/jean-charles-de-menezes-your-questions-answered tuck, r. (1992). hobbes. keith thomas (ed), great political thinkers. oxford: oxford university press. 107-238. wiesner-hanks, m. e. (2011). gender in history: global perspectives. chichester: blackwell publishing. zimring, f. a. (1998). “the sneaky thrill of breaking the law.” new york times book review. retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/20/ books/the-sneaky-thrill-of-breaking-the-law.html?pagewanted=all joseph joe kaminski* introduction world war i saw a major shift in the way warfare was carried out at many different levels. most notably, it ushered in a new form of mechanized form of warfare previously unknown in the world. while the war began with similar technology and military tactics as utilized in 19th century warfare, by the end of the war, telephones, wireless communications, armored tanks, and even airplanes would be utilized by all sides involved. (hartcup, 1988) in regards to the harsh realities of the new mechanized warfare of world war i, ernst jünger’s monumental literary effort, storm of steel, explains the confusion and fear of those troops in his battalion after their first time being attacked; war had shown its claws, and stripped off its mask of cosiness [sic]. it was all so strange, so impersonal. we had barely begun to think about the enemy, that mysterious, treacherous being somewhere. this event, so far beyond anything we had experienced, made such a powerful impression on us that it was difficult to understand what had happened. it was like a ghostly manifestation in broad daylight. (jünger, 2003: 7) war was now total and entire nation states were involved. along with the transformation of the way war was conducted on the ground, wwi was also represented epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies volume 7, number 2, 2014 p-issn 2303-6850 e-isnn 1840-3719 world war i and propaganda poster art: comparing the united states and german cases abstract this paper looks at some similarities and differences between propaganda art used by germany and the united states during world war i. the first section briefly looks at aesthetic theory and addresses the philosophical question of whether war propaganda posters are, in fact, ‘art’ at all. then images of various posters that were popular and widely published by both nations are shown and discussed. this paper concludes that while there are many thematic similarities between the posters used by both sides, there are also some important differences. the most obvious difference between the german and american propaganda art was in regard to the overall tone of the posters and the colors used in the presentation. the images used have been downloaded from a reputable website that depicts reproductions of the posters that were used during ww1. understanding the nature of the propaganda used by each side can help shed light on the attitudes and sentiments towards the war held by political elites and citizens alike. keywords: propaganda art; uncle sam; social mobilization; world war i; aesthetic theory; theodor adorno and immanuel kant *corresponding author: joseph joe kaminski, assist. prof. dr. at social and political sciences, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: jkaminski@ius.edu.ba. a shift in the way the ‘war for public support’ was fought. the use of propaganda art was essential in galvanizing opinions and reshaping ideas during wwi. (debauche, 1997; latham, 2006, and tunc, 2012) both the central powers and allied powers used propaganda to encourage citizens to not only join the army, but to also engage in certain desirable social behaviors at home that to assist in the war effort such as purchasing war bonds and conserving food and other physical resources. in this paper i will compare and contrast the different styles seen in allied propaganda as opposed to german propaganda. the function of war propaganda art – is it really art at all? the essential thing to understand about war propaganda art is that it seeks to appeal to emotion over reason. in the case of world war i, it was meant to be approachable and understandable. according to chambers, the function of posters was to inform, instruct, or suggest new ways of looking at the war. their central ideas had either to correspond to the mentality and ideas of the viewer, or had to manipulate his ideas in a positive or negative manner. the idea or message had to be easily comprehended by the target audience. its appeal was more emotional than rational. (chambers, 1984: 54) richard chambers (1983) offers 3 main area of content that are commonly utilized in war propaganda posters. below is a chart outlining these 3 main areas; chambers 3 main areas of war propaganda art from a theoretical perspective on the function of art, chambers explanation of what is essential in war propaganda art stands in opposition to the view articulated by the influential art and cultural critic, theodor adorno on the function and role of art. adorno was a part of a generation of jewish intellectual émigrés who escaped nazi germany during wwii. most of these critics steeped their critiques of the fine arts within a specific type of cultural marxism. (houston, 2012) this movement would later come to be known as western marxism, because it consciously divorced itself from the political and cultural orbit of the soviet union. according to doug kellner, the term “western marxism” was first used by soviet communists to 1. appeals to patriotism and valor in order to motivate an individual(s) to contribute to the war effort by joining the military. 2. appeals to civilian-orientated activities, emphasizing the civilian/military inter relationship. this relationship includes the production of war materials, the incorporation of women into the work force, and/or campaigns to collect funds to finance the war. 3. appeals to fear, specifically via the demonization of the enemy. these appeals often contain ‘horror and atrocity’ images in an effort to instill hate and fear for the enemy in the minds and hearts of citizens. (chambers, 1983) 65 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art disparage the turn to more hegelian and critical forms of marxism in western europe, but it was soon adopted by thinkers like [georg] lukács and [karl] korsch to describe a more independent and critical marxism from the party and “scientific” marxism of the second and third internationals. (kellner, 2005: 155) at the core of the western marxist analysis of art was the recognition of the central role social and economic conditions play in the construction of any work of art. this is to suggest each work of art is unique in the sense that it could only be completed within the specific spatial-temporal location it was created in. for example, it would be impossible to assume leonard da vinci’s, mona lisa, could have been created 300 years earlier or 300 years later than it was; its creation was a direct result of the social and economic conditions the artist himself was living in. the same can be said for other high works of art. within this view, each work of art truly is a unique and original creation. at the crux of adorno’s argument was that authentic arts’ primary function was to raise critical/radical revolutionary consciousness amongst its viewers. this helps explain why many members of the frankfurt school admired artists like russian artist wassily kandinsky and atonal composers like alban berg and arnold schönberg. these artists all experimented with new artistic forms that were meant to be revolutionary in both form and content. as mentioned previously, rather than war propaganda art appealing to an individual’s higher intellectual and emotional reflexive capacities, it instead was meant to appeal to the most base and easily accessible emotions. while at the most basic level, propaganda art is concerned with raising some type of consciousness (most certainly not revolutionary), its primary concern was with appeals to raw emotion rather than one’s rational reflexive capacities. hence within war propaganda art there exist common leitmotifs in many wwi propaganda posters; these include patriotism and unquestioning loyalty to the regime. this will be further explored in the next couple sections of this paper. theodor adorno wrote extensively on the function of art and music. adorno’s view on art and music was similar to john dewey, william james, and cultural marxists like walter benjamin and siegfried kracauer, who saw both art and music as inextricably connected to its immediate culture context. (kerr, 2012) like the other western marxists, adorno believed that a work of art’s meaning was not objectively universal like kant did; rather meaning and value was contingent upon the historical circumstances surrounding a work of art and the subjective position of the viewer of the work itself. in adorno’s words, “since time immemorial, human reactions to artworks have been mediated to their utmost and do not refer immediately to the object; indeed they are now mediated by society as a whole (adorno, 2004: 299).” not only does the individual’s location in space and time 66 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art viewing the work of art influence a particular work of arts meaning, but the overall pulse of society does as well. adorno’s approach to aesthetic theory differed from the earlier aesthetic theory offered by kant which posited that within each work of art was a unique objective truth that existed independent of the viewer or interpreter of the work of art. according to murray skees, the autonomy of art for kant lies, then, in both the aesthetic judgment of the beautiful object and, in the case of art, the artist’s creation of that work of art as well. in the first instance, the judgment is autonomous in that it does not presuppose or depend upon the object’s utility or purpose, but in the pleasure of the contemplative attitude that we take towards the work of art. (skees, 2011: 920) where war propaganda art most radically differs from traditional forms of art for the likes of adorno is the function it plays in reaffirming the prevailing attitudes and values of the state. rather than war propaganda art acting as a subjective critique of reified social structures and the apparatus of the repressive state itself, war propaganda art seeks to reinforce traditional orthodoxy within the state. in this regard, it is quite reasonable to assume within the framework of critical theorists like adorno and kracauer, propaganda ‘art’ is not actually ‘art’ at all since true art serves some type of liberating and revolutionary function; art is meant to challenge the state, not reaffirm its prevailing norms, values, and institutions. moving beyond the philosophical discussion on what constitutes art, the fact remains that world war i propaganda posters were a widespread historical phenomenon. they were viewed and interpreted by millions of people across the world. to deny their importance and role in the shaping of attitudes and values would be a serious mistake. understanding the images and themes covered in wwi propaganda art can shed light on the attitudes of those living during this time period towards their own nation and the war in general. the united states and world war i propaganda art the united states sought to stay out of wwi as long as it could. however, the sinking of the lusitania in 1915, in which 1,198 innocent passengers died, was really the very public incident necessary in the eyes of most historians that ultimately forced the americans into war. (jones, 2001) according to howard jones, the popular american publication, the nation, stated, the sinking of the lusitania was, “a deed for which a hun would blush, a turk be ashamed, and a barbary pirate apologize (jones, 2001: 73).” 128 of 139 american passengers died in the unprovoked attack. 67 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art despite the fact the us did not formally enter the war until 1917, the wilson administration began promoting the use of propaganda as early as 1914 when the war began. “even though the united states had remained neutral until 1917, it had begun using the ‘power of suggestion’ through mass communication in 1914 with its negative portrayal of the ‘rape of belgium’, and in 1915 with the yellow journalism associated with the lusitania incident (tunc, 2012: 195).” the wilson administration went as far as creating a ‘committee on public information,’ that not only strategically placed advertisements in newspapers and magazines, but went as far as encouraging us filmmakers to make movies demonizing the german state. (debauche, 1997, and latham, 2006) two such anti-german films that came out around the time of wwi were, the kaiser: the beast of berlin (1918) and the prussian cur (1919). as the us entered the war, along with building up the war effort in the sense of artillery and tanks, the us needed to desperately win support from the mass publics. many american’s were initially opposed to getting involved in the war for numerous reasons. according to jeanette keith, sentiment for neutrality was strong among church leaders and certain immigrant communities in the united states, including irish americans, german americans and swedish americans. (keith, 2004) the propaganda apparatus needed to somehow address all the grievances against engaging in wwi while at the same time not making the situation sound so dire as to foster even more negative sentiment towards the war. much of the propaganda artwork of wwi sought to highlight positive american themes. the imagery below demonstrates some of the major themes covered in wwi propaganda art.1 uncle sam: i want you for the us army portrays the classic image of uncle sam. in this image we see a tough looking-elderly, bearded white male, dressed patriotically, affirmatively pointing at the viewer. in this iconic image that to this day is revered in 1all of the american wwi posters mentioned in this article can be found at http://www.ww1propaganda.com/world-war-1-posters/american-ww1-propaganda-posters. all german ww1 posters mentioned in this article can be found at, http://www.ww1propaganda.com/world-war-1-posters/german-ww1-propaganda-posters 68 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art americana, and american folklore, uncle sam is admonishing young men to join the u.s. army. ‘uncle sam’ is a character that often is used to personify the us government. for example, a phrase commonly used in the united states is, ‘i owe money to uncle sam,’ which means one owes taxes to the united states government. uncle sam is mentioned in the british folk song mocking the rag-tag us revolutionary army, ‘yankee doodle’ in 1775. (lossing, 1850) however, reports of ‘uncle sam’ have dated back to the 1st half of the 18th century and the creation of the united states. the creator of the iconic ‘uncle sam’ image is credited to the popular american political illustrator james montgomery flagg (1877-1960). flagg’s portrayal of uncle sam was first published on the cover of the magazine leslie’s weekly, on july 6, 1916, with the caption, “what are you doing for preparedness?” (library of congress archives) the poster, boys and girls! you can help uncle sam win the war, also contains a variation of uncle sam. this time he appears in a much friendlier and more approachable form; a young girl is sitting on his lap and a young boy is listening intently. this particular poster is an appeal for the youth to save their money and buy war savings stamps. the tone is hopeful; a personal appeal is made to the reader of this poster that they do not have to directly engage in overseas combat to help the us win the war; instead simply supporting the war effort financially can make a difference. this means that all american’s can get involved, not just those who are young, healthy, and male. one can be an 85 year old woman who is deaf and blind and still be a part of the victory. the theme of inclusivity can be noted in much of the us propaganda used throughout the war. the role of children in the us war effort will be further discussed in the next few pages. the woman’s land army of america poster emphasizes the role of women in the us war effort. one of the more common themes in american wwi posters is that of the role citizens who are not directly in combat can play in the war effort. middle-class, progressive urban women were a major part of the mobilization effort. with the assistance of mostly middle-class urban progressive women, hoover [in charge of the land army of america at the time] was able to recast rural values as a panacea to wartime problems by promoting war gardening, or victory gardens, as a means of involving civilians in the war effort and lessening the load on the us manufacturing system. (tunc, 2012: 199) once again, one immediately notices bright colors used in this poster. two women can be seen working together to haul a large wooden basket filled to the brim with freshly gathered fruits and vegetables. behind the two women carrying the heavy load of produce, is a woman gallantly riding on a horse, holding a large american flag. the american flag is placed in the center of the poster, reminding the viewer of patriotic themes. 69 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art the heroic efforts of women during wwi showed the world that women had the ability to take on essential roles in public life. (dumenil, 2002, and adie, 2013) according to dumenil, “for many women, the war effort offered opportunities for volunteer service to the nation that also provided the personal satisfaction of fulfilling, meaningful work, even though it was unpaid labor. for others, the war provided new, though often temporary, employment options (dumenil, 2002: 36-37).” the women who volunteered for service learned many important trade skills such as carpentry, farming, and metal work. women were not allowed to fight in the us military during wwi and most were expected to keep things functioning smoothly back at home. (tunc, 2012) the us government invested in the creation of numerous different posters emphasizing the importance of land management and farming during wwi. since many of the men who were farmers were off at war, the women left behind were needed to keep the farms running. many women at the time did not have the same knowledge as their husbands of modern farming techniques. as a result, the us government offered courses to teach them the skills needed to keep food production high. the woman’s land army of america encourages women to take courses at the university of virginia to learn modern farming techniques. one notices the tuition for the 2 week course was free and that board was only $5 a week. the us needed constant food production in order to keep the soldiers properly fed and the economy at home strong. despite the efforts to include women in the war effort, the poster’s themselves still reinforced gender stereotypes and did not accurately portray the demographic realities in the us at the time. “war posters were far from accurate in their depiction of american women. the images were white and the messages for the most part reinforced conventional gender stereotypes. the emphasis was on female service and self-sacrifice (dumenil, 2002: 36-37).” images of black, asian, and hispanic women are not seen in most us war posters. the emphasis on service and sacrifice also was applied to the case of children in us war posters. lest we perish campaign for $30,000,000; american committee for relief in the near east; armenia-greece-syria-persia, is another example of a poster that utilizes the feminine form to convey its message. this particular poster is an appeal to americans once again to reach deep into their pockets and give money towards us interests in the war effort. this particular poster is a call for, $30,000,000, an enormous amount of money in the 1910’s. a simple purchasing power calculator would calculate the relative value of $30,000,000 around 1914 to $721,000,000 today. this image does not actually spell out how the money is going to be used other than calling it relief in the near east. during wwi, armenia, greece, syria, and persia were seen as allies. the situation of these nations was dire. according to a congressional report in 1918, “the largest part of the funds contributed for relief goes to these orphanages. letters are constantly being 70 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art received in order that the number of orphans be increased (fowle, gates, et. al, 1918: 10).” the image shows a young, fair skinned woman, who clearly is of mediterranean or persian descent with her arms outstretched asking for help from the americans. nonsexually provocative images of regular housewives, lady columbia, and the statue of liberty were commonly used to promote food related programs, whereas more sexually provocative images of beautiful, youthful women were used to sell war bonds, raise cash directly, and encourage men to join the service in the united states. (stanley, 1983, and banta, 1987) if one looks closely, the woman is wearing some type of head covering. however, it is being worn in a way that would not be too foreign to the american public as to be alienating. the colors are simpler in this poster than in other ones, however one cannot help but be drawn to the red scarf in the picture as a focal point. helping hoover in our u.s. school garden is a poster that refers to a government program that was created with the passage of the 1914 smith-lever act, also commonly referred to as the agricultural extension act. the smith-lever act established a system of cooperative extension services that were connected to the land-grant universities. the goal of the new system of cooperative extension services was to inform people about the most contemporary developments in agriculture, home economics, public policy/ government, leadership, 4-h, economic development, and coastal issues. the smith-lever act also gave president woodrow wilson the authority to appoint future us president herbert hoover to a new government agency that sought to prevent food shortages and price inflation which could have threatened the entire war effort. hoover and wilson had to toe a fine line; while they needed to encourage rationing and frugality, they did not want to appear as ‘socialists’ by forcing american’s to ration. according to tunc, based on these realities, “hoover thus had to convince americans to self-regulate their consumption of food voluntarily, and realized that playing on patriotic sentiments would be the easiest, and quickest, way to do so (tunc, 2012: 197).” as a result of slick advertising and posters, hoover’s program quickly gained popularity amongst americans everywhere. hoover made specific efforts to encourage women to participate in the food rationing program. (gordon, 1999, and kingsbury, 2008) this would explain the use of happy, wholesome, ‘all-american’ caucasian children in food preservation posters and similar wwi advertising campaigns. despite most us posters being more upbeat in general, there were some exceptions. the final american example explored in this article is the ominous poster; we’ve fought in the open bubonic plague, yellow fever, tuberculosis: now venereal diseases. this poster shows that sexually transmitted diseases (std’s) had been a concern of various armies prior to ww1. during the mid 19th century, the british passed laws regulating prostitution that were ultimately unsuccessful. despite laws being enacted in the mid 1860’s, by 1895, 71 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art std’s were at a peak amongst british military men. (harrison, 1995) the united states had its own problems with venereal diseases during the philippines-american war which lasted from 1899-1902, just prior to the outbreak if wwi. the us military and state department set up commissions that sought to monitor and quarantine filipino women who were thought to be infected with sexually transmitted diseases. males who contracted std’s were looked at by the commanders in charge as morally flawed. “[…] they [the us military commanders] made the act of contraction a sort of bodily treason, a partial denial of one’s physical constitution to the state (kramer, 2011: 3).” during ww1 sexually transmitted diseases were of particular danger to soldiers. having an std coupled with the filthy conditions of trench warfare could become deadly in a very short time after contracting the disease(s). this poster also references previous ailments that most american would be familiar with that have caused mass deaths such as the bubonic plague, yellow fever, and tuberculosis. each of these previous plagues is represented by one of the 3 skeletons standing behind the demon woman, who represents the new danger, venereal diseases. in the first decade of the 20th century, over 100,000 american’s died each year of the decade from tuberculosis, also known as ‘consumption’ and ‘the white plague (lochimescu and tomford, 2014). the word ‘tuberculosis’ on the poster would most certainly raise immediate attention to the viewer living the 1910’s who very likely knew someone who died of this terrible disease. the mention of bubonic plague would also resonate with most american’s who were most certainly taught about how it killed approximately 1/3 of the european population in 1347ad in a world history class in grade school. the colors in this poster are much darker. the image of skeletons and semi-naked demon women, representing lust and fornication, holding a chained eagle or vulture standing on a skull were meant to both shock and raise fear inside the viewer. while it appears that the bird used in this image is a vulture, upon first glance one could easily think it might be some type of eagle. this is important for historical and cultural reasons within the us. the bald eagle has been the symbol of american ‘democracy and freedom’ almost since america’s inception. the founding fathers of the us like to compare the new nation to the roman empire. the use of the eagle was common in the roman empire, thus the founding fathers chose the bald eagle as the main symbol that appears on the great seal of the united states. (lawrence, 1990) while at this point in history it may be impossible, it would be interesting to find out if the choice of the ‘bald eagle-looking’ bird being chained to the demon woman, standing on top of a skull was intentional. the poster is saying that lust and sexually transmitted diseases are enthralling american’s and the future of america in general. 72 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art germany and world war i propaganda art following the assassination of archduke franz ferdinand of the austro-hungarian monarchy by a serbian nationalist, the reeling austro-hungarian empire declared war on serbia. following this declaration, a german response was imminent, especially considering the long historical ties between the two states directly linked to the powerful habsburg dynasty. for a long time, what was called, the ‘spirit of 1914’ hypothesis argued that german’s were almost unanimously excited about the prospect of war. this went largely unquestioned by academics for decades. this hypothesis was bolstered by the fact that every party in the reichstag voted in favor of entering the war, even traditionally anti-war socialists. however in the past 20-30 years new scholarship has emerged challenging that axiom. in 2000, jeffrey verhey published, the spirit of 1914: militarism, myth, and mobilization in germany (cambridge, 2000), which argued that, similarly to their american counterparts, german’s held mixed feelings on whether to enter the war or not. on the ‘spirit of 1914’ hypothesis, verhey states, “indeed, given the myth-makers’ intentions, it is not surprising that their myth of the ‘spirit of 1914,’ an account of the history of german public opinion in july and august 1914, became increasingly more removed from its real history (verhey, 2000: 9).” for verhey this myth was perpetuated by conservatives who sought to romanticize the war and foster national pride and a sense of ethnic solidarity. verhey’s argument makes sense considering the fact that the germans went to such great efforts to produce highly visible war propaganda posters. if the german public truly were ‘unanimous,’ as the spirit of 1914 hypothesis suggests, why would such efforts be made to convince the public, via propaganda to support the war effort? from the very beginning of wwi, the german state already had multiple agencies in charge of disseminating propaganda. official german propaganda at the outbreak of the war was conducted by the press bureau of the imperial foreign office, the public relations officers of the army and navy intelligence services, the affiliated telegraph agencies, and certain foreign press bureaus. (lutz, 1933: 498) the german poster, kriegsanleihe, helft den hütern eures glückes, makes an appeal to the family, and more specifically, traditional german family life. one cannot help but notice the sword that the muscular young father is holding as he caresses his wife’s should and newborn baby’s back. another interesting thing to observe in this poster is the exaggerated size of father’s hand that is caressing his wife and baby. exaggerated masculinity permeates much of the propaganda posters utilized by the germans during wwi. the text says, “war loans help the guardians of your happiness.” we can see an appeal to patriotism and the duty of the citizen in this particular image. 73 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art the highly patriarchal nature of the german family was explored in detail by the prominent frankfurt school scholar eric fromm in his book, the working class in weimar germany: a psychological and sociological study (harvard press, 1984). the research for this work began in 1929 at the now legendary institute of social research (institut für sozialforschung) at frankfurt-au-maim, the namesake of what would become known as the frankfurt school of thought. even though this project began prior to the rise of hitler, it remained unpublished until the 1980’s. fromm’s findings were based on a 271 open ended questionnaire that he used qualitative and quantitative techniques to evaluate. in this work, fromm concludes that there is an inherent authoritarianism, specifically within the working class german family, that ultimately facilitated to the rise of hitler and the politics of the 3rd reich. (fromm, 1984) while at first many of those being questioned in the survey expressed less reactionary views, after utilizing less overtly-political and more opaque questioning, even those who initially expressed leftist political belief systems, revealed themselves to possess many of the same reactionary attitudes towards contemporary social norms and mores as those on the right and even extreme right possessed. in another powerful appeal to german patriotism, bauern, tut eurer pflicht! die städte hungern, portrays a desperate looking german family. if one looks closely, the will notice the faces of the mother and older child in the back both appear to be in crying. once again, we see a simple, powerful image that appeals to the basest emotions of the ‘true german patriot.’ as mentioned above the german propaganda apparatus framed the war as a defensive effort in which victory was certain. according to ralph lutz in 1933; all these [state sponsored german] publications throw light on the chief themes of the home propaganda, which were: the war of self-defense against the encircling policy of the entente, the certainty of victory and the consequent necessity of fortitude, the violations of the laws of land 74 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art and naval warfare by all the enemies, the historic mission and high culture of germans, the need for national expansion, and the proclamation that a german victory would be for the good of the world. (lutz, 1933: 500) the self-aggrandizement of german culture and its contributions to world culture, more specifically the belief in the unique role of german culture in spiritual world development, or what g.w.f hegel called, geist, would be an even more prominent theme during the reign of the 3rd reich. the need for national expansion was transformed into an all encompassing ideology in wwii. the notion of lebensraum, or that of ‘living space’ for germanic peoples was canonized as not only an ideology, but a scientific law of nature; those peoples who are superior have not only a right, but a duty to conquer less civilized people. (lee, 2003) this image does an effective job of showing how ‘cramped’ and ‘uncomfortable’ the german family is, and how without territorial expansion, it would be doomed. the germans also used images of women to promote the war effort. this image in many ways is similar to the american images of females patriotically contributing to the general war effort. weichnachts sammlung des bayerischen roten kreuzes für die feldgrauen shows a young, physically fit german female pulling a sleigh, handing a bundle of provisions to a male german soldier. one’s attention is immediately drawn to the bright gold and pink colors in the woman’s dress. she has a determined and confident look on her face. if one looks really closely the will notice that the female is significantly smaller and frailer than the tall, burly male soldier. this is another example of the exaggeration of masculinity that can be seen in german propaganda. the overall larger-scale, long term, sociological ramifications for german women were also similar to american women during the war; continued reinforcement of certain gender stereotypes, exploitation at the hands of male workers, limited upward career mobility, and no real concrete progress in gaining rights. in the words of ute daniel, the war in germany was nothing more than, “an emancipation on loan (daniel, 1997: 283).” the biggest outcome of wwi in regards to women in germany was the ‘horizontal’ shifting of working women from one sector to another. (daniel, 1997) women in germany were also under extra scrutiny if they engaged in adultery or prostitution. despite the fact that any sexual encounter requires two people, the female participants in extra-marital liaisons with male soldiers were demonized by the state and public as being unpatriotic and of poor moral character, while the male participants, though discouraged by those in command, largely got a free pass. 75 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art dein vaterland ist in gefahr, melde dich! & join the air service: “give ‘er the gun,” offer a side by side comparison of a german recruitment poster and an american recruitment poster. the poster on the left shows a german soldier with a rifle in one hand and fire and barbed wire behind him. the message is simple. like the previous images, one sees appeals to patriotism and heroism. the words written are bold and clear; dein vaterland ist in gefahr melde dich, which translates into english as “your fatherland is in danger.” anyone with even the most minimal patriotic tendencies would understand the meaning of this poster. like the previous image, this is meant to appeal to raw emotion. the desperation can be readily felt in this particular poster. the world is literally on fire and the brave german soldier is the only thing that can save dein vaterland. unlike the darker imagery coupled with an appeal to selfless patriotism as seen in, dein vaterland ist in gefahr, melde dich!, the american poster utilizes brighter colors, offers an appeal to personal gain, and shows a similar young recruit, except this one with a big smile on his face. ‘learn’ and ‘earn’ are meant to appeal to the individual’s selfcentered interests of learning a useful skill and making money so they can live comfortable after the war. the entrepreneurial theme has long been a staple of american efforts to get people to join the services. even today, one can regularly see commercials on american television that talk about the immediate financial and educational benefits of being a new enlistee in the us armed forces. going back to chambers rubric, thus far we have appeals to patriotism and the family in the german world war i propaganda posters, but we have yet to see the 3rd element; that of demonizing the enemy being fought on the ground or scenes of violence or carnage. bolschewismus heisst die welt im blut ersäufen references a specific ideological thereat as opposed to a specific physical military force such as the british or americans. the ideological threat to german culture that is often repeated in german propaganda art is that of bolshevism. the words on the poster translate in english to, “bolshevism means the world will drown in blood.” 76 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art indeed, german nationalists and social democrats alike were already concerned with the rise bolshevism in russia before lenin ever assumed formal power. in 1918, social democratic party of germany (sozialdemokratische partei deutschlands) member and future prime minister of prussia from 1920-1932, otto braun, argued that socialism must be achieved via democratic means and not through violence, and that since the bolshevik revolution in russia had become so violent, the german left must make it clear that bolshevism and german socialism were not one in the same. (schulze, 1982) the bolsheviks were seen by many wealthier germans as dangerous atheist jewish radicals whose national loyalty could not be trusted, and whose goal was to destroy civilization as they have come to know it. here we can see the image of the wolf, a very powerful figure in germanic culture, representing the looming threat of bolshevism. the murderous wolf’s paws are covered in blood as it overlooks a man drowning in a pool of brightly colored red blood. throughout northeastern europe, tales of men who transform into wolves, or werewolves, have been present since the middle ages. in the 19th century the famous german academics and folklore enthusiasts, jacob and wilhelm grimm, also known the ‘the brothers grimm,’ retold the story of little red riding hood, the story of a young girl confronted by a wolf, in their 1812, kinderund hausmärchen (children’s and household tales). the imagery of the wolf would be regularly utilized in propaganda in wwii by the nazi’s. hitler’s own eastern-front military headquarters was called the wolfsschanze, or ‘wolf’s lair.’ the poster, kohle ist brot, is another subtle appeal to the threat of bolshevism. here we see another grim german poster showing an image of a skeleton that obviously resembles the face of the bolshevik leader, vladimir lenin. this picture shows lenin, or at least an obviously ‘lenin-like’ caricature reaching across the german industrial skyline from the great beyond stealing precious wheat as 3 german workers hopelessly idly look on. the phrase, kohle ist brot, translates in english to ‘coal is bread.’ at one level, this clearly is an appeal to the german workers to do their patriotic duty to work and not strike or engage in any other subversive activities that might disrupt in the war effort. if coal is not being mined and refined, then there will be no bread. while this is obvious, the poster clearly is also insinuating that there exists a bolshevik threat from beyond. this poster effectively conveys 2 separate messages; the importance of not engaging in labor stoppages and the dangers of the new emerging foreign ideology of bolshevism. if the workers do not produce enough coal and remain patriotic, the evil new political movement from russia will steal all the food and leave the german people starving. conclusion the function of art has been debated amongst cultural critics and scholars pre-dating 77 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art aristotle and plato. (wrigley, 1993, and elkins, 1996) as mentioned in the introduction, while some critics would never accept that war propaganda art, is in fact, art, one cannot deny its practical importance in shaping norms and mores. this is especially true in the 20th and into the 21st centuries. according to howard lutz, “war-time propaganda obviously implies national education with an ulterior motive: the creation of new desires, group hypnosis, and isolation of counter propaganda, saturation of the public with selected and biased information (lutz, 1933: 497).” as means of communication have advanced, so too has the implementation of propaganda. this paper concludes that u.s. and german wwi propaganda art had some obvious similarities, but even more important differences. it is important to note that this paper is not meant to be an ‘exhaustive study’ of every image of propaganda that ever appeared in the us and germany during wwi. such an endeavor would most certainly be a very long book. however this paper did seek to offer a broad set of general hypotheses that can later be tested in future research projects by other scholars. in regard to similarities; both nations sought to create posters that would appeal to emotion over reason. each side utilized powerful imagery, often of women and children. these images were then coupled with short and simple instructions, such as ‘buy war bonds’ or ‘serve your country bravely.’ some of the techniques used by the us in wwi, especially in regards to food rationing, were so successful, they were almost directly recycled in the posters the us used in wwii. “the same slogans – ‘food will win the war; don’t waste it’, ‘plant victory gardens to ensure victory’, and ‘only buy what you can eat’ – can also be found on posters from the early 1940s. these posters employ the same iconography, colour palette, and themes, and substitute one german leader for another (hitler for the kaiser) (tunc, 2012: 216).” the germans also recycled many of the same themes utilized in their wwi posters in their wwii posters. both sides also followed chambers 3 main areas of content in regards to war propaganda art, not just in posters, but in other mediums of propaganda art as well the 3 themes mentioned by chambers were; 1) appeals to the patriotism in an attempt to motivate civilians to contribute to the war effort by joining the military; 2) appeals to civilian-orientated activities, emphasizing the civilian/military inter relationship and the role citizens can play at home to contribute to the war effort, and; 3) efforts to demonize the enemy in with the intent of instill hate and fear for the enemy in the citizens. (chambers, 1983) the us utilized the newly emerging film industry to demonize the german enemy, while as shown in this article; the german’s demonized bolshevism in numerous different posters. this paper has shown some important thematic and stylistic difference between german and us propaganda posters. in the american case, the great war, was framed in 78 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j.j. kaminski world war i and propaganda poster art a way that not only appealed to american patriotism, but also to individual self-interest. many of the american posters sought to make the connection between military training and learning a skill or trade that could make money when the war was over. the colors used in the posters also differed. many american posters utilized brighter colors than did the germans, and regularly utilized smiling faces of children and images of industrious, happy women. the image of uncle sam also became a useful marketing tool for the military during this time. uncle sam was an easily identifiable cartoonish figure that anyone; literate or illiterate; educated or uneducated; black or white; male or female could understand. the war was not as existentially dangerous to the united states as it was for germany; even if the us lost, it would still most certainly maintain its sovereignty and freedom, even though its global aspirations of hegemonic power may have been temporarily halted. once again, the fact that this war was not a matter of life or death for the nation as a whole, made convincing american’s to fight even more difficult. lutz quotes early 20th century canadian novelist and british politician, sir gilbert parker as saying, “[the americans] have nothing to gain by success in this war except something spiritual, mental, manly, national, and human. they are in this war because they believe german policy is a betrayal of civilization (lutz, 1933: 514).” with this in mind, it is no surprise why american propaganda art sought to make the war experience seem less miserable and more hopeful. in regards to the german case, the artwork in the posters is much more ominous and foreboding. the war was viewed by many germans as a matter of life or death for the nation. this is reflected in the artwork. perhaps the poster of distraught family best exemplifies the state of mind in germany when the war broke out in 1914. the general color scheme of the german posters was much darker, and the themes were less hopeful than those utilized by the americans. references to personal self-gain after the war were generally absent from german wwi propaganda artwork. as mentioned above, the german poster art seemed to focus more on demonizing enemies than american poster art. a common leitmotif that was often demonized was the threat of bolshevism. this interesting to note because the bolsheviks did not formally assume power in russia until well after the war had ended. 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author), assistant professor of english literature, department of english language and literature, razi university, kermanshah, iran. email: p.lalbakhsh@razi.ac.ir abstract the present article approaches jay mcinerney’s bright lights, big city (1984) in light of merlin coverley’s concept of psychogeography to demonstrate the direct authority of the city as an integral part of the protagonist’s persona. the idea is to emphasize that urbanity, in its postmodern sense, can function as a culpable agent in shaping up the protagonist’s behavior and determining his fate. therefore, this research studies mcinerney’s bright lights, big city to reveal how the life of the leading character–with his unstable state of mind–takes root primarily in his chaotic living environment. a psychogeographic evaluation of this novel allows us to see that urbanity influences the protagonist’s psyche, who evinces this deep impact through wandering in the metropolitan manhattan. further, this research demonstrates how the city remains triumphant as the protagonist falls into disease and alienation, or is left with an aporetic moment of decision: to unify with the force of urbanity or lose everything to its power. keywords: psychogeography; mcinerney; bright lights, big city; urbanity; postmodern fiction. introduction some literary works open up with a hint of their cultural context through which their narrative unfolds. the opening lines of bright lights, big city fittingly frame the story and the entanglement the protagonist encounters, in addition to the cultural context the novel tries to represent. it begins with the excursions of a drunken, drugged young man at six in the morning in manhattan, who tries desperately to recover from his shattered life. his wife, a famous model, has left him and his job at a magazine does not seem to last much longer. and the severity of all this weighs heavily on his mind like an illusion that he can neither hold on to nor can he let go. what haunts his mind probably the most is the question of whether “to live [this] illusion or to lose it?” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 1). indeed, these very first words deftly foreshadow the entire plot of the novel and somewhat reveal how events are going to turn out. the protagonist spends his life mostly in nightclubs, bars, fashion shows and roaring parties only to draw away from the feeling of mortality and the reproaching dawn and morning light. 9 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences such is generally the cultural and social condition people experienced in the 1980s america that stressed a dramatic change towards massive urbanization and radical shift in definitions of reality. the most common ways to address the changes “both geographical and perceptual—are de-territorialization and placelessness. a by-product of this shift is a profound sense of loss and a corresponding deep nostalgia for the world we have lost” (ellin, 1996, p. 13). thematization of such causes in literary works, of course, is not something entirely new. many fiction writers of the time including don delillo, thomas pynchon, or paul auster portrayed characters undergoing similar conditions in new york. to represent this social paradigm shift, mcinerney dedicates a large bulk of bright lights, big city to the portraiture of city and its atmosphere. however, a further step to analyze this recurring theme in literary trends of the period, specifically in mcinerney’s novel, might raise a question: is there any connection between the physical make-up of the city (space) and the psyche of a participant, whose descriptions surprisingly seem only limited to manhattan and its labyrinthine feature? the novel is commonly categorized as a postmodern piece of fiction, yet its style is not much consciously postmodernist the way keen readers might expect. of course, one can easily identify the playfulness of style and content that is expected of postmodern fiction. most likely, what we notice when evaluating the distinctive features of the novel is the narrative voice or the peculiar rendering of the city. curiously, both of these two elements are inextricably linked together. the novel uses second-person narrative voice, and the most justifiable theory for the use of such point of view may lie in the sense of alertness it generates for the reader. on the one hand, we can argue that the application of you as the only narrative voice is to invite the reader to pay sympathetic attention to the plot and its eventual effect. indeed, second person point of view “is one of the rare narrative forms where the use of you enters into a truly dialogical rather than merely rhetorical relation with an other” (rayan, 2005, p. 519). clearly, this is only one critical assessment we can imagine on this issue. the other side of the argument stresses how it can sharpen the consciousness of the reader who is supposed to be reading a cautionary tale of an unfortunate character. this seems quite likely to be the case of ‘you’ in this novel, which gives the feeling of the fourth wall of the brechtian theater or a kind of alienation effect which somehow awakens the consciousness of the audience by directly inviting ‘you’ to take a critical distance. the other feature of experimentation the novel boldly represents relates to the question of setting and space. perhaps before mcinerney, not many authors reshuffled the depiction and role of the city or setting in fiction to this considerable extent. the new york that he describes, however, evokes nothing of the feeling of hope it produced by the american dream a few decades earlier. hence, he is subsumed by a sense of purposelessness and hopelessness, and this takes root mainly in an alien culture combined with an unfortunate domestic and public life that torment his mind. it is now easier to understand the first few lines of the novel that desperately invites ‘you’ to walk with him with vigilant eyes in the streets of new york, quite possibly, to narrate how he lost everything over the dark nights of his city. of course, the reason for such character development and space description can be manifold. maria beville considers this fictional new york as a zone of “uncanny spectrality” which is “decentered, fragmented, and defined by the otherness encountered in the crowd” psychogeography and the victims of the city in mcinerney’s bright lights, big city 10 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences (2013, p. 603). her argument relies mainly on the social paradigm shift which changed the perception of space from its modernist dystopian/utopian features to a postmodern understanding of space which stressed the plurality of metropolitan city. malcolm bradbury discusses the extreme sense of alienation the protagonist feels in his life in manhattan and relates it to the expatriate tradition in american literature as a symptom of “cultural barrenness, absence of forms, and the need for another culture” (1982, p. 6). this certainly is an accurate cultural account of the post-regan era in the united states that instigated a form of dissatisfaction for american people. all these interpretations take shape when we evaluate the central character and his clash with a society in which he feels a certain sense of non-belonging. the social or political reasons why the nameless narrator reacts as such is not quite a new issue, but the means and mechanism that encourage his utter confusion and eventual destruction passes unnoticed on the part of scholars. the protagonist wanders all night long and this seems like a literary device or an ordinary part of the plot. yet, the profundity of his walks can be enlightening when it goes on to affect his psyche to a great deal. this, indeed, creates a psychogeographic connection in which the more he tries to make sense of manhattan (as a place of belonging), the more he comprehends his mental inability to find a trace of compatibility. a psychogeographic evaluation of the novel can thus be enlightening in terms of what reason may lie behind the way the protagonist reacts to his environment and what the novel intends to represent culturally. furthermore, it can give us a newer understanding of postmodern literature in the final years of the twentieth century that incorporated the theme of urbanity in its postmodern sense. postmodern fiction and psychogeography the term psychogeography was introduced as a part of the letterist international (li) and situationist movement and was first coined by guy debord in 1955 as a method of coming into direct contact with urban environment through drifting around for mental identification. initially, it was defined as a political and social strategy that attempted to challenge the capitalist modes of influence and dominance in overtly consumerist societies. although psychogeography fell out of favor for almost two decades after its initial popularity, it attracted attention once more in the sphere of social sciences and humanities in the latter decades of the twentieth century. later, however, it nudged its way into literature as an interdisciplinary approach to lay bare the pressure that the modern streets and environments may exert on individuals. only in recent years has this movement achieved a higher recognition in the domain of literature thanks to the publication of psychogeography (2006) by merlin coverley. in his book, he describes this concept as the juncture at which “psychology and geography collide” in order to “study the specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals” (p. 10). it makes clear the direct connection between one’s deepest thoughts (psyche) and their living environment. for guy debord and his collaborators–who formed the well-known situationist international group (1957)–psychogeography meant “drifting through the city for days, weeks, even months at a time, looking for what they called the city’s psychogeography” that helped p. torkamaneh & p. lalbakhsh 11 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences them identify “forgotten desires—images of play, eccentricity, secret rebellion, creativity, and negation” (marcus, 2002, p. 4). they journey through urban spaces, and this shapes psychogeographic mental maps that for them “express not subordination to randomness but complete insubordination to habitual influences” (debord, 2008, p. 26) that rises against capitalist hegemony that favors uniformity of the mass consciousness. these explorations through the topography of the postmodern city help the passer-by to gain an authentic insight about the marginalized, the forgotten as well as the cherished space of everyday life. the present article deals with mcinerney’s bright lights, big city and its protagonist’s psychogeographic journey through new york. first, it discusses how the city atmosphere shapes the mind of the nameless protagonist to such extreme measures that he loses his ability to consciously form a sound understanding of his life and existence in the metropolitan manhattan. this geographical and psychological process goes so far as to create a baudrillardian hyper-real effect on his mind that in turn pushes him one step closer to his eventual failure. finally, succumbed to social and urban mechanism of life in his surroundings, he comes to face an aporetic moment of decision: either to live a life of illusions or lose it all, which in any case does not seem to improve his condition much. the man’s experience defined by the city a considerable proportion of the novel revolves around the aimless walks of the main character in manhattan city-center filled with glaring lights and buzz of the city. “into the heart of the night [they wander] wherever there are dances to be danced, drugs to be hoovered, women to be allagashed. it’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it” (mcinerney, 198, p. 42). it is possible to believe that even the narrator himself enjoys wandering and the feeling of being lost in the city. his life is filled with regret and afflictions that make it no surprise for such a lonely individual to occupy himself in the whirlpool of strange faces, huge glamorous shopping malls and nightclubs, perhaps to remain oblivious to the misfortunes he went through. he feels traumatic, and thus he compulsively bears the thought of unification with his alluring environment since he finds the origin of his misery rooted in the urban space around him. initially, he freely walks and drowns himself in drugs and delirium. he describes his involvement with the city in terms of “drugs, delight, decadence, debauchery, dexedrine, delectable, deranged, debilitated, delinquent, delirium” (p. 7) that shows his concurrently paradoxical attraction and revulsion toward his life in manhattan. his description reveals the serious dramas he might have been through; each of which could have cast him into more trouble and madness. walking functions as more of a habit that urges him to start daily on “the upper east side with champagne and unlimited prospects, strictly observing the allagash rule of perpetual motion: one drink per stop” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 2). this brings into the background the flâneur tradition of aimless walk. unlike what psychogeography highlighted, which involves conscious and intentional strolls, flâneur relied less on intentionality and aim. the way the novel firstly describes the protagonist can be rather a claim on the protagonist’s lack of intentionality and more on his attachment to the city. he convinces himself that his psychogeography and the victims of the city in mcinerney’s bright lights, big city 12 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences “mission in life is to have more fun than anyone else in new york city, and this involves a lot of moving around since there is always the likelihood that where you aren’t is more fun than where you are” (p. 3). this is because he knows that “in the modern city the man of the crowd must adapt or perish” (coverley, 2012, p. 155). yet, in spite of his endeavors, he cannot pace himself with urban life and soon he finds himself not one with manhattan since the “city’s economy is made up of strange, subterranean circuits that are as mysterious to you as the grids of wire and pipe under the streets” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 86). such is his initial bitter-sweet comprehension and experience defined by the city as he, in turn, tries to define the city he inhabits. the narrator establishes a deeper emotional connection with the tortuous streets and the bright lights of the big city for his perception comes to take an unconscious and internalized form. his understanding of life and the city appears to be more fragmented, as he grows more caught up with life in the metropolitan manhattan and resorts to occasional drugs and drunkenness as drifting around the city. his compulsive retreat to the streets of manhattan turns out to be a mechanism by which he means to come to terms with his life by going back to the source of his fall. contrary to his expectations, the city atmosphere permeates gradually the boundaries of his mind and even the atmosphere of his house. he often returns home hoping to find himself a place for placidity of mind and order of thought. surprisingly, he loses his home to the disarray of the urban exteriors as well. “your apartment is a chamber of horrors,” explains the narrator, “there are instruments of torture in the kitchen cabinets, rings in the walls, spikes on the bed. that place is must-toavoid” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 80) for his mind has given in to the city atmosphere almost entirely. he knows that to walk out in the streets means that “there is a special purgatory for you out there in the dawn’s surly light, a desperate half sleep which is like a grease fire in the brainpan” (p. 8). this uncovers more suitably the connection between the characters and the urban fabric. the influence of the urban life intensifies to the extent that his contact with urban structures finds it complete dominion over his mind and living space. “the sound of the tumblers in the locks of your apartment door puts you in mind of dungeons. the place is haunted,” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 37) says the protagonist about his apartment. he continues to note that in his house “memories lurk like dustballs at the backs of drawers. the stereo is a special model that plays only music fraught with poignant associations,” (p. 37) showing the deep impact of desperation into his daily life and psyche. indeed, the city remains essentially a haunting specter that imprints its form and features upon his living quarters to a great degree. damian o’doherty (2013) appropriately argues, “the relation between the city and its constitution is complexly folded into the human body and its mind where an intimate relation is found to exist between the alignment and energies of the body and those of the city” (p. 213). it is of little surprise that the narrator in mcinerney’s declares, “your soul is as disheveled as your apartment,” (1984, p. 32) quite possibly to make clear the indivisible relationship between life in the city, one’s home and the individual’s psyche. in fact, the fate of such character is closely tied with the “fate of the city he inhabits and his very existence acts as an indication of the struggles later generations of urban walkers will have to face as the city is redeveloped in a manner increasingly hostile to their activities” (coverley, 2006, p. 20) and, of course, their freedom. p. torkamaneh & p. lalbakhsh 13 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences the urban conditions further affect his mind to the point that he feels mentally conflicted. his nocturnal walks around bars and nightclubs reinforce his sense of attachment and lead him to more frenzy. “you sit down up front. the bus lurches into traffic. below fortieth street the signs on the corners change from seventh avenue to fashion avenue as you enter the garment district,” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 87) to find traces of amanda. he gets delusional and only thinks about the confusing streets that echo “amanda’s old stomping grounds” (p. 87). yet his desperation makes him wonder if he can find her in the slums of manhattan where “they sell women without clothes and below they sell clothes with women” (p. 87). he truly becomes one with the city and finds his quests to be of no result, all because he knows he cannot make do with the city: “new york, the club scene – you’re tired of all that” (p. 3). the monstrous façade of the city intimidates his whole existence since the streets and the urban conditions that define them have the capacity to take unfathomable forms. the claustrophobic spaces and routes he chooses to pass reflect his dedication to restriction and, therefore, the innards of the city are the complicit agents that hasten his mental fall. one can recall thomas de quincey (1785-1859) as a classic example of urban walker whose obsessive drifting parallels identically with the conditions walking creates for the leading character in mcinerney’s. “the perplexities of my steps in london came back again and haunted my sleep, with the feeling of perplexities moral or intellectual, that brought confusion to the reason, or anguish and remorse to the conscience,” (2014, p. 41) writes de quincey of his nostalgic, opium-led walks around the transformed london. this partly reminds us of the beginning words of the narrator, which summarized how “messed up” he was while he had “no place to go” (p. 10); words he hopelessly keeps repeating to himself in the course of the narrative. this demonstrates how his restrictive mindset – produced by the unvarying response from and observations of the city – engages him with a circle of convergence in which where he starts is exactly where he ends up finishing. it is understandable why his movements around the topography of manhattan increasingly bring him more anguish and confusion. awareness of hyperreality: trying to define the city the protagonist’s narrative of his itinerary lifestyle reaches a critical phase when he finds his consciousness torn between illusion and reality, recognition and oblivion. his exhausting confrontation with the city and the environment to redeem the things he has lost proves unavailing, and he begins to think how he has been profoundly powerless to live according to his conscious will. he declares, “you are the stuff of which consumer profiles-american dream: educated middleclass model-are made” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 151) to indicate his stance against the capitalist authority. he attributes his lost job, money, and wife to the perplexing living society that dazzles his eyes and an american dream he chased symbolically by walking compulsively. this inevitably turns him into a low hanging individual and denies him the reality he deserves. bright lights, big city pictures the plights an individual experiences as he tries to regain what was repressed by the mechanisms of an indifferent society. his desire for the dazzling nights of new york is a symbol of obliviousness and unreality. for him, the psychogeography and the victims of the city in mcinerney’s bright lights, big city 14 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences “sunlight is excessive” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 13) and upon walking during the day the sun’s “glare is like a mother’s reproach. the sidewalk sparkles cruelly, visibility unlimited” (p. 8) making him believe that upon walking during the day “mortality will pierce you through the retina” (p. 6). no wonder that he finds it “nice” to “hole up in the nearest bar. the glare from the sidewalk stuns you,” (p. 27) for he is supposed to drown himself in drinking and drugs, but not thinking. the narrative mentions his habitual reading of new york post and the issues he often comes across including headlines like “death fall from sky, sex fiends, teenage terrorists, tough tots, sicko creeps, living nightmares, spontaneous human combustion, miracle diets, coma babies, [and reports on] missing persons” (p. 11) that gradually make him feel “the post confirms your sense of impending disaster” (p. 57). more accurately, his real life led by his conscious thoughts and decisions is invaded by a society of the spectacle that absorbs his mind and controls his psyche. the story mainly hinges on the leading character’s quest for amanda; a character whose absence for the protagonist embodies an unreachable american dream and a false hope and consciousness on which the narrator frantically depends. upon her absence, he nostalgically replaces her memories with a mannequin he sees every day at saks fifth avenue: you stop in front of a window. inside the window is a mannequin which is a replica of amanda-your wife, the model. to form the cast for the mannequin, amanda lay face down in a vat of latex batter for ninety minutes; breathing through a straw…you stand in front of the window and try to remember if this was how she really looked. (mcinerney, 1984, p. 68) while his obsession for a mannequin might epitomize a yearning for some unattainable entity, we could also interpret it as an unrealized dream. as he is busy with life, the mannequin, and amanda, he almost never realizes that accessing truth and reality is made almost impossible because of the consumerist metropolitan city that stands in his way to reality. jean baudrillard pertinently states, “nothing could be more intense, electrifying, turbulent, and vital than the streets of new york […] filled with crowds, bustle and advertisement, each by turn aggressive or casual” (1988, p. 18). living in a place like manhattan is evocative of the mechanism of the survival of the fittest in which the weakest is objectified by all institutions of power like nightlife, bars, new york post, tortuous streets of lights, drugs, and mannequins. through bombardment of information and representations, a postmodern capitalist society and authority deprives one of his individuality and desire for reality. to put the events into their historical context, we should possibly date back to reagan era of the 1980s during which “privatization of the public space” was the vogue since the government firmly bolstered an economy that depended heavily on “private sector rather than sluggish government bureaucracies” (cannato, 2009, p. 75). it was a time when people were recovering from the severe repercussions of vietnam war that wrecked the country’s economy. reagan, of course, came to power with the hope of improving it. people, especially youngsters and yuppies, celebrated this shift and embraced a life of limitless enjoyment occasioned by the use of drugs and drinking. yet, it is a relatively accepted fact that critics p. torkamaneh & p. lalbakhsh 15 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences of the 1980s see manhattan as “a time of greed and economic materialism, military waste and jingoistic belligerence, growing inequality, a lack of concern for the poor, and a rolling back of gains for the rights of minorities and women” (p. 71). mcinerney, indeed, cues us more accurately to this spirit of the period in his brightness falls (1992) as well when the narrator blames manhattan for corrnie calloway’s instability of mind: “living in the city, she felt bound up in a delicate, complex web of interdependence and she was determined to play her part. the misery as well as the vitality of the metropolis seeped into her psyche” (p. 79). it is not strange, therefore, to confront “successive simulation, as hyperreality seems to be at the core of the contemporary debate on space and place” (hönnighausen, 2005, p. 50), particularly in its urban aspects. the provocative walks as a resistance strategy bright lights, big city is primarily composed of two paradoxically interconnected narrations: one deals with silence and obedience to the power-laden, hyperreal effects of life in manhattan of the 1980s, and the other narrates the later active awareness and resistance of the narrator against the consumerist life and its mental preoccupation. the narrator’s mind occasionally rises to consciousness and takes a new approach into analyzing the events around. the central declaration which makes the reader rather sure of his characteristics as a typical twentieth-century individual is probably when “sometimes [the protagonist] feel[s] like the only man in the city without group affiliation” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 57). such a character acts like an unattached observer-hero who earnestly longs for the truth and reality. he proves on occasions that his excursions through the topography of the city motivate him to think critically. he thinks, “your presence here is only a matter of conducting an experiment in limits, reminding yourself of what you aren’t” (p. 4). indeed, apart from numbing his consciousness, drifting in and around the city functions as an experiment and a new definition of the self as well. yet, this is not what capitalist centers or hyperreal forces like to embrace. in effect, his act of walking serves as a form of subversion and reconstitution. “eventually you ascend the stairs to the street,” tells the narrator about the start of another of his provocative walks, thinking of “plato’s pilgrims climbing out of the cave, from the shadow world of appearances toward things as they really are, and you wonder if it is possible to change in this life. being with a philosopher makes you think” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 93). his itinerary movements around manhattan’s mysterious landscape, labyrinthine streets, and large buildings encourage him to explore new facts, realities. this creativity of mediation and imagination is essentially made possible when he takes a detour and starts walking the “village [street], pointing out landmarks and favorite townhouses” (p. 93). visiting this place is important because it makes “you remember how much you used to like this part of the city” (p. 94). “the streets have friendly names and cut weird angles into the rectilinear map of the city. the buildings are humble in scale and don’t try to intimidate you” (p. 94) when he adventures into forgotten areas of the city. his action symbolizes what lies at the heart of psychogeographic concern of “cutting across established routes and exploring those marginal and forgotten areas often overlooked by the city’s inhabitants” (coverley, 2006, p. 12). this perfectly outlines the movements of the modern man who detests banality and seeks liveliness. psychogeography and the victims of the city in mcinerney’s bright lights, big city 16 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences it is interesting to know that, even in reality, village street in manhattan is reputed for being a site of “magnet for the east coast counter-culture” and “a popular hangout for the beats and then a nightclub” (nevius, 2014, p. 5). it is certain that such a place is a last resort for the modern cast-out who feels plagued for living in simulations and illusions. for the narrator, it is poignant to know that the report of the ‘missing person’ he read in new york post was about his mother, whom he had forgotten completely long ago. it is after being informed about this misfortune and his wife’s second marriage that he becomes rather disillusioned. these make him realize that “amanda is a fictional character, you say. i made her up. i didn’t realize this until recently” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 139). or that “on cornelia street, where you first lived with amanda in new york. this was your neighborhood. these shops were your shops. you possessed these streets as securely as if you held title” (p. 133) contrary to the time when he was drawn to walking the restricted atmosphere of manhattan, which paralyzed his psyche. in its political and social sense, psychogeography, like surrealism and dadaism before it, seeks to hold on to its “characteristic political opposition to authority” (coverley, 2006, p. 12). in this regard, “the city becomes a riddle, a puzzle perplexing writers and walkers” (p. 17) much similar to the way mcinerney’s protagonist experienced it. karl marx puts it well that “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness” (1973, p. 5). yet, as the narrator resists mentally and his walks extend beyond the city spectrum, his walks turn to function as a form of opposition. he, in fact, proves to be emblematic of individuals who suspect this mass uniformity of the city and its consequent attachment. upon walking endlessly and obliviously, he becomes tired to a degree that “your brain feels like it is trying to find a way out of your skull. and you are afraid of almost everything” (mcinerney, 1984, p. 179). his desire for resistance strangely dwindles notably when he spends time with his best friend, allagash. his role as a motor of mental oppression and a big influence on the narrator is crucial since allagash is symbol of a well-integrated persona to the postmodern model of the city. he represents a blind faith in the sway of the postmodern atmosphere of indifference and playfulness, and a “night of allagash” (p. 32) seems like a terrifying experience for the narrator to be lost in the whirlpool of confusion, sensuality, and aimlessness as they journey through the city. indeed, the presence of allagash deprives him of his awareness and functions as a call for a deeper ironic alienation and passivity. on the other hand, his mother’s death along with other unexpected events evoke his critical consciousness: “after the funeral it seemed as if you were wandering around your own interior looking for signs of life, finding nothing but empty rooms and white walls” (p. 162) that bespeak of his deep immersion with urban exteriors. precisely, the city streets in the novel contribute directly to the way the protagonist contemplates about his life. two mental motives facilitate this process: first is his repetitive and compulsive act of walking – as the only solution to which the protagonists resort – to hold on to a possible form of reformation and re-identification. second, the act of repetition causes the urban atmosphere to affect his psyche as well as his appearance. elizabeth grosz relates this form of inscription to one’s body image which can be “individually, sexually, radically, and culturally variable” (1994, p. 79). accordingly, the protagonist shares all these characteristics as well since he attempts to preserve his private, marital and social life p. torkamaneh & p. lalbakhsh 17 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences from harm as he goes through a psychogeographic experience. the point we should bear in mind is how his subordination to his living environments is “involuntary” (grosz, 1994, p. 80). more accurately, the space in bright lights, big city permeates the boundaries of his psyche and affects his decision-making ability despite his will and inclination. the very last stage of a psychogeographic experience is the ultimate aporetic moment of decision it creates. the protagonist undergoes occasional fluctuations of perception from active awareness into deep confusion, which gives rise to a discernible sense of ambivalence and indeterminacy in his character. he loses his ability to make sound decisions which, in turn, helps create a passive persona shaped up largely by the environment. the empty rooms and white walls of his mind illuminate his inability to come to terms with his urban life. in fact, the presence of white walls, empty rooms and nothingness signify one’s submission of mind to a sense of uncertainty. “you’re not sure exactly where you are going. you don’t feel you have the strength to walk home. you walk faster. if the sunlight catches you on the streets, you will undergo some terrible chemical change” (p. 180). this clarifies the nature of ambivalence that inheres in his decisions and thoughts. an aporetic consequence of confronting alien spaces of urbanity is what the protagonist experiences in the end. we should probably remember the opening lines of the novel, which offered the duality of living an illusion, or losing it that in any case provides nothing close to an effective resolution to a confliction. this is exactly what the narrator faces: a blockage of mind, a non-road, in effect, or to borrow from jacques derrida, an issue of “either/or” (1993, p. 15) that puts to test, “both an impossible and a necessary passage” (p. 17). the novel ends with the narrator on his knees not sure whether to live his illusory life of lies, hyperreal effects and futile efforts to continue to seek an unreachable american dream; or to lose it all that, in essence, is closer to an impossibility for him. this irreconcilable duality is complemented by a feeling of degradation for he is left with nothing and nowhere to go in the very end: you get down on your knees and tear open the bag. the smell of warm dough envelops you. the first bite sticks in your throat and you almost gag. you will have to go slowly. you will have to learn everything all over again. (mcinerney, 1984, p. 182) conclusion to sum up, we can see that the narrator, in this novel, initially goes through troubling consequences of his direct contact with urbanity. he finds himself in a strange world he can no longer endure and this encroaches upon his psyche to a point that he becomes an indifferent urban walker lost in the whirlpool of consumerist propaganda. as crucial in this regard is the narrator’s presence as a “nostalgic figure [who] symboliz[es] not only the birth of the modern city but also the destruction of his former home” (coverley, 2006, p. 20). a deeper appreciation of the novel exposes the mechanisms of psychogeography operating at the heart of events and shaping the protagonist’s mind. his consciousness is profoundly unified with the city’s urban structures; he confronts hyperreal forces created by the modern society and endeavors to recover the loss. his walking is an act of subversion since he becomes resistant after moving to slums and forgotten areas psychogeography and the victims of the city in mcinerney’s bright lights, big city 18 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences of manhattan. he is a victim of the city for he is left with nothing but a non-road, thus an aporetic moment of decision as an end result of the inherently complex relationship between space and his psyche. hence, it is to the point to understand bright lights, big city as a postmodern narrative which tries to voice the decisive influence one’s city and society can exert upon his fate and psyche. this paves the path for future interdisciplinary researches to employ the element of setting and space – specifically in postmodern fiction – in order to scrutinize literary pieces. references baudrillard, j. 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(2005). “narrative and digitality: learning to think with the medium.” a companion to narrative theory. eds. james phelan and peter rabinowitz. new york: blackwell publishing. 515-528. p. torkamaneh & p. lalbakhsh 56 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences sino-russian relations in central asia since the end of the cold war: interaction, cooperation and challenges almir mustafić international university of sarajevo hamza preljević international university of sarajevo abstract the paper analyzes sino-russian relations in central asia since the collapse of the soviet union. the goal of the analysis is to place the sino-russian relations within an appropriate theoretical context and provide a possible outcome of the current balancing in central asia. the analysis relies on the chinese and russian investments in energy resources, security initiatives, mutual cooperation and activities to contain the us expansion in central asia. although over the last few decades sinorussian relations have been based on the us containment policy, security and economic partnership, their relationship is rather complex. the period of severe conflicts between 1917 and 1950 was followed by a progressive era of oil exploration, student exchanges and various other partnerships. the sino-russian rapprochement ended in 1960 and started again in 2008. although they currently have many common interests, central asia remains an area of potential dispute for both countries. analyzing recent chinese investments in central asia, it becomes obvious that beijing does not intend to withdraw from the region, while russia is unlikely to continue tolerating the rising chinese influence in central asia, as the russian role has already been significantly reduced in this region. the pipeline that was supposed to connect siberia with the chinese province of xinjiang has been postponed because putin believes that it could give china advantage over russia’s internal, as well as external political processes. putin’s decision did not stop china’s expansion in central asia and russia is expected to invest significant efforts in order to avoid the chinese dominance in the region. the chinese expansion and russian stagnation complicates their mutual relations, and things get even more complicated if growing us presence in central asia are taken into account. this paper analyzes the above-mentioned issues and provides a possible outcome of the current sino-russian balancing in central asia. keywords: russia, china, central asia, interaction, challenges, and cooperation. introduction the relationship between china and russia have always been complex and varied from hostile to friendly. periods of war and clashes over territory were followed by various alliances and friendly relations. after the collapse of the soviet union, the russian federation was focused on its internal affairs, while chinese activities spread to central asia, influencing their relations and perception of each other. china’s current rise in central asia represents a great strain on sino-russian relations because russia perceives itself as a world power whose dominance over the former soviet union republics goes without saying. in addition, russia depends on central asian energy resources and labor, and its control over them gives russia a certain advantage over the region (rumer, 2006). for this reason, china’s growing political and economic power is 57 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences often perceived by russia as a threat to its economic development and potentially to the russian national security. on the other hand, china views russia through the prism of their past relations that is as unreliable and unpredictable actor in opposing the us unipolarity in asia (dueben, 2013). the chinese influence in central asia has been growing due to the expanding trade, acquisition of energy resources, and overall rise as a major world power (rumer, 2006). central asia has become one of china’s strategic interests because beijing’s massive land borders with the central asian republics and russia carries none of the geographical risks of the increasingly volatile south china sea (panda, 2015). central asia is also attractive to other countries and international oil companies because of the recent discovery of large oil and gas deposits, which additionally complicates the sino-russian relations. according to eder (2014), kazakhstan has oil and considerable reserves of gas; uzbekistan has gas and relevant oil reserves; turkmenistan has gas; kyrgyzstan and tajikistan have hydropower; all the central asian states have certain uranium reserves and kazakhstan alone holds about 20% of the world reserves. therefore, it is no wonder that both china and russia see central asia as a region of their vital interest. this paper analyzes the sino-russian interaction, cooperation and challenges in central asia,focusing on the period since the collapse of the soviet union. the analysis relies upon the major theories in international relations, constructivism, liberalism and realism. the goal is to identify a single theoretical framework within which both countries operate and then, based on thetheoretical framework, to determine possible outcomes of the current sinorussian balancing in central asia. sino-russian relations since the 17th century this section provides a brief overview of complexities in the sino-russian relations since the 17th century. chen lulu claims that the sino-russian relations have always been in one of the four categories: oppression, alignment, resistance or normalcy (in eder, 2014). in yu bin’s (2007) terminology, hierarchy can be equated with chen’s stages of oppression, alignment and resistance, and the equality with the stage of normalcy. from the 17th century until the bolshevik revolution in 1917, the oppression emerges as the preeminent pattern of sino-russian relations, with russia in a dominant position. the russian self-perception was also linked with the notion of a “yellow peril” or “yellow threat”, the fear of a possible return of an oppressor from the east (eder, 2014). according to yu’s (2007) classification, this was the period of hierarchy. lo claims that this fear of uncivilized, culturally inferior east still resonates with parts of the russian populace and it proved itself to be remarkably durable (in eder, 2014). even dmitry medvedev, a former russian president, warned in 2010 that, if russia did not step up the level of activity of its work in the russian far east, russia would lose everything (kucera, 2010). the opium wars in the mid-19th century weakened the chinese qing dynasty and the sino-russian relations began to change. in a series of unequal treaties, russia extracted more than 1.5 million km2 of land from china and it was the period of very high tensions between the two countries. in 1905, russia lost war to japan and its expansionism ended. however, a period immediately after the war between russia and japan was marked by numerous border disputes between china and russia, and russians in the bordering areas sino-russian relations in central asia since the end of the cold war 58 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences fear that the disputes with china are still not resolved. in addition, many chinese perceive russia as an aggressor and hegemon. during the 1937-1945 war against japan, the soviet union provided financial, technical and advisory support to china but because of stalin’s attitude after the end of war that a weak and divided china would serve soviet interests china felt treated as if it had been on the losing side, not only by the western powers, but also by the soviet union. this reluctance and maneuvering on the soviet side was another root for distrust between the two countries (eder, 2014). the so-called “honeymoon phase” in sino-russian relations came after the establishment of the people’s republic of china in 1949 (eder, 2014). mao zedong, chairman of the chinese communist party, adopted the “leaning-to-one-side” policy, joining the socialist camp and following the soviet model. their relationship remained hierarchical, making the soviet union the “big brother” in confucian terms (wilson, 2004). the “great leap forward” was abruptly interrupted by the soviet union in 1960, delivering a severe blow to the chinese economy (eder, 2014). according to dueben (2013), the soviet military threats replaced strong involvement in the chinese policy decisions. after the initial spell of professed socialist ‘brotherhood’ and intense political and economic cooperation in the 1950s, beijing and moscow rapidly plunged into a bitter strategic enmity. the persistent mutual hostilities and territorial disputes culminated in an open border war in 1969, resulting in repeated mutual nuclear threats. the tensions between china and the soviet union started developing and there was a massive troop build-up along their borders, which led to several clashes. worried about a possible soviet invasion, president mao turned to the united states and the phase from 1960 to the early 1980s was the worst period of the sino-russian relations (eder, 2014). according to lo bobo (2008), china’s “century of humiliation” was unacceptable to the chinese leadership and the subordinate relationship with russia ceased during the 1990s, after the collapse of the soviet union. wilson (2004) claims that at the turn of the century russia was weaker than china and since the end of the cold war events between the newly founded russian federation and a reformist people’s republic of china have taken a turn in the opposite direction. after three decades of seemingly insurmountable suspicion and bilateral crises, the post-cold war period has witnessed a remarkable renewal and strengthening of the sino-russian relations. bilateral institutions, which were almost entirely absent until the mid-1990s, have rapidly proliferated into a dense network of commissions and sub-commissions, working groups, and institutionalized exchanges, encompassing virtually all aspects of interaction between china and russia (dueben, 2013). according to wishnick, the soviet union began to withdraw troops from afghanistan and the chinese border. the soviets also pushed vietnam to leave cambodia while both regimes agreed to settle their border issues, which in 1992 led to the ratification of the first agreement on the eastern part to reduce troops in border regions and use no force in their interactions (2001). yu (2007) explains that the process of de-ideologization began in the 1990s with the return of the national interests as both the philosophical and operational principles, and this did not necessarily mean a switch to a machiavellian “ends-justifying-means” approach, but rather practicality in the pursuit of their respective national interests. despite their mistrust towards yeltsin and the democrats in russia, the chinese treated new developments as an internal matter and swiftly recognized the russian federation, as well a. mustafić & h. preljević 59 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences as all other successor states of the soviet union on december 27, 1991 (eder, 2014). until the beginning of war in chechnya in 1994, russia kept criticizing china’s human rights record (wilson, 2004), but in 1994 the yeltsin government, disappointed and criticized by the west for war in chechnya, tried to rebalance its foreign policy and discovered many similarities with the prc regarding the international issues, which led to steady repetition of the principle of non-intervention –eventually coming to mean non-criticism. moscow stopped criticizing china’s human rights record and the chinese side reciprocated by supporting russia’s chechnya policy and criticizing nato expansion (eder, 2014). this period was considered to be the inception stage of normalcy in sino-russian relations. it led to a “strategic partnership” in april 1996, when the leaders of the prc, russia, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan and tajikistan met in shanghai to discuss border demarcation and military cooperation in the border regions (eder, 2014). the group was known as the “shanghai five” and it later evolved into the shanghai cooperation organization (lo, 2008). in addition, moscow and beijing protested against the us and nato actions (independent of the un) in iraq in 1998 and in kosovo/serbia in 1999, and they further criticized the us national missile defense system (nmd) and the theater missile defense system (tmd) intended to be developed together with japan. the above-mentioned initiatives illustrate china’s shift to the russian side, but also the sino-russian alignment in opposing the us unipolarity. as wishnick (2001) explains, china joined forces with the us in the 1970s and 1980s against the soviet hegemony, while in the 1990s china and russia aligned against the u.s. unilateralism in world affairs. after putin came to power in december 1999, china became russia’s biggest weapons customer (eder, 2014). both countries wanted to establish a stable environment for the economic development and they both benefited from the resolution of border issues, agreeing to remain flexible and independent in their foreign policy decisions. however, when it comes to their mutual relations, maçães (2016) claims that russians feel deceived if china does not extend its economic power to them, but they also feel threatened if it does. he adds that there is little or no escape from this double movement. eder (2014) claims that after september 11, 2001 russia started aligning with the us, letting the americans into central asia, but also that russia, after the us invasion of iraq in 2003, aligned with china against the us. the financial and economic crisis that began in late 2008 hit the russian federation heavily and, according to liu, it led to an adjustment of moscow’s policy towards china (in eder, 2014). half of the bolshoy ussuriysky island, once occupied by the soviet union, was returned to china in 2008 (maçães, 2016). the us and europe tried to reset relations with russia and washington cancelled a missile shield, which it planned to install in poland and the czech republic, and nato also halted its eastward expansion. liu adds that crumbling oil and falling gas prices made kremlin develop a long-term plan and actively strive for a diversification of the russia’s economy and its exports (in eder, 2014). with less need for geopolitical cooperation and economic development that became an imperative, the sino-russian relations took a new direction that enabled both countries to remain flexible and independent in their foreign policy decisions. the pipeline linking siberia with china’s daqing was finally signed in 2009 (eder, 2014). these developments indicate that external forces influence sino-russian relations and that they can change their mutual perception. sino-russian relations in central asia since the end of the cold war 60 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences apart from rather competitive approach to central asia, sino-russian relations since 2009 have been pretty stable and marked with the sino-russian rapprochement, containment of the us unipolarity in asia and membership in various international organizations such as shanghai cooperation organization, brics, un security council, etc. ying claims that “the sino-russian relationship is a stable strategic partnership and by no means a marriage of convenience: it is complex, sturdy, and deeply rooted. changes in international relations since the end of the cold war have only brought the two countries closer together” (ying, 2016, para. 3). major ir theories and sino-russian relations in central asia this section presents the analysis of sino-russian relations in central asia since the end of the cold war based on major ir theories, constructivism, liberalism and realism, aiming to determine a single theoretical framework appropriate to encompass as many as possible aspects of sino-russian relations in central asia. the authors are aware that a single theory might not cover all elements of the sino-russian relations, but the aim is to look into major activities, such as investments in energy resources and security, and mutual relations of the two countries in central asia since the end of the cold war, place them into the most appropriate theoretical framework and draw certain conclusions about the possible outcomes of the current balancing.the following paragraphs look into the chinese and russian activities in central asia from the realist, liberal and constructivist perspective. the realists are generally pessimistic about interstate relations and the idea that the international system is defined by anarchy is at the core of the realist approach. although certain aspects of realism dominate some periods of sino-russian relations, this ir theory may not be appropriate to describe the relations between beijing and moscow in central asia. as slaughter (2001) explains, the most important premise of this theory is that there is no central authority and that states are sovereign and autonomous of each other. there is no such thing as an inherent structure or society that can emerge or even exist to enforce relations between them, and they are bound only by forcible consent. however, both china and russia are brics member states (brics information centre, para. 1); veto powers on the united nations security council (voting system and records); and they both want to oppose the us unipolarity (ikenberry, 2004). they both use international institutions to support each other in their respective issues in order to position themselves in central asia and other regions of the world (e.g. syria and the south china sea). besides membership in the international organizations and unions, they are also members of the shanghai cooperation organization, whose goal is security and stability in the central asian region. therefore, china and russia do depend on each other in many areas and, as previously explained, some of them are trade, energy and economy. china is also aware that the situation in xinjiang province could escalate because uighur people who are mostly muslims want their independence (bbc, 2014). for this reason, stability and security in central asia are very important to china, and beijing relies on russia regarding this issue (muzalevsky, 2009). russia is also interested in the stability of this region because of oil and gas trade, but also because of its own security, especially in the province of tatarstan that is predominantly populated by muslims. all of the coordinated efforts by china a. mustafić & h. preljević 61 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences and russia are indicators of cooperation, but also of interdependency in central asia. in addition, china’s two-way growth has long been based on energy import and goods export. as payne explains, “the oil will continue to flow east and goods will continue to ship west” (2016). russia is among the largest oil and gas exporters and significant weapons suppliers to china. taking into account the above-mentioned areas of cooperation, it becomes obvious that china and russia depend on each other and that central asia plays a significant role in their relationship. the realists also emphasizes that relative material power shapes states’ behavior. eder (2014) claims that people who ignore this basic insight will often waste their time looking at variables, which are actually epiphenomenal. indeed, russia and china had many border disputes over the past centuries that depended on their relative power, but since the dissolution of the soviet union in 1991, sino-russian relations have changed and they became more stable and friendly. this change in sino-russian relations also includes change in relative power of both countries. in 2015, china became the second largest economy in the world (the world bank, 2016), four chinese banks ranked among the five biggest in the world (bhattacharya, 2015) and china was the world’s second-largest military spender (wong & buckley, 2015). in comparison with the former soviet union, the russian federation does not have a dominant position over china, and after the discovery of large oil and gas deposits in central asia (arvanitopoulos, 2002), russia was simply not able to stop china’s expansion into the region. the chinese expansion illustrates an aspect of the realist approach that emphasizes the importance of the relative power of states in international politics. china does not use its military power to achieve its investment goals in central asia, but its military power is certainly a significant factor that determines russian reaction to the chinese activities in the region. however, although there are elements of the sino-russian relations that fit the ‘realist framework’, there are significant aspects of their relationship (e.g. cooperation within international institution) that are beyond the scope of classical realism. the liberalists believe that national characteristics of individual states influence their international affairs (slaughter, 2011). according to yu bin (2007), the liberalists share a negative outlook on long-term cooperation, if the two countries in question are not democracies. china and russia have changed their structures as well as mutual relations many times over the past centuries. after the fall of communism in russia and death of mao zedong in china, many groups in both states became dominant and left their mark on both chinese and russian foreign affairs and their mutual relationship. china is still a communist country, while russia accepted democracy. this means that, according to the liberal theory, one of the main conditions for two countries to establish long-term cooperation is not met. the liberalists do not perceive states as ‘black boxes’ seeking to survive in an anarchic system but rather as configurations of individual and group interests that project into the international system through a particular kind of government and, while survival may remain a key goal, commercial interests or ideological beliefs are also important (slaughter, 2011). in addition to the chinese expansion into the region of central asia, putin’s controversial decision not to build the russia-china pipeline (eder, 2014) and the chinese investment activities in the caspian region indicate that liberal theory is not appropriate to explain sino-russian relations in central asia. the relationship between these two countries is more complex and dynamic and, although sino-russian relations in central asia since the end of the cold war 62 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences they support each other in certain regions of the world, china and russia are competitors in others. when it comes to the constructivist approach and the “identity literature” on sinorussian relations yu bin (2008) claims that china and russia mostly do not see an “ideational” basis (i.e. cultural basis) for stable sino-russian relations. slaughter (2011) adds that constructivists believe that e.g. military power, trade relations, international institutions or domestic preferences are important because they have certain social meanings and not because they are objective facts about the world. he explains that a complex and specific mix of history, ideas, norms and beliefs form this meaning and scholars need to understand it in order to explain the behavior of a state. the perception of friends and enemies, fairness and justice becomes determinant of a state’s behavior and constructivists stress that varying identities and beliefs belie the simplistic notions of rationality under which states pursue survival and power or wealth. for example, china did not like the russian attempt to cause war between china and japan, but beijing did not overreact (eder, 2014). this can be explained by china’s plan to retain an important energy partner that can help secure the energy supplies in central asia. in addition, the constructivists emphasize the importance of non-state actors and believe that ngos or transnational corporations have an important role as through rhetoric or other forms of lobbying, persuasion and shaming they can alter state beliefs about various issues (slaughter, 2011). dueben (2013) explains that institutions serve to embody norms and rules and thereby instill international interaction with greater certainty and predictability. institutions do not modify underlying state interests; rather, by changing the informational environment and other constraints on governments, they make it easier for self-interested states to cooperate reliably with one another. the above-mentioned aspects of the constructivist theory can certainly be identified in the sino-russian relations because international institutions play an important role in their relations, and their mutual perception is important in determining ir policies towards each other. in central asia, mutual perception of china and russia has varied since 1991, although they had the same view on many international and regional issues (e.g. us unipolarity). according to eder (2014), russia perceives china in central asia in a way as the eu in case of ukraine, and in the bordering areas as a “yellow peril”, which is a legacy of the mongol empire and partially due to a large number of illegal chinese immigrants. on the other hand, china sees russia as an aggressor and an unreliable partner in opposing the us unipolarity in asia. however, there are other aspects of sino-russian relations outside the constructivist scope. as mentioned in previous sections, in a series of unequal treaties in the 19th century, russia extracted more than 1.5 million square kilometers of land from china while, according to kuo & tang (2015), the chinese growing influence in central asia undermines an important russian objective that is the monopolistic position among the chinese central asian suppliers. china is not willing to negotiate with russia regarding its withdrawal from this region and it is using its economic, technological and diplomatic, as well as to a certain extent military power to secure its activities in central asia, which is rather a realist approach. both countries invest a lot in the military arsenals and their international initiatives rely heavily on their military and economic power. in addition, russia uses its gas and oil as one of the main ‘weapons’ without any reluctance. moscow does not hesitate to ‘blackmail’ other governments with rising prices of oil and a. mustafić & h. preljević 63 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences gas, reduced supplies (kanter, 2016) or with increased taxes for the use of its pipelines inherited from the soviet union. therefore, both russia and china often act in line with the realist approach. outside the central asian region, both countries often act in line with the realist theory. for example, in 1999, russia invaded chechnya and in 2008 georgia, while in 2016 it sent its troops to syria (sanger, 2016). china is constructing facilities on the disputed islands in the south china sea, and in 2015 it established a military base in djibouti (kleven, 2015). also, china acts pretty violently in international territorial disputes (hung, 2016), and beijing is planning to enforce an air defense identification zone (underwood, 2016) in the south china sea. therefore, chinese and russian activities in central asia, as well as in other regions of the world, indicate that constructive approach is not fully applicable and that in some cases realist approach is much more adequate. after the brief analysis of the sino-russian relations in central asia through the prism of realism, liberalism and constructivism, the authors are of the opinion that the neoclassical realisttheory may be the most appropriate to approach the chinese and russian activities and their relationship in central asia. the neoclassical theory perceives the world as the anarchy that consists of states and tries to explain the outcomes of state interactions, while the relative power of the states is important because it shapes the states’ opportunities for action in international relations (eder, 2014). the elite perception, as well as internal and external variables determine the choice of foreign policies of a state (eder, 2014). according to rose (1998), neoclassical realist approach tries to explain the outcomes of state interactions and, depending on the relative power of the respective units within the structure, systemic pressures shape the units’ opportunities for action in international relations. neoclassical realist approach explicitly incorporates both external and internal variables and, according to eder (2014), intervening variables on the unit level (domestic processes) determine which foreign policies are adopted in reaction to those pressures. tang (2009) explains that neoclassical realism considers structure to delimit a state’s goals, while domestic politics contribute heavily to the strategies a state adopts in order to reach those goals (actual state behavior). in order to understand the latter, tang claims that one has to deal with a state’s specific interests, which are not given by the system structure, but “constructed by elites through a discourse” (2009). in short, this approach emphasizes the importance of several elements: the world as anarchy of the international system that consists of states, relative power of states, outcomes of state interactions, elite’s perception and structure of states. according to their population and landmass, china and russia are among the largest countries in the world and their border stretches over more than 4000 kilometers. they are both important economic players and among the leading military powers in the world. both countries command extensive nuclear arsenals and they are veto powers on the united nations security council (dueben, 2013). china and russia are also brics member states and share interest in developing their economic ties and security policies. however, although these two countries might seem similar, they are rather not. china is a communist country, while russian political system is democratic. china has around 1.4 billion people, while there are around 140 million people in russia. four out of five biggest banks in the world are chinese (bhattacharya, 2015), while russia is still coping with deficit and international sanctions. chinese economic and cultural initiatives around the world are sino-russian relations in central asia since the end of the cold war 64 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences much more extensive than russian. the chinese one belt, one road (obor) initiative is gaining momentum and russia is part of it, while russia does not have an equivalent to counterbalance this initiative. the chinese currency has become an official currency in the international monetary system, and ruble has not. the chinese culture is much more rooted in their past than russian. these are just some of the differences between china and russia that determine their foreign policies. the best example of the influence of the above-mentioned things on their respective foreign policies might be the chinese insistence on its soft-power approach to international relations, which is quite the opposite from the russian rather power approach. both of the approaches are rooted in their cultures but also in their state structures and relative power. as previously explained, the goal of this paper is to analyze sino-russian relations in central asia since the collapse of the soviet union, and the analysis encompasses other world regions where necessary in order to explain certain developments in central asia. this region is selected because some of the chinese and russian interests overlap. there are at least two ways in which relations between china and russia can be analyzed in central asia. the first is their respective efforts to dominate the region, while the second is their common effort to oppose the us unipolarity and presence in central asia. while in the first case they might be involved in a win-win game, their efforts are rather win-lose style in the second. china and russia simply do not want the us presence in central asia and their efforts to keep the us away from the region are increasingly orchestrated. this analysis focuses on the first case. china’s growth over the past three decades has probably been unprecedented in modern history and this growth is based on a very simple principle: energy import and goods export. only two decades ago china’s per capita consumption of petroleum was around 170 kg, which was about 10% of the amount used in advanced economies (kambara & howe, 2007) and according to hurst’s (2006) prediction, china will have 120 million private cars by 2020, which will increase the demand for oil to 14.2 million bpd by 2025. international energy agency (iea) claims that by 2035 china will probably have 360 million passenger vehicles (preston, 2011). therefore, china will be facing severe energy shortages, if considerable supplies and new energy sources are not secured. furthermore, due to the 9.85% gdp annual growth rate from 1989 to 2016 (husna, 2016), china is already not able to meet its own needs through its domestic production of energy and it is anticipated that by 2030 china will be importing about 85% of its oil (preston, 2011). the growth in the demand for energy, china’s urbanization and economic rebalancing forces china to look for energy resources abroad, which influences trends inthe world energy markets (poorsafar, 2013, para. 1) and, according to british petroleum (bp), china will account for 25% of the growth in total energy demand through 2030 (poorsafar, 2013). therefore, in order to continue its growth, china needs to secure and diversify its energy resources, and that is exactly why central asia is one of the most important regions of the world to beijing. over the next 20 years, global oil exports from this region will rise to 9% and gas exports to 11%. another central asian country, kazakhstan, has already become one of the most important chinese oil suppliers, and in 2014 turkmenistan with the largest gas deposits in central asia was one of the main chinese suppliers (romanowski, 2014). according to the current plans, china expects to import up to 65 billion cubic meters of natural gas a. mustafić & h. preljević 65 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences from turkmenistan on an annual basis by 2020, and in 2013 china signed an agreement to import up to 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas from uzbekistan (china’s ambitions in xinjiang and central asia: part 2, 2013). according to panda (2015), beijing has also made investments in a china-central asia gas pipeline that starts at the turkmen-uzbek border city of gedaim and runs through central uzbekistan and southern kazakhstan on its way to china’s xinjiang province. in 2014, china also concluded several inter-governmental agreements with uzbekistan, tajikistan, kyrgyzstan and kazakhstan. leonard (2006) claims that, according to the international monetary fund, annual trade turnover between china and the five nations of former-soviet central asia has increased from $1.8 billion in 2000 to $50 billion in 2013. the scale of the above-mentioned investments in oil and gas sector illustrates a widespread opinion that china will not withdraw in case of russian pressure. another important chinese issue in central asia is linked with the security of the xinjiang province. the voices demanding the independence of this region are ever louder and the religious radicalization of the province is not an impossible scenario. central asia is important to china because it lies on the silk road route to europe and moscow. if this region is not secure and stable, the obor initiative could be delayed or even interrupted. the chinese economic and military power, combined with so-called soft-power policy, made it possible for china to break into central asia and invest in various forms of energy sources. however, chinese perception of russia as an oppressor and unreliable partner in opposing the us unipolarity still shapes certain aspects of the chinese approach to russia. actually, it seems that china acts very carefully in central asia in order not to anger russia, and had it not been for russia, the scale of chinese investments in this region would have been much larger. china balances between the increase in tensions with russia and development of oil and gas sector in central asia, using various means to secure partnership with russia and seemingly at no cost. for example, for several months in 2015 russia was the largest oil exporterto china, but part of this success is due to russian willingness to accept chinese yuan denominated currency for its oil (holodny, 2016). lo claims that russia perceives beijing to be using its position to extract unreasonable price concessions and is therefore striving to diversify its customers (in eder, 2014). the russian federation, on the other hand, still wants to dominate over the former soviet union republics and it does not want the us presence in this region, but china is also not fully welcome. moscow sees central asia as a buffer zone against external security threats, mostly the united states, and the importance of the former soviet republics to russia can be seen on the example of ukraine, georgia and chechnya. russian approach to the former soviet republics is partly based on its perception of these countries. russia is aware that it cannot stop china’s expansion in central asia but, together with china, it can oppose the us unipolarity and presence in the region. after the collapse of the soviet union, the russian federation was focused on its internal affairs and the transition process from communism to democracy. moscow was not willing to invest in the central asian region, as it had its own oil and gas to export. therefore, central asia was perceived and treated merely as a security buffer zone and exploited through the use of the pipeline that russia inherited from the soviet union. however, after large oil and gas deposits were discovered, the former soviet sino-russian relations in central asia since the end of the cold war 66 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences union republics started demanding more autonomy from russia and diversifying their customers. russia was aware that these initiatives meant foreign investments, but also their independence from russia and presence of foreign actors in the region. russia soon launched rapprochement initiatives with the former soviet republics but china was already a significant investor and actor in the caspian region. today, russia needs china in the region, although it undermines its influence and it seems that russia would rather have china than the us in its proximity. the chinese partner can bring stability to the region but it is also weaker than the us and its allies. in addition, russia has a long history of dealing with the chinese partner that is probably perceived as a more reliable and controllable neighbor than the us. in the light of tensions with the eu and nato, russian need for chinese support in order to oppose the us unipolarity and avoid nato in its proximity becomes even more prominent, and this is the point where sino-russian interests are almost perfectly aligned. therefore, security and stability of central asia areamong the most important goals to both countries. bosbotinis (2010) explains that, without stable relations with russia, china’s central asian energy sources would not be secure, and a conflict in central asia might constrain chinese operational freedom elsewhere. the cost of conflict for beijing and the commonality of interests make “a shift from cooperation to pronounced competition unlikely and this situation is likely to continue” (bosbotinis, 2010). according to paramonov & strokov (2008), russian companies in 2008 had a plan to invest between 14 and 18 billion dollars in the search for and development of oil and natural gas fields in central asia, primarily in kazakhstan, turkmenistan and uzbekistan, but also in the pipeline infrastructure of the region. however, due to a sharp drop in oil prices and recent developments around the world, russia’s investment activities in the region have been steadily declining. russian intervention in syria and the annexation of crimea led to the international sanctions and reduced russian investment capacity in central asia. according to leonard (2016), russia was forced to pare back its ambitions and the starkest retreat of russian money was seen in kyrgyzstan. he claims that in august 2015 lukoil sold its 50-percent stake in kazakh oil producer caspian investment resources to china’s sinopec for $1.2 billion and that the highest-profile russian retreat from central asia’s energy market was in turkmenistan. leonard (2016) also explains that russian withdrawal from central asia is rather paradoxical considering that the eurasian economic union (eeu) has finally been established after years of preparations. the withdrawal might be an indicator that sanctions took toll on russian plans in central asia but also that china is gaining momentum and that its influence will continue growing. china seems to be taking over central asia, but the impact of membership in the eeu for russia’s partners has yet to be seen, as its common market is not planned to go into effect until 2025 (leonard, 2016). mendkovich cautioned against ruling russia out because the drop in investment activity in central asia was just a temporary reaction to the crisis (in leonard, 2016). in addition, many authors warn that this is not the first time that russia seems to be weak to cope with international challenges. after the collapse of the soviet union, it took russia less than two decades to rise to the world scene and become one of the major powers. a. mustafić & h. preljević 67 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences conclusion the goal of the analysis was to place the sino-russian relations within an appropriate theoretical context and provide an insight into the current sino-russian balancing, as well as to offer a possible course of actions by both countries in central asia. liberalists share a negative outlook on long-term cooperation, if the two countries in question are not democracies, while constructivists do not see ideational basis for stable sino-russian relations. the realists are generally pessimistic about interstate relations and the idea that the international system is defined by anarchy is at the core of the realist approach. although certain aspects of realism dominate some periods of sino-russian relations, realism is not appropriate to describe the relations between beijing and moscow in central asia, especially if their cooperation outside and within various international institutions is taken into account. on the other hand, neoclassical realist approach is more complex and inclusive, emphasizing the importance of several elements: the world as anarchy of the international system that consists of states, relative power of states, outcomes of state interactions, elite’s perception and structure of states. the application of this approach to sino-russian relations in central asia seemed to be more adequate than the other approaches. all of the above-mentioned elements of the neoclassical realist approach played a role in certain aspects of the analysis of sino-russian relations. the analysis also indicates that, without stable relations with russia, china’s central asian energy sources and its security cannot not be guaranteed, while the cost of eventual conflict for beijing would make a shift from cooperation to pronounced competition. authors like lo foresee rising tension between moscow and beijing as the latter continues to rise and especially the us might retreat from central asia, causing ‘power vacuum’. demographic issues in the russian far east and chinese rising influence in the central asian energy sector can possibly lead to conflict. the asymmetric relationship between china and russia, due to the differences in their relative powers, is likely to emerge and cause tensions as well. the current russian withdrawal from the caspian region should not be taken for granted and, analyzing possible impacts of this withdrawal, mendkovich cautions against ruling russia out because the current drop in investment activity in central asia is just a temporary reaction to the crisis. although many aspects of the sino-russian relations in central asia have been included in the analysis, it is difficult to anticipate a full scale of developments that might occur in the future, as many seemingly less important events can significantly change their relationship. instead, rose’s description of fast-rising powers might provide us with a lead to follow. rose 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(madame bovary, 94) a proper beginning for a study on flaubert’s madame bovary should be inclusive of the writer’s stance in the literary arena, especially, in the development of the genre of novel. where does flaubert stand? is he a realist, a naturalist, or a romantic? these questions and arguments about the style of flaubert’s writing and his attitude particularly in his composition of madame bovary vary considerably. flaubert is often considered a realist writer. realists by writing books that focused on the details of everyday life without disregarding the most unwelcome aspects of it challenged their romantic predecessors who rather decorated their writings with sentimentalism, subjectivity and gothicism. flaubert participates in the realistic representation by describing his characters’ emotions, actions, and settings vividly and without much romantic or fantastic embellishments. on the other hand, he also seems to be devaluing the realistic representation as his constant use of the words like “stupid, fetid, foulness” in describing the world of his novel madame bovary shows (heath, 30). thus, it might be claimed that flaubert rejects to be a writer of the realist school while he also distances his mustafa bal 44 writing from the romantic strain. however, he incorporates elements from both realism and romanticism, the united forces of which, enhancing his prose, creates a paradox as well. he both uses and distances these modes from his writing and his viewpoint on his art. stephen heath observes this situation with the following remarks: the paradoxical force of flaubert’s writing is then that realism, development and critique of romanticism, is itself equally subject to critique; the movement of disillusionment from romanticism to realism is also for him just as much a refusal of any of the illusions of the latter, of any of realism’s social, progressive purpose: realism is as execrable as the reality it knows and depicts, is caught in the surrounding stupidity, the general fetidness. (30) considering his literary style in madame bovary, in terms of the relation between the realistic and the romantic, it can be claimed that flaubert makes use of a mosaic of both of the traditions as david roe writes that “[flaubert] sought to fuse the gut creativity and philosophical aspirations of romanticism, the craftsman-like priorities of art for art, and the documentary and scientific approach of the new realists” (33). however, flaubert can never be completely labeled as a realist or a romantic writer. although he writes at an age in which romantic writing was already out of fashion and realism was a highly popular movement, he could almost declare that he wrote madame bovary “in hatred of realism” (qtd. in clark, xiii). on the other hand, unlike his contemporaries, flaubert recognized a personal impulse for romanticism and reflected it in madame bovary, although in an ironic manner of recognizing its deficiencies. an explanation for the above-mentioned confusion in flaubert’s style should be looked for in his goal he tried to reach while writing madame bovary whose completion took five years between 1851-1856: flaubert sought after a mode of writing which injects the writer out of the text he produces, in other words, impersonal writing. he states his positive attitude towards an impersonal flaubert’s madame bovary: the united states of the untied tastes of reality and imagination 45 text many times especially in his letters to louise colet (then his sweetheart), which are compiled by george becker in his documents of modern literary realism. some parts of his notes from the work read as: in my book i do not want there to be a single movement, or a single reflection of the author. (91) let us always bear in mind that impersonality is a sign of strength. let us absorb the objective; let it circulate in us, until it is externalized in such a way that no one can understand this marvelous chemistry. our hearts should serve only to understand the hearts of others. let us be magnifying mirrors of external truth. (93-94) i expressed myself badly when i said that ‘one must not write with the heart.’ i meant to say: one ought not to let his personality intrude. i believe that great art is scientific and impersonal. (95) flaubert manages to apply what he said in terms of impersonal approach in madame bovary. this impersonal touch can be seen in madame bovary in the narration which immediately follows his most lively character’s death: a continual barking was heard in the distance. "do you hear that dog howling?" said the chemist. "they smell the dead," replied the priest. "it's like bees; they leave their hives on the decease of any person." homais made no remark upon these prejudices, for he had again dropped asleep. monsieur bournisien, stronger than he, went on moving his lips gently for some time, then insensibly his chin sank down, he let fall his big black boot, and began to snore. they sat opposite one another, with protruding stomachs, puffed-up faces, and frowning looks, after so much disagreement uniting at last in the same human weakness, and they moved no more than the corpse by their side, that seemed to be sleeping. (256) mustafa bal 46 it is in this impersonalisation that he rejects romanticism and comes closer to realism, which he also finds limited due to sole objectivity it presents. these points lead this study to understand now better flaubert’s characterization of his most developed character, emma bovary, with a predicament of confusion between the reality, with its problems presented against her, and the romantic, with imagination being the liveliest faculty granted to her. the dichotomy between the real and the imagined in the case of the characterization of emma bovary is basically hidden in the context of a world of opposites she is put in: the plain country life, the stifling convent education, and later an unsatisfying marriage clash with her nature open for novelty, romanticism, and imaginative thinking. therefore, emma’s plight is basically born out of her endeavor to reconcile these opposites, namely the realities presented in life and the life she imagines. how does emma directly indulge in this confusion? the basic motive which creates the confusion between reality and her imagination is her quixotic character: her reading of books which are considered by the society to be dangerous for a woman to read. she reads books – sources of her romantic aspirations with which she pictures a new identity for herself. the reason why flaubert chooses to have a reader-protagonist might lie under the fact that, through reading, flaubert has the chance of creating a proper dilemma for his woman character. the society emma lives in is hostile to a woman’s reading activity, which makes her feel more detached from her environment. her reading is considered to be dangerous and even evil. charles’ mother, madame bovary, blames emma’s capricious manners on her reading. likewise, homais warns justin thinking that he corrupts his children through some harmful texts: "have you every vice, then, little wretch? take care! you are on a downward path. did not you reflect that this infamous book might fall in the hands of my children, kindle a spark in their minds, tarnish the purity of flaubert’s madame bovary: the united states of the untied tastes of reality and imagination 47 athalie, corrupt napoleon. he is already formed like a man. are you quite sure, anyhow, that they have not read it? can you certify to me--" (191) however, such hostility towards reading creates in emma’s rebellious soul a sense of superiority. already bored with the life, first in tostes then in yonville, she sets herself apart from the society claiming for herself superiority in intelligence, emotions, and imagination. in this way, she tries to break the narrow domestic sphere she has been confined to. (peterson, 163) emma’s first encounter with the books occurs in her convent education but the books she is advised to read there are full of prescribed doctrines which do not enhance her imaginative faculty. charles and emma actually share a similar past in that they both had a forced education. charles could not help falling into daydreaming during his schooldays which he had to pass due to his mother’s wishes. similarly, emma, abandoning the rule books of the convent, would turn to imaginative literature, novels, and romances. the subject matters of these books, which she read in her puberty, covered erotic presentations of adventures and intrigues. later, in her affairs, emma expects to find the same kind of sexual experiences mingled with adventure, which is a way of explanation for her adulterous nature. she reads basically to find out about sexual satisfaction as “she read balzac and george sand, seeking in them imaginary satisfaction for her own desires” (45). carla peterson argues that through reading emma perceives abstractions and generalizations as concrete and specific images which she takes literally, trying to transport them to the real life by her imagination which is incapable of synthesizing to unite these ideal images of the world of books as a coherent whole (168). therefore, emma’s imagination lacks the quality of an artist’s imagination, as coleridge names it, which can dissolve the objects it perceives to represent and recreate them into a coherent whole. thus, it can be claimed that while emma has the ambition and energy to fancy a world built upon her interior, she lacks the true judgment (artistic imagination) of the formation of such a mustafa bal 48 world in the exterior, which totally paves the way for her confusion between the worlds of reality and her imagination. peterson gives a similar clarification for her confusion between the real world and the imaginative world in her following words: objects and figures seem to be imprisoned at a great distance from her, frozen like the forms on the decorated plates that have become permanently engraved in her imagination…this detached pose of a viewer of pictures, coupled with the distanced perspective from which emma reads her romances, clearly testifies her inability to maintain an active relationship with her texts or pictures. what eventually happens, then, is that emma draws the romantic plots and characters she reads about out of the real of fiction into the real world…emma’s reading process is so flawed – disintegrative rather than synthetic, literal rather than metaphorical, distanced rather than involved, passively accepting rather than critical – she is unable to sustain any imaginative activity around her books for very long. so instead of immersing herself in situations portrayed in her novels, emma draws these situations out of the fictional realm and seeks them in real life. (169-170) on the other hand, mario vargas llosa in his book the perpetual orgy: flaubert and madame bovary puts forth another perspective for emma’s reading claiming that writing in the novel is as crucial as reading in emma’s confusion: writing makes the object written about less real. in this sense, in madame bovary letter writing, journalism, and books are what make reality less reliable because writing is the agent of fantasy. therefore, emma’s reading the written texts contribute to her inability to adapt to the real life because the books falsify reality. this is why unimaginative people, like charles’ mother, are anxious about emma’s reading habit. (150) in her affair with rodolphe, emma falls into the trap of distorted reality as she thinks that she is becoming one of the heroines of the books she read: flaubert’s madame bovary: the united states of the untied tastes of reality and imagination 49 then she recalled the heroines of the books that she had read, and the lyric legion of these adulterous women began to sing in her memory with the voice of sisters that charmed her. she became herself, as it were, an actual part of these imaginings, and realized the lovedream of her youth as she saw herself in this type of amorous women whom she had so envied. (124) furthermore, rodolphe’s letter for emma to break off their relationship is an example of turning reality into unreality as the expressions written hide the true feelings of the writer, and emma through reading it believes a belied version of reality, thus once more participating in the confusion of a distorted reality. in addition, her continuing of writing romantic letters to leon although she is aware of the fact that their relationship is almost dead also demonstrates to what extent writing (and reading the written) in madame bovary falsifies reality for emma. the glamorous life narrated in those books lead her to internalize the active role of a heroine first in her marriage to charles, in which she takes all the responsibility of the household matters, then in her passionate relationship with rodolphe, in which she plays the role of a lady to be rescued from her prison castle, and lastly in her affair with leon, in which she makes leon her mistress. since the affairs presented by the real world do not introduce romantic gallants, she becomes the energetic party of her dreams, forcing her relationships to accord her imagination. thus, in her expression of her energy and sexuality emma becomes the representative figure for the dionysian artist getting rid of all the apollonian measures (peterson, 161-162). it is obvious that emma’s character embodies a desire to be or act like a male, attributing an androgynous air to her character. this complexity in her mind about gender roles she has to play also contributes to her confusion between the real and her imaginative worlds. one of the most obvious demonstrations for her tendency to be manly is her wish to give birth to a son instead of a daughter. being a woman within the diegesis of the novel she is presented in means to live with restrictions, which is a mustafa bal 50 great reason for her wish not to give birth to a female child who will be oppressed and eliminated under the freer male sex “and this idea of having a male child was like an expected revenge for all her impotence in the past” (67). she might have the idea that acting as a man defeats the interior inferior woman, thus giving her the possibility of identification and recognition in the society. sometimes, she pretends to be a man through acting: then she examined the apartment, opened the drawers of the tables, combed her hair with his comb, and looked at herself in his shaving-glass. often she even put between her teeth the big pipe that lay on the table by the bed, amongst lemons and pieces of sugar near a bottle of water. (125) in other occasions, she is dressed like a man. for example, when charles sees her for the first time, she is wearing clothes “like a man[‘s], thrust in between two buttons of her bodice a tortoise-shell eyeglass” (13). on the day of her ride on horseback with rodolphe, she is wearing a “man’s hat” (121). she becomes manlier as her relation with rodolphe develops as if she is asserting her freedom: “by the mere effect of her love madame bovary's manners changed. her looks grew bolder, her speech more free; she even committed the impropriety of walking out with monsieur rodolphe, a cigarette in her mouth, ‘as if to defy the people’ (146). moreover, her affinity for being a man is also revealed in her relationship with leon. she becomes the dominant power in their affair, having the masculine possessiveness. she becomes the active party in her visits to rouen to see him unlike the expected vice-versa roles. it is also she who urges him to write love poems for her. more, it is she who wants him to dress as she wants to please herself. therefore, leon as the younger, less experienced, against the older, mature emma becomes the inferior force, giving emma the chance to play the masculine force for which she has been practicing for so long in her life. the transformation of the roles is narrated as “[leon] did not question her ideas; he flaubert’s madame bovary: the united states of the untied tastes of reality and imagination 51 accepted all her tastes; he was rather becoming her mistress than she his. she had tender words and kisses that thrilled his soul” (212). because of this role-playing mario vargas llosa calls emma a pathetic character in the following observation: emma is forever doomed to frustration: as a woman, because the woman in the fictional reality is a subjugated being to whom the world of dreams and passion is forbidden; as a man, because she can reach that world only by turning her lover into a non-entity, incapable of arousing in her an admiration and a respect for the so-called virile virtues, which she has failed to find in her husband and seeks in vain in her lovers. this is one of the insoluble contradictions that make emma a pathetic character. heroism, daring, prodigality, freedom are, apparently, masculine prerogatives; yet emma discovers the males in her life – charles, leon, rodolphe – become weaklings, cowards, mediocrities, and slaves the moment she assumes a “masculine” attitude (the only way that allows her to break the bonds of slavery to which those of her sex are condemned in the fictional reality). (143-144) louise kaplan introduces a social viewpoint to emma’s roles between genders saying that with her “feminine frivolities she masks her dominating spirit, her desire to penetrate the veil of illusion…emma masqueraded as a sexually submissive femme évaporée to conceal from the world, and from herself, her active sexual strivings and intellectual ambitions, which in her world were the prerogatives of males” (236). another noteworthy point in the confusion of the real and the imagined in emma bovary’s plight is hidden in flaubert’s presentation of subjective reality and objective reality side by side. from a coleridgean perspective, this would fall under and be studied in the issue of the union of subject and object. the sensed, perceived, and the objective world of reality and the agency, subjectivity of emma who perceives and imagines these objects clash in emma’s case, creating a confusion and a complexity rather than a harmonious life for her. mustafa bal 52 georges poulet in his essay called “the circle and the center: reality and madame bovary” comes with the idea that flaubert in madame bovary presents “a subjective being which…has for its own object of contemplation the surrounding reality of things,” which means to combine the subjectivity (feelings, aspirations, longings, imagination) of emma with the objective world (the walls, yonville, rouen, the house, etc.) (393). poulet argues that the novel in presenting both the objective and the subjective world of emma equally enhances itself as a more unified whole, which also saves the novel from fragmenting into two separate realities. this constant indispensable relationship between the objective reality and the subjective reality is all the time prevalent in the novel as emma by being effected by the materials around her turns herself materialized. (392-394) the following passage from the novel illustrates poulet’s ideas: but it was above all at mealtimes that she could bear it no longer, in that little room on the ground floor, with the smoking stove, the creaking door, the oozing walls, the damp floor-tiles; all the bitterness of life seemed to be served to her on her plate, and, with the steam from the boiled beef, there rose from the depths of her soul other exhalations as it were of disgust. charles was a slow eater; she would nibble a few hazel-nuts, or else, leaning on her elbow, would amuse herself making marks on the oilcloth with the point of her table-knife. (50) “this passage… illustrates flaubert’s combination of realism and emotional subjectivity. the passage exemplifies realism because it pays attention to tiny details… the writing maintains a subjective tone in that it leads us to feel emma’s disgust and frustration. the importance of the object world to emma’s thoughts is emphasized by the connections of her soul’s exhalations to the steam from the beef… flaubert links emotions to objects in just this way. by making emotions inseparable from objects, flaubert denies emma her one desire: to escape from javascript:scrollingpopup('http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/bovary/terms/char_1.html',%20'd327697edf',%20'500',%20'500') flaubert’s madame bovary: the united states of the untied tastes of reality and imagination 53 the physical world she inhabits and live the life she imagines” (internet source 1), which lies at the core of her plight. in one of his letters written during the composition of madame bovary, flaubert wrote that “[the] whole value of my book, if it has any, will be in my having been able to walk straight ahead on a hair hung between the double abysses of lyricism and vulgarity (which i want to fuse in an analytical narrative)” (qtd. in becker 91). the lyric quality flaubert mentions is presented with emma’s subjectivity, her idealization of her own world through her imagination, and the goal of vulgarity is shown through the gross realities of the objective world that surrounds emma. settings in madame bovary also underline the theme of the reality versus emma’s imagination. in this sense, the general opposition is between the countryside and the city. tostes and yonville are both small rural towns resembling each other considerably “each with its one long street lined with houses, its typical local characters, its monotonous life, both surrounded by exactly the same sort of countryside with scattered farmhouses and a network of roads up and down…” (llosa 152). rouen, on the other hand, is a city which provides different opportunities as “it is from there that the periodicals and novels that set [emma’s] dreaming come true; from there that lheureux brings the luxury items and the clothes with which she tries to fill the emptiness of her life and cloak her anguish; there that the balls and theatrical performances are held…” (152-153). therefore, for emma, life in tostes and yonville is associated with boredom, dullness, stifling atmosphere, labor, and marriage whereas life in rouen opens its gates for excitement, novelty, freshness, entertainment, and adventurous love affairs. in this sense, paris, as a city to live in, although not objectively put in the narration, is, subjectively, the summit of emma’s wishes which harbors the elements of emma’s dreams. to what extent emma dreams a life in paris is expressed in her following action at the beginning of her marriage: mustafa bal 54 she bought a plan of paris, and with the tip of her finger on the map she walked about the capital. she went up the boulevards, stopping at every turning, between the lines of the streets, in front of the white squares that represented the houses. at last she would close the lids of her weary eyes, and see in the darkness the gas jets flaring in the wind and the steps of carriages lowered with much noise before the peristyles of theatres. (44) therefore, for emma, paris is the magical city of illusions in her imagination while the provincials display realities of her life. furthermore, david gervais, in relation to emma’s yearning for a life in paris, highlights the importance of chance and emma’s realization of her bad luck which gives her a life of imagination in a world of realities. gervais shows the following part from the novel as his reference to the issue: she asked herself if by some other chance combination it would have not been possible to meet another man; and she tried to imagine what would have been these unrealized events, this different life, this unknown husband. (34) thus, her condemnation of her bad luck becomes a fuel for her actions which lead to her confusion between reality and her imagination. gervais concludes saying that “[her] refreshingly green belief in her own bad luck becomes a refusal to face life as it is. would life have been any different if chance had placed her in paris?” (85). in addition, emma’s inconsistent behavior and manners each time differently also help to understand to what extent she breaks the line between reality and imagination. in terms of her behaviors, there is not one single emma bovary in the novel; there are emmas. emma takes up roles or new behavioral attitudes each time she begins an affair. in her marriage to charles, she becomes a housewife, although for a very short time; in her relationship with rodolphe she becomes a love-blinded heroine like those in her novels; then, in yonville when flaubert’s madame bovary: the united states of the untied tastes of reality and imagination 55 she discovers that she is in love with leon she pretends to be a loyal housewife before the eyes of the public and leon at first (llosa, 161), and soon taking up a dominant character in her adultery. enid starkie relates her duplicate personalities to her readings when he writes that “[she] has no positive character herself, but sees herself in various parts, at different times – as the great lover, the devoted mother, the mystic – and all these parts are built up artificially and are inspired by her reading of romantic novels, so that she is incapable of living life directly, but only through some fanciful idea” (318). hence, questions like “how many emmas does she play, which one is real and which one suits her imagined self best” can easily be raised because of emma’s volatile existence in the dichotomous line between the real and the imagined. free associations of emma’s mind blur reality for her as well. it is obvious that she experiences an unforgettable time in the ball at la vaubyessard. she even meets a character resembling to the characters of her readings, namely the old duke de laverdiere, who “had lived a life of noisy debauch, full of duels, bets, elopements;…had squandered his fortune and frightened all his family…had lived at court and slept in the bed of queens!” (36-37). she has several other memories from the ball which she will occasionally remember and use to give impetus to her life. the extract below is an example that shows merging of one of her memories from the ball with the present time through which she once more problemetizes the real and the imagined in her mind: then a faintness came over her; she recalled the viscount who had waltzed with her at vaubyessard, and [rodolphe’s] beard exhaled like this air an odour of vanilla and citron, and mechanically she half-closed her eyes the better to breathe it in. but in making this movement, as she leant back in her chair, she saw in the distance, right on the line of the horizon, the old diligence, the "hirondelle," that was slowly descending the hill of leux, dragging after it a long trail of dust. it was in this yellow carriage that leon had so often come back to her, and by this route down there that he had gone for ever. she fancied she saw him opposite at his mustafa bal 56 windows; then all grew confused; clouds gathered; it seemed to her that she was again turning in the waltz under the light of the lustres on the arm of the viscount, and that leon was not far away, that he was coming; and yet all the time she was conscious of the scent of rodolphe's head by her side. (112) her mind plays a trick to her by taking her to a travel among the men with whom she has been infatuated – the viscount, leon, and rodolphe – only rodolphe being realistically present for her. in this sense, emma gives a futile fight of making the impossible become possible in her life. to conclude, it can be asserted that emma’s problem about the confusion between reality and her imagination lies in her mental dichotomy between what is and what should be. she harbors idealistic romantic illusions, sensuality, and passion (agents for her what should be), and falls into the abyss of boredom and depression when life fails to match with her fantasies. the confusion created with this clash of the reality and her imagination paves the way for her failure in life, finally her decision to end it. she fails in her relationships with men; she seems to be too passionate, sensual and romantic as a woman for a man of her time. charles cannot fulfill her desires. rodolphe leaves her when he gets bored of her romantic fancies and emotional demands, and leon is a premature partner for her desires. none of them proves to be the gallant of her novels, as they, save for her husband whom she detests the most as a man and once again committing a misjudgment in life, do not even attend to her funeral. her confusion between reality and her imagination is hidden in flaubert’s presentation of her in unsolvable dilemmas: flaubert makes her a reader of imaginative books (in a society which is hostile to books) which causes her to apply those improbable possibilities into the real world, and injects the feeling of superiority to her; flaubert gives her the faculty of fancy by means of which she dreams, triggers her imagination, has reveries, but he also deprives her of an esemplastic imagination which would enable her to unite the elements of her reading and those of the real world in a coherent whole; flaubert presents a world in which writing is flaubert’s madame bovary: the united states of the untied tastes of reality and imagination 57 unreliable as much as reading of the written texts, which complicates reality one step forward for emma; flaubert gives emma hermaphrodite qualities by means of which emma, in some occasions and situations, acts and behaves like a man alongside her womanly manners, thus leading her to mix up her mind between her real gender and her imagined one; flaubert’s technique in the presentation of objective (real, perceivable, vulgar) and subjective (imagined, thought, fantasized, fancied, dreamt, lyric) viewpoints side by side also contributes to emma’s perplexity between the real and the imagined; flaubert’s juxtaposition between the countryside and the city, the former representing the dull reality life for emma while the latter is the place of romantic satisfaction, is further conducive to her dilemma; the author’s creation of his character with a bad luck which she loathes by trying to mould it into her desires; his loading duplicate characters on emma’s shoulders by means of which she takes up different roles in several varying cases; and lastly, flaubert’s giving emma a memory strong with free associations from the good old days, and her blending of the past and the present at the same time furthers her volatile character between reality and her imagination. alison fairlie’s observation is also noteworthy as concluding remarks: emma pursues ‘ideals’ of excessive passion and total happiness, preconceptions which prevent her ever seeing the world or herself in perspective; she distorts each new experience to fit the mould of her dream, gradually realizes that it will not, makes a frenzied and fatal effort to force it back into the mould, then turns desperately to repeating the same sequence in another context, for surely a new place, a new lover, a new feeling will somehow give complete and lasting satisfaction. (33) mustafa bal 58 works cited: primary source: flaubert, gustave. madame bovary. kent: wordsworth classics, 2001. secondary sources: becker, george j, ed. documents of modern literary realism. new jersey: princeton up, 1963. clark, roger. “introduction to madame bovary” in madame bovary. gustave flaubert. kent: wordsworth classics, 2001. coleridge, samuel taylor. biographia literaria. 2 vols. ed. j. shawcross. london: oxford up, 1965. fairlie, alison. flaubert: madame bovary. london: edward arnold, 1962. gervais, david. flaubert and henry james: a study in contrast. london: the macmillan p, 1978. heath, stephen. madame bovary. new york: cambridge up, 1992. internet source 1. “sparknotes: madame bovary.” sparknotes.com, sparknotes llc, 2005, www.sparknotes.com/lit/bovary/quotes/?noredirection=true llosa, mario vargas. the perpetual orgy: flaubert and madame bovary. new york: farrar, straus, and giroux, 1986. kaplan, louise j. female perversions. new york : double day, 1991. peterson, carla l. the determined reader: gender and culture in the novel from napoleon to victoria. new jersey: rutgers up, 1985. poulet, georges. “the circle and the center: reality and madame bovary” in madame bovary, ed. paul de man. new york: norton & company, 1965. (pp. 392-407) roe, david. gustave flaubert. london: macmillan, 1989. starkie, enid. flaubert: the making of the master. london: weidenfeld and nicolson, 1967. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 75 perception of economics undergraduate on nonusage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin bello muhinat bolanle, yusuf abdulraheem, amali oteikwu ismail1 abstract this study investigated the perception of economics undergraduate on non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin. descriptive research of survey type was adopted in this study. the population of this study consists of all economics undergraduate in the departments of economic and economics education (of the social sciences education department) which is estimated at 937 students. a sample of 278 respondents was drawn randomly in this study. a researcher’s designed questionnaire with psychometric properties of content validity and 0.71r was used to elicit the needed. data collected were analyzed with descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentages, means, and standard deviation while the hypotheses formulated were tested using inferential statistics of t-test and anova at 0.05 alpha levels. the study revealed that lecturer’s philosophy, lack of appropriate skills, incompatible classroom environment, limited lecture hours and non-satisfaction with ict results, among others are perceived as reasons for non-usage of ict platforms for teaching economics. the study, therefore, recommended that the use of visual google classroom at all levels of the teaching by the university administration should be encouraged. keywords: perception, reasons, ict platforms and non-usage. 1 university of ilorin, kwara state nigeria, nigeria 76 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction the emergence of technologies for learning, conversation media and smart interface, open educational resources (or massively open online courses) and increased awareness of “new generation” have been demanding traditional education and learning systems to be more open, flexible, and customized to what students want to expect. using ict in education has been widely accepted as an effective way of challenging such changes attributed to technological advances, societal paradigm shift, and internationalization. it is based on the strong belief that the potential of ict would bring positive impacts to teaching and learning by providing students and teachers with flexibility, accessibility, more opportunities for participation and collaboration, and more outcomes. now is the right time to respond to a simple but critically important question, “what should be done to fully exploit valuable resources for better education in the future?” it would be to use all resources in a smart way to maximize their potentials to meet the different perspectives on ict from stakeholders: teachers, students, and academic institutions. it is in response to this that the university of ilorin under the leadership of professor abdulganiyu ambali, decided to make available to all students of the instruction for four years a tablet. this is considered to be very portable, internet access and also subscribe to the google apps platform where both lecturers and students are accommodated to effectively carry out their teaching and learning the process. but one question anybody will ask today is how well are lecturers exploring this platform to teach their students? this is because changes in technology, demography, and internationalization are driving education system to evolve to an open flexible education (or learning) environment which provides learners with quality services encompassing formal, informal, and non-formal education. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 77 to this regard the “learning for the future (lff)” project recently initiated by unesco iite is a comprehensive approach to integrate ict in education, renew pedagogy, and enhance learning now and the future, which ensures teachers and students effective use of technologies and resources in strengthening the four pillars of learning for the 21st century: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together. icts have the potential to accelerate, enrich, and deepen skills, to motivate and engage students, to help relate school experience to work practices, create economic viability for tomorrow’s workers, as well as strengthening teaching and helping schools change (davis and tearle, 1999; lemke and coughlin, 1998; cited by yusuf, 2005). in a rapidly changing world, basic education is essential for an individual to be able to access and apply information. such ability must find include icts in the global village. conventional teaching has emphasized content. for many years the course has been written around textbooks. teachers have taught through lectures and presentations interspersed with tutorials and learning activities designed to consolidate and rehearse the content. contemporary settings are now favoring curricula that promote competency and performance. curricula are starting to emphasize capabilities and to be concerned more with how the information will be used than with what the information is. contemporary icts are able to provide strong support for all these requirements and there are now many outstanding examples of world class settings for competency and performance-based curricula that make sound use of the affordances of these technologies (oliver, 2000). the use of information and communication technologies can help revitalize teachers and students. this can help to improve and develop the quality of education by providing curricular support in difficult subject areas. to achieve these objectives, teachers need to be involved in collaborative projects and the development of intervention change strategies, which 78 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies would include teaching partnerships with ict as a tool. according to zhao and cziko (2001), three conditions are necessary for teachers to introduce and use ict in their classrooms or teaching: teachers should believe in the effectiveness of technology, teachers should believe that the use of technology will not cause any disturbances, and finally teachers should believe that they have control over technology. however, research studies show that most teachers do not make use of the potential of ict to contribute to the quality of learning environments, although they value this potential quite significantly (smeets, 2005). harris (2002) conducted case studies in three primary and three secondary schools, which focused on innovative pedagogical practices involving ict. harris (2002) concludes that the benefits of ict will be gained “…when confident teachers are willing to explore new opportunities for changing their classroom practices by using ict. as a consequence, the use of ict will not only enhance learning environments but also prepare the next generation for future lives and careers (wheeler, 2001). the changed pool of teachers will come changed responsibilities and skill sets for future teaching involving high levels of ict and the need for more facilitative than didactic teaching roles (littlejohn et al., 2002). according to cabero (2001), «the flexibilization time-space accounted for by the use of ict in teaching and learning processes contributes to increasing the interaction and reception of information. such possibilities suggest changes in the communication models and the teaching and learning methods used by teachers, giving way to new scenarios which favor both individual and collaborative learning”. the use of ict in educational settings, by itself, acts as a catalyst for change in this domain. icts by their very nature are tools that encourage and support independent learning. students using icts for learning purposes become immersed in the process of learning and as more and more students use computers as information sources and cognitive tools (reeves & jonassen, 1996), the influence of the technology on supporting how students learn will continue to increase. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 79 in the past, the conventional process of teaching has revolved around teachers planning and leading students through a series of instructional sequences to achieve the desired learning outcome. typically these forms of teaching have revolved around the planned transmission of a body of knowledge followed by some forms of interaction with the content as a means to consolidate the knowledge acquisition. contemporary learning theory is based on the notion that learning is an active process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring knowledge and that instruction is the process by which this knowledge construction is supported rather than a process of knowledge transmission (duffy & cunningham, 1996). in this domain, learning is viewed as the construction of meaning rather than as the memorization of facts (lebow, 1993; jonassen & reeves, 1996). learning approaches using contemporary icts provide many opportunities for constructivist learning through their provision and support for resourcebased, student-centered settings and by enabling learning to be related to context and to practice (berge, 1998; barron, 1998). students enjoy learning, and the independent inquiry which innovative and appropriate use of ict can foster. they begin to acquire the important of 21st-century skills which they will need in their future lives. many variables may account for reason lecturers find it difficult to adopt the use of ict for their lecturers in higher institutions, some which are: government, environmental, lecturers, students and lastly parents various (zhao & cziko, 2001). in the work of susman (1998) it was revealed that lecturers’ variable factors influence their attitude and use of ict in teaching negatively. tedla (2012) and tay, lim, lim and ling-koh (2012) confirm that lecturers use ict tools in order to make the lessons more interesting and engage learners according to learners’ potentials. also in the study conducted by flecknoe (2002), the finding revealed 67.5% of respondents’ perceptive teachers’ level of teaching experience determines the extent to which lecturer uses modern technologies in delivering instructions in the classroom. for instance, it was an acclaimed number 80 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies of years of classroom experience reduce certain teachers’ beliefs because experienced lecturers were more likely to believe that classrooms should be lecturers’ centered and that learning did not always need to be fun”. teachers’ age, their level of computer experience and they are lent of years spent at pre-service was and perceived as having serious influence ict integration (teo, 2008). if students are asked to comment on the state or quality of teaching they received without the use of itc platform provided by the school to them despite their assess to tablet portable computer and wi-fi, they are likely to differ in their reasons for avoidance of ict by their lecturers. this is because the international encyclopedia of social sciences, (1992) defines perception as the process by which one comes to know and think about others and their work, characteristics, qualities, roles and functions in the society. it adds that when several individuals confront an object or a thing in their environment, the input of information that impinges on their respective sense organs (e.g. eyes and ears) is the same for every individual, though they may perceive it differently. in hornby’s (1991) view, perception is believed to be the ability to show understanding and insight, to be able to notice and have discernment about a situation. similarly, miller and mccracken (1988) posit that perception is the ability of a person to know about his environment through the use of his sense organs which must be very active. various explanations can be offered as to why the individuals perceive the same thing differently, even when they are confronted with the same stimulus. the encyclopedia britannica (1997) identifies some variables as responsible for differences in the perceptual functioning of an individual, age, status, gender, among others. the gender of an individual is considered an important factor that influence perception in not–usage of university ict platform in the teaching of economics in the university of ilorin, due to the differences which male and female members of these areas experienced. the positions an individual occupies in the society also influence their perception of vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 81 issues and situation (status). perception is the mental function of giving significance to stimuli such as shapes, color, movement, taste, sounds, touch, smells, pains, pressures and feeling. perceptions give rise to individual behavioral responses to particular situations. statement of the problems the study has shown that an estimated percentage of university lecturers do not explore the ict platforms available for them, in order to make teaching and learning more meaningful. this cut across all the faculties and departments, with exception of few departments. this became a source of concern to the school administration which calls for a meeting held with the academic staff of the university trying to create awareness of facilities available to on the university icts platform for effective teaching and learning process. thus, series of workshops, training and re-training of the academic staff of the university by the centre for research development and in-house (credit) on the use of some of the facilities made available for lecturers on the internet such as google app classroom. also, the institute of education organized a training workshop titled “migration of m.ed. sandwich programme to e-learning platform.” all these aimed at exposing lecturers to the integrate icts platform available for them to use in class. but up till now students portable tablets have not been put into proper use since lecturers are not taking them up on how best to use it for learning possess. report of economics undergraduate affirm that out of many courses undergraduate undertakes in the department only two has ever explored ict to teach stata software and sharing of software textbooks for two microeconomics courses briefly. a cursory look at the table of the performance of economics undergraduate revealed thus: 82 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies table 2: performance of economics undergraduates over three academic sessions academic session % passed % failed 2013/2014 84.95 15.05 2014/2015 88.27 11.73 2015/2016 92. 86 7.14 source: data base of university of ilorin 2017 the above table shows a positive trend of the performance of students over the three academic sessions of the introduction of portable tablet pc for students. this shows that despite non-usage of university icts platform economics undergraduates have been performing very well. but in order to compete favorably with global best practices, there is a need for a paradigm shift. not only to better performance but also to make learning more flexible. in lieu of this, the paper seeks the perception of undergraduate economics students on non-usage of university ict platforms for teaching economics courses. purpose of the study the main purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of undergraduate economics of non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin. specifically the study: 1. examine the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin. 2. ascertain whether there is a difference in the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin on the basis of gender. 3. ascertain whether there is a difference in the perception of vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 83 undergraduate economics on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin on t h e basis of the level of their education. research questions the following questions were raised to guide the study. 1. what is the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin? 2. is there a difference in the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin on the basis of gender? 3. is there a difference in the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin on the basis of level? research hypotheses the following formulated hypotheses were tested in this study. ho1 there is no significant difference in the perception of male and female undergraduate economics on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin. ho 2 there is no significant difference in the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin on the basis of the level of their education. methodology descriptive research of a survey method was employed in the study. the choice of the descriptive survey was in line with akuezuilo and agu (2003), who maintained that it is concerned with a gathering of information on peoples’ opinion. the population for the study consists of all undergraduates’ of business and social sciences faculty while the target population was the economics department, faculty of business and social sciences, university of ilorin. purposive sampling technique was 84 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies used to select the economics department which comprises of 937 students. proportionate sampling technique was used to draw 278 respondents based on the required sample size as stipulated in the research advisors (2006) table for sample selection. see table below: table 2: sample size selection of economic and economics education students level population sample selected 100 283 84 200 194 58 300 203 60 400 257 76 total 937 278 source: (faculty of education and faculty of social sciences’ it office, 2017) the instrument used for the collection of data was a researcherdesigned questionnaire, which was tagged “perception of undergraduate on non-usage of ict platform in teaching economics questionnaire (punipteq) with psychometric properties of contents validity and reliability index of 0.71. the questionnaire was divided into two sections ‘a’ and ‘b’. section ‘a’ contains demographic information of the respondents like gender and educational level while section b consists of items that elicit information on perception of economics undergraduates on nonusage of ict in teaching economics. the questionnaire was structured on four points likert-type scale as thus: sastrongly agree; aagree; ddisagree; sdstrongly disagree. the coding of the questionnaire was sa = 4; a = 3; d = 2; and sd = 1. the data collected were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics of frequency count, percentage, mean and frequency count answer the only research question, while the two hypotheses formulated, was tested using t-test (t) and anova (f) inferential statistics at 0.05 level of significance. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 85 results research question one: what is the perception of economics undergraduate on non-usage of u n i v e r s i t y ’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin? table 3: responses on the perception of non-usage of ict platform in teaching economics items sa (%) a (%) d (%) sd (%) std. mean the irregular power supply is considered as one of the reasons why some economics lecturers do not use ict platform for teaching. 71 (25.5%) 112 (40.3%) 52 (18.7%) 43 (15.5%) 1.00 2.76 lack of awareness of economic lecturers about available ict platforms in the university contributes to non-usage of ict platform for teaching. 24 (8.6%) 79 (28.4%) 129 (46.4%) 46 (16.5%) 0.84 2.29 the process of setting up ict platform for lectures is timeconsuming to some senior lecturers. 49 (17.6%) 147 (52.9%) 70 (25.2%) 12 (4.3%) 0.76 2.84 fluctuation in the university’s wifi’s connection jeopardizes lecturers’ interest in using ict platform for teaching. 81 (29.1%) 127 (45.7%) 51 (18.3%) 19 (6.8%) 0.87 2.97 incompatible classroom environments to cater for needs of instructors contribute to non-usage of ict platform for teaching. 72 (25.9%) 147 (52.9%) 44 (15.8%) 15 (5.4%) 0.80 2.99 insufficient equipment also hampers usage of ict platform for teaching among economics lecturers. 90 (32.4%) 136 (48.9%) 40 (14.4%) 12 (4.3%) 0.80 3.09 lack of appropriate skills and knowledge in using computers hindered integration of ict platforms for teachings among lecturers. 71 (25.5%) 131 (47.1%) 58 (20.9%) 18 (6.5%) 0.85 2.92 lecturers’ philosophy regarding appropriate teaching methods determined whether and how they used ict platforms for teaching. 85 (30.6%) 136 (48.9%) 47 (16.9%) 10 (3.6%) 0.79 3.07 inadequate staff development opportunities hinder some lecturers from using ict platforms for teaching and learning purpose. 54 (19.4%) 139 (50.0%) 74 (26.6%) 11 (4.0%) 0.77 2.85 86 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies some economics lecturers are not satisfied with the result of the usage ict platform in teaching economics. 50 (18.0%) 120 (43.2%) 87 (31.2%) 21 (7.6%) 1.39 2.78 students attitude towards plagiarizing answers through the internet may discourage frequent integration of ict into lecturing 49 (17.6%) 147 (52.9%) 61 (21.9%) 21 (7.6%) 0.81 2.81 the increase in the level of absence in the classroom by sharing courseware on google drive hampers usage of ict platform for teaching. 76 (27.3%) 121 (43.5%) 62 (22.3%) 19 (6.8%) 0.88 2.91 insufficient lecture hours may not allow the lecturer to cover the content when using ict platform for lecture 67 (24.1%) 116 (41.7%) 68 (24.5%) 27 (9.7%) 0.92 2.80 students using ict platform mostly for leisure purposes may hinder the interest of lecturer for embedding ict into teaching 41 (14.7%) 108 (38.8%) 93 (33.5%) 36 (12.9%) 0.90 2.55 total source: field survey, 2017. *mean >2.5 = agreed, mean< 2.5 = disagreed responses from table 3 showed that the mean of all the items is ≥ 2.5, which means that the respondents perceptive all the items as reasons for non-usage of university ict platform by lecturers on economics department. hypotheses one: there is no significant difference between the perception of male and female economics undergraduate on nonusage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin. table 4: t-test of respondents gender n mean std. d tcal df p-value decision male 148 39.69 4.82 0.468 276 0.640 do not reject female 130 39.42 4.87 p>0.05 vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 87 table 4 reveals that t-value is 0.46 with significant probability value (p-value) of 0.64. since the probability value, p-value = 0.64 > 0.05 alpha level, the null hypothesis is therefore not rejected. this implies that no significant difference existed in the perception of economics undergraduate on the basis of their gender. hypothesis two ho2: there is no significant difference in perception of undergraduate economics students on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin based on level table 5: anova table respondents perception based on level sum of squares df mean square f sig. decision between groups 495.628 3 165.209 within groups 5992.574 274 21.871 7.554 .000 significant total 6488.201 277 p<0.05 level table 5 shows that f-value is 7.55 with significant probability value (p-value) of 0.00. since the probability value, p-value = 0.00 < 0.05 alpha level, the null hypothesis is rejected. this implies that significant difference existed in the perception of undergraduate economics students on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin across all levels. this was evident in the posthoc test where variance existed in the different groups of respondents that are, the economic undergraduate of 100, 200, 300 and 400 levels respectively. 88 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies discussion of findings this study has investigated the perception of undergraduate economics students on non-usage of ict platform for teaching economic in the university of ilorin. this study has revealed the perception of the student about non-usage of ict platforms for teaching among which is inadequate power supply as perceived by the majority of students. also, students believed that process of setting up ict platform for lectures is timeconsuming to some senior lecturers. furthermore, the opinion of students signifies the fact that fluctuation in the university’s wi-fi connection jeopardizes lecturers’ interest in using ict platform for teaching and those incompatible classroom environments make it impossible for utilization of ict in some situations by lecturers. this finding corroborates that of lewis and smith (2002) which revealed the barriers for ict adoption as follows: limited equipment in the school/ classroom, inadequate skills, minimal support from the school administration, time constraints and the teacher’s own lack of interest and belief in the effectiveness of ict. lack of appropriate skills and knowledge in using computers is another factor that was found out to be the hindering integration of ict platforms for teachings among lecturers, students also perceived lecturers’ philosophy regarding appropriate teaching methods determined whether and how they integrate ict platforms into their teaching. this is in line with agbamu (2004) whose study revealed that lack of appropriate skills in the use of ict is one of the determinants of lecturer failure to integrate ict into their teaching. also, ololube, umunadi and kpolovie (2014); kpolovie and obilor (2013) study’s shared the same result by revealed that in nigeria today, lecturers non-usage ict services for reasons such as lack of interest, lack of awareness, outrageous rate of service, poor quality of internet service and epileptic power supply. the study also revealed that students’ attitude towards plagiarizing answers through the internet may discourage frequent integration of ict into lecturing while in the same vein, it was brought to a height that increases the level of absence in the vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 89 classroom by sharing courseware on google drive hamper usage of ict platform for teaching. the finding of the study also found that there was no significant difference in the perception of economic undergraduates on non-usage of university ict platform by their lecturers on the basis of gender. this means that the respondents perceived reasons for non-usage the same way. this could be because all the respondents were exposed to the same teaching and learning situation which could influence them to believe, behave, or feel the same way about issues and challenges. this is confirming the findings of hall and langton (2006) who found out that the situation which an individual is exposed to can determine or influence his/her level of perception either positively or otherwise. thus, this could account for why there was no significant difference in their perception. while significant difference existed in the economic undergraduate›s perception on the basis of their educational level. this difference could be as a result of the grouping which respondents belong (100, 200, 300 and 400 levels) as well as the characteristics of each group of respondents. this finding is in agreement with the finding of samar, azimi and dadvand (2007) on socioeconomic status and class perception. their study reveals that differences existed in the perception of people in the society on the basis of their socioeconomic status, even if they are exposed to the same condition. conclusion and recommendations in conclusion, how economics undergraduates perceived the non-usage of university icts platform for effective teaching do not differ on the basis of their gender but differ on the basis of their educational level (100,200,300 and 400 level). the following recommendations were drawn: 1. lecturers should try as much as possible to integrate every relevant university icts to maximum use to teach. 2. the university administration should entry into memorandum of 90 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies understanding (mou) with software package producers for have access to more software for lecturers to use. 3. there should be adequate provision of facilities and equipment that will enhance using of ict for teaching economics in university of ilorin. 4. encourage the use of visual google classroom at all levels of the teaching by the university administration. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 91 references agbamu, t. p. 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(2001). teacher adoption of technology: a perceptual control theory perspective. journal of technology and teacher education, 9,(1), 5-30. 31 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences an ideal husband, or an ideal wife? that is the question mahsa zayani, shiraz university, iran farideh pourgiv, shiraz university, iran abstract to the modern reader, the nineteenth century england has always been the reminiscent of unrelenting ideals regarding social codes of conduct. although such ideals have been widely criticized, they were passed off as unquestionably natural and necessary to be carried out during the victorian era. yet oscar wilde, the renowned dramatist of the time, was one of the authors who dared to put to challenge the accepted prescribed gender roles exposing their constructed essence using his insurmountable wit. the current article aims at analysing the apparently transgressive gender roles in oscar wilde’s play; an ideal husband, with the aid of judith butler’s theory of performativity, a theory which disavows the concept of an inherent gender identity in favour of the idea that gendered behaviours are the consequence of performing certain discursively assigned acts. keywords:the victorian era, oscar wilde, judith butler, gender roles, gender identity, an ideal husband. well-known for its breath-taking haste towards development, the nineteenth century england is an age of wonders, an age whose rapid changes have ever since bewildered those who take an interest in turning over the pages of its history. taking tremendous steps towards industrialization, in the blink of an eye england made itself the reputation of the greatest world power. fast railways, telegraph, iron ships, photography and anaesthetics are but a few of its claim to success; not to mention the astonishing pace with which it lay hands on a great many countries and the expansion of its borders through the then flattering and well-deserved practice of colonization. although it is evident that the early twentieth century critics showed unrelenting antagonism to the victorian lifestyle and strived to prove their mentality as absurd and prudent, the nineteenth century english citizens were pretty much assured that they were living in a golden age of progress in the history of human civilization. the confidence gained by the virtue of such advancements made victoria’s subject wonder if there really existed a problem whose solution had the ability to put the victorians in despair. however, at the primary levels of its emergence, the rush towards industrialization suffered dark pitfalls just as well as enjoying the radiance of glory. the rapid change to modernization forced the working class to leave the rural scenes of england and swarm to the cities to seek jobs in new factories instead which in turn brought about a widespread unemployment of those relying on manual jobs to earn a living and the new economic philosophy of laissez-fair which saw the elimination of governmentfrom regulating the working conditions profitable added but more insult to the injury. yet passing through this early phase of the victorian era which is remembered as the time of troubles, england met with relative social prosperity in the years to come. the industrial and the economic situations were improved and the harsh working conditions of 32 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences the poor alleviated and england more assuredly got to boast of and celebrate the bright sides of the rapid changes that it took pains to go through. the achievements of this marvellous development were put to public view by prince albert in the great exhibition of modern industry and science in 1851. the modernization that the victorian era stepped into at such a high pace so greatly altered its scenery to the extent that if a victorian had the chance to look back at it could not help but become bewildered at the turn of events. despite the fact that this era is reputed for not allowing any shackles to chain its exhilarating technological and scientific advancements, yet it did not realize how to put up with any sort of deviation from traditionally prescribed gender roles either. reluctance on the part of this era’s subjects to practice these roles was deemed eccentric and its stifling worthy of the effort. in other words, both male and female subjects were required to conform to a set of strict codes of behaviour the reversal of which the society was unwilling to take in stride. men and women were required to tread on the path laid by their cultural codes before them which was unique for each sex and not to intrude in the sphere specific to the other sex or they would, at a lofty price, face the hostility of their society. lord alfred, tennyson, the highly revered poet laureate of the century, pinpoints the hallowed distinction in his narrative poem princess and speaks out his time’s ideals as such: man for the field and woman for the hearth: man for the sword and for the needle she: man with the head and woman with the heart: man to command and woman to obey (2016: 427-430). even if a woman found herself plagued with a dire economic situation and not lucky enough to be secured by marriage, the only respectable position for her to cling to was that of a governess; an unmarried woman living on small wages by teaching the children of the household, a precarious position widely explored by the novelists of the era and once again amounting to nothing more cerebral than the role of a caregiver. having for long been accustomed to the double male/female standards, a victorian woman aspired for no more than trivial accomplishments and rudimentary education. ruling out the possibility of holding office for a woman, seeking a profitable marriage and looking forward to doing the domestic duties which came as its natural result, was the rule of the day. a woman was by no means expected to “aspire to be her husband’s intellectual companion, but rather to amuse his leisure hours […] and look after his person and his house, freeing and refreshing him for more important things” (ruse 1993: 886). however incessantly regulated so as not to lose its naturalized effects, the victorian hegemony was sure to come face to face with those subjects who challenged its structure and created their own set of beliefs. john stuart mill, a contemporary liberalist philosopher,who was an advocate of the freedom of opinion and expression, sees the stifling of opinions against the mental well-being of mankind. according to mill, suppressing an idea was a gross mistake since that idea may represent the truth and to simply deny this is to fall into an even bigger error of assuming “our own infallibility” (1975: 65). m. zayani 33 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences besides, even if the opinion is proven to be an error, nevertheless it should be allowed the opportunity of expression since it is possible for that it holds within itself “a portion of truth; and since the general or prevailing opinion in any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.” if mankind, mill believes, is deprived of his/her right to the freedom of expression and if dogma or prejudice rules the social scene, that society should not be expected to witness “the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction, from reason or personal experience” (1975: 65). born in 1854 in dublin, oscar wilde is another intellectual figure who dared to oppose the victorian ideology both in words and action. wilde can be safely put on the opposite pole of the social spectrum from lord alfred tennyson, the latter being the spokesperson of the ideals of his time, one whose in memoriam was what his sovereign sought when in need of consolation, while the new york times entitled the former as “the laureate of beauty” (1882) whose stern individualism led him to believe that “[a]n ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style” (wilde 2008: 3). an advocate of the aesthetic movement of the late nineteenth century, wilde, as an author, did not acknowledge having a moral duty to his society and instead adopted a philosophy which regarded the creation of art as a supreme end in itself. his tendency to look at art as a source of sensual pleasure and his disavowal of the didactic literature were characteristics of the philosophy of art for art’s sake which gave value to the social detachment of the artist and his/her subjective concerns. as murrenus says of wilde, “[r] arely have we ‘read’ such outré and flamboyant style, whether in fashion or in letters, as that of the irrepressible oscar wilde, as subversion, rebellion against ‘normalcy,’ and as an indictment against intolerance” (2001: 156). a flamboyant figure in this movement, wilde’s devotion to this new hedonism placed him counter to his society and what was belied to be an artist’s responsibility towards it. such devotion prompts lord henry wotton, one of the characters from his novel the picture of dorian gray and one who is believed to be the mouthpiece for wilde himself, to say that: “to be good is to be in harmony with one’s self, [whereas] discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others” (2008: 67-68). not only did wilde not seek to be in harmony with the mainstream of his society and give a hand in propagating its standards, but he also never failed to make fun of its superficial tendencies. he realized the values that his society kept imposing on its subjects as utterly artificial and tools of domination in the hands of some to rule over others; the values over which his people agonized since they were dubbed essential in leading a respectable life in keeping with the most idealistic and well-developed civilization in the world. as a critique of social affairs, wilde pinpoints the destructive sides of scientific and technological advancements in a modern setting as well as its enlightening aspects. the objective observations of science, for instance, and the ways of understanding that it offered collaborated in the domination of certain oppressive and by no means natural ideologies. furthermore, the ambitious terms of freedom and individualism which the modern society boasted of were exploited to conceal the inequalities and bury its vices of injustice out of sight and under the grounds of apparent righteousness. an ideal husband, or an ideal wife? 34 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences therefore, freedom would be nothing more than a shadow reflected by make-believe puppet of equality hindering individualism’s coming to life. the legitimation of values did not stop wilde in refusing to believe the ‘self’ as a rational indubitable being, but a social construct and a by-product of language loaded with ideology which unconsciously thrived in shaping people’s thoughts and endorsing the repressive state apparatus. the identity, therefore, cannot be analysed separately from the context of one’s life since everyone inherits his/her definition of the self from their cultural milieu (gagnier1997: 19-20). considering that freedom was too great and immature a demand to make of wilde’s society, in his literary career he insisted on unaccountability for what he presented in his art probably in hope of covering his ideological transgressions. wilde warned his audience against an autobiographical reading of his works which he put to words in the preface of his novel as: “to reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim” (2008: 3). yet such a claim did not rush to his rescue during his trials at the court of law where his art was used against him to prove his “perverted moral views” (qtd. in hyde 1973: 110) and sped his fall from public favour and ultimately his deplorable lonely death in france due to committing an act of “gross indecency” (cohen 1997: 529) or better to say an act of “gross movement against social tolerability.” the death of wilde, however, never meant the death of such fundamental question as gender identity. the twentieth century, especially the latter part, witnessed the raising voice of the feminists and those who were not daunted to put this question to open discussion and boldly challenge it. judith butler, the american philosopher and feminist theorist, is an audacious example. in her book, gender trouble, she mainly deals with a criticism of the naturalized coherence of the categories of sex, gender and sexuality which, she believes, are culturally and discursively constituted through time. butler’s purpose, she herself emphasizes, must not be construed as prescribing a new model for gender, but rather to “open up the field of possibility for gender without dictating which kinds of possibilities ought to be realized.“the book, hence, is a lot congenial to the experience of those who have understood “what it is to live in the social world as what is ‘impossible’, illegible, unrealizable, unreal, and, illegitimate” (1999: viii). the book seeks to disclose habitual presumptions which render juridically instituted identities possible and nevertheless, put to margin the subjects who transgress it and make them a sort of unthinkable panic through which it is enabled to maintain its regulatory force. butler assures the reader that there is absolutely no position to be found outside the field of power, yet the social misfits are the potential agents of interruption within regulatory regimes. she also maintains: “[t]hose who are deemed ‘unreal’ nevertheless lay hold of the real, a laying hold that happens in concert, and a vital instability is produced by performative surprise” (1999: xxvi). thus, an attempt to make possible a liveable life for those hitherto repressed gender identities becomes the ultimate aim of butler’s pivotal book gender trouble. butler believes that sex should not be interpreted as a pre-cultural component in the construction of identity. in her politics there is no “prior”, “before” or outside since it is counterfeited by various discourses serving different social and political interests and succeeds to defraud us by veiling its cultural designation. our bodies and therefore our identities do not stand outside culture; rather culture processes and forms them. yet in m. zayani 35 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences no way it should be understood that our bodies are the passive tablets on which culture inscribes its codes; rather they contribute to the formation of our identity through the performance of a set of acts which are either interpreted as conforming to the gender of its doer or in opposition to it. this concept butler calls ‘performativity.’ in butler’s words, the performativity of gender suggests that: [gender] has no ontological status apart from the various acts which constitute its reality. this also suggests that if that reality is fabricated as an interior essence, the varying interiority is an effect and function of a decidedly public and social discourse, the public regulation of fantasy through the surface politics of the body. […] in other words, acts and gestures, articulated and enacted desires create the illusion of an interior and organizing gender core, an illusion discursively maintained for the purpose of […] regulation. (1999: 173) repeating gender acts over and over again, the subjects tacitly legitimize them and allow them to give way to an illusion of real man or woman among other social fictions. the sedimentation of gender norms, therefore, produces certain agreeable corporeal styles which if contested would result in the exclusion of the transgressive performer from social and cultural recognition in order to secure the natural order. so, acting gender is in essence a social drama which requires the re-enactment of gender norms to be able to survive (butler 1999: 178). gender, butler emphasizes, must not be thought of as a stable locus of agency to which one could associate certain acts, but it is “an identity tenuously constituted in time, instituted in an exterior space through a stylized repetition of acts. [it] is produced through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and styles of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self” (1999: 179). if gender proves to be no more than the performance of certain acts, then, the appearance of substance is likewise a construction or a performative identity which the subjects themselves come to believe in and deem necessary to follow in order to be counted as recognizable and be able to function in their social order. however, since the gender norms are phantasmatic and a form of superficial signification, it can never be fully internalized or produce an absolute seamless coherence and the partial success it receives is due to a gender corporealization of time, a repetition of acts which aim at realizing the prescribed grounds of identity. but the problem occurs when occasional discontinuities show up and demonstrate identity as baseless and the arbitrary relation between act and gender witnessed in parodic performances or failures in repeating the naturalized a token which makes gender transformation possible (butler 1999: 179). howbeit, it must be emphasized that the possibility of such a transformation does not make it immune from punishments. propagating the idea that sex and gender are causal unities and therefore both natural and crucial, the power regime constantly makes sure that its subjects believed in such unities and accordingly repeat the ideal gender performance an ideal husband, or an ideal wife? 36 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences so as not to lose sight of its illusory interiority. therefore, the subjects who do not carry out what the prevailing hegemony requires from them must duly await punitive consequences which keep the rest of the subjects away from committing gender transgression. if such punitive consequences were removed, one would more easily understand that an abiding masculinity or femininity does not exist and as a result no right or wrong when it comes to the issue of gender identity. such punitive consequences ensuring the juridically desired illusion of gender reality finds proof when analysing wilde’s comedy, an ideal husband. wilde started writing his comedy, an ideal husband, in 1893. as one of wilde’s masterpieces, the play revolves around moral and political corruption as well as public versus private spheres of life. the play was staged in 1895 and proved to be an immediate success being performed one hundred twenty four times after its opening on january 3. however, soon after wilde was arrested for his act of “gross indecency” and consequently his name as the author got removed from the play. an ideal husband opens at mr. chiltern’s house. he is an outstanding member of the house of commons. mrs.cheveley, a schoolmate of sir robert chiltern’s wife, attempts to blackmail him due to the fact that he sold a secret of the cabinet to mrs.cheveley’s lover, baron arnheim, telling him to buy stocks in suez canal before the british government buys it. having become rich by selling this secret, sir robert is forced to support mrs. cheveley to build a canal in argentina if he does not want to lose his reputation both in the world of politics and more importantly with his wife who has put him on a great pedestal and thinks so highly of him. however, lord goring, a very close friend of sir robert’s, comes to the rescue by exchanging the letter which proves chiltern’s crime with not having mrs.cheveley arrested for stealing a diamond brooch which lord goring came upon in his friend’s party. he also manages to persuade lady chiltern to be less morally strict and forgive her husband to save the marriage. the play meets a happy ending with the dandified rescuer, lord goring, marrying his best friend’s sister; mabel chiltern. act one begins with introducing lady chiltern, the hostess of the party, to the audience. as an idealistic victorian woman, physically as well as personally, one whose characteristics comply with patriarchal demands, she is described as “a woman of grave greek beauty” standing close to the significant “eighteen century french tapestry—— representing the triumph of love, from a design by boucher” (wilde 2005: 1) looming large since it is emblematic of the great sacrifice she makes at the end of the play for the sake of saving her compromising marriage. together with sir robert, lady chiltern is hosting a party held for the prestigious members of london society. yet as highly thought of members of society, not all of them represent the idealistic attitudes of the victorian era and not caring to pose as the paragons whom other subjects should follow for playing their expected social roles. lord caversham, an old-fashioned well-respected character in the play, enters the party looking for his “good-for-nothing young son” whom he calls so on the basis that “he leads such an idle life” (wilde 2005: 2). lord caversham’s son, lord goring, is an example of the dandified character in wilde’s comedies and the reason his father refuses to give him credit. as a dandy, lord goring possesses an eccentric figure unconcerned about the masculine role he is expected to play and is given to leisurely hobbies the most prominent of which is his occupation with m. zayani 37 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences flamboyant clothes. as a subject living in the victorian era with its demanding codes of conduct, he seems to very much embody the description albert camus offers for such a character as his: the dandy is, by occupation, always in opposition. he can only exist by defiance. […] he finds himself delivered over to the fleeting moment, to the passing days, and to wasted sensibility. the dandy rallies his forces and creates a unity for himself by the very violence of his refusal. (2012: 51) the dandy’s transgression from prescribed gender roles results in his being regarded as eccentric and his behavior, not following a proper enactment of masculinity, as effeminate since there is no other recognized gender in the paternal law to fall in between. an oldfashioned conventional man of the victorian era, lord caversham has reason enough to constantly disapprove of his son’s conducts because he has chosen not to adopt gender politics perform his gender. in other words, through his dandified character, lord goring puts in display the fact that “the essence or identity that [gender acts] purport to express are fabrications” which he refuses to conform to through “corporeal signs” (butler 1999: 173). lord goring’s dandyism, however, does not repel everyone as it does his father. mabel chiltern, sir robert’s sister, is not only not stove off by his gender transgression, but she is on the contrary very much attracted by it. she contests lord caversham’s belief that his son has given way to an idle life-style saying that he “rides at the row in ten o’clock in the morning, he goes to the opera three times a week, changes his clothes at least five times a day and dines out every night of the season. you don’t call that an idle life, do you?” (wilde 2005: 10). a witty and quick-in-comicalresponse character just as lord goring is, mabel chiltern also shows signs of transgression from her expected gender identity. she does not mind lord goring’s effeminacy and is not looking for a prescribed masculinity required from a male victorian in whose opposition she could find and embody her own assigned feminine identity. she further buttresses this claim in answer to lord caversham’s feeling who is “[s]ick of london society.” she retorts: “i love london society! i think it has immensely improved. it is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. just what society should be” (wilde 2005: 10). although mable’s response could be read as a satirical comment on the hypocritical nature of the victorians occupied with trivial and superficial matters, regarding the time setting of the play which is the late nineteenth century, her response is more likely to be interpreted as an admiration of the changing ideals in this period and the modern subjects’ disavowal from the old strict conventions of morality and unquestionable gender roles might have led the old-fashioned ones, such as lord caversham, to believe that the abandonment of such long held values has no explanation other than unforgivable idiocy. mabel is not attracted to tommy trafford who, according to lady chiltern, “is the best secretary [lord chiltern] has ever had” (wilde 2005: 66) with “a brilliant future before him” (wilde 2005: 67). contrary to what the society may expect, she refuses to accept the hand of a man who is greatly approved of. she even seems to be repelled by tommy’s an ideal husband, or an ideal wife? 38 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences proposal which he did “in broad daylight in front of [the] dreadful statue of achilles” who is one of the greatest heroes in greek mythology and is a perfect epitome of the masculine gender identity (wilde 2005: 66). unconcerned about the ideal of submissiveness and enacting feminine coyness, mabel feels “free to express her adoration for lord goring in a very public way” (szanter 2014: 7). to some extent, she manages to perform her gender as she prefers not hesitating to give voice to her passion for lord goring, an expression which is traditionally thought of as an act which the male party is more naturally to undertake: i adore you. everyone in london knows it except you. it is a public scandal the way i adore you. i have been going about for the last six months telling the whole society that i adore you. i wonder you have anything to say to me. i have no character left at all. at least, i feel so happy that i’m quite sure i have no character left at all. (wilde 2005: 123) however, mabel’s slight transgression from her assigned identity has not been free from social consequences. incurring “public scandal” and the fact that she thinks she has “no character left at all” (ibid) are reminiscent of butler’s claim that punishment awaits “those who fail to do their gender right” (1999: 178). mabel chiltern, though, is not the only feminine character in the play who displays signs of gender transgression. mrs.cheveley too must be taken into account in this regard and probably even more so. notoriously active in the world of politics and stepping into the house of sir robert chiltern not as a delicate feminine character trying to entertain herself by roaming about trivial matters, just as mrs.marchmont and lady basildon comically do, but as one who aims at accomplishing a lucrative mission, her appearance is described in a rather vivid contrast with lady chiltern’s: “lips very thin and highly coloured, a line of scarlet on a pallid face. venetian red hair, aquiline nose, and long throat. rouge accentuates the natural paleness of her complexion” (wilde 2005: 11). wilde’s description of her as such implicitly conveys the sense that her choice of vocation as a political activist, a very highly masculine role for the victorian era, rather than a typical woman who tends to domestic tasks, is unfavorably reflected in her physical appearance. she lacks the desirable greek beauty owned by lady chiltern and the only feminine features to her “pallid face” have come through the use of heavy make-up. in depicting ms.cheveley’s appearance, wilde goes on further to say that “she shows the influence of too many schools” (2005: 11).this description and the fact that she has got an “aquiline nose” seem to match lady markby’s remark that she makes later on in the play. as a conventional victorian woman, she claims that: “i think anything is better than high intellectual pressure. that is the most unbecoming thing there is. it makes the nose of the young girls so particularly large. and there is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose; men don’t like them” (wilde 2005: 36). if what lady markby says is in fact right in the victorian social discourse and if mrs. cheveley’s “aquiline nose” and plain appearance are actually the effects of “intellectual pressure” exerted on her due to “the influence of too many schools”, then her not being physically favorable, as implicit in wilde’s description, is not the result of her natural m. zayani 39 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences plainness of appearance, it is actually the kind of response the patriarchal culture illicits towards those women who fail or refuse to act in accord with their normalized gender identity, or as butler would say, those who refuse to make their actions be seen as “ interpretations within the confines of already existing directives” (1998: 526). it does not matter how hard mrs.cheveley tries to emancipate herself from performing just the same gender roles that are imposed on women or how diligently she tries to assert her individuality, she is after all “subject to the same limitations that attend other women in the play, all of whom achieve their goals only through their roles as wives”. the brooch which she left in sir robert’s house represents her “unwitting enslavement to male lovers” or her being trapped in the patriarchal culture in general (dellamora 1994: 129). as a woman, mrs.cheveley fails to achieve success in her morally compromising mission as easily as sir robert does in his more or less the same act. it is noteworthy that, in order for mrs.cheveley to substantiate her claim of sir robert’s betrayal, she has to submit the incriminating correspondence between him and baron arnheim. and thus, lord goring’s burning it literally puts an end to the power that she claimed to possess. however, while a solid document was needed for mrs.cheveley to prove her accusation, lord goring’s mere words, apparently, suffice if he is to have mrs.cheveley arrested. the great possibility that lord goring’s words, howbeit an effeminate man, will be taken for granted is signified by her grave reaction when he threatens her: she is “in an agony of physical terror. her face is distorted. her mouth awry. a mask has fallen from her. she is, for the moment, dreadful to look at” (wilde 2005: 111). mrs.cheveley’s mission, therefore, is easily intercepted since as a naturalized characteristic of her gender, the notion of women being untrustworthy is regulated “before [she] arrived on the scene” (butler 1998: 526). as expected by a patriarchal structure, then, mrs.cheveley rightly passes into obscurity since she dared to “invade and undermine the male subject-spectators; by asserting [herself] as creator and subject, [she] disrupt[s] social and cosmic order as well as gender hierarchy” (dolan 1993: 225). in contrast to the hitherto discussed female characters that irritated their cultural context in varying degrees by turning their backs on their valued gender roles, lady chiltern turns out to be the impeccable embodiment of the victorian woman, one who mabel describes as “a noble, self-sacrificing character” (wilde 2005: 67) and lady markby believes to be a paragon for victorian women. although the divulgence of sir robert’s incriminating letter would bring about quite a disaster for his political profession, he is much more concerned about losing the love of his ideal wife. lady chiltern conforms to the values of her time to the extent that she seems to be absolutely robbed of her agency and totally paralyzed by the web that patriarchal demands has knitted all over her will power. it is agreed by many critics that such a weakling character that bernard shaw called “a stupidly good wife” (1932: 11) could hardly ever exist. believed to be capable of setting a good example for all victorian women, lady chiltern’s strict reliance upon codes of morality is revealed when she tells mrs.cheveley that the past “has taught me that a person who has once been guilty of a dishonest and dishonourable action may be guilty of it a second time, and should be shunned” (wilde 2005: 77). she refuses to believe one’s identity once set as dishonorable could ever be any different. she proves her unrelenting morality in the play in her attitude towards mrs.cheveley and her own husband. an ideal husband, or an ideal wife? 40 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences upon finding out mrs.cheveley’s request from her husband, lady chiltern becomes so distressed lest her ideal husband whom she has always considered perfectly moral just as she is, falls from grace in which case she would not hesitate to decide that it would be better for both of them that their lives drift apart (wilde 2005: 44). she is so unbelievably serious that sir robert refuses to surrender to his wife’s pleas for telling her the truth about his past and instead, turns to his dandified friend for help. lord goring’s handling of the matter, however, is quite surprising. contrary to the expectation of those who agree with lord caversham that as a man choosing to live the life of a dandy, he is “good-for-nothing” (wilde 2005: 9), lord goring suddenly becomes the voice of reason reproaching his friend both for his past misdeed and being dishonest with his wife. though his oscillation between an effeminate character not taking life seriously as a man should and the masculine voice of reason, does not stop here. when lady chiltern finally understands about sir robert’s past and goes to lord goring for help, he delivers a long speech based on which one would not be able to find the trace of dandyism, but quite the opposite, a fully conventional man given to believing in the patriarchal structure of power asserting the distinction between masculine and feminine gender roles: women are not meant to judge us, but to forgive us when we need forgiveness. pardon, not punishment, is their mission. […] a man’s life is of more value than a woman’s. it has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambition. a woman’s life revolves in curves of emotions. it is upon lines of intellect that a man’s life progresses. […] a woman who can keep a man’s love, and love him in return, has done all the world wants of women, or should want of them. (wilde 2005: 136) through lord goring, wilde deconstructs the idea that gender is immutable. he is recognized as a dandy or a conventional masculine figure redeemed from his effeminacy as long as he performs the attributes of either gender identity, otherwise gender has no essential reality of its own whatsoever. lord goring’s traditional side of his character might be read, just as well, as symptomatic of the impossibility of total emancipation from the juridical structure of patriarchy. one may have the chance to go through gender reversal through performing drag, but such an unregulated performativity “is not freedom, but a question of how to work the trap that one is inevitably in” (butler 2004: 84). sooner or later the transgressive performer of gender is either pushed back to the constructed and naturalized gender role, more often than not, by being forcefully placed within the recognizable patriarchal structures or by being socially repressed or punished. lady chiltern, on the other hand, does not show as much intention to trespass the required gender identity as do lord goring, mabel chiltern and mrs.cheveley. she claims to never change when it comes to the issue of morality and even tries hard to hold on fast to her beliefs by making sir robert write a refusal letter to mrs.cheveley’s demand, but she relinquishes her principles and decides to forgive sir robert to perform the feminine duty her society requires of her, that is, an unwavering and unconditional support of her husband. m. zayani 41 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences while lord chiltern easily justifies his transgression from codes of morality, lady chiltern must learn that she is not allowed as much freedom to justify her gender transgression. sir robert boldly asks lord goring “whom did i wrong by what i did? no one” (wilde 2005: 49), and even more audaciously claims that he never sensed a twinge of conscience since he “felt that [he] had fought the century with its own weapons, and won” (wilde 53). not only is sir robert not punished for his immorality, but he also advances in his career receiving “the vacant seat in the cabinet” at the end of the play (wilde 2005: 132). nevertheless, if lady chiltern stands firm in her position trying to justify herself the same as her husband does, she would not be just as equally rewarded, but quite the contrary, she would be admonished for trying to place herself in a morally superior position to a man and consequently abandon her duty as a wife by leaving her husband. in other words, lady chiltern has to learn that no matter how righteous or idealistic her views are, to her husband she must always be “the white image of all good things” (wilde 2005:140). lady chiltern’s change, thus, if it could be called change at all, is not directed towards expressing her own desire, but it is actually a change in favor of the patriarchal normalization of gendered behavior making her an “ideal wife” whom sir robert has to put on pedestal. as alan sinfield points out: “ideology makes sense for us —of us— because it is already proceeding when we arrive in the world” (2004: 745). in order to be entitled to become the “ideal wife”, lady chiltern lets herself be paralyzed by the ideology of her time allowing the patriarchal discourse make sense of her just as it has always done so to those it accounted as recognizable female subjects. although oscar wilde named the play an ideal husband, not only does it not so much expound upon the factors that may make a man become one, but also the husband that the title refers to turns out to be mistakenly thought highly of since he has concealed his morally compromising past. the play, rather, seems to propagate how a wife should or should not be does she want to be called ideal. however, such an interpretation of the play cannot easily blur the fact that wilde saw the mutability of gender identity possible and probably even desirable had the characters not lived in a patriarchal world which perpetuated “the illusion of an abiding gendered self” (butler 1999: 179). refrences butler, judith. 1998. “performative acts and gender constitution: an essay in phenomenology and feminist theory.” theatre journal. 40(4): 519-531. ——. 1999. gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. 2nded. new york: routledge. ——. 2004. “the body you want: liz kotz interviews judith butler.” artforum. 31(3): 82-89. camus, albert. 2012. the rebel: an essay on man in revolt. trans. anthony bower. new york: alfred a. knopf, inc. cohen, william a. 1997. “gross indecency: the three trials of oscar wilde (review).” theatre journal. 49(4): 529-531. dellamora, richard. 1994. “oscar wilde, social purity, and an ideal husband.” modern drama. 37(1): 120-138. dollan, frances e. 1993. “taking the pencil out of god’s hands: art, nature, and the face-painting debate in early modern england.” pmla. 108(2): 224-239. project muse.web. 14 jun 2016. an ideal husband, or an ideal wife? 42 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences gagnier, regina. 1997. wilde and the victorians. in: peter raby (ed.) the cambridge companion to oscar wilde. cambridge: cambridge university press. 19-20. hyde, harford m. 1973. the trials of oscar wilde. new york: dover. lord tennyson, alfred. n. p. the princess.bookz.web. 12 may 2016. mill, john stuart. 1975. three essays. london: oxford university press. murrenus, valerie a. 2001. “wilde style: the plays and prose of oscar wilde (review).” new hibernia review. 5(1): 156-157. project muse.web. 20 aug 2016. “phase of english life.” 1882. the new york times. ruse, michael. 1993. “will the real charles darwin please stand up?” new scientist. 100(1): 884-887. shaw, bernard. 1932. our theatres in the nineties. london: constable. sinfield, allan. 2004. “cultural materialism, othello, and the politics of plausibility.” in. julie rivkin (ed.) literary theory: an anthology. 2nd ed. malden, ma: blackwell pub. 745. szanter, ashley. 2014. “a silly girl’s insight: mabel chiltern’s commentary on public versus private spheres in an ideal husband.” the victorian.2(3): 1-9. wilde, oscar. 2005. an ideal husband. san diego: icon group international, inc. bookfi. web. 20 nov 2015. ——. 2008. the picture of dorian gray. new york: oxford university press. m. zayani 83 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences vice presidential candidates in the american presidential elections: strategies for selection and effects marco morini, padova university, italy. abstract american vice presidential candidates are chosen for several reasons. some of these rationales are easy to be recognized, while others belong to the cockles of the heart of the presidential candidates. social scientists and journalists agree about the factors that are more essential: the vice presidential (vp) nominee’s capacity of balancing the ideological and personal characteristics of the presidential candidate and the “native son” effect, namely the guarantee that the vp nominee would carry his/her own state. these strategies are often combined and they work at different electoral levels: the first one has usually a national or macro-regional significance while the second is crucial in the battleground states. this research is divided into two sections: the first one investigates the “balancing the ticket” strategy, offering an overview of about one century of presidential races. the second aims to verify the vp nominee’s effect in his/her home state. the results will confirm that there have been several running mates who have been selected in order to “balance the ticket” but also that the vice president nominee’s effect in the home states has been quite poor. keywords: american politics; american political history; american presidential campaigns; political strategies and party politics. 84 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. morini introduction an accepted wisdom is that vice presidential candidates are of minor importance to most voters. perhaps as a result there have not been much research aimed at the reasons and the effect of vice presidential nominee selection (adkinson 1982, 331; wattenberg 1995) and most of them tried to measure a “national effect” (wattenberg and grofman 1993, 175; grofman and kline 2010). particularly, grofman and kline study examined voters’ specific preferences for both president and vice president and found that about 11% of the population on average has “conflicted” preferences — where a voter prefers the presidential candidate of one party but also likes the vice presidential nominee of the other party. using this data, they estimate the degree to which a vice presidential candidate alone might determine the electoral result. the two scholars note that these patterns of “conflicted” voting behaviour have decreased over time: only 6.9 per cent and 6.8 per cent of the electorate had conflicted preferences in 2004 and 2008, likely the outcome of “increasing partisan polarization.” grofman and kline found out that the direct effect of a vice presidential candidate is generally less than 1 per cent in terms of getting voters to cross party lines: and, in order to better approach this field of study, we also should not forget that popular culture sees voters taking the president and the vice president as a “package deal.” only in 1972 was more than 1 per cent of the final vote affected by conflicted vice presidential and presidential preferences; on average, over the 1968-2008 period, the net impact of conflicted presidential and vice presidential choices is only slightly less than 0.6% of the votes shifted (p. 1). grofman and kline also pointed out that there were two relevant caveats to their findings: data may understate the impact of vice presidential selection on choice because voters modify their views of the president based on vice presidential selection, and thus the data we report may be ‘contaminated’ by unmeasured effects of vice presidential choice. second, mobilizing effects of vice presidential choice vis-à-vis turnout or campaign contributions or campaign activism are not reflected in our measures. for example, the selection of sarah palin was widely credited in the media as having motivated a republican base that did not find mccain that attractive a candidate” (grofman and kline 2010, 1). 85 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences vice presidential candidates in the american presidential elections it is interesting to note that palin’s choice revived academic interest around the figure of the vice presidential nominees. ulbig (2010) focused her research on what extent do vice presidential candidates affect individual-level vote choice for president. she found out that when vice presidential candidates draw media interest, feelings about them become much more relevant to voters. investigating palin’s candidacy, who drew high level of media attention, ulbig discovered that feelings about her exerted a stronger impact on vote choice, especially among independent voters. other research explored the so-called “home-state effect”, that is well-known for presidential candidates and kind of controversial for vp nominees: devine and kopko (2011) argue that selecting a vice presidential candidate from a small state is not sufficient to produce a significant vice presidential home state advantage. the same authors, a few years later (2013), found out that vice presidential home state advantages are statistically negligible and conditioned on the interactive effect of political experience and state population. furthermore, their results indicate that the mobilization of new voters primarily accounts for presidential home state advantage, while vice presidential home state advantage is mainly due to the conversion of existing voters. our research goes on a different direction: first, we go through the last 24 presidential elections and we try to understand which rationales brought presidential candidates to choose their running mates. reasoning on a qualitative level, we aim to show the different strategies employed by the parties and the candidates in order to make the tickets more appealing to the populations and so to maximize votes. in the second section, we measure the actual vice presidential nominee effect, at least in his/her home state. by monitoring the difference between the performance of the ticket at the national level with the one in the vp home state and comparing this margin with the one obtained in the previous and in the subsequent presidential election, we are able to estimate the vp effect at state-level. the first strategy: balancing the ticket many observers think that john f. kennedy’s selection of lyndon johnson as vice presidential nominee helped him winning the south in 1960. however, citizens’ electoral behaviour is mainly driven by the name at the top of the ticket and there are probably not many voters who are attracted from who a candidate chooses as his vp. nevertheless, the selection of a running mate can give voters a better viewpoint into the kind of person, and politician, a presidential candidate really is. since the vice presidential selection process captures a lot of media attention, 86 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. morini presidential scholars agree that a candidate selecting a running mate should try to avoid controversies. generally speaking, one of the main rules for picking a vp nominee follows the saying ‘first, do no harm’. and yet, this is often infringed. that is because finding a recognized figure with no contraindications is hard, since all high profile politicians have negative traits linked to their image. the presidential candidate and his campaign staff have difficult choices to make. first of all, they have to decide whether to run with a vp candidate who integrates the top of ticket, helping him to win battleground states, or instead select someone who strengthens the nominee’s image. in 2008, senator john mccain experienced how the early assumptions can change over time, when his attempt to galvanize conservatives and rural sympathizers by choosing sarah palin did not work out as expected. another example of how the original purposes can derail are those of missouri senator thomas eagleton, selected but then rapidly dismissed by george mcgovern in 1972, after evidence emerged about his mental health problems, and of dan quayle, whom george h.w. bush chose in 1988 hoping that he would help the campaign in gaining in popularity among young voters. instead, quayle became a sort of “a national joke” (goldstein 2007). nominees from the moderate part of the republican party, such as gerald ford, george h.w. bush, bob dole and john mccain have felt obliged to select vice presidential candidates who are favourite by the party’s right wing (quayle, jack kemp and sarah palin above all). on the other hand, ronald reagan thought he had to demonstrate that he was open to more moderate views and decided to select george h. w. bush, a centrist experienced texas politician. among democrats, walter mondale and lloyd bentsen also appeared to be sort of “balancing acts” for jimmy carter and michael dukakis respectively. finally, bill clinton decided to strengthen his image as “new democrat”, picking another emerging southern politician, al gore. in recent years, many political scientists argued that in 2008 joe biden has been selected because he is white, mature and experienced, in order to balance the ticket with the young, black and less experienced barack obama. with the same logic, john edwards would have been picked to gain votes in the southern states and in order to balance the “elitist and new englander” john kerry’s image. and in 2012, paul ryan has probably been selected for his conservative policy standings, his youthful energy and powerful speech making. indeed, the previous five republican vice presidential candidates were all conservative and they were usually chosen for balancing out some possible weakness at the top of the ticket (gruhl et al. 2012, 228). dick cheney was expected to give dignity and international politics experience 87 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences vice presidential candidates in the american presidential elections to george w. bush. dan quayle and sarah palin were supposed to bring young votes to george h. w. bush and john mccain (mitt romney has almost never been criticized for being “too old,” maybe because he looked much younger than his 65 years). bob dole’s choice of jack kemp is probably more similar to romney’s selection of paul ryan. kemp, who by the way was one of ryan’s political mentors, was conservative on fiscal policy, like ryan. but he was moderate on social policy, which ryan is not. in 1996, bill clinton performed very well in rural zones, something unusual for “modern” democrats, so dole probably thought that jack kemp could move forward republicans’ reputation in the urban areas (gruhl et al. 2012, 229). that is for what concerns recent elections. but the whole history of the american presidential elections is full of stories that show in different manners which reasons stay behind vp nominee selection. most of these insights are anecdotal, but some of the most distant campaigns enforce the idea that “balancing the ticket” is one of strategies that are most employed by the presidential candidates. one of the best known vp nominee selection happened in 1984. as soon as walter mondale secured the democratic nomination, the idea of choosing a woman as his vice presidential candidate got significant public opinion attention. the national organization for women and the national women’s political caucus supported the idea, as did several high profile democratic figures such as house speaker tip o’neill (morrow 1984). geraldine ferraro, house representative from new york’s 9th district, became the first woman to run for vice presidency for a major party (glass 2007). the democratic staff hoped that her selection would change a campaign in which mondale was trailing badly in the polls. and, in addition to attracting women, they hoped she could gain consensus among ethnic democrats in the northeast, that were a part of the electorate who had abandoned their party for reagan in 1980 (goldman and fuller 1995, 228). ferraro was also roman catholic and that, for the democratic advisors, could have also helped with catholic voters. as for the negative downsides, ferraro did not have political experience at high level (goldman and fuller 1995, 237). among political experts, the choice of ferraro was considered as a bet, and it was not sure if she could add votes or not to the mondale campaign (braden, 1996, 111). although her selection was appreciated by the majority of the democratic activists, opinion polls conducted right after the national convention showed that only 22 percent of women voters liked ferraro’s selection, versus 18 percent who thought she was not the best available candidate. furthermore, 33 per cent of all voters believed that women’s rights groups lobbying influenced mondale’s decision. nonetheless, in the same days ferraro proved to be able to run an energetic campaign and sometimes 88 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. morini she was even able to obscure mondale in the national media coverage. mondale had been 16 points behind reagan in polls before selecting ferraro, and after the convention he even tied the race for a short time (ferraro and whitney 1998, 171-181). on the election day, the democratic ticket lost the race in a landslide. reagan and bush won the 59 per cent of the popular vote, while mondale and ferraro secured just 41 per cent of it. in the electoral college, they carried only mondale’s home state of minnesota and the district of columbia. ferraro was not even able to prevail in her own congressional district, which always tended to vote republican in presidential races. ferraro’s contribution to the ticket – considered her supposed strength among minority voters was poor. 55 per cent of women voters chose reagan. and the incumbent president also got about the same percentage among catholic voters, the highest level ever achieved by a republican presidential candidate (ferraro 2004, 312-313). in 1976, minnesota senator walter mondale was on the other end of the ticket, when little-known georgia’s governor, jimmy carter chose him, a liberal and political protégé of hubert humphrey, as his running mate. a selection which was probably made in order to add a “northern” figure to balance the “southern” carter. eight years earlier, spiro agnew’s moderate beliefs, immigrant ancestry, and popularity in a leaning democratic state such as maryland marked that he was the perfect match for the 1968 republican presidential nominee, former vice president richard nixon. as an example of what would later be defined nixon’s “southern strategy”, agnew was selected because he was enough from the south to fascinate the southern moderate electorate, yet he did not represented the deep south symbolically, which might have disheartened northern centrist voters. as the above, even “weird” strategies can stay behind the selection of the presidential running mate: in 1964, the vice presidential nomination went to little-known republican party chairman william e. miller, a new york representative. barry goldwater, the republican presidential candidate, stated that he chose miller simply because “he drives [president] johnson nuts” (miller fitzgerald 2004, 106). in 1960, as mentioned at the beginning of this section, john f. kennedy thought that he could not be elected without the back-up of traditional southern democrats, most of whom had supported lyndon johnson during the primaries. kennedy asked johnson to be the vice-presidential candidate the morning after being nominated for president (caro 2012, 121-135). robert f. kennedy, who profoundly disliked johnson for his previous harsh attacks against the kennedy family, declared later that his brother made that offer to johnson as an action of 89 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences vice presidential candidates in the american presidential elections “political kindness” and did not expect him to accept the vp nomination. investigative journalist seymour hersh (1997, 12) agrees with robert kennedy’s reconstruction of the events, and wrote that john kennedy would have preferred missouri senator stuart symington as his running-mate, but johnson joined forces with house speaker sam rayburn to influence kennedy to favour himself. j ohnson’s biographer robert caro (2012, 132) offers different insights. he wrote that the kennedy campaign was desperate to win what was predicted to be a very uncertain race. with californian richard nixon and massachusetts senator henry cabot lodge in the republican ticket, kennedy believed that johnson was the right person to help carry texas and the other southern states. despite his supposed brother’s interference, john kennedy met with political advisors such as larry o’brien, his national campaign manager, to share the decision that johnson was to be vice president. o’brien confessed later that john kennedy’s words surprised him, but that after a brief thinking of the electoral vote situation, he realized that “it was a stroke of genius”. when john and robert kennedy right after met with their father, joe kennedy, he told them that the johnson’s nomination was the best thing they had ever done (caro 2012, 142). general eisenhower was the republican presidential candidate in 1952. he had no specific pre-agreements for a vice presidential candidate, and republican national leaders suggested the name of nixon. eisenhower quickly agreed to the selection (gellman 1999, 440-441). nixon’s young age (he was then only 39), his fierce attitude against communism, and his political stronghold in california one of the largest battleground states at the time were all considered as powerful credentials by the republican establishment (ambrose 1987, 342). in 1952, after the nomination of stevenson, the democratic convention had to choose a vice president. the main candidates for this position were two southern senators: john sparkman from alabama and a. s. mike monroney from oklahoma. president truman and a restricted cabinet of political advisors chose conservative and segregationist sparkman for the nomination. the convention complied with that and nominated sparkman as stevenson’s running mate. stevenson then famously stated that he aimed to commit himself to “talk sense to the american people.” again, sparkman was chosen in order to balance the ticket. the 1948 election is often accounted for being the greatest reversal in american presidential history. almost every forecast pointed out that harry truman would be defeated by thomas dewey. both parties suffered acute ideological ruptures, especially the democratic party that splitted apart, with the conservative wing and 90 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. morini the far left running third-party campaigns. truman nominated kentucky senator alben w. barkley, who had delivered the convention’s keynote speech, as his running mate, with the selection proclaimed by acclamation (disalvo 2010). civil rights bills, opposed by several southern democrats (such as barkley), were crucial to truman’s fair deal (libbey 1979, 93). but, because barkley was popular among conservative democrats, truman asked him to be the vice presidential nominee (libbey 1979, 94). and despite the perception that a ticket composed by a missourian incumbent and a kentuckian conservative lacked geographic balance, truman and barkley were able to win the election (hatfield 1997, 4). four years earlier, although the party’s conservatives could not prevent franklin d. roosevelt from running for a fourth term, the decline in the president’s health brought many party national leaders to strongly oppose henry wallace, who was then roosevelt’s vice president. he was considered by many southern democrats as being too liberal and somewhat personally outlandish. even some progressives were suspicious about wallace’s new age spiritual beliefs and for his relation with the controversial nicholas roerich, his personal russian advisor. so, several party delegates decided to put in moderate missouri senator harry truman as fdr’s fourth term vp nominee. roosevelt, who was wallace’s friend and did not personally know truman, unwillingly accepted truman as his running mate in a bid not to break party cohesion. a few months later, the dispute around the vice presidential nomination suddenly became historic as roosevelt died in april 1945 and therefore truman assumed the presidency instead of wallace. it is also interesting to note that on the other side, in a similar effort to keep party unity, moderate presidential candidate thomas dewey chose conservative john william bricker as his running mate. dewey was the republican presidential nominee again in 1948 but bricker was not the vice presidential candidate. dewey decided to select california governor earl warren, thinking that the 1948 ticket would win california which the dewey-bricker campaign had failed to do four years earlier. however, the dewey-warren ticket did not secure california and the absence of bricker on the ticket may have been a factor in dewey not winning bricker’s home state of ohio again. wendell willkie’s nomination for the republicans in 1940 is still considered by historians to have been one of the most dramatic moments in any political convention. willkie did not care much about the name of his running mate and decided to leave the decision to convention chairman joe martin, who proposed senate minority leader charles l. mcnary of oregon. wilkie reluctantly accepted the suggestion. also because the two men did not agree on many things: “whether as vice president of the u.s. charley mcnary can keep on endorsing government-power projects, isolation, 91 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences vice presidential candidates in the american presidential elections high tariffs and huge outlays for farm relief under a president who believes in none of these things remains to be seen” (neuberger 1940). therefore, mcnary seemed to be a western farmer who has been selected in order to balance the figure of the presidential candidate wendell willkie, a pro-business eastern politician (neal 1985, 9). mcnary’s ideas appeared quite eccentric to wilkie: the oregon senator supported the progressive era reforms and the direct election of the federal senators and he was an early campaigner for public rather than private power companies (catledge 1940). in 1932, once again, the “balancing strategy” was implemented by the democratic presidential candidate, governor of new york franklin d. roosevelt. he chose as his running mate john nance garner, who was a u.s. representative from texas. garner was a conservative southern lawyer who contrasted the labour unions strikes of the ‘20s and later, when in office, he also harshly criticized the high public spending caused by the new deal’s policies. four years earlier, republican herbert hoover, as many as other presidential candidates did, was not keen to interfere in the selection of his running mate. the decision was demanded to the party delegates who seemed to agree on confirming incumbent vice president dawes in the ticket. but as soon as the party’s orientation started to spread, stepping down president calvin coolidge sent an angry telegram stating that he would consider a second nomination for dawes, whom he hated, a “personal affront” (mencken and nathan 1929, 404). after that telegram, and with coolidge still highly influential, it became virtually impossible for dawes to pursue the vp nomination. then the party decided to go for the usual strategy: in order to gain consensus among farmers concerned of hoover’s pro-business orientation, the nomination was destined to longtime kansas senator charles curtis (mieczkowski and carnes 2001, 94). in the same year, the democratic candidate was the roman catholic governor of new york al smith. worried that smith spiritual beliefs would become an issue during the campaign (many protestants were afraid that smith would be influenced by the pope instead of choosing the best for the country by his own), the democratic establishment asked the delegates to select senator joseph taylor robinson of arkansas as vp nominee. robinson was protestant and southerner. he was also a dynamic politician and a gifted speaker. in some ways he was smith’s political nemesis (binning et al. 1999, 135). the 1924 democratic primary season suffered a massive cultural and geographic shift in the party, as one wing (led by william gibbs mcadoo) had its political base composed by rural, protestant delegates from the south and the midwest 92 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. morini who were in favour of prohibition. on the other hand, new york governor al smith’s was favoured by catholics, ethnic minorities, anti-prohibition supporters and delegates from the big-cities in the northeast and urban midwest. because of the two-thirds rule, neither mcadoo nor smith were able to win the nomination. ballots followed other ballots and with this unprecedented situation, on the 100th count both smith and mcadoo decided to abandon the race. then the party convention was able to start looking for a compromise figure who would be acceptable to both mcadoo and smith supporters (prude 1972). finally, on the 103rd ballot, the delegates chose john w. davis as the presidential candidate. he was a former house representative from west virginia, virtually unknown to the press and to the greater audience. nebraska governor charles bryan, william jennings bryan’s brother, was selected as vp nominee. the strategy behind this choice was to appeal to rural voters, whom still supported his brother, who was the leader of the populist wing and three times presidential candidate (tucker 2010, 19). the second strategy: carrying the home state as the effects of the first strategy are mainly anecdotal and difficult to be measured, one thing we might be able to address, however, is whether a vice presidential nominee can help the candidate to carry his or her home state. although in 2012, wisconsin, paul ryan’s home state, was carried by barack obama; since 1920, major-party nominees for president have carried their vp’s home state 64 percent of the time and the percentage is slightly higher than that, 71 percent in elections since world war ii. this, however, is not statistically significant by itself. instead, what we might try to investigate is to measure how many votes a vice presidential nominee bring to the ticket relative to how he would do otherwise. the way to do this is to compare the presidential ticket’s performance in the vice presidential nominee’s state to his numbers nationwide. this analysis is taken (almost as it is) from nate silver’s blog fivethirtyeight (2012). as an example as the way it works, let’s take a look at the 1948 elections: the republican vice presidential nominee, california governor earl warren, did not help thomas dewey to carry that state, which he lost to harry truman. the dewey-warren ticket came behind by 0.5 percentage points only in california, however, slightly better than the 4.5 percentage points it lost by nationwide. silver call this difference the relative voting index, or rvi (cook political report 2012). in the case above-mentioned, warren had an rvi. of plus-4 for 1948, because his ticket did four points better in his home state than it did nationally. but, according to silver, that still does not tell the whole story. did republicans’ outperforming their 93 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences vice presidential candidates in the american presidential elections national numbers by four percentage points in california have something to do with governor warren, or was it a red-leaning state at that time in general? as compared to the previous election cycle of 1944, warren’s performance could be considered as very good, since franklin d. roosevelt did better in california that year than he performed nationally against dewey’s first presidential attempt. in fact, that year california had an rvi of negative-6. so, warren might have provoked a net swing of 10.5 points, from an rvi of negative-6 in 1944 to plus-4 in 1948. on the other hand, in 1952, in california, republicans had an rvi of plus14.5, despite warren’s no longer being on the ticket. but in that year and in the two subsequent elections, another candidate from california – richard nixon was in one of the two tickets. so, the warren effect can be calculated adding 1964 to the figure. in that year lyndon johnson won california by a margin of 18.3 points. using 1948 as the baseline, in other words, averaging together the 1944 and 1964 comparisons, warren’s effect on the ticket in california is still positive (a net gain of almost five points of rvi) but not as astonishing as it originally seemed to be. in table 1 below, we have adjusted silver’s comparisons for all major-party vice presidential nominees since 1920. the comparison is between the ticket’s rvi in the year the vice presidential candidate was on the ticket, the next and previous election cycles in which he was not on the ticket and when there was also no one else from his state running for president or vice president. for instance, in looking at the rvi for sarah palin, the republican nominee for vice president in 2008, the comparison years are 2004 (when palin was not on the ticket, and nobody else from alaska was) and 2012 (when sarah palin was not running and nobody else from alaska was). in the last three elections, republicans always carried alaska. however, palin did significantly better than republican national numbers in 2008 (+28.8 points). republicans low performed in 2004 (+23.1 r.v.i) and in 2012 (+10.1 r.v.i) and so the net gain in 2008 for palin in her home state is +12.2 points. there are also a few cases in which there were multiple candidates on the ticket from the same state in the same year. for instance, henry cabot lodge jr., richard nixon’s vice presidential nominee in 1960, was from massachusetts, the same state as the democratic presidential nominee john f. kennedy. silver’s model simply do not consider these years, since lodge’s performance might have been more a reflection of kennedy’s performance in massachusetts than his own strengths and weaknesses. overall, the consensus advantage provided by a vice presidential nominee has been quite poor under this model. since 1920, on average, it has given rise to a net gain 94 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. morini of about only 2.5 percentage points for the top of the ticket in his/her home state. tab. 1: vice presidential nominees since 1920. net popular vote (gain). previous comparison next comparison party candidate state ev year rvi year rvi year rvi net gain d biden de 3 2012 +14,7 2004 +10,1 +4,6 r ryan wi 3 2012 -3 2008 -6,7 +3,7 d biden de 3 2008 +17,7 2004 +10,1 +7,7 r palin ak 3 2008 +28,8 2004 +23,1 2012 +10,1 +12,2 d edwards nc 15 2004 -10 2000 -13,4 2008 -6,9 +0,2 r cheney wy 3 2004 +37,3 2000 +21,5 2008 +39,5 +6,8 d lieberman ct 8 2000 +17 1996 +9,6 2004 +12,5 +5,9 r cheney wy 3 2000 +40,6 1996 +21,5 2008 +39,5 +10,1 d gore tn 11 1996 -6,1 1988 -8,6 2004 -11,8 +4,1 r kemp ny 33 1996 -20,3 1992 -10,3 2000 -24,5 -2,9 d gore tn 11 1992 -0,9 1988 -8,6 2004 -11,8 +9,3 r quayle in 12 1992 +11,8 1984 +5,5 1996 +14,1 +2 r quayle in 12 1988 +12,4 1984 +5,5 1996 +14,1 +2,6 d ferraro ny 36 1984 +10,2 1980 +7,1 1988 +11,8 +0,8 r bush tx 29 1984 +9 1976 +1,1 1996 +13,5 +1,7 d mondale mn 10 1980 +13,7 1972 +17,6 1988 +14,8 -2,5 r bush tx 26 1980 +4,1 1976 +1,1 1996 +13,5 -3,2 d mondale mn 10 1976 +10,8 1972 +17,6 1988 +14,8 -5,4 r dole ks 7 1976 +9,6 1972 +15 1980 +14,8 -5,3 d muskie me 4 1968 +11,5 1964 +15,1 1972 +0,5 +3,7 r agnew md 10 1968 -2,3 1964 -8,4 1976 -4 +3,9 d humphrey mn 10 1964 +5,2 1960 +1,3 1972 +17,6 -4,3 r miller ny 43 1964 -14,7 1960 -5,1 1968 -6,2 -9 d johnson tx 24 1960 +1,8 1956 +4,1 1968 +2 -1,2 d kefauver tn 11 1956 +14,8 1952 +10,6 1960 -7,3 +13,2 r nixon ca 32 1956 -4,3 1944 -6 1964 +4,3 -3,4 d sparkman al 11 1952 +40,4 1944 +56,6 1956 +32,4 -4,1 r nixon ca 32 1952 +3,7 1944 -6 1964 +4,3 +4,6 d barkley ky 11 1948 +10,8 1944 +13,7 1952 +10,9 -1,6 r warren ca 25 1948 +4 1944 -6 1964 +4,3 +4,9 d truman mo 15 1944 -4,6 1940 -4,8 1952 +9,3 -6,8 r bricker oh 25 1944 +7,1 1940 +5,5 1948 +4,2 +2,2 d wallace ia 11 1940 -14,4 1936 -12,5 1944 -12 -2,1 r mcnary or 5 1940 +1,9 1936 -10,5 1944 +2,6 +5,8 95 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences vice presidential candidates in the american presidential elections d garner tx 23 1936 +50,5 1928 +13,8 1940 +62 +12,6 r knox il 29 1936 +6,2 1932 +4,6 1940 +6,9 +0,5 d garner tx 23 1932 +59 1928 +13,8 1940 +62 +21,1 r curtis ks 9 1932 +8,3 1924 +12,7 1940 +24,4 -10,2 d robinson ar 9 1928 +38,4 1924 +57,2 1932 +55,3 -17,8 r curtis ks 10 1928 +27,5 1924 +12,7 1940 +24,4 +9 d bryan ne 8 1924 +7,7 1920 -7,2 1928 -9,6 +16,1 r dawes il 29 1924 +10,3 1920 +16,1 1928 -2,8 +3,6 d roosevelt ny 45 1920 -11,4 1916 -10,1 1924 -1,4 -5,7 r coolidge ma 18 1920 +14,5 1916 +7,1 1928 -18,5 +20,3 average +10,66 +6,52 +10,33 +2,44 table 1 shows an impressive series of inferences. but there are also several questionable points connected to this analysis. first of all, and using the words of the author of the chart, the model takes for granted that the vice presidential nominee is popular in his/her home state. that is certainly sure for recent candidates such as ryan, biden, palin, cheney and so on. but it is difficult to check it out for candidates from the distant past. indeed, it might have happened that some of the nominees were not much appreciated by their fellow citizens. and, of course, there is no reason to expect vice presidential candidates to give rise to a home-state effect if the approval rating polls point out that the voters in his/her state don’t like them. a second observation is that the net advantage determined by the vice presidential candidates has been greater in recent years — more than four points on average rather than two in elections since 1984. that could just be a statistical coincidence, although it could also show the fact that vice presidential nominees are having a greater impact than they once did. lately, only a few vp nominee were not able to win their own state. however, on a different point of view, almost all the vp nominee coming from battleground states or states that were difficult to win for their party lost their own territory: paul ryan in wisconsin in 2012, john edwards in north carolina in 2004, jack kemp in new york in 1996, lloyd bentsen in texas in 1988 (although the republican presidential candidate george h. w. bush was coming from texas as well) and geraldine ferraro in new york in 1984. the only significant exception is represented by al gore, who, as a democratic vice presidential candidate in 1992 and in 1996 was able to win in his own tennessee, a state that had not voted republican for the previous sixteen years. paradoxically, four years later, when he was the democratic presidential candidate, al gore lost tennessee to george w. bush (romero 2001). third, data suggest that some vice presidential nominees produce more impact than others. current governors or senators have given rise to a quite larger gain on average 96 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. morini (about 4 points rather than 1.5) than those who were no longer in office, or who were u.s. representatives and therefore represented a single house district rather than the whole state. and this is also easily intuitive: senators and governors also serve for longer terms and they usually benefit from more extensive media coverage (cohen 2001). fourth, the effects are probably more sounding in smaller states than in bigger ones, maybe because their political cultures are more cohesive and it’s rarer for them to see a native son nominated to a presidential ticket. vice presidential nominees from states with fewer electoral votes have historically provided a larger home-state boost — joe biden and sarah palin each had significant effects in delaware and alaska in 2008. fifth, although electoral coalitions have been quite steady in the recent decades, that has not always been like this; vermont was once one of the most republican states in the country, and arizona one of the most democratic. therefore, it seems that there are many controversial messages in the data, as these alterations can sometimes be more powerful than any effect a vice presidential nominee might have. a different method of analysis might be able to cover some of these issues, although other problems are probably not tractable given the relative scarcity of data (just one presidential election every four years) and the inherent challenge in searching the causes behind anyone’s vote. with that said, it seems that the vice presidential nominee’s effect on his or her home state is normally pretty modest, just around two or three percentage points on average. certainly, two or three percentage points in one or more swing states is something that every candidate would hope to achieve, but it is probably not enough to overstate the other variables – positive and negative that a vice presidential candidate could potentially bring in to the ticket. indeed, in the last two decades, presidential campaigns have not resorted in this principle, with recent vice presidential nominees coming from states like alaska, connecticut, delaware and wyoming that are currently considered not competitive. in 2012, however, mitt romney decided to “risk” again, picking paul ryan from wisconsin, a potential battleground state. although ryan halved the gap between republicans and democrats, he was not able to turn his home state to red (it would have been the first time since 1984). conclusion in the first section of this paper we aimed to list and briefly describe the most meaningful vice presidential choices since 1920. obviously, at a first sight, the main reason for selecting the running mate has been to make the tick97 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences vice presidential candidates in the american presidential elections et more appealing for voters. on a more exhaustive analysis, however, the more common rationale appears the one that aims to “balance the ticket”. the vp candidate is often chosen to complement the top of the ticket geographically (a presidential candidate from the north should run together with a vp from the south: kennedy-johnson in 1960, for example). or politically, in order to keep all the “wings” of the party together: a perfect example comes from the 1948 elections when thomas dewey, a moderate republican, chose the conservative john william bricker as his running mate. also other dichotomies are quite common: youth v. seniority or in the other sense: experience v. inexperience and in this group can be placed the tickets bush sr.-quayle, mccain-palin and also obama-biden. these are the most evident rationales but probably also other explanations stay behind each vice presidential selection. and it is also possible that some of them are probably just the outcome of an over interpretation of the events. what it appears clear is that presidential candidates want to offer to voters the most extensive ticket possible. the vp should add to the presidential candidate the qualities, the characteristics and the votes that the presidential nominee doesn’t have or that he is not able to carry himself. millions of lines have been written about vp candidates’ selection, campaign performances and also about their possible political outcomes on the final electoral result. but it is never been easy to measure the real vp effect. the scientific literature is not extensive and it usually focuses at national level. collecting opinion polls and correlating different voting data is the usual method to estimate the vp nominee effect in the presidential elections. the analysis proposed in the second paragraph is less ambitious but perhaps more accurate. based on the model elaborated by statistician nate silver, the idea was to measure the vp nominee effect in his/her home state. basically, the model aimed to estimate the so-called native son effect, that is, usually, the second reason for selecting one running mate instead of another. or, at least, it is something expected from the vice presidential candidate. additionally, for what concerns “integrating geographically the presidential candidate’s characteristics”, this strategy can also be considered inter-related to “carrying the home state”. think about the selection of johnson in 1960 and edwards in 2004: we know they were chosen because they came from the south, so their potential home-state effect could have been spread around their neighbouring states. paradoxically, this analysis may be complicated by the inter-relation with the factor explained in the first section, that is the potential for ticket-balancing. for example, john kerry may have picked john edwards of north caro98 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. morini lina in 2004 because he was worried about how he might perform in the south. if a presidential candidate is deliberately selecting a vice presidential nominee from a state where he otherwise expects not to gain many votes, an analysis like this might inaccurately allocate a poor performance to the vice presidential candidate when the problem is with the top of the ticket instead. the most interesting outcome from section two is that the vice presidential effect in his/her home state is poor. at first glance, it could appear huge – because each presidential campaign is usually compared only with the previous and the next. but, when the interference with other candidates is removed, and though each home state effect is correctly compared with the right election, numbers lower significantly. the 2.5 per cent average net gain showed in table 1 looks even almost irrelevant if we consider the whole political landscape, namely the electoral college system. indeed, the biggest gains are from vp nominees who came from states that were not up for grab, but solidly voting for their party. so, what’s the point for republicans – for instance – of winning alaska by 20 points instead of 10? or for democrats to secure delaware by a margin of 18 points instead of 10? in terms of winning the presidency, there is no sense. many of the last vp nominees came from “safe” states, where their victory was already sure since the beginning. the few latest exceptions were al gore in 1992 and 1996, jack kemp in 1996, john edwards in 2004 and paul ryan in 2012. except for gore, all lost their home state. and kemp and edwards even had a counter-productive effect, because they got a negative balance compared to their party’s previous performance in those states. going back a little, it is worthwhile to mention the walter mondale 1976’s success in minnesota, a state that four years earlier voted for nixon (but that voted for humphrey, johnson and kennedy previously). there are also other cases in the further past, but they all happened before the last political realignment (the one of the late -60’s-early -70’s) and so it is not that easy to make diachronic comparisons. it is difficult to draw general rules from this analysis. what it is sure is that many of the recent vp candidates came from non-competitive states and that the vp nominees’ effect in their home state is paltry. in general, it seems more common the idea that the vp candidate is chosen with the attempt to balance the ticket. it is a strategy that concerns the party’s inner balance and its necessity not to alienate some portions of the electorate. in these cases, the most employed tactic is to select moderate vp for radical presidential candidates (or vice versa), southern vp for northern candidate (or vice versa) or young vp for expert candidates (or vice versa). we have also seen how sometimes – especially in the past the vp process of selection is left to the party’s establishment or it is considered a minor issue. 99 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences vice presidential candidates in the american presidential elections on this point, we should bear in mind what statistics suggest: despite the low effective powers granted by article ii of the constitution, vice presidents usually have a bright future in front of them. since 1900, about 25 percent of the people nominated for vice president by republicans and democrats have later become presidential nominees themselves, and 15 percent have actually become president, whether by winning the office on their own or by succeeding an incumbent who died or resigned in office. references adkinson, daniel. 1982. “the electoral significance of the vice presidency,” presidential studies quarterly 12 (summer 1982): 330-36. ambrose, stephen e. 1987. nixon: the education of a politician 1913–1962. new york: simon & schuster. binning, william c., william c. larry, eugene esterly and paul a. sracic. 1999. encyclopedia of american parties, campaigns, and elections. westport, conn.: greenwood press, 1999. braden, maria. 1996. women politicians and the media. lexington: the university press of kentucky. caro, robert a. 2012. the passage of power. new york: alfred a. knopf. catledge, turner. 1940. “senator drafted: new party rulers pick veteran farm leader to balance ticket,” the new york times, 29 june. cohen, jeffrey e. 2001. “popular views of the vice president: vice presidential approval.” presidential studies quarterly 31: 142-49. cook political report. 2012. the relative vote index, 28 may, url: http://cookpolitical.com/user/login?destination=/presidential/charts (retrieved 11 may 2013). devine, christopher, and kyle kopko. 2011. “the vice presidential home state advantage reconsidered: analyzing the interactive effect of home state population and political experience, 18842008,” presidential studies quarterly 41 (1): 1–17. devine, christopher, and kyle kopko. 2013. “presidential versus vice presidential home state advantage: a comparative analysis of electoral significance, causes, and processes, 18842008,” presidential studies quarterly 43: 814–838. disalvo, daniel. 2010. “the politics of a party faction: the liberal-labor alliance in the democratic party, 1948-1972,” journal of policy history 22: 269-299. ferraro, geraldine and catherine whitney. 1998. framing a life: a family memoir. new york: scribner. ferraro, geraldine. 2004. my story. evanston: northwestern university press. gellman, irwin. 1999. the contender. new york: the free press. glass, andrew. 2007. “ferraro joins democratic ticket july 12, 1984”, the politico, 12 july. goldman, peter and tony fuller. 1995. the quest for the presidency 1984. new york: bantam books. goldstein, joel. 2007. “presidential ticket-balancing.” in the american midwest: an interpretive encyclopedia, eds. richard sisson, christian zacher and andrew clayton. indianapolis: indiana university press. grofman bernard, and reuben kline. 2010. “evaluating the impact of vice presidential selection on voter choice,” presidential studies quarterly 40(2): 303-309. gruhl, john , sue thomas, susan m. rigdon and susan welch. 2012. understanding american government. wadsworth: cengage learning. 100 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. morini hatfield, mark o. 1997. “alben w. barkley (1949–1953)”. in vice presidents of the united states, 1789-1993. washington, d.c.: u.s. government printing office. hersh, seymour m. 1997. the dark side of camelot. boston: little, brown & company. knuckey, jonathan. 2012. “the “palin effect” in the 2008 u.s. presidential election,” political research quarterly 65 (2): 275-289. libbey, james k. 1979. dear alben: mr. barkley of kentucky. lexington, kentucky: the university press of kentucky. mencken, henry l. and george j. nathan. 1929. the american mercury. new york: alfred a. knopf. mieczkowski, yanek and mark christopher carnes. 2001. the routledge historical atlas of presidential elections. new york: routledge. miller fitzgerald, libby. 2004. bill miller—do you know me?: a daughter remembers. lynchburg, va: warwick house publishers. morrow, lance. 1984. “why not a 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on presidential vote choice, yesterday and today,” american politics research 38 (2): 330-355. wattenberg, martin p. 1995. “the role of vice presidential candidate ratings in presidential voting behavior,” american politics research 23 (october 1995): 504-14. wattenberg, martin p., and bernard grofman. 1993. “a rational choice model of the president and vice-president as a package deal.” in information, participation, and choice: an economic theory of democracy in perspective, ed. bernard grofman. ann arbor: university of michigan press: 173-77. microsoft word 6. mete gundogan privatization, competition and beyond.doc epiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 4 spring 2010   privatization, competition and beyond    mete gündoğan  international university of sarajevo      introduction  privatization in general can be seen as transferring or selling state owned  enterprises  (soe)  or  assets  to  individuals  or  private  firms.  ever  since  britain  began its  large‐scale privatization program in the early 1980s, many countries  have  experienced privatization  on a  massive scale  but  in  different  ways. both  developing and developed countries are putting up entire sectors for sale; they  are  selling  even  the  enterprises,  once  considered  vitally  and  indisputably  important  for  nation,  such  as  railways,  national  airlines,  telecommunications,  electricity production and distribution, and tap waters etc.  privatization  not  only  results  only  in  the  transfer  of  state  assets  to  the  private  enterprises,  but  it  also  abolished  the  state  monopoly,  relaxing  the  restrictions on private‐sector activities and allowing the entry of more private  firms  into the market. reducing the economic role of  the government through  privatization is expected to lead to an improvement in the economy’s potential  growth. the current global enthusiasm for privatization suggests that reduction  in the economic role of the government leads to economic efficiency and growth.  indeed, potential gains, as increases in efficiency, living standards and long run  growth, are substantial in many countries (schipke, a., 2001). most studies show  that countries that protect private property rights and rely on the private sector  to produce goods and services have a better track record in terms of their growth  performance than those that rely heavily on the public sector.   sometimes it is said that policy makers have embarked on the sale of assets  because of a change in their behaviour and have learnt much as a result of their  past  mistakes.  in  these  cases,  privatization  failures  may  be  attributed  to  shortcomings  in  the design and  implementation of  the privatization programs.  better advice could remedy these shortcomings in the case of ongoing of future  divestitures.   120 in  industrialized countries with developed capital market, cash strapped  governments facing with hard budget constraints resort to the sale of assets as a  means of financing. fiscal issues seem to be a key determinant of privatization.  financing  government  expenditures  through  the  sale  of  assets  encounters  the  least political resistance. governments that maintain a given level of expenditure  but  reduce  the  publicly  visible  deficit  through  privatization  may  even  be  politically rewarded.   one of the other key determinants of privatization is related to balance of  payments, crises and monetary policy. it can serve as an additional instrument for  dealing with temporary surges in capital inflows.   however,  counter  processes  can  also  be  existed  in  the  failure.  level  of  overstaffing  in  public  enterprises  suggests  that  profit‐driven  private  investors  who are  free  to  reduce  the  labour  force are  likely  to do so. the  lack of wage  flexibility  and  rigidities  and  imperfections  of  the  labour  market  results  in  temporary, if not permanently, higher unemployment rates. if divestiture is not  associated with tangible improvements in the structure of the economy as well as  in the living conditions of the population, there is always a risk of government  intervention  and  renationalization  of  the  privatized  industries  by  the  disillusioned public.    transformation through privatization  according to nestor and mahboobi (2000), transformation through privatization  can  be  studied  from  four  such  different  point  as  political/philosophical,  institutional/corporate governance structures, economic/industrial organization,  and financial. all of them are important to understand the fundamental change  that is currently occurring on a global scale in the area of utilities.  as  to  the  four  points  above,  first,  governments  seemed  to  have  recognized  politically what economists have long preached. consumer welfare depends on  efficiency  with  competing  producers  in  factors  and  product  markets  and  on  higher  productive  efficiency  in  the  use  of  inputs  by  individual  firms  through  better incentives and finance mechanisms.  secondly, privatization  is also a  response  to  the  institutional  failings of public  governance.  transparency  in  arms‐length  relations  has  become  much  cheaper  due  to  progress  in  information  technology.  this  implies  that  the  arms‐length  regulation is now less costly than the outright ownership. corporate governance  of widely‐held private companies  is also becoming more effective.  information  121 asymmetries  between  shareholders  and  companies  are  becoming  less  pronounced,  so  that  the  corporate  control  can  be  more  efficiently  exercised  through the markets.  better corporate governance improves productive efficiency in individual firms  by allowing for a better utilization of resources and more transparent allocation  of financial resources. the biggest incentive for improving efficiency is, of course,  coming from competitors. technological innovation, deregulation and openness  to  foreign  investment  have  been  driving  forces  in  introducing  competition  in  utilities.  in the 1950s and 1960s,  lack of financial resources in the private sector made  utilities  and  infrastructures  come  under  the  government’s  purview.  financial  markets  were  fragmented  into  closed  national  areas  with  low  liquidity  and  insufficient  savings.  similarly,  the  alternative  of  printing  money  proved  to  be  catastrophic as the oecd area went through its worst inflation spell twenty years  ago.  enterprises  found  themselves  contained  by  public  ownership  (moore,  j.  1986).   but  financial markets have changed enormously during the  last three decades.  financial market liberalization and globalization trends have intensified since the  beginning  of  the  1980s.  floating  exchange  rates  since  the  early  1970s  have  rendered  large budget deficits to  finance public  investment unsustainable. the  growing demand for new and better infrastructure services in a tight‐budgetary  environment paved the way for greater private sector involvement in funding and  providing  such  services,  as  a  means  of  reducing  governments’  budgetary  exposure.    turkish experience  turkish privatization has proceeded in a slow and incremental manner; it began  after 1984 and slowed in the 1990s but boosted in the 2000s. consequences of  the last phase have not been clear yet (cizre, u. and yeldan, e. 2005). it would not  result in any change as for the aggregate output in a permanent way, as discussed  by bacchiocchi, e. and florio, m. (2008) for the uk.  turkey launched its comprehensive economic liberalization program under the  name of ‘structural adjustment reform’ in january 1980. the world bank and imf  had a crucial influence on the pattern of the reform program. privatizing of public  assets, creating a “flexible” labour market, replacing producer price subsidies in  122 agriculture  with  direct  income  transfer  program  were  the  main  issues  of  the  structural adjustment (onis, z. 1991).  privatization of soes emerged as an official state ideology after this liberalization  program. the main ideological pillar of the initial attempts was announced as a  matter  of  improving  efficiency  in  production  and  reducing  “excessive”  employment and waste in the state enterprise system.  privatization  attempts  have  started  in  the  beginning  of  1984  by  the  law  numbered  2983  that  defines  the  transfer  of  shares,  bonds,  profits  and  management  rights  to  the  private  entities.  in  a  decade,  nearly  ten  legal  amendments and procedures have been made until the year 1994.   in  1994,  the  principles,  procedures,  authorized  agencies  and  other  issues  regarding privatization are all set out in the privatization law numbered 4046.  by  this  law,  an  adequate  framework,  funds  and  appropriate  mechanisms  to  speed up the privatization and restructuring processes have all been provided.  the  scope  of  assets  to  be  privatized  has  also  been  expanded.  two  structural  institutions, namely the privatization higher council (phc) and the privatization  administration  (pa),  have  been  established  to  facilitate  and  enhance  decision  making processes.  the phc, headed by the prime minister and consists of four related ministers, is  the ultimate decision making body. it nominates soes to be privatized together  with the procedures and then gives final approval of the selling or transferring.  the pa, on the other hand, is the executive body for the privatization processes. it  is a legal public entity with an exclusive budget and accountable directly to the  prime minister.   the pa (oib, 2010) has set the privatization policy not only to minimize state  involvement in economic activities and relieve the financial burden of soes on  the national budget but also to contemplate the development of capital markets  and re‐channel resources towards new investments (onis, z. 1991). but it is also  aware of the difficulty in having such an economy without a strong and healthy  capital  market.  in  order  to  obtain  these  achievements,  on  one  hand,  foreign  investors are encouraged to invest  in the turkish capital market; on the other  hand,  divesting  soes  is  resulting  in  reducing  budget  deficit.  this  is  also  considered a positive contribution to capital market.        123 privatization methods  companies  are  privatized  through  the  use  of  one  or  more  of  the  methods  as  follows:  transfer  of  the  ownership  of  companies  in  full  or  partial,  transfer  of  shares  of  these  companies  through  domestic  or  international  public  offerings,  block  sales  to  real  and/or  legal  entities,  block  sales  including  deferred  public  offerings, sales to employees, sales on the stock exchanges by standard or special  orders, sales to investment funds and/or securities investment partnerships by  taking into consideration the prevailing conditions of the companies.  leasing, granting operational or management rights, establishing property rights  other  than  ownership  are  also  valid  methods  of  privatization.  in  coordination  with the pa, such soes as turkish telecom, mobile licenses and state banks were  privatized by different governmental agencies.     privatization implementations between 1984­2009  privatization  implementations  have  started  in  1984  with  the  transfer  of  incomplete plants of the soe’s to the private sector for completion. in this way, 6  public plants were sold to different investors, and 9 plants were transferred to  municipalities or to state enterprises on the book value.  since  1985,  state  shares  in  270  companies,  103  establishment,  22  incomplete  plants, 8 toll motorways, 2 bosporus bridges, 1 service unit and 524 real estates  and 6 ports have been taken into the privatization portfolio. after a while, some  of the companies, and real estates were excluded from the portfolio for various  reasons.  two  of  these  were  turkish  teacher’s  bank  which  merged  with  halk  bank  in  may  1992  and  navigation  bank  which  merged  with  emlak  bank  in  november 1992.  in 1986, privatization implementations have gained momentum and since then,  199 companies have been privatized, and no more government shares exist  in  188 of them.   figure  below  shows  the  privatization  implementations  in  between  1985  and  2009 (oib, 2010).  124     since 1985 until today, the total proceed from the privatization implementations  is recorded as usd 38.6 billion (oib, 2010). the total revenue generated from  entities  within  the  privatization  program  between  1985‐december  2004,  together with usd 2.3 billion dividend income and usd 3.4 billion other income,  has amounted to usd 14.3 billion. in the same period, total privatization expenses  were usd 13.9 billion.   the largest item in privatization expenditures (with about 98%) is the transfer to  the treasury and financing of the companies in the privatization portfolio in the  form of capital  increases and  loans. great amount of  these  transfers was  then  stopped.    privatization gross revenues 1986-2007 2008 2009 total ($) ($) $ ($) block sale 18.159.166.639 2.040.000.000 0 20.199.166.639 asset sale 5.436.953.645 2.346.123.974 2.273.824.755 10.056.902.374 public offering 5.180.202.610 1.911.000.000 0 7.091.202.610 i.s.e. sale 1.261.053.768 0 0 1.261.053.768 incomp leted asset sale 4.368.792 0 0 4.368.792 total 30.041.745.454 6.297.123.974 2.273.824.755 38.612.694.183   ise: istanbul stock exchange     125 as results of privatization, the state economy no longer accounts for the majority  of economic output. the state has also gradually lost its monopoly of resources,  control and allocation. considering the privatization implementations for the last  15 years, one would observe that:   • state completely withdrew from cement, animal feed production, milk‐ dairy  products,  forest  products,  civil  handling  and  catering  services  and petroleum distribution sectors.   • more than 50 % of the state shares were privatized in tourism, iron  and steel, textile, sea freight and meat processing sectors.  • state has withdrawn from most of the ports and petroleum refinery  sector.  • privatization  of  public  banks  has  commenced  with  sümerbank  and  continued  with  etibank,  denizbank  and  anadolu  bank.  the  international and domestic offering of  the 12.3 % state shares  in  i̇ş  bank in may 1998, has been the largest public offering in turkey until  that  time and recorded as one of  the  largest privatization proceeds  among the emerging european markets.  • public  shares  in  netaş  and  tofaş  were  issued  to  foreign  investors  through international public offering for the first time, which served as  a driving  force of  the  integration of  istanbul stock exchange’s (ise)  with foreign capital markets.  • public  shares  in  many  companies  were  issued  to  the  public,  particularly  in  the  beginning  of  this  decade  and  this  enhanced  the  institutionalization of ise (oib, 2010);     currently,  on  the  privatization  portfolio,  there  are  more  than  15  companies  including  52  run‐on  river  hydro  plants,  sugar  factories,  tobacco  products,  electricity  distribution,  petrochemicals,  telecommunication,  banking,  etc.  moreover,  the  phc has  recently  put  motorways  and  bridges  and  many  state’s  railways’ ports in the privatization portfolio.    privatization and competition  privatization and competition should be complementary to each other although it  may  take  several  years  to  build  up  a  market‐based  institutional  framework  (sondhof,  h.  1999).  privatization  can  and  should  occur  as  a  consequence  of  126 competition (liu, g.s. and garino, g. 2001). privatization should be at the heart of  efforts  to  create  a  competitive  market  (matutes,  j.s.  2000).  in  other  words,  privatization  should  result  in  strengthening  competition  and  the  competition  should  encourage  privatization.  access  to  international  capital  markets  has  created  several  global,  competitive  companies  out  of  hitherto  inefficient  state  monopolies.  competition  and  privatization  are  sometimes  uneasy  policy  bedfellows.  incumbent firms may argue successfully that the purpose of privatization is to  strengthen  them,  through  a  vastly  increased  possibility  to  tap  international  capital  markets,  so  that  they  may  become  global  players.  but  they  need  to  maintain  their  dominant  position  at  home,  by  regulatory  or  other  de  facto  obstacles. this would create added gains for shareholders and thereby contribute  to  the  development  of  the  capital  markets  but  a  monopoly  would  still  be  the  “natural” outcome of the market.   policy makers have to weigh these “company” arguments against the longer term  goal  of  enhancing  competition  and  maximizing  consumer  welfare.  evidence  suggests that in the initial stages of privatization, they were far too sympathetic  towards companies, preserving competitors rather than competition.  after a decade of turkish privatization  implementations, a competition board,  consisting  of  11  members,  was  assigned  on  february  27,  1997  and  the  competition authority (ca) on november 5, 1997 as per article 20 of  the act  numbered 4054.  since 1997, the ca has issued a lot of procedures and guides for the applicability  of the act in competition field, most of which can be found on its web site (rk,  2010).   the  main  goal  of  the  competition  act  is  the  prohibition  of  cartels  and  other  restrictions on competition, prevention of abuse of dominant position by a firm  which has dominance in a certain market and prevention of the creation of new  monopolies by monitoring some merger and acquisition transactions. in order to  achieve this goal, the ca:  • penalizes undertakings which distort or prevent competition in the market,  through  examination  and  investigation  processes  subject  to  detailed  regulation,  • grants exemption to and prepares secondary regulations  for agreements  which  are  in  conflict  with  competition  rules  but  are  beneficial  for  the  economy and the consumers,  127 • prevents  monopolization  within  the  market  by  examining  mergers,  acquisitions and joint‐ventures over a certain threshold,  • in the privatization stage, examines the transfer of public undertakings to  the  private  sector,  and  through  privatization,  reduces  the  effects  of  the  state on  the economy while preventing monopolization  in  the areas  the  public sector exits,  • ensures  the dominance of competitive conditions within  the markets by  sending opinions on various acts and regulations which would negatively  affect  or  restrict  competition  in  the  markets  to  government  institutions  and organizations concerned (the competition authority, 2008).    conclusions  privatization  policies  have  multiple,  and  often  inter‐related  and  conflicting  political,  economic  and  financial  objectives  (guislain,  p.  1997).  they  must  be  evaluated according to political, social and economical structures and conditions  of the country concerned.  changing  the  corporate  governance  environment  of  soes  generally  results  in  improving their productive efficiency and performance by introducing incentives  based on private ownership rather than bureaucratic oversight. better incentives  structure and corporate governance are  important because they  lead to better  firm performance (brown, d., earle, j.s. and telegdy, a. 2006). people become less  dependent  upon  the  state  as  the  state  no  longer  monopolizes  most  economic  resources.  privatized  enterprises  are  freed  from  public  sector  constraints  on  investment.  they can tap the unlimited supply of the capital markets without any impact on  the  state  budget.  hence,  providing  better  access  to  finance  for  enterprises  generate higher levels of investment   public  sector  borrowing  requirements  and  public  debts  were  two  economic  indicators deteriorating the state budget because of the humble soes. privatizing  them  improves  alike  macroeconomic  indicators  and  medium  term  budgetary  revenues. besides, it is deepening the equity market and the creation of a wide  share  owning  class  and  is  boosting  the  role  of  equity  markets  as  a  means  of  channelling savings in the economy. another consequence of privatization is the  structural change of the state’s fiscal extraction. the percentage of government  revenue  with  respect  to  gdp  has  been  shrinking  due  to  the  reforms.  but  the  government,  instead, has strengthened the mechanisms for tax collection  from  128 the  private  sector.  redistribution  of  wealth  through  an  efficient  and  honest  taxation is required now than ever before. (ahrend, r. and winograd, c. 2006). if  privatization is seen solely as a means to reduce budgetary deficits and not as a  piece of the bigger puzzle of structural reforms, permanent political opposition  against privatization would emerge, and privatization attempts may be blocked  or under threat of reversal (staikouras, p. 2004).  in  turkish  case,  improving  public  finances  has  become  the  most  obvious  privatization objective. despite the difficult market conditions, approximately 30  billion  dollars  (29.132busd)  has  been  raised  in  privatization  proceeds.  the  importance of  these revenues for the government budget has been engaged in  meeting debt and deficit targets in the run up to the eu accession (yesilada, b.a.  2002).  at  the  same  time,  the  ca  is  trying  to  establish  a  free  and  sound  competitive  environment for the market for goods and services. but endeavours are not clear  for  the  production  factors  and  capital  markets.  this  would  be  because  of  its  inexperienced  or  immature  character.  by  the  time  elapsed,  regulations  and  interests can encompass these areas as well.  there seemed  no  direct  relationship  with  the  privatizations  endeavours  apart  from  examining  the  transfer  of  public  undertakings  to  the  private  sector  to  prevent monopolization in the areas the public sector exited.  introducing competition in a relatively closed market results in lowering prices  and increasing the quality of infrastructure products and services. in the context  of utilities, competition is often a primary and a “must‐be” objective. the reason  is two‐fold. contrary to other sectors, utility provision is often monopolistic for a  variety of reasons. secondly, utilities provide services that are important for the  well being of the economy, for consumer welfare and thus a highly visible priority  of any public policy. privatization offers an opportunity to break up monopolies  and to improve efficiency and consumer welfare.  the  preliminary  cost  is  a  loss  of  the  security  previously  granted  by  an  all‐ encompassing  state  through  soes.  therefore,  the  primary  consequence  of  unemployment  and  privatization  is  social  unrest.  a  variety  of  actions  against  bankruptcy, salary arrears, and the restructuring or sale of soes are reported.  actions  include  visits  to  government  offices,  demonstrations,  marches  in  and  blocking of streets, letters of complaint to officials, sit‐ins in front of government  buildings, petitions and protest rallies. such actions are occasionally more violent  including  sabotaging  factory  equipment,  attacking  offices,  committing  arson  against state property, and detaining, attacking managers and bosses.  129 since  privatization  is  still  under  way  in  turkey,  and  many  variables  and  uncertainties are evolved, any assessment of  its possible  long‐term effects can  only  be  tentative.  in  the  short  run,  pressures  coming  from  public  sector  borrowing requirements and public debts are released. it seems to be resulted in  relatively  better  debt  management.  but,  without  having  a  proper  competitive  market,  without  having  a  sound  social  security  system  and  without  having  a  profound  capital  market,  turkey  seems  to  be  a  bare‐foot  runner  in  its  privatization venture.     references    1. ahrend,  r.  and  winograd,  c.  (2006),  “the  political  economy  of  mass  privatization and imperfect taxation: winners and loosers”, public choice  (springer 2006) 126: 201–224.  2. bacchiocchi, e. and florio, m. (2008),” privatization and aggregate output:  testing  for  macroeconomic  transmission  channels”,  empirica,  35:  525‐ 545, springer science and business media, llc.  3. brown, d., earle,  j.s. and telegdy, a. (2006), “the productivity effects of  privatization: longitudinal estimates from hungary, romania, russia and  ukraine”,  journal  of political  economy,  vol.  114, no.  1, the univesity of  chicago.  4. cizre,  u.  and  yeldan,  e.  (2005),  “the  turkish  encounter  with  neo‐ liberalism: economics and politics in the 2000/2001 crises”, review of  international political economy, vol. 12, no. 3 (aug., 2005), pp. 387‐408.   5. guislain, pierre. (1997), “the privatization challenge”, the world bank.  6. liu, g.s.  and garino, g.  (2001),  “privatization  or  competition? a  lesson  learnt from the chinese enterprise reform”, economics of planning 34:  37‐51, kluwer academic publishers.  7. matutes,  j.s.  (2000),  “privatization  and  local  governments  in  mainland  china: a critical assessment”, intereconomics, may/june 2000.  8. moore,  jim. (1986), “why privatize”  in  john kay, colin mayer and david  thompson “privatization and regulation  ­ the u.k. experience” clarendon  press.  9. nestor, s. and mahboobi, l. (2000), "privatization of public utilities: the  oecd  experience",  privatization,  competition  and  regulation,  oecd  publications, oecd, paris, pp.13‐49.   10. oib.  (2010),  özelleştirme  i̇daresi  başkanlığı,  the  privatization  administration  of  the  turkish  republic  web  page;  http://www.oib.gov.tr/index_eng.htm   11. onis, z. (1991), “the evolution of privatization in turkey: the institutional  context of public‐enterprise reform”, journal of middle east studies, vol.  23, no. 2, pp. 163‐176 published by: cambridge university press.  130 12. rk. (2010), türkiye rekabet kurulu, the turkish competition authority  web page; http://www.rekabet.gov.tr/index.php?lang=en   13. schipke, a., (2001), “why do governments divest?: the macroeconomics of  privatization”, springer, berlin.  14. sondhof,  h.  (1999),  “privatization  policy  in  russia”,  intereconomics,  september/october 1999.  15. staikouras, p. (2004), “structural reform policy: privatization and beyond  – the case of greece”, european journal of law and economics, 17: 373– 398, 2004, kluwer academic publishers.  16. the competition authority. (2008), 11th annual report, 2008, ankara.  17. yesilada, b.a. (2002), “ turkey's candidacy for eu membership”, middle  east journal, vol. 56, no. 1, (winter, 2002), pp. 94‐111.    104 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences a survey of family transformations in bosnia and herzegovina selvira draganovic international university of sarajevo abstract globalization has strong impact on individuals and societies at large and family as most the most essential and fundamental cell in society is no exception. nowadays, family has lost some of its basic internal functions whilst widespread and all present technological aids, strong needs for independence and individualism furthermore contribute to estrangement of and family members’ alienation. at the same time, status and roles of family members within family are changing as well. despite these global trends and changes, family continues to be considered the most essential and supremely significant social institution, which gratifies and serves many individual and collective functions. this paper surveys family systems and transformations in bosnia and herzegovina, especially post-war and contemporary family developments. keywords: bih; family; counseling and psychotherapy; family transformations; post-war family. introduction family has always been a subject of interest of social as well as natural sciences. in its essence and nature, family consists of individuals whose genetic and psychological makeup influences its existence, functioning and internal dynamics. family itself, alongside those composing it, creates larger social picture and society in general, and both are subject to numerous trends and changes. diverse local, individual and global trends and changes affect family and its members in a different way whereas unhealthy (dysfunctional) families tend to be less resilient and less able to resist them. healthy family, on the other hand, succeeds to fully fulfill its basic functions, creates the best conditions for growth and maturity, self assertion and self expression for its members and has clear norms for internal and intra-familial roles (sedrakyan, 2014). thus, healthy family tends to be more resilient and serves as foundation for a healthy and strong society. d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 24 5 105 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences family members constitute society members. good/healthy family (healthy familial relations) contributes to stable and healthy society. healthy relationships lead to better life (life quality). healthy relationships (including familial relationships) are a vital component of health and wellbeing and great source of support. the research indicates compelling evidence that strong and healthy relationships contribute to a long, healthy, and happy life. on the contrary, the health risks from being alone or isolated in one’s life are comparable to the risks associated with cigarette smoking, blood pressure, and obesity whilst having no or low social support is linked to a number of health consequences, such as depression, decreased immune function, higher blood pressure (holt-lustand et. al, 2010). the term social support often appears in discussions of relationship and means having friends and other people, including family, to turn to in times of need or crisis to give a broader focus and positive self-image. thus, good and healthy family relations and social support enhance quality of life and provide a defense against adverse life events. latest developments and variations related to family life in a form of cohabitation, communes, single family units, increased divorce rate, new marriage, single parenthood, joint custody of children, families without children, abortions and families with spouses who have two careers (jagger and wright, 1999) have jeopardized family and given her a completely new shape. some researchers are warning that family is in danger or is threatened to completely extinct (marsh et. all., 2006). despite this, as old and current research on family shows, all societies have some form of family and marital contracts. hence, we can say that family remains to be universal institution with great likelihood to prevail but its form can be a subject of great variations. scientists of different backgrounds not only apply diverse approaches in family study but also define family differently. sociologists, as scientists most closely related to family by its simplest definition, traditionally view family as a social group whose members are related by ancestors, marriage or adoption, live together and economically collaborate (murdock, 1949, in marsh et all. 2006). psychologists, on the other hand, being those who are more related to inner psychic states and condition maintain that, it is psychological bond and intimacy per se that what makes a family. focusing more on psychological concepts, psychologists study family as intimately interrelated group in which members take care of one another, respect one another (lauer and lauer, 2000, in hughes and kroehler, 2012) and help each other to satisfy and 106 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences fulfill basic physical as well as emotional needs. satisfaction of basic emotional needs, attachment, bonding and care are core concepts in psychological investigation and study of family and familial relations. besides, family plays very important role in establishing of personal identity of an adult and his/her roles whereas family gives framework for realizing personal safety, stability, aim towards objectives, purpose, success, self actualization, realization of self values and intimacy (čudina – obradović and obradovic, 2006). these needs and functions are still best served and fulfilled by and within family. the conception of family in bosnia and herzegovina considering cultural and historic specificity of bosnian society, socio-political and psychological impact of recent war, current socioeconomic and political conditions, high divorce and low marriage rates (fzzs, 2014), as well as impact of other, global changes and forces currently characterizing bosnian society, bih family battles a number of challenges. demography numbers indicate that current bosnian society is characterized by increased mortality and decreased birth rate during the past decades (fzzs, 2014) and aging population. according to some estimates, bih will soon become a country of old people due to the ageing of population (pejanovic, 2005). at the same time, although bih has been affected by global positive changes and developments, it still belongs to a very traditional society with deeply and strongly rooted patriarchal ideology. global socio-economic changes which have left some impact on bih society as well, indicate presence of conflict between individualistic and traditional values leading to weakening of traditionalism and patriarchy, women empowerment and presence at the labor market, women becoming more independent (draganovic, 2015). this also indicates presence of significant role restructuring within family (man are no longer sole breadwinners, women, on the top of being mothers and wives have become employees as well etc). attention and research interest of local scientists studying family and family relations during the past two decades was mostly directed towards children and youth, violence and/or war trauma (beridan, 1997; haverić, 2000; pašalić-kreso, 2004; letić i ivanović, 2012, babović i saradnici, 2013; alić, 2008). only a few focused their investigation on family (pašalić-kreso, 2004), or namely divorce, (silajdžić, 1973; begović, 2007; habul, 2000, draganovic, 2015). s. draganović 107 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences in view of family having the most vital role in individual and societal wellbeing and functioning, we ought to point to its possible threats and challenges. healthy and good functioning society has strong, stable and healthy family and vice versa. bearing in mind the aforementioned current issues and factors in bih society, its most crucial unit, family, faces a number of important challenges. taking into consideration that families constitute society, applying rather old fashioned approach we will start with discussing general societal challenges (transition of bih society) which we further explain by bih family transformation and finally ending in discussing more specific personal or individual (psychological in nature) challenges of contemporary living style in bih. serious society’s shifts in bih began during the socialism times as a result of radically changed social structure, speedy industrialization of the country, mass movements of its citizens in direction village-towns, weakening of patriarchal family and patriarchal moral. at the same time, the state in its constitution proclaimed equality, what enabled larger number of women to educate and get employment. strong social and political turmoil during the early nineties resulted in transitional processes. however, besides this regular transition of bosnian society we also need to discuss psychological transition of bih and its citizens which encompass transition of conscience, attitudes and behavior. many bosnians who experienced the life in socialist system often talk about it with nostalgia disregarding and forgetting negative sides of it. this nostalgia usually results in psychological impairment or behavior nostalgia which, in psychological terminology described, indicates presence of defense mechanism in a form of denial (denying reality). this is closely related to serious issues related to personal and social identity, inability to healthy adjust to the new system and inability to prosper and move further. a number of parallel processes characteristic to countries in transition are still going on in bih. firstly, bih society is still exposed to a number of external forces (bih strives towards european union membership, eu conditions and pressures bih towards socio-economic development and progress) and influences and internal changes which shape up its value system (with declaration of its independence from ex yugoslavia in 1992 bih changed from socialist into democratic society). these processes and changes have direct and/or indirect impact on family system. as a part of larger social context, family and its system and structure are also exposed to these processes indicating family transformation from a survey of family transformations in b&h 108 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences traditional (very patriarchal) into modern (more democratic). however, traditional power relations and social and cultural roles in family and norms in society were strongly reinforced during former yugoslav wars whereas gender identities/roles were extremely polarized with men being perceived as warriors and women as mothers and victims (isanovic, 2006). as kuburic (2001) states, for centuries, mothers subconsciously, intuitively raise their sons for male dominance (p. 186) paving the way for patriarchal ideology. considering this, we may state that bih society is still characterized by strongly and deeply rooted patriarchal values and attitudes indicating presence of patriarchal family type/form. the family transformations in bosnia and herzegovina contemporary bih family is patriarchal in nature. patriarchal type of family organization, as noted by kosović (1987) is characterized by economic function of family as basic manufacturing unit with strong and clear work division and emphasized hierarchal organization in which the oldest male person was in extremely privileged position in relation to other family members. hierarchal structure is shaped by important biologically determined criteria, gender, age, whilst men is considered more superior being and the authority of the eldest member was inviolable. women in patriarchal family had the lowest rank which implied performing hardest jobs (and their work and contribution is frequently undermined or unrecognized). in addition, position of a woman in patriarchal family has been made more difficult by numerous births and the fact that she was economically dependent on others as well. patriarchal family in which a number of generations live together considering different position and roles within bih patriarchal family two struggles happen. on one side there are those who want to get rid of patriarchy and traditionalism whilst, at the same time, there are those wanting to preserve the myth of patriarchal bih family, creating intra and extra familial conflict for a number of reasons. preserving the myth of patriarchal (multi generational family) in fact neglects numerous difficulties faced by bih family which are linked to economic and social conditions and current position of women/ mother in family system. recent war with its impact created unique socio-economic conditions (unemployment rate in bih is 48%, bih has significant number of orphans, incomplete families (partially due to the war/loses and partly due to divorce), in bih which brought up s. draganović 109 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences many changes on individual and societal level. these specific socioeconomic conditions influenced the change of family structure, family relations and family functions. many bih families (war veterans, single parents, unemployed and internally displaced for example) fail to fulfill one of its basic internal functions, the economic function. with the loss of economic function of family social position of family also changes. family is very important for personal functioning and wellbeing of an individual family members and society in general. when families’ foremost economic function and significance is considerably decreased family cohesion is at stake what leads to the increased level of individualization of family members which in turn may result in complex family dynamics and family relations (multiple or polyvalent roles…) this may result in intra-familial conflicts (those advocating traditionalists and democratic ideology, generational gap, misunderstanding between generations) and the lack of its resolution. bih is also characterized by the myth of contemporary (democratic) family in which women’s employment contributes to the change of family organization and roles within family or intra-familial roles and statuses. contemporary or modern family is characterized by changes in family form. unlike traditional family where more family members (even generations) live under the same roof, contemporary family consists of small number of family members (nuclear family consisting mostly of parents and children (sedrakyan, 2014). one of the main characteristics of modern family is egalitarian family roles of spouses based on equality and justice. thus, democratic family form contributes to the quality of family relations in general. at the same time, the authority of a husband and father has significantly decreased in contemporary (democratic) family form whereas the main mechanism of interaction between parents and children or “interacting pipes” happens two ways: a) father affects children through the mother and, b) mother affects children through father (sedrakyan, 2014). this shapes family structure and roles and the way of distribution of intrafamilial responsibilities. women’s emancipation by which she gets certain freedom and responsibility coming from it contributes to the increase of individualism, what changes familial relations overall. contemporary bih family still holds the elements of traditional patriarchal family characterized by strong family morality what makes its structure less strong. traditional family morality can be so strong that its traces can be seen even in people who are genuine holders of new, a survey of family transformations in b&h 110 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences more humane understanding of family life and living (dizdarević, 2002) hence strongly influencing family dynamics and relations (often causing conflict between traditionalists and modernist). traditionalists tend to maintain lifestyle and social roles characteristic to previous generation (insisting on reputation of fathers and grandfathers, implementation of strict negative sanctions). traditional values in modern (nuclear) families have been greatly lost. modern families mainly focus on personal abilities and realization of personal goals and motivation to act independently (sedrakyan, 2014). in spite of these changes women still hold roles of mothers and wives. this puts women in a position of still performing the key roles in family. observed from larger perspective, position of bih women within larger social context cannot be considered equal. the reasons for this may partly be due to the strongly rooted patriarchal ideology in bih society and partly due to the current socio-economic and political conditions in bih (women’s polyvalent/multiple roles to name at least one). family transformation changes may be the sources of conflicts based on family roles and structures within contemporary (modern) bih family (mostly conflicts between spouses). conflict between spouses which have been made even more complex by differences in intellectual and educational levels, personality/character and sexual incompatibilities, material difficulties as well as different value systems shaped by attitudes, forms and culture of family of origin and parenting issues. parenting issues occur due to the loss of parents’ authority on one hand and parental neglecting children’s need for independence on the other, as well as parental busyness with work and occupational tasks (both parents have to work long hours to provide for basic family needs, a problem more evident and present in societies with low socioeconomic status like bosnia) what leaves children unattended, left to themselves, the street, media or peer influence (ziga, 2012). family system is inevitable continuously exposed to numerous social and intra-familial changes which are unstoppable and necessary. multitude and vehemence of these changes demand sociopsychological adjustment of family and its members and, at the same time, are great sources of individual, familial and societal stress which, in a different way, influence family system and structure and society in general (destabilizing them). this indicates the need and inevitability of social phenomenon in a form of family socio-psychological transformation. as stated by dizdarevic (2002), no other social phenomenon, „demands s. draganović 111 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences such subtlety and sensibility as the process of socio psychological transformation of family“ (p. 82.). youth have a special role in this process (dizdarević, 1978), whereby they should also show care and critical and constructive attitude in this process. non critical acceptance of sudden changes which diffract over the borders of family system makes creation of family identity more difficult and represents the challenge to the family existence and intra-familial functions and roles. socio-psychological transformation of family in bih society is linked to the current social and economic changes in our area which have been intensified in war and post war period. war losses and sufferings and post war difficulties like exile, displacement, problems of return to pre-war homes and problems of co-existence, mass privatization of economy formerly owned by the state, growing unemployment, impacts of war traumas, growing number of suicide and violent and delinquent behavior, emigration, decline in natural population growth are only a few contemporary and current issues of bih society today. taking into account that family is an assumption of existence of each and every individual, the foundation of socialization and prerequisite to mental health of an individual its survival is vital to healthy society. strong impacts of above enlisted issues in bih society shook or have destroyed previous stability of our family (beridan, 1997, pašalić-kreso, 2004). destruction of bih family as a result of war can be seen in number of families in which the mother is sole provider and breadwinner. compared to the pre war condition, the number of single parents in federation of bih only currently has increased thirteen times, the number of families without fathers also increased ten times and families without mothers also increased 2, 5 times, and almost 3000 children live without both parents, (pašalić-kreso, 2004). at the same time, poverty is currently the most striking characteristic of bih society which most directly affects families. over 30% of families live in extreme poverty and 50 % of them have monthly income below existential minimum (pašalić-kreso, 2004). insufficient, or even complete lack of support from the state institutions to these families and large unemployment rate (unemployment rate according to some estimates is 48%, fzzs, 2014) further complicates conditions in bih society especially in incomplete families and/or single parent families). today’s parents in bosnia, mothers especially, participate more in so called „grey economy“ in order to increase family income and more and more children are left to themselves. a survey of family transformations in b&h 112 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences inevitable changes brought by aforementioned conditions contribute to prevalence of damaged family relations and unacceptable behavior like violence, delinquency and criminal. damaged family relations in bih families further might be contributing factors in delinquent and criminal acts, criminal relapse and family violence. besides, immediate war impacts and other changes during the last decades resulted in increased number of young boys who discontinued schooling (usually unemployed or do very low paid jobs) and who have difficulties to form a marriage because they cannot provide the basic conditions for it (pašalić-kreso, 2004). also, birth rate and natural population growth in the past decade also significantly decreased. due to the decrease of natural population growth (negative rate lasts longer) more people die than there are born citizens in bih in post war period. due to that and to the economic necessity, looking for employment in developed countries of europe, bosnia and herzegovina since the year 2000 became the country with intensive depopulation (pejanović, 2005). in addition, the long term impacts of recent war in bih continue to influence and shape our society and family structure and roles in particular (reflected in number of physical and mental health diseases, incomplete families (without one parent due to war or divorce), second marriages (stepchildren, stepsiblings etc.), internally and externally forcedly displaced family members (diaspora). pašalić kreso (2004) with her research entitled „changes in my family in the past 5-10 years“discovered that recent war still takes striking place in her students’ answers. thus, we may conclude that there are still traumatic impacts of war and post war experiences of bih citizens on family and its members. exposure of an individual to traumatic events may result in impaired mental health but those impacts might get mitigated and alleviated if relationships within family are good. however, considering current socio-psychological conditions of bih citizens (personal traumas, ptsd, not seeking help, displaced /separated family members (living in different countries even continents, meeting with family members annually or once in two years) that many parents and youth experienced numerous and multiple traumas, the trust in many families has been impaired. due to own (unresolved and untreated) personal traumas, family members may be are focused on own pain and suffering. personal trauma could be a challenge, enough by itself, to shake not only stability of bih family but also its member’s mental/psychological state. s. draganović 113 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences professionals from the field of psychological services and mental health (psychotherapists) often speak of trauma transmission from generation to generation (trans-generational trauma), which they notice and observe in their professional work of dealing with clients, indicating seriousness of this issue. the crisis of paternal (parental function) due to the personal trauma is contemporary challenge bosnian family members must learn to deal with. although transmission of memories in the post-war context of bosnia and herzegovina as suggested by jordanova (2012) is not a clear-cut process, still one may notice its presence in bih society in terms of fragmentation of history, handicapped sense of selfhood and belonging in children and a crisis of the paternal function in the family (jordanova, 2012) and impaired personal skills, indicating personal challenge of family members. post-war family in bosnia and herzegovina transition, war, post war period in bih (marked by huge socio – political issues even twenty years after the war), present serious long term stressors that might have made many bosnians permanently vulnerable. many bosnian families are incomplete (due to loss in war, divorce, some separated during and after the war (half of bih population now lives in diaspora all over the world). living in bosnia in current socio-political conditions is very demanding (many families live below poverty line, many elderly and young people are unemployed, with and without degrees), health insurance is free but medical treatments are very expensive (number of serious physical illnesses not possible to treat within bih health care system so citizens seek help elsewhere, forced to appeal to the public to collect and raise money), complex administration (getting anything done requires hours of going from institution to institution, place to place (absence from work)... nine-years primary school system with very demanding school plan and program which children frequently cannot answer to on their own and parents must step in to help children finish many projects. instead of spending quality family time relaxing, family time has become job/task oriented, presenting pressure (even conflict) to children and parents. intra-familial relations (between parents and children) are polarized whereas family members struggle to fulfill their roles, each struggle uniquely on their own what in turn influences the quality of their relations. a survey of family transformations in b&h 114 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences at the same time, vulnerability due to being affected by severe trauma (recent war in bih) or not being resilient or not having learned the skills to cope generally, present great psychological wound which might impair one’s ability to cope with current threats and demands of life. recent research shows that young bosnians perceive recent war to be one of the biggest changes in their family life (pasalic-kreso, 2004). one has to remember that the youth in this research became adults (most probably formed own families by now) and if they did not seek help or learned how to deal with their vulnerabilities, they pass it on to own children (permanent psychological wound and trans-generational trauma). having psychological wounds requires specific skills to cope with ordinary demands of daily life and stresses and multiple roles within family and society. lack of psychological skills (in individuals) and lack of public awareness and systematic strategies to help the needy negatively influence family life. due to this, family members might be lacking psychological maturity and responsibility (due to wrong role models or unavailability of good role models). avoiding personal responsibility (pointing fingers to „others”, schools, law enforcement forces, judicial system), finding guilt for individual and societal violence, aggression, bullying, delinquency problems (forgetting personal role and contribution to problems), might be due to this psychological vulnerability. many current bih families and members grew and developed under severe traumatic conditions (war, displacement, refugee, camps, parental loss, and family separation), what has influenced their physical and psychological growth (forming and deforming their personality). all these factors influence family members, their ability to function within family, perform their roles and deal with family conflict. family conflicts are inevitable and require skills to overcome and deal with them successfully otherwise family crisis occurs which erodes family (preventing family to perform its basic function) which negatively reflect in society as well. family conflicts are sometimes caused by contemporary living style. current picture indicate that structure of many bih families has eroded (number of single parents with single mothers increased due to war losses and or death of a spouse, divorce etc). many lack healthy family models (more and more incomplete families), lack of healthy familial relations, roles within family changed (more mothers employed s. draganović 115 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences and fathers unemployed), parents are busy earning for family, children are left alone, many parents in complete families have multiple roles to perform (indicating great sources of stress). at the same time, focus on materialism (acquisition of wealth), individualism and individual wishes (egoism and egocentrism, personal happiness) might be sources of conflict within and between family members (pressured to succeed, parents at work and professionally, children at school, children demanding to have a lot of material goods, parents to provide them). family is most important social and very important psychological institution in which many psycho-emotional and physiological needs should be satisfied. considering that most people have and or are part of a family, thus have some kind of relations with other, psychological importance of family lies in the fact that good family and intra familial relation serve as a foundation of good or ill wellbeing (mental health) and is a great source of social support whilst, social alienation (old and schwartz, 2010) is an inevitable result of contemporary society’s preoccupation with materialism and frantic “busyness” indicating that lack of relationships can cause multiple problems with physical, emotional, and spiritual health. young people in bosnia though, for example, perceive less parental support and report having difficulties in family relations (haverić, 2000). all these are indicators of impaired and eroded mental health of bih family members and its functions (contact and communication is very important intra-familial function and seems to be lacking in our society). as a result, another important internal function is endangered: ensuring social-psychological conditions necessary for development and maturation, which might also be lacking in families with unresolved mental health conditions, which in turn might be sources of conflicts between family members. so, family might be the source of stress and conflict instead of being a place of conflict resolution. end result of this conflict might be impairment or erosion of other internal family functions, namely socialization and emotionalidentification. impairment and or „erosion „of socialization-education and emotional-identification function of family is a result of current developments in contemporary bih society because society is not ready to overtake that. personality socialization, shaping the value system of children, economic and social care, as žiga (2012) states, used to be „family concern“ and no longer is. a survey of family transformations in b&h 116 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences in view of all the aforementioned we can say that bih family is still in the process of transition from traditional to contemporary (with deeply rooted patriarchal ideology). father is no longer the sole breadwinner and women, with their employment, have spread their primary roles of being wives, mothers and housewives and have also become significant holders of economic stability of a family. this calls for family duty and responsibility redistribution and obligations of a married couple. we may notice that expectations of a man and women related to the family gradually started to change which used to be shaped by traditional (patriarchal) models on family functioning brought from family of origin. thus, a woman wants to be equal which is in accordance with her contribution to family whilst a man wants to maintain his position of authority (due to strong patriarchal tradition). these changes might be the sources of internal stress and strong drivers and organizes of family dynamics which all have been additionally complicated by numerous losses, family separation, war wounds (physical and psychological) and other war and post war traumas and other aftermaths and events in bosnian and herzegovina which results in changes of family structure and roles within families. although some show psychological resistance (mainly those who had more power and say in traditional families or those with such unconscious family model) to the change of bih family type from traditional (patriarchal) into contemporary (democratic), this change is unstoppable and should be approached in a way which firstly addresses this psychological resistance coming from within family (from highly positioned family members). because, prerequisite for overcoming this psychological resistance is to acknowledge and identify its nature (dizdarević, 2002), only then it can be appropriately addressed and resolved. besides, the presence of other numerous changes and issues which destabilize contemporary bih family is characteristic of bih society. thus, bih family and its members should be offered necessary (institutional, formal and informal, government or non-government) support in this process of intensive changes and facing many challenges. conclusion family investigation and study field has long considered the issue of family issues with particular attention to how families cope with stress related to various life transitions (becoming parents, having children s. draganović 117 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences of different age (going to primary/high school, university, empty nest syndrome, inability to conceive etc) and difficult life events (war, losses, physical and psychological traumas). life of contemporary man is marked by many internal and external challenges which impact his performance within family and society in general. current family is “diverse “postmodern” family which is fluid and distinct from previous generations, essentially broadening the scope of family problems definition, as well as expert interpretation of the challenges families face in their everyday lives and how best to solve these challenges” (arditti, 2015, p. 3.). bosnian family faces many general (societal) (transition of bih society, family transition) as well as personal/psychological challenges. considering that family and society are intertwined (i.e. family constitutes society), aforementioned challenges influence and impact family in a very complex way, whereas it is almost impossible to distinguish which starts and ends where. this makes bih family life and existence more complex and difficult indicating necessity of systematic help and assistance, institutionally and professionally, simultaneously. it also has to be noted that, just like society transition, family transformation cannot be stopped, which means, this process should be properly supported instead. numerous changes in bih society destabilize contemporary family because family members and family system are exposed to continuous influences of social and intrafamilial changes which are unstoppable and necessary. thus, bih family and society will continue its transformation and transition and their custodians in this process face severe changes and encounter many personal 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(2013). porodica u bosanskohercegovackom društvu sa posebnim osvrtom na stanje u kantonu sarajevo, taken from website “porodicno savjetovalište” (8. 10. 2013.). a survey of family transformations in b&h 143 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences is communication really food? sandra veinberg riga international school of economics and business administration (riseba), faculty of public relations and advertising management, riga abstract this paper examines a new doctrine for communication. it argues that effective communications are as important to our well being and happiness as the food we put into our bodies. ‘it can either be healthy (and nourishing) or toxic (and destructive),’ notes the zen master and buddhist monk, thich nhat hanh. to examine this theory i decided to test my students. use was made of a non-proportional stratified sample of younger adults, a total of 200 students who were involved in the survey study. research is also based on an analysis of a qualitative research programme (a qualitative study) which involved 200 questionnaire texts that were set using two methods: critical discourse analysis and context. the results of my research show that students stressed that they were not using traditional forms of media, that the younger reader wants dialogue with the author or journalist, and that they tend to favour relationship-based communications which are offered by social media. my conclusions show that social media is regarded as ‘an anti-loneliness tool‘, and that it encourages a dialogue between the transmitter and the reader and allows a dialogue between them both. language acts here as a relationship-building resource and shows a level of interaction between text and participants. this shows that, via social media, the internet provides a special form of communication which compensates the audience as might a gourmet restaurant. key words: media effects, communication, toxic communication, social media, bakhtin, thich nhat hanh 144 s. veinber epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction communication history has always been a story of the mass media in the horizontal or vertical frame in order to ‘examine the role of communication in the development of the human species and its forms of civilisation‘(willard d. rowland, 207, p xi). the pioneering work that has been carried out in that direction was started by walter ong, elizabeth eisenstein, and harold innis, and it shares a keen interest in the deep civilisation-related context of all principal forms of communication technologies, thereby encouraging a much richer understanding of the present, rapidly changing experience‘ (willard d. rowland, 207, p xi). but the story of communication is much more central to human history than has been recognised by the formal academic discipline of history itself. globalisation has introduced adjustments to academic communication research. ‘the internet has changed the way [in which] we work, what we consume, how we play, with whom we interact, how we find things out, and myriad other details about the way [in which] we live’ (poe, 2011, p 2). if we turn away from the transmitted and linear method of communication (friske, 1998; gruning), from the traditional social, psychological effects of media (mcquail, 1983), from ‘the mentalists‘ of walter ong (ong, 1958), eric havelock (havelock, 1963) and jack goody (goody, 1977), and the ‘critical theorists‘ of theodor adorno and max horkheimer (horkheimer, adorno, 1947), herbert marcuse (marcuse, 1964), from ‘postmodernists‘ and ‘post-structuralists‘ (poster, m. 1990), and the modern critical theory of media studies of jürgen habermas (habermas, 1962) and noam chomsky (chomsky, 1988), and instead place the recipients, the users, at the centre so that in such a situation we can discover that ‘meanings are in people, not in words, objects, or things‘ (kreps, 1990:29). we can go a step further in the same direction. therefore, in addition to the western-centric character of our interpretation of the communication experience, we can begin to study new discoveries in communication research, those that are originating in the east. one of these offers us the investigator of communication and buddhist monk, thich nhat hanh, with his book, ‘the art of communicating‘, 2013. he concentrates on the audience and its relation to the communications process. researchers are interested in the audience, and the attitudes and behaviour of users have been considerable since the 1930s. in the past, recipients of the mass communication process were considered as a uniform, homogeneous, passive group of people. today, the discussion amongst researchers is often about ‘active users‘ and not on ‘passive consumers of information‘. however, it is clear that the key is the connection for communication or the ‘coherence‘ of the general public, where levels are usually assumed to be equal (andersson, 1985:93). the context shapes our western european interpersonal communication process in which the code was 145 is communication really food? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the key to concept (falkheimer, 2001, dimbleby & burton, 1994). as ‘social animals‘, human beings depend upon different codes. so far all communication could be broken down into character, as systems form different codes. signs are usually used to create community, using the very same codes that we use to create symbolic power. a good communicator (a journalist, a source of information, or teachers) has the ability to handle different codes by means of conventions, but the character and meaning of the codes is not natural, but rather culturally determined. at the bottom of all this lies cultural and social mores (dahlgren, 1994). feedback is the main signal that shows that the responses of multiple recipients may be different when receiving the very same signal. the new digital information technology explosion provides us with the opportunity for interaction between sender and receiver and shows that the mathematical models of communication (severin & tankard, 1992; shannon & weavers, 1941) are transmissive and unidirectional. today it is clear that communication may not only be considered as being a two-way process (mcquail & winddahl, 1993), which means not only the process employed by socialisation (gerber, 1994) and this cannot be explained simply by ‘the cultural’ or ‘process school’ methods (curran, 1990). we need new explanations of communication. the so-called ‘eastern school’ of communication research in recent years reveals their ambitions and has offered communication research on the sociolinguistic level (коган, 1992, 1996), in which the most important instruments in research are the philosophical criteria (клюканов, 2010). one of the leading researchers in this area is igor kljukanov. he uses in his practice of studying communication ‘experience + space + time’ as a complex measuring instrument (клюканов, 2010: 59). interestingly, the direction here is the so-called ‘apprehension’ theory (mccroskey, j. 2006; holbrook, h. 1987), which is highly synchronised with the ‘buddhist doctrine of communication’. it argues that effective communications are as important to our well being and happiness as the food we put into our bodies. ‘it can either be healthy (and nourishing) or toxic (and destructive)’ notes the zen master and buddhist monk, thich nhat hanh, in his book on communications. so far, communication has always been regarded as an intellectual process. thich nhat hanh argues that communication is an intellectual process with physiological effect as a result. background to the study the comparison between information and food is a new way of exploring communications. the entirety of mass communications research is based on the premise that the various forms of media have an influence in any way at all. so far there is no unity amongst researchers as to what should be the ideal communication and ‘there 146 s. veinber epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences is at least safety and consistency in the preferred effect of communication’ (mcquail, 1983:166). moreover, we ‘do not exactly know how a certain effect has occurred or could occur’ (mcquail, 1993: 166). western scientists have conducted research ‘on persuasion’ (hovland, 1949; lazarsfeld, 1944), about ‘social effects’ (lang & lang, 1959, halloran, 1965) or ‘potential effects’ (carrey, 1987). the attitude of zen master thich nhat hanh towards communication is very different. he believes that the communication effect can only be either good or bad for the receiver’s health. creating a comparison creating a comparison between the effects of communication and the effects of gastronomy is a new way of understanding the processes of communication. ‘nothing can survive without food’ (thich nhat hanh, 2013: 3). everything we consume acts either to heal us or to poison us. we tend to think of nourishment only as what we take in through our mouths, but what we consume with our eyes, our noses, our tongues, and our bodies can also be termed food. thich nhat hanh thinks that all of the conversation that goes on around us is also food. it means that we consume and create food when we sit in front of the tv or a computer, or when we listen to a concert. the most important thing is to understand whether or not this communication is healthy for us. how can we tell what communication is healthy and what is toxic? thich nhat han believes that ‘the energy of mindfulness is a necessary ingredient in healthy communication’ (thich nhat han, 2013, p 5). if you listen to toxic conversation, you must consume those toxins into your body and, thanks to this, you may become angry, frustrated, or sad. you absorb the thoughts, speech, and actions that are going on around you and feel good or bad as a result of this. you produce thoughts, speech, or actions around you and force other people to feel good or bad because of this. so far i have not read any research that analyses the recipient’s well-being after the communication process with other people, media, or art. therefore i chose thich nhat hanh’s theory to explore the effect of communicating in the same way as people seek an outcome in the consumption of food. by this i understand that the effects of communication can only be of two types favourable or unfavourable to human health. ‘every human and every animal communicates. we typically think of communication as the words we use when we speak or write, but our body language, our facial expressions, our tone of voice, our physical actions, and even our thoughts are ways of communicating’, points out thich nhat hanh. he believes that ‘our communication is not neutral. every time we communicate, we either produce more compassion, love, and harmony or we produce more suffering and violence’ (thich nhat hanh, 2013:139). according him our communication is our karma. the sanskrit word ‘karma’ means ‘action’, and refers not just to bodily action, but to what we express with our bodies, our words, and our thoughts and intentions. ‘you are your action everything we say and do bears our signature‘, he writes (p 141-142), and sees the link between thinking and how we affect the other people, values, and the world. 147 is communication really food? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences methodology in order to evolve an understanding of the monk’s theory, i decided to test my students. use was made of a non-proportional stratified sample of younger adults, a total of 200 students who were involved in the survey study. all of them were issued with questionnaires. the age of the participants was between 20-33. the validity of the content was high. the survey was carried out between 25/04/2015-25/05/2015. no internal failure was observed. my research is also based on an analysis of qualitative research (in the form of a qualitative study) of 200 questionnaire texts by two methods: critical discourse analysis and context. there are four categories in this analytical model: 1) content, 2) relationships, 3) form, and 4) intertextuality. the method is qualitative and is based on the text and context (larsson, 2010; fairclough, 1995; hellspong, 1997). the content consists of a theme and what the text says (the proposition). a relationship is all about relationship-building with the resources of language such as, for example, a text which contains questions or feelings (exclamation, values, etc), and which encourages dialogue (larsson, 2010, p 159). the form usually transforms content to a specific, linguistic textual construction. intertextuality is about the interplay and interaction between text and reader. intertextuality sees when phrases, words, and whole portions of text are repeated from other texts, calls, and genres, as well as ideas in the text that are similar to those which were formulated earlier (bakhtin, 1997). intertextuality includes different test markers (holqvist, 1997) and the fact that there is a dialogical subject in all expression. i also used bakhtin’s theory and methods: a piece of text is not solitary, rather it is a link in a chain of past and future pieces of text. therefore i also observed re-contextualisation, which refers to the dialogical relationships between texts: how words move between contexts, how they are used and reformulated, and later assume new meanings (tannen, 1989; fairclough, 1995; linnel 1998; ajagán lester, 2003). all communication aims to reach someone, to influence, strengthen and improve relationships: it builds up a relationship between writer and reader. therefore, i seek to understand how language can serve as a relationship-building resource. another important factor in my research is coherence (bussman, 1983; de beaugrande, 1996). that a text is coherent means that it is coherent and meaningful both on a local and global level. analysis, findings and results making use of media during the discussions, most students stressed that they were not using traditional forms of media. see table 1. 148 s. veinber epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences on a daily basis, facebook and twitter are the most useful media tools. in third place is instagram and television. these are followed by the social media resource ‘www.draugiem.lv‘ and the radio. print media on paper is used in very few situations, and only occasionally. the survey results show that radio has been driven out with the help of the mp3. the content shows a very bleak picture ‘the old media’ will no longer work in practice for youths. in reality the contents of these old forms of media usually show up on their computer screens anyway, thanks to google, twitter, facebook or instagram: ‘i do not use print media on paper. i do not listen to the radio, but i often read through social media about the world’s events. my favourite is internet radio with good music’; ‘i want to know what is going on in the world: about wars, the economy, and things like that.’: ‘i always need very practical information about the weather, traffic, or culture. this means i search for it on the internet or contact the people who know everything’. the analysis of qualitative research (in the form of a qualitative study) of 200 questionnaire texts shows that the majority of students see a difference in the use of the media when they are at home with their parents, and when they are at university: ‘when i’m at home with my parents, i use most of the traditional media such as television. but if i am in liepaja, i use only the computer and social media’, wrote one of students. the use of the media is no longer traditional. ‘i daily use many foreign forms of media on the internet’, explained one student, a young girl. ‘twitter i usually only read i never go there to write. i express myself only on facebook.’ the so-called old forms of media are used most often in the morning: ‘i have a ritual in the morning at breakfast i always watch the tv news. i never look at the 149 is communication really food? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences same channel, but hop between multiple channels in parallel’ said one male student. ‘media’ for students today are the internet portals www.tvnet.lv, or www. liepajniekiem.lv, which is incredibly popular in latvia and which has taken over the websites of the biggest newspapers in riga. this means that the younger reader wants a dialogue with the author or journalist and favours relationship-based communications: ‘the content is important, but more important is to know that other people are thinking the same thing, such as ‘i do not believe in the media today, it too often writes untruths. therefore, it’s better if we are able to discuss things instead’, and ‘thanks to social media, i do not feel alone’. obviously, the majority of students use daily social media that allows communication feedback. maybe this shows student desires to be seen and to be heard, the desire to provide feedback (the traditional media only allows one to hear, see, and read). but we cannot exclude the fact that the new forms of media is better able to offer important information. relations with forms of mass media have always been a very important factor. the views of today’s young people on the media are different, very different than they were during their parents’ time. the informal information format is more suited to their needs when it comes to having attractive and more reliable content. instead of the media they choose blogs, or reports from facebook, twitter, or instagram. they use social networks themselves to appropriate the content from ‘old media‘ and convert this information into an entertaining form that is better addressed for its intended audience. which communication is toxic munk’s theory of ‘healthy’ or ‘toxic’ communication was used in a test on my students (table 2). thich nhat hanh writes: ‘the energy of mindfulness is a necessary ingredient in healthy communication. mindfulness requires letting go of judgement, returning to an awareness of the breath and the body, and bringing your full attention to what is in you and around you. this helps you to notice whether the thought you just produced is healthy or unhealthy, compassionate or unkind’ (thich nhat hanh, 2013, p 5). unfortunately, the position of the good communication (consuming with mindfulness) was difficult to understand for my students, but ‘the toxic conversation’ did not lead to the same confusion. ‘when you have a conversation with another person, what that person says may be full of toxins, such as hate, anger, and frustration. when you listen to what others say, you’re consuming those toxins. you’re bringing them into your consciousness and your body’ (thich 150 s. veinber epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences nhat hanh, 2013:5). most of the students knew the text of thich nhat hanh’s book and most of them wanted to discuss ‘toxic communication’ instead of ‘good communication’. because of this, i asked questions only about toxic communication in this regard. the students recognised that they faced on a daily basis the risk that elements of their communication that could be regarded as being unhealthy, and which therefore would fall into the category of ‘toxic communication’. most of them pointed out that, usually, such communication took place between people or in the use of media. ‘yes, every day i meet toxic information in my job and in conversation with friends’, concluded one girl and added that ‘the same toxic area is in the media. there is constant manipulation’. ‘this is an important theme feeling hatred at work and afterwards feeling bad throughout one’s entire body. this is hard’, ‘i know this from my childhood there are people who will do anything so that the other person feels worse. they kill my well-being after a normal conversation. this happens!’, ‘oh, yes, there are people who disturb my work in any way possible. especially those who are twice as old as me. i was physically sick later due to this!’. ‘after each conversation with my employer i can become aggressive and angry, and can feel bad’. ‘there are situations in which i as an employer try to explain the details of people who are not sufficiently intelligent. later on, i feel quite bad [as a result]’, ‘poor communication with evil people gives me a headache’, ‘do not think that after a conflict, one can find the truth. on the contrary i feel bad and i feel exhausted’. the content of all of this displays the following trends: 1) primarily they see themselves only as recipients of information, and 2) they really perceive information that is either appropriate or toxic, just as a small child at the dining table knows what it will and will not eat. even consumers of communication know what they do not like first and foremost. the results of the survey showed no attempt to dampen their stress levels in regard to other people, although thich nhat hanh in theory accentuates that ‘many of us suffer because our communication with other people is difficult. at work, for example, we often feel that we have tried everything and there is no way to reach our colleagues. this is often true in families as well. we feel that our parents, our siblings, or our children are too stuck in their ways. we think that no real communication is possible’, writes the author and offers suggestions as to how can we use ‘many ways to reconcile and to create openings for more compassionate communication’ (thich nhat hanh, 2013:93). here can we see an active relationship with the themes and the use of strong emotional words such as: ‘toxic information’, ‘toxic area’, ‘to feel hatred’, ‘feel bad throughout the entire body’, ‘this is hard’, ‘kill my well-being’, ‘oh, yes’, ‘i feel quite bad’. this means that the recipients ‘show their feelings through exclamation marks or watchwords’ (larsson, 2011:159), which are used to demonstrate his attitude by linguistic means. it uses accentuation (bakhtin, 1981:5), assimilation (bakhtin, 1981:341), heteroglossia, and a tendency 151 is communication really food? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences to finalise this theme (bakhtin, 1981: 18). here can we explore an active relationship with the themes and with the use of strong emotional words such as: ‘toxic information’, ‘toxic area’, ‘to feel hatred’, ‘feel bad throughout one’s entire body’, ‘this is hard’, ‘kill my well-being’, ‘oh, yes’, and ‘i feel bad’. this means that the recipients ‘show their feelings through exclamation marks and watchwords’ (larsson, 2011:159), which are used to demonstrate his attitude through linguistic means. it uses accentuation (bakhtin, 1981:5), assimilation (bakhtin, 1981:341), heteroglossia, and a tendency to finalise (bakhtin, 1981: 18) this theme. another girl believed that ‘the worst thing is communication between people, but communication with the media is also complicated’. ‘i hate comments on articles that are found on the internet. most of them are unnecessarily toxic‘, said one student, adding that ‘the worst thing is that mass communication has already drowned in stupidity and evil’. most of the students think this: ‘the media publishes too much information without content’, ‘too much violence’, ‘too much misinformation and exaggeration’, ‘nonsense and cheap entertainment that no one wants to watch’, ‘ boring articles’, ‘you never have any guarantees that what they write and show is true’, ‘all this stupidity in the media must be ignored’. the audience’s dialogue with these issues was active and powerful: containing intensive expressions, double question and exclamation marks, and drawings that compliment the text. the survey showed a remarkably high response to and levels of activity for this question. the explanation for this issue was as follows : a) an irritant: ‘because i do not tolerate stupidity and lies’, ‘does not accept advertising and bad pr’; b) troublesome: ‘due to cutting-edge expressions and exaggerations, and coarse language. there are people who think that this attracts attention, but i think that the reality is contrary’; ‘[an] obsession with [the] sensational’; c) false: ‘the media usually build up problems from small matters, and if this happens every day then i feel cheated’. even here one can observe: 1) feelings through exclamation marks, watchwords, and 2) the same idea system, an internally persuasive discourse (bakhtin, 1981:327-329), inter-illumination, and minimal heteroglossia (bakhtin, 1981:18). a surprise to me was the fact that art can be considered as being an unhealthy form of communication. ‘yes, i often feel that i have been poisoned after going to the cinema or the theatre’, one of the students pointed out. another student thinks that ‘long films and concerts can make people feel angry and poisoned‘ and 152 s. veinber epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences others believe that ‘the concert or film usually does not correspond to my expectations‘ or ‘takes too much of my energy’. ‘sometimes films force me into an unhealthy psychological situation in which i feel really bad and cannot find a way out’, ‘there are films and paintings that touch me deeply, but i do not know if this is good or bad’. one of the students emphasised, when he himself was studying modern art in order to understand why the art made him angry and disappointed, ‘i think the reason is the unfair conditions in the art industry. prestige and ideals are just a game for a select group of artists. i know that without having the right contacts it is not possible to be successful [in the art world]. this is the most important tool for reaching the top, but it’s one that i do not have’. even in this position students use expressive words and minimal heteroglossia. see table 2. we are lonely together thich nhat hanh believes that ‘we are lonely together‘ and that ‘there’s a vacuum inside us‘ (thich nhat hanh, 2013, p13). to determine whether this applies to us, i asked the students whether this was true (see table 3). the results showed that social media is ‘a tool against loneliness’ as was stated in the results of a survey. if communication is such a sensitive area, how do my students evaluate their participation in social media? i suspected that social media reduces their feeling of loneliness in the media world, but the impact of social media turned out to be wider than this. toxic communication here is less common. the main reason for participation is that you have the opportunity to teach yourself something new. every third student believed that social media can be used to learn something new. see table 3. 153 is communication really food? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences for a total of 19% of the students, chatting was seen as being a healthy activity, and retweeting was perceived as being a valuable and healthy opportunity to distribute information (18%). only 12% remained angry after communicating through social media and 11% preferred observation without engaging in communication. a total of 11% thought that communication should be fun. ‘i like to quote wise thoughts’, noted one student and most recognise that they quoted wise thoughts more than ten times a month. ‘the most difficult thing is to find the truth and to convey it,’ noted some students. the popularity of the first position ‘education‘ my students explain in this way: ‘in school it must be compulsory to teach people to debate and discuss. i have learned this thanks social media’, ‘i like to follow the wise people on the internet and read what they write right now’, ‘there are a great many sources of good information’, ‘twitter know everything in advance’. i actually expected more criticism about the discourse on the internet, about the generally low level of the chat on the internet. but criticism was limited. instead i read: ‘it is wonderful to find a good idea and then to be able to give it to friends’, ‘sometimes i catch my own thoughts with the additional thought that it would be wonderful if i could discuss the same subject with my peers at work’, ‘i would like to be able to have such a brainstorm without computers’. some people do not like the anonymity of the computerised world and point out that: ‘the most important thing in life is to meet and talk to people face-to-face. just so that you can understand other people’. 154 s. veinber epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences most say that it is wonderful to be able to apply directly to a particular person and ‘find answers to their questions directly’. in this position we can observe the following effects: 1) the content here is no longer in unison, 2) the value-criticism is more moderate, 3) form without regularity, and 4) according bakhtin, we can see here his most famous borrowing from musical terminology ‘the polyphonic‘ story with ‘the maximum complete register of all social voices from the era‘ (bakhtin, 1981, p431). according to thich nhat hanh, we can see here how students assess the food that they like in the gourmet restaurant of communication. intertextuality and dialogue between the texts table 4. here i use the popular theory of intertextuality. this resource originates with the dialogue theory by mikhail bakhtin that each textual content is in a dialogue with other texts. intertextuality is no objective truth, but is the projection of the observer’s consciousness. only 45% of the students thought that they were autonomous in their thoughts, but most recognised their dependence on other people’s writings and ideas. the majority of students have chosen the positions ‘translation‘ and ‘quotation’. most of the students state that they do so only for its own sake, and do not retweet or send material on to friends and family. this means that information from social media accumulates and serves as educational material: ‘twitter is my idea bank‘, ‘the most important elements are short, wise thoughts that are not to be found in books‘, and ‘here i have the feedback and hence am a participant in the process. i am reading, thinking and then discussing the issue with people from all corners of the world. in this way i arrive close to the truth’, ‘if the idea is so good that i like it then i consciously and immediately seek out more information about the author and his other ideas and expanded my knowledge’. 155 is communication really food? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences allusion is in third place and is used mostly for fun, often in the form of puns: ‘sometimes i do retweet it for me, for the good memories, or simply because it is fun. simply fun’, ‘allusion raises other areas of curiosity’, ‘if it coincides with my views then this can be used’. it’s in terms of bakhtin’s ‘already bespoke quality’ (bakhtin, 1981: 8 -9), and ‘simultaneous appropriation and transmission‘ (bakhtin, 1981:341). a ‘quotation‘ is something that many also consider a tool: ‘i use this on my birthday. then i send sensible quotes to friends and family’. many note that this is something that is very unique: ‘i like to quote only something that is very, very important, something that makes sense and has essence’. many admit that the quote is characterised not by its punctuation, but with the help of a particular expression in the text. however, a large number of students belong to the traditional school: ‘first you use quotes, then you refer to the authors and ‘use them only if [what they say] is useful and content-rich. again this already contains bespoke quality‘ (bakhtin, 1981: 8-9). only in the four places is ‘my text’, showing that students understand the effects of intertextuality and recognise that their thoughts are influenced by other people’s thoughts. intertextuality can be viewed from different perspectives: 1) ideological, 2) semiotic, and 3) being from a communicative perspective. i understand the ‘intertextuality’ in the form of it being a tool which helps us to study the textual system, which itself flows into the other texts. the best way to prove it is in the study of dialogues between the texts. most of the students recognised that: 1) they adopted alien texts unconsciously: ‘it is clear that this happens unintentionally! yes, i use symbols that i have borrowed from other people’, ‘it can be the case that, unwittingly, grains of an idea remains in the memory. information is updated in my head if it is important to me’. ‘it may also be the case that i unconsciously tend to incorporate these strangers ideas in my own works. at that moment i feel these ideas are my own. as such, that’s coming from me’, ‘it is conceivable that, both in speech and writing, i use borrowed thoughts and ideas. i’ll think about it now in my art’, ‘there are situations in which something happens accidentally’; ‘one thought leads to the next and then to other thoughts. then we can no longer distinguish between the beginning of my idea and the end of another person’s idea’. some acknowledge that it may be the case that alien ideas and texts are used deliberately ‘ his works are incredible knowing‘ or ‘the space of information today is common to all. therefore it is impossible not to be swayed 156 s. veinber epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences by others’; 2) that a stranger’s text is a good form of text if it confirms their own thoughts : ‘if the text is concise and witty’, ‘if an idea is close to me and coincides with my vision of the world’, ‘as a young artist i was looking for ideas everywhere. they are both articles and images, both video and films. you can almost always find good things and pick them up yourself, but by this i don’t mean copying‘; and, finally 3) it’s okay if it is possible to compare ideas and thoughts: ‘the ideas of others can affect me just as much as i myself want to be affected’, ‘yes, of course its true that only through communication can one reach the result and create new views which i can then generate and reflect upon’, ‘it is important to be able to compare foreign ideas with one’s own’. according bakhtin, this tendency can be a dialogue with ‘alien‘ text and can be noted also in ‘reaccentuation‘ (bakhtin, 1981:5). cutting-edge ideas forms another important item: ‘in this way i look for inspiration for my work’, ‘if the ideas are dazzling and cutting-edge then i try to seize them directly’, ‘i certainly do catch them, because in this kind of idea is inspiration for my work’, ‘ideas in social media are so diverse and often unexpected that i am often shaken by them. it’s great to know that such a platform exists, and that i can use those thoughts that attract my attention’. table 5. dialogue between the texts (%) the term ‘cutting-edge ideas‘ or ‘sharp ideas‘ does not only have to be a source of inspiration. by this term students also understand: ‘particularly important notices such as asking for help and political declarations’, and ‘other important human messages’. such information may be important in different ways: 1) ‘to compare’, or 2) ‘to share with other people’. generally, when it comes to a description of ‘cutting-edge‘ the following words dominate: ‘current’, ‘essential’, ‘laconic‘, and ‘shocking‘, which ‘often become a source of inspiration’. this shows a fairly large degree of heteroglossia according to bakhtin. this post shows how dialogism (bakhtin, 1981, p411) works in practice. ‘dialogism is the characteristic epistemological mode of 157 is communication really food? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences a world that is dominated by heteroglossia‘ (holqvist m. and bakhtin, 1981; 411). social media promotes dialogue between the transmitter and the reader and allows a dialogue between them. language acts as a relationship-building resource and shows an interaction between texts and participants. ‘when we see other people who are enjoying good levels of communication with themselves and with others, they inspire us... in these cases, the energy of a community of mindfulness can help us to embrace and release suffering that we could not be able to achieve by ourselves’ (thich nhat hanh, 2013:131). discussion and conclusion 1) communication is food. thich nhat hanh’s idea is correct. communicators find, select, and use information in the same way as people choosing food. everything is determined by taste and experience. it is easy to say that you do not like something because it does not taste that good, but it is almost impossible to present food for all tastes all of the time. 2) just like going to a gourmet restaurant, young people choose the information they want on the internet: they select only that ‘food’ that suits their tastes because they want to feel good. 3) the content of the survey shows a very bleak picture when it comes to ‘the old media’. they will no longer work in practice for young people. in reality the material generated by old forms of media pops up on their computer screens anyway thanks to google, twitter, facebook, or instagram but the young reader wants to have an dialogue with the author or journalist and favours the relationship-based communications that are being served up by social media. 4) young people need attractive media that is more open and equal than was previously the case media such as blogs, or reports from facebook, twitter, or instagram. social networking can itself appropriate the content from the ‘old media‘ and convert it into an entertaining format that better suits a young audience. 5) through this study, it can be seen that modern users of social media demonstrate and confirm in practice bakhtin’s theory. this survey proves that communication is a form of dialogue between different texts. this means that the exchange of thoughts in internet communication is an exchange of texts which, essentially, is a multi-consciousness dialogue as indicated by bakhtin, not the ‘mosaic of quotations’ that kristeva claims. 158 s. veinber epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences 6) it can be concluded that every text in social media has a feature that provides an echo. thoughts will be echoed in the form of text. this unique speciality ‘the reverberation of text in internet communications’ should certainly be studied increasingly widely. references ajagán lester, l. 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(1958). method and the decay of dialogue. in art of discourse to the art of reason. cam bridge, harvard. poe, m. (2011). a history of communication. new york, cambridge university press. poster, m. (1990). the mode of information: poststructuralism and social contexts. chicago, uni versity of chicago press. severin, w & tankard, j. (1992). communication theories: origins, methods and uses in the mass media, 3rd edition, new york, longman. shannon, c & weaver, w. (1949). the mathematical theory of communication. urbana. university of illinois press. tannen, d. (1989) talking voices. repetition, dialogue and imagery in conversational discourse. cambridge. cambridge university press. thich nhat hanh. the art of communicating. new york. harper collins books. willard. d. rowland. eds. crowley, d, heyer, p (2007). communication in history. fifth edition. boston. pearson education inc. 124 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences p. plenta & a. smaka say 125 times ‘yes’: bosnia and herzegovina in the un security council peter plenta international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina ajla smaka independent researcher, bosnia and herzegovina abstract membership in the security council was one of the greatest achievements for bosnia and herzegovina after gaining the independence. serving as a non-permanent member for the period of 2010 and 2011, it faced challenges mostly related to its capacity building and decision-making process in foreign policy. during this two-year period, the council adopted 125 resolutions and two resolutions suffered veto, both regarding middle east. bosnia and herzegovina had an affirmative stand in regards to all resolutions discussed. however, it faced difficulties forming a stand towards questions of kosovo and palestine. the attitude and voting behavior of bosnia and herzegovina was not influenced by other states nor the relationship between them, but by internal issues. our article provides analysis, evaluation, and interpretation of particular topics, such as the independence of kosovo, iran’s nuclear program, situation in libya, palestine and situation in bosnia and herzegovina itself discussed in the security council in 2010 and 2011, with the explanation of the attitudes of bosnia and herzegovina. keywords: the security council; resolutions; voting; bosnia and herzegovina introduction when bosnia and herzegovina was elected as a non-permanent member of the security council in the period of 2010 and 2011, many questions and controversies were raised. for some it was a surprise, for some a disappointment and others were proud. the ability of bosnia and herzegovina to cope with all challenges and tasks which this membership brings, was questionable as for ‘locals’, so for ‘foreigners’. moreover, media coverage in bosnia and herzegovina was very poor and this topic is not covered in the academic field as well. bosnia and herzegovina went through an armed conflict that took place between 6 april 1992 and 14 december 1995. although the country passed through many transitions in the history, the last war had the biggest impact. after the war, bosnia and herzegovina faced challenges related to internal and external affairs, such as implementation of the system set by the dayton peace agreement and building an internationally recognizable image of a sovereign state. strive for the development and international recognition led bosnia and herzegovina to the path of the european union* and nato. great opportunity and progress came with the membership in the security council. although bosnia and herzegovina faced difficulties concerning capacities and lack of knowledge or experience, especially concerning issues related to africa and asia, it showed that it is capable of * the most important step on bosnia and herzegovina’s path to eu membership was signing the stabilization and association agreement (saa), in luxembourg on 16 june 2008. although bosnia and herzegovina is struggling on this path for a very long time, just modest progress has been made. d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 19 4 125 say 125 times ‘yes’: bosnia and herzegovina in the un security council epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences working with states which possess all that bosnia and herzegovina lacked. however, the country had an affirmative stand regarding all adopted resolutions. considering that most, if not all, of the mandate was a learning experience for bosnia and herzegovina, presiding** the security council was even more challenging than the rest of the mandate. most challenges, especially at the beginning of the mandate were caused by lack of knowledge and experience concerning certain topics discussed. as bosnia and herzegovina was never dealing with issues regarding côte d’ivoire, for instance, it was difficult to take stands and discuss the matter. another difficulty presented lack of people on the ground. as some other states, especially permanent members had their representatives all around the world and therefore they had the first hand information about situation and events in a particular country, bosnia and herzegovina did not. according to ambassador barbalić, representatives from turkey and croatia, who served their term starting in 2009, contributed largely in overcoming difficulties and getting familiar with the processes that occur in the security council (barbalić 2015). the main goal of this article is to analyze the work of the security council and resolutions discussed in the period of 2010 and 2011 with the focus on voting behavior of bosnia and herzegovina. in this two-year period 125 resolutions were adopted and two resolutions suffered veto. as this membership carries huge importance, these two years present crossroads in terms of the efficiency and capability of participation and engagement in international peace and security and its evaluation is certainly significant. this developing country which was discussed in this body roughly twenty years ago came to a position to engage actively in maintaining international peace and security and contribute to countries in need. for all these reasons, this topic is valuable for as for internal so for external politics and community and it can provide insight of bosnia and herzegovina’s political and diplomatic development as well as effectiveness of the un security council. for the purpose of this paper, we have conducted an interview with ambassador ivan barbalić, who was the head of the bosnia and herzegovina’s mission in new york. additionally, meeting records and press releases were used as well. this article provides analysis of resolutions concerning kosovo, islamic republic of iran, libya, palestine, and bosnia and herzegovina. these resolutions were challenging for all members of the council. as one of the member states, bosnia and herzegovina found itself in a difficult position discussing these issues and in several cases it was questionable which stand the state will take due to its internal and external affairs, all of which will be discussed further on in the article. despite all of that, the attitude of bosnia and herzegovina in the security council was not influenced by other member states, but by its own internal issues, attitudes, and goals. bosnia and herzegovina’s candidacy it goes without saying that the security council carries great responsibilities concerning the whole world, and its importance and influence remained significant since it has been founded. however, according to david bosco, the un security council has been more active in the past twenty years than during any other phase of its existence (bosco 2014: 545). the council has met more frequently, authorized more peacekeeping and observation missions, and enacted more sanctions regimes and arms embargos than in its first four decades. ** member states are taking turns according to english alphabetical order in presiding the security council. bosnia and herzegovina was presiding in january 2011. 126 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences p. plenta & a. smaka bosnia and herzegovina have been striving for development and political recognition on an international scene since it gained independence. the mandate in un security council bosnia and herzegovina got for the first time presented a great step in its international politics and, as several analysts assumed, a great chance to bring bosnia and herzegovina closer to its membership in european union and nato. the real opportunity for bosnia and herzegovina’s term in the security council came in 2008 when poland indicated its withdrawal as a candidate and confirmed it in 2009 providing a chance for membership in the security council. as bosnia and herzegovina was the only candidate from the eastern european states, its candidacy was approved and it served as a non-permanent member in the security council from january 1, 2010 to december 31, 2011 with 183 votes. in 2009, the ministry of foreign affairs has performed an intensive campaign aimed for bosnia and herzegovina to get the required majority in the un general assembly and serve the term in the security council. minister of foreign affairs has conducted dozens of bilateral meetings and visits, perhaps even more than was necessary in considering the fact that bosnia and herzegovina was the only candidate (vanjskopolitička inicijativa 2011: 2). members of the presidency of bosnia and herzegovina were actively engaged in this as well so they visited to the united nations headquarters more often than usually. after the election of bosnia and herzegovina in the security council, many people including local political analysts as well as local politicians and diplomats assumed or predicted that this mandate will contribute bosnia and herzegovina in several aspects. strengthening bilateral relations, improvement on the path to the membership to european union and nato, and higher foreign investments were most commonly mentioned. ambassador at-large, miloš prica, mentioned it in the interview conducted for the local newspapers ‘nezavisne novine’ when he said that successful work in the security council opens many international doors and if the membership is at the level it should be, it will be a big plus in all processes in international relations of bosnia and herzegovina (prica 2009). another view, presented by the federal news agency (fena), was that activities in the security council were guided towards the realization of the basic goals set when the decision for the application for the membership in the security council was made such as the affirmation of bosnia and herzegovina at the international level and contribution to solving the world’s problems from the perspective of bosnia and herzegovina as a multiethnic and multicultural state; contribution to the activities of the security council aimed at conflict prevention and peaceful resolution of the crisis existing in the world, and contribution to the activities in the field of post-war construction of society and monitoring of post-conflict situations, particularly in the areas of establishing and ensuring the rule of law, institution building, human rights and sustainable return of refugees and displaced persons (fena 2012). expectations regarding the membership were very high and sometimes even far from reality. ambassador barbalić said that we could not expect the membership in the security council to bring certain changes to bosnia and herzegovina. “being in security council shows that you are practically allowing yourself to accept huge responsibility to participate in this important process that exists in the multilateral world, you are not there to achieve something, but to make sure to help countries that need help, to achieve it” (barbalić 2015). while high level politicians and diplomats from bosnia and herzegovina had positive and optimistic views regarding the membership, negative or doubtful stands 127 say 125 times ‘yes’: bosnia and herzegovina in the un security council epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences were often presented in the media. the mission did not enjoy the support from media and therefore was often graded as incapable of coping with the tasks that the membership brings. at one point, there were claims that bosnia and herzegovina was assigned with the easiest task, namely working groups,*** in the security council due to the lack of experience. in the interview conducted by journalist erol avdović, ambassador barbalić strongly disagreed stating that “working groups” represent one of the highly important diplomatic tool significant for the council’s work (barbalić 2012). in addition to that, media also emphasized that disagreement between the members of the presidency conflicted with the success of the mission. however, it is important to mention that the members of the presidency reached an agreement in about 97 percent of the cases. hence, this presents the success for the country with such ethnical diversity and complex government structure. during its two-year mandate, bosnia and herzegovina found itself in an unenviable position. as it was present in the council as one of its members, at the same time the situation in the country was discussed. this included reports form the high representative and resolution regarding the continuation of presence of the eufor althea mission in the country. further on, the disagreement among presidency members regarding the situation in the state and its development occurred. all of this did not contribute to the image of bosnia and herzegovina as a member state. however, this situation was not specific only for bosnia and herzegovina and therefore was not the only case a member state faced during its mandate. prior to the beginning of the mandate it was necessary to establish a system and build a team which will carry on the mission and cooperate with the government in sarajevo. the only official document that defines b&h foreign policy are the basic directions of b&h foreign policy created in 2003 (vanjskopolitička inicijativa 2011: 3). the document does not provide clear guidance and as this was the first time for bosnia and herzegovina to be a part of a body such as the security council, an efficient team and communication network needed to be established. critics and doubts about bosnia and herzegovina’s capability to justify its membership in the security council and participate in high level diplomacy were often and common which created additional pressure to members of the mission. for instance, david bosco criticized the decision to elect bosnia to the presidency over the security council citing that bosnia’s membership on the council is largely “symbolic” and that “the general assembly needs to stop carping about council reform and start consistently electing states that can contribute to peace and security, not those barely able to govern themselves (bosniak 2011). moreover, decisions regarding bosnia and herzegovina’s stand in the security council are made by presidency members. all three members (bosniak, croat, and serb) need to agree upon certain issue unanimously in order for bosnia and herzegovina to take stand in the security council. as some were predicting failure to cope with all challenges that this membership brings, some believed that this was the time to shine. optimistic views were mainly coming from domestic politicians and diplomats and doubts were coming manly from media. membership in the security council certainly is a challenge and both views can be justified in a way. can a country facing numerous internal issues advocate wellbeing of other states? the attitude and decisions made by bosnia and herzegovina during 2010 *** the unsc has dozens of working groups responsible for various global issues handled by the un, which requires a large administrative apparatus in the countries’ missions to the un, as well as in the un secretariat, which provides technical and expert support (in vanjskopolitička inicijativa, 2011, pp. 2). 128 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences p. plenta & a. smaka and 2011 answered this question and justified positive and/or negative views which will be discussed further on in this article. resolutions of the security council often represent the final step for a discussed issue discussed. the work of the security council in the period of 2010 and 2011 was successful if we take in account the level of accord between members and number of resolutions adopted. majority of the resolutions which required voting were adopted unanimously. during the interview, ambassador barbalić noted that in 90 percent of decision there was not any kind of obstacle and pretty much it was clear what direction the majority security council were to go and basically the presidency would without any problem agree upon (barbalić 2015). despite that, in the term of 2010 and 2011, the council had faced difficulties in reaching the consensus several times. decisions concerning iran, libya, and palestine brought up different stands from member states. in addition to that, discussing the situation in kosovo as well as situation in bosnia and herzegovina was particularly difficult for representatives of the county. the origin of the difficulty lies in the internal issues and ethnical diversity played a significant role. during bosnia and herzegovina’s two-year mandate in the security council, 125 resolutions were adopted. bosnia and herzegovina had an affirmative stand towards all 1adopted resolutions without. resolutions 2010 majority of meetings and resolutions adopted in 2010 were concerning africa and asia. another great concern of the security council was protection of civilians in armed conflict and women vulnerable to sexual violence. nuclear proliferation remained the concern as well in respect of iran and the democratic people’s republic of korea. members held 182 public meetings, adopted 59 resolutions, and issued 30 presidential statements in 2010 (the united nations 2011b). additionally the security council was holding many meetings behind the closed doors. out of 59 adopted resolutions, only six of them required vote**** and none of the permanent members’ casted veto. the highest number of open meetings a total of 14 was devoted to the question of palestine as the prospects of peace talks in the middle east waxed and waned (the united nations 2011b). after devastating earthquake, the security council reinforced the united nations stabilization mission in haiti twice. one of the major decisions made in 2010 was the lifting of restrictions on iraq which was imposed nearly 20 years ago. not so long ago, in 1990s, bosnia and herzegovina was topic of discussion and concern of the security council. in relatively short period of time such as fifteen years, it was discussing about mayor issues threatening international peace and security and taking stands regarding them. despite the tempestuous past marked with interethnic conflict, decisions and stands formed were not guided by the country’s experience. rather, the armed conflict that bosnia and herzegovina went through had mostly symbolic impact. **** resolutions about which consensus was not reached were following: security council resolution on establishment of the international residual mechanism for criminal tribunals with two branches and the adoption of the statute of the mechanism, where russia abstained from voting; security council resolution on termination of all residual activities under the oil-for-food programme, where france abstained from voting; security council resolution on extension of the mandate of the un peacekeeping force in cyprus (unficyp), where turkey voted against; security council resolution on extension of the mandate of the un panel of experts established pursuant to security council resolution 1591 (2005), where china abstained from voting; security council resolution on extension of the mandate of the un peacekeeping force in cyprus (unficyp), where turkey voted against; security council resolution on measures against the islamic republic of iran in connection with its enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, where brazil and turkey voted against and lebanon abstained from voting. 129 say 125 times ‘yes’: bosnia and herzegovina in the un security council epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences nonetheless, as ambassador barbalić said, “it is important symbolism, i would say, brick in the wall of our statehood being a member of the security council it is an important element to cv of a country” (barbalić 2015). for the previously discussed reasons, internal issues and lack of knowledge and experience regarding certain issues discussed, many challenges occurred. several resolutions adopted by the security council were particularly challenging for bosnia and herzegovina including difficulties regarding decision making process due to internal situation. situation in kosovo was one of the issues discussed in the security council in 2010. although kosovo declared independence from serbia in 2008, it still continue to be the concern of serbian government and violence between serbians and albanians living in that territory keep on. international court of justice proclaimed the independence of kosovo legal, however serbia is still opposed its existence as an independent state. the center of events was northern region of mitrovica. serbian government claimed that albanians living in kosovo are maltreating serbs living in that area. term often used by serbian representatives regarding that issue included ‘ethnic cleansing’. these claims were rejected by the kosovo’s government. the security council met five times discussing this issue and each time it was calling on dialog. all meetings included briefing by lambert zannier, head of the united nations interim administration mission in kosovo (unmik) about the development of situation in kosovo. while kosovo’s representatives claimed that the situation is improving and that they are ready to work closely with serbian government in order to resolve issues, serbian government was opposing those claims and still questioning the independence. vlora çitaku, minister of foreign affairs at the time in kosovo, said to the council that there was significant progress in building democratic institutions in kosovo and that there is a platform for starting a technical dialogue with serbia on missing persons, cooperation against crime and corruption, mutual recognition of documents and phone networks and other issues of mutual interest (the united nations 2010a). serbs living in bosnia and herzegovina keep close ties with serbia. therefore, it was most likely that serb member of the presidency would support serbia in issues such as kosovo. for this reason, discussing kosovo case in the security council was one of the biggest challenges bosnia and herzegovina faced during its mandate. there were no resolutions concerning kosovo which required voting, however representatives still needed to take a stand and comment presented situation. these stands included support for negotiations and acknowledging the importance of unmik. considering the procedure of the decision making process, bosnia and herzegovina could not and did not take the position on the question of kosovo’s independence. aside from protection of civilians, non-proliferation was one of the major concerns in 2010 as well. the security council had already imposed sanctions several times on islamic republic of iran because of its nuclear program. the threat was acknowledged because of iran’s ongoing program to enrich uranium which can be potentially used for nuclear weapons. the united states government was lobbying imposition of new sanctions. by 9 june, deeply concerned about iran’s lack of compliance with its previous resolutions on ensuring the peaceful nature of its nuclear program, the council adopted resolution 1929 (2010) by 12 in favor to 2 against (brazil, turkey), with 1 abstention (lebanon) to impose additional sanctions, expanding the arms embargo and tightening restrictions on financial and shipping enterprises related to proliferation-sensitive activities (the united nations 2010f). 130 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences p. plenta & a. smaka bosnia and herzegovina and islamic republic of iran have good and stable bilateral relations. these two countries have been cooperating continuously and working on strengthening their relations especially in the field of trade and economy. when iranian non-proliferation was discussed in the security council and before the voting, the attitude of bosnia and herzegovina regarding that topic was highly doubted in media. regional and international journalists raised question whether sarajevo will declare its support for teheran or not. according to unofficial findings of media, presidency of bosnia and herzegovina received from iranian officials a list of reasons why they should not support imposing sanctions against iran trying to persuade them to vote against the resolution (moj portal 2010). before the voting took place, there were predictions that turkey, brazil, and lebanon will vote against the resolution, and similar stands were expected from uganda and nigeria considering their relations with iran. additionally, russia and china were likely to abstain from voting which would leave decision upon bosnia and herzegovina whose stand was not clear at the time. the united states put a lot of effort into persuading resolution’s passing. bosnia and herzegovina has good relations both with washington and tehran. despite all of that, it took positive stand along with other member states except turkey, brazil, and lebanon which enabled adoption of the resolution (radio sarajevo 2010). despite all doubts and predictions, bosnia and herzegovina still supported imposing sanctions against iran. the very next day after the voting took place in the security council, iranian ambassador in sarajevo gholamreza yousefi met with the member of presidency at the time nebojša radmanović to discuss possible improvement of bilateral cooperation between these two countries especially in the field of trade and economy. bosnian ‘yes’ did not cause negative feelings from tehran. the situation in bosnia and herzegovina was on the agenda of the security council three times during 2010. this included two briefings by high representative, valentin inzko, and resolution regarding the authorization of the european union stabilization force (eufor) for another year. each year, the high representative is briefing the security council twice about situation in bosnia and herzegovina and development the country made for certain period of time. during the first briefing in 2010, he spoke about current situation and development as well as the implementation of the dayton peace agreement. internal issues and politics was still very complicated and it was not clear whether the government strives for more centralized or decentralized state. he also said that the country could not take advantage of certain economic assistance, and had made no progress on the five goals and two conditions — the so-called “5 + 2 agenda” — set by the steering board for the transition from the office of high representative to a reinforced european union-led presence (the united nations 2010b). chairman of the presidency of bosnia and herzegovina at the time haris silajdžić, who spoke at the meeting as well, emphasized the effect of so called entity vote which exists in the political system. it allows republika srpska to block any decision proposed by federation and vice versa. the second briefing was held on november 11. this time, together with the high representative valentin inzko, chairman of the presidency of bosnia and herzegovina at the time nebojša radmanović spoke to the council as well. during the briefing, the high representative concluded that nationalist agendas were still prevailing over cooperation and compromise, making the political situation difficult and that there had been no 131 say 125 times ‘yes’: bosnia and herzegovina in the un security council epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences progress in the past year on the key reforms required for bosnia and herzegovina’s integration into euro-atlantic structures (the united nations 2010g). on the other hand, radmanović said that the progress has been made and that the situation in the country changed since the last briefing. he also claimed that all key elements of the dayton peace agreement had been implemented, that situation is more stable, and that the country has made progress regarding euro-atlantic integrations. meeting held on november 11 was about prolonging european union stabilization force in bosnia and herzegovina. eufor althea mission***** in bosnia and herzegovina started in december 2004 after nato decided to end sfor mission. the main purpose of the althea mission is maintenance of peace set by the dayton peace agreement. all member states realized that this mission and its perseverance was still significant for bosnia and herzegovina. therefore resolution was adopted unanimously authorizing the mission for another year – until 18 november 2011. briefings by the high representative did not provide any basis for optimistic views and the fact that the presence of eufor althea mission is necessary shows that the country still needs assistance with maintenance of previously made the dayton peace agreement as well as establishment of future agreement (eu integration). although bosnia and herzegovina was not the only state in this situation, it was not easy for representatives to be present in the security council while the situation of the country was discussed without optimistic views. decision makers had clear stand regarding this resolution, along with other member states. however, the importance or the difficulty of this resolution lies in the unpleasant situation that discussion about these topics brings for a member state concerning its own issues. year 2010 was challenging for the security council. the importance of protection of civilians, non-proliferation, and conflicts that occurred throughout the world were the major issues member states were concerned about. the biggest obstacles that bosnia and herzegovina faced at the beginning of the mandate were related to building capacities and forming a team which will carry out the mission in the security council. lack of knowledge regarding particular issues certain countries are facing made this mandate more difficult. however, internal issues still prevailed in the decision making process. the external affairs did not affect the stand as we can see from the resolution about non-proliferation in iran. although bosnia and herzegovina has very good and stable relations with iran, that did not prevent voting in favor for the resolution and therefore agreeing on imposing sanctions. on the other hand, internal issues contributed largely when the council discussed kosovo case. also, discussing the situation in bosnia and herzegovina during its mandate was not easy for members of the mission especially because presented situation did not signalize progress. 2010 was concluded with 59 ‘yeses’ coming from bosnia and herzegovina, along with austria, gabon, japan, mexico, nigeria, uganda, the united kingdom, and the united states, which might indicate the effectiveness of decision making process in the council and agreement among member states. ***** the operation is a part of eu approach to bosnia and herzegovina and the significant contribution of the eu’s political engagement and its assistance programs (the current police and monitoring mission) in order to help further progress towards european integration in the light of the stabilization and accession process (eufor b&h). 132 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences p. plenta & a. smaka resolutions in 2011 one of the main concerns of the security council in 2011 was, once again, protection of civilians. massive protests that occurred worldwide in 2011 largely contributed to the importance of this topic. majority of resolutions and meetings were held regarding problems in africa. the security council held 213 public meetings in 2011, slightly more than in 2010. number of resolutions adopted is slightly larger as well, counting 66 resolutions. member states strove for consensus once again. only five resolutions required a vote.****** unlike in 2010, two resolutions suffered vetoes in 2011 both concerning middle east situation. the birth of south sudan as an independent country and events in côte d’ivoire drew the attention of the security council as well. the council established peacekeeping mission in south sudan and sudan. after the declaration of independence, the membership of south sudan in the united nations was considered as well. post elections conflict in côte d’ivoire resulted in sprawling violence. the threat of harm for civilians increased and thousands of citizens were felling the country. hundreds of military and police personnel were sent to ensure the wellbeing of citizens. so called arab spring that started in tunisia in december 2010, continued spreading across arab countries in 2011. peace and security was threatened in many countries including morocco, kuwait, libya, egypt, lebanon, etc., and other conflicts were still ongoing – bahrain, sudan, and syria. massive protests and attempts to overthrow government became the concern of the security council. protests that began in libya on february 2011 proceeded to an armed conflict that lasted eight months. these events turned into an armed conflict between libyan security forces and citizens seeking to overthrow qadhafi’s rule. the council’s formal engagement started on february 25, 2011 and in 19 formal meetings spanning the conflict’s duration, the council’s most significant actions included imposing sanctions on the qadhafi regime, approving the no-fly zone and authorizing the use of ‘all necessary measures’ to protect civilians (the united nations 2012). six resolutions were adopted in relation to situation in libya in 2011. considering the escalation of events the security council was forced to react quickly. first resolution was adopted on february 26, which demanded the end of violence and referred the situation to the international criminal court. sanctions included freezing assets belonging to the quadhafi family, travel ban, and arms embargo was imposed. humanitarian agencies were called to libya and committee for monitoring the situation was established. this resolution was adopted unanimously. the council adopted second resolution in regards to situation in libya by 10 votes in favor, none against, and five abstentions brazil, china, germany, india, russian federation on 17 march. this resolution demanded immediate ceasefire. member states agreed that strong action against quadhafi regime was necessary and no-fly zone was enforced. however, the representatives of china and the russian federation called for a peaceful settlement of the conflict, with the latter noting that the text left many questions unanswered, including how and by whom the measures would be enforced and what the ****** resolutions concerning which consensus was not reached were: security council resolution on measures against eritrea and expansion of the mandate of the monitoring group re-established by resolution 2002, where china and russia abstained from voting; middle east situation – where china and russia casted veto, and brazil, india, lebanon, south africa abstained from voting; security council resolution on extension of the mandate of the panel of experts established pursuant to resolution 1929 (2009) concerning the islamic republic of iran until 9 june 2012, where lebanon abstained from voting; security council resolution on establishment of a ban on flights in the libyan arab jamahiriya airspace, where brazil, china, germany, india, and russia abstained from voting, and resolution concerning middle east situation, including the palestinian question where the united states casted veto. 133 say 125 times ‘yes’: bosnia and herzegovina in the un security council epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences limits of engagement would be (the united nations 2012). in addition to these two, four more resolutions were adopted all demanding ceasefire and imposing sanctions to the authorities. rapid development of events in libya was the concern of all security council members including bosnia and herzegovina. although the security council did not succeed in ensuring safety for civilians and preventing or stopping the conflict, member states cooperated continuously in order to find a solution. bosnia and herzegovina did not have a subjective stand regarding these issues, but made the decisions in consultation with other member states in order to prevent escalation of events. unlike for situation in libya, bosnia and herzegovina had more subjective attitude towards issues regarding middle east, especially palestinian question. as bosnia and herzegovina is composed of three constituent people, representatives of each strive towards sustaining their beliefs and interests therefore looking for like-minded ones beyond the border as well. as serbs try to maintain their connection with serbia and russia, croats with croatia, bosniaks try to establish and sustain the connection with muslims in other parts of the world too. this shows how internal issues can be expanded beyond borders reflecting to the complex israeli-palestinian situation. in addition to this, the relational ties that exist between israel and smaller b&h entity, republika srpska, prevailed in the decision making process. the two often provide support for each other and republika srpska was even called as israel’s best friend in europe by michael freund (freund 2014). the question of palestine is dating since 1947, when the general assembly decided to divide the territory into arab and jewish part. ever since then, this issue raised many controversies and resulted into many conflicts. as it was part of many discussions in the security council for decades, this topic was brought up again in 2011. two resolutions related to middle east suffered veto in 2011. first proposed resolution in february was concerning israeli settlements on palestinian territory. the united states has casted veto which prevented adoption of this resolution. the us ambassador, susan rice, said that this resolution might harden positions of both sides and encourage them to stay out of negotiations and that washington view was that the israeli settlements lacked legitimacy (the guardian 2011). bosnia and herzegovina found itself in an unenviable position when palestine decided to seek full un membership through the security council. although diplomatic relations between these two countries exist, the presidency had a hard time reaching consensus necessary to take a positive or negative stand. because of the inability of all three members of the presidency to reach the decision unanimously, if it had come to voting, abstention would be the only choice. according to bosco, seven members were likely to support – brazil, china, india, lebanon, nigeria, russia, and south africa; two leaning in that direction – bosnia and herzegovina and portugal; three who are probably on the fence – france, gabon, and the united kingdom; two likely to oppose – colombia and germany; and one certain to oppose – the united states. close ties with israel contributed to these possible stands as well as the effect it might leave on the other countries as well. whether this resolution had necessary nine votes or not, it was doomed to fail because the unite states would still cast a veto preventing the adoption. bosnian serb leaders strongly oppose the palestinian initiative due to ties with israel and, especially, belief that this action could lead to a similar move by kosovo (bosco 2011). regarding this resolution milorad dodik, president of the republika srpska, said for the jerusalem post, “we did not hesitate to adopt a pro-israel position. i am proud of this stance that we took “(freund 2014). 134 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences p. plenta & a. smaka during the interview, ambassador barbalić mentioned that this was not a good time for palestine to seek full membership in the united nations through the security council considering the member states it was composed of at the time. however, it is very questionably if convenient time will ever come taking in account that the united states is one of the permanent members and its ties with israel. later on, palestinian government decides to withdraw the application for the membership. second resolution regarding middle east was discussed in the council in october. the draft resolution was in regards to the situation in syria and imposing sanctions against the regime. it was drafted by france in cooperation with britain, germany and portugal. this resolution had support of nine members including bosnia and herzegovina; however, this was not enough for the adoption because russia and china, joined forces in casting veto. member states which abstained from voting are: brazil, india, lebanon, and south africa. situation in bosnia and herzegovina itself was on the agenda in the security council during second year of its mandate as well. if we take in account just this particular subject, 2011 pretty much mirrored 2010. as in previous year, two briefings by the high representative were held and resolution regarding eufor althea mission was discussed. political situation continued to develop negatively and no progress has been made regarding european integration process and membership to nato. the development of country was threatened in every aspect. first briefing by the high representative valentin inzko was held on 9 may when he expressed his concern regarding the maintenance of the order set by the dayton peace agreement. the threat was faced when the authorities in the republika srpska decided to take actions which violate the dayton peace agreement. by deciding to hold a referendum that would put into question the high representative’s authorities and laws enacted by him, as well as other state-level institutions, including the bosnia and herzegovina court, the republika srpska’s national assembly had opted for a path that represented a ‘serious breach’ of the country’s constitutional framework and was contrary to the 1995 peace deal that ended nearly four years of inter-ethnic fighting (the united nations 2011a). this did not contribute to building positive image of the country; on the contrary, it was characterized as the worst political crisis that bosnia and herzegovina faced since the end of the war. second briefing by the high representative was held on 15 november. during this briefing, the high representative inzko congratulating bosnia and herzegovina on its tenure as a member of the security council, said that had given the government the opportunity to make new friends and gain the respect of many countries; it should be counted as a significant foreign policy success (the united nations 2011d). he also added that despite the global crisis, economic progress had been made. however, political instability continued and he argued that his presence as the high representative and euror mission were still essential. this briefing was followed by negative comments by russian representative who said that the briefing can be hardy called objective and that in order to justify his position, the high representative deliberately emphasized the negative view on the situation in the country. as in 2010, third and the last time the situation in bosnia and herzegovina was discussed in the security council in 2011, referred to the eufor althea mission. once again this resolution was adopted unanimously by all member states considering that the presence of the mission was still crucial to ensure preserving peace set by the dayton 135 say 125 times ‘yes’: bosnia and herzegovina in the un security council epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences peace agreement. as a result, the mission was prolonged yet for another year. bosnia and herzegovina was still not capable of ensuring peace and security for its citizens and succeeding in political and economic development on its own. in a year characterized by many uprisings all over the world and some of them escalating into armed conflicts such as events related to the arab spring, the importance of protection of civilians grew. the development of events forced the security council to react quickly and impose serious sanctions such are those imposed on quadhafi family. the success of the council in assuring protection of civilians and ending conflicts is questionable. however, the cooperation between member states and strive to achieve set goals (implementation of resolutions) was on a high level. conclusion during 2010 and 2011 situation in bosnia and herzegovina was characterized by political instability, budget deficit, and stagnation in the european integration process and membership to nato. on the other hand, if we look at the bright side, it achieved a great success by becoming a non-permanent member of the security council and carrying its mandate successfully. major obstacles at the beginning of the mandate were related to capacity building. while other member states had teams composed of numerous experts reaching even up to fifty members of the mission, bosnia and herzegovina had only fifteen people at disposal in new york. as ambassador ivan barbalić highlighted, the team had a hard time coping with all obligations set by the council due to shortage of personnel. insufficient experience in body such as the security council as well as lack of knowledge in regards to certain issues discussed, presented an obstacle as well. in the period of 2010 and 2011, wide range of topics were discussed in the security council, 125 resolutions were adopted and two resolutions suffered veto. consensus was reached in great majority of them. bosnia and herzegovina voted in favor for every resolution discussed. despite all of that, it faced inevitable challenges along with other member states. this paper provides an insight of the following topics discussed in the security council with the focus on voting behavior of member states, particularly bosnia and herzegovina: kosovo, islamic republic of iran, libya, palestine, and bosnia and herzegovina. situation in bosnia and herzegovina was discussed three times in each year of its tenure. this included two annually briefings by the high representative and resolution regarding the eufor althea mission. even fifteen years after the end of the war, international guardians of the dayton peace agreement were still crucial for the country. political and economic instability in the country which did not lean towards progress, might justify negative views regarding country’s membership in the security council which occurred prior to the beginning of a tenure. on the other hand, despite all of that, country’s representatives worked side by side with other member states and managed to fulfill the expectations. the security council held 182 public meetings, adopted 59 resolutions, and issued 30 presidential statements in 2010. none of the permanent members casted veto and only six resolutions required a vote. major concerns of the council was protection of civilians in an armed conflict and women vulnerable to sexual violence. in regards to the islamic republic of iran and democratic people’s republic of korea, nuclear proliferation remained a concern as well. the security council had already imposed sanctions on iran regarding nuclear weapons program. the united states was lobbying the council to pass 136 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences p. plenta & a. smaka the resolution imposing new sanctions. it was very debatable which stand bosnia and herzegovina will take regarding this resolution. despite the help it got from iran during the war and good bilateral relations, bosnia and herzegovina still voted in favor of this resolution. iranian representatives announced that they understand the stand that sarajevo took. members of the presidency agreed unanimously upon this issue. however, when the issue of kosovo was discussed, serbian member of the presidency has more subjective stand which was expected considering ties bosnian serbs hold with serbia. this issue did not come to vote, still representatives spoke during the meetings when this issue was discussed. they called to negotiations and acknowledged the importance of unmik, but did not take position regarding kosovo’s independence. the security council held 213 public meetings in 2011, adopted 66 resolutions, and issued 22 presidential statements in 2011. only five resolutions required a vote; however two of them suffered veto, both regarding middle east. once again the major concern of the council was protection of civilians in an armed conflict. massive uprisings and escalation of events related to the arab spring contributed it largely. libya, for instance, suffered consequences related to this. six resolutions were adopted demanding immediate ceasefire and imposing sanctions on the authorities. still, the conflict between citizens and government security forces did not stop. another very controversial topic discussed, was palestinian membership in the united nations. palestinian officials announced application to full membership in the united nations, and the decision was brought to the security council. as some member states had a clear stand regarding this question, some were hesitant. many speculations about the voting turnout were raised as in media, so in academic field as well. it was very questionable whether the resolution will get nine necessary votes. bosnia and herzegovina was in a difficult situation, again, considering the internal decision making process. most predictions were that it will abstain from voting considering that serb member of the presidency would not agree upon the issue. in any case, taking in account the veto that the united states would cast, this resolution would not be adopted. at the end, palestinian government decided to withdraw the application. the attitude of bosnia and herzegovina in the security council was not affected by other member states, but by its own internal issues, attitudes and goals. issues related to kosovo, palestine, and perhaps even iran, for instance, which were discussed in the council support that. both, internal and external affairs of a state influence its foreign policy. however, in this case, internal affairs prevailed. the subjective reasons of members of the presidency affected the attitude in the security council. it has been almost four years since the end of the mandate of bosnia and herzegovina in the security council. the country still struggles on its way to the membership in eu and nato. unlike predictions, only slight improvement has been made in this area as well as in economic and political field. on the other hand, bosnia and herzegovina is richer in experience which gained during the two-year mandate. the mandate in the security council was a learning experience which might serve well to the representatives in the committee of ministers of the council 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(2011). “non-permanent membership of bosnia and herzegovina in the united nations security council 2010 2011: challenges of the january 2011 presidency,” vanjskopolitička inicijativa: 1-13. lejla panjeta* introduction the attempts to convey the reality or the author’s vision of the reality can be reduced to the simple communication process between the creator of the strategic artistic idea or message aimed at emotions of the recipient. when looking at the simple jacobson’s (1966) explanation of communication process, one finds that it can be reduced to the simple equation consisting of sender, receiver and the message. the creator or sender of the message puts the information aimed at the receiver’s or customer’s response. this action produces the message that is received and perceived by the receiver based on his or hers cultural and social background and in doing so produces the reaction of the receiver. this reaction can be considered as immediate feedback to the sender, but also as a delayed outcome of the perceived information resulting in the receiver’s beliefs, stands, emotions, behaviour, etc. this simplification of the human communication indicates that it can be of persuasive nature, because in any information that is put into the action by the receiver, epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies volume 7, number 2, 2014 p-issn 2303-6850 e-isnn 1840-3719 the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema abstract the artistic attempt to convey the reality or the author’s vision of the reality can be reduced to the simple communication process between the creator of the strategic artistic idea or message aimed at emotions of the recipient. manipulation with the impact of the art work results in the stereotyped values on the matter presented in the art work. such impact is vividly evident in the motion pictures. ever since the beginning of the film exemplary influences of the film on its audience are enormous. it is the inherent feature of film to be convincing, because if it is not, the audience does not believe the interpreted reality or identify with the story, and thus the communication process is not working properly. why are we watching movies? we do understand that the material before our eyes is not reality, but, nevertheless if it does not follow its own principles of reality that creates within, we do not believe in it. as communication in the art of film is based on the stories, and stories need heroes and enemies, the different parties in the war reality play roles in the film reality. in this reality the perception of what happened in one period of history is represented and interpreted in the movies. this perception depends on authors believes but also political adequacy at the time, place and origin of the finances for the moviemaking. the features of cinematography and storytelling, subjugated to the stereotypes along with the propaganda possibilities and impacts of film contents and contexts in reference to the war and after war reality are the main focuses of this essay. keywords: film; propaganda; art reality; stereotypes; war; good and bad; enemy and savior *corresponding author: lejla panjeta, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: lpanjeta@ius.edu.ba there is some kind of goal, purpose, hidden agenda or strategy. whether it’s a simple statement that the weather today is bleak or the enchanted advertisement for the new chevrolet, the sender of the message is sending his or hers own perception of the world towards the receiver and waiting for the response, that can, but does not always have to, qualify as the desired and strategically formed outcome. the impact that the message produces can be anticipated and premeditated by the creator of the communication process. the accuracy in achieving the goals in this persuasive communication is measured by propaganda experts, marketing tools, media and advertisement industry criteria. the sophisticated methods for the manipulation of the receiver’s responses are within the realm of propaganda techniques, but we cannot neglect the basic principles of communication that can be of persuasive nature even if it is not conducted by propaganda experts. the communication principles including sender, receiver and the message are applicable to the art communication and perception of the art work. one of the arts that contain the visual and kinaesthetic qualities that can penetrate psychologically into the receiver’s mind is film. some of the first theories in film at the beginning of the last century were based on psychological research. psychologists were the first to recognize this fair attraction as something resembling the processes in which the human brain operates, which consists of the insight or replica of non-linear, visual, three-dimension nature of human thoughts. psychologist, hugo munsterberg, early film theoretic, indicated that film is closer to the mental processes of the individual than any other art (butler, 2008, p. 14). as in all other human communication processes, here we encounter the jacobson’s principles. the sender or creator is the director of the film, receiver is the audience, and the message is the film itself, consisting of the artistic expression on the given subject it represents or the artistic message. it is evident that the message that is psychologically attuned with our mind has more power on the receiver and can produce greater impact, in co-ordinance with the desired goals of the creator of the film. simplifying some phenomenon or notions, for better understanding them and communicating easier in the same context, is what people do in everyday life communication. but, making these contexts become a value is the sure path to creation of the stereotyped versions of reality. according to nichols (2010) an “ideology describes the lens through which individuals see and understand how they fit into the social world around them“ (p. 287). manipulation with these lenses can form stereotyped values on the matter presented in the art work. the impact it can have is vividly evident in the motion pictures. it can be in a form of bluntly selling the product or an idea (usually political) for the strategic purposes of the sender, but it can also be an indirect propaganda, where the real goal of the sender is not evident (maybe even unconscious for the sender) within the context of the narrative of the film, but can be perceived as general if somewhat elusive 114 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema idea (or ideology). nevertheless, its very existence is possible by the fact that the creator comes from a formed background of ideas and certain cultural context. the possibilities of film influence in reality ever since the beginnings of the film, influences of the celluloid narratives on its audience are registered and this new medium, at first considered nothing more than an entertainment tool, showed that the slights of hand can have considerable convincing power. after seeing, what’s considered to be the first film, brother lumière’s the arrival of the train at la ciotat in 1895 people jumped out of their seats believing that the train will enter the screening room when approaching in the close up shot to the camera. broadcasting of the h. g. well’s interpretation of the war of the worlds in 1983 by orson wells, making people believe that the actual aliens are invading earth, caused mass hysteria in usa. internal revenue service noted the increased tax payments in 1943, after the mass distribution of the cartoon by walt disney, in which the famous children’s character donald duck is portrayed as the conscious citizen and diligent tax payer. the summer film season in 1975 was marked by the box office success of jaws, the film that is to be taken as one of the first blockbusters. the horror story of the giant shark attacking and killing swimmers and tourists at random in the quiet amity island, caused the same devastating effect in the real world of tourism. the summer season was nearly destroyed, because people were afraid to swim in the ocean. the vividly real and palpable fear of the giant aquatic monster was masterly directed by steven spielberg, and to this day has gone through so many sequels and different interpretations such as the latest piranha 3d movie in 2010 (panjeta, 2006, p. 278). brazilian newspaper headlines in december of 1992, covering the story of the murder of daniela perez revealed the shocking truth about the psychological process of actors’ identification. the partner of this young actress brutally murdered her in real life, after staging and shooting a scene in the soap opera de corpo e alma produced by tv globo. in the said love scene the character played by daniela perez states that she does not love her partner anymore. after the murder in real life, the actor surrendered himself claiming that he confused the reality and the fiction he was playing in. the production company was later announced to be the accomplice in this brutal act (valenti, 1995). even in the prehistory of feature movies as artistic expression, but also as an entertainment industry, the extraordinary impact that film has on its users was registered. becoming aware that there is a possibility to manipulate with these effects the censorship boards that control the content shown in the film are created even at the very early stage of film development. in 1917, the government of the united states formed the creel committee, the authority that was entrusted to make the influence upon the public opinion on the american engagement in the first world war. one of the important media, 115 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema through which the government infiltrated its messages, was feature movies. on the other continents as well as other historical and social poles, the similar thing happened with the birth of this new form of expression as soon as its massive influence as the new form of mass media with unique audio-visual language was discovered. it is no secret that goebbels and stalin were sitting in the editing rooms along with the filmmakers whose work is today considered anthological and films classical. leni von riefenstahl work in propaganda documentaries and the father of the editing techniques, sergei eisenstein were closely connected to the men in power (gregor, patalas, 1998, p. 103 and bergan, 2006, p. 291). at the oscar winner award for 2013 there were the greetings from the white house for a film about usa-iranian relations, praising america’s freedom of speech, democracy and individualism, opposed to social and cultural values of iran, and considering the current state of diplomatic and political relations between iran and the united states, shows that the seemingly liberally organized film productions have relationships with their superior political and state apparatus. the film is now as it was since its beginnings used intentionally or unintentionally for propaganda purposes. one of the inherent features of film, the psychological phenomenon of identification, can also be used as an asset in spreading premeditative messages. if considered from the semiotics point of view, the indexical quality of film image gives the fictional worlds the quality of real. the relationship between the image and what it represents is faithful and in the realm of reality, because of the mimetic embodiment characteristic for all the performing arts. the accuracy of the image with its referent in the real world is the characteristic of film language and kinaesthetic storytelling. the identification with this world for the recipients of the film as the message itself is just the result of this semiotic quality. the above stated impacts that movies can have on the spectatorship are not always premeditated. these are rampant evidences and extreme examples of the influence the film can have and the consequences of the impact it conveys through the idea of the author (creator of the communication process) and the artistic message. it is an inherent feature of film to be convincing, because if it is not, the audience does not believe the interpreted reality or identify with the story, and thus the communication process is not working properly. truthfulness and verisimilitude are the immanent features of narrative in film language. riccioto canudo’s manifest the birth of the sixth art from 1911 for the first time argued and proclaimed cinema as the new art and the synthesis of the five ancient arts: architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and poetry (stojanović, 1978, pp. 51-53). plato’s mimetic art quality was immediately recognized among early film theorists. realism as the main style was implemented immediately in this new art. the main feature of realism is to present the world as the real one, in which all the narrative 116 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema elements (plot, situation, characters, conflicts, locations, etc.) stand on their own within the organized structure of the story conducted by that own world’s rules. according to nichols (2010) “realism as a self-effacing form of storytelling draws on the general tendency in much art to hide the process of its own making in favour of the impression that the world it represents exists on its own, autonomously” (p. 177). film reality and interpretation even latter stylistic features in film, such as modernism and postmodernism, are relating to one simple quality of film: it has to be real to be convincing. the pioneer in documentary dziga vertov experimented with the leftovers film stock in the editing room, making the new document of the already documented reality on the film reel. for him, the camera and editing are equal in the process of filmmaking and by reformulation of the reality; a new, more perfect reality is born, seen through the cinematic, as well as human lenses of the creator of the film. his famous statement: “life caught unawares” refers to the ability of film to be perfect as opposed to the imperfections of human eyesight (cook, 2007, pp. 203-207). this cinema-eye perfection enables the creator to reinvent the perfect reality (or a new one) according to his own ideas and the messages that he wants the audience to be focused on. nevertheless, everything in this process of cutting and editing reality depends on the point of view of the author. whether it’s the fantasy world or the documentary, both of these genres are in the domain of mimetic and realistic qualities. the audience easily identifies with the reality on the screen. this reality can transfer the real reality, as the photograph does. the birth of cinema is characterized by this kind of mimesis. documentation of the train arrival to the station by brothers lumière is copy pasting the real life. on the other hand a trip to the moon from 1902 makes its own reality. this first fantasy film, by george méliès, draws the viewers into the fantasy travel to the space, but nonetheless very much real within its own made up narrative elements rules. this discrepancy between fantasy and realism is evident at the beginning of film, but also accurate and applicable today within the complex genre system of film storytelling. both opposing styles have possibilities to be suggestive and persuasive, because both are real and we believe in them. the story of president abraham lincoln can be told in a realistic manner as was done by steven spielberg in an oscar awarded film lincoln from 2012. in the same year abraham lincoln: vampire hunter a fantasy horror vampire movie was released, directed by timur bekmambetov and based on the novel by seth grahame-smith. both are indexical presentations of reality and mimetically interpret the made-up world of fiction based on the true events in history. one is a drama, and the other a vampire action. in both films we entrust our belief that the reality represented on screen is worth trusting and following. no other art has this trust issue with its recipients. for literature one does not need to trust, but imagine. when reading fiction or poetry imagination is the most important factor in the 117 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema communication process. for paintings and fine art, aesthetic components of admiration, not trust in the given reality, is what is important. for music, emotions and catharsis, but not trust, are the most inherent features of the artist – consumer process. through the specific performing, visual, audio, kinaesthetic, light, framing elements, this film language enables the indexing of one reality chosen by the creator of the media content that is the fixed image of the real; space taken in one moment of time with the narrative or plot filling the framed reality whose important feature is identification. persuasive quality of this media can be found in the basic elements of its language, or code in which the massage is transferred to the recipient. when we think that someone is a lousy actor, or that the film story is unconvincing, it is the viewers’ trust that was betrayed in the communication with the filmic interpretation of the given reality. film is, therefore, mimetic interpretation of the creator’s vision and presentation of some given reality. the story of snow white is worldwide spread and known, and it can be interpreted like disney’s 1937 animation or 2012 gothic horror version of snow white and the huntsmen. but, in both versions the good guys and the bad guys are the same: wicked evil stepmother is the antagonist (the bad guy), and the beautiful, innocent snow white is the protagonist (the good guy). everything else can be interpreted according to the author’s vision. war is similar to fairy tales. it is a story of two different sides; good and bad. how to portray the war in the fiction, and stay true to the reality of good and bad, as well as the victims and aggressors point of view? there be both in the real life, but is there room for both interpretations on one screen? if so, how is then possible to transfer such reality on screen without taking sides and producing further conflict. is it possible for film to not use the above described persuasive techniques (intentionally or not) and stay true to reality? which or whose interpretation of reality? what if or when the reality is no longer to be trusted? what happens when the mainstream, official government or even oral history has lost its credibility? the media infiltrated messages of hate, that produced the conflict in the first place, are information covered in lies, aimed at the mass audience with the goal of making devastating war to be the final outcome of this propaganda communication. this communication coded in film language of close-up persuasiveness, depends on the audio-visual language of news, first invented on the silver screen as the film language. it uses identification as the tool for persuasive communication outcomes. if film can be used for purposes of creating bad in the real world, can it be also a tool for happy ending in reality? bearing in mind the film persuasiveness; can film depict or reinvent the reality, for the benefits of future reconciliation of the sides in conflict? the origins of bosnian cinematic sentiment the cinema crisis today can be argued in two different opposing discourses. one is 118 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema mostly philosophical and the other of an entertainment origins. european film today is engaged elite cinema questioning the ordinary middle class people and styles of lives. it is somewhat a moral debating of present time and social connotations. hollywood movies, on the other hand, are based on the traditional realistic and/or postmodern narratives wrapped in the often persuasive roller coaster spectacle of visual enchantment. bosnian films, being of european origin, tend to incline to the more philosophical rather than entertainment styles. although, one can argue that the majority of bosnian after war films has humorous (black-humour) and absurdity note on the subject of national conflict and war. the absurdity of bosnian war is very explicitly given in the last shoot of oscar awarded feature film no man’s land from 2001. a man is left on the ticking bomb by everyone (soldiers in conflict, journalists, european community, united nations official, etc.), after what’s been rifling and an oral squabble of why and how the war started. for bosnia, the filmmakers stand as her best representatives, having gained international recognition in the film festivals around the globe and international audience interest. according to goulding (2002) before the breakup of yugoslavia, sarajevo, the capital of bosniaherzegovina, was a small but vital and lively centre of film production and film culture. in the late 1950s, the sarajevo group of documentary filmmakers associated with bosna film established a well-deserved domestic and international reputation for stylistic inventiveness and political boldness (p. 228). the bosnian cinema is not to be considered outside of yugoslavian cinema, because its growth was directly related to the other republics in ex-yugoslavia and the same cinematic identity of realism is inherent for the films made from 1960s to the 1990s. modern bosnian films are not selling illusions but reality. every since the beginnings of bosnian film in the yugoslavian cinema in the 1960-s, the narratives represented in films depicted plots and life problems of the ordinary people lives and middle classes. as goulding (2002) has stated “as in past periods, feature films (as well as short films, documentary films, and animated films) continue to be made that offer stylistically varied, non-genre-driven narratives and critical visions of an often tragic past and a complex, unpredictable, and volatile present” (p. 232). bosnian bleak reality is often so represented in the yugoslavian cinema. the tradition of tragic stories in postmodern times, where tragedy is everyday life bosnian war and after war experience continues in the modern bosnian film. having deficient public and government support for the movie production, bosnian films (made by bosnian authors and taking place in bosnia) are often coproduced by european funds and state funds from the neighbouring countries croatia, serbia and slovenia. having the multicultural, 119 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema multi religious filmmakers, authors, producers and film crews working together on the film reality of war and after war reality, what would be the propaganda mechanisms for imposing the author’s version of the war? where to look for the suggested ideology and opinions of the author behind the film reality? representation of the reality that film is offering consists of the plot (usually conflict) based on the actions and motivations of the characters. the cultural background of the character can be presented (manipulated) in the behaviour, the lines and actions, and costume. the point of view of the camera (position of the camera), framing and editing within the constrictions of the genre or pure author style is imposing a certain idea on the reality represented in the movie. looking at these parameters is it possible to determine how is the bosnian reality propagated in the film? purgatory in bosnian film realism film narrative originates from performing arts and literature. drama and action between the characters is the essential narrative tool, and it cannot exist without a conflict. no one wants to see happy people being happy. a good story consists of the plot that indicates a conflict between the good guy and the bad guy. using appropriate professional terminology, the story is based on the opposing interests of the protagonist and the antagonist. propaganda of protagonist is the anti propaganda of the antagonist. the protagonist’s existence is conditioned by the antagonist. in other words, if there is no one to fight with, and nothing to fight for, the protagonist cannot exist. here lies the argument for close connection between propaganda and film; in order to have a protagonist, a bad guy must be created. bad guy is the enemy, a good guy the saviour or the victim. basically, and taken the dramaturgy in a very simplified manner, stories are the conflict between the good and the bad. as is the war. or is it? is there something more ugly behind it? for most stories in the official history the bad guy is stereotypically and ideologically detected and commonly accepted. in films stereotypes have to be created because it has to be clear who the good guy is. the film reality succumbs to the reality of good and bad. the battle between good and evil is an essential narrative for films. after the devastating war in bosnia from 1992 to 1995, no winner is official proclaimed. the dayton accord signed in december 1995 stopped the killings and that’s how the massacres in the centre of europe in the 20th century were ended. no winner. the international court of justice in the hague in 2007 delivered the decision on genocide (not ethnic cleansing) committed in srebrenica. two entities: serbian and bosnian-croat were created, as those were major two the sides in the conflict. bosnian history now has the story with no winner that will always be subjected to the future interests of power. in this regard goulding (2002) has stated that “while many cities may wish to boast of their multicultural tolerance, sarajevo has lived it for several centuries. it is a tolerance that embraces and celebrates moslem, jewish and orthodox religions and customs – a tolerance that embraces bosnian serbs, 120 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema croats, muslims, and other ethnic groups and nationalities“(p. 231). it is evident that so many bosnian films are keeping and propagating this multiculturalism quality. characters are of different national and religious backgrounds and not necessarily the bad guy is always the aggressor or soldier. whether it is nafaka, that humorously depicts war and its aftermath, or turneja, a serbian movie that describes the beginning of the war from the point of view of the theatre group from belgrade that happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or bosnian films, djeca, ostavljeni, grbavica, stories about the post-war perspective of the younger generation, whose life is effected extremely by the past. all of these movies are not openly propagating either side in conflict, but rather sophisticated ideological opinions and views are subtly given through the characters’ behaviours and actions. the bad guys are stated clearly, but not insisted upon. the memory of enemies and victims is changeable, as perceived in krugovi, but one adamant position of authors of these films stands: war was unnecessary, there were no winners, and it was all for nothing. almost all the domestic film production in the ex-yugoslav region inclines subtly to the ideological views of the country of origin. but, all the post-war films are coherent in one idea; the war was stupid and the consequences devastating. traditionally depicting a joe the neighbour, and his life as the absurdity in tragedy with wider connotation on the present society, the contemporary bosnian films are not bluntly propagating either side in conflict. subtle offensive characterizations in lines or action of the antagonist are noticeable, but not adamantly claiming the rights of the winner and hero. twenty years after the war one would expect to find at least one feature movie in the james bond style, or at least following the yugoslav cinema tradition of partisan action films. but, of all the films made, every one of them is related to the war and after war experience; and none of them is made in the style of action-hero-savour-of-the-day-propaganda. sergei lukyanenko in his bestselling gothic novel night watch stated: “once you start understanding the enemy, you lost the war” (2008, p. 132) the bosnian understanding of what the war was like for a common citizen (ordinary film character) is best explained in the tragically ending comedy gori vatra from 2003. bosnian muslim hamdo and bosnian serb stanko are having a drink and discussing the war and who started it referring to it as a “screw up.” raising their voices in the conclusion that the problems in the whole story were the outsiders who came to save “me and you.” the conversation ends bleakly stating that the separation to each of its own ethnical groups was unnecessary. the film is not negating the fact that the serbs were the bad guys in the war, but also portrays some bosnian muslims in the post-war period as corruptive and morally devastated. almost grotesquely comic are the muslim, serbian, croatian and albanian 121 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema characters in parada from 2011. ex war heroes (each on their own side) that are united as bodyguards of the gay pride procession in belgrade against the almost neo fascist chauvinist youth. as much as the earlier work of srdjan dragojević can be considered ideological and provocative, this film is mocking the war conflict and even though the stereotypical characters are offensive cultural representation, the film ends in the bitter sentiment of the tragedy and absurdity of violence. the bad guys are defined, but do not bare the necessary mask of religion, ethnicity or nationality. opposing to the bad guys in reality but also heroes of the film (war criminals) these violent filled with hatred antagonists are the really bad ones ugly ones. this concept of someone outside being the ugly one (international community or fate itself) is evident in the 2010 snuff serbian film srpski film. if the content of this film is reviewed as the metaphorical subtext, the context is connotative and applicable to the war and break off the yugoslavia. again, the man shooting, directing and producing the slaughter (gaining money on it) in the last scene of the movie is the ugly one. it is an evil even greater than the bad for which bosnians, serbs and muslims were capable of during the real war. no real propaganda on bad guys and heroes is given in these films. in this regard goulding (2002) stated that the nearly four years of war in bosnia-herzegovina, and the brutal fortysix-month siege on its capital, sarajevo, had a devastating impact on all aspects of life and culture. enduring the longest siege of a major city in modern history, sarajevo was mercilessly subjected to months of terrifying shelling and sniping… what remained intact, however, was a small group of talented sarajevo filmmakers who chose to remain in their city and to shoot back – not with bullets, but with expertly aimed cameras trained with unerring accuracy on the profoundly important human stories that were unfolding daily, and demanding to be told” (p. 229). who was telling these stories? the ones who were at the same time witnessing the horrors of war and devastation of their city; and not only documenting the reality on film, but putting it into the fictional reality in movies. masterly film essay from 2000, by srdjan vuletić, the short film hop, skip, jump, as well as the brilliant sequence shot in ahmed imamović’s 10 minuta, point out that the bad guy behind the line is killing innocent civilians, children and women, but the idea behind it is not to propagate emotions of hatred, but of abhorrent disgust over what people are capable of and question the limits of humanity in general. these films are capturing the vertov’s idea on cinematic perfection of the eye, accurately making a new reality as an interpretation of the real horror of war. who started or won the war is present but diminished, because the ugly truth has shown its real face, which is beyond the black and white fiction reality and is dragging the good guys into the grey monotony of dante’s purgatory. this is how most of the modern bosnian cinema could 122 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema be described. it is a purgatory for ordinary people that are heroically trying to overcome the tragedy that descended on them. the bulk of the jean-luc godard’s notre musique from 2004 takes place in the after war bosnia, and is referred to as dante’s purgatory. the film transcends the elusive idea about the collective conscience of humanity and hollowness of secularism as well as religious empathy that requires the good guy to be the victim for the system of our reality to be stable. collectiveness represented and interpreted by the creator of the film through the individual strives, sacrifice, suffering, devastation, destruction, violence is not stereotyped, it’s just unimaginable, as is something that could not happen even in the movies. savršeni krug, the first after war bosnian film is a metaphor for the siege of sarajevo in reality, but also the connotation of resistance and refusal to submit in the face of violence and surrender by dying. the idea of totally experiencing the opposing religions and multi culture by an individual becomes collective in the film reality. shot on the real locations, devastated by the shelling; the set designs are ideological, because they become the witness of the certain historical reality. thus, nichols (2010) stated that „form, ideology, and politicizing effects enjoy a shifting, unstable relationship that is best understood when located in relation to a given historical moment and particular audience“(p. 324). the truth caught in savršeni krug is evident to the survivors. in the same way the fake set design of the fighting scene background in which the glass windows are intact can be easily detected in the 2011 in the land of blood and honey by someone who has witnessed the siege of the european city at the end of 20th century. the indexical quality is an issue here, because it does not correspond with the referent, but also does not make its own references in the fictional world, making it believable. the film loses the viewers trust (especially survivors’ attention) not just because the images aren’t transcending the right message. the story is purely conceived as the romance between the victim of the rape and the rapist. it is rumoured that the film is inspired by the true story. the reality behind it is not questionable. the film reality is not holding well the strings and stretches of the narrative, performing and editing. the reality in the italian movie from 2012, venuto al mondo, that takes place in sarajevo before, during and after the war, is much more convincing and true to the original referent in reality, even if it is pure fabricated image of reality that surpasses the indexical quality and passes beyond to the metaphorical symbols. even if metaphorical and artistic, the reality is believable and the emotional impact gigantic in a still shoot of the two windows that are shattered and lighting subdued to the grey gloomy purgatorial colours of the war, during which the song by nirvana in interrupted by the loud explosion, after which the window view becomes the war sight. one of the best foreign movies about the war that are indexical and symbolic at the same time to the referencing reality of war 123 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema is shoot through the heart from 1998. the twisted, almost surreal world of city during the siege and subtle explanatory features of the everyday life, are of the utmost importance for any study of the war. good guys and bad guys are defined and their motives explained. as well as in welcome to sarajevo, by michael winterbottom from 1997, the set design in both movies is real and locations for shooting were devastated in reality, so this visual feature has noticeable impact. foreign movies are in need to determine who started the war, whereas domestic, including the serbian films, are harsher and more realistic in depicting the horrors of war but not focusing so much on the bad guy. they also do not openly state that everybody is equally to blame. the general idea can be drawn as a conclusion that the war is stupid, and we did not need it. as the good story needs the dichotomy of good and evil, foreign understanding of bosnian conflict has to be simplified and stereotyped. it is often given as a justification of the political silence at first and then the humanitarian or military intervention. the conflict between hamdo and stanko (the bosnian pronunciation of the names sounds similar), both caucasian, similarly dressed, visually from the shared social status, and judging by the eloquently delivered lines having the same background education, is an incomprehensible phenomenon to be solved unless one of them is on the side of evil completely. the complex social, cultural, religious, historical web of relationships that these imaginary guys have has been media manipulated to the conflict with desolate consequences for both sides. that’s why the hunting party, directed by richard shepard in 2007, tells the story of the catching of the bad guy, the war criminal radovan karadzić. it is very clear who the good guys are. although filled with stereotyped judgmental images, the impression of justification, remorse, and pay off for the actions international community and the usa were taking (not taking) concerning the war in bosnia is the major idea behind the film. opening scene shows the arrival of the plane to sarajevo international airport along with the collage of images associated with bosnian. the background music is of oriental origin, as has nothing in common with the bosnian musical heritage. the shoot of an old guy in the old town of sarajevo that was constructed during the ottoman rule in middle ages, shows the fez on his had that has not been worn in real life for a century. incidentally that costume is also of the ottoman origin, not bosnian. the comparable referent this stereotyped image, would be if one expected a cowboy to greet him or her upon the arrival at the j.f. kennedy airport in usa. the final title card in the film justifies the international involvement in the conflict, pointing out the bad guy: in theory, the official hunt for war criminals, in bosnia continues to this day. however, the two most wanted men – radovan karadzić and ratko mladić – continue to elude the us, the united nations, the european union, nato, the hague and all in the civilized world who claim to be looking for them. in the ten years, that radovan karadzic has been on the run, he has 124 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema published two books and one play. perhaps, if the international community opened summer stock theatre… one year later the war criminal was caught. still, the bosnian and foreign cinema on matters presented about the war has not been able to catch the ugly truth on how and why the conflict happened in the first place, and whether it is going to happen again. the brilliant croatian film directed by arsen ostojić, halimin put from 2012, taking place in bosnia and based on the true events, covers the shocking story of an adopted child raised by the muslim family and killed accidentally by the biological father in serbian army. horror of the absurdity of life, powers beyond our reach, manipulation with the masses, the birth mark of an enemy for other religions and cultural groups, is what the real ugly face looks like in bosnian reality and cinema. imposing you with the conclusions... film can be a persuasion tool, but is also a work of art and a testimony of the social context that it interprets. this interpretation might be intentionally stereotyped or unintentionally, ideologically driven point of view of the creator of the film idea and messages. subtle infiltration of ideas and reformulation of truth in the creation of the fictional truth is subjected to propaganda manoeuvres, that can have great impact on the audiences’ ability to identify with the good and the bad represented in the film. the general impression of the bosnian cinema after the war, given the argument that no james bond feature was made, and the grey reality of war and after war purgatory places the characters as either antiheros or victims, leaves the bitter taste of need to blame someone. if there is no explicit hero, is there an enemy? is it possible that the bosnian films, with all the propaganda impact film can manipulate with, are not capable of conducting a major propaganda effect after the bosnian conflict? was the conflict devastating and absurd to the point of numbness on the international scale of humanity? the bosnian cinema becomes the memory of the culture in time and absurdity of conflict. the real bad guy is not propagated openly and the hatred is not heated up by the propaganda techniques that film could use to this purpose. for transgressing the etiquette of the bad guy to the metaphorically powerful and beyond comprehension ugly one, maybe this cinema can have a reconciliatory outcome and warning effect for the future generations. analysing the jacobson’s communication process in the limelight of humanly inherent persuasiveness, every film with its powerful audio-visual identification feature can be considered propaganda. any film critic or analysis as well. the film referencing done in this essay can be differently understood and interpreted. it is the author’s wish to have it enlighten the new insights and arguments for further debate or persuasion. 125 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema references bergan, ronald. 2006. film. eyewitness companions. london, new york: dorling kindersley ltd.. butler, andrew m. 2008. film studies. the pocket essential. harpenden, london, uk: pocket essentials. cook, david. 2007. istorija filma i, ii, iii. (1981, 1990, 1981) (a history of narrative film). ww.norton for company inc. beograd: clio. goulding, daniel j. 2002. liberated cinema: the yugoslav experience, 1945-2001. 2 ed. bloomington & indianapolis: indiana university press. gregor, ulrich, and enno patalas. 1977. istorija filma. 1960. gescihte des films. munchen, gutersloch, wien: verlagsgruppe bertelsmann gmbh c. bertelsmann verlag. beograd: institut za film. jakobson, roman. 1966. lingvistika i poetika. beograd: nolit. lukyanenko, sergei. 2008. noćna straža. 1998, noćnoi dozor. trans. nikolić, nataša. noćna straža. vol. 1. 4 vols. beograd: alinari. nichols, bill. 2010. engaging cinema: an introduction to film studies. new york, london: w.w. norton & company inc. panjeta, lejla. 2006. potreba za smislom: mit, manipulacija i film. sarajevo: svjetlost. stojanović, dušan. 1978. teorija filma. beograd: nolit. films 10 minuta (10 minutes), 2002, ahmed imamović abraham lincoln: vampire hunter, 2012, timur bekmambetov a trip to the moon, 1902, george méliès djeca, 2012, aida begić de corpo e alma, 1992, tv globo gori vatra (fuse), 2003, pjer žalica grbavica (esma’s secret – grbavica), 2006, jasmila žbanić halimin put (halima’s path), 2012, arsen ostojić in the land of blood and honey, 2011, angelina jolie jaws, 1975, steven spielberg krugovi (circles), 2013, srdjan golubović lincoln, 2012, steven spielberg nafaka, 2006, jasmin duraković no man’s land, 2001, danis tanović notre musique, 2004, jean-luc godard ostavljeni (the abandoned), 2010, adis bakrač parada (the parade), 2011, srdjan dragojević savršeni krug (the perfect circle), 1997, ademir kenović shot through the heart, 1998, david attwood snow white and the huntsmen, 2012, rupert sannders snow white and the seven dwarfs, 1937, william cottrell, david hand, wilfred jackson, larry morey, perce pearce, ben sharpsteen srpski film (a serbian film), 2010, srdjan spasojević 126 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema telenovelas: bbc, 1995, alexandre valenti the hunting party, 2007, richard shepard the war of the worlds, 1983, orson wells, radio drama turneja (the tour), 2008, goran marković venuto al mondo (twice born), 2012, sergio castellitto welcome to sarajevo, 1997, michael winterbottom the arrival of the train at la ciotat, 1985, auguste lumiere and louis lumiere. 127 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences l. panjeta the good, the bad, and the ugly in bosnian cinema 114 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. korkut critical analysis of the ottoman constitution (1876) huseyin korkut kırklareli university, turkey abstract the conceptions of an individual and the nation-state gave birth to modernity and certainly shaped the socio-political systems in european countries. newly founded european sociopolitical system gradually influenced social, political and legal structures of countries under the sphere of colonial and imperial influences of great powers. in this regard, such developments coupled with intensive westernization process influenced the ottoman society, especially during the last decades of the empire. an analysis of the ottoman constitution (kanun-u esasî) (1876) within last few decades of the empire will show such socio-political and legal changes and developments. this paper, within the framework of constitutional acts, attempted to analyze two works that were critical about the ottoman constitution (1876). it is indicative that these two sources were also addressing western socio-political and legal influences on the ottoman society. these two works deal with range of modern issues such as freedom, equality and justice by considering their very roots in the islamic legal traditions. therefore, this paper will analyze these two works in light of the ottoman constitution (1876) that preserved in essence the islamic legal principles. keywords: constitutional acts; ottoman constitution (1876); socio-political system; legal system; pan-islamism introduction developments during the age of enlightenment and the age of revolutions contributed to significant constitutional changes across europe. on the other hand, the ottoman empire was lagging behind these developments and changes. ottoman classical constitutional models that shaped political, legal, social and economic institutions were entirely based on islamic law (sharia) and custom. according to the archival documents since the foundation of the ottoman empire, perhaps with minor western influence, the islamic law and custom were firmly shaping the ottoman political, legal, social and economic institutions. beginning from the 17th century, the ottoman empire was under the influence of modernity, which contributed to the emergence of new socio-political, economic and legal challenges that the state had to grapple and deal with. the legislative branch, which is perhaps the most significant one in terms of protection and maintenance of social integrity, had been forced to carry out reforms related to the new balance of “international relations.” these reform initiatives and eventual adoption of the constitutional acts contributed to the development of the institutional legal framework based on the ottoman constitution (1876) and the formation of the ottoman national assembly (meclis-i mebusan). in this regard, constitutional and democratic changes were not result of internal socio-political changes and transformations but they were imported from abroad, whereby emerging modernists and upper part of social stratum, within the empire, carried out their implementation (gözübüyük, 1986, pp. 9394). furthermore, constitutional and democratic changes were carried out separately by different governors in top-down approach and as such could not be properly integrated d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 21 9 115 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences critical analysis of the ottoman constitution (1876) within the traditional society. then, the pressures by european states on the weakening ottoman empire, on the pretext of protecting citizens’ rights, significantly contributed to artificial implementation of constitutional and democratic changes. certainly, the tanzimat edict and reform edict are the most evident examples that support the notion of disparity between constitutional and democratic changes and the society. the ottoman constitution (1876) was also far away from the social need, whereby imported social contract from the west utterly failed in the ottoman empire. however, very adoption of the ottoman constitution (1876) was the birth of a new notion within the ottoman empire, called constitutionalism. most of intellectuals of that period were inevitably interested in constitutionalism as new political, social and legal phenomenon worth examining and studying. both intellectuals and public officials produced early studies and works on this subject. however, this paper aims to analyze two works on the subject of the ottoman constitution (1876) and various issues related to constitutionalism. although numerous studies and works on this study were written, selected two works or the treatises in our paper are the most important because of their in-depth analysis of various socio-political and legal issues. another novelty of this paper is (re)addressing the islamic principles in the context of ottoman constitution (1876) and subjects ranging from justice, equality, freedom, political representation to political participation. constitutional acts in late ottoman era constitutional acts determine the scope of rights and freedom of individual and public life. they also define issues and activities related to state`s structure of political power and as such provide the quality regulations that have constitutional, administrative, legal, sociological and even economic and military dimensions. therefore, the term “constitutional acts” includes a range of activities that have a goal to sanction through documents or at least to determine the administrative order of the state, the citizens and their freedom (gözübüyük, 1986, p. 93). thus, according to the definition constitutional acts primarily define activities and rights of individual and state, which include both administrative and public laws. in this regard, the ottoman constitution (1876), in the context of constitutional acts, certainly included these two areas. the following sections of the paper will present and analyze specific constitutional provisions related to both an individual and the state. these include the provisions regarding state and caliphate as a part of administrative law and assessments such as justice, freedom and equality that fall within the scope of public law. in the second half of the 18th century, the western europe gradually began introducing the constitutional acts that spread to other parts of the world. constitutional acts did not only consist of activities related to the structure of power, fundamental rights and freedom, but also had a significant impact on the settlement of ascendency of law which is the cornerstone of the democratic system that is ideally based on the notion of pluralism (gözübüyük, 1986, pp. 93-94). as its definition demonstrates the constitutional acts do not only determine rights and freedom in the form of legal demand but also function through legislation in the form of political and even ideological demand. the above-mentioned specifics of the constitutional acts were clearly illustrated in the tanzimat edict that has emerged because of multidimensional circumstances in the late ottoman period. one should understand why the ottoman empire faced with a “legislation problem” for a better comprehension of the topic. answers to this and similar 116 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. korkut questions lay in the structure of the ottoman empire. actually, the basis of constitutional acts in the late ottoman period depended significantly on legal and political processes, which eventually resulted in the adoption of the ottoman constitution (1876). in the same way, these developments contributed to the deterioration of social harmony by the end of classical period, economic, technical and military retrogression, changing world and changing “international” balance. according to the work of akgündüz (1997), some researchers claim that human rights and freedom did not exist before tanzimat edict, based on the claim that the country was ruled by autocracy. however, state government of ottoman empire cannot be called “unconditionally” monarchy, because the sovereignty in absolute monarchy is in the hands of emperor and emperors are not subject to any binding rules (p. 22). these views and similar arguments are grounded on “ideological historiography” and understanding of law that acknowledges western norms as ‘authority’ in human rights and freedom. the ottoman empire as an islamic state cannot be easily compared to the western conception of absolute monarchy, needless to mention the pluralist values of justice, freedom and equality that are integral part of an islamic state. the ottoman empire based its legislation on the holy qur`an and the tradition (sunnah). in addition, the ottoman sultan did not have right to intervene in shariah provisions and consequently individual and state rights could not have been violated. perhaps there were only few instances of violations of shariah provisions. the judicial power was not granted to the sultan because he was governing the empire in conformity with shariah provisions by unifying all executive powers. therefore, tanzimat edict had some deficiencies in execution and ideal implementation of the human rights and freedoms based on the holy qur’an and the tradition of prophet muhammad (pbuh) (akgündüz, 1986, pp. 19-20). since the foundation of ottoman empire, its administrative and institutional systems were firmly based on the “shariah legislation,” the relationship that has been articulated very little by the modern and contemporary scholarship. mostly ottoman administrative and institutional systems were represented as “monarchical” and “theocratic” that greatly depended on the reign inherited from father to son (arsel, 1975, pp. 6-19). such misrepresentations of the ottoman institutional and administrative systems have been often rejected because they only reflect political and legal models applicable on western monarchies. therefore, western “monarchy” and “theocracy” experiences were subjectively applied in judging and explaining the ottoman administrative and institutional systems. moreover, it is extremely difficult to explain the sovereignty of “one person” within the ottoman context by using western models of sovereignty. considering these predicaments, i strongly argue that the ottoman administrative and institutional systems should be studied and evaluated as they are; independently from other administrative and institutional models. in the first period of ottoman empire, administrative and institutional systems were designed in conformity with the religion of islam. therefore, these institutional and administrative systems, together with their structures, components and the laws, stayed unchanged until the 19th century. the organization of the state and its accompanying laws incorporated meaningfully both the religion and custom. however, due to westernization processes, during the last few decades of the empire, religion and custom were reconsidered as parts of institutional and administrative systems, and thus the constitution. most probably, the events during the declaration of tanzimat edicts were irreversible developments from the historical perspective and they reshaped the position 117 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences critical analysis of the ottoman constitution (1876) of religion and custom within administrative and institutional systems and within the society. although such changes started with the declaration of the tanzimat edict in the 19th century same trends had continued throughout the 20th century, whereby modern turkish republic began to distance law, politics, governance and society from the religion and custom. most of historians would agree that the ottoman empire began to decline after signing the treaty of karlowitz (1699). however, some historians claim that this decline process began even earlier because of naval battle of lepanto (1571). consequently, the ottoman military decline negatively affected socio-political, legal, administrative and economics aspects of the state. accordingly, by the end of the 17th century administrative and institutional systems in the ottoman empire had shown signs of deficiency. leading ottoman intellectuals and state officials prepared several reports that included the recommendations of how to do away with administrative and institutional deficiencies.* therefore, ottoman sultans, governors and civil society were aware of these deficiencies; however, decline of the empire could not be stopped despite reforms or reform initiatives undertaken because of well-prepared reports by the intellectuals and state officials. it is important to mention that these reports pointed to the problem of juristic regulations that gradually began to exclude shariah provisions. search for a new “law” was clearly not the case in any way yet. the flow of “constitutional acts” for two centuries till the adoption of the ottoman constitution (1876), passed through breakpoints such as charter of alliance (sened-i i̇ttifak), tanzimat edict and reform edict. actually, these developments contributed to the adoption of the ottoman constitution (1876). concerning the constitutional acts, it is important to mention that they were changed and reshaped even after the adoption of the constitution in 1876. however, these developments were important because with the adoption of the ottoman constitution (1876) the notion of modern constitutionalism began to flourish within the state. modern constitutionalism was very much visible throughout the constitution and its articles (see kili & gözübüyük, 1982, pp. 25-42). the ottoman constitution (1876) as a legislation in modern sense and as a constitutional act, became milestone document for all constitutions of turkish republic in years and decades after (kara, 2013, pp. 20-21). the ottoman constitution (1876) within pan-islamist context based on the military reforms, the ottoman empire modeled numerous administrative, political, economic and institutional reforms. however, the military reforms by the end of the 17th century were perceived as failure because the ottoman empire could not achieve desired changed throughout these reforms. military defeats were also associated with socio-political and economic decline and overall the collapse of the whole system, which were especially visible at the end of the 17th century. as mentioned in the above, due to such negative developments some intellectuals and public officials had prepared reports, which contained recommendations and steps of curbing emerging military, administrative, economic and institutional problems of the state. in the course of developing and suggesting remedies, different writers developed approaches and concepts such as: ottomanism, turkism, westernism and islamism. they became prominent also because * see the following studies and works: kâtip çelebi, mizanü’l hakk fi i̇htiyaru’1 hakk (the balance of truth in the choice of the truest); koçi bey, koçi bey pleading; sarı mehmet pascha, nesayihu’l-vüzerâ ve’1-ümerâ (advises of viziers and statesmen) and koca sekbanbaşı, koca sekbanbaşı pleading. 118 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. korkut of the declaration of the constitutional monarchy at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. although these approaches were favoring constitutionalism as a model for resolving the ottoman dilemmas, they were differently addressing specific problems and proposing different solutions. therefore, in order to limit this study, this paper will analyze islamist approach in defining the declaration of the constitutional monarchy and the ottoman constitution (1876). during this period, the islamist movement was acting within the ottoman framework. the movement propagated an ideology of development and liberation, prenationalism and even pre-turkism to some degree (kara, 2001, pp. 18-19). this is because islamist firstly defended unity of ottoman constituents or ottomanism (i̇ttihad-ı anasır), and then unity of islam or islamism (i̇ttihad-ı i̇slam) (see detailed discussion in kara, 2001, pp. 18-19; ülken, 1966, p. 13 and tunaya, 1962, pp. 7-8). islamists who argued that shariah sources should be applied again welcomed the declaration of constitutional monarchy and stated that the ottoman constitution (1876) was the right course of the state (kara, 2001, p. 41). islamists believed that the constitutional monarchy, which is according to them politically in accordance with the principles of islam, should function along the principles of islam. accordingly, they held belief that the decline of ottoman empire could only be stopped if the principles of islam are meaningfully incorporated into the constitutional monarchy (okandan, 1959, p. 451). they also argued that if the situation does not change despite the constitutional monarchy defined within the principles of islam, this constitutional model must be replaced. instead, new constitutional government should search for an alternative as to meet the needs of people and requirements of islamic principles. new model should aim towards the unity of religion and state, superiority of human rights and freedom, national consensus, qualified governors and avoidance of cruelty and pressure (kara, 2001, pp. 39-40). islamists were favorable of constitutional monarchy and the ottoman constitution (1876) with belief that both were already defined by the islamic principles that were in the course of the implementation corrupted. the main reason why islamists held positive views the ottoman constitution (1876) was based on the assumption that the shariah law and fundamental rights such as freedom, equality and justice ware not violated (gencer, 2013, pp. 81-82). however, there were other islamists too who openly expressed deep concerns about linking the constitutional monarchy and the islamic principles. for instance, said halim pasha in his works examined intellectuals and public officials who expressed deep concerns about the ottoman constitution (1876) (pp. 50-55). actually, halim pasha was one of the most famous islamists who represented an islamic and public interests with a sense of deep analysis, assessments and self-criticism. in the book our crises, he claimed that key public officials through the adoption of the ottoman constitution (1876) primarily aimed at limiting the powers of sultan by using the constitutional mechanisms as to balance his domination and power. besides, halim pasha argued that the main reason that hinders the development of the country is unlimited power in the hands of personal and arbitrary state administration. supporters of government reforms thought that people were neglected as constituent part of the system of governance. the people must become a part of governance so that the system can be either be changed or improved. according to halim pasha, reformists were convinced that due to weakness of the nation the ottoman constitution (1876) should grant them the rights and freedom on behalf of the people (kara, 2001, p. 39). the adoption of the ottoman constitution (1876) was not the product of social 119 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences critical analysis of the ottoman constitution (1876) change. on the contrary, there were significant influences from the western countries on the ottoman empire and its administration, coupled with direct diplomatic pressure on ottoman politics, law, economics and culture. in addition, due to modernization process, there were targeted demands of intellectuals inside and outside the country who were asking for change. overall, a combination of these and similar factors contributed to the adoption of the ottoman constitution (1876), which significantly neglected the grassroots and the social dements of the nation. discussions carried out within the framework of the ottoman constitution (1876) that was not firmly rooted in the ottoman society failed to produce genuine reforms. therefore, the ottoman constitution (1876) could not put forward a permanent solution, since many other factors had been neglected. in the following sections of the paper, we will argue why the islamist intellectual studies on constitution, politics and law during this period were considered as the most critical. since other views and studies are not the subject of this study, we have meaningfully selected the texts written by leading islamists on the ottoman constitution (1876). proper analysis of these two studies will eventually provide us with clear ideas about constitution and law within socio-political context. indeed it is interesting to find out how the thinkers of that period were addressing various problems and how they were finding the solutions. for this purpose we will analyze the following studies: dergüzinizâde, political shariah commentary of ottoman constitution of 1876” and kolçalı abdulaziz, quran karim and ottoman constitution of 1876. political shariah commentary of ottoman constitution of 1876 the work political shariah commentary of ottoman constitution of 1876 was written by hasan rıza b. muhammed derviş (dergüzinizâde) and was published in istanbul by matba-i amire in 1910. this work consists of 40 pages, with in-depth analysis and inclusion of key concepts and terms. the first five articles of the ottoman constitution (1876) are annotated. as the title suggests, the work compares shariah norms with the ottoman constitution (1876). actually, the work argued that the ottoman constitution (1876) is firmly grounded in the ottoman legal system and the islamic law. the author’s arguments are occasionally supported by the qur’anic verses and the tradition. it is important to indicate that authors of these works on the ottoman constitution (1876) were using critical approaches because they were discussing both shariah and different studies. this approach was new because they discussed the ottoman constitution (1876) in the context of the islamic principles. actually, constitutional and legal forms of the ottoman empire were considered as an indivisible whole from which no part can ever be detached for any motive whatever. on one hand, this approach was similar to traditional approach of using the qur’anic principles by theologians, traditionalists and jurists who were considering the islamic sources as a whole. on the other hand, there were instances of partial and selective interpretation of the constitution far away from the social need and common legal principles. two concepts called unity (vahdet) and unity of law (kanun-i vahdet) are mentioned in the introductory parts of this work on the ottoman constitution (1876). the conception of unity (vahdet) is essential in the holy qur’an whereas unity of law (kanun-i vahdet), although closely linked to the concept of unity (vahdet), is the fundamental for regulating this–worldly social, political, economic, legal matters. therefore, analyzed work indicated that the unity of law already includes religious dimension and as such defines clearly the ethics and morality within the state. in introductory part named “tezkire,” dergüzinizâde broadly reviewed the ottoman 120 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. korkut constitution (1876) by arguing that this was not new legal document arrangement but on the contrary the principals of this constitution already existed within the ottoman legal system, being not properly understood and implemented. dergüzinizâde argued that the ottoman constitution based on the islamic principles had always been the part of the state. he argued that the holy qur’an was the constitution by stating: “it is a constitution that is sent by allah, unchangeable by any human being; without the need for any change; telling the justice; bringing happiness into this world, real and eternal life.” he claimed that concepts of justice, freedom and equality are indeed presented in distorted way but with the adoption of the ottoman constitution (1876) their original meanings were restored. after the introduction to the ottoman constitution (1876) the work deals with the following articles: first article: “the ottoman empire comprises the actual countries and possessions and privileged provinces. it forms an indivisible whole from which no part can ever be detached for any motive whatever.” in the annotation of first article, the author mentioned and explained the following: provinces, state and definition of the state, government, government by constitutional monarchy and law guardianship. second article: “istanbul is the capital of the ottoman empire. this city does not possess to the exclusion of other cities of the empire any privilege or immunity peculiar to itself.” the annotation of second article features the possessed by istanbul which is the capital city unlike other cities of the ottoman empire. the author also mentioned constitutional changes concerning the status of istanbul. however, the author articulated the view that the difference between capital city istanbul and other cities has been minimized within the constitution. the rights and privileges of “muslims” and “nonmuslims” together with the question of state decentralization are also analyzed by the author. third article: “the ottoman sovereignty which is united in the person of the sovereign of the supreme caliphate of islam belongs to the eldest of the princes of the dynasty of osman conformably to the rules established ab antique.” author’s annotation of third article analyzed the following topics: the purpose of islam, caliphate, chief imam, (head of the state), obligation to nominate imam, methods to elect imam, allegiance, law regarding allegiance, qualifications needed to be eligible for imam, the differences among the concepts of “sovereignty”, “imamate” and “caliphate” and how caliphate and sovereignty are inherited. it is remarkable how the author explained by giving numerous examples from the holy qur’an and hadith how this article of ottoman constitution (1876) is coherent with shariah, holy qur’an and hadith. fourth article: “his majesty the sultan is by the title of caliph the protector of the muslim religion. he is the sovereign and the padisah of all ottomans.” in the annotation of the fourth article, it is mentioned that finding real freedom by serving allah is possible. muslims as individuals and collectively as the society are all legally responsible of the veneration of allah and caliph. dergüzinizâde was also discussing the issues of war in islam by mentioning greater war (jihad-i akbar) and smaller war (jihad-i asgar) together with different responsibilities upon them by the common people, intellectuals and public officials. dergüzinizâde reminds that two-dimensional ‘joint struggle’ is indispensible and calls both muslims and their representatives to fulfill their responsibilities they have undertaken principally. everybody who has responsibility and power within the muslim community (family, military, government) is in joint and 121 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences critical analysis of the ottoman constitution (1876) legitimate struggle. one dimension of this struggle for people intended to be part of it is ‘smaller war (jihad-ı asgar) that they are supposed to be in consistent intention, thought and behavior; other dimension is greater war (jihad-ı ekber) which means perpetuation of work and family life. fifth article: “his majesty the sultan is irresponsible: his person is sacred.” in the last part of pleading in which fifth article of ottoman constitution (1876) is annotated, the coherence of this article with sharia is expounded. etymological study of the word “holy” is primarily analyzed by pointing out its meaning as “pure” and “blessed”. it is explained in the text that though this is different than the term “innocence” which is “virtue” attributed to the prophets and the term exempted from mistakes” attributed to revivalists, therefore, it does not mean “holiness” in this sense. there is a difference that imam should not be questioned about matters regarding his leadership and should not be responsible for practices in this manner. more explicitly, it cannot even be possible for emperor to be questioned about using his authority that has been legitimately entrusted to him to fulfill his duties. this assessment is supported by the principle “it is incumbent on muslims to obey the imam.” when these considerations are taken into account, especially the qur’anic verse “he is not questioned about what he does, but they will be questioned” (see al-anbya 21, 22 and 23) and hadith “you are all shepherds and all responsible for what you shepherd” the conclusion consequently follows that the ottoman constitution (1876) was enriched with the islamic principles. quran karim and ottoman constitution of 1876 the work titled quran karim and ottoman constitution of 1876 was written by kolçalı abdulaziz and it was published in istanbul in 1910 (birekul, 2010, pp. 149-179). it consists of few pages meaningfully explains how ottoman constitution (1876) is coherent with the holy qur’an. this work is expanded edition of the article published in the newspaper named “metin”. therefore, compared to the work written by dergüzinizade, this one has a limited content. the author began with an introduction titled “expression of purport” as follows: the article published in metin newspaper dated 11 saban 1326 (1910) and number 29 edition about how independence, equality, counsel and ottoman constitution of 1876 are coherent with quran from the standpoint of contents and principles of islamic civilization is expanded and published as a pleading about quran and ottoman constitution of 1876, liberty, equality, counsel, independence and its limits… the reason this article is turned into a pleading is because i am encouraged to verify and expand the edition about quran and ottoman constitution of 1876 (kanun-u esasî), liberty, equality, consultancy, independence and its limits since it was recommended to me by people both muslims and christians who i am proud to receive their kind compliments. kolçalı argued that some muslim and christian groups were influencing the publication of the article. he wrote to show how the holy qur’an and the ottoman constitution (1876) are coherent. for that reason, he dealt with the following concepts: independence, equality, freedom participation in administrative and political decisionmaking process, method of counseling and political participation. as the citation in the above, clearly illustrate the author dealt with important concepts such as liberty, equality, independence and sovereignty. these concepts were presented in the light of the holy qur’an and within the ottoman historical context, with belief that the holy qur’an and the ottoman constitution (1876) are considered to be coherent. in the regard the author argued: 122 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. korkut after observing the current situation of islamic civilization, glorified khilafah of islam and great ottoman nation took action for renovation by implementing ottoman constitution of 1876 (kanun-u esasî) which embraces independence, equality, counselling that were told before by quran karim and there is no suspicion that islamic civilization of ottoman empire will get its former high position and glory back by the permission of allah and help from the soul of prophet. the author was firm in arguing that regulations implemented by ottoman constitution (1876) are coherent with the principles of the holy qur’an. therefore, the reason for the decline of ottoman empire was due decline in implementing these regulations and values. in addition, these two works clearly indicated that the ottoman constitution (1876) was adopted under strong influence of tanzimat edict and reform edict, a view that has also been supported by several leading intellectuals on the history of constitutional law. conclusion the above discussion and analysis of the ottoman constitution (1876) has indicated that two works that emphasize the islamic principles were in favor of constitutional changes as to prevent the violation of fundamental rights such as independence, equality and justice. actually, they held belief that the ottoman constitution is in harmony with the religion of islam and as such is important to preserve administrative and institutional systems of the empire. therefore, islamists considered the declaration of ottoman constitution (1876) as a positive development and a remedy to emerging constitutional, legal and administrative problems the empire. under the influence of several factors, islamists passionately advocated constitutional acts and the establishment of ottoman parliament, making a great effort to determine the coherence of these initiatives with religious sources. actually, as discussed throughout the paper both authors dergüzinizâde and kolçalı attempted to establish and show the coherence of the ottoman constitution (1876) with religious source. the ottoman constitution (1876) maintained the traditional structure of ottoman law and the shariah law. however, due to political circumstances and the implementation methodology of committee of union and progress there was serious deficiencies in the implementation of the constitution. in this regard, said halim paşa observed that the ottoman constitution (1876) could not achieve its goal because of questionable enforcement. concerns regarding politics and law in today’s turkey do not seem to be different from the concerns of islamists during the last decades of the ottoman empire. actually, the nature of the problems did not change at all and the search for solutions has not fundamentally changed. methods to solve legal and constitutional problems are not effective and it is unfortunate that endless and often futile discussions regarding constitutional changes continue without specific solutions. these stagnant approaches should be replaced with radical changes as to prevent the decline and decadence of the muslim societies. references akgündüz, ahmet. 1986. corpus of islamic and ottoman law. diyarbakir: hfy. akgündüz, ahmet. 1997. our former constitution and supreme islamic law. istanbul: foundation of ottoman research. arsel i̇lhan. 1975. from the understanding of theocratic to democratic approach. ankara: university of ankara publications of faculty of law. birekul mehmet. 2010. “changing society, unchanging problems: debate on bibliographical review in turkey in the beginning of 20th century.” journal of istanbul university islamic studies. fall 123 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences critical analysis of the ottoman constitution (1876) 2010/11(2): 149-179. dergüzinizade. 1910. political shariah commentary of ottoman constitution of 1876. istanbul: matba-i amire. gencer bedri. 2013. “islamism from shariah to civilization: towards a typology of islamism.” in islamic thought and movement in turkey. istanbul: zeytinburnu municipality cultural publications. gözübüyük a. şeref. 1986. constitutional law. ankara: publications of sayıştay. kara i̇smail. 2001. islamic thought in turkey. istanbul: gerçek hayat. kara i̇smail. 2013. “several notes on islamic thought in turkey.” in islamic thought and movement in turkey. istanbul: zeytinburnu municipality cultural publications. kili suna & gözübüyük a. şeref. 1982. turkish constitution texts 1839-1980. ankara: university publications of faculty of political sciences. koçi bey. 1985. “pleading of koçi bey” (simplified by zuhuri danışman). ankara: ktby. kolçalı abdülaziz. 1910. political shariah commentary of ottoman constitution of 1876. istanbul: matba-i amire. okandan r. galip. 1959. outlines of public law. istanbul: istanbul university publications of law faculty. said halim paşa. our crisis. (prepared by m. ertuğrul düzdağ), tercüman 1001 temel eser, tarihsiz. sekbanbaşı koca. “pleading of koca sekbanbaşı”, (prepared by a. uçman), tercüman 1001 temel eser. i̇stanbul: tarihsiz. tunaya t. zafer. 1962. islamism movements. ülken h. ziya. 1940. ideological movements after tanzimat edict. istanbul: maarif press. 107 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the ‘erasmus generation’ and turkey: the effect of the erasmus programme on perceptions about turkey and its eu membership bid selcen oner bahcesehir university, turkey abstract the main research question of this study is how participation to erasmus programme influences european students’ perceptions of turkey and its eu membership bid. the study evaluates the erasmus programme’s influence on student identities, particularly their european identity, and their perceptions about the compatibility of european and turkish identity by analysing the responses of incoming erasmus students at bahçeşehir university (i̇stanbul) in turkey to open-ended questionnaire surveys conducted at the beginning and end of the semesters between 2009 and 2011 to investigate the extent that the erasmus programme can influence the perceptions of these students about turkey. in addition, semi-structured in-depth interviews, conducted by the author with incoming erasmus students at bahçeşehir university at the end of the semesters between 2012 and 2014, were analysed qualitatively to evaluate the erasmus programme’s influence on the perceptions of these students about turkey, turkey’s eu membership bid, their perceptions of the compatibility of european identity and turkish identity and the role of the erasmus experience in constructing a european identity in the young generation. keywords: turkey; european union; erasmus; european identity and prejudice. epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences 108 s. oner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction introduced in 1987, the erasmus (european action scheme for the mobility of university students) programme is one of the most visible practices of the eu influencing directly the lives of eu citizens, and usually considered one of the best components of eu policy. it is also one of the main instruments for constructing european identity. although education policy still remains mainly under the sovereignty of member states, the eu has tried to increase cooperation and coordination between them regarding higher education through the bologna process. this has expanded to 47 countries, covering three million students. russia and turkey also participate in the bologna process alongside eu member states (aba 2013, 101). through the erasmus programme, it has encouraged interactions between students, professors and university officials. the eu’s educational policy has tried to incorporate a european dimension into national and regional education systems (brock and tulasiewicz 1999). erasmus formed part of the eu’s lifelong learning programme, which had a budget of 3.1 billion euros for 2007-2013. in 1987, 3,244 students from 11 countries participated in the programme, while by 2012-2013 these figures had risen to approximately 270,000 students from 33 countries. these included iceland, liechtenstein, norway, switzerland and turkey, in addition to eu member states. since it began in 1987-88, erasmus, which is the largest such programme in the world, has provided over three million european students with the opportunity to go abroad and study at a higher education institution, while promoting the internationalisation of the european higher education system and contributed to its modernisation (erasmus 2014, 5-6). it has also encouraged student, academic faculty and staff exchanges between europe’s universities (papatsiba 2006, 99; cited in mitchell 2012, 491). spain sent the highest number of students abroad with 39,249 students, followed by france, germany, italy and poland. the most popular destination for erasmus students was spain, which received 40,202 students, followed by germany, france, the uk and italy (erasmus 2014, 7). the motto of erasmus programme is ‘bringing students to europe, bringing europe to all students’. the idea is that bringing together students of different nationalities may enhance a sense of european identity among its participants and thereby creating european citizens (prodi 2002; figel 2006; figel 2007; cited in mitchell 2012, 491). thus, the erasmus programme has been promoted by the commission as a means to increase ‘european consciousness’ among its 109 the ‘erasmus generation’ and turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences participants. it also helps european students to prepare themselves to work in an increasingly transnational economy (mitchell 2012, 491). youth exchanges in the eu have contributed to the goal of establishing ‘ever-closer union of the peoples of europe’ which is the goal of the rome treaty. the erasmus programme is one of the eu’s main instruments for educational exchanges among the younger generations, including cultural exchanges, leading to the emergence of an ‘erasmus generation’. the programme was revised for 2014-2020 and renamed ‘erasmus +’, incorporating the fields of education, training, youth and sport. one of the bologna goals for 2020 is that at least 20% of all graduates from the european higher education area should have spent a period of time studying or training abroad (erasmus 2014, 6). erasmus students’ experiences include learning about different cultures, meeting new people and being more independent, which influence their selfconfidence and career plans, improves their academic knowledge, increases their opportunities to learn new foreign languages and improves their foreign language skills (kropnik and krzaklewska, 2006; cited in mutlu et al. 2010). student mobility is also thought to contribute to intercultural dialogue (aba 2013, 107), while their perceptions about life, their social and political views can change more easily than those of older people by living in different societies and cultures. in this way, it hoped that the prejudices of younger people can be eliminated more easily than is possible with older generations. stereotypes are perceptions held about groups or individuals based on previously formed opinions (samovar and porter 1991; cited in keles 2013, 1516), usually small pieces of information that help people to understand the world by categorizing people and situations that they encounter (barna 1997; cited in keles 2013, 1516). however, applied to individuals or different communities, stereotypes are often problematic because they are usually overgeneralized, simplistic or exaggerated. stereotypes can also cause people to assume that a widely held belief is true, although it is not (keles 2013, 1516). personal inter-cultural contacts help people to overcome such prejudices and stereotypes about each other and bring them closer together (sigalas 2009, 5). since erasmus students of different nationalities spend time together at the university, in dormitories, at erasmus parties and while travelling together, they learn how to adapt to different cultures. moreover, these social settings provide an appropriate context for eradicating prejudices and stereotypes (mutlu et al. 2010, 39-42). several previous empirical studies indicate that erasmus participants tend to identify themselves as european (king and ruiz-gelices 2003; van mol 2011). the potential of the influence of european mobility for promoting european identity 110 s. oner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences has been emphasized by transactionalists such as karl deutsch.1 deutsch et al. (1968), for example, argue that increased cross-border people mobility has a crucial influence on international integration and the emergence of a ‘we-feeling’ among peoples from different cultures. as they note, this is ‘probably the most efficient and permanent method of gaining knowledge about human actions and values’ (deutsch et al. 1968, 170; cited in sigalas 2009, 5). however, connor (1972) criticised deutsch for over-optimistically predicting that increased mobility and communication might lead to such a ‘we-feeling’ (cited in sigalas 2009, 6). currently, there is a debate about whether exchange programmes do create a european identity (king and ruiz-gelices 2003; van mol 2011), or whether those students who already feel european are more likely to participate in the erasmus programme (van mol 2011; wilson 2011). although turkey has been associated with the eu since 1963 and was granted official candidate status at the helsinki summit of december 1999, it is the least wanted candidate country. this is one of the main challenges regarding turkey’s integration with the eu; that member state public opinion is highly sceptical of turkey’s membership bid. regarding european views, several historic prejudices and stereotypes about turkey have negatively influenced eu citizens’ perceptions about turkey’s membership bid, and this has been joined by rising islamophobia in europe, especially after september 11. moreover, the integration problems of turkish immigrants in several eu member states have increased prejudices about the cultural compatibility turkish people and eu member states. fortunately, increasing opportunities for exchange and participation in common projects can help overcome such prejudices and stereotypes. turkey’s drawn-out accession process has increased euroscepticism in turkish public opinion, especially following the stagnation of the negotiation process due to political factors, particularly the cyprus issue and france’s blocking of the process whose former president sarkozy is against full membership of turkey. turkey became 31st participating country in the erasmus programme since 2004, since when it has been one of the most active participants, being involved in the socrates, youth and leonardo de vinci programmes. the lifelong learning programme started in 2007, and includes comenius for high schools, erasmus for higher education, leonardo de vinci for vocational education and training, and grundtvig for adult education. 129 turkish higher education institutions hold the erasmus university charter, which enables them to take part in the programme. between 2004 and 2010, turkish higher education institutions have 1 for further detail, see k. deutsch et al. (1968), political community and the north atlantic area, princeton, nj: princeton university press. 111 the ‘erasmus generation’ and turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences sent approximately 30,000 students abroad and received 9,000 students, while also sending 6,500 teaching staff abroad and hosting 4,300 (studying in turkey 2010). the main research question of this study is how participation to erasmus programme influences the perceptions of students about turkey and its membership bid. it evaluates the erasmus programme’s influence on student identities, particularly their european identity, and their perceptions about the compatibility of european identity and turkish identity. while there have been several previous studies of the role of the erasmus programme in different participating countries, the literature concerning the influence of the erasmus programme on incoming erasmus students to turkey, and particularly its influence on perceptions about turkey, is very limited. this article first explains how the eu’s erasmus programme developed and turkey’s participation in it. secondly, in order to evaluate erasmus programme’s influence on the perceptions of incoming students about turkey, it analyses responses to open-ended questionnaire surveys, conducted between 2009 and 2011 which were carried out at the beginning and end of the semesters with erasmus students at bahçeşehir university (i̇stanbul). the extent that the erasmus programme was able to influence these students’ perceptions about turkey is analysed. the article then considers student responses from 14 semi-structured, in-depth interviews, conducted by the author between 2013 and 2014 with a random selection of incoming erasmus students to bahçeşehir university from the department of political science and international relations. a qualitative analysis was carried out to evaluate the programme’s influence on the perceptions of these students about turkey’s eu membership bid, the compatibility of european and turkish identity, and the role of the erasmus experience in constructing a european identity in the younger generations. a limitation of this study is that it was conducted in only one university in istanbul, which is a foundation university based in the centre of istanbul. to deepen this study’s findings, further work should be extended to a greater variety of universities from istanbul and other cities of turkey to investigate more broadly the influence of the erasmus programme on the perceptions of incoming erasmus students visiting turkey. 112 s. oner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences erasmus programme and its influence on the perceptions of students about turkey and their european identity the highest level of student flow is from developing to developed countries because, if they gain international education experience, it is usually easier for them to find a job when they return to their home country. the countries receiving the highest number of students have been the usa and the uk, which are english speaking countries. however, with the rise of the developing world, particularly china and south korea, there has been a decline in international student numbers in the usa and the uk (aba 2013, 105). the erasmus programme aims to unite european societies by encouraging interactions between citizens of different european countries (reilly 1993). erasmus has never been just an education programme, as reflected in its official objectives stated in the council decision of 1987. one of these is: ‘to strengthen the interaction between citizens in different member states with a view to consolidating the concept of a people’s europe’ (council 1987, 21-22). several scholars2 also argue that the erasmus experience may lead to emergence of a european identity. according to deutsch (cited in sigalas 2010), high level international transactions over a period of time may lead to the formation of an integrated community of states and nations by allowing direct contact between people of different nationalities, which may lead to emergence of a ‘we-feeling’. fligstein (2008; cited in demirkol 2013, 655) argues that with the influence of the interpersonal contact among people, they may start to see themselves more as europeans and less as having only a national identity. fligstein (2009, 133) argues that people who speak foreign languages and have travelled and lived in other european countries tend to have a stronger european identity than those who have not. one of the goals of the erasmus programme is to eradicate prejudices through student and academic faculty mobility, and by increasing interactions between european societies to unite them by increasing a european consciousness among eu citizens (mutlu et al. 2010, 42). not knowing the other is an influential factor in the emergence and maintenance of prejudices. once people start communicating with others coming from different cultures and sharing experiences with them then prejudices can be partially eliminated. breaking down prejudices leads to the emergence of tolerance and understanding (mutlu et al. 2010, 39-40). as sigalas (2006) argues, ‘the more people socialise with each other, the more they trust 2 for further detail, see n. fligstein, the eu, european identity and the future of europe, ,oxford: oxford university press, 2008; i. petit, ‘mimicking history: the european commission and its education policy’, world political science review, vol.3, 2007. 113 the ‘erasmus generation’ and turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences each other and the closer they feel’. the erasmus students do not spend all their time at university and at the lectures; they also visit places in the host country and sometimes neighbouring countries; they have a chance to learn about the culture they are living in and they can improve their foreign language skills. thus, maiworm and teichler (1995) found that the erasmus experience increases knowledge of the host country’s culture substantially, while mitchell (2012, 497) reported that most erasmus students find it easier to communicate with an ‘international group’ that includes other erasmus students than with a ‘native group’ of host-country students. in spite of its growth, the erasmus programme still only has a modest reach. 3,000 students participated in 1987, increasing to 100,000 in 2000-2001 and more than 200,000 in 2009-2010, which is less than the target stated in the lisbon strategy of 10% of students in higher education. one factor is that there are still socioeconomic challenges to student mobility, although a certain amount of funding is provided to help students with additional costs while studying abroad (vossensteyn et al. 2010; cited in mitchell 2012, 511). in addition, having weak or no foreign language skills also makes students less likely to study abroad (mitchell 2012, 511). in 2007, erasmus became part of the ‘lifelong learning programme’, which combines educational with vocational training programmes. in addition to eu member states, the erasmus programme also includes norway, iceland, liechtenstein and turkey. as argued by mitchell (2012, 499-511), the erasmus programme has a transformative power over the participating students, who usually become more favourable of, and attached to the eu. three-quarters stated that their experience of studying abroad made them feel more european. it has been shown that younger, better educated people have a greater tendency to identify as european than older, less educated people.3 after studying abroad, most erasmus students stated that they became more interested in other european countries, other european cultures and in the eu, and felt more european. she also found that erasmus students speak more foreign languages and speak them better than non-mobile students. nevertheless, in spite of the growth of the erasmus programme, only a minority of europeans can benefit from it so its influence on the construction of a european identity is limited. according to sigalas (2009), the erasmus experience has helped british students develop a stronger attachment to europe, and to realize that they have several things in common with those in continental europe. ‘when erasmus students return back 3 for further detail, see j. citrin and j. sides, ‘more than nationals: how identity choice matters in the new europe’ in r. herrman, t. risse and m. brewer (eds.), transnational identities: becoming european in the eu, new york: rowman & littlefield, 2004. 114 s. oner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences to their countries, they become ambassadors of european integration’ (wallström 2007, 4; cited in oborune 2013, 194). there is more euroscepticism in the group of non-mobile students, who have not interacted with people from the european countries, than mobile students. students who participate in erasmus mostly have good foreign language skills, previous international exchange experience and a multicultural background. the programme has promoted the idea that ‘we europeans are all alike and foster trust and feel closer to europeans’. however, the number of participating students is still very small in terms of the number needed to promote european identity. the erasmus programme does not entail the loss of national identity as participating students usually have both a strong national and european identity (oborune 2013, 193-194). that is, people may hold both a european identity and a national identity together. according to the erasmus student network (esn) surveys (2005, 2006) (cited in krzaklewska and krupnik 2008), erasmus students become more openminded and mobile as a result of staying abroad, and developed wide social networks abroad. they stated that they are better prepared for intercultural dialogue. as krzaklewska and krupnik (2008) argue, after their erasmus experience, this may lead to a more tolerant and open society. however, sigalas (2009) and van mol (2009) argue that students who participate in the erasmus programme already have a european identity before joining the programme. as well as experiencing other cultures, aydın (2012) found that some participants emphasized how, during their erasmus experience, they had opportunities to introduce their own culture to foreigners too. from research conducted at adam mickiewicz university in poznan, poland, mutlu et al. (2010, 39-42) found that changes in prejudices after the erasmus experience were greater in turkish students than eu students. they argue that this is because eu students already share more similar cultures to the host country so there is less change in their prejudices. for example, 88% of turkish students agreed that, during the erasmus programme, ‘i abandoned my prejudices towards new things and people’ but only 49.4% of eu students did. 76% of turkish students agreed that ‘i got away from my prejudices’ while 45.5% of eu did. similarly, the figures agreeing with ‘i have learnt to live in different cultures’ were 92% for turkish students and 76.6% for eu students. turkish students usually became more eager to learn foreign languages and make friends from other cultures after their erasmus experience, although none of them were considering settling in any eu country, stating that they would rather visit eu countries as a tourist or student. these findings were supported by 115 the ‘erasmus generation’ and turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences yağcı et al. (2007), who reported that a majority of students stated that they were more open to new cultures and differences after their erasmus experience. mutlu (2011, 101) argues that the erasmus experience usually contributes to students’ personal development, particularly increasing their self-confidence, rather than academic development. students usually refer to concepts such as discovering different cultures, new places and friendships, rather than concepts related with academic issues, such as courses, professors, university and library. she reports that students describe this process as enjoyable and productive. during their erasmus experience, they enjoy discovering themselves more, as well as new places and cultures, making new friends and living in the ‘european spirit’. students can also introduce their own culture to their friends in the host country. she concludes that ‘the students have left the majority of their prejudices behind through crosscultural dialogue’. one of the key goals of the erasmus programme is to remove prejudices through cross-cultural dialogue and to unite societies through increasing european consciousness. mutlu (2011) argues that the erasmus programme has been successful in reaching this goal. in spite of the limited participation of european students in the erasmus programme, especially because of the limited budget and lack of foreign language knowledge, it has had a crucial influence in increasing interactions between european societies and contributed to strengthening mutual understanding between different cultures. erasmus programme and its influence on the perceptions of incoming erasmus students: the case of turkey as a signatory country of the bologna declaration in 2001, turkey has been trying to follow its requirements to integrate into the european higher education area. through the process, turkey has made crucial structural changes in its higher education system, although there are still many deficiencies in terms of implementation. the erasmus programme allows european university students from various countries to study for one or two semesters at turkish universities, and learn about turkish society and culture. during their stay many of them have a chance to travel around turkey, some of them learn turkish, or at least start learning it. the turkish national agency, which is one of the main organizations responsible for the implementation of the erasmus programme and the bologna reforms in turkey, was established in 2002. turkey’s erasmus programme was launched in 2003 (aba 2013, 106). 116 s. oner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences between 2007-2008 and 2010-2011 academic years, outgoing student mobility rates in 8 countries grew by more than 40%, with turkey among them. although many turkish higher education students and academic staff have moved abroad for educational reasons, turkey has not been a popular destination for foreign students. for example, in 2004, 1,142 turkish students were sent abroad but only 299 erasmus students came to study in turkey. however, these figures rose to 10,095 and 4,288 respectively in 2010-2011 (european commission 2012; cited in aba 2013, 105). especially following the economic crisis in europe, europeans’ interest in studying and working in turkey has risen. the increasing number of foundation universities in turkey, especially in major cities like istanbul, ankara and izmir, many of which teach in english, has also made turkey more attractive for erasmus students. prejudice can be defined as unfair or intolerant attitudes towards another person or group because they belong to a specific religion, race or nationality (samovar and porter 1991; cited in keles 2013, 1517). there are many historically formed prejudices and stereotypes about turkey in european societies. the erasmus programme provides several opportunities to learn more about the host country and its culture, which may help to eradicate the students’ prejudices and stereotypes about that country. demirkol (2013, 653) argues that educational mobility programs have a positive influence on the cultural integration. from studying erasmus students in turkey in 2011-2012 he found that they came to see turkey ‘as a part of the eu; they think turkey’s accession to the eu would favour the mutual comprehension of european and muslim values, and a large majority of the students approve turkey’s accession to the eu’ once turkey complies with the eu’s conditions. the surveys were conducted by the author between 2009-2011 among the incoming erasmus students at bahçeşehir university in istanbul, both at the beginning of the spring and autumn semesters and another survey was conducted at the end of these semesters with those incoming erasmus students, who come from various departments. 53 erasmus students were surveyed at the beginning of the two semesters in 2009-2011, originating from various countries, including germany, denmark, latvia, sweden, poland, the netherlands, belgium, lithuania, italy, austria and bulgaria. most of the students who participated in both the surveys and the in-depth interviews were from germany. the responses indicated that most students chose turkey, and particularly istanbul, in order to discover a new different culture. most of them had never been to 117 the ‘erasmus generation’ and turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences turkey before and did not know so much about turkey, having usually only gained basic knowledge from the internet. one of the erasmus students from lithuania stated: ‘i knew very little about culture, food and people.’ some of them knew that, in 2010, istanbul was a european capital of culture, and most of them were already interested in turkey before they came. nearly all had chosen turkey in order to discover a different culture. some chose turkey, and particularly istanbul, because some of their friends who had visited turkey had recommended or else had come to turkey on holiday. some chose istanbul, and particularly bahceşehir university, because the teaching language is english and they wanted to improve their level of english. some of them stated that they expected to learn turkish, and about the turkish education system and turkish politics. in addition to these, some of them stated that they expected to make new friends, to gain experience of studying abroad, to improve their vision and their knowledge in their fields of study, and to have fun. when asked what they had known about turkey before they came, some referred to turkish history, particularly the ottoman era. this prior knowledge was mostly based on the mass media or the comments of friends who had visited turkey before. citizens of eu countries who are of turkish origin, especially german turks, are usually interested in studying in turkey as an erasmus student. some of these students stated that they had wanted to learn turkish and about turkish culture because they are living together with turkish people. they also stated that they already knew something about turkish culture because of the turkish community in their country. one of the german students stated that ‘there are many turkish people in germany but they live separately from parts of society. so it is a good chance to get used to turkish culture.’ another 17 students participated in the survey conducted at the end of the semesters in 2009-2011 at bahçeşehir university. they were drawn from different departments and countries, including the netherlands and germany, with some being of turkish origin, italy, spain, france, bulgaria, poland, sweden and denmark. all participating students were satisfied or very satisfied with their experience. they were mostly very satisfied with their stay in turkey, particularly in istanbul. one of the students from italy defined istanbul as a ‘magic city’ while another from bulgaria stated that ‘i fell in love with istanbul. it is amazing, both a modern and ancient city.’ a danish student stated that ‘i am quite certain that i will return to istanbul again’. regarding the positive aspects of their stay, they mentioned the people they had met from different countries, learning about a new, different culture, improving their level of english, travelling around during their stay, the erasmus parties, personal growth and a good level of education. most of them found turkish people very 118 s. oner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences friendly. as one polish erasmus student stated, ‘after my stay i found turkey more open, developed, friendly and a significant player in the 21st century’. most of the students differentiated between istanbul and the rest of turkey, describing istanbul as a large, crowded, interesting, exciting city, a melting pot, a meeting point between europe and asia. during their erasmus experience, students mostly socialised with their friends from the erasmus programme, who come from different european countries, rather than their turkish friends. in addition to other social factors, such as sharing a flat, participating in similar courses and erasmus social activities, the language issue was another challenge for erasmus students limiting communication with their turkish friends. the survey responses indicate that the erasmus students usually do not focus on academic issues, expecting more to learn about a new culture and improve their language skills. they improved their cultural knowledge during their stay and usually reported stronger self-confidence. some of them stated that there was a positive change in their perceptions about turkey after their stay. one of the students from netherlands commented that ‘i found turkish people and culture much friendlier than i expected’. one of the students from italy wrote that ‘i have to admit, before erasmus, my perceptions about this country were really different’ while a french student stated that ‘i am surprised in a really good way’. one of the erasmus students from germany commented that ‘i was expecting to find turks in turkey more different. here turkish people are less conservative, more individualistic … i did not have much contact with german turks.’ another student from germany stated that ‘i have a better idea about turkey’s eu membership’. a student from sweden stated that ‘there are changes in my perception of turkey. i did not have a solid image of turkey before i came but now i feel that i have a very positive experience of turkish culture’. an erasmus student from spain stated that ‘my perceptions changed, also my family and visitor friends’ perceptions. i found turkey and istanbul a more open-minded and friendly society, which is not always the view that the media gives us’. in addition to the surveys, in-depth interviews were conducted at bahceşehir university with incoming erasmus students from various countries, including germany, france, spain, greece and the czech republic. most of the students who chose turkey reported being interested in turkey before they came; usually perceiving it as a country that is culturally different from most other european countries. although only a minority of them had been to turkey before, most of them were already interested in turkey, especially istanbul, before they came. in addition, english is mostly the teaching language at turkish foundation 119 the ‘erasmus generation’ and turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences universities, which also influenced their choice. the erasmus students who were interviewed mostly studied in the department of political science and international relations so they had mostly been already following turkish politics and turkey’s eu membership bid. a high number of erasmus students come from germany, and they emphasized that they wanted to understand and learn about turkish culture. one of the german erasmus students stated that ‘germans usually know turkey from the turkish immigrants in germany’. they expected that the erasmus experience could help them to understand the culture of turkish immigrants, which might help their communication and integration with them when they returned to germany. another german erasmus student argued that ‘german students usually prefer turkey because they want to know more about turkish culture and they mostly already have turkish friends in germany’. most of the interviewees emphasized that they would like to explore a new culture. most of them stated that they had not known much about turkey before they had come. some stated that they knew about former turkish prime minister and current president, r. tayyip erdogan, while a few mentioned turkish singer, tarkan, turkish soap operas and turkey’s eu membership bid. during the interviews, which were conducted after the gezi park protests, most of the interviewees also mentioned these events. many of them researched turkey on the internet after being chosen as erasmus students to study at a turkish university. during their stay in istanbul, most travelled to other cities in turkey and some visited neighbouring countries. most of the erasmus students’ family members or close friends visited them during their stay. in addition to the students, the erasmus programme provides an opportunity for short visits to turkey, to some family members and friends. in this way, the programme does not only influence the knowledge and perceptions of erasmus students about the host country but also indirectly influences the perceptions of their friends and family members, although they are limited in number. one french student stated that ‘my family was shocked when they learnt that i would come to turkey. they accepted in the end. they visited me and they felt safe in istanbul’. a czech erasmus student stated that ‘a lot of people visited me here. everybody was surprised and they change their view about turkey after visiting me here. they were thinking that turkey is so different’. she added that ‘before i came, i was expecting turkey more traditional too. some cities are more conservative, but life is more european, especially in istanbul. erasmus is different than travelling in that country; while you are travelling you cannot see the life behind’. one of the spanish erasmus students stated that ‘the people in spain do not know about turkey. my parents and friends came to visit me. my parents found it similar to spain’. she added that ‘we are the same in greece, italy, turkey and spain. spain and germany do not have any similarity. istanbul is like madrid and london. if you travel to the other parts of turkey, it starts to change’. 120 s. oner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the most frequently used adjectives about turkey were: different culture, mixed, interesting, multicultural, unique, traditional, friendly. the most frequently used descriptions of istanbul were open-minded, hospitable, different, multicultural, crowded and friendly people. some erasmus students stated that they started to learn turkish a bit during their stay in turkey. they mostly differentiated istanbul and the rest of turkey. one of the german students stated that ‘istanbul is definitely compatible with european identity.’ one of the french students stated that ‘i knew more about istanbul, not so much about turkey’. one of the german students stated that ‘istanbul is so different than anatolia’. another german student, who had a friend from eastern turkey, visited eastern turkey too, arguing that ‘there is a big gap between the west and eastern parts of turkey; they are more conservative in the east part’. she added that ‘turkey needs to minimise the gap between western and eastern parts of turkey. if this gap were decreased, it would be easier to make changes in turkey and it would be easier to be a member of the eu’. she also stated that ‘before my erasmus experience, i was thinking that turkey is more conservative and not that open-minded. however, i saw that turkey is not that different from our cultures. i found turkey more open-minded than expected’. when she compared turkish and german cultures, she stated that ‘here it is more emotional, not so rational as in germany; it would be good if it were so also in german or european culture. also respect is very important here; not so important in my country’. some of the students argued that turkey combines very controversial ideas within one country, in that religion and traditions are important for some segments of the society. some of them reported that nationalism is very important in turkey. in defining turkish culture and identity, one of the german students stated that ‘in turkey there are so many different ways of life living together. some of my turkish friends are not different from my german friends’. another german student stated that ‘before i came, i thought that turkey is too different than other european countries. people in my country usually had warned me about turkey, that they will marry you, you will wear a veil’. one of the students from the czech republic stated that ‘family is very important in turkey; religion is one of the most important thing too’. she added that ‘society is bound together, which is so nice; that is what we do not have in europe. we are not like turkey; we are more individualistic’. the incoming erasmus students do not have a common understanding of european identity, although most of them defined european identity on the basis of common values and norms. one of the students from germany defined it as ‘a lot of different cultures and languages, common history and shared values’. another german erasmus student defined it on the basis of ‘western values, democracy, human rights, solidarity and peace’. she defined her identity as ‘more european than 121 the ‘erasmus generation’ and turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences german. i feel already european, now it is stronger’. after their erasmus experience, some of them stated that they felt a bit more european. one of the french students stated that ‘i defined my identity more as a french person; after the erasmus experience i feel more european’. most of them have primarily a regional or national identity before a european identity. one of the french students stated that ‘when i am in france, i am from my region, when i am in turkey, i feel more french’. she added that, after my erasmus experience, ‘i feel more french’. one of the german students stated that ‘when i am in germany, i have a strong regional identity’. a spanish erasmus student stated that ‘i do not have a european identity, i have a mediterranean identity’. one of the students from the czech republic stated that ‘i was more negative about working or living abroad; i found it complicated. however, after my erasmus experience, i want to discover other cultures and i want to be abroad more’. one of the students from germany stated that ‘i am more open to strangers, more open-minded, losing fear of making new contacts and taking new challenges.’ a few of the students stated that they had already felt european before their erasmus experience. one of the french erasmus students stated that ‘erasmus is creating a kind of community. i feel more international’. a few stated that they primarily have a european identity. one greek student, who mentioned that she is of turkish origin, stated that, after her erasmus experience, she feels more turkish. one spanish erasmus student stated that ‘i feel at home here’, although she added that ‘i feel more spanish here; you miss language and food. i realize the things i like more about spain’. she emphasized that ‘i would like to travel more to have the best identity’. thus, it seems that the erasmus experience did not induce a major transformation towards having a european identity; rather, the students usually became more open-minded, more eager to travel and learn about different cultures, and to have more international experience. they were also starting to consider more doing masters in a foreign country or work in a foreign country after their erasmus experience. affected by the recent debt crisis in their countries, the students from greece and spain were more sceptical about the eu project, even after their erasmus experience. one spanish erasmus student stated that ‘i was feeling a citizen of the world before erasmus.’ she added that ‘if i am in germany, i feel like a second class citizen; if i come to istanbul, i feel european.’ especially after the economic crisis, some students were thinking about coming back to turkey to do masters or to work for a certain period. a spanish erasmus student stated that ‘in two years, i want to come back to turkey again. i want to apply for a masters scholarship in turkey. 122 s. oner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences i may work as a guide here.’ some of my former erasmus students applied for a masters scholarship in turkey. one former spanish erasmus student at bahcesehir university, after finishing her masters degree in the uk, returned to turkey, and is currently working for a company in turkey after working there as an intern. regarding turkey’s eu membership, some argued that, if turkey can meet the criteria and adopt the eu acquis, then it should become an eu member. some of them criticised the eu’s double standards towards turkey. one of the german erasmus students stated that ‘turkey is part of europe. the long accession process of turkey is not only turkey’s fault, also eu’s fault.’ another german student stated that ‘nationalism is important for turkish people, which may be one of the challenges for turkey while entering the eu’. some of them mentioned the role of the rise in islamophobia in europe as one of the biggest challenges facing turkey’s eu membership bid. in addition, some mentioned the cyprus issue as another challenge. on the other hand, most emphasised that democratisation and reform processes have to continue. one of the german students stated that ‘most of turkish society supports western values. but turkey has a lot of things to do for freedom of press, human rights and minority rights.’ another german erasmus student stated that ‘it is unfair to say turkey can not be a member because the media is not free. some countries in the eu, such as hungary, have similar problems too.’ one of the erasmus students from the czech republic stated that ‘before i was thinking that turkey is so different, it would be much harder for turkey to integrate to the eu. after erasmus, i saw that they are not so different than us; they are really openminded. turkish people feel very excluded. if the boundaries are opened, turkey and the eu can have better relations.’ she added that ‘after the economic crisis, turkey does not really need the eu, especially in istanbul. in the future, maybe it is better for turkey to stay unique, rather than being part of the eu. i would prefer turkey to stay aside, because i do not believe in the eu’. one of the german students argued that ‘the eu can help turkey in its transformation process and overcoming regional gaps’. another german student stated that ‘there is so much potential here; if there are some changes, turkey can be a great member.’ some of them emphasised turkey’s possible contributions to the eu if becomes a member state, particularly in terms of foreign policy. one of the german students stated that ‘after my erasmus experience, i started to understand turkeyeu relations better. i am in favour of turkey’s eu membership, but i know that there are problems that are very hard to overcome. one of the biggest challenges for turkey’s accession is its size’. she added that ‘if turkey accedes, it will play a very important role’. another german erasmus student stated that ‘if turkey becomes a member of eu, turkey has to decide which part of the world it should belong to’. as 123 the ‘erasmus generation’ and turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a challenge facing turkey’s accession, she argued that ‘if turkey became a member, the eu would have new neighbours like iran, iraq, syria, and i think it would be a big problem’. but she added that ‘it would be interesting, if europe were more openminded, if it tried to integrate different cultures ... it would be good for each culture to learn from each other’. however, another german erasmus student warned that ‘if there were a referendum in austria and france, it would be hard for turkey to become a member of the eu’. one of the erasmus students from france stated that ‘if there will be a referendum, most of the french people will say no. french people are not ready, not only about turkey; we are not so much in favour of the eu’. a spanish erasmus student stated that ‘turkey should do something in its own way. in the eu, turkey will be second-class too.’ a german erasmus student claimed that ‘if eu gave turkey a more clear membership perspective, then turkey would do more reforms. there is no real perspective, so there is no motivation to change’. she added that ‘turkish people are frustrated about the eu. they feel that they have done a lot already, but the eu is not fair to them.’ one of the erasmus students stated that ‘the gezi demonstrations are a good sign, because it shows that they want to have a change’. one of the french erasmus students stated that ‘the eu needs to have close relations with turkey. visa free travel is a good idea. even for economic reasons, it is better for both turkey and the eu.’ thus, during their stay in turkey as an erasmus student, particularly those who study in the department of political science and international relations, had a chance to learn more about the challenges and prospects of turkey’s eu membership bid. conclusion although turkey began participating in the bologna process and the erasmus programme after eu member states, it has made great progress, with the number of students and academic staff involved increasing a lot since its introduction (aba 2013, 108). nevertheless, although numbers of incoming students have been rising in recent years, turkey is still not a popular destination country for erasmus students yet. according to the surveys that were conducted at the beginning of the semester, erasmus students’ main reasons for choosing turkey were discovering turkish culture and istanbul, which they found different and interesting. one of the students from germany wrote that ‘i chose istanbul more than turkey’, and added that ‘istanbul is rich in terms of culture, history and life.’ in addition, they usually reported coming to meet people from different countries and to make friends from different european countries, to improve their english, to learn turkish, and to visit new places. nearly all of them had not known much about turkey before they 124 s. oner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences came, and most had not visited before. most of them did not have a prejudice about turkey before. when asked what they had known before they came, most mentioned knowing where turkey is and parts of its history. some heard recommendations about turkey from friends who had participated in the erasmus programme. the students were usually open-minded and eager to learn different cultures, having already been interested in turkey, turkish culture or different cultures before they had come. most of them wanted to discover turkish culture, which they found interesting and different from other european countries. some of them expected to improve their level of english. they had heard more about istanbul than the rest of turkey. german students, in particular, emphasized that they would like to learn more about turkish culture in order to understand turkish immigrants in germany better. most of the german students chose turkey to understand and learn more about turkish culture due to the presence of the turkish community in their country. by the end of their stay, nearly all of them had enjoyed being in istanbul. nearly all of them found turkish people hospitable and friendly. thus, the erasmus experience has a strong effect on the perceptions of the incoming students about turkey. however, it has to be mentioned that most of them did not have a prejudice about turkey and they would like to discover and understand a new culture. although they had not known much about turkey before arriving, they were mostly interested in learning different cultures. although they mostly did not become more european after their erasmus experience, they became more open-minded, and more interested in studying and working in different countries. thus, the erasmus programme has some ability to help overcome prejudices and stereotypes about turkey, although it is limited. they mostly differentiated between istanbul and the rest of turkey, although some did not visit other areas. they found istanbul exciting and similar to other european cities and european culture. the erasmus programme not only influences those who participate in the programme but also those who do not participate (maiworm 2001). the family, relatives and friends of participating students sometimes visited them during their erasmus stay. in addition, when erasmus students go back to their countries, they share their experiences with their family and friends. this study found that most of the students’ parents, even those who had prejudices about turkey, visited their children and mostly liked turkey, particularly istanbul, which caused them to change their perceptions. the erasmus students tended to become more aware of the real challenges and contributions of turkey’s accession to the eu for both sides, especially the students 125 the ‘erasmus generation’ and turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences of political science and international relations and european union studies. most of them argued that turkey can become a member if it continues the reform process. there are some limitations in this study. firstly, the research was conducted only at one university in istanbul. open-ended questionnaire surveys were conducted with different students at the beginning and end of the semesters, while in-depth interviews were conducted only at the end of the semester after their erasmus experience. for future studies, it would be better to hold in-depth interviews both at the beginning and end of the semester with the same students because they might already have positive perceptions towards turkey having chosen this country for their erasmus programme. this research needs to be extended to different universities in different cities to further investigate the influence of the erasmus programme on the perceptions of incoming students about turkey. further research is needed concerning the prejudices of outgoing turkish erasmus students, and how their erasmus experience influences their perceptions about the eu, european culture and the erasmus programme, how their erasmus experience changes their views of turkey’s eu membership bid, as well as their sense of european identity. references aba, d. 2013. ‘internationalization of higher education and student mobility in europe and the case of turkey’, cukurova university faculty of education journal, 42, issue 2, pp.99-110. aydin, s. 2012. ‘i am not the same after my erasmus’: a qualitative research’, the qualitative report, 17, no. 55, pp. 1-23. brock, c. and tulasiewicz, w. 1999. education in single europe (new york: routledge pub.). council of the european communities. 1987. council decision of 15 june 1987 adopting the erasmus. official journal of the european communities, pp. 20-24. demirkol, a. y. 2013. ‘the role of educational mobility programs in cultural integration: a study on the attitudes of erasmus students in turkey toward the accession of turkey to european union’, anthropologist, 16, no. 3, pp. 653-661. erasmus: facts, figures and trends. 2014. the eu support for student and staff exchanges and university cooperation in 2012-2013 (luxembourg, publications office of the eu). fligstein, n. 2009. ‘who are the europeans and how does this matter for politics?’ in: j. checkel and p. j. katzenstein (eds), european identity (cambridge, cambridge university press). keles, yener. 2013. ‘what intercultural communication barriers do exchange students of erasmus program have during their stay in turkey, mugla?’, procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 126 s. oner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences 70, pp. 1513-1524. king, r. and ruiz-gelices, e. 2003. ‘international student migration and the european year abroad: effects on european identity and subsequent migration behaviour’, international journal of population geography, 9, no. 3, pp. 229-252. krzaklewska e. and krupnik, s. 2008. ‘the role of the erasmus programme in enhancing intercultural dialogue: presentation of the results from the erasmus student network survey 2007’, proceedings of the 4th international barcelona conference on higher education, higher education for intercultural dialogue and multiculturalism, 6, barcelona: guni, available at: www.guni-rmies.net maiworm, f. m. 2001. ‘erasmus: continuity and change in the 1990s’, european journal of education, 36, no. 4, pp. 459-472. mitchell, k. 2012. ‘student mobility and european identity: erasmus study as a civic experience?’, journal of contemporary european research, 8, no. 4, pp. 490-518. mutlu, s. 2011. ‘development of european consciousness in erasmus students’, journal of education culture and society, no. 2, pp. 87-102. mutlu, s., alacahan, o. and erdil, m. 2010. ‘comparison of the personal and cultural change taking place between eu erasmus students and turkish erasmus students (within the sample of adam mickiewicz university in the city of poznan, poland)’, eurasian journal of anthropology, 1, no. 1, pp. 33-43. oborune, k. 2013. ‘becoming more european after erasmus? the impact of the erasmus programme on political and cultural identity’, epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, 6, no. 1, pp. 182-202. reilly, j. 1993. ‘the erasmus experience’, in cunningham, l. (ed.), student skills for the new europe, ledds: hec. sigalas, e. 2010. ‘cross-border mobility and european identity’, european union politics, 11, no. 2, pp. 241-265. sigalas, e. 2009. ‘does erasmus student mobility promote a european identity?’, conweb: webpapers on constitutionalism & governance beyond the state, no 2, pp.1-23. sigalas, e. 2006. ‘remaining proud of their national identity, yet uniting ever more closely? the erasmus students as the role model european citizens’, available at: http://web.uvic.ca/ ecsac/biennial2006/pdf/emmanuel-sigalas.pdf studying in turkey for erasmus. 2010. turkish national agency, the centre for ue education and youth programmes (ankara, impress pub.). van mol, c. 2011. ‘the influence of european student mobility on european identity and subsequent migration behaviour’ in: f. dervin (ed), analysing the consequences of academic mobility and migration (newcastle: cambridge scholars publishing). 127 the ‘erasmus generation’ and turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences van mol, c. 2009. ‘the influence of european student mobility on european identity and subsequent migration intentions’, international bilingual conference ‘academic mobility: new researches and perspectives’, talin university, available at: file:///c:/users/ vaio/downloads/00234438.pdf wilson, i. 2011. “what should we expect of ‘erasmus generations’?”, journal of common market studies, 49, no. 5, pp. 1113-1140. 74 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences language learning beliefs and strategies: a bosnian efl case ervin kovačević international univeristy of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina azamat akbarov international burch university, bosnia and herzegovina abstract correlation studies (li, 2010; chang & shen, 2010) between the clusters of survey items as originally suggested for the beliefs about language learning inventory ‒ balli (efl version; horwitz, 1988) and strategy inventory for language learning ‒ sill 7.0 (oxford, 1990) report generally weak and moderate positive correlation coefficients. the above survey instruments were administered to fifty freshman students of bosnian linguistic and cultural background at international university of sarajevo. correlation tests partly confirmed results reported by li (2010) and chang and shen (2010) but with more similar correlation coefficients with respect to the later authors. the results partly reflect universal features of the foreign language learner and indicate that the theory of reciprocity between the two research constructs should be focused on findings about other forms of human intelligence. keywords: language; learning; beliefs; strategies; balli; sill; correlation. 75 language learning beliefs and strategies epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction learner-centered educational models assume that every learner is unique. assuming that learners’ personal perceptions define their goals, a learner-centered teacher always attempts to match the content and manner of presenting it with the learner and her/his needs (zmuda, curtis, & ullman, 2015; conti, 2004). accordingly, it is assumed that the study of learners’ beliefs about language learning and language learning strategies will contribute to better understanding of the learner and improve the practices driven by learner-centered education frameworks. language learner strategies associated with cognitive, metacognitive, and affective components are believed to underlie language learners’ behaviors and beliefs. these strategies argue the provision of crucial information about learner behavior and beliefs as necessary for a successful foreign or second language teaching design (horwitz, 2013, 1988; oxford, 2013, 1990; wenden, 1998, 1991). the need for such information is supported by positive correlations between language learning beliefs and strategies (chang & shen, 2010; li, 2010). hence this study explores the relationship between the beliefs and strategies as reported by university students of bosnian linguistic and cultural background. the results partly confirm previous research findings and also provide important implications for further research. literature review it is not surprising that defining and studying the phenomenon of beliefs about learning is both challenging and diverse. the verb ‘to believe’—classified as a stative verb of cognition, emotion, and sensation—is used to express a mental state or attitude towards somebody or something (huddleston & pullum, 2002). in other words, the concept of belief is semantically complicated. in addition, the act of learning as expressed in various educational frameworks may also be defined in numerous ways. consequently, the notion of learning belief is difficult to define in the narrow sense and must be defined with reference to overlapping or similar notions. barcelos (2000) examines the relationship existing between ‘beliefs’ and ‘knowledge’ and ‘beliefs’ and ‘actions’. relying on dewey (1906/1983), hickman (1998) and boisvert (1998), she concludes that while “beliefs may present obstacles for reflective inquiry, […] they may also trigger reflection” (barcelos, 2000, p. 36), because beliefs and knowledge seem to correlate with the link between subjective language learning beliefs and strategies epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences 76 e. kovačević and a. akbarov epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences experience and inquiry. in linking beliefs with actions, barcelos (2000) argues that the relationship is reciprocal. wenden (1998) associates ‘beliefs and knowledge about learning’ with the term “metacognitive knowledge” (p. 515). inspired by flavell (1979), wenden (1998) explains that metacognitive knowledge can be classified as ‘person knowledge’, ‘task knowledge’ and ‘strategic knowledge’. relying on wenden’s classification, it could be argued further that learning beliefs stand for learners’ general beliefs about learning processes, specific beliefs about themselves as learners, beliefs about the nature of a learned subject and beliefs about the ways of mastering the learning process. horwitz (1988) put forward a very strong argument when she said “if beliefs about language learning are prevalent in the culture at-large, then foreign language teachers must consider that students bring these beliefs with them into the classroom” (p. 283). in support of this argument, she draws on the results of a survey that included eighty students of german, sixty-three students of french, and ninety-eight students of spanish. all students were in first semester language courses at the university of texas (horwitz, 1988). horwitz’s (1988) survey was designed “to assess student opinions on a variety of issues and controversies related to language learning” (p. 284). the instrument she designed is the beliefs about language learning inventory – balli. it is used by dozens of researchers across the world and has become “[t]he most widely used questionnaire” (barcelos, 2000, p. 45) for research about beliefs in language learning. the study has also revealed that learners hold variegated beliefs about language learning. horwitz (2013) later remarked that the balli “is not a single scale so the items should not be added together or averaged” (p. 261). however, earlier balli studies assessed students’ beliefs “in five major areas: 1) difficulty of language learning; 2) foreign language aptitude; 3) the nature of language learning; 4) learning and communication strategies; and 5) motivations and expectations” (horwitz, 1988, p. 284). it should be noted that nikitina and furuoka (2006) statistically supported horwitz’s choice of belief areas. while the link between beliefs about language learning and foreign language producing behaviors may seem a little vague, research has pointed out that the link can be shaped by several complex mechanisms such as reflective practice and metacognition. one set of the agents assumed to play a very important role in this link was studied under the name of language learning strategies. language learning strategies were found “to deal with the receptive domain of intake, memory, storage, and recall” (brown, 2000, p. 127). this finding may indicate their existence in both 77 language learning beliefs and strategies epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences forms of action and thought. according to weinstein and mayer (1983) learning strategies are “behaviors and thoughts in which a learner engages and which are intended to influence the learner’s encoding process” (p. 3). oxford (1990) explains that learning strategies are commonly defined as “operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information” (p. 8). oxford (1990) found that this definition does not fully reveal the concept of learning strategy and suggests that it would be useful to extend the definition by referring to learning strategies as “specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more selfdirected, more effective, and more transferrable to new situations” (p. 8). learning strategies have also been studied under different names namely, “learning skills, learning-to-learn skills, thinking skills, and problem solving skills” (oxford, 1990, p. 2). thus hypotheses, theories, and empirical findings which attempt to unveil the role of cognitive processes lie at the core of learning strategy research. for example, sternberg’s triarchic theory of human intelligence (1985) is a very important reference point, if it is assumed that learning strategies manifest as actions, operations, or decisions that shape learning behaviors. sternberg’s theoretical model describes how human intelligence functions; how mechanisms of learning, planning, monitoring, problem solving, decision making and implementing interrelate (sternberg & sternberg, 2012). in this sense it provides theoretical ground for interpreting the concept of learning strategies as deliberate self-employed acts with the aim to shape both learning processes and outcomes. wenden (1991) implied that two of the three factors that regulate the use of learning strategies are learner profile related. she states that learners’ “background knowledge about subject matter content, […] about learning the nature of the materials to be learned and the product or outcome that the learner or teacher has in mind” (p. 31) shape the use of strategies. the corollary is that this type of reasoning identifies learning strategies as key mechanisms in ‘autonomous or self-regulated learning’ models. in the strategic self-regulation (s2r) model of language learning, the learning strategies are defined as “deliberate, goal-directed attempts to manage and control efforts to learn the l2 (based on afflerbach, pearson, and paris, 2008)” (oxford, 2013, p.12). rubin (1975) initially defined learning strategies as “the techniques or devices which a learner may use to acquire knowledge” (p. 43). the author later offered a binary classification (rubin, 1981): ‘the direct learning strategies’ and ‘the indirect learning strategies’ (griffiths, 2004). hsiao and oxford (2002) report that 78 e. kovačević and a. akbarov epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences rubin’s (1981) dichotomy “along with the non-l2 work of dansereau (1985) and others, led to oxford’s (1990) direct and indirect l2 learning strategies” (p. 370). oxford’s (1990) taxonomy of language learning strategies classifies the strategies across six categories: memory, cognitive, metacognitive, compensation, social, and affective. it is argued that o’malley and chamot’s (1990), rubin’s (1981) and oxford’s (1990) classifications “have made an important contribution to and have advanced our understanding of how strategies can be systematically categorized” (hsiao & oxford, 2002, p.377). barcelos (2000) claims that beliefs about language learning and language learning strategies are correlated (see abraham & vann, 1987; elbaum, berg, & dodd, 1993; riley, 1997; yang, 1992; as cited in barcelos, 2000). calling on riley (1997) and abraham and vann (1987), barcelos (2000) explains that beliefs influence actions through strategy preferences which serve as links between the two. in addition, she reminds us of the arguments advanced by yang (1992), murphey (1996), and riley (1997), which implied that beliefs are influenced by strategies/ actions (barcelos, 2000). chang and shen (2010) surveyed three hundred and seventeen students in two taiwanese high schools. the authors wanted to explore the relationship between the beliefs about language learning and language learning strategies. they administered balli to identify the beliefs held and the sill, strategy inventory for language learning developed by oxford (1990) to identify what strategies were relied on. the strongest coefficients they found are stated as follows: based on the result of pearson correlation, the current study displays a moderate association (r = 0.444, p = .000) between participants’ beliefs about language learning and their use of learning strategies. when each subcategory of the balli and the sill, was examined the result of pearson correlation also indicated a significant linkage in each subcategory of the balli and the sill. among these significant correlations, the first subcategory in the balli, “foreign language aptitude”, had the strongest relationship with compensation strategy (r = .231, p = .000). the second subcategory in the balli, “difficulty of language learning”, had the highest correlation with memory(r= .427, p = .000), cognitive and affective strategy (r = .387, p = .000). the last subcategory in the balli, motivation, had the most notable correlation with overall sill(r = 0.422, p 79 language learning beliefs and strategies epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences = .000) and three sill subcategories: cognitive strategy (r = .387, p = .000), metacognitive (r = .455, p = .000), social strategies (r = .340, p = .000). (chang & shen, 2010, p. 6) li (2010) administered the sill and ‘language learning belief questionnaire’ (see lu, 2003; as cited in li, 2010), which is partly composed of the balli items, to two hundred and fourteen second-year english majors from four vocational and technology colleges in china. li (2010) attempted to diagnose the subjects’ beliefs about language learning and language learning strategies. she also tried to diagnose the correlation between the beliefs and strategies using the pearson test as presented in table 1 below: table 1: correlation between language learning beliefs and strategies in li (2010, p. 862) * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) li (2010) concludes that the “results were primarily in line with other studies (horwitz, 1987, 1988; wenden, 1987; abraham &vann; 1987, yang, 1992; wen & johnson, 1997)” (p. 864). saeb and zamani (2013) surveyed two hundred and sixty-two iranian highschool students administering the balli and the sill. the questions they tried to answer were whether “high-school students differ in their use of language learning 80 e. kovačević and a. akbarov epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences strategies from students [who are at the same time] attending english institutes” and whether “high-school students’ beliefs about language learning [are] different from those of students attending english institutes” (saeb & zamani, 2013, p. 81). they found a statistically significant difference between the two groups namely: there was a statistically significant difference between highschool students and students attending english institutes regarding their use of language learning strategies, f (6, 257) = 7.25, p =.000; wilks’ lambda = .85; partial eta squared = .14… the manova results revealed a statistically significant difference between high-school students and students attending english institutes in terms of their beliefs about language learning, f (5, 256) = 7.02, p =.000; wilks’ lambda = .87; partial eta squared= .12. (saeb & zamani, 2013, pp. 82-83) when the results provided by chang and shen (2010) and li (2010) are compared some slight differences appear (see table 2). table 2: comparison of strongest correlation results between language learning strategies and beliefs about language learning obtained by chang and shen (2010) and li (2010) 81 language learning beliefs and strategies epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences as it can be observed the significance of statistical results and correlation coefficients vary. the biggest differences were found to be between the metacognitive strategies and motivation, the affective strategies and difficulty of language learning, and the social strategies and motivation. overall, chang and shen (2010) report stronger correlation coefficients. it might be speculated that the contextual factors were the reason for the different results. chang and shen (2010) conducted the survey with taiwanese high school students, while li (2010) surveyed chinese college students. saeb and zamani (2013) statistically confirmed that educational settings and learning experience affect both learning strategy choices and beliefs about language learning held by participants. the correlations, however, between these two concepts need to be further clarified and statistically tested. this research project will attempt to provide further insights about the strength of correlation between beliefs about language learning and language learning strategies. instruments, participants and data analysis two instruments were used in this study: the beliefs about language learning inventory-balli (horwitz, 1988) and the strategy inventory for language learningsill 7.0 (oxford, 1990). fifty subjects participated in the study: twenty-one females and twenty-nine males. all participants were of bosnian cultural and linguistic background, proficient in english (as measured by the institutional proficiency test) and enrolled in the freshman year at international university of sarajevo. the data was collected on several occasions during the spring semester 2015 using original instruments after the authors’ consents were obtained. the data was analyzed using the spss software. since the number of participants was not very high (due to the nature of the educational setting), the quality of the research sample was examined using the shapiro-wilk test, visual inspection of their histograms, normal q-q plots and box plots, and pearson and spearman tests. results the shapiro-wilk’s test (p>.05), visual inspection of their histograms, normal q-q plots and box plots showed that the language learning strategy scores approximated a normal distribution for both females and males in all the clusters of scores except the scores of affective and social strategies as declared by males. the above mentioned tests showed that the language learning beliefs scores approximated a normal distribution for both females and males in clusters of beliefs about the difficulty of language learning, the nature of language learning and motivation and expectations. however, the scores for foreign language aptitude as declared by females were found to be kurtotic. learning and communication 82 e. kovačević and a. akbarov epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences strategies as declared by females were found not to be normally distributed by the shapiro-wilk’s test (p = 0.01). finally, pearson and spearman tests provided following results in table 3. table 3: correlations between beliefs about language learning and language learning strategies * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) discussion the results obtained through this study seem to be similar to those obtained by chang and shen (2010) in comparison to the results provided by li (2010) (see table 4). particularly interesting here is the consistency of the correlation coefficients between beliefs about ‘motivation and expectations’ and all six categories of language learning strategies in all three studies. chang and shen (2010) did not provide all the correlation coefficients in their report. in addition, some of the coefficients provided by li (2010) and this current research were found not to be statistically significant. it is difficult, therefore, to make accurate comparisons of the correlation coefficients. however, almost all the coefficients indicate weak and moderate positive correlations between beliefs about language learning and language learning strategies as classified by horwitz (1988) and oxford (1990). the implications of this finding are nevertheless far-reaching if the variance they share is calculated. 83 language learning beliefs and strategies epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences table 4: comparison of correlation results between language learning strategies and beliefs about language learning obtained by chang and shen (2010), li (2010, and authors of this research if the correlation coefficients are squared (r2), the shared variance oscillates approximately between 4 and 20%. in other words, approximately 4 to 20% of language learning strategy choice can be accounted for by beliefs about language learning held, and vice versa (dancey & reidy, 2011; 1999). the 20% resulted from a few strong coefficients identified (e.g. correlation between beliefs about motivation and expectations and metacognitive strategies was found to be positive (r = .455, p = .000, see chang and shen, [2010]) — so 20.7% of the variance between them could be found to account for each other (r2= 0.207). however, other obtained coefficients appear to be lower. these statistics highlight the complexity of both the phenomena of beliefs and strategies. as attitudes do, beliefs also project an individual’s interaction between cognition and emotion, which shapes the levels of both conviction and doubt about ways, persons, things, or concepts. consequently, attitudes and beliefs are difficult to distinguish because they both may be described as predispositions to actions, and they both may be incompatible with the actions. describing the difference between the terms, barcelos (2000) refers to rokeach (1968) who “explained the difference 84 e. kovačević and a. akbarov epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences between the two terms by stating that beliefs are predispositions to action, whereas an attitude is a set of interrelated predispositions to action organized around an object or situation” (p. 7). the distinction has also been implied by george and jones (1997) who defined ‘values’ as “person’s beliefs about what is good or desirable in life” which operate as “long-term guides for a person’s choices and experiences” (as cited in arnold et al. p. 242). what these definitions suggest is that attitudes project beliefs, and beliefs, together with feelings, compose attitudes. while discussing language-learning strategies and their associations with good and bad learners, gass and selinker (2001) conclude that research on this paradigm is still preliminary and that “a next obvious step in the evolution of the research paradigm would be the undertaking of longitudinal studies that attempt to link learning strategies, which are thought to be helpful to an individual, to the interlanguage output these individuals produce (p. 369). gu (2010) found that “the intensity of interest in language learning strategies in the 1980s and the 1990s and the high expectations from theorists, researchers, teachers, and learners have left many people frustrated, especially because of the conceptual fuzziness and elusiveness of the lls [language learning strategies] construct” (as cited in oxford, 2013, p. 10). the author suggests that new researchers create “innovative research paths” and avoid answering “old research questions” (gu, 2010; as cited in oxford, 2013, p. 10). conclusion although language learning beliefs and strategies are generally positively correlated, the results indicate that the overall relationship between them is not strong. therefore, any theorizing about their reciprocity should include other findings about theories of human intelligence. for example, the interacting processes between the learners’ personal and situational characteristics, the learners’ choosing between reflecting or non-reflecting on the interacting processes, and the ongoing interrelations between personal skills, knowledge and attitudes. together these factors might or might not be contextually restrained. such a connection has been addressed by several scholars (mezirow, 1991; jarvis, 2003; 1987; cross, 1981; mcclusky, 1963; knox, 1986; and knowles, 1990). the relatively low shared variances between language learning beliefs and strategies, which are not frequently highlighted in similar studies, should not be disregarded. the results reported in this research correspond more closely with chang and shen (2010) than those of li (2010). indeed chang and shen and li’s research projects are very similar to the current research. the similarity of results partly highlights universal beliefs and values of the foreign language learner, which is 85 language learning beliefs and strategies epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences sometimes overlooked by learner-centered educational practices. in addition, it implies that instructors’ success in deliberate modification of either learners’ beliefs or strategies will also depend on other contextual factors. therefore acting on one mechanism to change the other might not be enough. the learner displays behaviors, takes actions, and makes decisions in order to learn. types of behaviors, actions and decisions will take different paths to different outcomes. finally when all contextual variables which mark the teaching-learning exchange are considered, learning situations, behaviors, actions, and decisions may seem to be too diverse to classify, and too challenging to dissect. but they are also too visible and important to ignore. references arnold, j., silvester, j., patterson, f., robertson, i., coopper, c., & burnes, b. 2005. work psychology. harlow, england: pearson education limited. barcelos, a. m. f. 2000. understanding teachers’ and students’ language learning beliefs in experience: a deweyan approach (unpublished doctoral dissertation). the university of alabama, alabama. brown, d. h. 2001. teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. san francisco, usa: longman. chang, c., & shen, m. 2010. the effects of beliefs about language learning and learning strategy use of junior high school efl learners in remote 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learning. applied linguistics, 19(4), 515-537. zmuda, a., curtis, g., & ullman, d. 2015. learning personalized. san freancisco, usa: jossey-bass. microsoft word 1. foucault pancake article by robert le blanc epiphanyepiphanyepiphanyepiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 2 spring 2009 ©2009, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. robert le blanc the university of rhode island the care of the self and christian practice: foucauldian readings of breece d’j pancake “foucault’s reading of the christian experience was selective, but it was decisive in expanding his horizon beyond modernity, and especially beyond power-knowledge relations, to include subjectivity,” writes james w. bernauer in his book michel foucault’s force of flight: toward an ethics for thought (162). this “reading” of christian experience in the work of foucault forms a fascinating thread in the work of his ethical phase, one that has been remarked not only by bernauer but also by such others as deleuze. in an interview, deleuze interprets foucault’s reading of christian experience as follows: “so there’s a christian morality but also a christian ethics/aesthetics, and all sorts of conflicts and compromises between the two” (114). what strikes me initially about these fascinating commentaries on foucault’s reading of the christian experience is their incompleteness and potential for further discussion. one could argue that a more nuanced understanding of what deleuze rather broadly calls “christian ethics/aesthetics” is less than central to the continuing conversation around foucault’s concept of the care of the self, but i disagree. i feel that further critical review on this matter will contribute meaningfully to foucault’s late work on ethics and on new possibilities for subjectivity. this essay will strive to answer the following questions that emerge directly from foucault’s ethical work: what struggles and crises exist at the center of a contemporary self that would seek both to embrace a christian identity and to aestheticize an existence as an ethical being in the world? how might the attempts of christians to practice a care of the self produce a field of robert le blanc 2 discourse that intervenes in both foucault’s understandings of self-care and christianity’s understandings of self-renunciation? what is to be learned by closer readings in and around these “all sorts of conflicts and compromises” that deleuze references? “the christian self is an obscure text demanding permanent interpretation through ever more sophisticated practices of attentiveness, concern, decipherment, and verbalization,” writes bernauer in his efforts to describe foucault’s theory of christian experience (164). this christian self appears in foucault as caught up in the discomforts and constant struggles that inhere to christian practices of self-knowing. foucault sees these practices as a site of paradox that disrupts the care of the self. he argues, “[t]o seek one’s salvation definitely means to take care of oneself. but the condition required for attaining salvation is precisely renunciation” (ethics 289). this observation of a paradox at the conjuncture of christian identity and christian practice ramifies throughout foucault’s ethical work, and touches directly upon his concerns with pastoral power, the issue of confession, and the problematization of sexuality. this essay will seek to explore the shape of a particular strain of christian identity as it strives toward a practice of self-care, while struggling within and against a technology of power that seeks to manipulate the very elements of the body. foucault refers to disciplinary power as requiring of the body “a calculated manipulation of its elements, its gestures, its behaviour” (discipline and punish 138). with disciplinary and pastoral forms of power having replaced sovereign power according to the foucauldian model, what forms of christian subjectivity might be accessible? foucault suggests that the modern diagram of power relations has necessitated a “zeal for the self” (ethics 293). given the christian focus on self-renunciation, how can christian subjectivities acknowledge this necessary zeal and remain within their religious traditions? i have chosen the literary work of a particular writer, specifically the american writer breece d’j pancake, as a lens through which to focus my discussion of this struggling strain of christian identity and selfhood. this lens the care of the self and christian practice: foucauldian readings of breece d’j pancake 3 offers an admittedly narrow view of an admittedly narrow strain of christian practice, but let it be noted that this essay aims more at an augmentation of foucault’s understanding of christian identity and practice than at a redirection or summation of his work on this area of inquiry. through close readings of pancake’s fiction, i will explore the possibilities for, and conflicts engaged by, a practice of self-care that is also a christian practice. while pancake’s characters are always only fictional representations of such a practice, they nevertheless are useful to foucauldian criticism as imaginative explorations of christian selfhood in the context of a network of power relations. pancake’s characters variously experience this network as constricting, bewildering, and exhilarating, and his stories depict their experiences of selfhood as formed from within and impacted by this network. these characters’ formations of selfhood and identity will be read here against the backdrop of foucault’s reading of christian experience. breece d’j pancake achieved critical acclaim for his short stories, some of which were published in the atlantic during the 1970s (wilhelm 39). he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1979, but his literary reputation grew in the years after his death. his posthumous collection entitled the stories of breece d’j pancake was widely acclaimed and was even nominated for the 1983 pulitzer prize for fiction (douglass 102-103). the characters in pancake’s gritty, realistic stories are christians from his native west virginia, members of an american subculture marked by poverty, pensiveness, and yearning for escape. in his critical and biographical study of pancake, thomas e. douglass remarks that “pancake’s fictional characters exist on the periphery of the american mainstream” (94). these characters also show evidence of christian belief systems and identities as central elements, and christianity appears in pancake’s work in dialogue, theme, and symbolism. pancake’s focus on christian identities and religious elements in his characters’ daily lives has been connected by numerous critics to his biography. douglass reveals that pancake was raised “in a methodist family” prior to his conversion to roman catholicism in 1977 while attending the university of robert le blanc 4 virginia as a graduate student (77, 73). cynthia kadohata adds that pancake “took to religion as intently as he took to everything he did” (43). it is clear from a reading of his stories that christian experience represents an important enough element in his literary landscape to merit a range of explorations through a variety of characters and instances, always emerging from these stories as close to the center of the characters’ lives. douglass observes also that pancake’s characters share the experience of feeling “alienated” (9), and that “all of pancake’s characters…are terribly lonely, isolated not only by economic and social circumstances but also by their own belief in tragedy” (7). often, the isolation and marginality of these characters translates to obscurely rendered efforts at communication. not only are dialogues and inner monologues marked by an obscurity that begs to be made clear, but some events of plot are obscured through pancake’s crafting of dense texts. it is my contention that pancake’s characters are isolated not only in the two senses mentioned by douglass above, but in yet a third sense: in that their experiences and practices of christianity isolate them in an asceticism that runs contrary to the christianity-derived pastoral power dynamics of wider society. these are conflicted characters that feel paradoxically compelled to shut themselves off from any number of pastorates in order to become christian. a closer look at the christian experience of these fictional characters will add nuance and context to bernauer’s assessment that, for foucault, the “christian self is an obscure text” (164). i will offer this closer look by exploring those moments where the obscured (indeed—also rather obscure) literary texts of pancake’s fiction embody the christian self as an obscure text, caught up in the struggle for its own self-care in a network of power relations. i turn first to a seriocomic short story by pancake that seems even in its very title to explore foucault’s concerns with christian experience and selfhood, “the salvation of me.” in this story, a conspicuously nameless narrator tells of his adolescent friendship with chester, a boy with whom the narrator had worked at a gas station and with whom he co-owned a “chevy” that promised to deliver on the care of the self and christian practice: foucauldian readings of breece d’j pancake 5 their dreams of escaping from their boring west virginia hometown (138). the friendship goes sour when chester proves more successful at negotiating his escape from the self-denying life of the west virginia town than the nameless narrator. “all i know for sure is that chester made it big,” says the narrator, “and came back to show it off,” (134). chester has managed to make a name for himself in show business after running off to cleveland in the chevy, later ending up as a successful broadway actor in new york while the narrator is stuck working as a gas station attendant back home (141-144). the narrator is frustrated for several reasons. he obviously misses having the car that he co-purchased, but he also feels that his own dream of achieving selfhood in the wider, more exciting world has been squashed. early in the story, the narrator recalls his obsession with traveling to chicago to become an on-air personality at his favorite radio station there. the narrator half-jokingly recalls, “chicago became a dream, then more of a habit than pubescent self-abuse, replaced beating off, then finally did what the health teacher said pounding the pud would do—made me crazy as a damn loon” (134). the narrator fondly remembers his stifled dream of achieving social status and a more exciting selfhood, here with a notable comparison to “self-abuse.” just as the high school health teacher mentioned above warns the narrator of a need to vigilantly problematize his sexual practices, the narrator’s guidance counselor shows up later in the story to analogously warn the narrator of the need to police his dreams against problematically unrealistic goals toward self-affirming achievement after high school. the narrator reveals to his guidance counselor that he aspires to escape his rural environment and become a chicago radio personality like his hero, whose name, dex card, stands in stark, flashy contrast to the narrator’s namelessness (140). the guidance counselor brusquely tells the narrator, “well, you’ll have to go to college for that, you know” (140). this revelation to the narrator starts him on a never-completed path toward the titular “salvation,” with his efforts to boost his grades, obtain financial support for college, and become a practicing catholic. this segment of the story robert le blanc 6 involves the narrator’s growing relationship with his boss at the gas station, pop sullivan. pop offers to help the narrator achieve his selfhood and his dream, saying, “you need a college sponsor. i need another catholic in this town” (142). the narrator agrees begrudgingly to convert to catholicism and plan for college in chicago under the mentorship of pop sullivan. but his plans are eventually derailed, as the narrator’s dreams of achieving status in wider society are cut short by that society’s insistence on his establishment of a hermeneutics of his sexual practice. foucault tells us of “how an ‘experience’ came to be constituted in modern western societies, an experience that caused individuals to recognize themselves as subjects of a ‘sexuality,’ which was accessible to very diverse fields of knowledge and linked to a system of rules and constraints” (use of pleasure 4). having moved on from his earlier status as subject of a sexuality in which he was warned against “pounding the pud,” our narrator finds himself faced with a new system of rules and constraints when he starts dating the daughter of the police deputy. pancake’s prose here depicts his narrator’s experience of christian selfhood as mediated by systems of pastoral power over the narrator’s sexuality: deputy’s daughter missed a couple of months and decided it was me, and it probably was, so she joined me in catechism and classes at the community college in huntington, and we lived in a three-room above pop’s station. the minute deputy’s daughter lost the kid, deputy had the whole thing annulled, and pop made me move back in with my old man. my old man started drinking again. i quit school, but stayed on at pop sullivan’s garage to pay him back, and it was about then that i saw the time had gone by too soon. (143) these rather devastating lines, using the same matter-of-fact, seriocomic tone found throughout the story, set forth the compromised nature of the narrator’s salvation, a salvation mentioned in the story’s title. the narration’s participation in what foucault would call “regulated and concerted systems” (power 338) of disciplinary power begins with his journeys toward salvation in a variety of forms (all of them centered around escape from his town), and it culminates here the care of the self and christian practice: foucauldian readings of breece d’j pancake 7 in his ending up back where he started, his efforts toward salvation and attainment of selfhood revealed ultimately as doomed efforts. the narrator’s embrace of a christian experience in this story comes about only as a corollary that he deems necessary to attain his dream (a secular “salvation”) of attending college and eventually becoming a radio personality in chicago. the time for salvation had gone by too soon, and the narrator is left nameless and anonymous in his hometown. to refer again to foucault’s understanding of power, the exercise of a dynamics of pastoral power between the narrator and his mentors and elders in the town is practiced “through the production and exchange of signs” (power 338). the deputy’s daughter’s missed menstruation signifies for all parties the couple’s sexual practice as an area of problematization. this signifier is hazy for the narrator, who only confesses that “it probably was” his baby, but the results are nevertheless swift and essentializing. the mother of the narrator’s baby is immediately transformed, seemingly without protest, in a number of ways. she moves in with the narrator and joins him as both catechumen and college student (both new identities) under the mentorship of pop sullivan. her eventual miscarriage prompts agents of power in her life to recode her once again as “deputy’s daughter,” with the deputy himself stepping in as policing agent to annul the marriage and relationship. the narrator abandons his efforts to attain his dream of self-fulfillment in college and in chicago for a return to anonymity at the garage back home. the narrator’s project of care of the self remains unfinished. the depressingly fatalistic note struck by “the salvation of me” centers around what foucault called “the principle of ‘desiring man’” (use of pleasure 5) as it affects the experiences of the narrator. the narrator introduces his status as a sexual subject casually, first in his narration of his “self-abuse” and later in his narration of his relationship with the deputy’s daughter. the “self-abuse” is brought up as a habit that seems to preexist the events of the story, and the replacement of it is considered as a stage in his attainment of the selfhood that robert le blanc 8 never arrives. such a sequencing is evidenced by the narrator’s juxtaposition of his two subsequent dreams, the first an erotic one about his math teacher, and the second his larger and more alluring dream of becoming a chicago radio personality (134-135). as the narrator’s desiring subjectivity grows into this larger effort toward social climbing and self-fulfillment, a hermeneutics of his sexual practice is arranged around his relationship with the deputy’s daughter. he is constrained to determine whether he has impregnated her, and from there his independence is staked on the ability of the young couple to carry the child to term and to live within the rules of christian marriage. while the narrator is himself an active participant in these power relations that affix to him the status of desiring man, his passive acceptance of this status foreshadows the crumbling of his dream. in this story, the subjectivity with which the narrator constitutes a selfhood enters him into a network of power relations in which his possibilities for pursuing dreams are limited. “the exercise of power,” argues foucault, “is a ‘conduct of conducts’ and a management of possibilities” (power 341). the experiences of christian practice and of entry into a wider social stage for this narrator teach him only to give up on care of the self within what he perceives as a self-annihilatory social landscape. “the salvation of me” culminates with a brief encounter between the narrator, still stuck working at the gas station, and his old friend chester, who has returned to town as a broadway star. chester pretends not to recognize his old friend, and he quickly speeds away in his “new camaro” (143). after this brief and frustrating encounter, the narrator discloses that his present humdrum life of working for pop sullivan is marked by two consolations. the first is that chester was later “chewed up and spit out by new york because he thought his shit didn’t stink,” and the second (and seemingly contrary) consolation takes the form of musing about “little plays” of what exciting events might occur in chester’s present life traveling around america (144-145). after admitting that his musing sometimes leads him to lackadaisical attendance to his chores at the gas station, the narrator states, “every time that sort of thing happens, i cross the care of the self and christian practice: foucauldian readings of breece d’j pancake 9 myself with my left hand and go out whistling a chorus of ‘chicago’” (145). in this act, the narrator subverts one of the many rules and restrictions that he sees as having entered his experience with his christian catechism (the sign of the cross), and he wistfully sings the alluring song that led him toward a promise of self-fulfillment in the first place. christian practice in “the salvation of me” seems to manifest itself in the characters’ lives in constricting and self-limiting ways, stripped of any salvific meaning. the christian practice prescribed to the nameless narrator in his catechism is not self-limiting because of any relation to the ascetic practices of the early christians that foucault writes about, but rather because of its connection to what bernauer calls “the prisons of a particular historical determination” (181). the christianity of some of pancake’s characters, such as pop sullivan, seems to be rooted amorphously in social restriction and disciplinary power, with little regard for programs of self-care, perhaps even with little focus on individual salvation. though pop ambiguously is said to remark, “i need another catholic in this town,” we do not know if the need is for solidarity and support in a journey of faith, or for sheer population growth. most of the other manifestations of christianity in “the salvation of me” appear in the form of external and momentary practices such as the aforementioned sign of the cross or the identification of a roman catholic as a “mackerel-snapper” (142). this narrative landscape is filled with externally manifested christian codes that intrude upon the protagonist’s efforts at self-realization, but these codes are never experienced as meaningfully productive of (or even compatible with) salvation. thus, the story’s title may refer not to the protagonist’s aspirations toward a brighter future, nor to any lived experience of salvation on his part, but rather (and ironically) to a series of historically contingent practices imposed upon him and encoded as christian. various signifiers (spoken and acted) of christianity are found throughout pancake’s fiction, some of them sharing this same fleeting, offhanded nature. christian experience is explicitly manifested only in the form of colloquial robert le blanc 10 expressions in pancake’s story “the scrapper,” where a minor character remarks, “lord’s abotherin’ me for marvelin’ at the devil’s work” (104). in the story “a room forever,” the narrator speaks of staring into the eyes of a hopeless person and coming upon “a look like the wrath of god” (60). similarly, the landscape of the story “first day of winter” is marked by traces of christian practice hovering against a backdrop of a story about a young man contemplating the murder of his parents. at the story’s end, for instance, the protagonist struggles to sleep at the end of a grueling day, faced with the financial failure of his family farm and his inability to support his parents in their old age. pancake writes, “he…heard his mother’s broken humming of a hymn. he lay that way in the graying light and slept. the sun was blackened with snow, and the valley closed in quietly with humming, quietly as an hour of prayer” (169). in this ambiguous ending, the christian hymn could be interpreted as the symbol of an internalized morality, sustaining the protagonist as he defeats his sinful urge (revealed several paragraphs earlier) to smother his parents in their sleep. conversely, the humming of the hymn could be read as a purely external sound that serves as the prelude to the smothering without bearing upon it morally. this is to say that pancake’s invocation of the christian experience in this story could reveal that experience as either deeply significant in a moralizing discourse, or as significant only in its role as a surface-level marker of daily life. is the mother’s humming of a hymn an act that reminds her son of his moral obligation not to kill, or an act that will pleasantly accompany her quiet death by smothering? in either case, the markers of christian identity are significant for the realistic landscape of pancake’s fiction. in pancake’s story “fox hunters,” the characters’ christian identities are again presented against a backdrop that might be viewed as either immoral or amoral. the protagonist of this story, bo, is a teenage boy who gets invited to go fox hunting with some fellow auto mechanics. bo’s feisty temper has gotten him in trouble at his after-school job at the autobody shop, and so he feels compelled to join the men on their hunt despite his lack of interest in fox hunting. before the care of the self and christian practice: foucauldian readings of breece d’j pancake 11 leaving his house to join the men, he trades harsh remarks with his mother over dinner. the story then reads as follows: “‘tv movie looks like a good ‘un tonight’ she said in penance” (75, italics added). the shape of their conversation is marked by a continual attention to the hermeneutics of their sinful desires. when they try to hurt each other with words, these characters feel compelled to do a penance with a subsequent statement. the shape of conversation is thus depicted as a continual chain of self-questioning and the renunciation of one’s desires. after his mother offers an invitation to watch a movie as penance, bo says, “gotta date at the dance in helvetia” (75). this lie covers up his decision to attend the sinful fox hunt, and thus lengthens the chain by which these conversing parties practice their own hermeneutics of desire. the nocturnal hunt plays out as a scene in which the men boast of sinful deeds and pervert the daytime morality of their christian society and its apparatuses of power. the fox hunters sit around a campfire getting drunk and discussing a car accident that day that had taken the lives of two local girls. one hunter makes fun of bo’s silence during the irreverent boasting of sexual exploits and says, “he’s sittin’ in the holy seat” (80). the conversation continues to dwell on forbidden acts until several of the hunters imply that they had had sex with one of the female crash victims repeatedly during her life (80). another hunter named virg suggests in a shocking joke that the men should dig up her corpse for the purposes of necrophilia (80). bo sits contemplating this amoral discourse with a brooding hatred of the men who boast about the rape of a young girl, reconsidering his once-solid sense of belonging and identity within this group. he is drawn ineluctably into a self-examination of his desire based on his status as a participant in this “fox hunt.” if he is jokingly implicated by one hunter as a confessor-priest figure (“sittin’ in the holy seat” and listening to the boasts), his status is a more silent one, with the priest’s capacity for absolution rendered unimportant. bo reaches only the conclusion that his need for unearthing the truth of his own and his fellow hunters’ sexual practice and subjectivity is a need that could require lifelong attention: “but the men had whittled the time away robert le blanc 12 telling lies mingled with truth until bo could no longer distinguish between the two. he had told things, too; no truth or lie could go untold. it was fixed now; the truth and lies were all told” (81). this admixture of truth and lies, all of which must be told, instantiates a perverted focus on what foucault calls “the truth of the self” (fearless speech 165). this nocturnal event presents the frightening underside of bo’s community, a community in which a “christian technology of the self” must be practiced, but in which violations of christian morality seem more frequent and emphatic than adherences to christian morality (ethics 254). in this story, as with so many of pancake’s stories, only the faintest note of the possibility of escape is sounded at the end. bo returns from the fox hunt the next day, thoroughly sickened by the perverse confessions of his fellow hunters, none of whom seem interested in achieving salvation despite the thoroughness of their transformations of desire into discourse. the story concludes, “as he lurched down the clay timber-trail toward the secondary, he wondered if the impala would be ready to roll by spring” (82). it is unclear whether he will leave the variety of christian experience offered to him by the members of his community for a life elsewhere, but it is made clear that he is dissatisfied with his community’s stultifying and unproductive hermeneutics of the subject. the hermeneutics of sexual desire practiced by the boasting fox hunters takes the external form of the confession, but then indulges in the disclosing of worse and worse sins as an end in itself. bernauer suggests that, in foucault’s understanding of the christian technology of the self, “[o]ne relentlessly pursues the truth of one’s identity, which is hidden far from one’s conscious awareness and shows itself as tied to the dimension of desire and sexuality” (167). bo may manage to leave his town behind in his impala and pursue the truth of his christian identity, without the same sort of subjectivity as an ever-sinning desiring man that the fox hunters revel in. for reva, the protagonist in pancake’s religious allegorical story “the mark,” the truth of her identity is relentlessly pursued at the same time as she struggles to avoid an awareness of its implications. reva identifies herself closely the care of the self and christian practice: foucauldian readings of breece d’j pancake 13 with her sexual desires and the obscure acts that have resulted from them throughout the story. through an omniscient third-person point of view, pancake reveals reva’s incestuous longings for her brother clinton and then shares that “she had traded dark secrets with her brother” in a tobacco field (91). reva inhabits an identity so thoroughly marked by her obscure sexual subjectivity that she experiences a physical embodiment of her desiring selfhood throughout the story. “she tried to blame clinton, her parents, even the river, but opened her eyes to the white knuckles of her tiny fist,” writes pancake (92). reva cannot escape the relentless pursuit of the truth produced by her status as sexual subject because she finds it imbricated in her very physical being. this imbrication seems to have resulted from her recent pregnancy, a pregnancy whose beginning and ending are situated in the obscure texts of her sexuality. the third-person narrator, though omnisciently offering most of reva’s thoughts, never discloses whether the pregnancy resulted from reva’s incestuous union with clinton, or from sex with “her husband of two winters,” tyler (90). and the pregnancy, which is not carried to term, may have ended in either a miscarriage or an abortion. the narrator never discloses which of these occurred, nor what reva’s feelings were at the end of the pregnancy. instead, the reader only encounters the following obscure piece of dialogue: “‘i done it,’ reva said…she looked up on the porch to her husband. ‘i done a awful thing, t.’” (99). reva may have felt guilty about either her incestuous union with clinton, or perhaps about the termination of her pregnancy, or perhaps both, but what does rise to the surface of this obscure text is her close identification with her own practices as sexual subject. an application here of foucault’s understanding of christian practices of self-confession suggests that she has constituted herself as a subject with the doing of this “awful thing,” and now she feels the need as a christian to transform this deed into discourse “through the endless mill of speech” (history 21). by using the obscuring phrase “awful thing,” she is also practicing the careful neutralization that foucault isolated as an attribute of the confession of sexual practice (history 21). in reva’s simple (and yet ambiguous) robert le blanc 14 confession of “i done it,” her status as a sexualized subject is observable in her simultaneous expression of self-attentiveness and self-renunciation. douglass argues that this ambiguous confession “suggests many admissions of the soul” (129). reva’s experience of christian identity as a subject inscribed with her own misdeeds is accompanied at the story’s end by a wish to obscure the text of her own desiring subjectivity beyond all need for hermeneutic work, by reversing the passage of time. pancake writes, “she felt her belly for the child that had never been, and almost wanted the deed undone, even forgotten” (98). her internal struggle within a particular type of subjectivity at this moment in the story recalls bernauer’s suggestion that “seditious sexuality signals the need for a struggle with one’s self” (163). reva’s body and sexualized subjecthood serve as hard-to-forget signifiers within the complex and murky text that she constantly reads and attends to, the text of her own self. though some of pancake’s characters glimpse fleeting possibilities for a new practice of christianity, the close readings offered above depict the prospects for a care of the self that follows christian practice, christian morality, and christian identity as quite grim. christianity, in many of the stories, first enters the realm of experience of these characters largely in surface-level fragments of a faith that is then practiced only vestigially, or else its practice impacts their participation in power relations in ways that have at times frustrated and denied selfhood. how might the christian subject aestheticize his/her existence in accord with the principles of epimeleia heautou and still remain christian? or is foucault correct to speculate that this an irresolvable paradox within contemporary christian practice (ethics 285)? pancake asserts that this paradox has its imaginable resolutions within christianity, and he presents such possibilities for christian care of the self most centrally in his story “in the dry.” as with other pancake stories, the protagonist’s discovery of a mode of christian practice that incorporates self-care rather than self-denial occurs only near the story’s end. the care of the self and christian practice: foucauldian readings of breece d’j pancake 15 this story starts by detailing the protagonist’s visit to his foster parents’ home in the west virginia hills. the protagonist, ottie, has become a “scab trucker” and returns to his former home to find the scars of his past still raw. he encounters the aftermath of a car wreck that left his foster brother buster disabled (149), the unconsummated relationship of sexual desire with his foster sister sheila (160), and the angry, vengeful preaching of his “bible-beater” foster father (157). ottie’s visit is marked by his confusion as to how his own christian identity fits with the disenchanting interactions he has within his christian foster family’s dynamics. his foster father has long resented and suspected ottie for his role in the car wreck that injured buster. “god forgive my wore-out soul,” the foster father says to ottie, “but i hope you burn in hell” (161). rather than welcome home his prodigal son, the father berates his foster son with menacing words and “false power” (157). it is noteworthy that this harsh remark is prefaced by the foster father’s surrender of his own soul as a “wore-out” entity, ostensibly positing his existence as (in his view) beyond any project of self-care. in the father’s preaching before a gathered crowd of local families before dinner, he invokes the biblical passage that gives its name to the story as he emphasizes the sinfulness he sees in his hearers: “for if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” (157). ottie’s reflections upon the preached passage reveal his efforts to construct a christian identity apart from his father’s vengeful “bible-beater” discourse. sheila shares a flirtatious moment with ottie after dinner and questions her father’s practice of christian ethics/aesthetics. pancake writes, “she snorts a small laugh, holds the back of her hand to her forehead, mocks: ‘oh dear. what shall we do in the dry?’” (159, italics in original). ottie’s response reveals his search for a christian identity that allows him to practice a care of the self: “blow away, i guess” (159). ottie finds a way out of a question that his foster father’s preaching, almost nihilistic in its accusations of the permanence of sinful subjecthood, has flung at him. ottie’s way out manifests itself as indeed a physical movement outward. he repeats this answer, “blow away,” over and over to himself and eventually robert le blanc 16 decides to leave his former home and return to his life on the road as a trucker (161-162). the restless, unfixed nature of this life allows ottie to avoid an occupation of that “dry” zone of sinfulness that the biblical passage cautions against, while also avoiding the subjectifying discourse within which his foster father had employed the passage. douglass interprets this ending, with ottie returning to his life as a trucker, thusly: “his redemption is an ‘awful’ kind like the gears of his departing semi that ‘strain to whine into another night’” (129). ottie seeks a christian practice that is not marked by an essentializing selfrenunciation that revels in its own sinful nature, but rather by an ascetic selfrenunciation that opens up radical possibilities for selfhood. by “blowing away” from any fixed zone of the marked sinner, ottie explores a new form of self-care, still inclusive of a christian understanding of encroaching sinfulness, but without the surrenders of the self required by those like his foster father, those who would work toward “the multiplication of the aims and agents of pastoral power” (power 335). ottie has allowed his selfhood to be obscured and dissipated, to “blow away,” but he has done so in caring for a radical subjectivity rather than in abandoning the project of self-care as his foster father has. these stories offer a nuanced reading of christian experience through their imagining of the struggles, conflicts, compromises, and possibilities that mark an epistemically-specific christian subjectivity. pancake’s characters identify themselves closely with christian discourse and practice while inhabiting their west virginian reality, a setting in which they find it necessary to zealously care for themselves as participants in a network of power relations. they engage projects of care of the self as they escape the boredom of their surroundings (chester in “the salvation of me”), distance themselves from available identities that fail to match their moralities (bo in “fox hunters”), and redirect christian exegesis toward the exploration of new subjectivities (ottie in “in the dry”). these radical christian subjects set themselves in opposition to various agents of pastoral power as they break from established modes of the care of the self and christian practice: foucauldian readings of breece d’j pancake 17 subjectivity. bernauer posits these agents of pastoral power as bound up intimately with subjectivity and manifested in all areas of life: although its aims may have become worldly, the effect of state power is to mold a precise kind of individuality with which one’s desire is incited to identify. if sexuality is most often the ‘seismograph’ of that identity, it is because the legacy of the christian technology of the self is to have linked ‘sexuality, subjectivity, and truth’ together as the terrain for self-discovery. (166) pancake’s characters practice this self-discovery with recourse to christianity, but they seek to avoid the precisely molded subjectivities prescribed for them by a pastoral power that inherits its technologies of power from early christian practices. they may ultimately accept the individualizing modes of operation of this pastoral power, but they still yearn (as with reva in “the mark”) for a mode of existence in which self-discovery did not occur at an imagined nexus of sexuality, subjectivity, and truth. in elaborating foucault’s reading of christian experience in this way, i follow upon bernauer’s assertion of a “negative theology that characterized the asceticism of foucault’s methods” (179). foucault insists on a paradox that is to be faced by one who would practice both christianity and care of the self, questioning the potential for christian asceticism to lead to meaningful modes of relation to oneself. but bernauer argues that, while foucault gave up on the christian practice of seeking the eternally hidden self, “he also appreciated the ‘great richness’ of the ascetical moment of self-renunciation” (180). bernauer extends foucauldian thought into new regions, observing the possibilities for a christian subjectivity that articulates a positive self through negative theology, and he argues that foucault “reintroduced into the contemporary landscape of thought that negative theology that had ‘prowled the borderlands of christianity’ for a millennium” (178). i read pancake’s fiction as furthering this implication about christian subjectivity. pancake places his stories within a contemporary landscape of christian and sociopolitical identity, using his west virginia settings robert le blanc 18 as the locations of a “borderland” of sorts. in this dark “borderland” between possibilities for subjectivity and self-care, the broken shell of christian practice inspires some of his more radical characters to reconstruct their statuses as subjects of a faith and theology that resist self-annihilatory discourses in favor of more liberating ones. bernauer characterizes this possibility for self-care within christian modes of subjectivity as indicative of a “worldly mysticism” that might emerge from foucault’s thought (178). “foucault’s work has opened up a domain,” bernauer argues, “for the practice of a freedom that stands outside the humanistic program for the conduct of human life and inquiry in history” (178). when pancake’s characters finally seek an escape from the agents of pastoral power in their communities, they also seek, at the story’s end, to reconstruct their practices of christianity in accord with emergent projects of care of the self. thus, while the above close readings have reaffirmed the idea of the christian self as an obscure text in need of hermeneutic work, they have also indicated that this christian self might still be read for all its obscurity. sometimes it is read by these characters in ways that allow for a fuller relation of self to self rather than a debasement of the self. foucault speculated (and perhaps hyperbolically) that christian projects of self-care culminate in the subject’s act of “reminding himself that he is nothing” (ethics 277), but i think this is not always the case. these readings of pancake suggest that the christian subject may remind himself instead of his existence as an obscure text in a mystic and ascetic act of renunciation, like the “blowing away” of ottie at the end of “in the dry.” works cited bernauer, james w. michel foucault’s force of flight: toward an ethics for thought. amherst, ny: humanity books, 1990. deleuze, gilles. negotiations. new york: columbia university press, 1997. douglass, thomas e. a room forever: the life, work, and letters of breece d'j pancake. knoxville: the university of tennessee press, 1998. the care of the self and christian practice: foucauldian readings of breece d’j pancake 19 foucault, michel. discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. trans. alan sheridan. new york: vintage books, 1995. -----------------. ethics: subjectivity and truth. ed. paul rabinow. new york: the new press, 1997. -----------------. the history of sexuality volume 1: an introduction. new york: vintage books, 1990. -----------------. fearless speech. ed. joseph pearson. los angeles: semiotext(e), 2001. -----------------. power. ed. james d. faubion. new york: the new press, 2000. -----------------. the use of pleasure: volume 2 of the history of sexuality. new york: vintage books, 1990. kadohata, cynthia. “breece d’j pancake.” mississippi review 18.1 (1990): 35-61. pancake, breece d’j. the stories of breece d’j pancake. boston: little, brown and company: 2002. wilhelm, albert e. “poverty of spirit in breece pancake’s short fiction.” critique 28.1 (fall 1986): 39-44. golbarg khorsand* the “dubliners” by james joyce is a collection of fifteen short stories written between 1905 and 1907 and published in 1914. it summarizes the basic notions in joyce’s works. among the stories are “araby” and “eveline”; the two short stories to be discussed in this paper. james joyce enduring effect on the literature after him is undeniable. “he was a prominent symbolist, modernist, realist and formalist whose work have marked the beginning of an era in prose writing” (goldman, 1968: 5). his innovative experimental mode of writing and presentation was his main point of discrimination from writers prior to him. “the unprecedented explicitness with which joyce introduced the trivial details of ordinary life into the realm of art opened up a rich new territory for writers” (attridge, 2004: 1). as christopher mentions in cambridge companion to joyce, “joyce and many like him at this time (particularly eliot) seemed to have favored relativist opposition to the beliefs of the past. he extricated himself from the prevailing faiths of his contemporaries (2004: 68). by and large, there are three nets that shape the basic notions in joyce’s works: religion, language and nationality. the dilemma of his plots revolves around at least one of these issues. joyce believes that for a man to seek and reach the true nature of freedom in his life, it is necessary to leave behind these. as “stephan” mentions in “portrait of the epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies volume 7, number 2, 2014 p-issn 2303-6850 e-isnn 1840-3719 paths to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james joyce’s “araby” and “eveline” abstract there are three nets that shape the basic notions in joyce’s works: religion, language and nationality. the dilemma of his plots revolves around at least one of these issues. joyce believes that for a man to seek and reach the true nature of freedom in his life, it is necessary to leave these boundaries behind. usually in most cases, one of the characters in joyce’s writings is captive by those nets. they are put in a dramatic situation in which a revelation would lead him/her to an epiphany. joyce’s use of symbolism and realism and also his different layers of narration is what endow significance, life and glamour to the simple plots of his stories. the main point of concentration in this paper is to define the notion of paralysis in terms of symbolism and narratology, respectively in the two short stories “araby” and “eveline”; to show how different symbols and different voices draw upon the desired theme of the author; how religion, language and nationality are packed into variant symbols in order to enhance their significant function in issue of paralysis and how the various methods of narration can depict the nature of paralysis with which the characters struggle. keywords: joyce; paralysis; symbolism; narratology; araby and eveline *corresponding author: golbard khorsand, shiraz univeristy, iran; e-mail: golbarg_cm@yahoo.com artist as a young man” “i shall try to fly by those nets”. usually in most cases, one of the characters in joyce’s writings is captive by those nets. they are put in a dramatic situation in which a revelation would lead him/her to an epiphany. but apart from what the characters do and how they react, what is more essential to the flow of the story is what they are unable to do. similarly, sometimes absent characters or abstract ideas have more contribution to the plot than present real characters; for example a mother who is dead, a brother who has left the city, a girl who lives across the street and doesn’t have a name. as leonard points out “what i have outlined so far offers a way to notice how the stories communicate significance through what the characters know or wish to know, but also what the are unable to see or are afraid to feel” (2003: 101). joyce’s use of symbolism and realism and also his different layers of narration is what endow significance, life and glamour to the simple plots of his stories. he constructs the background of his stories in such a way that enables him to draw upon the utmost symbolic meaning of every single word. his symbolism goes beyond simple metaphor and demands both intellectual and emotional response from the reader. there are several layers of narratology each fitting and portraying a particular state of thought and characterization. in a letter to his publisher joyce noted: “my intention was to write the moral history of my country and i chose dublin for the scene because that city seemed to be the center of paralysis” (robert s ryf, 1962: 59). so the main point of concentration in this paper is to define the notion of paralysis in terms of symbolism and narratology, respectively in the two short stories “araby” and “eveline”; to show how different symbols and different voices draw upon the desired theme of the author; how religion, language and nationality are packed into variant symbols in order to enhance their significant function in issue of paralysis and how the various methods of narration can depict the nature of paralysis with which the characters struggle. while reading “araby”, the third story in “dubliners” which “represents an attempted but frustrated escape in the form of a defeated quest” (ryf, 1962: 63), we will be faced with and abundance of images and symbols and shift in narration. immediately in the first paragraph a bleak atmosphere is established. the boy narrator, very symbolically, lives in a blind street. this blind street (repeated twice in the same paragraph) could be a symbol of the boy’s character that is literally blind due to his young age and immaturity. the color brown which is used to describe the houses (and it’s only one of its several appearances as an adjective) symbolizes decayed and spoiled lives of their inhabitants; that is irish people. this image is used in the second paragraph of “eveline” to serve exactly the same purpose. 93 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” there is a delicate paradox in the sentence: “… when the christian brothers’ school set the boys free.”(dubliners: 27) the acute reader is asked to ask himself does the christian brothers’ school actually set the boys free or it constrains and limits them so much the more with its didactic religious teachings?; a question that will be answered right in the next paragraph. the image of the priest who was a “former tenant” and who has died points to the death of religion as a motivating and ensuing element in people’s lives. the description of that “back drawing room” (dubliners: 27) is telling enough in its own turn. musty air from being enclosed for too long a time and the rooms behind the kitchen being littered with useless books and papers all contribute to this fact that religion, with its old trainings and didactic methods is no more of any use and benefit to the young irish generation and it is actually being left behind. the description of the books found in the pries’ room is all symbolic: “the curled and damp pages” along with their “yellow leaves” are symbols of death and decay. the title of the books reveals the romantic content of them: “abbot by sir walter scott”, “devout communicant” and “the memoirs of vidocq”(dubliners: 27). they are all yellowing and wasting away. it is a symbolic foreshadowing of what is going to happen to the boy’s romantic image of the world. there is a “wild garden” and “an apple tree”. an apple tree has always been a symbol of original sin which is supposedly the knowledge obtained by human being. and here this symbolic apple tree with its connotation of sin and knowledge could be a foreshadowing of boy’s epiphany at the end of the story. from the beginning of the next paragraph the dark and gloomy atmosphere is going to be shaped by phrases like “short days of winter”, “cold air”, “violet sky”, “dusk”,… .the word “dark” is repeated three times in one rather long sentence: “dark muddy lanes”, “dark dripping gardens” and “dark odorous stables”. notice how the “wild gardens” of previous paragraph changed into the “dark dripping gardens” where “odors arose from its ash pits”. the word “ash pit” denoted a sense of uselessness and wasting away. however, there are certain references made to light, whether it’s a “feeble lantern” of a street lamp or lights pouring from the “kitchen windows”. this paragraph is altogether active in its tone with all the references to the games, shouts and glowing bodies. there are two separate introduction made in this paragraph; first that of the uncle and next that of mangan’s sister; both characters of importance in the story. the boy’s uncle here is the mitigated version of eveline’s father. both characters have an authoritive role and suppressing function that makes them stands as a symbol for “england” along with its oppressive, superior role toward ireland. ian almond suggests in his article “he represents another world in joyce’s story, a world juxtaposed to that of the narrator, one which does not hope and therefore doesn’t suffer: a world of oblivious to life’s tragic dimension.” (2001: 375) 94 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” second introduction is that of mangan’s sister who symbolizes ireland itself. as adam sexton notes in the book “on joyce’s dubliners” “the boy does not actually know mangan’s sistershe is more or less a fantasy to him” (2003: 15). the realism and objectivity of the author can be best traced in his introducing of these two characters, especially mangan’s sister. the narrator introduces her in the plain ordinary words and uses as few simple sentences as he does for the introduction of his uncle. there are no exaggerations toward either of the characters, nor his uncle nor mangan’s sister. no extra explanations or descriptions explicit feeling toward either of them is used. apart from what was just said, another noteworthy point in this paragraph is the shift in narration. the beginning of the story is narrated through the feelings and views points of a teenage boy who is energetic and active and this is evident in the way he narrates the sentences. but gradually, toward the end of the story, there is a change in the way he describes the scenes. the story starts with the child-like tone and with the change of his state of mind; the tone also changes, as if he is actually maturing. once again, in the next paragraph, the word blind is used. the narrator of the story insists on not giving any physical explanation about the girl. as if he is symbolically blind by her and cannot see her real existence. “i kept her brown figure always in my mind.” there is a symbolic foreshadowing made in the next line which says “… the point at which our ways diverged…” (dubliners: 28) considering mangan’s sister as a symbol for ireland, this divergence in the way could be applied to the split between a citizen and his country. the last sentence of the paragraph saying “…her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.” (dubliners: 28) in these two examples, there is a sense of an omniscient narrator who knows everything about this relation as if long time has passed and the boy is now grown up. but even this state of mind is not constant and there are shifts in the process of narration. the next paragraph starts with the romantic picture the boy has created of her. that is in a sense the romantic image that some poets have made out of ireland. but it suddenly goes into the bare realism of street scenes with the “drunken men and bargaining women”, “curses”, “shrills” which is best conclude in the sentence “the troubles of our native land.” (dubliners: 28) and these two pictures are best symbolic paradox between an idealized ireland as an evergreen promising country and the real face of that along with its harsh deficiencies. but, however, the boy narrator is not an intellectual contemplator of the situation in which his fellow citizens live; rather he is being soaked in his imagination and his dreams. in a religious context, all these settings, as attridge suggests, are a quest for “holy grail” in king arthur to him. and he thinks of the ordinary people as a “throng of foes” and of himself as “sir lancelot”. the “chalice” also symbolizes his undying love for 95 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” mangan’s sister. this shows the ultimate romantic passion that he has developed for her. the language in the following sentences becomes so poetic that it is evidently detached from the simple teenage language with which the story started. the image of a “chalice” being safely carried, tears filling his eyes and flood, his bosom, and finally the image of him being a “harp” and “her words and gestures…fingers running upon the wires.” all show a total development in the course of narration of the story. in the next paragraph, once again, there is the emphasis on death of religion in the unconscious part of the boy’s mind. “the back drawing room” symbolizes the hidden or unconscious parts of a man’s mind. the atmosphere is still thoroughly gloomy. the same symbolic elements used in the early paragraphs are repeated here along with the addition of “rain” that “impinge[s] upon the earth.” (dubliners: 29) the symbolic importance of this rainfall is that it is no romantic raindrop which softly touches the soft soil. the rain here symbolizes the whole bleak atmosphere of the story. the sentence “i was thankful i could see so little” (dubliners: 29) symbolically draws upon the true nature of the boys feeling. he is still as blind as he has been in the first paragraph. and he has this peculiar tendency to deny or at least hide his feeling. the word “araby” is used for the first time in the story in the next paragraph. the name itself “casts an eastern enchantment over the boy”. “it is an escape from the church” (ryf, 1962: 64). it is a mixture of both catholic church and england and in fact an escape from both of them. as malaganer and kain wrote in their book “joyce” “the romance that the name breathes is synonymous for him with the romantic dreams he harbors of his future with the girl” (1956: 78). it might seem strange to john j. brugaletta and mary h. hayden the way “mangan’s sister acts as she does while talking with the narrator” and “the nervous turning of her bracelet as she speaks betrays a lack of confidence in the young narrator’s presence…” (1967: 13) to them, but what is of a higher degree of importance is the impressionistic attention that the narrator pays to each single details of her. her physical image is more important to him than what she says. out of the whole paragraph only about a sentence is given to what she speaks of; the rest are delicate explanation of her gesture and movements. there is also another shift in the course of the narration where he says “her brother and two other boys were fighting for their caps and i was alone at the railings.” he no more plays with his friends. it could be a sign of his maturity, or at least a development toward that. the word “railing” has its own symbolic importance in that according to the main notion of “quest” which is the main idea in the boy’s unconscious, and the connotation of railing that is associated with a train’s railing, it could be symbolize and support the idea of a certain object or idea; that is, the boy’s journey to “araby” and his literal journey from childhood to maturity and knowledge. as for the word “araby”, 96 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” malaganer and kain point out “the exotic oriental motif is deliberately employed so that it may be contrasted with the banal reality of salesgirl’s flirtation interlude and bareness of the darkened suburban bazaar” (1956: 61) notice how the boy’s aunt is frightened by the very possibility of “some freemason [protestant] affair.” it is an open criticism on the part of joyce toward religious prejudice and absentmindedness of those people who subject themselves to such extremist acts. the whole paragraph shows a “willingness to overcome material obstacles for the joy of attaining [his] destination” (malaganer and kain, 1952: 79). the “raw and pitiless air” described in the next paragraph suitably stands for the harsh reality he is going to acknowledge. the indifferent manner in which the boy’s uncle treats him is a symbolic example of how england reacts to the deep true demands and rights of irish people. after that, the uncle’s absence and then his ignoring presence is the cause of the boy’s stress and lingering. the phrase “the high, cold, empty gloomy rooms” (dubliners: 30) is at time a strong symbol and criticism of the lives that the irish people are leading. in the next sentence, the narrator completely detaches himself from his peers and says “i saw my companions playing below in the street.” (dubliners: 30) and assign to them a kind of inferiority and himself, superiority. what he sees is only a “dark house” and an imaginative “brown figure” of mangan’s sister. these two images symbolize the despairing conditions of the country (ireland) and her decaying and deteriorating conditions. in the scene that follows, once again, we have the dominant and financially superior uncle, symbolizing england; it is the scene that precedes the realistic image of the city delivered by the use of phrases like “third class carriage”, “ruinous houses”, “crowds of people pressed to the carriage door”. it is as if joyce deliberately meant to juxtapose the two opposing images to show the adversity that irish people deals with. finally he reaches his destination; araby bazaar. but it is too late and “nearly all the stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness.” the narrator compares the darkness and silence of the bazaar to that of a “church after service”. and since this bazaar was probably ordinate by the church “for some pious purposes”, this darkness would symbolically stand for the “darkness of his religion” (malaganer and kain, 1952: 79). as malaganer and kain mention: in some ways, the araby bazaar suggests the church and is its symbol. the narrator’s quivering eagerness to reach it, his willingness to overcome material obstacles for the joy of attaining his destination, has religious fervor. but the worldly, the trivial, the gross awaits him at journey’s end. the glowing colors with which idealists surround spiritual objects fail to appear. again, joyce seems to be saying, the quest for the father, for the church, has been thwarted by reality. the bazaar turns out to be just as cold, as dark, and as man-made as the gloomy house of the dead priest on his 97 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” own street. it is almost empty, too, and only activity going on is the counting of the day’s receipts. (1952:79) the importance of the mini-drama in which the english salesgirl and her male companion are busy having a flirtatious chat lies in the revelation that it brings to the boy narrator. he finds himself faced up to a reality that is teasing; the fact that he has never had or can never have any such relation with mangan’s sister is insulting to him. as malaganer and kain underlie “[it] show[s] him the falsity of the entire situation in which he is involved” (1952: 79). symbolically speaking, the salesgirl with her english accent and her not encouraging tone resembles england’s indifference toward irish citizen (the way his uncle did). from now on the boy is absolutely aware of his useless attempt to continue what he thought of being a milestone in his life. at the end of his search for love and identity, he is lead toward darkness. at this moment “the lights are being out.” this darkness symbolically represents the whole essence of his quest and his longing for a higher truth. as the boy narrator says “…the hall was now completely dark.” (dubliners: 33) the epiphany comes at the close of the story where he says “gazing up into the darkness, i saw myself a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” his eyes were once filled with romantic sentimental tears, but at the end of his quest, when he is faced up to reality of his existence; there are tears of anguish and fear that burn his eyes. leonard notes “what makes such a moment a literary and stylistic masterstroke is joyce’s careful preparation for this moment… “ (2003: 91) this epiphanic image symbolizes the actual vanity and meaninglessness of an irish generation. as sexton notes “the quest is ultimately in vain” (2003: 15). since “the boy’s quest is made on behalf of his native country” (sexton, 2003: 15) so the vanity of this search goes to the people who are its citizens. thus, if mangan’s sister, the boy narrator and araby bazaar stand for ireland, a typical irish citizen, and church organization (or england), then this idealized (somewhat) romantic attempt of an irishman to serve his country is hampered and stopped by the darkness of religion and superior power of england. strikingly similar in both theme and style to araby, eveline is the fourth story of “dubliners”. the point with “eveline” is that in that story actually nothing happens. the character is inactive. she practically does nothing in the process of the story and her only action is a refusal to take an action: leaving the country. as it was mentioned in the very beginning, the story is very similar in its structure to “araby”. the pattern of symbolism, especially, is quite the same. in this story, too, there is a yellowing picture of a priest that signifies the decaying function of religion and the fact that the priest has left the country for melbourne is an approval of the same notion. the color brown in “little brown houses” symbolizes the spoiled and wasted lives of the irish people in that country 98 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” as it did in “araby”. and the “soldiers with brown baggage”, too, brings the same image of decadence to the reader’s mind. once again in this story, as in “araby”, we are faced with the two symbolic notions of mother and father (the character of uncle in the case of “araby”), the former standing for ireland and the latter, england. the character of mother, with its very short appearance in the story, only as a revived memory, creates a nostalgic feeling of the past and also an unknown fear of the future. since eveline is escaping a fate like that of her mother, so psychologically speaking, she identifies herself with her mother. an escape from home to whatever unknown destination would be an escape from ireland, from her mother or in a sense from herself. that is why at the end of the story she is unable to step on her way. practically, it is impossible to ignore one’s own self and escape from it. character of the “father” whose presence is almost dominant from the very early paragraph of the story as well as very early stages of eveline’s life, and all the detailed financial squabbles that are associated with him, evokes an image of england in the mind of the reader. he is brutal, indifferent, authorative and oppressive. their relationship is that of a slave-master instead of being daughter-father one. there is still the character of frank who is a symbol for freedom and liberty, but an idealized and unknown image of that; an image that cannot guarantee its outcome. but apart from its future possibilities, what frank means to “eveline” is a sense of freedom and a chance to live a happy life. as the narrator says “why should she be unhappy? she had a right to happiness” (dubliners: 38). frank is an idealized symbol of a person who has broken the capturing nets of –at leastnationality, and probably religion and language as well. but the problem arises exactly from the same notion of idealizing. reading carefully the description of frank given by narrator would reveal to us that the mental image that eveline has built into her mind is basically a romantic far-fetched one. and it is far from being real. as attridge notes: what do we make of “his hair tumbled forward over a face of bronze”? (dubliners: 36) this is no longer the way eveline might speak, though its clichés are not characteristics of the narrator either. perhaps we can read it as a faint echo of a story eveline has read, and this too might set alarm bells ringingis she interpreting her experience according to the norms of romantic fiction? (2004: 6) going a little further, we will see how she unconsciously compares herself to the “bohemian girl’ and how “elated” and “unaccustomed” it sounds to her even to imagine such a different life with such romantic prospect. frank himself is not the center of attention for her. the narrator deliberately avoids using the verb ‘love’ in mirroring eveline’s passion for him; rather prefers to use the verb ‘like’. it shows the distance between what eveline wants from her relationship with frank and what frank probably demands from her. she 99 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” is in a state of uncertainty and hesitation toward frank. her view of life with him is rather an exploration, an adventurous course of events rather than a comfort and solace for her future. all these explanations and analysis possess another layer of symbolic meaning which points to the present condition of ireland (at that time era) represented by eveline and the would be future of the country, the questions, hesitations and limitations that it might face in case it is exposed to freedom. however, the pattern of narranology of “eveline” will be the main point of concentration in this second part of the essay. the narration of the story embodies the stream of consciousness method in which the reader has direct access to the mind of the main character and in a sense can read and hear her thoughts and feelings first handedly. the plot of the story is simple, straight lined. as it was mentioned earlier nothing practically happens .except for the two closing paragraphs, the rest of the story is the expression of the thoughts, dilemmas and speculations going on in eveline’s mind. the story begins with the past and remains in the past for too long a time. but there are many flashbacks and flash-forward in that part. her mind repeatedly moves back and fro to the memories of her friends, her brothers and her mother and suddenly jumps to the future in which frank is the only decisive element; her past so crowded and her future so empty. but there seem to be different narrators at one time. the short initiating paragraph of the story is so poetic that one would doubt eveline as its narrator. “she sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. her head wad leaned against the window curtain and in her nostrils was the odor of dusty cretonne. she was tired.” read in isolation, this paragraph could be a stanza in a piece of poetry. but in fact, there are parts in which the narration changes from that mature and poetic voice to a tone of ordinary every day speech; a tone that matches the content of the text. as in the fourth paragraph where she is reviewing the consequences of her decision, notice these two sentences “what would they say of her in the stores when they found out that she had run away with a fellow [emphasis added]. say she was a fool, perhaps…” (dubliners: 35) the narrator of these sentences with their every day used language obviously is different from the narrator of the early paragraphs. it happens no sooner than the fifth paragraph that we are told of the heroin’s name. one can say with almost certitude that the narrator of this long paragraph is eveline her self. the language, the subject matter and the overall sense created in the lines belong to her. all throughout the paragraph, she adopts a cynical outlook toward her status quo. she delivers a sad impression of her life with her father, of her attempts in meeting the ends of the family, of her financial distresses and of her heavy responsibilities as a young woman. but she suddenly finishes with a basically different image; that in spite of all the hardships in her life, she still finds it satisfactory or desirable to go on as it is. she insists on using the verb ‘would’ whenever she talks about her future. this 100 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” could only be a sign of her hesitation. she is suspicious from the very beginning. this hesitation appears even in more subtle ways; in the next paragraph, the narrator starts talking about frank. the first sentence reads as follows: “frank was very kind, manly, open-hearted.” (dubliners: 36) attridge correctly notes on this sentence that “[it] is not a discovery but a moment of self reassurance, belonging to the blend of pride, excitement and anxiety that comprises eveline’s complicated mental state” (2003: 6). except for the first two lines, all over this paragraph, frank is referred to as “he”; that is what he actually means to eveline. it is not important to her who frank really is, but the adventures and the new encounters in his life-things that she wishes most to experience in her own lifeare what counts to her. the language of this paragraph is obviously “pleasantly confused”. the manner in which she narrates all her new experiences is actually that of a young girl who is not certain about the feasibility her own feelings. the hesitation becomes more evident if we compare the present narration of the text with its alternative; “a clearly-identified narrator” as attridge puts it: if a clearly-identified narrator commenting on frank were to stare that buenos ayres is where he had a home waiting for her,… we would take this as a fact, a given of the story; if a character thinks [emphasis added] it, however it has only as much validity as we feel we can ascribe to that thought. (2004: 5) he continues to say: …we have to pick our way through continually shifting perspectives, relying as best we can on our sensitivity to individual words and turns of phrase. ‘he was awfully fond of music’: that ‘awfully’ could only be eveline. the phrase ‘see her home’ followed immediately by ‘he took her to see…’ would be clumsy writing in novelistic prose but a natural repetition in thought or speech. (2004: 6) as for the lines “when he sang about the lass that loves a sailor” (dubliners: 36), attridge believes that it is not the skillful way for an english speaker to use such sentence structure, but that is not what matters to eveline; it doesn’t matter to her whether it is a title of a song or a grammatically-based sentence; rather what is engaging her mind is the message that frank means to convey through these lines in terms of her relation with him. the paradox suggested by the name “frank” is significant in its own turn to the theme of the story. ernest, her favorite brother, whose name is synonymous to that of frank, is dead. could this be a deliberate choice of word on the part of the author to foreshadow what is the ultimate end of this relation? or is he after all frank in his intentions? “has eveline found a rescuer or just another dublin betrayer?”(attridge, 2004, 5) and on a deeper level, is the freedom associated with the name of frank supposed to be vanished, too? considering eveline as a symbol of ireland, maybe frank could, in being truly honest and frank to her, save the country with the air of freedom and fresh outlook that this liberty entails; a right and a chance at the same time, a possibility for a better future. there is no way to find the answer to this question. the evidences provided by the story are not sufficient. all what we have is eveline’s imaginations and hesitation. 101 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” in the next paragraph, we are back again to the present time for a short moment and as if automatically, the mind of the character again goes back to the old past days. memories of her mother and all the sufferings and sacrifices that she endured come back to her. she remembers the promise she had made to her mother “to keep the home together as long as she could”. her mother is a symbol of her hometown, her country; ireland. eveline is a new version of her mother and that is what threatens her and puts a “sudden impulse of terror” on her; a fear from a future fate similar to that of her mother. therefore in this paragraph, the tone of the narrator becomes more serious. there aren’t any chances for the fancies of a young girl to develop in this part. the mode of the language becomes bleak and gloomy. as we approach the climax of the story, the flow of eveline’s mind also penetrates its deepest layer as to remember the exact words of her mother that says “derevaun seraun! derevaun seraun!” (dubliners: 37). as w. wawrzycka and g. corcoran mention “the narrative tone changes when eveline recalls her promise to her mother to keep the family together. it rises in pitch when the account of her mother’s ‘sacrifices closing in final craziness’ culminates in her deathbed refrain, derevaun seraun” (1997: 96). in the next paragraph, although she seems so resolute and decisive, but the tenses in which she thinks, are still the same vulnerable ‘would’ tense; a fact that shows the degree of her uncertainty toward her ‘escape’ idea. the last sentence about frank in the paragraph, with its emphatic repetitions is no more than a vain self reassurance. the remaining part of the story adopts a different set of imagery. up to this point, there has been a static and stagnant situation. prior to this paragraph, nothing has happened. the narrator has been sitting next to the window recalling and going through her feeling in an unconscious dialogue. but the last part of the story, there are dynamic images used in order to show the perplexities and unrest inside of her. the colors also draw upon her mental status. at this point, the relation of the text to the reader becomes heavily mutual. there are moment of sympathy and empathy on the side of the reader with the heroine; her fervent prayers, her distress-created nausea and her cry of anguish. as in the first paragraph, this paragraph is also too poetic to be a creation of eveline’s unconscious mind. in previous sections, there was a certain honesty that compelled the reader that this is really her; but in this paragraph, there is this peculiar degree of exactitude replacing that honesty. every single feelings of hers is reported in a poetic language and this goes beyond the viewpoint of eveline who pays much of her attention on what she best likes to notice in things and people; rather on what is really noteworthy. the impressionistic style of narration is used to show the utmost lack of concentration in eveline’s mind. “she knew he was speaking to her, saying something about the passage over and over.”, “she caught a glimpse of the black mass of the boats… with illuminated potholes.”, “she felt her cheek pale and cold… .” (dubliners: 38). in a sense we are seeing and hearing and feeling with eveline’s eyes and ears and heart. there 102 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” is a sense of identification created through the use of impressionistic narratology method. the narration and the narrator have become one. they merged into each other due to the density of her feelings. just as in tennyson’s eagle, in spite of the entire dynamic and turbulent atmosphere, there is still a touch of static and stagnant mood in these lines. the narrator has left some traces of motionlessness every where: “brown baggages”, “black boats”, “iron railings” and “mournful whistle into the mist” (dubliners: 38). they are all ideas that point to the stagnant situation in which she is trapped. the conclusive section of the story is where the epiphany finally arrives. although it is an exact report of her feelings, but it also seems that a meticulous observer is watching over her. in fact, it seems that her facial expression is so telling about her passiveness and helplessness that it automatically leads to such empty and absurd state of being. accordingly, the whiteness in her face would compare her to a dead person with dead desires. the narrator suffices only to read from her face and her eyes how helpless and devastated she has become. then it no more goes into her mind or reads her inner thoughts. rather it stops at a very objective level. being two different stories at first glance, “araby” and “eveline” both share the same theme. “they are stories which, in essence, revolve around an imminent disappointment.” (almond, 2001: 368) the notion of paralysis, prevalent in joyce’s writing, is the domineering issue that brings all the elements to a conclusive, coherent union in the two short stories. the pattern of symbols in “araby” is coherent, deep and literally and religiously built into the text, but they all together end in darkness. there are two phases of darkness in “araby”. as almond point out: “the darkness with which the story beginsthe winter darkness of streets where the children play, the “dark rainy evenings” when the boy avows his undying love to the image of the girlis by no means the same darkness in which the story ends; the gloom of the empty bazaar… . on the contrary the first darkness in one of childish adventure, excitement and mystery… . (2001: 371) the multiple narratology of “eveline” with its flexible dialogic nature provides space for all kinds of voices to show up and demonstrates her various states of thought. the significance of the method of narratology in “eveline” lies in the author’s concentration to its form in comparison to its content. the language that the author uses is as attridge mentions “normally excluded from literature, but function[s] here just as efficiently as the most elaborated of styles to suggest with immense precision a mind, a social milieu, a series of emotions. the pleasure is in precision; rather than what it is precise about.” (2004: 6) but at the same time, it reveals and ends in certain hollowness. as leonard notes: “eveline, in the end, cannot leave ireland…but to what, and to whom, is she returning? nothing more or less than: an increasingly violent alcoholic father…, and a thankless exhausting job… .” (2004: 94). eveline’s paralysis and passiveness is fully demonstrated 103 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” in the story’s narratalogy “because eveline’s mind is active chiefly when it paraphrases or responds to other people’s thoughts” (w. wawrzycka and g. corcoran, 1997: 95). the two writers continue to say: eveline’s mind passes quickly through the three stages, woman not understanding man, child not obeying adult and passive animal not comprehending anything. frank’s male conversation about the voyage is unintelligible; as a woman, she is conflicted by terror; like a child, she is unable to decide for herself, and, finally, like a trapped animal, she gives no sign of human recognition or understanding. her descent is swift, unexpected and overwhelming. (w. wawrzycka and g. corcoran, 1997: 96) however different in personal backgrounds and reasons, the earlier mentioned ‘hollowness’ of “eveline” corresponds in essence to the ‘darkness’ and ‘emptiness’ of “araby” and that is what brings us back to the notion of paralysis. what is meant mainly by the author to his readers is that “people stay where they are in dublin not because they discover the wisdom of doing so, but because they are trapped” (leonard, 2004: 94). as it is exactly the case with “eveline’s” final scene in which “eveline’s response to frank’s departure is much more than a decision to sacrifice herself and honor her vow; it is the aversion reaction of one who is habituated to abuse” (w. wawrzycka and g. corcoran, 1997: 96-7). both the male and the female protagonists of “araby” and “eveline” are typical examples of a captive dubliner and their predicament as attridge suggests “is understood as a version of a more general problem afflicting dubliners of a certain class and this may reduce any tendency to pass judgment on her [/him] as an individual” (2004: 8). references almond, ian. 2001. chekhovian overtones in early joyce: some brief remarks on “araby” and “the kiss”. orbis litterarum 51, 368-375. attridge, derek, leonard, garry. 2004. “reading joyce.”, “dubliners.” the cambridge companion to james joyce. ed. derek attridge. new york, cambridge university press. brugaletta, john. j., hayden, mary. h. 1978. the motivation for anguish in joyce’s “araby”. studies in short fiction 15. ehrich, heyward. 1997. “socialism, gender, and imagery in dubliners.” gender in joyce. ed. jolanta w. wawrzycka and marlena g. corcoran. gainesville, university press of florida. 89-96. goldman, arnold. 1968. “dubliners.” james joyce. london, routledge and kegan paul ltd. magalaner, marvin. and kain, richard m. 1956. “dubliners.” joyce. new york, new york university press. ryf, robert s. 1966. “the portriat and dubliners.” a new approach to joyce. berkeley and los angeles, university of california press. sexton, adam. 2003. dubliners. new york, wiley publishing. g. khorsand path to paralysis: symbolism and narratology in james’s “araby” and “eveline” 104 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences 52 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences following the trace of byronic hero in yushij’s afsaneh mohammed hussein oroskhan vali-e-asr university of rafsanjan, iran abstract romanticism broke the hierarchical chain of thought permeated into the society of human being and indeed initiated a new and unprecedented process of thought. morse peckham has coined the term “dynamic organicism” and “static mechanism” to describe and distinguish between these two ways of thoughts. considering “dynamic organicism” as the prominent way of thought in romantic era, he subcategorized it into positive and negative romanticism to better illustrates the works of different romantic writers. as a result, he considers the concept of byronic hero as the way of symbolizing the state of negative romanticism. in a parallel way the concept of byronic hero can be explored through nimayushij’s afsaneh in the context of persian modern poetry. in this case, nimayushij, the father of modern persian poetry, is believed to have changed the long-establishing way of thinking about poetry by bringing about the same shift of thought as the romantics did. finally, an attempt is made to prove that nima’s two characters, the lover and afsaneh, in afsaneh conveys the same concept of romantic’s byronic hero and spirit respectively. keywords: byronic hero; negative romanticism; dynamic organicism; spirit. introduction nimayushij (1897-1960), the father of modernist poetry, was born in a small city named yush near rasht. yush is a really beautiful and green village in which yushij grew up. he really adored living in yush. however, everything changed when in 1910 he, along with his brother, was sent to tehran for education. they were enrolled in a catholic school named saint louis. later in his adulthood, he described his situation in a letter to one of his friend in this way; “finally this place of peace and natural scenery has all of a sudden disappeared. i was separated from my roots i came to this dirty city of tehran” (nima letters, 1984: 105). his first years in saint louis were terrible as he was always in fight with other children and could not concentrate on his lessons due to his upbringing in the wild nature. however, this dull and monotonous situation didn’t last forever when a silver lining shone in his life and his rare and extraordinary talent was recognized by a great teacher. “and it was in later time that through the encouragement of an affable and well-behaved teacher, nezam-vafa, that i started writing poetry” (ibid, 25). nezam-vafa was a french language teacher. therefore yushij became acquainted with the french language through his teacher nezam vafa. yushij had a really high opinion of his teacher, “this hermit poet, and so pure, full of painful sensitivity and poetical characteristics, is the one who put poetry in my mouth and led me to this path” (169). clearly, this opinion shows that nezam vafa was really more than a mere french teacher; he indeed became the person whom yushij dedicated his first major poem, afsaneh, “i dedicate this to my mentor, although i know that this poem is a worthless gift but he will forgive the mountain people for their simplicity and candor”(38). d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 20 2 53 following the trace of byronic hero in yushij’s afsaneh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences majid naficy (1997) in modernism and ideology in persian literature asserts that “nezam-vafa, was deeply in ecstasy with the french romantic school” (33). based upon naficy’s assertion, this could be implied that yushij became acquainted not only with french language but also with the french romantic school through nezam-vafa. however, in this study our aim is not to focus on the common points of nima’s afsaneh and french romanticism because in our previous article entitled “nimayushij’s afsaneh as a striking exemplar of the ‘greater romantic lyric’”, we thoroughly explored yushij’s afsaneh with respect to french and english romanticism. as a result, in this paper our attempt is to investigate yushij’s afsaneh with regard to morse peckham’s theory of byronic hero presented in his series of articles. romanticism moreover, this should be noted that in our comparative study of exploring the notion of byronic hero in yushij’s afsaneh, we are entirely concentrating on the common points of the concept of byronic hero and yushij’s afsaneh. it means that we never try to consider the aspects on which byron has influenced yushij but how the concept of byronic hero is developed on yushij’s afsaneh. because byronic hero has a pluralistic nature and lord byron is not its sole creator. many factors can be believed to contribute to its development. as peter l. thorslev, jr (1965) asserts in the byronic hero: types and prototypes that: byronic hero is unique, in one sense, in the powerful fusion of disparate elements into a single commanding image; but he did not spring by a miracle of parthenogenesis from byron’s mind; he is to a large extent a product of a romantic heroic tradition which was a half century old before he appeared (12). in this regard, it is most necessary to first acquire a notion of romanticism and then narrow down its definition to morse peckham's theory of byronic hero. throughout the last two centuries, defining the concept of romanticism has caused romantic scholars to wander around it in a daze. and mostly, their search failed in reaching a basic definition. in this regard, edward f. kravitt (1992) has been aware of the underlying reason for such a failure. he believes that the scholars of romanticism have never launched to search for the essence of romanticism and they have always been amused with "romanticism's outward appearance" (93). in this respect, the romantic scholars are seriously misled about understanding the concept of romanticism due to their selection of improper filed of investigation. they should focus on the "romantic artist" (ibid, 93) instead of portraying the "romanticism's outward appearance" (93).of the subject of considering romanticism's outward appearance, arthur o. lovejoy has conducted a comprehensive review of romantic scholar's definition of the romanticism. he has listed a number of romantic scholars such as professor ker, mr. gosse, mr. f. y. eccles, mr. geoffrey scott, and mr. paul more. then he mentions that these scholars have provided different notion of romanticism such as an inherent tendency toward nature, a fascination with the past or such negative view as considering the romantic system of ideas as the direct source of the realistic error. and in this case, lovejoy seems to go along the right path when he concludes that "the romantic ideas are in large part heterogeneous, logically independent, and sometimes essentially antithetic to one another in their implications"(lovejoy, 1924: 261). in this case, lovejoy is not fully aware of his improper field of investigation. this means lovejoy should have focused on internal (the poet's mind) aspects instead of focusing on external (romanticism's outward appearance) aspects. in this regard, critics epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences 54 m. h. oroskhan epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences like lovejoy can be blamed for neglecting this significant shift occurred in romanticism. however, kravitthas taken into account this shift of thought presented by romanticism therefore he presented the notion of "traditional definition of romanticism"(1992, 93) to describe those perspectives like lovejoy which have neglected this significant shift of thought and have centered their studies on "romanticism's outward appearance" (ibid, 93). then he proposes that this significant shift has caused the poet to experience a sense of alienation and isolation (99) and then he provides us with a new platform for approaching the concept of romanticism. unfortunately, he never elaborated on this theory of isolation and alienation and just distinguishes it as the unique method of understanding the concept of romanticism. morse peckham’s theory of dynamic organicism nevertheless, morse peckham fully clarified this new and different outlook in a series of articles. peckham came to understand that an unprecedented way of thinking occurred in nineteenth-century europe, an approach in poetry that had never happened before in the history of human being. interestingly, peckham came to this realization by juxtaposing two well-known romantic critics, rene welleck (1949) and arthur o. lovejoy (1924). peckham mentions that that rene wellektried to evade lovejoy’s skepticism by establishing three main criteria of “the same conception of nature and its relation to man, and basically the same poetic style, with a use of imagery, symbolism, and myth which is clearly distinct from that of eighteenth-century neoclassicism” (wellek, 1947: 147). moreover, peckham added that though these criteria can be used to explore poets like samuel taylor coleridge and william wordsworth, lord byron has always been considered as a mismatch to wellek’s viewpoint. in this respect, peckham embarked on writing several articles to clarify this point and indeed by clarifying the realm of lord byron, he responded to the shift occurred in romantic thought. first he drew a line between the previous attempts of defining romanticism and his attempt by determining the problem of romanticism. “the problem of understanding romanticism is the problem of locating with accuracy its problem (peckham on romanticism, 1970: 217)”. then he describes this problem as “a crisis in european culture (which) appears to be a widely accepted notion”(ibid, 217). in his view, the romantics responded to this crisis in thought by adopting the role of cultural and social isolation which became “the psychological strategy by which the romantics met the crisis” (217). in fact peckham refers to a change in the way mind works which was totally unprecedented and also had a big effect on the methods and objects of european arts. moreover, he makes a distinction between two dynamic and static mechanisms by saying that “the shift in european thought was a shift from conceiving the cosmos as a static mechanism to conceiving it as a dynamic organism” (peckham toward a theory, 1951: 9). for peckham, static mechanism is established by a central principle in which everything is arranged so well that it works like a machine. “static mechanism is a mechanism in that the universe is a perfectly running machine, a watch usually” (ibid, 9). moreover if any flaw or weak point is recognized in this system; that cannot be considered as a malfunction of the system whereas we are not able to truly understand it. another essential factor regarding this system is that, if one aims to succeed in such a system he or she needs to develop his or her ability to perfectly match with the system otherwise that person will never have any chance of success. this means that for each person, regardless 55 following the trace of byronic hero in yushij’s afsaneh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences of his status in the society, there is just one absolute value to be achieved otherwise he is doomed to failure. in fact, peckham asserts that “the success of any individual thing according to its ability to fit into the workings of the machine” (10). however this grand system of thought fell apart in the late enlightenment due to its internal inconsistencies. therefore the finer minds of the century decided to search for a new system of thought which could explain to them the nature of reality. peckham has labeled the term organicism for this new way of thought and deems the quality of being as the prominent factor of this new system. “the new metaphor is not a machine; it is an organism… now the first quality of an organism is that it is not something made, it is something being made or growing (10)". moreover, the parts of this new system are not fit together in a hierarchical way whereas they are match together in a harmonious way and instead of being like a flawless machine; it is more like a living organicism in which each part is interwoven together. therefore, the organicism develops intuitively and organically, a "change becomes a positive value, not a negative value"(10) because "perfection ceases to be a positive value. imperfection becomes a positive value"(11). therefore, it means when a small change is added to the organicism the "the fundamental character of the universe itself changes" (11). the consequent outcome of such viewpoint is that any work of art becomes unique in its nature because it grows its own aesthetic laws out of the previous organicism due to its own developing nature. henceforth, peckham aims at working with his concept of dynamic organicism as opposed to the previously established concept of static mechanism. he later adds that for clearly illustrating this concept, it is necessary to provide a distinction between the appearance and disappearance of dynamic organicism. therefore, peckham coins the term positive romanticism and negative romanticism to gain this purpose. "to this term i should now like to add 'positive romanticism', as a term useful in describing men and ideas and works of art in which dynamic organicism appears, whether it be incomplete or fully developed" (14). then peckham suggests that in the case of byron one cannot understand it in terms of the appearance of dynamic organicism therefore he introduces this new term of 'negative romanticism' to solve the problem of understanding byron. and he briefly defines the concept of negative romanticism as "the expression of the attitudes, the feelings, and the ideas of a man who has left static mechanism but has not yet arrived at a reintegration of his thought and art in terms of dynamic organicism"(15). for clarifying this new term, peckham cites some examples from the earlier romantic writers like coleridge and wordsworth but not to unify them with byron. he mentions coleridge's the ancient mariner and wordsworth’s the prelude to show that these two writers could change and developed out of their preliminary states but byron could never do that and stayed in the state of negative romanticism (16). this means that byron could not generate out of the static mechanism and got involved with dynamic organicism and experiences the spiritual rebirth. because in peckham’s view: a man moves from a trust in the universe to a period of doubt and despair of any meaning in the universe, and then to a re-affirmation of faith in cosmic meaning and goodness, or at least meaning. the transition from the first stage to the second, we may call spiritual death; that from the second to the third, we may call spiritual rebirth (16). morse peckham’s definition of byronic hero indeed, peckham noticed an unprecedented phenomenon in the trait of romanticism so as to explain byron’s works. and he defined the concept of negative romanticism in a nutshell. but in another article entitled “the dilemma of a century: the four stages of 56 m. h. oroskhan epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences romanticism" he fully elaborated on this concept and categorized not only byronism but also gave a more general view of romanticism. he believed that when a connection is established between the mind and the world, a consequent role is also appeared by the men. this role has taken different shape up to the time of romantics. as an example, during the enlightenment, roles were like "modes of behavior derived from the natural world, or dictated by a divine being, or inherent in man’s relation to his world" (2009, 9) but during the time of romantics, a new social role was developed due to the profound cultural changes of the time "a new social role is in itself almost sufficient evidence that the nineteenth century was experiencing a cultural earthquake, a convulsion at the profoundest levels of being" (ibid, 8). for the romantics the essence of self was so important that they decided to create an anti-role just for the sake of highlighting the role of self. because they believed that only the self can comprehend the quality of experience. therefore, in the mind of the romantics, roles were conceived up as the carrier of human's intension with the aim of shaping the external world; "roles were seen as something that man imposes on the world, something therefore, with the character of a mask" (9). the romantics put the concept of mask aside with the social role taken by the men because in their view, mask is the necessary force of deriving men upward but not the sole quality to realize the essence of experience. for the romantics, such masks created the problem of forgetting the self as the self is so cloaked in different masks that no one feels its existence; therefore, the romantics decided to create an anti-role which could be distinguished among all of these interwoven roles so as to show the true self. peckham describes this anti-role as "a role that was different from all other roles in that it could not be integrated into the social structure of interlocking roles"(9). upon this path, the romantics were left unaided due to their change of view of the french revolution, as it was redirected from "utopian liberation to tyrannous oppression" (10). suddenly, the belief in correcting the outer world with a revolution gave its place to a world in which "the individual no longer had a source for his sense of identity and a ground for his desire for order and structure" (11). this change of view affected the romantics greatly that they were signed to experience "a sense of profound isolation within the world and an equally terrifying alienation from society. these two experiences, metaphysical isolation and social alienation were the distinguishing signs of the romantic, and they are to this day" (11). in this respect, peckham believes that one way of expressing the utter sense of loss is through the byronic hero as "it is a way of symbolizing precisely that utter loss of meaning and value which so many people experienced-and continue to experiencewhen the enlightenment collapsed" (peckham dilemma of a century, 2009: 11). investigating the concept of byronic hero in yushij’s afsaneh in our persian context, yushij also took the same direction. his political views of the time were heavily leaned toward a revolutionary force named nehzat-e jangal (forest movement). this revolutionary force dates back to the time before reza shah (18781944) took the power and became the first shah of pahlavi dynasty. at that time different revolutionary forces were active in iran. nehzat-e jangal was one of these forces located in northern part of iran where yushij was born. the leader of this group was mirza kuchek khan jangali. however the movement was demolished when its connection with the bolshevik peasant in caucasia was severed because bolshevik power decided to change their policy towards iran and support reza khan to seize the throne. as a result, the unity of the jangali movement broke and mirza died due to frostbite in one of the 57 following the trace of byronic hero in yushij’s afsaneh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences alborz mountains named talesh in 1921. naficy believes that “yushij’s views on social reforms and revolution in these times reflect the ideas of jangali movement”(1997:100). this event depressed yushij to the extent that he decided to take a revenge action himself. and he expresses his emotion in a letter to his brother in this away. after this has occurred to me, i want to make a new life for myself: living in the forest and participating in the struggle. in a few days, i will leave this area. i will go where i can provide for this new life. if i succeed, a new uprising created by me will emerge in this part of mount alborz and i will display the originality of the brave warriors in this mountain (nimaletters, 1984: 15). however, nima himself knows that he is not the man of battle and utterly expresses his incompetency in another letter to his brother; "what can i do my dear, i am not comrade lenin, i am not karl marx. my heart is trembling in an endless vibration and altogether i am different from all of them" (ibid: 147). the other incident happened to yushij before writing afsaneh is regarding his love stories. yushij fell in love with a beautiful girl named helena when he was in tehran however helena never returns yushij’s affection and rejects him. then yushij decides to go back to his native place to forget his love story. interestingly, amidst the nature, he again falls in love with a pretty girl named safura. filled with the bitterness of his previous beloved, nima gets so tempted to marry safura nonetheless he fails miserably and the image of this failure stays with yushij to the extent that abul-qasem jannati atai specifically related yushij’s afsaneh to this sad tale of unrequited love. “inspired by safura’s love and filled with the impact of its failure, he created the eternal poem afsaneh” (jannati, 1955: 21).surely, it is not wise to relate afsaneh solely to yushij’s unrequited love because it is a highly philosophical poem as it will be discussed in the rest of this paper. however, it was felt necessary to mention these two points regarding yushij’s life to illustrate that yushij’s life can also be proved to be situated in a romantic context. in this sense, yushij built his trust in the universe by strongly relying on jangali movement however this movement was ruined. as a result, this phenomenon isolated yushij from his idea of participating in social movement to save the world. then yushij heavily relied on his inner feelings and again he became dejected and alienated from within. at this moment, this could be implied that yushijwas experiencing a spiritual death from which he never recovered. indeed, yushij like the romantics decided to form different anti-roles to symbolize his sense of isolation from the external world and alienation from within. in this respect, peckham believes that one way of expressing the utter sense of loss is through the byronic hero as “it is a way of symbolizing precisely that utter loss of meaning and value which so many people experienced-and continue to experience-when the enlightenment collapsed” (peckham dilemma of a century, 2009:11). peckham traces the development of the byronic hero from pre-enlightenment christianity to enlightenment and how this type of romantic hero became a symbolized notion during the romantic age. moreover, he suggests that the concept of the byronic hero is flowered out of the negative romanticism because it has an instinct of negation in itself. his inner feeling cannot tolerate the order of the society and as he cannot achieve an acceptable order for himself, he just relies on his inner self for understanding the outside world. as one can see, during the romantic era any connection between the subject (the mind) and the object (external world) was severed. then an unbridgeable gap appeared between the subject and the object. the consequent result of such gap has been the 58 m. h. oroskhan epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences romantic’s symbolization of anti-role called byronic hero. in this respect, the romantics focused on the inner tension between the subject and the object. then they tried to create a specific concept for understanding this new viewpoint of reality. “’spirit’ is the term many romantics used for the interpretational tension from subject to object, and reality, therefore, is the history of spirit”(ibid: 16). the main reason that the romantics created the concept of ‘spirit’ for dealing with reality was to distinguish the new presentation of reality with the previous notion of reality existed in the enlightenment era. because during the previous era, “the enlightenment placed perceptions by putting them into the frame of unchanging nature; romanticism places them by putting them into the frame of historical process. reality is neither space nor time; it is the process of history"(16). surely, this new way of thinking has compelled peckham to call the period of romanticism as "the profoundest cultural transformation in human history since the invention of the city"(16). referring to yushij's afsaneh, this could be noticed that it is in the form of a dramatic dialogue between two characters of afsaneh and the lover. approaching afsaneh with respect to peckham’s theory of byronic hero, we aim at proving that the lover plays the role of byroinc hero and afsaneh can be deemed as the created concept of ‘spirit’ for dealing with the elusive nature of reality. indeed through the occurrence of an unrestrained conversation between these two characters, yushij aims at revealing the elusive nature of reality. as he himself mentions in his preface to this poem that i call the structure of my afsaneh dramatic, and i know that no other name will be adequate for it. that is because this is basically the type of structure that can be used in the composition of dramas, in enabling the personages of the story to converse freely (yushij, 1992: 36). this can be shown that yushij’s unprecedented way of writing poem is not accidental and he intends to draw specific meaning from the occurrence of this conversation. two years after the composition of the poem, in a letter to an unknown addressee, yushij complains that his readers have failed to understand the enigma conveyed in afsaneh and the secret that distinguishes his modernist poem from the persian classics (karimihakkak, 2004: 176). the secret that yushij called in one of his letter is exactly the shift that peckham described happening in european art during romanticism. peckham believed that conceiving a work of art through dynamic organicism proves that the work of art has no fixed or static meaning but changes with the observer in a relation between the two which is both dialectical, or dynamic, and organic. and yushij has created this relationship between the lover and afsaneh. as it was mentioned, afsaneh can be deemed as the supposed player of the role of the romantic’s spirit because by investigating the poem, this could be shown that afsaneh has taken many roles. interestingly, the word afsanehin persian means “a fairy tale for the purpose of bringing about a moral lesson” (masih, 2013: 165). it seems that even its denotative meaning conveys the role of romantic’s spirit. regarding the poem and in its beginning, afsaneh addresses a madman who seems to be the lover, “in the somber night, a madman who/has committed his heart to a fleeting hue/is sitting in a clod, quiet vale/like the stem of a withered plant/he begins a sorrowful tale (nima, 1992: 39)". as it becomes clear, afsaneh is talking to the lover who has committed himself to a fleeting hue which can show the instability of an absolute value. amazingly, in continuing this section, afsaneh exchange his role from an addressee to the personification of the lover's heart. this point needs to be added that the heart should be considered as the lover's central value in this poem, "oh my heart, my heart, my heart!/miserable, hurt, my dear 59 following the trace of byronic hero in yushij’s afsaneh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences partner/with all goodness, value, and claim/what did i gain from you in the end/but a tear on the face of gloom? (ibid: 38-39)". now afsaneh, in the place of the lover, is mourning over the situation into which the lover has been deluded. however in another part afsanehintroduces him/herself as the heart of the lover, "me, i am the fruit of life/me, i am the light of a word/i, afsaneh, am the lover's heart./if there is a body and soul, it is me, me./i am the flower of love and born of tears (47)".now, afsaneh puts himself as the essential element of the lover's world. afsaneh's role playing continues as a dear beloved with whom many lovers had fallen in love: me, i was once a girl me, i was a beloved sweetheart my eyes were full of deception me, i was a sorceress i came and sat on a tomb a harp playing in one hand in the other hand a cup of wine even before turning up, i got tipsy because of my black eyes, night is weeping drop by drop tears full of blood (44). changing from a lover's heart to a dear beloved can prove the elusive nature of afsaneh. nonetheless, this is not the end as afsaneh personifies him/herself as the ideal love in a platonic or abstract sense, oh, lover! i am that unknown person i am that sound which comes from the heart i am the image of the dead of the world i am one moment which is over like a thunderbolt i am a warm drop from a wet eye (55). even afsaneh is described as a being existed from the beginning of the time into a state of an eternity, when my mother took me from my cradle, she was telling me your story she told me about your face my eyes went to sleep in your rapture i became unconscious and spellbound slowly when i started walking going in for childish games whenever night would fall near the spring and river i heard your voice from within (41-42). on the contrary, in one part of the poem afsaneh compares him/herself with satan banished from heaven who wanders around the world and seduces people's hearts, "i am hidden from listless hearts/me, a fugitive from the heavens/i have lost everything in heaven and earth/whatever i am, i am with lovers/i am whatever you say and whatever you want (43)". even afsaneh's sex is not clear. in the above example afsaneh was described as a beautiful girl but afsaneh appears in both sexes: a cold wind was howling outside a fire was burning inside the cabin a girl came in all of the sudden who was saying, as she was knocking on her head oh, my heart, my heart, my heart! she sighed broken heartedly… she fell on her mother's bosom and felt cold do you know how such a heartbroken girl 60 m. h. oroskhan epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences became so down and out i am the love which makes you mortal, i am the love! (46-47). as a result, the creation of afsaneh can be considered as yushij's method of dealing with reality. afsaneh takes different roles at different times through the poem and this exactly shows the elusive nature of reality. for romantics, reality and identity are not static throughout the time whereas it changes and takes different forms. in yushij's view, afsaneh is the only way of dealing with reality because it can never be settled. afsaneh can prove that no ultimate reality ever exists. even when the lover puts afsaneh in every possible situation to determine its nature but all to no avail and he/she is barely recognized: are you my destiny afsaneh? you who is disheveled and sorrowful or are you my heart, bound with anxiety or are you two tear-stained eyes or the devil chased out of every place. are you my pre-occupied heart you who are so unrecognized and anonymous or are you my nature that you didn't search after splendor, fame and name? or are you fortune, you who escape me so? everybody has driven you away not knowing that you are eternal who are you? oh you cast out of all places for me you have been a companion are you tear-drop? are you sorrow?(44-45). this part of the poem is so revealing not in the case of the nature of afsaneh whereas it shows how the lover, our supposed byronic hero, is left desolate in this world due to his ever searching of reality. indeed for the lover, afsaneh is the embodiment of the illusive nature of reality which has bewildered him for a long time. the lover after his futile attempt to recognize the nature of reality and achieve a stable goal considers himself not only alienated from within but also isolated from the society. he feels to be situated in a godless universe in which there is no specific principle to rely on. therefore, in the climatic part of the poem the lover addresses one of the greatest persian poets and reproaches him for relying on an absolute truth: o hafez! what lie and deceit in this spoken by the tongue of the wine, the goblet, and the cup-bearers though you drove on to eternity, i will not believe that you fall for that which remains i am in love with that which moves on i am amazed! who are you and i? and on what seasoned wine are we drunk we have broken so many bonds yet we escaped not the snare of an illusion (65). this is the most important part of the poem because the lover has named hafez (1325-1390) who is one of greatest classical persian poet. probably, if the lover praised hafez, it would never attract our attention because hafez's poems are undoubtedly the best of its kinds throughout the whole persian literary history. but what has happened to yushij's the lover that he is accusing hafez of lying and deceit? in fact, the lover is accusing hafez regarding one perspective. he never says his poems are of no value or says that they are talking of nonsense whereas he is accusing hafez of neglecting the dynamic structure of the world. the lover believes that nothing in this world is static and 61 following the trace of byronic hero in yushij’s afsaneh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the true substance of this world is always changing. that is why he says "i am in love with that which moves on"(65). in lover's view, the absolute truth of the world is not static and it always changes through different situations. the lover says to hafez that you have "broken so many bonds" but you are still unable to "escape the snare of an illusion"(65). lover believes that no one can truly understand this world and find the absolute truth of it. and this is exactly what peckham has explained when mentioned the concept of 'dynamic organicism' as the basic romantic's foundation. it was discussed previously that the romantics put the concept of mask aside with the social role taken by the men because in their view mask is the necessary force of deriving men upward but not the sole quality to realize the essence of experience. this is exactly what lover has in his mind when he tries to refer to hafez's poems. hafez has hidden himself or the absolute truth behind his created mask which is his way of talking about "the wine, the goblet, and the cup-bearers"(65). in this case, yushij through the lover is urging not only himself but also other poets to break themselves out of these lies and deceits. one side effect could be derived from this perspective. can the creation of the concept of 'spirit', which has the force to compel the men toward a transcendental value, help the world to get out of the chaos or not? the answer cannot be affirmative because it has only saved the self and the world is still in consistent chaos. the only silver lining is the possible hope for the self to be entertained. moreover, peckham considers the creation of romantic hero as the only advantage as "the world, wholly of value, turned once again into a meaningless chaos, but preserved the self and gave the self's drive for meaning, order, value, and identity a divine authority. this is the heroic, world-redemptive stage of romanticism"(peckhamthe dilemma of a century, 2009:19). conclusion it means that the romantic’s byronic hero can never achieve a defined set of value from the existent society because in his view such a society is doomed to failure. then peckham believes that the only thing, the byronic hero can do is to “imagines himself as creating a model, or paradigm, for the future action of mankind”(ibid). in the same situation, yushij’s byronic hero (the lover) takes the role of a transcendental byronic hero as he denies the existent of any fixed set of principle in the world. therefore, at the end of the poem yushij’s hero (the lover) invites other people to joins him to mourn over such a situation, “oh come forth from this narrow vale/for it is the shepard’s best resting place/ for no one knows the way here/so here, where everything is alone/we may sing together in our melancholy (yushij, 1992: 71). the lover longs for a place which is deprived of having any connection with the external world. in his view, nothing can have any value in this world therefore the shepard should avoid chasing his herd (the nature of reality) and be settled in a “narrow value”(ibid: 71) because in this place “everything is alone”(71). it is really important that yushij has used “everything” not “everyone” for this part. in this case, this could be implied that he is referring to the whole system of the world in which every part is now fallen apart because the central value of this world has been demolished. and the only thing, the lover aims to do is to collect everybody around himself and sing together which means to woo over the situation. thus yushij’s afsanehnot only initiated the modern persian poetry but also opened up a new way of thinking in persian literary history. 62 m. h. oroskhan epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences references jannati ‘ata’i, abu’l-qasem. 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"the infinitude of pluralism." critical inquiry. vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 803-816. peckham morse (1949). “the concept of ‘romanticism’ in literary history ii. the unity of european romanticism”.comparative literature. vol. 1, no. 2. pp. 147-172. peckham morse (1951), “toward a theory of romanticism”.pmla.vol. 66, no. 2. pp. 5-23. peckham morse (1961). “toward a theory of romanticism: ii. reconsiderations.” studies in romanticism. vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-8. peckham morse (2009),”the dilemma of a century: the four stages of romanticism." esssays in romanticism. vol. 17, no. 1. pp. 7-26. thorslev, jr, peter l. (1965). the byronic hero: the types and prototypes. united states: lund press, inc.. prawer, s. s. (1973). comparative literary studies, harper and row publishers, inc. wellek, rene (1949). “the concept of ‘romanticism’ in literary history i. the term ‘romantic’ and its derivatives.” comparative literature. vol. 1, no. 1. pp. 1-23 yushij, nima (1992). majmu’e-ye kamel-e ash’ar nima yushij: farsi va tabari. tehran: negah publication. yushij, nima (1984). nameha-ye nima yushij, sirus tahbaz, ed. tehran: nashr-e abi. 203 is communication really food? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences are we what we buy and what we consume?: crisis of identit y in hanif kureishi’s the decline of the west ali gunes karabuk university, turkey abstract this paper explores in hanif kureishi’s short story the decline of the west the harsh economic recession or what he calls in the story “a financial crash” and its inevitable crippling negative impact on the social life in general and on individual life in particular, especially in the wake of the collapse of wall street back in 2008, which has obviously changed the way of living for millions of people across the world, specifically in western societies in europe and north america. in so doing, the paper is divided into two parts. in the first part, it debates that the capitalism as an economic system has radically transformed not only the traditional commercial and financial system, but it has also given rise to the construction of consumption culture, which has eventually altered the ways people across the world used to live, together with their perception of life and identity. this view of identity has closely been related to personal happiness, satisfaction, comfort, and freedom, along with the social status and prestige in one’s life. as the second part of the paper argues, however, this view of identity has faced far-reaching crisis in the wake of the economic downturn since 2008 as represented in the life, view and identity of kureishi’s fictional character mike in the story after he is fired from his job in a bank. having lost his job, mike finds himself financially unable to keep his personal material comfort and satisfaction, meet the demands of his family and maintain his social status and prestige as in the past. hence his sense of self and stability falls apart; he loses his soul, as well as his vision of “the future” and eventually wants to “die” to rid of his psychological frustration and chaos. key words: capitalism, consumer culture, materialism, financial crisis, identity 204 a. gunes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences this paper explores in hanif kureishi’s short story the decline of the west (2010) the harsh economic recession or what he calls in the story “a financial crash”, along with its inevitable crippling negative impact on the social life in general and on individual life in particular, especially in the wake of the collapse of wall street or global financial crisis during 2007-2008, which has obviously changed the way of living for millions of people across the world, specifically in western societies in europe and north america. in doing so, the paper is divided into two parts. in the first part, it debates that the capitalism as an economic system has radically transformed not only the traditional commercial and financial system since the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century, but it has also given rise to the construction of consumption culture, which has eventually altered the ways people across the world used to live, together with their perception of life. this perception of life has closely been related to personal happiness, material satisfaction, comfort, freedom and more choices, as well as to the social status or prestige in one’s life: that is, this view of life has become a lifestyle, a way of living, an identity thoroughly associated with the level of prosperity and possession in the postmodern period. in its second part, however, the paper argues how this view of identity has faced far-reaching crisis in the wake of the economic downturn since 2007 as represented in the life, view and identity of kureishi’s fictional character mike in the decline of the west after he is fired from his job in a bank. having lost his job, mike finds himself at once financially unable not only to keep his personal material comfort and satisfaction and maintain his social status and prestige but also to meet the demands of his family as in the past. once he finds himself incapable of upholding his level of “buying” and “spending” power, therefore, mike feels insecure and lost, so that his sense of stable self falls apart, and he loses psychologically both his soul and firm ground under his feet, as well as his vision of “the future”, and eventually he wants to “die” to rid of his psychological disturbance and frustration and chaos (kureishi, 2010, p. 405). consumerism, unquestionably entwined with capitalism, is one of few crucial issues which visibly affects the daily life in the postmodern society, constantly shaping and re-shaping social structures and institutions, along with habits, perceptions and identities by imposing its hegemonic and controlling grip on individuals and group lives and behaviours(lasch, 1979; smith, 1986; mckibben, 1989; suzuki , 1997; baudrillard, 1998; beaud, 2001; emerald, 2004; malpas, 2005; dittmar, 2007a; todd, 2012; chotiudompant, 2013 and jansiz, 2014). as oed defines it, consumerism is an act of “the buying and using of goods and services” or “the belief that it is good for a society or an individual person to buy and use a large quantity of goods and services” (2010, p. 312). for encyclopaedia of science, technology, and ethics, it is “a way of life combining high level of material affluence with an emphasis on symbolic and emotional meanings associated with shopping and possessions” 205 are we what we buy and what we consume? crisis of identity in hanif kureishi’s the decline of the west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences (2005, p. 538; emphasis added). douglas and isherwood (1996) succinctly describe consumerism as the possession of a product for the purpose of meeting certain needs as well as a part of social system which explains the desire to work for retaining goods with the aim of forming a relationship with other people in society (qtd in jansiz, 2014, p. 78). finally, suradech chotiudompant (2013) argues that “consumerism is a crucial issue nowadays because we need to consume not only to meet our basic needs but also to satisfy our wants, which are increasingly complex and hard to distinguish from the former. we need to consume…to create our identity, to state our political standpoint or to quench our insatiable desires” (p. 83; emphasis added). as seen in these definitions and arguments above, consumerism in the first place is merely linked to the satisfaction of basic material needs and demands of everyday life in which individuals simply buy and consume certain goods and use services as part of their daily lives and in which individuals basically also tend to accumulate material goods for the future to secure their lives. in this respect, consumerism is simply defined and shown as an inevitable act and part of life in its normal routine way to sustain life activities by meeting our basic needs, along with satisfying our desires in life. however, as the critics above and many others elsewhere point out, consumerism is not a naïve activity or issue in life to deal with in its ostensible meaning but has deep social, cultural, and ideological meanings generated by capitalism particularly as for the identity politics and formation because the “high level of material affluence” with its “symbolic and emotional meanings associated with shopping and possessions” on both social and personal levels is clearly identified not only with the material standing of a particular society but also with the lifestyle and way of life of an individual personal (fromm, 1978; mccracken, 1990; rose, 1996; arnould and thompson, 2005; vignoles, regalia, manzi, golledge, and scabini, 2006; kasser and kanner, 2004; malpas, 2005 and dittmar, 2007b).consumerism or consumer culture, which is very much stimulated by capitalist economic system worldwide through various means of communications such the advertisements such as tv, mass media, billboards, internet, online-shopping and so on, obviously bombard us every day to buy and consume commodities more and more by creating an interactive relationship in the markets: we depend on the commodities in the market just as much as the commodities in the market depends on us as individuals. in this inseparable relationship, what we buy and consume eventually shapes our way of life, organize our lifestyle, perception of life and our world view, as well as our social status and prestige in the late capitalist mass consumer period even sometimes beyond our knowledge and control, so that goods and services that we purchase and use give shifting and constant new meanings to our life and make us feel good and happy in our daily lives (mckibben, 1989; cook, 1992; andersen, 1995; suzuki, 1997 and cross, 2000). as for this “symbolic” and ideological meanings behind consumerism, 206 a. gunes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences which obviously create a sense of who we are, for example, james b. twitchell (2002) argues that “the one unambiguous result of modern capitalism, of the industrial revolution, and of marketing…is: in the way we live now, you are not what you make. you are what you consume” (p. 1).moreover, danielle todd (2012) also sees a profound relationship between consumerism and identity politics and formation which, she argues, is firmly “tied to the creation and production of a sense of self ”, and for her, “products are imbued with a greater significance than what their primary function may be.” in her view, “today, it is virtually impossible to buy any product not embedded with certain symbols of identity acquired by the buyer knowingly or otherwise. recognizing this, it is possible to draw the conclusion that consumption functions as a way to create a sense of self ” (p. 48). in the consumer society, finally, jean baudrillard (1998) regards consumerism as the system of sign in the saussurian and lacanian sense or as a kind of motivation that he argues has its own language or code in which the identities of postmodern consumers are programmed and constructed without being sometimes conscious and sometimes unconscious of this “language” and “code”: the circulation, purchase, sale, appropriation of differentiated goods and signs/objects today constitute our language, our code, the code by which the entire society communicates and converses. such is the structure of consumption, its language, by comparison with which individual needs and pleasures are merely speech effects (pp. 79–80). this quotation clearly tells us that commodities we buy and the way we use them are not just simple products but they have their own “language” and “code” which allows us to communicate with the outside world and vice versa, in which we are located into the pool of various complex meanings and relationships through the way we purchase and the way we consume. in the first place, how we are seen by the outside society is, in fact, decided and constructed as in the symbolic order of lacan by the “language” and “code” of “goods” which we buy and consume, yet in this process, the great truth behind the “language” and “code” of “goods” is never told, but the “language” and “code” of “goods” knowingly or unknowingly construct us as subjects in a way that we get used to leading this kind of life in time. hence there seems no escape from the “language” and “code” of “goods”, as well as from their untold own ideology always imposed on consumers. in the second place, what is suggested in the quotation above is that consumption on the personal level creates a sense of who we are and thus is closely bound up with our innermost desires and “pleasures” as in the freudian pleasure principle: the continuous pursuit of pleasure and happiness in the commodities we buy and consume in our daily lives. what we consume causes us to feel ourselves personally in different ways. the goods we consume, the clothes we wear, the house we own, and the car we drive visibly touch our subconscious realm – feeling, emo207 are we what we buy and what we consume? crisis of identity in hanif kureishi’s the decline of the west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences tion and aspiration – and thus influence the way we feel and act. such a feeling boasts our subconscious desires and gives us a sense of identity in which we perceive the life in accordance with what we purchase and what we spend. in this view of identity, there is always stimulating to spend more and more to remain in the intensity of happiness and satisfaction. these commodities become part of us and vice versa. as baudrillard (1998) argues, therefore, the postmodern consumer is apparently placed under the influence of such a feeling into an “array of sham objects, of characteristic signs of happiness, and then waits . . . for happiness to alight’ (p. 31). likewise, “sham objects” also become the source of “happiness” and “pleasure” for mike in kureishie’s the decline of the west. he represents mike in a way that he acts in line with the demands of capitalism and consumer culture, in which he immensely enjoys the power of “buying” and “using goods”. simply, mike’s philosophy of life is that “everyone should have what they want whenever they want it” (kureishi, 2010, p. 407). since he is working for a bank and makes good money, therefore, mike noticeably becomes able not only to meet his own personal and family needs and make himself and family comfortable and happy whenever he wants but also to achieve a kind of social standing and prestige that position him at once into a discernible social situation where he is given an identity and place as an individual by the others outside. what is of vital importance for mike with his material affluence in the late capitalist period is to keep his current level of unavoidable power of buying and consumption in which he will able to manage to continue personal happiness, satisfaction, and freedom and keep his good social standing and esteem in his life. that is, mike has ideologically been taught by the postmodern economic system and consumer culture in the 1980s and 90s that “capitalism was flourishing and there was no finer and more pleasant way to live but under it, signing and spending” (p. 404; emphasis added). in the decline of the west, mikeworks for a bank. he has a good job and makes good money, even though he, aged 45, works twelve hours every day. the money he earns avails him of opportunity to lead a luxurious, comfortable material life, a life in which he is able to satisfy not only his own basic needs but also that of his family in line with the demands of consumer culture in the early decade of the twenty-first century. as soon as the story opens, the reader is immediately given the impression about the life mike and his wife imogen lead. once he arrives home in the prosperous outskirts of london from his job in the bank, for example, mike is always used to looking forward to “the door into the warm hall, hearing voices of his wife and children, and seeing that the cat come down the stairs to rub itself against him” (p. 401). he has a five-storey house with “off-street parking, overlooking a green” (p. 401), and also he, together with wife, has decorated a “hyper-shiny dining-room table where he liked to have supper and talk with his friends” in their 208 a. gunes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences spare times (p. 402). in addition to this, mikeis “seriously planning more work on the garden as well as the rest of house”, and he had already built “a shed” for “the boys to play music in, fitted with a tv, drum-kit and sound system” (p. 402). moreover, why mike urgently desires to enlarge his garden has two reasons. first, “as [mike’s] boys liked to point out, other children at their schools lived in bigger places; their fathers were the bosses of record companies or financial advisors to famous footballers. mike, in corporate finance, was relatively small-time,” and secondly, his friends have been constantly “improving their properties. it was a natural law: you never lost money on a house” (p. 402). as seen in the quotations above, having a comfortable and luxurious house evidently stands for personal material power, happiness and satisfaction. hence it is this stimulation that psychologically forces him to go ahead and expand the scope of what makes him and his family happy and satisfied in their lives. what is more, these quotations also suggest that there is an implicit social and ideological pressure on mike and his children in that he strives to give a message to the outside world about his identity and social standing that he has enough material power and affluence to accommodate himself properly into an acceptable place in his social and cultural environment. as in the marxist world view, it is the spirit of time – social, cultural and political factors – which knowingly or unknowingly constructs the human identity, and thus mike feels himself obliged to carry out what is socially, culturally and ideologically demanded of him in the early decade of the twentieth-first century: that is, he should achieve “continuous material improvement” (p. 404). as for mike’s social material position, another sign of “continuous material improvement” in the decline of the west is that his two sons tom and billyare part and product of consumer culture. their education and the goods they demand give an idea about the family’s material position, and kureishi portraits them in a way that they become representatives of almost all the children across the world today. mike’s sons are “attending private schools” (p. 404), which puts him and his children at once into a different but higher social status achieved by mike’s level of earning and consumption because today not many families are able to afford to send their children to “private schools” in the world. “as well as attending private schools”, mike’s sons also take “tennis, spanish, piano, swimming, signing and karate lessons” in accordance with their status, and they, like children of well-off families, “frequently attended the cinema, the theatre and football matches” (p. 2). given the fact that private education institutions have dramatically increased, along with the increase in the number of their students in recent years across the world, the situation of mike’s children is not surprising and unusual but part of the general state of affairs in the postmodern era. in order not to fall behind other children around him, mike feels it necessary to participate in the competition for the education of his children. sending children to “private schools” sometimes overtly and sometimes cov209 are we what we buy and what we consume? crisis of identity in hanif kureishi’s the decline of the west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences ertly means good education and then good job in the future, so that many families tend to send their children to “private schools”, even though it requires hard work and a respectable amount of income and material wealth to achieve this purpose. however, the deep meaning and implication behind is that the education at “private schools” also illuminates the power of money and spending of a particular family associated with its social identity, position and prestige because “private schools” become a sign of who mike is; he is judged and categorized in a way that he is different from the others, who are unable to send their children to “private schools”. finally, the demands of mike’s sons never end. like children of many contemporary families, they are in a music band and thus want to take the “guitar lesson”, yet they first need “guitar, an amp and a microphone”(p. 407).as seen in these quotations above, what mike, now unemployed, is required to do for his sons entails the material affluence and consumption, yet all these objects “private school”, “guitar lesson”, “guitar, an amp and a microphone” have their “language” and “code” in the baudrillardian sense which give an ideological and cultural message to the outside world about mike’s lifestyle and identity, along with that of his sons. it is not only mike’s sons who enjoy a luxurious life but also his wife imogen who also becomes a sign and “language” of high material standard through her life style in the decline of the west. as soon as the story begins, imogen immediately gives the reader an impression as if she was a queen and had servants at her service all round to clean her house and cook for her. first, she is seen in the hall as “carrying gin and tonic”, and the reader learns that she is used to having “bath” everyday as part of her life at home (p. 401). moreover, the narrator tells us that imogen has “never knowingly ingested anything non-organic” (p. 402), and she always “appeared to dress in diamonds and gold when at lunch with her friends” (p. 406) and continuously asks her husband for “a new computer” (p. 407). as seen in these quotations above, imogen is different from a traditional woman who had satisfied herself with what she had, who had not been demanding and who had led a normal simple life, yet imogen’s life apparently seems comfortable, luxurious and expensive, and she seems to have been captivated by this kind of life. without a certain level of money, the life she leads is not possible. not only does it require money and material prosperity, but it also entails continuous spending or consumption. having taken all these quotations above into consideration, mike, as an annoying sculptor in the decline of the west refers to, is “the cult of money” (p. 404): he earns money and spends it extravagantly. it is what he is culturally and ideologically required to do by capitalist consumer culture: in the eyes of an annoying sculptor, mike is what he earns and what he spends. mike’s way of life and worldview, together with that of his family, have been shaped very much by this culture, which has constantly inculcated them with an idea that “there was no finer and 210 a. gunes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences more pleasant way to live but under it [capitalism], signing and spending.” under this perception of life, mike and his family members have continuously desired to improve further their material affluence and conditions not only to satisfy their basic material needs but also to retain their social position as culturally and ideologically requested by the postmodern world view. this shiny and luxurious lifestyle is very colourful, talismanic and captivating, and what mike buys and how he consumes is obviously imbued with a greater significance than their primary meanings and functions may be. that is, the way he purchase and the way he consumes function as a means to create a sense of mike’s self, in which he is called “the cult of money”, or he just calls himself “the delivery man” (p. 407). these attributions evidently form mike’s worldview and the identity assigned to him, and he, like many of us, is just a mechanical money-making machine, which replaces his true spiritual identity inside. as for this view of identity, adem caylak (2011, december 12) argues that “the production relationship of capitalism and the system of its values regard everything in life from the materialistic point of view and [thus] ignores what should dominate human life – morality and virtue”, and in such a system of relationship, he continues to state that “being just and good is not given priority; instead, earning much money and attaining power are accepted as success in today’s world.” in such a view of identity, mike is nothing but the one who helps capitalism to sustain and further improve its existence in an enthralled way because the level of consumption is, in fact, the measure of the economic system – his value is what we buys and consumes. in addition, as in baudrillard’s words above, each goods mike buys and each activity he conducts become “signs”, “codes”, and “language” or what i call an ideology by which he communicates with the larger outside world; he gives the outside world different messages where he fits with the social, cultural and political structure of the outside physical world. besides, whether or not they are aware of it, the identities of mike and his family members are also very much constructed and controlled by the capitalist consumerist lifestyle, so that mikeis psychologically, culturally and ideologically shown and mesmerized in the 1980s/90s that “capitalism was flourishing and there was no finer and more pleasant way to live but under it, singing and spending” in the globalized postmodern world. however, this “finer and more pleasant way to live” under capitalism by “singing and spending”, gets into serious trouble at once when “capitalism was cracking under the weight of its contradictions as the marxists had predicted”, and kureishi radically questions the view of the fragile identity constructed by the forged perception of capitalism and of its ingrained consumer culture through the life and views of mike in the decline of the west: that is, “if there was no comfort, what then were consolations of capitalism?” (kureishi, 2010, p. 408)for the continuation of their existence, as seen here, capitalism and consumer culture had to advertise and propagate implicitly the ideology of “comfort” to show that the capitalist eco211 are we what we buy and what we consume? crisis of identity in hanif kureishi’s the decline of the west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences nomic system was able to achieve a constant stable growth, low unemployment and low inflation, which would have made individuals happy, comfortable, and prosperous in their lives. hence it is obvious today and represented in the story that this ideology has gradually become in time a way of life and eventually a view of identity, forcing individuals unconsciously to buy and consume goods more and more so as to be comfortable and happy in their lives, even though sometimes they did not need to do so. thus, kureishi illuminates in his short story how this perception of ideology or way of life and identity mike has experienced excessively so far in his life are, in fact, false, lie, fragile and vulnerable. mike eventually comes to realize this fact once he is fired from his job in the bank and forsakes almost everything behind: that is, the promise of constant stability by capitalism has been a big veiled lie. indeed, there is a close relationship between the dismissal of mike from his job in the bank and the financial crisis which took place in 2007/8 with a wave of bank nationalisations across north america and europe possibly due to international trade imbalances, the higher credit rate, the deterioration in export earnings and weak stock markets, lax lending and so on (wolf, 2010; sorkin, 2010; stigliz, 2010; peters, 2012). this financial crisis, though it had started mainly in north america and europe, has eventually turned into a global financial crisis, throwing economies around the world into a great recession since the great depression of the 1930s (wolf, 2007; reinhart and rogoff, 2009). among many crippling negative impacts of this recession on the economics around the world are deep uncertainties, panic and worry about the future, yet what has been alarming for some time is the sharp increase in the rate of unemployment after many employees across the world had been sacked from their jobs, leading them not only to lose their proper income but also to be deprived of their power of “buying and spending”, which had given them a sense of who they are in the capitalist market economy. eventually, there has been a major shock to the consumer culture, which not only sustains the capitalist economy on track but also gives an impression to the consumers that the economy is moving steadily in its stable way. this economic slump was also a blow to the identity because consumer culture had often propagated through various means of advertisements the view that there has been close relationship between money and identity or between the “buying and spending” power and identity since the advent of the capitalist economic system in which consumers are identified with what they buy and what they consume. hence when this relationship becomes unbalanced, the capitalist economic system, which mainly dominates the economies today around the world, momentously suffers a situation of crisis and paralysis. once the basis of this view is significantly undermined and crumbled across the world, therefore, consumers finds themselves in a state of identity crisis and thus become very fragile, restless, hopeless and pessimistic about future in their lives; their existence and expectations fall apart and crumble away, leaving their place to a sense of misery and 212 a. gunes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences fragmentation in life (jansiz, 2014). in the decline of the west, similarly, kureishi represents such kind of fragmented and crippled identity through the life of mike in the wake of his dismissal from his job in the bank. mike, like many employees across the world, becomes the victim of the “financial crash” of 2007-2008 when “the financial system was out of control” in the british society in the early decade of the twenty-first century (kureishi, 2010, pp. 407, 401). when the story of the decline of the west opens, the reader learns at once the news that mike has been fired from his job in the bank. as soon as he enters home, he appears to the reader in shock and crisis; he wants to “give his wife the news straight away”, yet she does not pay attention to him but continues her life as usual (p. 401). with the crippling and disturbing feeling of his dismissal in his mind, he strives to get involved in things to remove himself from the psychological disturbance, so that he immediately gets “a frozen meal from the freezer” and puts it “in the microwave. waiting for it to heat up, he poured himself a glass of wine” and blankly stands “at the long windows which overlooked the garden” (p. 401). moreover, mike cannot control himself but desires to engage himself further with other activities, so that he “switched on the garden lights and, looking out at the new deck where last summer they’d held barbecues” (p. 401), and then mike sees “three £20 notes imogen had left for the cleaner. mike picked one of them up and looked at it closely. how had he never noticed what sardonic little mona lisa smile the blinged-up monarch wore, mocking even, as if she pitied the vanity and greed the note inspired” (p. 402). as seen in these quotations above, it is obvious that mike seems very much confused, frustrated, fragmented and fallen apart in views because the means job and money which had added meaning to his life and identity in various ways have gone out of his hand, leaving him in a great limbo. he strongly feels an urgent need “to be cheered up tonight” for letting his frustrating and disturbing feeling disappear (p. 403), so that mike endeavours to keep himself busy doing other things just to drown his sorrow. in addition, his frustration also increases further once he looks at one of £20 notes and then perceives for the first time “language” and message which communicate with him. the paper money simply stands for exchange of goods, yet at the same time it is closely associated with the power of “purchase and spending”, together with a sense of who we are and of social status. thus, mike, in this “sardonic” and “mocking” situation, perhaps comes to realize the real meaning lying behind the paper money: that is, the paper money is not naïve but actually a sign which provides us knowingly and unknowing with a sense of self: we are actually what we buy and what we consume, yet this sense of identity, as in the case of mike, is a false identity in which he also becomes the victim of consumer culture under the perception that he is free and comfortable and has more options when he buys and consumes. 213 are we what we buy and what we consume? crisis of identity in hanif kureishi’s the decline of the west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences mike’s crippled sense of identity may derive from three reasons. first, now he feels unable to sustain his own personal luxury and comfort. although he had worked hard and long hours, he, like many people around the world, had enjoyed it fully. but now he comes to realize that his luxurious and comfortable life was fake and apparently subjected to fragility, so that what capitalism and consumer culture have pledged – “comfort”, happiness and satisfaction – was deception and illusion. secondly, he is a father and has responsibility for his family because his two sons and luxury addict, acquisitive wife are so demanding in their way of life and thus always want to have whatever they want a new “guitar, an amp and a microphone”, as well as “ a new computer”, and so on. these demands obviously put him under huge burden and pressure because he is unable to fulfil their habitually never-ending demands since he is unemployed now and is also in debt; he is psychologically intimidated and worried about his material weakness because he has already declined in his power of “buying” and “spending”, even though his family does not know yet. the third reason behind his frustration and crush is also the view that mike seems to have lost his social status and standard in society. this situation is clearly seen in his rumination, while roaming aimlessly from one room to another in his house: “there in the semi-darkness, gripping and ungripping his fist, he wondered whether he might go mad with fury. he knew he would be shut out now from the company of those he knew and liked, becoming a sort of ‘disappeared’” (p. 405). as seen clearly in this quotation and in many others throughout the story, the “financial crash” causes obviously not only the collapse of the dream-like polished life, but it also gives an idea that what individuals identity or social statushave gained through the material improvement and purchasing is not a real but a transitory and false one, so that once individuals encounter reality and lose a bit of what they have materially gained, they immediately find themselves in panic and crisis and lose their sense of security and their centre of self in life. hence mike realizes “how easy it was to fall…suddenly [it] would be best…to die” for making away with his psychological frustration and unhappiness instead of living in such a crippling misery and frustration of his downfall (p. 405). eventually “the financial crash” leads mike and his friends to think of different alternatives until the economic downturn recovers because they seek to survive the crisis as much as possible. for example, some of mike’s colleagues state “their intention of becoming gardeners until the recession lifted; apparently the only requirements were an empty head and a desire to develop your muscles. others had said they might be forced into teaching. mike, at forty five, had no idea what he would do. first he had to lose everything” (p. 403). as seen in this quotation, there may be possibility to turn back to the traditional way of life in which there seems not much risk. one can earn his/her living as long as his/her muscles are strong enough 214 a. gunes epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences to work. but what is so dangerous today is that people, like mike, cannot manage to do so because their abilities are dulled and thwarted very much by the capitalist market economy in which they are considered machines to consume. mike, for instance, has fallen apart in his view of life, as well as in “his idea of future” (p. 401), so that he cannot recover himself and decide what to do “until the recession lifted.” it is loss of his sense of ability and centre, yet towards the end of the story, mike also starts to think of finding “a smaller place, sharing the household duties, like everyone else” in life (p. 408). that mike and his colleagues, like many other people across the world, think of alternative way of life and earning in the postmodern era because capitalism is full of its “contradictions” and thus is unreliable, fragile and vulnerable to outside negative forces. in this respect, the traditional way of life seems an alternative, even though it is not an easy option today. what was the reason which has forced the current capitalist economic to undergo crisis and recession? the answer is given by mike in the story: “…like many people, mike had also worried whether the present catastrophe was punishment for years of extravagance and self-indulgence; that that was the debt which had to be paid back in suffering” (p. 404; emphasis added). it is easily seen in mike’s own life, as well as in the lives of his family members. as the narrator informs the reader, for example, mike’s house is full of “paint cans, broken children’s toys, a decade’s worth of discarded purchases and bags of credit card receipts” (p. 405; emphasis added). alone this quotation is, in fact, enough to show us the level and magnitude of consumption in the postmodern period. in conclusion, consumerism in its simplistic naïve meaning is closely related to what zygmunt bauman (2007) calls “a happy life”, and “indeed, the society of consumers is perhaps the only society in human history to promise happiness in earthly life, and happiness here and now and in every successive ‘now’; in short, and instant and perpetual happiness” (p. 44). thus, today individuals pay much attention to the charm of this temporary “happiness”, so that consumerist society, entirely bound up with the view of capitalism based on the perpetual “profit”, always stimulates the idea that the more we buy commodities and the more we consume them will uphold our happiness and satisfaction in life. however, consumerism, as jean baudrillard and danielle todd have argued above, is far beyond the mere act of “buying” and “consuming”; it is a way of life; it is an ideology in which commodities we buy and consume have symbolic meaning, “language” and “code” which actually not only tell us who we are as a person but also fits us into society and culture where we are judged and branded in the eyes of the others. in this respect, our identity is constantly constructed and re-constructed by what we buy and what we consume, so that we are stimulated in a perpetual way to spend more and more on commodities since they will ultimately enable us to increase not only personal happiness and satisfaction but also social status as seen in the life of mike in the decline of the 215 are we what we buy and what we consume? crisis of identity in hanif kureishi’s the decline of the west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences west. as discussed above, on the other hand, this kind of identity and social status is subjected to be fragile and vulnerable to possible negative conditions in the economic system. as kureishi represents it in the story through the life of mike, possible negative economic imbalances may bring about disappointment, anger, frustration, worry about the future and a sense of weakness once the power of “buying” and “consuming” declines. when his power of “buying” and “consuming” declines, mike immediately panics and y starts to feel lonely, desolated, and insecure and in his life, and this feeling cause him to be crippled and fragmented in his view, and relationship not only with his family members but also the people around him. references 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(2004). state of the world 2004: the consumer society. new york: w. w. norton. microsoft word 5. tanya long bennett galway kinnell's answer to logopoeia.doc epiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 4 spring 2010   sheer blue milken dreaminess:  galway kinnell’s answer to logopoeia in  “the fly,” “saint francis and the sow,” and “blackberry eating”    tanya long bennett  north georgia college and state university      the bud   stands for all things,  even for those things that don’t flower,  for everything flowers, from within, of self‐blessing;  though sometimes it is necessary   to  reteach  a  thing  its  loveliness.  (“saint  francis  and  the  sow,” lines 1‐6)    these opening lines from american poet galway kinnell’s 1980 poem “saint  francis and the sow” reveal one of kinnell’s keenest desires: to reteach the aching  contemporary  world  its  own  loveliness.    to  do  so,  the  poet  understands  that  in  context of the western tradition, there are great obstacles to overcome: the christian  notion of the split between flesh and spirit and the values often assigned to that split,  as  well  as  the  frustrating  alienation  to  which  the  modernist  period  relegated  humanity.  in addressing these obstacles, kinnell employs his own transformed brand of  what ezra pound called “logopoeia.”  in his consideration of the poetry of mina loy  and jules laforgue, pound coined this term to capture a particular use of language in  conveying multiple levels of meaning.  beyond the musical and/or visual qualities of  language,  logopoeia recognizes also a word’s power to mean  in reference to other  109 words and to retain a certain  level of  “textual  indeterminacy”  (hoogestraat 259).   pound himself defined logopoeia this way: “[it is] ‘the dance of the intellect among  words,’ that is to say, it employs words not only for their direct meaning, but it takes  count in a special way of habits of usage, of the context we expect to find with the  word, its usual concomitants, of its known acceptances, and of ironical play” (qtd. in  hoogestraat 260‐61).    pound applied the term to poetry that was, unlike kinnell’s, primarily satirical,  the voices of the poems he examined (like those of loy and laforgue) “extremely  self‐conscious,  overintellectualized  .  .  .  [,  and]  directed  toward  relentless  social  satire” (hoogestraat 263).  jane hoogestraat explains that the ethos of this approach  specifically  rejects  “the  romantic  view  of  the  poetic  self,  especially  .  .  .  the  unqualified or sentimental expression of emotion  in a poem” (263).   hoogestraat  emphasizes  that  in  such  poetry,  there  is  either  an  absence  of  emotion  or  the  suppression of it (which greatly intensifies it)‐‐for pound, “the shift from a ‘heart cry’  to a ‘mind cry’” (hoogestraat 263).  peter nicholls clarifies the definition of the term  logopoeia in a study that accounts for its several phases: pound’s original intention  in employing it in relation to mina loy’s poetry, his illustrations of the concept in  laforgue’s satirical writing, and a somewhat modified use of it later in pound’s own  poetry.  nicholls explains that it was “the ‘logopoeic’ handling of abstract vocabulary  that [for pound] made loy’s satirical style so distinctive” (55).  nicholls illustrates  this  vocabulary  with  examples  from  loy’s  poetry,  words  like  “incipience,”  “mollescent”  (55),  “changeant”  and  “stoppled”  (63).    these  logopoeic  words  exemplify  what  hoogestraat  describes  as  externally  referential,  their  meanings  derived  from what nicholls describes as being “rooted  in a  traditional  if abstract  lexicon,” and as moving between the “recondite and the archaic” (63).  pound’s term  “arid clarity,” associated with  logopoeia,  reflects his  insistence upon, according to  nicholls, a “coldly ‘aesthetic’ presentation” (56), emphasizing his protest against “the  ‘emotional slither’ he identified in late victorian poetry” (molesworth 45).  further  110 clarifying this point, in a review of loy’s “effectual marriage,” pound states, “it has  none of the stupidity beloved of the ‘lyric’ enthusiast and the writer and reader who  take refuge in scenery description of nature because they are unable to cope with  the human” (qtd. in nicholls 56).     in clear opposition to the poetic stance of mind over heart, kinnell embraces  the  romantic  sensibility.    in  fact,  he  holds  that  “in  much  modern  poetry,  the  emphasis on brilliant verbal effects of individual lines and images detracts from the  meaning  of  the  poem  and  the  essence  of  the  whole”  (hawkins  143).    kinnell’s  attitude  toward  the  poet’s  role  unapologetically  echoes  romantic  ideology,  as  through the poet, “ordinary and average things are seen in a sacred light” (hawkins  142).  sherman hawkins argues that the tradition with which kinnell’s “best poetry”  is most closely associated “is that of transcendental and religious meditation” (142).    kinnell  is, of  course, a product of  the 20th  century,  reflecting  the  legacy of  modernists  such  as  pound,  wallace  stevens,  and  william  carlos  williams.    the  objectivity pound called for is certainly reflected in kinnell’s work.   while kinnell  intentionally takes up the visionary role of the romantic poet, charles molesworth  notes that for kinnell, “pound’s concern with objective ‘vision’ on the physiological  level corrects rather than replaces the concern with the visionary” (47).  as a poet of  the postmodern era, kinnell was faced with the challenge of transforming 18th and  19th  century british romantic sentiments  into  an ethos meaningful  to  a  late  20th  century world.   examination of his work shows that he maintains the elements of  both romantic and modernist poetry  that are most valuable  to his aesthetic.   he  eradicates both the sentimental and the satirically ironic, finding a position that is  not  only  transcendental  and  meditative  but  also  unsentimental  and  intellectual.   pound valorizes poetry that can simultaneously employ melopoeia and phanopoeia  along with logopoeia—this combination is, for pound, the “masterly use of words”  (qtd.  in hoogestraat 266), and kinnell achieves an organic combination of  these.   kinnell’s  tendencies  toward  melopoeia  (lyricism/sound)  and  phanopoeia  111 (images/visual) along with his regard  for key aspects of  logopoeia enable him to  marry the intellectual 20th century attitude toward poetic language to the romantic  sensibility,  yielding  poetry  that  both  exploits  and  celebrates  language  and  its  multiple  levels  of  meaning  as  well  as  addressing  the  painful  wounds  of  the  contemporary psyche.  an examination of his poems “the fly,” “saint francis and the  sow,” and “blackberry eating” illuminates his position and its effects.  with the vision of the romantic, kinnell reveals in “the fly” the sacred in the  ordinary, even in the despised.  in its seeming ever‐presence, the fly is recognized as  an important constant.  though it is an irritant and a threat, the fly is acknowledged  here as the companion who sees us all the way to death and beyond.  the melopoeia  in this poem brings the fly physically into the room, “buzzing” and “mizzling” in its  “sporadic stroll over the eyelid or cheek” (line 8).  the speaker lyrically contrasts the  fly’s “burnt song” (line 10) with that of the bee, who “sings of fulfillment only” (line  14).  the phanopoeia of the poem further emphasizes our inevitable loathing of our  life‐long companion, portraying in grotesque terms this “flesh‐ / eater / starved for  the soul” (lines 4‐6), “the flesh‐fly” (line 20), “the naked dirty reality of him” (line  22).  in opposition, again, to the lovely bee, described by the speaker as “the fleur‐de‐ lys in the flesh . . . / . . . everything she touches /. . . opening, opening” (line 11), the  final  lines  of  the  poem’s  melopoeia  and  phanopoeia  organically  yield  their  effect,  presenting the fly as enduring and terrible:    . . . we say our last goodbye  to the fly last,  the flesh‐fly last,  the absolute last,  the naked dirty reality of him last.  (lines 18‐22)    the use here of epistrophe, repeating the thematically significant “last,” as well as  the  poem’s  visceral  imagery,  draw  us,  perhaps  unwillingly,  into  a  physical  and  spiritual respect for our guardian and devourer, the fly.   112   it is, however, the poem’s logopoeia that completes kinnell’s truly “masterly  use of words.”   kinnell employs  the words “mizzling,”  “burnt,”  “flesh” (in various  forms: “flesh‐eater,” “in the flesh,” and “flesh‐fly”), and “last” in a way that reflects to  a  significant  extent  pound’s  notion  of  logopoeia.    although  kinnell  is  true  to  his  romantic  aims,  carefully  avoiding  satirical  irony,  he  uses  these  words  unsentimentally to encompass not only the internal workings of the poem’s scene,  but  also  to  refer  the  reader  beyond  the  poem,  relentlessly  reminding  us  of  the  organic  world’s  movement  toward  death.    exemplifying  here  “the  dance  of  the  intellect  among  words,”  kinnell  objectively  hammers  the  fact  of  inevitable  death,  with the fly’s unstoppable “mizzling”; the “burnt” song of the bee, which will end in  ashes; and the unspoken fate of the “flesh”: decomposition.  the flesh and soul are,  by  western  tradition,  usually  defined  as  opposites—one  destined  to  rot  and  the  other to transcend.  even the “flesh‐eater fly,” kinnell notes, is “starved for the soul.”   to  heal  this  split,  kinnell  does  not  offer  an  escape  from  the  flesh  but  instead,  accompanies us  lovingly to our end,  the knowledge of which drives his aesthetic;  “the  wages  of  dying  is  love,’  after  all  (“little  sleep’s‐head  sprouting  hair  in  the  moonlight,” part 7, lines 11‐12).  the speaker in “the fly” suggests that “one day i  may learn to suffer / his mizzling” (lines 7‐8), implying that the fly can teach us to  “be” in a different way.   the possibility of transcendence raised by the speaker in  introducing the bee keeps us tied to the physical: the bee is the “fleur‐de‐lys”‐‐much  more aesthetically pleasing  than  the  fly‐‐but  functioning only  “in  the  flesh.”   the  fulfillment of which the bee sings promises only “sexual love to the narcissus flower”  (line 13).  although “everything she touches / is opening, opening,” she “stings and  dies” (line 15).    the structure of the third stanza (7 lines, introducing the bee in the first line  and ending, in the last line, with “is opening, opening”) emphasizes the becoming of  the world that the bee enables, yet this becoming cannot happen without the dying, a  stage which the fly inevitably dominates.  and so, the fourth and final stanza drives  113 this point home, the word  last repeated five times,  four times ending the line.    it  refers not only to death, but also to death’s inevitability, and ironically to the fly’s  ability  to  last  beyond  us  with  our  rotting  bodies  as  its  sustenance,  our  matter  transferred  to  the  seemingly  eternally  buzzing  fly.    in  a  “dance  of  the  intellect,”  kinnell reminds us that the words themselves will not even transcend the fly, as the  fly will not read them and further will devour the poet, the reader, and the paper  upon which the words are printed.  yet, in spite of, or perhaps because of, kinnell’s  logopoetic confrontation with words and their referential meanings, the emphasis of  the poem is still on the sacred, the “heart cry,” rather than the “mind cry.”  through  the fly, we can see the eternal in the physical.  in  “saint  francis  and  the  sow,”  through  his  development  of  melopoeia,  phanopoeia, and logopoeia, kinnell discovers on our behalf another lowly being of  nature—the pig.  while we might be resigned to accepting the fly’s innate perfection  as a teacher of mortality, “saint francis and the sow” leads us to love and embrace  that mortality, even as saint francis embraces the pig.  of course, it is easier to touch  the sow—we do not feel pity for the fly, but we do pity the pig in her harmless and  lowly state.  and yet, kinnell insists, the sow is not pitiable but lovely.  here kinnell  might seem to abandon his objectivity in so fully honoring a figure of nature.  yet, in  this “ode,” he does not commit the sin of taking “refuge in scenery description of  nature because [he  is] unable  to cope with  the human” (nicholls 56).   rather he  achieves what pound lauds in this “transformation wrought by art upon the real”  (qtd. in nicholls 61) and does so in fearless pursuit of the human.  with his use of  alliteration and repetition of key words, kinnell generates a lyrical momentum in the  poem, the melopoeia of which brings us gliding into his last line, willingly celebrating  “the long, perfect loveliness of sow” (line 23).  beginning with the shortest line of the  poem, “the bud,” kinnell builds one line upon another‐‐in sound, theme and line‐ length‐‐crescendoing in the long 22nd line: “from the fourteen teats into the fourteen  mouths  sucking  and  blowing  beneath  them,”  before  concluding  with  “the  long,  114 perfect loveliness of sow.”  this momentum is achieved in part by the poem’s being  structured  as  one  long  sentence,  linked  by  semicolons  and  coordinating  conjunctions, protean in effect.  kinnell’s phanopoeia, drawing the reader to the sow,  even to her “spininess” (line 19), are integrated with the poem’s powerful melopoeia.   in  addition  to  the  momentum  effected  by  the  poem’s  fluid  structure,  kinnell  emphasizes the sow’s sensual beauty with alliteration of the th and s sounds, glides  rather  than  fricatives,  flowing  much  like  the  sow’s  milk  itself.    also  expressed  primarily via glide‐sounds, the bud, a beginning, starts its motion of growth, even as  it “stands for all things, / even for those things that don’t flower, / for everything  flowers, /  from within”  (lines 2‐4).   the  f’s and  th’s  invite us graciously  into  the  poem’s blossoming world.  similarly, the sow’s unique loveliness, manifest even in  her “spininess,” is amplified in the s’s of the lines, “through the fodder and slops to  the spiritual curl of the tail, / from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine /  down the great broken heart / to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and  shuddering” (lines 18‐21).  the combination in line 19 of s sounds with the fricative  p generates the sensation of the sharp spikes, slowing only slightly the momentum  begun by the glides employed previously, and productively balanced by them.  the  temporary abandonment of the s sound which follows, to respect the sow’s “great  broken heart,” gives the desired effect as well.  neither her spininess nor her broken  heart mitigates her grace; rather they are the sources of it.  with this idea, the logopoeia of the poem is evident.  the sow’s having lived  hard (“her creased forehead,”  line 13) and the wounds of her heart make up the  “long perfect loveliness of sow,” which saint francis is not giving but “reteaching”  the creature “in words and in touch” (line 14).  significantly, as the poet has insisted  in lines 9 and 14, one’s loveliness must be told both “in words and in touch” (my  emphasis).  why in both?  the words are no more useful to the sow than they are to  the fly.  in this poem, though, rather than coming to understand our relationship to  the sow, as we did the fly, we become the sow, broken‐hearted, yet lovely even in our  115 “spininess” and our “dreaminess spurting and shuddering.”  in both the poet’s words  and  in saint francis’s  touch, we—the mortal and broken‐hearted denizens of  the  presumably  tainted  world‐‐  relearn  our  loveliness.    kinnell’s  compromise  of  intellectual objectivity, effecting our complete and necessary sympathy with the sow,  is balanced back toward the logopoeic through his use of terms such as “reteach,”  “self‐blessing,”  “spiritual  curl  of  the  tail”  (juxtaposed  with  “hard  spininess”),  and  “sheer  blue  milken  dreaminess.”    each  of  these  terms  pressures  the  reader  intellectually to accept the inextricable relationship of the empirical world with its  transcendent quality.  and in creating words like “milken,” kinnell engages in a kind  of  play  not  unlike  loy’s  with  words  like  “stopple.”    “milken”  is,  admittedly,  not  abstract at its root, but because it is a recognized term in a newly created form, it  provokes an intellectual leap toward a consideration of this quality of “dreaminess”  possible in the physical world.  here, kinnell has achieved a provocative point: it is  by way of his word play, through diction in no way traditionally sentimental, that we  are touched and that we begin to regard the sow, and ultimately ourselves, with a  simple love.  “blackberry  eating”  is,  perhaps,  the  most  intensely  logopoeic  of  the  three  poems.    “i  love  to  go  out  in  late  september  /  among  the  fat,  overripe,  icy, black  blackberries / to eat blackberries for breakfast” (lines 1‐3), says the poet.  this poem  is, of course, about both blackberries and poetry, and ultimately, those things are  part of both a concrete/abstract duality as well as a merger of the two.   howard  nelson describes “blackberry eating” as “a playful poem about the savor that is in  the physical world and in language, which itself can become a live, nearly physical  thing, as it does in this poem” (104).  metaphorically speaking, as delightful as is the  moment when we “squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well” (line 12) a fat, succulent  blackberry,  the same  is  the moment when certain words,  ripe with meaning and  sound, “fall almost unbidden to [the] . . . tongue” (line 8).  just as a blackberry picker  must suffer the consequences of his art, “the stalks very prickly” (line 4), poets must  116 suffer “a penalty, / they earn for knowing the black art” (lines 4‐5) of poetry making,  the words delicious with potential, both sweet and painful.  the  sounds  and  images  conjured  by  the  words  of  this  poem  become  inextricably intertwined with its logopoeic effects.  the alliteration of the s’s in words  like  “squeeze,”  “squinch,”  and  “splurge”  is  bound  with  the  poet’s  romantic  self‐ indulgence in articulating them and with his gift of them to us to taste in our own  mouths.  ironically (with a different brand of irony different than pound’s), the black  art is both self‐indulgent and self‐sacrificing.  our willingness to give in to the black  art brings the wounds of the full human experience along with the reward of that  experience.  we feel both delight and pain as we glean the plump and prickly words  and, in doing so, we find the ecstasy of our physical/transcendent existence.    besides  the  logopoeic  sense  of  play  in  words  like  “squinched,”  referring  simultaneously to the sensation of a blackberry’s juice emanating onto the tongue  and to the pleasure derived from speaking a word “overripe” with meaning, kinnell’s  use  of  the  word  “penalty”  as  well  as  the  terms  “startled”  and  “black  language”  functions  to  merge  the  concrete  with  the  abstract.    kinnell  pushes  the  reader’s  experience of  the abstract  in  this case  to a point of  joyous  fear—of a sense  that  seeking  language’s power beyond the safety zone (the zone where thorns do not  thrive) brings real risk as well as the exhilaration that can only come with that risk.    kinnell is not, as pound felt laforgue was, “nine‐tenths . . . critic—dealing for  the most part with  literary poses and cliches,  taking  them as his subject matter”  (qtd.  in  hoogestraat  270).    but  kinnell  does  convey  his  romantic  message  by  “moving between sincere ethos and sharp irony” (hoogestraat 271), as laforgue did.   kinnell  adeptly  employs  logopoeia  to  effect  a  word  play  that  avoids  extreme  intellectualism but, on the contrary, appeals to the contemporary reader’s need for  an unsentimental rendering of his/her relationship to the world.  this evocation of  the romantic vision, in the midst of kinnell’s sharp intellectual word play, produces  117 poetry that, in the romantic tradition, brings light to the lovely and sacred aspects of  the ordinary physical, and often alien, world.  118 works cited  primary sources:  kinnell, galway.    “blackberry eating.”   galway kinnell: a new and selected poems.   boston: houghton mifflin, 2001.  97.  kinnell,  galway.    “the  fly.”    galway  kinnell:  a  new  and  selected  poems.    boston:  houghton mifflin, 2001.  52.  kinnell,  galway.    “little  sleep’s‐head  sprouting  hair  in  the  moonlight.”    galway  kinnell: a new and selected poems.  boston: houghton mifflin, 2001.  79‐82.  kinnell, galway.  “saint francis and the sow.”  galway kinnell: a new and selected  poems.  boston: houghton mifflin, 2001.  94.    secondary sources:  hawkins, sherman.  “galway kinnell: moments of transcendence.”  critical essays on  galway kinnell.  ed. nancy lewis tuten.  new york: g.k. hall, 1996.  141‐149.  hoogestraat,  jane.    “‘akin  to  nothing  but  language’:  pound,  laforgue,  and  logopoeia.”  elh 55.1 (1988): 259‐285.  molesworth, charles.  “the rank flavor of blood: the poetry of galway kinnell.”  on  the poetry of galway kinnell” the wages of dying.   ed. howard nelson.  ann  arbor: u of michigan p, 1987.  45‐61.  nelson, howard.  “review of mortal acts, mortal words.”  critical essays on galway  kinnell.  ed. nancy lewis tuten.  new york: g.k. hall, 1996.  101‐104.  nicholls,  peter.    “‘arid  clarity’:  ezra  pound,  mina  loy,  and  jules  laforgue.”    the  yearbook of english studies 32 (2002): 52‐64.  9 intertextuality in novel: an escape from patriarchal soliloquy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences intertextualit y in novel: an escape from patriarchal soliloquy nargess bagheri vali-e-asr university of iran, iran abstract hypertextuality is one of the intertextual relationships introduced by gerard genette. according to him, hypertextuality includes all the relationships which the hypertext has with the previous text, i.e. the hypotext. however, he does not consider the relationship between these two texts to be in such a way that the hypertext is the interpretation of the hypotext. on the other hand, other theorizers including bakhtin, regard the conversation between texts a way to escape a one-voiced and dominant discourse. from this viewpoint, the intertextual relationships of sadegh hedayat’s the blind owl, with shahrnoush parsipour’s the blue mind and abbas maroufi’s the body of farhad are in such a way that the blind owl can be regarded as a hypotext for the other 2 novels but these two novels interpret the text differently. the present study aims to examine the intertextual relationships between these 3 novels and explore how a multiple-voiced conversation is formed between them. keywords: intertextuality; genette; hypertextuality; bakhtin, the blind owl; the blue mind and the body of farhad epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences 10 n. bagheri epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction the blind owl, which can be regarded as the first modern persian novel, has had a direct influence on the novels the body of farhad and the blue mind. this influence can be determined using intertextuality theory and identifying the intertextual relationships between the novels. the intertextual relationships between the blind owl and the body of farhad can be observed in the expressions, symbols and characters used in hedayat’s novel. no research has been carried out into the intertextual relationships between the blind owl and the blue mind and only abbas milani has briefly referred to them in the introduction he has written to the blue mind (refer to milani, an introduction to the blue mind, 1993, p. 27). in this novel, in addition to the structural and content-based similarities, with which the present paper deals, there can be found clear signs that parsipour has been influenced by hedayad. on the other hand, intertextualiy is not just about being influenced and one of its most main issues is to find the reason for this relationship and to interpret it. from a feminist viewpoint, there are marked differences in the intertextual relationships of the blind owl with the other two mentioned novels. in what follows, after explaining the intertextuality theory and one of its main types, i.e. the relationship between the hypotext and hypertext, we will examine these differences. hypertextuality one of the theorists in the field of intertextuality is the french critic gerard genette. he defines intertextuality as “the co-existence of two or more texts and the actualexistence of one text within another” (1997, p. 1).the fifth type of transtextuality which is the main subject of genette’s book palimpsests is hypertextuality. from his viewpoint, “hypertextuality includes any relationship unitinga text b (we’ll call it hypertext) to an earlier text a (we’ll call it hypotext) and the relationship between these two texts is not in such a way that text b is the interpretation of text a”(1997, p. 5, as cited in allen, 2001, p. 156). genette’s primary argument about the relationship between the hypotext and hypertextis that the meaning of a hypertext depends on the reader’s knowledge of the hypotext which the hypertext has humorously transformed or has imitated for the purpose of adaptation. as genette shows, hypotexts may undergo the processes of expansion, extension and embellishment (ibid, pp. 156-159). one of the transformations of the hypertext is incentive transformation. as shown by genette, transforming the incentive existing in the hypotexts can be the subject of groundbreaking studies. 11 intertextuality in novel: an escape from patriarchal soliloquy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences hypertexts can give characters incentives which they lacked in the hypotext. they can also quell or annihilate an incentive existing in the hypotext (ibid, p. 160). on the other hand, some feminist theorists have used interxtuality issues to present and expand their views. for example, yaeger uses bakhtinian dialogism to explain women’s writing as a resistance against patriarchal monologism. this resistance is based on confirmation of “becoming-other” which is directly related to the assumptions of intertextuality and double-voiced discourse (ibid, p. 230). as bakhtin states, identity is always achieved in relation to the other (allen, 2001, p. 144). according to bakhtin, discourse constantly reflects class, group and national preferences and no word is neutral (bakhtin and volosinov, 1986, pp. 60-67). unlike the single-voiced world which emphasizes the self and selfishness and wants everything for itself and a totalitarian climate dominates it, the multi-voiced world stresses the other and sees everything, even human life and entity, in the other and dialogue with the other (gholamhosseinzadeh, 1999, p. 253). therefore, intertextuality is a way to create a multi-voiced discourse and escape the totalitarian climate and based on these opinions feminist theorists have found a way to evade the dominant patriarchal discourse. show alter appears right to insist that theories about women’s creativity need to take into account different combinations of discourse in women’s writing because the best feminist writing will be created not by resisting but by conversing with the dominant ideologies that attempt to expel women’s writing (miller, 1997, p. 104). accordingly, if the blind owl can be considered a hypotext for the novels the blue mind and the body of farhad, while reading these two novels new systems of signifying should be taken into consideration and the incentives expanded, quelled and annihilated should be identified. the two novels in question, i.e., the body of farhad and the blue mind, take discourse positions different from that of the blind owl but parsipour’s method in the blue mind is quite different from farhadi’s in the body of farhad and it suggests that the female writer’s discourse has been consistent with her female purposes. in what follows, we’ll discuss it. the intertextual relationships of the blind owl with the novels the body of farhad and the blue mind woman it can be said that the main reason for the development of intertextual relationships between the three novels is the issue of woman. the blind owl has been widely examined in terms of its treatment of women. the novel’s view of woman is extremist: in the blind owl woman is either ethereal and angelic or a 12 n. bagheri epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences whore and devilish. in her first appearance in the blind owl, woman is like an angel and the writer’s primary concern is his inability to preserve this mental image. “no, i couldn’t keep this passing beam for myself.” (hedayat, 1973, p. 10). the blind owl’s narrator is unable to keep this beam and it is the very reason of his misery. in another scene when this woman enters the narrator’s house and lies on the bed, the narrator is unable to understand her feelings: “suddenly i felt that i was by no means aware of her heart’s secrets and there was no relationship between us.” (ibid, p. 19) the second aspect of woman in the blind owl is “whore”. this woman is also beyond the narrator’s understanding and he cannot build a proper relationship with her and in the end kills her. therefore, one of the main problems of the narrator in the blind owl is his inability to build relationship with women. unlike the blind owl in which the narrator is a man, the turning point in the body of farhad is that its narrator is a woman, a woman who from the painting on the pen case in the blind owl has entered a different text and by existing the paint mode and finding corporeal presence in another time, has broken her silence. this very fact shows the significance of how women are viewed in the novel and because the narrator plays a key role in the story, this view reveals attention to woman’s thoughts, emotions and feelings and since this narrator has exited the pen case described in the blind owl, it’s obvious that she wants to recover her forgotten status and disclose what has been overlooked in the blind owl. the opposing character against woman in the blind owl is an old peddler who in the body of farhad changes to one of the minor characters that in different roles seeks to hurt woman and still lacks the ability to understand woman. in the body of farhad, the story’s woman is the protagonist and the main hero. she seeks to find her beloved while the patriarchal society poses a big obstacle (irani, 2013, p. 4). by choosing this narrator/woman, abbasi has taken a big step to write a novel with female language and thought but in the end has only managed to show a part of woman’s feelings, concerns and problems in different periods of history and the woman/narrator in his novel like the narrator in the blind owl is still unable to build relationship with the opposite sex. she has a deterministic and reactive spirit and from the outset considers herself subject to the fate which has been determined previously and has made her captive to the patriarchal society from infancy (irani, 2013, p. 6). woman in maroufi’s novel still has the two aspects of etherealness and whoreness of the hypotext the blind owl and finally at the end of her vain pursuit of her beloved, she says, “there was no one, there was no answer, the room smelt of death, of swollen corpse in a suitcase on the shoulder of a woman…” (maroufi, 2005, p. 137). she, like the blind owl’s narrator, fails to build relationship with and reach the beloved. 13 intertextuality in novel: an escape from patriarchal soliloquy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the blue mind, as milani states, somehow includes all the previous works of parsipour. in this novel, transforming the incentive in the hypotext the blind owl gives the male and female character incentives that hedayat’s novel lacked. in this novel, woman acts as a proactive character. according to milani, in relation to men, the story’s heroine is always superior or at least equal to men. she reads men’s minds, knows the future and understands the past, cannot be humiliated and is by no means submissive (milani, 1993, p. 20). moreover, in the blue mind, the boundary between being ethereal and being whore blurs. the captain in the blue mind states the main reason of his evading woman as follows: “you know i always like to see women delicate and fragile. you damage this image in my mind. although you look both delicate and fragile, there’s something that disturbs me… i think you want to take my manly powers.” (parsipour, 1993, p. 520). however, the woman tries to give a satisfactory answer: “i’m not as horrible as you think and i ensure you that i don’t intend to take your manly powers at all. in fact, a world without man is a terrifying world. on the contrary, i wish you to be the most powerful man in the world but a man for the present and future not the past” (p. 521). in this novel, the writer considers human to be binary, man/woman, and believes the progress of both is necessary for the advancement of human society (refer to parsipour, 1993, pp. 520-522). and in this way the writer attempts to blur the boundaries and create mutual understanding between man and woman. image in the blind owl there is a central image that is fully described once and then its elements are repeated frequently and sparsely throughout the story. “all the day i was occupied painting on pen cases.” (hedayat, p. 12) “what is strange, however, and what is incredible is that, for some reason, the subjects of all my painted scenes have been of the same type and shape. it always consists of a cypress tree at the foot of which was squatting a bent old man like an indian fakir. he had a long cloak wrapped about and wore a turban around his head. the index finger of his left hand was pressed to his lips as a gesture of surprise. opposite him stood a girl in a long black dress, leaning towards him and offering him a morning glory flower. she was leaning because between them ran a stream.” (ibid) the woman in the body of farhad is this very woman in hedayat’s painting who exists the pen case and loves her painter. in the body of fathad, maroufi repeats this scene by giving a new significance to the external structure in the blind owl and using its elements. this image contributes to the development of the story in a way different from what it does in the blind owl. the last image in the body of 14 n. bagheri epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences farhad is as follows: “someone took the suitcase on my shoulder and went away. wasn’t there a corpse on my shoulder anymore?... the dogs were barking in the distance and near a stream under a cypress tree a bent old man had his finger pressed to his lips as a gesture of surprise, waiting for me to pick a morning glory flower and offer him. isn’t it sad?” (maroufi, p. 139). in this image, the man and woman are still standing away from each other and the man is waiting for the woman to offer him a flower and this suggests that there’s no relationship between them. the same image has been used in the blue mind. the woman said, “i used to go into to the closet. i knew there was an opening in there. there was also a stream, and a tree. then, i used to stand under the tree, put my index finger into my mouth and bite it” (parsipour, p. 239). this image plays a significant role at the end of the blue mind. when the woman and captain go to a photographer to have their photo taken, the woman asks for a background for the photo and the photographer brings this very image: “woman told the captain, “i’ll go to the painting, to the other side of the stream. you sit this side in a way that your body covers the old man so that he won’t be in the photo. then, i’ll offer you a flower and you’ll take it from me, posing you’re taking it from me (ibid, p. 538). hence, the woman returns to her place and the captain takes the place of the bent old man and the flower of morning is replaced by a broom. in the closing pages of the book, the woman steps into the painting and the man reaches a new level of self-awareness. parsipour finds a different function for this image. shegives the old man’s youth back to him and concludes the story differently. morning glory flower in the hypotext the blind owl, morning glory flower is one of the main symbols of the story and the ethereal woman is offering a flower to the old peddler. in the hypertext the body of farhad, this image is repeated. therefore, if the morning glory flower is a symbol of love, the girl’s love does not work. “the painter dropped her brush and said “it’s ridiculous. i tried to return to my earlier state but the morning glory flower had slipped out of my hand and the stream had taken itaway” (maroufi, p. 8). in the hypertext the blue mind, the morning glory flower makes the woman upset and angry. in this novel, like the novel the blind owl, the woman can’t give the morning glory flower to the old man. however, parsipour’s impression of the 15 intertextuality in novel: an escape from patriarchal soliloquy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences morning glory flower is different from that of the blind owl and the body of farhad. she somewhere considers the flower a feminine symbol which is intertwined with the soul of nature (parsipour, p. 433). in the last scene of the blue mind, when the captain takes the place of the bent old man, he wants to take the flower but his hands are busy with the broom which the woman has previously given him.“the captain said hastily, “the flower…what’ll happen to the flower?” the woman replied, “don’t you see. your both hands are busy with the weapon (broom).” (parsipour, p. 538) hence, the morning glory flower loses its function and changes to a broom with which the man has to clean his mind, the house, alley and city and step into a new world. killing/chopping killing is one of the man incidents in the blind owl. at first, when the ethereal woman comes to the narrator’s house and dies there, the narrator chops her (refer to hedayat, p. 28). the narrator kills the whore too and hence loses both the two aspects of woman. elsewhere, the old peddler is the very hearse man who takes the woman’s body to the graveyard. in the body of farhad, the man comes to the woman’s house and this time he dies on the bed. the body of farhad’s narrator, like the blind owl’s, chops the corpse and puts it in a suitcase and he faces an old hearse man too. instead of burying the body of the beloved near the shah abdol azim shrine or somewhere else similar to it, which occurred in the blind owl, the woman goes to the train station with the help of the bent old man and gets onto the train. until the end of the story, the train keeps moving towards an unknown destination, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly and sometimes it stops and the woman throughout all her life, unsuccessful in his attempt to find her beloved, only carries his body on her shoulder (maroufi, p. 82). at the end of her pursuit, in front of hedayat’s house, she soliloquizes about the agony of not finding the beloved (hedayat, p. 137). this woman is the vey painting model whose whore aspect attends the painter’s house and the story’s present time and chops the story’s whore painter (ibid, pp. 85-86) (cited by eskandari, 2013, p. 225). in the blue mind we observe a transformed function. in this novel, after the description of the woman’s promiscuity, the captain sees a guerrilla, which is a symbol of masculinity, goes towards the woman to cut off her head. the guerilla chops the woman with a sword and the captain chops the guerilla and finds out that he has no reproductive organ. meanwhile the woman tells him, “this is the comeuppance for a man who not only does not love his anima but also kills her, puts 16 n. bagheri epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the most terrible words and sentences into her mouth without asking himself why does she behave like this?; why has she become a whore?; why has she forgotten the picture of the morning glory flower that she had kept in mind since the beginning of life?” (ibid, p. 263) in this way, new concepts and meanings different from those of the hypotext are formed in the blue mind. then, the writer describes the result of using these themes and shows how she has employed the blind owl’s incidents to convey her desired concepts and meanings: “the man who has suffocated his anima to gain control over her has inevitably suffocated the creator of his thoughts, of course if he has suffocated her. however, if he chops her, he has definitely chopped the creator’s thoughts and can only present them as scattered fragments.” (ibid, p. 531) from chopping, the old peddler, the writer’s actions in the blind owl and their relationship toanother story hedayat, i.e. mistress alaviyeh (alaviye khanom), the blue mind’s writerin a coherent context draws the general conclusion that killing and chopping are the main reason for the man/narrator’s loss of creativity and castration (ibid, pp. 278-279). youth and old age the narrator in the blind owl is in fact the same old peddler who has lost his youth. similarly, in the body of farhad, the man is simultaneously both a child and a man and experiences different ages. likewise, in the blue mind, this theme like the other ones previously mentioned, finds a different function. the man in the blue mind is a young and handsome captain that after distancing himself from his anima, loses his youth apparently.“the captain liked to go to the streets to look for his youth. he thought if he wouldn’t find the street, he’d go towards the graveyard. he might find the closet, the woman and that old man. the captain thought if he’d see the old man again, he’ll feel well. he might be able to take his youth back from the old man (parsipour, p. 253). this old man is the same bent old man in the blind owl who’s taken the captain’s youth. parsipour believes that the reason for the blind owl’s getting old and infertility is that he chopped and killed his anima (ibid, p. 355). in fact, everything from the blind owl reflected in the blue mind has created a dialogue and has been replied by the female writer. 17 intertextuality in novel: an escape from patriarchal soliloquy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences conclusion the novel the blind owl is a hypotext for the two novels the body of farhad and the blue mind. many of its themes can be found in these two novels. in their intertextual relationships with the novel the blind owl, both the two novels the body of farhad and the blue mind have restructured the text but the method adopted by the male writer, i.e. maroufi, is different from that of the female writer, i.e. parsipour. in accordance with the notion of dialogism introduced by bakhtin as a way to escape the dominant discourse, parsipour has expanded her female thoughts by creating a dialogue with the blind owl. in maroufi’s novel, man and woman continue to stay away from each other and there’s distance between them. however, in the blue mind, they come to a relative understanding of each other. in the body of farhad, the woman is the narrator and reveals her feminine emotions and feelings and relates the story of her own life but most of the themes adapted from the blind owl are used in the same way. in the blue mind, the morning glory flower finds a different symbolic function; being chopped, youth and old age are transformed in meaning and described and the captain takes the place of the old peddler and attempts to leave the previous mental world which is based on lack of understanding of woman and reach a new understanding. references akbari beiragh, h. &ghorbanian, m. 2002. the narrative time in the novel the body of farhad. the scientific research quarterly of literary criticism 5(18): 7-24 allen, g. 2001. intertextuality. yazdanjou, p. (trans). tehran: central publication. bakhtin, m. m & v. n. volosinov. 1986. marxism and the philosophy of language. l. matejka& i. titunik (trans.). london: harvard university press. beigi, r., mohammad irani, m. & ghorbanian, m. 2012. (intertextuality and vicious circle: 2 postmodern elements in maroufu’s novel the body of farhad. the scientific research quarterly of literary criticism 5 (20): 121-142 darabi, b., heidari, f. & amani, b. 2013. intertextual interpretation of the body of farhad and the blind owl. the scientific research quarterly of literary criticism 6 (22): 67-88 eskandari, a. a. & javadi, s. 2013. a comparative study of narration in hedayat’s the blind owl and maroufi’s the body of farhad. bahar adab journal 3 (2): 211-229 ferber, m. 2001. a dictionary of literary symbols. cambridge: cambridge. genette, g. 1997. palimpsests: literature in the second degree. channa newman & clude doubinsky (trans.) london: university of nebraska press. 18 n. bagheri epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences genny, l. 1982. “the strategy of form” in t. todorov (ed.) french literary theory today: a reader: cambridge: cambridge university press :34-36. gholamhosseinzadeh, g. r. 2008. the presence of a one-voiced and a multiple-voiced world in hafez’s poetry. shahid beheshti university’s journal of humanities 1 (57): 235-256. hedayat, s. 1937. the blind owl. tehran: mohammad hassan elmi’s publication. irani, m., mirzabeigi, m. & ghorbanian, m. 2013. round characterization in maroufi’s the body of farhad. contemporay persian literature journal 3(4): 1-18 maroufi, a. 2005. the body of farhad. tehran: ghoghnous publication namvar motlagh, b. 2008. dialogism and multi-voicedness: an investigation of bakhtinian hypo inter-textuality. the journal of philosophy and speech: cognition spring (57): 397-414. parsipour, s. 1994. the blue mind. switzerland: baran publication. 113 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a comparative survey on wireless internet usage and future expectations of university students (the cases of usf, aku and ius) assoc. prof. hüseyin koçak, afyon kocatepe university. assoc. prof. süleyman dündar, afyon kocatepe university. prof.dr. hüseyin arslan, university of south florida. abstract this article addresses the question of college students’ internet usage and their expectations for better wireless access. wireless and mobile internet access recently became an integral part of our lives. especially given the introduction of smart devices (phones, tablets etc.) into the wireless market and the vast number of applications running on these devices, it is possible to become addicted to these devices. some of us have come to a point where we can leave everything behind us except our phones. to better understand how wireless access has influenced us we conducted a face-toface survey with three different groups of college students totalling 829. according to the survey, there are some problems while using the internet, such as internet speed and connection. university students do not want to give up mobile communications and they never want to be secondary users. they pay more attention to security and privacy in communication. they are also awaiting functional innovations in future. keywords: wierless internet usage; security and privacy; cultural differences; social reality and technological innovations.1 1 this work in parts has been supported by tubitak (the scientific and technological research council of turkey). 114 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. koçak, et. al introduction technology is transforming everything especially human relationships and thus the society and urban way of life at large. a wireless internet infrastructure with the capacity for fast data transfer is used in all areas from education to e-state and e-commerce. however, the rapid progress of internet and wireless communication gadgets has also brought about some problems with regard to adaptation to this technology. while evaluating wireless internet and communication, it is necessary that the progress of some national policies and the cultural structure be integrated with technological changes. mechanical timekeeping, cars, and mobile phones are technologies that have become embedded in our lives. these technologies challenged existing systems and firmly established themselves as inevitable for the functioning of society. the clock, the car and the mobile phone have all become central tools in our daily lives. from the mid-1990’s onward, mobile communication became much more commercially accessible, and mobile technological innovations were rapidly accepted. today, for most of us, it is impossible to think about a life without mobile phones, which began to enter our daily lives nearly 20 years ago. similarly, mobile computers and wireless networks are becoming more integrated into our lives every day. thus, it is not hard to estimate that the improvements in this area will continue in coming years. the relations between wireless communication and society are multi-dimensional. recent technological developments, particularly those experienced in internet technologies, have made the internet a primary tool for communication and access of information. although the internet now figures in almost all areas of our lives, it is primarily used for communication and interaction. the internet provides educators with an incredible and rapidly developing knowledge base which makes it an indispensable tool to shape instructional endeavors. the rapid development and widespread use of the internet have also revealed some problems in integrating this new technology into the lifestyles of societies. one purpose of this paper is to reveal the cultural differences affecting this adaptation directly or indirectly. the second purpose of this study is to bring together the expectations of the companies producing these technologies and the people using these technologies in an effective framework. in this context, innovations in internet and wireless communication can be presented by choice and diversity in accordance with countries, cultures and societies. it is possible that a wider acceptance of these products can be improved by considering the socio-economic aspects of these societies. in this paper, technology and society are discussed conceptually. some historical information about technological developments is given, 115 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “a comparatıve survey on wıreless ınternet usage ” and after this, some technical questions are posed to students of the university of south florida (usf), afyon kocetepe university (aku) and internatioanal university of sarajevo (ius). students’ opinions and expectations about internet usage are considered comparatively. this paper has a unique focus, as it engages with the technical field of social research as well as the social realities of these problems. conceptual framework in this section, we provide a review of the existing literature on social and technical aspects of wireless communication technology. social research technology does not determine society, it embodies it. similarly, technological innovation is not determined by the society but instead, society simply uses it. this dialectical interaction between society and technology is present in the works of fernand braudel. technological determinism is probably a false problem, since technology is society, and society can not be understood or represented without its technological tools. we live in the midst of a revolution in communication technologies that affects the way in which people feel, think and behave. manuel castells (2009) explores the nature of power itself in the new communications environment. he encompasses business, media, neuroscience, technology and, above all, politics. are mobile phones expressions of identity, fashionable gadgets, tools for life or all of the above? ‘mobile communications and society’ looks at how the possibility of multimodal communications from anywhere at any time affects everyday life at home, work, and school, and raises broader concerns about politics and culture both global and local. according to castells (1998), wireless communication networks have been diffusing around the world faster than any other communication technology to date, because communication is at the heart of human activity in all spheres of life. he also asks some questions such as: does mobile communication favor the development of new youth culture that makes peer-to-peer networks the backbone of an alternative way of life? how does the interplay between new communication technologies and people’s lives vary according to cultures and institutions in different regions of the world, and among different social groups? information and communication technologies are, furthermore, particularly sensitive to the effects of social users. the network society is also manifested in the transformation of sociability. studies in different societies have indicated that in most instances internet users are more social, have more friends and contacts, and 116 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. koçak, et. al are more socially and politically active than non-users. moreover, the more they use the internet, the more they also engage in face-to-face interaction in all domains of their lives. similarly, new forms of wireless communication, from mobile phone voice communication to sms, wifi and wimax, substantially increase sociability, particularly for younger age groups. the network society is a hypersocial society, not a society of isolation. however, there is a crucial change in sociability, not as a consequence of the internet or new communication technologies, but a change that is fully supported by the logic embedded in the communication networks. this is the emergence of networked individualism, as social structure and historical evolution induce the emergence of individualism as the dominant culture of societies. the networked society is a society of the networked individual (castells, 1998). turkle (2011) has criticized the technology especially new mobile technologies. she asks: how are computers and internet changing us as a people? we are shaped by our tools. and now, the computer, a machine on the border of becoming a mind is changing and shaping us. turkle asks how the self is being served. she informs us that the online self is flattened out into the impersonal. privacy is gone. attention is fragmented and shaped as we are urged to multitask, and provided with electronic mechanisms enabling us to do so. she also asserts that continuous connectivitiy afforded us by our machines does not bring us to a place of communion with each other, but rather isolates and distances us. she argues that aspects of technology cause addiction and dependency. technical research security & privacy as mobile internet-enabled devices become more pervasive in the homes and working lives of consumers, the demand to provide services traditionally available on desktop computers grows as well. security is the most commonly cited reason for consumers’ hesitation to use online services such as banking and shopping. it is not surprising, then, that concerns become even greater as we move from the wired desktop to wireless portable devices. security remains of primary importance for consumers and businesses that are using wireless services. to take full advantage of the wireless internet, businesses must understand the fundamental principles of security as to enable the implementation of a full range of wireless security measures. proper security implementations will enable businesses to support their security claims and demonstrate to consumers that wireless transactions can be performed in a se117 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “a comparatıve survey on wıreless ınternet usage ” cure manner with respect to user validation, confidentiality, privacy, fraud and theft. it also lessens the business exposure cardless also extra costs incurred for offering services where, for instance, there are cardless transactions, making the wireless channel a much more compelling one on which to extend its services. cognitive radio cognitive radio (cr) is a very popular, extensively investigated, concept in wireless communication research, aimed at improving efficient usage of spectral resources. flexibility, adaptation to the environment, and smart usage of spectral resources should be considered some of the key terms in this concept (mitola et. al., 1999, pp. 13-18). a famous definition of cr that emphasizes its software-defined intellegence is ‘brain empowered wireless communication (haykin, 2005). enabling secondary users to utilize the licenced frequencies when the primary frequency owners are idle, dynamic spectrum accessing is one of the most important elements of cr technologies (zhao, et. al., 2007, pp. 79-89). in order to facilitate secondary users to operate in that manner, many techniques and algorithms are developed such as adaptive waveform designes (zhang, et. al., 2006), spectrum sensing algorithms (yucek and arslan, 2009), and spectral resource management techniques (neel, 2006) in literature. in today’s wireless communication, a fixed spectrum assignment policy is implemented for each technology by authorities. development of different technologies, increase in users’s demands and inefficient usage of a limited spectrum enable a new communication network paradigm to emerge and rapidly improve. cognitive radio networks, which are also known as next generation networks, aim to communicate continuously and rapidly as a result of using the spectrum efficiently and dynamically. the demand for wireless access in voice and multi-media applications has also been increasing. as a result of the convergence of computing, content, and entertainment with communication, radio equipment has become part of our daily lives. it has come to a point where we can not live without them. we cannot interact, chat, find our way, have fun or think without them. we can leave everything else behind, but, cannot go anywhere without them. the fun is actually just starting, wait until you see intelligence added to these radios. today’s wireless services have come a long way since the roll-out of the conventional voice-centric cellular systems. the demand for wireless access in voice and high rate data multi-media applications has been increasing too. new gen118 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. koçak, et. al eration wireless communication systems are aimed at accommodating this demand through better resource management and improved transmission technologies. the interest in increasing spectrum access and improving spectrum efficiency combined with both the introduction of software defined radios and the realization that machine learning can be applied to radios has created new intriguing possibilities for wireless radio researchers (arslan, 2007). cognitive radio technology is a way in which one radio or even a network of radios are able to learn a useful degree of adaptivity, that aids the user, the network, and/or the spectrum owner. there are powerful economic incentives to provide new capabilities, through existing telecommunications infrastructure, and cognitive radios will provide those capabilities. as new services are offered, a larger spectrum will be needed and cognitive radios will provide the means for radios to communicate with greater spectrum efficiency (bruce, 2007). dynamic spectrum access of primary users (pus) and secondary users (sus) is one of the most popular concepts in cognitive radio (cr) and promises to handle the congestion problem in spectrum. considering the fact that most of the licenced spectrum usually becomes available during the daytime, su concept is introduced to utilize licenced spectrum bands when their holders, i.e., pus are idle. however, secondary users must leave the spectrum as soon as primary users appear. therefore, they should monitor the spectrum in a periodic fashion to carry out the transmission without interfering with pus and should only operate when a hole is sensed in the observed spectrum. if the entire spectrum is occupied, no action can be taken by su and hence, risk of disconnection always exist for sus. according to our survey, potential wireless customers do not give a credit such a usage, even if it is offered as a much cheaper price. signal seperation & interference cancellation in wireless communication literature, signal seperation and interference cancellation are emerging techniques allowing signals to interfere with each other. if each receiver can cancel the alien signal or seperate an intended signal from the received mixture by performing some signal processing algorithm, actual data can be extracted properly. by this method, the aforementioned techniques allow multiple users to operate at the same time and frequency, and improves capacity by providing more spectral resource to each user. however, corresponding signal processing algorithms may introduce a significant complexity to the receiver device and may result in a degradation of battery life. according to our survey, potential wireless customers do not desire that situation even if their internet speed is considerably enhanced. 119 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “a comparatıve survey on wıreless ınternet usage ” interference is one of the most critical issues limiting high data rates in wireless communication (shin, et. al., 2007 and russell, 1995). most generally, it is caused by either another wireless signal or self-interference. in literature, interference avoidance (lopez-perez, 2009) and operation while allowing interference (tarhini, chadi and tijani, 2007) are two popular approaches in dealing with this issue. however, since they need to allocate a significant part of the spectral resources for a reliable communication, they may not be considered spectrally efficient methods. in order to avoid extra spectral resource consumption unlike the aforementioned approaches, interference cancellation is an alternative method. instead of compensating the effect of interference by introducing redundant information to the signal e.g., coding techniques, or deploying precautions such as guard band and guard time, interference is canceled at the receiver (jeffrey, 2005). in addition to interference cancellation, various techniques such as full duplexing (jain, et. al., 2011) and independent component analysis (ica) (mike and christopher, 2007) are also being studied for facilitating the reception of more than one signal transmitted using the same spectral resource. however, these techniques introduce extra complexity and consume extra energy at the receiver. therefore, when they are considered for wireless mobile devices, the life of the battery is degraded dramatically. multi-input multi-output (mimo) multi-input multi-output (mimo) is a communication technique in which the multipath properties of the channel are utilized to support greater data throughput. in a mimo system, the transmitter transmits multiple channels of data traffic through multiple antennas: the receiver learns the channel behavior between the transmitter’s multiple antennas and the receiver’s multiple antennas, and uses signal processing to compute what waveform was transmitted by each transmitting antenna and the corresponding data stream. in this way, the same frequency is reused in the same geographic region to deliver greater amounts of data traffic than could be expected from a single transmitting and receiving antenna (siso) system. some mimo systems also have the ability to learn to suppress interference from unrelated transmitters, further enhancing network performance. these mimo techniques are practical when sufficient space for mounting antennas on the radio or platform are available (bruce, 2007). apart from technological advancement, mimo systems have other practical projections onto the end-user’s perspective such as battery life and the form factor of the mobile device utilizing multiples of antennas. (mimo) is increasingly used in wireless communication systems (biglieri, 2010). the reason for this attention is that mimo provides two types gain. first, for reducing the possibility of signal decay that will be sent simultaneously from differ120 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. koçak, et. al ent antennas, in radio channels of communication that will arise from the signal weakening that occur randomly (or failure). in other words, it enables the continuity of the signal from a fading antenna even stronger signals from other antennas -relativelycreating diversity enables mobile communication more smoothly. the other major advantages of mimo is that the different signals from both antennas sending and receiving data traffic is provided in parallel with the number of antennas and communication speed can be increased proportionately (lozano and jindal, 2010, 186-197). however, these gains in multiple antenna radio channels have a critical requirement: size is comparable to the wavelength, independent of the distance between antennas (chiani, 2003). that is the diversity of mimo multiplexing gain of the wireless devices needs to be increased in size. research objectives scientific research is performed to understand “social reality”. one way of understanding social reality is to pose questions to the participants. the social impact of technological developments and innovations is one of the most studied topics in recent years. it was necessary for comparative research into the relationship between technological innovation and social needs to be conducted. although technological developments are shaped by social needs, it is true that mankind’s curiosity and motivation to achieve have a significant impact on these developments. when we look at developments in the internet and wireless technology, we see that it is characterised by consistently rapid changes. within a short time, developments in the communications field has reached a very important stage. wireless and mobile internet access have become an integral part of our lives in order to evaluate wireless internet usage by university students and their future expectations for future wireless service, a number of questions were put to three groups of university students, to establish the views and needs of these three different communities and their respective cultural structures. this survey was administered to college students from three different countries simultaneously. the main objective of this research is determining the habits of college students’ internet usage and to get information about and expectations for future technology and its impact on the students’ socio-cultural processes. research universe and sampling in general, topics such as technology, society, and internet technology cover the research universe. in particular, it includes habits of college students’ internet usage and expectations. the students of usf, ius and aku are the sample of the study. this survey was conducted in february 2014. 121 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “a comparatıve survey on wıreless ınternet usage ” usf (the university of south florida) the university of south florida is a research university located in tampa bay on florida’s west coast. it is one of the largest public universities in the nation, and among the top 50 universities, public or private, for federal research expenditures. the university is one of only four florida public universities classified by the carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching in the top tier of research universities, a distinction attained by only 2.3 percent of all universities. the university of south florida is serving nearly 48,000 students (www.usf.edu). aku (afyon kocatepe university) afyon kocatepe university was founded in 1992 in afyonkarahisar, turkey, and started educational activities during the 1992-1993 academic year. now, the university has educational activities with 12 faculties and 4 schools at the bachelor of science degree level, 15 vocational colleges at the associate degree level, 3 institutes for graduate education. afyon kocatepe university has more than 30 000 registered student (www.aku.edu.tr). ius (international university of sarajevo) the international university of sarajevo is located in sarajevo, the capital of bosnia-herzegovina. during undergraduate and postgraduate studies, students are developing in a quality intellectual atmosphere and are able to choose one of the 14 programs of studies within the three faculties, containing programs in different areas ranging from industrial engineering and computer sciences art and social sciences and to business administration and humanities. there are more than 2000 students studying in the first, second and third cycle of studies, coming from all continents and approximately from 40 countries of the world (www.ius.edu.ba). methods and techniques used in this research this study encompasses a ‘micro-field survey’ as well as a literature review and analysis of survey techniques. the first section of the research is theoretical, while the second part is practical. after reviewing the literature on the subject, data were obtained to try to establish a general framework in the light of the research. this framework offers a theoretical premise and in order to test the hypotheses, a survey was completed by students. research hypothesis 1. participants are aware that the wi-fi modem in their homes actually has a small base station function. 2. participants do not prefer a service provider which gives a service with a 122 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. koçak, et. al higher risk of connection failure but lower prices. 3. participants want to use the fastest device to access the internet, regardless of size. 4. the mobility during communication is always important for the participants. 5. participants would accept having less battery life (e.g., half ) if they would have doubled internet speed the same price. 6. by paying more money, participants expect more secure personal communication carried out via email, social networks etc. findings and interpretations representative examples of our universe, our research group; 131 females and 139 males in usf, 142 females and 156 males in aku and 42 females and, 219 males in ius consists of a total of 829 people. all of these students answered the questions by filling out questionnaires. these responses were analyzed by statistical methods. frequency tables, which were generally involved in the study, give the percentage of the sample group. 1. gender name of the university response categories frequency percent usf male 139 51,5 female 131 48,5 total 270 100,0 aku male 156 52,3 female 142 47,7 total 298 100,0 ius male 219 83,9 female 42 16,1 total 261 100,0 when looking at the gender distribution of the participants, it is clear that there is an equal distribution between males and females. however, the rates of distribution are: 51.5% male, 48.5% female for usf. these distribution are 52.3% male, 47.7% for aku. these are 83.9% male and 16.1% female for ius. quite different from physical definition in our mind, gender issue is based on physcological and sociologic discrepancy as a scientific definition. necessarily asked in social science research. the 123 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “a comparatıve survey on wıreless ınternet usage ” gender question has a determinant role in people’s social lives, routines and decisions. 2. are you aware that the wi-fi modem in your home is actually a small base station? name of the university response categories frequency percent usf yes 140 51,9 no 52 19,3 no idea 67 24,8 i don’t have a modem 11 4,1 total 270 100,0 aku yes 211 70,8 no 38 12,8 no idea 20 6,7 i don’t have a modem 29 9,7 total 298 100,0 ius yes 118 45,2 no 52 19,9 no idea 74 28,4 i don’t have a modem 17 6,5 total 261 100,0 the aim of this question is to learn if the people who think that base stations are dangerous under normal conditions, are aware that the modem which they have in their houses has the same function. certainly, modems at home may not affect people’s health in as much as the base station outside. on the other hand, is there any inconvenience to put a femcotell (a device which provides the mobile phone with the modem at home rather than the base station outside) into the houses in the near future? in terms of deploying such a technology this, it might be considered as an important question. 51.9% of the usf students indicate that wifi modems at their houses function as a small base stations. however, this rate is 70.8% for aku students, it is 45.2% for ius students. it might be said the most of the participants are aware that the mobile phones use the same technology with the base stations and wifi. this case strengthen the possibility that applications like femtocell will not create much of a reaction. 124 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. koçak, et. al 3. would you prefer a service provider which gives a service with a higher risk of connection failure but lower prices? name of the university response categories frequency percent usf yes 23 8,5 no 247 91,5 total 270 100,0 aku yes 38 12,8 no 260 87,2 total 298 100,0 ius yes 119 45,6 no 142 54,4 total 261 100,0 this question is being asked to understand how the society meets the secondary user concept in cognitive radio applications. in this concept users are classified into two groups called primary users (pus) and secondary users (sus). primary users can be described as the owners of the spectral resources. for example, a frequency band is assigned to a pu for a given time period and he can use it whenever he needs. in this way, available spectral resources are shared between pus in a geographical area. however, pus do not always need to use these resources. considering this fact, cognitive radio introduces secondary usage concept and allows users having no allocated spectral resource to operate in frequency bands of pus when they are idle. however, secondary users have to leave the frequency band of a pu immediately when the pu start to use it. therefore, communication of an su might me interrupted by a pu and connection failure risk becomes quite higher even if it costs less than owning a spectral resource. usf students mostly gave no answers (91.5%). a minority responded ‘yes, i prefer’ (8.5%). aku students answered this question as 87.2% “no”, 12.8% “yes”. ius students presented opinions as 54.4% “no”, 45.6% “yes” for this question. here, the most different result belongs to ius students. among the ius students, the rate of being secondary users is fairly high. the reason of this result may be the high price of internet in that country. on the other hand, it is seen that people generally don’t prefer low price services with the secondary base station. or rather, even if it is cheap, an operator which has a high risk of cessation is not preferred. 125 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “a comparatıve survey on wıreless ınternet usage ” 4. noting that the size of a smartphone is proportional to its data rate, i prefer a large smartphone with high data rate to a small one with a lower internet speed. (please ignore the benefit of wider screens of the large phones in this question.) name of the university response categories frequency percent usf totally agree 9 3,3 agree 42 15,6 neutral 86 31,9 disagree 100 37,0 totally disagree 33 12,2 total 270 100,0 aku totally agree 52 17,4 agree 75 25,2 neutral 45 15,1 disagree 76 25,5 totally disagree 50 16,8 total 298 100,0 ius totally agree 21 8,0 agree 40 15,3 neutral 78 29,9 disagree 85 32,6 totally disagree 37 14,2 total 261 100,0 the point of this question is to understand what will be the reaction of people to the deployment of wireless capacity increasing techniques that require more space on the devices such as mimo (more antenna usage on the device). usage of such technologies leads to increase of device sizes, naturally. how much will the people be content with this? 49.2% of students in usf, 42.3% of students in aku, and 46.8% of students in ius presented opinions as ‘i disagree and stronly disagree’. on the other hand, in this question, how much could the people isolate the screen advantage is also another important factor to consider. 126 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. koçak, et. al 5. i prefer watching an online video over cellular network with moderate quality rather than waiting until i arrive at home/office for watching the same video over wifi with high quality. name of the university response categories frequency percent usf totally agree 32 11,9 agree 96 35,6 neutral 63 23,3 disagree 64 23,7 totally disagree 15 5,6 total 270 100,0 aku totally agree 76 25,5 agree 102 34,2 neutral 36 12,1 disagree 64 21,5 totally disagree 20 6,7 total 298 100,0 ius totally agree 15 5,7 agree 34 13,0 neutral 70 26,8 disagree 92 35,2 totally disagree 50 19,2 total 261 100,0 while students in usf gave 47.5% ‘strongly agree and agree’ answers, 59.7% of students in aku and 18.7% of students in ius gave ‘strongly agree and agree’ answers. here, the most salient finding is the thoughts of the ius students. 54.4% of ius students remark that they don’t agree with this idea. interestingly, in this question it is seen that the answers have a balanced distribution. however, overall tendency shows even if it has lower quality, people will not give up mobile access. if the user or device is moving, this can disrupt the received signals, and the reflection angle and other parameters can vary rapidly. if transmitters and receivers do not follow this change in surrounding; the quality of communication declines (torbjorn, 2002). the effect of this reduction of the data rate is relatively low (8-15 kbps) in voice communications, and is not noticeable. but anything that requires high data rate, real-time (video-over-ip), or video applications such as video-on-demand mobility directly affects the quality of service. on the other hand, support 127 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “a comparatıve survey on wıreless ınternet usage ” for mobile communication wireless local area networks (wireless lans) provides services with higher data rates. so from the local network to the cellular cellular service providers discharge data (data off-loading) is working on (lee et. al., 2010). in another study, even without taking into account the need to defer 65% of the cellular network to the local network traffic can be obtained discharge. by anticipating users’ movements before there are studies that aim to realize in this off-loading in an efficient manner (baier). consequently, we also tried to predict by this question providing mobile services for cellular networks of multimedia applications and wireless local area networks due to mobility in the distribution of the share of the falling quality of service. interestingly, the participants have approached this issue with a similar range. nevertheless, there is a trend that people do not give up the ease of access even in a lower quality. at the same there are some users who are delaying the needs by loading transfer from the cellular network to the local network and these can not be underestimated. 6. i would accept having less battery life (e.g., half ) if i am going to have doubled internet speed with the same price. name of the university response categories frequency percent usf totally agree 39 14,4 agree 106 39,3 neutral 61 22,6 disagree 51 18,9 totally disagree 13 4,8 total 270 100,0 aku totally agree 24 8,1 agree 49 16,4 neutral 50 16,8 disagree 101 33,9 totally disagree 74 24,8 total 298 100,0 ius totally agree 21 8,0 agree 57 21,8 neutral 72 27,6 disagree 70 26,8 totally disagree 41 15,7 total 261 100,0 128 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. koçak, et. al this question is to understand how wireless capacity increasing techniques that demands more energy comsumption will be accepted by the users. in this context, signal seperation and interference cancellation techniques are considered in this study. they are emerging techniques allowing signals to interfere with each other. if a receiver can seperate the intended signal from the received signal mixture by performing some signal processing algorithms, actual data can be extracted properly. if receivers can carry out these processes, we can allow multiple users to operate at the same time and frequency. thus capacity is improved by providing more spectral resource to each user. however, aforemention signal processing algorithms introduce a significant complexity to the receiver device and result in a considerable degradation battery life. by evaluating the answers given to “question-6”, we discuss the future of these techniques. while the 53.7% of usf students give ‘strongly agree and agree’answers, this rate among aku students is 24.5% and 29.8% for ius students. here, different views belong to usf students. students of ius and aku gave similar answers. although people mostly complain about the link speed, they do not want to be charged more to connect to the internet faster. it is seen that battery life maintains its importance for many people. it is possible to make two inferences: studies to prolong battery life will maintain importance, and the producers should focus on decresing waste of energy in mobile devices. 7. by paying more money, i want more secure personal communication carried out via email, social networks etc. name of the university response categories frequency percent usf totally agree 4 1,5 agree 22 8,1 neutral 65 24,1 disagree 105 38,9 totally disagree 74 27,4 total 270 100,0 aku totally agree 52 17,4 agree 87 29,2 neutral 67 22,5 disagree 59 19,8 totally disagree 33 11,1 total 298 100,0 129 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “a comparatıve survey on wıreless ınternet usage ” ius totally agree 8 3,1 agree 22 8,4 neutral 78 29,9 disagree 101 38,7 totally disagree 52 19,9 total 261 100,0 security is a crucial task in wireless communication due to the broadcast nature of wireless signals. in order to achieve data protection, encryption based security techniques have been implemented so far. recently, security precautions in physical layer (phy) have also become popular and are being intensively investigated in literature. unlike encryption techniques, phy security deals with the secrecy of signal rather than the data. by this way, it provides a complementary protection in wireless communication. however, all of these techniques may require extra-spectral resource consumption and will likely cause a raise in wireless service charges. this question discusses the future demand for a secure communication at expense of paying more money. the rate of the usf students who want to pay more in return to communicate securely is nearly 9.6%. a similar rate with 11.5% belongs to ius students. the different view about this topic belongs to aku students. 46.6% of aku students want to communicate securely paying more. in recent years, security problems in turkey may have caused this result. as these results indicate, turkish people prefer to pay more to provide secure communication. they concluded that the price is not important as long as a secure communication is provided. conclusion scientists think; engineers make. engineering is fundamentally an activity, as opposed to an intellectual discipline. the goal of science and philosophy is to know; the goal of engineering is to do something good or useful. but even in that bare-bones description of engineering, the words good and useful have philosophical implications (stephan, et. al., 2012). society and communication is one of the most important issues in recent years. the innovations in the field of wireless communication especially have developed very quickly. social structure and urban life are affected by this change. communities can benefit from innovations developed in the field of wireless communication and the enrichment of the otherwise backward. what important is not only the use of technology to produce it. in this context, science 130 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. koçak, et. al and technology policies should be revised by the corresponding authorities. this research is one of the first into the area of social provision of technical problems, and has generated interesting results. technical problems and prospects have been investigated through the questions posed by our survey. the researchers working in this field have contributed in the creation of technical questions. college students are preferred because they represent certain segments of society; they are more likely to use technological devices and more sensitive to these areas. in this respect, the answers from the three groups of people from different societies have revealed that wireless innovations will continue to be one of the determining factors in social behavior. although accepting the smartphone as a leading role in the personal life does not seem to be a widespread adoption, new technologies in wireless systems will still be the directors of the main elements in the personal and social life. awareness of the tecnological developments and the end-user requirements that can be challenging in the technological perspective are among the evidences of this direct role. in terms of the technical aspect, this study also investigated the future of current research topics in wireless communication technology by identifying the expectations of users. since nothing comes for free, proposed improvements in wireless technology are also obtained at the expense of various disadvantages, e.g., degradation in battery life, higher service costs, increased device sizes etc. our survey questions were prepared and posed to the college/university students, in order to compare the advantages and the trade-offs in aforementioned research fields. considering the results of our survey, which clearly vary between different countries, the wireless industry can re-evaluate these research fields and can identify which technologies will be accepted more by which society, in the future. 131 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “a comparatıve survey on wıreless ınternet usage ” references arslan, huseyin (ed.) 2007. cognitive radio, software defined radio, and adaptive wireless systems. springer: the netherlands. baier, patrick; dürr, frank; rothermel, kurt. tomp: opportunistic traffic offloading using movement predictions. in proceedings of the 37th ieee conference on local computer networks (lcn). bruce, fette. 2007. introducing adaptive, aware, and cognitive radios. in h. arslan (ed), cognitive radio, software defined radio, and adaptive wireless systems. springer: the netherlands. biglieri ezio, robert calderbank, anthony constantinides, andrea goldsmith, arogyaswami paulraj, h. vincent poor. 2010. mimo wireless communications. cambridge university press. castells, manuel. 2009. communication power. new york: oxford university press. castells, manuel. 1998. the information age: economy, society and culture, vol. iii: end of millennium. malden ma. oxford uk: blackwell publishers. chiani, marco, moe z. win, and alberto zanella. 2003. “on the capacity of spatially correlated mimo rayleigh-fading channels.” information theory, ieee transactions 49.10: 2363-2371 davies, mike e., and christopher j. james. 2007. “source separation using single channel ica.” signal processing 87, no. 8: 1819-1832. haykin, simon. 2005. “cognitive radio: brain-empowered wireless communications.” selected areas in communications, ieee 23, no. 2: 201-220. jain, mayank, jung il choi, taemin kim, dinesh bharadia, siddharth seth, kannan srinivasan, philip levis, sachin katti, and prasun sinha. 2011. “practical, real-time, full duplex wireless.” in proceedings of the 17th annual international conference on mobile computing and networking, pp. 301-312. jeffrey, g. andrews. 2005. “interference cancellation for cellular systems: a contemporary overview.” wireless communications, ieee 12, no. 2: 19-29. karl d. stephan, katina michael, m. g. michael, laura jacob, and emily p. anesta. 2012. “social implications of technology: the past, the present, and the future” proceedings of the ieee, vol. 100. lee, kyunghan, et al. 2010. “mobile data offloading: how much can wifi deliver?.” proceedings of the 6th international conference. acm. lópez-pérez, david, alvaro valcarce, guillaume de la roche, and jie zhang. 2009. “ofdma femtocells: a roadmap on interference avoidance.” communications magazine, ieee 47, no. 9: 41-48. lozano, a. and jindal n. 2010. “transmit diversity vs. spatial multiplexing in modern mimo systems”. ieee trans. wireless commun. 9 (1): 186–197. mitola, 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modeling and design.” 132 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences h. koçak, et. al turkle, sherry. 2011. alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. new york: basic books. www.usf.edu www.aku.edu.tr www.ıus.edu.ba yucek, tevfik, and hüseyin arslan. 2009. “a survey of spectrum sensing algorithms for cognitive radio applications.” communications surveys & tutorials, ieee 11, no. 1: 116-130. zhao, qing, and brian m. sadler. 2007. “a survey of dynamic spectrum access.” signal processing magazine, ieee 24, no. 3: 79-89. zhang, honggang, xiaofei zhou, kamya yekeh yazdandoost, and imrich chlamtac. 2006. “multiple signal waveforms adaptation in cognitive ultra-wideband radio evolution.” selected areas in communications, ieee 24, no. 4: 878-884. 43 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences legal challenges in regulation of minimum age of criminal responsibility with special emphasis on bosnia and herzegovina goran šimić international university of sarajevo ena kazić international university of sarajevo abstract every minor can commit a criminal act, but in formal sense not every minor will be criminally responsible. even if committing an act that in material sense have its consequences and all objective elements of a crime, possibility for imposing of criminal sanctions is still determined by minimum age of criminal responsibility (macr). when reaching into certain age minors are held to be criminally responsible and punishable. this article is focusing to the matter of establishment of minimum age of criminal responsibility, so comparative review of systems for its establishment and contemporary world tendencies will be discussed in it. in particular, this paper will be devoted to the establishment of macr in bosnia and herzegovina from both historical and positive law insight. the age from which one will be held criminally responsible is an issue predisposed by several factors and choosing the optimum age will be discussed as the challenging question in this paper because it includes or excludes minors from the reach of criminal justice system that has unquestionable impact in their future life. keywords: minimum age of criminal responsibility (macr), juveniles, criminal responsibility, punishability. introduction legal status of a minor and its legal responsibilities are topic relevant for all branches of law. but minors are big challenge especially for criminal law, since their inclusion into criminal law and reaction of a state to their entrance in the criminal zone can have big influence on them and their future life. criminal sanctions bring legal consequences that as a shadow follows a person through the life, even when the “debt towards the society” is repaid with the served legal sanction. theorists agree that criminal responsibility should be imposed on individuals who have the capacity and freedom to choose how they act (elliott, 2011, p. 289). minors are not fully psychologically nor physically mature. because of that it is assumed that they don’t know what would be the best for them to do or which choice is the best one to make. this shows that their autonomy in choice of acts is limited and their capacity lacked. moreover, according to elliot (2011, p. 297) a strong relation between bad parenting, poverty, abuse and youth offending, which confirms weakness of their autonomy, has been scientifically proven. yet, minors can perpetrate crimes, even in very cruel way, and society couldn’t ignore that fact. naturally, it had to be decided whether minors would be included in criminal law system; if yes, what age limit of criminal responsibility would be the most appropriable and finally, what would it be the best form of states’ reaction to their offences. according to griss et al. minors don’t display the ability to act as adults, especially when it comes to unfamiliar situation such is crime or criminal procedure (bryan-hancock and 44 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences casey, 2011, p.72). adults and children have significant psychological differences so that fact hasn’t been mischarged when it was decided about inclusion of children in juvenile justice system. in contemporary criminal law, children are treated separately from adults, so that dual criminal law system has been created when determining legal status of perpetrator according to ones age. since minors are included in justice system it’s crucial to establish the border from which is a person (who is not fully mature) criminally responsible or under which person who commits an act of crime is absolutely incapable of being guilty. contemporary tendencies regarding establishment of minimum age limit of criminal responsibility it had been always very delicate question how to establish minimum age limit of criminal responsibility, since the main subject in the decision is a minor. according to cipriani (2009, p. 94), the matter of limit of age responsibility is a matter of limit beneath which no treatment or penalty can be applied by law. if the limit would be set too high, then significant number of youth who was perhaps perfectly mature and aware of acts, just for not formally reaching specified number of ages, would lack with subjective element of crime and so would not be responsible for act that has all its objective elements and so finally they would be excluded from the punitive system. in other hand, setting the limit too low would include wide number of youth into punitive system, even though they could have grow out of crime and become useful and responsible members of society, without carrying the label of a convicted juvenile delinquent. and finally, it is important to question how convenient is it to establish a minimum age of criminal responsibility since matter of maturity is an individually predisposed and fluid process that is not always equivalent to chronological age (bryan-hancock and casey, 2011, p. 72). fried and reppuccia proved in their research a fact that makes the process of establishment of macr even more challenging: the lowest level of maturity wasn’t found within young people of age 13-18, but of those from 15-16 years of age (see bryan-hancock and casey, 2011, p. 72). having all that in mind, in contemporary criminal law there are several models of macr that are applicable: determination of macr as praesumptio ius et de iuris, determination of macr as preasumptio iuris and specific general establishment of macr in sheria law. indisputable presumption of criminal (ir)responsibility (praesumptio ius et de iuris) is applied in the most of countries of the world, especially of continental legal system. the idea was to set the minimum age (under which that person is considered to be a child and without any doubt or dispute considered not able to be guilty) and maximum age limit after which that person is to be treated as adult. if that person reaches certain age* in the moment of perpetration of a crime, then that person before law is adolescent and would be criminally responsible (otherwise could not be proven). yet, the choice of criminal sanctions is much different from those that are to be imposed to adult. this concept is well explained by čejović stating that persons under macr are not able to understand the significance of their actions and to coordinate with them, so the committed act isn’t result of their asocial attitude but a result of lack of the control (škulić, * in 2010, škulić finds that even the last day of the period of age before the minimum limit is considered to be criminally irresponsible and gives an example of decision of supreme court of serbia, who decided that on the day of birthday of reaching 14 years that person is treated as still not having legal responsibility. g. šimić & e. kazić 45 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences 2010, p. 209). that gives us the reason why they shouldn’t be punished and reached into criminal justice system. macr as praesumptio iuris of criminal responsibility is mostly spread in common law system. the macr is given but maturity and criminal responsibility of persons over the minimum (until certain age) is disputable legal presumption, so in the criminal procedure the opposite can be proven. this presumption is more known as “doli incapax“ doctrine. according to howard and bowen (2011, p. 381), it is used as a defence „to a criminal charge for children within a certain age group coupled with a rebuttable presumption that such children were incapable of committing an offence“. the threshold of macr in common law system is the most often 10 years of age and this doctrine is applicable until the age of 13. so, to found one minor (aged from minimum age of criminal responsibility to 13 years of age) guilty, it has to be proven that the accused juvenile was able at the relevant time to differ right from wrong, or to understand their acts of omissions being wrong (richards, 2011, p. 5). that means that it is on the prosecution to prove if the child was fully capable and aware of the serious nature of their actions. in the practice, sometimes it can be very difficult to prove ones maturity, and for that reason some theoreticians and practitioners found this concept to be unfair. the positive sight of this doctrine is that it recognizes the varieties of children maturity so that even if child reaches age of formal, numerical maturity, in the reality can be defended with the argumentation that is still not mature enough and is incapable of being guilty. this doctrine became part of common law system in 14th century and the reign of king edward the iii. according to crofts (2003), the basics of this doctrine are well explained in 1619 by dalton in county justice, by these words: “an infant of eight years of age or above, may commit homicide ..., and shall be hanged for it, viz. if it may appear (by hiding of the person slain, by excusing it, or by any other act) that he had knowledge of good and evil, and of the peril and danger of that offence. but an infant of such tender years, as that he hath no discretion or intelligence, if he kills a man, that is no felony in him”. even though this doctrine has deep historical roots in common law, uk abolished it in 1997. some of arguments for abolition of this concept were the fact that this defence couldn’t be used if a minor plead guilty. so, many called this presumption ineffective and even to be „medieval law“ (wishart, 2013, p. 58). moreover, urbas (2000, p. 4) finds this doctrine illogical, because the criminal responsibility of a child can be rebutted by evidence that the child was of normal mental capacity for his/her age, so that might bring us to the conclusion that every child is initially proved not to be normal. in sharia law, the macr is related to reaching the age of maturity which is actually equivalent with the age of reaching puberty. when reaching into puberty one is found to be biologically mature and adult, so acquires all the legal rights and responsibilities. puberty can be determined in two ways. according to ćorović and garnić (2016, p. 52), first of them are natural signs of maturity: “pollution (ihtilan) with man and period (haiz) with woman”. the other one is “the age of life” (ćorović and granić, 2016, p. 52). according to sharia law, girls get mature faster than boys, so lower ages of macr for girls than for boys had been provided. basically, minimum age limit of criminal responsibility is different for each sex. the minimum age of entrance in puberty differs from one sharia legal school legal challenges in regulation of minimum age of criminal responsibility 46 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences to another. in shia, it is 9 lunar years (8 years and 9 months) for girls and 15 lunar years (14 years and 7 months) for boys (nayyeri, 2016). sunnis accept 9 years for a girl to enter in puberty, hanbali found age of 10 to be limit for man, hanafi found 12 years of age for man to be a minimum age. however, proving maturity even before the aforementioned ages is possible if the physical signs of reaching into puberty would appear. since puberty is individual bio-psychological process, if the signs of puberty would appear earlier than from above mentioned ages, that person would be also found to be mature. review of international documents regarding minimum age limit of criminal responsibility general international sources** of juvenile justice deal with the status of juveniles in general sense; by guarantee them protection of main human rights and separated and special treatment from adults. in other hand, in special international sources of juvenile justice there are strict provisions that deal with legal status of minors in judicial system. one of very important aspects of that topic is the matter of minimum age limit of criminal responsibility (macr). convention on the rights of the child***, united nations standard minimum rules for the administration of juvenile justice**** and general comment no. 10 of committee of the rights of the child***** are crucial international documents that deal widely with the matter of minimum age limit of criminal responsibility. a) convention on the rights of the child this convention has established the definition of term “child“. according to the article 1 of the convention, child is “every human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”. this definition actually treats every person under the age of 18 to be a child and doesn’t differ children from adolescents. except of determination of term child, for topic of macr is relevant article 40 3(a), according to which each state is obliged to establish a minimum age bellow which children shall be presumed not to have the capacity to infringe the penal law. effectively, convention doesn’t provide exact age that all the states would establish to be a minimum age bellow which children shall be presumed not to have criminal responsibility, but through general provision obliges states to establish that age by themselves. b) united nations standard minimum rules for the administration of juvenile justice these rules, known also as beijing rules, went even a step forward. still, the macr hadn’t been defined but states had been limited in prescribing it. the beijing rules, especially with the rule 2.2., had confirmed the idea that law should be stable but not still. it should be given, applicable and changeable according to the necessities of real life **refering to universal declaration on human rights, international covenant on civil and political rights, european convention on human rights. ***adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by general assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 november 1989. according to anex 1 of deyton peace agrement for bosnia and herzegovina, this convention is to be applied in bosnia and herzegovina. ****they were adopted by general assembly resolution 40/33 of 29 november 1985. from may 22nd 1992. since bosnia and herzegovina is a member of united nations, these rules are concerning to bosnia and herzegovina as well. ***** the comment was given at the forty-fourth session of the committee, regarding children rights in juvenile justice, in geneva, in january/february 2007. g. šimić & e. kazić 47 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences and needs of a state. each state has its own legal tradition, economic, social, political and cultural system, so the establishment of the age limit might vary from one state to another. that is the reason why the actual and fixed age limit has not been given by these rules, but only its main principle and indicators. the main rule of the beijing rules is that the age would not be fixed at too low (rule 4.1). however, the interpretation of the term “not too low” is a legal standard and might be interpreted according to each case. the exact indicators for the establishment of minimum age limit have been also given; such are emotional, mental and intellectual maturity. so, it has been given to a state the right to establish the age limit, but the establishment of it is not a pure formal process. it should be established according to the result of comprehensive scientific research on emotional, mental and intellectual maturity of one states’ youth. c) general comment no. 10 of committee of the rights of the child committee of the rights of the child, in the general comment no. 10, chapter c. titled “age and children in conflict with the law”, has been especially related to the issue of the minimum age of criminal responsibility (macr). it emphasized main problems with the establishment of the minimum age, significance of the minimum age limit and gave the recommendation regarding to this topic. it has been explained that the reason for giving the clear guidance and recommendations regarding the minimum age of criminal responsibility had been the wide range of minimum ages in use (un committee general comment no. 10, 2007, para. 30). the committee has explained the importance of establishment of minimum age limit. according to the general comment, children who commit an offence at an age bellow that minimum would be held irresponsible in a penal law procedure and children at or above the macr, but who are younger than 18 years, can be formally charged and subject to penal law procedures, but in that procedure the main principles of the convention of the right of child would be implicated (un committee general comment no. 10, 2007, para. 32). it was clearly said that even though the exact age as a minimum limit has not been established, but it has been only generalized that the limit shouldn’t be too low, the macr shouldn’t be lower from 12 years. if so, then it “would not be internationally acceptable” (un committee general comment no. 10, 2007, para. 32). the most suitable age range of macr, according to the committee would be 14 or 16 years because that age contributes to a juvenile justice system which is providing that “the child’s human rights and legal safeguards are fully respected” (un committee general comment no. 10, 2007, para. 33). comparative review of macr in the world nowadays there are different tendencies among countries regarding reforms of minimum age limit of criminal responsibility. while some countries raise the age limit, some of them lower it. no international document imposes the exact age limit that all countries should prescribe, but only prescribes borders in setting it******. that is why the macr is different from state to state. ******božićević-grbić and roksandić vidlička (2011, p. 268) notice that, even if not setting the unique age limit for all countries, there are two similarities noticed in all countries: the idea that children should be treated separately from adults and the practice that young age is usually a mitigating factor. legal challenges in regulation of minimum age of criminal responsibility 48 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences these different tendencies are result of sociological, traditional, cultural, religious and even scientific influences. for example, american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry, american society for adolescent psychiatry, and american psychiatric association have pointed out certain facts regarding the criminal responsibility of minors. the prefrontal cortex situated in the frontal lobe of humans that is responsible for planning, anticipation of consequences, controlling impulses and is responsible for abstract thinking is under evolution until a person is about twenty-years-old (death penalty for minors, 2016). this scientific finding brings into question the entire concept of punishment of minors and it is in favor to idea of raising the macr as much it would be possible. in other hand, some countries are lowering their macr, with tendency of introducing children of very young age into judicial system, so that educational measures or treatment could be applied towards them. even though sergovia bernabe (2001, p. 77) thinks there is “hardly overcoming divorce between criminal law and pedagogy”, nevertheless the main intention of that tendency is helping minors to grow out of crime and possibility of recidivism. the matter of establishing macr is a responsible, more scientific than numeric action. according to škulić (2010, p. 205), in theory there are absolute and relative approaches in establishment of macr. while the absolute is objective and is focused only in certain number of years, the relative is the one that is based on bio-psychological development of a person. in reality, both of these approaches should be merged in establishing the basics of criminal responsibility of a minor. in germany there are given specific criteria for establishing maturity and with that prescribing marc such are: plans for life, independence of parents, independence of people of same age, seriousness towards obligations, external look, age of friends, involvement in love and sex, state of spirit, reality (giménez-salinas, 2001). even though it’s left to every individual state to establish macr, and even though there are different socio-cultural-traditional backgrounds in states, there have been informally established classes of macr. according to cipriani (2009, p. 113, 118) 55 countries of the world are applying presumption doli incapax and 75 countries in the world are using the classical macr. in the usa, 15 states have established macr with age range 6-10 years and in the remaining states there is no minimum established at all. macr state 7 years brunei, egypt, estonia, grenada, india, jordan, kuwait, lebanon, lesotho, liberia, malawi, mauritania, myanmar, namibia 8 years botswana, indonesia, kenya 9 years bangladesh, ethiopia, sharia law states (girls), malta, 10 years australia, bhutan cameroon, fiji, ireland, england and wales, northern ireland 11 years barbados, japan 12 years afghanistan, andorra, angola, belgium, brazil, canada, costa rica, dominica, ecuador, georgia, ghana, israel, turkey, mexico, morocco, netherlands g. šimić & e. kazić 49 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences 13 years france, chad, gambia, mali, greece 14 years austria, germany, italy, eu countries, bosnia and herzegovina, serbia, croatia, montenegro, macedonia 15 years denmark, finland, iceland, norway, sweden 16 years portugal, spain, ukraine, china *review of macr in several countries of the world (cipriani, 2009, pp. 98-106; minimum ages of criminal responsibility in europe) as it is shown in the table above, most of the european countries set macr at 14 years. some of them set even higher macr, which shows the determination of states from european continent in high macr. the exception would be estonia with very low macr for european standards. in other hand, most of south american states determined macr at the age 12. african countries show tendency of establishing low macr. asian states as well have low macr. cipriani (2009, p. 112) emphasizes the fact that in the last two decades 40 countries increased their marc (such are uk, canada, panama, ecuador, mexico, and lebanon). but, that tendency is not present in the entire world. countries such are france, nepal, and mauritania decreased the macr. jimenes diaz (2015, p. 2) claims that the main reason for lowering the macr is high fear of juveniles’ crime. public pressure that is led by fear of crime makes the limits of macr to move down. for example, there is highly discriminatory proposal in germany on lowering macr to 12 years only to migrant children, since the there were several cases of crimes perpetrated by migrants’ youth (jiménez díaz, 2015, p. 121). macr in bosnia and herzegovina with the aim to determine whether there were significant differences in regulation of macr in different periods of criminal law in bosnia and herzegovina and in relation to contemporary regulation of macr in the world, it is necessary to make a historical review and a review of positive law in bosnia and herzegovina regarding macr. historical review includes analysis of provision related to the macr according to the criminal code of federative people’s republic of yugoslavia (1947), criminal code of federative people’s republic of yugoslavia (1951), criminal code of socialistic federative republic of yugoslavia (1976), criminal code of federation of bosnia and herzegovina (1998), criminal code of republika srpska (2000) and criminal code of brčko district of bosnia and herzegovina (2000). related to positive law, from year 2003 until 2010 (republika srpska and brčko district and year 2014 regarding federation of bosnia and herzegovina) criminal code had been applied as the main positive source of criminal law related to legal status of juveniles in conflict with law. since then, positive juveniles’ criminal law include three laws on protection and dealing with children and adolescences in criminal procedure that had been given in federation of bosnia and herzegovina, republika srpska and brčko district. by applying the rule that special law derogates general law (lex specialis derogat legi legal challenges in regulation of minimum age of criminal responsibility 50 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences generali), the special codes******* are to be applied instead of the general code (criminal code). the exception has been made with the criminal code of bosnia and herzegovina (cc bh). since on states’ level of authority special law that is related to issues of juvenile justice hadn’t been adopted, at that level of authority in bosnia and herzegovina, general law is still applying (criminal code of bosnia and herzegovina). historical review of macr in bosnia and herzegovina criminal code of federative people’s republic of yugoslavia (further in text: cc fpry) had established the macr on age of 14 years. according to that code, any person who was under that age was criminally irresponsible (cc fpry, 1947, art. 7(1)). however, this code hadn’t only prescribed the macr, but acknowledged the fact that even though people younger than 14 are criminally irresponsible, with their formal criminal act they actually step into criminal zone and in that way they show their possible predisposition of perpetrating crimes in the future. so, general approach of that time was that society mustn’t ignore that predisposition and has to prevent their future recidivism. to accomplish that, it had been prescribed that the offender would be given to parents or guardianship office so they could apply educational measures on that person or he/she would be sent into the educational institution (cc fpry, 1947, art. 7(2)). so even though people under age of 14 were criminally irresponsible, family or specific institution had to apply educational measures so that in that way the sources of their criminality would be abolished. exception of criminal punishment had been given also in the article 8. of cc fpry and it excluded punishment of persons older than 14 years of age, who in the moment of the perpetration of the crime were not aware of the meaning of the action and who couldn’t conduct with its actions. those persons were criminally irresponsible and not punishable and that was regulated according to the basic concepts of criminal law, because in their act there was no subjective side. yet, towards those persons educational measures had to be applied. persons older than 14 years had been criminally responsible and all legal sanctions except of the death penalty and imprisonment with lifelong forced labor could have been imposed (cc fpry, 1947, art. 9(1)). in the choice of the appropriate sanction, court had to especially take in count the level of psychological development of that person. the court was entitled to impose only educational measures towards the adolescent if it would be established that according to the personal characteristics of the perpetrator and the circumstances of the case, it wouldn’t be needed to impose penalty, and if the adolescent was older than 14 years of age but younger than 16 years of age (cc fpry, 1947, art. 9(2)). the aim of this possibility was to prevent the person who was not fully physically and psychologically mature, from reaching into the system of punishments that would label that adolescent as convicted person for lifetime. the same macr had been established in the criminal code of federative people’s ******* those are: law on protection and dealing with children and adolescences in criminal procedure (in federation bosnia and herzegovina; further in text: children and adolescents code fbh), law on protection and dealing with children and adolescences in criminal procedure (in republika srpska; further in text: children and adolescents code rs) and law on protection and dealing with children and adolescences in criminal procedure (in brcko district bh; further in text: children and adolescents code bdbh). g. šimić & e. kazić 51 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences republic of yugoslavia (further in text cc fprya), since person who hadn’t been 14 years old in the moment of perpetration of the crime, was criminally irresponsible (cc fprya, 1951, art. 5(1)). just like according to the previous code, court could set educational measures towards that person. the fact that one person was 14 years old in the moment of perpetration of crime hadn’t been the guaranty that will be held criminally responsible. according to the article 5(2) of this code, if adolescent couldn’t understood the importance of his act and control his actions due to his psychological underdevelopment, that person had been criminally irresponsible. this leads to the conclusion that criminal responsibility of adolescents who were 14 years old was being determined in each case separately, which is quite according to general concept of criminal responsibility in criminal law. without mental competence there is no criminal responsibility. this code also provided classification of adolescents into younger and older adolescents; younger ones were older than 14 years of age, but younger than 16. adolescents older than 16 years of age were older adolescents. both of them were criminally responsible but the main difference in their legal status was the type of criminal sanction that could have been imposed (cc fprya, 1951, art. 67 and 71). criminal responsibility of persons younger from 14 years of age was excluded as well in criminal code of socialistic federative republic of yugoslavia (further in text cc sfry). this code had indirectly defined a child to be a person who in the moment of perpetration of crime hadn’t been 14 years old (cc sfry, 1976, art. 72). adolescents had been classified in two groups, but with some differences from the regulation with the previous code. younger adolescent was a person who was 14 but not 15 years old, and older adolescent was a person who was 15 but not 18 years old. so, the main difference from previous codes and this one was in the age limit that differs younger from older adolescents. newer history of bosnian and herzegovinian criminal law had been established from 1998 (with criminal code in federation of bosnia and herzegovina) and 2000 (with criminal code of republika srpska and criminal code of brčko district). from dissolution of sfry until these years, criminal law from sfry had been applying. these three codes had the same regulation of macr and classification of adolescents. indirectly, just like cc sfry, all three of them had defined “child” to be a person who was not 14 years old (criminal code of federation of bosnia and herzegovina, 1998, art. 71; criminal code of republika srpska, 2000, art. 67; criminal code of brčko district bh, 2000, art. 71). the criminal punishability was excluded for children. adolescents were persons who were 14 years old, they were punishable. classification of adolescents had been made and there were differed younger (14-16 years of age) and older (16-18 years of age) adolescents. so basically, the same tradition in establishing macr had been continued. macr according to positive law in bosnia and herzegovina even though there are three different laws on protection and dealing with children and adolescences in criminal procedure in bosnia and herzegovina, that had been given at three states authorities (federation of bosnia and herzegovina, republika srpska and brčko distrikt bh), and have some differences in providing legal status of juveniles, regarding the matter or macr their provisions are harmonized. all three of them define who is a child, who is an adolescent and classify adolescents. legal challenges in regulation of minimum age of criminal responsibility 52 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences according to positive special laws on protection and dealing with children and adolescences in criminal procedure in federation of bosnia and herzegovina, republika srpska and brčko district bh, the minimum age limit for criminal responsibility has been established at 14 years of age (children and adolescents code fbh, 2014, art. 2(2); children and adolescents code rs, 2010, 2(2); children and adolescents code bdbh, 2010, art. 2 (2)). persons who were not 14 years old in the moment of perpetration of the crime can’t be sanctioned. in other hand, all three laws gave a definition of a term “child“ in a way that child is every person who is not 18 years old (children and adolescents code fbh, 2014, art. 2(1); children and adolescents code rs, 2010, 2(1); children and adolescents code bdbh, 2010, art. 2 (1)). furthermore, the definition of a term “adolescent” had been also given. that is a person who in a moment of a crime perpetration was 14 years old, but was not 18 years old (children and adolescents code fbh, 2014, art. 2(3); children and adolescents code rs, 2010, 2(3); children and adolescents code bdbh, 2010, art. 2 (3)). according to leges speciales, all adolescents are children, and the term “child” is prescribed widely in comparation to a term “adolescents”. adolescents can be sanctioned. by all three laws, there are two groups of adolescents: younger adolescents and older adolescents. younger adolescents are persons who were 14 years old but not 16 years old in a moment of perpetration of the crime. only educational measures can be imposed to them. in other hand, persons who were 16 years old, but not 18 years old in the moment of perpetration of the crime are older adolescents children and adolescents code fbh, 2014, art. 3(1) and 3(2); children and adolescents code rs, 2010, 3(1) and 3(2); children and adolescents code bdbh, 2010, art. 3(1) and 3(2)). they can be sentenced to educational measures, but in certain cases they can be punished with juvenile imprisonment. both groups however can be sanctioned with security measures as well. related to lex generalis that is still applying at the states level of authority, it also provides macr, through definition of term “child” and “adolescent”, differs groups of adolescents, but all that with certain differences from leges speciales. even though this code gives the same macr as the special codes, it prescribes different definition of a term “child”, by defining that a child is a person who is not 14 years old (criminal code of bosnia and herzegovina, 2003, art. 2(11)). this definition is different from the definition of a term “child” according to the convention on the rights of child as well. if the grammatical interpretation of this provision and those in leges speciales is used, then the one given by the cc bih is narrower, since person from 14 to 18 years is not a child. according to provision of article 2 (12) of cc bih that person is adolescent, because it’s not 18 years old. the states’ criminal code has the same provisions regarding to the classification of adolescents and their sanctioning as leges speciales have (criminal code of bosnia and herzegovina, 2003, art. 80 (2) and 80 (3)). conclusion the position of the child in criminal law is specific. no matter being victim or the perpetrator, children are specific and sensitive category determined with their psychological and physical (in)maturity (horvatić, derenčinović and cvitanović, 2016). the question of maturity that can lead to conclusion that somebody is responsible and guilty for the committing of a criminal act is an individual matter. decision of establishing g. šimić & e. kazić 53 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences macr is an intention of diverting individual state of mind to a general rule. that is why that topic is so challenging. it is quite understandable that marking macr is not a numerical function but numerical result of systematic sociological, pedagogical and psychological estimations. that is also one of the reasons why international documents don’t prescribe exact number for macr, but leave to the states to decide about it. in other hand, committee of right of the child clearly recommended the border of macr to be 14 or 16 years. in the comparative analysis it is to be seen that there are different macrs prescribed in the world and that states which are linked by geographical, historical or legal system similarities prescribe the same/similar macr. it’s obvious that there are different politics regarding lowering or increasing the border for macr, even though there are clear recommendations given regarding macr, states decide to decrease it bellow the recommended age. even though the true reason for decreasing the macr in several states is in fact the fear of crime of minors and commitment of those states in not ignoring the fact that even younger persons in reality commit very serious crimes, so that lowering the limit would make them criminally responsible and involved in criminal law (justice) system. this idea, observed from the surface, it can seem like it is something not according with the modern criminal law perspective towards minors, that consists of finding the best treatment for them instead of punishing them. but, this politics might be the exact product of that perspective. if a child commits a crime it shows possible propensity in committing crimes in future and that should be understood as an alarm because the offence itself can be a sign of a need for treatment. punishment is not anymore the most used legal sanction, but there is wide choice of educational and protective measures that can be imposed on minor and divertive procedures that neutralize the problem of conviction labels. so, if only divertive procedures and alternative measures would be used towards very young minors, then the intention of decreasing macr wouldn’t be undesirable, nor the wrong path. in that way the suitable treatment would be provided for children so their recidivism might be prevented. however, this conclusion has its limitations since some countries in the world still don’t use principles of restorative justice towards minors, but find punishment to be the most successful and useful legal sanction. there, inclusion of children in criminal and penal system might have negative effect in their future life. furthermore, in contemporary criminal law, social factors are recognized as one of the main causes for criminal activity of the minors, which leads to the clear conclusion that, to solve this “problem”, prevention needs to play most important role, not the criminal sanction applied only after the criminal offence is committed (see national research council and institute of medicine, 2001, 107). in accordance to that, some european countries, respecting the fact that the child is a person under the age of 18 years, and, although drawing the line on 14 years of the age border, provides the possibility that criminal code will not be applicable if the special code for minors provides differently (criminal code of croatia, „narodne novine“ no. 25/11). in bosnia and herzegovina macr didn’t suffer through any changes in time. the constant minimum age of criminal responsibility was and still is 14 years of age. with the exception of the provisions of cc sfry, even the border in distinction between younger and older adolescents remained the same through ages. yet, in new, special codes that refer legal challenges in regulation of minimum age of criminal responsibility 54 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences the protection and dealing with children and adolescences in criminal procedure the term child got different meaning which is different from the meaning provided in criminal code of bosnia and herzegovina. without any doubt, different regulation of the same thing in one country is impermissible because legal position of a child in the territory of one state should be the same and that refers to understanding of term child as well. in this way, bosnia and herzegovina and its legal system, don’t respect basic principle in treatment of the children: its best interest, neglecting the fact that those children are its future. references božićević-grbić, melita and roksandić vidlička, sunčana. 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(2001). juvenile crime, juvenile justice; panel on juvenile crime: prevention, treatment. control committee on law and justice; minimum ages of criminal responsibility in europe. retrieved on 01.12.2016. from https://www. crin.org/en/home/ages/europe; nayyeri, m. h. criminal responsibility of children in the islamic republic of iran’s new penal code. retrieved on 01.12.2016. from http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/publications/ legal-commentary/1000000054-criminal-responsibility-of-children-in-the-islamic-republic-of-irans-new-penal-code.html.; richards, k. 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(2013). was the abolition of the doctrine of doli incapax necessary?. uk law student review , 1 (2). legal challenges in regulation of minimum age of criminal responsibility 83 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences decision making via systems thinking in management: educational issues m. kudret yurtseven izmir university, izmir, turkey walter w. buchanan texas a&m university, college station, texas, usa abstract the aim of this paper is to provide a critical view of the educational issues related to teaching decision making in management studies and to provide a general framework is proposed that will serve as a basis designing new courses, covering some methodologies for handling complexity in decision making. at present, the widely spread approach to teaching the subject matter is mostly restricted to the traditional or/ms (operations research/management science) paradigm. this paradigm is based on a set of mathematical tools and suitable for solving well defined decision making problems; it fails in “messy” or complex situations. systems-based approaches are more promising in complex situations since they provide the decision maker(s) the opportunity to address the problematic situation in its full system context. the framework proposed in the study attempts to complement the traditional or/ms paradigm rather than replacing it. key words: systems thinking; decision making; management; education. 84 m. k. yurtseven, w. w. buchanan epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction it is well known that managerial decision making problems can be highly complex, in general, but there is a sub-set of problems that can be formulated in well-structured forms. such problems are normally handled with the quantitative techniques of the management science/operations research (ms/or) paradigm this paradigm is also known as hard operations research. the major quantitative techniques or tools of the paradigm are mathematical programming, game theory, simulation models, markov chain models and decision tress. in messy situations, these tools prove to be too rigid and mechanical to be useful. the decision problems faced by top managers at the strategic level are mostly complex and ‘messy’. there is usually too much ambiguity involved, and information available for decision making is often uncertain, incomplete, or even distorted. under such conditions, managers need to describe the problematic situation in its full system context and make use of systems thinking-based methodologies to find satisfactory solutions. for instance let us consider the situation where an american company is questioning whether to enter a new market in a country like pakistan or jordan. this decision is a strategic level kind; hence it is complex. there is bound to be considerable uncertainty and ambiguity related to the country’s economic conditions, the stability of markets, consumer behavior, etc. it may not be easy or not possible to find an acceptable solution to this problem through the or/ms tools. the soft approaches are suitable since the soft issues such as consumer behavior can be included in the model via a combined use of hard and soft modeling approaches. supposing that the company decided to enter the market, the next decision problem will be of a tactical kind, such as whether to follow an export led market expansion or locally produce the product. here the solution may or may not require the use of both hard and soft methodologies. the related decision at the lowest level could be whether to hire more local people for some operations. this is an operational problem. now this problem can be handled by hard approaches without a great deal of difficulty. another example where complexity may be seen is in managing call centers. effective operation of a call center requires a sensible balance between conflicting aims, such as waiting times, number of operators, equipment, etc. these variables can be formulated in monetary terms and a solution can be found via mathematical models or simulation models. however, if one wants to include the consequences of long waiting times, such as loss of life or serious injuries, the problem becomes too complex to be handled by purely mathematical models. similar arguments are valid for ecological systems. the economic activities involved can be measured easily in monetary terms, but not the loss or degradation of the natural environment. the common features in all these problems are: (1) different people view a problem in 85 decision making via systems thinking in management epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences different ways; (2) the solution is not too obvious; (3) there are usually conflicts on objectives; (4) there may not be enough information to evaluate the consequences of decision choices; (5) the interactions between various elements or aspects may exhibit high computational complexity for human mind to produce a solution; (6) the settings within which these problems exist are systems. complexity and decision making in complexity have been studied by a number of researchers in the past. gorze-mitka, et.al. (2014) traces the roots of “modern complexity” to the birth of general systems theory. the complexity issue was also addressed in weiner’s work on cybernetics and in the work of other important names in systems movement, such as churchman, ackoff, beer, weinberg, forrester, and gigch (skyttner, 2001 and 2006). in 2005, jamali suggested that the existing decision-making processes are no longer adequate, and urged educational institutions to teach new approaches to decision-making problems (jamali, 2005). the new approaches can now be seen in some textbooks. for instance, pownall’s book (2012), effective management decision making, covers holistic approaches, heuristic decision making and group decision making, as well as more traditional topics. daellanbach, et.al. (2012) wrote an interesting book, entitled decision making through systems thinking, which also reflects recent developments. this book puts considerable emphasis on the application of soft systems thinking (particularly soft or and soft systems methodology) to decision making. similar comments can be made about the book by maani et.al. (2007), systems thinking, system dynamics: managing chaos and complexity. here, the approach is based on system modeling by combining both hard and soft approaches and system dynamics methodology. skyttner (2001 and 2005) provides a wide perspective and presents decision making process in the context of general systems theory. he considers various dimensions of decision making processes, including philosophical, methodological, technological and psychological aspects. he emphasizes the importance of managerial cybernetics in handling complex organizational issues. managerial cybernetics is also seen as an important methodology by jackson (2000 and 2003) for handling complex managerial problems; beer’s viable model is noted as a significant methodology in this respect. there are a number of specific studies on complexity decision making in literature. for instance, gorzen-mitka, et. al. (2014) examine complexity decision making issues and argue that strategic decision-making in complex environments requires meta-cognitive skills and a tool-bag for innovative and adaptable decision models beyond linear thinking. the book written by parnell, et.al. (2011), decision making in systems engineering and management, approaches the subject matter from a sytems engineering point of view. the decision making process laid out in 86 m. k. yurtseven, w. w. buchanan epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the book is based on both multiple-objective decision making and value-focused thinking. problem definition, measuring stakeholder value, designing cretaive solutions, exploring the decision trade space and structuring successful solution implementation phases are all viewed from this perspective. the attractive aspect of this work is that it is very well suited for system life-cycle models. the material in this paper is presented in the following order: the fundamental role of system thinking in managing complexity is assessed in the next section; this is followed by a discussion of the potential contributions of systems thinking to decision making, the description of the proposed framework, and the major conclusions of the work. systems thinking and managing complexity managers today are expected to cope with increasing complexity, change and diversity. they need to handle problems that come as interconnected with other problems, or as ‘messes’. managers have some popular tools available to deal with decision problems, such as scenario planning, benchmarking, value chain analysis, and process re-engineering. the ‘quick’ solutions generated by these tools rarely work, simply because they are not holistic. these tools deal with parts of the organization rather than the whole. although it is possible to optimize the operation of a part or a subsystem via this approach, the overall operation of the system may be affected adversly. although it may not be optimal, a satisfactory solution for the overall system can be found if the crucial interactions and the subsystems are taken into account as a whole. the principle “a system is more than the sum of its parts” suggests that systems’ behavior can be understood well if one understands the emergent system properties that arise only when parts interact with each other. this phenomenon was observed by many reaserchers in process re-engineering (bpr) projects. it appears that the main reason behind the failure of many of these projects is that there was too much concentration on subsystem re-engineering; crucial interactions such as human-organization relationships were ignored. the limitations and inadequacies of hard systems thinking become fairly obvious in the 1980’s due to the increasing complexity of contemporary systems. soft systems thinking emerged as a response to overcome these difficulties and enable systems people to develop acceptable solutions to multi-disciplinary and complex problematic situations. jackson classifies all important hard and soft systems methodologies and reviews them in a critical manner [jackson, 2000 and 2003]. his classification, from social sciences point of view, includes the following groups: (a) the functionalist systems approach; (b) the interpretive systems approach; (c) 87 decision making via systems thinking in management epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the emancipatory systems approach; (d) the postmodern systems approach; (e) critical systems thinking. the functionalist aapproach includes hard or, systems engineering, cybernetics, system dynamics, living systems theory, autopoiesis, and complexity theory. here systems appear as objective aspects of reality independent of observers. their behavior is analyzed via the methods of the natural sciences, and this knowledge is used to improve their efficiency or efficacy of the system. in contrast, the assumption that everbody percieves reality the same way is rejected in soft systems thinking; perceptions are multiple and environment is plutralistic. within the functionalist approach, there is a group of methodologies where “hard facts” are used throughout the study, and this kind of approach is commonly referred as “hard systems thinking”. systems theory provides theoretical background to all these methodologies. in regard to relating methodologies to problem contexts, jackson [2003] suggests that “hard systems thinking” is applicable to “simple systems-unitary participant” types of problems. methodologies known as system dynamics, organizational cybernetics and complexity theory are considered suitable for “complex systems-unitary participant situations”. similarly, soft systems approaches are found to be applicable to both “simple systems-pluralist participants” and “complex systems-pluralist participants”, emancipatory systems thinking to “simple systems-coercive participants”, and postmodern systems thinking to “complex systems-coercive participants”. probably the most important “break away” of the soft school from the hard school is related to the concept of objectivity. the claim of “objectivity” of classical science is found to be problematic in soft systems school; it is seen as nothing but an illusion. it is argued that it is meaningless to formulate objective aims and objective means in complex situations. the actors involved in the process are bound to have different perspectives of the problematic situation or the reality, and they will likely suggest different solutions. for instance, soft systems methodology (ssm), one of the well-known methodologies, developed by checkland (checkland and scholes, 1990), (checkland, 1993), embraces a paradigm of learning rather than viewing the world as systems whose performance can be optimized by following systematic procedures. this way of thinking can also be seen in other soft methodologies, such as warfield’s interactive management, churchman’s social systems design, mason and mitroff ’s strategic assumption surfacing and testing, ackoff ’s social systems sciences, senge’s systems thinking, soft or, soft system dynamics, and soft cybernetics. the interested reader should also look at mingers and white (2010) and mingers (2001) for detailed reviews of “hard and soft system schools”, and their approaches to complexity. 88 m. k. yurtseven, w. w. buchanan epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the methodology-problem context issue is also addressed by kurtz and snowden [2003]. they developed a framework, called cynefin sense-making framework, classifying systems as follows: known, knowable, complex, and chaos. the known systems are systems that have perceivable and predictable cause and effect relationships, and can be handled via sense-categorize-respond types methodologies (e.g. process re-engineering). in the knowable category, cause and effect are separated over time and space, and sense-analyze-respond type methodologies are suitable. complex systems, on the other hand, are viewed as systems with cause and effect relationships that are coherent in retrospect and do not repeat; apparently, the appropriate methodologies for this category are the probe-sense-respond type (e.g. pattern management). in chaotic systems, cause and effect relationships are not perceivable, and can be handled only by act-sense-respond approach (e.g. crisis management). although it is not possible to draw clear lines between different systems and different problem categories, this categorization helps us to develop a picture where the problem situation can be related to a methodology or to a set of methodologies (multi-methodogical approach). systems thinking and decision making in complexity as human beings, we make various decisions every day. some of these decisions produce undesirable results, while the others do not. some decisions taken in the midst of complexity may produce important consequences, whether they are good or bad. in most cases, the decision maker is a group of people or an organization rather than an individual. the culture of the organization or institution then becomes a significant parameter to be considered. in regard to global matters, skyttner (2001 and 2006) suggests that the world society and its institutions are not functioning effectively because the old worldview has not been kept up to date with contemporary changes. the worldview of an organization is certainly an important factor that shapes its culture, and it also shows how adaptive the organization is. surely, adaptivity requires strong organizational learning capabilities, both technically and socially. all organizations are socio-technical systems by their nature, and the social aspects are as important as the technical aspects. as discussed earlier, hard systems thinking is not suitable for understanding and dealing with such complexity; we need to look into soft system approaches. hitchins (2003) has quite a radical suggestion for handling socio-technical systems. he thinks that “we do not need to fully understand the incomprehensible complex human-system interaction” and suggests that “we need to adopt an accelerated evolutionary approach by building complex adaptive socio-technical systems”. the 2020 vision of systems engineering published by incose (international council on systems engineering) is also concerned with the increasing complexity of systems. their prediction is that “de89 decision making via systems thinking in management epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences velopments will urge systems enginers to integrate social and technological aspects of complex systems” (incose, 2005) it is also argued that developments in genetics and technology will make significant contributions to this effort. the reader will find detailed discussion on socio-technical systems in jackson (2000 and 2003), maani, et.al. (2007), mingers, t.al. (2010 and 2011) and yurtseven, et.al. (2012). in general, there are actors with differing goals and preferences, and with different perceptions in all organizations. in addition to the organizational culture, personal inclinations of people involved may also play some role in decision making. personal inclinations affect the decision outcome considerably if there are rapid changes in the dynamics of the environment, particularly the external environment; some people are more reluctant to take risks than others. obviously, decision making processes that are designed for stable and slowly changing conditions will not work in a rapidly changing environment. hummelbrunner and williams (2011) think that managing complexity requires the principles of decentralization and collaboration, in additon to adaptivity. it is important to remember that the degree of decentralization needs to be adjusted properly to be useful, depending on the characteristics of the organization. there are some studies that specifically address complexity decision making via holistic or systems approach. research conducted at santa fe institute attempts to unify some of the core system concepts into a model known as complex adaptive systems (snyder, 2013). the argument is that the emergent properties of complex systems can be modeled and operated relatively more effectively as complex adaptive systems. aelker, et. al. (2013) discusses this issue with some depth in their work. sondoss et.al. (2015) handle the complexity in a viticulture irrigation management system in south australia. they present a step-wise methodology that integrates qualitative information into formal simulation models, involving cognitive mapping and agent based modelling approaches. the resulting structure seems to capture the richness of decision making and mental models. pagani and otto (2013) adopts qualitative mapping theory building and quantitative group model building approaches in a computer-based system modeling environment for market startegy development. they claim that this holistic apparoach enhances the quality of the decision processes. carlman, et.al. (2014) relate the complexity issue to sustainability in decision making processes, particularly to ecological systems. the decision structure developed in the study provides communication and collaboration between a technical-scientific group and social scientists via a holistic outlook. swami’s work (2013), on the other hand, views decision making under the broad topic of executive functions or cognitive processes that are regulated. this holistic approach includes theories and concepts from psychology, behavioral eco90 m. k. yurtseven, w. w. buchanan epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences nomics, operations research, and managerial practice. schiuma, et.al. (2012) report a systems thinking-based framework where knowledge assets are translated into organizational value for making good decisions. similarly, the work by wiek, et.al. (2009) presents a framework called the transdisciplinary integrated planning and synthesis (tips), which is mainly based on soft or methods. this particular framework makes use of a multi-methodological approach involving cognitive skills and habits of the stakeholders, and experts and their mutual and joint transdisciplinary learning processes. this framework was applied in a large-scale regional planning process in switzerland. the interested reader can find a number of models/methods/systems that have been developed to underpin sustainable decision-making in environmental impact assessment, life cycle assessment, ecological footprints, cost benefit analysis, etc. (sondoss, et. al., 2015), (carlman, et. al., 2014), (schiuma, et. al., 2012), (petkov, et. al., 2009) and (taylor, et. al., 2011). the framework pownall (2012) describes different perspectives of decision making and gives a useful classification of decision making methods. these perspectives can be summarized as follows: (a) a qualitative perspective which is an integrative approach (or rational normative); (b) a perspective achieved by combining quantitative and behavioral disciplines in an interdisciplinary manner; (c) an interlocking perspective where the engagement of one perspective limits the use of other perspectives; (d) a cause-effect view where decisions taken are interrelated across organizational events. systems thinking-based decision making does not exclude perspectives (a), (b) and (d). furthermore, it removes the limitations implied by (c). figure 1 shows the relative positions of different approaches as a function of changing complexity. the sequential decision making (problems are formulated as a sequence of “independent” decisions) is algorithmic; hence it belongs to the least complex situations shown at the left of the scale. the anarchical decision making is far on the right of the scale, indicating that they involve highly complex situations. the rat (rational-normative model of decision making) and three-phased (problem identification, solution development, and solution selection) models are closer to sequential decision making, respectively, and heuristic models are closer to the other edge. sequential decision making anarchical decision making rat 3 phase heuristics figure 1. moving beyond rat (rational model of decision making) (pownall, 2012). 91 decision making via systems thinking in management epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the normative or rational models are based on the assumption that all relevant and pertinent information is available for optimal decision making. these types of problems are mostly seen in investment analysis, project management, cost-benefit analysis, etc. the three-phased model, unlike the sequential decision making, recognizes that the solution development and solution selection phases cannot be separated, and that the corresponding cognitive processes overlap and can occur simultaneously. as we approach to the right side of the scale, the decision processes become more complicated since they involve decisions made by groups in a political context. as one approaches to anarchical decision making region, the decision makers need to make use of heuristic approaches. the models here tend to become more “irrational” where human decision values are incorporated into the process. the decision maker may incorporate any of these models or a combination of them in systems thinking-based approach. the framework is consisted of five parts: fundamentals; rational models with quantitative methods; rational models with qualitative methods; systems thinking-based decision makings; optional material. part i: the fundamentals: introduction to effective decision making the objective here is to explore the concept that decision-making process is partly science and partly art. different concepts of rationality and the resulting approaches are discussed in general terms, ranging from normative rational view to anarchistic and heuristic views. part ii: rational models with qualitative methods and analysis the main theme here is to cover the development of rational models based on forecasting and regression techniques. part iii: rational models with quantitative methods and analysis this section covers methods based on probability theory, such as decision trees and related decision analysis and queuing theory. part iv: systems thinking-based decision making this part starts with the fundamentals of systems thinking and provides an introduction to soft system methodologies. some case studies are discussed to demonstrate the strengths of system thinking-based decision making. selection of case studies and the methodology or methodologies will depend on the instructor’s choice. part v: optional material heuristic decision making and group decision making: this section includes the fundamentals of decision making approaches that emphasize cognitive, heuristic, and group behavior aspects. 92 m. k. yurtseven, w. w. buchanan epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences knowledge management and decision enhancing decision making: the objective in this section is to teach the fundamentals of knowledge management concepts, and (intelligent) decision support systems, together with the relevant it. the technological aspects of this topic may be found at (muller, et. al., 2014), (khan, et. .al. 2014), (laudon, et.al, 2013) and (kendall, et. al. 2011). the reader should note that monte carlo modeling can also be considered as a systems thinkingbased methodology (pownall 2012, parnell, et.al. 2011, taylor iii, 2013). this approach is very helpful when complete information is not available and/or the decision making process cannot be formulated in a manageable analytical form. in monte carlo modeling, the potential outcomes of a decision problem are assigned weights via the use of pseudo random numbers. the decision maker can then produce decisions without referring to the decision context. in this way, the difficulty involved in the explicit treatment of uncertainty is avoided. due to its versatility, monte carlo modeling is covered in many undergraduate textbooks nowadays (hazelrigg, 1996), (daellanbach, 2005), (parnell, et. al. 2011), (krajewski, et. al., 2013) and (taylor iii, 2013). as a final note, instructors are reminded that students neeed to know how to include soft indicators (such as morale, commitment, burnout, capacity for learning) together with hard indicators (key performance indicators or critical success factors) into the modeling of complex decision making problems. they also need to be comfortable with simulation tools; it is well known that simulation models are useful in handling complex systems. system modeling, model validation, policy analysis, scenario generation and strategy development studies can be conducted easily via intelligent software packages such as stella these days. the interested reader should see maani, et.al., (2007), aelker, et.al, (2013), mingers, et.al. (2010), and yurtseven, et.al, (2012). at present, sufficient information is not available to evaluate the effectiveness of the above framework. however, a positive initial response was received from the fourth year industrial engineering students when some material from part iv of the framework was introduced into the fundamentals of systems engineering course. conclusions it was argued that the traditional or hard or/ms paradigm is not adequate for complex decision making situations; it needs to be complemented by soft system thinking approaches in university educational programs. soft system methodolo93 decision making via systems thinking in management epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences gies cover a wide range of approaches that hard methodologies can not capture and allow the decision maker to handle a complex situation in its full system context. the framework presented in the study will help instructors to design contemporary courses that include complexity decision making processes. in this way, graduating students will have a broader vision and will have some confidence in handling complexity in real life. future research will be directed towards measuring the degree of success of the framework proposed. references aelker, judith, bauernhans, t., and ehm, h. (2013) “managing complexity in supply chains: a dis cussion of current approaches on the example of the semiconductor industry”, procedia cirp 7 ( 2013 ) 79 – 84. carlman, i., grönlund, e. and longueville, a. (2014) “models and methods as support for sustain able decision making with focus on legal operationalization”, ecological modelling xxx (2014) xxx–xxx (article in press). checkland, p., (1993), systems thinking, systems practice, wiley. checkland p. and scholes j. (1990), soft systems methodology in action, wiley. daellanbch, h.g., d.c. mcnickle and s. dye [2005] management science: decision-making through systems thinking, pelgrave macmillan. gorze-mitka, i. and okreglicka, m. (2014) “improving decision making in complexity environ ment”, procedia economics and finance, 16, 402 – 409. hazelrigg, g.a. (1996) systems engineering: an approach to information-based design, prentice hall. hitchins, d.k., (2003), advanced systems thinking, engineering, and management, artech house. hummelbrunner, r. and b. williams b. (2011) systems concepts in action : a practitioner’s toolkit stanford, calif : stanford business books. incose, systems engineering vision 2020, version 1.5, november 26, 2005. jackson, m. c., (2000), systems approaches to management, kluwer. jackson, m.c., (2003), systems thinking: creative holism for managers, wiley. jamali d. (2005), “changing management paradigms: implication for educational institutions”, journal of management development, vol.24, 2005,pp. 104-105. kendall, k.e. and j.e. kendall (2011) system analysis and design, pearson. khan, r.a. (2014) “business intelligence: an integrated approach”, international journal of mana gement and innovation, volume 6 issue 2 (2014) 21. krajewski, l.j., l.p. ritzman and m.k. malhorta (2013) operations management: processes and supply chains, pearson. kutz, c. and snowden, d.j., (2003), “the new dynamics of strategy: sense-making in a complex complicated world”, ibm systems journal 42(3): 462-483. laudon, c.k. and j.p. laudon (2104) management information systems, pearson. maani, kambiz e., and r.y. cavana, (2007), systems thinking and system dynamics: managing change and complexity, pearson new zealand, 2007. mingers, j. and l. white (2010) “a review of the recent contribution of systems thinking to oper ational research and management science”, european journal of operational research 207 (2010) 1147–1161. mingers, j. (2011) “soft or comes of age—but not everywhere!” omega 39 (2011) 729–741. müller, r.m., s. linders, and l. ferreira (2010) “business intelligence and service-oriented archi tecture: a delphi study”, information systems management, 27:168–187, 2010 94 m. k. yurtseven, w. w. buchanan epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences pagani, m. and otto, p. (2013), “integrating strategic thinking and simulation in marketing strategy: seeing the whole system”, journal of business research, 66, 1568–1575. parnell, g.s.(ed.), driscoll, p.j.(ed.), henderson, d.l. (ed.) (2011) decision making in systems en gineering and management, wiley. petkov, d., petkova, o. andrew, t. and nepal, t. “mixing multiple criteria decision making with soft systems thinking techniques for decision support in complex situations”, decision sup port systems, 43, 1615–1629. 2009. pownall, i (2012) effective decision making: an introduction, ventus aps. schiuma, g., carlucci, d. and sole f. (2012) “applying a systems thinking framework to assess know ledge assets dynamics for business performance improvement”, expert systems with applic ations, 39, 8044–8050. skyttner, l., (2001), general systems theory: ideas & applications, world scientific. skyttner, l., (2005), general systems theory: problemsperspectivespractice, world scientific. sondoss, elsawah joseph h.a. guillaume, tatiana filatova josefine rook, anthony j. jakeman (2015) “a methodology for eliciting, representing, and analysing stakeholder knowledge for decision making on complex socio-ecological systems: from cognitive maps to agent-based models”, journal of environmental management 151, 500-516. snyder, s. (2013), “the simple, the complicated, and the complex: educational reform through the lens of complexity theory”, oecd education working papers, no. 96, oecd publish ing.p.11. swami, s. (2013) “executive functions and decision making: a managerial review”, iimb manage ment review, 25, 203-212. taylor, t. r. b., david n. ford, shari a. yvon-lewisc and eric lindqui, (2011), “science, engineer ing, and technology in the policy process for mitigating natural–societal risk”, system dynam ics review. 27, 173–194. taylor iii, b.w. (2013) introduction to management science, pearson. yurtseven, m.k., and w. w. buchanan [2012] “dynamical system theory and system dynamics: educational issues”, technology interface international journal, springsummer, pp. 96-103. wiek, a. and walter, a.i. (2009)”a transdisciplinary approach for formalized integrated planning and decision-making in complex systems”, european journal of operational research, 197, 360–370. 167 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “robert l. oprisko’s honor: a phenomenology and holden caulfield” eliza quincey, rhodes university, south africa (oprisko, robert. honor: a phenomenology. routledge, 2012, isbn: 978-0-414-53226-6) robert l. oprisko’s honor: a phenomenology can be perceived as a work of passion, love, knowledge, or perhaps even ego. the book utilizes roughly 200 pages to brutally dissect the many facets associated with the socially politicized concept of honor, en generale. oprisko spars with and admires the works of a multitude of acclaimed theorists, philosophers, and mythologists such as pitt rivers, aristotle, and homer; while politely yet forcefully establishing his own theory. while reading, one is forced to arise on the defense of her very own ‘“life is a game, boy. life is a game that one plays according to the rules.” “yes, sir. i know it is. i know it.” game, my ass. some game. if you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right—i’ll admit that. but if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? nothing. no game (salinger, 1945). 168 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. quincey identity and reality. it is on this defensive edge that readers may find themselves intrinsically offended with oprisko’s language and the directness of his theoretical presumptions. oprisko leaves little room for anything but the raw in his book. the raw being that which really is, existence at its performative core, one’s organic reality. the raw is a key concept in the discussion of honor, for it assumes a reality that is thick and blistered from a lack of absolute care and external influence. however an admirer of the work i warn of the offensive nature of the topic’s discussed in the book. honor is similar to j.d. salinger’s novel the catcher in the rye, both in that it will be no surprise that his theory will be highly contested, and that it focuses on the prelude and aftermath of breaking social norms as well as challenging the status quo. oprisko’s book contains a chapter titled “face”, “...the process by which an individual affine gains, loses, and maintains his or her status as a recognized member in an honor-group.” (79) being familiar with holden caulfield and oprisko, “face” resonates soundly with both holden’s reasoning and actions, as well as oprisko’s introjected motivation for writing. salinger’s vehicle is not the concept of honor itself, but in honor’s practical engagement by holden caulfield, the provocative character who secures a social acceptability that is no larger than a small crawl space. the catcher in the rye, which by no means consists of any overt political or metaphysical theory, contains a stark personification of what is actively presented in every chapter of dr. oprisko’s book. similar to holden caulfield, robert l. oprisko also has professional social acceptance the size of a small crawl space. while working as a visiting assistant professor (quite the diminished title) of international studies at butler university, oprisko publishes regularly, including “just visiting”, a monthly column for the chronicle for higher education. his most recent column “the candidates cometh” should be seen as a personal rebellion against the academic class division that separates the tenured and tenure-tracked from the contingent and precarious. however, on a deeper level, it is also oprisko’s personal anecdote on his annihilation of face. oprisko’s continued lack of support from his fellow academics places him in situation in which he is losing face. oprisko is brutally direct about his relationship with face as an academic, “‘while it is not necessity for one to strive to gain face, losing face is a serious matter which will, in varying degrees, affect one’s ability to function effectively in society.’” as an academic, one often hears the phrase, “publish or perish” meaning that one must cultivate thyself with respect to others in the realm of academia. if one fails to produce an output that the others in the group deem socially valuable, you cease to exist in that member group. perhaps oprisko is writing from an egotistical point of view. surprise, there’s that ego! 169 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “robert l. oprisko’s honor: a phenomenology and holden caulfield” paralleling oprisko’s personal venture, holden caulfield serves as a terrific litmus test for the concepts defined in oprisko’s work. he is, by no means, a likeable character in the literary world, but however he revels in and reflects life lived raw: . . . i’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. what i have to do, i have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—i mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going i have to come out from somewhere and catch them. that’s all i’d do all day. i’d just be the catcher in the rye and all (salinger, 1945, p. 224). the above quote is perhaps the most well recognized quote from the entire novel. using a literary scalpel one can infer that holden’s perception of himself as the “catcher in the rye” is about protecting the reality of others from shattering onto the rocks below the cliff. this quote is directed at holden’s little sister phoebe, a mere child who has not yet quarreled with “the games” (ibid., p. 12) as referred to in the opening quote of this review. holden has little to no faith in the entirety of humanity. he is cynical and holds society to a standard of hypocrisy and corruption. in order for holden to keep his face he must serve as a protector and perpetual exemplar, of the raw. holden strives to attain a standard that is rather unpopular considering the status quo, similar to oprisko, holden values consistency and truth in the form of many things, “the best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. nobody’d move. . . . nobody’d be different. the only thing that would be different would be you” (ibid., p. 158). in this case, holden is commenting on his affinity for museums. museums are known to be places of history, knowledge, and ironically a place to visually observe the changes that occur over time. once again holden’s raw comes into play. he does not see the museum as a place honoring the progress of the status quo, but as a mirror of self examination and personal growth. holden considers himself an exception to the status quo. he ostensibly and explicitly acts against the prescribed norms of society, this is why he is so unlikeable; he is a clear and present danger, a bane to society. if it is not clear by now how similar in form holden caulfield and robert l. oprisko are; perhaps you should shy away from his book. moving away from holden caulfield’s interaction with honor; oprisko’s book relies heavily, and almost drowns the reader in, high theory, not only because oprisko ought to support his work with none other than the seasoned veterans of the field, but also because his internalization of honor is so strong that it is unfathomable for oprisko not to give credit where it is due. for oprisko to be oprisko, he must weave together past scholarship to create his grand theory. it is difficult at times 170 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. quincey to sort out exactly where oprisko’s theory begins and where past theories end. one ought to not look too harshly upon oprisko for doing so, for he is only practicing what he is preaching, so to speak. the entire reason oprisko potentially wrote his book was to preserve his face, among other things. so, oprisko affiliates himself with an “honor group”, similar to the one that ho, pitt rivers, and nietzsche belong to. oprisko discusses in his book that to become a member of a group that you affiliate with you must become valued by the group (bypass the “gatekeepers ”). the gatekeepers are, of course, the masters, elite members of the group or society. they are sovereign, the one’s who dictate who is us and who is them. in no regards am i stating that oprisko seeks attention immaturely, but he does seek attention and recognition in the form of value from the group he so wishes to be a permanent member of; rather than a member who is indeed losing face. delving more concretely into the structure of honor; oprisko breaks up the overarching concept of honor into 13 distinct chapters, beginning with an “introduction”, and ending with “lessons from honor”. oprisko artfully strings together foundational ideas into larger concepts, and then lastly into applied examples. it is in his pedagogy and presentation of his theory that one may find themselves utterly offended. think of it as a dissection, how i referred to it earlier, except his dissection not only eviscerates honor but also dismembers identity and rends reality. by the end of honor, every reader should find themselves reflecting upon their own identity and questioning how honestly they’ve held to their publicly stated values. this book is not for those who are afraid of self-humiliation or defeat. oprisko may aim to appeal to a large audience but fails to do so because of his commitment to the raw, which creates the offensive honesty that is the unique character of his pedagogy. similarly, the catcher in the rye,was publicly contested after it was published in 1951. the american public was offended at the explicit honesty that holden caulfield so terrifically preached. it is this brutal honesty that is most notable in their work; for if salinger and oprisko wrote fantasy their works would receive limited attention as well as less critical engagement and feedback. finally, it is with high esteem and great affection that i recommend oprisko’s honor: a phenomenology. but i must be specific when i say to whom i may make my recommendation to: intellectuals, academics, and those potentially seeking an existential crisis. in one’s years of youth you might have had the joy in engaging with salinger’s novel, and hopefully you formulated an opinion about how holden caulfield makes you feel. if you were repulsed, unable to accept caulfield, then oprisko’s book is not the choice for you; it is more explicit and its honesty much more brutal (but from a theoretical standpoint of course). this book is on the cut171 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences “robert l. oprisko’s honor: a phenomenology and holden caulfield” ting edge of contemporary political and social theory, there are certainly others that do not fight back and may serve you more cordially. however, if you are like me and enjoyed holden’s vulgarity and honesty in the form of salinger’s anecdotal novel; and now you’ve found yourself engaging in political and international theory, lucky duck! refraining from reading his book would be but an absolute loss. tread lightly, for the waters of honor:a phenomenology are radical and wicked. wear a lifejacket. references salinger, j.d. 1945. the catcher in the rye. new york: little, brown and company. oprisko, r. l. “just visiting: the candidates cometh,” the chronicle for higher education. 177 is communication really food? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence vesna bilić university of zagreb, faculty of teacher education abstract in schools around the world in the 21st century the dominant and worrying problems are: an increase in the number of poor and financially and materially deprived and a continuous increase in violence among peers, which brings us to the intriguing question whether there is a connection between these two phenomena. therefore, the theoretical part of this paper analyzes the increase of peer violence in the context of socioeconomic inequalities of different societies which students live in and socioeconomic family factors. the aim of the empirical part is to determine which variables of socioeconomic status and material deprivation of children predict the status of perpetrators or victims of peer violence. the study included 610 (44.8% m; 51.6% f) primary school students, with average age of 13,88 years from different regions of the republic of croatia. for data collection the socioeconomic status questionnaire, scale of material deprivation of children in school and scale of victimization and violence among peers were used. the results indicated that 34.8% of respondents have acted violently toward peers because of their poorer financial status, and 45.7% were victimized for the same reason. it was also found that the analyzed ses variables and material deprivation do not predict committing violence against peers. living in unfavorable socioeconomic conditions is associated with the role of victims, lower education of mothers, lower work status of the father, child’s experience of fear because of the family’s poor financial situation, and material deprivation in school are statistically significant predictors of victimization. it is suggested that practitioners, the public and policy makers pay attention and assist the growing number of children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families. they must be in focus of all school preventive programs, especially due to the increased risk for those children of being exposed to peer violence. key words: ses, deprivation, bullying, poverty, family, school 178 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction it seems that at the moment, in many schools around the world there are two big dominant and worrying problems: an increase in the number of poor and financially deprived children, as well as continuous increase in violence among students. the intriguing question is whether there is a connection between these two phenomena. it was hard to assume that these would be the problems which will mark school life in the 21st century, especially when it comes to poverty. indeed, it was expected that poverty would be reduced or completely eradicated (šućur, 2014), and the prominent international organizations, such as un (convention on the rights of the child) and unicef promised that the world will become world worthy of children (boillet, 2002; minujin et al., 2006), but it happened the other way around. today, poverty is a global problem that affects one fifth of the world’s population (družićljubotin and ljubotina, 2014),affecting both the so called prosperous countries and the rich west. in those countries, more than half of children live in poverty (kletečkiradović, 2011). this was particularly contributed by adverse social and economic processes at the beginning of the new millennium recession, crisis of global proportions, social injustice, instability and insecurity around the world, especially in transition, postsocialist countries. the number of people who do not have basic living conditions (home, food, heating, hygiene), who live in absolute poverty with their income being less than 2 dollars a day or 30% of the national income median, has increased. there is even more people who live in relative poverty and do not have a minimum decent living standard that is usual in their community or society they live in, and their income is less than 60% of national income median (katz et al., 2007; mcdonald, 2008; neuborg et al., 2014; šućur, 2006; 2014). with these two groups, who are traditionally described as poor, there is a growing number of the socalled new poor (šućur, 2014). they are a product of economic crisis which hit the middle class and working population who had previously lived in relative safety. a large number of people lost their jobs and hope to find a new one, and some who work are not being paid. all this led to inability to fulfill basic needs of the family and maintain standard they were accustomed to. for these reasons, they are not able to pay back housing loans which they easily took before or pay utility bills, which resulted in debt overhangs, evictions, foreclosures and facing poverty (šućur, 2014). the crisis particularly affected children whose parents are not able to meet their material and non-material needs (neubourg et al., 2014; šućur, 2014), so they 179 the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences experience multiple deprivations which become particularly evident in school. it is necessary to say that children perceive poverty or unfavourable financial situation differently from adults, not only through lack of money, but through indicators of availability and accessibility (neubourh et al., 2014). due to material deprivation, lack of items (clothing, shoes, warm meals and school supplies), access to activities that most people consider necessary (extracurricular activities, sports, language learning, tutoring, etc.) and limited opportunities to socialize with peers in free time (school trips, outings, celebrations, pocket money), they do not have the same opportunities as their peers who come from families with better financial status to realize their potential and their basic economic and social rights (kletečkiradović, 2011; elgar et al., 2013). this makes it difficult for them to realize their life goals, such as further education (mcdonald, 2008), which leads to socioeconomic inequality. therefore, child poverty cannot be defined only in financial terms because it affects different aspects of a child’s life, which is why it is defined as multiple deprivation, material, school and social (minujin et al., 2006; ridge, 2009). living with chronic financial difficulties is stressful for both children and adults, and there are significant empirical evidence that material poverty of the family and facing insecurity and financial uncertainty has negative consequences for parents and children, especially if poverty is chronic and deep (wadsworth and berger, 2006; katz et al., 2007; martin et al., 2010). it has been found that children who live in poor families have more behavioral problems in adolescence and adulthood than their peers from wealthier families (mystry et al., 2002; rijlaarsdam et al., 2013). although most studies link ses with behavioural problems of children, it seems important to underline the idea that it does not always have to be the case because of individual differences of children, and especially their parents who can reduce or eliminate the effects, and their skills and qualities (diligence, honesty, reliability) can improve outcomes of education and children’s life opportunities, regardless of income, and thus impact both poverty and child’s development (martin et al., 2010). therefore, good parenting can protect children from unfavourable socioeconomic effects (katz et al., 2007). due to the fact that violence is a ubiquitous problem in schools around the world, there is a question, how much poverty and material deprivation affect the involvement of children in peer violence and if it predicts the role of a perpetrator and /or victim. because of the importance, topicality and exposure of a large number of children to poverty and violence, the theoretical part of this paper analyzes the increase of peer violence in the context of socioeconomic inequalities in the communities of students and family factors, and the empirical part investigates which variables of socioeconomic status and material deprivation of children indicate a 180 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences status of perpetrator or victim of peer violence. peer violence social relations and interactions with peers are key aspects in lives of children, especially adolescents. those who manage to achieve and maintain satisfactory social relations with peers often behave prosocial and are less aggressive and violent. despite the need for acceptance and importance of creating relations with peers, violence among them is increasing. peer violence can be defined as repeated aggressive behavior of one or more students who are physically stronger or psychologically or socially more powerful by intentionally causing physical, emotional or social damage to victims who cannot defend themselves (olweus, 1998; bilić et al., 2012). basic elements used for defining peer violence – frequency, intention, consequences and helplessness of victims, differentiate it from peer conflict and abuse. conflicts among peers are occasional negative actions which are based on misunderstandings, differences etc. if the conflicts are solved constructively, they become an opportunity to learn, otherwise, they turn into violence. violent behavior has different direct and indirect forms and is most often categorized as traditional (physical, verbal, sexual and relational) and electronic violence which is booming due to abuse of modern communication technology. children of younger age and male gender are more prone to direct forms and girls and older children to indirect forms of violence (elgar et al., 2009). boys are more at risk of violent behavior (olweus, 1998; cook et al., 2010; velki, 2012), and it is considered that violent behavior culminates in adolescence (wang et al., 2009). results of international studies conducted on nationally representative samples in fourty countries show that 2-27% of children are perpetrators of traditional forms of violence and 4-28% are its victims (craig et al., 2009), and variations are attributed to economic and cultural characteristics of individual country (due et al., 2009). it is estimated that prevalence of electronic violence is 20-40% (tokunaga, 2010; hinduja and patchin, 2014). fu et al. (2012) provide evidence of all forms of violence increasing in the period from 1989 to 2009. maybe this is the reason why a large number of research deals with precisely the prevalence of violence, while factors which cause it are somewhat neglected (frutos, 2013). recent studies, as a framework for peer violence, use bronfenbrenner ecological model which integrates different influences from the environment, but research most often focuses on analyzing individual characteristics of children, 181 the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences family and school variables. at the same time, contextual factors have not been thoroughly tested (elgar et al., 2013) and unjustifiably ignored, although cook et al. (2010) point out that they have a significant overall effect on violent behavior. unfavourable social and macroeconomic environment can be a risk factor for behavioral problems and probably, violence. some authors suggest (boyer, halbrook, 2011) that these problems can be understood as reflection of conditions in which students nowadays live. the connection between socioeconomic factors with peer violence participation of children in peer violence can be explained through socioeconomic inequalities in societies they live in and socioeconomic family factors (jansen et al., 2012; elgar et al., 2013). a) socioeconomic inequality in society in order to test the contribution of macroeconomic environment to peer violence, due et al. (2009) conducted research in 35 countries in europe and north america which included 162,305 students of 11, 13 and 15 years of age. they found that societies with greater economic inequality have a higher prevalence of violent behavior and adolescents are at greater risk of violence and victimization. authors concluded that differences between countries and schools show that violence is not “natural behavior” but is partly conditioned by the socioeconomic environment. pickett and wilkinson (2007) found that income inequality in 21 rich countries correlates with percentage of young people who are victims of violence (r=0.47; p=0.001). income inequality is described by elgar et al. (2013; 238) as structural violence because it creates distrust, reinforces intolerance, encourages differences and revenge. the authors point out that children internalize social norms and ideas that life does not revolve around equality and reciprocity, but power and domination, so they see violence as an effective way to be successful. the authors also consider school violence as a potential consequence of such social influences. results of the aforementioned research and studies are particularly important in understanding peer violence that happens nowadays. b) family socioeconomic factors socioeconomic status (ses) is a construct that includes different dimensions of social position – power, prestige, economic well-being, professional status (conger et al., 2010). out of many variables who contribute to it, the most common ses indicators are considered to be: material income, educational level and professional status of parents and although their individual contributions are not negligible, the fact is that they are usually complementary (katz et al., 2007). 182 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences low ses can affect the participation of children in violence in several ways. first of all, the family is of key importance in understanding violence because it transfers norms of behavior towards others (jansen et al., 2012). in order to explain the mechanism that connects socioeconomic status of the family and consequences in children’ development, the model of family stress is used (conger et al., 2010; martin et al., 2010). according to the model, poverty contributes to stress and psychological problems of parents and their interpersonal conflicts, which has negatively affects their behavior towards children (less sensible interactions and use of inappropriate educational methods) and finally leads to reduced well-being of children and emotional and behavioral problems (mistry et al., 2009; evans and kim, 2013). in such families, children are exposed to chronic stress which has a negative impact on selfregulatory processes that help children cope with external requirements (evans and kim, 2013). parents who are struggling to survive and working extra hours are less able to devote time to their children and give them love, resources and adequate control, lack of which is considered a risk factor in various behavioural problems of children (jensen, 2009; šimić šašić et al., 2011). some authors which katz et al. (2007) refer to believe that only extreme deprivation can cause major changes in a way of raising children, while such changes have not been identified in the families that fall into the category of relatively poor. in contrast, economic power is associated with higher quality parenting (šimić šašić et al., 2011), although it is not always the case in practice. c) material deprivation of students in school, lack of income leads to child sensing that they are deprived of something and that they do not have what other children have (ridge, 2009). because of social comparison to their peers, they begin to feel the difference and believe that everything is determined by money and others treat them as different or pity them (mcdonald, 2008). lack of clothing, necessary supplies etc. can have a profound impact on their daily interactions with peers (ridge, 2009; martin et al., 2010). therefore, the objective situation, as well as the subjective experience of their family’s adverse financial conditions, leaves a mark on their daily lives and social relationships. they usually feel inferior, can be isolated and excluded from various activities (ridge, 2009), but also publicly humiliated, stigmatized and devalued. so feelings of fear, humiliation, rage, despair and anger (družićljubotina and ljubotina, 2014), but also sadness, are their common reactions to perceived emotional trauma and shattered social relations (ridge, 2009). thus, in such school situations they can react in two ways: some will be angry and frustrated and respond aggressively, being at higher risk of committing violence (jensen et al., 2012), and others, because of unfair life circumstances and feelings of helplessness, sadness, anxiety, depression etc. (ridge, 2009; družićljubotina and ljubotina, 2014) become passive, desperate and 183 the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences fatalistic, which often leads them into a position of victim. studies that examined the connection between socioeconomic factors and involvement of children in violence have not given consistent results. some argue that socioeconomic factors are not connected to violent behavior and victimization (sourander et al., 2000) or that their effect is negligible (kim et al., 2005). recent studies give socioeconomic factors an important role in explaining violent behavior. thus, jansen et al. (2012) found that in comparison to children who come from families of higher ses, children coming from families with lower ses, are at greater risk of being involved in violence as either victims or perpetrators. other authors concluded that materially deprived children are mostly victims of violence (ridge, 2009; jankauskiene et al., 2008; due et al., 2009; fu et al., 2012), while perpetrators usually come from families of higher ses (jankauskiene et al., 2008). incentives for research of this problems were frequent media reports about selfless support of croatian wonderful teachers who give up on part of their modest salaries to help the poorest students (see: hot meal paid to her student by this humane teacher; glasslavonije; october 29th, 2014), but also news about children who are abused by their peers because of their living conditions (see: girl beaten up because of being poor, then transferred to another school; 24 sata; may 9th, 2013). due to general neglecting of the role of community factors in explaining peer violence and more prominent problems in this domain, we decided to research whether socioeconomic family factors and material deprivation predict the status of a perpetrator or victim in schools. methodology the aim of this paper is to examine which variables of socioeconomic family status and material deprivation of students predict the status of a perpetrator or victim among peers. according to the defined goal, the following research problems were set: a) to identify the characteristics of socioeconomic status (ses) and material deprivation (md) of the respondents b) to determine the prevalence of victimization and involvement of the respondents in committing violence c) to analyze the connection between ses and material deprivation with victimization and committing violence d) to examine which variables of socioeconomic status and material deprivation are predictors of victimization and predicting violence among peers. 184 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences we expect the results to confirm the hypothesis that adolescents living in economically unfavourable conditions and are materially deprived are at greater risk of being victims of peer violence. the respondents the study included a total of 610 respondents, slightly more girls (51.6%) than boys (44.8%). the average age of students was 13.88 years (sd=0.73), while most of the respondents were 14 years old (49.2%). the sample consisted of slightly more eighth grade students (57.7%) in comparison to seventh grade students (42.3%), and most of them attended schools in a city (67.5%), compared to schools in the country (31.5%). the average academic achievement of students in the sample was 4.13 (sd=0.82), with very good (40.2%) and excellent (37.5%) being the most common grades. the research was conducted in twenty classes in both rural and urban areas, located in different parts of croatia (eastern, northern, central and southern). since different areas are at different levels of development and were hit differently by the crisis (unemployment, shutting down businesses, some were affected by war, some were not), which might have affected respondents differently, we selected schools in bjelovarbilogora, brodposavina, splitdalmatia, vukovarsrijem and zadar counties and the city of zagreb. the procedure data were collected during spring 2015, through group testing in grades with prior approval of parents and principles and in compliance with all provisions of the code of ethics for research with children. approximately ninety parents did not sign the consent for participation of children in this study although it was voluntary and anonymity was guaranteed. some professional staff, who provided generous assistance in implementing the research, noted that those were mainly parents with poorer economic status. students who participated in research were given general instructions on completing the questionnaire, noting that they can opt out at any time,however, no one chose to do so. but, there were some students who did not respond to questions about material income of their family, while it was indicative that they responded to other questions. instruments 1. general data questionnaire contained questions about: gender, age, grade, school location (urban, rural) and grade point average. 185 the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences 2. socioeconomic conditions of the family questionnaire consisted of questions about: who the child lives with, how many children are there in the family, where the family lives (house or a flat, tenants, with relatives) and how they assess their living conditions (unsatisfactory, average, excellent), if they have their own room or share it with brothers and other family members and if they own a computer. the second group of questions related to education (unfinished or finished primary school, middle school, college, university or higher), employment status (permanently employed, employed but not being paid, occasionally employed, unemployed, pensioners) and tangible benefits (social aid, less than 2,000 kn; 2,000-4,000 kn; 4,000-6,000 kn; 6,000-10,000 kn and more than 10,000 kn) of father and mother. one question was related to frequency of family vacations (never, once in a few years, once or twice a year) and chidren’s fear due to unsatisfactory financial situation of the family. 3. scale of material deprivation of the student was constructed for the purposes of this paper based on literature (mcdonald, 2008; kletečkiradović, 2011; neubourg et al., 2014). after factor analysis, question “do you get a warm meal at school?” was removed so the scale had 10 items. they examine how often parents can set aside funds for activities and needs of their children at school such as books, school supplies, tutors, and participating in activities that are paid additionally, but also clothes and shoes that are popular among students, and meet their social needs (trips, outings, birthday parties, pocket money, etc.). on a scale from one to four (1never; 2very rare, it is hard for them to find funds; 3sometimes they can spare some money; 4always, they provide me with everything i need with no problems), respondents assessed how individual statements relate to them. possible score range is from 1 to 4, where a higher score indicated a lower level of material deprivation. 4. scale of peer violence was designed for this study on the model of similar instruments (bilić, 2013), but unlike them, in this scale, causes of violent behavior were associated with socioeconomic conditions or material deprivation of students (example: have you ever spread ugly and untrue stories about other children in class because they are poor or neglected?). the scale consisted of 9 particles which examined children’s participation in committing physical, relational and electronic violence during the current school year, and the respondents have on the scale of three levels (1never; 2sometimes; 3often) assessed how these claims refer to them. possible scores ranged from 1 to 3, in which a higher score indicated a higher frequency of aggressive behavior. 5. victimization scale had a total of three particles which examined how often during the school year were the students exposed to physical, relational or electronic 186 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences violence of their peers because they differ from them by their socioeconomic status (example: has someone from class called you ugly names and insulted you because you are different, wear more modest clothes, etc.?). respondents also assessed on a three-degree scale (1never; 2sometimes; 3often) if the statements relate to them. possible scores ranged from 1 to 3, with higher scores indicating a higher level of victimization. results in order to respond to tasks set in our research, we conducted frequency, descriptive and correlation analysis, followed by multiple regression analysis, the results of which are presented below. the socioeconomic profile of the respondents socioeconomic status of the respondents was analyzed for the purpose of fulfilling the first goal of the research. most of the students live with their mother and their father (85.2%), in a family with two children (they have one brother or sister; 36.7%), then family with three children (31%), and the least of them live in a family with four or more children (23.4%). families of most students live in their own house or flat (89.7%), and most of them estimate their housing conditions as average (67%). in contrast, 6.6% of students live as tenants, 3.1% with relatives, while only 2.8% of students estimate their living conditions as bad. more than half of respondents have their own room (62.3%) or share it with a sibling (35.2%), while 2.1% sleep in a room with several members of their family. also, a large number of students have a computer, with 41.5% of them having their own personal computer, while others share it with other family members (49%), and 8.7% do not have a computer. regarding their parents’ education, most of them finished high school (47.5% of mothers and 47.2% of fathers). 14.6% of students reported low level of their mothers’ education, having completed only primary school (13.1%), and some not even that (1.5%). low level of fathers’ education has been reported by 11.5% of students (completing only primary school – 10.2%, and 1.3% not completing primary school), while 21% of mothers and 22.1% of fathers completed colleges and faculties. in terms of the employment status, respondents stated that most mothers and fathers have a full-time job (53.8% of mothers and 68.9% of fathers), however, 187 the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences even 29.8% of mothers and 8% of fathers are unemployed or occasionally employed (11.6% of mothers and 7.2% of fathers), and around 1% work but are not being paid. in the category of pensioners there are more fathers (10.3%) than mothers (1.6%). regarding material income of parents, the respondents claimed that the most common amount of income of parents is between 2,000 and 6,000 kn (50.5% of mothers and 48.9% of fathers). some parents fall into category of poorest, receiving social aid (5.7% of mothers and 5.1% of fathers), and those who have income less than 2,000 kn(11.1% of mothers and 5.2% of fathers). some students said their parents have income above 6,000 kn and more (11.6% of mothers and 28.7% of fathers). it is interesting to note than in categories of unemployed and low paid there are more mothers, while fathers are better paid. however, even 21% of students did not answer the question about their mother’s income, and 12.1% did not answer the question about the income of father. it is possible that some children really do not know exact details about the material status of the family, but it is possible that they did not want to declare themselves about it, because they did answer other questions. it is well known that children are ashamed of poverty and afraid of stigmatization so they often try to hide the conditions in which they live. it is possible that their parents are not telling them about their financial problems because they are trying to protect them and they also encourage them not to talk about it in order to avoid being identified as poor, because they are worried and aware about the negative connotations (mcdonald, 2008; ridge, 2009). thus, the results show that the surveyed students estimated their housing conditions as average, and on the scale of material deprivation they assessed their status as good (m=3.18; sd=0.52). mcdonald (2008) warns about the tendency of poor children to describe their material situation as average, although they are aware of the difference. most students go on family vacation for at least a weak once a year (41.6%), and slightly fewer students go twice a year or more often (33.8%). however, 10.7% of students have never been on a vacation with their family. about half of students reported they never fret over the financial situation of their family (49%), while slightly less students claim they do it sometimes (43.8%), and 6.6% students fret over it often or very often. descriptive indicators of victimization and committing peer violence according to the second task of the research, we analyzed frequency of victimization and participation of respondents in committing violence and the results are shown in table 1. 188 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences table 1: frequency of victimization and committing violence committingviolence victimization n % n % nevercommittedviolence 385 63,1% werenevervictims 321 52,6% committedviolence 212 34,8% we r e v i c t i m sofviolence 276 45,7% no answer 13 2,1% no answer 13 2,1 those who committed violence or were victims are those who had total score on scales higher than 1, so they answered at least one question on the scale with sometimes. as seen in the table, one third of children (34.8%) has at least once, during the school year, committed violence, and almost half (45.7%) of them were victims of violence at least once, because they were different in terms of a weaker financial status. the connection of socio-demographic variables and material deprivation with victimization and committing peer violence in order to respond to the third task of the research, we conducted correlation analysis, and table 2 shows correlation of demographic variables, ses variables and material deprivation with committing violence and victimization of the respondents. correlations were not calculated on variables that relate to who the child lives with and where the family lives, since almost all students answered they lived with their mother and father (85.2%) and in their own house or flat (87.9%). variables of material income of mother and father were not included because of the large number of responses missing (21% and 12.1%). for the same reasons, these variables were also not included in regression analysis. table 2: correlation of demographic variables and ses variables with committing violence and victimization committing violence victimization r n r n gender -,143** 575 ,016 575 age ,083* 593 ,082* 593 grade ,098* 597 ,062 597 location of school ,023 591 -,108** 591 189 the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences academic achievement -,121** 593 -,133** 593 number of children in family ,036 595 ,036 595 housing conditions ,005 592 -,053 592 having their own room -,035 595 ,091* 595 having a computer -,073 592 ,065 592 education of mother -,037 576 -,166** 576 education of father -,017 565 -,075 565 work status of mother -,033 584 -,088* 584 work status of father -,056 572 -,180** 572 frequency of going on vacation ,037 595 -,139** 595 fear of financial situation ,047 594 ,223** 594 material deprivation -,041 595 -,249** 595 *p < 0,05; **p < 0,01 in terms of committing violence, demographic variables that are in statistically significant correlation are: gender (r = -0.143; p< 0.01),where boys are those who are being violent more often and age (r = 0.083; p< 0.05), where older children are acting violently more often, and grade (r = 0.098; p<0.05), where eighth grade students act more violently than students in seventh gradeit has also been determined that academic achievement significantly correlates with frequency of committing violence (r = -0.121; p< 0.01), where students with poorer academic achievement are being violent more often. even though all aforementioned correlations are very low, they are all statistically significant. however, the results show that none of the ses variables or material deprivation variables has a statistically significant correlation with committing violence. when it comes to victimization, demographic variables that are in statistically significant correlation are: age (r = 0.082; p< 0.05), where older children are being victims of violence more often and academic achievement (r = -0.133; p< 0.01), and 190 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences those who are less successful are victimized more often. the results shown in table 2 show that students from schools in rural areas are victimized more often than students from schools in urban areas (r = -0.108; p< 0.01). as for the connection between variables of ses and victimization, it was found that children who are more often victimized are those who do not have their own room (r = 0.091; p< 0.05), whose mothers have lower level of education (r = -0.166; p< 0.01), and whose mothers (r = -0.088; p< 0.05) and fathers (r = -0.180; p< 0.01) have lower employment status. children who go on family vacation less frequently are also being victimized more often (r = -0.139; p< 0.01), together with children who demonstrate more fear because of financial status of the family (r = 0.223; p< 0.01). material deprivation also correlates on a statistically significant level with victimization, where children who are more materially deprived are also victimized more often (r = -0.249; p< 0.01). the results of regression analysis to determine which variables of socioeconomic status and material deprivation predict victimization and committing violence, we conducted regression analysis. table 3 shows the results obtained in regression analysis with ses variables being predictor variables. together with ses variables, analysis included demographic variables as control variables and only variable not included was grade because of large conceptual overlap with the variable age. table 3: results of regression analysis with ses variables as predictors criteria > committing violence victimization predictor β β gender -,128** ,031 age ,034 ,054 location of school ,038 -,037 academic achievement -,070 -,053 number of children in family ,042 -,003 housing conditions -,035 -,008 having their own room -,077 ,045 having a computer -,065 -,001 education of mother -,010 -,160** education of father ,008 ,097 work status of mother -,005 ,015 work status of father -,034 -,111* 191 the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences frequency of going on vacation ,077 -,025 fear of financial situation ,087 ,182** r ,225* ,331** r2 ,051* ,110** n 501 501 *p < 0,05; **p < 0,01 none of the independent ses variables analyzed in this paper has shown to be a predictor of committing peer violence, and when it comes to demographic variables, only gender has shown to be a predictor for committing violence at school, with boys being more likely to behave violently compared to girls (β = -0,128; p< 0,01). this set of predictors (ses and demographic variables) explained 5.1% of total variance (p< 0.05) of committing peer violence. in terms of ses variables, education of mother (β = -0,160; p< 0,01), work status of the father (β = -0,111; p< 0,05) and fear over financial situation (β = 0,182; p< 0,01) are independently significant in predicting victimization in school, and the respondents whose mothers have lower level of education, whose fathers have poorer work status and who fear over financial status in the family more often, are also being more victimized. out of demographic variables, none predict victimization independently. this set of predictors (ses and demographic variables) explained 11% of total variance (p<0.01) of victimization. table 4: results of regression analysis with the variable of material deprivation as predictor criteria -> committing violence victimization predictor β β gender -,115** ,068 age ,068 ,083* location of school ,021 -,066 academic achievement -,085* -,095* material deprivation -,031 -,253** r ,182** ,310** r2 ,033** ,088** n 562 562 *p < 0,05; **p < 0,01 192 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences according to results obtained in regression analysis, shown in table 4, material deprivation independently does not significantly predict committing peer violence, and when it comes to demographic variables, gender (β = -0,115; p< 0,01) and academic achievement (β = -0,085; p< 0,05) have independently and significantly predicted committing violence. more violent groups are boys and students with poorer academic achievement. this set of predictors (material deprivation and demographic variables) explained 3.3% of total variance of committing peer violence. material deprivation independently predicted victimization (β = -0,253; p< 0.01),with respondents with lower level of material deprivation more often being victims of their peers. demographic variables of age (β = 0,083; p< 0,05) and school achievement (β = -0,095; p< 0,05) independently predict victimization on a significant level, with older children and those with poorer academic achievement being more often victimized. this set of predictors (material deprivation and demographic variables) explained significant 8.8% of total variance (p<0.01) of victimization. in conclusion, it should be noted that the examined variables explain a relatively small proportion of the variance in peer violence, which suggests that in order to explain this phenomenon, other individual and contextual factors and their interactions also need to be examined. discussion the results show that a third of respondents (34.8%) acted violently at least once during the school year, and almost a half (45.7%) have in the same period experienced violence from their peers. along with the fact that the obtained results are consistent with the findings of many other studies (craig et al., 2009; tokunaga, 2010; rajhvanbulat and ajduković, 2010; fu et al., 2013, hinduja and patchin, 2014), they also warn of the extent of the problem of peer violence in school regardless of different operational variables and determine the intervals at which the violence occurs (weekly, monthly, yearly). the results suggest that in relation to cited studies, there has been an increase in violence, and since the number of violent incidents is growing steadily, there are fears that the problem is getting out of hand (fu et al., 2012; frutos, 2013), despite various prevention programs. but the uniqueness of this research is that questions did not refer to total violence among peers, but to violence which is caused by material status of an individual student. in this respect, these data are indicative and worrying. although peer violence is manifested and analyzed in terms of schools, it certainly exceeds them, so the results of this study need to be seen beyond them, or in a broader context. in addition, what must not be left out is the more prominent general inequality in contemporary society, which 193 the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences very likely affects the behavior of children who actually imitate adults (due et al., 2009). it is possible that nowadays they internalize preferred behavior that is only aimed at success, at all costs, and are based on aggression, power and domination, and ultimately encourage differences, distrust, hostility and violence (pickett and wilkinson, 2007; elgar et al., 2013). literature (jansen et al., 2012) suggests that in explaining participation of children in bullying, socioeconomic inequalities should be taken into account. starting from that framework, this study analyzes peer violence as a reflection of specific socioeconomic family conditions which the child lives in. as for the perpetrators of violence, the mentioned finding that one third of the respondents act violently towards their colleagues who are different bysocioeconomic characteristics (modest clothing, shoes, noticeable lack of financial resources) needs to cause concern. even more so, data was collected by personal testimonies, and students have the tendency to give socially acceptable answers and sometimes they do not see their behavior as violent but as a joke, entertainment, especially that which is happening in the virtual world. the results of the conducted research show that the perpetrators of violence are often male students, of poor school achievement and those that are older, so male students with poorer school achievement are also predictors for committing violence. although perpetrators of violence are both girls and boys, in this, as well as in other studies (cook et al., 2010; velki, 2012; beran, 2012; fu et al., 2012; elgar et al. 2013), it was found that boys, in comparison to girls, are more numerous in the category of bullies and are at greater risk for committing violence. this result can also be explained by the influence of a wider social environment in which show-offs of male strength are still tolerated, encouraged and generally considered acceptable behavior for boys (beran, 2012). in accordance to social stereotypes, boys want to be seen as strong and powerful, whom others admire, especially girls. some authors (edgar et al., 2013) see violent behavior of boys as an attempt to maintain their social status in an unjust society. this particularly becomes evident in adolescence, when they fight for their position, dominance and popularity in the classroom. the finding that the perpetrators of violence are often older students and eighth-grade students, was expected and consistent with the results of similar studies (olweus, 1998; velki, 2012), which confirms that older boys show more violent behavior. the result that poorer school achievement correlates, but is also a statistically significant predictor for committing violence, is quite expected and in line with 194 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences other research (olweus, 1998) which explain violent behavior as a reaction for failure in school. but according to results of this research, poorer school achievement is associated with victimization, which is also confirmed by other studies (glew et al., 2005; holt et al., 2007). thus glew et al., (2005) reported that 90% of victims of peer violence have lower grades, one third have problems concentrating, and they also experience feelings of fear and anxiety, all of which can have an adverse effect on their academic results. in explaining the relation between poor academic achievement and victimization, it needs to be noted that nowadays, in culture that is focused on success at all costs, students who have poorer academic results are often exposed to mockery, ridicule, insults, exclusion from school activities, meaning nonphysical, but also physical forms of violence. embarrassment and violence they experience results in stress that hinders their school functioning and has a negative impact on their school success. people generally have a tendency to avoid embarrassing situations to students who experience such situations, and especially because of feeling of insecurity, children start skipping classes. sense of insecurity at school and unjustified absenteeism have a devastating effect on school performance. therefore, the correlation between academic achievement and violence is multi causal – lower success may be the cause of violence, but also its consequence, which again encourages bullying. on the other hand, academic achievement can be a protective factor from a series of problems in behavior of students and even violence. therefore, in preventive school programs, strategies which allow every child to achieve success, according to their individual capabilities, must have a central place. analysis of connection between demographic variables with victimization also showed that there are more victims of peer violence in schools in rural areas, which can be explained by the fact that in such areas, people know more about living conditions of others, and children from such background are more sensitive to stigmatizations and differences (ridge, 2009). the conducted analysis shows that none of the ses variables, as well as material deprivation, does not correlate with committing violence, nor predicts it, and similar results were stated by sourander et al. (2000). it seems that in relation to ses, other variables, such as family cohesion and interaction and parental actions (šimić šašić et al., 2011) have a significant role in violent behavior toward peers. and when it comes to victims of violence, a large number of recent studies (ridge, 2009; jankauskiene et al., 2008; due et al.,, 2009; fu et al., 2012) suggest a connection between socioeconomic situation of the family and victimization of the child, which is also supported by the results of this research. 195 the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences it is interesting that almost all ses variables that imply that a family is poor (child not having its own room, mother has lower level of education, mother and father have a lower work status, family rarely goes on vacations, children fearing family financial situation) are correlated in a statistically significant way with victimization. although correlations are not high, they are indicative and statistically significant. some of these variables independently predict victimization significantly, meaning that respondents whose mothers have a lower level of education, whose fathers have a lower work status and who fear financial situation in the family are also victimized more often. material deprivation is also a significant predictor of victimization. this also confirms the research hypothesis that adolescents living in economically disadvantaged conditions as well as materially deprived are at greater risk of being victims of peer violence. as previously mentioned, a part of respondents in this study did not answer questions about material income of parents, so it could have affected results because it is an important indicator of ses, but when it comes to disadvantaged children, it should be noted that it cannot be reduced to only income indicators, but an equally important role is also give to other factors such as education and employment of parents (mcdonald, 2008). employment of parents is taken as an important indicator of ses because it is a relatively stable category which indirectly indicates earning (economic status) and non-economic, social characteristics, such as prestige etc. (jansen et al., 2012). lower level of education of a mother, who in our, still traditional culture, still takes more care of the child’s education and spends more time with the child, indicates insecure employment, low income and disadvantaged social positions, and is associated with quality of parenting. katz et al. (2007) point out that mothers with lower level of education provide less support (emotional, social, instrumental and information), use inappropriate educational methods etc. children who receive no emotional support from their parents feel alienated, unhappy, sad, which all leads them into a position of a victim of peer violence. other studies confirm that low level of education of parents increases the risk of victimization twice (nordhagen et al., 2005). fathers are still seen as breadwinners, and their work status is considered a direct information on the social and economic status of the family, and according to this research results, it is also a predictor of victimization. correlation was also found between mother’s and father’s work status with victimization of children. mothers, and especially fathers who are unemployed or work but are not being paid 196 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences or are only occasionally employed, are in an unenviable situation and are exposed to stress. not surprisingly, they are irritable, frustrated, demoralized and have difficulties coping with feelings of powerlessness and failure. such condition is followed by despair, hopelessness, numbness, and eventually depression (katz et al., 2007). it is therefore more difficult for them to focus on needs of a child and adequately respond to them (jensen, 2009; conger et al., 2010; martin et al., 2010) even when they want to. crisis family situations can reduce the availability of parental sensitivity and often lead to inappropriate, angry, inconsistent reactions, even the use of harsh discipline. thus children are exposed to example and stress. ridge (2009) claims that if parents are under stress, their children are also likely to be. katz et al. (2007:44) consider stress a fundamental mechanism that connects unfavourable financial situation with unfavourable outcomes. in addition to the fact that parents are their possible models whose passive behavior and feeling of helplessness they imitate, childrenare often victims of their harsh verbal and physical actions (bilić et al., 2012). violence begins at home and goes on at school, as well as the stress they are exposed to, while it is all multiplied with brutal acts from peers at school. what they experience in their parents’ home, especially the feelings of rejection and sadness, they transmit to their school environment, which again leads them into a position of victim, but now of peer violence. another variable correlating with victimization is a lack of room, an intimate corner, which children perceive as a problem that prevents them from inviting their peers over and hanging out with them. in fact, they perceive their disadvantaged position through social relations, not only through material resources (mcdonald, 2008). an unfavourable material situation can especially be evident in school through lack of school supplies, books or difficulties in meeting social needs (school trips, pocket money, birthday parties, outings). these elements of material deprivation, as stated by children, bring them into unequal position in comparison to their peers. not being able to follow trends (clothes, shoes, mobile phones, etc.) is a visible indicator of poverty and difference in relation to the group they belong to. the difference is also contributed by a lack of access to resources (activities that are important for success) which have a vital role in their well-being and makes it difficult for them to be what they can be (kletečkiradović, 2011). deprivation in on area causes deprivation in other areas too (ridge, 2009), it affects their educational and life chances. this inability of individuals to realize their potential and rights (elgar et al., 2013) is referred to as socioeconomic inequality. since all children, especially adolescents, have similar expectations and the 197 the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences need to compare themselves with others, those who have difficulties with their material and social reality, it is not simple or easy for them while doing so. on the one hand, it is for a personal feeling of being different, and on the other, it is peer pressure and relations. a sense of being different, inferior and deprived both emotionally and materially, personally affects them very hard and they are quite aware of the implications of such a situation (ridge, 2009). additionally, they think they are not likeable or worthy to be loved, which all cumulatively affects their feeling of personal value and emotional stability (rohner et al., 2012). such negative mental presentations determine their relations with others. they cannot trust others, are too sensitive to reactions of others and generally perceive their environment as an unsafe, threatening and dangerous place (rohner et al., 2012). the main consequences are shame, sadness and fear of being different and excluded, which can be felt in all domains of child’s functioning (ridge, 2009). one should not also forget the fear and burden of a family situation, which was found, according to these research results, to be a correlate and predictor of victimization. inability to have clothes, shoes and mobile phones like others or go on trips with their families and classmates often results in discrimination, prejudice and social isolation (mcdonald, 2008). rejection and exclusion from the group and encouraging others not to be friends with them, is a form of relational violence which leaves devastating consequences. but, for the same reason, children are often exposed to verbal violence, ridicule, humiliation directly, and also electronically. situations of physical violence are not rare either. so, because of socioeconomicinequality, students can be victims of multiple victimization (holt et al., 2007), which, according to this research results, affects a large number of children, almost half of the respondents. on the one hand, rejecting behavior often experienced in a family then strengthened in school, and on the other hand, disrespect, humiliation and open attacks on dignity, have serious consequences (jensen, 2009; ridge, 2009; neubourg et al., 2014). they affect health (physical consequences), again affect social relation (relational consequences) and the child’s behavior (behavioral consequences). they also have a negative effect on school life (passivity and lack of interest in school, week sense of belonging, poorer academic achievement, absenteeism). most visible consequences are those in the emotional domain, and are associated with sadness, depression, hopelessness, despair, fear of marginalization, together with deep emotional trauma and development of depressive symptoms in adolescence. studies which jensen (2009) refers to confirm that poverty is a predictor of depression in adolescence. all of the above leads into a position of a victim who are described as timid, withdrawn, quieter, more cautious and sensitive, passive, submissive, suffer198 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences ing from lack of self-esteem and having a negative attitude towards themselves and their position, they feel ashamed and unaccepted, unattractive (olweus, 1998 : 39). finally, it should be noted that not all children who grow up in materially unfavourableconditions show negative development outcomes (kletečkiradović, 2011), and it depends on their individual characteristics, but also their parents’ behavior. it is also necessary to repeat that many parents, in spite of their scarce material resources, behave in an appropriate and responsible manner (katz et al., 2007), and raise their children with love and protect them from bad influence from the environment and even family problems. limitations although this research results are indicative, they still have methodological limitations. first of all, only one source of data was used, self-estimation, and more sources (parents, teachers) would probably generate a more objective image of the analyzed problems. in addition, not all data about material income of the family were obtained. future researchers are suggested to form a composite variable of financial status of the family or poverty. conclusion contrary to expectations, at the beginning of 21st century, there is almost an imposition of the need to develop awareness of socioeconomic inequality and material deprivation and encourage understanding of everyday reality of a growing number of children and adolescents who live in poor financial conditions. socioeconomic problems in family are even more evident at school through lack of school supplies and access to activities which most people consider necessary (sports, language learning etc.) and difficulties with fulfilling social needs of students (trips, outings, celebrations etc.). deprivation in one area often causes deprivation in others so children, unlike their peers who come from families with better ses, do not have equal chances to develop their potential and rights and realize their life goals. in addition, because of everything mentioned above, they frequently experience embarrassment and violence from their classmates. the fact that it is a widely spread problem is also confirmed by the results of a research which show that during one school year, one third of children (34.8%) has committed at least once, and one half (45.7%) experienced peer violence, because they are different by socioeconomic characteristics (more modest clothes, shoes, evident lack of financial resources). the problem of peer violence must be 199 the role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences seen in the context of socioeconomic social inequalities, but as well as a reflection of specific socioeconomic family conditions which students live in. findings of this research show that adolescents who live in economically unfavourable conditions and are materially deprived are at greater risk of being victims of peer violence. it is interesting that almost all ses variables which indicate poor families (not having own room, mother has a lower level of education, mother and father have a low work status, the family rarely goes on vacation, children are afraid of the family financial situation) are in correlation with victimization. some of them, in a statistically significant way, independently predict victimization, i.e. respondents whose mothers have lower level of education, whose fathers have a lower work status, who are materially deprived at school and who fear the family’s financial situation more, are more often victims of peer violence. at school, poor children are often associated with various embarrassing situations, such as mischief, fights, stealing, and contrary to this stereotype, our research results show that the analyzed ses variables or material deprivation do not predict committing violence. practitioners, general public and policy makers are suggested to pay attention and help a growing number of children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families. they need to be in focus of all school preventive programs, especially because of greater risk for them being exposed to peer violence. 200 v. bilić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences references bilić, v., buljan flander, g., 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(2009). school bullying among us adolescents: physical, verbal, relational and cyber. journal of adolescent health, 45 (4), 368-375. internet resources: beran, t. (2012) bullying: what are the differences between boys and girls? www.education.com/ reference/article/ref_bullying_differences (accessedon5.11. 2013). hinduja, s., patchin, j. w. (2014). cyberbullying fact sheet: identification, prevention, and response. cyberbullying research center. retrieved [accessed in june, 2015], http://www.cyberbullying. us.dewaporn.com/cyberbullying-identification-prevention-response.pdf. rohner, r. p., khaleque, a., cournoyer, d. e. (2012). introduction to parental acceptance-rejection theory, methods, evidence, and implications. http://csiar.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/ sites/494/2014/02/introduction-to-parental-acceptance-3-27-12.pdf, (accessed on 5. 7. 2015). swearer napolitano, s. m. (2011).risk factor for and ouctomes of bullying and victimizationeducational psychology papaers.www.http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/edpsyhpapers/132(accessed: 24. 06. 2014). microsoft word 7. mary kennan herbert poems.docx epiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 4 spring 2010 poems  by  mary kennan herberti    mr. death is on a roll   scythe sits in the corner, temporarily.  ghoulish prankster feels merry,  (hopefully not unduly wary), hunched  over his keyboard, lists of the doomed  taped to the monitor. who in december  will hear his tap on the door? remember  gift wrap, shipping and weeping are free.  bony fingers tap dance over the keys,  technology makes the reaper’s job easy.  now all he needs is a cheap supply  of winding sheets, maybe fleece‐lined,  and for funereal fun, a well‐cut cassock and–   don’t cry– a holiday vacation, a hammock.     kids are starving  my mother points out that children in europe are ashamed.  they go hungry while i refuse lunch. same old, same  old. "they scrape the cracks in the table tops, with their  fingernails, to get a few crumbs, a few nibbles for dinner."  odd, but i am not thinking of declined spinach and bread,  but of wooden tables so old and scarred they easily provide  ingredients of a meal in carvings of initials on aged oak,  initials of lovers one might view later, when eager for a coke.  curious memories of world war ii: safe in the heartland,  i cut and paste and show what little i can defend.        132 day of the dead  a cool holiday, more fun than halloween.  love those skeletons partying on and on.  a colorful jolly day, skulls full of whatever.  skulls made of sugar, gravestones of candy.  those amigos know how to celebrate life   after death, or whatever works. my brother  is dead, a kid of sixty. his hands reach out  as if holding a newspaper, extra, extra,  eyes open too, looking for the weather!   maybe he was searching for the day of  the dead! i wish i could send a new trio   of guitarists to play for his initiation  at the center of all these lively festivities!   hola! he can now dance in a cantina  all day, all night– forever, if he wishes.                                                                 i mary kennan herbert is an american poet originally from st. louis, missouri.  currently she lives in brooklyn,  new york, and teaches literature and writing courses at long island university in brooklyn.  her poems have been  published in numerous literary and theological journals in many countries around the world.  several collections  of her poetry have been published by ginninderra press in australia. 41 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences what happened in the sahara?a transition over the bound of semi-consciousness in paul bowles’ the sheltering sky sina movaghati kharazmi university of tehran, iran abstract paul bowles’ prodigious novel, the sheltering sky, is an epitome of a narrative about the modern man and his existentialistic dilemmas. after six decades from its initial publication, the sheltering sky, still, attracts multitudinous attention for its esoteric and abstruse nature of the occurrences. in regard to nomadic-diasporic lifestyle of the author, and his protagonists, normally, many critical approaches to the text have shifted toward hyper-textual perusals. by mentioning the noteworthy scholarly works which have been done hitherto, this article tries to be faithful to the text as much as possible, and elucidates the myth that, what has really happened in the sahara which coerced the protagonists to forget their identities to this great extent; thus, hectic and deranged, divagating in the desert, inclining toward the destruction of their identities. in this article, in regard to textual substantiations, ‘sand’ and ‘time’ are adduced as the two crucial elements which balance two main protagonists’ state of semiconsciousness, in the inside journey of self. also, the concept of ‘humanistic identity,’ from bowles’ viewpoint, in connection to the setting of the novel, will be discussed. keywords: paul bowles; the sheltering sky; semi-consciousness; identity; nature. introduction upon reading paul bowles’ outrageous novel, the sheltering sky, the cogitation of caspar david friedrich’s unparalleled painting, der wanderer über dem nebelmeer,1 came and lingered on my mind incessantly. although, i tried to abstain myself from the exorbitant labeling of artistic and literary works, i couldn’t easily disregard the “existential crisis,” which can be found in both works. themes like “alienation, the loss of sustaining religious beliefs, the sense of anxiety and guilt, the growing conviction that life is, at bottom, meaningless” 1) wanderer above the sea of fog; an oil painting composed in 1818. d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 23 2 42 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences (quinn 152) etc. tolled in my head like a ceaseless and rampant bell. perhaps the analogy of bowles and friedrich, with each other, is a little bit out of logic and slightly fanciful, but the story of the three sisters, who wanted to drink tea in sahara, has compelled me to reminisce the painting which i, personally, commend with profuse fondness. similar to friedrich’s wanderer, outka, mimouna and aïchaare standing on the top of the hill; and all three–or it’s better to say, all four–become perplexed and bewildered in a vis-à-vis with the immense nature which they are confronting. the three sisters melt in the ardor of reunion with targui2 and pass beyond the veil, on the high of the dune; and in lieu of tea, sand embraces their glasses. it strikes me, all the four characters can never reach the things which they see and desire. friedrich’s 19th century painting is mystic and opaque; the landscape detaches itself from the 18th century’s “nature,” which was viewed in age of enlightenment as something “orderly and benign … which conflict, disaster, and passion scarcely existed” (wilson and reill 416). besides, it seems that no sense of unification exists between the wanderer and nature. kindred to the painting, bowles’ nature is, also, a “neutral-malevolent” which “is prepared to destroy those who are out of tune with” it (evans 45). however, if friedrich’s 19th century work of art foreshadows a vague and fogbound future, bowles’ 20th century novel announces numerous wars, colonization, destruction in the name of liberation, and above all, self-centeredness of mankind; in a place where all meanings fade away, and man, who thinks he has the power to conquer his very own existence, outweighs his logic over everything else, and in result, feels no approbation and respect for the nature which surrounds him. this is the sort of atmosphere at the time of port’s arrival in post-war, colonized north africa, and the impact of this selfcentered logic can be traced in chapter four, when “port crushes large insects under his feet,” and then his endogenous utterance reflects: “i’m in a bad way and so what?”3 (the sheltering sky 16) this self-centered logic is not so distant from the morality; however, this moralization “appears to emanate from the very core of an individual, as that individual confronts and opposes socially inculcated systems of 2) an arabian male traveler, who usually travels during night. 3) from exegesis perspective, there can be at least three rational implications from port’s inward utterance: 1it can simply mean that he lost track of his course. 2second implication can refer to the ill-natured act of crushing the insects. 3on deeper level, “bad way” implies the act of infidelity which soon port is going to do. in any case, “so what?” denotes the loose and unrestrained conscience of the protagonist. s. m. kharazmi 43 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences value” (armstrong 27). indeed, what assimilates modern novels’ heroes with friedrich’s wanderer is the substantial fact that modern hero is disparate from the environment that he inhabits. the conflict of modern fiction is formed in this way because not only the hero does not have an acceptable and universal character, but also he occasionally steps in the deviant routes of life, and challenges the basis and fundament of the issues which has been taken as the irrefutable realities for many generations. (and what technique can be more gratifying than the stream of consciousness to aid the novelist to enact his idea of modern conflict?) in this regard, the sheltering sky4 has succeeded to become the accurate embodiment of the modern hero’s conflict, as it has been acknowledged for “its ability to show the development of the individual in the modern world” (reese, “verbal violence” 87). it should be taken into deliberation that the discussion on the noteworthiness of the hero in modern fiction cannot be drastically focused on one sole character. chiefly in tss, all the pivotal characters form a unity jointly. for instance, wayne pounds claims that “tunner and kit are phases of port’s self, the one purely physical, the other (kit, port’s wife) atavistic” (428). until now, no major period in the history of fiction-writing had the power to overthrow the supremacy of modern fiction; the glorious history of fiction will continue to revolve around modern hero which is a cloistered and avant-garde misfit. jay gatsby, holden caulfield, professor humbert humbert, leopold bloom, atticus finch and others, all and all, see themselves as the restrained captives of the societies which do not have parallel values with them; however, they, somehow, are compelled to adapt themselves to the social norms. but what differentiates bowles and his heroes from the other akin figures of this category is the self-exiling and nomadic lifestyle that they chose. as syrine c. hout puts it: “in fact, the protagonists ‘desert’ their morally deficient cultures in pursuit of a purer and richer life that they believe they ‘deserve’ to have or, at least, to explore” (114). it should be noted that even though the spoor of ‘clash of cultures’ is always traced as the prevalent theme of bowles’ narratives, such theme never viewed as the momentous core of his fiction. wendy lesser, who notices an authorship and alteration in bowles’ works, asserts that prior to bowles, writers such as henry james, d. h. lawrence and e. m. forster had exploited the same topic and theme; and if “for james, the distinguishing element” of the cultures “was money or class; for lawrence, it was virility; and for forster,” it was “faith … for bowles 4) henceforth, the sheltering sky would be abbreviated as tss. what happened in the sahara? 44 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the touchstone” was “violence” (402). although this article does not attempt to pry on other aspects of bowles’ works rather than ‘consciousness,’ but i indulged myself to bring to reader’s attention two most salient features and innovations of bowles’ narratives. as mentioned earlier, the first one was the interwoven nature of bowles’ characters. and the second one is, his touchstone to segregate the two encountering cultures. also, to this day, each distinct standpoint could not repudiate the heavy presence of ‘barren lands’ in bowles’ fiction. as divergent critics with varying approaches, directly or indirectly, referred to ‘desert’ as an inseparable inter node in bowles’ texts. one of the radical assertion belongs to timothy weiss, who believes bowles exploits the african scenery as a muse to himself. weiss writes: “bowles drew inspiration from the terrains (cityscapes, landscapes), … they were to him a muse of sorts” (38). prior to weiss, many had relinquished the literal ‘desert’ of the narrative, and reiterated on the metaphorical ‘desert’ of self; critics believed that bowles’ characters should be viewed as “expatriates manqué, individuals who inhabit alien terrains of self ” (olson 336). as in tss, port and kit accept “destiny by going into the desolate self and having tea in the sahara” (shir 73), therefore ‘desert’ becomes “a metaphor for the characters’ barren psychological landscapes” (weik von mossner 220). in fact, it seems that all critics have a consensus that ‘barren lands’ play metaphorical roles in bowles’ narratives which forge heavy linkages with psychological issues of the characters. in this regard, i want to have a closer inspection of the text, in respect to the ‘consciousness’ of the characters. perhaps one of the overriding reasons for the popularity of tss arises from the fact that it conforms “to popular expectations of an adventure story, to the extent that it could be recuperated within … popular generic framework, and thus easily consumed” (reese, “my work” 11). the novel narrates the escapade of three middle-aged americans, who leave the motherland, and arrive at post-war north african terrains. port and kit moresby, along with their friend tunner, neglect the serene and cultivated european regions for the unrefined and unmapped african enclaves; therefore, the displacement of the protagonists “from the civil world and encompassment by the desert world” becomes “the central motif of the sheltering sky” (hilfer 272). after the outbreak of a contagious disease, port’s health deteriorates and he eventually reposes in the depths of the sahara. dejected and deranged, kit (port’s wife) heads off into the interminable wasteland and becomes a mistress to a young arab merchant called belqassim. s. m. kharazmi 45 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the idiosyncratic attributions of time and sand the tale of the three sisters on the top of the dune, which hitherto mentioned, not only “foreshadows kit’s experience later in the book, it also functions as an allegory for the entire novel,” (alarcón 37) as it “epitomises the travel from inside to outside and reflects in miniature the sheltering sky’s overall plot” (benlemlih 115). two distinctive components have moulded this particular exemplum. the first is ‘time,’ as it constrains the three sisters to seize the day and travel in favor of the long-repressed predilection; ergo, they savvy that they “must go anyway, even without money” (tss 30). the subsequent one is the terrene feature (which ‘sand’ is the most paradigmatic exemplification of this kind), as it is nothing but terra firma in their path to the quiescent demise. ‘time,’ and awareness of its passage, can be discerned as a cardinal element which harnesses human consciousness to locate or define its very own existence in materialistic world. however, it can be eyed in tss that the more the protagonists advance towards the depths of sahara, time indicators become less efficacious. the indicators are either damaged or mislaid. for instance, in chapter five, when port stays in marhnia’s tent, it appears that his watch cannot pinpoint the proper time: “he looked anxiously at his watch; it had stopped at five minutes of two. but it was still going. surely it must be later than that;” (tss29) or in chapter twenty-four, after kit “bathed lengthily” in garden’s pool, this thought came to her that she “shall never be hysterical again.” andin that state of euphoria, she was not “conscious of the cessation of the drums.” afterwards when “she bent to take her wrist watch from the stone where she had laid it. it was not there;” hence, “she could not verify the hour” (tss 241-242). marcellette williams even views ‘sky’ as a symbol for the concept of ‘time,’ and asserts that “the sky itself is a symbol for the limit of one’s existence, time. at the moment of port’s death his semi-consciousness pierces the delicate fabric of the sheltering sky and takes repose” (419). moreover, based on the inferences from chapter twenty-four, it seems that if an individual can get rid of the cognizance about the passage of time, or the finite quiddity of existence, the individual can cross the bound of semi-consciousness and set foot on the realm of non-being or non-existence which is homologue to the realm of unconsciousness. in chapter twenty-four port and author’s voices mingle in this averment that “death is always on the way, but the fact that you don’t know when it will arrive seems to take away from the what happened in the sahara? 46 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences finiteness of life,” and this shapes our notion which results in view “of life as an inexhaustible well” and thence, to us, life appears to become “limitless” (tss 232). in fact, the yearning to grasp this ‘limitlessness’ forms the protagonists’ destinies, as in the end “port achieves the non-being of death, while kit gives herself up to a state of non-being ruled over by eros” (spindler 39). in binary modus operandi of ratiocination, we have to mull over on what is implemented as a representative of unconsciousness in the narrative; the answer can be found in bowles’ grains (sand) of unconsciousness, which are exploited as an emblem for the state of lethargy, delirium and unconsciousness. as an instance, in chapter twenty-four when kit and tunner slide into the moonlit cup of sand, tunner shakes kit’s arm “as one does to awaken a person from a deep sleep” (tss 228). perhaps bowles found his emblem of unconsciousness in grains of sand because “each grain of sand sent out a fragment of the polar light shed from above (tss 227) and for sure, above the limit of sky is ‘timelessness’ and ‘limitlessness.’ not to mention, unlike port, kit is not willing to easily let go of her western-civilized consciousness and amalgamate with the realm of unconsciousness; therefore, now and then in the narrative, kit stops “to shake sand from her shoe” (tss 123). another instance of this disinclination can be found in chapter twenty-three when “the cold sand filled” kit and tunner’s “shoes: they took” the shoes “off and continued” (tss 227). as a matter of fact, kit’s evasion of sand and her avoidance of involvement, becomes an insignia of her resistance for joining the realm of unconsciousness. it is the same resistant power that in chapter nineteen forces kit to ‘look at her things:’ “i felt i’d simply die if i didn’t see something civilized soon” (tss 155). in this respect, in most part of the journey kit is walking on the thin line of semi-consciousness. even she withstands the powerful sandstorm in chapter twenty-two which onslaughts their room in a military fort in sba; sand enfolds everything inside the room and this acts as an exordium to port’s quietus, but again kit, who is not psyched up to experience limitlessness, resists and outlasts the sands of unconsciousness: she arose and moved about the room stiffly in the cold, trying to raise as little dust as possible while she made her toilet. but the dust lay thick on everything. she was conscious of a defect in her functioning—it was as if an entire section of her mind were numb. she felt the lack there: an enormous blind spot inside her—but she could not locate it. and as if from a distance she watched the fumbling s. m. kharazmi 47 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences gestures her hands made as they came in contact with the objects and the garments. “this has got to stop,” she said to herself. “this has got to stop.” but she did not know quite what she meant. nothing could stop; everything always went on. (tss 202) as port and kit roam “across the sahara, suffering paroxysms now and then of lust or hatred,” they see “chiefly the anonymous sand” (sutcliffe 731). moreover, protagonists’ tumultuous and to psy-turvical progress in the desert, is synchronized with the bereftness of consciousness, identity and civilization. it should be taken into consideration that the state of lethargy and inertia (timelessness), which is ascribed to a cannabis house in chapter seventeen (tss 133), is equipollent to kit’s experience of ‘timelessness,’ which happens in chapter twenty-four, after port’s death: “these were the first moments of a new existence, a strange one in which she already glimpsed the element of timelessness that would surround her”(tss 231). thus, as the setting develops to find itself in exotic and far-flung frames, the narrative grows to become afarfetched, hashish-like hallucination; an american dies in sahara, in the midst of the twentieth century, and his wife spend most of her time sleeping in stuffy, caliginous chamber of an arab merchant. kit’s siesta also plays its own momentousness to her state of unconsciousness, and as marcellette williams puts it: “in the last section of the sheltering sky kit spends most of her time asleep in belqassim’s windowless room. she” does not use sleep to “refresh and restore” herself “for the following day but rather as a means of remaining mindlessly content in belqassim’s absence” (415). still, when the sands of unconsciousness accumulated, the concave-convex dunes appear in sahara. and the act of moving upward and downward from each dune, creates a form of lullaby for each cameleer; the same thing happens to kit in chapter twenty-six, after she is picked up by belqassim’s caravan. bowles’ description of the ride in the sahara and his delineation of observing a palm tree during the ride, solely, indicates the delusional mirage of traveler’s eyes: at the hour when the sun shone its hottest, they came within sight of an oasis. the dunes here leveled off to make the terrain nearly flat. in a landscape made gray by too much light, the few hundred palms at first were no more than a line of darker gray at the horizon—a line which varied in thickness as the eye beheld it, moving like a slowrunning liquid: a wide band, a long gray cliff, nothing at all, then once more the thin penciled border between the earth and the sky … what happened in the sahara? 48 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences soon a solitary thing detached itself from the undecided mass on the horizon, rising suddenly like a djinn into the air. a moment later it subsided, shortened, was merely a distant palm standing quite still on the edge of the oasis. (tss 264-265) as the upshot of the above mentioned interactions, ‘time’ and ‘sand’ equipoise the states of consciousness and unconsciousness of the narrative; this fabricates a state of semi-consciousness for port and kit (which is the prevalent state through the major parts of the novel). but we have to bear in mind that the exertion of trespassing the bound of semiconsciousness to the realm of unknown, has diverse repercussions for each protagonist, and that is why linda wagner comes to this asseveration that “port’s death balanced against kit’s action and sexuality” (17). if the physical insurgency of kit is aligned to port’s demise, this is because of the fact that physical and materialistic aspects of the narrative are accredited to kit, and spiritual or non-materialistic aspects are attributed to port. in chapter two, port recounts his vision and dream (more of a nightmare) to kit and tunner; and again in chapter fifteen, while he was dreaming in his sleep, he suddenly wakes up and only recalls that “the soul is the weariest part of the body” (tss 118). but unlike port, kit is prowling all the time; she follows this ‘hysterical’ attitude towards everything which is unknown for her, and this attitude of hers has a more vivid appearance in the inceptive chapters of the novel. she gets hysterical in the hotel room, or on the train to boussif. she also has this puerile materialistic attitude toward people; for example, when he sees the face of an arab “for no reason she” thinks “of a lion’s muzzle” (tss 78). as a matter of fact, the saharan sands of unconsciousness summon both port and kit into the realm of ‘non-being’ in accordance to the definition of each character. port, who has spiritual characteristics, undergoes a ‘non-being’ entity and peregrinates to the infinity above the sheltering sky; and kit, who has physical characteristics, becomes unconscious of her body, and therefore, capitulates herself to whomever she finds along the way. “it is at this point that kit gives into the madness which has been lurking in the back of her mind since their arrival on the continent, and she vanishes from the world” (martino 93). the process of kit’s yielding her physical entity to saharan sands can be observed in chapter twenty-six, where she often finds “herself washing in full view of the entire camp, because there” is “nothing behind which she” can “conceal herself ” (tss 271). this nonchalant attitude about her somatic s. m. kharazmi 49 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences facet is drastically opposed to her behavior at the time of their arrival in north africa; for example, in chapter six when tunner knocked on her door, she suddenly became “frantic,” and “began to look about the room for the right bathrobe” (tss 39) before confronting tunner. other noticeable instances of kit paying attention to her somatic beauty, in early stages of the novel, can be found in chapter three where she is “sitting by the open window filling her nails” (tss 13), or in chapter eight, where she broaches to tunner that she has to “go … and find a beauty parlor” (tss 58). so it can be observed that both port and kit trespass the bound of semi-consciousness in their own way and in accordance to their own definitions; ‘time’ and ‘sand’ act as the apparatuses which controls characters’ state of consciousness and unconsciousness, respectively. identity and the origin of travel from the beginning of tss, bowles mentions port’s mapping of the geographical journey in north africa; in fact, this geographical journey evokes the metaphorical journey of self. but if we consider the outside and inside journey as coequals, then, exclusive attention should be paid to geographical or the natural environment (sahara) of north africa. brian edwards, in his riveting reading of tss arrives at the illation that there are other engrossing triangles rather than the love triangle between port, kit and tunner; his reading puts emphasis on the role of sahara as protagonist (or antagonist) of the novel. edwards writes: the sheltering sky depicts three americans in their thirties–port and kit moresby and their friend tunner. in this love triangle in the desert, the secondary triangles are especially compelling: port, kit, and the sahara; errant americans, stir-crazy french colonials, colonized algerians. port and kit are fleeing the decadence of the west, attempting to escape the incursion of what the novel calls “the mechanistic age”. they are also attempting to bridge a gap in their marriage. to do both, they travel further and further “in” to the sahara, ditching tunner. (with his “paramount” good looks … tunner stands in for the america they have left behind; he also has seduced kit.) (315) in his definition of the narratives’ triangles, brian edwards actually personifies sahara as a protagonist (or antagonist of the novel). this personification is exceedingly stimulating, because as oliver evans contends: “in a typical bowles story, a civilized individual comes in contact with an alien environment and is defeated by it” (44). in this what happened in the sahara? 50 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences respect, not only the nature should be viewed as a sentient entity, but also it should be considered as a prevailing force, which can easily dominate other entities. as some critics reckon, in sooth, there is a close interconnection between natural environments and human’s identity because “the natural environment is always a shaping force of individual and group psychology and identity–and that this force can only be ignored or suppressed at a price” (armbruster and wallace 7). in fact, the ‘price’ that armbruster and wallace venture to moot, can be addressed as the deprivation and impoverishment of individual’s identity in tss; the humanistic identity, is the entity which lingers with us from the very moment of our birth, and from that point, we constantly annex the mundane appendages of the temporal world to it, and in truth, we expound our existence around the pivot of our identity until the day of our demise. the origin of travel–at least for port–is the unification with his ‘ancestors;’ in this way, instead of traveling to modern regions, he progresses into the undeveloped territories of the world; and in the way to his spiritual purification–or unification with nature–he balks himself from any kind of identity-like labeling. for example, in chapter twenty-two, the author reveals that at the time of their “disembarkation” in north africa, port left “a blank after the word profession on their papers as he had done in his passport” (tss 192-193). or in chapter twelve, he elucidates on how he does not entail to carry a passport in order to corroborate he has a right to live: i don’t have to justify my existence by any such primitive means. the fact that i breathe is my justification. if humanity doesn’t consider that a justification, it can do what it likes to me. i’m not going to carry a passport to existence around with me, to prove i have the right to be here! i’m here! i’m in the world! but my world’s not humanity’s world. it’s the world as i see it. (tss 88-89) regarding the concept of identity, the story gets to the enthralling point when port’s passport is purloined by eric lyle; because “this taking of port’s identity comes at the” pivotal “point where he is making his final plunge into the interior” (campbell 142). as in chapter twenty, port procure this self-awareness “that it rather suited his fancy to be going off with no proof of his identity to a hidden desert town about which no one could tell him anything” (tss163). even the sarcastic lash of bowles at the conception of ‘identity’ and the interpretation of modern existence– at least to me–gets more thought-provoking when the nature of port’s s. m. kharazmi 51 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences disease kept hidden from the reader. many critics and reviewers opined that port was suffered from typhoid, but firmly enunciating, actually there is no point in the story that the nature of port’s malady is specified altogether; we just know that it is a contagious disease, but where and when and how it conceived remain a mystery. therefore, metaphorically, maybe port prepensely divests himself of his own identity, and then unconsciously, travels through ‘the sheltering sky; ’because, veritably, port preferred the anonymous, nomadic-diasporic way of living over the modern, well-off and insouciant western lifestyle; so when he had the chance, he embraced his fate and voyages to the sky. in contrast to port, tunner is a kind of american who actually thinks of arabs as an inferior race, and hence he resists the idea of existing without any certificate of his existence, and as a result, he does not yield to live unconscious and identity-less in north africa. thus, it can be presumed that port and tunner’s ‘infrastructures’ are heterogeneous. as suver puts it: “it is ironic that tunner was brought along by port since port spends most of the novel trying to ditch him in the way he tries to leave behind his american identity. it’s therefore appropriate that tunner is portrayed as very much the typical american” (30). and it should be noted that tunner is the person who retrieves the stolen passports. “throughout this novel there is a constant, if misguided, desire in both port and kit to find some kind of wholeness in life,” (summerville 309-310) therefore, unlike tunner, bowles’ spellbinding game of identity follows a homogeneous procedure for kit as well as port. kit, who bears the physical entity of the narrative–as discussed above–is forced by belqassim to revamp her attire, and dress as an african boy; hence, rather than a fixed identity, she experiences a mutated one. in addition to undergoing manhood in disguise, kit, whose quondam marriage was a deceptive monogamy, is subjected to a polygamous marriage, not in a sense of practicing the lifestyle, but in a sense that her character gradually develops to accept the fact of being one of belqassim’s doxies. the veiled and astounding state of identity, in the narrative, is not only incarcerated to port and kit. even we, as the spectators of these cataclysmic events, cannot find out the nature of relationship between eric lyle and his mother. shockingly, at the end of book one, mohammed, the hotelkeeper in aïn krorfa, insists that he has seen eric and mrs. lyle in bed together: “i opened the door of room eleven, and there they are in the bed. naturally. you believed him when he said she what happened in the sahara? 52 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences was his mother?… you should have seen what i saw … then you would know what a liar he was!” (tss 137) while we are struggling to analyze and substantiate the new information about the lyles, port apprises kit of mohammed’s discovery, and kit, without surprise, avers “her story of having seen” the lyles’ “passports, so that there was no doubt of their being mother and son” (tss 157). on the other hand, in a hyper-textual conjecture, the reader has already realized that eric is a passport thief, and in consequence, it can be a highly unerring supposition that the so called lyles, are roaming in north africa with fake ids, and whenever they are in need of money, they pilfer one or two things in order to subsist. thus, it is not reliable to consider them as mere tourists and travelogue writers. but if the case is incest or otherwise, one thing can be asserted for certain, that nothing is certain–at least in bowles’ view– regarding a human’s identity in the austere environment of the sahara. bowles puts this query in front of us that what is really the ‘human identity’ or ‘human relations’ and, above all, what is the nucleus of ‘human identity?’ and what would happen if ‘human’ becomes devoid and unconscious of its own identity? for the prevention from sheer loitering on the subject, perhaps this focal passage from the dénouement of the novel can pave the way for further discussions. kit, who has been, probably, wandering in the french’s colonized regions, now is captured and held in the custody of the french. for a few brief junctures, bowles unlatches the gate of kit’s consciousness, and allots what is happening in her mind: she knew that the constant references to her closed eyes were being made only in order to trap her into protesting: “but my eyes are open.” then they would say: “ah, your eyes are open, are they? then—look!” and there she would be, defenseless before the awful image of herself, and the pain would begin. (tss 304) in divers places, kit looks in the mirror, and whenever she does not find one, she utilizes the small hand mirror in her valise, in order to see herself. but, indeed, what happened in the dénouement of the novel that kit is this terrified to open her eyes and look at herself ? kit–who traversed both phases of consciousness, and semi-consciousness, and become denuded of her identity–comes to this discernment that there is not going to be a hope for the farcical and preposterous appellation of ‘humanity,’ as she fathoms that nothing but horror is lurking beyond the veil of ‘the sheltering sky. ’because the knowledge she gained, propels her to come to this recognition that “everyone is isolated from s. m. kharazmi 53 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences everyone else.” and “the concept of society is like a cushion to protect us from the knowledge of that isolation.” therefore, the whole concept of ‘humanity’ and ‘civilization’ is “a fiction that serves as an anesthetic” (bailey). plus, the route to kit’s awareness is catalyzed by the ubiquitous presence of nature and natural elements; and in this respect, “bowles’s desert becomes–like conrad’s jungle and eliot’s wasteland–a symbolic landscape, emblematic of a world in which individuals are radically isolated from one another (mcinerney 188). as bowles, himself, puts it: “the transportation of characters to such settings often acts as a catalyst or a detonator” (bailey). the stark and astringent setting of the desert reduces both port and kit to their most fundamental desideratums; when port stops ‘being human,’ he becomes only ‘a cloaca’ for ‘chemical processes:’ the quietness of his dialogue made more monstrous the groans of pain which an instant later issued from within him. “what is it?” she cried in a frenzy. but he could not hear her. she knelt on her mattress and looked at him, unable to decide what to do. little by little he grew silent, but he did not open his eyes. for a while she studied the inert body as it lay there beneath the covers, which rose and fell slightly with the rapid respiration. “he’s stopped being human,” she said to herself. illness reduces man to his basic state: a cloaca in which the chemical processes continue. the meaningless hegemony of the involuntary. it was the ultimate taboo stretched out there beside her, helpless and terrifying beyond all reason. (tss 208) in sanford pinkser’s words, kit goes beyond her husband’s experience and “becomes the automaton extraordinaire that” port, “despite his selfconscious efforts, could not achieve. if port imagines some existential truth, some liberating reality” which the “civilization has suppressed, kit realizes all too clearly that she is ‘in the middle of horror. ’hers is the ‘perfect knowledge’ that there is no hope–not even of the sort port clings to” (8). the description of kit’s shelterless condition in chapter twentyone is the quintessence of what happened to kit in the sahara: she stopped, with the sensation that she was about to faint. she was shaking with fatigue, and her mouth and throat felt as though they were made of tin. the sun poured down on the bare earth; there was not a square inch of shadow, save at their feet. her mind went back to the many times when, as a child, she had held a reading glass over some hapless insect, following it along the ground in its frenzied attempts to escape the increasingly accurate focusing of the lens, until what happened in the sahara? 54 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences finally she touched it with the blinding pinpoint of light, when as if by magic it ceased running, and she watched it slowly wither and begin to smoke. she felt that if she looked up she would find the sun grown to monstrous proportions. (tss 185) the fact that now kit sees herself as a mere insect has a vigorous incongruity with what we see in the opening chapters of the narrative– which hitherto discussed–when ‘port crushes large insects under his feet.’ parallel to port’s basic state of ‘chemical processes,’ kit is reduced to be a mere animal: “it was so long since she had canalized her thoughts by speaking aloud, and she had grown accustomed to acting without the consciousness of being in the act. she did only the things she found herself already doing” (tss 270). this description from book three, connotes that kit is engaged in an animalistic-instinctual activity, which leaves no room for internal consciousness. from this point, ‘onward,’ actually her attitude towards living, more associates with an animalistic way of existence rather than the humanistic traits. the encaged kit in chapter twenty-seven, ‘screams’ as she feels “the soft features of the face beneath her clenched finger.” she tries to “rip the thing to shreds.” she also bites “into soft flesh” and clamps “her jaws.” “the sensation” is “delicious,” as she tastes “the warm salt blood on her tongue” (tss 282). this account of kit’s scrimmage with belqassim’s wives is homologous to her other concatenation of action in book third. in most part of book third, we see her only eating, drinking, sleeping and, above all, satisfying the needs and pleasures of her dominator(s); as “the identity of others has ceased to have any meaning for kit except in their ability to dominate her, because she can define herself only in the experience of being dominated” (wolff xii). a gargantuan portion of the omnipresent, animalistic traits are embedded in book three; therefore, it would be lucrative to look at the three divisions of the novel in accordance to the subject of our discussion. even the tripartite structure of the plot, also, instigates this hypothesis that all of the narrative functions as the inner journey of self; as book one, “tea in the sahara,” hints at the ardor for the inception of the journey, book two, “the earth’s sharp edge,” insinuate at the sharp and tenuous edge of semi-consciousness, where the protagonists are going to ‘pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky;’ and, as a result, transit from the border of semi-consciousness to the realm of unconsciousness and, therefore, ascend to “the sky,” which is the title s. m. kharazmi 55 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences of book three. furthermore, many natural traits, like ‘sun’ and ‘desert, ’expedite this quest of self; as it is noticeable in chapter nineteen, port’s faculty of consciousness (or it is better to say his typical consciousness of a modern man) is shown as a contrasting element with the natural elements of the desert: the landscape was there, and more than ever he felt he could not reach it. the rocks and the sky were everywhere, ready to absolve him, but as always he carried the obstacle within him. he would have said that as he looked at them, the rocks and the sky ceased being themselves, that in the act of passing into his consciousness, they became impure. (tss 162) the above mentioned explicative passage, reveals its significance when, one chapter later, lieutenant d’armanac, the commander of the military post in bou noura, tells port “the sun is a great purifier” (tss 166) and no impurity can be safe from its scorching heat. as the landscape ‘purifies’ the protagonists (and their transitions get complete), it can be observed in the opening of chapter twenty-eight that kit, who is in fathomless sleep, experiences a trancelike stupor in her reverie: “she lay on the narrow shelf of rock, face down, head hanging over, watching the slow waves moving inward from far out there where the curving horizon rose toward the sky” (tss 293). she finally ‘let go’ and wakes up afterwards. consequently, her collapse can be described as the paradoxical plunge to the sky (kit’s plunge is also parallel with port’s paradoxically necrotic catharsis). indeed, the austere and dour properties of the sahara put it in such an environmental level where nothing can be seen but earth, sand, and sky; ergo, the passage of time– which is the foremost factor for locating our consciousness in universe– cannot be traced in the sense which is perceived by the modern man. therefore, “the natural world in the sheltering sky” becomes “a dark lurking force that drives port and kit deep into death and dissolution … the ecology of this natural world is one of the loss of civilized notions” (marques 288). concluding remarks the protagonists of tss, like their author, are the outcasts of the motherland. but what, in the first place, involve the mind to itself is the nature of this banishment and exile. it seems to me that the ‘modern man,’ with a self-expulsion from the initial community, takes distance what happened in the sahara? 56 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences from the modern society and modern longings, and walks toward a remote place, in pursuit of the lost identity and his unknown ‘ancestors.’ as tennessee williams, in his renowned review of tss, “an allegory of man and his sahara,” writes: the sheltering sky” is the chronicle of such a journey. were it not for the fact that the chief male character, port moresby, succumbs to an epidemic fever during the course of the story, it would not be hard to identify him with mr. bowles himself. like mr. bowles, he is a member of the new york intelligentsia who became weary of being such a member and set out to escape it in remote places. escape it he certainly does. he escapes practically all the appurtenances of civilized modern life. balanced between fascination and dread, he goes deeper and deeper into this dreamlike “awayness. (326) in a territory where nothing but sand, sky and earth can prevail, port is in pursuit of “a very mystical desire for the annihilation of the self ” (almond 312), or purifying his ‘identity’ as a human. the existentialistic taunt of bowles to the word ‘humanity’ becomes so indispensable, that it cannot be easily taken for granted. and if we deduce that the nature of kit’s apprehension from looking at herself in the mirror is congruent with whatever which the characters from the fictions of conrad, kafka, dostoevsky and camus had seen, we have to accept that the sheltering sky walks shoulder to shoulder with the literary giants, thus it should be reckoned as one of the great classics. port and kit, who view the world of ‘humanity’ as a place for the wiles and irenic infidelities– instead of living in it with a distraught conscience–prefer to surrender to their instincts and give up themselves thoroughly to the truculent ‘nature.’ and as hamdaoui notes, both port and kit come to different repercussions in their own routes to capitulation: bowles gives the reader two distinct versions of what might lie behind the sheltering sky: the void or chaos. behind port’s sky there was nothing, which meant for him peace and repose. but when kit glimpses behind the veil, like conrad’s kurtz, she sees “horror”. instead of peace, she finds psychic anarchy. (65-66) it should be noted that the origin of challenging the fundamental and pre-established humanistic mores and social proprieties, is not only limited to bowles or modern writers. it can be assumed that bowles, in challenging the fundamental issues of human beings, was inspired from the writers of the age of enlightenment like diderot and sterne s. m. kharazmi 57 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences (not in a satiric mode of confrontation with the issues of ‘existence,’ but as a realistic look at the surroundings). as the nature of the marital relationship between port and kit, evokes the famous fable of “the sheath and the knife” in diderot’s jacques the fatalist.5 i should conclude that, in my estimation, with the use of sheer comparison and analysis neither one can praise a literary work nor disesteem it; in fact, it is the ‘time’ itself which can put its approval seal at a work and be the best judge for proving its grandeur and acceptability. after six decades, which it was initially published, the sheltering sky is still one of the best-sellers and most-read amongst the fictions, and this fact puts it in the place of the most valued classics. also, the modern library publishing company considered the sheltering sky as one of the 100 best novels of all time.6 5) the famous fable of “the sheath and the knife” derived from pages 97 and 98 of jacques the fatalist and his master. oxford: oxford university press, 1999. print. translated from the french source by david coward: jacques. look here, sir, the lofty thoughts you voiced just now out of the blue are all very well, but they don’t compare with an old fable people used to tell in my village on autumn evenings. master. what fable was that? jacques. the fable of the sheath and the knife. one day, the sheath and the knife began to quarrel. the knife said to sheath: ‘sheath, my love, you are a fickle jade, for every day you accommodate new knives.’ the sheath answered the knife: ‘knife, my dear, you are a faithless knave, for every day you change sheaths.’ ‘sheath, that is not what you promised me.’ ‘knife, you deceived me first.’ this quarrel occurred at table. the man sitting between the sheath and the knife spoke up saying: ‘you, sheath, and you, knife, were both right to change, since change is what suits the both of you. but you were quite wrong to promise that you would not change. knife, can you not see that god made you to fit more than one sheath? and you, sheath, to accommodate more than one knife? you thought certain knives were mad when they vowed to dispense altogether with sheaths, and you thought certain sheaths mad when they vowed to remain closed to all knives. but you did not think that you were just as mad as they when you, sheath, swore to limit yourself to one knife, and you, knife, never to look beyond on sheath.’ 6) “100 best novels « modern library”. visit the webpage: http://www.modernlibrary. com/top-100/100-best-novels/ what happened in the sahara? 58 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences references alarcón, daniel cooper. 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(2014). “the sheltering sky: an introduction”. the sheltering sky. paul bowles. 65th anv ed. new york: ecco. xi-xvi. print. s. m. kharazmi 105 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the third way nebojšavasić faculty of philosophy, zenica, bih abstract apart from the traditional division “the teacher-centered” or “the student-centered education” the third option is, according to my mind and experience, more promising, more effective and more flexible. namely, “the teacher-centered” education looks like an obsolete and worn-out concept, while “the student-centered” is mostly recognized as contemporary approach which must totally replace the old concept with predominant teacher’s authority. the teacher-centered notion encapsulates teachers as the focal points of education. in other words teachers are organizers who rule the whole process of education, while students are mostly passive observers which active participation is strictly limited. on the other hand “the student-centered” education allegedly eliminates all major deficiencies of traditional authoritarian style fostering students’ participation in all phases of education. the focus is shifted from teaching to learning (from teachers to students). the solution seems workable, efficient and self-evident which is not the case. instead of two extreme positions the third option emerges as more efficient; “the quality-centered education”. the purpose of my paper is to prove the benefits of the “third approach” and define its major characteristics. key words: approaches, concepts, contemporary, the third option 106 n. vasić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction the third way deals with the set of dichotomies which reflect a tendency to sharply divide opposite methodological trends without leaving enough space for compromising solutions. the history of techniques and principles in language teaching (teaching methods) is a substantial aspect of the knowledge base for teachers. educators expand a repertoire of techniques which are not reducible to one single method uncritically accepted as the most effective and overwhelming, in other words stale and overly routinized (prabhu, 1990). seasoned teachers have at their disposal a large, diverse stock of best practices (arends, 1998) which encapsulates the unique qualities, personal preferences and idiosyncrasies of their students. despite all potential benefits from a study of methods there is a latent threat in the assumption that the knowledge of methods is mere prescription which should be followed by the book. primarily all methods are per definition decontextualized and, as such, they are detached from “a real life” in our classrooms. the way of implementing certain methods depends on the teacher’s competences, the institutional constraints, students’ back-up knowledge, learning outcomes, the number of lessons / lectures etc. plus exigencies in the classroom (unprecedented moments which can’t be anticipated). the third way implies potentials hidden in a creative and highly personal approach which refutes the set of typical dichotomies and the rigidity of teaching methods. to exemplify the third way we can start with the common notions of the conflicting and antagonistic strategies (the teacher-centeredvs student-centered education). most contemporary teachers stick to the concept of the student-centered education while conservative teachers find teacher-centered strategy more profitable and effective. this dichotomy neglects “the third way” solution which is neither the teacher-centerednor the student-centered but the quality-centered approach. the goal of this paper is to promote “the third-way” strategy highlighting benefits from avoiding most common dichotomies and empowering both teachers and students with more flexible approach which is not closed in the strict theoretical frames. the study of methods is inspiring in spite of its limitations and a radical criticism which tends to skip all theoretical frames as futile effort to comprise a real life within dogmatic concepts. if we recognize the invaluable contribution to the quality of both teaching and learning the study of methods encourage continuing educationin the lifelong process of learning to teach (larsen-freeman, 1998). grammar-translation vs direct method we can start our topic with the comparison between the grammar-translation (the classical method) and the direct method recently revived as a method 107 the third way epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences which promotes learning how to use a foreign language in communication. the grammar-translation method was first used in the teaching of the classical languages, latin and greek (chastain, 1988) which underlying assumption (or rationale) is that through the study of the grammar of the target language students will be able to cope with the grammatical features of their native language. the usage of the target language is neglected as marginal, while grammar is treated as the focal point of all languages which, combined with translation, serves as the very foundation of learning. the direct-method insists on one “none-negotiable principle” – translation is not allowed, which is fostered by the conviction that meaning is to be conveyed directly in the target language through various visual aids and demonstrations (diller, 1978) the following principles could be observed as the marrow of the grammar-translation and the direct-method (gt and dm) which reflect the antagonism between the two methods. the “the-third way” (tw) potential solutions are added after contrasting principles: • (gt) an essential purpose of learning foreign languages is reading literature. • (dm) the main objective is learning how to communicate (gaining communicative competence) • (tw) both is needed (intensive reading is one of four major language skills), but the accent is more on the communicative competence. reading itself contributes effectively to our communicative competence (through reading we enlarge vocabulary, subconsciously assimilate grammar forms etc.) reading is not waste of precious time if we know how to incorporate inspiring and informative reading sessions into typical communicative practice. • (gt) the primary skills are gradually developed through reading and writing while speaking, listening and pronunciation are rather irrelevant. • (dm) speaking and listening are of utmost significance. pronunciation should be worked on from the beginning of language instructions • (tw) the third-way is comprehensible approach which combines all four major language skills without neglecting the necessity to practice pronunciation as one of the vital parts of language instructions. • (gt) students pay a lot of attention to analysing and assimilating the forms of the target language. • (dm) forms of the target language are acquired as the result of the massive exposure (primarily speaking and listening). strict analysis of the language forms is needless – all we need is gained through the process of acquisition. • (tw) the prime principle is the quality of the target language – if it is easier to clarify and analyse certain grammatical forms then it is highly recommended. although the emphasis is on the process of acquisition learning and analysing is not abandoned. whatever facilitates our teaching and learning process is welcomed. • (gt) deductive reasoning of explicit grammatical rules is predominantly used. 108 n. vasić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences • (dm) inductive reasoning (the bottom-up) is more efficient and more dominant then deductive (the top-down procedure). • (tw) there is no exclusive approach; the choice between deductive and inductive reasoning depends on topics, the complexity of the content, the age of students, learning outcomes etc. • (gt) translation is often used in the form of the contrastive analyses. • (dm) translation is almost never used; the target language is the only way of communication in the classrooms. • (tw) translation is used whenever it is needed – to contrast language forms, adequately understand idiomatic expressions, explain grammar etc. the above mentioned peculiar features of the grammar-translation and the direct-method serve as the illustration of the “third-way approach” which in its contextualized form seeks the most profitable ways of acquiring the target language without diminishing the relevance of traditional learning (jeremy, 2007) common dichotomies the following list contains the most frequent dichotomies which are stumbling blocks in the history of teaching foreign languages (the whole spectrum contains polarities taken as antagonistic tendencies and principles). 1. the nature of language (as one of distinguishing features in methodology and major dichotomy) runs through the whole linguistics in the last decades. the notion of language could be understood from its formal or functional aspect, meaning that formal aspect relates to the traditional teaching while functional aspect (contemporary trend) underlines the pragmatic nature of language, in other words its applicative usage in the form of communicative competence. the third way accentuates functional aspect without marginalizing its formal nature (grammar, analyses, elaborations, explicit clarifications, memorizing rules etc.) the point is that the quality-centered education never dispels certain techniques or language principles because it is in vogue or a fashionable trend. the ultimate goal is to use “everything what works well” without ostracising methods (even the most obsolete) in its totality or glorifying any particular method as the finite solution. 2. the nature of learning is either construe as analytic (cognitive, intellectual) or experiential (related to progressive education going back to the work of john dewey). the third way embraces both concepts with preference towards experiential learning and an adequate focus on the analytic nature of languages. cognitive efforts are appreciated as utterly meaningful and profound whenever we deal with demanding theoretical issues, complexities and subtleties which can’t be resolved in solely experiential learning. 3. the goals of sl learning are mainly focused on either accuracy or communication 109 the third way epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences (fluency). the third way rejects all extreme and mutually exclusive approaches and rather seeks the complementary nature of uncompromising views. the final assessment relies on the goals of education in the concrete context without prescriptive and undeviating guidelines. teachers should define the most optimum solution regardless of all theoretical arguments which, in its hyperbolical forms, unjustifiably expel momentous techniques and principles in the name of dubious “bee-lines” in education (fiercely advocated by some teachers and experts as the all-embracing and impeccable concepts). the relevance of communication should not be stressed at the expense of accuracy if we are not willing to accept broken english as the final result of purely communicative approach which sacrifices accuracy in the name of fluency. 4. the type of syllabus could be considered from two different angles whether the focus is mainly on the system (grammar, phonology, vocabulary etc.) or whether it is focused more on the skills (reading, speaking, writing,listening). the choice between the two aspects (systems or skills) is rather artificial and arbitrary from the “third-way angle” because of the fact that systems and skills are integrated in most current syllabuses. the focus is rather flexible; it moves from one side to the other depending on learning outcomes. the third way is more rational adjustment to the student’s need and learning outcomes than an abrupt or radical shift from one polarity to its opposite counterpart. 5. if syllabuses are segregated english is taught as a separate subject, if integrated then english is connected with other subjects (the content-based learning etc.) the third way option tends to use main positive features of english as a segregated and integrated subject; segregation implies an intensive focus on the target language while integration incorporates different subjects in which english is used as the means of communication 6. the process of learning could foster either cognitive (intellectual) or affective factors (inducing positive emotions the level of stress is minimized while anxiety-free active participation maximized). the third way approach liberates teachers and learners from one-sided solutions seeking the most efficient mixture between the two more complementary then mutually exclusive concepts. 7. the teaching process could be either transmissive (traditional ex-cathedra lecturing style) or more dialogic (interactive). the third way is adaptable and contextualized which means that both teaching styles have its place in the contemporary education. 8. the top-down strategy (deductive teaching) is more adequate for young learners while the bottom-up strategy (inductive teaching) is more effective with secondary school and university students. the third way never sticks to only one strategy; teachers themselves should modify their teaching styles according to their knowledge and experience. 110 n. vasić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences 9. bilingual teaching leaves the room for the native language whenever it is justified (complexities and shades in translation contrasting analyses, certain grammatical topics etc.), while monolingual approach insists only on the target language as the means of communication between teachers and students. the third way solution finds convincing rationale in both teaching principles. constructivism vs direct teaching in recent years the burning and still unsolved debate is related to the benefits of “constructed” knowledge versus instructed knowledge (rowe, 2006). the advocates of “constructed knowledge” (constructivists) adamantly believe that the profound nature of learning requires individual creativeness as the principal source of personal understanding, reflection and action. predigested information transmitted by a teacher and presented in a textbook (zevenbergen, 1995) are not presupposed as the mandatory stage for deepening the existing knowledge. on the other hand, instructivists uphold the merits and efficacy of explicit or direct teaching. a structured course is taken as the very foundation necessary for sequential and orderly manner, which is reviewed regularly, assessed and practised. the opposing approaches are referred in the current professional literature as “progressive methods” versus “traditional didactic teaching” (adkisson& mccoy, 2006), or as “minimally guided instruction” and “explicit instructions”. the underlying principles of constructivism were formulated by john dewey, jean piaget and jerome bruner who emphasized the relevance of firsthand experience and various sorts of activities derived from the process of learning. the russian psychologist lew vygotskyexpanded the concept of constructivism by collaborative social interaction which is achievable in the zone of proximal development. vygotsky introduced “social constructivism” with accent on feedback, discussion and sharing of ideas, while piaget’s “cognitive constructivism” underlines the intellectual development (less on social interaction). constructivist nomenclature comprises the following set of terms; a class of students has become “community of learners”; learning by doing has become “process approach” or “experiential learning”; learning has become “knowledge construction”, while the support provided by teachers, adults or more knowledgeable peers is expressed by the term “scaffolding”. the constructivist concept (active learning) promotes new challenging roles of the teacher such as facilitator and supporter, rather than controller (organizer or instructor). a pervading assumption of constructivist rationale is that students are eager to learn (that they possess strong intrinsic motivation), but it is more likely that the level of motivation of most stu111 the third way epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences dents is average which will not suffice if teachers rely entirely on constructivism (experiential learning). a constructivist “find-out-for-yourself ” approach is not fruitful when it comes to young learners (basic literacy and numeracy learning). for most children demand to actively discover certain rules, definitions or shades of meaning proves to be rather formidable and futile. jonassen (1992) developed a three-stage model of knowledge acquisition: stage 1 – initial language acquisition stage 2 – advanced knowledge stage 3 – expertise jonassen agrees that direct teaching is highly effective if it is related to initial knowledge acquisition while the levels of advanced knowledge and expertise mostly benefit from a constructive strategy. higher-order critical reading (as well as profound comprehension) belongs to advanced knowledge effectively transmitted by the strategy of the constructive teaching, while establishing basic skills is realized and enabled by the direct teaching. constructive approach as the set of unstructured discovery-type activities is inefficient for the achieving learning outcomes if students are not equipped with sound independent learning skills (presley and mccormick, 1995). as the example of the harsh criticism referred to constructivism delpit (1988, p. 287) quoted one student: “i didn’t feel she was teaching us anything. she wanted us to correct each other’s papers and we were there to learn from her. she didn’t teach us anything, absolutely nothing.”if teachers insist on solely student-centered activities one of potential problems is constructing misconceptions which are unnecessary diversions from desired learning outcomes. related to time-consuming constructivist strategy kirnschner (2006, p. 80) points that: “as a consequence, learners can engage in problem-solving activities for extended periods and learn almost nothing.”according to rosenshine (1986)the direct-teaching comprises the following six major components: • daily review • clear presentation of new material • guided practice by students • immediate correction and feedback from teacher • independent practice • weekly and monthly reviews direct instruction (di) was initially devised by engelmann at the university of oregon as a fast-paced method of teaching that includes intensive interaction between students and teachers. in order to be effective di procedures are founded on reinforcement, clear objectives, regular error correction, modelling, high response rate and practice to mastery. all steps are teachable and learnable if lesson 112 n. vasić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences contents are sufficiently reduced and transmitted in a way which enables students to learn correctly. to avoid potential weaknesses of di (they could be too prescriptive, too highly structured and too rapidly paced) teachers must pay particular attention to comprehension checks and feedback. to compensate potential weaknesses of di a much less structured form of direct teaching is introduced in the form of interactive whole-class teaching which is particularly accepted in the united kingdom and some other countries. interactive whole-class teaching engage all students as active participants which generates a high level of attention enhanced by dialogue, asking questions and personal contributions which are nor reduced to one-sided (excathedra) style of lecturing. without being constrained by rigidly structured lessons interactive model comprises essential features of direct teaching and, as such, it is delivered in digestible chunks of knowledge. all forms of direct teaching methods encapsulate a repertoire of the following skills and competences (peter, 2008, p.17): • planning the content and method of delivery (including appropriate use of audio visual equipment and ict) • managing the available time efficiently • presenting the content in an interesting and motivating way • explaining and demonstrating clearly • knowing when and how to explain key points in more detail • using appropriate questioning to focus students’ attention, stimulate their thinking, and check for understanding • dealing with questions raised by students • evaluating students’ learning and participation • giving feedback to students concluding remarks key issues related to suitability of direct teaching methods are harmonized with the core values of the third-way approach (peter westwood, 2008, p.16): • a teaching method must be selected for its suitability in a given context: no single method of teaching can be used for all types of subject matter or for achieving all educational goals. • under what conditions are direct methods appropriate? direct teaching is advocated for the beginning stages of learning new information, skills or strategies. • strengths, weaknesses and applications of direct teaching: direct methods have much to offer if used in appropriate ways to achieve appropriate goals. • optimising and enhancing the effects of teaching methods: all teaching methods can be made more effective by attending to particular aspects of implementation. the third-way strategy of teaching is close to the concept of enhanced lectures if the teacher succinctly presents topics and then engages students in open discus113 the third way epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences sions, while the closure includes consolidating and summarizing key points from the lecture. eggen and kauchak (2004)claim that most of the structural (inherent) weaknesses in the strict lecturing style can be overcome if the teacher-time is interspersed with short dialogic sessions (periods of questioning and discussion). accordingly, ormrod (2000, p. 533) states: “the more students pay attention and the more they engage in meaningful learning, organization, elaboration, and so on, the more they are likely to benefit from the lectures they hear and the textbooks they read.” the third-way avoids one-sided approaches and promotes the strategy of teaching which is based on theoretical assumptions and immediate experience (a given context). there are no final or impeccable methods; every single teacher should adjust his or her teaching style according to personal competences and contextualized factors. such “loose” approach acquires a profound grasp of various (often conflicting) educational trends and creative thinking which is not reducible to sheer acceptance of any single method. the application of principled eclecticism primarily addresses the issue of learner’s needs and styles thus comprising interlanguage skills, comprehensible input, negotiation of meaning and product oriented approach. the third-way strategy is “method without methods”, having in mind that every single method is based on certain exaggerated forms which inevitably suppress some other relevant aspect of teaching. the principal structural flaw of all methods is their alleged all-embracing nature and we need just a bit of immediate experience to realize that the way of teaching is above all radical concepts of the “absolute truth”. teaching is more than science or art and there are no short-cuts to the final solutions, even if they are disguised in the form of scientifically and empirically based methods. the third-way perspective recognizes potentials above the horizon of established or widely accepted methods thus leading to one of the most challenging adventure of encouraging and decoding explicit and hidden capacities of human beings. 114 n. vasić epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences references adkisson, c. & mccoy, l.p. (2006).a study of teachers’ perceptions of high school mathematics instructional methods. in l.p. mccoy (ed.), studies in teaching 2006: research digest (pp.1-6). winston-salem, nc: wake forest university. arends, richard. (1998). learning to teach. (4thed.) new york:mcgraw-hill. delpit, l. (1988). the silenced dialogue: power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children. harward educational review. 58, 280-298 diller, karl c. (1978).the language teaching controversy.rowley, ma: newbury house. eggen, p., &kauchak, d. (2004).educational psychology: windows on classroom (6thed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearsonmerrill. harmer, jeremy. (2007). the practice of english language teaching. (4thed.) essex: pearson longman. jonassen, d.h. (1992). evaluating constructive learning.in t.m. duffy & d.h. jonassen (eds.) con structivism and technology of instructions.hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. kirschner, p.a., sweller, j.,& clark, r.e. (2006). why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: an analyses of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experi ential and inquiry-based teaching. educational psychologist, 4, 2, 75-86 larsen-freeman, diane. (1998). “learning teaching is a lifelong process.” perspectives xxiv/2: 5-11 chastain, kenneth. (1988). developing second language skills. (3rded.) san diego, ca: harcourt brace jovanovich. ormrod, j. (2000). educational psychology: developing learners (3rded.). upper saddle river, nj: merrill-prentice hall peter, w. (2008).what teachers need to know about teaching methods.camberwell: acer press prabhy, n.s. (1990). “there is no best method-why?” tesol quarterly 24/2: 161-76 pressley, m., & mccormick, c.b. (1995).advanced educational psychology for education, researches and policymakers.new york: harper collins. rosenshine, b. (1986). synthesis of research on explicit teaching.educational leadership, 43, 7, 60-69 rowe, k. (2006). effective teaching practices for students with and without learning difficulties: is sues and implications surrounding key findings and recommendations from the national inquiry into the teaching of literacy, australian journal of learning disabilities, 11, 1, 99-115 zevenbergen, r. (1995). constructive approaches in mathematics education. unicorn, 21, 3, 76-81 selvira drahanović* anela hasanagić* introduction while discussing emotions, psychologist often talk about subjective relations toward things, people, events and own behaviors (rot, 2004). human beings have some sort of emotions towards almost everything and anything, even a state of not caring for or neutrality reflects an emotion. thus, there is an emotional relation towards everyone and everything constantly. according to corsini and aurebach (1998) “emotions are strong mental states, usually involving excitement or high energy, that give rise to feeling and passion” (p. 260). emotions can be positive and negative, with different intensity ranging from mild excitement to the eruption of emotion. all emotions consists of cognitive, physiological and behavior components (rathus, 2000). cognitive components means that people perceive some source toward which they develop certain emotion, physiological component is the reaction of body, like epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies volume 7, number 2, 2014 p-issn 2303-6850 e-isnn 1840-3719 exploring the difference between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale abstract numerous studies show that different cultures experience and express emotions in different ways. some cultures tend to express emotions without restrictions while some others try to suppress the overt expression of emotions. these differences are particularly more manifest when eastern and western cultures are compared. defining love differs between different cultures what makes it difficult to determine cultural differences in the concept of love. this might serve as a basis of prejudices about some nations in relation to how they perceive love. the main aim of this study is to explore differences between turkish and bosnian students on triangular love scale. the term love is operationalized by sternberg’s triangular theory of love scale which includes intimacy, passion and commitment component of love. using quasi-experimental design we tested gender differences, the length of current relationship and correlation between them on overall scale and individual subscales. the sample consisted of 87 turkish (22 males and 65 females) and 64 bosnian students (23 males and 41 females) total 151 students (n=151). results of the study show statistically significant differences between turkish and bosnian students on two dimensions in sternberg triangular love scale, intimacy and passion. bosnian students scored higher on these subscales. study results suggest that there are no statistically significant differences between males and females in any subscale. the length of love relationship is positively correlated with intimacy, which indicates that the length of connections weakly associated with intimacy, and that is not associated with the passion and the decision of commitment, suggesting longer relationship does not mean more romantic relationship, and vice versa. keywords: love; relationship; theories of love; triangular theory of love and culture *corresponding author: selvira draganović, anela hasanagić, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: sdraganovic@ius.edu.ba reaction of sympathetic or parasympathetic, while behavior comes as the reaction, and according to which environment becomes aware of the emotion of human being. emotions are many and that is why the number and definitions of emotions differ from theorist to theorist, and varies from time to time. carlson and hatfield (1992) state that in ancient china, there was a belief that there are four basic emotions: happiness, anger, sadness and fear (stated in rathus, 2000). watson (1924) initially thought that there are only three basic emotions: fear, rage and love (rathus, 2000), while paul eckman (1992) and robert plutchik (1984) maintained that, besides those emotions, there are many more (rathus, 2000). those disparities originated a need to define universality in developing emotions. in 1932, bridges defined universality in developing of emotions as arousal (which begins to develop at the beginning of children’s life), from which other emotions are developed (satisfaction and dissatisfaction firstly, and later on, other emotions like rage, proud, love, fear develop (rot 2004). even though there are several classifications of emotions, most of the researchers consent about two basic categories: basic, or primary and complex, or secondary emotions. primary emotions are emotions which develop early in life, such as: fear, anger, happiness and grief or sorrow. some researchers add pleasure into this group. complex emotions developed later in life and, as stated by some, (plutchik for example) are emotions which develop as a result of combination of some basic/primary emotions. secondary or complex emotions are the ones which are directed to other people (love, hate, jealousy, envy, compassion), toward own personality (success, pride, shame, guilt) and esthetic emotions (respect, awe, veneration) (rot, 2004). scientists exploring emotions offer a few approaches or theories of emotions. each theory is a unique approach in explaining development of emotions and emotional differentiation. hence, in order to operationally define or measure and study emotions, it is important to consider one approach or theoretical perspective. jameslange, cannon bard and cognitive and attribution theories of emotions are the most influential theories of emotions often cited in literature. a) the james-lange theory: according to which, stimuli produces bodily changes that in turn generate emotions. this theory suggests that stimuli are keys to physical reactions as well as for emotions. b) the cannon-bard theory: according to this theory, when emotion-producing stimulus is received in brain, centers in the thalamus and hypothalamus send out simultaneous signals to both external muscles and internal organs and back to the cortex. the muscles and organs make the physiological reactions casing emotions, while the cortex interprets the signal as emotion. according to cannon, events that caused emotions give rise to arousal of the sympathetic nervous system, and this arousal regulates and prepares organism to fight or flee reaction. c) cognitive and attribution theories of emotion. these theories support interaction between cognitive (intellectual) and physiological (bodily) influences. every emotion is aroused by acknowledging/knowing something and appraising it. 129 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale just like in any psychological process, genetic and environmental factors are important factors in emotions as well. on one hand, theories which focus on impact of genetics factors find their evidences in research about neurological basis of emotions, genetics, and universal emotional development of human being. on the other hand, theories that support environmental factors point out to the research findings about impact of learning process in developing emotions, as well as cultural diversity in expressing emotions. in this research, we take the stand and go in line with the second theorists and explore the cultural differences in love among turkish and bosnian students. cultural differences in emotions although emotions are universal phenomena, culture plays important role in expression of emotions. bridges (1932, as cited in rot 2004), shows that emotions are developed in the same way in all human beings. firstly arousal begins which later turns into the feeling of satisfaction or dissatisfaction followed by emergence of basic emotions like fear, happiness, disgust etc. this process is universal. however, with some emotional states, different cultures point to different antecedent situations (the way they are versed in, the reactions they agitate and the way they are perceived by the society, for example). different cultures have different ways of expressing their emotions. cultural difference in displaying emotions comes from differences in emotional display rules which are “specific cultural norms or rules that regulate how, when and where a person expresses emotions and how much emotional expression is appropriate” (plotnik & kouyoumdjian 2011, p. 367). some cultures tend to express their emotions freely, while others tend to hold their emotions back (niedenthal, et al. 2006, p. 306). this difference is very prominent when we compare eastern and western cultures. plotnik & kouyoumdjian (2011) cite several researches about cultural differences in emotional expression. for example, americans generally display rules which encourage free emotional expression. eastern cultures, on the other hand, like japanese or russians, do not show emotions as freely as westerners. japanese for example, cover their mouth when laughing, while russians rarely laugh in public, only in private gatherings. eastern cultures are usually perceived as more introverted and collectivistic. therefore they tend to show less emotion in order to keep the well-being of the group intact. members of western cultures express their emotions in order to help themselves even if that requires negative emotions towards the others. these significant diverse types of emotional expression based on culture symbolize the opposite in ways of emotional expression which seem to serve and function well in own cultures. nevertheless, just because eastern cultures tent to be more collectivistic in nature does not mean they do not express their emotions at all. it is more that expression of emotions in eastern cultures is less explicit and obvious and restrained to a more personal and private settings. the importance and impact of romantic/love relationships evidently differs from culture to culture. each culture manifestly and latently prescribes “expected time for” and “appropriate characteristics” of romantic relationships. the so called free love practiced with precautionary measures in eastern cultures is often viewed as an inappropriate 130 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale behavior by parents and teachers and is subject to parental discipline. adolescents are habitually faced with significant restrictions and preventive measure from parents and society at large for early dating. therefore romantic involvement for eastern adolescents appears discouraged and less prevalent compared to those in western cultures, especially, in countries where islamic values dominate. islam restricts sexual contacts and pleasures to spouses in marriage only and forbids pre-marital relations involving physical contact. however, contrary to the western countries, early marriages are favored and quite common in eastern cultures. nonetheless, this practice frequently criticized by westerners, it has some positive impacts as well (less sexual partners and thus less risks for stds for example). theories of love one of the most important and significant emotions, which also represents one of the basic needs of all humans is love. however, explaining and understanding how and why love happens and occurs, is not easy. brown (1987) says, emotions as current mental states are “abnormal bodily changes caused by the agent’s evaluation or appraisal of some object or situation that the agent believes to be of concern to him or her” (p. 14.). badhwar (2003) similarly understands love to be a matter of “one’s overall emotional orientation towards a person, the complex of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings”; as such, love is a matter of having a certain “character structure” (p. 46). central to this complex emotional orientation, as badhwar argues, is what she calls the “look of love”: “an ongoing [emotional] affirmation of the loved object as worthy of existence…for her own sake” (p. 44), an affirmation that involves taking pleasure in your beloved’s wellbeing, providing to the beloved reliable testimony concerning the quality of the beloved’s character and actions (p. 57). the term „love„ is so frequent and common in use everywhere around us, in movies, soap operas, advertisements and real life situations and personal stories. love is an emotion of strong affection and personal/intimate attachment. love is also said to be a virtue representing all human kindness, compassion and affection, or the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another (family, friends, and humankind in general (characteristic to human beings). love may also be described as compassionate and affectionate deeds and care shown towards other humans, one’s self or animals. the term “love” can have a variety of related but distinct meanings within different contexts. different languages often use multiple terms to express some of the different concepts. thus, universal conceptualization of love is complicated, what has lead to emergence of numerous theories of love such as: the color wheel, romantic love, compassionate/passionate love, triangular theory of love. the color wheel model of love, developed by lee who maintains that love styles are similar to the primary colors red, blue and yellow, whose mix creates the secondary colors like orange, green and purple. lee (1973) proposed three primary styles of loving, eros, ludos and storge. the eros kind of love, usually portrayed by media in romantic novels and movies, usually is somehow one sided and generally means hopeless romantic 131 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale loving the ideal person. one sided love usually leads to disappoints. ludos type of love refers to the love as a play/game (casanova for example, whose aim is to have many partners. lee’s last type of love is storge which refers to love build on friendship. this type of love started gradually as friendship which later on turned into intimate relationship. compared the eros and ludos type of love, storge tends to endure the longest. color wheel model of love, as proposed by lee, occurs by mixing the primary styles. for example, mixing of eros and ludos creates manic or obsessive love, which can be the source of jealousy and possessiveness. on the other hand mixing the ludos and storge type of love brings pragma love. pragma love is realistic and practical love based on choosing a partner for practical reason, ‘good on paper’. mixing of eros and storge leads to agape type of love which is often experienced as a spiritual, selfless love for the sake of god and not the other person. trying to explain the difference between liking and loving, rubin (1970, 1973) proposes romantic love to be composed of attachment, caring and intimacy. attachment (primal, very strong emotional bond developed early in childhood between a baby and primary care giver transferred into adult relationships) is the need to receive care, approval and physical contact with the other person (desired and beloved). caring involves esteeming the other persons’ needs and happiness as much as your own. intimacy refers to the sharing of thoughts, desires, and feelings with the other, cherished and beloved person. hatfield’s (1993) compassionate versus passionate theory of love tries to explain that how people’s feelings towards each other are different in allusion to different types of love. theorists point to the two fundamental types of love, passionate and compassionate. while compassionate love develops from the mutual feelings of respect and understanding between the couple, passionate love refers to the state of intense longing for a union with another, involving subjective feelings, expressions, patterned physiological process, inclined deeds and active behaviors (hatfield, 1994). this love can be reciprocated (resulting in union with the other) or unrequited (resulting in separation followed by emptiness, anxiety or despair (hatfield, 1994). unlike compassionate love, the passionate love does not last for long. factors like similarity, readiness, deep and secure attachment are important in development of these two types of love. the reiss’s (1960) wheel theory is a sociological theory of love proposing that love develops in stages: rapport, self evaluation, mutual dependency and personality need fulfillment. rapport emerges when people develop rapport with each other based upon their cultural backgrounds of similar upbringing, social class, religion and education. rapport is fundamental because without it, as love theory thinkers believe, would-be lovers do not have enough in common to establish even the first spark of an interest in each other. the second, self-revelation stage helps a couple grow closer together. love is possible because while growing closer each person feels more at ease he or she is more likely to discuss hopes, desires, fears, ambitions and even might engage in sexual activities during this stage. becoming closer leads to more intimate what may develop into a mutual dependency upon each other leading to exchange of ideas, jokes, and sexual desires. stage they the couple begins to experience personality need fulfillment, when 132 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale partners confide in one another, make mutual decisions, support each other’s ambitions and boost each other’s self-confidence is reiss’s last stage of love. borland (1975) modified reiss’s theory suggesting love to be viewed as clock springs, suggesting the stages can be repeated throughout the relationship. this means the stages can be repeated more times, mistakes can be reduced and the relationship can be improved. hence, as borland (1975) states, relationships can wind up and unwind several times as love grows and progresses or declines and deteriorates. sternberg (1986) in a form of a triangle, pictures three important components in love, intimacy, passion and commitment. the intimacy encompasses feelings of attachment, closeness, connectedness and bonding in intimate relationship. passion on the other hand generally includes motivation and consists of the drives connected to sexual attraction and limerence. the component in sternberg’s triangular theory of love is commitment. at short term level, commitment encompasses the decision to remain with a person and the shared achievements and plans made at the long term level. the elements of intimacy and commitment are usually seen as a stable in a relationship which passion is the quite different and it is not stable as the intimacy and commitment. intimacy and passionate occur in a relationship when people show patience with each which serves as foundation for long term relationship. on the other hand, lone passion creates infatuation, what puts a relationship at risk. in terms of passion in triangular theory of love, it is important to point out that even though people commit to their feelings at the beginning of their relationship, having passion for each other only does not mean the relationship will survive and succeed. nevertheless it is important to note that people differ in experiencing and perceiving these three components. a person can be aware of a passion towards somebody but the intimacy and commitment might be lacking because they require time and other variables. these components are often combined and result in different types of love. different combination of intimacy, passion and commitment may lead to following types of love: liking, infatuation, empty love, romantic love, companionate love, fatuous love and consummate love and non-love. as sternberg says, liking characterizes true friendships, in which a person feels a bonding, warmth, and closeness with another person without intense passion or long-term commitment. infatuated love refers to feelings or the “love at first sight.” this type of love requires no intimacy and the commitment therefore it may suddenly disappear. strong love might sometimes, deteriorate into an empty love in which commitment remains, but the intimacy and passion have died. this is particularly common in cultures which practice arranged marriages where relationships often begin as empty love. when couples are involved romantically and bonded emotionally and physically through passionate arousal, then we speak about romantic love. companionate love, on the other hand, is often found in marriages in which the passion faded but a deep affection and commitment still remain. companionate love is characteristic to a relationship build with someone you share your life with, but sexual or physical desire towards the person are absent. this type 133 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale of love is stronger than friendship because of the extra element of commitment. the love ideally shared between family members is a form of companionate love, as is the love between deep friends or those who spend a lot of time together in any asexual but friendly relationship. fatuous love can be exemplified by a whirlwind courtship and marriage in which a commitment is motivated largely by passion, without the stabilizing influence of intimacy. aside from these types of love there is also consummate love. representing the ideal relationship many people strive for but only a few achieve, consummate love is the complete form of love. however, as sternberg cautions, maintaining consummate love may be even harder than achieving it. he accentuates the importance of converting the components of love into action, because “without expression even the greatest of loves can die” (1988, p. 341). also, consummate love may not be permanent because if passion dies over time, this love may change into companionate love. finally, when there is no intimacy, passion, or decision/commitment, then we speak about no love (feelings about a stranger on the bus sitting or standing next to us). the triangular theory of love helps to explain and understand how interpersonal relationships develop. it is important to mention that relationships based on multiple components of love are more likely to survive compared to those based on a single element. research goals and hypothesis goals: 1. to investigate the differences between turkish and bosnian students on triangular scale of love 2. to explore the gender differences in triangular scale of love. 3. to explore correlation between the length of relationship and three dimension of love according to triangular theory of love hypothesis: 1. there are no statistically significant differences between turkish and bosnian students in three aspects of triangular theory of love. 2. there are no statistically significant differences between males and females in results on triangular scale of love. 3. there is no statistically significant correlation between length of relationship and three aspects of triangular theory of love. methodology participants for the purpose of this research, we have used students from international university of sarajevo (ius) and university in zenica. all participants were informed about the purpose of the research. participation was voluntary, students were asked to volunteer to fill the questionnaires distributed to them, ensuring the privacy of their data and using results for research purpose only. using convenient sampling method, some students participated in the study at university premises, after classes, in canteen, at cafe, some in boys and girls dormitories, and some took the questionnaire home. in the end, as pointed in table below we had 151 participants in total. 134 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale table 1. the table about the number of participants according to the two independent variables gender totalmale female nationality turkish 22 65 87 bosnian 23 41 64 total 45 106 151 instruments used a) socio-demographic questionnaire – which gives main information about gender, nationality, religiosity, number of romantic relationships, the length of romantic relationships b) triangular love scale (ttls) (sternberg, 1988). ttls is a 45-items scale measuring the three components of love, intimacy, passion and commitment. each component is measured by a 15 item subscale. each scale is rated on 9-point likert scales (1 = “not at all,” 5 = “moderately,” and 9 = “extremely“). ttls is reported with high internal consistency, alpha coefficients for three subscales are above 0.90 (tzeng, 1993.). procedure well trained students did field research. participants were asked to be honest and volunteer to fill the questionnaire. research took place at university premises, participants were given the questionnaire to take home or to dormitory, fill and return to researcher. the same procedure was used for turkish and bosnian students. results and discussion 1. cultural and gender differences in three aspects of triangular scale of love for testing the first two hypotheses, we used multivariate anova with fixed factors nationality and gender, and dependent variables: intimacy, passion and commitment. results are presented in table below. table 2. group statistics for nationality nationality n mean std. deviation std. error mean intimacy turkish 87 7,0755 1,37665 ,14759 bosnian 64 7,6083 1,29601 ,16200 passion turkish 87 6,0032 1,79287 ,19222 bosnian 64 6,9566 1,57167 ,19646 commitment turkish 87 7,8210 8,43975 ,90484 bosnian 64 7,8002 1,55950 ,19494 135 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale table 3. group statistics for gender gender n mean std. deviation std. error mean intimacy male 45 7,1808 1,43753 ,21429 female 105 7,3801 1,31180 ,12802 passion male 45 6,0918 1,82978 ,27277 female 105 6,5585 1,72247 ,16810 commitment male 45 7,1982 1,84960 ,27572 female 105 8,0970 7,65716 ,74726 table 4. tests of between-subjects effects source dependent variable type iii sum of squares df mean square f sig. c o r r e c t e d model intimacy 15,370a 3 5,123 2,925 ,036 passion 50,373b 3 16,791 5,945 ,001 commitment 45,407c 3 15,136 ,355 ,786 intercept intimacy 6628,681 1 6628,681 3,784e3 ,000 passion 5016,425 1 5016,425 1,776e3 ,000 commitment 7181,166 1 7181,166 168,336 ,000 nationality intimacy 9,853 1 9,853 5,624 ,019 passion 43,036 1 43,036 15,237 ,000 commitment 5,340 1 5,340 ,125 ,724 gender intimacy 2,547 1 2,547 1,454 ,230 passion 10,580 1 10,580 3,746 ,055 commitment 23,267 1 23,267 ,545 ,461 nationality * gender intimacy ,542 1 ,542 ,309 ,579 passion 3,324 1 3,324 1,177 ,280 commitment 19,460 1 19,460 ,456 ,500 error intimacy 255,770 146 1,752 passion 412,364 146 2,824 commitment 6228,307 146 42,660 total intimacy 8309,127 150 passion 6642,245 150 commitment 15463,943 150 c o r r e c t e d total intimacy 271,140 149 passion 462,737 149 commitment 6273,715 149 a. r squared = ,057 (adjusted r squared = ,037) b. r squared = ,109 (adjusted r squared = ,091) c. r squared = ,007 (adjusted r squared = -,013) 136 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale these hypotheses were also tested using simple anova, and results are the same. results show there is statistically significant difference on intimacy and passion subscales of love between turkish and bosnian students. bosnian students have higher results in subscales of intimacy and passion. there is no statistically significant difference in subscale of commitment. this means that bosnian students evaluate their relationships like more intimate and passionate than turkish students. this is probably due to the impact of western culture in bosnian society. bosnia and herzegovina is in between, the east and west and is influenced by both (where the west influence is more manifest in terms of clothing, fashion, music, but also identification systems. in bosnia and herzegovina people strive more towards western vales than to eastern. therefore, bosnian culture can be observed as more western. also, it is important to mention that bosnian participants are students of islamic pedagogical faculty (where most girls practice islamic clothing-wear hijab), just like participants from ius (of turkish origin), so both groups share religious beliefs and attitudes toward religion obligations. western cultures are more open towards love and intimate/romantic relationship apparently and their practices are observed differently than in eastern cultures (especially middle east cultures which is more islamic). in islam it is forbidden to have intimate relationship before marriage and outside the wedlock. since most of our participants are not married, this had impact on results and on participant’s perception of love in general. having romantic relationship in islam allowed as far as it does not involve physical contact of any kind. islam strictly forbids physical involvement with the opposite sex before the marriage and outside the wedlock. even though bosnian students are muslims, and studying at islamic pedagogical faculty, it seems that living in bosnia (being a part of europe and european culture) “melted” their perception of what their religion forbids and they do not observe these rules in the same way the turks do. it seems that turkish students adhere to religious rules more, are more traditional hence their relationships are less intimate and passionate than bosnian students’ relationships. bosnian culture seems to be more influenced by western culture. unlike some muslim societies (whose cultures seem more strict in following religious rules, i.e., in terms of dress code, islamic clothing or clear and strict rules on man-women relationships), western culture is more liberal. western culture is more lenient accepting and even encouraging romantic/intimate and passionate relationship. however, we did not investigate whether bosnian students have had physical contact or intimate relationship with the opposite sex, but our results show that bosnian students have more free and expressive attitudes towards romantic love. still, in dept investigation would be worthwhile and would give us more conclusive data. kin ng and cheng (2010), also found some cultural impact on love, operationalized with triangular scale of love. they found that in western cultures, satisfaction with 137 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale romantic relationship was mediated with intimacy and passion, while in research made on chinese people, satisfaction with relationship was mediated with intimacy and commitment. another goal of this research was to investigate eventual gender differences in triangular scale of love results. according to the table 4 there are no statistically significant differences between male and female on any of the three components of triangular scale. it would be logical to assume that there would be some differences, since male and female have different needs and attitudes when it comes about a lot of things, especially about love. it would be logical to suppose that male will evaluate higher passion, while female will strive for commitment and intimacy. also, there results were checked by one – way anova, ant results show that there are no gender differences. sternberg (1997) found in his research that woman had higher intimacy ratings, while on other components there were no statistically significant difference. it might be that male and female really do not have different needs and perception of love, but it is just a prejudice that male are more addicted to physical component which is related to passion, while female look for more intimacy in term of psychological support. it would be worth to check it with some similar research, are male really more directed to fulfilling physical needs in romantic relationship. 2. correlation between the length of relationship and three aspects of triangular scale of love and close relationship emotion questionnaire. the length of relationship was measured in months and it is correlated with three dependent variables: intimacy, passion and commitment. table 5. correlations between length of relationship and three components of tls length of current relationship intimacy passion commitment length of current relationship pearson correlation 1 ,190* ,137 ,057 sig. (2-tailed) ,029 ,116 ,516 n 132 132 132 132 intimacy pearson correlation ,190* 1 ,669** ,250** sig. (2-tailed) ,029 ,000 ,002 n 132 151 151 151 passion pearson correlation ,137 ,669** 1 ,290** sig. (2-tailed) ,116 ,000 ,000 n 132 151 151 151 commitment pearson correlation ,057 ,250** ,290** 1 sig. (2-tailed) ,516 ,002 ,000 n 132 151 151 151 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). 138 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale from the table 5, it can be seen that high and statistically significant correlations are found only between three components of triangular scale of love: intimacy, passion and commitment. these results completely support findings from sternberg (1997), where he found that three components covariate, instead of being independent. results of this study also point to significant and positive correlations between intimacy and passion (,669**), and also intimacy and commitment (,250**), and commitment and passion (,290**). first correlation is significantly high which means that if the couple is more intimate, if it shares more psychological support, that passion will also be higher, and vice and versa. two other correlations have the same direction. length of the current relationship is correlated with intimacy, but quite correlation, which is positive (,190*). this means that the longer the relationship is, it is related to more intimate relationship and vice and versa. sternberg (1986.) claims that these components may be used independently to examine their association to individual (e.g., psychological well-being) and relationship (e.g., satisfaction and quality) outcomes. for example, overbeek, ha, scholte, de kemp, and engels (2007) found that each tls construct was positively associated with the satisfaction and longevity of heterosexual adolescents’ romantic relationships. and the area of the love triangle, representing the intensity of intimacy, passion, and commitment experienced by a person, is positively related to his or her perceived relationship quality. it has also been documented that the triangular love components are associated with other measures of relationship quality. whitley’s (1993) study with a sample of female college students revealed that the levels of the love components were related to actual stability and expected stability. the studies of hendrick and hendrick (1988) found moderate correlations between the love components and the relationship quality factors such as viability, caring, global satisfaction, and conflict. this research though found that length of relationship is correlated with intimacy, as the only dimension of triangular scale of love, while other correlations were not found. therefore, it would be worthy of further investigation and exploring other, related aspects, including adults who are in relationship for longer period of time besides students. conclusions this study shows that there are statistically significant differences between turkish and bosnian students in intimacy and passion subscales on triangular scale of love, with bosnian students having higher results in subscales of intimacy and passion. at the same time, results point to no statistically significant difference in subscale of commitment. this might be due to the cultural differences between bosnian and turkish students. our results show that while there are no significant differences on commitment on triangular love scale, the two groups have significantly different results in subscales of intimacy and passion. this might be explained by likely influence of cultural background, western in terms of bosnian or eastern in terms of turkish students, which might have an impact on students’ perception of love, especially perception of intimacy and passion. the so called free love practiced with precautionary measures, type of behavior disapproved by 139 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale parents and teachers and subjected to parental discipline in turkish (eastern) culture, seems more acceptable in bosnian (european) culture. it seems that bosnian students, although by religious orientation closer to eastern culture, being a part of europe and european culture, adjusted their perception of what their religion states, to the main stream (western) attitudes towards intimate relationships. practicing muslims (strictly adhering to religious rules) are minority in bosnia thus adolescents find it difficult to adhere and observe all religious practices especially in intimate relationships. also, despite the overall gender differences in terms of emotions, we found no significant differences between males and females on any of the three components of triangular love scale. this means that males and females do not differ in terms of perceiving love, intimacy, passion and commitment. adolescence is turbulent time, time for testing and experiencing many things, time for looking for approval and giving in to peer pressure, what makes it equally challenging for girls and for boys. finally, as stated in the third goal of this research, we explored correlation between the length of relationship and results on subscales of tls. results show that the length of the current relationship is correlated with intimacy, but correlation which is positive is low. therefore, we can conclude that longer relationship is related to more intimate relationship, and vice and versa. references badhwar, n., k., (2003). “love”, in h. la follette (ed.), practical ethics, oxford: oxford university press, 42–69. borland, dolores m., (1975). „an alternative model of the wheel theory.“ the family coordinator 24(3): 289-292. brown, r., (1987). analyzing love, cambridge: cambridge university press. corsini r. j. and auerbach a. j. 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(1970) measurement of romantic love. journal of personality and social psychology, 16, 265273. sternberg, r. j., (1997). construct validation of a triangular love scale, european journal of social psychology, vol. 27, 313-335 sternberg, r. j., (1986). a triangular theory of love, psychological review, 93, 119-135. sternberg, r. j., & barnes, m. l., (eds.). (1988). the psychology of love. new haven, yale university press. whitley, b. e., (1993). reliability and aspects of the construct validity of sternberg’s triangular love scale. journal of social & personal relationships, 10(3), 475-480. wittig a. f., (2001). introduction to psychology. new york, mcgraw-hill. 141 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. draganović and a. hasanagić differences between turkish and bosnian students in triangular love scale 28 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences external forces on africa’s democrac y and development edward brenya kwame nkrumah university of science and technology, kumasi-ghana samuel adu-gyamfi kwame nkrumah university of science and technology, kumasi-ghana abstract the argument for africa’s advancement has primarily been discussed on various fronts and amply tied to democracy and development. this notwithstanding, such discourse has neglected the evolutionary process of our political history and development. the need for this review article however, is to reinvigorate the need for african leaders and political actors as well as their foreign counterparts to pay attention to some of the recurrent issues that has stifled the growth of the african continent in particular. in addressing the issues from past to present, attention has been paid to the colonial legacy as well as the question of colonization, history, definition and structure among others. keywords: colonization; democracy; development; neo-colonialism; aid; modernization and dependency. 29 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciencesepiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction for more than four centuries the west has continuously dominated africa’s over 700 million people (daily graphic 2002, 7.) over 2,000 years ago pliny said, “out of africa, always something new” (west africa 2001, 6). today we get the impression that modern europe would prefer to say, “out of africa, always something bad.” there are, of course, plenty of bad things happening in africa and many of them are entirely the fault of africans (okwudiba 1999). but then many of africa’s current problems have their roots in the continent’s relations with europe over the last 300 years and in this regard, unfortunately, the europeans seem unable to accept with good grace the impact of their imperial control (west africa 2001, 6). nnoli, in the first two chapters of the book, african public administration, attributes african problems to colonial inheritance (okwudiba 1999, 56). the system of public administration in the countries that were colonised by the united kingdom had its origins in the creation of machinery by britain, which consolidate her colonial administration in her dependent territories in africa (adu 1999, 56). the early service was concerned with pacification of the territories, maintenance of law and order, and collection of revenue. up to the second world war, the civil service was hardly concerned with economic and social development. the initiative in the economic and social development came from missionaries, immigrant populations e.g. settlers and ordinary peasants. missionaries were especially prominent in the provisions of social services such as health and education. the civil service was simple in structure, but was racial in character, reliant on automatic recruitment into senior post from britain. drawing on the case of cameroon, half of which was administered by the french and the other half by the united kingdom, adu offers us a concrete comparison of the two systems of colonial administration. the civil service structure in francophone africa, he concludes, was as coarse as its british counterpart was gentle. these differences are attributed to differing social and educational backgrounds of the officers of the two services. it is argued that british recruits could identify themselves with the gentry, while the french were middle class in origin. also, the two national traditions of the services differed from one another. britain believed in local rule while france believed in centralisation. on the eve of the second world war, the two services began to resemble each other (adu 1999, 68). it is suggested that the centralizing strategy was heavily influenced by sources outside the continent: the doctrine of elite superiority in consolidating and sustaining the social order; the promises of rationalism, science and money for the transformation of underdeveloped societies; certain interpretations of the experience of continental europe relating to the emergency of the state, modernisation and bureaucratisation; external forces of africa’s democracy and development 30 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences and a heritage of colonial administration which emphasized the executive vis-à-vis other essential political institutions (adu 1999, 69). secondly, it is further suggested that the strategy at independence was carried out through a number of sub-strategies or policies. the most important of these included: (a) replacing competitive politics by one or no party system in the name of “national unity and stability”; (b) forming unified bureaucratic structures exclusively accountable to the central government; (c) undermining the role and significance of local government, including traditional, ethnically related groups as well as modern institutions of true local government; (d) maximization of executive authority at the expense of such other institutions such as the legislature, judiciary, regional governments, press and private organisations; and regarding the national budget as the primary source of funding for the development agenda, and to be raised out of the largest economic sectors: either agriculture or mineral extraction (adu 1999, 69). yet to have a better understanding of these issues, there is the need to look at the question of colonization, definitions, history and structure. the others include the impact of colonization on the contemporary africa’s democracy and development, ethnic consciousness and uneven development, neo-colonialism, aid and trade, monopoly and privatization, globalization, modernization as well as dependency theories. colonization: definition, history and structure two powerful images provide competitive models regarding african precolonial organisation. the first image is one evoked by pistol in shakespeare’s henry iv when he opens up with “i speak of africa and golden joys (hopkins, 1985, 27). this is the model which also informs nyerere’s depiction of african society. he writes that “people lived together and worked together… the results of their joint effort were divided unequally between them but according to custom… family members thought of themselves as one…” (nyerere1970, 1). the organizational model evoked by the above image is one characterized by small organizations of equal members living and working together on the basis of clearly understood and totally accepted rules and customs. of necessity, such organizations were non-hierarchical, based on face-to-face relationships. it is an image of well behaved and motivated organizational members who are peaceful. if the above image is pretty much in line with the theories of the 18th century french philosopher, jean jacques rousseau, there is another which is very much in line with the ideas of the 18th english political theorist, thomas hobbes. this is the image first formed by european explorers and later popularized by european slave traders and masters and later by the colonial state and early scholars of african 31 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences societies, especially anthropologists. the most extreme spoke of the africa of animals and jungle men; of primitive people “with minds in which the irrational elements predominate” (mair 1990, 8). the more moderate spoke of stateless societies of people who were primitive but only in their “ways of doing things” (mair 1990, 8). if natives were constantly at each other in a war of all against all in the extreme viewpoint, the moderates depicted a society characterized by “an apparent anarchy” (mair 1990, 9). there was, according to this view, an attempt at rule making and enforcement but the rules were fuzzy, covered only a few activities, and were constantly broken. in search of more empires in order to boast their superiority, the ruling class of the developed capitalist nations extended their domination over the whole world. so by hook or by crook, they seized foreign countries. in africa, as a follow up of the berlin treaty, the whole african continent was carved out and colonized. by political, military, economic and ideological means, the colonialists established their absolute power in the african colonies, ruling them as their subordinate parts of their own metropolitan empires. it has been argued that the tasks of the colonial state were mainly two. first, it aimed at establishing capitalist relations of production in the african colonies in such a way as to guarantee monopoly or super profits to the capitalists of europe, particularly of the colonising powers. secondly, as okwudiba noted, was to “conquer and subdue the peoples of the african colonies in such a way as to make it easy and cheap to exploit their material and human resources” (okwudiba 1996, 63). this means that just as the capitalist states in europe maintained domination over the non-capitalist classes, the colonial powers in africa exercised domination over the african people as a whole. similarly, while the european state regulated the operation of the capitalist mode of production in favour or the ruling bourgeois class, it is argued, so also the state in africa “had first to create the capitalist mode of production, made it dominant in the society and then made it yield super profits for the european capitalists” (okwudiba 1996, 63). this, according to okwudiba’s analysis, is the two fold task of the colonial state that defines the character both of the colonial state and the present day africa (okwudiba 1996, 63). this analysis focuses more actively and more extensively on the economic, social, cultural and political life of the people of africa” (okwudiba 1996, 63). the objective of all this intervention was, of course, to keep the colonial people in such subjugation as to enable the maximum possible exploitation to their labour and resources. and as such, the state power of the colony was designed to maintain this pattern of economic and political control. 32 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the impact of colonization on the contemporary africa’s democracy and development it is of certainty that we argue that some of africa’s problems are deeply rooted in the colonial experience. according to richard sandbrook, the problem lies in the fact that the “imperial powers failed in various ways to erect a sturdy base for responsive and effective postcolonial states” (sandbrook 1993, 42). on his part, okwudiba points out that we cannot isolate the present political, ethnic and economic problems that africa is facing from the historical condition stemming out from colonialism. okwudiba further argues that the type of colonialism that took off during the later part of the nineteenth century was the result of changes which had taken place in the form of “capitalism in the advance capitalist societies” (okwudiba 1996, 62). for example, the industrial advance in nineteenth-century europe, the growth of large scale industry, and of concentrations of economic power in the hand of a relatively small number of major companies and banks led to a change in the pattern of relations between the european powers and the countries of africa, asia and latin america inclusive (okwudiba 1996, 63). the territories created by imperialism were, in a dual sense, artificial entities, and this has produced severe problems in state building. first, their political style at independence did not evolve organically out of local traditional politics, but rather colonial imperialists imported western models of state organization into africa. colonialism, as it were, was an almost fleeting experience in most of africa, too transitory to institutionalize alien political structures and norms. secondly, both the colonies and protectorates were artificial in the sense that the imperialists did not pay attention to cultural and linguistic differences in carving out national boundaries. it is true, as sandbrook notes, that diverse and sometimes hostile peoples were grouped together within common borders (sandbrook 1993, 42). these differences were, albeit not intentionally done, by colonial-induced, social, economic and political change. therefore, sandbrook concludes that the “legitimacy crisis and ethnic tensions that bedevil postcolonial politics must be understood in the context of the colonial epoch” (sandbrook 1993, 42). for the fact that colonial capitalism was not particularly dynamic or creative force also contributed to the contemporary crisis. imperialism dragged, prodded and enticed africans into a market economy, but mostly participated only marginally. economic change was the formation of the modern capitalist class, which gave birth to small bourgeoisie. considering the external origin of political institutions in africa may give more insight into the colonial problem of which africa now faces. let us 33 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences consider state. generally, state structures are most likely to win popular support if they evolve organically rather than being imposed from outside. sandbrook argues that there was hardly any organic link between the political institutions prescribed in constitutions and the indigenous institutions of the pre-colonial period (sandbrook 1993, 43). used in the sense of centralized authorities capable of imposing their wish in any territory through an administrative, judicial and coercive apparatus, states, in modern africa, as a matter of fact, did emerge in pre-colonial africa (wickens 1981, 220). one of the necessary conditions for the formation of a state is economic surplus. this existed in pre-colonial africa, needless to give the full details of the formation of states in pre-colonial period. however, it is, equally important to state that states were financed either through a settled and prosperous agriculture, the proceeds of plunder (which often took the form of slaves or cattle), from revenue derived from long-distant trade. taxes on imports and exports, precious metals, ivory, slaves or cash were forms of tribute imposed by the rulers to their subjects. the rulers (usually kings and chiefs) in return would provide internal order, defense, protection and regulation of the land, and the construction of public works among other things. each state comprised different traditions and every state interacted with outsiders freely and friendly. essentially africa evolved a variety of traditional political structures. but, as it is the case, most of the countries created by colonialists contained several traditional societies, each of which valued its own political traditions, myths and symbols. this made state-building very difficult since it was impossible to draw upon a singletraditional model in devising the modern state’s institutions. any government that decides to adopt the indigenous political institutions and traditions of one community above others would face a total declaration of war against the excluded groups, since every group cherishes its way of life. ethnic consciousness and uneven development the assertion of ethnic identities has in many countries replaced ideological differences as a major source of domestic conflict. ethnicity is not, of course, a precise concept and those who march under a particular ethnic banner usually have in common a bundle of attributes–a shared history, language, religion and culture and usually also a common racial origin (itself an imprecise term). ethnic identities and the clash of ethnic groups are not new of course, but the rise of ethnicity as a political force worldwide is recent, at least in its current form and intensity. moreover, the end of the cold war could well mean that the politics of ethnicity will increase in intensity in the years ahead. the same process 34 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences of globalization that has undermined sate power threatens to “unleash subterranean cultural pluralism” (mitelman 1991, 10). ethnicity thus poses a challenge to global peace and stability, but the search for a new basis for community and group identity should also be seen as an opportunity–an opportunity for more self-determination, for people to choose the policy under which they live, an opportunity to enlarge personal and group freedoms. recognizing the importance of group identity, we shall argue in this section that the ethnic problems that besiege africa in the recent years are “colonial roots of the contemporary crisis” (sandbrook 1993, 42). apart from the obvious fact that colonialism lumped together heterogeneous people in common territories, it also wakened people’s ethnic consciousness, though unintentionally done (crawford 1982, 75). that is, the idea of basing administrative boundaries and local government on cultural-linguistic lines, as the colonial powers did, fostered ethnicity. a divisive sense of separateness was promoted by the formation of local native authorities in british africa to administer land rights and certain taxes (sandbrook 1993, 49). for example, it has been argued that one of the major causes of the ethnic clashes experienced in rwanda-burundi started immediately after the independence in 1960 when the political elite in these two countries used ethnicity in their struggle for power and state resources. they also used violence as a means of promoting ‘ethnic’ group consciousness. from the 1970s onwards, each new episode in the history of hutu-tutsi violence strengthened the negative perceptions each side [has] of the other (glynne 1997, 19). another important factor worth mentioning was the uneven regional impact of modernization as introduced by colonial rule. some regions prospered through the development of cash crops, while others did not. railway construction, for example, contributed to the agricultural development in the areas where the line traversed. towns and urban employment emerged in the homelands of certain groups, thus favoring their economic advance. regardless of the pre-colonial social system, imperialism introduced novel bases of social stratification, of which economic change was a major determinant (sandbrook 1993, 52-53). once entrenched in a territory, the colonial power then saw it necessary to exploit whatever economic potentials existed. each imperial government endeavored to collect enough revenues to cover its expenses and involve at least a few metropolitan companies in lucrative business. thus, african countries became major mineral and agricultural exporters. in general, cash crops were the main source of revenue in most territories. also, the establishment of school in some areas (mostly in the coastal areas) gave some ethnic groups an enviable head-start with western education; thus creating 35 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a gap between those who benefited from the education and those who were regarded as backward because they did not benefit from the western education. uneven development therefore brought ethnic consciousness: those holding the advantage struggled to retain it, while the unprivileged one fought for equal share of the cake. and this brought the dichotomous “we-they” mentality which existed during the struggle for independence as well as postcolonial era. ethnocentrism in one sense is a purely modern creation and connotation. sandbrook argues that in the pre-colonial era the sense of shared identity and interest that defines the term was often absent and non-existent (sandbrook 1982, 51). for example the bitter rivalry between the kenyan luo and kikuyu or the bitter and unfortunate rivalry that exists between the hutu and tutsi in rwanda-burundi or even between nanumba and kokomba in northern ghana is severally a twentiethcentury phenomenon. in fact, prior to imperial manipulation, in the case of kenya, neither constituted a distinct ethnic group. instead they saw themselves as localized agricultural communities who spoke a mutually intelligible bantu language and shared common cultural beliefs and practices such as female and male circumcision. the point is that colonial rule fulfilled three conditions which, consciously or unconsciously, fostered tribal consciousness of african people (at least among the luo and kikuyu): the cultural-linguistic grid of district administration, uneven development and african political competition. in all, it is noted that despite the many changes that were introduced, post-independence african bureaucracies continued to function according to the logic of their colonial inheritance. neo-colonialism: definition, history and structure the most drastic account of domination from abroad on africa is found in theories of international dependency or, in africanist vocabulary, neo-colonialism. according to the understanding of this approach, the evolving interests of capital at the core of the global economy is either entirely blocked or permanently subordinated (rodney 1992, 16.) on the cause of africa’s position in the global market, the opinions of some political and economic analysts differ. some writers such as irving markovitz argued that africa’s emergent bourgeoisie was a political class that owned its control of economic means to the occupancy of the state office (markovitz 1997, 45). others drew attention to the point that dependent states, such as africa, display weak organisational capacities to confront the developed countries in the global market (gutkind 1996, 77). 36 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences while some neo-marxist scholars argue that, upon independence, national development was not the top priority of the african political class, of which the root of underdevelopment could be traced, others content that “development dictatorship” was the political regime that was common in the neo-colonial africa and therefore responsible for africa’s underdevelopment because with such system development cannot take place (bratton and van de walle1997, 28). but whatever be the case, it will not be denied that international factors clearly impinge on the formation, consolidation and the development of african states, as intend to argue in this section. kwame nkrumah opens the first chapter of his book, neo-colonialism, by seeing africa as a paradox that illustrates and highlights neo-colonialism to the core. his argument: “all the products that come from above and below the soil continue to enrich, not africans predominantly, but groups and individuals who operate to africa’s impoverishment” (kwame nkrumah 1970, 1). in using the word “neo-colonialism” then, nkrumah was actually right when he used it to cover all the activities of the former imperial powers operating in their formal colonies after the independence. and today in africa, likewise in any other developing countries, new-colonialism even “flourishes as never before.” (west africa magazine 2002,24) this is to say that western domination over africa, which is reinforced by international institutions, is as strong as ever. what nkrumah said as early as 1965 still lives among africa today? in the introduction to his book, neo-colonialism, nkrumah, writes: the neo-colonialism of today represents imperialism in its final and perhaps its most dangerous state. ...old-fashioned colonialism is by no means entirely abolished. it still constitutes an african problem, but it is everywhere on the retreat … in place of colonialism as the main instrument of imperialism we have today neo-colonialism. the essence of neo-colonialism is that the state which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. [but] in reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside (nkrumah 1970, 1). the institutions that direct africa’s economic system and political policy are referred to by guy arnold as “our old friends, the world bank, the imf, the wto, the eu and sometimes the united nations and the commonwealth, the international finance corporation and the international development association” (west africa magazine 2002, 24). all these organisations and associations are significantly having us capital as their major backing. arnold argues that despite the efforts by africa, the 37 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences former metropolitan powers and usa have managed over the years to fashion these institutions to perpetuate their control over the economically weak countries. these major powers, he argues further, continue manipulating africa to their ends while “pretending to help the continent overcome its formidable problems” (west africa magazine, 2002, 24). foremost among the countries that constitute neo-colonialists is usa, which many years ago exercised its power in latin america; other countries are the so-called developed countries. neo-colonial powers impose big tariffs on finished goods from africa, so that it does not survive in the international market. on visiting the cocoa farm at nankegi in ghana’s eastern region on february 2002, clare short, the then tony blair’s secretary for international development, told journalists that paris was “reluctant to remove barriers that impose huge tariffs on finished goods from africa” (west africa magazine 2002, 11). she explained further that although britain backed the proposal “to remove the barriers, [but] it is a conspiracy from france and the eu to lock africa into poverty and at the same time europe preaches free trade” (west africa magazine 2002, 11). the eu, with its common agricultural policy, ensures that outsiders are kept at bay. agricultural subsidies to countries within the organisation for economic cooperation and development (including eu member states) amount to $320 billion a year, an amount which is roughly the equivalence of the entire gross domestic product of africa. and on this and others, short declares that “the world is not in the mood to deal with africa`s [problems] at the moment” (west africa magazine 2002, 11). neo-colonialism also takes the form that allows government policies in the neo-colonial state to be secured by payments towards the cost of running the state, by the provision of civil servants in “positions where they can dictate policy, and by monetary control over foreign exchange through the imposition of a banking system controlled by the imperial power (kwame nkrumah, 1970). of all these, the overall result of neo-colonialism, nkrumah points out, is that foreign capital will be “used” for exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world” (nkrumah 1970, 239). he proposes that neo-colonial developing world needs to prevent the financial power of the developed countries being used in such a way as to impoverish the less developed ones, because for him, any state that is under neo-colonialism is not the master of its own destiny. according to nkrumah, neo-colonialism is the worst form of imperialism, by which he means that neo-colonialism for those who practice it, is simply “power without responsibility”; while for those that suffer from it, neo-colonialism means “exploitation 38 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences with redress” (kwame nkrumah, 1970). during the old-fashioned colonial era the imperial powers were obliged, at least, to explain and justify their actions at home before taking them abroad for implementation. in the colony people could talk and report back any violent or opposing move made by the colonial representative to the colonial headquarters. in the case of neo-colonialism, no room for such opening was granted. his could also explain why neo-colonialists enjoy postponing social issues that are meant to eliminate the problems of world poverty. neo-colonialism pretends to be capable of raising the living standards of those to whom it is practised. but the actual fact, as nkrumah pointed out long ago and at which developing countries still witness, is that the economic object of neo-colonialism “is to keep those standards depressed in the interest of the developed countries” (nkrumah 1970). aid and trade the ultimate purpose of development is to expand the capabilities of people, to increase their ability to live long and healthy lives, to enable them to cultivate their talents and interests, and to afford them an opportunity to live in dignity and with self-respect. the means by which this is achieved may be diverse–by increasing the stock of physical capital, introducing new technologies, changing institutions, altering incentives. equally important, and sometimes more important, are investments in human capital–the provision of education and training, the creation of employment and opportunities to acquire skills while on the job, the provision of primary health care and adequate nutrition, expenditure on research and on seeking out new sources of information (undp, 1990). during the cold war, unaligned countries of the third world were seen as potential allies by both the first and second world. therefore, the united states and the soviet union went to great lengths to establish connections in these countries by offering economic and military support to gain strategically located alliances (e.g., united states in vietnam or soviet union in cuba or united kingdom in africa). by the end of the cold war, many third world countries had adopted capitalist or communist economic models and continued to receive support from the side they had chosen. throughout the cold war and beyond, the countries of the third world have been the priority recipients of western foreign aid and the focus of economic development through mainstream theories such as modernization theory and dependency theory (brian and tomlinson, 2003, 307-321). by the end of the 1960s, the idea of the third world came to represent countries in africa, asia and latin america that were considered underdeveloped by the west based on a variety of characteristics (low economic development, low life expectancy, 39 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences high rates of poverty and disease, etc.). (wolf, and leslie 1987, 1311-1327). these countries became the targets for aid and support from governments, ngos and individuals from wealthier nations. one popular model, known as rostow’s stages of growth, argued that development takes place in five stages (traditional society; preconditions for take-off; take-off; drive to maturity; age of high mass consumption) (rostow 1960). walt whitman rostow argued that take-off was the critical stage which africa is missing or struggling with. thus, foreign aid was needed to help kick start industrialization and economic growth in these countries (w w rostow, 1960). however, despite decades of receiving aid and experiencing different development models (which have had very little success), african countries’ economies are still dependent on developed countries and are deep in debt. there is now a growing debate about why african countries remain impoverished and underdeveloped after all this time. many argue that the current methods of aid are not working and are calling for reducing foreign aid (and therefore dependency), by replacing it with trade (griffin 1991, 65). historically, development and aid have not accomplished the goals they were meant to and currently the global gap between the rich and poor is greater than ever (sandbrook 1982, 42-43). talking about the world economy, the group of eight plays an important role. although the group of eight (g-8) can hardly be described as an institution of international governance, the g-8 is the closest thing we have at present to a forum where global economic issues are discussed and policies agreed. this clearly is unsatisfactory. the g-8 is a club of rich countries representing a minority of the world’s population. it has no authority or indeed inclination to speak for the rest of the world or take their interests into account. compounding the problem of absent or ineffective international institutions are structural features of the world economy that inhibit “trickle down” processes of human betterment. first, there is the high degree of international inequality in the distribution of income. second, there are enormous differences in the technology available to rich countries and poor countries. third, there is the relative lack of mobility of labour internationally as compared to the much higher degree of mobility nationally. thus low income labour is unable to migrate readily from poor countries to rich and thereby ensure, on a global level, that the returns to equivalent skills and efforts are equalized. fourth, there is at best only a weak tendency for capital to move from rich countries to poor. most capital movements are from one rich country to another and thus do nothing to spread the benefits of growth to the lowest income people in the lowest income countries. official development assistance between 1960 and 1985 varied between 1.9 percent of the gdp of developing countries in 1961 and 40 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences 1962 and 0.8 per cent in 1985. never of great significance to the developing world, the flow of foreign aid relative to the self-generated resources of developing countries has declined slowly but steadily for over a quarter of a century and is likely to continue to fall for the foreseeable future. indeed one consequence of the end of the cold war may be an accelerated decline in aid (griffin, 1991). in principle foreign aid could be a major source of capital, fuelling the growth of developing countries and helping to promote human development. aid in practice however has failed to live up to the expectations of its advocates and disillusionment now is widespread. it is impossible to demonstrate statistically that foreign aid programmes as actually administered have had a positive effect on growth. nor can one demonstrate that aid has been distributed equitably, the largest amounts per capita going to the poorest countries. within countries, it cannot be demonstrated that most of the aid had been of direct benefit to poor people. thus the connection between foreign aid and the human development of poor people is at best tenuous. some foreign aid has of course made a net addition to the stock of capital in developing countries and some has added to human capital and thereby contributed to human development. but the evidence now is clear that much foreign aid, once all direct and indirect effects are taken into account, has resulted in an increase in unproductive consumption, the amassing of monetary reserves and capital flight and perhaps in a decline in the productivity of investment. if long term foreign assistance intended to alleviate poverty and promote human and economic development is to have an honourable future, major reforms in how it is provided and used will be necessary. the most important issue linking human development and international capital revolves around the role of foreign aid. foreign aid includes the highly concessional loans and outright grants to developing countries from the organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd) and other rich countries, channeled both bilaterally and through multilateral development agencies such as the world bank and the regional development banks. it is often taken for granted that foreign assistance actually assists developing countries. often, this is not the case. the committee for development planning reflects an emerging consensus when it states that far too much aid serves no developmental purpose but is used instead to promote the exports of the donor country, to encourage the use of (imported) capital-intensive methods of production or to strengthen the police and armed forces of the recipient country (the committee of development planning 1990, 38). of serious consequence is that if genuine loan is given, the obvious high rate 41 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences that is attached to it makes it become another form of neo-colonialism. this was evident when donor countries threaten to cut aids to africa if homosexuality is not legalised. reacting to the threat by the united kingdom to cut aid to ghana if the country failed to recognise the gay right, former president of ghana, john atta mills said the uk could not impose its values on ghana because homosexuality is against the religious and cultural values of ghana and he would never legalise homosexuality. uganda also rejected the threat, with an official accusing the uk of showing a bullying mentality. reacting to a comment quoted from the wall street journal that, even if genuine aid is given, the underdeveloped world has no potential to develop and this would be like “pouring money down a bottomless well, weakening the donor nations without effectively curing the ills of the recipients”, nkrumah replied that the argument is true in the sense that the less developed world “will not become developed through the goodwill or generosity of the developed powers. it can only become developed through a struggle against the external forces which have a vested interest in keeping it undeveloped” (nkrumah 1970). the whole story of ‘aid’ is aptly more than what it might seem to be, for there is other conditions which hedge around it. these financial institutions have the habit of forcing would-be borrowers to submit to various offensive conditions. these conditions include supplying information about their economies and submitting their policies and plans to be reviewed by the world bank; accepting agency supervision of their use of aid or loans; the conclusion of commerce and navigation treaties; agreements for economic co-operation; the right to meddle in internal finances, including currency and foreign exchange; to lower trade barriers in favour of the donor country’s goods and capital; to protect the interests of private investments; determination of how the fund are to be used; forcing the recipient to set up counterpart funds; to supply raw materials to the donor countries; the use of the majority of such funds to buy goods from the donor nation or use the funds to award contract to the donor nation, and many other conditions (nkrumah 1970, 243). significantly, the only type of ‘aid’ which the neo-colonial masters consider as safe and therefore willing to give is what nkrumah referred to as “military aid.” according to him, economically advanced countries become generous only, and only, when the less developed countries are brought to a state of economic chaos and misery. the ‘aids’ given will be monitored so that they are ‘properly’ utilized destruction of neo-colonial state–africa. concretized in african context today, practically all the territories that are presently fighting have the support of neo-colonial powers, directly or indirectly. the bitter truth here is that the neo-colonial masters are creating market for their products by artificially creating war. this means that the absence of war will result in low supply of weapons and drugs, thereby affecting the suppliers’ economy. 42 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences indeed it has been estimated that the retail value of trade in illegal drugs exceeds international trade in oil and is second only to the weapons trade (lamond 1991, 3). a report by the campaign against the arms trade reveals in 1999 that african countries received arms worth £52 million in deals with various british firms, and that this figure was more double in 2000 with £125.5 million deal; the figure continues to increase and it is expected to top extensively in the few years ahead (west africa magazine 2002, 25). so what is given as ‘aid’ is not but a way of promoting their market. or, as it has been argued that the supplying of ammunitions and drugs to africa is another way of exploiting the continent of its rich mineral resource: the supply of weapon to ruf in sierra leone, for example, would be exchanged with diamond; the same thing applied to unita in angola, which had greatly enjoyed the support of usa to fight against the former marxist-leninist regime, and host of many countries in africa today (sandbrook 1995, 101). as one economist remarks: “it is pleasant to feel that you are helping your neigbours, and at the same time increasing your own profits” (benharm 1991, 56). it is worthwhile to note that the technique used by the foreign power is to supply “money, aircraft, military equipment of all kinds, and the strategic and tactical command from general staff down to officer ‘advisers’, while the troops of the puppet government bear the brunt of the fighting” (nkrumah 1970, 243). while agreeing that much aid in the past has been wasted, there is evidence that when donor and recipient act responsibly, foreign aid can indeed be of benefit. the first thing that needs to be done is to depoliticize aid by bringing it under the control of a supranational authority operating under clearly defined and agreed principles. these principles should include both the mobilization and allocation of aid funds. it may be too much to expect that the leading donor countries would agree to channel all foreign assistance through a supranational authority, but it should be possible to reach agreement to channel most foreign aid through such an authority while leaving individual countries free to supplement multilateral assistance with bilateral programmes if they wish to do so. this would not be a radical departure from present practice although it would change the balance decisively in favour of multilateral assistance. by and large, africa, through its african union (au) should learn how to be “able to resist unfavourable term imposed by wto, offer information and support to individual countries as well as initiate development” (daily graphic, 2002, 7). monopoly and privatization the emergence of neo-colonialism in africa brings about the emergence of monopolies and the consequent limitation in free enterprise competition associated 43 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences with pre-monopoly capitalism. the monopolies that dominate the economy of the neo-colonial societies of africa are basically foreign multinational companies. they are usually giant enterprises which operate in various countries and produce various complementary products at the same time (okwudiba 1996, 67). notable among the companies, operating in nigeria for example, are gold oil, mobil oil, shell oil, dumez, julius berger construction company, sanyo electronics, peugeot automobile, pfizer, etc. with this consideration, it is argued, africa contributes greatly to the development of western countries through the profits that are made in africa by these multinational companies and then repatriate to europe to create new enterprises, jobs etc, thus leading to development (okwudiba 1996, 68). also the advanced capitalist nations ensure that most of “the trade of the african countries are with them, that the major adversary of these countries, the communist powers, share very minimally in this trade, that the aid and monetary transactions of african countries are with the advanced western powers, that the ethnic, rules, regulations and procedure for the conduct of business activities follow the lines laid down during the colonial era and which favour the west” (okwudiba 1996, 67-68). at last, it is obvious that african countries find it extremely difficult to escape being within the western camp in the global struggle between the opposing social systems. rating it to his vision on african unity, nkrumah contends that the developing small states need to combine efforts together otherwise they will “be compelled to sell their primary products at prices dictated by the developed nations and buy their manufactured goods at the prices fixed by them (nkrumah 1970). he argues further that as long as the neo-colonialism can prevent political and economic conditions for optimum development, the third world countries, either under neocolonialist control or not, will not be able to create a large enough market to support industrialization. more so, they will lack the financial capacity to force the developed countries to accept their primary product at a fair price. the pressures upon african countries to conform to economic criteria set by the west continue unabated. such conditions such as that africa “must privatize to qualify for aid; they must improve their human right record; they must allow western organizations to monitor their elections; they must be democratic in the western multiparty tradition” (west africa magazine 2002, 24). the west insists upon these conditions as though only calamity must be the alternative; and yet throughout the now almost forgotten cold war such conditionalities were rarely mentioned and never enforced. tanzania has, for example, has almost privatized its 400 parastatal corporations, with the result that outside investors are beginning to return and the country “has become the blue-eyed boy of the imf” (west africa magazine 2002, 24). 44 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences okwudiba deals with one of the most preferred instruments of state economic policy in the sixties, seventies, and eighties, which are state owned enterprises (okwudiba 1999). basing his focus on the countries of kenya, uganda and tanzania in east africa, okwudiba traces the origins of state enterprises in east africa to the colonial period, and the colonial state. the sector underwent tremendous expansion after independence. reasons for this expansion are many and varied including economic nationalism, ideology, and capital cost minimisation for transitional corporations. a review of their performance reveals a mixed picture with many of them experiencing serious structural, managerial and operational problems. together with asfaw kimssa, they both agree that solutions to most of the problems including privatization have not been easy to implement. kimssa goes further to say that privatization will cause denationalization of the african economies, excessive capital outflows, high unemployment and increasing inequality and justice (kimssa 1999, 66). mamadou dia echoes the observations of the world bank study on adjustment in africa, which claim that adjustment supported policy reforms in african countries have generally been more successful in improving their macroeconomics that their public and financial sectors. he goes on to argue that “the social, economic and political crisis of post independence sub-saharan africa can be largely attributed to a crisis of institutions, resulting from a structural disconnect between the indigenous institutions and management practices characterizing civil society, and modern institutions and governance” (mamadou, 1999, 66). he argues further that this disconnection has created a “crisis of legitimacy and accountability that affect governance and the performance of public administration, as well as the development of an indigenous private sector and african entrepreneurship” (mamadou, 1999, 67). it could be added that recognizing africa’s crisis as one of institutions, demands changes on all fronts. indigenous institutions must be willing to initiate change and move away from conservatism toward innovation. globalization there is scarcely anybody in africa who would talk of the last 300 years, including the periods from 1957 when ghana for instance gained independence, in language flattering either to colonialism or to governments that have taken over power since political independence. world bank and imf officials who see wrong only in the policies of african governments choose to forget that their own fingers have written the various documents on which these policies—from important substitution to now export orientation—were based. it is also a measure of their intellectual dishonesty, or ideological brainwashing, says yash tandon, that they cannot see the connection between globalisation and africa’s poverty (yash, 1999, 9). 45 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences for example, much of the discussion about the scourge of hiv/aids in africa was centred on the availability of anti-retroviral drugs. these drugs were prohibitively expensive for most africans if purchased from the major northern pharmaceutical companies, but might be cheaper if imported from india or brazil. but whether expensive or cheap—that is, whether life or death determinative for africans— depended in our globalised world of today on the policies and decisions of the world trade organization and it’s most powerful member states, which, of course, are the headquarters of the major pharmaceutical industries. “globalization” is one of the most widely used and least clearly defined of the terms in political and economic discourses today. we shall use the term “globalization” to refer to the phenomenon of increasing integration of nation states through economic exchanges, political configurations, technological advances and cultural influences, which are the integrating factors of globalisation today. economic exchange includes cross-border trade in goods and services, capital flows and financial investments. today almost three trillion us dollars moves around the world every day, seeking not the best production but the best return on speculation. of the one hundred largest economic entities in the world, fifty of them are nation states and fifty are transitional corporations (cafod briefing paper, december 2000, 15). political configurations are the new or renewed structures of the united nations, the world bank, the international monetary fund, the world trade organisation, the blocs of the european community, the north american free trade area, etc. these are not democratically elected governments but have considerably more power than any such governments. for example, the expanded “trade related” mandate of the wto now touches areas like intellectual property, employment policies, environmental regulations, etc. technological advances include the rapidly growing utilization of electronic communications (phone, internet—e-mail, facebook, twitter, viber, whatsapp, etc) and the increasing ease of transportation. we live in an information age, we live in a “borderless age,” we live in a very fast age. cultural influences are obvious in the “westernization” of so much of popular future in music, clothes, life styles, etc. as of 2005, the single largest export industry for the united states in not aircrafts, automobiles, computers, but entertainment— hollywood films and television programmes (undp, 2006, 33). 46 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the structures that are the foundations of globalisation as we experience it today, and that guide its future development, are important to identify. here let us speak of only a few of the more important structures and then identify their impact on africa. globalization as currently experienced is, in its major direction, an incarnation of neo-liberalism (latin american provincials of the society of jesus 2007, 281). in its extreme, this ideology is a kind of “economic fundamentalism” that puts an absolute value on the operation of the market and subordinate people’s lives, the function of society, the policies of government and the role of the state to this unrestricted free market. neo-liberal policies support economic growth as an end in itself and use macro-economic indicators as the primary measurements of a healthy society. it assumes almost a religious character, as greed becomes a virtue, competition a commandment, and profit a sign of salvation. dissenters are dismissed as nonbelievers at best, and heretics at worst. problems with the operation of this ideology— even such massive problems as the collapses experienced a few years ago in asian economies—are seen not as “mortal sins” but as mere “falls from grace” that deserve more penitential practice of the exercises that are demanded by the ideology (mihevc, 2005, 21-42). even before trade in basic goods and services, by far the largest component of globalization is the movement of money across borders. this is disconnected capital, institutionally managed money that moves with the speed of a mouse click on a computer, putting money into a situation for quick return, pulling it out equally speedily for a safe return. the severe problems experienced by the “asian tigers” were largely due to the rapid and uncontrolled movement of capital (mihevc, 2005, 21-42). trade is usually under the guidance of the creed of “free trade.” because of the technological advances in communications and transportation, goods produced in one country move rapidly into other countries, frequently disrupting traditional productive patterns in the second country. one can think simply of the decline in the automobile industry in the united states because of the competition from japan and china. trade relationships may be “free” but whether or not they are “fair” depends on factors of power, size, experience, skills, etc. and in our world of today, these factors are very a-symmetrical. we all have heard of, indeed, experienced, “cultural imperialism,” the imposition of values and styles of life by dominant forces. one commentator has referred to the contemporary process of globalization as the birth of the “mcworld” — a cultural integration of fast music (mtv), fast computers (macintosh) and fast food (mcdonald’s) (benjamin barber, 2012, 24). cultural imperialism is not a 47 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences new phenomenon, but it assumes alarming proportions when driven by the new technologies and profit propensities of the dynamics of globalization. a jesuit economist, xabier gorostiaga, refers to the “predominance of geo-culture over the geo-political and the geo-economic” (xabier 2006, 9). traditional cultural values such as family, community, respect for life, hospitality, etc., come into strong confrontation and do losing battle with the values communicated through western music, movies, videos, cable and satellite television, advertisements, and the idolized figures of entertainment and sports. with the end of the cold war, there has been a significant change in the geopolitical structures shaped by the east-west conflict. a bi-polar world has given way to a design for a “new world order.” but the political dimensions of this new order are themselves subject to the economic influences of available markets, accessible resources, and technological arrangements etc. the point made several years ago by pope john xxxiii, that development of global economic relationships has outstripped the development of political governance structures to promote the global common good, (pope john xxxiii 1963, 135-136) is more than ever true today. we may be familiar with the expression, the “champagne glass economy,” a picture of the globe emerging from the undp human development reports that the richest 20% of the world’s population receives 86% of global income, while the poorest 20% receives just 1%. (undp 2006, 3). this is a picture of the globe in which the huge majority occupies only the narrowest stem of the glass while the tiny rich minority enjoys the broad bowel of affluence. in this champagne glass, we all know where the majority of africans fit! the assets of the three richest people are more than the combined gnp of all the least developed countries; the assets of the 200 richest people are more than the combined income of 41% of the world’s people; a yearly contribution of 1% of the wealth of the 200 richest people could provide universal access to primary education for all (undp 2006, 38). is globalization then good for africa’s future? not in its present form that has been exaggerating the gap between africa and the so-called developed world. second, the current structuring of globalisation creates an increasing marginalization of africa in the very process of integrating it into the global economy. for there is a stark disparity between rich and poor in the global opportunities offered in trade, investment and technologies. this marginalization has increased dramatically in recent past, and shows no signs of decreasing. as the undp 2006 report commented: some have predicted convergence. yet the past decade has shown increasing concentration of income, resources and wealth among people, corporations and countries…. 48 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences all these trends are not the inevitable consequences of global economic integration – but they have run ahead of global governance to share the benefits (undp 2006, 3). a third observation deals with the growing environmental threat to africa. this comes from a particularly disturbing aspect of globalization, the phenomenon of global warming. as it were, this phenomenon is caused mostly by carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles, power plants and industries that are, of course, most heavily concentrated in the so-called developed countries. most pollution in the world is caused by economic activities in the developed countries, (walley 2001, 182.) but the developing countries can be expected increasingly to add to the problem as their economies become ever more industrialized and urbanized and as their agriculture comes to rely more and more on chemical based technologies. greater consciousness in rich countries of the hazards to health of some industrial processes and greater concern about the deterioration of the environment have led them to impose relatively strict health, safely, waste disposal and environmental regulations. one response has been an attempt to shift to poor countries the costs of industrialization in the rich ones. examples include efforts to dispose of contaminated nuclear waste in developing countries, shipments of urban generated garbage to developing countries (such as the chemical factory that exploded and caused death, blindness and intense suffering in bhopal, india). while it would be wrong to oppose transfers of economic activities from rich countries to poor, or to impose identical health, safety and environmental standards worldwide, it would be equally wrong to condone an economic system under which what is unacceptable in the back yards of the rich is dumped unceremoniously in the front yards of the poor. according to the united nations environmental programme, the effects and impacts of global warming in africa is frightening, with the rising levels of disease, famine and poverty. according to inter-governmental panel on climate change (ipcc) global warming will condemn millions to hunger as crops decline in asia and africa. prof. robert winston, one time world bank chief scientist and chairman of ipcc, noted that the earth is getting warmer than at any other time during the last 10,000 years. he echoed that global warming is now the greatest threat to mankind, but singled out africa as the lowest rate of emissions. but then, “sub-saharan africa, along with low-lying small island states in the indian and pacific oceans, are the most vulnerable to climate change because widespread poverty limits their capabilities to adapt to a continuing changing climate” (west africa magazine 2001, 11). we have had clear proof of that with the former usa president, president george bush’s blunt rejection 49 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences of the kyoto protocol agreements to limit harmful emissions. reports show that usa is the highest pollution of the environment (west africa magazine 2001, 11). but as unsuccessful globalisation might appear to be in africa, however, it could still work perfectly and be of benefit to africa if it is modified. on this ground, peter j. henriot, suggests what he calls alternatives to globalisation. (peter j. henriot, edward p. deberri, and michael j. schulthesis, 1992).to this, peter henriot suggests a three-fold path globalisation of solidarity, globalisation of concern and globalisation from below. modernization and dependency theories modernisation and dependency are theories which specify the concept of development. these theories reveal valid explanations for both development and underdevelopment of developed and developing countries. according to matunhu, modernisation is about africa following the developmental footsteps of europe (largely the former coloniser of africa) (matunhu 2011, 65-72). he expounds that, according to modernity, policies intended to raise the standard of living of the poor often consist of disseminating knowledge and information about more efficient techniques of production. on his part, mar defines modernisation as a process of transforming from traditional or underdeveloped society to a modern western societies way of life (m. s. mar, 2008). from the definitions, modernisation is a developmental process which was derived from the steps followed by western countries when they were doing their development. as a compliment to modernisation is dependency. dependency is a historical condition which shapes a certain structure of the world economy such that it favours some countries to the detriment of others and limits the development possibilities of the subordinate economics so much that it presents a situation in which the economy of a certain group of countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy (ferraro 2008). from the definition, dependency theory attempts to explain the present underdeveloped state of many nations in the world by examining the patterns of interactions among nations and by arguing that inequality among nations is an intrinsic part of those interactions. in this respect, it is possible to refer to modernization theory and dependency theory which, being quite different, still have certain similarities in their views on the modern world and relationships between developed and developing countries. also they aim to explain development but using different angles. modernization theorist rostow reveals that, modernization theory has five major stages that a traditional society has to pass through to become a modern society. 50 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences in this theory it is assumed that all countries pass through these stages in order for them to reach a stage of being developed. therefore, the rostowian theory (named after its inventor, walt whitman rostow) identifies these five stages which the less developed has to follow. firstly it is the primitive society stage which is characterised by subsistence farming and barter trade. the second is the preparation for take-off which is characterised by specialization, production of surplus goods and trade. transport infrastructure is developed to support trade. in addition the stage encourages savings and investment. the third state is the take-off stage where industrialization increases and the economy switches from agriculture to manufacturing. the fourth stage is regarded as the drive to maturity where the economy diversifies into new areas and there is less reliance on imports. and the last stage is period of mass consumption where the economy gears on mass production and service sector becomes increasingly dominating. in general, modernization led to the introduction of hybrids, the green house technology, genetically modified (gmo) food, use of artificial fertilizers, insecticides, tractors and the application of other scientific knowledge to replace traditional agricultural practices (matunhu 2011, 66) according to sharmila dependency theory is the relationship between two or more countries assumes the form of independence when some (dominant ones) can do this as reflection of the expansion. therefore the relationship between these countries is not equal. the dependency theory views developing countries as is politically conservative because they view developing countries as undeveloped because they lack the qualities that developed nations have. moreover dependency theory states that, there is the core, semi periphery and the periphery. the core consists of developed countries, semi periphery is the newly industrialized countries like brazil and the peripheries are developing countries (sharmila 2008, 34). dos santos as well as rodney agree that since dependency assumes that development depends on the relationship between center and the periphery where the center or the core are the first world and developed nations while the periphery refers to the third world and developing states, dependent states, therefore, should attempt to pursue policies of self-reliance to avoid unfair relationship between the periphery and core. this is based on the argument that, africa deprived by europe of political and economic decision power, and lacking sustained investment funds, trod the reverse path, and then sinking deeper and deeper into non development and poverty (matunhu 2011, 66). as matunhu reveals, modernization impoverished africa through colonialism and imperialism by the west and this trend is with us today as the east takes its turn 51 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences to deplete the continent’s resources such as oil and minerals. africa needs to outgrow poverty and underdevelopment but this, according to him, may not be possible as long as we still believe in the power and strength of modernity at the expense of promoting new theories for africa’s development (matunhu 2011, 70). modernization and dependency theory stand on the ground that western countries are the world leaders due to their higher level of development, which affects practically all spheres of life, including economic, political, social, and even cultural life. as a result, there exist a strong link between developed and developing countries. this may be true in the sense that, the modernisation theory mentions the development gap between developing and undeveloped countries by revealing that, developing countries must go through various stages to reach fifth stage of high consumption where the developed countries are found. also dependency theory reveals the gap by postulating that, there are developing countries which are found at the periphery and developed countries at the core. this clearly shows that both theories acknowledge a development gap between developing and developed countries (matunhu 2011, 70). both modernization and dependency theories underline that the relationships between developed and developing countries is unequal and there exists a kind of dependence of developing countries on developed ones. also, both theories underline the dominant position of western countries in the modern world and leave little room for the alternative ways of the development but the western one, which is viewed as the only way of the development of the future world in the context of the global economy. it is worthy of mention that both theories are ethnocentric in a way because they practically ignore the possibility of the alternative development of developing countries but, instead they insist that the development of western countries will still be on top! (matunhu 2011). so, poverty in the third world is not ‘traditional’ or accidental. it is a necessary companion to the richness of the developed world. the expansion of the industrial world deformed the rest of the world. joshi sharmila, historian eric williams, for example, argues that the slave trade between africa and the caribbean islands was responsible for the emergence of a commercial middle class in britain and eventually for britain’s industrial revolution. slaves were taken from africa to the caribbean; their unpaid and coerced labour produced such profitable commodities as sugar or cotton, which were taken to europe for huge profits. this provided the conditions for ‘take-off ’ for britain’s industrial revolution (sharmila 2008, 40). these examples show the dependency approach: the actual creation of underdevelopment at the cost of development. west african societies were uprooted by centuries of the slave trade; in the caribbean the plantation system (set up to meet 52 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the needs of the colonists) met no local needs and impoverished workers. mines in the third world produced bauxite, tin, iron and other metals and minerals for the industries of the west. all of this depended on cheap indentured or slave labour. many of the regions of the world were left with skewed, impoverished economies and devastated populations while the now-developed countries gained prosperity. matunhu, ellis and biggs suggest that underdeveloped states need to design policies which are meant to raise the standard of living of the poor which consist of disseminating knowledge and information about more efficient techniques of production. modernisation agriculture process which includes encouraging farmers to try new crops, new production methods and new marketing skills be viewed as a good example. this is because modernisation is about exchanging of older agriculture practices with something more recent (sharmila 2008, 85). poverty reduction policies and strategies have tended to be influenced by the theories of development. modernistic polices and strategies tend to be top-down in approach. they see development of africa as the responsibility of the metropolitan states. thus, development strategies and finances are produced, packaged and sent to africa by the economically powerful states. the beneficiaries of development support are usually marginalised. the dependency theory attributes rural poverty to the continuous pillage of human and nonhuman resources from the satellite to the metropolis. the same pattern is discernable between the modern and the traditional communities. the underdevelopment of africa is indeed a result of cultural collision between two different development spheres – the west and africa. the former, because of its strategic and technological advantage over africa, it was able to choke and subdue africa’s culture and value system. in the process, africa lost its right to determine its way to development. to develop, then, africa needs to detach itself from the western mentality of modernisation and dependency. thinking that, by destiny, africa is designed to perpetually depend on the west for survival (dependency), and that if it must develop at all, it must follow the western style of development (modernisation). conclusion as a parenthetical conclusion, there is the need to reaffirm that africa has experienced four stages of outside penetration on the continent by forces which have had negative social consequences on the african people’s integral development. this outside penetration has occurred over the past five hundred years as argued: firstly, as slavery, during which the continent’s most precious resources, african women and men were stolen away by global traders for the benefits of arab, european 53 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences and american countries. secondly, as colonialism, when british, french, belgium, portuguese, italian and german interests dictated the way that map-boundaries were drawn, transportation and communication lines were established, agricultural and mineral resources were exploited, and religious and cultural patterns were introduced. thirdly, as neo-colonialism, the form taken by outside political pressures and economic forces that set trade patterns, investment policies, debt arrangements, technology introductions, political alliances, etc. fourthly, as globalization characterized by the attachment and integration of the economies of the world through trade and financial flows, technology and information exchanges, and the movement of people. on the forefront are the issues of modernization and dependency. modernization advocates that if africa must develop it must follow the pattern of the developed world. in other words, if the developed world did a, b, c, d, to succeed, africa too must follow suit by doing the same a, b, c, d. but this theory forgets that africa is a unique entity with unique characteristics. meaning that what works for the western world may not necessarily work for africa. dependence theory thinks that the perennial poverty in africa is as a result of her continual dependence on the western world for survival. the western world would also want this to continue because the advancement of africa means economic imbalance in the developed world. this historical situation dates back to the slave trade, and still living among africa up to this moment. but the identification of these problems does not mean that africa in general does not contribute to her problems. this article however serves as a sequel for studies into the internal forces against africa’s democracy and development. references a. l. adu, and rwekaza mukandala 1999. “the colonial legacy,” african public administration, nairobi: oxford university press. barber, benjamin. 2012. “jihad vs mcworld,” the atlantic monthly. benharm, courteney. 1991. economic aid to under-developed countries. london: oxford university press. bratton michael and nocolas van de walle. 1997. democratic experiments in africa. new york: cambridge university press. brian,roger. and tomlinson, b.r. 2003. “what was the third world”, journal of contemporary history, 38(2): 307–321. crawford, young. 1982 “patterns of social conflict: state, class and ethnicity”, daedalus, 110, 2. 54 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences daily graphic, “the new political dawn”, march 5, 2002. ferraro, vittoria. 2008. dependency theory: an introduction. glynne, evans. 1997. responding to crises in the african great lakes. nairobi: oxford university press. griffin, keith. 1991. foreign aid after the cold war. chicago: oxford press. gutkind, peter c. 1996. the political economy of contemporary africa. london: sage press. henriot, peter j. edward p. deberri, and michael j. schulthesis. 1992. catholic social teaching: our best kept secret. new york: orbis books. henriot, peter j.1997. “retreat of the state: political consequences with social implications for zambia,” jesuit centre for theological reflection, unpublished article, p. 39-60. hollenbach, david. 2000 “working for solidarity in an age of globalisation,” jesuit centre for theological reflection, unpublished article. kimssa, asfaw. and rwekaza. 1999. “state owned enterprises,” african public administration, nairobi: oxford university press. l. mair, 1990. primitive governance. baltimore: penguin books. lamond, tullis. 1991. handbook of research on the illicit drug traffic: socio-economic and political consequences. westport: greenwood press. m. s. mar, 2008. modernistaion vs dependence theory. mamadou, dia. and rwekaza mukandala. 1999. “crisis in contemporary africa public administration,” african public administration, nairobi: oxford university press. markovitz, irving l. 1997. power and class in africa. englewood cliffs: prentice-hall. matunhu, jephias. 2011. a critique of modernization and dependency theories in africa: critical assessment: midlands state university zimbabwe, african journal of history and culture, pp. 65-72. mihevc, john. 2005. the market tells them so: the world bank and economic fundamentalism in africa. penang: third world network, pp. 21-42. mitelman, james h. 1991. “the end of a millennium changing structures of world order and the challenges of globalisation”, political economy and foreign policy in the third world in the 1990s, unpublished note: halifax, nova scotia. nkrumah, kwame. 1970. neo-colonialism: the last stage of imperialism, ibadan: heinemann educational books ltd. 55 external forces of africa’s democracy and development epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences nyerere, julius k. 1980. ujamaa: essays on socialism. dar es salaam: oxford university press. okwudiba nnoli. 1996. introduction to politics. ikeja: longman group. okwudiba, nnoli. and rwekaza mukandala, 1999. “state owned enterprises,” african public administration, nairobi: oxford university press. pistol in henry iv, pt. 2, act v, scene 3. in a. g. hopkins, “of africa and golden joys” in geneva africa (1985), xxiii, i: p. 27. pope john xxxiii, 1963. peace on earth, rome: vatican press, pp. 135-136. rostow, w w. 1960. the stages of economic growth. sandbrook, richard. 1993. the politics of africa’s economic stagnation. new york: cambridge university press. sandbrook, richard. 1982. the politics of basic needs: urban aspects of assaulting poverty in africa. london: heinermann. sharmila, joshi. 2008. theories of development vs dependency. the committee of development planning, regional trading blocs: a threat to the multilateral trading system? united nations, new york. “the rough guide to globalisation.” 2000. cafod briefing paper. united nations development programme, human development report 2006. url: http:// www.palgrave.com/page/detail/human-development-report-2006-united-nations development-programme/?isb=9780230500587 united nations environmental programme. 2001. “global warming: africa hit hardest,” press release by intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc), nairobi. walter. rodney, 1992. how europe underdeveloped africa, dar es salaam: tanzania publishing house west africa magazine, 2002. “neo-colonialism: alive and flourishing.” west africa. 2002. “the banana question.” wickens, peter. 1981. an economic history of africa, cape town: oxford university press. wogaman, j. philip christian. 2000. perspective on politics louisville: westminster john knox press. wolf-phillips, leslie. 1987. “why ‘third world’?: origin, definition and usage”, third world quarterly, 9(4): 1311-1327. world bank, world development report 2006/2007: attacking poverty oxford: oxford university press. 56 e. brenya & s. adu-gyamfi epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences world bank, world development report. 1991. washington dc. wwalley, j. 2001. “the interface between environmental and trade policies,” economic journal. xabier, gorostiaga. 2006. “citizens of the planet and of the 21st century,” sedos bulletin, vol. 28, no. 3. yash, tandon. 1999. globalisation: africa’s options isgn monograph. no 2, queen city, philippines: international south group network. 131 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences using corpusin enhancingreporting verb patterns in teaching/ learning process samina dazdarevic international university of novi pazar, serbia fahreta fijuljanin international university of novi pazar, serbia aldin rastić international university of novi pazar, serbia abstract knowing which patterns are associated with different reporting verbs is one of the biggest single grammar challenges facing learners. using electronic language corpus is a good way of teaching all those other reporting verbs apart from ‘say’ and ‘tell’ which have a variety of structures (verb + obj + that, verb + ing, etc) e.g. promise, advise, deny, etc. giving the students a long list of verbs with structures is only confusing and also very boring. with the help of a corpus, students acquire knowledge and skills in the language they are studying. corpus linguistics can thus be seen as a learning model where students take responsibility for their own learning. the corpus of contemporary american english (coca) currently comprises more than 450 million words of text and is equally divided among spoken, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers, and academic texts. coca offers a setting of problem-based learning where the students’ discoveries and interaction with a corpus give them a learning curve very much triggered by their own activity and motivation. further, by being exposed to authentic data, students are given a more nuanced encounter with language than traditional grammars are able and are given the opportunity to evaluate data and draw their own conclusions. from a pedagogical point of view it is quite evident that the integration of corpora in language teaching/learning is beneficial to students. key words: reporting verb patterns, teaching/learning, corpus, coca 132 samina dazdarevic, et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction for efl/esl learners, reporting verbs represent a complex and confusing group of verbs for reporting spoken statements and questions that is often non-definitive. its ‘never-ending’ feature and numerous following structures makes this group one of the most challenging and difficult to enhance. facing this fact, teachers are obliged to ease the learning and discover innovative teaching solutions. nowadays, corpus approach has proven as an excellent linguistic tool that enables innovations for teachers and students discovering a whole new world of authentic patterns of language in its contemporary usage. corpus approach is a representation of approaching to the natural language and derivation of a set of abstract rules. thus, corpus paves a path from data to theory, from an example to definition, from practice to theory. we annotate, abstract and analyze certain linguistic structures. we tend to apply a scheme to the text using structural markup and a part of speech tagging as well as mapping of grammatical terms. we examine, probe and evaluate statistical data. the first part of this research represents a coherence between corpus approach and learning process in classroom as well as a unique possibility of corpus assistance in overcoming grammatical structures for efl learners. our foreground task is to determine and prove the usefulness of using corpus approach in order to solve the problems that efl learners face. grammar, as it is well-known, often represents the most challenging task for non-native speakers of english encounter. the following part deals with new ideas of incorporating corpus resources in learning and teaching grammar in efl classrooms. in the last part of the paper, the research is taken on the coca corpus intended to represent a method of integrating corpus models of certain reporting verbs in spoken and written english. corpus approach assistance in educational process computer-aided language learning has proven to be one of the most effective tools in education process. due to technology and computers, classes nowadays should be a part of modern-equipped technological facility. teaching, especially in primary and secondary public schools, is one of the areas where technology still tends to have a greater impact. thus, corpus linguistics as one of the technology-based tools is found to be very useful in teaching and learning process. the core burden is being carried by the efl teachers who often find integrating corpus-based activities a challenging task. among many reasons why coprus-based teaching should be used in classrooms is the fact that coprus is a kind of evidence 133 using corpusin enhancingreporting verb patterns in teaching/learning process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences that offers which language processes are most likely to be used and encountered by native speakers using real-life examples rather than those made up by the teacher. it also: helps teachers to improve teaching activities makes textbooks authentic makes ‘real english’ available helps students to learn lexical patterns, collocations, semantics from natural discourse helps student to develop their own research skills etc. it is important to aknowledge that dazdarevic et al (2015:7) mention how payne (2008) sees the traditional pedagogical approach to teaching grammar through a process: 1. the teacher presents information to the student, 2. the learner practices with this information, 3. the learner produces new content. in contrast, in a corpus based approach, the learner 1. observes a grammatical phenomenon of the language, 2. hypothesizes as to how this grammatical phenomenon works, and then 3. experiments to see if their hypothesis is correct one of the best known uses of corpora in the language classroom is certainly concordancing. according to dazdarevic et al (2015:7), aconcordancer works much the same wayas an internet search engine. it is a kind of a program that searches a whole corpus for a wanted and selected word or phrase. the program then presents every instance of that word or phrase occurring in the corpus in the format of key-wordin-context (kwic) in the center of the screen surrounded by 4 or 5 words that came before and after the searched word. the following work aims to show the use of concordancing in the classroom as a teaching technique which students can effectively use through their research in language patterns. learning real grammar both teaching and learning are complex processes that have been and will be changed and improved as the human intellect and capability are progressing. there is no a perfect and best approach, method or technique to teaching that would satisfy every criteria of ideal methodic in classrooms. but there are different and various solutions for using certain approaches to teaching and learning grammar, 134 samina dazdarevic, et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences vocabulary and for improving listening and speaking skills. in the first place, teacher should be familiar with those approaches and their theoretical (dis)advantages and then be capable to adapt and apply his knowledge according to particular situation. when it comes to teaching grammar, we have many methods used, examined and tested from early periods till today. traditional and structural grammar instructions had given the main basis for what we today call modern teaching of grammar. there are also audio-lingual, direct and functional approaches that influenced educational process at the time, as well as universal grammar by chomsky. along with cognitive, humanistic and discourse-based approaches, corpus-based is considered to be one of the leaders in contemporary educational thought and practice. corpus-based grammar teaching seems to become essential tool in representing grammar structures of natural language use and different language variations in contextual communication. corpus-based learning grammar has been popular amongst teachers since the very publication of the longman grammar of spoken and written english (biber et al 1999). as it was said in the introduction of the biber’s et al work, the lgswe adopts a corpus-based approach, which means that grammatical descriptions are based on the patterns of structure and use found in a large collection of spoken and written texts, stored electronically, and searchable by computers. it complements previous grammatical descriptions by investigating the linguistics patterns actually used by speakers and writers in the late twentieth century. why do grammar teachers need corpus-based studies? that was one of the questions that biber and conrad asked in their research work related to the corpus. first of all, they mentioned the authenticity of the information represented in textbook students are using during their studies. unfortunately, they claim that ‘no special source of information for textbook writers exists. author’s intuition, anecdotal evidence and tradition about what should be in a grammar book play major roles in determining the content of textbook.’ the answer is easy. teachers don’t have to fabricate examples anymore when teaching grammar. instead, corpus-based studies offers a diversity of natural interpretation for studying language patterns and structures. these interpretations can be in spoken and transcribed or written form. also, there is a possibility for different registers to describe a certain grammatical usage in human interpretation. according to biber and conrad, three types of description are especially important for teaching grammar: 1. frequency information 2. register comparisons 3. associations between grammatical structures and words (lexico-grammar) 135 using corpusin enhancingreporting verb patterns in teaching/learning process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences this works intends to deal with the last type of description and represent it through corpus-based study. association between grammatical structure and words is a research about frequency of certain grammatical structure with the words used with it and its occurrence in a given structure. we used corpora to illustrate what grammatical structure can be used with verb + gerund, verb + infinitive and verb + that clause instructions. these constructions can build a very long lists of verbs that torture teachers as well as their students. the following part aims to represent a traditional approach to certain verbs constructions – the usage of reporting verbs promise, advise and deny, and then employ corpora in discovering these grammatical constructions. traditional approach to reporting verbs promise, advise anddeny one of the initial problems with reporting verbs is that students often tend to overthink when and how to use them as they are baffled with extensive/scarce lists and rules that traditional grammars offer. grammar textbooks usually provide either too simple or too complex explanations without example sentences for all reporting verbs. in other words, there is usually a very long list of reporting verbs and only few examples. it has been a major task for the purposes of this paper to find grammar textbooks which analyze reporting verbs one by one, as they are usually grouped according to the structures they are followed by. murphy (2004:106) provides the following explanation: after enjoy, mind and suggest, we use –ing (not to …). some more verbs that are followed by –ing: stop postpone admit avoid imagine finish consider deny risk fancy suddenly everybody stopped talking. he tried to avoid answering my question. i’ll do the shopping when i’ve finished cleaning. it is obvious that such explanation is vague and confusing. first of all, students cannot find verb deny in the contents page of the book and even if they come across it in the abovementioned summary, they would not find any example sentences for it leaving them puzzled. another problem is that efl students learn these lists of verbs by heart and often confuse them with other lists for some other rules. the best way to do it is to provide each verb separately with many examples and possible exceptions. eastwood (1999:143) analyzes the verb promise in the following way: he promised to go, his promise to go 136 samina dazdarevic, et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences some nouns can come before a to-infinitive. compare these sentences. verb+ to-infinitive: mark promised to go shopping. but then he arranged to play golf. noun+ to-infinitive: mark forgot about his promise to go shopping. sarah found out about his arrangement to play golf. here are some nouns we can use: agreement, arrangement, decision, demand, desire, failure, offer, plan, promise, refusal, tendency, threat. at first glance, it seems that the explanation is sufficient. however, there is no reason to mix verb+ to-infinitive and noun+ to-infinitive structures and exemplify their usage in sentences that can be easily swapped. having in mind this short summary, students do not know which challenge to take; is it more important to learn verbs or nouns we use to create infinitive structures? in the same book, eastwood (1999:155) also explains how verb advise works. advise, allow, encourage and recommend we can use these verbs with an –ing form or with an object + a to-infinitive. +ing-form +object + to-infinitive they allow fishing here. they allow people to fish here. i wouldn’t recommend walking home alone. i wouldn’t recommend you to walk home alone. we encounter the same problem in this explanation as it was the case with the verb deny; there are no example sentences even though the verb is listed. in addition, students have to make their own sentences and thus make possible mistakes. therefore, the rule is not precise but vague and leaves space for errors and misinterpretation. integrating a corpora model for teaching reporting verbs promise, advise and deny. if the teacher wants integrating a corpus-based study to be successful in his classroom, according to mcenery and xiao (2012:12), they must first of all be equipped with a sound knowledge of the corpus-based approach. the first assignment for language learners is to open a corpus, in this case coca (the corpus of contemporary american english), and explore the reporting verbs promise, advise and deny patterns. the ‘research question’ for a corpus-designed activity could be defined as ‘what are the possible grammatical patterns with the reporting verbs promise, advise and deny?’as language is used differently in different registers, all registers are relevant in this study. as we already mentioned in our previous work related to the corpus approach to the gerund and infinitive analysis (dazdarevic et al, 2015), the student will be put in 137 using corpusin enhancingreporting verb patterns in teaching/learning process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences front of a concordance program on a computer and challenged to make a research on his own. if needed, the teacher will be there to make an assistance in this corpus research. the main aim of this research is to make the student capable and able to search for given tasks, to analyze it and construct his own conclusions about the particular language use. using a concordance program, attention is being focused on the close interaction between the student and the text in front of him, rather than on the input from the teacher. in this situation the learner is a detective who is able to explore and discover rules and meanings within their own cognitive framework. it promotes learners awareness of the strategies and skills used in learning. it stimulates the learners cognition and promotes their construction process/language awareness (wolf, 1995, see more in montazar 1999:15). during the analyzing verb promise when used in reported speech, the coca corpus offered us plenty of examples of using it in speech. the table 1. stands for a representation of verb pattern that is used with the verb promise. the first one is a structure verb + infinitive (promise + vinf ), as it was searched for in a query in coca. this table also represents a verb pattern verb + conjsub (promise + conjsub). the main difference is between their occurrence in coca, where the first pattern is occurred 3406 times and the second one is occurred 1023 times. it illustrates the usage of these verb patterns among native speakers of english language. it could be the first student’s observation and conclusion table 1. representation and frequency of promise + vinf., and promise + conjsub., in coca table 1.also shows a distribution of these patterns in different sections. the first pattern verb pattern example frequency section promise + vinf. figure 1. 3406 newspaper promise + conjsub. figure 2. 1023 fiction is distributed most in newspaper section, and the least in academic. the second pattern is distributed in fiction section most but also in academic the least. we can conclude that the pattern with infinitive is more typical for spoken section and the pattern with –that clause is more typical for written section. as for deeper analyzing, coca serves as an inexhaustible resource of examples in context. the following figure (no.1) represents the first verb pattern, promise + 138 samina dazdarevic, et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences vinf., in kwic (keyword in context) where the pattern promise + vinf. is sorted and aligned with the word in context before and after it. figure 1. distribution and kwic of promise + vinf., in coca figure 2. also shows an example of concordancing, keyword in context for the second verb pattern promise + conjsub. observing these numerous examples of patterns usage, students will be able to conclude and formulate grammar rules as professional grammars and even more. figure 2. distribution and kwic of promise + conjsub., in coca unlike the verb structure for promise in reported speech which has only two patterns offered in coca, the verb advise largely differs in its verb combinations and thus it is more difficult for students to enhance and comprehend. even though the table 2. shows a number of possibilities that string along with the verb advise, frequency number determines the native speaker’s usage. the verb patterns advise + vbase and advise + vmodal are only once used in corpus with the given examples 139 using corpusin enhancingreporting verb patterns in teaching/learning process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences in the table, while the pattern advise + vdo occurs only 4 times. table 2. sections distribution, examples and frequency of advise verb patterns in coca these examples may appear and be defined as exceptions in using verb advise. the most frequent verb patterns of advise are at the same time the most known ones among teachers and students. the table 2. presents a noticeable facts about the frequency of the pattern advise + ving and advise + conjsub. verb pattern example frequency section advise+ vbase advise go 1 spoken advise + vmodal advise would 1 spoken advise should 1 academic advise +ving 311 figure 3. advise + vdo 4 magazine advise + conjsub advise that… 120 figure 4. the verb pattern advise + ving is occurred 311 times in coca while the pattern advise + conjsub is occurred only 120 times. the conclusion is that native speakers of english are using the verb structure with infinitive rather than -that clause. considering different sections and sub-sections in coca corpus, there’s also a difference between verb pattern usages. the figure 3. shows how verb pattern advise + ving is distributed in all sections and mostly appear in magazine section for 94 times while there is only 7 tokens in spoken section. figure 3. frequency and distribution of advise + ving. in different sections figure 4. shows that the verb pattern advise + conjsub.is highly distributed in magazine sections with 50 tokens also with an increase in spoken section of 24 times. 140 samina dazdarevic, et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences table 3. displays one verb structure more in its authentic, grammatical and natural surroundings. the verb deny, as one of the verbs used in indirect speaking structure, is found to coordinate with its ‘after’ base verb, infinitive, gerund and –that clause collocates. table 3. sections distribution, examples and frequency of deny verb patterns in coca verb pattern example frequency section deny + vbase 8 deny + vinf deny permit 1 newspaper deny + ving 156 deny + conjsub 1204 academic learning through corpora is really a comprehensive and conceivable way of learning grammar structures. it would be enough for student to carefully observe the numbers and facts in front of him to easily make definitions and conclusions. mutual characteristic of two examined verbs beyond and verb deny is having a two largest group of collocates that can be combined with. similar as with verbs promise and advise, the verb deny also has its examples that could be called exceptions. those are in verb pattern deny + vbase which has a small level of frequency, only 8 times, and deny + vinf which has only one occurrence in newspaper section. the largest groups are verb pattern deny + ving which is occurred 156 times, and deny + conjsub which is highly frequent, 1204 times. this significant difference in frequency might become one of the possible instructions how to use language as a native speaker. another important statistic fact is related to the sections and its distribution. figure 5.shows a chart with the verb deny + vinf. in different sections, and figure 6.shows verb pattern deny + conjsub. in the same sections. figure 5. frequency and distribution of deny + vinf. in different sections 141 using corpusin enhancingreporting verb patterns in teaching/learning process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences figure 6. frequency and distribution of deny + conjsub. in different sections it seems that native speakers in academic section often use verb pattern deny + conjsub, while the other pattern is rarely used in the same section. the only similarity is that the both are used in spoken section, not so used in fiction, and fairly used in newspaper. after this search activity, teacher should prepare concordance lines and traditional fill-in-the-blank and gap-fill activities and exercises for students to examine and engage in defining grammar structures. conslusion with the rise of corpus-based analysis, we are beginning to see empirical descriptions of language use, identifying the patterns that are actually frequent (or not) and documenting the differential reliance on specific forms and words in different registers (biber and conrad, 1998:145). both teachers and students become detectives and explores where the teacher bears the main challenge when using corpus-based approach. he is an assistant and a guide, both pedagogically and equally balanced. he tends to make no mistake and follows his intuition. sometimes, as a researcher turns to be correct and sometimes not. however, he always tends to improve his theoretical knowledge through practice and activity innovating and advancing the student’s level. corpus-based approach seems to become one of the best tools in teaching grammar, vocabulary and language generally. learners can deduce their own rules just by scrutinising a concordance of any problematic grammatical item. the teacher doesn’t have to teach a rule but rather guide students to think more effectively and perhaps to formulate what learners have come to conclude (montazar, 1999: 4). this paper also tends to contribute education with asignificant task; the aim of modern materials and technological tools in building a complete and systematic databased approaches, methods and techniques to the verbs and verb pattern when using a reported speech instruction and learning. 142 samina dazdarevic, et. al epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences references biber, d., s. johansson, g. leech, s. conrad, & e. finegan (1999)longman grammar of spoken and written english. london: longman. dazdarevic s., fijuljanin f., babacic i. (2015) corpus approach toanalyzing gerund vs infinitive. novi pazar: univerzitetskamisao. eastwood, j. (1999) oxford practice grammar with answers. oxford: oxford university press. mcenery, tony and richard xiao. (2010)“what corpora can offer in language teaching and learning”. in e hinkel (ed.), handbook of research in second language teaching and learning. vol. 2, london and new york: routledge: 364-380. accessed august 28, 2015. http://www. elihinkel.org/downloads/handbook_toc.pdf montazar, an-nayef. (1999)corpora, concordances, and collocations in classroom teaching: design ing listening materials. the 1st international conference on esp in thetwenty first cen tury, jordan university ofscience and technology, irbid, jordan. http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/montazar/research%20papers/corpora%20-%20concord ances%20-%20collocations.pdf murphy, r. (2004) english grammar in use. cambridge: cambridge university press. 61 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences faces of evil in modern fantasy joseph young university of tubingen abstract fantasy literature has enjoyed a vast increase in cultural prominence in the last quarter-century. what was once considered a marginal genre of scant literary merit is now enormously popular, enjoying huge sales and steadily increasing critical respectability. this change is partly due to the fashion in the early years of this century for cinematic adaptations of fantasy novels. film “franchises” such as the lord of the rings and harry potter sold tens of millions of tickets apiece and prompted sympathetic reappraisals of their source material among both popular and academic audiences. though this trend seemed to have run its course by about 2010, the television show game of thrones (2011-present) appears to have taken it to a new level. after six seasons the show continues to break ratings records and seems likely to be remembered as part of the zeitgeist of this decade. this success has naturally prompted renewed interest in george r.r. martin’s a song of ice and fire, the series of novels on which the show is based. recent editions of martin’s books have become runaway bestsellers and the forthcoming installments will no doubt do the same. martin has also become a success with the critics, who praise the complexity of his characters and the moral depth of his work. long-time readers and scholars of fantasy obviously welcome this. keywords: evil; modernity; fantasy literature; morality; martin’s a song of ice and fire nevertheless a slightly patronizing attitude towards fantasy can be discerned amid the praise lavished on martin’s books. fantasy has long had a reputation as a superficial genre that entertains readers without requiring much intellectual engagement from them. often published in paperback format with colourful or lurid cover art, fantasy is open to interpretation as cheap, formulaic entertainment, the literary equivalent of junk food, to be derided by serious scholars. (shippey xxi) those who praise martin are typically at pains to present him as atypical of his genre. this, for example, from the introduction to game of thrones and philosophy: d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 24 8 62 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences previous works of epic fantasy tended to operate with a straightforward moral compass where the antagonist was some variety of “dark lord” and the protagonists were defined by their opposition to this evil character based on their obvious moral goodness. in contrast, martin’s story has been written with no dark lord to speak of, instead focusing the narrative on the dynastic conflicts that rend the seven kingdoms apart beneath the shadow of a looming catastrophe. (x) garcia and antonson applaud martin’s books for transcending the apparently long-accepted limitations a formulaic genre. the view of fantasy they propound here is, it must be said, rather sweeping. stories of the sort they describe certainly exist, but martin’s books are by no means the first fantasies to offer morally complex conflicts or to feature sophisticated characterization. in fact, while martin undoubtedly does both these things very well, modern fantasy has a long tradition of doing the same. the purpose of this essay is to survey some noteworthy examples of this and to show that, rather than offering fantasy readers something genuinely new, martin is using the long-established capacity of fantasy to highlight the human qualities of his characters. the capacity of fantasy to do this has been apparent at least since the publication of mervyn peake’s titus groan in 1946. peake tells the tale of gormenghast, an impossibly ancient, immense castle – nobody knows how ancient or immense, since there are no records of its construction or usable maps of its layout. nobody has ever come to the castle, or left it; it is a completely self-contained society. isolated from the rest of the world, and therefore from any other frame of reference, the inhabitants of gormenghast exhibit a peculiar lack of curiosity. as carey notes, “they never ask the right questions; how did we get here, who made me, where am i?” (118-119) rather than seeing their situation as unusual, they simply accept it as normal and bow to its demands, which themselves make no sense. the castle’s lords, the earls of groan, are obliged to undertake completely pointless rituals and ceremonies governing every aspect of their lives. earl sepulchrave, the castle’s current ruler, must dress in certain clothes on certain days, walk certain corridors, open or close certain locks, pour wine or moat water into or out of certain vessels in certain rooms at certain times and so on, in strict accordance with ancient books of instruction that fill the castle library. other members of his household must periodically do the same. nobody knows why. “it was not certain what significance the ceremony held,” we are told, “for unfortunately the records were lost, but the formality was j. young 63 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences no less sacred for being unintelligible.” (295) the ceremonies, devoid of meaning, are nevertheless seen as absolutely necessary by all. living in a world without context, people are depicted – and see themselves – purely in terms of their role within this regime, a dehumanizing trend that prevents them from forming any meaningful personal connections with each other. (young 54) sepulchrave is lost in resigned melancholy, completely subjugated to the castle – “how could he love this place?,” we are asked. “he was part of it. he could not imagine a world outside it; the idea of loving gormenghast would have shocked him.” (62). his wife gertrude is a misanthropic idiot who cares only for her pets, his daughter fuchsia a scatterbrained daydreamer, their manservant flay an unhinged conservative who sees rebellion against the groan lore – something his housemates are quite incapable of – in every one of the castle’s innumerable shadows. the plot of the novel, and its 1949 sequel, revolve around one such insurrection. peake’s story opens with the teenage servant steerpike escaping from the castle kitchens. he initially hopes to leave the castle, but espies a better route for self-improvement, hatching a series of plots to move up through the castle hierarchy. these schemes rapidly become successful, as well they might. peake repeatedly shows steerpike as far more sensible than his housemates. while they busy themselves with a series of rigid, pointless rituals they do not even pretend to understand, steerpike is repeatedly shown making disciplined, constructive use of his time and resources, laying plans and working hard to execute them. deciding that burning the castle library would advance his plans, he surveys the room at some length: his survey was exhaustive, and when he finally left the building he appreciated to a nicety the nature of the problem. lengths of oilsoaked material would have to be procured and laid behind the books where they could stretch unobserved from one end of the room to the other. (262) peake spends an entire chapter depicting steerpike carefully arranging this, carrying out the work when he will not be observed, utilizing resources that come to hand during the fact and displaying a capacity for both abstract thought and forward planning. nobody else in the novel behaves in this way. this capacity to think matters through and work rationally towards their solution mark him as the most sensible character in the novel, not simply more intelligent than the faces of evil in modern fantasy 64 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences other characters but operating on an entirely different intellectual level – our level, the level that can see the castle and its ritual as the absurd, toxic follies they are. as he himself observes, he is “clever enough to know that [he is] clever,” (176; cf. ian johnson 9), able to think beyond the castle’s stultifying routine and exploit the inability of the other inhabitants to do the same. in doing so he is the most credible, relatable, human character in the novel. steerpike could be seen as something of a hero, an intellectually kinetic, free-thinking meritocrat striking against a repressive regime. yet steerpike is far from hero material. he is a picture of utilitarian rationality but not morality. he feels no remorse when his arson causes an accidental death, instead assaying the corpse as a source of resources for further schemes. (337) he cruelly manipulates the affections of fuchsia, a foolish but honest and open-hearted girl, laying plans to cynically seduce her when the time is right. his manipulation of sepulchrave’s feeble-witted sisters cora and clarice is even easier, and provides frightening insight into his capacity for cruelty. when they displease him, he orders them to crawl under the carpet of their room: steerpike derived as much pleasure in watching these anile and pitiful creatures, dressed in their purple finery, as they crawled beneath the carpet as he got from anything. he had led the gradually, and by easy and cunning steps, from humiliation to humiliation, until the distorted satisfaction he experienced in this way had become little short of a necessity or him. were it not that he found this grotesque pleasure in the exercise of his power over them, it is to be doubted whether he would have gone to all the trouble involved in keeping them alive. (gormenghast 48) steerpike is not merely using his intellectual superiority over these women, but viciously exploiting it and coming to unhealthily enjoy mistreating them. when they outlive their usefulness steerpike locks them in a remote room and leaves them to starve to death, intellectually outmaneuvering the other characters to explain their disappearance. nor are these the only deaths he engineers. one of his major promotions is secured by the simple expedient of murdering his predecessor. it is heavily implied that he murders fuchsia’s nanny, a harmless, doddering old woman. eventually his villainy is discovered, and he escapes into unexplored regions of the castle, from which he emerges to satisfy an emerging “lust for killing” (442) slipping, peake tells us, “into the skin of a solitary satan as if he had never known the flourish of language or the delights of civil power.” (443) j. young 65 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences this is, however, more than just a simple case of a villain slowly being unmasked. peake plays with his reader’s sympathies. even as he kills, steerpike retains a degree of reader sympathy for the simple reason that he remains the most relatable character in the novel. (eckstein 93) this monstrous serial killer possesses a clear, uncluttered, rigidly sensible intellect that makes him a far more human character than any of the dehumanized wretches he interacts with. yet it is precisely this capacity for human thought that leads him to evil. his ability to think, talk and run rings around his housemates, the fact that he is “clever enough to know [he is] clever,” has fostered in him a contempt for those unable to see past the fantastic idiocies of the castle. that contempt allows him to ignore the effects that his machinations will have on these people. he plans to seduce fuchsia in order to compromise her position as a member of gormenghast’s ruling dynasty and leave her open to blackmail without any thought of how this will ruin the poor girl’s life. as already seen he viciously mistreats fuchsia’s aunts, deriving active enjoyment from their pain and humiliation. the groans have become tools to him, to be used and discarded without fear of consequence; his gift of the gab will shield him from any repercussions. steerpike’s human thought processes fact dehumanize the groans more effectively than their unnatural surroundings have ever done. steerpike’s ability to connive, torture and kill stems not from any dark sorcery, but from his ability to think like a real person and his willingness to abuse that ability. in sculpting this character therefore, peake has applied himself to the long-standing question of whether one performs evil acts because one is evil, or one becomes evil by acting evilly. steerpike does the latter. his cruelty and violence are the results of an all-to-explicable process. like a concentration-camp guard, he does evil because he discovers he can, and can get away with it. evil in gormenghast is not a remote, external force; it lies in the human mind, and is unleashed when a human being is empowered to act without fear of being called to account for his actions. far from being the sort of objectively evil “dark lord” garcia and antonnson complain about, steerpike is evidence of a fantasy author actively engaged with the question of what evil is, where it comes from, and what literary depictions of it can demonstrate about humanity. one fantasy author frequently accused of moral oversimplification is j.r.r. tolkien. critics have frequently used tolkien as a point of reference when discussing george r.r. martin, generally arguing that faces of evil in modern fantasy 66 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences martin is the more morally sophisticated writer of the two. this, for example, from time magazine book editor lev grossman: tolkien’s work has enormous imaginative force, but you have to go elsewhere for moral complexity. martin’s wars are multifaceted and ambiguous, as are the men and women who wage them and the gods who watch them and chortle, and somehow that makes them mean more. a feast for crows isn’t pretty elves against gnarly orcs. it’s men and women slugging it out in the muck, for money and power and lust and love. grossman’s comments continue a tradition of dismissals of tolkien’s work stretching back to 1956, when edmund wilson dismissed the lord of the rings as “juvenile trash” (314) presenting only a battle “of the forces of evil with the forces of good, the remote and alien villain with the plucky little home-grown hero.” (313) certainly many readers enjoy tolkien’s work on roughly those terms. yet if those readers – or grossman or wilson – engaged fully with the lord of the rings they would find the novel incorporates a fascinatingly complicated presentation of evil. at the heart of tolkien’s narrative lies the one ring, which the heroes seek to destroy lest if fall back into the hands of its maker, the dark lord sauron. the ring, the wizard gandalf explains, will grant absolute power to those who use it, yet in doing so will rob them of any shred of morality, goodness or dignity. tolkien offers the shriveled, unhinged wretch gollum, the ring’s previous owner, as a picture of what longterm use of the artifact will do to an individual, and the blasted, ruined wasteland of mordor as evidence of its effects on the world at large. by a combination of happenstance and careful planning by gandalf the ring has fallen into the hands of people who appreciate this point and are working to rid middle-earth of this menace by means of an expedition to orodruin, the volcano in which it can be destroyed. yet they are not doing this because they themselves are morally faultless – far from it. they are doing this because they understand how the ring works. it is, as noted by leading tolkien scholar tom shippey, “addictive” (119). a single use of the ring achieves a goal and produces no apparent ill effects, so the user uses it again, and again, and so on, becoming accustomed to using its limitless power to solve problems and increasingly heedless of other concerns in their life, including any moral convictions they may hold dear. their ability to do things increases without any accompanying expansion of their ability to grasp the consequences of their actions. j. young 67 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the power of the ring thus swamps morality; the most noble of intentions will be twisted to heedless, arrogant evil. tolkien’s discussion of frodo’s use of the ring cleverly implies this process in action. he first puts the ring on in the house of tom bombadil in the spirit of experimentation; no harm is done. when he does so again at the prancing pony inn, however, “it seemed to him, somehow, as if the suggestion had come to him from outside” (154) – the ring is gaining power over his decision-making process. when he uses the ring to escape the ring-wraiths at weather top he unequivocally feels something “compelling him to disregard all warnings, and he longed to yield.” (191)by the time he reaches cirith ungol he watches his own hand move towards the ring “as if he looked on some old story far away” (the two towers 61) – the matter seems to be passing beyond his control. finally, when the time comes to destroy the ring at orodruin, he states “i do not choose now to do what i came to do.” (924) shippey perceptively interrogates frodo’s turn of phrase here; of course he does not choose. the ring chooses for him. (140) the ring is an external, evil, almost animate force, a fragment of its creator’s dark will pressing on the user’s mind. this does not reduce tolkien’s tale to a simple matter of moral good versus immoral, remote evil, however, or even a case of good people being turned evil. for one thing it means there is nothing remote about sauron; frodo carries the villain with him, literally around his neck, throughout the story. for another, as shippey observes, morally faultless characters would have nothing to fear from the ring. they could and would steadfastly resist it. but this external evil has what shippey describes as “an echo in the hearts of good,” (142) a capacity to influence those who possess it or even think about it too much, an influence the heroes of the novel manifestly fear. the ring awakens the potential for evil within them all, bringing those traits to the surface and empowering it to overwhelm the moral convictions that should keep such ugliness in check. tolkien provides some chilling glimpses of this. bilbo, the uncle from whom frodo inherits the ring, asks to hold it and momentarily seems to become “a little wrinkled creature with a hungry face and groping bony hands” when he is refused; “[frodo] felt a desire to strike him.” (fellowship 213) it is hard to know precisely what tolkien is communicating here – the debasing power the ring still has over bilbo, the growing desire frodo has to keep hold of it, or some combination of both – but it reflects well on nobody. when confronted with the ring, boromir begins to stride about, faces of evil in modern fantasy 68 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences speaking ever more loudly. he seemed to have forgotten frodo, while his talk dwelt on walls and weapons, the mustering of men,; and he drew plans for great alliances and glorious victories to be; and he cast down mordor, and became himself a mighty king, benevolent and wise. (fellowship 389) the last phrase is obviously ironic. boromir’s daydreams stem from a native and generally laudable personal trait – his desire to protect his homeland. faced with the prospect of being able to act on that desire without limit or consequence, however, the instinct to protect gondor is twisted into a sort of malevolent foolishness, into dreams of selfaggrandizement with no link to reality. he understands that with the ring, his ability to act would expand, his ability to keep track of how those acts would affect other people, or even himself, is already swiftly contracting. this power to pervert native personality traits is why upstanding people like gandalf and aragorn fear the ring as much as they do. perhaps the most frightening instance is when frodo offers the ring to galadriel, queen of lothlorien, who boromir has been sharply rebuked for not trusting (349): for many long years i had pondered what i might do, should the great ring come into my hands, and behold! it was brought within my grasp. the evil that was devised long ago works on in many ways, whether sauron himself stands or falls. would that not have been a noble deed to set tot the credit of his ring, if i had taken it by force or fear from my guest? and now at last it comes. you will give me the ring freely! in place of the dark lord you will set up a queen. and i shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the morning and the night! fair as the sea and the sun and the snow upon the mountain! dread as the storm and the lightening! stronger than the foundations of the earth. all shall love me and despair! (356) thank goodness – so to speak – that galadriel is able to put aside this temptation. like gollum before her and boromir afterwards, however, galadriel exhibits a personal trait – in her case her clearly conscious awareness of her majesty and beauty – that the ring could pervert. this is how the ring works, by warping native traits of the characters into loathsome, immoral exaggerations of themselves, and for that to happen, as shippey observes, “there has to be something for it to work on.” (138) tolkien’s readers are repeatedly shown how various j. young 69 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences personality traits – smeagol’s avarice, boromir’s patriotism, saruman’s lust for knowledge, even the humble sam’s love of heroes and desire to become “samwise the strong, hero of the age”(880) – can be twisted in this way. the ring works does not turn people evil, it brings native capacities for evil to the surface. the heroes in the lord of the rings are not heroes because they are morally pure, as wilson complains, nor because they oppose sauron, as garcia and antonnson imply. tolkien’s heroes are heroes because they appreciate their own corruptibility, and strive keep themselves in check as they pursue their onerous and risky attempt to work in the common good. what tolkien presents, therefore, is far from a black-and-white tale of good versus evil; indeed it is not a worthy that galadriel outfits the fellowship of the ring in grey. the ring is an alien force that works by appeal to native weaknesses; tolkien’s heroes face a moral battle within themselves and between each other as much as a physical one with orcs and trolls. to tolkien, a veteran of the first world war writing as the second world war and its aftermath prompted widespread reconsiderations of what people are capable of, this must have seemed eerily resonant. certainly shippey seems justified in his conclusion that this is a major reason for the breadth and depth of the appeal of the lord of the rings. (142) sauron is perhaps the archetypical example of the sort of “dark lord” garcia and antonnson complain about, but tolkien has not simply used magic to create a nasty villain for “good guys” to cast down. rather he uses magic to illustrate the imperfections of humanity, our capacity for both good and evil, and our responsibility to keep the darker sides of ourselves in check. like peake’s, this is a novel about what evil is and where – within ourselves – it comes from. another fantasy author whose work exerts a tremendous power over its readers is jk rowling. the battle that harry potter and his friends wage against the dark lord voldemort is told in some of the best-selling novels in history; professor mcgonnagall speaks prophetically in the first book when observes of the then-infant harry that “every child in our world will know his name!” (harry potter and the philosopher’s stone 15) rowling’s tale does at first glance appear to be a straightforward case of good against evil; harry is certainly heroic and voldemort a callous, fascistic murderer out to ethnically cleanse the wizarding world. harry exhibits all manner of likeable attributes – charity, courage, loyalty, compassion – while voldemort is the most convincingly vile characters in modern literature. faces of evil in modern fantasy 70 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences nevertheless voldemort, like steerpike, was not born bad, at least not inescapably so. he is a convincing villain in large part because rowling has done such a thorough job of explaining how he got that way. as the series progresses, harry’s mentor dumbledore reveals more about the dark lord. voldemort was once aboy named tom riddle, who had much in common with harry. both boys can speak to snakes. both are orphans, offspring of mixed marriages between a wizard and a nonwizard, raised in unpromising circumstances – harryby boorish fosterparents, tom in a “grim” (half-blood prince 251) orphanage – before being whisked away to hogwarts at age eleven. both come to regard the school as their true home. obviously harry and tom had the same problems and opportunities; yet harry turns out as the promising, upstanding wizard citizen while riddle becomes “the most dangerous dark wizard of all time.” (258) rowling has constructed the character in such a way that those who know what to look for to find out what went wrong. critic christopher bell goes so far as to describe voldemort as “wholly a creation of environmental circumstance.” (45) bell cites riddle as a classic case of moral disengagement –a process he notes as having affected such real-world individuals as the perpetrators of the columbine high school massacre in 1999. (43-44) he notes how rowling’s wizarding world, just like our own, features a number of institutions – notably hogwarts itself – that both encourage the pursuit of power, rank and material success as well as moderating that pursuit by encouraging moral and humanitarian behavior. as headmaster of hogwarts, for example, dumbledore enjoys unparalleled respect and freedom of action in the wizard community; he also carefully teaches his students “not only to use magic, but to control it” (256) via strict moral accountability. riddle, bell suggests, observed the first part of this equation but been excluded from the moral community dumbledore is trying to build. isolated among muggles, he also fails to form resonant friendships among wizards, something that harry does singularly well. tom’s muggle father must have been the cause of bullying in the common-room of the elitist slytherin house. (49) thus tom does not have a stake in the moral regime of hogwarts; the human relationships and lives that morality safeguards are of little concern to him. after he left hogwarts, furthermore, his attempts to climb the ranks of wizard society are stymied as he is repeatedly passed over for the job of defence against the dark arts master at his prestigious school. a young man who inherited his grandfather’s sense of entitlement (“i knew i was special” [half-blood prince 254]) j. young 71 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences has joined a society that respects power and then been foiled in his attempts to gain that power within the moral orthodoxies of that society. as bell notes (46) this kind of situation tends to produce moral dislocation in real human beings; improperly integrated into the moral frameworks of society people often resolve to pursue what their society values and applauds without reference to the ethical strictures that society places on that pursuit. although rowling is vague on the details, it is clear that by his twenties riddle was already doing this: you call it ‘greatness,’ what you have been doing, do you?” asked dumbledore delicately. certainly,” said voldemort, and his eyes seemed to burn red. “i have experimented; i have pushed the boundaries of magic further, perhaps, than they have ever been pushed – of some kinds of magic,” dumbledore corrected him quietly. (halfblood prince 415) bell goes further, noting that voldemort also engages in predictable methods of excusing his crimes. he accuses muggles of being uncivilized savages – after all, they abandon their children in orphanages – therefore not deserving of decent treatment. (55) this rash conceit, bell argues, allows voldemort to depersonalize muggles, to see them not as individuals but as instances of an infuriating, ongoing problem that deserves an aggressive solution. not only was voldemort not born evil; the ways in which he justifies his misdeeds are demonstratively those by which real people become divorced from the moral norms of real society. voldemort had problems growing up – problems severe enough that dumbledore is once actually moved to ask harry if he is “feeling sorry for volemort?” (half-blood prince 246) voldemort’s actions make this largely impossible – ask mister and mrsdiggory – but rowling has taken care to explain to harry where his nemesis is coming from, and what drives him. this authorial decision contributes significantly to the moral depth of rowling’s tale in that the reader learns along with harry. voldemort thus becomes not a depersonalized, objectively evil “dark lord” but someone whose undeniably evil acts have a clear, psychologically plausible explanation. as with peake and tolkien’s tales, evil in the harry potter books is the result of the pressure of outside forces on recognizable, flawed, well-drawn human minds. tom riddle takes a power he has been given and practices it without the moral strictures that harry accepts, becoming in some respects akin to the users of faces of evil in modern fantasy 72 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences tolkien’s ring; his magical power increases without any corresponding growth in his ability to relate his actions to the impact they have on others. indeed, as bell has demonstrated, that ability contracts. perhaps the main reason harry and the reader cannot feel sorry for voldemort is that he has made an effectively conscious decision to ignore the effect his magic had on other people, using his growing power in hateful ways for spiteful reasons. in interviews, rowling has been careful to note that voldemort had the ability to rise above his problems and become a decent person, but he did not do so. (sutton-ramspeck81) to paraphrase dumbledore, therefore, where potter chose what was right, riddle chose what was easy. put simply, he failed to rise above the problems harry surmounted, and his resentment festered until it overwhelmed his sense of human decency. voldemort’s magical activities define him. actions speak louder than words, and magical actions all the more loudly. as tolkien avers in his landmark essay “beowulf: the monsters and the critics, ”literature that places human activities in a broader context, contrasting them with manifestly, inarguably inhuman forces, provides a renewed focus on what a human being is and what they are capable of. (33) all three of these authors have done this. peake has used a patently supernatural situation – the absolute isolation of gormenghast – to deprive most of his characters of part of the reasoning power of the human mind, then asked how a person still possessed of that faculty would behave in such a situation. tolkien creates a magical outside force that requires his characters to grapple directly with their own personalities and make fundamental, defining moral choices. rowling watches as an all-toohuman mind abuses the power of magic. it is in contrast to the special effects of rings, death eaters and gigantic wild castles that we can see humanity in a fresh light. the capacity to provide this contrast means that while fantasy may depict wizards, goblins and dragons, it achieves its resonance because it is about people. all the writers examined here use fantasy to address the question of what evil is and how and why humanity is capable of it, and to emphasise their respective answers. how does george r.r. martin’s work fit into this tradition? garcia and antonson suggest it does not, that there is no specific, unquestionable evil in the story, merely a tangle of conflicting agendas and objectives in the game of thrones, the venal conflict over which noble family will rule westeros. grossman, as noted above, sees this as a strength in martin’s writing. j. young 73 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences martin certainly focuses the plot on his human characters, and has cleverly exploded the notion that any of them is inherently morally superior to any other. the first volume, for example, focuses on lord eddard stark, a responsible husband and father, stern but fair to his vassals and a wise councilor to king robert baratheon, who he aided in seizing the throne in an uprising against an unhinged and unworthy king fifteen years before the story begins. when king robert learns the whereabouts of the mad king’s daughter and spitefully orders her assassination, eddard councils against this on moral grounds; it is, he insists, not justifiable to murder a blameless teenage refugee. a good man, it would seem. yet the portions of the tale told from the point of view of danyerys targarean, the girl he is defending, suggests she sees him differently – as a key collaborator in the plot that killed her father and brother and drove her into exile, deserving of punishment when she returns to claim the throne of her ancestors, as she means to do. it is hard to dispute the letter of this assessment. and danyerys is far from innocent; martin’s first book closes with one of her persecutors screaming in agony as she is burned alive on the princess’s orders. it is seldom clear who, if anybody, counts as the hero in martin’s work. yet those who see martin’s work as innovative within the fantasy genre are on weaker ground in asserting there is no supernatural villain. grossman’s assertion to this effect is, surely, mistaken. in the words of jeor mormont, commander of the night’s watch, “you don’t build a wall 700 feet high to stop savages in skins from stealing women.” he is clearly right; martin begins his tale with an attack by wights, inhuman, pitilessly murderous monsters, against a detachment of mormont’s men. this is the threat that the wall was built to repulse. north of the wall the dead are rising from their graves to assault the living; such attacks are becoming steadily more numerous and will soon begin to threaten the realms of men. these creatures are not just another competitor in the game of thrones. they will not be bought off, bribed, or connived with as the nobles of westeros so frequently do with each other. the wights are completely inhuman, as external and evil a force as any in modern fantasy literature. so martin uses fantasy to create an external, supernatural evil. but like peake, tolkien and rowling he uses this unquestionably inhuman force to reveal something about humanity. when a messenger from the wall arrives at king’s landing, the capital city of westeros to warn his government of the emerging threat he is made fun of: faces of evil in modern fantasy 74 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences tyrion called down little finger. “buy our brave ser alliser a hundred spades to take back to the wall with him.“spades?” ser alliser narrowed his eyes suspiciously. if you bury your dead, they won’t come walking,” tyrion told him, and the court laughed openly. “spades will end your troubles, with some strong backs to wield them.” (a clash of kings 367) after this mocking interlude, the westerosi unhesitatingly resume the game of thrones. only the few who have seen a wight and lived to talk about it grasp the gravity of this situation. importantly, the reader falls into that category. as such a song of ice and fire vindicates tolkien’s aforementioned comments (“the monsters and the critics 33) about the power of fantasy to create contrasts that refresh our understanding of humans and human activity. the game of thrones is being conducted in the context of a looming, supernatural catastrophe, a completely inhuman common enemy. the contrast between such unquestionable inhumanity and the all-too-human rough and tumble of westerosi politics casts the antics of stark against lannister, greyjoy against tyrell, martell against clegane, old gods against the new and indeed the night’s watch against itself in an entirely new light. put simply, the existence of the wights makes the game of thrones tragically silly.martin’s characters treat the game as all-important; they behave appallingly in order to secure perceived advantages over each other, yet the coming of the wights renders any such advantages completely pointless. recounting a single subplot in a clash of kings makes this point clear. after eddard stark’s execution his son robb leads an army south to avenge his father. theon greyjoy, robb’s foster-brother, returns to the lightly-defended castle of winterfell and treacherously seizes it with a tiny force of his true father’s men, killing many of the guards and servants who served him uncomplainingly throughout his youth. when the other stark heirs go missing theon murders innocent children and presents their corpses – their faces obscured – to the people of winter fell as proof that he now controls the castle. later he himself is ousted from this seat by ramsay bolton, an even more brutal character who tortures theon into catatonic madness, skins disobedient vassals alive, marries a girl purported to be eddard stark’s daughter in order to legitimize his claim to the castle and repeatedly rapes her in pursuit of an heir of his own. such crimes are committed because winterfell is a large castle, and prestigious aristocratic titles are associated with it. j. young 75 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences it is also one of the first human strongholds the wights will assault when they breach the wall and move south through the lands of men, as they surely will. the reader understands something the characters do not – that the important thing is not who controls winterfell but that the castle is strongly garrisoned and ready to repel an attack from that terrible foe. vaguely aware of the impending danger the lords of westeros continue their petty squabbles, committing ghastly crimes as they do so. the existence of the wights reveal the pettiness of this dispute, the irrelevance of that struggle; when winter finally comes, it will not matter who won the game of thrones. the living dead may still be defeated, but only by a combined effort the westerosi are so far singularly unwilling to undertake. rather than a book that abjures evil, martin has written a story as yet devoid of the sort of consciously self-effacing moral courage that led the free peoples of middle-earth to put aside their feuds and concentrate on eliminating the ring. what his stories lack is goodness. this plays to martin’s objectives as a novelist. as susan johnson has shown (148-150) martin’s core business in this story is to critique aristocracy, to show the foolishness of putting too much faith in romantic ideas like crowned kings, noble knights, revered queens and oath-bound warrior brotherhoods. he has said as much in interviews: chivalry was among the most idealistic codes the human race has ever come up with for a warrior. these are men who were sworn to protect the weak. then you look at the reality, and their brutality was extreme. (hibberd) such people, martin repeatedly reminds his readers, are just people; he goes to considerable length to explode the idea that there is anything glamorous or special about them. note how often his characters must pause their adventures to use the bathroom, for example. (a game of thrones 160; 656-657; clash 109; 753; a storm of swords 1.414; 1.1.454; a dance with dragons 877; 937) after winning an important battle tywin lannister rides his warhorse all the way into the royal palace, in full armour, to report his victory to the king – but the dramatic effect of his gesture is spoiled when the horse drops a load of dung in the middle of his speech. (clash 817-818) lannister himself will later die while sitting on a toilet, an undignified end for a man deeply concerned with his aristocratic legacy. characters in these novels urinate, defecate, vomit and much else besides, seldom able to enjoy a moment of drama or glamour without their bodies spoiling it for them. faces of evil in modern fantasy 76 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the one thing left to them is the game of thrones, their great battle over the lordship of the realm. martin is always careful to point out the cost of that, writing frequently about the innocent people being harmed as a result of this supposedly principled conflict. within weeks of her father’s execution, ten-year-old arya stark has encountered trains of dispossessed refugees (clash 74) experienced the bewildering, gory confusion of combat (203), heard the screams of torture victims (376), and witnessed numerous other women being raped. (378) conventions of chivalric, civilized warfare are blithely abandoned or portrayed in ways that demonstrate their ineffectuality. tyrion lannister pauses in the brutallynarrated battle of blackwater to accept the surrender of a bested foe: ”yield. ser knight, i yield to you. my pledge, here, here.” the man lay in a puddle of black water, offering up a lobstered gauntlet in token of submission. tyrion had to lean down to take it from him. as he did, a pot of wildfire burst overhead, spraying green flame. in the sudden stab of light he saw that the puddle was not black but red. the gauntlet still had the knight’s hand in it. he flung it back. “yield,” the man sobbed hopelessly, helplessly. tyrion reeled away. (773) tyrion’s opponent is not a noble knight graciously accepting defeat by a brother in arms but a frightened man frantically trying to bargain his way out of a situation quite beyond his control. his surrender is not grand but pathetic. tyrions response is not magnanimity but fear. there is, martin insists, nothing glorious or glamorous about being a king or a warrior; those who think otherwise are repeatedly made to look stupid in his books. his supernatural evil puts this point beyond doubt. all this suffering and destruction is for naught. winterfell, king’s landing, the seastone chair, the iron throne – all will be swept before the wights from the north when they come. the game of thrones means nothing, yet its players play on. to those properly informed of the situation – including the reader – this conflict is tragically ironic, a perfect, inarguable example of aristocrats behaving destructively while believing they are doing the opposite. the common thread between all four of these authors is that they use magic to increase, not decrease, the moral depth of their work. in doing so each author has revealed something about humanity. in the febrile, dehumanizing environment of gormenghast, steerpike’s agile, undamaged human mind allows him to do whatever he wants. it turns out that he really wants to dominate, control and mistreat his housemates. j. young 77 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences by stepping outside reality mervyn peake has illustrated in starkly basic terms how someone so like us can go wrong, simply by exploring their human potential. jrr tolkien’s world depicts characters struggling with the pressure of a more abstract, external evil force, but one that achieves its effects by pressing on their own moral weaknesses. tolkien uses magic to illustrate that the potential for evil is present in all of us, and how our ability to keep this in check makes us who we really are. jk rowling’s books tell a tale of good versus evil, yet they incorporate a fascinating forensic exercise in accounting for evil, explaining in scientifically convincing terms how two children born in similar circumstances can take radically different paths in their personal moral development. how they handle magic, an abstract, unquestionable power, is the litmus test of that development. finally george rr martin uses a looming supernatural catastrophe to throw his characters in a new light, to explode any lingering belief that he is writing about the grand deeds of good men and instead reveal a petty, pointless conflict between people he has made it his business to criticise. what none of these authors do is present a straightforward evil in order to facilitate the adventures of straightforward heroes. they use fantasy to reveal something about humanity – an undertaking for which the genre is admirably suited. references antonsson, linda, and emilio m. garcia. (2012). “foreword.” game of thrones and philosophy; logic cuts deeper than swords. ed. henry jacoby. hoboken (nj): john wiley & sons. ix-xii. print. bell, christopher e. (2014). “riddle me this; the moral disengagement of lord voldemort.” legilmens; perspectives in harry potter studies. ed. bell. cambridge: cambridge scholars. 43-65. print. carey, edward. (2013). “there is nowhere else; architecture and space in the titus books.” miracle enough; papers on the works of meryvn peake. ed. g. peter winnington. cambridge: cambridge scholars. 117-126. print. eckstein, simon. (2013). “there’s no place like home; reflective nostalgia in titus groan and gormenghast.”miracle enough; papers on the works of meryvn peake. ed. g. peter winnington. cambridge: cambridge scholars. 93-104. print. grossman, lev. (2005). “the american tolkien.” time 166.21. 139. <https:// login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=heh&an=18842245&site=ehost-live> accessed 30th march 2016. web. faces of evil in modern fantasy https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=heh&an=18842245&site=ehost-live https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=heh&an=18842245&site=ehost-live https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=heh&an=18842245&site=ehost-live 78 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences hibberd, james. (2011). “the fantasy king.” entertainment weekly .<http://www. ew.com/article/2011/07/22/fantasy-king> accessed 18th august 2015.web johnson, ian. (2001). “despite his evil actions.” peake studies 7.2. 9-21. print. johnson, susan. (2012). “grief poignant as joy; dyscatastrophe and eucatastrophe in a song of ice and fire.” mythlore 119/120. 133-154. print. martin, george r.r. (2014). a clash of kings. london: harper voyager. print. ----------------------. (2011). a dance with dragons. london: harper voyager. print. ---------------------. (1996). a game of thrones. london: harper voyager. print. ----------------------. (2000). a storm of swords part 1: steel and snow. london: harper voyaver. print. peake, mervyn. (1998). gormenghast. 1950. london: vintage. print. -----------------. (1985). titus groan. 1946. london: methuen. print. rowling, j. k. (2005). harry potter and the half-blood prince. london: bloomsbury. print. -----------------. (1997). harry potter and the philosopher’s stone. london: bloomsbury. print. shippey, tom. (2000). j.r.r. tolkien: author of the century. london: harper collins. print. sutton-ramspeck, beth. “domination, autonomy and character.” the ravenclaw chronicles: reflections from edinboro. ed. corbin fowler. cambridge: cambridge scholars, 72-86. print. tolkien, j. r. r. (1983). “beowulf: the monsters and the critics.” 1936. the monsters and the critics and other essays. ed. christopher tolkien. london: george allen & unwin. 5-48. print. -----------------. (1993). the fellowship of the ring. 1953. the lord of the rings. ed. douglas a. anderson. london: allen & unwin. 15-398. print. -----------------. (1993). the return of the king. 1954. the lord of the rings. ed. douglas a anderson. london: allen & unwin. 727-1,008.print. -----------------. (1993). the two towers. 1953. the lord of the rings. ed. douglas a anderson. london: allen & unwin. 399-725.print. wilson, edmund. (1956). “oo, those awful orcs.” the nation. 312-314. print. young, joseph. (2013). “but are they fantasy?;categorising the titus novels.”miracle enough; papers on the works of meryvn peake. ed. g. peter winnington. cambridge: cambridge scholars. 49-60. print. j. young 9 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences oral performance of ìrègún music in yagbaland, kogi state, nigeria: an overview stephen olusegun titus, obafemi awolowo university, nigeria. abstract performance is one of the major arts in most african countries. among the yoruba in nigeria several genre of oral performance has been researched and documented. these include the ijala, iwi, oriki ekun iyawo, iyere ifa, iwure, among others. however, very little attention and studies have been committed to oral performance of ìrègún chants and songs in yagbaland. this paper, therefore, focuses on the evaluation of oral performance of ìrègún chants and songs among yagba people in kogi state, located in north central of nigeria. primary data were collected through 3 in-depth and 3 key informant interviews of leaders and members of ìrègún musical groups. in addition to 3 participant observation and 3 non-participant observation methods from yagba-west, yagba-east and mopamuro local government areas of kogi state, music recordings, photographs of ìrègún performances, and 6 chants were purposefully sampled. secondary data were collected through library, archival and internet sources. although closely interwoven, ìrègún performance is structured into preparation, actual and post-performance activities. while chanting, singing, playing of musical instruments and dancing forms the performance dimensions. iregun music serves as veritable mirror and cultural preserver in yagba communities. keywords: iregun music; performance; yagbaland; chants and songs 10 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s.o. titus introduction performance of oral genre varies in yoruba culture as varied as contexts for performance. in essence, oral performance can only be realized when it is actually performed. oral performance necessarily developed its own methodology and its artistic approach basically in the mouth of the performer. this paper focuses on the evaluation of performance practice of ìrègún music. ìrègún chants and songs is an indigenous music typology of yagba people in kogi state, nigeria. it is a satirical and praise genre, performed by adult men and women with a lead vocalist, and uses imagery to critique social ills and exposes deviant members of the society. iregun singers satarises boaster who takes unnecessary credit for helps rendered to others. the musician also sings the praise names of philanthropists who helped others and do not take unnecessary credits. in this way, ìrègún music, through satire and praise, has played very significant roles in the social life of the yagba communities. the concept of ìrègún ìrègún is a concept among yorùbá ethnic group which means glorying as a result of help rendered to another person and making such effort known to others. according to yorùbá dictionary, ìrègún means sise ògó lórí isé rere tí enìkan se fún enìkejì fún àpere kí enìkan so wí pé kí kìbáse torí tèmi kòle dé ipò tí ó wà ye o. (that is, irègún means taking glory unnecessarily for help rendered to others. for instance a statement like if not for me he cannot get to that position). in the album of olátúnjí (2011), he refers to god as oba ton sore lai se ’règún. likewise in some of the yorùbá proverbs/adage we have statement like “aríse ni aríkà, aríkà ni baba ìrégú. ohun tí a bá se ní òní, òrò ìtàn ni bí ó di òla”what you have done is what people will recollect about you). it, therefore, means that irègún word is used in different situations, like rallying, insulting, and mocking others. also, it is used in remembering past events that takes place in the society. one of my informants rightly explains that irègún is used to remember past event that people have done whether good or bad. irègún songs, therefore, focuses on insult, rallying and mocking originally. it is also used to remember the activities of individuals in the community, who have made the community proud. socio-cultural studies that examine cultural practices among the yagba in kogi state of nigeria have been extensively carried out by such scholars as ijagbemi (1976), iyekolo (2000, 2009), and metiboba (1998). these studies have resulted in the documentation of yagba cultural practices such as traditional belief system, funeral rites, politics and kinship. also many scholars have researched into different musical typology of yoruba people among them are barber (1991), vidal (2012), adedeji (1998, 2004), ajibade (2013) omojola (2006, 2012) 11 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences oral performance of iregun music in yagbaland and euba (1990) among others. however, in-depth ethnomusicological studies of yagba musical practices, particularly the performance of ìrègún chants and songs are still largely unavailable. apart from sketchy comments by iyekolo (2000), within which the pictures of the musical instruments used in yagbaland including the ones used in ìrègún music and performances were shown, no detailed study has been carried out on the performance of ìrègún chants and songs. this paper, therefore, investigates the performance of ìrègún chants and songs in yagbaland. the aim of this paper is to analyse chants and songs performances during the different stages of ìrègún performances deployed for burial, and marriage ceremonies. other objectives are to examine the uniqueness of the orality in yagbaland. yàgbàland is in the present-day kogi state located at the north-central part of nigeria and situated along longitude 7.30o to 9.34o e and 7o to 8o n. see map, examples 1, and 2 on yàgbà, okun-yorùbá, and nigeria where kogi state is situated. this area is most often referred to as the middle-belt region of nigeria inhabited by other ethnic groups like the ebira, tiv, igbomina1, among others (iyekòló, 2006). the yàgbà were formally under kabba province in northern region with the headquarters in kaduna. however, following the creation of six states out of the northern region in 1967, it became part of kwara state with headquarters in ilorin. further restructuring of the country in 1991 by the then military head-of-state, general ibrahim gbadamosi babangida led to the creation of more states including kogi state with headquarters in lokoja. kogi state has three major ethnic groups –igala2, ebira3 and the yorùbá-okun people. kogi state comprises of 21 local government areas. yàgbà ethnic group falls under the kogi west senatorial district which incorporates all of okun land. these include yàgbà-east, yàgbà-west, mopa-muro local government areas, owé and bùnú in kàbbà/bùnú local government area; ìjùmú and gbede in ìjùmú local government area. yàgbà has an area of 3,519 km², and has boundaries with the nupe and ìgbómìnà in the north, the èkìtì and ondo in the south and south west, ìjùmú and bùnú in the south-east and east. yàgbà is one of the minority groups in kogi state of nigeria. there are over seventy-five towns, villages and hamlets. following the 2006 census, the population of yàgbà people was estimated to be three hundred and thirty-three thousand, two hundred and ten-333,210 (nigeria lgas population, internet, 2009). yàgbàland has an undulating contour marked by dotted chains of hills interspersed with small rivers. the climate of yàgbà is tropical, with two seasons: raining and dry seasons. the raining season extends from april to october, while between november and march the weather is dry. during the early part of the dry season, the harmattan wind from the sahara sweeps across yàgbàland, resulting in relative low weather temperature. 12 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s.o. titus oral history reveals that the yàgbà are yorùbá and descendants of a renowned princess from oyo, who, in her later life, was called ìyá-àgbà (old woman) from which the word yàgbà was derived (iyekòló, 2000, and 2006). she led a group of immigrants from old oyo, and settled at akata-ere in the present yàgbà west local government area of kogi state, over four hundred years ago. iyekòló reports that some yàgbà people claim they are from ile-ife. the yàgbà from iléifè include yàgbà from mopa, ifè-olúkòtún, èjùkù and ìsánlú communities. he confirms the periodic visits of yàgbà ifá priests to ilé-ifè for consultations. simoyan (1991) reports that some of those who settled in akata-ere later left to settle at ìláì, now in mopa-muro lga. another group moved to settle in awoyo in southeastern part of yàgbà in the present yàgbà east l.g.a. métìbóba (2006) explains that the expression yàgbà-yorùbá is used to refer to a distinct socio-linguistic unit of the yorùbá cultural group. the term okun3 is a mode of salutation common but not exclusive to the area. yàgbà therefore, refers to the people and their language and is applied to the geographical area which they occupy. johnson (1921) notes that the yàgbà are north-easterly subethnic groups of the yorùbá; they are distinguished by their long tribal marks on each cheek meeting at an angle of the mouth. today, just a few elderly people can be seen with marks, as they are no longer in vogue due to modernization. formerly, yàgbà villages consisted of a number of units, independent of one another and recognizing no central authority. iregun music is one of the major social-cultural musical heritage of yagba people and it is been passed from generation to generation among the performers. it is also pertinent to know that iregun chants performers vary their performances base on the functions and ceremonies. during wedding it is not a strange things to see performers singing satirical songs before, during and after the wedding ceremonies. they also sing the praise names of individuals before, during and after performances. for this paper three communities were selected in from the three local government areas in yagba land; isanlu in yagba-east l.g.a, egbe in yagba-west l.g.a and mopa in mopa-muro local government area where the practitioners live. the researcher carried out the research using qualitative in sourcing for data. which include three focus group discussions. this was done with each performers in each lga. also personal interviews were conducted with leaders of the performers in each of the lgas. performance in africa ilesanmi (1998) explains that chants and songs are two of the five major aspects of music, the other aspects being recitation, instrumentation and choreography. in appealing to human emotions, music has preserved the unwritten records of 13 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences oral performance of iregun music in yagbaland the non-literate age in forms of festivals, rituals and many other socio-linguistic interactions. even at the alphabetic age, many records are kept in poetic musical forms whose origins are undoubtedly oral and musical. omojola (2006) notes that musical performances of traditional music do derive meaning and relevance from their association with nonmusical events and that they often attract wide and open participation. such performances are often led by a group of professionals who process a systematic knowledge of their music, and whose composition and performances are underlined by culturally defined philosophy, in which various musical elements like rhythm, melody, instrumentation and formal organization are carefully defined and judiciously combined to achieve desired effects. musical performance in africa maintains an integral relationship with other aspects of life. a notable feature of this interaction, is the fact that music is often performed in a multi–media context in which dance, elaborate costume, mime, poetry and drama are featured in a total theatre spectacle (omojola 2006:17). the location of this total theatre spectacle within the context of religious, social and political activities underlines the indigenous perception of music. these musicians who lead the performances and the community who, in addition, provide critical assessment of the performances, take part by dancing, singing and clapping. samuel (2009) notes that within traditional music performances in nigeria, social roles held by the community can be represented, reinforced, commented upon and even reversed. the musical arena does serve as a forum for such open expression and commentary. samuel (2009), on the performance of dundun musicians points out that dundun drums combines both musical (ensemble leading) role as well as speech surrogate role. euba (1990) as cited by samuel (2009), distinguishes three ways by which iyaalu utilizes literary materials in performance. the first is when iyaalu dundun plays solo as an organ of direct speech without musical attributes; the second instance is when it talks in musical context with the secondary instruments performing purely musical role. the third is when the iyaalu imitates the voicethat is, singing a literary text. ogli (2010) asserts that chanting assumes a style that is midway between singing and speaking. he notes that in many african royal courts such as that of the alaafin of oyo and atta of igala, chants exist and are described as court poetry which is, as an institutionalized art, meant to revere a hero by recreating his achievements in verse. vidal (1971) defines it as poetry or stylized speech sung to music. bamgbose (1966), abimbola (1968), vidal (1971), babalolá (1976), olatunji (1980), adedeji (1992), adeleke (2008) and adédùntán (2009) employ the terminology “chanting” to describe the performance of yoruba oral poetry. they assert that chanting can be described as a musical style rather than a speech style, because chanting 14 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s.o. titus is also singing though within a limited scope. vidal (1971) explains that sun in yoruba, means, to chant. thus, one hears sun rárà ( chant rárà), sun ìjálá ( chant ìjálá), sun ìyèrè ( chant ìyèrè) and sun iwi (chant iwi). others are ekúnìyàwó (bride’s lament) ege (an egba chant), alamo and so forth. chants can be identified musically by their intonation, narrow melodic range, melodic contours and tonal register. vidal (1971) asserts that iwi, iyèrè-ifá, ìjálá and rárà are the four main modes of chants. iregun performance in yagba land is mostly led and perform by adults men and women however it is purely non religious music. the ìyèrè-ifá mode has, characteristically, a trembling voice quality, clear and pure tones, and highly structured sequences. it employs a responsorial style of chanting in which the chorus responds with the word hen at the end of every chanted line of the poetry by the leader, who is the soloist. the chanted lines of poetry (about five or six) form a verse, each of which is followed by a refrain chanted by both the soloist and the chorus before another verse is started. the verses are taken from the ifá liturgy. iregun uses word kiki/iki whch means to praise in chanting adélékè (2008), adédùntán (2009) and vidal (1971) explain that the ijálá mode is chanted on a variety of pitches, often nasal and ringing. babalolá (1976) states that ijálá is a genre of spoken art practised mainly by the oyo yoruba people of western nigeria. babalolá (1976) further notes that the origin of ijálá is traced to ògún the yoruba god of iron, who embarked on chanting, in accordance with a divination that said he would establish his reputation as an entertainer. ìjálá like other chants it employs a style, which is midway between singing and speaking. chants mode of rendition may be characterized as monophonic, which is the use of a voice at a time, as in a solo. babalola further explains that ìjálá is a form of poetry because it is an elevated expression of thought feeling in metrical form. it is solo chanting characterized by a song-like effect and approximating melodious singing. to these choruses are provided at appropriate intervals during the course of chanting, usually with accompanying drums or claps. this mode is easily identified by its nasal and intense tone quality, its wide tonal range, and its melodic contours. the rárà mode according to vidal (1971) and adélékè (2009) is characterized by a long drawn-out wailing tone quality. it uses a nasal vocal quality, with the area around the base of the neck for resonance. usually a solo form of chanting, in some areas it is sometimes terraced--more than one person singing in parallel seconds above or below the principal part. the intonation varies according to area to which the performer belongs, but its wailing and nasal characteristics are still retained. barber (1990) notes that oriki can be described as attributions or appellations: epi15 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences oral performance of iregun music in yagbaland thets, elaborated or concise, which are addressed to a subject and which are equivalent to, or alternatives to, names. all entities in existence are said to have their own oriki. oriki are felt to capture and evoke the essential characteristics of the subject: to have the most profound and intimate access to its inner nature. in utterance, therefore, they evoke the subject’s power, arouse it to action, and enhance its aura. they are always in the vocative case, and in utterance the performer always establishes an intense, one-to-one bond with the addressee as long as the utterance lasts. to her oriki are a labile and disjunctive textual form. epithets are accumulated over time; they are composed by different people, on different occasions, and with reference to different experiences. any subject’s corpus of oriki is, therefore, composed of a number of autonomous items. furthermore, oriki are often obscure, their meaning carried in a separate, parallel explanatory tradition transmitted outside them. each oriki gestures away from its location within the performed text to a hinterland of meaning outside the text barber (1990). barber further notes that not only this, but each oriki may lead to its own hinterland by a different route. some are literal, some ironical, some are specific historical references and some are generalized comments referring to a timeless or ideal state of affairs. an oriki chant is a shifting, fluctuating combination of fragments, which are linked only tenuously and variably in performance, and which may take on different meanings when differently combined. oriki are felt not only to encapsulate the essence of the subject, but also to augment its presence in the social and natural world. towns, lineages, individual people, orisa, egúngún and even animals are enhanced in relation to¬--sometimes almost at the expense of--other like entities through the performance of their oriki. iregun oral performance uses oriki. the oriki focuses on the personalities of individuals been praise, his makeup, physical appearance, family history and genealogy in yagbaland. ìrègún chants and songs performance practice there are three different stages in the performance of ìrègún chants and songs. maku (an informant) explains that o no meta ki are ìrègún pin ghi; akoko, imura are, are sise loju agbo ati ipari are. the informant in other words notes that there are three sections in ìrègún performance. these include pre-performance, actual performance and post-performance activities. these three sections are explained below. pre-performance activities among iregun performers according to iya egbe ìrègún,4 pre-performance of ìrègún music starts with the invitation that is, when the group has been giving an invitation, whether for burial, wedding, launching, house warming, child dedication or chieftaincy title. a 16 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s.o. titus meeting is then called among the leaders most especially the iya egbe and the baba egbe iregun the invitation and which considers the personality, cost, and terms of agreement and to be sure the group does not have another performance on the same date. when all the factors are well considered the favourable message will be sent to the person inviting the group that the group will come on certain conditions of payment, which ranges between 10 thousand to 50 thousand naira depending on the location, time and distance. ògúnleye, an ìrègún singer, explains that on the day of performance the group would have been ready at least an hour before the performance, if the place is within the town so that they can have time for spiritual preparations and create awareness. most of the time the group sings from the house of iya egbe ìrègún to the venue of the ceremony, if the ceremony is within the town, and if it is outside they urge a driver to drop off the group about one hundred meters before the venue so that the group can create awareness. ìrègún singers in a procession and creating awareness as they mobilise for a performance at a burial and traditional marriage ceremonies. actual performance activities: ìrègún songs and chants are performed principally during certain activities and ceremonial events involving members of yagba people whether at home or in the diaspora. at performances, performers sing ìrègún lines as part of their total involvement in the music. some ìrègún performers explain that in the process of singing, when they are” moved”, they are able to tap into a vast repertory of songs/chants lines which is not always accessible to them outside of the context of the performance. as one of the ìrègún performers explains, “when i am singing, the words come out without my trying to say anything, when i am thinking deeply about the history of yagba people and what we have passed through”. ìrègún songs and chants are frequently based on texts on a common stock of traditional lines and themes. the performers alter them in ways which reflect their own personalities and which suit the particular situation about which they wish to comment. ìrègún oral performance is chant-based with interjection of song, each dealing with the total life experience of the people, their proverbs, social and political commentaries, encouragements to participants of ìrègún music, praise to the present and past members of the family participating; the referencing of common troubles with humour to lighten their burden, and so on. sometimes a singer slowly weaves his story through this mosaic of different themes. an idea is developed for a while and then droped until later in the song. sometimes, different ideas are developed at the same time. the ìrègún lines are performed as long as the artist remains in the mood and receives new ideas and images from his/her music sensibility. during a performance of ìrègún song, a rapport is established between the singers 17 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences oral performance of iregun music in yagbaland and members of the audience as the singers express their feelings, bringing the audience into the challenge of interpreting their song-texts. since subtlety is an important element in the art of ìrègún, performers strive at times to express themselves indirectly and members of the audience must guess at the meaning of their words. it is not uncommon for individuals listening to a performance of ìrègún music to derive differing meanings from the singers. the explanation for this can be found in examining a number of different factors related to the performance of ìrègún. they range from the techniques utilized by singers in a deliberate attempt to obscure their meaning to the different contexts in which the performance of ìrègún is heard. ìrègún singers frequently express their feelings about personal, social or political issues, through allusions rather than direct statements. an informant reports that this is accomplished by using such forms as traditional yagba language proverbs (oghe), parables (itan abi alo), and secret language or obscure allusions. according to an informant, ìrègún songs and chants are led by a chanter or/ and song leader. he /she starts by greeting the people that are seated at the ceremony from the highest person, who could be a king or a chief; and he/she could just chant to praise and thank everybody for coming for the occasion. ìrègún ensemble, led by a chanter includes the drummers and dancers. sometimes the chanter is also the lead dancer. in all the performances of ìrègún, the performance procedure is similar and often follows a sequence. the sequence, according to iyabode, an ìrègún singer, is that chant will come first, followed by the song; the musical instruments; then dance will come last. in any of the performances the first chant and song is generally to greet members of the audience. 18 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s.o. titus chant 1 e okun o loke lodo igho mum’ moran de be ekun pepe, oniyan biwo gho sian am’ sebo buru, mo wa ghin loke lodo gbogbo gha pata mo wa’n li kwara li gbogbo nigeria, lomode lagba lobinrin lokunrin, mo wa ghin loke lodo gbogbo ghin pata, eku ri rin eku rabo e o kun o, ayeye olurobe dalugbo, omo alapo isojo ghere ghere,omo letija, omo li sele e okun o , mo wa’n, eku ri rin eku raboe ku farada , jesu ase gho sian ghun gbogbo gha pata, a ke moin lule tele loju araiye, aseye k’alakan ise poin, ori aje ghun sian a senilegbe, ti gha je gbo seti, tigha dunmoni, adun megbe li gbo gbo aye, t’oba oba noin akalesoke tan gha dope,mgbo ikuborije , kibarare senle,oba kabiyesi, obatorise oba teran enu saka ati oran tile mokan je, amoko aje mudamuda oka pasa,oro ken le oroke lalade, oba saki, oba ‘sanlu kuratijo,mo rio l’alafia e ro kun o, irohin etafojuba esono gbon tan,oba arinurode o, modepe lowo jesu oba olola, i gho gbem re, agbem bo,agbem sokesodo, onimodele,afara bale ejem ranti, mgbo kabiyesi isawele …aga/dara mo wa ghin loke lodo e okun o, akande olinuoro o kun o, alafia kose, eja dupe lowo jesu oba olola, baba furaide egbegbere ijoko ijotile,iranni sitoko, pasu baba mgbo omo olori ode,ode gho gba samsam, ode gho pa tutu, pa bigbe, omom olose ya kankanran, egbeni sesese, song 1 solo igha mori segbe regun ape ade o chorus igha mori segbe regun ape ade o solo igha mori samuludun ape ade o chorus igha mori segbe regun ape ade o i greet you all my people, i say i greet you when one is looking at what is good people will is wicked, i greet you all my people from kwara, kogi, all over nigeria women, men young and old i greet you all ayeye you re the true son of your father son of the real father you are i’m greeting you all, you have really endured to be, here, jesus will bless all of us as we are here we will not fall in the present of enemy may destiny prospers us sothat life will be pleasant for us so that friends can rejoice with us even kings will see the goodness and they too will be happy,i greet you my king, ikuborije the agbana of isanlu land the great leader, whose father is a great leader i hail you, my king, i great you my king long time , hope you are living in good heath i thank jesus the king that knows all things he that protected me when i was going will bring me back safely. i am greeting all of you once again i greet you akande the son of the gods i greet you, hopeyou are fine friday’s father the blessed one how are you the son of the chief hunter how is home, i can remember that your father kill big animals, in the rain and also during dry season is a specialist in hunting we are ìrègún singers and we have come we are ìrègún singers and we have come we are the merry makers and we have come we are ìrègún singers and we have come 19 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences oral performance of iregun music in yagbaland 20 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s.o. titus the chant above is a general greeting to people, male and female, and agbana of isanlu oba ikuborije. after the chanting, the ìrègún chanter, who is also the song leader, introduces the song which is chorused by the back-up singers, dancers and drummers, as the case may be. the chant above expresses respect for elders in the community and also at an occasion in the indigenous yagba society. e okun is a plural way of greeting two persons or more; it also connotes reference for elderly persons in yagba communities. also the expression e okun pe, pe , is generally used for elderly man that is not less than sixty years old. pe is similar to saying “i am greeting you, grandfather” or to someone who is not less in age than the speaker’s age. the words l’omode, ‘lagba , ‘lokurin, ‘lobirin are ways of specifying different age groups and sex/ individuals were recognised in the song like friday’s father, akande and their praise names chanted. the homage is usually followed by the introduction of the group members and their leader through special songs/chants as for example in a wedding ceremony. death and after life in iregun chant and song this category consists of songs dealing with the themes of death and the after-life. these songs enable individuals to express sorrow over the difficulties in their lives, as well as to express anxiety about, and apprehension over, such universal problems as the confrontation of death. the second chant and song is a song eulogizing an ìrègún matron who is being buried. chant 2 iye ha ho’ku ise ki hin mi jeje, eni bukata ihin mi jeje iye ilodo jesu tehin mi jeje song 2 solo: iyeye ilodo jesu tehin mi jeje chorus: iyeye ilodo jesu tehin mi jeje solo: iyeye ilodo jesu tehin mi jeje chorus: iyeye ilodo jesu tehin mi jeje our mother that is been buried today she is just resting fully, she does not worry of jesus with everlasting rest over issues of life again, she is at the feet our mother is at the feet of jesus resting our mother is at the feet of jesus resting our mother is at the feet of jesus resting 21 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences oral performance of iregun music in yagbaland the chant and song above inform us about the death of one ìrègún lover and fan. the chanter remarks in the chant and song that the mother who is dead is peacefully resting; that in the present state, the deceased does not have any anxiety. this is an example of issues that tell us about life in the beyond and also deals with metaphysical reality. the singers needs this category consists of songs about the needs of the chanters/ singers. at times, singers refer directly to their own troubles as illustrated in such chant and song as ibanke aisan me sem’. at other times, the images within ìrègún portraying troubles are cryptic, having meaning only in the context in which they are sung, or having meaning only to the singer. feelings about needs may also be expressed through humor. see an example in the chant and song three. chant 3 e pe banke kom’ oniganran ijoni banke oni ganran ganran ijo ni aisan me sem’ lowo,o ba mo se banke li gbogbo, le yagba lero tan, ibanke nikan soso koro tan, alalum’ se we gbo banke we mo gbo hin dunm’ ebi hin pam’ linu eta run gbe, me , song 3 solo: gha mu kere somi kom’arun gbe chorus: gha mu kere somi kom’arungbe solo: gha mu kere somi kom’arungbe chorus: gha mu kere somi kom’arungbe solo: gha mu kere somi kom’arungbe chorus: gha mu kere somi kom’arungbe help me call banke, who resemble the mother so perfectly banke, i want you to know that i am ill, and it is only you that can heal me my drummer, hope you are listening to banke, do you know the sickness? the hunger that facing is not as much as the thirst come and use cup to fetch water to quench my thirst come and use cup to fetch water to quench my thirst come and use cup to fetch water to quench my thirst 22 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s.o. titus the singer here is calling a daughter of the dead woman, called banke and eulogizing her that she resembles her mother. the chanter says that he is presently sick and that it is only banke that can bring the healing. he says that though he is hungry, the thirst is not up to the pain he is experiencing at the moment; that she should use kere-cup to bring water for him to quench the thirst. however, in actual sense, he is telling banke to bring wine for him to drink. social and political commentary this category consists of chants and songs offering social and political commentaries. ìrègún chants and song of this type are similar to those reported in other cultures, which, through admonition and ridicule, seek to modify the behaviour of those individuals who have strayed too far from the respected norms of the society. chant and song four are examples. 23 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences oral performance of iregun music in yagbaland chant 4 we ri ho lijo gbede loin,bitonran ijoba noin i gho moye ijoba nse, era gbe pona kobe ara gbe kob’o mirin libo janjan igho ye o gba megadi hi,ijoba egba megadi so igho bamoye ogba megadi hi, ke gba megadi so, oba ko ofisi hile ako pepa hofisi ara so oba ran mirin he wuni ara gba megadi hibe hun ra so, oniha noin emo ho ye aso, arun koje so song4 solo : ononi un toju arun re arun jeso chorus : ononi un toju arun re arun jeso solo : ononi un toju arun re arun jeso chorus : ononi un toju arun re arun jeso don’t you see my dancers, like our government what they suppose to do they will not do, the things that they should not do that is what they do. for instance if they suppose to construct a road, at a place they will not construct it, if they need, to put a security at a place they will not do it, they can put a paper in one office and, take heavy security on ordinary paper instead of securing lives, my people what we should secure is our mouth, secure your mouth its worth securing, keep your mouth my people it’s worth keeping keep your mouth my people it’s worth keeping 24 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s.o. titus the song starts with a chant and the chanter is explaining to the audience that the corrupt leaders in government, (both indigenous and democratically elected), find ways of impoverishing the community they govern through unconstitutional awards of contracts such as roads. line two of the chant says for instance, i gho moye ijoba nse, era gbe pona kobe. that is where they are supposed to construct a good road, they will not construct it, therefore, showing a lack of focus, sensitivity to the need of the populace, and corruption because either divert the money to their own private pockets or construct bad roads that will need repair few months later. the song also talks about the fact that good governance entails good security of people, goods and the community in general. however, the government that is not governing well will rather employ the “megadi” types of security officers. and, instead of securing human lives, the government keeps them securing and protecting empty ofisi-office. this depicts the extent of bad governance. the singer, however, cautions, the audience that, though the government is not really responsible until they prove themselves innocent of the allegation levelled against them by the ìrègún singers on good governance, they have a duty to make security a priority and that starts with arun jeso; that is, secure or protect your mouth from tale bearing, lying and keeping quiet where necessary, so that their life and future can be protected. historical references as in the poetry of historical songs found in other african cultures, ìrègún chants and songs provide brief allusions to significant incident rather than a detailed narration of events (nketia, 1974:197). chants and songs in this category include references to the personal past of individuals, to incidents which have broader significance for members of the lineage of the singer, and to important events concerning yagba people as a whole. an example is in chant and song 5 below: chant 5 momo pansaga se teletele latijo alu nla se wegbo momo pansaga se teletele latijo we mo ghe ti jem se pansaga m’wi egbo mo rom se bi ato hi ha mo soun ko song 5 solo: imògún ese batohi pamo were chorus: imògún ese batohi pamo were solo: imògún ese batohi pamo were solo: imògún ese batohi pamo kia chorus: imògún ese batohi pamo were i like chasing women in my early life my drummer are you hearing me i like chasing women in my early life do you know why i stop that habit, i will tell you today, i may be thinking that i got std, from the lady and may not and it may be charm charm kill faster than std that is why i stop charm kill faster than std that is why i stop charm kill faster than std that is why i stop charm kill faster than std that is why i stop 25 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences oral performance of iregun music in yagbaland the chanter tells of his personal story using his own story as a philanderer and this is used to pass a message to those that still have the habit of womanizing that hiv is in town. hiv/aids is one of the life-threatening diseases that people must be aware of . commentary on events taking place at the time of the performance this category of chants and songs includes statements that offer commentary on the events which are taking place right at the time of the performance, including the participation of those people involved in the musical event. see an example in chant 6 and song 6. chant 6 alu nla emo bam se kilo h’egere egere o ,egere egere, oni noin emo bam se kilo h’egere song 6 solo: oba mu’jo gbo’ya oloya me’un gbin chorus: oba mujo gboyaoloya m’eun gbin solo: oba mu’jo gbo’ya oloya me’un gbin chorus: oba mujo gboyaoloya m’eun gbin my chief drummer help me warn egere, egere, egere egere everybody help me warn egere if in the process of dancing you snatch another man’s wife, i will not talk if in the process of danciang you snatch another man’s wife, i will not talk 26 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s.o. titus the chant starts by calling the chief dancer who is a male, named egere. egere is actually dancing with another female dancer at the moment. the chanter using satire asks that members of the ìrègún group should please warn egere; that he should not through dance take another man’s wife, since the woman is already married. the chanter concludes that if egere succeeds in taken another man’s wife after the warning, he will not defend him when he is facing the trials of taking another man’s wife. the song teaches us to live in peace and not take what does not belong to us. do not still people’s money, wife, and landed property. post performance practices post-performance activities include the assessment by the performers themselves of their own performance; eating their food, sharing of the money that they got at the performance which is done according to leadership role and position. the leader who is the song leader will have greater share than the rest and then some part of the money will be kept with iyá egbé as the treasurer for future use. after the sharing, they plan and make preparation for future performance. 27 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences oral performance of iregun music in yagbaland conclusion the paper has examined the performance of ìrègún chants and songs as employed during wedding and burial ceremonies in yagbaland, which are sectionalized into three parts; the pre-performance, actual performance and post performance procedures. ìrègún performance is one of the sources of entertainment for yagba people in nigeria. as discussed in this paper it is an oral performance though with musical accompaniment. ìrègún chants and songs performances present a wealth of knowledge and stimulate learning experiences among its audience. the performances explicates the needs of the performer and the audience, give some historical issues and eulogises when needed. end notes: 1. nupe imperialism (ògún ibon abi tapa) means nupe war: ibon or tapa are the names given to nupe people who enslaved yagba people in the 19th century before the british colonial masters arrived in yagbaland. 2. ibadan imperialism (ògún ibadan) ibadan people are yoruba people of southwestern state. they also imperialized yagba land during the 19th century. 3. àgbànà of isanlu is the title of the paramount ruler of isanlu in yagba land, 4, iya egbe ìrègúnthis is the administrative position of ìrègún musical group. she serves as the pro, and accountant to the group. people interviewed chief makanjuola o – chief drummer ìrègún musical group mopa-muro lga. yagba land. chief mrs funke aduta – chief singer/ chanter and dancer ìrègún musical group in egbe, yagba-west lga. chief wemimo ògúnniyi – a singer and chanter ìrègún group in yagba-west lga. mr. maku sundaychief singer ìrègún musical group mopa-muro lga. mrs. olutete – she is a dancer and a singer of ìrègún musical group from isanlu, yagba-east lga. chief mrs. grace iya-egbe ìrègún and a chief dancer from mopa-muro lga. chief kayode o. the otun oba of ejiba land iletògún (2009) cultural festivals in yagba-west local government area of kogi state. an unpublished material 28 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s.o. titus references abimbola, w. 1976. ifa: an exposition of ifa literary corpus. ibadan: oxford university press. adedeji, s.o. 1992 ifa music in ijo òrúnmìlà. dissertation. institute of african studies, university of ibadan. xxxvi+225. adeduntan, k.a. 2009. text and contexts of yoruba hunters narrative performance. thesis. institute of african studies, university of ibadan. xvi+260. adeleke, a. a. 2008. ìyèrè ifa in yoruba culture. an in-house seminar paper. presented to institute of african studies, university of ibadan. adeleke 2009 an ethnomusicological study of structure and form of ìyèrè ifa thesis. institute of african studies, university of ibadan. xvi+290. agu, d.c.c.1999. form and analysis of african music. enugu: new generation books. akin, e. 1990. yoruba drumming. bayreuty: bayreuth african studies. akpabot, s.e. 1998. form, function and style in african music. ibadan: macmillan nig. pub. ltd. akpabot, s.e. 1981. musicological approach to efik/ibibio oral poetry. nigeria magazine. pp86-95. babalola, a. 1966. the content and form of yoruba ijala. oxford : clarendon press. babalola, a. 1967. ijala: the traditional poetry of yoruba hunters, in beier u. ed introduction to african literature. ed. london: longman. bamgbose, a. m. 1966. the form of yoruba proverbs. odu iv. 74-86. barber, k. 1984. “oríkì”, women and the proliferation and merging of “òrìsà”. africa. journal of the international african institute, vol. 60, no. 3 (1990), pp. 313337 edinburgh university press. stable url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1160110 accessed: 30/11/2009 08:15. barber, k. (1991). i could speak until tomorrow: oríkì, women, and the past in a yorùbá town. edinburgh. edinburgh university press. barber, k. 2003. text and performance in africa. bulletin of the school of oriental and african studies, university of london, vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 324-333: cambridge university press url: http:// www.jstor.org/stable/4146096 accessed: 30/11/2009 08:09. blacking, j. 1967. venda children’s songs: a study in ethnomusicological analysis. johannesburg: witwatersrand university press. ----------------1971. deep and surface structure in venda music. wachsmann, p.k. ed. essays on music and history in africa. london: north western university press pp 91-94. idolor,e.g. 2001.okpe disco: a new-traditional nigerian popular music genre. thesis. institute of african studies, university of ibadan.p 568 ijagbemi,a. 1976. the miracle of yagbaland: christian missionary activity in the northeast yorubaland. orita. _________ 1984. protest and reform: the mokobon movement and the administrative re-organisations in yagbaland. nigeria magazine no. 149. iyekolo, e. b. 2006. a history of the okun-yoruba people. nelson publishers limited lagos. ----------------2000. a history of the yagba people. nelson publishers limited lagos. nzewi, m 1991. musical practice and creativity: an african perspective. iwalewa haus: university of bayreuth. ogli, g. e. 2010. idoma funeral rite an ethnomusicological study. unpublished ph.d thesis., university of ìbàdàn. xvii+263. okunade, a. 2010. comparative studies of egba palace music. unpublished ph.d thesis. university of ìbàdàn. xvi+198. 29 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences oral performance of iregun music in yagbaland olatunji, o. o. 1980. iyere ifa: yoruba oracle chant. readings in yoruba chants.ed. olatunji department of linguistics and nigerian languages, university of ibadan pp 151-187 -------------------1984. features of yoruba oral poetry. ibadan. university press. omojola, b. 2006. popular music in western nigeria: theme, style and patronage system. ifra, gold press ltd. ibadan. ………………2012. yoruba music in the twentieth century: identity, agency and performance practice. samuel, k. m. 2009. female involvement in dundun drumming among the yoruba of southwestern nigeria. thesis. institute of african studies, university of ibadan. xvi+276 titus, s. o. (2013) structure and function of iregun music in yagbaland, kogi state, nigeria. unpublished phd thesis. university of ìbàdàn. xvi+243 vidal, a. o. 2004. the poetic and musical forms of yoruba songs. nigerian music review no.5. music department, oau, ile-ife pp 1-17 ----------------1971 oriki, praise chants of the yoruba. dissertation. university of california los angeles.xiii+185 149 earliest memories, positive emotional memories of warmth and safeness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences earliest memories, positive emotional memories of warmth and safeness and attachment style in adolescents senija tahirović international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina mersiha jusić international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina abstract research has shown that early childhood experiences, especially those related to feelings of threat or safeness play a key role in subsequent emotional and social development. the aims of the study are to explore the relationship between early memories of warmth, safeness and attachment style in the life of adolescents and to define specificities of earliest memories with regard to the current attachment style. in order to explore relationships between earliest memories, emotional memories of warmth and safeness, and current attachment style of adolescents the research was conducted using a convenient sample of 167 public secondary school students with average age of 17,22 years. the 63.47% of the participants were females, whereas 36.53 % were males.. the questionnaire was adopted, early memories of warmth and safeness scale (emwss; richter, gilbert & mcewan, 2009), memory characteristics questionnaire (johnson, suenghas, foley & raye, 1988) and adult attachment questionnaire (hazan & shaver, 1990). research findings proved that emotional content of adolescents` earliest memories is predominantly of joy (41.7%), fear (23.3%), sadness (8.6%), surprise (8%), and anger (7.4%), etc. which is in line with previous research where the same or similar methodology was followed. the first memory was detected at 4.7 years of age, with no significant difference between males and females. however, females described their first memory in significantly more words than males (t=-3.77, p<0,01). results showed that securely attached adolescents scored significantly higher on emwss, compared to their insecurely attached peers (t=3.27, p<0,001), while the difference between avoidant and ambivalently attached adolescents was not significant (t=1.80, p>0,05). securely and insecurely attached individuals did not differ in dimensions of vividness of earliest memory (h=1.127), emotional valence (h=.178), and emotion intensity (h=.209, all p>0,05). keywords: emotional memory; warmth and safeness; earliest memories; attachment style; adolescents introduction adolescence, as a transitional period of rapid developmental changes, includes the task of establishing a realistic sense of identity in the context of relationship with others and learning to cope with stress and emotions. therefore, it seems especially interesting to explore some aspects of emotional memory and their relatedness to capability of adaptive interpersonal functioning as construed by the concept of attachment. literature has shown that early childhood experiences, especially those related to feelings of threat or safeness play a key role in subsequent emotional and social development (gilbert and perris, 2000). early threatening experiences lead to greater vulnerability, psychopathology and maladjustment in adulthood (irons, gilbert, baldwin, baccus and palmer, 2006). on the other hand, some argue that experiences of safeness in childhood contribute to regulating affective states (gilbert et al, 2006) and the recall of parental warmth is positively epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 21 1 150 s. tahirović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences associated with ability to be self-reassuring and self-soothing in stressful situation (irons et al, 2006). in this way, parental behavior provides environmental context for both children`s emotional and cognitive development (gilbert and perris, 2000). attachment, as proposed by bowlby (1969), is based on the person’s ability to develop basic trust in their caregivers and self. for infants, attachment as a motivational and behavioral system directs the child to seek proximity with a familiar caregiver when they are alarmed expecting that they will receive protection and emotional support. an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for the child’s successful social and emotional development, and in particular, for learning how to effectively regulate their feelings. early patterns of attachment, in turn, shape individual’s expectations in later relationships. four different attachment classifications have been identified among children: secure attachment, anxious-ambivalent attachment, anxious-avoidant attachment, and disorganized attachment. secure attachment is when children feel they can rely on their caregivers to meet their needs of proximity, emotional support and protection. it is generally considered to be the best attachment style, associated with beneficial developmental outcomes. anxious-ambivalent attachment is when the infant feels separation anxiety when separated from his caregiver and does not feel reassured when the caregiver returns to the infant. anxious-avoidant attachment is when the infant avoids their parents. disorganized attachment is when there is a lack of attachment behavior. attachment applies to adults when adults feel close attachment to their parents and their partners. four styles of attachment have also been identified among adults: secure, anxious-preoccupied, dismissive-avoidant and fearful-avoidant. these roughly correspond to infant classifications. meanwhile, infants are: secure, insecure-ambivalent, insecure-avoidant and disorganized/disoriented. securely attached adults tend to view themselves positively, their partners and their relationships. they feel comfortable with intimacy and independence, balancing the two. anxious-preoccupied adults seek high levels of intimacy, approval and responsiveness from partners, becoming overly dependent. they tend to be less trusting, have less positive views about themselves and their partners, and may exhibit high levels of emotional expressiveness, worry and impulsiveness in their relationships. dismissiveavoidant adults desire a high level of independence, often appearing to avoid attachment altogether. they view themselves as self-sufficient, invulnerable to attachment feelings and indivuduals who do not need close relationships. they tend to suppress their feelings, dealing with rejection by distancing themselves from partners of whom they often have a poor opinion. fearful-avoidant adults have mixed feelings about close relationships, both desiring and feeling uncomfortable with emotional closeness. they tend to mistrust their partners and view themselves as unworthy. like dismissive-avoidant adults, fearfulavoidant adults tend to seek less intimacy suppressing their feelings. the typical adolescent is moving away from parents as primary attachment figures, relying more on the opinions and support of peers, and – whether consciously or not – moving toward a time when his or her primary attachment figure will be a lover or spouse rather than a parent (hazan & zeifman, 1994). therefore, for many adolescents, romantic relationships are an important source of extreme feelings, both positive and negative (larson & asmussen, 1991). some argue that feelings of safeness are central to the development of secure attachment bonds (baldwin and dandeneau, 2005; bowlby, 1969). securely attached 151 earliest memories, positive emotional memories of warmth and safeness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences individuals are significantly more self-reassuring and warm toward themselves and more trusting to others (irons et al, 2006). adolescents who grew up in warm and supportive families report more positive friendships (steinberg and morris, 2001). it is important to distinguish between the recall of how one felt in relation to family and parents, and their actual behavior. this study focuses on the recall i.e. emotional memory of safeness and warmth. studies on first childhood memories have focused on a wide range of characteristics, for example the age of onset and the emotional valence of these memories. most researchers agree that emotions are a key characteristic of first childhood memories (howes, siegel, & brown, 1993; kihlstrom & harackiewicz, 1982; mullen, 1994) but they do not agree whether positive or negative emotion predominates in those memories. some researchers found more negative emotions in first childhood memories (cowan & davidson, 1984; howes et al., 1993; mullen,1994), while others reported more positive emotion (kihlstrom & harackiewicz, 1982; saunders & norcross, 1988). most researchers reached the conclusion that first childhood memories include range between three to four years of age (howes et al., 1993; macdonald, uesiliana, & hayne, 2000; mullen, 1994; tustin & hayne, 2010). there is also evidence suggesting that childhood memories emerge even earlier, at the age of two. in this study, we are interested in qualities of first childhood memories of adolescents with regard to their attachment styles. methodology the aim of the study is to explore: 1. the relationship between early memories of warmth and safeness and attachment style in adolescents 2. specificities of earliest memories (emotional valence, age of onset, and other) with regard to the current attachment style with regards to participants and procedure, the research used a convenient sample of 167 students in public secondary schools in bosnia and herzegovina. 106 of particpants were females. average age of participants was 17.22 years. participation was voluntary; participants were informed about the aim of study and ethical principles that are applied in the research. instruments used in this research contained cover letter with basic information about the research, general instructions and informed consent as well as three more instruments: early memories of warmth and safeness scale (emwss; richter, gilbert & mcewan, 2009)a self-report questionnaire that measures recall of feeling warm, safe and cared for in childhood, i.e. early positive memories of warmth and affection. it is a 21item scale rated on a 5-point likert scale (0never, 1yes, but rarely, 2yes, sometimes, 3yes, often; 4yes, most of the time). originally, richter and colleagues (2009) found a single factor solution and a high cronbach`s alpha of .97. the scale has not yet been used in bosnian samples. translated version of emwss was administered to a pilot sample of 8 adolescents for comprehensibility. minor adaptations were made, ensuring face validity in further application. questionnaire about the earliest memory, including brief narrative description of the first childhood memory (preferably one participants remember themselves, not based 152 s. tahirović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences on a photograph), with age approximation. participants were asked to choose the emotion they associated the memory with (joy, fear, sadness, surprise, anger, disgust, neutral, or other). the characteristics of participants’ earliest memories were assessed using a questionnaireadaptation of the memory characteristics questionnaire (mcq; johnson, suengas, foley, & raye, 1988). the mcq is one of the most widely used measures for evaluating the characteristics of autobiographical memories. in the adaptation of the mcq, five dimensions of early memories were selected due to their relevance to individuals’ internal working models of attachment relationships. participants were to rate each memory for the following memory characteristics: 1. rehearsal: “how often have you thought and/or talked about this memory?” (1 = never; 5 = very frequently). 2. importance: “how personally important is this memory to you?” (1= not important; 5 = very important). 3. vividness: “how detailed and clear is your memory?” (1 = very vague; 5 = very vivid). 4. emotional intensity: “how intense were your feelings at the time?” (1 = no emotion; 5 = very intense). 5. valence of emotion: “were your feelings at the time negative or positive?” (1 = very negative; 5 = very positive). participants’ ratings of the memory`s emotional valence were used to identify negatively valence memories (i.e., scores of 1 or 2 on valence of emotion, 3 or 4 positively valences memories). adult attachment questionnaire (aaq; hazan and shaver. 1990), consisting of three brief prototypical descriptions of each attachment style (secure, dismissing, and preoccupied), with participants selecting the style that best describes their feelings about relationships with peers. the aaq was used to assess attachment style, compared to the more recent dimensional measures because of the ease of administration in large groups, its brevity and its face validity (crowell, fraley, & shaver, 1999). the aaq has been used among participants between the age of 14 and 82, from varying socioeconomic backgrounds (shaver & hazan, 1993), and has acceptable test-retest reliability (stein et al., 1998). participants’ self-reported attachment style was used as a categorical variable in the analyses. the three attachment styles are: securedescribes their romantic relationships as friendly, trusting, and happy. they accept their partners regardless of faults. they tend to have long and fulfilling relationships. avoidantis haracterized as being afraid of intimacy, experiencing emotional highs and lows during relationships, along with much jealousy. anxious/ambivalentis treating love in an obsessive way, with strong need for constant reciprocation and validation, along with emotional highs and lows, and feelings of jealousy. in instructions, it was made clear to the participants that they need to read each of the three self-descriptions carefully and then place a checkmark next to the single alternative that best describes how they feel in relationships or similar to the way they feel. based on theoretical concepts and existing research findings, we assume that: h1 there will be a statistically significant difference in early memories of warmth and safeness among participants with different attachment styles. • sub hypothesis 1: securely attached adolescents will score statistically significantly higher on emwss compared to insecurely attached adolescents (ambivalent and avoidant) • sub hypothesis 2: there will be no statistically significant difference between ambivalently and avoidant attached individuals in early memories of warmth and safeness h2 quality of earliest childhood memories will differ in securely and insecurely attached adolescents. 153 earliest memories, positive emotional memories of warmth and safeness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences • sub hypothesis 1: securely attached individuals will report their memories at earlier ages compared to insecurely attached • sub hypothesis 2: securely attached individuals will report their memories in more detail (words) compared to insecurely attached • sub hypothesis 3: securely attached individuals will appraise their memories as more vivid compared to insecurely attached • sub hypothesis 4: securely attached individuals will appraise their memories as more positive (emotional valence) compared to insecurely attached • sub hypothesis 5: securely attached individuals will appraise their memories as more intense in feelings compared to insecurely attached results and discussion psychometric properties of emwss were examined first, showing good internal consistency measured by cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.75, yet significantly below original 0.97 yielded in richter and colleagues (2009). table 1. psychometric properties of emwss with item-total correlations scale mean if item deleted scale variance if item deleted corrected item-total correlation cronbach’s alpha if item deleted i felt loved. 128.4578 421.741 .659 .739 i felt comfortable turning to people important to me for help and advice. 128.8012 417.627 .607 .737 i felt part to those around me. 128.3554 427.855 .442 .744 i felt loved even when people were upset about something i had done. 128.8735 417.541 .538 .737 i felt happy. 128.6386 421.990 .564 .740 i had feelings of connectedness. 129.2289 417.887 .601 .737 i knew i could rely on people close to me to console me when i was upset. 128.9940 414.188 .707 .734 i felt cared about. 129.0422 416.562 .646 .736 i felt secure and safe. 128.6627 422.528 .477 .741 i felt appreciated the way i was. 129.1747 418.594 .552 .738 i felt understood. 129.6867 413.356 .595 .735 i felt a sense of warmth with those around me. 128.3916 425.828 .469 .742 i felt comfortable sharing my feelings and thoughts with those around me. 129.6807 415.782 .464 .737 i felt people enjoyed my company. 129.1506 425.038 .402 .742 i knew i could count on empathy and understanding from people close to me when i was unhappy. 128.9699 415.157 .636 .735 i felt peaceful and calm. 128.9940 418.564 .545 .738 i felt that i was a cherished member of my family. 128.5301 423.802 .525 .741 i could easily be soothed by people close to me when i was unhappy. 129.0301 419.581 .465 .739 i had a sense of belonging. 128.9578 416.889 .687 .736 154 s. tahirović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences i knew that i could count on help from people close to me when i was unhappy. 128.8313 417.123 .653 .736 i felt at ease. 128.7831 417.456 .613 .737 table 2. descriptive statistics of emwss n minimum maximum mean std. deviation emwss 166 23.00 84.00 66.030 10.48198 both tables indicate that no item should be excluded from further scale calculations, since that would not increase reliability, based on estimation of reliability in case of item exclusion. normality of continuous variables was checked using kolmogorov-smirnov test, showing that emwss scores are not statistically significantly different from normal distribution. descriptive values for age approximation of the first memory are presented in table 3 below, showing that mean age of first memory was 4.61 (sd=1.49). compared to other research, the average age of the first memory is mostly between the age of 3.5 and 4.5. this iplies that the sample approximated first memories slightly, but not significantly later. table 3. descriptive statistics for age approximation of earliest memory n minimum maximum mean std. deviation skewness age of first memory 166 23.00 84.00 66.030 10.48198 .606 .188 as for dominant emotions in earliest memory, joy is the most frequent emotion (41.7%), followed by fear (23.3%), sadness (8.6%), surprise (8.0%), etc (table 4). as mentioned earlier, numerous studies agreed that emotions are a key characteristic of first childhood memories, they do not state whether positive or negative emotion predominates in those memories. in an early study on emotional valence of childhood memories, dudycha and dudycha (1933) asked 129 students to report their first memory or memories on a form, and to provide an age approximation, and a description of the emotion they experienced. compared with this one and similar research, it seems that our participants also chose more positive memories compared to negative ones. it is important to note though, that the emotional valence depends heavily on the format of the posed question. table 4. dominant emotions in first memory frequency valid percent cumulative percent joy 68 41.7 41.7 fear 38 23.3 65.0 sadness 14 8.6 73.6 surprise 13 8.0 81.6 anger 12 7.4 89.0 disgust 2 1.2 90.2 no feeling 14 8.6 98.8 other 2 1.2 100.0 155 earliest memories, positive emotional memories of warmth and safeness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences total 163 100.0 as for other qualities of first memories, it is evident that there is a mild tendency toward more frequent opinions about the first memory, its greater personal importance, its vividness, strength of feelings and positive valence, whose means are shown below, in table 5. table 5. dimensions of first memories frequency of thinking personal importance of the memory vividness and liveliness strength of feelings emotional valence n valid 167 167 166 166 167 missing 0 0 1 1 0 mean 3.13 3.49 3.18 3.39 3.40 the same conclusion is more obvious if we look at percentages of participants who reported on their first memories. 31.7% of them reported they often/very often think about their first memory, while 22.8% reported they never or rarely think about it, remaining 45.5 % reported „sometimes“. as for personal importance of the first memory, the most participants (47,9%) reported their first memory is important/very important to them, 11.4% reported it to be unimportant/mostly unimportant, while 40.7% reported it not to be either. the most participants reported their first memory to be medium in vividness and details (63.5%), 24% vivid/very vivid and detailed, while 12.6% reported it to be vague/very vague. the most participants (47.9%) reported strong/very strong feelings in their first memory, 31,1% medium, and 21% weak/very weak. as for the valence of their first memory, nearly half of the participants (49.7%) reported it to be positive/very positive, 26,3% reported it to be negative/very negative, while the rest (24%) reported it to be neutral. as it was mentioned earlier, different results about emotional valence can be found in literature regarding childhood memories. the study explored the differences between gender in approximation of age of the first memory, the length of first memory description and scores on early memories of warmth and safeness scale, (table 6). table 6. descriptive statistics of basic variables with regard to participants` gender participant gender n mean std. deviation std. error mean approximate age of first memory male 60 5.00 2.163 .279 female 106 4.56 1.622 .158 first memory description male 61 52.44 26.777 3.428 female 106 70.70 31.880 3.096 emwss male 61 63.9672 10.59397 1.35642 female 105 67.2286 10.27718 1.00295 t-tests for independent samples showed that girls reported on their first memories in greater detail (measured by number of words), compared to boys (t=-3.77, p<0,01), and 156 s. tahirović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences expressed more early memories of warmth and safeness as well (t=-1.95, p<0,05). there was no statistically significant difference between sexes in approximate age of the first memory (t=1.49, p>0,05). there was no difference in current attachment style with regard to participants’ sex (χ2=3.14, p>0,05 ), as shown in table 7. table 7. distribution of attachment styles for males and female securely attached insecurely avoidantly attached insecurely ambivalently attached total chi-square value male 37 16 8 61 3.14 female 50 41 15 106 .208 (p) 87 57 23 167 df=2 exploring correlations between dimensions of earliest memories showed statistically significant correlations between most of them, but not with scores on emwss (table 8). table 8. correlations (spearman’s rho) between dimensions of earliest memories emwss correlation coefficient 1.000 .110 .000 -.026 .142 .137 sig. (2-tailed) . .157 .997 .740 .068 .079 n 166 166 166 165 165 166 frequency of thinking about the first memory correlation coefficient .110 1.000 .484** .309** .451** -.068 sig. (2-tailed) .157 . .000 .000 .000 .380 n 166 167 167 166 166 167 personal importance of the first memory correlation coefficient .000 .484** 1.000 .408** .582** .275** sig. (2-tailed) .997 .000 . .000 .000 .000 n 166 167 167 166 166 167 vividness and liveliness of the first memory correlation coefficient -.026 .309** .408** 1.000 .436** -.004 sig. (2-tailed) .740 .000 .000 . .000 .955 n 165 166 166 166 165 166 strength of feelings in the first memory correlation coefficient .142 .451** .582** .436** 1.000 .049 sig. (2-tailed) .068 .000 .000 .000 . .528 n 165 166 166 165 166 166 emotional valence of the first memory correlation coefficient .137 -.068 .275** -.004 .049 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .079 .380 .000 .955 .528 . n 166 167 167 166 166 167 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). frequency of thinking about the first memory is statistically significantly positively correlated with importance of the memory (ρ=0.48), its vividness and liveliness (ρ=0.31, p<0,01) and strength of feelings represented in the first memory (ρ=0.45, all p<0,01). 157 earliest memories, positive emotional memories of warmth and safeness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences basically, all three of these dimensions are strongly inter-correlated. valence of feelings in the first memory, on the other hand, is statistically significantly positively correlated only with importance of the memory (ρ=0.27, p<0,01), but not with other characteristics, meaning that the more positive the feeling represented in the first memory, the more important it is to the participant. this might indicate certain defense mechanism, as our participants were attributing greater importance to memories with positive, compared to those with negative feelings. hypothesis testing in order to test our first hypothesis, that predicted difference in early memories of warmth and safeness depending on security/insecurity of attachment style of the participants, we used t-test for independent samples (table 9), that showed scores on emwss differed among the two samples (t=3.27, df=164, p<0.001), thus confirming our hypothesis. securely attached adolescents scored higher on emwss, compared to their insecurely attached peers. therefore, the first sub hypothesis was confirmed. table 9. descriptive and t-test results for securely and insecurely attached on emwss attachment style n mean std. deviation std. error mean t df sig. (2-tailed) emwss secure 86 68.5233 9.67073 1.04282 3.269 164 .001 insecure 80 63.3500 10.71507 1.19798 the second sub hypothesis was also tested using t-test for independent samples (table 10), showing that there was no statistically significant difference in emwss scores between avoidant and ambivalently attached adolescents (t=1.80, p>0,05), thus the second sub hypothesis was confirmed. table 10. descriptives and t-test results for avoidantly and ambivalently attached adolescents on emwss description of current attachment style n mean std. deviation std. error mean t df sig. (2-tailed) emwss insecurelyavoidant attachment style 57 64.7018 10.25560 1.35839 1.801 78 .076 insecurelyambivalent attachment style 23 60.0000 11.31773 2.35991 as our second hypothesis predicted differences in dimensions of earliest memories between securely and insecurely attached adolescents. in order to test it, t-test for independent samples was used in case of continuous variables involved in first two sub hypotheses (age approximation and length of first memory description), as shown in table 11 below. there were no statistically significant differences in these two depending on attachment style (t=-0.19 and t=-1.33 respectively, both p>0,05). therefore, the predictions did not prove to be correct. 158 s. tahirović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences table 11. differences in age approximation and description length of the first memory between securely and insecurely attached attachment style n mean std. deviation std. error mean t df sig. (2-tailed) age approximation of the first memory securely attached 86 4.5930 1.58951 .17140 -.191 164 .848 insecurely attached 80 4.6375 1.38932 .15533 first memory description length securely attached 87 60.95 31.833 3.413 -1.327 165 .186 insecurely attached 80 67.38 30.558 3.417 third, fourth, and fifth sub hypothesis predicted that securely attached adolescents will report their memories as being more vivid, emotionally positive, and stronger in feelings, compared to their insecurely attached peers. considering the characteristics of the variables, these predictions were tested using kruskal-wallis test of differences, which is shown in table 12 below. table 12. rank descriptives of memory dimensions grouped by attachment style with kruskal-wallis indicators attachment style n mean rank kruskalwallis df asymp. sig. vividness of first memory secure 32 29.11 1.127 1 .288 insecure 29 33.09 total 61 valence of first memory secure 66 62.91 .178 1 .673 insecure 61 65.18 total 127 intensity of first memory emotions secure 62 56.95 .209 1 .647 insecure 53 59.23 total 115 therefore, the third sub hypothesis did not prove right, as there was no statistically significant difference in dimension of vividness of earliest memory between securely and insecurely attached participants (h=1.127, p>0,05). besides, the fourth and fifth sub hypothesis did not prove right as well, as there was no statistically significant difference in valence and intensity of feelings reported 159 earliest memories, positive emotional memories of warmth and safeness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences in earliest memory between securely and insecurely attached adolescents (h=.178 and h=.209, both p>0,05). conclusion emotional content of adolescents` earliest memories is predominantly of joy (41.7%), fear (23.3%), sadness (8.6%), surprise (8%), anger (7.4%), etc. which is in line with previous research using the same methodology. the age approximation of the first memory is 4.7with no significant difference between males and females. however, females described their first memory in statistically significantly more words than males (t=-3.77, p<0,01). as for dimensions of the first memory (measured by mcq), the most participants reported their earliest memory to be important/very important to them, as well as of strong/very strong feelings (47.9%). the most reported frequent/very frequent thinking about their first memory (47.9%). the most participants (63.5%) reported their earliest memory to be moderately vivid, and 24% vivid/very vivid. emotional valence in the most of earliest memories is assessed as positive/very positive (49.7%), 26.3% negative/very negative, 24% neutral. distribution of scores on early memories of warmth and safeness scale was not statistically significantly different from normal distribution, using kolmogorov smirnov test. however, females scored significantly higher on emwss than males (t=-1.95, p<0.05). almost all dimensions of early memories (frequency of thinking, importance, vividness, strength of feelings) inter correlated highly and positively, except emotional valence that correlated only with personal importance of the memory (ρ=0.275, p<0.01), indicating that the more positive the emotion the greater personal importance is attributed to it. there was statistically significant difference in early memories of warmth and safeness between securely attached, insecurely-avoidantly and insecurely-ambivalently attached adolescents (f=7.20, p<0.01), with securely attached individuals scoring the highest on emwss, and insecurely-ambivalently attached scoring the lowest on emwss. gender differences in attachment styles were not statistically significant. there was statistically significant difference in early memories of warmth and safeness depending on security/insecurity of attachment style of the participants (t=3.27, p<0,001). securely attached adolescents scored higher on emwss, compared to their insecurely attached peers. there was no statistically significant difference between the two insecure attachment styles (avoidant and ambivalent) in early memories of warmth and safeness (t=1.80, p>0,05). there were no statistically significant differences in age approximation and length of description between securely and insecurely attached adolescents (t=-0.19 and t=-1.33 respectively, both p>0,05). there was no statistically significant difference in dimension of vividness of earliest memory (h=1.127, p>0,05), emotional valence (h=.178, p>0,05), and feeling intensity between securely and insecurely attached participants (h=.209, both p>0,05). the research findings presented in this paper provided significant influence on understanding of presence and characteristics of the early memories in adolescence period. we also find out that earliest memories and current attachment style of adolescents par160 s. tahirović epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences ticipating in our research are correlated in specific ways as it was explained in research findings. this research provides relevant ground for a new research focusing on qualitative analyses of early memories with the aim to get answer on a question why those memories were important for children in preschool period and why they are still important for adolescence period. references baldwin mw & dandeneau sd (2005). understanding and modifying the relational schemas underlying insecurity. in mw baldwin (ed.), interpersonal cognition (pp. 33-61). new york: guilford. bowlby j (1969). attachment: attachment and loss. vol. 1. london: hogarth press. cowan, n., & davidson, g. (1984). salient childhood memories. the journal of genetic psychology, 145, 101-107. crowell, j., fraley, r.c., & shaver, p.r. (1999). measures of individual differences in adolescent and adult attachment. in j. cassidy & p. r. shaver (eds.), handbook of attachment: theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 434-465). new york: guilford press. dudycha, g. j., & dudycha, m. m. (1933). some factors and characteristics of childhood memories. child development, 4, 265-278. gilbert p & perris c (2000). early experiences and subsequent psychosocial adaptation: an introduction. clinical psychology and psychotherapy, 7, 243-245. doi:10.1002/1099-0879(200010)7:4<243::aidcpp254>3.0.co;2-h gilbert p, baldwin mw, irons c, baccus jr, & palmer m (2006). self-criticism and self-warmth: an imagery study exploring their relation to depression. journal of cognitive psychotherapy: an international quarterly, 20, 183-200. doi:10.1891/jcop.20.2.183 hazan, c., & shaver, p. 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(1988). phenomenal characteristics of memories for perceived and imagined autobiographical events. journal of experimental psychology: general, 117, 371-376. johnson-laird, p.n. (1980). kihlstrom, j. f., & harackiewicz, j. m. (1982). the earliest recollection: a new survey. journal of personality, 50, 134-148. larson, r. w., & asmussen, l. (1991). anger, worry, and hurt in early adolescence: an enlarging world of negative emotions. in m. e. colton and s. gore (eds.). adolescent stress: causes and consequences (pp. 21-41). new york: aldine de gruyter. macdonald, s., uesiliana, k., & hayne, h. (2000). cross-cultural and gender differences in childhood amnesia. memory, 8, 365-376. mullen, m. k. (1994). earliest recollections of childhood: a demographic analysis. cognition, 52, 55-79. richter a, gilbert p, & mcewan k (2009). development of an early memories of warmth and safeness scale and its relationship to psychopathology. psychology and psychotherapy: theory, research and practice, 82, 171-184. doi: 10.1348/147608308x395213 shaver, p. r., & hazan, c. (1993). adult romantic attachment: theory and evidence. in d. perlman & w. jones (eds.), advances in personal relationships (vol. 4, pp. 29-70). london: jessica kingsley. saunders, l. m. i., & norcross, j. c. (1988). earliest childhood memories: relationship to ordinal position, family function, and psychiatric symptomatology. individual psychology, 44, 95-105. stein, h., jacobs, n. j., ferguson, k. s., allen, j. g., & fonagy, p. (1998). what do adult attachment scales 27 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction paranoia, medically defined, refers to someone suffering from a mental illness that makes them believe other people are trying to harm them. it has, however, in recent years entered literary circulation. it, specifically elaborated, denotes an extreme and unreasonable feeling that others are going to damage you, and you do not feel safe. to put it succinctly, some trepidation and apprehension is always with you. paranoia, writes sim, is “the threat of total engulfment with somebody else’s system,” and is extremely felt by a large number of personas in postmodern fiction. it is speculated that this threat arises from the “climate of fear and suspicion” that was rampant and widely experienced by many over the course of the cold war (1998: 129). it is an excruciating and traumatic paranoia and its ensuing effects in ken kesey’s one flew over the cuckoo’s nest abstract the present paper examines the applicability of paranoia and its ensuing effects on individuals in ken kesey’s one flew over the cuckoo’s nest (1962). it is significant to analyze and discuss how authorities in a given culture impose controls on mavericks so as to forestall possible threats. paranoia in the above-mentioned work, it is argued, engenders a perennial phobia on sufferers which brings about an identity crisis exerting influence over the temperament and conduct of them. kesey’s work indeed perfectly exemplifies the sort of treatment undergone by those suffering from mental illness and the way they are mistreated. mcmurphy, the protagonist, being cognizant of the way authorities codify stringent regulations on their subjects seeks to exhort those confined in the hospital to extricate themselves from their pathetic and deplorable condition and to disabuse them of the wrong notions instilled into them. keywords: michel foucault; one flew over the cuckoo’s nest; paranoia. nasser maleki razi university, kermanshsh, iran hassan abootalebi lorestan university d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 21 8 28 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences experience many protagonists of postmodern fiction go through. they quite frequently suffer from it, from a “dread,” according to tanner, that another person is “patterning your life, that there are all sorts of invisible plots afoot to rob you of thought and action, that conditioning is ubiquitous” (as cited in sim, 1998: 129) what creates the atmosphere of trepidation and gets individuals into panic is most of the time engendered by authorities in a given society who, being afraid of the plausible menace on the part of mavericks, find them not malleable and therefore seek to erode their power and freedom by confining them for so long to, say, a prison, or in the case of kesey’s a mental hospital in which special treatments are undergone by individuals who seemingly need to be taken care of so as to make others immune to them. mental asylum is a place to enclose the mad; because they are classified under the branch of ‘unreason’ in modern disciplinary societies; and “those who have lost the use of reason must be hidden from society” (foucault, 1988: 227). a madman, it seems, is confined to an asylum to be cured, but the reality is that he is here “because he crosses the frontiers of bourgeois order of his own accord, and alienates himself outside the sacred limits of its ethics” (55). madness is a form of social uselessness, and the mad should be separated from others. they are distinguished from others “by their inability to work and to follow the rhythms of collective life” (58). in his discipline and punish: the birth of the prison, foucault argues against the idea that the prison became the consistent form of punishment due mainly to the humanitarian concerns of reformists. he traces the cultural shifts that led to the prison’s dominance, focusing on the body and questions of power. prison is a form used by the “disciplines”, a new technological power. whether it is a prison or a hospital, the main concern is to establish discipline (1995: 221). foucault also notes that discipline creates “docile bodies”, ideal for the new economics, politics and warfare of the modern industrial age. but, to construct docile bodies the disciplinary institutions must be able to ensure the internalization of the disciplinary individuality within the bodies being controlled. that is, discipline must come about without excessive force through careful observation, and molding of the bodies into the correct form through this observation (228). as it is portrayed in kesey’s novel, invisible forms of discipline oppressed individuals and their actions. discipline here comes with excessive force: maxwell taber, a former patient stayed in nurse ratched’s ward before mcmurphy arrived. when maxwell taber questioned the nurse’s authority, ratched n. maleki & h. abootalebi 29 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences punished him with electroshock therapy. after the treatments made him completely docile, he was allowed to leave the hospital. he is considered a successful cure by the hospital staff. in madness and insanity: history of madness in the classical age, foucault discussed how west european society had dealt with madness, arguing that it was a social construct distinct from illness.what foucault says in the “preface” is helpful in understanding kesey’s representation of the mental ward: we have yet to write the history of that other form of madness, by which men, in an act of sovereign reason, confine their neighbors, and communicate and recognize each other through the merciless language of non-madness ... in the serene world of mental illness, modern man no longer communicates with the madman: ... the man of madness communicates with society only by the intermediary of an equally abstract reason which is order, physical and moral constraint, the anonymous pressure of the group, the requirements of conformity ( 1961: ix-x). having been fettered by an outside power, one becomes afflicted with a sense of disillusionment and it brings on an identity crisis which causes them to become estranged from the society in which they, like thousands of others, should have an inviolable right to be part of. those in power but, by indoctrinating them to possess aberrant behavior that needs to be cured of it, seek to subjugate them in order to get them to be docile and tractable. this is the way a dominant bureaucracy in contemporary communities takes mavericks under their control to forestall possible disturbances, to vindicate their deeds, to perpetuate their supremacy, and ultimately to secure their dominance. this object is more often than not achieved by authorities in a given society. paranoia, fick suggests, “calls attention to the possibility of confinement, to one of the opposing terms which define a psychic frontier” (as cited in bloom, 2007: 148). paranoid fiction is a term sometimes used to describe works of literature that explores the subjective nature of reality and how it can be manipulated by forces in power. sometimes paranoid fiction will strongly imply, and occasionally admit outright, that its constructed world is a lie or an illusion. in this case, the plot will center on the main character’s struggle between the physical and spiritual; i.e. the actual world they are in, versus the world they want to see and believe in. here, the cause of the fantasy is the protagonist’s internal desires, doubts, and suspicions. such works tend to be more introspective and focused on the individual, than on a community or regime. these forces can be external, such as paranoia and its ensuing effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/subjectivity 30 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences a totalitarian government, or they can be internal, such as a character’s mental illness or refusal to accept the harshness of the world he is in.this definition is very consistent and applicable to ken kesey’s novel. postmodern fiction represent “paranoid anxieties” in different ways, including; “the distrust of fixitiy, of being circumscribed to anyone particular place or identity,” the belief that society is “conspiring against the individual,” and the proliferation of “self-made plots to counter the scheming of others” (sim, 1988: 131). regardless of the nature of the anxiety engendered by authorities, the created paranoia brings on a type of unremitting apprehension and its concomitant phobia causing individuals to become recluse and introspective. consequently, paranoia, in fick’s words, “calls attention to the possibility of confinement, to one of the opposing terms which defines a psychic frontier” (as cited in bloom, 2007: 148) discussion one flew over the cuckoo’s nest is narrated from the viewpoint of bromden or as he is called by the black boys working in the hospital, chief broom, half indian, a columbia indian, and by other patients big chief who has been in the ward longer than anyone else, and the one who pretends to be deaf and dumb, being kept in a mental hospital run by miss ratched, who is often referred to as the big nurse, a martinet, austere, and bossy person who, by issuing peremptory instructions, does not condone even the most minor infringements. chief bromden, the half-indian narrator, has been a patient in an oregon psychiatric hospital for ten years. he suffers from hallucinations and delusions and his paranoia is evident from the first lines of the book. bromden’s paranoia comes from his fear of what he calls the combine, a huge conglomeration that controls society and forces people into conformity. bromden’s paranoia also is clear from his sense that he is not seeing things from an everyday perspective: i been silent so long now it’s gonna roar and of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my god: you think this is too horrible to have really happened. this is too awful to be the truth! but, please. it’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. but it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen (kesey, 1962: 17). moreover, bromden describes nurse ratched transforming into a huge machine, and he has to be sedated when the aides try to shave n. maleki & h. abootalebi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/totalitarianism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mental_illness 31 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences him and he starts screaming: “air raid”. up until this moment he has not addressed the reader directly: it is as though we are overhearing his private thoughts. the italicized words in the quote reveal that bromden is requesting the reader to keep an open mind. his hallucinations provide an insight into the hidden realities of the hospital. bromden, who has been gaining self-awareness since mcmurphy’s arrival on the ward, remembers a scarring experience he had as a ten-year-old boy: except the sun, on these three strangers, is all or a sudden way the hell brighter than usual and i can see the … seams where they’re put together. and almost, see the apparatus inside them take the words i just said and try to fit the words in here and there, this place and that, when they find the words don’t have any place ready-made where they’ll fit, the machinery disposes of the words like they weren’t even spoken. (213) three government officials came to speak to bromden’s father about buying the tribe’s land and when bromden tried to speak to them, he noticed that “not a one of the three acts like they heard a thing he said”(199). he begins to believe that he can see the seams on people, as though they were inhuman or machine-like. for kesey, the ones who do the dirty work of an oppressive society are basically machines. the novel constantly refers to different authorities that control individuals through subtle and coercive methods. the narrator, the chief, combines these authorities in his mind, calling them “the combine’’ in reference to the mechanistic way they manipulate and process individuals. the novel was written in 1959 and published in 1962 in the midst of the civil rights movement. furthermore, the novel criticizes the emasculation of men in society, particularly in the character of billy bibbit, the stuttering acute who is domineered by both nurse ratched and his mother. billy bibbit is a shy patient. he has a bad stutter and seems much younger than his thirty-one years. billy is dominated by his mother, one of nurse ratched’s friends, billy suffers from paranoia. he is voluntarily in the hospital, as he is afraid of the outside world. mcmurphy arranges a date for billy and bribes the night aide, mr. turkle to sneak candy into the hospital. billy has sex with candy while mcmurphy and the other patients smoke marijuana and drink. when the nurse finds billy with candy, she threatens to tell his mother. billy becomes paranoid and commits suicide. paranoia and its ensuing effects 32 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences with the exception of the prostitutes, who are portrayed as good, the women in one flew over the cuckoo’s nest are uniformly threatening and terrifying figures who contributed to the characters’ paranoia. bromden and mcmurphy tend to describe the suffering of the mental patients as a matter of emasculation or castration at the hands of nurse ratched and the hospital supervisor, who is also a woman. these acts result in causing paranoia in the characters of the patients. it is the story of bromden’s own journey toward sanity. when the novel begins, bromden is paranoid, bullied, and surrounded much of the time by a hallucinated fog that represents both his medicated state and his desire to hide from reality. the critique of the mental ward as an instrument of oppression comparable to the prison mirrored many of the views that michel foucault was making at the same time. nurse ratched represents oppressive mechanization, dehumanization and emasculation of modern society – in bromden’s words, the combine. bromden describes her being like a machine. her ability to present a false self suggests that the mechanistic and oppressive forces in society gain ascendance through dishonesty of the powerful. again foucault remarks that discipline creates “docile bodies” in the modern industrial age. without being aware of the oppression, the quiet and docile slowly become weakened and gradually subsumed (1995: 211). nurse ratched maintains her power by the strategic use of shame and guilt, as well as by a determination to “divide and conquer” her patients. mcmurphy represents sexuality, freedom, and self-determination; characteristics that clash with the oppressed ward, which is controlled by nurse ratched. he is not crazy, but rather he is trying to manipulate the system to his advantage. maxwell taber, a former patient who was, according to ratched, a manipulator, is subjected to electroshock treatments and ends up a helpless vegetable and is left docile and unable to think. in madness and insanity: history of madness in the classical age, foucault discussed how west european society had dealt with madness, arguing that it was a social construct distinct from mental illness. what foucault says in the “preface” is helpful in understanding kesey’s representation of the mental ward: we have yet to write the history of that other form of madness, by which men, in an act of sovereign reason, confine their neighbors, and communicate and recognize each other through the merciless language of non-madness ... in the serene world of mental illness, n. maleki & h. abootalebi 33 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences modern man no longer communicates with the madman: ... the man of madness communicates with society only by the intermediary of an equally abstract reason which is order, physical and moral constraint, the anonymous pressure of the group, the requirements of conformity. (1961: 210) it is just this sense of alienation and confinement that kesey explores through the eyes of his first-person narrator, chief bromden, his emories of madness are reported with all the distortions of reality that accompanied his original perception of those events. here bromden, along with some other patients, often receive shock treatments. the mental asylum portrayed in the novel is like a prison as we can see miss ratched unlocks its main door when she wants to comes into it every morning; and the windows of the asylum are covered with hard screens of mesh which may not be broken by knocking them with a chair or a bed. the inmates are entrapped in a prison-like asylum, and there is no way out. this imprisonment, foucault asserts, “covered both the deprivation of liberty and technical transformation of individuals” (1995: 233). this deprivation of liberty means that the inmates’ time is completely under the control of the disciplinary authorities. chief bromden states that “the big nurse is able to set the wall clock at whatever speed she wants.” (kesey, 1962: 76) the asylum does not enclose only the madmen who “depart from reason with confidence” or, in sauvages words, “those who are actually deprived of reason or who persist in some notable error” (as cited in foucault, 1988: 104). it also consists of other forms of social uselessness. there are many inmates depicted in the novel who are not mad but socially useless; sefelt and fredrickson are epileptics; chief bromden is a homeless indian who is deaf and mute (although he feigns to be deaf and mute); harding is accused by his wife of being a homosexual; billy bibbit has childish behavior according to his mother; and many of the chronics called vegetables, have vegetation life. almost all the inmates of the asylum have some inabilities; they cannot perform the duties which have been imposed on them by society; many of them may explode occasionally into such outbursts that are regarded as a type of social danger. in short, they cannot assimilate themselves to the norms of bourgeois society; therefore society excludes and confines them, and this confinement, as foucault maintains, is explained, or at least justified, by the desire to avoid scandal” (1988: 66). paranoia and its ensuing effects 34 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the abnormal are distinguished from the normal in some respects so that they can easily be recognized; they deviated from the norms which are respected by the normal and this makes them different. the court rules mcmurphy is a psychopath, because he is “got in a couple of hassles at the work farm” (kesey, 1962: 13) while he is there to work. a madman, better say an abnormal, is recognized by majority of people who look at him. “madness is immediately perceived as difference: whence the forms of spontaneous and collective judgment sought, not from physicians, but from men of good sense” (foucault, 1988: 116). all the men of good sense can recognize this difference and are aware of this abnormality; therefore it is the majority of the public that marginalize the minority, those who are different. in the way to sea-port chief bromden mentions the people “who were driving past on their way to work slow down to gawk at all the loonies in green uniforms” (kesey, 1962: 234) and those on the docks who were mocking and ridiculing them. harding explains the public view on their abnormality when he answers mcmurphy’s question about the damage which shock therapy has on patients and explains the reasons why the public does not raise cain about it. at the end he says that “in this country, when something is out of order, then the quickest way to get it fixed is the best way” (190). sometimes society makes something becomes different, something which is not really different but may only seem strange, such as chief bromden, the tall robust indian, who has been silenced whenever he wanted to speak since he was a child. he was not the one who decided to adopt being deaf and mute, but it was the others who treated him as if he was deaf and mute. he says that “it wasn’t me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like i was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all” (210). he pretends to be deaf and mute in the asylum, because the staff in the asylum ignores him, too. the repetition of this attitude towards the mad by the public makes them believe in their abnormality as their guilt. it is this guilt that the asylum organizes “for the madmen as a consciousness of himself, and as a nonreciprocal relation to the keeper” (foucault, 1998: 247). billy bibbit, the stuttering young inmate, speaks rather depressively about himself and other inmates who admit their guilt and believe in their abnormality: you think i wuh-wuh-wuh-want to stay in here? you think i wouldn’t like a con-con-vertible and a guh-guh-girl friend? but did you ever have people l-l-laughing at you? no, because you’re so b-big and so n. maleki & h. abootalebi 35 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences tough! well, i’m not big and tough. neither is harding. neither is f-fredrickson. neither is suh-sefelt. oh—oh, you—you t-talk like we stayed in here because we liked it! (kesey, 1962: 195) upon the arrival of a new patient named randle patrick mcmurphy conditions, however, appear to be less severe and more pleasing. mcmurphy is transferred there for diagnosis and possible treatment due to rape with a girl. in this hospital those being kept fall into two categories: acutes and chronics who are not permitted to mingle. acutes are called so because “doctors figure them still sick enough to be fixed” (15) and chronics are “machines with flaws inside that cannot be repaired” (16), and any objection to the way the system operates will cause the patients to be “listed as potential assaultive and shipped upstairs to the disturbed ward” (69). bromden, it is said, underwent more than two hundred “shock treatments” that led up to his being a “sweeping machine, scared of its own shadow” ( 69). mcmurphy, “the new redheaded admission”, and the one who, as the big bromden thinks of him, is “no ordinary admission” from the time he enters the hospital, has complete contempt for both miss ratched and other staff, asserts he has entered there to bring the psychopaths fun and entertainment, and is aware of the fact that he is not a chronic. what the big nurse aspires to obtain here is a “world of precision efficiency and tidiness like a pocket watch with a glass back, a place where the schedule is unbreakable” (29). mcmurphy is but, as doctors conclude, a “disturbing factor” that must be swiftly gotten rid of so as to restore order now that chaos is ascendant. they intend to surmount any obstacle to achieve their goals and mcmurphy is a threat to them. he frustrates their efforts. jettisoning him is thus obligatory and exigent. since they find him intractable and refractory, some propose it would be prudent to “send him up to disturbed” (155). the big nurse but holds a difference of opinion. by doing so, she thinks, “he would be a martyr to them” (157) and would be thought of as an extraordinary man that they had been unable to handle and thus had shirked their responsibilities. mcmurphy, the big nurse believes, is a man like others with fears and mistakes, and by keeping him in the ward “his self-made rebellion will dwindle to nothing” (157). in the meeting titled “therapeutic community” patients and doctors congregate where the psychos are instructed how to behave with proper decorum, how to avoid appearing gauche, and how to adapt themselves paranoia and its ensuing effects 36 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences with their milieu. those presiding over the hospital, the big nurse contends, aim to make there a democratic community corresponding roughly to the outside world with which the psychopaths have lost contact, but need to be sanguine about the prospect of, according to her, taking their place in again someday. the meeting, mcmurphy thinks, is but “a bunch of chickens at a peckin’ party” (57).the way the meeting and its object is rationalized is worth considering, “the goal of therapeutic community is a democratic ward, run completely by the patients and their votes, working toward making worthwhile citizens to turn back outside onto the street” (49). the psychos dwelling in here will have to face the consequences if they remonstrate against the ascendant system and its mechanism. pete, being “a chronic all his life,” for instance, when for once he objects to, and rails at, the therapeutic community and the manner the patients are goaded into confessing to their nefarious activities perpetrated in the past, only by calling out he is “tired” is given a shot and is treated so harshly that he “never tried anything like that again, and he never will” (55). the patients are here indoctrinated to believe they suffer mental problems and need to be taught how to handle other people, and the big nurse and the doctors have been highly successful in achieving their goals, in fixing false notions in their minds. mcmurphy is the only person who frustrates, at least momentary, the authorities’ plans. he uses his overt sexuality to throw rathced’s off her machinelike track, and he is not taken by her thin façade of compassion or her falsely therapeutic tactics. when mcmurphy rips her shirt open at the end of the novel, he symbolically exposes her hypocrisy and deceit, and she is never able to regain power. not only mcmurphy is a rebel but also charles cheswick, the first patient to support mcmurphy’s rebellion against nurse ratched’s power. mcmurphy, as he himself asserts, has observed thousands who by exploiting individuals’ weakness and ignorance seek to subjugate them in an insidious manner and get them to “toe the line, to follow their rules, to live like they want you to” (60). the psychos have, nonetheless, become inured to the dire situation from which they are not keen on extricating themselves from, and think of the big nurse as “sweet, smiling, tender angel of mercy” (60), being “unselfish as the wind, toiling thanklessly for the good of all” (61) and a benevolent woman who “serves mankind on her weekends off by doing generous volunteer work about town” (61). this is patently obvious in the conversation between mcmurphy and n. maleki & h. abootalebi 37 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences harding, president of the patient’s council who admits that he was born a “rabbit” and the one who, he believes, needs someone like the big nurse to make him happy with his role, when mcmurphy struggles to disabuse him of his wrong ideas, but harding adheres strictly to them: this world…belongs to the strong, my friend! the ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak. we must face up to this. no more than right that it should be this way. we must learn to accept it as a law of the natural world. the rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. in defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about. and he endures, he goes on. he knows his place. he most certainly doesn’t challenge the wolf to combat. now, would that be wise? would it? (64) the irony of the situation is that some patients or as they referred to, acutes, as a result of the blunders the staff made, were transformed to chronics. ellis was, upon his arrival, one of acutes who, because of the treatments he received in “that filthy brain-murdering room that the black boys call the shock shop” (16) was changed into a chronic for example. or in the case of ruckly who used to be a nuisance to both the black boys and the nurses, after having been taken away to be fixed, abjured his misbehavior and turned to a docile one. sometimes one going over to that room for an installation “leaves the ward mean and mad snapping at the whole world” (170) and within a few weeks gets back being the “sweetest, nicest, best-behaved thing you ever saw” (17). this metamorphosis is, the employees conclude, a success, but just another robot for the combine, bromden believes. one of mcmurphy’s efforts to ameliorate and alleviate the patients’ appalling situation is inducing them to take a vote on watching baseball games to demonstrate they still got some guts, to show they have the audacity to flout the authorities, to prove themselves after growing effete due to the presence of a formidable power. though his first attempt does not pay off, he remains tenacious and does not waver in his effort to get authorities to enfranchise them till he ultimately triumphs. he tries to bolster the apparently patients’ confidence and morale and does not begrudge doing anything to obtain his purpose. once he asserts he is capable of lifting the control panel and send it throw the window, but he does not succeed. despite this he says, “but i tried, though, goddammit, i sure as hell did that much, now, didn’t i?” (125). paranoia and its ensuing effects 38 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the rules and limitations imposed on the patients are completely vindicated on the grounds that they are to the benefit of them, and the kind of therapy they receive is conducive to good health. a salutary experience, to put it this way, which is ineluctable if they intend to shape up. the way the big nurse puts it is worth noticing: please understand: we do not impose certain rules and restrictions on you without a great deal of thought about their therapeutic value. a good many of you are in here because you could not adjust to the rules of society in the outside world, because you refused to face up to them, because you tried to circumvent them and avoid them. at some time-perhaps in your childhood-you may have been allowed to with flouting the rules of society. when you broke a rule you knew it. you wanted to be dealt with, needed it, but the punishment did not come. that foolish lenience on the part of your parents may have been the germ that grew into your present illness. i tell you this hoping you will understand that it is entirely for your on good that we enforce discipline and order. (199-200) mcmurphy is the only person who, from the very outset he is committed to the hospital, is cognizant of the fact that he is not insane and suspects that he is, to quote sim, “trapped at the center of an intrigue, often with some justification.” (130). he also tries to remind others that they are laboring under the illusion that they are insane. contrary to popular opinion, and even to their own belief, they are sane and need not being confined there. again during a conversation with harding, mcmurphy does his best to get him to obliterate the wrong idea from his mind: “you ain’t crazy that way. i mean-hell, i been surprised how sane you guys all are. as near as i can tell you’re not any crazier than the average asshole on the street” (65). it is an axiomatic fact that every individual needs at least a brief relief from harsh realities of life, and the fishing expedition arranged by mcmurphy is a welcome respite from the pressures of the monolithic hospital. once again, he, being aware of the patients’ excruciating condition and their incapability to laugh, essays to exhort them to be jubilant and elated even in the face of being embroiled in a situation from which it appears to be implausible to escape: while mcmurphy laughs. rocking farther and farther backward against the cabin top, spreading his laugh out across the water-laughing at the girl, the guys…because he knows you have to laugh at the things n. maleki & h. abootalebi 39 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. (249-50) despite mcmurphy’s sustained efforts, however, due to the shock therapies in general, and lobotomy in particular, he is transformed from a man of power into an effete person exerting no influence within the hospital any longer. nonetheless, being highly influenced by mcmurphy who made him grow, chief bromden who cannot tolerate this situation, smothers him with a pillow, lifts the control panel and absconds the hospital. mcmurphy is hailed a “messiah” who showed chief bromden and others the “way home.” bromden repeatedly “creates his own womb when he withdraws into his fog,” but ultimately manages to disentangle himself from his current situation and becomes “purified by the love of his messiah” (bloom, 2007: 81). not only does he comes under the influence of mcmurphy, but also the other men, having been observed his unremitting attempt to boost their ego, learn to wrest control of their lives, to challenge the authorities. the imprisoning of mcmurphy by “outside powers” engenders a “panic of identity.” he faces an identity crisis, and thus he struggles to demonstrate his sanity. this demur, however, that he is sane is itself deemed by authorities an indication of his insanity (sim, 1988: 131). mcmurphy’s harrowing condition exemplifies those who are recognized as unorthodox thinkers and are not inclined to conform to and obey the ruling standards of behavior. he is conscious of, and simultaneously contemptuous of, the hospital’s bureaucracy and exhorts others to flout the existing code of conduct which has caused them for long to be both physically and emotionally abused. conclusion as discussed, kesey in the above-examined work, portrays a monolithic mental hospital in which its bureaucracy, by imposing strict instructions, subject the seemingly psychopaths to inequitable treatments and seek to instill a sense of insanity into them. this situation gradually creates an illusion that they suffer from an ailment and need to be taken care of, resulting in a perennial trepidation and paranoia, ultimately causing sufferers to become estranged from society and be thought of as social outcasts, ones who must not be made contact with by apparently sane people. this is the way officials in contemporary communities forestall paranoia and its ensuing effects 40 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the prospect of any menace on part of iconoclasts who, if they do not be suppressed, have the capability to subvert a ruling system whose perpetuation ensues from exploiting people’s ignorance. kesey’s indeed perfectly exemplifies the sort of treatment undergone by those suffering from mental illness and the way they are mistreated. references bloom, harold. (2007). ken kesey’s one flew over the cuckoo’s nest. new york: bloom’s literary criticism. foucault, michel. (1995). discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. alan sheridan, trans. new york: vintage books. -------------------. (1988). madness and civilization: a history of insanity in the age of reason. richard howard, trans. new york: vintage books -------------------. (1961). madness and insanity: history of madness in the classical age. routledge. kesey, ken. (1962). one flew over the cuckoo’s nest. new york: penguin group. leach. caroline. (2008). “disability and gender in ken kesey’s one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.” disability studies quarterly (fall) volume 28, no. 4, www.dsq-sds.org rich, nathaniel (2012). ken kesey’s wars: “one flew over the cuckoo’s nest” at 50. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles rich, nathaniel. (2012). ken kesey’s wars: “one flew over the cuckoo’s nest” at 50. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles sim, stuart. (1998). the routledge companion to postmodernism. london & new york: routlege. n. maleki & h. abootalebi http://www.dsq-sds.org/ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles 19 writing as reading itself: a derridean reading of lost in the funhouse epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences writing as reading itself: a derridean reading of lost in the funhouse metin boşnak international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina asena boşnak heidelberg university, germany abstract lost in the funhouse is like textbook illustration of derrida’s views on language and writing. the book is both a guide for “how not to write” and “how not to define” writing, thus defying an ultimate center. although the lack of a “proper” theme and heavy metafictional structure makes it “difficult to read”, it is a struggle to subvert the definitions of writing. the author deconstructs the conventional form and theme that is believed to be necessary for writing. in this respect, barth operates through the narratives like derrida moves through ideas in history, and ending up with the conclusion that interplay is what matters rather than a fixed meaning. keywords: derrida; deconstruction; lost in the funhouse; barth; theory of language and difference epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences 20 m. bosnak and a. bosnak epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences theory of language and writing in particular has proved to be a fundamental issue in modern times probably because communication at technical, diplomatic, philosophical levels has gained importance. many of the modern ideas about writing, as about other issues, can certainly be traced back to plato. somehow, plato has constructed a great system of thought, which philosophers inevitably have argued for and against to come up with a system of their own. in other words, though plato has also synthesized ideas that were in the air before him, his system appears to encompass classical, modern and even post-modern ideas, and writing being one of them. plato provides a background of mediocrity even today against which people argue as far as writing is concerned. it was a common idea from plato to saussure that writing functions as a documentation of speech, a substitute for it in its absence. as speech has been seen as derivative of the thought, writing, similarly, has been seen as doubly derivative. along with its secondary value to speech, writing’s materiality by itself was completely ignored, since it was only a representation of representation, which is reminiscent of platonic concept of world of ideas. saussure, for instance, believes the distinctiveness of language and writing systems, stating that the latter exists for the representing the former (saussure, 1959, p. 23). he believes that there is an oral tradition independent from writing; hence, “purity” of speech is possible (ibid., p. 24). the privileging of writing over speech was the classical understanding. however, derrida rejects this hierarchy, noting that saying and hearing do not always correspond to each other, and that the speech is derivative. a term coined by derrida, difference, meaning “to defer”, and homophone of the word difference meaning, “todiffer” illustrates this problem. derrida asserts that it is not possible to distinguish the two words in speech; therefore, saussure’s attempt to restrict the language to audible word is completely rejected. therefore, his philosophy of writing undermines the platonic one and those who agreed with plato. in his essay, entitled “différance” derrida indicates that the signified always traces to different ‘signifieds’ while meaning is postponed each time through the constant deferral, which results in an endless chain of signifiers. according to him, there is no linear development and semantic center that totalize and harmonize the meaning; instead, there is “interplay ad infinitum” and “systematic play of differences.”derrida rejects the logocentric sign systems completely. he believes that in the beginning, “man” was the center of the systems and orientation was towards the “humanity.” however, after a certain philosophical event, man ceased to be the center of the world, and everything is left to decentralization, giving way 21 writing as reading itself: a derridean reading of lost in the funhouse epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences to free play (derrida, 1978, p. 278). without a center, language is structured through the differences; therefore, absolute truth is not possible. the present paper will use derrida’s theories to show the compatibility of the theory as applied to john barth’s book, lost in the funhouse. lost in the funhouse is a post-structuralist short story collection, consisting of a maze of stories, in which the author forces the reader to get lost with him. in that sense, the book works like a textbook illustration of derridean philosophy. in the book, the language’s documentary function is completely disregarded. there only remains a funhouse consisting in a series of the floating signifiers. tony tanner suggests that in barth’s works, signs “become more important than their referents” and that he “plays with them in such a way that any established notions of the relationship between word and world are lost or called into doubt” (tanner, 1974, p. 240). as derrida suggests, writing’s function is not to transfer sounds into written words, it is a material by itself that functions in the signifying process. likely, in his work, barth does not provide a reflection of the real world. apart from this, he constantly reminds the reader that this fiction is a maze of words and that the signification is an endless process. with his unconventional book, he forces the reader to understand that the world and literature are not necessarily one, and in fact, the reader is called in sometimes to write the text. with the use of metafiction, it is shown in the lost in the funhouse that language does not function to represent the world; it functions to prove that it has nothing to do with reality. by drawing attention to the language, the book prevents the reader from getting into the realm of the stories. the text is only a playground; it does not necessarily take the reader, author or narrator to anywhere. it wants to get readers lost in this playground, and indeed enjoy getting lost in this process by undermining the desire to reach a final point. as has been mentioned above, derrida (1981) states that language consists of “systematic play of differences,” indicating that the sign is not the representation for meaning and that signifying process is a constant difference and deferral of signifiers instead of a final signified. the meaning is an endless game of tracing and it is constituted by a tissue of differences, in the extent to which there is already a text, a network of textual referrals to other texts, a textual transformation in which each allegedly “simple term” is marked by the trace of another term, the presumed interiority of meaning is already worked upon by 22 m. bosnak and a. bosnak epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences its own exteriority. it always already carried outside itself. it already differs (from itself ) before any act of expression (ibid., p. 33). this is where intertextuality is come into being: it is the end of the linear structure and the birth of the interwovenness of the texts. lost in the funhouse is a good example of intertextuality, decentering and language as material rather than a teleological end. the book starts with “frame tale” a mobius strip that suggests, “once upon a time there was a story that began.” each turn of the mobius strip is a retelling of the same story that has already been told. although it says the same thing, it indicates that it renews itself each time. in his work, the play of the double in postmodern american fiction, gordon slethaug depicts the frame tell as follows: illustrat[ing] precisely derrida’s view to identify the structurality of structure, whether in myth, literary form, or idea is thereafter to deny the desire for thematic center or presence. space encircled by the möbius strip is a nonlocus, a hole, a loss, the absence of a center or subject, a labyrinth, a universe of discourse where an infinite number of sign substitutions come into discourse where an infinite number of sign substitutions come into play, where nothing contains everything, and where a gap constitutes the subject (slethaug, 1993, p. 138). this depiction of a möbius strip seems to reflect endlessness of signifiers derrida has suggested. here, the möbius strip is not a geometrical shape; it is a symbol of a theory, a symbol that is not absolute in the sense of stability. this shape is crafted out of the material of language; it is not a linear shape but in encloses the texts creating a new start for its each turn. it is both closed and endless. it is an intertext, a combination of the different tissues of all the texts that has been written. along with its intertextuality, it contains endless possibilities. also in the title story, the narrator ambrose is in a funhouse where he encounters many images of himself reflected on the mirrors; however, there is no center, there is no “ultimate” image of himself that he can rely on. this frustration makes him unable to find a way out of the plight. he feels like “an odd detachment, as though someone else were the master” (barth, 1988, p. 81). the signifieds that he believes to own are lost since they give way to endless possibilities. throughout the story, the narrator interrupts the narrative reminding that the story is not reaching a final point. for instance he says, “there’s no point in going farther; this isn’t going 23 writing as reading itself: a derridean reading of lost in the funhouse epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences anywhere; they haven’t even come to the funhouse yet.” in his story, barth “risks meaning nothing.” likewise, derrida (1981) states: “to risk meaning nothing is to start to play, and first to enter into the play of différance which prevents any word, any concept, any major enunciation from coming to summarize and to govern from the theological presence of a center the movement and textual spacing of differences” (p. 14). in his book derrida and lacan: another writing, michael lewis, explains that: the process of differentiating is the inscription of traces of the absence of one signifier in and as the presence of another. it is the process of archi-writing or archi-tracing. this will turn out to be all that we can know of that which is beyond language, that which is ‘real’: a mere (ability to) trace. derrida is quite explicit that the ‘trace’ is the ‘remnant’, the slightest vestige of the real, which is (potentially) a much greater and stranger entity, with many more capacities (lewis, 2008, p. 118). while the author “survives through,” trace he is also “effaced” through it (dick and wolfreys, 2013, p. 52). ambrose, can only survive by writing: “this is what they call ‘passion.’ i am experiencing it” (barth, 1988, p. 84). however, this trace does not make him present in the text: “how readily [ambrose] deceived himself into supposing he was a person” (ibid., p. 93). ambrose is both present and absent in the text. the narrator says: “is there really such a person as ambrose[?]” lost in the funhouse is a self-reflexive novel that does not seek verisimilitude. the author constantly reminds himself to the reader, reveals the figures of speech and narrative techniques used in a way that turning clichés and used-upness into a story about story telling. barth’s stories “constitutes a world unto itself, operating under laws of its own making” (green, 1991, p. 229-242). the story of echo’s linguistic structure is a good example: one does well to speak in the third person, the seer advises, in the manner of theban tiresias. a cure for selfabsorption is saturation: telling the story over as though it were another’s until like a much-repeated word it loses sense… tiresias the prophet. what is he doing here? conversing with narcissus. how does he know-because he knows everything. … tiresias can’t espy the unseeable, one may yet distinguish narrator from narrative, medium from message. … considerable time has elapsed, it seems, 24 m. bosnak and a. bosnak epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences since seer and seeker, prophet and lost, first met in the cave (barth, 1988, p. 98-102). it may be taking the life as a “raw material” but in richard poiriers words, it transforms language into a “world elsewhere” (quoted in green, 1991, p. 229-242). language becomes a new world by itself. john barth does not seek to convert the experience into a narrative, his effort is to create fiction world that is independent from reality. john barth suspects that signifiers are able to represent the world and he believes that the playfulness of the words creates its own creative realm. lost in the funhouse dismisses the fear that fiction is not able to reflect fully, because it is not its objective in the first place. john barth interrupts the regularity of sentence pattern to break the myth of realism. he makes fun of the effort that aims to achieve realistic fiction and makes use of this as a subject. the stories are about “the possibility of humanizing play of language” (ibid.). it is like fictionalizing the différance process; making a story out of the endlessness of signifiers.this process itself emphasizes the value of form and language “for its own sake” (ibid.). this technique is frequently used in the title story: en route to ocean city he sat in the back seat of the family car with his brother peter, age fifteen, and magda g —‘ age fourteen, a pretty girl and exquisite young lady, who lived not far from them on b — street in the town of d —, maryland. initials, blanks, or both were often substituted for proper names in nineteenth-century fiction to enhance the illusion of reality. it is as if the author felt it necessary to delete the names for reasons of tact or legal liability. interestingly, as with other aspects of realism, it is an illusion that is being enhanced, by purely artificial means. is it likely, does it violate the principle of verisimilitude, that a thirteen-yearold boy could make such a sophisticated observation? a girl of fourteen is the psychological coeval of a boy of fifteen or sixteen; a thirteen-year-old boy, therefore, even one precocious in some other respects, might be three years her emotional junior. john barth suggests that “owing to the floating nature of language, meanings are untenable” (tsai, 2003, p. 37-62). in lost in the funhouse, attempts for realistic depiction are frequently presented as problematic. for instance, in the book it goes: “to say that ambrose’s and peter’s mother was pretty is to accomplish nothing; 25 writing as reading itself: a derridean reading of lost in the funhouse epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the reader may acknowledge the preposition, but his imagination is not engaged. besides, magda was also pretty, yet in an altogether different way” (barth, 1988, p. 75). his half way depictions like “the brown hair on ambrose’s mother’s forearms gleamed in the sun like” and “the smell of uncle karl’s cigar smoke reminded of ” (ibid, p. 74) indicate that the effort for achieving verisimilitude is vain. barth’s concerns are not only about the techniques used to achieve verisimilitude. he thinks “floating nature of language” also results from the lack of correspondence between the sign and the signified. as derrida indicates, the signs only mean in relation to each other by differing and deferring; there is no absolute meaning of the signifiers. likewise, ambrose experiences this problem: “it was to be my fate to wonder at that moniker, relish it and revile it, ignore it, stare it out of countenance into hieroglyph and gibber, and come finally if not to embrace at least accept it with the cold neutrality of self-recognition . . .knowing well that i and my sign are neither one nor quite two.” derrida has a similar saying: “i love this name [derrida], which is not mine of course (branningan and robbins, 1996, p. 219). moreover, just as derrida does, the book lays bare the problem of speech’s authority over writing. the story “petition” illustrates the difference between life and language. in the story, there are siamese twins, and the one attached on the backside writes a petition to the king to help him to get detached from his brother: i am slight, my brother is gross. he’s incoherent but vocal. i’m articulate and mute. he’s ignorant but full of guile; i think i may call myself reasonably educated, and if ingenuous, no more so i hope than the run of scholars. my brother is gregarious: he deals with the public; earns and spends our income . . . for my part, i am by nature withdrawn, even solitary: an observer of life, a meditator, a taker of notes, and a dreamer if you will (barth, 1988, p. 62). the siamese twins, metaphorically refers to the written and oral manifestation of the language. tony tanner interprets that the “incoherent brother is like life itself, constantly shrugging off the attempts of language to circumscribe it within particular definitions. language, in the form of the articulate brother, would be happy to pursue its inclination to ponder its elegant patterning in pure detachment from the soiling contacts of reality” (tanner, 1974, p. 254). such a distinction between life and language implicit in the relationship between the two brothers seems to correspond to derrida’s comparison between “speech” and “writing” (green, 1991, p. 229-242). 26 m. bosnak and a. bosnak epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences in derrida’s thoughts, writing has been viewed as “clambering pick-a-back on the more authentic use of language” while speech [is seen as] language in action (ibid.). the incoherent brother experiences life, he even has an intercourse with the other brother’s love, thalia, while the petitioner brother follows him and experience everything secondarily only by watching. the correspondent in “petition” must follow after his more active brother the speech as it has been dictated. however, the petitioner believes he has an advantage. “i can see him without seeing me; can therefore study and examine our bond, however to dissolve it, and take certain surreptitious measures to that end, such as writing this petition. futile perhaps; desperate certainly” (barth, 1988, p. 63). writing contains the speech; however, it is not dependent on it. it has a world by itself. writing is not dependent on speech; speech is dependent on writing to stay alive. according to green (1991), barth’s story dramatizes derrida’s characterization of writing as separate and secondary, but, through its very existence as a work of literary art … it also overcomes the specious opposition of speech and writing. language in “petition serves as both “elegant patterning” and direct expression, an affirmation of both art and “life.” more importantly, the need to affirm imaginative writing in this way--to overcome the “fear” so well represented by the story’s protagonist--becomes the true subject of the story (p. 229-242). as the forgoing has shown, lost in the funhouse is like textbook illustration of derrida’s views on language and writing. the book is both a guide for “how not to write” and “how not to define” writing, thus defying an ultimate center. although the lack of a “proper” theme and heavy metafictional structure makes it “difficult to read”, it is a struggle to subvert the definitions of writing. he deconstructs the conventional form and theme that is believed to be necessary for writing. in this respect, barth operates through the narratives like derrida moves through ideas in history, and ending up with the conclusion that interplay is what matters rather than a fixed meaning. references barth, john. 1988. lost in the funhouse: fiction for print, tape, live voice. doubleday anchor ed. new york: anchor press. brannigan, john, and robbins. ruth. 1996. as if i were dead: an interview with jacques derrida, in applying: to derrida. london: macmillan. daniella, maria-dick and julian wolfreys. 2013. the derrida wordbook. edinburgh: edinburgh university press. http://www.questia.com/read/122585309. derrida, jacques. 1978. writing and difference. chicago: university of chicago press. 27 writing as reading itself: a derridean reading of lost in the funhouse epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences derrida, jacques, and alan bass. 1981. positions. chicago: university of chicago press. green, daniel. 1991. “metafiction and romance.” studies in american fiction. 19, no. 2: 229-242. http://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed july 28, 2014). lewis, michael. 2008. derrida and lacan: another writing. edinburgh: edinburgh university press. http://www.questia.com/read/117301906. saussure, ferdinand de. 1959. course in general linguistics. new york: philosophical library. slethaug, gordon e. 1993. the play of the double in postmodern american fiction. carbondale, il: southern illinois university press. http://www.questia. com/read/7280340. tanner, tony. 1974. city of words: american fiction 1950-70. new york: harper & up. tsai, chia-chin. 2003. “rupture/rapture in the funhouse: on john barth’s lost in the funhouse.” journal of applied foreign languages 1, no., pp. 37-62. http://repository.nkfust.edu.tw/retrieve/18921/jafl_v01_06_abstract.pdf. 19 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences a butlerian reading of ernest hemingway’s personality and his works golbarg khorsand (corresponding author) phd candidate, department of linguistic and foreign languages, shiraz university, shiraz, iran parvin ghasem professor, department of linguistic and foreign languages, shiraz university, shiraz, iran abstract this study aims at analyzing hemingway’s selected novels and short stories in order to identify possible shared masochistic symptoms. the overriding questions concerning this paper will center on the multiple ways in which hemingway’s sexual fluidity contributes to formation of masochistic behavior in his writings and also the degree to which masochistic properties contributed to the aesthetic and literary values of his fiction. this paper concentrates on the specific elements of masochism which pertain to the texts most, including symbiosis/separation dichotomy (closely related to the theme of humiliation), fetishism, pain, violence and death. the author wishes to unveil the oft-hidden submissive and feminine characteristics of the masculine characters which are not few in hemingway’s writings. keywords: hemingway, gender fluidity, butler, masochism, introduction ernest hemingway is regarded as one of the best prose writers in american literary canon since the time of the great romantics of nineteenth century. during his professional literary career, he was always the subject of news and gossips due to his personal demeanor which included sport activities or outlandish outfit. the controversies over his public and private life has lived on so that it has created a mythical or a legendary figure out of him. just as he romanticized his heroes, people of the twenties, thirties and forties had an anomalous interest in exaggerating and romanticizing any event that was even remotely associated with him. however, unlike in his personal and social life, hemingway was never a flamboyant figure when it came to his style. hemingway is the most celebrated heir of an american tradition that valued american eccentricities and spirit of individualism and placed it as its highest subject matter. the once prevalent image of hemingway in literary circle, an ultimate american masculinist, heavy drinker, big game hunter, deep sea fisher and bullfight aficionado, has its roots in more than a simple adventure-seeking personality. hemingway’s overt and patent application of violence in both short and long fiction can be traced back to years when he was no more than a young boy. as attested by his siblings and his biographers, ernest’s father, dr. clarence edmonds hemingway, a local physician who bears a striking resemblance to the image of nick’s father in indian camp, “suffered from unpredictable and dramatic mood swings characterized by episodes of depression and irritability”.( martin, 3). 20 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences as a strict and demanding father, he used to punish the children on various occasions and in different ways which included using a razor strop or frightening them by threatening to send them to state prison (stanford, 19). this caused a deep-rooted feeling of vexation in young ernest in particular so that, as biographies attest, “he had wished his father dead [many times in his childhood] and had [virtually] pointed a loaded gun at his head” (martin, 6). the father’s distressed periods of nervous conditions had an inevitable imprint on other members of the family, leaving them, as in ernest’s case, heirs to psychic liability for mood inconsistencies and character oscillation. ernest’s relation with his mother, too, was problematic. jon dos passos, a writer/friend of hemingway, describes hemingway as “the only man i ever knew who really hated his mother.” he is said to have referred to his mother as “that bitch”. the reason behind this blatant hatred toward his mother can be traced back to the years of hemingway’s early childhood when grace used to dress ernest as a girl, let his hair grow long, and pass him as marceline’s (ernest’s older sister) twin, despite the difference in size. thus, as martin notes “grace’s inconsistency regarding gender may have been confusing and difficult for the young boy to reconcile, possibly influencing him toward overt masculine pursuits later in adult life” (6). the anger he bore toward his father, along with the inconsistencies regarding the issue of gender and identity caused by the incoherent treatment by his mother, tended to spill over throughout his adult life and career in the form of the androgynous inclinations which are in stark opposition to the mythic machismo picture hemingway wished to portray of himself. the abounding public-social life and the convoluted inner world of hemingway which informed his writings are, at the same time, both products of and defense mechanism against his painful mental states. in addition to a lifelong store of anger and a predisposition for violence, hemingway carried, almost throughout his entire life, a strong bipolar tendency during which, as baker describes: “the pendulum in his nervous system swung periodically through the full arc from megalomania to melancholy” (291), meaning that the strength of his mood swing has been to the extent in which he seemed to be both exhilarated and under stressed and depressed. this research aims directly at analyzing hemingway’s selected novels and short stories in order to discover their common ground with respect to their masochistic properties. the overriding questions concerning this paper will revolve around the multiple ways in which hemingway’s sexual fluidity contributes to the formation of masochistic behavior in his writings and also the degree to which masochistic properties contributed to the aesthetic and literary values of his writings. methodology: with its subversive touch, post-modern era has converted hemingway into one of its best examples for analyzing the monolithic masculinity, which aims at subverting such societal hegemony. in the same vein, the field of hemingway studies can be divided into two major mainstreams. the early phase of criticism covers the timespan during which critics were, for the most part, focused on the stylistics and the highly projected thematic properties of his writings. in their literature, the readers came across the following phrases more than often: hemingway as the emblem of “lost generation” writers; hemingway as the inventor of the “ice-berg theory”; “papa hemingway”; hemingway as the epitome of the american masculine vogue and pursuits, etc. g. khorsand & p. ghasem 21 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences however, the trend began to change after the pace and agitation of the first wave of criticism came to a stall. a host of factors have contributed to the emergence of the second phase of hemingway criticism, among which, the rise of the second wave of feminism can be singled out as the leading one. mid-1980s was a time during which the second wave of feminism was being shaped and feminist activists were inheriting the ideas of the second wave of feminism in their theory and practice. the second wave feminism was, in fact, a delayed and long-awaitedfor response to the domestic image of women produced after the second world war. during 1950s, america was witnessing a wide range of changes in the social domain. the country was prospering and the baby boom years followed as a natural outcome. american nuclear family was the prime example of the notion of family being advertised at the time and a culture of consumerism placed women at home with all sorts of advanced home appliances. these and a host of other socio-political events prepared the ground for the emergence of the second wave of feminism with an emphasis on the sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, and both de facto and de jure inequalities. many feminist activists at the time criticized the nuclear family notion on the ground that placing women at home would limit their possibilities and waste their potentials. the perfect nuclear family image depicted and strongly marketed at the time did not reflect happiness and was rather degrading for women. in her best-selling book, betty frieden, introduces an ironical portrayal of women of the 50s and before, stating that: they [women] were taught to pity the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents. they learned that truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rights_ the independence and the opportunities that the old-fashioned feminists fought for. (16) second wave feminists seek to abolish patriarchy. the general assumption in feminist theory is that, due to patriarchy, women have come to be viewed as the “other” to the male norm and, as such, have been systematically oppressed and marginalized. by exerting its control over non-dominant men and all women, the patriarchal system is benefiting from this marginalization, feminists claim. according to moya lioyd “patriarchal society takes certain features of male and female biology and turns them into a set of gendered characteristics ‘that serve to empower men and disempower women.’ these characteristics are then presented as the natural attributes of males and females, respectively” (29). heterosexuality is one of the main components of patriarchy. in a feminist view, heterosexuality provides a social privilege for men to establish their assumed superiority in its very primitive form. as in most other binary oppositions, heterosexuality consists of two diverse poles where one’s superiority leads, inevitably to the other’s inferior status. the notion of “compulsory heterosexuality”, a term first used by adrienne rich, creates more and more boundaries for both men and women in that, in its basic denotation, it rejects the existence of a choice in one’s sexuality, labeling anyone who diverges from the heterosexual network’s normalcy as abnormal or even ex-communicated. heterosexuality is further reinforced through the practice of such male-dominant social constructs including politics, marriage, media, law, literature and religion. in all of them, compulsory heterosexuality a butlerian reading of ernest hemingway’s personality and his works 22 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences as a means of assuring male right of physical, economic, and emotional access keeps the convention of female disempowerment intact through heterosexual relationships and as such removes the possibility for the growth of other form of sexualities. this transition in the literary and political scene, concurrent with the posthumous publication of garden of eden, paved the way for a renewal in the oeuvre of hemingway criticism. the publication of garden, with its complex lucid female protagonist located at the center of the story, unveiled the mask that had long shadowed the real persona behind it. the problematic treatment of gender relationship throughout the plot brings gender issue to the forth and reminds the reader of the fact that gender has always been hemingway’s constant concern. readers along with the critics began to view hemingway as a man who is held so much of a captive inside the vortex of socio-sexual web which pushes him alongside the extremities of sexual and psychic pendulum; the pundonor and cojone, which define his characters in death in the afternoon, give way to the submissiveness and masochistic traits that we witness in the garden. thus, in order to see through the real personality of hemingway, in order to see the full arch, a re-visitation of hemingway’s text seems inevitable. the overall significance of this study lies in the emphasis on the performativity notions in the related field of gender studies and the psychosexual fluidity of the author as well as the characters. the specific significance of this study, however, is attributed to its emphasis on locating the masochistic properties of the texts, trying to define a new persona which was denied to (though desired and acknowledged by) hemingway in its use of theories, the researcher attempts to follow a gender study approach with the main emphasis being placed on the performative quality of hemingway and his characters’ gender conflicts and its manifestations. to that end, the theories of judith butler will be taken into account and applied to the texts. in outlining her theories, judith butler locates herself as an offshoot of a number of literary and philosophical schools, ranging from hegel’s school of phenomenology to (a revolutionized) concept of feminism. the field of feminism has always been a developing and self-correcting discipline. the terrain of feminism has seen differing phases initiating with the first wave of feminist activities in the 19th and early decades of 20th century. as expected, the calls and demands of the feminist activist in the early days were essentially basic in nature, emerging out of an environment of urban industrialism and liberal, socialist politics. the goal of this movement was to open up opportunities for women, with a focus on suffrage. the span of the second wave of feminism covers three decades of 1960s, 70s, and 80s. it slightly continued into the 90’s. as rampton explains the second wave was increasingly theoretical, based on a fusion of neo-marxism and psycho-analytical theory, and began to associate the subjugation of women with broader critiques of patriarchy, capitalism, normative heterosexuality, and the woman’s role as wife and mother. sex and gender were differentiated—the former being biological, and the latter a social construct that varies from one culture to another and over time. (para. 5-6) g. khorsand & p. ghasem 23 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences however, the discourse of feminism was taken a step further by the introduction of the theories of judith butler into its domain. it was primarily out of the sex/gender argument that butler’s ideas emerged. judith butler’s main distinction and departure point from feminism is in her rejection of the natural basis for the notion of “sex”. according to lioyd: when feminists first began to theorize the sex/gender relation, the underlying assumption was that sex was both logically and chronologically prior to gender. culturally determined gender norms, in other words, were conceptualized as secondary to natural sex. gender was thus what was inscribed onto sex in some way. it is the priority of the relation between sex and gender that butler problematizes. (32) the shift she makes in the existing theories of the time regarding the creation of the identity of individual men and women reverses the dominant feminist discourse in their essential prioritizing in the sex/gender dichotomies. following her basic rejection of the origins of the two, she introduces the concept of gender performativity which assumes, as the name suggests, a performative nature of gendered and sexed identities. in gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity (1990) which was later revised and rewritten in 2007, butler develops her theory of gender performativity. the notion of gender performativity holds that “sex and gender are the effects rather than the causes of institutions, discourses and practices; in other words, you as a subject do not create or cause institutions, discourses and practices, but they create or cause you by determining your sex, sexuality and gender” (sara salih, 10). the link between butler’s dual notions of performativity and subjectivity lies in her argument that subjects do not become – as in de beauvoir’s termmen or women as a natural consequence of their sex. as salih states ‘woman’ is something we ‘do’ rather than something we ‘are’ (10). however, unlike the lucid appearance of the term, butler is not suggesting that gender identity is a performance. instead, she proposes that the performance pre-exists the performer. in fact, she borrows nietzsche’s original assumption which he expounded in on the genealogy of morals. in that book, nietzsche states that ‘there is no “being” behind doing, acting, becoming; “the doer” is merely a fiction imposed on the doing – the doing itself is everything’ (29). believing so, butler is removing any possibility of sexed or gendered identity as it was introduced even in the former context of feminism. “when she articulates her own theory it is one in which sex, sexuality, desire, gender and body are all regarded as discursively constituted; where, in other words, none of these features is treated as a natural fact of human existence” (lioyd, 30). her pivotal point, which relates to the present reading of hemingway, is that identity is constructed through language and discourse. butler asserts that the very language that is used to describe the body in fact constitutes it. the theory entailing such an assumption is her theory of gender performativity with its stress on the role of society and social constructs in the formation of gender which in its own turn lead to the creation of sex. a butlerian reading of ernest hemingway’s personality and his works 24 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences kubiak describes the performative theory of butler as follows: judith butler, in gender trouble and again in subsequent works, discusses gender in terms of what she calls performativity. gender is not so much a construct or the “congealing” of a specific sexual identity; it is rather an enactment, a performed moment, in which sexual identity “becomes” through the moment of enactment in the body: “one is not simply a [gendered] body, but, in some very key sense, one does one’s body” (1990:272). this performativity is not a performance, however. performance as a more or less consciously elucidated act or series of acts can never be performative, in butler’s terms, because performance is too a priori, too conscious of itself and its biases and internal, social forces. performance is more a showing than a becoming. the forces at work in performativity are more insidious, hidden, concealed, and self-concealing. (1) in this regard, categories such as gender, sex, and sexuality are conceived as cultural products which are positioned at a binary opposition alongside with heterosexually. “as such, it came to be seen as problematic for many later feminists, such as butler, who were more concerned with deconstructing this kind of binary opposition. indeed, in gender trouble, butler is rather concerned to examine the ways in which the categories of sex and/or gender come to be established as foundational and to analyze their pivotal role in the institution of ‘compulsory heterosexuality’.” (jagger, 2008, 2). in other words, the symbolic apparatus such as biology, kinship and marriage are all socially constructed. discussion: since the researcher tries to follow the pattern of characters’ sexual and psychic development and alteration by unveiling their masochistic elements and tendencies through the gender theories of butler, a brief introduction on the nature and definition of masochism seems relevant here. the definition provided in webster, merriam dictionary is as follows: 1: a sexual perversion characterized by pleasure in being subjected to pain or humiliation especially by a love object 2: pleasure in being abused or dominated: a taste for suffering. however, when locating the masochistic tendencies in a literary piece, the term does not necessarily connote a form of sexual anomaly as referred to in the definition. while examining a text in the light of its masochistic qualities, the critics try to unveil the conscious or unconscious acts of the characters which result in the agents’ suffering and pain. the study can become particularly rewarding when it comes to (heterosexual) males who have a predisposition for what is known as feminine passivity or submissiveness which might at times verge on an act of sodomy. hemingway’s major works began to come into the light of the new lines of feminism and gender study theories so much so that the central conflict in his previous stories shifted from male-dominated worlds of war casualties and its psychological aftermaths to topics such as gender, male and female identity, sexual ambiguities and crossing of sexual boundaries. this is where the recent masochistic concepts meet the undertones in hemingway’s writings. the emphasis of this paper, however, is to find evidence in the works of hemingway in what pertains to the latter part of the definition; encompassing the quality of dominance, g. khorsand & p. ghasem 25 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences submissiveness and other masochistic elements located in his writings, including symbiosis/ separation dichotomy (which is closely related to the theme of humiliation to be discussed within the symbiosis/separation section), fetishism, pain, violence and death. symbiosis/separation dichotomy one of the pivotal notions in the masochistic context and its related literature is the symbiosis/separation dichotomy. symbiosis is the state of intense dependence on another agent for survival both physically and psychologically. the term has been originally introduced in the form of a myth of the creation and development of human beings as they are today in plato’s the symposium where he refers to the number of sexes as three and not two: the sexes were not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman, and the union of the two, having a name corresponding to this double nature, which had once a real existence, but is now lost, and the word “androgynous” is only preserved as a term of reproach. the idea behind this myth is the founding ground for many psychological hypotheses regarding man’s sexual behavior; however, the common basis in all of them is that “this pursuit of the forever elusive union with the self is conducted through sexuality” (fantina, 48). through androgyny, hemingway removes the complexities and inconsistencies he bore within his psyche regarding the male-female relationship; by removing the barriers between the sexes, he also calls into question the topics of sexuality and gender. the sexual quality of such a quest ties the symbiotic inclinations to the masochistic traits. thus, relationships based on symbiosis/separation complex can be frequently found in masochistic literature. it also abounds in the stories of hemingway. “hemingway’s characters dwell so excessively upon the idea of symbiosis that they resist individuation and seek defiantly to remain within the protective sphere of the other” (fantina, 48). the indian husband in the story indian camp presents an ardent and lucid case of symbiosis/ separation duality which leads to his suicide. the degree of his dependence upon his wife is so strong that, once threatened by the looming death of his wife, he is unable to cope with the situation and seeks refuge in death in order to avoid leading a life in which the pillar of his identityhis wifeis missing. this is an instance of what fantina refers to as “resistance to individuation” (47) one of the major characteristics that has always been attributed to the masochistic traits is the inclination to submissiveness, a feature which has long been associated with femininity. in fact, the male heterosexual masochist exposes strong tendencies to be sexually dominated by women. hemingway’s women can be generally described as feminine, intuitive, realistic, direct, quiet, principled and highly risk takers. once contrasted with the major male protagonists of his novels, as in a farewell to arms, sun also rises, and garden on the one hand, and literally with the entire male characters in different short story collection, the degree of the female mental, psychological and sexual authority is highly reflected. his female characters exist in relation to me, but they are superior to them so that the men will learn from them. such a process is symbiotic in nature. throughout all his a butlerian reading of ernest hemingway’s personality and his works 26 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences life time hemingway has tried to create idealized wome. hemingway is thought to have believed in the simplicity of an all-sufficiency of love, a form of chivalric love in which purity and sacrifice permeates the relationship, and similarly in the notion of giving up identities and merging into one single soul through every possible means which includes both physical and mental as well as sexual domains. as in a farewell we witness a similar case, the relation between david and catherine is highly symbiotic through their renouncing of all other interests for the sake of the supremacy of the lovers’ world and relationship. in hemingway’s view, that is how the beauty of the union is realized and idealized in heavily symbolic and symbiotic relationship. it is worthy of notice that while a farewell is publicly recognized as a war novel, the readers of the novel have no doubt that they are reading a highly sexual text. in that novel, the idealization of the sexual act is celebrated through a male-female couple who are thoroughly subordinated to each other’s pleasure. the notion of dominance is always accompanied by a certain degree of humiliation. despite the overriding masculine expression of hemingway’s characters, they have turned out to exhibit profound submissiveness in the way they relate to women. “francis and margaret macomber” pair is an instance of such binary docility/power opposition. hemingway’s presentation of margaret’s character is a cold, ruling and unsympathetic woman who is a prototype of female figure in masochistic literature. she orders her husband; she sets out on hunting games with them on the safari trip; she has a peculiar insistence on the animals to be killed; and the last but not the least she holds a pistol and shots her husband dead at the end of the story. the indifference is an indispensible part of her reactions toward him. this description provokes an image of the cold ruling woman who holds the upper hand in the course of their life; a picture which brings to mind the image of dominatrix; a relentless dominating woman indifferent to the suffering and demands of the man. humiliation is the core element around which the entire events of the story revolve. due to his failure, francis is constantly humiliated by his wife and he chastises himself constantly for that. the disparity and the incoherence francis bears stem from the lower degree he finds himself in in the binary opposition between himself and his wife. the emphasis that is placed on her beauty “margot was too beautiful for macomber to divorce her” (shlfm, 13) deprives him of levying any authority in their relationship. furthermore, the sense of humiliation and submissiveness finds its extreme form when margaret sleeps with wilson in an act of cuckoldry. the symbiotic dependence is so deeply rooted in the character of francis that, upon the metaphoric separation that takes place after he shoots the buffalos, he dies, though by a gunshot he receives from his wife. this represents an extreme case of symbiosis/separation similar to indian husband in the indian camp. francis is immersed so deeply in the symbiotic relation with his wife that the idea of separation in fact highlights, and functions as a precursor for, the individuation anxiety; an ending which is by nature similar to that in “indian camp”, since now at the end, he is faced with naked reality of his lonesomeness and the fact that he has been forced out of symbiosis state to an undesired imposed individuation process. for francis macomber, the male passivity and dependence leads to a distorted psychological state in which he develops several anxieties within his very manhood and character. the fear of emasculation, fear of powerlessness and the last but not the least, the fear of loss which in its own turn encompass the fear of loss of identity, loss of courage, sexuality, creativity and ultimately loss of life all combine with each other g. khorsand & p. ghasem 27 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences in the context the gender relationship which reinforces and instills the symbiotic properties and inclination within him. fetishism “there can be no masochism without fetishism in the primary sense” asserts deleuze. fetishism has long been associated with sexuality. singer states that “a psychoanalytic fetish covers the wound” (9) and smirnoff describes the role of the fetishism as the “unattainable fusion with . . . the primary sexual object” (72). in fact, fetishism begins during infancy when the child uses fetish to ease the separation process from its mother. as fantina notes “the fetish provides the tangible and very physical link between the child and the idealized mother and allows at least an illusory sense of reunion that can be realized through the agency of fantasy” (51). in the same regard, hemingway’s fiction is replete with instances of fetishism which, for one thing, can be witnessed in the short-haired female characters of his stories. the amputee is another instance of fetish in hemingway’s writing toward whom the women show an erotic attraction (fantina, 54). in the case of francis macomber, the idea of safari in general and hunting, animals, lions and buffalos in particular turns out to be elements of fetishism for him. his sexual revival is demonstrated in the form of his obsessive impulse for hunting and killing. for him, hunting and killing become means through which he can establish himself sexually, with respect to the fact that it was the night before buffalo hunting when margaret leaves francis’s bed for wilson’s. the failure or winning in hunting games equals the failure or success in his sexual life. the enactment of his sexual potency in the form of his ability to hunt in fact brings about a reunion with the lost object of desire and functions as a realization of his masculinity. pain, violence, death as attested by the agreement of all critics and readers, pain and violence are the basic constituents of hemingway’s oeuvre. he has experienced it first hand, he writes about it, describes it studiously, and places it at an existential background where he measures the significance of life against the degree to which individuals are apt to pit themselves against impending violence and danger. these and a host of other biographical and psychological examinations of hemingway’s fiction have brought about a new theory regarding the nature of violence as depicted in his short and long stories. for over half a century, hemingway has stood for the spirit of american (hyper) masculinity, an advocate of the sheer masculinity which can be found in various fields and settings, e.g. boxing, prizefighting, hunting, fishing, bullfighting, war trenches, among the indians, etc. however, as time passed, and especially with the posthumous publication of some of his texts such as garden of eden, critics began to doubt the previously conceived concepts of masculinity as applied to hemingway and his characters. at this time, a new facet of gender relation was discovered which sheds light on existence of the oft-hidden side of hemingway’s male heroes. the stereotyped male characters began to unfold a more submissive part in themselves which gives way to pain and violence in a masochistic context, albeit not necessarily a sexual one. a butlerian reading of ernest hemingway’s personality and his works 28 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences the application of violence is an inseparable part of the practice of masochism and, in a parallel mode, hemingway’s fiction represents violence and pain in a variety of forms. the soldiers at war fronts, dead bodies of men and children, bullfighting and a host of other instances represent the physical violence. however, as it can be clearly detected and also expected, the psychic wounds would follow. the description of soldiers back at home, the entire nick stories, the lost generation of characters in sun also rises, etc. are all considered as war casualties who are suffering from a wounded psyche leading them toward their psychological isolation. as fantina explains many hemingway characters, quintessential expressions of the “lost generation,” combine both physical pain and thwarted desires […]. in hemingway’s world, pain presents itself as inevitable and he embraces it in its many manifestations. these range from the physical wounding of his characters, the painful submission to sodomy that brings sexual pleasure, and the general physical and psychological submission to women who alternately discipline, degrade, and sustain the suffering male (63). with the inclusion of women in evaluating the theme of violence and elucidating their part in the way the male heroes confront it, the masochistic qualities of the character is further underlined. the willingness to pit oneself against danger or surrender to violence appears in many of hemingway’s writings. in its radical form, the two male protagonists in “indian camp” and “francis macomber” expose themselves to such an extreme form of danger that in both cases it costs them their lives. and in both cases, women function as the harbinger of their death. in the case of the “indian camp”, the man is so psychologically emulated in the pain and suffering of his wife that he literally dies by seeing her suffer. the woman relates to his death passively but effectively. similarly, in the case of macomber’s death, hemingway moves a step further and turns margaret macomber into a close imitation of the masochistic female prototype, bordering on and in fact functioning as femme fatale. the story is replete with verbal, psychological and physical violence. francis macomber is constantly targeted by his wife as a subject of verbal abuse. the cuckoldry ruins his ego while at the same time giving him an impetus for killing and applying more of raw violence which, in its own turn, brings about his death where she explicitly shots him dead. thus, violence functions as the practical axis through which the entire masochistic complex is practiced and finally resolved. as proved historically, there is a deep-rooted attachment between spiritual dimension of religion and sexual aspect of masochism. as stark insightfully notes [t]he representation of spirituality in terms of physical and mental anguish does not preclude the erotic; indeed, it indicates its involvement in the erotic. physical and mental torments lie at the heart of the erotic fantasies underlying christian mysticism. therefore, the pain and suffering that he tolerates is at the same time a spiritual as well as an erotic experience for him. the voluntarily pain he endures brings about a sexual pleasure which is all but meaningless unless it is carried out in a masochistic background. g. khorsand & p. ghasem 29 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences conclusion the strength and velocity of hemingway’s depiction of his male hero’s experiences of and confrontations with war in the decades that followed the two world wars shadowed the psychological implications and gender conflicts the man had left between the lines of his stories, compelling many readers and scholars to overlook, for one thing, the gender-issue implications embedded within the characterization. with the expansion of hemingway scholarship, his picture as papa hemingway and also as the spokesperson and advocate for the american hyper masculinity was replaced by a more humane image as an author who presents both men and women as real human beings, inflicted with certain dilemmas, looking for ways to heal that loss based to their own codes. one of the pathways through which these wounds can be healed is revealed in the masochistic bonds between the heroes and the women with whom they form a relationship. although hemingway did not use specific language indicating his belief in multiple genders, his works often explore the challenges of having to adhere to strict gender binaries in societies. as a result, his characters often venture outside gender boundaries and exhibit behavior not specific to their gender (16). the elements of masochisms abound in stories of hemingway. the degree to which the male heterosexual heroes of his fiction suffer from and are metaphorically or literally left wrecked by the woman they see themselves attached to, also the degree to which they long to be dominated, ruled, disciplined and at times frequently degraded by those women can all be taken as instances representatives of masochistic inclination. the general tendency to submit to a woman, both sexually and psychologically is the common basis in all masochistic traits. upon closer examination, hemingway does not use the strong women in his works as vehicles for his misogyny, but rather as agents for questioning and challenging heteronormativity in society (16), helping the reader of a hemingway text to find attributes that underlie and highlight the submissive nature of his characterization of male heroes. works cited baker, carlos. hemingway: the writer as artist. princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1973. 291. deleuze, gilles. “coldness and cruelty.” (1969), masochism. translated by jean mcneill, new york: zone books, 1969. fantina, richard. ernest hemingway: machismo and masochism. new york: palgrave macmillan, 2005. frieden, betty. “the problem that has no name.” feminine mystique. new york: w.w. norton and company, inc, 1963. 16. hemingway, john. “ernest hemingway, the false macho.” men and masculinities 4 (15): 424-431. jagger, gill. sexual politics, social change and the power of the performative. london and new york: routledge. 2008. a butlerian reading of ernest hemingway’s personality and his works 30 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 10, no. 1, (2017) © faculty of arts and social sciences kubiak, anthony. “splitting the difference: performance and its double in american culture.” tdr 42 (winter, 1998), pp. 91-114 lioyd, moya. “rethinking sex and gender.” judith butler: from norms to politics. cambridge: polity, 2007. 29-32 martin, christopher d. “ernest hemingway: a psychological autopsy of a suicide.” psychiatry 69 (2006): 351-361. nietzsche, friedrich. on the genealogy of morals trans. douglas smith, oxford: oxford university press, 1998. 29. plato, the symposium, part one. translated by benjamin jowett, _http:// evans experientialism.freewebspace.com/plato_symposium01.htm_(august 11, 2004). rampton, martha. “the three waves of feminism.” pacific. 41 (2008): para. 5-6. salih, sara. judith butler. london: routledge, 2002. 10, 20-21. sanford, marcelline hemingway. at the hemingways: a family portrait. boston: little, brown and company, 1961. starks, lisa s. (fall 1997). “ ‘batter my [flaming] heart’: male masochism in the religious lyrics of donne and crashaw,” enculturation, 1 (2) <http://www.uta.edu/huma/enculturation/1_2/starks.html>(october 5, 2004). zabala, kemen. hemingway: a study in gender and sexuality. diss. university of connecticut. 2007. 3. g. khorsand & p. ghasem 106 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences urgent reforms taking their time in the republic of macedonia muhamed ali & lejla ramic-mesihovic international university of sarajevo abstract since 2001, the republic of macedonia had gone through several waves of international and national actions, which resulted in requests of the international community, primarily by the european union, for systemic reform processes. the first wave came with the ohrid agreement, which brought armed ethnic-based conflict to an end. the second one emerged due to the usual association and accession commitments of a candidate state since 2005 and implementation of the road map for visa liberalisation between february 2008 and july 2009. the third wave came out of a severe political crisis in 2015, which had revealed a series of systemic and democratic deficiencies – from illegal interception of communications and political pressure against the judiciary, to violations of media freedoms and principles of fair elections. in june 2015, a senior expert’s group summarised a set of recommendations for the european commissions in a document titled: urgent reform priorities for the former yugoslav republic of macedonia. this paper analyzes macedonian slow path of reforms, affected by deficient inter-ethnic confidence, political tensions, decentralisation, administrative and political culture in the macedonia and shortcomings within the of the rule of law. keywords: macedonia; reforms; european union; rule of law; democratisation d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 24 3 introduction at the time of declaration of independence, the country was economically weak and still had to establish state structures and ensure rule of law. in 1990, very few citizens of macedonia actually believed that their republic would be able to survive the separation from yugoslavia, due to its, at the time, systemic deficiencies but also due to the fact that macedonian albanians did not appear to be overly entusiastic to live in an independent state maily ruled by macedonians, i.e. macedonian slavs (richard, 2003, p. 404; cowan and brown, 2000, pp. 1-28; philips, 2004, pp. 48-79). as in other states that originated from the imploded state, macedonia suffered from collapse of social and political cohesion, very defficient 107 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences rule of law which had directly resulted in a significant increase of criminal activities, economic system unfit for liberal market conditions, corruption and violence. sixty-eight per cent of voters voted in favour of independence in the referendum held on 17 september 1991 (alice, 2000, p. 142). already in december, the european community stated it was ready to recognise all former yugoslav republic as independent states, under condition that they comply with political, territorial and human rights. the first blast came from the southern neighbour. claiming that the constitutional name of the republic of macedonia belongs to greek exclusive cultural heritage, it had made a series of blockages for the new born state, which, among other, resulted in withdrawal of the statement of the european communities vital for further processes related to proper state building and development of international relations (shea, 1997, pp. 278-311). interim agreement of 7 april 1993 which enabled international recognition of macedonia as the former yugoslav republic of macedonia was to be an agreement of temporary nature. more than two decades of unsuccessful negotiations strongly indicate that no compromise is good enough for neither of the two parties involved in the name dispute. after the independence of macedonia, except the aggravated relations with greece, the relations of macedonia with neighbor countries like bulgaria and serbia faced different challenges. the consideration of macedonian language as a dialect of the bulgarian language, the thesis of the bulgarian scientists on the history and on the origin of the macedonians and the project of 2014 of shkup, are simply some of the components that have challenged the relations of these two neighbor countries. on the other side, the lack of the recognition of the serbian church about the macedonian church has always affected the bilateral political relations among serbia and macedonia (ibid., p. 327). the early 1990s in the new state were marked with serious lack of interethnic confidence, often resulting in riots and increasing demands for increased participation of macedonian albanians in the state structures and insisting on a possibility for education in albanian language, which escalated in the case of first attempt of opening the tetovo university1 in part of the country mainly populated by albanians in 1994 (bumci, 2001, p. 34-36). the state structures, at the time dominated by macedonian 1) the university of tetovo was formalized in january 2004, by bringing in the law from the parliament of the republic of macedonia for the foundation of the state university of tetovo, due to the rights gained by the agreement of ohrid. 108 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences slavs, surpressed the attempt. albanians had also insisted on being allowed to use their ethnic symbols such as the flag and coat-of-arms in official communication and on personal documents. this fragile and poor state in its early days of independence also had to deal with waves of refugees from bosnia and herzegovina in 1992 and from kosovo in 1999. spring of 2001 brought along tensions not only on the border with kosovo2, but also between two main ethnic groups in the western part of the state, significantly populated by albanians. the conflict ended after an extensive international intervention led by eu’s representatives xavier solana and lord robertson, and us envoys francois leotard and james pardew. they mediated brokering of the ohrid peace agreement3, which has been envisging introduction of albanian language into official use and into the system of education, increase of number of albanians in the public services and administrative decentralisation (philips, 2004, p. 188). with its agreement with the european communities of january 1998, macedonia officially commenced its formal interaction with eu structures related to macedonian integration in to this sui generis. soon after, the parliament got two new committes for integration into the eu and nato. the parliament also adopted a strategy for eu integration. already in february 1998, macedonia had initiated a political dialogue with the united kingdom presidency of the european union (azizi, 2016, 144-147). according to philips (2004) back then in 1998, some speculated that macedonian slavs needed an incident, similar to the one just prior to a summit of balkans prime ministers on 22 and 23 february, to shift the focus away from the scandal with illegal interception of telephone calls, which was organised by the macedonian nationalists, famously known also as internal macedonian revolutionary organisation-democratic party for macedonian national unity (vmro-dpmne). in 2001 macedonian gdp dropped by eighteen per cent and as a result the international financial institutions got involved in management of public finances in order to soften immensly negative economic effects in the country (ibid., p. 185). same year, the world 2) in february 2001, a conflict broke out in the village of tanuševci near the border, after belgrade agreed with skopje that this village of some 400 people, mainly albanians, should be a part of macedonia on basis of the bilateral border agreement. this agreement will remain a source of tensions between leaders of macedonian albanians and slav dominated macedonian authorities throughout 2003 as well. 3) text of the ohrid peace agreement available on: http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_ affairs/legal_co-operation/police_and_internal_security/ohrid%20agreement%20 13august2001.asp viewed on 15 september 2016 m. ali & l. ramic-mesihovic http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/police_and_internal_security/ohrid%20agreement%2013august2001.asp http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/police_and_internal_security/ohrid%20agreement%2013august2001.asp http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/police_and_internal_security/ohrid%20agreement%2013august2001.asp 109 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences bank, the european union and some fourty individual donor states had committed to provide macedonia with the total of 241 million usd for general economic development and additional 247 million usd for financing the reconstruction. the government had expected 77 million usd less (world bank). there was a general fear that the tensions could transform into the last war for pieces of former yugoslavia which could be the most dangerous one, with strong spillover potential and serious regional implications. the rule of law and the international committments along with its usual responsibilities and committments that originated from both association and accession processes, the european commission tasked in june 2015 the country to urgently fix serioues systemic shortcomings in the field of the rule of law and judiciary, public administration and media freedom. it is of utmost significance to focus on the rule of law part of the set of urgent reforms and the context within which the need for this has developed. macedonia has been an eu member state candidate since december 2005 and due to political instabilities, it is a living proof that the candidate status does not mean much if a country decides that european integration does not constantly remain the top priority of the state, regardless of immediate challenges, elections, sharp political and ethnic-based divisions and unpopular reforms that need to be made and very often. the stabilisation and association agreement between the eu and macedonia entered into force in april 2004. the commission first recommended opening of accession nefgotiations with the country in 2009 to the european council (ibid., p. 115). the ohrid peace agreement continues to be the main element for democracy and the rule of law. it has in one hand, provided disarmament of albanian rebels and in the other provided education in albanian language4 and improved represenatation of albanians, roma and turks in the civil service and law enforcement agencies. macedonia has had very good cooperation with the international crimes tribunal in the hague, which was a sumbling block for progress of many countries of former yugoslavia on the european path. in order to cover suspects that 4) the formalization of the state university of tetovo (2004) and the opening of the state university of nënë tereza in shkup (2016) are tangible results of the ohrid agreement in the sphere of the education and schooling advancing of the albanians of macedonia. urgent reforms taking their time in the republic of macedonia 110 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences have not been processed by the tribunal, the parliament adopted an authentic interpreration of the law on amnesty in july 2011. the republic of macedonia had adopted council decision (2011) to support to the international criminal court, but the country has never withdrawn from the bilateral agreement with the united states of america of 2003, that exempts citizens of this country from the court’s jurisdiction. as this is not in accordance with the comon positions of the eu on integrity of the statute from rome, this country needs to harmonise its bilateral relations with this position of the european union (progress report for fyrom of 2015, p. 22). in 2010, macedonia had been chairing the committee of ministers of the council for six months with focus on three priorities: strenghtening of human rights, integration and respecting diversities and promotion of youth participation (council of europe’s press release). to a large extent, this was a reflection of challenges that macedonia has been facing enterally for years now and spilling over these priorities to the inter-state arena had proven to be also good for the general political climate in the country. a number of events and actions on these topics took place in the country between may and november 2010 which discussed the need for improvement of position of vulnerable groups of people, affirmation of dialogue on the ohrid agreement among the youth, integration of people with disabilities, religious dimension of the multicultural dialogue, etc. due to its increasing political instability, the european union signed a protocol5 with the main political stakeholders in the country on 2 june 20156, putting the opposing forces in a coalition in the executive, and demanding extraordinary elections to be held. these parliamentary elections were to be held on 24 april 2016, then 5 june 2016. according to the decision reached on 31 august 2016 by macedonian ruling political parties, the elections are to take place on 11 december 2016. 5) so-called przino agreement. this agreement was signed by the four leaders of the largest political parties in the republic of macedonia: nikola gruevski, zoran zaev, ali ahmeti and menduh thaci. 6) text of the protocol: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/hahn/ announcements/agreement-skopje-overcome-political-crisis_en viewed on 20 september 2016. m. ali & l. ramic-mesihovic https://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/hahn/announcements/agreement-skopje-overcome-political-crisis_en https://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/hahn/announcements/agreement-skopje-overcome-political-crisis_en 111 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences reforms for stabilisation and reaffirmation of the european integration the country previously treated some systemic anomalies that periodically reocur. the opposing social democrats of macedonia, sdsm revealed in 9 february 2015 a new illegal interception affair and a number of omissions within the system of rule of law and law enforcement. the european commission marked the period of 2014 and 2015 as the country’s worst political crisis since 2001 (progress report for 2015 of the european commission). following intervention of the european commissioner responsible for enlargement and neighbourhood policy and representatives of the european parliament7 in june and july, sdsm mps rejoined the macedonian parliament after almost a year long boycott. the eu’s involvement resulted with a conditionality set called „urgent reform priorities“, as developed by a group of senior eu experts (urgent reform priorities report, p. 2). also, inter-ethnic tensions were particularly high in spring 2015, following a police intervention in part of kumanovo populated by macedonian albanians, when 18 lives were lost. among other, content of intercepted communication had revelaed strong political involvement in appointments in both the judicial system and public service. the senior experts’ group was led by reinhard priebe, a commission official who got recently retired after having spent a significant part of his service as a political director of the european commission for the western balkans. the experts consulted many: relevant representatives of all three pillars the legislative, the executive and the judicial, nongovernmental organisations, lawyers, journalists and international organisations. the group identified five groups of shortcomings in the republic of macedonia: interception of communications, judiciary and prosecution services, external oversight by independent bodies, free elections and media freedoms (urgent reform priorities report, p. 2). while the experts generally complimented quality of the legislation relevant for these areas, it has also pointed out that there is a lack of proper, objective and unbiased implementation and called for urgent changes. the ombudsman, the state election commission, directorate for personal data protection, as well as other regulators and civil society organisations have been identified as the key institutions for ensuring urgent, open and transparent implementation of the recommendations. in addition, the experts insist that there should be a better oversight 7) meps involved were ivo vajgl, richard howitt and eduard kukan urgent reforms taking their time in the republic of macedonia 112 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences over intelligence services and a truly independent judiciary. because nature of these reforms was urgent, the experts did not see the need for setting deadlines for individual interventions and reforms. luan (2014) explained that when it comes to judiciary, the experts demanded true depoliticizing of appointment and promotion of judges and prosecutors, a harmonised system for measuring performance in both qualitative and quantitative terms, inappropriate elements for introduction of disciplinary measures and dismissal of judges, more precise parameters for appointment of members to the judicial council, consistent encouragement of pro-active role of the judicial council. the experts also insisted on improvement of capacity building of employees in the judicial and the rule of law segment and transparency of decisions reached within the system. deadlocks and lengthy proceedings resulting with so called “old cases”. the country’s commitment to execution of al ecthr judgments has also been highlighted. concerning the prevention of further cases of illegal interception of communications, the experts recommended establishment of a functioning judicial and parliamentary oversight of interception of communications. they also strongly recommended limiting mandate and competences of the security and counterintelligence agency and clarification of roles of different stakeholders in the process – from the telecommunication operators and police to security and defence agencies. according to independent monitors of implementation of the reforms, the depolarization in appointment of judges and prosecutors still did not take place and neither is the system for performance monitoring. the requirement for mending the provisions related to disciplinary measures against judges and their dismissal is also not being implemented by the macedonian authorities. criteria for appointments to the judicial council are still not improved. capacity building and the remarks related to improvement of judicial pro-activeness are still just starting to evolve through professional and public debates. series of actions have been undertaken on making the judicial decisions and deadlines for their implementation public and transparent, but the recommendation still needs to be completed fully. on 12 january 2016, the judicial council has adopted an action plan for resolution of pending or so-called “old cases” and has just begun with implementation of the document. in addition, efforts on moving more quickly on execution of ecthr judgments are increasing but are still insufficient when it comes to individual cases. it is both indicative and m. ali & l. ramic-mesihovic 113 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences worrying that only one recommendation has partially been implemented when it comes to oversight of the illegal interception of communications – functioning of a parliamentary committee responsible for oversight over the interception and work of intelligence agencies. unfortunately, the committee sometimes does not meet for months. although macedonia has a well done legal framework for independent regulators, the experts concluded this legislation is not being complied with. they called for lifting of political pressure from the regulatory and supervisory bodies, but also pro-activeness of stakeholders in the regulatory segment to react timely and appropriately to act effectively and freely. macedonia also needs to align legislation on office of the ombudsperson with the paris principles8 and to make sure that the recommendations of this body are being complied with. until fall 2016, none of these recommendations have been fulfilled. macedonian authorities are still to make efforts on establishment of a credible track record on high-level corruption that would involve engagement of police agencies and supervisory bodies and to improve its system for improvement of scrutiny for conflict of interest and establishment of a central registry of officials in conflict of interest. in cooperation with the council of europe’s group of states against corruption greco, in november 2015, the government of macedonia asked the venice commission to provide an opinion on draft law on whistle-blowers, but the law has not been adopted yet. when it comes to strong recommendations for revision of the law on lustration and its implementation, recommendations of the experts related to temporal limits, safeguards against different external influences applied on articulation of reasons used as ground for lustration, nothing have not been to have this improved. however, the problematic law has been put out of force on 1 september 2015. concluding remarks the constitutional, legal and law enforcement system of the republic of macedonia have constantly been challenged and compromised. having in mind its unique geopolitical position, integration of this country into the european union has been imposing itself as a condition for continuation of its existance. the independent state of macedonia has 8) the paris principles available on: http://www.oikeusasiamies.fi/resource.phx/eoa/ english/hrc/principles.htx, viewed on 19 september 2016 urgent reforms taking their time in the republic of macedonia http://www.oikeusasiamies.fi/resource.phx/eoa/english/hrc/principles.htx http://www.oikeusasiamies.fi/resource.phx/eoa/english/hrc/principles.htx 114 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences been overwhelmed with problems of social and economic transition and numeours problems that came out of its neighouring states or simply spilled over into the country. ethnic centrisms between both albanians and slavs in macedonia have been making the whole situation even more complex. also, fierce and radical political division of left and right wing slavs often surface and create plenty of tensions and mutual accusations. greece, a member of the eu and nato, has converted its bilateral dispute over macedonia’s constitutional name into a multilateral issue and obstacle for recognition of macedonia as a state in international structures in which adoption of decision by concensus is rather important. long term strategy of both eu and nato is enlargement to the entire western balkans and this has been accepted by macedonia and incorporated into its strategic priorities. however, although a member of both structures, greece has been limiting final effects of the integrations and stabilisation in the region as it has been conditioning resolution of the name dispute in its favour, without any concessions. this has been contributing to eurosceptism in the country, which inevitably in this country leads to ethno-centrism and political tensions. if the scenario of full integration of this country into the eu and nato does not continue with positive trends, this could only bring into the picture alternative scenarios of domination of some of regional powers with their individual interests. these alternative scenarios do not have the potential to provide peace, stability and prosperity in the balkans. in macedonia the time has shown that only moderate, conherent and precise related to implementation of conditionalities necessary for european and nato integrations could bring positive trends to macedonia and most of the balkans. in the other hand, it has to be noted that reactive nature of international interventionism in macedonia often questions coherency of politics of countries that aspire to join the european union. the issues, such as the name dispute and inconsistent monitoring of implementation of effects of reforms significantly reduce positive effects of the stabilisation and association process throughout the region. limited with mandates and budgets, international demands were often to fit realities and nature of their limited interventions, rather than doing something with both short-term immedately effects, but also systemic requirements that have long-term nature. the urgent reforms, including the segment of the rule of laws and judiciary, that are being recommended by european union group of experts do not seem to be taken as something that should be implemented m. ali & l. ramic-mesihovic 115 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences in macedonia with strong sense of urgency. the reforms recommended are basically to bring the country back on the track of european integration and it also brings along the element of public responsibility and security. the element related to the rule of law and judiciary is one of the most crucial elements of the criteria from copenhagen – particularly political criteria and requirements related to the rule of law. politization of the judicial system makes it unprofessional, fragile and open for political corruption and both ecnomic and political instability. after fourteen months of implementation of this set of reforms, the independent monitors did not mark any of the recommendations as completed. altough one could say that the methodology of the experts which includes absence of deadlines due to urgency of all measures is nothing but common sense, to a large extent it can be concluded that this approach did not prove itelf very productive one as the process has appeared to be slow and inert instead of the contrary.9 references ackermann, alice. (2000). making peace prevail: preventing violent conflict in macedonia. syracuse: university press. azizi abdula (2016). macedonian’s integration in the european union. bruksel: bogdani press. bumci aldo (2001). macedonian and the albanians: the confines of ethnic politics. tirana: albanian institute for international studies. council decision 2011/168/cfsp of 29 march 2011 council of europe’s press release: https://wcd.coe.int/viewdoc. jsp?p=&id=1621581&direct=true cowan, k. jane and brown, k. s. (2000). ”macedonian inflections.” in cowan k. jane (ed.). macedonia: the politics of identity and difference. london: pluto press. crampton j. richard. (2003). balkan posle drugog svetskog rata. beograd: clio. luan eshtrefi (2014). macedonia’s integration in the european union: meeting the political and economic criteria. saarbrücken: lap lambert academic publishing. 9)as a result of the agreement in perzhino, a special prosecution is established with the aim of investigating the eventual crimes committed by the officials of the macedonian state. recently eu has suggested the need to create the special court with definite missions. urgent reforms taking their time in the republic of macedonia 116 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences philips, john. (2004). macedonia: warlords and rebels in the balkans. london: i.b. tauris. the european commission progress report for fyrom of 2015 http:// ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2015/20151110_report_ the_former_yugoslav_republic_of_macedonia.pdf shea, john. (1997). macedonia and greece: the struggle to define a new balkan nation. london: mcfarland. the “urgent reform priorities”: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/news_ corner/news/news-files/20150619_urgent_reform_priorities.pdf viewed on 17 september 2016 the recommendations of the senior experts’ group: http://ec.europa.eu/ enlargement/news_corner/news/news-files/20150619_recommendations_ of_the_senior_experts_group.pdf viewed on 17 september 2016 the ohrid peace agreement available on: http://www.coe.int/t/e/ l e g a l _ a f f a i r s / l e g a l _ c o o p e r a t i o n / p o l i c e _ a n d _ i n t e r n a l _ s e c u r i t y / o h r i d % 2 0 a g r e e m e n t % 2 0 1 3 a u g u s t 2 0 0 1 . a s p viewed on 15 september 2016 the european commission: www.eu-un.europa.eu/articles/fr/article_1212_ fr.htm viewed on 11 september 2016. world bank www.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/countries/t/0,,m enupk:258604~pagepk:158889~pipk:146815~thesitepk:258599,00.html viewed on 10 september 2016 m. ali & l. ramic-mesihovic http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2015/20151110_report_the_former_yugoslav_republic_of_macedonia.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2015/20151110_report_the_former_yugoslav_republic_of_macedonia.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2015/20151110_report_the_former_yugoslav_republic_of_macedonia.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/news_corner/news/news-files/20150619_urgent_reform_priorities.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/news_corner/news/news-files/20150619_urgent_reform_priorities.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/news_corner/news/news-files/20150619_recommendations_of_the_senior_experts_group.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/news_corner/news/news-files/20150619_recommendations_of_the_senior_experts_group.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/news_corner/news/news-files/20150619_recommendations_of_the_senior_experts_group.pdf http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/police_and_internal_security/ohrid%20agreement%2013august2001.asp http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/police_and_internal_security/ohrid%20agreement%2013august2001.asp http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/police_and_internal_security/ohrid%20agreement%2013august2001.asp http://www.eu-un.europa.eu/articles/fr/article_1212_fr.htm http://www.eu-un.europa.eu/articles/fr/article_1212_fr.htm 31 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences ritual, myth and tragedy: origins of theatre in dionysian rites nadja berberović international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina abstract in the deep, dark forests and in the lush green valleys, worshippers of dionysus celebrated the eternal cycles of death and rebirth, symbolized in the sacred mask of the wild god. drunk and intoxicated, wearing the mask of dionysus, the actor is at once the shaman and the priest. channeling the presence of the fearsome divinity, he drinks the sacred wine and eats the raw flesh of his prey. in this eternal moment, he becomes one with the god and the beast residing inside of him. within ancient greek culture, the sacred rites of dionysus have been appropriated and transformed to theatre performances. the shaman became the actor, the participants became the audience, the sacred altar became the stage. from myth as a ritual performance emerged the theatre of tragedy, in which the undying spirit of dionysus, majestic and terrifying, speaks to us even today. keywords: drama, tragedy, myth, rite, rituals, greek 32 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences n. berberović according to eliade, myth and ritual are vehicles of the “eternal return” to the mythical age. ritual is an imitation of the divine acts of gods or mythic heroes, through which the archaic man “detaches himself from profane time and magically re-enters the great time, the sacred time” (eliade: 1975; 23). the site of the ritual is symbolically transformed into a sacred center, and the validity of the mythic act is confirmed by the repetition of the divine sacrifice (eliade: 1954; 20). every ritual is based on an archetypal divine model: “we must do what the gods did in the beginning” (satapatha brahmana, as cited in eliade; 21). this indian idiom summarizes the basic idea underlying rituals of various cultures (21). generally, ritual may also be defined as a “broadly conceived, any prescribed, stylized stereotypical way of performing some act. narrowly, a single act of a religious performance” (vivelo 1978, as cited in morgan and brask: 1988; 177). the term ritual refers to culturally structured, repetitive actions with the explicit aim of articulation of those higher forces which are believed to govern the universe. in terms of western thinking, ritual is usually perceived as having a sacred character and is often involved in a culture’s “religious” sphere of action and thought. ritual involves portrayal and performance, a performance space, and performers. it often includes the use of masks, makeup, costumes, dance and music. and finally, it often involves an audience, in ritual a highly participatory one (177). morgan and brask stress rituals’ social function: the major function of ritual in traditional societies is the sanctioning of the extant social order, the maintenance of societal integration and therefore of social control, whereby whatever authority structure may exist in a society receives cosmological approbation. (...) the discourse of ritual is timeless, and the past is projected through varieties of symbolic manipulation into the future. even the initiates in ritual are traditionally prepared for the course of events and the content of the ritual. participation in ritual performance, or even observing solo performances of ritual such as shamanic curing, is a major mode of enculturation and thought conditioning in traditional societies (morgan and brask: 1988; 185). tambiah defines ritual as “a culturally constructed system of symbolic communication”, involving patterned and ordered sequences of words and acts, whose content and arrangement are characterized in varying degree by formality stereotypy condensation, and redundancy (tambiah, as cited in graf: 2007; 38). in this sense, ritual can be perceived as subset of the broader area of ‘performance’. both depend on the notion of communicative actions directed towards an audience, and both are differentiated in some way from ordinary, everyday processes of communication. the two can be compared and contrasted in terms of emphasis on aesthetic enjoyment versus functional power the difference between a poem and a magic spell. bauman notes that “performance usually suggests an aesthetically marked and heightened mode of communication, framed in a special way and put on display for an audience” (bauman, as cited in graf: 2007; 38). anthropologist victor turner characterizes both ritual and theatre as aspects of 33 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences ritual, myth and tragedy “cultural performance”(turner: 1982, as cited in morgan and brask: 1988; 185). the dramaturgy of ritual simultaneously employs the elements of role play and dialogue, music, song, and dance. all of these aspects are oriented towards the same means, though none of them acts in the same way as another, nor would any of them make the same sense if performed individually. anthropology has borrowed the term ‘synaisthesia’ from psychology to describe the “multifarious cooperation of many communicative means that compose ritual’s highly representational character on the one hand, and its bold concreteness on the other” (kowalzig: 2007; 47). theatre may be conceived as involving the following elements what is performed, the performance itself and the audience. what is performed may be “dance, musical drama, variety entertainment, mime, the improvisation and portrayal of a story involving impersonation and dialogue, or the acting out of a written script including plot and character portrayal” (brockett 1984, as cited in morgan and brask: 1988; 177). in theatre, the audience consists of onlookers who usually don’t directly participate in the performance; rather, they are instructed. the dramatic theatre often addresses the validation of cultural institutions, societal hierarchies and ethic values. the usual focus on pre-classic and classic greece as the origin of theatre emphasizes the fact that ancient greek theatre involved a portrayal of the actions of deities, other supernatural entities and mortals (morgan and brask: 1988; 178). ancient greeks performed myths and stories, and acted out social and religious rituals, using text, music, dance, costume and impersonation in some combination or other. ‘theatrical’ performances, in the form of solo or group activities formally presented to an audience in a designated space and for a conventionally recognized occasion, can be found in almost all societies, ancient or modern, eastern and western. the borderline between ritual and theatre, ceremony and play, may not always be easy to draw (mcdonald and walton: 2007; 13). ancient greek rituals had a vital narrative and a performative aspect, put together as myth and ritual. within the aesthetic contextualization of myth ‘hearing’ and ‘seeing’ the stories in performances — was essential in enhancing the gods’ credibility. not only do myths have more validity when enacted through rituals, but it is myth that makes ritual interesting and meaningful. greek religious choral song, hymns, paeans and dithyrambs feature the telling of myth as part of a ritual performance (kowalzig: 2007; 2-3). greek tragedy has its roots deep in religious ritual. the orchestra of the theatre of dionysus was a place of particular sanctity; the actor was sometimes identified with the priest; and the community surrounded the celebration, just as the tribe occupied the sacred ground in non-dramatic ritual. arnott notes another paral34 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences n. berberović lel between greek drama and ritual – the overlapping of dramatic and ‘ceremonial time’. the concept of ‘ceremonial time’ was defined by certain anthropologists as “the use of ritual or magic, in a place of sanctity, both to summon up the spirits of the dead and to predict the future. channelled by a shaman of appropriate power, all time flows into the present moment” (arnott: 1991; 155-156). the earliest reference to ritual as the generic force behind performing is mentioned in aristotle’s poetics. aristotle speaks of the innate human tendency of mimesis fused with religious belief, which together produced ritual which gave rise, at the beginning of the classic period, to greek theatre (morgan and brask: 1988; 178). aristotle claimed that drama, in particular, tragedy, emerged from the dithyramb of the dionysus cult rituals. the dithyramb was a choral poem in honor of the god of wine dionysus. the rituals were usually led by a male figure who represented dionysus. having taken on this masked persona as a character, the leader improvised through mimesis and dialogue. aristotle believed that greek tragedy began this way, with the leader’s improvisations within a performance space enabling the fully developed theatre of tragedy (179). at this point, “strictly coded ritual and communal participation led to the improvisation of theatre and to participants becoming spectators” (hunningher: 1961, as cited in morgan and brask: 1988; 179). with time, as participants in the rituals became increasingly separated from the ritual activities they eventually lost faith in the magical efficacy of the rites. they then became mere spectators and the rituals became theatrical drama (180). murray assumes that greek tragedy originated from the sacer ludus the ritual dance. he points out the connection between the ritual and the satyrs who were often associated with the dyionisian rites and initiations. the satyr-play represents the joyous arrival of the reliving dionysus at the end of the sacer ludus (stuart: 1916; 178). in his famous work the birth of tragedy, nietzsche speaks of the intellectually oriented “apollonian” phenomenon of drama as emerging in early classical greece from the dionysus cult’s body of ritual. nietzsche believed that tragedy emerged as an apollonian expression of the ecstatic experience of dionysian rituals and was accomplished by “amalgamating dialogue and individual character portrayal with the dionysian chorus” (179). the ecstasy of dionysian rituals was expressed in the divine dithyramb. nietzche writes: in the dionysian dithyramb man is aroused to the highest intensity of all his symbolic capabilities. something never felt before forces itself into expression—the destruction of the veil of maya, the sense of oneness as the presiding genius of form, of nature itself. now the essence of nature must express itself symbolically; a new world of symbols is necessary, the entire symbolism of the body, not just the symbolism of mouth, face, and words, but the full gestures of the 35 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences ritual, myth and tragedy dance—all the limbs moving to the rhythm. and then the other symbolic powers grow, those of music, rhythm, dynamics, and harmony—all with sudden spontaneity (nietzche: 1999; 11). dionysus has often been opposed to apollo, most notably by nietzsche in the antithesis of the apollonian (order, structure, light, intellect) and the dionysian (chaos, darkness, emotion, instinct) principles, and is associated with disguise and transformation. he is the god who breaks down boundaries (youth/age, male/ female, human/animal, emotion/intellect), his followers are the maenads (“the mad women”) and the male satyrs, half-human and half-animals. in their orgiastic celebrations the worshippers of dionysus ran wild through the forest, drunk with wine and the intoxication of the group experience, hunting their prey and eating their raw flesh. dionysus is a god of the wild, a god of escape from the normal routine (two of his most important titles are eleuthereus, “freer,” and lyaios “releaser”). dionysian festivals were probably an attempt to rein in this potentially dangerous god and drama was a means of channeling the ecstatic emotional experience involved in his worship. the athenians may well have been trying to temper and tame the wild aspects of this god by organizing his rites within dionysian festivals, rites that included the performance of dithyrambic choral songs and of drama (allan and storey: 2005; 26). a worshipper of dionysus, through his orgiastic drunken rituals, imitates the drama of the suffering god (eliade: 1954; 22). ancient greeks worshipped dionysus in various theatrical forms through masks, costumes, miracle plays, music and dance (foley: 1980; 108). masks in greek drama were sacred objects, literally reflecting the transformation of their wearers into the mythical persons enacted onstage. greek drama was primarily a religious experience, and the mask was an instrument for instantiating the presence of gods and heroes in the context of dionysian drama (wiles: 2007, as cited in harrison, liapis and panayotakis: 2013; 9). the “galvanic entrance of the god and his inescapable presence” have been expressed in the symbol of the mask. on the ceremony of mixing of the wine, dionysus was present in person in the form of a large mask hung on a wooden column. a long robe extended down from beneath the bearded mask, giving the impression of a full-figured idol. ivy sprigs were placed over the mask much like the crown of a tree (otto: 1965; 86). beside masks, worn by the actors and chorus and considered to be markedly dionysian objects, scullion lays out other extra-aristotelian scholarly arguments which support the thesis that tragedy is by origin and essentially dionysian. these include dionysian themes, which are specially prominent in tragedy; tragic drama, along with comic and satyric drama, is taken to be markedly dionysian in spirit and is derived from dionysian ecstasy; the prize of tragedy a bil36 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences n. berberović lygoat, taken to be a markedly dionysian animal; and tragedy contains choruses, which were regarded as an inheritance and perpetuation of its ritual origin (scullion: 2002; 110). in ancient greece, tragedies were performed at festivals of dionysus, who was considered the as the patron of drama. the guild of dramatic performers organized in the late third century was called the ‘artists of dionysus’. the connection between tragedy and dionysus was, however, above all an athenian phenomenon -in athens, dionysus was the god of tragedy (112). in athens, two festivals were produced in honor of the god of wine the lenaia and the city dionysia. while the festivals honored the god dionysus and the plays performed in a theater adjoining his sacred precinct, they were also state occasions run by the public officials of athens, part of the communal life of the city (polis). the city dionysia occupied five days in the athenian month of elaphebolion (“deer hunt”), which corresponds to late march or early april. it was one of the developments fostered by the tyrants, a great city festival in honor of the god dionysus, uniting all the rural festivals into one. the tyrants aimed to create a sense of national unity and shared cultural identity with such centralized institutions. for the city dionysia, a myth was developed to document the progress of the god dionysos from eleutherai, a community on the northern border of attica, to athens (allan and storey: 2005; 14). the lenaia took place in the athenian month of gamelion (meaning “marriage”), which corresponds to late january. little is known about the purpose and rituals of the lenaia – mystical elements have been suggested, the celebration of the birth of dionysos, or the ritual of sparagmos, eating the raw flesh of the prey. on this occasion, the parade consists of “jokes from the wagons,” insults directed at the spectators, and a general dionysian sense of debauchery. celebrations of the lenaia were originally performed in the agora, rather than at the precinct of dionysos at the south-east corner of the agora, where the theater itself was located. whereas the city dionysia was under the handled by the archon eponymous, the leading political official at athens, the lenaia was under the control of the archon basileus, who had taken over the traditional religious role of the early kings. competitions for tragedy and comedy were introduced to the lenaia around 440. this seems to have been the lesser festival and it is assumed that newcomers would try their hand first at the lenaia before producing at the more important dionysia (allan and storey: 2005; 17) the theatrical performances were preceded by a variety of ritualized performances, which strongly conditioned the audience’s perception of them. before the festival, there would be a religious procession bringing dionysus’ effigy into the theatre and sacrifices would be made in the precinct of dionysus, possibly in connection with choral dances at various altars. on the first day of the festival, be37 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences ritual, myth and tragedy fore the scenic spectacle began, the city’s strategoi would have poured the libations, the tribute of the allied cities would have been displayed, public honors to benefactors of the polis of athens would have been announced, and the war orphans would have paraded in recognition of their fathers’ sacrifice and as a reminder of the citizen’s principal duty (harrison, liapis and panayotakis: 2013; 15-16). like other fertility rites, those of dionysus expressed the ancient magical belief that man, animal and nature are one. and like the others, they issued later in professed mysteries, in secret rites and stories which “surprisingly revealed to man his rightful place in the world” (cosmopoulos: 2003; 232). however, the dionysian rites were also a means of and channeling the ecstatic emotional experience of intoxication and euphoria, experienced within the cult of dionysus. dionysian mysteries present an aesthetic contextualization and apollonian appropriation of the myth of the dying and the resurrecting god. the god of nature and wilderness, dionysus is the embodiment of the ever-renewing and regenerating cycle of nature. through sacred rites, his worshippers repeat the divine sacrifice and thus return to the primordial times, the mythical age. in the deep, dark forests and in the lush green valleys, worshippers of dionysus celebrate the eternal cycles of death and rebirth, symbolized in the sacred mask of the wild god. drunk and intoxicated, wearing the mask of dionysus, the actor is at once the shaman and the priest. channeling the presence of the fearsome divinity, he drinks the sacred wine and eats the raw flesh of his prey. in this eternal moment, he becomes one with the god and the beast residing inside of him. within ancient greek culture, the sacred rites of dionysus have been appropriated and transformed to theatre performances. the shaman became the actor, the participants became the audience, the sacred altar became the stage. from myth as a ritual performance emerged the theatre of tragedy, in which the undying spirit of dionysus, majestic and terrifying, speaks to us even today. 38 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences n. berberović references allan, arlene and storey, ian c. 2005. a guide to ancient greek drama. blackwell publishing: hoboken. arnott, peter d. 1991. public and performance in the greek theatre. routledge: new york. brask, per and morgan,william. 1988. towards a conceptual understanding of the transformation from ritual to theatre. anthropologica, vol. 30, no. 2. canadian anthropology society stable. cosmopoulos, michael b. 2003. greek mysteries: the archaeology and ritual of ancient greek secret cults. routledge: london. eliade, mircea. 1975. myths, dreams and mysteries: the encounter between contemporary faiths and archaic realities. harper & row: new york. eliade, mircea. 1954. cosmos and history: the myth of the eternal return. pantheon: new york. foley, helene p. 1980. the masque of dionysus. transactions of the american philological association. vol. 110. the john hopkins university press. harrison, w.m. george and liapis, vayos (eds.). 2013. performance in greek and roman theatre. leiden : boston. kowalzig, barbara. 2007. singing for the gods: performances of myth and ritual in archaic and classical greece. oxford university press: oxford. mcdonald, marianne and walton, michael j. (eds.) 2007. the cambridge companion to greek and roman theatre. cambridge university press: cambridge. otto, walter f. 1965. dionysus myth and cult. indiana university press: london. scullion, scott. 2002. ‘nothing to do with dionysus’: tragedy misconceived as ritual. the classical quarterly, new series, vol. 52, no. 1. cambridge university press: cambridge. stuart, donald clive. 1916. the origin of greek tragedy in the light of dramatic technique. transactions and proceedings of the american philological association, vol. 47. the johns hopkins university press stable. introduction epiphany online journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / volume 1 / no. 1 fall 2008 ©2008, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut hülya taflı erciyes university epic is an extended narrative poem, grand in scope, exalted in style, and heroic in theme, often giving expression to the ideals of a nation or race (legouis: 1943: 22). although the locations and the eras of the epics differ, the similarities of conditions bring them into existence. in this article beowulf, the english epic, and the book of dede korkut, the turkish epic, are going to be compared in order to depict the similarities and the differences of the concept of god in different locations and eras. the geographical location of beowulf is in the northwest of england and the book of dede korkut is is in the north of anatolia. orchard states that the geographical location of beowulf is around the baltic sea and the north sea where the swedes, jutes, geats, danes, angles, heathobards and frisians lived (2003: xiii). when these tribes are compared chronologically, it can be seen that the angles were highly influenced by the danes, geats, and other germanic and scandinavian tribes. cherniss asserts that these tribes may be considered to be the ancestors of the english; the scops may have travelled among the tribes of germania and the documents of the travels highlight the ancestors of the english (1972: 14). on the other hand the geographical location of the book of dede korkut is around the caspian sea and the black sea, in what is today asia. the huns, once members of the ancient göktürk empire, moved westward to settle along the banks of the syr the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 2 darya, then westward to the shores of the caspian sea, south to transoxiana and northward to the steppes beyond the aral sea (elibeyzade 1988: 1). it is generally accepted that the book of dede korkut was put down into writing in the ninth century (ergin 1989: 56) and beowulf was put down into writing some time between the middle of the seventh and the end of the tenth century of the first millenium, in anglo-saxon or old english (heaney 2002: xxiii). although they were put down into writing two centuries apart, there are certain characteristics common to these two epics. it may be asserted that both epics have common characteristics though composed at different times and in different places. as stated by binyazar each epic posesses the characteristics of the heroic and folk epic tradition: history and imagination, mythology and folklore are intermingled in them (1996: 78), but çobanoğlu suggests that these epics cannot be thought of as historical documents, which show verisimilitude (2003: 20). structurally, beowulf consists of three tales and the deeds of a single hero, whereas the book of dede korkut consists of twelve tales, a prologue and the deeds of the wise man „dede korkut‟ 1 . they also differ in form; beowulf was put down into writing in verse, but the book of dede korkut was put down into writing in alternating verse and prose. the traces of deities and the concept of god are observed in both beowulf and the book of dede korkut. beowulf was composed some time between the middle of the seventh and the end of the tenth century of the first millenium (heaney 2002: xxiii). the book of dede korkut was composed some time between the fifth and the seventh century of the first millenium (nebiyev 2000: 66). the societies depicted in beowulf were pagans and this pagan belief came from the druids and the germanic tribes (north 1997: 185). similar to this, the societies depicted in the book of dede korkut were the oğuz people who were considered to 1 in the book of dede korkut, dede korkut is sometimes observed as korkut ata. hülya taflı 3 be the believers of the sky-god belief and shamanism. these epics were being sung and put down into writing, and during this process the societies were being converted to monotheistic religions, that is, christianity and islam respectively. the concept of paganism is implicitly embodied in beowulf. as stated by bjork, the danes are said to have engaged in the actual worship of heathen gods, for which the christian poet of beowulf condemns them, though realizing with some sympathy that they cannot help their ignorance (1997: 178). though the danes were pagans, there is not any kind of actual pagan worship; no pagan gods are ever referred to, and there is no explicit mention of their being pagans. cherniss points out that in beowulf there are several clues in which are the remnants of the germanic pagan tradition (1972: 26). most of the scandinavian myths refer to the deities of nature and their deeds. othin was called “allfather”; he was not only the actual father of many of the gods and created the first man and woman, but he was also foremost of the gods. snorri states that: othin is the highest and oldest of the gods. he rules all things and, no matter how mighty the other gods may be, they all serve him as children do their father. he lives forever and ever, and rules over the whole of his kingdom and governs all things great and small. he created heaven and earth and sky and all that is in them. (crossley-holland 1980: xxv) thor, son of othin and earth, was second in the pantheon and he represents order, when his father stands for violence and war. the most important of the fertility gods was freyr, god of plenty; he decides when the sun shall shine or the rain come down, and along with that the fruitfullness of the earth, and he is the god to invoke for peace and plenty. frigg is othin‟s wife but no information is given about her in the scandinavian myths. similar to crossley-holland‟s comments, chadwick suggests that the gods are grouped together in an organized community: the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 4 othin is considered to be the head, frigg is considered to be othin‟s wife and thor and many of the other gods are considered to be the other members of the scandinavian community (chadwick 1912: 394). it may be possible that the poet of beowulf depicts the religious beliefs of his characters especially by choosing germanic and scandinavian heroes and rituals as his subject matters. many of the scholars hold the point of view that the poet of beowulf might have been a pious christian priest, and that he might implicitly have imposed the doctrines of christianity onto the pagan poem (orchard 2003: 99; cherniss 1972: 9; clark 1990: 37). it is also interesting that there is no specific source of the poet or the poets of beowulf either; hence the identity of the composer or the composers of the english epic is still under debate. as stated by clark, the anglo-saxons themselves began to accept christianity only from the late six century on, and throughout this period paganism was a constant threat against which preachers railed, and christian kings and their retinues struggled (1990: 33). when the beowulf poet sets out to show how admirable and at the same time how examplary his non-christian ancestors could be, he had to be very careful not to appear to be encouraging a return to the dark ways of germanic and scandinavian heathendom. the poet celebrates the nobility of beowulf and the religious beliefs, which any anglo-saxon would have known to be germanic and scandinavian paganism. the poet speaks of the true god and of the devil, and he alludes specifically to biblical events such as the flood, the last judgement, and cain‟s slaying of abel. these biblical narratives explicitly alluded to in beowulf are connected to grendel, and the passages referring to cain places grendel directly in the race of the first murderer in the old testament. as godden also points out, grendel is introduced with a reference to the old testament legend which describes the origin of the monsters, so his end is hülya taflı 5 announced by an allusion to the biblical myth of their destruction (?: 216). in the poem, the thoughts of the characters and their language are circumscribed by the pagan world in which they live, and at times their speeches seem to have a christian resonance. north draws attention to the fact that the audience is expected to understand the two different cultures which inevitably give dignity to the old heroes as viewed by christian eyes, but which betray no christian revelation in heathen minds (1997: 185). the poet of beowulf is a christian and like him most of the teutonic peoples are considered to have accepted christianity. similar to the views of north, chadwick asserts that the facts which are known with regard to the conversion are that it almost invariably began in the king‟s court; that violent opposition was offered only in kingless communities, as among the old–saxons, or in defiance of the king‟s authority, as in norway; that after the conversion the gods (in general) disappear at once and for good; that magical practices and the belief in spirits and even in certain female agricultural deities lasted among the country people for many centuries. (1912: 414) if the reflection of paganism in beowulf is examined closely, it will be seen that it can be classified in three groups according to how it has been employed in the poem. the first type can be defined as the literal use of paganism. it refers to the actual practice and beliefs of pre-christian germanic peoples. these practices and beliefs are considered to be the rituals of polytheistic societies, and ship burial might be given as an example for the literal display of paganism. the societies depicted in beowulf are pre-christian, and the epic embodies the literal descriptions of pagan religious rituals as illustrated in the lines below where the burial of the lord according to pagan rituals is described: they shouldered him out of the sea‟s flood, the chief they revered who had long ruled them. the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 6 a ring-whorled prow rode in the harbour, ice-clad, outbound, a craft for a prince. they stretched their beloved lord in his boat, laid out by the mast, amidships, the great ring giver. far fetched treasures were piled upon him, and precious gear. i never heard before of a ship so well furbished with battle-tackle, bladed weapons and coats of mail … no man can tell, no wise man in hall or weathered veteran knows for certain who salvaged that load (30-52) 2 christian authorities condemned the pagan funeral rites of this kind, and the ship burial of a christian ritual was observed. the ship of shield is not buried in a mound, which is considered to be a christian ritual, but pushed out to the sea. shield, who establishes the danish royal family, dies and is pushed out the sea according to a christian ritual. similar to this, beowulf is the predecessor of the royal geat family, and beowulf‟s funeral is another example of the direct literal depiction of pagan beliefs (313482). the second method of depicting paganism in beowulf can be defined as vestigial paganism, which refers to the traces of fossil paganism such as the use of the description of pagan dresses, armours, amulets, helmets and swords. archeologists have focused on materials such as the helmets with boar images that people used in their day-to-day lives (barrett 1990: 121). these helmets with boar images were found at sutton hoo, suffolk, that date from the seventh century (bruce-mitford 1968: 1965-67). similarly, the warriors in beowulf wear helmets with images of boars on them: so they went on their way. the ship rode the water, broad-beamed, bound by its hawser and anchored fast. boar-shapes flashed 2 in this study seamus heaney‟s beowulf (norton&company, new york 2003) translation into modern english has been used and further quotations are from this translation. hülya taflı 7 above their cheek-guards, the brightly forged work of goldsmith, watching over those stern-faced men (300-306) the boar was an animal sacred to the germanic god freyr, and its image was regarded as powerful protection (bjork 1997: 179). owen and crocker state that the boar as a symbol seems to have had a much longer existence and a wider currency than the boar helmet: tacitus mentions the wearing of boar masks, probably in crop fertility ceremonies of the god freyr which was well known in the north (2000: 117). another example of vestigial paganism is the concept of fate. the concept is personified and is referred to as a god or goddess of fate (klaeber 1950: xliv). hill points out that a man can change his fate or god can change the man‟s fate, and this metaphorical point of view may also be used literally: my household guard are on the wane, fate sweeps them away into grendel‟s clutchesbut god can easily halt these raids and horrowing attacks (473-77) … often for undaunted courage, fate spares the man it has not already marked (573-74) in these lines grendel‟s attacks on heorot are given, and fate is considered to be a god-like creature. beowulf is going to kill grendel and his mother comes to take revenge. after grendel‟s mother comes, her revenge seems to be inevitable, her arrival is clearly anticipated by the poet, but the sequence of actions, including the accidents of her foray and the defense of the hall, is a surprise. fate is revealed in the event, a mystery not in fact fully realized until the event comes to a close. even beowulf‟s fight with the dragon in the last episode of the epic, despite forebothings and his spiritual restlessness, is an entry into the unknown. beowulf does not know how many times the dragon will attack, nor does he know whether or not wiglaf will the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 8 come to his assistance, and he does not know how the dragon will be dispatched. it is fate who decides about all these things: he was sad at heart unsettled yet ready, sensing his death. his fate hovered near, unknowable but certain it would soon claim his coffered soul part life from limb (2421-27) the third method of depicting paganism in beowulf lies in the realm of ethics and morality. as irving points out, the fundamental ethical code of beowulf is to some extent secular (1997: 180). it is the warrior code of aristocracy, celebrating bravery, loyalty and generosity, with the hero finding his immortality in the long lasting fame of great exploits carried out in this world. irving also draws attention to the fact that in scandinavian mythology and in beowulf a similar code is sanctioned (1997: 180) the god othin (woden) rewards his warriors with a place in valhalla, and this ritual may be observed in beowulf because the hero is mourned and also immortalized by his people. the traces of paganism can be observed in beowulf, but the poet condemns hrothgar and the danes for idol worship; he is consistent and careful in depicting the good pre-christian heroic figures in the poem as monotheistic “noachites”. as defined by hill, the religion of beowulf, hrothgar and the good germanic heroes in the poem may be defined as “noachitism”, that is, as gentiles who share the religious heritage and knowlegde of noah and his sons without having access to the revealed knowledge of god which was granted to abraham, isaac, and jacob, a tradition culminated by the revelation of the law to moses and continued by the tradition of the prophecy in israel (2003: 203). hrothgar, the king of the danes, is an examplary character displaying nobility, bravery, loyalty and generosity in terms of ethical paganism, but he worships the deities and is denounced by the poet: hülya taflı 9 sometimes at pagan shrines they vowed offering to idols, swore oaths that the killer of souls might come to their aid and save the people. that was their way, their heathenish hope; deep in their hearts they remembered hell. the almighty judge of good deeds and bad, the lord god, head of the heavens and high king of the world, was unknown to them. oh, cursed is he who in time of trouble has to thrust his soul in the fire‟s embrace, forfeiting help; he has nowhere to turn (175-86) the english epic has both pagan and christian elements, and thorkelin believes that the poem has been composed by a danish poet and then imported to england and slightly christianized, possibly by king alfred (www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/thorkelin). if the similarities of beowulf and its previous literary periods are studied in detail, it is possible to point out that the pre-christian poet of this english pagan epic speaks of the poem as being based on „the myth of beowa‟, the divine hero who overcame the sea-giant grendel (bjork 1997: 181). beowa is identified with the old god beowa who is the god of early pagan german epics. in this respect it may be stated that beowulf embodies pagan motifs and after conversion to christianity, pagan materials with christian colouring are stressed in the epic (bazelmans 1999: 72). similarly, klaeber acknowledges that the poem abounds in supernatural elements of pre-christian associations, but asserts that nevertheless the general impression is decidedly christian. klaeber further argues that the general tone and the ethical viewpoint are predominantly christian and that the main story has been thoroughly imbued with the spirit of christianity (1912: 169-199). the predominant early view of the poem saw it as an essentially pagan poem, drawn from pre-christian materials which once existed without christian sentiments and allusions. cherniss asserted that the christian elements are of the most elementary nature and are mere colouring added by a http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/thorkelin the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 10 pious interpolator (1972: 126). blackburn (1897: 1-21) and munro chadwick (1912: 47-56) also argued for this interpolation theory. although christianity had been introduced into roman britain around the year 200 ad, and had persisted in parts of the island through the period of heathen saxon invasion and settlement, it was not until 597, when pope gregory the great sent his monk augustine to reconvert britain to the roman doctrine, that orthodox latin christianity began to gain ascendany there (cherniss 1972: 10). in this respect it may be pointed out that beowulf both preserves the virtues of polytheism and chrsitianity. the three methods of reflecting paganism depict that the concept of god are embodied in the germanic heroic tradition that may shed light into the interaction of germanic paganism and christianity in beowulf. as cherniss states most of the stories such as the thedrik saga, volsunga saga, nibelungenlied and edda were lost in the period of the germanic migrations, but they reappeared in the twelfth century and beowulf contains the fragments of these stories (1972: 11). these pre-christian stories survived after the conversion to christianity, and beowulf contains allusions to pre-christian and christian motifs. gregory the great shows himself as working toward a christian society ruled jointly by kings and bishops on the model described in the old testament (nie 2003: 179). gregory the great stated that he intended to substitute stories about divine miracles for those about the actions and metamorphoses of immoral pagan deities; which were still part of the classical education given to young aristocrats. stories about miracles including dreams, heroic and supernatural elements are delibrately chosen as vehicles to convey the essence of christian belief (nie 2003: 180). gregory the great also adopted the idea of paganism as a spectrum of beliefs and practices, and he stated that those who were pagans were considered not to have been baptised. as pointed out by robert austin, pagans did not know true god, and merely worshiped sticks and stones hülya taflı 11 (1997: 82). although gregory gives importance to christianity, he implicitly depicts his ideas in literary works which contain heathen practices. in beowulf these heathen practices and some events related to the old testament support the strategy adopted by pope gregory the great. similar to the idea of gregory the great, lawrence describes the christian passages as integrated later into beowulf: the religion of the characters seems imposed upon them rather than natural to them. the poorest and weakest parts of the poem are to be found among the definitely christian passages. the only thing that is naive about the poem is its theology. here is untried material and childlike attitude toward a new faith. tradition had not yet taught the poet how to treat it with technical assurance. but, though ever present, the christianity is all on the surface. the real vitality of the epic lies in its paganism. (1928: 9) similar to lawrence, whallon believes that the beowulf poet knows little of christianity besides two stories from the first nine chapters of genesis, the story of the creation and the story of cain (1965:19). whallon also asserts that the apparently christian vocabulary of beowulf comes, for the most part, from traditional germanic poetic language. whallon also emphasizes the fact that the words and phrases for god and the devil probably had originally pagan associations: faeder, alwalda and meotod are as biblical as pater, omnipotens, and fatum, and beowulf is to this extent neither christian nor unchristian, but pre-christian (1965: 20). stevick offers a theory to explain how an originally pre-christian heroic poem about beowulf might have acquired its christianity. stevick asserts that: beowulf existed for some time as an oral poem before it was copied down. in this pretextual stage, the poem was subject to extensive modification and alteration, and after the conversion of england to roman christianity it could have absorbed its christian elements in the course of being sung by one or more converted oral singers. christian elements in beowulf drive first and significantly from the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 12 the normal mutations and accretions in explanation, characterization, and reflective commentary in oral literature of a cultural tradition whose religion had changed more radically than its narative materials and poetic techniques. (1963: 79-89) the poet of beowulf has inserted christian comments and pious exclamations into his poem because he considers them necessary and appropriate. for instance the poet points out the references to god‟s influence upon the outcome of beowulf‟s fight with grendel‟s mother when he first narrates the episode: the hero observed that swamp-thing from hell, the tarn hag in all her terrible strength, then heaved his war-sword and swung his arm: the decorated blade came down ringing and singing on her head. but he soon found his battle-torch extinguished; the shining blade refused to bite. … the son of ecgtheow would have surely perished and the geats lost their warrior under the white earth had the strong links and lock of his war-gear not helped to save him: holy god decided the victory. it was easy for the lord, the ruler of heaven, to redress the balance once beowulf got back up on his feet (1518-56) in the line „holy god decided the victory‟ the poet refers to pious exclamations about the idea of god as the giver of worldly prosperity, success in battle, and good fortune in general. for instance beowulf observes that god decides the battle with grendel: no weapons, therefore, for either this night: unarmed he shall face me if face me he dares. and may the divine lord in his wisdom grant the glory of victory to whichever side he sees fit (685-90) god saves and helps beowulf in the fight with grendel‟s mother: hülya taflı 13 it was hard-fought, a desperate affair that could have gone badly; if god had not helped me, the outcome would have been quick and fatal. although hrunting is hard-edged, i could never bring it to bear in battle. but the lord of men allowed me to behold for he often helps the unbefriended(1655-62) beowulf gives thanks to the king of glory for the treasures he wins from the dragon: to the everlasting lord of all, to the king of glory, i give thanks that i behold this treasure here in front of me, that i have been allowed to leave my people so well endowed on the day i die (2794-98) hrothgar attributes beowulf„s arrival to the favor of god, offers thanks to god for beowulf‟s victory over grendel, and again offers thanks to him for beowulf‟s resolution to fight grendel‟s mother: now holy god has, in his goodness, guided him here to the west-danes, to defend us from grendel (381-83) ... first and foremost, let the almighty father be thanked for this sight. i suffered a long harrowing by grendel. but the heavenly shepherd can work his wonders always and everwhere (928-31) … with that the old lord sprang to his feet and praised god for beowulf‟s pledge (1397-98) the geats collectively thank god for their easy voyage to denmark, and for beowulf‟s safe return from the depths of grendel‟s pond: there was a clash of mail and thresh of gear. they thanked god for that easy crossing on a calm sea (226-27) … his thanes advanced in a troop to meet him, thanking god and taking great deligh in seeking their prince back safe and sound (1626-28) the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 14 the danish shore-guard wishes the geats the favor of god, wealtheow thanks him for beowulf‟s presence in denmark, and hygelac thanks god that beowulf has returned safely home: may the almighty father keep you and in his kindness watch over your exploit (316-17) … with measured words she welcomed the geat and thanked god for granting her wish that a deliverer she could believe in would arrive to ease their afflictions (625-28) … so god be thanked i am granted this sight of you, safe and sound (1997-98) if the poet of beowulf is considered to be a christian, the god to whom he and his characters allude to is the christian god. when the characters offer thanks, they offer it to the single deity; when the poet attributes the outcome of a battle to a supernatural power, he attributes it to a single deity, and when the poet tells his audince that his characters offer thanks, it is again to a single deity. the poet‟s description of a song about the creation sung by a scop in heorot is another trace of christianity that is referred to in the following lines, and chadwick suggests that two or three caedmonian poems of the caedmonian genesis might have provided all of the christianity in beowulf (1912: 394). although there are some germanic creation songs such as the edda and voluspa, the creation song of beowulf depicts christianity sung by a scop: every day in the hall, the harp being struck and the clear song of a skilled poet telling the mastery of man‟s beginnings, how the almighty had made the earth a gleaming plain girdled with water; in his splendor he set the sun and the moon to be earth‟s lamplight, lanterns for men, and filled the broad lap of the world with branches and leaves; and quickened life hülya taflı 15 in every other thing that moved (91-96) athough there are many implicit pagan gods, there are explicit references to the old testament in beowulf. blackburn draws attention to these christian elements containing biblical history or allusions to some scriptural narrative (1897: 205-25). these include references to cain, abel, and the flood. what is clear about the religious colouring of beowulf is that while it is clearly christian, there is little christian doctrine. it seems that beowulf tells of a period in the midst of religious change being neither entirely pagan, nor fully christian or was an attempt to integrate germanic history into the old testament time frame (hamilton 1963: 15). the christian glossing of the epic can be observed in the way grendel is described as a descendant of the biblical cain, the first murderer. grendel haunts heorot, the mead-hall of the danes, and creates chaos. hrothgar and his society need help and beowulf leaves geatland to help the danes and to defeat grendel: grendel‟s mother, monstrous hell-bride brooded on her wrongs. she had been forced down into fearful waters, the cold depths, after cain held killed his father‟s son, felled his own brother with a sword. branded an outlaw, marked by having murdered, he moved into the wilds, shunned company and joy. and from cain there sprang misbegotten spirits, among them grendel, the banished and accursed, due to come to grips with that watcher in heorot waiting to do battle (1258-67) after the death of grendel, grendel‟s mother arrives at heorot to take revenge. when grendel‟s mother appears, she is referred to as the monstrous hell bride, which connotes the concept of hell in christianity. although grendel‟s mother arrives at heorot to take revenge, beowulf kills her. after killing her, he realizes the significance of the sword, which has an allegorical meaning. the hilt‟s engravings tell the story of “the origin of past strife, when the flood drowned and the pouring the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 16 ocean killed the race of giants” (1689–90). the poet describes the qualities of the sword as follows: then the gold hilt was handed over to the old lord, a relic from long ago for the venerable ruler. that rare smithwork was passed on to the prince of the danes when those devils perished; once death removed that murdering, guilt-steeped, god cursed fiend, eliminating his unholy life and his mother‟s as well, it was willed to that king who of all the lavish gift-lords of the north was the best regarded between the two seas (1677-86) the hilt is engraved with the story of the great flood and the death of the giants from the rising of the sea: hrothgar spoke; he examined the hilt, that relic of old times. it was engraved all over and showed how war first came into the world and the flood destroyed the tribe of giants. they suffered a terrible severance from the lord; the almighty made the waters rise, drowned them in the deluge for retribution (1687-94) these passages illustrate that beowulf embodies both pagan and christian elements intermingled with each other. one of the other important concerns in beowulf is the presentation of beowulf as a christ figure. bazelmans asserts that there is not such a direct idea about christ, but the deeds of beowulf resemble the deeds of christ (1999: 92). the characters described in beowulf know the creator through the creation. some, like hrothgar‟s danish subjects are true pagans who give themselves over to the worship of idols and who thereby belong to the race of cain in a spiritual sense (bazelmans 1999: 93). others, like hrothgar and beowulf, worship and honour god; they are in a spiritual sense neither pagan nor christian. beowulf reflects some of christ‟s virtues, not in his words but in his deeds. according to donahue, the development of hülya taflı 17 beowulf is constructed on the basis of the christian triad: faith, hope and love (1965: 57). in the first part of the poem, beowulf‟s non-commital attitude towards god and his excessive trust in his own powers disappear when god gives him solace and support in his battle with grendel, and in his fight with grendel‟s mother he shows him the sword that will bring him victory. with his unselfish conquest and division of the dragon‟s hoard, beowulf gives thanks to god like the virtuous and unselfish christ. similar to the influence christian concept in beowulf, the polytheism of germanic and scandinavian societies influenced beowulf, and brought forward the idea of paganism and heathenism. in addition to this, polytheism interacts with christianity especially after conversion to christianity, and biblical events such as the flood, the last judgement and cain‟s slaying of abel are observed in beowulf. the implicit figures of the gods before christianity, and the figura of christ after conversion to christianity are also demonstrated in this english epic. similar to beowulf, the traces of polytheism and the concept of monotheism are intervowen in the turkish epic. the sky-god belief is considered to be the first belief of the turks, and it resembles the pagan beliefs reflected in beowulf. shamanism is also a religious practice observed in the sky-god belief. intrinsic to shamanistic practice is the idea of an interaction with nature spirits in ways which heal, cause other people to become ill or protect the warriors in battle, and practices of shamanism also involve the use of a power animal or a second soul to achieve their ends. the sky-god belief and shamanism are characterized spiritually, honouring of pre-islamic deities, personal belief systems, and lack of institutionalization. the traces of the sky-god belief date back to the huns and göktürks, and the oğuz people were influenced by the huns and göktürks. as stated by güngör and günay the first traces of the sky-god belief are observed in the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 18 the sources of the hun empire (1998: 34). the gods are grouped in an organized system: the sky-god is called ülgen, the god of goodness and the underworld god of the wickedness is called erlik (güngör; günay 1998: 47). erlik has seven sons; pay maattir, karas, kerey kaan, ucar kaan, yabas kaan, komur kaan, seedey kaan (i̇nan 1987: 407). i̇nan also draws attention to the importance of these sons; although they are not worshipped by the oğuz society, they have the power that their father has (1987: 408). the sons of erlik stand for the polytheist belief, but this polytheism does not have the same meaning observed in beowulf. hence it can be asserted that polytheism in the book of dede korkut is different from the polytheism in beowulf, and another term for the polytheism in the turkish epic should be more appropriate. in this study in order not to confuse the two systems of belief, the term turkic polytheism will be used when referring to polytheism depicted in the book of dede korkut. in the sky-god belief, ülgen is a god and his dwelling place is the mountaintops, tops of the trees or the sky. in the book of dede korkut the black mountain is considered to be the house of ülgen and it is one of the major cults among the oğuz tribes, but after the influence of islam the poet of the book of dede korkut does not give any information about the sky-god, but he praises the sublimity of allah: hear my words and listen to me, bay püre bey, almighty allah gave you a son, and may he preserve him. may he ever be followed by moslems as he bears his white banner. when he has to cross those snow-covered black mountains, lying yonder, may allah help him to cross them when he has to ride through bloody rivers, may allah grant him safe passage. when he has fallen among the crowds of infidels, may allah give him yet a chance. (44) although the influence of islam is observed in these lines, “snow-covered black mountains” stand for the dwelling place of ülgen. hülya taflı 19 in shamanism, the will of the ancestral spirits, ecstatic seizures and flying mounts are important concepts. ripinsky points out the fact that such sacred places are the dwelling places of the supernatural beings and the names of these places are not explicitly given (1993: 59). shamans are considered to be godlike creatures and they have supernatural powers to set the world in order. as mentioned by baldick, the usual turkic word for shaman or “qam” means diviner and baldick also asserts that the shamans murmur magical phrases, prepare a spell, and draw an omen. the concept of turkic shamanism can be observed in the figure of dede korkut. korkut ata was an adviser of the oghuz people in all-vital matters, and nothing was done before he was consulted. whatever advice he gave was accepted and acted upon. among his wise sayings were those, which follow: nothing goes well without mentioning the name of allah. no one can prosper without the will of almighty allah. nothing happens if it was not already written down in the beginning no one dies before his appointed hour. (3-4) in these lines korkut ata is presented as a bard, an epic singer-teller or shaman, who composes the epic and sings and narrates it to the accompaniment of his lavta 3 ; he is also the wise man and the sorcerer-magician of the oğuz people. başgöz points out that korkut ata combines in his personality the characteristics of a mythical ancestor, a shaman-sorcerer of the pre-islamic era, a political counselor of the rulers, and a muslim saint (1978: 313). similar to the concept of the sky-god belief and shamanism in the book of dede korkut, the concept of the bridge is of significance. the shamans have to cross over a bridge in order to reach the underworld. the underworld signifies hell in shamanism. eliade points out that the bridge forms a tie between the sky and the 3 it is an ancient fretless string instrument and it is generally made from a single piece of wood and has three strings traditionally made out of gut, modernly made from fishing line. the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 20 underworld, and it helps people and gods to communicate (1999: 525). in the story of deli dumrul a bridge is described at the very beginning of the story. deli dumrul is portrayed as a nonmuslim and the shaman motifs with turkic polytheism are indirectly stated as follows: my khan, among the oghuz people there was a man by the name of deli dumrul, the son of duha koja. he had a bridge built accross a dry riverbed. he collected thirty-three akchas from anyone who passed over it, and those who refused to pass over he beat and charged forty akchas anyway (89). an interesting point is that deli dumrul builds his bridge across a dry riverbed. in this respect it may be argued that the bridge is not to pass over, but to signify the interaction between hell and heaven. in shamanism the sky refers to heaven, the underworld refers to hell (balzer 1990: 35). deli dumrul believes in this spiritual practice and ignores islam at the very beginning, so he may stand for a shaman and ask people to pass over his bridge because he wants these people to be aware of shamanism. in the end of the story, deli dumrul converts to islam. although it is not written in quran, after the interaction of turk muslims and zoroastrian muslims, the concept of “chinvat bridge” or “sırat” is introduced. according to this so-called belief when all the muslims die, they will pass over this bridge: those, who pass over the bridge, will have the chance to reach heaven; those, who fall down while passing over the bridge, will be punished and go to hell (boyce 1979: 13). deli dumrul always stands over his bridge, and it may be an implicit sign that he will be rewarded by god by reaching heaven after one hudred and forty years: almighty allah was pleased with deli dumrul‟s words. he gave his orders to azrail: “take the lives of deli dumrul‟s father and mother. i have granted a life of 140 years to this lawfully married couple.” azrail hülya taflı 21 proceeded to take the lives of the father and mother right away, but deli dumrul lived with his wife for 140 years more. (97) within the sky-god belief and shamanism there are various other cults, which the oğuz turks believed in. first of all the tree cult was of great importance: the first person was created under a tree, and the tree was the first place where ülgen and man encountered (ögel 1971: 419, çoruhlu 2002: 111). for this reason the image of the tree is considered to be the symbol of ülgen in the book of dede korkut (sakaoğlu 2003: 140). in a tree cult, god is symbolized as a tree (ögel 1971: 166). an interesting point is that the tree cult is observed before islam, and it refers to one god, but each cult has its own god befitting the turkic polytheism and shamanism. for instance the tree, which stands for god, has to be a single one, because god is the only one and does not resemble anything or anyone. secondly, the tree never sheds its leaves, implying its immortality, and this aspect sybolizes the immortality of god and the universe as well. thirdly, the holy tree has to be the tallest or the biggest among the other trees, if the tree is the biggest and the tallest, it sees everywhere; similar to god who is the owner of the world and can see, hear, and know everthing. futhermore the holy tree does not have any fruit, which means the tree does not give birth, and also implies that god never gives birth. the tree has to be the oldest among the other trees; it stands for the infinity of a tree. in addition to this, the holy tree has to be large, if this holy tree is large enough, it may save all the things, similarly god saves all the living and non-living things. as stated by ülkütaşır, in the pre-islamic period the ancient turks considered trees sacred, and some tribes such as the oğuz people believed that their ancestors were trees (1938: 30-37). one of the turkish creation myths pictures the parents of mankind as a beech tree (the father) and a hazelnut tree (the mother). after a column of sacred life descended the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 22 upon these trees one night, the hazelnut tree became pregnant. nine months later a door opened in the trunk of this tree and out of it jumped five babies. when these babies grew to be fifteen years old they asked who their parents were. when they were told that their parents were the beech and the hazelnut trees, they went to these trees to pay their respect. the trees talked to them and before they left blessed them (sümer, uysal, walker 1972: 187). the tree cult is considered to be one of the beliefs before islam, and when the book of dede korkut was put down into writing, the uncertainty of the tree god and islamic god is asserted. for example, in the book of dede korkut, the tree is considered to be god in the story of “the sack of the house of salur kazan”. salur kazan addresses a tree and says: be not offended o tree, by my calling you tree the gates of medina and mecca were made of you. the staff of moses, to whom allah spoke, was of you, too. the bridges that cross great rivers are made of you the ships in the dark, dark seas are made of you. the saddle of ali, leader of gallant men, was made of your wood. the handle and sheath of zulfikar, his sword, were made of you the cradle of hasan and huseyin was of your wood. women and men are equally frightened by you. when i look upward, i see not your head; when i look downward, i see not your roots. if they hang me from you, support me not. if you do, then would that my youthful vigor could stop you, oh, tree. if then you should stand in my land, oh, tree i should order my slaves, black indian slaves, to tear you apart in a thousand pieces, oh tree. (33-34) although the tree is a symbol of god, the name allah, is also used in these lines. after the conversion to islam, the poet cannot ommit the pre-islamic elements. the leaves and the roots of this holy tree cannot be seen, the top leaves reach heaven and this is the dwelling place of the sky-god; the roots of the tree reach hell, which is the dwelling place of erlik or satan. i̇nan also draws attention to the fact that the ancestors of uruz hang the corpse of the dead up the tree to help his soul reach the sky-god (1987: 187). in this respect it may be argued that the ancestors of hülya taflı 23 the oğuz people also believed to reach the sky-god, and implicitly heaven. the tree cult in the book of dede korkut is reminiscent of the concept of the holy tree, which is called yygdrasil in scandinavian and germanic cultures (kendrick 1994: 124). yygdrasil is a huge tree whose roots and branches hold the earth, heaven and hell and underworld together in scandinavian mythology. havamal is one the well-known scandinavian poems, and in this poem it is implicitly referred to yygdrasil (clarke 1923: 79). in the tree cult of scandinavian and germanic mythologies, yygdrasil may stand for god. yygdrasil‟s roots symbolize hell, the god of evil, and its upper branches stand for god of heaven and heaven itself. this world of tree is god and the three roots of yygdrasil stand for the god of evil. these three roots are respectively asgard, midgard and niflheim. asgard is the abode of gods, midgard is the abode of mankind and the earth, and niflheim stands for the outer region of cold and darkness, abode of hell. niflheim is also a serpent that gnaws upon the lowermost root of igdrasil. the trunk of this scandinavian tree refers to the world where all the non-living things and living things exist, and the upper branches of this holy tree symbolize heaven (bosworht 1836: 16). kendrick also mentions that the oak tree is of significance in scandinavian mythology, and the branches of the sacred tree symbolize god or the king of trees (1994: 125). the yygdrasil image also depicts the tribes of the societies. each tribe of the society has a leader, and this leader has his tree. in this respect this tree has literal and metaphorical meanings. first of all, the leader has his tree, and the leaves of this tree are always evergreen, it never sheds its leaves till the leader dies. when he dies, his tree dries also. secondly, the tree stands for the generation of the society that the leader belongs to. the leader is the representative of his society, and his retainers follow him. if the leader dies, his dynasty also collapses. similar to this idea, in the story of the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 24 the capture of uruz bey, the line “you should stand in my land” supports the idea of the oğuz people‟s identity. in this line land refers to the dynasty of the han. in the book of dede korkut each tribe has its own roots and family tree, which symbolize both the han and god. this is also a sign of the rule of the sky-god and the continuation of the race. if one dies or is killed, his tree is cut, so this means the race of the oğuz people will not continue and the oğuz society will not feel the power of god (ögel 1995: 468). another example of the application of the holy tree cult is in the story of basat, killer of the one-eyed giant. when basat is boasting and making his lineage known, he says: in confusion of battle i stand in broad daylight; if i pass into darkness, the source of my hope lies in allah. our standart is now held by bayindir khan our leader who rides at front on the day of battle is salur khan, the son of ulash. if you wonder about the name of my father, then know it is big tree if you wonder about the name of my mother then know it is royal line, if you ask me my name, it is basat, the son of uruz. (131) the holy tree is the symbol of god, and the khan is the representative of god. basat, the son of uruz, is the leader of his dynasty and protects his society from disasters. tepegöz is considered to be a supernatural creature and it disturbs the dynasty of basat. being the leader, it is his responsibility to protect his society from tepegöz. in his words, basat tries to state that in contrast to his status, tepegöz comes from hell and he is the representative of satan or hell (sakaoğlu 2003: 145). basat refers to the big tree by means of his ancestors. as stated above, in turkish mythology the han or kağan is sent to the world by the help of the tree, or a mother gives birth inside a tree, hence it may be asserted that the tree is god, and all the heroes come from heaven to the world by means of the holy tree (ögel 1971: 101). when the characters in the book of dede korkut need to pray, they hülya taflı 25 address the holy tree or god himself: “may your snow-covered mountains remain standing and your strong shade trees be not cut down, and may almighty allah never allow you to lie at the mercy of the wicked” (39). hence it may be asserted that all these instances support the coexisting traces of polytheism and monotheism in the book of dede korkut. similarly in the story of bamsı beyrek, the trace of the tree cult is also observed: the sister of bamsı beyrek is very sad and cries all the time for his lost brother by implying the tree: the black mountain over there is falling down, but, minstrel you are not aware. my great shade tree is being felled but minstrel you are not aware a brother has been taken from me but minstrel you are not aware do not play or sing now, minstrel; what comfort can it bring a grieving girl? there is a wedding farther on. go play your lavta there. (60) the tree image is referred to with the words “my great shade tree” to mean “kaba ağaç” in turkish. the big tree metaphorically stands for the dynasty of bamsı beyrek. in the story, this big tree is going to be cut, which means bamsı beyrek‟s dynasty will collapse. bamsı beyrek, the brother of the girl is lost and his dynasty is in danger, for this reason the sister weeps and refers to this big, dry tree, which is on the verge of being cut. when the sister realizes that her brother is alive, she expresses her feelings of joy by referring to the holy tree again: your black mountains had fallen, but now they are rising again. your stream stained with blood had dried up, but now they are flowing again. your tall tree had withered, but now it is green once again. your fine horse had grown old, but once more bears a colt. your red camels had aged, but now they have young ones again. your white sheep had aged, but now they have lambs in the fold, and beyrek your son, who was gone sixteen years, has returned. my father and mother, what gift will you give for good news? (67) the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 26 the regeneration of the dry tree refers to bamsı beyrek‟s dynasty and his sublimity. his tree would have been cut, but when he comes back, his tree does not wither, but its leaves turn green again. in addition to this when the tree has its green leaves, his sublimity is observed: the holy tree is a metaphor for ülgen, and bamsı beyrek attains him. hence this line implicitly refers to the happiness of the sister because she is also aware of this fact. the tree image is also stated in the story of seğrek. when the infidels capture seğrek, his mother mourns all the time, and when the brother of seğrek comes and asks her mother for permission to save seğrek, the mother burst into tears: let me die for the mouth that bought such words, my son let me die for the tongue that uttered them my son. if the mountain that lies out yonder, so dark, once fell now it rises again. once dried up, now it rushes again. if the branches of the large spreading tree withered once, it grows green once again. (147) the reason for her weeping is that she is not sure whether he is alive or not. she is also aware of the fact that if seğrek is alive, his dynasty will continue. the branches growing green once again refer to his dynasty, and the mother hopefully waits for her son and for the continuation of his line. when the branches of the tree get green again, seğrek‟s mother expresses her joy. cults observed in the book of dede korkut are the water and mountain (eliade 1999: 298). the oğuz society believed that water and the cosmic mountain connected the sky and the earth like god. in the story of the sack of the house of salur kazan, salur kazan addresses nature: oh, water that gushes from under the rocks! oh, water that tosses the ships made of wood! oh, water once sought by hasan and huseyin! oh, water, a treasure for gardens and vineyards! oh, water, so cherished by ayse and fatma; hülya taflı 27 oh, water, the drink of all beautiful horses; oh, water drunk deeply by thirsty red camels; oh, water near which lie the flocks of white sheep. do you know what disaster has come to my camp? oh, speak! may my luckless head be a sacrifice to you. (28) the word „water‟ refers to the polytheistic turkic god and salur kazan tries to solve his problem by asking questions to god. he is in a desperate condition: when he reaches home after a long journey, he finds nothing left of his dynasty. in this respect he prays to water because water stands for the turkic god in the sky-god belief and shamanism. it is debated whether the book of dede korkut was composed and put down into writing by a single poet or multiple poets. if it is considered to be a single poet, the poet of the turkish epic may be said to be a muslim. as türkdoğan states, he celebrates the nobility of the oğuz tribes, which once knew the sky-god belief and its cults and shamanism (1987: 780). if the composer and the writer of the turkish epic is a single poet, he speaks of allah and of the devil, and he alludes specifically to islamic events such as the deeds of azrail, the sins of the worldly affairs, the importance of family, hospitality and the holiness of virtues, but it is implied that the turkish epic does not aim to depict only the religious perspective (ergin 1989: 27). in the poem, the thoughts of the characters and their language are circumscribed by the pre-islamic world in which they live, and when their speeches seem to have an islamic resonance, the audience is expected to recognize that these are but coincidences of similar elements in two different cultures, coincidences which inevitably give dignity to the old heroes as viewed by pre-islamic and islamic eyes. in this respect it may be asserted that the poet and/or the poets who composed or put it down into writing are anonymuous. it may also be argued that the composer/s or the poet/s of this(these) epic(s) is/are (a) shaman in the sky-god the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 28 belief and shamanism. as binyazar states although there is no reliable information about the identity of the poet of the book of dede korkut, there are some clues and historical documents about his identity (1996: 9). dede korkut is called korkut ata and he is considered to be a shaman, but it is not clear whether he is the composer, the poet or the person of authority in the epic. the book of dede korkut is a product of the oğuz society, and in the epic as a shaman korkut ata is depicted as a leading figure who heals the wounds of the oğuz society, helps them whenever they need him; he sometimes goes to the top of the mountain to meet ülgen, he sometimes goes to the underworld to meet erlik. thus, the sky-god belief and shamanism have been mingled in the epic before conversion to islam. as the oğuz society converted to islam in the eleventh century, the traces of islam were incorporated into the turkish epic, and the polytheistic and monoteistic elements coexist in the epic. another example for this is the figure of azrail. in islam azrail is one of the angels, who seperates the soul from the body. azrail and his deeds are narrated in the story of deli dumrul, the son of duha koca. deli dumrul, who is a valiant hero, does not believe in the holiness of azrail and the dignity of allah. he wants to fight with azrail to save the lives of people, but almighty allah is not pleased with dumrul‟s attitude, and wants to punish him, and orders azrail to go and see the hero: while deli dumrul was sitting and drinking with his forty companions, ezekiel suddenly arrived. neither the chamberlains nor the wardens had seen ezekiel pass. deli dumrul‟s eyes were blindened, his hands paralyzed. the entire world was darkened to his eyes. (90) deli dumrul realizes that the red-winged azrail wants to take his life and prays: oh ezekiel, have mercy! there is no doubt about the unity of allah. hülya taflı 29 i was uninformed about you i did not know you secretly took lives. we have mountains with large peaks; we have vineyards on those mountains; in those vineyards there are vines with bunches of black grapes; and when pressed those grapes make wine, red wine. a man who drinks that wine grows drunk. thus i was drunk, and so i did not hear. i did not know what i had said. i have not tired of the role of bey. i wish to live out more years of my youth, oh ezekiel please spare this life of mine. (92) deli dumrul does not believe in islam at first and he feels valiant enough to fight with azrail. when he realizes azrail‟s eternal power, he stops being arrogant, understands the dignity of allah, and converts to islam: thou art higher than the highest; no one knows how high you are, allah the magnificent! fools search for you in the sky on earth but you live in the heart of the faithful eternal and merciful allah, let me build needed homes for the poor along the main roads of the land let me feed hungry men for your sake when i see them if you take any life, take the lives of us both. if you spare any life, spare the lives of us both, merciful almighty allah. (96-97) azrail is one of the angels of allah in islam and deli dumrul prays to be forgiven by allah. in the book of dede korkut not only allah and azrail, but also the prophets are of significance. islam accepts all the prophets, but underlines that mohammed is the last prophet. mohammed is directly referred to in this turkish epic: “shortly before the time of the prophet, there appeared in the bayat tribe a man by the name of korkut ata” (3). after the conversion to islam, the oğuz society follows the doctrines of islam. in islam allah is the only one, and the holy koran is the last holy book. dede korkut comes and plays the lavta and tells heroic tales about muslim heroes: the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 30 those who once claimed the world taken by death and concealed by earth. to whom has the world been left at last the world with its coming and going the world that is rounded off by death? death is the end of long life; seperation is the ultimate fate of all. let me pray, my khan. may you not deviate from your clean faith at the time of death. may your white bearded father‟s place in the next world be paradise. may your white haired mother‟s place be in paradise, too. may almighty allah never leave you at the mercy of the cruel and mean. we have offered a prayer of five words in your presence. may it be accepted. may those saying „amen amen‟ come to see the face of allah. may he save you from your sins and forgive them for the sake of mohammed mustafa, o my khan. (175) in this prayer the islamic concepts of death and fate are referred to. death is an inevitable concept and fate is shaped by allah‟s orders. these lines refer to the sublimity of allah, and his prophet mohammed. allah forgives all the mortals, and although mohammed is the prophet, he is a mortal as well. similar to the significance of allah, mohammed and azrail, the holy book koran is mentioned in the book of dede korkut that refers to islam: “uruz brought the koran on which they all pressed their hands and took an oath saying, “ we are friends with your friend and foes to your foe” (170). dede korkut was a shaman before conversion to islam, and he had some supernatural powers to heal the oğuz society. after the conversion to islam dede korkut appears to be the “derviş” instead of a shaman, and he represents the values of islam: dede korkut was at a loss what to do. he asked for the protection of allah, reciting the i̇smi azam prayer. delü karchar drew his sword and aimed a terrible blow intended to knock dede korkut down. dede korkut said,” if you strike me may your hand dry up.” at the command of almighty allah delü karchar‟s remained in the air, for dede korkut was hülya taflı 31 endowed with power like that of a saint, and his wish granted. (48) these lines refer to the importance of korkut ata, and that he stands for a pious person after conversion to islam. in both of the epics the concept of god changes and varies. it may be asserted that polytheistic and monotheistic beliefs establish the essence of beowulf, because beowulf depicts a period of transition from polytheism to monotheism, that is, from nordic pagan beliefs to christianity. similar to beowulf, the book of dede korkut also reflects a period where polytheistic and islamic elements and ideas coexist. before the monotheistic beliefs such as christianity and islam, paganism and druidic shamanism in beowulf and the sky-god belief and cults and altay shamanism are observed in the book of dede korkut. in this respect although these epics display similarities in reflecting polytheism, they differ from each another to some extent: in beowulf pagan gods are worshipped, but in the book of dede korkut gods are not worshipped; only the son and daughter names of ülgen and erlik are given, but there is no implication that they were worshipped. furthermore the monotheistic god as described in beowulf and the book of dede korkut is similar, but the religions are different: they are respectively christianity and islam. beckett asserts that it is tempting to assume that after conversion to monotheistic beliefs, both believers of these religions encountered on the way to their pilgrimages in 884 ad, and christians carried goods and ideas from islamic territories (2003: 53). in this respect it may be argued that if there was such a contact, the religious ideas of these monotheistic beliefs (and also the polytheistic beliefs) would presumably influence each other. when the epics were put down into writing, they would probably carry the hints of this interaction. the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 32 works cited austin, robert. gregory the great and his world. cambridge: cambridge university press, 1997. baldick, julian. animal and shaman. new york: new york university press, 2000. balzer, marjorie. shamanism. new york: m.e sharp, 1990. barrett j.c. ; “ the monumentality of death: the character of early bronze age mortuary mounds in southern britain”. world archeology, 22(1990), 179-83. başgöz, i̇lhan. heroic epic and saga. london: indiana uni. press, 1978. bazelmans, jos. by weapons made worthy. amsterdam: amsterdam university press, 1999. beckett, katharine scarfe. anglo-saxon perceptions of the islamic world. cambridge: cambridge university press, 2003. binyazar, adnan. dede korkut. i̇stanbul: yky, 1996. bjork, robert e, john d. niles. a beowulf handbook. lincoln: university of nebraska press, 1997. blackburn f.a. ; “the christian colouring in the beowulf in an anthology of beowulf criticism”, pmla 12(1897), 205-25. bosworth, j. scandinavian literature wıth short chronologıcal specimens of the old danish, iceland, norwegian, swedish. london: longman, 1836. boyce, mary. zoroastrians. london: routledge&kegan paul, 1979. brucemitford, r.l.s.1968; “suttonhoo excavations” 1965-7 antiquity 42, 36-9. chadwick, munro. the heroic age. cambridge: cambridge university press, 1912. cherniss, michael. ingeld and christ. paris: mouton, 1972. clark, george. beowulf. boston: twayne publishers, 1990. clarke, martin. the havamal. cambridge: cambridge university press, 1923. crossley-holland, kevin. beowulf. new york: farrar, straus, and giroux, 1970. çobanoğlu, özkul. türk dünyasında epik destan geleneği. ankara: akçağ, 2003. donahue, charles.;“ beowulf and christian tradition: a reconsideration from a celtic stance”, traditio 21(1965), 55-116. donoghue, daniel. ed. beowulf. trans. seamus heaney. london: norton&company, hülya taflı 33 2002. eliade m. dinler tarihine giriş, (çev.: lale arslan) i̇stanbul: kabalcı, 1999. elibeyzade, elmeddin. kitab-ı dede korkut. bakı: yazıcı, 1988. ergin, muharrem. dede korkut kitabı i: girişmetin-faksimile. ankara: ttk basımevi, 1989. godden, malcolm. biblical literature: the old testament. np: godden and lapidge edition, nd. hamilton, marie padgett. the religious principle in an anthology of beowulf criticism. np: university of notre dame press, 1963. hill, thomas d. the christian language and theme of beowulf. london: norton company, 2003. i̇nan, abdülkadir. makaleler ve i̇ncelemeler. ankara: ttk yayınları, 1987. kendrick, t.d. the druids. middlesex: tiger books, 1994. klaeber, f.r. beowulf and the fight at finnsburg. boston: heath and company, 1950. legouis, emile. a history of english literature. london: j.m dent and sons ltd, 1943. nebiyev, bekir.; “kitab-ı dede korkut ansiklopedisi”, bilge dergisi 25(2000), 66-69. nie giselle de. world image and experience. ashgate: ashgate publishing, 2003. north, richard. heathen gods in old english literature. cambridge: cambridge university press, 1997. orchard, andy. a critical companion to beowulf. cambridge: brewer, 2003. ögel bahaeddin. türk mitoloji. i̇stanbul: meb yayınları, 1971. ögel, bahaeddin. türk mitolojisi, ii. cilt. ankara: ttk yayınları, 1995. ripinsky, micheal. the nature of shamanism. new york: state university of new york press, 1993. sakaoğlu, salim, ali duymaz. i̇slamiyet öncesi türk destanları. i̇stanbul: ötüken, 2003. sümer, faruk, ahmet uysal and warren walker. the book of dede korkut. austin: university of texas press, 1991. türkdoğan, orhan. ; “dede korkut kitabında milli kültür tipleştirmeleri”, türk the concept of god in beowulf and the book of dede korkut 34 kültürü 204 (1987). ülkütaşır, m.ş. türk halk bilgisine ait araştırmalar. i̇stanbul: eminönü halkevi yayınları, 1938. whallon, william. ; “the idea of god in beowulf”, pmla lxxx (1965), 19-23. www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/thorkelin http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/thorkelin 139 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the politics of peace and conflict in bosnia and herzegovina the politics of peace and conflict in bosnia and herzegovina muhidin mulalić international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina mirsad karić international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina abstract twenty years after the dayton peace agreement an exclusive ethnic ideology, international tutelage and dependency characterize bosnia and herzegovina. wrong political approaches by the international and local political actors in bosnia and herzegovina created permanent crisis, the status quo and a ‘case’ country. conflict, furthermore enriched with exclusive ethno-cultural paradigm and the legacy of bloody crucible of the war, shape today’s political discourse in bosnia and herzegovina. based on content analysis of leading newspapers, this paper examines the relationship between conflict and peace inclinations of main political leaders among serbs, bosniaks and croats. in order to test the first objective on political discourse and political relationships based on the conflict vs. peace politics, using content analysis, the research analyzed media news on bosnia and herzegovina by considering only socio-political topics. we randomly selected 120 news from newspaper namely, nezavisne novine, glas srpske, dnevni list and dnevni avaz. for testing, the second objective on positive vs. negative political discourse of main political leaders we randomly selected 360 interviewbased news about key political leader including bakir izetbegovic (bosniak), dragan čović (croat) and milorad dodik (serb). research findings indicated that the conflict politics is deeply rooted in political discourse, media, among political leaders and the public. keywords: conflict; peace politics; conflict politics; political participation; political leaders; bosnia and herzegovina introduction the dayton peace agreement (dpa), brokered by us diplomat richard holbrooke (1998), prevented the continuation of war and destruction, but the political turmoil, ethnic tensions, territorial pretensions and overall an idea that bosnia and herzegovina is still a ‘case’ country or as an ‘experiment of the international community’, has continued to this very day. the major conflict lines within bosnian society thus remain essentially unresolved. the ghosts of war, destruction and divisiveness are still hunting the people of bosnia and herzegovina and, most probably, the future generations will continue to grapple with the issue of crime and guilt because unresolved past has already shaped people’s exclusive ethnic identification. bosnia and herzegovina is considered as “a deeply divided society,” “ethnic democracy” and an “ethnopolis” where different ethnic groups, due to strong nationalistic rhetoric and ‘ethnopolitics’, live isolated from each other (parish, 2011; cohen, 1995, perry, 2005 and mujkic, 2007). according to the theoretical and conceptual meanings of a sovereign state, bosnia and herzegovina remains fragile and unstable state (trnka, 2000, p. 319 and šarčević, 2009, p. 12). therefore, under current circumstances, social-cultural change and an establishment of a viable social order epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 22 3 140 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. mulalić & m. karić and harmony is ‘mission impossible’. on the contrary, there is a crisis of democracy and the status quo that produces instability, fear, inter-ethnic distrust and mentality that is entirely based on the conflict and not constructive and realist compromise and a solution (džihić and wieser, 2011, pp. 1809-1810). considering the balkans mentality, which is based on the tradition of heroic, warlike and conflicting values; values of peace, dialogue and compromise are perceived as weakness and shameful. unfortunately, religious traditions, literature, historical works and folklore have been promoting these values for the past few centuries. actually, all aspects of life are rigidly based on marxist theory of conflict and nationalist liberation ideologies. therefore, very few politicians, not only in bosnia and herzegovina but in the region, who attempted to use the politics of peace, dialogue and compromise were perceived not only as weak political leaders but very often they were accused of betraying their own people and the nation. for instance, zoran đindić was assassinated in serbia because of his politics of peace and cooperation. these are some of the reasons why european diplomats and policy-makers view the balkans as a periphery or the province and one of the biggest obstacles for european stability, peace and security. for this purpose the notion of balkanization as a geographical and political term, which signifies territorial and political divisiveness, hatred among the people and even apocalyptic devastation, was introduced by western scholars (mulalic, 2013, p. 40). the politics in bosnia and herzegovina is far away from the pragmatic and realists perspectives. political parties and their actors focus on daily political interests that are shaped by ethno-cultural paradigm. there are endless discussions related to the war, ethnic territories, ethnic representation and ethnic culture, language, history and identity. this emphasis puts aside real socio-economic problems and creates artificial ethnic boundaries and barriers between different ethnic groups that are destined to live together. besides, a serious democratic progress is impossible because of the creation of exclusive ideological difference, politics of fear and deadly threat from the others. as an alternative, the politics of peace and soft diplomacy should be used as tools to support “soft power potential, generate goodwill, to frame international agenda in particular ways, to erect and re-enact boundaries and/or to create societal linkages across them” (batora and mokre, 2011, p. 1). both local and regional politicians should use the politics of peace and soft diplomacy as to project creative expression in improving mutual understanding within and across state borders. this could strengthen the role of different actors on the local and international political scene (nye, 2004). certainly, culture could be used in determining national and, as well as regional character because of common and shared heritage. then, due to common historical experience, the people of bosnia and herzegovina have natural right to special relations with each other based on historical legacy and cultural similarities. therefore, national identity should be derived from shared socio-cultural values while ethnic bonds, should be upheld and broadly respected. the history of bosnia-herzegovina indicates that ethnic distinctive bonds have been flourishing throughout centuries while common national identification and a sense of interconnected relationship between diverse groups of people had always been strongly felt. actually history of bosnia-herzegovina points to cultural inclusion and cross-culture, not exclusive cultural isolation. that is why nowadays as throughout the past, although belonging to different groups of people, many distinguished serbs, croats and bosniaks have accepted a common and shared bosnian national identity (mulalic, 2014, pp. 63-64). regional shared historical and cultural values, if properly and positively perceived, open up many opportunities for cooperation. the political elites have the potential to improve 141 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the politics of peace and conflict in bosnia and herzegovina furthermore regional cooperation by working together on the common path towards the eu. balkans cooperation is inevitable from socio-political and economic point of view as “all balkan states are in the same boat” or to use the classical concept of keohane and nye (1970) “all balkans states are interdependent.” even during the 1990s balkans trade, communication, energy and security cooperation and interdependence was inevitable. in this regard bechev (2011) stated: beyond doubt, regional interdependence is a factor that matters for the balkans. whether they liked it or not, in the 1990s local states found themselves bundled by their politics, security concerns and geography, and to a lesser degree by their economies. even divisive forces such as the legacies of conflict gave coherence to the notion of one south east europe. in addition to common threats, interdependence also meant developmental opportunities. if it did not offer an economic structure, shared geography did offer potential gains in sectors such as transport infrastructure and energy (p. 39). the idea of europe as an integrated multicultural space is genuine european product. european conception of the balance of power since the times of the westphalia (1648) made the basis for cultural exchange and cooperation in europe. in this regard, the balkans should learn from the european experience and cultural exchange and cooperation should become its future basis. within the balkans framework, bosnia and herzegovina should acknowledge the existence of multiple identities that enrich rather than pose a threat to the country. only such diverse identities can connect citizens of bosnia and herzegovina with those of neighboring countries in particular and of the eu in general. multicultural identity should become a common identity while multiple identities should be cherished by all bosniaherzegovina citizens. serious preference should be given to the institutionalized fostering of multiculturalism – not only for the sake of the very survival of bosnia-herzegovina as a state but for the survival of global multiculturalism as a whole (mulalic, 2009, pp. 121-122). in the age of globalization and in the world of diversity it has become an imperative to foster and preserve tolerance, understanding and co-existence in multicultural and multiethnic societies as an alternative to huntington’s civilizational clash (mahmut čehajić, 2000, pp. 88-90). in this regard, the inclusive multicultural model of bosnia-herzegovina could position a country as very unique state-model, which other multicultural and multiethnic countries could follow worldwide. this is in particular true for the eu member-states that presently cope with the challenges related to minorities, religion, culture, language and ethnicity. methodology this paper examines internal relationships based on leading political actors who shape policy and public opinion. it is worth analyzing their public statements on key sociopolitical (politics, economics and society) issues. based on the content analysis of key newspapers, this paper attempts to analyze the relationship between conflict and peace politics. for testing the first objective on political discourse based on the conflict vs. peace politics, the research analyzed media news on bosnia and herzegovina by considering only socio-political topics. we randomly selected 120 news from 2014 to march 2016 from the following newspapers: • nezavisne novine (targets mainly serbs as target group); • glas srpske (targets mainly serbs as target group); • dnevni list (targets mainly croats as target group); • dnevni avaz (targets mainly bosniaks as target group). 142 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. mulalić & m. karić analyzed socio-political news (politics, economics and society) in terms of their peace or conflict inclinations were determined based on their negative, extremely exclusive, positive and constructive contents. it is important to mention that this study does not compare newspapers in terms of their conflict vs. peace reporting. however, based on news, this paper aimed to identify main trends that reflect public socio-political discourses. in order to examine the second objective on conflict vs. peace inclinations of political leaders, the research adopted similar methodology as in the above. we randomly selected interview-based news from 2014 to march 2016 given by each political leader from nezavisne novine, glas srpske, dnevni list and dnevni avaz. for the sake of political representation, the following leaders were selected: bakir izetbegović (bosniak), dragan čović (croat) and milorad dodik (serb). altogether, 360 news from these newspapers were anlyzed considering their peace or conflict contents inclinations. data presentations and analysis in order to test the first objective on political discourse we used content analysis in analyzing media news on bosnia and herzegovina. we randomly selected news from nezavisne novine, glas srpske, dnevni list and dnevni avaz. in total, 120 news were selected in the span of last two years in terms of their peace or conflict inclination. news determined as negative were extremely exclusive by its title and content. table 1. media reporting and news on bosnia and herzegovina newspaper positive news negative news dnevni list 29% 71% dnevni avaz 42% 52% nezavisne novine 22% 78% glas srpske 19% 81% average 28% 71% according to analyzed news, table 1 shows that in dnevni list 71% of news were negative while 29% were positive. analyzed news from dnevni avaz were slightly different in terms of positive and negative news as this newspaper is pro-bosnian newspaper. according to dnevni avaz 52% of news were negative while 42% were positive. then, nezavisne novine included 78% of negative news and 22% of positive news. finally, glas srpske included 81% of negative news and 19% of positive news. obtained data clearly indicated that conflict politics is deeply rooted in political discourse, the media and the public. 143 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the politics of peace and conflict in bosnia and herzegovina table 2. content analysis of media reporting and news on bosnia and herzegovina (selected news from 120 news) newspaper negative news positive news nezavisne novine • server: for serbia bosnia is greater problem than kosovo • bosnia and herzegovina is the most unfortunate country in the region • slovakian tv: bosnia and herzegovina is serbian territory • covic: bosnia and herzegovina will submit credible application for eu membership on january 16 • bosnia and herzegovina: britishgerman initiative glas srpske • bosnia and herzegovina imports even bread • bosnia and herzegovina is placed at the end of the list for eu expansion • id wants new front and new fighters from b&h • bosnia and herzegovina accepted border agreement with montenegro • bosnia and herzegovina has signed eu program horizon 2020 accession dnevni list • bosnia is cradle of modern jihad • bosnia and herzegovina definitely least advanced (towards the eu) • bosnia and herzegovina is the greatest threat to regional stability and security • bosnia and herzegovina: britishgerman initiative • bosnia and herzegovina will be just multiethnic and employable • the following weeks are important for european path of bosnia and herzegovina dnevni avaz • izetbegovic at summit in istanbul: bosnia is under attack of radical interpretation of islam • bosnia in danger: vučić threatens and bakir returns • nikolic: bosnia looks like a sick man • wigemark: bosnia and herzegovina after ten years eu member • zvizdic-schultz: bosnia and herzegovina enjoys significant support of european parliament • zvizdic: bosnia is strongly moving forward for the sake of examining conflict and peace inclinations of political leaders, we randomly selected news about bakir izetbegović, dragan čović and milorad dodik. by using content analysis, we analyzed 90 interview-based news from nezavisne novine in order to determine their positive or negative inclinations. table 3. nezavisne novine on conflict vs. positive views of political leaders political leader conflict views positive views bakir izetbegovic 29% 71% dragan čović 42% 58% milorad dodik 91% 9% according to table 3 and analysis of randomly selected news from nezavisne novine, key political leaders expressed themselves as follows: bakir izetbegovic 71% positive views and 29% negative; dragan čović 58% positive and 42 negative and milorad dodik 9% positive and 91% negative. overall findings indicate that izetbegovic and čović were using positive views while discussing different socio-political issues in their interviews. on the other hand, milorad dodik had only 9% of positive views while discussing similar topics and 91% negative or conflict-based. nezavisne novine presented his conflict or exclusive statements although this newspaper targets serbs as its main target group. in this regard, it is important to mention unbiased and objective reporting by this newspaper. this also shows that conflict or peace doesn’t originate with media but from political leaders whose views, positive or negative are just reported to the public. 144 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. mulalić & m. karić table 4. content analysis of nezavisne novine on conflict vs. positive views of political leaders (selected news from 90 news) newspaper negative news positive news nezavisne novine • izetbegovic: vučić shouldn’t worry about b&h but let him influence banja luka • izetbegovic: dodik’s behavior cannot be justified • izetbegovic: we will not tolerate treats from belgrade • dragan čovic: hdz will not tolerate bosnjak government • dragan čovic: the future of b&h in four territorial units • dragan čovic: social protests want to use for political purposes • milorad dodik: b&h is a forced country • milorad dodik: pamer is live example that bosnia and herzegovina is not serious country • milorad dodik: we don’t want foreigners in negotiations • bakir izetbegovic: opening of ferhadija (mosque) is the victory of life • izetbegovic: bosnjak politicians don’t request termination of rs • izetbegovic: nikolic in march in bosnia and herzegovina • dragan čovic: next year candidacy status • dragan čovic: we must strive on the european path • dragan čovic: united we can achieve our objectives • milorad dodik: serbs and bosnaks must build good relations • milorad dodik presented gifts for newly built ferhadija mosque • milorad dodik: corrupted people have no place in public administration the conflict and peace inclinations of political leaders, using same methodology as in the above, were analyzed 90 interview-based news on key political leaders from newspaper glas srpske. table 5. glas srpske on conflict vs. positive views of political leaders political leader conflict views positive views bakir izetbegovic 26% 74% dragan čović 19% 81% milorad dodik 96% 4% according to table 5 and analysis of randomly selected news from glas srpske, key political leaders expressed themselves as follows: bakir izetbegovic 74% positive views and 26% negative; dragan čović 81% positive and 19 negative and milorad dodik 4% positive and 96% negative. overall findings based on analysis of glas srpske newspaper indicate that both izetbegovic and čović had positive views while addressing different socio-political issues in their interviews while milorad dodik, as in the above based on nezavisne novine analysis, was expressing extremely negative views on sociopolitical issues. glas srpske is another newspaper that is pro-serb in reporting. however, this paper shows objective reporting on key political leaders based on their own peace or conflict political approaches. 145 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the politics of peace and conflict in bosnia and herzegovina table 6. content analysis of glas srpske on conflict vs. positive views of political leaders (selected news from 90 news) newspaper negative news positive news glas srpske • bakir izetbegovic: the decision on referendum must be repealed • bakir izetbegovic: respect towards victims and then peace and conciliation • bakir izetbegovic: a clash between two laws/rights will be resolved by war • dragan čović: we are paying the price for playing with the formation of government • dragan čović: we do not accept conditions on pretext of protests • dragan čović: investigators should talk less and work more • milorad dodik: izetbegovic is guilty for the war in b&h • milorad dodik: bosnjaks intend to manipulate results • milorad dodik: rs will announce census results • bakir izetbegovic: integration in the eu a way for achieving stability • bakir izetbegovic: vučić is humble leader who offers his hand • bakir izetbegovic: i am ready to visit places of serb suffering • dragan čović: cooperation with the region priority • dragan čović: we are able to resolve our problems alone • dragan čović: preserve political stability and coalition • milorad dodik: we are ready for the elections but at all levels • milorad dodik: dodik presented his loan contract • milorad dodik: key question preserving peace and security in 2016 the conflict and peace inclinations of political leaders, using same methodology as in the above, were also based on newspaper dnevni list. table 7. dnevni list on conflict vs. positive views of political leaders political leader conflict views positive views bakir izetbegovic 64% 36% dragan čović 38% 62% milorad dodik 32% 68% according to table 7 and analysis of randomly selected news from dnevni list, key political leaders expressed themselves as follows: bakir izetbegovic 36% positive views and 64% negative; dragan čović 62% positive and 38 negative and milorad dodik 68% positive and 32% negative. it is important to mention that dnevni list is croat oriented newspaper. it is very much visible through emphasis on news mostly related to croat-bosniak relations in fbih. perhaps this is one of the reasons why positive news are reported on entity rs and their leader milorad dodik. dnevni list presented mostly positive views of dragan čović (62%) in comparison to bakir izetbegovic (64%) whose views were mostly negative. data also indicated that bosniak-croat relations are partially based on conflict rather than peace politics. 146 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. mulalić & m. karić table 8. content analysis of dnevni list on conflict vs. positive views of political leaders (selected news from 90 news) newspaper negative news positive news dnevni list • bakir izetbegovic: be on the right side this is my offer • bakir izetbegovic: there are no positive developments in mostar • bakir izetbegovic: nothing can improve relations between serbia and bosnia and herzegovina • dragan čović: with izetbegovic, there are no more meetings on mostar • dragan čović: it is necessary to organize b&h based on four territorial units • dragan čović: covic was threatening with new partners • milorad dodik: bosnian language doesn’t exist • milorad dodik: genocide in srebrenica didn’t take place • milorad dodik: resign and i will call for new elections • bakir izetbegovic: it is necessary to talk to all • bakir izetbegovic: coalition is stable • bakir izetbegovic: prosperous b&h is main objective of sda • dragan čović: i called pope to visit b&h • dragan čović: this is our country and here we will stay and live • dragan čović: i believe that elections will be organized in mostar • milorad dodik: rs is not against eu: as soon as possible resolve mechanism of coordination • milorad dodik: serbs will not go to war • milorad dodik: dodik bowed down to the victim of genocide in srebrenica the conflict and peace inclinations of political leaders, using same methodology as in the above, were also based on newspaper dnevni avaz. table 9. dnevni avaz on conflict vs. positive views of political leaders political leader conflict views positive views bakir izetbegovic 32% 68% dragan čović 26% 74% milorad dodik 79% 21% according to table 9, dnevni avaz presented views of key political leaders as follows: bakir izetbegovic 68% positive views and 32% negative; dragan čović 74% positive and 26% negative and milorad dodik 21% positive and 79% negative. dnevni list is bosniak oriented newspaper. besides nezavisne novine and glas srpske newspapers, dnevni avaz also indicated that milorad dodik represented mostly conflict views on different socio-political issues. 147 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the politics of peace and conflict in bosnia and herzegovina table 10. content analysis of dnevni avaz on conflict vs. positive views of political leaders (selected news from 90 news) newspaper negative news positive news dnevni avaz • bakir izetbegovic: vučić should work on the reconciliation and not on making quick statements • bakir izetbegovic: we are attacked by those who are fighting for their positions • bakir izetbegovic: dodik’s accusations are meaningless, i would prefer if they postpone protests • dragan čović: the path of dominant bosnak entity is ill-favored politics • dragan čović: we do not give up six positions, ours is the ministry of finance • dragan čović: we cannot be the coalition if we don’t have common stand • milorad dodik: incko is not right, rs do not violate dayton • milorad dodik: after scotland rs should get ready! • milorad dodik: we will hold referendum for independence • bakir izetbegovic: sda and sbb will have the solution for mostar • bakir izetbegovic: croat question could be solved in the first half of 2016 • bakir izetbegovic: holy eucharist reminds us of splendor of diversity • dragan čović: b&h must follow european standards • dragan čović: we have shown the way of how to love our country • dragan čović: european path is again open for b&h • milorad dodik: giving the chance for structural dialogue in brussels • milorad dodik: rs is good and stable place to live regardless to religion and nationality • milorad dodik: radoncic’s legitimacy should be respected and appreciated conclusions and recommendations centuries old multicultural paradigm in bosnia and herzegovina was replaced with ethno-cultural paradigm due to the war and its implications. exclusive ethnic ideologies, coupled with the international tutelage and ineffective political approaches in bosnia and herzegovina, produced permanent crisis and the status quo. actually, ethno-cultural paradigm was furthermore enforced and pre-war culture of accountability, peace, dialogue and compromise were replaced with socio-political conflict based on fear and distrust. due to these reasons, this paper attempted to put in the perspective peace vs. conflict politics. indeed, it is significant to articulate the politics of peace, cooperation and soft diplomacy, because the creation of the positive socio-political environment is the precondition for bosnian stability and regional peace and cooperation. in spite of past and present socio-political predicaments, bosnia-herzegovina as a microcosmic multicultural model represents an increasingly interconnected and diverse world. bosnian multicultural paradigm counters the perspective of huntington’s clash of civilizations. therefore, multicultural paradigm is not only central to the rebuilding and transition of bosnia-herzegovina but to the global world as a whole. bosnia-herzegovina managed to incorporate ethnic, religious and cultural diversities, projecting a distinctive multicultural state identity. being a multicultural state, bosnia-herzegovina has always flourished as a part of a greater whole. therefore, the future of this small country lies in joining the eu, a family of nations that uphold diversity. upholding liberal values, cosmopolitan multiculturalism, the tradition and diverse socio-cultural values derived from bosnia’s past and present would in turn uphold and strengthen the eu road towards achieving the goal of creating a family of nations. based on the results from this study on political discourse and political relationships in terms of the conflict vs. peace politics we strongly believe that exclusive political approaches based on rigidity and conditioning, inherited from the war, could 148 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences m. mulalić & m. karić be substituted with the real politics, politics of peace and cooperation. therefore, we propose the following recommendations: political incorporation of ethnic, religious and cultural diversities; promotion of a distinctive multicultural state identity; promotion of scholarship and research on the relationship between conflict and peace politics; fostering peace/constructive not conflict/destructive approaches by leaders; and supporting political parties and leaders that use peace politics in bosnia and herzegovina. references batora, jozef and mokre, monika (eds.) 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(2014). “socio-cultural dimension of bosnia and herzegovina,” in mesut idriz and osman bakar (eds.) islam in southeast europe: past reflections and future prospects. ubd press, brunei. pp. 55-67 mulalic, muhidin. (2013). “balkans image, geopolitics and interdependence.” in muhidin mulalic, hasan korkut and elif nuroglu, (eds). turkish-balkans relations: the future prospects of cultural, political and economic transformations and relations. istanbul. mulalic, muhidin. (2009). “multiculturalism and eu enlargement: the case of turkey and bosnia-herzegovina.” in christoph marcinkowski ed., the islamic world and the west: managing religious and cultural identities in the age of globalisation. lit verlag berlin. mujkic, asim. (2007). mi gradjani etnopolisa. sarajevo: sahinpasic. nezavisne novine. http://www.nezavisne.com/ nye, j. s. (2004). power in the global information age. new york: routledge. parish, matthew. (2011). “comment: croat crisis pushes bosnia towards endgame,” balkan insight, http://www.balkaninsight.com /en/arti-cle/comment-croat-crisis-pushes-bosnia-towardsendgame. perry valery. (2005). “ethnic democracy in bosnia and herzegovina: containing the spectre?,” in the fate of ethnic democracy in post-communist europe, ed. sammy smooha and priit jarve, vol. 3. flensburg: the european centre for minority issues. pp. 209-239. šarčević, edin. (2009). dejtonski ustav: karakteristike i problem. ljubljana: ifimes. trnka, kasim. (2000). ustavno pravo. sarajevo. haris hojkurić* dželal ibraković* introduction: the 20th century is one of the deadliest centuries in human history. contemporaries often emphasize that the modern age has successfully brought violence under control although the great war or the first world war paved the way for a drastic use of violence in this century. british sociologist and one of the most significant interpreters of the last century, anthony giddens, will come to conclusion that this century, as so called “the century of modern societies”, was, according to the number of its armed conflicts, extremely violent and terrifying. maid taherian asserts that after 1900, there were approximately 250 international and civil wars and as a result 100 million soldiers and around 100 million civilians were killed. by counting only war victims, 18th century had a rate of 50 victims per million residents, in comparison to 60 victims in the 19th, and 460 in the 20th century. (by hersak, 1999: 32-33) epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies volume 7, number 2, 2014 p-issn 2303-6850 e-isnn 1840-3719 the forging of national states on the anvil of war abstract the progress of western countries and the colonization of oil-rich muslim countries clustered within the ottoman empire, which was located in the controlled agony of the new geo-strategic and technological processes, produced a turbulent beginning of the 20th century. the establishment of nation states has jeopardized the survival of monarchies such as austro-hungary, russia, and others. the battle for the new, above all, european order signified the world war, in political science but also in historiography, and it established the principle that the term “world” war refers to the conflicts waged in europe. the first world war was the site scene of the disappearance of the great empires and also the definite disappearance of the juncture of state and religion, as well as suppression of religion and other monarchist structures into new paradigms such as the nation-state, democracy and secularization. on the contrary, it opened the opportunity for the development of totalitarian regimes socialism and nazism created precisely in europe. muslim-majority countries were colonized and brought to a vassal state, and their rich natural resources were enslaved. the principle of the nation state was imposed upon them by imperial methods and brutal clashes with opponents, aiming to eliminate in the long term any significant force since the overthrow of the ottoman empire and the attempts to destroy turkey completely. bosnia and herzegovina and the balkans emerge as a collateral damage that lasts even in the 21st century. keywords: the “world war” state and nation; the balkans; territory and conflict *corresponding authors: haris hojkurić,, international university of sarajevo; dželal ibraković, faculty of political sciences, university of sarajevo; bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: hhojkuric@ius.edu.ba a small country in europe, bosnia and herzegovina, without any desire of its people, has marked this tendency by which the 20th century will be remembered in history. events in and around this country marked the beginning and the end of this murderous century. the annexation of bosnia and the assassination of the austro-hungarian archduke franz ferdinand and his pregnant wife sophia by gavrilo princip in sarajevo in 1914 were the events that introduced and formally launched the first world war. on the other hand, the aggression on bosnia (1992-1995) was treated as “ethnic conflict” or “civil war” in the balkans. this country also suffered a tremendous desolation during the second world war; in any of these cases its citizens, material goods and wealth were exposed to destruction, ruthless killings and plundering. scientists are faced with a multiple dilemmas that are not sufficiently clarified, and as a result there are many approaches to them even in the scientific circles. this is corroborated by the controversy concerning the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the assassination attempt in sarajevo – an entire century from the beginning of the first world war. there is no dilemma, however, about the fact that the criteria for a “world” war only applies to armed conflicts that took place in the european countries. this shows a rule of euro centrism in social relations in the world. there are, certainly, other opinions which consider that during the modern age (ongoing) the great war was a constant of human development which only improves the possibilities of destruction, and its objectives as such are not just military any more, but through the forms of national, ideological, religious and individual terrorism it expands itself to a war of all against all. the aim of this work is not to analyze the layers and complexities of international relations and geopolitical games which are present and increasingly gaining certain forms of conspiracy theories, or overemphasized roles of ideology, rigid divisions of the world on east and west or on the “good” and the “bad” guys. edward said rightly stated that “every single empire, in its official discourse, has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort.” engdahl (1999) points to some of these motives which are not the subject of the adopted and ruling views on the world. in the struggle for the control of strategic resources (energy and oil), he sees the explanation for the events that occurred in the 20th century and also the real causes of major conflicts that happened then and continued in the 21st century. the socio-historical concept of the 20th century is certainly important because this century brought unimagined achievements in the development of science, especially technology. the world system of capital relations was being established on the global level. the means of production which were mainly related to agriculture were conquering types of feudal empires, and they were never able to achieve any global significance. h.hojkurić and dž. ibraković the forging of national states on the anvil of war 28 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences industrial revolution led to such social changes which, sooner or later, involved global character. the fight for supremacy and control over strategic resources is still directed by the form of nation states. nation and nation state is the main product of the new world view, which enables the development of capital relations and it strives to have a dominant influence. its internal logic of existence is based on the profit and this goal is the guiding principle for the suppression of other forms and spheres of influence. this also applies to the suppression of the great feudal empires, of religion, and also other forms of social cohesion and solidarity. the demolition of values which were considered permanent, on which human society was based for the past several thousands of years, and the pace of the change that occurred intensively in the 20th century, represent the characteristic that led to the epochal changes, as well as the changes in power relations in the world. such changes were characterized by secularization, the availability of education and technology to all residents, the increase in the standard of living, faster physical and virtual communication, the flow of knowledge and capital, competition, globalization of the world, the spread of human right and freedom and many other achievements. they were all the potential for an unseen development. this potential reflected in all areas, and it would be unjust not to mention the great rise of the human race which resulted in the presence of man beyond the boundaries of earth. great inventions in all fields of life, including medicine, led to an increasing life expectancy and an increase in living standards led to a demographic “explosion” which became particularly expressed in the second half of the 20th century and it has multiplied the population of our planet. such an intensive development obviously contributed to the environmental imbalance, where the ecological problems are being very much expressed and they are being on the “other side” with many other negative consequences that are often concealed and represent the price of irrational spending of limited resources. climate change is only one part of the threats to the modern society. hostile serbia as the piedmont of the balkans the 20th century in the area of the balkans, as an imaginary space which has a more symbolic than geographical significance, has left open questions about the formation of the nation state. the process of formation of nation states in europe (france) begins after 1979. in this process, the formation of a nation was often treated as a formation of an “imagined community” (anderson), but there is no doubt that the international order, based on the sovereignty of people(known as “the right to self-determination”) established a nation state which appears on the ruins of feudal empires (katunovic, 2003, 96-98). of course, the principle of “one (majority) nationone country” has opened a pandora’s box where the territorial pretensions and the concept of “one nation” collide and leave room for interpretations which last up until today. bosnia and herzegovina is (once again) in the h.hojkurić and dž. ibraković the forging of national states on the anvil of war 29 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences spotlight. the inevitable departure of the ottomans from the balkans in the 19th century was accompanied by numerous remains of a century-long presence which left traces in all spheres of life and they are inevitably recognized even now. this “transition” occurred at a time when even within the ottoman state the “national question” was questioned, and the ideas of the young turks were gaining strength and dominance. multi-ethnic empire had another form of internal solidarity (monarchist sultan’s authority) which unified the caliphate character in yet another community that has not been sufficiently explored, and whose scope is usually minimized by artificial means. that is the muslim community, and it is consisted of followers of islam. they represent a real force, but through colonial conquests, the concept of nation made these countries primarily nation states formed by colonial borders and only optionally a part of a muslim community which has no significance in power relations of the world. on the contrary, since the occupation of iraq and palestine (made under the form of “liberation” by one of the major entente powersgreat britain) it has been shown that by breaking the solidarity of this kind of community, at the expense of formation of states such as saudi arabia, there is a possibility that the defense of some of the most important cultural foundations of the islamic community would be lost. defense of gaza by the ottoman army during the first world war was the last true defense of the indigenous inhabitants of palestine. unfortunately, the solidarity of other islamic countries was completely left out. this is something that is repeated in the 21st century, which shows that this kind of community withdrew itself before the enchanting idea of “its own nation” and “its own country”. it is so far clear that the idea of a nation and “own country” has opened many possibilities for defining the “unification of one nation” but even more for the definition of the “nation state”. this happened before and after the first world war (more: sokolovic, 2014). during the formation of nation states in the late 19th century and in the process of liberation before and after the wwi, bosnia had a great misfortune that its state uniqueness before the arrival of the ottomans (medieval bosnian state), which was also accepted by the ottoman and austro-hungarian governments, failed to endure at this time. namely we can agree with milenko markovic (2008) that there were continuing aspirations towards b&h, solely because its 2 main neighbors (serbia and croatia) did not fully profit in terms of definitely rounded national territory. in our opinion, the basic element of the disagreement between these two countries was not the “hatred” among serbs and croats but rather to whom should bosnia belong to. territorial aspirations of both sides could be observed in continuity. milenko markovic says: “these claims remained unrealized over the centuries, firstly because bosnian state uniqueness and multi-ethnicity refused to accept them, and secondly because the external factor was opposed to them as well.” bosnia, however, gained its state uniqueness during the middle ages along with the existence of serbian and croatian states. during the kotromanic dynasty, and even h.hojkurić and dž. ibraković the forging of national states on the anvil of war 30 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences more during the time of king tvrtko, bosnia was (in addition to dusan’s empire) the largest country in the balkans and it remained independent for the longest period of time. the second thing that history verifies is the fact that bosnia, with the exception of some of its smaller parts, has never been part of any serbian nor croatian state (except during the years of wwii when the germans and italians put b&h under the jurisdiction of pavelic’s independent state of croatia). otherwise, bosnian territorial and multi-ethnic distinctiveness was respected by both empires that ruled over it-turkey and austriahungary (markovic, 2008). the serbian and croatian undefined boundaries in the situation of undefined territory, especially of the nation state of serbia (which has lasted up to the modern era) there is a constant threat because of the tendency of encouraging “the serbs across the river drina” to revolt, to develop a specific patriotic feeling in which the “special serbism” is highlighted and this crashes any patriotic attachments of the orthodox population of b&h to the country where they were born and lived, as well as many of their ancestors. such strategy, which is clearly supported by each government in serbia, runs from the second half of the 19th century, the whole 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, and it reflects the ideas of serbia as a nation state which should have maximum territory. the concept of so-called “great serbia” is often perceived as as a national state of all serbs. besides the well known documents such as the famous “načertanija” by ilija garasanin (1844), there are numerous moves that indicate the ambiguous idea of joining the territory of bosnia and herzegovina, montenegro, macedonia as well as parts of croatia to this new state. serbia’s interest for liberation of other “south slavic brothers” was in the function of that national goal mainly as a project for the expansion of serbian state. serbia always favored the idea of unitary concept and not any kind of federation or co-federalization. the most common argument was the accomplished advantage of the power of weapons and force of the population number rather than any achievements of democracy (markovic, 2008). this approach, along with croatian aspirations, is one of the main reasons for the failure of the first and second yugoslavia. in 1899 a book by miroslav spalajkovic “la bosnie et l’ herzegovine“was published in paris, and it was a doctoral dissertation defended three years earlier. this book claimed that bosnia and herzegovina contains “the most valuable part of the serbian race”, and gaining bosnia is an existential issue for serbia (sehic, 2014). throughout this period, which has reflected the idea of the nation-state as the european project, the characteristics of the great empires which had a lot of influence on the events in the balkans were under attack. it is their multicultural character, multi-ethnic composition, which had survived and had become the main obstacle to the idea of a nation that was a substitute for repressed religion, and its flammable content had given strength h.hojkurić and dž. ibraković the forging of national states on the anvil of war 31 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences to various imposed movements. in the very center of the empires, there was a victory of the national idea and thus the nation state itself, from the german, hungarian to the russian or turkish national state. this kind of a new world image profiling in which the dominant nation state was able to mobilize millions of people who would go to war not for the idea of a community of nations, but for a union of states and above all in the name of their own nation. although the worldwide organization (un) has a name which resembles the “united nations”, it is in its essence, the unity of its state members-mostly national states. this applies to the european union in its modern form, where the insistence on standards, legislation and unification even of the human rights by certain cultural rules, is a recognition of the very ideas that simply overwrite the boundaries of the former multi-ethnic empires. the first world war was used as an anvil on which the nation states were forged and developed; the remains of the monarchist government were more part of the folklore. after the introduction of a compulsory military service, bosnia and herzegovina had a significant participation in austro-hungarian army. before the end of the 1917 there were 298,773 soldiers in bosnian troops. it is interesting that in all the records, the members of these troops were appointed as bosnians, a mark for all religions and peoples of bosnia and herzegovina. heroism that characterized these troops has led thousands of young men into death. in this war, austria-hungary mobilized 17.2% of the total male population in bosnia between the age of 16 and 70. the multi-religious bosnianhood, as a concept advocated by austria-hungary in an attempt to return this medieval concept into a collective memory, experienced a collapse with the growth of national movements and it was definitely abandoned with the disappearance of austria-hungary from the world scene. bosnia and herzegovina brought its own uniqueness into the new state of slovenes, croats and serbs, which was a community of yugoslavian people (again multiethnic!), but this uniqueness was not appreciated by the new authorities. this agreement between serbs, croats, and slovenes, at the time when nation-states were being determined all around europe, the colonial africa, but also around the world, has delayed the implementation of the concept of nation state in b&h. the tendencies of bosnia’s two neighboring countries were expressed through the “implication” of special connections between bosnian serbs and croats, as well as the attempt to separate all the territory from bosnia and herzegovina and to merge it with serbia (more open and evident effort) and croatia. these aspirations were continuous and they were shaken by the affirmation of bosnian statehood in the 1974 constitution which resulted in an attempt to terminate it with aggression and genocide against b&h from 1992-1995. conclusion h.hojkurić and dž. ibraković the forging of national states on the anvil of war 32 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences the shots fired in sarajevo, in 1914, symbolically marked the victory of the national state over the monarchist multiethnic empire. the historical paradox in this case is that this happened in the capital city of a country that will withstand great difficulty and destruction during the twentieth century, just to defend the idea of multi-ethnicity. bosniaks, people who are gathered around this national name (still more names than national ideologies) at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first century, are the majority population in bosnia. they are mainly muslims, one of the largest and most persistent (potentially) state-building groups in the “heart of europe”. as such, and in addition being in a struggle for multi-ethnicity, they have been labeled as “others” in europe which mainly consisted of one nation states. different geostrategic policies of the most powerful economic, political, and military powers are intertwined in a historical continuity over the territory of bosnia and herzegovina and the balkans, and an interesting fact is that no one is satisfied with anyone’s advantage. the qualification of the balkans (southeast europe) as the “other” shows yet another constant that becomes evident when it comes to the concept of nation state and that is, that in its implementation both orthodoxy (orthodox christianity) and islam are beyond the standard form of the nation state constitution. the orthodox people have a predominant theory of the nation as a community of blood and soil and they try to define their countries as larger by placing “predestined” and “historical” rights over other territories, and this leads to a myth production that causes territorial ambiguity, e.g. russia, serbia, ukraine, romania, bulgaria… in muslim majority countries the idea of the nation state was imposed as a part of a standard and enforced colonial relationship in which the ruling concept is based on the nation state and it sets the affiliation to a much wider community of muslims. all of this causes various problems and holds back the idea of a “new world order”, or the idea of liberal democracy and free market as the “end of history.” (fukuyama). forced transitions and the imposition of various models are common, and it is evident that bosniaks in bosnia and herzegovina became cross-eyed ever since the departure of the ottomans, with one eye looking towards istanbul and with the other towards the upcoming west, and out of the corners of their eyes trying to identify the threats from the neighborhood. we can agree with abdulgafar velic that in all these years, from the time of occupation, annexation, the first world war but also in the kingdom of yugoslavia, they built their identity on faith. as a result, the terms own country and nation, as represented in european culture, were set in the background (velic, 2013:168). this prevented bosnians to plan their conquests towards their neighbors, but also it developed a tolerance and acceptance of others who are different and this was a characteristic of bosnia and herzegovina. bosnians were among the first in europe who publically were opposed to fascism (bandzovic, 2010), and the fact that the elements of multiethnicity and multiculturalism held the pressure in the recent aggression (1992-1995) says that although the concept of coexistence of difference in one area could be a potential h.hojkurić and dž. ibraković the forging of national states on the anvil of war 33 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences alternative to the processes that produce conflicts, still these conflicts are becoming even more monstrous by the number of its victims and destruction. dzemal sokolovic (2014) has a point when he states that with the shots of gavrilo princip in sarajevo, europe shot itself, she entered the field of intolerance, bloody conflicts, totalitarian ideologies such as fascism and stalinism, holocaust and genocide, where victims are counted in hundreds of millions. therefore, in our opinion, we should reroute this dilemma about the 100th anniversary of the first world war, and switch it to another domain: whether the assassins are terrorists or heroes? they were the product and the weapon in the forging of new national boundaries, and without doubt, the shots in sarajevo represent a real media bomb in those flammable times which were preceded by atrocities of the first and second balkan war. that was a preparation and introduction to the great war which was vigorously knocking on the door as a solution to the “national question” of this, or that nation. it turned out that all of the ideas such as pan-slavic, south slavic, pan-islamic, pan-arab, have lost the battle with the nation state which still tries to line new boundaries, open new settlements in gaza, rattle arms around crimea, donetsk, kashmir, chechnya, syria, iraq, imaginary kurdistan and nagorno karabah. it threatens with referendums for secession, introduces the nuclear weapons and gas restrictions, and it intimidates with the triggering of the world war which, according to many, has never ceased to exist from the moment the first world war began. references bandžović, safet. 2010. bošnjaci i antifašizam, sarajevo. engdahl, f.william. 1999. the century of war (translation), sarajevo. heršak emil. 1999. etničnost i povijest, zagreb, institute for migration and ethnic studies, edition jasenski and turk, croatian sociological association. katunarić, vjeran. 2003. sporna zajednica (novije terorije o naciji i nacionalizmu. zagreb: edition jasenski and turk and croatian sociological association. marković, milenko. 2008. stvaranje i razaranje jugoslavije, republika br. 438 – 439 http://www.republika. co.rs/438-439/20.html (visited 09.10.2008.) schachinger, werner. 1996. bošnjaci dolaze, sarajevo: cambi. sokolović, džemal. 2014. „sukob nacionalne i multietničke države,“ e-novine, feljton od 21.08. 2014. – 27.08.2014. http://www.e-novine.com/feljton/ (posjeta 01.09.2014.) šehić, zijad. 2014. „sarajevski atentant – varnica koja je zapalila svijet,“ gračanički glasnik, god. xix br. 37, pp. 2794 velić, abdulgafar. 2013. bošnjaci i evropa, sarajevo, dobra knjiga. h.hojkurić and dž. ibraković the forging of national states on the anvil of war 34 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences 39 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences frenzied representation and the forbidden image: 9/11’s falling man and the unrepresentable kate birdsall, michigan state university, united states. abstract this article deconstructs the events surrounding the initial deletion of richard drew’s “falling man” photograph from the archive of september 11. via such philosophers as paul ricoeur and georges didi-huberman, it explores the ethical implications of examining the photograph, both by itself and in montage, and investigates american views of death and dying in that context. the testimonies and images that followed the collapse of the world trade center brought to the fore several prescient, though often ignored, philosophical questions which surround the nature of the image, its role in shaping the narrative of an event, and whether an image of a man in the last seconds of his life, directly following his decision to die but preceding his death, functions as a reminder that we might carefully interrogate what it means to deem something unimaginable, unfathomable, unrepresentable. keywords: cultural studies; american studies; philosophy; aesthetics epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences 40 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences k. birdsall introduction given the nature of twenty-four hour news channels, the internet, newspapers, magazines, and written narratives, we all became witnesses to an event that many deemed too horrific for certain types of representation, despite the fact that we, collectively and as a society, watched it happen. on september 11, 2001, even far away from the epicenter of what reporters began calling “an attack on america,” we, the media-consuming public, were overtaken by an almost immediate desire for details. the media, in an attempt to make sense of the event, presented viewers with a seemingly endless barrage of images, sound clips, and photographs to show us what happened, and our focusing question quickly shifted: who was responsible, and why? when the towers collapsed, this became even more relevant. everything stopped. air travel halted, schools closed. temporality lost its linear shape as we watched the endless loop of airplanes crashing and buildings collapsing. even when the shock passed, we demanded answers to the “who?” and the “why?” given the attachment to media coverage of the event, the television-watching public became obsessed with retribution. americans do not want to discuss death as a fundamental aspect of life, particularly when scores of us die within minutes or hours of one another on american soil. on september 11, questions surrounding death and dying became unpleasantly present in the collective american consciousness. a seemingly endless narrative about what happens when we die, particularly when traditional funerary rituals cannot take place due to the mutilation or disappearance of bodies, confronted, confused, and repelled us. journalists, photographers, and eyewitnesses went to great lengths to preserve what they saw and heard that morning, largely due to the american public’s demand for up-to-the-minute archiving, and the public responded with consternation: the direct attack on our fear of mortality, the destruction of the world trade center, and the testimonies and images that followed, brought to the fore several prescient, though often ignored, philosophical questions that i will investigate here. these questions surround the nature of the image, its role in shaping the narrative of an event, and whether an image of a man in the last seconds of his life, directly following his decision to die but preceding his death, functions as a reminder that we might carefully interrogate what it means to deem something unimaginable, unfathomable, unrepresentable. even within the media circus that 9/11 became, one kind of image quickly became taboo: though we demanded photographic evidence of what occurred and planted ourselves in front of our televisions to watch the loop of footage that is now emblazoned in our brains, we were offended--even viscerally repulsed--when the media fed us photographs and video of people jumping from the towers in the moments before their collapse. 41 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences frenzied representation and the forbidden image part 1: the photograph the photograph first appeared in newspapers on september 12, 2001. it was different, somehow, from other depictions of the event: the subject is a single human, clad in black and white, seemingly suspended in midair against a metallic gray, black, and white series of vertical lines. the male figure occupies only the upper third of the frame and is perfectly aligned with the background. spanning across the horizontal axis of the image, from upper-left to lower-right, is a series of four lines in the background, on a downward diagonal, that appear to be a reflection. the angle of the figure’s left leg runs parallel to these lines, forcing the eye across, down, and back to the human shape. the organic shape of the human figure exists in stark contrast to the geometric shapes behind him, and the hard lines set him apart. running vertically along the left side of the frame are black stripes; on the right, the stripes are gray, and a fine mist hovers in the middleground. the clearest part of the man is the silhouette of his black shoe, which stands out from the stark white-and-gray background. his hands are behind his back and appear to be folded. the only part of the frame that is a color other than black, white, gray, or silver is the man’s face, which is a shade of light brown, and what appears to be an orange undershirt under his white coat. he could be floating, hanging. he could be attached to an invisible cable. he could be superimposed onto the background, which, though we know is the world trade center, could be any office building, a striped set, or a reflection. the photograph could be a piece of art. without context, the image is almost soothing. it is, aesthetically speaking, beautiful. there are no signs of airplanes, of burning buildings, or of the tumult on the streets of new york. indeed, the image is still and quiet in a way that paradoxically underscores the enormity of the event: here is a man jumping from a height of 106 stories (approximately 1300 feet), reaching a speed of 150 miles an hour before hitting the ground some ten seconds after the jump. this is not what the photograph depicts. though it implies movement, both of the figure and of the viewer’s eye, it is almost static in its quietude, and from some distance the eye might not even register that the figure is human. richard drew’s photograph tells only one part of the story behind the most televised event in history, the event that produced the shock and awe which foreshadowed the bush administration’s later bombing campaign in iraq and which led to scores of art exhibits, books, websites, academic journals and anthologies, and a host of conspiracy theories. drew’s image was met with controversy from the beginning. newspaper editors describe the horror with which they met the photograph; the editor of the allentown, pennsylvania morning call, a traditional medium-sized newspaper, recounts 42 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences k. birdsall a long meeting with his editorial staff, during which some members got up and left, too sickened by the image to even consider publishing it (singer). hundreds of newspapers ran it anyway, and the public’s response was swift, effective, and indicative of the american desire--even need--to dismiss the photograph from collective memory. journalist tom junod describes one potential reason for this: “[t]he sight of the jumpers provided the corrective to those who insisted on saying what they were witnessing was ‘like a movie,’ for this was an ending as unimaginable as it was unbearable” (1).we had to avert our gaze; we never adjusted to falling man in quite the same way that we accepted the footage of the airplanes hitting the towers. drew’s photograph disappeared from view almost as quickly as it arrived, following a vehement public outcry against it. direct testimony about the violent feelings that falling man evoked falls onto a continuum of interrogatory outrage: one witness’ subjective “i couldn’t process the information” follows others’ empathetic “[it was] an impossible decision” and attempts to understand “the absolute horror of making that choice.” all of these were eclipsed by a more common judgment, one that reflects the visceral feelings that the photograph produced: “i felt like i was punched in the stomach [when i saw the photograph]. it feels obscene” (all qtd. in singer). people wrote letters and made phone calls in protest of the picture, claiming (in ways that echo arguments against photographs from auschwitz) that looking at it and other images of the jumpers was ethically wrong and morally corrupt. the media’s subsequent treatment of these photographic representations, as marc redfield explains in “virtual trauma: the idiom of 9/11,” illustrates the power of the jumpers on the american psyche: “[they became] a locus of fascination and of moralizing language about the importance of bearing witness. . . .where there is censorship there is desire. the jumpers were at the epicenter of a wider economy of ambivalence, within which frenzied representational activity coexisted with official and unofficial acts of negation” (70, emphasis mine).this unearths a paradox: the public, craving all of the information the media could provide, demanded images like “falling man,” but were simultaneously so deeply disturbed that they deemed such images unfit for public consumption. what the images depicted was unrepresentable. and significantly, though american demand has provoked the media to evolve into a culture of frenzied representation, the kind of intimacy present in a photograph like falling man arouses outrage. we want to see only what we can immediately understand, not something that forces us into an extended ethical and aesthetical deliberation about viewing the final seconds of a man’s life. junod’s september, 2003 esquire story about the falling man became another part of the 9/11 archive, largely because of its stunning characterization of media-addicted, yet moralistic, viewers: junod describes “a nation of voyeurs” who harbor “a desire 43 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences frenzied representation and the forbidden image to face the most disturbing aspects of our most disturbing day,” but simultaneously demand the deletion of the photograph from the archive. other critics have called viewing the photograph an act of “voyeurism, as though the jumpers’ experience, instead of being central to the horror, was tangential to it, a slideshow best forgotten” (3).in this way, the photograph represents the intricate relationship between viewers and the media: our collective conscious demands photographic evidence, but only if it doesn’t disturb us too much. we asked and newspapers responded by printing the photograph, after which the editors were met with a critique harsh enough to provoke self-censorship--nearly every image of the jumpers disappeared, and were swiftly substituted with images of firefighters and police, heroically braving the dust and flame to save survivors. the media replaced the jumpers with the heroes, seemingly because many americans wanted to see themselves differently: we/they craved a reflection of american fortitude and strength, not one of terror and of having to act in an unrepresentable way, seemingly based upon pure instinct. richard drew responded to attacks against him--”you can’t photograph this!”--and the ensuing hysteria by writing a brief article for the los angeles times, in which he connects this saga to americans’ fear of confronting mortality: “what unsettles people about the picture [is that] we look at it and we put ourselves in the jumper’s place. and we ask, ‘which option would i choose? would i wait and pray for help as the flames licked at me, or jump through fresh air and sunlight, to certain death?” (3). drew goes on to describe the manner in which editors explained their self-censorship to him, recounting a conversation in which an editor said “americans don’t want to look at pictures of death and dying over their morning cornflakes” (qtd. in drew 2). drew responds to this by making a direct connection to the other: “i think they’re fine with it, as long as the victims aren’t american” (2). i take this one step further: they’re fine with it as long as the victims aren’t american and aren’t committing a culturally taboo act that, in all of its horror, forces americans to contemplate whether or not they would do the same thing given the same circumstances. in drew’s words, “he is you and me” (3). this reveals another paradox: if “he is you and me,” alterity forecloses the possibility of empathy. in this case, it might be that we have absorbed the falling man and assumed his burden for ourselves. part 2: representing the unrepresentable and the question of interpretation all of this raises significant ethical questions about the nature of photography that one might compare to the discourse that georges didi-huberman unravels in his 2008 images in spite of all: four photographs from auschwitz and that simultaneously echo paul ricoeur’s historiographical process as outlined in memory, history, forgetting. in the latter, ricoeur explores the essence of the unrepresentable, 44 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences k. birdsall describing it as “something in the event itself so monstrous as to put to flight all the modes available to representation” (256). his investigation of “the principle of a distinction between interpretation and fact,” and assertion that the distinction itself is “undetermined, and the boundary between ‘true’ and ‘false,’ ‘imaginary’ and ‘factual,’ ‘figurative’ and ‘literal’ story falls” illuminates the ethical questions surrounding falling man: the fact is that people jumped from the towers in a final act of desperation, and that many others would likely do the same thing, despite their unwillingness to contemplate the act (256). interpretations, however, are more complicated; in this case, they range from outright denial (“they didn’t really jump” or “they were blown out of the building in an explosion”) to the focus on heroism that the media offered as a replacement for the troublesome images. in the case of “falling man,” the media replaced the facts of the event with the figurative “american hero” as a way to mend our fractured collective psychology and to craft an archive with which we are more comfortable. ricoeur’s assertion that “it is an illusion to believe that factual statements can satisfy the idea of the unrepresentable, as though facts could through the virtue of their literal presentation be dissociated from their representation in the form of events in a history” is, therefore, accurate. the public could not accept any interpretation of a fact that they could also not accept (257). though the jumpers were american citizens, they became the other, albeit a paradoxical other, following their tragic final action. facts and interpretation are intimately linked in the formation of any archive, and any attempt to alter the archive by eliminating photographs like falling man and replace them with heroic images illustrates the significance of interpretation within the scope of historiography. aesthetics and ethics, then, become nearly inseparable. when we are confronted with a disturbing image, particularly when taken out of context, we may make an initial aesthetical judgment (falling man is a beautiful image), but that judgment is quickly replaced with the question of whether or not we should look at the photograph--an ethical judgment. the relationship to the photographic object becomes a juxtaposition between an event and a way of classifying and understanding that event. didi-huberman’s insistence that the archive can--and does--reveal significant ideologies behind the marriage of aesthetics and ethics corresponds to ricoeur’s assertion that, to reach the possibility of total reflection and absolute knowledge, one must imagine--and even retrace--historical time. in this case, one might argue that replaying the footage of the airplanes hitting the world trade center retraces one aspect of historical time; i would add that, in order to reflect on the event in an ethical manner, we must include images of the jumpers, despite their disturbing nature. we must see the images in order to imagine the horror of 9/11 which, in turn, “contradict[s] the dogma of the unimaginable” (didi-huberman 64), thereby revealing significant aspects of an event 45 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences frenzied representation and the forbidden image that we would rather forget. didi-huberman explains this: “when images disappear, words and feelings also disappear. so, too, does transmission itself ” (84). two of didi-huberman’s harshest critics, gérard wajcman and elizabeth pagnoux, argue that looking at photographs of this kind is fundamentally problematic, given their status as what wajcman classifies as “beyond imagination” (qtd. in didi-huberman 27). for wajcman, the photographs from auschwitz are an attempt to represent the unimaginable in a way that runs the “risk of overinterpretation,” resulting in “reassuring falsehood” that poses significant ethical and political dangers by “assimilating everything” (51-53). pagnoux’s arguments against interpreting the photographs stems from her fear of turning an analysis into a “reconstitution, fiction, creation . . . [a] relentless determination to destroy the gaze” (54).the problem that wajcman and pagnoux have with the four photographs from auschwitz is indeed one of interpretation and not of fact, which echoes the primary criticism of falling man. you can’t take photographs of that because capturing the image of a man in his final moments of life is, in wajcman’s words, “unimaginable.” you shouldn’t interpret this photograph of the jumper because any interpretation, in pagnoux’s words, will “nullify memory” (54). it is as if interpretation were outright impossible. indeed, “unimaginable” is also a word that surfaced in response to drew’s photograph. didi-huberman’s reply to wajcman and pagnoux, that “’unimaginable’ is a tragic word,” and that failing to include the photographs in a montage “dissociates history from concept” (101, 103, original emphasis) becomes relevant to this investigation for a number of reasons. firstly, there exists a significant question about the american media’s replacement of images of the jumpers with images of heroes, seemingly in an attempt to sanitize the event and make it less disturbing (if such a thing is possible). secondly, the falling man narrative illuminates didi-huberman’s insistence that by asking too much or too little of an image, we develop a “fragmentary . . . relation to the truth to which they bear witness” that leads to inadequacy, in the case of asking too much, or a removal from “their phenomonology, from their specificity, and from their very substance,” in the case of asking too little (32-33).the solution, then, might be to consider the photograph not as the all-image of 9/11, but as one aspect of a horrific event. by including falling man and images like it in a photographic montage of that day, the archive can go beyond “the pure and simple ‘reflection’ of the event . . . [or] pure and simple ‘evidence’” as a way to “reintroduce the historical singularities into the theoretical thinking of the phenomenon” (101, 103, original emphasis). even in an age when, as didi-huberman phrases it, the terrible has become a commodity, the images force us to remember--lest we forget, and thereby, following ricoeur, forgive--the event in all of its parts, including the distressing reality of the 46 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences k. birdsall jumpers. far from functioning to reinforce the fetishistic voyeurism that wajcman and pagnoux fear, allowing the photograph into the montage reflects didi-huberman’s argument that forming a connection between image and truth is just as important as the one between seeing and knowing. in other words, images unearth aspects of the factual truth that might lead to the ability to interpret them in a way that functions to foster a better understanding of history. the fundamental problem at the root of this controversy is that looking at falling man in montage is not easy. in fact, when put into context, alongside photographs of firefighters, burning buildings, explosions, and the faces of human horror on the street, it becomes an example of an image functioning “to show what we cannot see,” to “visually transcend the trivial contrasts between the visible and the invisible” (133, original emphasis)--it becomes an abjection. we cannot “see death,” nor can we see how someone might make the choice to jump from the world trade center. we cannot “see what the witnesses experienced,” but including the forbidden image in the archive “gives the visual experience a power that our visible certainties or habits have the effect of pacifying, or veiling” (136, original emphasis).we must look in order to understand. didi-huberman’s contention that photographic testimonies form a vital part of the archive that historians have an ethical obligation to include, if taken as logically sound, forecloses the possibility of continuing to eliminate falling man from the archive of 9/11. for didi-huberman, calling a horrific event “unimaginable” and insisting that disturbing images fetishize the event become a form of unforgivable dishonesty. indeed, one might take this to its logical extreme and decide that not considering the images is far worse than including them in the archive. didi-huberman’s use of a ricoeurean tactic--recognizing that it is an impossible task to think about the world without the microhistories that such photographs illustrate--effectively deconstructs wajcman’s argument that looking is fundamentally unjust, pagnoux’s contention that looking encourages us to fetishize the image, and by extension, the declaration presented by critics of falling man that we should not allow ourselves to see this aspect of the event. there are no facts in the archive; it is all interpretation. even if the photographs elicit “real horror[, which is] a source of impotence for us,” including them can be a source of action, not impotence. by confronting horrific images that disturb us to the core, we may employ our judgment to “situate the ethical question itself. . . . is it as a fellow human [en tant que semblable] that one human being becomes the executioner of another [?]” (154, original emphasis). is it as fellow humans that we might stop to ponder the horrible decision to jump or not, thus forcing us to contemplate the question of mortality that we so wish to avoid? is it as fellow humans that we might allow falling man into the archive, in order to recognize our alterity and uncover the truth of the event? 47 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences frenzied representation and the forbidden image if the photographs, a form of witness testimony, are “a possible point of contact . . . between the image and the real “ (75, original emphasis), this underscores his later point that they are “neither nothing nor all” (111).indeed, no narrative is neither nothing nor all. every narrative is a point of contact, and our human desire to seek cohesive narratives that represent universal ideas may enable us to form a version of the truth that branches beyond mere intersubjectivity and into a realm where, by taking a dialectical approach, we begin to imagine visually and linguistically. we need the images (or photographic testimony) alongside the written and oral testimonies in order to responsibly build an archive. the philosophical question thus changes: what do we protect when, like wajcman, we question the validity of an image, or of any testimony? is calling something “unimaginable” a mere “simple refusal to think the image,” or is it symptomatic of a more sinister underlying ideology (158)? my response is, on the surface, simple: in order to be ethical, we have to look at the images in order to establish connections between aesthetics, ethics, and history. the imagination itself can be an ethical and political faculty: when we view falling man, we recognize a human being who is similar to us, which reinscribes the horror that the event produced. contemplating having to make that choice is difficult but necessary. far from “unimaginable,” the image reminds us that, in didi-huberman’s words, “in the fact of every image we have to choose whether, or how, to make it participate in our knowledge and action” (180). ricoeur’s definition of history as the transference of memory to a narrative of the “presence of absence or absence of a previous presence” (ricoeur 22) connects to didi-huberman’s insistence that we should use the images--even if they are neither nothing nor all--to ask questions. ricoeur asserts that historical writing functions to represent the past, thereby creating a historical text that represents the events stored in our archives, and which have been questioned in terms of “why?” and “because.” this reflects the debate between wajcman and didi-huberman: “why these images, when they’re not the all-image?” might be answered, in this case, with a simple “any act of the image is snatched from the impossible description of a reality” (didi-huberman 125).in this respect, the question here is not as transparent as a ricoeurean witness saying “i was there. if you don’t believe me, ask someone else,” because of the public outcry against the photographs. it becomes more about compiling witness testimony alongside images like these. if we read the photographs as narrative, and then read the narrative surrounding the photographs, we uncover a hidden ideology that we, with didi-huberman, might wish to question. the question becomes one of ethical-responsibility-through-interpretation, and whether we are willing to aesthetically and ethically interpret such disturbing images.indeed, they are not “unimaginable.” on the contrary. falling man and images like it contain the traces of the past from which we may build archives and history. 48 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences k. birdsall part 3: grief, derrida’s impossible possibility, and the “not yet” of death one aspect of this photograph that is difficult to ignore is the fact that it does not depict a dead man. it shows the act of death, the final moments of a man’s life. due to his infinite suspension in midair, the man illustrates aspects of what derrida, in his 2002 acts of religion, calls “hostipitality,” or an act of mourning that doubles as hospitality, and what judith butler characterizes as “grievability,” or a way of marking lives that can be lost, lives that matter. derrida’s description of hospitality as a temporal category, or of “the question of waiting, of the time of waiting and of waiting beyond time” (derrida 359) works to illuminate his earlier ruminations about the “not yet” of death in ways that directly apply to an image of a man who has not yet died. the photograph intrudes upon our conception of hospitality-to-the-other, since our absorption of the falling man requires an alterity that forecloses the possibility of empathy. and, though we cannot offer hospitality to the falling man or indeed to any other, it functions as a way of “welcoming the other that does not warn me of his coming” (381).when it does occur, it marks a paradoxical version of alterity: “i am like [comme] the other, there where i cannot be, and could never be like him, in his resemblance, his identification, or in his place” (390). though we can grieve the life of the other, even that grief collapses as we absorb aspects of that life. this absorption makes the man constantly grievable; our identification with the other, in this case, means that we grieve our own future deaths as we watch him fall. this philosophical aporia challenges richard drew’s contention that the empathetic response to the photograph might be the source of any argument against it: even though he is not me, he could be me and i could be him. by the time we view the image, the man is already dead and, despite surface differences, he will have died in the same way that, once we are gone, we all will have died. within american culture there exists an aversion to questioning and confronting mortality, particularly suicide; in fact, the subject is almost taboo, and we frequently relegate serious discussions of it to quiet whispers among close friends and family. we cannot prove that the world trade center jumpers made any kind of conscious decision to jump; in fact, the evidence indicates that, in many cases, jumping was an act of desperation, not premeditation. one thing is certain, however: when we were confronted with the pictures of jumpers, the rhetoric that followed included the notion that, somehow, they were other, particularly in relation to the heroes who stepped in to save lives. in her 2006 precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence, butler makes an assertion about the nature of other-in-death that, though based in her reading of levinas, elucidates aspects of derrida’s conception of hospitality to the other: [m]y own foreignness to myself is, paradoxically, the source of my ethical connection with others. i am not fully known to myself, because part of what i am is the enigmatic traces of others. in this sense, i cannot know myself perfectly or know my ‘difference’ from others in an ir49 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences frenzied representation and the forbidden image reducible way. . . .i am wounded, and i find that the wound itself testifies to the fact that i am impressionable, given over to the other in ways that i cannot fully predict or control. (46) we did not want to imagine ourselves as enigmatic traces of people who jumped out of buildings; we resist that kind of horrible alterity. any kind of connection that we may have had to people who had to make such a terrible decision reminds us that we are like they were: we are human, and we may have made the same choice under similar circumstances. the “testimony of the wound” that butler describes functions as a reminder of this, and the fact remains that we may not have been able to predict or control our behavior in response to the photograph. even though drew may have made an ethical decision when he shot the frames and the editors certainly made one when they ran the photograph in newspapers, we could not know that part of ourselves because, to use derrida’s phrasing, such knowledge is “incalculable.” for derrida, the incalculable is anything that escapes rational structures. it is a moment that cannot be communicated, which leads us into an attempt to communicate that incommunicability. in this case, so many people were so shocked and offended by the image that even the possibility of expressing incommunicability became impossible: it escaped our collective grasp. in aporias, derrida demands that we accept the incalculable as a possibility, and his description of “the very concept of culture [as] . . . synonymous with the culture of death” highlights the importance of resisting the urge to bury the image (43). the media’s self-censorship thus becomes intricately woven with questions surrounding borders and limits. in the case of falling man, derrida’s paradoxical formulation lives: richard drew communicated that which was incommunicable, leading to the foreclosure of any possibility of an ethical or aesthetical consideration of the image. the choice to jump is more incalculable than the image itself for a moralistic society that refuses to empathize with other human beings who were confronted with an impossible choice. the idea of suicide, even under incalculable duress, pushes the limits of what we choose to contemplate. making the jumpers other illustrates our collective need to maintain a safe distance between ourselves and anyone who jumped. though they are not me, i am like they are. i may contain a part of them that inextricably alters me. and this might make me uncomfortable, irritated, less likely to be hospitable. in butler’s words, “to kill the other is to deny my life” (butler xxvi).within this image, then, alterity, hospitality, and mourning converge into grief for the falling man--and for ourselves. this, too, is incalculable. in aporias, derrida, following heidegger, divides the conception of death into three levels. the singular level involves a death that is always individual. no one can die for another person; each person must die his or her own death, and one’s death is 50 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences k. birdsall exclusively his or her own. in the case of falling man, many seemed content to consider death from this perspective alone. the universal level, however, involves the securing of a priority of questioning death in an existential sense, before biology, theology, physics, or anthropology, and this is where we broke down in our consideration of the image. the particular level encompasses questions of culture and history and becomes connected to the singular in this way: because our culture is so adverse to any such existential questions, we were satisfied to relegate the image to an example of the singular level, foregoing any interrogation of the culture and history from which the jumpers came. the “not yet” precedes the incalculable in this way: for derrida, the possibility of death (“i can die”) and the impossibility of death (“i cannot die”) represent the possibility of death’s impossibility, and mark an inaccessibility of death as such. the photograph forced us to consider the possibility of our own deaths in similar circumstances; we only know about the possibility of death at all because of our experiences with others’ deaths, which reveals another paradox. the possibility of death exists even without an adequate system of representation, and even when a representation, like falling man, is inadequate. the “not yet” always comes too soon or too late, and part of the problem that the public had with drew’s photograph may be that it depicts the “not yet” in such stunning fashion. the suddenness of the appearance of the man’s image in our minds constitutes a temporal moment that violates the idea of the incalculable: it makes visible a moment that we do not wish to see, opens wounds that we would prefer to keep hidden, and illustrates that the “stages of grief ” with which we are all familiar break down when confronted with such a haunting violation of our resistance to alterity. closure: an ethical decision americans remember, vividly and often disturbingly, where we were when it happened. over the course of this investigation, i tried to explain the nature of my research to various people. i was met with “i remember exactly where i was when it happened” followed by a narrative, some hesitant, some longer than others, of witness testimony. “my aunt was there.” “i was in brooklyn and felt the ground vibrate.” “i was on my way to work and heard it on the radio.” “i was watching the today show and it came on.” “i thought it was a joke until i saw the footage.” “it was like one of those apocalypse movies.” i remember where i was, too: i was on my way to work and heard it on the radio. i was listening to a popular morning talk show at the time, and immediately thought the host was making a most inappropriate joke, and i recall thinking that he had finally gone overboard. when i arrived at work, i pulled out the television, turned on 51 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences frenzied representation and the forbidden image the one station that the antenna would receive, and became completely immersed in the instant replay. my first reaction, that it must be a joke, was met with the slow realization that it was really happening. my response was not an uncommon one. tom junod writes that “[w]e have somehow taken it upon ourselves to deem [the jumpers’] deaths unworthy of witness--because we have somehow deemed the act of witness, in this one regard, unworthy of us” (junod 5), which underscores didi-huberman’s contention that taking photographs can be an ethical and political act. didi-huberman argues that photography is a performative act that cannot be separated from the documentary core of an event. though there is something in falling man that we might wish to call “unrepresentable”; that is, the decision to jump, the desperate act of jumping, what it must feel like to free-fall for over 1300 feet, and the inevitable landing, the empathy that it could evoke in viewers, were it not for alterity, should not be overlooked. indeed, the empathy/alterity division might be the problem; forcing people to ask themselves what they would do in such a situation makes the event present in a way that other kinds of images cannot. at the time, this was unfathomable--and in fact, the american media decided to replace the “disturbing” images of the jumpers with heroic pictures of firefighters and police officers, risking their lives to save survivors in the midst of chaos. the jumpers became the other: they were not me and not heroic, in spite of the fact that they became a part of me and of my recollection of the event. collective consciousness demanded that we make some images taboo in order to encourage the “correct” ethical judgment--that 9/11 was too horrible for words or certain kinds of images--thereby eliminating any possibility of an objective ethical judgment about jumping, about photographing the jumpers, and about the need to include the photograph in the montage of 9/11. 52 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences k. birdsall references butler, judith. 2000. antigone’s claim: kinship between life and death. new york: columbia up. print. --2010. frames of war: when is life grievable? new york: verso. print. --2006. precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence. new york: verso. print derrida, jacques. 1993. aporias. trans. thomas dutoit. stanford: stanford up. print --2002. “hostipitality.” acts of religion. ed. gil anidjar. new york: routledge. print. didi-huberman, georges. 2008. images in spite of all: four photographs from auschwitz. trans. shane b. lillis. chicago: u of chicago p. print. doran, robert. 2008. terrorism and cultural theory: the singularity of 9/11. substance #115, 37(1), pp. 3-19. drew, richard. 2001. falling man. photograph. esquire. --2003. the horror of 9/11 that’s all too familiar. the los angeles times online edition.10 september 2003. dupuy, jean-pierre. 2008. anatomy of 9/11: evil, rationalism, and the sacred. substance #115, 37(1), pp. 33-51. huk, peter. 2005 monological discourse and the creation of villains: a staging of witnesses after 9/11. third world quarterly 26(3), pp. 543-550 huyssen, andreas. 2002. twin memories: afterimages of nine/eleven. grey room 7, pp. 8-13. junod, tom. 2003. the falling man. esquire. 8 september 2003. kant, immanuel. 2007. critique of judgement. trans. james creed meredith. oxford world’s classics, new york.(originally published 1793) kirshenblatt-gimblett, barbara. 2003. kodak moments, flashbulb memories: reflections on 9/11. tdr (1988-) 47(1), pp. 11-48. kristeva, julia. 1982. powers of horror: an essay on abjection. trans. leon s. roudiez. columbia university press, new york. kroes, rob. 2009. indecent exposure: picturing the horror of 9/11. new debates in american studies: american multiculturalism after 9/11.amsterdam university press, amsterdam, pp, 67-79. kübler-ross, elizabeth. 1969. on death and dying. routledge, new york. lyotard, jean-françois. 1992. the inhuman--trans. geoffrey bennington and rachel bowlby. stanford university press, stanford. mills, nicolaus. 2009. images of terror: enduring the scars of 9/11. dissent 56(4), pp. 75-80. morrione, deems d. 2006. when signifiers collide: doubling, semiotic black holes, and the destructive reminder of the american un/real. cultural critique 63, pp. 157-173. rancière, jacques. 2009. the emancipated spectator. trans. gregory elliott. verso, new york, pp. 83-106. --2007. the future of the image--trans. gregory elliott. verso, new york, pp. 109-138. redfield, marc. 2007. virtual trauma: the idiom of 9/11. diacritics 37(1), pp. 55-80. ricoeur, paul. 2004. memory, history, forgetting--trans. kathleen blamey and david pellauer. university of chicago press, chicago. 9/11: the falling man. 2006. dir. henry singer, 4od documentaries, 2006. spivak, gayatri chakravoty. 2004. terror: a speech after 9-11 1 my definition of “we,” for purposes of this argument, is limited to those like myself, who, in the days immediately following the events of 9/11, were riveted by the media coverage of the event. since so many members of the american--and, indeed, global--public relied on the media for upto-the-minute coverage of the attack’s aftermath, i have adopted the pronoun “we” to signify those 53 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences frenzied representation and the forbidden image of us who maintained an eye on the mediascape following the tragedy. politically speaking, the media in fact created the kind of climate that allowed for the deletion of falling man; though the image was not reproduced frequently following its initial run in several hundred newspapers, it is clear that few have forgotten it. 2 the intrusion upon the linearity of temporality reflects lyotard’s idea, outlined in the inhuman, of negative presentation; that is, the media footage of the event may have indicated the fact that, in fact, the event could not be presented. though we attempted to grasp the largeness of 9/11, we could not. indeed, for lyotard, any assertion of the unrepresentable becomes a temporal category. 3 even within the large body of peer-reviewed academic work on 9/11 that exists, falling man is conspicuously under-represented. for an extended reflection on digital photography merging with events themselves and photography following 9/11, see barbara kirshenblatt-gimblett’s 2003 “kodak moments, flashbulb memories: reflections on 9/11.”many of the academic explorations of 9/11 have been, as one might imagine, deeply political: see andreas huyssen’s 2002 “twin memories: afterimages of nine/eleven” for a compelling exploration of the political meanings behind the commemorations, robert doran’s 2008 “terrorism and cultural theory: the singularity of 9/11” for an analysis of the need for a holistic interpretation of the event and direct connections between the attacks and american aversion to islam, or gayatri chakravoty spivak’s 2004 “terror: a speech after 9-11,” which focuses on kant’s “enlightened scholar” and potential humanities-based approaches to the event. rob kroes (2009) treats falling man among other images. he focuses on the connection between drew’s photograph and don delillo’s 2007 novel of the same name, and asserts that “there may come a time when drew’s picture will be seen and remembered in its full iconic power, finding its place in the continued quest for the meaning of 9/11” (p. 77). 4 in critique of judgement, immanuel kant (1793/2007) describes the faculty of thinking the particular as contained under the universal and the disinterested pleasure that precedes any judgment of the beautiful (§1-5). he goes on to describe claims to universality that such judgments assume (§6-9).this becomes relevant to this argument because aesthetic judgments can be neither cognitive nor based in use value; judging the photograph to be aesthetically beautiful is therefore impossible when it is taken within its context; however, it may be judged as beautiful when it stands alone. 5 julia kristeva (1982) might label this an instance of collective abjection. because the man will ultimately die, we might consider kristeva’s characterization of the corpse: “[it] is the utmost of abjection. it is death infecting life. it is something rejected from which one does not part, from which one does not protect oneself as from an object. . . . it beckons to us and ends up engulfing us” (p. 4).see powers of horror: an essay on abjection. 6 junod’s article identifies the source of the media’s self-imposed censorship of the image as being connected to “the story behind [the photograph] . . . and the search for the man pictured in it [as] our most intimate connection to the horror of that day” (p. 1). following the reception of the photograph, junod became admittedly obsessed with finding the man whom drew had captured on film, as if identifying the unrepresentable with a name, an occupation, and a life story would soothe the apoplectic american psyche. 7 for a compelling analysis of the kinds of empathy evoked by falling man and other pictures of the jumpers, see nicolaus mills (2009). mills posits that “the key to the newspapers’ pictorial coverage of 9/11 was the ability of their photographers to capture scenes of individual suffering and heroism that allowed the big picture to become an intimate one” (p. 76), and goes on to explore the debate about how to classify the people who jumped; the new york coroner’s office refused to rule their deaths suicide. mills also explores some possibilities about what it means to replace horrifying 54 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences k. birdsall photographs with more straightforward “stor[ies] behind . . . flag-raising” (p. 79). redfield (2007) makes a connection to judith butler’s statements about intersubjectivity, writing that if we affirm that part of our own individual identities stem from the “enigmatic traces of others,” it makes absolute sense that we do not want to look at the pictures, since we’re confronted with a trace of someone who made a decision that we might make (p. 62). 8 i am not comparing the events of 9/11 with the events of the shoah, but merely using didi-huberman’s text as a way of investigating the debates between aesthetics and ethics that occurred in both situations. 9 one photograph that grew to represent 9/11 is thomas franklin’s three firefighters, which depicts three new york firefighters raising an american flag, which they had captured from a yacht, in the ash and rubble of the world trade center. the photograph immediately appeared almost everywhere, including on the front pages of newspapers and the cover of time magazine, and franklin became a celebrity and a pulitzer prize finalist. the iconic image came to signify american strength and fortitude in the wake of tragedy: newsweek ran it on its cover with the title “god bless america” in its special report on 9/11 and returned to the firefighters a year later in another special issue. in 2002, the photograph became a united states postage stamp with the title “heroes usa.” 10 there exist several pieces by derrida on the nature of hospitality. here, i am making reference to “hostipitality,” a chapter in his 2002 acts of religion. 11 junod, in his exploration of the identity of the man, uncovers some jumpers’ underlying health problems (like asthma) that may have provoked them to seek fresh air and caused them to jump or to fall. 12 this is also reminiscent of derrida’s future anterior construction. in the case of “falling man,” the future anterior reveals its significance: from here, we have to say “he will have died,” not “he is dead” or “he is dying.” we want to put the image, and possibly the signified itself, under erasure in order to avoid this unimaginable construction. 13 indeed, part of the ongoing debate about the jumpers has been completely (and paradoxically) ethical: under what conditions is suicide acceptable? in a largely judeo-christian american society, it is unacceptable to many in most cases, even when one is faced with the alternative of burning to death. 14 in the future of the image, jacques rancière (2007) explores the unrepresentable as being “[that] which is the central category of the ethical turn in aesthetic reflection [and] is also a category that produces an indistinction between right and fact, occupying the same place in aesthetic reflection that terror does on the political plane. the idea of the unrepresentable in fact conflates two distinct notions: impossibility and interdiction” (p. 124). in the emancipated spectator, rancière (2009) makes a significant point that, although outside of the scope of this argument, deserves further consideration: viewing images of this kind makes the spectator guilty (p. 88).he goes on to argue that an image is much more than a duplicate of reality, and unearths a disturbing aspect of witnessing: “the true witness is one who does not want to witness. . . .the force of the silence that translates the unrepresntability of the event exists only through its representation” (pp. 91-92). the stages of grief to which i refer here were popularized by elizabeth kübler-ross who, in her 1969 on death and dying, characterized grief as moving in a linear fashion through, respectively, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. my argument here, following derrida and butler, is that this is impossible in a situation that invokes constant, never-ending grief. 15 jean-pierre dupuy’s 2008 “anatomy of 9/11: evil, rationalism, and the sacred” focuses largely on the linguistic problems with terms like “9/11” and “ground zero” but also represents the body 55 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences frenzied representation and the forbidden image of academic work on 9/11--despite its formal tone and compelling analysis, dupuy’s article also includes a lengthy first-person narrative about his own experiences during the aftermath of the event. 16 deems d. morrione (2006) explores writing itself as a kind of violence against an event (after derrida). in addition, morrione makes an interesting connection to the idea of the other as i have presented it here, writing that “what was actually destroyed on september 11, 2001 [was] the ability of america to serve as the symbolic center of global politics for itself and the other” (p. 159, original emphasis). the loss of this symbolic center may partially explain the american need to replace the photographs with hero-narratives and images; this connects to the ideas put forth by judith butler (2000, 2010) in antigone’s claim and in frames of war: when is life grievable?. emir hadžikadunić* introduction the iranian foreign policy could be analyzed through different perspectives and case studies. in fact, many academic attempts have been made to refer the iranian foreign policy to existing international relation theories. iranian nuclear program is one of those cases that could draw additional light into the complexity of iranian foreign policy behavior and there are several reasons for this assessment. first of all, it has remained as an important diplomatic topic on the international agenda that lasted since the islamic revolution of 1979. second, it particularly exposed iranian foreign policy decision-makers to their western counterparts in the last decade. third, like no other topic, it draws a light into different, some have stated, conflicting foreign policy perceptions of existing iranian establishment. three last iranian presidents have been involved in this case in different political and regional circumstances and different negotiating frameworks with the international community. these circumstances and their opposing views and actions have also provided epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies volume 7, number 2, 2014 p-issn 2303-6850 e-isnn 1840-3719 understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program abstract this paper examines the complexity of the iranian foreign policy through the case of iranian nuclear program and analyzes foreign policy orientations of the last three iranian presidents, mohammad khatami, mahmoud ahmadinejad and hassan rouhani in dealing with the international community in pursuing its nuclear program. this assessment would not be complete without reference to the iranian supreme leader ali khamenei who is the most powerful political authority. this paper also examines iranian foreign policy expectations with various theories of international relations as to identify the most dominant or the most consistent policy orientation. its aim is also to strengthen realist and power-based explanations that have dominated the discourse on the middle eastern in general and iranian foreign policy in particular. in this context, a number of questions will be addressed here. to what extend was iranian negotiation with the international community over its nuclear program consistent throughout these three presidencies? what has changed, if anything, from iranian foreign policy perspective and why? can iranian foreign policy behavior on this specific topic and in this specific time be explained through any international relations theory? the methods employed in answering these questions are largely structured around ethnographic research methodology and my personal diplomatic experience. in addition, a chronological account and comparative approaches will be used to analyze foreign policy discourse and the assessment of key decision makers. keywords: iranian foreign policy; nuclear program; realism; power and middle east. *corresponding author: emir hadžikadunić, phd candidate, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: ehadzikadunic@ius.edu.ba an important analytical ground to reveal tendencies in iranian diplomacy. mohammad khatami is regarded as the iran’s first reformist president who based his diplomatic efforts on dialogue with the international community. his cabinet has attempted to find a compromising solution with the troika of the european union at the time of iraqi crisis with an aim to build confidence with the west and to promote iranian openness. additional goal was to prevent bringing iran’s nuclear case to the un security council while strong us military presence was increasing in the neighborhood. while dialogue, compromise and confidence building reflected new foreign policy style, the latter goal reflected rather true national interest of his country. to add some complexity, his policies of openness led to repeated clashes with the conservative islamists from the iranian establishment. this may have reflected double track approach of the latter. at the beginning of his first presidential term mahmoud ahmadinejad changed immediately this reformist course and made it sound more populist and nationalistic. in the meantime, political and security considerations in the region have changed to favor iranian position. as evidence suggested, official tehran had other national interests to pursue. in a speech to students in mashhad, ahmedinejad was quoted as saying that iran’s conditions had changed completely as it had become a nuclear state and could talk to other states from that stand. in the meantime, new multilateral negotiating framework has been designed as the us government decided to step in. circumstances and expectations have changed once again at the end of his presidency. the evidence has suggested that economic sanctions were becoming unbearable and political isolation was increasing in iran in 2011-2013. this might have caused yet another shift in iranian foreign policy approach. new iranian president, a relative moderate cleric, has been the secretary of the supreme national security council (snsc) for 16 years. hasan rouhani has been involved as close associate of the supreme leader khamenei and key nuclear negotiator of his reformist predecessor. in this regard, he looked like trustworthy option for change. rouhani also promised to promote greater openness of the islamic republic. he went as far as talking to president obama directly over the phone, the diplomatic move that was unbelievable in the past. as time has repeated itself, rouhani has also run into fierce resistance from hard-liners who were opposing his pragmatic ideas. it is important to note that the office of the president is not directly responsible for the nuclear negotiation. it is instead set by the supreme national security council (snsc). snsc includes two representatives appointed by the iranian supreme leader ali khamenei, military officials, and other executive, judicial, and legislative representatives. in this regard, ali khamenei has been playing a critical role in direction of the islamic republic of iran. 5 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program several examples of his political moves were very illustrative. khamenei broke all illusion of the west by stating that iran is not soviet union and that khatami is not gorbacov (hefner, 2005). this has also been evident during the tumultuous 2009 presidential elections, the outcome of which was determined by khamenei’s decisive support of president mahmoud ahmadinejad. the third striking example is when khamenei endorsed rouhani and allowed his administration to have direct contacts with american administration on the very top. a survey of iranian nuclear issue it has been the iranian monarch reza shah pahlavi who initiated the national nuclear program in 1960s. evidence has suggested that governments of the united states supported iranian nuclear program from the very beginning and israel from 1977. the tehran nuclear research center, supplied by the united states, opened in 1967. it was equipped with 5-megawatt nuclear research reactor called the tehran research reactor (trr), fueled by highly enriched uranium. iran signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (npt) in 1968 and the parliament ratified it in february 1970. the process of uranium enrichment was allowed under this treaty. few years later, the president ford was quoted as expressing his support in principle for the shah’s plan to develop a full-fledged nuclear power program to diversify iran’s energy sources. the iranian involvement in the nuclear program did not bring any special diplomatic or security consideration in 1960s or 1970s, neither by the united states nor by israel. the iranian revolution, however, brought different perceptions of the program in 1979. due to the regime change, nuclear dossier of iran has also changed and became important security issue. golamreza jusefi, former iranian ambassador to bosnia and herzegovina, has talked about american shift from fully fledged support to isolation of his country in an interview for the local bosnian press in february 12, 2012. germany has also withdrawn from building six nuclear reactors, two of them in busher in 1979. it signed this agreement with iranian authorities in 1976. imam khomeini wrote that iranians must stand on their own feet after war with iraq (baqer, 2009.) iran was particularly vulnerable to chemical weapons used by iraqi forces. some foreign dignitaries understood khomeini’s statement as a call to develop non-conventional weapons. opponents of this argument are often quoting khomeini’s fatwa by which he disapproved building nuclear weapons in his country. since february 2003, iran’s program for constructing the complete cycle for producing enriched uranium has been the subject of intense international debates. authorities from tehran strongly advocated that it was their international right to pursue civil nuclear energy, not for any kind of the military purposes. the last three iranian presidents have been involved in this issue during tense negotiation with the international community, particularly the european union and the us government. 6 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program the united states suspected that iran might divert from civil to military component and produce nuclear weapons. european governments were concerned that iran’s nuclear program could set off a spiral of nuclear proliferation in the middle east and finally kill off the non-proliferation treaty (leonard, 2005). israel in particular and other regional countries in general feared that iranian nuclear case will change existing balance of power in iranian favor and bring about new nuclear proliferation. in fact, iran and western countries have made various diplomatic up-s and down-s over possible deal, from easing the tension and reaching the point of compromise from one side to international isolation, sanction and war games to the other, never crossing the red line on either side. at the latest stage of the negotiations iran held its first bilateral talks in decades with the united states in a major step towards concluding a comprehensive nuclear deal with the west. several discussion rounds at the level of foreign ministers took place in geneva and wien in 2014, the latest in november this year. phase of iranian foreign policy as reflected through iranian nuclear dossier in the last 11 years, three different phases could be distinguished in iranian foreign policy behavior. the first phase was linked with the second mandate of khatami presidency with particular attention to the period of 2003 2005. at that specific time, we have witnessed serious and open dialogue and near compromise with eu troika on the diplomatic surface. the second phase was the period of nuclear populism and nationalism of ahmedinejad in both of his presidential mandates (2005-2009 and 2009-2013). this also included unsuccessful negotiations with the security council (plus germany) that ended with fourth round of international sanctions and toughest isolation of the islamic republic of iran ever. finally, the third phase came with the election of reformist president rouhani in 2013. this phase reset iranian foreign policy and increased hope in diplomatic solution. towards dialogue and double track approach iranian authorities and the european union troika have intensively tried to find common ground over iranian nuclear program from 2003 – 2005 with each side pursuing its own foreign policy agenda. former iranian president khatami advanced the policy of dialogue and mutual agreement with the international community. according to thaler, nader and chubin (2010) his reformist camp believed that stabilization policy of decreased confrontation would secure achievements of islamic revolution. iran is a signer of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which president khatami said ensures that member nations have the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology. his administration managed to skillfully handle the nuclear dossier by negotiating compromise with european powers. under khatami’s presidency, iran signed the sa’d abaad agreement with the european troika in 2003. according to this agreement, “the iranian authorities reaffirmed that nuclear weapons have no place in iran’s defense doctrine and that its nuclear program 7 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program and activities have been exclusively in the peaceful domain.” the iranian government has also decided “to engage in full co-operation with the iaea to address and resolve through full transparency all requirements and outstanding issues.” following this path, iran suspended its uranium enrichment program under the new agreement with the eu troika in november 2004. negotiating team of president khatami also agreed to sign the additional protocol of the non-proliferation treaty and its safeguards agreement with the international atomic energy agency. the additional protocol granted iaea inspectors greater authority in their nuclear verification programs. all these agreements and unilateral acts reflected reformist approach in the iranian foreign policy. their main elements included opening and integration of iran in the international community. other foreign policy objectives may be more pragmatic from the security point. local sources have suggested that iranian establishment did not want to bring nuclear case at the un security council while us troops were stationed in iraq. former spokesperson of iran’s nuclear negotiation team (2003-2005), seyed hossein mousavian argued that this was the major success and skillful diplomatic maneuver missed by khatami successor. “while mohammad khatami was president, mousavian notes, iran was not referred to the un security council and did not face the array of draconian sanctions that are dragging down its economy today.” khatami phase also reflected double track approach of iranian foreign policy. while temporary suspension of uranium enrichment as a confidence-building gesture was formally accepted and practically applied from the end of 2004 through 2005, the iranian parliament never ratified the additional protocol. president khatami has indicated in his communication with the eu that iranian authorities will preserve the enrichment freeze. similar and reconciliatory diplomatic messages have been stated by his key nuclear negotiator and future president hassan rouhani. however, as reported by local media in tehran, other authorities were sending mixed signals in the election years of 2004 (parliamentary) and 2005 (presidential). this could only be understood as building up an alternative road. the iranian supreme leader ali khamenei did not object that president khatami has open dialogue with the eu troika. he neither stopped him from offering gestures of good will. however, he did not restrain from public criticism of khatami throughout his mandate and endorsed opposition groups to be more critical of his moderate foreign policy. as khatami mandate was approaching to an end, this role has been more evident and politically transparent. the guardian council disqualified 3533 moderate candidates out of 8145, among whom 80 were existing moderate mp-s, for parliamentary election in 2004. ali khamenei who controlled the guardian council may have already decided to bring new leadership and produce policy change. independent scholar farideh farhi also examined iran’s nuclear policy and argued that the foundations for a nationalist nuclear 8 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program discourse were carefully laid out during the presidency of reformist khatami. it is understood that iranian establishment and true decision makers calculated that it was not necessary to continue this path of compromise and opening as from 2005. thus, the policy of dialogue has ended with the end of khatami presidency. hassan rouhani also resigned as key nuclear negotiator. time was ready for different foreign policy rhetoric. it seems that ahmedinejad was perfect choice. towards diplomatic tension the victory of mahmoud ahmadinejad brought new political elite in the iranian government. it also brought new political discourse and new diplomatic agenda of confidence breaking. new president inaugurated nationalistic and populist rhetoric from the very beginning of his mandate. ehteshami and zweiri (2007) from the institute of middle east and islamic studies made detailed analysis of this political transformation by marking ahmedinejad and his political cycle as neoconservative, principal, ideologically islamic, revolution in character and non clerical. even though ahmadinejad reaffirmed his intention to put forward new proposals during his speech at the un general assembly in 2005, he recommended restarting uranium enrichment process at home. actually, his first major policy was to reject the eu’s offer from 2005. ahmedinejad also sacked 40 iranian diplomats in a massive cleaning of the reformist oriented foreign service including those involved in the country’s nuclear negotiations with the european troika. hassan rouhani, the pragmatic chief negotiator, was replaced with ali larijani, who said that exchanging iran’s nuclear program for trade concessions would be like trading “a pearl for a candy.” leonard (2005) has marked new president’s initial phase as aggressive and toxic. ahmedinejad’s diplomatic approach has been followed by specific action plan at home. officials from tehran broke open internationally monitored seals on the natanz enrichment facility in the central iran and at two related storage and testing locations. these activities cleared the way for iranians to resume uranium enrichment and nuclear fuel research what the us and eu countries objected and feared the most. there were several possible reasons why this foreign policy change happened. it has been argued that the eu troika reacted slow and late to khatami’s unilateral favor. they agreed to deliver a set of political, economic and nuclear offers only after presidential elections in 2005. it also remains a question how much iranian leadership was willing to make a deal with the eu without the united states. seyed hossein mousavian argued that the supreme leader had lost confidence in the ability of the europeans to deliver on their promises by early 2005. farideh farhi argued that the failure of negotiations between the reformist government and european representatives and subsequent increased pressure on ahmadinejad government contributed to the increasingly loud tone iranian 9 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program negotiators took after 2006. iran felt more secured after constitutional changes and elections in iraq favored their pro iranian constituency. peter galbraith shared these views in his book from the same year “iraq: bush islamic republic.” to support this argument further, i will also quote iranian ambassador to bagdad as saying that it was big day for them as elected iraqi people were our people that we supported. american casualties have been on increase at that time. woodward (2008) suggested that iran gave his contribution to this. by publishing national intelligence estimate in 2007, the us administration gave up the military solution against iran completely. ahmedinejad celebrated this news by proclaiming the largest iranian victory in last 100 years (david e. thaler, alireza nader, shahram chubin, jarrold d. greem, charlotte lynch, f.wehrey, 2010). in the meantime, the us government got involved in this case along china and russia. iranian nuclear dossier has been moved into the new multilateral negotiating framework of five plus one (5 members of un security council plus germany). throughout ahmedinedjad mandate, iran and western countries, however, remained far apart in these negotiations. as they continued without any compromise at reach, bush administration lobbied for three rounds of sanctions by unsc. president obama offered dialogue but soon realized that diplomatic breakthrough with ahmedinejad was not possible. he also lobbied for the un security council resolution 1929 imposing fourth round of multilateral sanctions in 2011. on every move in this regard, ahmedinejad radicalized his rhetoric and announced further unilateral moves. he called these resolutions a piece of torn paper. challenging expected fourth round of un sanctions, he announced that iran would increase uranium enrichment process from 3% to 20% level for the first time. this move marked a major increase in iranian nuclear capabilities in 2010 narrowing the space between civil and military level. there was one important observation during this phase. according to iaea report from august, 2012, iran enriched 6876 kg of uranium up to level of 3 % and 189 kg up to level of 20%. as noticed from all other iaea reports, enriched uranium of 20% never crossed 200 kg. as soon as iranian authorities would reach close to 200 kg, they would convert it into nonreturnable fuel recycle for civil purpose. this represented small but important sign of iranian rationality not to provoke international intervention. the problem would have appeared if 20% enriched uranium had piled up more than 200kg and eventually enriched to 90%. the latter enrichment level is considered by experts as the military level sufficient for one nuclear bomb. it seems that 200 kg was self-declared iranian red line. it was also publicly declared red line by israeli prime minister netanyahu who stated this at different multilateral forums. at the peak of this diplomatic crisis, the us and eu member states imposed multi10 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program lateral and bilateral sanctions preventing iran from trading its oil to the eu in 2012. president ahmadinejad said the sanctions were a “used hand tissue that should be thrown in the dustbin,” and that they were “not capable of harming iranians.” iran threatened to close hormuz passage and entered war games with us war ships. both sides were approaching the point of entering the real conflict. as evidence suggested in the past, as soon as iran was close to crossing this red line it diverted toward reconciliation. economic authorities from tehran also admitted that international sanctions were bringing serious economic consequences. iranian oil sale has fallen from almost 4 million to less than 2 million barrels a day. during his presidential mandates, ahmedinejad tried to play visible diplomatic role by attending every annual session of the un general assembly and addressing different multilateral forums with tough messages. his team negotiated within framework of 5+1 without closing increasing gap between iran and the international community. in the course of his second presidential mandate, he tried to reach some diplomatic breakthrough bypassing negotiating framework of 5+1 by using bilateral or trilateral links with japan, turkey or brazil. ahmedinejad signed teheran declaration with brazilian president luiz inacio lula and turkish prime minister recep tayyip erdogan in 2010 as a compromise offer that was not acceptable to the us. at the end of his mission, ahmedinejad was increasingly marginalized by the supreme leader ali khamenei. in his double road approach, khamenei slowly opened an opportunity for yet another foreign policy shift. ahmedinejad was left alone and he slightly changed his rhetoric and offered reconciliatory messages. in his speech at the summit of the nonaligned movement in tehran in 2012, he sounded more like a pacifist than a conservative politician. iranian more aggressive foreign policy actually ended before he completed his second term. towards dialogue ii president hassan rouhani’s new cabinet brought back some reformist faces from the khatami administrations from 1997 to 2005. the new foreign minister, mohammad javad zarif, was iran’s un ambassador in the later years of khatami’s presidency. massoumeh ebtekar, one of khatami’s vice presidents and the first woman to hold such office in iran, returns as vice president responsible for the environment. with new faces, rouhani brought back the old reformist foreign policy. as stated, rouhani wanted to promote iranian openness, build new confidence and decrease sanctions. actually, he wanted quick diplomatic results. in this regard, he went much further or he was allowed to go further than ex reformist president khatami by having direct phone discussion with president obama, the first such dialogue after islamic revolution. his foreign minister zarifi has been in regular bilateral meetings with the us state secretary kerry in a very relaxed diplomatic atmosphere. 11 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program these diplomatic moves were not allowed to khatami’s cabinet members, at least not that fast or that often. rouhani was politically appropriate, trustworthy and most knowledgeable presidential candidate from within khamenei circles (ex snsc secretary). there are arguments that seeds for new moderate presidency in 2013 were also planted during khatami presidency. rouhani’s reconciliatory messages as nuclear negotiator from 2003-2005 were not forgotten by the international community and key negotiating countries. this presidency to come was additionally cultivated during intellectual and surprisingly open debate for iranian standards on the character of iranian foreign policy in 2006 and 2008. in his article in iranian foreign policy journal, rouhani asked either we wanted iran to scare the region and the world or we need to build friendly relations. he concluded that between islamic republic and islamic revolution he chose islamic republic (rouhani, 2006 and 2008). it is not by surprise that on the opposite line was the iranian president ahmedinejad himself. the latter argued that reformists were traitors. as reported by hemayat web site on march 10, 2008, ahmedinejad was quoted as saying that those people were asking the approval from the us government for iranian progress. all foreign embassies and observers noted strong rhetoric difference in the iranian political culture and foreign policy discourse. american policy and advisors were also sending positive signals in this regard. if he wants any progress in the middle east, president obama needs to open dialogue with iran, suggested gary sick, prominent university professor and adviser of three us presidents, ford, carter and regan on cnn on november 16, 2012. best seller author stephen kinzer (2010) argued in his book reset that america had interest to open dialog with iran prior to this negotiation round. iran that does not feel any threat may reach compromise on its nuclear program, open up energy market to us companies, stabilize iraq and afghanistan, and improve fight against terrorism, particularly al-qaida. then, limbert (2008) gave 15 recommendations to obama administration to succeed in dialogue with iran. his conclusion was that negotiation between two sides, no matter how hard and difficult, was probably better then continues violent relations. in his first press conference as president in august 2013, rouhani stated: “we seek a win-win game and this is possible… we are prepared to enter serious and meaningful negotiations with determination and without wasting time, and if our opposing party is equally ready, i am confident that the concerns of both sides will be allayed through dialogue.” this rhetoric has been followed by fresh round of multilateral negotiations within the group of p 5+1. in november 2013, two sides already signed technical agreement and agreed to continue negotiation to reach comprehensive deal in 2014. under this technical agreement, iranian side agreed to stop 20% enrichment of uranium started by ahmedinejad in 2010 and close its plutonium facility in arak. from the other side, 5 12 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program billion of frozen iranian financial recourses have been released and other minor sanctions were removed. in the meantime, several new rounds of talks have been held in vienna, including bilateral talks between iranian foreign minister zarifi and us secretary kerry. negotiators aimed to find an exceedingly complex and lasting deal limiting iran’s atomic activities in exchange for a lifting of sanctions. the latest foreign policy shift might help the supreme leader khamenei to improve his standing with increasing and disappointed iranian population that belongs to reformist or pragmatic constituency by bringing reformist back on the main course after political turmoil in 2009. however, some recent events indicated that khamenei’s support may be waning as reflected through increased criticism from the right wing individuals. iranian parliament also rejected rouhani’s nominations for vacant ministry positions on several occasion. these controlled attacks against rouhani may be explained by several reasons. as suggested by analysts, ali khamenei will not appear to betray his base of support from iranian revolutionary guard corps (irgc). then, he may attempt to increase bargaining power of rouhani abroad by criticizing him at home. third, most probable and most consistent, khamenei may be building an alternative foreign policy option as he did on two other occasions with khatami and ahmedinejad already. according to the latest negotiation round between iranian and 5+1 delegations on november 22-24, 2014, new deadline has been extended to march 1, 2015 for new technical agreement and july 1, 2015 for final agreement. iran’s supreme leader gave his indirect approval for a continuation of talks over its disputed nuclear program on november 25, 2014. he has been quoted as saying: “on the nuclear issue, the united states and european colonialist countries gathered and applied their entire efforts to bring the islamic republic to its knees but they could not and they will not.” vice chairman of parliament, mohammad hassan aboutorabifard, said the u.s. is not trustworthy since washington “sacrifices” its national interests for israel, but he still voiced support for further nuclear talks. in an address to the nation, the president rouhani said that the extension was a victory, adding negotiations will lead to a deal, “sooner or later.” in this regard, we have yet to see what final approach would be taken by ali khamenei. will this latest diplomatic breakthrough of partial nuclear compromise from november 2013 go all the way forward? as always, iranian supreme leader has kept all options available by taking into consideration iranian national interest. political experience and evidence from the past also suggested that as soon as iran arrives close to any big deal, cordial relations or opening of the country, it will divert in the opposite direction. conclusion it is evident that iran is preoccupied with its security and continuation of their state’s leadership existence. in order to ensure its survival, it will seek to maximize its negotiation power relative to others. as evidence suggested, international law and international 13 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program institutions did not constrain or influence iranian behavior to the extent that they blindly follow. in this regard, there is no difference with the iranian foreign policy which is extension of its internal policy. iran has been using its energy wealth and leverage to strengthen his regional influence with more vulnerable neighbors. it has also used the stature to complicate u.s. interests (carlos pascual and evie zambetakis, 2010). in this regard, it clearly reflects the realist point of view. however, iranian decision makers seem to be pragmatic as well in terms of not crossing self declared red lines. as presented in the paper, they never decided to accumulate enriched uranium of 20% to 200kg, thus avoiding breaking the trust completely or giving strong evidence of nuclear military program. this historical attitude of last 11 years has been fluid between two red lines reflecting iranian double track approach. as presented in the paper, iranian establishment moved between two opposing lines all the time. as soon as iran reached one (dialogue, compromise, cordial relations with the west), it diverted towards animosity and instability almost as a rule. this has been the transitional phase from khatami to ahmedinejad presidency. on the other side, as soon as it reached the other red line (instability, isolation and possible war with the united states), it diverted again, this time towards dialogue, compromise or cordial relations. this has been the transitional phase from ahmedinejad to rouhani presidency. as iran followed its national interest at the time, it also reflected the realist point rather than any other understanding of international relations behavior. thus, donette (2010) spoke about generational struggle in her book us foreign policy and iran. it has been evident that all negotiating positions and all shifts in iranian foreign relations have been supervised by the supreme leader. and this has been consistent policy throughout three phases that have been examined. although the decision to end the suspension of uranium enrichment in 2005 was probably taken before ahmadinejad, ayatollah ali khamenei made clear before the election that the nuclear issue was a national, not a presidential matter (leonard, 2005). after the latest negotiating round in november this year, the new york times reported that iranian current foreign minister “often warned that the final decision would be in the hands of the supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei.” is comprehensive nuclear deal between iran and the west possible? the supreme leader was initially restraining public criticism of rouhani through his public support for the nuclear negotiations at the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014. khamenei gave him a chance, tested his loyalty and checked us / eu approach and readiness for compromise. to some extent, he is still checking deal options as negotiating deadline has been extended 14 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program to mid of 2015. other options have been kept alive as controlled attacks from the conservative cycles continued. american analysts believe that any serious attempt to renew iranian american relations would be political earthquake in iran, would create political fractions of losers and winners where losers would refuse to accept change of existing status quo (david e. thaler, alireza nader, shahram chubin, jarrold d. greem, charlotte lynch, f.wehrey, 2010). therefore, for any nuclear deal to be agreed on iranian side, it is not sufficient that the negotiating delegation only consent. more importantly, it is conservative cycles in general and supreme leader in particular that has the final say. rouhani has complex position in this regard. he has to reach as better deal as possible. at the same time, he is supposed to convince extreme circles, including supreme leader, that there is no alternative to iranian course of opening. failure to deal with the international community is failure to his reformist policy. similar stand could be expected from the us side. as reported by us media, “kerry’s position was complicated by the republican midterm election victory and the fear of feeding the narrative that mr. obama was a weakened president.” this brings us to the final conclusion that reaching final deal between iran and the west next year depends on so many centers of power and so many opposing views. success in ongoing negotiations could resolve one of the most intractable geopolitical problems in the region. from the other side, the failure could divert iran from dialog to tension yet again. if there is no deal between iran and the international community next year, the united states will face a clear choice. on one side, us will be in position of tolerating the iranian nuclear ambition. on the other, it may reapply continued diplomatic and economic pressure. on the extreme side, as suggested by us authorities, military means have not been excluded. references baqer, moin. 2009. khomeini, life of the ayatollah, i.b. tauris. david e. thaler, alireza nader, shahram chubin, jarrold d. greem, charlotte lynch, f.wehrey. 2010. mullas, guards and bonyads, an explorationm of iranian leadership dynamics, rand corporation. ehteshami and zweiri. 2007. iran and the rise of its neoconservatives, i.b. tauris. hadzikadunic, emir. 2013. zasto iran, centar za napredne studije i dobra knjiga, sarajevo. hefner, robert. 2005. remaking muslim politics: pluralism, democratization, contestation, princeton university press. international atomic energy agency. 2012. iaea report on iran. kinzer, stephen. 2010. iran, turkey and america’s future, times books, new york. leonard, mark. 2005. can eu diplomacy stop iran’s nuclear program?, centre for european forum. limbert, w. john. 2008. negotiating with the islamic republic of iran: raising chances for success, 15 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program fifteen points to remember, us institute for peace, special report 199. middle east monitor, vol 22, issue 1, january 2012. murrey, donette. 2010. us foreign policy and iran, american iranian relations since the islamic revolution, routledge. noar, atye. 1993. begin in power: a personal testimony. pascual, carlos and zambetakis, evie. 2010. the geopolitics of energy. brookings institution press. peter w. galbraith. 2005. “iraq: bush islamic republic,” new york review of books. rowhani, hasan. 2008. 20 years perspective and progressive foreign policy, persian journal, february 28. see also “iran press: ex nuclear chief criticizes ideological impact on foreign policy”, baztab news information center web site quoted on e’temad-e melli tehran. woodward, bob. 2008. the war within: a secret white house history 2006-2008, simon and schuster. 16 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences e. hadžikadunić understanding iranian foreign policy the case of iranian nuclear program vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 11 prevention of substance abuse in children and adolescents: evidence based practice approach enedina hasanbegović-anić, aneta sandić, sabina alispahić abstract adolescence is a developmental period during which, most commonly, use of substances begins. thus a majority of preventive initiatives target child population and youngsters. with regards that many traditional and widely utilized preventive programs turned out to be ineffective, scientists have put much effort into the development of much more efficacious, contemporary approaches in evidence-based prevention during the last decades. although the number of available evidencebased preventive programs significantly raised during the past several years, there are still obstacles in recognition of importance in their implementation, as well as obscurities about what that term actually stands for. this paper provides a review of most important scientific insights about substance abuse in the population of youngsters, which are the foundation of good practice in the field of prevention, as well as a more specific definition of programs that bear “evidence-based” label. key traits of efficacious substance abuse prevention programs targeting family, school, and community are presented, as well as examples of good practice. keywords: substance abuse in children and adolescents, preventive programs, evidence-based approaches 12 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction regardless numerous preventive initiatives substance abuse still remains an important public health issue worldwide and it significantly accounts to a frequency of morbidity and mortality in the population of abusers (hemovic, lac & crano, 2012; lopez, 2006). namely, many traditional and widely applied preventive programs proved to be inefficacious, thus much effort has been put into development and testing of programs efficacious in the areas of risk prevention, that is behaviors associated with the use of substances (catalano, haggerty, hawkins & elgin, 2011). field of prevention evolved into scientific discipline in the last decades and it accounts to a better understanding of epidemiology, etiology, and complexity of behaviors associated with substance abuse in a significant manner. this involves identification of initiation patterns, as well as a progression towards more severe levels of substance abuse. those insights resulted in directing a majority of preventive initiatives towards a child and adolescent population (griffin & botvin, 2010), and defining key concepts and program methods in contemporary evidence-based preventive programs (sussman & ames, 2008). this paper provides a review of most important insights related to use and abuse of substances in adolescent population which proved to be the foundation in the field of prevention. contemporary preventive terminology in mental health is presented as well, terminology officially used among scientists and practitioners in the field of substance abuse. more detailed definition of evidence-based preventive methods are portrayed as well. traits of efficacious preventive programs targeting family, school, and community, as well as examples of good practice are noted at the end of the paper. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 13 epidemiology and risks / protective factors: implications for prevention adolescence is a developmental period that is most frequently marked by experimentation that is use and abuse of various substances (kandel, 2002). most research conducted in western countries pointed out that until the age of nineteen about 90% of young people tasted the alcohol, 60% smoked cigarettes, 50% used cannabis and 20% tasted other street drugs as inhalants, stimulants, hallucinogens or opiates (coughlan, doyle & carr, 2006). epidemiological research consistently proves that prevalence of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs use quickly rises from early towards late adolescence, with the peak at the turn towards younger adult age, after which it declines (jochman & fromme, 2010). the most frequent developmental model which leads towards abuse of substances involves the beginning of the use of legal substances (tobacco and alcohol), then cannabis, and in the end the other illegal substances. mentioning this it is important to note that at every next step of developmental progression the risk of developing psychological disorders related to substance abuse gets higher (griffin & botvin, 2010). most adolescents who use substances will not develop severe problems; however, some less than 10% youngsters from this group will continue their problematic use in adult age (fagan, 2006). the beginning of substance use in early adolescence (before age of fifteen) is strongly connected with higher level of substance abuse (arthur, hawkins, pollard, catalano & baglioni, 2002; swendsen et al., 2012), and many health issues, as well as psychological and social consequences later on during lifetime. this includes mortality, problems with somatic and mental health, violence, difficulties in the interpersonal field, adaptation issues in the family and academic and working milieu (newcomb & locke, 2005). in accordance with contemporary findings the most efficacious preventive programs are based on relevant etiological psycho-social theories of use and abuse of substances, and are aimed at main risk and protective factors (griffin & botvin, 2010). thus, maintainable prevention models must at the same time be focused on multiple risk and protective factors originating from different domains which include personal traits, family, peers, school and community (national crime prevention centre, 2009), as well as developmental periods when each of the named factors stabilizes as predictor of substance use (hawkins, catalano & miller, 14 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 1992). as relation between the number and type of risk and prevention factors influences the risk of individual’s beginning of use and abuse of substances, the main goal of preventive programs is to raise the influence of protective factors and reduce or remove influence of risk factors in order to prevent or postpone the beginning of substance use, that is to reduce the level of use of noted substances in the population of youngsters (hawkins, catalano & arthur, 2002). it is also important to note that many of the risk factors in the area of use and abuse of substances represent predictors of other behavioral issues such as delinquency, risky sexual behavior, and school dropout, thus comprehensive preventive programs aimed at risk and protective factors most likely may prevent even those problems in the population of youngsters (hawkins, catalano & miller, 1992). preventive programs may be conducted in different social milieus, and so far many efficacious programs targeting family, school and community have been developed. those can be combined or used selectively. research evidence shows that multicomponent preventive programs combining two or more effective programs, such as family and school programs may even be more efficacious than single programs aimed solely at school, family or community (national institute on drug abuse, 2003). contemporary preventive terminology traditionally, researchers and practitioners divide all interventions in the field of mental health into primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. however, during that last two decades, there is new terminology being used which additionally differentiates various levels of preventive interventions in this area (sussman & ames, 2003). the significant contribution to a conceptual improvement in the field of prevention in mental health was provided by mrazek and haggerty (1994), accenting that traditional, medical preventive model is not equally adequate for the mental health issues as it is meant for medical disorders. those authors suggested an alternative to the medical model of prevention introducing the model of spectrum interventions in mental health, within whose frame interventions are differentiated into prevention, treatment, and maintenance of contemporary state. prevention includes three levels of intervening: universal, selective and indicated prevention. this nomenclature is nowadays utilized among researchers and participants who work in the field of prevention of use and abuse of substances. each level of intervention in the frame of prevention vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 15 aims at different levels of risk which are present in the target populations. universal preventive programs are designed for the general population, with the aim to hold back or postpone some state (for example programs targeting all pupils at school). secondary preventive programs are aimed at addressing parts of a population under greater biological, psychological and social risks for development of psychological disorders than it is the case with an average population (e.g. children and adolescents whose parents use substances or children and adolescents with lower academic achievements). indicated preventive programs are applicable to those groups which already express subclinical signs or symptoms of development of the disorder (e.g. experiments with substances, the initial stadiums of involvement into highly risky behaviors) (mrazek & haggerty, 1994; sloboda, 2009). what are evidence based-programs? in the past two decades there is a significant increase in available preventive programs aimed at improvement of emotional, behavioral and social functioning of children and adolescents, and great effort has been put in defining standards of good evidence-based practice and ways of achieving it (forman, olin, hoagwood crowe & saka, 2009). the principle of evidence-based practice promotes utilization of empirically supported preventive programs supported by research findings which provide evidence about the benefits and predictable outcomes, and which are conducted within valid national laws and policies (ysseldyke et al., 2006). although the term “evidence-based program” became common in preventive science and practice there are still obstacles in recognition of the importance of their implementation as well as obscurity in understanding what is all that is meant under this term? namely, also the existing terminology may lead to confusion because different terms are being used interchangeably, such as “programs that promise”, “evidence-based programs” and “efficacious programs”. different agencies and research groups also adopted different criteria for identification whether a certain program is based on evidence or it is not, thus encouraging the application of efficacious and effective preventive programs (kyler, bumbarger & greenberg, 2005). efficacy of a preventive program is determined at the grounds of results of controlled (experimental or quasi-experimental) research with 16 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies sufficient interior validity, which show that program reliably results with certain positive effects. a preventive program is considered efficacious if identified positive effects have sufficient outer validity that is if it proves that the program is of practical use when applied in different natural surroundings (hunsley & lee, 2010). thus, evidence-based programs are the ones which, besides proved usefulness in controlled conditions, have a proved effectiveness in real life and within the scientific community, and they are often marked in terms of efficacy (kyler, bumbarger & greenberg, 2005). further on, after it is identified whether a preventive program is efficacious, it is necessary to submit it to critical validation from the side of independent researchers from the given field, what involves methods questioning evaluation and agreement on conclusions about the effectiveness of programs. when a preventive program has been checked out by independent experts and when there is evidence about efficacy, its authors usually provide it for consideration to the licensed agencies or research groups. those organizations approve preventive programs, what enables other experts in the field to get acquainted with the preventive programs which satisfy the regulated standards (cooney, huser, small & o’coonor, 2007). for example, samhsa (the substance abuse and mental services administration, 2015), american agency whose mission is to reduce an influence of substance abuse and mental disorders in the community, developed the national registry of evidence based programs and practices (nrepp). this data basis contains review of more than 340 evidence based preventive and treatment interventions in the field of mental health and substance abuse, in order to make it easier for interested individuals, organizations and communities to learn more about those programs and practices and make decisions about which kind of interventions would be the most suitable for their issues. thus, when a community decides to apply for evidence basedpreventive program, and when addressed experts or organizations choose a certain program that suits the actual needs in a community, it is needed to culturally adjust the program and evaluate its efficacy before it becomes implemented. when the choice about evidence-based programs are being made the critical attitude is of importance, with respect of the fact that all programs that meet criteria for the label “evidence-based” are not equally efficacious. for example, preventive programs that prove to be efficacious in repeated experimental studies, and programs that involve follow up of vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 17 the subjects during the longer period of time, are in general considered to be better than programs evaluated in one or two less rigorous studies (e.g. that utilized quasi-experimental design). besides this, higher standards are met by those preventive programs that are successfully replicated and evaluated in different surroundings with a wide range of users, and programs that consistently result in a higher power of confirmed effects (national institute on drug abuse, 2003). advantages and limitations evidence-based preventive programs are beneficial on multiple levels, and their adequate implementation means a well thought and responsible manner of utilization of limited resources that the community possesses. namely, implementation of these programs increases the possibility of achievement of the expected outcomes, what also increases benefits in the community, as it is more effective to use limited resources within programs that proved to be efficacious, than taking into account the programs thought to be efficacious or traditionally used programs. organizations can choose the program from the specter of an increasing number of evidence-based programs, which often offer already prepared material, education of implementations and technical support, instead of directing their resources towards program development. proved efficacy of evidence-based programs ensures not only greater economic benefits but a greater support of the donors, public policies and members of target populations as well, what altogether may help to find and keep the program users. in the end, those programs as well contain available information about costs estimation and the utility of programs what is of significant importance in times when responsibility and economic factors rule public policies and decisions about the distribution of resources (cooney et. al., 2007). however, it is important to accept that evidence-based programs bear some practical limitations. namely, many of these programs are copyrighted what results in significant costs what is often the main obstacle to their adoption and implementation. creators of programs often require that organizations buy the program material and that for full implementation, besides the need to possess a certain level of education or certain certificate; personnel must get involved in professional training. apart from this, there are also requirements that these programs have to be implemented exactly in the manner they have been conceived, what leaves little space for local adaptation. finally, it can happen that existent evidence-based programs 18 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies are not at the same time suitable for the needs of the target population, an organization that plans their use and/or local community. this usually happens when organizations wish to improve positive outcomes in the target population (e.g. academic success), that is when the aim is not prevention of negative outcomes (e.g. substance abuse, mental illness, violence or delinquency). namely, in contemporary times we witness a much larger number of evidence-based programs aimed at the problem then promotion of positive developmental outcomes because agencies that sponsor their development in most cases happen to be involved in the solution of some specific mental health issues (cooney et al., 2007). planning and implementation the planning process of preventive programs focused on children and adolescents should begin with the evaluation of substance abuse in the community. this includes estimation of nature and range of drug abuse, estimation of risk and protective factors, understanding the influence of cultural milieu on drug abuse and vice versa, estimation of consciousness of given community about the problem and identification and estimation of existing preventive activities. the aim of estimation of existing preventive programs is to identify which programs have been currently conducted, weather clear health standards have been used in the check of the programs during their development, whether programs meet needs of the community and in which range youngsters who are at risk have been encompassed by given programs. another form of evaluation of evidence-based programs is based on the use of existing data on drug abuse among youngsters and related problems during the time. data gathered in initial estimation of the condition in some community may serve as the beginning for measurement of change during time. as nature and range of issues related to substance abuse changes in the time it is useful to periodically estimate risk and protective factors in the community, as to ensure that existent preventive programs in an adequate manner meet the needs of the community (national institute on drug abuse, 2003). prevention targeting family preventive programs may enforce specific family protective factors which increase the possibility of adaptive developmental outcomes in children and adolescents through parental education in various parenting skills. a high number of various preventive programs targeting families vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 19 have been developed by now. they can be divided into two categories. one of them targets only parents that are their enforcement, in order to prevent their child from making contact with substances. these programs include education of parents in the field of specific parental skills which involve upbringing, making family rules, connectedness and communication with children, supervision of child activities, and competence in teaching their children prosocial skills and skills of resisting social pressures and helping children to reduce aggressive and antisocial behavior. another type of programs is aimed at learning certain skills involving both, parents and children. those programs’ aim is to improve family functioning, communication skills, provide support in establishing family rules about substance use, and teach parents about imposition and implementation of those rules. interventions targeting parental skills and family connectedness proved to be most efficacious in the reduction or prevention of substance use. however, an important possible limitation of programs targeting families reflects itself in hardships related to involving parents in the program, in particular, young parents who are at the greatest risk of substance abuse (griffin & botvin, 2010). prevention targeting school schools are focus of majority of preventive initiatives (bloom & gullotta, 2009) as they enable prolonged approach to nearly complete population of children and adolescents, including specific subpopulations who are under higher risk of use and abuse of substances, such as children and adolescents having behavioral issues, hardships in learning or ones that are under risk of dropping-out school (national institute on drug abuse, 2003). further on, in comprehensive preventive programs targeting multiple domains of the social milieu of youngsters, schools represent the main coordinating institution and link with families and the wider community (stigler, neusel & perry, 2011). traditional approaches results of numerous research proved that many traditional and widely applied preventive substance abuse programs, that involve providing information about substances, effective education, and alternative programs, although at the first glance assuredly, are not efficacious. failure of those programs reflects itself in the fact that they are not based on relevant theories and integrated knowledge about aetiological factors, but 20 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies on intuitive suppositions on how to prevent abuse of substances (schinke, botvin & orlandi, 1991; foxcroft & tsertsvadze, 2011; thomas, mclellan & perera, 2013). providing information about substances and noxious effects of their use represents the most common preventive approach which is based on simple cognitive model according to which people make decisions about the use of substances on the basis of their knowledge about their noxious consequences. some of these programs, aiming at accenting the noxious consequences of substance additionally utilize techniques that provoke fear or moral, that is religious appeals. affective education is another common approach in prevention and it supposes that encouraging personal affective development (e.g. self-respect, assertiveness etc.) reduces the probability of substance abuse. alternative programs are conceptualized in the manner that to youngsters they offer various creative, recreative and educative activities, with the suggestion that those activities may be a substitute for behaviors associated with substances use (botvin & kenneth, 2006). contemporary approaches in the recent decades, much more efficacious school preventive programs on substance abuse issue have been developed and evaluated. they involve resistance to social pressures, normative education, and increase of competence while, within frames of one program, those approaches can be combined (griffin & botvin, 2010). approaches based on skills related to resistance to social pressures are based on bandura’s theory of social learning (1977), and on a conceptual model that accents key role of social influence on the side of peers and media in the initiation of use of substances (botvin & kenneth, 2006). the main goal of preventive interventions that follow this approach is to increase consciousness of youngsters about various social influences that support the use of substances and teach them specific skills of efficacious resistance to peer pressure and media to use substances (botvin, 2000). normative education is an approach based on the fact that many adolescents overestimate the prevalence of various substances use in the population of youngsters, what may lead towards views that utilization of substances is taken as normative behavior. contents of programs and activities based on this approach aim at correction of incorrect normative expectations and beliefs of adolescent population that the use of substances is socially acceptable and not noxious, what is achieved through education of youngsters on actual incidence of substance use through presenting vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 21 research results that were conducted on local and/or national level (griffin & botvin, 2010). normative education may have a key role in encouraging adolescents to use strategies of resistance to the peers and media. results of research suggest that absence of a normative component in preventive programs may reduce effects of training in the area of resistance to pressure imposed by peers and social pressures that promote disuse of substances (national crime prevention centre, 2009). approaches focused on increasing competencies are some of the most comprehensive programs in the area of prevention of substances abuse and are based on social learning theory (bandura, 1977) and behavioral problem theory (jessor & jessor, 1977). within this approach abuse of substances is conceptualized as behavior which is, as a result of complex interaction of numerous personal and environmental risk factors, learned in social context and functionally. namely, adolescents that have weak personal and social skills may be under higher risk to use substances as an alternative to adaptive strategies facing with, for example, anxiety or low self-esteem. approaches focused on increasing competencies accent teaching youngsters in a wide spectrum of general life and social skills, such as problem-solving skills and making decisions, cognitive skills of resistance to social pressures, skills in increasing self-control and selfrespect, adaptive coping with stress and anxiety, general social skills and assertiveness. those skills are taught by applying proved cognitivebehavioral methods, such as teaching, demonstrating, providing feedback, corroboration, behavioral trials, and homework. most efficacious programs based on those approaches, apart from accepting the application of real life and social skills in situations that are directly associated with substance use, teach young people how to use these skills in coping with many other challenges in daily life (griffin & botvin, 2010; botvin & kenneth, 2006; schinke, botvin & orlandi, 1991). implementation of preventive programs at schools in spite of the fact that evidence-based preventive programs targeting schools are available (pas), research results suggest that the implementation of these programs is insufficient (forman et al., 2009). research conducted in the national sample consisting of 1795 public and private schools in the usa (ennett et al., 2003) revealed that over 80% of schools conducted some kind of drug abuse prevention, but that only 17.4% of schools utilized programs that proved to be efficacious methods (e.g. 22 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies interactive approaches), while only 14% of schools applied for efficacious programs. also, research results show that even when schools use evidencebased preventive programs, those programs are often being conducted in the manner that does not meet established standards (hallfors & godette, 2002), what results in reduction of positive outcomes, despite established strong effects of programs in conducted studies (botvin & kenneth, 2006). with time scientists came to the insight that conducting evidencebased preventive school programs appeared to be a complex process which is under influence of a numerous number of personal, organizational and systemic factors. namely, it is not enough just to offer an efficacious program and guidelines for its implementation as was thought in previous times. in introducing preventive evidence-based programs at schools it is needed to focus effort at factors that are, according to research results, of significant importance for their successful implementation and maintenance, and to strengthen the connection between research and practice. this involves development of support on side of school board and teachers, development of financial resources, enabling higher level training and consultation systems for personal who implements the program, adjustment of preventive program to school goals, programs and policies, ensuring obvious outcomes of programs, and development of strategies of coping with exchange of school personnel and board (forman et al., 2009). prevention targeting community preventive efforts that wish to revise key aspects of social surrounding which increase the risk of substance abuse demand activities at the level of community. preventive programs targeting community as a whole by the rule are multi-component and often include combining school preventive programs with media campaigns and activities of public policies and interested organizations in the community. the aim is to enforce prosocial behavior and social norms against substances use. by rule, those programs contain a wide spectrum of activities and accordingly demand significant financial and other resources, as well as good coordination. realization of program components is often achieved through the cooperation of all interested sides, including parents, schools, experts, and leaders in the community. research results point out that those programs, if comprehensive and well coordinated, may be efficacious in the prevention of substance abuse in youngsters (griffin & botvin, 2010). vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 23 examples of good practice in the text that follows there are briefly described some of the proven efficacious preventive programs related to substance abuse, ones that are developed for target populations of children and adolescents of various school age in the domain of universal, selective and indicated prevention (substance abuse and mental health services administration, samhsa, 2015). it is important to accept that scientists, besides continuous development of new programs at the levels of prevention, also put additional effort in research in order to adjust preventive programs to specific populations with regards to gender, ethnic, race and geographic belonging, and additionally raise their effectiveness. lst program (life skills training program) is a universal preventive school program targeting a wide range of risk and protective factors related to abuse of substances, with the aim to prevent the use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana. it contains three main components that involve: 1) learning skills related to control over one’s own behavior, 2) learning general social skills and 3) learning skills of resistance towards drug abuse and normative education. it is meant for elementary and high school pupils with age range from thirteen to seventeen. it consists of three years lasting preventive curriculum made up of thirty sessions. fifteen sessions become realized during the first year of the program, ten additional sessions during the second year, and five sessions in the last year of the program. the logical basis of lst application in those time frames comes out from insights about developmental progression of drug abuse, cognitive and psychosocial changes typical for adolescence, increasing domination of influence of peers, and issues related to transit from elementary to high school. implementations of the program can be done through educated teachers, peer leaders or health workers. numerous studies conducted in recent years confirmed the efficacy of lst program in a reduction of the prevalence of use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs in 50 to 87% compared to the control group. in the last years, a version of lst program has been developed for even younger children (children aged three to five, which is from fourth to sixth grade of elementary school) which proved to be efficacious in the reduction of tobacco and alcohol use. sf program (the strengthening families program) is a selective, multicomponent preventive program aimed at families under risk and 24 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies was initially developed with an aim to provide help to parents who abuse drugs, as to improve their parenting skills and reduce risks that might influence children in a negative manner. sf program is designed with the aim to increase resistance and reduce risk factors for the development of behavioral, emotional, academic and social problems in children aged three to sixteen and it consists of three components. the first component includes training parental skills program, aimed at teaching parents skills in increasing the wished for behavior in children, through rewards, clear communication, efficient discipline, problem solving and education on the use of substances. the second component consists of training children skills program, with the aim to help children accept parental rules, develop and improve skills of efficacious communication, problem-solving, resisting to pressures of peers, social skills, and to understand their own feelings and consequences of substance use. the third component contains family skills training program, focused at involving families in structured activities, practicing therapeutic games, learning communication skills, conducting efficacious discipline, mutual support to positive behavior, organizing family meetings, and planning common family activities. the program is being applied through fourteen sessions lasting two hours. parents and children are separately included during the first hour, and during the second hour, they are included in the program together. research results suggest that involving families in associated family support groups increase generalization and utilization of learned skills. according to research results this program results with a decrease of family conflict, behavioral issues at youngsters, aggressiveness and drug abuse, as well as an increase of moral skills in youngsters, parental skills and family communication and organization. sf program is linguistically and culturally adapted and evaluated for different ethnic groups in the usa and many other countries including australia, austria, canada, denmark, france, italy, norway, portugal, russia, spain, sweden, and slovenia. project tnd (project towards no drug abuse) is indicated, school aimed preventive intervention designed for adolescents, aged fourteen to nineteen. it was initially designed for youngsters who attend alternative high schools (schools for pupils with poor academic results, discipline issues, negative attitudes toward school, and pupils under greater risk for drug use and whose parents abuse drugs). afterwards, it was adapted and evaluated for the population of adolescents under high risk in traditional schools. taking into consideration developmental issues which older adolescents vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 25 face with, especially the ones under drug abuse risk, the program has the aim to prevent progression of drug use towards the abuse. main component of tnd program is the curriculum of twelve interactive sessions that involves play, exercise, role play, video materials, and written homework, conducted by teachers or health educators through group discussions in classes. those sessions include motivational activities, correction of false beliefs, social skills training, skills in making decisions and self-control skills targeting use of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and “heavy” drugs, and behaviors related to violence, such as carrying weapon. project tnd was rigorously evaluated in several experimental studies. results confirmed its efficacy in significant reduction of severe alcohol use compared to control groups. conclusion in the last decades utilization of more efficacious evidence-based programs became “golden” standard of highly professional practice in the area of prevention. namely, a number of well designed, randomized controlled studies support the hypothesis that substance abuse among youngsters in a significant manner can be prevented by implementation of tested programs and policies. these programs are aimed at a decrease of individual, family and pear risks, as well as community risks that are responsible for the beginning of substance use and its progression towards abuse. they also increase the influence of protective factors and processes. in the end, it is important to accent that proven efficacious preventive programs can be cost-effective because of research 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(2006). school psychology: a blueprint for training and practice iii. bethesda, md: national association of school psychologists. 69 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences negrophobia and anti-negritude in morrison’s the bluest eye nasser maleki, razi university, iran. mohammad javad haj’jari, razi university, iran. abstract morrison’s the bluest eye (1970) stands as an outstanding novel of character regarding the destroying effects of negrophobia among the black on themselves. pecola breedlove’s agony over blue eyes arises from an undeveloped negritude, the discord within the black society towards negrophobia, and a strong fear of her own race. pecola’s non-reconciliation with her black identity, inflamed by domestic violence and the black societal indifference, craves for blue eyes, the paradigm of whiteness and white beauty. consequently, she develops an anti-black neurosis because of a feeling of nonexistence both within her community and the white society, although she remains entangled within the interstitial space of blackness and whiteness as in a purgatory of suffering. her final madness is the culmination of a black human being who is able neither to accept and defend her negritude, nor to transcend to a seemingly higher, but fake, state of being. keywords: identity; negrophobia; negritude; pecola and the bluest eye 70 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences n. maleki identity crisis among black folk has always been an important issue because of their exploitation and abuse by the white people. the black human being has always had to fight the degradation by the white dominancy and the inferiority complex developed out of that. existing in such a void has never been easy for a black man or woman. problems are doubled when black women are the main concern, since they are both under the subjugation of their black men and that of the white people. as fanon says, “we must see whether it is possible for the black […] to overcome [… their] feeling of insignificance, to rid [their] life of the compulsive quality that makes it so like the behavior of the phobic” (2008: 35). thus the black suffer “from an inadequacy in all human communication” which entangle them in “an unbearable insularity” (35). since there is no pleasure in such insularity, the only way out is the way which “leads into the white world” (36). there is also the danger of domestic problems which include both physical and mental neuroses. according to fanon, “a normal negro child, having grown up within a normal family, will become abnormal on the slightest contact with the white world” (111). and the problem worsens if the child is even mistreated in his/her native family as well. mental “sickness” thus arises from “the family environment” (110). thus negritude remains undeveloped or develops in fragments, and negrophobia emerges both from the contact with the white and as an escape from blackness. as fanon remarks, the black sense of “inferiority” is thus “conscious” (116), and subjection to black indifference and white dominancy causes the black figure to live in “an ambiguity that is extraordinarily neurotic” (148). pecola breedlove’s lack of love in the black community, as her mother craves for the white life, creates a breach in the mother-daughter relationship which is exacerbated by incest. this lack of love is doubled by being a black girl too, which is itself tripled by the sense of ugliness as well. she wants to be loved but she is ugly, humiliated, marginalized, and alienated. she lacks parental love; she is poor; she is raped; she is black. she thus develops an inferiority complex. and what is the best model for development? she takes it as the blue eye, the paradigm of white beauty. thus, she develops delusions; she faces problems in the development of her ‘bodily schema’. embroidering on this issue fanon believes that “consciousness of the body is when the negro makes contact with the white world, a certain sensitizing action takes place. if his psychic structure is weak, one observes a collapse of the ego. the black man stops behaving as an actional person. the goal of his behavior will be the other (in the guise of the white man), for the other alone can give him worth. that is on the ethical level: self-esteem. (119) 71 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences negrophobia and anti-negritude solely a negating activity. it is a third-person consciousness. the body is surrounded by an atmosphere of certain uncertainty” (2008: 83). her being becomes a prison, the key to which are blue eyes as windows to the blue sky. such physical operation acts as “a serum for denegrification” to become white (fanon, 2008: 83). this may make it likely for the miserable pecola to whiten herself, and thus, as fanon analyzes such behaviors, “to throw off the burden of that corporeal malediction” (84). since the black are “ugly” in the white’s eyes (86), they are “the slave[s] not of the “idea” that others have” of them but of their own “appearance”. they are already “being dissected under white eyes, the only real eyes” (87). this moment of identification is the same as the lacanian mirror stage in which, in a kind of black discourse, the black man/woman comes to realize him/herself in the mirror of or the reflection from the white eye in which he/she sees an ugly image. growth out of that ugly framework to a form in accordance with white beauty is thus the black’s identity crisis. regarding the “living reactions of the woman of color to the european” concept of beauty, there are two types of women: “the negress and the mulatto”. the first has merely one concern: “to turn white”, while the second desires “not only to turn white but also to avoid slipping back” (fanon, 2008: 38). pecoula’s ugliness makes her crave for beauty. it is because the “negress feels inferior that she aspires to win admittance into the white world.” in this attempt she is after what is titled as “affective erethism” (42). “erethism” is “an unusually high sensitivity to sensory stimulation” (reber, 1995: 258), which is developed in pecola when she sees “blue eyes”. “blue eyes […] frighten the negro [and the negress]” (fanon, 2008: 29). pecola puts herself into “a complete situational neurosis” (43), to run away from her ugliness and “feeling of nonexistence” (106). considering these issues, this article tries to explain pecola’s development of madness out of such state of living, a living between negritude and self-imposed negrophobia. the bluest eye is toni morison’s first novel. the plot of the story is about a little black girl, pecola, who is taken as a boarder by the mactrees. pecola wants to have blue eyes. she believes that if she gains blue eyes, her ugliness would disappear and she would gain love, attraction, and consequently security. we think that morrison has used the singular ‘eye’ not as an organ, but metaphorically as something designating ‘the look’ of the whites who consider blacks as inferior people. such feelings exist because of differences between white and black societies. the difference finally leads to a search for identity. deleuze claims that all identities are effects of difference; identities are neither logically nor metaphysically prior to difference. he argues that “there exist differences of nature between things of the same genus” (1991: 33). that is, not only are no two things ever the same, the 72 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences n. maleki categories we use to identify individuals in the first place derive from differences. with the passage of time, pecola joins the stormy life of her family; she becomes the mate of miseries, insults, and frustrations imposed on her by her parents and her brother. moreover, pecola’s cataclysmic desire for blue eyes brings about her identity crises. meanwhile, she continually receives confirmation of her own sense of ugliness—the grocer looks right through her when she buys candy,; boys make fun of her; and a light-skinned girl, maureen who temporarily befriends her, makes fun of her too. she is wrongly blamed for killing a boy’s cat and is called a “nasty little black bitch” by his mother (morrison, 2004: 86). in the course of the novel, we discover that pecola’s parents have both had difficult lives. pecola’s mother, pauline, is an isolated melancholic handicapped. her whole life has been a fantasy full of things which white people have and she does not. she feels most alive when she is at work, cleaning a white woman’s house, and it is there where she finds a sense of life. her longing for the white woman’s house is another sign of domination on the part of white people. cholly, pecola’s father, was abandoned by his parents and raised by his great aunt who died when he was a lad. he ran away to find his father but was rebuffed by him. by the time he met pauline, he was a wild and rootless man. he feels trapped in his marriage and has lost interest in life. cholly returns home one day and finds pecola washing dishes. with mixed motives of tenderness and hatred that are fueled by guilt, he rapes her. this scene is the crucial revelation of male domination in the novel. when pecola’s mother finds her unconscious on the floor, she disbelieves pecola’s story and beats her. pecola goes to soaphead’s church, a shameful mystic, and asks him for blue eyes. instead of helping her, he has her kill a dog he dislikes. paradoxically, the negro/negress then becomes “a toy in the white man’s hands” (fanon, 2008: 108). the mactrees find out that pecola has been impregnated by her father, and unlike the rest of the neighborhood, they want the baby to live. they spend the money they have been saving for a bicycle and plant marigold seeds. they believe that if the flowers live, so will pecola’s baby. the flowers refuse to bloom, and pecola’s baby dies when it is born prematurely. cholly, who rapes pecola a second time and then runs away, dies in a workhouse. pecola goes mad, believing that her cherished wish has been fulfilled and that she has the bluest eyes in the world. consequently, pecola moves through traumatic experiences, including marginalization and the search for home and wholeness. and her trauma is aggravated because she is a girl dwelling in a phallocentric culture. right from the beginning of the novel, the reader is privy to pecola’s fate from the 73 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences negrophobia and anti-negritude italicized narrative of dick and jane’s primer story. it serves as an ironic contrast to the limited and the drab world of black characters, particularly macteers. pecola is introduced to the readers as the anonymous “she” who shares claudia and frieda’s bed. mrs. macteer refers to pecola “as a ‘case’” (morrison, 2004: 18), after her father has burned up his house and put his wife and children outdoors. she arrives at macteers’ house without anything, “no little paper bag with other dress, or a nightgown, or two pair of whitish cotton bloomers” (20). one is moved to sympathy with her condition caused by poverty, race hatred, ugliness, and victimization. black people are indoctrinated that their culture is inferior to the white. such indoctrination has created the duality of black consciousness. dubey in his book, the soul of black folk, calls this duality of consciousness “double consciousness”. he believes that “it is a peculiar sensation, double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (1975: 14). the victim of this cultural disease dwells in two opposing worlds and experiences a psychological conflict. pecola is an example of this phenomenon. she is convinced that the breedloves are damaged, spoiled, and blemished people and are thus undervalued by others. therefore, it is difficult to have equal access to the functioning systems in the society. in fact, the white race dictates its culture on the black to sway their minds. claudia, the narrator of the novel, realizes this situation: “it was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question. the master had said, “you are ugly people.” they have looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement” (morrison, 2004: 39). here the master epitomizes the white domination which imbues black people with the feelings of ugliness and inferiority. it is this sense of ugliness, inherited from her mother, that causes pecola to suffer. for pecola and her family, ugliness is a matter of personal conviction introduced by their white masters and willingly adopted by them. pecola’s ugliness, like a mantle, covers her body and self. her mind is perplexed and is unable to help her value herself. “she hid behind hers. concealed, veiled, eclipsed -peeping out from behind the shroud very seldom, and then only to yearn for the return of her mask” (ibid.: 39). the feeling of ugliness can be interpreted in foucault’s term as discourse; it is the hidden workings of operations obscured by the superficial objectivity of its constituent words and sentences. her cataclysmic desire for blue eyes is an indication of her identity crisis, referred to by deleuz as well, from which pecola suffers. her absolute blackness confirms other delimiting characteristics of her precarious position at the bottom of the social scale. pecola is actually a victim of a white society which treats people according to their skin color, a society which conditions her to believe and internalize that she is ugly because she does not epitomize western values, standards, and conceptions of beau74 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences n. maleki ty. barbara christian observes that “pecola’s destiny is ultimately determined by the myth of beauty and goodness one culture has foisted on another” (1989: 153). pecola’s gullibility dupes her into believing that the white myth of beauty is an appropriate avenue for self-definition and self-affirmation. in fact, she is despised, detested, and ostracized by her teachers, classmates, and people around her. that is why she devalues her healthy self by adopting the white standards of beauty to acquire “the bluest eye”, the ultimate standard of beauty. “white american prescription for beauty includes blonde hair, white skin, and above all, blue eyes” (otten, 1993: 17-18). she raises her spirit by subscribing to the white cultural definition of beauty and worthiness which precipitates her into losing herself for a place in the racist world. she rejects her true self to obtain a wrong one. as melissa walker points out, the novel is this kind of duality is the reason for her suffering. as an adult, pecola longs for love but her ugly image in the mirror prevents her from entertaining such an idea. “long hours she sat looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of her ugliness that made her ignored or despised at school, by teachers and classmates alike. she was the only member of her class who sat alone at a double desk” (morrison, 2004: 44). pecola thinks that love and acceptance come through blue eyes. for her, acquiring blue eyes is the only way to get out of her impasse, to negate her position as a pariah, and to transcend her sense of nothingness in the social atmosphere of lorain. “it had occurred to pecola some time ago that if her eyes […] were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different […] if she looked different, beautiful, maybe cholly would be different. maybe they’d say, ‘why look at pretty-eyed pecola. we mustn’t do bad things in front of those pretty eyes’” (ibid.: 45). her recoil to the world of fantasy gives her a feigned and spurious feeling of beauty. it seems that the bluest eye pecola dreams about is a metonymy for the white hegemonic culture that has too often set the standards of beauty and individual worth. pecola’s craving for blue eyes is tantamount to her desire for the specific beauty which the white culture designates as a virtue. she sees them in the face of a black cat and in the adored faces of white children, particularly shirley temple and mary janes. she is hypnotized by the picture of shirley temple embossed on the mug. she enjoys gazing at its blue eyes. she likes such kinds of characteristics and associates having blue eyes with a timeless study of a social outcast (pecola) who rejects herself and one-time outsider (claudia) who climbs into the mainstream of society and in the process renounces those left behind. it is also a timely novel in its treatment of the tragic consequences for those who attempt to escape blackness by an unrealistic and self – destructive yearning for (blue eyes) and privileges of whiteness or by renouncing their historical identity in order to accommodate to the white world. (1991: 50) 75 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences negrophobia and anti-negritude beauty and loveliness. pecola goes further and wishes to vanish and to be re-created as a white human being, as for her the outward appearance is associated with virtue. this distorted view augments her suffering, and her troubles begin to grow from here. however, her mania for the white idols of beauty makes her pay a very high price, since she is plunged into madness. this idea is incongruous in itself, as it does not have a magic power or a cosmetic operation to transform pocola’s complexion at the time of the setting of the novel. nevertheless, she starts praying ardently every night for blue eyes so that she may be accepted in the white society: “throwing in this way, into the binding conviction that only a miracle could relieve her, she would never know her beauty. she would see only what there was to see: the eyes of other people” (morrison, 2004: 45). this shows that pecola dwells in an illusory world where she enjoys a state of euphoria over blue eyes. she is maniacally preoccupied with beauty and love. morrison strongly believes that the western concept of beauty has no relevance to black women. in “behind the making of the black book”, she asserts that morrison here reveals her indictment of the standards of the white culture. in the novel she asserts that “romantic love” and “the idea of physical beauty” are “probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought” (morrison, 2004: 111). she denounces those blacks who are influenced by the incongruous white culture. in western discourse, outward beauty is associated with inner virtue and goodness. in her innocence, pecola decides to transgress the racial code by struggling to have a magical operation to have blue eyes. she erroneously thinks that if she gets blue eyes, the white world will accept her, her teachers and classmates will respect her and smile at her the same way they smile at maureen peal, and her parents may stop fighting. it reminds us of the concept of bakhtin’s carnivalism. bakthin takes carnivalism “as a second culture” as opposed to “the official culture” which was developed by common people during the medieval era and into the “early, modern period”. that carnivalism brings about “indeterminacy” and “a certain semantic open-endedness” for the official structures. this could provide a way of talking about “how subjects might respond to dominant discourses through the modalities of counter-identification or even misidentification” (bristol, 1985: 36). yet she finally ends up in madness because her eyes have not changed in reality. the concept of physical beauty as a virtue is one of the dumbest, most pernicious and destructive ideas of the western world and we should have nothing to do with it. physical beauty has nothing to do with our past, present, or future. its absence or presence was only important to ‘them’, the white people who used it for anything they wanted. (1974: 89). 76 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences n. maleki the only thing changed is her way of seeing; she cannot overcome her ugliness and blackness. pecola remains pecola. the society still looks down upon her and considers her a nasty girl. nature reflects pecola’s suffering too. the seeds of marigolds that claudia and frieda sow do not sprout, perhaps as a demonstration against racial inequality that causes the degradation. interestingly, the marigolds rebel against targeting pecola, while black and white people remain silent. for claudia, pecola’s pregnancy assumes a cosmic proportion which affects the growth of marigolds everywhere. such reflections of the stunted growth of pecola echoe morrison’s strong protest against the vituperative racism that dismantles black identity. pecola experiences pain, torment, rejection, and brutalization. devoid of her parents’ love, she cannot enjoy life at home, since her parents are constantly in an unremitting brutal battle. she is left adrift in life without any comforts or guidance afforded to other children, even those who are poor like her. thus, she innocently posits a question, which always nags her: “how do you do that? i mean, how do you get somebody to love you?” (morrison, 2004: 33). but no one answers her question because frieda is asleep and claudia does not know that. they do not care about their children or give them a sense of worth, since they have none of that worth. pecola is the scapegoat of her family and community. her real suffering begins when she sees the mundane light and cries. she is born to a woman who is torn by poverty, racism, and sexism, and therefore, she is unable to rear her daughter or at least to find an outlet for her dilemma. instead, she teaches her how to endure abuse and humiliation. pauline’s way of nurturing her daughter implants self-loathing in pecola’s psyche and precipitates her into dementia. in addition to what she had suffered at the hands of breedloves, she experiences many sufferings which lead her almost to obliterate her identity. morrison emphasizes the damaging effects of assimilating white values and culture into black people for whom pecola is a representative. the most chilling incident is cholly’s incestuous act. pecola is raped and impregnated by her father in a brutal way which hurts her dignity and decency and denudes cholly of his fatherly instinct. her only shelter, her father, destroys her being. this unnatural act stems from oppressive and hostile environments from which cholly suffers. when cholly staggers home, drunk, and sees his daughter washing the dishes, he feels pity for her degraded and hapless condition. since he is helpless to do anything to assuage pecola’s broken, “crouching” spirit (ibid.: 146), he is either unconsciously driven by an irresistible rage caused by a drunken stupor and thus rapes her or consciously commits the incestuous act to express his love and tenderness. “the attitude of the black man toward the white, or toward his own race, often duplicates almost completely a constellation of delirium, frequently bordering on the region of the pathological” (fanon 2008: 43). pecola’s father develops such delirium, culminated in the rape scene while he is drunk. 77 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences negrophobia and anti-negritude another terrifying incident is the inhuman treatment pecola receives from the old white shopkeeper, mr. yacobowsky, when she enters his candy store to buy mary jane some candy. on the way to the shop, pecola sees some dandelions with which she associates herself. in fact, it is the most painful experience of the “look” that pecola has ever experienced. the shopkeeper frowns at her, paying no attention to her as if she does not exist. “somewhere between retina, between vision and view, his eyes drawback, hesitate and hover. at some fixed point of time and space, he senses that he need not waste the effort of a glance. he does not see her because there is nothing to see” (morrison, 2004: 47). he stares at her in a way that denies human recognition. he does not want to waste his time looking at an unwanted thing. here pecola is not identified as the other but rather as a non-existent human being. he reduces her to a point of invisibility. pecola attempts to win his attention; she “looks up at him and sees the vacuum where curiosity ought to lodge.” but there is nothing but “the total absence of human recognition -the glazed separateness” (47). even when he wants to take the pennies, he takes them from pecola gingerly not to touch her black skin: “[s]he holds the money toward him. he hesitates, not wanting to touch her hand” (48). when he recoils at the touch of her hand, she accepts his affront with shame. she becomes angry which “is better. there is a sense of being in anger. a reality and presence. an awareness of worth.” but her anger “will not hold” and her thirst is “too quickly quenched”. and “shame wells up again” (49). since pecola accepts self-condemnation and self-rejection, her anger is vanquished. she is much injured by this incident that she cannot resist the shopkeeper’s dehumanizing stance. the fact is that she is not emboldened by inner strength and confidence. she believes that “the distaste must be for her, for blackness … that creates the vacuum edged with distaste in white eyes” (47). while pecola is going to yacobowsky’s shop, she shows overwhelming interest in the world around her and considers the dandelion beautiful. but after being insulted by the shopkeeper, she has no interest in the world around her. now she thinks that dandelions “are ugly” and “weeds” (48). as she changes her judgment about dandelions, she internalizes the belief that she is unworthy of notice. the “look” of others, particularly of whites and half-whites, confuses her and infuses a fear in her psyche. her traumatic experiences of the denial of self by whites negate her very existence. the scene is also reveals that pecola’s dilemma is “the look”, the hegemonic gaze that renders her ugly and vulnerable. pecola is a victim of the “look”. she sees herself as ugly through the eyes of others. she conjures up a negative image of herself instigated by the venerated, hegemonic, and monolithic culture. this negative image pushes her to the rim of society and forces her to occupy a peripheral space. her feeling of ugliness ensues from the hegemonic culture that brainwashes the minds of blacks in such a way that they 78 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences n. maleki develop self-hatred. whites imbue in the black psyche the feeling of ugliness and inferiority. the internalization of the white cultural etiquette degrades the life of the breedloves. ugliness and inferiority are reified in pecola’s consciousness. accordingly, she becomes more determined to acquire blue eyes. although cherished blue eyes are appealing to pecola, they will have detrimental effects on her psyche. she withdraws into an imaginative world of her own. in this way, pecola rejects her negritude and develops negrophobia; the deification of her oppressor’s culture leads to a negation of her own culture. she loses an integrated sense of herself. pecola does not only suffer at the hands of whites but also at the hands of her own people. intra–racism is an ingredient of the black spectrum; at school, her teachers and friends taunt her for her dark skin; people point fingers at her to indicate her inferiority; she is the pariah of her society. instead of developing a love of their own race, blacks develop self-hatred. one can argue here that blacks’ self-hatred and contempt of their own hue and pigmentation augment pecola’s estrangement from her family and community. it makes the situation more volatile and gives rise to her doleful situation. another incident that has debilitating effect on pecola is the neighborhood’s black boys who flock and dance around pecola, ragging her for having a swarthy skin and the sleeping habits of her father. they chant “yadaddsleepsnakked” and chide pecola for not being “civilized” according to the western standards, since she sees her father naked as he passes her bedroom, an allusion to ham’s seeing noah naked and thus cursed as the ancestor of the black race (genesis 9:20-27). they gaily revile and harass her by chanting an extemporized affront: “black e mo. black e mo. ya daddy sleeps neked. black e mo. black e mo. ya daddy sleeps neked” (morrison, 2004: 62). pecola is insulted and picked on by “matters over which [she] had no control: the color of her skin and speculations on the sleeping habits of an adult” (61). her response to this heap of insults is indeed indicative of her vulnerability and helplessness. one is indeed moved by morrison’s vivid depiction of pecola’s reaction to the humiliation from the boys: “pecola edged around the circle crying. she had dropped her notebook, and covered her eyes with her hands” (62). moreover, it has a deep implication that young blacks do not extol their culture because they lack a sense of pride in their culture, in their negritude. they are gravely influenced by the white cultural invasion which has swayed their minds. subscribing to the dominating culture, which considers those who do not cope with its etiquette and mores as uncivilized and crude, while refusing theirs, is the most dangerous factor that can annihilate black culture and identity. morrison stresses the necessity for blacks to accept their blackness, abide by their culture, extol it, and attach to their cultural past in order to disinter their affluent culture and make it the anthem of black life in america. a typical example of immoral black-black treatment is the way geraldine and mau79 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences negrophobia and anti-negritude reen treat pecola. geraldine admonishes her puckish and impish son, junior, not to play with “niggers” because they are dirty people. junior lures pecola into his house, which greatly impresses pecola. he throws the cat in her face and immediately locks them both in the room. to sooth her fright, she pets the cat which is black with blue eyes -an image that magnifies her fantasy and desire to have blue eyes. but the cat jumps from the widow and dies. instead of chastising her mischievous son, geraldine castigates innocent pecola. for geraldine, pecola is the embodiment of poverty, dirt, disorder, and ugliness which she has stridently managed to get rid of. in ordering pecola to get out of her house, she is “attempting to rid herself of her fears of her own unworthiness, of her own shadow of blackness” (awkward, 1993: 194). maureen’s innuendo wounds pecola’s psyche and alienates maureen from her black race. her duplicity, which manifests itself in her attempt to peroxide her hue and embrace the white culture, stems from belonging to a black culture. pecola’s response to this abuse echoes her response to geraldine. “pecola tucks her head in – a funny, sad, helpless movement. a kind of hunching of the shoulders, pulling in of the neck, as though she wanted to cover her ears” (morrison, 2004: 69). the narrator registers pecola’s response in a way which arouses the reader’s sympathy: “pecola stood a little apart from us, her eyes hinged in the direction in which maureen had fled. she seemed to fold into herself, like a pleated wing” (69). even when claudia and frieda shout back at maureen, pecola does not realize that they are defending her. instead, “she seemed to fold into herself, like a plated wing” (69). claudia is instigated by this incident: “her pain antagonized me” and “i wanted to open her up, crisp her edges, ram a stick down that hunches and curving spine, force her to stand and spit the misery out on the streets” (70-71). through exposing the maltreatment that pecola receives from the black boys, maureen, and geraldine, morrison reveals the seepage of the white values into black culture and tacitly condemns it. “ego-withdrawal as a successful defense mechanism is impossible” for the black people, since they require “a white approval” (fanon, 2008: 36). describing the phenomenon of ego-withdrawal, anna freud (1946) writes that as a method of avoiding “pain,” ego-restriction, like the various forms of denial, does not come under the heading of the psychology of neurosis but is a normal stage in the development of the ego. when the ego is young and plastic, its withdrawal from one field of activity is sometimes compensated for by excellence in another, upon which it concentrates. but, when it has become rigid or has already acquired an intolerance of “pain” and so is obsessionally fixated to a method of flight, such withdrawal is punished by impaired development. by abandoning one position after another it becomes one-sided, loses too many interests and can show but a meager achievement. (111) 80 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences n. maleki not only pecola achieves real blue eyes, she develops madness. pecola could have resisted the radiance of the white eye to remain in a normal state of mind, since “it is a truism that “crossings between widely different races can lower the physical and mental level.” before having a comprehensive knowledge of the effects of “race-crossings”, we should try our best to “avoid crossings between widely different races” (mjoen, 1921: 60). but “not yet white, no longer wholly black” (fanon, 2008: 106), pecola is damned. “identifying with the civilizing power” makes the black the victims of their own morality (150). at the outset, pecola aims to find love and affection among family and community. since love does not have a place among the breedloves, she does not experience it. she does not even identify it. her father-mother love is characterized by agony and silence in their bed. it seems this deformed love is imparted to pecola who wonders whether love is “choking sound and silence” (morrison, 2004: 56). love is an elusive obscurity for pecola. the breedloves storefront house is not congenial for fruitful love. consequently, pecola makes an effort to create her own world where she can acquire love, admiration, and acceptance among people. she thinks that blue eyes are an amulet and mascot of whiteness, beauty, love, pride, and security. accordingly, she exerts her efforts only to acquire blue eyes. her tale of suffering is really one of humiliation, marginalization, and alienation. she is isolated from people around her. devoid of a constructive contact in the orbit of social situation, pecola gets a chronic pain which she attempts to get rid of “by holding in her stomach” (ibid.: 44). deprived of an emotional bond through mother-daughter relationship and being engrossed in grinding poverty and torn by the onslaught of racism and sexism, raped by her father, battered by her mother, troubled by her ugliness, and silences by all, she is completely rejected and retreats into insanity. her desire for blue eyes becomes more urgent after her rape and the demise of her child. her interminable obsession with the blue eyes forces her into the hands of soaphead. she asks him to fulfill her reverie and he promises her a miracle. finally, she has the conviction that she has been given them. her obsession with the spurious blue eyes is presented through hallucinations, her resistance to blinking, and her delusional view that others envy her gift. her infatuation with her eyes is clearly seen in a tableau where she repeatedly looks at the mirror to reassure herself that her “blue eyes” are the bluest and the nicest. although pecola supplants the place of the looker or the gazer, she remains powerless and unable to attain love. therefore, she totally withdraws into her world of fantasy and dementia. morrison presents a picturesque description of pecola in the novel: the damage done was total. she spent her days, her tendril sapgreen days, walking up and down, up and down, and her head jerking to the beat of a drummer so distant only she could hear. elbows bent, hands on shoulders, she flailed her arms like a bird in an 81 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences negrophobia and anti-negritude she walks up and down as if she suffered from somnambulistic interminable walking. these useless and repetitive movements suggest the disintegration of her psyche. as an ingénue, she believes that she has been granted blue eyes and lives with that delusion. yet these eyes symbolize the trauma of not being loved. as such, her negrophobia not only serves the white race, but also challenges the black’s attempt at survival and their resistance for negritude. the delusional state of pecola hints to the fact that the interstitial state of identity in a white society poses its ideals in a way that the black race at times is disillusioned into dismantling itself, while negritude can be one of the best solutions against such suffering. references awkward, michael. 1993. “the evil of fulfillment’: scapegoating and narration in the bluest eye.” toni morrison: critical perspectives past and present. ed. henry louis gates, jr. and k. a. appiah. new york, amistad, 175-209. bristol, michael. 1985. carnival and theater: plebeian culture and the structure of authority in renaissance england. london, methuen. christian, barbara. 1989. black feminist criticism: perspectives on black women writers. new york, pergamon press. deleuze, gilles. 1991. trans. empiricism and subjectivity. montreal, mcgillqueen’s university press. dubey, madhu. 1975. black women novelists and the nationalist aesthetic. bloomington and indianapolis, indiana university press. fanon, franz. 2008. black skin, white mask. london, pluto press. freud, anna. 1946. the ego and the mechanism of defense. new york, international universities press. morrison, toni. 1974. “behind the making of the black book”. black world 23, 86-90 morrison, toni. 2004. the bluest eye. new york, rosetta books, llc. mjoen, jon alfred. 1921. “harmonic and disharmonic race-crossings.” eugenics in race and state, vol. ii, 60. otten, terry. 1991. “horrific lover in toni morrison’s fiction.” modern fiction studies 39, 3-4 (fall/ winter), 651-67. reber, arthur s. 1995. dictionary of psychology. london, penguin books. walker, melissa. 1991. down from mountaintop: black women novels in the wake of the civil rights movement 1966-1989. new haven, yale university press. eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly. beating the air, a winged but grounded bird, intent on the blue void it could not reach--could not even see--but which filled the valleys of the mind. (ibid.:, 184) 23 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences transnational identit y in robyn rowland’s australian/turkish poems: this intimate war: gallipoli/çanakkale 1915 i̇çli dişli bir savaş: gelibolu/çanakkale 1915 catherine akça kafkas university abstract world war i was a cataclysm. such global carnage, devastation and waste could not but result in international, intranational and individual change. one of the premises upon which war is sustained is the “otherness” of the enemy, attributed to various national, ethnic, geographical, social or cultural factors. this presupposes that the opposing force perceives its own identity as different from that of the enemy in some crucial way, sufficient to negate any variety in group affiliations within its own ranks, and to obscure the significance of characteristics held in common with the antagonist. the intensity of the experience of war, the need to validate the sacrifice involved, political imperatives and contingent propaganda all tend to reinforce perceptions of self-identity and “otherness” during the conflict, and in its aftermath. where war is international, issues of national identity will predominate. during wwi, the gallipoli campaign set allied invaders against ottoman turks. between 1915 and the evacuation of the allied troops in january 1916, both sides sustained terrible casualties and horrendous loss of life. the history, memories, commemoration and mythologisation of the anzac troops, from australia and new zealand, and of the turks at gallipoli were to contribute to the forging of the post-war national identities of their respective countries. however, identity is both a multi-facetted construct and a process in flux, in which the present interacts with the past. imperatives change, perspectives too. cultural identity, the sense of belonging to a particular group, may transcend national boundaries; myths may be reworked. a century after the gallipoli campaign, this paper examines poems from robyn rowland’s this intimate war: gallipoli/çanakkale 1915, in the light of the contemporary trend to move away from the mythologizing of the gallipoli story on a national basis towards a more inclusive transnational approach based on shared experience and values. key words: gallipoli, anzac, turkey, identity, rowland, poetry 24 catherine akça epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences war pits human against human at horrific human cost, yet it is most often underpinned by notions of “otherness”. rightly or wrongly, the foe is portrayed as alien and therefore threatening. combattants may be differentiated on various national, ethnic, geographical, social or cultural grounds. in warfare on an international scale, whatever its cause or justification, the concept of national identity, with its associated distinguishing features and values, frequently idealised under the pressure of circumstances or as a result of political propaganda, often serves to unite and motivate the military and civilians alike. this is what guibernau (2004) defined as the psychological dimension of national identity, a “‘felt’ closeness uniting those who belong to the nation,” when their “unique character” and “qualities” (p. 135) are threatened by an enemy. thus, in his sonnet “the soldier,” written at the outset of the first world war, rupert brooke (who was to die of septicaemia en route to gallipoli), depicted a paradiscal england and a notion of “englishness” worth fighting and dying for: ... there shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed; a dust whom england bore, shaped, made aware, gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, a body of england’s, breathing english air, washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. (3-8) there are no grey skies or smoking chimneystacks, no battlefield slaughter here. however, no matter how important a role the concept of national identity may play, or be made to play, where conflict is on a global scale the reality remains much more complex. for instance, on the one hand, international warfare promotes alliances between peoples, which are driven by strategic or moral imperatives, and which transcend differences in national or cultural identity, at least for the duration. yet, on the other hand, paradoxically, there may be as many similarities as differences between antagonists. for instance, in his poem “the man he killed”, thomas hardy conveyed the bewilderment of a soldier who, after shooting his “enemy” to save his own life, reflects: yes; quaint and curious war is! you shoot a fellow down you’d treat, if met where any bar is, or help to half a crown. (17-20) here, the focus has shifted from national differences to class similarities. 25 transnational identity in robyn rowland’s australian/turkish poems epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences nonetheless, regardless of this complexity, the intensity of the experience of war, the need to validate the sacrifice involved, political imperatives and contingent propaganda all tend to reinforce perceptions of self-identity and “otherness” during a conflict, to the extent that one force perceives itself as different from its enemy in some crucial way, sufficient to negate any variety in group affiliations within its own ranks, and to obscure the significance of characteristics held in common with the antagonist. returning to the relationship between national identity and warfare, it should be noted that this may be reciprocal. while nationalistic feelings clearly contribute to warfare, conflict itself may influence the dynamics of national identity. this process may run contiguous with a conflict, or it may develop and continue over time, as experiences, reports, analyses, accounts, impressions and memories of the period are transposed into histories or assimilated into works of culture. thus, kendall (2013), in discussing the poetry written by british and irish poets during and following the first world war, described how the conflict continues to pervade “the language and culture – our deepest sense of ourselves as a nation” (p. xxx), even though the great war is no longer a living memory. the impact of warfare upon the dynamics of national identity became apparent at a more fundamental level in the gallipoli/ çanakkale arena of the great war, where the conflict and its subsequent memorialisation, and indeed mythologisation, contributed to the forging of a new national identity for three of the combattant nations: australia, new zealand and turkey. in parenthesis, it is also interesting to note here a link with the irish desire to achieve nationhood. the high mortality rate among irish troops, who fought as part of the british army in the gallipoli campaign, inspired the following lines in “the foggy dew,” a ballad written in 1919 by canon charles o’neill, which recounted the 1916 irish rebellion against british rule: right proudly high over dublin town they flung out the flag of war. ‘twas far better to die ‘neath an irish sky, than at suvla or sud el bar. (9-12) in brief, the gallipoli/çanakkale conflict unfolded as follows. the gallipoli peninsula lies on the northern bank of the dardanelles strait, which provides maritime access to the sea of marmara and istanbul and, beyond, through the bosphorus strait to the black sea. in february, 1915, british and french ships starts bombarding turkish defensive positions along the dardanelles, with the aim of forcing a way through to istanbul, and ultimately opening up a route through the black sea to the russian empire. on 18th march, 1915 the full anglo-french force of 18 battleships and support vessels carried out its main attack on the strait, but was repelled by the turks who inflicted severe losses 26 catherine akça epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences upon their enemy, in the renowned victory of çanakkale (“world war 1”, n.d.). over the next five weeks, allied commanders made preparations for a land campaign to neutralise the turkish defences along the dardanelles strait. on 25th april, 2015 french and british troops began to land at cape helles (seddülbahir), suffering terrible losses in the process. likewise, many of the australian and new zealander (anzac) troops, who disembarked under fire at anzac cove (arıburnu), on the same date, were killed or wounded in their landing craft or on shore. the anzac landing was made further north than planned, so that those soldiers who came ashore were confronted by steep cliffs rather than a flat beach. evacuation from the peninsula was considered, but rejected as unfeasible. on the opposing side, the turkish defenders lacked strength in numbers and had limited ammunition. the turkish position was saved by the foresight of the commander of the 19th division, mustafa kemal (later atatürk), who ordered the troops of the 57th regiment “to die” (as cited in cameron, 2013, p. 10), rather than yield up the high ground at chunuk bair (conk bayırı), which he perceived as crucial to the defence of the area. stalemate ensued, with the attackers unable to advance and the defenders unable to repel them. trench warfare, with ferocious hand-to-hand fighting, continued through eight months of searing summer heat and freezing winter cold. terrible sanitation compounded the battlefield losses with deaths from disease. deteriorating conditions finally led britain to order evacuation of the peninsula, which was completed between december, 1915 and january, 2016 (fighting australasia, 1917; “the gallipoli campaign,” n.d.). in the course of the gallipoli campaign, both sides suffered horrendous losses, estimated at a total of around 150,000 deaths and a total of up to 500,000 casualties. more than 80,000 turks are believed to have perished. the casualty rate was at its highest among anzac troops, at 80% for both australian and new zealand combattants (“gallipoli casualties,” n.d.; slade, 2003; “the gallipoli campaign,” n.d.). as alluded to previously, new concepts of australian, new zealand and turkish identity took shape in the aftermath of the gallipoli/çanakkale battles. gallipoli, albeit in reality a distant locus of death and defeat, came to represent “the psychological birthplace of both australia and new zealand as nations” (slade, 2003, p. 780); and thus, for the people of both countries, became a place of secular pilgrimage to “a source of core identity” (hyde & harman, 2011, p. 1343). in 1991, anthony d. smith asserted that nationhood and cultural identity involve, inter alia, “a named human population sharing an historic territory, common myths and historical memories ...” (as cited in guibernau, 2004, p. 127). slade (2003) has observed that the word “myth,” as associated with gallipoli, follows barthes’ usage of the term: “myth is a system of communication ... a message ... a type of speech chosen by history ...” (barthes, 1957/1972, pp. 107-108). myth “makes us understand something and it imposes it upon us” (p. 115). “myth does not deny things, on the contrary, 27 transnational identity in robyn rowland’s australian/turkish poems epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences its function is to talk about them; simply, it purifies them, it makes them innocent, it gives them a natural and eternal justification, it gives them a clarity which is not that of an explanation but that of a statement of fact” (p. 143). used in this sense, myth is not incompatible with history in its contribution to the formation of cultural identity. thus, out of the carnage of gallipoli emerged the cultural construct of “anzac”, described by seal (2007) as “a conflation of history and myth” (p. 136). the great war was the first war in which australian and new zealand troops participated as citizens of self-governing nations within the british empire (slade, 2003). contemporary eye-witness accounts described the valour and other qualities of these troops in terms which shaped the anzac myth. the novelist and counter-espionage agent compton mackenzie depicted the australian troops in language which associated them with the mythical heroes of ancient greece, a comparison reinforced by the proximity of gallipoli to troy: “there was not one of those glorious young men i saw that day who might not himself have been ajax or diomed, hector or achilles” (as cited in pringle, 1997, p. 97). the commander of the mediterranean expeditionary force, sir ian hamilton, made the same comparison, and further described the anzacs as “a radiant force of camaraderie in action” (as cited in pringle, pp. 97-98). one of the earliest propagators of the anzac myth, the australian war correspondent and historian c.e.w. bean, directly associated the australian gallipoli campaign with the birth of a modern nation and characterised the anzacs as different from the other troops (slade, 2003). for instance, in anzac to amiens (1946), bean wrote that: “anzac stood, and still stands, for reckless valour in a good cause, for enterprise, resourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship, and endurance that will never own defeat” (as cited in “anzac spirit,” n.d.). in the aftermath of the great war, the development of the anzac myth, through historical accounts, cultural artefacts and the media (broadbent, 2009), in turn, led to the assimilation of the aforesaid characteristics into the australian and new zealand constructs of national identity. the enduring impact of gallipoli upon the national consciousness is made explicit, for instance, in the programme commemorating anzac day in 2006: “the spirit of anzac, with its human qualities of courage, mateship and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity” (as cited in seal, 2007, p. 137). taylor (1987) highlighted a difference in emphasis between two collections of australian poetry about the great war, which is illustrative of the ways in which cultural memory may be shaped, and of the process of purification by myth which barthes (1957/1972) describes. the poems in the anthologies were written at an interval of 50 years apart. the poetry written by australian soldiers 28 catherine akça epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences at the time of the war “displays ... a profound disillusionment with war, with politics, with patriotism and with authority” (p. 58). in contrast the later poems, all written after 1970, reinforce the anzac myth by depicting the australian soldiers as innocents led to the slaughter, naively obedient to the call of britain, the old colonial authority, which proved to be unworthy of their sacrifice (taylor, 1987). this notion of australian innocence, already a part of the anzac myth, was considerably strengthened by peter weir’s 1981 film gallipoli, much influenced by the official history written by c.e.w. bean. the film emphasized the separateness of australian identity from british identity, which it portrayed negatively, and focused on egalitarianism and mateship as the distinguishing features of the former (haltof, 1993). interestingly, the historical enemy, turkey, played no prominent role in gallipoli. the film is a prime example of the role cultural artefacts may play in the shaping of cultural memory, and thus in the evolution of a nation’s sense of identity. mersin (2011) has shown how the same phenomenon is observable in turkish films about the war of independence and national heroism, in which certain motifs, such as the value of being turkish and the elevated character of the turks, were promoted in the interests of reconstructing national identity. amongst many examples, mersin cited the 1951 film allahaısmarladık, in which the enemy general thompson, veteran of gallipoli, characterised the turks as an honourable, brave and heroic people (mersin, 2011). as with anzac, the qualities of bravery, resilience and determination displayed by the turks at çanakkale and gallipoli quickly achieved mythic status. within a few short years, the same characteristics, by now explicitly associated in the mind of the populace with being turkish, inspired the turks to further sacrifice and heroism in the struggle to overcome the forces of imperialism and forge a new national identity. under the leadership of atatürk, a legend in his own right, the turkish war of independence (1919-1923) was fought to a successful conclusion, culminating in the founding of the modern republic of turkey on 29th october, 1923. the gallipoli/çanakkale battles now lie at the limits of living memory, but the spirit of çanakkale has long since passed into legend and continues to pervade the turkish cultural memory and the national consciousness. according to barthes (1957/1972), mythical concepts “can come into being, alter, disintegrate, disappear completely” (p. 119). köroğlu (2007) discussed the phenomenon of “belatedness” (xvi-xvii), whereby writers are affected by the political, socio-cultural and psychological climate of their own period, which influences their interpretation of war, and thus may change how it is remembered. indeed, in recent years, the traditional anzac myth has begun to take new shape. 29 transnational identity in robyn rowland’s australian/turkish poems epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the original emphasis on values associated with national identity has begun to be replaced, in some quarters, by a new approach to the experience of gallipoli from the perspective of transnationalism. in a cinematic context, hjort has defined “affinitive transnationalism” as “a history of interaction giving rise to shared core values, common practices” (as cited in hillman, 2011, p. 25). an example of a work which adopted such a perspective is the turkish director tolga örnek’s 2005 documentary film, gallipoli: the frontline experience, which simpson (2007) described as breaking new ground “in its attempts to abandon the baggage of national mythmaking on both sides of the trenches in favour of a more experiential approach to the battle” (p. 86). örnek achieved this by using the diaries, letters and photographs of ten ordinary soldiers from opposing sides of the battlefield british and anzac, as well as turkish. through its rendering of their shared experience of trauma and tragedy, of the valour displayed by both sides, and of the mutual respect generated, the film exemplifies what hjort has called the “deep transnational belonging” that may occur when “elements of deep national belonging ... overlap with aspects of other national identities” (as cited in hillman, 2011, p. 35). hillman has also highlighted a number of other literary and cinematic works which adopt a similar transnational perspective, including louis de bernières novel birds without wings (2004) and wain fimeri’s tv documentary revealing gallipoli (2005). similarly, fewster, başarın and başarın (2003) have explored changing perspectives on the relationship between australians and turks, arguing that where the original anzac myth was selective in its approach to history, the legend has now been redefined to include turkish soldiers, with a new emphasis on the shared fate of the soldiers as “fellow sufferers rather than sworn enemies” (p. 11). the sociologist brad west has shown how the increasingly popular annual anzac pilgrimage to gallipoli has opened the eyes of the visitors to the realities of turkish bravery, to the turkish side of the story and to turkish culture. in west’s view, “a new dialogic mythology” has emerged out of these encounters between turks and australians, grounded in “the collective memory of the two nations as innocent martyrs” (as cited in mckenna & ward, 2007, pp.148-149). the same notion of transnational belonging is encapsulated in the words of atatürk, which are inscribed on a turkish monument to the allied fallen at gallipoli, as well as on the memorial to atatürk in canberra: ... there is no difference between the johnnies and the mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... you, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well. (as cited in “atatürk”, n.d.) elsewhere, bennett (2014) has highlighted a growing trend in historical scholarship 30 catherine akça epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences to adopt a transnational approach to the gallipoli campaign, characterised by an “anti-war tone ... and ... emphasis on the universal experience of war, supported by the unvarnished words of the common man revealed through letters and diaries” (pp. 642-643). d.w. cameron’s book shadows of anzac. an intimate history of gallipoli (2013), incorporating diaries and letters written by both allied and turkish troops is one example of this. the current shift in emphasis in relation to the gallipoli story, away from the cultural nationalism associated with the traditional anzac myth towards transnationalism, provides further evidence that conceptions of identity evolve dynamically, as the present interacts with the past. imperatives change, perspectives too. cultural identity, the sense of belonging to a particular group, may transcend national boundaries; myths may be reworked. this intimate war: gallipoli/çanakkale 1915 i̇çli dışlı bir savaş: gelibolu/ çanakkale 1915 is a collection of poems by the irish-australian poet robyn rowland (2015). in launching the collection, gorton asserted that rowland “has taken on the role of shaping how we perceive the past” (2015, para. 2). the emotional force generated by the poems works at a level which transcends the national by evoking what scartes (as cited in mckenna & ward, 2007) has called “the community of suffering” (p. 148) of the ordinary individuals involved on both sides in the gallipoli/çanakkale conflict. in other words, rowland’s poems address aspects of deep transnational belonging. the remainder of this paper will examine this intimate war, from this perspective. it is worth noting, in passing, that the transnational focus of the collection is sharpened by the presence of the mehmet ali çelikel’s turkish translation of the poems, juxtaposed with the english on alternate pages of the volume. robyn rowland is an australian, of irish origin, with a turkish sister-in-law. although this background may have inspired, to some degree, the transnational perspective in this intimate war, the sense of affinitive transnationalism which pervades the work seems rather to reflect the writer’s ability to empathize, her humanity and a fine poetic sensibility. the belief that the anzacs, although part of the aggressor force, went innocently to war at gallipoli – a notion which permeates the traditional anzac myth – is maintained by rowland in this work. however, this attitude reflects her condemnation of the british imperialistic ambitions which culminated in the carnage at gallipoli/çanakkale, rather than any nationalistic sentiment. indeed, rowland absolves all of the colonial troops of responsibility in “the folly of myth: prologue, 1915” (pp. 20-29): the british “... carried their empire with them – the defeated, the colonised, / the unaware ...” (p.22, i, 31-32). moreover, in “children of gallipoli,” (pp. 42-45), she proves the validity of her position, by quoting the contemporary 31 transnational identity in robyn rowland’s australian/turkish poems epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciencesepiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences recruitment posters which betrayed the naive into signing up for a war in which they would have to invade another’s soil: “posters told the colonies it was to stop the, germans. / ‘free trip to europe,’ they blared, ‘full of adventure and interest’” (5-6). thus in “green road” (pp. 68-73), the speaker is not an anzac. rather, the voice heard is that of an irish soldier, who had hoped to be granted freedom and nationhood in return for fighting honourably for britain at gallipoli, but emerges disillusioned and enraged by the poor planning: “there must have been clear springs somewhere / if anyone in charge had a map” (44-45); by the loss of so many comrades: “most of us were dead in the many ways of war. / most of us wearing the green never got back” (56-57); and, ultimately, by a sense of betrayal: “will they pay that honour-price now? / do you think? will i have my own country / when i get back to it? the turks have theirs” (74-76). as the previous quotation illustrates, rowland’s work acknowledges the relationship between gallipoli/çanakkale and national consciousness, but does so from a transnational standpoint. for instance, “anybody left? anybody left? no?” (pp.80-85) refers to impact of the conflict upon the evolution of both anzac and turkish national identities. the poem deals with the evacuation of the gallipoli peninsula. its title works on two levels, reflecting the logistics of the withdrawal, while at the same time evoking the horrible truth that a generation of young men was wiped out by the great war, in gallipoli and elsewhere. part of the poem describes how, as they reach ship, the surviving anzac soldiers contemplate, in anguish, the scene “... where friends, brothers, sons and fathers / are buried or dusted to vapour in ways too cruel for memory / yet they take away a sense of knowing who they are – anzacs” (p. 82, 48-50). these lines hint at the way in which the purifying force of myth would, over time, process the horrors of the defeat at gallipoli out of the collective cultural memory, particularly in australia, allowing the emergent national consciousness to focus primarily upon the qualities of the anzac troops and, eventually, to adopt these characteristics as its own. with respect to cultural identity, in the same poem, rowland also documents the invidious position of the indigenous australian aborigines. denied all rights of citizenship, they even had to claim to be half-caste in order to be able to sign up; but, as bodies were needed at the front, the recruiters turned a blind eye to their colour and enlisted them: “for a country that gives them no vote, / no citizenship, no rights over their children, / only equality here in sharing death” (p. 82, 35-37). maintaining its transnational perspective, the poem also links gallipoli with atatürk’s vision of an independent turkey, thus acknowledging the turkish version of the spirit of çanakkale/gallipoli and its importance in the foundation of the modern republic of turkey. moreover, by paraphrasing atatürk’s words, rowland reminds her international reader that turkish soldiers too fought bravely at çanakkale and gallipoli, under conditions 32 catherine akça epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences of great hardship and, importantly, that the turks were not the aggressors there: he speaks of the honour of his men, so ill-equipped except with valour, who took a second victory from invaders. out of the dust of gelibolu, out of its blood-black soil, his vision of a new country flowers, a freer order, a modern turkey, stronger, that one day he will raise, phoenix from the flames. (p. 84, 76-81) the same, typically transnational, respect for the bravery and determination of the turks, and for turkish culture, with a further acknowledgement that the turks were the innocent party, appears in “the folly of myth: prologue, 1915” “yet still they misunderstood a deep culture / soldiers ill-resourced but clever, dedicated, / who would lie down and die to defend their homeland” (p.22, ii, 2-4). if one had to select but a single poem to illustrate the transnational qualities of this intimate war, “close” (pp.36-41) would be a fine candidate. the poem conveys the physical proximity of the soldiers – close enough to throw notes and food to one another in the trenches, to share dark humour: “... you are too, weak to advance, too strong / to retire, and we are the same, so what shall we do about it?” (p. 36, 17-18); close enough to kill one another hand-to-hand, by the “upward lunge of a bayonet driven home” (13); so close that that they could look into one another’s eyes, making it harder to kill; so close that their dead were “shared” (21). out of this interaction, comes the epiphany: “that’s when we know them, suddenly, smooth hands, / voices, smiles, they are boys, like us, young” (24-25). rowland does not articulate the nationality of the speaker, nor does she need to, for here she is concerned to convey the truth that the horrors of gallipoli were experienced by all of the young men there. so, she reveals how they shared the same fundamental emotions and values – the languages might have been different, but the laughter, the music, and the longing for home were the same. to demonstrate that the combattants shared the same basic humanity, she retells the real story of the soldier who left his trench to carry a wounded enemy back to his own lines, despite the odds on their survival: ... and he will probably be shot returning and our soldier die anyway and still he does it because bravery isn’t to do with this but with finding himself again in some small act, some care. (p. 38, 29-33) though her powerful imagery, rowland shows how the soldiers from either side 33 transnational identity in robyn rowland’s australian/turkish poems epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences were united in hardship, in injury, in sickness, and in fate: “... now i know him in the trenches best, / his ribs thin like mine, his bandaged foot, / that cough at night, the black sleepless shape of his death” (43-45). she shows how they shared the same fears, the same perplexity and the same obedience to command, and how this created a bond that went deeper than mere camaraderie: “i love him now, my enemy. i know him” (52). on a technical note, the use of lower case letters here and throughout the poem, including for the first person pronoun, reinforces the impression of homogeneity created. by the end of the poem, the reader has been brought to realise that even the adjective “close” is redundant. the intertwining of the soldiers’ experiences – above all their experience of death – transcends everything else, nationality and enmity included: “... we have no boundaries anymore. / we are killing ourselves in this intimate war” (p.40, 59-60). gallipoli was part of a global war, in which politicians pursued policies and nations held stakes. however, throughout this collection, rowland gives the “intimate” perspective of the ordinary individuals brought into terrible proximity by the war, whom gorton (2015) has described as vulnerable in the face of history. thus, in several of the poems, as in “close,” the voice is that of a trooper, who might be anzac or turk or irish, but whose nationality loses definition in the charnel house of gallipoli, where death is an indiscriminate leveller, a place of “bodies heaped so you couldn’t tell / what country they were from, scattered about, / half-buried...” (“green road”, p. 72, 61-63). in “thank heavens” (p.18), for example, which describes with breathless urgency, the moment of a charge from the trenches, to kill or be killed, and the shock of the killing, the charging soldier is a composite figure of indeterminate nationality and fate. his cry of “sweet jesus, allahu akbar, mary mother of god” (3) reflects both the diversity of faiths present and, more significantly, reveals how the universal instinct to turn to “god” at moments of great crisis reduces religious differences to irrelevancy. once again, the use of the lower case throughout the poem assists its meaning, by heightening the sensation of urgency. at the same time, in “no god, no!” (14), the lack of capitalization not only reinforces the impression of transnational religious expression, but is also consistent with the desecration of faith “faith is everywhere like bloodied green grass” (1) by a level of carnage which has rendered it redundant, except as a battlefield cry, screamed out until the crisis has passed or, from the alternate perspective, until the soldier has been slain: “sweet jesus, allahu akbar, mary mother of god / it wasn’t needed for long” (19-20). then again, in this poem of conflated perspectives, faith seems to operate on another level too, that of faith in authority: “sweet jesus, allahu akbar, mary mother of god / yes sir, sergeant, commander, captain, lieutenant, / necessary as breath when the voice screams attack! /obey, obey, obey ...” (3-6). rowland addresses this issue more explicitly in “luck” (pp. 86-89), 34 catherine akça epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences where an anzac survivor describes how blind faith in authority filled the void left by the loss of spiritual belief and kept him going when all around seemed senseless: ... kept the faith. lost something / deep that never restored itself. but faith – that had to go with you. belief in command, that they know the purpose. this gives you strength. (2-5) the impact of the gallipoli conflict upon religious belief is also addressed in “the dead” (pp 78-79). here, rowland demonstrates how even the representatives of religion were reduced to helplessness, when confronted with “the brutal harvest” (4) of thousands of young men they could not minister to, could not bury. again, the perspective is transnational. core values are shaken on both sides of the battle line. in this poem, rowland employs a technique of narration in parallel, which she uses frequently in this intimate war to convey the mutuality of various deep emotions generated in individuals, on all sides of the conflict, who were exposed to the same circumstances: ... the imam sighed – surely it was not intended, so many children of god dead. ................................................. ...it hurt his very bones. ................................................. ... the priest.............................. ... watched chaplain, hindu, jew, bewildered. it pained him in the chest. a knife there. it simply cannot have been meant by god, this wasteful slaughter.... (6-8, 17, 19, 30-33) through the technique of parallel narration, the practical differences between people of different nationalities emerge as matters of detail, whereas in much that really matters they are revealed to be fundamentally the same. another powerful example of rowland’s use of this technique in this intimate war occurs in “children of gallipoli” (pp. 42-45), which deals with the loss of childhood innocence, with the sacrifice and the sacrificing of youth. in consecutive stanzas, rowland tells tales of the english, australian and turkish boy soldiers, some as young as 13, who fought and were maimed or, more often, died at gallipoli (and on the somme). most went naively into battle, seduced by tales of heroism and dreams of adventure, expecting to return home. only the turkish were pre35 transnational identity in robyn rowland’s australian/turkish poems epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences pared for reality: “we came to die for our country” (40). here, as is the case with many of the poems in the collection, rowland draws inspiration from the narratives of those who fought in the campaign, from contemporary photographs and from newsreels too, sometimes quoting directly, sometimes reproducing a picture in words. this produces an effect of historical veracity, and renders the tragedies of the past more immediate. jim martin died at 14 from typhoid and heart failure; i̇smail hassan’s mother dyed his hair with henna, like a sacrificial goat, offering him up to death for the sake of their homeland; the corpses of the chubbycheeked schoolboys, who had charged out of the trenches into machine-gun fire, fell back into the lap of drill sergeant azman, who had had but one night to train them, and whose words are quoted: “i couldn’t forget the images of their rosy faces ... / everyone was crying” (51-52). there is terrible poignancy in the fact that the photos which the poem describes are all of the future that many of the children in them would ever have. dedicating her poem to all the child soldiers, rowland reminds the reader that this was a tragedy played out across all of the nations involved at gallipoli. the final stanza draws all of the individual stories from all of the separate nations together into a single harrowing image of human tragedy: every country had them. they left no wills, no children to grandchildren, no mark on the earth but some fading photo ... ................................................................................... ... just the image of a boy dead in the trenches. not humped like an older man. the boy still flings himself down as if to sleep on his back, hands thrown back like a baby, head lolling a little tucked into the trench. in his hand where a rattle might be, a grenade. (53-55, 57-62) for c.e.w. bean (as cited in pringle, 1997) the anzac soldiers were heroic figures, men of special prowess, great courage and distinctive character, who represented the ideal of australian manhood. thus, the traditional anzac myth took root in the national consciousness as principally a masculine construct. in parenthesis, it should be observed that is less true of turkey, where from the outset, the çanakkale narrative gave more prominence to accounts of the role played by women in the national defence (yazıcı, 2011). in this intimate war, rowland acknowledges that the desire to be a hero is part of the masculine psyche, and that this played a part in leading young men of all nations to war: from the british, who “...longed for ancient valour. / bred on the classics, lusting for another troy” (“the folly of myth: prologue, 1915, i, 24-25), to the colonial boys who signed up for adventure 36 catherine akça epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences (“children of gallipoli”), to the turks urgent for “... some idea of history, some vision of a hero / ... / ... men full of the strange energy / they call ‘war’” (“when he was young, once,” pp. 90-93, 7, 31-32). as previously discussed, rowland’s poems convey the reality of the universal male experience at gallipoli: the fighting, the horror, the suffering, the incomprehension, the killing and the dying. on the other hand, she gives equal prominence to the contribution of woman to çanakkale/gallipoli, and to the female perspective, which is lacking in the traditional anzac myth. in “when he was young, once,” the speaker is a woman whose husband has returned from gallipoli as a psychologically scarred amputee. through the poem, with its terrible refrain “not this ... not this ... not this” rowland shows how his tragedy is hers too. the woman remembers their courtship and marriage, “her happiness, certainty of a future,” (24) and sets them against the reality of the present: “everything had gone now that she knew. / everything changed. / she didn’t want this / not this” (27-30). here, the female voice is that of a wife and lover. elsewhere, again using the technique of parallel narration, rowland evokes the mothers, sisters, wives and lovers, from all of the countries involved in the conflict, who supported the war effort: from behind the lines, as munitions workers or on farms; or at the front, by carrying ammunition; or as nurses tending to the wounded and dying (“production lines, pp.54-57; “mopping up”, pp. 46-53). again, the poetry is underpinned and validated by memories and words drawn from the diaries and letters of named women who experienced these aspects of the war directly. for instance “mopping up” is preceded by a quote from nurse ellen newbold la motte (18731961): “thus the science of healing stood baffled before the science of destroying” (p. 46). her words resonate throughout the poem and are echoed in the final stanza: they learned a deeper pain in nursing – not for health, but to refit an armed force with patched-up husbands and sons, knowing that though ripped apart in body and mind, as soon as flesh was repaired they’d shrug up their rifles and packs, strap their faces into the resignation of obedience, and go back to be shattered again. (101-105) in terms of the female perspective, perhaps the strongest images of all are those rowland creates of a mother, suspended in the agony of grief for a dead son; remembering the child; powerless to help, comfort or resurrect the man: plum jam – his favourite – rests thickly in the spoon she holds, has been holding now for two hours. 37 transnational identity in robyn rowland’s australian/turkish poems epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences it slips along her hands, her veins, dripping. .................................................................. ... she wants to go there, look up at the impossible height and shiver, dig like an animal among the rough cliffs with her bitten nails and bare teeth, among the bones on the sandy beach in the shallows, find him and stick him back together. ................................................................... ‘we couldn’t find enough of charlie to bury him.’ the thought of his fear pierced her, cut her throat, took her voice and she doesn’t want it back. (“second skin, pp. 94-97, 3-5, 9-14, 26-28) typically, these poems emphasize the universality of the female experience of gallipoli/çanakkale and how the deep emotions aroused in women by the conflict transcended differences in nationality. by depicting their self-sacrifice, their guilt at surviving, their bravery, their compassion, their dread, their loneliness and, above all, their grief, rowland shows how women on both sides belonged to the same “community of suffering.” moreover, she depicts how such depth of emotion might lead ordinary women to question and to challenge the rationale of war, at least inwardly, in contrast to the soldiers who were conditioned and driven by circumstances to place their faith in command: what if they’d all stopped the production line of death, left filling-factories empty, stayed unskilled with munitions, stopped birthing the shredded bones of young men? what if they had – at that point in history – said ‘no’? (“production lines”, 59-62) one day we will trade with them again, marry their sons that are left, and will it somehow have been right? (second skin, 31-32) of course, it is rowland herself who asks these rhetorical questions from her perspective as a woman looking back at gallipoli. no matter that the allied and turkish troops shared their breath across the trenches (“close”, p.38), no matter that their fates were closely intertwined, or that there was deeply felt empathy and respect between them, the slaughter continued brutal and unrelenting until the evacuation – for this was war and they were enemies, and a soldier had to kill 38 catherine akça epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences or be killed. no matter how much a woman might have questioned or grieved, she would have screamed her protest silently, for her country was at war and she could not deny her men the munitions that might keep them alive. this was the contemporary reality of gallipoli. it is not possible to change history but, over time, it is possible to alter perceptions by hearing and transmitting all sides of a story, and showing that the truth is multi-facetted. the evolution of the anzac myth to include the turks as fellow heroes and fellow sufferers, rather than enemies, is evidence of this. rowland prefaced this intimate war with the words of a gallipoli veteran: “we’re friends until the day we die and not just that – our families, our sons, grandsons ... it was a long time ago”. the spirit here is transnational, inclusive, and cognizant that shared experiences, deep emotions and fundamental values may draw people together, at a time and on a level where national differences have become unimportant. this does not mean that the carnage at gallipoli has “somehow become right”. rowland’s collection is not about changing the past, but about shaping the future. “the folly of myth: prologue, 1915 (pp.20-29) makes this clear. the poem, in three sections, gives an historical account of the naval battle at çanakkale and the eight months war at gallipoli, within the framework of a visit to the naval museum in çimenlik kalesi, repository of the spirit of çanakkale, with three ten year old boys. the poem draws together many of the issues that have already been discussed in this paper in relation to other works in the collection. rowland shows how myth can drive history, but how ignorance of the history of another culture can produce catastrophe. she evokes the classical education of the officers of the british imperial naval force, which had gathered at tenedos, ready to sail into the dardanelles strait. she describes how they conceived of their expedition as a second trojan war and of themselves as proudly following in the wake of the ancient greek heroes. then, she depicts the landings on the gallipoli peninsula, after the debacle of çanakkale, and compares the river clyde, from which the troops were disembarked, to the trojan horse. there follows “a blaze of scarlet loss, a shredding wind of bullets” (p. 28, iii, 24-25) – and eight months of carnage which provide devastating evidence of the folly of myth. in contemplating this narrative, and given that rowland prefaces her collection with the following quotation from john berger “... the past is not for living in; it is a well of conclusions from which we draw in order to act” the reader is drawn to make a connexion with the traditional anzac myth, with its emphasis on masculine prowess and heroism and its classical referencing, and to perceive the dangers it might hold. this interpretation is further strengthened by the framework around the historical narrative. the three small boys are already drawn to the masculine vision of heroism. as they play in the grounds of the castle and pose for photographs, the minds of the ten year olds, only a year or two younger than some of the child soldiers of gallipoli, turn to: “...wars and heroic deeds. / troy 39 transnational identity in robyn rowland’s australian/turkish poems epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences is just down the road. bone-house of heroes. / when my boy stood there he saw achilles and hector, / armies over a hundred thousand, blood on their spears” (p. 20, i, 12-15) on the other hand, the speaker, parent of sons; probably given the emotions expressed but not explicitly, a woman; probably, but not explicitly, rowland herself, had reacted quite differently to the visit to troy “... at that crumbled gate / priam watched his son’s body dragged ragged behind horses. / i prayed to any god that my sons navigate manhood without war” (16-18). similarly, at the end of the poem, the speaker, watching the small boys play on the grass, answers, from the future, the question posed in “second skin” by the bereaved mothers of gallipoli (p.96): no, the conflict will never prove to have been right – “...you think of waste. and you know / there never was a need for another troy” (p. 28, iii, 49-50). towards the end of the collection, in “ways of seeing” (pp. 98-111), rowland takes as her subject the gallipoli sketches and paintings of l.f.s. hore, sidney nolan and fehmi kokut uluğ, artists of british, australian and turkish nationality respectively, which helped to inspire this intimate war. she prefaces this haunting series of poems with another quote from john berger which, as the above discussion has sought to illustrate, may be applied equally well to her own work: “the strange power of art is sometimes it can show that what people have in common is more urgent than what differentiates them” (p. 98). 40 catherine akça epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences works cited anzac spirit (n.d.). australian war memorial online. retrieved from https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/anzac/spirit/ atatürk (n.d.). australian war memorial online. retrieved from https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/ataturk barthes, r. 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(2013). introduction. in t. kendall (ed.), poetry of the first world war. an anthology (pp. xv-xxx). oxford: oxford university press. köroğlu, (2007). ottoman propaganda and turkish identity: literature in turkey during world war i. new york, ny: tauris. retrieved from https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=m3saawaaqbaj&printsec=frontcover&dq mckenna, m., & ward, s. (2007). ‘it was really moving, mate’: the gallipoli pilgrimage and 41 transnational identity in robyn rowland’s australian/turkish poems epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences sentimental nationalism in australia. australian historical studies, 38(129), 141-151. doi: 10.1080/10314610708601236 mersin, s. (2011). kurtuluş savaşı filmleri ve milli hamaset. sinecine, 2(2), 33-56. retrieved from http://www.sinecine.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/3_serhanmersin.pdf o’neill, c. “the foggy dew.” retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/songs/rs_song06.shtml pringle, h. (1997). the making of an australian civic identity: the bodies of men and the memory of war. in g. stokes (ed.), the politics of identity in australia (pp. 92-104). cambridge: cambridge university press. retrieved from https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=dvaxuhdpyooc&printsec=frontcover&dq rowland, r. (2015). this intimate war: gallipoli/ çanakkale 1915 – i̇çli dışlı bir savaş: gelibolu/ çanakkale 1915. istanbul: bilge kültür sanat. seal, g. (2007) anzac: the sacred in the secular. journal of australian studies, 31(91), 135-144, doi: 10.1080/14443050709388135 simpson, c. (2007). taking the ‘nation’ out of gallipoli: tolga ornek’s ‘gallipoli: the frontline’. metro magazine, 153, 86-90. abstract retrieved from http://minerva. mq.edu.au:8080/vital/access/manager/repository/mq:5231 slade, p. (2003). gallipoli thanatourism. the meaning of anzac. annals of tourism research, 30(4), 779–794. doi:10.1016/s0160-7383(03)00025-2 taylor, a. (1987). a blameless boyhood: australian poetry about the great war. westerly, 2, 55-61. retrieved from http://westerlymag.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/article2-australian_poetry.pdf the gallipoli campaign. (n.d.). new zealand history online. retrieved from http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/the-gallipoli-campaign/introduction world war 1 at sea. (n.d.). dardanelles and gallipoli 1914-1918. retrieved from http://www.worldwar1atsea.net/ww1campaignsdardanelles.htm yazıcı, n. (2011). çanakkale savaşı’nda türk kadınının rolü. (the role of turkish women during the gallipoli campaign). akademik bakış, 5(9), 245-263. retrieved from http://ataum.gazi.edu.tr/posts/view/title/canakkale-savasi%e2%80%99nda-turk-kadinin in-rolu-46112 219 is communication really food? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences teachers’ competences for educational work antea čilić department of pedagogy, faculty of science and education, university of mostar anita klapan department of pedagogy, faculty of humanities and social sciences, university of rijeka maja prnić mostar abstract competence is a combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivation and personal characteristics enabling individuals to act actively and efficiently in a certain (specific) situation. in the time of large social and technological change teachers’ role change as well. modern changes in the u overall nurture and education system require teachers to take new roles. the aim of this paper is to explore teachers’ competence in the nurture-education process. the results show that teachers are very satisfied with the functioning of working with students. most of them plan to work in accordance with the objectives and outcomes of each subject, using appropriate methods and techniques, they are satisfied with the training courses, cooperation with parents and the process of evaluating student achievement. a competent teacher should affect their work on improving the overall quality of the school as it would not only be a place of acquisition and reproduction of knowledge but also a place of interaction, communication, tolerance, and freedom of expression and critical thinking. key words: competence, teacher, student, educational process, evaluation, quality schools, academic achievements. 220 antea čilić, et. al. epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences theoretical approach teacher competencies in the field of building curriculum classes according to matijevic (2010) curriculum is a project or a pedagogical document which is prepared and drafted by experts in certain teaching area, and in which are specified learning objectives, described conditions and equipment that are required to achieve those objectives and planned models for monitoring and evaluation. curriculum construction of modern school is based on self-evaluation of management, efficiency and atmosphere of school staff. the modern school curriculum, which clearly indicates the function of the school, and the development of autonomy, with flexible organizational models, asks employees to work as a team with the characteristics of teamwork. with the knowledge and skills that the process of education should achieve, the school curriculum must include the value of which would be at the school should adopt, should define the objectives to be attained education schools (which along with cognitive, necessarily including the value component), but also ways which they want to achieve, which is not limited only to the ways of teaching and learning, but also include the relationships between school staff (jurcic, 2012). sekulic-majurec (2009) describes the role of different social and political change and participants in the educational process in the design, implementation and evaluation of school curricula, it cites the key role of principals in the formation of the specific targets of school, take care of the school culture and professional development of teachers. school evaluation and self-assessment is the way to quality and excellence. pedagogical standards and / or indicators of quality and excellence are guidelines to assist in monitoring, assessment, self-assessment, and evaluation of the effects of schooling. the objectives of the evaluation and self-evaluation of teachers are associated with quality assurance of the teaching process and the teacher’s professional development in order to achieve a high level of professional aspiration; openness to change; the will to experiment in their teaching and openness to criticism and self-criticism; good knowledge of all aspects of teaching the subject and educational areas. if we want to develope quality teachers and improve their professional, it is desirable to promote mutual exchanges of successes in the process of self-evaluation. presenting strategies that the teachers use, and experiences they had, they will learn from each other, creating a sense of pride and interconnectedness. therefore, constructive debates are welcome and are an integral part of evaluation and self-evaluation as an active process (buljubašić-kuzmanovic, kretic meyer, 2008). 221 teachers’ competences for educational work epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences according domović (2009) contemporary needs and business requirements at the same time looking, but also offer the possibility of continuous professional development and continuing education in the form of three main groups of competences for teachers; work with information, knowledge and technology, working with people and work in the community and for the community. teacher competencies in the field of organizing and managing the educational process teacher competencies in the field of organizing and managing the educational process cannot be described as a system of rules, or can be developed only on the basis of respect expressed and formally present rules. they acquire and develop learning and action, following the procedures of teaching and students’ progress in learning. a competent teacher in the field of organizing and conducting educational process works with students understand, prepares and realizes so that: a competent teacher tries to adapt teaching and learning, and to win over the students according to their own possibilities, which are more conducive to the common cause (education students). as important features competent organization and management of the educational process stands out rational use of time and space, the implementation of teaching that encourages students to the activity and learning. (jurcic, 2012). the cooperation of teachers and students and the teacher’s guidance on the development of human classes characterized by cooperation, understanding, friendship, mutual respect, appreciation, communication as a prerequisite for the development of students’ competencies and technological culture, moral and spiritual stability, or all that they could, to live, work and enjoy the community leads to quality in the organization and management of the educational process leads (previsic, 2000). teacher competencies in the area of determining the efficiency of achievement at school a competent teacher is the one who understands the theoretical level and in their practice applie the most important determinants of evaluation and assessment of students, and those are: school to assessments of students’ success in learning derived from assumptions for learning (skills, motivation, interest, work ethic, commitment, learning conditions and the like); the level of students’ knowledge (reach degree of understanding and application, procedures and propositions); evaluation criteria (fairness) and objectivity (in the forms and methods); continuity and the public; written notes as a prerequisite for a number evaluation or as a descriptive grade; interpretation of the results of student achievement in oral or written verification or practical tasks completed and the possible elimination of the fear of school 222 antea čilić, et. al. epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences failure; some special features in the process of determining the value of the students’ achievements in the course of cooperative learning and for students with disabilities (jurcic, 2012). from the research results (tot, 2010) it is apparent an understanding of the purpose of evaluation of teaching by students, but also the awareness that evaluation is carried out in an appropriate manner. testing and evaluation knowledge is an inseparable part of the unique educational process. teachers almost every day, check and evaluate the knowledge of their students, without such control their educational achievement has at least two functions: a) to obtain information about the kind of success students acquire and the government of the facilities (which allows them to monitor their educational development), b) provided they obtain feedback on their teaching so they could more appropriate and more successful design and implement (grgin 1986). the school assessment of knowledge is, by its nature, measuring knowledge. each evaluation given by the teacher has a function to control the students’ knowledge, his intelligence, general school behavior, adaptation of school criteria (fulgosi, 1980). the purpose of the evaluation of student achievement is associated with selection to continue their education, motivation for learning, focusing learning, correction of errors and evaluation of teaching and learning (matijevic, 2004). teacher competencies in the field of design classroom atmosphere school climate (atmosphere) is usually defined as a set of internal characteristics that schools are different and that affect the behavior of its members, and thus indirectly on the quality of educational processes and outcomes. earn school climate at the same time and the effect itself and the factor that affects the other effects of school. there is a correlation between school climate and a sense of trust between teachers and trust between teachers and principals (domovic, 2004). the teaching process is a joint work of students and teachers, and as such, should include consultation, download of individual tasks, and the achievement of the agreed valuation performed. various research projects, development of class newspapers, going on picnics, learning games, and correspondence with students from other schools, contribute to a climate that encourages the achievement of the goals of human rights education. the result of such activities is usually not possible to measure and evaluate tests of numerical estimates, but it should be borne in mind that they are in life more important than the variety of information that are subject to evaluation (spajic vrkas et al., 2004). 223 teachers’ competences for educational work epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the class atmosphere that a teacher can establish has a strong impact on students’ motivation and attitude towards learning. therefore, the art of establishing of a positive classroom atmosphere is especially important. the class atmosphere which is generally considered as one which best encourages pupils to learn is the one that is described as purposeful, hardworking, relax, friendly, stimulat and tidy. such an atmosphere facilitates learning time as establishing and maintaining a positive attitude and motivation of students for the lesson. when the breakdown skill required to establish a positive classroom atmosphere, it is obvious that this atmosphere is largely based on the implicit values that pervade nastavuand that is that the students and their learning so important (kyriacou, 1998). the school and classroom climate are logically interconnected and are in the “interconnection” established “mutual relations”, which means that the study of classroom atmosphere it is necessary to know the basic factors of school climate and vice versa (jurcic, 2012). teacher competencies in the field of educational partnership with parents one of the important features of an effective school is developing cooperation with parents. there are many reasons why parents and teachers should meet more often and communicate the objectives of education and development of children. bakker et al. (2007) in maricic et al. (2009) distinguish three aspects of parental involvement in a child’s education: educational activities at home, communicating with the school and participate in school activities. vizek vidovic et al. (2003) suggest a number of practical tips for teachers to increase the possibilities for good cooperation. for example, communication with parents should be established at the beginning of the school year, not when there is a problem. establish communication should be maintained throughout the school year through various forms, including informal contacts. the teacher should also get to know each family by the students through a discussion with parents, the student, the student entering the task of writing an essay on the subject and the like. according maricic et al. (2009) parental involvement in a child’s education, attitudes about the existing school system, and the expectations of changes are significant independent determinants of parental general attitude towards schools effectiveness. 224 antea čilić, et. al. epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences methodological approach the aim of this study was to determine the competence of teachers in the educational process. the study was conducted on a sample of teachers from primary school orebic. the sample was special. in order to achieve the objective and tasks of research and perform the appropriate conclusions were used method of theoretical analysis and descriptiveanalytical method. the instrument of data collection was a questionnaire for teachers designed for the purposes of this research, which consisted of 29 claims on the likert scale of 5 degrees. results and discussion: ensuring quality education that would effectively respond to the new needs and interests of individuals and society includes the question of competence of teachers in the educational work. this research led to the insight into the competence of teachers in the different segments of the teaching process, and the ways in which teachers themselves perceive themselves to interact with all stakeholders of the school and contribute to improving the quality of school life. they further isolated, presentation and analysis of key issues of competence of teachers tested questionnaire. on the statement, “in planning the content and methods of work is guided by the objectives and outcomes of the subject” agree almost all teachers. thus, 48% completely agree with the above statement, an identical number of teachers agreed with this statement while only 5% of teachers disagreed with this statement. teachers play a crucial role in the education of students, and it is advisable that to achieve the objectives using appropriate content and ways of working. all teachers use methods and techniques appropriate to the case, but their pupils. the contents of the case submitted by the example from everyday life and experiences connect almost all teachers. 52% of teachers agree that in planning and organizing fully guided educational standards. 33% of respondents agreed with the statement, 10% neither agreed nor disagreed while 5% of them do not agree with this statement. 43% of teachers in the statement that claimed a possible vocational training and that they are satisfied with the possibilities of further improvement responded to and agree and disagree. 14% of teachers are fully agree with this statement, while 33% of teachers agree with this statement. 5% of teachers disagreed and certainly does not agree with the above statement. 225 teachers’ competences for educational work epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences in the statement, “i believe that every student has their own style of learning and progressing in accordance with their abilities because i approach each student individually” obtained by the check results, so the 52% of teachers in full agreement with the statement, 24% agreed. this finding was true for the teachers agree to know and use different ways of monitoring and evaluation work. of these, fully 43% of teachers agree, agree 48% of teachers, and agrees and disagrees 10% of teachers. 38% of teachers are fully agrees to use student achievement as an indicator of the efficiency and effectiveness of their work, 43% of them agree with the statement while 19% agree and disagree with the statement. it is important to inform students about their achievements, but also elements that need to be improved because it can be a stimulus for new developments or to improve in those areas where the perceived shortcomings. all the teachers think that the goals of their work aimed at improving the quality of learning and to better student achievement, so this claim is confirmed. reply strongly agree yielded 76% and 24% disagree teachers. the results show that teachers are very satisfied with the functioning of working with students. most of them planned to work in accordance with the objectives and outcomes of each subject, using appropriate methods and techniques, and connect them with the amenities of daily life. also, teachers are satisfied with the training courses. it is important that teachers are willing to constantly learn, upgrade the knowledge and the practical application thereof. lifelong learning is a prerequisite for the quality of work, as well as the overall educational quality. evaluation and monitoring of student progress and achievement is certainly one of the indicators of quality, with which agrees the majority of respondents in this study. since the quality of education in part be predicted on the basis of the possibilities offered by the surroundings, the first family, the paper highlights the importance of parental involvement in the educational process, as well as a positive school climate that affects the behavior of all members and based on common perception, behavior in school, as an important factor in the overall quality of school. conclusion in education teacher has a very important role. with changing needs of students comes changing role of teachers. the paper stresses the importance of competence in the construction of curriculum, knowledge of technology, evaluation and self-evaluation of their work, social competence, emotional competence, the importance of teachers ‘work with students with special needs, teachers’ competences in the field of organizing and managing the educational process, evaluation 226 antea čilić, et. al. epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences and assessment of students, professional development of teachers. it also pointed out that the establishment of a teacher classroom atmosphere can strongly affect the motivation of students, and how the success of a child is important competence of teachers in the educational partnership with parents. the teacher should be prepared to meet the challenges faced by, and be the initiator of changes in promoting understanding and tolerance. without competent and quality teachers there is no quality education, and therefore no good educational outcomes, which leads to the conclusion that teachers should be open and willing to change and motivated for lifelong learning and continuous professional development literature buljubašićkuzmanović v., kretić majer j. (2008). vrednovanje i samovrednovanje u funkciji is -traživanja i unapređivanja kvalitete škole, pedagogijska istraživanja, br.5, str. 139-151. domović, v. (2004). školsko ozračje i učinkovitost škole, zagreb, naknada slap fulogosi, a., fulogosi, lj. (1980). faktorska struktura i konstruktna valjanost školskih ocjena, revija za psihologiju, str. 39-45 grgin, t. (1986). školska dokimologija, zagreb, školska knjiga jurčić, m (2006) učenikovo opterećenje nastavom i razrednonastavno ozračje, odgojne znanosti, vol.8, br. 2, str. 329-346. jurčić, m. (2012.) pedagoške kompetencije suvremenog učitelja, zagreb, recedo koch, l. (2008). nemjerljive kompetencije učitelja, odgojne znanosti, vol. 10, br. 1 str. 23-38. kyriacou, c. (1998). temeljna nastavna umijeća, zagreb, educa maričić, j. (2009). roditeljsko zadovoljstvo školom i stav prema promjenama u školstvu : uloga roditeljskih ulaganja i očekivanih posljedica promjena. društvena istraživanja. 4/5(102/103);str. 625-648. matijević, m., (2010). između didaktike nastave usmjerene na učenika i kurikulumske teorije. u: zbornik radova četvrtog kongresa matematike. zagreb: hrvatsko matematičko društvo i školska knjiga, str: 391-408. previšić, v. (2000). suvremeni modeli i sadržaji obrazovanja i usavršavanja pedagoga u: vrgoč, h. (ur.) pedagozistručni suradnici u inovacijskom vrtiću i školi. zagreb: hpkz. sekulić-majurec, a. (2007), uloga sudionika odgojno-obrazovnog procesa u stvaranju, provedbi i vrednovanju kurikuluma. u: previšić, v. (ur.), kurikulum: teorije-metodologija-sadržaj-struk tura. zagreb: zavod za pedagogiju filozofskog fakulteta u zagrebu – školska knjiga, 351–383. spajić vrkaš, v., stričević, i., maleš, d., matijević m. (2004). poučavati prava i slobode, istraživačko obrazovni centar za ljudska prava i demokratsko građanstvo, filozofski fakultet sveučiliš -ta u zagrebu, zagreb. vizek vidović, v., vlahovićštetić, v., rijavec, m. i miljković, d. (2003). psihologija obrazovanja, zagreb, iepvern 149 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences teachers’ perception of aggressive behaviour in children: case of bosnia and herzegovina senija tahirović, international univeristy of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina. abstract aggressive behaviour in children and youth is a widespread phenomenon. antisocial behaviour that includes certain kind of aggressive behaviour can occur and disappear again during a child’s development. however, from a psychological perspective aggression can be one of the problematic types of behaviour in children with long-lasting negative consequences. the aim of this research paper is to examine teachers’ perceptions of the types of aggressive behaviour as well as to find out the causes for the development of aggressiveness in school-age children in bosnia and herzegovina (bih) from the teacher’s point of view. in order to define and classify the types of aggressive behavior in school age children in bih, the descriptive method was used. in order to understand aggressive phenomena and to identify their cause(s), the explanatory method was used. in order to examine teachers’ perceptions of the types of aggressive behaviour as well as the causes for the development of aggressiveness, assessment scales for teachers’ perceptions were used. the research findings indicate that proactive, reactive, and relational types of aggression are most often seen in school-age children from teachers’ perceptions. the causes of aggressive behaviour range widely: aggressive behaviour occurs as a combination of internal impulses and external stimuli or triggers that indicate possible aggression, so temperament as well as environmental factors can influence the development of aggressiveness; aggressive behaviour is acquired through learning by observing and imitating a model; the role of parents and their way of disciplining a child is another important cause; finally, mass media is seen as important cause of aggressive behaviour. keywords: teacher; child; aggressiveness; development and perception 150 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. tahirović introduction aggressive behaviour in children and youth is a widespread phenomenon worldwide and in bosnia and herzegovina (bih). we usually pay special attention to this issue when aggressive behaviour by children causes serious material damage or physical or emotional harm to a victim of aggression. bosnia and herzegovina is a specific context that is characterized by a variety of features including its post-war transformation in the spheres of economic development, the reconstruction of destroyed cities, state-building and the democratisation of society, fostering reconciliation and overcoming war trauma. increasing news about the extremely aggressive behaviour of young people who commit murder, perform physical violence against children, emotionally abuse their peers or engage in serious crimes has raised serious concern for bosnia-herzegovina. for children and youth, the term ‘aggression’ is usually used for behavioural disorders or problems. in adults, these behaviours are specified as antisocial disorders or personality disorders. when we talk about children, the term aggression may be used when a child breaks social norms and rules, whereas the behaviour of autistic children, for example, are not classified with this term (delfos, 2008). according to krahe, baron and richardson (2001) the term aggression describes any form of behaviour directed toward the goal of harming or injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment. aggression is ‘behaviour perpetrated or attempted with the intention of harming another individual physically or psychologically’ (bartol, 1995). therefore, aggression has been defined as category of behaviour that causes or threatens physical harm to others. so aggression is not used as a unitary term but encompasses a variety of behaviours including verbal aggression, physical assault, homicide, destruction of objects, violence against humans and animals and other behaviour with the intention to cause pain and harm to victims. from a psychological perspective, aggression is one of the problematic types of behaviour in children and youth in which two widely accepted behavioural syndromes can be recognised, as follows (essau and conradt 2004, achenbach, 1993): a) externalising behaviour which includes uncontrolled types of behaviour such as hyperactivity, aggressiveness, and delinquency. b) internalising behaviour characterised by over-controlled behaviour (anxiety, depression, social withdrawal) from a psychiatric perspective two diagnostic handbooks are usually used to explain and diagnose aggressive behaviour: the world health organisation’s international 151 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences teachers’ perception of aggressive behaviour in children statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (icd 10, 1992), specifically chapter v: mental and behavioural disorders, and the american psychiatric association’s diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm). according to dsm-iv (1994) classification, aggression and antisocial behaviour are related to oppositional defiant disorders. dsm-v (2013) explains aggression as a part of disruptive, impulsive-control, and conduct disorders that include behaviors that violate the rights of others and/or that bring the individual into significant conflict with societal norms or authority figures. the lack of self-control, both in terms of emotions and behaviors are underlined as the main causes of the problems. one of the concepts of aggressive behaviour introduces a new category of behavioural disorders (delfos, 2008) which distinguish between conduct disorders and conduct problems. conduct disorders, according to this concept, are related to genetic predisposition and the process of growing up, while conduct problems are caused by environmental factors. making a distinction between conduct disorders and conduct problems is an issue of the dominance of one or another influence. as in the above-mentioned dilemmas to identify the intention of a child acting aggressively, determining a genetic predisposition or environmental factors is equally difficult, in particular when considering the child’s normal process of growing up, development of the nervous system and the constant interaction of other environmental factors (tahirović, 2011). because of the diversity of the causes and consequences of aggressive behaviour, there is a need to observe different types and expressions. krahe (2001) presents one typology of aggressive behaviour in the following table. table 1. types and expressions of aggressive behaviour response modality response quality immediacy visibility instigation goal direction type of damage duration of consequences social units involved verbal vs physical action vs a failure to act direct vs indirect overt vs covert unprovoked vs retaliatory hostile vs instrumental physical vs psychological transient vs long-term towards individuals vs groups 152 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. tahirović the table above shows that the author analysed a variety of dimensions, different forms of aggression as well as different types of social consequences of aggressiveness. krahe (2001) explained that the most of the definitions presented in table 1 are self-explanatory, but he underlines importance of clarifying differences between hostile and instrumental aggression. the difference refers to the psychological function of the aggressive behaviour for the actor. the primary motive for the hostile aggression may be the desire to harm another person through an expression of negative feelings. contrary to that, the main motive for instrumental aggression is to reach an intended goal by means of the aggressive act. the two types of motives for aggressive behaviour may frequently coexist and that is a main reason why children express the variety of aggression dimensions as well as suffer different types of social consequences of aggressiveness. essau and conradt (2004) developed a typology of aggressive behaviour explaining different types of aggressive behaviour such as: open aggression defined as open confrontation associated with physical violence, such as physical fighting, terrorizing others, the use of weapons, etc. hidden aggression can be defined as acts that take place in secret like stealing, running away from school or home, setting something on fire. shy children and children with less family emotional support are more prone to such acts. reactive aggression is behaviour that occurs in response to some external stimulus, event, or behaviour. the external stimulus very often does not pose a real danger to a child but often child’s perception about situation or event is completely different. children expressing reactive aggression are very often children with underdeveloped skills for emotional and behaviour control. development of reactive aggression is connected with parenting styles, exposure to violence as well as social and economical factors in the family. proactive aggression is the use of aggressive behaviour as an instrument to achieve a certain goal. children with proactive aggression assume that aggressiveness is supposed to bring about better status in their respective peer community. relational aggression is aggression aimed at destroying relations, relationships, or friendship. one of the examples of relational aggression is peer exclusion. children, victims of relational aggression, are not able to meet basic needs for friendship, they feel unhappy and desperate, and they often react impulsively. instrumental and hostile aggressions are two subtypes of aggression that com153 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences teachers’ perception of aggressive behaviour in children monly occur together. these types of aggression include aggressive behaviour in which the reward for the aggressor is the victim’s pain and the harm that he or she inflicts upon the victim. in order to learn about teachers’ perceptions of the types of aggressive behaviour prevalent in children in bih, we have used the above mentioned essau and conradt (2004) typology of aggressive behaviour as base line for development of assessment scale of teachers’ perceptions (see table number 3). antisocial behaviour that includes certain kind of aggressive behaviour can occur and disappear again during a child’s development. according to achenbach (1991), about 50% of parents report that their preschool children steal, lie, disobey, or destroy property. however, studies have shown that children who were very physically aggressive during early childhood continued to show significant aggressive behaviour later in development. longitudinal studies show a considerable stability and sustainability in physically violent behaviour (mash and wolfe, 2010). some forms of aggressive behaviour in early childhood development are to some extent “normal.” in early interpersonal conflicts, children use this behaviour to learn social strategies for building their position in their environment or to meet their needs. the period from infancy to when a child starts crawling include temper tantrums that are caused by a feeling of bodily discomfort, desire for attention or food, defecating, etc. very often these forms of aggression appear along with a child’s difficulty with sleeping or eating. after the first year of life, instrumental forms of aggression are often associated with taking toys from other children or frustration caused by unfamiliar situations or people. with increasing mobility, the child may exhibit hyperactive behaviour which increases the risk of later aggressive behaviour such as rejecting authority. lack of self-control in early development and the presence of stressful situations are often the cause of attacks of rage which culminate at the age of three and a half. in the period between three and five years physical aggression decreases in most children because children of this age increase the ability to self-regulate and speech development also reduces the need for aggressive behaviour in conflict resolution. during middle childhood, physical aggression is reduced and more deliberate, while reactive and hostile relational aggression more frequently occurs. older children are better able to identify the aggressive intentions of others, and they are more prepared to react to them. these changes in the development of aggression are related to children’s increasing cognitive abilities, which include, among other things, the development of verbal skills, divergent thinking and emotional intelligence. krahe (2001) stated that, according to crick and grotpeter (1995) and rys and bear (1997), in the early school years, gender differences in ag154 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. tahirović gression become apparent. boys generally show higher levels of physical aggression than girls. girls, however, show both verbal aggression (swearing, name calling) and relational aggression, like peer exclusion and gossiping, to a substantial degree. when differentiating between ‘normal’ aggression that is part of growing up and ‘abnormal’ aggressive behaviour one should have in mind the following criteria: (1) considerable deviation from the normal developmental aggression for specific ages, (2) quantitative differences related to frequency, intensity, and duration of aggressive behaviour, (3) the extent to which aggressive behaviour disrupts various aspects of a child development, such as academic success, communication with peers, and speech development, (4) the influence of aggressive behaviour on the child’s environment (essau and conradt 2004, moeler 2001). psychological theories deal with the development of aggressive behaviour in children. some theories, such as behavioural theory, social learning theory, the frustration-aggression hypothesis, the freudian theory of drives, and models of ‘anti-social activities,’ give us a framework for understanding this important developmental issue. each theory emphasises a different factor that can contribute to the development of aggressiveness (tahirović, 2011). according to delfos (2008), francis galton and charles darwin argued that inheritance and environmental factors influence a child’s development. today it is quite clear that both these factors play a significant role and can be viewed on a continuum where it is difficult to determine when the influence of nature is reduced and when influence of environmental factors are increased, or vice versa. a third important factor is the child’s development of its central nervous system that improves its functionality throughout the growing up (delfos, 2008). some risk factors for the development of aggressive behaviour can be sub-grouped: genetic and familial factors are related to inheritable traits that determine individual predisposition. we should include factors of temperament in this subgroup, such as emotional and motor skills, readiness to react, and self-regulation. parent-child interaction and parental education styles determine the level of a child’s emotional development, sense of security, capacity for self-control and confidence. therefore, this factor may also indirectly contribute to the development of aggressive behaviour in children. social cognition, the ability to assess one’s social environment, plays a very important role in the development of aggressive behaviour. this factor is related to the central nervous system’s maturation and children’s enhanced cognitive abilities. children with aggressive behaviour more frequently assess their environment as 155 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences teachers’ perception of aggressive behaviour in children hostile and often wrongly assess their own behaviour; they are often not aware that their behaviour is unsuitable (essau and conradt 2004). poor skill to assess and apply non-verbal cues in communication, something which may be related to social intelligence, is also a significant factor in the development of aggressive behaviour. the socio-economic status of the family in which the child grows up may not, by itself, be directly linked to the development of aggressive behaviour, but may reflect and support other risk factors. interpersonal influences within the family or peer group or membership in a particular group is a significant variable primarily for the development of interpersonal relationships, which then may directly or indirectly determines the way how children treat others. nowadays, we more and more often encounter media violence, in movies, on television, in music, and video games. it is likely that such mass media can influence the development of aggressive behaviour such that children and young people are de-sensitised to aggressive behaviour. even more, children, as those who learn through models, identify themselves with aggressive heroes. cultural factors can significantly determine to what degree aggressive behaviour is ‘allowed’ and to what degree certain behaviour violates social norms. some cultures and traditions tolerate more aggressive behaviour, especially when it comes to gender, race or social milieu. study methods the aim of this research was to examine teachers’ perception of the types of aggressive behaviour as well as to find out the causes for the development of aggressiveness in school-age children in bosnia and herzegovina (bih) from the teacher’s point of view. in order to define and classify the types of aggressive behavior in school age children in bih we decided to use the descriptive method. in order to understand aggressive phenomena and to identify their cause(s), we have used the explanatory method. we also did a theoretical analysis to understand different perspectives on aggression, theories that explain the causes for the development of aggressiveness as well as types of aggressive behaviour. research findings on similar studies are also presented and taken into the considerations. our sample in quantitative analyses included a total of 168 teachers working in primary schools. the representation of the total sample included 86.5% (n=144) women and 14.5% (n=24) men. the participants for the survey were recruited in primary schools. selection of participants was done through a simple random sampling. each teacher in the selected schools had an equal chance of being included in the research. the teachers were informed of the aim of study and our 156 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. tahirović commitment to follow ethical research principles. prior to submitting assessment scales to the participants, we organized pilot testing and discussion. minor terminological corrections were made after pilot testing. the assessment scales were completed anonymously and teachers took around 20 minutes to answer all the items. two instruments were used: (1) an assessment scale of teachers’ perceptions of aggressive behavioural types and (2) an assessment scale of the causes of the development of aggressive behaviour in school age children from teacher’s point of view. the scales were developed for the purposes of this study and they are connected to the theoretical framework of the research problem. the assessment scale for teachers’ perceptions of types of aggressive behaviour includes a six-item survey and a three-point likert-scale where 1 is not at all, 2 are often and 3, unsure. the items represent a typology of aggressive behaviour noted by essau and conradt (2004). each item has explanation of the type of aggressive behaviour with aim of avoiding possible terminological misunderstandings. we established the reliability coefficient of the scales in the amount of 0.75, using the guttman-nicewander measure of reliability. the assessment scale for teacher’s perceptions of the causes of aggression is a 12-item survey with again a three-point likert-scale where 1 is disagree, 2 is unsure and 3, agree. the scale consists of a list of possible causes for the development of aggressive behavior that follow the causes of aggression presented in a variety of scientific theories. the teachers expressed their perceptions about possible causes of aggressiveness via their level of agreement with the statement. we established the reliability coefficient of the scales in the amount of 0.78, using the guttman nicewander measure of reliability. the starting hypotheses of this study are: reactive and relational aggression are the most frequent types of aggressive behaviour in school-age children from a teacher`s perception; interpersonal influences within the family are the most common causes of aggressive behaviour in school-age children from a teacher`s point of view. the fieldwork occurred in sarajevo, mostar and tuzla, three cities in bosnia and herzegovina. data used for this paper was gathered in 2014. study findings the teachers are in the position to observe children’s behaviour in the school. we believe that assessment of teachers’ perceptions on the most common types of aggressive behaviour can be valuable data for describing types of aggressive behaviour most often present in school-age children in bih. the findings are presented in the following table: 157 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences teachers’ perception of aggressive behaviour in children table 2 teacher’s perceptions of the most common types of aggressive behaviour in school-age children degree exhibited type of aggressive behaviour not at all often unsure total open aggression (open confrontation associated with physical violence, such as physical fighting, terrorizing others, the use of weapons, etc.) 24 14.3% 138 82.1% 6 3.6% 168 100% hidden aggression (actions that take place in secret like stealing, running away from school or home, setting fire to something) 66 39.3% 90 53.6% 12 7.11% 168 100% reactive aggression (behaviour that occurs in response to some external stimulus, event, or behaviour). 0 144 85.7% 24 14.3 % 168 100% proactive aggression (the use of aggressive behaviour as an instrument to achieve a certain goal) 0 168 100% 0 168 100% relational aggression (aggression aimed at destroying relations, relationships, or friendship) 6 3.6% 144 85.7% 18 10.7% 168 100% instrumental and hostile aggression (two subtypes of aggression that commonly occur together. these types of aggression include aggressive behaviour in which the reward for the aggressor is the victim’s pain and the harm that he or she inflicts upon the victim.) 60 35.7% 78 46.4% 30 17.% 168 100% 158 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. tahirović in our study, teachers most often recognized proactive aggressive behaviour that children use for the achievement of certain goals. all teachers in our sample identified proactive aggression in children, assuming that children use aggressiveness to create their position in their peer community. in our previously conducted preliminary study of preschool children we had similar findings (tahirović, 2013b). we have explained these findings as follows: children in the preschool period have not cognitively and emotionally reached such a level of development to achieve their goals using negotiation strategies or other less aggressive verbal methods of conflict resolution. for school-age children, however, we expected that emotional self-regulation and language skills that could be used in problem solving strategies would already be developed, however, from this study’s findings, we can assume that such less aggressive strategies have not yet been applied from teacher. the following findings confirmed previous assumption since the table shows that teachers also identified reactive and relational aggression as the most often expressed types of aggressiveness among schoolaged children. teachers observation that reactive aggression often occurs as well, suggests that the environment and climate in which the child grows up may encourage the development of aggressive behaviour. a sense of uncertainty usually leads to a cognitive assessment that one is in danger, therefore the child will more likely (re)act aggressively. children often behave aggressively in an environment permeated by aggressive behaviour: they learn these behaviours from each other and apply them to protect themselves against potential hazards. in conclusion we can assume that the presence of proactive aggression may trigger reactive aggression, is most often noticed in school-age children, in accordance with teachers’ perception. as presented in the following section, the teacher’s points of view confirm what has been already proposed by several authors. aggressive children are rejected by their peers from as early as age six, and rejection is associated with a subsequent increase in aggression. the more a child’s behaviour is dominated by aggression, the less he or she displays non-aggressive behaviour. aggressive children are socially isolated from their non-aggressive peers so they are likely to associate with other aggressive peers, which further promote aggressive behaviour (krahe, 2001). young children with poor emotional regulation are more likely to be fearful or to respond with irritation to others` distress, or react angrily or aggressively when frustrated. they have difficulties with adjusting to classroom routines as well as in communication with teachers and peers. when emotional self regulation has developed well, young people gain a feeling of being in control of their emotional experience (berk, 2009). 159 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences teachers’ perception of aggressive behaviour in children the fact that teachers observe relational aggression (85.7%) in school-aged children came as no surprise to us. increase of relational aggression among schoolaged children can be explained by children’s cognitive ability to comprehend importance of friendship. from middle childhood physical aggression decreases and becomes more deliberate and planned, while aggression aimed at destroying relationships or friendship ¬is more frequently used to induce emotional harm. thus our hypothesis that teachers often perceive reactive and relational aggression is partly confirmed since teachers recognized proactive aggression as the most frequently displayed types of aggressive behaviour, and reactive and relational aggression as secondary. we cannot ignore the fact that more than half of teachers in our sample often acknowledged both open and hidden aggressive behaviour in children. having in mind that hidden aggression takes place in secret and open aggression is associated with physical violence, and in line with previously explained findings, we can emphasize the following; teacher’s perception of the most common types of aggressive behaviour in school-age children indicates presence of variety types of aggressive behaviour expressed in different level but still very often used among children. the findings that teachers often do not recognize instrumental and hostile aggression or are not certain (17%) of its presence, cannot lead to the conclusion that such kinds of aggressiveness do not exist, but rather that it is difficult to detect these types of aggression. the victims of such kind of violence are most often shy and withdrawn children, which usually do not report about violence that they are exposed to. in this study, we were interested in teachers’ perceptions of the causes of aggressive behaviour in children. the results shown in table 3 suggest that teachers perceive a wide range of causes of aggressive behaviour: table 3. teachers’ perceptions of the causes of aggressive behaviour in children statement level of agreement disagree unsure agree total aggressive behaviour can be learned, maintained, or changed through a process of observation, classical, and operant conditioning. 0 0% 24 14.3% 144 85.7% 168 100% aggressive behaviour is acquired through learning: by observing and imitating. 0 0% 12 7.2% 156 92.8% 168 100% 160 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. tahirović aggressive behaviour is the result of frustration that arises in situations where a child or young person is prevented or hindered from obtaining a specific goal 12 7.1% 14 8.9% 142 84.5% 168 100% aggressive behaviour occurs as a combination of internal impulses (anger, animosity) and external stimuli or triggers that indicate possible aggression 6 3.6% 0 0 % 162 96.4% 168 100% instincts are the basis of aggression. 12 7.3% 48 28.5% 108 64.2% 168 100% antisocial tendencies (temperament, environmental factors, the role of parents and their way of disciplining a child, and peer pressure) are the cause of aggressive behaviour. 0 0 % 12 7.1% 156 92.8% 168 100% genetic factors, primarily hereditary traits cause aggressive behaviour in children 12 7.1% 42 25.2% 114 67.8% 168 100% poverty is a cause of aggressive behaviour in children. 78 46,4% 18 10,7% 72 42.85% 168 100% interpersonal influences within the family are the cause of aggressive behaviour in children 0 0 % 24 14.2% 144 85,7% 168 100% membership in a particular peer group determines the development of aggressive behaviour in children. 6 3.6% 24 14.2% 138 82.2% 168 100% mass media (movies, television, music, video games) directly affect the development of aggressive behaviour in children. 0 0% 6 3.6% 162 96.4% 168 100% culture and traditions affect the development of aggressive behaviour in children. 90 53.5% 44 26.3% 34 20.2% 168 100% 161 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences teachers’ perception of aggressive behaviour in children a large percentage of teachers agreed with the majority of the possible causes of aggressive behaviour on the survey. the data shows that teachers understand that a wide variety of causes may affect the development of aggression. almost all the participants’ responses were aligned with berkovitz’s (1965) revised frustration-aggression hypothesis that says aggressive behaviour occurs in a combination of internal impulses and external stimuli. feelings of anger and animosity can be triggered by external stimuli and provoke aggressiveness, as confirmed by 96.4% of teachers in our sample. also interesting is the observation of almost all teachers (162 out of 168) that mass media can be a cause of aggressive behaviour in school children. feldman’s (2009) evidence supports the notion that observing media violence can lead to a greater readiness to act aggressively. for example, children who play video games containing violence may be more likely to behave aggressively (anderson et al., 2004). the teachers’ perceptions that watching tv or playing video games with violent contents may play significant role in aggressive behaviour development are in the line with notion that exposure to more violent content might make children less sensitive on violence in every day. in addition, we can see from the data presented in table 3 that from the teachers’ perceptions, environmental factors can play a crucial role in the development of aggressiveness in children. 92.8% of teachers agreed with the statements that: aggressive behaviour can be acquired through learning, observing and imitating models. social learning approaches to aggression emphasize how social and environmental conditions teach children to be aggressive. in accordance with feldman (2009), these teachers think that exposure to aggressive models leads to increased aggression, particularly if the observers are themselves angry; feel insulted, or frustrated what is in line with teacher’s point of view in our research findings. even more strikingly, 85.7% teachers believe that aggressive behaviour can be learned, maintained, or changed through a process of observation, classical, and operant conditioning. teachers who participated in this research found a correlation between family situation with the development of aggressiveness in children, and many of them (85.7%) agreed that interpersonal influences within the family can cause of aggressive behaviour in children. more than half of the teachers surveyed expressed their disagreement that poverty can be a cause of aggressive behaviour in school children. this observation is to be expected since much previous research has underlined that there may not be a direct link between the socio-economic status of the family in which the child grows up and the development of aggressive behaviour; but that this may reflect or support other risk factors. an even greater number of the surveyed teachers (53.5%) expressed their disagreement with the statement that culture and traditions influence the development of aggressive behaviour in children. just 20.2% of teachers 162 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. tahirović connected culture and traditions with aggressive behaviour. as we explained before, cultural factors determine sensitivity to aggressive behaviour, while social norms define acceptable behaviour. therefore, teachers did not see culture as a direct cause for aggressiveness or its development. teachers do not believe that genetic factors or instincts influence aggressiveness. the 25% and 28.5% or teachers who participated in this research are not sure about this issue. this finding may be explained by the fact that teachers do not possess information about family history, so they have difficulty connecting a child’s genetic predisposition with their aggressive behaviour. our hypothesis that interpersonal influences within the family are the most common cause of aggressive behaviour in school-age children, from the teacher’s point of view, has been partly confirmed. the theoretical background of our hypotheses was the notion that dysfunctional families with marital problems and stress and the use of physical punishment can make children feel insecure; if they assess this environment as being hostile and learn aggressive behaviour from their parents, children may model this outwardly. the teachers perceived interpersonal influences within the family as important but not the most important cause of the development of aggression in children. the fact that teachers often also perceived other causes in the proposed list indicates that they grasp the multiplicity of causes contributing to the development of aggression in children. conclusion aggressiveness is not just a behaviour that threatens physical harm to others but one that influences a child’s development. aggressive children often grow up in difficult family situations; they develop some aggressive behaviour in their early development and experience difficulty in school. school bullying includes different types of aggressive behavior that occurs in an educational setting, mostly among peers. the nature of bullying can be physical, sexual, verbal or emotional. the main characteristics of bullying are: intention to harm peers; psychological distress of victim; bullying is persistent and occurs in multiple times. most importantly, bullying is motivated by perceived benefit of aggressive behavior which represents one of the main characteristics of instrumental aggression. holt et al (2007) stated that bullying is a highly prevalent phenomenon with a harmful and long-lasting effect on victims and a negative impact on school climate. many statistics in different countries suggest that the majority of students will experience bullying at some point in their school time. in the early 21st century, increasing attention has been given to the importance of teachers and parents 163 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences teachers’ perception of aggressive behaviour in children understanding and recognizing the signs of bullying. our research regarding teachers’ perceptions of the most common types of aggressive behaviour as well as the causes of aggressive behaviour in children aims to increase understanding of the development of aggressiveness in school-age children in bosnia and herzegovina. the prevalence of bullying is not widely studied in bosnia and herzegovina. a cross-sectional study (černi, rumboldt, 2008) of bullying among school children in postwar bosnia and herzegovina finds that ¬every sixth student (16.4%) experienced at least one form of bullying almost every day, while 7.0% of pupils constantly bullied other children. sixth-eighth graders were more often bullies than 4th-5th graders. girls were most often victims of bullying, while boys were most often bullies. the quantitative study findings showed that teachers usually noticed proactive as well as reactive and relational aggression in school age children. however, more than 80% of participants also noticed open aggressiveness in children. our research proved that teachers recognise different types as well as levels of aggressive behaviour in school children. we have been focused on the types as well as causes of aggressiveness in school-age children; however from research findings it is easy to conclude that teachers understand the fact that aggressive behaviour in different types is very often common among children. they do understand that bullying is widely present among children. from the teachers’ point of view, children do communicate in an aggressive manner in everyday life and very often they use aggressiveness as an instrument to reach a certain goal. this finding led us to the conclusion that aggressive children have cognitive awareness that aggressiveness is an effective tool for communication with peers. teachers believed that a combination of internal impulses and external stimuli plus the influence of media trigger aggressiveness. they also believed that the role of parents and their ways of disciplining children can be a second important cause. interpersonal influences within the family are an important factor according to teachers, but over these, they prioritized personality characteristics and external environmental factors. the fact that bosnia and herzegovina in this post-war transitional period faces many political and economical challenges that create uncertain school environment, and given the finding that environmental factors can play a crucial role in development of aggressiveness in children (in accordance with teachers’ perception), makes this research an important source of information for understanding the current situation in regard to bullying. in accordance to the longitudinal studies of mash and wolfe (2010), considerable stability and sustainability in physically violent behaviour has been established. studies have shown that children who were very physically aggressive during early childhood continued to show significant aggressive behaviour later 164 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 1, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences s. tahirović in development. our research findings indicate the likelihood that young people in bosnia and herzegovina might continue to use aggressiveness in their future life. we believe that the qualitative study findings presented in this article significantly increase the knowledge and understanding of the development, causes, and types of aggressive behaviour in children in bih. however, aggressive behaviour is not just inappropriate behaviour, but a very important factor that can influence a child’s development. on the other hand, development of aggressive behaviour is related to the child’s psychological development, especially in the areas of emotional, social and cognitive development. thus, we believe that the qualitative research that we plan to conduct in the near future will help us to further understand and explain the following research question: why do many children develop aggressive behaviour in bih? the quantitative and qualitative data will serve as the baseline for the development of a plan of action with the aim of reducing risk factors for the development of aggressive behaviour among children in bosnia and herzegovina references achenbach, t.m. 1991. manual for the child behaviour checklist / 4-18. burlington: university of vermont. anderson, c., funk, j. b., griffiths, m.d. 2004. contemporary issues in adolescence video game playing: brief overview and introduction to the special issue. journal of adolescence, 27, 1-3. bandura, a. 1977. self efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. psychological review, 84, 191–215. banjanin-duričiċ, n. 1998. udarac po duši sociološka studija zlostavljanja dece u porodici. belgrade: institut za kriminološka i sociološka istraživanja i jugoslovenski centar za prava deteta. bar-on, r. 2006. the bar on model of emotional-social intelligence (esi). psicothema, 18, 13–25. baron, r.a., kalsher, m.j. 2008. psychology: from science to practice. boston: pearson. bartol, c.r. 1995. criminal behavior: a 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of the soul, immortality, the existence of god and heaven, salvation or redemption, etc. the critical approach was used to analyze some of dickinson’s major poems. a glance at her poetry reveals that it shows an extreme preoccupation with the effect of death and explores various themes such as the nature of the soul, the problem of immortality, the possibility of faith and the reality of god. the researchers also tried to reveal the internal and external influences that shaped dickinson’s poetry. the paper concluded that the theme of death was inexhaustible for her. if her poetry seldom became “lyrical,” seldom departed from the colorless sobriety of its bare iambics and toneless assonance, it did so most of all when the subject was death. although dickinson’s poetry contains some mystical elements, mystical poetry, in the traditional sense, at least, is not her special poetic gift. keywords: death, emily dickinson, heaven, immortality, mysticism, theology. 1 al-quds university, palestine. 96 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 97 1. introduction 1.1 what is mysticism? mysticism involves a deep, almost obsessive, concern with such problems as death, the existence of the soul, immortality, the existence of god and heaven, salvation or redemption, etc. mysticism also means the capacity to establish a spiritual contact with god. the mystic is a visionary who claims to hold a direct communion with the divine spirit. conrad (2000) describes mysticism as an effort that involves both, the body and the mind, the whole human being, who should achieve. it’s an effort to defeat and overcome death, something which a realist may find foolish and nonsense. according to bray (2015), miss dickinson “uses strategies of constriction, reduction and anticipation to attempt to control the overwhelming mystical experience of being” (n. p). according to clements (2012, as cited in saavedracarballido, 2015) mysticism is “through which one sheds or suppresses the rational mental constructs that form, organize, and distort immediate experience, in order to experience the world without mediation.” in this way, mysticism can be connected to the unconscious and subconscious. a glance at the themes of miss dickinson’s poetry, according to sherwood, (1968), reveals an extreme preoccupation with the effect of death, the nature of the soul, the problem of immortality, the possibility of faith, and the reality of god. miss dickinson had a bad experience with death since she was young. this experience is best illustrated by the words of chunyan 98 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies (2015) who claims that “a year after her husband’s death, mrs. dickinson became paralyzed and remained an invalid for seven years, largely under the care of her daughter, emily; and not until this time did her daughter begins to accept and cherish her” (p. 66). the experience dickinson went through had a great impact on her later poetry. certainly is the sense that she sought the essential moral truths veiled behind material appearances and tried to experience and perceive the divine force. (or “circumference” as she called it), she was mystically inclined. there are strong mystical elements in her poetry, but on the whole, it would not be precisely true to call her a mystic. 1.2 two kinds of mysticism the american poet emily dickinson’s thoughtful concern with the problems of life, death, and immortality has led to the view that she is a mystical poet. it is worthwhile examining the nature of her mysticism (miller, 1968). we must remember, however, that there is a difference between a christian mystic and a non-christian mystic. the three main stages of all mysticism are purgation, contemplation, and union; and these three stages are developed into the three ways of the christian mystic: purgative, illuminative and unitive. but essentially christian mysticism differs from non-christian mysticism, chiefly through the christian belief in the incarnation of christ. the christian mystic possesses a model, an inspiration, a mediator, and an object of his love in the person of jesus christ. the following words clarify how the poet can often be compared to vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 99 jesus christ with regard to suffering: the presence of salvific love in her life came with the insistence that she identifies with the purpose and mission of jesus of nazareth, and her writing centers on that mission, never more clearly than at the end of her life when, like jesus, she offered her love to those who would mourn her. (harde, 2004, p. 18) further, the purificatory process in christian mysticism is not that of the platonic ascent 1. for the christian mystic holds the doctrine of sin, and he is deeply concerned with his personal guilt. sin, as related to the incarnation and the redemption, inspires in him a sense not only of shame but of sorrow and of love as well. to identify and judge the poetry of emily dickinson, this paper, through the analytical style, will try to shed light on and critically examine some of her major poems in order to determine the degree of mysticism in her poetry. 2. discussion 2.1 no desire for union with god in her poetry what was the relation of emily dickinson’s soul to what she conceived as absolute reality? leaving aside a few flippant references, her poetry seems to manifest a sincere and abiding faith in god. of course, her ideas of god appear to fluctuate, but one need not doubt that “she believed in god and in the things of the spirit” (sewall, 1974, p. 5). however, we cannot say that her belief was enriched by any contemplative vision of 100 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies god or even by a desire for such a vision. pickard (1967) is of the view that “death and heaven were the objects of constant speculation with miss dickinson, almost to the point of obsession, but her speculation was not that communion with the divine which the mystic longs for” (p. 16). her speculation was imaginative and entirely based upon sensory experience. such thoughts are found in “great streets of silence led away,” “i went to heaven,” “i died for beauty,” “safe in their alabaster chambers,” “ample make this bed,” and “what inn is this,” as well as many others. death is seen in these poems as inevitable, its experience indefinable, except in terms of what we know on earth. union with god was to be reserved until death, for there was no venture into the supernatural beyond the realm of ideas for miss dickinson. for this reason, probably, there is none of that longing for death, which the mystic expresses, the result of his communing with god while he remains in the flesh. to consider the following stanza from her poem “safe in their alabaster chambers” (1861), which deals with the relation between death and immortality, would be worthy: safe in their alabaster chambers— untouched by morning and untouched by noon— lie the meek members of the resurrection— rafter of satin—and roof of stone! (no. 216) as indicated above, this first stanza expresses a religious view of death, with a confident belief in personal immortality. the stanza also gives us a thought about the dead, who were faithful in life and, are peacefully asleep vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 101 in their graves. at the beginning, the possibility of immortal life is divorced from all wishful motivations, such as a desire for reunion with the beloved, and made to stand on its own theological legs if it can, but this comes into conflict with the cold astronomical concept of eternity in the end. again this first stanza echoes the language of the bible and of protestant hymns, especially in the two long lines that establish with quiet assurance the coming resurrection of the meek who lie “safe in their “sleep.” but the short antiphonal lines undercut these orthodox affirmations of faith by reminding us that this is a cold white prison locking out the golden sunshine. her treatment of the resurrection is here somewhat orthodox though the emphasis is no more doctrinal than it is mortuary. she achieves objectivity by concentrating on the frozen expectancy of the tombstone, and she achieves irony by implying the skeletons beneath in terms of what they are deprived of. the peace of the grave, in one sense, results from the loss of consciousness. the image of the “meek members” openly satirizes the book of revelation’s account of the assembled elect and presents them as timid time-servers, “whose goodness resulted from their fears or damnation and from society’s pressures” wells (1959, p. 160). the singsong final lines suggest that their religious convictions are superficial, a decorative coating which cannot conquer the stone reality of death. the words “morning” and noon” suggest that the dead are untouched by the occurrences of this world. therefore the dead are safe, asleep, abiding without motion or sound, protected by marble and stone, outside time and change until the resurrection. 102 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 2.2 references to christ references to christ in the poems of miss dickinson are usually not directly concerned with the person of christ, but rather with some symbol, as seen in the following stanza from her poem “i should have been too glad, i see”: defeat whets victory, they say / the reefs in old gethsemane / endear the shore beyond. (no. 313). the aforementioned words suggest that the speaker in the poem is not afraid of death, and considers death as a victory rather than a defeat of the soul, thus defeat in the form of death becomes a victory. the reason for this interpretation is that the dead would go to heaven, which is a better place than earth. there are, however, a few exceptions. a spirit of christian resignation which joins the individual’s sufferings to those of christ is found in the following poem entitled “i shall know why, when time is over”: i shall know, why time is over, and i have ceased to wonder why; christ will explain each separate anguish in the fair schoolroom of the sky. he will tell what peter promised, and i, for wonder at his woe, i shall forget the drop of anguish that scalds me now, that scalds me now. (no. 193) as indicated in the above words, there is a religious sentiment and a philosophical adjustment of attitude toward suffering. it is not, however, a vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 103 mystical document; for, while the christian practices resignation under the burden of grief and trial, the mystic or the saint beg for the privilege of pain because he is enamored of christ and is anxious to resemble him. christ became a model to them, which eases the suffering of the important people who sacrifice in their life. while christian martyrs have written with a burning desire to share the suffering of christ, miss dickinson writes with strong appreciation, but with detachment: through the strait pass of suffering— the martyrs—even—trod. their feet—upon temptations— their faces—upon god— a stately—shriven—company— convulsion—playing round— harmless—as streaks of meteor— upon a planet’s bond— their faith—the everlasting troth— their expectation—fair— the needle—to the north degree— wades—so—thro’ polar air! (no. 792) the martyrs as the above words suggest trod on suffering and do not care about the suffering they had experienced on earth, and they walk with their heads lifted upward, as if observing god, thinking that he is watching them. the celestial danger exhibited in the second stanza suggests that the earth go on without being affected by any danger, same with the martyrs whose faith protected them from spiritual harm when the encountered 104 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies violent “meteors” (dangers). she chose martyrs rather than saints because martyrs are the ones who face dangers; they face it heroically, eager to journey to the other world, where justice and peace ever dwells, and where god’s mercy is unquestionable. 2.3 faith and religious conviction many of miss dickinson’s poems are certainly concerned with the creator, the redeemer, with death and immortality. her view of immortality is best illustrated by what has been stated by flick (1967), who believed that chase finds it meaningful to account for her attitude toward immortality by relating it to gnosticism: according to him, “this extraordinary generalization of immortality, outside of history, church, and dogma, clearly has the quality of gnosticism” (pp. 19-20). for, like the gnostic believer of all ages, miss dickinson considers immortality as an almost omni-present magic power, added flick. what flick meant to say is that by trying to obscure the fact of death by speaking through suffering or acquiring the whole truth, that the lucky individual may attain immortality in this life. chase (1951) himself states that “emily dickinson believed that the poet was indeed possessed at the moment of utterance by that ‘spectral power in thought that walks alone’” (pp. 190-91). this suggests that the poet has received some kind of illumination while writing her poetry. according to flick (1967), so many of her poems “can be seen as expressions of the mystic way of death, which through purgation and purification prepares for the supreme experience of vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 105 unity” (p. 374). these are themes which might be described as mystical in nature, and her poems on these themes are the fruit of a very deep insight and an intensely emotional nature. but these poems do not belong to the body of that literature which is based on the search of the mystic for god and for union with him. there is faith, certainly, and religious conviction; but nowhere is there that complete dedication to the search for perfection which motivates the mystic. 2.4 the methodology of mysticism mystic literature is most often concerned with the methodology of mysticism. to describe the unitive way is a task which has proved impossible with most mystics. but the way of purgation, especially, has given rise to some very graphic mystical writing. in both christian and non-christian mystical literature, there is a deliberate withdrawal from the external things of life in order that attention may be concentrated on the one thing necessary. in the christian, this purification is motivated by his sense of sin but goes much further than the conscientious effort to rid himself of sin which is the duty of every christian. for the mystic, there is a deliberate choice of a difficult self-training, and it is this which constitutes the asceticism of the genuine mystic who leaves the things that warm the lives of other men and goes forth on a lonelier and stricter way. 106 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 1.5 no true mystic quest in her poetry in miss dickinson’s poetry, we do indeed find that intense sensitivity to experience which is characteristic of the mystic. duncan (1965) is of the opinion that dickinson’s self-chosen isolation from the world might easily be interpreted as the retirement for contemplation which a mystic practices. but the writing which came out of this solitude does not tell the story of the mystic quest. her poems seem to evoke the picture of one whose intellectual and emotional equipment for life was extraordinary in perception and depth. there is a deliberate contraction of the circle of experience, and within that circle, the ultimate meaning of each act is traced to its end; experience is related to experience by metaphor; intense conviction of truth is pointed by personification. but there is never the deliberate putting by even of the minimum which could be called the asceticism of the mystic. miss dickinson’s assertion after her mother left amherst for pittsfield: “the time to live is frugal and, good as it is, a better earth will not quite be this” (1878, p. 2) is not the statement of an ascetic. 2.6 her poetic goal intellectual discipline in miss dickinson means precision of thought and an adequate relationship of the unique happening to its place in her scheme of things; it is the withdrawal into contemplation by which the mystic seeks to establish contact with ultimate reality. her immediate goal, poetic expression, is defined in her own lines: vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 107 this was a poet — it is that distills amazing sense from ordinary meanings — and attar so immense from the familiar species that perished by the door — we wonder it was not ourselves arrested it — before — (no. 448) this is a piece of the poem that puts emphasis upon the poet’s construction of a poem, which the word “distillation” in the second line of the first stanza came from the sense of distillation of alcohol and perfume. this particular stanza suggests that the meanings and images the poet puts on the page would fill up the room, as immense as “attar.” the first line of the second stanza, the phrase, “familiar species,” suggest the sense of ordinary meanings in the poem, the surface meaning of the poem. finally, dickinson portrays in the last stanza in the second line with the word “robbing,” which suggests that when we read the poet’s poetry, we would be stealing something from him. however, dickinson suggests in the following lines that designate that this act would not bring harm to the poet at all; rather, it would become a fortune through time for the poet, which designates the sense of the fame and poems of the poet living on. 1.7 mystically inclined as has been said by gelpi (1965), although miss dickinson was not a philosopher, nor even a consistent thinker, “she strikingly illuminated the 108 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies hidden recesses in the human soul” (p. 4). unlike most american poets, she was religiously oriented. a glance at her themes reveals an extreme preoccupation with the effect of death, the nature of the soul, the problems of immortality, the possibility of faith, and the reality of god. certainly, in the sense that she sought the essential moral truths veiled behind material appearance and strove to experience and perceive the divine force (or “circumference,” as she called it), she was mystically inclined. antony and dewan (2012) assert the fact that “being a mystic she believes in the deathlessness of death” (p. 2). what their words mean is that death is only second to god. death, according to antony and dewan is a very powerful free agent. all things vanish with the passage of time, all things except god. “this undoubtedly confirms the immortality of death and reinforces its divine nature” (p. 2), added aantony and dewan. 2.8 her calvinistic upbringing although later influenced by transcendentalism, miss dickinson was reared in an orthodox tradition, where biblical truths were stated in calvinistic terms. nor did she ever eradicate the hardcore of these beliefs from her philosophy. the basic calvinistic approach maintained that man was depraved and conditioned to evil by original sin, and that he was utterly dependent on god for any good that he might accomplish. further, this god was absolute and arbitrary, freely deciding to save or to damn. according to farzana (2016), “her real reverence to god that makes her a mystic lies in a more manifest and more beautiful evidence of divine will than creeds and churches” (p. 1). knowing men’s fate beforehand, god predestined the vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 109 course of their lives. allied to this was the concept of irresistible grace; that is, once given, it could not be refused or lost. the key words in this context were sanctification and justification. one was “justified” when god gave him the grace necessary for a good life and “sanctified” when he continued to prove his election by living an acceptable christian life. underlying this whole complex structure was the belief that god directed all men’s acts and behaviors. 2.9 a rebel against religious orthodoxy in nineteenth-century amherst, these calvinistic beliefs were not so rigidly enforced, and anyone who so desired could declare his own justification and become one of the elect. all that was needed was a willingness to attend church regularly and to manifest a moral life. even this as too much for miss dickinson. deppman (2008) stated that “dickinson’s attraction to emerson and transcendentalism, her commitment to a new poetics, her various emphases on the mind as an active, dangerous, and powerful experimental agent, and her idiosyncratic departure from religious orthodoxy share this lineage” (p. 32). she found herself a rebel and quite mystified by the doctrine of election. during the 1850s, she stopped attending church and noted that all her family members were religious except herself. by this, she meant that she could not accept the harsh dogmas of innate depravity, arbitrary election, and predestination, or treat the bible 110 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies as true history and the only moral guide for man. in other words, she rejected all that made man insignificant and helpless before the crushing force of god. in many poems, like “abraham to kill him,” (no. 77) and “of god we ask one favour,” (no. 1601), she satirizes the orthodox belief that all men are responsible for the sin of the first parents. continually, she pictures god the father as an aloof tyrant, indifferently dealing out blind punishments, unresponsive to prayer, and unconcerned about human suffering. in one poem, “heavenly father-take to thee,” (1461), she ironically comments on god’s duplicity for creating men with original sin and then condemning them for fulfilling their nature. as for christ, her attitude was marked by cautious ambivalence that emphasized his human rather than divine qualities. scheurich (2007) notes that “her poems suggest a complex view of the ambiguous relation of suffering to human action and meaning” (n. p.). however, if miss dickinson could not accept conventional religion, she still retained unshakable trust in god’s actual reality and continually re-examined older fundamental concepts like the trinity, resurrection, hell, angels, and immortality. throughout her life, the ultimate mystery of immortality perplexed and intrigued her. especially in her later years, the problem obsessed her, but she remained a doubter until her death. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 111 2.10 a testing of the soul in the fire of pain in the main dickinson’s poetry typified the moral earnestness of the old puritans with their confidence that the human soul could overcome imperfection through struggle and self-discipline. she clearly perceived that the soul’s inner reality contained true value, not the external world of nature. like thoreau she felt that each individual must strip life down to its bare bones and taste for himself its essence, sweet or bitter. her exhilaration with the process of living remained uniquely her own and she repeatedly exclaimed: “i find ecstasy in living-the mere sense of living is joy enough” (dickinson, 1830, p. 4). part of this intensely developed from the lonely struggle to preserve her integrity and the continual testing of her soul in the fire of pain. she was a particularly introspective poet, interested in probing self-analysis for the exclusion of any outside issues. her isolation from contemporary affairs was total, and the major historical event during her lifetime, the civil war, she passed over with only a few incidental references to soldiers and lincoln’s re-election. 2.11 references to paradise sometimes miss dickinson looks upon death as the gateway to the next existence, “living in a rural setting a century and a half ago, she was aware of the cycle of existence, from birth to death and birth again. most of the people also would have been aware of that cycle, living on farms, tending to animals, watching the seasons change” (antony & dewan, 2012, p. 2), which is conceived of as a special glory having something in common with the conventional paradises offered in the hymns and sermons of her day, or 112 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies with the book of revelation. beyond the tomb, after the “white election,” god presides over an opulent kingdom whose splendors are signified by miss dickinson with words like “purple,” “royal,” “privilege,” “emerald,” “diadem,” and “courtier.” such words and concepts help to reinforce her view of immortality. in certain moods she can write in her poem “the only news i know”: the only news i know is bulletins of day from immortality. the only shows i see tomorrow and today perchance eternity. (no. 827) in the above poem, dickinson sees the world as a cold place, devoid of any warmth or love, to compensate for this loss; she often mentions god, immortality and eternity. this makes the readers start visualizing a place where they desire to be. although the poet thinks that she is deeply religious and spiritual, she is unsure whether she will go there. therefore, these places remain mysterious to human beings, and only those who sacrifice will be rewarded by the lord and might go there. sometimes she expresses posthumous beatitude, as in the following poem “great streets of silence led away”: great streets of silence led away to neighborhoods of pause — here was no notice — no dissent no universe — no laws — vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 113 by clocks, ‘twas morning, and for night the bells at distance called — but epoch had no basis here for period exhaled. (no. 1159) this is technically a mystical poem: that is, it endeavors to render an experience which is foreign to all human experience, yet to render it in terms of a modified human experience. the experience dealt with here is that of rapt contemplation, eternal and immovable, which may be described as the condition of beatitude. yet there is no particular reason to believe that emily dickinson was a mystic or thought herself a mystic. the poems of this variety and there are many of them, appear rather to be efforts to dramatize an idea of salvation, intensely felt, but an idea essentially inexpressible. she deliberately utilizes imagery irrelevant to the state with which she is concerned, because she cannot do otherwise; yet the attitude toward the material, the attitude of rapt contemplation, is the attitude which she probably expects to achieve toward something that she has never experienced. the poems are invariably forced and somewhat theoretical; they are briskly clever, and lack the obscure but impassioned conviction of the mystical poems of very 3; they lack the tragic finality, the haunting sense of human isolation in a foreign universe, to be found in her greatest poems of which the explicit theme is a denial of this mystical trace. 114 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 2.12 a mixture of puritan and free-thinker like emerson, miss dickinson was, from the beginning, and she remained all her life, a singular mixture of puritan and free-thinker. the problems of good and evil, of life and, obsessed her; the nature and destiny of the human soul; and emerson’s theory of compensation. toward god, as one of her earliest critics is reported to have said: “she exhibited an emersonian self-possession.” indeed, she did not, and could not; accept the puritan god at all. she was frankly irreverent on occasion, a fact which made her editors a little uneasy. what she was irreverent to, of course, was the puritan conception of god and the puritan attitude toward god. in her poem “drowning” she observes: the maker’s cordial visage, however good to see, is shunned, we must admit it, like an adversity. (no. 1718) in one poem “some keen tile sabbath going to church” (no. 324), she refers to god as a “noted clergyman” and on another occasion in the poem “i never lost as much but twice” (no. 49), she refers to him as a “burglar, banker, father,” a flippancy which might have annoyed even the most liberal of her contemporaries. but perhaps her perfect metaphysical detachment is most precisely and frankly stated in the famous mock-prayer (in the single hound), in which addressing god, she impertinently apologizes to him for his “duplicity.” vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 115 2.13 mystical in her reverence for nature such is emily dickinson’s opinion of the traditional and anthropomorphic god. her real reverence, the reverence that entitles her to be regarded as a mystical poet, was reserved for nature, which seemed to her a more obvious and a more beautiful evidence of the divine will than creeds and churches. many of miss dickinson’s conventional nature poems praise nature as “the gentlest mother,” who soothes and comforts her bruised children. in these poems, she delights in nature’s external pageantry and expresses a sentimental enthusiasm about the red breast of the robin and the butterfly’s beautiful colors. but her later poems show the distrust of such analogies and depict an ironic contrast between nature’s ordered majesty with man’s doomed mortality. in these poems, nature mocks man rather than comforts him. some of miss dickinson’s poems emphasize nature’s decaying and corruptive power. death lies at the core of nature, continually threatening a man with extinction. many poems like “the morning after woe” (no. 364), and “i dreaded that first robin” (no. 348) analyze nature’s betrayal of those hearts that love her best. in a poem about the frost’s killing a flower, “apparently with no surprise” (no. 1624), she even questions if nature has any meaning at all because a universe that proceeds indifferently and is untouched by such crimes haunts one with terror. nature she saw, observed, loved, with a deep simplicity and passion which nevertheless did not exclude her nimble sense of humor. she sings of the seasons in “a light exists in spring,” (no. 31), and “as imperceptibly as 116 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies grief” (no. 45); “a route of evanescence” gives us a glorious picture of the hummingbird. in this connection, to quote the whole poem would be worthy: a route of evanescence, with a revolving wheel – a resonance of emerald a rush of cochineal – and every blossom on the bush adjusts it’s tumbled head – the mail from tunis – probably, an easy morning’s ride – (no. 1489) miss dickinson here presents a humming bird’s elusiveness by using the word “evanescence.” in the poem, the word is rendered in terms of motion, sound, and color intricately woven into an image of pattern by synaesthesia. the visual effect is the converse of the photographic one of multiple rapid exposures of a moving object on a single plane. the first line records not the simultaneous vanishing of the bird at every point. the second line “with a revolving wheel,” helps to complicate this effect because it does not describe the actuality of vibrating wings so much as the optical illusion created by them. lines 7-8 are intended to convey the full effect of the bird’s flight beyond the barriers of space and time. “the mail from tunis” suggests the speed of the bird when it flies. “tunis” because it was a very remote place to her. this poem also conveys the poet’s sense of nature’s mystery and elusiveness. as has vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 117 been seen, all the images in the poem evoke the beauty of nature and dickinson’s reverence for it. miss dickinson’s only memorable poem on summer deals with the sense of loss that summer’s departure brings; she says in the poem: “as imperceptibly as grief / the summer lapsed away” (l: 1-2, no. 1540). her nature poems are not, however, the most secretly revelatory or dramatically compulsive of her writings, nor on the whole the best. they are often of extraordinary delicacy; but they are often superficial, a mere affectionate playing with the smaller things that gave her delight. she was attracted by the odd and neglected creatures of nature such as the spider, the frog, the rat, and the bat, and has written poems about all of them. “a narrow fellow in the grass” (no. 24) contains a disturbing investigation of nature’s mystery. here miss dickinson examines the terror and awe that the presence of a snake can give rise to. the snake in the poem develops into a symbol of man’s fear of the unknown and evil itself. here the sense of hidden terror behind nature’s surface beauty fascinates and frightens the onlooker. perhaps it is only in this poem that dickinson treats nature as actively hostile. but even here just the two concluding stanzas, a kind of epilogue, are connected with this hostility: “several of nature’s people / i know and they know me” (l: 17-18), while the final line “zero at the bone” (l. 20) creates the shock of sheer terror. the poetess’s reaction to the snake goes deeper than a mere freezing of the heart. is this the eden serpent, the 118 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies traditional embodiment of the devil? the answer to this question remains a mystery. all this nature poetry may be regarded as emanating from a latent mysticism in miss dickinson. miss dickinson constantly examined man’s relation to the world of natural phenomena. she did not resort to any easy religious affirmation or indulge in excessive romantic enthusiasm. she looked closely at natural objects, contemplated their functions, and recorded her responses with scrupulous exactness. this is amply illustrated in the poem “of bronze and blaze” (no. 290) which considers the grandeur of the northern lights, the poem “how happy is the little stone” (1510) dealing with the simplicity of a stone. the following poem “further in summer than the birds” deals with the song of the crickets is the best example to illustrate: further in summer than the birds pathetic from the grass a minor nation celebrates its unobtrusive mass. no ordinance be seen so gradual the grace a pensive custom it becomes enlarging loneliness. antiquest felt at noon when august burning low arise this spectral canticle repose to typify remit as yet no grace no furrow on the glow vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 119 yet a druidic difference enhances nature now. (1068) the crickets exist in summer than the birds because they live hidden in the soil close to nature’s essence, while the birds build in the trees, inhabiting the sky and remaining longer into autumn. their mating foretells their coming death. so it can be compared to the sacrifice of the mass, where christ’s love perpetuates the death sacrifice of calvary by the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into his body and blood. the religious significance of the act is deepened by terms like “ordinance,” “canticle,” and “druidic.” the crickets’ song assumes a religious significance that typifies a temporary respite, the brief hesitation of the pendulum before it begins its downward sweep. the concluding lines enlarge this concept by noting that there is as yet no lessening of summer’s beauty and abundance, nor any wrinkling or aging on its low. yet man’s awareness of the son’s foreboding implications, its connection with his own mortality, produces a primitive sacredness that makes the moment especially treasured. these poems clearly illustrate the slow artistic melting of material images into provocative thought. all miss dickinson’s best nature poems continually challenge and invite new readings, and will, therefore, continue to fascinate as long as there are sensitive readers of poetry. her unique approach to the external beauty 120 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies of nature, the power of storms, the strangeness of creation, the fleeting aspects of the material, and the mystery of the seasonal process fully demonstrate that even the most neglected and hackneyed subjects can be revitalized by genius. 2.14 her mystical speculation to see miss dickinson at her best and most profound, we must turn to the remarkable range of metaphysical speculation and ironic introspection which we find in those poems that have been classified by her editors as falling under the headings of “life,” “time” and “eternity.” in these poems, we have her set meditations on the nature of things. they have no trappings, only here and there a purple patch. they may even appear to be too bare, bleak, and fragmentary. they could be regarded as poems containing disembodied thought. the thought is there, hard, bright, and clear; and her symbols and metaphors have comparable clarity and transparency. the following words can best illustrate the point: this tendency in dickinson’s verses; he refers to the poet’s “self-corrections”: “many poems circle around a topic without ever reaching a conclusive statement. often they repeat the definitional gesture by introducing a series of metaphors, enhancing and seemingly refining the meaning and creating subtleties of mood without following any apparent order or progression. (deppman, 2002, p. 54, as quoted in lorenzo, 2010, p. 82) vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 121 this clearly suggests that there is apparent cohesion between the different metaphors that dickinson uses in her poems. they seem to be jumbled together without any logical connection between them, or without a clear distinction of their various meanings, something which may puzzle and confuse the average reader of her poetry. for example, in her poem “the brain – is wider than the sky – “ the poet relies on the metaphor of the container, “by asking if an unworthy man can ‘contain’ god, who is measureless, and by wondering ‘what place is there” into which god might enter’” (lorenz, 2010, p. 75). here the physical and the spiritual, the material with the abstract, have been liked and compared. here the metaphor may have so many different meanings, but the one explained above may be the exact meaning. “in the case of dualistic thinking, dickinson ponders the meaning of the body and the soul throughout her writing, sometimes affirming or negating either or both” (harde, 2004, p. 8). but she has affirmed the superiority of the soul which can transcend the body and be united with god in the afterlife. 2.15 epigrammatic style we also have here a downright homeliness which is a source of constant surprise and delight. miss dickinson here tunes up emerson’s gnomic style to the epigrammatic. she often carries the epigrammatic to the point of the cryptic; she becomes what we might call an epigrammatic symbolist 122 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies lay this laurel on the one too intrinsic for renown. laurel! veil your deathless tree, him you chasten, that is he! (no. 1393) this verges perilously on the riddle. indeed, her passionate devotion to a concise statement in terms of metaphor has left for us a small rich emblem of which the colors tease, the thought entices, but the meaning escapes. against this, however, should be seting her capacity for a wonderful simplicity illustrated in such poems as “my life closed twice before its close,” (no. 1732). to quote the whole poem is noteworthy in this respect: my life closed twice before its close— it yet remains to see if immortality unveil a third event to me so huge, so hopeless to conceive as these that twice befell. parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell. (no.1732) with a private female poet like emily dickinson, biographical facts become often necessary to provide the key to the complete understanding of the above poem. the poem clearly states that the poetess has suffered the “equivalent of physical death by two previous losses” lindberg-seyersted (1986, p. 8). now she wonders if immortality (god or fate) has still another such event in store for her. according to johnson (1955) “biographically the two losses could be newton and wadsworth; her separation from newton by physical vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 123 death and her separation from wadsworth by geographical distance and moral barriers” (p. 52). prophetically she wonders about a possible third figure (and one actually came in the 1870s with her passion for judge otis lord). the second stanza concisely summarizes the overwhelming sense of desolation that these losses produced. parting reveals heaven, since its ecstasy rivals paradise, besides emphasizing the soul’s dependence upon heaven for future happiness. at the same time, the experience of hell comes in the anguish of separation. lorenz (2010). believes that “the poetry of emily dickinson is heavily invested in exploring and representing the experience of ‘the sublime,’ a concept that strongly influenced the romantic poets” (p. 76). farzana (2016) is of the opinion that “an interesting aspect of emily dickinson’s poetry is that of her reverence for words in a way in which she frequently uses terms of language and communication” (p. 12). this is what makes her ideas clearly stated to a large number of audiences, and made the sublime clear and understandable by all. 124 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 3. conclusion the number of poems by miss dickinson on the subject of death is one of the most remarkable things about her. as has seen in the discussion in this paper, death, and the problem of life after death, obsessed her. she thought of death constantly, she probed death daily; and we might say she died all her life. ultimately the obsession became morbid, and she developed an excessive desire to know the details regarding how a particular individual had died. but the preoccupation, with its horrible uncertainties, its doubts about immortality, its hatred of the flesh, and its many reversals of both positions, gave us her sharpest work. the theme was inexhaustible for her. if her poetry seldom became “lyrical,” states griffith (1964) “seldom departed from the colorless sobriety of its bare iambics and toneless assonance, it did so most of all when the subject was death” (p. 12). one searches in vain for the more particular signs of the christian mystic in the poetry of miss dickinson. the expression of personal guilt for sin, the feeling of christian humility, the symbol of earthly love used to explain the divine, the ecstatic joy of union, and the utter desolation of the “dark nights of the soul” (moore, 2004, p. 2). all these are recorded in the writings of the great mystics, but they are not found in the poetry of emily dickinson. mystical poetry, in the traditional sense, at least, is not her special poetic gift. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 125 references antony, o., & dewan, s. (autumn 2012). emily dickinson’s perspectives on death: an interpretation of dickinson’s poems on death. lapis lazuli -an international literary journal (llilj), 2(2), 1-12. retrieved from http:// pintersociety.com/wp bray, p. (1992). emily dickinson as visionary. raritan: a quarterly review, 12(1). 113 retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com chase, r. (1951). emily dickinson. american men of letters series. new york: william sloan. chunyan, h. u. (2015). eco-feminism in emily dickinson’s poetry. studies in literature and language, 10(3), 63-72. doi: 10.3968/6689 clements, j. (2015). mysticism and the mid-century novel.”atlantis, revista de la asociación española de estudios anglonorteamericanos, 37(1), 195-201. retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com conrad, a. (2000). the wayward nun of amherst: emily dickinson and medieval mystical women. uk: psychology press. pp. 1-384. deppman, j. (2008).trying to think with emily dickinson: dickinson and philosophy. university of massachusetts press. retrieved from http://www.jstor. org/stable/j.ctt5v8 duncan, d. (1965). emily dickinson. edinburgh: oliver & boyd. farzana, s. (january 2016). the theme of mysticism in walt whitman and emily dickinson’s poetry. european journal of english language and literature studies, 4(1).1-15. retrieved from http://www.eajournals.org/journals/european-journal of-english-language-and-literature-studies-ejells/ 126 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies flick, r. g. (april 1967). emily dickinson: mystic and skeptic. a dissertation presented to the graduate council of the university of florida. usa: university of florida press. gelpi, a. (1965). emily dickinson: the mind of the poet. cambridge, ma: harvard univ. press. griffith, c. (1964). the long shadow: emily dickinson’s tragic poetry. princeton princeton univ. press. harde, r. (spring 2004). some-are like my own”: emily dickinson’s christology of embodiment. christianity and literature, 53(3), 1-22. retrieved from https://www.questia.com johnson, t. h. (april 1955). “the great love in the life of emily dickinson.” american heritage 6. pp. 52-55. lindberg-seyersted, b. (1986). gender and women’s literature: thoughts on a relationship illustrated by the cases of emily dickinson and sylvia plath. american studies in scandinavia (norwegian university press), 18(1).1-14. lorenz, j. (2010). the weight of god: an analysis of emily dickinson’s poem 632. ciências & letras, porto alegre, 47, 75-85. retrieved from http://seer1.fapa.com.br/index.php/arquivos miller, r. (1968). the poetry of emily dickinson. middletown, conn.: wesleyan univ. press. moore, t. (2004). dark nights of the soul: a guide to finding your way through life’s ordeals. new york: gotham books. pp. 1-320. pickard, j. b. (1967). emily dickinson: an introduction and interpretation. new york: holt, rinehart, and winston. scheurich, n. (2007). suffering and spirituality in the poetry of emily 32 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the art of storytelling as an exploration of re-writing gender roles in grace paley’s a conversation with my father lamia khalil hammad yarmouk university, jordan abstract this paper explores grace paley’s a conversation with my father, which was first published in the new american review (1972), from a feminist perspective precisely using terms by sandra gilbert and susan gubar. a conversation with my father is about storytelling; the daughter entertains her father by telling him a story; hence, storytelling as an art is at the center of this study. the main theme of the story is considered to be a generation gap between the female author and her father, yet it mainly deconstructs the image of the father and the daughter into a dialectical female and male binary opposition. consequently, this leads to a new meaning that shows the intricacy of the art of storytelling which informs a re-construction of gender roles. therefore, it is crucial to focus on the complex role of the female narrator who verbally informs her father of her artistic creation of the story, and the complex role of her father who criticizes her story, and asks her to re-write it from his male perspective. through the narrator›s storytelling, women’s roles as subject/object shed light on the perceived image of women in literature by a patriarchal system. keywords: grace paley; storytelling; gender roles; writing style; artistic creation. feminism started as a political movement that seeks equal rights for women politically, socially and economically (abrams, p. 110). women’s suffrage rights movement started around the nineteenth century, however, women’s criticism to the inequality between the sexes is traced back to the eighteenth century starting with mary wollstonecraft (1759-1797); in her book a vindication of the rights of woman (1792), she called for the equality of education between men and women and she questioned women’s role in society. other great authors who contributed to the feminist movement are john stuart mill’s the subjection of a woman (1869) and the american author, margaret fuller’s women in the nineteenth century (1845) (abrams, p. 110). virginia woolf was considered a monument in the feminist movement; her book a room of one’s own (1929) encouraged female authors to write (plain and sellers, p. 2). likewise in france, simon de beauvoir was a pioneer in the feminist movement, her book the second sex (1949) was a valuable and precious book (abrams, p. 110). interrelated with the political battle for equality the second wave of feminist emerged, in this stage women were concerned with literary criticism. “feminist literary criticism properly begins in the after math of ‘second-wave’ feminism, the term usually given to the emergence of women’s movement in the united states and europe during the civil rights campaigns of the 1960” (plain and sellers, p. 2). since 1969 there has been a blast in feminist criticism writings that included all the fields of studies (abrams, p. 110). the feminist study is not limited to a certain field; it’s expanded to include different studies from different domains as explained by the norton d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 19 5 33 the art of storytelling as an exploration of re-writing gender roles epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences anthology of literary criticism: while there is no single feminist literary criticism, there are a half dozen interrelated projects: exposing masculinity, stereotypes, distortions, and omissions in male dominated literature; studying female creativity, genre, styles, themes, and works by women. developing feminist theoretical concepts and methods; examining forces that shape women’s live, literature and criticism, ranging across psychology, biology and cultural history (leitch et al, p. 23). therefore, feminist studies in different fields agree on three assumptions: the first is that society is male-centered and controlled by patriarchy, the second assumption is that gender is determined by social factors as explained in abrams’ terminology “while one’s sex as a man or woman is determined by anatomy, the prevailing concepts of genderof the traits that are conceived to constitute what is masculine and what is feminine in temperament and in behavior are largely, if not entirely, social constructs”(abrams, p. 111). the third assumption is that literature is maledominant and it invades the female’s world imposing on her certain images that determine her existence (abrams, p. 111). sandra m. gilbert and susan gubar in their book the mad woman in the attic: the woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination question the meaning of being a female author in a patriarchal oppressing society. they study the female authors and their works and how they were criticized by male authors and critics. the male critics and authors impose on women images that dehumanize and reduce them to mere stereotypes; these images are deepened by the language, style, and metaphor used by men in literature. in contrast with harold bloom’s theory “anxiety of influence” shows the aggressive competition between the father and son to avoid the traces of the ancestors in writing, and both authors argue that women should reverse this aggressive competition by achieving the meaning of the secret sisterhood. female authors’ struggle is called “the anxiety of authorship” because female authors are eager to break the boundaries that prevent them from writing. therefore, women started by struggling with patriarchal socialization, then they became resistant readers to the patriarchal literature, and they revised the masculine stereotyping of women. feminist critics used deconstruction as a method to analyze the literary work to reach the hidden meaning. deconstruction theory first originated by jacques derrida (abrams, p. 70); it is identified as “a deconstructive reading sets out to show the conflicting forces within the text itself serves to dissipate the seeming definiteness of its structure and meaning into an into an indefinite array of incompatible and undecidable possibilities” (abrams, p. 69). moreover, studying women as a subject requires to study the historical moment in which the events of the story took place according to new historicism, louise montrose described the new historicism as “a reciprocal concern with history of texts and the textuality of history” (qtd. in abrams, p. 219) hayden white uses the term “what must have been the case” (p. 1714). this question helps in studying the historical background of both the author and the story to show the relation between the historical moment and the events of the story. the father signifies the male authors and the male critics who demands that the female author should write as male authors do. he believes that his daughter used to write as russian authors used to write. he says: “i would like you to write a simple story just once more,” he continues: “the kind maupassant wrote, or chekhov, the kind you used to write, just recognizable people and then write down what happened to them next” (paley, p. 1). therefore, the father doesn’t appreciate the writings of his daughter and he forces her to write in the same way that chekhov writes. the father looks down at his daughter’s stories in comparison to the stories written by maupassant. this superior attitude to women’s writings was an obstacle that stood in the face of epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the art of storytelling as an exploration of re-writing gender roles 34 l. k. hammad epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences female authors for centuries in the patriarchal society especially in the nineteenth century as stated by elaine showalter in her book a literature of their own: british women novelist (1977, 1982) she says: “victorian feminine novelists thus found themselves in a double bind. they felt humiliated by the condescension of male critics” (p. 538) female authors’ writings were ‘inferiorized’ and ware not treated as genuine writings that make the female authors suffer from “anxiety of authorship” according to sandra m. gilbert and susan gubar: “‘anxiety of authorship’ – a radical fear that she cannot create, that because she can never become a “precursor” the act of writing will isolate or destroy her” (p. 2027). the daughter who signifies the female author tries to please her father by trying to obey his request even though she says that she doesn’t remember that she used to write in that way; this shows that the father doesn’t listen to his daughter. the narrator as an author and critic of literature believes that writing in liner structure doesn’t suit her because it takes all hope from the humans’ life, and she believes that everyone deserves an open destiny in life. again this manifests the difference between the female author and her male counterpart. similarly, this brings to the mind the questions that were raised by gilbert and gubar which ask about the meaning of being a female author in patriarchal society. the two authors question whether the female author has a chance to express herself by using her own voice and by avoiding imitating male’s voice, could she stand the criticism of patriarchal society, or is she doomed to follow the male author’s steps without having a chance to express her real self and her genuine feelings. virginia woolf, indeed, turned to use the stream of consciousness as technique in her novels. it is “the technique that records the multifarious thoughts and feelings of a character without regard to logical argument or narrative sequence” (“stream consciousness”) this technique reflects the inner self of the character at a certain moment “the technique was first employed by édouard dujardin (1861–1949) in his novel les lauriers sont coupés (1888) and was subsequently used by such notable writers as james joyce, virginia woolf, and william faulkner” (“stream consciousness”). the stream consciousness was a modern technique in woolf’s time hence as a female author this technique gave her a space to express herself. in that case the need for a new style and techniques was an urgent demand for the female authors. grace paley the author of a conversation with my father was born in (19222007). she belongs to the third generation of authors according to the division that elaine showalter. she postulates that the first generation around the year (1840) suffered from the harsh criticism by patriarchal critics and they expressed their inferiority and self hatred in their writing. in a like manner, the second generation of victorian women writers, born between 1880 and 1900 tended to self-expression but that reflected self-hatred and retreated more and more toward a separatist literature of inner space. while in the 1960s, the third generation of female authors who was influenced by the international women’s movement entered a new dynamic phase that she called the renaissance in women’s writings. they expressed women’s view of life and women’s experience in creative sense. paley felt the need to try to experiment using new styles, yet she felt that the linear style doesn’t give her hope and doesn’t allow her to express herself. unlike her, the father is an old man who is suffering from heart diseases. the author says that her father was a doctor and an artist for a couple of decades which shows his influence by the traditional male authors and his inability to avoid their influence. symbolically he represents the exhausted male authors who are suffering from the “anxiety of influence” as was explained 35 the art of storytelling as an exploration of re-writing gender roles epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences by harold bloom, and later by sandra gilbert and susan gubar who used this theory not only to identify the patriarchal competitive and aggressive psychosexual context in which much western literature was authored, but also because it helped to distinguish the creativity of female authors from those of male authors. gilbert and gubar say: the separation of female subculture has been exhilarating for women. in recent years, for instance, while male writers seem increasingly to have felt exhausted by the need for revisionism which bloom’s theory of the ‘anxiety of influence’ accurately describes, women writers have seen themselves as pioneers in creativity so intense that their male counterparts have probably not experienced its long since the renaissance, or at least since romantic era. the son of many fathers, today’s male writer feels hopelessly belated; the daughter of too few mothers, today’s female writer feels that she is helping to create a viable tradition which is at last definitively emerging. (p. 2028) the daughter, as a young female author, feels that she has a chance to create literature of her own without suffering from influence, since male authors write in different ways and their themes, style, technique, and images don’t resemble hers. “men and women do use language in different ways; they have different kinds of sentences. women speak in a sexual distinctive way from men” (humm, 1986, p. 7). the narrator tries to obey the father and writes using style that doesn’t leave a chance for her character; she goes against her taste and she tries to do so. the narrator starts her story by using the technique that is used in children stories she says: “once in my time” (paley, p. 2). in the nineteenth century, around (1840), the first generation of female authors as showalter shows were trying to satisfy the patriarchal society by writing in a way that competes for satisfaction rather than confronting the values of their society, their writing sounded sentimental rather than genuine. grace paley reflects this issue by the use of the fairy tale technique that shows the dilemma of women when they write to satisfy their society rather than expressing their genuine self. maggie humm (1986) in her book feminist criticism says: “how women wrote is how they were allowed to write” (p. 7); writing with fear of the other paralyzed women’s authorship in a patriarchal society. the narrator tells her father a story about a woman who lived with her son who became a junkie, in order not to lose her son the woman turned to be a junkie too. later on, the son leaves his mother in grief and leaves the town. the hopeless woman stays alone by herself and the neighbors visit her. this story disappoints the father who once more compares it to the stories written by chekhov and turgenev. he believes that the story is plain. indeed, paley represents the ordeal of women as explained by bradstreet: “do badly and you will be mocked but do well and your authorship will be denied” (qtd. in plain and sellers, p. 33). at this level, the narrator and her father have a different understanding about literature, style and characters. the main character in this story is a female character; the father demanded a physical description for this woman while the daughter did not see the need for that detail. in comparison, the father didn’t require any physical description for the son, he says: “her looks for instance … . her hair?” (paley, p. 2). clearly then, each of them deals with women differently as a subject/object binary. women suffered from the negative stereotypes that were forced upon them by the patriarchal literature that used to tell them how to look and how to act, and if any of them differ from the standard then she will be accused of not being feminine; according to monique witting’s one is not born a woman: “and those who resisted it were accused of not being ‘real’ women” (p. 2016). the female subject has to resemble the expectation of the male society. simon de beauvoir explains in her book the second sex that: “mythical thought opposes the eternal feminine, unique and changeless. if the definition provided 36 l. k. hammad epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences for this concept is contradicted by the behavior of flesh-and-blood women, it is the later that are wrong: we are told not that femininity is a false entity, but that the women concerned are not feminine” (p. 1407). the father wonders whether the female subject in the story was married or not, and he feels upset when the narrator tells him that the son was born out of wedlock. the narrator believes that her character is smart, while the father tells her she was good looking but not smart. treating the female subject as a body that should be beautiful and belongs to the criteria of the innocent house wife keeps torturing women especially in the nineteenth century. gilbert and gubar say: “the fact that ‘infection in the sentence breeds’ suggests dickinson’s recognition that literary texts are coercive, imprisoning, feverinducing; that, since literature usurps a reader’s interiority, it is an invasion of privacy […] which perpetually tell her how she seems” (p. 2030). moreover, the father’s stress on the marriage theme reflecting the conflict between him and his daughter on the gender issue, the gender is: “in every society there are prescribed roles for men and women and this has been discussed variously in the literature as gender role specifications. over the years, however, these roles have changed and attitude towards the roles have also changed. different factors account for these changes which may depend largely on both personal and societal factors” (nagoshi, 2012) the female narrator saw her female character as a smart person because she was deconstructing the gender role, the father subject was absent in her story and the female subject was taking care of her son without the need for male support. the narrator believes that she has to give a space for her characters, until she as a narrator reaches to an agreement with the stubborn character, she says: “well, you just have to let the story lie around till some agreement can be reached between you and the stubborn character” (paley, p. 3) which contradicts the father’s point of view who believes that the author should control the course of events. the male author practices his authority on the female subject and shapes her life the way he wants. later on, the father requests from his author to rewrite her story because what she wrote in the first place didn’t fit with his masculine point of view. the narrator starts all over again by adding the details that were recommended by the father but still the narrator can’t avoid writing as a female because of the details and the descriptions that she uses to describe the love of the mother to her son; motherhood is the feeling that only a mother could talks about: “she had a son whom she loved because she’d known him since birth ‘in helpless chubby infancy. and in the wrestling, hugging ages, seven to ten, as well as earlier and later” (paley, p. 3); this space which was given in a short story for the details of the mother’s love shows how women write in a passionate way. in feminist criticism the author maggie humm (1986) says: an even more important task for feminist criticism, thenmore important than re-evaluating women’s writing, or re-evaluating the misrepresentation of women’s intellect-is to re-evaluate the whole terrain of criticism itself as mapped out and colonized by men; that is, to change the language of literary criticism from one of power and possession to one of emotion and caring (p. 6). being emotional and passionate is not considered a weak point any more; the female authors in the modern ages started to feel proud of their bodies, motherhood, emotions and femininity. and they want to create their own theories that suit their vision. examining the author’s life is an important task according to new historicism. accordingly, the author can’t be separated from his environment, as he is a product of his culture “the human subject itself began to seem remarkably unfree, the ideological product of the relations of power in particular society” (qtd. in abrams, p. 221) therefore, 37 the art of storytelling as an exploration of re-writing gender roles epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences it is essential to go back to grace paley’s life, especially that she is narrating the story from the first person’s point. the author grace paley is a feminist author who wrote about the daily life of working women and she is well known for her realistic language that borrows from real events (“grace paley”). she lived in the sixties in the time of human rights movement; hence she chose to write about a mother who lived in the sixties. being a female she can’t separate literature from real life; she needs to explore the social, political and economical circumstances that surround the female in patriarchal society. furthermore, one of the assumptions of feminism is: “that literature and criticism is ideological since writing manipulates gender for symbolic purposes. the experience of gender in writing and reading is symbolized in style, and style, therefore, must represent the articulation of ideology […] ideology is our way of coping with contradiction of experience” (humm, 1986, p. 6). the narrator tells a story about a real woman who lives in the author’s neighborhood. “many early modern women writers, discontented with the representation of women in imaginative texts by men, adopted a creative alternative to a negative attack on the stereotypes of men’s writing: they formed new female character types of their own” (plain and sellers, p. 34). modern feminists owe the political movement a great deal for this purpose separating the feminist literature from the political thought is not possible. the sixties period is the years that changed the american society socially and politically. at that time society was changing radically people were demanding racial equality, sexiest equality and they were against the vietnam war. the young americans were angry and they protested against the violence, inequality, injustice and oppression. according to webster’s dictionary a “hippy” is: “a young person of the 1960’s who rejected established social mores, advocated spontaneity, free expression of love and the expansion of consciousness, often wore long hair and unconventional clothes, and used psychedelic drugs”. the hippy movement is a countercultural movement that rejected the established norms of mainstream american life. students were the first to originate this movement on college campuses in the united states (stone, p. 1). the son in the short story becomes a hippy; this attitude is accompanied by becoming addicted to drugs. the mother instead of standing against her son she becomes a junkie too. she acts out of love and fear of losing her son “and because she always believed in giving bad habits room at home where one could keep an eye on them” (paley, p. 4). the mother’s attitude wasn’t because she was convinced about righteousness of the moral values of the movement, but rather she was motivated by motherhood. skip stone says in his book hippies from a to z that “hippies seek to change the world through reason and by living what they believe.” this principle contradicts the mother’s attitude; she didn’t become a hippy out of rational belief but rather because of her emotional concern about her son. in light of this, by deconstructing the structure of the story the different attitudes of the father and the mother become manifested. the father keeps urging his daughter to change the style of her writings while the mother in the story doesn’t hesitate to change the whole style of her life for the sake of her son. the father doesn’t know his daughter very well while the mother adopts her son’s habits. the contradicting action between the mother and the father appear through deconstructing their behavior. the role of the mother and father is a socially constructed concept; it is a gender issue as explained in critical theory today “because caregiving, especially caregiving to infants and young children, has been labeled a female instinct, it is difficult for many of us to consider it in any other light” (tyson, p. 109). therefore, motherhood and fatherhood don’t contrast with each other but society makes each of these concepts become 38 l. k. hammad epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences contradictory. linda brannon concludes, in a research that was conduct to examine the gender differences, “research on gender differences in responsiveness to babies has shown differences in self-reports, but not in psychological measures, of responses to babies […] girls and women show more responsiveness to babies because they believe they should, and…boys and men show less responsive for the same reasons” (qtd. in tyson, p. 110). hence the mother’s emotional reaction towards her son is doubled by social construction, while the father’s true belief that he should be obeyed comes from the culture that demands the obedience of the father. “the concept of maternal instinct has no support as a biologically based explanation for caregiving, and both men and women have similarly emotions related to nurturing” (qtd. in tyson, p. 110). again, grace paley insists on reflecting the social gender role by describing how the mother’s kitchen becomes famous for a while as a center “for intellectual addicts who knew what they were doing” (paley, p. 4). this ironic sentence shows the contradiction between those intellectual who knew what they were doing and between the mother who was motivated by her emotions. in addition to that, the author shows the differences between gender roles when she used the word kitchen in relation to the mother. grace paley criticizes the reduction of woman’s role into a serving the male ego. on the other hand the junkie son falls in love with a young lady who appreciates his writings. grace palely describes how this young boy starts to appreciate his masculine features and how he appreciates his muscles: “in fact he began to love them, treasure them, [and] praise them” (paley, p. 4). this young strong boy decides to move forward in his life, and he decides to stop using drugs. pursuing this further, he asks his mother to quit taking drugs as simple as that he leaves her alone and moves with his girl to another place. he also tells his mother that he would not see her until she stops using drugs for sixty days. after all what his mother did for him in order not to lose him, he just walks away and leaves his addicted mother without giving care for her. again when comparing the son’s attitude to the daughter’s attitude the difference becomes clear. the daughter sets by the side of her sick father and tells him stories while the son leaves his addicted mother to face her destiny all by herself. the gender roles are not biological but rather a social issue that differs from one culture to the other. culture plays a great role in determining the position of the male and the female functional role in society. the mother in the story was left alone the neighbors come to conceal here. the destiny of this woman is an arena for conflict between the father and his daughter each of them see her future from his own perspective. hayden white says “the same set of events can serve as component of story that is tragic or comic” (p. 1715). the mother’s story could be treated as tragic story depending on the perspective from which it is seen. according to h. white the historical events are neutral and what changes their value is ‘the emplotment’ that is the way in which these events was encoded in a certain story. women suffered from male’s unjust representation of them in their literature. the mad woman, the angel woman, and the mysterious woman were images that were imposed on women from male perspective. these images were neutral images but the way they were exploited by men to reduce women into stereotypes is what harmed women. the father says “as a writer that’s your main trouble. you don’t want to recognize it. tragedy! plain tragedy! historical tragedy! no hope. the end” (paley, p. 6). the patriarchal society that condemns women’s liberation, this society assesses the mother’s addiction and then her abandonment by her son as a tragedy. the father thinks that she has 39 the art of storytelling as an exploration of re-writing gender roles epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences no hope being born in the era of freedom quest; he sees her without a character. besides that, he believes that a woman should have someone to support her otherwise she’ll suffer because of her inability to face life all by herself. the daughter gives hope to her character and she proves how her productive power was an essential part in improving the economy of the society “the head doctor has said to her, ‘if we only had three people in this clinic with your experiences…” (paley, p. 6). moreover, the father’s comment about his daughter’s writing reduces it to a mere joke. he finds her vivid story as a plain story. he doesn’t appreciate the character and his daughter’s writing. the father says: “number one: you have a nice sense of humor. number two: i see you can’t tell a plain story. so don’t waste time … what a tragedy. the end of a person” (paley, pp. 5-6). on the contrary, the daughter refused to surrender to her father’s opinion. she wanted to save that woman from that dark end. as an author from the third generation she wanted to free women as literary subjects from the oppressive patriarchy. being a modern author she didn’t consider the age of the woman as an obstacle, rather she found that her experience as a junkie is “better than having a master in education” for her the experience that is taught by life is what makes a woman able to face life. “that woman lives across the street. she’s my knowledge and my invention. i’m sorry for her, i’m not going to leave her there in that house crying” (paley, p. 6). the author resists the tragic end, she belongs to the modern generation of female authors who write in a realistic manner about real women, and they don’t hesitate to deal with taboos and with women’s complicated issue. no matter how much she insisted her father kept refusing to accept to offer this woman a happy life. the author is convinced that this independent woman could have a new life and by working she could protect herself and become an independent woman. at the end, by deconstructing the characters into signifiers, a new meaning comes out. grace paley writes a story that’s at surface value treated as generation gap, but by digging deep in the story and by deconstructing the signifiers into another signifier, a new meaning emerges. grace paley’s story is full of images that could be deconstructed over and over and each time it surprises the reader with its rich ideas. a conversation with my father is a story about a conversation that shows the conflict between females’ understanding of life and literature in contrast to males’ understanding. this conversation shows the difficulty of communication especially as long as one of the parties is using his authority to subjugate the other. the father demands obedience all through the story. the daughter as a liberal modern female author doesn’t stand to write in a way that doesn’t express her real feminine self. in addition, she refuses to condemn her protagonist of eternal suffering and a tragic lonely end. on the contrary, she believes in her protagonist’s potential that could go on in her life, and she proves that there is no obstacle as long as the female will resist surrendering to the tradition that restricts her creativity. grace paley’s story is a great example of the feminist creativity and her writings prove that the female authors are qualified and that no one could stop their distinguished achievements. references abrams, m. h., and geoffrey harpham. “view the book.” a glossary of literary terms: m. h. abrams, geoffrey galt harpham: free download & streaming: internet archive. michael rosenberg, n.d. web. 09 jan. 2016. de beauvoir, simon. “the second sex.” leitch, vincent b. ed. et al. the norton anthology of theory and criticism. new york. “hippie about our definitions: all forms of a word (noun, verb, etc.) are now displayed on one page.” merriam-webster. merriam-webster, n.d. web. 01 jan. 2016. humm, maggie. (1986). feminist criticism: women as contemporary critics. brighton: harvester. 40 l. k. hammad epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences gilbert, susan, and sandra gubar. “mad woman in the attic.” leitch, vincent b. et al. eds. the norton anthology of theory and criticism. new york, norton. “grace paley.” columbia electronic encyclopedia, 6th edition (2011): 1. academic search complete. web. 29 june 2015. leitch, vincent b. eds. et al. the norton anthology of theory and criticism. new york: norton. nagoshi, julie l, stephan/ie brzuzy, and heather k terrell. (2012). “deconstructing the complex perceptions of gender roles, gender identity, and sexual orientation among transgender individuals.” feminism & psychology 22.4: 405-422. academic search complete. web. 29 dec. 2015. plain, gill, and susan sellers, eds. (2007). a history of feminist literary criticism. cambridge, uk: cambridge up. showalter, elaine. (1988). “a literature of their own” selden, raman. ed. the theory of criticism from plato to the present: a reader. london: longman. stone, skip. (2000). hippies from a to z: their sex, drugs, music, and impact on society from the sixties to the present. silver city, nm: hip. “stream of consciousness.” columbia electronic encyclopedia, 6th edition (2011): 1. academic search complete. web. 28 dec. 2015. tyson, lois. (2006). critical theory today: a user-friendly guide. new york: routledge. white, hayden. “the historical text as literary artifact” leitch, vincent b. ed. et al. the norton anthology of theory and criticism. new york, print. wittig, monique. “one is not born a woman” leitch, vincent b. ed. et al. the norton anthology of theory and criticism. new york, print. 71 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences hierarchy in international law in europe, a hierarchy may exist between international instruments when one of them postulates its own primacy over others, e.g. the european convention on extradition. its article 28 reads: this convention shall, in respect of those countries to which it applies, supersede the provisions of any bilateral treaties, conventions or agreements governing extradition between any two contracting parties. the contracting parties may conclude between themselves bilateral or multilateral agreements only in order to supplement the provisions of this convention or to facilitate the application of the principles contained herein. (article 26 of european convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters and article 43 of the european convention on the transfer of proceedings in criminal matters contain similar rules). at the same time, an international instrument may declare its subsidiary. the council of europe convention on cyber crime constitutes a good example. its article 27 regulates, in accordance with its own title, hierarchy of rules on international judicial cooperation (the law of bosnia and herzegovina) anton girginov law faculty-university of plovdiv, bulgaria abstract this study is focused on the law of bosnia and herzegovina with its specific problems in international judicial cooperation in criminal matters. in the international law, hierarchy of interstate agreements is accepted and recognized, although, in practice, it is not always understood in the best way. therefore, as in the case of bosnia and herzegovina, domestic law is subsidiary in cases of conflicts with interstate agreements. nevertheless, it plays an irreplaceable role, as a regulator of international judicial cooperation in support of interstate agreements by interpreting their provisions. this power of national legal provisions must be properly used. keywords: bosnia and herzegovina; international law; international judicial cooperation; domestic law. d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 24 1 72 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the “procedures pertaining to mutual assistance requests in the absence of applicable international agreements”. per argumentum a contrario, if an applicable international agreement exists, such as european convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters and the protocols thereto, the convention on cybercrime shall give way (sibylle, 2003, p. 11; erika and vidmar, 2012). as in the case with article 28 of the european convention on extradition, article 26 of european convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters and article 43 of the european convention on the transfer of proceedings in criminal matters, this is also a formally and expressly established hierarchy but by the subsidiary convention. however, sometimes hierarchy between international instruments may not be clearly established but occurs as a result of interpretation of some legal rule. such a rule is article 1f of the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees as well. it reads: the provisions of this convention shall not apply to any person with respect to whom there are serious reasons for considering that: (a) he has committed a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity, as defined in the international instruments drawn up to make provision in respect of such crimes; (b) he has committed a serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge prior to his admission to that country as a refugee; (c) he has been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the united nations. such a rule facilitates the general conclusion that in cases of conflict with the convention relating to the status of refugees is expected to give way any international extradition law, if there might be any conflict between them all. it is well known that the legal framework for the treatment of refugees and the one for extradition are related. in practice, asylum proceedings (for granting a refugee status to foreigners) and extradition proceedings interact as the former take into account the results of the latter. findings in the extradition process may (not only in respect of crimes under article 1f of the 1951 convention but also for all other extraditable crimes as well) have a bearing not only on the eligibility for international refugee protection of an asylum-seeker. they are also likely to affect the already recognized asylum status. information which comes to light during the extradition process may a. girginov 73 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences also set in motion proceedings leading to the revocation of the asylum status (sibylle, 2003, p. 99). additionally, asylum and extradition may seem to overlap in some sense where the person, whose extradition is sought, is an asylum-seeker, or a refugee (with an already granted asylum status). however, asylum law does not as such stand in the way of criminal prosecution or the enforcement of a sentence, nor does it exempt refugees, asylum-seekers or persons with granted asylum from extradition. as the legal framework for asylum was never intended to shield fugitives from legitimate criminal justice, this legal institution is not seen as a restriction to application of extradition law (ibid., p. 74). obviously, extradition results may exclude asylum but asylum results may not exclude extradition. it is important to know that asylum law provides protection to refugees (persons with asylum status) and asylum-seekers from being extradited to countries where they may be subject to discriminatory illtreatment. thus, article 33 (1) of the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees prohibits the surrender of such persons to foreign countries „where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion“ [probability of discriminatory ill-treatment].1 it is noteworthy that this is the only protection of asylum law to refugees (persons with asylum status) and to asylum-seekers, and this protection is reproduced in full in extradition law. their surrender is prohibited by article 3 (2) of the european convention on extradition. this paragraph reads: extradition shall not be granted, if …the requested party has substantial grounds for believing that a request for extradition for an ordinary criminal offence has been made for the purpose of prosecuting or punishing a person on account of his race, religion, nationality or political opinion, or that that person’s position may be prejudiced for any of these reasons [again, probability of discriminatory ill-treatment]. similarly, article 34i of the bosnia and herzegovina law on international judicial cooperation in criminal matters [the bih law on ijc] postulates that extradition shall be rejected, if requested „for the 1)likewise, article 3 of the european convention on human rights prohibits torture, and “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. there are no exceptions or limitations on this right. it is exercisable also in extradition cases to outlaw surrender to countries where torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is probable. see soering vs uk, (1989), echr (series a) no. 161. hierarchy of rules on international judicial cooperation 74 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences following purposes: criminal prosecution or punishment on the grounds of the person’s race, gender, national or ethnic origin, religious or political belief“. further on, the protective rules of extradition law not only reproduce the protection of asylum law. being special, they also derogate it excluding its applicability in accordance with the maxim that “lex specialis derogat legi generali”. it follows that the rules of asylum law, incl. the protective ones, are not applicable. per argumentum a fortiori, applicability is ruled out also for article 3 of the european convention on human rights which prohibits torture, and “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, in general. hence, if a wanted person is requested by a country where s/he is likely to be subjected to discriminatory ill-treatment, it is the extradition law which would protect him/her against any extradition to that country. there are no reasons to maintain the contrary, namely: that this person is protected only by asylum law2 and that the asylum law protection [the quoted article 33 (1) of the 1951 convention, in particular] derogates obligations to extradite when the wanted person might be subjected to some discriminatory ill-treatment. actually, it is the other way around: the protective provisions of extradition law, being special rules, derogate protective rules of asylum law, being of the same content but general in scope. specifically, the necessary protection against discriminatory ill treatment in the countries requesting extradition comes from article 3 (2) of the european convention on extradition and article 34i of the bih law on ijc. it does not and cannot come from provisions envisaging granted asylum or asylum-seeking, such as: the derogated article 33 (1) of the 1951 convention, in particular. article 34b of the bih law on ijc is also designed and seen as a provision protecting persons with granted asylum (refugees) and asylum-seekers. it qualifies as a mandatory condition for extradition the fact that the requested person does not enjoy asylum in bih or have not applied for it (s/he is not any asylum-seeker) in bih at the moment the request for extradition is filed. however, there is no such condition for extradition in the european convention on extradition. extradition may be excluded only by granting nationality to the wanted person (e.g. article 6 of the european convention on extradition) – in addition to 2)see this unacceptable statement in “guidance note on extradition and international refugee protection.” unhcr, protection policy and legal advice section, division of international protection services, geneva, april 2008, p. 6. a. girginov 75 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences his/her asylum status or without giving him/her any such a status. in any case, the european convention on extradition does not postulate that the asylum status or the asylum-seeking conduct of the wanted person is any impediment to his/her extradition. by contrast, article 34b of the bih law on ijc means that any of the two – the asylum status or even asylum-seeking alone constitutes an impediment to extradition. this provision requires denial of extradition on the sole ground that the wanted person is a refugee (has an asylum status) or is an asylum-seeker, regardless of whether any plausible danger of his/her discriminatory ill treatment in the requesting country exists or does not exist at all. moreover, because article 3 (2) of the european convention on extradition and article 33e, letter “i” of the bih law on ijc have banned extradition to countries where danger of discriminatory ill-treatment exists, the prohibition of extradition under article 34b of the bih law on ijc on the ground that the wanted person who has an asylum status or is an asylum-seeker, is not applicable to such requesting countries. as a result, this prohibition to extradite refugees (with asylum status) and asylum-seekers is applied only to those requesting countries where no such danger exists. hence, if the bih law on ijc is applicable, in accordance with its article 1 (1), then nothing can exclude the application of article 34b of the bih law on ijc, in particular, prescribing to bih authorities to reject any extradition of a refugee or an asylum-seeker to countries where s/ he is not likely to be subjected to any discriminatory ill-treatment at all. thus, the sole function left to the legal ground under article 34b of the bih law on ijc is to hinder acceptable extradition and prevent legitimate justice from being done. this is an obvious absurd though. it virtually means that legal provisions shall not only prevent injustice but may create it as well as in the case with article 34b of the bih law on ijc. this happens because, in contrast to article 33e, letter “i” of the bih law on ijc, article 34b of the same law envisages not only situations of possible discriminatory ill-treatment in the requesting country. this article also expands to opposite situations where discriminatory illtreatment in the requesting country is not likely. moreover, in practice, it is applicable to them only. in this way, the legal ground under article 34b the bih law on ijc has turned into its undesired opposite to prohibit requested country from extraditing only to countries where no danger of discriminatory ill-treatment of the potential extraditee exists at all. hierarchy of rules on international judicial cooperation 76 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences obviously, when no danger of discriminatory ill-treatment exists, the asylum status, and asylum-seeking as well, shall be irrelevant since the values protected by it would not be threatened at all, when the person (refugee or asylum-seeker) is surrendered to the requesting country for the benefit of justice3. therefore, no human rights justification to refuse extradition exists in such cases. moreover, the person shall not only be extradited, if there is no other impediment to his/her extradition, but also deprived of his/her asylum status or respectively denied such a status, even though it alone did not and could not hinder the extradition. it follows that article 34b of the bih law on ijc, which essentially postulates the contrary, should be deleted. there is no justification of having the granted asylum, and asylum-seeking either, as a separate legal ground for refusal to extradite as this article postulates (andre, 2014, pp. 42-50). if this provision stays, it would literally mean that once a person has been granted an asylum status, or even is an asylum-seeker only, this person shall never be extradited to any country in the world. it goes without saying that such a protection is either redundant or unacceptable. where no danger of discriminatory ill-treatment in the requesting country exists, article 34b of the bih law on ijc only repeats the text of article 33e, letter “i” of the same law postulating that extradition shall be rejected, if requested „for the following purposes: criminal prosecution or punishment on the grounds of the person’s race, gender, national or ethnic origin, religious or political belief“. since in this 3)this is the reason why in germany no decision in asylum proceedings is binding for an extradition proceeding. the courts, responsible for decisions regarding the admissibility of extradition, decide independently whether serious grounds exist to believe that the person subject to extradition would be threatened with political persecution in the requesting country, and that his/her extradition is therefore, not admissible. a hindrance to extradition exists in cases where there is serious cause to believe that the person sought, if extradited, would be persecuted or punished because of his race, religion, citizenship, association with a certain social group or his political beliefs, or that his/her situation would be made more difficult for one of these reasons. with this, extradition law mentions those characteristics of persecution that form the basis of the principle of “non-refoulement” in article 33 (1) of the geneva convention relating to the status of refugees and are therefore, determinative for the grant of asylum. see information received from states on practical problems encountered and good practice as regards the interaction between extradition and asylum procedures, european committee on crime problems, committee of experts on the operation of european conventions on co-operation in criminal matters, council of europe, strasbourg, 5 march 2014 [pc-oc/pc-ocmod/2013/docs pc-oc mod 2013/ pcoc mod(2013) 06rev2], p. 14 a. girginov 77 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences situation of possible discriminatory ill-treatment article 33e, letter “i” prescribes the same as article 34b of the bih law on ijc, the former provision makes the latter redundant. it is even worse in the situation where no discriminatory ill-treatment is expected to take place in the requesting country. nevertheless, article 34b of the bih law on ijc prohibits even the extradition of the wanted refugee or asylum-seeker to that normal country, one that has nothing to do with the country from which s/he has escaped from. certainly, the prohibitive rule of article 34b of the bih law to extradite refugees and asylum-seekers might be construed restrictively to avoid its unjustified application to requesting countries where no discriminatory ill-treatment is possible. however, this would mean that the prohibition would be applicable to requesting countries where doscriminatory ill-treatment is possible. in this way, the prohibitive rule of article 34b of the bih law would be nothing more than a replica of the prohibition under article 3 (2) of the european convention on extradition and article 33e, letter “i” of the bih law. thus, even in the conditions of such, more or less, an artificial interpretation, article 34b of the bih law stays without any justification. normally, if the extradition of some refugee or an asylum-seeker who is likely to have committed an extraditable offence (or has not already been found guilty of such an offence) is to take place from bih, its competent authorities shall revoke his/her granted asylum or refuse granting it rather than reject his/her extradition and eventually protect him/her from legitimate justice. justice must be ensured because, in contrast to refusals on the grounds of own nationality – see article 6 (2) of the european convention on extradition, a refusal on the grounds of asylum status (let alone on the ground of asylum-seeking), does not entail any international obligation on the requested country to prosecute and try the wanted person. it is not obliged to execute any additional request by the requested country to this effect. as a result, no justice would be done. undoubtedly, the fact of receiving an extradition request may not necessarily be regarded as sufficient for the revocation or not granting of the asylum status to the wanted person and for his/her surrender to the requesting country. when it comes to such persons (refugees and asylum-seekers), bih is in the position to find an appropriate legal way to additionally require some evidence of their guilt. but if evidence hierarchy of rules on international judicial cooperation 78 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences of the person’s guilt is provided to bih judicial authorities, they must surrender him/her, if no other impediment to his/her extradition exists. in the end, as regards relations of bih with other parties to the european convention on extradition, in particular, asylum may be no impediment to any extradition requested from bih either. first of all, there is no provision in this convention to qualify asylum as such impediment. besides, bih, unlike poland (declaration of 15 june 1993) or rumania (declaration of 17 july 2006), has never submitted any declaration to the convention that persons granted asylum by its authorities shall not be extradited. presently, article 1 of the convention obliges bih to extradite whenever the conditions for extradition are met and there is no exception for persons granted asylum in bih – neither in the text, nor, as clarified, in any declaration or reservation of bih to the convention. because international provisions override domestic rules (see article 1 of the bih law on ijc), the international legal obligation to extradite based on article 1 of the convention cannot be derogated by whatever national asylum protection, incl. the one based on the criticized article 34 “b” of the bih law on ijc. however, the asylum issue should not be totally ignored either. on the contrary, there must be some adequate reaction to european countries, such as poland and romania, which make in their declarations concerning asylum the same mistake as the one of the criticized article 34 “b” of the bih law on ijc. the two countries have accepted through their declarations that their authorities shall not extradite persons who have been granted asylum (refugees), regardless of whether discriminatory their ill-treatment in the requesting country is possible at all. therefore, like article 34 “b” of the bih law on ijc, the declarations of the two countries prevent their authorities from extradition even to requested countries countries where no danger of discriminatory ill-treatment of potential extraditees exists. no doubt, such countries as poland and romania require a proper response. bih, considering itself a country where no discriminatory ill-treatment is possible, including of extradited refugees (persons with asylum), could reciprocate with an own declaration. specifically, bih may mirror-like declare that it reserves its right to deny in the same way extradition to poland and romania of persons who are granted asylum, even though these two countries are not regarded as countries where discriminatory ill-treatment of anyone, incl. potential extraditees, is possible. a. girginov 79 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences however, there is a milder and narrower option. it is to follow the example of austria which with an own declaration of 07 january 1994 supported the german one of 11 october 1993 in response to the polish. in its declaration germany states that it: considers the placing of persons granted asylum in poland on an equal standing with polish nationals in poland’s declaration with respect to article 6, paragraph 1 (a) of the convention to be compatible with the object and purpose of the convention only with the provision that it does not exclude extradition of such persons to a state other than that in respect of which asylum has been granted. presumably, this state (country) in respect of which asylum has been granted, is a country where discriminatory ill-treatment of potential extraditees is possible. hence, germany maintains that the polish reservation makes sense only because and solely to the extent it repeats the ground for denying extradition under article 3 (2) of the european convention on extradition, namely: that extradition shall be refused if the potential extraditee may suffer in the requesting country “on account of his race, religion, nationality or political opinion, or that that person’s position may be prejudiced for any of these reasons.” germany has not found it necessary at all to mention any other requesting countries of the same sort, although discriminatory illtreatment of potential extraditees is possible there as well, let alone to consider requesting countries where it is not possible at all. it is true that persons with asylum, and no one else either, shall be extradited to other countries either (along with the one in respect of which asylum has been granted), if discriminatory ill-treatment is possible there. however, the legal ground to reject extradition to them is in article 3 (2) of the european convention on extradition. the ground has nothing to do with the asylum status of potential extraditees and does not need any “support” from it for the denial of extradition. this is the reason why germany has not paid any attention to such other countries where discriminatory ill-treatment is possible also. lastly, if bih wants to do anything similar, it must submit a declaration with the respective rule to the european convention on extradition. otherwise, if the rule is a part of the domestic law, as in the case with the criticized article 34 “b” of the bih law on ijc, it would not produce the desired effect given the priority of the convention. hierarchy of rules on international judicial cooperation 80 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences international law and domestic legal provisions pursuant to the first provision of the bih law on ijc, article 1 (1) in particular, „this law shall govern the manner and procedure of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters (hereinafter: mutual legal assistance), unless otherwise provided by an international treaty or if no international treaty exists“ (international cooperation in criminal matters, 2016). thus, following the civil law tradition, the bih law on ijc postulates the direct application of international agreements (bilateral and multilateral) in bih4 and its subsidiarity to them. therefore, in case of conflict any applicable international treaty in the area of international judicial cooperation in criminal matters takes presidence over the bih law on ijc. according to article 4 (4, 5) of the bih law on ijc, in urgent cases requests may also be transmitted and received via eurojust. however, eurojust serves eu member states and they, plus bih as well, are all parties to the european convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters; most of them are also parties to the second additional protocol to this convention as well. hence, when it comes to mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, in general, and transmition of requests in urgent cases, including through eurojust, in particular, these two council of europe legal instruments are inevitably applicable: their texts and the declarations to them made by interested parties. moreover, these texts and declarations as well take precedence over any domestic law being, actually, the rules which govern the issue of communications. as the domestic law is of lower (subsidiary) legal force, it cannot be any substitute of such declarations. this is the reason why e.g. france, in order to safely use eurojust for the transmition of certain requests, has submitted a declaration [contained in the instrument of ratification deposited on 6/02/2012] that the requests in question „may also ... be forwarded through the intermediary of the french national member of the eurojust judicial co-operation unit.“ obviously, until bih submits a similar declaration reproducing article 4 (4) of the bih law on ijc, it would be too risky for the judicial validity of the evidence, both requested and obtained, to follow this domestic rule. to safely use eurojust as a communication channel it 4) most of the common law countries follow the opposite policy: they need “enabling legislation” to make international conventions and treaties part of their laws. thus, in england international agreements are only implemented, if parliament has passed an act to that effect. see brownlie, ian. principles of public international law (7th edn), oxford, 2008, p. 45. a. girginov 81 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences is strongly recommendable to bih authorities to submit a declaration similar to the french one rather than rely on the mentioned article 4 (4) of the bih law on ijc. therefore, no domestic law in bih has the sufficient legal power to regulate issues that fall within the subject-matter of council of europe legal instruments. domestic laws can neither successfully add new rules to them within this area, nor successfully derogate their provisions. only declarations and reservations to council of europe legal instruments have such necessary powers for such results. hence, declarations to the two council of europe instruments are the safe and reliable way to achieve the result aimed at in article 4 (4, 5) of the bih law on ijc, in particular. at the same time, the regulative value of national law shall not be underestimated. bih may interpret by means of its national law key legal requirements provided for in international agreements. an appropriate example of such a requirement in need of a national interpretation is the dual criminality of the extraditable offence – see article 2 (1) of the european convention on extradition.5 extradition in europe is granted only in respect of offences punishable under the laws of the requesting country and of the requested country.6 this dual criminality requirement is determined in the same way by article 33 (2) of the bih law on ijc. it reads that extradition “shall be allowed only for the criminal 5)dual criminality may be required also for execution of letters rogatory when it involves coercive measures. in europe, in particular, dual criminality is required through reservations to the european convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters for search and seizure of property, lifting of bank secrecy and/or opening of bank accounts – see the reservations of albania, austria, croatia, the czech republic, germany, hungary, slovakia, slovenia, switzerland. furthermore, according to article 2 of the additional protocol to the said convention, “in the case where a contracting party has made the execution of letters rogatory for search or seizure of property dependent on the condition that the offence motivating the letters rogatory is punishable under both the law of the requesting party and the law of the requested party, this condition shall be fulfilled, as regards fiscal offences, if the offence is punishable under the law of the requesting party and corresponds to an offence of the same nature under the law of the requested party. the request may not be refused on the ground that the law of the requested party does not impose the same kind of tax or duty or does not contain a tax, duty, customs and exchange regulation of the same kind as the law of the requesting party”. 6) see also hafen, jonathan o. international extradition: issues arising under the dual criminality requirement, brigham young university law review., vol. 1992, issue 1, article 4, p. 191; available at: http://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/lawreview/vol1992/ iss1/4, accessed on 01 may 2016. hierarchy of rules on international judicial cooperation http://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/lawreview/vol1992/iss1/4 http://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/lawreview/vol1992/iss1/4 82 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences offences punishable pursuant to the legislation of bosnia and herzegovina and the legislation of the requesting state.” however, this law does not go any further to specify in any way the dual criminality requirement. obviously, the bih law on ijc may be used to determine, first of all, how bih authorities construe the dual criminality requirement requirement – in concreto (in the concrete sense) only or also in abstracto (in the abstract sense) as well. it would be important for other countries to know how bih understands this essential requirement when they request this country for some extradition. to find the better solution one should take into consideration that the extraditable offence always constitutes a crime both under the law of the requesting country and under the law of the requested country as well. in such cases, the offence meets the dual criminality requirement as it fulfills some legal description of a crime in the requesting country and also a legal description of a crime in the requested country as well. usually, a connection exists not only between the offence and each of the two legal descriptions which it fulfills to be an extraditable one. also there is a connection between the two legal descriptions as well. this is, traditionally, a connection of a coincidence between the legal description of the crime in the requesting country and the legal description of the crime in the requested country. such a coincidence may occur when the two descriptions are the same. then, the coincidence is full. for example, the criminal offence is a theft or a murder and it is, expectedly, described in the same way in the criminal codes of the two countries. the coincidence between the two legal descriptions may be a partial one only. in general, this is the coincidence between the whole and one of its parts. a typical example of such partial coincidence is the one between a consuming legal description and a consumed legal description as the former contains the latter. in such cases, to always have dual criminality, the offence shall satisfy a consuming legal description in the requesting country. this offence would inevitably fulfill the respective consumed legal description in the requested country as well: if the offence covers the whole, it would always cover any of its parts as well. a good and understandable example of the partial coincidence in question might be the description of extortion in the criminal code of macedonia and in the criminal code of serbia where the former is the requesting country while the latter is the requested one. the macedonian legal description of extortion is a consuming one because it requires a. girginov 83 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences damage as well article 258 (1) of the criminal code of macedonia, while the serbian extortion description does not – article 214 (1) of the criminal code of serbia, appearing, as a result, a consumed legal description. hence, when macedonia requests extradition from serbia in respect of some extortion, it is expected that the offence fulfills, first of all, the macedonian description which includes required damage. then the offence would inevitably fulfill also the corresponding serbian description as it is the basically the same but without any requirement for damage. this is the reason why the offence which fulfills the consuming legal description in the law of the requesting country would always fulfill the corresponding consumed legal description in the law of the requested country. in all these situations, when a coincidence between the two fulfilled legal descriptions exists, the dual criminality is in concreto. however, the two descriptions may not coincide but overlap only. in such a situation the dual criminality is in abstracto only. this dual criminality has not yet been recognized by all countries in the world. the dual criminality in the abstract sense is subsidiary to the dual criminality in the concrete sense. hence, this dual criminality is looked for when the legal description of the crime in the requesting country and the one of the crime in the requested country do not coincide. most often, the two descriptions overlap when applied to the wanted person’s conduct. in any case though, to have any dual criminality at all, it is always necessary that the conduct of the person in its totality satisfies both legal descriptions. for example, there is a crime in bih called “defiling a grave or a corpse”; it is in article 379 of the federation of bih cc7. many countries do not have any such a criminal offence but have criminalized the so-called “hooliganism” [bulgaria, moldova, ukraine, etc.] which is not a separate crime under bosnian law. this is a crime of performing indecent acts, grossly violating the public order and expressing open disrespect for society.8 7) this crime is divided into two in some countries see articles 400 and 401 of the cc of macedonia. however, the problem and the solution to it is the same. 8) for example, the bulgarian text envisaging hooliganism is article 325 of the cc. it reads: “(1) a person who performs indecent acts, grossly violating the public order and expressing open disrespect for society, shall be punished for hooliganism by deprivation of liberty for up to two years or by probation, as well as by public censure. (2) where the act has occurred with resistance to a body of authority or a representative of the public, fulfilling their obligations of preserving the public order, or where by its content it has been distinguished for its extreme cynicism or arrogance, the punishment shall be deprivation of liberty for up to five years”. hierarchy of rules on international judicial cooperation 84 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences in many cases the entire indecent conduct of the wanted person satisfies the legal descriptions of both crimes, namely: defiling a grave or a corpse and hooliganism. certainly, the two legal descriptions cover different parts of the entire conduct. nevertheless, and this is the relevant issue, both legal descriptions are satisfied. in such cases dual criminality in the abstract sense exists, if recognized by the requested country. given the two possible understandings of dual criminality, it is to be recommended to the bih legislative authorities to specify what is acceptable to bih. however, taking into account the latest developments of extradition law, it is recommendable that bih lawmakers accept not only dual criminality in the concrete sense but also dual criminality in the abstract sense as well. the bih law on ijc may also be used to officially specify on behalf of bih the time with regard to which the existence of dual criminality is determined. it is undisputable that the deed (act or omission) in respect of which extradition is requested must be a crime in the requesting country all the time from the moment of its commission to the moment of the decision concerning the requested extradition. otherwise, the requesting country can give no civilized justice9 and extradition shall never be granted. the situation with the requested country is more complicated. for countries such as croatia, germany and sweden it is sufficient that the deed is a crime at the time of the decision on the incoming extradition request.10 this is normal because extradition is a procedure mostly and for procedural laws relevant time is the one of the action or decision rather than the time of the occurrence of the fact that substantiates the respective legal proceedings. such countries accept that dual criminality exists, even if they have criminalized the deed after its commission. it is sufficient for them that the criminalization takes place before the decision on the extradition request. however, not all countries share the same understanding of dual criminality. for countries, such as the czech republic, denmark and the uk, it is also necessary that the deed for which extradition is requested 9) see article 15 (1) (i, iii) of the international covenant on civil and political rights. 10) see compilation of replies to the questionnaire on the reference moment to be applied when considering double criminality as regards extradition requests, european committee on crime problems, committee of experts on the operation of european conventions on co-operation in criminal matters,, council of europe, strasbourg, 5 march 2014 [pc-oc/docs 2013/ pc-oc (2013)12bil rev.3], p. 5-20. a. girginov 85 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences was a crime at the time of its commission too.11 virtually, such countries require that the deed has been a crime all the time from its commission to the decision concerning the extradition and this shall be valid not only under the law of the requesting country but also under their own law as well. otherwise, they would not accept that dual criminality exists. it would be an appropriate step on behalf of bih, if its legislative authorities clarify in the bih law on ijc the time with regard to which the existence of dual criminality is determined when bih is the requested country. in any case, the first solution (of croatia, germany and sweden) is recommendable as it takes into account the procedural nature of extradition while the second one is hardly compatible with it (of the czech republic, denmark and the uk). in addition, the first of the two solutions is applicable easier. this makes it more pragmatic also. there is also another issue that is solvable solely by the domestic law of the requested country. this is the problem whether it is sufficient that the offence, for which extradition is requested, simply corresponds to the legal descriptions of crimes in both countries, requesting and requested, or it is also necessary that none of the two legal descriptions is derogated by the legal description of some justification under the law of any of the two countries12. in practice, the problem occurs when the requesting country’s authorities have not noticed an existing justification for the committed deed in respect of which they request extradition. such a justification may be envisaged even in the law of the requesting country, e.g. necessary defense. the typical situation though is when the justification, accompanying the committed deed, is envisaged only in the law of the requested country and the requesting country’s authorities have not noticed it. probably, the best example of such a justification is the so-called allowed (permissible, justified) risky act. basically, any risk is a combination of danger and opportunity to achieve a serious positive result; 11) see compilation of replies to the questionnaire on the reference moment to be applied when considering double criminality as regards extradition requests, european committee on crime problems, committee of experts on the operation of european conventions on co-operation in criminal matters,, council of europe, strasbourg, 5 march 2014 [pc-oc/docs 2013/ pc-oc (2013)12bil rev.3], p. 6-22. 12) sometimes, this issue is also regarted as a criterion for the differentiation between dual criminality in concreto and dual criminality in abstracto. see draft note on dual criminality, in concreto or in abstracto, european committee on crime problems, committee of experts on the operation of european conventions on co-operation in criminal matters, council of europe, strasbourg, 25 january 2012 [pc-oc/ documents 2012/ pc-oc(2012) 02 ], p. 2-3. hierarchy of rules on international judicial cooperation 86 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the chinese symbol (character) of risk best captures this duality: . the existence of danger and possible harm to some values requires that the act targeting the positive result should be reasonable: the actor stands the possibility of being unsuccessful in the name of something really worth risking. when it comes to criminal law, in particular, the risky act becomes relevant when it not only causes some harm, like the one in the state of necessity, but is also unsuccessful13. obviously, a requested country is hardly expected to surrender a person for prosecution, or/and execution of a punishment in respect of a conduct which is not only non-criminal but also lawful as well, as it is the case with justified deeds (as necessary defense, extreme necessity, etc.) given the “permissive” legal descriptions provided for them (berman, 2005, p. 681 and eser, 1976, p. 629). at the same time, it would be appropriate to send a clear message to all requesting countries’ authorities that it is their sole duty to fully study and consider the law of bih when it is the requested country. this is achievable by expressly specifying in the bih domestic law on international judicial cooperation in criminal matters that, when determining dual criminality, existing justifications are also taken into account. such a specification may be made in article 33 [extradition allowed] of the bih law on ijc. the problem with the priority of international instruments over national law appears within some bilateral treaties as well. article 21.1, “b” of the agreement between the former yugoslavia (bih is its successor) and iraq is an appropriate example. this provision expressly postulates that extradition may be granted, if it does not contradict the internal national law of the requested country.14 thus, national 13) in contrast to the action undertaken in the state of necessity which must always be a successful rescue operation, the risky action in criminal law is an unsuccessful action, even though it was worth undertaking to gain something serious (experimental action) or to avoid some serious loss when no unrisky way existed to achieve the desired positive result. the legal description of allowed risk is subsidiary to the legal description of necessity. usually, this unsuccessful but acceptable risk is regarded as a justification of general significance. however, the idea of risk is so closely related to economic domain that some national criminal laws contemplate it only in the sphere of economy, e. g. article 13a of the bulgarian cc and article 34 of the lithuanian cc. other national laws, e. g. article 27 of the polish cc, article 41 of the russian cc and section 27 of the slovak cc, codify risk in all spheres of social life (military activities, medical operations, pollution protection, sport, international relations, etc.). 14) it reads: “extradition shall be refused in the following cases: … (b) if the extradition is not permissible under the law of one of the parties.” a. girginov 87 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences law is given the opportunity to additionally provide an own ground for the prohibition to extradite, which to, eventually, override the general international obligation to extradite established by the same agreement. as a result, the applicable national law of any requested country has acquired the legal force of the international agreement in prescribing grounds for refusal, at least. obviously, this is unacceptable being contrary to the established and undisputable idea that national law is subsidiary to any international agreement. it follows that blanket provisions shall not be used in international agreements to provide the same legal power to any national law as the rules of the international agreement itself. the legal technique materialized in blanket provisions is much more appropriate for domestic legislations. any blanket provision of a given national law envisages specific by-law(s) to attribute it/them equal legal power as the one of the other provisions of the same national law. for example, article 166 (1) of the bih criminal code [importing hazardous material into bosnia and herzegovina] contains a blanket provision which raises the level of the administrative rules governing the import of the said material to the level of the code. the provision reads: “whoever, contrary to regulations of bosnia and herzegovina, imports into bosnia and herzegovina radioactive material or other material or waste harmful to the life or health of people, shall be punished by a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years.”15 finally, a factual hierarchy between international instruments in the penal area is also possible. confiscation of crime-related property is a good example. for the purpose of successfully finalizing this difficult process, laws on international cooperation provide for two types of cooperation: judicial cooperation for criminal cases and purely administrative procedure for non-criminal cases designed to ensure the confiscation of criminal assets. the judicial assistance consists predominantly of execution of letters rogatory. there is no obstacle regarding their execution to collect evidence about the proceeds from investigated crimes and to use this evidence to substantiate the confiscation of these proceeds as well. 15) article 24 (1) of the turkish criminal code is another good example of a blanket provision. it reads as follows: “no punishment is imposed for a person who complies with the mandatory provisions”. the latter provisions are given the necessary legal power to become equal to respective provisions in the same code and, as special to them, exclude their application. hierarchy of rules on international judicial cooperation 88 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the international administrative procedure is comparatively new. it is more common between administrative agencies rather than between judiciaries of different countries. most often, the cooperating administrative agencies are financial investigation units. this international procedure is mentioned in a number of foreign countries’ national laws which govern criminal assets recovery through non-criminal legal proceedings, such as: the serbian law on seizure and confiscation of proceeds from crime (2008), the uk proceeds of crime act (2002), etc. international assistance matters are also regulated in articles 48-59 of the republika srpska criminal assets recovery act (2010). these national laws regulate the administrative requests related to criminal assets. such requests may be used to eventually obtain information about the assets for the purpose of their confiscation. however, it should always be remembered that these requests are novelties and many countries are hesitant and even reluctant to respond to them. moreover, some national laws on criminal assets recovery expressly postulate that this international cooperation is rendered solely on the basis of international agreements (e. g. article 92 of the 2005 bulgarian law on the forfeiture of criminal assets to the exchequer). this makes the administrative requests even less reliable. therefore, one should comply with the following recommendation: if the same information can be obtained through both requests: the letter rogatory and the administrative request, the former should be preferred to the latter. administrative requests are less reliable for another important reason as well. they do not guarantee that information can be obtained in case of bank secrecy. this does not apply to letters rogatory. on the contrary, they are the truly appropriate means to obtain such information. according to article 7 (5) of the un convention against illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, article 18 (8) of the un convention against transnational organized crime and article 46 (8) of the un convention against corruption, “parties shall not decline to render mutual legal assistance ... on the ground of bank secrecy”. furthermore, all these conventions postulate that mutual legal assistance ... may be requested for any of the following purposes: ...providing originals or certified copies of relevant documents and records, including government, bank, financial, corporate or business records; identifying or tracing proceeds of crime, property, instrumentalities or other things for evidentiary purposes – article 7 (2) of the un convention against a. girginov 89 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, article 18 (3) of the un convention against transnational organized crime and article 46 (3) of the un convention against corruption. nothing of this sort has yet been prescribed in favor of any administrative request relating to criminal assets and their confiscation. there is also another remarkable advantage of letters rogatory to administrative requests. it is that letters rogatory can more often be granted, even when the dual criminality requirement has not been met. to express and confirm this policy article 46 (9) (b) of the un convention against corruption expressly calls on its state parties to consider providing such international cooperation in the absence of dual criminality, especially when the execution of the request does not involve coercive action. references berman, m. n. lesser. (2005). “evils and justification: a less close look.” law and philosophy, vol. 24; univ. of texas law, public law research paper no. 84. brownlie, ian. 2008. principles of public international law (7-th edn), oxford. compilation of replies to the questionnaire on the reference moment to be applied when considering double criminality as regards extradition requests, european committee on crime problems, committee of experts on the operation of european conventions on co-operation in criminal matters, council of europe, strasbourg, 5 march 2014. draft note on dual criminality, in concreto or in abstracto, european committee on crime problems, committee of experts on the operation of european conventions on co-operation in criminal matters, council of europe, strasbourg, 25 january 2012. eser, a. (1976). “justification and excuse.” american journal of comparative law. no. 24. guidance note on extradition and international refugee protection. unhcr, protection policy and legal advice section, division of international protection services, geneva, april 2008. european committee on crime problems, committee of experts on the operation of european conventions on co-operation in criminal matters, council of europe, strasbourg, 5 march 2014. hafen, jonathan o. (1992). “international extradition: issues arising under the dual criminality requirement.” brigham young university law review, vol. 1. hierarchy of rules on international judicial cooperation 90 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences kapferer, sibylle. (2003). “the interface between extradition and asylum.” in legal and protection policy research series. unhcr, geneva. klip, andré. (2014). facilitating mutual legal assistance in the western balkans. towards removing obstacles in international cooperation in criminal matters. maastricht university. a. girginov epiphany: vol. 12, no. 1, 2019 e-issn 1840-3719 61 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) a postcolonial reading of racial and cultural traumas in e. m. forster’s a passage to india dr. rashed ahmad daghamin, university of hail, saudi arabia abstract a passage to india is a seminal source, which has a clinical approach at the colonial outrages, racial traumas, and the multifarious ramifications of racism that the anglo indians perpetrated on the locals. the novel socially and psychologically explores the unhealthy dimensions of the colonizer-colonized relationships. the disgusting attitudes of the english expatriates as well as the hatred of the indians, is the primary foundation of the racial tension between the two races. the antagonistic relationships between the two extreme communities made the social life in india unbearable and miserable. the miserable situation in colonized india deteriorated due to the violations of the values and rights of the indigenous indians. in a passage to india, the average indian individual seems to consider mistrust and suspicion as his/ her best guide. however, indian citizens are exploited by the colonizer’s rude demeanors and racial, condescending and frustrating attitudes which eat into the vitals of the indian community, in a passage to india, e. m. forster, highlights these biased and prejudiced racial attitudes. e.m. forster in the novel clinically excoriates the patronizing british ruling caste. he also condemns the intolerance of the indian community represented by dr. aziz, who is guided by his intuitions, imagination and emotions rather than his sense of intellect and reasoning. this racial tension in the colonized indian society can be condensed by adopting a sensible attitude based on adopting human values, such as interracial love, peace, harmony and understanding. this paper delineates how racism and its different multiple manifestations have an effect on the relationships between the characters of different races. forster furthermore underscores various human values such as interracial tolerance, love and understating. the violations of these values, however, is considered as the root cause of the racial tensions in the british raj. forster channels his biting satire and harsh criticism against the british rulers due to their unbearable racist discriminations against indigenous natives. this study, therefore, critically highlights race relations and the traumatic effects of the british colonization. keywords: racism, india, forster, british raj, race, intolerance, racial tension. a postcolonial reading of racial and cultural traumas in e.m. forster’s a passage to india 62 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) i n t r o d u c t i o n contemporary critical theories such as post-colonial theory have tried to explain attitudes that have shown biases and divisive tendencies on people. race is one of the most important parameters of postcolonial theory that can provide an effective tool to examine fiction, and therefore human behavior and tendency. racism is one of the biggest obstacles, which can obstruct any possible interracial affair between the colonizer and colonized; between the dominating and the dominated. literature should be the weapon to fight against institutionalized racism and segregation. it is a wellknown fact that race, racism and oppression are one of the major issues, which postcolonial literature sheds light on. post-colonial theory is meant primarily to highlight the concept of racism, in all its ramifications, marginalization and segregation perpetrated on the subalterns or “the others”. racism and oppression inflicted on the indigenous indians have many harmful effects that included severe poverty, racial discrimination, hunger assault, physical and sexual assault, rejection and ejection, disharmony, social insecurity and dehumanization. racism and oppression affect the mentality and the mode of living of the indians, reducing them into the level of beasts; to a level of inferiority in every aspect of their lives. however, it is worth mentioning that the decentralized and oppressed indian people have responded to the brutal english segregation by many ways, such as radicalism, intellectualism, peace and violence. the post-colonial theory studies the impact of colonization on cultures, nations and societies. the theory shows how european, “the white” nations conquered and controlled "third world" cultures and societies, and how these subaltern groups have responded to and resisted such infringements. postcolonialism, therefore, shows an awareness of the social and cultural inferiority enforced by being in a colonized state. the novel, a passage to india highlights the political and cultural difficulties that de-colonized nations face. racism in literary studies is defined as the belief in the fact that genetic elements, which constitute race, are the primary determinants of human traits and capacities, and such racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race over the other. the concept of racism is derived from the word ‘race’ and it is believed that one racial or ethnic group is inferior to another and the unequal treatment is thus justified. stokely carmichael and charles v. hamilton point out their views regarding racism: what is racism? the word has represented daily reality to millions of black people for centuries…[it consists of] the prediction of decisions and policies on considerations of race for the purpose of subordinating a racial group and maintaining control over that group…racism is both overt and covert…we call these individual racism and institutional racism. the first consists of overt acts by individuals, which cause death, injury or violent destruction of property…the second type originates in the operation of established and respected forces in society, and thus receives far less public condemnation than the first type (2). on the other hand, oppression is defined by the encyclopedia as torture or degrading treatment of the oppressed, and the use of threat or violence by the oppressor against the oppressed. the exercise of power and authority in a cruel and unjust manner is another aspect of oppression. a p a s s a g e t o i n d i a : h i s t o r i c a l c o n t e x t a passage to india (1924) by e.m. forster was selected as one of the 100 great works ever written in english literature by the modern library, and won the james tait black memorial prize for fiction. in this novel, forster seems to perceive the english empire from a critical point of view rather than a nostalgic one (enos 88). the theme of the book is the non-superficial relationship of the indigenous local indians and the colonialist english. the novel is an attempt at understanding india and the natives from a more personal, positive and meaningful perspective (enos 105). however, as boehmer points out “it holds out little hope either for social interaction between europeans and indians, or for indian national independence” (101). the political significance of interracial relationships in the socio-historical context of a passage to india, that is, colonial british india before the passing of the declaration of independence in 1947, was obviously remarkable. e. m. forster paid two visits to the british colonial india, the first journey was in 1912 and the second one was in 1921. in a passage to india, forster worked in his own experiences and attitudes, which he rashed ahmad daghamin 63 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) experienced in india. the novel is widely considered as a “telling attack on british imperialism” (botheroyd 6), and it is about relationships, mysticism as well as politics. a passage to india is written in the tradition of the former novels which deal with relationships and love; however, the political part in it, forster’s harsh criticism and biting satire against the british rule in the subcontinent of india, is based more on his ethical convictions than on political ones. friendship for him is very important, perhaps even more important than love (botheroyd 3). forster experienced a multifaceted india, which seemed strange to him, the phrase “a hundred indias” is used several times to describe the muddle and mystery of the country. forster is “appalled by the corruption of personal relationships produced by imperial rule”. in india, there existed other divisions than in england. there were not only the class divisions that are produced by birth and wealth, but also a racial and religious division between people. there was a strong hierarchy in british india (botheroyd 3). e.m. forster is an anticolonial and anti-imperialist as his classic masterpiece, a passage to india, exemplifies the condemnation of colonialism, racism and its multiple facets. in “a passage to india and heart of darkness: a comparative study of anti-colonialism”, both authors md. ishrat ibne ismail and shareefa yasmeen argue that “forster’s humanism fails to synthesize colonialism and post colonialism and leaves the matter undecided” (11). at the end of the novel, the friends aziz and fielding end their last meeting with a note of separation. in reply of fielding’s friendship aziz, echoing kipling’s sayings ‘the twin shall never meet,’ says that east and west cannot be bridged. the novel sheds light on the unhealthy dimensions of the relationships between the colonizers and the colonized. the bridge party is a perfect example demonstrating the colonized-colonizer unhealthy social relationship. the british are offering the bridge party to demonstrate the wide gulf between east and west, as mrs. turton says, “i refuse to shake hands with any of the men” (forster 41). in a passage to india, it is realized that humanity of the native people is ignored, and the feelings of the colonized are disregarded. the locals are stripped of their humanity and dignity. it seems that the british colonizers have crossed the boundaries of humanity to the extent that they can be named uncivilized, e. g. telling lies about the natives, hurting them physically and psychologically, looking upon them as lower class and downtrodden. above all, the colonizers disregard the values and passion of a human being. the indo european relationship is tested through the discourse of dr. aziz’s attempt to assault an english lady, miss quested. seizing this opportunity, the english rulers manipulate the event for their interests totally ignoring the urge of humanity (ismail and yasmeen 10). the english colonizers are always ready to seize advantage from a discourse: imperial relations may have been established initially by guns, guiles and diseases, but they were maintained in their interpellative phase largely by textuality, both institutionally…and informally. colonialism, (like its counterpart racism), then, is a formation of discourse, and as an operation of discourse it inerpellates colonial subjects by incorporating them in a system of representation (tiffin and lawson, quoted in loomba 95). hence, in a passage to india, adela is the victim who tests the elasticity of the indo-british colonial relationship. both ismail and yasmeen argue that british’s insatiability for geographical expansion and greed for wealth have corrupted the colonized society and has caused gross inhuman exploitation (8). at the core of the civilizing mission the intention is economic benefit as ania loomba argues, “[i]n whichever direction human beings and materials travelled, the profits always flowed into the so called mother country” (02). jean-paul sartre, in his “preface” to the colonizer and the colonized confesses the same notion emphasizing the economic aspects of colonization: “for me the economic aspects of colonialism is fundamental,” and denunciates, “the so-called moral or cultural mission of colonization” which shows the profit motive as its basic. he further notes that “the deprivations of the colonized are almost direct result of the advantages secured to the colonizers” (qtd in memmi xii). d i s c u s s i o n the english colonization of the subcontinent of india and its racial manifestations frustrates any potential friendship between the english and the indians under the colonizer/colonized status quo. the novel a postcolonial reading of racial and cultural traumas in e.m. forster’s a passage to india 64 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) underscores the process of ‘formatting’ and brainwashing which the english newcomers have to go through in order that they end up just like the other anglo –indian colonial settlers in terms of their ideologies and practices (abu baker 68). clare brandabur remarks that a passage to india “attempt[s] to deal with colonialism (or post-colonialism or neocolonialism) with respect to the destructive impact on personal relationships caused by the racist assumptions and psycho-pathology inherent in colonial imperialism” (brandabur 19). jan mohamed argues that, the novel a passage to india attempts “to overcome the barriers of racial difference’” (childs 348). nirad chaudhuri, on the other hand, criticized it “for its reduction of political history to a liberal’s preoccupation with personal relationships” (childs 347). bhupal singh conceives the novel as “a clever picture of englishmen in india, a subtle portraiture of the indian (especially the moslem mind) and a fascinating study of the problems arising out of the contact of india with the west” (singh 221). besides, meenakshi mukherjee points out that “[p]erhaps relationship—communication between, and understanding of, men who happen to belong to two races—is part of forster’s theme” (mukherjee 86). according to nihal singh, the novel depicts “how the british in india despise and ostracise indians, while on their part the indians mistrust and misjudge the british” (childs 347). to diane johnson, one of the novel’s themes is “that people from different cultures rarely understand one another” (johnson 2000). the novel focuses on the three characters: dr. aziz, his british friend cyril fielding, and adela quested. during an excursion to the marabar caves, adela charges dr. aziz of attempting to rape her. aziz's trial brings out all the racial tensions and prejudices between indians and the british colonialists who rule over india. race, according to new oxford dictionary of english, is “each of the major division of human kind, having distinct physical characteristic, a group of people sharing the same culture, history, language, etc (2003). according to cambridge international dictionary of english“race is group especially of people with particular similar physical characteristics, who are considered as belonging to the same type are the fact of belonging to a particular such group” (2000). gulzar jalal yousafzai and qabil khan in their research paper entitled “rudeness, race, racism and racialism in e.m. forster’s "a passage to india" argue that attitudes of racialism, racism and race are viewed from various angles. they are discussed in the light of human psychology (86). a new dimension of a passage to india has been discussed and analyzed by rebecca gronstedsin in her research article, “racialism in a passage to india”. accordingly, race is the classification of human beings into physically, biologically and genetically distinct groups. race is further divided into racism and racialism. they stand for external and internal features. racism is physical and a behavior, rcialism is theoretical and ideological, a doctrine, a principle. rebecca says: “the ideology of racialism originated in western europe in the mid eighteen century and extended to about mid-twentieth, which suggest that forster was influenced by its doctrines in the writing of his novel” (qtd in yousafzai & khan 86). colonialism has often been considered as the struggle to determine who is fittest, even in the times before darwin (boehmer 80). according to darwin, it was the europeans who were the fittest of mankind. it was thanks to this quality that they were able to defend their colonies (boehmer 85). boehmer argues that “if colonization was a struggle for supremacy, not only of white against black, but between european nations, the scramble for territory took on the aspect of a conflict between competing virilities” (80). following 1857, the indian raj came into the clutches of the english rulers. the disgusting attitude of the english expatriates as well as the hatred of the indians, is the primary foundation of the tension between the two races. the antagonistic relationships between the two extreme communities made the social life in india unbearable and miserable. the miserable situation in colonized india deteriorated due to the violations of the values and rights of the indigenous indians. in a passage to india, the average indian individual seems to consider mistrust and suspicion as his/ her best guide. however, indian citizens are exploited by the colonizer’s rude and racial condescending attitudes. in a passage to india, e. m. forster, highlights the biased and prejudiced racial attitudes of the english community, he also underscores various human values such as interracial tolerance, love and understating. the violations of these values, however, is considered as the rashed ahmad daghamin 65 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) root cause of the racial tensions in the british raj. forster channels his biting satire and harsh criticism against the british rulers due to their unbearable racist discriminations against indigenous natives (khan & yousafzai 76). in a passage to india, the ruling anglo-indian colonialists are the stronger race and have therefore authority and dominance over the ruled, the separated, marginalized, segregated; the locals. this authority gives them supremacy and power which they use against the second class and inferior race, the indians (boehmer 10). the untouchable indians are considered as weak, outcast, unwanted and second rate. they are believed to be different from europeans, especially the english, compared with the white superiors; they are looked at as downtrodden and inferior. even though the british might have their own different categories like social class and religions, they are united as opposed to the local natives (boehmer 67). there is very little social integration between the colonialists and the indians, between the racially superior and inferior. yet there are incidents in the novel that show that the indians are more sophisticated than the colonialists. forster had spent a long time in india before writing his book. on returning to england, he related to his friends that he had always felt miserable at the english club, yet, on the other hand, in the company of indians he always felt happy (forster 11). forster says: “looking back on that first visit of mine to india, i realize that mixed up with the pleasure and fun was much pain. the sense of racial tension, of incompatibility, never left me. it was not a tourist’s outing, and the impression it left was deep (11). masood, an indian friend of forster, who lived in england writes in one of his letters: when i began the book i thought of it as a little bridge of sympathy between east and west, but this conception has had to go; my sense of truth forbids anything so comfortable. i think that most indians, like most english people, are shits, and i am not interested whether they sympathize with one another or not. not interested as an artist; of course the journalistic side of me still gets roused over these questions… (qtd in forster 15). ten years after publishing a passage to india, forster confirmed the statement that a victorian writer, william arnold, had made that “until the point of divergence between eastern and western mentality has been discovered, co-operation is impossible (boehmer 150). the paper investigates the conflict of cultures that occur as a result of racism and misunderstandings between the colonial english rulers and the indigenous indians. a passage to india is therefore an investigation whether there could be an invisible bond of value rather than an investigation of a political bond. the novel considers whether it is possible for personal relationships between the locals and english to develop to mutual satisfaction (halmstad 6). forster’s novel reflects whether the english can connect with the indians, and vice versa (forster 26). throughout the novel there are examples of racist attitudes, persecution and oppression by the angloindians against the native indians. the english doctor, major callendar brags about torturing an injured indian youth by putting pepper on his shattered face. on the other hand, the police superintendent, mr. mc bryde expresses supercilious views of the lust the indians have for white english women. ronny heaslop, the city magistrate is ignorant, miss dereck shows rage towards her indian employers; and mrturton is arrogant towards the indians (halmstad 6). forster in the discussed novel says, “a community that bows the knee to a viceroy and believes that the divinity that hedges a king can be transplanted, must feel some reverence for any viceregal substitute. at chandraporethe turtons were little gods” (25). he observes the overall attitude of the major communities towards each other and finds them very biased, partial, disgusting, and prejudiced. “the roads, named after victorious generals and intersecting at right angles, were symbolic of the net great britain had thrown over india”(14). similarly, “it was the anthem of army of occupation. it reminded every member of the club that he or she was british” (23). his focus is the high ups, “the collector could not speak at first. his face was white, fanatical and rather beautiful – the expressions that all english faces were to wear at chandrapore (152). the observation and conclusion developed by mcbryde, the english police officer, is also very queer, the district superintendent of police is never surprised by the behavior of any indian and has his own theory about climatic zones. a postcolonial reading of racial and cultural traumas in e.m. forster’s a passage to india 66 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) …no indian ever surprised him, because he had a theory about climatic zones. the theory ran: all unfortunate natives are criminal at heart, for the simple reason that they live south of latitude 30. they are not to blame, they have not a dog’s chancewe should be like them if we settled here (156). mcbryde, while opening his arguments truth, the darker races are attracted to the fairer but not vice versa” (206). in mcbryde’s opinion, aziz behaves cruelly and brutally to an english female and cannot be forgiven. the policeman is quick to blame the indians as all the colonialists did. “quite possible, i’m afraid; when an indian goes bad, he goes not only very bad, but very queer” (forster 177). the first attempt, to bridge the english and indian communities, fails due to rude and racist attitude of the anglo-indian expatriates. the bridge party was not a success – at least it was not what mrs. moore and miss quested were accustomed to consider a successful party. “they arrived early, since it was given in their honour, but most of the indian guests had arrived even earlier, and even stood massed at the farther side of the tennis lawn, doing nothing (forster35). during the party, mrs. turton does not like to receive, mix up or be polite with the indians. mr. turton reminds her, “to work, mary, to work cried the collector touching his wife on the shoulder with a switch. mrs. turton got up awkwardly. what do you want me to do?” (forster 37). the observation of adela is more than anyone else. she tells fielding, this party to-day makes me so angry and miserable. i think my countrymen out here must be mad. fancy inviting guests and not treating them properly! … the englishmen had intended to play up better, but had been prevented from doing so by their women folk, whom they had to attend, provide with tea, advise about dogs, etc. when tennis began, the barrier grew impenetrable. it had been hoped to have some sets between east and west, but this was forgotten, and the courts were monopolized by the usual club couples (forster 12). the dialogue between ronny and mrs. moore is also an example of a rude behavior: we're not out here for the purpose of behaving pleasantly! what do you mean? what i say. we're out here to do justice and keep the peace. them's my sentiments. india isn't a drawing room. ents are those of a god," she said quietly, but it was his manner rather than his sentiments that annoyed her. trying to recover his temper, he said, "india likes gods. and englishmen like posing as gods (forster 45). the english and indian communities strive to come closer to each other, however, they stand against each other because they bear some negative attitudes such as, racial discrimination, mutual hatred, disgust, rudeness and haughtiness. such racial barriers, lack of mutual trust, and condescending attitudes act as main hurdles which could widen the racial gap between the two parties (khan & yousafzai 77). the existence of the racial tension between the two communities mounts up from the second chapter throughout the dialogue of the indian muslim characters. dr. aziz, a physician, mahmoud ali, an advocate, and other friends are discussing the demeanors of the members of the english ruling community, and how their attitudes towards indians have changed after their coming to india (khan & yousafzai 79). dr. aziz says that: “they all become exactly the same – not worse nor better. i give any englishman two years, be the turton or burton. it is only the difference of a letter. and i give any englishwoman six months. all are exactly alike” (forster 9). throughout the novel, the english expatriates prove the belief that they are superior to the indians, they have instilled a sense of inferiority complex into the minds of indians. forster delineates a picture of the anxious situation between colonial rulers and the indians. the comments, behavior, and treatment which the indians receive at the hands of the british characters, demonstrate the english sense of aggrandizement (khan & yousafzai 80). these patronizing and disgusting attitudes channeled towards the indian community are due to historical, psychological, philosophical, cultural and traditional rashed ahmad daghamin 67 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) behavior. indians are always humiliated in a way or another by the english ruling class. dr. aziz, for instance, is called upon urgently and unnecessarily by his superior major callendar, to his bungalow. this urgent and unnecessary call irritates and humiliates him, and thus embitters him. a highly qualified and educated indian chap is unnecessarily asked to come at a bungalow, not at the hospital, and not for any official matter, an operation or emergency duty etc. aziz feels it and discusses it with his muslim friends. he complains, “old calendar wants to see me in his bungalow, he said. some case, i dare say. i dare say not. i dare say nothing. he has found out our dinner hour that’s all and chooses to interrupt us every time in order to show his power” forster (13). racial tension between the communities is due to lack of tolerance, understanding, and prudence. forster says, “on the basis of tolerance a civilized future is built. this is the only force which will enable different races and classes and interests to settle down together to the work of reconstruction” (qtd in grandsen 5). the ruling british community deliberately put the indians at a distance and does not tolerate them. this lack of tolerance aggravates the problem of reaction, harshness, retaliation, revenge, misunderstanding and hatred. intolerance rises at the colonized indian society due to attitudes of rudeness, race, racism and racialism. henceforth, in spite of the great mutual affection between dr. aziz and cyril fielding, aziz is eventually alienated from fielding (khan & yousafzai 89). k .w. grandsen argues that “forster’s literary career can more fruitfully be regarded as an attempt to explore and where this seemed to him desirable, to criticize and modify, the values and attitudes he had learnt as a young man”(5). this grisly racial discrimination and gross injustices show the anglo-indians racial attitudes towards dr. aziz after the marabar caves’ incident. mrmcbryde feels that aziz pretends to be a reputable and respectable member in the indian society, getting a government post, while in reality he is leading a double life. his negative way of life takes over his respectable self. mr.turton states that he has “never known anything but disaster result when english people and indians attempt to be intimate socially” (forster 182). according to mr. turton, contact and courtesy would be allowed, but intimacy should not be allowed for it is harmful. only mutual respect and esteem can enable them to socialize with each other (halmstad 7). the british colonialists feel that it is necessary for them to abide by the unwritten rules on how they behave towards the local indians. these unwritten rules, which the locals are bound to follow in their relations with the colonialists, safeguard the interests of the british, making them the white superiors. any modification of these rules would risk the whole system (boehem 68). when indians live in england, they can be extremely close to and respected by the english. however, the indians cannot not return this hospitality when these englishmen move to india. the anglo-indians would already have influenced these fellow englishmen to put a stop to such friendships (halmstad 7). when discussing this with aziz, hamidullah, an indian lawyer, argues that: “it is impossible here. aziz! the red-nosed boy has again insulted me in court. i do not blame him. he was told that he ought to insult me. until lately he was quite a nice boy, but the others have got hold of him” (forster 34). accordingly, as hamidullah states, such a friendship between an englishman and an indian on an equal basis is only imaginable in england, “only contend that is possible in england” (forster 33). even aziz feels, “why talk about the english? brrr….! why be either friends with the fellows or not friends? let us shut them out and be jolly. queen victoria and mrs bannister were the only exceptions, and they’re dead” (forster 33). one must also consider the englishmen who travel to india and have never had indian friends in briton. many of them intend to be gentlemen and befriend indians in the beginning; nonetheless, after a while they are told that this is not acceptable in english society. a dramatic change can be seen and some of these same englishmen even begin to abuse the indians (halmstad 8). this can also be seen in the behavior of mr.turton: he too had been close to the locals originally and yet, like all the others before him, later on he did not trust any indian. when fielding first arrives in india he is extremely friendly, and wishes to be liked and accepted by the indians. he chooses to befriend indians. yet even he, with his positive opinion of the indians, feels at times that indians are unbearable (forster 184). a postcolonial reading of racial and cultural traumas in e.m. forster’s a passage to india 68 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) the incident in the caves is a muddle or a mystery that shows that india can only present confusion of morals, misunderstandings and misreading between the colonialists and the locals (childs 349). the personal relationships of adela are given no importance; she is still the one who gives fielding the chance to meet aziz. fielding and adela are rejected by the english community due to their friendships with and loyalty towards the indian community. in “rethinking identity: the coloniser in e. m. forster’s a passage to india”, ahmad m.s. abu baker argues that stereotypes presented in the novel are extremely strong, therefore, their lifecycle is long. ronny tries to promote stereotypes and racial discourses to his mother, mrs. moore, using “phrases and arguments” of senior colonizers (76). he almost succeeds in making her adopt that same logic. “in the light of her son’s comment she reconsidered the scene at the mosque …. yes, it was all true, but how false a summary of the man; the essential life of him had been slain” (forster 55). the discourse of the colony is strong, but mrs. moore’s robust christian belief, which has not been contaminated by colonization, makes her resist the imposition of this foreign discourse on her mind, although she acknowledges its “truth” (abu baker 76). colonization always conceals its true motives behind the mask of bringing knowledge and civilization to the colonized race. “it is here that the astonishing mental attitude called ‘paternalistic’ comes into play. a paternalist is someone who wants to stretch racism and inequality farther—once admitted” (memmi, 74-76). ronny tries to convince both himself and mrs. moore of the british important presence in colonial india (abu baker 77). the english colonizers claim that they carry the white man’s burden, and they have the mission of “bringing light to the colonizer’s ignominious darkness” (memmi 74-76). this “mission” legitimizes the colonization and enslavement of other races. edward said also notes the depiction of colonized races as being “naturally subservient to a superior, advanced, developed, and morally mature europe” (eagleton et al. 72). thus, ronny proclaims that “[w]e’re out here to do justice and keep the peace. them’s my sentiments.” mrs. moore, however, can see through his words. she protests: ‘your sentiments are those of a god,’ …. trying to recover his temper, he said, ‘india likes gods.’ ‘and englishmen like posing as gods’ [mrs moore] ‘…and the country’s got to put up with us, gods or no gods …’ …. we’re not pleasant in india and don’t intend to be pleasant. we’ve something more important to do’ (69). the interracial tension between the indian and english communities is due to wrong attitudes of intolerance, hatred, and ill-treatment that the english man practiced against the local indians. forster believes that a civilized future is built on the basis of tolerance. tolerance, peace, mutual understating, and interracial love help opposing races come close together and settle down. the colonizer deliberately estranges and excludes the indians. such intolerance aggravates the problem of severity, retaliation, and misunderstanding. in spite of the reciprocated affection and understanding between dr. aziz and fielding, friendship fails and it is eventually alienated. the novel symbolizes the view that the peaceful union and perfect understanding between east and west is impossible. c o n c l u s i o n a passage to india is a novel that defies the hypothesis that friendship can be maintained between the english and the indians in a colonizer/colonized status quo. fielding’s excoriating criticism and biting satire of the british colonizers, of their racism and of the fear they base their regime upon is clearly evident in the novel. based on inequality, bigotry, cruelty, and racism, colonization frustrates any attempts towards having a friendship between the indian locals and the british ruling colonizers, between aziz and fielding. the paper concludes that friendship between the two opposing forces fails as there are many drawbacks between the two different and opposing races. the british colonizers develop a rude political attitude as they issue wrong and partial prejudgments about the indigenous indians. this inferior treatment on the english part damages any potential efforts of forming friendship between both conflicting races. the indians, therefore, lose any glimmer of hope of making any advancement in this regard, and they as a result of this inferior treatment get more embittered and desperate; they quit attempting to approach the colonizers. friendship between the indians and the british seems impossible while india is under british occupation, and as forster suggests in the last chapter of the book, it is rashed ahmad daghamin 69 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) only possible after the departure of the british colonizers. friendship can only be made between the two different sides when they are equals in theory and practice. rashed ahmad daghamin 70 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) r e f e r e n c e s abu baker, a. m.s. 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(2008).”rudeness, race, racism and racialism in e.m. forster’s“a passage to india.”the dialogue iv. i., pp. 7592. print. http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/schoolofenglish/imperial/india/racialism-%20forster.html https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ rashed ahmad daghamin 71 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) 128 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences r. e. wanda power relations in parinoush sani’ee’s sahm-e man (the book of fate): a new-historical perspective ali taghizadeh razi university, iran mahin pourmorad naseri razi university, iran abstract this paper is an attempt to critically analyze parinoush sani’ee’s sahm-e man (translated into english as the book of fate) from a new-historical perspective. beginning from before the 1979 iranian revolution, and going forward through the reign of the islamic republic to the current years, the time-line of the story shows five decades of changing fortunes of sani’ee’s main character. reading her book in the light of new-historicism, this paper tries to show how the story reflects foucauldian notions of resistance, power relations, normalization, and self-formation in the five phases of massoumeh’s life. considering foucault’s arguments on how power imposes ideology on the citizens, the paper also tries to reflect how it changes in each phase of massoumeh’s life and how it normalizes her to make her into a docile subject whom it can best control. added to that, the paper tries to demonstrate her success in resisting the power and acquiring an ethical self through practicing a care for her ‘self ’. however, in spite of all her resistances to power and normalization, in the last phase of the story when the novel’s discourse is more emotional, massoumeh gives up resistance and accepts normalization, and for the sake of her children’s satisfaction, rejects saiid’s proposal, and like most of the widows in her age, decides to live alone to the end of her life. keywords: sahm-e man; new-historicism; normalization; foucault and power relations. 129 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences power relations in parinoushsani’ee’s sahm-e man introduction in “historicism” (2006) simon malpas writes “historicist criticism of literature and culture explores how the meaning of a text, idea or artifact is produced by the way of its relation to the wider historical context in which it is created or experienced” (p. 50). beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, new historicism has provided some of the most up-to-date issues of the modern life and the most applicable techniques of reading in literature and culture. most of the advocates of this intellectual movement have themselves been the leading authorities in disciplines as different as psychology, sociology, philosophy, and therefore have had a variety of theoretical and political affiliations. however, about apparently similar texts they have often thought much differently. in addition, although stephen greenblatt, one of the most well-known exponents of new historicism, claims that it is “no doctrine at all” (greenblatt, 1989:1), it has principles to which many of its proponents often appeal. its first principle is that it looks upon change not only as basic but inevitable also. it is liable to impinge upon a society’s most fundamental beliefs about itself and always capable of transforming whatever appears fixed and stable in life. new historicists are interested in examining the processes of change and the construction of power systems in particular periods or cultures, and they attempt to analyze the structures of meaning on the basis of which they come to self-recognition. therefore, a new-historical reader of a literary text assumes that its meaning is rooted from the historical context in which it is located, and that with the moving forward of history the text changes also. for a historicist critic a text is typically related to a wide range of social, cultural, political, and economic realities and so an isolated text has little meaning. even the most natural issues like truth and justice along with the most obvious ideas like differences between man and woman can acquire different cultural meanings, and are likely to change in the future. the approach of a new-historical critic to a text is not based upon the truth or falsity of its meaning. his approach is also not based upon if its mode of representation is more or less genuine than the contemporary modes. rather, he sets out to determine how and to which degree the text has historically changed, to certify if its meanings are central to contemporary debates, and to examine the assumptions that lie behind what today are the established “frames of intelligibility”; that is, the natural way of thinking about the world and experiencing it. therefore, the two-fold focus of a new-historical approach to literature lies in the heart of a criticism of history, literature, art, politics and identity. epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences power relations in parinoushsani’ee’s sahm-e man 130 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.taghizadeh, m. p. naseri the great aim for new-historical critics is not to discover universal truth or eternal verities, but rather to open such ideas up to critique by exploring the way in which they are products of specific historical circumstances and sources of political power and the means of control. new-historical critics have drawn three key premises from the work of michel foucault: (a) history is discontinuous, (b) a given period is better understood as a site of conflict between competing interests, and (c) a discourse is a unified whole and function of power. in this regard, they usually refer to foucault’s assertion when he says, history is made up of different series of facts or dated events, which are juxtaposed to one another, follow one another, overlap and intersect, without one being able to reduce them to a linear schema, so that discontinuity has now become one of the basic elements of history (foucault, 2002: 8). he also argues that “power is not something that is acquired, seized or shared, something that one holds on or allows to slip away; power is exercised from innumerable points, in the interplay of non-egalitarian and mobile relations” (foucault, 1984: 94). a best reflection of this argument can be observed in the societies with revolutionary experiences, where after the actual overthrow of a central power, the social relations of individuals and institutions determining the shape and structure of power still remain active to impose their own ideologies on each other and shape a new central power. in line with this, foucault claims that “power is everywhere not because it comes from everywhere … it is the name that one attributes to complex strategically situations in a particular society” (1984:93). while the history of a nation may overlook these centers of power, its great literatures can detect and analyze them. according to greenblatt, “the work of art is the product of a negotiation between a creator or a class of creators, equipped with a complex, communally shared repertoire of connections and institutions and practices of society” (1989:12). new-historicism tends to equip scholars with a fair view to reflect the hidden angles of relations in societies under discussion. brook thomas writes, “at this specific historical moment, the specific quality of literature may well be its historicity, a historicity that gives it the potential to develop the socio-historical awareness lacking in some of our students”(1987: 520). in “new historicism” hoover writes: robinson advocated in the new history of influencing the present, but with literature: a product of the past, forever capable of reproduction in the present, literature can help create a historical consciousness that reflects upon and judges our present situation, a reflection and judgment necessary if our students are to help determine what sort of future they will have (1992:358). 131 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences power relations in parinoushsani’ee’s sahm-e man tracing the new-historical concepts like experience and resistance in sani’ee’s novel, the present paper is to zoom on the analysis of her main character’s resistance to the power. in other words, the central question of the present research is if massoumeh, who in her patriarchal family is a daughter and a sister, and after her marriage, the wife of a marxist activist and a prisoner, and also the mother of three inconsiderate children, can resist the established power in any phase of her life. if she can, how does she achieve this accomplishment, and what is the outcome of her resistance? massoumeh before marriage foucault encourages us to practice liberty and provide ourselves with new forms of subjectivity through the application in our life the techniques of self-care. he urges us to think, act, and relate to ourselves differently from when we had no liberty and therefore were submissively programmed or managed. he maintains that “we have to promote new forms of subjectivity through the refusal of (the) kind of individuality that has been imposed on us for several centuries. ….liberty is a practice … liberty is what must be exercised” (1984: 239-56). at the outset of the novel we realize that only the males have the right to make decisions, the right which is often at the expense of the females’ freedom and individuality, for they have only to submit and be faithful to the males. and the tragedy becomes even more acute when a female thinks or behaves differently from a male authority. foucault believes that self-caring is an outcome of freedom while freedom is itself reciprocally the result of our engagement in self-caring. freedom is also both the ground for and the result of acting ethically. foucault suggests that ‘care of the self ’ is a possibility of resisting to anything that threatens our identities like normalization, for in freedom we can practice ‘care for the self ’ through which we have a say in the formation of our selves. if the subjects are not involved in the construction of their own selves, they will be annihilated. in massoumeh’s family, who moves from qum to tehran at the outset of the novel, the dominant discourse originates outstandingly from qum, and so it is fundamentally religious. it is strongly patriarchal also. under the influence of it, young females in family are more than often discouraged of going to school but to get married, early in their teens, to men whom they neither love nor even know. however, to neutralize this double-faced power that wants to normalize massoumeh, she has her own policies and techniques of resistance. for example, she takes care for her ‘self ’ by acts of meditation, by praying to god, and by crying before her father. these she does to beseech her father to allow her to continue her schooling. 132 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.taghizadeh, m. p. naseri and her techniques work well enough, for before long she is allowed to continue going to school. therefore, the job massoumeh does radically goes counter to the conventions of her society. her progress at school is so rapid and encouraging that it excites her to solve her social and familial problems through a policy of resistance. in the novel we read, ahmad was so angry that he wanted to strangle me and used every excuse to beat me up. but i knew what was really eating away at him and so i kept quiet. my school was not that far from home, a fifteen-to twenty-minute walk. in the beginning ahmad would secretly follow me, but i would wrap my chador1 tightly around me and took care not to give him any excuse. meanwhile, mahmoud stopped talking to me altogether and completely ignored me (sani’ee, 2013:5). during the two years of her schooling, there is a constant display of power on the part of her family, her brothers in particular, to stop her doing it. foucault claims that power is “the name for conditions of possibility for an action upon action” (1992: 131-2). this is what we see in the relation between massoumeh and her family members during these years in the way her brothers and even her mother more than often discourage her from going to school and belittle her progress there. massoumeh says, i received excellent grades in my end-of-term exams, and the teachers praised me a lot. but at home no one would show any positive reaction to my grades. mother didn’t quite understand what i was telling her. moahmood snapped, ‘so, what? what do you think you have achieved?’ and father said, ‘well, why didn’t you become the top student in your class? (sani’ee, 2013:13) in “foucault and the study of literature” freundlieb asserts that foucault has “treated discourses as the primary sites for the social production of knowledge and truth” (1995:319). massoumeh is smart enough to soften her father’s heart through her policy of kind and polite conduct. she makes him come to school, negotiate with her teachers, and register her name for a higher class in the next year. this is an ideal condition for her because of which she is so excited. however, this ideal condition is too short in time, because a short while afterwards ali, her younger brother, detects her romantic relationship with saiidand reports it to their family. 1 an outer garment or open cloak worn by many iranian women and female teenagers in public spaces or outdoors 133 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences power relations in parinoushsani’ee’s sahm-e man this is the beginning of really tragic stages of her life. when they discover saiid’s love letters in her bag, they get sharply angry with her, imprison her at home and even punish her physically, and finally decide that she must get married before long. through a neighbor, a young man proposes marriage to her. but up to now neither this young man has ever seen massoumehnor has massoumeh met with or talked to him. however, her family hastily arranges her marriage to him. in this way, she is made into a docile subject who finds no possibility of resistance. more than one time she even tries to commit suicide to free herself from the pressure of these conditions. but all her attempts for taking suicide are futile. as it turns out, before long she finds herself the lawful wife of this man whom she neither loves nor even knows. now she observes that all the ways of resistance are closed to her, and so she decides she must yield to her fate. in his doctoral dissertation taghizadeh claims that “nietzsche and foucault see experience as constructed by costumes, practices and institutions in which one lives and grows” (2008:350). he argues that these costumes and institutions historicize the self and experience, for “self is not a given or a metaphysical essence that should be discovered, but is an identity that should be constructed” (2008: 350). accordingly, and in the new conditions which are imposed on massoumeh’s life, she decides to construct a new self, to change herself to a new person. but for this purpose she firstly surrenders herself to her fate. in sani’ee’s novel we read, i threw away the razor, i couldn’t do that (suicide), like ms. parvin, i,too, should yield to my fate … i buried saeed’s memory in the deepest nooksof my heart and cried at his grave for hours,for i had toleave him and let the course of time make me cold and negligent and clear his memory from my mind. will such a day come a day?(sani’ee, 2000: 110) massoumeh’s married life before revolution massoumeh’s husband is with a background of marxist ideology. so, at the beginning of her married life she realizes that she has to cope with a life condition that is hugely different from her life before marriage. primarily she feels both happy and secure. but soon afterwards she finds out that the new life contract is finally not to her good. in chapter two hamid says, everyone should be free to do whatever s/he would like and thinks is due, marriage does not mean that you should interfere with your partner’s activities, but spouses should support each other, shouldn’t they? i nodded wholeheartedly and admitted the truth of his talks. as well, i had understood 134 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.taghizadeh, m. p. naseri him quite well: i also was not to interfere with his activities. so, this mutual understanding came to be the non-written agreement (law) of our married life. according to this agreement, i would enjoy a part of my human rights however finally it was not to my good (sani’ee, 2000: 131). freundlieb affirms that foucault “took the relativist view that discourses develop their own specific standards and criteria for acceptability of statements”(1995: 328). hamid, her husband, is a marxist intellectual and a political activist. both in knowledge and experience he is superior to her. so in her new life too she finds herself bounded to a different authority that wants to normalize her, a kind of authority which firstly does not seem harmful or frightening. massoumeh says, beside him i was walking comfortably, we talked with each other. he talked more than me. sometimes he talked so formally. he talked to me like a teacher teaching a stupid pupil, but it was not unpleasant to me at all, for he was really knowledgeable (sani’ee, 2000: 131). mepham and others claim that “we can learn a great deal about the power relations between characters by analyzing who is in control of a conversation, who speaks most, and for the longest amount of time” (2006: 10). massoumeh is a born moslem, whom we know as an advocate of the islamic ideology of her time, because she never wholly accepts hamid’s ideas completely but tries to resist them while she also defends her own outlooks. yet, the fact that after a passionate ideological debate with hamid’s friends, she miscarries the fetus in her womb can be taken as a symbolic step for rejecting many of her previous outlooks. she says, “my sadness was accompanied with the feeling of a painful sin, the bases of my beliefs had shaken, i was sad and hated those who had shaken them” (sani’ee, 2000: 159). in an online interview with the website “navadhashtia”2 , saniee, says “hamid and his friends represent the young intellectuals who, at that period of time, were devoting their lives to marxist activities against shah’s government” coming to live with hamid and massoumeh, shahrzad gives an opportunity to the latter to learn more about the marxists’ ideologies and the life style of iranian marxists; that is, how seriously they had to fight against shah’s regime, and how pitiful and painful the life condition was for an intellectual woman like shahrzad as a political activist. in chapter 3 of the novel we read, (shahrzad): i feel jealous of you, you are a happy woman. 2 navadhashtia is an online persian website for downloading books. 135 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences power relations in parinoushsani’ee’s sahm-e man (massoumeh): who?! me? do you feel jealous of me? (shahrzad): yes, maybe it’s the first time i feel like this. (massoumeh): surely you are joking, it is i who should feel jealous of you, i have always wished to be like you, for you are an extraordinary woman who is so knowledgeable, powerful, and able to make good decisions, i always think hamid has always wished to have a wife like you, but you say … oh, no! surely you are joking, the reality is that it is i who should feel jealous of you, but i do not find myself deserving even for jealousy to you, for it is like an ordinary guy should feel jealous to the queen of england. (shahrzad): what stuff you say, i am nobody, you are much better and more perfect than me, too much a lady, a good and lovely wife, a kind and understanding mother, with such a great love for reading, learning, and self-sacrificing for your family (saniee, 200: 237). freundlieb (1995) writes, literary criticism, particularly within a pedagogical context, could be regarded as working on the soul instead of on the body, and as part of an apparatus of ethical surveillance and normalization, including self -surveillance and selffashioning, similar to that which operates in religious practices (330). bewildering for sani’ee’s main character are also the facts of shahrzad’s married life. shahrzad often cares more diligently for herself than massoumeh. but when the latter realizes that shahrzad is, like herself, the victim of a cruel politicoideological power structure, she becomes terribly shocked. when she finds more about shahrzad’s terrible life, about her strange love and marriage, and about her and her husband’s horrible death, massoumeh gains a stronger identity which makes her capable of facing the great problems of her future life. the impact of massoumeh’s new identity can be observed in the style of her conduct when she advises her father that mahmoud should not be allowed to make her sister fati marry a man whom she does not love. also, her kinsfolk suggest that instead of working for the expenses of her life she has to stay at home and receive them from themselves or even from her father-in-law. but when she decisively opposes with their suggestion, the impact of her new identity becomes even clearer. massoumeh’s present life conditions are again critically bad, because she feels not only lonely but, due to her husband’s anti-regime secret activities, embarrassed also. however, to alleviate the impact of these bad conditions, she uses other means 136 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.taghizadeh, m. p. naseri as well. a means which she uses is that in spite of the fact that her husband is primarily reluctant to become a father, she makes him become the father of two babies. in these conditions, her husband’s long and repeated absences from home make her take the responsibilities of a married life alone to fulfill them without any complaint. added to that, her maternal love and the care she takes for her children give her more energy and excitement to continue living. in chapter 2 we read, finally on one beautiful day in may i felt strong enough to make up my mind. so i told myself, ‘i should get up, i am a mother and have responsibility toward my child. i should be strong and stand on my feet and help my son grow in a happy, healthy environment.’ this decision changed everything and activated my inner joy (sani’ee, 2000: 178). this is another vindication of foucault’s theory that “power is everywhere,” and that power originates from within the subject. as is the case with sani’ee’s character in her maternal position, while her love for her children gives her the energy to tolerate her difficult life conditions and fight against depression and disappointment, it too controls her in her own way of pleasure and progress. sani’ee’s main character uses still more policies to change herself to a stronger personality while she also attempts to vanish her fear of disappointment and loneliness. she continues her studies at the university to get a b.a. but it seems that life makes her really exhausted, because now she is the mother of two young children, she has the responsibilities of the wife of a political activist in prison, and she is a secretary in an organization where she has a full-time job. however, her husband’s warm and encouraging words make her motivated enough to register at the university for the winter semester. in chapter 3 her husband tells her you can do it, you are no longer the clumsy girl of ten or eleven years ago, but are a competent and hardworking woman who can change anything which is seemingly impossible into a possibility. i am really proud of you’ (sani’ee,2000: 271-2). another crucial event in this period of massoumeh’s life is her father’s death. when he was living, and after the imprisonment of her husband in particular, her father was so kind and supportive to her and her children. so, after his death she feels quite hopeless and frustrated. however, it is because of her children that she once again comes to make a proper decision. returning home from the graveyard, massoumrh asks her two sons; that is, siamak and mas’ud: 137 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences power relations in parinoushsani’ee’s sahm-e man what you think we should do for the grandeur and respect of his memory? what does he expect us to do? and how should we live to make him satisfied with us? and so i understood myself that i should try to turn to the usual conditions of my life and to continue my habitual life while i will have his dear memory with myself until doomsday (sani’ee, 2000: 282). at this stage of sani’ee’s story, the role of death as a controlling device in the hand of power is easily observable, for it is by death also that it controls and normalizes the subjects. believing in the life after death, and to show respect to their newly died grandfather, massoumeh and her children decide to continue their usual life that is the life of a normalized subject. so foucault’s idea in the positive role of power is confirmed once again. the physical torture inflicted on hamid in prison, his great will and strong belief in the marxist ideology which excites him not to surrender to those tortures, in addition to massoumeh’s hard life and the hard lives of her children during their father’s imprisonment all translate how intellectuals could resist the political regime of pahlavi’s corrupted power in that period. in the times of revolution in “iran: the spirit of a world without spirit” (1988), foucault focuses on the 1974 iranian revolution in the times of the great upheaval. in the 1960s and 1970s there was a tendency in iran to cast off all the rules and trappings of the bourgeois capitalist society. so, one can claim that there was a considerable sensibility against those oppressive regimes. in much earlier marxist thinking, the overthrow of the state and the liberation of the working classes through (something like) a revolution were among the basic aims of many political activists. however, in “truth and power” foucault maintains that “revolution is not necessarily a simple freedom from oppression, a complete challenge to bourgeois power, and an overturning of power relations, since the state consists in the codification of a whole number of power relations” (1984:115).yet, it seems that for foucault revolution is not necessarily a practical challenge to the power and a way to freedom, because later in the same article he writes “the state consists in the condition of a whole number of power relations which render its functioning possible, and . . . revolution is a different type of codification of the same relations” (foucault, 1984:122). the changes happening in the social discourse around massoumeh ground 138 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.taghizadeh, m. p. naseri the formation of new powers. the role of these powers in her life makes her resist in new ways, because to make herself and her children into ethical selves, she is to care not only for herself but for them also. in this process, the first and foremost event is the radical change in conduct of her brother mahmoud’s behavior to her. now it is four years that massoumeh’s husband is in prison with mahmoud having had almost no connection to her. but it is strange that he has newly sent some boxes of foodstuff like rice and oil to her. however, massoumeh firstly considers them for charity and so firmly rejects them. in chapter 4 she tells mahmoud on the phone: “thank you, brother, i mean, i surely can afford my life, and i do not like my children to grow on charity. please send somebody to take these back” (sani’ee, 2000: 287). it is already four years that massoumeh’s husband is in prison, and the people around her, her colleagues at work for example, have often refused even to greet her warmly. however, soon she realizes the reason why recently they should be renewing their connections with her and her children. it is likely, more than ever before, that the political prisoners get free, because iran is at the threshold of a (political) revolution. so, by renewing their connections with massoumeh and her children, the people around her often imagine they can take advantage of hamid’s reputation to integrate themselves with the new revolutionary structure coming to power, because as an anti-pahlavi regime activist in prison, hamid, when freed from there, will be considered both a political pioneer and a social leader. then, her colleagues at work often show more respect to her. in a party meeting, one of them gives a formal exaggerated speech about her courage in political activities, and then asks her to be the representative of the party. but she rejects this offer also, claiming that what has been said about her is not true. in this phase of her life, honesty, moderation, and righteousness are surely her most practical policies for constructing her ethical self, while in the dominant discourse of the revolution it is likely that the people change the mode of their oral communication and their behavior to get better (social) positions. but massoumeh cannot cope with the present conditions, because on the one hand the effect of the pahlavi power structure is so huge upon her that she cannot resist. on the other hand, in its political and cultural discourse, the upcoming revolution shows very promising. therefore, she decides to close her eyes upon her up-to-now continuous contest with her brothers, and instead to cooperate with them in their activities against the pahlavi regime and so help pave the way for the revolution. massomeh says, mahmoud used to bring cassettes and manifestos, ali to duplicate them, i to distribute them in the university and at 139 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences power relations in parinoushsani’ee’s sahm-e man work; together with his classmates, siamak used to attend the anti-regime street strikes, and mas’ud to draw the picture of striking people in the streets” (sani’ee, 2000: 291). in another article: “what are the iranians dreaming about?”foucault writes, the situation in iran can be understood as a great joust under traditional emblems, those of the king and the saint, the armed ruler and the destitute exile, the despot faced with the man who stands up bare-handed and is acclaimed by a people. this image has its own power, but it also speaks to a reality to which millions of dead have just subscribed (1979: 150). however, even in such a clearly unequal field of rivalry, massoumeh soon distinguishes the traces of a hidden power structure which is trying to impose its superiority upon the people and make them into tame subjects. yet in a due time she decisively goes out of the reach of this power. she says, i looked at mahmoud with hatred, i wanted to say many things to him, but suddenly they started reciting elegies, and the crowd stood up mourning; i found a way through the mourning crowd, and while i was taking siamak’s hand with anger, i went out of the house. mas’ud was running after me while he was holding the bottom edge of my chador, i wished to hit siamakso much as to have made him dark and blue (sani’ee, 2000: 296). therefore, the novel represents a thorough and rapid process of change in iran. a feature of this process is that power is no longer the outcome of interaction between the subject on the one side and the situation (of the power) on the other side, but is the situation that one-sidedly imposes its discourse upon the subjects. reading massumeh, this means the formation of new experiences in her mind due to which she often renews herself for integration to the new society. her progress in renovation through gaining new knowledge well embodies scott’s idea about changes in the meaning of experience in the course of history. in an attempt to describe the historical changes of experience, scott examines its meanings in the 18th and 19th centuries. then he argues that in the 20th century its meaning considerably changed. he affirms that ….in the twentieth century experience was a “subjective witness” spontaneous, truthful, and trustworthy as it was, that the individuals consciously developed in themselves. 140 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.taghizadeh, m. p. naseri but later on, when it came to mean “influences external to individuals,” it was the influence of the social, political, and cultural realities over the people (scott, 1991: 781). such realities included the prevailing conditions, institutions, and ideologies in which the people would pass their lives. at the threshold of the revolution in iran, the life of sani’ee’s character is hugely influenced by such realities. on the other hand, these realities are out of her control. thus, as she does her best to come to terms with them, the meaning of the experience changes for her, and so she starts to think in new modes. in this way, the course of sani’ee’s novel is the course of her character’s renovation also, because her reader often finds her character in the business of renewing her conscious, and by doing this, integrating herself with the new conditions. in chapter five massoumeh says, in our discussions he [hamid] occasionally looked at me with amazement and said, ‘how vastly you have changed! how fully experienced and knowledgeable you look! you speak like a philosopher, a psychologist. has the few years of university education changed you so much?’ with a kind of pride which i didn’t want to hide, i answered, ‘no, life’s obligation has made me so. i needed it, to find new and correct ways of life. i had the responsibility of my children also. there was no place for a mistake (sani’ee, 2000: 319). social problems are often taken to have negative effects on the subjects; but in foucauldian definitions they can be considered with positive effects of power on them. foucault believes in power as productive; that is, in happy and fortunate outcomes of power which testifies, among other things, the production of “pleasure and freedom.” in “truth and power” he says, if power were never anything but repressive, if it never did anything but to say no, do you really think one would be brought to obey it? what makes power hold good what makes it accepted is simply the fact that it doesn’t only weigh on us as a force that says no, but that it traverses and produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse. it needs to be considered as a productive network which runs through the whole social body, much more than as a negative instance whose function is repression” (qtd. in rabinow, 1984: 61). massoumeh’s prosperity in managing her life in the time of hardship, her 141 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences power relations in parinoushsani’ee’s sahm-e man non-stop attempt to continue her education, as well as her success in helping her three children grow up well-educated as she always wished are evidences indicating the positive effects of power in the development of people’s personalities. the aftermath of revolution and iran-iraq war in the post-revolution era, massoumeh, with her husband in prison for the second time, is fired from her job. so, once again she has to earn her family’s life with strenuous efforts. in order to retain her independence from ‘others’, she has to fight with poverty. hamid’s imprisonment and execution reminds the reader of foucault’s argument when he says “revolution is a different type of codification of the same relations” (1980:122). events in this period of massoumeh’s life signify that although under the impact of the revolution her society has positively changed, challenges of different kinds are still there in which she and other people who want to resist the power structure are simulated to engage. hamid dies before his own father. after his father’s death, his aunts and uncles sell the house in which his wife and children were living, which leaves them homeless. for sani’ee’s character, this is another field of struggle against the power which adds more to her independence. still another great shock which massoumeh receives is when she finds out that it is her own brother, mahmoud, who reported about siamak’s political activities which led to his imprisonment. this can be inferred from fluck’s notion of “the circulation of a faceless power through the literary text in order to reverse existing hierarchies” (1994:42). to reflect on such hidden aspects of people’s lives with huge impacts in shaping social and cultural history of a nation is something which can only be done in great literary works. mahoumd’s abuse of hamid’s reputation as a political activist, added to massumeh’s and siamak’s hard lives at the threshold of the revolution, and mahmoud’s betraying conduct toward them provide us with knowledge about the circulation of historical experience in literary texts, and historical experience makes it possible for us to recognize how such categories and subject-positions are constructed. this reconstructive status of experience in literature implies the potential rebirth of the individual, society, and history. but in the experience of literature, the agency of the history-making subjects (actors) is situational and positional rather than autonomous. in other words, these subjects are not self-sufficient but take their power through undertaking situational roles and by the relations they develop with others in that situation. 142 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.taghizadeh, m. p. naseri the hard work massoumeh does to provide the expenses of siamak’s life and education in germany, and the high risk she takes in illegally sending him there should be analyzed as a further field of resistance for her which is in need of still new policies. however, when she decides to say ‘no’ to mr. zargar’s marriage proposal can be considered as another field of resistance against the power structure which indicates that her number one priority is her children’s peaceful life. historical experience also helps us better understand why the people around massoumeh suddenly change their behavior towards her and why she should be angry with them while she faces their respectful behavior because she is the mother of a war captive. in chapter eight the novel reads, it was a long time i hadn’t been to any military office. although this time they highly respected me as the mother of a soldier lost in the war, but these respects too, like all the insulting talks i heard at the prison gates as the mother of a mojahed or the wife of a marxist, were so painful to me. none of them i couldn’t tolerate (sani’ee, 2000: 431). final decision as foucault maintains, disciplinary power creates certain types of individuals: people who are ready to act according to the demands of power relations. the central technique of disciplinary power is constant surveillance. it takes hold of the mind by creating a psychological state of “conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power” (foucault, 1984:201). hence disciplinary power creates a type of individual who controls his/her own action to be in line with the very expectations of power relations; that is, a sort of self-awareness is developed by individuals that makes them act according to what power demands of them. once again massoumeh and her friend, parvaneh, are placed on the ‘same’ side. but what they do this time supports an iranian traditional subculture a dimension of which is an opposition between iranian and european marriage traditions. siamak and lili, who have lived and studied in germany, represent the european culture. an interesting point here is that the circulation of power has caused a change in their positions, while primarily they [massoumeh and parvaneh] used to oppose traditional ways of life and support new ways, this time they take side with the western life styles to stand with their native cultural traditions. but this time, she acts like an educated middle-aged lady with a well-constructed personality. thus, instead of the physical tortures applied by massoumeh’s family in the past times, now she partakes in calm and goal-oriented negotiations which slightly help her succeed in motivating siamak and lili establish their marriage according to traditional iranian conventions which make them register their marriage before starting their marital life. 143 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences power relations in parinoushsani’ee’s sahm-e man her second son’s marriage is still a further battlefield where she resists the powers of material life in the dominant discourse of time. the techniques she carefully uses to make mas’ud postpone his marriage with ladan, and her strong disagreement with him when he wants her to wear chador as mr. maghsoudi would like are examples of how skillfully this well-constructed experienced woman acts in resisting the normalizing discourse. the image of a perfect mother is seen in the way she helps her daughter, shirin, find her ideal man with whom to marry. in the binary opposition of old generation/young generation, which is an aspect of the dominant discourse, and the knowledge she has gained through suffering in different stages of her life help her manage the struggle successfully and guide her children marry their ideal pairs. in the last paragraph of chapter nine massoumeh says, i felt i had well done the whole of my duties in spite of all obstacles in my way, my children were all grown up, welleducated, and successful. i had put down a burden, but like on the after-exam days, i was empty and aimless. what had i to do now? apparently, i had nothing else to do in the world (sani’ee, 2000: 478). the last chapter of the novel shows three decades after the time of the first one, but the argument of the story is again about the marriage of saeed and massoumeh, with them both and parvaneh on the same side of the opposition. but in the circulation of power, it is her children who, on the other side of the opposition as they are, have the upper hand in controlling the power. saeed and massoumeh talk as in the following: (saiid): but massoum, in this way we will be lost again. (massoumeh): i know, i’m sure about myself that will be lost, for me it’s like a form of suicide, and it’s not the first time i am taking suicide, but you know what is the most painful and killing for me? (saiid): no! (massoumeh): that in both periods of my life, my dearest kins, those who had the closest relations with me cause my death like this (sani’ee, 2000: 527). and finally, after a life-long struggle, she has to make an ultimate decision about her own life. however, this time she puts her weapon down, takes her hands up, and gives priority to the happiness of her children, for by saying a ‘no’ to saiid who has proposed marriage to her, she, like most normalized widows in her age, selects to live alone for the rest of her life. towards the end of the story, when parvaneh tells massoumeh she should take side with her children and go her own way, she says, 144 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.taghizadeh, m. p. naseri you know, i don’t want it anymore, not because i can’t do it, i can, but it is no longer interesting for me. i feel vanquished; it is as if nothing has changed in the past thirty years. in spite of my sufferings in all these years, i couldn’t change anything even at my home (sani’ee, 2000: 525). the words which sani’eeuses symbolically best reflect the fact that massoumeh’s decision is the result of her long-life experiences. quite aware of the consequences of her decision, and looking up at the sky, she walks through the coming cold autumn.in the last page of the novel we hear her saying: when i finally parted with sa’iid, i came home walking. an autumn cold wind started blowing. i was very much tired. loneliness was now a heavier load on me while my steps were weaker and less stable. i wrapped myself up in my black jacket, looked at the frowning sky and said ‘wow…! what a cold winter is waiting for us’. (sani’ee, 2000:528) reading sahm-e man (book of fate) from a foucauldian perspective, we better understand the hidden dimensions of the iranian history in the past five decades. the life story of massoumeh, sani’ee’s main character, reflects the life story of most common people in those decades. another conspicuous feature of sahm-e manis that it opens to the readers a space of opposition like that which lyotard calls “differend”. differend is, for lyotard, “the unstable state of language wherein something which must be able to be put into phrases cannot yet be” (qtd. in malpes, 2003:61). in a case of differend, the opposing parties cannot agree on a base or logic to settle their disputes. ms. parvin’s life is perhaps a good case of differend. she is a lawfully married woman. yet, unlawfully also she has some affairs with men. so she violates the ethical principles of her society. however, based on her own ethical principles she remains a kind and helpful friend to massoumeh and her children. this leads us to believe that sometimes it is unfair to judge people’s characters based on social norms. another example for a case of differend is the way sani’ee’s novel compares massoumeh’s life conditions before and after the revolution. as the wife of a political activist, before the revolution she is allowed to have a job and go to the university. however, although many times after the revolution she acknowledges that she has never believed in her husband’s marxist ideologies, she is fired both from her job and the university. 145 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences power relations in parinoushsani’ee’s sahm-e man conclusion as the findings of the study show, brought up in a society which does not encourage her to practice self-creation, massoumeh does her best to practice her ethics, which needs her great effort to resist many blocks of powers in different phases of her life, each block reflecting the dominant discourse of that phase. in most of her life struggles she may be seen as the underdog, but through the knowledge and experience which she gains in these struggles, she not only successfully cares for her ‘self ’ but also sticks to her ethics and brings up her children as she wishes. in the first phase of the story, despite the fact that her opportunist brothers do all those tortures and cruelties towards her in the name of islam, she does not lose her faith in god and islamic beliefs. in the second phase, when she has more freedom, although her husband’s general knowledge, and his knowledge in the marxist ideology in particular, is much superior to hers, instead of being absorbed to his ideology and becoming his deactivated follower, she works hard, according to an extensive reading program, to find out about his previous mistakes and remake her own lookout anew. this process of self-caring (self-remaking) is true about her in the third phase of the novel also. when many social opportunities are likely to fall to her lot, and the simple-hearted people behave toward her really respectfully and with appreciation, instead of taking advantage from them like her brothers, she tries to help them understand the reality in which she believes. in the next phase, through her experiences and well-constructed self, and in spite of all her emotional and financial problems, she tries to make life at home warm and happy for her children. however, in the last phase of the novel we realize that she succumbs to the power structure, which is represented, this time, in her children’s radically selfish requests; for she ultimately accepts to put their selfish requests into effect, which means to reject saiid’s marriage proposal and to live alone to the end of her life. so, she accepts to become a normalized subject and be the symbol of a perfectly-devoted mother of her age. references brook, t. 1987. “the historical necessity for-and difficulties with-new historical analysis in introductory literature courses.” college english, 49 (5), pp. 509-522. fluck, w. 1996. “the american romance and the changing of the imaginary.” new literary history, 73 (3), pp. 415-457. foucault, m. 1984. “truth and power.”foucault readers. ed. paul rabinow. new york: pantheon books, pp. 51-75. 146 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences a.taghizadeh, m. p. naseri foucault, m., rabinow, p. 1984. the foucault reader. new york: pantheon books. foucault, m. 1984. the history of sexuality, vol. 1: an introduction, trans. robert hurley, london: penguin. foucault, m. 1988. “iran: the spirit of a world without spirit.” in michel foucault: politics, philosophy, culture: interview and other writings, 1977-1984, ed. lawrence kritzman. new york: routledge. foucault, m. 1972. ”the archaeology of knowledge and discourse on language” trans. a. m. sheridan smith, new york: pantheon books. foucault, m. 1979.”what are the iranians dreaming about?” in foucault and the iranian revolution gender and seduction of islamism. by janet afary and kevin b. anderson. chicago: chicago university press. freundlieb, d. “foucault and the study of literature” in poetics today, vol. 16, no. 2 (1995), pp. 301-344. greenblatt, s. 1989. “towards a poetics of culture” in h. aram vesser ed. the new historicism, new york and london: routledge. hoover, w. d. 1992. “the new historicism,” in the history teacher, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 355-366. lentricchia, f. 1989. “foucault’s legacy – a new historicism?” the new historicism. ed. harold aram vesser. new york: routledge, pp. 231-242. malpas, s. 2003. jean-francois lyotard. london and new york: routledge taylor & francis group. malpas, s. 2006. ‘historicism’, in simon malpas and paul wake eds.‘the routledge companion to critical theory’, taylor & francis e-library. saniee, p. 2013. “the book of fate” trans. sara khalili, downloaded from www.housoffanansi.com. scott, j. w. “the evidence of experience.” in critical inquiry. vol. 17 no, summer 1991, pp. 773-797. taghizadh, a. 2011. structuralism and its aftermath in the fiction of henry james. doctoral dissertation. berlin: free university of berlin. persian sources sani’ee, p. (2000). sahme man. tehran: roozbehan publications. sani’ee, p. (2010, may 13). a conversation with parinoosh saniee the writer of the novel, sahme man. in navadhashtia, book downloading, from www.forum.98ia.com. 161 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences miss julie: a psychoanalytic study sonali jain university of delhi, india abstract sigmund freud theorized that ‘the hero of the tragedy must suffer…to bear the burden of tragic guilt…(that) lay in rebellion against some divine or human authority.’ august strindberg, the swedish poet, playwright, author and visual artist, like shakespeare before him, portrayed insanity as the ultimate of tragic conflict. in this paper i seek to explore and reiterate the dynamics of human relationships that are as relevant today as they were in strindberg’s time. i propose to examine strindberg’s miss julie, a play set in nineteenth century sweden, through a psychoanalytic lens. the play deals with bold themes of class and sexual identity politics. notwithstanding the progress made in breaking down gender barriers, the inequalities inherent in a patriarchal system persist in modern society. miss julie highlights these imbalances. my analysis of the play deals with issues of culture and psyche, and draws on freud, melanie klein, lacan, luce irigaray and other contemporary feminists. miss julie is a discourse on hysteria, which is still pivotal to psychoanalysis. prominent philosophers like hegel and the psychoanalyst jacques lacan have written about the dialectic of the master and the slave – a relationship that is characterized by dependence, demand and cruelty. the history of human civilization shows beyond any doubt that there is an intimate connection between cruelty and the sexual instinct. an analysis of the text is carried out using the sado-masochistic dynamic as well the slave-master discourse. i argue that miss julie subverts the slave-master relationship. the struggle for dominance and power is closely linked with the theme of sexuality in the unconscious. to quote the english actor and director alan rickman, ‘watching or working on the plays of strindberg is like seeing the skin, flesh and bones of life separated from each other. challenging and timeless.’ key words: psychoanalysis, slave-master, sado-masochism, narcissism, hysteria, culture, psyche 162 s. jain epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction sigmund freud theorized that ‘the hero of tragedy must suffer…to bear the burden of what was known as ‘tragic guilt’… (that) lay in rebellion against some divine or human authority.’ (freud, 1950, p. 156) august strindberg, the swedish poet, playwright, author and visual artist, like shakespeare before him, portrayed insanity as the ultimate of tragic conflict. strindberg is a trailblazer as a playwright where he submits incisive personal experience into his naturalistic and later, his expressionist plays, as well as in his novel inferno. not only does he not limit himself to a nineteenth century ideal of an artist, but his work transcends time as he portrays human existence. ‘filthy…’, ‘a heap of ordure…’, ‘debauched…’, ‘will surely nowhere find an audience that could bear to see it…’, ‘totally repellent…’, ‘repulsive…’ this is how critics responded to froken julie (miss julie) when it was published on 23 november 1888. in this paper i seek to explore and reiterate the dynamics of human relationships that are as relevant in contemporary times as they were in strindberg’s era. i propose to examine strindberg’s miss julie through a psychoanalytic lens. the life and times of strindberg august strindberg was born in 1849 in stockholm, with nine siblings, and believed that he was unwanted. he experienced grave deprivation and exclusion in his family, imbibed his father’s shame and fears, and also the squalid subservience of his mother. as a result, he became oversensitive, deeply craving for his parents’ unconditional love. he married three times and got engaged at the age of sixty to a young actress called fanny faulkner. shortly before his death, he was asked in a questionnaire which qualities he valued most highly in a woman. his answer was ‘motherliness’. several of his plays drew upon the problems of his marriages and reflected his constant search in self analysis. to follow strindberg’s life, it is imperative to look closely at his marriage with siri von essen, baroness wrangel, to whose house strindberg was taken by a friend because the wrangels were keenly interested in theatre and wished to meet him. coincidentally he found himself in a house where he had spent much of his youth, where he had experienced the loss of his mother and his father’s remarriage. strindberg did not see siri von essen as the baroness wrangel but as virgin mother. 163 miss julie: a psychoanalytic study epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences he found the idealized parental figures, a love object with whom he could identify and whose admiration he sought. he married siri and the marriage rekindled intense pre-oedipal and oedipal conflicts concerning longing for reunion with the mother, distrust of the parental objects, rebelliousness against the authority of the father, and insecurities over his sexual identity. after thirteen troubled years, his marriage to siri von essen ended in 1891. strindberg moved to berlin after having divorced siri, where he met the austrian journalist frida uhl whom he married next. this marriage lasted two years. haunted by guilt about deserting his children and attacked by his critics, strindberg became possessed of a persecution mania. between the years 1892 and 1897 he experienced several psychotic episodes. he longed for a reunion with the maternal, at the same suffering from an extreme primal guilt. setting of the play miss julie the play is set on midsummer’s eve, a festival of pagan origin in northern europe, which has particular charm of its own when the sun does not set. it is a night on which with the scents and sounds of the intense northern summer drive people mad. in miss julie the pagan fertility ritual is in marked contrast to the sterility of the world of miss julie, where she is an unwanted child, where the bitch is shot for running with the gatekeeper’s dog, a metaphor for keeping class conflict and hierarchy in place. it is interesting to see how the play works in terms of space. the kitchen forms an important space, for that is where all activity takes place in the play. the kitchen is the domain of the working classes. also, it is a place where another kind of appetite is satisfied. in the play, a pantomime is set as if ‘the actress was really alone in the kitchen’. there are only three characters in the text that are present on stage. miss julie is the count’s daughter and the mistress of the house, jean the valet and christine the cook. it is also a world where the only progenitor, miss julie’s father, is absent. the dancing peasants punctuate the action in the play, reinforcing the imminent danger in miss julie’s act of indiscretion. we are not given a glimpse of the bedroom – the sexual centre. we are given a frolicking chorus of villagers and farmers instead. it is interesting to note that in drawing the curtain on the bedroom, the playwright plays upon the spectator’s desire to see the sexual act, which unconsciously carries the excitement/burden of witnessing the primal scene. the peasants sing about ‘two women in the wood’. earlier, there is a hint of miss julie ‘with her lady friend’. the song hints at miss julie’s unconscious wish to unite with the primary object, i.e., her mother in her mind. she goes through the 164 s. jain epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences seduction and plays out her sexual wishes almost with a childlike innocence, as if acknowledging sexual wishes even in the mind would be dirty and lead to disapproval from the mother. at the same time there is an unconscious wish to be the ‘man to the mother’ (bollas 2000). culture and psyche miss julie is a discourse on hysteria, which is still pivotal to psychoanalysis. my analysis of the play deals with issues of culture and psyche, and draws on sigmund freud, melanie klein, jaques lacan, luce irigaray and other contemporary thinkers. i also take up the dialectic of the master and the slave – a relationship that is characterized by dependence, demand and cruelty. the history of human civilization shows beyond any doubt that there is an intimate connection between cruelty and the sexual instinct. an analysis of the text is carried out using the sado-masochistic dynamic as well the slave-master discourse. i argue that miss julie subverts the slave-master relationship. the struggle for dominance and power is closely linked with the theme of sexuality in the unconscious. the play deals with bold themes of class and sexual identity politics. notwithstanding the progress made in breaking down gender barriers, the inequalities inherent in a patriarchal system persist in modern society. miss julie highlights these imbalances. slave-master discourse miss julie takes up the theme of the darwinian battle between the sexes, and a love hate bond. it is a play about the slave master discourse. the slave, because of his subjectivity and loss, has some chance of reflecting and recognizing his own desire: the master has far less chance of recognizing his desire because he pressures the slave to recognize his ‘demand’ for enjoyment. for lacan the slave master relation is universal, one in which we have invested either as slaves in some voluntary sense or as masters. the idea and practice of being a slave is always entangled with the idea of being a master and vice versa. for a psychoanalytic reflection the text it is important that one look at what this master slave discourse actually entails. in the play, miss julie is the mistress while jean is the slave. the text subverts the master slave relationship through its economical handling of characters and their complex relationships with each other. the struggle for dominance and power is closely linked with the theme of sexuality: seeking and bestowing sexual favours. at many levels, particularly at the sexual 165 miss julie: a psychoanalytic study epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences level, jean acts as the master, subjugating miss julie, while she acts out the role of a slave. the relationship between christine and jean is an equal one; interestingly, christine is aware of jean’s reaction to miss julie but in a typical patriarchal manner, is willing to tolerate jean’s philandering as long as he returns to her in the end. the play begins with a conversation that establishes the complicity between jean and christine. jean and christine are immersed in half amorous banter with frequent references to the absence of miss julie and her wild sexuality almost like her bitch in heat. ironically miss julie’s bitch is called diana and in roman mythology, diana is the goddess of virgins. christine also mentions that miss julie is menstruating (p. 3) . jean: miss julie is wild tonight, completely wild. christine: he’s back, is he? jean introduces miss julie as a woman who wishes to dominate men, subjecting them to her sadistic will. her fiancé has walked out on her, because of her wish to ‘train’ him, her urge to crack the whip. however, once the engagement is broken, she is too ashamed to show herself in public and seeks confinement in the home with the servants in disgrace. the whip is a phallic symbol that signifies miss julie’s masculinity and identity as a master while the references to her bodily functions – her sexual urges and her menstruation – establish her vulnerability as a sexual being, and as a woman. miss julie walks into the kitchen and flirtatiously asks jean for a schottische with her (p. 6). julie’s manner is coquettish, intent on teasing jean but not expressing a direct sexual wish. jean too engages with her in a mock romantic fashion speaking in french and setting a sentimental scene of seduction, even kissing her foot. miss julie is delighted by jean’s performance and tells him that he should have been an actor. she acts innocent when points out the dangers of gossip, and even jeers at him. jean insists that this flirtation ought to stop for fear of discovery by the count-father. as the sequence of events unfolds, jean and julie express their desires and their fantasies to each other. miss julie and jean start playing out the slave master dialectic. miss julie tries to wake christine because she envies jean’s fiancé. christine’s name being close to the word ‘christian’ has its own connotations. christine is the punitive, disapproving mother in miss julie’s unconscious. she babbles about the authority of the father in her sleep i.e., the count’s boots which also stand for his class, power and sexuality. with christine sleeping, miss julie can be even more brazen in expressing her wish. jean half protests by calling her ‘miss julie’. strind166 s. jain epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences berg constantly keeps us reminded of her social class and also her virginity, her ‘innocence about sexuality’. jean tells miss julie that he must polish the count’s boots, indirectly asserting his consciousness about his social class. according to luce irigaray, ‘red blood’ signifies a tangible relationship between men and women, a matriarchal role for women and indeed menstruation is a signifier of womanhood. to refer to luce irigaray’s ‘when the goods get together’ in this sex which is not one (1985), it is significant to note the rejection of phallocentrism of freud and lacan, despite having been lacan’s student. irigaray employs marxist and psychoanalytic concepts and vocabulary, calls women ‘goods’ to be exchanged between male members of society: brother, father, husband… and thus, there is no interaction between the female sex. irigaray strongly emphasizes the bonds of womanhood. she critiques freud rather strongly for regarding female sexuality as ‘virility complex’ and accuses him of transferring his own bias. trappings of narcissism jean’s story about the outhouse transforms miss julie into a narcissistic listener. she is fascinated by the narrative, which has her as the heroine and perhaps this is the best moment of narcissistic satisfaction that miss julie manages in the course of the play. jean’s reminiscence has all the trappings of a fairy tale: the servant who falls in love with his mistress at first sight, the seven brothers and sisters, the forbidden garden with apple trees, the bed of alder leaves cleverly puts miss julie under his spell. the fantasy does reveal jean’s fervent desire to live a life of the rich. money is what which will give him a sense of omnipotence. the story is not entirely false as it contains the seed of jean’s wish to transcend his social class. in the unconscious, it also means getting more love from the father, psychoanalytically: the count. jean’s story is ironic, his description of the filthy outhouse (p.16): i had never been inside the manor house, never seen anything except the church – but this was more beautiful. jean’s comparison degrades churches and castles just as effectively as it mocks the foul outhouse. positions in space reflect positions in class and gender. jean’s lies in filth, while miss julie walks on the rose terrace. he is not only the figure humiliated by his masters but a servant who can see their undersides. 167 miss julie: a psychoanalytic study epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences dreams as signifiers jean’s and miss julie’s dreams are also important signifiers. miss julie relates a recurrent dream (p. 12) : … i’m on top of a pillar. i’m sitting there, and i see no possible way of getting down. i feel dizzy when i look down but i know i must get down. i haven’t got the courage to throw myself. i can’t hold on. i long to be able to just fall but i don’t fall. i know i won’t have any peace until i’m down, no rest until i’m down, down to the ground. i also know that once i am down i’ll want the ground to open and for me to sink, sink… jean’s dream (p. 13) runs like this; i dream that i am lying underneath a tall tree in a dark forest. i want to get up up to the top and look around me across the bright landscape where the sun shines. i want to plunder the bird’s nest up there with the golden eggs. i climb and climb but the trunk is so thick and slippery and it’s so far to the first branch. i know that if i could only reach that first branch i could climb up to the top step by step. i haven’t reached it yet but i will reach it, well, in my dreams. at the manifest level, the dream reflects miss julie’s ambiguous attitude towards her social class. it isolates her and puts her up on a pillar, far from the ground though it gives her visibility and power. however, at the immanent level, the dream reflects miss julie’s ardent wish to return to the mother’s womb, to fuse with the primary object i.e., the mother. one thinks of the ground as ‘mother earth’, an all embracing, and loving, benevolent mother. the dream also hints at a possibility that miss julie is embarrassed about her sexual conduct and sexual desires and feels a strong sense of shame, enough to sink into the ground/ experiencing a strong death wish. guilt and shame shall be taken up later in the paper. jean’s dream is also about his wishes. he wishes for an experience of fulfillment, which will make everything seem bright. once again at the manifest level, the dream signifies jean’s desire to transcend his social class and plunder a high class by sexually possessing miss julie. however, at the immanent level they are homosexual wishes, if psychoanalytically analysed. images of a tall tree, the thick and smooth trunk are sexual images. he ‘desires’ the father, the source of power and class. in lacanian terms, miss julie is only his object of ‘demand’. 168 s. jain epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences miss julie’s trauma after the seduction of miss julie by jean, she is at jean’s mercy. she pleads with him to call her by her name ‘julie’, trying to establish equality between them. she talks about her trauma after the seduction in her anxiety not to be punished by her family, and society at large. in the unconscious, she has dared to express desire and has seduced the father. jean says that it is impossible to continue to stay at the manor. he fantasises about travelling to italy and setting up a hotel there (pp. 20-21): jean (enters agitated): there you see. and you heard. do you think it’s possible to stay here now? miss julie: no. i don’t think so. but what can we do? jean: escape from here. miss julie: escape yes, but where to? jean: to switzerland, the italian lakes – have you ever been there? miss julie: no. is it beautiful there? jean: eternal summer: laurels, orange trees, … miss julie: but what do we do there? jean: i’ll set up a hotel. first-class service for first class customers. miss julie: a hotel? jean: that’s living, believe me: new faces all the time, … while the money keeps rolling in. that’s living. miss julie: yes, for you, but what about me? jean: you will be the mistress of the house; the jewel in the crown. … i’ll fiddle the bills and you’ll cover up with your sweetest smile. … miss julie: that’s all very well but jean – you must give me courage. say that you love me. hold me. jean: i want to – but i daren’t. not in this house any more. i love you miss julie, i do … miss julie: julie – say julie. there are no barriers between us any more, say julie. when miss julie pleads that she has no money to elope with jean, he is completely cruel and unsympathetic, and says that his story about the rose terrace was entirely fabricated. miss julie is traumatized. a trauma is an important impossibility and refers to an experience in a person’s life that he has not been able to sufficiently symbolize or to put into language. in his theory of repression freud says that if somebody were the victim of trauma that they have repressed, some aspect of their repressed experience would return. when miss julie is faced with jean’s accusation that she has acted like a ‘beast and a ‘whore’, both extremely patriarchal terms, she is prostrate. 169 miss julie: a psychoanalytic study epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences miss julie’s submission to jean reflects strindberg’s notions of evolution. he suggests that miss julie must fall to jean, because he was convinced that women are inferior to men. as strindberg has noted in the preface to the play miss julie he has ‘added a little evolutionary history [to the play] by making the weaker steal and repeat the words of the stronger’. hysteria strindberg’s anger is apparent in miss julie’s continued humiliation. her mother’s anti male ideas are portrayed as ridiculous and her duplicity as a familiar tale. jean thinks that miss julie is ‘sick’, a diagnosis we are meant to agree with. this scene blames miss julie’s illness on her family history. strindberg was interested in psychology and depended heavily on it in delineating his characters in his naturalistic plays. miss julie and the countess are models of the hysteric as popularly conceived of in the nineteenth century. symptoms of hysteria are to keeping wanting and craving, also waiting. when we think of hysteria we think of people, who are troubled by their body’s sexual demands and repress sexual ideas; who are over identified with the other, who express themselves in a theatrical manner: who daydream existence rather than engage it. miss julie is only interested in those people who do not reciprocate her feelings, thereby always experiencing pain. there was also the disease which the nineteenth century referred to as ‘nostalgia’. ‘hysterics suffer from reminiscences. ...wanting is central to a freudian theory of hysteria’ (mitchell 1999, p. 25). freud first tackled hysteria in the 1880’s. strindberg was influenced by the french psychiatrist charcot who was investigating hysterical affliction’s via hypnosis. theories of hysteria in the nineteenth century were based on sexual disturbances. it was theorized primarily by both freud and charcot that women became hysterics when they repressed their sexual desires. the character of miss julie is etched as one of a ‘hysteric’: a sensitive and hungry little girl who wanted and craved for love, but did not get unconditional maternal care in infancy. there is disappointment with her mother who failed to make her feel safe, sated and prized. as she approached the oedipal phase, where she began to experience desire for the father, she did so by devaluing her primary object – her mother – and turned her intense love towards her father. her father was perceived by her as extremely exciting. she could not compete with her mother in trying to win the father and hence was trapped in a dilemma. as a result of this fixation, miss julie finds men strong and exciting and moves away from homosexual wishes (which are perhaps there in her unconscious) to hyper-sexualised, hetero170 s. jain epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences sexual love and desire. she sees women, herself included as weak and insignificant. miss julie manipulates her sexuality and her wiles and uses sex defensively because she is too afraid of the abuse of power by men. the countess is also portrayed as hysteric. to make up for the lack of the phallus, i.e., her lack of power – she was a commoner by birth and from a very simple background – she raised miss julie as a boy (note the irony-‘miss’) and taught her to hate men. … she had an aversion to marriage. so when she met my father and he proposed to her, she told him she couldn’t be his wife but he could be her lover. first, my father resisted because he wanted the woman he loved to be respected the same way he was. but he adored her, so he gave in and accepted her condition….my parents were living in sin, so they were rejected…then i came into the world against my mother’s wishes as far as i can make out. i was allowed to run wild, i was taught everything boys are taught. i was to be the living proof that a woman is as good as a man. i wore boy’s clothes, learned how to groom, how to harness, how to shoot, even how to slaughter. that was horrible. (p. 28) miss julie’s actual act of intercourse with jean also seems like a dissociated, hysterical experience in the play. she does not own up to any sexual desires despite having being coquettish. here one notices splitting on the part of miss julie – the virtuous helpless mistress on the one hand and the seductress on the other hand. both parts are kept away from each other. for her there must be love because from her mother she has imbibed that sex is dirty, and there is guilt associated with it. the play uses the metaphor of filth and dirt both signifying sexuality in the unconscious. jean recounts that the countess was ‘most at home in the kitchen and the cowsheds but a one horse carriage wasn’t elegant enough for her.’ miss julie has dirt under her painted nails. also, when she comes down dressed to travel, jean points out that her face is dirty. he tells christine how she went around with ‘dirty cuffs’. dirt stands for the unbridled sexuality of women in which they are not conscious of class barriers. sado-masochistic dyad in the beginning miss julie tries to assert herself as the mistress of the house and tries to seduce jean. if one looks closely at miss julie’s unconscious patterns, there are processes of regression in her which must be acted out again and again via her sexuality. once her weakness and her sexually uninhibited nature are brought to the fore, jean denies her, torments her and has power over her. his element of aggression is extremely high and jean and miss julie get embroiled in a sado –mas171 miss julie: a psychoanalytic study epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences ochistic dyad. it is important to understand why miss julie is masochistic. the term masochism applies to any passive attitude towards sexual life and towards the sexual object. in its extreme instance, satisfaction becomes conditional upon suffering physical or mental pain at the hands of the sexual object. it is not certain whether masochism is a primary phenomenon or whether it gets sparked off by sadistic pleasure turned inwards towards the self. it can often be shown that masochism is nothing more than an extension of sadism turned round upon the subject’s own self who, thus, to begin with, takes the place of the sexual object. miss julie’s trauma is her oedipal wish which she tries to actualize throughout her life. in his theory on repression freud says that if somebody were the victim of a trauma that they had repressed, some aspect of their repressed experience would always return. masochistically imploring her servant to at once punish her for passion and help her out at the same time. she hates and desires jean at the same time. through jean, miss julie wishes to touch upon her own anger at the self. for her, as stated earlier, passion becomes punishment socially and psychologically. miss julie’s masochism, i.e., her pathetically allowing jean to hurt her, and dominate her, is at a deeper level, her own anger directed at herself. it is her sense of shame and rejection more than the impending humiliation which miss julie anticipates that makes accept punishment at the hands of jean. miss julie allows jean to treat her badly because deep down she wants to punish herself for desiring jean who is not her equal. this helps her deal with her intense guilt and she feels closer to the father structures in her mind. i would like to quote from freud’s paper ‘a child is being beaten’ (1919). freud elaborates how fantasies and self punishment are actually a desire to feel most loved, special and wanted by one’s father. sigmund freud maintains that every pain contains in itself the possibility of a feeling of sexual pleasure. according to freud: … the first phase of beating phantasies among girls, then, must belong to a very early period of childhood. the child being beaten is never the one producing the phantasy, but is invariably another child, most often a brother or a sister if there is any. this first phase of the beating phantasy is therefore completely represented by the phrase: ‘my father is beating the child’. i am betraying a great deal of what is to be brought forward later when instead of this i say ‘my father is beating the child whom i hate.’ profound transformations have taken place between this first phase and the next. it is true that the person beating remains the same (that is, the father); but the child who is 172 s. jain epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences beaten has been changed into another one and is now invariably the child producing the phantasy. the phantasy is accompanied by a high degree of pleasure. now, therefore the wording runs: ‘i am being beaten by my father.’ freud adds that: … if the child in question is a younger brother or sister, it is despised and hated: yet it attracts to itself the share of affection, and this is a spectacle the sight of which cannot be avoided. one soon learns that being beaten, even if it does not hurt very much, signifies a deprivation of love and a humiliation. the idea of the father beating this hateful child is therefore an agreeable one. it means ‘my father does not love this other child, he loves only me.’ the pleasure attaching to this phantasy is both sadistic and masochistic. this infantile perversion persists throughout in both miss julie as well as in jean. the play is not time bound. it is a remarkable encounter of two people who love and hate themselves and each other in such and intense crucible of event and emotion. one is never quite sure of the roles of slave/ master. indeed there is pleasure in miss julie’s humiliation but one gets completely enmeshed in this sado-masochistic dyad. shame and guilt the theme of guilt pervades the play. throughout the play, miss julie is aware of the presence of christine and her ‘rightful claim over jean’. the beheading of john the baptist is a symbolic castration. guilt is an important concept in psychoanalysis, which miss julie experiences rather intensely. according to the psychoanalyst melanie klein, the infant’s world is threatened from the beginning by intolerable anxieties, whose source she believed to be the infant’s own death instinct. these ‘persecutory’ anxieties, which are felt in the infant’s own bodily needs as well as from the external frustrations to those needs, are overwhelming to the infant, and in order to combat them, the infant resorts to defenses. through primitive defenses—projection, denial, splitting, withdrawal, and ‘omnipotent control’ of these objects—the infant puts threatening, ‘bad’ objects, outside herself and into the external world; simultaneously, she preserves the ‘good’ objects, both within herself and externally, by splitting them off from their malevolent counterparts (klein 1986). perhaps the most fundamental of these processes were projection and introjection, which describe the infant’s first, primitive attempts to differentiate himself 173 miss julie: a psychoanalytic study epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences from the world, inside from outside, self from other, based on the prototype of oral incorporation (and spitting out) and the infant’s relation to his first, nurturing/frustrating objectthe mother’s breast. the first objects were not the mature, ‘whole’ objects of oedipal development, but primitive ‘part’ objects whose existence for the infant was determined solely by its function in the infant’s world. using the kleinian model, miss julie has in course of maturation, ‘bad’ and ‘good’ objects, and that through processes of progressive internalization, these fragmentary objects were taken into the self, and became forerunners of the superego. klein emphasized that this process (of introjection, projection, and re-introjection) was continuous and cyclical, leading to increasing synthesis as miss julie gradually attained greater degrees of reality testing, differentiation, and control over her own psyche. klein (1986) divided pre-oedipal development into the “paranoid/schizoid” and “depressive” positions. she located the paranoid/schizoid position in the first months of an infant’s life, a time in which the infant was in helpless thrall both to the outside world and to his own instincts. deprivation, the experience of need, and frustration, even though emanating from the infant’s own body, were perceived during this phase as persecutory, and the infant responded by putting them outside of himself, ‘projecting’ or throwing them away. the early objects—beginning with the breast—were experienced alternately as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ according to whether they were perceived as nurturing or destructive; and again partly on the model of the breast, the infant took in (introjected) or dispelled (projected) them according to their relative safety or danger. in this way, miss julie took in and preserved those feelings in the external world that were felt as ‘good,’ while expelling from herself those destructive feelings directed ‘into’ the object that threatened the relation with the object. in the depressive position miss julie is able to bridge the gap between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ objects, between her own experiences of love and hate, which created them. her awareness gradually grows to encompass the object world outside herself. she becomes aware of her own destructive impulses and, fearing the loss of jean’s love, attempts to inhibit them, to preserve, protect, and even resurrect the object that she continually destroyed in unconscious fantasy. her anxious awareness of her aggression toward the object/mother (which klein called guilt) takes the better of her, and subsequent efforts to contain her own anxieties by curtailing these impulses (efforts klein termed reparations), are unable to lead julie to an increasing tolerance for ambivalence. 174 s. jain epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences in a pantomime jean does some calculations in a notebook as christine enters. christine reminds jean that he promised to join her at church that morning. the sermon is on the beheading of john the baptist. jean also confesses to christine that he and miss julie have been intimate. christine expresses disbelief that miss julie who has been so proud with men, even having her dog shot for copulating with a mongrel, could do a thing like that. the sun rises, marking the end of midsummer eve. miss julie fantasizes about men’s annihilation and the fantasy reveals her most violent, desperate, punitive and revengeful self. this fantasy is set off by the scene of the decapitation of the greenfinch, an act that links up with christine’s mention of the execution of saint john the baptist, the famous biblical allegory. the decapitation is a symbolic castration in psychoanalytic thought. miss julie implores jean to kill her as well, identifying completely with the greenfinch. the father it is interesting to note that both the figures of the mother and father are absent from the heart of action that is the stage. there is a detailed and deliberate set of stage directions, which also introduce the most important signifier in the play –the count’s boots. the boots signify not only sexuality, but also the absence and the presence of the count/ father, simultaneously. these innumerable power rehearsals between miss julie and jean are reduced to a joint submission to the count. the count-unseen and unheard is a supreme magical authority. it expects jean’s return to servitude/slave and miss julie’s extinction for transgressing her limits. she is hypnotized and proceeds towards death holding a razor in her hands. summary and conclusion strindberg wrote with unprecedented candour about sex. in miss julie he has excelled in depicting people driven by love, envy, jealousy and hatred into a nightmarish state of madness. in miss julie, he cut the classical three-act construction to a single act, focused on a triangular relationship in which a whole spectrum of suicidal and homicidal emotions is depicted. there are several opinions on the theme as well as on the structure of the play. to summarise them would be as follows: alice templeton (1990) calls miss julie a naturalistic tragedy. she discusses the misogyny of strindberg in the context 175 miss julie: a psychoanalytic study epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences of the preface to the play. john greenway (1968) deals with the important theme of hypnotic suggestion and situates the play in the context of the advent of science in the nineteenth century. sprinchorn (1968) also analyses strindberg’s treatment of naturalism and tragedy in miss julie. in conclusion i would like to argue that august strindberg is not a misogynist. there is colour in his creative excitement, he experienced anger with colour, and called it the strongest of all spiritual emotions. strindberg enjoyed the whole package of madness. as helen cooper observes, ‘strindberg the misogynist actually took women very seriously’ (strindberg 1992/1888, p. x). as strindberg himself observes, ‘… and if i had to define my present stand point it would be: atheist, christ hater, anarchist…p.s. woman being small and foolish and therefore evil, should be suppressed like barbarians and thieves, she is useful only as an ovary and womb, best of all as a cunt.’ (p. vii) in the same breath we also experience his ‘misogyny’ when he says… ‘actually, my misogyny is purely theoretical, and i can’t live a day without deluding myself that i warm my soul in the glow of their unconscious vegetable existence. he impatiently rejects nineteenth-century notions of fixed dramatic characters according to their types. ‘my hypothesis,’ his mentor nietzsche once wrote, ‘is the subject as multiplicity’. strindberg agrees: ‘since they are modern characters, living in an age of transition, more urgently hysterical at any rate than the age which preceded it, i have drawn my people as split and vacillating, a mixture of the old and new’. again: ‘my characters are conglomerations of past and present stages of civilization, bits from books and newspapers, scraps of humanity, rags and tatters of fine clothing patched together as is the human soul.’ his preface to miss julie is the classic declaration of early modernism that human nature is mysterious, contradictory, ambivalent and indecisive. it is possible, for example. to experience both feelings of hatred and of lust towards the same person, as strindberg himself did with all his wives and lovers. the self as an arena of conflicting emotions, instincts and drives is a premise common both to nietzsche, whom strindberg admired, and freud, whom he anticipated. 176 s. jain epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences references bollas, c. (2000). hysteria. london: routledge. freud, s. (1919). a child is being beaten. in collected papers ii, london: hogarth press. freud, s. (1950). totem and taboo. (j. strachey, trans.) abingdon: routledge. (original work published 1913) greenway, j. l. (1968). strindberg and suggestion in miss julie. south atlantic review, 51(2), pp. 21-34. irigaray, l. (1985). this sex which is not one. (c. porter, trans.). ithaca, ny: cornell university press. klein, m. (1986). the selected melanie klein. j. mitchell (ed.). harmondsworth: penguin. pp. 176-200. lacan, j. (1979). the four fundamental concepts of psycho-analysis. london: penguin. mitchell, j. (1999). mad men and medusas. london: penguin. sprinchorn, e. (1968). strindberg and the greater naturalism. tulane drama review, xiii, 119-129. strindberg, a. (1992). miss julie. (h. cooper, trans.) london: methuen. (original work published 1888) templeton, a. (1990). miss julie as “a naturalistic tragedy”. theatre journal (baltimore), 42(4), 468-480. epiphany: vol. 12, no. 1, 2019 e-issn 1840-3719 49 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) an overview of urban change process in istanbul metropolis nilüfer kart aktaş, istanbul university, hande sanem çınar, istanbul university abstract at every stage of human history, people migrate by force or by their own will. both forced and willing migrations are caused by wars, poverty and a higher expectation for better living standards, employment, residence, social status, quality life, education, and others. in turkey, migration from rural to urban areas that took place between the 1950s and 1980s has caused millions of people to migrate to cosmopolitan cities, like istanbul. one of the main reasons for immigration to the city was due to the quality of life in the city and rural areas. this geographically displaced process of millions of people has influenced economic, social and cultural change and transformation in both the city and the village. migrants often migrate to cities without proper knowledge, skills, and expertise, which significantly affect their economic, social and cultural status in the city where they have moved. for this reason, immigrants usually use their own "integration strategies". most of the migrants could not adapt to the rapid life of the metropolis, so they preferred to live in shanties by isolating themselves from metropolitan life, which became one of the major urban problems. the urban regeneration process, which entered our life rapidly as a result of the great earthquake that occurred in 1999, led to rapid changes in both the social and physical space and even the transformation in istanbul. thus, this study aims to analyze the physical, spatial and social changes in the urban regeneration process of the regions where the first shanty was established in istanbul. an assessment of this shanty in istanbul is significant because it received the biggest number of migrants between the 1950s and 1980s. consequently, urban, economic, social and cultural effects of these changes continue to shape present-day istanbul’s urban system and urban identity. keywords: urban change, urban transformation, urbanization, istanbul, turkey. an overview of urban change process in istanbul metropolis 50 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) i n t r o d u c t i o n cosmopolitan and well-managed cities offer important civic and cultural opportunities for citizens. cities have always been focal points for economic growth, innovation, and employment. indeed, many cities grew historically out of some natural advantage in transport or raw material supply. cities are also centers of modern living, where indicators of general health and wellbeing, literacy, women’s status, and social mobility are typically highest. finally, cities are also important social and cultural centers that house museums, art galleries, film industries, theaters, fashion houses, and other important cultural centers (cohen, 2006). besides all these advantages of cities, many urban areas have experienced dramatic growth, as a result of rapid population growth, called urbanization. urbanization is one of the significant phenomena of the modern world. rapid urbanization, over urbanization, shanty houses, slums, crime rates, degradation of the environment, even the ozone layer are among the issues discussed within this context (mbanaso and ozden, 2017). urbanization and city growth are often shaped by several different factors including rural-urban migration, natural population increase, and annexation. because rates of natural population increase are generally slightly lower in urban than in rural areas, the principal reasons for rising levels of urbanization are rural-urban migration. then, migrations are determined by the geographic expansion of urban areas through annexations and the transformation and reclassification of rural villages into small urban settlements. the expansion of the metropolitan periphery can be caused both by the arrival of new migrants and by the suburbanization of the middle class out of the central city. the relative importance of each of these various causes of urbanization and suburbanization varies both within and between regions and countries (cohen, 2006). migration is not just a social phenomenon but a process (ulu and karakoç, 2004). in this process, the migrant population met their own housing need by constructing shanties on the treasury or private land in the city center (ataöv and osmay, 2007). it has been observed that together with the shanties, infrastructural deficiencies, crime and misery places, different social stratum, and urban spatial structures have changed. while the social groups in the uppermost levels had to be located outward from the center, with the change in the social structure existing in the cities, every social group in the city became intertwined after the differentiation in economic activities (ulu and karakoç, 2004). this situation has caused the change in urban culture and identity. t h e p r o c e s s o f m i g r a t i o n a n d u r b a n c h a n g e roberts, 2000, commenting on the urban change process in the years following: 1950 reconstruction: areas close to the urban center and nearby neighborhood units, 1960 revitalization: the development of social facilities and the formation of spacious and livable areas, 1970 renewal: the development of public and private sector resources, renewed urban infrastructure, and the increase in environmental concerns. 1980 redevelopment: projects, farther city projects, special sector focus, partnership development, environmental approaches, 1990 regeneration: the tendency of a detailed approach to implementation and policy, the adoption of a strategic perspective, the development of regional actions, the sustainable environment. to understand the phenomenon of migration in turkey, it is necessary to look at the dynamic changes. the first radical change experienced by the country since the founding of the republic took place during the 1950s (çağlayan, 2013). in turkey the establishment of early squatters resulted in early unplanned, dysfunctional and environmentally hazard settlements. these squatters, far from large urban centers, nilüfer kart aktaş & hande sanem çınar 51 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) caused different urban, economic, social and cultural changes and transformations. this phenomenon has also manifested itself in various parts of the world (es, 2012). in the 1980s, squatter housing areas have again been considered as problem areas, which have to be transformed for the capitalization of global interests, in the name of urban rent. these areas could have been transformed into prestige areas to increase the physical and visual wealth of the city. thus, first with the improvement plans and later with the urban transformation projects, squatter housing areas have been subject to urban renewal for the betterment of urban space (dündar,2001). in turkey, the first thing that comes to mind is the transformation of shanties as the environmentally sustainable transformation of the urban areas. urban regeneration is first life safety and being prepared for earthquakes within today’s conditions. in 2000, new legislation on urban regeneration was introduced. "urban rents" were taken as a source of transformation in legal regulation, and the municipality has been able to obtain "forced" and "urban rent" inflows to the municipalities, which have remained in areas closer to the city center (koçak and tolanlar, 2008). urban regeneration is primarily concerned with the dearth of civic criteria and factors that influence and shape society as a whole, on the basis of "quality of urban life" or "urban livability". it is gratifying to hear some issues, which directly affect all of us and future generations, such as urban development, urbanization, urbanism, livable cities, urban security, urban disaster management, urban renewal. urban regeneration law and process provide a good opportunity to achieve a total "urban renaissance" (es, 2012). u r b a n c h a n g e d y n a m i c s i n e u r o p e a n i s t a n b u l istanbul is turkey's social, cultural, economic, and one of the most dynamic cities. istanbul has become the focus of attention as a result of increased urbanization and migrations. according to tsi data, istanbul, which has a population of 3 million in 1970, has reached 14 million by 2014 (belge and çeker, 2015). as of 2018, istanbul is the most populated city in turkey with 15 million 29,231 people (url 1, 2018). while every urban intervention in istanbul is handled under the heading of urban regeneration, the meaning of this concept is also dispersed. the concept takes the form of a prestige project on one side of the city and a new residential area on the other side (kahraman. 2006). in particular, the first of these dilemmas took place in the beyoğlu, fatih, zeytinburnu and kagithane regions, which are among the most important districts of istanbul on the european side (figure 1). because the migrating population to istanbul is close to the central business areas (cbd) first and the residential prices are attractive, migrants have settled in the historical districts like beyoğlu (galata, cihangir, tarlabaşı) which is the most important part of istanbul. in addition, a large part of these neighborhoods has a heterogeneous structure with minorities and foreigners since the ottoman empire period. this is another reason why migrants settle in this part of istanbul. being migrant settlements, many old dwellings in these areas are in ruins and have been neglected (uysal, 2006). actually, a total of 237 risky buildings were identified within the scope of the transformation, of which 202 were demolished and reconstructed. the remaining 35 are waiting to be demolished. there is a collective transformation project in tarlabaşı (url 3, 2018). an overview of urban change process in istanbul metropolis 52 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) figure 1. location map of zeytinburnu, fatih, beyoğlu and kağıthane (url 2, 2018) the processes of gentrification in galata and cihangir began with the settlement of a number of contemporary art galleries. today, these regions have become the focus of large institutions (figure 2, figure 3). figure 2. cihangirbefore (url 4, 2018) figure 3. cihangir-after (url 5, 2018) the municipality also promotes renovation projects in these regions. the transformation project of the tarlabaşı region is the result of such a tendency (özkan, 2011). tarlabaşı is aimed at transforming the nilüfer kart aktaş & hande sanem çınar 53 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) region from an area where people can easily move around, whereby safety and security are ensured (figure 4). figure 4. the view from tarlabaşı urban renewal area, before-after (url 6, 2018). sulukule, located in fatih, the important part of istanbul, has been one of the entertainment centers of istanbul since the ottoman period. in some sources, sulukule is shown as the only roman settlement on earth after india (altınöz, 2007). the culture of life in sulukule, which continues in the ottoman and republican periods, has been inundated by the policies that the state has implemented, especially since the 1990s. with the rapid increase in poverty that exists in the area, the region has entered a collapse process. with the sulukule renewal project, the population structure of the existing urban fabric and sulukule has been ignored and the area has been redesigned as empty land. due to the urban regeneration project, the destruction of the area began in 2006 when the roma were removed from their homes to a residential area built outside the city (url 7, 2018). in this way, traditional street textures and structures were removed from the history, and the region was changed in its characteristic usage pattern (figure 5, figure 6) (kıyak ingin and islam, 2011). even if the ethnic identity is emphasized, wealthy families from different districts of istanbul have settled in place of the roma, not the local inhabitants of the area. figure 5. sulukule – before (url 8, 2018) figure 6. sulukule after (url 8, 2018) an overview of urban change process in istanbul metropolis 54 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) zeytinburnu province where the first illegal construction is seen is the first urban regeneration area in istanbul (kahraman, 2006). zeytinburnu was the first industrial region of istanbul. due to industrial reasons in the region, the shanty process has increased. then, in the district, the shanty houses were destroyed and instead tall apartment buildings were constructed. these developments challenged the urban way of life, including safety, health, and security (nerse, 2013). after the 1999 marmara earthquake, istanbul earthquake master plan was prepared and zeytinburnu was selected as a pilot region (url 9, 2018). at the end of the work, the necessity of reconstruction rather than strengthening buildings in zeytinburnu has come to the forefront. it was determined that 2 thousand 295 out of 17 thousand were risky, and it was applied for 809 buildings and a demolition license was given to 390. up to now, 325 buildings have been demolished and reconstructed (url 3. 2018), (figure 7, figure 8). figure 7. zeytinburnu – before (url 10, 2018) figure 8. zeytinburnu – after (url 11, 2018) kağıthane, one of the villagers established in the immediate vicinity of the city walls of istanbul, first came to the stage of history in 626. kağıthane's history is as old as the history of istanbul. kuban depicts the historical structure of istanbul, especially the development of the city with general lines, while kagithane is also in this historical development (url 12, 2018). 70,000 independent sections have been renewed in the district with 180,000 total independent sections. this shows that 36 percent of the population is transformed (url 3, 2018). kağıthane is the district where the most transformation takes place. m a t e r i a l s a n d m e t h o d kağıthane district, one of the districts where migration is the most, was chosen as the study area of nurtepe street (figure 9). nilüfer kart aktaş & hande sanem çınar 55 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) figure 9. kağıthane location map (url 13, 2018) nurtepe developed as a residential area due to the topography of the region. nurtepe street is one of the shanty areas, which was established in the late 1960s. with the construction of fatih sultan mehmet bridge in the 1980s, the kağıthane population is at the top of the increasing number of districts. the fact that urban regeneration studies have not progressed in line with their aims, that they cannot meet expectations, and that urban tissue and culture have begun to change have created the starting point of the study. within the scope of the study, a survey was conducted in nurtepe street. the size of the sample was taken as 100 in the questionnaire study conducted by the respondents randomly and using the face-to-face interview technique. r e s u l t s a survey was conducted to determine the change in the scope of the urban regeneration projects of nurtepe, where the first structure started as a shanty settlement, and the impact of this change.  52.5% of the participants live in nurtepe district, 2.5% live in kağıthane central district while the remaining 45% live in other districts of istanbul except for kağıthane and eyüp.  37.5% are private-sector employees, 12.5% are students, 12.5% are retired, 12.5% are unemployed, 10% are workers, 7.5% of them are self-employed, 5% are housewives, 2.5% are artisans and so on.  when the education status of the surveyed subjects was examined, 3% of the subjects were illiterate, 25% have primary school level, 42% have high school level, 22% are university graduates and 8% were graduate students.  when asked if they think that urban regeneration has improved the environment, 60% answered "no" and 40% answered, "yes" (figure 10).  when asked whether the urban regeneration meets the expectations, they answered that 60% were "no", 15% were "partially yes", 2.5% were "yes" and 22.5% were "other" (figure 11). figure 10. thoughts of subjects about urban regeneration figure 11. the expectations of subjects on urban regeneration an overview of urban change process in istanbul metropolis 56 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019)  when asked whether their social relations with the new area where they live in continue after the urban regeneration, 56% of the respondents stated that they had a disconnection in social relations, 39% of the respondents said that their relatives had continued and 5% had no idea.  in response to the question of how urban regeneration has changed economically (from house prices, rent, dues, etc.), respondents answered with 64% negative, 23% positive and 3% no opinion. as a result of the urban regeneration, respondents in the question of housing standards (size of the house and/or workplace, sunlight, humidity, etc.) answered with 48% positive, 50% negative and 2% no idea. when asked about the effects of urban regeneration on their houses, 80% of the respondents said that they were not affected and 20% said that their houses were renewed by urban regeneration. 62.5% of those who were directly affected by urban regeneration said "there was a decrease in the case of green area" and 37.5% of them said that "there is no change in the case of green area".  when asked about the purpose of the urban regeneration projects, 62.5% of the survey respondents were asked to "provide rent", 20% to "build stable buildings", 7.5% to "create a more livable environment" 7.5% to "raise the living standards of the people living in the urban regeneration zone" and 2.5% as "other".  64.3% of the income group between 0-1800 tl and 65% of the income group of 1800-3000 tl said that the purpose of urban regeneration is to provide rent.  after urban regeneration, 79.2% of the residents who say that the green areas around the building are decreasing determine that the purpose of urban regeneration is to provide rent.  83.3% of respondents, who think that urban regeneration does not make the environment better, said that the purpose of urban regeneration is to provide rent.  as a result of examining the satisfaction level of the income group and the urban regeneration, it is seen that the purpose of urban regeneration is to provide rent as the foreground. d i s c u s s i o n one of the most important tools for the solution of housing problems for different purposes is urban regeneration projects. thus, these projects are the preferred policy in turkey for sanitization and regeneration of shanties. throughout history, in the formation of urban space in our country, there have been long-lived practices that integrate social life, have rational and creative solutions to the limited possibilities of society, but have seen heavy turnover over time in terms of lifestyle and utilization of technology. it is questionable to apply the same solutions to different problems of the cities. for example, the destruction of historical buildings and the creation of modern and safe living spaces will bring the question 'to whom and what for regeneration'? while urban regeneration is being done, it is necessary to work towards the needs of the users. the following preconditions are suggested while urban regeneration projects are being prepared;  firstly getting together with the users and making public meetings in the neighborhood,  the preferences, needs, and expectations of local people are accepted as one of the most important priorities at these meetings, nilüfer kart aktaş & hande sanem çınar 57 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019)  the contribution of green spaces to strengthening social relations is not ignored and the areas to address for all age groups are absolutely separated,  the construction of the buildings taking into account the history and architecture of the city should not be ignored. according to all these results, it is seen that when the urban transformation projects are being carried out as it is the case in many european cities that have reached success – urban and regeneration projects should address the needs of the users. then, they should be arranged and planned as comprehensive projects to protect the cultural characteristics, architecture and historical character of the city. c o n c l u s i o n in turkey, in the last fifty years, urbanization has been conditioned by the market, which resulted in unplanned housing construction. thus, urbanization and construction could allegorically fit into the following open-ended statement "richer will be richer, poorer will be poorer" (koçak and tolanlar, 2008). while the problems that cause the urban regeneration studies are reduced to the regeneration of the physical space, the economic, social and cultural dimensions of the settlement are generally not taken into consideration. the aesthetics and diversity of constructions are important in terms of identity development. the good quality of the building will also help to improve identity by a positive impact on the city's appearance. local governments should develop local programs that take into account the specific needs of sub-groups within the local population. local governments should adopt common goals to improve socio-economic conditions while identifying the means to meet the needs of the population. the influence of the citizens could directly affect urban transformation. the constant construction processes in the city often result in pollution of the environment, the gradual disappearance of empty spaces, crowded areas, the gradual disappearance of neighborhood cultures, and the formation of closed societies. in this regard, the citizens together with policy-makers and architects should take an active role in urban planning and regeneration. in this regard, human and environment-oriented projects shall increase the quality of life 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(2018). https://www.google.com.tr/maps/place/ka%c4%9f%c4%b1thane%2f%c4%b0stanbul/@41.0898 147,28.9775819,13z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x14cab6ea321836e1:0xbf71bapıştıralım4bd7c23d138!8 m2!3d41.0814028!4d28.9819731. retrieved: 15.04.2018. an overview of urban change process in istanbul metropolis 60 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) microsoft word 7. exporting eu liberalism eastwards by lynn tesser epiphanyepiphanyepiphanyepiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 2 spring 2009 ©2009, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. exporting eu liberalism eastwards lynn tesser international university of sarajevo a central ideological justification for central and east european (cee) countries joining key international institutions lies in what aleksander smolar and magdalena potocka named the last great myth of 1989: the return to europe (smolar and potocka 12). yet, the very idea of europe is fraught with contradiction and complexity for having represented diverse things over the course of several centuries – from christendom to the balance of power system. nevertheless, western europe acquired a monopoly on the term during the cold war, limiting the ‘europe’ of ‘return to europe’ fame and fortune to its positive characteristics: wealth, democracy, market economies, human rights, and civilization. what the ‘return to europe’ as an ideology ultimately means is the re-unification of the two formerly separated parts of geographical europe, with the drab, less well off, and more traditional ‘east’ mirroring the sparkling, rich, and modern ‘west.’ at the immediate end of the cold war, the return trip meant first and foremost re-establishing civil society to ensure individual and societal freedoms. the emphasis on civil society was a legacy of communism, a time when the formal realm of politics was not only out of reach for most, but taken to be inherently corrupt. the idea of forging a ‘third way’ between capitalism and socialism also gained ground to avoid the empty consumerism of the former and the coerciveness of the latter. the second path towards europe, one that would gain in prominence as indigenous civil society and third way ideologies faded, was through joining all key pan-european and international organizations: the osce, oecd, nato, eu, and exporting eu liberalism eastwards 121 the council of europe (coe).1 among these, the eu stands out for having the most extensive demands for reform, namely the requirement that incoming states adopt the acquis communitaire. along with the idea of returning to europe, ‘democracy and markets’ rose in importance as ideological staples of cee’s transformation. the emphasis on markets and democracy had both domestic and international catalysts. domestically, both were taken to be the sources of west european peace and prosperity, an assumption that gave these ideas the shiny patina lost decades ago in the west. internationally, democracy and markets were celebrated globally after the end of the cold war. their promotion was not limited to europe, but extended also to u.s. foreign policy. yet, the difference between the ‘markets’ stressed by the neoliberal washington consensus and those stressed by brussels was indeed stark. while the former wanted states excused from the process of creating markets, the latter preferred an institutional makeover for states to create a new framework within which to embed emerging markets (bruszt 128). to be sure, the rise of democracy (and democratization) in cee has attracted far greater scholarly attention than liberalism. in 1989, the central question was how to develop democracy and capitalism simultaneously with international institutions understood as a way to further consolidate democracy and markets already created by domestic forces. later, one group of scholars began to emphasize the influence of institutions and consequently questioned whether the nature of the integration process (particularly via the adoption of the eu’s aquis) might lead to the unfortunate export of the eu’s infamous ‘democratic deficit’ to cee (holmes, grabbe, grzymala-busse and innes). other scholars predicted that the eu accession process would help create a group of ‘dependant democracies’ in place of mature eu member states (jacoby). 1 certainly, emphasis on creating civil society has continued through the involvement of international institutions. lynn tesser 122 the few existing studies on liberalism, on the other hand, focus on the domestic determinants of liberalism with some attention given to international financial institutions’ influence in laying the ground for market economies (szacki, suda and musil, frankel paul et al). this article will illustrate that there is much more to liberalism in the postcommunist context than has been acknowledged. a sizeable effort has indeed emerged to transplant a relatively coherent liberal ideology to the region, one exported not merely through the conditionality of international financial institutions, but also through the conditionality and socialization of organizations like coe, oecd, nato, osce, and eu. socialization and membership conditionality have been the two methods of bringing eu liberalism to central and east european countries (kelly 2004 19). used to the greatest extent by the osce which admitted most cees relatively quickly after 1989 and several countries during the cold war, normative pressure or socialization involves efforts to get cee elites to change policy in line with postcold war norms without making membership conditional on doing so. beyond creating the post of the osce high commissioner on national minorities (osce hcnm) in december 1992 as a conflict prevention measure, one that helped raise the organization’s profile once the eu began to consult the osce hcnm on a regular basis, the osce used other means to influence minority policy that fit within the rubric of normative pressure: (1) the establishment of field offices (or missions) within countries thought to have the potential for conflict to monitor treatment of minorities and to interact regularly with officials, (2) short-term visits by experts and/or elites from other osce member states to determine the extent to which these countries adopted policies in line with osce guidelines (kelley 2004 17) (3) declarations and official statements evaluating current policies that might also indicate recommendations for future changes as well as the formal statement of norms in official documents such as the copenhagen document or the framework convention, and (4) dispatching teams of legal experts to provide advice during the exporting eu liberalism eastwards 123 policy-making process (kelley 2002 14). particularly unique to the osce’s methods has been the establishment of missions that bring a small number of people in to work on a daily basis with local officials on a variety of issues - not merely concerning human and minority rights, but also on topics such as strengthening independent judiciaries, the rule of law, and independent media. conditionality, on the other hand, has been used more by the coe, especially by the eu, and occasionally by nato - though the coe also used normative pressure to coax cees to adopt policies in line with post-cold war norms. conditionality creates greater incentives to change given linkages to membership in europe’s most prominent international institutions. eu conditionality has involved: (1) promises of aid and trade preferences, (2) monitoring and benchmarking (i.e. the submission of yearly progress reports that rank applicants’ success in meeting membership requirements, other reports and decisions made at meetings requiring specific action by candidates, evaluations prior to formal accession negotiations to identify discrepancies between eu and national law), (3) accession negotiations that involved deliberations over 31 chapters as well as ongoing benchmarking and monitoring (kelley 2002 14) and (4) declarations from the presidency and resolutions from the european parliament along with other official declarations and demarches urging reform (kelley 2004 19). my use of the term ‘conditionality’ generally refers to either nato and especially to eu membership conditionality. eu liberalism as a ‘stealth ideology’ eu liberalism has three components: (1) the ‘standard’ liberal emphasis on individual rights, the rule of law, constitutional democracy, freedom, and market economics, (2) a rather unconventional support for minority rights (by contemporary norms), and specifically concerning the eu (3) a seemingly schizophrenic emphasis on economic integration that involves, first bringing down borders for the free movement of people, goods, capital, and services between lynn tesser 124 member states, and second, market regulation to diminish the social downsides of capitalism. while many would question whether minority protections are indeed ‘liberal,’ they are nevertheless included for two reasons: (1) post-cold war minority rights are heavily indebted to individualistic cold war human rights doctrine, and (2) some liberals supported the idea of minority rights prior to the second world war. the work of will kymlicka has done much to change how minority rights are conceptualized by claiming that formally unilingual and seemingly liberal countries such as the u.s. are inherently assimilationist. clearly, eu liberalism is much more than mere ‘markets.’ this may be why it is something of a ‘stealth ideology’ – a deeply-transforming politico-economic program that has not yet been fully represented in political discourse or considered by scholars. it is strikingly divorced from the locally grown notions of civil society and the ‘third way’ from 1989, which raises the question of whether it can be successfully incorporated. concerning the two contradictory elements in eu liberalism’s third distinguishing feature, liesbet hooghe and gary marks have referred to each as ‘projects’ forming the basis of official eu discussion concerning the organization’s future trajectory since the 1980s. first is the ‘neoliberal project’ spurring competition between governments to create the most attractive conditions for firms and investment – thus, in a sense, getting states ‘out of markets’ way (or at least out of firms’ way). second is the ‘project for regulated capitalism’ that increases eu regulation over the single market for the purpose of mitigating capitalism’s negative social outcomes. the pursuit of these projects, in effect, exchanges national governments’ control over their individual domestic markets for eu regulation over the enlarged market. some would argue that doing so ultimately increases domestic governments’ control in the first place through allowing regular and legitimate involvement in their neighbors’ domestic affairs (moravscik 485-6). while both sit uneasily together, these two projects indeed reflect the contradiction in liberalisms mixing a high regard for ‘negative liberties’ - rights that keep exporting eu liberalism eastwards 125 governments and others from coercively interfering in individuals’ lives – with varying degrees of support for ‘positive liberties’ – state entitlements aimed at increasing equality of opportunity. mark pollack rightly notes that the neoliberal project has had greater emphasis as primary eu treaties have made the creation of the single market a high priority even while also mandating its regulation (pollack 268). eu liberalism is an ideology that has essentially developed outside of cee and has at least two primary sources: (1) the effort to create a harmonized european market among rich, highly developed west european economies, and (2) west european concerns about post-cold war security that sparked the development of the post-cold war minority rights regime exclusively for cee states. the requirement that cee economies adopt single market policies and the post-cold war minority rights regime then leads to the question of what happens when, in jerzy szacki’s words, such ideas “are transported to entirely different conditions from those in which they originated” (szacki 12). ironically, eu liberalism is the polar opposite of the ideology orienting the drive to create ethnically homogenous states during and after the second world war, an ideology strongly favoring state support for particular nationalities. while political liberalism may indeed be less appealing for state-possessing majority nationalities as it fractures majority rule, more problematic for the region are the implications of eu liberalism’s export: (1) a sizeable shift away from official state support for particular nationalities stemming both from the minority rights regime and anti-discrimination principles embedded in the four single market freedoms (free movement of people, goods, capital, and services), and (2) the frequent disjuncture between rhetoric and reality in regard to anti-discrimination principles, one that can diminish the credibility of liberal values. for example, western europe is not required to adhere to the postcold war minority protection regime, and while cee has been brought into the eu’s market regulation scheme, older member states have been keener to protect lynn tesser 126 sensitive industries there than to diminish the social and economic dislocations of capitalism. considering western europe’s post-second world war ‘velvet revolution,’ mark lilla reminds us that this half of the continent only grudgingly accepted liberalism over the course of decades, an acceptance that was anything but preordained, and only likely condoned because of economic growth and adequate social-welfare policy’ (lilla 133). as the west european precedent suggests, economic growth and social welfare were key to the acceptance of liberal values. a great deal of hope in cee rests on the eu to deliver an increased standard of living and overall economic development in cee. yet, there has neither been an emphasis on social protection in exporting eu liberalism nor has the region ever come close to west european levels of development historically – with the exception of the czech lands and hungary. david good’s comparative analysis of cee countries’ historical economic growth, after all, indicates that cee’s position relative to other european states from 1870 to 1989 remained relatively unchanged (good 50). when combined with eu liberalism’s illiberal export, such conditions do not bode well for liberalism’s future in much of the region. the illiberal rise of eu liberalism without a doubt, many cee citizens desired political and economic change along liberal lines after 1989 including: (1) the creation of pluralist party systems; (2) the recognition of human rights in order to ensure basic individual freedoms; and (3) the creation of market economies. domestic support for some of the ‘standard liberal’ elements in eu liberalism no doubt existed. less popular, however, was the idea of minority rights as well as of substantially reducing state control over capital markets and especially land markets in favor of foreign investment. rogers brubaker, katherine verdery, and others have shown why national majorities did not embrace minority rights after the end of the cold war, all exporting eu liberalism eastwards 127 of which used nationalism as a way to establish their respective states’ de facto independence. retaining state control over land and capital flows runs along the same lines to protect ‘national’ interests. the emergence of eu liberalism began with various aid programs and institutions: the creation of the european bank for reconstruction and development (ebrd), imf aid, and a new program called poland and hungary: assistance for restructuring their economy (phare). eu member states created the ebrd in 1990 to provide aid to cee in the form of technical assistance, policy advice, security offerings, and equity investment. the conditions of its receipt emphasized political over economic reform: respect for basic human rights, acceptance of a multiparty system, respect for the rule of law, free but secret elections, and finally policies laying the groundwork for market economies. imf conditionality was more expressly economic with the receipt of financial assistance conditional on the country’s performance and adherence to a previouslyagreed upon timetable of reforms comprising a market-creating program. though varying for each cee country, the primary elements of mandated reforms included: privatization, substantial trade liberalization, restrictive credit and monetary policies, rapid and almost complete price liberalization, the reform of banking and financial systems, tight fiscal discipline (including near total elimination of price subsidies), and changes in incomes policies (senior nello 84-5). given that the early postcommunist governments had a stronger preference for neoliberal economic reform (as the opposite of and seemingly necessary antidote to communist economics), the imf program met with approval. though the effects of markets would soon lead to economic and social dislocation, at least at the outset the ebrd and imf-driven reforms had social support. finally, phare became the primary aid program for cee. it was originally aimed at providing non-returnable financial assistance to poland and hungary for the express purpose of helping these countries go from planned to market lynn tesser 128 economies and was quickly expanded to encompass all cee states.2 application to phare had conditions similar to the ebrd: the establishment of a multiparty political system, respect for human rights, the organization of free elections, and the creation of market economies (maresceau 12). promoting minority rights divergence between cee desires and international institutions’ conditionality began, however, with the emphasis on minority rights. while liberals and others in cee countries supported the idea of providing minorities with basic human rights, the emphasis on minority protection came more from west european states noting, first, that ethnic conflict over minorities was a key security threat after the erosion of the u.s.s.r.’s control over cee, and second, that such conflict could potentially destabilize western europe through the westward movement of refugees and immigrants. heather grabbe has noted, in fact, that unrestricted immigration from eastern countries essentially replaced the threat of a soviet invasion as western europe’s key security concern, at least with respect to the east (grabbe 2000 520). it was thus of paramount importance, from the perspective of these countries, to provide incentives to encourage cee minorities to stay put – though much less so for state-possessing nationalities. the primary international organizations working on the minority rights issue were the osce and the coe. the osce’s 1990 paris summit demonstrated clear commitment to liberal values in committing member states to the following actions: to hold free and fair elections, to respect the rule of law, to uphold the rights of national minorities, to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to promote free markets (weitz 1992). likewise, the coe required prospective member states to “accept the principles of the rule of law and of the enjoyment of all 2 after a july 1989 meeting of the g-7, the european commission was given the task of coordinating the phare program. exporting eu liberalism eastwards 129 persons within its jurisdiction of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”3 while the osce played a greater role in developing the contemporary minority rights regime, the coe put more effort into developing uniform criteria and has had more leverage on cee states concerning its implementation. not only did several cee countries join the osce long before 1989 (bulgaria, romania, and poland joined in 1973), but the osce’s power to realize the regime in cee was mitigated by its status as a traveling conference. it only began to metamorphasize into an international organization after rising to the challenges of the immediate post-cold war era. by the mid-1990s, the osce and the coe had developed a distinct minority rights regime, one that centered around three standard-setting documents: the osce’s 1990 copenhagen document, the osce’s 1991 geneva report, and the council of europe’s 1995 framework convention for the protection of national minorities. defined as “individuals belonging to national minorities,” the benefactors of new european norms would have rights to: define their identity, have full access to human rights accorded to all, be equal before the law and thus free from state-sponsored discrimination, and to maintain and develop their own culture. the regime that emerged was essentially the product of two radically opposed views on minority protections. on the one hand, statist-oriented countries such as greece, france, bulgaria, romania, and slovakia demanded that these rights be framed in individualistic human rights language. on the other hand, countries with significant numbers of ‘kin’ abroad such as hungary and germany promoted more extensive protections to discourage those identifying themselves as hungarians and germans from moving to their respective ‘mother’ states. for hungary in particular, it was a matter of keeping hungarians living in areas that had previously belonged to hungary. the former view clearly prevailed as primary 3 article 3 of the council’s statutes quoted in weitz (1990 50). beyond this, a key membership requirement was that each state’s delegation to the council must be composed of representatives from all prominent political parties. lynn tesser 130 post-cold war treaties referenced ‘individuals belonging to national minorities’ rather than to ‘national minorities.’ yet, it is possible to take a more collectivist view given that several of the rights delineated are actions that usually occur in the presence of others - for example, the right of cultural preservation through festivals and publicly-celebrated holidays, the use of minority languages in the private and public spheres, and the ability to create organizations (tesser 486). though the coe and osce put a good deal of effort into developing post-cold war standards on minority protections, the existence of genuine pressure to adopt them might seem questionable given the minimal enforcement mechanisms at the council’s and especially the osce’s disposal. yet, pressure did exist, stemming from the fact that most cee states very much desired eu entry and membership in the coe became a de facto prerequisite for joining the eu by 1993 (switalski 27). this setup thus provided the coe in particular with the leverage to persuade cee elites to adopt such policies. however, it is also true that the eu’s rhetorical support for minority rights was belied by two things: (1) west european states were not under similar pressures; making it quite ambiguous whether human rights really mattered to the eu (sadurski 5), and that (2) germany has been a key sponsor of eu expansion eastwards, a leading european power that itself defines de facto membership on ethnic blood ties. germany’s influence, in fact, has led the eu-15 to favor parties with the strongest pro-western attitudes while not making a great deal of their nationalist politics. promoting the single market as for minority rights, cee societies were not enamored of all single market freedoms equally, especially ending formal state control over land and capital markets allowing foreign ownership. the central and eastern eurobarometer, in fact, indicates a general lack of support for foreign ownership in the region ranging exporting eu liberalism eastwards 131 from 64% against in lithuania (in 1993) to a low of 24% against in hungary (in 1993), with hungary unusually open to foreign firms in the 1990s - though less so to foreign land ownership. pressures to take on the characteristics of the eu’s single market arose around the same time as the emergence of the new european minority rights regime. in fact, early eu involvement with cee countries had far more to do with the promotion of the single market than with human or minority rights. the eu made numerous bilateral agreements – europe agreements – with cee states to establish formal trade relations, east-west cooperation, and to promote the practices of the single market – particularly the free movement of goods, capital, services, and labor across borders over a ten-year period, ultimately helping to restructure cee economies to bring them more in line with the eu’s single market (de weydenthal 1992 25). yet, the commission made it clear in a 1990 announcement that the purpose of the agreements was not to lay the grounds for accession, but instead to develop incentives for reform in cee countries and to protect eu interests. requirements for being considered a candidate for a europe agreement signaled clear intention to promote reforms in line with eu liberalism: “the introduction of the rule of law, the respect for human rights, the establishment of a multi-party system with corresponding free and fair elections and finally, the introduction of a market economy” (european information service). according to the agreements, the desired integration of the european market mandated that cee countries alter existing laws to conform with eu law; albeit without requiring these countries to give evidence of their immediate success (cernat 9). for the most part, the europe agreements promoted anti-discrimination policies by laying down reciprocal rights for the eu and cee countries to establish firms and other enterprises on each other’s territory (de weydenthal 1992 25). however, there were key exceptions. while existing member states offered lynn tesser 132 favorable trade terms – with the eu making concessions to cee before the latter reciprocated, sensitive eu-15 industries such as agricultural products, textiles, coal, and steel were protected from cee competition. customs duties on cee products from these sectors would be eliminated at a slower rate than on other imports. beyond that, cee countries had to open their respective markets to heavily subsidized west european agricultural products non-tariff barriers – regulations involving labeling information and the specific ways plants and animals are handled that – have often kept cee goods from circulating freely in the single market. indeed, the eu appears the most ‘socialist’ when it aims to protect the interests of older member states. a perfect example concerns eu control over steel production in poland. preston keat’s insightful article on an agreement between the polish government, polish steel manufacturers (85% of which had been owned or controlled by the government), and the eu presents strong evidence for an ‘eu socialism’ in older member states’ interests that runs against the principles of eu liberalism. while cautious market forecasts predicted an increase in the domestic demand for steel from 2000 to 2010, the settlement limits domestic production to 13.5 million tons by 2002, thus reducing profits that might otherwise have been made. the agreement ultimately leads to a decrease in production that is not driven by market forces, but because of a deal made to keep all steel plants (even inefficient ones) functioning. along with financial help from the eu, the polish government offsetting this loss of potential profit by investing $2.5 billion towards modernization in nearly all the country’s 24 steel plants between late-1998 and 2005. while approximately 40,000 steel workers would be laid off, they would receive more than ample benefits compliments mostly of the eu. keat sums up the situation accordingly: “… what the eu deal really does is legitimate some form of systematic government intervention in the industry that might otherwise not have occurred. it also highlights the fact that organized interests in western europe were able to get what they wanted – reduced competition from poland” (keat 219). in exporting eu liberalism eastwards 133 summary, the regulation of capitalism in a broader europe, often to the tune of older eu members’ preferences, belies the non-discrimination rhetoric intended for candidate countries. eu hesitation in offering membership and later delaying candidates entry certainly did not help matters. after being asked when poland would become an eu member, for example, poland’s former foreign minister władysław bartoszewski signaled just this much by indicating that the science fiction writer stanisław lem would be more likely to know (bartoszewski 71). the eu has indeed used various methods to stall the expansion process that have, at times, delivered a great deal of frustration to applicant states. the eu signed the europe agreements beginning in 1991, after all, not merely to lay the basis for formal association and stimulate liberalization, but also to essentially put off the question of whether these countries would be allowed to join. when requesting formally that their progress towards possible membership be assessed in september 1992, hungary, poland, and czechoslovakia received a rather ambiguous response with nothing concrete on the possibility of their entry (de weydenthal 1993 29). though the eu sent progressively stronger positive signals beginning in 1993, the primary stalling tactic in the second half of the 1990’s was to continually push back the projected date of entry, or even more frustrating for the candidates, to change the requirements of admission. combining minority rights and single market freedoms in the pre-accession process only during the june 1993 european council summit in copenhagen did more concrete promises for accession emerge. though no timetables were established, nor were specific countries invited to begin accession negotiations, the council provided a clear statement of intent: “accession will take place as soon as an associated country is able to assume the obligations of membership” (bulletin). the essential conditions for joining established at copenhagen signal that eu liberalism, lynn tesser 134 building off the conditionality of the europe agreements and the emerging minority rights regime, had indeed taken shape in the simultaneous emphasis on minorities and markets: (1) the existence of stable democratic institutions including rights, respect for, and protection of minorities as well as the rule of law; (2) the presence of a market economy capable of withstanding competitive pressures; and (3) the ability to take on all of the requirements that come with membership, including monetary, economic, and political integration. shortly afterwards, the eu launched the 1994-1995 pact for stability for the purpose of encouraging cee states to reach formal agreements with their neighbors concerning the treatment of minorities as well as borders (smith 122). at the same time, the eu began to lay the grounds for accession by developing a specific preparatory framework for entry. the ‘pre-accession process’ increased the amount of pressure on cee hopefuls to harmonize with eu law and policy. during the first half of the 1990s, prospective members were only to make some effort in approximating eu law. this began to change with the european commission’s 1995 publication of the white paper on the “preparation of the associated countries of central and eastern europe for integration into the internal market of the union.” the white paper’s purpose was to present guidelines to help associate countries prepare for potential membership – specifically to help cee countries undertake reforms the commission deemed essential for the functioning of the single market. prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of nationality, the white paper emphasized implementing the four main single market freedoms concerning goods, services, people, and capital (white paper). pressure to adopt single market policies increased with the development of agenda 2000 in 1997, a commission document meant to satisfy council demands for creating a monitoring process for candidate states. agenda 2000 was the commission’s effort to present “in a single framework the broad perspectives for the development of the union and its policies beyond the turn of the century” exporting eu liberalism eastwards 135 (agenda 11). it reiterated some of the copenhagen goals in delimiting three areas of concern: (1) democracy and the rule of law, (2) human rights, and finally (3) respect for minorities. interestingly enough, agenda 2000 stressed human and minority rights more than the development of the single market. this was likely due to concern over cee candidates’ ‘hot spots’ – russians in estonia and latvia and particularly hungarians in slovakia – as well as continued concern over the region’s roma. cynics claimed that doing so would give the eu means to delay the expansion process. at the same time, pre-accession dictated that candidate countries would be subject to reports on their progress. in july 1997, the commission published its opinions (avis), documents outlining the extent to which the entrants had met the copenhagen criteria and the steps needed to completely fulfill them. to simplify matters, the eu created the accession partnerships to bring the different forms of pre-accession assistance into one package, prioritizing those areas acutely in need of work. thereafter, eu demands became more explicit and aid was directed exclusively toward meeting the requirements of accession (grabbe 1999 15). at the same time, the eu made an effort to more outwardly express its drive to promote liberal values. following revisions undertaken in the 1997 amsterdam treaty, the treaty on european union states: “the union is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law, principles which are common to member states” (laffan 341). particularly with the accession partnerships, phare became explicitly concerned with helping candidates to adopt the aquis, rather than to meet more general political and economic objectives established by the entrants themselves (grabbe 1999 16). later, additional aid programs were created to help applicants meet the demands of pre-accession: the structural adjustment program for agricultural and rural development (sapard), the pre-accession structural instrument (ispa) (concerning structural policies), and later community assistance lynn tesser 136 for reconstruction, development, and stabilization (cards) for albania and the states of the former yugoslavia (maresceau 35). while the accession partnerships do not have a base in any treaty or bilateral agreement (as they are entirely eu-initiated), they have made the copenhagen conditions “quasi-legal” by creating a series of sanctions and a control procedure and have ultimately become the main documents orienting cee-eu relations (grabe 1999 17).4 heather grabbe rightly notes that the accession partnerships hold limited understanding of how market economies should appear, uniformly minimizing the role of varied social actors in industry and the economy in general along anglo-american neoliberal lines (grabbe 1999 21). conclusion the 1990s witnessed the rise of eu liberalism in cee, a ‘stealth ideology’ promoted primarily through the conditionality of key international institutions that remained quite unknown to societies uncertain of all the policy changes needed to ‘join europe.’ its emphasis on minorities and border-effacing markets indeed runs quite contrary to ideas of civil society and the ‘third way’ emerging at the immediate end of communism – not to mention the drive to create ethnically pure states of the 20th century. nevertheless, cee elites’ and societies’ desire to ‘return to europe’ – a return essentially defined by west european elites and key international organizations – would mean adopting a program of specific reforms laid out by the west and designed, to a large extent, to satisfy west european interests in furthering the single market and preventing population flows from the east. at least up until the time of entry, the asymmetrical nature of the eu-cee relationship contributed to eu liberalism’s illiberal transfer with eu member states acting as ‘players in the game’ who simultaneously had the power to determine who 4 heather grabbe rightly notes that the accession partnerships hold limited understanding of how market economies should appear, uniformly minimizing the role of varied social actors in industry and the economy in general along anglo-american neoliberal lines (grabbe 1999 21). exporting eu liberalism eastwards 137 gets what and who does not. with the publication, first, of the avis describing economic and political conditions in these states up until may 1997, and second, the commission’s regular reports on the status of each country’s preparations, this reporting procedure not only further entrenched the hierarchy of west over east, but also influenced relations among the applicants. the pendulum swung from candidate countries sometimes uniting against eu criticism, and at other times dividing over the different degrees of reform deemed necessary in each state. at the same time, and indeed through much of the 1990s, a debate ran among eu member states over the development of a two-tier eu with ‘core’ states pursuing the integration project further and ‘periphery’ states maintaining greater sovereignty. for cee, the implications of this key debate for incoming states were interpreted as a coerced ‘choice’ between being firstand second-class european states - as the eu-15 ruled out flexible options for the new cee states, only further calling into question the validity of the eu’s alleged anti-discrimination principles (smith 108). despite the nature of the process, accession negotiations finally opened in 1998 between the eu and six states – hungary, slovenia, cyprus, poland, estonia, and the czech republic. six other applicants followed – bulgaria, romania, latvia, lithuania, malta, and slovakia – when negotiations opened with this second group in 2000. they were completed in december 2002 – with the exception of bulgaria and romania which eventually joined in 2007. for the most part, cee candidates were expected to adopt the eu’s acquis wholesale, leaving many cee states to set up offices charged with the task of approving and implementing eu law without having to endure lengthy parliamentary debate. the speeding up of the process of harmonizing with eu law has been particularly important in spurring concern that the eu is exporting its democratic deficit to cee. the bigger worry lies in the illiberal export of eu liberalism, particularly through extending europe’s minority rights regime only to cee countries, the lynn tesser 138 haphazard application of anti-discrimination policy of the single market (mostly in cases not harmful to ‘older’ member states’ sensitive sectors), and that the four single market freedoms that do not mix well with the after-effects of the drive to create ethnically pure nation-states. bringing down borders for free movement, particularly concerning land purchases, can revitalize fears concerning sovereignty over formerly contested land areas that experienced population expulsions – a key part of the drive to create ethnically pure nation states.. in this way, the single market freedoms can lead to questions over who owns what and potentially also questions about sovereignty. works cited “agenda 2000: stengthening and widening the european union.” brussels: european commission, 1997. 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into the internal market of the union.” european commission, may 1995. 63 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the relics of the past in fowles the french lieutenant’s woman and byatt’s possession fariba noor bakhsh university of tehran, iran fazel asadi amjad kharazmi university, iran abstract the present study compares john fowles’ the french lieutenant’s woman and a. s. byatt’s possession in light of their approach towards the role of the relics of the past in historiography. these historiographic metafictions differ in the former’s denial of the possibility of possession of the past because of the totally contaminated nature of the traces and the latter’s ambivalence with regard to the influence of relics on the historian’s historical explanation. the theories of hayden white and linda hutcheon and the studies of alun munslow are employed to elaborate on the differences between the speculations of the novels with regard to the notion of evidence in historiography. keywords: historiography; modern; postmodern; relics. introduction both the french lieutenant’s woman and possession, as historiographic metafictions, paradoxically make “documentary historical actuality meet […] formalist self-reflexivity and parody” (hutcheon, 1989, 7). both novels periodically revisit the past while they lay bare their own fictionality. instead of the conventions of realism, parody and metafiction are employed to show the paradoxical connection with the past. in both novels, the reader is asked to recognize the “textualized traces of the literary and historical past” (hutcheon, 1988, 127). the traces that the french lieutenant’s woman deals with are contaminated by the narrator-historian’s impositionalism and that of possession are either interpreted misleadingly, or found wanting, or lost. however, the novels’ approach towards historiography is different. the present article deals with the extent to which the traces can guide the historians of the two novels in their understanding of the past. while fowles’ novel problematizes—or even denies—the authenticity of the relics of the past, byatt’s novel suggests an ambivalence towards the role of the relics in understanding the past. the accounts of the impresario do not lead us towards an ultimate ending to the story but the document that roland finds initiates a quest which causes a partial access to the knowledge of the past. byatt’s ambivalence is shown through roland’s paradoxical recognition of a sense of loss through possession of letters. for the french lieutenant’s woman, historical fact and fiction are not distinguishable and all traces of the past are textually-contaminated, but for possession, the truth beyond the traces may be partially discoverable through empiricist approach towards history; in other words, to some extent, the meaning of the past can be inferred by means of the traces. the present article attempts to deal specifically with their treatment of the relics of the past. epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 20 4 64 f. n. bakhsh & f. a. amjad epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences much has been written about the french lieutenant’s woman and possession. in case of the french lieutenant’s woman, joanne v. creighton’s reader-response oriented analysis (1982), deborah bowen’s narratological reading of the novel (1995), dwight eddins’ existentialistic approach (1976), robert siegle’s application of poststructuralist views of barthes and foucault to the novel (1983), silvio gaggi’s comparison between fowles’ fiction and metatheatrical tendencies of the plays of brecht and pirandello (1983), and frederick m. holmes’ exploration of the metafictional voices of the story (1981) are just some among the many. as with possession, the wide scope of study covers different approaches. jackie buxton rejects the exclusive consideration of possession as a postmodern piece of work just because of “its generic pastiche, its self-conscious interrogation of literary and historical truth, and a plot that resembles a corridor of mirrors”, the techniques that had been practiced before postmodernity (1996, 199). for him, possession is “first and foremost a ‘straight’ narrative, a realistic fiction” (1996, 210). he argues that while historiographic metafiction foregrounds the textual nature of the archive and the impossibility of getting to total knowledge of the past, in possession this trend is shattered by the postscript in which the reader acquires such knowledge. he concludes that “the novel offers modernist ideology in postmodern guise” (1998, 218). but buxton’s article does not refer to the novel’s criticism of modern historiography. katrina sanders finds juxtaposition of both liberal humanism and postmodernism in the novel. the writer of the present article agrees with katrina sanders in finding “strong humanist impulse” in possession (2000, 92). she truly argues that possession exposes both “fallibility of historical knowledge” and “dissatisfaction with the values of postmodern literature” (2000, 93), but she discusses mostly in terms of modernism and postmodernism in general and does not cover the different approaches within the realm of historiography. shiller focuses on the emplotment of contemporary “victorianism” through the nineteenth century novel (1997, 546). she refers to hutcheon’s idea that the “textual traces”—our knowledge of the past through narrative—can, under the influence of the present, reshape the past (1997, 546). she acknowledges the textual past and the shaping power of the present; however, she contends that the past can be recaptured “in ways that evoke its spirit and do honor to the dead and silenced” (1997, 546). she relates roland’s and maud’s rediscoveries to lacapra’s view that the present explorations of the possibilities of past happenings can reveal historical narratives (1997, 547). although roland and maud “possess” partial knowledge, what they understand about ash and lamotte shows “how the past is not simply a finished story to be narrated but a process linked to each historian’s time of narration”, as lacapra puts it (qt. in shiller, 1997, 547). according to shiller, possession reveals that just the documents do not make the scholardetectives access knowledge of the past; instead, they have to pay attention to “what has been left out of the standard biographies” (1997, 547). shiller argues that neo-victorian novels, instead of clarification, tend to enhance ambiguities (1997, 550). she contends that possession deals with the notion that the secrets in the lives of the figures of the past keep us from getting to a thorough knowledge (1997, 550). in shiller’s view, the type of history that possession deals with is based on “interpretation, not on the discovery of historical ‘truths’” (1997, 552). in this novel, the emphasis is on “the process of attempting to assimilate historical data, and the necessity of literary and historical conventions to make a coherent and satisfying narrative out of the raw details of past lives” (shiller, 1997, 552). susan kieda discusses possession in terms of the dual identity of the female, having both passion and intellect (2010). in her analysis, she refers to the allusions to fairy tales and 65 the relics of the past in fowles the french lieutenant’s woman and byatt’s possession epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences myths within possession and relates them to the development of the female characters of the novel, christable lamotte, maud bailey, and ellen ash. she further argues that the novel is optimistic about the progress of society towards identification of woman as being composed of both passion and intellect. regina rudaityte traces the novel’s ambivalence towards postmodernism (2007). in her view, the novel questions postmodernism through its most important features like parody and pastiche. likewise, the novel criticizes poststructuralism and feminist criticism. the novel, according to rudaityte, both imitates and reconsiders the romance and victorian poetry. rudaityte argues that the novel criticizes postmodern critical theories—poststructuralism specifically—by paying attention to “the author who is back and whose presence in the text seems to be vital” (2007, 121). she contends that notwithstanding many postmodern narrative techniques are employed in the novel, “byatt seems to be trying to restore the author back to the text, displaying her belief in individual creativity against the anonymity advocated by poststructuralist theories” (2007, 121). agata buda examines possession in light of its portrayal of the female figure through the victorian and twentieth-century perspectives (2008). pilarcuder dominguez describes possession not only as a quest narrative but also as a detective story and gothic fiction (1995). dominguez traces parallelism between the quest of roland and maud and that of the archetypal romance. the writer also relates the characters of the novel— maud and christabel, roland and randolph, val and ellen, leonora stern and blanche glover—in terms of both their physical and mental traits. dominguez further extends the scope of his parallelism to the events and intertexts of the novel. therefore, the black magician in “the glass coffin”, according to dominguez, stands for mortimer cropper, and ewan macintyre and leonora stern stand for the usual helpers of the protagonists of fairytales. in dominguez’s view, reconstructing the story of christabel and randolph through their textual and geographic quests, maud and roland are affected by the actions of their counterparts. critics have widely compared the french lieutenant’s woman and possession in light of their similarities and differences. moreover, the two novels are frequently compared in light of their historiographic approach. in her comparison of the french lieutenant’s woman and possession, lisa fletcher discusses that the latter adjusts to byatt’s idealization of pleasure of reading because of its “self-conscious moral realism” (2003, 28). further, she argues that the novel is conventional in both its “heterosexual romance plot” and its “treatment of history” (2003, 29). she agrees that there are differences between fowles’ and byatt’s novels; however, she contends that some parallels can be found between sarah woodruff and christabel lamotte with regard to their “allegiance to the tenets and motives of heterosexual hegemony” (2003, 31). in fletcher’s view, characters like them, make “negotiation of the past and the present” possible (2003, 31). cora kaplan considers the french lieutenant’s woman and possession as examples of “historical pastiche” (2007, 87). she argues that in the french lieutenant’s woman, while telling and interpreting a victorian story, a “modern pedant” repeatedly interrupts his story “to offer helpful asides on the period”; in possession, however, the subtitle “a romance” keeps us from “any expectation of traditional realism” (2007, 87). she also compares the “sentimental satisfaction” in the ending of possession with the last “antiromantic ending” of the french lieutenant’s woman and indicates that the latter “looks ever more intellectually and politically interesting in its refusal of domestic felicity, and in its refreshing skepticism about whether men and women can, after all, come together on common ground” (2007, 110). 66 f. n. bakhsh & f. a. amjad epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the relics of the past, modern and postmodern historiography in the late eighteenth century, historiography started to be institutionalized and professionalized and was introduced as an academic discipline (lorenz, 2009, 393). by the first decade of the nineteenth century, the “problem of historical knowledge” came to be the focus of attention of the thinkers of the time (white, 1973, 39). while the eighteenth century distinguished among true, fabulous, and satirical historiography, the historiography of the nineteenth century emphasized the true and objective account of past incidents (white, 1973, 267). historiography in its scientific sense can be traced back to thucydides in 5 b.c.; however, it was leopard von ranke in the nineteenth century who established its procedures that are still followed (southgate, 2009, 540-541).lorenz points to niebuhr, humboldt, coulanges and bury as the other originators of modern scientific historiography (2009, 393). according to ranke, the task of the historian is to prove “what actually happened” (brown, 2005, 18). so, he tried to refer to documentary evidence to represent the facts in order to understand what actually had happened in the past (white, 1973, 163). kaya yilmaz mentions that ranke “combined a critical reading of the surviving documents of the past with a careful reconstruction of the historical circumstances in which it was composed” (2007, 179). g. r. elton, arthur marwick, and peter novick are among the philosophers of history who support reconstructionist, modernist, or empiricist approach to history (munslow, 1997, 18). because of their adherence to correspondence theory, modernist historiographers emphasize the possibility of recovering the past through “recovering the intentionality of the author of the evidence” (munslow, 1997, 167-168). munslow enumerates six key principles of modernist historiography. first, the historian can discover the past by means of reference and inference. second, interpretations appear after facts. third, fact must be distinguished from value. fourth: history and fiction are different. fifth: there is distinction between the knower and the known. sixth: truth is not based on perspectives (1997, 38). the modernist historiographers start inductively from the evidence to infer the reality of the past (munslow, 1997, 127). they justify their inductive inference by careful observation of the trace of the past (munslow, 1997, 41). for these historiographers, the trace of the past is the means of “accurate recovery of the past” (munslow, 1997, 32). to “reconstruct the past as it really was”, they not only refer to “textual evidence”, but also place the evidence in its context (munslow, 1997, 41). in their view, the trace of the past makes reconstruction of the past possible “without any imposition from the historian” (munslow, 1997, 43). in elton’s view, a detached historian is able to write history with the help of the trace of the past (munslow, 1997, 168). for modernist historiographers, historical explanation starts from the raw material of the evidence that is interpreted in the form of a story that is, in turn, told objectively, without taking advantage of any literary devices (munslow, 1997, 10). they attempt to recount the happenings of the past with a detached perspective by means of their traces (southgate, 2009, 540). discovery of the actual happening of the past is the objective of modernist historiographers (munslow, 1997, 37). but this orientation underwent changes in the second half of the twentieth century with the attacks on the reliability of scientific historiography on the part of postmodern historiographers (iggers, 1997, 1-2; southgate, 2009, 541). aviezer tucker states that in rankean research program, the documents within archives are the only means of attaining trustworthy historical account (2009, 3). he argues that this method has become obsolete because of the developments in the methods 67 the relics of the past in fowles the french lieutenant’s woman and byatt’s possession epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences of historians. he points to “artefacts, shapes of landscapes, genetic analyses of present and fossil dna, [and] works of art” as the means of obtaining reliable information about the past (2009, 3). in munslow’s view, reconstructing the past by means of the evidence, modernist historiographers cannot be as objective as the way elton expects (1997, 44). harlan argues that the evidence can never be pure of “its accumulated meanings” and the author’s original meaning cannot be grasped even if the evidence is located in its context (munslow, 1997, 107). munslow enumerates the tenets of postmodern history as such: instead of reality of the past, it addresses the reality-effect; discovering the intentionality of the author is not possible; “chains of interpretative signification” replace “recoverable original meaning”; referentiality is rejected; the historian can never be objective; and the past is sublime (1997, 166).postmodern historiography questions the referentiality of sources and contends that the evidence cannot verify the truthfulness of the past (munslow, 1997, 66, 69). postmodern historiographers like white, jenkins, and ankersmit reject the baconian notion that the pieces of reality which are there in the archives can lead us to the reality of the past (munslow, 1997, 166). they question the correspondence between the evidence and the past (munslow, 1997, 107). for them, the archive should not be taken empirically as the point of origin (munslow, 1997, 122). in munslow’s view, there are some intermediaries between the evidence and the historian: “absence, gaps and silences, the contrived nature of the archive, signifier-referent collapse, the historian’s bias and […] the structure of the historian’s imposed and contrived narrative argument” (munslow, 1997, 69). so, what is the significance of the trace of the past in postmodern historiography? according to munslow, in postmodern historiography, historical evidence is used for understanding both the events to which it refers and the “organization of the linguistic mechanisms underpinning the creation and constitution of historical knowledge” (1997, 122). postmodern historiographers use the trace of the past to search its multiple meanings (munslow, 1997, 130). postmodern historiography declares that “evidence only signposts possible realities and possible interpretations because all contexts are inevitably textualized or narrativized or texts within texts” (munslow, 1997, 26). munslow agrees with white in his presumption that the historian’s inability of knowing the true story behind the evidence is because of the existence of countless stories (1997, 147). the historian, based on the evidence, finds different kinds of stories and turns them into a coherent emplotment (munslow, 1997, 147-148). ankersmit agrees with the use of the evidence to judge the veracity of historiography; however, he believes that it must be accompanied by “placing one historian’s text against another historian’s text” (brown, 2005, 148). now the question is that to what extent the postmodern historiographer can configure evidence. munslow agrees with the postmodern historiographers in rejecting the objectivity of the historian in his treatment of the evidence: “the historian’s dialog with his/her evidence cannot be undertaken through an objective, non-intertextual, nonfigurative and value-free medium” (1997, 170). in munslow’s view, approaching their evidence, the historians cannot get rid of “a priorism”, the notion that elton and marwick strongly reject (1997, 40-41). munslow says that although postmodern history rejects correspondence theory, it does not imply that historians are allowed to choose “any tropicemplotment-argument-ideological configuration for the evidence” to get to a “historical version of literary deconstruction that allows any meaning to be imposed on the past 68 f. n. bakhsh & f. a. amjad epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences while declaiming any responsibility for it” (1997, 176). instead, he views history as the outcome of the exchange between “the mental prefigurative process and the evidence” (1997, 176). likewise, the “narrativized” evidence is “already an intertext that has previously been interpreted and textualized by other historians working within the archive and their episteme” (munslow, 1997, 176). in munslow’s view, a moderate approach to historiography is more reasonable than that of modern historiographers’ (1997, 98). furthermore, he does not consider postmodern historiographers’ assertion convincing that historical truth cannot be acquired through sources because it is basically impossible to know the past (1997, 98). he agrees with collingwood in rejecting white’s exclusively fictional consideration of history and attributing evaluative functions to the evidence for the emerged facts (1997, 175). munslow concludes that “constructing history [becomes] an aesthetic and poetic act rather than an empirical one”; furthermore, historiography proves to produce “a particular kind of historical truth rather than the truth” (1997, 101). “fiction is woven into all”: the french lieutenant’s woman in historiographic metafiction, the “real” existence of the past is not denied, instead, “our mode of knowledge of that past” is problematized: “we can know it only through its traces, its relics” (hutcheon, 1988, 119). in hutcheon’s view, historiographic metafiction does not deny the referent, it problematizes “the entire activity of reference” (1988, 152). through the “paradoxical combination of metafictional self-reflexivity with historical subject matter”, historiographic metafiction interrogates “the nature of the referent and its relation to the real, historical world” (hutcheon, 1988, 19). it challenges “any simple notions of realism or reference” by combining art with history (hutcheon, 1988, 20, 52). it “inscribes and then undercuts both the autonomy of art and the referentiality of history” (hutcheon, 1988, 56). to put forward an evidence of the paradoxes of postmodernism, hutcheon says that as the historiographic and the metafictional are combined, “the claims of both ‘authentic’ representation and ‘inauthentic’ copy” are rejected; moreover, “artistic originality” and “the transparency of historical referentiality” are challenged in the same way (1988, 110). hutcheon points to michael riffattere’s theories of history according to which the “reference in literature is never anything but one of text to text”, and she concludes that in historiographic metafiction, history “could never refer to any actual empirical world, but merely to another text” (1988, 142-143). as a historiographic metafiction, the french lieutenant’s woman considers the past as a problematic concept which cannot be known except through its relics which are textually constructed. depicting the problematic nature of writing and reading history, the novel demands the reader’s “recognition of textualized traces of the literary and historical past” and his “awareness of what has been done—through irony—to those traces” (hutcheon, 1988, 127). through its parodic and self-reflexive metafictionality, the novel problematizes “historical reference” (hutcheon, 1988, 40). in fact, instead of directing the narrator-historian to the end of the story, the impresario’s observation—or evasion of observation—causes him to offer three different endings to the story. hutcheon corrects the misconception of the critics who do not differentiate between the narrator of the french lieutenant’s woman and the fowles-like observer who is present in the twentieth century (1980, 58). the novel is composed of several “worlds”, the world of sarah, the world of the impresario, the world of the narrator, and the world of the writer of the novel (hutcheon, 1980, 57). sarah attempts to write the history of her own life; the impresario goes directly to the age to witness the incidents; the 69 the relics of the past in fowles the french lieutenant’s woman and byatt’s possession epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences narrator makes use of the observation of the impresario as the evidence for construction of his distorted historical narrative; the author incorporates all these histories of the victorian past both to rewrite the victorian age and to explore the present time. sarah distorts her own past to acquire the freedom of an author and to expose the hypocrisy of the contemporary authoritative voices. in spite of all his objectivity as the twentieth century witness of the nineteenth century, the impresario manipulates the notion of time to evade a happy ending. the intrusive narrator emplots the selected segments of the observation of the impresario into a satire directed against the folly of the victorian age. the author leaves the narrative open ended to question the notion of possibility of acquiring the reality of the past as it is through history. he further explores the present time in terms of its deviations from and continuities with the victorian age. the impresario’s observation is the reference that the narrator of the story uses to rewrite the victorian past. the twentieth-century impresario is present in the year 1867 and his observation is emplotted by the twentieth-century historian-narrator of the story. the impresario is described by the narrator, as “a person of curiosity” and a “local spy” (fowles, 3-4). in the last chapter, the narrator admits that new characters must not be introduced at the end of the novels. however, he mentions that the spectator appeared before in the train. the narrator claims that he takes advantage of the direct accounts of the impresario—as his reference—for representing the age. however, he—the narrator— implicitly acknowledges his—impresario’s—biased outlook. he says that this observer “is the sort of man who cannot bear to be left out of the limelight, the kind of man who travels first class or not at all, for whom first he first is the only pronoun, who in short has first things on the brain” (461). he further describes the changed appearance and the fancy clothes of this “very minor figure” (462). he says that the impresario looks at mr. rossetti’s house “as if it is some new theater he has just bought and is pretty confident he can fill” (462). the narrator continues that this observer, as before, “very evidently regards the world as his to possess and use as he likes” (462). the narrator is puzzled when the observer corrects his watch because it is unusual for a brand like “breguet” and there is no other clock with which he can adjust his watch (462). the narrator convinces himself—and the reader—that the observer is “providing himself with an excuse for being late” (462). but the point is that he manipulates the time to suggest another ending. these examples testify the contaminated nature of the narrator’s archive. the narrator of the story seemingly reconstructs the events of the story by means of the emplotment of the selected parts of impresario’s observation that are used as his archive; however, in chapter 13, he says that he does not know who sarah is. he says that everything there is the product of his imagination and if he claims that he is aware of what goes on in his characters’ thoughts, it is because conventionally “the novelist stands next to god” (95). even if the novelist does not know everything, “he tries to pretend that he does”. but, as a novelist who lives “in the age of alain robbe-grillet and roland barthes”, he cannot be a traditional novelist (95). then he directly mocks the literary conventions of the victorian age like autobiographies, the characters who represent their authors, and the entitled chapters (95). he claims that he is “the most reliable witness” (96). in addition, the three endings of the story explicitly reject the possibility of truthful representation of the past. with charles’ decision to confess his relationship with sarah to ernestina, the narrator gives the first ending to his story. he claims that he is not aware of sarah’s fate and reports charles’ and ernestina’s marriage and their having “let us say seven children” (337). then he points to charles’ being driven to business since his uncle and mrs. bella 70 f. n. bakhsh & f. a. amjad epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences tomkins begot a twin. he says that today charles’ sons still control mr. freeman’s shop. with regard to sam and mary—“but who can be bothered with the biography of servants”—they led an ordinary life “in the monotonous fashion of their kind” (337). for getting to the second ending, the narrator starts to tell the story from the point that charles had received a note from sarah. then he goes on to relate their encounter in rossetti’s household. in this part, charles came to understand that they had a child and it seems that they got along with each other. at this moment, the narrator informs the reader of the departure of the observer and his setting the time for fifteen minutes before (462). and the third ending starts with fifteen minutes before when charles understood that sarah had been aware about his broken engagement. now the conversation between the two went on with charles’ accusation of sarah of being much more “selfish and bigoted” than mrs. poulteney (463). he went out of the room and on his way out, he saw the maid holding a little girl in arms. then he left the house. “we need the end of story”: possession munslow disagrees with both extremist modernist and postmodernist historiographers in their exclusive insistence on and rejection of the possibility of knowing the past (98). byatt also acknowledges the difficulties and limitations of acquiring truthful historical knowledge through modern historiography while she denounces postmodern historiography for its despair about recapturing the past. in fact, she exposes the shortcomings of both. she suggests postmodern historiography to take the possibility of possessing the past into consideration. as a historiographic metafiction, possession incorporates the past into the present; it also represents the past by blurring the boundary between history and fiction. it is skeptical of referentiality but does not deny its significance totally. for byatt, the textualized narrative can be mediated for possessing the past but such possession is inevitably partial. in the same way, in opposition to the exclusively postmodern historiography of the french lieutenant’s woman, possession offers a moderate view which demands juxtaposition of different approaches. in addition, in its exposition of the problems and difficulties of acquiring the historical explantion, possession shows an ambivalence towards the outcome of this process. so, while she acknowledges the examination of both the relics and the context in order to be directed towards the truth of the past, she simultaneously questions the possibility of thorough possession of the past. in fact, byatt’s view towards the relics of the past is not as one dimensional as that of fowles. she adores the pleasure of getting to the end of the story, even if the ending is partial, provisional, or postponed to the future. however, she verifies that such pleasure may distance one from the truth. this is the reason of roland’s return to reading ash’s poetry. when roland mitchel, the twentieth century research assistant, is looking for sources of randolph henry ash in vico’s book, he accidentally comes across the yet-undiscovered letters of ash to an unnamed woman—later identified as christabel lamotte. roland starts to investigate ash’s archival remnants to decide on his concealed and untouched moments of life. he is introduced by fergus—a deconstructionist academic and his rival—to maud bailey who studies lamotte only in terms of her despise of men. for the sake of scholarship, they start to investigate the issue together. roland thinks of the possibility of christabel’s accompanying ash in his natural history expedition in yorkshire. then they want to know whether blanche’s suicide has anything to do with ash’s and christabel’s relationship and they think of the help of beatrice nest 71 the relics of the past in fowles the french lieutenant’s woman and byatt’s possession epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences who provides maud with two letters from blanche to ellen (255). reading the letters, maud and roland speculate that the evidence that blanche had talked about was ash’s “stolen letters” (257). in order to prove their assumption, they go to yorkshire where they collaborate to study the poets’ works that had been composed during that time, taking advantage of mortimer cropper’s leonora stern’s books and the common images in ash’s and lamotte’s poetry (257). visiting yorkshire, reading melusinaand ash’s letters and poetry, and finding the local words and natural features of yorkshire in them, roland and maud are convinced of christabel’s presence in yorkshire along with ash; however, they know that they are not “proofs” (290). in the forthcoming incidents, their quest is turned to chase and race (460). fergus wolff tells blackadder and cropper about roland’s and maud’s attempt to discover something personal with regard to ash and lamotte. maud starts to discover blanche glover’s motivation of suicide. she also goes through the letters to understand the way lamotte spent the time between her yorkshire journey and her inquest by the police. leonora stern provides her with a letter that makes it clear that lamotte visited her family in fouesnant in the autumn of 1859. in brittany, ariane le minier—who works with leonora on lamotte—gives maud a part of sabine de kercoz’s journal which makes it clear that lamotte had been at her cousin’s house during her months of pregnancy. in brittany, they are followed by blackadder, leonora, and cropper. roland and maud are thinking of the fate of the child, of the way and the reason blanche was abandoned, and the way ash and lamotte parted, and if ash knew there was a child (457). beatrice nest informs maud of cropper’s plan to dig up ash’ grave (475). the group of scholars—blackadder, leonora, beatrice, maud, and roland—along with euan and val gather to decide on a way to overcome cropper. they follow cropper and surround him as he finds the box which contained a hair bracelet, a thread of hair, a bundle of letters and an unopened letter from lamotte to ash along with a photograph of maia’s wedding. reading the letter, they understand that maud is a descendent of ash and christabel. the archive that they acquire from ash’s grave testifies their final discovery of truth. the morning after accomplishment of the task, life for roland and maud smelled “fresh and lovely and hopeful” although it accompanied “the smell of death and destruction” (551). however, the 1868 postscript problematizes the state of certainty of their scholarship since while they acquire the buried letter that clarified the identity of ash’s and lamotte’s daughter—the ancestor of maud bailey—they can never know that ash had seen his daughter and also they can never have an access to ash’s letter that was never delivered to christabel. willingly or not, roland and maud take advantage of the documents related to different fields of criticism in their academic quest. of course while they find something missing in each one and add their own interpretations to what they acquire, in some cases their own views are modified or altered. they use the diaries of crab robinson, blanche, ellen, and sabine de kercoz, the biographical information—gathered with different techniques—of blackadder and cropper, the feminist views of beatrice nest, and the queer studies of leonora stern. they add their own textual and contextual criticism to these evidences. interestingly, it is euan the solicitor who causes their final victory. when euan tells val that he knows everything is over between val and roland, val asks how he knows that. he responds: “because i’ve been watching you and assessing the evidence for weeks now, it’s my job” (449). at the end of the day, the ash scholars know that they have to “reassess everything” because all ash’s post-1859 poems had been under the influence of his affair with lamotte (526). the lamotte scholars also think that they 72 f. n. bakhsh & f. a. amjad epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences have to reconsider taking lamotte as exclusively lesbian and also they have to reread her works (526-527). besides changing the face of ash’s and lamotte’s scholarships, paradoxically, the discovered relics of the past turn roland into a poet. initially, with his discovery of the letters, roland is willing to identify the lady and to reveal, if the letters continued, the ignored meanings in ash’s poetry. he thinks that even ash’s scholarship can alter through these letters since ash’s scholars have their certainties with regard to ash’s life and his “guarded, courteous and not of the most lively” correspondence (10). ironically, what ash has written on vico does not matter anymore. in his dissertation, roland has studied the matter of historical evidence in ash’s poetry but it becomes clear that the present letters would change the meaning of his poetry. finding the letters, roland reads a challenge in the eyes of the portrait of ash: “so you think you know me?” (21). the discovered correspondence causes the “known ash” to be “shifted a little” and roland feels both “readiness” and “fear” (21).so, while he thinks he is ready to possess the past, he is afraid of dispossession of his present certainty. to roland, the secret letters are “[u] rgent, unfinished”, and “[s]hocking” (24).for roland, letters are “a form of narrative that envisages no outcome, no closure” (145). as roland gets near to the truth, he contemplates that “[c]oherence and closure are deep human desires that are presently unfashionable. but they are always both frightening and enchantingly desirable” (possession, 456). roland’s meditation over “coherence and closure” is in line with the conflict between modern and postmodern historiographers. while modern historiography acknowledges the possibility of recovering the past truthfully, postmodern historiography denies it totally. showing byatt’s dissatisfaction with both, possession portrays a return to the archive. the archive that roland finds and the subsequent partial knowledge that he acquires through it influence his life, both private and professional. the narrator describes roland’s meditation “on the tiresome and bewitching endlessness of the quest for knowledge” (7). as a textual critic, “he sat, recuperating a dead man’s reading, timing his exploration by the library clock” (7). so far, his usual manner of studying ash has been concerned with “the movement of ash’s mind, stalked through the twists and turns of his syntax, suddenly sharp and clear in an unexpected epithet” (25). previously, he did not like “randolph’s vanished body”, his home or his sitting place, as did mortimer cropper, the collector of ash’s archive (24-25). but now, “these dead letters troubled him, physically even, because they were only beginnings” (25). not the way ash wrote the letters but their addressee is what he tries to discover: “who?” (25). he used to despise the scholars like cropper who were “enchanted by things touched by the great”, but now he is willing to keep the original letters for himself: “he felt they were his” (27). paradoxically, he becomes like cropper, the biographer who considers himself as “the lord and owner of ash” (33). gradually roland comes to understand that his possession of the letters is lost. then, with the letters of invitation coming from different universities due to his article “line by line”, he acquires the recognition that the letters have caused his distance from ash although they have made him closer to his life (510). feeling that he has lowered himself to the position of cropper by being turned from a “reader” to a “hunter”, roland starts to reread ashs’ poetry full-heartedly (510). in his view, what he has found has “turned out to be a sort of loss” (510). the one who struggled to acquire facts, now takes refuge in the realm of poetry (515). 73 the relics of the past in fowles the french lieutenant’s woman and byatt’s possession epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences conclusion as a historiographic metafiction, possession self-consciously draws the reader’s attention to its fictionality as a historical fiction; however, it does not reject the referentiality of history as the french lieutenant’s woman does. there is an ambivalent attitude in possession which foregrounds both the traces of the past as the possible means of representation of representation of the past the possible incompleteness of such representation. on the surface, the french lieutenant’s woman is the love story of charles and sarah, the nineteenth-century characters whose life is rendered through the narrative of a narrator who makes use of observation of an observer. going through the story, the narrator intervenes from time to time to assert his ideas, have a comment, or elaborate on a concept or a situation. the observation of the twentieth century impresario represents the archive available to the narrator who takes the role of the historian. gradually the reader comes to understand that the story is not about charles and sarah but about the notion of history itself. getting to the ending of the story, the narrator offers three endings to his reader. through his multiple endings, he devalues the comprehensive and logical consequences to highlight the role of historian/storytellers in attributing endings to the events. in the french lieutenant’s woman, the storyteller, takes the role of a twentieth-century historian who in his portrayal of the events related to the fate[s] of charles and sarah, attempts to analyze the victorian age. in possession, thefacts which had been acquired by the scholars of different fields of literary criticism—textual, poststructuralist, biographical, gender and queer studies—were altered byash’s coincidental discovery of the evidence. ash’s discovered letter caused many previously-held facts with regard to ash’s and lamotte’s life and works to be contradicted. byatt, does not take the influence of the historian and the context for granted. the historian can incorporate his knowledge of the context into the evidence to turn it into historical facts. meanwhile, byatt necessitates careful examination of the evidence to evaluate how true the historical facts are. then she shows her ambivalence by not promising the possession of the whole truth. byatt deviates from hayden white’s theories of postmodern historiography by denying both the intentionality of all historians and the fictive construction of all histories. in her ambivalent treatment of historiography, she acknowledges the significance of the relics of the past by contending that the history that is obtained through the authentic document is not necessarily a fictive construct and is possible to represent the past; however, such representation, she argues, may not be complete. the relics of the past are the means of reconstruction of the past in both the french lieutenant’s woman and possession, but while they do not direct the historian—the narrator—towards a totalizing ending in the former, they become the source of the partial discovery of the past in the latter. references bowen, deborah (1995). the riddler riddled: reading the epigraphs in john fowles’ the french lieutenant’s woman. the journal of narrative techniques, vol. 25.1, pp. 67-90. brown, callum g. (2005). postmodernism for historians. london: pearson & longman. buda, agata (2008). narration techniques in a. s. byatt’s possession as a means to portray a woman. seria filologiczna, vol. 51, pp. 171-178. buxton, jackie (1996). ’what’s love got to do with it?’ postmodernism and possession. english studies in canada, vol. 22.2, pp. 199-219. creighton, joanne v. (1982). the reader and modern and postmodern fiction. college literature. vol. 9.3, pp. 216-230. dominguez, pilarcuder (1995). romance forms in a. s. byatt’s possession. revistaalecantina de 74 f. n. bakhsh & f. a. amjad epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences estudiosingleses. vol. 8, pp. 79-89. eddins, dwight (1976). john fowles: existence as authorship. contemporary literature. vol. 17.2, pp. 204222. fletcher, lisa (2003). historical romance, gender, and heterosexuality: john fowles’ the french lieutenant’s woman and a. s. byatt’s possession. journal of interdisciplinary gender studies. vol. 7.1 & 2, pp. 26-42 gaggi, silvio (1983). pirandellian and brechtian aspects of the fiction of john fowles. comparative literature studies. vol. 23.4, pp. 324-334. holmes, frederick m. (1981). the novel, illusion and reality: the paradox of omniscience in the french lieutenant’s woman. the journal of narrative technique. vol. 11.3, pp. 184-198. hutcheon, linda (1980). narcissistic narrative: the metafictional paradox. waterloo: wilfrid laurier university press. --(1988). a poetics of postmodernism: history, theory, fiction. new york & london: routledge. --(1989). the politics of postmodernism. london & new york: routledge. iggers, george g. (1997). historiography in the twentieth century: from scientific objectivity to the postmodern challenge. hanover and london: wesleyan university press. kaplan, cora (2007). victoriana: histories, fictions, criticism. edinburgh: edinburgh university press. kieda, susan (2010). possession: a romance and a. s. byatt’s use of fairytales and myths: an investigation of the female tension between passion and intellect. honors projects. paper 64. http://scholarworks. gvsu.edu/honorsprojects/64. lorenz, chris (2009). scientific historiography. in avizier tucker (ed.), a companion to the philosophy of history and historiography (393-403). sussex: wiley-blackwell. munslow, alun (1997). deconstructing history. london and new york: routledge. rudaityte, regina (2007). (de)construction of the postmodern in a. s. byatt’s novel possession. literatura, vol. 49.5, pp. 116-122. sanders, katrina (2000). polemical plot-coils: thematising the postmodern in possession. sydney studies in english, vol. 26, pp. 92-114.http://search.informit.com.au/documentsummary;dn=200103032;res=ielapa shiller, dana (1997). the redemptive past in the neo-victorian novel. studies in the novel. vol. 29. 4, pp. 538-560. siegle, robert (1983). the concept of the author in barthes, foucault, and fowles. college literature. vol. 10.2, 126-138. southgate, beverley (2009). postmodernism. in aviezer tucker (ed.),a companion to the philosophy of history and historiography. (pp. 220-230). west sussex: wiley-blackwell. tucker, aviezer (2009). origins, common causes in historiographic reasoning. in avizier tucker (ed.), a companion to the philosophy of history and historiography (pp. 220-230).sussex: wiley-blackwell. yilmaz, kaya (2007). postmodernist approach to the discipline of history. kocaeli universitesis sosyal bilimler enstitusu dergisi. vol. 14.2, 176-188. white, hayden (1973). metahistory: the historical imagination in nineteenth-century europe. baltimore & london: the john hopkins university press. romance is purely a european tradition and as a genre it has got a long history epiphany online journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / volume 1 / no. 1 fall 2008 ©2008, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. romance in peril: a survey of the genre in seventeenth century english literature mustafa bal international university of sarajevo the seventeenth century in england can be seen as the age which marked the beginning of modernity as well as the beginning of empirical thought. rationalization of viewpoints combined with the political turmoil of the century, causing immense setbacks within the english literary traditions. one of these setbacks took place within the romance tradition which had been a major mode of writing during the earlier centuries. in this sense, this article analyses reasons of the decline and the neglect of the romance tradition throughout seventeenth century english literature as well as examining how the genre managed to survive either implicitly or explicitly in several works like oroonoko by aphra behn, pastoral poems by andrew marvel and milton, and in some parts of milton‟s paradise lost. elizabethan writers were lucky in inheriting from medieval times a vast heritage of arthurian romances on which they could model their works. thus comes sidney with his arcadia which presents a country of “dream and enchantment, of brave exploit unblemished chastity, constant love, and undying friendship” (cross 11). this was also the reflection of the country under the mature reign of the romance queen elizabeth. however, seventeenth century writers was not as lucky as sidney since the country does not find rest throughout the century, causing both writers and readers to neglect the fabulous, false world that romances would romance in peril: a survey of the genre in seventeenth century english literature 36 present. yet, it was also true for the seventeenth century people that no century could do without romance. therefore, especially in the first half of the century, since it was not produced in england, romance was transported from france. french writers, then, had already accorded romance for the new century by taking a shift from the chivalric romance to the heroic romance. the difference between the two modes can be seen in john dunlop‟s following differentiation: in romance of chivalry, love though a solemn and serious passion, is subordinate to heroic achievement. a knight seems chiefly to have loved his mistress, because he obtained her by some warlike exploit; she formed an excuse for engaging in perilous adventures, and he mourned her loss, as it was attended with that of his dearer idol – honour. in the heroic romance, on the other hand, love seems the ruling passion, and military exploits are chiefly performed for the sake of a mistress: glory is the spring of one species of composition, and love of the other…(qtd. in mcdermott 114). french heroic romances had a more extensive influence than that of arcadia on english romance literature (both in terms of writing and reading) in the century. the entrance of the influence into the country was accelerated as charles i got married to a sixteen-year-old french princess, henrietta maria, who was enthusiastic about fine arts, and with whom came along romances as well. coteries were founded in imitation of the french tradition, and katherina phillips became a coterie leader of a salon, which gave its members fictitious names from french romances with the aim of forming refined friendship ties between the sexes and encouraging them towards literary excellence. later, after the banishment of the king and the court from england to exile, heroic romances were still at fashion; aristocrat families continued reading them despite the puritan anti-propaganda. french heroic romances were first read in england in the original language by the members of the court. this was followed by translations into english, and the last step was the mustafa bal 37 writing of heroic romances in the manner of imitation. the first of these imitations appeared in 1653 as cloria and narcissus, or the royal romance. this was followed by the publication of panthalia in 1659 by richard braithwaite, in 1660 george mackenzie‟s arethina, in 1664 john bulteel‟s brinthia, and in 1665 john crowne‟s pandion and amphigenia. there was even another mode being applied to romance under the name of “chrisitian romance”. these were the variations of the heroic romances. bentivolio and urania by the reverend nathaniel ingelo, and robert boyle‟s theodora and didymus can be given as examples for the christian romances. in this latter one, the happy ending is postponed to occur in the next world, not in this one. another important romance to note is parthenissa (1654) which was written by the brother of above-mentioned robert boyle, roger boyle, and published in 1676. this work is particularly important in that it is an english work which comes closer to the french archetypes in terms of length, number of characters, and complexity. (mcdermott 119-122) starting with the second half of the century, heroic romances began to lose their popularity. this was due to the anti-romances that french writers now took up to write. these anti-romances were written to ridicule the characteristics of the heroic romance. in fact, ridiculing romances roots back almost to the first quarter of the century, precisely 1628, when charles sorel wrote le berger extravagant, “a new don quixote, in which he burlesqued the pastoral and the ideal treatment of love” (cross, 17). later on, french anti-romances like paul scarron‟s roman comique or moliere‟s precieuses riducules were translated into english and found many readers in england. by means of these anti-romances, a taste of dislike grew in the english public towards romance reading. one of the magazines of the time, called athenian mercury (1692), which was edited and published by john dunton, claimed that romances softened the minds of the readers through love, that they were not romance in peril: a survey of the genre in seventeenth century english literature 38 convenient to be read by the public since the public would want to practice the extravagant ideas romances gave them, and that they fooled away so many hours, days and years which could have been spent on better deeds. (mcdermott 124-125) congrew‟s incognita: or, love and duty reconciled (1692) also preached antiromance propaganda with the emphasis put on the lying nature of romance literature in the preface to the work: romances are generally composed of the constant loves and invincible courages of heroes, heroines, kings, and queens, mortals of the first rank, and so forth; where lofty language, miraculous contingencies and impossible performances, elevate and surprise the reader into a giddy delight, which leaves him flat upon the ground whenever he gives off, and vexes him to think how he has suffered himself to be pleased and transported, concerned and afflicted at the several passages which he has read…when he is forced to be very well convinced that „tis all a lie. (qtd in grierson 103-104) this was the summary of the public attitude at the end of the century. apart from the above-summarised presence of the genre in england in the century, there were several other important works, which, although they were not purely romances, could be read as the works into which some major qualities of romance were encrypted by their writers. related to this idea, it can be claimed that oroonoko by aphra behn, some pastoral poems by marvel and milton, and even some parts of milton‟s paradise lost can be read as romances. works of aphra behn display the fact that she is the romancer of the english literature of the century as her works, especially oroonoko (1688), harbours many romance qualities. she had stories like the fair jilt, or tarquin and miranda, and agnes de castro, or the force of generous blood, and the lucky mistake with romance tones within. but it was with oroonoko that she perfects the romance vein in her writing. the work is also important as it can be considered as a prose writing mustafa bal 39 which contributes to the literary passage from the false worlds of romances to the realist world of the newly emerging novel. since it is a transitory work in the middle “oroonoko cannot be classified as fact or fiction, realism or romance” (abrams 1865). it is an archetypal work in that it is both a travel account, an autobiographical writing, and a romance. it is also significant to note that it “is the first humanitarian novel in english” (cross 20) since it shows to what extent the pseudo-civilized europeans of the period could be hostile to human rights when the human beings in question were black africans. robert henry also emphasizes the work‟s value when he writes “oroonoko is remarkable, for in it [behn] anticipates the romantic movement of a future age. oroonoko the hero, and imoinda his mistress, have charming names. they are paragons of pastoral. impossible creatures, magnanimous, chivalrous, constant to death” (115). romances find many readers in each epoch because they secretly expose human desires which are usually kept hidden. oroonoko implicitly revealed and talked about these desires of the english public. these desires can be traced in the deep love feeling between oroonoko and imoinda, in the far away setting of africa and surinam (as romances avoid localizing the happenings from a known geography since its imaginary world should be kept separate from the real life), and the adventure these settings recall in minds, in the rebellious and brave spirit of the noble savage oroonoko, and in the unfamiliar life styles and complexion of the natives. that is to say that oroonoko could show what was unfamiliar but desired since human nature has a tendency to know what is unknown. john locke, in the century, dealt with the issue of “desire”, and for him desire meant “uneasiness” (erickson 159). robert erickson links locke‟s definition of desire to behn‟s oroonoko when he says “locke‟s discourse on desire, ultimately an assertion of the underlying irrational ground of human motivation as he understood it, has profound relevance romance in peril: a survey of the genre in seventeenth century english literature 40 to the emergence of the drama and fiction of aphra behn, especially the writing of oroonoko” (159-160). behn‟s characterisation also contributes to the romance world created throughout her work. oroonoko and imoinda form a perfect couple for a romance. as herbert grierson claims “[t]hey are in all essentials the faultless hero and peerless heroine of romantic tradition” (92). oroonoko, the protagonist of the work, fits in this idea. for one thing, his name is quite romantic; he takes his name from nature. “oroonoko is frequently linked with flowers, and the author gives her african hero the name of the great river of caribbean south america…she will testify at length to oroonoko‟s superhuman but also finite powers as a vulnerable hero of waters and the earth, nature‟s own heroic god” (erickson 166). moreover, oroonoko is depicted as a brave gallant: “…to give his accomplishments a juster name, where 'twas he got that real greatness of soul, those refined notions of true honor, that absolute generosity, and that softness that was capable of the highest passions of love and gallantry” (oroonoko 5). these are the qualities and virtues that a noble knight of a romance should have characteristically. on the other hand, imoinda is drawn as a beautiful lady who “is famous throughout the colony as the beautiful slave, as chaste as she is beautiful” (grierson 92). furthermore, oroonoko and imoinda are presented as adam and eve due to their outlooks in their native village: the beads they weave into aprons about a quarter of an ell long, and of the same breadth; working them very prettily in flowers of several colors; which apron they wear just before 'em, as adam and eve did the fig-leaves…and though they are all thus naked, if one lives forever among 'em there is not to be seen an undecent action, or glance: and being continually used to see one another so unadorned, so like our first parents before the fall… (oroonoko 2-3) mustafa bal 41 this presentation gives a mythic atmosphere to the characters and the work, taking them from the reality of life to the fabulous world of the romance one step forward. in this edenic atmosphere and later throughout the rest of the places is found the true love between oroonoko and imoinda. the flow of the words that the narrator uses to describe imoinda‟s beauty in her lover‟s eyes when he recognizes her, whom he thought was dead, is the exposition of the strength of love between the characters: “there needed no long gazing, or consideration, to examine who this fair creature was; he soon saw imoinda all over her; in a minute he saw her face, her shape, her air, her modesty, and all that called forth his soul with joy at his eyes, and left his body destitute of almost life…” (oroonoko 32). the oath that oroonoko takes when they get married to remain married only with imoinda also strengthens his love towards her. oroonoko is betrayed by the english captain and is sold to the slave traders, which reflects the romance world of intrigues. now the quest for oroonko to accomplish his bravery against the deceiving world is set. “caesar” is given as a new name by his master trefry, and the name adds to the nobility of the hero due to its classical roman background. oroonoko and imoinda are enslaved in oroonoko like romance was enslaved in the seventeenth century; oroonoko is executed at the end of oroonoko and his body is dismembered into many parts like romance, generally speaking, who was executed in the century, and whose dismembered pieces were inserted in some works. some of these pieces can also be found in milton‟s paradise lost which was a work of many genres like pastoral, romance, and especially epic. “if we ask why milton incorporated so complete a spectrum of literary forms and genres in paradise lost, a partial answer must be that much renaissance critical theory supports the romance in peril: a survey of the genre in seventeenth century english literature 42 notion of epic as a heterocosm or compendium of subjects, forms, and styles” (lewalski 81). the relation of paradise lost to romance can be found in milton‟s characterization of satan in the work. milton makes a hero out of a devil‟s profile. grierson summarises harold visiak‟s observations on the psychological motives behind milton‟s way of presenting a strong satan figure in his paradise lost: paradise lost is a product of „inverted power‟, the expression as in a dream – for poetry and dreaming are closely akin – of milton‟s thwarted purpose when all his high hopes for the commonwealth were defeated, a cry of rage, „his genius was inverted, so that what objectively appears evil in the demonic verse of paradise lost is subjectively good‟. it is in the devils that milton expresses his deepest feelings. (257) since satan is made a hero his actions are associated with the generic paradigms of heroic genres like epic of strife, quest epic, and romance in paradise lost. satan seems to have many aspects which make him a dark hero. one of these aspects is satan‟s wandering throughout the work. his cannot be called a quest but wandering since satan is a false and a perverted hero. in eden, for example, all the familiar romance roles of knights for gardens of love are perverted by satan because he cannot love there, nor can be satisfied sensually: instead, he feels loneliness, lovelessness, and unsatisfied desire. (lewalski 84-86) colin burrow also finds features of romance in satan‟s story and calls it “the romance of hell” in his book called epic romance: homer to milton. he asserts that satan‟s journey from hell is a version of a romance which he parallels with the adventurous journeys of the characters of the odyssey and aeneid. he also detects homeric overtones in the work as he observes that paradise lost uses a style of fragmenting the motive power of anger through sudden insertions of shifts of mustafa bal 43 scenes or subjects (263-265). burrow illustrates his association of paradise lost to homeric narrative with a comparison of milton‟s work to iliad: in book 9, agamemnon despairingly calls a nocturnal council (and he summons it, like satan, with tears and sighs), in which the greeks eventually decide to send out ulysses and diomedes on an ill-defined mission either to spy on the trojans of to pick off a few stragglers. this is answered by a trojan council (as the diabolic consult is answered by the heavenly council in book iii) in which the scout dolon is sent out on a similarly vague mission. this faint reminiscence holds up fascinating possibilities for the relation of paradise lost to the romance tradition. (265-266) burrow is not alone to detect the homeric qualities in paradise lost. herbert grierson also weds these two important works of literature when he studies the double structure the work is based on: “[the first part] is full of great homeric figures – splendid scenery, odyssean voyages and adventures, battle and overthrow, in all of which satan is the dominant personality, a greater figure than achilles or diomede, with even in one scene a touch of the generosity of hector” (265). the scene in which sin – satan‟s daughter and his one-time subject of his incestuous affair – prevents a breaking fight at the gate of hell between satan and his only son death, saying “o father, what intends thy hand, she cried,/against thy only son?” is also noteworthy (pl 727-728). then follows her breaking the military atmosphere of the scene by the narration of an erotic past: thy self in me thy perfect image viewing becamest enamoured, and such joy thou took‟st, with me in secret, that my womb conceived a growing burden… (pl 764-767) […] …pensive here i sat alone, but long i sat not, till my womb pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown romance in peril: a survey of the genre in seventeenth century english literature 44 prodigious motion felt and rueful throes. (pl 777-780) accordingly, burrow, seeing the romance occurring in the scene, asserts that “[i]n epic romance, fights are generally prevented by pity or love;…the fight between satan and death is interrupted by a twisted form of this early epic predecessor of romance sentiments. underneath the interrupted battle lies another distant trace of a roman proto-romance sentiment, too: a family sympathy” (269-270). satan‟s journey continues and now he comes to eden. he meets adam and eve there, but unlike an epic hero, and being true to his story of romance he does not assault them at once. instead, he crawls around paradise and finally metamorphoses himself into a toad by the ear of eve. later on, when seen by the squad of angels as he was whispering poisoning words into eve‟s ear he is not killed there but his life is spared so that he can flee since romances let the imperial victims live throughout the tale. (burrow 272-273) we can also observe traces of the romance tradition in seventeenth century pastoral poems. these two genres have several characteristics in common that make it possible to find features of one in the other. the first of these characteristics is related to the attitude towards love. love is a central source of motivation both in the romance tradition and the pastoral tradition. works in both traditions portray an idealistic, unconditional love that has little chance of ending in consummation, yet that is worth experiencing. the male lover (the knight or hero of romance, or the shepherd of pastoral) pays services to and wishes to please the unattainable female (the lady or heroine of romance, or the shepherdess of pastoral). because of its inability to end in consummation, this love turns into a kind of illness that makes the male lover become pale, lose his appetite and feel melancholic. this attitude towards love can be seen in several seventeenth century pastoral poems. in mustafa bal 45 marvell‟s “definition of love”, the love of the persona and his beloved is described as an ideal one * : as lines, so loves oblique may well themselves in every angle greet; but ours so truly parallel, though infinite, can never meet. (25-28) yet, this love has little chance of turning into a union, because “fate” is jealous of it and therefore keeps the lovers apart, as the persona explains: for fate with jealous eye does see two perfect loves, nor lets them close; their union would her ruin be, and her tyrannic pow'r depose. (13-16) therefore, the poem defines love as something pure, perfect, ideal and divine, yet hopeless: magnanimous despair alone could show me so divine a thing where feeble hope could ne'er have flown, but vainly flapp'd its tinsel wing. (5-8) “damon the mower”, another pastoral poem by marvell, treats love as the central force influencing the damon, even more than nature herself. throughout the poem damon complains of how his happiness and harmony in the natural world has been ruined by his love for juliana. thus, this poem is an example of how love can be portrayed as a condition that leads to unhappiness and illness in seventeenth century pastoral, just as is the case in romances: i am the mower damon, known through all the meadows i have mown. * all following references to the poems are cited from abram’s the norton anthology of english literature: sixth edition, volume 1. romance in peril: a survey of the genre in seventeenth century english literature 46 on me the morn her dew distills before her darling daffodils, and if at noon my toil me heat, the sun himself licks off my sweat; while, going home, the evening sweet in cowslip-water bathes my feet. (41-48) … how happy might i still have mowed, had not love here his thistles sowed! but now i all the day complain, joining my labor to my pain; (65-68) finally, the love becomes even more than an illness when the mower‟s despair causes him to cut himself with the scythe: the edged steel, by careless chance, did into his own ankle glance, and there among the grass fell down by his own scythe the mower mown. (77-80) a second common characteristic of the general romance features and pastoral in the century is that both genres make use of stock characters, and these characters in some ways are similar. while romance deals with noble characters of the upper-class, with knights and ladies, pastoral deals with humble, rural characters; both the knight of the former and the shepherd of the latter are idealistic characters who are in love but are unable to support a wife. the knights of romances were usually the second or third sons of a family who inherited no land from their fathers; the shepherds of pastorals live very simple lives and have barely enough resources to survive. the only thing both of these stock characters can offer their beloved is their pure love, their willing service and small gifts. we can see these similarities between the pastoral lover and the knight of romance in “damon the mower”. even though the persona of this poem is a simple mower, he is an idealized character whom the sun and the evening, and dew and daffodils serve. mustafa bal 47 moreover, he serves his “lady” by giving her gifts from nature such as chameleons and oak leaves tipped with honeydew (lines 37-38). juliana, damon‟s beloved, is also similar to the unattainable lady of romance. there are also ladies who the persona wished to serve in milton‟s twin pastoral poems, “l‟allegro” and “il penseroso”, even though they are personifications of states of being. l‟allegro promises to serve the goddess mirth who he wishes to attain, and il penseroso promises to serve the goddess melancholy who he wishes to attain. setting is another important feature in which romance and pastoral have similar qualities. both of these genres use remote, idyllic settings in which to set the characters and action. romances use imaginary, ideal courts and castles, such as camelot, and pastorals are set in an ideal countryside where the season is always spring and shepherds live in happiness and harmony with little work and much leisure. in this sense, it can be argued that both genres are escapist, since both seek to turn away from reality to ideal worlds in which qualities such as love, loyalty, purity and innocence make life meaningful and worth living. tied to this is the quest theme that is found in most romances and that provides a concrete and worthy aim in life for the knight. similar psychological or mental quests can be found in pastoral literature as well. in the seventeenth century, marvell‟s pastoral poems have idyllic settings with green meadows, flowers, honeydew, fountains and trees, where nature acts to serve the humans living in harmony with it, such as the mower. likewise, “l‟allegro” and “il penseroso” describe a beautiful, idyllic nature which suits the needs and wishes of such contrary characters as l‟allegro and il penseroso and can manage to make both of them happy. there is sunlight, larks, cocks, elms and green hillocks for the one (lines 40-60) and moonlight, nightingales, a “smoothshaven green”, and a distant roaring shore for the other (55-75). moreover, in the romance in peril: a survey of the genre in seventeenth century english literature 48 twin poems there is a psychological quest to find and attain the mood which each character desires, mirth for l‟allegro and melancholy for il penseroso. finally, a significant similarity between romance and pastoral is that both genres make use of remote settings, allegorization and symbolism in order to safely dramatise serious moral and political issues or to portray psychological and theological complexities and conflicts. in romance, allegorical plots and characters can point to important moral and political issues without openly discussing them. also, the quests of knights and the adventures that they go through can sometimes be symbolic of psychological or theological exploration. similarly, dialogues between shepherds in pastoral are frequently used to implicitly satirize moral and political issues concerning city life. moreover, descriptions of nature can often be implicit explorations of complex psychological or theological issues and states. marvell‟s poems have redolent of these. in “mower to the glowworms”, marvell explores and reveals the psychology of his persona, his sense of displacement and loneliness through the use of the natural phenomena of glowworms. even though glowworms show lost mowers their way and remind them to mow the grass, they are not enough to help the persona find his way: ye glow-worms, whose officious flame to wand'ring mowers shows the way, that in the night have lost their aim, and after foolish fires do stray; your courteous lights in vain you waste, since juliana here is come, for she my mind hath so displac'd that i shall never find my home. (9-16) similarly, in “the mower‟s song”, the persona projects the feelings of frustration and helplessness caused by his lover to the grass: mustafa bal 49 but what you in compassion ought, shall now by my revenge be wrought; and flow'rs, and grass, and i and all, will in one common ruin fall. for juliana comes, and she what i do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me. (19-24) milton‟s “l‟allegro” and “il penseroso” also contain important allegorizations that are used for the exploration of the psychological states of mirth and melancholy. for example, these two states are personified as goddesses whom the characters wish to unite with. a great deal of symbolism is also used throughout the poems, especially conventional symbols related to the moods of mirth and melancholy, such as the sun, the morning, lark song, and joyful music for the former and the moon, the evening, the sad song of the nightingale, and dark, quiet places for the latter. to conclude with, it can be claimed that seventeenth century literature, as the age marked the beginning of literary modernity, did not give as equal significance to the romance as the previous centuries had done. there were many factors behind this: serious political problems which troubled the minds of both readers and writers, a split nation due to the civil war, religious matters causing spiritual intensity in the public, puritan anti-propaganda against literature, scientific novelties which were introduced and surprised most of the people, economic changes marking the beginning of the emergence of a middle class with its values, literary taste of this new class towards a more realist prose fiction which paves the way for the emergence of “the novel” – a term applied by the publishers to mean a short romance -, the outside influence of the french through the anti-romances to ridicule the genre (which had earlier been done by cervantes‟s don quixote). however, the spirit of romance is so strong in all ages that it could still find some places to survive like in pastoral poetry, or in the works of aphra behn, especially in romance in peril: a survey of the genre in seventeenth century english literature 50 oroonoko, or in milton‟s paradise lost. romance, since it is an escapist genre, hid itself in these works to escape from the chaotic atmosphere of the century until it felt safe to return to the garden of literature in the nineteenth century. works cited abrams, m. h. et al. the norton anthology of english literature sixth edition, volume 1. london: w. w. norton, 1993. behn, aphra. oroonoko: or the royal slave. new york: norton, 1977. bloor, robert henry u. the english novel from chaucer to galsworthy. london: ivor nicholson and watson ltd., 1935. burrow, colin. epic romance: homer to milton. oxford: clarendon p, 1993. cross, wilbur l. the development of the english novel. new york: greenwood p, 1969. erickson, robert a. the language of the heart, 1600-1750. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania p, 1997. grierson, h. j. c. cross currents in english literature of the xviith century. london: chatto & windus, 1948. lewalski, barbara kiefer. “the genres of paradise lost” in the cambridge companion to milton. ed. dennis danieson. new york: cambridge up, 1989. mcdermott, hubert. novel and romance: from the odyssey to tom jones. london: macmillan p, 1989. milton, john. paradise lost. london: penguin boks, 1996. epiphany: vol. 12, no. 1, 2019 e-issn 1840-3719 17 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) community involvement in peace-building: a case of mount elgon residents’ association in bungoma county, kenya ronald elly wanda, mount kenya university, kenya kefa nyandoro, mount kenya university, kenya joyce muchemi, mount kenya university, kenya abstract this article analyses community participation in peace-building in the mt elgon area between 2007 and 2017. the article assesses the use of indigenous methods of conflict resolution embedded in restorative practices, as well as seeking to establish the role that mount elgon’s residents association (mera) played in peacebuilding. the study adopts the theoretical work of johan galtung’s conflict analysis model and john paul lederach’s conflict transformation work on peace-building. the study reveals a yawning need for younger community members to be more involved in peace-building activities in the mt elgon area. it further reveals that community members aged between 35 and 54 years strongly believe that their traditional culture and indigenous practices are central to their peace-building efforts in their locality. the study found a majority of community members felt that their involvement has played an important role in disarming local militia groups and in peace-building. overall, the community strongly pointed at land and “dirty politics” as issues being at the forefront of community conflict in mt. elgon. keywords: community conflict, indigenous practices, restorative justice, peace-building. community involvement in peace-building 18 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) i n t r o d u c t i o n community conflicts usually have long and complex histories of different (ethnic, religious, political) group relationships, attacks, and victimization, and are often accompanied by structural violence, and they often lack mutual confidence-building and reconciliation efforts (nikolic-ristanovic, 1999). that said, all over the world these types of conflicts emerge as a result of many reasons. at the local level, social changes occur very often as a result of these types of conflicts (bowd and chiwanha, 2010). the impact of such conflicts continues to leave communities distraught, economies destroyed, and nervous political and social relationships including what has been described as psychological suffering and an omnipresent fear (haider, 2009). however, at the same time, it is possible to argue that conflicts are not automatically a harmful phenomenon; what matters most is the approach that communities take during and after the conflict. in our view, understanding the role that communities play in peace-building, using restorative and indigenous approaches in the resolution of conflicts, is vital in the stability and long-term sustainable growth and development of not just communities in mount elgon in western kenya, where this article is cited, or east africa as a region but also the continent at large. conflicts in africa continue to pose significant challenges to the security and prosperity of the continent’s 1.2 billion population, which according to the un, accounts for about 16 % of the world’s total population (united nations, 2016). that said, violent conflict is by no means unique to africa; other regions of the world have also experienced and as such known wars and upheavals as well. furthermore, africa’s conflicts, while having some common attributes, nevertheless differ in important details, reflecting the size, diversity, and complexity of africa (themner and wallesteen, 2014). recent conflicts in the eastern and central africa region have led to serious societal problems such as internal displacement of communities creating at times refugees’ crises in other countries. according to the 2015 report of the united nations humanitarian commissioner of refugees (unhcr) titled global trends forced displacement report, the crises in several countries in the east african region have led to an increase in large numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons. the unhcr also reported that chad as a country was number ten in the world in terms of the number of refugees it hosted in 2015. the figure stood at 369,500 refugees by the end of 2015. kenya, the report noted had the seventh-largest refugee population worldwide, protecting 553,900 refugees, respectively (unhcr, 2016). previous studies of post-conflict situations have often assumed that the main actors of peace-building are states, the united nations or international ngos. by comparison, community members were seen as mere recipients of outside intervention. nowadays, it is fair to observe that community members are increasingly gaining attention as significant actors in peace-building. having said that, the traditional negative models of peace continue to restrict how we can explain their involvement in the peace-building process. as such, the purpose of this paper is to assess the contribution of local community members; their local organization and the traditional practices they use towards peacebuilding. in specific, the study argues that traditional approaches embedded in the local communities’ use of restorative and traditional or indigenous practices to the resolution of local conflicts using cultural practices such as those found in the mt elgon crisis in western kenya play a crucial part in community transformation. looking at the modalities of the inter and intra-community violence in western kenya, the conflict that took place in mt elgon between 2006 and 2008 was devastating in many ways; it left many dead and destroyed many a property. the human rights abuses wanda, r. e. et al. 19 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) meted by kenya’s defence forces (kdf) soldiers and a community militia group known as the sabaot’s land defense force (sldf) left the local communities psychologically traumatized. but above all, the crisis tore the social fabric which bound the communities and clans together and resulted in feelings of hatred, mistrust, suspicion and each community fearing the other. in an effort to develop peace-building in mt elgon, various actors embarked on postconflict peace-building processes in the area. however, researchers have not paid much attention to establish the part that community members through community organizations such as the mt elgon residents association (mera), using restorative and indigenous practices played in restoring peace in the region. our study sought to find out whether the local community in mt elgon had been involved in disarming the militia groups such as the saboat land defense force or the janjaweed as part of their involvement in the peace-building process. a majority of community members 43 % were uncertain or neutral, while a further 38 % confirmed that they felt the local community did not do enough to disarm the militia groups. on the other hand, only 15 % of respondents felt that the community did enough to disarm the militia. our study was also interested in finding out what the local communities of mt elgon thought about the government’s authorization of kdf’s operation okoa nchi and the role, if any, it played in the restoration of peace in the region during and after the conflict. our data seems to suggest that while 44% of community respondents agreed that kdf’s operation okoa nchi had a positive impact in the region, a significantly high number (56 %) of community members were unsure or strongly disagreed. as such, restorative and indigenous practices are very important but much-neglected resources for peace-building, especially when notions of peace and sustainable development are concerned. the most important proposition of traditional methods of conflict management is the respect and dignity that they place on human beings as naturally cooperative and positive agents of change, and that it, therefore, makes sense especially for those in positions of authority to engage them, rather than to decide things for them (nabudere, 2012). as pointed out by other researchers, the increasing processes of globalization have necessitated the incorporation of traditional approaches to conflict resolution into peace-building theories and practices, these have long been ignored by western scholars on the basis that they lacked an empirical heritage (boege, 2009). schiff (2013) has argued elsewhere that it is important for communities engaged in conflicts or recovering from a conflict to engage in restorative practices as these practices help to build good relationships by redressing some of the imbalances that existed before and during the conflict that might have caused the conflict in the first place. restorative practices are aimed at addressing or redressing the wrongdoing (schiff, 2013). kenya, compared to her regional neighbors’ remains an important engine of economic activity in the region’s financial system. however, this perception of kenya changed drastically following a number of community conflicts in the country. most notable amongst these conflicts was the almost a decade long conflict in the mt elgon area that became prominent in 2006 to 2008. the political meltdown that erupted following the disputed general elections of december 2007 (wanda, 2008) also profoundly affected the mt elgon crisis. the crisis led to questions about kenya’s status as east africa’s most stable country being asked as well as its ability to manage local or its own internal community conflicts. at that time, kenyan scholar gilbert khadiagala went on to question the region’s institutions such as the east african community (eac) and the intergovernmental authority on development (igad) in failing to community involvement in peace-building 20 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) address the situation in kenya. khadiagala quoted rwanda’s president paul kagame expressing worries felt by other regional leaders that the kenyan army should have done more to prevent a similar situation that befell rwanda in 1994 (khadiagala, 2009: 432). the kenyan situation aside, the nature of conflicts in the continent remains complex and varied, and their resolutions also remain mixed. m e t h o d o l o g i c a l a p p r o a c h the study adopted a mixed-methods approach in order to provide a comprehensive picture of understanding of the peace-building processes and the role that the community played to bring about peace (creswell, 2009). as such, structured questionnaires were used that generated quantitative data and focus group discussions that generated qualitative data. this research approach was suitable as it allowed us to collect detailed information as well as in identifying how variables interacted in peacebuilding in the mt elgon area from 2007 to 2017. a sample of 90 community members was selected out of the total population of 300 local community members that belongs to mera. this represented 30 % or onequarter of the total population of members that belong to the mount elgon residents association (mera) organization. these respondents provided their views on how they, as members of the local community, using restorative practices and indigenous approaches, were involved in peace-building practices following the conflict in the mt elgon. this is in agreement with best and khan (2003) who asserted that the best sample size is that which covers at least 30% of the total population. out of the sample of 90 community members, 75 valid responses were received yielding a response rate of 83.3%. the study obtained its quantitative data through the use of a focus group discussion with individuals knowledgeable of the conflict in the mt elgon and the subsequent peacebuilding process in the region from 2007 to 2017. some of these individuals belonged to opposing factions at the time when the conflict ensued. the fgd was conducted in cheptais sub-county, where mera is headquartered and the majority of the respondents originate from. most of the individuals that were selected for the discussion were themselves directly involved in the conflict, as well as the post-conflict peace-building activities in the area. the discussions attempted to establish factors that precipitated the conflict as well as the role of the community in peace-building between 2007 and 2017. the focus group discussion comprised of a mixture of both female and male community participants. there were a total of 9 participants comprising of 5 females and 4 males that were mera members. the aim of the fgd was to obtain in-depth knowledge of local community members and their perceptions of their involvement in peacebuilding in mt elgon area. another aim was to assess their use of indigenous or traditional peace-building methods in conflict transformation in the mt elgon area. furthermore, another objective of the fgd was to establish specifically mera’s contribution to the peace-building efforts in mt elgon area. guided by 10 open-ended questions, the researchers organized one session that had a total number of 9 participants. the session lasted approximately 4 hours. this was in line with krueger and casey (2000) who observed that although the optimum number of participants for a focus group may vary, a manageable number is between six and ten participants. this study’s focus group discussions were then captured using field-notes, where major points of consensus and disagreements over the 10 key questions relating to the study’s variables in peace-building in mt elgon were engaged. t h e o r e t i c a l f r a m e w o r k this study’s theoretical framework engaged the work of norwegian sociologist johan galtung’s conflict analysis model and the american sociologist john paul lederach’s wanda, r. e. et al. 21 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) conflict transformation theory on peacebuilding. peace-building theories are largely credited to the work of these two scholars. galtung’s work calls for the creation of peacebuilding structures that are aimed at promoting long-lasting peace in society by tackling the original reasons that bring about conflicts and supporting indigenous approaches such as those found in the mount elgon region in resolving conflict and managing peace. john galtung’s work is important in the study of peace-building in the mt elgon area in many respects. his theoretical works since 1963 when he first published in the journal of peace research broadened the focus of our understanding of the nature of conflicts and how to prevent them. of interest to our study of mt elgon’s communities in the aftermath of the conflict of 2006 and 2008 is galtung’s introduction and subsequent use of the terms, structural violence, development and social justice (galtung, 1963). so in a way, galtung’s peace-building theory moves us away from focusing on the actors in conflict as rationalization of our understanding of peace and violence and he introduces us to the concept of using structure as tangible account of conflicts in communities such as mt elgon where the central idea is that the 2006 and 2008 violence existed because of the structure and the actors such as sldf or for that matter the kdf were mere actors carrying out that duties. by connecting conflict in society to structural problems in the community, galtung’s theoretical premise helps us to locate the concepts of peace, conflict and progress in the community. the concept of structural violence theory is important in the mt elgon context in that it helps us to understand the formation of local community organizations such as mera and their quest for social justice through restorative and indigenous peace-building efforts (galtung, 2013). in galtung’s theory, he was convinced that research into conflicts in the communities and peace-building, in general, should not be limited to only issues of de-escalation of structural level violence but that researchers must seek to understand the conditions for the prevention of violence in the community in general. in order to achieve this properly, galtung seems to suggest that researchers must look at both peace and violence in totality and all human organizations (galtung, 1996). the value of positive peace in galtung’s theory is its visualization of generating harmony in the community instead of just focusing on putting off conflict fires as was the case in the koffi annan led political negotiation in kenya following the 2007 general elections impasse (wanda, 2008). we sought to ascertain whether the local community felt that their involvement in peace-building in the mt elgon area was important in creating sustainable peace infrastructure in the region. the response in a way was aimed at understanding johan galtung’s concept of structural violence in the community. where personal and direct violence that a community can suffer from are often built into the social structures of a given community, it is much better to focus on the bigger picture revealed by structural violence as this would reveal the causes and effects of violence and conditions for peace (galtung, 2013). john paul lederach, the other theorist whose work on conflict transformation and in particular his idea of grassroots community participation in peace-building resonates well with our study, has observed that the reason why so many peace strategies have not been successful is because very often grassroots communities have distanced themselves from what they perceive as elitist institutions and the governing structures that are extraneous to their immediate interaction (lederach, 2005). lederach’s argument is that conflict resolution researchers need to critically explore the content and approach to conflict resolution in relation to a community’s customs. he points out that cultural community involvement in peace-building 22 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) dissimilarity in community conflicts have been misunderstood as externally driven (lederach, 1997). central to lederach’s theory is the call for reconciliation. for lederach, repairing damaged relationships in the communities is not just a preserve for the elites sitting and talking in a comfortable hotel as was the case at serena hotel in nairobi during the 2007 general election impasse. he instead calls for grassroots community participation in the peace-building process as is the case in the mt elgon area following the conflict that peaked between 2006 and 2008. lederach’s notion of conflict resolution applied to the mt elgon conflict is important in illustrating not only that communities can live together in peace, but more importantly, it helps to demonstrate why mera as an organisation and the community itself at large must live together in peace. conflict transformation theory is as such useful to communities that have experienced conflicts like those in mt elgon because this theory discourages the presumptuous culture of violence begets violence and instead encourages a more restorative approach. cross-border communities around the mountain can engage in repairing community relations aimed at harmonising and advancing societal development by adopting a dialogueled holistic, bottom-up, participatory approaches embedded in a transformative theoretical model (wanda, 2013; emphasis added). indeed in cases where stakeholders mistrust each other such as in the mt elgon conflict, or when actors in the conflict have such major disagreements, it is important for these actors to engage in making attempts to engage in a dialogue aimed at resolving the issues at hand amicably and respectfully (susskind et al, 2003). from these facts, the study seems to confirm john paul lederach’s conflict transformation theory particular when he stressed the inclusion of grassroots community participation in peace-building efforts. especially when he observed that the reason why so many peace strategies have not been successful is that very often grassroots communities have distanced themselves from what they perceive as elitist institutions and the governing structures that are extraneous to their immediate interaction (lederach, 2005). the recent empirical literature on conflict studies has shown how leading scholars from the western sphere have influenced the perception and, subsequently, shaped policies even in a country like kenya that has, in turn, had effects in community conflicts such as that of mt elgon. kaplan (1994), for instance, perceives africa as being retarded and wild. samuel huntington in his book the clash of civilisation (1993) has blamed conflicts in africa on cultures which he says has led to the current problems of fundamentalism and radicalisation. others such as chabal and daloz in their book africa works (1999) also look at the continent simply as the way it is. these stereotypical generalizations of wars in the continent are simply aimed at portraying africa as simple and absurd. pamela aall (2015) points out that there are mainly three major assumptions that underlie the analysis of conflict in africa. she lists the first assumption as the zero-sum power politics; the second assumption, she says is that conflicts are due to state weaknesses and the failure of governments failures to provide basic services; and the third reason she blames differing cultural and societal views (aall, 2015: 1). in our view, while aall’s diagnosis of conflicts in africa may be correct to a limited degree, it possible to argue that it does not capture the whole picture, as she acknowledges in her own 2015 article. aall goes further and argues that in any event, it is important for us to look at the enabling condition that lies beneath a particular conflict as this will help in resolving that particular conflict (pamela aall, 2015:1). indeed in most traditional african societies, although conflict generally existed like elsewhere, whenever an incompatible wanda, r. e. et al. 23 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) situation arose which very often also led to what ajayi and buhari have called a “winlose” characterization, a traditional resolution would be used to transform the “win-lose” situation into a “win-win” outcome for all (ajayi and buhari, 2014:139). the “win-win” approach is of particular relevance to conflict resolution, as it allows actors and parties involved in the conflict to become partners in the resolution of that conflict. the key to resolving a conflict is to convince both parties that they will mutually benefit from a resolution. as deutsch (1973) has noted, a destructive course in conflict is avoided when parties in a conflict work together instead of separately and competitively win-win approach is very important as all parties feel that they have won (deutsch, 1973). i n d i g e n o u s a n d r e s t o r a t i v e p r a c t i c e s i n p e a c e b u i l d i n g i n m t e l g o n a r e a indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms comprise social, economic, cultural and religious-spiritual dimensions in accordance with the entirety of traditions, customs and world views of society within the different spheres of societal life. the methods involve negotiations, mediations, and reconciliation based on the knowledge, customs and history of the community. indigenous approaches to conflict resolution aimed at restorative justice, restoration of order, harmony and the maintenance of relationships within the community through reintegrating feuding parties for true reconciliation (boege et al, 2009). from the data gathered, 59 % of respondents agreed that they often used indigenous practices in peace-building. a further 24 % strongly agreed that they used traditional or cultural practices in peacebuilding in their locality. 9.3 % were uncertain, 5.3 % disagreed while only 3 % strongly disagreed. there are three significant pillars that support the enterprise of restorative practices. these are aimed at repairing the harm done during a conflict; holding wrongdoers to accountable; and more importantly, they are aimed at restoring relationships of those involved in the conflict (zehr, 2002). unlike other traditional western forms of justice, restorative justice does not deal with offences by myopically determining punishment. instead, the restorative system views crimes committed in a community in a wider scope. when one commits a crime it is not just a matter of offending the law but the offender also violates the wider community (zehr, 2002). therefore, the focus and importance are given on repairing the harm done to the community not just redressing the violated law (walterman-spreha, 2013). in a community like mt elgon, where the actual number of deaths as a result of the 2006-2008 conflict is yet to be established, but according to the human rights watch (hrw), approximately 600 people were killed by sldf; others maimed, had their ears chopped or tortured as a way of punishing them (human rights watch, 2008); creating a situation of a surge in widows and orphans in the region; a map of restorative practices might entail a communal contract drawn up by the communities that outline the specific requirements for the perpetrators that demonstrates remorse, an acceptance of responsibility, and a demonstration of accountability. if all actions on the community contract are fulfilled within the stated amount of time, the offenders are then slowly and safely reintegrated back into the community. but as calhorn (2013) has argued, this process is not an easy one. however, there is evidence to show that it often yields more positive outcomes for victims, the community, and the offender than does the conventional treatment of community crimes (calhorn, 2013). in our view, the ubiquitous retributive justice system largely employed by the government’s state-centric approach to the mt elgon conflict of 2006-2008 was largely concerned with broken laws. it appears in its part that there were two questions that preoccupied the government’s response to the conflict. these were: what laws were broken? and community involvement in peace-building 24 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) who broke them? perhaps even another one: what do the offenders deserve? its success was as such measured by the extent of the punishment netted out to the communities in mt elgon. this state-centric kdf approach is arguably effective in some instances, for instance, the ongoing ‘war on terror’, largely driven by the threat posed to kenya by somalia’s al-shabbab terrorist group. however, in other situations such as the mt elgon conflict, it left community members feeling unnecessarily harmed and in some cases even isolated. those affected by the conflict and the communities involved were not adequately addressed by the government’s approach to the conflict. as a result, it deepened societal wounds while limiting its effects on the healing process (zerh, 2002). in comparison, given the same situation, under restorative and indigenous practices, questions such as ‘who has been hurt?’ would have been asked. or, ‘what are their needs?’, or ‘who else is involved in this?’ or ‘how can we make things right for all involved?’ restorative practices in this sense proposes that crime is not as simple as a broken law. people, relationships and communities at large are harmed. and that, that harm needs to be addressed. being grounded in the principle of repairing harm, restorative practices are simply a viable alternative for resolving community conflicts. the practice promotes holding offenders accountable while at the same time restoring peace in the community (allena, 2004). m e r a’s c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o c o m m u n i t y p e a c e b u i l d i n g i n m t e l g o n in our view, understanding the role that communities play in peace-building using restorative and indigenous approaches in the resolution of conflicts is vital in the stability and long term sustainable growth and development of not just kenya or the region but also the continent at large. mera which was registered officially on the 13 th of april 2005 by the registrar of societies has been operational since about 1995 continues to engage in peace-building activities in the region. mera is located in cheptais sub-county in bungoma county, a locality that has been most hit by resourcebased conflicts which are said to have been politicized during the 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007 elections. mera’s organization’s effort focuses on four working areas (1) democratic governance and advocacy; (2) peace and security; (3) education and; (4) rural development, climate change adaptation and environment protection. the ‘community’ organised through organizations such as mera in the mt elgon area is important in the context of conflict resolution and peace-building. they help community members to cope during difficult times by using traditional practices in the restoration of peace under difficult circumstances (pouligny, 2005). in kenya today, communities are increasingly relying on indigenous methods and approaches aimed at supplementing the modern high court. a good example of this blend of indigenous mechanism in kenya today can be found in how local elders under the land disputes tribunals act of 1990 are used in resolving certain cases presented to the court system. this is important because land and boundaries disputes have been a major contributory factor to the conflict in the mt elgon area. under the 1990 land disputes act, the law allows for certain disagreements within the community to be resolved by nominated local. this indigenous practice has served to ease the pressure from the modern court of law system. it has also helped community members who have disputes to have their cases heard at a cheaper cost and their issue resolved quicker. that said, different communities in kenya have different ways of resolving conflicts indigenously. these different indigenous practices have helped the government of kenya (gok) by complementing its efforts in dealing with certain conflicts in the community such as the mt elgon one (malesi, 2008). elders’ community forums or baraza are a wanda, r. e. et al. 25 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) common feature in the mt elgon locality often used for sharing information and for gathering community opinions on local issues. very often baraza forums are used to resolve many community problems including conflicts. evidence from the field suggests that an overwhelming majority of community members (90 %) agreed that the use of baraza forums has played a useful role in peacebuilding in the mt elgon locality. r e s e a r c h f i n d i n g s a n d a n a l y s i s according to the study’s findings, the total number of male respondents was 43 out of a total 75. this accounted for 57.3 %. female participants were 32 or 42 % of the total sample. the study revealed that 86 % of the total respondents had some form of formal education. 21 % were educated at the primary level, while 40 % had reached secondary education level. 16 % had vocational qualifications, while a further 9.3 % had a higher education levels of qualification. when it came to gender in relation to formal educational level attainment of community members, there were 10 women as opposed to 6 men who were educated unto to primary school level. at vocational level education, both male and female respondents were equal in number; they were 6 men and 6 women. however, men doubled the number of women at 20 as opposed to 10 women that had secondary level education. at postsecondary school level, there were 7 men and no women at all. in response to our first objective, the study found that 64 % of community members strongly agreed that their involvement was central to sustaining a sustainable security infrastructure in the region. however, the study found that that opinion was divided into the local communities as to what extent they were involved in the peace-building process in the area. using one of the study’s independent variable’s indicator, when it came to the disarming of the local militia groups such as the saboat land defense force or the janjaweed as part of their involvement in peace-building process, a majority of community members 43 % were uncertain or neutral, while a further 27 % confirmed that they felt the local community did not do enough to disarm the militia groups. in response to the study’s second objective, from the data gathered it was found that 83 % of community members agreed that they often used indigenous practices in peacebuilding. the data collected suggests that those aged between 35 and 54 years largely thought that their traditional culture and indigenous practices were central to their peace-building efforts in their locality. furthermore, evidence from the field suggests that the majority of community members 90 % laud the use of baraza forums and consider them as having played a useful role in peacebuilding in the mt elgon locality. when it came to the overall effectiveness of indigenous or traditional practices of conflict resolution, a significant number of community members thought that they were effective in peace-building in their locality, 81 % were in favour as opposed to 19 % who thought indigenous or traditional practices of peacebuilding played little or no role at all in their pursuit of peace in mt elgon. in addressing the third objective of the study, the study sought to establish how the role that the community organised through an organization such as mera in the mt elgon area was important in the context of conflict resolution and peace-building. the study found that 93 % of mera’s community members felt that the organization had played a useful role through its programmes in the community towards peace-building. the data suggests that 74 % of respondents also thought that mera played an important role in disarming the local militia. the data also suggests that 28 % of respondents strongly felt that mera through its community programmes had empowered and raised the profile of women in the mt elgon area. a further 48 % of respondents community involvement in peace-building 26 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) also agreed that mera community programmes were beneficial to women and this enhanced peace-building activities. 18 % remained neutral while 3 % disagreed. c o n c l u s i o n overall, the community seems to be in agreement that the involvement of the community in efforts towards creating an everlasting peace in their locality was undoubtedly important. the community strongly pointed at land and “dirty politics” as issues being at the forefront of community conflict in mt. elgon. data suggests that the local communities in mt. elgon do not trust the gok as a neutral arbitrator. from the evidence gathered, when it came to the kdf’s ‘operation okoa nchi’ intervention, the community felt that the gok was heavy-handed. therefore, gok needs to involve more community-led initiatives in peace-building in the region. the county government of bungoma needs to be more inclusive in terms of its resource allocation to avoid accusations of nepotism, favoritism and the deliberate marginalisation of certain communities within the county. community’s involvement in mt elgon is commendable. however, there were some communities that felt that their participation in the peace-building process was largely ignored by the larger communities. furthermore, younger community members or the youth should be included more in activities concerning peace-building. efforts should be made to encourage their participation to avoid the reoccurrence of conflicts in the region. additionally, empowerment programmes with an economic inclination should be expanded to not only the female members of the community, but also to younger community members. the data suggested that those aged between 35 and 54 years largely thought that their traditional culture and indigenous practices was central to their peace-building efforts in their locality. other actors that have been involved peacebuilding activities in the region such as ngos and ingos need to involve indigenous organizations and peace-building methods in their efforts towards assisting in the restoration of peace in the mt elgon area. community-based organizations such as mera should enhance its efforts towards expanding the use of indigenous peacebuilding methods and restorative practices and approaches as clearly they have served a useful role in peace-building in the region. wanda, r. e. et al. 27 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) references aall, p. (2015). conflicts in africa: diagnosis and response, cigi papers, no 71, cigi: canada. ajayi, t. and buhari, o. (2014). ethiopia, africa research review, vol 8, 2. allena, t. (2004). restorative justice on the college campus, springfield: charles thomas publishers ltd. babitt, e. and hampton, f. (2011). the negotiated settlement, international studies review, 13, 15. best, j.w., and khan, j.v., (2003). research in education, boston: allyn and bacon. boege, volker, anne brown, kevin clements and anna nolan (2009). on hybrid political orders and emerging states: what is failing states in the global south or research and politics in the west? in: martina fischer and beatrix schmeltzer (eds.). building peace in the absence of states: challenging the discourse on state failure. (berghof handbook dialogue no 8.) berlin: berghof research center. bowd, r. and chikwanha, a. (2010). understanding africa’s contemporary conflicts, monograph 173, available at www.africareview.org (accessed 14th july 2017). calhorn, a. (2013). introducing restorative justice: revising responses to wrongdoing, prevention research, 20, 1. cooper, t. l. (ed) (2001). handbook of administrative ethics. (2nd edition). new york: marcel dekker. creswell, j. (2009). research design, (3rd edition.), london: sage. deutsch, m. (1973). the resolution of conflict: constructive and destructive processes. new haven, ct: yale university press. galtung, j. (1996) peace by peaceful means, london: sage. krueger ra & casey ma (2000). focus groups: a practical guide for applied research, 3rd ed. thousand oaks: sage publications. khadiagala, g. (2009). regionalism and conflict resolution: lessons from the kenyan crisis. journal of contemporary african studies, vol. 27, no. 3, malesi, r. (2008). information and knowledge management in fostering ethnic cohesiveness, nairobi: longmann publishers. nabudere, d. w. (2009). the developmental state, democracy and the glocal society in africa, pretoria: unisa press. schiff, m. (2013). dignity, disparity & desistance: effective restorative justice strategies to plug the school-to-prison pipeline. center for civil rights remedies national conference. closing the school to research gap: research to remedies conference. washington, dc. susskind, l., boyd. f., david, f. and michele, f. (2003). the organization and usefulness of multistakeholder dialogues at the global scale. international negotiation: a journal of theory and practice 8(2). themner, l. and wallensteen, p. (2014). armed conflicts, 1946–2013. journal of peace research 51: 541–54. united nations high commissioner for refugees. (2016). global trends forced displacement, geneva: united nations. walterman-spreha, (2013). engaging studies on the topic of restorative justice, contemporary justice review, 16, 1. wanda, r.e. (2008). grounds for hope. bbc focus on africa. vol. 19., no. 2., pp 30-31. wanda, r.e. (2013). afrikology and community: restorative cultural practices in east africa. journal of pan african studies, vol.6., no. 6. wanda, r.e. (2016). constituting folklore: a dialogue on the 2010 constitution in kenya. africology, journal of pan african studies, vol 9, no. 1. zehr, h. (2002). the little book of restorative justice, intercourse, pa: good books. community involvement in peace-building 28 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) 28 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction in face of legal, political and ethnic challenged the state of bosnia and herzegovina has been under the political integration slogan, undergoing artificial institutional reanimation under the international community’s patronage. from the constitutional and legal point of views, theoretically and in practice, the dayton peace agreement has dayton peace accords two decades after: constitutional settlement as serious obstacle to the creation of a functional state abstract twenty-one years after entering into force of the general framework agreement for peace in bosnia and herzegovina (the dayton agreement), it seems that the political situation in bosnia and herzegovina has not significantly changed. the basic achievements of the dayton agreement, such as stopping the war and country’s democratization and institution building processes are evident, however the agreement failed to create a politically stable functional state and the united nation accepted by all its citizens. on the contrary, the agreement significantly contributed to the creation of divided society (and political community) composed of three ‘constituent peoples’ and others. neither social nor political community stood the test of time. the country could not meet the requirements and standards set by the european union, especially the constitutional reform that is claimed to be the precondition to other reforms. then, despite agreement’s significant accomplishments in the field of human rights protection it generated state political structure based on the principle of the three constituent peoples’ exclusive ethnic representation, all at the expense of rights of individual. keywords: dayton peace accords; bosnia and herzegovina; human rights; discrimination zarije seizovic university of sarajevo goran simic international university of sarajevo d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 23 8 29 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences contributed towards the foundation of a sort of john lackland’s country. however, as constitutionally, legally and politically affirmed and fashioned union dpa gave the birth to the questionable state consisting of two entities: ‘republic’ and a ‘federation.’ the union, consisting of these two entities, is short of clear conception of a sovereign (unitary) state, a state with clear system of governance or at the end clear republican or federal state-system. therefore, the end outcome of the dpa was the creation of a post-modern semi state without any former precedents in the history, which within the balkan’s geopolitical and geo-cultural melting pot depends strongly on the foreign political patrons offered as the only viable modus vivendi. the state has (was), after the forced by-pass installation in dayton, revitalized, re-established itself as a state and re-contextualized as above all and odd union based on a principle ‘one state – two entities – three constituent peoples’, the principle that had been playing a key role in a long-term and constant disintegrative processes and tendencies within bosnia and herzegovina. the rise of nationalism and ethno-nationalism as a result of the new world order especially faced by the east-european communist totalitarian regimes, became obstacles for the genuine democratization process of former communist countries and their societies, including bosnia and herzegovina. the dpa and its constitution within it had institutionalized the ethnic nationalism. the preamble of the constitution of bosnia and herzegovina prevents the state to create the legal environment in which the power-sharing system would be organized within the civil society, whilst at the same time it favor’s the ethno-nationalism and collective rights of the ethno-national-religious communities at the expense of an individual or the citizen (anex 4, dayton peace agreement). therefore mujkic (2008) was rightly arguing that the public arena in bosnia and herzegovina is a testing ground for collectivism that enjoys absolute freedom, subsuming the individual, to the utmost possible extent, under its abstract categories. the democracy of the three ethno-religious groups is thus no other than a democracy of oligarchies, groups of authoritarian members or ethnic groups engaged in shaping ethnic, collectivist narratives; and such a democracy is meaningless (p. 39). constitutional settlement and non-effective institution-building the constitution of bosnia and herzegovina defines bosniacs, croats and serbs as ‘constituent peoples’, while ‘others’ and ‘citizens’ are 30 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences barely mentioned. the anachronistic ‘constituent peoples’ notion, by recognizing collective rights of ethnic groups (nations), represents rather obvious violating of the convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, since the guiding idea of the protection of human rights was aimed at the citizen as an individual not as a member of a social/religious/ethnic/national group. the very constitution of bosnia and herzegovina in article ii, paragraph 4 introduces the principle of the non-discrimination clause, at the same time directly breaching both very article and article 14 of the convention (prohibition of discrimination). ergo, the existing concept of ‘constituent peoples’ as the state-building nations and the relation of it towards the constitutional and legal position of ‘others’ constitutes discrimination par excellence. such constitution represents the institutional discrimination of several hundreds of thousands of citizens who do not belong to ‘the chosen ones’, including those who opted to exercise their ‘not to belong to’ legitimate right. therefore, the constitution as main outcome of dpa incorporates the discriminatory concept that recognizes different legal/ political/constitutional dimensions of bosnian citizens, endorsed by the judgement of the european court of human rights in the case sejdić and finci vs. bosnia and herzegovina. the ‘national veto’ principle, the principle of protecting the ‘national interests’ respectively, provides ethno-nationalistic elites across state administration almost unlimited possibilities to block the enactment of law or regulation, whenever they consider it as a breach of ‘national interests’ of one of constituent peoples. the legal vacuum has been often filled in by office of the high representative for bosnia and herzegovina (ohr), which according to annex 10 of the dpa (civilian implementation) has the ultimate power. acting in this regard discouraged the consolidation of democratic political processes in bosnia and herzegovina. without any doubt, that action turned to be unavoidable tool for making the sufficient, although important step forward to efficient institution building process. however, the question is “could the institution building be imposed?” the national homogenization process is still alert and active obstacle on the path of the economic and political reintegration of the country and the society, with active role in the processes of decomposing the newly emerging state institutions. it appears that, as long as the ethnonational identity concept is the only (or the most potent) source of citizens’ identification, and the ‘constituent peoples’ the constitutional category, z. seizovic & g. simic 31 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the state of bosnia and herzegovina will continue to be essentially dysfunctional in many aspects of a well-organized state. certainly after upcoming general elections and the establishment of new government, it is inevitable to undertake a true and authentic political, constitutional and judicial review of the constitutional provisions (the entity constitutions included as well), for the purpose of the promotion of civil and the negation of national/ethnic aspects of the constitution. it seems important to emphasize that reaching this objective is emerging responsibility of both local and international political actors and leaders because there is an international and legal obligation to harmonize bosnian legislation with european standards and, as well as, its constitution, as described in judgment of the european court of human rights. if these changes do not materialize, bosnia and herzegovina will risk remaining at margins of the euro-atlantic integrations. certainly, any state on the path towards the european union, including bosnia and herzegovina, must develop the single and functional state, well-organized government, rule of law and protection of individual rights and freedoms. shortcomings of the dayton peace agreement instead of reinforcing 1000 years old statehood of bosnia and herzegovina, agreement has accepted results of bloody campaign of war crimes and ethnic cleansing that took place in the period from 1992 to 1995. instead of bringing justice to the victims and society, agreement had frozen division of bosnia and herzegovina and legalized widespread discrimination of its citizens. the fighting in bosnia and herzegovina ended in 1995 not because of internal peace settlement and consensus but because of an intervention and pressure from the great powers. instead of establishing the justice for victims and society, reconciliation and overcoming common suffering and destruction of lives and property, nationalist leaders of bosnia and herzegovina just continued the war by using different means. in that sense, it is justified to say that today’s bosnia and herzegovina is not living in peace, but rather in state of “frozen conflict” or “absence of armed conflict.” in this regard, the last twenty years had passed in ethnic struggle of reinforcing divisions, by means of different methods including politics, media, and education. based on the notion of the dayton agreement and its implications, according to seizovic (2014) bosnia and herzegovina could be considered failed state. he explained that dayton peace accords two decades after 32 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences a failed state is perceived as a state that is not being successful at some of the fundamental preconditions and responsibilities of a sovereign government. there is no universal meaning, description and/or definition of such state. however, a state meeting certain criteria would be understood as a failed state. criteria are but are not limited to the following: (1) loss of control of its territory, or loss of the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within its territory; (2) decline of legitimate power that collective decision-making is being bestowed into; (3) incapability to provide public services and (4) failure to enter into an interaction with other states as a full capacity member of the international community. in addition to that, general characteristics of a failing state would be, inter alia, weak and ineffective central government as well as extensive corruption and criminality. bosnia and herzegovina, in many segments of its functioning meets almost all the above listed criteria, but is very often described as democratic state, state being under reform/s and/or having modern european features within the realm of public administration, judiciary, law enforcement, etc. all things considered, one may say that on the surface, the bosnia and herzegovina has vastly modern european face but, is, actually a disguised failed state par excellence (p. 5). bosnia and herzegovina is the state where there is so-called institutionalized and legalized discrimination. as a consequence of the war in bosnia and herzegovina (1992-1995) and unwillingly accepted peace, dayton agreement removed from constitution of the republic of bosnia and herzegovina the possibility for all citizens of to identify themselves as bosnians and herzegovinians (e.g. germans in germany), or just citizens of bosnia and herzegovina. in contrast newly invented categories were founded such as: “constituent peoples” (bosniacs, croats and serbs) as well as “others” (those non-constituent). although agreement claimed that it promoted the human rights, it introduced fundamental discrimination of all citizens of bosnia and herzegovina. the first illustrative example is related to the election of a member of presidency of bosnia and herzegovina (body consists of three members). the candidate is a citizen but at the same time he/she is the member of one of the three constituent peoples since constitution provides that presidency of bosnia and herzegovina is composed of one member of each constituent people. discrimination doesn’t stop even there. serbian member of presidency can be elected only from the entity of republic of srpska territory, while bosniac and croat members can be elected only from the citizens residing in the entity of federation of bosnia and herzegovina. z. seizovic & g. simic 33 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the second illustrative example is the house of peoples of parliamentary assembly of bosnia and herzegovina, which consists of 15 members, 5 from each constituent people. serbs are elected in the entity of republic of srpska while bosniacs and croats are elected from the territory of the entity of federation of bosnia and herzegovina. consequently, discriminations is very much visible not only in the above-mentioned examples but across all spheres of cultural, educational, administrative and institutional aspects of life. ironically, rights and freedoms set forth in the european convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms and its protocols are applied directly in bosnia and herzegovina, having priority over all other law (according to constitution of bosnia and herzegovina). obviously, not only so-called “others” are discriminated but also socalled “constituent peoples”, depending on which entity within bosnia and herzegovina citizen resides in. it was more than clear that the bosniakhood, croatianhood and serbianhood cannot be limited to one or just some parts of territory. presumption of being bosniac, croat or serb does not automatically mean an association with specific part of the territory where (or used to) live members of that particular ethnicity (seizovic, 2014, p. 23). bosniac, croat or serb affiliation occurs independently of the territory where members of that particularly ethnicity live. denying status of constituent peoples to bosniacs and croats in the entity of republika srpska and serbs in the entity of federation of bosnia and herzegovina are both in discord with the constitution and have no historical justification, as it is well known that bosnia has always been a multi-ethnic society sui generis and paradigm of “unity and tolerance”. the same pattern is applicable to “others” on whole territory of bosnia and herzegovina. lenses of the constitutional court of bosnia and herzegovina in order to correct constitutional discrimination, the constitutional court of bosnia and herzegovina in july 2000 requested both entities the federation of bosnia and herzegovina and the republic of srpska to amend their constitutions in order to ensure full equality of the three “constituent peoples” throughout the state territory. therefore, this decision partially eliminated dayton’s discriminatory elements and put an end of the idea of recognizing the right of the bosnian croats to establish their small statelike entity, as it required both entities to become and remain multinational. some opponents were considering that this decision is in violation of the dayton peace accords two decades after 34 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences dayton agreement while those advocating idea of a single state considered the decision a breakthrough towards further institutional improvements upon the existing dayton political architecture that, to their opinion, had to undergo constitutional changes. ademovic (2010) was furthermore criticizing this decision by asserting that even though the decision denoted significant step forward in recognizing the same constitutional position of all constituent peoples in every part of territory of the state, it did nothing in favor of improving the position of non-constituent population of bih. with or without the decision, the constitutional position of the nonconstituent peoples remained the same: they were still non-constituent throughout the country (pp. 215-140). discrimination and the european court of human rights in the case sejdić and finci v. bosnia and herzegovina1, the european court of human rights had established that constitution of bosnia and herzegovina contains discriminatory provisions. as such, the judgment constitutes legal and political disgrace as well as strong strike upon its international position and renommé of bosnia and herzegovina. in any member-state of the council of europe, such judgment of the highest authority for human rights would entail mobilization of all essential efforts and powers to amend the constitution in order to make it conform it to the said judgment (seizovic, 2014, p. 43). however, in bosnia and herzegovina, local politicians did nothing as to implement the european court of human rights decision. moreover [t]he negotiations related to future organization of the state are being held in the restaurants throughout bosnia and herzegovina. in a rather arrogant and unacceptable manner, political talks are transposed from parliamentary benches to restaurants, asserting ugly connotation of a tavern-like discourse in administering the state (ibid., p. 46) such unbearable indolence of ethno-national political elites2 as well 1) european court of human rights, grand chamber, case of sejdić and finci v. bosnia and herzegovina, applications nos. 27996/06 and 34836/06, judgment, strasbourg, 22 december 2009. the same judgment ecthr rendered in two similar cases: azra zornic vs. bosnia and herzegovina, application no. 3681/06, judgment, strasbourg, 15 july 2014 and ilijaz pilav v. bosnia and herzegovina,(application no. 41939/07), judgment, strasbourg, 9 june 2016. 2) „ethnopolitics is somewhat weird term. the meaning of word ethnos implies prepolitical category of the people referring to its blood origin, heritage, tradition. [...] the ethnos is best described as kinship, mujkic, asim, we, the citizens of ethnopolis, z. seizovic & g. simic 35 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences as complete absence of any effects as to implementation of judgment had created perception that bosnia and herzegovina is positioned against its citizens sejdić and finci and as well as a common view that all citizens are discriminated against. the decision had confirmed that the constitution contains a discriminatory concept, which makes the very discrimination institutionalized.3 therefore, “the political practice in bosnia can be rightly described as the democracy of ethnic oligarchies, not as democracy of citizens” (mujkic, 2008, p. 18). besides, seizovic (2000) is explicit in declaring that it is obvious that “[n]ational homogenization will still remain the main obstacle to political and economic reintegration of the […] society and will be playing significant role in continuing disintegration processes throughout the country while national (ethnic) identity will very likely be almost sole identification model for the […] citizens” (p. 12). the ethno-national affiliation as cornerstone of the political system in bosnia and herzegovina constitutes serious drawback to firm institutional building that is inevitable for any serious future eu member-state. actual demographic structure of the country does not match either pre-war percentages4 or the dayton electoral system, which does not treat properly the number of citizens that do not consider themselves as members of constituent people, or do not want to identify themselves at all. citizens of civic orientation are considered to be the fourth constituent people.5 human rights centre of the university of sarajevo, sarajevo, 2008, p. 21. „in bosnian case ethnopolitics is very similar to religious nationalism“. bosnian ethnic groups („constituent peoples“) are basically formed along the religious lines as the only „striking“ difference between the communities. in fact, there is a little to their ethnicity besides their „religiousness“, mujkic, asim, we, the citizens of ethnopolis, human rights centre of the university of sarajevo, sarajevo, 2008, p. 23. 3) in december 2009, european court of human rights has declared state constitution and election law discriminating against roma and jewish population in bih. see: human rights watch, second class citizens: discrimination against roma, jews, and other national minorities in bosnia and herzegovina (2012), p. 2. the judgement of the european court has not been implemented almost seven years after it had been taken. 4) statistics show that the 1991 census national break-down was the following: 43,7% bosniacs, 31,3% serbs, 17,3% croats and 7,7% of others. 5) international crisis group (2012) bosnia’s gordian knot: constitutional reform, policy briefing europe n°68 sarajevo/istanbul/brussels, p. 13. there are opinions that the term „others“, „due to dominant ethnic pattern [...] refers to ethnic minorities: roma, jewish, ukrainians, czech and others that live in bih“ – see: asim mujkić, „others – the fourth constitutive element of strategy of democratic transformation?”, dayton peace accords two decades after 36 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences in this regard seizovic (2014) explains that ethnical, cultural, traditional, habitual as well as other components of complicated bih social milieu is composed of sophisticated net of bosnian concord of diversity, so territorial principle taken as a base to form an opinion on somebody’s ethnic affiliation has no either theoretical or practical rationalization. thereby any idea and/or theory of “ethno-cantonisation” or any other “ethno-regionalisation”, notwithstanding if it comes from “outside” or “inside”, is absolutely incompatible with multiethnic concept of the bih society and entails latent threat to survival of the state of bih. cantonisation, of course, might be concept of internal institutional structure of the multi-ethnic state under the condition that it is a civilized state in which any form of diversity cannot be ground for human rights violation whatsoever. on the other side cantonisation and/or regionalisation based on natural and geographical distinctiveness, as model of “de-entitetisation” of bih seems to be the reasonable and logical constitutional solution for internal state organization of bih (pp. 23-24). conclusion the above explained and analyzed constitutional predicaments clearly indicate that bosnia and herzegovina, and international community along with it, will have to make important decision. there are fears that if the practice of institutionalized discrimination and legal division of the country continue it will inevitably lead to the emergence of the new conflict. therefore, as a solution besides proper constitutional changes an attention should be directed towards social-economic, educational and cultural developments that will assure non-recurrence of violence in the future and provide sustainable economic development. only in that way, future of bosnia and herzegovina can be bright and peaceful. accordingly, it is necessary to undertake political and constitutional restoration of the human rights protection system in bosnia and in abazović, dino et al (ed..), place and role of „others“ in the constitution of bosnia and herzegovina and future constitutional settlements for bosnia and herzegovina, social research institute – faculty of political sciences of the university of sarajevo, 2010, p. 80.). it has to be stressed that civic principle of organizing state and power as well as advocating „effective“ state model definitely are not inherently neutral institutional positions. those features are being inwrought into political conflict of dominant political encampments in which the bosniac side, at least formally, enjoys support to its political position. on the other side, bosnian serbs and bosnian croats in any such manoeuvre, which they consider rhetoric, see potential undermining of their political elite position, but also undermining the multi-ethnic principle. z. seizovic & g. simic 37 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences herzegovina through systematic review of all provisions of the constitution aiming to affirm the civil as opposed to national basis for enjoyment of individual rights. it is indispensable to emphasize that it is not discretionary power of the state of bosnia and herzegovina but its obligation to its citizens and its international obligation to harmonize its legislation with european standards and create non-discriminatory legal framework and environment for its citizens. in that regard, a non-discrimination clause, provided for in article ii (4) of the constitution states that the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms provided for in this article or in the international agreements listed in annex i to […] constitution shall be secured to all persons in bosnia and herzegovina without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, color, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.6 the above citation clearly indicates that the “principle of constituent peoples” containing the exclusive connotation of “non-constituent” for none members of these groups, per se, constitutes discriminatory treatment against those who are “non-constituent”, and others, simply depriving them of the status of citizens independent of their group characteristics. on the contrary bosnia and herzegovina must ensure that all citizens enjoy equal rights and freedoms in every single part of the bosnian territory, no matter what nationality they belong to. references european convention of human rights. (1950). european court of human rights. (2014). azra zornic vs. bosnia and herzegovina, application no. 3681/06, judgment, strasbourg. european court of human rights. (2009). case of sejdić and finci v. bosnia and herzegovina, applications nos. 27996/06 and 34836/06, judgment, strasbourg. european court of human rights. (2016). ilijaz pilav v. bosnia and herzegovina, (application no. 41939/07), judgment, strasbourg. human rights watch. (2012). second class citizens: discrimination against roma, jews, and other national minorities in bosnia and herzegovina. 6) the dayton peace accords, general framework agreement for peace in bosnia and herzegovina, paris, 14 december 1995, office of public communication, bureau of public affairs, u.s. department of state. dayton peace accords two decades after 38 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 2, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences international crisis group. (2012). bosnia’s gordian knot: constitutional reform, policy briefing europe n°68 sarajevo/istanbul/brussels. mujkic, asim. (2008). we, the citizens of ethnopolis. sarajevo: human rights center of the university of sarajevo. place and role of „others“ in the constitution of bosnia and herzegovina and future constitutional settlements for bosnia and herzegovina (mjesto i uloga „ostalih“ u ustavu bosne i hercegovine i budućim ustavnim rješenjima za bosnu i hercegovinu). (2010). sarajevo: centar za ljudska prava univerziteta u sarajevu. seizovic, zarije. (2000). “human rights protection in bosnia and herzegovina, within the framework of the dayton peace accords with special view to non-discrimination policy”, essay written in the course of summer school “post-communist transition and the european integration processes”, organized by instituto per l’europa centro-orientale e balcanica – international network europe and the balkans and italian ministry of interior in cervia, italy. seizović, zarije. (2014). bosnia nowadays – a disguised failed state. sarajevo: dobra knjiga. seizovic, zarije. (2014). constituent peoples and constitutional changes, 2nd updated edition. sarajevo: dobra knjiga. the dayton peace accords, general framework agreement for peace in bosnia and herzegovina, paris, 14 december 1995, office of public communication, bureau of public affairs, u.s. department of state. z. seizovic & g. simic 86 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences explaining the conflict in central african republic: causes and dynamics abdurrahim sıradağ king fahd university of petroleum and minerals, saudi arabia introduction since the central african republic (car) gained independence from its former colonial power in 1960 it has failed to establish state institutions capable of providing social, economic or political services to its citizenry. international crisis group (2007) in its report defined car as a “phantom state” due to the absence of state security forces and the collapse of the state institutions. according to bbc news after françois bozize came to power through a military coup in march 2003, the car bush war (2004-2007) in the north-east of the country broke out between the rebel forces under the leadership of michel djotodia and the government, ending with the signing of the birao peace agreement between the union of democratic forces for unity (ufdr) and the government on 13 april 2007 (relief web international report). a number of peace accords were signed between the government and rebel groups to end the conflicts between 2007 and 2012, but the most important and comprehensive involved the people’s army for the abstract since the central african republic (car) gained independence from france in 1960 it has faced deep social, economic and political crises. the country has witnessed 10 military coup attempts between 2005 and 2015, which have aggravated political and economic development of the car. the most recent by leader of the seleka coalition group, michel djotodia, against the government of bozize in march 2013 that saw hundreds of thousands displaced and thousands killed. although the violence in the car partially polarized muslims and christians, we argue in this paper that the driver of the conflict in the car is more a struggle for power among political elite. the aim is to explain the main motivations behind the political crisis and the changing dynamics of the violent conflict in the car. keywords: central african republic; africa; france; seleka; antibalaka; religion; security; conflict. d o i:1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 2. 24 6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fran%c3%a7ois_boziz%c3%a9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/michel_djotodia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/union_of_democratic_forces_for_unity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/people%27s_army_for_the_restoration_of_democracy_%28car%29 87 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences restoration of democracy (aprd), (ufdr), and democratic front of the central african people (fdpc) groups, known as the libreville agreement, signed in the capital of gabon, under the auspices of the economic community of central african states (eccas) on 21 june 2008. according to this agreement, municipal and presidential elections were to be held in 2009 and 2010 respectively and the ufdr recognised as a political party with the fighters of the ufdr integrated into the army. a government of national unity was to be established, including opposition leaders and a national human rights commission was to be set up a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program (ddr) for former combatants was to be initiated (security council report). after a period of relative calm, the seleka group recommenced attacks on the government on 10 december 2012, claiming the government had not implemented the peace agreements of 2007 and 2008. the seleka group, meaning “alliance” in the language of sango and consisting of different armed forces in the north of the country, captured more than ten cities and strategic ministries, leading michel djotodia to announce his leadership of the car in december 2012 and bozize to flee the country on 24 march 2013. when djotodia became the first muslim president of the country in march 2013, violence escalated, and on 10 january 2014 he was forced to resign from his position due to internal and international pressure. according to the guardian international reports circulated of genocide against the muslim population at the hands of christian anti-balaka militias. according to al-jazeera following the resignation of djotodia, the national transitional council elected the mayor of bangui, catherine samba-panza as a new interim president of the car on 20 january 2014, however, this did not stop the conflict. faustin-archange touadera, a former prime minister, won the presidential election in the country held in february 2016. by considering the above developments, it is significant to identify the driving factors destabilizing peace and security in the country and how can the political actors maintain lasting peace and security in the car? individual level of analysis since the country gained its independence, the political leaders have been playing a critical role in changing political, economic, and social landscape of the car. it can be said that barthelemy boganda was among the most important political leaders in the country fought against french http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/people%27s_army_for_the_restoration_of_democracy_%28car%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/michel_djotodia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/michel_djotodia 88 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences colonialism and the country won independence under his leadership. he founded the movement for the social evolution of black africa (mesan) in 1949 to fight against colonialism and racism and served as the first prime minister of the car between 1958-1959. with the death of the founding leader of the state and the leader of the mesan barthelemy boganda in 1959, david dacko, nephew of boganda, became head of the government, but uncertainty in the country weakened the legitimacy of the mesan in may 1960 and the party was divided into two groups, the democratic evolution movement of central africa (medac), formed by abel goumba, minister of state in the government of dacko, and a group led by dacko himself, which repressed and imprisoned goumba and prominent members of medac, eventually dissolving it and other parties. he amended the constitution and made his party the only legal one, imposing authoritarian rule characterized by venality and corruption. for instance, the government illegally began to give permits for opening a diamond-buying office with bribery. in 1965, diamonds became the most valuable export of the country, providing 75 percent of the total value of exports (le vine, 1968, pp 13-14). eliteshave used different ethnic groups and religions as a political means to stay in power and strengthen political positions, developing and shaping their politics according to their own ethnic identities and so increasing political tension and sparking violence. for instance, former president andre kolingba  (1981-93) particularly strengthened his own ethnic group, the yakoma, by giving them key positions them in government, military and public services to the exclusion of others. according to think africa press another former president, ange-felix patasse (1993-2003) favoured his own group, the sara-kaba, and fought against the yakoma. likewise, bozize bolstered his own ethnic group, the gbaya, using patronage politics to give his family key positions in the government, military and public services. he also increased discriminatory and exclamatory policies against the population living in the north-east. the pursuit of personal interests by the elite power through the use the state power has damaged political, economic and social development and led to the emergence of security problems in the car. 1993 was to become a milestone in changing the political system, as for the first time the people could freely elect their leaders. angefelix patasse, the first democratically elected president, came from the region of the north, formerly marginalised and neglected by the central administration. in particular, the provinces of vakaga and haute-kotto a. sıradağ 89 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences had been greatly neglected, the population being mainly muslim, and successive governments had not provided for their basic needs, whether hospitals, schools, companies, or general infrastructure. according to international crisis report (2007) this led to the emergence of different security challenges for the country, the northeast in which foreign and local rebels and smugglers operated easily, seeking to take control of the state and protect their own personal interests rather than promote any political agenda. the rise of rebel groups and the military coups were a consequence of bad governance, corruption and discrimination. since independence no leaders have focused on developing the living standards of the citizens, preferring to reinforce their own political power. although there was a national army of the car known as faca, bozize established a presidential security guard from chadian mercenaries already in the country to protect his government. according to bozize, faca was a strong army and therefore had the power to carry out a military coup against his government at any time (herbert et. al., 2013, p. 4). the establishment of a presidential security guard in the country divided the car military forces. nepotism was common, with bozize appointing members of his family to strategic state institutions. despite the advent of a multi-party system in 1993, the new political dispensation failed to develop the infrastructure or improve the welfare to the majority. rather, it was characterised by meeting the personal ambition of the leaders, intent on staying in power, destroying the opposition, and ensuring their own political interests. more importantly, the leaders had generally come to power through military coups which undermined political, economic and social development, notably, jeanbedel bokassa in 1966, françois bozize in 2003, and michel djotodia in 2013. it can be said that the elite power in the country developed a state-centric security policy rather than a human-centric security policy while ruling the state, but the former paved the way for the emergence of new security challenges in the country. domestic level of analysis the seleka group, comprising mainly muslims from the northern part of the country and perhaps bolstered by chadian and sudanese mercenaries, had three important aims: to topple the bozize regime, take control of the state, and seize the natural resources (international crisis group, 2013). by mid-2013 conflict had increased between the seleka explaining the conflict in central african republic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jean-b%c3%a9del_bokassa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jean-b%c3%a9del_bokassa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fran%c3%a7ois_boziz%c3%a9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/michel_djotodia 90 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences group and anti-balaka militias, the latter created that year to counter the increasing power of the seleka group and support the ousted bozize. according to al-jazeera with the overthrowing of the christian leader of the country in march 2013, anti-balaka militias began to increase their attacks on the seleka groups and civilians, in particular muslim villages. the main aim of the anti-balaka was to force the muslims to flee the country and eliminate all muslims in the car. anti-balaka is made up of three groups: local self-defence groups, former members of the national army, known as faca, and criminal groups. poor and unemployed youth from the rural areas mostly join the criminal activities of anti-balaka, and while there is no clear information about the leadership of antibalaka militias, it is strongly believed that the former president bozize is the most important figure behind it. according to a report published by amnesty, anti-balaka militias carried out an ethnic cleansing against the muslim population in the country, causing the majority to flee to chad, cameroon and the democratic republic of the congo (drc). from 140,000 muslims living in the capital before the eruption of the conflict, fewer than 900 remain (amnesty international, 2014). anti-balaka militias believe that seleka and its members are ‘arabs’ and ‘foreigners’ and so have to leave the country (ibid.). the militias gained power and increased their attacks on the muslims with the arrival of the french peacekeeping missions (sangaris) in the car in december 2013. while the french armed forces demilitarised seleka they left anti-balaka with their arms, thus changing political, demographic and security dynamics in the car. the reason is that france aimed to keep a muslim leader away from the political system in the car by giving support to the anti-balaka militias against the seleka group. importantly, it was the first time a muslim leader came to power in the car in 2013. france perceived it as a threat for its political and economic interests in the car. one of the most important french foreign policy in africa is that france aims to bring a political leader in power who is working with france very closely and serving for french interests. at the same time, the demographic structure in the country also changed dramatically after the political crisis began in the car. while the muslim population accounted for 15 percent before the crisis, the most of the muslims living in the car were forced to flee the country as a result of brutal attacks (al-jazeera). however, according to zaman as a result of this, the muslims could not participate in any polls in the country held in january 2016. a. sıradağ 91 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences prior to 1993, the presidents of the car governed the country in an authoritarian way. the first, david dacko, institutionalised the system of a single party by using appropriate instruments, precipitating an economic and political crisis. the second, jean-bidal bokasso declared himself ‘emperor of the car’, dissolving parliament in 1976 and drawing up a new constitution. his dictatorship was characterised by torture, brutality, assassination, and oppression, including the killing of 100 demonstrating schoolchildren. in 1979, dacko returned to power through a military coup supported by france, (partic, 2008, p. 19-21) followed in 1981 by general andre kolingba who seized power through a bloodless military coup. in 1986, the first constitutional government was established, following international pressure, but a multi-party system was not created in the car until 1993. he suppressed the opponent groups and detained many protesters who supported democratic system in the country. however, he later on accepted free elections after a strong criticism of the international community especially from the us, france and the un (kleinsasser, 2010, p. 6). ange-felix patasse was elected as the president of the car in 1993 and remained in power until 2003, having been re-elected in 1999. according to the transparency international during his terms, there had been three military mutinies (1996-7), and during his second term, relations between the car, its neighbouring countries and france deteriorated due to political assassination, corruption, and abuse of power. according to transparency international, the car is ranking 150 out of 175 in terms of her corruption level in the world. christophe grelombe, a former interior minister, was assassinated on 4 december 1996 (kleinsasser, 2010, p. 11), having unsuccessfully called upon colonel qaddafi to protect him against mutinies. during his administration, three different army mutinies in april, may, and november of 1996 emerged, which destabilized political stability in the country. france sent 1,000 troops and 100 special forces to protect the patesse government in may of 1996 (cnn, french drawn deeper into central africa mutiny). in december 2001, the community of sahel saharan states (cen-sad) established by the libyan leader deployed 300 soldiers to protect the patasse government, but on 15 march 2003, françois bozize staged a coup and remained in power until 2013. during his presidency, he took control of the diamond sector and granted privileges to his own ethnic group. for instance, he appointed his nephew, colonel sylvain ndoutingai as minister of mines, energy and explaining the conflict in central african republic 92 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences water, and in july 2007 appointed him as a finance minister (kleinsasser, 2010, p. 6). economic problems, corruption and political instabilities hindered the growth of the state. after the second term of his presidency, bozize increasingly appointed his family members to strategic state institutions, with his son becoming defence minister and his wife being elected to parliament on 4 may 2011 (international crisis group, 2007). diamond mining had begun in 1927, and had become the most important export after cotton, exceeding all other french colonies in africa (international crisis group, 2010, p. 1). according to the government, there was only one active mining company in the country, areva (french), though a canadian company began to operate in august 2010 (ibid., p. 8). the armed groups in the country engaged in illegal diamond trading to increase their profits (ibid., p. 15). despite such wealth, the country is classified as one of the least developed countries in the world and among the poorest countries in africa. even though the car is rich in natural resources, per capita national income is a meagre 550$, and about 70 percent of the population live below the poverty line. nor did the multi-party elections in 1993 improve the situation, as military coups continued to paralyse political and economic development. military power has played a significant role in shaping domestic politics, with no president coming to power without the support of the armed forces. for instance, the ousted leader françois bozize was a former army chief-of-staff, and he came to power in 2003 through a military coup. likewise, the former president bozize was toppled by the leader of the seleka group michel djotodia in march 2013. jean-bedel bokassa, a former army chief-of-staff, came to power in 1966 by staging a coup against the president, dacko. the military coup carried out by general jean bedel bokassa against the president david dacko on 31 december 1965 was caused by loss of public confidence in the regime, the ruling elite and intellectuals beginning to question the legitimacy of the state and political and economic instability (le vine, 1968, p. 12). weber and kaim trace the conflict in the car to the collapse of the state institutions, and their replacement by armed militias, gangs, and bandits. the presidents have not trusted the national army, known as the central african armed forces (faca), preferring to establish private militias to protect themselves (weber and kaim, 2014, p. 1-2). due to the failure of the state institutions, both the faca and the presidential guard have been involved in human rights abuses in the country (trinidad, 2014, p. 8). a. sıradağ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fran%c3%a7ois_boziz%c3%a9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jean-b%c3%a9del_bokassa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jean-b%c3%a9del_bokassa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/david_dacko 93 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences due to lack of security in the car, many different gangs, bandits and rebel groups emerged. it is necessary to establish a strong and national security force to maintain peace, security and stability but lack of government institutions has led to the emergence of various gangs and rebel groups. the local population in the north have tended to create their own selfdefence militia groups against the aggressive and unjust policies of the military services of the state (ibid., p. 8-9). political, economic and social systems in the car have failed to provide the basic needs of the public. the collapse of the strategic institutions in the country have sparked violence and deepened political crisis. years leaders who came to power with a military coup ousted leaders 1966 jean-bedel bokassa david dacko 1979 david dacko jean-bedel bokassa 1981 andre kolingba david dacko 2003 françois bozize ange-felix patasse 2013 michel djotodia françois bozize table 1: military coups in the central african republic (1960-2014) international level of analysis there are many actors involving political crisis in the car. the anarchic structure in world politics stimulates many actors to influence political, economic and social dynamics of the country. for example, france was a colonial power of the car until 1960, having taken particular interest in the region at the berlin conference of 1884. the car, known as oubangui-chari during the french colonial administration, saw a trading post established on the ubangi river in bangui. a territory since 1889, in 1910 france established the federation of french equatorial africa to include congo, gabon, and the car, with chad joining in 1920. between 1890 and 1940, half of the population in the car perished, due to colonial violence of the french (international crisis group, 2007, p. 3). during the colonial period, france created a complex social, economic and political structure in the car. the colonial legacy of france in the car has contributed to the destabilization of the state (ingerstad, 2014, p. 59). according to martin (1985) since the french colonial countries in africa gained their independence, france has continued to maintain its explaining the conflict in central african republic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jean-b%c3%a9del_bokassa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/david_dacko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/david_dacko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jean-b%c3%a9del_bokassa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/andr%c3%a9_kolingba http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/david_dacko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fran%c3%a7ois_boziz%c3%a9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ange-f%c3%a9lix_patass%c3%a9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/michel_djotodia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fran%c3%a7ois_boziz%c3%a9 94 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences economic and political relations with its former colonies, intervening militarily on the continent more than 50 times since 1960. without french support, no president came to power in the car. the second president, jean-bidal bokasso, was overthrown by the french military operation barracuda on 20 september 1979, and france protected the fourth, andre-dieudonne kolingba from a military coup incited by ange-felix patasse. the main aim of the french military intervention was to protect the regime, the interests of france and the french citizens in the country (international crisis group, 2007, pp. 6-8). the international crisis group explains its relations with france as “independent in principle but in reality dependent on france for everything” (ibid., p. 7). the car is rich in natural resources, such as diamonds, uranium, minerals, gold, and oil. according to international crisis group (2010) the diamond sector is the most important trading sector in the country, making up about 55 percent of export revenues. french companies enjoy control over natural resources in the car, and have provided political, economic and security support for its corrupt regimes in 1995, jean bedel bokassa, who worked as a colonel in the car military, overthrew the first president of the car david dacko with the support of france. the main reason was that when david dacko, the cousin of bokassa, came to power in 1960, he developed economic and political relations with china. this damaged economic and political interests of france in the country. therefore, france supported bokassa to establish a new government with a bloodless coup. when bokassa (1966-1979) came to power, he cut off political and economic relations with china and took significant steps to strengthen relations with france. however, france carried out a military coup against the president bokassa in 1979. even though bokassa had a strong relationship with her former master in the beginning of his administration, he tended to change his foreign policy towards france over time and developed a more independent foreign policy. for this reason, france again supported the ousted leader david dacko to overthrow bokassa with a military coup in 1979. after the military coup of 1979, david dacko came to power and served as the president of the country until 1981 (douglas-bowers, 2015). in 2006, france also provided military support to president bozize to strengthen his government against the rebels (conciliation resources, 2013). however, when bozize began to work with china and south africa, france changed her relations with the country. in april 2012, bozize gave official license for the south african and chinese a. sıradağ 95 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences companies for drilling oil (global voices). the leaders of the car have developed strong economic and political relations with the former colonial master so as to remain in power. the complex dynamics of the conflict in the car cannot be clearly understood without exploring the role of the regional actors. according to the reuters the moves of the rebels and the mass flow of refugees have undermined stability of the neighbouring countries and threatened foreign citizens living in the car. of a population of around 4.6 million, over 2,000 civilians have been killed in the conflict since december 2012, and almost 365,000 refugees are in neighbouring countries, including cameroon, chad, the democratic republic of congo, and congo. chad, a strong military power in the region, sent a military mission of 5,500 troops to the au’s misca in december 2013 and has played a critical role in the changing political dynamics of the car. it increased its pressure on the leader of the seleka group, michel djotodia, to resign from the leadership in january 2014. most of the membership of seleka were from chad and sudan (international crisis group, 2007, p. 7), and according to a report published by the international crisis group, largely consisted of foreign combatants with a heterogeneous structure of different local rebel groups (ibid., p. 8). according to all africa website news chad had substantial oil resources around the southern border, therefore the uprising on the northern border of the car threatened the economic stability of chad. it has been difficult for leaders to assume power without the support of chad, as bozize found in 2003 then again in 2013 when it was withdrawn. chad was also the most important actor in increasing the political and military power of seleka (international crisis group, 2007, p. 8), with leader idriss deby criticising bozize for not initiating dialogue with the rebels and opposition to solve the chronic security problems in the northern part of the country. particularly, he feared that insecurity in the car would spread across the neighbouring countries, including chad, and increase the economic and political instability. the violence also affected the chadian traders in bangui. particularly, deby feared that the conflict would threaten the security of the oil-producing area in the southern part of chad (ibid., p. 9). chad provided soldiers for the presidential security guard to secure bozize but later withdrew them and released the members of seleka. deby increased its contacts with the seleka group at the end of 2012, a sign of the emergence of a military coup in the car and explaining the conflict in central african republic 96 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the overthrowing of the bozize government in march 2013. during his second term, bozize lost his credibility in the region (ibid., p. 9), making contact with different actors from outside the region to break this isolation and strengthen legitimacy in the country and abroad. for instance, he signed a bilateral military cooperation agreement with south africa in 2007, seeing south africa deploy 400 soldiers to bangui. however, vircoulon sees bozize’s invitation as being intended to sabotage the negotiation process (ibid., p. 10). the governments in the region of central africa are unable to control their border security. for instance, people from chad, sudan and car freely cross the borders without encountering any border security. small arms and light weapons have been easily transferred from the borders and armed forces, transnational criminal gangs, foreign rebels and terrorists move freely to the various countries in the region. in addition, illicit trade and human trafficking is facilitated due to the lack of the border security in central africa (ingerstad, 2014, p. 26). the situation has deteriorated peace, security and stability in the car in particular and in the region in general. according to relief web the lord’s resistance army (lra) has been fighting against the government of uganda but also operating in south sudan, the car and the drc for many years. particularly, the lack of the border security in central africa has created a safe haven for them. the ugandan army, in cooperation with a small force of us troops has been fighting against the lra in the region, and the congolese liberation movement (mlc), led by jean-pierre bemba, provided political and military support for the ousted leader patasse of the car against the bozize’s military coup between 2002 and 2003. in may 2008, the leader of the mlc was arrested by the international criminal court (icc). peace, security and active role of international organizations international, regional and sub-regional organisations have been actively involved in peace and security in the car. for instance, according to al-jazeeera the au deployed its peacekeeping operation (misca) to the country on 19 december 2013, comprising 3,500 troops, with others from gabon, chad, congo-brazzaville, and cameroon. in december 2013 the au misca took over the eccas’s peacekeeping mission (micopax) in the car. the main tasks of the africanled international support mission in the central african republic a. sıradağ 97 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences (afism-car) were to protect the civilians, restore security and public order, stabilise the country, restructure the security sector and provide humanitarian assistance, but the au peacekeeping capacity faced a number of challenges. first, the members lacked the necessary political consensus to create an effective peacekeeping operation. second, there was no effective coordination among the different peacekeeping operations deployed by regional, sub-regional and international actors (weber and kaim, 2014, p. 5). third, the au peacekeeping mission on the ground faced economic and logistical difficulties which hampered its effectiveness (siradag, 2012, p. 250). for instance, the au missions in sudan (amis), in somalia (amisom), and burundi (amib) faced serious financial and logistical constraints. the au missions in those countries become too much dependent on the financial and logistical support on outside powers (ibid., pp. 237-8). the au suspended membership of the car, placed a sanction on the members of seleka and imposed travel restrictions on its leader, michel djotodia. however, many african countries, including sudan, congo-brazzavilla, kenya, gabon, chad, benin, and burkina faso flouted the bans and welcomed the visits of djotodia. this exposed a lack of political consensus among the au members, with many african countries unwilling to establish a common foreign and security policy on the continent. according to un website african countries deployed a regional peacekeeping operation (misab) to protect the patasse government in 1997. the un mission in the car (minurca) replaced the misab in 1998 and remained active in the country until 2003. eccas also deployed a military mission in the country in 2008 called micopax to protect civilians and secure the territory. according to weber and kaim, peacekeeping missions in the car should be administered by a joint command and the tasks of the peacekeeping mission should be identified clearly in order to increase their effectiveness. although regional and sub-regional peacekeeping missions are actively involved in security, they have failed to prevent conflict in the car, whilst institutional competition between the eccas and the au has hampered the effectiveness of peacekeeping missions. according to reuters with authorisation from the un security council on 5 december 2013, france deployed its military force called the operation sangaris, including 1,600 troops to the car on 6-7 december 2013 to strengthen the african-led international support explaining the conflict in central african republic 98 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences mission in the car (misca). in february 2014, france also sent 400 more military troops to increase its military presence in the country (al-jazeera). however, france’s military mission had a limited mandate during the car crisis. its main task was only to secure the airport and protect its citizens, but its limited responsibilities reduced the effectiveness of the french military mission in the country (international crisis group, 2013, p. 7). furthermore, the french military mission in the car changed the dynamics of the conflict. while the french soldiers strengthened anti-balaka militias in terms of its military capacity, they disarmed the seleka group. anti-balaka carried out ‘ethnic cleansing’ against the muslim population with the logistical and political support of france (ingerstad, 2014, p. 57). the eu has also been actively involved in the conflict in the country, sending a military force (eufor chad/car) of 4,300 troops to chad and the car in february 2008. the eufor chad/car was transformed into the un military force, the united nations mission in the central african republic and chad (minurcat) on 15 march 2009. in january 2014, eu foreign ministers agreed to send a military force consisting of 1,000 soldiers to the car. there are a number of important dynamics behind the eu’s peace and security involvement in the car. the eu involvement in peace and security is driven by its economic interests. france has been the most important actor for strengthening the eu’s peacekeeping mission in the car, the largest trading partner in africa among the members of the eu. also, france was the largest of the eu’s exporters to africa, with €20 billion in 2010. the 2005 eu strategy for africa underlines that the eu was still highly dependent on africa’s natural resources. the eu shapes its security policy towards africa according to its economic and political interests. however, pursuing commercial interests of the eu members weakens the eu’s security policy in the car and damages its international reputation on the international stage. different actors have developed various security approaches and policies towards the car but this has paralysed peace and security in the country. furthermore, the rivalry between different international organisations has reduced the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations on the ground, as international operations have failed to prevent attacks on muslims in the country. there has been a lack of coordination of peacekeeping operations deployed by the different actors, including france, the un, the eu, eccas and the au, which damaged the a. sıradağ 99 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences effectiveness of the peacekeeping operations. particularly, france’s role in peacekeeping operations has been controversial, with french and chadian economic and political interests in the car playing a significant role in shaping their foreign and security policies towards the car. conclusion this research found that there are three important dynamics behind the conflict in the car. they are individual, internal and international. one of the most important reasons of the violent conflict in the car is a power struggle among the elite groups. religious and national identities of the citizens have been abused by the ruling elites, including antibalaka and seleka, both of which fill the power vacuum by exploiting religious and ethnic identities of the nation so as to attain their personal interests, to take over the state and natural resources. economic problems and political instability have weakened the legitimacy of the state in the eyes of the citizens. in addition, regional and international actors have been actively involved in the conflict but their policies and strategies towards the car mostly reflect their regional and global interests and ambitions. this research argues that since independence, there has been a patron-client relations between the car and france, the latter having strengthened its strategic relations in the military areas and signed important defence and security agreements so as to keep its strategic interests in the car. the research also highlights that that exclusionary, discriminatory policies executed by the elite power sparked violence in the car. particularly, bozize adopted patronage politics, and therefore favoured his own ethnic group and family in the government, military and public services. this damaged the trust between the public and the state. due to the absence of state security forces, different rebel groups and the selfdefence groups have seen that the only way to protect their interests is to take up arms. poverty and political and economic inequality between the north and the south in the country paved the way for the emergence of various rebel groups, such as the seleka group and self-defence gangs, including anti-balaka militias. this research found that there are the two important reasons for the failure to implement the peace agreements in the car. first, there was alack of mutual trust between the political actors during the transitional process. bozize did not want to share his power with the explaining the conflict in central african republic 100 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences rebel forces and following the agreement rearmed. he also increased his anti-muslim speeches, exacerbating conflict between muslims and christians. second, although the economic community of central african states (eccas) had lent support to the government of bozize for some years they cut it when the government of bozize failed to implement the peace agreements made with the rebel groups or fulfil his promises. it is important to underline that although chad and france provided political, economic and military support for bozize when he was planning to carry out a military coup against ange-felix patasse in march 2003 they did not protect him against the military coup executed by michel djotodiain march 2013. the main reason was that bozize shifted its foreign and security policy and developed its political, economic and military relations with the new actors, including china and south africa, signing economic and military agreements with them. the growing relations of the car with china and south africa changed its traditional relations with chad and france. developing a human-oriented security policy is necessary for removing the root causes of the conflict in the car. the elite power can only gain the support of the public if they effectively fight against poverty, corruption, mismanagement and nepotism cross the country. ending the conflict through the policy of hard power will not solve the structural problems of the country. development is necessary for creating peace, security and stability. it is important to emphasise that the central authority should not only invests the capital but also increase investments outside the capital, in particular the north of the country. a comprehensive reconciliation process should be started by the political elite with all the rebel groups, civil society organisations, representatives of all ethnic groups, religious communities, and intellectuals. marginalization of different ethnic and religious groups can open the way for violence in the society. lastly, the level of analysis is helping us analyze different dynamics behind the conflict in the car. importantly, each level is interrelated. for instance, the individual and the state levels are intertwined but without understanding the international level we cannot explore the insight of the conflict in the car. a. sıradağ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ange-f%c3%a9lix_patass%c3%a9 101 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 3, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences references amnesty international (2014). 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http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/acp/regional-cooperation/peace/peace-support-operations/micopax_en.htm http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/14/us-centralafrican-france-troops-idusbrea1d10s20140214 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/14/us-centralafrican-france-troops-idusbrea1d10s20140214 http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/02/france-sends-more-troops-unrest-torn-car-201421416445542597.html http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/02/france-sends-more-troops-unrest-torn-car-201421416445542597.html http://www.france24.com/en/20140120-eu-send-military-forces-central-african-republic/ http://www.france24.com/en/20140120-eu-send-military-forces-central-african-republic/ 9 the deconstruction of “high culture” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the deconstruction of “high culture”: youth subculture as deviant in hanif kureishi’s the buddha of suburbia ali guneş karabuk university, turkey abstract this paper examines youth subculture as a different social deviance in hanif kureishi’s the buddha of suburbia. the youth subculture developed mainly during the 1950s and 60s with its distinctive views, values, life-styles, attitudes and patterns of behaviour, in which young adolescent people opposed firmly the dominant high or established culture of their adult parents. in its examination of the youth subculture, the paper will focus upon three central aspects in the lives of young people, which put them at once into a different position from that of adult people as well as from the streamline of the dominant culture. one of them is the idea of freedom and independence, which young people dream of in their lives in the face of the limiting and moralizing aspects of traditional culture represented by their parents, pastors in the church, and other important adult people in their lives. the second aspect is the use of music, which provides young people with genuine positive energy and creativity, in which they become able to express their deviant views and opposition to the dominant life-styles of their parents and society which disappoint them and regulate their lives, so that music, in a sense, enables young people to cross the borderline of what organizes their lives and then liberate them from the bondage of the restrictive traditional culture. finally, the paper also explores how alcohol and sex are represented by kureishi in the novel used as two primary indicators of independence from adult supervision. keywords: culture; youth culture; music; alcohol; sex; identity the 1950s and 1960s underwent radical social and cultural changes in the western world, particularly in america and britain, and one of the most striking and visible manifestations of these social changes is the emergence of the ‘youth subculture’, in which young adolescent people opposed and questioned adamantly and profoundly traditional hegemonic assumptions and homogenously established official world view of their adult parents about certainty, meaning, reality, truth, and identity. as a deviant and counter-culture mainly caused by the aftermath effects of the world war ii due not only to far-reaching developments in popular mass culture and music, mass communications, mass entertainment, and mass art but also to “the grimmer matter of a world recession and rising unemployment”, young people developed a different way of life, world view, culture, values, life-styles, attitudes and patterns of behaviour, which directly and indirectly enabled them to get free from the bondage not only of the established conventions of their societies and cultures but also of the restrictive rules and values of their own parents and family (kumar, 1983, p. 44. see also morrison, 1980; rennison, 2005 and bently, 2008). eventually, there have been two different perceptions of life running opposite to each other in social and cultural life: an official perception which designs life and attitudes of individuals according to some social and cultural norms commonly accepted by the people and a different youth subculture which enables young people to oppose the established epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 18 8 10 a. guneş epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences view of life and culture and define themselves as separate from the identity imposed on them by the mainstream official norms. this paper examines this different cultural perception, together with different “subversive ideas”, “deviant”, “new nihilistic” views, values, life-styles, attitudes and patterns of behaviour of young people in hanif kureishi’s the buddha of suburbia (kureishi 1990, pp. 53, 97, 153). in so doing, the paper first defines the concepts of culture and “youth culture” or “subculture”, and then it debates how these opposing cultural forms of cultures come into conflict with each other in the wake of the world war ii. secondly, the paper focuses upon three aspects of life mainly practiced by fictional young characters such as karim, jamila, helen and charlie in the novel, and the practice of these aspects the idea of freedom, the use of different form of music and of alcohol and sex obviously put these young characters into a different position from the perception and understanding of adult people at their homes as well as from the common ways of society and culture. although these characters do not detach themselves thoroughly from the culture and common way of life of their parents, they seem through their “deviant” behaviours and beliefs in the novel not to care for what their elders take into account or what their elders pay attention to; they yearn for living on their own as free and independent and not according to the generally accepted and decided norms of their family and society, which, they believe, organize and control their lives but according to their own tendencies without restriction. through their yearn for freedom and independence as well as through music, moreover, young characters in the buddha of suburbia long for creating a space of multiculturalism when young people, both immigrant and native in english society without any racial discrimination, regularly come together in the cafes, play, sing and listen to different forms of music as part of their popular youth culture, since young people from both sides feel that they are exposed to the same restrictive manners and value, even though they come from different backgrounds. finally, the paper also debates how alcohol and sex contribute to youth subculture in the novel. as represented by kureishi in the buddha of suburbia, alcohol and sex are not only two primary indicators of independence, but they also enable young characters to be creative in their vision of relationship with the adult world as well as of the future life. for example, the homosexual relationship between karim and charlie and the lesbian relationship between jamila and her woman friend becomes means first for realizing their “deviant” behaviours and freedom by which they visibly deconstruct the very basis of heterosexual relationship consecrated by the patriarchal society and culture and secondly for achieving a kind of illumination or a new creation concerning their identities in the future or for finding their own ways of life by discovering their own identities different from what have been predetermined for them by their own background as well as from the dominant indigenous british society and culture. culture, like many other concepts, is tricky, vague and difficult to define as its meanings change not only from one person to another and from one group to another according to their interest, world views and professions but also from one period of time to another as the ways of looking at life, world and reality, shifts in each period of time. thus, the meanings of culture have gradually evolved but sometimes contradicted each other throughout history (foucault, 1988; street, 1994 and mcrobbie, 1994). in oed, culture is defined “the customs and beliefs, art, way of life and social organization of a particular country or group”, “the beliefs and attitudes about something that people 11 the deconstruction of “high culture” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences in a particular group or organization share” and technically “the growing of plants or breeding of particular animals in order to get a particular substance or crop from them” (2010, p. 357). for raymond williams, moreover, culture is “one of the two or three most complicated words in english language”, and for him, it “is so partly because of its intricate historical development, in several european languages, but mainly because it has now come to be used for important concepts in several intellectual disciplines and in several distinct and incompatible systems of thought” (1985, p. 87). in his another oftenquoted book culture and society 1780-1950 (1958), moreover, raymond williams also summarizes these differing meanings which have constantly shifted since the fifteenth century: culture….had meant primarily, the ‘tending of natural growth’, and then, by analogy, a process of human training. but this latter use, which had usually been a culture of something, was changed, in the nineteenth century, to culture as such, a thing in itself. it came to mean, first, ‘a general state or habit of the mind’, having close relations with the idea of human perfection. second, it came to mean ‘the general state of intellectual development, in a society as a whole’. third, it came to mean ‘the general body of the arts’. fourth, later in the century, it came to mean ‘a whole way of life, material, intellectual and spiritual’ (1960, pp. xiv-xv. see also williams, 1961). furthermore, alexis de tocqueville in democracy in america (1945) gives a similar view of culture concerning “a whole way of life” commonly shared by the people of a particular group or nation: in order that society should exist and, a fortiori, that a society should prosper, it is necessary that the mind of all the citizens should be rallied and held together by certain predominant ideas; and this cannot be the case unless each of them sometimes draws his opinions from the common source and consents to accept certain matters of belief already formed (1945, p. 8. emphasis added). finally, in akira iriye’s view, culture is “the sharing and transmission of memory, ideology, emotions, life-styles, scholarly and artistic works, and other symbols” of a particularly group or nation from one generation to another in a smooth way (1990, p. 100). as clearly seen in the arguments above, culture in its traditional sense is “a whole way of life” and “certain predominant ideas” commonly shared by the people of a particular group or a nation and transmitted from one generation to another in a smooth way without cease. this form of culture obviously entails uniformity, conformity, stability, and familiarity, which every member of a nation or society is visibly supposed to accept without hesitation. what is more, this kind of cultural perceptions and constructions also draw borders around the lives of the people and shape them, imposıng certain norms, values, limitations on the behaviours and beliefs of people; these borders are also internalized and thus accepted voluntarily by people without questioning them with a view of identity as fixed, stable and uniform (brake, 1985). however, this view of “a whole way of life” embraced as “predominant ideas” by the adult people of traditional hegemonic culture has undergone a huge transformation since world war ii as a result of the development of popular culture, multiculturalism, liberalism and feminist movements, as well as the development of cultures of resistance movements such as hippies, goths, rock and roll, fans of hip-hop or heavy metal, punkers, mods, skinheads and rappers. this new culture includes a kind of meaning and perception closely linked to the values, attitudes, behaviours and norms of the young. now mainly called as youth subculture, it is considered a subdivision of a national culture, in which the youth have striven to create different spaces, meaning and perception to free themselves 12 a. guneş epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences sometimes imaginatively and sometimes physically from the binding and organizing norms of their parents’ view of life and culture (lee, 1945, gordon, 1947 and brake, 1985). “in oed, the youth is defined as “the time of life when a person is young, especially the time before a child becomes an adult” (2010, p. 1730), and oed also defines youth subculture as “the behaviour and beliefs of a particular group of people in society that are different from those of most people” (p. 1487. for similar views, see also baron, 1989; bennett, 1999; martin, 2002; raby, 2005 and holt, 2007). for instance, nikola bozilovic argues that the emergence of youth or subcultures “is not preceded by any symposia, programs or memoranda. subcultures very often come into being with no special planning in advance; they are spontaneously generated while their activities are directed towards the goal which bases its raison d’ être on the escape from anonymous everydayness imbued with boredom, spiritual emptiness and impersonality” (2010, p. 46. emphasis added). bozilovic continues to argue that “in the traditional society, in which the centre of the entire life is a kinship system, the place of an individual in the group is of no particular importance”, and thus the youth in their subcultural world tries “to find meaning” beyond “the kindship system” of “their parents’ culture and the ruling ideology”, so that “on their way they will face resistance, firstly in their own family and then in a wider social environment, and all this is due to their subversive and resistant strategy or their refusal to subdue themselves to the ruling procedures in the culture of subordination” (pp. 50-3). moreover, j. patrick williams argues that the centre for contemporary cultural studies in britain “tended to emphasize leisure over other social realms, such as the family or school, because leisure spaces were relatively free of dominant cultural forces (at least in youths’ minds) and thus were where subcultural expressions were most likely to appear” (2007, p. 578). finally, for angela mcrobbie, young people are “active negotiators and producers” of a different culture which “is not too bound to ‘parents culture’ or the culture of the larger society” (1994, pp. 167-8). in this new culture, mcrobbie continues to argue that young people create their own space even though it is small and sometimes imaginary, yet they feels themselves free from restriction with “new sensibilities”, new styles, images and values bound up with a new view of “deviant identity” as opposed to the fixed and essentialist view of traditional identity (pp. 172-191). as seen in the discussions above, the cultures created by hippies, goths, rock and roll, fans of hip-hop or heavy metal, punkers, mods, skinheads and rappers are just subcultures within the culture of the larger society, which oppose the mainstream culture of the larger society. subcultures represent those young people who yearn for escaping from “boredom, spiritual emptiness and impersonality” in their small community and space; they develop their own style, image and symbols by which they strive to represent their deviant behaviours and beliefs in opposition to the common practices of the larger national society. in this way, young people feel themselves happy and free of “dominant cultural forces” which organize and shape their identities in an essentialist fixed way. what is also important in such a kind of subcultures is that there is no racial and gender discrimination most of time, so that young people from different ethnic backgrounds – white and black, along with feminist activists, come together and create a form of culture of co-existence because they all are very much suppressed between “dominant cultural forces” of their traditional family and of the larger society. similarly, kureishi represents such kind of youth subculture in the buddha of suburbia through lives of his young fictional characters, asians and british, who are very 13 the deconstruction of “high culture” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences much repressed between the culture of their traditional family on both sides and racial indigenous british culture, so that kureishi empowers them in the novel to create their emancipatory strategies and space to get rid of “dominant cultural forces” or “predominant ideas.” the buddha of suburbia opens with a view of karim amir, the son of an indian immigrant family and chief protagonist of the novel, in which the reader at once sees him in a way that he is not happy with his current life, and thus he longs for getting rid not only of the london suburb but also of the meanness and conflict of his family life, where “things were so gloomy, so slow and heavy, in our family. i don’t know why. quite frankly, it was all getting me down and i was ready for anything” (kureishi, 1990, p. 3). being “ready for anything” is the motto of young people in the novel for freedom and independence in their lives, since they all feel that they are restricted and that their lives are obviously regulated by their parents and customs practiced both at home and in the larger society, so that they themselves wish one way or another to run away from their home, create their own space and find their own voice and meaning of life on their own as “an entirely new way of being alive” (p. 36). like stephen dedalus in james joyce’s a portrait of the artist as a young man (1916), therefore, karim is “ready for anything” in his future life as long as it will enable him to free himself from the monotony of life in the london suburbs or as long as it will fit his view of life and please him, since “in the suburbs people rarely dreamed of striking out for happiness. it was all familiarity and endurance: security and safety were the reward of the dullness’ (p. 8). simply, karim looks for a kind of life which will be “bottomless in its temptations” (p. 8). the view of “bottomless in its temptations” challenges general common-sense practices not only of his asian background at home but also of the larger indigenous racial english society and always pushes him ahead for seeking his own way rather than referring to both his family background and what english society decides for him, since he is very much unhappy at school, very much disturbed by his father’s treatment of mother; there is no peace at home, and his home, his father’s view of life and indian background do not provide a satisfactory view of life for him. in his attempts to be different, free and independent, karim also plays music, read various magazines such rolling stone and closely visualizes inwardly his present life, yet he cannot find a way out of the dullness and stinginess of life in the london suburb but feels that “the whole world was converging on” his life and is imprisoning him psychologically into his small room, and eventually he says: “i wanted to begin now, at this instant, just when i was ready for it” (p. 62). hence he wants to be various things such “a photographer or an actor, or perhaps a journalist, preferably a foreign correspondent in a war zone”, because he, like majority of other young people, hates “authority and being ordered” (p. 120). what is of vital importance for karim is freedom and independence in his life, a life which will please him and will fit his own expectation, and eventually he fantasizes what will happen once they move from the london suburb to the city centre of london: there was a sound that london had. it was, i’m afraid, people in hyde park playing bongos with their hands...there were also kids dressed in velvet cloaks who lived free lives; there were thousands of black people everywhere, so i wouldn’t feel exposed; there were bookshops with racks of magazines printed without capital letters...there were shops selling all the records you could desire; there were parties where girls and boys you didn’t know took you upstairs and fucked; there were all the drugs you could use. you see, i didn’t ask much of life; this was the extent of my longing. but at least my goals were clear and i knew what i wanted. i was twenty. i was ready for anything (p. 121). as seen in the quotation, karim is obviously different and seems uninterested in 14 a. guneş epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences what his parents or elder people want in life – money, houses, fame and so on; he appears not to have big aims and desires in life, but he just desires to live and act as freely and independently as possible; he desires and seeks his own inclinations in life as much as possible, particularly in the city, london, where, he thinks, young people are free from the limitation not only of racial discrimination but also of the customs and demands of their parents and society, where “kids were fabulous; they dressed and walked and talked like little gods” (p. 128). in his view, the city offers any kinds of liberation and deep sensations to its residents, and of them, it is young people who enjoy themselves more than the other people, since they are able to disguise themselves and gain free movements within the crow without being exposed to any restrictive standards and behaviours. however, karim is also disappointed in london, since the city first fascinates him in the sense that it first offers him a lot of opportunities which he was unable to get in the south london suburb, but later on he becomes a bit vague and ambivalent in his view of life in the city centre, or he is a little bit afraid of the radical shift in his life as charlie says to him (pp. 127-132). in the city, there are theatre companies, cinemas, various cultural activities and magazines, cafes and music halls, which liberate him, like other young people and avail him of chance to chase his own free tendencies. in the first place, it is fine with karim, yet he gradually becomes weary of london once he sees a lot of disruptive young people with different styles of clothes such as ‘dirty jeans, patchwork boots, and sheepskin coats” and so on (p. 129). “the city at night intimidated me: the piss-heads, bums, derelicts and dealers shouted and looked for fights” (p. 131), so that he comes to notice that the city gives and constructs a sense of individual identity in various ways, breaking up the very basis of traditional essentialist view of identity: “i began to understand what london meant and class of outrage we had to deal with. it certainly puts us in proportion…london was killing us” with its “smelly old hippies”, “slag;” and “ugly fart-breaths” (pp. 129-130). whether or not karim likes london is not so important, but what is important is that kureishi represents him as a young character in a way that karim portraits almost all the aspects of the youth subculture not only in england but also across the world as being stubborn, subversive, deviant, homosexual, alcohol user and untraditional in his views of life and attitudes. in the buddha of suburbia, therefore, kureishi employs a new strategy, in which he artistically enables karim to go beyond the borderline of his background and family tradition as well as of the demands of english society by creating a new hole, a new space, or what homi bhabha calls “third space” or a sense of “hybridity”, which “ensure that the meanings and symbols of culture have no primordial unity or fixity; that even the same signs can be appropriated, translated, re-historicized and read anew” (1994, pp. 37-8). in the novel, “the act of ambivalence”, “the differential relations”, “disavowal” and “difference” are obviously seen in kureishi’s representation of karim through his constant oscillation from one set of identity and role to another (1990, pp. 33-4). with such constant oscillation, kureishi enables karim not to imprison himself within the fixity of categorizing polarities and identity but to negotiate constantly with various identities and roles in what bhabha also terms the “interstitial passage between fixed identifications [which] opens up the possibility of a cultural hybridity that entertains difference without an assumed or imposed hierarchy” (1994, p. 4). kureishi strongly longs for subverting the boundaries between the non-whites and whites in the british society, stamping out this rigid binary opposition of racism and then constructing an “interstitial passage” or space 15 the deconstruction of “high culture” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences where individuals may be free to express themselves and act freely in their movements. kureishi exploits this new strategy of culture, perception and hybridity, in which identity, as opposed to what has been perceived, becomes flexible, ambivalent, and indifferent to whatever restricts it in life racism, prejudices, traditions, culture and so on. in the buddha of suburbia, karim obviously fits into this view of life. from the first page of the novel onward, he is visibly observed as being indifferent, uncaring, and relax in his views and relationship with one another, particularly with the whites when compared to other asian or brown-skinned people. in view of what immigrant people experience in the london streets, ranging from violence and attacks to humiliation and prejudices, he imagines that there could be a different relationship, different approach and view “somewhere”, so that he wants to face up to life and “extract be a different life from it all the real joy it has to offer” (kureishi, 1990, p. 5). hence it is in this respect that karim himself not only denies the fixity of his own identity and his father’s indian background together with his english mother’s background but also tells the reader how he is the construct of differences: my name is karim amir, and i am an english man born and bred, almost. i am often considered to be a funny kind of englishman, a new breed as it were, having emerged from two old histories. but i don’t care – englishman i am (though not proud of it), from the south london suburbs and going somewhere. perhaps it is the odd mixture of the continents and blood, of here and there, of belonging and not that makes me restless and easily bored. or perhaps it was being brought up in the suburbs that did it. anyway, why search the inner room when it’s enough to say that i was looking for trouble, any kind of movement, action and sexual interest i could find, because things were so gloomy, so slow and heavy, in our family. i don’t know why. quite frankly, it was all getting me down and i was ready for anything (p. 3). as the quotation indicates, karim does not have a fixed, stable and autonomous identity, but he is very loose and flexible in his own view of identity as “a new breed” constructed of “two old histories”; he himself declares that he does not belong to any of backgrounds coming from his parents – indian and english, since belonging to either of them may give rise to partiality, biased behaviour and fixity of view as well as to racial marginality this way or another. karim scoffs at englishness, challenges it and considers himself “a funny kind of englishman” which used to be perceived as being serious, powerful, stable, and autonomous in his views, movement and action. moreover, he does not acknowledge the cultures of his father’s indian background, either, but tries to find his own way of life as he grows up in a culture which actually rejects and sees him as the other due to his brown-skin colour. that he does not care for belonging to nowhere avails karim of opportunity to feel himself “ready for anything” in life. he does not want to stick to any side of his parents’ cultures and values his father’s indian background and mother’s englishness; he defies these two cultures and backgrounds which try not only to construct him as fixed in a marginalized way but also to prevent him from moving freely from one set of life to another; he wants to be simultaneously inside/outside of polarities at a time, pertaining to both and to neither as in the words of bhabha: “neither one or the other but something else besides, in-between” (1994: 219). as quoted by deborah a. kapchan and pauline turner strong, moreover, benjamin lee also argues that “leading edge of change lies in the intersections and interstices of processes beyond the nation-state that have their own global infrastructure. hybrid spaces created by diasporic migrations are inhabited by bilingual and bicultural resident nomads who move between one public sphere and another” (1999, p. 245). karim’s “bicultural” perception, understanding and attitudes may, in fact, derive 16 a. guneş epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences from his family background and upbringing. like kureishi himself, he is the son of a pakistani father and an english mother as the second generation of immigrants in england. although he has never seen his father’s home, tradition and culture back in india, he is also influenced by his father’s culture, perception and world view as well as by the views of those asian immigrants around him like his father’s close friend anwar. he also has something from his mother’s background, that is, english culture, attitudes, “class antagonism” and confusion, “strikes”, racism, “prejudices”, and so on (kureishi, 1990: 247, 256). after one of shows in pyke’s theatre, for example, his mother congratulates karim upon his success and says: i was leaving; i was getting out, when mum came up to me. she smiled and i kissed her. “i love you so much,” she said. “wasn’t i good, eh, mum?” you weren’t in a loin-cloth as usual,” she said. “at least they let you wear your own clothes. bu you are not an indian. you have never been to india. you’d get diarrhoea the minute you stepped off that plane, i know you would.” “why don’t you say it a bit louder,” i said. “aren’t i part indian?” “what about me?” mum said. “who gave birth to you? you’re an english man, i am glad to say…” i don’t care,” i said. i’m an actor. it’s a job.” “don’t say that,” she said. “be what you are.” “oh yeah.” (p. 232) the quotation shows that karim’s mother considers her son “an english man” due to the birth, even though he is aware that he is half indian and half english, a new construct of two cultures as he himself states in the quotation given above. in fact, karim yearns for getting rid of this restrictive boundary of being an indian or english, yet his upbringing in these two mixed cultures and perceptions may also help him have a kind of the world view and identity based on indifference, flexibility, ambivalence and hybridity as being “a new breed as it were, having emerged from two old histories”. he does not care for being an indian or english but craves for expressing himself, playing various identities and roles and understanding as oscillating constantly between the same and the difference in the white british society as much as possible. in this respect, karim obviously becomes kureishi’s voice to represent these values and perceptions in life so as to go beyond the certainty of positioning caused by the norms of both his own family tradition and indigenous english society. what is more, karim as the representative of subculture questions the norms and culture of the adult world in a different way, even though he still keeps some aspects of cultures of his parents – indian and english. due to this flexibility and indifference with his “deviant” attitudes in life (p. 97), therefore, karim is able to see his future life in a way different from what his father and mother would give in life. like many other young people in britain, he wants to live on his own way freely and not according to his father’s indian background and his mother’s english background: “i’ve glimpsed a world of excitement and possibility which i wanted to hold in my mind and expand as a template for the future” (p. 19). as seen later in the buddha of suburbia, karim is aware of the view that the racial and skin-colour issue is an ongoing vicious circle, which obviously imprisons and will thus prevent him in the future from expanding and crossing beyond the border, so that he longs for creating a third space within subculture for himself where there may not be any conflict linked to race and skin-colour, where he may be free of the imposition of his family’s limiting attitudes and then enjoy his life freely as much as possible. karim’s indifference or view of “third 17 the deconstruction of “high culture” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences space” in his life deeply stuns shadwell, the director of the first theatre in the novel, where karim has acted the character of mowgli as discussed above in detail. it is true to some extent that karim gets this job in shadwell’s theatre because he is “dark-skinned”, “small and wiry” (142), and thus there is a kind of prejudice or categorization towards karim in shadwell’s sarcastic statements as well as in his solid sense of “superiority” which he is not aware of (pp. 146-7), yet what is important is that shadwell finds karim unconcerned about racism as a coloured one. he talks about immigration, imperialism and indirectly pushes karim ahead to express his view and take sides with these issues, but karim pays no heed to them. then he says to karim: “‘that must be complicated for you to accept – belonging nowhere, wanted nowhere. racism. do you find it difficult? please tell me. he looked me’. ‘i don’t know,’ i said defensively. ‘let’s talk about acting’” (p. 141). in this quotation, as in the quotation above, karim seems disturbed by shadwell’s insistence on talking of racism; he does not pay attention to racism, to being half indian or half english but to acting which he thinks will enable him to express himself the same as a white actor in the theatre; he thus strives to avoid shadwell in a polite way, and a few pages later in the novel it becomes obvious in shadwell’s colonial discourse that he strives to display his solid sense of “superiority” (p. 146). in the buddha of suburbia, it is this flexibility which enables karim to go beyond the boundary of the skin-colour and find job in another “theatre” (p. 137). matthew pyke is the director of the second theatre where karim, as in the previous show, performs an asian character, yet he is not exposed to categorization as much as he used to be in the former one. it is eva who introduces karim to theatre which becomes a means for him to reconcile the binary oppositions of racism and culture on both sides. this introduction not only becomes a chance, “big moment” and a new start in karim’s life (p. 136), but it also avails him of opportunity to prove himself and his ability in acting, intellectual and artistic circle of the white upper class british society. although characters such karim, tracey and gene are clearly exposed to racial discrimination, humiliation and segregation among the whites actors and actresses on the stage, “theatre” still becomes a means particularly for karim to express himself and achieve a kind of reputation and status despite his brown colour; it is the theatre which enables him to see the light of the future in his life. it is funny and unusual, yet his first acquaintance with the idea of theatre takes place in the bathroom of eva kays during one of his visits, and it is at this moment that he sees his future in the theatre: in the kays’ bathroom there were framed theatre posters for genet plays. there were bamboo and parchment scrolls with tubby orientals copulating on them. as i sat down with my trousers down, taking it all in, i had an extraordinary revelation. i could see my life clearly for the first time: the future and what i wanted to do. i wanted to live always this intensely: mysticism, alcohol, sexual promise, clever people and drugs. i hadn’t come upon it all like this before, and now i wanted nothing else. the door to the future had opened: i could see which way to go (pp. 14-5). in his second theatre under the directorship of pyke, karim achieves his future success, fame and status in his life without any overt segregation. now he is happy and enjoys public attention freely the same as other white actors: “people pointed us out to each other. they bought us drinks; they felt privileged to meet us. they required us urgently at their parties, to spice them up. we went to them, turning up at midnight with our arms full of beer and wine. once there we were offered drugs...” (p. 235) karim has been able to find his way for himself in the artistic and intellectual space of the british society on his 18 a. guneş epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences own without binding himself to the background of his indian father and english mother; he is not subjected to any categorization, discrimination and humiliation but praised, so that karim is offered further roles: “i was offered a small part in a television film, playing a taxi-driver” (p. 235). eventually karim also travels to new york to take part in another show under pyke’s leadership and enjoys to some extent the opportunities the dominant cultures of both british and american societies provide their own citizens with. as for the view of alternative way of life, “subversive ideas” and “deviant” attitudes, almost all the young characters of kureishi in the buddha of suburbia, it is not only karim with his brown-skin but both immigrant and local english young people who actually represent the youth subculture as they strongly desire to run away from the view of life which they find their bleak, uninspiring, dull and restrictive at home and at school as well as in society and culture. for example, helen, the daughter of hairy back, who heavily insults karim due to his skin colour, also wants to escape from her home, even though she as a local white english girl has everything materially and has no racial and discriminative problem in the streets of london. moreover, helen does not have any problem to live together with the children of the immigrant families and black people, yet helen, like many other young black and people, is also unhappy at home, too, and thus unable to find at home whatever she desires. her father hairy back is a traditional tyrant and restrictive man, who is very angry with the non-white people, and helen as a young girl does not approve of her father’s attitudes towards the non-white people, since she has no problem with the non-white people; even she has brown-skin and black friends, whom she gets on well with. the way her father acts and thinks obviously upset her, and thus she tells karim her plan or what she also wants to do in her future life: she said she was going to run away from school and go to live in san francisco. she had had enough of the pettiness of living with her parents and the irrelevance of school was smothering her heads. all over the western world there were liberation movements and alternative lifestyles – there had never been a kids’ crusade like it – and hairy back wouldn’t let her stay out after eleven (pp. 71-2). in the quotation, helen’s views illuminate some general aspects of youth cultures and attitudes developed in the second half of the twentieth century, and these views of subculture continue to draw attention of many people to a greater extent across the world due to the unavoidable rise and spread of electronic media on stage and on screen, which has made even much freer and excessive the range of topics, manners and views. as for helen’s views, there are two important different aspects linked to youth cultures and attitudes. first, she, like karim, charlie and jamila in the buddha of suburbia, is not happy at home due to the nasty, stale, trivial and restrictive view of life, so that she thinks that her father will not let her practice “alternative life-styles” on her own, together with her free movements in line with “liberation movements” developed in the western europe, so that helen, without offending much her father at home, sees her only chance in san francisco to exercise her view of life free from the limitation of her father and society. secondly, helen, like many other students today all over the world, finds school suffocating and destructive on account of the strict moral and disciplinary codes which do not allow them to act in the way they want and live as per what pleases them. in addition to karim and helen, charlie, the son of eva kays, also seeks his own “temptations” and freedom in his life different from the life at his home. charlie is an aloof, elusive, dismissive and unconcerned young character in the buddha of suburbia, but he is more radical and courageous than karim and helen in the way he stands “apart” 19 the deconstruction of “high culture” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences (p. 149). his father has a psychological problem, and mother is having an affair with karim’s father haroon whom he knows and often sees him together with his mother at their home, yet he is always in his “attic” room as being indifferent and isolated to what is going on at home. he has homosexual relationship with karim and wears unusual clothes such “long hippie smack”, “cowboy boots”, “an old pair of frayed jeans or a wide collared shirt with pink flowers on it”, and “jumpers” (pp. 35, 88). from the very beginning of the novel, we often see charlie as a young man who not only seeks a new different life but also prepares himself for the rest of his life whatever it is (p. 37), and halfway through the novel, he makes his own “start of a life”, a life which definitely opposes what is commonly accepted and practiced at home and in english society. this new life as part of youth culture is a kind of “new nihilism” and indifference (p. 153), or it is a kind of hippie and casual life without being bound to any kind traditional norms and practices: “charlie liked to sleep here and there, owning nothing, living nowhere permanent, screwing, whoever he could; sometimes he even rehearsed and wrote songs. he lived this excess not yet in despair but in the excitement of increasing life” (p. 117). for young people like charlie, the act of “to sleep here and there, owning nothing, living nowhere permanent” is not strange but means a kind of freedom and independence, because there is nothing in such kind of life which binds and constrains young people. this is obviously the opposite of what traditional culture and way of life demand young people in that young people are requested to be at home at certain times and that they should have a regular and tidy lives since they are considered the future of society and its culture. charlies also shows his reaction to this kind of regularity and tidiness of traditional society and culture through music he plays and songs he sings in the buddha of suburbia. this new form of music is new popular music as “the product of an alien and dangerous culture”, which not only occupies everyday life of young people but also encourages them with different racial background to have an alternative way of life which objects to the established way of life and culture of the adult people (hamm, 1985, p. 163). unlike a written text, music reflects its sound, echo, meaning and impact at once on the audience, particularly on the young people, retaining what dan laughey points out “social and cultural force of identification and presentation in nearly all young people’s lives, whether they like it or not” (2006, p. 1). as the product of its own time, popular music as an opposite of classical and established form of music represents the values, taste and interest of young people and then becomes their voice, in which they not only identify themselves as different and free but also give their messages to the outside world, usually contrary to the common world view of their adult parents. for example, last summer i was shopping last summer with my family in lcwaikiki, a shopping chain, and i saw the following banner on one of the shirts, which i wanted to purchase, yet it was too small for a fat man like me: “rock and roll, in all its forms, gives us a microphone to communicate with the world. it has the power to bring nationalities and generations together, to elect world leaders, and to move people. no other art form has the social significance of rock and roll. you simply cannot understand western culture without taking a serious look at this music”. after world war ii, there have been developed various kinds of popular music such as rock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel music, pop, country and western and so on, which have obviously challenged art music or traditional music. as a new form, popular music has been a kind of reaction against the restrictive nature of traditional culture and values in which particularly young people had felt themselves imprisoned 20 a. guneş epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences and voiceless. secondly, popular music has broken the class, ethnic and racial boundaries in that young people from different ethnic or racial have become able to come together and create a space free from discrimination and categorization. finally, popular music with its styles, images, taste and lyrical aspects has become a means for young people to express their feelings and emotions without being exposed to any limitation; in this respect, they have striven to get rid of everyday routines and boredom imposed on them by their parents’ culture and moral values. similarly, music in the buddha of suburbia becomes a means of protects, reaction and escapism for young characters, who often gather, play music and sing songs in the places away from their parents and their control. through their music, these young people gain energy and power that not only call into question the old order of parochial culture, stereotyped assumptions, old prejudices, backward attitudes of english society, but they also avoid close observation and control of their parents. from the very beginning of the novel, charlie and karim are always seen as being involved in music, which not frees but also puts him at once in a different position from his father and mother in the sense that they have different type of music, representing the life style of the working-class youth, which “originated the chief developments in music and fashion”, and as a result, “the ‘lifestyles’ and values of the ‘sixties people’ in britain spread wide, encompassing all ages, classes, and regions” (kumar 1983: 44). in its earliest example, karim is getting ready to go together with his mother to the yoga meeting at mrs. eva kay’s home. while getting ready, he puts on one of his favourite records, “dylan’s ‘positively fourth street’, to get [him] in the mood for the evening” (kureishi, 1990, p. 6). karim wants “to study the melody maker and new musical express to keep up” with his mood of hope in the suburban london, where “it was all familiarity and endurance: security and safety were reward of dullness” (p. 8). as seen here, music refreshes and cheers up karim. secondly, once he is bored in the suburb of london, which he feels makes his life dull and tasteless, music immediately fills him with energy, hope and excitement for the future. like karim, charlie also uses music a means of escapism and expression since he is very bored at home and feels himself isolated and lonely. music becomes a kind of therapy for him. for example, eva is the mistress of karim’s father. karim knows their relationship, and they often visit her house together. in one of their visits, karim meets charlie, who invites him to his attic room, where he has “piles of records” and “the four beatles in their sergeant pepper were on the wall like gods.” (p. 14). the beatles were an important popular music band in england during the 1960s, and they visibly affected culture and people’s way of thinking. the beatles were very much influenced by black music, namely by rock and roll music and musicians like chuck berry, roy orbison, isley brothers, and the “king of rock” elvis presley, whom young people listened to and still continues to listen to them in a manner which not only opposes traditional art music and its culture, but it also challenged the political situation of the 1960s. charlie seems influenced very much by this form of music and asks karim if he has recently heard such a good music lately. karim tells how he himself played “the new stone album” at music society, making young people there “crazy” due to the happiness and enjoyment: “they threw off their jackets and ties and danced / i was on the top of my desk! it was like some weird pagan ritual. you should a bin [sic. have been] there, man” (p. 14). as we have seen above, young people, both white and coloured-skin, seem unhappy, bored and limited in their lives under the control of dominant cultures and values of their parents, 21 the deconstruction of “high culture” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences so that music, as the quotation illuminates, frees young people imaginatively; it allows them to forget temporarily what bores them and ignore indirectly what controls their life and identity. what controls the lives of young people is destabilize through the use of alcohol and sex in the buddha of suburbia. kureishi employs alcohol and sex in a way that they become not activities, with which young people engaged themselves the same as the other people but activities which enable them to lead an alternative or deviant life as opposed to how traditional societies applied them. from the very beginning of the novel to the end, it is possible such “deviant” behaviours and relationship among young people which they see the ways leading to their emancipation. jamila, the daughter of an immigrant family, also represents the view of the youth culture once she rejects the view of life which particularly her father strives to impose on her. like karim and charlie, she also has far-reaching different “subversive ideas” about life (p. 53), particularly about marriage, which are closely bound up with the youth culture, in which she strongly challenges her father’s view of marriage as well as the view of the family structure in the contemporary england. jamila is the daughter of haroon’s close friend anwar, who, together with haroon, came from india to england in the 1950s to get a good education, yet he, like haroon, has not turned hack to india, and now anwar is running a food store called paradise store in the london suburb. in many ways, jamila is different from her mother, who voluntarily accepts her place as an obedient wife in the family, yet jamila as a girl seems unwilling to perform the same roles as her mother. she is more educated, “forceful and enthusiastic” and advanced in many areas of life when compared to her mother (pp. 51-2); she has a strong powerful character and is in the total control of her life and “certain what to do about everything” in her life (p. 55). moreover, jamila, unlike a traditional girl and woman, learns “karate” and “judo” and runs long distance, even though her father gets suspicious of whether or not she meets boys (pp. 56-7). besides, jamila is a good reader and reads non-stop under the close supervision and tutorial of the librarian miss cutmore of a nearby library, and she reads particularly important feminist critics such as simone de beauvoir (1908-1986), a french writer who had an important influence on the development of feminism. her most famous book is the second sex (1949), which, now a classic of feminist literature, is a scholarly and passionate plea for the abolition of what she called the myth of the “eternal feminine”. in addition, jamila always carries the photography of angela davis (1944-), a left-wing black american political activist, scholar, and author, who was politically active during the late 1960s and 1970s as a member of the communist party usa, the civil rights movement and the black panther party. jamila’s view of life, her gender identity and her relationship with the other sex are very much influenced by simone de beauvoir and angela davis as for her future life of marriage, positions and roles in her own family once she is married, so that she starts viewing her space and future life in a different way. this difference becomes very visible once her father secretly decides that it is time jamila got married. upon deciding that it is time for his daughter to marry in a decent way, anwar gets at once in touch with his brother who arranges a boy in bombay, india, for jamila. when anwar tells her about his decision that “she was to marry the indian and he would come over, slip on his overcoat and wife and live happily ever after in her muscly arms...‘soon you’ll be very happy.’ her mother said, ‘we’re both very glad for you, jamila’”, and “not surprisingly for someone with 22 a. guneş epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences jamila’s temper and angela davis’s beliefs, jamila wasn’t too pleased” with this news (p. 57). for anwar as a traditional man, family and marriage are the moral basis of society and happy life, so that she should obey his decision and accept this arranged marriage with the indian boy changez, yet when jamila rejects to marry him, her father goes on the hunger-strike (pp. 59-60). having considered her father’s situation, eventually she accepts to marry changez, but she has a different and alternative view of marriage in her mind (p. 82). like orlando in virginia woolf’s orlando (1928), she forges and pacifies the demand of her father in a way which avails her of chance to achieve happiness without submitting completely to the order of her father as she tells karim: “i don’t want anything but to live my life in peace” (p. 84). changez comes to england, and eventually they marry. after a while, however, changez learns the real situation with her, and then they both decide to depart anwar’s house and start living in south london. as per jamila’s alternative plan, the relationship between them is very untraditional, loose and unusual: that is, they are legally and traditionally husband and wife and live in the same house, yet they do not go to bed together. she is so adamant that she does not allow changez to approach her, since she is very upset with her father’s decision imposed upon her without her consent. hence they are absolutely free in their lives, so that jamila has not only sexual relationship with another man called simon and a baby from him and but also lesbian relationship with “a woman friend” (p. 273; see also p. 277) while still living together with changez in the same house (pp. 223-4, 231). as a young female character, she makes fun not only of changez but also of the whole patriarchal tradition once she says to him: “i am asking how you, changez, you with your background of prejudice against practically the whole world, are coping with being married to a lesbian” (p. 273). on the other hand, changez also has sexual relationship with a japanese prostitute shinko (pp. 101, 135-6), which may be seen as normal for a man in a patriarchal society, yet there is something wrong or new in the relationship between changez and jamila as husband and wife, offending the very basis of traditional patriarchal society whether it is indian or english. this kind of relationship in marriage and family is obviously uncommon and very radical in a traditional society and culture, and kureishi represents the deep-seated shift of view in marriage through the lives and relationship of jamila and changez in contemporary british society as part of youth culture. as clearly seen in her views, attitudes and practices, jamila as a young female represents the general tendency of a new and different view among many young girls and women who are against the arranged marriage, and even they are against marriage in general in the sense that it not only requires a kind of responsibility but also limits the life and constrains free and independent movements of women in the family, since those women, who do not fit into these expectations, are obviously marginalized and become outcast. the homosexual relationship between karim and charlie does not fit into expectation of traditional society and culture but is used not only as an escape from restriction and control but also as an illumination and creativity or a kind of new vision particularly for karim to see where his future life lies: as i sat there with my trousers down, talking it all in, i had an extraordinary revelation. i could see my life clearly for the first time: the future and what i wanted to do. i wanted to live always this intensely: mysticism, alcohol, sexual promise, clever people and drugs. i hadn’t come upon it all like this before, and now i wanted nothing else. the door to the future had opened: i could see which way to go (p. 15). this quotation gives hints about karim’s future life and expectation, in which there 23 the deconstruction of “high culture” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences will be “mysticism, alcohol, sexual promise, clever people and drugs”, which used to be main aspects of youth life and culture in the 1960s and 70s. in his relationship with charlie, karim at once makes clear what is important for him, and it is not actually the love between himself and charlie but the intensity as well as charlie’s way of life and style which enable him to visualize his future life: “and charlie? my love for him was unusual as love goes: it was not generous. i admired him more than anyone but i didn’t wish him well. it was that i preferred him to me and wanted to be him. i coveted his talents, face and style. i wanted to wake up with them all transferred to me” (p. 15). a little bit later, karim kisses charlie, which opens further the door for him: “i tried to kiss him. he avoided my lips by turning his head to one side. but when he came in my hand it was, i swear, one of the preeminent moments of my earliest life. there was dancing in my streets. my flag flew, my trumpets blew” (p. 17). as we learn from karim himself, he has had many times before such kind of relationship with the other students at his school: “i had squeezed many penises before, at school. we stroked and rubbed and pinched each other all the time. it broke up the monotony of learning. but i had never kissed a man” (p. 17). in such relationship, karim is very easy-going and free and does not care even for the criticism of his own father. for instance, his father catches karim with charlie in the bed and gets very angry. once they are back to home, he rebukes and wants to slap karim. then he says: “what the hell were you doing...i saw you, karim. my god, you’re a bloody pure shitter! a bum-banger! my own son – how did it transpire?” (p. 18). karim does not allow his father to slap him, and his answer to father is sharp and clear: “he was drunker that i was stoned and grabbed the ungrateful bastard...’shut up!’ i said, as quietly as i could” (p. 18). as kureishi represents both karim and his father, there is a big difference between them as for judging the man-to-man sexual relationship. his father is having an illegal affair with eva kays, yet he does not see it as bad and immoral, probably because of the fact that it, though illegal, is a heterosexual relationship, yet he gets so upset about karim’s relationship with charlie, since society and culture, particularly the background from which karim comes, will never tolerate it. however, karim does not care for what his father is telling or what morality says about it, and what actually concerns him most is the “extraordinary revelation” and intensity of feeling, which not only open “the door to the future” for him but also enable him to “see which way to go” in his life. what is more, karim liberates himself imaginatively through this relationship from the world of his father and his background as well as from the banality of the london suburban where he lives with his family, since he thinks that people cannot see their lives “but their double-glazing flashing before them” in the suburb of london (p. 23). during the night after the meeting at eva’s homer and relationship with charlie, karim cannot sleep due to the complex thought in his mind but strives inwardly to envision his future life which will definitely contradict the view of life of his father: “i’d glimpsed a world of excitement and possibility which i wanted to hold in my mind and expand as a template for the future” (p. 19). in conclusion, kureishi represents various aspects of youth subculture through the lives of his fictional characters in the buddha of suburbia, in which there seems a kind of conflict between the old generation and young one – a kind of conflict in which the old adult people want young people to follow strictly their footsteps, culture and way of life in an obedient way, which, in fact, aims at constructing a view of identity in the expectation and interest of traditional parochial culture and society, yet young people are not willing 24 a. guneş epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences to do so; they are bored, unhappy and feel controlled and limited not only in their lives, identity and expression of thought but also in their free movements. hence they tend to devise and exercise deviant strategies and behaviours as different subcultures within the border of the dominant national cultures not only to sidestep the routines, boredom and constraint of everyday life but also to forge a space where they feel themselves free, happy, energetic and hopeful, where they are able to defy in different ways what shapes and controls their lives and also to contribute to the shift in the perception of culture and relationship. references baron, s. w. 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(2007). youth-subcultural studies: sociological traditions and core concepts. sociology compass, 1(2), 572-593. epiphany: vol. 4, no. 1, 2011 issn 1840-3719 “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogyny metin bosnak  abstract the story of blithedale dwells on an experimental community reminiscent of the brook farm transcendental group with which hawthorne had briefly been associated in roxbury, massachusetts. indeed, his participation in the communal experiment served as the germ for the novel, which was written ten years after his one-year stay there, but the impact that his experience among the social reformers had upon the fictitious blithedale community is a point of much conjecture and debate among critics. many of them see distinct parallels between hawthorne’s characters and actual persons of the day, while others have rejected any but the slightest resemblance to the actual brook farm experimenters. the article focuses on the blithedale romance as a novelistic indication of the american misogynistic narratives with its archetypal origins. keywords: feminism, women's issues, nathaniel hawthorne, the blithedale romance, american literature.  corresponding author: metin bosnak; faculty of arts and social sciences, international university of sarajevo, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: mbosnak@ius.edu.ba; mbosnak@metinbosnak.org mailto:mbosnak@ius.edu.ba mailto:mbosnak@metinbosnak.org m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [23] nathaniel hawthorne’s the blithedale romance (1852) follows through on the tradition of ideas about a probable regional utopia in america. 1 according to fryer (1976), during the years from 1840 to 1900 “the ideas and images which shaped the american mind were those having to do with the urge toward perfection” (p. x). with this urge, over two hundred secular and religious communities were built in america. these communities represented a move in american culture towards individualism as well as disillusionment with the establishment that the city life represented (curtis, 1961, p. 15; taylor, 1971, p. 38; francis, 1997, p. 51; bowman, 1962, p. 49; white, p. 78). the individualistic drives combined with communal beliefs and principles underlay them (crowley, 1997, p. 241; cook, 1996, p. 205). the builders of the communities intended to concentrate “on the regeneration of the soul” and reform the society by “adapting the ideas of european socialists to the new world” (fryer, p. 16). brook farm was the most famous of the communities in the nineteenth century (mcwilliams, 1994, p. 74). it was a utopian community of transcendentalists, established at west roxbury, massachusetts in 1841 (buell, 1986, p. 53; grossberg, 2000, p. 3). thinking that the “christian life could not flourish under existing social conditions,” george ripley resigned his ministry in the effort to “create an exemplary society” on a small farm (chevigny, 1976, p. 283). later the community’s ideals were closed on the church. the community was eventually based on the socialist ideas of mutual responsibility and mutual share. the members of the brook farm institute of agriculture and education shared equally in work, benefits, and remuneration (mcwilliams, 1994, p. 74). the members consisted of such famous people of new england as theodore parker, william henry channing, emerson, hawthorne, fuller and others. tindall and shi states that the community was abandoned in 1847 because one of the central buildings was burnt down (tindall and shi, 1989, p. 8; howe, 1957, p. 168). this heralded that the experiment of a probable utopia turned into a dystopia in hawthorne’s life. initially hawthorne was very enthusiastic about the project. in a letter, dated 13 april 1841, he wrote that he considered the project like an edenic utopia, and that he felt “the original adam reviving m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [24] within me” (desalvo, 1987, p. 98). however, he left the community earlier than others upon his disillusionment with the project in 1841 (codman, 1971, p. 8). he later wrote to his wife sophia that “labor” was “the curse of the world” (desalvo, p. 98). hawthorne left the utopian farm, but revived it in a new, fictional guise, in the blithedale romance. writing the blithedale romance hawthorne heavily drew on his experience at the brook farm (mccall, 1999, p. 29; kesterson, 1999, p. 66). in her introduction to the novel, kolodny writes that the book was the first of hawthorne’s longer fiction to employ a first-person narrator, which reveals how much hawthorne put his observations into the book (kolodny, x). the blithedale romance carries so many parallelisms between the characters in the book and the actual individuals of the brook farm that, upon publication, it was almost taken to be a verbatim account of hawthorne's life at the farm (gollin, idol & eisiminger, 1991, p. 33). zenobia, who is drowned to death in the novel, was soon identified with margaret fuller, who had similarly drowned in a shipwreck two years ago as the ship was barging ashore america (mather, 1940, p. 130; stovall, 1956, p. 127). other characters in the book were also associated with real people, including the author himself (tharpe, 1967, p. 125; gatta, 1997, p. 53; snyder, 1999, p. 67). the community in the blithedale romance is not, however, a precise “historical representation” of brook farm, but is presented as an interpretation of struggle between men and women and the wish for domination (bauer, 1988, p. 18; lawrence, 1923, p. 154). as a matter of fact, in his preface to the novel, hawthorne says that “he [himself] had this community in his mind...[and] he had occasionally availed himself of his actual reminiscences, in the hope of giving a more life-like tint to the fancy sketch” (p. 1). his concern is actually “with the socialist community” in order to establish “a theatre” where “the creatures of his brain” may play their “phantasmagorical antics” (p. 1). it is clear, then, that hawthorne wants to create a fictive battleground in the edenic theater where his characters are in an undeclared sexual politics so that he can link the later failure of the community to zenobia, the lilith figure. this hawthorne does by his “equivocal” position, which puts him in a special status “as a commentator” on the society of the brook farm m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [25] (fryer, p. 28). moreover, by pitting priscilla, the pre-lapsarian eve, against lilith, he can display the kind of ideal woman in his moral universe. zenobia emerges as the vanquished party out of this rivalry; on the other hand, priscilla is declared the victorious angel acclaimed by the male members of the community (bauer, pp. 18-9). writing in the faces of eve about of the typology of women in patriarchy, fryer points out that “the dark lady exists outside the boundaries of the community, while the pale maiden typifies the traditional values of the community”; in the final analysis “they are creatures of the same culture, inventions of the same imagination” (p. 28). fryer’s analysis is indicative of women in hawthorne's the blithedale romance. zenobia and priscilla are two diametrically opposite halves of hawthorne's imaginary woman (fiedler, 1982, p. 201; von abele, 1955, p. 63). zenobia, “an early leader of the women’s movement,” is a lilith figure (fiedler, p. 208). on the other hand, contrasted with her is priscilla, who plays one of the pre-lapsarian eves. 2 earlier in his notebooks, hawthorne had pointed to the dichotomy of “the other” that he was planning to create: “our body to be possessed by two different spirits; so that half of visage shall express one mood and the other half another” (miller, 1962, p. 767). the result seems to be zenobia and priscilla, who are half-sisters of opposite idiosyncrasies in the novel. though there is a blood tie between them, they are presented as the people of two totally different worlds and worldviews. hence, as wendy martin phrases it, the blithedale romance becomes a “secular version” of the scarlet letter” (martin, 1988, p. 230). just as the puritans’ edenic bay colony in massachusetts was disturbed by hester prynne, the blithedalers’ zeal to re-create an edenic community is first disrupted, and then destroyed by the existence and death of zenobia (fryer, p.76). zenobia is a defender of women’s rights, like fuller, and “a sister of the veiled lady” (p. 45). according to von abele (1955), her name means “having life from zeus” (p. 80). it is hinted that zenobia is not actually her name, but a penname, which she uses when writing for magazines, and newspapers (wineapple, 2001, p. 33; pfister, 1991, p. 80; cherniavsky, 1995, p. 65). she wants to escape male stereotyping of m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [26] women: “we women judge one another by tokens that escape the obtuseness of masculine perceptions” (p. 34). she hopes that in the future the segregation of sexes in respect to work will be turned upside down: “some of us, who wear the petticoat, will go afield, and the leave the weaker brethren to take our places in the kitchen” (p. 16, emphasis added). thus, zenobia’s aim is to turn upside down the notion of woman as the weaker sex. coverdale is the poet-narrator of the novel, and he is the first to confront zenobia. his upbringing does not allow him to feel sympathy for her ideas. it is important to observe that the events are narrated through his consciousness. the reader is locked “into coverdale’s consciousness in every incident” (desalvo, p. 101). colacurcio (1984) also discusses that the narrator coverdale is unreliable (p. 32). in other words, the reader is forced to think and interpret certain situations and characters from coverdale’s’ viewpoint. hawthorne’s choice of coverdale as narrator is crucially significant because coverdale serves as the tutelary power of the community; his presence functions to remind the members of their places in the blithedale hierarchy...coverdale's constant surveillance of the community keeps subversive activities in check. in fact, coverdale reinserts the operation of social control into the community that thought it had escaped such structures (bauer, p. 30). as a result of his assigned role in the story, coverdale’s omnipresent eyes take “note of zenobia’s aspect” (p. 15). the flower on zenobia’s hair strikes “deep root into my memory” (p. 15). owing to her feminist ideas, coverdale thinks that zenobia’s mind is “full of weeds” (p. 44), although at times she is an “admirable figure of a woman” (p. 15), and it is a “blessing” to win “zenobia’s love” (p. 126). a woman is admissible into his emotional and moral universe as long as she is an object of desire, and sight of pleasure. earlier, coverdale’s foreshadowing prediction shows that the edenic community is doomed because of zenobia. her very presence causes men’s “heroic enterprise to show like an illusion, a masquerade, a pastoral, a counterfeit arcadia” m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [27] (p. 21) she is “like a ghost” no matter if she helps coverdale recover from his illness when he falls ill (p. 15). zenobia is also associated with pandora and eve, the sources of evil, in the two misogynistic myths of the western literature. sometimes she appears in the image of eve the temptress: zenobia’s manners, her “perfectly developed figure” remind the narrator of “eve in her earliest garment” (p. 16). she is also presented as a replica of “pandora, fresh from vulcan’s workshop” (p. 24). similar descriptions of zenobia that associate her with evil and male fear of woman are recurrently related in the novel through the narrator’s consciousness. coverdale initially thinks that the community is “paradise anew.” their “generous” and “absurd” idea in establishing the community is to give up everything they have “for the sake of showing mankind the example of a life governed by other than the false and cruel principles” (p. 19). on the way to blithedale, having already been informed that zenobia is there (p. 8), he begins to get sick: “i had caught a fearful cold” (p. 12). later he also feels that, “we stood in a position of new hostility, rather than new brotherhood” (p. 20), which recalls the hostility yahweh puts between the serpent and eve after the fall. the apostolic society intends to reform “the world,” but the narrator also complains about blithedale in exclamation: “how cold arcadia was this!” (pp. 38-9). as coverdale perceives it, in the beginning is the end of the blithedale eden. coverdale’s coming to the edenic brook farm is, then, like entering the archetypal garden only to find that the serpent, zenobia, is already there, as is the case in the first chapter of the scarlet letter. zenobia says that she is “the first-comer” (p. 16). the narrator adds that she has an influence coming “from eve” when she was “made” (p. 17). in fact, it is soon after he comes to the farm that coverdale falls sick. his illness is like “death,” and “avenue” between life and death (p. 61). this is linked to hawthorne's disillusionment with the brook farm experiment, as crews (1966) suggests (p. 194). moreover, coverdale quickly becomes disillusioned with the agricultural work. he finds in it none of the spiritual significance that he had expected: according to him, labor is merely tiring and irksome toil. m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [28] in the eyes of coverdale, zenobia’s beauty and “her threatening sexuality,” let alone her feminism, are “emblematic of the threatening philosophy she espouses” (fryer, p. 211). extrapolating from his observations, coverdale concludes that he should “not have fallen in love with zenobia,” stressing “under any circumstances” because all about her physical attraction is “evil taste,” and a “witch’s best concocted dainties” (p. 48). moreover, she is not good at housework such as cooking, and is not eligible for a good homemaker (pp. 43 and 48). it is also hinted that she may have married and experienced sexual intercourse before; so, there is “no folded petal, no latent dew-drop, in this perfectly developed rose!” (pp. 47). his ambiguous supposition that she is not a virgin is a constant source of obsession with coverdale. coverdale’s illness right after his arrival and subsequent period of ailment transforms him: “in literal and physical truth, i was quite another man” (p. 61). nonetheless, the change will not be for the better but for the worse due to zenobia. as fryer suggests, in the narrator’s eyes these are not the only flaws zenobia has in her nature (p. 209). she also has mysterious connections with evil through westervelt, a mesmerist. her attempts to manipulate priscilla, to confront the male leaders of the community, and her pride are a source of disturbance among the blithedalers (crews, 201). although coverdale says that “the truest wisdom is, to resist the doubt--and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when to be obeyed,” he does not let zenobia experience heroism as the novel advances towards its denouement (p. 10). some critics even suggest that zenobia does not actually commit suicide by drowning herself (desalvo, p. 111; fryer, p. 89). rather, they think that she is murdered and thrown into the water by coverdale because it is he only who sees zenobia for the last time, and later spreads the news that zenobia is dead. hers is quite an unheroic death compared with the distinguished qualities that she had when alive. priscilla is pitted against zenobia in the story as the completely different daughter of the same father. their mothers are different, and each of them seems to convey the characteristics of her own mother. whereas zenobia has “native strength,” and needs no “help,” priscilla is weak and miserable. her coming to blithedale provides male characters, m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [29] such as coverdale, with an opportunity to compare and contrast the characteristics of the two women. commenting on priscilla as “pale maiden,” fryer says that pale maidens deprive men, who enshrine them and declare them as objects of their affection, of a necessary vitality (like the amaranthine flower). if there are just as many hints that priscilla really is a spiritual being, literally the half-sister of zenobia, her psychosexual opposite, then a squeamish minor poet and his creator might well unconsciously wish to degrade her. like hilda and sophia, priscilla is associated with doves-one dove...with no identity of her own, then, priscilla is...”the type of womanhood, such as man has spent centuries in making”a depressing and devastating portrait of woman in the nineteenth century (pp. 91 and 93). it is hollingsworth, a “philanthropist” dedicated to reforming the criminals, who first introduces priscilla into the community. when hollingsworth brings with him the shy and nervous woman, zenobia does not immediately welcome her--though the latter soon becomes attached to her. priscilla adores zenobia from the start, and tends to come under her influence. in the course of the novel, a letter arriving at the community from one of the city's missionaries evokes some suspicions about priscilla’s whereabouts as to whether the girl has only just escaped from a mysterious place, or whether she was involved in some perilous or sinful activities. earlier, when priscilla arrives at blithedale, coverdale regards her as a “stranger, or whatever she were.” his impression soon changes, and he tends to think that the young woman is pitiable in every sense of the word: she was seen to be a very young woman, dressed in a poor, but decent gown, made high in the neck, and without any regard to fashion or smartness. her brown hair fell down from beneath a hood, not in curls, but with only a slight wave; her face was of a wan, almost sickly hue, betokening habitual seclusion from the sun and free m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [30] atmosphere, like a flower-shrub that had done its best to blossom in too scanty light. to complete the pitiableness of her aspect, she shivered either with cold, or fear, or nervous excitement, so that you might have beheld her shadow vibrating on the fire-lighted wall. in short, there has seldom been seen so depressed and sad a figure as this young girl's; and it was hardly possible to help being angry with her, from mere despair of doing anything for her comfort. the fantasy occurred to me, that she was some desolate kind of a creature doomed to wander about in snow-storms, and that, though the ruddiness of our window-panes had tempted her into a human dwelling, she would not remain long enough to melt the icicles out of her hair (p. 27, emphasis added). initially, coverdale not only pities priscilla, he is also defensive of her against zenobia’s scornful estimate, and mistreatment at the beginning. when priscilla meets “no kindly reception” from zenobia, coverdale bitterly says that he “never thoroughly forgave zenobia for her conduct on this occasion” (p. 28). he is also enthusiastic about priscilla’s being on the farm, and her name reminds him of pristine womanhood: “priscilla! priscilla! i repeated the name to myself...as if no other name would have adhered to her” (p. 29). this is also the scene where coverdale feels that there is something going on between zenobia and hollingsworth: “and it was with that inauspicious meaning in his glance [which “no woman” could “resist”], that hollingsworth first met zenobia’s eyes, and began his influence upon her life” (pp. 28-9). coverdale promptly decides to save priscilla from zenobia’s ideas, and hollingsworth’s emotional advances. coverdale wants to see a different womanhood in priscilla from zenobia’s. nevertheless, he is puzzled to see that “our priscilla betook herself into the shadow of zenobia’s protection” (p. 32). just as coverdale is ambivalent towards zenobia, being both fascinated and fearful of her, he becomes cynical of hollingsworth and priscilla as the novel advances. after the introduction of priscilla into the community, m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [31] hollingsworth, priscilla, and zenobia form a distinct trio from which coverdale feels partially excluded, which relegates him to the role of a mere observer (p. 39). both women seem attracted to hollingsworth, recognizing no opportunity for coverdale. watching the two women making advances to hollingsworth, the narrator feels helpless; so his part in their affairs becomes “subordinate” like that of “the chorus in a classic play” (p. 97). even though coverdale likens his situation in the novel to the chorus in the ancient greek tragedy, his function differs from its in many ways. in a classic play the chorus does not only watch whatever happens on the stage; it is not merely a spectator. “the chorus,” says aristotle, “should be thought of as one of the actors, it should be a part of the whole and contribute its share to success in competitive effort....” (else, 1986, p. 51). the chorus serves several other functions in the classic drama as well: it gives advice, establishes the ethical and social framework of events, reacts to the events and characters, helps set the overall mood of the play and thus contributes much to theatrical effectiveness (grube, 1945, p. 27). so, once more coverdale proves to be an unreliable narrator, who distorts historical realities as well as fictional ones in the process of his narration (crunden, 1996, p. 71). above all, he is one of the actors in the utopian “theatre” (p. 1). he does not only observe, but also imposes his interpretations of events on the reader. he is a representative of male chauvinism, and uses his narrative, as irving does against dame, as a powerful weapon aimed at women, particularly at zenobia (bauer, p. 30). coverdale also plays the devil’s advocate between zenobia and patriarchy, flaring up a kind of rivalry between them to win hollingsworth’s love in later stages (desalvo, p. 103). making sure that priscilla is in love with hollingsworth, coverdale tells her that “it is a blessed thing for him [hollingsworth] to have won the sympathy of such a woman as zenobia” (p. 126). he also goes to zenobia, knowing she is also in love with hollingsworth, and tells her that hollingsworth “has certainly shown great tenderness for priscilla” (p. 167, emphasis added). after all, “the reader must not take my own word for it,” and many other things in fact (p. 247). m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [32] despite his initial respect and affection for the philanthropist, coverdale quickly becomes suspicious of hollingsworth’s idealism, and even of priscilla’s purity and naiveté (p. 35). coverdale gets sick afterwards, disillusioned by the physical and psychological climate of the “arcadia” (p. 38). drifting along his psychological vicissitudes, he now thinks that priscilla is not the type of angelic woman she supposed her to be: “poor priscilla had not so literally fallen out of clouds, as we were at first inclined to suppose...priscilla had recently escaped from some particular evil peril, or irksomeness of position” (p. 49). that priscilla, at the same, involves in a love affair with hollingsworth infuriates coverdale gradually, too: priscilla, he says, “talked more largely and freely with him” than with zenobia, and “indeed her feelings seemed...as involuntary affection” to hollingsworth (p. 50). to top it all, priscilla reminds him of margaret of fuller, and he cannot help asking her whether she ever met fuller (p. 52). coverdale inquires all these about priscilla because he is afraid of lilith-like women, like fuller and zenobia, who may possibly undermine the patriarchal structure in the blithedale eden. he even presumes that zenobia has “bewitched” priscilla (p. 60). this is the last scene in which he sees priscilla the last time until he comes back to blithedale after a period of absence. shortly after old moodie’s visit to blithedale, there arrives professor westervelt. coverdale inadvertently overhears the stranger talking to zenobia. according to coverdale’s account, westervelt is apparently telling her something disturbing about priscilla. when westervelt has left, zenobia tells the story of “the veiled lady” to the blithedalers, and dramatizes it. zenobia’s dramatization of the story foreshadows the recognition of the love affair between priscilla and hollingsworth. the scene functions like the play-in-the-play scene in hamlet where hamlet is trying to assure himself about the truth of his father’s murderer. 3 the veiled lady is a famous contemporary mesmerist and seer who always wears a veil during her public appearances; nobody knows her real identity (coale, 2000, p. 181; 1998, p. 65). it seems that she has fled just as priscilla has done to a pastoral community for refuge, but the magician in charge of her follows her. he asks another woman in the community to throw a veil over the woman to bring her back under m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [33] the spell. at the end of the story, zenobia playfully throws some gauze over priscilla, who faints, overcharged with emotion. zenobia is now sure of the love affair between her half-sister and hollingsworth, which makes her irretrievably dispirited. the members of the community are in the habit of gathering each sunday at eliot's pulpit, a natural spot near the river. on one of these occasions, zenobia fails to challenge hollingsworth’s contemptuous rejection of women's rights. this disquiets coverdale since he suspects that hollingsworth wants to convert blithedale to his own ends by taking advantage of zenobia, and her money. meanwhile, hollingsworth is slowly becoming skeptical of fourier’s ideas about the perfectibility of human societies. talking to coverdale about fourierism, he gets angry and exclaims: let me hear no more of it!” cried he, in utter disgust. “i never will forgive this fellow! he has committed the unpardonable sin! for what more monstrous iniquity could else devil himself contrive, than to choose the selfish principle--the principle of all human wrong, the very blackness of man’s heart, the portion of ourselves which we shudder at, and which it is the whole aim of spiritual discipline to eradicate--to choose it as the masterworkman of his system? to seize upon and foster whatever vile, petty, sordid, filthy, bestial, and abominable corruptions have cankered into our nature, to be the efficient instruments of his infernal regeneration!... the nauseous villain! (pp. 53-4). this heraldic speech marks out a turning point in the novel, leading to the gradual decline of hopes about blithedale. coverdale himself confesses to himself that “the good we aim at will not be attained” (p. 75). later, hollingsworth and coverdale quarrel over the issue of women and running the farm, which causes coverdale to leave blithedale (p. 136), because only the four “porkers” on the farm are happy (p. 144). soon coverdale leaves the community to protest the practices unbearable to him (matthiessen, 1941, p. 228). m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [34] coverdale returns to blithedale after a while owing to his inquisitive nature. the three characters seem to have “absorbed” his life “into themselves” (p. 195). he interrupts hollingsworth, zenobia and priscilla at a tense moment when they are arguing about their private matters. to zenobia's anger and disappointment, hollingsworth announces that he loves priscilla and intends to go away with her. soon after she hears this, zenobia gets disillusioned, and drowns herself in the river near eliot's pulpit (herndl, 1988, p. 72; 1993, p. 86). after zenobia’s death, the edenic blithedale permanently falls through (bauer, pp. 30-1). hollingsworth and priscilla, now married, lead a secluded life, and the former no longer thinks about his cherished project for the reformation of criminals. despite all that he has thought of women all along, coverdale confesses at the end of the story that he had himself been in love with priscilla: “i--i myself-was in love--with--priscilla!” (p. 247). it is the passive woman that gets the hand of marriage as reward while zenobia is punished for some poetic justice (gatta, 1997, p. 26). in conclusion, it appears that priscilla has been saved by the prison reformer, hollingsworth, now her husband. earlier, coverdale intended to save priscilla from dangerous ideas, and dangerous emotions: “if i had any duty whatever...it was, to save priscilla from that kind of personal worship which her sex is generally prone to lavish” (p. 71); and he concludes that he “would really have gone far to save priscilla, “the maiden exposed to a dragon,” from the “catastrophe” if he had been “cold-hearted” enough (p. 71). hollingsworth, who has “a heart of ice,” seems to have accomplished his mission for him as a reformer of criminals (p. 225). the pre-lapsarian eve, priscilla, is now a “bondslave” as was foreshadowed in zenobia’s legend of “the veiled lady” (116) (gatta, p. 53). priscilla herself confesses elsewhere that “i never have any free will” (p. 171); and she is as “meek-spirited” and “feeble” as her mother was earlier reported to be (p. 185). lilith’s (zenobia’s) efforts fall through altogether in contrast to what she prophesies: “my sex will achieve its rights” (p. 120). the misogyny of the blithedale romance has several facets. firstly, coverdale evokes the images of the archetypal image of eden in the biblical monomyth, and lets his narrative reenact the destruction of m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [35] the edenic blithedale as it was projected by the other members. almost throughout the novel, zenobia is described as the corrupter of the paradise due to her ideas and her very presence that challenge patriarchy, and its representatives, including her own father. she is also seen as a source of exasperation through her actions on the farm as well as through her polemical and sexual idiosyncrasies. she proves to be as problematic to the blithedalers when dead as when she was alive. ironically, the community is disquieted when she is alive, and her death marks the total annihilation of the edenic blithedale. secondly, as the novel moves towards its close, the narrator’s descriptions of zenobia portray her as falling to her desires, and thus her earlier “strong” appearance is humbled before patriarchy (desalvo, p. 114). after her rejection by hollingsworth, and her father, she is no longer the awesome woman whom even the misogynist narrator once admired: she is now the “other” even to herself (bauer, p. 30). the earlier zenobia is a staunch defender of women’s rights, a proto-feminist: “thus far, no woman in the world has ever spoken out her whole heart and her whole mind...the vast bulk of the society throttles us” (p. 120). the later zenobia, disinherited by her father and disowned by hollingsworth, is diametrically opposite. as she talks to hollingsworth, she says that women are “impulsive and intuitive” (p. 217); and to coverdale “extremities die first,” and she is “poor, despised” and intends to become a catholic nun “for the sake of going into nunnery” (p. 227). in this sense, zenobia is like hester prynne in the scarlet letter, who leads a nun’s life outside the puritan settlement, and who comes back to her place of exile even if she has the opportunity to live with her rich and married daughter (aguiar, 2001, p. 5). deprived of all that makes her zenobia, she feels so humiliated that she even decides to shut herself in a monastery. however, the narrator does not allow for it, either. she is divided against herself to the point of committing suicide, as is reported by coverdale. she is so humbled before patriarchy that her corpse becomes an emblem of obedience when she is taken out of the river: “her arms had grown rigid in the act of struggling, and were bent before her, with clenched hands; her knees, too, were bent, before her, and--thank god for it!--in the attitude of prayer” (p. 235) (mills, 2003). m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [36] in conclusion, zenobia’s transformation from the strong to the self-pitying woman states sexual politics in the edenic blithedale in terms of a war lost to men by women (reising, 1996, p. 202). there is also an ironical touch added to zenobia’s character, which points to the reenactment of her namesake’s failure in the legend. as is known, zenobia is not her actual name, but she uses it in reference to the mythological queen zenobia. as the allusions to her indicate, the legendary zenobia is a beautiful woman of intelligence. having killed her husband, she rules palmyra in the name of her infant son. it is under her rule that egypt and asia minor are conquered. however, like the amazonians in the greek mythology, whose land is conquered, and destroyed by king theseus, she later loses a war to auelin, who “grants her a pension and a villa at tibur” (p. 250). then, it appears that the hawthornean zenobia reenacts the loss of war between the sexes in the person of the legendary zenobia (noble, 2000, p. 196). all the events analyzed and narrated through the consciousness of the poet coverdale provides him with sufficient material to “turn the whole affair into a ballad” of misogyny (p. 223) (romero, 1997, p. 97; zwarg, 1995, p. 128). references aguiar, s. a. (2001). the bitch is back: wicked women in literature. carbondale, il: southern illinois university press. alexander, n. (ed.) (1985). hamlet. essex: macmillan. bauer, d. m. (1988). feminist dialogics: a theory of failed community. new york: state u of new york bowman, s. e. (1962). edward bellamy abroad: an american prophet's influence. new york: twayne publishers. buell, l. (1986). literary transcendentalism: style and vision in the american renaissance. ithaca and london: cornell up. cherniavsky, e. (1995). sentimental discourses and the imitation of motherhood in 19th-century america sentimental discourses and the imitation of motherhood in 19th-century america. bloomington, in: indiana university press. chevigny, b. g. (1976). the woman and the myth: margaret fuller's life and writings. new york: feminist press. m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [37] coale, s. c. (2000). mesmerism and hawthorne: mediums of american romance. tuscaloosa, al: university of lori merish, sentimental materialism: gender, commodity culture, and nineteenth-century american literature. durham, nc: duke university press, 181. alabama press, 1998. codman, j.t. (1971). brook farm: historic and personal memoirs. new york: ams. colacurcio, m. j. (1984). the province of piety: moral history in hawthorne’s early tales. cambridge, massachusetts and london: harvard up. cook, j. a. (1996). satirical apocalypse: an anatomy of melville's the confidence-man. westport, ct: greenwood press. crews, f. (1966). the sins of the fathers: hawthorne's psychological themes. new york: oxford up. crowley, j. d. 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(1997). reading for realism: the history of a u.s. literary institution, 1850-1910. durham, nc: duke university press. m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [38] gollin, r. k., idol, j. l. and eisiminger, s.k. (1991). prophetic pictures: nathaniel hawthorne's knowledge and uses of the visual arts. new york: greenwood press. grossberg, b. s. (2000). the tender passion was very rife among us": coverdale's queer utopia and the blithedale romance. studies in american fiction 28.1: 3. grube, g. m. (1945). the drama of euripides. london: methuen and co. herndl, d. p. (1993). invalid women: figuring feminine illness in american fiction and culture, 1840-1940. chapel hill, nclison rieke, "9 two women: the transformations," faith of a (woman) writer, ed. kessler-harris a. and mcbrien, w. new york: greenwood press. 1988. university of north carolina press. hawthorne, n. (1986). the blithedale romance. ed. by annette kolodny. new york and london: penguin. howe, i. (1957). politics and the novel. new york: horizon press. kesterson, d. b. (1999). margaret fuller on hawthorne formative views by a woman of the nineteenth century, hawthorne and women: engendering and expanding the hawthorne tradition. ed. idol, j. l. and ponder, m. m. amherst, ma: university of massachusetts press. lawrence, d. h. (1923). studies in classic american literature. new york: t. seltzer. martin, s. p. (1988). open form and the feminine imagination. washington, d.c.: maisonneuve p. mather, e. 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(2000). the masochistic pleasures of sentimental literature. princeton, nj: princeton university press. pfister, j. (1991). class, gender, and the psychological in hawthorne's fiction class, gender, and the psychological in hawthorne's fiction. stanford, ca: stanford university. reising, r. j. (1996). loose ends: closure and crisis in the american social text. durham, nc: duke university press. romero, l. (1997). home fronts: domesticity and its critics in the antebellum united states. durham, nc: duke university press. snyder, k. v. (1999). bachelors, manhood, and the novel, 1850-1925. cambridge, england: cambridge university press. stovall, f. ed. (1956). eight american authors: a review of research and criticism. new york: modern language association of america. taylor, l. e. (1971). pastoral and anti-pastoral patterns in john updike's fiction. carbondale, il: southern illinois university press. tharpe, j. (1967). nathaniel hawthorne: identity and knowledge. carbondale, il: southern illinois university press. tindal, g. b. and shi, d. e. (1989). america: a narrative history . new york and london: norton and co. von abele, r. (1955). the death of the artist: a study of hawthorne's disintegration. the hague: martinus nijhoff. white, c. a utopia of "spheres and sympathies": science and society in the blithedale romance and at brook farm". utopian studies: 78. wineapple, b. (2001). "nathaniel hawthorne 1804–1864 a brief biography," a historical guide to nathaniel hawthorne. ed. reynolds, l. j. new york: oxford university press. zwarg, c. (1995). feminist conversations: fuller, emerson, and the play of reading. ithaca, ny: cornell university press. m. boșnak “turning the whole affair into a ballad” of misogy ny epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [40] notes 1 all the references to the text are from nathaniel hawthorne, the blithedale romance, ed. by annette kolodny (new york and london: penguin, 1986). nancy glazener, reading for realism: the history of a u.s. literary institution, 1850-1910 (durham, nc: duke university press, 1997) 64. 2 gilbert and gubar refer to priscilla and zenobia as “the madonna and the medusa aspects of the veiled.” theirs is another way of referring to the pre-lapsarian eve and lilith. see s.m. gilbert and s. gubar, the madwoman in the attic: the woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination (new haven and london: yale up, 1979) 472. 3 see act iii in nigel alexander (ed.), hamlet (essex: macmillan, 1985). 85 henrik ibsen’s dr stockmann and jean-jacques rousseau’s general will epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences henrik ibsen’s dr stockmann and jeanjacques rousseau’s general will fatma dore afyon kocatepe university, turkey abstract this work examines the concept of the general will developed by the 18th-century swissfrench philosopher jean-jacques rousseau through henrik ibsen’s 1882 play an enemy of the people. it reveals that the formulation of the concept of the general will comes about through rousseau’s attempt, as part of the economic or social contract tradition, to solve the problem of the relation of freedom to society. it then looks at the difference between the general will and the will of all, an agglomeration of the will of each individual, and reveals that the general will is manifested in concrete terms through legislative action, which allows for it to be regarded as the manifestation of a community’s concern for its common interest. this work demonstrates that ibsen’s play is suitable for an analysis of the general will, as it takes place in a town that is a de facto free city-state. it then reveals that the attempt in the drama to silence stockmann’s revelation of the polluted waters in the town’s municipal baths is a manifestation of the general will. as such, this work shows that the general will is problematic as regards the issues of morality and freedom. it also shows that polities run by the general will may have external instability, and that the general will is an obstacle to the discovery of new truths. keywords: henrik ibsen; jean-jacques rousseau; an enemy of the people; the social contract; political philosophy; moral philosophy introduction in 1882, the norwegian playwright henrik ibsen, the man “generally regarded as the father of modern theatre” (taylor, 1968: 131), published the play an enemy of the people (watts, 1964: 294), which was staged in the subsequent year in oslo (taylor, 1968: 91). the play was “propelled by his fury over the hostile reception tendered to ghosts” (brustein, 1991: 67), a play that ibsen had put out the previous year. although ghosts is an “intensely moral play” (watts, 1964: 12), it was viciously condemned by the critics at the time due to its treatment of the subject of syphilis*. this “hostile reception” (brustein, 1991: 67) caused ibsen great distress (watts, 1964: 12), and an enemy of the people is ibsen’s response to it. for the beginning of an enemy of the people, this aim of ibsen’s is not** immediately apparent, with the plot initially proceeding in a way that is not at all untypical of progressive writing of the time. the town is soon seen to be run by an oligarchic elite equally contemptuous of the people and of scientific fact. these “pillars of the community” are shown to be morally bankrupt and devoid of a community spirit, being motivated instead by a narrow class identity. the issue at stake is the municipal * ibsen’s supporter, the anglo-irish playwright george bernard shaw quotes from some of the criticism of ghosts published in the united kingdom, such as that in daily telegraph calling it a “positively abominable play” and “[a]n open drain; a loathsome sore unbandaged” (qtd. in shaw, 1891: 89), and that in the gentlewoman describing it as “a wicked nightmare” (qtd. in shaw, 1891: 90). ** the pillars of the community is the title of an earlier ibsen play dealing with societal hypocrisy, published in 1877. epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 19 3 86 f. dore epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences baths which their medical officer dr stockmann has, in a report he intends to have printed, proven to contain polluted waters that sicken rather than foster the health of its out-of-town visitors. however, the progressive paradigm is broken in the third act, when the mayor explains to the representatives of the majority how their constituency will also suffer should stockmann’s report be put into print. the play then proceeds with the attempted silencing of dr stockmann by the town as a whole, and dr stockmann’s realization that it is the majority and radical journalism and not the traditional elite which is the real enemy of truth. as such, in a review for the guardian newspaper of a 2013 london production of the play, the esteemed theatre critic michael billington writes that the drama contains “a difficult moment for a modern audience” when the hero of the drama dr stockman changes from a “crusading reformer” to “an intellectual aristocrat” for coming to regard truth as a preserve of the minority, not the majority. billington clearly feels that such an outlook has no relevance for our egalitarian democratic societies of today, and ends his piece with the remark that, in order to provide it with some, “one would have to trim stockmann’s rhetoric and totally rewrite ibsen’s plot for the modern world” (billington, 2013). with his remarks, billington reveals the hardwired bias that underlies the democratic societies of today, an idea that the eighteenth-century swiss-french philosopher jean-jacques rousseau contributed a great deal to. this is the idea that the majority and right are interconnected, and this was expressed by rousseau in his concept of “the general will”. this work will examine the concept of the general will through ibsen’s an enemy of the people and by doing so reveal four specific problems with this concept of rousseau’s. these problems concern definitions of morality and freedom, as well as the question of the relation of polities run by the general will with each other. this work will also examine the relation of the general will to the discovery of new truths. before commencing upon these aims, the work will first reveal how the concept of the general will is developed by rousseau to solve the problem of freedom within society. it will then look at what the general will is and how it can be identified. next, it will show why an enemy of the people is a suitable work for an examination of the general will, and then demonstrate that the general will is expressed in the drama through the attempted silencing of dr stockmann. the problem of freedom and society resolved by the general will the general will itself is a central concept in rousseau’s overall political philosophy (copleston, 2003: 74; russell, 2004: 634)***, which itself belongs to what has been called “the economic or social contract tradition” (pinker, 2002: 285). within this tradition “[s] ociety emerges when people agree to sacrifice some of their autonomy in exchange for security from the depredations of other wielding their autonomy” (ibid). thus, it is a tradition in which a balance is found between state authority – which provides security for its members – and individual freedom. obviously, the greater the power of the state, the less freedom the individual has, and vice-versa. one theorist who stands on the side of almost absolute state power is thomas hobbes, whereas on the other side, thomas jefferson is a theorist who attempts to preserve as much human freedom as is compatible with a functioning society. to make human freedom an absolute would be to dissolve all political bonds, and would entail anarchy. for those who value human freedom, yet are wary of anarchism, the formula of the john stuart mill seems to perfectly set out the *** mark hulliung exclaims that “[p]erhaps no concept is more strongly attached to rousseau’s reputation as a social and political thinker than that of the ‘general will’” (2001: 70). 87 henrik ibsen’s dr stockmann and jean-jacques rousseau’s general will epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences borderline between state power and human freedom. mill avers that “the sole end for which mankind are warranted...in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection” (1996: 13); that is “to prevent harm to others.” he restates the same point with his assertion that “[t]he only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it” (1996: 16). in other words, for mill, the state is only able to hinder a person’s freedom of action when that action threatens to harm other members of the state. into this debate, rousseau takes a original approach. he would be unable to accept mill’s formula as freedom cannot be limited for him in any way. rousseau avers(1998: 6) that “all [are] born free and equal”, and regards freedom as being intrinsic to the human being. rousseau also states (1998: 10)that all “are born free men; their liberty belongs to them, and no one has the right to dispose of it except themselves.” thus, as copleston notes (2003: 92), striking a balance between freedom and authority “was not, however, to the taste of rousseau. he wishes to show that apparent curtailment of liberty is not really a curtailment at all.” rousseau also sees an intimate connection between morality and freedom. he avers that “[t]o renounce one’s liberty is to renounce one’s quality as a man, the rights and also the duties of humanity...such a renunciation is incompatible with man’s nature, for to take away all freedom from his will is to take away all morality from his actions” (1998: 10). nevertheless, rousseau also believes, at least for contemporary times, that a state is necessary.**** to resolve this problem, rousseau claims to remove the dichotomy between the two concepts. that is he believes he has found a way in which state power and absolute freedom of the individual are both assured. in order to reach his solution, rousseau first sets out what he calls this “fundamental problem” as: to find a form of association which may defend and protect with the whole force of the community the person and property of every associate, and by means of which each, coalescing with all, may nevertheless obey only himself, and remain as free as before (rousseau, 1998: 14). rousseau’s “solution” is that of what he calls “the social contract” (1998: 14) which entails “the total alienation” of “all” the “rights” of each individual “to the whole community” (1998: 15). as this alienation is equal on all sides: [e]ach gives himself to nobody; and as there is not one associate over whom we do not acquire the same rights which we concede to him over ourselves, we gain the equivalent of what we lose, and more power to preserve what we have (rousseau, 1998: 15). in short, this means that “[e]ach of us puts in common his person and his whole power under the supreme direction of the general will” (rousseau, 1998: 15) which is brought into being by this association. “the citizens being all equal by the social contract, all can prescribe what all ought to do, while no one has a right to demand that another should do what he will not do himself” (rousseau, 1998: 99). as such, rousseau supposedly “shows how we can live in the chains of society without compromising our freedom” (matravers, 1998: ix). **** rousseau is justly well known as the champion of natural man. however, he does not believe that we can go back to a state of nature, feeling that society cannot be unmade. what he wants to do is reform it (copleston, 2003: 70). 88 f. dore epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences the nature of the general will for rousseau, the general will is moral and infallible, as will be examined in more detail below. here it is to be noted that the general will is not the only will within a polity. rousseau affirms (1998: 18)that “every individual may, as a man, have a particular will contrary to, or divergent from, the general will which he has as a citizen.” indeed, rousseau sees the individual as being in perpetual conflict with the general will (1998: 86), and it is “the seduction of private interests” that lead people away from the general will (1998: 39). thus, the contrast between particular will and the general will is that with the former, a person is misled from his real interest. rousseau states (1998: 39)that “[o] f themselves, the people always desire what is good, but do not always discern it” but that their true desire ensures that “[t]he general will is always right.” in other words, as copleston summarizes it, the general will “represents what every member of the society ‘really’ wills” (2003: 73). nonetheless, the general will is not, for rousseau, a simple conglomeration of individual wills. such an agglomeration would simply create a larger misled individual will. macintyre notes (2002: 180-1) that for rousseau, “a genuine common will” which is “the general will” is not to be equated with “the will of all”, which is “the sum, as it were, of individual wills.” the key difference between the general will and the will of all is its focus. for rousseau, in a state in which “the general will...prevail[s]”, it is the case that “public affairs outweigh private ones in the minds of the citizens” (1998: 95). hence, russell notes (2004: 634) that “[t]he general will is not identical with the will of the majority, or even with the will of the citizens. it seems to be conceived as the will belonging to the body politic as such.” and copleston states: of course, if one speaks at all about a quasi-mystical general will of the state, which stands in need of articulate expression, one will inevitably tend to identify it with the expressed decision of the legislator or with the expressed will of some supposed mouthpiece of the people. and this tendency is certainly present in rousseau. it could hardly be otherwise, given his premises. but it is no more than a tendency; it is not a position he formally adopts. he explicitly allows for instance, that an actual decision of the sovereign legislature may fail to be a true expression of the general will. it may be the expression of private interests which for some reason or other have wrongly prevailed (2003: 72-3). by not identifying the general will with the will of all, rousseau escapes the absurdity of regarding majority voting, which is notoriously inconsistent, as providing infallible results. he also allows for the will of the majority to be appraisable as unjust (copleston, 2003: 73). rousseau himself states, in his the discourse on political economy, that, of a vote in an assembly, “it is by no means certain that its decisions would be the expression of the general will” (qtd. copleston, 2003: 72). nevertheless, this leaves the problem of being able to indentify when and how the general will is expressed. russell justly avers that when “faced with the difficulty of deciding what are the visible manifestations of this will...rousseau leaves us in the dark” (2004: 634). copleston makes the observation that if it is presumed the general will is infallible: [a]nd if we distinguish between this will and the will of all considered as the sum of particular wills...we run the risk of being reduced to an utterance of a tautology. for if we say that the general will is always right, and if we mean by this that the general will is always directed to the common good, the question arises whether we are saying anything more than the will for the common good is the will for the common good (2003: 87). without being able to see the general will in practice, it is impossible to evaluate the claim that it is always good. the claim, to be valid, must be open to falsifiability. the concept can have nothing more than a metaphysical meaning if it is argued that when a 89 henrik ibsen’s dr stockmann and jean-jacques rousseau’s general will epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences society does something immoral that is the result of the sum of their wills, and when it does something moral it is acting according to the general will, if the basis upon which that society acts is the same in both cases. moreover, as the concepts of morality are, for rousseau, tied to the general will, without any clear verifiable manner of understanding when the general will is being operative, nothing meaningful results from it. it leads only to the circular argument that, in order to decide that something is morally good, it must be in conformity with the general will, and to decide that something is conformity with the general will, it must be morally good. there is one concrete element to the general will in rousseau’s writings though, and this concrete element must be made use of if the general will is to have any real meaning at all. despite the aforementioned points concerning the will of all, rousseau in fact makes clear in the social contract that the general will is manifested in legislative action (1998: 91,97)*****. this enables russell to explain the general will in the following manner: the conception in rousseau’s mind seems to be this: every man’s political opinion is governed by self-interest, but self-interest consists of two parts, one of which is peculiar to the individual, while the other is common to all the members of the community. if the citizens have no opportunity of striking logrolling bargains with each other, their individual interests, being divergent, will cancel out, and there will be left a resultant which will represent their common interest; this resultant is the general will (russell, 2004: 634). he also adds that: to say that the general will is always right is only to say that, since it represents what is in common among the self-interest of the various citizens, it must represent the largest collective satisfaction of self-interest possible to the community. this interpretation of rousseau’s meaning seems to accord with his words better than any other that i have been able to think of (2004: 635). copleston would concur with russell on this outlook (2003: 90). thus, it is legitimate to regard majority legislative action as manifesting the general will when it deals with the common interest, and this allows the concept of the general will to be analysed in practice. the analysis in this work is done through ibsen’s play an enemy of the people. as the play does not deal with the functioning of an assembly, the general will, for the purpose of this analysis, will be regarded as the manifestation of the community’s concern for its common interest. this is in line with rousseau’s assertion that “the general will alone can direct the forces of the state according to the object of its institution, which is the common good” (rousseau, 1998: 25). moreover, the most important element of common interest is the survival of the polity itself. rousseau avers (1998: 31) that “the state or city is nothing but a moral person...and...the most important of its cares is selfpreservation” as well as stating “[w]hat is the object of political association? it is the preservation and prosperity of its members” (1998: 84). that this aim cannot be separated from the general will is further evidenced by rousseau who states that when “it is clear that the primary intention of the people is that the state should not perish” then “[i]n such a case the general will is not doubtful” (1998: 124). ***** that no clear division can be made between the “will of all” and the “general will” is a problem owing to rousseau’s ambiguous writing. copleston states that rousseau has “left in obscurity the precise nature of the general will” (2003: 88). 90 f. dore epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences suitability of the argument before examining how the general will functions in the play, it is first necessary to see whether it is the environment created by the play is one in which the general will can operate. rousseau has come in for a great deal of criticism concerning his concept of the general will. he has been regarded as the spiritual father of the great totalitarian states of the twentieth century (russell, 2004: 635-6). nevertheless, rousseau himself states (1998: 93) that “[t]he abuses of great states cannot be brought as an objection against a man who desires small ones”, and rousseau clearly feels the general will is best expressed in a city-state, similar in size to the polis of ancient greece. the reason for this is that for the “authentic acts” of the general will to be expressed, it must be the case that “the people are assembled” (rousseau, 1998: 91). that is that the whole of the citizenry should be able to come together as the sovereign power, which is far easier in a city-state, and for which the aforementioned historical model provides an example. this is why rousseau explicitly states that the “proper limits” of a state are those of a city-state (1998: 93). the town in an enemy of the people is not a de jure city-state. the stage directions for the play describe the setting as “a seaside town in southern norway” (ibsen, 1964: 104) for instance, there is clearly a “government”****** over and above the locally based authorities of the town. nonetheless, at no point does this higher political authority interfere in, or influence the action of the play in any manner. all of the political decisions made in the play are made locally in the town for local concerns, and the concept of civic concern and citizenship is left at the level of the town*******. hence, the town, for the purposes of the play, is a de facto city-state, and as such amenable for an analysis of rousseau’s general will. the other aspect of the town that enables it to be open for an analysis of the general will is that it is a “free” society (ibsen, 1964: 147). granted, the town does not function through an assembly made up of all of its citizens, and rousseau sees the use of freelyelected representatives, such as those who sit on the town council (ibsen, 1964: 116), as alienating the general will (rousseau, 1998: 96). nevertheless, in the core issue of the play – the question of the baths – the populace manifest their opinion openly and freely as if an assembly were in session. thus, the play can be used for an analysis of the general will. the analysis itself in an enemy of the people, dr stockmann’s desire to publish his findings into the polluted waters of the baths, and his later refusal to recant or severely modify them has to be viewed as his acting in defiance of the general will. this is because the general will, as has already been noted, concerns “the common good” which is “the preservation and prosperity” of the members of the polity. in ibsen’s play, the importance of the baths to the preservation of the town as it is in its current level of prosperity is clearly evident. right at the beginning of the play, the mayor makes clear how important the baths are to the town. he refers to them as being “a great common interest” that “unite” everyone, and that they are “an interest which is of equal concern to every right-minded citizen” (ibsen, 1964: 107). the baths are regarded in the town as its “pulsating heart” and its “main artery” and “chief nerve centre” (ibsen, ****** see for instance: ibsen, 1964: 142,155,156 ******* see for instance: ibsen, 1964: 142, 146, 153. 180, 182 91 henrik ibsen’s dr stockmann and jean-jacques rousseau’s general will epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences 1964: 121). the benefits that the baths have brought are enumerated by the mayor as representative of the advantages as being that “[m]oney has been pouring in; there’s life and movement everywhere; and land and house-property values are rising every day” (ibsen, 1964: 108). his class are also pleased with “a most welcome reduction in the poor rate” (ibid). for the petit bourgeoisie, it is aslaksen, who symbolizes the majority (ibsen, 1964: 163), who explains that “[t]he baths look like being a little gold mine, as it were, to the town. the baths will represent the livelihood of all of us – and of us householders most of all” (ibsen, 1964: 133). moreover, it is expected that the baths will generate even greater revenues that year (ibsen, 1964: 108). it is likely the case that the baths are what has led to the “temporary truce” between the mayor and the newspaper (ibsen, 1964: 115). by threatening to stab this “pulsating heart” with his findings carried out in the university that confirm his suspicions of unclean waters in the baths (ibsen, 1964: 122), dr stockmann poses a serious threat to the town’s common good and its continuing existence as it is. with dr stockmann’s findings, the baths are then to be regarded as “a poisoned white sepulchre” (ibsen, 164: 121). it is the case that dr stockmann’s findings are at first welcomed by aslaksen speaking for the majority (ibsen, 1964: 132,135), and the radical newspapermen (ibsen 124), but this is only because they view his findings as being a problem for only a section of their society and have not understood their implications. they feel that it is the governing elite that must sort out the problem (ibsen, 1964: 131,133). when however, the mayor makes it clear to them that the financial responsibilities – totalling “some two hundred thousand kroner” (ibsen, 1964: 164) – for sorting out the problem will be shared by all the townspeople, and moreover, the baths will have to be closed “for at least two years” (ibid) whilst repairs are made, aslaksen suddenly regards the situation “in quite a different light” (ibid), as do the radical newspapermen (ibsen 164, 170). indeed, it is the case that the “public opinion” of the town (ibsen, 1964: 172) – that is the town as a whole – comes together to reject the findings and silence dr stockmann (ibsen, 1964: 181). thus, the general will as manifested in an enemy of the people is opposed to dr stockmann’s findings, and this leads to uncomfortable implications which will be examined next. morality a moral evaluation of the action of the town towards the covering up of the truth of the polluted waters and in its attempted silencing of dr stockmann is problematic in rousseau’s philosophy. his writings can be read to endorse both moral relativism and moral absolutism. nevertheless, as this work is analysing rousseau’s general will through an enemy of the people, it is the moral relativism incumbent on the general will that is made evident. in the discourse on political economy, rousseau states that: the general will, which always tends to the preservation and welfare of the whole and of every part, and which is the source of the laws, constitutes for all the members of the state, in their relations to one another and to it, the rule of what is just and unjust (qtd. in copleston, 2003: 70-1)********. as the opponents of dr stockmann have acted in accordance with what copleston describes as “the infallible general will” (2003: 79), in rousseau’s outlook, their actions ******** to clarify the meaning of this passage as endorsing moral relativism, copleston adds: it is idle, for instance, to say that spartan children were morally guilty of theft when they stole to supplement their meagre repasts. for they were acting in accordance with the general will of the spartan state. and this was for them the measure of just and unjust, right and wrong (2003: 71). 92 f. dore epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences must therefore be just and moral, rather than as pragmatic and selfish as they would appear to both ibsen and the average reader of the play. indeed, for rousseau, the general will is by its very nature moral. as judith shklar has pointed out, the general will is “a transposition of the most essential individual moral faculty” which as seen above is the individual will “to the realm of public experience” (qtd. in riley, 2001b: 124). by being concerned with the welfare of all within the state, “the general will is always the most just also, and that the voice of the people is in fact the voice of god” (qtd. copleston, 2003: 71). moreover, if the general will is moral in this case, then dr stockmann, in seeking to reveal the truth about the deleterious waters of the baths, and thus to prevent further cases of visitors sickening with serious illness from these waters, actually acts amorally or immorally. this is the case as copleston notes that under the general will, “moral goodness involves identification of one’s particular will with the general will” (ibid). rousseau clearly states that “virtue is nothing more than [the] conformity of the particular wills with the general will” (qtd. copleston, 2003: 72), and dr stockmann refuses to conform his will to the generality, thus he cannot be regarded as a virtuous individual. as such, it appears that rousseau wishes to redefine morality, similarly to thrasymachus’ claim in the republic of plato that “justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger” (plato, 2007: 194) – the stronger being those who embody the majority or the general will. this would also mean that he favours a strict form of utilitarianism. however, the implications of rousseau’s general will do not square with his wider writings on ethics, providing yet another instance of rousseau’s ambiguity. by presaging morality on the general will, moral relativism necessarily ensues, and yet rousseau rejects moral relativism, regardless of the aforementioned quotation. he explicitly puts himself in opposition to thrasymachu’s claim by exclaiming that “might does not make right” (rousseau, 1998: 8). moreover, rousseau’s wider writings reveal a thinker who has a traditional absolutist notion of morality. for instance, he believes that justice has a divine source, exclaiming “all justice comes from god” (rousseau, 1998: 37) and also that “[w] ithout doubt there is a universal justice emanating from reason alone” (ibid). moreover, he accepts the existence of “the laws of virtue” (rousseau, 1996: 252-3) as understood by the society of his time; that is absolutist ethics based on ancient and christian mores. that he has such an outlook is clear from the character of the savoyard vicar in his novel emile, who avers that “there is...at the bottom of our hearts an innate principle of justice and virtue by which, in spite of our maxims, we judge our own actions or those of others to be good or evil; and it is this principle which i call conscience” (qtd. in copleston: 78)********. other examples of rousseau’s acceptance of traditional absolutist morality can be seen in his own explicit reference to a “conscience” that remains alert to wrongdoing (rousseau, 1996: 82), in addition to his lauding the “natural pity” he believes belongs to natural man (rousseau, 1984: 100). for specific instances of a traditional ethical outlook, rousseau condemns “the greedy pursuit of gain” (rousseau, 1998: 95) as well as his selfcondemnation of having falsely accused another of theft (rousseau, 1996: 80-83)********. hence, it is the case, as the analysis of an enemy of the people makes clear, that rousseau’s placing of the concept of the general will at the centre of his political philosophy leads to results in ethical terms that rousseau would not approve of. ******** the savoyard vicar is to be seen here as voicing of rousseau’s own sincerely-held ideas (copleston, 2003: 78). ******** indeed, rousseau claims that “the desire of freeing” himself “in some degree” from the remorse of this action decades later played a significant role in his decision to write the confessions (1996: 82). 93 henrik ibsen’s dr stockmann and jean-jacques rousseau’s general will epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences freedom the second problem with rousseau’s general will exposed by ibsen’s play involves the concept of freedom. the personal importance of freedom to rousseau should not be underestimated. rousseau exclaims(1996: 35) that “i worship freedom; i abhor restraint, trouble, dependence” and he reveals how being freedom enables him to function as a better man by stating “i become so easily accustomed to any manner of life, when it is voluntary” (1996: 250). in fact, freedom is central to human value, as has already been noted above in a quotation from the social contract. elsewhere, rousseau makes the same point, stating: nature commands all animals, and the beast obeys. man receives the same impulsion, but he recognizes himself as being free to acquiesce or resist; and it is above all in this consciousness of his freedom that the spirituality of the soul reveals itself (rousseau, 1984: 88). thus, rousseau has been evaluated by hampsher-monk(1992: 156) as having “freedom” as his “central preoccupation” with “his greatest fear” being “dependency”, and by mark hulliung as being a thinker “unrelenting in his quest for furthering human autonomy” (2001: 58). it is therefore seemingly evident that rousseau places great importance on freedom, and he regards it, in its traditional sense, as being the opposite of constraint. consequently, it would appear that in the philosophy of rousseau, the actions of dr stockmann in thinking for himself, and reaching his own conclusions, and his desire to voice his opinions openly would be endorsed. this is especially the case, when considering rousseau’s statement of “how can a man be free and yet forced to conform to wills which are not his own” (1998: 108). indeed, this would seem to support dr stockmann in resisting the pressure of the town to silence him. however, with the concept of the general will this is not in fact the case, as with this concept dr stockmann is not actually being free when he sets himself up against the town. the town, on the whole, wishes to silence dr stockmann and force him to recant his findings, and in rousseau’s philosophy they are right. as rousseau notes: [w]hen...the opinion opposed to my own prevails, that simply shows i was mistaken, and that what i considered to be the general will was not so. had my private opinion prevailed, i should have done something other than i wished; and in that case i should not have been free (1998: 109). so, rather than, in the generally accepted sense of liberty, dr stockmann manifesting his freedom by refusing to submit to the will of the majority, in rousseau’s understanding of freedom, dr stockmann is not being free by doing so. indeed, such action, in rousseau’s view, selfishly endangers the very state. being a thinker who avers that “it is only the power of the state that secures the freedom of its members” (rousseau, 1998: 54), rousseau explains: [e]very individual may, as a man, have a particular will contrary to, or divergent from, the general will which he has as a citizen; his private interest may prompt him quite differently from the common interest...and regarding the moral person that constitutes the state as an imaginary being because it is not a man, he would be willing to enjoy the rights of a citizen without being willing to fulfil the duties of a subject. the progress of such injustice would bring about the ruin of the body politic (1998: 18). this then leads to rousseau’s most infamous remark concerning liberty. it is that “whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be constrained to do so by the whole body; which means nothing else that that he shall be forced to be free” (rousseau, 1998: 18), by realigning his will with the general will as a component part of it. hence, dr stockmann is not only failing to be free in regarding his findings concerning the baths as valid and refusing to recant them, he should in fact be forced to change his opinion and express this 94 f. dore epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences change publically in order to be free. that is, the mayor, the majority of the town and the radical newspapermen are actually attempting to help dr stockmann to be free. rousseau is therefore not an advocate of what he calls “conventional liberty” (rousseau, 1998: 15), but rather redefines the term “liberty” to mean something rather different. this redefinition has led to criticism of rousseau. copleston notes (2003: 92) that “the very fact that the position” of forcing somebody to be free “immediately strikes one as paradoxical suggests that the word free is being given in a sense which, whatever it may be is different from the sense or senses it normally bears”, whereas dr stockmann in regarding the suppressive “solid majority” as an “enemy...of freedom” (ibsen, 1964: 184) uses it in the conventional one. russell, for instance, only believes that “[l]iberty is the nominal goal of rousseau’s thought” as he feels that “in fact it is equality that [rousseau] values, and that he seeks to secure even at the expense of liberty” (russell, 2004: 632). indeed, for russell, the social contract containing rousseau’s redefined liberty “implies a complete abrogation of liberty and a complete rejection of the doctrines of the rights of man” (ibid). as such, it opens the way for “collective tyranny” (ibid), and as such “[i] ts doctrines, though they pay lip-service to democracy, tend to the justification of the totalitarian state” (russell, 2004: 631). copleston would disagree, viewing rousseau as no “friend of despotism or tyranny or terror” (2003: 92), but he still feels that “[i]t is difficult to see how the fact that an opinion different from my own prevails by majority vote ‘proves’ that i was mistaken” and faults rousseau for the fact he “simply assumes that it does” (copleston, 2003: 91). russell argues that the “conception of being ‘forced to be free’ is very metaphysical” (2004: 633) and feels that with this doctrine, “rousseau forgets his romanticism and speaks like a sophisticated policeman” (ibid). the analysis of rousseau’s concept of the general will through ibsen’s play confirms russell’s opinion, as it ironically justifies the attempted suppressing of dr stockmann as being an attempt to liberate him. it also makes the statement of rileythat “[h]ad rousseau not been centrally concerned with freedom – above all with the voluntariness of human actions – he would never have made ‘the general will’ the core idea of his political philosophy” especially ironic (2001b: 148). relation with other polities a further problem with the general will that is raised by ibsen’s play is that of the external relations of the state. it has already been stated in this work that rousseau belongs to the economic or social contract tradition. the aim of the outlooks represented in this tradition, by finding the correct relationship between authority and liberty, is to ensure societal peace. and, if the town is successful in silencing dr stockmann, rousseau’s general will could be said to achieve this aim at least. nevertheless, immanuel kant recognized a serious flaw in the economic and social contract tradition in its limiting its scope to the state itself and not to external conditions. kant notes (1949: 441-442) that the condition of “wild freedom” still exists in the arena of international affairs, and as such “[n]ations may be considered like individual men which hurt each other in the state of nature, when they are not subject to laws, by their very propinquity.” and as peoples are threatened just as much by external aggression as they are by internal oppression or instability, any political theory that ensures peace within the state but not between the states has left its aim unfulfilled (kersting, 1999: 362). a social contract of some kind therefore needs to be 95 henrik ibsen’s dr stockmann and jean-jacques rousseau’s general will epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences drawn up between states as well as within them for their citizenries********, and only in such a manner can “wilfulness and violence” be “banished from human social relations” (ibid). yet, the general will, despite the all-encompassing sound of the name, is in fact limited to that of an individual state. as riley states (2001b: 134), for rousseau, “[t]he notion of ‘generality’” is one that “occup[ies] a place midway between particularity and universality.” this means that rousseau has “drawn the dividing line between généralité and universality, between the polis and the cosmopolis” (riley, 2001b: 135). in other words, the general will is only relevant within individual states. in the social contract, rousseau does not enter into the question of “external relations” of states, as it “forms a new subject too vast for [his] limited scope” (rousseau, 1998: 139), and as such he only deals with international security by countering the potential objection of “how can small states be endowed with sufficient force to resist great ones” by declaiming “[j]ust in the same way as when the greek towns of old resisted the great king, and as more recently holland and switzerland have resisted the house of austria” (rousseau, 1998: 93). this aside from being extremely ill-thought out******** is clearly unsatisfactory as it still entails a state of war. the problem of continuous instability being created by localized general wills can be inferred from an enemy of the people. at the end of the play, it is unclear whether the true conditions of the baths will be kept a secret. dr stockmann has vowed “to write to papers in other towns” promising “[t]he whole country will know how things stand here” (ibsen, 2003: 191) and there has certainly been enough local scandal to cause the price of shares in the baths to fall dramatically, suggesting that the whole affair may not be able to be hushed up (ibsen, 1964: 208, 212-3). but for the purpose of this analysis these points are unimportant. what is important is that the general will desired the silencing of the truth about the baths, and if it could have had its way this silence would have been ensured. the implication of such a silencing therefore needs to be examined. assuming that the truth about the baths could be hushed up, visitors from outside of the town would continue to come to the town and ruin their health. in the end, suspicion would fall on the town in other towns – which can also be thought of as polises with general wills of their own – around the country, and this could lead to reciprocal consequences, such as a boycott of the town or a refusal to have economic relations with it. it could even lead to the other polises demanding, through the central state authority, that the town be visited with punitive action. in other words, the continuing stability of the town would not be ******** kant states that: for states in their relation to each other there cannot, according to reason, be any other way to get away from the lawless state that contains nothing but war than to give up (just like individual men) their wild and lawless freedom, to accept public and enforceable laws, and thus to form a constantly growing world state of all nations (civitasgenitum) which finally would comprise all nations (kant, 1949 445). ******** there are numerous problems with rousseau’s two examples. firstly, they both deal with empires that are fighting at a great distance from their heartlands. secondly, in the case of the dutch, they were receiving material support from two other full-sized nations, france and england. but the most glaring problem is that history, as rousseau should be well aware, provides plenteous incidences of city-states being overwhelmed by greater-sized ones. there was the case of the phoenician city-states falling to assyria, the greek ones being brought under macedonian and later roman control, and in more modern times, the unfortunate situation in italy, which is analyzed by machiavelli in the prince (1979: 128-9) and which machiavelli wants, in vain, to reverse (1979: 133-8). moreover, rousseau’s contemporaries would not have shared his historical optimism. the primary reason for the newly created states in the americas to not only continue with their wartime union, but actually strengthen it, was that it “affords them the best security that can be devised against hostilities from abroad” (hamilton, 1961: 42). 96 f. dore epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences ensured by silencing this truth, and the general will would not be acting in the public interest if external relations are taken into account. hence, by promoting a general will that is geographically limited to the boundaries of a city-state, rousseau does not ensure peace and stability for its members. it is to be noted though, that as with his views on morality and liberty, rousseau does not hold a clearly unambiguous position regarding the limitation of the general will to the borders state. copleston notes that: as far as the discourse on political economy is concerned, rousseau evidently assumes that there is something higher than the state. we have seen that, according to him, the more general will is also the most just. we can say, therefore, that just as the wills of individuals and of particular societies within the state are particular wills in relation to the general will of the state, so is the will of an individual state a particular will if it is looked at it relation ‘to the great city of the world...whose general will is always the will of nature, and of which the different states and peoples are individual members’ (2003: 73). dr stockmann’s remarks on the minority there is a final point about the general will that is raised by ibsen’s play that is worthy of examination. it is revealed in dr stockmann’s identification of “the most dangerous enemy of truth” as being that of “the solid majority” (ibsen, 1964: 184). in contrast, those “who’ve absorbed all the new, vigorous truths” and who “stand at the outposts, as it were” (ibsen, 1964: 185), these people are “fighting for truths so newly-born in the world of thought as to have only the few on their side” (ibsen, 1964: 186). the author is reflected in his creation here, with ibsen’s own outlook being described as one of “aristocratic idealism” (brustein, 1991: 72), and soon after the publication of ghosts, in a letter to georg brandes, ibsen wrote that “[t]he minority is always right – that is to say, the minority that is leading the way towards some point at which the majority has not yet arrived”******** (qtd. in watts, 1964: 12). the general will with its duty to compel uniformity can therefore be regarded as an obstacle to the discovery of new truths, and intellectual progress. as a historical instance, russell rhetorically asks whether galilieo was “‘forced to be free’ when the inquisition compelled him to recant” considering that “[t]he general will in the time of galileo was certainly anti-copernican” (russell, 2004: 633). nevertheless, this would perhaps endear the concept of the general will even more to rousseau, as he himself was an enemy of progress. the prevention of new ideas could be viewed by rousseau as a benefit of the general will. nonetheless, this would also mean that rousseau ought to have welcomed the burning of his books in geneva in 1762 rather than seeing it as an infringement of “common sense” (rousseau, 1996: 578). ******** shaw supports ibsen in this outlook by affirming that: it is a scientific fact that the majority, however eager it may be for the reform of old abuses, is always wrong in its opinion of new developments, or rather is always unfit for them (for it can hardly be said to be wrong in opposing developments for which it is not yet fit). the pioneer is a tiny minority of the force he heads; and so, though it is easy to be in a minority and yet be wrong, it is absolutely impossible to be in the majority and yet be right as to the newest social prospects (shaw, 1891: 94). 97 henrik ibsen’s dr stockmann and jean-jacques rousseau’s general will epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences conclusion this work has demonstrated that, by applying rousseau’s concept of the general will, in the only meaningful way this concept can be applied, to the events of the de facto fictional city-state in henrik ibsen’s play an enemy of the people, a concept that supposedly determines ethics, liberty and societal peace can in fact be viewed as being in opposition to them all. at least that is the case for ethics and liberty unless these terms are radically redefined, and redefined in a way that seems to be at odds to rousseau’s wider writings. the contrast between ethics and liberty as understood in light of the general will, and their use elsewhere is perhaps unsurprising as rousseau’s overall work is notoriously ambiguous or contradictory. this work provides evidence to the claim that rousseau is “the author of paradoxes” (riley, 2001a: 1), and that “many of rousseau’s central moralpolitical beliefs are cast in the form of paradoxes” (riley, 2001b: 134). it supports the view that “virtue meant a number of contrary things to rousseau” (kelly, 2001: 11), and that the idea of forcing somebody to be free is a “paradox” in itself (copleston, 2003: 91); indeed, it is “rousseau’s famous” one (ibid). rousseau as a paradoxical thinker also explains how such differing opinions about him have been held. as roger d masters points out, rousseau “[f]or twentieth century critics...is often praised as the founder of the western democratic tradition or vilified as a forerunner of totalitarianism” (qtd. in riley, 2001a: 7). what would be the greatest paradox of all in regard to this work is that rousseau and ibsen or his alter-ego dr stockmann actually reach such differing conclusions from such similar standpoints. much like ibsen after having written ghosts, rousseau regarded himself as a misunderstood individual, and one who has been the “victim” of “treachery and falsehood” (rousseau’s confessions own fn. to 279). he too expressed a minority view by rejecting the traditional theology as well as the progressive rational views of the enlightenment. and at times in his life, such as the aforementioned book burning when, as he puts it, “a “cry of execration...went up against [him] throughout europe” (rousseau, 1996: 578) and the period following the publication of his anti-christian letters written from the mountain, he was regarded as much “a public enemy” as doctor stockmann with his challenging writings********. philosophically, however, in a certain sense both rousseau and ibsen-dr stockmann are attracted more by grandiose positions than by solid reasoning. when dr stockmann claims “[t]he majority never has right on its side” (ibsen, 1964: 185) and when rousseau regards the general will as being infallible, they take up extreme opposing outlooks. but it is surely the case that morality, freedom, justice and truth, if they are to escape from the most banal relativism, cannot be determined by the size of the societal section that favours them, whether smaller or larger, and require founding on a basis more profound than simple computations of their adherents. references billington, m. (2013). “public enemy – review” (the guardian newspaper, http://www.theguardian.com/ culture/2013/may/14/public-enemy-review (14.05.2013). brustein, r. (1991). the theatre of revolt: an approach to modern drama. chicago: ivan r. dee, inc. copleston, f. (2003). the enlightenment. london: continuum. hampsher-monk, i. (1992). a history of modern political thought. oxford: blackwell publishers. hamilton, a., madison, j. and jay, j. (1961). the federalist papers. new york: the new american library, inc. hulliung, m. (2001). rousseau, voltaire, and the revenge of pascal. p. riley (ed.), the cambridge companion to rousseau. cambridge: cambridge university press. (p. 57-77). ******** see riley, 2001a: 6 98 f. dore epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences ibsen, h. (1964). ghosts and other plays.(trans. peter watts). middlesex: penguin books ltd. kant, i. (1949). eternal peace. c. j. friedrich (trans. & ed.), the philosophy of kant: (p. 430-476). new york: random house, inc. kelly, g. a. (2001). a general overview. p. riley (ed.), the cambridge companion to rousseau (p. 8-56). cambridge: cambridge university press. kersting, w. (1999). politics, freedom, and order: kant’s political philosophy. p. guyer (ed.), the cambridge companion to kant (p. 342-366). cambridge: cambridge university press. machiavelli, n. (1979).the prince. (trans. g. bull). middlesex: penguin books ltd. macintyre, a. (2002). a short history of ethics. london: routledge. matravers, d. (1998). introduction, contained in the social contract. jean-jacques rousseau. (trans. h. j. tozer). hertfordshire: wordsworth editions limited. mill, j. s. (1996). on liberty and the subjection of women. hertfordshire: wordsworth editions limited. pinker, s. (2002). the blank slate. london: penguin books ltd. plato. (2007). six great dialogues. (trans. benjamin jowett). new york: dover publications inc. riley, p. (2001a). introduction: life and works of jean-jacques rousseau.p. riley (ed.), the cambridge companion to rousseau (p. 1-7). cambridge: cambridge university press. riley, p. (2001b). rousseau’s general will. p. riley (ed.), the cambridge companion to rousseau (p. 124153). cambridge: cambridge university press. rousseau, j. j. (1996). the confessions.(anonymous translation).hertfordshire: wordsworth editions limited. rousseau, j. j. (1984). a discourse on inequality. (trans. m. cranston. middlesex: penguin books ltd. rousseau, j. j. (1998). the social contract. (trans. h. j. tozer). hertfordshire: wordsworth editions limited. russell, b. (2004). history of western philosophy. london: routledge. shaw, g. b. (1891). the quintessence of ibsenism. london: walter scott. taylor, j. r. (1968). the penguin dictionary of the theatre. middlesex: penguin books ltd. watts, p. (1964). “introduction” and “notes.” (trans. p. watts). ghosts and other plays. henrik ibsen. middlesex: penguin books ltd. epiphany: vol. 12, no. 1, 2019 e-issn 1840-3719 72 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) metaphysical or differential: fitzgerald's the great gatsby under derridean concept of love sayed mohammad anoosheh, yazd university, iran muhammad hussein oroskhan, shiraz university, iran abstract jacques derrida revolutionized western philosophy by reconsidering the previous ideas from a new perspective. in his view, human subjectivity is explained within the system of language and the meaning is conveyed through the concept of differánce. as such, he imparts the notion that nothing ever exists outside the text, yet the text is filled with innumerable meanings, not a specific one. the net of his deconstructive thinking cast vast enough to devote close critical attention to any previously regarded metaphysical idea like love. transcendental or metaphysical love is a shorn of meaning in the derridean notion of deconstruction. for derrida, love as a communicable sign is confined to the rules of iterability which proves the free flow of signifiers. in this regard, fitzgerald's the great gatsby as one of the most critically studied works in america is recruited to examine the derridean deconstructive notion of love. gatsby is exclusively focused on seeking daisy's transcendental love even at the expense of repeating the past. nonetheless, the evanescent fluidity of the notion of love totally ruins gatsby's chance of ever achieving daisy's love. accordingly, gatsby's ultimate failure is expected for the reason that an "absolute moment" is never devoid of any trace of past or future time. thus, the great gatsby attends to why the notion of love defies any metaphysical or transcendental status and instead it has differential and deferral meaning. keywords: the great gatsby, love, deconstruction, difference, inerrability. metaphysical or differential: fitzgerald's the great gatsby under derridean concept of love 73 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) i n t r o d u c t i o n the beginning of the twentieth century ushered a circle of changes in american history. f. scott fitzgerald (1896-1940) tried to aptly encapsulate these changes in his works. his best attempt succeeds most probably in the great gatsby (1925) which is "one of two american books loved by both literary critics and a wide, general audience" (keshmiri, 2016, p. 1296). more prominent, however, is the way fitzgerald attempts to dissect the complexities of his time in his masterpiece. with fitzgerald's critical eye, the great gatsby becomes a microcosm reflecting the 1920's american society. fitzgerald's primary aim was to write "something new— something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned" (fitzgerald, 1978, p. 14), yet, the novel describes the shattering american society by revealing certain puzzling features beneath the surface of this society: the tragedy of gatsby as that of an individual and of a civilization would clearly depict the devastation of the dream (or shall we say the fantasy?) the american man was carrying along since he started building up the new world; the shattered image of success, idealism, and glory in a meretricious life (ghasemi and tiur, 2009, p. 35). thomas streissguth in the roaring twenties (2007) draws critical attention to the underlying reason beyond such sweeping changes in the 1920's american society by attesting to the fact that it is for the first time in the american history that urban society is shaped with more than half of the population living in cities (xi). accordingly, fitzgerald's central puzzle is to portray not specifically the transformation of american society into an urban society but more exquisitely the aftermath of such transformation on individuals' lives. to this end, fitzgerald recruits all his efforts to study his age through the great gatsby. in this regard, cleanth brooks (1973) asserts that: historically, the 1920s were not only an age of disillusionment and frenetic excitement; they were also an age of vital creativity and intellectual development….. but the world in which he [fitzgerald] did immerse himself he reported as faithfully and came to judge as honestly, as he could (p. 2284). fitzgerald's recording of american society in the great gatsby narrates to us the constitution of a new society which seems to end in failure as none of its ends is achieved. perhaps, "gatsby and his myth is an emblem of the irony of american history and the corruption of the american dream" (ghasemi and tiur, 2009, p. 119). consisted of the narration of america society, fitzgerald unfolds the unfortunate path of its failure, the dream of not arriving at the desirable society. hence, a discussion of the failure of the american dream is permeated through the great gatsby. an inevitable consequence of such perspective is that the great gatsby has become "the embodiment of the fluid polarities of the american experience: success and failure, illusion and disillusion, dream and nightmare"(ghasemi and tiur, 2009, p. 119). clarification of such woven concepts in the great gatsby needs a new method of study which can highlight some new aspects of this masterpiece. the great gatsby is a work full of opposite poles and the search for the internal contradictions of a text is one of deconstructionism's main concerns. deconstructionists may not appease a curious mind in search of some novel ideas, a mind which leads to the discovery of an original subject or an innovative explication that results in new meanings; nevertheless, they may revisit a previously studied subject in a new way so as to provide a different perspective for the reader. as such, instead of trying to clothe a text by a certain ideology, the reader celebrates the existence of different ideologies in the text. in this regard, catherine belsey's (2002) explanation justifies the significance of this type of reading: analysis reveals that at any given moment the categories and laws of the symbolic order are full of contradictions, ambiguities, and inconsistencies which function as a source of sayed mohammad anoosheh & muhammad hussein oroskhan 74 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) possible change. the role of ideology is to suppress these contradictions in the interests of the preservation of the existing social formation, but their presence ensures that it is always possible, with whatever difficulty, to identify them, to recognize ideology for what it is, and to take an active part in transforming it by producing new meanings (p. 42). deconstruction by not focusing on a specific ideology has opened up a new chapter in the realm of theory and criticism. deconstruction has a tendency to unsettle a language through its rather compulsive "attentiveness" and "disruptive" tendency or, as derrida calls it, a tendency towards a "de-sedimentation" (derrida, 1976, p. 10). such an unprecedented perspective is indispensable to the novel observation in the field of literature and of the artifacts of the past or the present time. it is through this very "disruptive attentiveness", which is one of the crucial characteristics of deconstruction, that the multifarious features of love in the great gatsby is studied. love appears in a free flow of signifiers as opposed to how it is believed to have a transcendental being. as such, a new light is shed upon the nature of love by exploring it within the relationship among gatsby, tom, and daisy and it is proved that love has differential and deferral meaning. d e c o n s t r u c t i o n deconstruction is the word most associated with derrida. he used deconstruction for his way of thinking and dismantling the excessive adherence to one specific idea by learning to consider the aspects of truth that may lie in its opposite sides. it was in 1937 that derrida published his first major book, of grammatology. from that time on, "his works have been engaged in the business of transformation and reinvention" (royle, 2003, p. 105). derrida in of grammatology constitutes the ardent belief that an author can always be understood to be saying "more, less, or something other than what he [or she] would mean" (1976, p. 158). derrida tries to render all our familiar and preconceived notions, structures and presuppositions unfamiliar by considering it anew. accordingly, some points are to be buttressed for while having a deconstructive purpose to provide a brighter view on this issue. first, our reading will not be a form of hermeneutic interpretation of the text's inherent meaning(s). rather, it reveals that hermeneutic is itself rooted in a metaphysical desire for fixation of meaning which is reductionist in nature despite its whim to attribute an exalted position to the interpreter himself as the generator of meaning; hermeneutics is a quest for meaning, or, at least, it implies the possibility of reaching unified meanings. as we read in peter childs' and roger fowler's routledge dictionary of literary terms (2006): (hermeneutics) comprises the general theory and practice of interpretation … much as these hermeneuts differ, they do share an allegiance to universality, and to a common human nature which suggests a measure of co-operation and of shared discourse in the interpretive dialogue. hermeneutic objects may differ, but they are credited as truths which await illumination (p. 103 and 105). unlike hermeneutics, which tries to theorize a system of interpretation, deconstruction emphasizes the elusive nature of any such systems; it reveals the metaphysical structure of the hermeneutic quest for meaning and/or knowledge so as to defy the epistemological universalism which takes the subjectivity of the interpreter as unified and transcendent. deconstruction reveals that the subject and his perceiving consciousness cannot stand outside the text's boundaries. andy mousley (2000) observes: if language, within structuralism, tends to be regarded as an impersonal system, then language, for many poststructuralists, is the very site of human subjectivity. language, after all, makes it possible to say 'i', it allows us to locate ourselves as subjects (p. 75). being located in language, subjectivity becomes as unfixed as the meaning of a sign is because language works by difference an metaphysical or differential: fitzgerald's the great gatsby under derridean concept of love 75 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) by permanent deferral of meaning. as mousley (2000) maintains, "if language enables or promises subjectivity, then it also postpones it, for we are constantly being dislocated and unsettled by language due to its inherent instability" (p. 75). a subject is not outside the text superimposing its presence to the text under his/her observation. on the contrary, it is a part of the totality of the text, it "is an elusive signifier, which is never fully present to itself" (p. 100). eventually, one cannot read more into the text, more than what it contains as some of the hermeneutists allege. quite the reverse, it is the text that exceeds the reader's/interpreter's power of understanding and overflows his perception . one may look for the solid structures which lead to fixed meanings in an act of interpretation as do the hermeneutists and in doing so; he/she has to suppress a meaning or some meanings to foreground a specific one. nonetheless, a deconstructive reader will release the text from the burden of such a suppression/suspension. he/she will reveal the reasons why the text cannot be tamed into an epistemic site of meaning. it never alerts to the fact that there is no meaning in a text. quite the reverse, it indicates that the text is a hoard of innumerable meanings. as such, all acts of interpretation find a reductive nature and hence betray the openness of the text itself. that is why derrida emphasizes that "there is nothing outside the text". all acts of interpretation are like cropping a part of an image and omitting the other parts which could otherwise offer a more complete picture. hence, a signifier in order to mean or to have a signified has to be taken off the natural flow of signification. meaning comes through the fixation of the signified by arresting the free flow of signification. however, every signified is a signifier to which is attached a number of other signifieds which are themselves more signifiers for more signifieds; the chain goes on and on to the extent that one may admit that there is no signified at all and eventually no meaning in its true sense. the only thing that remains is the signifier which leads to the other signifiers that, in turn, lead to other more signifiers. meaning exists as much as a text is verified for the signifier. nonetheless, since contexts cannot be saturated with meaning, meaning get illusively naturalized through the structure of its context. "'no meaning can be determined out of context," argues nicolas royle (2003), "but no context permits saturation': this is what derrida's texts keep affirming, while always affirming it differently" (p. 66). in this regard, words/signs find meaning only when one arrests meaning by cutting the chain of signification/differentiation. consequently, the meaning of a sign is always on the move and is yet to come unless we accept the metaphysics of presence, the idea that the meaning of a sign is presented to us through the one-to-one relationship between the signifier and signified and with the interference of interpretation and/or signification to discover this decidable and fixed relationship. in this regard, catherine belsey (2002) affirms, "meaning is no longer seizable, a pure intelligibility accessible to our grasp" (p.136). she emphasizes the undecidability of meaning by arguing that: deferred, as well as differed, pushed out of reach, meaning becomes undecidable. thus we can no longer understand the signifier to be preceded by an anterior truth, a meaning, the presence of a signified whose existence ultimately necessitates a transcendental signified (god, nature, reason) to which all truths can be referred (p. 136). thus, signifieds and meanings are part of our metaphysical humanism and essentialism, which, as we have already emphasized, are structures in the same symbolic order as language is. the human mind is symbolic and is structured linguistically. as such, derrida's innovative notion radically "alters the bases on which we might think about thinking, consciousness, presence, being, humanity, sayed mohammad anoosheh & muhammad hussein oroskhan 76 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) animality, divinity, identity, intention, decision, responsibility, justice, friendship, desire, memory, death and language, as well as about so many discourses or practices" (royle, 2003, p. 144). d e c o n s t r u c t i v e r e a d i n g o f l o v e trying to sketch a status for love can be exhausting as there can always be the question of what is love. the question is always durable and extended in time. there is historicity about the question which makes it always temporally aloof from its answers. therefore, the answer is always in the status of yet to come. r. s. white (2001) does as much to leave the question "what is this thing called love?" white expostulates: that we find ourselves circling around an absent center of meaning, an evacuation. to the very pertinent and honest question which might be asked of the mature by the young, why do you not offer us reliable advice about love and desire, since our love-choices will affect us for the rest of our lives? the only answer can be 'because we do not know what they are (p. 5). this is in accord with the multiplicity of love's appearance in different contexts changing colors like a chameleon. irving singer (2009) has listed some kinds of love that we habitually speak of: love of self, of mankind, of nature, of god, of mother and father, of children, of tribe and nation, of sweetheart or spouse or sexual idol, of material possession, of food or drink, of action and repose, of sports, of hobbies or engrossing pursuit, of justice, of science, of truth, of beauty, and so on endlessly. each variety of love, involving it special object, has its own phenomenology, its own special iridescence within the spectrum that delimits human experience (qtd in nordland, 2007, p. 21). as singer shows, love is various and refers to a range of different human experiences. plato in his symposium also refers to the ambiguity concerning the idea of love when pausanias retorts to phaedrus's injunction to praise love: "if love were a single being, it would be fine, but as it is, there isn't just one of him. and since there isn't, it would be more correct to say first which particular love we ought to praise" (cobb, 1993, p. 21). derrida's argument that love is always divided between the love of who and love of what testifies to the divided nature of love's identity. he asserts: the history of love, the heart of love, is divided between the love of who and the love of what…. i speak of it abstractly, but i think that whoever starts to love, is in love, or stops loving, is caught between this division of the who and the what. one wants to be true to someone-singularly, irreplaceably-and one perceives that this someone isn't x or y. they didn't have the qualities, properties, the images that i thought i loved. so fidelity is threatened by the difference between the who and the what (youtube.com). derrida's unprecedented view of love is based upon his idea of "a decentring of the human subject, a decentring of institutions, and a decentring of the logos" (1973, p. 15). upon closer reading, one can notice the importance of decentering the logos which has indeed become derrida's primary reason of the whole idea of deconstruction: "the first step for me, in the approach to what i proposed to call deconstruction, was a putting into question of the authority of linguistics, of logocentrism" (p. 65). julian wolfreys (1998) summarize the derridean notion of logocenterism as follows: logocentrism … brings together two ideas: that of the logos, the greek term for the word or truth (as an unquestionable and desired value, i. e., the word of god); and center, the concept of a central or originary point, a moment of absolute beginning or origin from which everything springs and around which all ideas circulate or to which they refer (p. 198). derrida is not following the path of logos as the whole history of western philosophy did. he is against the changing of logos as each metaphysical or differential: fitzgerald's the great gatsby under derridean concept of love 77 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) philosopher has done by substituting one originary point with another instead he aims at the free play of meaning. likewise, the nature of love can be subjected to his radical view. transcending love beyond time and space sets it in the realm of ideas, in the realm that is eternal and outlives man and his existence. how can love be eternal if it resides in a man? it has to precede and exceed man's existence in order to be eternal and unchanging. as such, it should reside in the world beyond the material changeability. it resides in the immutable world of immortals. this way of looking at the identity of things or beings, as barry stocker (2006) affirms, is rooted in logocentrism. "logocenterism in derrida," he avers, refers to the philosophical tendency to find truth in the presentation of being, sprit, consciousness, history across a philosophical system to any idea, mode of experience, emphasized in a philosophical system" (p. 52). accordingly, plato, descartes, hegel, and j. l. austin are logocenteric: plato is logocenteric because his dialogues claim to reveal truth with reference to dialectical speech; descartes is logocenteric because he claims to reveal truth in the clear and distinct ideas of our consciousness; hegel is logocenteric because he claims to truth in absolute spirit. a more empirical philosopher like austin is still logocenteric, because the truth of language appears in the immediate situation of the utterance of particular statements (p. 52). all these philosophers ascribe to unity for achieving truth and meaning. their attempts are to command their minds to the influence of this metaphysics of presence which guarantees the accessibility/presence of meaning, to the metaphysical ideal that meaning as a presence can be possible because the present time is a fixed totality. ironically enough, present time is always marked with past-ness because time is on the move unless we are able to freeze time and take a moment, a frame of time as a moment, out of it. this transiency and motion is the inherent quality of all things regardless of whether they are abstract or concrete. as derrida (1976) argues, "the metaphysics of presence as self-proximity wishes to efface by giving a privileged position to a sort of absolute now, the life of the present, the living present" (p. 309). however, the "absolute now", as mentioned earlier, is only possible if one takes the dynamicity off the beings. everything is organic as much as it is subject to time. that is, we need to freeze time in order to reach meaning. derrida repudiates the possibility of such total freezing of the moment by proposing the idea of representation and/or mimesis. to derrida, reality lies merely in representation, in signification, hence his famous statement declaration in of grammatology that, "there is no outside (of the) text" (1976, p. 155). there is the only a signification of truth, not the truth itself. origin is myth and truth is merely a textual construct which he attempts to deconstruct. as christopher norris (1989) declares: as for current post-structuralist theory, a good deal hinges on the crucial ambiguity of derrida's cryptic statement: there is no outside to the text. on the one hand this can be taken to signify a literary formalism pushed to the extreme, a last-ditch retreat from 'reality' into the solipsistic pleasures of textual free play… if reality is structured through and through by the meanings we conventionally assign to it, then the act of suspending those conventions has a pertinence and force beyond the usual bounds of textual interpretation (p. 109). love, therefore, cannot belong to a transcendental consciousness if it only exists as pure, intersubjective, and hence communicable form. if the knowledge of love rests on linguistic ability to communicate "meaning", "memory", and "experience", then it follows and has a medium of expression, a language. every language is based on a structure that makes it a metaphysical because any idea possessing a structure is metaphysical idea. ideas need to repeat themselves through the structures of their presence, in the architectonics of their sayed mohammad anoosheh & muhammad hussein oroskhan 78 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) presence and thus to exist in the network of linguistic communication. "in referring to an architectonic," barry stocker (2006) argues, "derrida also cast doubt on this model of knowledge, which appears in foucault's earlier work, by pointing out the instability of any structure to which we might try to reduce knowledge" (p. 107). the structure cannot be transcendental and unchanging. they are on the move through being subject to the iterability of the sign. signs have to be repeated in order to signify. all structures are meaningful as long as they are iterable. derrida (1973) detects the primordially repetitive structure of the sign when he writes: by reason of the primordially repetitive structure of signs in general, there is every likelihood that "effective" language is just as imaginary as imaginary speech and that imaginary speech is just as effective as effective speech. in both expression and indicative communication the difference between reality and representation, between the vertical and imaginary, and between simple presence and repetition has already begun to wear away (p. 51). what we know as the so-called love that has been named for us throughout the history (historicity of love) and given that name, that transcendental structure of the name, to anything, to any feeling that resembles that historically repeated idea can never be deemed as a transcendental idea and should be studied through a different perspective by decentering it from its long-standing logos and putting it forward as a dynamic concept with a situational moment. d e c o n s t r u c t i v e r e a d i n g o f t h e n o t i o n o f l o v e i n t h e g r e a t g a t s b y kemberly hearne in a short note on the great gatsby refers to the contradictory nature of the american dream. he extrapolates that fitzgerald has concisely noticed american dream's contradictory inherent features and worked it through in the great gatsby: it is through the language itself, and the recurrent romantic imagery, that fitzgerald offers up his critique and presents the dream for what it truly is: a mirage that entices us to keep moving forward even as we are ceaselessly borne back into the past (2010, p. 189) of all the writers of the time, the writer that most clearly explained the ambiguous nature of the american dream was fitzgerald. to this end, he recruited the elusive nature of love into his service of harsh criticism to make everybody see the mirage behind the notion of love. in this regard, of central importance to this novel is the divided notion of love between the characters of this novel. it is worthy of note that love should not be deemed as a transcendental notion that exists by itself. indeed, deconstructionists actually criticize the mentality that sees the world, the people or systems in it as an oppositional contrast. as such, derrida poses the idea of différance. in the last chapter of speech and phenomena, he defines différance as a concept "to be conceived prior to the separation between deferring as delay and differing as to the active work of difference" (1973, p. 88). consisted of this view, love is not an originary being; on the contrary, it exists as long as it is differentiated from its others which are the product of the oppositional structure of language. love in the great gatsby can hardly be taken as given because as a signifier it has to suspend its evanescent fluidity in order to identify a solid meaning. it is set in an undecidable context of significance implying a plethora of varying and sometimes contradictory meanings such as emotion, affection, passion, self-indulgence, power, honor, pleasure, conjugation, oneness, etc., and quite paradoxically the list can grow infinitely as long as definite meanings are sought. the diversity of meaning is due to the evanescent nature of the signs, or due to différance (to use jacque derrida's pun). as we read in an essay on derrida's deconstruction in internet encyclopedia of philosophy: the widespread conviction that the sign metaphysical or differential: fitzgerald's the great gatsby under derridean concept of love 79 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) literally represents something, which even if not actually present, could be potentially present, is rendered impossible by archwriting, which insists that signs always refer to yet more signs ad infinitum, and that there is no ultimate referent or foundation (reynolds, n.d.) in considering the diverse meaning of love in the great gatsby, one should refer to the relation among three characters including gatsby, tom and daisy within the novel. the triangular relationship among gatsby, tom, and daisy are deemed to show the impossibility of the existence of transcendental love and prove the differential and deferral meaning of love. daisy's relationship with tom and gatsby begins in a sequence. first, daisy feels in love with gatsby and decides to devote herself thoroughly to him, however, gatsby's return from the war is delayed and daisy is forced to marry someone else. at first, she mounts stiff resistance to this marriage proposal to the extent that in her wedding day, she decides to go back on her decision to marry tom and ruins everything: she groped around in a waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls. take them downstairs and give them back to whoever they belong to. tell them all daisy's changed her mine. say daisy's changed her mine!' (fitzgerald, 1925, p. 82). by any happening, daisy marries tom. and after a while, jordan baker, daisy's friend, evokes a memory of daisy while she was having gone on a trip with tom: i saw them in santa barbara when they came back and i thought i’d never seen a girl so mad about her husband. if he left the room for a minute she’d look around uneasily and say ‘where’s tom gone?’ and wear the most abstracted expression until she saw him coming in the door (p. 83). once daisy used to be in love with gatsby; now she finds her true love in tom. such a radical change in the daisy's tendency in love denies the possibility of the transcendental love and puts love in the context of difference and away from the singularity of one person. derrida mentions that the act of loving of someone cannot be solely limited to the singularity of that person whereas the attributes of that person also play a major role in loving him/her. as such, derrida asserts that "one is attracted because the other is like this or like that inversely, love is disappointed and dies when one comes to realize the other person doesn't merit our love" (youtube). hence, tom's richness plays the difference here in compelling daisy to love him. nonetheless, gatsby's return after five years while he is richer than tom puts daisy in another same situation. expectedly, daisy switches to gatsby. this change of view is best shown when gatsby takes daisy home to show her his house and properties in it: he took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. … suddenly with a strained sound, daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily .they're such beautiful shirts, she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. it makes me sad because i’ve never seen such— such beautiful shirts before (fitzgerald, 1925, p. 99). approaching the novel differently, it appears that the story is based on the failure of language. the origin of failure is the radical failure of language which begins in nothing. language fails to signify what it wishes to represent, to put in more precisely; the signifiers fail to reach the signified. while gatsby, tom, daisy and others are gathered in a hotel. daisy remembers her wedding in the middle of june when a man fainted due to the hot weather. afterwards, tom begins to introduce the man who fainted in the wedding day as follows: "'a man named biloxi. 'blocks' biloxi, and he made boxes—that's a fact—and he was from biloxi, tennessee" (p. 136). suddenly, everybody begins telling something about biloxi. jordan mentions that sayed mohammad anoosheh & muhammad hussein oroskhan 80 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) '"they carried him into my house,' appended jordan, 'because we lived just two doors from the church. and he stayed three weeks, until daddy told him he had to get out .the day after he left daddy died" (p. 136). then nick adds "i used to know a bill biloxi from memphis, i remarked" (p.136). later, tom continues like this "that was his cousin. i knew his whole family history before he left. he gave me an aluminum putter that i use today" (p. 136). and when tom is confronted by jordan's question that from where did you know him? he answers; "'biloxi?' he concentrated with an effort. 'i didn’t know him. he was a friend of daisy's" (p. 136). at last, daisy responds "he was not, she denied. 'i'd never seen him before" (p. 136). as it is obvious, a number of signifiers are presented without even clarifying the signified at all. even these signifiers have caused more confusion and bewilderment and it is best displayed when nick comments about biloxi in this way, "tom and i looked at each other blankly.'biloxi?'" (p. 137). as it is shown, one signified is becoming the signifier for another signified and even it never ends in a final conclusion whereas the sequence of these signifiers and signified makes the situation more difficult to comprehend. the verification of signifier to settle on a fixed signified due to the free flow of signifiers is impossible. as such, meaning is not siezeable and is permanently deferred. such disorientation of signifiers is presented by fitzgerald just before gatsby's sudden movement towards challenging tom on daisy's love. the divided nature of love among gatsby, daisy and tom is the most prominent example of disoriented signifiers without fixing and determining the signified. when gatsby seems to doubt the possibility of daisy's unified love toward himself, he raises his doubt to nick by saying: "her (daisy) voice is full of money" (p.128). his doubt is mounted up to the point that he cannot control himself and challenges tom on daisy's love: 'your wife doesn't love you,' said gatsby. 'she's never loved you. she loves me .'you must be crazy!' exclaimed tom automatically. gatsby sprang to his feet, vivid with excitement. 'she never loved you, do you hear?' he cried. 'she only married you because i was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. it was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!' (p. 139). afterward, gatsby seeks daisy's feedback to this situation but he is confused by daisy's response as she tries to evade answering the question of choosing between tom and gatsby because in each moment he really loved each of them. therefore, she responds in this way: "oh, you want too much!' she cried to gatsby. 'i love you now-isn’t that enough? i can’t help what's past" (p. 141). derrida believed that a moment in the present time is always marked with the trace of past unless one is able to freeze the time and as it is impossible to cut a moment in the train of time, the absolute now will never occur. regarding the concept of differance, he clarifies this point in this respect: difference is what makes the movement of signification possible only if each so-called 'present' element, each element appearing on the scene of presence, is related to something other than itself, thereby keeping within itself the mark of a past element, and already letting itself be vitiated by the mark of its relation to the future element, this trace being related no less to what is called the future than to what is called the past, and constituting what is called the present by means of this very relation to what it is not, to what it absolutely is not: that is, not even to a past or a future as a modified present (derrida, 1973, p.142). gatsby's central puzzle is his confusing moment about his present time and the past time. he wants to repeat the past in the present time; however, the present time being related to the past and future can never be dragged out and separated from the past time as it always carries with it a trace of past time. at a moment in the novel, gatsby claims to be able to repeat the past: "'can’t repeat metaphysical or differential: fitzgerald's the great gatsby under derridean concept of love 81 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) the past?' he cried incredulously. 'why of course you can!'" (fitzgerald, 1925, p. 118). such bewilderment eludes gatsby to the end. though he admits the impossibility of this action, still he cannot believe it and when he is talking to nick about daisy's feeling toward tom, he says: "of course she might have loved him, just for a minute, when they were first married—and loved me more even then, do you see?" (p. 162). although the movement of the action of the novel after the love test scene should naturally be toward the signified of the words uttered by daisy, the actualization is caught in a permanent deferral and difference because daisy proves to be completely at odds with what she had claimed and was just incapable of concertizing what she really intended by not articulating her true love to gatsby. this actually conforms to the derridean idea of arrivant, that the event of love is and will be always on the state of deferral and delay, an arrivant which never completely arrives. "the arrivant", derrida writes: must be absolutely other, an other that expects not to be expecting, that i'm waiting for, whose expectation without what in philosophy is called a horizon of expectation, when a certain knowledge still anticipates and amortizes in advance. if i am sure there is going to be an event, this will not be an event (lucy, 2004, p. 6). gatsby in challenging tom on daisy's love foregrounds this deferral relationship by demanding daisy to express her love. the love test, however, launches a problem that can never be resolved unless the very idea of love is set in materiality that can defy the metaphysics of presence on the part of the language or any system of signification that is employed to present it. this is an impossibility which is the very condition of love's ontological existence. daisy is an image of idealism, transcendence, and the logocentric truth in the eye of gatsby. he assumes that he can earn daisy's ideal love once for all, nonetheless, he can never gain her truly. deconstruction is against all generalizations, metaphysical, reductionisms, and aphorisms. it reveals what is hidden, what we naturally tend to overlook in order to communicate; it aims at betraying, in derrida's words, "the illusion of unity or univocity" (wolfreys, 1998, p. 60). within the context of deconstructionists, the notion of love also follows the same role; it can never be expressed as a unified concept toward a singular person whereas it is a divided notion put in the context of difference. gatsby's imagination has built an imaginary world for him in which he searches for some predetermined truth and reality. he is unaware of the fact that the true nature of reality is a mere construction by which meaning is conventionally construed. reality indeed is a sort of representation at a moment which cannot be repeated at any other moment. and if one substitutes the usual bonds behind the formation of reality, the reality itself will take another shape and proves its illusive nature. at a moment in the novel, nick clearly shows gatsby's notion of reality along these lines: each night he added to the pattern of his fancies until drowsiness closed down upon some vivid scene with an oblivious embrace. for a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing (fitzgerald, 1925, p. 102). with the help of deconstruction, gatsby's failure in achieving his true love is best expressed. in this regard, gatsby's long and careful observation of green light at the end of daisy's house accords with his belief in transcendental love on which he could never live. most probably, nick as the narrator of the novel ends such a way: "gatsby believed in the green light, the organstic future that year by year recedes before us" (p. 193). nick's ending best support the argument of deconstructionist about its anti-centering nature. everything is organic as much as it is subjected to time. one can never reach an absolute now without freezing the time. therefore, the concept of truth is just sayed mohammad anoosheh & muhammad hussein oroskhan 82 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) signified and is a mere construction by the human mind which derrida has tried to deconstruct. derrida has persistently emphasized that "there is nothing outside the text". in this respect, gatsby's repetitive observation of the green light can never be more than a mere illusion of daisy's transcendental love. everything is situated within the text and the meaning of each sign is unfixed and iterable. in our discussion, the iterability of the concept of love examined through gatsby's relation with daisy. c o n c l u s i o n by a brief review of philosophical history, a logical conclusion can be drawn that each philosopher has tried to bring up his notion of thought even if it is at the expense of neglecting the previously established notion of thought. nevertheless, derrida is the first one who claims not to discuss a new idea, yet examining the previous ideas in an entirely new perspective. unlike the previous system of thoughts which aimed at reaching a unified purpose and revealing the metaphysical structure of meaning, deconstructionists defy the concept of unified meaning. in this respect, human subjectivity as a site of meaning is located within the system of language. as such, the meaning of a sign works through the concept of differance. more importantly, the meaning is always limited to text; in other words, nothing outside the text ever exists or has the ability to determine the meaning, accordingly, the notion of metaphysics is totally rejected by the deconstructionists. furthermore, the deconstructionists establish the fact that a text is not directed toward one specific meaning whereas it is filled with innumerable meanings and what is commonly implied as meaning is only fixation of the free flow of signifiers. consequently, the meaning is always on the move and not fixed. in this respect, love as a human experience is considered by derrida while being based upon his idea of decentering and anti-metaphysics. transcending love beyond time and space is not acceptable in the derridean notion of deconstruction. as we are always within the train of time, everything is organic and mutable. in this regard, love as a communicable sign is confined to the rules of iterability and in the case of the great gatsby; it is presented as a signifier soaked in the evanescent fluidity and extremely far away from the possibility of having a fixed meaning. it implies a hoard of contradictory meaning for each person. approaching the concept of love with this regard shows the reason behind gatsby's failure in achieving daisy's love. gatsby's main concern is to repeat the past and fully gain daisy's love. nevertheless, present, past and future times are always interrelated and never exist without the trace of others. thus, he can never achieve an absolute moment or daisy's absolute love. metaphysical or differential: fitzgerald's the great gatsby under derridean concept of love 83 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) references belsey, c. 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(1998). deconstruction: derrida. london: macmillan press ltd. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj1bunmhjay http://www.iep.utm.edu/derrida/ sayed mohammad anoosheh & muhammad hussein oroskhan 84 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) 43 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the rise and fall of the european dream joseph w.h. lough department of economics, university of california, berkeley, usa abstract the european dream is often portrayed as the benign if not benevolent counterpart to the fading american dream. yet, as economic historian joseph lough shows in this essay, the european and american dreams are linked by more than their shared embrace of free market capitalism. in this essay professor lough exposes the darker side of the european dream, a side first expressed in the 1990s, but now fully revealed in europe’s conflict with greece. as professor lough shows, this dark side of the european dream was already present at its birth in the 19th century, when gwf hegel allegorized its birth and diffusion through a story about the self-moving substance that is subject. this story has received mathematically rigorous validation through convergence theories of today’s neoclassical and neoliberal economists. yet is total domination by this self-moving substance inevitable, much less desirable? professor lough shows how europe could adopt an alternative, more sustainable european dream to meet today’s pressing challenges. key words: europe, european dream, hegel, robert lucas, karl marx, capitalism, eu, european central bank, wto, world bank, imf 44 joseph w.h. lough epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction in the mythology that enshrouds the european dream, europe fashions itself a benign if not benevolent force, gradually enlarging itself at no member’s expense and to all members’ advantage. and, yet, throughout the 2000s this mythology has suffered from a steady series of reversals, of which greece is only the latest. the european is often contrasted to the american dream in a comparison that nearly always favours europe. the european dream emphasizes community relationships over individual autonomy, cultural diversity over assimilation, quality of life over the accumulation of wealth, sustainable development over unlimited material growth, deep play over unrelenting toil, universal human rights and the rights of nature over property rights, and global cooperation over the unilateral exercise of power (rifkin 2004:3). so wrote american economic and social theorist jeremy rifkin in 2004 in his appropriately enough titled book the european dream. what i would like to suggest here is that the european and american dreams have always born a far more intimate relationship to one another than either most europeans or most americans care to admit. at the very least they are wed together by their shared dependence on an economic system that in the final instance begs agnosticism over the fates of those whose lives, for better or worse, are governed by its mediations. on its surface the european dream casts a profile that, while irresistible and, so, inevitable, is inviting but never forceful, always giving more than it takes and never eliminating the good that preceded its arrival. nineteenth century german philosopher gwf hegel is the herald of this benevolent spirit, occupying territory only when it is invited and, even then, only when it finds in its beloved object a narcissistic image of itself. yet, if hegel is its herald, then surely the european dream’s economist is the university of chicago’s robert e lucas, jr, the elder statesman of neoliberal orthodoxy. for it is lucas (and not francis fukuyama) whose rigorous mathematical modelling shows why and how the european dream must, of necessity, gain complete and final supremacy over all the earth. the intimate relationship between the european and american dreams goes beyond the economic system they share. when in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, great britain unwillingly ceded rights over the world economy to its former colony, the bargain included a clause that required the us to underwrite the twin fatalities — world wars i and ii — that lay just barely beyond the horizon. when great britain and germany destroyed one another’s industrial capacity in world war i, it fell to the united states (and more specifically to jp morgan) to re-establish their industrial ca45 the rise and fall of the european dream epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences pacity. and when they did so again barely twenty years later, again it was the united states that, for admittedly less than completely benevolent reasons, stepped in to bail them out. the european dream was, in this sense, stamped “made in u.s.a.” its fortunes were tied to the returns on america’s already vast and growing neo-imperialist holdings. should these falter, the dream could easily morph into a nightmare. what follows is a highly stylized account of the european dream. fellow economists will likely find it too thin on data and models. policy makers will likely find it too thin on historical and institutional detail. on both counts, i am inclined to agree. yet, notwithstanding these disabilities, the following account has value. for i believe that it does successfully explain the dark side of the european dream, not as a momentary or ephemeral anomaly, which, during better times, will dissipate in the warmth of the sun, but as a feature necessarily immanent to the european project as such. having cast its lot with the weal and woe of economic efficiency, the driving force behind economic growth, europe cannot help but discipline those whom it judges less efficient; greece today, portugal tomorrow, but eventually each and every community that fails to fall into line. this was the logic that nearly two centuries ago hegel already perceived and portrayed allegorically in his story about the ever-narcissistic self-moving substance that is subject. karl marx then picked up on hegel’s verse, translating it first into a story about every oppressed class in history, but finally into a story about the self-generating and regenerating powers of capital itself. in its earlier form, marx hailed every working class as the emancipatory agent of history. in its final form, however, marx perceived in this subject a picture of domination debilitating precisely on account of its success. the course of our account proceeds as follows. we will first review the broad historical contours that led, first to the transfer of title from great britain to america, but then the re-gifting of this title back to europe and to the world in the closing decades of the twentieth century. our aim here is to show how the european dream was always already tied to economic mechanisms and processes that, at least initially, were loudly disavowed by its architects. we then proceed to a critical assessment of the hegelian trope out of which the european dream first emerged. as i have shown elsewhere, this trope begs to be interpreted in a light cast on it by the rigorous mathematical modelling of contemporary neoclassical and neoliberal economists. if, as i contend, hegel’s story about the self-moving substance is an allegory, it may be valuable for us to explore the economics behind this story. to this end i show how robert e lucas, jr’s rigorous mathematical modelling casts light on and so sets in relief the topography of this otherwise opaque hegelian trope. in our concluding section i explore some alternatives to what has often been cast as the inevitable, inescapable trajectory of the european dream. is europe and its 46 joseph w.h. lough epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences dream destined to tumble headlong down the hole it has created, or might there be another path forward towards the fulfilment of an alternate european dream? our story begins more ominously with the twin fatalities, world wars i and ii, and dream that emerged out of its ashes. the long boom and its sequel many economists have described the broad contours of the twentieth century global economy (frieden 2006; brenner 2006; arrighi 2009). for the narrative that follows, i am depending principally on robert brenner’s economics of global turbulence (2006) and jeffrey frieden’s global capitalism (2006). these accounts are important for our purposes because they establish the historically and socially specific character of the european dream. with roots extending as far back as the eighteenth century, this dream owes its specific form to two factors: the massive destruction of human and fixed capital in the european wars of 1914-1945 and the unprecedented transfer of wealth from great britain to the united states over the course of this same period. the massive destruction of capital brought europeans to adopt a cynical view of the political and economic institutions that had left their nations vulnerable to these twin catastrophes. the unprecedented transfer of wealth from great britain to the united states meant that following the european wars the united states was operating at near full industrial capacity, enjoying near full employment. but this also presented a huge dilemma. with europe’s economies a complete shambles, where would the economic growth come from sufficient to purchase the commodities being pumped out at a record pace by the united states’ economy? for the moment, demand from domestic consumers was sufficiently robust to sustain the united states’ unprecedented growth. yet, without global consumer demand no one was so foolish as to believe that such growth was sustainable. all told, the us sent roughly $13.5 billion to europe to rebuild its industrial capacity and sent another half billion to japan to do the same (frieden 267). for our purposes the volume of us aid is less significant than what such aid signified: the transfer of global economic power from great britain and germany to the united states and the transfer of the rights to regulate global markets from london to washington (arrighi 284-285). of course, as giovanni arrighi has noted, this transfer of rights was long in the making. by the turn of the century smart british money was already heavily invested in a booming us economy (arrighi 270). the british drive to compete with germany over armaments production only accelerated this trend. by the end of the great war, arrighi notes, “most of the $9 billion of us net war credits was owed by . . . britain and france; but more 47 the rise and fall of the european dream epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences than 75 per cent of britain’s $3.3 billion of net war credits was owed by bankrupt (and revolutionary) russia and had to be largely written off ” (arrighi 271). when added to the astronomical debt great britain accumulated during world war ii, the combined total helps to explain why us treasury official harry dexter white and not his famous british counterpart, john maynard keynes, held all the cards (and keynes none) when the two nations sorted out the financial order that would govern global commerce following the war (frieden 256-259). still, it is noteworthy how europe spent its $13.5 billion reconstruction money, not only or even primarily on aid earmarked for its gutted private industrial sector, but on a huge infusion of capital destined to create and reinforce a major expansion of europe’s social franchise. indeed, in what counts as one of the greatest ironies of the post-world war ii epoch, europeans spent us aid on social goods that no american president or congress would ever spend on their own constituencies. and herein europe created a constellation of social efficiencies — in education, transportation, health care, and housing — that would eventually give its nations a competitive edge against their erstwhile patrons, the citizens of the united states of america. for eventually europe’s and japan’s industrial base recovered. and when they did european and japanese goods, heavily subsidized by the vast social franchise that their nations erected following the war (almost entirely with us dollars), began to compete successfully against us manufactured goods. in this sense, the european dream was clearly stamped “made in u.s.a.” what happened next came as an entire surprise only to those who believed (mistakenly it turns out) that the global economy had outgrown its dependence upon sound keynesian macroeconomic principles. once again, ironies abound. at the very moment that one nobel prize winning economist after another were delivering “exultant obituaries on destructive capitalist economic instability” the bottom fell out of the market (brenner 1). arthur okun, a top kennedy-johnson advisor, had just declared recessions “obsolete” and “preventable, like airplane crashes” (cited in brenner 1). even supposing that okun was correct in principle, neither he nor anyone in charge of monetary or fiscal policy in the us could have prevented germany and japan from taking advantage of their relative competitive advantages over the united states and consequently driving prices down on global markets. as robert brenner points out, however, what was at issue in this global competitive cycle was not the rise of european at the expense of us industry. what was at issue was the rates of profit investors enjoyed worldwide who suddenly discovered that the decline in profit margins brought on by global competition hit all national economies simultaneously (brenner 122-142). the long downturn had begun. 48 joseph w.h. lough epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences if the european dream took shape in the aftermath of world war ii’s unprecedented destruction of human and fixed capital, the first faint flickers of the nightmare that was to follow appeared at the very moment when europeans were making that dream a reality. the first real shock to europe came in 1971 in the form of a troubling devaluation of the us dollar, a response to declining rates of profit, escalating unemployment, and declining purchasing power. fearful of suffering at the polls in the upcoming election, president nixon took the dollar off the gold standard. the results were instantaneous: a 10 per cent drop in the dollar’s value, which, in effect, imposed a 10 per cent import tax on foreign producers (frieden 341). suddenly consumers in japanese and european markets found it more economical to purchase us manufactured goods. momentarily the us economic decline was halted. yet since it was based neither on an increase in efficiency nor a decline in costs, the fix was temporary. and so set in a decade-long decent into what economists were beginning to call “stagflation,” a simultaneous increase in inflation, but without the benefit of economic growth. of course throughout this american drama, member nations in the european common market did not sit idly by. in 1979, after nearly a decade of bickering, but fearful that they too could be socked with monetary instability, ec members formed the european monetary system, a precursor to the european union’s future common currency (frieden 371). japan, by contrast, enjoyed few avenues through which it could recapture efficiencies lost through global competition. as robert brenner notes, “by early 1975, both industrial output and capacity utilization were downmore than 20 per cent from their levels of early 1973. by the end of 1975, manufacturingemployment (in terms of hours) had fallen by no less than 12 per cent from its level of 1973” (brenner 171). germany faired equally poorly throughout the 1970s. as brenner notes “because german exports actually fell with the collapse of world growthand demand, manufacturing profitability dropped 23 per cent” (brenner 180). between 1973 and 1979, [germany’s] manufacturing gross capital stock grew less than one third as fast as it had during the 1960s and early 1970s, plunging to an average annual rate of just 2 per cent (1.85 per cent between 1975 and 1979), compared to 6.4 per cent between 1960 and 1973, and manufacturing investment stagnated, continuing a trend that had begun between 1969 and 1973. such a profound drop in the growth of capital stock and investment sapped the economy’s vitality (brenner 180). the quest upon which all of the global economies set out in earnest was how to restore these 4 to 6 per cent growth rates to which global competition had laid waste over the course of the preceding decade. monetary union and currency de49 the rise and fall of the european dream epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences valuation were but partial, temporary, and ultimately unsustainable solutions. what was needed was an actual increase in productivity itself. the response to this need for increases in productivity has a name. it was chairman of the us federal reserve board paul volcker. in 1979, volcker increased short-term interest rates from 10 to 20 per cent and with this adjustment “stagflation” came to an end (frieden 372). not to be outdone, the world’s other leading industrial powers quickly followed suit (frieden 373), but at a prohibitively high cost. by the summer of 1982, the us economy, subjected to the monetarist medicine since 1979, was reeling from the resulting recession. pulled down by record high real interest rates, capacity utilization plummeted and manufacturing profitability fell10 per cent below its level of 1978, leaving it 54 per cent below its level of 1973 andmore than 70 per cent below its level of 1965. unemployment (at 11 per cent), bankruptcies, and bank failures reached levels hitherto unapproached during thepostwar epoch (brenner 195). similar consequences followed in europe’s largest industrial economy, germany, where “the return to full capacity utilization was thus accompanied by an 8.4 per cent rate of unemployment, almost double the 4.8 per cent rate that prevailed at the end of the 1970s” (brenner 231). more ominously, reports brenner, “the increase of the manufacturing capital stock, already sharply reduced in the 1970s, fell significantly further, to an average annual rate of just 1.4 per cent between 1979 and 1990, from an already low 2.0 per cent between 1973 and 1979” (brenner 231). the long downturn in the us nevertheless differed, at least initially, from the long downturn in europe. where the us economy picked up efficiencies by eliminating the social safety net for millions of american families, citizens of europe were not as yet prepared to elect political leaders who, in their judgment, would reproduce the social inequalities and political instabilities on which most europeans still blamed the twin catastrophes of the early and mid twentieth century. better to sacrifice a modicum of efficiency than risk economic inequality, social unrest, and perhaps even war. and, no doubt, it was in part this difference between the us and great britain, on the one hand, and continental europe, on the other, that accounts for the profoundly different experiences of the 1990s enjoyed by nations on one side of the channel and the other. where the us and great britain forged ahead, deregulating markets, reducing tax burdens, and eliminating social safety nets for the most needy members of their communities, most europeans were still sufficiently mindful of the social causes for world wars i and ii to cast votes to maintain their costly social welfare systems. eventually, however, the apparent rebound and stability of the us economy during the 1990s had the effect of convincing even the hard-nosed germans that 50 joseph w.h. lough epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences some measure of neoliberal tinkering with their social welfare state combined with an easing of taxes and regulations could do much good without causing too much harm. thus, with america and great britain in the lead, the so-called “washington consensus” eased its way also into europe. at this point in the story, many scholars would want to call attention to the three events that punctuated the first decade of the twenty-first century: the bursting of the dot com bubble in 2000, the terrorist attack on the us pentagon and new york world trade center in 2001 and the great recession of 2006. yet, from our vantage point these events are far less important than the collapse of soviet-style communism in 1989 and the subsequent spread of neoliberal orthodoxy among successor republics during the 1990s and 2000s. even if we acknowledge a relationship among these events — such that, for example, the efficiencies earned by neo-colonialist invasions in the 1990s are somehow held distantly responsible for the rise of radical islam — what is noteworthy about the world’s response to these fatalities is how closely they hew to a neoliberal line drawn up in washington. neither the collapse of tech stocks in 2000 nor the great recession of 2006 provoked anything close to the glass-steagall banking act of 1933. nor did the terrorist attack upon the centers of us military and commercial power bring policy makers to question the wisdom of neo-imperialist policies throughout the islamic world. to the contrary, as george steinmetz has noted, these fatalities instead provoked a further assault on the freedoms, liberties, wages and benefits of working families in the us. the efficiencies won by these repressive policies, what steinmetz calls “authoritarian post-fordism” (steinmetz 2003), were no doubt quite substantial. but, notwithstanding the flood of critiques authored by mainstream economists of the policy choices leading up to 2006 (krugman 2009; stiglitz 2010; sachs 2009; reich 2008), there is no evidence that the social and political fragmentation or violent global responses to neoliberal policies has led policy makers to question the essential soundness of the path they have chosen. to the contrary, as the social, political, and economic fabric of communities from the baltics to the balkans, from greece to syria, and from western china to pakistan comes unraveled, policy makers have responded by tightening the screws even further. at what cost to the european dream? gwf hegel’s dream if the european dream has an author it would probably be the 19th century german philosopher gwf hegel. if it has an economist, that economist would probably be the university of chicago’s robert e lucas, jr. both hegel and lucas theorize a world 51 the rise and fall of the european dream epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences where antagonism gives way to understanding, war gives way to commerce, and the anarchy of competing laws, cultures, languages, and regulations gives way to a singular, uniform, yet highly differentiated and flexible universal system of complementary laws, regulations, and understandings. lucas does not so much challenge hegel’s dream as lend it mathematical rigor and substance. historically, of course, europe is an anomaly. how likely was it that europe, the backwater of global civilization, where each hamlet constituted its own miniature kingdom and where the uniformity of laws and regulations vanished with the retreat of rome; how likely was it that this polyglot of languages, regulations, political fiefdoms, cultures and religions would in less than three centuries grow into the dominant force operating in the world? one popular eighteenth century answer to this question was penned by arguably that century’s most famous economist, adam smith. according to smith, global convergence was a matter of simple, straightforward economic efficiency. those nations enjoying the greatest advantages in efficiency would clearly and easily win out in the competition among nations over those that were less efficient. eventually these less efficient nations would either fall into line, adopting the same efficiencies operating in the leading nations, or they would be conquered and disappear. this answer did not sit well with gwf hegel. for it seemed to offer no explanation for the ultimate goal of such productive activity — mere global supremacy? — or for the reason why, after centuries and millennia of less than efficient production, societies should suddenly feel that this was their sole or primary aim. through a life-long study of other peoples and places around the globe, hegel was keenly aware of the spectacular diversity of ways and understandings human beings engaged with and interpreted their worlds. clearly something unprecedented was taking shape in europe. europeans now occupied all corners of the globe. their command of the natural and theoretical sciences was without equal in history. could such global dominance be credited simply to superior efficiencies or superior military might? did might make right? such questions inspired hegel to delve deeper into the question of global convergence. adam smith had answered these questions pragmatically. human beings have a “propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another” (smith 25). nor was smith the least curious over why they enjoyed this propensity. “whether [it] be one of those original principles in human nature, of which no further account can be given; or whether, as seems more probable, it be the necessary consequence of the faculties of reason and speech, it belongs not to our present subject to enquire” (smith 25). for hegel, by contrast, such an assertion appeared to place efficiency in the role of dictating right, a position that only decades later would be vigorously 52 joseph w.h. lough epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences defended by british utilitarians such as jeremy bentham and john stuart mill. was it possible that freedom was subject to necessity, reason to utility, mind to matter? no, it was not. in fact, hegel speculated, reason and right had always been the driving force behind human development. yes, whenever communities met they exchanged. what they exchanged, however, was far more than the goods they had produced. they also exchanged cultural artifacts, traditions and understandings about how things worked; they exchanged and compared religious and moral ideas, and they shared specific judgments respecting the beautiful and the good. efficiency belonged in this mix, but it was far from the sole or even the primary determining factor. to illustrate this point and to distinguish his interpretation from those now on offer by french and british political economists, hegel called attention to the private producer, the private member of civil society. in civil society, each individual is his own end, and all else means nothing to him. but he cannot accomplish the full extent of his ends without reference to others; these others are therefore means to the end of the particular [person]. but through its reference to others, the particular end takes on the form of universality, and gains satisfaction by simultaneously satisfying the welfare of others (hegel 1991:220). on first blush, hegel’s view appears to differ little from smith’s. the division of labour creates efficiencies for all concerned (smith 6). for hegel, however, since it is only when we act with and for others that we realize efficiencies, the universal takes precedence over the individual. the selfish end in its actualization, conditioned in this way by universality, establishes a system of allround interdependence, so that the subsistence [subsistenz] and welfare of the individual [des einzelnen]and his rightful existence [dasein] are interwoven with, and grounded on, the subsistence, welfare, and rights of all, and have actuality and security only in this context (hegel 1991:221). moreover, not only does individuality, whether by itself or with others, lack the universal vantage point necessary to appreciate how all individuals work together, individuality, hegel finds, is ultimately self-destructive. particularity in itself [für sich], on the one hand indulging itself in all directions as it satisfies its needs, contingent arbitrariness, and subjective caprice, destroys itself and its substantial concept in the act of enjoyment; on the other hand, as infinitely agitated and continually dependent on external contingency and arbitrariness and at the same time limited by the power of universality, the satisfaction of both necessary and contingent needs is itself contingent (hegel 1991:222). what is still missing, according to hegel, is a grasp of the whole, of all of the mutual dependencies, of their effects on one another, and an appreciation for the shared goal toward which this whole is moving. in this situation, the interest of the idea, which is not present in the consciousness of these members of 53 the rise and fall of the european dream epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences civil society as such, is the process whereby their individuality [einzelheit] and naturalness are raised, both by natural necessity and by their arbitrary needs, to formal freedom and formal universality of knowledge and volition, and subjectivity is educated in its particularity (hegel 1991:224). that is to say, the individual comes to understand that his or her freedom is predicated upon grasping how his or her actions are related to the actions and knowledge of those with whom he or she has to do. and this, in turn, is predicated upon the education or training that enables individuals to appreciate this universal. for clearly, it is not the individual labourer or even the individual merchant who grasps this universal. as illustrated by the difficulty british political economists displayed thinking about anything beyond private enterprise, members of civil society could only appreciate that they were dependent on one another; not how or why. this, for hegel, helped to explain why education was so critical an element in economic growth and integration. education, in its absolute determination, is therefore liberation and work towards a higher liberation; it is the absolute transition to the infinitely subjective substantiality of ethical life, which is no longer immediate and natural, but spiritual and at the same time raised to the shape of universality (1991:225). here then is the european dream. but to what end? it was in answering this question that hegel differentiated himself most decisively from french and british political economists for whom the production of wealth was reason enough to justify work. not so hegel. the universal and objective aspect of work consists, however, in that[process of ] abstraction which confers a specific character on means and needs and hence also on production, so giving rise to the division of labour. through this division, the work of the individual [deseinzelnen] becomes simpler, so that his skill at his abstract work becomes greater, as does the volume of his output. at the same time, this abstraction of skill and means makes the dependence and reciprocity of human beings in the satisfaction of their other needs complete and entirely necessary. furthermore, the abstraction of production makes work increasingly mechanical, so that the human being is eventually able to step aside and let a machine take his place (hegel 1991:232-233). at first hegel’s analysis seems nearly identical to smith’s. the division of labour leads to the simplification of each task. such simplification makes it possible to develop machines to replace human labour. yet, where smith’s analysis leads no further than the relatively greater wealth produced on account of these efficiencies, hegel sees another, more commendable goal: freedom from the necessity of work. that such a goal cannot be appreciated from the vantage point of the individual labourer or merchant, that all she or he sees is the immediate task set before her or before him, is credited to their inability or reluctance to consider the universal in light of which alone the system as a whole makes sense. reason was always driving this process from the beginning of time. yet, in order for us to grasp this reason we 54 joseph w.h. lough epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences needed first to climb outside of ourselves, educate ourselves, and so gain a vantage point from which to view the whole. but how should we characterize the whole from whose vantage point this comprehensive, integration of all social, political, and cultural reality was taking shape? elsewhere hegel identified this vantage point as the self-moving substance that is subject. everything turns on grasping and expressing the true, not only as substance, but equally as subject. . . . further, the living substance is being which is in truth subject, or, what is the same, is in truth actual only in so far as it is the movement of positing itself, or is the mediation of its self-othering with itself. . . . it is the process of its own becoming, the circle that presupposes its end as its goal, having its end also as its beginning; and only by being worked out to its end, is it actual (hegel 1977:10). like nearly all nineteenth century european thinkers, hegel was eager to establish that europe was not an anomaly. europe was the end of history, its culmination, its goal. yet, in order to establish this fact, it was necessary to show that the appearance of europe enjoyed ontologically fundamental status. europe was not an afterthought. it was not the accidental product of self-interest, however enlightened. rather was europe — its integration, its rationality, its coherence, and increasingly the global scope of its imperial conquests — this europe was substantive, irrefutable proof of the self-moving substance that is subject, the patron of european exceptionalism. we will return to this hegelian trope in a moment. suffice it to say, however, that stripped of its metaphysical pretentions, hegel’s analysis falls not far from contemporary theories respecting global economic, social, and political convergence. and perhaps no theorist tells this part of the story better than robert e lucas, jr., elder statesman of the university of chicago’s neoclassical empire. lucas adds mathematical rigor since i have already covered the intimate relationship between lucas’ and hegel’s interpretive frameworks elsewhere (lough 2014), i will limit my remarks here to lucas’ discussion of economic convergence in an essay titled “some macroeconomics for the twenty-first century” (lucas 2002). in this essay lucas aims to model the tendency of incomes around the globe to converge. according to lucas, this convergence shows that from an initial singularity limited to great britain in 1800, nearly all nations will by 2020 experience incomes and economic growth converging upon a universal, global singularity. nor is lucas unaware of the mechanisms driving all nations toward this convergence. like hegel, lucas grants education and 55 the rise and fall of the european dream epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences knowledge pride of place. “an economy departs from stagnant equilibrium and begins to grow when the world stock of knowledge attains a critical level” (lucas 100), writes lucas. moreover, the growth and income of any individual economy depends upon the growth exhibited by the whole. “the probability that a stagnant economy begins to industrialize depends on the level of world income, which in turn depends on the past experience of the growing economies” (lucas 101). even when the rate of convergence begins to slow toward the end of the 20th century, this is “only because there are so few people left in stagnant, pre-industrial economies. according to the figure [reproduced below], almost 90 per cent of the world is now growing” (lucas 102).hegel’s self-moving substance is becoming both actual. it has become in truth substance. several assumptions underlie lucas’ model, which he has adopted and revised from robert tamura (1990, 1994, 1996). in a manner consistent with hegel’s interpretation, lucas allows that “knowledge produced anywhere benefits producers everywhere” (lucas 103). lucas also finds parente and prescott’s observations respecting political interference helpful. “governments in the unsuccessful economies can adopt the institutions and policies of the successful ones, removing what paraente and prescott (1994) call ‘barriers to growth’” (lucas 103). lucas’ model also emphasizes “diminishing returns and the flow of resources: high wages in the successful economies lead to capital flows to the unsuccessful economies, increasing their income levels” (lucas 103). yet, for lucas, “the much more interesting implication of the model is that convergence is unconditional” (lucas 104). “it predicts,” writes lucas, 56 joseph w.h. lough epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences “that sooner or later everyone will join the industrial revolution, that all economies will grow at the rate common to the wealthiest economies, and that percentage differences in income levels will disappear” (lucas 106). but what is perhaps most noteworthy about both hegel’s and lucas’ descriptions of global convergence is what they do not tell us. neither, for example, explores the human cost entailed in convergence. for presumably as all communities converge into a globally extensive, rational, and comprehensive totality, cultural and legal differences, linguistic idiosyncrasies, purely local customs and practices — call them “barriers to growth” — will have either to be rationalized or eliminated. nor are we without some knowledge as to what might be entailed in the elimination of these barriers. for such is the story of colonialism in the 18th and imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries. there are reasons why great britain is the lone nation experiencing growth in 1800 and why patterns of diffusion of growth in the 19th and 20th centuries follow fairly closely the paths hewn by imperial conquerors. between 1800 and 2020 — between t1 and tn — entire civilizations and whole peoples will be eliminated from the face of the earth in the creation of what could be called the european dream. marx’s bad dream at the very point where lucas’ model shows a dramatic uptick in the diffusion of the industrial model and a rapid increase in global economic convergence — during the first half of the 19th century — karl marx was taking a second look at hegel’s self-moving substance that is subject. until that point, marx had been fairly certain that the self-moving substance that hegel identified was not the weltgeist or world spirit of history, but was instead the dialectically material underclass of every generation, clashing with and then superseding its retrograde oppressor. it was not the spirit that was first differentiating itself from and then returning to itself; it was the industrial working class. whenever real, corporeal man, man with his feet finally on the solid ground, man exhaling and inhaling all the forces of nature, establishes his real, objective essential powers as alien objects by his externalization, it is not the act of positing which is the subject in this process: it is the subjectivity of objective essential powers, whose action, therefore, must also be something objective. a being who is objective acts objectively, and he would not act objectively if the objective did not reside in the very nature of his being. he creates or establishes only objects, because he is established by objects —because at bottom he is nature. in the act of establishing, therefore, this objective being does not fall from his state of “pure activity” into a creating of the object; on the contrary, his objective product only confirms his objective activity, establishing his activity as the activity of an objective, natural being (marx 1988: 153-154). 57 the rise and fall of the european dream epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences from this vantage point, marx might have agreed with lucas, except that where lucas theorizes the global movement and universalization of capital, marx theorizes the global movement and universalization of objective, object-creative, labour. or so marx thought in 1844 when he penned his economic and philosophical manuscripts. by 1867, however, marx had changed his tune to one far more in harmony with lucas’ theory. where in 1844, marx had viewed labour as the self-moving substance that is subject, the globalizing and universalizing force of history, by 1867 he agreed with lucas and credited capital with this role; or, more specifically, he credited the value form of capital. [value] is constantly changing from one form [the money form] into the other [the commodity form], without becoming lost in this movement; it thus becomes transformed into an automatic subject. if we pin down the specific forms of appearance assumed in turn by self-valorizing value in the course of its life, we reach the following elucidation: capital is money, capital is commodities. in truth, however, value is here the subject of a process in which, while constantly assuming the form in turn of money and commodities, it changes its own magnitude, throws off surplus-value from itself considered as original value, and thus valorizes itself independently. . . . but now, in the circulation m—c—m, value suddenly presents itself as a self-moving substance which passes through a process of its own, and for which commodities and money are both mere forms (marx 1982: 255,256). and why is this change of mind significant? it is significant because whereas marx in 1844 was just as transfixed by the european dream as any 19th century european thinker, by 1867 he was far less enamoured. yes, as lucas would later prove with rigorous mathematical modelling, capital was knitting together all social, economic, political, and cultural reality into a comprehensive, universal, yet dynamic and highly differentiated, rational whole. yet, by 1867 marx was far less certain that this was a good thing. indeed, by 1867 marx was inclined to feel that this was not the good news, but the bad news. if, as we have suggested, the european dream projects a benign universalism that gently embraces all social and cultural forms into its benevolent emancipatory narrative, we now know that this narrative has a dark side. in the decades following world war ii, awash on a sea of cheap and easy capital, it was easy for europe to downplay this less than benevolent dimension of its dream. europe after all was already well on its way to shedding its pre-war colonial holdings and transferring the responsibilities of global security to the united states of america. moreover, unlike the american dream, which only with great reluctance expanded its social franchise to include the elderly, unemployed, children and the poor, europeans by contrast warmly embraced a sweeping social franchise that included education, health, housing, transportation and retirement security for all, apparently without 58 joseph w.h. lough epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences the least awareness that these goods were available to them only by leave of their larger than life free market benefactor, the united states of america. it was therefore only as europe’s and japan’s economies recovered and their goods began to compete successfully against goods “made in u.s.a.” that downward pressures on wages and prices began to place downward pressures as well on europe’s extravagant social franchise. the first faint signs of this dark side of the european dream came to light in the 1980s when downward pressures on wages and prices not only brought student and labour unrest back to the streets of europe, but lent to this unrest a right-wing, explicitly neo-fascist tilt. jean-marie le pen’s front national was only the most visible, but also the most benign, of these reinvigorated neo-fascist movements whose overall effect on voting patterns was that they pushed all political platforms sharply to the right. they made nationalism, racism, and anti-semitism respectable again. when in the 1990s the neoliberal gospel spread throughout newly liberated eastern europe and russia, the wide swath of destruction it left in its path — unprecedented unemployment, crime, government corruption, and social upheaval (klein 2007:275-354) — were loudly trumpeted as the price newly capitalist nations had to pay to gain entry into the growing club of free market nations. not even a genocidal war in south central europe — the consequence of a decade of privatizations, deregulation, auctions of public assets, plant closures, and inconceivably high unemployment (roland 2000; lowinger 2009)— were sufficient to bring europe’s caretakers to question the neoliberal inflection of their new economic policies and regulations. political culture in western europe and the eurozone were shifting violently to the right. the social fabric of eastern and southern europe was coming unravelled. and, yet, the response of the eu, the world bank, the imf and the wto was not debt relief or forgiveness, but more privatizations, more austerity, and more auctions of publicly owned assets. obviously this is not what is generally meant by the “european dream.” and, yet, if the story we have outlined here is correct, then the european dream was always already deeply indebted to an economic project with a very low tolerance for difference. the self-moving substance that is subject that enveloped the globe in the decades following world war ii appeared at first blush benign if not benevolent. yet, as marx pointed out already in the 1860s, its ultimate aim was far less innocent. it would stop at nothing short of total global domination, which now, according to lucas, it has very nearly achieved. 59 the rise and fall of the european dream epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences an alternative dream this is not to say that matters might not have turned out differently. consider, for example, the declining rates of profit investors enjoyed when in the mid1960s germany and japan got back into the game. as the french economist thomas piketty has recently reminded us, rates of growth beyond 1 per cent are an historical anomaly (piketty 72-73). even lucas, whose neoliberal credentials are beyond dispute, willingly admits as much, when, in the conclusion of his afore-mentioned essay, he asks: how did the world economy of today, with its vast differences in income levels and growth rates, emerge from the world of two centuries ago, in which the richest and the poorest societies had incomes differing by perhaps a factor of two, and in which no society had ever enjoyed sustained growth in living standards? (lucas 106) assuming for the moment that a sufficient number of policy-makers enjoyed a similar epiphany at the outset of the 1970s, and assuming that rather than search for ways to sustain the 4 to 6 per cent returns investors enjoyed in the 1950s and 1960s they instead opted for a redistribution of efficiencies downward and outward, it would then have been theoretically possible for workers in the developed world to ease their way into hegel’s fantasy of stepping aside and letting machines take their place. the result surely would have been an initial overall contraction in global economic growth, a leveling off at piketty’s recommended 1 to 1.5 per cent growth annually (piketty 74-75). and, yet, the effect might have been a fresh lease on freedom. or let us further suppose that, as jeremy rifkin has postulated, the european dream “emphasizes community relationships over individual autonomy, cultural diversity over assimilation” (rifkin 3). such, i would argue, are admirable ideals. nor were they lacking from the blueprints proposed at the creation of the european dream. yet, within the framework of neoclassical economics, every purely local particularity, every cultural specificity, every legal or regulatory exception, introduces an efficiency-sapping distortion into the overall system. communities are fine things. yet, when parents show a preference for children or the elderly over work, or when traditional religious holidays or local celebrations intrude upon the working day, they necessarily draw upon efficiencies created elsewhere. lucas’ growth model shows that whenever we emphasize community relationships over individual autonomy, this emphasis introduces distortions into normal patterns of growth. social, legal, and cultural particularities pose “barriers to growth.” readers will recall how much we heard in the 1970s and 1980s about the 60 joseph w.h. lough epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences burdens social programs, taxes, and government regulations placed on economic growth. no doubt, there was much truth in these claims. and, yet, our response need not have been a reduction of the tax burden shouldered by industry or wealth, a reduction in social spending, or an easing of government regulation. our response might have been that, since they contributed to a world worth sharing, such burdens were well worth the 4 or 5 percentage points of growth that their elimination would produce for investors. or, let us take another, more contemporary example: greece 2015. again, we could subject european policy toward greece to a cynical machiavellian rational choice matrix, where politicians in france and germany and managers of the european central bank and world bank calculate the political and economic costs of debt relief or forgiveness and stack these costs up against the floods of refugees and the price-tag of possible military operations that almost certainly will result from imposing further austerity measures on greece. this, as we have seen, is the dark side of the europe dream, where investor returns and corporate welfare are protected at all costs, even if they threaten the viability of europe itself. an alternative would be to reinforce and protect the administrative mechanisms in greece charged with enforcing the tax code and collecting revenues from its oligarchs. combined with targeted debt relief or forgiveness, such policies might bring us closer to something approximating rifkin’s european dream. in this case, however, the net efficiencies lost or earned are much clearer. for, as gerard roland has shown, there is a huge cost to be paid where weak governments insufficiently protected from oligarchic corruption and crime are granted charge over the affairs of state (roland 328-334). when, by contrast, we strengthen public institutions and independent governing mechanisms, contrary to predictions based on neoliberal assumptions, society earns huge net efficiencies in return. conclusion the european dream, i have argued, is inseparable from the dream of universal global hegemony after which it was initially modelled. hegel’s allegory is now greece’s nightmare. ignoring this fact will not make it go away. nor will it prevent this nightmare from spreading first to the volatile regions on europe’s periphery, but then and finally to europe’s core states as well. the question is: how shall we then proceed? let us assume for a moment that marx’s reinterpretation of the hegelian trope is in most points accurate. let us assume that lucas’ rigorous mathematical modelling captures this point. only as we eliminate cultural, social, religious, and 61 the rise and fall of the european dream epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences legal particularities, only as we fashion a comprehensive, integrated, rational, and completely unified world; only then will the entire world benefit from the efficiencies that today only some small number of individuals enjoy. but let us also assume, with lucas, that the ultimate goal of our collective productive activity is not this or that good, this or that service or benefit, but is instead, as marx showed, value itself. and, with this in mind, let us now ask how much value is sufficient for any individual investor. how many zeros would any of us add to the value of our investment portfolios? how much is enough? it was in recognition of the validity of these questions that an aging marx was brought to reconsider the formula to which he owed his fame: the labour theory of value. in fact, marx had lifted this formula more or less directly from the pages of none other than adam smith. the value of any commodity, therefore, to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labour which it enables him to purchase or command. labour, therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities (smith 1776:47). but whereas marx had once counted this an ironclad law, as sure and irrefutable as any law of physics, the aging marx now questioned its immutability. why, in spite of extraordinary technological advances, had human beings not seen fit or even capable of stepping aside, as hegel had imagined, and installing machines in their place? was it simply a matter of time? eventually human beings would cash in on the efficiencies of mechanization. or was something else impeding this final step towards freedom? but then it occurred to marx that if the human appetite for value was infinite and yet their capacity to work finite, then they never will reach that point when more will be enough. as already noted, 1 or 1.5 per cent growth may be the maximum rate our world can sustain (piketty 74-75). yet clearly our appetites for value are such that only rates of 4 to 5 per cent or greater will satisfy our desire, even if such rates of growth end up destroying our communities and eventually our planet. to what then shall we credit this ultimately self-destructive compulsion for more? marx believed he had an answer, but it was an answer that overturned everything he had written up until that point. let us suppose, suggested marx, that we are not the author of this insatiable appetite. let us suppose rather that hegel was correct and that his self-moving substance that is subject is in fact the author of this bottomless compulsion for more. upon what does this irrepressible subject feed? what propels it forward uncontrollably until it has destroyed everything in its 62 joseph w.h. lough epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences path? and then it hit marx right between the eyes. the answer was labour. hegel’s self-moving substance feeds upon labour. as this is so, reasoned marx, the only sure way to rid the earth of this self-destructive compulsion for more is to deny it the labour it requires to reproduce. freedom would come not from the realization of labour, not from its universalization, but from its gradual and final elimination. the realm of freedom really begins only where labour determined by necessity and external expediency ends; it lies by its very nature beyond the sphere of material production proper. . . . this realm of natural necessity expands with our development, because our needs do too; but the productive forces to satisfy these needs expand at the same time. freedom, in this sphere, can consist only in this, that socialized communities, the associated producers, govern the human metabolism with nature in a rational way, bringing it under their collective control instead of being dominated by it as a blind power; accomplishing it with the least expenditure of energy and in conditions most worthy and appropriate for their human nature (marx 1991: 959). what follows may strike many of us as a highly un-marxian solution: not world revolution, not elimination of the bourgeoisie, not seizing and socializing the means of production. “the reduction of the working day is the basic prerequisite” (marx 1991:959). what would the european dream look like were europeans to adopt this conspicuously un-marxian solution? a provisional answer to this question might look as follows. consider, for example, the efficiencies europeans adopted following world war ii: a vast, extensive social welfare system to ensure that no individual ever again became so desperate as to see in nationalism or fascism a solution to their political or social ills; a public transportation system designed not to feed the insatiable appetites of private oil producers, but designed instead to serve the transportation needs of its citizens; health care for all, publically financed and readily available; virtually free education and vocational training; affordable and safe housing for all; and old age security second to none. from the vantage point of hegel’s self-moving substance all of these goods must count as unacceptable inefficiencies dragging the entire system to a screeching halt. yet, from another vantage point, all they entail is simply a redistribution of efficiencies from the top of the income hierarchy to the middle and the bottom, from regions that produce these efficiencies more easily to regions where efficiencies are much harder to come by. in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with japan and europe back in the game, it surely would have been theoretically possible to interpret the decline in rates of profit not as a signal to reduce corporate taxes, deregulate industry, and restrict the social franchise, but, to the contrary, as an indication that the post-war expansion of the social franchise was achieving its intended goal: more individuals than ever before enjoying sufficient leisure and wealth to attend institutions of higher learning; 63 the rise and fall of the european dream epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences more individuals than ever before working fewer hours for better compensation; more individuals enjoying better health and taking more time to spend with their friends and families than ever before in history. surely these goods were well worth the 4 to 5 percentage points growth transferred to achieve such spectacular results during the twenty years that followed world war ii. but the same might be said today. are instability and war on europe’s periphery worth the 4 to 5 percentage points of growth purchased at the expense of europe’s most needy members and neighbours? is the spread of neo-fascism in france, germany, and eastern europe the price europeans must pay to satisfy investor demands for more? that european efficiencies could theoretically be redistributed downward and outward has never been in doubt. the quality of life so closely associated with the european dream need not be sacrificed to the bottomless compulsion for more. indeed, among the hallmarks of the european as distinguished from the american dream, is that by sharing its efficiencies more widely it was able to create efficiencies in education, transportation, health care, and industry foreclosed upon in america by its restricted social franchise. austerity by contrast disables the very institutions and instrumentalities upon which true efficiency depends. weaker central governments, as gerard roland has shown, are less equipped to fulfil the very functions upon which commerce relies to create its efficiencies. weak central governments are more vulnerable to the kinds of oligarchic rent-seeking opportunities that are the hallmark of inefficiency. moreover, wherever publically regulated economies prove themselves unable to satisfy the most basic human needs, wherever the social franchise is restricted or eliminated entirely, underground grey and black market alternatives appear in their place — markets whose beneficiaries are not the communities served, but the efficiencies seized by their underground purveyors (roland 265-286). what if, by contrast, europe were to set itself the task of shortening the working day and so liberating its citizens from the compulsion to produce and consume more? what if europe were to free itself from its bondage to the self-moving substance that currently manages its affairs? within decades, perhaps within years, we could see such an outbreak of freedom not witnessed in europe since the decades following world war ii. efficiencies transferred downwards and outwards would begin immediately to express themselves in the kinds of social security that alone are nationalism’s and fascism’s most sure antidote. and far from chasing europe’s many disenfranchised outliers into the waiting and open arms of vladimir putin and his network of underworld thugs and warlords, europe might instead inspire a fundamental transformation that spreads even to this empire of oligarchs. just as fascism feeds upon fear and want, so freedom feeds upon freedom. where 64 joseph w.h. lough epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences austerity begets the fear and want upon which fascism feeds, efficiencies redistributed downward and outward feed the freedom that alone has the chops to oppose systemic oppression. and, yet, i at least am not very hopeful. the current leadership in europe — the eu, the wto, the world bank, and the imf — are so thoroughly under the spell cast by hegel’s dream (or nightmare)that they would prefer the complete collapse of europe, its descent into social, political, and economic anarchy, to the redistribution of efficiencies that i have described above. even in sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina, in in its cantonal seats of authority, where the political leadership should from past experience know better, efficiencies are being redistributed not from the top downward, but from the bottom up. instead of shortening the workday, the workday is being lengthened, and rather than protecting the few remaining dignities that workers enjoy, these instead are being sacrificed in the name of wealth production at the top. bosnia and herzegovina is no exception. the same could be said all across europe and all along its periphery, where, as a direct consequence, nationalism and neo-fascism are everywhere on the rise. but it is precisely here that true statesmen and true stateswomen must distinguish themselves, step out and let their voices be heard, even or specially when such speech exposes them to danger. europe’s future cannot be grounded in the obsessive compulsion for more. this future is unsustainable. rather must it be grounded in the gentle yet steady philosophy of enough; enough for me, enough for you, enough for everyone. this, i take it, lies at the heart of the european dream. 65 the rise and fall of the european dream epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 2, (2015) (special issue) © faculty of arts and social sciences references arrighi, giovanni. 1994. the long twentieth century: money, power, and the origins of our times. new york: verso. brenner, robert. 2006. the economics of global turbulence: the advanced capitalist economies from long boom to long downturn, 1945-2005. new york: verso. frieden, jeffry. 2007. global capitalism: its fall and rise in the twentieth century. new york: w.w. norton & company, inc. hegel, g.w.f. 1991. elements of the philosophy of right. translated by h.b. nisbet. new york: cambridge university press. hegel, g.w.f. 2004. phenomenology of spirit. translated by a.v. miller. new york: oxford univer sity press. klein, naomi. 2007. the shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism. new york: picador. krugman, paul. 2009. the return of depression economics and the crisis of 2008. new york: w.w. norton and company. lough, joseph. 2014. “the subject of rigorous mathematical economic modeling: critical reflec tions on gwf hegel and robert lucas, jr.” tranzicija/transition (16:33). pages 1-16. lowinger, jake. 2009. economic reform and the ‘double movement’ in yugoslavia: an analysis of labor unrest and ethno-nationalism in the 1980s [dissertation]. baltimore, md.: johns hopkins university. lucas, robert e. jr. 2002. “some macroeconomics for the twenty-first century.” lectures on eco nomic growth. pages 97-108. cambridge, mass.: harvard university press. marx, karl and frederick engels. 1988. economic and philosophical manuscripts of 1844. trans lated by martin milligan. amherst, ny: prometheus books. marx, karl. 1982. capital: a critique of political economy. volume one. translated by ben fowkes. new york: penguin books. marx, karl. 1991. capital: a critique of political economy. volume three. translated by david fernbach. new york: penguin books. piketty, thomas. 2013. capital in the twenty-first century. translated by arthur goldhammer. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. reich, robert. 2008. supercapitalism: the transformation of business, democracy, and everyday life. new york: vintage books. rifkin, jeremy. 2004. the european dream: how europe’s vision for the future is quietly eclipsing the american dream. new york: penguin. roland, gerard. 2000. transition and economics: politics, markets, and firms. cambridge, mass.: the mit press. sachs, jeffrey. 2009. commonwealth: economics for a crowded planet. new york: penguin. smith, adam. 1776. an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. volume one. london: w. strahan; and t. cadell, in the strand. steinmetz, george. 2003. “the state of emergency and the revival of american imperialism: to ward an authoritarian post-fordism.” public culture (15:2). pages 323-345. stiglitz, joseph. 2010. freefall: america, free markets, and the sinking of the world economy. new york: w.w. norton and company. epiphany_new_version_11oct.indd mirsad serdarević brief report: preventing late-life depression in low ... 137 vol. 14 no.1, 2021136 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies brief report: preventing late-life depression in low – and middle – income countries (lmics) mirsad serdarević abstract: as the number of older adults in lowand middleincome (lmic) countries is expected to grow substantially over the next several decades, it is important to develop programs for the prevention of major depression in later life. these programs should be flexible enough to be adjusted to the needs of poorly resourced lmics. the current report provides an overview of a “depression in later life” (dil) study in goa, india, as a promising and effective mental health prevention program, with the potential for implementation in other lmics. dil study uses unspecialized physicians and lay health counselors (lhcs) to deliver both scalable psychological intervention and low-intensity intervention, consistent with institute of medicine’s (iom, 1994) indicated prevention approach. dil intervention led to reduced incidence of major depressive disorder in dil-randomized participants and as such it is important in meeting the 2016-2030 united nations sustainable development goal of “ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages.” keywords: depression, psychogeriatrics, developing country, primary care, geriatrics mirsad serdarević, phd, currently serves as an associate professor and associate chair of applied clinical psychology at the chicago school of professional psychology, san diego campus. before joining tcspp he served as an assistant professor of psychiatry and health behavior at the medical college of georgia school of medicine. he published extensively in the area of motivational interviewing within primary care, college student mental health, geriatric, psychiatric, and medical contexts. e-mail: mirsad.serdarevic@ gmail.com. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction globally, depression is the most common mental health disorder. according to the global burden of disease (gds) study (gds, 2015), there are currently 322 million people around the world living with depression. nearly one third of individuals living with depression live in southeast asia. india has the highest rate of depressive disorders in southeast asia, with over 56 million reported cases, or 4.5% of india’s total population. reynolds et al. (2018) examines strategies for the prevention of depression in older adults, also referred to as “depression in later life” or dil, among older adults living in goa, india. in this way, dil serves as an example of what the institute of medicine (iom, 1994) termed an “indicated prevention.” indicated prevention focuses on patients with subsyndromal or mild symptoms of depression who are thereby at risk of for transitioning to a major clinical depression. it is a form of early intervention, or treatment and management of mild symptoms, with a goal of reducing symptoms, improving quality of life, and preventing onset of major depressive disorder (mdd). dil feasibility study reynolds et al.’s study (2018) consisted of assessing the impact of two interventions, problem solving therapy for primary care (pst – pc) and brief behavioral treatment for insomnia (bbti), on preventing both incident and recurrent episodes of mdd later in life. in addition to these interventions, participants also received two additional components: education in symptoms of anxiety, depression, and chronic disease self-management, and were provided with case worker assistance to navigate social and economic resources. given the dearth of human resources for mental health in india and lack of specialized personnel a key feature of the dil intervention is that it is delivered by non-specialist physicians and lay health counselors (lhcs) in a non-health care or primary care setting. combination of pst-pc and bbti were delivered over 5-8 sessions, each approximately 30 minutes in length, by non-specialist physicians and four lhcs. it is argued that behavioral activation is intertwined through all four components and as such it integrates them into one whole (reynolds et al., 2018). it is important to acknowledge the substantial body of work in western mental health and clinical literature relating to low intensity preventative and treatment programmes and stepped – care paradigms (e.g., williams, & mirsad serdarević mirsad serdarević brief report: preventing late-life depression in low ...brief report: preventing late-life depression in low ... 139138 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies martinez, 2008; williams et al., 2013) which informed the dil study. four (4) lhcs were trained on site by an on-site psychologist and via teleconference call by a geropsychologist at the university of pittsburgh over the course of 4 weeks in workshops on problem solving therapy and brief behavioral therapy for insomnia, and they each treated two pilot subjects to ensure adherence to protocol (c. reynolds, personal communication, august 13, 2018). in addition, each lhc had booster training sessions at 7 months and at 10 months, to encourage practice and learning within the framework of behavioral activation. the dil intervention included a sample size of 21 participants in dil’s formative pilot study and enrolled 181 participants into a randomized indicated prevention trial. participants were aged 60 years or older and met criteria for subsyndromal symptoms of depression and anxiety as indicated by a score of 4 or greater on the general health questionnaire (ghq). the study participants ranged in age from 60 to 85 with an average age of 69.64. while it was difficult to capture specific socioeconomic status (ses) demographic characteristics of participants, it was noted that most of the participants had very limited formal education and many were illiterate. during the formative phase of the dil intervention, in order to better engage participants with limited or no literacy, pictorial flip charts, with large images for elders to relate to and understand, were introduced (dias et al., 2017). examples of illustrative teaching tools included figures such as “upward spiral,” “mood rating scale,” and early warning signs of diabetes” (reynolds et al. 2018). the study used both global health questionnaire (ghq-12) and the hindi version of mini-mental state examination (mmse), both of which were validated for international use and used in previous trials in goa (i.e., singla et al., 2014; smit et al., 2006). the ghq-12 assesses for anxiety and depression, where scores of 4 or greater indicate presence of anxiety and depression. dil participants’ baseline mean score of 5.3 on ghq-12 was statistically significantly reduced, 6 to 8 weeks later, to 3.3 score on the postintervention ghq-12 (p < .05) (reynolds et al., 2018). no significant changes occurred in the mmse scores. does dil work? overall, the dil feasibility study resulted in high levels of retention, with participants qualitatively endorsing sessions as “enjoyable” (reynolds, et al., 2018). phase ii of the dil study demonstrated acceptable recruitment feasibility with fewer than 20% of 181 participants refusing randomization. the pilot feasibility study found that dil intervention is successful. further, phase ii of dil showed that there has been reduced incidence of mdd episode in dil-randomized participants relative to care as usual (cau). dil prevented onset of mdd episodes to a greater extent that did care as usual (cau). dil is a novel approach to depression prevention in a low-resource country. it is a novel approach in a sense that it is the first implementation of a depression indicated prevention strategy by lhcs in lmic countries with older adults. while the components of the intervention are not novel in and of themselves, they were modified to meet unique needs and the context of goa, india. the dil was comprised of the following three components: • the main theoretical framework was provided by problem-solving therapy (pst) • participants were provided with help in navigating available resources through social casework. • participants were provided with education on self-management of common medical illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and painful osteoarthritis (dias et al., 2017). over the course of one year participants were provided with 6 to 7 hours of face to face time with the lhc who used problem-solving therapy (pst) consisting of the following key components: identifying the problem; noting down a realistic achievable goal; searching for possible solutions; probing through the pros and cons of each solution; identifying a preferred solution(s); run with it (action plan); evaluating the outcome (dias et al., 2017). to help with concerns on finances, food and personal care participants were provided with social casework which provided them with information on social resources for senior citizens by the government of goa. finally, to address the most commonly reported source of anxiety, the burmirsad serdarević mirsad serdarević brief report: preventing late-life depression in low ...brief report: preventing late-life depression in low ... 141140 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies den of chronic disease, participants were provided with education on and self-management of most common chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and painful osteoporosis. this education was delivered by the lay health counselors who were provided with training on the topic. specifically, the lhcs were trained to educate participants on the nature of these diseases and basic non pharmaceutical self-management (dias et al., 2017). in addition to the above listed components of the study, the lhcs provided participants with basic sleep hygiene information and educated them on monitoring their wake and sleep patterns, strategies from brief behavioral therapy for insomnia (bbti) shown to reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms and to improve the quality of sleep. conclusions key aspects of dil’s translational impact include: • a novel approach to the prevention of and intervention in mental health disorders in lmics. • the utilization of lhcs in primary care and non-healthcare settings as a prevention strategy. • the use of an integrated approach encompassing education, and brief behavioral and problem-solving treatments. it is anticipated (reynolds, et al., 2018) that the dil study will translate to the prevention of common mental health disorders in later life in lmics. this will benefit many lmic countries with limited resources and with professional staff shortages, as trained lhcs can provide basic educational and brief behavioral interventions, as well as serve as problem-solving facilitators for patients’ financial and social needs. the dil study demonstrated that depression is preventable in older at-risk adults in lmics. another implication for policy is evidence that lay health counsellors can effectively and safely deliver a simple behavioral activation grounded in problem solving therapy to prevent major depression in older adults living with mild, subsyndromal symptoms. the evidence from the dil study suggests that policy responses should direct resources to the following: • the development of indicated prevention strategies. • the development of lay helper lhc network as a cost-effective, community-based, culturally informed and scalable approach for health interventions (e.g., patel et al., 2010). • building the workforce capability and skills of the lay health counsellor lhc workforce. • health system strategy reform to develop an agile and capable workforce that integrates the formal (specialist) and informal (e.g. lhc) sectors. in sum, dil is likely to have implications for the prevention of depression in older adults in other lowand middle income (lmic) countries. the dil model is expected to be scalable, at affordable cost, in lmics. the prevention of major depression in later life is especially important in lmics because the total number of older adults is expected to grow substantially in the next several decades. mirsad serdarević mirsad serdarević brief report: preventing late-life depression in low ...brief report: preventing late-life depression in low ... 143142 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies references dias, a., azariah, f., cohen, a., anderson, s., morse, j., cuijpers, p. et al. 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(2013). guided self-help cognitive behavioural therapy for depression in primary care: a randomised controlled trial. plos one, 8(1), e52735. 88 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences double effect and black revenge in lessing’s the grass is singing pedram lalbakhshe razi university, iran mohammad javad haj’jari razi university, iran abstract a white woman’s murder by a black man, as depicted in doris lessing’s the grass is singing, incorporates the revengeful act of an abandonment-neurotic black servant against a white female master with tactile delirium in the course of a paradoxical relationship of love and hate. the final homicide and the consequent act of surrender by moses, the murderer, convey his paradoxical attitude toward his white masterbeloved. this attitude begins with hatred, intensifies with mutual affection, and ends in murder. focusing on the interracial revenge that takes place in the novel under study, the authors of this paper argue that moses’ motivation in killing mary originates from the ambivalence of his state of living under colonization and his learnings in christianity, struggling with the double-effect reasoning inaugurated by and in defense of black honor or negritude. as such, moses’ sense of guilt and his subsequent surrender are the consequences of traditional and colonial internalization of sin, already present in him as a native of his revenge or honorbased society, influenced by lobengula’s rule in which the criminal submits to punishment willingly, as well as missionary teachings. through an interdisciplinary link between the double-effect reasoning and the psychoanalytical perspective to the black problem promoted by frantz fanon, the grass is singing thus seems to exempt moses in his crime against the white race, represented by mary, as well as to justify moses self-surrender in defense of negritude and black honor. keywords: doris lessing; colonization; double effect; black ethics and black revenge. 89 double effect and black revenge epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction double-effect reasoning (der), the principle of double effect (pde), the doctrine of double effect (dde) or the rule of double effect (rde) (cavanaugh xx), is often used in discussing the permissibility of an action which incorporates a serious harm or death of a human being as a side effect of achieving a good end. such harm is sometimes merely a “foreseen side effect” or “double effect” in bringing about a good end, although it is impermissible to cause the same harm intentionally as a means to the same good end (mcintyre, 2011: 8). aquinas, following st. augustine, is credited with introducing der in the summa theologica, defending homicidal self-defense which happens unintentionally (mcintyre, 2011: 8 & cavanaugh, 2006: 1): nothing prevents one act from having two effects, of which only one is intended, the other being praeter intentionem [outside the moral intention]. now moral acts receive their character according to that which is intended, not, however, from that which is praeter intentionem, since this is accidental. (cavanaugh, 2006: 3) aquinas expands this idea to justify the foreseen-but-not-intended murder of an aggressor. later elaborations of the principle focus on the general distinction between “causing a morally grave harm as a side effect of pursuing a good end” and “causing a harm as a means of pursuing a good end” (mcintyre, 2011: 9). in general, der is used to analyze “exceptional cases” in which a good end cannot be actualized without a bad effect (cavanaugh, 2006: 46). examples include hard cases of murder, euthanasia, abortion, and terror bombing. one of such hard cases is revenge: killing or causing harm to an opponent for a former insult or harm, physical or spiritual. but killing is not permissible, being immoral intrinsically. however, it is revenge as a “retributive punishment” (kaufman, 2013: 95), which makes use of der to justify the harm against the opponent. “retributive punishment” combines revenge with legal punishment to legalize the punishment of an opponent for an immoral action (cavanaugh passim). hence, the punishment of a murderer by jurisdiction in favor of the victim’s family instead of the latter’s personal revenge against the murderer. related to this issue is “moral psychology” or “action theory” which investigates the what-ness of an action by focusing on its mental features such as “knowledge, belief, desire, will, intent, ends, and means.” therefore, the question is what makes an act of killing unjust? the agent’s intention is of utmost concern. there is a distinction between “intending to kill or gravely harm” and doing something with the inevitable-but-not-intended double effect and black revenge epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences 90 p. lalbaksshe and m. j. haj’jari epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences death or grievous harm to the innocent (xix). an even harder case, and the subject of this study, is interracial revenge in communities filled with tensions between black and white people. it was most evident in colonial africa where black slaves suffered under white cruelty, and, therefore, black revenge was not infrequent. in such oppressive societies, black revolt and rage were inevitable. involved in such violence was southern rhodesia, now zimbabwe, which suffered from the “minority rule” of whites who were often brutal. native workers were assaulted mostly because of their resistance against racism and the economic pressures under which they had to obey white masters (mcculloch, 2000: 36). the white population in the “racist regime of rhodesia” was physically and emotionally harsh against the black majority (kirton, 2010: 45). settlers in south rhodesia treated their kafir laborers as dogs, “to be beaten and cuffed at will” (hensman, 1900: 169). occasionally treating certain black individuals fairly, settlers loathe them in general “to the point of neurosis” (lessing 92). it is very probable in such circumstances that the black race rises to defend its honor and negritude. as a literary documentation of interracial tensions, lessing’s the grass is singing (1950) incorporates the murder of a white woman by a black servant as the inevitable interracial violence between black and white people in its south rhodesian version. as schlueter says, the heart of the book tells about settlers who refuse to accept natives as human (1973: 9). the murder of mary turner, a woman with tactile delirium, by moses, an abandonment-neurotic black servant, conveys a series of tensions developed into interracial homicide. the question is whether a black man is justified in killing a white woman, the former oppressed and the latter oppressor; one the suffering colonized, the other the cruel colonizer. der is the medium through which the present study tries to justify such violence. as such, the issue is rendered under the moral-philosophical der and the postcolonial ethics developed by franz fanon to investigate morally and psychologically into moses’ development of mind in killing mary and his willing surrender. discussion the grass is singing is one of those novels that, as alkali et al. introduce them, show “to the world how the genre of african literature is ‘an unparalleled laboratory’ discovering new issues” (2013 :237). the novel “is very rhodesian” as it is based on the life of the region in which lessing grew up (lessing and ingersoll, 1994: 131), as well as on the life of someone she knew (ibib. :112). hence, lessing’s fictional documentation of interracial violence. ‘murderer mystery’ is the initial 91 double effect and black revenge epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences words of the novel which lead us to investigate into moses’ motivation in killing his white female master. the mutual psychological bond developed between mary and moses ends up in the former’s murder by the latter. thus, the murderer’s motivation is of utmost importance, especially when it is that of a muscular black man against a white delicate blue-eyed woman. the case shows its complex side when the murderer refrains from escaping and awaits the police to surrender. accordingly, two sides of the case consist of moses’ motivations in homicide and surrender. moses’ motivation in murder may initially arise from maltreatment by the white master, especially ignited after the face-whipping scene happened six years before the murder. when moses is recruited as the houseboy, two years has already passed from the scene where mary whipped moses in the face when he stopped working to drink water. but by the time of his selection as the houseboy, moses is free of that primary contempt against mary and there seems to be “nothing in his attitude to suggest that he remembered the incident” (lessing, 1973: 175). moreover, “about four years” pass before moses finally murders mary (220), during which a rather intimate relationship develops between them. there thus must be another reason for his homicide. peering into moses’ character before and during meeting mary helps us understand his motivation in killing her. the following sections highlight this issue. moses’ negritude moses has been in “mashonaland” (lessing, 1973: 14). “mashona” seems to be a nickname that the native king lobengula khumalo (1845–1894) gave the region under his order (knight-bruce, 1985: 9). it became part of southern rhodesia by 1923 and even before that the region was under the leadership of lobengula, usually called matabele in english, who deemed that, in his kingdom, disobeying any social responsibility were punished with death (dodds passim). as lessing says, the laws were strict: everyone knew what they could or could not do. if someone did an unforgivable thing, […] he would submit fatalistically to punishment, which was likely to be impalement over an ant-heap on a stake, or something equally unpleasant. ‘i have done wrong; and i know it,’ he might say, ‘therefore let me be punished.’ well, it was the tradition to face punishment. (1973: 14) 92 p. lalbaksshe and m. j. haj’jari epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences such rules were rooted in the native conceptions of fearlessness and courage. men in mashonaland/mashona were famous for their “courage” (knight-bruce, 1985: 9), “strength of character” (ibib. :26). once in mashonaland, the anglican bishop knight-bruce (1853-96) observes that natives of the region were a “subject race” under lobengula. thus, their spirit of courage was gone; but there was the possibility of its revival if they were properly treated. having the sense of cowardice, they were ashamed; but they had still retained “a good deal of savage brutality” (knight-bruce, 1985: 9-10). moses, having lived in mashonaland, either as a native or settler, might have inherited some of these features. his bodily strength and demeanor reveal his differences from other natives, as he is “decent” (lessing, 1973: 191), “a good boy” who “works well” (ibid. :220), and a courageous man against insults. moses has also been a “mission boy” who knows “too much” (ibid. :191). mission boys in south rhodesia were educated based on christian principles, and thus we can say moses has some christian beliefs learned in english. according to fanon, black schoolboys identified themselves with the explorers, the bringers of civilization, the white men who carried “truth to savages—an all-white truth.” the young negro’s identity was thus a subjectively adoption of the attitudes of a white man (2008: 114). moses’ knowledge of english and his christian training, as part of his new identity, are therefore revealed in his speaking in the language of his masters and his background as a mission boy. on the other hand, with the development of christianity in africa, africans forgot the functionality of their traditional prayers to their own deities. however, the efficacy of christianity was also under doubt; when politics entered the scene, christianity was considered as a peaceful way of keeping colonialism alive. thus, africans lost their faith in the religion they could not fully cope with. they now looked back “with admiration” to their old traditions and rituals that christianity made them forget (fry, 2000: 111). in a famous native song in south rhodesia, the land is depicted “as a rich and fertile land” raped by white colonizers, while in essence it is a woman married to the black man. black men are in fact the true “husbands” of the land and its “great heroes of the past,” and lobengula is the true king. the past is therefore recalled to solve the present problems (ibid. :112). as a solution to the present problems of the black people in africa, fanon thus calls for such “return to the past” (loomba, 2005: 153). african tribes were somehow “revenge” or honorbased” cultures in which the victim or his relatives were responsible for revenging the wrongdoer (kaufman, 2013: 96-97), since to act otherwise was a proof to their lack of courage (ibid. :124). 93 double effect and black revenge epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences as a native of pre-modern african tribes, moses has grown up in such system in which the revenger tries to restore his honor. it is in this condition that moses enters an ambivalent state of being incorporating the tensions between colonial-and-not-pure christianity and his negritude and tribal honor. as a good mission boy, he is taken to be different from other black servants. as bhabha says, “it is precisely in that ambivalent use of ‘different’ — to be different from those that are different makes you the same — that the unconscious speaks of the form of otherness” (1994: 117). du bois too explains such black condition as “double consciousness”, to be the other in a world in which the colonized is “inferior and uncivilized” (1999: ix). thus the negro lives in an ambiguous condition which is “extraordinarily neurotic” (fanon, 2008 :148). every neurosis thus derives from the “cultural situation” of the individual (ibid. :117-118). consequently, learning in mission schools and working for the white has already established a special outlook towards the colonizer in moses’ mind. encountering the white society, moses experiences what he did not expect; “instances in which the educated negro suddenly discovers that he is rejected by a civilization which he has nonetheless assimilated” (fanon, 2008: 69). as a black man he is useful only in case of good working. this is demonstrated by lessing telling us that, “dick did not like mission boys, they ‘knew too much,’ in any case they should not be taught to read and write: they should be taught the dignity of labour and general usefulness to the white man” (lessing, 1973: 191). the development of such “dependency behavior” in the negro is beneficial for him until he makes attempts at equalization with the european. it thus follows that the european becomes angry with the negro pursuing equality with him and causes the negro to replace his “rejection of dependence” with “inferiority complex” (fanon, 2008: 69). initially not so drowned in a relationship with mary, moses is ready to leave her when she is too cruel to him, while at the end he cannot bear being dismissed, especially when he observes that tony, as a white man for the romantic place of whom he has been serving all these years, is taking his place as tony puts “his arm round mary’s shoulders” ordering moses to leave the house (lessing, 1973: 233). what hurts the black man most is to discover that in the realm of masculinity he occupies the black hole. the “abandoned” or “betrayed” black man feels “clamorous” under such identification. equality with the white man is beneficial merely before asking for it; afterwards it proves dishonorable and insulting to the negro. this is the path along which the black man “passes from psychological dependence to psychological inferiority” (mannoni, 1964: 84). the negro thus suffers identity crisis through such feeling of insecurity (ibid.: 61–62). therefore, feeling abandoned by mary and rejected by the white society, moses develops abandonment-neurosis, discussed below. 94 p. lalbaksshe and m. j. haj’jari epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences the black man and the white woman: moses vs. mary moses experiences problems in the process of his negritude, and that is because of his encounter with the white woman. white women and black men are regarded as paradigms of white and black races respectively (harding, 1986: 178). thus, any tension between the two points at striking issues between the colonizer and the colonized in general. as mentioned above, settlers in south rhodesia treated their native laborers as mostly dogs to be beaten. but they dismissed the fact that the natives of lobengula’s kingdom of southern rhodesia had such strong jealousy for the “chastity of their white women” (hensman, 1900: 169). never in contact with the natives since her childhood, mary encounters black servants and laborers following the already established norms in the white society. she, like “every woman in south africa,” was “forbidden to walk out alone” because “they were nasty and might do horrible things to her” (lessing, 1973: 70). mary has been acculturated in her fear of the “black peril” (fanon, 2008: 157), the proximity of african men to european women. mary is already racist then, believing in the superiority of the whites over the blacks. while dick, as the white man, rarely plays the master, mary is contemptuous and cruel to black laborers because she does not “believe in treating them soft” (lessing, 1973: 142). halstead identifies the first type of racism among many as the “pre-reflective gut racism” (1988: 142), the intense hatred of people of a different race or culture resulting in “dominance, superiority, and aggression against certain members of society” (kirton 2010: 57). mary is terribly hostile to house servants and makes farm laborers work harder, reduces their break times, and decreases their payments in case of disobedience. as the master’s wife in charge of the farm, black laborers, mostly male ones, must obey her. mary’s first masterly orders on the farm inaugurate the relationship between the white woman and the black men in general, and her conflict with moses in particular – as “involuntarily she lifted her whip and brought it down across his face in a vicious swinging blow” (lessing, 1973: 146). the scene is striking enough as moses describes the reason of his idleness in broken english in a “ludicrous manner”: “i . . . want . . . water.” and then suddenly smiles and opens his mouth and points his finger down his throat (ibid.: 146). since “most white people think it is ‘cheek’ if a native speaks english,” mary’s “inarticulate rage” whips moses in the face (ibid.: 146). moses’ english is an act of mimicry whose mere purpose, accompanied by his pointing to his mouth, ridicules the white race. according to ashcroft et al., the colonized mimic the colonizers against their expectations. such “fluctuating relationship between mimicry and mockery” unsettles the colonial dominance (1998: 13), and undermines the colonizers’ authority (loomba, 2005: 149). tensions then intensify between mary and natives because they expect their master to be a man, not a woman. 95 double effect and black revenge epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences while mary’s childhood plays “a traumatic role” in her behavior, and her mental state is continually deteriorating with social pressures (büyü 89), she suffers from a sort of “tactile delirium”, a sense of nausea to any touch by a man as fanon defines the term (2008: 124). she “doesn’t understand anything about sex or life” (lessing and ingersoll, 1994: 113). she feels “repelled by the thought of intimacies and scenes and contacts” (lessing, 1973: 43); feels revolted when kissed (ibid.: 52), and has “a profound distaste for sex” (ibid.: 46) that makes her not a suitable wife for marital life with dick. she also feels “nausea” when moses touches her shoulders (ibid.: 186) that is a result of white women’s “colonial fears” of rape by negroes (loomba, 2005: 139). ironically, while moses embodies the “colonial fears of african sexual prowess” (roberts, 2003: 134), mary suffers a lack of satisfactory sexual relationship with her husband. this paradox leads mary to develop an “intense emotional ambivalence” towards moses (georgescu et al. 2011: 27), and moses turns into a projection of her repressed passions (ibid.: 29). watching moses washing himself, mary’s view is conveyed in a metaphorically sexual language: “remembering that thick black neck with the lather frothing whitely on it, the powerful back stopping over the bucket, was like a goad to her” (lessing, 1973: 177). “thick black neck,” “lather frothing whitely,” and “goad” signify a threat of rape to the white woman. lessing holds that the incident is on the model of a real scene which “was too directly sexual.” the consequences of such observations develop within mary, a woman with tactile delirium, the fear of rape by the black man. still keeping the white status quo, mary treats her black servant as “an abstraction”, “a machine without a soul” (lessing, 1973: 188). but, unlike other natives, moses calls her “madame” and follows “his desire to please her” to hear an approving word from her (ibid.: 190). in fact, in fanon’s words, the negro wishes to be taken as white, and it is only a white woman who can do so by loving him and proving that he is worthy of white love. the negro can thus be loved like a white man and becomes a white man (2008: 45). this requires that the negro sleep with the white woman to enter “authentic” manhood (ibid.: 52). however, mary’s negrophobia is still a block to moses’ negritude, the common thing between them merely being the ambivalence of the space and double consciousness developing between them. as a white person, mary feels the weakening of her control over her inferior and her increasing awareness of a sexual orientation towards him (janik, 2002: 198). moses’ “powerful, broad-built body” enchants her (ibid.: 175), and she feels “helplessly in his power” (ibid.: 190). 96 p. lalbaksshe and m. j. haj’jari epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences moses then enters mary’s life not only as a “symbol of color conflicts” but also as the embodiment of “a disruptive life force” which henceforward directs mary’s long-repressed emotions (thorpe, 1978: 12). in other terms, the white woman’s secret about the black man is “part of the ineffable.” what she desires is her annihilation sexually; since the “delirium of orgasm” cannot be achieved in practice, the white woman avenges herself by drowning in “speculation” (fanon, 2008: 131132). that is why mary habitually sits on the sofa speculating over what moses does when he is tending the house. further, mary’s nightmares and daydreaming infer psychological traumas. in those of her dreams in which mary confuses her father with moses, feelings of horror and incest are striking. in freudian terms, the incestuous passion for her father is replaced with inclinations toward moses, that is, the primary “incestuous taboo” is substituted by the “colonial taboo” (georgescu et al. 2011: 29). here the color bar, extremely internalized like the “infantile oedipal conflict”, does not permit her to accept moses openly (aghazadeh, 2011: 117). breaking the color bar, nonetheless, mary cracks “the formal pattern of black-and-white, mistress-and-servant” through her personal relation with moses (lessing, 1973: 177-178). still more, the similar state of living of both of black slaves and poor whites like mary and dick develops a sense of equality with the white race in moses. “the phrase ‘poor whites’ […] caused disquiet […], but there was certainly a race division. […] ‘poor whites’ were afrikaners, never british” (ibid.: 11). although mary and dick are “british, after all” (ibid.: 11), the initial law of settlers held that “thou shalt not let your fellow whites sink lower than a certain point;” lest “the nigger will see he is as good as you are” (lessing, 1973: 221). this colonial anxiety or “cultural neurosis” places mary in a subordinate position and a neurotic state in which she cannot control her actions and speech (aghazadeh, 2011: 116). on the other hand, moses’ first touch of mary is a “skin-to-skin contact” that dismantles the racial boundary between them and threatens not merely mary’s identity but also the identity of the entire colonial settlers in the region (georgescu et al. 2011: 36). although she loathes any touch by him, she is comforted “by his voice firm and kind like a father commanding her” (lessing, 1973: 187). moses is able to calm her, against her racist feelings. this is most striking when moses orders mary to drink water. “‘drink,’ he said simply, as if he were speaking to one of his own women; and she drank” (ibid.: 186). however, the negro cannot help remaining a “phobogenic object, a stimulus to anxiety”; “negro-phobogenesis” is thus defined as the anxiety stimulated by the negro (fanon, 2008: 117). mary develops such phobia, especially when she thinks of moses touching her. as fanon says, any physical contact is enough to evoke anxiety because it is the first step in the cycle of “touching, caresses—sexuality” 97 double effect and black revenge epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences (2008: 120). negrophobic women, who have mostly experienced unusual sex lives due to the lack of suitable partners of their own race, consider the negro having powers lacking in them (ibid.: 122). once moses establishes his authority over mary, her negrophobia and negro-phobogenesis grow tense; she seeks support from dick “against the presence of the native” (lessing, 1973: 187). and later, “it was a nightmare, the powerful black man always in the house with her, so that there was no escape from his presence. she was possessed by it, and dick was hardly there to her” (ibid.: 206). mary is pictured as moses’ vulnerable victim while her husband is a mess. accordingly, mary gradually develops “a fear of all physical intimacy” (roberts, 2003: 134), or “tactile delirium” (fanon, 2008: 124), specifically towards moses. such feeling causes mary to finally find a safeguard against moses behind tony. moreover, abandoning moses for a vacation at the end of the story has already been made out. moses, therefore, feels abandoned by the source of his illusory whiteness, the white woman. such “abandonment neurosis” (fanon, 2008: 52) accompanied by moses’s trauma and inferiority complex, results in a “posttraumatic stress disorder” featured by the fact that the traumatic subject cannot effectively deal with the situation. moses’ trauma thus ends up in murdering mary (kirton, 2010: 78), a cathartic act at the apex of his rage. moses’ ambivalent state of being is significant here. bhabha defines ambivalence as “the complex mix of attraction and repulsion that characterizes the relationship between colonizer and colonized.” ambivalence derives from the fact that the colonized is never absolutely against the colonizer. thus, “complicity and resistance exist in a fluctuating relation within the colonial subject” (1994: 116). however, ambivalence dismantles the authority of the colonizer as the colonized mimic them against their expectations. such oscillating condition between mockery and mimicry dismantles the colonial dominance (ashcroft et al. 1998: 12-14). however, ambivalence does not merely indicate the traumatic state of the mind of the colonial subject but also the “workings of colonial authority” and “the dynamics of resistance” (loomba, 2005: 149). accordingly, the negro should no longer submit to the dilemma “turn white or disappear;” he should try to actualize “a possibility of existence.” if he cannot deal with social problems because of his skin color, advising him to remain in his place is nonsense; but once he makes sense of his real motivations, he should rather perform an action or remain passive regarding the source his trauma (fanon, 2008: 75). the final insult against moses by tony ignites the former’s sense of honor which is only achievable through an act of revenge. the negro’s mission among the whites reaches its end when he is no more “palatable in a certain way” (ibid.: 135). tony’s presence as a white man with a safe passion for mary presupposes throwing moses out as garbage, 98 p. lalbaksshe and m. j. haj’jari epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences ending his mission in sympathizing with mary, and thus causing him to rise in defense of his honor than remain passive. double effect reasoning and moses’ act of murder: revenge for honor since “attempts at a hallucinatory whitening” (fanon, 2008: 74), manifested by moses trying to please the white lady in order for self-identification, fail him and he is dismissed, the black man revenges his honor. as a crime including a murder committed willingly by moses, moses’ act of revenge can be discussed through der for its permissibility or illegibility in defense of or against moses, as the issue is interracial violence. for der to permit an action with both good and evil aspects, four essential conditions should be actualized: “the act in itself is good or indifferent; the agent intends the good effect and not the evil effect; the good effect is not produced by the evil effect; and there is a proportionately grave reason for causing the evil effect” (cavanaugh, 2006: 26). double effect considers “harmful effects that are regretfully intended as part of the agent’s means” to be impermissible and “harmful effects that are regretfully foreseen as side effects of the agent’s means” to be permissible (mcintyre, 2011: 12). according to aristotle, some acts are wrong in nature, such as adultery, envy, theft, murder, among many, and the subject willingly doing them cannot be justified. likewise, the first criterion in der reflects the impermissibility of such acts (cavanaugh, 2006: 27). in the second condition, the agent does not will any evil, “neither as his means nor as his end” (ibid.: 28). the third condition is taken as “redundant”; it confirms the fact that the agent may not will the evil effect as an end or as a means or, thus replicating the second condition (ibid.: 29-30). and the fourth condition compares “one’s reasons for doing the good to one’s reasons for avoiding the evil.” action requires the appropriate “gravity” of one’s reasons for causing the good (ibid.: 31). as the third condition is redundant, in a simplified form, conditions turn into three: “an action independent of its evil effect is not intrinsically wrong; the agent intends the good and not the evil, neither as a means or as an end; the agent has “proportionately grave reasons” for his/her action, taking into account “relevant obligations, comparing the consequences,” and regarding “the necessity of the evil,” being cautious enough “to eliminate or mitigate it” (cavanaugh, 2006: 36). moses’ case is concerned with revenge and honor. honor is morally grave, while murder is not. however, in the case of moses and his traditional revenge/ honor-based society, honor is attained only through murder/revenge. the “revenger is motivated by honor,” and failure in exacting revenge will be shameful or brings dishonor (kaufman, 2013: 110). as the chief value of pre-modern societies, honor 99 double effect and black revenge epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences is an individual’s “dignity or self-respect.” attacking an individual was attacking his/her honor, so honor was defended through “a physical confrontation with the wrongdoer.” the side effects of revenge, even the cruelest ones, are thus rated as “secondary byproducts” and not as essential motivations in defending honor (ibid.: 121). honor thus includes freedom as its central feature; a slave embodies dishonor while a free man personifies honor through showing courage against any threat of harm. thus, “the supreme test of honor is courage” (ibid.: 124). kaufman talks about “revenge cultures” in which a victim or his relatives were supposed to revenge the wrongdoer, while in modern cultures, the legislative system judges for all (2013: 96-97). however, the complexities of social relations in some revenge or honor-based cultures make it hard for outsiders to make sense of the fact that these cultures cannot bear even “trivial insults.” such societies are somehow “insanely sensitive in the matter of honor” (kaufman, 2013: 99). in revenge or honor-based cultures, the label of cowardice was not tolerating as far as it meant that one might not avenge a wrong against oneself. thus, in pre-modern revenge systems insults and disrespect are taken as moral wrongs and it is moral to respond to them. the point is that systems are different “on just what wrongs count” (ibid.: 100). therefore, the punishment of the white retributive legislation for a white person, like charlie slatter who kills a black man “in a fit of temper,” is merely 30 pounds, while the penalty for a black man, like moses, killing a white woman and unfairly accused of theft is hanging. likewise, the penalty for dishonoring someone in the pre-modern black revenge system is the oppressor’s life; moses thus murders mary to defend his honor as a black man defending his negritude. killing mary is not accidental but intentional. but, according to der, the question rises whether killing here is moses’ intention or his means to an end, his honor. the good end being the preservation or restoration of moses’ honor, mary’s murder becomes the bad side effect. killing her is not the intentional means to save his honor, but saving his honor includes the evil side effect of her annihilation. it is impermissible to bring about her death intentionally. rather, her murder is the foreseen side effect of retrieving back his honor. this is when revenge is called upon; mary’s death is the good effect itself, the bad effect being committing a homicide. death of an oppressor white woman by an oppressed black man is the good effect for moses as the suffered agent. killing is thus a justifiable act for him to save his honor. if he wants to defend it, killing mary is inevitable but not meant, and thus it seems permissible. accordingly, as far as revenge against mary is justifiable through moses’ mentality for the sake of his honor, the three conditions of der manifested in this case are as such: honor is morally and spiritually good independent of any evil effects; moses intends the defense of his honor and not mary’s death neither as an end nor as a means; moses has proportionately 100 p. lalbaksshe and m. j. haj’jari epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences grave reasons for murder, that is, his honor; addresses his obligations; reflects on the consequences; avoids unnecessary harm. the first condition is concerned with moses’ motivation in murder. as something spiritual honor includes a more severe suffering than physical harms. aquinas considers “scandal” “to be words or deeds that occasion another’s spiritual ruin. homicide harms another’s corporeal life; scandal, his spiritual life. accordingly, scandal harms another more gravely” (cavanaugh, 2006: 14). that is why moses decides to restore his honor against that scandal by the white race, since his failure in reviving his honor is a symptom of fear which is against his negritude. the second condition holds that moses does not intend mary’s death either as a means or as an end for the sake of his honor; it is only a side effect. “‘intended’ refers to ends and means, while ‘foreseen’ refers to side effects;” means, side effects, and ends are all related to the agent and have ethical significances (cavanaugh, 2006: 75). in other words, der holds that the revenging agent can claim to foresee but not intend harm in permissible cases, while he cannot claim so in impermissible ones (ibid.: 85). honor shall be restored and whatever happens in the conflict is a foreseen but not intended side effect. although murder is wrong in itself, but the nature of the oppressor as that of a cruel racist who has dishonored a black man and dismissed him against his decency is not moral either. and it is necessary that the murder be looked upon through the black lens and not through that of the white mission in africa. in the interracial struggle for defense and honor, such murders are inevitable. regarding the third condition, on the small scale, personal revenge includes “a strongly emotional component” intensified under “strong social pressures” (kaufman, 2013: 97). moses postpones mary’s murder as he does not kill her in the store when they are alone (lessing, 1973: 247), or during the last day of mary’s life when dick and tony are out on the farm. pressures on moses reveal themselves in such static moments of his life as he does not act against mary but merely hides and speculates until his full moon turns him into a murderer. whether he has been waiting for the appropriate moment of revenge or overcoming his fear, what is evident is that speculation on revenge is on the run: “though what thoughts of regret, or pity, or perhaps even wounded human affection were compounded with the satisfaction of his completed revenge, it is impossible to say” (lessing, 1973: 256). moreover, moses is aware of the consequences of his action, his own punishment and no improvement in the condition of the black race. he also disdains from further harm to the white community as he lets tony live in his sleep. der excludes unnecessary harm or requires the lessening of any necessary harm, “proportioned to its end,” and as aquinas holds, 101 double effect and black revenge epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences it is impermissible to use more-than-necessary violence (cavanaugh, 2006: 33). it is necessary here to quote fanon that “to the identical degree to which [the colonizer] society creates difficulties for [the black individual], he will find himself thrust into a neurotic situation” (2008: 74). when the negro contacts the white world, the weakness of the psychic structure of the negro causes the collapse of his ego. he thus “stops behaving as an actional person.” his behavioral objective being the guise of the white man to achieve true white worth, the black man needs “self-esteem” (ibid.: 119). fanon believes that “psychic trauma” occurs when the colonized realizes his otherness, that he can never achieve the desired whiteness and get rid of the devalued blackness. bhabha, as loomba understands him, expands this issue to suggest that “colonial identities” are always in a state of “flux and agony”, and that it is always with regard to the position of the other that colonial ambitions are articulated (2005: 148). dismissed from that desire by tony’s presence, moses, “to whom [mary] had been disloyal, and at the bidding of the englishman (lessing, 1073: 254), develops what germaine guex calls “abandonment neurosis” (fanon, 2008: 52). abandonment neurosis includes an “affective self-rejection” which “invariably brings the abandonment-neurotic to an extremely painful and obsessive feeling of exclusion, of having no place anywhere, of being superfluous everywhere in an affective sense.” the sense of otherness in such person infers “a shaky position” in which he/she is always likely to be refused (guex, 1950: 35-36). the abandonmentneurotic views everything in terms of himself. he has little capacity for disinterestedness: his aggressions and a constant need for vengeance inhibit his impulses. his retreat into himself does not allow him to have any positive experience that would compensate for his past. hence the lack of self-esteem and therefore of affective security […]; and as a result there is an overwhelming feeling of impotence in relation to life and to people, as well as a complete rejection of the feeling of responsibility. others have betrayed him and thwarted him, and yet it is only from these others that he expects any improvement in his lot. (ibid.: 27–28) as a “traumatic experience”, what befalls on moses changes his “psychological, biological, and social equilibrium” in a way that the recollection of one specific event taints all other experiences, forcing him to merely reflect upon that experience and dismiss the present (van der kolk & mcfarlane, 1998: 488). mary’s betrayal, as the 102 p. lalbaksshe and m. j. haj’jari epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences sum of all the cruelty he has suffered under colonization, is enough to enrage him toward murder. he has repressed his sufferings all through these years; they have become “latent forms of psychosis”, which reveal themselves as the consequences of a traumatic experience (fanon, 2008: 62). intermingled with moses’ neurosis is his native background. when “old tribal restrictions” among the zulus and matabele were abolished through christianity, the natives with evil intentions but under those restrictions probably did what they desired in the newly gained freedom. accordingly, the new evil is generally attributed to attempts at civilizing and christianizing the natives during colonizers’ missionary endeavors which evaporated traditional boundaries. in african towns, there were men and women with christian names leading bad lives. however, it was not clear whether they were real christians or merely natives with christian names. if they were christians, being members of any mission and their probable dismissal “on account of their failings” were of real concern. if they were christians and part of any mission, they were on the same level with people in england, where it was not supposed “that the failings of individuals prove the uselessness of christianity” (knight-bruce 66-67). moses, as a mission boy, is a “decent” negro whom dick has brought into his household. he is wise enough to use the courtesy he has learned as a mission boy. one of the good aspects of mission-work in africa was “the rapidity with which black heathen savages” distinguished between “indifferent white men,” who did not behave well, and the “missionaries” or those who tried to be fair to them (knight-bruce, 1985: 69). missionaries had good servants who were in fact made to work well (ibid.: 71): they had to get up early, work consistently, and make much of time during the day. although they were probably paid less than what was paid in european camps, natives preferred mission camps where they were “treated fairly” (ibid.: 72). as a mission boy and an educated negro, moses seems to have gone through all these experiences, as he works orderly in dick’s house, and thus prefers fair treatment by his masters. he once forgave mary after the whipping scene, but altogether forgiveness was unlikely ever observed “as a virtue” in african tribes (knight-bruce, 1985: 87). that is because the orientation to praise “strength” among natives made it difficult to teach them part of christianity. under the same conditions, natives preferred working for a white master who does not beat them than for a beating one, but they kept their admiration for the latter. “he represents strength—a chief ’s characteristic; he is the greater chief of the two” (ibid.: 88). that is why moses does not kill the strong mary who whipped him in the face, the woman of strength as a powerful chief worthy of admiration, but he kills the weak mary hiding behind a white newcomer. accordingly, moses’ act of murder is 103 double effect and black revenge epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences permissible based on his own conception of betrayal and honor. mary’s getting away from the farm and her affectionate relationship with tony ignite in moses a sense of disloyalty from mary. thus, he sees mary as an unfaithful mistress in his own manner and she has to pay for it with her blood. to sum up, conventional double-effect principles emphasize the value of achieving the good end with the least possible harmful side effect (mcintyre, 2011: 11). the question here is whether murdering a white person by a black servant is justified. because it is an interracial issue, it has certainly proponents and opponents. however, killing the oppressor white master is a good thing in the black eye, while the murder of a white woman by a black servant is terrible in the white eye. as roberts says, mary’s body may stand for colonialism to be ruined by africa (2003: 135). thus, moses becomes the prototypical african man for the whites to see and fear him (lessing and ingersoll, 1994: 100). however, moses’ submission after the murder solves the case. he commits a murder and defends it with his surrender, while he could easily escape the scene long before any one catches sight of mary’s body. moses’ act of surrender moses finally reaches the decision to surrender himself at the end of his mental journey. under lobengula, as mentioned above, native criminals surrendered themselves willingly as there was no escape and it was in accordance with their courage and honor. “over an ant-heap” is the place over which moses is standing at the end of the story, as described in the first chapter of the novel, to represent his final state: traditional “impalement” or its white version “hanging”, as he is going to be hanged for mary’s murder: “it was the tradition to face punishment” (lessing, 1973: 14). but here seems to be another justification for his surrender not exclusively out of fidelity to his native tradition. moses revenges for honor which is his end and is worth fighting for. it is the essence of his negritude and defines the value of his pre-modern world; it is his dignity and self-respect. as a native, his honor and courage make the same word. committing a crime, justified or not, does not allow him to escape. he must surrender to keep his tribal tradition, to keep the moral code of the late king lobengula, to die with honor. as kaufman says, in the pre-modern world and revenge or honor-based cultures, the assumption was that “no one could properly demonstrate his honor without his being willing to risk everything for it, including (indeed, especially) his life” (2013: 125). moses’ surrender is an act of negritude; by surrendering he is restoring his black roots. it is not out of fear from the white that 104 p. lalbaksshe and m. j. haj’jari epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences he surrenders but as a form of resistance and authenticity over the white master to reveal his own courage. members of revenge or honor-based cultures had their own standards in categorizing harms which were to be revenged and the harshness required to do so (kaufman, 2013: 100). such cultures were ruled by “the principle of strict liability:” being responsible for a committed wrong, especially a death, either accidental or deliberate, justified or not (ibid.: 105). accordingly, in the final scene of the novel, moses most willingly and knowingly awaits the police and surrenders himself. in fact, “in the courage to risk one’s life in defense of one’s principles, honor masters the all-too-human fear of death and the more mundane pull of the desire for self-preservation” (krause, 2002: 128). moses knows his coming death but he still surrenders because of his honor. conclusion lessing seems to be criticizing england for its colonial policies and not even its lack of ability to teach true christianity to africans due to the maltreatment of africans. her novel suggests that races are unable to understand each other in full. this is mostly represented in the opening chapter when tony marston realizes that moses will be hanged as he has murdered a white woman, without any sympathy for moses. tony is unable to understand the black race, since his white worldview is defected. and the fact is that moses does not kill mary after the whipping scene but after her betrayal and intimacy with tony. this is a fact which should be investigated from the moses’ own viewpoint towards life, which derives from his tribal belief regarding the defense of his honor which can merely be achieved through tribal revenge. revenge is sometimes undertaken against an agent close to the aggressor. on the other hand, among pre-modern cultures, the presumed best form of revenge was punishing the aggressor face to face. on the other hand stands the corrupted picture of christianity as shown to the natives. as a schoolboy trained in christianity, moses observes a white society against the pure christian code of peace they are seemingly pursuing and trying to propagate. moses’ revenge thus finds a broader scale of meaning than the mere murder of his oppressor. metaphorically speaking, what moses does is a two-edged sword of revenge: he kills the white woman, both as his oppressor and as the most notable attraction of the white race. moses personally attacks the colonizer, face to face with its weak point, the white woman; hence, the “black peril”. moses’ revenge and surrender both signify his african honor and resistance against colonization. in such dilemma of love and hate, revenge and forgiveness, represented through moses’ postponement of his revenge for at least one day after his dismissal by tony and his subsequent surrender without resistance, moses’ 105 double effect and black revenge epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences ambivalent state of living leads him to an act of murder and willing surrender which seem both justified on the grounds of his african honor and double-effect reasoning, all rooted in his negritude and christian trainings. moses’ crime of murder, though blasphemous under colonial christianity which already condemns the black race because of their skin, reveals a code of honor in negritude and its defense; moses wreaks the colonial oppression on the colonizers themselves still knowing that mary will be sacrificed. mary’s death thus cannot be regarded as the result of a former lover’s jealousy or the brutality of a black negro. it is an honorbased murder/revenge. moses’ final heroically surrendering himself to further defend his african tribal traditions of punishment for a crime thus move in parallel lines with negritude and application of black ethics, a case study of south rhodesia. references aghazadeh, sima. 2011. sexual-political colonialism and failure of individuation in doris lessing’s the grass is singing. journal of international women’s studies, 12(1), 107-121. alkali, mohammad, et al. 2013. dwelling or duelling in possibilities: how (ir)relevant are african feminisms? gema online® journal of language studies. 13 (3). 237-253. ashcroft, bill, gareth griffiths, and hellen tiffin. 1998. key concepts in post-colonial studies. new york: routledge. bhabha, homi. 1994. remembering fanon: self, psyche and the colonial condition. colonial discourse and postcolonial theory. eds. p. williams and l. chrisman. new york: columbia up. 112–123. büyü, gül. 2007. a freudian study of the grass is singing, aylak adam, and the white hotel. diss. middle east technical university in istanbul. cavanaugh, t. a. 2006. double-effect reasoning doing good and avoiding evil. oxford: oxford up. dodds, glen lyndon. 1998. the zulus and matabele: warrior nations. london: arms and armour press. du bois, w.e.b. 1999. the souls of black folk. ed. henry louis gates, jr and terri hume oliver. new york: w. w. norton & co. fanon, franz. 2008. black skin, white mask. london: pluto press. fry, peter. 2007. spirits of protest: spirit-mediums and the articulation of consensus among the zezuru of southern rhodesia (zimbabwe). cambridge: cambridge up. georgescu, elena anca, angela stanescu and gabriela popa. 2011. cultural and psychological border crossings in doris lessing’s the grass is singing. international journal of arts and sciences 4(1), 23-38. guex, germaine. 1950. la névrosed’abandon. paris: presses universitaires de france. 106 p. lalbaksshe and m. j. haj’jari epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 8, no. 3, (2015) © faculty of arts and social sciences halstead, mark. 1988. education, justice and cultural diversity: an examination of the honeyford affair, 1984-85. london: falmer press. harding, s. 1986. the science question in feminism. new york: cornell up. hensman, howards. 1900. a history of rhodesia. edinburgh and london: william blackwood and sons. janik, d. i. 2002. modern british women writers: an a to z guide, eds. v. jaulkand e. s. nelson. new york: greenwood press. 196-205. kaufman, whitley r. p. 2013. honor and revenge: a theory of punishment. new york: springer science and business media dordrecht. kirton, teneille. 2010. racial exploitation and double oppression in selected bessie head and dorsi lessing texts. diss. university of fort hare (east london campus). knight-bruce, george wyndham hamilton. 1985. memories of mashonaland. cambridge: dodo press. krause, sharon. 2002. liberalism with honor. cambridge: harvard up. 2002. lessing, doris and earl g ingersoll. 1994. doris lessing: conversations. eds. doris lessing and earl g. ingersoll. ontario: ontario review press. ---. the grass is singing. 1973. oxford: heinemann. loomba, ania. 2005. colonialism/postcolonialism. 2nded. new york: routledge. mannoni, o. 1964. prospero and caliban: the psychology of colonization. new york: praeger. mcintyre, alison. 2011. doctrine of double effect. in the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. ed. edward n. zalta. <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2011/entries/double-effect/>. mcculloch, jock. 2000. black peril, white virtue: sexual crime in southern rhodesia, 1902-1935. indiana: indiana university press. roberts, sheila. 2003. sites of paranoia and taboo: lessing’s the grass is singing and gordimer’s july’s people. in bloom’s modern critical views: 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could contribute to the poor performance of students. therefore, this study investigated (i) the types of indigenous instructional resources that are available for basic technology (ii) if basic technology teachers use indigenous instructional resources (iii) influence of gender in using indigenous instructional resources by the teacher in a secondary school in kwara state. the survey method was adopted, and data was collected using a researcher-design questionnaire to gather the necessary information which inference was drawn from. the sample of this study was selected using simple random sampling techniques. 312 respondents. the finding revealed that the available indigenous instructional resources are being utilized by basic technology teachers and there was no significant difference between male and female teacher utilization of indigenous instructional resources for teaching basic technology. the study concluded that indigenous instructional resources are being utilized by basic technology teachers in a secondary school in kwara state. this implies that lessons taught with the guide of indigenous instructional material arouse learners’ interest to understand what is been taught. it was therefore recommended that need to evolve policy actions that will increase access to indigenous instructional resources and actions to improve its quality. keywords: utilization, indigenous instructional resources, basic technology, teaching, learning. 64 journal of transdisciplinary studies background of the study education is the backbone of any society and yardstick that can be used to access the development of that society or country. education serves as the bedrock of every society and a tool for nation building. education is indispensable and an inevitable instrument for social and economic mobility at the personal level and an essential instrument for the transformation of society at the national level. thus, educated individuals are seen to be a crucial catalyst for any economy through driving technological diffusion and utilization, among others (osabuohien & efobi, 2012). science and technology are required and relevant to national development and their impact on the totality of the nation cannot be overemphasized. education in nigeria is nationally conceptualized not just simply as the medium for cultural transmission but as the main vehicle for accelerating individual, community and national development (kazeem & ige, 2010). in addition, amosa (2016) stated that education connotes knowledge or skill acquired or developed through a learning process. the use of ict gadgets may enhance professional growth speedily and lecturers who use a computer system to work may gain quicker access to study materials through the internet. similarly, kpolovie and awusaku (2016) submitted that ict is a science of production and utilization of computer equipment, subsystems, software and firmware for automatic analysis, acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, transformation, control, display, interchange, transmission and retrieval of data, quantitative and qualitative information most appropriate to meet human need. the use of the internet to access journals, periodicals, magazines, inaugural lectures, conference papers and so on may help lecturers to grow fast on the job (effiong & effanga, 2018). furthermore, abdulrahman and soetan (2017) opined that ict is the use of scientific tools and techniques for developing, documenting and communicating information for solving problems or providing needed services in various areas of human endeavour. curriculum happens within the school system; it is, therefore, imperative to include indigenous knowledge into the school curricula to ensure that local/indigenous technologies are improved upon as to bring about modernization of society. knowledgebased society of the local embedded knowledge and innovation is considered as the core competence of the curriculum of the region. in rural areas, maybe it is not suitable to adopt the high-tech or other industrial cluster development strategy as in urban areas because of the barrier of ‘organizational thinness’. however, the learner’s environment has their local resources, especially the intangible asset, such as cultural resources and local knowledge, and language. besides absorbing the external knowledge, exploiting the local knowledge will also enrich the knowledge network of the learners because it is related to the environment of the learner. moreover, because indigenous knowledge was generated from the local wisdom and culture, it fits the local situation natively. technology can be used to offer anticipated results with a little flaw or flawless, steady, reliable and interactivity in learning (amosa, ogunlade, obielodan, & nasiru, 2017). technology is the application of science. it is the making, usage and knowledge of equipment, devices, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to find solutions to a problem or perform certain roles/ functions. it could refer to the collection of tools, techniques, crafts, systems in order to solve a problem or serve some purpose (akinbote, 2007). technology as the word stands is from a greek word which means art, skills, and craft. it could apply generally to things or especially to areas like agriculture, medicine, information, construction, and basic technology. it is in this recognition of the essence attached to technology education that the federal government of nigeria introduced a program named universal basic education (ube) to enable the acquisition of basic technology education by all nigerians in school. according to merriam (2010), basic technology is defined as the lowest technological skills, knowledge, aptitude which a person is taught and expected to acquire. the basic technology equips learners to present realities on how to use indigenous available resources to make products to meet up the challenge and serve purposes (theodore, 2011). indigenous knowledge is the local knowledge that is unique to a culture or society. other names for it include: ‘local knowledge’, ‘folk knowledge’, ‘people’s knowledge, ‘traditional wisdom’ or ‘traditional science’. this knowledge is passed from generation to generation, usually by word of mouth and cultural values (kube & nakashima 2009). 65epiphany indigenous teaching involves making students think comprehensively and facilitating their awareness of the higher levels of content in relation to the cultural background of the learners. indigenous education especially focuses on teaching indigenous knowledge, models, methods, and content within formal or non-formal educational systems. the growing recognition and the use of indigenous methods can be a response to the erosion and loss of indigenous knowledge through the process of colonialism, globalization, and modernity. indigenous communities are able to “reclaim and revalue their languages and (traditions), and in so doing, improve the educational success of indigenous students”, thus ensuring their survival as a culture (an ecology of indigenous education, 2015). an an indigenous instructional resource is a teacher-based resource that is based on the culture, indigenous knowledge system and practices, and indigenous learning system of the learners and community. it is believed that this will lead students to be more participative in class since they will have the opportunity to express ideas using resources within their locality. utilization is the level at which the available indigenous instructional resources are used by teachers to teach basic technology in kwara state. utilization of resources according to chakraborty, islam, bari, and akhter (2011) is a complex behavioral phenomenon; however, it is always related to the availability and quality of such resources or services as the case may be. utilization of tools by teachers for instructional purposes enables them to access information through increased productivity and reduced stress. horny (2004) explains utilization to make use of available resources at the individual’s disposal. according to olagunju (2008), the utilization of indigenous instructional resources in teaching is a better way of achieving teaching objectives. when real objects or their representatives are used in teaching, students see, touch and interact with these materials. technology offers the opportunity for access to up-to-date research reports and knowledge globally which can be accessed through proper utilization of different search engines (nwokedi & nwokedi, 2017). interactions with learning materials will help the students not to forget what they have learned easily. olagunju and abiona (2008) explained that the process of managing organizing resources is resource utilization. national policy on education (frn 2013), posited that basic science and technology at upper basic level are geared towards ” the laying of a sound foundation for scientific, reflective and critical thinking, by providing the learner with opportunities like; development of motor skills that will allow him to perform effectively in the society within his limited capacity and providing basic instrument for further achievements, educationally together with preparation of trades and crafts of society. science and technology have made a significant impact on man’s life and society. technology has become major factor of socioeconomic development, that their absence in life cannot be contemplated. additionally, science and technology develops nation manpower in critical areas as; agriculture, engineering, architecture, medicine, and other science and technology professions. the importance of science and technology cuts across all conceivable areas of life. for instance, the ability of man to produce high-quality goods and services has improved exponentially. edge cutting vaccines, drugs, sophisticated equipment and instrument have been made to help diagnose and treat different kinds of diseases thereby increasing life expectancy. basic science technology is the least of knowledge, skills, value which a person or learner gains from the observation and experimentation of the natural and physical factors of their environment. bajah (2007) stated that science and technology have the utmost impact on the man from the great efforts provided by the knowledge and skills gained for the enhancement of man and his society. gender is the condition of being male or female. gender implies the psychological, behavioural, social and cultural aspects of being male or female (i.e., masculinity or femininity) (american psychological association, 2012). rajasekhar, veena, and kumar (2018) reported that there were significant differences in preferences in the use of search engines based on gender. kpolavie & nwosaku, (2016) and adekunle (2017) reported that there were no differences in attitude towards search engines based on gender. abdulazeez (2014) opined that gender issues had been associated with the ability, skill, and competence of teachers and students to use indigenous instructional resources but without any definite conclusion. a vast number of studies have been carried out to determine if gender difference can serve as a factor in the integration and utilization of indigenous instructional resources for teaching purposes. 66 journal of transdisciplinary studies statement of the problem inadequate resources will surely affect the smooth teaching and learning process in all schools. academic performance of students depends to a large extent on the indigenous resources they are exposed to but, when they are lacking in schools, students face a lot of problems. in schools across the world, students find themselves at an inherent disadvantage because their classes are not taught in their native language (bradley, 2014). indigenous language instruction is crucial to optimize a student’s success, for many reasons. fakomogbon (2004) opined that the lack of instructional resources and inappropriate utilization could contribute to the poor performance of students. if students are being taught in their indigenous language, they tend to understand better, more so; if indigenous instructional resources and this research employed the utilization of indigenous instructional resources in kwara state, the need is to determine if they are available and being effectively utilized by the teachers. research questions the study provided answers to the following question: 1. what types of indigenous instructional resources are available for basic technology in upper basic schools in kwara state? 2. how do teachers utilize indigenous instructional resources in upper basic school in kwara state? 3. how does gender influence the use of indigenous instructional resources? research hypothesis ho1: there is no significant difference between male and female secondary school teachers utilization of indigenous instructional resources for teaching basic technology in kwara state. methodology this chapter presents the method and procedures that were employed in the process of collecting necessary and useful data for this research. it entails research design, sample and sampling techniques, and research instrument. research design the survey method was adopted, which allows the researcher to collect data from the sample of a relatively large population in a relatively short period of time. data was collected using a researcher-design questionnaire to gather the necessary information which inference was drawn from. sample and sampling techniques the population of this study involves teachers of basic technology in secondary schools in kwara state, while the targets are all basic technology teachers in upper basic schools in kwara state. the sample of this study was selected using simple random sampling techniques. 312 respondents were involved. research instrument the questionnaire was used for data collection. the questionnaire comprises of four (3) section. section a contains demographic information of the gender, respondents’ age and qualification, section b contains the list of available indigenous resources for teaching basic technology in secondary schools in kwara state, the response options are; available (a), not available (na). section c contains the utilization of indigenous instructional resources in secondary schools in kwara state and the evaluation of learners, the response options were; sa-strongly agree, aagree, ddisagree, and sdstrongly disagree. data analysis technique the data collected through the questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics including frequency and percentage table. data was also coded and analyzed using the statistical packages for social science (spss). the hypothesis was tested using an independent t-test. 67epiphany data analysis and results this chapter presents the analysis of the assessment of the utilization of indigenous instructional resources for teaching basic technology in secondary schools in kwara state, the interpretation of the data through the analysis of the questionnaire items after administration was done. the chapter presents the description of the research subjects, statistical analysis and results based on research questions and research hypotheses stated earlier in chapter one. the demographic information of the respondents and the results of the analysis are also presented in tables and figures. table 1: population of respondents for the study estimated population returned return rate 350 312 89.1% table 2: respondents data based on gender gender frequency percent cumulative percent male 189 60.6 60.6 female 123 39.4 100.0 total 312 100.0 figure 1: pie chart on respondents' gender as displayed in table 2, the respondents comprised of 63 males and 41 females. this was further shown in figure 1. 68 journal of transdisciplinary studies table 3: respondents data based on age age frequency percent cumulative percent 21-25 years 33 10.6 10.6 26-30 years 123 39.4 50.0 31 years and above 156 50.0 100.0 total 312 100.0 figure 2: pie chart on respondents' age as displayed in table 3, 10.6% of the respondents are within the age of 21-25 years old, 39.4% are within the age range of 26-30 years while 50% are within the age range of 31 years and above. this was further shown in figure 2. table 4: respondents data based on qualification qualifications frequency percent cumulative percent ond 9 2.9 2.9 nce 66 21.2 24.0 b.ed. 75 24.0 48.1 b.sc. 120 38.5 86.5 pgde 12 3.8 90.4 m.ed 27 8.7 99.0 m.sc 3 1.0 100.0 total 104 100.0 69epiphany figure 3: pie chart on respondents' highest qualification the respondents’ distribution based on their highest qualification are shown in table 4. it indicated that majority (24%) of the respondents have b.ed as highest qualification, 38.5% of the respondents have b.sc as their highest qualification, 21.2% of the respondents have nce as their highest qualification. others followed suit as shown in table 2 and figure 3. results research question one: what kind of indigenous instructional resources are available for basic technology in secondary schools in kwara state? table 5: indigenous instructional resources available for basic technology s/n resources availability a   na 1 timber 288 (92.3%) 24 (7.7%) 2 ceramics 192 (61.5%) 120 (38.5%) 3 talking drum 219 (70.2%) 93 (29.8%) 4 coal pot 219 (70.2%) 93 (29.8%) 5 artifacts 102 (32.7%) 210 (67.3%) 6 brass cup 129 (41.3%) 183 (58.7%) 7 wooden basket 192 (61.5%) 120 (38.5%) 8 bamboo 219 (70.2%) 93 (29.8%) 9 kerosene stove 219 (70.2%) 93 (29.8%) 10 clay pot 243 (77.9%) 69 (22.1%) 70 journal of transdisciplinary studies the kind of indigenous instructional resources that were available for basic technology in secondary schools in kwara state was investigated and the result was presented in table 5. it indicated that 92.3% of the respondents had timber as indigenous instructional resources, 61.5% respondents had ceramics in teaching basic technology 70.2% respondents had talking drum, coal pot, bamboo and kerosene stove, 64% of respondents had weave basket and 77.9% respondents had clay pot. thus, the majority of the respondents had timber, ceramics, talking drum, coal pot, bamboo and kerosene stove, weave basket and clay pot. research question two: what are the ways in which indigenous instructional resources in secondary schools in kwara state are being utilized? table 6: utilization of indigenous instructional resources s/n items mean std. dev 1 planks which are gotten from timber are used to teach wood processing. 3.11 .85 2 i use ceramics which are products of non-metallic rocks and minerals to teach ceramics and metal. 3.50 .73 3 i use talking drum which is made with wood to teach wood processing. 3.02 .89 4 i make use of coal pot which is carved from metal for means of instructional material for teaching metal. 3.03 .90 5 i use artefacts which are carved from wood and metal to teach metal and wooden materials. 3.13 1.01 6 brass cup is an instructional material made from brass which are used in teaching natural resources. 2.78 .90 7 wooden tricycle is an instructional material gotten from wood and metal which i use in teaching motion. 2.69 .92 8 various furniture which is made using bamboo are used for instructional purpose in the classroom. 2.89 1.00 9 kerosene stove which was made using metallic material is utilized in teaching metallic product 3.00 1.00 10 clay pot, clay cup are examples of clay products and can be used in teaching basic technology concepts. 3.23 .80 grand mean 3.14 how indigenous instructional resources in upper basic school in kwara state are being utilized was investigated and the result is presented in table 6. it revealed that most of the respondents used planks which are gotten from timber to teach wood processing with mean of 3.11. also, ceramics which are products of non-metallic rocks and minerals are used to teach ceramics and metal. basic technology teachers use talking drum which is made with wood to teach wood processing. others followed suit as shown in table 6. with grand mean of 3.14 which was greater than the bench mark of 2.50, the available indigenous instructional resources are being utilized by basic technology teachers in kwara state. 71epiphany research question three: what is the influence of gender in using indigenous instructional resources? table 7: gender difference in using indigenous instructional resources gender n mean mean gain male 189 3.12 0.05female 123 3.17 total 312 the influence of gender on the use of indigenous instructional resources was presented in table 8. the mean score on male teachers’ use of indigenous instructional resources was 3.12 while the mean score on female teachers’ use of indigenous instructional resources was 3.17. the mean difference was 0.05 indicated that female basic technology teachers use indigenous instructional resources more than their male counterparts. research hypothesis ho1: there is no significant difference between male and female teacher utilization of indigenous instructional resources for teaching basic technology. table 8: test analysis on male and female undegraduates’ perception gender n mean std. deviation df t sig. (2-tailed) remarks male 189 3.1175 .9335 female 123 3.1683 1.12282 310 -0.250 0.803 accepted total 312 table 8 indicates that t (310) = -0.25, p = 0.80. this means that the stated null hypothesis was not rejected. this was a result of the t-value of 0.25 resulting in 0.80 significance value which was greater than 0.05 alpha value. it was deduced that there was no significant difference between male and female teacher utilization of indigenous instructional resources for teaching basic technology. discussions this study investigated the assessment of the utilization of indigenous instructional resources for teaching basic technology in upper basic schools in kwara state. the finding revealed that the available indigenous instructional resources for teaching basic technology in upper basic schools in kwara state are being utilized. the utilization of indigenous instructional resources is based on the fact that certain indigenous instructional resources are available in various upper basic schools in kwara state. this finding is in line with the assertion of brain (2011) that lessons taught with the guide of indigenous instructional material arouse learner’s interest to understand what is been taught. they are imperative in exciting the premium and creative energy of the learners. they make conceptual thoughts (abstract ideas) more concrete for appreciation. through this, instructional resources give the comprehension of the subject lesson. sandberg (2018) revealed that depending on what men and women like to discuss about on social media, their platform of choice may also vary. this study is also in line with the assertion of okeke (2010) that instructional materials empower educators to accomplish applied thinking, diminish verbalization, blend the subject, excite self-action and make enthusiasm for a few themes. these help the learners in retention, the advancement of sharp perception and aide imaginative reasoning. blended learning offers a wider opportunity to develop education to be more enhanced and productive to provide both lecturers and students with the utilization of the right learning resources, independent learning and appropriate teaching to the students at the appropriate time (kadek, putu, 72 journal of transdisciplinary studies herman, & priyanto, 2018). to achieve functional education goals, the utilization and effective use of indigenous instructional material are necessary for schools. curzon (2017) points out that using indigenous instructional materials in basic technology classrooms widen the channel of communication between teachers and their students. the finding established that female basic technology teachers use indigenous instructional resources more than their male counterparts, this is not in line with litt (2013) indicating that male teachers seem to report a higher level of using indigenous instructional resources than female teachers. van deursen (2012) reported that males perform better than females on indigenous instructional resources assessments. research by meelissen (2005) also showed that female seems to have a lower self-efficacy compared to male especially in the use of more complicated indigenous instructional resources. there are few lectures in some of the institutions that are ready to adopt the practical areas such as micro-teaching sessions that help students exercise, in creating, production and utilization of instructional materials (ann & nsofor,2014). the finding of this study indicates that there is no significant difference between a male and female teachers in the utilization of indigenous instructional resources. ahmad (2015) revealed that there is no significant difference between male and female based on their utilization of electronic information resources for learning. this study also indicates that the unawareness of the importance of using indigenous instructional resources, sub-standard resources, as well as environmental factors affect the durability of indigenous instructional resources. it has been analyzed that academic performance averages of the female students have turned out to be higher than the academic performance averages of the male students in a blended learning environment (demirkolb & kazua, 2014). conclusion the field of education has not been left out in the adoption of indigenous instructional resources. the real purpose behind indigenous instructional resources use in the classroom instructing is to appeal to all senses of learners in the learning circumstances. the sensory experience could be gustatory (taste), kinesthetic (touch), auditory (hearing), olfactory (smell) or optical (seeing). adequacy is more noteworthy in the teaching and learning process when more than one of these senses is stimulated. lessons taught with the guide of indigenous instructional material arouse learner’s interest to understand what is been taught. a river that forgets its origin will dry up in due time, so also any educational settings that do away with its indigenous resources could go into extinction as regards to the use of learning materials. recommendations based on the findings and conclusion of this study, the following recommendations were made: 1. given that upper basic education is part of basic education, the government should ensure that indigenous instructional resources are adequate in all categories of upper basic school. 2. the education body should create awareness programs for teachers to cater for the importance of utilizing indigenous instructional resources. 3. there is a need to evolve policy actions that will increase access to indigenous instructional resources and actions to improve its quality. 4. the government should allocate funds according to the needs of each upper basic school to cater to environmental factors limiting the durability of utilizing indigenous instructional resources. 73epiphany references » abdulrahman, m. r., & soetan, a. k. 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(2018). gender and social networking. the world’s gone social. and women are more social than men. retrieved from https://www.wikigender.org/wiki /gender-and-social -networking/ » theodore, p. n. (2011). levels of acquisition of science process skills among ssi biology students in anambra state. awka: agbuonu publishers. » universal basic education board (ubeb, 2008). problem of ube in nigeria. abuja: government press. » wikipedia/org/wiki/educational technology. retrieved 07/29/2010 pp. 1-4. » world bank (2004) indigenous knowledge: local pathways to global development, africa regional office, world bank. women has always been easily degradeted as the weaker sex by postulating psycho-physical parallelism according to which the supposed physical weakness implies intelectual weakness (bovenschen epiphany: vol. 4, no. 1, 2011 issn 1840-3719 thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing alma jeftiċ abstract this article seeks to explore the area of women's writing as to provide additional material for a discussion on the psychoanalytic perspective of gender development and the importance it has in the formation of female identity. with the attempt to review old debates on the existence of phallic and ovarian art, this article will contribute to it by providing a comparative study of freudian and lacanian theories of gender development. oedipus myth and freud's theories based on the phallus will be confronted with lacan's theories. the main innovation of this article compared to the previous achievements in this field is the introduction of lacan's term jouissance and its connection to female identity and the understandings of the childbirth metaphor. jouissance represents surplus of enjoyment that can be explained through the resistance to prohibition, while the childbirth metaphor illustrates how gender creates and forms inscriptions of rules in female discourse. what can be concluded is that the significant number of female authors follow three phases: she tries to imitate her masculine colleagues, then she experiences the great feeling of resistance, and at the end she creates her own discourse, born through the processes of obedience and rebellion. while male writers can only create, women are able to both create and procreate. the childbirth metaphor has also served for centuries as a linguistic reunion of what culture and patriarchal literary tradition have sundered. by linking missing parts together, this article serves as a metaphor for one psychoanalitic movement towards jouissance of women's writing. key words: jouissance, childbirth metaphor, phallic and ovarian art, oedipus myth corresponding author: alma jeftić; faculty of arts and social sciences, international university of sarajevo, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: ajeftic@ius.edu.ba mailto:ajeftic@ius.edu.ba a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [57] introduction the classic notions about women's artistic competences and literary styles are numerous and they are mostly based on the same facts. female writing is often connected to female biology and the role a woman plays in society. therefore, the main purpose of this article is to analyse women's writing and to provide topics for a discussion on psychoanalytic perspective of gender development and the importance it has in the formation of female identity. the comparative study of freudian and lacanian theories of gender development will be done with the attempt to provide solid ground for the analysis of women's writing. the expansion of female authors was briefly summarized by elaine showalter. she described three phases of women's writing: feminine, feminist and female. even though these phases represent the development of female literature through history, the same are deeply rooted in the work of each particular female author. therefore, these phases can also be used with the aim to analyse each particular female author and her work. the oedipus myth and freud's theories based on phallus will be confronted and analysed within the realm of lacan's theories. the main innovation of this article compared to the previous achievements in this area is the introduction of lacan's term jouissance and its connection to female identity and the understandings of childbirth metaphor. jouissance will be analysed as a surplus of enjoyment and explained through the resistance to prohibition. childbirth metaphor illustrates how gender creates and forms inscriptions of rules in female discourse. the conclusion is that the majority of female authors follow three phases: she tries to imitate her masculine colleagues, then she experiences the great feeling of resistance, and at the end she creates her own discourse, born through the processes of obedience and rebellion. contrary to the male writers who can only create, women are able to both create and procreate. therefore childbirth metaphor has also served as a linguistic reunion of what culture and patriarchal literary tradition have sundered. while trying to find connection between the missing parts, this article serves as metaphor for one psychoanalitic movement towards the jouissance of women's writing. a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [58] biological and linguistic models of women's writing the major differences between men and women lie in biology. even though this implies that women think with their glands, while men are resonable and strong, there are other connotations relevant to this topic. biological differences have caused the development of phallic and ovarian theories of art, as two different models. in an equivalent way, the special discourse of female writing has produced l'ecriture feminine, liberatory female writing of the future. in such writings women have always been easily degraded as the weaker sex by postulating psychophysical parallelism according to which the supposed physical weakness implies intellectual weakness (bovenschen & weckmueller, 1977). victorian anthropologists believed that the frotal lobes of the male brain were heavier and more developed than female lobes and thus that women were inferior in intelligence (showalter, 1981). german gynecologist amann explained in 1874 hysteria as female mental disorder characterised by the severe gestures of wild animal (lorenzer, 1984/1989). hipokrat understood uterus as one special, animated animal able to feel, small and taste, as well as to move in all directions, towards heart, neck, head and liver (lorenzer, 1984/1989). in an equivalent way plato wrote that uterus is one animal who extremely wants to receive and who becomes furious when it does not recieve (lorenzer, 1984/1989). these disseminations were documented in philosophical and medical proceedings of greek and latin physicians and thinkers. hysteria was in that time a female disorder whilst uterus was its center. however, similar ideas and perceptions have been retained unchanged so far. ideology and the apportioning of roles subsumed women under the category of 'primary nature' (bovenschen & weckmueller, 1977). but the simple retreat into anatomy and biology cannot be women's goal, since it will leave women in the world in which their biological make-up plays a societal role, whilst men live in their life of activity, science, technology and art. a biological view of women was described in simone de beauvoir's book “the second sex:“ woman has ovaries, a uterus; these pecularities imprison her in her subjectivity, circumscribe her within the limits a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [59] of her own nature. it is often said that she thinks with her glands. man superbly ignores the fact that his anatomy also includes glands, such as the testicles, and that they secrete hormones (bovenschen & weckmueller, 1977, 121). but does the biological difference in female writing exist? are people really surrounded by phallic and ovarian art? it is not easy to give an appropriate answer to these questions. it is evident that in patriarchal western culture the author is always a father, a progenitor, a procreator, anaesthetic patriarch whose pen is an instrument of generative power like his penis (showalter, 1981). gilbert and gubar did not provide the answer to their rethorical question: “if the pen is a metaphorical penis, from what organ can females generate texts?” (showalter, 1981, 187), it has raised debates among female writers from one side, and feminists from the other. if women’s writing proceeds from the body is there a possibility for metaphorical equation between literary creativity and childbirth, or, simply, is there a link between books and babies? the childbirth metaphor has been used by men and women for centuries, and it takes female anatomy as a model for human creativity in contrast with the phallic analogy, which uses male anatomy for its paradigm (stanfordfriedman, 1987). it validates women’s artistic effort and helps them to get rid of an anxiety of authorship produced by the association of pen and paintbrush with phallus and masculinity. from french theorists onwards, childbirth metaphor has been both accepted and rejected from female authors, as well as feminists. whilst french theorists who promote the concept of l’ecriture feminine insist on a poetic of female body and writing “in white ink” as a milk metaphor, other authors, including simone de beauvoir, elaine showalter, ann rosalind jones, nina auerbach and erica jong fear that it establishes a “counter-penis” and develops a regressive biologism (stanford-friedman, 1981). the phallus as a signifier functions in intersubjective economic analysis in order to specify large effects of the signified (lacan, 1966/1983). according to lacan (1966/2002) woman a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [60] will ignore the vital feminine attributes in order to become phallus, i.e. signifier of the other’s wish. therefore, the phallus becomes fetish accompanied by its function of signifier. according to freud there is only one id, and it is basically male. female drives and intentions are based on the male’s drives and intentions; therefore to him they are masculine by their origin. freudian philosophy contributes to a masculine understanding of art, poetry and literature in general, due to its establishment on his understanding of woman as “castrated man.” this view identifies pen and paintbrush (poetry and art) with masculine drives and the phallus as a signifier. however, radical feminist critics insist that biological differentiation and its relation to women’s unity (mostly grounded in a freudian view of woman) must be seriously redefined and pondered, since women’s writing proceeds from the body and women sexual differentiation is also their source (showalter, 1981). considered both metaphorically and literary “writing the body” technique does not succeed according to the “phallic theories” criteria. marie cardinal’s direct approach to writing the body appears to have played a role in the exclusion of her book “the words to say it” from the shortlist for the prestigious prix goncourt (thomas & webb, 1999). she has argued that her description of the taboo subject of menstruation counted against her, therefore the same book with a prostate problem instead of uterine haemorrhaging would have been accepted (thomas & webb, 1999). the body as a source of self-knowledge, outside the damaging acculturation, exists in female art. together with the id and jouissance it can sometimes bring down mountains of phallocentric delusions. but it is evident that only “writing the body” technique cannot change the position of “ovarian” versus “phallic” art. the realm of the body is seen as somewhat immune to social and gender conditions and able to issue forth a pure essence of the feminine (barry, 2002). but its main aim is disclosure of the corporeal ground of female intelligence by producing an exhilarating challenge to phallic discourse in the clitoral, vulval, vaginal and uterine shape that traces the way to the white ink of female writing. l’ecriture feminine – white ink of ovarian art is well presented in the following poem: a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [61] “are you the poetess? yes, your majesty! i am called thus! you come from silesia, do you not? yes, your majesty! who was your father? he was a brewer from schweidnitz, near the grünberg vineyards. but where were you born? on a dairy farm, like the one horace had. it is said that you never had instructions. never, your majesty! my upbringing was of the worst sort! but who helped you to became a poetess? nature, and your majesty’s victories. but who thought you the roles? i know of no rules! no rules? that is impossible! you must know the meter! yes, your majesty! but i follow the meter from sound, and i know of no name for it. but then how do you manage with language, if you never learned it? i have rather good control of my mother tongue! i believe that, in terms of nuance, but what about the grammar? with regard to that, i can assure your majesty that i make only small mistakes…” (bovenschen & weckmueller, 1977, 112) excerpt from a conversation between anna louise karsch, called sapho of züllichau, and frederick the great, recorded in her own letter to wilhelm ludwig gleim in 1763 serves as an example of women's exclusion from the artistic realm. the false equation of truth with the masculine perspective produces a phallocentric structure of language that reflects binary logic such as active/passive, masculine/feminine, a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [62] head/heart, son/daughter, intelligent/sensitive, brother/sister, form/matter, phallus/vagina, reason/emotion (murfin, 1999). french feminists hold that this kind of language structure privileges the phallus and masculinity, but it posits woman as an idealized fantasyfullfilment by associating language with separation from mother. therefore, women are forced to choose between two possibilities: either they can imagine and represent themselves as men imagine and represent them or they can choose silence (murfin, 1999). but some influential french feminists found another possibilitythat women can develop a feminine language. annie leclerc, xaviere gauthier, and marguerite duras discovered l'ecriture feminine or women's writing, based on the differences between male and female language, white and black, ovarian and phallic. according to julia kristeva, feminine language is semiotic, rhythmic and unifying. it is derived from the preoedipal period of fusion between mother and child, and it is also closely linked to the woman's body. helene cixous supports kristeva's views in her essay titled „the laugh of the medusa“: to write. an act that will not only 'realize' the decensored relation of woman to her sexuality, to her womanly being, giving her access to her native strength; it will give her back her goods, her pleasure, her organs, her immense bodily territorities which have been kept under seal; it will tear her away from the super-egoized structure in which she has always occupied the place reserved for the guilty (guilty of everything, guilty at every turn: for having desires, for not having any; for being frigid, for being 'too hot'; for not being both at once; for being too motherly and not enough; for having children and for not having any; for nursing and for not nursing...) tear her away by means of this research, this job of analysis and illumination, this emancipation of a marvelous text of her self that she must urgently learn to speak. a woman without a body, dumb, blind, can't possibly be a good fighter. she is reduced to being the servant of the militant a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [63] male, his shadow. we must kill the false woman who is preventing the live one from breathing. inscribe the breath of the whole woman (cixous, 1976, 877). what cixous suggests is that if women are forced to remain in their bodies as a result of male repression they can either remain trapped inside the body, lost and passive, or, they can use the body as a medium of communication. that is some kind of transcendental function prescribed to the female body. at the same time it serves as a prison and as a vehicle for freedom and escape. on the same ground, luce irigaray argues that women's jouissance cannot be expressed by the dominant, ordered and logical masculine language, since women's jouissance is more multiple than men's unitary, phallic pleasure, and women has sex organs just about everywhere (murfin, 1999). what kristeva, cixous and irigaray have in common is their emphasize of female sexuality and its importance in a masculine world. cixous also insists on specific female libidinal impulses in women's unconscious and its presence in the liberatory female discourses. that is actually linguistic shift from kristeva's semiotic discourse that represents incestuous challenge to the simbolic order towards cixous liberatory female discourse of the future. this also poses a new question: can the body be the source of knowledge and new discourse? so far all the answers were based on female rereadings of freud's and lacan's psychoanalytic understandings of female anatomy, but none of them even tried to analyse it through a connection between showalter's three phases of women's writing and psychoanalytic formation of gender identity. the psychoanalytic formation of gender identity the voice of the nymph in marvell's poem “the nymph complaining for the death of her faun“ is hysterical, which calls to mind a cluster of characteristics useful in reading this poem (gottlieb, 1999). the term hysteria involves linguistic and somatic disruptions that are at once strategies of evasion and of confrontation, it is also at least etymologically related to the feminine, and although it is by no means an a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [64] exclusively female response, it lends itself to a critical examination of the contingent historical positioning of women (gottlieb, 1999). hysteria has been connected to the female characters in literature for a long period of time, and the history is somehow coloured by these signs. as helene cixous says (1976), nearly the entire history of writing is confounded with the history of reason, one with the phallocentric tradition. even though there were a lot of feminists analysing works by men, gynocriticism studied the writings of those women who, according to elaine showalter, produced a literature of their own (murfin, 1999). elaine showalter defined three phases of women's writing: feminine (1840-1880), feminist (1880-1920), and female phase (1920 to the present) (murfin, 1999). during the feminine phase women imitated masculine tradition, in the second phase they protested against its standards and values, and in the last phase they finally advocated their own and autonomous female perspective. apart from representing different historical periods and different writing styles, these three phases can also be used with the aim to analyse each particular female author since all of them follow these phases during the development of gender identity. the majority of feminists are trying to discover how women have come to be who they are through the history of their oppression by men and a male-designed world, but in most cases they decline to provide a key for understanding the socialization and symbolization processes which have shaped woman's specificity through the ages. lacan was convinced that „totem and taboo“ was completely wrong, therefore the oedipus complex was freud's own neurosis. according to lacan, sex is correlated with identity rather than gender. the oedipal crisis occurs, not because the child wants to posses its mother sexually, but when the child comprehends the sexual rules in a society (ragland-sullivan, 1982). the crisis can be resolved only when the rules are accepted and acceded to. contrary to lacan, in freud's writings woman is either a lesser, castrated man, or woman is mother, necessary ground for phallic reproduction (gallop, 1980). he finds that children in the phallic phase hypothesize the anus as phallic receptacle, and attempt to think the a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [65] familiar anus as the legendary maternal womb, therefore luce irigaray says that his theory appears to be arrested in the phallic phase (gallop, 1980). even freud himself was conscious that he spoke about femininity in ways that did not always sound friendly to women (moi, 2004). one of the main differences between freud and lacan is that, while freud focused on the psychic dynamics of transference as an intersubjective relationship, lacan insisted that anyone can take up the symbolic position labelled masculine and feminine (moi, 2004). he also insisted on the diference between the terms “penis“ and “phallus“, since the latter represents a lot more then just (erected) penis: paradoxical as this formulation might seem, i would say that this is in order to be the phallus, that is to say, the signifier of the desire of the other, that the women will reject an essential part of her femininity, notably all its attributes through masquerade. it is for what she is not that she expects to be desired as well as loved. but she finds the signifier of her own desire in the body of the one to whom she addreses her demand for love. certainly we should not forget that the organ actually invested with this signifying function on the value of a fetish (lacan, 1966/2002, 84). according to toril moi (2004), in freudian and lacanian theory castration is used in three different senses: to signify lack as a general human condition, to signify sexual difference or femininity, and, to signify the discovery of our own one-sexedness. but besides these similarities, lacan found his own psychoanalysis based on two different systems of meaning: language and unconscious discourse, which, from the other side, gave him a special place in feminist criticism. as for lacan, none will disagree that, throughout his teaching, he reserves a royal place for women, as well as the sobriquet „the ladies' man“ (gallop, 1976). his understandings of the oedipus complex and differences between penis and phallus ensure him that status, and also endow feminist theories with new ideas. a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [66] symbolic castration with the phallus as its signifier represents the gap between what she/he immediately is and the symbolic title which confers on her/him a certain status and authority. these symbolisation and socialization processes underlay the formation of female identity as such, and provide each women with certain rules which she might choose to play in a society. then, among many neologisms of late lacan, there is le sinthome, which represents "sinthom" as opposed to symptom. sinthoms are a kind of "atoms of enjoyment," the minimal synthesis of language and enjoyment, units of signs permeated with enjoyment (lacan. 1966/2002). according to freud, nothing forces anyone to enjoy except the superego, which is the imperative of jouissance. jouissance refers to a pleasure or ecstasy beyond the phallus, therefore it gives another consistency to the women’s writing and liberation movement. following the analysis of emmanuel levinas, walter benjamin, and giorgio agamben, zizek puts forth an unexpected hypothesis that links the object of pure life with the sinthom of shame. since shame itself is a category of castration, and more specifically a kantian auto-affection of respect for castration, phallic sinthome that belongs to a subject becomes overwhelmed by confrontation that there is a surplus-appendage in each person which remains non-castrated (evans, 2008). jouissance represents a surplus of pleasure which remains after the recognition that castration and its disavowal are two sides of the same coin, recognized as inconsistency in freud’s discussion of the medusa’s head: it is remarkable fact that, however frightening the snakes may be in themselves, they nevertheless serve actually as a mitigation of horror, for they replace the penis, the absence of which is the cause of horror (garber & vickers, 2003, 83-84). although itself a canonical representation of the terror and shame of castration, the medusa ironically regulates its phallic anxieties by presenting to the viewer its head full of writhing snakes (evans, 2008) this example shows how female identity generates from “phallic panic” a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [67] attacks to the self-creation of jouissance and enjoyment. at the level of primary castration, both males and females experience loss, and gain an unconscious and a social personality, while at the secondary level this structural drama is substantivized, interpreted and explained (raglandsullivan, 1982). on the ground of the previously mentioned it is evident that each woman writer goes through three phases as described by elaine showalter. the main difference is that these three phases are not independent and merely historically connected, since they represent three phases of gender identity development: imitation of a masculine tradition, protest against its standards and values and finally, autonomous, female perspective. lacan explained the first phase very deeply through the anecdote about competition between zeuxis and parrhasios, two painters from the ancient greece, about who will paint a more lifelike and convincing picture. at the end, zeuxis’s painting was so convincing that the image was taken for the real thing, while in parrahasios’ painting one had the illusion that what could be seen is just a veil covering up the hidden truth. for lacan, that is how feminine masquerade works: she wears a mask to make people react like zeuxis in front of parrhasios' painting, which means that people want to see what is hidden under the mask. according to lacan (1966/2002), a man can only pretend to be a woman, and only a woman can pretend to be a man who pretends to be a woman, as only a woman can pretend to be what she is. in order to explain that kind of female pretending (recognized as imitation by showalter), lacan refers to a woman who wears a concealed fake penis in order to evoke that she is phallus: such is woman concealed behind her veil: it is the absence of the penis that makes her the phallus, the object of desire. evoke this absence in a more precise way by having her wear a cute fake one under a fancy dress, and you, or rather she, will have plenty to tell us about (lacan, 1966/2002, 310). a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [68] phallus has the status of a mimicry which reveales something in so far as distinct from what might be called an itself that is behind (lacan, 1973/1979). it does not fit the body and therefore remains hidden behind the image, hidden behind the feminine as long as she decides to object and, according to showalter, produce something different from men's writing, produce l'ecriture feminine by the white ink of her gender. „out of flesh out of dictionaries“: m(o)ther and childbirth metaphor identity is built up as a composite of images and effects, mental representations taken in from the outside world from the start of life, which are developed in relation to the desire for recognition and the later social requirements for submission to an arbitrary law (raglandsullivan, 1982). according to lacan, the center of women's identity is m(o)ther, who is repressed as the real or primordial unconscious other, and thus is permanently linked to repression, denial, and loss of the truth of being (ragland-sullivan, 1982). these explanations are very important for understanding od lacanian concept of female identity as well as female discourse. by contrast, melanie klein held femininity to be innate and penisenvy but to breast-envy, to the oral and anal frustrations experienced by the child in relation to the mother, particularly in weaning and potty training (sayers, 1987). according to klein, girls already has inborn, unconscious knowledge of their father's penis. nancy chodorow, who has had an enormous influence on women's studies, revises the psychoanalytic concepts of self differentiation and says that it takes place in relation to the mother, who is a woman, and who becomes and remains for children of both genders the other, or the object (showalter, 1981). m(o)other has two meanings which are closely connected to the development of female identity: it represents the principle of loss, or it represents archaic corporal subject femininity relays on. woman is the primordial other who speaks the discourse of the hidden truths of being, the face of god, therefore the answers to the mistery of identity lie in ascertaining repressed (m)other's desire (ragland-sullivan, 1982). the biggest m(o)ther's desire, the prescribed one, lies in (pro)creation, the act a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [69] of the body that reproduces the species. contrary, creation is the act of the mind that brings something new into existence (stanford-friedman, 1987). childbirth metaphor, the one that connects books and babies, also draws together mind and body, word and womb, division of labour and division of gender. the examples of such can be found in female writings and they often make an ambiguity between creation and procreation, pregnant body and pregnant mind: ... it is all blood and breaking blood and breaking. the thing drops out of its box squalling into the light. they are both squalling, animal and cage. her bars lie wet, open and empty and she has made herself again out of flesh out of dictionaries, she is always emptying and it is all the same wound the same blood the same breaking (clifton, 1974, 50). woman can be both, mother and writer, creator and procreator. in the same way she gives birth to her child, she can give birth to her poems and novels. the childbirth metaphor evokes lacan's formation of female gender identity, starting from hommelette, dual nature of human ego that is broken into two halves like the egg, to the m(o)ther, the symbol of creation and new discourse. apart of gender development, childbirth metaphor illustrates how gender complicates the reading and writing of texts. according to stanford-friedman (1987), male metaphor intensify difference and collision, while female metaphor enchance sameness and collusion. the female metaphor actually challenges both showalter's phases and procreative unity of world and flesh, body and mind. the inscription of female body in the text becomes more then evident while evocing the strenght of female childbirth metaphor. even though cixous wrote about future inscription of femininity, women have subverted the regressive birth metaphor and transformed it into a sign representing their own delivery into speech through (pro)creativity (stanford-friedman, 1987). a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [70] that is the last phase of the development of women's writing according to showalter, or the last phase of the development of particular female author: possibility to control the labor of the mind pregnant with the word. the main sense of jouissance is not only the pure, simple pleasure, it is also the surplus of pleasure that arised from the prohibition. most female authors create through the the different kinds of prohibitions: cultural prohibition of enjoyment, prohibition of particular type of behaviour, prohibition of talk or certain reaction... these prohibitions leave the consequences on their mind, body, soul, and help them to create specific anatomy of their texts. books will never be the same as babies, but the childbirth metaphor will always be serving as a specific surplus of m(o)ther discourse written in the white ink of female pen. while virginia woolf describes “feminine sentence“, judy chicago identifies circular forms in the visual arts as female imagery (stanford-friedman, 1987). chicago's “birth project“ is based upon traditional creation myths but replace the concept of the male god with the female version due to its celebration of the birth-giving capacity of women along with their creative spirit (davis, 2009). feminist art is not only about giving birth to the work, it is also about giving birth to the woman herself. the distinction of male and female discourse lies not in the metaphor by itself but rather in the way its final meaning is constituted in the process of reading, even though attempts to identify the sex of a writer or an artist without external clues often fail (stanford-friedman, 1987). therefore, (pro)creation and childbirth metaphor have also been recognized by male writers, like james joyce in a letter to his wife nora: i went then into the backroom of the office and sitting at the table, thinking of the book i have written, the child which i have carried for years and years in the womb of imagination as you carried in your womb the children you love, and of how i had fed it day after day out of my brain and my memory. (ellmann, 1975, 202-203) a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [71] hommelette and m(o)ther, man and woman, word and flesh, pen and womb, book and baby, are simultaneously drawn together in analogy but also separated in function. l'ecriture feminine as white ink of female discourse will promote different view of women's writing concidered through showalter's three phases that are taken into account not only as historical facts, but rather as “writing of her own“. by writing of her own woman is writing female history through ovarian prism and female discourse. that is jouissance of female writing: surplus of her powers and possibilities. conclusion this article analyzed the psychoanalytic background of l'ecriture feminine and childbirth metaphor as illustration how gender complicates the reading and writing of texts. the paper signifies that the identity is built up through the processes of symbolization and socialization, as well as that oedipus myth cannot be taken into consideration before previous analysis of the double castration and difference between phallus and penis. lacan's psychoanalysis can be used in order to explain the formation of female identity through three historical phases as proposed by elaine showalter. jouissance as the surpluse of enjoyment has its major role in explaining women's writing as a surpluse of prohibitions imposed by patriarchal society. women can be both creators and procreators, and each writing is metaphorical combination of both processes. childbirth metaphor relies on organisation of culture and psyche, therefore it owes a lot to jouissance and sexual division of labor upon which western patriarchy is founded. nevertheless, it serves as an indicator of the real l'ecriture feminine based on the psychoanalytic formation of female identity. male metaphor intensify difference and collision, while female metaphor enchance sameness and collusion. while the female metaphor challenges both three showalter's phases and procreative unity of world and flesh, body and mind, the inscription of female body in the text is more then present when evocing the strenght of discourse. the surplus of enjoyment serves also as the surplus of creative power that leads to the biological differentiation of both body and a. jeftić thinking with glands – jouissance of women's writing epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [72] discourse. the pregnant mind hidden behind the image and the feminine produces something different from men's writing. that is the main point where l'ecriture feminine was born and enriched by the white ink of female gender. linguistic reunion of culture, patriarchal literary tradition and female discourse emphasize jouissance of women's writing and its contribution to new literary ideas. references barry, p. (2002). beginning theory: an introduction to literary and cultural theory. new york: manchester university press. bovenschen, s., & weckmueller, b. (1977). is there a feminine aesthetic? new german critique, 10, 111-137. cixous, h. (1976). the laugh of the medusa. signs, 1 (4), 875-893. clifton, l. (1974). an ordinary woman. new york: random house. davis, k. m. interview with judith chicago. artltdmag. retrieved june 30, 2011, from www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull ellmann, r. (1975). selected letters of james joyce. new york: viking. evans, c. m. (2008). hommelette's wild ride: lamella as a category of shame. international journal of zizek studies, 2 (2), 1-19. gallop, j. (1980). impertinent question: irigaray, sade, lacan. substance 9 (1), 57-67. gallop, j. (1976). review: the ladies' man. diacritics 6 (4), 28-34. garber, m. b., & vickers, n. j. (2003). the medusa reader. new york: routledge. gottlieb, s. 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(1999). feminist criticism and jane eyre. a critical history, 460-465. ragland, s. e. (1982). jacques lacan: feminism and the problem of gender identity. substance 11 (3), 6-20. sayers, j. (1987). melanie klein, psychoanalysis, and feminism. feminist review 25, 23-37. showalter, e. (1981). feminist criticism in the wilderness. critical inquiry 8 (2), 179-205. stanford, f. s. (1987). creativity and the childbirth metaphor: gender difference in literary discourse. feminist studies 13 (1), 49-82. thomas, l. & webb, e. (1999). writing from experience: the place of the personal in the french feminist writing. feminist review 61, 2748. 9epiphany abstract the article describes the way in which the italian daily newspaper represents and constructs the image of slavic ethnicity (eu member states only). the aim is to provide the general insight into the image the italians have about the slavic countries (bulgaria, croatia, the czech republic, poland, slovakia and slovenia) in order to observe whether there are some fixed patterns of presenting these countries/nations in the italian daily newspaper. for the purpose of this study, the corpus of newspaper articles containing terms related to the names of the countries involved in the analysis is used. the newspaper articles were obtained from the digital version of italian daily newspaper la repubblica and they include all the articles in the period of six months, i.e. from 1st june 2016 to 31st december 2016. once the occurrences are identified, the categorical apparatus is established to analyse the articles according to the topic and the position within the article. the quantitative analysis was applied and the empirical results were presented. keywords: slavic ethnicity, slavic countries, eu member states, italian daily newspaper la repubblica, content analyses. representation of the slavic ethnicity in the italian newspaper “la repubblica” magdalena nigoević1, nikolina vukančić2 1university of split, 2high school ivana trnskoga hrvatska kostajnica 10 journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction through their either implicit or explicit activities, media contents in contemporary societies, mainly considered an essential source of information and knowledge, manage to construct the public opinion via choosing particular content and particular fashions of their presentation, discovering simultaneously different perspectives in observation and different patterns of thought. the specific ability to influence the salience of both topics and their images among the public has been called the agenda-setting role1 of the news media (mccombs & reynolds, 2002). the selection and display of contents by journalists focuses the public’s attention and influences its perceptions. different studies point to the importance of the media in shaping european image surrounding different ethnicities.2 therefore, we consider it important to have an idea about how slavic eu member states ‒ seums3 are portrayed in the news. although explicit forms of discrimination in european news are hardly seen nowadays, the broad generalizations and lack of background information are still widespread practices across the news media. the aim of this work is to provide the general insight into the image the italians have about the seums in order to observe whether there are some fixed patterns of presenting these countries/nations in italian daily newspaper la repubblica and to determine potential similarities and differences in their presence and in the “portrayal”. other than being a fundamental source of information, the italian daily newspaper la repubblica justifies our choice of the research subject as being a communication channel as well, which helps us to create the perception of the current topics. the overall objective is to contribute to the general insight into the image the italians have about these six countries and the role of italian daily press in the process of constructing that image. slavic ethnicity the ethnicity is perceived as a sense of belonging or attachment to a particular kind of group (connor, 1993; horowitz, 1985), usually connected with the primordial basis for nation building or as a social construction or a choice to be made (anderson, 1991). the real nature of ethnicity is difficult to explain since it is “both a property of self-identification, a route to self-affirmation, and a collective phenomenon grounded in the interaction and political mobilization of the group” (downing & husband, 2005, p. 14). the dominant standpoint nowadays is that communities, such as ethnic groups and nations, are "imagined" (anderson 1991)4 , i.e. that for a great part they rely on the belief in common origins, but it does not suggest that they are any less real, less important and less significant. ethnicity, ethnic theories and ethnic identity have been prominent concepts in scholarly thinking over the last 50 years. they have been disputed, studied and analysed from a variety of theoretical approaches.5 nevertheless, ethnicity is generally defined “in terms of a set of criteria, including a common religion, common ancestry, shared cultural values, shared history, a shared sense of ‘we-ness’” (cento bull, 2003, p. 42). in the european context, slavic ethnicity is considered to be a bearer of certain cultural identity. the history of central and eastern europe slavic countries is full of conflicts, political tensions and economic difficulties. therefore, the narratives constructed about slavic ethnicity are not always positive.6 it is important to consider that westerners sometimes hold distant opinions towards eastern europeans who are seldom “treated with reservation and patronising behaviour” (udovič & podgornik, 2016, p. 118). although their current social and economic conditions have considerably changed within the european union, the portrayal of slavic countries as those "behind the iron curtain" occurs and is being maintained. from the perspective of seums it would be almost impossible to reconstruct the main features of the slavic identity because they have all followed different paths and have frequently created and disintegrated the geographic and political landscape.7 nevertheless, from the point of view of western europe, comprising also the italian standpoint, the slavs are perceived as sharing the common experience of being part of the former eastern bloc and the linguistic similarities of the slavic languages in culture, religion, history, and political tradition. slavic eu member states in general numbers observing the data from eurostat 2015, udovič and podgornik claim that poland is the largest of the seums, measured by the size of the territory or the population. “in terms of population, poland is followed by the czech republic and in terms of territory, by bulgaria. on the other hand, slovenia is geographically and demographically the smallest of the seums. however, in economic terms, slovenia has the highest gdp per capita, being economically 11epiphany the most developed among seums” (udovič & podgornik, 2016, p. 123). according to istat (italian statistical institute) data from 2016, among seums, it is poland that has the primacy over other slavic countries with its residents dwelling in italy, precisely 97,986 of them, i.e. 1.95% of all foreign residents. bulgaria is less present, with 58.001 residents, i.e. 1.15% of all non-italian citizens. on the other hand, other slavic countries represent less than 0.5% of the total number of foreign residents: croatia with 18,050 citizens (0.36%), slovakia with 8,505 residents (0.17%), czech republic with 5,805 residents (0.12%); slovenia with 2,564 (less than 1%) citizens dwelling in italy is the least numerous country.8 methodology for the purpose of this research, the italian newspaper la repubblica (the third most read newspaper with 2,080,000 readers per day) has been used.9 it was chosen because of the unrestricted access to its digital newspaper archive and the possibility of an uninterrupted search (bell, 1991). furthermore, it belongs to the so called "quality press" (clark, 2006), and according to some sources, it is the most widely known centre-left newspaper. based on the newspaper articles, content analysis has been performed. the methodology of this paper regarded the determination of frequency of the articles containing terms related to the names of the countries involved in the analysis. the criterion for the analysis of the content of selected articles was the establishment of categorical apparatus used to analyse the articles according to the topic (sports, news, travel/tourism, foreign policy, culture, crime news, economics/finances, technology, health, home/kitchen, school, fashion) and according to the position within the article (headline, subheadline, along with picture, within text). the main topic of selected articles is sometimes not related to the section of the article, i.e. the topic of the article does not always correspond to its newspaper section. therefore, all of the 3918 articles were read by both authors and, after discussion, agreed about the main topic. such an approach to analysing the articles has proved the fact that a certain discrepancy exists between the topic of the article and the very section which the article appertains to: thus, the articles with the topic “culture” do not always occur in the homonymous sections pre-established by la repubblica, but, possibly, in the section “news” or “politics”. furthermore, in this case, culture and politics may be intertwining throughout an article, with culture consequently being more prominent. the research sample contained all the occurrences of names of selected slavic countries (bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, poland, slovakia and slovenia,), while the unit of the analysis was an article containing one of the mentioned occurrences. newspaper articles were obtained from the digital version of italian daily newspaper la repubblica and they include all the articles in the period of six months, i.e. from 1st june 2016 to 31st december 2016. interpretation of data during the research period, there were 3,918 occurrences regarding the countries analysed in the research. more than one third (i.e. 38.5%) of the total number of occurrences refer to poland (see table 1). the second most present country is croatia with 23% of total number of occurrences; slovakia and czech republic follow croatia with 10%, bulgaria with 8.1% and slovenia with 7% of total number of occurrences occupy the last two places among slavic countries. the results indicate that poland was in the ascendancy over the rest of slavic countries. table 1: the distribution of occurrences according to the presence of a country in corpus f % poland 1059 38.5 croatia 981 25.0 slovakia 418 10.7 czech republic 420 10.7 bulgaria 317 8.1 slovenia 273 7.0 σ 3918 100.0 12 journal of transdisciplinary studies concerning the number of occurrences with regard to the topic of the article, the topics such as ‘economics/ finances’, ‘sports’, ‘news’ are the most numerous; other topics are less present (‘travel/tourism’, ‘crime news’, ‘health’), some of them are even negligible (‘home/kitchen’, ‘school’), whereas the topic ‘fashion’ has no occurrences at all. according to this research, sport is a supranational and neutral category and, therefore, its presence is indisputable, as well as the occurrence of the various news. the topics presented in the following interpretation relate to the three major areas of contemporary society, i.e. ‘economics/finances’, ‘culture’ and ‘technology’. regarding the fact that today’s world is in the state of consumerism, the closest topic related to the very consumerism in the categorical device is the topic of ‘economics/finances’. with reference to that, observing the components of the topic a in the table 2, it is evident that out of total number of occurrences, it is poland that, with its 34.7% dominates in the field of ‘economics/finances’, whilst other slavic countries are almost evenly present in the research corpus: croatia (11%), slovenia (15.7%), slovakia (13.7%), bulgaria (15%), and czech republic, being the least presented (10%). table 2: the number of occurrences in the articles regarding the topic topic: a) economics/ finances b) culture c) technology f % f % f % bulgaria 60 15.0 32 9.7 6 7.0 croatia 44 11.0 32 9.7 4 4.7 czech republic 40 10.0 24 7.3 14 16.3 poland 139 34.7 21 4 65.0 39 45.3 slovakia 55 13.7 9 2.7 16 18.6 slovenia 63 15.7 18 5.5 7 8.1 σ 401 100. 0 32 9 100. 0 86 100. 0 observing table 1, it is indisputable that poland is represented as the dominant slavic country. yet, this is not the only case of poland’s ascendency among other slavic countries. if countries are compared on the basis of occurrences found in the articles which regard the topic ‘culture’ (see topic b in the table 2), then poland with its unreachable 65% has an incomparable primacy over croatia (9.7%), slovenia (5.5%), slovakia (2.7%), bulgaria (9.7%) and czech republic (7.3%). these data show how italy indisputably favours poland in the field of culture, while other countries’ cultures are regarded as somewhat negligible. when comparing data which indicate italy’s perception of technology (topic c in the table 2) in slavic countries, poland is once again the leader of the chart: with its 45.3% of occurrences, poland confirms its domination among slavic countries,10 followed by slovakia (18.6%) and czech republic (16.3%). from the italian point of view, other slavic countries such as croatia, slovenia and bulgaria, are considered irrelevant, especially croatia with its 4.7%. the results obtained from analysing the position of occurrences in articles show that the majority of occurrences take place in the text itself, i.e. 3,524 out of the total number of 3,918 occurrences, which is 89.9% of all occurrences (see table 3). according to the number of occurrences, subheadline has the second place, with 192 occurrences, i.e. 4.9% of 140 occurrences, i.e. 3.6% can be found in headlines, while the fewest occurrences, 62 or 1.6%, are found in the interpretations next to the pictures. these results are not that surprising considering the fact that the text makes the largest part of an article. table 3: the number of occurrences regarding the position in articles f % headline 140 3.6 subheadline 192 4.9 picture 62 1.6 text 3524 89.9 σ 3918 100 13epiphany when confronting other selected countries (see table 4), the presence of croatia along with the pictures (45.2%) could be explained with the fact that 54.2% of all occurrences related to ‘travel/tourism’ refer to croatia. appealing visual input is usually presented along with the texts that relate to tourist attractions and travelling. considering the vicinity and the long maritime border between italy and croatia, this country is the popular tourist destination for italians. being the most numerous countries in the overall occurrences, croatia and poland are also the most cited in the headlines (respectively 37.1% and 34.3%). table 4: the number of occurrences regarding the position of seums bu cro cz r po svk slo σ % % % % % % % headline 6.4 37.1 7.9 34.3 10.7 3.6 100.0 subheadline 5.7 32.3 15.1 24 14.1 8.9 100.0 picture 3.2 45.2 11.3 29 8.1 3.2 100.0 text 8.4 23.8 10.6 39.6 10.5 7.1 100.0 σ 8.1 25 12.7 38.5 10.7 7 100.0 conclusion conducting such a research is challenging and has some disadvantages: the frequency of their occurrences is not a valid indicator of intensity or importance: an abundant qualitative analysis would be crucial to get a more reliable perception. according to the data obtained, poland appears to be the most present country in the corpus. poland is widely known for being populous, catholic country and more than 100,000 poles live in italy. these facts alone could justify the attention given to poland by the italian newspaper la repubblica. it is important to note, as udovič & podgornik claim, that “poland and the czech republic are (in nominal numbers) the most prominent actors in cultural diplomacy among seums” and that “poland is the best performer” of cultural diplomacy (udovič & podgornik, 2016, p. 126). furthermore, poland has managed to balance technology and culture as two opposite sides, and has found the way to make them equally presented, which was generously recognized in italian journalistic area. on the other hand, there is no similar situation among other slavic countries: among these three categories (economics, culture, technology), italy is focused on the aspects of economics rather than on culture and technology when it comes to croatia, which with 10% of occurrences gives priority to economics, whereas culture (9.7%) and technology (4.7%) are less present in the research corpus, which makes these croatian (and slovenian as well as bulgarian) aspects less important for italy. similarly to poland, czech republic and slovakia also stand out in the articles regarding the topic of technology: czech republic with its 16.3% and slovakia with its 18.6%. poland has apparently found a way to stand out and offer its cultural and technological development to the central europe, in this research specifically to italy, to connect culture, which should be cherished as such, and technology, which needs financial assets to benefit its development. as far as the position of the occurrences of seums is concerned, almost 90% of all occurrences are within the text of the article. the headlines and subheadlines are reserved to the countries that show major presence in the overall data, poland and croatia. furthermore, the articles in which croatia is mentioned are frequently accompanied by the visuals. examining how the newspapers portray different ethnicities involves identifying which types of topics receive the greatest attention and the way these topics are presented. many opinions about slavic ethnicity are made on the basis of the newspaper articles. during that process, journalists help establish predominant beliefs, assumptions and values concerning the selected countries. however, 14 journal of transdisciplinary studies there is a reasonable doubt whether these images correspond to the perception of the italian public or they stand for the way in which these countries/ nations represent themselves beyond their borders, in the european media landscape. 15epiphany references » anderson, b. (1991). imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (rev. ed.). london: verso. » banks, m. (1996). ethnicity: anthropological constructions. london and new york: routledge. » bell, a. (1991). the language of news media. oxford and cambridge: blackwell. » caviedes, a. (2015). an emerging ‘european’ news portrayal of immigration? journal of ethnic and migration studies, 41, 6, 897-917. retrieved from url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2014.1002199 (15/01/2020). » cento bull, a. (2003). collective identities: from the politics of inclusion to the politics of ethnicity and difference. the global review of ethnopolitics, 2, 3/4, 41-54. » centro studi e ricerche idos (ed.) (2016). i polacchi in italia. caratteristiche attuali, cambiamenti e prospettive. roma: idos edizioni. » clark, c. (2006). views in the news. a textbook. milano: led. » connor, w. (1993). beyond reason. ethnic & racial studies, 16, 3, 373-389. » cordell, k. (1999). introduction: aims and objectives. in k. cordell, (ed.). ethnicity and democratisation in the new europe (pp. 3-10). london and new york: routledge. » corte, m. (2008). noi e gli altri. l’immagine dell’immigrazione e degli immigrati sui mass-media italiani. padova: cestim. retrieved from url: http://www.cestim.it/argomenti/08media/08media_corte-articolounivr.doc (12/12/2019). » dearing, james w., rogers m. everett, 1996, agenda-setting, thousand oaks, ca, sage. » downing, j.d.h., & husband, c. (2005). representing “race”: racisms, ethnicities and media. london, uk: sage. » farnen, r.f. (ed.) (2004). nationalism, ethnicity, and identity. new york: routledge. » horowitz, d.l. (1985). ethnic groups in conflict. berkeley: university of california press. » kaufmann, ch. (2005). rational choice and progress in the study of ethnic conflict: a review essay. security studies, 14, 1, 178-207. » mccombs, m. & reynolds, a. (2002). news influence on our pictures of the world. in j. bryant & d. zillmann (eds.). media effects: advances in theory and research (pp. 1-18). mahwah, nj, us: lawrence erlbaum associates publishers. » mccombs, m.e. (2014). setting the agenda: the mass media and public opinion, (2nd ed.). cambridge, uk: polity. » pijpers, r. (2006). “help! the poles are coming”: narrating a contemporary moral panic. geografiska annaler, series b: human geography, 88, 1, pp. 91-103. retrieved from url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ j.0435-3684.2006.00207.x (10/09/2019). » udovič, b. & podgornik, a. (2016). cultural diplomacy of slavic european union member states: a crosscountry analysis. baltic journal of european studies, tallinn university of technology, 6, 2 (21), 117-136. 16 journal of transdisciplinary studies endnotes 1 the agenda-setting effects of the news media on people’s attention to, comprehension of, and opinions about topics in the news primarily have been studied in political and business communication settings. (see mccombs, 2014; dearing & everett, 1996) 2 for immigrants of different ethnic groups and the surrounding media discourse in italy see, for example, corte (2008), caviedes (2015). 3 the slavs make up “the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in europe” (see: https:// www.britannica.com/topic/slav). they include poles, czechs, slovaks and sorbs in the west, serbs, croats, slovenes, macedonians, montenegrins, bosnians and bulgarians in the south, and russians, ukrainians and byelorussians in the east. they were divided into two branches of christianity, roman catholicism and eastern orthodoxy, and had a long history of religious as well as political antagonism. in spite of animosity and political tensions inherited from the past, the slavic ethnic groups throughout europe are linked by cultural and historical ties. udovič and podgornik in their article about the role of cultural diplomacy in slavic eu member states use the acronym seums ‒ slavic eu member states (udovič & podgornik, 2016). these are bulgaria, croatia, the czech republic, poland, slovakia and slovenia. the same acronym ‒ seums, will be used in the rest of the text. 4 “it is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellowmembers, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion [...]” (anderson, 1991, p. 6) 5 for an overview of the ethnicity literature see banks (1996) and kaufmann (2005); for the topics of nationalism, national identity, and ethnicity from cross-national perspectives see the extensive collection of essays farnen (2004), for the ethnic politics see keating (2001) or for the collective identities constructed around ethnicity see cordell (1999). 6 at the time of the enlargement of the eu in 2004, the immigrant workers from new eastern european member states feared as threats to borders of morality and identity in western european societies. (pijpers, 2016) 7 a short introduction to slavic cultural cooperation in history, as well as some general data on territory, population, and economy of seums can be seen in udovič & podgornik (2016). 8 other slavic countries replenish italian area with their residents as well. ukraine is the most numerous of all slavic countries with its 230,728 residents (4.59% of all foreign residents in italy), followed by the republic of north macedonia, with its 73,512 citizens, i.e. 1.46%. the remaining slavic countries: serbia (42,263 residents, i.e. 0.84%), russia (35.791 residents or 0.71%), bosnia and herzegovina (27,199 residents, i.e. 0.54%), belarus (8,529 residents, i.e. 0.17%) and montenegro (2,721 residents, i.e. 0.05%) have their presence reflected in less than 1% of all the foreign citizens. (source: istat 2016) 9 the two most read italian newspapers, la gazzetta dello sport (with 3,238,000 readers per day) and corriere della sera (with 2,107,000 readers per day) were not used because the former, la gazzetta dello sport, has its reading material mainly based on topics related to sport, while the latter, corriere della sera, has a restricted access to its archive. an interesting fact is that the four major national daily newspapers, corriere, repubblica, sole 24 ore and stampa (neither of them related to sports) are read by 6,094,000 or 24% of all readers, while the leading sports newspaper, la gazzetta dello sport, itself has 3,238,000 readers. source: audipress elaborazione: datamediahub. retrieved from: http://www.datamediahub.it/2017/09/28/ readership-quotidiani-italiani-audipress-2017ii/ (3/2/2018). 10 from the report prepared by the polish embassy in italy in collaboration with the idos research centre (il dossier statistico immigrazione) in 2016, it appears that about 100,000 poles live in italy. data on polish emigration show that italy is ranked the fifth among the countries to which polish citizens move (after germany, the united kingdom, the united states and canada). the report also highlights the change in quality of the professions chosen by the poles in italy, as the skilled workers are on the rise. it also underlines a considerable contribution that the citizens of poland give to society and to the italian economy. retrieved from url: http:// www.gazzettaitalia.pl/it/polonia-oggi-100-000-polacchi-vivono-in-italia/ (5/2/2018). microsoft word 3. mirsad serdarevic the myth of discovering absolute truth through science.docx epiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 4 spring 2010      the myth of discovering absolute truth through science:  how szasz mistook scientific evidence for absolute truth in an  attempt to deny the existence of mental illness, and invalidated  experiences of those affected by mental disorders    mirsad serdarevic  international university of sarajevo    introduction  there  have  been  numerous  advances  in  the  mental  health  field  since  dr.  thomas s. szasz first expressed his views of mental illness in his seminal work, the  myth of mental illness (1961; 1974), almost five decades ago. this work was followed  by series of books which reiterated, and in some instances recycled, basic argument  made  in  the  myth  of  mental  illness  asserting  that  mental  illness  does  not  exist  because  it  is  unlike  “real”  bodily  illness.  at  the  core  of  szasz’s  argument  is  that  medical  science  is  a  bona  fide  “science”  and  all  medical  specialties,  except  for  psychiatry, follow the rule of “science,” because “real” medicine deals with treatment  of observable injuries,  lesions and other measurable “physicochemical” properties  affecting the body whereas psychiatry relies on “psychiatrist’s opinion” of so‐called  45    mental illness. most debate regarding szasz’s argument has logically focused on the  definition  of  disease  or  illness  (e.g.,  kendell,  2004).szasz  has  responded  to  these  critiques  in  his  usual  selective  manner  reiterating  his  well  known  views  while  avoiding his critics’  legitimate emphasis of   recent advances  in  the mental health  field in general and evidence supporting both psychological and biological etiology  of mental illness (e.g., kendell). i propose focusing on validity of szasz’s “absolutist”  (e.g.,  fulford,  2004;  slovenko,  2004)  position  which  relates  “scientific  proof”  to  absolute truth.  interestingly,  for someone who holds science  in such high regard,  szasz hardly provides any empirical evidence to support his claims. he  limits his  discussion  to  the  history  of  psychiatry,  hysteria,  law  ,  politics,  religion,  etc.  the  following is an excerpt from szasz’s writing that shows both his absolutist stance, his  assurance  that  he  is  "certain"  of  truth,  and  an    admission  of  how  scientifically  unsubstantiated his  conclusions are in the myth of mental illness, the article (szasz,  1960) , and the book the myth of mental illness: foundations of a theory of personal  conduct (szasz, 1961; 1974). "strictly speaking, then, this paper was not the product  of  any  research.  rather,  it  was  an  attempt  to  tell  a  truth  which,  i  was  certain,  everyone knew, but which they were too polite, too timid, too opportunistic, or too  uncaring to articulate" (szasz, 1983, p. 21). therefore, he was "certain" of a "truth"  which  "everyone  knew,"  and  which  was  not,  as  he  puts  it,  "the  product  of  any  research." rather than substantiating his conclusions with scientific evidence, szasz  expects his readers to take his expert opinion on the issue. szasz expects his readers  46    to take his word as the expert and just accept, without the proof of any scientific  evidence,  that psychiatry  is not a  scientifically supported branch of medicine. to  szasz,  medicine  is  “scientific”  and  only  bodily  illness  is  “true”  illness,  whereas  psychiatry  “invented”  so‐called  mental  illness,  which  is  not  real  and  can  only  be  viewed as “metaphorical” illness. in his absolutist stance and dichotomous thinking  szasz misses great deal of the gray area to provide an illusion of objectivity. noted  scholar and professor of religion at wake forest university, charles kimball writes:  “it  is  much  easier  to  know  the  truth  than  to  seek  it”  (kimball,  2002,  p.  68).  unfortunately, szasz, much like some members of scientific community, often gets  carried  away  and  takes  the  easier  route  of  “knowing  the  truth,”  rather  than  proposing a hypothesis and allowing space for continuous questioning and testing of   the hypotheses.   in this article i argue the following points: first, only mathematical proofs are  absolute “compared to their poor relation, the scientific proof” (singh, 1997, p. 23).  while szasz can gather enough data to support his theory or theories, it is unlikely if  not impossible that he can prove it through the scientific proof to the “same absolute  level of mathematical theorem” (singh, 1997, p. 23). second, i provide overwhelming  scientific evidence supporting psychotherapy’s effectiveness, the discussion of which  was omitted in szasz’s the myth of psychotherapy (1978; 1988) where he compares  psychotherapy to “friendship” and even “advertising” (szasz, 1988, p.3). szasz bases  his critique of psychotherapy on his own personal experiences with psychoanalysis  47    and  psychiatry  of  the  40s  and  50s,  generalizing  freud’s  assertions  and  psychoanalytic views to all of psychotherapy while neglecting to mention works of  aaron beck on cognitive behavioral therapy (cbt), carl r. rogers, and viktor e.  frankl, to name a few contributors to the field of psychotherapy, and empirical data  on  psychotherapy  outcome  studies  showing  effectiveness  of  psychotherapy  (g.e.,  smith  &  glass,  1977;  wampold,  2000).  third,  i  summarize  pennington’s  (2002)  arguments to integrate both biological and psychological basis of psychopathology  through  cognitive  neuroscientific  theoretical  framework.  finally,  i  would  like  to  acknowledge, szasz’s contributions, despite their  limitations,  to the mental health  field by highlighting the importance of continuous reflection on and critical analysis  of our clinical and research practices.    absolute proof versus scientific proof    making a distinction between absolute undisputable proof, or the truth, and a  scientific conclusion seems to be crucial in responding to szasz’s arguments about  the non‐existence of mental  illness. to szasz, scientific proof  is synonymous with  undisputable truth and only scientifically proven illness is a bona fide “real” or true  illness. szasz, however, seems to have spent most of his energies finding flaws in  mental “illness” that he may have overlooked some limitations of scientific proof.     in his wonderfully written non‐fiction book, fermat’s enigma (singh, 1997),  the author, dr. simon singh, a writer with a ph.d. in physics from the university of  48    cambridge,  writes  the  following  about  the  difference  between  mathematical  and  scientific proof: “the difference between scientific and mathematical proof is both  subtle and profound…” (singh, 1997, p. 20). singh goes on to argue:   mathematical  theorems  rely  on  this  logical  process  and  once proven are true until the end of time. mathematical  proofs are absolute. to appreciate the value of such proofs  they  should  be  compared  with  their  poor  relation,  the  scientific  proof.  in  science  a  hypothesis  is  put                       forward to explain a physical phenomenon. if observations  of the phenomenon compare well with the hypothesis, this  becomes  evidence  in  favor  of  it.  furthermore,  the  hypothesis  should  not  merely  describe  a  known  phenomenon, but predict the results of other phenomena.                       experiments  may  be  performed  to  test  the  predictive  power  of  the  hypothesis,  and  if  it  continues  to  be  successful  then  this  is  even  more  evidence  to  back  the  hypothesis.  eventually  the  amount  of  evidence  may                         be overwhelming and the hypothesis becomes accepted as  a  scientific theory.                                                    however, the scientific theory can never be proved to the  same  absolute  level  of  a  mathematical  theorem:  it  is  merely  considered  highly  likely  based  on  the  evidence  available.  so‐called  scientific  proof  relies  on                   observation and perception, both of which are fallible and  provide only approximations to the truth (singh, 1997, p.  21).    singh continues to argue: “even the most widely accepted scientific  ‘proofs’  always have a small element of doubt in them” (singh, p. 21). further, singh writes:  “science is operated according to the judicial system. a theory is assumed to be true  if there is enough evidence to prove it ‘beyond all reasonable doubt.’ on the other  hand, mathematics does not rely on evidence from fallible experimentation, but it is  built on infallible logic.” (singh, p. 23).   49      singh  uses  the  problem  of  the  “mutilated  chessboard”  to  demonstrate  difference between the scientific approach and the mathematical approach:   we  have  chessboard  with  the  two  opposing  corners  removed  so  that  there                                                    are only 62 squares remaining. now we take 31 dominoes  shaped  such  that  each        domino  covers  exactly  two  squares.  the  question  is:  is  it  possible  to  arrange  the              31 dominoes so that they cover all the 62 squares on the  chessboard?                         there are two approaches to the  problem:  (1)  the  scientific  approach                                                    the  scientist  would  try  to  solve  the  problem  by  experimenting,  and  after  trying  out  a  few  dozen  arrangements would discover that they all fail. eventually  the scientist believes that there is enough evidence to say  that the board cannot be covered. however, the scientist  can never be sure that this is truly the case because    there  might be some arrangement that has not been tried that  might  do  the  trick.  there  are  millions  of  different  arrangements,  and  it  is  possible  to  explore  only  a  small  fraction of them. the conclusion that the task is impossible  is a theory based on experiment, but the scientist will have  to live with the prospect that one day the theory may be  overturned (singh, 1997, pp. 23‐24).   indeed,  scientific  empirical  articles  published  in  peer‐reviewed  journals  almost  always discuss the “limitations” of research methods, measurement errors, etc. due  to  limitations  of  every  scientific  approach.  singh  introduces  the  mathematical  approach:         50      (2) the mathematical approach  the  mathematician  tries  to  answer  the  question  by  developing  a  logical  argument that will derive a conclusion that is undoubtedly correct and that  will remain unchallenged forever. one such argument is the following:   • the corners that were removed from the chessboard were both white.      therefore, there are now 32 black squares and only 30 squares.   • each domino covers two neighboring squares, and neighboring squares                are always different in color, i.e., one black and one white.   • therefore, no matter how they are arranged, the first 30 dominos laid  on the board must cover 30 white squares and 30 black squares.   • consequently,  this  will  always  leave  you  with  one  domino  and  two  black squares remaining.   • but  remember,  all  dominoes  cover  two  neighboring  squares  and  neighboring squares are opposite in color. however, the two squares  remaining are the same color and so they cannot both be covered by  the one remaining domino. therefore, covering the board is impossible!  (singh, 1997, pp. 23, 24, 25).   51    singh’s illustration of scientific approaches limitations is an important one not  only  in  reviewing  szasz’s  absolutist  stance  in  articulating  his  arguments  against  psychiatry,  but  also  tendency  of  his  critics,  as  well  as  other  scientists  who  have  throughout history made absolutist claims about their scientific theories. of course,  science has afforded us many privileges and its “approximations” have enabled us to  lead  healthier  and  longer  lives,  among  other  things,  and  yet,  in  our  everyday  language, we often accept scientific results and scientists’ claims as absolute truth.  within  scientific  circles  there  is  an  ongoing  debate,  if  not  petty  argument,  about  which  field  is  the  most  “scientific.”  for  example,  physicists  and  chemists  usually  consider themselves more scientific than other scientists, and sometimes the two are  at argument as well. biochemists like to mock molecular biologists as “biochemists  practicing without a license,” while both biochemists and molecular biologists, who  engage  in  “basic  science”  and  explore  life  at  a  molecular  level,  view  medical  or  clinical  research  as  an  inferior  form  of  research  performed  at  a  superficial  level  compared  to  their  “real  science.”  needless  to  say,  social  science  is  often  at  the  bottom of  this unofficial hierarchy because natural and physical scientists do not  understand  how  what  social  scientists  do  is  a  science,  which  is  because  social  scientists  encounter  numerous  challenges  such  as  measurement  construction  of  complex constructs (e.g., measuring emotions, socioeconomic status, etc.) variables  other scientists do not have to consider.  it  is only  ironic that mathematicians are  often  left out of  this discussion, given that they are the only ones who can make  52    claims of absolutely “proving” something. it  is given that mathematics is given its  credit, but it seems often in passing, something taken for granted by other scientists  who used  it  in applied way, and view it  from a utilitarian perspective.  ironically,  despite  competitiveness  among  science  fields,  the  path  of  science  has  led  to  integration of different fields rather than differentiation. fields such as biophysics,  biochemistry,  psychobiology,  cognitive  neurosciences,  social  medicine,  preventive  medicine,  anthropological  medicine,  health  psychology,  etc.  have  emerged  significantly  contributing  to  recent  scientific  discourse.  indeed,  integration  of  different  branches  of  science  seems  appropriate  for  the  study  of  such  complex  problems as mental  illness, among other problems in physical, natural and social  science  which  require  integrative  formulation  for  understanding  of  complex  phenomena.   the reality of psychotherapy    as mentioned earlier in this article, szasz tends to generalize his training in  and  understanding  of  psychoanalysis  to  all  of  psychotherapy.  in  the  myth  of  psychotherapy  szasz  is  so  certain  of  what  psychotherapy  is  that  he  likens  it  to  something “comparable to friendship” and “advertizing” (szasz, 1988, p.3). again, he  sounds  convincing  in  that  he  comments  on  what  i  believe  was  reality  of  his  psychoanalytic training in chicago in the 1940s and the state of psychiatry in the  early  1950s,  but  there  is  nothing  objective  or  scientific  about  his  personal  53    observations.  the  following  are  just  few  arguments  demonstrating  evidence  of  psychotherapeutic  effectiveness  szasz  conveniently  neglected  to  mention  in  the  myth of psychotherapy.     smith  and  glass  (1977)  performed  the  first  meta‐analysis  of  psychotherapeutic  treatment  outcomes.  in  their  meta‐analysis  smith  and  glass  reviewed all 375 studies comparing psychotherapeutic treatment to a control group.  smith  and  glass  provided  evidence  supporting  the  claim  that  psychotherapeutic  treatment is effective form of treatment for mental illness. more importatantly, they  showed that some components common to all therapies, rather than one specific to  one  psychotherapeutic  modality,  made  psychotherapy  effective.  examples  of  common components are the healing context and the meaning attributed to  it by  both  the  patient  and  the  therapist,  as  well  as  the  delivery  of  therapeutic  “interventions” consistent with the rationale for therapy (frank and frank, 1991).  frank and frank go on to propose that the client is mobilized and motivated in such  a  healing  context  and  expects  to  improve,  which  leads  to  development  of  a  therapeutic relationship. wampold (2000) argues that, when taken as a system that  is  shared  across  psychotherapies,  evidence  supports  components  and  contextual  processes as effective and efficacious therapy for mental illness. it is important to  note that smith and glass (1977) were followed up by other meta‐analytic studies all  of  which  indicated  effectiveness  of  psychotherapy  and  provided  evidence  for  common factors (wampold, 2000).   54      frank and frank (1991) write the following (which i suspect was not part of  szasz’s  psychoanalytic  training  in  the  1940s)  about  psychotherapy:  “therapists  should select for each patient the therapy that accords, or can be brought to accord  with  the  patient’s  personal  characteristics  and  view  of  the  problem”  (frank  and  frank, 1991, p. xv). we now know that there is no such thing as a “value neutral”  science,  including  psychology  (prilleltensky,  1989)  and  that  patients  cannot  be  viewed  as  apolitical,  acultural,  ahistorical,  acontextual  beings  (marti‐baro,  1994)  living in a vacuum, which is how they were treated in traditional psychoanalysis,  where  only  context  considered,  to  a  limited  degree,  was  family,  but  other  environmental  factors  were  neglected  if  not  ignored  altogether.  from  this  perspective szasz is right to pick on freud and psychoanalysis, but he does not stop  there and goes on for a full on assault on psychotherapy, a subject which he thinks  “knows,”  i  suppose  because  it  is  easier  to  “know”  and  reduce  the  entire  field  to  something like “advertisement” than to “seek” the truth and explore this complex  activity from a scientific perspective.   lott (2002) talks about “cognitive distancing from the poor” that has extended  from the general society into sciences, including psychology, which neglect the poor  and  influence of poverty on physical and mental well being. szasz provides good  example of this  in the myth of mental illness: foundations of a theory of personal  conduct (szasz, 1961; 1974) where he goes beyond ignoring the poor, but is quick to  argue that physicians have no role  in helping the poor. at the very  least one can  55    observe the link between poverty and malnutrition (if not on mental health), one of  the reasons why we have preventive medicine and public health, so it would seem to  me that poverty is very much so within medicine’s jurisdiction, in addition to other  governmental agencies’ jurisdiction. i am not proposing that szasz is not empathic or  does  not  have  compassion,  because  he  is  certainly  passionate  about  rights  of  patients and rightly objects involuntary hospitalization, both surely humane goals,  but misleading when looking at the bigger picture of his proposal.   basically, szasz is big on liberty and individual rights, but ignores oppressive  elements  of  society  and  their  effects  on  human  physical  and  mental  health.  for  example, it has been shown that gender and racial discrimination is associated with  hypertension (e.g., krieger, 1990), perceived discrimination with depression (e.g.,  noh & kaspar, 2003), and that there is association between stressful environment  and changes to corticoids levels (e.g., pennington, 2002), and yet szasz invalidates  experiences of the oppressed and existence of mental illness. he does so from the  point of privilege: able‐bodied, white male, of upper‐middle socioeconomic status  (ses) and of aristocratic background. from this perspective  it  is easy to see how  szasz would emphasize personal responsibility and minimize oppressive elements  present in all societies.   to complicate matters szasz can make a point of the fact he overcame a lot as  an  immigrant who at 19 years of age had to uproot and adjust  to new language,  56    society and culture, which may have given him a sense of shared experience with  other oppressed groups. however,  i propose  that  those  “shared experiences” are  only  superficial,  and  there  is  a  profound  difference  between  someone  who  is  immigrating  to  a  new  society,  granted  faced  with  many  challenges,  but  from  privileged background and speaking multiple languages, and someone who was born  in poverty, was malnourished, discriminated against, never knew anyone with more  than high school education and received subpar education herself. i do not propose  that i can even begin to understand, beyond intellectual knowledge, of what it feels  like to be, for instance, discriminated against on a daily basis. this is why we ought  to be careful when we talk about personal responsibility and what “others” should  and  should  not  be  doing.    personal  responsibility  is  certainly  important  and  empowering for any individual, but it is a bi‐directional, dynamic exchange between  the individual, who has some abilities to exert power on her environment, and her  environment  (bronfenbrenner,  1989)  which  can  be  supportive  and  facilitate  individual growth or oppressive and lead to maladjustment. it would be challenging  to work with those who have, as szasz calls it “so‐called mental illness” if you cannot  recognize  oppressive  nature  of  peoples  developmental  contexts,  it  is  virtually  impossible to do psychotherapy if one does not give these contextual factors their  due.     57    the  gray  area  “and”  the  gray  matter:  an  argument  for  integration  of  the  biological and the psychological  pennington (2002) highlights lack of integration between psychological and  physiological theories in the extant mental health literature. pennington argues for  integration  of  the  biological  and  psychological  mechanisms  implicated  in  developmental  psychopathologies.  further,  pennington  argues  that  biological  and  psychological explanations of the same clinical phenomenon (e.g., depression) are  “not necessarily competing explanations” (pennington, 2002, p. 3). biological and  psychological  approaches  “may  be  complementary,  each  operating  at  a  different  level of analysis” (pennington, 2002, p. 3). pennington goes on to argue:   however,  for  either  the  biologist  or  the  psychologist  to  think  about  how  these  two  explanations  relate  to  each  other  is  not  straightforward  because  a  theoretical  framework  for  integrating  these  different  levels  of  explanation  is  only  beginning  to  emerge.  this  neuroscientific  framework  seeks  to  relate  behavior  and  mind  to  the  brain.  it  is  important  to  realize  that  every  psychopathology requires us  to solve the brain‐behavior  or  mind‐body  problem.  it  is  not  enough  to  frame  an  explanation  of  a  psychopathology  purely  in  terms  of  mental or psychological constructs. to do so ignores the  brain. at the same time, to frame an explanation purely in  terms  of brain  variables such as  receptor  efficiencies  or  densities  is  not  enough.  to  do  so  reveals  a  naïve  reductionism,  because  even  if  the  causal  brain  variables  were known, we would still need to know how these brain  differences  lead  to  changes  in  behavior.  (pennington,  2002, p.3)  58      pennington concludes that the point of a neuroscientific perspective is that all  social  influences affect brain development while brain mechanisms implement all  psychological  constructs.  illustrating  brain‐behavior  or  mind‐body  connection  pennington  discusses  how  traumatic  social  experiences  such  as  abuse  or  neglect  “can cause very persistent changes in brain development” (pennington, 2002, p. 4).  pennington’s proposed model of causation is presented in figure 1.   figure  1.  proposed  bidirectional  model  of  causation:   (a) etiology ‐> (b) brain development ‐> (b)neuropsychology ‐> (c) behavior note.  where behavior then has a bidirectional effect on both original etiology and brain  development  (i.e.,  there  is  a  feedback  loop  with  an  arrow  back  from  behavior  towards both etiology and brain development). environmental strain (e.g. the war  zone) ‐> (b) neuropsychology (biochemical changes in the brain due to emotional  and cognitive strain)‐> (c) behavior(s) (diagnoses ptsd).  consider the following hypothetical, though currently possibly real scenario  for  troops:   the soldier who is under daily stress, and is patrolling the streets, surrounded with  many ordinary, harmless people, but he understands that at any moment someone  may emerge from the crowd with an explosive and kill him, his comrades, and many  civilians he is trying to protect. in fact, this soldier is very tense because, in addition  to  his  already  dangerous  mission  of  keeping  peace  in  crowded  streets,  where  59    everyone can be potential enemy, he witnessed death of his close friend just weeks  ago. moments feel  like hours and hours feel  like days. he has been doing this for  weeks now. he is hyper‐vigilant and he's feeling fatigue, both physical and mental,  he has difficulty falling asleep at night. he survives his tour and he comes home to be  diagnosed with a post‐traumatic stress disorder (ptsd).  in this example we can  think of his environment comparable to that of a weapon, let us say a pistol, except  instead of a  flesh wound, days  in  the  field have put an extreme mental pressure,  which  has  changed  biochemistry  of  his  brain,  causing  him  to  have  numerous  sleepless nights, nightmares, low mood, and sudden bursts of aggression. his new  "behaviors" are now disrupting his attempts at re‐establishing his old life with his  family. a simplistic representation (see figure 1) of this example is consistent with  cognitive neuroscientific approach.    according to szasz,  there  is no mental  illness. rather,  it  is really "life" that  happened to to people affected with it (e.g., the soldier in the above example), they  had "tricked" themselves into believing that they are fine going about life as they  were  (e.g.,  performing  duties  as  a  soldier)  and  should  be  "responsible"  for  their  choices, deal with consequences of those choices and accept all discomforts that they  may feel, because they certainly cannot have mental illness because it does not exist,  as szasz has stated so many times. szasz may also suggest that the  soldier in the  above mentioned example may be malingering, and just hoping to get financial or  health benefits from the va. szasz often talks about dehumanization of psychiatry,  60    but,  if  his  previous  arguments  would  indeed  translate  into  this  kind  of  an  interpretation  of  the  situation,  i  am  not  sure  if  it  is  only  psychiatry  that  is  dehumanizing.     conclusion    to reiterate kimball’s words (2002), it is much easier to “know” the truth than  to “seek” it. szasz, ironically much like freud and other authoritative psychiatrists  whom he criticizes, seems to have taken the easier road in his absolutist stance as a  psychiatric abolitionist, a stance and view which remained practically unchanged  over  several  decades.  to  be  fair  to  szasz  he  uncovered  some  harsh  realities  of  psychiatry of his time, and was ostracized by the psychiatric establishment, which  could not have been easy and is still probably difficult. still, to reiterate his words  about  his  original  article,  the  myth  of  mental  illness,  published  in  the  american  psychologist:  “strictly  speaking,  then,  this  paper  was  not  the  product  of  any  research. rather,  it was an attempt  to  tell a  truth which,  i was certain, everyone  knew, but which they were too polite, too timid, too opportunistic, or too uncaring to  articulate" (szasz, 1983, p. 21). well, at least he is candid. so, szasz used “science” to  challenge  the  concept  of  mental  illness  and  discredit  psychiatry  as  a  bona  fide  science,  but  he  published  his  seminal  article  deplete  of  “any  research,”  simply  because he “was certain,” and expected us to take his word for it. as i discussed in  the first part of this article even if szasz provided some scientific evidence, because  61    of  the  nature  of  “scientific  proof”  and  its  limitations,  he  could  still  not  prove  his  claims to the absolute level which would justify his absolutist stance.   it  is  challenging,  if  not  agonizing,  to  criticize  szasz.  he  sends  consistently  contradictory  messages  of  liberty,  individual  rights,  poor  psychiatric  and  mental  health facilities, and banishment of involuntary hospitalization, all noble causes as we  may agree. yet, szasz is very punitive toward an individual who goes even a little  astray, discounting oppressive environment which may have contributed to it, as he  highlights personal responsibility and unquestionably supports the rule of law (as if  legal  codification  is  naturally  occurring  law,  ultimate  guide  and  not  an  artificial  codification  which  has  been  evolving  for  years.  than  there  is  something  very  peculiar: szasz proposes that the “mentally ill” should fight for their rights, as other  oppressed groups have throughout history (szasz, 1963; 1989, p. 253). so, szasz is  telling a group of mentally ill persons, whose condition he ceases to acknowledge or  validate, to fight for their rights? he invalidated experiences of so many and reduced  it  to  problems  of  life,  and  therefore  implied  that  somehow  they  are  deficient  in  coping  mechanisms  that  others,  perhaps  like  himself,  may  have.  he  also  acknowledges that there is something to the whole idea of “mental illness” when he  is calling for “the mental patient’s liberty” (szasz, 1989, p. 253). he then identifies,  yet one more time, psychiatry as “oppressor,” concealing bigger societal oppressors.  perhaps, if we lived in a more just, less oppressive systems, there indeed would be  62    less need for mental health services, including psychiatry, but i would propose that,  at  least  to  a  degree,  all  mental  health  services  including  psychiatry,  psychology,  counseling, social work, etc. are necessary bandages in the oppressive society where  trauma  happens  on  all  levels  of  social  ecology  (i.e.,  family,  neighborhood,  larger  societal levels such as xenophobia often infused in general culture of the dominant  culture as well as in numerous policies, etc.). to say that there is no mental illness is  to invalidate residual effects of horrible traumas such as rape, sexual and physical  abuse,  domestic  violence,  horrors  of  war,  all  of  which  can  lead  to  numerous  disorders such as ptsd and many personality disorders. if it is an issue of semantics  and szasz does not want to label persons as “ill” that would be perfectly fine in the  society  which  would  allow  everyone  to  still  receive  needed  care  in  some  sort  of  humanitarian institutions with unlimited resources, but in present societies, to take  away this label, is to leave person out on the cold.  persons may suffer, but because  they suffer from nothing or “problems of life,” as szasz would argue, they would not  receive any care. the label, however imperfect, and often misused, is also a form of  protection. szasz does not see it this way and his attitude often is malingerer until  proven  otherwise,  but  since  there  is  no  mental  illness  than  they  all  must  be  malingerers looking for primary or secondary gains, or perhaps a benefit from the  va.   63    to  “destroy”  psychiatry,  as  szasz  suggests  (szasz,  2004),  and  take  his  suggestions for the alternative, which would include boutique style of resorts, which  would not resemble hospital nor hotel, but be some kind of a hybrid  institution,  would mean that only very wealthy could receive “treatment,” and all others would  either have to cope with their “so‐called mental illness” or would end up in prison.  that is not all, however, szasz does think that people should have a right to take any  drug they want or take their own life, so one cannot accuse him of not providing  alternatives.   despite their demonstrated shortcomings, szasz’s contributions to the mental  health  field  are  indeed  valuable  and  highlight  the  importance  of  continuous  reflection and critical analysis of our clinical and research practices.    it is difficult to “destroy” anything, much less a multidisciplinary field serving  millions of persons afflicted with disorders that may not be observable as “lesions”  (but  than  again  numerous  other  diseases  now  readily  accepted  as  a  bona  fide  diseases, based on szasz’s criteria, wouldn’t have met the criteria few decades ago),  but are just as real and cause true suffering. to deny existence of mental illness is to  invalidate  experiences  of  persons  afflicted  with  it.  psychologists,  psychiatrists,  physicians,  social  workers  have  both  moral  and  professional  responsibility  to  advocate for the poor, oppressed and disenfranchised in an attempt to make a more  64    just society. we could think of  this duty as not only a preventive measure, but a  humane one.                                        65    references  bronfenbrenner, u. (1989) ecological systems theory. annals of child development 6            187‐249.  frank,  j. d., & frank,  j. b.  (1991) persuasion and healing: a comparative study of  psychotherapy (3rd edition). baltimore, md: johns hopkins university press.   fulford, k. w. m. (2004) values‐based medicine: thomas szasz's legacy to twenty‐ first  centrury  psychiatry.  in:  j.  a.  schaler  (ed)  szasz  under  fire:  psychiatric  abolitionist faces his critics. chicago and la salle, illinois: open court.   kendell, r. e. (2004) the myth of mental illness. in: j. a. schaler (ed) szasz under  fire:  psychiatric  abolitionist  faces  his  critics.  chicago  and  la  salle,  illinois:  open  court.  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lent (eds) handbook of counseling psychology. new york: john wiley.  epiphany: vol. 12, no. 1, 2019 e-issn 1840-3719 85 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) language as a sign of power in the handmaidʼs tale mahshid namjoo abstract a language which seems to be an ordinary tool of communication can have a very critical and interesting role to shape the individuality and mentality of a person. the handmaids’ tale beautifully shows different ways in which language can manipulate humans’ minds and make them behave obediently. power is not a simple process in which orders are clearly given and in which individuals can always recognize the powerful forces. sometimes, the power that is everywhere needs to penetrate any aspect of individual life secretly and in a hidden way. one of these hidden ways is through language. by showing the power of language, margaret atwood becomes a strict critique of societies in which individuality is undermined. keywords: language, power, storytelling, confession, social hierarchy. language as a sign of power in the handmaids’ tale 86 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) the word is a flame burning in a dark glass. (margaret atwood the blind assassin) i n t r o d u c t i o n the concept of language and its relation with power seem to be the most mindboggling issues of recent decades. what is language? how does it affect the system of power? is there anything special about language and its usages? or is it just considered as a means of communication? the role of language in forming power as well as overthrowing it is intriguing and debatable. language, as foucault believes, is the primary means of power by which individuals have been introduced to society, solidified their positions in society and also spread power’s doctrines and ideologies through members of societies (will to truth 179). in margaret atwoodʼs the handmaidʼs tale, language plays a crucial part in shaping and changing individuals; the power system guarantees its future and its authenticity through language. although the language is a sign of power and can act as its representative, its role is not always a dominant one, in fact, sometimes it manifests itself as a suppressed and restricted entity. irrespective of its extended domain, individuals do not have complete access to the realm of language and even they are not permitted to exploit words freely and express themselves thoroughly. language is no longer an "autonomous construct" (fairclough vii), a series of "sentences", but rather an "action" (fairclough vii) which makes the society the proper ground of struggle for power through the production of language as a kind of discourse. as maintained by linda thomas in language, society, and power, "language can be said to provide a framework for our thoughts, and that it is very difficult to think outside of that framework" (39), as a result, it is "possible to use language to manufacture an ideology which could steer the way people think" (39); because it would become too difficult for one who desires to think outside that framework; anything a person learns, believes and thinks is in control of language that is an agent of power relations. the principal purpose of this paper is to consider the role of language in forming the system of power and its subversive role to crash down the system of power, likewise. there are many leading theoreticians who focus on power-language relationships. this paper will concern itself with the theories of three well-known theoreticians whose ideas and opinions on power and language have proven pivotal to any such discussions. first, the theory of norman fairclough seems necessary to be discussed because, even though it offers a very "sympathetic" (rouse 95) analysis of the foucauldian understanding of power and language, it is, in nature, a more precise focus on the role of language in power system as well as social life. fairclough introduces the new definition of language and its practicality in forming the system of power. not only does language have a significant role in communication and in making the daily and ordinary interactions much easier, but also it is a tool in the hands of power. secondly, it will discuss how feminists employ linguistic theories to talk about the importance of language in power systems. and finally, i will argue that language does not have a fixed entity and nature, and as a result, it causes so many challenges in numerous conditions and situations. furthermore, new concepts and principles are made or formed on the grounds of these challenges. in fact, the understanding of power structure is "dependent on knowing the language" structure and how language helps its speakers to accomplish their personal and social goals (fairclough ix). moreover, language is able to take sides with one ideology and make it the dominant one, and simultaneously make the other suppressed, obedient, or defeated. finally, i will discuss how a dynamics of power and its volatile features can sometimes have counter-productive effects and, in short, take steps against the dominant power hierarchy. d e f i n i t i o n o f l a n g u a g e language, which seems to be the easiest means of communication in daily lives, and has become the focus of many debates of recent times, has been widely studied. attempting a unique and widespread definition of language seems impossible because the concept of language depends on a variety of factors and it may change in the course of time. foucault, a distinguished pioneer of showing the indissoluble relationship between discourse and power, is one who offers the new way of defining the language and its usages. foucault defines language in the will to truth as "the means by which an individual is initiated into society"(179). however, people are rarely "free to say anything" (sheridan 119) and express their real feelings and intentions; there are always social, cultural, and familial barriers that are perennially imposed on each individual. moreover, "we cannot speak of anything," mahshid namjoo 87 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) foucault says, "when and where we like, and that just anyone, in short, cannot speak of just anything" (119). the whole network of language must be supervised. there is no limiting point for language. in fact, the domain of language is infinite, but one cannot experience this infinity, and one always has to be cautious about anything he/she utters. for example, the handmaidʼs tale tells the story of offred, a woman who used to have a normal life in a country once called america and then fell victim of the political changes that lead her alongside many female characters in the story to lose anything that had and become objectified in a new regime called gilead. in the beginning, the power system needs to inculcate its principles and doctrines into the members of society, but it should be done in a way that individuals think they are free to choose. the best means by which individuals can be persuaded is language. the power system selects some of them to be its spokesperson, namely sereba joy who becomes dominated later by the power system and becomes speechless. she cannot reveal her pent-up emotions, feelings, and suffering since the power system stifles her, like the other women in society. some argue that human beings are free to choose their words; however, it should be noted that even chosen words are the direct result of their social and cultural training and the condition in which they are raised. consequently, human beings are never able to extricate themselves from those mandatory bonds. society and its culture play a crucial part in the production of discourse. since the advent of language, people have felt themselves trapped in the network of language. although language gives them the way to speak and the apparent freedom of speech, people do not think that they are totally free to say whatever they want even in their daily interactions. it is completely shown in the handmaidʼs tale when none of the characters are free to speak even if some belong to the higher rank or they are the power agent; their destiny is the same. power system tries to suppress them and make them bottle up their real emotions; serena should tolerate the presence of other women, the commander should come to terms with his loneliness and lack of communication, and etc. there is a shadow of fear that forces them to be cautious. as a result, it is too difficult to have a thorough definition of language. l a n g u a g e a s a d i s c o u r s e a n d i t s r e l a t i o n s t o t h e p o w e r s y s t e m discourse is made by language, and it cannot be considered as an absolute "autonomous structure, simply a system of sentences" (fairclough vi), rather, any discourse depends on the time and the place in which it is made. on the one hand, social, cultural, political, and individual factors impose their respective limitations on discourse. consequently, language has always been formed and controlled by the power system; so that language structure can never be far from the act of limitation, censorship, prohibition, and distortion. discourse, constructed by language, and as a widespread reality gets admiration and "veneration" (sheridan 126) of many because of facilitating the act of communication. therefore, people usually overlook their covert capability to impose prohibition and limitation on each individual. on the other hand, firstly, in some situations, the speaker speaks either intentionally on behalf of the other or unintentionally repeats the others’ beliefs or opinions. foucault was "the first to teach us something absolutely fundamental: the indignity of speaking for others [;] we ridiculed representation and said it was finished, but we failed to draw the consequences of this theoretical conversion to appreciate the theoretical fact that only those directly concerned can speak in a practical way on their own behalf" (foucault the will to truth 111-2). secondly, language becomes the site of power in order to practice its objectives and to make the linguistic domain constrained by its rules, which frequently measure individuals. moreover, by means of language, people are able to "articulate the effects of a certain type of power and the reference of a certain type of "discourse, "the machinery by which" policies of the power system can be implemented (sheridan 138). thus, language "extends and reinforces the effect of power" (sheridan 138). it is not important whether "discourse is produced by power" or that power can be "produced by discourse" (sheridan 168); both have been mutually interwoven into one another so that both of them simultaneously become the object and instrument of the other in an effort to precede their desirable plans. what makes this relationship interesting is that the discourse/power relationship, as foucault believes, is not predictable and "centralized" (the will to truth 168); indeed, it has many occasions in which this relationship produces double meanings which cannot be easily decoded. however, when one wants to disclose language as a sign of power in the handmaids’ tale 88 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) and decode the hidden meaning of any discourse or language, they will find the fear which had been already there, foucault says. thirdly, it is not true that one should suppose that language has a fixed and continuous entity. there are many factors that have a direct or indirect influence on it, so it must be "treated as discontinuous practices that variously intersect, juxtapose, and exclude one another" (sheridan 126). since language is thought to be an influential agent of the power structure, it is neither fixed nor pre-constructed due to the fact that both are at the stake of time and place and so they can undergo the process of change. what is more, the presence of any discourse depends on its political, cultural, and social conditions and it can lead to different types of discourse which might not be stable and fixed entities through the passage of time. power uses language, on the one hand, to standardize, stabilize, and unify the social condition and people, and on the other hand, to inject its objectives, which seem necessary for creating the delusion of having a fixed entity even if it is not true in reality. and finally, foucault states in the will to truth that one "must not go from discourse towards some inner core of meaning concealed within it" (126), but that the impact of external elements and conditions in regulating and normalizing any given discourse should be taken into account in order to decipher the hidden meaning of that discourse. paying attention to the social and cultural atmosphere in which the discourse was born is essential because, as mentioned earlier, discourse is the favourite tool of the power system using which it can dictate and internalize some of its beliefs. normally, power is "disinterested [in] unveiling of" (the will to truth 139) its track on social, cultural, familial, linguistic or even individual matters; nevertheless, by close observation and attention to the centralized discourse, one can find its trace. e x t e r n a l f a c t o r s i n d i s c o u r s e there are different external and internal factors that not only shape but also control language as one of the most significant signs of power. however, in this section, the external factors and their importance will be discussed. first, such factors can be divided into two groups of "division and rejection" (sheridan 120). the exchange of power between them can always jeopardize the dominant system. foucault says in the will to truth that power, through the network of language and its apparatuses, not only controls but also "penetrate[s] individual's right to their most private issues" (168), namely the way of living and even choosing a love partner by using the act of division and rejection. the gilead society divided people into two groups: male and female; also there are numerous subcategories within these two groups. what is noteworthy about these subcategories is that they all put forth different definitions of language that seem to contradict one another. although the discourse of the lower levels is not "treated" as an important and effective one, their counter-productive effects can challenge the dominant power because they are "attributed with strange powers of hidden truths" (sheridan 120). the importance of language in creating the hierarchy should be emphasized. language becomes the mediator of the power system that intends to "make decisions, to control resources, to control other peoples’ behavior and often to control their values" (linda thomas 36). and language is the way to guarantee "the acquisition of power and the enforcement" of power and the longterm existence of the hierarchy (thomas 37). this hierarchy shows that language cannot be a preconstructed entity that exists before the social situations. as fairclough has maintained, the language system is like "an army" (fairlcough 21) that is under the control of power relations. the standardization of both society and people takes place through language. the atwood’s novels, with which this paper is concerned, show that "everyone in a language community" does not have "equal access to" language and that the "command of standard languages are unequal" (fairclough 21). in fact, by the notion of hierarchy and unequal access of people to the language, power strives to legitimize itself among different groups of people so as to finally enslave them. the possibility of having a real conversation wanes with the creation of such a hierarchy. in the handmaid’s tale, the handmaids do not have the permission to communicate with one another loudly and overtly, and if they had a desire to make verbal interactions, it would be hidden. "we learned to whisper almost without sound" (ht 14). after this ritual viewing, we continue on our way, heading as usual for some open space we can cross, so we can talk. if you can call it talking, these clipped whispers, projected through the funnels of our white mahshid namjoo 89 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) wings. it’s more like a telegram, a verbal semaphore. amputated speech (ht 211). he has something we don’t have, he has the word. how we squandered it, once (ht 99). by omitting the chance of conversation, they are being ignored in an indirect way in both social and political scenes, and they are also deprived of having an "intimate conversation" (wareing 89); accordingly, they lose both having free access to the linguistic domain and their self-confidence, which has been undermined by language. the verbal language seems dangerous to the gilead regime because a person may gain the opportunity to renew the situation and simultaneously, challenge the dominant structure. according to fairclough, "one aspect of power is the capacity to impose and maintain a particular structuring of some domain or other-a particular way of dividing it into parts, of keeping the parts demarcated form each other, and a particular ordering of those parts in terms of hierarchical relations of domination and subordination" (fairclough 13). language is believed to be "a form of social practice", as fairclough says, because "it is a part of society" and it cannot be considered as the external element that stands out of the system (fairclough 22). it is "a socially conditioned process" that keeps the discourse in order and puts someone in the position of power while the other is subordinated to it; finally, it lets people of higher rank control and reshape the outcome of language (fairclough 22). in the handmaid’s tale, the relationship between language and the social hierarchy is proved to be an internal one in which people had been determined socially to use a special language. the way people talk is the direct result of their social training, and it depends exactly on the level to which they belong. their discourse is strictly controlled by the male discourse of society. offred tried to depict her society within the framework of discourse, and also criticize the double-standard of social hierarchy in which the system of language is not equally distributed. she thinks that language can be free from those power boundaries. however, in reality, the type of language and the way she uses it show something else; the language as the apparatus of power aims at suppressing women in society. it is supposed that language is dominating only women of the story, but in fact, there are moments when men are also trapped, limited, and devalued by language. language defines for each group "what each is allowed and required to say, not allowed or required to say, within the particular discourse type" (fairclough 38). in the handmaid’s tale, playing scrabble is a symbol of the loss of freedom. both men and women in the gilead society are victims of the power system. the lack of communication as well as having limited access to the language system is something they have to tolerate. even being in the top position of the hierarchy means having lost something, and it is because of this that serena joy becomes speechless, and the commander’s burning ambition is to communicate with someone, which leads him to play scrabble with his handmaids secretly. to him, it is more exciting than their compulsory sexual relations. this game, on the other hand, brings a sense of freedom for the handmaids, too. they are not allowed to read and write, and even speak words out of the system. through this game, offred is given a new chance to remember what she had already lost. 'the word game' brings her a kind of sense of freedom, and it endows her with the feeling of having power over language. she enjoys it because she is engaged "in public discourse with men" (butler 67). when the commander gives her the chance, she starts to use it as his weak point to overthrow the patriarchal language. it shows that not only are the handmaids forbidden from having verbal interactions with one another but also that the higher ranks also suffer from a kind of verbal harassment. what had i been expecting, behind that closed door, the first time? something unspeakable, down on all fours perhaps, perversions, whips, mutilations? at the very least some minor sexual manipulation, some bygone peccadillo now denied him, prohibited by law and punishable by amputation. to be asked to play scrable, instead, as if we were an old couple, …, a violation too in its own way (ht 163). in the handmaid’s tale, the lower participants of each group, whether they are men or women, are either "compliant" linguistic users or "compliant witness" (fairclough19) of the power of language. on the other hand, in both the handmaid’s tale, the women of higher rank are somehow trapped in the language structure. moreover, it shows that language on the one hand gives freedom to talk and on the other hand limits the freedom of speech of those to whom the privilege has been given. in the case of the handmaid’s tale, serena joy was "an agitator of the values" which would language as a sign of power in the handmaids’ tale 90 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) later become the rules in gilead and would trap her in the world of her words (pettersson15). she was the representative of words; she made speeches in order to persuade the other women to stay at their home and dedicated them to the patriarchal power system. her speeches were about the sanctity of the home, about how women should stay home. serena joy didn’t do this herself, she made speeches instead, but she presented this failure of hers as a sacrifice she was making for the good of all (ht 55). the aforementioned excerpts indicate the hypocritical aspect of language in manipulating the minds of others, especially those who are not capable of taking any steps against power relations. however, after the creation of gilead, her power is taken away from her and the recreation of hierarchy devalues her so much so that even if she is still in the position of higher rank, she becomes powerless, too. "once a discourse type has been settled upon, its conventions apply to all participants, including the powerful ones" (fairclough 47). because: she doesn’t make speeches anymore. she has become speechless. she stays in her home, but it does not seem to agree with her. how furious she must be, now that she’s been taken at her word (ht 56). thus, one could argue that language is an insincere medium of power relations because the power system first manipulates its agents like serena joy, and later aunts to introduce its doctrines to each level of society in accordance with its needs, and then sentences them to be in prison house of their speeches, and through this method, it shatters them and makes them selfless. therefore, language can be a mask in order to make the trace of power relations in creating the hierarchy invisible, a mask that gives the person the opportunity to hide their real desires, intentions, and purposes. the role of language in creating social strata is significant. language shows "the lines of tension" (fairclough 8) in the power structure that try hard to legitimize people of each group as the representative of either the dominant power or subordinated to the power structure through the production of language. it shows the lack of stability and coherence in the linguistic structure as well as the power structure. making those categories helps participants of each level to raise their awareness about how language plays an active role in the domination of some people by the other; it is through this "consciousness" that the subordinated can take steps toward "emancipation" (fairclough 1). according to fairclough, the effectiveness of the power of language always depends on "power of their users", who uses it and when? (fairclough 1) in fact, the graphs illustrate that the way people interact with each other depends on the social group to which they belong. because the way language defines their roles and their limitations are linked to their social level. thus, each wishes to know to what extent their position allows them to participate in the production of language and in the power system; if they are not allowed to participate in such practices, the only remaining alternative is to be a "fully compliant" individual (fairclough 19). in showing language as an action, these graphs are very important because: first, the act of division makes the possibility of having a real conversation and interaction illusory. second, language illustrates that the variation is "not a product of individual choice, but a product of social differentiation" (fairclough 21) whose purposes, social setting, and future prospects are stabilized by the dominant language. third, the emergence of different ideologies stems from the possibility of having struggles within the linguistic structures of each group, struggles that finally lead to the domination of the ideology which is in accordance with the framework of the dominant power structure. logically, "the maximization of the profits and power of one class depends upon how language internalizes their favorite codes" (fairclough 34-5). language defines the codes of each group and determines what one is allowed to say and what one is not allowed to say in particular or even ordinary interactions, as fairclough believes. t h e r o l e o f i d e o l o g y i n t h e h a n d m a i d ’ s t a l e ideology is the outcome of power relations as well as power struggles. when people interact linguistically, they are not often consciously aware of the role of ideology that has internalized their favorite codes. an example would be how the gilead conventions penetrated into each individual mind in a way that they mahshid namjoo 91 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) forget their prior norms of society or the way they prefer not to remember them. at red center, aunts have a great responsibility to teach and codify the given doctrine. thus, a relationship between the aunts and the handmaids embodies a "common sense" assumption that shows hierarchy as a natural process (fairclough 2). the aunts know about the way of salvation and the method of holy life whereas the handmaids don’t. the aunts are in a position to determine how a woman should behave, and how she should be treated in this system; they also know what the main role of women is, and the handmaids are the ones who need to be informed linguistically. as a result, "the ideologies are closely linked to power" and in this relationship, the presence of language is highly necessary because "ideologies are also closely linked to language, because using language is the commonest form of social behavior" (fairclough 2). the language provides the proper ground for ideologies to reveal themselves, and therefore language is important enough to gain the attention of ideologies that are the "means of legitimizing existing social relations and differences of power" (fairclough 2). in the handmaid’s tale, there are different types of ideologies, the ideology of the dominant group, and the ideology of lower ranks. since there is a contradiction between them, the power system needs a place to guarantee the permanence of its doctrines. the red center is the place where language appears in its commonest forms to dictate and internalize the ideology of the power system, due to the fact that the exercise of power in each society is mostly achieved through ideology. the aunts try to naturalize these accepted ideologies in the handmaids; they know naturalization is "the most formidable weapon in the armoury of power and therefore a significant focus of struggle" (fairclough 105-6). the ideology is a guarantee to keep the authority hidden behind discourse, because ideology deals with minds, so its effects cannot be easily seen in the physical world, and as a result, the addressees assume that they are free in the linguistic domain. the ideologies make the handmaids terrified to take any steps against the power’s will. offred cannot act against the law even if she knows the law is inequitable. "wittig believes the power of language to subordinate and exclude women; language is an institution that can be radically transformed" (butler 35). to substantiate this, offred is always terrified in her daily conversation to choose a word to talk or answer because she thinks that words can cost her a lot. this can prove how the language system can limit the freedom of individuals. she is not free to say whatever she wants and whenever she desires. besides, if the power of language is accepted to be the main factor in "social stratification" (jones 143), the controversial question, i.e. who "gives order" and who "takes it" and based on what factors this linguistic authority is given, emerges (jones 147). to answer this question means proving fairclough’s theories of the power in discourse and the power behind it. repetition and memorizing are the tools of ideology. the aunts, who act as the authorized handlers of gilead regime, prepare handmaids and subject them to the system through the ideology. as it was mentioned earlier, the system tends to group people; also, one of the ideology’s tasks is to divide people and impose certain roles upon them, an act that usually happens by repetition. the handmaids are believed to be a fallen, outcast, and dried entity if they are not acting in accordance with the system. nevertheless, if they are good performers, they will be transformed and completed. aunt lydia: they also serve who only stand and wait. she made us memorize it. she also said, not all of you will make it through. some of you will fall on dry ground or thorns. some of you are shallow-rooted…think of yourselves as seeds….let’s pretend we’re trees (ht 28). another belief the aunts try to naturalize is that women must be invisible in society. "aunts lydia said never forget it. to be seen-to be seenis to be…penetrated. what you must be girls, is impenetrable" (ht 39). the most important manifestation of this doctrine is when the tourist group wants to take a picture, and offred says no because she is so drown to the ideological doctrines of gilead society. what is noteworthy is that offred, regardless of her previous freedom and visibility in society before the creation of gilead regime, is so intoxicated by the ideological discourse, introduced by the aunts, that she cannot think differently now. the interpreted turns back to the group, chatters at them in staccato. i know what he’ll be saying, i know the line. he’ll be telling them that women here have different customs, that to stare at them through the lens of a camera is, for them, an experience of violation (ht 39). language as a sign of power in the handmaids’ tale 92 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) the handmaids are banned to talk to the other men and must be seen inaccessible. the women in society should be speechless and silent in their verbal confrontation. they are thought to be vulnerable to temptation and should be reminded to be careful. nick looks up and begins to whistle. then he says, "nice walk?" i nod, but do not answer with my voice. he is not supposed to speak to me. of course some of them will try, said aunt lydia. all flesh is weak. all flesh is grass,…they cannot help it, she said. god made them that way but he did not make you that way. he made you different. it’s up to you to set the boundaries. later you will be thanked (ht 55). in fact, verbal discourse plays a crucial role in "locating individuals" (rouse 98). the ideological norms are not only made linguistically but also become common in each social relation. the red center and the aunts are in charge of setting certain behavioral codes and defining the handmaids’ roles. power is born among the astute plays of words and the way they are presented in society. the handlers in the red center managed to turn women against themselves and their own beliefs. the handmaids become puppets, and they masquerade their real selves, or even worse, they forget their reality. language, in corporation with ideology, changes the way they behave and they dress; consequently, a new self is born, and it substitutes the old one that cannot be called authentic. the dominant ideology wipes out and destroys the old selves and simultaneously makes them seem as heresy. "we are fascinated, but also repelled. it has taken so little time to change our minds" (ht 38). the gilead society acts as a symbol of sovereignty. in the handmaid’s tale, the hierarchy attempts to be the symbol of law and order, but in offred’s opinion, it cannot be the symbol of justice even if it claims to protect women in society. against foucault’s theory, the society cannot solve the hidden conflicts among different layers of the hierarchy or even the same level in a seemingly "unified and coherent system" (rouse 103) although the red center tries vainly to destroy the possibility for its inhabitants to have second thoughts. the red center prioritizes the collective belief over the individual one. if a person protests, they will be punished in different ways. the system is not the "protector of peace" (rouse 103) caused by language, it is more a cause for chaos inside the system. language tames human beings, especially women, in order to "disseminate" the doctrines of power through "more extensive social network" (rouse 105). the only possible way to knock down the coherence in social stigma is language. the characters tried to use the power of words to gain power and challenge the current ideology. it is believed that language cannot sit on the fence and act neutrally, rather, it is always trapped in the power system, and it is the "product of the ideologies" (jones and peccei 38). therefore, it is an important task assigned to language to provide a valid framework of thought and make sure everyone cannot think and act linguistically outside of the given framework. language, on the one hand, "manufactures an ideology which could steer the way people think" (jones and peccei 39) and on the other hand, it provides the resistance force to smash it down. language can be used not only to steer people’s thoughts and beliefs but also to control them. offred’s thought is so surrounded by the linguistic codes of how to behave she cannot think outside the box. however, she still remembers the codes of her past life: she is not brave enough to take any dramatic action to change the situation. the ideological system attempts to impose certain ways of speaking and using language upon all participants of each group. its purpose is not only to use language as the "medium of expression" (jones and peccei 39) and mental habits proper to "the power system, but to make all other modes of thought" and speaking "impossible" in a way that "they determine their perceptions of the word" (39). the gilead society wants to inspire each level of society by a special thought that makes them useful for the system. the wives should be patient enough to share their husbands with the handmaids, whereas the handmaids should sacrifice their self for the sake of the future generation. at the red center, the prior thoughts of the handmaids which somehow were the prerequisite of their validity have faded away or stored in an unconscious mind. therefore, they are not able to exert considerable influence within the linguistic structure of society. the language introduces the new doctrine in order to make them aware of their roles. on the one hand, language must be appreciated to form the thought, and on the other hand, language makes the possibility of having the same meaning for everyone farfetched. the scrabble game is the breaking point of the dominant language because it gives permission to the deprived minds to have access to forbidden words. mahshid namjoo 93 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) it could be argued that atwood shows the failure of the hierarchal society. foucault believes that "power is everywhere not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere; power is not possessed by a dominant agent’s, nor located in that agents relations to those dominated, but is instead distributed throughout complex social networks" (rouse 109). they act to establish the connections between "what a dominant agent does and the fulfillment or frustration of a subordinated agent’s desires" (rouse 109). it must happen through the ideological surveillance of its members. the commander’s wife, serena joy, is a kind of female authority, but it is just on the surface; in reality, she was dominated by the power system when there was no need for her services in the public scene. thus, within the hierarchy, women are often envious of one another instead of being supportive, and it is against the will of power and the aunts’ training. aunts attempted to reconcile women with one another in order to carry each others’ responsibility, but they fail. "what we are aiming for, says aunt lydia, is a spirit of camaraderie among women. we must all pull together" (ht 234). the commanders’ wives resented the handmaids for breaking into their private room and stealing away the attention of their husbands; the handmaids resented the wives for participating in sexual intercourse; marthas resented both the wives because of imposing their responsibilities on the handmaids, and the handmaids because of devaluing themselves. the aunts want them to be unified, but they become an enemy of each other and somehow an intruder. the aunts want to persuade them through the verbal language, that they should be the "transitional generation" (ht 127) and pass on gilead ideologies. nevertheless, they fail to make them act as a catalyst. for the generations that come after, aunt lydia said, it will be so much better. the women will live in harmony together, all in one family; you will be like daughters to them… there can be bonds of real affection…women united for a common end! (ht 170) you are a transitional generation, said aunt lydia. it is the hardest for you. we know the sacrifices you are being expected to make. it is hard when men revile you. for the ones who come after you, it will be easier. they will accept their duties with willing hearts. she did not say: because they will have no memories of any other way. she said: because they won’t want things they can't have (ht 127). it somehow happens when, later, offred explains the marriage ceremony between angels and young girls, who they were prevented from seeing any men and having any relationships. however, offred believes that the new generation will question this way of life, and they cannot be enslaved forever. moreover, two of the problems are, firstly, the linguistic system of power, and ideology that try to "cast all women as powerless victims" regardless of the group they are in, and "cast men as undermining, excluding, and demeaning women" (wareing 90). therefore, as a result of this inequality, women try to penetrate the system. although serena joy becomes silent and cannot make speeches anymore, she tries to break the law by sending offred to nick. the aunts are not powerful, indeed, although they think they are. they act as the mask of power, and they have an active role in reshaping the subjects. the subjects are people who were raised by different types of ideologies. some take steps against any new ideological discourse, namely moira, and laura or even any discourse whose aim is to destroy them. and some become blind-followers of the system, such as offred and iris. however, there is always a chance to be a rebellion; that’s why the gilead society fails to create a "coalition action" at the end (butler 27). i n t e r n a l f a c t o r s i n d i s c o u r s e one of the ambiguities of language is in some situations where there is a contradiction between what one says and what one means. the handmaids are supposed to judge each other verbally and give their opinions loudly however untrue it may seem. they cannot freely express what they think. on the one hand, they have already been indoctrinated and their judgment is not neutral, and on the other hand, there are always the watchful aunts who check the words out of their mouth, and if their speech is not legitimized by the power system, they will be severely punished. thus, whatever the handmaids pass as a comment, it is not against the system. all of them have to have the same comment; the aunts make them appreciate the collective commentary over their personal ones. the power system functions through the aunts and internalizes some ideologies so as to make everyone reach the same way of thinking and conduct. this is because following this way; they can guarantee their future existence. the system stole away something much more valuable than language as a sign of power in the handmaids’ tale 94 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) what the handmaids think, and that something is their thoughts. they become automatons of power, and painfully, they get used to not thinking so much. "i try not to think too much. like other things now, thought must be rationed. there’s a lot that doesn’t bear thinking about. thinking can hurt your chances, and i intend to last" (ht 17). it seems that they can survive if they are silent followers of the dominant thought who do not dare comment on anything against society. aunt helena is here, as well as aunt lydia, because testifying is special. it’s janine, telling about how she was gang-raped at fourteen and had an abortion… all testifying, it’s safer to make things up than to say you have nothing to reveal… but whose fault was it? aunt helena says. her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison. who led them on? aunt helena beams, pleased with us. she did. she did. she did… (ht 81-2) the painful revelation is not only that the other handmaids believe or pretend to believe that she was guilty, but also that after having some confessional sessions in a row, janine found herself guilty, too. "janine doesn’t wait for us to jeer at her. it was my fault, she says. it was my own fault. i led them on. i deserved the pain" (ht 82). fairclough believes that whenever people interpret discourse and comment on different issues, they necessarily obey the law of hierarchy and based on the order of discourse, the commentary language is produced (fairclough 39). so, language constantly reproduces itself, and as a result, it increases the chance of its survival. the more natural "the functioning of an ideological assumption in the construction of coherent interpretations, the less likely it is to become a focus of conscious awareness" (fairclough 85) and hence the more secure the power system is. in the handmaid’s tale, there are two kinds of commentary: first, the commentary that is given by the aunts in order to show how the handmaids must think. the second type of commentary belongs to "discourse participants" (fairclough 141) which are done by the handmaids. it is clear that this kind of interpretation is based on what they learned at the red center and what the system lets them. the less contradictory relationship there is between these two types, the more powerful the system will be. these types of commentary aim at "typifying the ways in which specific classes of subject behave in social activities, and how a member of special classes of subjects behave towards each other-how they conduct relationships" (fairclough 159). the aunts’ exertions had left the handmaids feeling enslaved by the linguistic structure due to the fact that they could not express their opinions, their concerns about confessional sessions and confessors freely. thus, being good in the eyes of society happens when their stereotypical role is internalized in their minds. the commentary has a longterm effect on the interpreters. therefore, considering the social and political situations which give permission to language to function as a power apparatus is always important. since time and place are not stable entities, the members of the society who are the true users of language are also changeable; these two conditions make language itself an unstable entity. the more identical the commentary of the handmaids, the more impenetrable the power will be. when there is a possibility of diversity, power always attempts to impose its own interpretation upon the non-powerful interpreters, such as the handmaids in atwood's novel. one could presume that although the system tried so hard to equalize the outcome of the commentary, there is always an unintended reproduction of the discourse that acts against the rules. the objective of the stage of commentary is "to portray a discourse as a part of social process, as a social practice, showing how it is determined by social structures, and what reproductive effects discourses can cumulatively have on the structures, sustaining them or changing them" (fairclough 163). interpretation is a mental process that is invisible and inaccessible for both the listeners and the interpreters, so something is needed to bring it out to the physical world, and language seems to be the best candidate. the gilead regime is criticized by offred. this criticism somehow stems from the power system itself. it is believed that the system always prohibits, limits, and censors language; however, it is the system that, unintentionally, paves the ground for the possibility of having resistant forces in the form of language. this resistance against the power of gilead starts with the confessional sessions in which the handmaids have to comment on others and label them. offred says that we have to fabricate something like a confession even if there is not anything to confess. otherwise, we get punished. the system hurts itself because when the power of imagination is activated, the participants will have access to the prohibited realm of language. the last step that leads offred to free herself and make sure of the power of words is scrabble that activates her mind. in her imagination, she plays with mahshid namjoo 95 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) words, she makes love, and she takes revenge. at the end of the story, before she becomes the passenger of an unknown future, she has killed the commander verbally even if in reality she couldn’t. the handmaids are dominated by confession since their narratives are structured around the efforts of the representatives of state power-the red center-to extract a confession from them. how could one confess "seriously of a subject that aroused only disgust or ridicule? and how could one tell the complete truth about their sin and" avoid both hypocrisy and scandal? (sheridan 169) the urgency to confess is imposed on them from outside, and they have to share the most intimate details of their lives which are not easy to verbalize at all. consequently, they do not share the truth. the handmaids make themselves vulnerable by exposing their innermost thoughts, secrets, and desires. and it is completely natural for them to avoid telling the truth and to gloss over some facts by manipulating the words. finally, the aunts take the testimony too seriously because its aim is "to maximize output" of the regime and "to reduce the incidents, interruptions, disturbances, and the formation of secret associations" (sheridan 149). and the examples of their failure would be moira, and mayday as the underground secret organization. i n t h e h a n d m a i d ’ s t a l e , s t o r y t e l l i n g i s a f a i n t h o p e i n a d e a d l a n g u a g e speaking is an integral part of all kinds of human relations. in the handmaid’s tale, the act of storytelling functions as a shout in order to have a listener or to find someone to whom one can talk. by creating imaginary audiences, offred finds a way to give away all her bottled-up emotions, traumatic experiences, and on top of that, a way to confess. in the gilead regime, the handmaids are deprived of verbal communication, and as a result, she chooses storytelling as the ultimate substitute. "feminists are particularly interested in stories because as a marginal group of society, women have often been the objects rather than creators of narratives: their stories have often been untold", as karen fostein has said (pettersson 6). offred, who was the marginalized person and who was not taken seriously in the gilead society as a person who can give an opinion and talk about serious issues, is sick and tired of being silent, and she decides to tell her life story, whether as the steps taken against the domination or just narrating the injustice of her society. since "all social systems are vulnerable at their margins and that all margins are accordingly considered dangerous" (butler 168), it is not an easy decision at all to unfold some prohibited words in order to let the words fight against the power system. the fight between the forces of power, i.e. the dominant power and the subordinated power, starts when offred shares her memories of life in the gilead society. this fight is dependent on language. there is a relationship between power and language, but this very language in each society is controlled, monitored, and shaped by power relations. so what one says or what one does not say, what is accepted or what is unaccepted have already been defined. offred chooses the oral form for telling her story over the written form, because, firstly, writing had been prohibited by the regime. secondly, handwriting can lead the authorities to find her. thirdly, she desired to talk to someone even if there was an imaginary one; and finally, the act of storytelling was a way to mitigate her pain. she was hurt in the gilead society, and in telling her story, she could imagine herself as a patient of a psychoanalyst who invites her to talk. tell rather than write, because i have nothing to write with and writing is any case forbidden. but if it’s a story, ever in my head, i must be telling it to someone. you don’t tell a story only to yourself. there’s always someone else. even when there is no one (ht 149). offred chose the spoken text as a way of sharing her life story because it seems more descriptive than reproducing something which people can refer to as a valid document. also, another reason is that "it is men who have driven away women from writing in order to defend the patriarchal order" (davis 59) of discourse. however, it does not make any difference she chooses which way to narrate her life story, oral form or the written one. both cannot fully portray the society and cannot heavily criticize it because of being in control of the power structure. i think the kind of language she uses is to a great extent the one practiced and approved in gilead; "it is a language that is male dominated, and offred can be seen to exist within a male discourse, which limits her position in the society of gilead; hence, offred’s narrative is, although written in a place outside gilead’s discursive reach, not free from the frames of what gilead discourse allows her to think" and say (pettersson 6). when i get out of here, if i’m ever able to set this down, language as a sign of power in the handmaids’ tale 96 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) in any form, even in the form of one voice to another, it will be a reconstruction then too, at yet another remove. it’s impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out, there are too many parts, sides, crosscurrents, …which can never be fully described… (ht 114) it cannot be said that the reconstruction of language through the act of storytelling does not take any steps against the dominant power. the violence of storytelling as a kind of discourse targets the illusionary unified structure of the language system and makes it seem as "a lifeless construct" (butler 161) which has not had any power against offred’s story. offred is speaking on behalf of herself, her listeners, and indeed all. the storytelling authorizes offred as a preacher who imposes the act of listening to everyone and coincidentally gives scathing remarks about her society, and then challenges the whole power structure. however, there is some evidence in the story that proves that offred, indeed, does not want to find an "alternative" (rouse 115) for the gilead regime; her aim is to identify and introduce the hazardous aspects of her society as well as its weak points. in no way does she want to change society because she does not dare to act publicly; moreover, she does not have any practical model in her mind to make life better. she had been dependent on a male discourse before gilead, but the form of dependency was different. the world she chose to live in both societies, before and after gilead, was impressed and surrounded by the patriarchal language and the female discourse was in the margins. offred’s story provides an opportunity for both she and the readers to comment on and be critical of the gilead regime and indirectly of the patriarchal discourse. although some may think she finally decides to fight against this gloomy society, she is always afraid of the consequences. thus, she cannot be entitled as the determined, courageous person whose purpose is to help overthrow the regime. on the contrary, some believe that not only does her narrative reveal a lot of her painful experiences as the handmaid in gilead in an ironic tone, it is also an "item of exchange" (butler 66) to reverse the power’s hierarchy at the end. her story cracks the coherence of the "public discourse" (butler 66). the readers have witnessed that her story gradually defeats the system. at the end of the story, before offred started her travelling towards an unknown future, the commander was worried about whatever she could spy on him and tell the others. it is not important whether she reached the destination where she thought she could feel freedom or not, but her message is passed on to the readers, and it introduces her story as the dominant power. it seems that her narrative depicts women in captivity of the male discourse, but it, in fact, "presents men and women as political prisoners" of the gilead regime, "trapped as victor/victim in their own reflection of the world and of each other" (somacarrera 45) that has been verbalized. the concept of storytelling evokes the fact that men and women are not free individuals, but they are political instruments. in the handmaid’s tale, atwood presumably seeks to overthrow the victor/victim status. at the end of the novel, the female character apparently takes the title of the victor because she chose a good way, i.e. storytelling, to fight. women, as the minor group, are supposed to be always the victim of the patriarchal language, yet the men, like the commander, are also suffering from the lack of communication and from not sharing their stories. by offred’s narrative, the power system was reversed because offred, who belongs to the marginalized group of people, manipulates the others’ minds in order to change their perspectives and standpoints about her and her society. she grabs the power and makes all trapped in her linguistic structure and therefore not only does she take revenge for her long-term defeat in gilead, but also by not letting the readers or the listeners think out of her depicted framework, she compensates those torturous years of living in the red center. also, nobody "sets out to speak" for the handmaids, but storytelling makes it possible for offred as one of those doomed handmaids to "speak about what was happening" in gilead (sheridan 128). although her narrative is not reliable enough because of being dependent on the linguistic framework of the gilead discourse as well as the society before gilead, it can be a good strategy to question the validity of her society. however, i think her story cannot make her powerful and brave due to the fact that she never intends to leak information to the outside world; her storytelling is a replacement for real communication to her, but against all odds, it makes the system vulnerable and appoints offred in charge. she wants neither to replace the dominant discourse with a personal one "nor to establish this very personal discourse as a rival culturally" established language, but rather to validate her personal experiences and painful memories within the gilead society (butler 108). mahshid namjoo 97 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) what i have been saying, and to whom, and which one of his enemies has found out? possibly he will be a security risk, now. i am above him, looking down; he is shrinking. there have already been purges among them, there will be more (ht 306). as previously mentioned, language cannot be free from the limited boundaries, but the act of storytelling is a kind of defensive discourse which produces a new set of desires and drives that can have unconscious or unintentional "aims prior to their emergence in to a language" (butler 103); and the said raconteur employs the aspect of language which has already "repressed or sublimated those desires: (butler 103) to disobey and free itself of the presupposed linguistic structure. as can be seen, those desires originate in language and end in language. however, what kind of story is made or what effects it has is unpredictable in the linguistic domain on which those desires were firstly formed and then "broke apart the usual" (butler 104), accepted form of language by producing the likelihood of "multiple meanings" (104). finally, the act of storytelling is "described as destroying or eroding" (butler 105) the language system as well as being productive. it is productive because her narrative "rests upon a severance" (butler 105) of its relationship with the dominant discourse which leads the hearers of her story to have a new understanding of the gilead society. on the other hand, it is destructive because its hidden power can challenge any ideology according to which the society had been constructed. one may agree that the act of storytelling gives the readers access to some hidden truth and desires which had been repressed by language and more precisely, by power relations; nevertheless, this access must be decoded or interpreted by the language system. offred is not able to pass the linguistic boundaries and be creative. how can one interpret the life story of someone regardless of the structure of the dominant discourse? consequently, her narrative seems not to have any prior desire to rupture the accepted form of discourse, but it is told to mitigate her and to remove the remnants of those traumatic burdens. storytelling can have a healing role for all the hearers of her story as well as her because her story is a kind of speech in a "dead language" (butler 176) and this dead language gives people hope to continue and survive. one could argue that apart from its critical view, its first and foremost goal is to survive. it is more a "strategy of survival within the compulsory system" even if it has "punitive consequences" (butler 178). those who cannot naturalize themselves are doomed to be outcast, their relations have been soured and they suffer mentally. c o n c l u s i o n the role of language "has proved to be the most dominant and the most all pervasive; yet, for that very reason, it is the least apparent, the least discussed" (sheridan122), as if it is a completely free apparatus which has never been influenced, and as a result, it cannot be subordinated. however, the truth lies elsewhere. this very dominant and powerful apparatus is itself subordinated and controlled by power. "under cover of language", some fundamental and sweeping generalization or naturalization may happen, and it is through the language that one can control and dominate the other and at the same time be qualified to become expurgated (sheridan 169). thus, at the heart of this limitation and censorship, something unexpected happens, and the rebellious language pops up to provoke people to rethink the priorities which language had already dictated to us. language as a sign of power in the handmaids’ tale 98 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) references atwood, m.(1986) the handmaid’s tale.london: vintage. butler, j. (1999) gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. new york & london: routledge. fairclough, n. (1989) language and power.new york: longman. focault, m. (2005) the will to truth.ed. alan, sheridan. london and new york: routledge. godin d. m., tilley, h. and prakash, g. (2010) utopia/dystopia: conditions of historical possibility. princeton, n.j.: princeton university press. web: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9188.pdf. 2014-12-02 jones, j. (2004) "language and class."language, society and power.eds. ishtla singh and jean stilwell peccei. london & new york: routledge. 133-156 jones, j and peccei, j. s. (2004) "language and politics."language, society and power.eds. ishtla singh and jean stilwell peccei. london & new york: routledge. 35-74 ketterer, d. (2014-12-01) "margaret atwood: the handmaid’s tale: a contextual dystopia."science fiction studies.vol.16. no. 2 (july 1989). www.jstor.org/stable/4239936. p. 209-2017. pettersson, f. "discourse and oppression in margaret atwood’s the handmaids tale."linnaeus university, school of languages and literature/english. lnu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:321781/fulltext01.pdf. web somacarrea, p. (2006) "power politics: power and identity. "the cambridge companion to margaret atwood.ed. coral ann howells. new york: cambridge university press. 43-57. rouse, j. (2005) "power and knowledge."the cambridge companion to foucault.ed.gary gutting. new york: cambridge university press. sheridan, al. ed. (2005) michel foucault: the will to truth. london & new york: routledge. http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9188.pdf.%202014-12-02 http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239936 mahshid namjoo 99 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) 9 vol. 14 no.2, 2021 the pitfalls of moral responsibility in two short stories by flannery o’connor and katherine ann porter mahdi teimouri khayyam university abstract theories of morality have warned us about the possibility of power-wielding in caregiving situations. they argue that moral decisions are often slippery slopes that can easily—unbeknownst to those involved—lead to oppression. one reason for the degeneration of care into power can be explained in terms of the solipsistic interpretation of the care-receiver’s needs. it is not simply the question of the language barrier. the problem is the nature of the care relationship itself which concerns the authority either granted or assumed by the caregiver. also, in caregiving situations, the caregiver might use care as a smokescreen to hide their self-serving intentions. to further elaborate, i will draw on zygmunt bauman’s ideas about care and moral responsibility. his exploration of the problem of care and moral responsibility constitutes the theoretical premise on which i will build my argument using two examples from literature to show how care can lapse into power. i have chosen these two short stories to demonstrate the way caregiving situations are potential mine-fields where a misstep can result in unintended deleterious consequences. porter’s “he” and o’connor’s “the life you save may be your own” perfectly illustrate this point. keywords: moral responsibility, bauman, disability, care, power epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies the pitfalls of moral responsibility...the pitfalls of moral responsibility...mahdi teimouri mahdi teimouri 1110 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies impediments and challenges to moral responsibility in postmodern ethics (1993), bauman warns against the complexity and aporia of moral responsibility for the other. responsibility generates ambivalence because it is almost impossible to determine when one is overstepping limits or falling short of fulfilling one’s obligations. maintaining the balance is a challenge that is not entirely resolvable. decisions made with the best of intentions can cause unforeseen and far-reaching ramifications which are not necessarily in the best interest of everyone. generally, decisions made under such circumstances are always based on one’s knowledge of the other. the more one familiarizes oneself with the needs of the other, the easier it is to eliminate risk or reduce unintended injury. awareness of the demands of the other is an indispensable part of any caregiving initiative. when the care-receiver fails to make their needs and demands understood, the caregiving process or procedure becomes problematized. faced with the triple task of establishing, construing and meeting the needs of their object of care, the caregiver can be easily overwhelmed by their solipsistic interpretations. in a similar way, the two short stories under study here reveal that misconceptions about the needs of the two children and a blinkered view are the root causes of the caregivers’ failure. in both “he” and “the life you save may be your own” (henceforth “the life”), mothers in the name of maternal care and motherly affection delude themselves and others into believing that they hold the unalienable right to decide for their children. this is clearly reflected in the comportments of both mothers who unilaterally delineate what is right and wrong for their children, often dismissing the objections of others who question their commonsensical authority (which is particularly more noticeable in “he”). the children’s inability to voice their concerns or express themselves in a straightforward way and the mothers’ reluctance or inability to reconsider their behavioral pattern vis-à-vis their kids aggravates the already subtle nature of moral introduction while preparing for a short story course, i came across two short stories, which in some ways, bore an uncanny resemblance to one another. the two short stories are concerned with parental care for their offspring. in both stories, there are mothers who apparently do what they can to protect their mentally disabled children. o’connor’s story published in 1953 is concerned with the life of a mother and her mentally disabled daughter, lucynell, who because of her mother’s gullibility is left high and dry at the end of the story. “he” (1927) is also about the unfortunate fate of an unnamed boy called ‘he’ who suffers from speech impediments and some abnormalities. like lucynell, ‘he’ also falls victim to her mother’s miscalculation and inanities. the physical and mental conditions of the two children have made them helpless creatures at the mercy of their parent’s decisions. the children’s inability to communicate their needs, at least in a common and perceptible way, compounds further the complexity of the care situation. having some familiarity with the problematics of moral responsibility and the ethics of care explored by zygmunt bauman in his seminal book, the postmodern ethics (1993), i believe that the two stories might serve as concrete examples for demonstrating the difficulty of negotiating one’s moral responsibility toward the other. in the following sections, i will first explain the theoretical framework using bauman’s ideas. then, i will offer my reflections on the stories using bauman’s thoughts. to prevent my analysis from being a mere facile illustration of the notion of ethics of care, i would like to propose that the reason behind the lapse behind the moral responsibility of the two mothers and the subsequent degeneration of care into power and manipulation can be attributed to a biased attitude toward the disabled and the abnormal promoted by the politics of ableism. the pitfalls of moral responsibility...the pitfalls of moral responsibility...mahdi teimouri mahdi teimouri 1312 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies about the food or “mind the cold” (p. 49). when the neighbors admonished mrs. whipples for letting the son climb up the tree, she took their remarks as insinuations about the abnormal condition of her son. enraged by their intrusive comments, mrs. whipples “could hardly keep her hands off him for acting like that before people, a grin all over his face and her worried sick about him all the time” (p. 51). the son’s inability to express discontent, fear or pain emboldened mrs. whipples to choose him for carrying out ever more daunting tasks such as sneaking into the pigsty to snatch the piglet or pasturing a temperamental bull. finally, the mother’s desire for maintaining the appearance of normalcy in her family catches up with her. one winter morning when her son is working on the farm, he slips on the ice, hurting himself so badly that for the first time in his life ‘he’ starts wriggling uncontrollably with pain on the ground and is inconsolably restless. after this incident, ‘he’ is bedridden for four months until the doctor convinces mrs. whipples that her son needs to be hospitalized. the epiphanic climax of the story occurs on the day of departure when ‘he’ is about to be carted way to the hospital. it is at this moment that mrs. whipples sees the reality of her relationship with her son: “mrs. whipples couldn’t believe what she saw; he was scrubbing away big tears that rolled out of the corners of his eyes. he sniveled and made a gulping noise” (p. 58). the child’s demonstration of his feelings comes as a shocking revelation to mrs. whipples: maybe he remembered that time she boxed his ears, maybe he had been scared that day with the bull, maybe he had slept cold and couldn’t tell her about it; maybe he knew they were sending him away for good and all because they were too poor to keep him. . . she had loved him as much as she possibly could, there were adna and emly who had to be thought of too, there was nothing she could do to make up to him for his life. oh, what a mortal pity he was ever born (p. 58). responsibility. according to bauman, whether the other communicates their needs clearly or is silent, the moral self has to represent the content of the message as its knowledge (p. 90). because the self’s representation of the other’s demand is indeed a re-presentation of it and thus not completely identifiable with it, a distance opens “between the other as she-may-be-for-herself and the other i am for—the distance which was not there before” (p. 90). it is on the basis of this re-presented demand that the self (read the care-giver) acts. the result is that the other’s demand is likely to be misrepresented and tampered with. in such a situation, ‘the other’ might either remain silent or voice their disagreement. at any rate, the self as the authorized agency feels obliged to overcome what it sees as the other’s “ignorance or mis-interpretation of her own best interest” (bauman, 1993, p. 91). this is clearly true for the present short stories in which both mentally disabled kids, as care-receivers, are almost literally ignored as no attempt is made to mitigate their speech disorder. as such, their emotional responses manifest themselves in facial expressions or postures and gestures which often go unnoticed, ignored or are likely to be misapprehended by their immediate caregivers, that is, their mothers. maternal care in “he” and “the life” “he” is about the poor family of the whipples who have a “simple-minded” (porter, 1979, p. 49) unnamed son. mrs. whipples, the mother of the family, misses no opportunity to boastfully brag about how much she loves her second son, particularly in the presence of neighbors. she is obsessed with keeping up appearances in every possible way. intolerant of the neighbors’ sympathetic words, she feels strongly obligated to exaggerate the son’s strength, stamina and fearlessness in order to give an appearance of normalcy to her family. she is happy that nothing can hurt him like when “a plank blew off the chicken house and struck him on the head and he never seemed to know it” (porter, 1979, p. 50). ‘he’ would never complain the pitfalls of moral responsibility...the pitfalls of moral responsibility...mahdi teimouri mahdi teimouri 1514 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the story ends on this revelatory and contrite note, leaving the reader astounded by the complexity of human relationships and lack of foresight. the ending clearly corroborates the dubious and ambivalent position the mother is stuck in. what was obvious to the readers now dawns on the mother who has been turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the reality of her child’s mental and physical conditions. the repetition of ‘maybe’ is noteworthy. even at this point in the story, porter leaves a narrow margin for uncertainty. the paragraph is also remarkable in that it grants a rare glimpse into the mind of the alleged caregiver, the mother, who seems to reevaluate her earlier position vis-à-vis her child and by professing her love perhaps she wants to calm her troubled conscience. this declaration of love is immediately undercut by a deep sense of regret for his ever being born. i think this last statement speaks volumes for the emotional ambivalence that imbues the life of those who are in close contact with a congenitally disabled child. o’connor’s “the life”, like the previous story, points to the predicament of moral responsibility. the story concerns the life of mrs. crater, a widow, and her mute and mentally challenged daughter, lucynell. their life changes with the arrival of a tramp named mr. shiftlet who, as his name indicates, tends to be shifty and deceitful. a close reading of the first paragraphs of the story reveals the confrontational approach of the two adults to one another. o’connor jumps back and forth between descriptive snapshots of the onearmed mr. shiftlet and the toothless old woman in a cinematic style. this is, i believe, important, as the silent lucynell later becomes the object of a bargain. shiftlet is bent on impressing the old woman with his world-weariness and intellectual maturity. at the same time, the old woman appraises him based on his dexterity and skillfulness which can be helpful on a farm that has fallen into disrepair after her husband’s death. each sees in the other something they need to have. each recognizes the weak spot of the other and proceeds in accordance with this knowledge to reach the desired goal. mrs. crater wants to have a son-in-law who can both look after the place and her daughter. as a tramp, mr. shiftlet’s attention is drawn to the dilapidated car collecting dust in the shed. the stage is set for the bargain. mr. shiftlet starts mending and repairing here and there: he had not been around a week before the change he had made in the place was apparent. he had patched the front and back steps, built a new hog pen, restored a fence, and taught lucynell, who was completely deaf and had never said a word in her life, to say the word ‘bird.’ the big rosy-faced girl followed him everywhere, saying ‘burrttddt ddbirrrttdt,’ and clapping her hands. the old woman watched from a distance, secretly pleased. she was ravenous for a son-in-law. (o’connor, 1971, p. 150) the next thing to do is “to make the automobile run” (p. 150). it is at this point in the story that the old woman suggests the possibility of marriage between mr. shiftlet and lucynell: that night, rocking on the porch, the old woman began her business, at once. ‘you want you an innocent woman, don’t you?’ she asked sympathetically. ‘you don’t want none of this trash.’ ‘no’, i don’t,’ mr. shiftlet said. ‘one that can’t talk,’ she continued, ‘can’t sass you back or use foul language. that’s the kind for you to have. right there,’ and she pointed to lucynell sitting cross-legged in her chair, holding both feet in her hands. “that’s right,” he admitted. “she wouldn’t give me any trouble.” “saturday,” the old woman said, “you and her and me can drive into town and get married.” (pp. 151-152) the marriage proposal makes him uneasy. he does not have money and marriage needs money. mrs. crater assures him that lucynell is a content girl who knows nothing about hotels or honeymoons. desperate for a sonin-law and knowing that mr. shiftlet is a footloose and fancy-free person, she tries to make the conjugal affair as materially appealing as possible. she reminds him that by marrying her daughter he would “be getting a permanent house and a deep well and the most innocent girl in the world’, that in addition, he would have a farm with a well ‘that never goes dry’ and a house that ‘is always warm in the winter and there’s no mortgage on a thing about this place. and yonder under that shed is a fine automobile” (p. the pitfalls of moral responsibility...the pitfalls of moral responsibility...mahdi teimouri mahdi teimouri 1716 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 152). all can be acquired if he agreed to marry her legally and properly. finally, mr. shiftlet acquiesces to her plan on the condition that he can take lucynell on a short honeymoon by the newly repaired car. the story ends with mr. shiftlet heading west after he has dumped his mentally disabled bride in a diner. like the previous story, mrs. crater is concerned about the life of her child. her actions and decisions are naturally out of goodwill and are justifiably so. being a decrepit and aging mother, she must be apprehensive of a future when she will not be available for her disabled child. yet, we can blame her for not seeing through mr. shiftlet’s humbuggery and guilefulness or having let herself believe in the uprightness of mr. shiftlet. if mrs. whipples’ self-deluding tendency is created by the obsession with normalcy, mrs. crater, in a similar vein, strives to compensate for her daughter’s disability through material palliatives such as the automobile and a permanent residence. their blinkered visions preclude them from seeing the reality of their children’s condition. both mothers are also blameworthy because they blindly adhere to a self-serving idea of the truth about their offspring. the endings of both stories are similar in that they perfectly illustrate the unpredictability of care situations and the difficulty of achieving the desired outcome. despite differences between the two stories, they both depict the complexity of moral decisions concerning the other. the problem with moral situations is that the self has no yardstick with which to assess the soundness of moral actions. the non-existence of any touchstone for evaluating the validity and fruitfulness of decisions is the core argument of recent studies which emphasize the indeterminacy and ambivalence of moral responsibility. the stories also corroborate the postmodern stance explicated by bauman in postmodern ethics according to which morality cannot be formulated in terms of non-aporetic and universalizable ethical codes. this postmodern approach rejects the previously trusted foundations of morality best formulated as prescriptive laws premised on reason and commonsense. the definitiveness and conclusiveness that characterize prescriptive moral codes can be considered as their strength and weakness. strength, because the self acts as an agent discharging pre-defined duties. as a result, the self cannot be held accountable for the success or failure of the situation. the weakness is that every moral situation is taken as a specimen of a general model and is, by default, treated universally in a similar way. thus, no room is left for exceptions. the postmodern conception of morality stresses the exceptionality of every moral encounter. in this way, it emphasizes on the fact that responsibility is not transferrable or negotiable. in other words, “the substitution of heteronomous, enforced-from-outside, ethical rules for the autonomous responsibility of the moral self can lead to the incapacitation, even destruction, of the moral self” (bauman, 1993, p. 12). the problem facing the two mothers or any moral self is two-fold: assessing the situation and responding based on that assessment. in both steps, there is the likelihood of having one’s judgment impaired through misapprehension or misconception. hence the self as the caregiver is entangled in the difficulty of establishing a relationship with the other in a meaningful and constructive way. this creates a double bind because, as i said earlier, the degree to which the self is willing to relinquish part of its proverbial authority or retain it as an indispensable part of any caregiving situation. thus, for bauman (1993) “morality is incurably aporetic” (p. 11, emphasis in original). the aporia becomes particularly noticeable in caregiving situations where the complete implementation of the moral impulse requires the total commitment of “the moral actor” to seriously try “to stretch the effort to the limit” (p. 11). it is in this “context of ambivalence . . . shot through with uncertainty” that every “moral impulse . . . taken to its extreme leads . . . to domination and oppression” (p. 11). pitfalls of moral responsibility become visible as we realize how care situations are volatile and can precipitate a crisis. the pitfalls of moral responsibility...the pitfalls of moral responsibility...mahdi teimouri mahdi teimouri 1918 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies disability and care my analysis would be incomplete if i did not investigate one possible reason behind the mothers’ failure. here i am specifically referring to a possible external factor that could have shaped the mothers’ perspective. there is no denying that if the kids did not have a disability they would have been treated differently. rather than seeing disability as an intrinsic factor, it is, as suggested in disability studies, an extrinsic element created part by ableist ideologies: “disability is not just a bodily category, but instead and also a social category shaped by changing social factors—just as is able-bodiedness” (nielsen, 2013, p. 12). it is argued that ableist views arise from a tendency to equate able-bodiedness with normalcy devaluing thus difference and abnormality (campbell, 2009, p. 5). what follows from these statements is that disability is not a fixed and unchanging category but what is generated in a discursive and contextual way. the disabled are those who deviate from the same. the preponderance of the able-bodied is a determinant that throws the disabled into stark relief. the abnormal is seen as a problem only because of an intolerance of the deviant. “the seduction of sameness” (campbell, 2009, p. 4) as campbell puts it, might be responsible for the lapse in parental responsibility. the mothers in both stories either long for creating the illusion of normalcy or tap into cultural and social expectations to gloss over their child’s disability. this results from a vision that considers normalcy as a fixed category not as relational and functional. thus, what is to blame is a set of beliefs and values that permeate society and inculcate a worldview according to which normality is perennial and ineluctably given. everyone raised within the parameter of such conceptual and cultural economy would tend to construe normalcy as a preexisting and stable condition while disability as secondary and deviant. to clarify the point, let us look at both stories in light of the argument mentioned above. for instance, let us review the way lucynell’s mother intended to marry off her daughter. to compensate for her child’s domestic abilities, lucynell’s mother capitalizes on her innocence, docility and reticence as good virtues likely to be valued in a patriarchal society: “you want you an innocent woman, don’t you?. . . one that can’t talk,” she continued, “can’t sass you back or use foul language. that’s the kind for you to have. right there,” and she pointed to lucynell sitting cross-legged in her chair, holding both feet in her hands” (o’connor, 1971, p. 151). this way of characterizing betrays a general tendency to see ‘the different’ as tractable and thus relationally acceptable. the desire for sameness cuts both ways: it can end in the marginalization of the other or its subsumption into the same. both trends happen here. despite mr. shiftlet’s pretensions to be morally intelligent as reflected in his pontification about society being indifferent or not caring to take any trouble (p. 150), he leaves his bride high and dry. in doing so, he shows his moral depravity and duplicity by not upholding ethical values whose absence he diagnoses in society. by teaching the girl the word ‘bird’ he also confirms what was said earlier about the need to see disability contextually and relationally: “lucynell’s inability to speak is a social problem, not an individual’s personal tragedy. her muteness has at least as much to do with how society treats her as it does with what abilities she was born with or without” (basselin, 2013, p. 61). the penchant for masking deficiencies under the veneer of normalcy is overwhelmingly robust in mrs. whipples. it reaches the highest point concerning her son and grows into an obsession. she is obviously under tremendous pressure to maintain the semblance of normalcy at the cost of jeopardizing her son’s well-being. instead of improving her son’s living conditions, she assigned him tasks which were pretty daring and risky just to prove he was a normal kid. thus, she succumbs to the community’s expectations of ordinary non-disabled kids. in her insistence on treating her child as a regular kid with concomitant capabilities, she betrays her being in a state of denial. instead of accepting the reality about her kid, she deliberately turns a blind eye to the status quo, resorting to a policy that the pitfalls of moral responsibility...the pitfalls of moral responsibility...mahdi teimouri mahdi teimouri 2120 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies aims to iron out the difficulty rather than address it. both mothers’ claim to maternal love seems to be sheer pretense which the more overblown the more self-deluding it becomes. the fact that neither mother ever attempted to improve their child’s social and intellectual skills using an educational program or plan indicates their indifference to or acceptance of their child’s situation. for example, in “he”, mrs. whipples takes advantage of her child’s physical strength aided by his unmindfulness to run household chores. he is not given any education to improve his cognitive and mental function. to conclude this section, i believe pushkin’s maxim summarizes both mothers’ attitudes beautifully: “dearer to us the falsehood that exalts than hosts of baser truths” (as cited in chekhov, 2006, p. 209). conclusion the two short stories perfectly illustrate the difficulty of attaining the desired outcome in caregiving situations and fulfilling one’s responsibility. the two mothers faced with the daunting task of providing care and protection for their children inadvertently bring harm to them. deluded by their idea of protectiveness and care for their kids, they fail to see that their decisions are sometimes tainted by self-interest and are therefore self-serving. for example, mrs. whipples seems to be more concerned with keeping up appearances and maintaining a public impression of normality than being genuinely worried about the wellbeing of her son. similarly, mrs. crater appears to be willing to marry her daughter off to any man in order to have some able-bodied person to see to the maintenance of the farm and the house. all in all, caregiving situations call for an unwavering vigilance on the caregiver’s part to forestall any lapsing into complacency. at the same time, one needs to be able to distinguish the truth of the other’s demand from one’s interpretation of that truth. to what extent one is reading meaning into the other’s demand or command is that which separates power from care. references basselin, t. j. (2013). writing a theology of disabled humanity. baylor university press. bauman, z. (1993). postmodern ethics. blackwell. campbell, f. k. (2009). contours of ableism: the production of disability and abledness. palgrave macmillan. chekhov, a. (2006). goosberries. in t. r. arp & g. johnson (eds.), perrine’s literature: structure, sound and sense (pp. 202-212). thomson wadsworth. nielsen, k. e. (2013). a disability history of the united states. beacon press. o’connor, f. (1971). the complete stories. farrar, straus and giroux. porter, k. a. (1979). the complete stories. harvest. epiphany_new_version_11oct.indd sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın examining the effects of... 159 vol. 14 no.1, 2021158 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies examining the effects of metacognition and social cognition in alcohol use among university students in turkish republic of northern cyprus sara hassan kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın abstract: since harmful alcohol consumption among university students still presents a significant problem, our team of researchers has conducted this study to add and contribute to the current research findings regarding this social issue. the study, conducted at universities in the turkish republic of northern cyprus (trnc), included 200 students aged 18 to 65. the research used a quasi-experimental design, employing an assessable study technique to evaluate data and generalize findings from the sample of the target population. furthermore, quantitative research was used to determine the correlation between the variables. the correlation of audit, mast, r-met and mcq-30 subscales was found according to the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants. as predicted by our hypothesis, the investigation of the link between alcohol use, metacognition, and social cognition showed that alcohol drinkers had lower social cognition than non-alcohol ones. morover, according to the results, alcohol consumption is linked to impairments in social cognition and metacognition. keywords: alcohol, alcohol use, metacognition, social cognition, students, theory of mind, university pınar ünal-aydın, associate professor, md, psychology program, international university of sarajevo. prof. ünal-aydın has expertise in social cognition, emotion recognition, metacognition, social media use, and addiction psychiatry. she currently works on a vr-based therapy project to reduce test anxiety among university students. e-mail: paydin@ius.edu.ba. orkun aydın, associate professor, md, psychology program, international university of sarajevo. in a broad outline, his research interests focus on cognitive deficits including social cognition and its reflections in psychiatric disorders. he is particularly interested in investigating the relationships among different clinical aspects and the interrelations among different cognitive variables using different analyzing techniques. e-mail: oaydin@ius.edu.ba. sara hassan kul, clinical psychologist, international relations office, near east university. she currently works in events management, international marketing, and pr section at the university office. she is also an activist and volunteer in psychology communities where she attended miscellaneous trainings on psychological well-being. e-mail: sara.hassankul@gmail.com. kuzeymen balıkçı, md, psychology program, cyprus social sciences university. dr. balıkçı currently works as psychiatrist and delivers lectures at the university level. he has several publications focused on attachment, family interaction, and biological underpinnings of severe mental disorders including schizophrenia. e-mail: dr.kuzeymen@gmail.com. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction across the world, people have been drinking alcohol for at least 13,000 years (bbc, 2018). egyptians consumed wine ever since 4000 bc, and by 2700 bc babylonians have enjoyed drinking beer so much that they introduced adoring a goddess to oversee their beer consumption into their religious practices (mark, 2017).drinking alcohol, the most commonly consumed psychotropic substance, is common at social gatherings in many areas of the world (who, 2010). alcohol consumption, which has shown a rising trend in recent years, especially in developing countries, can have a strong effect on one’s mood and mental state. alcohol is an extensively consumed substance among youth within the u.s.(cdc,2015). countless issues in young people have been attributed to alcohol use including the causing ofmajor injuries, increased suicide and homicide rates, risks of sexual and physical abuse, abnormal brain development, impaired judgment, educational, social, and legal problems (e.g., effecting school dropout behavior and juvenile delinquency) (kaminer & winters, 2011; niaaa , 2015). additionally, an early onset of alcohol use is related to unintentional injuries, truancy, unprotected sex, driving under the influence of alcohol, traffic crashes, as well as to dependence on various substances harmful to health, and subsequent drug use in late adolescence and young adulthood years. (bradshaw et al., 2013; corte & szalacha, 2010; komro et al., 2010). additionally, underage alcohol intake is accountable for 4,400 deaths annually, including suicides (cdc, 2013). alcohol use disorder (aud) is best described by consuming a large amount of alcohol regardless of the negative consequences in the individual (ron & barak, 2016). levola et al. (2014) stated that social impairment is among the most hazardous features of aud. approximately 240 million people throughout the world are affected by alcohol consumption (gowing et al., 2014). heavy drinking among university students persists to be a public health hazard for universities and colleges (johnston et al., 2011). alcohol use has been reported to affect university students’ mental health in which, it features an increase of depressive symptoms that are accompanied by drinking to cope (bravo et al., 2017; gonzalez et al., 2011), suicide attempts, self-harm behaviours (peltzer et al., 2016; toprak et al., 2011) in addition to aggressive behaviours (ali, et al., 2013). sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın examining the effects of...examining the effects of... 161160 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies metacognition relates to a psychological process that hypotheticallyplays a major role in how well people comprehend and respond to the social and psychological problems caused by psychiatric disorders (lysaker et al., 2013a). essentially, metacognition is a cognitive process or knowledge involved in reviewing, controlling and evaluating cognition (sadeghi, 2011). social cognition is assessed through the use of social perception, judgment measures, recognition and stimulation of appropriate elements of emotional regulation, including memory (holdnack et al., 2011; kandalaft et al., 2012). alcohol-related defects have been identified in the cross-modal integration of empathetic skills, decoding of effective states, social cognitive data, and the theory of mind (thoma et al., 2013). maurage et al. (2009) reported widespread impairment in difficulties of understanding facial expressions and emotional decoding, as well as body postures that ranged across emotional valences in heavy alcohol consumers. in addition, excessive alcohol drinkers showed an elevated level of alexithymia, an emotional processing deficiency characterised by difficulty in expressing, identifying, and distinguishing emotions (stasiewicz et al., 2012). bosco et al. (2013) argue that brain injury caused by alcohol abuse could lead to mental impairment. reading the mind in the eyes test (baroncohen et al., 2001) has been used to evaluate the theory of mind and has been shown to be influenced by demographic variables that contain cultural distinctions (provost et al., 2014) and verbal intelligence quotients (peterson & miller, 2012). tom is stated to be a multi-dimensional structure with both cognitive and emotional components. (sebastian et al., 2013; shamay-tsoory & shamay-tsoory et al., 2010). this research can help us gain an insight into how people’s different backgrounds affect their dealing with or assessing their alcohol use. moreover, we have conducted it to gain a more accurate and deeper understanding of the executive cognitive function, its relationship with alcohol, and to raise awareness regarding this issue. the results of this study will contribute to an inadequately chartered area of psychology, raise awareness about it and develop our understanding of the topic. finally, the intention of the research is to broaden the investigation of metacognition and alcohol consumption, especially in youth and university students. materials and methods this study has a quasi-experimental design. this type of design is either descriptive or experimental. the descriptive method has been used in this survey by employing five scientific scales; reading the mind in the eyes test, alcohol use disorder identification test, socio-demographic questionnaire, michigan alcohol screening test, and metacognition questionnaire. an assessable investigation method was used in order to quantify data and generalize findings from a sample of the targeted populace. finally, quantitative research was undertaken for this study to determine the correlation among the variables. participants this research took place at two university campuses, near east university and the american university of cyprus. the study was conducted with university students, the sample consisting of 200 undergraduate, graduate, and ph.d.students aged 18 to 65. the research has been conducted in the turkish republic of northern cyprus to local citizens, turkish and international ethnicities. the original or translated versions of instruments were used in the study. instruments socio-demographic questionnaire socio-demographics questionnaires show nothing more than some general characteristics of the participants. we use them when we want to know more about the background and history of the participants, such as their age, gender, education level, occupation, income, and location. alcohol use disorder identification test (audit) audit is a 10 item monitoring tool established by world health organization (who) to evaluate alcohol use, drinking habits, and alcoholinduced problems. audit has been used on a wide range of racial and ethnic groups. it is suited to be used in primary care (health care) settings. since alcohol consumption is linked to a high rate of mortality and morbidity in the united states, the u.s. preventive services task force advises clinicians to screen all adults and give short counseling treatments sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın examining the effects of...examining the effects of... 163162 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies to those who are at risk (centers for disease control and prevention, 2020). michigan alcohol screening test (mast) the michigan alcohol screening test was developed by selzer (1971) in the united states of america and it originally consisted of 25 questions. the mast is a very popular alcoholism detection questionnaire that evaluates selected adverse medical and psychosocial consequences of excessive drinking. two additional types of the mast test were created later; the 10-item brief mast (b-mast: pokorny et al., 1972) and the 13item short mast (smast: seltzer et al., 1975). metacognition questionnaire (mcq-30) wells & cartwright-hatton (2004) advanced a 30-item version of the mcq; known as mcq-30. as the other mcq items have been employed, the mcq-30 items are assessed using a 4 pointed ordered-category scale ranging from 1 (do not agree) to 4 (agree very much). there are 5 subscales of the test; 1-positive beliefs about worry, 2negative beliefs about thoughts concerning uncontrollability and danger, 3cognitive confidence, 4 negative beliefs concerning the consequences of not controlling thoughts, and 5cognitive self-consciousness. reading the mind in the eyes the “reading the mind in the eyes” test is a complex yet advanced test, particularly important in the field of social cognition it was created in 2001 by baron-cohen s, wheelwright s, hill j, raste y, and plumb i. one of the downgrades of alcohol dependence is emotional impairment, including evaluating the emotional facial expressions of others. for this study to obtain a relatively accurate evaluation “reading the mind in the eyes” test was used to detect perception of emotions in alcohol dependence. this test consists of 36 images of male and female eyes in various emotional states. participants are asked to select the emotional state that best characterizes the eyes in each image from a list of four options. data analysis this research used several tests and methods for the analysis of the collected data. first, we performed a pearson correlation to explore the relationship amongst clinical variables. following this, various descriptive and frequency tests were used. the mann-whitney u test was employed to compare differences between two independent groups, whereas the kruskal wallis was conducted to compare two or more independent samples of equal or different sample sizes. finally, the regression analysis has been performed, allowing us to analyse the relationship among two or more interest variables. the statistical significance criterion (p) was set at 0.05 and all analyses were conducted using commercially accessible statistical analysis software. the collected data were entered into and analyzed by using statistical package for the social sciences (spss). (ibm corp. armonk. ny. spss statistics 21.01). sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın examining the effects of...examining the effects of... 165164 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies results socio-demographic characteristics of participants table 1. the distribution of the participants according to socio-demographic characteristics was examined with a frequency table. 84 (42.0%) female students and 116 (58.0%) male students were included in this study. 33 (16.6%) of the participants were married, 57 (28.6%) were not married and in a relationship, 109 (54.8%) were not married and not in a relationship. in the research 86 (43.0%) were trnc citizens, 107 (53.5%) were turkish citizens and 7 (3.5%) were citizens of other countries. when the education level variable was examined, 148 (74.0%) participants were at the undergraduate level, 36 (18.0%) participants were at the master level, and 16 (8.0%) participants were at the ph.d. level. 31 (25.8%) of these participants worked in a freelance job and 89 (74.2%) in a regular job. when examining where they lived it was determined that 44 participants (22.1%) did not live in the city center whereas155 (77.9%) did. 44 (22.0%) participants didn’t have any habit, 12 (6.0%) were smoking, 55 (27.5%) were consuming alcohol, 89 (44.5%) were both smoking and consuming alcohol. when the psychiatric treatments of the participants were examined, there were 175 (87.5%) participants who did not receive any treatment.14 participants (7.0%) were using antidepressants, 3 participants were (1.5%) receiving psychotherapy, and 8 of them were (4.0%) receiving combined treatment. when the previous psychiatric treatments were examined, 172 (86.0%) participants did not receive any treatment, 3 were (1.5%) using antidepressants, 1 was (0.5%) using anxiolytic, 2 were (1.0%) using antipsychotics, 11 were (5.5%) receiving psychotherapy, and 11 participants were receiving combination treatment (5.5%). when the age variable was examined, the standard deviation of the participants in the 18-56 age range has been identified as 26.07 ± 7.17. comparison of audit, mast, r-met & mcq-30 sub-scales according to the gender of the participants the mann whitney u analysis is employed to compare audit, mast, read the mind in the eyes test, and mcq-30 sub-scales according to the gender of the participants. male participants had a higher audit rate than female participants, and a significant difference was found between the gender variable and audit (p<0.05). comparison of audit, mast, r-met & mcq-30 sub-scales according to the occupations of the participants the mann whitney u analysis is once again used to compare audit, mast, read the mind in the eyes test, and mcq-30 sub-scales according to the occupations of the participants. the level of mast was found to be higher in participants who worked in an irregular job compared to those who worked in a regular job. furthermore, a noticeable difference between the occupation variable and mast can be seen. (p<0.05). correlation of audit, mast, r-met & mcq-30 sub-scales according to the marital status of the participants. kruskal wallis analysis was used to compare audit, mast, r-met, and mcq-30 sub-scales according to the marital status of the participants. audit and mast levels were found to be higher in not married in a relationship participants than the other participants and in marital status variable a significant difference was found between audit and mast (p<0.05). correlation of audit, mast, r-met & mcq-30 sub-scales according to the educational background of the participants kruskal wallis analysis was used to compare audit, mast, r-met, and mcq-30 sub-scales according to the educational background of the participants. mast scores of undergraduate participants were higher than those of other participants and a significant difference was found between the education level variable and mast.(p<0.05). correlation of audit, mast, r-met & mcq-30 sub-scales according to the income level of the participants kruskal wallis analysis was used to compare audit, mast, r-met, and mcq-30 sub-scales according to the financial status of the participants. participants with good income were found to have higher levels of cognitive self-consciousness (mcq-csc) from the mcq-30 sub-scale than the other participants, and a significant difference was found between financial status and cognitive self-consciousness (mcq-csc) (p<0.05). correlation of audit, mast, r-met & mcq-30 sub-scales according to the habitudes of the participants sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın examining the effects of...examining the effects of... 167166 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies table 2. kruskal wallis analysis was used to compare audit, mast, r-met, and mcq30 subscales based on health-harmful habits of the participants. participants who consumed both cigarettes and alcohol were found to have higher audit and mast levels compared to the others. those without any health-harmful habits were found to have higher scores in r-met. individuals who consumed only alcohol were demonstrating higher levels of beliefs about the need to control thoughts (mcq-nc) and cognitive self-consciousness (mcq-csc) than the other participants. a significant difference was found between audit, mast, beliefs about the need to control thoughts (mcq-nc), and cognitive selfconsciousness (mcq-csc) subscales, and the health-harmful habits. comparison of audit, mast, r-met & mcq-30 sub-scales according to where the participants live the mann whitney u analysis was used to compare audit, mast, read the mind in the eyes test, and mcq-30 sub-scales according to the place where the participants lived. while the cognitive confidence (mcqcc), which is the mcq-30 sub-scale, was found to be higher in the participants who did not live in the city center, cognitive self-consciousness (mcqcsc) was higher for the participants living in the city center. a significant difference has been detected between cognitive confidence (mcqcc) and cognitive self-consciousness (mcq-csc) when a place of residence differs. regression analysis of students’ level of mast, r-met & mcq-30 subscales on the level of alcohol use identification test table 3. as it can be seen, there are 7 predictors which are mast, read the mind in the eyes test, and metacognition’s 5 subscales; beliefs about uncontrollability & danger, cognitive confidence, need to control thoughts, cognitive self-consciousness, and positive beliefs about worry. two of them have been statistically predicted. regression analysis was used to test if mast, r-met, and mcq-30 subscales significantly predict the alcohol identification test in students. mast’s levels significantly predicted alcohol use identification test, ß=1.44, t=13.837, p<0.5. the results of regression also showed that the metacognition subscale; cognitive selfconsciousness significantly predicted the alcohol use identification test, ß= .20, t= 1,98, p<0.5. sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın examining the effects of...examining the effects of... 169168 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies regression analysis of students’ level of audit, r-met & mcq-30 subscales on the level of the michigan alcohol screening test table 4. we can see that there are 7 predictors which are audit, read the mind in the eyes test, mcq-30 subscales; beliefs about uncontrollability & danger, cognitive confidence, need to control thoughts, cognitive selfconsciousness, and positive beliefs about worry; two of them have been statistically predicted. audit’s levels significantly predicted the michigan alcohol screening test, ß= .35, t= 13, 83, p<0.5. the results of regression also showed that the metacognition subscale; cognitive confidence significantly predicted the michigan alcohol screening test, ß= .10, t= 2, 77, p<0.5. discussion alcoholism is considered to be an important factor for disorders and loss of function, especially in developing countries (who, 2009 rehm j et al., 2009). having this habit particularly in youth and middle-aged individuals increases the likelihood of alcohol consumption to be destructive. unfortunately, approximately 2.5 million people in the world die every year due to alcoholism (who, 2011). nevertheless, the number of alcohol dependence is increasing despite all the actions taken. the frequency of alcohol consumption in turkey’s young population according to a survey conducted by the ministry of health was found to be 42.6%. in a study conducted with ege university science faculty students, it was determined that 14% of the students had abused alcohol (yiğit & khorshid, 2006). high schools in northern cyprus studies show that smoking, alcohol,and psychoactive substance use trial age has decreased to 11 and that the age at which students start using alcohol, cannabis, ecstasy, and heroin increased compared to 1996 (eş a., 2015). alcohol use rates were higher than other psychoactive substances when compared to previous high school studies in trnc (çakıcı m. & çakıcı e. 2000). in a study, lifetime alcohol use rate in adults was found to be 72.1%. in a lifetime using alcohol for at least once was 82.1.34% (çakıcı m. et al., 2003) in the 2003 study and 77.1.35% (çakıcı m. et al., 2014) in the 2008 study. when these data are compared, it is seen that alcohol is used at high rates in trnc. when examining the data on alcohol in 2012 by turkey statistical institute health survey, the table “distribution of individuals’ alcohol use by gender, age, location based on their marital status”, the ratio of total alcohol use in turkey is considered to be 10.4% (akvardar, 2005). when the distribution according to gender variable is taken into consideration, the alcohol use rate is 17.2% male and 3.8% female. in the current research, audit levels of male participants were found to be higher than female participants, and a significant difference was found among audit and the gender variable. in mental health resources (mhr), university students with a low resistance to distress have a higher rate of alcohol addiction, alcohol abuse, and drug addiction. in another similar research, it was discovered that low distress tolerance was linked directly to alcohol intake, and inability to tolerate anxiety, sensitivity, and restlessness was associated with alcohol intake and mediator variables (howell et al., 2010). finally, hearld et al. (2014) proved that the prevalence of panic disorder and alcohol use disorder was very high. similarly, márquez et al. have shown that alcohol abuse is a significant tool to decrease the seriousness and frequency of panic symptoms in patients with panic disorders (2003). in a study conducted by beşirli (2007) with 288 students, only 1.3% of the students were drinking to get rid of their problems. cox et al., (1998) demonstrated that one of the most important reasons for alcohol use was avoiding a negative result, coping with problems, and not being able to withstand distress. buckner et al., (2006) found that alcohol abuse or addiction in adolescents stems from coping with problems and this behavior leads to depression. studies researching the impacts of alcohol are prevalent in literature reviews and the causes and impacts of alcohol use have been discussed from the past to the present (akvardar, 2005). in the current research, the effects of alcohol use on metacognition and social cognition were investigated. sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın examining the effects of...examining the effects of... 171170 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the self-regulatory theory developed by wells and matthews (1994) suggests that the metacognition factors play a huge role in causing persistent psychological disorders. one of the main reasons for using alcohol is to reduce feeling unwanted emotions (kuntsche et al., 2006). people with low performance in using their metacognitive abilities may experience sadness, distress, anxiety and, etc. and their emotions are intense (cartwright hatton and wells, 1997). as a result, the option of using alcohol to deal with issues created by the failure to use metacognition characteristics is one of the subjects lately investigated. there are many self-regulation theory based studies investigating a relationship between alcohol and metacognition. one of these studies was conducted by spada and wells (2005). they suggested that there may be a relationship between metacognition and alcohol use because metacognition factors may affect emotion and alcohol use directly or indirectly. there has not been much research on metacognitive skills (anthonysamy et al., 2020). this study was the first to analyze the impacts of university students on metacognition and alcohol use in trnc. alcohol consuming participants’ mcq-30 subscale need to control thoughts and cognitive self-consciousness levels were found to be the highest. in addition, it was found that cognitive awareness, which is the mcq subscale, predicts alcohol use when the metacognition is thought to affect alcohol use in terms of audit and mast risk factors. the significant difference between metacognition and alcohol intake obtained in these research findings is that alcohol use affects metacognition in individuals and has similar characteristics with some research results (spada et al, 2007; ipek et al, 2015). the cognitive confidence (mcq-cc) was found to be higher in students who did not reside in the city center whereas cognitive selfconsciousness (mcq-csc) was higher in students that resided in the city. also, it was found that participants without any health-harmful habits had high scores in r-met. audit and mast levels were found to be higher than any variable. majorly the numbers of participants that both consume and smoke cigarettes at the same time are found to be higher in mast and audit. various studies on cognitive functions include social cognition (frith & frith, 2007). in the study titled “assessment of social cognitive skills of adolescents diagnosed with internet addiction”; it was found that the internet addict participants had lower social cognition than the control group (saatçioğlu, 2016). the relationship between alcohol use, metacognition, and social cognition was examined. just like stated in the hypothesis, the social cognition of alcohol users was lower than the other participants. in the current study, the social cognition of individuals without alcohol and smoking habitudes was found to be the highest. to measure social cognition, r-met was applied to the participants and there was a correlation between r-met and alcohol intake. the results obtained are similar to the related literature review. this study aims to establish that students with different backgrounds have different metacognition and students with higher social cognition tend to consume less alcohol. according to the statistical findings, this study has reached its goal and supported the results with relevant research results in the literature. conclusions and recommendations alcohol use disorders are one of the bio-psychosocial problems that have been encountered, which should be examined in every aspect. the rate of alcohol use among university students has been increasing day by day and has become a huge behavior risk. risky alcohol consumption has become a huge public health problem affecting since it negatively affects the mental health of society individuals. the results of the research show that the impairment in social cognition and metacognition are related to alcohol use. the findings of this study support the literature of other studies. it was concluded that socio-demographic factors such as gender, age, and marital status, and income levels had an impact on alcohol intake. the students who have high social cognition do not use alcohol and those who perform poorly in using their metacognitive abilities are exhibiting high alcohol consumption rates. when this research is examined, similar results are seen. the risk of alcohol use among the young population of university students is increasing, and there are not many studies investigating the underlying causes. therefore,this study is intended to be a big contribution to the literature. it is hoped that future researches will give more evidence and insight in the relationship of alcohol consumption and cognitive impairment. it is extremly important to intervene by helping individuals with problematic alcohol intake behavior to timely pervent role cognitive impairments in that population. sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın sara h. kul, kuzeymen balıkçı, pınar ünal-aydın, orkun aydın examining the effects of...examining the effects of... 173172 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies references akvardar, y. 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(2011). self-harm, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among college students. psychiatry research, 187(1-2), 140144 who world health report: management of substance abuse: alcohol geneva; 2009 retrieved from: [http://www.who.org] april. 15, 2010. world health organization (2011), global status report on alcohol and health. retrieved from: https://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/ msbgsruprofiles.pdf yiğit, ş., khorshid, l., (2006). ege üniversitesi fen fakültesi öğrencilerinde alkol kullanımı ve bağımlılığı: bağımlılık dergisi, 7: 24-30. microsoft word 4. regressive progression last version epiphanyepiphanyepiphanyepiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 2 spring 2009 ©2009, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. regressive progression: the quest for self-transcendence in western tragedy bahee hadaegh university of wollongong the quest for a higher self is the recurring motif of the three reformative eras of western tragedy. this recurring theme is obviously manifest in renaissance elizabethan tragedy, european nineteenth-century drama, and the absurd theater. throughout these major dramatic periods, the idea of the quest reveals itself in three different manifestations_ action, imagination and inaction. based on nietzsche’s notion of dionysian tragic hero whose suffering leads to a greater self, the three major dramatic periods of western tragedy reflects a progressive directionality that nietzsche refers to in terms of a “progressus,” “task” or “goal” in the way of the quest for a “sovereign individual,” (gm 2). in the birth of tragedy, nietzsche sees in ancient greek tragedy the collision of two opposed principles which he calls dionysius and apollo. more than apollo, the thrust of his writing is the celebration of dionysius who is a creator destroyer giving life through destruction (21). his account of tragedy reintroduces the elements of pain and suffering as he argues that such a selfdestruction attacks the phenomenal self and uplifts the individual’s identity. for nietzsche, tragic pain and self-dissolution is the pathway to rebirth and a means of attaining a greater being. according to him, true tragedy dramatizes the celebration of creative dissolution. in his account, tragedy is a self creating agency through offering the dionysian element of self-annihilation which allows the tragic hero to rise beyond the phenomenal self. being an example to every individual, tragic hero is thus transcended into a higher being through entering into the state of ecstatic self-loss. bahee hadaegh 60 nietzsche aspires to reach a higher creator self or an oversoul which is beyond the narrow circle of the ego or the superficial self. such an aspiration assumes his anti narcissistic belief which reinterprets god within himself and acknowledges a higher self. relating to this notion which in different traditions goes by terms like ‘oversoul’ or ‘perfect self’, nietzsche refers to the original tragic hero, dionysius, who communicates the spirit of losing the individuality and becomes a great being. within this context, dionysius is associated with the ecstasy of self-loss through which individuals enter into the primordial unity or eternal existence and thus attain a higher self. therefore, based on nietzsche’s idea, individuals are redeemed through immersion into the dionysian eternal essence which rests on an underlying substratum of suffering. to counterbalance the effects of such a suffering, dionysian madness and self-forgetfulness take the individuals to the world beyond the phenomenal world where the self is transcended in the epiphanic moment of self-recognition and joins primal unity, infinity and the divine. in twilight of the idols, nietzsche refers to “tragic”, “dionysian” and “noble” morality as the affirmative agents of selfexploration which emanate from “the eternal joy [lust] of becoming”. he asserts that: affirmation of life even in its strangest and sternest problems, the will to life rejoicing in its own inexhaustibility through the sacrifice of its highest types-that is what i called dionysian, that is what i recognised as the bridge to the psychology of the tragic poet…, to realize in oneself the eternal joy of becomingthat joy [lust] which also encompasses joy in destruction, the birth of tragedy was my first revaluation of all values. (ti 8) within this context, nietzsche explains the spirit of dionysus whose epithet is lysios and conveys ranges of paradoxical meanings as “liberate”, “destroy”, “redeem”, “save”, and “heal” (kgw 16). the constructive destruction of nietzsche’s ecstatic process of self-transcendence thus reveals the seemingly regressive progression: the quest for self-transendence in western tragedy 61 destructive dionysian effects of self-forgetfulness and madness which are manifest in the elements of tragedy and the suffering of tragic heroes. nietzsche’s uplifting dionysian spirit then plays an important role in forming a complete affirmative orientation towards self-transcendence. based on nietzsche’s notion of tragic self-exploration through dionysian self-forgetfulness, the degree to which western tragic characters approximate self-transcendence reveals that the developmental process of western tragedy is regressively progressive.the process demonstrates that throughout the history of western tragedy, the more tragic characters submit to dionysian spirit, the more they are able to approximate a higher self. on the other hand, the more rigidly they are resistant to dionysian spirit, the more dangerously they are liable to violent rupture. it is in this context that the rational active approach of renaissance tragic quest is dramatically doomed to failure while the imaginative, dionysian way of the quest in european nineteenth-century dramas reveals no catastrophic fall. surprisingly, the inactive quest of the absurd dramatic characters leads to the characters’ spiritual rest which connotes approximating to the longed for higher self. the active, pragmatic attempts of renaissance elizabethan tragic characters demonstrate a specific directionality to re-create a higher self. the preoccupation of these characters with the idea of active struggle in the way of the quest for an exalted self is highly manifest in tragedies of marlowe and shakespeare as masterpieces of that specific dramatic era. tamburelaine remarkably equals action to supremacy and grandeur. he thus asserts that: “my deeds prove that i am the lord but by my parentage a shepherd” (i. ii.). it is even noted that his destructive notion of killing people is a way of making tamburelaine reach the wished-for elegant self: “wherein, as in a mirror, may be seen / his honor, that consists in shedding blood” (i. v.). similarly, in shakespeare’s coriolanus, the hero asserts that his courageous military achievements make his identity: bahee hadaegh 62 …let the volsces plough rome and harrow italy: i’ll never be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand, as if a man were author of himself and knew no other kin. (v.iii) such a notion is manifest in the way caius martius attains a greater self through his triumphant battle with the revolutionarists of volsci which is a city from corioli dependencies. following this great victory, martius ascends to his wished-for identity and is honoured with a new name as coriolanus. (abjadian 357). what stull mentions about the adlerian system of strife and the quasireligious quest for perfection in marlowian characters significantly interprets the motif that is also the underlying theme of shakespeare’s tragedies as the major representative of the whole renaissance tragedies. stull asserts that “the prime mover in adlerian system is humankind’s quasi-religious quest for perfection, understood as self-completeness and fulfilment” (445).the idea describes that even the most destructive and ambitious pragmatism of marlowe’s and shakespeare’s tragic characters emanates from their aspiration for selfperfection. in other words, transgression of all the boundaries of power, knowledge and wealth is the reflection of the desire to reach the absolute whole. it is in this context that tamburelaine and faustus explicitly ascribe the image of god to themselves. tamburelaine states: “thou supposest that i am a man, but thou art deceived, for i am no other than the ire of god” (ii.iv). faustus also maintains, “here tire my brains to gain a deity!”(i.i.63) in a parallel way, although shakespeare’s tragic characters do not explicitly mention such an aspiration, the fact that no worldly achievement gratifies them remarkably reveals the desire to reach an un unworldly perfection. in my point of view, the concept of ‘destructive construction’ remarkably defines the devastating attachment to outward means of power, wealth, and magic through which renaissance tragic characters try to manifest the highest potential of their selves. relating to this idea, faustus’ regressive progression: the quest for self-transendence in western tragedy 63 dismissal of divinity and his inclination towards magic is his choice to feed the desire of transcendence: “why, faustus hath thou not attained that end? / highest reaches of humaine wit” (i.i.18). greenblatt recognizes the same directionality in shakespeare’s tragedies towards self-making. he argues, “shakespeare remains the fashioner of narrative selves, having the capacity to foster psychic mobility in the service of power” (254). macbeth, for instance, considers that being more than a man prerequisites action: when you durst do it, then you were a man. be so and, to be more than what you were, you would much more than the man. (i. vii. 49-51) generally, the overall pattern of the quest for the higher self in renaissance tragedies of marlowe and shakespeare is demonstrated in a pragmatic rational materialism which is completely outward and worldly designed to actualize the self of the characters. ironically, such an active, pragmatic means of the quest in these tragedies leads the tragic characters to a catastrophic downfall as they are trapped with the pragmatism of the means which acts as a vicious cycle of incessant desires that block the way of selfrealization. the unending desires towards satisfaction of the ‘suprapersonal’ lead the characters to new cravings which make them shallow and finally fail to recognize the supreme self. in nietzsche’s explanation of how one becomes what one is, severe pragmatic approaches are translated as “great imperatives” of the surface consciousness of which the quester should beware of. he adds that: “beware even of every great word, every great posture, sheer danger! that the instinct comes to understand itself” too soon-meanwhile the organizing idea with a calling to rule grows deep down –it beings to command” (eh 9). stull ascribes faustus’ tragic failure to “the aspiration to heaven and the commitment to hell” (449). this kind of commitment, as i believe, is the over-involvement of renaissance tragic heroes in active pragmatism or excessive rational activities which are the extremism leading to tragic downfall. bahee hadaegh 64 while the motif of the quest for the ‘higher self’ in these renaissance tragedies generally reveal an outward, pragmatic approach, hamlet manifests a shift of emphasis to an inward journey of self-transcendence. while destructive actions and pragmatic materialism are the means of attaining transcendence with a catastrophic failure, hamlet introduces inwardness as a foil approach which has the capability to make the hero approximate the lost grandeur. hamlet is the first renaissance dramatic hero who undermines the outside world and takes it only as appearance: “but i have that within which passes show / these but the trappings and the suits of woe” (i.ii.85-6, italic mine). unlike his contemporary characters, hamlet even asserts that action destroys the essence: “for use almost can change the stamp of nature” (iii.iv.169). the epochal positive change from enactment to repression defines hamlet’s delay and signifies the regressive progression of the quest from outward action to inwardness and inaction in western tragedy. considering the motif of self-construction, bloom also emphasizes hamlet’s transcendent “inwardness” as a way of constructing identity or “the internalization of self before anyone else was ready for it” (429). oscillating between thinking “too precisely” (iv.iv.41) or madness, hamlet enters to dionysian world of “bestial oblivion” (iv.iv.40), following what he was challenging with as the possibility of “transformation” (ii.1.5). hamlet’s dionysian inward approach then verifies nietzsche’s idea about the impracticality of consciousness as a means for self-realization. hamlet’s constructive transition to doubt and incapacity is the result of his recognition of conscience as disabling and corrupt. he then believes in the impracticality of consciousness and finally switches to dionysian madness. hegel’s symbolic concept of an old mole who cannot live on the earth describes hamlet’s dissatisfaction with consciousness as a means to transcend his self. as an old mole who tunnels through earth toward the light, hamlet tunnels from his consciousness toward feigned madness. he switches to dionysian selfforgetfulness and freedom from blocking world of reason. the analogy of the mole describes hamlet’s specific way of the quest that is penetrating into the dark regressive progression: the quest for self-transendence in western tragedy 65 realm of imagination and inwardness making a shortcut to the manifestation of the truth. according to nietzsche, it is hamlet’s dionysian faculty and nausea which inhibit action and let him look through the essence of things. nietzsche asserts that through the ecstasy of the dionysian state hamlet is separated from the phenomenal world and becomes repellent of action. “action needs veils of illusion: that is the doctrine of hamlet, not the cheap wisdom of jack the dreamer who reflects too much and as it were, from an excess of possibilities does not get around to action. not reflection, no true knowledge, an insight into the horrible truth, that outweighs any motive for action” (birth of tragedy 39). here, nietzsche refers to hamlet’s especial kind of reflection that is different from negative, obsessive rationalism implied in the analogy of jack the dreamer whose analytical passive reasoning blocks his way towards a decisive end. according to nietzsche, hamlet’s delay is the result of his dionysian imagination not obsessive rationalism. it is a dionysian withdrawal from the outward world which suspends action and makes him penetrate into the very essence of the truth. hamlet’s final announcement of the lost grandeur at the grave scene demonstrates the relative success of hamlet’s dionysian approach which has made a shield of oblivion from the threats of the phenomenal world: “this is i / hamlet the dane” (v.i.252). rayner also refers to hamlet’s final success obtained through an inward inaction. he refers to calderwood’s close analysis of action and consciousness and argues that, “hamlet begins in an act of mourning” and adds that “such mourning is a positive act based upon an absence, leading toward the creation of an identity as a symbol” (111). unlike other tragic characters who like lear or macbeth even confess their failure either implicitly or explicitly, hamlet declares his regained lost identity in his victorious shout. hamlet is victorious at the end of his dionysian madness for other reasons as well. the throne is again back to hamlet that was excluded from him by his mother as he is buried like a king. he is successful in fulfilling his vocation in putting right what has been wrong bringing the true essence back bahee hadaegh 66 both to himself, other characters, and elsinore. in one word, his duty is performed. the rest is then hamlet’s final spiritual rest or selftranscendence as horatio implies: “good night sweet prince, / and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest” (331-2). within this context, hamlet’s imaginative inaction finally leads him to claim the lost sublime identity in contrast to the catastrophic downfall of his contemporary tragic characters. when action cannot resolve the crises, hamlet clings to the other option left for him that is inaction_ a strategy that is unique to modern heroes. hamlet’s inward model of the quest is then contagious to the modern dramatic characters and becomes the pole of transition between early modern and modern tragic characters. in this context, hamlet becomes the first romantic tragic hero and the shift of emphasis from outward action to inward world of vision is transferred to other dramatists like ibsen and chekhov. the transition from external world to the inward world of spirit in the way of the quest for the higher self is manifest in ibsen’s peer gynt when the hero conveys the idea of transcendence“once redeemed” or “uncreated spirit” through passing “from banks of flesh to banks of spirit” (92-3). in a similar vein, brand refers to the inward world as the specific approach which makes him be born again: within, within that is my call that is the way i must venture’ that is my path there shall the vulture of the will be slain and there shall the new adam at last be born again. (114-15) in relation to this context, ibsen’s three dramatic periods demonstrate a major dominant line of internal struggle where the spirit, ill at ease in material surroundings, tries to find its true home. the romantic motif of freedom and idealism underlies the central challenge of the characters from ibsen’s early dramatic poems to his final symbolic dramas. even in social and realistic phases of ibsen’s dramas where the action is for the most part concerned with men’s deeds and outward lives in connection with society and the world, the ideal of regressive progression: the quest for self-transendence in western tragedy 67 personal honour still appears as the underlying motif of the drama based on the characters’ internal arena of conflict for a higher self. although with the pillars of society ibsen’s style demonstrates emancipation from the thrall of romanticism, the motif of the ideal personal honour reveals the underlying liberating dionysian spirit of manifesting the greater self. ibsen’s third dramatic phase is however the culmination of the dionysian spirit where the liberating symbols like the wild duck, the mill race, the tower, or the open sea in the wild duck, the master builder, and the lady from the sea are but the external tokens of something inward. in when we dead awaken, irene explicitly refers both to the need for self-transcendence and the inward approach of attaining it: i must! i must! thus bids me a voice in the depth of my soul and i will follow it strength have i and courage for something better for something higher, than this life. (551) the mystery of ibsen’s tragic world is then unraveled under the romantic characteristic of the unique self which needs to be transformed to the unimagined splendor through dionysian rapture and the release of energy and reminds mystic principle of self annihilation. ibsen’s dionysian characters like, peer gynt, brand, hedda gabbler, and all other romantic characters demonstrate full ecstatic dissolution through madness and drunkenness as the entrance door of dionysius. such dissolution offers an occasion when the reason fails. in peer gynt, peer thus delightfully celebrates his farewell to the world of reason and enters to a self-annihilating realm: “reason is dead and gone: long live peer gynt!”(227) elsewhere, peer beautifully demonstrates the powerful role of fantasy and imagination in self-forgetfulness: little peer and i sat at home together we knew of no better remedy than forgetting one person uses liquor, another tries illusion bahee hadaegh 68 oh yes, so we used fairy tales of princes and trolls and all kinds of creatures (146) although the manifestation of the higher self is transitory and the imaginative world of the dream is often shattered by the reality of the phenomenal world, based on nietzsche’s idea of dionysian healing power of selfloss in imaginative world, the interpretation of the dreams leads the tragic character to the ultimate truth, heals and protects the ill spirit. ibsen’s brand, which is the best representative of his romantic dramas, is the starting point of self-realization within the protective apollonian world of the dreams. moreover, if breaking down the boundaries of the superficial self leads to complete dissolution of the ego, it can be still considered as a victory since it offers a rise from the mundane phenomenal world .the ethical teaching of ibsen’s great dramas as jacobs believes makes the characters who lack perfection rise above the mundane considerations of society, paying a paltry price for it. she finally asserts that “if the attainment of this (self-perfection), though the price of attainment of this thing be a sacrifice of life itself, is a victory rather than a defeat, a triumph rather than a tragedy” (430). what the button moulder announces as his motto is generally the incarnation of the motif of self-annihilation ibsen explicitly introduces in peer gynt: “to be oneself is to slay oneself” (235). the central mystic motif of selfannihilation and self-transcendence in ibsen’s dramas appears in the notion of death and rebirth as durbach asserts: “the desire for spiritual transformation, for resurrection from the sleep of death into a state of ednic perfection, finds expression in nearly all of ibsen’s plays. a paradise regained through the artifacts of the artistic imagination.” he adds that: “the essential self can discover its analogue in the epiphany of natural supernaturalism” (16). durbach’s “ednic perfection” symbolically adheres to the individual’s absolute manifestation of the ultimate whole which occurs after annihilation of the corporeal life. this motif regressive progression: the quest for self-transendence in western tragedy 69 also reflects itself in peer’s symbolic attempt in his baptismal cleansing which leads him to ascend or “go up”: i’ll wash myself clean in a bath of scouring wind! i’ll go up, and plunge right in to that bright baptismal font! (291) the manifestation of self-transcendence through self-annihilation represents itself in when we dead awaken where the heroes reach the height of their tower only when they pass through the tunnel of mists and frost symbolically connoting self-abolishment. this triumphant passage from the mundane world to the infinite world of imagination and annihilation gives the characters a sense of fullness in ibsen’s dramas. reviewing ibsen’s rosmersholm, northam analyzes the constructive role of discarding the outward world in offering the manifestation of self-recognition. he then refers to beckett’s waiting for godot as another example of sever detachment which leads to approximating the sense of fullness. his analytic study verifies the basic argument of this study which deals with the regressive progression of western tragedy regarding the underlying motif of self-fulfilment. he argues that unlike shakespeare’s the tempest where he demonstrates the process of transformation from individual’s self to the social self of outward civilization, the lavish exaltations of the primitive life of ibsen’s rosmersholm and the renounced world of beckett’s waiting for godot indicate that “the characters endlessly try to restore a sense of fullness out of their own creative moral imagination”. he then explains the world as “the reversed and reduced form of shakespearean world” (197).here, northam concludes that the attainment of selffulfilment is possible but not in life: not, at least, in life. thus where shakespeare’s play ends with a return from the isolation of the island to society, ibsen’s ends with departure from society into the ultimate isolation of an intensely private death. only bahee hadaegh 70 there, can rosmer and rebekka achieve the essential union of their different virtues, the traditional and the individual. (198, italics mine) ibsen’s dramatic symbolism, lyricism, and the arena of inwardness, act like chekhov’s overall pattern in conveying the romantic dionysian spirit of selfforgetfulness and self-transcendence. similar to ibsen’s dramatic world, imaginative inwardness is then the overall pattern of the quest in chekhov’s dramas. chekhov’s dramatic characters reflect hamlet’s dionysian transition from outward action to inwardness. in sokolyansky’s words hamlet’s “interior conflict” is a common feature shared between hamlet and modern figures specifically chekhov’s characters whose dilemma “to be or not to be…”represents their inwardness and their preoccupation with illusion. as shestov asserts, these characters act, but their “actions develop just from nothing” (39). this specific kind of passivity in russian dramatic characters which is called “russian hamletism” emanates from hamlet’s imaginative inwardness and is the particular characteristic of modern characters describing the “romantic interiority with the incapability of action” (sokolyansky 103). a more inclusive range of this romantic interiority coming from the melancholic inwardness of hamlet is also manifest in other modern dramatists in modes of chekhovian, pirandellian, shavian, odestian, brechtian, and becketian as keyshian also believes (74). in the seagull, treplev summarizes chekhov’s overall pattern of the quest selected by his characters: “…living characters! i must show life not as it is, but as it appears in my dreams” (416). in the three sisters, irena explicitly demonstrates what is ideally missing in the life they have: “i must try and find another position, what i wanted so, what i dreamed of, is what’s exactly not there. work without poetry… i can’t, i am tired” (170). what irena refers to as poetry in the life remarkably reflects the imaginative feature of life for transcendence. influenced by inwardness of ‘hamletism’ and the general romantic spirit of freedom in the nineteenth century, chekhov’s major dramatic characters like the regressive progression: the quest for self-transendence in western tragedy 71 three sisters, nina, vershinin, lopakhin, petya and others reflect hamlet’s obsession with delving deep into their own inwardness without doing anything. in the seagull, treplev reflects the characters’ obsession with the artificial world the characters create for themselves to escape the false and corrupted world of the outside reality: “stew’d in corruption, honeying and making love …” (478). such characters obviously disregard the outside world of reality and live in their own imaginative world of dream and fantasy. in a similar vein, the powerful dream of going to moscow completely takes irena from the outside world of reality in the three sisters: “… oh my lord god, i dream of moscow every night, i am like someone completely possessed….” (170). the specific approach that chekhov’s characters demonstrate is an endless delving within themselves which is positively considered as a ‘mystic’ movement. along with the inward approach of chekhov’s characters, there is a specific kind of lyricism and symbolism which breathe a dionysian spirit into the body of chekhov’s dramas and make the characters meet a manifestation of their wishedfor higher self in the transitory world of dream and imagination. lucas also sees the visionary realm as a means to satisfy the self in chekhov’s characters. he considers chekhov’s four masterpieces –the three sisters, the seagull, the cherry orchard, and uncle vanya _ as “the evocation of a visionary realm in which the longing of the self may be satisfied in all four of the plays” (37). the role of the imaginative world in restoring the wished-for higher self is reminiscent of jacque lacan’s theory of “the mirror stage” in the formation of the identity where the characters construct a sense of wholeness and totality that replaces fragmentation through objects, scenes and the images they fantasize in the dreams. lacan believes that the image of wholeness is perceived as being placed outside the subject. lacan’s theory implies that the image of the self is constructed based on the external source and the discourse of the other. referring to lacan’s theory, schleifer explains that the objects reflect the desire for the individuals, but the dissolution of the self to the scenes, images and objects acts as the discovery of the ultimate salvation. he adds that according to lacan, bahee hadaegh 72 objects, imageries, visionary scenes and even dialogues equal continuity, and the impersonality of salvation. after meditating on these, the individual self is thus transformed (887). in a similar process, as schleifer argues chekhov’s characters create the space of desire by dialogues and subjects through which they achieve ultimate freedom (888). it is possible to expand schleifer’s idea about chekhov’s use of dialogue in creating the space of desire for the characters. checkov’s characters dissolve their phenomenal self to the objects of the world of fantasy and visual spaces to construct the wished-for identity and discover the ultimate salvation of the self. the idea can be obviously seen in nina’s identification with a seagull or solovyov’s mystical dissolution to the lake in the seagull. such an idealizing transference is reminiscent of dionysian self-forgetfulness and apollonian healing power of the dream. modern dramatic characters then demonstrate an imaginative journey for self-transcendence wounded by the physical reality caused by incurable stress concerning life and existence.the modern domain of the search are then imaginative creativity, hallucinations, illusions and dreams. modern drama is the reflexion of a metaphorical journey into the transcendent self. it is the excavation into the very depth of the self to regain the the real existence. the regressive journey is from the outside world to the world of solitude and death in order to meet the spiritual liberty and the individual soul. within this context, the imaginative inaction and the identification with the objects of the dream world demonstrate the regressive journey to self-realization in chekhov’s dramatic characters. as gilman argues, this kind of inward quest links them to beckettian characters of the absurd theatre in their “eventful immobility or movement around a still centre” (177). ibsen’s brand and peer gynt are also reminiscent of the introspective fantasy world of the absurd theatre where the action shifts from the external world into the protagonists’ dreams of fantasies. durbach explores the idea of selfhood in peer gynt as a test case and finally implies that the attempt towards self rebirth is a recreating process possible only through death that is also regressive progression: the quest for self-transendence in western tragedy 73 manifest in beckett’s works (398). the paradoxical notion of death and rebirth is the motif which links ibsen’s works to the absurd theatre. although the introspective dream-like world of the absurdists immediately echoes the inner vision and the fantasy-stricken characters of ibsen’s and chekhov’s dramas, hamlet is the first western dramatic character who grows the seed of dionysian illusion for the achievement of the lost higher self. therefore, the seemingly absurd notion of inaction of the absurd dramas is reminiscent of the dionysian inwardness of hamlet empowered and emphasized by the imaginative world of nineteenth-century dramas. within this context, while the outward, active pragmatism of renaissance tragic quest ends in complete failure, the romantic arena of dionysian inwardness, introduced by hamlet and followed by ibsen’s and chekhov’s characters, demonstrates a course of development that despite being regressive, inactive, and inward in its overall pattern, is progressive considering the approximation to the higher self. hamlet’s indirect method of the quest for self-realization which lies on his withdrawal from the real world preludes the contemporary dramatic characters who are uncertain about the reality and their illusion ironically leads to a higher level of self-recognition. in “self-commenting drama of our times,” rao refers to raynold’s interpretation of polonius advising his son to find directions out through indirection as a “fresh approach to reality which is different from realism.” within this context, rao then asserts that polonius’ advice “unconsciously defines hamlet’s technique as well as that of contemporary selfcommenting drama. hamlet uses indirections most of the time in the play, because to his contemplative mind reality is not fixed.” he adds that: “contemporary man experiences hamlet’s uncertainty in the face of reality. the supreme example of hamlet’s indirection is the use of illusion to find out reality” (224-5). he finally concludes that it is possible to reinterpret the socalled void, silence and nothingness of the absurd dramas like those of beckett, pinter, and stoppard positively based on hamlet’s specific technique of indirection which as he believes rejects the idea of absurdity and uplifts them from the usual approach bahee hadaegh 74 of seeing the truth to discover it (226). followed by the relative success of the european nineteenth-century dramatic characters in their inward imaginative way of the quest, the absurd characters try to negate themselves through complete detachment and inaction in order to be safe from the destructive alluring of the outside world which shatters the manifestation of the higher self. they try to approximate the point of zero in order to start a new beginning. the point of zero is an absolute, inexhaustible, fascinating poverty that is the only wealth for the absurd characters where they return into proximity to the essence of being. based on nietzsche’s idea of dionysian self-dissolution, the detaching, reductive attempts of the absurd characters can be interpreted as the atrophying vocation which makes them able to approximate the innermost heart of things that is for them the essential being. what vladimir advises estragon can be considered as the symbolic motto of discarding the outward world and reducing to the very essence: “boots must be taken off every day. i’m tired telling you that. why don’t you listen to me?”(371) the characters of the absurd theater successfully manifest the approximation to a higher self recognition through perfect self-renunciation. the focus changes from discarding the material world to self-renunciation where the blocking element appears to be the body itself: “there’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet” (372). the diminishing means of the quest reveals itself in the clown-like features and the abbreviated names of the tramps in waiting for godot. the concept of waiting is itself a reductive means. ghosh indicates that the act of waiting “ can have as consequence a consummation that provides a clear understanding of the self and its relation to the situationa state of being-free from the morbid transition of matter”(308). that is why after the consummative act of waiting, a new birth appears as vladimir announces that the tree is sprouting immediately after his delightful explanation about waiting: wait …we embraced…we were happy…happy…what do we do now that we’re happy…go on regressive progression: the quest for self-transendence in western tragedy 75 waiting…waiting…let me think…it’s coming…go on waiting…now that we’re happy…let me see…ah! the tree! (439) severe self-reduction and discarding the phenomenal world in beckett’s dramas can be considered as the continuation of nietzsche’s directionality towards dionysian self-exploration. it is not unwise to claim that the self-imposed suffering and pain of beckett’s characters reminds nietzsche’s idea of wanderings over and through the mountains and valleys of primal pain to approximate the primal unity. it is also reminiscent of nietzsche’s doctrine of tragic suffering which leads to the final recognition of the tragic hero. the motif of selfabolishment in beckett’s characters reflects the idea of minimizing the access to the phenomenal world. such a motif reflects nietzsche’s constructive mystery of tragic suffering in the way of attaining the sovereign individuality. relating to this idea, coe states: “beckett’s characters allow themselves to be mutilated, becoming armless, legless, featureless, in an effort to approximate to their quintessential ‘selves’” he adds that “they try to die, and dying, strive to detach their ‘selves’ from the unhappy accident of incarnation, hoping thereby to redeem at last the catastrophe of spatial and temporal identity only to discover that their ‘personality’ against all the odd survives” (34, italics mine). the developmental course of descent then follows the suspension of the phenomenal world through dionysian self-forgetfulness offered by the imaginative world of nineteenth-century drama. such an ascending descent culminates in complete abolishment of the physical faculties in the absurd theatre as a means to manifest the essential, inner self. this kind of manifestation reflects hoffman’s general view about the modern self in the obsessive inclination towards the reduction which ends in immortality and self-assertion (46). the dionysian attempts of cherishing the physical life is manifest in beckett’s characters who endeavour to detach themselves from the world of flesh that is similar to the mystic notion of the abolishment of physical life to attain selftranscendence. mobility is explicitly rejected when hamm condemns clov to pollute the air while he moves a little in the endgame: [enter clov immediately. bahee hadaegh 76 he halts beside the chair.] “you pollute the air!” (1932) in happy days winnie also sees the ultimate happiness in destruction of physicality: “and if for some strange reason no further pains are possible, why then just close the eyes(she does so) and wait for the day to come-the happy day to come when flesh melts at so many hundred hours”(15). berensmeyer’s review of mystic tradition links mystic view of disregarding physicality to beckett’s denigrating references to physical organs as signs of mystic illumination: perhaps, the denigrating references in beckett to the “eye of flesh”, even “this filthy eye of flesh”, eyes that are safer closed, like those of protagonists in filmbecause then they can open themselves to an inner light, an “illumination” that would abolish all “trace” of exterior “always the same place” to self-assertion. (487) beckett’s characters finally demonstrate a state of spiritual rest which foreshadows nietzsche’s attainment of the primal unity and reminds mystic manifestation of the ultimate whole that is as cornwell describes the transference from “the first zone to the third zone” in a releasing process of “progressionor regression” from the external reality (44). in happy days, winnie implicitly refers to her spiritual bliss at the end of her self-abolishing attempts: though i say not what i may not let you hear yet the swaying dance is saying (16) parallel to the mystic idea of ‘annihilation and rebirth’ and nietzsche’s idea of primal state, beckett’s characters attempt to reverse the process of birth and speed their return to the state of pre-conscious non-being which indicates the spiritual satisfaction of the self. having been transferred, the heroes enter to a peaceful state which is the “lost eden” as cornwell exhibits. this lost eden then is regressive progression: the quest for self-transendence in western tragedy 77 the genuine being that beckett’s characters have lost. in line with nietzsche’s idea of suffering and rebirth which is also reminiscent of the mystic idea of selfmortification and rebirth, robinson also asserts that in beckett’s world, the lost paradise is the hidden reality of the self they have lost at birth. he states: they [the characters] connected suffering to the paradise that had been lost at birth and sought to suffer more for in those moments when the mortal microcosm is open to the suffering of being it is most deeply aware of its existence and perhaps closer to the hidden reality of the self. (290) the paradoxical notion of self-confinement and self-realization also appears in pinter’s dramas. in the room rose unravels the secret of her room in its capability to make her know herself: “you know where you are … you have got the chance in a place like this” (25). she implies that self-recognition happens while she is detached from the outside world. similar to rose’s idea, in a slight ache edward indicates: “sometimes, of course, i would take shelter, shelter to compose myself” (13). self-composition is then possible through utterly selfconfinement by pinter’s characters. the characters’ narcissistic attempt in delving deeply at themselves is searching for identity in pinter’s characters. closely related to self-confining attempts, almond refers to the paradoxical idea of emptiness and fullness in pinter’s the birthday party: the eckhartian soul we will recall is ‘empty of self and freed from the knowledge of objects, emptied to prepare a space for the birth of the word in the ground of the soul. the birthday party is the story of such birth the story of the ‘emptying of a human being. (184) within this context, at the end of this play, the hero is promised to find relief which follows his self-annihilation: “someone is coming in a van today to cart you away_ to cart you away! when the knock on the door finally comes, you will not run but will welcome it with relief” (86). the final silence of the room bahee hadaegh 78 also implies the hero’s final annihilation similar to the long silence which occurs in the final scene of the caretaker. after escaping her real identity offered by his father riley, rose accepts her actual identity and submits herself to the truth. she finally touches his father’s blind eyes, the back of his head and his temples with her hands. her final annihilation is manifest in her blindness after touching her father’s eyes. in a similar vein, rose is ultimately transcendent to sal as his father calls her so symbolizing her salvation: rose: what did you call me? riley: come home, sal. ……………………… riey: come home now, sal. pause (she touches his eyes). (31) in a similar vein, in the final scene of the caretaker, there is a long pause after davies’ incessant plea to aston asking him to live in his house. the long silence connotes davies’ final stage of the quest for self-recognition that is complete will-lessness followed by his desire to stay with aston. in other words, in his way of the quest for the wished-for identity, once he has detached himself from the outward world and self-exiled in aston’s house, he finally discarded his desire completely. such a complete annihilation is manifest in the long pause following his final speech: “i’ll tell you what though …them shoes …them shoes you give me …they’re working out all right … they’re all right. maybe i could … get down [to sidcup and get my papers], a long pause… (78).” evaluating silence and the moments of pause in pinter’s works, esslin considers them to be “speechlessness of annihilation” or “the gradual inevitable dissolution of human personality itself” (222).this kind of ending where the characters demonstrate complete withdrawal from phenomenal world is reminiscent of nietzsche’s mystic notion of self-annihilation and rebirth. the ultimate state of such spiritual peace then indicates the approximation of the characters to the wished-for self-transcendence which approves the triumphant negative selfassertion of the absurd dramatic characters. such a victory then regressive progression: the quest for self-transendence in western tragedy 79 verifies the idea of regressive progression in the developmental process of western tragedy from anxious disappointment of the renaissance tragic characters to the spiritual peace of the absurd anti-heroes. works cited almond, ian. “absorbed into the other: a neoplatonic reading of the birthday party”, literature and theology, 14, 2(2000):174-88 beckett, samuel. endgame. norton & company, inc. 1992. beckett, samuel. the happy days. grove press, 1961. beckett, samuel. waiting for godot, ed. harold bloom. new york: chelsea house publishers , 1987. berensmeyer, ingo. “twofold vibration: samuel beckett’s law’s of form”, poetics today, 25.3(2004): 465-95. bloom, h. the invention of the human. new york: riverhead books, 1998. pp. 740. chekhov, anton. the sea gull. trans. stephen mulrine, nick hern books, 1997. chekhov, anton. the three sisters. trans. m. budberg, davis-poynter, 1971. coe, n. beckett. edinburgh: oliver and boyd, 1964. cornwell, f. f. "samuel beckett: the flight from self." pmla 88.1(1973): 41-51 durbach, errol. “afterword: ibsen, beckett, and uncertainty”, modern drama, 49.3 (2006):396-401. esslin, martin. the people wounded: the plays of harold pinter. london: anchor doubleday, garden, 1970. ghosh, ranjan. “reconfiguring the waiting for godot: explorations within some paradigms of hindu philosophy”, samuel beckett today,15 (2004): 307-321. gilman, r. chekhov's plays, an opening into eternity. new haven and london: yale university press, 1995. greenblatt, s. renaissance selffashioning. chicago: the university of chicago, 1980. hoffman, j. fredrick. samuel beckett, the language of self. chicago: southern illinois bahee hadaegh 80 university press, 1962. ibsen, henrik, brand. trans. charles harold herford, doubleday, 1906. ibsen, henrik, peer gynt. trans. christopher fry, johann fillinger, oxford university press, 1999 . ibsen, henrik, when we dead awaken. echo library, 2007. jacobs, elizabeth. “henrik ibsen and the doctrine of self-realization,” journal of english and germanic studies (1939). keyshian, harry. shakespeare and movie genre: the case of “hamlet”// the cambridge compnion to shakespeare on filmcambridge univ. press, 2000.-p.74. lucas, f. l. chekhov, synge, yeats, and pirandello. (london: t. and a. constable ltd, 1963). marlowe, christopher. dr. faustus. kessinger publishing, 2004. nietzsche, the birth of tragedy. london: penguin group, 1993. nietzsche, f. ecce homo. london:penguin books,1990. abbreviated as eh. nietzsche, f. the genealogy of morality. trans. carol diethe.cmbridge: cambridge university press, 1994. abbreviated as gm. nietzsche, f. kritische gesamtausgabe, eds. g. colli and m. montinari. berlin: walter de gruyter, 1967. abbreviated as kgw nietzsche, f. twilight of the idols. trans. duncan large. oxford: oxford university press, 1998. abbreviated as ti. marlowe, christopher. tamburelaine the great. eds. joseph sandy cunningham, eithne henson. manchester: manchester university press, 1998. marlowe, christopher. dr. faustus. kessinger publishing, 2004. northam, john. “'waiting for prospero”, in english drama: forms and development: essays in honour of muriel bradbrook, r. williams .cambridge university press, 1977. pinter, harold. the birthday party. methuen, 1965. pinter, harold. the room. samuel french, 1960. pinter, harold. a slight ache. samuel french, 1961. rayner, alice. to act, to do, to perform. michigan: the university of michigan press, regressive progression: the quest for self-transendence in western tragedy 81 1994. robinson, michael. the long sonata of the dead. london: hart-davis, 1969. rao, m.n. “the self-commenting drama of our time”, the aligarh journal of english studies, (1984): 215-226 shakespeare, william. macbeth. eds. david m. bevington, joseph papp, bantam books, 1995. shakespeare, william. hamlet. signet classic, 1998. schleifer, ronald. “the space& dialogue of desire: lacan, greirmans & narrative temporality,” comparative literature, 98.5(1983): 871-890. shestov, lev. nachala i kontsy. sb. statejsankt-peterburg:tip. m. stasyulevicha, 1908. p. 39. sokolyansky, mark. “shakespeare and iconicity, shakespearian theme and motif in chekhov’s work,” dec. (2001), web. stull, william l. “marlowe’s adlerian tragedies,” soundings: an interdisciplinary journal 52 (1990): 443-64. epiphany: vol. 4, no. 1, 2011 issn 1840-3719 religious conversion, models and paradigms tuba boz abstract this papers examines the experiences of converts to islam among australian women in the milieu of polemic views and debates such as „islam versus the west‟, which is most visible in the image of the „eastern‟ „oppressed‟ muslim woman. employing the experiences of australian muslim women converts in melbourne, issues concerning identity politics, and the individuals and social dimensions of conversion are investigated. while there is an array of literature about muslim women from various disciplines including anthropology, sociology, politics, cultural studies and gender studies, among others, this paper takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine debates that have based their discussion on the image of the muslim woman. marco debates concerning issues such as multiculturalism, integration, islam and the west debates including the „clash of civilizations‟ have been largely centred on the image of the muslim women. the debate concerning the inherent conflict between islam and west intensified after 11 th of september 2001 with the terrorist attacks in the united states and the invasion of afghanistan in 2001 and iraq in 2002. it is during this critical period i interviewed muslim converts in order to gain first-hand insight into their experiences as muslims. this paper employs primary data collected during this historical period to examine issues regarding broader issues of identity politics, religious conversion as well as the everyday life experiences of female converts to islam. keywords: muslim women, religious conversion, islam, hijab, australia and identity politics corresponding author: tuba boz; faculty of arts and social sciences, international university of sarajevo, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: tboz@ius.edu.ba ; boz.tuba@gmail.com mailto:tboz@ius.edu.ba mailto:boz.tuba@gmail.com t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [129] introduction female conversion to islam and similar debates on gender issues, whether statistically, ideologically, or symbolically, has been pivotal in the construction of otherness between “islam” and the “west” (karen van nieuwkerk, 2006, p. 1). therefore, this paper examines the experiences of converts to islam among australian women in the milieu of polemic views and debates such as „islam versus the west‟, which is most visible in the image of the „eastern‟ „oppressed‟ muslim woman. employing the experiences of australian women converts to islam in melbourne, issues concerning identity politics, and the individuals and social dimensions of conversion are investigated. while there is an array of literature about muslim women from various disciplines including anthropology, sociology, politics, political science, cultural studies and gender studies, among others, this paper takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine debates that have based their discussion on the image of the muslim woman. marco debates concerning issues such as multiculturalism, integration, islam and the west debates including „clash of civilizations‟ have been largely centred on the image the „subjugated‟ and „foreign‟ muslim woman. this paper uses a micro approach to question the macro issues of integration, identity politics and the „clash of civilisations‟ by focusing on the experiences of female converts to islam in melbourne. however, the clash between religion, nationality and ethnicity seems absurd when one considers the anglo-muslim woman. is it a matter of lost identity? where does one‟s “australianess”, “englishness”, americaness or “frenchness” go when one converts to islam? is it not possible to be french and muslim or australian and muslim? does one lose their french or english speaking capabilities upon conversion? the debate concerning the inherent conflict between islam and the west intensified on 11 th of september 2001 with the terrorist attacks in the united states and the invasion of afghanistan in 2001 and iraq in 2002. at this time, samuel huntington‟s thesis on the clash of civilisations (1993), which made a significant contribution to academic, and policy debates gained much attention and influenced the discussions t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [130] regarding islam and the „west‟. it is during this critical period i interviewed muslim converts in order to gain first-hand insight into their experiences as muslims. this paper employs primary data collected during this historical period to examine issues regarding broader issues of identity politics, the motivation for conversion as well as the everyday life experiences of female converts to islam. a qualitative approach was taken to gather empirical data. there were forty participants or which 21 were female. for the purpose of this paper, only the experiences of female participants will be discussed. the participants come from different life styles and experiences and as the following discussion will show, these converts share surprisingly similar experiences during the conversion process. aliya, formerly christian converted in 2002. she works as an insurance consultant. aisha, tracey and jan converted to islam from christianity and their occupations vary from working as a film editor, to studying media studies or working as an administrator. the stories of aliya and jan will be used to a large extent as their experiences are compelling and shed light on the general experiences of muslim women converts in melbourne who participated in this study. before delving into the theoretical definitions of religious conversion, and what constitutes religious conversion, it is essential to clarify terminology. the vast proportion of the participants in this study prefer the term “revert” to “convert” due to an islamic notion of fitrah, a natural disposition in every human being that is inclined towards the belief in one god. as mohamed (1998:3) states, “the term fitrah literally means, “…an inborn natural disposition which cannot change, and which exists at birth in all human beings.” as such, the individual is socialised into a different way of life. however for the purpose of this paper the term converts will be used. models and patterns of religious conversion abdullah saeed (2003) writes that more than 36 percent of australian muslims were born and raised in australia and many are „converts to islam from european and other backgrounds‟ (page vi). saeed (2003) sheds light on the multiculturalism debate australia. he t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [131] explains that „ignoring the fact that australia is a multicultural and multireligious society and that the muslim community is extremely diverse, some influential commentators and even politicians suggested that australia should rethink its policy concerning muslim migration (p.187). he argues that, “this is based on the notion that muslims are a single formidable mass whose ideal and values do not fit in western society and conflict with basic australian „judeo-christian‟ values. (p. 187). it is this very notion of an inherent conflict between islam and western society, and the stereotype that being muslim is linked with particular nationalities and ethnicity that converts to islam help to dispel. gary bouma (2006) unpacks the notion of multiple identities as well as religiosity and spirituality. this is particularly useful when one considers converts to islam. for example, pertaining to religious identity, bouma reflects upon his own identity. he states: from a demographic perspective, a person‟s religious identity is taken to be, like other kinds of identity, what they say they are when they are asked who they are. who are you? i am male – gender identity, dutch american and english – ethnic identity, australian – national identity, married – marital status identity, anglican – religious identity, a green – political identity, a melbourne supporter – sporting identity… (p. 50). according to james a. beckford (2003), “one of the reasons why the topic of religion is a challenge for simplistic version of globalisation is that, by definition religion is self-reflexive. religions are not simply the effects of external forces; they are also agent, observers and critics of their own development‟ (p. 105). in light of this statement, one can also examine religious conversion in the context of self-reflexivity. before delving further into the experiences of female converts to islam in melbourne, i will provide an overview of the religious conversion process in general. in order to better understand the conversion process, a seven-stage model developed by lewis rambo and charles e. farhadian is used to display the phases of the process that takes place over time. these seven stages are: (1) context, consisting of the overall environment in which change takes place, factors when facilitating or constraining t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [132] change; (2) crisis, a stage in which there is a rupture in the taken for granted world which leads to the; (3) quest stage in which the individual actively seeks meaning and a new way of confronting their problem; (4) encounter is contact between the questioner and the advocate of a new alternative; (5) interaction is the intensification of the conversion process whereby the potential convert and advocate confer changes in perceptions and actions; (6) commitment is the stage in which the questioner makes the decision to change their life and adopt a new belief system and (7) consequences involve collective effects of various experiences, beliefs and actions that can either facilitate or hinder their conversion. rambo and farhadian state that it should be taken into account that the stage model should not be seen as unilinear or universal. the stage model is intended to be heuristic and the effectiveness of the model lies in its ability to systematically organise the complex phenomena of religious conversion, as well as some technical issues arising in conversion scholarship. the stages should not be seen as necessarily occurring in the sequence as presented in the model (rambo & farhadian, 1999: 24). in contrast, lofland (1966) emphasizes the significance of the order of the stages one must go through for conversion to occur. he states: for conversion it is necessary that a person, 1. experience enduring, acutely felt tensions; 2. within a religious, problem solving perspective; 3. which lead to defining himself as a religious seeker; 4. encountering the cult at a turning point in his life; 5. wherein an effective bond to adherents is formed (or pre-exists); 6. where extra-cult attachments are low or neutralized 7. and where, “to become a “deployable agent” and, exposure to intensive interaction is accomplished (lofland, 1933:7-8). while there is a distinction between conversion to a cult and conversion to a mainstream religion such as islam, this theory which draws from lofland‟s own research on converts to the cult called-divine precepts, may be applied to my research, the responses ascertained from my study diverge from his theory as some of converts did not necessarily experience acutely felt tensions within their religion, nor did they t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [133] consider themselves religious seekers. rather, they “bumped” into islam, or were researching it not with the intention of converting, but to gain information as they had some sort of interaction with a muslim, or just for curiosity‟s sake. this is not to say lofland‟s theory cannot be applied to the experience of other converts, as some of the converts in this study have given a detailed explanation of their spiritual quest, but it is not “necessary” that one go through these “stages” for conversion to occur. this is where the line is drawn between the psychological and sociocultural theories pertaining to religious conversion. a significant factor appearing in both models that influences the conversion process is social interaction with adherents of that faith. conversion cannot be separated from relationships, processes and ideologies, as it is these, which provide the prevailing conditions for religious change. moreover, it is important to note that there are islamic tenets which allow for marriage between muslim men and christian and jewish women, however there is a condition for non-muslim men to declare their faith in islam for a marriage to be valid according to islamic beliefs. dimensions of the conversion process are manifold, interactive and cumulative, and “in order to gain a rich understanding of conversion, the domains of anthropology, sociology, psychology and religious studies need to be taken into account” (rambo & farhadian, 1999:24). hefner (1993) in his conversion to christianity: historical and anthropological perspectives of a great transformation states, “contrary to some psychological accounts of conversion (james 1982, nock, 1933), however, we must not assume that such a deeply systematic rationalization is necessary or intrinsic to religious conversion. making such an assumption is to project an interiorist bias onto a phenomenon that comes in a wide array of psycho-cultural forms” (p. 17). nock (1933) is a prominent theorist of religious conversion in the domain of psychology. he defines conversion as “…the reorientation of the soul of an individual, his deliberate turning from indifference or from an earlier piety to another, a turning which implies a consciousness that a great change is involved, that the old is wrong and the new is right” (p. 7). hefner, in his book, consisting of several essays of the conversion phenomena demonstrates the variability of conversion. he argues that t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [134] interpretation of conversion needs to begin with the acknowledgement of its experiential variations, and then to go onto the explorations of its origins in various social and intellectual conditions. he (1933) states that: accounts of conversion that emphasize its putative psychological reality such as the classic essays by nock (1933) and james (1982) or a surprising number of studies in contemporary american sociology (snow and machalek, 1984) – remain incomplete if they neglect the broader context that informs the self-and situational evaluation of the converted. politics and social ethics are intrinsic to the psycho-cultural reality of conversion, informing on agent‟s commitment to an identity and moral authority that commitment implies. from the perspective rather than oppose psycho-cultural models of conversion, against socio-political ones, we should insist on and explore this interpretation. (p. 28). hefner puts forth that the challenge in the controversy of religious conversion, is to strike a balance between two extremes of intellectualist voluntarism and structural determinism. conversion encounters are always double sided, and the social and intellectual aspects both affect the outcome. he argues that both the intrinsic and extrinsic variables in conversion should be examined, although the interaction of the two may vary in different contexts. hefner (1933) avers that the most significant feature of religious conversion is not a deep systematic re-organisation of personal meanings, but rather an alteration in self-identification through nominal acceptance of religious beliefs or actions perceived to be more suitable or true, “…conversion implies the acceptance of a new locus of self-definition, a new, though not necessarily exclusive, reference point for one‟s identity” (p. 17). he draws on one of the essays in his book written by david jordon whereby he explains conversion as a matter of belief and social structure, of faith and affiliation. william merrill and charles keyes, also having written essays for this book, claim that religious conversion does not necessarily reformulate the individual‟s understanding of the ultimate conditions of existence, but it always entails a new kind of commitment t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [135] to a new moral authority and a reconceptualised social identity. furthermore, hefner (1993) confers that …conversion is related to a process of identity development often referred to as “reference group” formation. bridging social psychology and the sociology of knowledge, reference group theory emphasizes that self-identification is implicated in all choice, in all matter of self-interest, and in the myriad of conflicts and solidarities of human life (p. 25). the responses of the converts in this study demonstrate the personal and social effects of their conversion, with converts describing their selfidentification transformation from having found a purpose in life in worshipping allah to belonging to the trans-national islamic community –ummah. the reasons for conversion to islam vary among the converts. theoretical and theological assumptions can be drawn from the responses. william james observed conversion as a “personal experience” whereas john lofland and rodney stark see it as a social process. this is not due to the data they examine being divergent in themselves, but rather they had different theoretical assumptions and deployed methodological procedures which lead them to examine conversion in one way or another (gallegher, 1990:136). gallegher himself opts to see, “… religion as primarily public and social rather than private and individual” (gallegher, 1990:139). ethnographic analysis of religious conversion social and personal elements play as essential role in converting to islam. aliya is anglo-australian. she had a preconception of islam that was quite negative and had a view of muslims as patriarchal, oppressive toward women and terrorists. aliya blames the media to a large degree for depicting islam with such bias and negativity, she asserted during the interview: “oh, the media has so much to answer for, i had them pegged as people who are violent, extreme, limited and women were oppressed.” t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [136] an interesting aspect of aliya‟s conversion to islam was that it was triggered by an article in a newspaper portraying islam as a religion of violence, intolerance and injustice. an extensive quote from the interview is included to convey her experience, she elucidates: i think what sparked my journey to islam was, one day, it was about two and a half years ago, there was a clipping in the newspaper about a girl in mozambique who was going to be flogged because she was pregnant. the police accused her of premarital sex. she claimed she was raped, and because she didn‟t have any witnesses, which of course to rape, you‟re obviously not going to do it in the middle of the city, and the man who said that he had sex with her had a witness, got a guy to say that she consented, and she had nobody. i was really upset about this. for some reason this particular story disgusted me. so, i couldn‟t believe it, so anyway, i went and contacted amnesty international and they kept me in contact about this particular girl, but i still wasn‟t happy because with amnesty international, you still don‟t know exactly what‟s going on. so in an attempt to get some kind of basic explanation, i went to the preston mosque, i walked in there, he was very nice, i explained the situation, how could this possibly happen and i don‟t know why i expected him to think he could fix something happening in mozambique, but i did. i thought he could contact somebody and basically do something. anyway, he sat there and listened to my worries and concerns, then he picked up the quran and started reading some scripture from it. then he explained the shariah in its totality… he gave me a copy of the quran and i just knew that it was a very special book, and was very protective of it, but he never told me anything of that, never told me how to treat it, he just gave it to me and said feel free to read it if you want, which i didn‟t but at the same time i knew the book was precious. i came home and basically felt extremely spiritual, i saw, how he treated me, we were talking about women in islam, and i thought to myself, there are a lot more answers here than i had been previously given, and um so anyway, i could say that was the real and solid turning point. there is a culture within the religion, which i really really loved, so i think that was an t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [137] inspiring aspect. there‟s real respect between men and women, on a more personal level. aliya had come across the islamic way of life as she lived in an area highly populated with muslims. being in contact with muslims is a significant factor contributing to the context of her conversion. aliya‟s strong sense for social justice, which is reflected in her response to the newspaper article, she had come across prompted visit to the mosque to enquire about the teachings of islam. as such, her encounter and interaction with muslims were essential in her decision to convert, hence commit to islam. the encounter and interaction stages with muslims can be understood in context of da’wah, (advocacy) inviting others to islam. while the motivations for conversion varied, seven females stated that their interest in islam emerged from their interest in their partner. aisha confers, “i was seeing a muslim man who told me about the religion and recommended that i study it”. similarly, jaylan tells of her motivation for conversion, “meeting my husband, he had different beliefs and i wanted to understand them.” tracey‟s conversion was influenced by her interest in her partner; she stated that “meeting my husband” was an underlying reason for interested and subsequent conversion to islam. jan stated, “i was searching to fill a gap in my life, to rediscover religion when i met a muslim man who said the right words at the right time alhamdulilah.” jan further elaborated that “although her interest in islam was caused by her meeting her husband, in no way was he the cause for her conversion.” i asked jan what in fact was the cause of her conversion. she explained: i find this a really hard question to answer because, there was a trigger, which is my current husband, because he introduced me to islam, as i often say and i know lots of other reverts say this, he is not the reason, but he is certainly the trigger, but the reason is i really was looking for something. i was really searching to discover religion. the issue of whether you convert for your partner, or because of your partner, one of the things that was really important to me is that to pursue islam separately from my husband. i really needed to keep it separate because in the t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [138] beginning, i really, i didn‟t want to confuse the two, because my feelings for him were growing, and my interest for islam was growing, and there was this danger in confusing the two and i had to be really clear that my motivations were pure. the only way i could be sure in my heart is to separate the two, so i mean, he even felt that i turned elsewhere for information too much. the conversion process should not be seen as taking any sequential order. the converts were not necessarily on a spiritual quest when they converted to islam. rather an interaction with muslims has been the main cause of interest in islam, and by following up this interest with research, they found islam appealing and convincing. muslim hijab: a symbol of freedom, oppression or debate the hijab has been framed and employed as a polemic symbol indicating a barrier of muslim women‟s‟ integration into western societies and in more extreme cases as the very symbol of the „clash of civilisations‟. the framing of muslim women as „oppressed‟ can be seen in both scholarly literature as well as the news media and entertainment industries. books such as princess (1993), films such as not without my daughter (1991) and feminist writers who have a eurocentric understanding of what women‟s rights means have subjected muslim women to their own normative understanding of what is or is not a woman right, what women should or should not wear and how women should lead their lives. the exploitation of the hijab wearing muslim woman is particularly evident in the political arena in much of the western nations including france and germany where the far-right view the hijab as an insult to the secular political system. the hijab also continues to be unresolved issue in turkey reflecting more of turkey‟s identity crisis rather than a merely perceived offence to its secular political system. while now, with the fall of ben ali‟s authoritarian regime in tunisia, women can now practice their human right to freedom religion and expression and are able to wear the hijab or niqab if they choose so. although, once again political debate is being centred on the hijab and t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [139] niqab in tunisia with the secular and religious sections of the society debating an issue, which should simply be left up to the individual woman to decide. just as it is an insult to force women to wear the hijab, it is equally an insult to ban it. an illustrative example of the politicisation of hijab can be seen in a recent article programme on al-jazeera world (7 december 2011) in a story titled, muslims of france: what challenges have generations of muslim immigrants in france been facing to retain their cultural identity? the image of the woman wearing the face cover, niqab, is placed alongside an image of the french revolution and a muslim in prayer. while the issue here is about immigration, integration and citizenship in france, the idea that there is a clash between islam and the west, between muslims and west is connected to a misconception that only migrants are muslims. the misnomer that “all muslims are arab and all arabs are muslim” continues to exist in the 21st century. as such, the debate is centred on migration and this subsequently influences the broader identity politics debate. however, when one considers muslim converts, the dichotomous approach becomes weaker. while i recognise indeed there are issues concerning migration and integration, the questions related to being muslim should not conflated with immigration and citizenship debates. further, willy jansen (2004) makes an important observation concerning the experience of female converts to islam demarcating the „gendered‟ experience of conversion to islam. gender not only intersects with the freedom and reasons to convert, but also with the effects of conversion. it affects the ways in which the person expresses and incorporates his or her new beliefs, and how others react to that. one example is the adoption of the symbols used to express the new faith. for instance, a beard or male circumcision evokes far less reaction than taking on the veil. western society has made the hijab and the subordinated position of women into symbols of the “otherness” of islam, which raises the question of how female converts deal with this and give meaning to it. (p.99) t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [140] the hijab is an important aspect of the muslim woman‟s identity, as it is a visible display of their faith. further, the hijab can also be seen “…as an affirmation of their love for god and pride in their religion. some also see it as a feminist statement that says: „judge me on the basis of my personality and intellect. not on my beauty or body shape” (shaw cited in bouma, p. 57). in order to gain a deeper understanding of how conversion to islam may have affected the identity of muslim converts, i asked several questions about lifestyle choices and whether hijab, was adopted. i asked this because it is imperative in finding out how they identify themselves personally and publicly. furthermore, in order to see how the wider community responded to their identity as a muslim, i asked whether they had encountered any type of discrimination. the female converts reported some changes to aspects of their identity. this is illustrated in the accounts below: from the time i put on the hijab, i became conscious that i was a representative of the muslim community. in every way, shape and form i consider myself a muslim. it‟s just who i am now (jaylan). i have become part of a subculture in my own society. i sometimes feel i do not belong, i feel alienated from mainstream culture (nadia). people don‟t seem to perceive me as an ordinary australian anymore; they see me as a non-western person (aysha). i have grown stronger in my belief in allah and in the hereafter. i have become more god conscious in all that i do. i know clearly that i am a muslim and that does not contradict with being an australian muslim because islam is not inherited to a race (may). nadia and aysha appear to place significance on their identity being affected from the perspective of the wider community, hence from the social realm. they feel alienated after having converted to islam. may‟s response can be analysed from two aspects of her identity change; becoming more god conscious demonstrates the change on a deeper t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [141] consciousness level, stating the trans-national aspect of islam illustrates the sense of cosmic identity that has emerged as a result of converting to islam. such identity transformations occur on both a personal and social level. bourque (1998:11) states, “part of the creation of the muslim social identity involves learning how to take up their new role as a muslim when interacting with members of british society.” interaction with the wider community may be difficult for the converts if they are viewed as alien and feel isolated in their homeland. religious conversion and public perceptions the overall experiences of the muslim women converts in melbourne has not been and smooth and easy. the reactions of family and friends were generally one of dismay and fear. noor explained her family‟s reaction toward her decision to become muslim. her “family was shocked but friends gradually accepted”. on the contrary, maryam stated, “my friends thought i was mad, with preconceptions of islam, my family have been very supportive.” nadia reported that there “shock, sadness, concern for my well being”. may explained, “my family was extremely upset, they didn‟t speak to me for nearly three years, my friends moved away from me except for a few.” khadija declared, “my family to this day do not support the fact that we are as they call “extreme”, although they have calmed down a lot”. aisha revealed, “my dad accepted it right away, and wrote to me while i was still in pakistan to tell me that he still loved me. my siblings thought it was “cool”. my friends thought it was unusual but interesting. my mum didn‟t like it at all and gave me grief about it for a year or so.” hence, even if the family initially reacted negatively to the conversion, the majority eventually accepted it. carol anway (1996:52) in her study of female converts in america likewise found that, “although families may have reacted with shock and grief at first, they were willing to work through their relationship…” sarah, an italian convert from the catholic faith, experienced much difficulty with the reaction of her family towards her conversion to islam. she sheds light on the reaction of her parents: t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [142] they disapproved, they disowned me, but alhamdulilah, after two, three years my mum came round, and my father came round after seven years. but he is still negative. he mutters, we try not to discuss religion; you can‟t talk to him because he is so against it. he doesn‟t want to know. he calls us, “you people, you people this, you people that”. he doesn‟t refer to us as muslims. my father, he sees my son in the abayah, [islamic attire] he says to him, and i‟m glad my son doesn‟t understand, because he is a six year old boy, he says to him, take it off, you look like a priest, and i‟m thinking to myself, you should be happy if he is looking like a priest, you know, subhan'allah, i said, don‟t you get it, don‟t you get it? i said, you christians don‟t even know it, you‟re really muslims, you don‟t even know it, you really don‟t know it, wake up, wake up, you‟re saying my son looks like a christian, wake up. jan reported a variety of responses she received from family and friends to her conversion, i‟ve had every possible reaction. i‟ve had you know people who have been interested and supportive and have been quite positive about it seeing me happy, and i have people who are completely not accepting of it, and think that i‟ve turned into something with three heads, completely contemptuous of me, and i‟ve had everything in between but the reaction that most bothered me and still does are the people who just don‟t know what to do with it, they completely shy away from it, they don‟t ask a single question. i mean it‟s in their face that i‟ve changed, but they don‟t ask, they don‟t want to know, or they feel threatened by it, but i‟d rather have the people who are angry about it, challenge me, at least get me talking and at least give me an opportunity to talk about it rather than those who just pretend it‟s not happening. the reactions that have been narrated display the initial fear the family and friends of the converts had with the conversion. the eventual acceptance demonstrates that once they had a better understanding of the t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [143] belief and new life style of the convert, they learnt to accept it, and in some instances became rather supportive of it. nonetheless, the contemptuous reactions of others have caused grief for some of the converts; whilst some converts have chosen to disregard it stating that they were not true friends to begin with. establishing revert support groups is one way muslim converts overcome some of the challenges they are faced with when family and friends respond negatively to their decision to become muslim. such support groups are also vital in providing islamic education so that one may discern what it in fact islamic or an ethnic cultural practice. hanifa deen (1995) writes: shedding cultural practices can become a full-time occupation for well-educated female converts to islam – women on a voyage of self-discovery who have converted purely for religious and philosophical reasons not because their husbands are muslims or their partners converted, or because of some obvious emotional need. several such women have organised support groups for those converts experiencing a form of cultural shock and need advice (p.186). the „sisterhood‟ that emerges among the female converts to islam is important in dealing with such a change. the groups assist the converts to deal with the responses of their family and friends as well as their encounters with the muslim communities. for example the „revert support group‟ meetings organized with the islamic council of victoria provides such an opportunity for muslim converts both, female and male. significantly the „new‟ muslim is able to understand what in fact is islamic and what an ethnic or cultural practice is. conclusion the experiences of australian women converting to islam are important to consider in the broader context of integration, multicultural, identity politics and islam versus the west debates. the decision of women to become muslim and to wear the hijab highlights the complexity in which macro debates concerning the „clash‟ or conflict between islam and the west as such dichotomous approaches are too t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [144] simplistic and do not adequately address the issue of agency and selfreflexivity women employ in deciding how to lead their lives. religious conversion is as much a social process as much as it is a profound, personal and individual decision and experience. the decision to convert to islam varies from a deep-rooted belief in social justice to a desire to better understand the religion of one‟s partner. significantly, one does not have to be on spiritual quest to make a decision to change religion, interaction with other muslims, a newspaper article or a muslim partner is sufficient to spark an interest and subsequently an investigation of islam. upon conversion to islam, the social process of becoming a member of the ummah is at once a source comfort but it also presents a challenge for the new muslims who have to be discerning between ethnic and cultural practice and islam. as such, „revert support groups‟ provide an opportunity for new muslims to meet others who have shared experiences, providing a social environment as well as an educational environment. significantly, the challenges encountered by some women who convert to the religion of islam are rather related to socio-cultural aspects of life. however, overtime many families became more accepting and welcoming of their family member‟s decision to convert. such changes will hopefully eventually help dispel the misconceptions of muslims as either „terrorists‟ or the subjugated „oppressed women‟ or „non-western‟. references: al-jazeera world (7 december 2011). muslims of france. (programme). anway, c. (1996). daughters of another path: experiences of american women choosing islam. united states: yawna publications. beckford, j. a. (2003). social theory and religion. united kingdom: cambridge university press. bouma, g. (2006). australian soul: religion and spirituality in the twenty-first century. melbourne, australia: cambridge university press. deen, h. (1995). caravanserai: journey among australian muslims. nsw, australia: allen & unwin. t. boz religious conversion, models and paradigms epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [145] gallagher, v. eugene, (1990), expectation and experience: explaining religious conversion. atlanta: scholars press. gilbert, b. (1991). not without my daughter. united states: pathe entertainment hefner, w. robert. (1993). conversion to christianity: historical and anthropological perspectives on a great transformation. united kingdom: university of california press. huntington. s.p. (summer 1993). „the clash of civilizations?‟ foreign affairs. vol.72(3) pp. 22(28) lofland, j. (1966). doomsday cult: a study of conversion, proselytization, and maintenance of faith. new jersey: prentice hall. jansen, w. 2004. “conversion, marriage and gender: jordanians and the christian mission.” smt swedish missiological themes/svenksk missions tidskrift 92 (1): 99–122. nock, a.d. (1933) conversion: the old and the new in religion from alexander the great to augustine of hippo. oxford: clarendon press. personal interviews, in 2002 held in melbourne, australia. rambo, l. & farhadian, c.e. (1993) understanding religious conversion. new haven & london: yale university press. saeed, abdullah. (2003). islam in australia. nsw, australia: allen & unwin. sasson, jean. princess: a true story of life behind the veil in saudi arabia. london, u.k: bantam books. van nieuwkirk, k. (2003). gender and conversion in the west. austin: university of texas press. safaa falah hasan alsaranga the absence of pandemic literature... 39 vol. 14 no.2, 202138 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the absence of pandemic literature: re-experiencing the pandemic in kerr’s unity (1918) and in contemporary time safaa falah hasan alsaranga istanbul gelişim university abstract modernist literature had a strong potential for representation and embodiment. it vividly conveyed the reality of the two world wars and the views of the individuals who lived through them. however, there remained one missing chain in all of that representation: the pandemic. the impact of the 1918 spanish flu pandemic on humans was greater than that of the two world wars combined. yet, it was not highlighted by authors back then and was only briefly and indirectly represented due to its invisibility, unlike war. in later times, pandemic writing had slightly flourished and new works directly reflected the pandemic, such as kevin kerr’s unity (1918). the play seems to mimic our contemporary experience under covid-19, although it portrays the spanish flu pandemic of 1918. this means that the play shows many similarities and parallels to our life under the pandemic of today, as it demonstrates the similarities between the spanish flu and covid-19. this paper reveals part of the causes concealed behind the literary silence of the flu pandemic of 1918. moreover, it provides a brief comparison between the pandemic in unity (1918) and the pandemic of today asserting the significance of literary representation of these events. keywords: spanish flu, covid-19, pandemic literature, kevin kerr, unity (1918) epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction in the last few decades, the term “pandemic” was not sufficiently expressed by the literary and historical mediums. instead, “pandemic” remained a classical term that was always associated with the 1918 spanish flu until the occurrence of the covid-19 virus and its assessment as a pandemic. when performing research on pandemics, historical archives and historical encyclopedias are consistently the first major sources to be relied upon. however, literature has its own realistic reflection of some major aspects of the 1918 pandemic, nonetheless, that reflection was not thoroughly examined. modernist writers echoed the pandemic very briefly as their main focus was poured into world war i. the spanish flu pandemic occurred towards the end of the notorious first world war, at a time in which the public’s attention was completely drawn to war and its long-awaited outcome. as a result, no immediate measures were taken against the spanish flu pandemic upon its spread, which would later record significantly more fatalities than that of the two world wars combined. the main issue back then was the war as it was more urging and demanding than the pandemic. on the one hand, women waited for their recruited husbands while working in military industries. soldiers, on the other hand, were huddled in bunkers, unaware of the virus’ invisible threat. by the same token, in an attempt to mirror their society’s reality, writers focused on the war rather than on the pandemic. from a literary aspect, unity (1918) was one of the earliest works to provide a live and direct demonstration of the pandemic upon its first performance in the late nineties. the play explicitly embodies the struggle and devastation that people underwent during the spanish flu pandemic in 1918. the scenes in the play that demonstrate life under the spanish flu pandemic are similar to contemporary experiences of the covid-19 pandemic. the play would seem uncanny and alien because of its action, but now appears as all too familiar. kevin kerr notes that unity (1918) safaa falah hasan alsaranga safaa falah hasan alsaranga the absence of pandemic literature...the absence of pandemic literature... 4140 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies has been steadily published for 20 years and did not become popular until the spring of 2020, when the covid-19 pandemic started spreading (k. kerr, personal communication, august 21, 2021). kerr’s play did not only convey people’s life in the 1918 pandemic, but had to do so with all of the restrictions imposed that resemble those of today’s pandemic. when combining historical archives with kerr’s play, one can notice that the literary representation in kerr’s play provides a more lively embodiment of the circumstances under the pandemic while history could only preserve events in the form of outlined records. this paper addresses pandemics in a literary context, questioning the reasons behind the literary silence over the spanish flu pandemic of 1918. furthermore, it draws parallels between the life under the pandemic in unity (1918) and the life under the contemporary covid-19 pandemic, highlighting challenges and restrictions. pandemic and literature humanity’s experience with the spanish flu pandemic was unforgettable, “as globally, the pandemic killed between 50 and 100 million people, and the united states suffered more deaths in the pandemic than in world war i, world war ii, and the conflicts in korea, vietnam, afghanistan, and iraq combined” (outka, 2019, p. 1). the spanish flu pandemic started spreading when the public was watching the end of world war i with anticipation, resulting in a total neglect of the invisible malicious enemy. therefore, it is crucial to question the literary silence over such a catastrophe. most of the modernist authors had atrocious experiences with the pandemic: d. h. lawrence and edvard munch barely survived, gustav klimt died, w. b. yeats’ wife experienced a fatal case, virginia woolf had profound concerns about her illness, and t. s. eliot was afraid of potential brain damage from his case of the spanish flu (outka, 2019, p. 1). then, what could be behind this conspicuous silence and erasure of such a significant event in modernist literature? the tremendous numbers of deaths due to the spanish flu were not considered as historical in the way war casualties were. the majority of readers will fail to find pandemic narratives in general and of the 1918 pandemic in particular. this stems from the public, including the modernist writers, who prioritized military conflicts over the microscopic virus, allowing military conflicts to define history while reducing the significance of the pandemic’s role. in addition, common traditions viewed deaths from illness “with seemingly less valiant, more feminine forms of death” (outka, 2019, p. 2), providing another reason for the absence of pandemic writing. moreover, illness and war are interpreted differently as they impact humans differently. outka (2019) contends that the pandemic’s effect was certainly sensual and pathological, and its danger was microscopic in the literal meaning. by contrast, the war was visible, easier to observe, and thus easier to take a stance on, it affected both civilians and soldiers with its events and outcomes, it was the males’ race for power and strength and thus, literature would make it its focal point. writers mostly associate their writing with events with considerable importance for others; such events are assumed to be touching human sentiments and having imageries of grief and loss, often present in wars which most of the modernist authors preferred. despite the seeming disappearance of a direct reference to the spanish flu pandemic, its traces can still be noticed within a few major literary works of the modern era. within the lens of the pandemic, the waste land and mrs. dalloway reflect in their modernist metaphors shocking scenes of fragmentation and signs of shrapnel and severe dementia which are qualities shared by both war and the pandemic. moreover, “invasions become ones of microbes and not only men; postwar ennui reveals a brooding fear of an invisible enemy” (outka, 2019, p. 3). writers such as t. s. eliot and woolf did not intend to include the pandemic in their writing, but as it existed in their unconsciousness, it eventually transferred itself into their narratives. one of the primary topics highlighted in modernist literature was violence. while the forms of violence could alter, they shared the same fundamentals. in terms of violence, the war and the pandemic are alike as safaa falah hasan alsaranga safaa falah hasan alsaranga the absence of pandemic literature...the absence of pandemic literature... 4342 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies they both cause severe harm and damage. unlike war, a pandemic is very delocalized and has no location or borders limitations, it is not biased towards any country and it consumes the body from within. in her book at the violet hour, cole (2014) assures that modernist literature is “profoundly shaped by the call of violence” (pp. 5-6) in both form and theme. she also argues that if the body was violated by a non-sentient external agent (the virus), it will unmistakably corrupt the internal organs of the body and even cause bleeding in some cases (cole, 2014, pp. 5-6). modernism’s narratives depicted violence not only as an element of war but also as an abstract idea that covers illness. the picture of the pandemic resides in the indirect qualities of modernism, including violence. on the surface it appears to readers as a chronology of suffering during the war; yet, in its deep interpretation, the elements of the pandemic are apparent to some extent. therefore, modern literature’s characteristics emerge as subterranean echoes of the pandemic’s horrors and the very ways these horrors go underground as the pandemic has always been “a hidden force that has been there all along, exerting weight and influence” (outka, 2019, p. 3). the pandemic is not only invisible for people in real life, but it is also invisible in their imagination, as it is literally microscopic. experiencing the pandemic in unity (1918) and in contemporary time as the war and the pandemic’s imminent risks faded and fears of their return receded, authors grew more eager to revive the pandemic: to express its harm directly, explain its significance, and forecast its long-term ramifications. through his play unity (1918), kevin kerr resembled such authors that embodied the pandemic from numerous aspects. the play chronicles the progress of the spanish flu pandemic in the canadian city of unity, while also exploring the public’s attitudes towards both war and the pandemic. unity is hit by a mysterious fatal pandemic affecting old and young people, and eventually leads to rapid deaths. at the initial outbreak of the pandemic, strict measures are enforced and the community is isolated to keep the virus away, as social distancing becomes a must. moreover, the people of unity become paranoid and residents turn on each other trying to find a scapegoat for the problem. in unity (1918), although the proposed “enemy” is not fully present in unity until the second act, kerr places some signs that predict a coming disaster. in the prologue’s opening, there is a sound of a threshing machine described as a “distant horrible roar” (p. 11) dominating the atmosphere. when considering the historical context of the year 1918, this puzzling and enigmatic sound takes on a dual meaning: first as a reference to the mechanized first world war and second as foreshadowing of the upcoming virus. as explained before, people back home were in a state of anticipation about the war as they waited for soldiers to come home from the battlefield. this is reflected earlier in the play before the arrival of the virus to unity when bea, a young civilian woman who has always been curious about the soldiers’ circumstances in the trenches, is stunned by what she has been told by a returning soldier: bea: (aside) a soldier. a wounded soldier. … we all wanted from him something we had been waiting so long for, contact with that other world. a story. a war story. but instead he just talked about how everyone in halifax had the flu. (kerr, 2002, p. 37) this excerpt depicts the beginning of people’s confusion following the arrival of the virus. bea is shocked hearing soldiers’ stories about how the virus spread rather than the awaited stories of their battlefield heroism. furthermore, this demonstrates the perplexity of soldiers who have been exposed to the virus before the people back home. seeing soldiers returning with stories about illness rather than those of the battlefield made people anguished and frustrated, contributing to the overall dark and existential atmosphere of the era. simultaneously, modernist writers were puzzled witnessing a major event like the first world war becoming intertwined safaa falah hasan alsaranga safaa falah hasan alsaranga the absence of pandemic literature...the absence of pandemic literature... 4544 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies with the unknown pandemic that spread vastly, threatening people’s lives. the play’s depiction of life during the spanish flu and the covid-19 pandemic seems uncannily similar. the canadian performer danny saretsky, who played stan, is surprised by the similarities between the play and the current situation, stating “there is a lot of similarities” (toben, 2015) and that the play was “disturbingly parallel” (toben, 2015) to our reality nowadays. besides, the two pandemics are “eerily similar” from various aspects according to wcnc news channel report (ruffes, 2021). because of these many similarities of the life represented in unity (1918) and our lives today, it became vital to uncover and build on these parallels. the most obvious one is the governmental role for mandatory restrictions for the sake of reducing the spread of the virus. in an interview with the swiss news agency sda, historian kaspar staub stated that “it’s remarkable how ever-greater similarities are emerging in the actions of the government and the authorities during the pandemics in 1918 and 2020” (swiss note many parallels between covid-19 and spanish flu, 2021). in the play, the government had to enforce new restrictions on people, such as social distancing, no spitting cautions, and mandatory quarantine for those infected, in order to reduce the damage of the virus. anyone not to abiding these laws will be fined: rose: ... no spitting in public. doris: if you have it [the virus] they put a notice on your door. you’re quarantined. rose: i know, but it’s a twenty-five dollars fine. (p. 51) within the climate of restrictions, a new law in unity that designates the flu pandemic as a “reportable disease” (p. 51). and such a law, doris explains, “means you have to report / occurrences of . . . [influenza] to the health authorities” (p. 51). mcnulty, who asks doris about the new pandemiccontrol policies, questions “why you’d report the flu in your house if it means that suddenly everyone avoids you like you have the plague” (p. 52). furthermore, bea reports that “the town has been quarantined. not because of illness, but because of fear of illness. no one is allowed to enter or leave. . . . trains have been ordered not to stop. no pick ups or deliveries. the mail is piled outside of town and will be burned later” (p. 72). it seems that the government of unity is bewildered by the idea of a new coming virus that has unknown consequences. in the case of the recent virus, the governments have taken similar precautions to stop its spreading; the who issued a quarantine guideline to be relied on worldwide. the guidelines state that not only the infected ought to quarantine but also any other possible contacts (considerations for quarantine of contacts of covid-19 cases, 2021). wearing masks was also one of the main precautions paralleled between the play and reality. in the play, citizens were not allowed to leave their place without wearing masks as masks were counted as the first defense line against the virus: rose: mask. that’s also the law... you can buy them or make them, but you can’t go without one. (p. 52) a close reading of the extract above reveals that almost every word and expression is relatable to the situation during covid-19. concerning masks, the who states on its website that “masks are a key measure to suppress transmission and save lives” (when and how to use masks, 2021). the simultaneous occurrence of both war and the pandemic put both people at home and soldiers on the battlefield in a state of defense against the unknown. while soldiers fought against human enemies, people back home fought against the pandemic, the similarity between the both creates a shift in the use of martial language which started to be used in describing the practices of nurses and health workers. while soldiers encourage each other, bea encourages her friend mary to “[turn] . . . defeat into victory” and to preserve her “canadian bravery” (p. 49). then she approaches mary, saying “we just have to be brave like a soldier” (p. 50). likewise, during the covid-19 pandemic, martial language is present, as health workers safaa falah hasan alsaranga safaa falah hasan alsaranga the absence of pandemic literature...the absence of pandemic literature... 4746 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies who look after covid-19 patients are referred to as “frontline fighters” or “frontline heroes”. the play does not only reflect the similarities between the spanish flu in 1918 and the covid-19 pandemic in terms of governmental restrictions but also mentions further social issues, such as the spread of misinformation in society. the spread of misinformation posed a serious problem even before the spread of the spanish flu since propaganda and various rumors circulated in almost all the countries participating in the war. upon the arrival of the spanish flu in 1918, another wave of misinformation was emerging, in which the people associated the sudden spread of the pandemic with the first world war, subsequently blaming their rivals of developing the virus in a biological laboratory and using it as a biological weapon. the global health specialist dr. jonathan quick emphasized three dynamic parallels of every pandemic, including the 1918 flu and the covid-19 pandemic which are “blame, conspiracy, misinformation” (ruffes, 2021). the virus had different names in each nation, thus “with the pandemic in 1918, the spanish got blamed, and each nationality blamed another nationality or another group” (ruffes, 2021). the 1918 virus was named the french flu by the spaniards, and the german virus by the french, while germans hypothesized that the virus originated in russia (toben, 2015). the virus had caused tremendous turmoil due to misinformation, and unity (1918) has succinctly touched upon this notable side. in the play, the people of unity believe that the virus might have been developed by the germans as a secret weapon: man 2: i read that this flu is uh...might be the germans. ... some secret weapon they planted on the coast. (p. 85) the anonymous man 2 stands for the public’s opinion in the city. he also claims that he has “read” that it might be the germans. this gives the impression that the media back then contributed in popularizing misinformation. back in the first world war, canada fought against the germans and the spread of misinformation targeting the enemy was not new in comparison to other nations. in reply to man 2, man 1 sarcastically replies “is that right. i thought it might be the germs” (p. 85). the public of unity has formed a single picture of both the pandemic (germs) and the germans and categorized them both as an existential enemy. this is similar in nature to the recent claims that covid-19 was developed in wuhan and was intended as a biological weapon in the middle of hate and racism against the asian race. the most critical pandemic facet that directly impacted people is the psychological one. being surrounded by an invisible virus that has no track or treatment was bewildering back then. the civilians suffered psychologically from the virus as much as the soldiers did on the battlefield. consequently, the fierce attack of the pandemic and the continuous death incidents left great psychological damage within people’s minds. the psychological impacts caused by the current pandemic are diverse, such as “anxiety, depression, ptsd, alcohol misuse, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, panic and paranoia” (pedrosa et al., 2020, p. 4). in unity (1918), similar impacts can be noticed in the people of the city: mary: beatrice, i’m so scared. what if the flu comes here? and we get it. i get it ... and die. / and then richard (p. 50) as the pandemic progresses, the characters in the play start to suffer from an existential crisis similar to that of war. characters are afraid that the pandemic could mean the end of the world. stan says that “this might be our last days on earth” (kerr, 2002, p. 49) after the situation starts to deteriorate in unity. bea also starts thinking that the “world will come to an end this year!” (kerr, 2002, p. 13). the same feeling has afflicted people during the covid-19 pandemic as it was “a deeply existential issue that fundamentally changes people” (van tongeren et al., 2021, p. 1). to sum up, kevin kerr believes that the life under the pandemic depicted in unity (1918) “such as government mandated health orders, mask controversies, social distancing, safaa falah hasan alsaranga safaa falah hasan alsaranga the absence of pandemic literature...the absence of pandemic literature... 4948 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the spread of misinformation, and of course the familiar emotional terrain of anxiety, fear, and even the fatigue of what seems to be a never ending war” (k. kerr, personal communication, august 21, 2021) is relatively aligned with the life under the contemporary covid-19 pandemic. conclusion in the interwar period, modern literature has not focused much on the spanish flu pnademic in 1918, nevertheless, its traces can be found in almost every work. despair, emptiness, and gloominess were expressed in modernist writing not just as a result of the war, but also as a result of the pandemic. the pandemic’s representation within interwar literature was indirect and vague. in the late nineties, kevin kerr published unity (1918) and its uniqueness stemmed from the fact that it addressed the reality of people under the flu pandemic in a detailed way. unity (1918) gained popularity recently during the covid-19 crisis because of its striking resemblance to life under covid-19, despite the fact that unity (1918) is about a pandemic that occurred more than a century ago. almost every aspect of covid-19 can be compared with other ones found in the play. kevin kerr’s unity (1918) can be more elaborative and more attractive in describing the pandemic flu than history books. references cole, s. (2014). at the violet hour: modernism and violence in england and ireland. oxford university press. considerations for quarantine of contacts of covid-19 cases. (jun 25, 2021). world health organization. https://www.who.int/publications-detail-redirect/who2019-ncov-ihr-quarantine-2021.1 kerr, k. (2002). unity (1918). talonbooks. outka, e. (2019). viral modernism. columbia university press. pedrosa, a. l., bitencourt, l., fróes, a. c. f., cazumbá, m. l. b., campos, r. g. b., de brito, s. b. c. s., & silva, a. c. s. (2020). emotional, behavioral, and psychological impact of the covid-19 pandemic. frontiers in psychology, 11. ruffes, v. (oct 11. 2021). “masking, protests, multiple waves: how the 1918 flu pandemic is eerily similar to and alarmingly different than the covid-19 pandemic” wcnc charlotte. https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/1918-flu-pandemicsimilar-different-covid-19-pandemic-duke-health-institute/ 275-deb940c3-d66e-4119-8b88-2badbde2c17f swiss note many parallels between covid-19 and spanish flu. (feb 9, 2021). swissinfo. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-note-many-parallels-between-covid-19-andspanish-flu/46356364 toben, b. (2015). “another drama about another pandemic” westmount magazine. https://www.westmountmag.ca/unity-1918/ van tongeren, d. r., & van tongeren, s. a. s. (2021). finding meaning amidst covid-19: an existential positive psychology model of suffering. frontiers in psychology, 12. when and how to use masks. (dec 1, 2020). world health organization. https://www. who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-howto-use-masks religion and identity in james joyce’s epiphany online journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / volume 1 / no. 1 fall 2008 ©2008, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. religion and identity in james joyce’s a portrait of the artist as a young man catherina akca kafkas university “all that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned” (marx and engels, 1854, cited in childs, 2000: 31-32). these words are evocative of the loss of faith and certainty, the sense of fragmentation and alienation, and the atmosphere of dissolution which pervaded much of western european society from the middle of the nineteenth century. since comte‟s philosophy of positivism and darwin‟s theory of evolution had challenged confidence in religious authority, the undermining of faith which appeared in western culture during this period was to be expected. the crisis of faith continued, concurrent with increasing urbanisation, industrialisation, mechanisation, and the alienation contingent upon capitalism, until for many people any residual belief in a divinely ordered, meaningful universe was finally laid to rest amid the waste and carnage of world war i. (childs, 2000: 46-48, 55) on the other hand, the roman catholic church continued to be a potent force in joyce‟s native ireland throughout and beyond the nineteenth century, not only in terms of the doctrinal and spiritual guidance it provided but also because of the influence it exerted upon the cultural and political life of the country. roman catholicism had long been a focus of nationalist resistance against english colonialism, such that “irishness had come to be seen by many as synonymous with catherina akca 52 catholicism” (belanger, 2001: xx-xıı). the irish ireland movement 1 proclaimed that “ireland‟s authentic cultural nationalist identity was unquestionably as a gaelic and catholic nation” (brown, cited in belanger, 2001: xxıı). in some literary quarters, any irish work “that claimed to be „national‟ would be judged according to whether or not it conformed to the stereotype which ascribed to catholic ireland the virtues of purity, innocence, and sanctity” (lyons, cited in mulrooney, 2001). however, the irish nationalist community was itself divided. on the one hand, people like dante riordan in a portrait of the artist as a young man (joyce, 1992) proclaimed that irish identity was inseparable from catholicism. they argued that priests had a duty to guide their flocks in matters of politics and “public morality” such as the parnell affair, in which the former hero of the nationalist cause was pilloried for his adultery. on the other hand, people like simon dedalus and mr casey argued that the catholic church had betrayed irish nationalism all too often and that it should no longer interfere in irish politics: “we have had too much god in ireland. away with god!” (28). james joyce himself had renounced catholicism, objecting to the interference of the church in irish politics (belanger, 2001: vı), and rejecting its attitude to sexual morality: “i left the catholic church, hating it most fervently. i found it impossible for me to remain in it on account of the impulses of my nature." (joyce, cited in ellmann, 1984: 1). in correspondence, he wrote that his series of short stories, dubliners, was intended “to betray the soul of that hemiplegia or paralysis which many consider a city” (gilbert, 1957: 55). joyce believed that the individuality of the inhabitants of dublin had been subsumed in a religion whose moral, political and cultural influence denied them any opportunity to make choices for themselves (childs, 2001: 202; davies, 2001: vıı). he felt that the attitude of the mass of 1 the irish ireland movement is a collective name for the various organisations active in the field of irish cultural nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/irish_ireland). religion and identity in james joyce’s a portrait of the artist as a young man 53 irishmen towards their religion was, in the words of stephen dedalus, that of “a dullwitted loyal serf.” (joyce, 1991: 139). using stephen as his mouthpiece, joyce attacks notions of “essentialised collective identity” as being over simplistic, whether derived from roman catholicism or from any other form of retrogressive construct (mulrooney, 2001). stephen dedalus‟ declaration in joyce‟s ulysses that “history ….. is a nightmare from which i am trying to awake” has been linked with marx‟s description of history as “the tradition of all the dead generations that weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living” (harding, 2003: 119). at the end of a portrait, the young artist sets out to escape that nightmare, – “to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race” (joyce, 1991: 196). stephen dedalus‟ attempt to take flight as an artist away from the cultural and spiritual labyrinth of dublin recalls howe‟s assertion that the modernist writer disdains “the mass, the mire, the street” and “exits from history into the self-sufficiency of art” (cited in brooker, 1992: 10). joyce was also influenced by the ideas of the philosopher nietzsche, both in terms of the attack he made on religion and of the importance he assigned to the individual mind, as opposed to the mindless „herd‟. in thus spoke zarathustra (1883-85), nietzsche famously proclaimed that “god is dead” (nietzsche, cited in childs, 2000: 55). morality was, therefore, revealed as simply a means to consolidate power. ethical beliefs were no more than a construct derived from the instinct of the herd to gain strength in numbers (59-60). nietzsche went on to argue, in his essay in self-criticism (1886), that the metaphysical activity of mankind should be art rather than morality since the existence of the world could only be justified as an aesthetic phenomenon (55). given that social, political, philosophical and moral systems were externally-imposed, artificial, empty constructs, the artist must speak for himself, as an individual (60). this is precisely what stephen dedalus himself chooses to do. although he acknowledges the logic catherina akca 54 and coherence of the philosophical and moral system of catholicism, and its apparent solidity, underpinned as it is by “twenty centuries of authority and veneration”, ultimately stephen rejects catholicism as an absurdity (joyce, 1991: 188). in eco‟s view, modernism wished to abolish the past, and from this perspective he sees a portrait as “an attempt at the modern” (eco, 1992: 225-227). as a modern artist, stephen will strive to detach himself “from the constraints of routinised cognition and everyday action” (habermas, 1992: 133). he resolves to seek, through art, “the loveliness which has not yet come into the world” (joyce, 1991: 194). for writers such as joyce, influenced by freud‟s work on psychoanalysis, there was no such thing as a stable normative self to which everyone might conform; rather, the self was “evolving, fluid, discontinuous and fragmented” (childs, 2000: 51). so, in a portrait, key moments in stephen dedalus‟ emotional, spiritual and aesthetic development are given as a “fluid succession of presents” (mitchell, 1976: 70), through which what joyce calls “the curve of an emotion” is drawn out, culminating at the point where stephen affirms his identity as a young artist (epstein, 1971: 102-103). to reach this point, stephen has had to change: “i was someone else then ….. i was not myself as i am now, as i had to become” (joyce, 1991: 185). stephen makes this claim during a discussion with his friend cranly, in which he admits that he had believed in religion while at school, but that he has now lost his faith. although stephen acknowledges the influence of his background upon his individuality “this race and this country and this life produced me ….. i shall express myself as i am” (156), he has come to recognise the renunciation of religion as a key element in the emergence of his artistic identity. in the light of the above, the remainder of this paper will examine the pivotal role played by religion in the construction of stephen‟s identity in the course of his religion and identity in james joyce’s a portrait of the artist as a young man 55 childhood, adolescence and transition into young adulthood. it will also consider the extent to which the text substantiates the claim of the young artist to have freed his soul from the constraints of religion. nationality, language, religion, the “nets” (157) which enclose stephen as a child and adolescent, are in fact inextricably intertwined, with religion as the central strand. religion permeates his home life, his induction into the adult world of irish politics, his school life, his expectations for the future, much of the literature he reads, and even the language with which he expresses himself. an understanding of the interrelationships between catholicism, family life, guilt, fear and punishment is indoctrinated into stephen from an early age. as an infant, he says that he will marry eileen, a protestant. the reaction is unfavourable. by hiding under a table, the child manifests his awareness of culpability, even if he does not yet fully understand his crime. similarly, acceptance of the intellectual authority of the church has been instilled into the child by a very young age. the boy has learned that dante is a clever and well-read woman, but at the same time he believes that “father arnall knew more than dante because he was a priest” (6). the image of home as a haven of security and certainty, which sustains stephen during the lonely torment of his early schooldays at clongowes, is shattered by the argument over the role played by the catholic clergy in the downfall of parnell, which ruins his first christmas dinner with the adults. what should have been a happy milestone in stephen‟s development leaves him “terrorstricken” and confused about the relationship between politics and religion (29). on the other hand, as he matures and gains a clearer understanding of the fate of parnell, and others like him, who devoted their lives to their cause only to be betrayed with the complicity of the catholic clergy, stephen, who was himself named after a martyr (123), begins to identify to some extent with parnell. recalling the catherina akca 56 dream of dying which he experienced during his confinement in the infirmary at clongowes, and which coincided with the death of parnell, stephen reflects: “but he had not died then. parnell had died” (70). enlightened by parnell‟s fate, stephen refuses to sacrifice his individuality to the cause of narrow irish nationalism, dissociates himself from an ireland that he describes as “the sow that eats her farrow” (157), and concludes that he can only realise his identity as an artist abroad. the undermining of stephen‟s confidence in the priesthood, which begins at the christmas dinner table, is exacerbated by the cruel and arbitrary punishment he receives at the hands of father dolan when he accidentally breaks his glasses at clongowes. however, his faith in clerical authority and in justice is restored by the rector‟s apparently sympathetic response to his complaint. he resolves that, despite his triumph, he will continue to be “quiet and obedient” (44). he will not commit the sin of pride. however, some time later, when he is about to be enrolled at belvedere, stephen learns from his father that the rector had regarded the whole incident as a joke (joyce, 1992: 54). this is the first instance in the novel of a pattern in which moments of spiritual elevation are followed by episodes of deflation (belanger, 2001: xv-xvı). at belvedere, stephen stands somewhat apart from his fellows, apparently a “saint” and a “model youth” (58), isolated by his habit of introspection and his bookishness, yet at the same time, paradoxically, surrounded by discourse. the voices of his family, his teachers, his friends and his compatriots call upon stephen to conform to various pre-conceived notions of what his identity should be. however, their din is “hollow-sounding”, and they succeed only in leaving him confused and irresolute about his destiny. the call to be a good roman catholic is pre-eminent, but stephen‟s emergent sexuality and his immersion in the works of subversive writers breed unrest and bitter thoughts, which compound his growing religion and identity in james joyce’s a portrait of the artist as a young man 57 scepticism about the religious life, until he is accused of writing a heretical essay (59). during a trip to cork, stephen is mortified by his perception of his father‟s weaknesses and sickened by the urgings of his own flesh. he feels that he has “put himself beyond the limits of reality” (70). he repeats his name over and over again, as if in a desperate attempt to keep hold of the identity which now eludes him, his identity as an innocent child: “he had been lost or had wandered out of existence for he no longer existed” (70). academic success becomes a means to construct a new identity. prize money provides a means to alleviate his family‟s poverty, to transcend the sordid reality of his inner and outer existence “by rules of conduct and active interests and new filial relations” (74). however, the prize money is soon spent and stephen perceives the futility of his efforts. again a brief moment of triumph has been succeeded by a fall. stephen remains isolated from his family by his inner turmoil. physical desire alienates stephen from the life around him and from the rules of the religion which had helped shape his earlier identity. stephen, who had once conceived of love in spiritual terms as a “holy encounter” in which he would lose his weakness, timidity and inexperience (75), now seeks transcendence through sin. in the arms of a prostitute, stephen is recreated as “strong and fearless and sure of himself” (77). once again, however, the moment of epiphany, of transcendent awareness, is succeeded by cold reality. brief moments of ardour with prostitutes are succeeded only by a continued awareness of the squalor of his existence and “a cold indifferent knowledge of himself” (78-79). conscious that his every sin multiplies his guilt and that he faces eternal damnation, stephen is unable to repent. however, he retains the shell of his former identity, continuing in his prefecture of the sodality of the blessed virgin mary at college. catherina akca 58 this apparent hypocrisy at the same time suggests that the religious impulse remains alive in stephen, for in catholic doctrine mary is the refuge of sinners, and signifies the possibility of intercession and redemption. onto this fertile ground fall the words of father arnall‟s sermons during the three day religious retreat at belvedere. here, stephen experiences a crisis of conscience that is “irish and catholic in its terror, its ardour and its intensity” (martin, cited in mulrooney, 2001). the awareness of religious authority, the notions of sin and guilt, and the terror of punishment which had been indoctrinated into stephen from his earliest formative years are resurrected and reinforced. the prospect of an eternity of physical and spiritual torment in hell is set against the prospect of repentance and divine mercy. stephen suffers agonies of terror, guilt and shame. stephen feels that the very core of his being has been exposed: “the preacher‟s knife had probed deeply into his disclosed conscience” (joyce, 1992: 88). he is humiliated by his fall, weeps for his lost innocence, and resolves to confess his sins truly and repentantly so that he might again be at one with god. the cleansing process of confession allows stephen to index his identity once again to the fixed doctrines and practices of the catholic church, which allow “little room for identity-as-process” (mulrooney, 2001). the pattern of his day is determined by devotional routines; his senses are rigorously disciplined and mortified. in his new life of piety, stephen so far transcends the material and the sensual that he comes to question the very need for his existence as a human being (115). inevitably, however, stephen is unable to sustain this level of spiritual exaltation. he finds himself at the mercy of minor imperfections and irritations, culminating in the realisation that his life of devotion is inherently sterile. the return of physical desire, accompanied by feelings of guilt, causes stephen to doubt the sincerity and validity of his repentance (116 -118). religion and identity in james joyce’s a portrait of the artist as a young man 59 at this point in his intellectual and spiritual development, stephen begins to question the judgment of his jesuit masters at belvedere. he experiences the sensation that he is “slowly passing out of an accustomed world ….. hearing its language for the last time” (120). however, it is also at this point that stephen is asked to confront the question of whether he wishes to dedicate himself to that very world. religion offers stephen another opportunity to transcend the squalor of his daily life and home environment by assuming the priestly identity he had often taken in his proud and secret imaginings. stephen is tempted by the secret knowledge and the power of the priesthood, by the opportunity to stand aloof, sinless, engaged in sacrificial and sacramental acts, free from material cares. however, the thought of the passionless nature of such an existence repels him. he understands that his destiny lies apart from what he had hitherto imagined to be his sanctuary but now realises would require the sacrifice of his individuality. having rejected the call to a religious life, stephen experiences another of the epiphanies, or sudden moments of revelation, which mark each climax in his search for identity (childs, 2001:199). as he hears his surname called aloud by his friends, stephen recognises the prophetic quality of its association with daedalus, “the fabulous artificer”, who took flight from the labyrinth, with his son icarus, on wings of his own devising. he experiences a vision of “the end he had been born to serve and had been following through the mists of childhood and boyhood (joyce, 1992: 130). the vision is confirmed by the actual presence of a beautiful, bird-like girl in the sea. he will forge a new identity as an artist: “to live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life!” (132). paradoxically at the very moment of rebirth, stephen expresses his sense of release from the fear and guilt associated with catholicism in terms of death and resurrection. he continues to employ the discourse of the religion whose call he has catherina akca 60 renounced: “his soul had arisen from the grave of boyhood, spurning her graveclothes” (130). likewise, in his search for the essence of beauty, stephen turns not only to aristotle but to the scholastic philosopher aquinas, one of the fathers of the church (126). similarly, in propounding his aesthetic theory, stephen likens the dramatic artist to “the god of creation, (who) remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails” (166). later, drawing upon the liturgy of the eucharist for his metaphor, stephen describes himself as “a priest of the eternal imagination, transmuting the daily bread of experience into the radiant body of everliving life” (170). he employs similar imagery in his villanelle (172). in other words, although stephen has denied the call to the priesthood and lapsed from religious practice, the language with which he seeks to construct his new identity remains, as cranly puts it, “supersaturated” with catholicism (185). in the course of a portrait, stephen seeks to define his own identity. however, he is repeatedly confronted and confounded by the influence of his environment, and in particular his cultural and religious heritage. at the end of the novel, stephen resolves to escape the constraints of family, narrow nationalism and religious tradition by moving abroad. he proclaims that he has found his identity as an artist. indeed he assumes artistic control of the narrative through the agency of his diary. however, the “confessional lyricism” of the diary, in the phrase coined by mulrooney (2001), reveals that stephen is still at the first stage of artistic development, as defined by his own theory of aesthetics. he has yet to refine himself, and his catholic past, out of existence. therefore, the question of the extent to which stephen will succeed in his aspiration to forge the uncreated conscience of his race remains open. the repeated pattern of flight followed by fall woven throughout the narrative structure of the novel may continue, or it may have religion and identity in james joyce’s a portrait of the artist as a young man 61 been broken. will stephen fall, like icarus, weighted down by history and tradition; or will he succeed in breaking wholly free of family, church and nation, and soar, like daedalus, to new heights of creation? works cited belanger, jacqueline. (2001). “introduction”. in a portrait of the artist as a young man. ware: wordsworth editions. brooker, peter. (ed.). (1992). modernism/postmodernism. london: longman. childs, peter. (2000). modernism. london: routledge. davies, laurence. (2001). “introduction”. in dubliners. ware: wordsworth editions. eco, umberto. (1992). “postmodernism, irony, the enjoyable”. modernism/postmodernism. ed. p. brooker. london: longman. 225-228. ellmann, richard. et al. (1984). light rays: james joyce and modernism. ed. e. heyward. new york: new horizon press. epstein, edmund l. (1971). the ordeal of stephen dedalus: the conflict of the generations in james joyce's a portrait of the artist as a young man. carbondale, il: southern illinois university press. gilbert, stuart. (ed.). (1957). letters of james joyce. new york: viking press. habermas, jürgen. (1992). “modernity – an incomplete project”. modernism/postmodernism. ed. p. brooker. london: longman. 125-138. harding, desmond. (2003). writing the city: urban visions & literary modernism. new york: routledge. joyce, james. (1991). a portrait of the artist as a young man. ware: wordsworth editions. mitchell, breon. (1976).”a portrait and the bildungsroman tradition”. approaches to joyce's portrait: ten essays. ed. t.f. staley, and b. benstock. pittsburgh: university of pittsburgh press. 61-73. mulrooney, jonathan. (2001). "stephen dedalus and the politics of confession." studies in the novel 33.2: 160. <http://www.questia.com/pm.qst?a=o&d=5001024623>. http://www.questia.com/pm.qst?a=o&d=108929784 http://www.questia.com/pm.qst?a=o&d=105435652 http://www.questia.com/pm.qst?a=o&d=105435652 http://www.questia.com/pm.qst?a=o&d=105435652 http://www.questia.com/pm.qst?a=o&d=5858946 http://www.questia.com/pm.qst?a=o&d=5001024623 http://www.questia.com/pm.qst?a=o&d=5001024623 http://www.questia.com/pm.qst?a=o&d=5001024623 46 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies translating poetry: can you learn it? assist. prof. dr. vesna suljić, international university of sarajevo* abstract this paper is an attempt to describe the process through which a translator needs to go when translating poetry. poetry has been part of human civilization since the earliest times; it has derived from the oral tradition and has evolved through centuries into a distinct genre with particular characteristics in terms of structure, form, style, language and other specific features which differentiate it from prose. in the past, poetry has been translated mostly by poets; nevertheless, it seems possible that an individual who has been properly trained and with some practice and passion can produce good quality translation of poetic works. an exercise in translation of a seventeenth-century poem by andrew marvell in this paper is based on theory of equivalence to show several aspects of translating, namely the visual, semantic and aesthetic ones, which could pose challenges for translators but which could be addressed and overcome with adequate training. the translator needs to approach a poem and use equivalent means as much as possible to re-create the work by bridging the gaps pertaining to cultural, historical and linguistic codes. the purpose of this exercise is to draw attention to the need of incorporating translating of poetry into the formal translation studies at universities or other institutions dealing with training translators. it also strives to encourage other translators, as well as students and translating instructors to find more poetic works which have been overlooked in the past and which should be translated so that not only the english speakers can revel in their beauty and enchantment. keywords: translating poetry, translator training, translation challenges * corresponding author: assist. prof. dr. vesna suljić, international university of sarajevo, e-mail: vsuljic@ius.edu.ba. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 47 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 introduction translation studies have become increasingly popular worldwide as the demand for qualified translators has been on the rise thanks to more intercultural contacts, media and publishing industry. there are numerous courses specialising in training translators and interpreters to work as medical, legal, scientific, business, administrative or other types of specialised professionals. however, courses offering training for literary translators are less common. translation of prose literary texts is demanding, time-consuming and requires re-drafting many times so that the final product, once it leaves the translator’s desk, should faithfully represent the work written by an author in the source language. valerie barnes, who worked for the united nations as a simultaneous interpreter and translator for decades, wrote: “the finished product has to read as naturally as possible so that the reader would not necessarily know it was a translation” (a foreign affair, 2004, p. 122). translating poetry, however, is even more challenging. in the past, most translations of poetry were executed by poets who employed their own creative abilities, expertise in both the source and the target language and thanks to their artistic efforts, poetic works have travelled through times. but how can someone who is not a “professional poet” learn to translate poetry? compared to prose works which more or less imitate human speech in more or less logical and recognisable form and structure (grammar, syntax, lexical choices), poetry combines all of these with some additional features – harmony, musicality, rhythm and style. the translator needs to bridge the gaps pertaining to cultural, historical or linguistic codes existing in the original text as much as possible and in order to do that, the translator needs to use equivalent means to re-create the meaning, the mood, the style and emotions in the translation. this paper aims to describe the process of translating poetry, some difficulties and challenges posed and how these issues have been addressed. the research material is based on two translated versions of the poem “to his coy mistress” by andrew marvell. the translation process will be described in the poem which i translated and titled “stidljivoj mu dragani” (appendix 3). the second translation titled “njegovoj sramežljivoj ljubavnici” (appendix 4) was published by tanja bakić (bakic, 2011). it will be used for demonstrating another translator’s approach in addressing v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 48 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies these challenges. that version will be considered as the final product as it is impossible to assess what went through the translator’s mind as she was going through the process of translating this poem. the analysis will focus on three aspects: the visual (text/form related), the semantic (denotative – content related, and connotative – meaning/ emotion related) and the aesthetic (communicative and artistic) one. each step will be described and supported by some examples to explain what the challenges were and how they were addressed by each translator. selfreflectivity is an important part of the translation process and translators should continuously work on evaluating their own methodologies within the selected theoretical framework (williams, 2013, p. 22). as jenny williams states in her theory of translation (2013), it is difficult to single out one general theory of translation that can be applicable to all texts. theory of equivalence discussed by a number of authors demonstrates the disparity in the idea what constitutes equivalence in translation and how it can be achieved (williams, 2013, pp. 8-40). for instance, john c. catford’s theory of equivalence proposes that the source and the target language texts should share at least some of the features of style or context. catford’s theory seems suitable to justify “free translations” where the translator recreates the work based on some of the features of the work in the source language. on the other hand, werner koller’s framework identifies five types of translation equivalence. according to koller, the translator should maintain the following types of equivalence: denotative (content-related), connotative (meaningas well as emotion-related), text-normative, pragmatic (communicative function of the text) and formal aesthetic one (williams, 2013, p. 36). as literary translation cannot be considered literal word-for-word substitution, the hierarchy of priorities must be established first. writing poetry is part of the creative process which includes not only words organised in meaningful grammatical and syntactical forms but also sounds, images, metaphors and numerous other lexical devices which add to creating a particular mesh of meanings which are open to different interpretations by the reader and translator. the act of reading poetry and then an attempt to convey these subtle nuances into another language is an act of re-creating the work through which the translator interprets and uses particular skills to transmit not only the message but also the enchantment that poetry brings with itself (miroux, 2010). translating poetry is “an act of interpreting a text that is variable in form and content” (venuti, v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 49 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 2011, p. 128). therefore, before starting the process, the translator should identify which elements should be retained equivalent, and which could be modified. my hypothesis is that the theory of equivalence in literary translation cannot be applied entirely. according to williams, this theory “tends to view translation as taking place in timeless, unchanging sphere where absolute rules can be prescribed and which is unrelated to the people and circumstances which require and generate actual translation” (williams, 2013, p. 40). as a result, theory of equivalence is applicable in some parts during the process of translation. for instance, it can be predicted that the text-normative equivalence will be easier to achieve, while the aesthetic equivalence will be the most difficult one because the translator will be forced to re-create the work to resemble the original text in its style, mood, tone and sound. the translator’s subjectivity and creativity to find the closest equivalent is thus crucial in application of this theory. moreover, the readers of the translated work will be much different from the readers of the particular time and place when the work was originally created. therefore, another problem is expected to occur in the translation process – whether to give priority to the norms of the source language or to the target language, which will affect the level of equivalence, namely whether the text is translated faithfully or freely. grounds for this research andrew marvell (1621-1678) was a remarkable figure during the restoration period in england. besides being a poet, he was a distinguished scholar and politician. he was a member of parliament representing hull in the county of humberside. during his lifetime, marvell was best known for his political achievements and for his political satires in prose and verse. in the 20th century, critics began to acknowledge him as an outstanding poet of his time (abrams, 2000). his poem “to his coy mistress” has been acclaimed as one of the greatest poems in english language. nevertheless, it seems that in the balkans region only students, educators and scholars in english language departments at universities may be familiar with this poem. i could not find but one translation of this poem in print (appendix 4). as gioia suggests, “poems instruct, console and commemorate through the pleasures of enchantment. the power of poetry is to affect the emotions, touch the memory, and incite the imagination with unusual force” (gioia, poetry as enchantment, 2015). i believe that the bosnian v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 50 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies speaking community is unjustifiably deprived of access to poetry in other languages due to the lack of translated works. for that reason, i decided to translate this poem and offer it to the bosnian audience for “the pleasures of enchantment”. by going through the translation process of this particular poem, my aim is also to encourage students and scholars to attempt the same, to find and translate other literary gems by other poets which have been hidden in oblivion. i cannot but completely agree with franck miroux when he says that poetry should be translated to make more and more poems accessible to a non-multilingual readership. poetry should be translated in order to share the emotion, the vibration of a poem with friends and relatives. it should be translated purely for the sake of the intellectual and physiological pleasure one experiences when helping a poem cross the divide and the threshold between two languages and two cultures. poetry should be translated, at last, to echo the poet’s voice, his poetic voice which reaches far beyond the limits of language. poetry should be translated, in fact, as if we were the poet himself/herself, to lend him/her our own voice. (miroux, 2010, p. 108) an outline of the translation process at first glance, poetry differs from prose visually in the way it is presented on a page and also aurally how it sounds when it is read aloud. any poem contains several components, each of which bears a particular function in the poetic expression, and neither could be separated from each other. finally, what distinguishes poets from each other is the matter of style – which poetic devices are used to create imagery and deep layers of (hidden) meaning. the first step in the process of translating a poem should be to identify a type of poetry it belongs to, its historical context and the particular features of the poem, its form and structure. this stage in the translation process can be referred to as the visual aspect of equivalence. the visual component of poetry consists of its layout – its form, structure and verse or lineation. in the second stage of the translation process, the translator should do the content analysis of the poem to infer the intended meanings. this information is deemed necessary to meet one criterion of equivalence – to convey the meaning from the source into the target language as v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 51 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 closely as possible, to make it as equivalent as possible. this stage can be referred to as the semantic aspect of equivalence. it conveys the meaning through lexical choices, grammar and syntax of the verse. the last stage refers to the aesthetic aspect of equivalence. it involves the prosody – the rhythm, meter and rhyme – and also various literary devices. the aesthetic dimension includes how the poem sounds when read aloud. the translator should analyse the meter which the poet utilizes to construe a particular rhythm of the poem, but also the rhyme – ending sounds – which “represent one of the most powerful expressive elements in poetic form” (gioia, thirteeen ways of thinking about a poetic line). the translator should recreate the sound as well as the mood, tone and style of the original poem as faithfully as possible and attempt to find the equivalents in the source language. this stage is the most demanding one because the emotional or associative reactions in the reader can be very different due to the cultural and historical differences between these time periods. the translation process takes time because translators often re-draft their translations before they submit the final version. the translator must ensure that the translation does not contain any material mistakes or mistranslations that could affect the meaning. when translating poetry, the translator may not have the epiphany in the moment of translation, so the process of redrafting and embellishing the translation may take much longer compared to the translation of other prose works. creative writing courses might be useful since they can assist translators to find expressions and idiolects which may be part of their passive vocabulary but which they may never use themselves. furthermore, these courses expand the translator’s own creative flair and the completed translation may read like something that has been written in that particular language, not translated into it. the first stage of the translation process: the type of the poem, its historical context and particular features of poetry of that time or place “to his coy mistress” is a lyrical poem from the seventeenth century england. many of marvell’s poems were published posthumously in 1681, some thirty years after they had been written, so their dates of composition, including this poem, are not certain. “to his coy mistress” is perhaps one of the best known carpe diem poems (abrams, 2000). this term “carpe diem” (“seize the day”) was coined by the ancient roman poet, quintus horatius flaccus, known as horace (65-8 bc). the idea of marvell’s poem v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 52 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies is that youth passes quickly so in order not to be regretful when we get old for things that we hadn’t done when we could have done them, do what you can do now – seize the day. the person speaking to his mistress presents arguments in a logical manner: if we had enough time, if we could live much longer than we will, then we could play around, be hesitant and postpone fulfilling our wishes much longer. but, as we do not have that luxury, he urges her to take advantage of the moment and accept his offer and enjoy life to the fullest. he says: “time’s winged chariot” is ever racing along, so before they know it, their youth will be gone. there will be only the grave and worms to eat their dead bodies. scholars also classify “to his coy mistress” as a metaphysical poem. metaphysical is the term used in relation to metaphysics, the branch of philosophy which examines the relationship between the mind (spiritual, ideational) and the body (physical, sensual). metaphysical poetry was pioneered by john donne (1572-1631). both poets were concerned with the idea of the transcendent – that there exists a reality which the senses may not perceive (abrams, 2000). this marvell’s poem can be interpreted as a conflict between a bodily desire, a physical love which is constrained and limited by time and social constraints on one hand, and an abstraction of love integrated in the spirit which is timeless and platonic on the other hand. for example, the poet compares love (abstract) to vegetation (physical). another feature of style of metaphysical poets in particular is the use of conceit – an extended metaphor using unexpected, almost shocking imagery aiming to confuse, surprise or convince the reader to accept some strong and new idea or the poet’s philosophy. in his persuasive style, the poet – the narrator addressing “his coy mistress” attempts to convince the addressee that life should be enjoyed as much as possible because death is inevitable and “worms shall try / that long preserved virginity”. the idea of mortality is not unique to poetry let alone to metaphysical poets. as gioia posits, “all lyric poetry is directly or indirectly about mortality. the reason we feel the overwhelming force of a particular moment is that our lives are finite” (poetry as enchantment, 2015). however, he continues, “genuine poetry always grows out of our basic existential dilemma – our mortality. our minds have the ability to reach across time to scan the past and ponder the future, but our bodies die” (poetry as enchantment, 2015). marvell seems to be on the same note: if the time was endless and we remained young and vigorous, it would not matter how long the courtship would last. albeit, our v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 53 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 lives are finite and we cannot stop the passage of time so we should take any chance to enjoy the pleasure of life now. the visual components in translation both translated versions of this poem followed the text-related principle of equivalence very closely. as the visual component rests on the layout of the poem on the page and on its form, it seemed it would not pose a particular problem to transfer it into another language. “to his coy mistress” is a 46-lines long poem in english and the bosnian translation follows the same number of lines. the poem consists of three units of thoughts divided into three stanzas of unequal length (20 – 12 – 14 lines) in the source language, which can be applied in the target language as well. it follows rhetorical principles of argumentation. in the first part, the poet draws on the logos – reasoning – and presents his arguments by describing the hypothetical situation: what would be if it could be. in the second part, the poet contrasts the hypothetical with the reality and combines logos with pathos – attempting to produce an emotional impact on the reader. in the third stanza, the poet draws on ethos – his own authority of “someone who knows” and combines it strongly with pathos as he suggests what should be done at present time. therefore, applying the structure of these three units of thoughts separated by logical development of argumentation should not be challenging for the translator. both translators followed the form and structure of the original by dividing the poem into three separate stanzas. however, bakić shortened the last stanza and omitted four lines in the translation. another challenge in relation to the visual component occurred as the number of words in each line in the target and in the source language is different, so neither translation offers the complete visual equivalence. the second stage of the translation process: the content analysis the second step in the translation process should include identifying the layers of meanings in the poet’s thoughts. in the first stanza of “to his coy mistress”, the poet praises beauty of his “mistress” and offers a number of hypothetical situations when time would not be an issue and when they could show their love and affection at different places – those close to home, as is the river humber in hull where marvell lived, and those far away, as is the ganges river in india. the notion of endless time is reflected v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 54 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in some biblical references, from the flood when noah escaped in his arc to different ages in human history, concluding with “the last age” (in eternity, the passage of time would not be measured because it would not matter anymore). like other metaphysical poets, to prove his point, the poet uses a number of exaggerations. in the second stanza, the poet returns to reality still making some references to distant times expressed in classical mythology. for example, “the time’s winged chariot” refers to the god apollo in the ancient greek myths who rides his chariot from east to west. however, the poet also provides a gory picture of human mortality, decay and vainness, showing how having any human-imposed constraints are futile and worthless. the change is indicated in the third stanza when the poet emphasises the moment – “now” and immediately continues with the urge to rectify the futility of abiding by the rules of society when faced with the inevitability of dying – and suggests the solution which comes as the effect of not being able to live eternally in this world – using an adverb to demonstrate the logical result of such assumption “therefore”. from this moment on in the poem, the poet reiterates the effects the passage of time has on humans and re-emphasises his point, which is one of the features that marks carpe diem poetry. the semantic components in translation denotative and connotative equivalence between a source and a target language depend on lexical choices and the structure of both the source and the target languages – their grammar and syntax. the poet is the one who chooses what to say, how to say it, which language structures to use. the poet can do it spontaneously, as he or she feels, or the poet may make conscious efforts to make it as simple or as intricate as he or she finds it fit. the translator, however, must re-create that process in another language and find suitable words, phrases, expressions and incorporate them in the linguistic structure of the target language so that the translation reads as if it were composed in that language. the transfer of meaning must look and sound as natural as possible and this is a difficulty that the translator must cope with. v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 55 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 the translator must make a choice whether to give priority to the source language norms and thus produce an adequate translation, or to the target language and produce an acceptable translation. both translators of this poem opted for the option to produce an acceptable translation and applied the target language norms. there are some similarities on grammaticalsyntactical levels between the source and the target language. for instance, it is possible in both english and bosnian languages to express hypothetical situations with corresponding grammatical structures, or to use most adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions etc. in the same manner. the problem which occurs in translation is related to the grammatical noun gender – in bosnian there are three noun genders – masculine, feminine and neutral – which also have to be congruent with the adjective in respect to the number (singular-plural) and noun case (there are seven different ones that have different forms in either singular or plural). similar problems occur with verbs – there are fewer tenses in the bosnian language in respect to the english, and each tense also has different aspects (active, passive, static or continuous) which does not occur in english in the same manner. as this particular poem does not offer too many varieties in terms of the use of tenses, the translation challenge seems surmountable. the problem of priority given to the language was solved by both translators in favour of the target language. tenses were adequately translated and the nounadjective combinations are congruent and in accordance with grammatical rules of the target language, which makes both translations acceptable. the title itself is ambiguous for several reasons. first of all, the wording “to his coy mistress” sounds as if someone is addressing a note which will be delivered by someone else on his behalf. it seems as if a poem is enclosed in an envelope containing a letter – a poem – which the addressee will read and know who wrote it. the poet writes the title in the third person – an invitation to the lady to accept his offer because he might not have the courage to say it openly in her face. considering that the poem was written in the second half of the seventeenth century and that the poet was also a member of the upper class and had connections with members of the parliament, politicians and other dignitaries, it seems viable that this kind of communication was practised. another interpretation of the title is that the poet is talking to the lady in the first person but on behalf of someone else (that is why “to his coy mistress appears in the title), using the other person’s words. in case the poet was writing a poem on somebody else’s behalf, he gave it to that person so that this other person could present it v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 56 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies to the lady as his own work. or, another possibility is that the poet felt that he had already appropriated the woman he wrote the poem to as “his own” in his thoughts and mind, so he was exposing his inner talk to her in writing. to translate this small but ambiguous and unusual segment in the title “to his” into bosnian, i opted for an unstressed possessive adjective inserted between the first word (“coy”) and the last one (“mistress”) which distracts attention from “to his” to “coy” and “mistress”. rules for syntactical structure of the bosnian language allow for changing word order without losing the meaning. therefore, in the syntax of the translated title the principle of optional equivalence was used. bakić, however, followed closely the principle of equivalence in the title and selected the same word order as in the source language. lexical choices and their combinations are features which mostly define the author’s style and the style of his time. in accordance with otto kade’s classification of lexical equivalence (williams, 2013, 35), translators can apply four types of equivalence: total equivalence (when a lexical choice in the target language corresponds completely in meaning and function to a lexical item in the source language); optional equivalence (when a translator has a number of possibilities to choose from the target language, depending on the context); approximate equivalence (where one possible lexical choice in the target language covers only part of the meaning in the source language); and nil equivalence (when there is no lexical choice in the target language that corresponds to the target language). another possibility is natural equivalence defined by pym as “reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message” (williams, 2013, p.39). in translation of this poem, both translators applied different types of equivalence, namely optional, approximate and natural equivalence, depending on the context and the number of lexical choices and corresponding meanings in both the source and the target language. historical and cultural contexts determine the translator’s lexical choices. the meaning of the word “mistress” was probably ambiguous in the time when marvell composed this poem, and its polysemy continued into the twenty-first century. the word entered the middle english linguistic corpus from old french maistresse, feminine noun derived from the masculine maistre meaning “master” (cambridge dictionary). in marvell’s time, the v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 57 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 word “mistress” carried several meanings: from a lady of the house (in contrast to her husband – a “mister”); a woman with power of control; a woman from the noble class; to a female lover (a woman who has a sexual relationship with a man who is not her husband); a courtesan; a woman loved and courted by a man; or it was simply a title of a married woman, i.e. mrs. as the poet is trying to seduce the woman to have a love affair with him (which she seems to be avoiding because she is “coy”, meaning “shy” or “modest”, but also “hesitant” to accept his advances based on the strict patriarchal values imposing that a girl – if the addressee is a girl must remain a virgin until marriage), it can be concluded that the meaning of the word “mistress” could therefore be associated with “a woman loved and courted by a man”. an affectionate noun – “dragana” in my translation refers to that last interpretation of the meaning and corresponds to the optional equivalence. bakić chose the word “sramežljivoj” which is synonymous to “stidljivoj” (“coy”); however, the “mistress”, translated as “ljubavnici,” bears the connotation of “a female lover (a woman who has a sexual relationship with a man who is not her husband)”. as there are a number of meanings in both the source and the target language, the principle of natural equivalence was applied in this instance. another example of application of optional equivalence applied by both translators is in: “two hundred [years] to adore each breast”, where i translated as “i po dvjesto da se svakoj dojci divim” and bakić translated as “dvjesto godina da mi je da grudi ti grlim”. furthermore, both translators re-created the poem to convey similar meanings using different lexical choices, but only approximate equivalence could be achieved. interpretation of marvell’s “then worms shall try / that long-preserved virginity” is in my translation expressed through euphemism: “crvi da se slade / predugo čuvanom tvojom nevinosti”, while bakić opted for a stronger image referring to the horror of decay: “crvi će zagmizati – i tvoju će dugo čuvanu nevinost proždrati”. as it can be seen from these examples, connotative equivalence referring to the emotional and associative response in the reader (in this case, the translator) could not be achieved. translators had similar approaches but the final result was different based on their individual interpretations of the v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 58 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies source text and lexical options in the target language. the third stage of the translation process: aesthetic components artistic dimension is that which distinguishes translated literary works and where the translator’s creativity is outside the formal translation equivalence. translators should study prosody and ascertain whether the acoustic and lexical choices render the meaning as well as the tone and mood of the poem. meter and rhyme add to the aesthetics of poetry through musicality and harmony, through the sound and flow of thoughts. in this poem, marvell uses iambic tetrameter (syllables distributed in four iambic feet) in accentual-syllabic verse which is a common metre in english lyrical poetry of his time. “to his coy mistress” is written in couplets and mostly masculine rhyme is used (aa, bb, cc and so on). there is an exception in the second stanza, where a regular couplet is inserted between lines 23 and 27 which rhyme (“lie” and “try”), as well as between lines 24 and 28 in which the poet uses a feminine rhyme (“eternity” and “virginity”) for the emphasis and change of rhythm. so, the rhyming scheme in lines 23-28 is as follows: ab /cc /ab. in order to make the poem musically appropriate to the bosnian language, i opted for the modification of the meter and the type of rhyme. the bosnian language, although accentual, is also a tonal language with different length and sound of stressed syllables – some are short or long with a rising tone, and some are short or long with a falling tone. for that reason, a consistent use of a particular metric foot, for instance an iamb or a trochee, seemed quite impossible if i wanted to convey the meaning as faithfully as possible. therefore, instead of applying marvell’s choice, i chose the french alexandrine, the meter that was quite popular during the renaissance with poets from dubrovnik region, and which was also used in the balkans region by croatian and serbian poets during the 19th and 20th century (lešić, 2005, pp. 220-232). since bosnian is quite similar to either of these two languages, i thought that the french alexandrine, a twelve-syllabic meter with a caesura after the sixth syllable, would be appropriate (www. britannica.com/art/alexandrine). using this meter sounds more melodic and more natural when read aloud in bosnian than marvell’s iambic tetrameter. the rhyming scheme in couplets did not pose too many problems (aa, bb and so on) and i also closely followed the change of rhyme occurring in v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 59 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 lines 23-28 (ab/cc/ab). however, due to the different stress in words in both languages, it was not feasible to imitate the masculine/feminine rhyme pattern since most polysyllabic words in bosnian language do not have the stress on the last syllable. for this reason, formal aesthetic equivalence was not possible. the rhythm of the poem in the first stanza of the original poem was quite regular, with an enjambment in lines 3 and 4 (“and think which way/to walk, and pass our long love’s day”), which was also used in lines 23/24, 26/27 and 28/29. in translation, the enjambment was also used in almost the same lines to keep the flow of thought which would not have the singing quality (eg. in lines 3/4: “o danima ljubavi mogli bismo sjesti/ i smišljati gdje i kako ih provesti.”) however, the enjambment was also used in the translation where the line of thought could not be finalized with the approaching rhyme. for example, in the last couplet in the first stanza: “for, lady, you deserve this state, / nor would i love at lower rate”, in the bosnian translation it reads like this: “jer to, gospo draga, zaslužuješ i ja / te volio manje od tog ne bih, nikada“. in the second stanza, the poet used enjambments more frequently, which decreases the musicality of the stanza as the rhyme does not get accentuated and the message continues into another line. the sound effect is that the given statements sound more like prose; they are more serious and advicedriven, compared to the lyrical, poetic expression of fun and enjoyment expressed in the first stanza. the overall impression is that the rhythm and pace of the whole poem changes from a playful, walking pace in the first stanza, to the slow, mournful pace in the second one, which suddenly accelerates and becomes a rapid, moving, rushing, almost running pace towards the end of the poem. this change of pace affects the rhythm of the whole poem also when translated into bosnian. bakić also did not follow the strict rhythm and meter scheme, and the length of lines in her translation varies from 12 to 14 syllables throughout the poem. the rhyming scheme is aa/bb/cc without the change in rhyme in lines 23-28. furthermore, lines 40-44 were completely omitted. the change of the rhythm and pace is notable and use of enjambent adds to the creation of that change. v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 60 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the stylistic components the most difficult part in translating poetry, in my opinion, is rendering the author’s style, mode and mood. andrew marvell lived and wrote in the second half of the seventeenth century. the english language has changed a lot since then, but despite these changes, mostly occurring in different spelling or different use of some words back then and nowadays, most texts written in that period are still comprehensible and widely read. for instance, the beginning of the original version of „to his coy mistress“ reads like this: had i but world enough, & tyme, this coynesse, madam, were noe crime. i could sitt downe, & thinke, which way to walke, & passe our long-loves day. (british library, 2020) different spelling of words “time”, “coyness”, “no”, “sit down”, “think”, “walk”, “pass” does not interfere with the meaning and the 21st century reader can easily grasp the meaning of all the words in this example. the bosnian language, on the other hand, has undergone significant changes in all linguistic aspects – from the basic form of words to spelling, grammar and syntax. as i am not familiar with the seventeenth-century-spoken or written bosnian language, and as i also assume that most of potential readers of this poem in translation would experience similar difficulties, i decided to adapt the language to the contemporary bosnian but with some oldfashioned expressions to give the translation a flair of the past. yet, in doing so, i tried not to compromise the meaning. i was led by gioia’s advice – how can poets be heard – through reading, public performances and through translation (can poetry matter, 2020). therefore, my aim was to make this poet heard and understood by the contemporary readers. bakić has also used modern-day language, with occasional shift to some traditional poetic expressions. in both cases the principle of pragmatic equivalence was used to communicate the message. by using the contemporary language devices both translators also applied the principle of optional equivalence. poetic diction distinguishes poets from each others and the translator should aim at preserving particular poetic style, imagery and use of poetic v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 61 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 devices to create a similar atmosphere, mood and tone of the poem. when translating this poem, i endeavoured to find expressions, similes, metaphors and other devices to describe the feelings and the imagery in the poetic environment which marvell created. it was difficult to find the word-for-word equivalence so some words have been omitted or changed. bakić also opted for some creative additions to the original. moreover, some lexical ambiguity was translated differently by both translators. for instance, marvell’s “for, lady, you deserve this state / nor would i love at lower rate“ was translated as “jer to, gospo draga, zaslužuješ i ja / te volio manje od tog ne bih nikada” in my case, while bakić translated it as “jer ti, damo, zaslužuje ovu državu, / tebi ja dao bih svu na svijetu slavu”. the image of grave expressed by marvel as “marble vault” was translated as “mramornoj škrinji” in my translation and as “mermerni svod” by bakić. in some lines, two completely different translations occurred, creating two very different images. for example, marvell’s “now therefore, while the youthful hue / sits on thy skin like morning dew” was translated as “stoga, gospo, dok boje mladosti tvoje / k’o jutarnja rosa na licu ti stoje” in my translation, while bakić translated it as “zato, hajde sada dok sjekira mala / u krilu klati ti se k’o rosa tek što je pala”. as it could be seen from the number of examples, the visual, lexical and acoustic dimensions in a poem are linked with each other to create the idea of unity. in the translation process, these dimensions have to be analysed separately and then connected to re-create the unity of form, structure, thought and artistic expression. translators of literary works not only convey the meaning, but also all other layers pertaining to the text written in the source language – cultural nuances, stylistic devices, traditions, customs, anything that the author expressed and implied in the original text. why should translating poetry be studied? the translation exercise which has been described above has confirmed my belief that translating poetry could and should be studied as part of the general translators’ training, despite the fact that the need for professional translators of poetry may seem to be in decline compared to the need for such professionals in other fields as previously explained. translating poetry should not depend on a small number of poets who may be interested on their own accord to offer translations of their favourite poets’ works v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 62 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies to other language communities. translating poetry can be studied and learnt provided that the student acquires a solid background knowledge in different translation theories as well as in prosody (versification), historical context, different styles and ways of use of lexis, grammar or syntax. undoubtedly, the more practice the student has, the more fluent and creative the translation can become. when commissioned by a publishing house or an organisation or a particular poet himself/herself to translate a poem or a collection of poems, the translator is usually given a certain deadline by which the translation has to be completed. this can also pose a challenge to make the translation as good as possible. poets may spend months or even years re-drafting their works to express the particular nuance they wish to incorporate in the poem. andrew marvell also re-drafted this poem and the printed version differs from the manuscript drafts in imagery and some word choices (british library, 18th century literature). translators, unfortunately, do not have that luxury – they may have a couple of weeks or months to finalize the translation, to tune in with the poet, to convey the message and make it sound as if it were written in their mother tongue. for that reason, studying how to translate poetry may be an instrument in the translator’s hands which can assist in tackling all the difficulties presented in this paper, and many others which can be foreseen or which may unexpectedly appear. v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 63 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 references british library. (2020, august 01). retrieved from discovering literature: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/an-early-manuscript-copyof-marvells-to-his-coy-mistress www.bl.uk/restoration-18th-century-literature. (2020, august 03). retrieved from british library discovering literature: www.bl.uk/ restoration-18th-century-literature www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44688/to-his-coy-mistress. (2020, may 07). retrieved from poetryfoundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ poems/44688/to-his-coy-mistress abrams, m. (2000). the norton anthology of english literature (seventh ed., vol. 1). (m. g. abrams, ed.) new york. london: w.w.norton & company. bakic, t. (2011, 01 03). okf-cetinje.org/endrju-marvel/ (otvoreni kulturni forum). retrieved from okf-cetinje.org: https://okf-cetinje.org/endrjumarvel/ (otvoreni kulturni forum, postavljeno 03/01/2011) barnes, v. (2004). a foreign affair. bantam. dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary. (n.d.). retrieved from cambridge academic content dictionare: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ dictionary/english/mistress gioia, d. (2015). http://danagioia.com/essays/american-poetry/poetry-asenchantment. retrieved july 20, 2020, from danagioia.com. gioia, d. (2020, august 03). danagioia.com/essays/american-poetry/canpoetry-matter/. retrieved from www.danagioia.com: http://danagioia. com/essays/american-poetry/can-poetry-matter/ gioia, d. (n.d.). danagioia.com/essays/writing-and-reading/thirteenways-of-thinking-about-the-poetic-line. retrieved from www.danagioa. com: http://danagioia.com/essays/writing-and-reading/thirteen-ways-ofthinking-about-the-poetic-line v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 64 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies lešić, z. (2005). teorija književnosti. sarajevo: sarajevo publishing. miroux, f. (2010, december). translating poetry: decoding meaning or recomposing harmony. (b.j.epstein, ed.) other words(36), pp. 96-108. venuti, l. (2011). introduction: poetry and translation. in translation studies (vol. 4, pp. 127-132). routledge. williams, j. (2013). the palgrave macmillan theories of translation. palgrave macmillan. www.britannica.com/art/alexandrine. (n.d.). retrieved from britannica. com: https://www.britannica.com/art/alexandrine v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 65 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 corpus analysed appendix 1 to his coy mistress by andrew marvell (1621-1678) had we but world enough and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime. we would sit down, and think which way to walk, and pass our long love’s day. thou by the indian ganges’ side shouldst rubies find; i by the tide of humber would complain. i would love you ten years before the flood, and you should, if you please, refuse till the conversion of the jews. my vegetable love should grow vaster than empires and more slow; an hundred years should go to praise thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; two hundred to adore each breast, but thirty thousand to the rest; an age at least to every part, and the last age should show your heart. for, lady, you deserve this state, nor would i love at lower rate. but at my back i always hear time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; and yonder all before us lie deserts of vast eternity. thy beauty shall no more be found; nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound my echoing song; then worms shall try that long-preserved virginity, and your quaint honour turn to dust, and into ashes all my lust; the grave’s a fine and private place, but none, i think, do there embrace. v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 66 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies now therefore, while the youthful hue sits on thy skin like morning dew, and while thy willing soul transpires at every pore with instant fires, now let us sport us while we may, and now, like amorous birds of prey, rather at once our time devour than languish in his slow-chapped power. let us roll all our strength and all our sweetness up into one ball, and tear our pleasures with rough strife through the iron gates of life: thus, though we cannot make our sun stand still, yet we will make him run. (www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44688/to-his-coy-mistress, 2020) v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 67 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 appendix 2 copyright: © bodleian library, university of oxford held by bodleian library, university of oxford shelfmark: bodleian don.b.8. v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 68 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies appendix 3 stidljivoj mu dragani (translated by: vesna suljić) da imamo viška i svijeta i vijeka, tvoja čednost, gospo, mogla bi da čeka. o danima ljubavi mogli bismo sjesti i smišljati gdje i kako ih provesti. rubine kraj ganga ti našla bi sebi; a ja bih uz humber jadikov’o tebi; ljubio te deset pretpotopskih ljeta a ti bi čekala, jer ti to ne smeta, odbijala, ako to je želja tvoja, do preobraćenja židovskoga soja. ljubav bi moja tad k’o bilje rasla, sporije i šire nego c’jela carstva; i sto bi ljeta prošlo da oči slavim tvoje i na čelu ti svoj pogled stavim; i po dvjesto da se svakoj dojci divim, a hiljada triest’ za ostalo da živim; po vijek cijeli za sve to što ti imaš, a posljednjeg dana da mi srce predaš. jer to, gospo draga, zaslužuješ i ja te volio manje od tog ne bih, nikada. al’ za sobom čujem te krilate vrle vremenske kočije što sve brže hrle; i svud pred nama i oko nas se grade pustinje prave nepregledne vječnosti. ni ljepote tvoje više neće biti; ni u mramornoj tvojoj škrinji niti odjek moje pjesme; crvi da se slade predugo čuvanom tvojom nevinosti i tvoja će smjerna čast u prah propasti, a u pepeo otići sve moje strasti; grob je mjesto skriveno i stvarno krasno, al’ se niko tu ne grli, to je jasno. v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 69 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 stoga, gospo, dok boje mladosti tvoje k’o jutarnja rosa na licu ti stoje, i dok ti željna duša vatreno diše i kroz svaku poru strastveno uzdiše, razonodimo se dok imamo dana i k’o zaljubljene grabljivice s grana proždrimo u jednom dahu svoje dane mjesto da nas vrijeme gricka natenane. skupimo u loptu silu svoje strasti, i zavrtimo se u toj svojoj slasti, skršimo željezne okove života snagom koju daje ljubavi divota: zato velim, iako sunce stajati za nas neće, natjerajmo ga trčati. v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 70 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies appendix 4 njegovoj sramežljivoj ljubavnici (translated by: tanja bakić) prostora samo da nam je više i vrem’na, žudnja tvoja, damo, ne bi bila sramna. ja i ti sjedjeli bismo i mislili kako da udvoje šetamo i ljubavimo lako. ljubav ti bi našla u indijskom gangu, dok u hamberu ja tješio bih svoju tugu. a odbijanje tvoje nek se ne krati sve dok svaki jevrej se ne preobrati. zrno moje ljubavi narašće – biće veće i od carstva samog, ali to polako će. sto čitavih godina ja bih hvalio tvoje oči i u tvoje čelo gledao. dvjesta godina da mi je da grudi ti grlim, i trideset hiljada narednih da na njih pohrlim. za svaki dio tebe meni je po jedno doba a zadnje kad dođe, srce tvoje će da se proba. jer ti, damo, zaslužuješ ovu državu, tebi ja dao bih svu na svijetu slavu. no, nekad ja ipak osjetim s leđa života brzog gdje bliži se međa. i pred nama vidim onda ogromne vječnosti pustinje svuda prostrane. ljepota tvoja jednoga dana iščeznuće a iz mermernoga svoda tvoga neće čuti više se moj poj: crvi će zagmizati, i tvoju će dugo čuvanu nevinost proždrati. od poštenja tvog starinskog ostaće prašina, a od žudi moje u pepelu jedna tišina. grob je mjesto tako mirno i lično, ali nikom tamo ne može biti dično. zato, hajde sada dok sjekira mala u krilu klati ti se k’o rosa tek što je pala, dok duša tvoja u žudu se znoji u svakoj pori, plameno dok ona se gnoji, v. suljić translating poetry: can you learn it? 71 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 daj da uživamo dok još možemo, kao ptice grabljivice zaljubljeni budimo, kao ptice što ih vrijeme polako proždire dok čežnju oni svoju odlaganjem more. sunce iako ne možemo zaustaviti, da trči barem možemo ga natjerati. 244 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium 11-12 september, 2021 organized by dr. pınar ünal-aydın department of psychology, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina (co-chair) dr. ayla arslan department of genetics and bioengineering, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina (co-chair) dr. orkun aydın department of psychology, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina (member of the organizing committee) epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium 245 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 homology modelling of the uba domain of sik2 korkut furkan şahin molecular biology and genetics department, institute of natural and applied sciences, gebze technical university, turkey vildan enisoğlu atalay bioengineering department, faculty of engineering and natural sciences, uskudar university, turkey ferruh özcan molecular biology and genetics department, institute of natural and applied sciences, gebze technical university, turkey a subfamily of the amp-activated protein kinase (ampk) family, salt inducible kinases (siks, sik1-3) modulate several biological functions and acts as a signal transmitter in various pathways such as lipid metabolism and gluconeogenesis. recently studies have shown that siks play a critical role in many diseases especially diabetes, cancer, and obesity, notably sik2 overexpressed in various tumor types while compared with those adjacent tissues. moreover, it modulates several subtle cellular signaling pathways including the hippo-yap pathway, camp-pka axis, pi3k-akt-mtor pathway, and the lkb1-hdac axis. therefore, it currently seems that sik2 may be a novel therapeutic target for cancer therapy. recently studies have shown that siks have many roles in the brain includes depression, sleep/wake regulation, epilepsy and circadian rhythms. the first member was identified in the adrenal cortex when rats fed on a high salt diet by wang etc. in 1999. indeed, sik1 gene expression is mostly in renal tissues. conversely, sik2 is abundantly expressed in the adipose tissue and neurons. similarly, sik3 gene expression is highly in the brain. abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies246 like other ampk family members, siks acquires two common domain kinase domain (kd) followed by a ubiquitin-associated (uba) domain in c-terminal. phosphorylation of a threonine residue (thr182, thr175, thr221 respectively) in the activation loop of each siks by liver kinase b1 (lkb1) is essential to be catalytically active. siks also contain multiple protein kinase a (pka) phosphorylation sites in n-terminal. in the human genome, only ten ampk members possess the uba domain without poly ubiquitin-binding motifs. among these, although siks contain hydrophobic residues that are vital to the binding of ubiquitin, no interaction between ubiquitin oligomers to the uba domains in siks. thus the main function of the uba domain is not yet clear in siks. previous studies claim that the uba domain aid in the binding lkb1 to the activation loop in the kinase domain of siks. furthermore, a mutation in the uba domain decreased siks phosphorylation and enzyme activity. however, compared with other ampk kinases, the uba domain and its role in siks functions are not known yet. on the other hand, protein databanks (pdb, pdbe, pdbj, rcsb) do have not the crystal structure of siks. here, we proposed to assess the role of uba domain on sik2 catalytic activity. initially basic local alignment search tool (blast) search was performed to identify the most reliable template. human crystal structures of mark1 (2hak and 6c9d) showed the maximum sequence identity with sik2 (53%, 51% respectively). we generated two homology models to sik2 using mark1 as a template via swiss-model. consequently, these models were validated by prosa web-based tool used to find any possible errors. these models will share open access on the swiss-model library for aid in knowledge of the uba domain functions in sik2. keywords: salt inducible kinase-2; ubiquitin-associated domain abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium 247 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 the hidden pandemic in the shadow of the covid-19 virus outbreak: factors contributing to the increase of domestic violence and abuse during the covid-19 pandemic in bosnia and herzegovina selvira draganović faculty of arts and social sciences, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina the terrifying global increase in domestic violence (dv) was recorded during the covid-19 virus pandemic worldwide, in bosnia and herzegovina too. female victims of dv generally live in isolation, are controlled by violent partners, are economically dependent, and have weakened social support. this intensified even more during the pandemic due to recommended safety measures of the local crisis center to stay home, maintain physical distance, and isolation measures, trapping victims of dv with abusers. covid-19 prescribed measures contributed to and increased the risk of all forms of violence, including online and cyber abuse. on top of this all, already crowded local women shelters had to suspend the accommodation of new beneficiaries due to covid-19 measures. besides, disrupted social and justice services and an overloaded healthcare system struggling to respond to the health crises left victims and those at risk of dv neglected and forced them to remain with their abusers. the study aims to explore the link between covid-19 measures and dv by analyzing who, how, and why failed and neglected victims or those at risk during covid-19 virus outbreak. i use publications by the local health entities (e.g., federal ministry of health, health crises center), orders and press releases, and official data on the number of dv cases reported during covid-19 to analyze the association between the two. generally, almost one in every two women in b&h experiences violence and only under 5% of them report it. compared to march, in april 2020, during the total lockdown in abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies248 b&h, the calls to the local sos hotlines tripled, indicating the increase of dv during the covid-19 outbreak. with no social support and limited contact women and children at risk of domestic violence have a hard time being locked in a place that is supposed to be safe but not so for victims of dv during covid-19 restrictive measures. local authorities in charge of covid-19 measures should consider and offer adequate solutions to victims and those at risk of dv in a form of institutional and other forms of support, ensure victims are able and encouraged to seek protection even during curfews. the coronavirus health emergency is no excuse for not acting and helping women and children. it is extremely important to provide information relevant to preventing and tackling the violence against women and children, such as online and in-person services, and providing alternative and additional shelters for the victims during covid-19 measures. keywords: domestic and violence and abuse; covid-19 measures; bosnia and herzegovina abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium 249 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 validity and reliability of the internalized stigma of mental illness scale–adolescent form gül dikeç university of health sciences, hamidiye faculty of nursing, department of psychiatric nursing, istanbul, turkey öznur bilaç manisa celal bayar university medical school, department of child and adolescent psychiatry, turkey gülçin uzunoğlu manisa mental and neurological hospital, manisa, turkey erol ozan manisa celal bayar university medical school, department of psychiatry, turkey the goal of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of the turkish version of the internalized stigma of mental illness scale–adolescent form (ismi-af). a total of 145 adolescents (12–18 years of age) who were diagnosed with at least 1 mental disorder according to dsm-5-tr participated in the study. data were collected at a mental health hospital between october 2017 and 2019 using a sociodemographic information form, the ismi-af, and beliefs towards mental illness scale (bmi). reliability (cronbach’s alpha, split–half, spearman–brown, hotelling t2 test) and validity analyses of the ismi-af were performed. spss 26.0 and lisrel 8.80 software were used for statistical analyses. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the total score was 0.88, split–half score was 0.84, and the spearman–brown factor score was 0.85. confirmatory factor analysis showed that the scale confirmed the 5-factor structure in adolescents, but factor loadings and reliability coefficients were abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies250 low in the “stigma resistance” subscale. there was a positive and weak correlation between ismi-af and bmi (r=0.37, p=0.00). the ismi-af is a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used in adolescents. this scale can help psychiatric nurses who work in this field identify and address internalized stigma, which is one of the key factors affecting adherence to treatment, especially in adolescents. keywords: adolescents; stigmatization; reliability and validity; mental disorders; psychiatric nursing abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium 251 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 the relationship between prospective and retrospective memory failures and cognitive test anxiety among university students mehmet akif elen international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina orkun aydın international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina pınar ünal-aydın international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina previous research demonstrated that memory failures may play a prominent role in reflecting test anxiety, as anxiety impedes the information processing system and working memory. test anxiety is a multidimensional construct with two components: emotionality and worry. emotionality component refers to the physical reactions, whereas worry component refers to the interfering thoughts about test performance. the latter term was recently labelled as cognitive test anxiety (cta). prospective memory (pm) is related to remembering to carry out future activities, and retrospective memory (rm) is related to recalling events or information in the past. the present study sought to investigate the relationship between cta, pm and rm failures among university students. 645 university students participated in the study. sociodemographic information form, the prospective and retrospective memory questionnaire (prmq), cognitive test anxiety scale-revised (ctar) were administered. abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies252 independent samples t-test analyses demonstrated that females score higher in pm, rm, and cta scores compared to males. high cta group scored significantly higher than low cta (p < .001) and moderate cta (p < .05) groups in pm failures. additionally, high cta group had significantly scored higher in rm failures compared to low cta group (p < .001). regression analyses showed that cta predicted both pm and rm failures. findings of this study may contribute to the treatment of test anxiety. importance of pm and rm failures may guide future studies considering these two aspects as the correlates of cognitive test anxiety. keywords: cognitive test anxiety; prospective memory; retrospective memory abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium 253 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 the relationship between voluntaryinvoluntary mind wandering and cognitive emotion regulation strategies based on the context of anxiety levels of turkish college students dalya eda akbalık faculty of arts and social sciences, department of psychology, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina buğrahan yılmaz faculty of arts and social sciences, department of psychology, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina maria avramidou faculty of arts and social sciences, department of psychology, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina orkun aydın faculty of arts and social sciences, department of psychology, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina people experience both pleasant and unpleasant emotions when their minds wander. many studies have found a link between mind wandering and anxiety. however, we still do not know what additional factors contribute to mind wandering and we are far away to understand the role of our cognitive and emotion regulation strategies on the outcomes of mind wandering. in this study, we aimed to understand the effects of anxiety and cognitive emotion regulation strategies on predicting voluntary-involuntary mind wandering among turkish college students. abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies254 three hundred fifty college students completed an online survey which includes beck anxiety i̇nventory (bei), cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (cerq)-short version, deliberate mind wandering (mwdq) and spontaneous mind wandering questionnaire (mwsq). correlation analysis revealed that participants’ anxiety level was positively correlated with spontaneous mind wandering total score (mws-t), yet it wasn’t correlated with deliberate mind wandering total score (mwd-t). when cerq subtitles were examined; cerq-sb (self-blame), cerq-r (rumination), cerq-c (catastrophizing), and cerq-bo (blaming others) were positively correlated with the mws-t. however, cerq-pr (positive refocusing) and cerq-rop (refocus on planning) were negatively correlated with the mws-t. likewise, cerq-a (acceptance), cerq-pr (positive refocusing), cerq-rop (refocus on planning), and cerq-pra (positive reappraisal) were positively correlated with the mwd-t. hierarchical regression analysis revealed that occupation of participants significantly predicted deliberate mind wandering total score (mwd-t). also, the study indicated that anxiety independently predicted spontaneous mind wandering total score (mws-t). in addition, results showed that selfblame (cerq-sb) which belongs to category of maladaptive cers significantly predicted spontaneous mind wandering total score while catastrophizing (cerq-c) which is another subcategory of maladaptive cers significantly predicted spontaneous mind wandering total score. these findings were thoroughly discussed in the study’s following sections. keywords: mind-wandering; involuntary-voluntary; cognitive emotion regulation strategies; anxiety abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium 255 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 adult attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder: focus on gender özge kılıç department of psychiatry, bezmialem vakif university faculty of medicine, istanbul, turkey attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder present with inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity with additional symptoms during adulthood: emotional dysregulation, excessive mind-wandering, and executive dysfunction. while there is a definite male dominance in rates of adhd in children, sex variations in rates are relatively minor or nonexistent in adult populations. because of the higher incidence of adhd in males, available data frequently focuses on primarily male samples. nonetheless, data support that the large disparity in the ratio of males to females with diagnosed adhd may be attributable to a lack of awareness and/or referral bias of females. the speaker aims to give a better understanding to enhance practitioners’ detection and referral of females with adhd. this talk will focus on offering practical guidance on the detection, evaluation, and interventions for females with adhd throughout their lives. keywords: adult attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder; female gender abstracts from the 1st balkans clinical neuroscience symposium epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies256 examining the relationship between perfectionism, insomnia, and dark triad personality traits in adults faruk obuća faculty of arts and social sciences, department of psychology, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina previous research has suggested that the dark triad personality traits, insomnia, and perfectionism are associated with various adverse outcomes. the purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between perfectionism, insomnia, dark triad personality traits, and sociodemographic variables, including age, gender, income level, marital status, and educational level. a total of 312 adults participated in the study. a sociodemographic data form, frost multidimensional perfectionism scale (fmps), sleep condition indicator (sci), and the short dark triad questionnaire (sd3) were administered. the results indicated positive relationships between insomnia and perfectionism, perfectionism and machiavellianism, and insomnia and psychopathy. regarding sociodemographic variables, negative associations were observed between age and machiavellianism, income level and insomnia, and income level and psychopathy. on the other hand, income level and educational level were both positively associated with narcissism. gender differences have revealed that females scored higher on perfectionism, whereas males scored higher on psychopathy. the research on the associations between perfectionism, insomnia, and dark triad personality traits is still limited. the cross-sectional design of this study prevents stating any robust assumptions about the results. more research on this topic is required to clarify the associations between these variables further. keywords: perfectionism; insomnia; dark triad personality traits; psychopathy; machiavellianism; narcissism microsoft word 2. mohsen hamli the emancipatory potential in drabble.docx epiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 4 spring 2010            the emancipatory potential in drabble’s the  garrick year, the waterfall, and the realms of  gold    mohsen hamlı  university of manouba           “i strongly believe,” margaret drabble told me in 1990, “that every reader  is creating the meaning of my novels.... i find this increasingly fascinating; the way  the reader alters my perception of what  i'm writing, and he  indeed alters  the  book.”1  in  the  mid‐1980s,  she  told  olga  kenyon:  "none  of  my  books  is  about  feminism because my belief  in  the necessity of  justice  for women (which they  don't get at the moment) is so basic that i never think of using it as a subject.”2  and  in  1980,  she  told  diana  cooper‐clark  the  following:  “i've  tried  to  avoid  writing as a woman because it does create its own narrowness. i'm not at all keen  on  the  feminist  view  that  there's  a  male  conspiracy  to  put  women  down.”3  fascinating  is  that  drabble’s  quasi‐advocation  that  her  novels  are  more  like  palimpsests harboring more than one tale or reading blows up her assertion that  she is not a feminist.4 margaret drabble’s the garrick year (1964) charts the spaces the novel’s  protagonist  emma  evans  creates  in  response  to  two  megalomaniac  men  (her  husband david evans and the stage manager wyndham farrar) during a year’s  theatrical season at a provincial festival.   it  is  “the  very  essence  of  provocation  and  bargaining  for  domination,”  which both share, that draws emma to david evans during their second decisive  encounter  in  the  train.5  “he  looked  like  an  actor,”  she  thought  of  him  before  discovering that he was one, “had all the air of self‐projection,” and seemed rough,  14 but  his  was  “roughness  that  amounted  in  itself  to  gloss”  (21).  david  was  her  challenge.     [h]e seemed in himself to be a stock character, welsh,  pugnacious,  dark,  small,  in  childhood  religion‐ridden  and now ostentatiously keen on drink and women, and  with  all  this  an  actor,  a  selfish  drama‐besotted  actor.  (24‐25)      but  emma’s  “rarified,  connoisseur’s  self”  soon  fades  into  the  reality  of  house,  children,  and  “this  self‐evident  cliché  of  a  man”  (25).  before  going  to  hereford, for the theatre festival, emma is compelled to turn down a job she has  been willing to accept. bent upon rooting her in his world and denying her the  endeavour  to  mend  her  “divided  self,”6  david  grows  hopelessly  aggressive,  masquerades  as  “the  sole  custodian  of  sexual  energy,”7  and  in  fact  expounds  "some aspect of what he stands for and is committed to as a human being,"8 as  often actors do in drama, in his role as flamineo in the white devil. his role, as he  himself defines  it earlier  in  the novel,  is  that of "a rotten bastard and a social  climber  and  a  pimp"  (33);  a megalomaniac  david/flamineo  who  arranges  the  murder of isabella (brachiano's wife), of camillo (vittoria's foolish husband), and  of his brother marcello. and to be served right, his mother becomes insane and  his mistress zanche betrays him to isabella's brother who kills him. flamineo’s  role fits david astoundingly well as he finds in flamineo’s the words that “justify”  his existence. his dying words, which “had some lines that came closer to him  than anything [she] had ever heard him say on stage before,” confirm emma in  her resolve to dissent and retaliate: “'i do not look,' he said, clutching at his mock  wound, / 'who went before nor who shall follow me. no, at myself i will begin  and end'” (108‐109).9      the wall, wardrobe, and marble pillar scenes in the novel (18‐19, 39‐42,  124‐125) reveal the extent to which david is determined to root emma in her  passivity and what she calls her “disturbing traits” and drown her in “anonymity”  15 (44). his fury, his oppressive possessiveness, splits them. the more he advances  on her space, the more she grows manipulative and accommodates their going  separate ways.   david’s drive to cow emma into submission, with all the coercion that drive  embodies, is unmistakably phallocentric. his efforts to abstract her as a “passive  other” are governed by what seems like a sexual metaphor as are all man’s needs,  in fact, as is explained by pierre guiraud in his sémiologie de la sexualité (1978).10  fulfilling  one’s  needs  (food,  movement,  or  sex),  guiraud  explains,  takes  four  steps: desire, action, pleasure, and satiation.11    desire  action  pleasure  satiation  eating  mastication  swallowing  repletion  stretching  out  one's arm   movement  of  the arm  blow  rest   intumescence  coitus  ejaculation  detumescence12      seen in the light of these terms, the contact or conflict between emma and  david is a symbolic representation of an unconscious sexual image. to our great  amazement,  though  david  and  emma  are  seen  some  seven  times  lying  on  or  getting into bed, they do not give us the impression that they have made love (18‐ 19,  62,  91,  95,  111,  119,  144).  she  often  pushes  his  hands  off  her  thighs  protesting. with wyndham, as we will see later, sex is, however, explicit as the  affair is initiated by the desire to violate rather than seek sex.     it is true that emma is unresponsive sexually because she “connect[s] love  … lying on beds and so forth … with babies,… being tired, … [and] wanting to go to  sleep” (131). but whenever she eclipses david’s sexual need, he moves to another  stage  of  need  and  empties  himself,  as  it  were,  in  an  act  of  violence.  this  is  precisely what happens in the wall, wardrobe, and marble pillar scenes. a blow, as  guiraud  argues  in  the  table  above,  is  the  equivalent  of  an  ejaculation.  and  16 disappear,  rest,  and  appease  recall  the  sexual  detumescence  that  follows  an  ejaculation.    desire  action  pleasure  satiation  wall  scene  (18‐19)  in bed. david  laid one hand  across emma's  thigh; his hand  pushed; he lost  his temper.  he leapt up.  he beat his fist  on the wall. his  fist went right  into the hollow  middle of the  wall;  extraordinary  feat.  anger  disappeared;  sad mood.  wardrobe  scene  (39‐42)  emma sat down  on the bed and  began to  unbutton her  coat. david  joined her. she  has no desire at  all.  he gave a  wardrobe a  slap.  emma  swallowing the  wardrobe; felt  david getting  down her gullet  "raw and whole  and hairy."  their lips   met and rested  together.  marble  pillar  scene   (124‐25)  his hair  aggressively cut  short (an act of  castration),  david is in a  very bad  temper  he advanced on  the pillar;  picked it up in  his arms  he hurled the  pillar down the  stairs to the  garage below:  extraordinary  noise.  david appeased  by his   action.  17 the last three chapters of the novel focus on emma's affair with the stage  manager wyndham farrar. like her choice of the hat, the junk, and the marble  pillar, wyndham is picked up "to feed the munching jaws of [her raging] mind"  (73). while wyndham sees only one face of emma, the readers see two. to him,  she is the listening, depending woman. to us, there is beneath the manipulative  emma, who plays the role of the "freak" and the child‐like female (142‐143), a  wild internecine double.  to emma, the excursion to wyndham's aunt's cottage, where he spent his  childhood,  has  "an  irresistible  charm"  (113).  the  charm  intensifies  as  she  imagines the "narrow" drives that lead to his aunt's cottage leading her rather to  wyndham's "dark knot."          we wandered round to the back of the house, ... the  garden stretched away downhill on the far side, through  a jumble of scrubs and bushes, and wyndham waved a  hand in that direction and said:       'that's  the  river,  down  there'  ...  'it's  probably  very  muddy down there, and as far as i can remember it's all  covered with nettles. you'd ruin your stockings.'       'i don't mind about my stockings.'       'don't  you?  let's  go  and  see  then.'  so  i  scrambled  down the steep bank after him... when we got  to  the  bottom we stood there in the thick wet grass staring at  the swirling water... here i was, in the midst of all the  greenery... and i was unnerved by it ...       'it  is  cold,  isn't  it,  come  on,  let's  go.'  he  pulled  me  after him back up the bank and into the cultivated part  of the garden.       on the way i stumbled on something soft and brown  and  frightful,  that  felt  like  a  dead  mouse,  but  when  i  bent down to see what  it was,  i  found  it was only an  apple, a wet and rotten apple, that had lain there since  the autumn before. (114‐115)      the  garden,  bush,  river,  bottom,  thick  wet  grass,  trees,  greenery,  are  traditionally‐accepted sexual references.13 his suggestion to go down there to the  18 garden, then to the bottom of the steep bank, waving a hand in their direction is  thoroughly sexual. his warning that the "nettles" might "ruin [her] stockings" falls  in  the  same  line  of  thought.  and  emma  not  minding  about  her  stockings  anticipates her sexual affair with him later.    wyndham farrar is in fact emma’s tool; the guillotine that castrates david’s  space,  not  emma’s  identity.  she  “enjoys”  sex  with  him  (161),  but  seeing  him  horribly shrinking, while “a sort of brisk energy [is] taking possession of [her],” is  indeed her real fulfilment (162). wyndham remains lying in bed "looking dazed";  he is no longer "impressive" and "rational" as he has been before she "lets him in"  (159, 161). they drink  tea and stay eyeing each other.  “eyeing each other”  is  synonym of “wordless” conflict (148); the kind of thing she is used to as david  and  her  “eyed  each  other”  during  that  “curious  conjunction”  in  the  train  compartment (21‐22). her penetrating “stare” (a recurrent term in the novel) and  her horribly inquisitive silence horrify wyndham. the more he stays with her, the  more  his  weakness,  his  hollowness,  and  the  "sham"  he  epitomizes  are  seen  mirrored in her stare. in short, she “taunt[s] the penis for its misrepresentation of  itself,” as germaine greer says of “what most ‘liberated’ women do.”14 to emma,  wyndham  is  nothing  but  “a  dangerous  high‐powered  object,  like  his  own  fast  car;” the car she has been proud to ride “in public” to “shock” and be “watched”  (133, 137). but it is his car, his other phallic symbol, that accidentally pins her  against the garage wall and almost mutilates her as david comes back home (166‐ 167).  david lights on her adultery, as she lighted on his when she found him with  sophy brent “lying on the packing‐cases at the bottom of the stairs (143),” and  buries his lot in silence. he is punished with his double.    equally important in this scene (going with farrar to his aunt’s house) is  the  fact  that  it  offers  emma  the  freedom  to  surmount  “indecision”  (that  “drowned” her male double julian, 170) and make a decision of her own even  though it means being “drowned” in adultery.       19 if there is anything that horrifies emma it is associating her with stupidity  and gullibility as are sophy brent and the rest of women, in fact, as the old adage  she  disproves  of  testifies  (35,  145).  it  is  in  reaction  to  these  images  that  she  becomes  eccentric,  rigid,  frigid,  compulsive,  neurotic,  and  masochistic.15  and,  ironically, she now accommodates these “disturbing traits,” not only to protect  herself, but also to protect others from herself. she becomes “increasingly aware  of [her] own strength” (169‐170).               *      the waterfall (1969) is the story of a thwarted young mother, jane gray,  the birth of whose second child occasions the visit of her cousin lucy and her  husband  james  (the  virile  man  she  dreamt  of  before  getting  married).  lucy  withdraws, but james stays to help her manage her children and mount her bed  when her doctor  frees her  for sexual consummation. the novel’s “waterfall”  is  that flow of passion that characterizes her experience with james and dwarfs her  frigidity before a car accident maims him forever.   jane gray's parental home is a land of appearance, hypocrisy, and discord.  she is the offspring of “malice,”  “dissension,” and “artificial” bond.16        some people conspire to deceive the world and find in  their conspiracy a bond, but they did it, i think, with a  sense  of  profound  mutual  dislike.  they  presented  a  united  front  to  the  world,  because  their  survival  demanded  that  they  should,  because  they  could  not  afford  to  betray  each  other  in  public:  but  their  dissension  found  other  devious  forms,  secret  forms,  underhand  attacks  and  reprisals,  covered  malice,  discreet  inverted  insults,  painful  praise.  children  are  lost  in  such  a  land,  a  land  of  ha‐has  and  fake  one‐ dimensional  uncrossable  bridges  and  artificial  unseasonal  blooms:  a  landscape  civilized  out  of  its  natural shape. (57)      20   marriage loomed to her as her only means of escape and deliverance from  the  “fake bridges”  and  “artificial  blooms”  of  home. she  saw,  in  the  apparently  brilliant  malcolm  she  met  at  a  party,  some  signs  of  escape.  she  thought  he  incarnated the hope of salvation. she was moved by the prophetic words of his  song and the highly‐pitched tune of his music. he was silent and timid, but that  did not prevent her from seeing in him the angel providence had sent to deliver  her. so she helped him transcend his "boredom, and exposure, and social neglect"  (89),  hoping  that  he  would,  in  exchange,  deliver  her  from  the  isolation  and  abandonment to which her parents had confined her.     engagement  did  not  show  her  much  of  his  character;  but  marriage  did.  soon after they got married, she learnt that she had overrated him. he was as  ostracized  and  estranged  as  she  was.  marriage,  then,  was  an  altar  "garbed  in  white" that worsened her condition (98‐99).     the first pages of the novel focus on this after‐marriage "age of inactivity"  (7). she has become so  inert and frigid that malcolm "began to suggest  ...  that  [she] might be a lesbian." as his work (singer) excludes her, he himself becomes  "inaccessible to [her] sorrows" (100‐101).     their  relationship  not  only  reinforces  the  sense  of  division  and  split  between them, but also "transform[s] itself into the very things [she] had sought  to escape ‐ loneliness, treachery, hardness of heart" (100). this does not prevent  her  from giving birth  to laurie  three years  later  (100, 103). she sinks deeper  "into  solitude"  and  drops  one  after  another  the  friends  that  malcolm  might  suspect.   one of the key scenes that marks jane’s change is the one describing the  panic that seizes her when malcolm returns home late at night and tries to touch  her:  “i  didn't  want  him:  my  body  refused  to  accept  him,  it  refused  the  act,  it  developed hysterical seizures, it shut up in panic, it grew rigid with alarm” (110).  her body becomes uncontrollable. “i tried to cure myself,” she says, “i tried  to read the right books, but the very sight of the diagrams made me feel ill” (110).  21 to fend herself off malcolm's violence, she covers her head, breathes evenly, and  assumes the refuge of sleep. malcolm “crosse[s] over to the bed and yank[s her]  out by one arm, and hit[s her] very hard across  the  face with  the back of his  hand.”       in the end, he went; he must have slept downstairs on  the sofa. in the morning i was covered with bruises: i  looked at them with alarm and some pride, as though i  was glad that my flesh had made some response to so  desperate a statement. (111‐112)    that is the end between them. the duplicity that has been characteristic of her  parents’ relationship becomes typical of her relationship with malcolm. she has  never tried to tell him that his lack of warmth and absence from home are the  causes of her sexual frigidity. she does not respond to his accusations that she is  both “lesbian” and “unfaithful.” a sense of mutually‐developed mistrust has led  them to their present stalemate.    to surmount grief, jane writes poetry; “that most rigid, incommunicative  art, where  the passion and  the  impossibility exist most nakedly,  side by side”  (118).      i wrote constantly, badly, with passion, and with flashes  of  alarming  satisfaction,  flashes  that  seemed  to  shine  back at me, reflected from another source of light. the  more unhappy i was the more i wrote: grief and words  were  to  me  inseparably  connected,  and  i  could  see  myself living out that maxim of literary criticism which  claims  that  rhyme  and  meter  are  merely  ways  of  regularizing and making tolerable despair.... the truth is  that after malcolm's departure and before bianca's birth  i was writing more copiously, more fluently than i had  ever  written  before,  the  ink  was  pouring  on  to  the  sheets  like  blood.  my  sublime  blood,  my  sublimated  blood. (109‐110)  22     if misfortune has driven her to repudiate her birth, writing poetry induces  her to seek rebirth in another pattern of  life. the birth of bianca, shortly after  malcolm's departure, coincides with a serious effort of jane to comprehend the  confusions and misfortunes that have characterized her life, and to reconstitute  "a  fictitious  form"  that  would  offer  her  a  new  identity.  “i  must  act,”  she  tells  herself, “i have changed, i am no longer capable of inaction ‐ then i will invent a  morality that condones me. though by doing so, i risk condemning all that i have  been” (52‐53).17    the birth of bianca becomes a pretext for her own rebirth; a peg on which  she attaches what she calls her new "morality" or "ladder." combined with her  delivery blood, the "ink" of poetry (that "was pouring on to the sheets like blood",  109‐110)  produces,  in  an  atmosphere  of  overheat  (both  physical  and  psychological), a new woman.     the delivery, which is described in the first pages of the novel, takes place  at  home.  jane's  whole  attention  is  seen  focused  not  on  bianca,  but  on  the  salvation "this close heat" and "these colours of birth" promise.      jane,  sitting  there  in  the bed with  the small newborn  child tucked in beside her, could feel the sweat of effort  flowing  unchecked  into  the  sweat  of  a  more  natural  warmth. they were waiting,  she and  the midwife,  for  the doctor, and for cousin lucy: the doctor, too late to  assist  the delivery, was coming  to put  in  the stitches,  and lucy was to sit with her for the night....       she thought that she was happy. it was as though all  the  waiting  and  the  solitude  had  resolved  themselves  into some more helpful expectation, though of what she  did not know. deliverance was at hand. it would be safe  to wait, now: it could no longer be missed or avoided.  this close heat would surely generate its own salvation.       after a while the doctor came, and stitched her up ‐  drawing  the curtains nervously  to do so,  shutting out  the witnessing snow ... her eyes were dry and angry, her  face  red  and  indignant,  protesting  against  the  23 possibilities  of  desertion  and  neglect,  unwilling  to  let  such things threaten her: but  jane  let her whole body  weep and flow, graciously, silently submitting herself to  these cruel events, to this pain, to this deliverance. (9‐ 10, emphasis added)    lucy  arrives  accompanied  by  her  husband  james  otford.  but  lucy’s  physical presence is not as important as what her name suggests to jane. she has  been "established as a femme fatale" in cambridge, thriving on men, leaving the  door of her room always open for admirers and lovers, "taking more than her  share," and embarking upon a savage sexual selection: “she was my sister, my  fate, my example: her effect upon me was incalculable. perhaps it was merely the  significance of her identity that diverted my attention from [my sister] catherine”  (114).  if  jane  is  the  innocent, modest, withdrawn, vulnerable state, lucy  is  the  self‐possessed,  shocking,  voracious  state.  before  the  birth  of  bianca,  jane sees  herself  divided,  “liv[ing]  on  two  levels,  simultaneously,  and  that  there  was  no  contact, no interaction between them.” but “in her second childbirth,” and when  lucy and james arrive, she sees herself "coming together again… i could no longer  support  the  division  ,…  my  flesh and mind  must meet  or  die”  (104,  emphasis  added).     lucy  is  nothing  but  a  step  in  that  ladder  or  morality  jane  intends  to  manufacture  for  herself.  though  she  comes  to  help  jane  surmount  loneliness,  lucy withdraws after a few nights leaving james behind to take care of her cousin.  there  follows,  between  jane  and  james,  a  period  of  initiation,  repetition,  and  closeness:  a  period  in  which  they  indulge  in  a  mutual  comprehension  and  discovery (21‐22). towards the end of the "weeks of custom" they spend together  (31), james emerges out of his concealment and reticence, sits by her on the bed,  and confesses that he "want[s] to be in that bed."      24 she felt the easy tears rise in her eyes at the sight of [his  closeness  and  helplessness]....  she  shut  her  eyes  and  turned  away,  moving  over  for  him  as  he  got  into  the  bed....   when she woke, in the small hours of the night, to the  baby's crying, he was asleep, profoundly asleep, and not  even  the  disturbance  she  made  in  leaving  the  bed  to  collect  the  baby  woke  him.  as  she  fed  the  child,  she  glanced  at  him  from time  to  time....  she  touched  him,  through the limp shirt,  laying her hand on his averted  shoulder:  he  was  hot  to  touch,  his  skin  burned  her  through  the  thin  cotton...  when  she  had  returned  the  sleeping  baby  to  her  cradle,  she  leant  over  him  once  more, touching his hair, his face, but he started to stir so  she  turned  from  him  instantly,  afraid  to  wake  him....  (32‐34)    in the morning, "he turned to her, about to clasp her," desirous, like a baby, to be  suckled. but hesitation stops him and he "reached out instead for her hand" to  keep it in his. when she allows him to mount her bed and get drowned or soaked,  like her, in the hot sea of sweat and dampness, he sees himself dutifully attached  to the woman that has kind of mothered him.     the  quasi‐erotic  sexless  pattern  they  have  mutually  convened  upon  ‐  sleeping at night "side by side ... in the wide, much slept in bed" (39) ‐ creates in  her  a  "flood  of  emotion"  and  a  flow  of  an  unchecked  primitive  desire,  "unobstructed,  like  milk"  (44‐45).  so  that  when  her  doctor  liberates  her  for  sexual  consummation,  she  finds  herself  totally  released  from  the  enclosure  in  which she has been cloistered. she removes the symptoms of dissension  from  herself;  she  removes  herself  as  she  has  surmised  she  ought  to  do  (13‐14).  in  justifying her need for james, she creates him as a "sexual aid." because of  its  importance, i quote in full the passage that describes the "rebirth" of jane.           later, in bed, when she turned to him after the long  delays of the day, she heard her own voice cry out to  him, inarticulate, compelled, from such depths of need  that it frightened her.... her cry was the cry of a woman  25 in  labour:  it  broke  from  her  and  her  body  gathered  round it with the violence of a final pang.... she lay there  a victim, helpless, with the sweat standing out all over  her body: in her head it was black and purple, her heart  was breaking, she could hardly breathe, she opened her  eyes to see him but she could see nothing, and still she  could  not  move  but  had  to  lie  there,  tense,  breaking,  afraid, the tears unshed standing up in the rims of her  eyes, her body about to break apart with the terror of  being left there alone right up there on that high dark  painful shelf, with everything  falling away dark on all  sides of her, alone and high up, stranded, unable to fall:  and  then suddenly  but  slowly,  for  the  first  time ever,  just as she thought she must die without him forever,  she  started  to  fall,  painfully,  anguished,  but  falling  at  last,  falling, coming towards him, meeting him at  last,  down there in his arms, half dead but not dead, crying  out  to  him,  trembling,  shuddering,  quaking,  drenched  and  drowned....he  could  not  choose  but  want  her:  he  had been as desperate to make her as she to be made.  and  he  had  done  it:  he  had  made  her,  in  his  own  image....  she was his, but by having her he had  made  himself hers.... he wanted her, he too had sweated for  this deliverance, he had thought  it worth the risk:  for  her, for himself, he had done it. indistinguishable needs.  her own voice, in that strange sobbing cry of rebirth. a  woman  delivered.  she  was  his  offspring,  as  he,  lying  there  between  her  legs,  had  been  hers.  (149‐151,  emphasis added)    this is the "metaphoric waterfall" that transforms jane.18 james is a man of her  own making; summoned from the back of her mind, as we will see shortly, to help  her re‐deliver herself. of all people she had known, he is the one who sees "her as  she had never been seen before." both construct an "islanded world" cut out of  fictions and fantasies and solidified into fact.19     alternating between first‐ and third‐person points of view, the narrative  can be seen as a "broken and fragmented piece" reflecting jane's "fragmented"  body and self. each event is given the chance to be "seen from [various] angles"  26 (46). if the waterfall, as joanne creighton suggests, incorporates jane's "reading  of her story,"20 the first‐person narrative is thus appropriately devoted to filling  the gaps and pointing at the exclusions and misrepresentations left in the third‐ person narrative.     jane admits that she has "professionally edited" the story (of her affair with  james) and,  therefore, deleted things and told  lies  instead. the discretion  that  such  an  affair  requires  vindicates  her  act.  but  the  new  tale,  the  so‐called  recounted fabricated one, is artistically honest and credible:      i tried for so long to reconcile, to find a style that would  express  it,  to  find a  system  that  would  excuse  me,  to  construct a new meaning, having kicked the old one out,  but i couldn't do it, so here i am, resorting to that old  broken medium....       ....  because  i  so  wanted  james  ,...  i  have  omitted  everything, almost everything except  that sequence of  discovery and recognition that i would call love. (46)    the  two kinds of narration have  traded roles: while  the  first person passages  express jane's love and lust and repudiate "nightmare doubts," the third person  passages "articulate" her fears and doubts.21      one  of  the  key  things  jane  mentions  in  her  "reading"  of  her  own  story  (which offers us another tale, a kind of palimpsest) is a past innocent interest in  james's arms, wrists, and cars; that is, in the symbols, according to the freudian  premise, of his virility.    while james is beside her asleep, in that sexless scene described above (33‐ 34), the sleepless jane is "looking back," "drifted away" from her present state, to  "those moments" of the past when james was visiting his in‐laws; reminiscences  inspired by james's "writs" and "the sight of ... his limp hand dangling on the chair  arm" (32).      27 [in  bed]  he  reached  out  his  hand  ...  and  touched  her  cheek, and her neck, softly.... he stroked her hair, not  seeming to mind if it was dirty and smelled of humanity,  and then he touched her shoulder and her back ‐ she  was  lying  on  her  side,  facing  him,  in  the  position  in  which  she  always  slept  ‐  and  finally  she  became  still,  leaving  his  heavy  hand  lying  on  her,  sinking  her  downwards, anchoring her,  imprisoning her,  releasing  her  from  the  useless  levity  of  her  solitude.  (33,  emphasis added)    his presence in her bed, her "possession" of him, the world they are living in, are  nothing but "some brussels of the mind," a foreign yet much‐desired condition  that must have been stimulated by some past hints (84).    she remembers "him and lucy at those family gatherings ... one evening,  one  christmas  eve,  at  lucy's  mother's  house"  (60):  james  was  sitting  still,  politely, on a small victorian chair; he "shifted silently the angle of his arm as it  rested upon the chair" and, as though by way of "transference," jane "felt [her]  own arm, [her] elbow grating on the harsh weave" (61‐62). and when she joined  james and lucy, who had preceded her to the kitchen to wash "the coffee things,"  she found "james  ... drying his hands. his shirtcuffs were turned back from his  wrists.  i  noticed  them:  his  wrists,  his  hands"  (62).  the  following  day,  james  suggested going for a drive, and they "drove to the sea." malcolm was with them.  they walked on pebbles and threw stones at a post in the water (66). when they  got  back  home,  jane  dreamt  of  the  sea,  of  pebbles,  and  of  the  frightening,  dangerous speed of james's car. she now sees him, thinking in recollection, as her  dangerous, voracious,  insatiable desire driving her  to a sea of passion.  in bed,  they drown together "in a willing sea" (45), "in the oceans of our flowing bodies,  in  the white sea of  that strange  familiar bed" (67). whenever he touches "her  knee under the sheet," or even her hand, tears "flowed down her cheeks quietly,  rising unchecked in her eyes and slowly overflowing like a fountain" (37‐38). the  stones,  thrown  at  the  post  in  the  water,  "suggest  her  hardening  of  her  heart  28 toward malcolm."22 these stones fall in the waters of the violent passion she and  james get involved in; stones softened by the "tender shades" of their desires.  and as jane had already foreseen, an accident, “a false warning,” denies her  “the white lights that [she] had hoped for” (186]. on his way to norway where he  plans to visit his grandfather and “pass [jane] off as lucy” (167), james overtakes  a small van “to end up crunched up against a tree on the far side of the road"  (184‐185). jane and her children remain "amazingly" unscathed. but james's skull  gets "fractured in two places" (193).     the novel ends with james recovering from the concussion, regaining his  reflexes, starting to speak, remembering the things related to the journey and the  accident, but sexually  impotent: "the  little,  twentieth century death" (238), the  "violent stranger" that will "inhabit his body" (190‐191).23  this is jane's feminine  ending of her tale: james's little death falls like a gimmick from a deus ex machina  to counterpoint jane's thrombosis. for on the eve of their departure to norway,  she discovers a painful "thrombic clot" in her leg due to the contraceptive pills  she has been taking. she "could have gone on taking them until they killed her"  had not james been sexually maimed. eleanor h. skoller argues, in this context,  that the waterfall is given a prosodic, feminine ending where the stress is on the  penultimate syllable. "james's recovery from the accident" and return home from  the rehabilitation centre "has the stress or the strong accent in the final pages of  the novel, but that is not the end."24 the penultimate episode stresses the way  both lovers are justly treated after jane has wrenched her nature from its dim  desperate course.                                              *    determined to be "on a course of defying nature,"25 frances wingate of the  realms of gold (1975) deserts her husband anthony wingate when she discovers  that  she  is  “programmed  for  maternity”  (15).  a  "golden  girl"  with  a  lust  for  competition, adventure, and initiative, she sweats outs her "bad moments" (12‐ 29 14, 17, 21, 35) by travel, effort, and excavation; and by sleeping "with people for  years, on principle almost" (15, 67). the power to imagine is thus presented "as  an extension of the power to procreate physically, to beget offspring."26 this is  how  frances  presents  herself  and  how  the  narrator  values  her  flowing  imagination:    i imagine a city, and it exists. if i hadn't imagined it, it  wouldn't have existed. all her life, things had been like  that. she had imagined herself doing well at school, and  had  done  well.  marrying,  and  had  married.  bearing  children,  and  had  borne  them.  being  rich,  and  had  become rich. being free, and was free. finding true love,  and had found it. losing it, and had lost  it. what next  should she  imagine?... she had been as arid as a rock,  but she had learned to flow. (34‐35)      interesting is that the more she digs and excavates, the more she becomes  wed to all that is revealing of her past, life, personality; a kind of transference that  is recurrent in drabble’s novels. more thought and imagination are now going to  be invested on her own childhood: another city that longs for resurrection.   one saturday afternoon, frances wingate visits tockley and her parents'  eel cottage about which she keeps "wordsworthian images of glorious infancy"27  and spends the weekend with her brother's family. late that night, frances, her  brother hugh, and his son stephen discuss freud and empedocles (c.484‐c.424)  or death instinct and death wish; a point introduced by stephen's reference to  salvator  rosa's  "painting  ...  of  empedocles  jumping  into  etna"  (197).  stephen  maintains that though empedocles's sandals were "thrown up out of the crater"  after  his  jump,  the  act  of  jumping  to  prove  that  he  was  a  god,  was  in  itself  significant  of  some  kind  of  divinity  in  him.  but  to  frances  and  hugh,  the  philosopher "was just deluded" (197). jumping into a volcano to prove that one is  immortal is a silly act. we are all concerned, frances believes, with intimations of  immortality in us, with visions of power that allow us to draw "meaning out of  30 one abyss or another."28 drawing meaning out of one thing or another is what  distinguishes frances from the defeated and bankrupt people she has come to  know and live with.    but  it  is  not  only  empedocles  who  is  pictured  "poised  ...  over  a  gulf  of  bankruptcy" (201), then drowned in lava, defeated, and flattened. janet bird and  david  and  stephen  ollerenshaw  are  also  pictured  poised  over  private,  self‐ constructed  craters,  and  relatively  defeated.  all  of  them  are  ollerenshaws,  of  frances's own blood, made of the same stuff out of which she is made, and related  to  the  same  soil,  ditches,  newts,  as  she  is.  unlike  frances,  these  three  ollerenshaws  do  not  have  the  stamina  for  survival  and  tenacity;  they  have  inherited their ancestors' deficiencies. frances is, instead, clinging to action; bent  upon  draining  the  family's  "diseases"  and  horrors,  rather  than  passively  reproducing them, multiplying them (105).    janet bird is frances's second cousin. shortly after her marriage to mark  bird, she discovers that she has been the victim of "some conspiracy ... to make  [her]  ...  believe  that  marriage  was  necessary  and  desirable"  and  that  “society  offers pyrex dishes and silver tea spoons as bribes, as bargains, as anaesthesia  against self‐sacrifice” to keep women “upon the altar, upon the couch, half‐numb”  (129‐130).  but unlike those women who throw these bribes and “protest” (once they  regain  their  senses),  jane  remains  under  the  spell  of  anaesthesia,  dulled  and  hibernated (130). the first major scene that shows this weird side of her is the  one  in which she entertains mark's guests. before  they arrive, she  is depicted  indecisive, not knowing what set of plates to use and what dress or shirt to wear.  frances wingate, with whom the narrator often identifies, would never mind the  guests as her anxieties would "usually [be] forgotten ... in ... the brilliance of her  conversation"  (157‐158).  though  "her  knowledge  [and]  her  instincts,"  the  narrator  specifies,  are  "better  than  [mark's]  empty  second‐hand  sterile  vulgar  jokes,"  janet  is  not  allowed  any  conversation  (166).  her  husband  finds rather  31 pleasure in "upsetting" her, in demolishing her arguments if she speaks at all, in  "refer[ring] to her in company as 'my barren wife,'" in sending her "upstairs to  throttle"  the  yelling  baby  that  is  ruining  what  he  considers  his  pleasant  conversation (163).    janet hates her home. she hated more or less everything  about it.... she hated her own efforts to make things look  pleasanter, to give it individuality (as she had put it to  herself) ... once, janet had cared about such things. she  had even been quite good at them: she had had "taste,"  as her mother called it. she had opinions about shapes  and colours, and as a child she had been good at making  things. (136‐137)      it  is  in reaction to  this  ill‐treatment  that every night  janet  ‘wishes  for a  volcano’ or an overflowing river that would wash her away from the bed in which  mark is waiting to grab her. there was no escape.         every night of her life, the same problem. what was  she  to  do,  what  could  she  ever  do,  to  escape  the  moment? there lay mark waiting to grab her. she hated  it, she hated him. she had thought of so many ways out ‐  feeling ill, headaches, period pains, backaches.... oh, she  knew  all  the  tricks  of  avoidance....  no  wonder  she  wished for a volcano or an earthquake, neither of them  very  likely  in  this  flat  terrain. a  flood would be more  likely; what if the great river done were to overflow and  wash  them  all  away  out  to  the  cold  north  sea?  sometimes she wished that she could really catch some  disabling disease ‐ not a fatal disease, for after all if  it  were  truly  death  she  desired,  she  had  the  means  to  hand. no, what she wanted was some universal disaster  that would involve her in its fate, or else some personal  release, through paralysis or a stroke, or the threat of  heart attacks. (174‐175, emphasis added)    these are serious fantasies. she grows "drawn towards disasters," floods, wars,  holocausts, and car crashes. but none of these happen. "things could be better,"  32 thinks the narrator, "but not for her;" not for the "feeble and wilting" janet (176‐ 177). all she can do is finding relief and satisfaction in “tricks of avoidance.”          janet  picked  up  the  ashtray,  and  stared  at  the  cigarette  ends.  white  crushed  cellulose,  grey  insubstantial  ash.  she  picked  up  the  large  scented  swedish  candle  at  her  elbow,  idly,  to  look  at  it  more  closely, and some molten wax  tipped  into  the pottery  ashtray  with  its  pottery  sign  of  the  zodiac.  the  combination  of  liquid  wax  and  fag  ends  and  burnt  matches was singularly disgusting, but she tipped some  more, trying to swamp the fag ends completely, leaving  a burning hollow green crater in the wide candle.... she  melted more wax and tipped it  into her molten green  lake.  the  translucent  deep  core  of  the  candle  flowed  more brightly. mark, upstairs, slammed a drawer  in a  threatening  manner.  thus  did  he  summon  her....  she  must  go  up  to  her  appointed,  her  chosen  fate....  she  melted  more  wax,  she  tipped,  she  melted....  all  the  matches  were  sunk  by  now  in  the  slowly  hardening  dead  sea  of  wax,  sunk  like  spars  from  some  small  shipwreck.  janet  stared  at  her  work  with  some  satisfaction. and then she heard her husband call 'janet'  from  upstairs,  and  blew  out  the  green  candle,  and  carried an ordinary white wax candle from the grocer's  with her up to bed. (178‐179)        though  there  is  some  satisfaction  in  it,  the  trick  is  after  all  "pointless."  mark's call from above blows up her dream. the scene is truly representative of  the way an insolent husband destroys his wife's efforts to overcome depression  and fear and "propitiate" the pangs that are consuming her heart. the narrator's  commentary ("she must go up to her appointed, her chosen fate") reflects her  (the narrator's) disagreement with what janet is doing. we expect her to break  the chain, go upstairs, and tell mark that she does not enjoy sex with him; that she  is  not  barren,  frigid,  and  neurotic,  as  he  pretends;  that  sex  and  violence  are  incompatible. but mark calls "'janet'  from upstairs" and she yields; she cannot  33 shake herself off her slow, depressing life (183).  he summons her to bed, where  he is in wait; to "her chosen fate," to the burning crater of marriage.     just after having presented janet yielding to the red crater of marriage, the  narrator introduces david ollerenshaw, frances's cousin, "staring into ... a small  and rather dull crater "(184, emphasis added). david is a geologist for whom the  crater  is  a  place  where  he  "meditates"  on  the  "dangerous  manifestations  of  nature" and his masochisms, extremes, and oddities.         the  volcano  rumbled,  heaved,  and  spat,  then  sank  back  again  like  an  old  man  into  its  ashen  bed.  disappointing.... he had always been fond of the more  dramatic,  dynamic  and  dangerous  manifestations  of  nature, a fondness that had led him to related activities,  such as pot‐holing, rock‐climbing, mountain‐climbing...  his pursuit had taken him to some strange landscapes,  and some strange extremes of heat and cold....       he  stared  down  abstractly  into  the  reddish  lava,  thinking  of  the  world  chart  in  the  limp  blue  penguin,  and as he heard, the volcano rumbled, made a noise like  a gravel pit emptying, and spat up, suddenly, a few fair‐ sized bombs. one of them landed at david's feet, and he  stepped back sharply.... it would be a very second‐rate  fate, to be knocked out by an almost‐spent volcano, and  it  would  serve  him  right  for  wanting  to  see  a  bit  of  action.... man's life span was too short to be interesting:  he wanted to see all the slow great events, right to the  final cinder, the black hole. (184‐186)      david  is  a  successful  geologist  who  has  "harnessed  [his]  neurosis  to  a  useful end" (259), to the satisfaction of his secret desire to seek out uninhabited  lands  and  "strange  landscapes"  (185).  "volcanoes,"  creighton  adds,  "satisfy  a  craving in his soul for the inhuman grandeur of nature .... he is sanguine about  man's  insignificant  place  in  the  large  schemes  of  nature."29  "man's  life,"  he  believes, "is ... a mere breath" and his "part in the scale of creation" is not a "very  dignified" one. standing over the "almost‐spent volcano," he is then "agonizing  over the death of god" and the insignificance of man. to him, the almost­spent  34 volcano that rumbles then sinks back is the image of the debilitated god and the  impotent man. but his pursuit and his discoveries do not change anything in him;  he  does  not  learn  from  life.  he  remains  to  us,  as  well  as  to  the  narrator,  an  "impenetrable" and "incomprehensible" character ‐ so much so that the narrator  confesses that she does not "have ... the nerve to present ... him in the detail [she]  had intended" (184). she cannot "expound upon the difficulties of understanding  his 'character' and integrating his 'story' into the narrative."30 unlike his geology,  frances's archaeology triumphs: not only because of her discovery of tizouk and  the saharan routes leading to it, but essentially because she does not neglect to  examine the roots that had shaped her personality and fate. david, too, discovers  a valley of minerals; but this experience does not elevate him. frances sees him  "eccentric,  ... manic," "indefinably odd," a stumbling "small  figure" that tries to  make superhuman efforts, but that fails (244, 188).       while  janet  bird  is  the  victim  of  marriage  and  david  ollerenshaw  of  solitude, stephen ollerenshaw, frances's nephew, is the victim of death instinct.      having been extremely overwhelmed by his wife beata’s anorexia nervosa  and  his  baby’s  slow  development  (88,  91‐92,  347),  nineteen‐year‐old  stephen  develops  the belief  that  "living  is a crime"  (92).  it  is  in  this mood of extreme  pessimism  that  we  catch  him  "brood[ing]  over  ...    illness  and  death."  but  the  sudden and bizarre death of connie ollerenshaw, his father's great‐aunt, and the  scandals that her story reveals in the press devastate him beyond human power.  he  is  described  poised  "by  his  gas  fire  ...  like  a  medieval  contemplative,"  meditating over "mortality, decay, the corruption of flesh, disease. the end of all  things" (348‐349).     he felt himself on the verge of some revelation. it was  sure to come: it needed no artificial invocation.  the revelation was one of extreme simplicity. it came to  him like a light from heaven. it was better to be dead  than alive: this was the knowledge that came to him. it  35 seemed  to  descend  upon  him  personally.  being  alive  was sordid, degrading, sickly, unimaginable.... one spent  one's  life  in  inoculating  oneself,  swallowing  medicaments,  trying  to  destroy  disease,  and  all  to  no  end, for the end was death.... whereas if one left now, if  on leapt now, unsubdued, into the flames, one would be  free,  one  would  have  conquered  flesh  and  death,  one  would have departed whole, intact, undestroyed. (349)    stephen yields to this self‐revelation and kills himself and his baby (346). they  "disappeared together into the red crater, made one with nature, transformed to  black ash" (352). frances is both shocked and relieved. shocked by the death, but  relieved that none of her children will inherit stephen's eccentricity. she sees his  act, the way he "faced his own nature," an "unwelcome ollerenshaw trait" that  went  with  him.  “it  was  a  revelation  that  she  did  not  want  at  all.  she  would  continue to live, herself. he had spared her, and taken it all upon himself” (353).  failing to preserve himself, stephen directs his aggression against himself and his  offspring. the death instinct overwhelms him and destroys his creative instinct,  his life instinct.  seen  in  the  light  of  the  empedoclean  philosophy,  the  realms  of  gold  dramatizes  frances's  movement  from  alienation  and  disintegration  to  unity.  empedocles is believed to have taught that the universe is made of elements (or  forces) that are either united by love or separated by strife (or hatred). this is  why, he argues,  "the universe was  in a state of unending change."31 love and  strife rule the world by turns.     what has generated janet's, david's, and stephen's collapse is a yearning  for  death,  a  death  wish,  to  end  their  miseries.  they  find  life  humiliating,  degrading,  meaningless.  theirs  are  stories  "of  inner  suffering  unrelieved  by  action," as empedocles's legend is.32 their efforts to transcend their weaknesses  are always short‐circuited by a prolonged introspection followed by indecision.  when  meditating  over  their    "inner  sufferings,"  they  are  vacillating  between  doubt and confidence then ultimately confidence gives way to total doubt and  36 loss. the three of them are, in effect, victims of a kind of death: whether it takes  the form of failed marriage, unsociability, or failure to resist one's death instinct.  each of which is a crater, the cynosure of their life, from which there is no escape.      the  world  in  which  these  characters  live  is  a  strife‐governed  world:  a  world  without  love.  janet,  for  instance,  sees  home  as  a  place  of  inertia  and  paralysis (like emma of the garrick year).  in part two of  the novel  (which  is  devoted  to  her)  love  is  suppressed;  it  is  a  total  deadlock.  the  whole  part  is  pervaded by janet's feeling that she is facing a "conspiracy" (129); that her hope  lies in her "resisting" this male conspiracy and these "larger forces" (128, 131).  but her "resistance" fades in meditations and broodings. mark and his friends are  the "enemies" or "the warriors" descending from the hills to invade her space ‐ an  image reflected from what she is learning in a modern bible class (132). this is  the strife that drains "certainty ... out of her like water from a cracked cup" (159).  hers is a life of "disasters" and "explosions" (133‐134): a life in which she sees  herself "nothing" (131).       while part two is devoted to janet's stasis, the other remaining parts of the  novel portray frances's moments of strife, depression, and loss (part one), her  endeavour  to  make  herself  flow  (part  three),  and  her  final  deliverance  and  reintegration (part four).    it  is  in  part  one  of  the  novel  that  frances  confronts  a  strife‐governed  world:  she sees herself a heroine on her way "to  the gallows"  (11), a mother  programmed for death. the whole part is permeated by her "sense of loss" and  grief (14): loss of lover (karel), of the postcard sent to him, of her wisdom tooth.  the postal strike "may be seen as a form of strife, in some more ordinary sense  than in empedocles."33 her toothache, the dislodged filling, and the developing  lump  in  her  breast  (that  has  been  extirpated)  make  her  sense  herself  "disembodied" and fragmented (58‐59). estranged from her lover and from her  37 roots (while in adra), frances imagines herself "in a dry crater" where "love and  understanding are beyond her" (59). it is in this part one that we see her lying  "inert," standing in the debris of a strife‐destroyed life, like joy (karel's wife) in  "the  misery  of  marital  divorce"  (73,  77).  lying  inert  only  until  she  receives  a  message that karel still  loves her, and the strife‐governed world that has been  collapsing gives way (in part three) to a love that allows things to  resume their  natural  course  and  frances's  imagination  to  flow  again.  it  is  only  then  that  frances finds the energy to build the future of adra, that she discovers the tin find  and david ollerenshaw, and that the postcard she sent from "her dry volcano" is  finally released to reach karel. the empedoclean love with its sense of unity and  reintegration is fully developed in part four when frances, who comes back to  england for her nephew's funerals, discovers her roots and more ollerenshaws.    the scene in which she visits mays cottage where connie has been found  dead is a kind of last act in part four. connie's abode and the scandals that have  been associated with it since the discovery of connie's corpse are the volcano that  has worsened stephen's condition and drawn him to end his life. unlike the other  ollerenshaws,  frances  is  not  ashamed  of  connie's  "volcanic"  history  that  the  papers have generously laid out for the public. connie had tried to do what was  not expected of a woman but failed.          constance ollerenshaw had lived simply and madly;  there  were  no  corrugated  iron  roofs  covering  her  leaking rafters. a terrible purity marked the scene, and  frances approached it without fear ...       on the key ring, there was a key to the black desk.  she lit her candle, for it was now dark, and unlocked the  desk, to see what was there.... it was full of things, ... bits  of paper, letters, photographs, medals, buttons, sewing  eggs, bobbins, brooches,  rings, old  tickets,  coins, pins,  and  bits  and  pieces  of  a  life  time  ‐  of  more  than  a  lifetime, she realized, as she started to go through them,  for  there  were  records  reaching  back  into  the  dim  reaches  of  the  dusty  ollerenshaw  past,  before  dead  constance  had  been  born.  ill‐spelt  letters  in  spidery  38 script  announced  a  death  in  the  family  in  lincoln  in  1870,  a  birth  in  petersborough  in  1875.  nearly  as  indecipherable  as  hieroglyphics,  nearly  as  sparse  in  their  information  as  phoenician  shopping  lists,  they  contained a past, a history. (303, 305)      frances  reads  "the  dusty  ollerenshaw  past:"  how  out  of  it  some  gifted  ollerenshaws  (frances  and  her  father)  have  escaped;  propelled  by  ambition.  they  are  "the  blessed,"  "the  lucky,"  the  persevering  lot  (306).  out  of  scraps,  photographs, mementoes, and letters, frances builds connie's story. constance  was lucky, too: "one of the lucky" females of her time: she "learned to read and  write,"  "had  admirers,"  and  an  illegitimate  child  that  died  (307‐308).  frances  finds promises from the child's father (an american seaman and singer who died  in an accident) to "speak with the vicar" about their affair. and the imaginative  archaeologist  speculates  about  the  confusion  constance's  "seducer,  con  man,  vacillator,  lover,  traitor"  must  have  spread  in  tockley.  "lost  love,  rejection,  puerperal fever, guilt, interfering vicars, the death of a loved child, persecution by  parents"  (308).  this  is  the crater  that  had  ruined  constance  and  dwarfed  the  younger ollerenshaws.      frances is, instead, pleased to discover that she succeeds where connie had  failed.  great‐aunt connie  had  lived  alone, victim  of  "the  caged  days"  (329),  of  social persecution. she had fallen from the stairs, broken her leg, and "dragged  herself  around  for  some  time,  eating  what  was  in  reach,  and  then  had  died"  desolate, neglected (291‐292). but frances "would perhaps live here, taking over  what connie had left off" (309‐310) and resisting with all her might defeat and  sterility.  the  volcanic  tale  from  which  the  other  ollerenshaws  have  shrunk  becomes for her the stimulus to be fiercely different from what is expected of her.    conclusion    to  be  sane  and  balanced,  drabble's  three  novels  studied  in  this  paper  demonstrate, women have to seek forms of  liberation and reject the roles that  39 debilitate them. rejection is indeed their key term or attitude that allows them to  see themselves distanced from the authority of men.     before  marriage,  home  and  mother  are  the  sources  of  meekness  and  subordination. the mother is the symbol of subordination all the heroines want  to keep clear of. in hating their home, they fulfill an inner desire to revolt against  what  is seen as  their  fate. the domestic sphere before marriage  is,  for all  the  heroines, a cage that does not promise better days. escaping it becomes a must.    to escape mother's home, they get married and, unexpectedly, involved in  a struggle for marital power they have never thought of. the invigorating power  of  love they have all dreamt of and learnt about  in books fades  in the  light of  reality. none of the protagonists is satisfied with her husband; none of them is  decently  treated  as  wife  or  partner;  all  of  them  accuse  their  husbands  or  ex‐ husbands of violence and abusive language. and all of them experience a second  split (a divorce or separation from their husbands) after a first split from their  parents.   separation,  divorce,  betrayal,  adultery,  hysteria,  neurosis  are  the  immediate causes of deception in marriage. but other reactions, truly feminist in  nature, appear. the first of these is turning the marital split into an invigorating  act: emma evans exploits her churning silence and inquisitive gazes to explore  man's  megalomania.  jane  gray  makes  of  poetry  her  rhetoric  of  exploration  (digging for the past pleasures that can alleviate the present adversities). frances  wingate explores the family roots and mends herself and others. all of them, in  short, transcend their husbands' accusations of sterility.    a woman who has learnt how to resist and win tries to help other women  do  the  same.  we  begin  to  see  the  voice  of  the  central  character  eager  to  communicate  with  other  females.  emma  sympathizes  with  the  girls  david  ridicules; jane writes about her experience; and frances tries to convert janet to  her case. there is in their attitudes, in their choices, a meaning, a literature that  influences their friends.  40   confession of sexual experience (that there is nothing illicit or disgusting in  sexual enjoyment)  is also seen characteristic of drabble's principal characters.  such  discourse  or  intercourse  brings  about  a  healing  effect.  the  older  the  characters, the more urging is this discourse seen. there are more confessions of  sexual experience in the last novel than in the one that precedes it, and so on. to  all  the characters,  “understanding  [sex]  is  finding  the proper mate,”34 as most  feminists think. and the proper mate is the one who happens to fill in the gap left  by the ex‐partner; but who comes only on her terms.    the emancipatory potential of drabble’s novels cannot be denied. though  they do not claim overthrowing the patriarchal order, the novels chart feminist  spaces  and  show  women  how  to  resist  being  deprived  of  their  freedom  and  identity. as marriage  is  the source of women’s plights, and without calling  for  discarding it, drabble makes it clear that love exists without marriage. she shares,  moreover, greer’s view that the “joy of the struggle” lies in “the sense of purpose,  achievement, and dignity”35 and that there is no recipe for all women to follow to  be free. each woman devises her own form of revolt to withstand the form of  oppression she is faced with.                            *    41 notes:    1 mohsen hamli, personal interview, 26 july 1990. 2 see women novelists today: a survey of english writers in the seventies and eighties (london: the harvester press, 1988), 85. 3 see interviews with contemporary novelists (london: macmillan, 1986), 47, 51-52. for the difference between women-centered novels that are feminist and women-centered novels that are not, see rosalind coward, "are women's novels feminist novels?," in the new feminist criticism: essays on women, literature, and theory, ed. elaine showalter (london: virago, 1985), 225-239. 4 joanne v. creighton, margaret drabble (london and new york: methuen, 1985), 30. 5the garrick year (london: penguin, 1964), 22. references to this work will henceforth be given parenthetically in the text. 6 ellen cronan rose, the novels of margaret drabble: equivocal figures (totowa, n.j.: barnes & noble, 1980), 14. 7 germaine greer, the female eunuch (london: macgibbon & kee, 1970), 18. 8 l.c. knights, "personality and politics in julius ceasar," 1965; rpt. in shakespeare: julius ceasar, ed. peter ure (london: macmillan, 1969), 129. 9 the original lines from flamineo's dying speech run as follows: i do not look who went before, nor who shall follow me; no, at myself i will begin and end. see john webster's the white devil, in three plays (rpt. london: penguin, 1972), v, vi, 154156. 10sémiologie de la sexualité (paris: payot, 1978), 95. all translations from this work are mine. 11 the desire, or the moment of need, of the mobilization of tendency, and the accumulation of energy; the action, or the implementation of the tendency, the application of the energy; the pleasure, or the satisfaction, the moment the energy is released, the desire accomplished, and the need fulfilled; the satiation, or the moment the energy is demobilized. sémiologie de la sexualité, 95. 12 sémiologie de la sexualité, 96. 13 sémiologie de la sexualité, 116. 14 the female eunuch, 318. 15 creighton, margaret drabble, 50. 16the waterfall (london: penguin, 1969), 48, 56. references to this work will henceforth be given parenthetically in the text. drabble refers to the waterfall as “the most female of all my novels.” see ellen cronan rose, "feminine endings and beginnings: margaret drabble's the waterfall," contemporary literature, 21 (winter 1980), 81. 17 gayle greene, "margaret drabble's the waterfall: new system, new morality," novel, 22, 1 (fall 1988), 45-65. 18 creighton, margaret drabble, 60. 19 creighton, margaret drabble, 63. 20 creighton, margaret drabble, 56. 21 see ellen peel, "subject, object, and the alternation of firstand third-person narration in novels by alther, atwood, and drabble: toward a theory of feminist aesthetics," critique: studies in modern fiction, 30, 2 (winter 1989), 115. see also caryn fuoroli, "sophistry or 42 simple truth? narrative technique in margaret drabble's the waterfall," journal of narrative technique, 11, 2 (spring 1981), 110-124. 22 lynn veach sadler, margaret drabble (boston: g.k. hall, 1986), 47. 23 gayle greene writes that “probably james would not have died [sexually maimed] if jane had refused him.” see "margaret drabble's the waterfall: new system, new morality," 53. 24"the progress of a letter: truth, feminism, and the waterfall," in critical essays on margaret drabble, ed. ellen cronan rose (boston: g.k. hall, 1985), 122-23. see also ellen cronan rose, "feminine endings and beginnings: margaret drabble's the waterfall," 8199. 25the realms of gold (london: penguin, 1975), 12-13. references to this work will henceforth be given parenthetically in the text. drabble borrows the title of the novel from john keats’ poem "on first looking into chapman's homer” (1816, emphasis added): much have i travelled in the realms of gold and many goodly states and kingdoms seen; round many western islands have i been which bards in fealty to apollo hold. 26 "a vision of power in margaret drabble's the realms of gold," in critical essays on margaret drabble, ed. ellen cronan rose, 136. 27sadler, margaret drabble, 94 28 "a vision of power in margaret drabble's the realms of gold," 135. 29 creighton, margaret drabble, 88. 30 creighton, margaret drabble, 84. see also cynthia a. davis, "unfolding form: narrative approach and theme in the realms of gold," modern language quarterly, 40 (1979), 390402. 31 see "empedocles" in the oxford companion to english literature, ed. margaret drabble (london: oup, 1985). 32 walter e. houghton commenting on matthew arnold's empedocles on etna in the victorian frame of mind 1830-1870 (new haven and london: yale university press, 1957), 335. 33 susanna roxman, guilt and glory: studies in margaret drabble's novels 1963-1980, 39. 34 rosalind coward, “are women’s novels feminist novels?,” 234. 35 the female eunuch, 20, 331. * references:   cooper-clark, diana. interviews with contemporary novelists. london: macmillan, 1986. creighton, joanne v. margaret drabble. london and new york: methuen, 1985. fuoroli, caryn. “sophistry or simple truth? narrative technique in margaret drabble’s the waterfall.” journal of narrative technique, 11, 2 (spring 1981), 110-24. greene, gayle. “margaret drabble’s the waterfall: new system, new morality.” novel, 22, 1 (fall 1988), 45-65. greer, germaine. the female eunuch. london: macgibbon & kee, 1970. guiraud, pierre. sémiologie de la sexualité. paris: payot, 1978. kenyon, olga. women novelists today: a survey of english writing in the seventies and eighties. london: the harvester press, 1988. 43 rose, ellen cronan. the novels of margaret drabble: equivocal figures. london: macmillan, 1980. __________. “feminine endings and beginnings: margaret drabble’s the waterfall.” contemporary literature, 21 (winter 1980), 81-99. __________, ed. critical essays on margaret drabble. boston: g. k. hall, 1985. roxman, susanna. guilt and glory: studies in margaret drabble’s novels 1963-1980. stockholm, sweden: almqvist & wiksell international, 1984. sadler, lynn veach. “’the society we have:’ the search for meaning in drabble’s the middle ground.” critique: studies in modern fiction, 23, 3 (1982), 83-93. __________. margaret drabble. boston: g. k. hall, 1986. showalter, elaine. a literature of their own: british women novelists from brontê to lessing. princeton: princeton university press, 1977. __________, ed. the new feminist criticism: essays on women, literature, and theory. london: virago, 1985. ** 202 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the human aspects of the hejaz railway project aliye fatma mataracı international university of sarajevo abstract this article, based on the monographs of the hejaz railway project, aims to underline the significance attributed to the hejaz railway project not only by its initiator, the ottoman sultan abdülhamid ii, who referred to it as “his old dream” but for all the parties who directly or indirectly contributed to its actualization, regardless of ethnic and religious divisions, not only from the ottoman lands but also from all over the world. to focus on the significance of the human investment in the actualization of the project, this work will start with its technicalities generously shared by the aforementioned monographs. mainly based on ottoman and british archival sources, these works provide a very detailed depiction of the hejaz railway project. in this depiction, this work will focus on the human aspects of the project: the human investment and belief in the project despite all its hardships, scarcity of sources and resources, whether they may be financial, physical, or natural. in this regard, it may not be wrong to refer to the project as a “miracle” as well. the human investment in the hejaz railway project is covered in the current related literature but not particularly focused on by any work. this work thus aims to bring the human aspect of this project to the forefront to provide a new angle on the topic. keywords: the hejaz railway; human aspects; sultan abdülhamid ii; donations; construction; defense epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies aliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project 203 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 introduction “the hejaz railway, i have been dreaming about for so long, is finally coming true.” the line above belongs to the initiator of the hejaz railway project, the ottoman sultan abdülhamid ii (reign 31 august 1876 – 27 april 1909), who referred to it as his old dream in his book titled siyasi hatıratım (my political memoirs, 1984, p. 123). every project, starting with a dream, requires a certain level of emotional, physical, financial, and natural investment for its actualization and maintenance. this work, focusing on the human aspects of the hejaz railway project, aims to underline the significance attributed to it by not only its initiator but also all the other parties who directly or indirectly contributed to the actualization of this project, not only from the ottoman lands but from all over the world, regardless of religious and ethnic divisions. focusing on the human aspects of the project crystallizes the investment and belief in it. when all the hardships, such as scarcity of sources and resources as well as losses, related to the actualization of the project are considered, the hejaz railway appears as a miracle – a miracle that still exists and functions at least partially. to underline the significance of the human aspects of the hejaz railway project, this work will start with its technicalities generously shared by a number of monographs, which appeared in turkish historiography since 1990. before these monographs, academic publications about the hejaz railway were mainly short articles without any reference to related literature and/or archival documents (artuk, 1964; artuk, 1977; erkin, 1948; toydemir, 1948). despite the comparative large magnitude of the research and publications about the hejaz railway by western scholars until the 1990s, these works mainly failed to refer to the ottoman archival documents which should be considered crucial, as the construction of the railway was an ottoman project (auler paşa, 1906; landau, 1971; ochsenaliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies204 wald, 1980). it was several scholars from turkey who first, and only after the 1990s, acknowledged the significance of the ottoman archival sources in their efforts to provide detailed accounts of the hejaz railway project (gülsoy, 1994; 2010, hülagü, 2008; özyüksel, 2000). their works are mainly based on ottoman archival sources, newspapers, and journals, in addition to british archival sources and secondary sources written by western and ottoman scholars of the time. nevertheless, all these publications focus mainly on the political and/or religious significance of the project. in this regard, this work brings a new angle to the available literature on the hejaz railway project by focusing on the human aspect. based on his lifetime experience, sultan abdulhamid ii considered the construction of railroads in the ottoman lands vital for military and strategic purposes, especially regarding the mobilization of campaigns during a state of war or unrest. during the russo-turkish war (1877-78), which fell in the early days of his reign, sultan abdülhamid ii had witnessed the usefulness of the istanbul–plovdiv railroad in the mobilization of troops (gülsoy, 1994, p. 40). as a reflection of his enthusiasm, he ordered an expansion of the railway lines. upon his order, the lines increased from 1,145 km in length before 1878 to 3,700 km in total, 1,193 km in rumelia and 2,507 km in anatolia (yılmaz, 2011). in addition to the services the construction of a railroad network would provide in military terms, the sultan was aware of its economic benefits and also political advantages for consolidating his authority, especially in the regions of the periphery (sultan abdülhamid, 1984, p. 94). the construction of the hejaz railway involved one more motivation which was portrayed as the main objective of the project to the public: to facilitate the pilgrimage to the holy land. so far, the long and costly journey of the pilgrims was accompanied by contagious diseases, water shortages, long delays, and attacks by nomadic arabs tribes, namely the bedouins. the hejaz railway should diminish all these obstacles to the aliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project 205 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 muslim pilgrimage, not only the physical hardships but also of the costs of the pilgrimage. the facilitation of the journey was expected to increase the number of the pilgrims and serve the unity and solidarity of the muslim world, in addition to strengthening the sultan’s influence as the caliph (gülsoy, 1994, pp. 41-43). the origins of the hejaz railway the initial proposals for the construction of a railway in the hejaz region were made during the reign of sultan abdülazîz (1861-1876). dr. charles f. zimpel, an american engineer of german origin, prepared a proposal to connect the red sea to damascus. his proposal was rejected because of two main reasons: first, the possible opposition of the arab tribes living along the planned railway line, and second, the high costs of the project. the latter was more impactful than the former due to the financial hardships of the ottoman empire. subsequent proposals by german, british, and ottoman parties followed the initial one by zimpel. they were commonly underlining the strategic significance of a railway project in the region for the ottoman state with common main arguments involving a possible increase in the economic and military operations of the ottoman state and hence, control and protection of the region against possible threats from outside. a railway project was also considered a possible solution to the aforementioned sanitary and security problems the pilgrims were facing during the pilgrimage. it was also seen as preventive of security problems on the pilgrimage turning into political issues that could threaten the stability of the ottoman empire (gülsoy, 1994; hülagü 2011). by the time sultan abdülhamid ii succeeded to the throne, domestic and foreign pressures were overwhelming, particularly the europeans’ policy of partitioning the ottoman empire, which materialized into the broad definition of the ottoman empire as “the sick man of europe.” in the face of the subsequent insatiable demands proposed by this policy, sultan abdülhamid aliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies206 ii predicted that telegraph and rail lines could fortify his central authority by expanding and facilitating communication and transportation across the ottoman territory. therefore, the sultan approved the hejaz railway project, presuming that the railway would help improve the defense of the empire against foreign attacks and pave the way for international diplomacy (gülsoy, 1994, pp. 40-41; hülagü 2011, p. xvii). on may 2, 1900, sultan abdülhamid ii issued an imperial edict, i̇rade, which sowed the last of the greatest ottoman imperial endeavors, “the hamidiye hejaz railway project.” the word “hamidiye,” which literally means “belonging to hamid,” was dropped after his dethronement on april 27, 1909, and the project started to be referred to as “the hejaz railway.” consequently, the rail lines were laid from damascus to mecca and medina – the holy cities of islam – in the hejaz region. however, the ottoman government did not own the lines but classified them as community property in the body of waqf, an asset donated for being held in perpetual trust for socially beneficial causes (özyüksel, 2002, p. 474). objectives of the hejaz railway project the aim of the hejaz railway project was to connect istanbul and medina and it was believed to facilitate the pilgrims’ journey to the holy cities, particularly mecca. upon completion, the hejaz lines were considered to provide the pilgrims with a more comfortable and safer journey. the main mode of transportation to the holy cities used to be camel caravans with an approximate duration of the pilgrimage journey of two months; the distance between damascus and medina took 40 days by camel. the harsh weather conditions were compounded by scattered regional settlements and armed groups who exacerbated the conditions of the journey on the way. figures from british reports show that 2,500 to 3,000 of pilgrims of a total of 80,000 preferred land travel to the hejaz. the rails were expected to draw more pilgrims away from land travel which involved harder conditions. aliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project 207 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 the successful construction of the hejaz railway reduced the travel time of the 1,200 km journey to three days. the travel schedule was set to coordinate with the prayer times. one compartment of the train was assigned as a place of worship and an imam was appointed to lead the prayers. for four years, from its launch on september 1, 1908 (the 32nd anniversary of abdulhamid ii’s accession to the throne) to 1912, the hejaz railway transported 30,000 pilgrims to medina from distant ottoman lands. however, it was not only the pilgrims who rode the trains. at the time, the hejaz railway also came to serve the surre alayı, the annual procession of imperial gifts sent to the holy cities of mecca and medina (hülagü, 2011). the number of passengers skyrocketed and was recorded as high as 300,000 per year. increasing the prestige of the caliphate and facilitating the mobilization of troops when necessary and strengthening the ottoman side against the european powers were among the strategic objectives of the project as well. construction of the hejaz railway all ottoman railways, with the only exception of the hejaz railway, were built and operated by foreigners. in this regard, the hejaz railway stands out as an exceptional part of the history of the ottoman railway system since it was completed mainly by turkish labor under foreign management (hülagü, 2011, p. xx). the employees that worked in the construction of the railway in the muslim holy cities were primarily muslim because the guardians of the sanctity of mecca and medina required that the christian workforce does not engage in the project after the medain saleh. as a result, the 300-km rail lines in southern medina were constructed exclusively by muslim engineers and laborers. generally speaking, hundreds of workers and railway engineers worked in the construction and the majority of the railroad was built by a multi-ethnic workforce composed of mainly syrians, iraqis, and turkish soldiers. the aliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies208 soldiers who participated in the construction were rewarded with bonuses in accordance with their positions and discharged from military service a year earlier than regular soldiers (gülsoy, 2010, pp. 123-129). turks, syrians, and iraqis, who together comprised a workforce of over 5,000 men, succeeded in completing the railroad in eight years, despite diseases, overwhelming changes in weather, and poor working conditions which cost the lives of hundreds of workers. in addition, numerous station buildings, bridges, and culverts were built by italian, greek, and montenegrin workers (kargılı, 2014). not only the construction, but also the maintenance, and patrolling of the railway lines presented enormous difficulties because of tribal hostilities and the physical terrain. before world war i, armed groups near the construction zone continuously attacked the railroad. several forts were erected along the route to counter these attacks and sustain the railroad. in addition to the attacks on the hejaz railway, variations in the terrain along the route of the construction imposed serious setbacks. the shortage of water caused workers difficulties, while heavy rain flooded the construction site at times, washed away bridges and banks, and corroded the lines. with the added complications of overwhelming changes in weather and shortages of water, serious impediments were imposed on the construction. despite all these complications, the project continued, and the construction of the hejaz railway also saw the the following construction projects: one locomotive maintenance center, 2,666 stone bridges and overpasses, seven iron bridges, nine tunnels, 96 stations, seven ponds, 37 cisterns, one hospital in tabuk and ma’an, small factories in haifa, deraa and ma’an, one foundry and pipe workshop and a number of warehouses. financing of the hejaz railway such a big project required great financial means as well. the estimated cost of the railway, which was originally planned to be extended to mecca, aliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project 209 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 was 4 million liras equal to 18% of the total expenditure in the ottoman state budget in 1901 and 15% of the total expenditure in the ottoman state budget in 1909 (gülsoy, 2010, p. 81; ochsenwald, 1973, p. 130). it was impossible for the ottoman budget to finance such a project since the state was in deficit each year due to financial instability, even struggling to pay the salaries of civil servants. a solution had to be found outside the treasury. sultan abdülhamid ii had no intention of asking for foreign help, therefore he used the religious aspect of the railroad as an argument for the ottoman empire to be in charge of operation and construction, rather than a foreign-controlled private company (ochsenwald, 1973, p. 130). unlike other ottoman railways that relied on foreign loans, the financing of the hejaz railway project was determined to be muslim by design: the hejaz railway was to be constructed as a common project and pride of the muslims. hence, the sultan turned to the muslims of the world for support. in may 1900, sultan abdülhamit ii started the donation campaign by contributing 50,000 turkish liras and announcing to all muslims that the hejaz project needed their donations. the response, which eventually covered around one-third of the income of the railroad, was quite far-reaching: bureaucrats, officers, civil servants, merchants, and many other muslims from various milieus inside and outside of the ottoman empire, algeria, sudan, egypt, india, and bosnia and herzegovina, to name a few, sent considerable generous donations for the hejaz project. oschenwald (1973) categorizes the muslims providing funds for the railway into three different groups: 1. ottomans who were forced to provide money; 2. ottomans who voluntarily donated; 3. muslims who lived outside the empire (pp. 130-131). i use the donations by bosnian muslims for the hejaz railway project to exemplify the second and third category since bosnia and herzegovina was ottoman territory, albeit under austro-hungarian administration between 1900 and 1908, from the beginning of the construction until the completion of the line to medina, in addition to the level of the engagement of the muslims from europe. aliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies210 karčić (2014) provides detailed information about the bosnian muslim donations based on the contemporary media coverage of the project. the construction of the railway and its progress was covered by bosnian muslim publications such as behar and bošnjak and a committee was established for collecting voluntary contributions in sarajevo (karčić, 2014). the donors’ names were listed in these publications and a number of bosnian muslims were reported as being awarded with silver and nickel medals for their donations (pp. 187-189). karčić (2014) interprets the bosnian muslim participation in the project as an effort to reinforce the “spiritual ties with the seat of the caliphate in istanbul,” rather than with the sultan of the ottoman empire, although bosnia and herzegovina was still ottoman territory until the austro-hungarian annexation in 1908. this interpretation underlines the significance attributed to the caliphate’s status as the “dreamer” of the project, rather than his title as the sultan of the ottoman empire, regarding the muslim engagement with the project. whether this observation reflects the actual perception of muslim bosnian donors and/or the muslim donors from other parts of the world requires further research. along with voluntary donations, the ottoman empire used various fundraising activities: a common example was the payroll deduction imposed on civil servants. in return, they received a hejaz railway medallion made of gold, silver, or lead, according to the amount deducted. in addition to the medallion, contributors were granted a berat, an ottoman imperial certificate that could be inherited by their heirs, as a form of encouragement and symbol of their imposed donation and contribution to the holy cause. the ottoman government collected the donations through a subscription company and allocated everything they received to the construction of the railroad (landau, 1971). all these donations and many more failed to be mentioned in this article, leaving no doubt that the construction of the hejaz railway was financed by a broader muslim community in different parts of the world regardless of ethnic identity, rather than entirely by the ottoman subjects and local/national finance and assistance. aliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project 211 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 finalization of the hejaz railway project the sultan’s “old dream” came true with the conclusion of construction after eight years. despite overwhelming difficulties, the ottoman empire finally launched the hejaz railway, with approximately 1,464 kilometers of tracks. the hejaz railway, passing through rough desert regions, followed a longitudinal route within the ottoman territory: a train could run from damascus to derra in the south, continue across transjordan via zerqa and qatrana, pass through ma’an into northwestern arabia, and finally reach medina via zat al-haj and al-ula. in addition, several extensions connected major coastal cities to inland cities, the line connecting haifa and deraa being one of them. istanbul was eventually connected to southern territories, such as syria, hejaz, and jordan with the hejaz railway and its connecting lines. within his lifetime, sultan abdülhamid ii witnessed the completion of an enormous construction project that laid 5,792 kilometers of rails. all the lines, with the only exception of mâ’an tabuk, were opened on september 1, the anniversary of sultan abdulhamid ii’s accession to the ottoman throne. the opening dates of each line in chronological order are 1. muzeirib-deraa (september 1, 1901), 2. deraa-zerqa (september 1, 1902), 3. damascus-zerqa-amman (september 1, 1903), 4. amman-ma’an (september 1, 1904), 5. mâ’an tabuk (late 1906), 6. tarek-medain saleh (september 1, 1907), 7. medain saleh-medina (september 1, 1908). during the first world war, the hejaz railway was transferred to the control of military administration right after the declaration of mobilization on august 2, 1914, before the ottoman empire entered world war i. this brought the closure of the railway to public transportation and hence, the pilgrimage, which caused serious economic problems in the hejaz region. by october 7, 1916, the administration and control of the hejaz railway were transferred to the ministry of defense. the maintenance of the railaliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies212 way during the years of war was even harder. it was problematic to provide coal, oil, and water for the trains; as a result, wood started to be used as a replacement for coal which brought the need to establish additional lines to reach and carry wood. the areas in the southeastern provinces and the arabian peninsula saw tremendous military activity during the first world war. soon after the war broke out, the ottoman empire had serious concerns regarding towns with arabic-speaking majorities, especially the holy cities mecca and medina, and the main objective of the ottoman army was to keep the british out of egypt and the suez canal. the railroads provided a great opportunity to transport the ottoman army into the arabian heartland. in particular, it provided the medina military division defending the hejaz region with provisions and munitions from damascus. sharif hussein, the amir of mecca, being an influential figure in the region, declared a revolt in 1916 to establish his rule (gülsoy, 2011). fahreddin pasha was sent by the ottoman state to medina in 1916 to defend the city against this rebellion ignited by the british. he managed to defend the city for a little longer than two-and-half years, despite a serious lack of resources, and thus came to be known as “the lion of the desert.” during the occupation, he also sent many of the relics from masjid al-nabawi to istanbul under military protection to prevent looting. today, these relics are being preserved at the topkapı palace. when the ottoman empire signed the armistice of mudros on october 30, 1918, the pasha had to leave medina, but he refused and continued to defend the city for 72 days until they ran out of food, medicine, and ammunition (gülsoy, 2010, pp. 162-170; kargılı, 2014, p. 212). even this individual incident is self-explanatory in terms of the significance of the human aspects, not only regarding the actualization of the hejaz railway project but also its protection and preservation. aliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project 213 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 conclusion the human aspect appears at all the stages of the hejaz railway, beginning with the ottoman sultan abdülhamid ii`s old dream and following with all the efforts put into its financing, construction, protection, preservation, and renovation coming all the way to today, despite all the constraints faced during both peace and war times. sultan abdülhamid ii`s old dream, which was a concrete expression of his pan-islamist ideas, turned out to be an islamic project executed successfully. it can be argued that all starts with a dream, but it is also a fact that not all dreams turn into projects and even though they may be, not all are finalized successfully. although the construction of the hejaz railway stemmed from diplomatic, political, and religious motives, it was thanks to the human belief in the project that its engines kept running. references artuk, c. (1977). hicaz demiryollari madalyalari. in vii. turk tarih kongresi bildirileri, ii, ankara, turkey, 25-29 eylul, 1970, (pp. 785-791). ankara: türk tarih kurumu. artuk, i. (1964). hicaz demiryolu`nun yapilmasi ve bu munasebetle basilan madalyalar. istanbul arkeoloji muzeleri yilligi. 11-12, 73-78. auler paşa, (2019). hicaz demiryolu i̇nşa edilirken -ii (maan – el-ulâ hattı) (esref bengi ozbilen, trans.). istanbul: turkiye is bankasi kultur yayinlari. (original work published 1908) auler paşa. (2017). hicaz demiryolu i̇nşa edilirken-i (şam–maan hattı) (esref bengi ozbilen, trans.). istanbul: turkiye i̇ş bankasi kultur yayinlari. (original work published 1906) erkin, o. (1948). demiryolu tarihcesinden: hicaz demiryolu. demiryollar dergisi, 269, 21-25. gülsoy, u. (2010). kutsal proje: ortadogu`da osmanli demiryollari. istanbul: timaş yayınları. gülsoy, u. (1994). hicaz demiryolu. istanbul: eren. aliye fatma mataracı the human aspects of the hejaz railway project epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies214 hulagu, m. m. (2011). the hejaz railway: the construction of a new hope. new york: blue dome press. kadić, a., sluiter, a. (eds.). (2014). conference proceedings of kaiser i sultan: berlinsko-bagdadska i hidzaska zeljeznica/kaiser and sultan: the berlin-baghdad and hejaz railways. sarajevo: institute for islamic tradition of bosniaks. karčić, h. (2014). supporting the caliph`s project: bosnian muslims and hejaz railways. in conference proceedings of kaiser and sultan: the berlin-baghdad and hejaz railway: panel discussion on the centenary of the first world war, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina, october 29, 2014 (pp. 175-191). sarajevo: institute for islamic tradition of bosniaks. kargili, m. (2014). kutsal yolculuk: kartpostallarla hac yolu/the holy journey: the hajj route through postcards. istanbul: denizler kitabevi. landau, j. m. (1971). the hejaz railway and the muslim pilgrimage: a case of ottoman political propaganda. detroit: wayne state university press. nabataea.net. (2018). history of the hejaz railway. retrieved from http:// nabataea.net/hejazhistory.html nuri, o., refik, a. (1911). abdülhamid-i sani ve devr-i saltanatı: hayat-ı husüsiye ve siyasiyesi, ii. istanbul: kitabhane-i i̇slam ve askeri i̇. hilmi. ochsenwald, w. l. (1973). the financing of the hijaz railroad. die welt des islams, 14(1/4), 129–149. https://doi.org/10.2307/1570027 ochsenwald, w. l. (1980). the hijaz railroad. charlottesville: university press of virginia. özyüksel, m. (2002). hicaz demiryolu. in h. celâl güzel, k. çiçek, s. koca (eds.), türkler, vol. 14, ankara: yeni türkiye yayınları. sultan abdülhamid, siyasi hatıratım, istanbul, 1984. toydemir, s. (1948). hicaz demiryolu insaati tarihinden, demiryollar dergisi, 275-78, 65-68. yılmaz, ö. f. (2011). sultan i̇kinci abdulhamid han’ın hicaz demiryolu projesi. istanbul: çamlıca. epiphany: vol. 4, no. 1, 2011 issn 1840-3719 poetics of disintegration in laure’s “poems before the summer of 1936” barbara ann brown abstract this article examines issues of grammatical gender and symbol in the poetry of colette laure lucienne peignot. i have focused on the poetics of disintegration in the section entitled “poems before the summer of 1936,” in which we encounter a number of poems written in free verse that reflect different aspects of laure‟s notion of the poetic sacred. the poetic sacred, for laure, relates to the moment when the eternal part of a human being becomes actualized via the engagement of fulfilling a goal while simultaneously being aware of the “weight of death.” for laure, if a person cannot or can no longer experience this emotion, then the person‟s life is deprived of meaning, deprived of the sacred. many of the poems in “poems before the summer of 1936” recount journeys that the speaker, or statement subject “i,” embarks upon. great attention is paid to the grammatical gender of the statement subjects in these poems, although, at times, grammatical gender can be difficult to determine. sometimes grammatical gender can be discerned in the past tense forms of verbs in the french language, and other times it can be determined by laure‟s use of masculine or feminine rhymes in her work. but often, laure conceals the gender of her statement subjects, choosing instead to focus on represent a rejection of traditional gender roles in her poetry. ultimately, this article seeks to posit laure among france‟s best known writers and thinkers in the early part of the twentieth century, to help close the huge gap in the canon left by the absence of women writers and thinkers between the years 1880-1930. keywords: communism, feminism, grammatical gender, french poetry and poetics. corresponding author: barbara ann brown; faculty of arts and social sciences, international university of sarajevo, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: bbrown@ius.edu.ba; barbara.brown733@gmail.com mailto:bbrown@ius.edu.ba mailto:barbara.brown733@gmail.com b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [147] colette laure lucienne peignot, also known as laure, also known as claude araxe, lived from 1903-1938. i her short life was drastically affected by world war i, during which her father and three uncles died. ii she grew up in an affluent neighborhood, dammarie, which is too close to paris to be considered a rural french village. her mother struggled to keep up the house and gardens after the death of her husband in spite of the bourgeois appearance of their lifestyle. by the time laure reached adulthood, however, she blatantly rejected her bourgeois background and the catholic faith, and she became avidly interested in leftist politics, which replaced the bourgeois ideals she had grown up with. her form of social revolt was writing poetry and contributing to avant garde journals, such as contre-attaque, la critique sociale, and the secret society journal called acéphale. her leftist politics led her to become an active communist for nine years. she studied the russian language at the prestigious école des langues orientales in paris, and she briefly lived in the soviet union in 1930. relatively little background information on laure is available in current scholarship. most of what we know of laure‟s personality comes from her poems and political writings and the journals and letters of several of her lovers, such as jean bernier, soviet writer boris pil‟niak, boris souvarine, the founder of the french communist party, and at the end of her life, georges bataille. jean bernier, poet, novelist, journalist, and political chronicalist, participated in and supported the communist movement in france, and he inspired laure‟s interest in revolutionary ideals. among his closest friends were drieu la rochelle, boris souvarine, and georges bataille, all of whom were to cross paths with laure. bernier‟s best friend, la rochelle, was a close friend of the peignot family. bernier met laure at a dinner party in garches in 1926, when she was twenty-three. subsequently, they met at various surrealist expositions – one on march 26, and again at the premier gala for the ballets russes on may 19, 1926 (bernier 39-40). thus, socially, laure moved within several literary and political circles of her day. she was active in the latest artistic, literary, and political movements at a time when, in france, the literary record shows very few women creating verbal art. b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [148] when laure died of tuberculosis at the early age of 35 in 1938, she was living with georges bataille. he published the 1939 edition of le sacré one year after her death, which stands as testimony to how much he valued her as a thinker, writer, and poet. it was an underground publication and the copies were distributed to laure‟s friends. further, her great-nephew jérome peignot decided to publish écrits de laure in 1977, in which bataille wrote an appendix to the edition explaining more about laure‟s personality, life, and writing. in the appendix, he alludes to laure‟s close friendship with simone weil after 1936, when laure and weil had come out in strong support for the spanish civil war. in the section of poetry entitled “poems before the summer of 1936,” we encounter a number of poems written in free verse that reflect the different aspects of the idea of the sacred within laure‟s verse. for laure, the idea of the poetic sacred resides within the moment when the eternal part of a human being becomes actualized via the realization that the person is working toward achieving a goal while simultaneously the person becomes aware of his/her own mortality. the first poem is seven lines, in which the speaker finds him/herself being cannibalized by friends: de la fenêtre présente et invisible je voyais tous mes amis se partageant ma vie en lambeaux ils rongeait jusqu‟aux os et ne voulant pas perdre un si beau morceau se disputaient la carcasse from this invisible window i saw all my friends divide my life between them in shreds they gnawed to the bone and not wanting to waste such a lovely piece fought over the carcass iii although the time frame of the poem is in the past tense, as indicated by the verb voyais, which is in the past imperfect tense, the reader gets the sense that the act of looking is prolonged into the present as an unfinished b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [149] act. the window that the speaker is looking through is both present and invisible, as is the nature of clear glass. this image can be interpreted as a window into the speaker‟s mind. at first, the speaker states that its life was being devoured. this is a metaphor for someone who overextended him/herself in terms of obligations and duties. but the speaker then goes on to describe how the cannibals divide this life between them, shred it, and gnaw it to the bone. the inclusion of a physical body at this point takes the connotation out of the realm of metaphor and posits it within the realm of the real and the erotic. the cannibals are careful not to waste a morsel of the body, and they fight over the carcass, which suggests that at once they treated their meal as both sacred and taboo. obviously, the allusion to the holy eucharist debate comes through this poem. the practice of ingesting the body and blood of christ is also both cannibalistic and sacred at the same time. the taboo is offset, however, by the greediness of the cannibals who fight over the proverbial last piece. this indicates that the taboo against cannibalism is somehow more understandable than the sin of greed. the next poem in the text, entitled “prêtres” further illuminates the speaker‟s relationship with piety. the speaker distrusts clerics as duplicitous pontificators of piety. laure used irregular rhyme and meter to give “prêtres” a spiritually defiant tone. prêtres, toutes sortes de prêtres et faux prêtres écoutez moi: j‟ai dit “non” à la piété et ma piété (au visage d‟ange) ma piété, votre aureole toute éndentée a ricané priests, all sorts of priests and false priests listen to me: i have said “no” to piety (with the face of an angel) my piety, your toothless halo laughed the speaker employs the imperative mood in the second line with a colon “listen to me:” this is intended to capture the attention of the speaker‟s interlocutors. the interlocutors identified in the the first line are priests, and especially “false priests.” the third line reveals that the speaker has b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [150] rejected what organized religion calls piety in favor of the speakers own brand of piety. the speaker‟s brand of piety, which according to the speaker has the face of an angel, causes the “toothless halos” of “listening” priests to laugh. this suggests that the speaker has reinterpreted notions of piety and holiness and adopted those notions instead of christian doctrine. the “toothless halos” laughing at the revised notions of piety suggest that the priest, as a spiritual advisor, considers new ideas about personal faith caustically. the speaker, however, manages to gain a balance of equality with the priest when s/he states: elle s‟est brisée en mille morceaux maintenant seulement vient le temps de la sincérité celui où nous nous regardons en frères. it broke into a thousand pieces only now the time for sincerity comes when we look at each other as brothers. the halo is broken into a thousand pieces, and the priest‟s powers to act as an intermediary between a follower and god are rendered useless. hence, the priest is brought down to the earthbound plane. the speaker suggests that only with a broken halo can someone understand the serenity that comes from piety and look upon others as brothers. the next two verse paragraphs depart from the first two. verse paragraph three is enclosed in quotation marks, as if the speaker is remembering something someone said in the past. the speaker leaves the priest behind as the speaker begins a journey by “taking the last boat” which “reaches no land in the world.” this implies that the destination of the boat does not exist on the physical, earthly plane. “tu prends le dernier bateau celui qui n‟aborde nulle part au monde.” alors j‟ai chargé ma vie sur mes épaules et suis partie le dos plus solide cette fois-là. “you take the last boat the one that reaches no land in the world” so i loaded my life on my shoulders and left, my back stronger b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [151] this time. the speaker lifts his/her life on its shoulders and leaves, but its back is stronger. these paragraphs are a verse rendering of spiritual journey. in order for one to begin such a journey, one must first question and break what one has taken on blind faith in order to reach a new, different perspective on the spirit and spirituality. combien de fois déjà m‟avez-vous vue embarquée pour la mort? au-delà d‟un soleil transgressé la lune à cheval sur des nuages en belier me regardait comme une victoire ailée how many times already have you seen me set off for death? beyond a transgressed doorstep the moon straddling on clouds like rams looked at me like winged victory. when in the fifth verse paragraph the speaker asks, “how many times have you seen me set off for death?” it reinforces the idea that questioning and breaking with traditional notions of piety is a form of death that allows one to go on to a different level of understanding and learning. as the speaker leaves the “transgressed doorstep” s/he looks up and sees the moon “straddling clouds like rams” looking like “winged victory.” the symbol of the ram signifies the creative impulse of the spirit at the moment of its inception (cirlot 18). the symbol of the moon with regard to spiritual journey connotes the different stages of learning and discovery. it also implies that the journey will begin again within a period of time. this suggests that the journey is never “over” but that it b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [152] renews itself on a regular basis and that the individual will continue to change and grow, and ultimately become victorious in its efforts. the next poem of laure‟s is an intricately designed poem in terms of symbolism. the title is simply “8” and in the 1939 edition of le sacré it is printed in bold face type and it appears on the left hand side of the page. readers often overlook this title because it does not look like a traditional title of a poem. but, of all laure‟s poems, it is the most important title because it adroitly addresses the nature of life as routine. it helps to imagine that, pen in hand, the speaker (and the reader) draws the number eight over and over without lifting the pen from the surface of the paper. the “doodle” of the eight becomes bolder with the passage of the pen over and over, and slightly sloppy as the hand tries to trace the shape of the eight over itself. this exercise illustrates the ideas contained in laure‟s poem “8.” the verse paragraphs of this poem are highly irregular with very short paragraphs combined with longer ones, and ends with a line taken from the newspapers. in the first verse paragraph, the speaker is identified as femine on a grammatical level in the first line, “je me suis retrouvée” (i found myself). the reflexive pronominal verb in the past tense is conjugated with the ending “ée,” which indicates that the direct object of the verb “me” (and therefore the “i” of the statement subject) is of feminine gender. the ideas conveyed are about quotidian ruts. je me suis retrovée toute enfermée comme en un cercle auquel j‟échappe par cet autre qui m‟y ramène i found myself trapped as in a circle which i escape by this other which brings me back. the first verse paragraph is heavily rhymed and irregular in meter. line one contains six syllables, lines two, five, and six contain three syllables, line three contains five syllables, and line four contains four syllables. b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [153] the rhyme of the first four lines is in “aabb” and lines five and six are rhymed “cd.” lines five and six suggest that the speaker is attempting to free itself from “the circle” that traps it. in the second verse paragraph, the speaker produces a litany of all the ways she has tried to escape the routine of life. the lines have a monotonous tone to them as the speaker explains that, no matter what she tries, the “game” of eight is infinite. gestes hiératiques, grimaces ignoble allaient se mêler, se confondre, s‟exclure, s‟affirmer doublement…pour s‟anéantir.. et ce “jeu” – là dura longtemps j‟ai cru monter au ciel (sans rire) au moment meme où la vie refermait sur moi son couvercle de plomb. j‟ai joué de toutes les contradictions inherent à ma nature en vivant „pour être vrai‟ tout ce qu‟on porte en soi „jusqu‟au bout.‟ je me suis disperse aux quatre vents avec la certitude orgueilleuse de me retrouver toujours au zenith et puis je suis tombée vide, perdue, mutilée des quatre members. je m‟en allais sur des routes élevées, sur des chemins tout escarpés, sur des rochers survolés d‟aigles… heiratic gestures, vile grimaces mix, merge, disappear, reemerge…then vanish entirely. and this „game‟ will go on a long time. i thought i was going to heaven (joking aside) just as life again placed its heavy lid over me. i used all my inherent contradictions living „to be true‟ all that one carries within „to the end.‟ i scattered myself to the four winds with the proud certainty of always finding myself at the zenith and then i fell empty, lost, four limbs mutilated. i went away over high roads, steep paths, rocks flown over by eagles… the first line of this paragraph contains a meter that is analogous to the “doodle” of the number eight on a paper as the gestures and grimaces “mix, merge, disappear, reemerge…then vanish entirely.” the speaker b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [154] states that she thought she was going to heaven and in parentheses states (sans rire) – which means “joking aside.” this implies that the speaker of the poem has a true belief in heaven. but instead of going to heaven, life “again placed its heavy lid over me,” despite the speaker‟s attempt to “play the game” by adhering to the confines of the repetitive, interloping circles of the eight. she believes in the promise of heaven if she plays the game of life by the rules, but life itself will not let her out of the game. she continues to explain that she lives “to be true” due to the “inherent contradictions” and “all that one carries within „to the end.‟” thus, the speaker endeavors to persevere with all of the knowledge she has gained within life. the speaker then states, “i have scattered myself to the four winds with the proud certainty of always finding myself at the zenith and then i fell empty, lost, four limbs mutilated.” this line is replete with symbolist themes of the pinnacle of understanding represented by the zenith, the idea of self-mutilation required to reach the ideal, and the image of the body falling through space. it also carries with it the idea of “throwing oneself into one‟s work,” only to be consumed by the work and losing the sense of self-totality. the only conclusion to this “scattered falling” would be to continue the journey in an attempt to reconstitute the self. hence, the last line of the verse paragraph, “i went away over high roads, steep paths, rocks flown over by eagles…” suggests that the speaker, because of the experience, is between the earthbound and the spiritual planes of existence. nevertheless, the “infernal 8” still holds the speaker in the game. the line “le 8 infernal revint me prendre au lasso”/ “the infernal 8 came back to lasso me” is separated by a caesura from the second and fourth verse paragraphs of the text in the 1939 edition, which reinforces the idea that, although the speaker tries to escape the confines of the eight, it comes back to lasso her not matter what she does. in the fourth verse paragraph, the rhyme and meter describe again the lasso of the eight. additionally, the speaker is physically present within the confines of the eight. she “climbs,” “drifts,” “jumps,” “falls,” and “remains in the middle” of the game. she states, “my face is there” and then goes on to compare the experience with the creepy, slithery, b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [155] earthy animals (eel, dolphin, earthworm) that are elongated and glide through their habitats. je rampe le long de ses contours je vogue dans ses meanders je sauté hors du cercle et retombe dans l‟autre je reste étranglée au milieu mon visage est là figé anguille dauphin ver de terre et qui donc, voyant ce signe fatal songerait à m‟y découvrir voudrait m‟en deliverer? “un prisonnier s‟évade en sautant le mur à l‟éndroit meme où il devait être execute.” (les journaux) 8 mai i climb along its contours, i drift in its meanderings i jump out of the circle and fall back into the other i remain in strangled in the middle my face is there frozen eel dolphin earthworm and who, seeing this fateful sign would think of discovering me there, would want to release me? “a prisoner escaped by jumping the wall at the very place he was to be executed.” (the newspapers) 8 may the speaker cannot believe that anyone would think to look for her within this monotonous world, and if they did, they would not want to b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [156] release her from it. the poem ends with a line from the newspapers. i contend that this line offers a solution to the problem of being trapped in the eight. the idea of a prisoner escaping over the very wall he was to be executed in front of offers insight to the idea that the threat of certain death can be used as a springboard into change, and ultimately, it is used in the poem to escape from the lasso of the eight. the next poem in le sacré has no title and consists of two verse paragraphs. social binary oppositions are addressed in relation to the different roles assigned by others and for others in any community. archange ou putain je veux bien tous les roles me sont prêtés la vie jamais reconnue la simple vie que je cherche encore elle gît tout au fond de moi leur péché a tué toute pureté archangel or whore i don‟t mind all the roles are lent to me the life never recognized the simple life that i am still looking for is lying in the very depths of me their sin has killed all purity. the opposition of archangel and whore in the first line resounds throughout the first verse paragraph starkly pointing out the different views one could have of the speaker. it also posits the speaker in either a masculine or feminine role – the archangels are all masculine entities, but b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [157] the name “whore” is reserved for the feminine. the speaker states that it does not care which name is used due to “all the roles are lent to me” and life is never recognized. the second verse paragraph revisits the idea of the journey that is so prevalent in laure‟s poetry as the speaker states that it is still looking for a simple life that resides within the speaker herself. the last two lines of the poem in the 1939 edition of le sacré appear as they are represented here – like steps leading downward. the idea that “their sin has killed all purity” places the impetus back on a social level rather than on the individual level expressed in the first four lines of the second verse paragraph. the idea of “purity” mentioned in the last line of the poem brings the reader back to the first word of the poem “archangel.” this implies that the poem can be read rhythmically as a “circular” poem – when the reader reaches the end of the poem, he or she is put back at the beginning of the poem to read it again. this effect shows that the speaker of the poem is again caught in a circular pattern demonstrating the effort to live within the roles society assigns, and the inability of the speaker to extricate from it. the last poem in le sacré to be discussed here is entitled “le corbeau.” the word corbeau in french can have different meanings. first, it means crow or raven. it can also be a pejorative term for a priest. this poem is dated 1936 in the 1939 edition of le sacré and unquestionably establishes laure‟s ties to the secret society called acéphale. although georges bataille claims to have created acéphale, michel leiris suggests that laure was the inspiration behind the idea for the secret society and the journal. in the poem, a forest is mentioned that bears remarkable resemblance to the forest where acéphale meetings took place. there is a forest near saint-germain-en-laye where bataille and laure lived. jérome peignot (1977) states that there was a note describing the rule of acéphale meetings found among laure‟s papers after she died, the yveline forest is mentioned (p.99). “le corbeau is the longest of all the poems in the 1939 edition except for the prose version of “le sacré.” it contains eight stanzas of irregular meter and rhyme. the theme of the journey is present in the poem, as it is in many of laure‟s poetic works. b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [158] c‟était dans la forêt le silence et le secret d‟une étoile à multiples rayons. loin, à l‟orée du bois dans cette allée que des arbres bas couvrent en arceau un enfant passa perdu effrayé, émerveillé de me voir comme je l‟apercevais lui-même tout enchase dans une sphere à flacons de neige. the allusions to acéphale are also present as the journey unfolds. the speaker becomes lost in a “silent” and “secret” forest. the image of the “many rayed star” in the first verse paragraph represents light and knowledge. the presence of the male child in the first paragraph symbolizes the future, and this image counters the image of the old man, which signifies the past. the “frightened” and “astonished” aspect of the child‟s countenance suggests that the speaker trespasses on the child‟s privacy. the “sphere of snowflakes” which “encase” the child illustrate that the child lives in a field of austere purity. in the second verse paragraph, “whirlwinds” approach them “as if to deceive.” according to c. g. jung (1967), wind is often used as a powerful symbol of the active and violent aspects of air and it signifies creative breath or exhalation (p. 31). les tourbillions nous rapprochaient comme pour se jouer de lui et de moi un soleil violet, hors d‟usage et des lueurs d‟orage nous glaçaient d‟épouvant. les fees et les ogres se disputant décidément notre commune angoisse voulurent que la foudre déchirât non loin de là b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [159] un grand arbre qui s‟ouvrit comme un ventre. je brami. l‟enfant, jambs nues zébrées de froid et capuchin bien reel (à tordre) rouvrit les yeux. a ma vue, il s‟enfuit. the “violent inactive sun” is an antithesis of the usual symbolism of the sun – instead of representing light, knowledge, and warmth, the sun in this verse paragraph takes on a eerie, impotent nature. it goes without saying that laure‟s conscious choice to bring this image of the sun into the poem demonstrates a departure from traditional symbolism in favor of an opposite illustration. at the sight of this sun, the speaker and the child are frozen in terror as the whirlwinds whip around them. as they look around, they see fairies and ogres “disputing our shared anguish.” fairies are personifications of the stages in the development of spiritual life or in the „soul‟ of landscapes. the folklore of ogres goes back to saturn, who would devour his children as soon as cybele gave them birth. the significance of ogres demonstrates that destruction is the inevitable outcome of creation. ogres and fairies are most often included in “forest folklore,” and they are rarely seen acting together as they do in this poem. the ogres and fairies work together to uproot a huge tree with magic lightening. the tree “opened like a stomach” from the lightening strike, which indicates fertility and the birth of creation. the speaker and the child, braving the tempest, are emotionally and physically affected by the violence and cold. the child “reopens” his eyes as he wrings a cowl, which is a monk‟s hood, sees the speaker, and abruptly runs away. the speaker, alone now in the forest, gives up on following the child and “picks a strange destiny out of the rut.” this line reminds the reader of the earlier poem “8,” in which the speaker tries to escape the rut of life. the speaker also elects not to dwell on the incident with the child as it turns and goes back “as though nothing had happened.” as the speaker makes its way through the forest, the crow (“l‟oiseau aux ailes b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [160] noires” – “the bird with black wings”) tapes the reader on the shoulder. the symbolism of the crow is huge. according to j.e. cirlot (2002), native americans believe the crow is the great civilizer and the creator of the visible world (71). for the celts and germanic tribes, crows have mystic powers. in siberia, the crow‟s caw is used as a special part in rites of divination. in christian symbolism, the crow represents an allegory of solitude. cirlot (2002) also points out that, in china, the crow is the first of the imperial emblems and represents the yang, or the active life of the emperor (72). sometimes crows are featured with three legs, which correspond to the sun-symbolism of the tripod (first light, midday sun, sunset). a. beaumont (1949) states in his book symbolism in decorative chinese art that the crow signifies the isolation of a person or entity who lives on a superior plane. because of its black color, the crow is associated with the idea of beginning (as expressed in such symbols as the maternal night, primordial darkness, the fertilized earth, and death). because it is also associated with the atmosphere, it is a symbol for creative, demiurgic power and spiritual strength. because of its flight, it is considered a messenger. the speaker takes solace in its new companionship and “wants [the crow] to accompany” the speaker “everywhere and always to precede me/like a herald his knight.” thus the image of the crow illustrates creative power, strength, solitude, companionship, and protection. the third and fourth verse paragraphs are concerned with loss and spiritual architecture. paragraph three finds the speaker even more lost in the woods “stumbling against rocks” and “slipping on dead leaves.” as the speaker makes its precarious way, it comes upon an abandoned house with a “smashed in doorway.” renonçant à le poursuivre ramassant dans l‟ornière un étrange destin somme toute fort logique je rebroussai mon chemin “comme si de rien n‟était” mais je sentais à mon épaule ce frôlement lourd et discret de l‟oiseau aux ailes noires et le considérant avec douceur b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [161] j‟eusse voulu que partout il m‟accompagnât et toujours me précédât comme un chevalier son héraut. de plus en plus perdue heurtant les pierres glissant sur les feuilles mortes m‟enlisant dans la vase d‟un étang j‟arrivai à une maison abandonee un puits de mousse et vert de gris un seuil défoncé j‟entrai. the house is obviously very old, moldy, and rotten. the front doorway is smashed leaving a gaping hole at the front of the house. the door is a feminine symbol that contains all the implications of the symbolic hole, since it is a door that gives access to the hole. its significance is the antithesis of the wall. also implied is the idea of a temple door, which has a relationship with the altar as between the circumference and the center; that is to state that even though, in each case, the two component elements are the farthest apart, they are, nonetheless, in a way, the closest since they reflect one another. consider that this idea is not unlike the architectural ornamentation of cathedrals, where the façade is nearly always treated as if it were a part of the altar. often the reliefs on the façade reflect or are conversant with the reliefs on the altar. the speaker enters the house, “pushes open doors without hinges,” and “opening windows without panes/as though i needed air.” the suffocating experience of the house is a journey unto itself. the fifth and sixth verse paragraphs continue the journey as the speaker “climbs a ridiculous staircase” and sees that the walls are covered with writing. the writing accounts for the sins of the speaker‟s life and asks, “what right did they have? the right of the poor.” le papier à fleurs et moisi ondulait par vagues vers un plancher pourri une cheminée béante exhibait les traces encore intactes d‟un feu éteint b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [162] cendres, tibias calcinés de frênes et de bouleaux. je poussais des portes sans gonds dont la chute me terrifiait j‟ouvrais des fenêtres sans carreaux comme si l‟air me manquait. enfin je montai un escalier dérosoire. les murs, couverts de graffitis étrange, inconnus. jamais vus mettait ma vie à nu avec mon nom en toutes letters mêlés à des crimes: “et de quell droit? du droit des pauvres.” [sic] as the speaker contemplates the crimes of life, the crow returns to it “with its cry/to thrash the living with its beak/to dismember the dead.” these lines lend the crow a vulture-like aspect as the crow “elects a prey.” the implication here is that the speaker would be the prey of the crow. as the speaker undertakes the journey and meets the crow, the speaker is amazed by its natural beauty and highly symbolic status within culture. but, as the speaker must face and answer for its crimes, the crow returns as an agent of death still true to its natural instincts. the seventh verse paragraph finds the speaker magically transported from the house back to the forest. the forest “envelops” the speaker in a “halo of moon” and “rocks” the speaker in a “white, shifting, icy mist.” dans ce grenier souillé l‟oiseau me rejoin de son cri pour fouailler les vivants de son bec pour dépecer les morts l‟ombre noire projetée sur moi semblait élire une proie la nuit m‟a trouvée étranglée au fond du bois elle m‟a enveloppée d‟un halo de lune b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [163] et bercée dans la brume une brume blanche, mouvante et givrée: “je connais ton étoile va et suis-la cet être sans nom renié tour à tour par la nuit et le jour ne peut rien contre toi et ne te ressemble pas crois-moi lorsque demain à l‟aube ta tête sera jetée au panier des guillotines souviens-toi assassin que toi seul as bu à mon sein “tout le lait de lat tendresse humaine.” [sic] the image of the forest cradling the speaker and rocker her signifies the maternal aspect of nature. the speaker is returned to the natural world, supposedly having faced the crimes of life. the speaker is no less lost than at the beginning of the poem, which suggests that, although crimes are paid for and forgiveness has been granted, the journey is far from over. the forest is endowed with a voice for the first time in the last several lines of the poem: “i know your star/to and follow it/this nameless being/renounced in turn/by night and day/can do nothing against you/and does not resemble you.” the forest grants the speaker leave to continue the journey and conveys that the speaker should have nothing to worry about from the “nameless being that renounced the speaker. the nameless being is the crow. the forest continues to speak, stating, “believe me/when tomorrow at dawn/your head is thrown/into the basket of the guillotined/remember/murder/that you alone/have drunk /‟all the milk of human kindness from my breast.‟” these last few lines reinforce the feminine gender of “mother nature” as the parent imparting the sentence of death to one of her children. the least of the speaker‟s worries would be the “nameless being” of the crow. the forest explains to the speaker (and reader) what the crimes written on the walls of the b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [164] house were and calls the speaker a murderer. the idea that the forest tells the speaker that death by guillotine is the sentence for this offense reiterates the idea that murder is not only a social taboo, but it is also an offense against nature itself. although not much is known about the exact interests of acéphale since it was a secret society, certain rules for participation are reprinted in jérome peignot‟s (1977) écrits de laure. they were found among her papers after her death. in volume two of georges bataille‟s oeuvres complétes (1970), the rules are also reproduced. the rules themselves explain when, where, and how to prepare oneself for attendance at a meeting of the secret society. for example, rule one states that one should “only enter the part of the yveline forest that used to be called „fore cruye‟ under conditions that exclude any possibility of conflict with the character of sanctuary this area will have for you.” this is to state that, at the least, one should enter into the forest with a clear conscience. rule two states that members are not allowed to enter into the “restricted sanctuary to be determined later except during acéphale meetings. rule three commands that members cannot say anything to anyone about the meetings unless it is absolutely necessary “as the absolute need for them becomes apparent and only after this is determined.” rule four states that the things discussed will only be documented in a secret, internal journal of acéphale, and that only those who accept and conform to the rules will be privy to the journal. rule five states that members must “observe all restrictions specific to each meeting” and entreats them not to speak, meet with others, or wander off in the forest without specific instruction. there is also a strange reference to “not opening envelopes until the appointed time” in this rule. rule six states that these rules can be changed later. rule seven states that those who organize the meetings when necessary will lift the rules. laure‟s list goes on to indicate that all involved must agree on the boundaries for the forest‟s restricted area, and that members will go to this area in groups no larger than two. another point included involves the use of sulphur. it reads: sulphur is a substance that comes from the earth‟s interior and is issued only from the mouths of volcanoes. this is b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [165] clearly in relation to the chthonic character of the mythic reality that we are pursuing. it is also significant that the roots of a tree plunge deep into the earth. according to rené alleau (1986), sulphur connotes a more profound purification, reason, and intuition, the male principle, and transcendence (p. 196). the nature of the acéphale rules indicate that the secret society wanted to recreate a form of ritual heavily based in traditional symbolism. far from being an exhaustive discussion of laure‟s contributions to the symbolist movement, this examination engages her ideas and texts on a level of explication and inclusion within the discourse of european symbolist writers. i seek to bring together the original threads of research intended to posit laure among france‟s best known writers and thinkers in the early part of the twentieth century. while conducting research for this topic, i found it incredibly difficult to find a woman symbolist poet in the french literary tradition writing between 1880-1930. when i discovered her work, i put together the pieces of her biography based upon correspondence and journals of her lovers, because very little information on her life and poetry is available in current scholarship. at first, i believed this lack of information to be a symptom of her leftist politics and nine year alliance with communism. while that might be true to a degree, i discovered that her family was just as much against publication of her works and personal papers as anyone. the fact that georges bataille and michel leiris were responsible for the posthumous publication of le sacré illustrates that, not only did they consider laure‟s poetry and poetics to be important contributions to the literary fashions of the day, but also that bataille in particular is her theoretical counterpart. jérome peignot, her great-nephew and a poet in his own right, edited the 1977 edition of écrits de laure much to the chagrin and against the wishes of the rest of his family. obviously, the emotional reaction of the family to laure‟s life, lifestyle, and writing almost forty years after her death still ran very deep. working with the french language in terms of symbol and gender is slightly more difficult than working with them in any other language, particularly russian. laure‟s choices, however, bespeak a similar effort b. brown poetics of disintegration in laure‟s “poems before the summer of 1936” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [166] to avoid social gender assignments either by using verb tenses that do not necessarily betray the gender of the speaker, or by tackling the gender assignments head on and giving her speakers feminine genders. when laure chooses the latter of the two, the speaker often addresses the very nature of social gender assignment by offering binary oppositions of social feminine roles. laure also reconfigures traditional symbols to the inverse of their meaning in order to contest the world she attempts to change, but nevertheless must live in. references alleau, r., huginus, a. b. and eugène, c. (1986). aspects de l’alchemie traditionelle. paris: éditions de minuit. bataille, g. (1970). oeuvres completes. vol. 6. paris: gallimard. beaumont, a. (1949). symbolism in decorative chinese art. new york. cirlot, j. e. (2002). a dictionary of symbols. second edition. trans. jack sage. new york: routledge. jung, c. g. (1967). collected works. vol. 5. trans. r.f.c. hull. princeton: princeton university press. laure. (1939). le sacré suivi de poémes et de divers écrits. eds. georges bataille and michel leiris. éparis: hors commerce. peignot, jérome et le collectif change. (1977). écrits de laure. paris: société nouvelle des éditions pauvert. i colette peignot preferred to be called simply laure at the end of her life. when georges bataille and michel leiris decided to publish l’histoire d’une petite file and le sacré in 1939, they published the works under this preferred nom de plume. she used a different nom de plume, claude araxe, in 1933-1934, when she wrote for the journal la critique sociale. the name araxe comes from a large river in armenia known for its unpredictable, unstable riverbed and the inability to build a bridge over it. ii the street in paris named quatre frères was named in honor of the peignot brothers who died during world war i. iii all translations of all poems reproduced in this article are mine. epiphany: vol. 4, no. 1, 2011 issn 1840-3719 approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration selvira draganović abstract this paper deals with the emergence and development of feminism in general and feminist psychology with special emphasis on feminist’s reaction to traditional assumptions in freudian psychology and male dominated theory and research. feminist movement simply started as a women’s activism which later claimed political identity and finally ended as women’s liberation movement. feminists simply advocate gender equality. emergence of feminist psychology movement and appearance of significant female figures in psychology is further explained along with their contribution to the theory, personality and specific developmental issues along with its input to the therapy and counseling field. the influence of four feminist philosophical approaches namely, liberal feminism, cultural feminism, radical feminism and social feminism are also shortly discussed alongside with their practical implications. above and beyond, feminist contribution to the therapy field reflected in offering specific therapy goals are also discussed. self esteem as a core issue and one of feminist therapy goals is finally discussed and presented through a specific case study illustration. feminist therapy is important therapy approach with significant therapy goals contribution in relation to women’s mental health issues. consideration of sex, gender, cultural diversity, etiology, diagnosis and treatment is feminist request for successful therapy because fixing woman for functioning in a dysfunctional society seems not enough. key words: feminism, feminist psychology, feminist theory, feminist therapy and counseling, feminist philosophical approaches corresponding author: selevira draganović; faculty of arts and social sciences, international university of sarajevo, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: sdraganovic@ius.edu.ba; selvirad@hotmail.com mailto:sdraganovic@ius.edu.ba mailto:selvirad@hotmail.com s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [111] introduction the term feminism has been provoking disparate feelings and thoughts to the effect that it is being viewed as both, positive and negative. however, there is nothing wrong with the notion that all human beings possess the right to pursue their liberties regardless of gender, race, religion etc. therefore, the core of feminist theory as the belief in gender equality complies with liberal values and human rights. this is affirmed by the feminist definition of funkerburk and fukuyama (2001) who held “belief that human beings are of equal worth and that the pervading patriarchal social structures which perpetuate hierarchy of dominance, based upon gender, must be resisted and transformed toward a more equitable system” (pg.4). thus, this article represents a small endeavor to outline feminism, feminist psychology and feminist therapy significance and contribution. how did feminism in general emerge and why, what is feminist psychology and feminist therapy implication, what are the goals of feminist therapy? these are some questions we try to answer in this article. feminist psychologists more than any other theorists, examine not only the psychological factors that lead to individuals´ problems but also sociological influences like development (sharf, 2004, pg. 437). significance of this article lies in delineating and emphasizing implication of feminist psychology and therapy. the scope of this paper is organized in such a way that it starts with a short survey of feminism, feminist psychology emergence and development followed by feminist therapy, it´s goals and techniques illustrated by a specific case study. literature review was main methodology used in writing this article and case study as illustration of feminist therapy goals application and impact in practice. origin and developments of feminist psychology the term feminism or feminists first appeared in france and netherlands in 1872 (offen, 1987) and migrated to great britain in 1890 and to usa in 1910 (cott, 1987). as fredman states, the term combined the french word for woman, femme and isme, which referred to a social movement or political ideology (like socialism, communism). feminisme s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [112] connoted that women´s issues belonged to the vanguard of change. feminism as such had three distinctive phases. in the 1800´s, the first wave activism was simply characterized as the women movement. after the 1910, it claimed political identity and during tumultuous 1960´s as women´s liberations advocating women´s equality with men in work and politics. within a decade, the older term feminism/feminist begun to be used to refer to the politics of this new movement (2002 ps. 3-5). thus, as freedman cites feminism is a belief that women and men are inherently of equal worth. because most societies privilege men as a group, social movements are necessary to achieve equality between women and men with the understanding that gender always intersects with other social hierarchies (pg. 7). hitchcock cites karen horney who in her essay to the flight from womanhood in 1922 said “female psychology has been constructed thus far “under the spell” of a male point of view, and “if we try to free our minds from this masculine mode of thought, nearly all the problems of feminine psychology take on a different appearance” (ps. 3536 2005). thus, we can say that the term feminist psychology was originally coined by karen horney, a neo-freudian psychoanalyst who founded psychology focused on gender and discovering how gender affects individual and wrote numerous articles in relation to women and their experiences. feminist psychology embraces eight tenets such as inclusiveness, equality, seeking new knowledge, attending the context, acknowledging values, advocating change, attending to process, expanding psychological practice (worell and remer, 2002 ps. 16-17). psychology as a scientific field, just like almost all the other fields, was for decades dominated by male theory, research and practice. as a reaction to this domination women’s movement emerged during the late 1960’s and later made emphasis on feminist psychology. therefore, feminist psychology originated as a criticism against the traditional assumptions of male dominated theory, research and practices, especially according to psychoanalytic theory. feminist psychologists argued that freud’s theories, such as “penis envy” and hysteria, were gender biased. besides, as chenoweth argues, “the traditional freudian psychoanalytic model is predicated on the male oedipal conflict as the basis for normal psychosexual development and female sexuality is presented from the s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [113] perspective of biological deficit based on the female gender position as castrated male” (kaslow and magnavita 2002, pg. 366). these freudian concepts were particularly distasteful to supporters of the feminist movement and some strongly reacted and opposed them. next to reactions to freudian concepts, feminist developmental theorists pointed out that “piaget, erikson and kohlberg all based their research on male norms and behavior” (nugent and jones, 2009, pg. 75). upon this opposition, anna freud, margaret mahler, and karen horney were among the first who broke of from the dominant psychoanalytic male views of human development. they offered compelling alternative arguments for concepts such as penis envy, female masochism, and feminine inferiority (sommers-flanagan & sommersflanagan, 2004, pg. 335). among others who significantly contributed to the feminist psychology were clara thompson who wrote a book interpersonal psychoanalysis and helene deutsch who wrote a book psychology of women. from the above alternative arguments and concepts the feminist psychology was coined. furthermore, feminist psychology was reaffirmed by jean baker miller (1927-2006), with her books psychoanalysis and women (1973), and toward a new psychology of women (1976), phyllis chesler who wrote women and madness (1972), and juliet mitchell who wrote women: the longest revolution. they became known as feminist psychologists. feminist psychology propagators were aware of the pressures of patriarchy, sexism and male chauvinism within therapy and counseling. women naturally and personally discovered and felt that they were put down in a number of subtle ways, and that all sorts of expectations about the female role (assumed role) and how it should be played were built into the therapy process. they argued that assumed female roles actually hindered female patients and this is negatively reflected on their mental health. this was affirmed by sommers and flanagan who claimed that the “feminist theory in general and feminist theories in mental health particularly, has sought to identify and address forces and practices that are inherently psychologically damaging to women” (pg. 336). feminist psychologist based their reactions on the traditionally accepted psychological theories and practices regarding mental health s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [114] standards based on gender that were harmful to women. accordingly women were labeled of as mentally ill for political reasons (punishing women for not adhering to expected roles) and women tended to be diagnosed as “mentally ill” when they didn’t conform to male stereotypes and protested the sexism of psychotherapy and psychotherapists. the womanless state of psychology and its development also contributed towards the emergence of feminist psychology. for example, mary whiton calkins in 1891 establishes a psychology laboratory at wellesley college, 1891. calkins and ladd franklin were first female members of the american psychological association, and 1894 margaret floy washburn becomes the first woman to be officially awarded the phd degree in psychology, at cornell university under e.b. titchener, but their work was not recognized for a long time. finally, the desire to report women’s experiences from a woman’s perspective was additional reason for the emergence of feminist psychology. even though feminist psychologists made significant developments in the field by writing numerous books, yet only by the beginning of the late 1970’s they began developing feminist psychology theories. therefore, sommers-flanagan (2004) outlined three distinct phases of theoretical development of feminist psychology. the first phase was characterized by borrowing therapeutic techniques that fit into the feminist philosophy, with the goal to empower all women by strengthening individual women. the second phase is marked by the inclusion of feminism into more psychological theories where feminists attempted to keep the parts of psychological theories that were sensible and that worked, but tried to eliminate the sexist elements that were present. the ongoing phase consists of trying to develop a complete theory that explains the common experiences of women and their difficulties arising from living in a society where they are devalued (sommers and flanagan, 2004) feminist therapy once feminist psychologists developed the literature and theories they developed the criteria for successful therapists. accordingly, feminist psychologists argue that, in order to be a successful feminist s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [115] therapist a therapist should: examine sociological and psychological factors, help people understand the impact of gender roles and power differences in society; and differentiate sex and gender whereas sex is related to biological difference and gender is related to socially determined thoughts, beliefs and attitudes about men and women (sharf, 2004, pg. 437). in addition to feminist arguments, views and reaction to “male dominant scrutiny” feminist psychologists developed psychotherapy principles and offered entirely new concepts. in relation to the principles in therapy and counseling, after close revision, feminists contributed to the therapy field with following ideas: the personal is political (social change needed), the counseling relationship is egalitarian (equality of relationship between a client and therapist), women’s experiences are honored (not dismissed and discarded as of lesser value), definitions of distress and "mental illness" are reformulated, and there is an integrated analysis of oppression (sommers and flanagan, 2004, pg. 342). in addition to therapy and counseling principles, feminists contributed new concepts. these concepts are emphasizing the client’s role and expertise that encourage social action, wider sociopolitical and cultural context within which problems are viewed and challenge to traditional ways of psychological health assessment assuming that individual change best occurs through social change (sharf, 2004, pg. 449). hence, from feminist perspective, a successful therapist should be sensitive to these concepts as this was not always the case with traditional male therapists. according to feminist psychology, traditional male therapists work was colored by theories of personality (sharf, 2004 pg. 439). this led to feminists to argue for the revision of personality theories. for example, carol gilligan and j. b. miller take different approaches in describing the development of women´s personality and the role of relationship in this development (sharf, 2004, pg. 441). in relation to the filed of personality theory, feminist psychologists start of by offering definite gender construction. this view reflects the work of rachel hare-mustin and jean maracek (worell and remer, 2002, pp 14-15) who talk about two biases in the approach to gender. alpha bias which relates to separating men and women into two s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [116] categories and danger is in treating women as different and therefore inferior. and, beta bias which is treating women and men as identical and ignoring real differences. therefore, constructions of gender contain two competing biases: alpha bias, which is the tendency to exaggerate malefemale differences; and beta bias, which is the tendency to minimize or ignore differences. both biases have disadvantaged women in the work place. a presumption of female-male personality traits provides a rationalization for restricting women's work roles. however, arguing that gender differences are trivial one ignores real differences in women's and men's access to power and resources. an alternative approach to gender is suggested whereby attention is focused on the context in which behaviors are observed. rather than viewing gender as an issue of absolute difference, gender should be viewed as a process rooted in an asymmetric power distribution between women and men. otherwise, these issues will remain and they will negatively reflect the practice. furthermore, as feminists argue, all these issues which need to be constructed are deeply rooted in all stages of human development. thus, feminist psychologists react to developmental issues in childhood, adolescence and midlife issues with contribution of specifics in each. as feminists argue, early childhood experiences and male emphasis contribute to development of an individual. for instance, early childhood practices such as preference for baby boys over girl babies and pressure to learn gender stereotypes significantly contribute to negative personality development. furthermore, during the adolescence other specifics emerge, such as: development of secondary sex characteristics that can be very difficult for girls, breast development, focus on thinness, females valued for appearance rather than achievement, teen pregnancy issues, encouragement of independence in boys and nurturance and helplessness in girls. feminists also consider midlife issues like menopause, devaluation of older women, violence, rape, incest, domestic abuse and child abuse. these issues are very important and sensitive and need to be addressed and objectively approached (sharf, 2004, pg. 443). s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [117] feminist philosophical approaches and therapy goals given the gender construction and developmental specifics, feminist psychologist proposed particular therapy goals. the goals of feminist therapy are: to become aware of one’s gender-role socialization process, to identify internalized gender-role messages and replace them with functional beliefs, to acquire skills to bring about change in the environment, to become personally empowered, symptom removal, selfesteem improvement/development, focusing on quality of interpersonal relationships (sharf, 2004 pg. 451). these psychotherapy goals were applied in the case study which shortly follows. this case study points to positive outcomes of feminist therapy goals. besides, therapy goals are based on four feminist philosophical approaches such as liberal feminism, cultural feminism, radical feminism and social feminism (women of color and lesbians) (worell and remer, 2002). liberal feminism focuses on helping women to overcome the constraints of their socialization patterns through personal empowerment of individual women, dignity, self-fulfillment and equality. this could be achieved by using specific intervention techniques accordingly, such as gender-role analysis and intervention, helping clients understand the impact of gender-role expectations in their lives, providing clients with insight into the ways social issues affect their problems, power analysis and power intervention, emphasizing the power differences between men and women in society, helping clients recognize different kinds of power they possess and how they and others exercise power and biblio-therapy (sharf, 2004 pg. 440). cultural feminism is a philosophical approach which mainly focuses on oppression. according to this view, oppression stems from society’s devaluation of women’s strengths because it emphasizes gender differences. hence, cultural feminism believes the solution to oppression lies in feminization of the culture so that society becomes more nurturing, cooperative and relational. major goal of this approach is the infusion of society with values based on cooperation. influenced by this approach, feminists argue that this can also be done by using specific techniques like: helping equalize the therapeutic relationship and provide modeling s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [118] for the client, and thorough discussion of values, beliefs about society, and therapeutic interventions (worell & remer 2002). third philosophical approach known as radical feminism focuses on the oppression of women, being embedded in patriarchy and changing social issues. radical feminism seeks to change society through activism while therapy is viewed as a political enterprise with the goal of transformation of society. in order to attain this, radical feminists offer specific therapy intervention techniques such as assertiveness training, helping women to become aware of their interpersonal rights which transcend stereotypical sex roles, changing negative belief, implementing changes in their daily lives and reframing (sharf, 2004 pg. 440). the social feminism focuses on society and societal change in particular. an emphasis is placed on multiple oppressions and a belief that solutions to society’s problems must include consideration of class, race and other forms of discrimination. major goal of social feminism is to transform social relationships and institutions. once gain, feminists preferring this approach offer specific therapy intervention techniques such as relabeling, changing the label or evaluation applied to the client's behavioral characteristics and re-focusing (sharf, 2004 pg. 450 and 466). based on the thorough and long work in the field of therapy, particularly working with women with mental health problems, feminist psychologists argue that three themes often come up in therapy such as anger, self-nurturance and autonomy. feminist psychologist state that emergence of these three concepts in psychotherapy emerged due to women´s frequent turning their anger inwards. thus, they often need a good deal of encouragement to direct anger where it really belongs. also, women are taught to nurture others and as a result develop huge sense of responsibility but may not be good at nurturing themselves. and in turn, as gilligan states, responsibility becomes, in its conventional interpretation, confused with a responsiveness to others that impedes a recognition of self (pg. 127). finally women are taught cooperation and find networking very easy, but may need a lot of help to see out through their own eyes and ask "what do i need myself"? this question tends to arise much anxiety and even guilt, and a feminist approach is necessary if women are to feel that these reactions are unnecessary (gilligan, 1982). s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [119] therefore, as sharf argues, feminist therapy is characterized by specific techniques such as gender role analysis, gender role intervention, power intervention, assertiveness training, reframing and relabeling and demystifying (ps. 451-456). these techniques are aimed toward increasing self-awareness, acceptance of self-awareness, strengthening of self-acceptance, developing the power to act, recognizing societal restraints, accepting or combating societal restraints, acceptance of self and other women. feminist psychologists also contributed to the therapy of trauma survivors. the work of l. walker and m. greenspan is very significant. they proposed the guiding principles of feminist therapy, indicating that there are six tenets of feminist-therapy theory (cantor, 1990, pp. 78-79). firstly egalitarian relationships between clients and therapists serve as a model for women to take personal responsibility to develop egalitarian relationships with others instead of the more traditional passive, dependent female role. while it is accepted that the therapist knows more in terms of psychology, the client knows herself better. that knowledge is as critical as the therapist's skills in developing a successful therapeutic relationship. then, power women are taught to gain and use power in relationships, and the possible consequences of their actions. subsequently, enhancement of women’s strengths so much of traditional therapy focused on a woman’s shortcomings and weaknesses that feminist therapists teach women to look for their own strengths and use them effectively. therefore, the feminist therapist focuses on the enhancement of women's strengths rather than remediation of their weaknesses and non-pathology-oriented and non-victim blaming framework that perceives women’s problems as coping mechanisms within social context. finally, throughout the education women are taught to recognize their cognitions that are detrimental, and encouraged to educate themselves as to the plight of all women. they are also more self-disclosing than other therapists thus removing we versus they barrier between therapists and their clients. this limited reciprocity is a feminist goal that is believed to enhance the relationship. secondly, in her book “a new approach to women and therapy" (1983), miriam greenspan explores the impact of "traditional" s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [120] and "growth" therapies on women. furthermore a book also describes "feminist" therapy in action by listing or naming therapist’s tasks such as realization that the therapist's most essential tool is herself as a person and an attempt to demystify a sense of their own power in therapy. as greenspan argues, therapy must be geared towards helping the client to realize his/her own rescuing mission. such rescue power is indeed very often derived from within. in this regard, rules of the therapeutic relationship should be overtly stated and mutually agreed upon. while the client and therapist explore their expectations of one another both together come to an agreement with regards to mutual rights and responsibilities. throughout the world women have marginalized and neglected many rights. women´s activism had begun in the late eighteen century as their reaction to unjust position in societies in a form of various women movements what is known as feminism nowadays. a worell and remer argue, the range of definitions and theories about feminism leads us to conclude that feminism, as a social and political movement, is broad and multifaceted. it is clear that many differing attitudes and values are associated with being a feminist, but all roads lead to a simple conclusion: equality of opportunity, respect, and fair treatment for all persons is essential (pg. 17). thus, feminist principles can be applied to all professional activities. for example, feminists in psychology propose not only eight tenants in general but also contributed to the field of theory as well as practice. feminist therapy offers significant principles and goals with solemn practical implications on individual and societal level such as, symptom removal, self esteem, quality of interpersonal relationships, body image and sensuality, attention to diversity and political awareness and social actions (sharf, 449-450). self-esteem is integrated part of self confidence and self respect and a very important concept in feminist therapy. william james first introduced the self-esteem topic more than a century ago stating “self-feeling in this world depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do. it is determined by the ratio of our actualities to our supposed potentialities; a fraction of which our pretensions are the denominator and the numerator our success: thus, such a fraction may be s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [121] increased as well by diminishing the denominator as by increasing the numerator (mruk, 2006 pg. 12). morris rosenberg (1965) offered the other definition and defines self esteem as a positive or negative attitude toward a particular object, namely, the self. thus, high self-esteem, in rosenberg´s scale expresses the feeling that one is “good enough.” the individual simply feels that he is a person of worth; he respects himself for what he is, but he does not stand in awe of himself nor does he expect others to stand in awe of him. he does not necessarily consider himself superior to others (mruk, 2006 pg. 16). on the other hand, nathaniel branden offered another definition in1969 when he said that self-esteem has two interrelated aspects: it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. it is the integrated sum of self confidence and self-respect. it is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living. (mruk, 2006 pg. 19). as the aforementioned definitions of self-esteem indicate self esteem contains two dimensions, worthiness and competence. for example, as mruk sates, white talked about “love-worthiness” and identification with parental figures or objects while coopersmith connected worthiness to various patterns of parenting. then, rosenberg spoke of “reflected appraisals,” and humanists like rogers focused on being accepted “unconditionally” as having a major impact on our worthiness. in a certain sense, then, the first source of worthiness we encounter, and perhaps also the first source of self-esteem, is being valued by others. also, later on in life it is important to accept ourselves to achieve authentic self-esteem, but even that task is made easier if we have had what winnicot called “good enough” acceptance in the first place (pg. 170). self esteem in feminist therapy requires a move away from being dependent on external sources of self esteem (what others think) to the self esteem based on one´s own feelings about oneself (pg. 449). both gender-role and feminist analysis help clients reframe problems and develop new lenses for understanding issues, which often lead to renewed self-esteem. this could be achieved by feminist therapy techniques as the case which follows shows. s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [122] a case study: self-esteem since the time they are born women have been encouraged to limit their personal development. at the same time they have been encouraged to seek a male to provide income and identity and see themselves as adjunct to male needs, careers, and achievements instead. many women seek counseling and support when the marriage explodes, when they are not able to realize self potentials due to the lack of self esteem, when the “they lived happily ever after story goes bad, or, for whatever reasons, they’ve outgrow their worlds and don’t know what’s making life seem so meaningless. feminist therapists are alert for signs of these gender-role constraints and developmental arrests. following is a case illustration of a woman who turned to counseling center cei nahla who reported lack of self esteem which prevented her personal growth. based on the specific issues she raised in therapy, the therapist (the author of this article) applied feminist therapy goals to help her express and assert self in order to develop self esteem based on her own feelings. six therapy sessions were conducted. female, 35 year old, employed, married with one child, sought therapy due to the lack of self confidence and self esteem especially from public speaking. she reported that when addressing colleagues and coworkers she experienced face redness, extreme sweating, body temperature rise, heart pounding and stuttering. these symptoms also led to her to avoid such situations, keeping quiet during meetings and, making excuses or pretending of not feeling well. accordingly, she felt regularly ashamed and very embarrassed, especially due to face redness, because she “wondered about male colleagues reactions.” on the other hand, she was capable hard working employee who made quite many contributions to the company. yet, she wondered why she has low self esteem and self confidence despite significant results? during therapy, many issues came out as sensitive and important to this client. she grew up in a religious family as a second child, together with two brothers. the oldest brother was always preferred by her parents and always put as an example for everything. although she faired of pretty well having good paid job, independent family life, knowledge of one foreign language and lots of skills that prove her s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [123] excellence her brother still received greater attention from the family. in addition, she recalled situations from her early childhood when she was “imitating others” and “acting as others” all for the sake of acceptance and recognition. she also recalled sarcastic remarks towards her parents and brother and later to anyone when she experienced injustice and rejection.” during the therapy she realized that this was indeed her cry for an attention and recognition and her whole life was revolving around trying to come into the picture of equal worth and acceptance as her brother. she did her best trying to get her parents attentions thus she made it her duty to become: “very good daughter (she was sick frequently but still managed to care for her self and her family), an excellent cook and housewife plus great worker/professional.” still, despite all this, this was not enough for her inner peace and satisfaction. therapy process clearly pointed client’s gender role analysis and socialization process and issues and necessity of applying feminist therapy goals. therapy goals were firstly directed to client’s awareness of her gender-role socialization process. we tackled this concern and the client became aware of presupposed subjectively structured female and male rights and positions within the society. then, religious reasons were also pointed out as they frequently affect women’s self-esteem. as a result, client´s personal attitudes such as “i am not worth and i am not good because i am a female” very negatively reflected on herself-esteem and self-worth. throughout the therapy she realized that “her efforts and fights for others, others rights, her sensitivity to others” “her acting and imitating” was related to her reaction to her parents preference of her brother over her and clear wish to be acknowledged and recognized by them. then, she realized due to her powerless position as a women she expressed injustice and rejection by using sarcasm. her inner wish was always directed to “love me and accept me, i am good person even though i am female.” when she became aware of this her personal awareness eased the symptoms of extreme self consciousness, redness and body temperature, heart pounding and stuttering. her self esteem improved as well. s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [124] this case study also examines the second feminist therapy goal in order to identify internalized gender-role messages and replace them with functional beliefs. as a result of her parents’ preference for her brother, client’s internalized gender role message was “i am worthless because i am female.” an attempt was made to replace this dysfunctional belief with “even though my parents prefer my brother because he is male, they still love me and they show me this through many small signals. in relation to the third goal in feminist therapy client’s success made changes in regards to recognition and appreciation of inner self. she began ceasing to devalue her inner self in association to the family and social relations. in addition, she also found her unique position within her religion and religious community. such changes of self perceptions led to her realization of male bias and the proper positioning the relation to self, family, society and religion. she became aware of her anger towards her parents and her feeling of betrayal. she managed to forgive them by turning her anger into thinking “this is the best they could do and offer to me” but i am aware of these issues now and i won’t repeat their mistakes.” she is able to normally communicate her negative emotions and dissatisfaction to her parents when she notices their “male” preference without using sarcasm anymore. our sessions closed with her expression “i feel powerful and more confident now and i am able to link my behavior to my inner feelings and i am able to replace these behaviors with my real needs and communicate them.” this case study illustrates impact of social context or gender role on individual development and its effect on women´s self esteem. application of feminist therapy goals and principles shows positive psychotherapeutic outcomes in this case. it also demonstrates and affirms implication of feminist theory and practice. s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [125] conclusion work of feminists in general is immense and they contributed ample to many fields and psychology is one of them. contribution of feminists to the field of psychology can be noticed through their input into the theory as well as practice but they also tackled the filed of personality and some specific developmental stage. in essence, feminist therapy was highly influenced by four feminist philosophical approaches such as liberal feminism, cultural feminism, radical feminism and social feminism. these feminist philosophical approaches focus on helping individual women to overcome the limits and constraints of their socialization patterns through personal empowerment of individual women, dignity, self-fulfillment and equality, more effective therapy outcomes, infusion of society with values based on cooperation oppression to overcome oppression, changing society through activism and transforming social relationships and institutions, respectively. in the field of mental health, the consideration of sex, gender, and cultural diversity in the prevalence, etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of a range of human problems was conspicuously absent until recently (worell & remer, 2002). absence of these important issues stipulated an intervention. feminists propose public action and a social change because, as worell and remer argue, it is insufficient to “fix” the woman for functioning in a dysfunctional society (2002). we can reiterate with worell’s and remer’s citation a feminist lens encourages us to look at the uses of power and how status hierarchies deprive women from all social locations of their respect, freedom, and equality. in valuing women’s experiences, we legitimize the study of women in all their diversities as an important scientific enterprise, and we encourage innovative methods of research to explore these experiences. we reject the notion of totally objective science or practice related to behavior and call on educators, researchers, and practitioners to acknowledge their values and biases (pg.18). s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [126] further research and more critical approach are also recommended with likely different conclusions on this topic. references burman, 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(1997). deconstructing feminist psychology. new york: sage. burr, v. (1998). gender and social psychology. new york: routledge. cott, nancy f. (1987). the grounding of modern feminism. new haven: yale university press. freedman, e. b. (2002). no turning back: the history of feminism and the future of women. new york: random house publishing. funkerburk, j. r., & fukuyama, m. a. (2001). feminism, multiculturalism and spirituality: convergent and divergent forces in psychotherapy. women and therapy, 24 (3/4)1–18. gilligan c. (1982). in a different voice. psychological theory and women´s development. cambridge. massachusetts: harvard university press. greenspan, m. (1983). a new approach to women and therapy. new york: mcgraw-hill. hitchcock s. t. (2005). karen horney pioneer in feminine psychology. philadelphia: chelsea house publishing. kaslow f. w and magnavita j.j.(2002). comprehensive handbook of psychotherapy, vol. 1. new york: wiley and sons inc. mruk c. j. (2006), self-esteem, research, theory and practice. toward a positive psychology of self-esteem, 3 rd edition, new york: springer publishing company. nugent, f. a., jones k. d., (2009) introduction to the profession of counseling; 5 th ed., new jersey: pearson education. inc. offen, k., (1987) "les origines des mots 'feminisme' et 'feministe'." revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaire. july–september 34: 492-496 sharf s. r., (2004): theories of psychotherapy and counseling: concepts and cases, 3 rd ed. pacific grove: ca, brooks/cole s. draganović approaches to feminist therapy: a case study illustration epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [127] sommers-flanagan j. & sommers-flanagan r. (2004). counseling and psychotherapy theories in context and practice, skills, strategies and techniques, new jersey: wiley and sons inc. unger, r. k. (2001). handbook of the psychology of women and gender (3rd ed.). new york: wiley and sons inc. walker, lenore e.a.(1990). a feminist therapist views the case. in dorthy w. cantor (ed.), women as therapists. new york: spring publishing company. worell, j. & remer, p., (2002). feminist perspectives in therapy: empowering diverse women. 2 nd ed. new jersey: wiley and sons inc. (microsoft word gamze sabanci charlotte perkins gilman\222s re-creation of masculinity) epiphanyepiphanyepiphanyepiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 3 – special issue: identity fall 2009 ©2008, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity gamze sabancı haliç university in her 1903 study the home: its work and influence, gilman considers the effect of the concept “the home” on both men and women. she explores how established norms and traditions inform society’s views of the abilities and appropriate behaviors for each sex. as gilman points out, beliefs about what a man ought to do have a direct effect on what a woman is allowed to do: changes to established practice are regarded as threats to the social roles of “man” or “woman.” she sums up the argument by saying that “man considers any effort of the woman to support herself as a reflection on him” (home 290). gilman was aware of the need to include men in her proposals for improving society, in order to achieve lasting reform. thus, to gain the sympathy of her male readers, gilman shows that a working wife is not the threat traditional opinion held, but rather a comfort to her husband. having asserted this in works such as the home, gilman deliberately adapts her fictional writing to her political writing and her audience by using a wide range of genre in her work including autobiography, treatise, lecture, short story, fable, novel and poetry. she expresses similar things in habitually different ways by using different language to persuade people. a short story written to reinforce shared ideas and motivate a self-selecting and already-convinced readership (such as gilman had for her forerunner publications) does not need to explain in detail the basis of the assumption and views shared with that readership. instead it can assert and then expand, creating inspiring scenarios to encourage continued efforts charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 32 at reform, without too much concern about how credible or detailed each scenario is. characters may be less rounded and complex in a short story than in a full novel, with stories that are in effect fables being able to get away with the lightest characterization of all. a lecture must carry a slightly different audience. again selfselecting, because that the audience has chosen and indeed paid to hear what is said, but they may not share quite the same level of conviction as the speaker. the message here must be clear, effective and probably stirring – and this is true when that lecture is delivered on paper as well as orally. as with longer non-fictional pieces, the book-length treatises gilman wrote, there is room for anecdote and illustrative, imagined stories, but these are typically very simple, often humorous and with a clear point. books, even one as short as man-made world, need to justify their length and address an entirely open readership. the writer cannot be sure of shared views and must also explain and support arguments more fully. points need to be developed, arguments expanded upon, other views taken into consideration. although gilman’s textual strategies differ in different genres, her motto remains the same: offering role models for both sexes and creating stories in which women become powerful for their own sake, though their empowerment often benefits a man. the stories discussed here, “her housekeeper” and “the cottagette”, both published in 1910, approach the topic of the conflict between marriage and freedom, particularly freedom to work, through two very different scenarios. in “the cottagette” gilman presents the case of malda, a young woman who is attracted to ford, a journalist she meets while at an artists’ retreat. in “her housekeeper” she tells the story of an older woman, mrs. leland, who has a young son but no husband, but who prizes her independence and so resists a marriage proposal from her good friend, arthur olmstead, who lives in the same boarding house as mrs. leland. underpinning both stories is gilman’s belief, as stated in the home, that a gamze sabancı 33 woman should work not just to gain independence or to share the financial expenses of the home (which should remain the responsibility of the man of the house) but also to create a happy atmosphere within her home and thus become a positive influence on her husband and as well as any children she may have. a woman achieves such success and happiness by satisfying her need to pursue her own artistic passion – a passion gilman seems to presume exists in every woman and which is exemplified in “the cottagette” by malda’s skill in drawing and embroidery, and in “her housekeeper” by mrs. leland’s successful acting career. however, gilman was not only recreating femininity, by providing fictional examples of cultural evolution in united states homes. by including men in this development, and creating male characters who actively want their wives to continue with their artistic work after marriage, she was also presenting methods of recreating masculinity without undermining men’s sense of security and re-evaluating the representations of masculinity. attempts to transform gender relations in the nineteenth century usually also challenged prevailing definitions of masculinity and femininity. in “the history of masculinity” r. w. connell reasons: the nineteenth century saw a historic change in gender politics, the emergence of feminism as a form of mass politics—a mobilization for women’s rights, especially the suffrage, in public arenas. this was closely connected to the growth of the liberal state and its reliance on concepts of citizenship (249). when social conditions altered for women and for men, as women started fighting for economic independence, the clear division between gender roles became blurred. the new class of working women unsettled "masculinity" as well as challenging ideas of what a proper woman ought to be and do. michael kimmel charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 34 (1987) has classified men’s responses to this change into three groups. firstly "an antifeminist response," which "demanded women’s return to the private sphere of hearth and home." secondly, a "masculinist response," which “sought to dislodge women’s control over the private realm", while creating separate places where men could practice the “hardiness appropriate to their gender”. this selfserving group held the almost sacred belief that masculinity could only be understood and practiced by men and thus men should be more engaged with bringing up young boys at home. this has the effect of requiring more active fatherhood which takes a positive role in domestic life, as a means of counterbalancing an over feminine domestic atmosphere. thirdly, a “profeminist response” which kimmel describes as coming from a small but vocal group who supported feminist reforms, including “demands for sexual autonomy for women and men” (kimmel 262). as this discussion will show, arthur olmstead and ford mathews embody elements of kimmel’s second and third categories, while the first is reflected in gilman’s plotlines as a whole. there is much common ground between gilman and the men of kimmel’s second category. the eagerness of the “masculinist response” to be involved in child education is based on a fear of homosexuality. as kimmel summarizes, “if they [boys and girls] mingled, boys would become feminized and hence, homosexual” (270). although not explicitly homophobic, gilman’s social philosophy is based on similar ideas. in her essay on “kitchenmindedness” she critically writes that “children are brought up by their mothers in the kitchen” (195). this criticism is twofold. one is the fact that gilman criticizes the tradition that bringing up children in the kitchen by mothers who have no other special occupation and talent and claims that it is an endless circle without a beginning and an end. the second reason is hidden behind this first reason but still visible when applied to gilman’s gamze sabancı 35 short stories. gilman is not only aiming to relieve women from domestic chores, but she also implies that kitchen education is more dangerous to boys than girls, so especially boys should not be solely educated by their mothers but also their father’s participation is of great importance for the sake of their masculinity. in the light of this one might suggest that the reason there are no baby boys in herland, is because there are no men to teach manliness to the boys. in “her housekeeper” we see gilman counteract the dangers of too feminine an upbringing by providing johnny with a father figure in arthur olmstead. at the same time she was very careful not to feminize him, despite designating him “her housekeeper” and so aligning him with a domestic occupation. as we will see, arthur is a character who thus typifies the masculinist response, but is essentially a profeminist man. as stated, this third group of kimmel’s, the “profeminists” who "support[ed] women’s public participation in general" (“men’s response” 262) believed that men also suffered from the effects of women’s oppression and so would benefit from their liberation. kimmel cites h. l. mencken’s essay “in defense of women” (1918) as an example of this attitude, quoting him as saying “neither sex, without some fertilization by the complementary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor.” (“men’s response” 273). there is a clear correspondence between this profeminist response and gilman’s views as expressed in the home: the influence of women upon men is enormous. the homebound mother limits the child and boy; the homebound girl limits the youth; the homebound wife keeps up the pressure for life. it is not that women are really smallerminded, weakerminded, more timid and vacillating; but that whosoever, man or woman, lives always in a small dark place, is always guarded, protected, directed, and restrained, will become inevitably narrowed and weakened by it. the woman is narrowed by the home and the man is narrowed by the woman. (277) charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 36 gilman’s remedy for this situation is that women should improve themselves, as this improvement will be beneficial for all around her, the child and the husband. the narrowing and weakening dangers of over-domestication is clearly portrayed in “the cottagette” where the male character ford mathews initially makes it a condition of marriage that malda gives up housework, as she is changed by such domestic responsibilities that prevent her from doing her own “lovely work” (137), which she previously found so fulfilling. the responses to feminism outlined above differed, collectively they reveal a common belief that masculinity was in crisis. in another essay, michael kimmel explains, "masculinity was something that had to be constantly demonstrated, the attainment of which was forever in question—lest the man be undone by a perception of being too feminine. masculinity required proof, and proof required serious effort" (manhood 120). for some, the proof meant football or boxing, but for gilman in her fiction the proof is less physical but more verbal: men still have the last say. in man-made world, charlotte perkins gilman indicated a similar understanding of such enactments of masculinity when she suggested that "basic masculine characteristics: desire, combat, selfexpression [are] all legitimate and right in proper use, only mischievous when excessive or out of place" (man-made 41). hence, in her short fiction she created male characters accordingly; the men we are to admire are able to distinguish when it is “proper” to exhibit traditional male character traits, and when it is better, more proper, to prove their masculinity by acting in a different way, a way which might not previously have been called masculine, or by simply accepting and supporting the actions of their womenfolk. as a result, gilman redefines the understanding of masculinity by moving its values gamze sabancı 37 away from traditional and patriarchal definitions, towards a new construction of maleness. this reconstructed masculinity became vitally important for gilman’s arguments that if the opposite sexes were to complement, they needed to find ways to develop equally. fiction was an effective vehicle for presenting the value of such reconstruction, and at the same time, this ideology offered fiction a new subject. the man himself, in this new association, offers another subject refreshingly novel. man married to reason as well as love; man befriended instead of waited on; met by cheerful intelligence, a wise good will, an affection that has understanding; instead of helpless innocence, pathetic dependence, and all the dragging selfishness of the pretty, greedy childish thing, who is one of the by-products of the woman’s false position… the freedom and happiness of men, when mothered, sistered and wived by adequate normal women, is itself a subject to occupy many pens for many years. (“coming changes” 131) gilman believed that literature mirrors life ("coming changes" 125): up to now, the world was man’s, therefore "all previous literature has been androcentric; written by men for men, by men to please their women, or by their women to please men" ("coming changes" 125). thus, women's taking an active place in the world should be reflected in the literature: "we shall begin to look at women as persons, and measure them in relation to other persons, and to the world at large" ("coming changes" 125). what is more, in gilman’s view man’s need of an equal partner and how he would also benefit from the change womanhood is going through, is the truth of life and so should also be reflected in literature. gilman’s emphasize is thus on the relationship between the men and the women in their reconstructed environment and how their characters are affected by these changes. "her housekeeper" and "the cottagette," both exemplify gilman’s characterization of new men, and how they might contribute directly to the necessary reform of society and social views. at the same time her characters show how masculinist elements charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 38 can be found in even the most overt profeminist. the men presented as admirable in gilman’s stories are often instrumental in ensuring that the central female characters achieve the state of happy fulfillment that gilman argued was so necessary for creating a constructive and healthy home and society. chief among such characters is arthur olmstead in "her housekeeper" (january 1910), whom gilman presents as willing to take on all housekeeping responsibilities, regardless of traditional expectations, so that the woman he admires as an actress can continue with her career even when married to him. carol farley kessler labels arthur gilman’s "model feminist partner" (59), who does not expect his wife to be solely responsible for domestic chores or child care, while beth sutton-ramspeck argues that in this story gilman demonstrates that housekeeping is “redefined as limited to neither the private sphere nor the female sex” (8). however, i argue that gilman maintains arthur's traditional masculinity by explaining to readers that his housekeeping is a practical business, rather than a domestic role, and by pointing out that in this allegedly ideal household it is still women (the maid, the cook and the governess) who actually perform the necessary domestic chores. these duties may be removed from middle-class women, but rather than being undertaken by or shared with men, they are placed instead on the shoulders of lower-class women. "her housekeeper" exemplifies gilman elevating housekeeping to a business when overseen by a man, while still regarding the actual housework tasks as low-grade, and to be undertaken by women. this redefinition of role implicitly indicates gilman’s refusal to feminize her new man.1 seven months later gilman created ford mathews in “the cottagette” (august 1910), whom catherine golden considers “gilman’s most liberated new man” (131). this echoes the apparent admiration with which gilman concludes this story: “was there ever a man like this?” (138). gilman's rhetorical question praises gamze sabancı 39 ford mathews for insisting that his fiancée malda give up her stint at cooking and resume her artwork. no matter that gilman creates ford mathews as a liberal, intellectual and male character who diverges from her thoroughly patriarchal males, i will argue that ford mathews is still similar to the majority of men in gilman's stories in one important respect: he insists upon having the last word. in doing so he thoughtlessly exerts his influence over malda, though he is not a hostile bully. indeed he quickly withdraws the condition of marriage he at first imposes, but the fact that he feels he can state conditions at all reveals how much ford has become malda’s “immediate and all-important environment” (women and economics 61). the relationship between ford and malda exemplifies how much the presentation of attraction between a man and woman affects our very understanding of the interaction between them. “the cottagette,” in offering us a romance leading to marriage, exemplifies how presenting sex relations with “flowers and incense and all accumulated sentiment” (women and economics 63) allows us to see such a marriage as right, lovely and, most importantly, equal. however, if we look below such surface sentiments we find traces of “the transient [sex] trade we think evil” (women and economics 63), a reality that made gilman uneasy about the institution of marriage, even though she also endorsed it. by focusing on aspects first of “her housekeeper” and then of “the cottagette” that illuminate contradictions in gilman’s attitude toward financial independence for women and toward women’s expected domestic role, this essay will show how arthur olmstead and ford mathews are examples of new men who are also, i suggest, in the end as conventional as other males in her oeuvre. in “her housekeeper” gilman created a female character, mrs. leland, whose profession as an actress makes her a public figure. added to this, she is the sole wage-earner in her little household, which consists of herself, her son and his charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 40 nurse/governess. as such, mrs. leland is clearly occupied with the public sphere. arthur olmstead, in contrast, is occupied with the private sphere because although he is, as mrs. leland understands, a businessman, in real estate, it transpires that his business is house letting and that he both owns and runs the boarding house in which mrs. leland herself lives. arthur is thus as fully occupied with the private sphere as mrs. leland is with the public. by doing this gilman responds to masculinists suggesting that masculinity will not fall into crisis, just because men become more involved with domesticity. rather, by the end of the story, not only does gilman redefine gender roles, but also manages to redefine marriage to the benefit of all concerned. mrs. leland gains a companion and housekeeper, arthur is able to marry the woman he loves and to have her continue to be the woman he admires, and johnny gains a father who takes an active interest in him and his education. enjoying her career as an actress, as well as the freedom it permits, "widow, not divorcee" (kessler 147) mrs. leland2, considers marriage a threat to both. "i hate – i’d like to write a dozen tragic plays to show how much i hate – housekeeping!"(153) she cries out to arthur olmstead, who is a resident and also, unknown to her, the owner of the boarding house where she lives. he is able to persuade her to marry him, only after refuting all six of her reasons why she doesn’t want to marry, not the least of which are the housewifely duties which give rise to the cry quoted above. only when arthur has removed or refuted all her objections does mrs. leland marry "her housekeeper." through this simple plot gilman perpetuates the notion that what women really want is marriage, if it can be achieved on their terms. gilman advises women that— we are slowly forming a nobler type of family; the union of two, based on love and recognized by law, maintained because of its happiness and use. . . . it gamze sabancı 41 will be good for all the parties concerned—man, woman and child; and promote our general social progress admirably (man-made world 50). by successfully turning a situation to their benefit, women can put themselves in a position to make decisions that do not require them to sacrifice their own personal pleasures. gilman here presents an independent woman whose lover does not require her to marry, yet who would apparently rather be married than not. in "her housekeeper" gilman shows that the fault lies not with women, but with marriage as an institution. unless that institution is reformed, intelligent women will stop agreeing to marry and society will collapse. by having arthur agree that traditional marriage is just a form of imprisonment that forces women to give up their careers and by having him object to this as much as her, gilman shows that a new man will be aware of women’s marital tribulations, appreciative of their fear, and ready to reform marriage for the good of all. just as arthur represents the new man, so in many ways mrs. leland fits gilman’s description of the new woman. she is strong, energetic and economically productive, yet she is also very feminine, attracting the attention of many men while also, importantly, being a mother. for gilman, women’s femininity and men’s masculinity is very important. she puts extra emphasis on the fact that when a woman is involved in the public sphere, which is supposed to be the man’s world, and a man is involved in the private sphere, supposedly the woman’s world, it does not make either of them less feminine or less masculine. responding to the social fear of masculinity being in crisis and femininity being erased by the kinds of reform she sought, gilman asserted that: our error lies in a false estimate of womanhood and manhood. the home, its labours, cares and limitations we have called womanly; and everything charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 42 else in life manly. . . . this is entirely wrong. (home 280) arthur olmstead is a hero who is successful in the traditionally male terms of being financially secure and able to provide for a wife, but he is also a reformist hero in his challenge to separate spheres and refusal to act like a tradition male: he seemed to make all the money he needed, occupied the two rooms and plentiful closet space of his floor in great contentment, and manifested most improper domesticity of taste by inviting friends to tea. “just like a woman!” mrs. leland told him (kessler 149). as monika elbert observes, mrs. leland is aware throughout the story that arthur is sensitive and nurturing and it is these qualities, contrasted with mrs. leland’s desire to retain her career and freedom from domestic drudgery, that leads elbert to state that "the whole story offers a role reversal of the traditional malefemale roles" (193). with mrs. leland as a professional actress and arthur as her housekeeper, (albeit one with his own business as well) and with this relation set to continue after the marriage and beyond the end of the story, gilman apparently effects a gender role reversal with the man more involved in creating and running the private sphere of the home while the woman is left free to continue her career on a public stage. this resolution seems to present in fictional form the turn of the century’s new ideology of female liberation and consequent masculine domesticity at work. supporting her view of this story as role reversal, elbert cites margaret marsh’s “suburban men and masculine domesticity” and refers to the emergence of the “contented suburban father” (marsh 166) who “even started to share in the onerous household tasks” (elbert 187). however marsh’s definition of turn of the century “masculine domesticity” is not quite the same as the role reversal elbert gamze sabancı 43 wants to find in gilman’s “her housekeeper”. in her article marsh specifically states that: it [masculine domesticity] was not equivalent to feminism. it was not an equal sharing of all household duties. nor did it extend to the belief that men and women ought to have identical opportunities in the larger society. (166) in the era when domesticity was clearly linked with women, it was potentially threatening for men and their manhood to be linked with domesticity. yet as we have seen, for different reasons both masculinists and profeminists thought it necessary for men to become more closely associated with the home and more directly involved in family life, particularly in the care of children. aware of the anxieties the topic could arouse, gilman was very careful not to let the version of male domesticity she portrayed in “her housekeeper” interfere with arthur’s masculinity. creating a “heavily built” male who “lifted” and “set aside” “a pallid young man” (surely a representation of the feminized male) “as if he were an umbrella stand” (149), gilman highlights arthur’s masculine virtues (as masculinists would refer to them) ensuring that it will not disappear under his tea serving, housekeeping and child-care. as a result, it is possible to see why carol farley kessler has read arthur as a "model feminist partner" (59) and janet beer has identified a "primary shift in domestic responsibility from the woman to the man" (186). however, in keeping with marsh’s definition, we note that it is the women, the “excellent nursery governess” and maid, employed by mrs. leland (148) and the boarding house cook (employed by arthur) who do all the work. arthur’s only responsibility in this model marriage is to organize the general running of the house, rather than do any of the actual work himself. this continues the role he has been fulfilling from the start of charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 44 the story, although it is only half-way through that mrs. leland (and the reader) discovers this fact, when arthur reveals that he owns and runs the boardinghouse in which she lives so contentedly. this undermines elbert’s argument that this story offers a reversal of traditional male-female roles, or beer’s that it shows a shift in domestic responsibility since in fact the movement is away from the unusual situation where a woman, mrs. leland, earns the money to provide for her household, to the more traditional one where women are responsible for their traditional duties (cleaning, cooking and child care) while a man, arthur olmstead provides the house itself. although mrs. leland continues her acting career, the implication at the end of the tale is that arthur becomes responsible for the general housekeeping as part of his normal, boarding-house business. if the cook, maid or the governess were male, or if mrs. leland paid arthur an allowance to run the household, then elbert’s and beer’s argument would be accurate; as it stands, the story is not in fact as revolutionary as it appears. the balance achieved at the end of “her housekeeper” reflects gilman’s assertion that there are in fact three social spheres, not two: as a matter of fact, there is a “woman’s sphere” sharply defined and quite different from his, there is also a “man’s sphere”, as sharply defined and even more limited, but there remains a common sphere that of humanity, which belongs to both alike. (manmade, 37) gilman implies that sexual roles, which are natural and thus cannot be changed, should be separated from the gender roles that are imposed by society and so can be changed. thus, while there are areas that can be shared, or duties that can be performed by either (or both) sexes, just as arthur and mrs. leland take some part in caring for johnny, gilman’s belief in the continued existence of women’s spheres and men’s spheres and that women should undertake feminine gamze sabancı 45 roles and men masculine ones, hints that she does not quite approve of the feminine side of arthur. on the other hand, it is striking that arthur proves his suitability as husband by his willingness to invite people for tea and to provide it himself. we will find this motif of the male preparing food for others again in “the cottagette” in which ford provides a picnic for himself and malda (although, as discussed below) he has rejected the possibility of following his father into a career as a cook. such actions by these men in gilman’s fictional world seem to indicate that these men will be good husbands, and offers a positive counterexample to gilman’s point, as summarised by monika elbert, that when a man has "low expectations of [his wife], he does not really get much in return"(193). as gilman explains, the woman cannot be blamed for this situation: a man . . . has his position in the world and in the home, and finds happiness in both. he loves his wife, she meets his requirements as a husband, and he expects nothing more of her. his other requirements he meets in other ways. that she cannot give him this, that, and the other form of companionship . . . is no ground of blame; the world outside does that (home 226-27). gilman here presents the relationship between husband and wife in terms of expectations. the husband does not expect his wife to offer more than is necessary to "meet his requirements" which are themselves imagined according to social custom. the assumption is that these may include romantic love and certainly domestic chores but not intellectual companionship. there is thus no disappointment when the wife is not able to share her husband’s interests and, more crucially, no thought given to the wife having any interests in the world outside the home on her own account. in fact more usually any such interest is quashed. it is this kind of marriage that mrs. leland finds "an imprisonment,” and charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 46 which is later categorically dismissed by arthur as not being a marriage at all in his final assertion “you were never married” (158). placing the above passage from home next to "her housekeeper" offers interesting insights into the story as a whole. from the beginning of the story mrs. leland has made it clear that she would not give up either her profession or her freedom, nor would she housekeep. arthur is therefore aware of what to expect and what not to expect from mrs. leland as a wife. he does not expect her to do the housekeeping, but nor does he expect to do it either. the actual boardinghousekeeper, who mrs. leland finds perfect, is an unnamed woman, whose predecessor was dismissed because mrs. leland "did not much like the first housekeeper" (158). in addition to the general staff of the house, mrs. leland personally employs a governess and a maid "who didn’t much mind where she slept or if she slept at all" (148). these minor characters, who hardly appear in the story, show gilman’s unfeeling practice of simply pushing undesirable jobs onto other usually lower-class women, whom she assumes are happy with their lot. that the household has been arranged to suit mrs. leland’s taste in one way makes her the most masculine person in the story. at the same time arthur, as eventual husband, will find some of "his other requirements" and "other forms of companionship" met by his wife, but not the domestic chores, which will simply be passed on to these other largely anonymous women. what is more interesting is the way arthur’s masculine side is both veiled and revealed by his apparent feminine side. each time arthur shows some sort of femininity, such as inviting his friends for tea, gilman also points out his masculinity by showing his physical strength and habit of taking control of a situation: “incidentally wouldn’t you be more comfortable on this side of the fire – the light falls better – don't move.” and before she realized what he was doing he gamze sabancı 47 picked her up, chair and all, and put her down softly on the other side, setting the footstool as before, and even daring to place her little feet upon it – but with so businesslike as air that she saw no opening for rebuke. it is difficult matter to object to a man’s doing things like that when he doesn’t look as if he was doing them (151-52). gilman’s description of how arthur uses his power is both amusing and relevant to her concept of the new man. arthur picking up the chair with mrs. leland still sitting on it and moving her to make her more comfortable amuses. his then carefully placing her feet on the footstool increases the humor, but also shows he is completely in control. this short episode reveals gilman’s new man as gentle, kind, but still strong: he just uses his strength without offending a woman. being a strong and independent character, we would expect mrs. leland to react against such behavior, and gilman hints that mrs. leland also expects this of herself, but the ease with which arthur takes command silences and apparently also attracts her. apparently gilman prefers her new man to be in control in some very traditional ways. however, one important point could be regarded as a moment of conflict between the masculine and feminine expectations. arthur is more concerned than mrs. leland about the care of her son, little johnny. this, coupled with the way he also takes care of mrs. leland herself, makes arthur more maternal than mrs. leland. although mrs. leland has clearly taken proper care of her son—he “does not look like a stage child” (148), we know that she spends little time with him. she may not have kitchen duties to worry about and limit her mental horizon, but her acting profession means she works late and sleeps until nearly lunchtime. the result is that johnny necessarily spends much of his time with his governess miss merton and the maid alice, a situation close to that described in women and economics: charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 48 what he needs far more and receives far less is the companionship, the association, the personal touch, of his father and mother. when the common labors of life are removed from the home, we shall have the time, and perhaps the inclination, to make the personal acquaintance of our children (301). mrs. leland has removed many of the "common labors," the everyday household chores, from her life and so might be presumed to be in a good position herself to bring up a healthy and intelligent boy, rather than a “kitchen-bred” child (“kitchenmindedness” 196). since she has escaped "the effect of the kitchen . . . on the mind" with its "endless repetition," her son enjoys the "progress" that results (“kitchenmindedness” 195). however, mrs. leland has her living to earn and her freedom to protect, whereas in contrast arthur olmstead always makes time for johnny and has appropriate amusements for him in his room. "her housekeeper" focuses on how a woman might combine marriage and profession, so including a child is not strictly necessary, but gilman did so, even though that child scarcely appears in the story. johnny is brought up by a governess and a maid, and although there is a fleeting mention of kindergarten, these two are his main companions, along with arthur filling a paternal role. this contrasts sharply with gilman’s ideal of a child's having playmates of the same age: there would be about one more of one’s self, others of the same size and age, in restful, helpful companionship . . . . think what a passion little children have for playmates of exactly their own age, because in them alone is perfect equality; and then think that the home-kept baby never has such companionship. (women and economics 288) playmates are therefore of vital importance in children’s social education, but johnny has none. instead, his governess miss merton, as his mother says, "has to go out and play with him—in all weathers" (149). in contrast the house is full of gamze sabancı 49 people his mother likes and she also has her "little top flat" (148) where she enjoys her privacy. she can eat with the others downstairs if she pleases, but mostly she does not, preferring to take her meal upstairs instead. she is living in the same house as her son, but has isolated herself from the whole household. freeing herself from housekeeping chores is acceptable in gilman’s eyes, even desirable, as her middle class new woman should be free from all the drudgery of the responsibilities of home—obstacles to her emancipation, but mrs. leland’s life seems to imitate that of a stereotypical professional man. she is free from chores, but also from personal involvement in her child’s education, very much as a traditional father might be. the example of mrs. leland reveals that unless families change how they operate, once women work outside the home, they will not find time for their children, just as once they become involved in housework, they could not find time for themselves. “her housekeeper” is not gilman’s only attempt at presenting an alternative domestic economy. “the cottagette”, written only six months later, also depicts gilman’s aim of involving men as well as women in the struggle for social reform. in the intelligent, successful and admirable ford mathews, male readers are offered a model of an enlightened man regarding a creative woman, who earns an independent income, as a desirable companion and a glory of his manhood, not as proof of his lack of manliness. the story’s intricate plot explores how a woman might capture a man’s heart without succumbing to the traditional female role of domestic angel. hence ford’s condition that malda “mustn’t cook” (137); to slot into stereotypical roles would be as unattractive to an emancipated man as to a liberated women. the tale, set in an artists’ retreat, challenges traditional gender roles. relationships unfold through the interactions among the three main characters—the narrator, embroidery-designer malda; her friend, pianist lois; and fellow resident, writer ford mathews. when malda falls in love with ford, her understanding of how charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 50 she should act to encourage ford’s interest in her and bring him to propose is influenced by lois, who is several years older than malda. lois enacts the role of an experienced older woman advising a younger friend. ford mathews is a writer just beginning to make his reputation and his livelihood, who, as we later learn, has previously needed to accept less fulfilling work as a cook. gilman begins her story with malda, a modern financially independent woman, who enjoys an apparently ideal life, as she shares a holiday “cottagette” at an artists' colony with her friend lois. here they are free to spend their time walking, drawing, talking and, in malda’s case, creating the embroidery designs from which she earns her living. importantly their “cottagette” has no kitchen: the two women take all their meals in a communal dining room and thus are freed from the chore of cooking. as the story begins, lois acts much as we might expect, that is as a guide and an agent of change in malda’s life. her character and role is similar to that of other older women in gilman’s fiction at this time, such as dr. bellair in the crux, mrs. marroner in “turned” or mrs. gordins in “making a change” (all published in 1911), who each help to steer younger woman into becoming new women. however, when the possibility of marriage arises for malda, lois is transformed into a representative of previous generations as she quickly reverts to established beliefs and values. contrary to our expectations, lois advises malda to act like a traditional housewife because, she claims, “what they [men] care for most, after all, is domesticity… what they want is a homemaker” (133). here lois, who is bohemian enough to have gone with her young friend to the artists’ colony, now represents the old order of established gender roles that trap women in homes. by presenting the relationship between old and new orders in terms of friendship, rather than defiance or conflict, gilman is able to reflect the internal confusion felt by many who are caught up in changing times. as katharine cockin explains, gamze sabancı 51 like other women's writing in this period treating the new woman phenomenon, presents relationships between women (those between older and younger women particularly) as sources of anxiety as well as sources of radical knowledge. relationships with older women (distantly related but rarely their mothers) promise transformation for the younger generation of women (84). the relationship with lois clearly becomes "a source of anxiety" for malda rather than of "radical knowledge." lois does not deliver permanent transformation; instead she represents the power of internalized tradition, even for a woman as “rational” (132) and experienced as lois herself. in this, lois represents the domestic ideology powerfully advocated in the american woman's home (1869) by gilman’s much-respected great aunts, catherine beecher (1800-1878) and harriet beecher stowe (1811-1896), whose conservatism seems to have had a lasting effect on gilman herself.3 in spite of doubts, malda accepts lois’s advice on domesticity and begins to cook. having begun the story by showing us the benefits of a kitchenless home, gilman intentionally changes the focus of the story by simply inserting a kitchen into the cottagette. this order of events makes gilman’s presentation of how patriarchal architecture imprisons and isolates women more effective, as readers are faced thereby with role model malda’s loss of freedom. malda's comment highlights exactly how kitchens can isolate women: "you go in for a minute and you see this thing and that thing and the other thing to be done and your minute is an hour before you know it" (135). no matter how small its size, work always appears needed in a kitchen, as it is the heart of the entire home; a view springing from the assumption that families ought to eat together at home, and so therefore, individual women in domestic kitchens provide the meals that bind families together. gilman combats this view in women and economics by asserting, “eating is an individual charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 52 function. cooking is a social function” (240) as she attempts to point out to her readers how easily we overlook the value of cooking to individual homes and to society in general. household members cannot work without having meals, but the substantial work of preparing those meals prevents the person responsible from doing much else during the day. properly understood, then, cooking is work that should be recognized as such and removed from individual homes. however, although she eliminates the individual kitchen and substitutes a communal kitchen both in her blue-print for a reformed society in women and economics and in the fictional artists’ retreat that is the setting of “the cottagette”, gilman leaves the association of women with domestic labour intact.4 we can see this circumstance developing in “the cottagette” when the kitchen is installed. malda, a good cook, becomes responsible for producing the meals, and consequently is isolated, but eating remains a social function where everybody sits together to eat the food that malda has prepared. indeed precisely because eating is social and thus a way to attract ford, lois recommends that malda show her skill at being a typical domestic wife. however, by showing us the consequences of adding the kitchen to the previously kitchenless cottagette, gilman inadvertently changes her assertion from “eating is an individual function. cooking is a social function” (women and economics 240) to “eating is a social function, cooking is an individual function.” of course, in her fully worked out theory of the kitchenless home, gilman demonstrates that the concept of cooking is altered when it becomes normal practice to eat or fetch meals from communal kitchens run along professional lines. in such idealized conditions day-to-day cooking is taken out of the private sphere and becomes part of the economics of the public sphere. however, in this story, gilman’s concern is not with the paid cook in the communal kitchen, but with the effects of unpaid domestic chores on a talented young woman. not only does the gamze sabancı 53 newly added kitchen result in malda’s isolation, but also with this new kitchen come the additional responsibilities of awaiting deliveries and washing dishes. as a result malda neglects her artistic work, so as not to neglect ford and so becomes an example of gertrude stuart baillie’s view, argued in 1894 that “if a woman should marry, she would be nonetheless an artist, but she would be surrounded by numerous other cares” (293). while these new domestic obligations restrict malda's freedom, she remains determined to win over ford and thus persists with the housework. in effect, gilman creates a new character for malda, in contrast to the independent one presented at the beginning of the story, one that now seems close to the helpless, domestic female whose evolution gilman describes in women and economics: “when he became her immediate and all–important environment, she began proportionately to respond to this new influence, and to be modified accordingly” (61-62). malda is now a woman who has a home, not just a house, and who is sacrificing her own time and pleasure just to keep this home for the man she loves. however, it is not only ford who drops in: “there were others of course, plenty of them dropping in, but i didn’t encourage them, it made so much more work” (135). paradoxically, malda and lois end up with more visitors than they can cope with and have to enlist the help of lois’s mother, who comes to stay; but malda's isolation still increases. ford himself seems to enjoy the domestic feeling of the home malda has created for him, yet because of the housework for which malda is responsible, the two cannot seem to find time enough to spend together. malda’s new arrangements are more in tune with gilman’s great aunt’s views about architectural feminism than her own. dolores hayden summarizes catharine beecher’s view of the home as “above all a space for woman’s domestic labor in the service of men and children” (redesigning 22) so she “had spent her energy heightening gender distinctions and designing an charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 54 ideal single-family home for the christian wife and mother” (domestic 184). yvonne gaudelius further claims that the aim of beecher and those who shared her views was to “give women control over the private, domestic spaces of the home” so that women could “gain equal footing with the control that men had in the public sphere" (112).5 beecher argued that if public space is under men’s control, domestic space should be under women’s control. in marked contrast, gilman found this control to be so limiting, unproductive, and physically and mentally destructive that she aimed to separate women from domestic duties by professionalizing them, and giving women the same access to the public space that men have. however, what we see in “the cottagette” does not quite meet gilman’s aim of professionalizing domestic activities. malda becomes preoccupied with the kitchen and comes to perceive it as territory not to be shared with anyone else. malda appears to prove catherine beecher right in enjoying her control over this newly-created domestic space, but the arrangement is flawed, as she cannot choose who joins her there. when lois’s mother arrives at the cottagette to help out, malda finds her an inconvenience as “a new hand in the kitchen,” but at the same time thinks to herself, “ford never seemed to want to wipe dishes, though i often wish he would” (136). in spite of the additional work the kitchen entails, malda believes she would be content if ford offered to help her there, yet ford never takes this opportunity to spend time with her, and so avoids being drawn into this traditionally feminine sphere. instead he suggests going for a picnic as an alternative social activity they could enjoy together. ford’s refusal to help in the kitchen raises the question of whether he simply enjoys malda’s sudden domestic conversion, or is unimpressed by the old rules. though readers may not be clear whether ford is being criticized for avoiding the kitchen or whether he is right not to join in and so risk being absorbed by gamze sabancı 55 domestic chores, gilman soon clarifies: the problem is not who does the work, but the amount of time that the work consumes. gilman had tackled this topic seven years earlier in the home (1903) in her usual direct style: there will be some pathetic protest here that it is a man’s duty to help women bear the troubles and difficulties of the home. the woman ardently believes this, and the man too, sometimes. of all incredible impositions, this is the most astounding… granting that the care of body is women’s special work; the feeding, clothing and cleaning of the world; she should by this time have developed some system of doing it which would make it less of a burden to the man as well as the woman (286–87). gilman claims here that women are still responsible for domestic labor: while calling for a new system in terms that make such labor less of a burden to the man may be strategic, the basic assumption that home is the woman’s domain remains untouched. the view that women are always responsible for home, while men are never to be so involved, often occurs in gilman's fiction.6 “the cottagette” is a case in point: the other male visitors may offer to help washing the dishes, but gilman implies that malda always refuses. when ford wants to talk to malda alone, he takes her out of the house for a walk and comes prepared with a picnic of his own making (136-37). on the other hand, ford’s objection to malda’s new identity reminds her (and readers) of the contentment that existed in the cottagette as it was before the kitchen was added. this realization, however, raises another question. as my opening quotation from the home indicates, gilman claims that husbands consider their wives' supporting themselves unfeminine because such action implies a lack of manliness in themselves as husbands. by analogy, women might well consider husbands' doing housework unmasculine because this signifies a lack of femininity in their capacity as wives. regardless of their independence, women still consider charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 56 housework as their natural responsibility, and do not want to share it with men, just as men do not want to share with women their wealth producing power. this means that both men and women have a vested interest in maintaining the gendered division of work and responsibility. in her essay “now we can begin” (1920), crystal eastman claims that the reason men do not get involved with housework is that they have been socialized to believe that they are incapable of doing it: men will not give up their privilege of helplessness without a struggle… it was his mother’s fault at the beginning, but even as a boy he was quick to see how a general reputation for being "no good around the house" would serve him throughout life, and half-consciously he began to cultivate that helplessness until to-day it is the despair of feminist wives (239). this state of affairs comes to appear natural and obvious: each sex internalizes these expectations and each sex assumes that what is so has always been so—men cannot do housework while women have a special talent for it. while “her housekeeper” demonstrates that women perpetuate a traditional state of affairs just as much as men, “the cottagette” is more subtle since at its conclusion readers find that ford does not like what domesticity has done to malda. his not offering to help with domestic chores is an informed refusal and, in gilman’s view, appropriate. not only was his father a cook “at good wages,” but one summer ford himself also “cooked for a living,” but only because he was “hard up” (137). these details betray gilman’s own dislike for cooking, for her routine cooking is an undesirable job, a chore even: gilman wants readers to understand the effects such work has on those who undertake it and so provides her male hero with past experience that ensures he has personal knowledge of those effects likewise. ford has no romantic notions about cooking and does not want to endorse the division of labor that places women in the kitchen. his objecting to malda's being a cook fits gamze sabancı 57 the image of a new man, both aware of the damage done by traditional social roles and eager to change them. ford’s objections are based on his recognition of what “this kitchen business” has done to malda’s “beautiful and distinctive art” (137) but we also sense his own distaste for the whole cooking business itself. here gilman strategically offers a model for the male acceptance of the new woman. guided by lois, malda had tried to fit herself into the traditional role of domestic wife; yet now ford offers her an alternative in the form of a condition for marriage: “you mustn’t cook!” (137). having created a male character whose father was a cook and who knows how to cook himself, gilman could easily have concluded the story with an agreement between ford and malda to share this domestic chore. however, in ford's rhetorical question “what would you think of me if i gave up my hard long years of writing for the easy competence of a well-paid cook?” (137), gilman emphasizes that ford has no desire to be a cook again. she permits him insight while also feminizing this figure of a new man, who “was big. not extra big in pounds and inches, but a man with big view and a grip—with purpose and real power” (132). an emphasis upon ford’s physical appearance echoes careful demonstrations of arthur olmstead’s physical strength in “her housekeeper.” likewise, instead of sharing cooking, the exchange between ford and malda at the story's end implies that once married, they will find another communal kitchen. this implication demonstrates gilman’s habit of pushing aspects of life she disliked, such as cooking, cleaning, and other domestic chores out of the main focus of her fiction7. regarding the story in this light, readers see even more clearly how gilman implicitly supports a role division between men and women, while neglecting the notion that “participatory democracy begins at home,” to borrow pat mainardi’s phrase (192). we expect gilman to claim the womanliness as well as manliness of charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 58 earning a living: “the cottagette” in particular offers gilman the opportunity of also declaring that cooking and cleaning be considered manly as well as womanly, being part of that third “human” sphere she mentions in man-made world (37); but gilman missed the chance. we could defend gilman here by saying that far from endorsing the view that men are “no good around the house,” as does eastman (239), she makes the far better point that “ideas do not change as fast as facts” (home 325). yet even so, the patriarchal traditions underlying the idea that running a home is women’s duty go unchallenged in both “her housekeeper” and “the cottagette”; nor is it challenged in gilman’s architectural feminism as a whole, where she asserts that “a stronger, wiser, nobler woman must make a better home” (home 327). throughout her writing gilman thus retains women as the sex responsible for the home, even though permitted to act in typically masculine public space as well. nonetheless in “the cottagette,” lois offers traditional, patriarchal advice while ford provides an alternative. malda, who appears to have few ideas of her own, as she is easily swayed by lois or ford, quietly presents her views, but also sets them aside. her internalized assumptions quash any slight questioning of lois’s ideas, as does her willingness to follow her advice in the hope of catching ford: “i had no objection to the work, except that it prevented my doing anything else. and one’s hands are not so nice when one cooks and washes dishes, – i need nice hands for my needlework. but if it was a question of pleasing ford mathews…” (134). in a manner that recalls the unnamed protagonist of "the yellow wall-paper," malda’s gently worded acceptance of lois’s advice contains both perceptive objection and agreement. the word “question” followed by the ellipsis is key here: they allow us to hear malda’s questioning of lois’s advice, as well as her willingness to follow questionable advice to secure ford’s affections, including ruining her hands for the needlework by which she earns her living and fulfils her creativity. gamze sabancı 59 malda focuses on ford’s happiness, while disregarding her own: she assumes she will be happy as long as he is happy. gilman here portrays malda as a woman who is in truth dependant on the man in her life, yet at the same time gilman redeems the situation of the man making the decisions by giving ford the insight to see that both their lives would be better if malda gave up her domestic duties. having at first made this a condition of his marriage proposal, ford finally gives malda the option, matching her devotion with his own: “i withdraw the condition. i will love you always, even if you insist on being my cook for life” (138). readers as well as ford know malda’s answer even before she utters the words “i don’t want to cook” (138) but it is important for the equality of this match that ford should at least apparently give up his power to make decisions or exact conditions. accustomed as we are to gilman's using fiction to present ideal scenarios for social change, we know that this story must end on a positive note, so we are easily led to read ford as an unconventional male, a new man like arthur olmstead, who is to be praised for going against tradition. in each character, gilman attempts to show that men can stand outside traditional society and act differently from traditional patriarchal male figures. it is this that allows us to see ford and arthur as profeminist men, in kimmel’s terms, and yet as with arthur, ford retains enough traditional masculinity to also embody aspects of the masculinist response to feminism and keep at bay any anxieties that gilman’s new man would be feminized. however, although the plots and readers’ expectations both agree with this conclusion, elements within this story, as in "her housekeeper," challenge a completely positive reading of ford and of “the cottagette” as a whole. as we consider this story, we become more aware of difference between malda and ford. we notice that we have been told that malda has a minor gift and that gilman makes her good at a very typical feminine art—designing embroidery. malda herself doesn’t charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 60 believe that her work is important and dismisses it by saying, “mine wasn’t much. i did embroidery and made designs.” (132) this artistic skill is her only means of livelihood, which she seems not to value. in contrast ford as a newspaper man reflects gilman’s own respect for social engagement: his success is signaled by his shift to magazine writing “with books ahead” (131). this man, who has been established from the beginning of the story as someone who appreciates music and art, properly values the work of a woman and requires her to carry it on, if she wants to marry him. it is this that leads catherine golden to call ford mathews, “gilman’s most liberated new man” (131) and at first gilman’s ending, with malda appearing relieved and content, seems to support golden’s view. however, gilman's conclusion to the story—malda's rhetorical question praising ford—inevitably raises a hint of doubt: “was there ever a man like this?” (138). if we pause to consider this question carefully, we find that ford mathews is similar to other patriarchal figures, particularly arthur olmstead, in perhaps the most important respect: he speaks the last word. as a result his apparent final move of letting malda choose is in fact not really a choice at all, any more than mrs. leland is left with room to maneuver and refuse arthur’s proposal of marriage, or even to defend herself against the implication of having lied about her marital status. although both arthur and ford seem to be ideal new men, content with, if not actively preferring, the prospect of a working wife, both retain the masculine, socially-constructed predilection for power, since here, as elsewhere in her fiction, gilman makes women's independence reliant upon a man.8 the underlying relationship between ford and malda, as between arthur and mrs. leland, is disguised because we readers do not want malda to cook and have been willing mrs. leland to marry arthur. more worryingly perhaps, we, like malda are willing to accept ford’s estimation of her embroidery work as “quite too good to lose; it is gamze sabancı 61 beautiful and distinctive art” (137). this assertion is a concise equivalent to arthur’s painstaking step-by-step refutation of mrs. leland’s objections to marriage, coupled with his avowal of being a longstanding admirer of her acting. but the fact that we agree with these men’s conclusions should not lead us to overlook “[t]he transient trade we think evil” (women and economics 64) as men and women establish their social and marital roles. we thus collude with society as a whole, as described in women and economics, and with gilman’s plots in the two stories considered here: we applaud the marriages-to-be between arthur and mrs. leland and ford and malda, seeing them as not just rationally justified but romantically right. by showing us this “trade” in another style, "covered with flowers and incense and all accumulated sentiment” (women and economics 63), gilman allows her readers and perhaps even herself to think it "innocent, lovely, and right"(women and economics 63). yet, no matter how "right" ford and arthur appear, we must acknowledge the fact that these men still have the last word concerning malda and mrs. leland’s fates and in their respective stories. this in turn means they each maintain their definitive masculine power and status. in short at the end of these tales the husbands have become the “immediate and all-important environment” (women and economics 61) for their chosen wives, and the fact that those environments are shown to suit the women concerned should not blind us to the problems that remain within even these happy endings. notes 1 gilman’s 1910 novel what diantha did, serialized in the forerunner at the same time as the two stories discussed, concerns a housekeeping business run by diantha, the novel’s heroine. 2 from her own experience, gilman was very aware of how the public looked down upon divorced women. this reality may account for her choosing to have the heroine of "her housekeeper" claim to be a widow. there is some difference of charlotte perkins gilman’s re-creation of masculinity 62 opinion about mrs. leland’s actual marital status. critics such as kessler and suttonramspeck, believe the claim to be a widow is a social fiction, designed to lend some propriety to her son and her own independence of action. arthur olmstead’s absence part way through the text thus becomes a sleuthing trip during which he ascertains that she has never been married; a fact he then asserts at the end of the story. however, like polly wynn allen, i take mrs. leland’s claim to be a widow at face value: there is no immediate reason to doubt her word and in fact gilman makes a point of showing her drawing comparisons between her late husband and arthur olmstead when she looks around his rooms in his absence. that absence could be a simple business trip, or indeed one designed to make mrs. leland appreciate how much she and more importantly little johnny miss their friend when he is not there. the statement ‘you were never married’ thus becomes an assertion that traditional marriage of the kind she experienced with the unknown mr. leland is not true marriage at all. that, we are given to understand, she will experience only when married to arthur. 3 gilman regarded herself as having inherited “the beecher urge to social service” (living 6) and was conscious of the reputation of her beecher aunts throughout her life. of the three sisters—catharine beecher, harriet beecher stowe, and isabelle beecher hooker, only the last was actively feminist (see barbara white, the beecher sisters). gilman’s intellectual relationship with catharine beecher has been discussed by monika elbert in “the sins of the mothers and charlotte perkins gilman’s covert alliance with catharine beecher” in charlotte perkins gilman and her contemporaries (103-26). 4 gilman’s discusses the topic of kitchens and domestic labor in various essays and stories as well as in women and economics, but always from an essentially middleclass perspective, only rarely acknowledging the role of domestic servants. even when mentioned, such workers are usually dismissed within a sentence, as is the case with the woman who comes in on mondays to wash in “the cottagette” (136) or their work is casually devalued: ford refers to “the easy competency of a well-paid cook” (137). 5 for a full discussion of american feminist views on reforming architecture, see dolores hayden the grand domestic revolution, which includes a chapter on gilman. the set-up mrs. leland has in “her housekeeper” is very close to the “feminist apartment hotel” which gilman supported, as hayden discusses the grand domestic revolution pp.189195. the fully-fledged version of such an apartment hotel would provide communal child-care facilities as well as the central kitchen and private apartment space so valued by mrs. leland. there is no mention of such child-care arrangements in “her housekeeper” no doubt partly because mrs. leland’s son johnny is the only child in the house, but also, because one of the important aspects that recommends arthur olmstead as a husband is his willingness and ability to be involved with johnny’s care and upbringing. valerie gill also compares the views of catharine beecher and gilman in her article “catharine beecher and charlotte perkins gilman: architects of female power,” journal of american culture 21:2 (1998): 17-24. also see beth sutton-ramspeck’s discussion of gilman’s presentation of kitchenless homes in some of her other short stories in raising the dust: the literary housekeeping of mary ward, sarah grand, and charlotte perkins gilman (athens: ohio up, 2004). 6 for example, see “turned” (1911), “making a change” (1911), and “mrs. merrill’s duties” (1913). gamze sabancı 63 7 for more information on gilman’s personal experience on cooking and housekeeping see living, pp: 7889. 8 the crux is probably the most obvious text in which gilman’s female protagonist is finally given independence through the help of a man, but one might also point to "mrs. merrill’s duties" and "aunt mary’s pie plant." works cited adams, rachel and david savran, eds. the masculinity studies reader. oxford: blackwell, 2002. allen, polly wynn. building domestic liberty: charlotte perkins gilman’s architectural feminism. amherst: the university of massachusetts press, 1988. baillie, gertrude stuart. 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vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences analysis of burnout level of police officers: evidence from malatya, turkey recai aydin* turkish police academy, turkey mehmet ali tekiner turkish police academy, turkey abstract burnout, a relatively new concept, is defined as feeling cold and distant about one’s job or profession due to extreme stress or low level of job satisfaction. police profession is considered to be one of the most likely places to observe burnout for obvious reasons. there are numerous empirical studies conducted in highly stressful or dangerous professions. they find that burnout level increases with age, lower level of job satisfaction and length of service. this study investigates the current situation burnout among turkish police officers using a sample surveyed in the province of malatya. the study compares the stress and burnout levels of police employees with respect to their gender, position and length of service; and finds that burnout level is higher among ordinary police officers, male police employees and more experienced police employees. keywords: burnout syndrome; job satisfaction; police introduction researchers in the fields of psychology and sociology have been investigating the burnout syndrome through experimental research for over 30 years. theoretical structure of burnout syndrome has been presented in the literature in last 25 years. initially perceived as a source of stress, it has been analyzed and investigated through organizational structure and human resources perspective later (pearlman and hartman, 1982). for example, freudenberger initially believed that the burnout was the result of problems in organizational structure on workers but following his studies and experiments he concluded that burnout was more closely characterized with depression, unhappiness and boredom of workers (freudenberger, 1974). there are various definitions for burnout syndrome in the literature. pines and aranson (1981) define it as the situation of forcing the limits of workers physically, mentally and spiritually due excessive emotional demand in the work environment. however, the most common and widely accepted definition of burnout is done by maslach. she defines the burnout as the situation of emotional breakdown of the workers with the feeling of lack of self esteem and self confidence as a result of intense interaction with other workers in the work place (maslach and zimbardo, 1982). the opposite of this situation, hence the situation of worker being happy with the interaction of other workers and his work outcome is called job satisfaction. despite increasing use of technology, machines and robots in the work place, it is widely accepted fact that human involvement is still the most important factor of production in most industries. considering the ongoing shift around the globe from manufacturing to service industries, this fact becomes even more significant. today, * assoc. prof. dr. recai aydin is also visiting professor at the international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences d o i: 1 0. 21 53 3/ ep ip ha ny .v 9i 1. 20 1 100 r. aydin & m. a. tekiner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences most economic theories include human capital as one of the key elements of production function along with technology and physical capital. human capital simply overtook or replaced the quantity of labor in the function, hence implying that the quality of the labor is even more important than its quantity. this example highlights the importance of the quality of human resources of companies in order to achieve and ensure high productivity and efficiency. productivity of workers is determined by the availability of physical capital to workers, their education and skill levels and also their motivation. the latter one is very much associated with the mental and emotional state of the worker. in certain professions, high level of expectations from the worker along with the pressure from the peers and demanding work conditions may bring the workers to the point of collapse. this is especially true in professions which require being very accurate and very careful in making decisions as well as in exercising those decisions such as health workers, pilots, military professionals in close combat situations, firefighters on duty and police officers in highly hostile environments. therefore, it is not surprising that initial studies on burnout syndrome were done on these professions. however in later years, studies on the issue were extended to other professions which require dealing with people, patience and sacrifice such as teachers, librarians, prison guards and managers (azizoğlu, 2010). capitalism and resulting industrial conditions create a continuous pressure on firms to cut costs and increase profits. firms are expected to grow forever as keeping the market share or profit levels as it was before is considered as a failure. thus, firms set ambitious targets in each period to surpass their earlier achievements. most of the time, this could mainly be achieved by increasing per capita output without a parallel increase in the wages. in most industries where the natural work conditions are not the source of stress, this managerial pressure is the source of burnout. various factors may contribute burnout state. they can be grouped as personal characteristics, social factors and organizational factors. individual characteristics which may contribute burnout are given and they are not easy for a worker to change them in the short or medium run. mainly these characteristics are age, gender, education level, marital status, number of kids, personal expectations, family support or lack of it. people who work in the same job with similar work conditions may show different response to stressors. for instance, studies find that young employees show higher level of burnout due to their ambitions when they are exposed to high stress conditions compared to older and more experienced workers. similarly, females are found to be more prone to burnout compared to their male counterparts. also, while many would expect that higher level of education would help to deal with burnout, studies find higher incidence of burnout as education level increases among workers. in addition to individual characteristics, social factors also play an important role in burnout syndrome. the most significant of these factors is the family structure of the individual. workers with peaceful family life are less likely to be effected from burnout (kaçmaz, 2005). organizational or work related factors causing burnout can be listed as working hours and its length, work load, rewards, fairness, values and feeling to be part of the organization. when workers feel that there is a lack of fairness in the organization in terms of work load, rewarding or recognition of contribution, they gradually begin to feel detached. if this situation continues in the long term as an organizational policy with no hope of real change in the horizon, workers begin to feel alienated (arı and bal, 2008). it is well established in the literature that unbearable and hostile work conditions are 101 analysis of burnout level of police officers: evidence from malatya, turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences likely to result in burnout of workers and hence reduce their job satisfaction significantly. this can happen due to direct negative result of burnout on worker’s motivation as well as the indirect effect of burnout on the mental and emotional situation of the worker since these type of workers are more likely to be associated with high level of stress, mental health problems, family issues, drug addiction and possible loss of employment (kaçmaz, 2005). the most common symptoms of burnout syndrome are reported to be being late at work, attendance issues or absenteeism, decrease in productivity, frequent errors at work, clash with the authorities and failure to obey orders (tözün et al., 2008). burnout syndrome can be grouped into four stages: enthusiasm, stagnation, frustration and apathy. in the enthusiasm stage, the worker is yet fresh and new to the job. he or she has great desire to work and high hopes for the future. the worker is idealistic and tries to fit in and contribute with great energy. in the presence of high stress, inadequate rewarding mechanism and lack of recognition of contribution, the worker slowly loses his enthusiasm and begins to question his or her skills. there is a significant decrease in the desire of the worker. in the third stage, the worker gets frustrated with work conditions, peers and managers. he begins to withdraw himself from work since he feels excluded. in the last stage, the worker is hopeless and tired of job. he works only because he feels obligated (balcıoğlu et al, 2008). security forces face with burnout syndrome more frequently compared to other professions due to nature and risk structure of the work. however, the burnout experienced by military personnel versus police officers is also substantially different due to differences in people that they deal with. this study focuses on burnout syndrome in police officers and police chiefs. while military personnel are prepared to deal with armed groups and soldiers mostly in combat environment, police officers deal with any type of offender from domestic violence to bank robbery, from rape to homicide in civilian life environment. in other words, they deal with criminals in any location at any given time so their daily life is a combat zone while for military personnel the combat zone is more limited and obvious. this study intends to analyze the level of burnout and resulting job satisfaction level and the relationship between them using a sample from malatya province of turkey. this study extends an earlier study which was done with a relatively small sample size of only 89 officers from the city center of malatya province by surveying 214 police officers from the center and towns of malatya this time. the small sample size makes it rather difficult to reach reliable and significant result in many hypotheses tested. malatya is located in the eastern part of turkey and it is quite close to the area where long time clash between terrorist organization, pkk (kurdistan workers party) and turkish security forces though it is not considered as a center of terrorist activity of pkk. therefore, the alert level in the area can be considered as medium. an earlier but not yet published study by the authors surveyed 89 police officers in the center of malatya. however, this paper improves this study by increasing the sample size almost three times by including the police officers working in other town centers of malaty a province in the sample who were not part of the study in the first stage of the research. literature review on burnout syndrome there is an extensive research about burnout syndrome in the psychology and business literature. burnout syndrome was first introduced by freudenberger in order to explain the notion of fatigue, exhaustion, disappointment and loss of desire to work observed among 102 r. aydin & m. a. tekiner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences workers (kaçmaz, 2005). later, maslach and jackson helped develop the theoretical model of burnout syndrome. freudenberger initiated his work on the issue in 1974 because of his observations of fatigue and despair among nurses and doctors in medical facilities. freudenberger associated these symptoms with the excessive demand of employers from the workers and resulting feeling of being tired and despair (süloğlu, 2009). however, the term of “burnout” first appeared in a novel entitled “a burn-out case” by graham greene in 1961 in which the story of an architect who was exhausted and had quit his job and moved to african jungle was told. this book analyzed the concept of burnout in great detail and defined the concept as “losing someone his sense of loyalty and compassion to his profession.” this clearly indicates that the concept was well known and defined by sociologists as an important social issue (maslach et al., 2001). burnout is a psychological syndrome that results from a continuous exposure to chronic interpersonal stress sources on the workplace. the main dimensions of this exposure are an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion, feeling detached from the job, and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment at work (maslach 1993). burnout is the polar case of job satisfaction where people experience energy, involvement with their work, and feelings of effectiveness (maslach & leiter 1997). maslach believes that burnout syndrome does not occur suddenly. it is result of an accumulation of mental and physical stress in occupations which require highly complicated and stressful work conditions as well as in occupations that require more intense human interaction like certain service sectors such as teaching and policing (erol et al., 2007). much of the research on burnout has focused on determining what causes it and who is at higher risk of experiencing it. mainly, six key areas of work life are identified as predictors of burnout. these are level of workload, control mechanism, community involvement, company values, rewarding scheme for workers, and fairness of managers (maslach & leiter 1997, leiter & maslach 2004). research on these six areas suggests that there is a consistent correlation among them and a careful analyze of these predictors help to determine the likelihood and the level of burnout experienced by workers. business studies in burnout research have focused on the relationship between burnout level and important work outcomes. for example, some studies have found a significant negative relationship between level of nurse burnout and the quality of patient care (leiter et al. 1998, laschinger & leiter 2006). in general, burnout has been found to be correlated with various forms of negative attitudes towards job such as job dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment, absenteeism, intention to leave the job, and high turnover (schaufeli & enzmann 1998). on the other hand, it should be noted that research on the polar case, job satisfaction, began much earlier, in 1920s. initially the research focused on understanding what makes workers happier and more productive and how to increase this happiness and productivity over the time (tözün et al., 2008). then, researchers witnessed several cases specifically in nursing and teaching where firms faced with increasing number of workers who felt exhausted, detached and failed in their jobs despite all their efforts to boost employee morale and productivity. only then, the term of burnout syndrome was introduced to the literature. but, today many researcher accept that burnout is not only limited to certain professions with high level of stress. it is widely observed phenomenon in many areas of industrial production as well as service industries. it becomes more and more important issue with the increasing level of income and wealth in developed and developing countries. 103 analysis of burnout level of police officers: evidence from malatya, turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences as expected, there are many studies done in analyzing burnout level of police officers as police officers are prone to high level of stress. burke (1993) surveyed 828 police officers in order to investigate the impact of their job satisfaction level on their mental and physical health. he found a high level of burnout among police officers and that was negatively affecting their mental and physical health. golembiewski et al. (1992) surveyed 213 police officers in order to find out the impact of burnout of police officers on their mental health and found higher incidence of mental problems in the officers with higher level of burnout experienced. şanlı (2006) conducted a study on police officers in order to determine the effect of demographic characteristics on job satisfaction and burnout level. he found that both job satisfaction and burnout level differed with respect to workplace, work system, and economic conditions. martinussen et al. (2007) examine the relationship between job demands, job resources, and burnout in police officers. they also check if burnout could predict both work and health-related outcomes among police officers by applying a questionnaire on 223 norwegian police officers. they found that the overall level of burnout was low among police officers compared to other occupational groups tested in norway. both job demands and job resources were related to burnout as expected and especially work-family pressure was an important predictor for all of the three burnout dimensions. burnout was helpful to predict individual outcomes, such as psychosomatic complaints and satisfaction with life, as well as work outcomes like job satisfaction, loyalty and intention to quit. gershon et al. (2002) studied work stress and resulting burnout in aging police officers using a sample of 1106 police officers (of which 105 was over 50 and were selected for this study) from a large urban area police department in the united states and found the higher incidence of stress-related health issues as well as heavy drinking and gambling problems compared to younger police officers who were not exposed to work related stress since they were working under less stressful conditions. mccarty et al. (2007) investigate if male and female police officers report different levels of occupational stress and burnout using a sample of police officers working in a large city in the northeast of the united states. they also examine whether various factors that are believed to influence occupational stress and burnout have different level of impact on male and female officers. they find that male and female officers are not exposed to significantly different levels of occupational stress and burnout. according to the results of separate multivariate analyses, they suspect that male and female officers may be prune to the same set of stressors in the police organization. also, multivariate results indicate that african-american female officers report significantly higher levels of burnout than other officers. yang and wang (2008) investigate the causes of police burnout in chinese police forces. they list long-term occupational danger, heavy public and peer pressure, high strength and hyperirritability are likely reasons to cause professional burnout. they conclude that understanding the causes and countermeasures of professional burnout is of great realistic significance for enhancing the efficiency of police actions. police professional burnout can be eliminated through optimizing social environment, improving management structure of police agencies, strengthening legal rights of the police officers and increasing the quality of police cadets. hall et al. (2010) propose and test a comprehensive theory designed to explain seemingly contradictory relations between job demands, emotional exhaustion, and work-family conflict reported in the literature. using various theories of burnout they 104 r. aydin & m. a. tekiner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences hypothesized that job demands would spillover to emotional exhaustion, and alternatively that job demands would also spillover to work-family conflict. they also hypothesized that a new and more complex model representing reciprocal and cross-linked effects could explain the existing data better. they tested their hypotheses using a longitudinal data of 257 australian police officers in two different periods with, at least with a year distance. using structural equation modeling, they found that the more complex model fitted the data better than other models. they conclude that interventions to reduce work demands arising from work pressure and emotional demands are indicated to prevent conflict at home and burnout in police officers. there is a consensus in the literature and among scholars that burnout is a negative phenomenon. however, interestingly one study actually claims a potential positive side of burnout. euwema et al. (2004) analyzes the behavior of police officers in conflict situations and investigates how burnout and resulting reduced dominance may affect policing outcomes. they claim that burnout reduces the dominance which plays an importance role in police-civilian interactions, and paradoxically this may lead to more effective outcomes in conflict situations. the study aims to understand the effect of burnout in policing practice by analyzing the relationship among demands, rewards, occupational burnout and police officers’ behavior in conflict situations using a questionnaire among 358 dutch police officers. in addition, they observed the interaction between these police officers and civilians for over 122 days. they find that the imbalance between job demands and rewards was a good predictor of burnout. they also find that burnout predicted a decrease in dominant behavior, as expected, in conflict situations and then this leads to more effective outcomes in conflict situations. but this conclusion seems a big leap of faith as one might interpret that reduced dominance, whether it is a result of burnout or something else might be a positive factor in dealing with conflict situations. the authors conclude that benefits of reduced dominance in these situations should be taken into account in the training of professionals. however, the positive link between burnout and better results in conflict situations does not seem convincing. data and methodology this study uses primary data collected from a sample of police officers and police chiefs randomly selected from the police force of malatya province. the population of this study is the whole turkish police organization and it would be ideal to use stratified sample for the purpose of the study. however, this requires a special permission from the general directorate of turkish police and generally it is a lengthy and uncertain process. therefore, instead authors opted to limit the scope of the study into single province, malatya, where one of the authors was officially employed in the police forces in the province; hence it was possible to obtain necessary permission from the chief of police for the province. this study applied a survey that consisted of forty three questions in four sub sections; profile, emotional exhaustion, individual accomplishment and feeling of detachment. in the first section, three personal profile questions; gender, position and length of service are asked. age initially was part of the questionnaire but later it was excluded as age and length of service are almost perfectly correlated with each other in the turkish police organization due to narrow hiring age window. the rest of the questions ask the opinion of participants about various aspects of their job satisfaction and related issues. majority of the questions were adopted from operational and organizational police stress questionnaires developed by mccreary and thompson (2006) and modified 105 analysis of burnout level of police officers: evidence from malatya, turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences for this study. however, this study uses 5 level likert scale instead of 7 level used by the developers (where 1 indicates “strongly disagree” and 5 indicates “strongly agree”). this study compares the mean responses of survey participants for each question and determine if there is a significant difference among the participants with respect to their gender, position and length of service. this study also developed a score system to measure the stress level of each participant by assigning a unit value for the response of each question, for any given participant. as there are forty of 5 level likert questions, any participant is expected to collect a total points of 40 (minimum possible score) to 200 (maximum possible score). then, the average stress score will be calculated for each sub group, by simply calculating the mean of the stress scores for each participant in that group. however, it should be noted that, in such a design, more statistical analysis and more complex methodoly would be needed in order to correctly decide about the boundaries of high stress versus medium level stress or low stress. but this is beyond the scope of this paper. therefore, this study uses mean stress scores only to make comparisons among police officers with respect to their gender, position and length of service. in addition, this study employed factor analysis in order to determine if grouping the questions would produce meaningful results. factor analysis results indicated that the most efficient number of factors was five. however, after careful analysis of the groupings, it was decided to use four grouping. in this stage, authors decided to combine the results of factor analysis with the intuition and constructed groupings which only partially supported by the results of the statistical analysis. therefore, the factor analysis results are not provided in the paper as they are not fully employed but rather are the main basis for the question selection. in doing so, the study aimed to come up with meaningful groupings of the questions. according to this methodology, following groups and resulting scores are calculated: • job satisfaction score (questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 20) • personal exhaustion score (questions 16, 17, 32, 34, 36, 37, 39 and 40) • detachment score (questions 19, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 35) • lack of accomplishment score (questions 26, 27, 28, 29, 33 and 38) as a result of varying number of questions selected for each classification, boundaries for each participant’s relevant score also vary (for instance it will be between 14 and 70 for job satisfaction score while it will be between 8 and 40 for personal exhaustion score for each participant). it should be noted that these grouping logic essentially follows maslach (1993)’s three dimensional approach to burnout. sum of the personal exhaustion score, detachment score and lack of accomplishment score can be defined as “burnout score”. this study also measures burnout score and check for the differences of mean values of those scores with respect to gender, position and length of service. as explained above, initially the survey was conducted only in the province center of malatya with 89 police officers and police administrators. however, the sample size was not large enough to have reliable results and therefore in the second stage the study was extended to the police forces working in other cities and towns of malatya province in order to increase the sample size. with this extension, the total sample size reached to 214. data were analyzed using spss 19.0 statistical package. table 1: descriptive statistics of the sample 106 r. aydin & m. a. tekiner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences n percent gender male 179 83.6 female 35 16.4 position police officer 172 80.4 ranking officer 42 19.6 length of service less than 5 years 85 39.7 5 years or more 77 36.0 10 14 years 34 15.9 15 years and more 18 8.4 descriptive statistics of the sample is provided in table 1. as it can be seen from the table, majority of the survey participants are male and this is not surprising since the turkish police force is heavily male oriented as it is the case in most countries. similarly, majority of the respondents are regular police officer without a rank. ranking officers in the survey consists of lower level police administrators such as deputy commissairs, commissairs and police superintendents. finally, large percentage of respondents is officers with less than 10 years experience. it should be noted in turkish police force appointments are done through central placement system and officers are subjected to rotation in different parts of the country frequently, including a mandatory service requirement in the eastern part of the country where terrorist activities of pkk exist and also the area is less developed, hence less desired by many officers to locate and work. therefore, decreasing number of officers in the province can also be explained with the fact that most police officers choose to serve in the western provinces of turkey once they complete their mandatory service in the eastern turkey. however, as explained in the introduction, malatya province is considered to be relatively safe and peaceful as well as desirable. therefore, the percentage of officers with more than 10 years of experience can still be considered as high, especially after taking natural decrease in the number of experienced officers due to deaths and resignations into consideration. empirical results as explained above, survey questions were prepared using operational and organizational police stress questionnaries developed by mccreary and thompson (2006) and these surveys have already been tested and were found to be reliable. further test of modified questionnaire of this study using cronbach’s alpha was conducted and the reliability of 40 survey questions was checked. according to this particular reliablity test: if α < 0.5, the test is not reliable at all, if 0.5 ≤ α < 0.6, the reliability of the test is poor, if 0.6 ≤ α < 0.7, the reliability of the test is at questionable level, if 0.7 ≤ α < 0.8, the reliability of the test is at acceptable level, if 0.8 ≤ α < 0.9, the reliability of the test is good; and if α ≥ 0.9, the reliability of the test is excellent (george and mallery, 2003). the cronbach’s alpha test result, α, for the survey is found as 0.911 and therefore it is safe to claim that the survey questions are consistent and highly reliable. 107 analysis of burnout level of police officers: evidence from malatya, turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences existing literature on the topic finds a positive correlation between length of service and burnout in highle stressed prone professions like policing. therefore, this study tests this finding to find out if it is also the case with the turkish police force in malatya province. in addition, this study also tests if there is a difference in terms of burnout or personal exhaustion between male and female officers as well as between regular police officers and ranking officers. table 2 presents the summary of mean responses to survey questions along with their standard deviation. the average value of mean responses is equal to 3.26 and the standard deviation of mean responses is equal to 0.58. according to table 2, four of the responses have a mean value over 4.0 and ten of them have a mean value over 3.50. considering mean responses higher than 3.50 as an indication of heavily agreeing with the statement and indicating a possibly important issue, it can be concluded that police employees in the sample, ignoring their gender, position and length of service for the sake of the discussion, are not pleased at all with the level of bureaucracy and red taping in the organization, working hours and shift work, financial compensation and with internal investigation procedures. in addition, they also are somewhat displeased with frequent changes in policies, promotion system and promotion opportunies, and unfair distribution of responsibilities. they complain about lack of time for their families and friends due to their job obligations. they feel not appreciated by their supervisers and also many of them feel trapped in this line of work, which can be explained with the fact that ranking officers are obligated to pay a hefty sum in case they want to quit before they complete their mandatory service time which is the result of their education cost fully paid by the government and can be as high as 16 years for some officers. table 2: summary of responses to survey questions question number questions mean standard deviation 1 there are excessive administrative issues and red taping 4.12 0.93 2 frequent changes in policies & regulations 3.68 1.18 3 unfair distribution of work and responsibilities 3.88 1.11 4 supervisers overemphasize the negatives 3.72 1.03 5 i believe there is favoritism in the organization 3.91 1.21 6 my superiors would not cover my back if i am in trouble 3.45 1.45 7 promotion system is unfair 3.99 1.02 8 promotion opportunities are limited 3.85 1.08 9 constant fear of internal investigations 4.02 1.13 10 working extra hours with insufficient compensation 4.34 0.88 11 there is not enough training and equipment 3.30 1.53 12 the organization’s human resources management is bad 3.28 1.21 13 frequent requirement of shift working creates stress 3.79 1.18 14 financial compensation for my work is not sufficient 4.56 0.67 15 i would not recommend others to work for the police 3.25 1.09 16 i experience fatigue and occupational health issues 3.04 1.62 17 i feel like i am always at work 3.16 1.38 108 r. aydin & m. a. tekiner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences 18 i do not have enough time for my family and friends 3.65 1.31 19 i have no desire to go to work 2.89 1.28 20 i regret for my career choice 3.09 1.43 21 i often go to work late 2.48 1.58 22 i often miss work with lame excuses 2.30 1.52 23 i often think about quitting 2.16 1.46 24 i do not feel like i am a team player anymore 2.89 1.13 25 i feel not appreciated by my family 2.44 1.05 26 i feel not appreciated by my colleagues 2.79 1.24 27 i feel not apprecıated by my superiors 3.58 1.06 28 i feel not appreciated by the public that i serve 3.22 1.17 29 i feel that i am not good at my job 2.85 1.12 30 i worry a lot about getting injured/killed at work 2.45 1.08 31 i am disappointed with the people 3.02 1.45 32 i have no hope for better future 3.34 1.56 33 i feel useless 2.96 1.46 34 i feel weak 2.87 1.52 35 i feel trapped 3.58 1.50 36 i feel helpless 3.43 1.39 37 i feel depressed 2.78 1.21 38 i feel like i am a failure 2.67 1.40 39 i have difficulties in sleeping 3.04 1.47 40 i have constant back pain 2.62 1.52 table 3: comparison of results with respect to gender, rank and experience gender rank experience questions male female officer chief 0-5 yrs 6+ yrs there are excessive administrative issues/ red taping 4.15 3.98 4.11 4.16 4.10 4.14 frequent changes in policies & regulations 3.65 3.73 3.66 3.74 3.48* 3.82* unfair distribution of work and responsibili-ties 3.97* 3.41* 3.99* 3.45* 4.11* 3.73* supervisers overemphasize the negatives 3.74 3.62 3.75 3.62 3.69 3.74 i believe there is favoritism in the organiza-tion 3.94 3.83 3.94 3.81 3.86 3.94 my superiors would not cover my back 3.48 3.34 3.56* 3.01* 3.23* 3.60* promotion system is unfair 4.01 3.90 4.06* 3.72* 4.04 3.95 promotion opportunities are limited 3.88 3.72 4.05* 3.02* 3.91 3.81 constant fear of internal investigations 4.05 3.89 4.04 3.96 3.92 4.08 working extra hours with insufficient compensation 4.43* 3.87* 4.35 4.29 4.27 4.39 there is not enough training and equipment 3.33 3.17 3.34 3.17 3.32 3.29 109 analysis of burnout level of police officers: evidence from malatya, turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences human resources management is bad 3.30 3.18 3.25 3.40 3.21 3.33 frequent requirement of shift working creates stress 3.98* 2.85* 3.81 3.73 3.75 3.82 financial rewards for my work is not sufficient 4.57 4.51 4.55 4.59 4.29* 4.71* i would not recommend working for the police 3.34* 2.79* 3.22 3.37 2.80* 3.55* i experience fatigue and occupational health issues 3.13* 2.54* 3.13* 2.70* 2.47* 3.42* i feel like i am always at work 3.18 3.08 3.27* 2.72* 3.21 3.13 i do not have enough time for my family/ friends 3.63 3.77 3.81* 3.02* 3.36* 3.83* i have no desire to go to work 2.92 2.75 3.04* 2.28* 2.46* 3.17* i regret for my career choice 3.17* 2.70* 3.00* 3.46* 2.50* 3.48* i often go to work late 2.45 2.62 2.51 2.38 2.21* 2.65* i often miss work with lame excuses 2.28 2.38 2.29 2.33 2.04* 2.48* i often think about quitting 2.18 2.08 2.14 2.23 2.13 2.18 i do not feel like i am a team player anymore 2.92 2.77 2.93 2.75 2.85 2.92 i feel not appreciated by my family 2.51* 2.09* 2.47 2.32 2.36 2.50 i feel not appreciated by my colleauges 2.80 2.74 2.82 2.69 2.68 2.86 i feel not apprecıated by my superiors 3.67* 3.15* 3.67* 3.20* 3.47 3.65 i feel not appreciated by the public that i serve 3.24 3.13 3.24 3.15 2.96* 3.39* i feel that i am not good at my job 2.86 2.80 2.88 2.74 2.78 2.89 i worry a lot about getting injured/killed at work 2.61* 1.66* 2.49 2.31 2.20* 2.62* i am disappointed with the people 3.05 2.90 3.05 2.92 2.75* 3.20* i have no hope for better future 3.40* 3.05* 3.37 3.26 2.99* 3.57* i feel useless 2.97 2.90 3.11* 2.35* 2.68* 3.14* i feel weak 2.84 2.99 2.95* 2.56* 2.45* 3.15* i feel trapped 3.70* 2.97* 3.51* 3.89* 3.47 3.65 i feel helpless 3.53* 2.95* 3.47 3.27 3.28 3.53 i feel depressed 2.84* 2.50* 2.81 2.68 2.48* 2.98* i feel like i am a failure 2.75* 2.28* 2.70 2.57 2.52 2.77 i have difficulties in sleeping 3.11* 2.69* 3.07 2.94 2.75* 3.24* i have constant back pain 2.63 2.59 2.65 2.52 2.01* 3.03* * significant at 5 percent level or less table 3 presents the results for the mean comparison of each question with respect to gender, rank and length of service at 5 percent significance level. survey results, in general, are in line with the expectations and earlier findings in the literature. it is possible to see from the results the indications of low lovel of job satisfaction and hence signals of burnout in police employees. though majority of the police employees complain 110 r. aydin & m. a. tekiner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences about working hours, financial compensation, promotion procedures, fear of internal investigations and favoritism in the organization; male employees perceive a significantly higher level of negative impacts of above-mentioned factors. male employees also seem to report experiencing higher levels of negative personal feelings about themselves and their surrounding. however, this is not surprising given the structure and working conditions of turkish police organization, where relatively low percentage of female officers are hired and they are generally employed at desk jobs in order to reduce their exposure to physical danger. in general, results indicate that all poice employees regardless of their rank complain about too much bureaucracy and red taping, favoritism, working hours and conditions, promotion system, lack of time for family and friends, frequent changes in regulations and worrying for internal investigations. however, ordinary police officers’ responses indicate that they perceive a higher level of unfairness in promotions as well as distribution of work responsibilities. they also believe that promotion opportunities are more limited for themselves compared to ranking officers. this can be explained with the fact that only a small percentage of police officer can actually promote to ranking officer position each year since the majority of ranking officers in turkish police was recruited from the graduates of police academy in the past. in addition, there were numerous complaints and reports about the unfaireness of the selection process. they also indicate that they have lower level of confidence in their superiors when it comes to their support during internal investigations. ordinary police officers complain more about lack of time for their families. ranking officers report generally lower level of responses compared to ordinary police officers, indicating lower level of dissatisfaction. however, interestingly, ranking officers’ responses indicate significantly higher issues about their career choice and feeling trapped in the police organization. this is not surprising finding considering that most of the ranking officers are the graduates of turkish police academy and they are selected through an aptitude test from very successful middle school and high school students when they are very young. majority of them choose the career because of the allure of the uniform, guidance from their families and the impact of tv series and movies without really grasping what the choice requires from them. in other words, their choice may not be exactly rational and well informed choice as they are not fully aware of alternatives and opportunity cost of their choice. therefore, overtime it is normal to see that some of them are disappointed as they face the difficulties of the job, lack of proper rewarding and their classmates from secondary and high school in other profession with more attractive conditions. experience also has a large impact on burnout incidence and level of job satisfaction. employees with more experience seem to complain significantly more about frequent changes in regulations and legislation, lack of support from their superiors when they face with a problem at work, lack of appropriate financial compensation for their efforts and occupational health problems. they also report significantly higher level of dissatisfaction when it comes to job related stressors. these results are even more obvious when police employees with 15 year or more experience are compared to police officers with 5 or less years of experience. experienced police employees indicate that they are not happy with their career choice; they have low expectations for the future and they would not recommend their profession to others. on the other hand, police employees with less experience seem to complain more about the fairness in the distribution of work responsibilities among the employees. 111 analysis of burnout level of police officers: evidence from malatya, turkey epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences table 4 presents the results of comparisons of stress score, job satisfaction score, personal exhaustion score, detachment score, lack of accomplishment score and overall burnout score. it should be noted that, because of negative nature of questions statements, job satisfaction score was calculated by using the inverse valuation of responses (in other words, a “strongly disagree” response by a participant was valued as 5 instead of 1). table 4: score comparisons with respect to gender, rank and experience gender rank experience question groups male female officer chief 0-4 yrs 5+ yrs mean stress score 130.19 122.87 132.06 124.28 119.46* 135.53* mean job satisfaction score 27.33* 38.72* 30.22 31.68 32.07 29.51 mean personal exhaustion score 26.52* 20.39* 24.72 22.65 20.64* 26.05* mean detachment score 16.45 15.57 19.42* 14.36* 13.16* 18.05* mean lack of accomplishment score 18.29 17.00 18.42 15.70 17.09 18.70 mean burnout score 61.26* 52.96* 62.56* 52.71* 50.89* 62.80* sample size 179 35 172 42 85 129 * significant at 5 percent level or less the results indicate a significant difference only between relatively new recruits and experienced police employees in terms of overall stress score. when the groups are compared in terms of job satisfaction level, the only significant difference appear between male and female police employees. in terms of personal exhaustion score, significant difference is found between male and female employees as well as between less experienced and more experienced employees. as it is in line with stress score, male employees have a higher level of stress, though it is not significant, and also they experience a higher level of exhaustion due to harsher work conditions. similarly, both in stress scores and personal exhaustion scores experienced workers exhibit significantly higher levels compared to their less experienced counterparts. police officers experience a significantly higher level of detachment from job compared to police chiefs. similarly experienced employees face with higher level of detachment compared to less experienced employees. interestingly, however, when the comparison is made in terms of mean burnout score, significant difference in mean score values is observed across all sub groups. according to these results, it is possible to conclude that male employees, ordinary police officers and more experienced employees experience a higher level of burnout compared to female employees, police chiefs and less experienced employees, respectively. conclusion burnout is an important phenomenon in labor and labor relations literature as it effects labor moral hence labor productivity in the firms and institutions. numerous studies has aimed to understand the reasons for burnout and to find out ways to reduce the level of it. burnout is more common in ceratin professions which require intensive dealing with people or professions which are dangerous and highly stress ful by the nature of the job 112 r. aydin & m. a. tekiner epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 9, no. 1, (2016) © faculty of arts and social sciences such as teaching, medical services, fire fighting and policing. this study finds that there are signs of burnout in turkish police organization based on the results of a sample selected from the police employees in malatya province of turkey. the results indicate that police employees complain about the level of bureaucracy and red taping in the organization, working hours and shift work, financial compensation and internal investigation procedures. in addition, they are not pleased with frequent changes in regulations and legislations, promotion system and promotion opportunies, and unfair distribution of responsibilities. they also complain about lack of time for their families and friends due to their job obligations. they indicate lack of appreciation by their supervisers and they feel trapped in their current job. the results of the study indicate low lovel of job satisfaction and hence signals of burnout in police employees. male employees face with a significantly higher level of negative impacts of irregular working hours, high level of bureaucracy, limited promotion opportunities and unfair promotion practices. they also report experiencing higher levels of negative personal feelings about themselves and their surrounding. ordinary police officers report that they experience a higher level of unfairness in promotions as well as distribution of work responsibilities. they claim that promotion opportunities are more limited for themselves compared to ranking officers. they feel that they cannot trust their superiors when it comes to their support in case they are in trouble because of something they did during performing their work. ordinary police officers complain more about lack of time for their families while ranking officers regret for their career choice and feel trapped in the police organization. on the other hand, police employees with more experience complain significantly more about frequent changes in regulations and legislation, lack of support from their superiors when they face with a problem at work, lack of appropriate financial compensation for their efforts and occupational health problems compared to police employees with less experience. finally, this study finds that there is a significant difference between relatively new recruits and experienced police employees in terms of overall stress level. using the score system developed by this study, it is found that male employees, ordinary police officers and more experienced employees experience a higher level of burnout compared to female employees, police chiefs and less experienced employees, respectively. references arı g. s., bal e. ç. 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kabat-zinn, 1990). numerous studies have shown the positive effects of increased mindfulness on life-satisfaction, vitality, self-esteem, empathy, optimism, integrity, or positive affect – and its contribution to reducing the difficulties with emotional dysregulation, depression, neuroticism, rumination, social anxiety, and wandering thoughts (brown & ryan, 2003; dekeyser, raes, leijssen, leysen, & dewulf, 2008; keng, smoski, & robins, 2011; rasmussen & pidgeon, 2011; thompson & waltz, 2007). many types of research also examine how personality traits can be related to mindfulness. one of the most empirically researched models of personality in this field is the big five model which consists of five personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. neurotic individuals are prone to anxiety, depression and irritation (john, naumann, & soto, 2008). individuals who score high on neuroticism are insecure and prone to mood swings, whereas emotionally stable individuals are calmer, more relaxed and more stable (larsen & buss, 2008). individuals high on extraversion are sociable, open to others, assertive and usually have high levels of energy (john, naumann, & soto, 2008). on the other hand, there are individuals who are introverted and they are usually shy, quiet and withdrawn. agreeableness means that individual is cooperative, pleasant and friendly. low scorers on agreeableness are unkind, often rude, and sometimes even cruel (larsen & buss, 2008). conscientious individuals are characterized by tidiness, responsibility and reliability. they are also goal-oriented, task-oriented, as well as reliable and punctual (larsen & buss, 2008). high scorers on openness are original, curious, have a variety of interests and a refined taste in art and beauty (john, naumann, & soto, 2008). they are also creative, imaginative, and since they have a wide array of interests, they love to explore the unknown. sabina alispahic & enedina hasanbegović-anić & đenita tuce sabina alispahic & enedina hasanbegović-anić & đenita tuce big five personality...big five personality... 149148 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies giluk (2009) performed a meta-analysis where he found that mindfulness is positively correlated with conscientiousness and inversely related to neuroticism. west (2008) made research on adolescents, where she found that the strongest correlations where mindfulness inversely correlated to neuroticism and between mindfulness and openness. baer, smith, hopkins, krietemeyer, & toney (2006) observed positive correlation between mindfulness and openness, and inverse relationship between neuroticism and mindfulness. the relationship between these constructs has not been the subject of empirical research in bosnia and herzegovina, therefore the goal of the present study is to examine such relationship on the bosnian sample. since past research has shown that some personality traits like neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness are in correlation with mindfulness (giluk, 2009; west, 2008; baer, smith, hopkins, krietemeyer, & toney, 2006) our prediction is that we will also have similar results on our sample. method participants and design our sample consisted of 441 participants from the bosnian general population (213 men and 228 women), from twelve cities in bosnia and herzegovina. the age range of participants was from 18 to 65 years, and the average age was m = 39.9 (sd = 13.33). instruments the sociodemographic scale was developed by the authors of this research and it consisted from a several questions about the gender and age of participants. five factor mindfulness questionnaire (ffmq) was developed by baer, smith, lykins, et al. (2008). ffmq measures five components of mindfulness: observing (“i notice the aromas of things”), describing (“i am good at finding words to describe my feelings”), acting with awareness (“i find myself doing things without paying attention”), nonjudging of inner experience (“i think some of my emotions are bad and or inappropriate and i should not feel them”), and nonreactivity to inner experience (“i perceive my feelings and emotions without having to react to them”). the participants answered 39 (questions) items on a 5-point likert scale, ranging from 1 (very rarely or never true) to 5 (very often or always true). alpha coefficients for bosnian version of ffmq that we have used in this study are ranging from .68 to .84. (hasanbegović-anić, alispahić, tuce, & čolić, 2016). the big five inventory (bfi; john & srivastava, 1999) which is based on the big five model, was used to assess personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. bfi consists of 44 items and uses a five-point scale of agreement. alpha coefficients in this study range from .75 to .82. procedure for the purpose of data collection, a snowball technique was used. the technique is based on the initial selection of a narrow circle of people who spread the sample themselves, referring the researcher to persons who could also be examined. during the data collection, ethical principles and standards related to psychological research were met. the participation in the research was defined on a voluntary basis, and the data collected in the research were used exclusively for scientific research purposes. the survey was anonymous, and participants had the option to refuse to participate in the survey if they wished, for no apparent reason. participants, together with the questionnaires, were given a clear instruction with the stated purpose of the research, and the completed questionnaires were returned in sealed envelopes. results the distribution of results on all measured variables varies significantly from normal to mild asymmetry (table 1). however, given that the descriptive statistical parameters of all the variables were tested on a large sample of participants, the established values on the above measures could be explained by the size of the sample. namely, according to field (2009), small standard errors are typical for large samples, which result in significant values on normality and symmetry measures, even in the case of very small deviations. accordingly, when it comes to large sample participants (200 or more), the basic recommendation is the visual inspection of the sabina alispahic & enedina hasanbegović-anić & đenita tuce sabina alispahic & enedina hasanbegović-anić & đenita tuce big five personality...big five personality... 151150 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies distribution form and the value of the symmetricity and flattening index instead of testing their significance (field, 2009). in accordance with the above recommendation, in the next step, we analyzed the graphic representations of the qq plot, which established that the deviations from the average values are not so significant. accordingly, all variables were introduced in the form of a gross result in further analysis. table 1. descriptive statistics for big five personality traits and mindfulness scale n m sd skewness kurtosis k-s za mindfulness 428 129.63 14.77 .03 -.04 .05** neuroticism 434 25.57 6.32 .43 .20 .08** extraversion 435 37.09 6.92 -.47 -.11 .06** agreeableness 435 43.41 5.11 -1.01 1.24 .11** conscientiousness 435 41.76 5.80 -.84 .64 .11** openness 426 37.73 6.18 -.36 .14 07* aone-sample kolmogorov-smirnov test; ** significance at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) the results of the correlation analysis between big five personality traits and mindfulness are presented in table 2. table 2. correlations between big five personality traits and mindfulness variable 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 1. neuroticism -.34** -.43** -.41** -.36** -.41** 2. extraversion .30** .21** .43** .23** 3. agreeableness .62** .34** .21** 4. conscientiousness .46** .40** 5. openness .41** 6. mindfulness ** significance at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) the results of the correlation analysis indicate that the intercorrelations between mindfulness and all big five personality traits are statistically significant. there is a moderate and inverse correlation between mindfulness and neuroticism (r=-.41; p<.01), moderate and positive with openness (r=.41; p<.01) and conscientiousness (r=.40; p<.01), and small and positive with agreeableness (r=.27; p<.01) and extraversion (r=.23; p<.01). since intercorrelations between predictor variables are significant, we have tested multicollinearity. the acceptable values of the vif test (vif≤2) were determined, indicating that the data is suitable for the implementation of regression analysis (field, 2009). in determining the significance of the predictors for mindfulness, we conducted multiple regression analysis. the predictor variables were the big five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness), and the criterion variable was the total result on mindfulness scale. the main results of the multiple regression analyses are presented in table 3. table 3. results of the multiple regression analyses with mindfulness as criterion variable predictors r beta (β)a neuroticism -.41** -.25** extraversion .23** .02 agreeableness .21** .06 conscientiousness .40** .22** openness .41** .22** r=.523 r2=.273 f=30.68 a standardized coefficient; ** significance at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) sabina alispahic & enedina hasanbegović-anić & đenita tuce sabina alispahic & enedina hasanbegović-anić & đenita tuce big five personality...big five personality... 153152 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies big five personality traits explain 27,3% of the variance for the criterion variable mindfulness (r2=.273). the significant predictors for mindfulness are neuroticism (β=-.25, p<.01), conscientiousness (β=.22, p<.01), and openness (β=.22, p<.01). these results suggest that individuals who scored higher on neuroticism have lower results on mindfulness, and individuals with higher results on conscientiousness and openness also have higher results on mindfulness. discussion the goal of this research was to examine the relationship between mindfulness and big five personality traits. according to the results, there is moderate and inverse correlation between mindfulness and neuroticism, and small to moderate positive correlations with other big five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion). results of multiple regression analysis showed that big five personality traits explain a significant proportion of the variance for the criterion variable mindfulness. the significant predictors for mindfulness were neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness. our results are generally in accordance with previous research (giluk, 2009; west, 2008; baer, smith, hopkins, krietemeyer, & toney, 2006). the significant correlation between neuroticism and mindfulness can be explained with the interpretation that individuals low on neuroticism are more anxious and therefore more oriented on the future and not on “here and now”. since ffmq measures five components of mindfulness: observing, describing, acting with awareness, nonjudging of inner experience and nonreactivity to inner experience, many of these components could be related to these big five personality traits. for example, emotional stability includes aspects related to the control of the tension and the ability to maintain control over own behavior. a high score on this dimension of personality is achieved by individuals who are less anxious, sensitive, impulsive and impatient, and generally less irritable (barbaranelli et al., 2003). neuroticism is also a general tendency to experience negative emotions such as sadness, fear, agitation, anger, guilt, etc. the tendency to experience such emotions is a general vulnerability and disrupts adaptation. such people react irrationally, they have weak control of impulses, and have less capacity to overcome stressful situations (mccrae and costa, 1992; knežević et al., 2004). they also have a tendency to use more non efficient strategies for coping (costa & mccrae, 1992). conscientiousness is also a significant predictor of mindfulness. this could be explained by the idea that mindfulness is conscious and intentional awareness, not just passive or habitual (baer, smith, hopkins, krietemeyer, & toney, 2006). conscientiousness implies that the person acts with awareness and within the big five model it is conceptualized as the ability of self-control in the sense of disciplined aspirations to goals and strict adherence to own principles. it is bursting with the processes of planning, organization, performance of duties and obligations. conscientious people are strong-willed, goal-oriented, scrupulous, accurate and reliable. also, high consciousness is often associated with academic and professional success and more successful behavioral regulation (knežević et al., 2004). experience of openness implies aesthetic sensuality, intellectual curiosity, preference of diversity, the need for change and independence of thought. such persons are open minded towards inner experiences and curious towards the outside, and more intensively they perceive both positive and negative emotions (knežević et al., 2004). the relation between mindfulness and openness could be explained with the idea that both are connected with curiosity, attention and receptivity. individuals who are more open to new experiences are more willing to try new strategies and explore the inner world (giluk, 2009). conclusion the results of this research confirm previous findings suggesting that big five personality traits are related to mindfulness. the results of multiple regression analysis showed that big five personality traits explain 27% proportion of the variance for the criterion variable mindfulness and the significant predictors were neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness. this study was the preliminary research about the correlation between big five personality traits and mindfulness in bosnia and herzegovina, so we hope that it will be only the beginning of empirical research about this topic. we also hope that these results will provide inspiration for more extensive future research about mindfulness and correlated constructs. sabina alispahic & enedina hasanbegović-anić & đenita tuce sabina alispahic & enedina hasanbegović-anić & đenita tuce big five personality...big five personality... 155154 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies references baer, r. a., smith, g. t., hopkins, j., krietemeyer, j., & toney, l. 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(2008). mindfulness and well-being in adolescence: an exploration of four mindfulness measures with an adolescent sample (doctoral dissertation, proquest information & learning). introduction epiphany: vol. 5, no. 1, 2012 issn 1840-3719 the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay a. serdar öztürk * abstract ezra pound is among the most important poets of world literature in the twentieth century. his influence on english poetry, especially on t. s. eliot was very great. his name is associated with the school of poetry called imagism. cathay is a volume of his translations from the chinese which reveals the chinese poetry. chinese verse lends itself especially to the imagist treatment because of the visual nature of the chinese ideogram. ezra pound was successful in translating the chinese image in cathay. keywords: ezra pound, imagist, cathay, ideogram * corresponding author: a. serdar öztürk, faculty of arts and social scinces, international sarajevo university, bosnia herzegovina, e-mail: aozturk@ius.edu.ba mailto:aozturk@ius.edu.ba a.s. oztürk the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [84] ezra pound‟s name is closely associated with the school of poetry called imagism. students of pound are well acquainted with his early admiration and earnest support of les imagistes; namely, h.d., t. e. hulme, and john gould fletcher. it was, in fact, pound himself who is largely responsible for coining the term imagiste; as he writes in „a retrospect‟: “[t]he first use of the word „imagiste‟ was in my note to t. e. hulme‟s five poems, printed at the end of my „rispostes‟ in the autumn of 1912.” (literary essays 4). between the publication of the rispostes volume and the appearance of his monumental the cantos, pound had been busy experimenting in some of his shorter verse with imagiste technique. this is especially true in lustra in such poems as „april‟, „gentildonna‟, „liu ch‟e‟, „fan piece, for her imperial lord‟, „alba‟, and „in a station of the metro‟. the one early collection, however, which most greatly abounds with imagiste touches is cathay, a volume of pound‟s translations from the chinese. an exploration of the influence of les imagistes on these translations will reveal that chinese poetry, by its very nature, not only appealed to the imagiste poet, but practically resisted any but imagistic treatment. following her conversion to the imagist movement in 1913, amy lowell gives a fairly inclusive discussion of the aims of the imagiste school in her study tendencies in modern american poetry: 1. to use the language of common speech, but to employ always the exact word—not the nearly exact; 2. to strive always for concentration which, the imagist was convinced, is the very essence of poetry; 3. to suggest rather than to offer complete statement; 4. to create new rhythms as the expressions of new moods—and not to copy old rhythms which merely echo old moods; 5. to present an image; i.e., one that is concrete, firm, sharply delineated, and harsh in outline (236). less than a year before lowell had announced her allegiance to h.d. and the imagist cause, pound, h.d., and richard aldington had agreed on three principles defining „a new fashion‟ in poetry: 1. direct treatment of the „thing‟ whether subjective or objective. 2. to use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation. 3. as regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome (literary essays 4). a.s. oztürk the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [85] these statements of a poetic credo, without the body of poetry they attempt to define, are open to multiple interpretations. it is surely an irony that a poetic school demanding visual acuity, concise expression, and le mot juste should, in many respects, escape clear, precise definition. even though imagism sets forth certain principles of composition, the significance of imagism lies more in its transcendence of these principles than in its mere adherence to them. that is to say imagism is more in the nature of an aesthetics, which promotes a certain attitude toward writing, rather than inflexible doctrine. nevertheless, by an examination of the precepts of imagism, as they are given form in the poems of cathay, it is possible to approach an understanding of the spirit of les imagistes. chinese verse, it will be argued, lends itself especially well to imagistic treatment. this is due partly to the sharply defined, visual nature of the chinese ideogram, as pound discovered in fenollosa‟s manuscript „chinese written character as a medium for poetry‟. many of the striking images in the cathay poems, in fact, derive their efficacy directly from the force of chinese ideogrammic expression. as, for example, when pound employs the picture of „dragon-like horses‟ in „poem by the bridge at ten-shin‟: this jungle poem is going to be my last. this space walk is. racing in a cab through springtime central park, i kept my nose outside the window like a dog. the stars above my bed at night are vast. i think it is uncool to call young women ms. my darling is a platform i see stars from in the dark, and all the dogs begin to bark. my grunting gun brings down her charging warthog, and she is frying on white water, clinging to a log, and all the foam and fevers shiver. and drink has made chopped liver of my liver! between my legs it‟s baudelaire. he wrote about her central park of hair. i look for the minuterie as if i were in france, in darkness, in the downstairs entrance, looking for the light. i‟m on a timer that will give me time to see the way and up the stairs before the lights go out. the so delicious busby berkeley dancers dance a movie musical extravaganza on the staircase with me every night. such fun! we dance. we climb. we slip in slime. we‟re squirting squeezes like a wedge of lime! a.s. oztürk the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [86] it‟s like a shout. it‟s what minuterie is all about. just getting to the landing through the dark that has been interrupted for a minute is a lark. and she‟s so happy. it is grand! i put my mobile in her ampersand. the fireworks are a fleeting puff of sadness. the flowers when they reach the stars are tears. i don‟t remember poems i write. i turn around and they are gone. i do remember poor king richard nixon‟s madness. pierre leval, we loved those years! we knocked back shots of single malt all night. beer chasers gave dos caballeros double vision, second sight— twin putti pissing out the hotel window on the scottish dawn. a crocodile has fallen for a fawn. i live flap copy for a children‟s book. he wants to lick. he wants to look. a tiny goldfinch is his cupid. love of cuntry makes men stupid. it makes men miss saddam hussein! democracy in baghdad makes men think monstrosity was not so bad. i followed gandhi barefoot to remind me there is something else till it began to rain. the hurricane undressing of democracy in baghdad starts to sink the shrunken page size of the new york times, and yet we had a newspaper that mattered once, and that is sad, but that was when it mattered. do i matter? that is true. i don‟t matter but i do. i lust for fame, and after never finding it i never was the same. i roared into the heavens and i soared, and landed where i started on a flexing diving board. i knew a beauty named dawn green. i used to wake at the crack of dawn. i wish i were about to land on plymouth rock, and had a chance to do it all again but do it right. it was green dawn in pre-america. i mean great scented forests all along the shore, which now are gone. i‟ve had advantages in life and i pronounce iraq “irrock.” the right schools taught me how to tock. i‟m tocking turkey to the kurds but with no end in sight. these peace tocks are my last. goodbye, iran. iran, good night. they burned the undergrowth so they could see the game they hunt. that made the forest a cathedral clear as crystal like a cunt. their arrows entered red meat in the glory streaming down from the clerestory. carine rueff, i was obsessed—i was possessed! i liked your name. a.s. oztürk the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [87] i liked the fact marie christine carine rue f was jewish. it emphasized your elegance in paris and in florence. you were so blond in rue de l‟université! the dazzling daughter of de gaulle‟s adviser jacques rueff was game for anything. i‟m lolling here in mayfair under bluish clouds above a bench in mount street gardens, thinking torrents. purdey used to make a gun for shooting elephants. one cannot be the way one was back then today. it went away. i go from claridge‟s to brands hatch racing circuit and come back to claridge‟s, and out and eat and drink and bed, and fade to black. the elephants were old enough to die but were aghast. the stars above this jungle poem are vast. to ninety-second street and broadway i have come. outside the windows is new york. i came here from st. louis in a covered wagon overland behind the matchless prancing pair of eliot and ezra pound. and countless moist oases took me in along the way, and some i still remember when i lift my knife and fork. the earth keeps turning, night and day, spit-roasting all the tanned tired icebergs and the polar bears, which makes white almost contraband. the biosphere on a rotisserie emits a certain sound that tells the stars that earth was moaning pleasure while it drowned. the amorous white icebergs flash their brown teeth, hissing. they‟re watching old porn videos of melting icebergs pissing. the icebergs still in panty hose are lesbians and kissing. the rotting ocean swallows the bombed airliner that‟s missing. he translates very closely the following pair of ideograms: and a.s. oztürk the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [88] literally stating „dragonhorse‟, but which combine to mean figuratively “a horse that is exceedingly swift and beautiful.” 1 pound, in his translation, has retained the simple suggestiveness of the image emerging from the juxtaposed ideograms. from this simple example we may observe two of the chief qualities of chinese imagery: directness and immediacy. these are perhaps the effects les imagistes were striving for by emphasizing the unadorned language of common speech and a concentration and concision in expression. these qualities are readily perceived in the imagery and language of pound‟s translation „exile‟s letter‟. note the simplicity but great efficacy, for example, of such metaphors as: „roads twisted like sheep‟s guts‟, „ripples like dragon-scales, going grass green on the water‟, „and the wind lifting the song, and interrupting it,/tossing it up under the clouds?‟ this last image is somewhat reminiscent of h.d.‟s well-known „oread‟, which was also, incidentally, one of pound‟s favorites: 2 whirl up, sea— whirl your pointed pines, splash your great pines on our rocks, hurl your green over us, cover us with your pools of fir. h.d.‟s poem serves as an excellent example of pound‟s own definition of imagism, as given in his literary essays: an „image‟ is that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time. i use the term „complex‟ rather in the technical sense employed by the newer psychologists . . . . it is the presentation of such a „complex‟ instantaneously which gives that sense of sudden liberation; that sense of freedom from time limits and space limits; that sense of sudden growth, which we experience in the presence of the greatest works of art (41). 1 here i am indebted to a friend of mine from the department of chinese language and literature at erciyes university. 2 pound comments, for example, in „a retrospect‟ on „h.d.‟s‟ [sic] waves like pine tops‟. a.s. oztürk the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [89] „oread‟ clearly presents a single image which gains complexity through the merging of generally unassociated, but not wholly dissimilar elements: sea and pine. the brevity of the poem, the intensity of its expression, lacking superfluous connectives, and the subterranean associations of feeling which arise from the merging of sea and pine—all these contribute doubtlessly to that „sense of freedom from time limits and space limits‟ which pound praises. one is led to believe that pound must have had this poem in mind when he wrote elsewhere that imagisme is “sculpture or painting . . . forcing itself into words” (literary essays 380). nevertheless, there is an important difference between the imagism of h.d.‟s poem and the imagism in the translations of cathay. the poetry of cathay achieves the effect of the unified image, not so much by the „playing on‟ and intensification of one image, as in „oread‟ but by the ideogrammic juxtapositioning of diverse images in such a way that they merge into a unified presentation of the total poem. unlike the tightly compressed language of „oread‟, the syntax of the cathay poems is looser and freer, and the imagery, though weaker in intensity, is richer in variety. in this variety, however, lie the beauty and the force of the cathay poems. pound‟s translation of rihaku‟s „separation on the river kiang‟ illustrates well this ideogrammic effectiveness: ko-jin goes west from ko-kaku-ro, the smoke-flowers are blurred over the river. his lone sail blots the far sky. and now i see only the river, the long kiang, reaching heaven. the first line of the poem creates a sense of movement, from east to west, not at all dependent on whether or not the reader understands the references to ko-jin or ko-kaku-ro. the following line establishes an image of the time of year, the season of smoke-flowers, of delicate blossoms creating fuzzy forms, clouds, against the background of the river. perhaps it is spring or early summer. (the chinese reader would, no doubt, have a decided advantage here.) the third line renders the most striking image of the poem: „his lone sail blots the far sky‟. the reader a.s. oztürk the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [90] learns at once that ko-jin is sailing west from ko-kaku-ro and that he has not yet traveled far, for his sail in the foreground „blots the far sky‟. the masterful juxtaposition of the final image—„and now i see only the river,/the long kiang, reaching heaven‟.—which avoids the use of artificial transition, indicates that now the traveler has left his companion, the on-looker and poet, far behind. within the bounds of the natural rhythms of the language of common speech, pound succeeds in suggesting, rather than presenting fully, an image of separation and loneliness, which is as visible and profound as the void between the boat‟s sail in the foreground and the stretch of the river kiang toward heaven in the distance. furthermore, this image—„an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time‟—emerges from the careful superposition of image on image. it is clear from the above poem that the image, the ideogram itself, if it is to be effective, depends greatly on the beauty and the force of the image, the ideogrammic component. that pound was successful in translating the chinese image is everywhere attested in cathay. we have already given a few examples from „exile‟s letter‟, which is, for the most part, a long narrative poem and not as densely imagistic as many of the other poems in cathay. nevertheless, that which ties the poem together is not so much the narrative as the succession of images. especially poignant is the expression of grief in the lines: „and if you ask how i regret that parting:/it is like the flowers falling at spring‟s end/confused, whirled in a tangle‟. the poet makes no attempt to intellectualize his feelings; that is, he does not step outside them to state them vaguely and inexactly. rather he shapes feeling into pictures, which may be readily seen and felt. sensory perceptions, too, are presented rather than described. in the poem „leave-taking near shoku‟ the reader is not told that the traveler has ridden high up into the steep mountains of shoku, but only that „clouds grew out of the hill at his horse‟s bridle‟. or in „the city of choan‟ the poet does not speak directly of the passing of time and mutability of nature, but writes rather that „the phoenix are at play on their terrace./the phoenix are gone, the river flows on alone‟. note here, as elsewhere, the lack of connectives and superfluous words. in „the a.s. oztürk the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [91] river song‟ much is compressed into the image: „kutsu‟s prose song/hangs with the sun and moon‟. the image here suggests both the majesty of the song (it soars to the heights of the sun and moon and shares an equal place with them) and its power to illuminate (as in other literatures, the sun and moon are conventional symbols of light in chinese verse). the intention of light imagery is supported by robert payne‟s translation of the same poem (yohannan 233): „the songs of chu-ping still shine like the sun and moon‟. payne‟s translation is a statement of the „shining‟ of chu-ping‟s songs, like the sun and moon, but it lacks the physical dimension, the grandeur, implicit in pound‟s image of the „prose song‟ hanging above us with the sun and moon. pound is not merely a translator, but a poet who re-forms his material in the process. the imagists concern for concentrated expression and pound‟s definition of the image as „an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time‟ would lead one to believe, perhaps, that most of the poetry in cathay would tend toward brevity, as does „separation on the river kiang‟, for example. although there are a representative number of short poems in cathay 3 —resembling somewhat the japanese haiku—the greater number is rather long by comparison. to account for the ability to sustain an image in a poem of more than a few lines, or even a few stanzas, one must turn again to the effectiveness of ideogrammic juxtaposition. in „sennin poem by kakuhaku‟, for example, the long middle stanza presents a series of images that contribute to the overall image of the „lone man‟, playing a stringed instrument, who communicates with the sennin, spirits of the air: the red and green kingfishers flash between the orchids and clover, one bird casts its gleam on another. green vines hang through the high forest, they weave a whole roof to the mountain, the lone man sits with shut speech, he purrs and pats the clear strings. he throws his heart up through the sky, he bites through the flower pistil and brings up a fine fountain. 3 vide “the beautiful toilet,” “the jewel stairs‟ grievance,” and four poems of departure. a.s. oztürk the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [92] the red-pine tree god looks at him and wonders. he rides through the purple smoke to visit the sennin, he takes “floating hill” by the sleeve, he claps his hand on the back of the great water sennin. but you, you dam'd crowd of gnats, can you even tell the age of a turtle? here, again, the success of the imagery derives largely from its directness and objectivity. each line follows the straightforward order of subject, verb, predicate and admits no unnecessary adjectives. to use a poundian term, this poetry is free of „slither‟. also free of slither, yet highly charged emotionally, is perhaps one of the best of the cathay poems: „the river-merchant‟s wife: a letter‟. this poem illustrates yet another means open to the imagist to write an extended poem, unlike the usual h.d. single-image poem of several lines, as represented by pound‟s own highly acclaimed „in a station of the metro‟. in „the river-merchant‟s wife‟ the poet not only combines discrete images into a larger image, but also juxtaposes the larger images, which emerge from various sections of the poem. thus, ideogramically, pound describes the maturing, from childhood, of the young wife, along with the ripening of her love for her river-merchant husband. the total image which finally emerges from the poem—a quiet declaration of the wife‟s love for her itinerant, distant husband and a deeply moving, almost silent, expression of grief and longing at his absence—is a cumulative experience of all the images which have gone before. notice, for example, how the images of childhood and youth in the opening of the poem—„pulling flowers‟, „playing horse‟, „playing with blue plums‟ [where „blue plums‟ refers to adolescence]—contrast with and therefore intensify the sincere, but simple expression of love in the third stanza: „i desired my dust to be mingled with yours/forever and forever and forever‟. superimposed on this expression of love is the unadorned statement of sadness upon the wife‟s separation from her husband: „and you have been gone five months./the monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead‟. even the chatter of monkeys, to her, sounds like a lament. the direct simplicity of this image is reechoed in the delicately passionate final statement of the poem: a.s. oztürk the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [93] if you are coming down through the narrows of the river kiang, please let me know beforehand, and i will come out to meet you as far as cho-fu-sa. some anthologists err in footnoting the distance to cho-fu-sa, believing the reader needs such a crutch. it is sensitively made clear that the river-merchant‟s wife will go, presumably by foot, as far as she must to meet her husband. this affirmation of her naïve love is given form and definition by the subtle hinting images that have preceded. thus, this poem gains an asian, flower-like beauty, not because of any one line or image, but as a result of melding part into part until the exquisite whole is formed. recalling h.d.‟s „oread‟, which was quoted earlier, and pound‟s definition of the image as „an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time‟, it is clear that in cathay pound has gone beyond this concept of the image as a liberating, visual, but instantaneous insight into the poetic experience. pound demonstrates that the virtues of concision, le mot juste, and crystalline suggestive imagery may be sustained for more than an instant of time. but such suspension of feeling and mood may only be accomplished when one has first learned the secret of a poem like „separation on the river kiang‟—an affirmation that “it is better to present one image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works” (literary essays 4). those readers of pound who focus primarily on the cantos or „mauberley‟ or „propertius‟—giving only passing attention to the earlier shorter poems of personae or his translations of the anglo-saxons, the troubadours, and the chinese—sadly fail to ground themselves in the first principles of his art. in these earlier works pound has learned how to amplify imagistic directness and presentation by enriching the imagiste approach with the ideogrammic method, surely a major innovation in twentieth-century poetic art. a.s. oztürk the influence of the chinese ideogram on ezra pound’s cathay epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [94] references fenollosa, ernest. “the chinese written character as a medium for poetry” in prose keys to modern poetry, karl shapiro, ed. new york: harper and row 1962. pound, ezra. a draft of xvi cantos of ezra pound. paris: 1924-25 (limited edition). pound, ezra. “a retrospect” in the literary essays of ezra pound. new york: new directions, 1968. pound, ezra the cantos of ezra pound. new york: new directions, 1963. pound, ezra. “cathay” in personae. new york: new directions, 1957. pound, ezra. “the chinese ideogram” in abc of reading, new york: new directions, 1960. james scully, ed. modern poetics, new york: mcgraw-hill, 1965. thrall, william flint, addison hibbard, and c. hugh holman. a handbook to literature. new york: prentice-hall, 1960. yohannan, john d., ed. a treasury of asian literature. new york: plume reissue, 1995. 92 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies internationalization of tertiary education as soft power by the revisionist forces faruk türk karamanoğlu mehmetbey university abstract this article covers the use of the internationalization of higher education as a soft power tool by revisionist countries in international relations. whereas the common view of scholars is that revisionist forces tend to activate their hard power means as in the case of india about her dispute with pakistan and russia against ukraine, their soft power engagement is tremendously important. while internationalization in higher education was the monopoly of the hegemonic and colonial powers previously, in recent years the progress of revisionist forces in this regard has been noted. since soft power engagement forms vary with the stunning transformations after the millennium, internationalization of higher education is the latest trend. when examining the published data on international student mobility, we have determined that revisionist powers china, türkiye, and russia are among the top ten countries hosting the most international students. keywords: internationalization; internationalization in higher education; hard power; soft power; revisionist forces epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 93 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 introduction in the late 1980s, joseph nye introduced the term ‘soft power’ in international relations literature. he defined soft power as making others want the results you want rather than forcing them to do something (nye, 2004, p. 68). compared to hard power, he suggested that apart from the states, the main actor in international politics, nongovernmental organizations (ngos) or international institutions can also use soft power (nye, 2004, p. 17). according to nye, the basic soft power sources of a country are culture, political values, and foreign policies (nye, 2011, p. 84). he mentioned that culture is a set of values and practices with many manifestations such as literature, art, and education (nye, 2004, p. 11). some scholars like wojciuk et al. (2015, p. 298) claim that a high-quality education contributes to a country’s soft power. since education is not adequately addressed in the current international relations literature, they discussed the educational aspect of soft power, and its conceptual and functional dimensions (wojciuk et al., 2015, p. 300). they claim that the concept of educational soft power in ir works through three mechanisms. first, higher education is a carrier of genuine values which may attract students from abroad. the values that attract more students are modernization, equality, good life, and competitiveness. second, soft power is related to the most stunning resources a country owns such as the quality of education whose effect is observed by the products it manufactured and the level of its internationalization. the third mechanism of educational soft power is a country’s utilization of higher education as a tool for achieving certain foreign policy goals. this may happen in cases of successful domestic development or security policies or foreign development aid (wojciuk et al., 2015, p. 314). kelkitli (2021, p. 41) regards the student exchange programs developed by türkiye as a soft power tool in foreign policy. based on the assumption that education may serve as a soft power tool in international relations, we have analyzed the internationalization of tertiary education by the new faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 94 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies revisionist forces1 by comparing them with the top ten countries hosting the most international students. in the first section of the article, we will define what internationalization in higher education means, trendy global higher education destinations for internationally mobile students, and some collocations related to international student mobility. in the second part, we will try to figure out internationalization of higher education by means of approaches and methods in international relations and some recent changes in student mobility and their reasons. the following part includes some statistics regarding in and outbound student flow. in the conclusion, i discuss the recent change in student mobility in and out of türkiye and explain its reasons by means of its policy change in international relations demanding change. internationalization of tertiary education2 internationalization in higher education, unlike the practices in the past, has ceased to be a goal only for prestigious universities in developed countries and is now important for higher education institutions at the global level in different ways (de wit et al., 2015, p. 37). many institutions usually internationalize for talented and qualified or wealthy foreign students (lipsett, 2009; matloff, 2013, p. 2). some universities are internationalizing to allure the best quality faculty and professional researchers and research staff (delgado-márquez et al., 2011, p. 269; van der wende, 2007, p. 277). the dominant trend is mainly towards economic justification, branding, and competition to obtain talented international students (douglass & edelstein, 2009, p. 2; knight, 2011, p. 25). internationalization of tertiary education might be described as “internationalization at the national, sector, and institutional levels is defined as the process of integrating an 1revisionist is a term describing states whose objective is to change or put an end to the current international system. according to power transition theory countries stand as either a status quo or a revisionist state. 2as a concept, ‘the internationalization of tertiary education’ will be abbreviated as ite hereafter. faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 95 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 international, intercultural, or global dimension into the purpose, functions or delivery of postsecondary education” (knight, 2015, p. 2). international student mobility can be considered legitimizing international migration as a sub-branch. especially anglo-saxon countries as historically popular international migration destinations have an extensive institutional structure with migration planning, organization mechanisms, competitive and interest-oriented policies (türk, 2020, p. 353). the united nations (un) and organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd) place special emphasis on the subject and collect and share statistical data. in a handbook prepared by the oecd, an international student is described as “an individual who has physically crossed an international border between two countries with the objective to participate in educational activities in a destination country, where the destination country is different from his or her country of origin” (oecd, 2018a, p. 38). internationalization of higher education is defined as “the process of integrating an international, intercultural, or global dimension into the purpose, functions or delivery of postsecondary education” (knight, 2015, p. 2). the internationalization of higher education is becoming more and more widespread among countries day by day. to determine the reasons, it is necessary to consider the incident from a multidisciplinary point of view. contrary to the common view that the most important reason for internationalization in higher education is the exchange of ideas and information, universities accept international students to increase student diversity and improve their global ranking in internationalization in higher education. however, their aim is sometimes to increase revenues for universities (unesco, 2019, p. 96). the phenomenon of international migration increasing day by day has been in the interest of many different disciplines in academia. in the face of increasing international immigration pressure, different policies determined by the countries that are exposed to receiving or sending immigrants attract the attention of political scientists. negotiations and agreements among faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 96 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies states, and international institutions and organizations like the united nations and its subordinate bodies, and their decisions have naturally made migration an important issue for the discipline of international relations. while the effects of immigration on immigrants and receiving and sending societies attract the attention of sociologists, the feelings and thoughts of immigrants, as well as individuals in receiving and sending societies attract the attention of experts in the field of psychology to deal with the subject. therefore, although the phenomenon of migration may be domestic, which requires a multidisciplinary perspective with many different dimensions, it is an indispensable research topic in the field of international relations, as it has an international character. the oecd defines three types of international student mobility. “international mobile students are individuals who physically cross an international border between two countries to participate in educational activities in the country of destination” (oecd, 2018b, p. 41). the students in this group are enrolled as regular students at any higher education program in the host country. they are to physically attend the courses given like other regular students of the program. so in its definition system distant learners are not accepted as internationally mobile. the second group is foreign students who are not citizens of the country in which they are studying and have not moved to this country for the sole purpose of studying; for instance, those who arrive as a result of other movements such as international migration or asylum like syrian students with temporary protection status in türkiye. the third group is exchange program students. within the scope of erasmus+ and mevlana programs, students receive some of their education in an educational institution abroad. “exchange programs are mobility programs that normally last between three months and less than a full academic year” (oecd, 2018b, p. 39). faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 97 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 internationalization in theory and practice international relations theories, such as realism, liberalism, and world system approaches, have developed different perspectives on the phenomenon of migration. although the issue of migration, like many other international issues, cannot be fully explained with a single theory, the different theoretical approaches, while examining different aspects of the issue in detail, contribute to our examination of all the predictable or unpredictable elements of the migration phenomenon in terms of international relations. while other aspects of migration such as politics, sociology, and psychology are fixed, we will discuss its impact on international relations and especially the issue of internationalization in higher education as a sub-type of international migration using the ceteris paribus approach in social sciences and economics. students primarily pay attention to the availability of university opportunities in their own country, the costs, and the relative quality of education at home and abroad, when making decisions about where to pursue higher education (oecd, 2019, p. 233). accommodation, transportation, education, and nutrition expenses in the country of destination are the most important reasons for choosing any country. part-time work opportunities during education can also be a reason for students’ preferences. more importantly, they pay attention to employment opportunities after graduation. this means the opportunity to reside and find a job in the country of study, or a feature that employers in the home country attach importance to in the cvs of the candidates. the opportunity to gain work experience is a growing driver of student mobility (oecd, 2019, p. 236). learning a foreign language or gaining the ability to communicate in the target language can also affect student decisions. getting to know different cultures can contribute to making friends from different countries. the desire to gain individual responsibility and act freely also influences this decision. increasing scholarship opportunities, education, and internship mobility support offered by different institutions faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 98 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies provide this opportunity, especially to students with limited finance. governments often attribute student mobility as a way to develop closer cooperation with other countries (unesco, 2019, p. 96). starting after the industrial revolution, students were sent to developed countries with the idea of transferring up-to-date technology idea. today, students are mutually financed by states in higher education with the idea of contributing to international relations. education abroad is supported with special funds, especially in highly demanded professional fields. individuals who have studied abroad are seen as honorary goodwill ambassadors and are thought to play an important role in the advancement of international relations in many fields such as education, trade, finance, and military (de wit et al., 2015, p. 48; kelkitli, 2021, p. 44; taskoh & larsen, 2014, p. 43). universities that encourage international student mobility offer a different campus environment to their students. a campus with students of diverse nationalities prepares all students for life in the 21st century and a career in a global economy. for most students, a multicultural campus is the first chance to live, study, and work with people who are not from their home country and cultural background. universities that bring foreign students and foster a culturally diverse campus environment offer students unique opportunities to learn about themselves and the world they live in. a multicultural campus offers a multicultural classroom environment. bringing people from different cultures together in one classroom allows students with different perspectives to benefit from each other's experiences, cultures, and skills. in addition, international students also offer important income opportunities to the universities, cities, and countries where they study. in accordance with their economic conditions to afford to study abroad, more and more people are trying to provide the best possible education for themselves and their children. this increases the competition to attract international students between universities and countries for this high amount allocated for higher education. in the bipolar order of the cold faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 99 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 war period, this movement from pro-capitalist countries towards the western prosperous core countries and the americas; on the other hand, was towards the ussr, the centre country from the warsaw pact countries (de wit et al., 2015, p. 257). in the multi-polar world after the cold war, international student mobility has changed, with bipolar mobility shifting to different power centers. recent changes in ite the world's most powerful nations and leaders today are all “politically modern and industrial” (organski, 1958, p. 339). scholars like altbach & knight (2007, p. 294) and yeom (2019, pp. 17–18) try to explain the nature and trend of international student mobility by associating it with the development of states. since universities in developed countries have a relatively comparative advantage in research and teaching capacity, ite is directly related to the economic and social enhancement level of the country where a university is located. applying development theories explaining the economic and social change processes could help us to determine the status of ite since the flow of mobility is from the undeveloped or developing countries to the prosperous west. he states that there are several theories focusing on various social scientific approaches to determine the change in society. modernization, dependency and world systems theories focus on social mobility effects of higher education, and they explain the existing unequal structure between bodies, structures, and even states (yeom, 2019, p. 20). however, after the cold war period, the more recently industrialized nations challenging the prosperous ones for leadership have a say in attracting internationally mobile students. some revisionist3 forces come to the fore 3 the countries have traditionally been divided by historians and political scientists; status quo countries that accept the existing international system as it is and revisionist powers that “reject the prevailing legitimacy of the international system and seek to alter it considerably or to overthrow it entirely” (tenembaum, 2012) faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 100 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in their regions. russia invaded georgia in 2008 and annexed some parts of ukraine in 2014. türkiye has declared by military and diplomatic means that it will not compromise its sovereign rights over the eastern mediterranean against countries such as greece, egypt, cyprus, and israel (van der schalk, 2020). by directly intervening in the libyan civil war, it supported the government of national accord headquartered in tripoli and recognized by the united nations and the european union. after the successful syrian intervention, it confirmed the successes of the unmanned aerial vehicles and drones it produced against the tobruk-based haftar forces, which provided support and weapons from egypt, the usa, the united arab emirates, saudi arabia, france, and russia. the effectiveness of these weapons was also tested in the 40-day war between azerbaijan and armenia, which resulted in the decisive victory of azerbaijan. president erdoğan's one-minute scolding and his address in the justice forum “the world is bigger than 5” are the most important instances that reveal that he wants to change the current distorted world order (presidency of the republic of turkey, 2018). meanwhile, india stepped up aggression with its neighbor, pakistan, which started the process of revoking the autonomous status of jammu and kashmir (van der schalk, 2020). brazil and indonesia are in the category of revisionist countries (van der schalk, 2020). in this study, the effects of the emerging powers in the international arena on international student mobility will be examined since it might be used as a massive soft power tool. the globalization process, which threatens the border separation, allows strategic power centers to be effective in the international arena by using different methods. this may be in the form of “russia's interference in the us elections,” “türkiye's mobilization of turkish communities in different countries” through the yunus emre institute and the maarif foundation, and “saudi arabia's funding of mosques in pakistan and some other countries” (van der schalk, 2020). faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 101 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 the unesco institute of statistics (uis) data, which is the most comprehensive database on international student mobility, will be used to test whether the growing international impact of revisionist forces is affecting international student mobility. within the category of new revisionists, the statistics of mobile students hosted and sent abroad by russia, china and türkiye will be examined. to decide on the impact of the revisionist powers, student mobility from and to these countries will be examined. the top ten most international student-attracting states will be determined and the statistics of the revisionists will be compared with the other countries in the top ten lists. the provisions regarding the continuation of education in higher education institutions in türkiye for foreign nationals and turkish citizens who have completed their secondary education abroad are determined by the higher education council as stated in article 45 of the higher education law no 2547 (türkiye-legal gazette, 2013). pursuant to this article and in accordance with the decision taken by the higher education executive board, universities send their quota requests to the higher education council (yok) within the determined calendar, limited to the programs included in the higher education institutions exam (yks) higher education programs and quotas guide. the requests submitted by universities are evaluated by yok, the decisions taken are communicated to the universities, and the quotas of the programs, the language of instruction, and the preparatory class conditions are published on the website of yok. while the quotas that universities can request for international students before 2019 were limited to 50% of the quotas announced in the yok guide, this limitation was lifted in 2019 and much more internationalization of universities was targeted (yök). starting in 2019, universities made great efforts to increase the number of international students. according to the current data published by unesco institute for statistics (uis), the information of students who went abroad for higher education from türkiye and students who came to faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 102 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies türkiye for university education from abroad are given in the table below. meanwhile, uis statistics do not reveal data for the year 2019 and beyond. thus, some other sources like the oecd and hec are used to reveal some facts on inbound and outbound student flow. some signs of soft power in ite as wojciuk et al. (2015, p. 314) state, higher education is a carrier of genuine values which may attract students from abroad. among the most important genuine values, democracy, human rights, justice, modernization, equality, good life, and competitiveness are on top. although it is controversial to regard a state as having or lacking these values, there are some strategies to convince the target country and its people. it is easy for türkiye to win the african people’s hearts because it was not once a colonial power, and it is a spectacular instance for them to stand as an alternative competitive power suffered from the colonials. the most important of all is that türkiye’s relationship with african countries is based on the principle of forging a win-win partnership to build a better future for them and help each other on the international scene (idriss, 2020). before the covid-19 pandemic and recent economic crisis, türkiye had relatively all of the abovementioned genuine values. this is the first evidence that shows its attractiveness in getting so many international students. a second indicator of soft power use in tertiary education is that it is generated by the resources a country possesses. the one particularly visible in the turkish case is the quality of education it offers. the industrial products manufactured in türkiye by turkish engineers are now globally demanded, which shows the quality of higher education in türkiye. african countries which have been suffering from contradictory political discrepancy would like to have military equipment like tb-2 bayraktar drones whose positive effect was tested in various cases. ankara has now military bases and training centers as in the somalian capital mogadishu and in libya. “turkey is now providing support to international peacekeeping missions ongoing in africa” (idriss, 2020). faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 103 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 the third soft power dimension is a country’s use of education to achieve specific policy goals. it might be in the form of successful domestic development policies, based on knowledge and education or foreign development aid (wojciuk et al., 2015, p. 314). according to idriss (2020), turkish companies are now making infrastructure contracts, such as the ethiopian awash weldiya railway, which costs more than 1.000.000.000 us dollars. “türkiye’s investments have helped to reduce unemployment by generating jobs throughout the continent” (idriss, 2020). “aid for development and humanitarian affairs is also a highly essential pillar of türkiye’s presence in the continent” (orakçi, 2022). access to clean water and electricity is still a vital problem for most africans. turkey pays special attention to infrastructure projects and tika and other turkish non-governmental civil society organizations (ngos) are very active in the development and humanitarian issues in africa. on the other hand, türkiye supports african youth development by supplying scholarship opportunities for free higher education in turkey (idriss, 2020; orakçi, 2022). facts and figures on türkiye’s inbound and outbound student flow at tertiary level graphic 1: türkiye’s key indicators for students abroad and students hosted (unesco uis, 2021) faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 104 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies according to the data in the table above, türkiye is among the countries preferred by international students for university education in the developing countries group. the number of students coming to türkiye for tertiary level education is more than twice the number of students going abroad. the distribution of students going abroad from türkiye to receive higher education is given by country in the table below. table 1: distribution of students who went abroad to get higher education by country (unesco uis, 2021) students abroad country of destination number country of destination number 1 united states 9,692 38 republic of moldova 116 2 germany 6,074 39 lithuania 101 3 united kingdom 3,101 40 united arab emirates 99 4 austria 2,405 41 portugal 96 5 france 2,384 42 belarus 90 6 bulgaria 2,018 43 iran, islamic rep. 74 7 azerbaijan 2,002 44 south africa 66 8 italy 1,804 45 thailand 61 9 bosnia/herzegovina 1,500 46 croatia 60 10 ukraine 1,406 47 qatar 55 11 poland 1,232 48 ireland 54 12 north macedonia 1,183 49 morocco 52 13 canada 1,161 50 norway 52 14 hungary 967 51 latvia 42 15 netherlands 660 52 slovakia 42 16 switzerland 644 53 india 37 17 kyrgyzstan 624 54 slovenia 36 18 australia 610 55 serbia 34 19 saudi arabia 483 56 niger 33 20 russian federation 442 57 brazil 30 21 egypt 397 58 mongolia 28 22 romania 311 59 argentina 27 23 spain 285 60 tunisia 24 24 kazakhstan 257 61 new zealand 22 25 sweden 252 62 indonesia 15 faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 105 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 26 georgia 243 63 luxembourg 15 27 jordan 225 64 vietnam 13 28 finland 214 65 bahrain 12 29 japan 206 66 dominican republic 11 30 belgium 176 67 malta 11 31 korea, rep. 155 68 colombia 10 32 malaysia 141 69 oman 8 33 denmark 127 70 chile 7 34 czechia 126 71 tajikistan 7 35 estonia 124 72 armenia 6 36 albania 123 73 iceland 6 37 greece 116 the distribution of students coming from abroad to receive higher education in türkiye by country is also given in the table below. especially syrian students with temporary protection status in türkiye take the lead in the table. table 2: students’ countries of origin coming from abroad to get higher education in türkiye (unesco uis, 2021) students hosted country of origin number country of origin number 1 syrian arab republic 15,042 72 malawi 124 2 azerbaijan 14,878 73 central african rep. 112 3 turkmenistan 10,418 74 benin 110 4 iran, islamic rep. 6,099 75 canada 108 5 afghanistan 5,251 76 colombia 105 6 iraq 5,012 77 belgium 104 7 germany 3,755 78 congo, dr 96 8 greece 2,285 79 mozambique 93 9 kyrgyzstan 2,032 80 madagascar 92 10 bulgaria 2,030 81 italy 86 11 kazakhstan 2,015 82 zimbabwe 79 12 libya 1,943 83 israel 79 13 somalia 1,735 84 myanmar 78 14 pakistan 1,606 85 guinea-bissau 76 faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 106 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 15 china 1,517 86 australia 76 16 palestine 1,472 87 liberia 73 17 yemen 1,380 88 comoros 71 18 russian federation 1,376 89 togo 71 19 nigeria 1,287 90 poland 68 20 egypt 1,217 91 gabon 62 21 jordan 1,006 92 rwanda 59 22 albania 989 93 haiti 57 23 north macedonia 891 94 sierra leone 47 24 mongolia 833 95 sri lanka 45 25 georgia 753 96 denmark 44 26 uzbekistan 736 97 eritrea 43 27 indonesia 732 98 japan 42 28 serbia 709 99 spain 42 29 tajikistan 692 100 qatar 41 30 morocco 649 101 sweden 38 31 ukraine 579 102 viet nam 37 32 ethiopia 477 103 brazil 36 33 bosnia/herzegovina 477 104 cambodia 36 34 united states 472 105 nepal 36 35 netherlands 446 106 norway 31 36 cameroon 444 107 mauritius 28 37 kenya 432 108 belarus 28 38 republic of moldova 416 109 lithuania 28 39 bangladesh 410 110 hungary 27 40 tanzania 397 111 slovakia 25 41 austria 354 112 croatia 24 42 mali 353 113 angola 22 43 ghana 351 114 mexico 22 44 algeria 332 115 maldives 22 45 guinea 262 116 eswatini 20 46 lebanon 258 117 venezuela 19 47 saudi arabia 257 118 united arab emirates 19 48 tunisia 254 119 armenia 18 49 djibouti 243 120 papua new guinea 18 50 chad 223 121 bahrain 17 51 thailand 221 122 kuwait 15 faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 107 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 52 uganda 220 123 finland 15 53 korea, rep. 216 124 slovenia 14 54 montenegro 214 125 botswana 13 55 niger 208 126 namibia 13 56 india 206 127 peru 13 57 france 204 128 czechia 13 58 congo 183 129 singapore 12 59 malaysia 182 130 equatorial guinea 10 60 south africa 172 131 suriname 10 61 senegal 171 132 ireland 10 62 mauritania 168 133 portugal 10 63 zambia 163 134 lesotho 8 64 romania 157 135 lao pdr 7 65 united kingdom 154 136 estonia 7 66 burundi 153 137 dominican republic 6 67 burkina faso 144 138 korea, dpr 6 68 gambia 133 139 latvia 6 69 côte d'ivoire 132 140 chile 5 70 switzerland 130 141 oman 5 71 philippines 129 the total number of students who choose abroad to receive higher education and the number of countries they prefer an increase in direct proportion to the total number of students who come to türkiye to receive higher education and their countries of origin. argentina, new zealand, luxembourg, malta, and iceland are the countries where students go from türkiye to study higher education, although no students are hosted. the total number of countries whose citizens study in higher education institutions in türkiye, where no students from türkiye go for higher education is 68. 47 of them are in africa. this shows the great impact of türkiye on the citizens of the african countries most of which were once colonized by the rich westerns. to understand the interest of the students who are nationals of african countries in türkiye, we shall here assess the current turkish foreign policy with the african states. türkiye's african policy is carried out in four dimensions: bilateral, regional, continental, and global, faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 108 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies including political, humanitarian, economic, and cultural pillars (ministry of foreign affairs, 2011). the other 21 countries the nationals of which are tertiary level students hosted in türkiye are located on varying continents. in the african-turkish relations that started in 1998, türkiye was accepted as an observer member of the african union (au) in 2005. in 2008, türkiye was declared a strategic partner of the au. within the scope of the multidimensional african initiative policy, rapid progress has been made in the areas of political relations, trade, investment, cultural projects, security, and military cooperation and development with the countries of the region. the african initiative policy has been named the african partnership policy since 2013. in addition to embassies, “institutions such as the turkish cooperation and coordination agency (tika), the disaster and emergency management presidency (afad), yunus emre institute, maarif foundation, turkish religious foundation, anadolu agency (aa), and turkish airlines (thy)” have played an active role in relations with continental countries (ministry of foreign affairs, 2011). the importance given to relations with the continent has also been reflected in the opening of diplomatic missions in these countries. the number of embassies operating in africa was only 12 in 2002, but it increased to 42 by the end of 2019. correspondingly, african countries have also shown interest in türkiye, and the number of embassies in ankara has increased up to 36 recently (ministry of foreign affairs, 2011). the maarif foundation, which manages the turkish schools in foreign countries, helps them educate the turkish minority there as well as a lot of native african nationals. since 2005, turkey has been offering scholarships granted by ytb (presidency for turks abroad and related communities), the turkish agency responsible for its scholarship program, to young africans at undergraduate and/or postgraduate levels. “this outstretched hand policy has earned turkey a special image among africans” (idriss, 2020). now it is not surprising that africa has been one of the best and faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 109 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 most successful markets for türkiye. africa is expected to become turkey's third-largest defense export market because ankara has been making agreements with uganda, benin, sudan, tanzania, and the ivory coast, among others on the continent. main export materials are industrial production, as well as the sale and maintenance of military equipment (martín, 2021). the unesco institute of statistics (uis) data only contains info up to 2018. the graphic below shows the number of international students hosted in türkiye by academic years. the data in the graphic is based on the information provided by yok. since unesco gathers data from the official institutions, the number of mobile international students is defined by yok and sent to the ministry of foreign affairs to share with unesco. when graphic 1 prepared by uis is compared with graphic 2 by yok, the data in graphic 1 intersects with the 2016-2017 academic year inbound international student number hosted in türkiye in graphic 2. so there is no inconsistency between the data shared by both uis and yok. graphic 2: number of students hosted in türkiye by academic years (yök) faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 110 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in 2014, out of a total of 4.495.697 international students, 48.183 of them with a rate of 1.07 were educated in türkiye, while in 2018, 125.138 students with a ratio of 2.24% out of a total of 5.571.402 international students received an education. in line with the strategy, decisions and targets followed by yok in the context of target-oriented internationalization policy at the tertiary level, the number of international students increased by 110 % in 4 years. although the data after 2018 is not disclosed by uis, yok data shows that türkiye hosted 154.505 154 thousand 505 international students in 2019 and 185.047 in 2020. despite the pandemic conditions, this figure is estimated to exceed 220.000 in 2021. the success here lies in the fact that the centralist yök, which was established with the constitution after the 1980 military coup and was the sole decision-maker in higher education, has paved the way for the own decision processes of universities in many fields with the transfer of authority. decentralization and wider authority have increased competition between universities. project and academic study-based competition environment among universities has encouraged the various activities of universities to increase the number of international students. despite the economic difficulties that started before and became more evident during the pandemic, universities in türkiye continue their activities in the field of internationalization. facts and figures on inbound and outbound student flow globally at tertiary level türkiye has made significant progress towards becoming a center of attraction for international students in higher education and has succeeded in being among the top ten countries in the world in terms of the number of international students it has in 2018 (enol sezer et al., 2021). as of 2018 data published by uis, it became the 10th country with the highest number faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 111 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 of international students in higher education in the world with 125.138 international students (hürriyet daily news, 2020). meanwhile, 987.314 out of a total of 5.571.402 international students in the world are studying at higher education institutions in the united states. england followed with 452.079 students and australia with 444.514 students, respectively (yök, hürriyet daily news). the list starts with the anglo-saxon countries which are very popular as academic mobility destinations. the top 10 countries attracting the most international students in the world in 2018 are as follows: table 3: the top 10 countries attracting the most international students in the world in 2018 (unesco uis, 2021) no country inbound inbound mobility ratio outbound outbound mobility ratio total 1 usa 987.314 5,2 84.349 0,5 1.071.663 2 england 452.079 18,3 38,986 1,6 491.065 3 australia 444.514 26,5 13,319 0,8 457.833 4 germany 311.738 10,0 122,538 3,9 434.276 5 russia 262.416 4,5 57,632 1,0 320.048 6 france 229.623 8,8 99,488 3,8 329.111 7 canada 224.548 13,8 48,345 3,0 272.893 8 japan 182.748 4,7 31,903 0,8 214.651 9 china 178.271 0,4 993,367 2,2 1.171.638 10 türkiye 125.138 1,7 47,546 0,6 172.684 within the class of revisionist forces, russia, china, and türkiye are the most striking countries in the top ten list. the countries are put in order according to the number of inbound students. inbound and outbound ratios were calculated in comparison with the population of each country. the inbound mobility ratio in the above table shows the density of international students in the population of each country. according to the inbound mobility ratio, the top three countries are australia, england, and canada. unfortunately, the statistics beyond the year 2018 have not been shared yet, faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 112 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies and although the covid 19 pandemic has a negative effect on mobility, the results will be the same for all countries. graphic 3 : top ten countries concerning inbound student mobility at tertiary level by years (unesco uis, 2021) as can be seen in the graphic above, some of the top ten countries in the competition to attract international students have now reached the saturation point as cheng (2021, p. 1) stated and the increase in the number of students is at a very low level. the usa recorded high growth rates in 2016, but in the following years, the chart shows a stagnating trend. western european countries such as the united kingdom and france are again stagnant in attracting international students. a decrease is observed in france after 2017. australia, germany, russia, canada, japan, türkiye, and china stand out as the countries that regularly increase the number of international students over the years. faruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 113 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 conclusion since ir has traditionally focused more on the international system and war, international migration has not had the necessary importance both in theory and in the literature. however, large-scale migration events have had a profound impact on europe, asia, the middle east, and africa, both in theory and in impact, and have been dealt with more as a security problem in the receiving countries. despite all the harsh measures like strict border controls and deadly push-back practices, the deep political and economic crisis in the sending countries could not deter the immigrants from their goals. the concession granted to educational mobility for higher education legalized immigration in this way, and the race to attract international students triggered international mobility at the higher education level. the economic dimension of international learning mobility has started a competition for developed and developing countries to establish political, economic, and cultural ties with the countries of immigration. as a result, negotiations and agreements have been made between countries on different continents regarding the political, economic, and cultural migration agenda. new forces have come to the fore in attracting international students like china, russia and türkiye. as a result, international student mobility at the tertiary level has been a strong soft power tool between the destination and origin countries as it may clearly be seen in the relationship between türkiye and africa. contrary to the common view regarding the revisionist forces’ tendency to only actively use hard power to resist the ongoing universal system, their success in facilitating soft power is also significant. in theory, the flow of international students is from poorer countries to the more prosperous ones. however, the statistics show that some new revisionists are now in the top ten attracting a big amount of internationally mobile students. along with their power development in military, econfaruk türk internationalization of tertiary education as soft power 114 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies omy, and world politics, they try to make connections with other nations to find a market for the goods they produce, to make a social and cultural impact on the citizens. one of the best ways to reach a community and have a positive effect is to host students of that society at the tertiary level and send them back as honorary goodwill representatives. the students have some connections with the local people in the destination countries they studied and start cultural and economic transactions between both countries. in the past, just the colonizers had the opportunity of having a great impact on their colonies and up till soon they had been the hegemony in the field. now the colonies have their independence – some may still have partially – and they do decide what to do, who to sign a treaty within their foreign policy. so the chinese and turkish effect on the states in africa is increasing steadily. a lot of african students now prefer to study university in new emerging power states (chegraoui et al., 2020, p. 19). 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(2021). yükseköğretim bilgi yönetim sistemi. https://istatistik.yok. gov.tr/ epiphany: vol. 12, no. 1, 2019 e-issn 1840-3719 39 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) the relationship between lean approximation and environment ozgur demirtas, inonu university, turkey neslihan derin, inonu university, turkey abstract many businesses have come to realize that environmentally-aware applications have gained a competitive edge, even at increased competition environments. these businesses can make several investments to protect the environment. contrary to our expectations, regarding environmental protection, there is no need for huge investments on issues such as waste recycling, reduction of emissions, and energy conservation. businesses can become environmentally friendly by lean approach applications that are becoming widespread gradually. the idea of reducing any waste, the basis of the lean approach, can contribute to the protection of the environment by providing a safer use of scarce resources in the environment and by leaving a minimal amount of waste to the environment. therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the usefulness and effects of lean multi-dimensional applications for managing environmentally sensitive businesses. this paper employs an analysis of the literature that examines the relationship between lean thinking and green management. a thorough analysis has indicated that businesses that combine lean approaches and green practices have a better chance to reach positive outcomes, and attain sustainable strategic competitive advantage in their organizational environment. keywords: environment, lean approach, management, sustainable competitive advantage. the relationship between lean approximation and environment 40 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) i n t r o d u c t i o n industrial revolution could be considered as a milestone pinpointing a considerable turning point in the evolution of the human species. while industrial activities are vital to the progress and development of mankind, they inevitably lead to undesirable impacts on the environment (dhingra, r., kress, r. & upreti, g., 2014). we could cite the following developments as some ‘undesirable impacts’: global warming, grow of hole in the ozone layer, the beginning of drought along with the decrease of water resources, almost a halt in fish migration with the increasing world temperature, glaciers’ beginning to melt quickly in the northern hemisphere (gok, m.ş. & arıcı, t 2016). the industrial activity should be efficient and effective enough to fulfill our needs. at the same time, those activities should not violate the ecosystems’ carrying capacity (dhingra, r., kress, r. & upreti, g., 2014), which reminds us of ‘environmental efficiency’. environmental efficiency which is achieved through the reduction of environmental impact by using more efficient materials and less unrenewable natural resources in manufacturing is associated with, to a great extent, process and operational decisions which are categorized as pollution prevention (rothenberg, s., pil, f. k., & maxwell, j., 2001). companies are advised to implement more ‘environmental-friendly’ initiative in order to stay competitive and economically sustainable. manufacturers will need to change their traditional production techniques with a more sustainable approach to minimize the number of manufacturing steps using advanced and alternative methods (cheung, w. m., leong, j. t., & vichare, p., 2017). one of these ‘advanced and alternative methods’ is lean approach. lean approach is one of the most influential manufacturing paradigm of recent times that can be considered as a multi-dimensional approach encompassing a wide variety of management practices, including just-in-time, quality management, work teams, etc., in an integrated system that produces finished products at the pace of the customer demand with little or no waste. lean thinking has raised the idea that batches should always be as small as possible, in order to achieve onepiece flow with batches sizes of one (rubio, s., & corominas, a., 2008). lean initiatives are primarily focused on maximizing productivity by increasing output per unit of input, conserving resources, reducing waste, minimizing costs; green initiatives, however, are concerned with protecting the environment as well (dhingra, r., kress, r. & upreti, g., 2014). there has been much anecdotal evidence suggesting that a lean approach can help make a case for environmental impact reduction to businesses. an integrated lean and green approach has revealed results in (i) a reduction in waste production and (ii) a reduction in environmental impact (pampanelli, a. b., found, p., & bernardes, a. m., 2014). l e a n a p p r o a c h first developed in the japanese automotive industry, lean manufacturing now is seen as the primary management technique for industrial firms. the lean approach was a concept referring to the new management style used by the japanese automotive industry which uses less of everything compared to mass production (abdi, f., shavarini, s. k., & hoseini, s. m. s., 2006). lean production aims to protect value within an organization with overall work and so maximizing efficiency through the reduction of waste. although all these systems set about in the production industry, the notion of the “production process” can easily be implemented to any other set of processes, even those that do not manufacture physical products. as a result, lean production has been much effective as a method of thinking in numerous industries beyond its automotive roots (roosen, t. j., & pons, d. j., 2013). lean production thinking or “lean” is an application that helps businesses detect and eliminate waste through continuous improvement, by controlling their lean tools (verrier b., rose b., caillaud e. remita h., ozgur demirtas & neslihan derin 41 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) 2014). lean thinking is a fully new way of thinking about the roles of business, functions, and careers to channel the flow of value from notion to movement, order to consignment, and unprocessed material into the hands of the client in order to accomplish a step forward. it symbolizes a new notion that triggers the overall ‘value stream’ for products dramatically in the way of excellence (carvalho, h., govindan, k., azevedo, s. g., & cruz-machado, v., 2017). the main objective of the lean approach is to eliminate waste in all processes of the business including customer relations, product design, supplier networks, and firm management. lean approach, producing quality products in an economical way and meeting customer demand most effectively, aims to use fewer people, less inventory, less product development time, less space. the lean approach allows value to be isolated from "waste" by changing the center of interest of management and achieve abundance by focusing on work that will impact the product and the production of resources, instead of fixed assets technologies, organizations (gerger, a., & demir, b., 2010). basic lean principles and objectives can be listed as follows (emiliani, m. l., & stec, d. j, 2005):  continuous improvement: to carry out the activities which will lead to better management in market conditions changing day to day. this fact, labeled “kaizen” as japanese, means change and transition to a better state.  respect for persons: human beings (e.g associates, customers, suppliers, investors, and society) are precious because they are special  creating value for customers: to focus on value creation activities that reflects customer desires.  eliminating waste: to remove only the activities that lead to an increase in cost but do not add any value to the customer who makes the final use of the product. a series of tools were developed to help map and as a result, eliminate three fields. these were “muda”, also known as the seven wastes, “muri” the overloading of people or equipment, and “mura” the varied or unsteady manufacture. the taxonomy put forward to define the seven primary wastes (muda), plus the eighth waste of underutilization of people added later in development are as follows: transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, over-processing, overproduction, defects, and underutilization (roosen, t. j., & pons, d. j., 2013). the purpose of eliminating those types of waste is to increase efficiency, reduce costs, improve customer reply time, and subscribe to improved quality, bigger profitability, and an improved public image. the business should, however, accomplish efficiency not only by performing practices such as lean, but also by decreasing their environmental effect (verrier, b., rose, b., caillaud, e., & remita, h., 2014). identifying clean environmental practices per se requires the reduction of waste at its genesis. waste is not produced by a plant but it is the result of individual processes within the production. therefore, in order to achieve focused management of environmental waste, plants need production engineers who not only know what the waste is but also where it is being generated. this is the gist of the problem because people involved in production processes generally do not have accurate information about this problem. in addition, even when production plants are controlled and improved by lean methods, some waste may still be not visible to the lean methods, then that waste will not be included in the continuous improvement cycles which could be in turn means that effective use of lean tools in identifying and embedding the environmental issues (roosen, t. j., & pons, d. j., 2013). the relationship between lean approximation and environment 42 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) examples of such “lean tools” are:  value stream mapping,  5s, kanban (pull systems),  poka-yoke, heijunka,  six sigma,  kanbans,  first in-first out (fifo),  takt (from taktzeit meaning cycle time),  just in time (jit),  total preventative maintenance-tpm,  pull, flow, low setup, controlled processes, productive maintenance,  single minute dye exchange (smde). to use such tools in lean approaches target zero wastage or zero defects leading to the prevention and reduction of environmental harm. this goal is accomplished by the influential use of sources from reduced waste, reduced quantity of material lost to scrap, and less energy or time used up in producing the required output (pampanelli, a. b., found, p., & bernardes, a. m., 2014; roosen, t. j., & pons, d. j., 2013; yang m.g., hong p., modi s.b.. 2011; kurdve, m., zackrisson, m., wiktorsson, m., & harlin, u., 2014; sajan m.p., shalij p.r., ramesh a., biju augustine p., 2017). r e l a t i o n s h i p s b e t w e e n e n v i r o n m e n t a n d l e a n a p p r o a c h for their survival and profitability, institutions have begun to understand the need to regain the appropriate image toward sincere, dignified, humane, friendly structure from soulless, careless, impersonal, immoral structure since the beginning of the 20 th century. therefore, institutions have tried to embrace a new image by acting more friendly to the environment and society throughout the 20 th century (munshi, d., & kurian, p., 2005). the spreading of green practices contributes to a set of advantages such as cost reduction through a more efficient use of resources, business sustainability, protecting the environment, and better firm image. these advantages show that the implementation of green practices can positively impact the business’s performance. they also mean that a business has attached in some proactive environmental attitude, doings that are designed to reduce pollution and to develop the economic performance of the business (carvalho, h., govindan, k., azevedo, s. g., & cruz-machado, v., 2017). several studies on this subject also confirm the arguments mentioned above. for example, according to the study of innovest strategic value advisors, an international social research company, they have emphasized that more than % 43 of share prices of the business which sells wood and paper products, is more careful about damaging the environment. businesses in the petrol and gas industry also have been found that they have surpassed their competitors with a 12 percent share price above according to the last three years’ values (phillips j, 2007). the manufacturer can simultaneously adopt and combine lean and green strategies in order to create an environmental stance that is a driver for reduced costs and risks, increased revenue, and improved brand image. phrases such as “lean is green” have become increasingly mainstream. steve hope, general manager of toyota motor europe, stated that the whole company should be “green, clean and lean”. lean not only serves as a catalyst but also is synergistic with the green strategy. this means that lean is beneficial for green practices and the implementation of green practices, in turn, has a positive influence on existing business practices [20]. lean techniques do assist in the minimization of waste and pollution and promote the use of environmental management tools (carvalho, h., govindan, k., azevedo, s. g., & cruz-machado, v., 2017). the main purpose of the lean idea may not be the environmental contribution. because, it aims to reduce waste and improve value, and it is also customer-focused (e.g. high quality, low cost, short lead times) (fercoq, a., lamouri, s., & carbone, v., 2016; khodeir, l. m., & othman, r., 2016). however, the research shows that enterprises that have ozgur demirtas & neslihan derin 43 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) succeeded in reducing wastage in internal processes by using lean manufacturing methods also reveal the best environmental management practices (agarwal, a., & sharma, m. k., 2016). there are some researches that directly explore the relationships between lean production and environment or green management. beginning from the 1990s, some authors started to investigate this subject. for the first time, through observational case studies, some of these authors emphasized a relationship between these systems. in addition, at the beginning of the 2000s a more relevant debate on the topic started. indeed, research about the integration of lean agile systems and environmental sustainability of the supply chain seems to have become more prolific as many papers demonstrate (chiarini, a., 2014). king and lenox (2001) examined to find empirical evidence of the link between lean production practices and environmental performance. they conducted some analyses of the environmental performance of 17,499 u.s. manufacturing establishments during the time period 1991-1996. they found strong evidence that lean production, as measured by iso 9000, is complementary to waste reduction and pollution reduction. another study that was being done by chiriani examined some observation for some european companies (five companies), which are belonging in the manufacturing of some spare parts of motorcycles depending on the idea of the lean and environment management approach. for this study, the authors observed and measured some processes that are associated with lean tools (e.g. value stream mapping-vsm, 5s, cellular manufacturing, single minute exchange of die-smed and total productive maintenancetpm). the authors have found some interesting innovative results for the effects of lean management idea on some environmental outcomes. one of these findings reveals that vsm can be used as a tool for exploring the impacts of production processes. the other of the findings for 5s is found to be a useful tool for managing the waste system. in addition, cellular manufacturing has found to be a positive influence on reducing electricity consumption. in addition, total productive maintenance has been found to be an effect on reducing oil leakage, dust emissions or some chemical outcomes. but, the authors didn’t find any significant related to the effect of single minute exchange of die (chiarini, a., 2014). another study in the literature has emphasized that lean leads to green (dhingra, r., kress, r., & upreti, g. 2014). according to the authors, integrating the idea of lean and green thinking is a positive way for attaining innovative solutions, but in their core concepts, there are some differences between them. they are coming from different field of study fields, but we can combine the ideas of lean and green concepts as in the idea of green productivity, ecoefficiency, eco-effectiveness, and sustainable business practices besides, in their study cheung et al. (2017) have reached some novel ideas. for example, they emphasized a cross-functional mapping approach that links the idea of lean thinking and life cycle analysis-lca. the main idea for this linkage is depending on the re-evaluation of carbon footprint for an existing plastic product. the main idea for this research is minimizing the negative environmental influence of plastic injections with the aim of the integration of lean thinking and life cycle analysis. the authors also emphasized that the overall influence for this integration is approximately 40% for climate change, human toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, acidification, and eco-toxicity. in another study, pampanelli et al. (2014) emphasized a novel idea that is the “lean and green model” indicating the idea of integrating environmental sustainability and lean thinking, which is stemming from the kaizen approach. the main idea for this model is to apply lean thinking idea for manufacturing environments where most of the production depends on mass and energy flows. in their model, the authors applied their model at an international engineering the relationship between lean approximation and environment 44 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) corporation and limited their study for cell level, which is the first stream level of a manufacturing business that supports the principles of lean thinking. their findings indicate that the lean and green model can reduce resource usage approximately by 30% to 50% on average. the authors also emphasized that this model has the potential for reducing the costs of mass and energy flows in a cell by 5% to 10%. as can be seen from the literature of lean production, with the idea of lean thinking most of the firms can have a chance to reach effective and efficient solutions. because, this idea emphasizes the connection between lean and green, and it has an important influence on the efficient energy usage of some resources and the reduction of some waste and pollution. in order to get the leanness, applying the idea of green practices has a catalyser effect for attaining green goals. thus, the literature of integrating lean and green can use some innovative ideas that are describing lean and green applications as a synergistic joint of environment and firms’ operations. because, as indicated by dües et al. (2013), lean is a beneficial way for green practices. with the aim of lean thinking, organizations have a better chance to reach some innovative green outcomes. d i s c u s s i o n the literature findings confirm the relationship between lean thinking and green management. specifically, we have observed that many of the firms which are applying the practices of lean thinking and management concepts in their organizations have positive outcomes for attaining innovative green outcomes. in addition to attaining profits and values in the market, the organizations also have a chance to gain a positive image (e.g. socially responsible firms for their shareholders) in their corporate environment. agarwal & sharma (2016) indicate that firms applying the lean management idea in their organizations are called as proactive firms. because, the authors think that these firms integrate lean and green management concept, and reach positive outcomes for waste management, and optimal resource usage from the environment. in the earlier times, business leaders looked upon compliance with environmental regulations as an extra cost and an accounting burden for their organizations. but, today they have begun to increasingly adopt prevention-oriented environmental practices on an ongoing basis with the environmental performance beginning to occupy an important place in product development, along with functional performance (dhingra, r., kress, r., & upreti, g. 2014). implementations of lean thinking as input for lean production have an important influence on the environment (e.g. resource usage, waste management and so on). thus, as in the idea of lean and environmentally friendly, the organizations should focus on energy consumption and material residue, which are the inputs and outputs of a transformation system. in this context, it can be stated that the adoption of lean production practices improves the organization’s environmental performance (jabbour, c. j. c., de sousa jabbour, a. b. l., govindan, k., teixeira, a. a., & de souza freitas, w. r., 2013). the lean approach has a chance to provide competitive advantages for both the business and the country, by revealing the problems of the systems' processes and showing more efficient ways of working (zhu, o., sarkis j., 2004). at the same time, a lean approach is an important example of business system innovations which improves the organizational and individual productivity (alpenberg, j., & scarbrough, d. p., 2016; ncube, l. b., 2010). because, lean thinking is not the only a set of tools, but it is also a managerial approach for improving processes based on a complex system of interrelated socio-technical practices (fercoq, a., lamouri, s., & carbone, v., 2016). from the above analysis, we can assert that all shareholders will be consistently more satisfied when an organization applies the ozgur demirtas & neslihan derin 45 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) lean approach. with the aim of this idea, shareholders should receive more positive outcomes. for example, customers can attain higher service qualities or products that can reach optimal processes that emphasize green solutions, or the organizations can reach optimal prices or timing. in addition, some employees should reach career growths, or suppliers will be happy to be a member of this system. besides, the organizations can obtain a positive image that emphasizes the “socially responsible organization”. most important of all, the other stakeholder, "environment", will be happy to reach more green and liveable attributions with the contributions of lean approach applications. the lean approach has contributed to environmental and financial improvements through "green supply chain practices" (zhu, o., sarkis j., 2004). as a result of all this, the positive image of the corporations in the eyes of their shareholders can attain higher places in their organizational environment. that’s why; scholars propose that the adoption of lean management practices has an important influence on the environmental performance of manufacturing establishments. in other words, the literature wants to assert that lean is green (king, a. a., & lenox, m. j., 2001). the relationship between lean approximation and environment 46 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) references abdi, f., shavarini, s. k., & hoseini, s. m. s. 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(2004). relationships between operational practices and performance among early adopters of green supply chain management practices in chinese manufacturing enterprises, journal of operational management, 22(3), 265-289. the relationship between lean approximation and environment 48 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) microsoft word 2. alan paton by ali gunes epiphanyepiphanyepiphanyepiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 2 spring 2009 ©2009, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country ali güneş international university of sarajevo colonization of africa began in 1488 when the portuguese explorer bartolemeu dias first sailed along the cost of south africa and eventually arrived at the north of south africa. then the british sailors stopped briefly in the southwest of africa on their way to india in the 1600s. in 1602, the dutch east india company was established to expand trade relationship with colonies in asia by entering into a fierce rivalry with britain, and jan van riebeeck brought in 1652 three dutch east india company ships with around 100 people to establish a station, and these people, known as afrikaners, were the first white settlers of south africa. by the end of the seventeenth century, the white population, including dutch, german, and french, increased considerably in south africa by killing, driving out or enslaving the indigenous peoples, and then the slave trade started. during the first half of the nineteenth century, afrikaners set up the orange free state and transvaal republics by displacing the indigenous basotho and batswana people. besides, a second colony, natal, was established by the british in 1843, and the first labourers were brought in 1879 from india to strengthen the natal sugar plantation. the discovery of the diamonds, along with that of gold in the transvaal, resulted in a second anglo-boer war (1899-1902) between britain and the afrikaner republics. although britain was victorious, both sides never forgot the damage of the war, since more than 20 thousand afrikaner women and children died in the concentration camp, and more than 30 thousand farmhouses were destroyed by the british troops, bringing about the rise of afrikaner ethnic nationalism in south africa, yet at the same time the 21 the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country native africans were deceived and further suppressed by both the two white powers, since these powers, in fact, tried to improve their relations for their economic interest in the continent. in 1910, all four provinces cape colony, natal, transvaal and the orange free state were given dominion status by the british and called the union of south africa under the afrikaner home rule. from that period onward, a segregationist legislation was endorsed, defining the indigenous peoples as aliens; their land and resources were exploited, and their movements and freedom were politically controlled and limited in their in their own country. for example, the mines and works act of 1911 restricted many skilled jobs to white workers, while the natives land act of 1913 granted african land ownership rights to only 7 % of the total land area of south africa. besides, the native affairs act of 1920 enforced a system of government-appointed tribal councils, which barred africans from getting involved in political representation in government, and the natives (urban areas) act of 1923 initiated the urban residential segregation, with a stringent system of passlaws to control influx of the natives. in addition, the mines and works amendment act of 1926 enabled to implement racially differentiated salaries, whereas the native administration act of 1927 assigned the governor-general as the “paramount chief” of all the africans, allowing him to appoint chiefs, define tribal boundaries and shuffle tribes in south africa. (beinart and dubow 1-24; frederickson 3-14; ashcroft, griffiths and tiffin 14-5) this segregation even went further, and it was officially legalized as apartheid in 1948 with the election of the afrikaner national party and daniel f. malan as prime minister. the afrikaner national party institutionalized apartheid with the legislation as the group areas act, which not only specified that separate areas be reserved for the four main racial groups whites, blacks, coloureds, and asians, but it also “moved and restricted the rights of ‘non-whites’ in every possible sphere.” (3), or it brought about what george m. fredrickson calls the preparation “to elaborate its grand design for separating the races from the cradle to the grave…assuring the dominance of europeans for all time to come.” 22 ali güneş (244-5) several decades later, however, apartheid gradually ended in 1993 when the national party and the african national congress reached an agreement that guaranteed to set up a democratic south africa. the african national congress won political power in april of 1994 during the first non-racial democratic election with 63 percent of the majority-vote under the leadership of nelson mandela. mandela annulled all apartheid legislation in south africa, and finally the south african parliament approved a new constitution in 1996. (beinart and dubow 20-1) in fact, the painful period of colonialism gradually started disintegrating in the early decades of the twentieth century and accelerated after world war ii, enabling the colonized countries to achieve their independence one by one across the world. for example, raymond f. betts indicates how the second world war hastened profoundly the process of decolonization and “forced [the] change” of power in an unprecedented way, causing a kind of “disastrous [result] for all of the colonial powers” in the western world. (25-7) due to the wind of change across the world, the national consciousness, whether great powers liked it or not, grew politically in asia and africa, bringing about the exchange of power and relationship and demanding freedom from the shackle of imperialism, and colonizing powers were, indeed, made to be lost; they lost not only their prestige but also their control over distant territories one by one. as for this new condition, for example, parsenjit duara argues that “the colonial powers transferred institutional and legal control over their territories and dependencies to indigenously based, formally sovereign, nation-states”, so that “decolonization”, in duara’s view, “represented not only the transfer of legal sovereignty, but a movement for moral justice and political solidarity against imperialism.” (2). however, some critics disagree with betts and duara in the sense that the independence has been an illusion for many former colonized countries in asia and africa. as m. a. r. habib argues, for example, “nothing has changed in strategy” of the former colonizing powers when it comes to the relationship 23 the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country between the colonized counties and colonizing ones (748), since the new governments of the post-imperial period in the newly independent countries or white minority governments as in south africa until 1994 strove to continue the legacy of former colonizer in different ways. moreover, krishnan srinivasan argues that “the transfer of sovereignty during the decolonization process did not conclude the ambitions [of former colonizing powers] for a continuing role in their former colonies” (25), because the old powers have not been willing to leave out entirely their legacy of what george masselman calls “exploitation” and “subjugation” (v) and of what madan sarup terms “cultural project” in their former colonies. (148) this time there is no physical occupation or subjugation, yet the former colonized and newly independent countries have been trapped by a new type of colonialism known as post-colonialism. this paper will discuss this new post-colonial condition or post-imperial legacy of the former white colonizers, along with identity crisis, fragmentation, anger, poverty, segregation, silence, and “fear” in the lives of south african black people in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country (1948). (paton 72) after its independence in the 1930s, the legacy and attitude of the white minority towards the indigenous people still continues as in the past through the rule of the white minority government in south africa when it acts in a different way of colonialism termed “a special type” (cst), in which the indigenous colonised people and colonial power keep sharing the same territory in south africa. in other words, the white minority finds another means not only to exploit the native people economically but also to segregate and divide them into different groups or tribes such zulu, tswana, and sotho; what is more, the white man puts into practice the divide-and-rule policy of imperialism as everywhere, creating a lot of artificial conflicts and problems among these tribes as in many places across the world, including africa, by which these tribes become weak, vulnerable and unable to stand up against the white imperialism and then easy victim of imperialism to be oppressed and controlled socially, politically and culturally. as discussed later in the paper, the white minority obviously deprives the black majority of their basic 24 ali güneş human rights such as education, decent health facilities, economic welfare, and adequate income to feed their families. hence the independence of south africa from the white british colonial rule visibly appears partial and fallacious, since the legacy of the former white imperialism and the sense of superiority of the white civilization still continues one way or another, allowing the white man to exploit incessantly mines and gold of south africa, eventually causing indigenous south african black people to impoverish economically in their own land. in south africa, one of the ways to carry out this post-colonial ambition and practices has been enforced in a way that the black people have been obviously and incredibly exposed to segregation, apartheid, exclusion, marginalization, and eventually systematic inequalities in their own land. the paper, with reference to paton’s novel, thus debates these practices and strategies, in which the black african people are frustrated and subjected to an inferior position a position of lower life or inhumane condition by the white elite; they are exploited and impoverished, since their mines and gold are taken without their consent and control. besides, the indigenous people are forced to a position in which they have to work with a very low salary, have a poverty-stricken life in slum areas, while the white minority leads a luxurious life in their high flats as if it were the time of colonialism or imperialism, since the unseen but felt impact of former colonialism still remains like a shadow over the black people in south africa. once they become aware of their real situations, therefore, the black native people, as the paper argues, either become consent unwillingly and submissively with their current positions and identities in a desperate way or react furiously against their exploitation, deliberate subordination and segregation in their own territory. when paton’s cry, the beloved country was published in 1948, it drew much attention and praise at once, particularly from the film and music industries. for example, the composer kurt weill adapted it into a musical, "lost in the stars," and paton himself worked on the screenplay for the 1951 film adaptation of the novel, directed by zoltan korda. in 1995, miramax films again 25 the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country filmed the novel with james earl jones and richard harris in the roles of stephen kumalo and james jarvis, two chief characters in the novel. as for its literary qualities and messages, however, there are not many written critical views about cry, the beloved country. it may be due to the fact that the novel, with fashion subject-matters of its time – the conflict between the black and the white across the world, liberation movements, struggle for human rights and democracy after world war ii might have appealed to the attention of the audience in music and cinema halls more than that of reading public, so that those few critics who had read the novel, have not gone into details but touched slightly upon the well-known subject in south africa and accounted for their views very briefly. for example, patrick colm hogan argues that paton’s cry, the beloved country, is “a novel of south africa” which deals with “race” as well as with “the condition of blacks, the relationship between the white minority and black majority…but it is within a largely racist problematic that paton defines his critique of south african racism” (206). in 1998, moreover, paton’s widow said in the birmingham post that cry, the beloved country is “seminal work on the oppression of blacks in the apartheid era…” (11) these remarks are very short, not more than two or three sentences but very illuminating for further debates in the novel, so that this paper will not only expand these remarks but also explore other views related to south africa, the conflict between the white minority and the indigenous people, identity crisis in the post-colonial metropolitan city of johannesburg in the novel. in cry, the beloved country, paton, as a white writer, obviously represents the continuity of the legacy of former colonialism, identity crisis, fragmentation, struggles, the sense of inferiority and superiority, fragmented identity of the black native people and the internal diasporas within the home country. the novel opens with a view that the black nation undergoes a horrible time and experience in their lives which results in the dissolution of families, the lost of common relationships and social cohesion among family members and relatives; the strong family ties are wiped out when individual are sneakily displaced from 26 ali güneş their homes and land both physically and psychologically; the family members go away for finding jobs in johannesburg, yet their families do not know where they are and what they do there. what is also paradoxical and crippling is that they, though willing, are afraid of getting news from their relatives. in the beginning of cry, the beloved country, for example, stephen kumalo, an elderly black zulu priest in the village of ndotsheni, natal, receives an unexpected letter from johannesburg where his brother john, sister gertrude and his son absalom live together with many others from his village. they left many years ago but did not send any news about their lives there. both stephen kumalo and his wife “fear to open it”, although they passionately “desire such a letter” from their relatives in johannesburg, since “when people [particularly black people] go to johannesburg”, as mrs. kumalo says to her husband, “they do not come back…there they are lost, and no one hears of them at all.” (paton 9-10) it appears that the letter is not coming from one of their relatives but from reverend theophilus msimangu, a minister in sophiatown which is a region of johannesburg. in the letter, he asks stephen kumalo to come to johannesburg for his sister gertrude kumalo, who is heavily sick. at once stephen kumalo sets off to care for his sister and his son kumalo. but what is of importance about stephen kumalo’s journey is that it enables him to consider inwardly on the train the lives of the black people and their lost identities in johannesburg. like many other metropolitan cities such as london, paris and new york, johannesburg is also a mass, developed metropolitan city as a result of the discovery of mine and gold; now it is a place where people are lost, where people become marginalized, where people become isolated, alien and unknown to each other, where they commit crime and kill each other easily as in the case of absalom kumalo, who commits so many crimes and kills a white man. on his way to johannesburg, therefore, a sense of “fear” occupies stephen kumalo’s mind; he is psychologically disturbed by “the fear of unknown, the fear of the great city where boys were killed crossing the street, the fear of gertrude’s sickness. deep down the fear for his son.” (15) particularly the 27 the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country black people rush into the big city in the hope of finding new employment and a new way of life, since the country side no longer feeds them but loses its importance, beauty and attraction for young black people; it also disintegrates and crumbles when many people desert their countryside and their homeland and go to johannesburg, which, in stephen kumalo’s view, is “a world of not made for” them, causing their own familiar world to slip away, die away, to be “destroyed, beyond any recall.” (15) after a long train journey, moreover, stephen kumalo arrives in sophiatown and finds theophilus msimangu. there are also other priests in msimangu’s house, and they all have dinner together. at the dinner table, stephen talks about ixopo and tells them “how the grass had disappeared…how it was a land of men and women, and mothers and children…how the tribe was broken, and the house broken, and the man broken, how they went away, many never came back, many never wrote any more.” (21-2) like william wordsworth in prelude (1850) and george orwell in coming up for air (1939), paton, through his representation of stephen kumalo, actually expresses his own nostalgia for the past and looks back on the past as a lost eden of peace, stability, and harmony. in the past, life was secure; there was hope for the future, yet the expansion of manufacturing and eventually market, particularly after the mine and gold are found in south africa, destroys the countryside, the grassland as a result of the construction of many factories and high flats. then starts a social mobility, in which many people leave their families and run into big cities to earn money in factories and mines and change their lives for better, since young boys and girls go away, yet they never come back, forget their customs and sometimes live loose and idle lives. moreover, the rate of the crime, murder, robbery and rape is also getting higher and higher in johannesburg, not only destroying the sense of the traditional stability and security but also giving rise to psychological “fear” and disturbance in society, and thus many black people are afraid, and they have a conviction that “it is fear that rules this land.” (22-5) through the views and lives of stephen kumalo, paton shows that the white man discovers mine and gold, 28 ali güneş builds up factories and introduces a capitalist view of economy and life, yet at the same time he paves the way for the devastation of close tribal and social relationships, which had kept people together, bound them to life and provided them with a sense of security and continuity in their lives. and, what is constructed in the subconscious of the black people is the conviction that it is the white man who “has broken the tribe” and destroyed their social and cultural unity on purpose to squeeze their lives. (25) now the feeling of “broken” relationships and “fear”, along with the lost of the sense of beauty, security and continuity, apparently fragments and falls apart human psyche and identity in a way that they cannot be mended as in the past. in addition to the dissolution of tribal ties and lost of human identity in the big city, which is, in fact, the result of european capitalism and greediness, what is also more disruptive and crippling about individual identity and life is that the former colonial legacy of white colonizers, power relationships of superiority and inferiority and of exploiter and exploited as in the past still continue in south africa, even though it gains its independence from the british colonial rule in the 1930s. generally speaking, the legacy of the former colonialism goes on in three ways. first, there is a ruling white minority government, which sustains a system of internal colonialism, suppressing and controlling the indigenous black people, exploiting their natural resources such as mine and gold and leading them to live in poverty, poor health condition and inadequate houses in their own land. under the white minority rule, therefore, segregation and apartheid, as discussed below, become means for the white minority to control and suppress the lives of the black african people. secondly, the white man, as in many other places throughout the world, enthusiastically endeavours to maintain the desire and legacy of the former colonialism by collaborating with the national governments, civil right groups, and local tribal chiefs and so on. these governments, groups and chiefs prepare appropriate grounds, environment and atmosphere to protect the interest of former colonizers and new global powers intact in different ways, so that these governments and rulers sometimes act like dictators to suppress the 29 the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country mass in their counties. thirdly, former colonizers and new global powers also undertake the pseudo-mission and desire to bring democracy, develop human rights, “civilize” and “enlighten” primitive, uneducated and savage indigenous people of non-western societies, since the white man psychologically considers himself superior, civilized, “an emissary of pity, and science, and progress.” (conrad 11, 102, 36) unfortunately, it has been observed for decades that these imperial powers have exploited natural resources of former colonized countries and taken away ivory, mines and gold to build their own capitalist kingdoms back in their own countries. in cry, the beloved country, it is possible to see these three practices in post-colonial south africa. the black south african people are exposed to segregation in their own land. for instance, johannesburg is virtually divided into two areas – the slum area of the black people and european part of the white people; even their transportations and beaches are separated. as discussed below, the native local people are treated by the tribal chiefs in a way that they are not free but controlled and crippled in their psyche and feeling; they do not feel themselves important in their lives but inferior. in order to cover up what he does in south africa, the white man also builds dams to water the dried grass and distribute milk to those children who die of starvation. during his visit to johannesburg, for example, stephen kumalo also visits his brother, john, a former carpenter, who has become a great political leader in johannesburg mainly due not only to his charisma and speaking abilities but also to his anger in view of injustice and exploitation inflicted by the white minority upon the indigenous people. john kumalo favours freedom and his independent identity, so that he rejects those chieftains controlled by the white man. in fact, it is john kumalo who enables stephen kumalo to see gradually reality behind certain applications of the white man. once stephen kumalo asks him why he did not come back to ndotsheni, therefore, john kumalo says: 30 ali güneş down in ndotsheni i am nobody, even as you are nobody, my brother. i am subject to the chief, who is an ignorant man. i must salute him and bow to him, but he is an uneducated man. here in johannesburg i am a man of some importance…i do not say we are free here. i do not say we are free as men should be. but at least i am free of the chief. at least i am free of an old and ignorant man, who is nothing but a white man’s dog. he is a trick, a trick to hold together something that the white man desires to hold together. (paton 34, emphasis added) as the quotation indicates clearly, here the white man, as in graham greene’s the quiet american (1955), indirectly strives to keep his legacy of superiority as well as his economic and political interests through close relationships with opinion leaders, local black chieftains and religious leaders: simply, he feeds couple of people to control mass. in john kumalo’s view, the black chiefs are controlled by the white man in a way to silence and suppress the black people, so that he feels that their lives are limited and subjugated, and their identities are destroyed without having no meaning at all. eventually the whole idea is to conceal what the white man is doing, to save from harm his interest and then to have the indigenous people serve the white man in a submissive way. as long as the black people are submissive and obedient, they are good and nice in the eyes of the white man. john kumalo is aware of this trick, and thus strives to awaken his people to this reality. john kumalo, as he tells his brother, is also angry with the white man who exploits the mines and gold of the black people, buys big cars, and builds his hospitals, high houses, and beautiful parks, while the black people suffer profoundly in slum areas. the black people also work in terrible conditions with low salaries as john kumalo says: go to our hospital, he said, and see our people lying on the floors. they lie so close you cannot step over them. but it is they who dig the gold. for three shillings a day. we come from the transkei, and from basutoland, and from 31 the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country bechuanaland, and from swaziland, and from zululand. and from ndotsheni also. we live in the compounds; we must leave our wives and families behind. and when the new gold is found, it is not we who gill get more for our labour. it is the white man’s shares that will rise…they go mad when new gold is found. they bring more of us to live in the compounds, to dig under the ground for three shillings a day. they do not think, here is a chance to pay more for our labour. they think only, here is a chance to build a big house and buy a bigger car. it is important to find gold, they say, for all south africa is built on the mines. (34-5, emphasis added) this quotation illuminates the exploitation of labour of the black people, their gold, and their lives. john kumalo voices out his anger and reaction. unlike his brother and local chieftains, john kumalo is not obedient and submissive to accept whatever life is offered to his people. in his views, the white man hides behind his furtive words that “it is important to find gold” for the improvement of south africa, yet there is a disproportionate and unjust distribution of the income, in which the white man gets higher share to satisfy his greediness with big house and big car, where the black are doomed to poverty, despair and discrimination. the black people also face discrimination in johannesburg. the city is virtually divided into two parts – the slum area where the mass black people live in misery and the european part where the white minority lives in their high luxurious houses. in the slum areas, the streets are dirty, neglected, and full of thieves and prostitutes; there are no lights and liveliness in the streets, giving an impression that the black people are predestined to live in such conditions. what is more horrible is that they are banned from buying land and owing houses in johannesburg (41), since the land acts which paradoxically “restricts the amount of the land available to black farmers to 13 percent” leading to the intensification of the white-black segregation in south africa. (ashcroft, griffiths and tiffin 14) bill ashcroft, gareth griffiths and helen tiffin argue that “the white minority retained for themselves the bulk of the land, and virtually all of the economically viable territory, including the agriculturally rich areas and the areas with mining 32 ali güneş potential”, and this act and approach enabled the white minority obviously to “institutionaliz[e] and preserve[e] white supremacy.” (14). for ashcroft, griffiths and tiffin, the idea behind this act was that the economy developed by the white men “required a large body of non-white workers to live in close proximity to white areas, for they provided cheap labour”, and the group areas act “led [further] to the development of specific racially segregated townships, using lowlost housing” in the outskirts of johannesburg, along with the separation of “public transport, public seats, beaches, and many other facilities.” (14) as for this segregationist policy as the product of the white man’s perspective, moreover, raman selden, peter widdowson and peter brooker also argue that “models of western thought (derived, for example, from aristotle, descartes, kant, marx, nietzsche and freud) or of literature (homer, dante, flaubert, t. s. eliot) have dominated world culture, marginalizing or excluding non-western traditions and forms of cultural life and expression.” (222) in cry, the beloved country, paton represents the black as being intentionally categorized and excluded from the main stream of life by the white man, who, as in the past, yearns for keeping his colonial and imperial desire in a different way. they are visibly deprived of their basic human rights in their own land in a way that they are like slaves and controlled, being destined to the idea of inferiority, backwardness, and primitivism; they are not only unable to represent themselves and have their voices heard, but they are also unable to decide their future in the way they wish and feel free when the white minority still acts as if they were the owner of the land; nothing can move them from the previously achieved privileged position. this lack of privilege, along with the official deprivation of certain fundamental rights, obviously makes the black people angry, fragments their identity and makes them feel a sense of foreignness and outcast in their own country; they are silent and timid without being secure in life; “sadness and fear and hate” build up “in the heart and mind” of the native people against the white minority, and the native people think that it is the white man who has demolished the strong ties of tribes and resulted in lawlessness and 33 the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country “fear” in south africa. (paton 66) “fear, fear, fear”, along with the insecurity of the future, occupies their heart and mind; the native black people are perplexed in their views and endeavour to find the ways to get rid of their vicious circles physically and psychologically in a desperate situation (67-8): cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom that is gone. aye, and cry aloud for the man who is dead, for the woman and child bereaved. cry, the beloved country, for these things are not yet at an end. the sun pours down on the earth, on the lovely land that man cannot enjoy. he knows only the fear of his heart… cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear…for fear will rob him of all if he gives too much. (66-67, 72) the “broken” and disturbed feeling as well as the reality of “fear”, insecurity and suppression eventually leads to the construction of a culture of resistance culture by which the black people strive to represent themselves and have their voice heard in public space. this culture of resistance, anger and hatred comes out in various ways, either through the political struggle of the black native people or through breaking in and robbing the houses of the white people, assaulting, teasing and killing them. simply, what the black people want is not only to get their identities approved and validated but also to “have a place of [their] own, and a house to bring up their children in, and a place to have a voice in, so that a man is something in the land where he was born.” (42-3) as for place and home, indeed, there is a huge mass of land which had been owned by the black natives for hundred of years, yet the white men control it in the way he wishes. as a result, he also controls the mines and gold and forces the native people to work hard with low salary but gets the highest share of them. john kumalo thus strives to make the native people and miners aware of this reality and injustice, tries to wake them from their sleep when he tells the crowd: “…we ask only for our share of what is produced by our labour. new gold has been found, and south africa is rich again. we ask only for our share of it…to keep 34 ali güneş our wives and our families from starvation.” (158) in john kumalo’s view, the native black people are deliberately kept poor; their labour has been exploited, and the white men “forced us into the mines as though we were slaves” with cheap labour as john kumalo tells his brother stephen kumalo. (181) they are subjected to inequity and “injustice”, upon which the white men strive to base their industry, since the native people, in the view of the white minority, are “simple people, illiterate, tribal people, an easy tool in the hand.” (162) john kumalo strongly indicates that as long as they keep silent and submit to their destiny, the white man will constantly continue his exploitation at a larger scale everyday, so that there is an urgent need to take action and make the indigenous people aware of the reality they face in their lives. it may be through these attempts of john kumalo that the black people, men and women, gradually come to notice how they are exploited, how they are used as tools by the white man, so that there occurs a sense of identity, in which the black people strive to resist and rebel against what they are determined and given. (162) they attempt to establish “the african mine workers’ union” which may enable the african miners to defend their rights and “to negotiate with [their] employers about the conditions of work and pay”, yet a spokesman points out that “the african miners are simple souls, hardly qualified in the art of negotiation, and an easy tool for unscrupulous agitators.” (183) as seen in these views, the native african miners are humiliated in two ways. on the on hand, they are looked down on as being “illiterate” and thus “easy tools” to be cheated as for their land and labour; on the other hand, it is assumed that the african miners, though they struggle to set up their trade union, are not taken seriously into consideration, since they are not skilled and good at tricks which the white man has conducted for ages. in both cases, the african miners are physically and psychologically trapped in their lives and unable to find the way out of this deadlock, so that they, towards the end of cry, the beloved country, seem locked in their psyche and feeling and unable to find a reasonable way out, and thus the only way which remains for them is to pray to do away with their feeling of fear 35 the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country and injustice: “god save us from the fear…” , from injustice (191), since the white man, as stephen kumalo ruminates, “had taken most of the pieces away” by means of “fear” and “injustice”. (195) paton, like frantz fanon in black skin, white mask (1952), explores in cry, the beloved country psychological impasse created by the white minority in south africa. under the psychological effect of fear and injustice, there occurs what fanon terms in the wretched of the earth (1963) a “contested culture”, by which the black people attempt to destroy the domination and legacy of former colonialism and oppressor in their land. (238) in cry, the beloved country, however, paton, as a white writer, also aims at eradicating to some extent this “contested culture” in south africa and thus tries to reconcile the black natives and the white minority in south africa in two ways. first, he employs christianity as a means of reconciliation and brotherhood to achieve a practical cooperation between two races. in his own life, paton himself was politically active; he was one of the founding members of the south african liberal party, established in 1953, to stand up against the national party’s apartheid policy in south africa, yet he, rather than politics, paradoxically employs religion to eliminate the racial conflict in society. through his representation of the views of stephen kumalo and msimangu, therefore, paton admits that john kumalo is right in his analysis of political and economic situations (paton 36-37), yet he is against john kumalo’s method of seeking their rights through political means or through violence. instead, he stresses that “love [of brotherhood in religion] is greater than force” (182). once he returns to ndotsheni, therefore, stephen kumalo begins to pray regularly for the restoration of life in the valley, yet he is also confused in his views, since he, though different from his brother in his strategy, comes to realize that an action is necessary to achieve restoration of life, and his attempt is collective: “somewhere down here upon the earth men must come together, think something, do something.” (195) through the view of stephen kumalo, however, paton seems ambivalent in his view about religion, and thus criticizes it that it has failed up until now to accomplish love, brotherhood and reconciliation in south africa. in john kumalo’s 36 ali güneş view, the church, like the chief, demands obedience, speaks well, but remains ineffective to bring solution to the problems in society (34). besides, he argues that there is also racial discrimination even within the church, since white priests receive a much higher salary than their black counterparts. (35) for him, “what god has not done for south africa, man must do.” (25) furthermore, there are a hundred, and thousand of voices and cries that the english-speaking churches and afrikaans-speaking churches disagree; “there is to be no equality in church or state” but separation, division and discord. (71) what is also paradoxical is that even the priest msimangu concedes that “there are times ..... when god seems no more to be about the world.” (67) in addition, msimangu thinks that only reconciliation and cooperation between the two races based on “love” and desire for “the good of their country” may save south africa (37), yet he also fears that this may also prove unachievable: “i have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating.” (38) for paton, therefore, religion does not prove an effective method to get rid of racial discrimination peacefully in south africa. paton’s second solution to reconcile the black and white is faith and goodwill, even though this process is very slow and needs a lot of time to make both sides aware of good intention. in cry, the beloved country, it is arthur jarvis, a young white man, who represents this good intention, goodwill and faith. he is profoundly “interested in social problems” and in promoting “the well-fare of non-european sections of the community” in south africa. (66) paton uses arthur jarvis not only as his own voice but also as a white man to take initiative that the reconciliation is possible if the white man gets rid of his sense of superiority and “selfishness” and feels goodwill and consideration for the black people. (126) like paton himself, arthur jarvis, a well-known social reformer shot dead by absalom kumalo during a robbery, campaigns for the well-fare of the native black people and criticizes the “exploitation” of their mine and gold by the white man, who, he believes, deliberately disintegrates “native community life and deteriorates “the native family life, in poverty, slums, and crime.” (126) influenced profoundly by 37 the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country the views of abraham lincoln, the 16th president of the usa (1861-5) and a republican, who declared the freedom of slaves with the emancipation proclamation, arthur jarvis also upholds the freedom of native people and their education in south africa, and he thinks that the white man just exploits and does nothing to improve south african society, causing the physical and moral deterioration of native people. his another argument is that committing crime and being prostitute are not in the nature of native people in south africa, yet it is caused by the fact that “their simple system of order and tradition and convention has been destroyed” by the white man to control them and satisfy his greediness and “selfishness.” (126-7) as a white man, arthur jarvis is also unhappy about the application of the white minority in south africa and notices the double standards, in which the white man not only sees himself as “superior” and native people as “barbarian” (71, 82), but also views south africa in a position that it, unlike the white civilization, is doomed not to progress, so that the white man, in his view, does not want to do anything for south africa (134), yet arthur jarvis believes that what he is doing is true and thus tries “to end the conflict of [his] soul” by dedicating himself to the improvement of south africa in terms of law, human rights, development of economic conditions and so on. moreover, paton also uses arthur jarvis’s father james jarvis, a wealthy white man, in a way that james jarvis also strives to help the native people in the village of ndotsheni as an initiative for reconciliation; he attempts to please the indigenous people. after the death of his son arthur, therefore, james jarvis devotes himself to social progress of ndotsheni, donates ten thousand dollars to start the arthur jarvis club, gives milk from his estate to help starving children during the drought and arranges for a dam to be built in ixopo to prevent further droughts in the valleys. however, all these attempts become ineffective to reconcile the two races, since there emerges an idea among the black people that the white man is giving back very little of what he has been taking away from them for years, so that what arthur jarvis did and what his father does is not convincing for the black people. 38 ali güneş for the construction of the new dam, for example, james jarvis sends a young agriculture demonstrator, who examines the valley and tries to see if the dam suits the land, and the local natives, including stephen kumalo and his wife, become very happy that “there will be a new life in this valley” a new life that will come into existence when the dam waters the pasture in the valley of ndotsheni; the grass will recover, and the cows will graze at and eventually give enough milk for those children who are about to die of starvation. stephen kumalo ironically sees all these as great deal of endowment by james jarvis as benevolent white man. he asks the young demonstrator who his master is, since the native people have been psychologically convinced for ages that there should always be a “master” to organize things properly, which actually gives rise to an sense of identity constructed as being controlled, dependent, and unconfident in life (228) – the “master” is always the white man with his so-called “superiority”, literacy, advanced knowledge and civilization as in conrad’s representation of kurt in heart of darkness, who represents european mastery in the congo river to “civilize”, progress and “enlighten” the native africans (conrad 11, 102). for example, kurt is preparing “a report” for the “future guidance” for future postcolonizers called “the suppression of savage customs”, in which he argues how the white men represent themselves to “exterminate all the brutes”: “we whites, from the point of development we have arrived at, ‘must necessarily appear to them [african savages and brutes] in the nature of supernatural beings – we approach them with the might as of a deity,’ and so on, and so on. ‘by the simple exercise of our will we can a power for good practically unbounded.’” (71-2) indeed, this is how the white man establishes himself as “supernatural beings” and “a deity” to suppress and control sneakily the indigenous people; the whole purpose is different – it is to exploit them, exploit their natural resources and their “ivory” (38, 70, 81) the sense and psyche of “superiority” and worship of power obviously corrupt kurtz in particular and the white western civilization in general. 39 the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country in cry, the beloved country, likewise, paton represents his own dissatisfaction with the view of “master”, “supernatural beings” and “a deity” attributed to the white man through his representation of john kumalo and the young demonstrator who both reject the view of superiority in different ways. when it comes to the issue of “master”, the young demonstrator tells stephen kulamo that he does not have “master” to guide him but works independently for his country and people to advance them further to a point which will enable them to be independent and free and to stand on their own feet without depending upon the white man. as for what the white man is doing now, moreover, he also tells stephen kumalo that the white is actually giving nothing to them: “umfundisi, it was the white man who gave us so little land; it was the white man who took us away from the land to go to work. and we were ignorant also. it is all these things together that have made this valley desolate. therefore, what this good white man does is only a repayment.” (paton 228) the young man seems very disturbed in his views, feeling and life, and thus wants the black people, like stephen kumalo, to realize that the white man is not donating anything to them and their country. he accounts for in detail how the white man is actually cheating and misleading the natives in a furtive way to cover up what has been done in south africa so far. it is exactly what some global imperial powers and un are doing today in many places throughout africa to feed those people who die of starvation and of lack of food and water, because africa, its land, mines and petrol, as well known, has been exploited for ages and continue to be exploited by the global powers at the moment. in the novel, stephen kumalo, as being deceived black parson and knowing nothing but the truth, does not like the young demonstrator’s talk; he does not like “new and disturbing thoughts”, since his identity and views have been shaped and constructed very much by the assumption that the white man is always divinely “master”, “supernatural beings” and “a deity”, so that he is submissive and obedient without any intention to cause trouble for the white man. stephen kumalo accepts this kind of identity in a way that he is hopeless and handicapped in his feeling, conscious, and attempts to 40 ali güneş free himself from the psychology of inferiority. that he gives us an impression that he is unable to survive without the white man is actually lost of an identity; he has no power and ability to stand up against what is decided for and given to him, and thus he admits defeat: “a white man’s dog, that is what they have called him and his kind. well, that was the way his life had been lived, that was the way he would die.” (230) in fact, the imperial powers need the people, like stephen kumalo and the tribal chiefs, in the sense that they serve, cooperate with their imperial interest and smooth the ways for exploitation, for enforcing their interest and for dominating the indigenous people in a different way. in relation to stephen kumalo’s pinioned identity, if it is due to christianity and brotherhood, then, there is hypocrisy in religion, which always upholds the subordination of the black people, even though it is supposed to advocate equality and brotherhood among its followers. at the very end of cry, the beloved country, stephen kumalo thinks of his son absalom kumalo, who is sentenced to death for his murder of arthur jarvis, yet the way absalom kumalo had acted and killed a white man ironically avails stephen kumalo of the opportunity to re-assess life in south africa in terms of why the native people have lost their basic human qualities such as kindness, tolerance, love, compassion, and so on. in this respect, paton’s novel becomes a kind of lament for those lost values, for the deserted land, for “broken” ties, for its fragmented population and identities; it is a kind of objection to the inhumane ideology of the white man imposed upon the black natives in south africa. stephen kumalo thus comes to a conclusion that the “salvation” of africa “lay far off”, since men are not courageous enough to face the truth and reality in his view but “are afraid of it” and afraid of themselves and afraid of their wives and their children (235), yet he is paradoxical in his views in the sense that although he himself knows the answer, stephen kumalo acts as if he did not know it. the answer for why the native people are unable to get rid of their “fear” is that the way they have politically and culturally been treated and constructed for ages by the white man has created a culture of horror, a culture of “fear”, a culture of 41 the illusion of freedom in south africa: post-colonialism, exploitation and identity crisis in alan paton’s cry, the beloved country obedience, and a culture of despair, so that they are unable to recover and “be free [psychologically] to use the fruits of the earth”: “men were afraid, with a fear that was deep, deep in the heart, a fear so deep that they hid their kindness, or brought it out with fierceness and anger, and hid it behind fierce and frowning eyes.” (235) in the last section of cry, the beloved country, however, stephen kumalo becomes a voice for paton and tries to convince his fellow people that they will be free one day: “…that dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret.” (236) this is a kind of romantic, escapist or shelleyan futuristic statement of stephen kumalo to release himself from the pain and inadequacy of his existence and identity. he wants to fly away from the shadow and “fear” of the present to a world of imagination, where “dawn will come”, where “emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear emancipation” will be achieved, where there will be no partings, no separation and antagonism between the black and the white but where eye will meet eyes, where there will be reconciliation and collaboration between the black and the white. through his representation of stephen kumalo and his views, finally, paton strives to provide hopeless people with hope; he, like p. b. shelley and virginia woolf, tries to delight stephen kumalo’s spirit when he is psychologically frustrated by his “fear” and by the enmity between the two races. it is this delight that will keep failing hope alive in south africa, yet the white man should establish a sense of empathy with the other, give up the demand of the white “superiority” and domineering mentality and do away with his greediness. simply, the white man should also free himself. works cited 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ideologies in the united states and south africa. oxford: oxford university press, 1995. habib, m. a. r. a history of literary criticism and theory: from plato to the present. oxford: balckwell, 2008. hogan, patrick colm. “paternalism, ideology, and ideological critique: teaching cry, the beloved country.” college literature. 20.1 (1993): 206. loomba, ania. colonialism/postcolonialism. london: routledge, 2000. masselman, george. the cradle of colonialism. new haven, ct.: yale university, 1963. murphy, anges. the ideology of french imperialism 1817-1881. washington: catholic university of american press, 1948. paton, alan. cry, the beloved country. harmondsworth: penguin, 1982. “paton's widow leaves beloved but 'lawless' south africa”. the birmingham post 23 november 1998: 11. sarup, madan. identity, culture and the postmodern world. ed. tasneem raja. edinburgh: edinburgh university press, 2005. selden, raman, peter widdowson and peter brooker. a reader’s guide to contemporary literary theory, 4th edition. london: prentice hall, 1985. srinivasan, krishnan. “from post-colonial to international relations: the growth of multi-ethnic, multiracial intergovernmental organizations”. un chronicle. 43.1 (2006): 25. 41epiphany new media’s positive and negative impacts on youth selvira draganović international university of sarajevo abstract contemporary living is marked by powerful presence and all present use of new technologies. we might boldly state that people might not function well without new media. we heedlessly witness large part of contemporary adolescent’s social and emotional development occurring while on the internet and on cell phones. many parents and caregivers today use technology incredibly well and feel comfortable and capable with the programs and online venues that their children and adolescents are using. nevertheless, some parents and adults are concerned about adolescent’s overuse of new media due to their potential risks and negative impact on adolescent’s psycho-social development. some parents and caregivers may find it difficult to relate to their digitally savvy youngsters online for valid reasons. such people may lack some basic understanding of adolescents and the new forms of socialization which is happening online, which are integral to their children's lives. adolescent’s limited capacity for self-regulation and susceptibility to peer pressure make youth particularly vulnerable and at risk for various risks as they navigate and experiment with social media. primary aim of this paper is to shed some light on adolescent’s online behavior and choices given their physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and behavioral characteristics and discuss potential negative and positive impact of new media on youth, family and social participation. keywords: adolescence, adolescents, new media, risks, benefits. 42 journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction distinct from the traditional media such as tv and different printed materials, new media include and refer to all products/devices and services that provide information or entertainment using computers or the internet, among which very popular ones are: smartphone, you tube, blogs, social networks like facebook, twitter, instagram etc. contemporary living word is marked by presence of various technology devices and new media which seem to bring many advantages but disadvantages as well. many worry about impact of new media on youth warning about their negative sides. the new pew research center survey (2018) on social media use reveals youtube, instagram, snapchat, facebook and twitter to be the most popular online platforms among us adolescents ages 13 to 17. while the numbers on smartphone ownership in advanced countries is higher than in emerging countries, it is estimated that five billion people have mobile devices and half of these are smartphones (gsm association, 2018) with and 95% of us adolescents owning a smartphone. the study conducted by lenhart and associates in 2011 (as stated by reid & weigle, 2014) reports 76% of all teens use social media, 64% do so on a daily basis, and 41% have accounts on multiple sites. hence, one can conclude that majority of adolescents all over the world own smart phones and that most of them log on to their social media site more often than not and we can assume that large part of this generation's social and emotional development is occurring while on the internet and on cell phones or smart phones. no wonder many are concerned about impact of new media on youth. however, in order to better understand why adolescents are using new media this much, which seems close to almost being addictive, we should foremost consider main psychological characteristics of adolescence, thus characterizing/ categorizing new media impact on youth, family and their impact on youth’s social participation either positive or negative. given the transitional stage of adolescence and whilst keeping in mind that adolescents are considered to be adults in waiting, in order to understand adolescents’ healthy and unhealthy behaviors, we begin with tackling their physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and behavioral development. psychological characteristics of adolescents adolescence is primarily marked by transition from childhood into adulthood which is characterized by important physical, cognitive, psychosocial and emotional development. diverse physical changes such as physical growth, sexual development, hormonal changes which are resulting in gross changes in appearance and body image, occur during adolescence and make the common characteristics of adolescent’s physical development. at this stage of life adolescents become very and seriously concerned about their body image and reputation among their peers. hence, what their peers do, what they approve or disapprove, how they behave, is very important to adolescents. adolescents might be prone to early and/or risky sexual behavior, substance use eating disorders and even depression. because of this concern and they might use new media not only to check their peers but also to share their concerns with them or to look for solutions for their concerns (andrews & hopes, 2010; carr, 2016; brent, poling & goldstein, 2011; agras, 2010). adolescence is the time when abstract thinking finally develops, something that children were not able to do till this stage of life. this ability, next to poor understanding of how both, positive and negative emotions affect their thinking and behavior, however might result in adolescents’ poor decision making skills. this might lead to adolescent’s poor ability to limit time spent on internet, media usage, prioritize, focusing and accomplishing school tasks. considering adolescents serious concern about themselves and their position among peers it is important to understand that adolescents may fear potential negative social consequences of their choices more than they do possible health risks (i.e., being rejected and ostracized for not sharing all on facebook profile or instagram versus possible risks posed doing so or on line predators). at this stage of life adolescents exercise their reasoning skills which reflect in their self centered attitudes (jaffe, 1998), frequent acting over dramatic, arguing for the sake of arguing and constantly find faults in adults’ position (bjorklund, 2011). at adolescence, moral development becomes important part in youth’s life too. adolescents voice and share their values and ethical behavior, which serve as foundation of pro-social behavior such as altruism, helping, moral and ethics (shaffer & kipp, 2014). pro-social behavior is modeled after adults 43epiphany and peers. thus, new media might serves as powerful tool for modeling pro and/or anti-social behavior. this is the time when adolescents, if encouraged and positively reinforced in society might start volunteering and this way, positively contributing and participating in society. it should be emphasized that adolescents are hungry for meaning and they might benefit extremely from positive role models and explicit discussions of moral values as well as community in which there are activities structured around pro-social values, including religious values (shaffer & kipp, 2014) . in terms of emotional development of adolescents, this is the time of establishing coherent sense of identity and learning to cope with stress and managing emotions. the sense of identity includes two concepts of the self, the self concept (who am i, roles, goals, values), and self esteem (evaluating how one feels about self concept). the self concept and its development is under the influence of both, cognitive and physical development ad uniquely develops for each adolescent (bjorklund 2011). thus, adolescents who manage to develop healthy body and good body image will be more able to deal with their concerns will have foundation to develop healthy self concept (shaffer & kipp, 2014). adolescence time is marked by adolescents’ experimenting with different ways of appearing, sounding, and behaving. social media and content shared on social media might contribute, positively or negative to, adolescents development of the self. instead of letting adolescents learn through media adults can help adolescents to understand how emotions can affect their thinking and behavior and help them learn good and healthy coping skills by fostering their self competence. otherwise, their peers and media might will fill in this gap and serve as a resource, which might be not only untrue but also dangerous. in order to help adolescents smoothly transit into adulthood and become critical and selective of media content, adults can engage in honest, open conversation with them by asking them, in non-threatening way and listening nonjudgmentally, trying to match their emotional state, model rational decision making strategies, discuss ethical and moral problems in news and in social media. social development of adolescents in this phase of their life relates to peers, family, school, work, and community. adolescence is the time when huge shift from family to peer group happens. during adolescence peer groups serve a number of important functions among which, providing a temporary reference point for a developing sense of identity, is of extreme importance because through identification with peers, adolescents begin to develop moral judgment and values (shaffer &kipp, 2014) and to define how they differ from their parents (gullotta et al., 2015). at the same time, however, it is important to note that adolescents also strive, often covertly, for ways to identify with their parents. another important function of peer groups is to provide adolescents with a source of information about the world outside of the family and about themselves (gullotta et al., 2015). hence we can state that peer groups also serve as powerful reinforces during adolescence, as sources of popularity, status, prestige, and acceptance. positive peer relations are linked to positive psychosocial adjustment and negative behaviors might be linked to social isolation. adolescence is the time when dating and sexual behavior of teens also become important to them. internet and new media are full of online sites providing advice on attraction, dating cites, cyber dating etc. which sensibly pose many threats to potential user, sexting, internet harassment, sexual victimization (delmonico & carnes, 1999; schneider 2012; reid & weigle, 2014). given that adolescents cell phone usage is on increase and that adolescents communicate great deal via social media they might also be more likely to use this technology to communicate and share their distress and suicidal thoughts with others, what can be both, risk and protective factor (ruder et al., 2011). media, new media especially, can be used as paltform and forum for expressing suicidal ideation as some studies report (ruder et al., 2011) on severeal cases of individuals who, prior to commiting suicidal act, have shared their intent and plan via social media. although adolescence is also considered to be the time of palpable parent -teen conflict resulting in parental distress as parent might be thinking of it as rejection but in essence it is not because parentteen conflict is normal in adolescence, through conflict adolescents are showing their parents they are steaming of and becoming individuals (tahirović, draganović, sofović, 2018). finally, it is important to state that all of the ways adolescents develop, cognitively, physically, 44 journal of transdisciplinary studies emotionally and socially, prepare them to experiment with new behaviors as they transit from childhood to adulthood. risk taking in adolescence is an important way that adolescents shape their identities and develop their self, try out their new decisionmaking skills, and develop realistic assessments of themselves, other people, and the world (shaffer & kipp, 2014). such exploratory behaviors are natural in adolescence (santrock, 2016), and teens need to be given some room to experiment and to experience the results of their own decision making in many different situations (dryfoos, 2012). however, young people sometimes overestimate their capacities to handle new situations, and these behaviors can pose real threats to their physical health. there are three theories which explain this adolescent’s behavior: 1. one theory stresses the need for excitement, fun, and novel, intense sensations that override the potential dangers involved in a particular activity (arnett & balle-jensen, 1993). 2. another theory stresses that many of these risk behaviors occur in a group context and involve peer acceptance and status in the group (jessor, 1991). 3. and third theory emphasizes that adolescent risk taking is a form of modeling and romanticizing adult behavior (gibbons & gerrard, 1995). by and large, we may say that adolescents experience numerous psychological changes which mark this stage of their life representing distinctive marks of adolescence. adolescence and adolescents in view of adolescence as transitional stage from childhood to adulthood and considering adolescents themselves adults in waiting, so to say, neither children anymore nor adults yet, this puts them in, somehow ungrateful position. this developmental phase of life can be a time of both, disorientation and discovery. adolescence brings up very important issues of self independence and self identity and myny adolescents and their peers face tough choices regarding schoolwork, risky behaviors such as sexuality, drugs, alcohol, and social life whilst peer groups, romantic interests, and external appearance tend to naturally increase in importance for some time during an adolescents’ journey toward adulthood ( shaffer & kipp, 2014). moreover, adolescence is marked by adolescents’ frequent and rapid mood switching which waver between happiness, anguish, self-confidence and anxiety (carr, 2016). however, we must keep in mind that some of these shifts in moods originate not only from biological resources but also complex social interactions including conflicts with friends, pressure from school and experimentation with relationships (santrock, 2012). during adolescence, teenagers try to manage their emotions and uncertainties, to discover where they fit in with peers and their place in society. more often, adolescents experience an unsteady sense of self and experiment with new personal labels and relate to a number of peer groups (shaffer & kipp, 2014). at adolescence, peer relationships are given priority over family relationships. adolescents often seek opinions from and perceptions of their friends; they are readily influenced by their peers’ behaviors and beliefs. during this stage, teenagers are extremely vulnerable to negative peer pressure. adolescents are also characterized by their search for independence. while doing so, teenagers most often test the boundaries placed by their teachers and parents. in addition, adolescents develop a selfcentered attitude and look at situations from their own perspectives. all in all, we can say that adolescence is marked by emotions, personal identity, peer relationships, self centered attitudes, independence and testing boundaries. new media play very important role in adolescent’s psycho-social development. many show concern in terms of possible negative impact and influence of new media on youth and family (delmonico & carnes, 1999; schneider 2012; reid & weigle, 2014). nevertheless, we have to emphasize that media are innately neither positive nor negative. human nature is discovered through the use of internet and not vice versa (giles, 2010). given this all, we may talk about media impact which, because of their users can go in two directions, unhealthy/negative influence or risks or challenges of new media and healthy/positive/ beneficial impact of new media. we discuss these two separately in coming parts. 45epiphany negative influence/risks or challenges of new media and their impact on youth among most common and concerning risks and challenges of new media we name the management of personal information and privacy. this risk might lead to the following, the risk of predation and cyberbullying and online harassment, sexting, face book depression (livingstone & brake 2009; livingstone 2008; livingstone and helsper 2007; schneider 2012; reid & weigle, 2014; carr 2016). scientists warn that those who suffer from facebook depression are at risk for social isolation and sometimes turn to risky internet sites and blogs for “help” that may promote substance abuse, risky and/or unsafe sexual practices, or aggressive or selfdestructive behaviors, violence, terrorism; (ruder et al. 2011; schneider 2012; reid & weigle, 2014). according to child exploitation and online protection centre (ceop, 2006), due to digital footprint, another new media risk, safety and wellbeing of young people using social network sites are of particular concern to parents. scientists warn that young people lack awareness of the public nature of the internet (acquisti and gross 2006). additionally, new media or better to say, inability to limit time spent on internet and daily usage of new media, might present detriment to work and/or school (cheating, grades, admission, productivity and success, employment prospects, time wasting). on the top of the threat of abuse, some fear that young people’s use of social network sites can compromise the development and maintenance of supportive friendships and involvement in institutions traditionally understood as the embodiment of „communities‟, namely school, sports clubs, families, partners etc. (delmonico & carnes 1999). despite all these aforementioned risks, there is some evidence that young people are aware of potential privacy threats online and many proactively take steps to minimize potential risks (lenhart & madden 2007; hinduja & patchin 2009). furthermore, research has indicated that online risks „are not radically different in nature or scope than the risks minors have long faced offline, and minors who are most at risk in the offline world continue to be most at risk online‟ (palfrey et al. 2008 p. 7). healthy/positive influence of new media on youth given the negative impact of new media on youth, family and community participation one may wonder about existence of new media’s benefits or positive impact. yet, there are numerous benefits or impact of new media on youth, among which psychological ones are crucial considering adolescents’ developmental stage. whilst fearing negative impact of media and new media in particular parents and caregivers naturally question the benefits of new media. studies in this area do suggest that new media may be beneficial in fostering of one's individual identity and unique social skills like socialization and communication, enhanced learning opportunities, accessing health information, (ito et. al., 2008). and also, new media may play a positive role in enhancement of individual and collective creativity through development and sharing of artistic and musical endeavors (boyd and ellison, 2007), instilling growth of ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites (ito et al, 2008). new media might also be beneficial in expansion of one's online connections through shared interests to include others from more diverse backgrounds (ellison et al, 2007). social media might be offering opportunities for community engagement through raising money for charity and volunteering for local events, including political and philanthropic events (ito et. al, 2008, boyd, 2007). nonetheless it is important to note that it is not media themselves solely which play a positive or negative role in adolescents and family psychosocial development and their community participation, there are other significant factors. next to the media and all that they bring with, adolescents, namely their psychological characteristics, skills, capacities, competencies, also play an important role in positive or negative impact of new media on youth. then, family, family relations and parents-children relations, family values, family time and of course, wider social factors and resources in societies, opportunities, values etc. 46 journal of transdisciplinary studies conclusion even though we notice negative/unhealthy impact of new media and youth, family and social participation, new media can, at the same time have positive/healthy impact on youth. with joint forces we should, all, work on enhancing positive or healthy media usage and strengthen their positive impact on youth because they can help improve adolescent’s behavior through: media literacy, education, creativity, individual identity and self expression, strengthening interpersonal relationships, sense 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(2014). developmental psychology: childhood and adolescence. 9th ed, wadsworth cengage learning, belmont. » tahirović s, draganović s., sofović j, (2018). napredno roditeljstvo: priručnik za prevenciju nailnog ekstremizma. el-kalem, sarajevo. » the mobile economy 2018 copyright © 2018 gsm association, retrieved from https://www.gsma.com/ mobileeconomy/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/the-mobile-economy-2018.pdf, january 2020. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 31 depression and anxiety levels among chronic kidney patients selvira draganovic, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina baha kurulmaz, independent researcher abstract chronic kidney disease is a progressive and irreversible loss of the kidney function. besides physical and treatment complications for chronic kidney disease, kidney patients also suffer a number of psychological problems, among which depression and anxiety are very common. this all, not only makes chronic kidney patients’, already difficult life, more difficult but also furthermore vulnerable and at risk for earlier death. this study aimed to measure the level of anxiety and depression of chronic kidney disease patients have been measured and compared with the scores of healthy participants. since haemodialysis is the most common treatment method for ckd, 60 haemodialysis patients at inegol hospital in turkey and 60 people from a general healthy population (n=120) were conveniently chosen to participate in this study. following the literature review indicating possible psychological outcomes of chronic kidney failure and haemodialysis, depression and anxiety level among ckd patients and healthy cohort group was measured. depression and anxiety levels were investigated using the beck depression inventory ii and the state-trait anxiety inventory were used (turkish versions). study results indicate, when compared to healthy cohorts (m=12.66, s.d. 5.7), ckd patients scored higher on depression scale (m=18.5, s.d. 7.3) as well as higher 32 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies level of anxiety (m=40.76, s.d.10.7) when compared with a healthy population (m=32.40, s.d. 7.8). results of this study, next to important scientific contribution, indicate importance and the need for professional help psychological support for chronic kidney disease patients in order to diminish the psychological impact of facing chronic illness. keywords: chronic kidney disease, depression, anxiety, chronic kidney patients, a general population vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 33 introduction chronic kidney disease, also called, end-stage renal disease is becoming one of the major public health concerns all over the world. the prevalence of end-stage renal disease (esrd) is expected to rise around 7% of the whole world population and this will cost about 1.1 trillion dollars in medical expenditures (lysaght, 2002). according to the turkish public health institute (2014), the prevalence of chronic kidney disease in turkey is 15.7% which means 7.5 million people have been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. the same source indicates increasing number of hemodialysis patients stating the number increased 3.6 times from1995 to 2014 (the ministry of health of turkey, 2014). since there is no cure for ckd, kidney transplant or dialysis are the most common treatment methods. hemodialysis, although generally provided at hemodialysis centers at hospitals it is also possible to get home dialysis but research indicates more positive outcomes of hemodialysis in hospitals (national institute of diabetes and digestive and kidney diseases, 2016). besides facing chronic physical health condition, although rarely timely and properly diagnosed, chronic kidney patients face several psychological problems such as anxiety and depression. despite poor chances to diagnose psychological problems of ckd patients, depression is the most common psychological problem among ckd patients (bossola et al., 2010) and it is found to be very much prevalent among ckd patients, affecting up to 20% of ckd patients even before the initiation of dialysis (hedayati et al., 2009). at the same time, there is a bidirectional relationship between depression and 34 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies chronic medical illnesses due to the health risk behaviors and changes in the brain caused by depression which, in turn, increases the risk for chronic medical illnesses (katon, 2011). besides physical changes in chronic kidney patients (goldberg, 2010) which might underlie the development of depression, other possible reasons for depression development among chronic illness patients are related to experiencing multiple pain (dworkin et al.,1990), and stress due the change of lifestyle (prince et al., 2007). additionally, expected and commonly occurring decrease in the overall quality of life of chronic kidney patients makes patients more prone to develop psychological problems such as depression and anxiety (ottaviani et al., 2016). chronic kidney patients report experiencing symptoms which match with the symptoms of major depression such as, anhedonia and feelings of sadness, helplessness, guilt, hopelessness, which are usually accompanied by changes in sleep, appetite, and libido (finkelstein, 2016). furthermore, chronic kidney patients report experiencing high anxiety levels during hemodialysis treatment, because it enables and triggers their thinking about the long-term health condition, survival and early mortality, financial issues, job status and fear of losing a job and getting the treatment (acar, 2007). anxiety, as an emotional reaction which is primarily characterized by feelings of tension and physical changes, affects the cognitive process (cates et al., 1996). physical symptoms of anxiety among ckd patients are shown in chest pain, sweating, breathlessness, palpitations with the strong cognitive component in a form of the fear of dying. given the multiplicity of issues to worry about and strong apprehension feeling due to the dialysis vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 35 process; being hooked to hemodialysis machine working as an artificial kidney, with an establishment vascular access on their arms, monitoring the dialysate, the fluid cleaning unwanted waste products from patient’s blood and, abundance of medications like analgesic, antimicrobial, hypoglycemic, diuretic, antihypertensive, erythropoietin (sari, 2016) and potential medical complications (sousa, 2008), chronic kidney patients face multiple physical strains and psychological challenges. chronic kidney patients are usually very weak following hemodialysis treatment; depend on others to take them to and from hospitals or private clinics, thus requiring care and support during and after the treatment. this might be additional vulnerability chronic patients feel besides the illness itself, making them vulnerable and prone to develop depression and anxiety (kocabaşoğlu, 2004). with this study, we aim at investigating the level of depression and anxiety among chronic kidney patients and the healthy control group. methodology sample this study has been done on a sample of 120 participants, comprising two groups, experimental and control. the experimental group consisted of 60 chronic kidney patients on hemodialysis (27 females and 33 males) at inegöl hospital in turkey, and the equivalent of 60 people in control group (from different parts of inegöl city) as representatives of the general healthy 36 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies population. all participants were over 50 years of age. the convenient sampling method was used for participants’ selection with the diagnosis of chronic kidney disease diagnosis and no chronic kidney diagnosis as a primary selection. procedure after contacting the administration of inegöl public hospital and acquiring permission to contact hemodialysis patients, chronic kidney patients were approached. following ethical consideration, researcher (baha kurulmaz) found 60 ckd patients, explained study aims and objective (ensuring confidentiality) inquired their willingness to participate in the study, after what they all agreed. given their health condition, the researcher chose to ask participants all questions, one by one, and circled their responses. participation was voluntary and all went well. after collecting the data from experimental group, researcher reached 60 people, older than 50 years of age (in order to match experimental group), explained study aim and asked them to participate in the study. after they agreed, researcher again (to follow the same procedure) asked participants all questions, one by one, and circled their responses. collected data has been entered into spss 20, which was used to analyze and evaluate data collected. research questions and hypothesis this study aimed to investigate depression and anxiety levels among chronic kidney patients, experimental, and healthy control group. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 37 hypotheses h1: chronic kidney patients will score higher on depression scale compared to the general population h2: chronic kidney patients will score higher on anxiety scale compared to the general population. measurements to measure depression and anxiety level of participants, two scales were used, beck depression inventory and level in study groups we used beck depression inventory bdi and state-trait anxiety inventory stai. bdi (created by a. t. beck), is a 21-item self-report test presented in a multiplechoice format, which measures presence and degree of depression in adolescents and adults consistent with the dsm-5, evaluating 21 symptoms of depression, 15 of which cover emotions, four cover behavioral changes, and six somatic symptoms. each answer is scored on a scale value of 0-3. between 1-10 these ups and downs are considered normal, between 1116 mild mood disturbances, between 17-20 borderline clinical depression, between 21-30 moderate depression, between 31-40 severe depression and over 40 extreme depression. the state-trait anxiety inventory (stai, spilberger, 1989) is a commonly used measure of trait and state anxiety. form tx-2 is the most popular version which is also used in this research. it has 20 items for assessing trait anxiety. trait anxiety items include: “i worry too much over something that really doesn’t matter” and “i am content; i am a steady person.” all 38 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies items are rated on a 4-point scale (e.g., from “almost never” to “almost always”). higher scores indicate greater anxiety. considering our participants’ background we used turkish versions of both inventories, translated, adopted and already used in similar studies in turkey. bdi has been adapted to turkish language by hisli (1989) and stai has been adapted to turkish language by öner ve le comte (1983). results given our research aim, investigating depression and anxiety levels, central tendency measures, namely mean scores were, whose differences were further tested using t-test. below are tables with of mean scores results and t-test results on depression level among both, experimental and control groups. participants n mean std. deviation std. error mean depression total/ experimental group depr total/ control group 60 18,5000 7,31031 ,94376 60 12,6667 5,74210 ,74130 table 1. depression level, mean scores for both groups. table one shows depression level mean scores and standard deviation of both, experimental and control group. depression level mean scores of experimental group is 18.500 while the mean of control group is 12.667. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 39 levene’s test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) mean difference std. error difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper depres. total 1,898 ,171 4,861 118 ,000 5,8333 1,20009 3,45684 8,20983 4,861 111,731 ,000 5,8333 1,20009 3,45545 8,21121 table 2: t-test scores on depression for equality of means, both groups table two shows t-test results for depression for both control and experimental group. as we can see, sig.(2-tailed) the value is ,000 indicating statistically significant difference in depression scores between two groups. anxiety levels were also measured and results are shown in the table below. participants n mean std. deviation std. error mean anxiety total/ experimental group anxiety total/ control group 60 40,7667 10,77091 1,39052 60 32,4000 7,80309 1,00737 table 3: anxiety level, mean scores for both groups this table shows mean scores and standard deviation for anxiety level of both experimental and control groups. as we can see, anxiety mean scores of the experimental group is 40, 7667 while mean scores results for control group is 32.4. significance was further tested with t -test and table 40 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies below shows results. levene’s test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means f sig. t df sig. mean difference std. error difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper anxiety total 8,332 ,005 4,873 118 ,000 8,36667 1,71707 4,96639 11,76694 4,873 107,556 ,000 8,36667 1,71707 4,96297 11,77036 table 4: t-test results for both groups in the independent t-test testing, two unrelated groups on the same continuum were compared. as we can see, 005 which is equal to 005 which means that the variances are at the limit of homogeneity, but in the sig.(2-tailed) the value is ,000, what indicates a statistically significant difference between two groups when anxiety levels were compared. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 41 discussion the aim of this study was to investigate depression and anxiety levels among chronic kidney patients. we used quasi-experimental research design whereby, from a total of 120 participants, we had 60 chronic kidney patients in the experimental group and 60 from general (no kidney failure diagnosis) in the control group. to measure depression beck depression inventory and the state-trait anxiety inventory were used to measure depression and anxiety levels. since our aim was to investigate depression and anxiety levels among people with chronic kidney disease and no chronic kidney disease, which were the only selection criteria and no additional demographic information was inquired from participants. depression level in among chronic kidney patients and control group as hypothesized, we found higher depression levels in the experimental group, among chronic kidney patients when compared to control group. results indicate depression mean scores of experimental group 18.5, and 12. 66 in control group. results of t-test indicate p =, 000 which less than 0.05 indicating statistically significant difference in means results between the groups. we can here say that the average of the experimental group from bdi match the criteria of depression according to bdi scoring. our results match similar previous research and studies which also showed higher depression rates among ckd. chronic illnesses are difficult to cope with. from the beginning to the end, 42 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies chronic diseases indicate many challenges and problems for a patient with chronic illness diagnosis. life quality of people with chronic kidney failure is negatively affected due to serious physical changes, losing strength, fear of death, fear of losing a job. ckd patients are mostly treated with hemodialysis, scheduled by the hemodialysis services and as expected, their lives are shaped by the disease, its treatment, and outcome. several similar studies are in line with this study. for example, chang et al., (2013) conducted a study with 270 ckd patients and found 61 individuals met the criteria for depression based on the taiwanese depression questionnaire, which translates to a crude prevalence of 22.6%. also, stasiak et al., (2014) conducted a study brasil 128 ckd patients and also found 22.6% of hemodialysis patients suffering from depression. boing et al., (2012) conducted a study on 1720 chronic kidney disease patients and found 16.2% prevalence of depression of among women, older individuals, widowed or divorced, and poor ones, and even after adjustment for confounders, the prevalence of depression was 1.44 times higher among those reporting one chronic disease and 2.25 times higher among those reporting two or more diseases when compared to those with no diseases. thus, chronic disease(s) are factors in depression alongside socio-economic factors, family factors, income and age that possibly contribute to the development of depression. egede (2007) conducted a study in the united states, comparing one-year prevalence of depression in 10,500 patients who have chronic diseases, matching them with a healthy control group and results point that patients vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 43 were three times more likely to be depressed. depression rate was two times more present among patients with hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, and heart failure while the rate is three times higher among end-stage renal disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cerebrovascular disease patients (egede, 2007). studies also indicate more depression among children suffering from chronic kidney disease. for example, kogon et al., (2013) conducted a cross-sectional on 44 patients aged 9–18 years with chronic kidney disease and found 30% overall prevalence of depression, indicating that depression is a common issue even for children with chronic kidney disease. based on the study, we might say that not only adults but also children might face depression due to chronic kidney disease and its outcomes. a possible explanation of high prevalence of depression among chronic kidney disease patients lies in the fact that kidney disease is very challenging disease requiring serious, ongoing and demanding treatment techniques which might be factors contributing to patients depression level. chronic kidney disease is most commonly efficiently treated with kidney transplantation however, studies state depression might continue even after the transplantation, as demonstrated by müller and his colleague (2015) study. similarly, corruble et al., (2010) conducted a study with 390 chronic kidney disease patients from waiting-list for kidney transplantation whose depression levels were measured in three periods of time; when they are added to the list, 12 months later, 24 months later and 3 months after transplantation, and found that depressive symptoms progressively 44 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies increased before transplantation and showed a marked decrease after transplantation. given the chronic nature of illness itself, necessary and requiring treatment procedures, patients with chronic kidney disease must face serious life changes and constraints. although the best treatment for chronic kidney failure is kidney transplantation the number of transplants is low and many patients end up on waiting-list, patients sometimes wait for years to be transplanted. this kidney transplant waiting process poses serious mental health threats appearing in a form of anxiety, negative thinking, pessimism, hopelessness, which could be serving as roots for depression development. thus, it is no surprise that depression is not only common but most common mental health condition among chronic kidney disease patients. besides, patients’ individual and social /professional life is negatively affected by the disease itself and the schedule for a dialysis process. the average schedule of a patient is 3 days per week and spending 4 hours in hospitals or dialysis services per each day, what negatively interferes with patients daily functioning, preventing patient to have full social and occupational activities. at the same time, being at the hospital and hospital environment itself might influence patients thinking, reminding them of their illness and inability to have a normal fulfilling life and even the fear for their future if they do not receive treatment. this might be also the reason that patients lose their hope and become hopeless, factors underling depression. at the same time, chronic kidney disease patients lose strength and face having serious physical changes and constrain in their bodies. patient’s vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 45 inability to do the things he/she used to do before the illnesses might instill negative thinking about themselves and their capabilities or even the fear of losing more strength, making them vulnerable and necessitating help from others, making them dependent. being dependent on others, after someone was able to function independently, is a significant factor which might negatively contribute the state of mind (especially man). independence and physical strength is especially important to men since most cultures and traditions expect a man to take care of others rather than to be taken care of. besides depression, facing chronic illness diagnosis leads to anxiety because diagnosis indicates a new phase of life with a serious, chronic condition and disease, which is restraining in nature and with troubled and uncertain future. inability to picture the future and have many questions about the disease is natural but might be anxiety provoking. uncertainty and anxiety might be factors which might turn into depression after a while. however, it should also be noted that there are other factors which contribute to depression development which we did not include as variables in our study, factors such as, presence of other chronic or non chronic illnesses, gender, marital status, socio-economic status and income, family relationships etc, which could also have played a role in depression level among our participants anxiety levels among chronic kidney patients and the control group as hypothesized, chronic kidney patients scored higher on anxiety in comparison to the general population, control group. anxiety levels mean 46 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies scores for the experimental group is 40.76 and mean scores of 32. 30 in the control group. t-test results indicate p =, 000 which less than 0.05, indicating the statistically significant difference between experimental and control group. thus, the second hypothesis is also accepted showing higher anxiety levels among chronic kidney patients when compared to control group. ottaviani et al., (2016) conducted asimilar study with 100 chronic kidney disease patients in sao paulo, brazil, finding 33.0% of chronic renal patients diagnosed with anxiety. theofilou (2011), conducted similar study 144 patients and found women presented significantly higher scores than men in trait anxiety measured by stai ii. müller and colleagues (2015) concluded anxiety to be surprisingly constant after and before the transplantation. corruble et al., (2010) measured anxiety levels in three periods of time, when they are added to the list, 12 months later, 24 months later and 3 months after transplantation on 390 chronic kidney disease patients from waiting-list for kidney transplantation and found that anxiety symptoms progressively increased before transplantation and showed a marked decrease after transplantation. in addition, lee (2013) has conducted a study with 208 pre-dialysis chronic kidney patients and found 27.6% anxiety prevalence among these patients. cukor and colleagues (2008) with their study show 45.7% of chronic kidney disease patients have met the criteria for anxiety disorder, with specific phobias of 26.6% as most prevalent one followed by 21% of panic disorder. besides, chronic kidney disease interferes with other bodily functions. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 47 for example, turkish kidney foundation (2012) indicate sexual dysfunction among chronic kidney disease patients, what further creates marital problems, pointing to 70% of male patients having impotence issues and around 50% having marital problems. so, chronic kidney disease is also related to sexual problems marital problems, which additionally complicate already vulnerable physical and mental health of chronic kidney patients. although we did not investigate these variables, it is possible that they could have influenced study results. hence, in line with previous studies, the prevalence of anxiety is quite high among chronic kidney disease patients. facing chronic illness diagnosis requires different coping skills. poor or lack of effective coping strategies and skills might be anxiety provoking. adaption to this new stressful situation is hard, not only for the patient but also his/her family members as well. disease outcomes like physical changes, itching, sleeping problems, and sexual problems cannot be controlled by the patients, which in turn might make patients anxious, lonely and hopeless. feeling lonely and isolated pushes patients away from family members and friends, because patients might be feeling uncomfortable to talk about the illness and its outcomes in order to avoid worrying family members. chronic illness diagnosis usually induces fear and anxiety due to the fear about the future, wondering what will happen and become of them. at the same time, some studies indicate about 57 % of depression cases showed evidence of comorbid anxiety, while only 28% of those with clinically significant anxiety had concurrent depression. so, comorbidity of mental health disorders is common for 48 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies patients with chronic disease (braam et al., (2014). still, we ought to acknowledge the possibility of other factors contributing to anxiety development like genetics, gender, age, life quality, family and social support, which we did not include in our study, which might be having a role in our study results and should be included in the future study. family support and lack of it plays a significant role in disease recovery and mental health problems prevention. family members play a very important role and also should be included to help chronic kidney disease patients because the entire family is somehow influenced by the disease. conclusion depression and anxiety are the most common mental health disorders to be found among chronic kidney disease patients. possible reasons for anxiety and depression development among chronic kidney disease patients lies partially in the disease itself, partially in treatment techniques commonly used to treat this condition and partially in disease’s overall aftermath. given the prevalence of depression and anxiety disorders among chronic kidney disease patients hospital services should offer psychological support and help to patients suffering from 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(1989). state-trait anxiety inventory: bibliography (2nd ed.). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. microsoft word ahmad abu baker identity crisis in kipling's kim epiphanyepiphanyepiphanyepiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 3 special issue: identity fall 2009 ©2008, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective ahmad m. s. abu baker al al-bayt university kim is an elusive controversial text that generated a lot of contradictory criticism. some critics regarded it as pro-indian whereas others considered it antiindian. mark kinkead-weekes, for example, states that the novel is “the answer to nine-tenths of the charges levelled against kipling and the refutation of most of the generalisations about him.” he adds that “a whole kaleidoscope of race, caste, custom, and creed, all seen with a warm affection that is almost unique in kipling” (williams et al. 1994:480). to mcclure, kim “not only repudiates racist modes of characterisation, but also dramatises the repudiation, that is a utopian portrayal of future racial harmony, and that it is perhaps a more effective antidote to racial antipathies than any of conrad’s works” (williams, p.480). further, abudul janmohamed considers the novel as the one “which, above all others, explores the possibilities of bridging the gap which separates coloniser and colonised”. to him, “[w]hat may initially seem like a rapt aesthetic appreciation of indian cultures turns out, on closer examination, to be a positive acceptance and celebration of difference” (williams, p.481). edward farley oaten regards kim as “the greatest masterpiece of journalism by the greatest living journalist”, and thurston hopkins considers it a “tremendous indian novel … surcharged with magic and fetichism of the east” and that “bristles with ‘native erudition and folk-lore’” (singh 1974:77-78). identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective 82 lynn sunderland also invokes eliot gilbert’s ideas in the good kipling. gilbert warned of the “fallacy” of examining kipling’s work using “a narrowly political interpretation”. gilbert suggests that the “pressure upon him [kipling] to turn out a developing political ideology is misplaced” and “reminds us that kipling was essentially an artist, each story offering ‘that internal order of its elements which is the only sort of consistency an artist need concern himself with’” (sunderland 1989:29). sunderland, however, acknowledges the presence of a “concept” that constitutes a “hierarchy” for kipling. the “hierarchy” is defined as “the interlocking bonds of duty, responsibility, protection”. it is also “a common language of ritual and symbol, a common respect for that particular type of honourable behaviour which kipling called ‘the law’”. sunderland admits, however, that kipling “believed unswervingly in the abyss which separated men through border, breed and birth, and of which east and west was only one respect”. she also claims that he “believed in the possibility of achieving momentary common ground through mutually recognized values”, a belief that formed “the basis of his concept of hierarchy” (sunderland, p.41, my italics). sunderland’s remarks actually expose kipling’s racist attitude towards indians. his belief in the “abyss” which separates different “breeds” of people, regardless of the premises upon which it is based, is racist in itself. hence, orwell maintains that to kipling “almost all other races were ‘lesser breeds without the law’” (gross 1972:92). further, sunderland admits that kipling’s “imperial mode of thought is so deeply ingrained that it actively alters his ability to perceive his escape [from the demands of the empire] as freedom—it becomes instead a threatening distortion, a dangerous anarchy” (sunderland 1989:43). one could argue that kipling was willingly and consciously pro-raj, and that he used his literary work as a vehicle to promote the empire. one could also argue that he was unconsciously ahmad m. s. abu baker 83 misled into adopting the imperialistic objectives of the empire. in either case, the effect and the result remain the same: kipling promotes the ideals of the empire. charles carrington is another critic who views kim in a positive light. to him, kim’s education as a spy is not the subject of the novel. rather, kim is made to roam india to love it and make the readers love it, too. carrington explains that “[p]olitics, the empire, the law, are taken for granted. it is not ‘kim’s affair’, nor the reader’s, to question the credentials of the pax britannica, but to savour life within its borders”. he also claims that in kim “[n]othing is explained or excused or justified” (carrington 1970:425-26). taking the politics of the empire “for granted” means taking kipling’s remarks at face value. suffice it to say that orwell called kipling “the prophet of british imperialism in its expansionist phase” (gross 1972:91). orwell’s remark simply suggests that accepting carrington’s claim would limit and underplay the powerful discourse deployed in the novel and would simultaneously do a terrible injustice to kipling’s efforts in promoting the empire. in contrast, williams warns that “a text so concerned with disguise, appearance and reality, magic and illusion should be so singularly adept at operating its own forms of textual disguise and illusion” (williams et al. 1994:488). david rubin also warns that “kim is an endlessly beguiling book, but it should not be taken as in any way as a faithful picture of indian life” (rubin 1986:15). further, kipling’s “love for india and his detailed delineations of indian customs, people, and places often functions as smokescreens, disguising not only structures of power that underlie his work but his use of knowledge about india to perpetuate those structures”1 (hubel 1996:26). said points out that in kim “we can catch a great artist 1 kipling astonishes his readers by his picturesque technique which depicts india as a beautiful ‘oriental’ place with its concomitant fetishisms and stereotypes. “salman rushdie has attested to the force and perceptiveness of much that kipling wrote about india” (lycett 2000). kipling’s knowledge of and fascination with india emanated from his childhood experience in india. “kipling, like many raj children, spent most of his time with indian servants. he was so little conscious of difference that he had to be reminded to speak identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective 84 blinded in a sense by his own insights about india, confusing the realities before him, which he saw with such colour and ingenuity, with the notion that these realities were permanent and essential” (said 1989:45, my italics).2 kipling uses his knowledge of india to promote his ideal of an empire using his assumed insider’s perspective. the text juxtaposes the world of reality and that of imagination. williams warns that the text creates what barthes calls a “reality effect through its accumulation of detail, particularly of indian life (and almost in the spirit of an ethnologist)” (williams et al. 1994:488). kipling creates a ‘sham’ of truth and authenticity by using his knowledge of some indian ways of life to ‘market’ the oriental stereotypes and colonial discourse. although kim is sometimes regarded as a work aimed at young boys rather than adults, i still believe it is a pedagogical tract intent upon glorifying empire since it promotes such stereotypes that are fed into the minds of such young boys. hence, although the narrator seems to speak from personal experience “thereby lending added weight to the condemnation”, the text reiterates “the already-known truths of oriental degeneracy” (williams, p.486-87, my english, rather than fluent kitchen hindi, to his parents” (lycett). kipling was sent to a boarding school in england, which he hated and made his life miserable. further, kipling accepted his role as a coloniser for “he learned to be pukka. he had to, to survive. after that, there was no turning back” (lycett). kipling’s childhood in india ‘leaked’ into his creation of the character of kim. however, kipling’s knowledge of india is not comprehensive. “kim’s india, in spite of its picturesqueness, is the superficial india as an outsider sees it” (singh 1974:78-79). furthermore, “kipling has caught and reproduced the picturesqueness of india, but he is more conscious of her ‘inherent rottenness’. india has ‘the merit of being twothirds sham; looking pretty on paper only’” (singh, pp.79-80). hence, kipling and many other anglo-indian writers express in their literary works a desire to ‘know’ and ‘understand’ the ‘real’ india (adela’s desire to see the ‘real’ india in e.m. forster’s a passage to india, p.67 being an example). india’s “rottenness” is due to colonisation which impoverishes the masses by exploiting the riches of the land and leaving the people to hunger and starve living on crumbs that fall off the colonisers’ tables. kipling’s knowledge of indian ways of life and culture is exemplified in the following references from the novel: the trains in which “the sexes are very strictly kept to separate carriages” (p.39), the indians who “sang to keep off evil spirits” (p.197), and those who “swore by the djinns” (p.253), as well as the reference to “dulhun, invisible about mosques, the dweller among the slippers of the faithful, who hinders folk from their prayers” (p.255) and to the jat who changed his son’s name and “put him into girls’ clothes” to protect him of the fever (p.267). ahmad m. s. abu baker 85 italics). further, hubel remarks that “a text like kim in fact reinforces the reality of india by seeing it so clearly as the other that imperial west must know and dominate” (hubel 1996:87-88, my italics). the colonisers’ racist attitude allows them to regard the natives as ‘subhumans’ or ‘animals’. it also motivates them to gather information on the natives in order to subjugate and control them efficiently. kim also juxtaposes the cultural differences between the ‘white’ ‘christian’ and ‘civilised’ british colonisers and the ‘black’ ‘heathen’ and ‘savage’ native indians. said notes the presence of an “absolute” “division between white and nonwhite, in india and elsewhere”. he claims that “kipling could no more have questioned that difference, and the right of the white european to rule, than he would have argued with the himalayas” (said 1989:10). kipling could not “rid himself of that obsession, driven into the minds of all englishmen who went east before the war, that a denial of racial superiority was the one deadly sin” (rubin 1986:14, my italics). garrat also notes that “kipling allowed himself the most astounding generalizations about indian duplicity and mendacity, or the physical cowardice of certain races” (rubin, p.14). indeed, kipling calls for a realisation of the ‘genetic’ differences between white sahibs and indians. the novel promotes the colonial assumption that cultural differences between races are genetic. kipling uses his knowledge of the natives and their ways of life to prove that colonisers who are born in india and live with its people are more capable of understanding natives than ‘imported’ ones. hence, williams remarks that “the book [kim] is a plea on behalf of the country-born englishman (who is, born and bred in india), as the rightful ruler, rather than the ‘genuine imported sahib from england” (williams et al. 1994:495, my italics). this ‘plea’ is an attempt by the coloniser kipling to legitimise the british colonial presence in india. it is also an 2 further, williams remarks that the novel renders “the representation of the orient and its inhabitants as static, unchanging, incapable of change” (williams et al. 1994:482). identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective 86 exclusive discourse by which all other colonisers are excluded from sharing the spoils of colonisation.3 kipling, like all colonisers, has to convince himself of the legitimacy of colonisation. he wants to justify and rationalise colonising the natives. said warns that “if one reads kipling … as someone who had read frantz fanon, met gandhi, absorbed their lessons, but had remained stubbornly unconvinced by both, then one seriously distorts the defining context in which kipling wrote”. however, he maintains that “it is true to say” that kipling’s fiction “represents both the empire and conscious legitimizations of it”4 (said 1989:24, my italics). teresa hubel states that “as a white, middle-class, male writer, kipling himself benefited from british imperialism” (hubel 1996:26). said notes the “unquestioned axioms of modern life” to the “monuments of nineteenth-century european culture”. these axioms emphasise “the necessity of empire to england’s strategic, moral and economic wellbeing” and simultaneously depict “the dark or inferior races as thoroughly unregenerate, in need of suppression, severe rule, indefinite subjugation” (said, p.29-30). this type of depiction also stems from the colonisers’ need to legitimise colonisation.5 in the following sections, kim’s identity crisis and his chameleon-like nature will be explored by observing kim's relationships with the natives. also, his hamletlike indecision and his final decision to be a coloniser will be highlighted and explained. 3 this is reflected in the novel by the russian threat to the british presence as an imperial colonial power in india. 4 further, said remarks that “for him [kipling] it was india’s best destiny to be ruled by england” (said 1989:23). he also explains that “kipling was not a neutral figure in the angloindian situation, but a prominent actor in it” (said. p.11). 5 jean-paul sartre asks, “how can an elite of usurpers, aware of their mediocrity, establish their privileges?”. to him, the only means to achieve that is by “debasing the colonized to exalt themselves, denying the title of humanity to the natives, and defining them as simply absences of qualities— animals, not humans” (memmi 1974:xxvi). ahmad m. s. abu baker 87 kim and the natives it is symbolic that the novel begins with kim and his indian friends playing under zam-zammah (the cannon). this scene foreshadows the tensions between russia and britain and positions the novel as a war novel. in the novel, war is referred to as “punishment” (p.35) and, as kim describes it, “chastisement” (p.68) whereas peace is referred to as being a chance for the enemy to become stronger (p.35). the cannon is “always first of the conqueror’s loot” (p.1). figuratively speaking, it represents the colonial hierarchy. “[t]he english held the punjab” (p.1), and therefore, kim gets on top of the cannon and the muslim indian boy, abdullah, has to get off it. kim explains that “[a]ll mussalmans fell off zam-zammah long ago!” (p.5). he also remarks that “the hindus fell off zam-zammah too. the mussalmans pushed them off” (p.5). the cannon becomes a wheel of fortune upon which cultures and nations rise and fall. in this scene kipling is carefully defining and asserting the colonial hierarchy and english dominance before writing about hybridity where lines between races and classes become blurred. kim is the child of a “young colour-sergeant of the mavericks, an irish regiment” (p.2). kim is born “between first and second cockcrow of the first night in may”, and his first cry causes “the great earthquake in srinagur” (p.56). this supernatural birth had/has a drastic destructive effect on india.6 he is a mysterious ‘creature’ with ‘evil’ supernatural powers, an idea that is emphasised by the many references to him as being a “shaitan” or a “devil”. kim’s identity is a ‘hard nut’ (p.204) to crack. he is ‘culturally’ asian and ‘genetically’ european. he “borrowed 6 kim’s prophecy contains “a red and angry sign of war” (p.57). consequently, he “brought luck [war]” to india (p.138). in addition, the earthquake caused by his birth echoes what new historicism considers as an ‘absence’ of one ‘real’ history, and the ‘presence’ of different representations of history or ‘histories’. identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective 88 right-and left-handedly from all the customs of the country he knew and loved”7 (p.104). the combination of the asian and the european affects kim culturally. his identity crisis is caused by the native culture to which kim feels so ‘related’. hence, he accuses mahbub ali of “selling” him “back to the english. what will they give thee for blood-money?” (p.156 my italics). to him, mahbub ali is a ‘traitor’ who betrayed him into the hands of the british. hence, lurgan “treated kim as an equal on the asiatic side” (p.215). further, “kim was in the seventh heaven of joy to see all india as he was walking on the great road” (p.89). these references demonstrate how close he feels to the indians, though he maintains his superiority over them. it is ironic that kim is called “friend of all the world” (p.6). his relationships with the natives are largely characterised by contempt. he treats his “friends” and every other character with contempt except for the lama whom he loves, a love that does not prevent him from exploiting him. kim’s contempt of the natives is revealed in many cases. he “consorted on terms of perfect equality with the small boys of the bazaar” (p.1). yet, he kicked the indian boy off the cannon and took his place, because he is english and “the english held the punjab” (p.1). the narrator explains that “india is the only democratic land in the world” (p.5 my italics). to him, democracy is achieved since the indian boy, whose father is a rich man, cannot remove kim, the poor boy, off the cannon. williams, however, warns that this is “simply one more restatement of the (democratic) right of the white man to kick the 7 the more time kim spends with the natives the more he borrows from their habits. “each long, perfect day rose behind kim for a barrier to cut him off from his race and his mother tongue. he slipped back to thinking and dreaming in the vernacular…” (p.304 my italics). however, his superiority over the natives remains unquestioned. in addition, he can “salaam” like an oriental (p.97) use a twig “as a tooth-brush” (p.104), squat “as only the natives can” (p.143), rely “oriental fashion, on time and chance” (p.150), spit “red pan-juice” (p.47), and he yearns “for the caress of soft mud squishing up between the toes” (p.178). like an indian, he “snapped his fingers mechanically to avert whatever evil” (p.259), is used to the “indifference of native crowds”, feels a “strong loneliness among the white men” (p.146), is happy with his bed among the trucks of mahbub’s animals which “would not appeal to many white boys” (p.195), and joins “the kentish-fire of good wishes and bad jokes” for a married couple (p.88). ahmad m. s. abu baker 89 native, however rich he may be” (williams et al. 1994:483). kim is like mowgli or tarzan among the indians. mowgli and tarzan establish their superiority over both the natives and the animals. kim does the same, and his superiority remains unquestioned. sarup considers identity as “fragmented full of contradictions and ambiguities”. he differentiates between “public” identity, “[t]he ‘outside’ of our concept of self”, and “private” identity, “the ‘inside’ of our identity”. he calls the process of categorising people. “people attach certain labels to others, and labels often (but not always) begin to have an effect” [my italics] upon the way people think of others. further, sarup gives two models of identity: a ‘traditional’ view that all dynamics (such as class, gender, 'race') operate simultaneously to produce a coherent, unified, fixed identity. the more recent view is that identity is fabricated, constructed, in process, and that we have to consider both psychological and sociological factors. (sarup 1996:14) “labeling” is a component of stereotyping. it blocks any chance of assimilation between different nations. reasons for this may include having different and rival monotheisms (as in the case of christianity and islam) as well as racism among others. hence, sarup’s choice of the words ‘often’ and ‘not always’ are perhaps not so precise. accordingly, kipling’s indian diatribes maintain that the “inconceivable filth of mind [in which] the peoples of india were brought up from the cradle” and “the immeasurable gulf that lies between the two races in all things” explain “how it comes to pass that the englishman is prone to despise the natives” (lycett 2000, my italics). these words expose the strength of stereotypes and their guaranteed identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective 90 repeatability. all natives are fed this ‘filth of mind’ ‘from the cradle’. the english are, therefore, excused in being ‘prone’ to despise the natives. although kim considers himself a sahib, he is discriminated against and treated badly and with contempt at st. xavier which “looks down on boys who ‘go native altogether.’ one must never forget that one is a sahib, and that someday, … one will command natives”8 (p.177, my italics). clearly, at st. xavier school racism is fed into the children who are being prepared to rule the natives. consequently, the drummer-boy styles all natives as “niggers” (p.141). kim nearly “goes native altogether”, and has, therefore, to be taught a hard lesson. the drummer-boy beats him and treats him badly because kim can “talk the same as a nigger”. he also describes him as “an ignorant little beggar” who was “brought up in the gutter” (p.145). further, kim was subjected to two-thirds of the “white man’s abuse’ at st. xavier” (p.150). he learns to maintain his superiority over the natives the hard way. kim is another titus andronicus. he believes he is better than everybody, even his own irish or indian peoples. he switches sides to work for the colonising enemy manifested in the british secret service. hence, edmund wilson states that “kim returns to the british secret service as, in effect, an enforcement officer for british imperialism against the indians among whom he has lived and worked” (childs 1999:23). to the same effect, mohanty claims that kim, like mowgli, becomes an “accomplished insider without having given up any of his privileges as an outsider” (childs, p.243). he explains that kim and mowgli are taught “to inhabit perfectly without being tied down to the place of their habitation …. a strange allegory of colonial rule as possession without implication, penetration without involvement” (childs, pp.244-247). kim chooses to join the british secret service and to work against the indians just like titus andronicus in shakespeare’s play titus 8 edward said notes that “a white middle-class westerner believes it his human prerogative not only to manage the nonwhite world but also to own it” (said 1987:108, my italics). ahmad m. s. abu baker 91 andronicus fights with the enemy against his own people. his “white blood” (p.255) prevails in the end, and this enforces kipling’s belief in the genetic differences between races. mahbub ali asks kim, “who are thy people, friend of all the world?” kim as a coloniser is related to the ‘land’ and not to the people. hence, he declares, “[t]his great and beautiful land” (p.193). this answer maintains the dividing line between kim and the natives. he cannot ‘erase’ his white culture. hurree, therefore, informs him that “if you were asiatic by birth you might be employed right off; but this halfyear leave is to make you de-englishised” (p.262). kim is also afraid snakes, because “[n]o native training can quench the white man’s horror of the serpent” (p.61). these references emphasise kim’s inability to escape his white blood. his genetics resolve the identity crisis, thus answering the lama’s question “can earth be stronger than mother earth?” (p.372) kim’s identity crisis is reflected in the way his mind functions. he “usually” thinks “in hindi” (p.213), but when lurgan tries to dazzle him into believing that a broken jar is moving, he shifts from hindi to english. “[h]is mind leaped up from a darkness that was swallowing it and took refuge in – the multiplication-table in english” (p.218). the white culture, the white language, and the white blood are so ‘superior’ that they make kim invulnerable to superstitions, illusions, and the effect of years of living among the natives. in addition, when kim is angry or relaxed he thinks like an oriental in hindi, but when he is confused and needs to rationalise things, he thinks in english.9 kim’s identity crisis is also exposed whenever he ‘forgets’ he is a sahib. the “eastern” smells of lurgan’s room make him “forget he was to be a sahib” (p.211). when he says goodbye to the lama at the gates of learning, he is “all forgetful he identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective 92 was a sahib” (p.174). later, he “remembered he was a white man” (p.349). at the jain temple, he stoops “mohammedan fashion” thus “forgetting st. xavier; forgetting his white blood; forgetting even the great game” (p.271). hence, he is confused and cannot understand who/what he is. he wonders, “who is kim—kim—kim?” (p.265) and asks, “‘i am kim. i am kim. and what is kim? his soul repeated it again and again” (p.403). further, he confesses to the shamlegh woman that “i have wrestled with my soul till i am strengthless”10 (p.377). kim cannot come to terms with the conflicting cultures and identities that clash inside him and which he has to use to define his identity.11 jacques derrida claims that “[o]nce the center or the origin have begun repeating themselves, by redoubling themselves, the double did not only add itself to the simple. it divided it and supplemented it.” hence, “[t]here was immediately a double origin plus its repetition.” he adds that “[t]hree is the first” and the “last” “figure of repetition” because “the abyss of representation always remains dominated by its rhythm, infinitely”. to him, the figure “two” continues to be an “indispensable and useless articulator of the book”. it is “the sacrificed mediator without which triplicity would not be, and without which meaning would not be … different from itself; in play, at stake” (derrida 1978:299-300). also, derrida notes that “only by means of a series of words that are faulty” and which he “erased in 9 when kim returns to the lama as a scribe and spends the night at the jain temple, “he dreamt in hindustanee, with never an english word” (p.276 my italics). indeed, kim’s choice of language depends on whether he is stressed or relaxed. 10 more to the point, a long-haired hindu holy man “sadly” informs kim that “‘i also have lost it … it is one of the gates to the way, but for me it has been shut many years.’” he explains to the “abashed” kim that “‘[t]hou wast wandering there in thy spirit what manner of thing thy soul might be. the seizure came of a sudden.” kim announces that he is “a seeker”, and adds, “though allah alone knoweth what i seek’” (pp.265-66). here too, kim’s identity crisis is evident, a crisis that is so severe that it is depicted as a sudden “seizure”. 11 “[m]ass migration and market globalization have produced a vast array of transformations in civil society, the state and the nation; citizens have to rewrite and rethink their identities” (elbaz 1995, my italics). mercer claims that “identity only becomes an issue when it is in crisis, when something assumed to be fixed, coherent and stable is displaced by the experience of doubt and uncertainty” (mccrone 1997:581). an identity crisis becomes more ahmad m. s. abu baker 93 passing, in measure, regularly” yet “leaving them to the force of their tracing, the wake of their tracement (tracement), the force (without force) of a trace that will have allowed passage for the other” was he “able to arrive at the end” of his “phrase” (derrida 1991:424). this ‘erasure’ causes the ‘play’ of the ‘centre’. the ‘presence’ of kim’s ‘native’ self means an ‘absence’ of his ‘english’ or ‘sahib’ self and vice versa. hence, his identity is, therefore, “a sort of nonlocus in which an infinite number of sign-substitutions came into play” (derrida 1978:280). these two selves form the binary opposition native-kim/english-kim. each of kim’s characters exists in a state of ‘différance’ with the other.12 hence, kipling shatters the unity, solidarity, and coherence of ‘identity’. the ‘presence’ of both characters in kim removes or ‘erases’ the slash (/) separating the binary native/english and allows the ‘centre’ to ‘play’ by creating a ‘third’ or ‘triple’ text manifested in the body of kim. the ‘identity’ of kim is without fixed contours. the colour of his skin, a race marker, is undecided and is, therefore, very hard to imagine. he is “burned black like any native” (p.1), but “not very black” (p.121). simultaneously, he is a “white boy” (p.124), has “white blood” (p.255), and is “certainly white” (p.122). yet, he is a “bonze” (p.356) and a “scarlet figure” (p.150). he is irish by birth13, asiatic by culture and yet he is treated as englishman. indeed, he is an embodiment of keats’ “‘negative capability’” (childs 1999:252). these conflicting characteristics give him intensified in hybrid multi-cultural societies where more than one nationalism exists within the same boundaries. 12 kipling uses the theme of the double, which is so common in late 18th and 19th century literatures. like dr. jeckyle and mr. hyde, kim changes from his indian into his british character. even kim’s shape changes according to the lama. kim seems to have a schizophrenic identity, each identity acting like an alter-ego of the other. kipling reflects this duality in the beginning of chapter eight of the novel when he writes: “but most to allah who gave me two / separate sides of my head” (p.186). 13 kim’s anger wakes “every unknown irish devil” in his blood (p.346). kim is considered as irish when he attacks the russians because it is not ‘civilised’ to beat another european. further, funny situations “tickled the irish and the oriental in his soul” (p.354). this suggests that sahibs are always serious. identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective 94 “a lusus naturæ” (p.138) or a “chameleon-like” character as said describes it (said 1989:42). indeed, his perplexing descriptions make figuring out who/what kim is a “tremendous puzzle” (p.265). the colour of his skin as a form of identity is ‘erased’ thus making him anonymous. consequently, he attains the freedom of transcending ethnicity and identity.14 indeed, kim does not have a unified and clearly defined religious or social identity. kim asks, “am i a hindu?” (p.27). he also asks mahbub ali, “what am i? mussalman, hindu, jain, or buddhist? that is a hard nut” (p.204 my italics). even mahbub ali, who is like a father to him, cannot realise who/what kim is. hence, he asks the lama about kim’s “country – his race – his village? mussalman – sikh – hindu – jain – low caste or high?” (p.28). kim, however, does not assume a fixed identity of any kind. hence, he informs mahbub ali that “i will change my faith and my bedding, but thou [mahbub] must pay for it” (p.186). only when kim decides to become a coloniser, does he acquires a fixed identity. kim goes through a process of ‘unstable’ metamorphosis. kipling shatters the concept of ‘physical’ identity by depicting kim as a “child” (p.388), a “shameless beggar-brat” (p.306), a “magician” (p.365) and a “man” (p.271) who is very old since “[e]very month” kim “become[s] a year more old” (p.195). since kim can grow a year older each month then the concept of ‘time’ is shattered as well. further, he can “change swiftly” his physical appearance (p.129). he is described as “bearing two faces — and two garbs” (p.47) and two different “kinds of faces” (p.203). in addition, the lama cannot tell whether kim is “a spirit” or “an evil imp” (p.86). 14 other conflicting characteristics of kim include: being a “european” (p.316) with “the european’s lust for flesh-meat” (p.277), a “sahib” (p.144), an “english boy” (p.125) who is “irish enough by birth”(pp.51-52), an “oriental” (p.314) with the “oriental’s indifference to mere noise” (pp.198-99), a “native” (p.121), a “casteless hindu” (p.96), “asiatic” by culture but not by birth (p.262), someone who “spoke the vernacular” (p.1), a “wild animal” (p.146), an “imp” (p.136), a “true prophet” (p.85) and a “malignant liar” (pp.96-97). these characteristics render kim as nearly an embodiment of darwin’s “missing link” especially in ahmad m. s. abu baker 95 more to the point, the lama asks kim if he “wilt return in this very same shape?” (p.50). he also announces that kim looked “[a]s a boy in the dress of white men – when i first went to the wonder house. and a second time thou wast a hindu. what shall the third incarnation be?” (p.129, my italics). mahbub ali also warns kim to “‘remember this with both kinds of faces. among sahibs, never forgetting thou art a sahib; among the folk of hind, always remembering thou art—’ he paused, with a puzzled smile” (p.203). “it needs only to change his clothing, and in a twinkling he would be a low caste hindi boy” (p.153), or be transformed from a mohammedan horse-boy into a eurasian lad (p.208). kim becomes a mysterious entity that seems capable of changing its physical characteristics just like a chameleon. kim becomes some sort of supernatural creature that is probably not “woman-born”15 (p.99). kipling’s hamlet: “thatt is the question!”16 ‘do i dare disturb the universe? i am not prince hamlet’ t.s. eliot’s “the love song of j. alfred prufrock” ‘this is the great world, and i am only kim. who is kim?’ [kim ch.7.167] hurree quotes shakespeare’s prince hamlet when he remarks that “thatt is the question” (p.314). this quote encapsulates kim’s identity crisis. kim is another those references to kim as an imp. is it a coincidence that kim ends up working as a “chainman” (p.251)? 15 his supernatural status is emphasised by his depiction as a “shameless son of shaitan” (p.180), a “shaitan” (p.206), a “devil” (p.171), a “limb of satan” (p.137), a “most finished son of eblis” (p.189). 16 kim contains references to shakespearean plays such as titus andronicus, lear, and julius caeser. the characters in the novel shift between being participants in the action and being an audience, such as when kim disguises e.23 on the train. this technique is similar to shakespeare’s a-play-within-a-play, as in hamlet for instance. the play-within-a-play is suggested when kim and the lama “entered a world within a world” (p.334). it is also suggested by the reference to “european audiences” (p.306), and in kim’s “performance in character of that holy man’” (p.232 my italics). hence, the novel becomes a stage with an audience and actors. identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective 96 hamlet “wrestling with [his] soul” (p.377). he cannot decide whether he wants ‘to be’ a sahib with “the dignity of a letter and a number” (p.230), or ‘not to be’ a sahib and become a colonised native. he resolves his identity crisis by choosing to become a coloniser. his decision is implicitly stated when he breaks down and tells the lama “i love thee… and it is all too late” (p.388). the lama, however, has already felt kim’s metamorphosis into a sahib. “now i look upon thee often, and every time i remember that thou art a sahib. it is strange” (p.386). kim remains in denial at this stage and reminds the lama that “i am not a sahib. i am thy chela, and my head is heavy on my shoulders” (p.386). this reference indicates the moral identity crisis kim is negotiating. the lama feels kim’s crisis and its concomitant sadness. he assures him that “[t]hou hast never stepped a hair’s breadth from the way of obedience”. he also explains that “[i]t is the body … that speaks now. not the assured soul … know at least the devils that thou fightest. they are earth-borne—children of illusion” (p.388 my italics). the lama is not aware that kim’s sadness is a result of the way he used him for his game. kim already knows the devils he is fighting with, and his sadness is a result of his awareness of the futility of escaping his ‘white blood’.17 kim shifts between the coloniser who accepts his role and the one who refuses it. for instance, he regretfully remarks that “i wish i did not come here to find the red bull and all that sort of thing. i do not want it” (p.130). he also declares that “i do not want to be a sahib” (p.152), and that “i am not a sahib” (p.192). on the other hand, he tells hurree that “i am a sahib” (p.315), and he remarks “i am a sahib and my heart is heavy too” (p.144). kim, however, has always had the ‘genetic’ 17 the lama’s subsequent words reveal his feeling that kim is lying about something. he teaches kim that “[t]here are many lies in the world, and not a few liars, but there are no liars like our bodies, except it be the sensations of our bodies” (pp.388-89 my italics). the lama could be referring to the way kim pretended to burst in tears to beg for a train ticket earlier in the novel. kim was so persuasive that his tears ran down his cheeks. did the lama develop a “doubt-zone” for kim after that incident? ahmad m. s. abu baker 97 tendency or the ‘psychological readiness’ to become a coloniser, and therefore, he decides to become one. there are many references that foreshadow kim’s decision. for instance, he announces that “i will be a sahib” (p.193), and he “swore to himself in the language of st. xavier’s” (p.280). also, he “would be a sahib again” (p.210), and he asks lurgan’s hindu boy “is this the way to lie to a sahib?” (p.213). he also warns him that “i will beat thee in the morning. i do not love hindus” (p.213). kim graduates from the school of sahibs, and therefore, adds violence and hatred to his treatment of the natives, which before his school years was only characterised with contempt.18 kim’s ‘genetic’ readiness to become a coloniser is evident in his ‘instinct’ for the desire of knowledge and power. hence, “he wished to investigate” (p.111) and following “his instinct, stretched out to listen and watch” (p.10 my italics). he quickly feels at home with the colonisers. he shouts “farewells excitedly” when the soldiers leave him among their women and children. “life as a sahib was amusing so far” (p.139). further, colonel creighton and mahbub ali describe him as a polo pony that “knows the game [of secret service] by divination” (p.161). even during the very tense moment between kim, mahbub ali and creighton, kim did not feel ‘inferior’ to either of the two men. “[i]t never occurred to him to throw himself on the white man’s mercy or to denounce the afghan” (p.154). these references demonstrate his ‘genetic’ readiness to assume his role as a coloniser, and again, confirm kipling’s theme that “once a sahib always a sahib”19 (p.151). 18 other examples include: if kim chooses, “he could escape into great, gray, formless india …. meantime, if the sahibs were to be impressed, he would do his best to impress them. he too was a white man” (p.135). the words ‘gray’ and ‘formless’ reflect the ‘lusus’ nature of india and kim. in addition, “benares struck him as a peculiarly filthy city” with “narrow stinking streets” after leaving st. xavier (p.266 my italics), and he announces that “i have accomplished the years appointed for a sahib” (p.272). more examples can be found in (p.244), (p.269), (p.180), (p.184), (p.362), and (pp.379-80). all the above references prove that kim begins to accept his role as a coloniser. 19 other examples of kim’s ‘genetic’ or ‘psychological readiness’ to become a coloniser include his tendency to exploit the natives. the kulu widow accuses him of sticking “to the identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective 98 when kim decides to become a coloniser sahib, he also adopts the coloniser’s religion (christianity) just like the shamlegh woman did. hence kim remarks that: ‘i am to pray to bibi miriam, and i am a sahib’ … ‘no; i am kim. this is the great world, and i am only kim. who is kim?’ he considered his own identity, a thing he had never done before, till his head swam. he was one insignificant person in all this roaring whirl of india, going southward to he knew not what fate. (p.167, my italics) kim is not content to be “one insignificant person” in india. therefore, he decides to become a coloniser sahib with the privileges of power and authority. yet, though kim is supposed to be a christian, he acts in a “mohammedan fashion” whenever he “forgets” he is a sahib. he, for instance, “stooped, mohammedan fashion” at the jain temple (p.271), and he started “shampooing his [lama’s] feet, mohammedan fashion” (p.359). in addition, he unconsciously utters words like “allah be merciful” (pp.401-02), “allah kerim!” (p.413), and “allah alone knoweth what i seek” (pp.26566). further, he starts “muttering a mohammedan invocation” (p.289) while disguising e. 23. consequently, hurree reminds kim that “when next time you are under the emotions please do not use the mohammedan terms with the tibet dress”20 (p.402 my italics). the effect of islam on kim results from his association with mahbub ali. mahbub ali becomes, in a sense, responsible for the ‘production’ of the holy one for the sake of gain” (p.96), and he confirms it when he asks, “do we not all work for gain?” (p.96). further, he does not give the museum a “title—such as lala or mian. he could not divine the man’s creed” (p.7), and he has the power as a coloniser to defy the sacred “brahminee bull” (p.19). no indian dares to defy the sacred beast no matter what religion he/she belongs to. he enjoys “the sense of power” (p.67), and treats the natives with contempt. other examples are found in (p.98) and (pp.116-117). 20 more examples include: “kim stood up, externally at least, a mohammedan” (p.186 my italics). he “found it easier to slip into hindu or mohammedan garb when engaged on certain businesses” (p.4). mahbub ali, though sarcastically, remarks that kim “might mount mohammed’s horse and fly away” (p.407). ahmad m. s. abu baker 99 coloniser kim. their relationship is described as that of a father and son (pp.251, 253). mahbub ali gives him a revolver as a gift and encourages him to kill. he remarks “and please god, thou shalt someday kill a man with it” (p.244). he also teaches him to write the report and the map (p.242). despite this close relation, kim remains ‘superior’ to him. kim reminds him that “no sahib must tell a black man that he has made a fault” (p.192). mahbub ali also uses “the tone he used towards europeans” to remind kim that “i am a pathan; thou art a sahib and the son of a sahib” (p.209), and his fear of kim is revealed when he asks, “wilt thou some day sell my head for a few years sweetmeats if the fit takes thee?” (p.206). the previous examples demonstrate the effect of the muslim mahbub ali on kim. this effect makes the readers, the ‘audience’ of the novel, hold mahbub ali, and not the british colonial regime, responsible for kim’s transformation into a sahib. the reason for such a ‘manoeuvre’21 probably stems from the christians’ animosity towards islam.22 like buddhism, islam is also a threat to christianity and to the colonial regimes in europe. hubel, however, remarks that in kipling’s work “muslims are valorized because they belong to a so-called ‘martial race’, which once ruled a huge part of the country, while hindus, and particularly bengalis, are criticized or even ridiculed” (hubel 1996:31). kim has to ‘study’ and ‘know’ muslims like mahbub ali to be able, as a coloniser, to control them. his unconscious muslim remarks associate islam with his transformation into a coloniser. this association is revealed in kim’s training which is mostly done by mahbub ali and lurgan whereas colonel creighton, who stands for the british raj, remains distant. 21 the reference to the german soldier, one of “the many guests of the woman” who raised kim, is a similar manoeuvre. he is to be held responsible for kim’s racism against the natives. this german had been “on the barricades in forty-eight”. he teaches kim to write in return for food. “kim had been kicked as far as single letters, but did not think well of them” (p.140). the german’s influence on kim during kim’s childhood, as kipling seems to suggest, justifies kim’s racism against the natives and his choice to become a coloniser as well. through this excellent manoeuvre, kipling makes the british colonisation not guilty of kim’s racism or transformation into a coloniser sahib. 22said remarks that “for europe, islam was a lasting trauma” (said 1987:59). identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective 100 kim’s search for his identity and for his role in india demonstrate the problematics of living in a hybrid situation. his loyalties and self-autonomy clash with one another. he steps into “a whirl” of questions about his cultural identity until his head “swam” (p.176). kipling, however, makes his genetics, or “white blood” as he calls it, the source of his redemption. he escapes from falling into the underworld of the natives by “go[ing] native altogether” (p.177). hence, kim’s decision to become a coloniser re-forms the structure of the binary native-kim/english-kim and reinforces it stronger than before thus stopping the ‘play’ of the ‘centre’. derrida states that “the absence of play and différance [is] another name for death” (derrida 1978:297). kim dies metaphorically after making his decision. he assumes his new position as a coloniser after he reclines beside the bullock-cart. said explains that kipling “renders a powerful, almost instinctive desire to restore the child to its mother in a pre-conscious, undefiled, asexual relationship” when he makes mother earth cure kim. “‘[s]he breathed through him to restore the poise he had lost’” (said 1989:21). even the land itself, india, is not immune to kim’s charms. hence, kipling’s india does not object to kim’s presence as a coloniser like that of e. m. forster’s in a passage to india in which the land and the sky object to the friendship between aziz and fielding.23 after delivering the documents to hurree, “kim begins to feel, in othello’s words, the loss of his occupation”. said explains that “kim has died to this world, has, like the epic hero, descended to a sort of underworld from which, if he is to emerge, he will arise stronger than before”24 (said, p.18). kim does “arise stronger 23 "[t]he temples, the tank, the jail, the palace, the birds, the carrion, the guest house, that came into view as they issued from the gap and saw mau beneath: they didn’t want it, they said in their hundred voices, ‘no, not yet,’ and the sky said, ‘no, not there.’" (forster's a passage to india, pp.315-16) 24 the “underworld” said refers to justifies the lama’s depiction as an embodiment of the “powers of darkness” (p.123). in effect, the lama is like hades, king of the underworld, and kim is like persophone. kim’s genetics save him from the lama’s world like the pomegranate seed saves persophone from hades. ahmad m. s. abu baker 101 than before” as an embodiment of the colonial power. he, therefore, “must be given a station in life commensurate with his stubbornly fought-for identity” (said, p.17). he ‘evolves’ as a coloniser, and this demonstrates that people are ‘genetically’ different and that “[o]nce a sahib, always a sahib”25 (p.151). he eventually realises the futility of trying to escape his ‘white blood’. conclusion kipling’s kim contains an embedded colonial discourse. the discussions in this chapter clearly demonstrate kipling’s promotion and legitimisation of the british presence as a colonial power in india. he promotes the colony-born sahibs, not the “imported” ones, and nominates them as the best ones for understanding and dealing with the natives. the analysis of the novel reveals the negative stereotyping of the natives, which is in sharp contrast with the representation of european characters. kipling negatively represents the natives to justify their colonisation. the natives are depicted as being in desperate need for the colonisers’ gift of “thunder and lightning” (kimbrough 1971:57). to said, “kim is a master work of imperialism …. on the one hand, surveillance and control over india; on the other, love for and fascinated attention to its every detail” (said 1989:45). kipling uses his knowledge of india to ‘market’ his colonial ideology thus bringing into focus the knowledge/power binary. the discussions in this article reveal kipling’s racist attitude towards the natives. they also demonstrate the way ethnology is mobilised to render the natives ‘genetically’ inferior to the colonisers, and to keep their dominance over them. like any colonial institution, the british government aimed at alienating the natives by 25 patrick williams states that “distinctions are blurred in order to be more strictly redefined … the central tenet, that sahibs can and must continue to rule india, goes unquestioned” (williams et al. 1994:494). the idea is also emphasised when kim is able to resist losing consciousness at huneefa’s due to “his white blood” (p.255). further, huneefa’s “dead eyes identity crisis: rudyard kipling’s kim – a postcolonial perspective 102 the effects of “cultural bomb”26. fear and inferiority make the colonised stop participating in history and in decision-making, because they start to believe that they were not ‘cut out for it’, and hence they achieve the colonisers’ desire. the british government also aimed at creating a “race of angels”27 detached from their past and from their culture. these ‘unhappy products’ are the race of angels whom colonisation aims at creating and then rejecting. further, the novel promotes the myth of the white man. the ‘presence’ of the white man becomes a must for the success of any social or, as in the case of the lama’s search, personal quest. religion, too, is mobilised by colonisation and becomes an exclusive discourse that labels the natives as ‘heathens’. furthermore, kipling makes a plea for stopping the process of hybridism. to him, hybridism creates “monstrous” “products” suffering from an inferiority complex and who are incapable of achieving a white man’s status. kim’s identity crisis is also mobilised to promote the theme that no white man can escape his ‘white blood’, and, by the same token, no native can escape his nativity. using hybridity, kipling blurs the lines between races only to reassert and emphasise them more than before. colonisation has destructive effects on the culture and identity of the colonised. hence, there should be no excuse for any country to assume the role of the ‘saviour’ of the natives, when in reality it is their ‘tormentor’ and ‘oppressor’. this analysis of kim turned to the west” while she was “protecting” kim (p.255) thus suggesting the whereabouts of his home and allegiance. 26 ngügï warns of “the cultural bomb” that is “daily unleashed by imperialism against that collective defiance” of the colonised. it “[a]nnihilate[s] a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves.” it also makes people “see their past as one wasteland of non-achievement”. in this way colonisation manages to detach people from their past and make them adopt the colonisers’ model and/or language. this bomb “would stop their own springs of life” and would create “serious doubts about the moral rightness of struggle.” with the intent of creating “despair, despondency and a collective death-wish” (ngügï 1986:3). ngügï also describes the self-destruction experienced by the colonised because of the loss of identity, culture, past and a desire to emulate the coloniser. 27fanon claims that colonisation eventually produces “individuals without an anchor, without horizon, colourless, stateless, rootless – a race of angels” (williams et al. 1994:395). ahmad m. s. abu baker 103 exposes the role of colonisation in exploiting the natives and keeping them under colonial dominance. works cited carrington, charles. 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(1994) colonial discourse and postcolonial theorya reader. london: harvest wheatsheaf. 75epiphany academic self-efficacy, gender and academic procrastination ajayi oluwagbemiga samson university of ilorin abstract academic procrastination has been described as a behaviour in which academic tasks such as preparing for exams, preparing term papers, managing administrative affairs related to school and fulfilling attendance responsibilities are postponed till another time. research findings have supported the fact that this habit stems from either failure in self-regulation (passive procrastination) or from utilitarian purposes (active procrastination). this study explores the prevalence of academic procrastination and the prevalent type of procrastinators among undergraduate students. it also examines the difference in academic self-efficacy of passive and active undergraduate procrastinators, as well as gender association between passive and active undergraduate procrastinators. it further determines gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates. a descriptive survey design was adopted. a total of 200 undergraduate students randomly selected from five faculties from university of ilorin constitute the sample size for this study. three research instruments used to collect data for this study are: college academic self-efficacy scale (cases), tuckman academic procrastination scale (taps) and active procrastination scale. results reveal that 29.0% of undergraduate students are procrastinators and 51.7% of the procrastinators are the passive type. no significant difference is found in academic self-efficacy of passive and active procrastinators, t (56) = 1.038, p > .05, and gender is not significantly associated with passive and active undergraduate procrastinators, χ2 (n = 58) = 1.752, df = 1, p = .186. it has also been found that no significant gender difference exists in procrastinatory behaviour of male and female university undergraduates, t (56) = .168, p > .05. this study concludes that most of the university undergraduates that engage in procrastinatory behaviour are passive in nature and neither academic self-efficacy nor gender of the students is a significant factor in their procrastinatory behaviour. keywords: academic procrastination, self-efficacy, procrastinatory behaviour. 76 journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction individuals are known to differ in personal traits they possess. these observed differences in personal characteristics tend to influence the behaviour of individuals, including decision making about how and when a particular task has to be done. these individual distinctions, evident in a person’s approach to decision making and implementing, also extend their tentacles to the academic life of learners. this may, therefore, culminate into engaging in the act of shifting what has to be done presently till another time, which is generally described as procrastination. the origin of the term procrastination has been traced to two latin words: “pro”, translating to forward motion, and “crastinus”, referring to belonging to tomorrow. since the term procrastination has attracted the attention of researchers, it has been looked into from different perspectives. for instance, kachgal, hansen and nutter (2001) defined procrastination as a trait or behavioural disposition reflected in the tendency to postpone or delay performing a task or making decisions. others, such as freeman, cox-fuenzalida and stoltenberg (2011); gupta, hershey and gaur (2012); and rozental and carlbring (2013), described procrastination as an act of purposeful voluntary delay in beginning or finishing a task that should ideally be completed in the present time until the last minute or after the predetermined deadline or indefinitely. balkis and duru (2007) operationalized five different dimensions or categories through which procrastinatory behaviours can be exhibited to include life routine, decisional, neurotic, compulsive, and academic procrastination. according to balkis and duru (2007), there seems to be a possibility for individuals exhibiting procrastinatory behaviour in any of the identified dimensions of procrastination to also manifest it in the other aspects of their behaviour. however, educational researchers seem to deem it fit to investigate procrastinatory behaviour in academic settings more than in the other aspects of human routine. academic procrastination academic procrastination refers to a situation in which academic tasks such as preparing for exams, preparing term papers, managing administrative affairs related to school and fulfilling attendance responsibilities are postponed till another time (özer, demir, & ferrari, 2009). procrastination behaviour seems to be rampant among undergraduates due to the nature of the activities involved in their learning process. a typical undergraduate at one time or another will have to face a myriad of activities related to meeting either academic, social or emotional needs on campus. popoola (2005) also observed that lives of university students are characterized by frequent deadlines, usually imposed by their lecturers and administrators, to carry out various responsibilities such as registration for courses, completion of course forms and submission of class assignments or term papers. experience has shown that these tasks often have to be performed simultaneously. interest in the study of academic procrastination among scholars seems to have arisen due to its prevalence and debilitating effects on students’ academic success and psychological well-being. several studies (beck, koons, & milgrim, 2000; fritzsche, young, & hickson, 2003; akinsola, tella, & tella, 2007; savithri, 2014; kim & seo, 2015) have attributed undergraduates’ poor academic performance to academic procrastination. in a similar vein, aderanti, williams, oyinloye and uwanna (2013) found a significant relationship between academic procrastination of students and instances of academic rebelliousness, such as their involvement in examination malpractices. academic procrastination has also been linked to many negative outcomes such as low self-esteem and delay in task completion (ferrari & emmons, 1995); low grades (tice & baumeister, 1997); and generally poor academic performance (wesley, 1994; tuckman, abry & smith, 2002). regarding the prevalence of academic procrastination, studies such as schubert, lilly, and stewart (2000) and steel and ferrari (2013) estimate procrastination prevalence rate among college students to be 80% and this problem is reported as one of the most common among post-secondary students, where the estimate ranges from 10% to 70%. onwueglouzie (2004) indicates that approximately 40% to 60% of college students always or often procrastinate in such academic tasks as writing papers, preparing for tests, and reading assignments weekly. balkis and duru (2007) estimate academic procrastination among american college students to be 95%, with at least 46% of the students reporting procrastination on academic tasks at least half of the time. according to abu-ghazal (2012) not less than 25% of university students are reported to be procrastinators. 77epiphany active and passive procrastinators procrastination has been described as a failure in self-regulation (steel, 2007). this is because it is believed that counterproductive behaviours, such as avoidance in commencing or completing a task, setting poor goals or making poor decisions, result from ineffective time and behaviour management (howell & watson, 2007; steel, 2007; wolters, 2003). while some scholars argue against the inclusion of purposeful delay as a part of procrastination, others admit it as a component. this purposeful or deliberate delay is termed active procrastination. active procrastination is defined as deliberate postponement of executing or implementing actions for utilitarian purposes. these purposes, according to wang, sperling and haspel (2015), include aroused incentive to achieve optimum performance, increased challenge for less motivating tasks or enhanced effectiveness through increased task focus. in other words, active procrastination is a less debilitating and more regulatory pattern of behaviour whereas passive procrastination is characterized by irrational and counterproductive delay. passive procrastinators are known to be deficient in implementing tasks as planned, with weak ability to manage time in an efficient manner (bembenutty & karabenic, 2004). active procrastinators have been distinguished from passive ones on three motivational self-regulatory aspects. in terms of behaviour, active procrastinators are capable of turning in the task when due and believe that completing the task ahead of time does not add to its quality. the cognitive aspect is their ability to act on their decision through putting off a task so as to maximize resources to complete it. the feeling of a little discomfort but high motivation resulting from working under pressure explains the affective aspect of procrastination (chu & choi, 2005; choi & moran, 2009). academic procrastination and academic self-efficacy one of the factors contributing to timely academic tasks, decision making and implementation is an individual learners’ academic self-efficacy belief. according to bandura, self-efficacy affects an individual’s choice of activities, efforts expended, and persistence. self-efficacy refers to an individual’s judgment of his/her capabilities to successfully perform given tasks (schunk, 1991). zimmerman (2000) refers to self-efficacy as a multidimensional construct which varies according to the domain of demands while pajares (1996) opines that its evaluation has to be at a level specific to the outcome domain. abd-elmotaleb and saha (2013), however, caution that what should be measured in academic setting is academic self-efficacy rather than generalized self-efficacy. these authors define academic self-efficacy as an individual learner’s personal judgment of his/her capabilities to organize and execute courses of actions in order to attain designated types of educational performances. learner’s self-efficacy belief may serve as a motivating force propelling learners in carrying out academic tasks at any given time. according to bandura (1993) people’s beliefs in their capabilities to undertake a particular task influence the type of anticipatory scenarios they construct and rehearse. there is a tendency for learners with a high sense of efficacy to visualize success scenarios that provide positive guides and supports for performance, whereas learners who doubt their efficacy in carrying out a particular academic task usually visualize failure scenarios and preoccupy themselves with self-defeating thoughts. studies on self-efficacy beliefs and procrastination have produced mixed results in literature. while findings of wolters (2003), and hannok (2011) show that procrastination is associated with a low level of academic self-efficacy, schraw, wadkins, and olafson (2007) report in their findings that higher efficacy students rely on a deadline or some external motivators to spur them into action. going by the findings of wolters (2003), and hannok (2011), it is expected that when a learner lacks sufficient belief in his or her capability to undertake a particular learning task, there is a tendency for such a learner to engage in avoidanceand delay-related behaviour tactics. however, it is important to emphasize that self-efficacy without the necessary self-regulatory cognitive skills and a strong sense of commitment may not actually produce the expected goal. this is because a tendency is there for a learner with a high level of self-efficacy to overrely on his or her capability and delay the execution of tasks till the last moment. noran (2000) observes that academic procrastinators typically exhibit five cognitive distortions which consequently promote and maintain their task avoidance. these cognitive distortion behaviours, according to akinsola, tella and tella (2007), include overestimation of time left 78 journal of transdisciplinary studies to perform tasks, underestimation of time required in completing tasks, overestimation of future motivational states, misreliance on the necessity of emotional congruence to succeed at task, and the belief that working when not in the mood to work is sub-optimal. academic procrastination and gender gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour has been explored in a number of studies. earlier studies (effert & ferrari, 1989; solomon & rothblum, 1984) report no significant gender difference in procrastinating behaviour. however, recent findings have reported gender differences in procrastination habits. while findings from khan, hafsa, syeda, and sidra (2014), balkis and duru (2009); özer, demir, and ferrari (2009); steel and ferrari (2013), and berkleyen (2017) report that males procrastinate more than their female counterparts, washington (2004), rodarte-luna and sherry report that female students procrastinate more. contrarily, in terms of active/passive dimension of procrastination, ismail (2016) finds no significant difference in active and passive procrastination scores of males and females. in an attempt to push forward the frontier of knowledge on the phenomenon of procrastination in academic settings, there is a need to examine whether active and passive procrastinators differ in their academic self-efficacy beliefs. also, understanding of procrastinatory behaviour of male and female undergraduates further enhances our knowledge of gender influence on behaviour. the specific objectives of this study are to: • examine the prevalence of academic procrastination among undergraduate students • determine the prevalent type of procrastinators among undergraduate students • examine the difference in academic selfefficacy of passive and active undergraduate procrastinators • examine gender association between passive and active undergraduate procrastinators • determine gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates research questions 1. what is the prevalence of academic procrastination among undergraduate students? 2. what is the prevalent type of procrastinators among undergraduate students? research hypotheses • there is no significant difference in academic self-efficacy of passive and active undergraduate procrastinators • there is no significant gender association between passive and active undergraduate procrastinators. • there is no significant gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates. method this study adopted a survey design. survey is found appropriate for this study as it allows the researcher to gather information, summarize, present and interpret data for the purpose of clarification (orodho, 2002). the sample for the study comprises 200 university undergraduates (male = 100, female = 100) selected across five different faculties (arts =43, communication and information sciences = 36, education = 47, social sciences =36 and sciences= 38) within a university, using multistage sampling procedures. the age of the respondents ranges from 18-33 years, with 191 single and 09 married respondents. three research instruments were used to collect data for the study. those are: college academic self-efficacy scale (cases) developed by owen and froman (1988), tuckman academic procrastination scale (taps) and active procrastination scale (choi & moran, 2009). college academic self-efficacy scale was used to collect data that measures academic self-efficacy of the undergraduates. out of the 33 items in the original college academic self-efficacy scale, 32 were adapted to suit the purpose of this study. the items were rated on a 5-point likert-type scale ranging from “very confident” = 5 to “not at all confident” = 1. owen and frowen (1988) report a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .90 and a test retest reliability of .85 for the original scale. ajayi, sarkin fada and murja, (2015) also reported a cronbach’s alpha of .96 79epiphany when the 32-item scale was pilot-tested on 40 high school students. tuckman academic procrastination scale (taps) was used in the study to collect the data that measure undergraduates’ procrastination behaviour. this scale contains 16-items and according to tuckman (1991), it was developed to assess undergraduates’ tendency to procrastinate while carrying out different academic tasks and completing their college requirements. this is considered as an appropriate tool through which procrastination behaviour of undergraduates is detected as it provides a valid and reliable measure on procrastination tendencies such as wasting time on tasks, delaying, and intentionally putting off tasks that should have been done. also, ferrari, johnson and mccown, (1995) assert that tps provides a general index of academic procrastination which occurs as a result of students’ ability to self-regulate or control their tasks schedules. the 16-items in tps were rated on a 4-point likert scale form ranging from “that’s me for sure” = 4, to “that’s not me for sure” = 1. however, items 7, 12, 14, and 16 were reversed in coding due to their positive nature. responses to each item were cumulated for each respondent. scores range from 16 through 64, with higher scores on the scale reflecting higher level of procrastination. students are then classified as non-procrastinators (16-39), and procrastinators (40-64). tuckman reported .86 cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the scale in the original study while a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.89 was reported in a recent study by the author (tuckman, 2007). also, other studies (klassen, krawchuck & rajani 2008; klassen & kuzucu, 2009) reported cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.90 and while the scale was used to explore adolescents’ procrastination in cross-cultural contexts, 0.81 was found for singaporean and 0.88 for canadian adolescents. active procrastination scale (choi & moran, 2009) was used in this study to measure active/passive procrastination. aps consists of 16 items that measure four distinct characteristics of active procrastinators, which include outcome satisfaction, preference for pressure, intentional decision to procrastinate, and ability to meet deadlines. all items in this scale were rated on a 7-point likert response format ranging from 1 = not at all true to 7 = very true. individual responses to these items, with all the negatively worded items reversed, were summed up to form a composite measure to determine whether an individual is an active procrastinator or a passive one. choi and moran (2009) reported the reliability coefficients (cronbach’s alpha) of four dimensions of the scale to range between .70 and .83 while the entire 16item scale yielded a reliability of .80. the data obtained in the study was analysed using mean, standard deviation, independent t-test and chisquare test of independence. 80 journal of transdisciplinary studies results research questions research question 1: what is the prevalence of academic procrastination among undergraduate students? table 1: prevalence of academic procrastination among undergraduate students (n = 200) status on academic procrastination mean sd frequency(f) percentage (%) non procrastinators 32.82 4.30 142 71.0 procrastinators 44.26 4.67 58 29.0 total 200 100.0 table 1 shows the results for the prevalence of academic procrastination among undergraduate students. as shown in this table, 58 (29.0%) of undergraduate students are procrastinators while 142 (71.0%) are non-procrastinators. research question 2: what is the prevalent type of procrastinators among undergraduate students? table 2: prevalent type of procrastinators among undergraduate students (n=58) types of academic procrastination mean sd frequency(f) percentage (%) pasive 44.03 4.87 30 51.7 active 44.50 4.53 28 48.3 total 58 100.0 table 2 shows the results for the type of procrastinators among undergraduate students. it is shown that 30 (51.7%) of the procrastinators are the passive type while 28 (48.3%) are active procrastinators. research hypotheses ho1: there is no significant difference in academic self-efficacy of passive and active undergraduate procrastinators. table 3: t-test of difference in academic self-efficacy of passive and active undergraduate procrastinators (n =58) academic self-efficacy n mean sd sem t df p passive 30 115.80 15.13 2.76 1.038 56 .304 active 28 110.75 21.56 4.08 table 3 shows the difference in academic self-efficacy of passive and active academic procrastinators. it is shown that there is no significant difference in academic self-efficacy of passive, (m = 115.80, sd = 15.13) and active (m = 110.75, sd = 21.56; t (56) = 1.038, p > .05) procrastinators. it is shown that passive procrastinators have higher mean value than active procrastinators; however, the difference in these mean values is not considered significant at 0.05 level of confidence. therefore, this result points to the conclusion that there is no significant difference in academic self-efficacy of passive and active undergraduate procrastinators. 81epiphany ho2: there is no significant gender association between passive and active undergraduate procrastinators. table 4: chi-square analysis of gender association between passive and active undergraduate procrastinators (n=58) gender procrastinators total χ 2 df p passive active male 13 (43.3%) 17 (56.7%) 30 (100.0%) 1.752 1 .186female 17 60.7%) 11 (39.3%) 28 (100.0%) total 30 (51.7%) 28 (48.3%) 58 (100.0%) table 4 shows the results for gender association between passive and active undergraduate procrastinators. it is shown that there is no significant gender association between passive and active undergraduate procrastinators, χ2 (n = 58) = 1.752, df = 1, p = .186. since p-value is greater than 0.05 level of significance, we do not reject the stated null hypothesis. this result therefore, leads to the conclusion that there is no significant gender association between passive and active undergraduate procrastinators. ho3: there is no significant gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates. table 5: t-test of gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates (n=58) sex n mean sd sem t df p male 35 44.34 4.71 .79 .168 56 . .867 female 23 44.13 4.72 .98 table 5 shows gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates. it is shown that there is no significant gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour of male (m = 44.34, sd = 4.71) and female (m = 44.13, sd = 4.72; t (56) = .168, p > .05) university undergraduates. it is, therefore, concluded that there is no significant gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates. discussion one of the findings of this study reveals that 29.0% of undergraduates are procrastinators. this finding indicates that university undergraduates engage in procrastination in their academic tasks, corroborating the outcome of abu-ghazal’s (2012) study that not less than 25% of university students are procrastinators. it, however, contradicts onwueglouzie’s (2004) finding that approximately 40% to 60% of graduate students always or often procrastinate in such academic tasks as writing papers, preparing for tests, and reading assignments weekly. the observed difference in the outcome of this current study and that of onwueglouzie (2004) can be attributed to the instruments used in measuring procrastination. while onwueglouzie (2004) used procrastination assessment scale-students (pass) developed by solomon and rothblum (1984), this present study used tuckman academic procrastination scale (taps) developed by tuckman (1991). in addition, onwueglouzie (2004) studied procrastination in statistics, a subject with more anxiety-provoking tasks whereas the current study focused on general academic tasks. it has also been revealed in this study that more than half of the sampled university undergraduates are passive procrastinators. this finding supports the earlier findings of chu and choi (2005) and choi and moran (2009) that procrastinators can be active or passive. however, the implication of this finding calls for concern as passive procrastination is characterized by irrational and counterproductive delay. in other words, students demonstrating passive procrastinatory behaviour are characterized by failure in self-regulation (steel, 2007). it has further been revealed that there is no significant difference in academic self-efficacy of passive and active undergraduate procrastinators. this suggests that academic self-efficacy of the individual does not contribute to whether the task will be done on time 82 journal of transdisciplinary studies or after an unnecessary delay. this finding contradicts the findings of wolters (2003) and hannok (2011) that procrastination is associated with low level of academic self-efficacy. another conclusion reached in this study is that there is neither a significant gender association between passive and active undergraduate procrastinators nor a significant gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates. according to the findings of this study, none of the aspects of procrastinatory behaviour can be attributed more to one gender than the other. in addition, the findings reveal that procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates is not gender inclined. these findings support the findings of ismail (2016), who found no significant difference in active and passive procrastination scores of males and females. the findings, however, contradict the findings of researchers such as khan, hafsa, syeda, and sidra (2014), balkis and duru (2009); özer, demir, and ferrari (2009); steel and ferrari (2013), and berkleyen (2017), who all reported that males procrastinate more than their female counterparts. conclusion the study concludes that university undergraduates engage in procrastinatory behaviour in their academic tasks. more than half of these undergraduates are passive procrastinators. academic self-efficacy of passive and active undergraduate procrastinators does not differ significantly. gender is not a significant factor while considering procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates. recommendations it is therefore recommended that seminars on selfunderstanding in relation to learning should be organized for university undergraduates. through this, individual undergraduates might become aware of themselves and their behaviour in relation to academic commitments. 83epiphany references » abd-elmotaleb, m., & saha, s. 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(2000). self-efficacy: an essential motive to learn. contemporary educational-psychology, 25(1), 82-91. carl haddrell similitude through metonymy... 165 vol. 14 no.2, 2021164 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies similitude through metonymy: foucault, magritte and that pipe carl haddrell international university of sarajevo abstract this article explores our understanding of visual imagery through an analysis of foucault’s examination of magritte’s famous painting les deux mystères. foucault details how the interplay between word and image are firstly perceived and then understood by the viewer. this analysis of foucault’s text, serves to illuminate and hopefully clarify the often ambiguous relationship between image and text, whilst at the same time demonstrate that the vary same ambiguity is revelled in by those creating and those words and images. keywords: metonymy, similitude epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies using magritte’s painting les deux mystères and michel foucault’s accompanying text, this is not a pipe, the nature of the visual image can be examined. it can be demonstrated that the distance created by critical theory, between the object and the image and resemblance is replaced by similitude in a world where “truth” is a concept beyond the reach of human visual representation. foucault’s text introduces us to a complex interpretation of the text uncovering labyrinthine paths of interconnectedness between the languages of the visual image and written word. his aim, it seems, is to uncover how, as he said “a whole complex network of uncertainties, exchanges and feints” (foucault, 1970, p. 4), that allow us to revel in a potential multiplicity of meanings. magritte’s picture comprises a framed drawing of a pipe, together with its rebellious subscripted caption, resting upon an easel. this appears to be located within a classroom, although there are no substantive clues to authenticate this, other than the well-worn floor of a possible schoolroom.1 above the easel, floating, is the form of another pipe, apparently, the same pipe as in the framed picture. the picture appears to invite the philosopher to unravel the riddle located deep within it (shapiro, 1997, pp. 69-76). it attracted foucault to the extent that he produced an accompanying text, which shed light on his personal view of magritte’s provocative painting. the supposed directive of the schoolmaster is at the heart of the riddle. what is it that he is indicating? pointing to the framed drawing he pronounces, “this is a pipe”, instantly realising the falsity of those words. the image of the pipe and the sentence uttered refer to the concept of an original pipe. what was present was no original. no sooner than the schoolmaster utters the words, does the reality of what is before him manifest itself in the now clear caption, “this is not a pipe”. in addition, there appeared, in almost ethereal form, a pipe floating over the easel and his head; out of reach, perhaps signifying the elusiveness of true knowledge. 1 foucault suggests the location of a schoolroom in his accompanying text (foucault, 1983, p. 16) carl haddrell carl haddrell similitude through metonymy...similitude through metonymy... 167166 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies both magritte’s image and foucault’s text explore the nature of what is depicted. two contrasting concepts emerge from the examination: resemblance and similitude. both foucault and magritte recognise that resemblance and similitude are different entities (levy, 1990, pp. 50-56). for foucault, resemblance makes reference to, and is a derivation from, an original which is simulated but never equalled. as harkness (1983) notes in his introductory text, for foucault, resemblance presumes a primary reference that prescribes and classes (p. 9). as such we have a mimetic process of hierarchy, the resemblance being a derivative of an original. thus, a portrait would be said to be a resemblance of its model by virtue of the fact that it relates back to that model (levy, 1990, p. 51). by contrast, similitude conforms to no hierarchical order. never derived from an original, similitude is described as a process of equation, a recurrence of autonomous phenomena, which are not linked by a hierarchical dependency (levy, 1990, p. 51). what is produced is a reversible series of images with no origin and no end. thus, we are invited to interpret the two pipes as a series of similitude, neither originates, neither is a derivative. levy (1990) expounds upon this notion (p. 51) by reiterating that for foucault the image is one of similitude, drawn from the lateral relationship between the two pipes, which oscillate within the painting alone, multiplying different affirmations, which dance together, tilting and tumbling over one another (foucault, 1983, p. 46). foucault (1983) asserts that through similitude, resemblance is hounded from the space of the painting (p. 46). this point is illustrated by levy (1990) with reference to magritte’s twined image of paul nougé, which being a portrait originated as a resemblance, being derived from the original model. however, it is the twinned images that now reciprocated within the space of the picture, forming a relationship of similitude to the exclusion of the original model; resemblance is superseded by similitude (p. 51). we have replaced the reference to a possible original with similitude in the form of a series of two pipes. foucault invites us to consider the consequences: magritte has provided us with a drawing of two pipes which bear striking resemblance to a real pipe, together with a written text which, similarly, bears strong resemblance to the drawing of written text. resemblance is initially inherent in the composition. however, it is this composition and juxtaposition that opens up a network of similitudes to the eventual exclusion of resemblance. the real pipe is now absent from both words and drawing, we are left with copies without an original: simulacrum (foucault, 1983, p. 47). durham (1993) explains that foucault’s schoolmaster has unwittingly taught us that the indefinite and reversible movement, in sequential similitude, which subverts the hierarchical relation of model to copy and suspends the identity of the original within and between its repetitions, constitutes the formation of a simulacrum. shapiro draws attention to foucault’s closing words: “a day will come when, by means of similitude relayed indefinitely along the length of a series, the image itself, along with the name it bears, will lose its identity. campbell, campbell, campbell, campbell” (foucault, 1983, p. 54) in so doing, he reminds us of the nietzschean resonance of the seven seals of affirmation, and that themes of similitude, simulacrum, eternal recurrence and affirmation are constant within the works of nietzsche. magritte’s image has been transformed; through the process of examination it no longer resides in the solely visual. foucault’s ekphrasis is testament to the fact that imagery belongs to and is part of language. as such, it too, along with all forms of language, written or spoken, is mistrusted by nietzsche. with the removal of resemblance and subsequently the removal of the presence of an original form, we remove ourselves from the original truth. this assumes that there was a representable truth, a view challenged by jean baudrillard. this is illustrated by his idea that the image is composed of four successive phases: carl haddrell carl haddrell similitude through metonymy...similitude through metonymy... 169168 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies this would be the successive phases of the image: it is the reflection of basic reality it masks and perverts a basic reality it masks absence of a basic reality it bears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum (baudrillard as cited in boulter, 2001, p. 356). boulter (2001) explains how baudrillard’s idea of the simulacrum ultimately confuses the distinction between the real and its illusion, its representation (pp. 356-357). however, the inference remains that there is a reality that can be accessed and in some form represented. nietzsche’s mistrust of language precludes the attainment of any such truth, prior to any attempt to represent it. our attempts to represent it are rendered futile by the inadequacy and insidious nature of language. nietzsche argued that language was like an umbrella: we hold it up to shield ourselves from awareness that the universe is at best indifferent and at worst hostile (hayman, 1997, p. 20). he saw language as an artifice created to provide us with palatable truths. as such it could not be relied upon to provide us with an understanding or representation of the truth. for nietzsche words can never be transparent: for between two utterly different spheres, as between, subject and object, there is no causality, no accuracy, no expression, but at the utmost an aesthetical relation, i mean a suggestive metamorphosis, a stammering translation into quite a distinct foreign language, for which purpose however there is needed at any rate an intermediate sphere, an intermediate force, freely composing and freely inventing. (levy, 1911, p. 184) furthermore, nietzsche expounds that the thing in itself (it is just this which would be the pure ineffective truth) is seen first as nerve stimulus, then as percept, then as sound (levy, 1991, p. 179), at which time it is constructed in terms of language, firstly audible, and then written. these transitions are referred to as metaphors, each one forming a link in a chain of metonymy, removing the perceiver further from the thing in itself. a similar chain would be required for communication of this truth. by the formation of these metaphors, nietzsche claims that man stands alone. our concept of the world is shaped around our acceptance of these linkages. he submits his actions to the sway of abstractions. initial sensations or impressions are disregarded in favour of attaching a considered rational to that which surrounds him.2 nietzsche defines truth as: a mobile army of metaphors, metonymies, anthropomorphisms: in short a sum of human relations which became poetically and rhetorically intensified, metamorphosed, adorned, and after long usage seem to a nation fixed, canonic and binding; truths are illusions of which one has forgotten that they are illusions; worn-out metaphors which have become powerless to affect the senses. (levy, 1911, p. 180) the stronghold for such mediated truths is, for nietzsche, to be found in the world of art. here we find the continual construction of metaphors and metonymies, shaping the world into a conglomeration of images made palatable by the use of language. art survives on the precept that mankind, even if aware of its misrepresentation, still allows itself to be deceived. artist and viewer are both active participants in these acts of deception. nietzsche attacks the mimetic arts, and in the midst of the discourse of modern art there is created an opening for the nietzschean project, for “to reverse platonism” means to make the simulacra rise and to affirm their rights amongst icons and copies (shapiro, 1997, p. 70). as the schoolmaster stands before the drawing, he expounds “this is a pipe.” durham makes reference to the chain of metonymy that has just taken place: from painting to image, from image to text, from text to voice. a sort of imaginary pointer indicates, shows, fixes, locates, imposes a system of references, tries to stabilize a single space. the unravelled calligram that forms magritte’s picture represents the chain of linguistic 2 phenomenology espouses a return to the initial state of receptive impression. carl haddrell carl haddrell similitude through metonymy...similitude through metonymy... 171170 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies metonymy, which removes the viewer from the truth. the recognition that what is present is a simulacrum acknowledges the fact that no original is present. the referential relationship between the two pipes removes the need for an original, which is thus removed from the space of the picture. in accepting this, one is removing one link in the chain of metonymy. the assumption that we had perceptive access to the thing in itself is removed. magritte’s picture, one form of language, invites interpretation from another form of language. the infinite variety of metaphorical interplay is at its most active. yet through this analysis comes the realisation that the search for truth is futile. to suggest we have access to it is overly optimistic. to suggest we can then represent it is unreasonable. foucault’s text does not search for truth. consistent with his previous line of thinking foucault merely examines the possibilities inherent within the image. he espouses the adoption of grey anonymous language (foucault, 1970, p. 10) for such analysis. magritte’s picture can be seen as an exercise in forgetting or deprogramming a set of habits, which have become second nature. as a result, the picture is not aimed at the overtly ignorant but at the fundamental issue of the relation between pictures and texts and those who believe they know what the relation is (mitchell, 1994, pp. 66-67). however, what is achieved is the subversion of preconceived ideas. we are not to read things at face value. what is being represented may take many forms, resemblance, similitude or simulacrum, but their claim to represent the truth is a very tenuous one. references boulter, j. s. (2001). partial glimpses of the infinite: borges and the simulacrum. hispanic review, 69(3), 355-377. durham, s. (1993). from magritte to klossowski: the simulacrum, between painting and narrative. october, 64, 17-33. foucault m. (1983). this is not a pipe (j. harkness, trans.). university of california press. foucault, m. (1970). the order of things. pantheon. harkness j. (1983). translator’s introduction to michel foucault’s this is not a pipe. in this is not a pipe (pp. 1-14). university of california press. hayman r. (1997). nietzsche. phoenix. levy, o. (ed.) (1911). the complete works of friedrich nietzsche. (1st ed.,vol. 2). the macmillan company. levy, s. (1990). foucault on magritte on resemblance. the modern language review, 85(1), 50-56. mitchell w. j. t. (1994). picture theory. university of chicago press. shapiro, g. (1997). pipe dreams: eternal recurrence and simulacrum in foucault’s ekphrasis of magritte. word & image, 13(1), 69-76. 17epiphany abstract my paper offers a reading of ngugi wa thiong’o’s matigari (1989) and investigates the use of the home space as a site of protest. it is the home space that matigari struggles to retrieve in the novel. the journeys undertaken by matigari are metaphorically interwoven with his journeys within-the journeys in the realm of memory. in matigari (1989), matigari’s search for a home space in the aftermath of the independence of an anonymous nation (identified as kenya) culminates in the grim discovery of the neocolonial oppression that marks the collapse of the nationalist dreams. hence, my main aim in this paper is to analyse the journeys undertaken by the characters in the novel, and in doing so, i will also try to explain the spatial politics that define these journeys. keywords: neocolonialism, space, resistance, home space, memory, ideology. politics of the domicile in thiong’o’s matigari sourav kumar nag onda thana mahavidyalaya, bankura university 18 journal of transdisciplinary studies i hope the running themes in the present collection will raise questions and promote debate about our present predicament. for we are all involved in a common problem: how best to build a true communal home for all africans. then all the black people, all the african masses can truthfully say: we have come home. (thiong’o, 1981, p. xix) and so today is my homecoming and i want to bring my family together. (thiong’o, 1987, p. 22) postcolonial writers often use journeys as an important spatial trope for critiquing the colonial appropriation of space. in many postcolonial novels journey in search of the homeland has been used. matigari (1989) by thiong’o is an example/ an illustration of it. matigari’s journey in search of the home space subverts the colonial ethics of the domestic space as a stable, clean and tabular entity (upstone, 2009. p. 117). in the novel, thiong’o critiques the colonial appropriation of the home space that underlines the need of the white subjects to be located in a clean, comfortable and hygienic homestead in a colony away from the homestead of the natives in the marginal territories. the politics of the home space allegorises the formation of the nation. the colonial politics of the domestic space is revived in the neocolonial context. the primary focus of this paper is thiong’o’s critique of the neocolonial ethics of domesticity in matigari (1989). matigari travels within an anonymous nation (evidently kenya) in search of the indigenous home space but discovers the marks of woe instead of the promised land of peace and harmony. evidently, matigari’s dystopian findings question the validity of the neocolonial fashioning of domesticity in postindependence kenya. home in the colonial literature has been represented as an ‘idealized and apolitical location’ (upstone 115). the home as a personal space free from external politics is often associated with european domesticity. in white man’s country: lord delamere and the making of kenya, elspeth huxley (1956) glorifies the cause of the british settlers in kenya in unequivocal terms and politicizes the history of brutal imperialism ‘as a story of white masculinity and its pioneering adventure in bringing untouched land under cultivation and untamed people under british rule’ and calls jomo kenyatta ‘a small scale african hitler’ (147). the colonial domestic spaces have been represented as ‘white civilization’ (p. 147) and the native kenyans as outposts looming violent threats in forms of mau mau. alison blunt and robyn dowling (2006) allude to two popular photographs representing home in contrary ways. the first is ‘the sinews of old england’ by george elgar hicks, which represents the ‘gendered spaces of home and nation’ (p. 140); a married couple standing on the threshold of their house. the man with his muscular embodiment represents manhood as well as the english nation whereas the woman is portrayed as the symbol of domesticity. another picture is entitled ‘how the mutiny came to english homes’ shows the european domestic space as a site of fear and violent disruption of the peace and security represented by the former (p. 140). significantly, both the paintings depict the idea of the symbolic significance of the home as a microcosmic nation space: nations are frequently figured through the iconography of familial and domestic space. the term ‘nation’ derives from ‘natio’: to be born. we speak of nations as ‘motherlands’ and ‘fatherlands.’ foreigners ‘adopt’ countries that are not their native homes, and are ‘naturalized’ into the national family. we talk of the family of nations, of ‘homelands’ and ‘native’ lands. (mcclintock, 1995, p. 357) in the english colonies, the home space followed the illusory victorian ideals of domesticity. the division of the colonies into territories is a large-scale phenomenon of the division of the home space. the colonial civil planning marked the watertight division between the indigenous and the british settlement. the colonial home space was stuffed with the emergent middle-class values such as monogamy (‘clean’ sex, which has value), industrial capital (‘clean’ money, which has value), christianity (‘being washed in the blood of the lamb’), class control (‘cleansing the great unwashed’) and the imperial civilizing mission (‘washing and clothing the savage’) (upstone, 2009, p. 116-7). with the newly constructed colonial domestic space, the naturalness of the imperial nation-building was justified. (mcclintock, 1995, p. 208). the neo-colonial agencies validate and promote the construction of the nation’s space on the former values of domesticity. the rapid urbanization, the various welfare movements and different cultural promotions in favour of a happy homestead in the post colony reinstate the colonial values of home space. kaplan asserts that the term ‘domestic’ has 19epiphany a double meaning. it refers to both the space of the nation and the space of the household. these two meaning are intimately bound up with shifting ideas about the ‘foreign:’ ‘terms such as ‘foreign’ and ‘domestic’ are not neutral, but are rather ‘heavily weighted metaphors imbued with racialized and gendered associations of home and family, outsiders and insiders, subjects and citizens’ (blunt &dowling, 2006, p. 143). we must remember that etymologically the verb form of the word ‘domestic’ is ‘domesticate’ which means to ‘dominate’ as well as to ‘civilize’ (mcclintock, 1995, p. 35). therefore, the home space in the colonial imagination was a localised site for domination and control that reflect the broader spectrum of the colonial subordination: through the rituals of domesticity, increasingly global and more often than not violent, animals, women and colonized peoples were wrested from their putatively ‘natural’ yet, ironically, ‘unreasonable’ state of savagery’ and inducted through the domestic progress narrative into a hierarchical relation to white men. (mcclintock, 1995, p. 35) historically speaking, colonial notions of clean home spaces influenced the spatial demarcation of colonial kenya. the british homestead in kenya was represented as hygienic, stable and orderly; whereas those outside the colonial home space were represented as uncivilised and barbaric. the mau mau warriors, who inhabited forests, were the bestial and primordial forces in the colonial imagination. only the docile gikuyu subjects were given a clean and domestic status (nicholls, 2010, p. 63). they were allowed to remain in the domestic spaces. the prisoners were categorized as ‘black’ (hardcore), ‘grey’ (mau mau supporters), and ‘white’ (clear and loyal). in hola detention camp 11 kenyan prisoners were beaten to death for refusing to work (nicholls, 2010, p. 64). the colonial government adopted some crucial military strategies to wipe out the mau mau supporters and workers. operation anvil was one of the many military strategies of that kind. the operation anvil was shouldered in nairobi in 1954 by 25000 men of the government’s forces to find the mau mau supporters. (nicholls, 2010, p. 64). the villagization programme was initiated to relocate gikuyu civilians to ‘safe’ villages that were surrounded by barbed wire so that the villagers might be alienated from the mau mau rebels (nicholls, 2010, p. 66). in doing so, the british government was following the old england model in the demarcation of the domestic space in kenya. more than 25000 people were removed from their homes. the villagized settlements resulted in a model of domesticity founded on the ethics of division (nicholls, 2010, p. 65-6). in matigari, thiong’o critiqued the so-called welfare movements that do nothing other than adjusting and appropriating the neocolonial mechanism. the ‘housewives’ programme’ broadcast on the radio is such a process. like the ‘voice of truth,’ ‘housewives’ programme’ creates a neocolonial socio-sexual space: . . . this is the voice of truth. next on the air is the housewives’ programme. we shall be talking about family matters today ... the annual general meeting of the women’s development association was opened by the wife of the minister for truth and justice yesterday. madam the minister’s wife, addressing the women, told them that adultery and drunkenness were the principal evils behind the destruction of many homes in the country. madam the minister’s wife urged all women to take refuge in the safety of the church and to stop competing with their husbands in drinking and adultery. women were the corner-stones of the home, she said. (thiong’o, 1987, p. 09) the socio-sexual institutions such as prostitution, nuclear family, polygamy, etc. were politicized and monitored by the neocolonial powers. the ‘housewives’ programme’ on the radio is a neocolonial aural panopticon to modify and construct the socio-sexual institutions. the voice of sympathy and goodwill is a façade of neocolonial hegemony to control those institutions. interestingly, colonization was politicized as a civilising mission rooted in the eastward journeys. paradoxically, the neocolonial politicization of the civilizing missions is founded on the spaces of domesticity. the stabilization of the home space was at the heart of those missions. thiong’o in matigari (1989) highlights the nationalist dream of returning to the pre-colonial home space. matigari’s dream represents the dream of thousands of kenyans who fought for their independence. matigari’s dream of returning to the pre-colonial home disrupts the colonial ordering of the home space. the novel dramatizes the mau mau insurgency in a new format. ngugi wrote matigari (1989) largely in exile in london in the year 1983. in the novel, ngugi 20 journal of transdisciplinary studies adopted an oral storytelling mode. incidentally, the gikuyu word ‘matigari’ means ‘the patriots who have survived the bullets.’ in the novel, ngugi takes resort to fanon’s argument that decolonisation marks the meeting of the two forces--the colonising and the colonized and that the colonial rule was sustained with violence and repression. decolonisation, according to fanon, can only succeed by taking resort to violence (fanon, 1965, p. 02). the publication of the novel created such unrest that the ruling government of kenya immediately banned the novel. in the prefatory section of matigari (1989), ngugi has deliberately blurred the spatial and temporal specificity of action: the country is imaginary it has no name even. reader/listener: may the story take place in the country of your choice! the story has no fixed time. yesterday, the day before yesterday, last week ... last year ... or ten years ago? reader/listener: may the action take place in the time of your choice! (thiong’o, 1987, p. ix). thiong’o’s postcolonial vision is not tied to kenya only. the marks of capitalist oppression and exploitation discovered by matigari are embossed on the forehead of every postcolony. thiong’o portrays the post-independent crises and the failure of nationalism in an unequivocal tone. the colonial myth of the domestic space as a well settled, rooted and clean entity is violently subverted and challenged by the novelist. matigari’s disillusionment with the uhuru and nationalist dreams for sweet homecoming culminates in his final resort to violence. at the very beginning of the novel, matigari comes out of the forest with the conviction that the pre-colonial domestic harmony and peace have been restored after the uhuru or independence of kenya. he comes under a huge mugamo or a fig tree, ‘right in the middle of a cluster of other trees. it was remarkable for its very wide trunk, and its four roots were visible, with one jutting out from the middle, and three others sticking out at the sides’ (thiong’o, 1987, p. 4). the mugamo tree in mattagami (1989) is a mighty symbol of the succession of the colonial rule in kenya in a new format, say neocolonialism. according to the prophecy of mugo, a gikuyu sage, the fall of a mugamo tree in kenya signals the end of the colonial rule. mugamo trees are deemed holy by the kenyans. however, the huge mugamo tree under which matigari stands symbolically subverts his hope of the pre-colonial restoration of the home space. however, matigari remains ignorant of the omen and silently buries his rifle, sword and a cartridge belt wrapped in a plastic cover. the silent burial of the arms ironically emblematises matigari’s utopian dream that arms are no more needed: ‘he tore a strip of bark from a tree and girded himself with it, once again murmuring, ‘ instead, i have now girded myself with a belt of peace, i shall go back to my house and rebuild my home’ (thiong’o, 1987, p. 5). as already said, matigari’s dream of house space is intimately woven with his dream of the home space that is the space of domicile: ‘i will call together all the members of the family and tell them: let’s go home and light the fire together. let us rebuild our home. the wise among them will understand the hint.’’ (thiong’o, 1987, p. 24). in the novel, matigari’s search for the home and his failure to find the same underline the failure of the nationalist dream of liberty. incidentally, matigari, as gikandi (2002) suggests, can be divided into three parts. the first part consists of matigari’s journey as a quest for personal experience of the postcolony. the second part deals with his moral and ethical values such as truth and justice and the final part deals with his disillusionment (thiong’o, 1987, p. 241-2). the first part dealing with matigari’s quest for the home space is, in the words of gikandi, marked by a temporal dimension: ‘matigari’s journey is one in which the temporal dimension (the hero’s return) is defined by a degree of risk. displaced from the real experience in the postcolony, matigari has to depend on others for his education in the ways of the new world’ (thiong’o, 1987, p. 242). contrary to gikandi’s claim, i find that the journey matigari undertakes in the first part of the novel is a postcolonial re-play of the colonial journey defined in a magical-realist dimension. matigari’s journey is a violent disruption of the linear temporality. matigari’s self-knowledge of the postcolony is a colluded fiction-a utopia that is violently topsy-turvied when 21epiphany he encounters muriuki, ngaruro, and guthera. the discursive dislocation results in matigari’s dystopian realization that the post-independent world is a neocolonial world in which settler williams continues to thrive. matigari’s search for the pre-colonial home space is intrinsically wrought with his dream of a family, the space of the house becoming a utopian longing for the space of a home. the second part of the novel, as gikandi (2002) observes, deals with matigari’s search for ‘moral or ethical values’ (p. 243). according to gikandi the graph of teaching and learning is reversed in the second section of the novel. the character of matigari possesses a doubleness that is he is at once the same time the present and the past. he is not only a character in the novel but a phenomenon. in the first part, he learns the dystopian lesson of the neocolonial exploitation which underpins his postcolonial hope of liberty. in the second part of the novel, it is matigari who teaches the lessons of ethicality and morality. matigari produces a new doctrine of truthfulness and humanitarianism to counter the hollow colonial ethics of governance. he travels around the country to ask people where he could find truth and justice. thus, he makes these values ‘central to nation and identity’ (gikandi. 2002, p. 244). matigari’s travels, thus, displace the neocolonial fabrication of stable and civilized space and replaces these with a revival of old values that is the doctrines of truth and justice. moreover, matigari as a character transcends its fictional boundaries and becomes an element of storytelling: ‘on the contrary, the more people become absorbed in matigari’s fiction, the more it becomes an indispensable counterpoint to official discourse; in being able to talk about the phenomenon of the strange man seeking truth and justice, the populace is able to overcome the culture of silence sanctioned by the state’ (gikandi, 2002, p. 244). he becomes a part of the regional narrative that actively challenges the neocolonial domination. the monopoly of the national discourse fabricated for the smooth functioning of the neocolonial hegemony is severely challenged by matigari. the alternative discourse of morality, truth, and justice crosses the threshold of the pages of ngugi’s novel and becomes a national phenomenon. the last part of the novel deals with matigari’s disenchantment with the nationalist movements and his return to the armed struggle. the neocolonial threats disillusion him and he learns the lesson that the dream of national freedom is a mere utopia. but matigari’s return to the armed struggle is tinged with grains of doubt. matigari’s dream of homecoming is not personal. it is related to the nationalist concept of motherland. he realizes that he cannot return home alone: his thoughts took flight. how can i return home all alone? how can i cross the threshold of my house all alone? what makes a home? it is the men, women and children the entire family. i must rise up now and go to all the public places, blowing the horn of patriotic service and the trumpet of patriotic victory, and call up my -people my parents, my wives, my children. we shall all gather, go home together, light the fire together and build our home together. those who eat alone, die alone. could i have forgotten so soon the song we used to sing?’ (thiong’o, 1987, p. 06). evidently, in the novel, ngugi uses home space as a metaphor for the nation. home does not refer to a personal and enclosed site away from the public sphere or as an interiorised entity of but as a pluralistic space that at once undermines the imperial ethics of domestic hygiene and luxury. ngugi’s concept of home is intimately associated with the nationalist concept of home as a spatial metaphor for the nation. the home space in the nationalist imagination was a reactionary space of resistance and return: in anti-imperial nationalist politics, the home and the nation were imagined in ways that resisted rather than repeated westernization. as chatterjee argues, nationalist visions of home and nation were embodied by bengali women and their domestic roles, which were fashioned as distinct not only from the stereotypical british memsahib but also from anglo-indian women. (blunt, 2005, p. 30) matigari’s call for returning to the home is metaphorically layered with his nationalistic dreams of retrieving the pre-colonial culture in the aftermath of independence: let’s go home and light the fire together. let us rebuild our home. the wise among them will understand the hint’ (thiong’o, 1987, p. 24). however, matigari’s search for the domestic space is undermined by the ‘voice of truth’-the voice of the bourgeoisie government in kenya. in the novel, the ‘voice of truth’ functions like an aural ‘panopticon’ 22 journal of transdisciplinary studies that operates invisibly and charters out the ways of the citizens. home and homecoming become the chief motif of the novel and the possibility of homecoming is deferred eternally to suggest the impossibility of the nationalist negotiation. ngugi is evidently rebuilding his dream of real independence on a symbolic aspect -with the deconstruction of the colonial myths of home. at the same time, ngugi advocates the restoration of pre-colonial home space that consists of the indigenous culture of the present postcolony. ngugi`s call for pan-africanism is firmly rooted in his vision of home and homecoming. it is interesting to note that matigari’s concept of home is built upon the notion of family, especially the children and women. therefore, the concept of home in the novel is not merely an imaginary geographical but a cultural entity that rests on the primitive notions of love, togetherness and selflessness. matigari’s dream of sweet homecoming is challenged when he looks at the children in the garbage heaps of a leather factory. in the novel entitled the ‘anglo-american leather and plastic works’, the industry represents the core of capitalist exploitation in the country. the garbage heap symbolises the deposit of the harm that the neocolonial government has dumped: he did not even talk to the guard. he quickened his pace and followed the children and the tractor. his heart beat wildly. let me hurry and tell them that i’m back. let me tell them that the years of roaming and wandering are over. we shall all go home together. we shall enter the house together. we shall light the fire together. after all, the struggle was for the house, wasn’t it? a home... a shelter... with children playing on the veranda or in the open air … sharing what little we have... joy after all that suffering... cold... hunger... nakedness... sleeping nights…fatigue... and how often did we come close to death? victory is born of struggle. there is no night so long that it does not end with dawn. (thiong’o, 1987, p. 10-1) however, the rapid deterioration of the children’s space in the neo-colonial context marks the failure of matigari’s nationalist ideologies and his utopian dream of postcolonial homecoming. the disruption of the home space in the neocolonial context is initially reflected in the sufferings of the street children in the novel. the children’s space in matigari (1989) is located on the macadam on which they fight for any offal. their childhood space is ravished by the colonial urbanized spaces. matigari’s vision of the promised space after independence is subverted by what he sees. he encounters the children standing in a queue to pay a fee to enter an enclosed ground where heaps of rubbish are dumped. the children pay to enable themselves ‘to fight it out with dogs, vultures, rats, all sorts of scavengers and vermin, for pieces of string, patches of cloth, odd bits of leather, shoe soles, rubber bands, threads, rotten tomatoes, sugarcane chaff, banana peels, bones ... anything!’ (thiong’o, 1987, p.11). this grim reality brings him to his senses. he sees two policemen with a dog, a tractor driver, and the two men at the gate jingling the money they had collected and shared it among themselves. matigari tries to visualise his home: ‘a vision of his house appeared before him. he had not been there, he had not yet been home’ (thiong’o, 1987, p.12). the urge to go and look at his house seized him with the force of thirst and hunger for many days. another important trope used by ngugi is that of homelessness. the homestead of settler william is pitted against matigari’s homelessness. matigari’s search for the home space reinforces the fact that he is homeless. matigari’s spatial bankruptcy marks the presence of spatial chaos that subverts the neocolonial perception of space as fixed and organised: you see i built the house with my own hands. but settler williams slept in it and i would sleep inside on the veranda. i tended the estates that spread around the house for miles. but it was settler williams who took home the harvest. i was left to pick thinking he might have left behind. i worked all the machines and in all the industries, but it was settler williams who would take the profits to the bank and i would end up with the cent that he flung my way. i am sure that you already know all this. i produced everything on that farm with my own labour. but all the gains went to settler williams. what a world! (thiong’o, 1987, p. 21) but the subversion of the neocolonial ethics of the home space is not altogether materialized. matigari 23epiphany recalled how his attempt to kill williams was thwarted by john boy, a ‘black man’ and williams’ servant who jumped on his back ‘screaming:’ under the colonial system, a middle class which accumulates capital is an impossible phenomenon. now, precisely, it would seem that the historical vocation of an authentic national middle class in an underdeveloped country is to repudiate its own nature in so far it as it is bourgeois, that is to say in so far as it is the tool of capitalism, and to make itself the willing slave of that revolutionary capital which is the people. (fanon, 1965, p. 149) the deaths of williams and john boy consoled matigari and seemed to fulfil his dream of the free national space. but the death of settler williams did not root out the suffering of the colonized. ngariro reminded matigari that one of the company directors was williams and his deputy was john boy: ‘just a moment,’ ngariro said, as a new thought struck him. ‘williams? boy? one of the company directors is called williams. robert williams. his deputy is called john boy’ (thiong’o, 1987, p. 24). at the end of the novel, matigari and guthera dive into the river to escape being captured by the policemen. all of a sudden, the sky roared and the lightning flashed. the rain started to fall. matigari’s failure to get his home space back is surpassed by a romantic vision of the revolution and violence: finally, he picked up the ak 47 and slung it over his shoulder. he stood for a while under the mugumo tree. and then he heard the sound of hoofs nearby. his heart skipped a beat. but it was only a riderless horse…. muriuki watched the rain as it fell. his glance swept the banks along which he stood. he looked across the river and beyond to the other valleys, other ridges and other mountains. far, far away, he heard the distant sound of the siren as it called out to all the workers. he recalled the night of the workers’ strike. and suddenly he seemed to hear the workers’ voices, the voices of the peasants, the voices of the students and of other patriots of all the different nationalities of the land, singing in harmony: victory shall be ours! victory shall be ours! victory shall be ours! victory shall be ours! (thiong’o, 1987, p. 175). to conclude, therefore, it may be stated that in matigari (1989), ngugi critiques the neocolonial appropriation of the home space. ngugi’s primary concern in the novel is to discover the inherent chaos in the neocolonial project. matigari’s search for the home space for his fellow nationals and the failure of the same underline the ‘pitfalls of national consciousness’ (fanon) as well. the neocolonial mechanisms implemented by the kenyan bourgeoisie perpetuate the capitalist exploitation even after independence. in the novel, ngugi focuses on the colonial ethics of home space. matigari’s journeys subvert the ethics of the home space as a fixed, disciplined and hygienic locale. the homelessness of the natives, the suffering of the children and other discernible marks of the woe discovered by matigari underline the inherent chaos in the capitalist edifice of the neocolonial welfare projects. ngugi in the novel takes resort to a dystopian vision for challenging the neocolonial utopianism imported from europe. at the same time, matigari’s dream for building a home for all the natives underlines postcolonial utopianism though it is true and honest in its essence. unlike the feigned neocolonial utopias that are built upon the dishonest political economy, feigned welfare projects and capitalist power play, the postcolonial utopianism borders on a true longing for the cultural homecoming. it should also be noted that ngugi’s postcolonial utopianism is both spatial and temporal. his advocacy of the cultural homecoming incorporates nostalgia, spatial reconstruction of the indigenous home space and memory. note: settler williams in matigari (1989) was robert williams, one of the white settlers in the fictitious town in matigari (1989). he is a british predator who with his deputy john boy extorted the lands of the natives. 24 journal of transdisciplinary studies references » blunt a. (2005). domicile and diaspora: anglo-indian women and the spatial politics of home. oxford: blackwell. » blunt, a. (2005), & dowling, r. m. (2006). home. new york: routledge. » clintock, a. m. (1995). imperial leather: race, gender, and sexuality in the colonial conquest. new york: routledge. » fanon, f. (1965). the wretched of the earth ... (c. farrington, trans.). new york: grove press. » gikandi, s. (2002). ngugi wa thiongo. cambridge: cambridge univ. press. » huxley, e. (1956). white man’s country: lord delamere and the making of kenya. london: chatto & windus. » nicholls, b. (2010). ngugi wa thiong’o, gender, and the ethics of postcolonial reading. england: ashgate. » wa thiongʼo, n. (2002). a grain of wheat. london: penguin books. » wa thiongʼo, n. (1981). homecoming. london: heinemann. » wa thiongʼo, n. (1987). matigari. usa: heinemann. » upstone, s. (2009). spatial politics in the postcolonial novel. farnham: ashgate. » webster, w. (1998). imagining home: gender, ‘race,’ and national identity, 1945-64. london: ucl press epiphany: vol. 4, no. 1, 2011 issn 1840-3719 the european union in international politics: acting as a global civilian power (gcp) bedrudin brljavac abstract during the cold war the european community lacking common military instruments was perceived as the example of a civilian power. however, in the early 1990s, under the framework of cfsp, the first concrete defence initiatives have been launched. by the end of the 1990s and after the agreement on the common security and defence policy (csdp) the first rapid reaction forces were on the european military agenda. such defence and military capabilities challenged the idea of the eu as a civil or civilian power. thus, a main concern in the paper has been to assess the character and identity of the eu`s activities in the context of international relations. for this purpose, this study has explored the eu policy instruments such as the enlargement policy, external aid, environmental policy at the global level, multilateralism, and the eu armed forces. the study concludes that the enlargement policy accounts for an important eu strategy to shape the international environment through civilian means. furthermore, the international aid policy of the eu states has primarily been based on the sense of duty to other countries as constructivists point out. the eu has also been vocal and has used environmental foreign policy as an instrument to demonstrate its global leadership role which is a clear indication of its commitment to global welfare. thanks to its presence in the major multilateral interventions of the last decade, the eu has qualified itself as great supporter of multilateralism. lastly, the eu military capabilities are not achieved by creating permanent european armed forces but are still based on the voluntary contributions of its member states. therefore, the eu still can be portrayed as a global civilian power (gcp) or civilian power europe (cpe). keywords: civilian power, military power, constructivism, cfsp, csdp, gcp, and international relations. corresponding author: bedrudin brljavac; phd candidate, university of sarajevo, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: bedrudin07@yahoo.com mailto:bedrudin07@yahoo.com b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [81] nature of the eu's power without doubt the european union has become an important actor when it comes to political, economic, and legal questions at the international stage. that is, due to the eu‟s wide-ranging global involvement and its increased capabilities, it seems to be established that indeed, the eu has a foreign policy (sjursen, 2006). as moravcsik argues, “europeans already wield effective power over peace and war, [...] in the quiet promotion of democracy and development through trade, foreign aid and peacekeeping” (2002). nevertheless, this also raises the question as to what kind of power it is actually perceived to be in international politics. hence, from its foundation there have been longrunning academic discussions about the nature of the power of then the ec and today the eu. to provide an adequate answer to the question it is of crucial importance to analyze the character and features of the eu in regards to its international activities. starting with the period of the cold war, the european community was portrayed as a `civilian power` in international politics since it did not have relevant military capabilities and relied on economic and diplomatic means in order to influence world affairs (smith, 1998: 67). in fact, after the rejection of the edc treaty by the french national parliament in 1954 defence became a taboo topic among the member states. indeed, in 1970 the member states leaders established the european political cooperation (epc) as a consultation platform on a voluntary basis excluding any defence subject. lacking any defence initiative and strong military instruments francis duchene (1972, 1973) stressed that the ec is a pure civilian power at the international stage which was `long on economic power and relatively short on armed force.` similarly, manners argues that the eu is primarily a normative power, as opposed to a strictly military power (2006: 184). although the notions of civilian and normative powers are sometimes used interchangeably this study will evaluate the identity of the eu in terms of its external policies as a civilian power. indeed, a large number of scholars has believed that the eu influences the world through promotion of its own values, norms and rules based on the notion of civilian power or `civil power.` that is, as b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [82] solana argues, a fundamental objective of the eu has become “spreading good governance, supporting social and political reform, dealing with corruption and abuse of power, establishing the rule of law and protecting human rights are the best means of strengthening the international order” (2003). thus, andrew moravcsik claims that the european union is some kind of a “quiet superpower” (2002). all said, it is still highly relevant to discuss the question of the civilian aspect of the eu policies at the international stage. what‟s more, the eu is a distinctive international actor because it `exercises influence and shapes its environment through what it is, rather than through what it does` (maull, 2005: 778). unlike the previous world powers which promoted their own values, culture and way of life through hard power, the eu has been able to have a considerable influence at international politics through the power of attraction as a civilian power. thus, in the constitutional treaty, the articles i-3 and iii-292 state the objectives of the so-called “external action” of the european union and emphasises the importance of values such as democracy, the rule of law, universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the respect of human dignity, the principles of equality and solidarity and, last but not least, the respect for the principles of the un charter and international law. in the same spirit, the text favours multilateral solutions to common problems, in particular in the un framework (louis, 2007: 15). indeed, the eu power is based on its normative appeal as the institutional embodiment of peace and reconciliation, democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights, liberty, and solidarity which are all enshrined within the acquis communautaire (aggestam, 2008: 363). for the “normative” school of thought, the european union should not be a military power in the meaning of a (potentially) aggressive power (“machtstaat”), and it has to make the best of its exceptional experience of integration, projecting the vision of a union of values on the global politics (louis, 2007: 13). put differently, the eu based on the notion of civilian power has offered an alternative vision of international relations thus provoking the supporters of power politics theory. in addition, the idea of the eu as a civilian power is visible in jospeh nye's notion of soft power. that is, nye asserted that, in addition to economic and military b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [83] power, a third component of power – soft power – “rests on the ability to shape the preferences of others” (nye, 2004: 5). also, more than merely influence, he thinks that “soft power is the ability to attract” and he adds that “attraction often leads to acquiescence” (nye, 2004: 6). however, when it comes to the growing ambition of the european union member states as a foreign and security policy actor, the limitations of its soft power has become apparent several times. that happened at dayton and in kosovo, for instance, so the crisis in the region underlined the limitations of soft power and the need for the eu to have credible military forces to back up its diplomacy if it wished to engage in effective crisis management (hyde-price, 2006: 227). in other words, the cfsp was effectively sidelined as the eu's biggest members worked through the contact group, in a classic example of „concert diplomacy‟ (holbrooke 1999: 114). although it may seem at first sight that the eu is “genetically” a civilian power it is still relevant for scholars of international relations to examine the eu's international activities from the angle of civilian power as a possible alternative face of power in world politics. that is, the end of the cold war might have been expected to usher in an era in which civilian power could be of greater influence: the overwhelming exigencies of defence disappeared, the nuclear standoff was outdated (smith, 2000: 11). thus, joseph nye asserted that increasing attention could turn to the “real issue – how power is changing in world politics” (1999: 153). as rifkin points out, probably the europeans have a very different idea in mind of what ought to constitute a superpower in a today's globalised society (2004: 298). therefore, in this paper the main concern is to analyze the nature of the eu's power in international relations so the central research question of the paper is: what has been the character or identity of the eu`s activities in the context of international relations? theoretical framework in order to systematically provide an analytical explanation to the research question it is of utmost importance to choose a suitable theoretical framework. before that it is necessary to define the concept of civilian power as an overarching idea which can explain the most b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [84] important policies of the eu states. for instance, smith defines civilian power as follows, “civilian is non-military, and includes economic, diplomatic and cultural policy instruments” (smith, 2004: 1). in order to explore different aspects of the eu as a civilian power in this study we will use the definition of harnisch and maull who concluded that the foreign policy identity of a civilian power is characterized by six elements: efforts to constrain the use of force through cooperative and collective security arrangements; efforts to strengthen the rule of law through multilateral cooperation, integration, and partial transfers of sovereignty; promotion of democracy and human rights, both within and between states; promotion of non-violent forms of conflict management and conflict resolution; promotion of social equity and sustainable development; promotion of interdependence and division of labor (harnisch & maull, 2001b: 4). it is necessary to establish the criteria and assessment standards for examining the character of the eu `s international role and its putative civilian dimension. for this purpose, this study will cover the eu civilian policies such as enlargement, external aid, environment, peace-keeping, and multilateralism. the study will evaluate these five eu instrument policies in order to analytically justify the thesis of eu as a global civilian power (gcp). through the analysis of the above themes the answer ought to be provided to the research question of the study. since the study examines the concept of civilian power in the context of eu foreign policy we will use a constructivist perspective in order to support the central line of thought. in contrast to rationalist argument of eu foreign policy, constructivist theory seems more relevant here since the idea of a civilian power europe or gcp is predominantly based on immaterial features such as identity, values, norms, culture, way of life, and ideas (waever, 2000: 333). that is, constructivist theory is based on the understanding of the world around us as a socially constructed giving greater weight to the social dimension than to the material in the context of international politics (checkel, 2008: 73). therefore, the eu foreign policy highly depends on a shared understanding among member states` leaders and ordinary citizens about the global role of the eu and about the values and ideas it should b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [85] promote and defend (keukeleire, s. & macnaughton, j., 2008: 334). although it is not easy to agree on shared ideas and values it is said that eu`s core norms are liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and rule of law; and minor norms, such as social solidarity, non-discrimination, sustainable development and good governance (orbie, 2008: 18). in contrast, realist thinkers argue that states do not feel much of a duty to others and their national interest is defined by the quest for survival and power (barnett, 2008: 192). lebow also cites mearsheimer‟s characterisation of this anarchical international system as “a brutal arena where states look for opportunities to take advantage of each other” (2007: 55). thus, according to realist school of thought international relations “cannot escape from a state of anarchy and will continue to be dangerous as a result” (goldstein & pevehouse, 2006: 74). thus, realists thinkers have a largely pessimistic worldview about the state of international relations. although state interests are important in international relations they have played secondary role in the context of the eu`s foreign policy. as weitsman argues, the eu looks like it was not simply an alliance formed against an adversary, but one that was formed between adversaries, thus improving “the chances of enduring peace among union members” (1997: 191). enlargement policy of the european union the 1995 enlargement to three former european free trade association (efta) members, the acknowledgment of the candidate status of thirteen further countries and the extension of the membership perspective to the western balkans, have made enlargement a permanent and continuous item on the eu‟s agenda (schimmelfennig & sedelmeier, 2002: 500). thus, the enlargement policy of the eu is widely seen as the most important aspect of eu foreign policy which substantially challenges realist arguments claiming that state interests are the basis of international relations. beside being important as a political project the enlargement of the european union (eu) has been a difficult challenge facing europe in the post-cold war period (sjursen, 2002: 491). the enlargement process has been described as a process of „horizontal b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [86] institutionalisation‟ whereby the eu‟s organisational norms and rules are extended territorially (schimmelfennig & sedelmeier, 2005). still, the enlargement process might alternatively be typed as „vertical institutionalisation‟ given the top-down approach taken by the european union (pridham, 2010: 448). although costs to the eu member states have been high the enlargement policy is accepted as the most successful instrument to promote the values and ideals that eu member states support. for instance, in the amsterdam treaty 1999 it is stated that `any european state that respects the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law, may apply to become a member of the union (articles 5 and 49). purely materialist or realist arguments can not satisfactorily explain why the member states should shoulder considerable costs by accepting usually very poor and underdeveloped countries which can also have negative repercussions on the effective functioning of the eu itself (smith, s., hadfield, a., & dunne, t., 2008: 374). therefore, identity, values and norms have played very considerable role in the process of enlargement and substantially strengthening constructivist perspective. the eu has extensively used both carrots and sticks in its relations with applicant countries thus reflecting its character of civilian power exercised through soft power of attraction (smith, 2005: 271). the enlargement policy accounts for an important eu strategy to shape the international environment through civilian means. indeed, the eu`s enlargement policy is the best indication of civilian power europe (cpe) or gcp since its central premises are enshrined in the magnetism and power of attraction that the eu possess. also, enlargement policy of the eu can not be perceived as a hegemonic project since it is up to the national governments to make decisions whether to enter the eu or not. as schimmelfennig and sedelmeier argue, new members of the organization may even negotiate post-accession transition periods before applying some of its norms and rules, or they might begin to participate in some of the organization‟s policies at different times, as is the case in the emu or the schengen agreement (2002: 503). also, it is not clearcut from the beginning that an enlargement process will result in positive changes or economic gains for the current members of the eu. for b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [87] instance, not only does enlargement threaten to disturb the internal order of the eu, the new external borders that will follow from the expansion could also create new divisions on the european continent and thus foster instability in europe at large (sjursen, 2002: 491). the largest success of the eu foreign policy so far relates to reshaping the identity, values and norms of the central and eastern european countries (ceec) (keukeleire, s. & macnaughton, j., 2008: 334). accession of the countries of cee to the eu has meant a historical moment since these countries transformed and reshaped their political, economic, social, and ideational systems in order to become part of free and democratic world. that is, maull claims that “in central and eastern europe, the prospect of enlargement has probably made a huge contribution to regional stability, prosperity and the progress of liberal democracy” (2005: 782). indeed, the eu has put special emphasis and substantially has helped strengthen democracy promotion in the cee. thus, dimitrova and pridham point out that, “a new model of democracy promotion has been emerging with respect to central and eastern europe, namely democracy promotion through integration. just as the european union has been considered a system of governance sui generis, unique among international organizations, so democracy promotion through integration has evolved in the last decade as a somewhat unique way of promoting democracy” (2004: 94). pridham goes further pointing out that without question the most pivotal european instrument for democracy promotion has been the european union, including first and foremost the accession process but also the direct assistance programs provided by the european union to new democracies (2005). in fact, democracy promotion has been achieved through the adoption of eu rules in nonmember states, i.e. their institutionalization at the domestic level. such institutionalization includes the transposition of eu legislation into domestic law, the restructuring of domestic institutions according to eu rules, or the change of domestic political practices according to eu standards (schimmelfennig & sedelmeier, 2004: 670). symbolically, the new democracies of central and eastern europe have viewed eu membership as their `return to europe` after the bipolar world of the cold war (sedelmeier, 2005a: 407). the transformation of b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [88] their stagnant political, economic, and social systems in the aftermath of the collapse of communism was explicitly organized in the framework of their strong commitment to core european values and norms (smith, s., hadfield, a., & dunne, t., 2008: 367). furthermore, the enlargement issue is a question of morality and shared identity as blair pointed out once, “but i do believe that we have a moral duty to offer them the hope of membership of the eu...” (blair, 1999: 371). in a similar tone, coffey speaks of a moral obligation on the part of the western states to help the former communist countries of central and eastern europe, on the basis that it earlier encouraged them to overthrow communist regime (1995: 96). although the argument about political conditionality as a coercive instrument seems reasonable to some extent, it is clear that member states are prepared to accept every risk that enlargement would bring to them (smith, s., hadfield, a., & dunne, t., 2008: 374). that is, current member states are aware of the fact that before and after each enlargement cycle they have to pay some costs. so, it is too straightforward to view the enlargement simply reflecting the concern of the eu to maximize the benefits to current members as preston puts it (1997: 9). the external aid policy of the european union aid policy in the eu for the developing countries is a shared competence between the union, administered primarily by the european commission, and the member states. although the topic is sometimes undermined, the external aid provided by the eu member states accounts for an important instrument of civilian power in terms of foreign policy activities. as sefano argues “development is at the heart of the external action of the eu. (...) together with other component of eu‟s external action development policy is about projecting political stability, economic prosperity and solidarity. it is thus a policy of values, but is also a policy of influence and interest” (2006: 5). thus, arts and dickson views the eu aid and development policy as having shifted from a classical model of north-south relations to an assertion of the eu‟s identity in the international stage (2004). the objective of eu aid is the eradication of poverty in the context of sustainable development, in line b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [89] with the millennium development goals (mdgs) (dsw, 2010: 1). thus, the eu and its member states together are the largest aid donor in the world. it seems that romano prodi's message has become closer and closer to truth when he pointed out that, “we must aim to become a global civil power at the service of sustainable global development. after all, only by ensuring sustainable global development can europe guarantee its own strategic security” (prodi, 2000). the aid programmes of the eu member states accounted exactly 62,10 % of all oda aid donations (see figure 1). however, the eu has been criticized for being ineffective and nontransparent in its placement of aid programs. in response to criticism about the effectiveness of its aid activities, the european union has embarked on a series of reforms. for instance, oxfam concluded that “ec aid for the large part is significantly more effective than it was a decade ago” (2010: 9). furthermore, the eu and its member states paid out more than €49 billion in 2008 in external aid to developing countries what accounted for the equivalent of 0.40% of their gnp, and was higher than the per capita aid levels of the united states or japan (european commission, 2008). although some analysts argue that the eu aid is unequally delivered depending on the geo-strategic interests of the members states it is clear that the truth is quite different since eu aid is more evenly spread around the world than that of other aid donors such as the us and japan. for instance, 55 countries receive more than 50 % b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [90] of their total development aid from the eu, while the us aid is primarily concentrated on the middle east and that of japan on asian countries (keukeleire, s. & macnaughton, j., 2008: 215). such an equal distribution of the eu aid is the best indicator that member states` international aid is primarily based on an ideal of solidarity and sense of duty to other countries as constructivists point out. the eu aid is guided by the following policy documents: the 2005 european consensus on development, the 2005 revised cotonou agreement, the 2006 regulation establishing a financing instrument for development cooperation, increased budget support (target: 50% of eu aid), decreased disbursement of aid through programmes and projects, commitment to involve civil society (dsw, 2010: 1). in order to better understand the extent to which the eu member states use their external development or humanitarian aid as an instrument of civilian power it is of utmost significance to mention concrete examples where the aid arrived. for instance, the african continent was among the first recipients of the development aid, beginning in 1963 in the form of the younde convention between then ec and 18 african countries. today, under the framework of cotonou agreement since the june 2000 71 acp states (48 countries form subsahara africa, 16 from the caribbean and 15 from the pacific) are covered making it the largest coherent aid programme for non-members of the eu (hill & smith, 2005: 165). in the context of the beginning cotonou negotiations in june 1998, charles josselin, the french minister for cooperation, stressed that “the maintenance of a specific convention between the european union and the acp states is an essential element of the inalienable solidarity between europe and africa” (1999: 9). thus, since 2000, the vast majority of european commission general budget support has been allocated to african, caribbean and pacific countries (oecd/dac, 2008). although the eu started to shift its priorities from the acp countries to the central and eastern european region in the b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [91] 1990s the acp region still remains the major recipients of eu aid (european commission, 2000: 36). furthermore, the eu has been the largest aid donor in afghanistan concerning reconstruction and humanitarian projects spending about 800 million euros in the year after the war started and providing further 1, 9 billion euros for 2002-2006 at the january 2002 donor conference in tokyo (hill & smith, 2005: 168). in addition, the eu member states have been collectively the single largest donor in palestine endorsing a plan to focus aid on “sustainable, long-term economic development,” amounting to approximately $1.47 billion over the next three years (ap, 2008). also, in august 2008 the ec had committed 401.5 million euros 216 for recurrent expenditures, 53 for development projects, 71 for unrwa, 8 for nahr el bared (emergency aid), 29.5 for food aid and 24 for humanitarian aid (european commission, 2008). thus, regarding the eu aid to palestine herremans claims that “for the eu it was crucial to increase living standards in the [occupied territories]. tangible benefits such as higher income and improved infrastructure would entail popular satisfaction with the peace process” (2007). also, the eu, both its member states and the european commission, is visible as the single largest donor in south east europe, providing humanitarian aid and assistance for economic reconstruction in the region (calic, 2005: 11). thus, it is important that eu external aid recipients are concentrated at a number of regions as stated in the figure 2. regional distribution of community aid $ millions sub-saharan africa 2028 europe 1413 middle east/north africa 635 latin america/caribbean 552 south/central asia 419 other asia/oceania 323 figure 2. regional distribution of aid source: oecd `aid at a glance` charts for dac countries, 2002. b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [92] the european union and global environmental protection the eu has played a very constructive and substantial role in the international stage in the context of environmental policies since it has been setting climate standards in order to protect whole world from dangerous emissions which is firmly in line with constructivist argument of the idea of `internationalization`. better to say, the growing power of environmental interests in the european union states from the late 1980s coupled with strong initiatives of eu policy-making led the union to develop ambitious and comprehensive environmental policies. thus, after the first united nations conference on the environment in stockholm in 1972, the european commission became active in initiating first community policies in this field. furthermore, on the basis of european council commitments in 1972 to establish a community environmental policy, the first environmental action program (eap) was decided upon in november 1973. thus, more than 70 environmental directives were adopted between 1973 and 1983 (vogel et.al., 2010: 2). however, it was not until the single european act (sea) in 1986 that the environmental issues secured a treaty base, which was confirmed and later consolidated in the teu and later treaties of the eu. in addition, article 174 of the tec on environmental policy explicitly states that „promoting measures at international level to deal with regional or worldwide environmental problems` is the critical objective where the eu has been doing a lot. in other words, external environmental policy has been a very important part of the eu`s foreign policy arsenal since through this policy the eu seeks to pursue milieu goals and global public goods (keukeleire, s. & macnaughton, j., 2008: 246). thus, the european union has been described as “having the most progressive environmental policies of any state in the world although it is not a state” (jordan, 1999: 1). furthermore, after the us gradually left the leadership position in global environmental policy the eu established itself as the new leader setting new global environmental goals (vogler, 2005: 835). certainly, the us shift from global environmental leader in the 1970s and 1980s to laggard and obstructionist in the 1990s and 2000s opened an opportunity for the eu to assert its leadership (sbragia and damro, 1999). the eu has played the most visible role within the negotiations of the kyoto b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [93] protocol while the us completely rejected to ratify such an agreement. such an opposing tendency reflects their different understandings of environmental issues since the us is closer to market-led strategies and to a `use-with-risk strategy` while the eu`s tendency is `a more cautious, risk aversion strategy` (baker, 2006: 92). also, different understandings of agri-environmental policy and of its aims has also been identified, for example the absence in the us of the eu goal of using these not only to control pollution or erosion but also as drivers of rural development (baylis, et al., 2008). furthermore, the european union has become a model for significant economic shifts based on “innovative environmental policy” required of all countries with a carbon-based economy. thus, the eu is much further along the inevitable path towards a low-carbon economy than any other part of the world (brunnée and levin, 2008: 71). furthermore, starting in 1999, the eu has required all new cars sold within the eu to display labels indicating their fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions. most recently, a regulation enacted in 2009 requires auto manufactures to limit their fleet-wide average carbon dioxide emissions or pay an „emissions premium‟ (penalty) (european parliament, 2009). what is more, the eu has been enforcing environment-based standards and rules through its legislative bodies. thus, the european court of justice has been monitoring implementation through transposition and regulatory action of eu environmental rules, as in the highlighting of ireland and other countries for failings in connection with the wild birds and habitats directives (vandenberghe, 2008). also, the eu also issued a directive specifically addressing energy efficiency in 2006 which calls for five-year action plans to be developed by the european commission towards achieving the eu‟s goal of 20 per cent reduction in consumption of primary energy by 2020, and has established energy savings target of 9 per cent to be reached within nine years (i.e., 1 per cent annually), starting in 2008 (european parliament, 2006). last but not least, extensive constitutional and political checks have been agreed upon in the eu on the influence of large states which can block them from substantially manipulating the process of the environmental protection in their favor (archer and nugent, 2006). b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [94] in addition, the eu`s constructive activism and the us`s rather passive or ignorant approach regarding global environmental issues clearly demonstrate sincere duty that member states feel against both their home populations and other overseas lands. for instance, in 2001 when the us government announced that they will not ratify the kyoto protocol which threatened its coming into life it was the eu that saved the whole process after making russia accepting to ratify the protocol. that is, the eu supported russian membership into the wto on its agreement to ratify the kyoto protocol which was achieved in 2004 (bretherton & vogler, 2006: 109). obviously, the eu has successfully and very visibly used environmental foreign policy as an instrument to display its global leadership role which is a clear indication of its commitment to ideals such as solidarity and global welfare. that is, the eu has demonstrated clearly that its support for international environmental treaties is not determined by domestic interests, but rather is „constructed‟ by a „world environmental regime‟ (meyer, et al., 1997). such a strong commitment to sustainable development and global welfare is clearly in line with harnisch & maull`s definition of civilian power. in fact, we can conclude that kyoto has become more important as an identity goal than as a policy goal which is clear from the difficulties eu member states faced ratifying the process and complying with kyoto targets (keukeleire, s. & macnaughton, j., 2008: 248). also, just ahead of the copenhagen climate summit the eu leaders agreed to an increase of the bloc`s commitment to greenhouse gas reductions from previous target of 20 percent to 30 percent while the us government has not showed much interest towards more concrete agreement so far. as vogel et. al., argues “important initiatives and commitments to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases have been undertaken in the eu at both the central and state levels with one often complementing and reinforcing the other. in the us, by contrast, federal regulations restricting greenhouse gases had yet to be implemented as of early 2010” (2010: 5). thus, while all eu member states have adopted climate change policies, many states in the us have not done it. probably it has been close to the truth that europeans are from mars while americans are from venus, to use kagan`s famous term (kagan, 2003). b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [95] the european union and principle of multilateralism in today's global politics a large number of international organizations, and especially the united nations, have a strategic tendency to maintain the idea of multilateralism, the practice of contemporary world politics based on shared principles and mechanisms that increasingly influence international relations and also domestic affairs. the eu, thanks to its presence and actions in the major multilateral interventions of the last decade, qualifies itself as great supporter of this policy (attina, 2008: 2). the eu leaders have been firmly in support of cooperative actions with other world actors at the international stage since they explicitly have demonstrated their commitment to an ideal of multilateralism and global cooperation. for this reason, the eu is generally perceived as a great supporter of a global order which is primarily based on international organizations and rules itself an external reflection of the eu`s internal attempts to establish interstate relations on common principles and institutions (keukeleire, s. & macnaughton, j., 2008: 299). for instance, the teu puts that foreign and security policy objectives of the eu are to be pursued in accordance with the principles and rules of the un charter and of the osce (art. 11 teu). therefore, the very basis or the fundamental doctrine of the international presence of the eu has been built upon the most relevant and widely accepted international rules, principles and regulations. simply said, the eu's ideology in regards to international politics has been the policy of multilateralism. even more indicative has been the european commission‟s communication with a very comprehensible title „the european union and the united nations: the choice for multilateralism‟ (louis 2007: 15). to put it differently, the eu member states have made principle of multilateralism a constant policy and strategic behaviour of their international relations context (mayer & vogt, 2006: 49). since the eu is an international rules-oriented community it is outlining the picture of the peaceful, cooperative and soft world power. as marsh and mackenstein conclude: “it [i.e. the eu] clearly has a significant global presence and a „mister nice guy‟ image in international relations on account of its devout multilateralism and its traditionally non-coercive approach to its b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [96] external relations. this image is encouraged both by eu actions frequently reflecting its principles and by comparison with other leading powers, notably the us.” (2005: 251). while the us has traditionally been building its image of the superpower upon the unilateral policymaking excluding other global actors, the eu has on the other hand demonstrated the vision of the most cooperative and multilateral-oriented organization in the world. that is, while the us international policies are aimed at the realization of the doctrine of hegemonic power the eu itself is pushing the principle of equality of the world states. at a global level, the eu acts as a community which traditionally tends to develop a stronger and more secure international society. therefore, it is of utmost importance to pursue regular negotiations and dialogue with other global players in order to reach a constructive compromise and mutual agreement. in a similar vein, collective experience in regional integration of the member states has made europeans naturally more inclined than the other global influential power at the international level, the united states, to contemplate multilateral rules, regulations, and institutions for the management of global interdependence (hill & smith, 2005: 238). even the ess, as a comprehensive security strategy is based on dialogue, bargaining, cooperation, partnership and institutionalized, rules-based multilateralism (howorth, 2007: 204). the two strategic objectives can be identified within the ess, namely, building security in europe‟s neighborhood and promotion of an international environment that is based on effective multilateralism (ess, 2003). in fact, the ess has been built on the strategic premise that “‟leave no room for an alternative‟ to multilateral action” (mitzen 2006: 283). such a tendency is the best indicator of the eu as a gcp exerting influence virtually through multilateral channels. that is to say, in terms of protection of environment the eu has been globally perceived as a civilian power in pursuit of a rule-based global governance. the eu leaders are more than aware that only by following internationally accepted rules and conventions it is possible to create a peaceful and prosperous world. when we come to the real world there have been many examples where the eu member states sought to work together with other global b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [97] actors to solve international problems. indeed, the eu has constantly defended the institutional strengthening of international organizations such as the un, nato and the wto, and also actively promoting the construction of new global regimes as well as the strengthening of the global civilian policies (telo, 2007: 54). therefore, since the early 2000s, the eu displayed very proactive attitude towards the multilateral policymaking together with un. in this respect, in 2001 the european commission agreed in the communication on “building an effective partnership with the united nations in the fields of development and humanitarian affairs”. furthermore, if eu foreign policy has been successful in the balkans region the main reason is that its actions were carried out in cooperation with the un, the world bank, the osce, the council of europe and nato (keukeleire, s. & macnaughton, j., 2008: 302). in the financial sector, for instance, eu states contribute about 38% of the ordinary budget, 50% of the contributions to special funds and programs, and 40% of the un peace operations costs (attina, 2008: 7). therefore, the eu does not nourish the tendency to set the hegemony at the international arena but its fundamental global policy revolves around the cooperation and joint adventures with other prominent international organizations in the world. such a cosmopolitan approach to global governance is a very clear message that the eu leaders are more than ready to work in cooperation and sharing information, knowledge, and even military and other infrastructure tools with other global actors in order to promote democratic values, human rights and the rule of law. simply, the eu's international activities are directed towards the “production of public goods” that is aimed at the wellbeing and prosperity of the whole of mankind. in other words, the eu has had a tendency to overcome power politics through multilateral cooperation in international affairs as harnisch and maull concluded in their conceptualization of civilian power. put differently, any organization, institution, or a country must explicitly demonstrate its will and commitment to global cooperation if it is to maintain itself as a relevant actor in today's era of global interdependence. the eu is just doing the perfect job in this respect as a gcp. similarly, maull argues that a civilian power concentrates mainly b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [98] on non-military, economic means to achieve its objectives, emphasizes multilateral cooperation, and develops supranational structures to cope with international problems, and thus perceives “the military as a residual safeguard” (mccormick: 2007: 70). all that being said, in today`s conditions of global governance it is the eu which is the best equipped actor to promote and defend the idea of multilateralism (mayer & vogt, 2006: 71). putting the emphasis on multilateral intervention at international affairs the eu is proving itself as an uncompromising and strong civilian power. the eu's common defence policy? from the early 1990s the idea of `the civilian power europe` has been challenged by serious military and defence initiatives made by the eu leaders. firstly, in november 1993 within the framework of the maastricht treaty the common foreign and security policy (cfsp) of the eu came into force. the cfsp constituted one of three institutional “pillars” of the eu and a platform for the development of the common european defence (duke, 2000). the new security policy even included the formulation of `the eventual framing of a common defence policy which might in turn lead to a common defence`. furthermore, by the end of the 1990s after the agreement on the common security and defence policy (csdp) the idea of the civil or civilian power of the eu has come under serious threat. also, such ambitious agenda was further strengthened during the european council in 1999, which pointed out that the eu "must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crises without prejudice to actions by nato" (cologne european council, 1999). as howorth pointed out, `genie was out of the bottle and the common defence project had begun to take on a life of its own` (2000:31). furthermore, at the helsinki summit of 1999 the eu leaders produced the `headline goals` agreeing that `cooperating voluntarily in eu-led operations, member states must be able by 2003, to deploy within sixty days and to sustain for at least one year military forces up to 50 000-60 000 persons capable of the full range of petersburg tasks` (hec: b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [99] 2000). such new responsibilities agreed by the eu states included “humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking” (foster, 2005: 96). thus, it was the first time in eu history that the idea of “combat forces,” meaning an open possibility of military activities, was mentioned. indeed, without doubt since the end of the cold war there have been serious initiatives and calls for common defence of the eu states. for instance, the belgian prime minister verhofstadt recently supported the idea of a common defence in his pamphlet on “the united states of europe” (2005). in addition, the lisbon treaty contains a set of changes designed to make the eu a more coherent actor in the field of cfsp. for instance, one of the most important institutional changes has been the creation of the post of a high representative of the eu for foreign affairs and security policy. thus, the eu clearly displays that the continuing development of the common and stronger security and foreign policy of the eu states is essential to the union's aspirations to be a global actor. however, the eu‟s use of military and defense instruments will probably undermine its `soft power` and its positive image as a civilian actor in the international politics (smith, 2004: 261). all said, it is clear that the notion of the cpe has faced serious challenges for several times with every new military or defence initiative at the eu level. however, such attempts do not demonstrate that the idea of the civilian power europe (cpe) is distorted as some scholars point out (acikmese, 2002: 11). for instance, now a decade from saint malo agreement the eu member states have not yet successfully created a european army in a conventional sense as in the normal states. what is more, the acquired military capabilities and instruments are just “one of the union‟s tools, where civilian means continue to occupy a central position” (smith, 2004: 9). also, eu military capabilities are not achieved by creating permanent european armed forces, and even less by establishing a permanent eu army, but are based on the voluntary and temporary contributions of member states (keukeleire, s. & macnaughton, j., 2008: 179). in other words, as the expectations of eu foreign policy and military capabilities were not matched it seems that there existed serious `capabilities-expectation gap` as hill claimed (hill, b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [100] 1993). what is more, different interests of the eu states regarding their foreign policy have prevented brussels to become a more visible actor at the international level. in other words, the lack of strategic vision among the eu states is reflected in the debates in the literature about the nature of the union's international role, especially when it comes to security matters (sjursen, 2006). as keukeleire claims that “too many states but also too many issues and subjects which are not of common interest for all the states present around the council‟s table, are problems accentuated by the 2004 and 2007 enlargements” (2006). further, the eu is highly dependent on the nato military capabilities and technical infrastructure. paradoxically, esdp highly needs nato to provide access both to military instruments and to planning facilities and to help the eu acquire an autonomous military capacity (howorth, 2007: 176). as maull has summed up the situation of europe vis-à-vis the us in the following words: “from the beginning of the cold war and beyond its demise, the us has been serving as the (free) world‟s government by default. the eu has been acting broadly as its junior partner – no less, but also not much more” (2006: 85). as a group of economists claims in a report prepared for the finnish presidency on “the eu and the governance of globalisation”: “europeans have rarely set the agenda. they have often responded to new developments in a reactive manner” (ahearne, et al, 2006: 31). in addition, the esdp operations can be military, civilian or a combination of the both. for instance, although the eu carries out military operations the multitude of civilian operations has been far higher as stated in figure 3. although the quantitative dimension of the foreign policy may not be such a reliable data, it can help us to understand the significance and priority the eu has given to civilian missions in comparison to military ones. what is more, military actions carried out by the eu tend to protect and promote universal rights and freedoms. therefore, rifkin points out that “the goal is to minimise casualties on all sides of the conflict, […] soldiers are risking their lives in order to save the lives of civilians [for humanity]” (2004: 304). in addition, so far the eu has, for example, been active in very dangerous and troubling countries and regions such as the sudan (darfur region), afghanistan or in indonesia (aceh region) (european union, 2006). b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [101] type of operation number of operations* military 4 civilian 13 military/civilian 1 figure 3. overview of esdp operations *the overview is based on number of operations carried out up to june 2007. conclusions and reflections on the future given the fact that defence and military topics were a taboo subject in the european community in the aftermath of rejection of edc by the french assembly and facing serious lack of common military capabilities for a long time, the community was perceived by many scholars as a purely civilian or civil power giving priority to civilian and non-military instruments to military ones regarding the context of international relations. however, increasing military and defence initiatives and capacity starting in the early 1990s and strengthening after csdp came into life the notion of `civilian power europe` has faced serious challenges. further, the new security strategy document included the formulation of `the eventual framing of a common defence policy which might in turn lead to a common defence`. however, now a decade from the saint malo agreement, which for many meant a new era in `eu military capacity development,` the member states have not yet successfully created a european army in a conventional sense as in the normal states. in addition, eu defence and military capacity is based on the voluntary and temporary contributions of member states and highly dependent on nato military instruments in the framework of the berlin plus. for instance, ess asserts the importance of the transatlantic alliance and it especially emphasizes the eu-nato permanent arrangements, in particular berlin plus, which “enhance the operational capability of the eu and provide the framework for the strategic partnership between the two organisations in crisis management” (ec, 2003: 12). therefore, it is still relevant and reasonable to conceptualize the character and nature of the eu in global affairs as primarily a civilian power rather than a b. brljavac acting as a global civilian power epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [102] military power as many prominent scholars point out. in order to justify this argument in the study, the five case examples have been presented, namely the enlargement policy with emphasis on cee enlargement, external aid, environmental policy at global level, multilateral approach to global governance, and serious shortcomings in development of the eu armed forces in a conventional sense. if historical experiences can teach us important and insightful lessons for the future then it is a high probability that the european union member states in the next decade or two will continue to act in global affairs primarily as a civilian power rather than military. although the eu has initiated some defence, security, and military capacity over the last two decades, it is clear that the eu has had at its possession an entire spectrum of policy instruments, amongst which are the five cases we evaluated here, necessary to effectively promote the `civilizing` of global affairs. as constructivists point out the eu has demonstrated continuous willingness to defend universal principles and express a strong duty to other countries or world events such as the kyoto protocol or external aid, for instance. in other words, it is very difficult for realist thinkers to justify their explanation based on pure national interests with regard to the case examples presented above. as smith points out, “the eu still clearly prefers civilian to coercive military measures” (smith, 2003: 111). that‟s way the eu is said to account for and continue to provide in the future a new internationalist model in global affairs basically rejecting the notion of power politics. however, there have been clear “limits of a civilian power in a rather uncivilized world” as seen from complete impotence of the eu during the yugoslavian conflicts in the early 1990s (pijpers,1988: 162). therefore, it is worth carrying out an in-depth academic research on whether military capabilities should be used by the eu in 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(1997). intimate enemies: the politics of peacetime alliances. security studies, 7 (1), 191. epiphany_new_version_11oct.indd 93 vol. 14 no. 1, 2021 nejla kalajdžisalihović on inclusive language usage by speakers of english... 92 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies sars cov11 and other calamities in adam nevill’s lost girl kübra baysal abstract: speculating about future based on the present, climate change fiction (cli-fi) proves its potential to predict the environmental and social repercussions of anthropogenic transformation(s) on earth. as a cli-fi novel, lost girl (2015) envisions the collapse of the world through grim depictions of the nonhuman environment and restless societies and recounts the dangerous quest of a father to find his lost daughter amidst (un)natural disasters, pandemics, and chaos. in the realistic world of lost girl, new strains of deadly viruses take hold of the world. prophesying the coronavirus pandemic and other calamities that came out to be true in 2020 such as the destructive wildfires in australia or the heatwaves in europe among others, lost girl has a realistic touch leaving a wake-up call effect on the reader to change their anthropocentric way of living through a posthuman perspective. keywords: coronavirus, pandemic, calamity, cli-fi, the anthropocene, posthuman. kübra baysal has a phd, ma, and ba in english literature and works as a lecturer at ankara yildirim beyazit university school of foreign languages. her research interests are climate fiction, feminism, environmental studies, and the contemporary novel. she has publications in international books and journals. she is the editor of apocalyptic visions in the anthropocene and the rise of the climate fiction by cambridge scholars publishing, forthcoming september 2021. e-mail: kbaysal@ybu.edu.tr. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies kübra baysal kübra baysal sars cov11 and other calamities in...sars cov11 and other calamities in... 9594 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction the seventh novel by british author adam nevill, lost girl (2015), is a pre-apocalyptic climate fiction novel which focuses on the horror of environmental transformations in “a nightmarish near future crippled by global warming and over population” (kitching, 2015). standing out with its realistic touch as based on scientific facts, predictions and research, the novel narrates the fast-approaching, inevitable apocalypse encompassing a series of environmental disasters, and simultaneous social, economic and political collapse worldwide as a perfect picture of the twenty-first century anthropogenic world. an englishman only referred as “the father” is the protagonist of the novel through whom the nightmarish world of the near future of the 2050s is depicted. his nameless position gives him an anonymous position to stand for any human being who can plunge into crime and unruly behaviour once the lives of their loved ones are in jeopardy. in other words, in “this bleak society – he and his missing daughter are just more statistics – and the fact that he goes about his search gloved and masked” (morgan p., 2017) adds to his anonymity. concentrated on the cosmic world of great britain, which is “overrun by refugees and the authorities overwhelmed” (jarrold, 2016), the novel aptly projects the total demolition of the earth while stirring sympathy with the emotional story and helplessness of a father desperately searching for his daughter, penny, amidst havoc. in this respect, the novel displays “planet-wide horror of civilisation slowly-collapsing with the personal demons” of a father losing his child (everington, 2015). in fact, it pictures nevill’s concerns about the near future while enclosing the associable story of a father in the novel, himself being a father as well (“lost girl: an interview”, 2015). nevill’s notion of horror recently trends towards environmental devastation which can be tracked across the world. in an interview, he voices his private fears and concerns about “deforestation, soil degradation and erosion, carbon emissions from our continuing and accelerating burning of coal, the thermal heating of the oceans, plant stress, and the impending collapse of civilization” (centorcelli, 2014). these are accompanied with the recklessness and arrogance of the human species having failed to learn from great disasters, particularly the anthropos, or big capitalist corporations and individuals that exploit the nonhuman environment. lost girl is set in torquay, devon, in 2053, in the future world taken by environmental disasters while a supernatural presence seems to control an undeniable number of people around the world through a cult (morgan p., 2017). characters and the main story in the novel are introduced in medias res while the past two years after penny had been taken when she was four and previous years are referred to in the background information to emphasise the gradual degradation in both human and the nonhuman nature (nevill, 2015, p. 1).2 before the tragic incident of the kidnapping is unfolded, the father lived with his wife, miranda, and daughter, penny, in their secluded house in torquay surrounded by a garden in which miranda grew their fruits and vegetables (2), which is a privilege only the two per cent of the world population can have (108) for there is a food shortage all around the world. before that, the thames flooded the cities, and the father had to move his family from birmingham to devon out of necessity (2). on the day of the kidnapping incident, however, the father is supposed to look after penny as she is playing in the front garden while miranda works in the back. still, he gets distracted with the idea of an affair, and his mind is elsewhere while his daughter is quickly taken away (5). father’s psychology is mostly unstable after the tragedy of his daughter’s disappearance, which gives a realistic quality to the narration. the novel is reviewed to be “faultless with regard to writing and evocation” (fryer, 2015) and being realistic despite employing horror elements such as king death, rituals, and spirits. for instance, as the father discovers a deserted chapel that has been turned into one of king death’s ritual places, he finds a shrine inside the building standing as a bricolage of the artefacts of death and destruction across the world: the shrine was a mortuary roll that depicted nothing but disaster, death and decay: chaos, the great passage from civilization to barbarism. in this place, the father suspected that someone had grasped some deep, personal connection with the wider diaspora and depopulation. the whole edifice suggested the morbidly spiritual, which further convinced him that there was meaning behind the selection of this place too, as if this room ended another journey, or a hideously idiosyncratic pilgrimage. it was an installation of the king death group for sure, but a shrine for a seer, priest, or whatever kind of witch doctor or shaman the group’s nihilistic mysticism and superstition generated. (261). 2 from this point on, references to the novel, lost girl, shall be indicated with only page numbers. kübra baysal kübra baysal sars cov11 and other calamities in...sars cov11 and other calamities in... 9796 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies furthermore, one of the most striking narrative qualities of lost girl is the anonymity and flaws of the protagonist, the father, who evolves throughout the novel. he stands for any human being who has their loved ones and can risk everything to protect them, which is a realistic and humane touch in the novel. losing his daughter penny because of a moment of weakness and distraction, father questions everything about himself: his morality, ethics and even humanity while he sets out on a bloody quest for his daughter. he gets to like the feeling of adrenaline when he chases criminals and kills them because of “his slowly capsizing psyche” (fryer, 2015). in the first year after penny is kidnapped, he feels so depraved that he does not care whatever is happening around the world. once he realises the police force or any other official/legal organisation cannot help him, and that he is on his own to find penny, he feels utterly devastated and then realises the grave condition of the world: “[…] most of bangladesh got swallowed by rising waters, greece and africa were lost to wildfires, and china and australia were surrounded by wildfires whereas the u.s. ruled by the mormons leave central americans to their death “against the fence” (137). (un)natural disasters and ailments in lost girl set in the near future and speculating about the fundamental horror of the human species about their survival and fear of a father about his daughter, lost girl stands out as a “climate-dystopia” and “climate change novel” (agranoff, 2017) ornamented with horror fiction qualities. bringing the characteristics of both genres together in a well-knit plot, nevill brings “the apocalyptic vision of the road together with nevill’s [his] own brand of bleak terror” (everington, 2015). on the one hand, britain is seething with climate-change-forced-to-become refugees like other countries in the north which are becoming the environmental and geopolitical centres of the world while mediterranean europe is struggling with wildfires, extreme heat and an impending hurricane. on the other hand, human conflict can be observed through international crime organisations, gangs, violence, lack of sympathy and the rise of suspicion and selfishness among surviving humans. the world is in such a dreadful condition that the father falls into desperation and cannot picture a future for next generations: where can we go? the father wondered. we are alone in space. there is nowhere to go. the quick, cold realization never failed to produce an icy tension, the size of a snooker ball, behind his sternum. the very earth was getting smaller. to migrate north as a species and to go higher and higher as the heat rose, and to compete for fewer and fewer resources . . . the closing of borders. the end of food exports. the ever-emerging hostilities to seize fresh water and arable land... all of these things were part of the penultimate stage of mass collapse; the idea could still take his breath away. (235-236). in this respect, climate change fiction as “a subgenre of sci-fi” (bloom, 2018) gives an account to the fears of the human species mirroring the time and conditions of the said age. climate change novels such as lost girl function as follows: climate change is unprecedented and extraordinary, forcing us to rethink our place in the world. at the same time, in looking at its causes and its repercussions, we find old themes. there have always been disasters; there has always been loss; there has always been change. the novels, as all novels must, both grapple with the particulars of their setting and use these particulars to illuminate enduring truths of the human condition. (tuhus-dubrow, 2013) a momentous role of cli-fi as part of “speculative fiction” (streeby, 2018, p. 4) involves urging people to speculate about themselves and the world when, in fact, they tend to ignore the anthropogenic changes in nature. this explains why authors of climate change novels work on the “what ifs” and “future earths”, because through their novels they are likely to stir eco-awareness in people and succeed what scientific facts have failed for so many years (abraham, 2017). with this perspective in lost girl, the nightmarish condition and the en-masse collapse of the world is aptly represented through grim depictions combined with the touching survival story of a family and their happy reconciliation, which is most likely to trigger a positive change in people’s perception of the nonhuman environment. depicting the deteriorating conditions in the cosmic world of britain, whereas the rest of the world is often referred to in the news report, lost girl bears a harrowing effect to conjure a change of perspective in the humankind: too much catastrophe in the world needed to be comprehended, with more and more happening all the time. it was the age of incident. merely at a local level in devon, there was the hot terror of summer, the fear of another flood-routing winter, cliff erosion, soil erosion, soil degradation, blackouts, and the seemingly endless influxes of refugees. up above, the sky began to bleach white-blue from blue-black. when it became silver-blue with sharp light in an hour, the heat would boil brains. (16). kübra baysal kübra baysal sars cov11 and other calamities in...sars cov11 and other calamities in... 9998 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies demonstrating the human-induced changes in nature, the heatwaves and drought cause immense deaths. those who perish instantly are the old, impoverished and the weak, in other words, the non-anthropos people (17). on the other hand, even people with decent means have little to do against the heat: they can “[s]tay indoors, do not move during the hottest part of the day, use cold compresses, stay in the shade, sip water. stay, sit, sip” (56). the number of people who go insane because of heat, “the mutterers or head-slappers, the screamers or the too silent” (56) is undeniably high. the scenes of dying nature from the novel find their equivalent in the heatwaves in europe and wildfires in australia and the u.s. in 2020, which is called “the year of fire” (hess, 2020). the “popular fiction” of the twenty-first century, climate fiction has adapted to the conditions of the new world and gives voice to “pressing [and undeniable] contemporary anxieties and real-world events” (murphy, 2017, p. 8). in the same vein, climate fiction of the 2000s emerged like ecocriticism of the 1990s, which “responds to a period of scholarly neglect of questions of reality and an interest in fictional ways of accounting for it” (bartosch, 2013, p. 50). what turned the chances for climate fiction and made it popular is the current state of the world and the extensive studies of interdisciplinary “‘environmental humanities’” since the 2000s (palsson et al., 2013, p. 5). hence, the disasters and the human conflict displayed in the novel are not a product of fantasy, and they have already occurred or are occurring in several countries across the world at present, even though the novel itself is fictional. at this point, nevill confirms in an interview that lost girl is not a work of fantasy since it conforms to the world facts: “i set my story in a pre-apocalypse situation, that is very close to now, and recognisable to us in 2015 [when the novel was published] (“lost girl: an interview”, 2015). in other words, nevill talks about the present and near-future realities of the world: “destructive storms, the loss of biodiversity, species extinction, and sea level rise […] that are no longer on the horizon but are happening now” (streeby, 2018, p. 4). in addition to what can be observed within the borders of devon as the third-person narrator of the novel reflects, the tv news presents the macrocosmic picture of the world suffering from disasters, famine and diseases. as illustrated in the novel, aside from environmental devastation, there is an extreme food shortage which results in the collapse of food markets and weakens the capital holders around the world from the 2030s onwards, which explains why everyone becomes vegetarian for a decade until the 2050s, when synthetic meat is invented (3, 17). at this point, extreme air pollution among many other elements disturbs the harmony of nature which brings out “underproduction” of food lessening “agriculture’s biological productivity,” “yield growth” and “nutritional content” (moore, 2017, p. 191). similarly, fish, sheep and cattle have long gone extinct, and “genetically modified, drought-resistant crops” are the standard food for the decent citizen while the poor of the world are starving since the distribution of food is monopolised by international gangs like king death and big corporations like the open arms charity (3). more importantly, in the three decades preceeding 2050, a dozen pandemics took hold of the world as the father remembers: “[p]lague, legionnaires’ disease, e. coli of the blood, hantaviruses and various strains of influenza” (158). however, there was always a more urgent natural disaster: fire, hurricane or flood to deal with, so people tended to ignore and forget the deaths related to these diseases. however, two new pandemics, sars cov11 in asia and the gabon river fever in africa, seize the world in an even greater urgency which explains why there is a refugee influx into nearby countries, primarily because of sars: “china, the philippines, thailand, nepal, bangladesh, the east of india: they were all coming down hard and fast with the bug” (91, 92). likewise, the sars bug is more contagious than the scientists expected as it soon infiltrates within the borders of britain reaching midlands, oxford and london because of a “hong kong chinese tycoon” who flies to oxford to find a cure (243, 336). it is originally “zoonosis” (infectious disease between nonhuman animals and humans) spreading from bats to rats and from the rats to human beings in china as they were keeping rats for food in wet and congested conditions of the food market, which prepared the necessary conditions for the sars virus to spread (382). soon it became airborne and thus, “ninety per cent fatal” (383). now the biggest threat to all human beings is the new sars bug against which nothing works no matter how hard the centre for disease control tries (158). published in 2015, lost girl astoundingly predicts the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, which impacts the reader with the power of climate fiction as the tell-tales of the distant as well as not-so-distant future(s): “on 11 march 2020, who declared novel corona virus disease (covid-19) outbreak as a pandemic and reiterated the call for countries to take immediate actions and scale up response to treat, detect kübra baysal kübra baysal sars cov11 and other calamities in...sars cov11 and other calamities in... 101100 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies and reduce transmission to save people’s lives” (budholiya et al., 2020, p. 311). in this respect, “it becomes much easier to empathize with the characters in this dystopian narrative [lost girl] for the contemporary reader that is currently experiencing a pandemic, covid-19, a non-fictional horror in flesh and blood” (çetiner, 2020, p. 230). in the novel which parallels the bitter reality of our world today, a vaccine is procured through antibodies of rats which were “the reservoir host”, and only the rich ones like karen, the father’s old lover and the manager of open arms charity, her husband richard, yasmin/penny and those around them are inoculated (383-384). as richard clarifies, the new bug is “[…] nbo. the next big one” (376) that has been transforming for the last fifty years and will be the cause of “the biggest sudden depopulation since the black death” (377). the novel similarly lays bare the anthropocene and its myriad consequences in real life because the anthropocene is an age aware of its meaning and impact, unlike any previous epoch. named within the same age it is happening for the first time in geological history due to countless evidence gathered from the strata, water and the air, the anthropocene is “the first geological epoch in which a defining geological force [homo sapiens] is actively conscious of its geological role”, and the positive change is expected to emerge “when humans become aware of their global role in shaping the earth and, consequently, when this awareness shapes their relationship with the natural environment” (palsson et al., 2013, p. 8). this notion is riveted in the persuasive narrative of lost girl as a climate fiction even more. for instance, there is an excessive drought in china for many years due to a freshwater shortage and “depletion of the yellow river and the region’s deep aquifers” and the disappearance of the monsoon entirely so much so that “[t]he water shortage has been classed as irreversible by the un” in 2047 (23). in the same manner, water problems emerge in europe with depletion of water sources and “the rhine, the po, [and] the loire” rivers while the riverbeds are teeming with poisonous algae which cause waterborne diseases (53), which once again reflects the problem of the drought in the twenty-first century. furthermore, there is the worldwide phenomenon that is called the “[c] limate holocaust” (51-52) which ranges from the heatstroke in the locales of kent and devon with temperatures of around 40 °c degrees (50), forest fires in mediterranean countries: spain, portugal, france (51) and wildfires in india and australia (229). in southern europe, the fire is thoroughly uncontrollable because a massive part of northern spain and barcelona, “an area as big as denmark,” has already been lost to wildfires (53) which resulted in britain being covered with black smoke (20) and germany with white smoke (53). in another part of the world, in australia, similar events occur as sydney and adelaide are all gone while perth and melbourne are surrounded by “[f]ire superstorms” (229-230). all these extreme weather conditions recall the notion of “flat ontology”, which refutes the eurocentric notion of human superiority over the nonhuman and explains how human beings are vulnerable in the face of vast environmental devastations since “nonhuman objects have a force of their own that cannot be reduced to human intention [or intervention]” (morgan a., 2017). as a result of extreme air pollution caused by wildfire smoke, people in the novel wear masks all over europe and in the afflicted zones, which finds its real-life correspondence in british columbia following the barely controlled wildfires in california in july 2018 (sierra-heredia, 2018). likewise, landslide and rockslide are common anthropogenic incidents in the new, devastated world of lost girl as can be seen in the mountains of switzerland that are falling apart while glaciers melt in an alarming rate (53). in the same way, the sea ice is gone whereas the permafrost (solid frozen ground) has been melting and releasing co2 into the atmosphere, which is the legacy of devastation for future generations if they manage to survive the catastrophes, diseases or boundless human violence. the father meets an older man who gets into a fervent conversation with him about the impending end of the humankind. he fears that the “the hydrogen sulphide […] [u]nder the ocean floor” (233) will come up and exterminate whatever is left in the seas and leave a stinking smell for future generations. at that moment, the father thinks about the condition of the nonhuman nature which is left wholly unbalanced with centuries-long human interference: ironic that it was no longer human emissions doing the most damage to the atmosphere; the earth’s own expulsions had become far more deadly, and the planet now seemed to be pursuing a purpose of its own. great fields of permafrost were releasing their terrible and long-withheld breath into the air, while the forests and oceans absorbed less carbon dioxide than ever. (233). in this context, the fictional debate about permafrost and ocean floor in the novel reflects none other than the twenty-first-century reality. in the winter of 2017, it was discovered that “a string of days 60 and 70 percent warmer kübra baysal kübra baysal sars cov11 and other calamities in...sars cov11 and other calamities in... 103102 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies than normal baked the north pole, melting the permafrost that encased norway’s svalbard seed vault a global food bank nicknamed ‘doomsday’” (wallace-wells, 2020), which is so vital for the preservation of seeds for future generations. likewise in alaska and siberia, a research team tasked with observing the region for twelve years has lately found out that the thermokarst (protruding surface of permafrost and melting ice) lakes in alaska and siberia “could increase the emissions generated by permafrost by 118 per cent in the late 21st century” (rosane, 2018), especially when the recent years of sweltering summers and dry winters are taken into account. as displayed in the novel, flora and fauna of the earth similarly struggle with the heat and poisonous air like human beings and die, which can be called human-induced ecocide. trees give their “dying breaths” as they release the co2 that they are supposed to absorb, which adds another pile to the already high rate of carbon emissions (52-53) while animals die a painful death escaping from surviving human beings: the great dieback from drought, famine and disease was making inroads into the herd; the other animals were running wild-eyed with foam-lathered flesh. their teeth were showing inside red mouths that cried out uselessly. there was panic. clubs and rocks were being seized and hoisted aloft to defend what little was left, fences were being erected. grieving mammals were thinning to extinction; their little ones went first. and it wouldn’t stop. (140-141). at this point, having left the edenic “old world” of the holocene, people are facing the consequences of a human-induced, “less congenial epoch” (tuhus-dubrow, 2013), the anthropocene, whose “scarring” signs can be read anywhere on earth (colebrook, 2016, p. 151). human conflict in the novel lost girl aptly reflects how human beings are drawn into social, personal and political conflict/evil that originates from the destruction of the nonhuman environment. this way, nevill expresses that in the near future, the humankind will incline towards “protectionism, territorialism, and an even greater self-interest” once global catastrophes coupled with the constant threat of death become a norm (“lost girl: an interview”, 2015). similarly, the novel pictures the lack of solidarity, empathy and moral codes among people and a dramatic rise of selfishness and the survival instinct: “community spirit was thin on the ground, even in the better parts of town. people heard shots popping, and they locked down, grateful it was not their turn. in many parts of the country, who even knew who lived next door? the national characteristic was mistrust” (17). this lack of morality is almost recurrent of “[t]he concept of nihilism, as the denial of religious morality and metaphysical truth […] discussion of the meaninglessness of existence” (yılmaz, 2017, p. 156) experienced amidst boundless natural and societal chaos in the post-apocalyptic world of the novel. escaping the catastrophes as much as they can, human beings are also put in a position to deal with criminals and gangs on their own as the police force does not interfere with gang matters, which presents “opportunities for the gangs to fast-track their interests through extortion, bribery, kidnap, blackmail, intimidation and violence” (100). thus, normal people have become an “[e]asy prey […] in the crumbling world where ‘king death’ reigns supreme” (everington, 2015). in this respect, the police force is feeble, with most of the officers corrupt and terrified of kings (130). when the father realises the police will not help him, he gets help and information from a handler, whom he names scarlett johansson (he puts her life in danger eventually for his vigilante acts) (274) and soon another one, whom he calls gene hackman (later killed by the kings) (277) to find his daughter. in the chaotic atmosphere of the world, people take justice into their own hands like father does (14, 42) since “the forces of law and order are virtually non-existent” (mahon, 2017). the state forgets about old crimes once the climate change hits (61) and the police classify the cases according to the kind of crime they have to deal with (94) while finding a gun is more natural than finding meat (83). the world is so corrupt and in the control of gangs that, when the father leaves his dna in two crime scenes, his associate, gene hackman, informs him that his records could be national, but the kings keep them. it means they are going to finish off the father themselves (238), which they try hard until the end of the novel. on the other hand, there is a refugee rush towards the northern parts of the world because of the heatwaves and wildfires in the southern parts. the narrator of lost girl calls it “exodus,” the great migration, for human species: millions had been displaced from southern europe alone, augmented by further scores of millions from the middle east and africa, and all pushing kübra baysal kübra baysal sars cov11 and other calamities in...sars cov11 and other calamities in... 105104 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies north into europe. it had changed the continent. every man, woman and child south of france was steadily fleeing drought, heat, starvation, the wars and innumerable diseases that accompanied each dilemma. the biggest migration of a single species ever known on the planet was underway. (95 emphasis mine). a species successfully crossing with the rodent; perhaps a farsighted evolutionary leap towards becoming envoys for the future, when the planet’s aridity seeped further north. (111 emphasis mine). becoming a geological force that interferes with the natural balance of the earth and giving their name to an epoch, the anthropocene, over the span of about 200.000 years with the emergence of homo sapiens in east africa (hart, 2007, p. 30), the humankind has not been able to predict the eventual turn-back of the anthropocene in the future. as a result of centuries of anthropocentric exploitation and destruction of nature, human beings in lost girl end up running north for their survival as a species. as another outcome of the anthropocene, environmental refugees populate specific regions in the north, which stirs social and political problems among human beings and countries. as the police officer who saves the father from the kings in the commodore explains: “[…] the rules are changing, and the tone is changing. every country for itself. what comes next? every man for himself?” (136). countries situated in the critical points for the refugee inflow close their borders to protect their own interests: following spain, italy, turkey, the benelux and central european countries’ decision last month to close their borders, the newly formed french government is now considering the reclosure of its own borders, claiming its territory has again been ‘overrun by refugees’. president lemaire has declared the current situation an ‘uncontainable and unsustainable humanitarian crisis’. […] the british nationalist leader, benny prince, applauded the news and urged the british emergency government to follow the french example. (19 emphasis original). in addition, there has been political tension between russia and china going on for fifteen years due to the issue of relocating chinese people into siberia and the subsequent russian resistance about borders (23) while pakistan and india are on the brink of war because of water sources, as the news report informs in the novel (92). these incidents increase the stakes for a nuclear war especially after “a massive exchange of nuclear weapons on the indian sub-continent” takes place at the end of the novel (431) that alarms the states all around the world. similarly, arabian countries and african countries (egypt-ethiopia and saudi arabia-sudan) are at war over farmlands and precious livestock while “the islamic militia groups” loot everything in sub-saharan countries (91). as exemplified in the novel, during anthropogenic environmental catastrophes, public services and institutions cannot function properly while citizens are left to their fate, which in turn makes them self-centred, suspicious individuals. as can be seen in the case of hurricane sandy (2012), which bears similarities to hurricane katrina (2005) in terms of the humanitarian crisis that originated from racism, class consciousness and biased state demeanour, the u.s. government could not safeguard all its citizens and gave cause to “changed feelings regarding security, safety, stability, and […] being unable to rely on the environment” (kaplan, 2016, p. xvi). in the same fashion, climate security and issue of climate/environmental refugees are the issues in the world agenda as reflected in the climate change fiction because it realistically posits variant sides of “environmental transformation” in the foreground along with the humane stories such as the father’s quest for his daughter (white, 2017, p. 182) in lost girl. considering the monumental, unstoppable, and devastating changes on earth that leave human beings powerless, decentred, and helpless in the human age, the anthropocene, lost girl accentuates the approaching extinction of the humankind several times. while it seems to grant infinite power to the humankind as a geological force, the anthropocene indeed recalls the entanglement of the humankind with the nonhuman environment which indeed makes them vulnerable “within broader geological and ecological processes” (parkins and adkins, 2018, p. 5) such as catastrophes and diseases. with this, in lost girl people discuss the sixth extinction, the end of the world, and more significantly, the industrial revolution that commenced the permanent anthropogenic transformation of the nonhuman nature in the early nineteenth century. considered to be the official origin of the anthropocene (crutzen, 2002, p. 23), industrialisation “with the accompanying mechanization of life in that period caused a lot of adverse changes” (kaya, 2020, p. 30), which explains the gravity of the matter for the twenty-first-century humankind who experience the devastating impact kübra baysal kübra baysal sars cov11 and other calamities in...sars cov11 and other calamities in... 107106 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies of the anthropogenic changes in nature3. with the older man whom the father meets in a pub, the human part in the natural devastation and the doom and gloom theories about the humankind are all called up: ‘the planet’s been more than patient. it was around for over four billion years before we set the first fires to clear the land. but it only took ten thousand years in this inter-glacial period for us to spread like a virus. we were the mad shepherds who didn’t even finish a shift before we poisoned the farm and set fire to the barn. we’ve overheated the earth and dried it out. so it’s time for us to leave, i think. don’t you? we are already deep into the sixth great extinction, right now, this very minute.’ (234-235 emphasis mine). likewise, ironically, the “exodus” of climate refugees starts in the southeast of england “to the place [london] that had started the industrial revolution, with its heavy reliance on coal-burning” (2). thus, advancing for centuries after the industrial revolution, the humankind simultaneously triggered the destructive changes in nature that have become irreversible and fatal for their lives. similarly, the british civilisation, buildings, and cities “that the victorians had erected” in the nineteenth century are collapsing in the 2050s, “two centuries after the coal furnaces and fires of the industrial revolution belched” (107). in this respect, the anthropocene is called an “archaic” and emptied term by some scholars (oreskes and conway, 2014, p. 53) for countless scientists and climatologists talk about worst-case scenarios that are likely to happen by the end of this century encompassing the extinction and mass destruction of the human species along with the end of civilisation. nevertheless, unable to cope with the enormity of natural disasters and despairing for survival, states come up with various methods to slow down the malignant transformations in lost girl. among them are “‘[w]ind farms, biofuels, zero-point energy, carbon capture and sequestration […] the space mirror plans […] cold fusion […] [and] geo-engineering with 3 the common notion about the anthropocene as proposed by earth scientists is that it develops in three phases: the first phase is from its emergence with the industrial revolution in the late eighteenth century to 1945, the end of world war ii, the second phase from 1945 to 2015 with the post-war period and the age of affluence, and the third phase is from 2015 onwards with the high leap of technology, and the unprecedented environmental and societal transformation in the twenty-first century (steffen et al., 2007, p. 618). sulphur” (232). the final one, the sulphur method, is doomed to fail as the older man explains, for it will destroy the surviving crops and the world population will surely die of hunger. in the same manner, humans repeat their mistakes over again by interfering even more with the already delicate balance of nature. for instance, new zealanders block the sun with extreme smoke since they have “pyrocumulonimbus” which are “[t]hunderstorms made from smoke” (230) and chinese and indians are planning to do the same to trigger an ice age in their region sending the smoke to the stratosphere “to turn the place into winter” (231). at this point, blocking the sun is a contemporary matter discussed and supported by geoengineering corporations in the twenty-first century. there is a project on “solar radiation management (srm)” that includes “saturating earth’s atmosphere with sulphur-laden aerosols to reflect solar light back into space, cooling the planet in the process” and the theory seems to be inspired by volcanic activity in mexico (1982) and the philippines (1991), after which the temperatures dropped by “0.6 degrees celsius following [the release of] millions of tons of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere” (turrentine, 2018). the success of the method in the future is vague as are its consequences for the nonhuman flora and fauna, which indeed elucidates how profound the human impact on nature is and will be in the future. in this respect, the humankind tends to turn a blind eye to human-induced natural changes and overexploitation of nature through arrogance and complacency for the sake of civilisation, advancement, capitalisation, and urbanisation: ‘[…] we deforested the land to cultivate livestock, we allowed our numbers to burgeon without limit. and we still burned the coal. we are still burning coal. two hundred and fifty years, give or take a few, of intensively burning coal for this? what were we expecting? […] we’ve known what was happening for close to a century. but we kept burning the black stuff. and now we have those feedbacks everywhere. this storm [hurricane] is because of the coal we burned twenty years ago.’ (234). in the same line, regardless of their tremendous part in the current state of the desolate world, the anthropos of lost girl, the rich and influential individuals and capitalist corporations, are solely guided by eurocentrism, anthropocentrism and their endless desire for longevity to preserve their existence as the self-chosen representatives of the human species. they intentionally play around the tension zones among and within states to eliminate them from the world population. they take the opportunity of the kübra baysal kübra baysal sars cov11 and other calamities in...sars cov11 and other calamities in... 109108 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies sars virus to ignore the tragedy of millions of people who are suffering and dying, and even taking joy from watching other people die because it would solve the refugee and population problems, food and water shortages all at once (387). richard, karen’s husband, and penny’s adoptive father, since when karen got her kidnapped from her home, confronts father. father loathes him instantly for his selfishness, cruelty, and greed for he seems to be the epitome of the anthropos carrying “his pride in being british” and representing “the western technological, economic and military” power of his nation (erdem ayyıldız, 2018, p. 25): the more he spoke, the more the man reminded the father of those distant, wine-fuelled executives from food distribution who held forth at parties, their baritones rising to the ceilings of the rooms they quickly came to dominate; people who had drifted into the executive level of agriculture, construction, nuclear power, the emergency government, water management and resettlement planning, after their opportunities in finance diminished as the world’s markets began to collapse; men who considered anyone unlike themselves as without worth. (379-380). he calls britain a “lifeboat” and the british “the lucky ones” along with “the kiwis” (new zealanders) who have managed to block the sun (381). thus, he announces the fate of nations around the world confidently: “[t]he british and french, canadians, scandinavians, polish, russians, japanese and koreans” are going to survive the catastrophes while “mexico, central america, the caribbean, every single country but france that borders the med, india, pakistan and the middle east, are all on their way to final collapse because of water [shortage]” (385). additionally, he assures he will be among the survivors as one of the few representatives of the human race while he intimidates other human beings who most likely will not survive in the end. nevertheless, soon after this display of arrogance and pride, he dies a painful death (like karen) in father’s hands and joins the ranks of the dead people with whom he previously made fun of. hence, as a prominent member of the anthropos, richard cannot get beyond “the long history of human exceptionalism” (ohrem, 2017, p. 12), racism and superiority for which he is doomed to be perished in the novel. in this respect, as nevill himself also underlines, lost girl bears messages about the anthropocene and underlines the vitality of decisive human action to slow down its destructive effects, if not completely stop it. likewise, as a counteraction for centuries-long human ignorance and multifaceted negative impacts, paul crutzen reminds of various positive developments during the anthropocene, which can only be achieved through constructive human interference: hopefully, in the future, the “anthropocene” will not only be characterised by continued human plundering of earth’s resources and dumping of excessive amounts of waste products in the environment, but also by vastly improved technology and management, wise use of earth’s resources, control of human and domestic animal population, and overall careful manipulation and restoration of the natural environment. (2006, p. 17). hence, as crutzen anticipates, it is possible to turn the negative human impact on nature into a positive one by finding out the accurate methods and using adequate tools. likewise, as a literary work and a climate change novel, lost girl conjures up awareness in the anthropocene societies and governments about the urgency of taking action at once since the mindset of the majority of the humankind seems to be still rooted in the holocene tradition, which has proved to be anthropocentric and short-sighted. to that purpose, holocene societies are expected to comprehend that they have already morphed into anthropocene societies especially after the enormous acceleration in the late twentieth-century and to build a fruitful correlation between their changed “insight and action” (palsson et al., 2013, p. 7). likewise, the negative transformation of the environment that encompasses the climate change has become both a public and private issue calling forth all human beings whether in an organised community or as individuals through “[e]nhancing the public’s climate literacy” (liu et al., 2014, p. 37). therefore, it is vital to publicise the understanding of current environmental transformations to create a guided awareness and to initiate collaborative action in the humankind. nevertheless, despite the enduring threat of death and devastating natural disasters and new strains of illnesses, the humane aspect is not forfeited in lost girl. it is indeed a story of love displaying the endless love and sacrifice of a father for his daughter. when penny is taken away from the father, his normal life ends, and he becomes a vigilante, a criminal, step by step to get closer to her. then, risking his own life along with his wife’s and those of his anonymous accomplices, he reflects his dilemmas and conflicts as a father and a human being risking all for penny (fryer, 2015). hence, kübra baysal kübra baysal sars cov11 and other calamities in...sars cov11 and other calamities in... 111110 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies despite the horrible and dystopian foreground of the novel, it appears to be “overall a story about the limits of love” and endurance of a human being (morgan p., 2017). at the end of the novel, when he gets penny back and shields her from the dangers of the world with his wife, the father feels a natural relief that can be observed in all human beings who have someone in their lives they dread to lose. thus, the human touch and happy ending of the novel bring out hope and enthusiasm in human beings to counteract the obstacles originating from the negative transformation of the nonhuman nature, and the dangers other human beings pose (such as a nuclear threat) for the loved ones in such crazy times: eventually the father extended one arm out and over the waists of his daughter and his wife, and carefully placed his chest against penny’s back. the smell of her hair engulfed him, and their three hearts beat together. the blood of the parents warmed the little one in the middle./ he made a vow. unto death he’d never let them go, and if death were to divide him from them, he’d go first. but before he left, he would find a place for them to be safe, and he would fill their hearts with so much love, it would glow within them long after the last reactor died. (435). conclusion to sum up, lost girl by the british horror novelist, adam nevill, stands out as a pre-apocalyptic climate change novel with horror qualities narrating the formidable quest of a father in the horrible atmosphere of the deranged near-future world. the novel conveys messages encouraging the humankind into adopting a constructive green philosophy and turning it into action at once by demonstrating the realities of the twenty-first century, the coronavirus pandemic, the climate change, and other horrendous transformations in human beings and the nonhuman environment alike. the emotional story involving a little girl who is taken from her parents and who reconciles with them only through her father’s unspeakable methods gives hope after all, with nevill’s personal touch, that the anthropocentric tendency towards complacency and arrogance could be replaced. references abraham, j. (2017). “clifi – a new way to talk about climate change” the guardian. agranoff, d. 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(2020). “the uninhabitable earth: famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: what climate change could wreak — sooner than you think” the new york magazine. kübra baysal kübra baysal sars cov11 and other calamities in...sars cov11 and other calamities in... 115114 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies white, g. (2017). “environmental refugees” handbook on migration and security. cheltenham: edward elgar publishing, 175-191. yılmaz, v. b. (2017). “tom murphy’s bailegangaire: nihilism and aftermath” journal of faculty of letters / edebiyat fakultesi dergisi, vol. 34, issue 2, 155-166. 85 vol. 14 no.2, 2021 sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 84 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies trust and hope as a management approach during times of uncertainty vitor de passos university of bath abstract the leadership team of an international school decided to recall staff members to china during the early stages of a pandemic. this study begins with a literature review of some of the overarching concepts of psychodynamics while applying this methodology to the analysis of a critical incident. the emotional effects that contradictory messages on behalf of the school leadership team had on the faculty are theorised by looking at the correlation between stress and anxiety felt by teachers experiencing higher levels of scrutiny at the time of the transition to e-learning. an alternative management strategy for school leaders is put forward based on mishra’s theory of trust (1996) to encourage collaborative autonomy in schools during periods of great uncertainty. keywords: psychodynamics, crisis, anxiety, stress, leadership, trust, hope, collaborative autonomy epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies vitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 8786 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction teaching is a profession that causes great levels of stress and anxiety and often leads to burnout even under normal circumstances (kyriacou & sutcliffe, 1978; kyriacou, 1987). educators are familiar with heavy workloads, complex work relationships, excessive bureaucracy, an eroding professional status, and a constant need for emotional labour unique to the profession (hedge & mackenzie, 2012, p. 196) though rarely taken into account by school leaders and policymakers. this is no less the case during a pandemic when most educators around the globe were quite suddenly instructed to provide lessons through online platforms. this unprecedented migration to e-learning created several challenges for teachers, lacking not only the technical and pedagogical training necessary to deliver high-quality lessons but also the coping mechanisms required to handle a barrage of negative emotions and feelings, with stress chief amongst these (macintyre, gregersen & mercer, 2020, p. 2). the working hypothesis guiding this study is that during periods of great uncertainty, such as a pandemic, an overreliance on traditional management approaches and responsive models of leadership can prove ineffective and produce undesirable emotional outcomes (dale & james, 2013, p. 93). an alternative framework is put forward, finding purchase on trust (mishra, 1996) as a management approach to foster hope and lead to collaborative autonomy. when empowered with more say on pedagogical choices, teachers are more likely to manage negative emotions while also exhibiting and maintaining higher levels of professionalism and greater levels of collaborative autonomy (pearson & moomaw, 2005, p. 42). a causal relationship between stress, work satisfaction, and professionalism is widely accepted among clinicians, meaning that leaders should place greater importance on the building of a positive environment that can foster collaborative autonomy to help alleviate negative emotions and tension within an organisation. hope can be the means to achieve such an outcome. this is perhaps even more prescient during a pandemic as there is an undeniable link between autonomy and teacher motivation which also interfaces with student outcomes (khmelkov, 2000, losos, 2000, white, 1992 as cited in pearson & moowaw, 2005). as for the role that hope plays within psychoanalysis, it is a much-debated one. some scholars within the freudian school of thought reduce the construct to an illusion or simple wish-fulfillment or wunscherfüllung (groarke, 2018, p. 365) or as another obstacle for the psychoanalyst to demystify and cure. however, such a perspective overlooks the constructive aspect of hope that translates into a wistful state of waiting for an envisioned future. later in the study, i draw from the works of melanie klein (1946) and steven groake (2018) to expand on an alternative interpretation of hope. managing emotions is an important test for the leaders of an organisation. competent leaders strike a balance, fostering trust among their followers while avoiding a scenario of complete lack of monitoring whereby employees become complacent and shirk from the primary task of the organisation (lewicki, tomlinson & gillespie, 2006, p. 1006). trust and hope act as vehicles to collaborative autonomy, a term that is somewhat paradoxical in nature and not to be mistaken for the separated classrooms we find in most schools, nor the lack of scheduled common time and the “live-and-let-live” mantra that many educators uphold on account of fears of losing their independence (vangrieken et al., 2017, p. 302). this study brings to light a more recent definition of the term that includes collaborative decision-making and the freedom to make prescriptive professional choices (pearson & moonwaw, 2005). studies such as that of vangrieken et al. (2017) provide evidence that collaborative autonomy leads to better acceptance of innovation in schools, better performance by teachers, and thus better student outcomes all of which are essential to schools during a time of transition to e-learning. we begin by employing a vitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 8988 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies framework of trust to analyse a critical incident involving an international school as well as the decisions taken by the senior leadership team (slt) during the early stages of the pandemic, as well as the emotional effects on the faculty members. the sources of data used for this study were summaries of online correspondence and conversations as well as school documents that are publicly available online. a psychodynamic methodological approach is appropriate to carry out such an analysis as this study deals in emotions, and their effects on the performance of individuals. where measurement-oriented approaches often fail to consider the person’s interior phenomenological life, psychodynamics possesses the ability to explain the primitive domain of the unconscious and the resolution of internal conflicts (taylor, 2009, p. 12). early authors such as freud (1923) or le bon (1895) agree that unconscious processes are often more relevant than conscious processes in determining the actions of any given individual, especially when operating within group settings. another important consideration is the stripping of individuals’ identity when belonging to a group which according to freud (1923) stirs up instinctive reflexes, or defences including denial, projection, and others and their role in stifling meaningful change, are best uncovered via psychoanalytical approaches (p. 33). in the subsequent section, the main terminology used throughout this study will be explained. terminology wilfred bion’s basic-assumption group and narcissistic leadership. in experiences in groups, wilfred bion (1961) refers to freud’s failure in acknowledging the importance of observing the individual within a group but also clarifies that all of us are intrinsically a part of a group whether willingly or unwillingly (p. 134). the author postulates how fundamental it is for psychoanalysts to study the individual and the development of personality within group settings as opposed to studying personality development in isolation. the book identifies different kinds of groups and goes into detail on some of their idiosyncrasies within organisations providing definitions and examples of pairing groups, workgroups, specialised workgroups (for instance the church or the army) as well as basic assumption groups; the last of which will be of particular interest to this study as the school featured in the critical incident falls under this category. basic assumption groups often experience an inversion of roles, whereby a selected group of loyal subordinates with a direct avenue to the leader withhold or gloss over information. this originates from a narcissistic leadership model which often fuels basic assumption groups; leaders often become trapped in their own delusions of grandeur and omnipotence (zaleznik, 1989; schwartz, 1990; hirschhorn, as cited in gabriel, 1991). another example that points to a basic-assumption state is the scarce examples of collaboration and poor organisation plaguing the institution; (bion, 1961, p. 136) this was particularly evident in the early stages of the transition to e-learning. there is also the tendency of the basic assumption group to disregard the welfare of its members prioritising the survival of the group at all costs (even at the cost of reality). this basic assumption took form when the school’s senior leadership team (slt) handling of the crisis during the early stages of the pandemic and will be analysed in more depth at a later stage. according to freud (as cited in taylor, 2009) narcissism is a kind of self-infatuation that stems from one’s obsession with their own sexual organs and is a common characteristic of “schizophrenics who have withdrawn from reality” (p. 63). other definitions have been offered by researchers that looked at narcissistic personalities from a psychodynamic lens including kohut and jung although all these authors all seem to agree that denial of reality is a common feature of the narcissist. every leader possesses narcissistic desires and motivations as there is a balance that must be reached. the signs of narcissistic leadership include the inversion of the primary vitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 9190 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies task of the organization where protecting the leader from reality overtakes the primary task itself (gabriel, 1999). a clear sign of narcissistic leadership within the school was the way both the principal and vice-principal often seemed caught off guard during whole-staff meetings when questions regarding the poor technical support provided to teachers during the e-learning phase were put forward, or when the many obstacles to those who were trying to head back to china at the outset of the pandemic were raised. there are also numerous cases of contradicting information being provided and a lack of creative solutions to the many issues that were also evident throughout that period time. this will be readdressed in more detail under section the case. the narcissistic approach to leadership in this organisation did not begin with this fresh crisis, but its detrimental effects were only exacerbated by the pandemic. in many cases, communication between the slt and the faculty members was absent or became distorted as shown by the contradictory emails sent by the principal and vice principal. this often results from the transference of frustration, anxiety, and stress that have gone, originating from a search for self-idealisation within the organisation itself. such a dead-end is defined as a paranoid-schizoid projective system that can cripple an organization (obholzer & roberts, 1994, p. 14) and stifle cooperation and collaboration thus giving way to self-preservation. transference, introjection, projection, splitting, denial, and avoidance extensive reading on psychodynamics shows that there is little consensus regarding the definitions of transference, introjection, projection, and splitting; these unconscious processes have definitions that have evolved significantly over time. introjection, for instance, was initially described as the process of absorbing positive experiences into one’s own self, while projection was once labelled as the process of wishing bad experiences away (de board, 1978, p. 14). in the context of this study, a more holistic and modern definition is proposed. introjection stands as the process of incorporating someone else’s feelings into ourselves as if they were our own, and projection is the locating of one’s feelings onto someone else (dale & james, 2015, p. 12). these processes are essential mechanisms of personality-building, studied in the field of psychodynamics to explain group and organisational behaviour while also exceptionally relevant to measure the efficacy of leadership approaches. one of freud’s contemporaries, melanie klein, identified a fourth phenomenon after decades studying toddlers: splitting which first takes place during the child’s interaction with the mother’s breast (de board, 1978, p. 26). splitting consists of the categorising of different emotions into good and bad (obholzer & roberts, 1994, p. 13). this process is of particular interest within organisational settings during periods of change/crisis as employees tend to use splitting as an instinctive response to new expectations placed upon them. denial and avoidance are both common characteristics of a basic assumption group (obholzer & roberts, 1994). in such groups, leaders focus on trivial matters and prefer quick solutions that require minimal effort. a basic assumption group is also one where employees are often demoralised and doubtful of their own agency and ability to enact change (p. 43). the aforementioned processes can be interpreted as pain avoidance/deflection strategies used in our daily lives. throughout the critical incident, there will be examples of such strategies being put into place by both the faculty and slt. stress, anxiety, and fear stress is a “psychological reaction to certain factors perceived as threats to one’s wellbeing” (lazarus 1996; 2006 as cited in macintyre, gregersen & mercer, 2020, p. 2). a sample of over 600 language teachers working in different points of the globe took an online survey during the outset of the pandemic, in april 2020. the resulting data reveal an alarming increase vitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 9392 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in work-related stress; below are the primary triggers of stress (stressors) measured as part of the study: difficulty in balancing one’s personal life with professional requirements as teaching from home means less defined barriers between work and home life. scarcity of time with significant others and dependents; longer working hours—which in the case of international teachers was exacerbated by teaching students living in different time zones. uncertainty regarding existing and future job postings— international teachers stand here also as a particularly disadvantaged group because of the absence of certain entitlements such as unemployment benefits and few legal defences against layoff or furlough. adding to these, we have the nonspecific stressors that any given individual experiences during long periods of lockdown, for example cabin fever. uncertain times tend to lead to negative emotions, including anxiety and fear. as relates to the former, the definition provided by dale and james (2015) seems most appropriate, defining anxiety as “a response to an internal and unknown threat” (p. 95). the authors contrast anxiety with fear, labelling the latter emotion as a “response to a known and external danger.” failing to recognise the adaptative attributes that even seemingly negative emotions such as anxiety and fear can have by alerting individuals to potential dangers and spurring them into taking action (reeve, 2015 as cited in macintyre, gregersen & mercer, 2020, p. 6). within the context of this study, the adaptative nature of these two negative emotions is to be defined as self-preservation (freud, 1923). a response that can prove beneficial to the individual but often detrimental to the organisation. when acting out of instinct to ensure one’s survival, the employee is very unlikely to collaborate and prioritise the broader interests of the organisation. trust, hope, and collaborative autonomy trust is widely accepted as a synonym of vulnerability, or “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party” (mayer, davis & schoorman, 1995, p. 712 as cited in mishra, 1996, p. 220). the concept has also been defined as holding “positive expectations regarding another’s conduct” (lewicki, tomlinson & gillespie, 2006, p. 442) from an organisational standpoint, trust can be looked at from four different dimensions: competence, openness, concern, and reliability (mishra, 1996, p. 1). all the aforementioned authors acknowledge the beneficial effects of trust on collaboration and employee performance either explicitly or tacitly. the premise of this study is that trust is essential for any sustainable form of collaboration to take place and thus for the normal functioning of the organisation itself. in the context of this critical incident, we seek to illustrate how examples of mismanagement from the school leadership encouraged feelings of distrust and betrayal. the intention is not to critique for the sake of critiquing but to highlight how decisions born of a reactionary approach to leadership can stifle trust and exacerbate adversity felt by individuals during times of great uncertainty. bion (1961) defined hope as a messianic and naïve emotion often appearing in pairing groups (p. 151), going on to say that hope is the expectation of a leader arriving to place the fears and anxieties of the group at rest (as cited in de board, 1978, p. 40). this definition reduces hope to an idealistic state, a feeling that undoubtedly ends up in disappointment and disenchantment. when a leader finally emerges within the organisation, the enormity of the expectations placed upon their shoulders might prove too much to bear. vitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 9594 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies this postulation is not new, as freud (1923,) also referred to the supernatural power which illusions and phantasies have over a group (p. 16). freud (1923) is referring to a kind of collective obsessional neurosis, meaning that the group itself cannot last long without said illusions. although this interpretation holds merit in the context of this organisation, mapping out how school leaders may attempt to deny or evade the difficult prospects brought by an unforeseen catastrophic event such as a pandemic is based on the assumption that all hope is utopian, which is not always the case. klein (1946) suggests a broader definition of hope, defining the term as an emotion led by the super-ego and driven from an inward desire to “repair or regain something that was lost” (p. 20) this definition is more suitable to become a management approach as it makes it incumbent on managers to trust their subordinates in times of great anxiety, thus making it easier to cope with anxiety and fear. such a healing definition of hope holds greater merit. there is ample evidence that teachers who are trusted to make their own pedagogical choices are less likely to withdraw into a state of self-preservation and instead experience hope even during times of great uncertainty. from an organisational perspective, hope acts as a vehicle to a concept that pearson and moowaw (2005) labelled as collaborative autonomy. incidentally, hope is scarcely mentioned within the context of psychodynamics (groarke, 2018, p. 366) and when it does get mentioned, authors tend to reduce the construct to wish-fulfilment (freud, 1923) or mistake it for the act of narcissistic waiting, a hasty and common misconception as more can be said of the psychodynamics of hope and its merit to organisational theory. the construct of hope can be interpreted as a commitment to the value of the future, a pledge to wait for an envisioned future. waiting thus opens the possibility of the impossible in terms of “a gift that cannot make itself (a) present [un don qui ne peut pas se faire pre ́sent]” (derrida, 1992a, p. 29 as cited in groarke, 2018, p. 368). everything has to begin again, as if for the first time, on the primordial grounds of love and hope. as such, the new beginning operates at the interface of primary love and infinite hope – that is, according to ‘the measureless measure [mesure sans mesure] of the impossible” (derrida, 1968, p. 29 as cited in groarke, 2018, p. 368). autonomy can be born of hope although it is a construct that also invites different interpretations. some researchers denounce it as a way for leaders to shirk responsibility as opposed to delegate authority. within the context of this study, autonomy stands as the opposite of self-preservation, a process leading the individual to reflect on the needs of the entire community as opposed to simply their own. further research is warranted on autonomy especially on how collaborative autonomy manifests within educational/ school settings. this is likely because it is a difficult construct to operationalise and measure autonomy although there seems to be a consensus that this is one of the keys to enact valuable education reform and improve teacher motivation (erpelding, 1999; jones, 2000; wilson, 1993 as cited in pearson & moomaw, 2005, p. 37). successful examples of trust as a management approach across other fields trust is a broad concept that is difficult to be measured and with an ever-changing definition. within organisational settings, radomska et al. (2019) defined trust as “an alternative mechanism for controlling collective organizational activities, especially in environments with a growing level of uncertainty and complexity” (p. 2). in that study, the authors analysed and compare ten companies across portugal and poland using a mixed-method approach, including a large number of interviews, concluding that organisations operating with lower levels of trust often burden the company leader and senior employees with more accountability which has obvious, negative effects on mental health and the overall working atmovitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 9796 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies sphere of the organisation (p. 16). trust can also be used by leaders to help their organisations change and adapt their business models and create new partnerships in an ever more globalised world. by intersecting a framework of collaboration with trust, belkadi et al. (2017) propose a suite of collaborative approaches to manufacturing enterprises and provide evidence that through such a process, even small organisations in the field are able to innovate and stay afloat in a very competitive market (p. 1038). the case contextthe school and its faculty the international school which was the object of this study is located in shanghai. it markets itself as one of the leading international schools in china, offering bilingual education in chinese and english to students ranging from ages two to eighteen. the student population is around four hundred students, primarily from an east asian ethnic background. forty international teachers work at the secondary campus of primarily chinese, british, canadian, american, and australian backgrounds, but also a small minority of european and indian teachers. at the time of the original covid-19 outbreak in china, one third of the teaching staff had been at the school for over fifteen years. among this group of seasoned teachers, there was a strong perception that the organisation was gradually becoming more profit-driven despite continuing to promote itself as a nonprofit foundation. this state of prolonged discontentment can be attributed to the teachers’ lack of awareness of their own agency to enact change while also raising important questions about a possible loss of the organisation’s primary task and would help explain the declining number of student enrollment and high turnover in the leadership team. such a possibility deserves a rigorous, separate study, although it is also an essential consideration to provide context for many of the controversial decisions taken during that period. the prevalence of economic motives for the school was evident in the poor condition of the secondary campus, which was lacking in logistical and technological resources (poor wi-fi connection, dated, and faulty desktops, old projectors and printers dating back to over fifteen years). such poor infrastructure was not only confined to the classrooms, but also the building itself (infiltrations, no heating in many classrooms, insufficient lockers, and no changing rooms provided). establishing the organisation’s priorities before the critical incident is crucial; it will help contextualise some of the decisions taken during the lockdown period and immediately after the school’s reopening. contexttimeline there is generalised agreement that the covid-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges to schools in china, be they state, public, domestic, or international. this school was no different. during the first weeks of lockdown in shanghai during the spring of 2020, the school leadership team found itself in a difficult position as close to half of the international teaching staff were scattered around the globe with progressively harder prospects of returning. the chinese authorities decided to close the country’s borders to all foreign passport holders on march 26th, which only made matters worse concerning the school’s staffing prospects (palmer, 2020). the data collection for this study was conducted via the examining of messages from social media forums where teachers shared their views, student feedback surveys, and emails sent by the leadership team. their consent was provided, and their identities will not be disclosed at any point of the study. the critical incident spans from late january to march 2020— the month when the lockdown restrictions were lifted in shanghai, and the school was allowed to reopen all its campuses. vitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 9998 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies methodology a healing, restorative nature drives the field of psychodynamics; psychoanalysts are expected to analyse complex problems deeply rotted in the unconscious by looking at an organisation through the lens of truthfulness and honesty (gabriel, 1999, p. 232). they also preoccupy themselves with the multitudinal concept of personality, postulating that it is controlled mainly by a vast interior, and the more primitive, unconscious domain. through psychodynamics, researchers can better track fluctuations in personality based on the resolution of unconscious conflicts and better grasp the evolution of organisations and individuals operating within them (taylor, 2009, p. 12). in the post-covid-19 world, the boundaries between one’s professional and personal life became blurrier than ever before. it is, therefore, appropriate to choose a psychodynamic approach when analysing the effects of managerial decisions in this modern context. psychoanalysts defend that human behaviour largely results from unconscious elements such as the battle between the ego and the superego. as a result, the same action from any given individual can be subject to multiple interpretations. the same can be said of organisations, standing as more than simple collective systems of action communication, hierarchy, and economic goals, but as products of one’s idiosyncratic, daily experiences, and character (p. 66). different individuals experience and perceive institutions in different ways. in this context, psychodynamics is a powerful instrument that sheds light on the human nature of organisations, driven by unconscious concepts that are very much still taboo in organisational studies, including the roles that sexuality, social dysfunctions, symbolism, and aesthetics play in the construction of the self. ontological considerations as a member of the school at the time of this critical incident, it is important to recognise that our perspective might be skewed. much like our colleagues, we experienced the same anxieties and exhibited some of the same instinctive defences that come during times of great uncertainty. some might argue that a researcher from outside the organisation would be a more suitable candidate to conduct psychoanalytic research as the observations produced would potentially prove more transparent and less affected by one’s anxieties and assumptions. though as researchers, we can strive for self-disclosure, reflect on our own biases, anxieties, and fears while acknowledging the immensely complex challenge that the early stages of the pandemic posed for the school administrators and faculty. navigating through a largely unforeseen event left the senior leadership team (slt) with little to no room for planning and required quick and effective responses. we seek principally to provide one possible alternative or lens to look at this particular critical incident. however, it is not our conviction that a purely psychoanalytical approach could have warranted a different outcome. neither is our goal to engage in character assassination and indict a given individual or group of individuals. the premise of this study is to question whether traditional management responses to crises are effective during a pandemic. the works of the tavistock clinical school (obhlozer & roberts, 1994) showed us that to enact meaningful change at an organisational level, psychoanalysis should be applied in conjunction with social analysis. researchers must also not disregard imperatives such as systemic elements that affect the individual’s experiences within the organisation including racism, chauvinism, homophobia, and other pervasive factors and the role these play in conditioning organisational outcomes and the behaviour of employees. vitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 101100 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the approach of the senior leadership team to the pandemic even before the beginning of the pandemic, the school was experiencing a crisis related to the high turnover of leaders across half a decade. the former principal, on many accounts popular amongst western staff members, had a short tenure of only two years. the vice-principal left the school shortly after for undisclosed reasons. these premature departures remain a mystery to the broader school community. silence seems to be the organisational policy for resignations, though it is thought that pressures from the school’s owner to perform better financially were behind these decisions. a preexisting crisis within the leadership team is an important factor to consider when looking at the nature of the school’s approach to leadership if management would perhaps be the most appropriate term. the two concepts are often used interchangeably but stand as entirely different insofar management is the ability to run a budget, cut costs, increase earnings, and address the more pragmatic everyday aspects of governance. leadership belongs in the emotional, psychological realm. a leader is often capable of management, but managers are not always capable of leadership. burns (1978 as cited in gabriel, 1999) elaborates on this point, stating that leaders hold the potential to inspire the members of an organisation to share a collective dream and put in the overtime and effort they otherwise would not have. because the future holds uncertainties and no person is guaranteed a return on their efforts, individuals invest their energy, attention, and feelings in an undertaking because they believe in the leader’s fantasy and ability to turn it into reality. this is the power that hope has over each of us. gabriel (1999) wrote extensively on what can be defined as the ability of a leader to gain the trust of his employees. leaders able to gain the trust of their employees often bear the brunt of most risks and uncertainties during a crisis, allowing their followers to focus on activities that relate to the organisation’s primary task. the failure to gain the trust of one’s employees has grave implications; distrust leads to a state of hopelessness where individuals are more likely to forget their loyalties, acting from self-preservation, and prioritise their individual needs to those of the organisation. hope, which can enact both effective and affective change, can only result from a symbiotic relationship between leaders and followers. when hope originates only in the leader, it can be read as self-idealisation. although it stems from the followers, it can be interpreted as a state of basic assumption (bion, 1961) whereby employees hold on to a vain sense of future hope, in the unlikely scenario that organizational problems will be solved with very little agency on their part. the first covid-19 outbreak in china would prove a paramount test on the ability of the slt to gain the faculty members’ trust. during the first weeks of lockdown in shanghai, with close to half of the international teaching staff outside of the country, the first emails from the leadership team arrived as a response to maintain legitimacy and consolidate power. the principal wrote to the entire school community on the twenty-third of january, stressing the need for all staff members to return by the second of february while urging everyone to be available online during regular hours of operation and probably beyond. another expectation was that careful consideration was to be placed on students’ and parents’ requests, thus entirely leaving the needs of staff members out of the equation. returning to china at that time was a challenge if not impossible as most western nations discouraged travelling to that country (and continue doing so to the present day), and flight tickets grew dearer and more expensive owing to the decreased transit in flights. by failing to address the considerable risks that a flight back to china entailed, the leadership team stoked anxiety among teachers, which was only exacerbated by the seemingly more reasonable approaches taken by other international schools operating in the city of shanghai. one such school vitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 103102 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies took no time in providing emergency flight stipends and reimbursements while arranging for accommodation within a neighbouring east asian country thus ensuring that the teaching staff and respective families had their needs looked after. other education organisations of similar size went as far as delaying the return date to the spring break holiday by reshuffling their school calendar. the email that followed a week later did acknowledge these efforts by other organisations and attributed the lack of flexibility to the school’s governing board, reiterating that until instructed otherwise, the return date remained the second of february. the principal’s decision supports the theory of behavioural rigidity (staw, sandelands & dutton, 1981 as cited in misha, 1996, p. 2), a typical response from organisations in crisis that often is accompanied by a consolidation of resources. it is also a typical sign of a basic assumption group where lack of creativity is apparent, and preference is placed upon quick, effortless solutions that often prove ineffective. from a psychodynamic perspective, the principal had projected his uncertainties onto the school community while leaving out the means to alleviate the emotional and financial stress felt by teachers and families alike. many of the parents relied on their businesses as a source of income and saw these shut down during the pandemic. reactions from staff members and the school community it did not take long for the teachers themselves to introject the uncertainties from slt, and for rumours to begin spreading regarding possible layoffs and salary cuts. the human resources team later announced that the school would be withholding salary bonuses and freezing the pay scale of those misfortunate enough not to be able to return by the assigned date. the parents’ initial reaction to e-learning was also not a positive one. an alarming number were unhappy from the outset as the burden of catering for their children’s educational needs fell on their shoulders while seeing to professional responsibilities at the same time. the parents’ displeasure proved costly to the organisation, as only a month after elearning had begun, survey data revealed that some one hundred students would not be rejoining even the school even after the pandemic was under control. the majority of departing families pointed to financial difficulties in paying the over forty thousand pounds of yearly tuition fees, although were also mounting accusations of poor teaching practices that could not solely be attributed to the transition to e-learning. adding to these pressures, the issue of the return date remained. many staff members at this point had grown disenchanted with slt on account of what they perceived as having to choose between their safety and wellbeing as well as their families, stacked against the school’s expectations. some of the remarks by teachers on social media forums included complaints that it was unreasonable to ask teachers to return to china without providing a reopening date and this at a time when many western governments advised against travelling to china. others chorused this same refrain which can be seen as both an example of introjection and denial. it also did not help that the vice-principal evaded questions about a specific day and plan for the school’s reopening but remained intransigent that everyone should make plans to return by the third of february. narcissistic leadership and the failure to address the crisis some psychoanalysts define leaders as salesmen of fantasies (gabriel, 1991). such fantasies are an essential part of organisations, acting as a way for employees to tie in their futures with that of the organisation while devoting time and effort they otherwise would not have. in other words, gaining the trust of employees is at the crux of leadership. therefore, leaders must take stock in how employees perceive their abilities, benevolence, and integrity so as to inspire trust (mayer et al., 1995 as cited in priem & nystrom, 2011, p. 777). it could also be relevant to determine whether it is vitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 105104 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies necessary for the leaders to believe the phantasies they are selling. le bon (1895 as cited in freud, 1923, p. 134) advocates that the most significant means leaders possess to make their presence felt within an organisation is through the fantasies they themselves are fanatical believers in. an example of narcissistic leadership in the context of the school was when a teaching couple who had between them worked for the institution for twenty-five years and found themselves laid off with little over a month’s notice. the official reason provided by the school was that the couple’s visas could not be renewed given that they were outside of the country, but the same could be said of the other two dozen staff members stranded outside of china’s borders who did not lose their job. although the teaching couple was in good standing with both staff and students, they had also made a reputation for being outspoken during meetings with slt and often asked the said difficult questions. one such example was when the female teacher asked whether there would be overtime payment for staff members on account of the school being virtually open during the qingming national holiday. chinese law stipulates that any individual working during a national holiday is entitled to three times the ordinary paying rate although the school did not comply with the law in this case. the leader becomes the most important reality; questioning the leader’s vision or wisdom becomes tantamount to betrayal. in this manner, organizations may inoculate themselves against reality, disregarding all signs of imminent disaster and marching happily and blindly to their doom. (gabriel, 1991, p. 245) two weeks later, the couple announced that they would be leaving the school in the middle of the academic year even though their child had studied at the school for fifteen years and was still in china, unable to reunite with his parents. however, no official announcement was made as the school kept to its policy of silence which may be interpreted as another sign of institutionalised denial. at a later stage, the leadership team did give in on the issue of the return date but failed to inform staff members of the need for all lessons and meetings to be held through zoom thereon. mandating face-to-face learning time, while contradicting earlier communications, led to a loss of trust not simply in the capacity of school leaders to protect the faculty from outside pressures but also the trustworthiness of the leader was now being called into question. many of the twenty-five staff members who could not return to china felt their job were at risk and would effectively see their contracts terminated one by one. after a month and a half of uncertainty related to the school’s reopening date, the principal moved the mandatory return date for all staff members to march fifteenth; the directive nature of the email caused great acrimony among staff members but the email from the vice principal the very next morning was received with confusion. the vice-principal effectively contradicted his superior, reportedly giving in to pressures from a growing number of concerned staff although there were rumours that he could not find a return flight for his family also. his email reassured the faculty that travelling back to china was simply an expectation by the school and not mandatory. ultimately, the leadership team was willing to consider that some staff members experienced extraordinary circumstances in returning. this was received with confusion by staff members outside of china and led to a disastrous outcome of over a third of the teaching faculty losing their jobs. the role that trust could have played in the recalling of teachers trust is a fundamental element to maintain cohesiveness and ensure the viability of any groupthis is especially true in times of great adversity. an example of how lack of trust in leadership can lead to catastrophic outcomes is the case study led by priem and nystrom (2014), which examines the failure of a recently formed workgroup of british soldiers attempting to traverse borneo’s infamous low gully. adverse weather conditions and a series of miscalculations eventually separated the soldiers into two parvitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 107106 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies ties. the less physically able soldiers were unable to find their way out of the gully, calling for an international rescue mission that drew enormous international media attention. despite a happy ending for the lost soldiers, the failure of the low gully expedition group cannot solely be attributed to force majeure causes such as adverse weather. the inexperience of the leader, miscalculations, and the soldier's reluctance to follow instructions driven by a lack of trust in their leader's competence also played a pivotal role. the authors of this study conclude that trust and distrust can coexist in a complex interrelationship. employees can trust their leader in some respects and less so in others, as was the case in the expedition (p. 789). after the rescue mission had retrieved them, the soldiers reported to trust their leader’s survival skills but took it upon themselves to chart and traverse the gully, ignoring the leader’s directions to ensure their own self-preservation. the distrust between the reconnaissance party and the officers led the reconnaissance party to engage in constructive deviance (warren, 2003) to complete the mission. they went against the principles taught during army training and socialization when they proceeded down the gully. their decision to continue toward civilization after neill’s party did not arrive at the gully floor by the appointed time ultimately enabled them to raise the alarm that initiated the rescue of the main party. (p. 790) it is equally important to define trust from an organisational lens. trust is the process of undistorted communication and decentralised decision-making (mishra, 1996, p. 3). in the case of the recalling of the staff members, trust could have materialized in a more honest and ample debate about the limitations of the school in ensuring a safe return and what further means of support could have been offered. the leadership team had extended concessions to individual teachers lacking in electronic devices to deliver virtual classes, ensuring funds were readily available. a similar decision would have guaranteed the timely return of teachers struggling to pay for the exorbitantly expensive flight tickets. some international schools had gone as far as arranging charter flights for staff members and their families. within this context, trust and respect are not to be mistaken for prestige (freud, 1923), a concept that translates into depositing blind faith upon a leader based on perceptions and assumptions of success. instead, the principal moved the return date to march 15th, but it was too late as flights were practically impossible to book at that time. to make matters worse, eleven days later, china closed its borders on all foreign passport holders (politico, 2020) along with most of its consular offices and embassies as the first outbreak raged on in europe, and the virus had reached the shores of the usa. it meant that thirty percent of staff members remained outside of the country with no chance to renew their yearly visas. a few weeks later, around five other teachers saw their contracts terminated upon the school’s reopening. the process was perceived as arbitrary, and resentment grew towards the vice principal grew significantly. incidentally, he himself was unable to return to china although his contract was not terminated until well into the following school year. transitioning to e-learning one-third of the faculty had over twenty years of working experience and an average of ten years working at the school. this group consists of individuals whose professional identities stemmed from an earlier time when the school was regarded as a top-tier education establishment on account of external exam results and high enrolment numbers. prestige (le bon, 1895 as cited in freud, 1923) was like unto a badge of honour, worn by many of the senior teachers; acting as a kind of denial, a primitive defence that seeks to omit the role which they had played in the school’s decline and eroding reputation. leaders often use the unique ability that prestige holds to paralyze the individual’s critical thinking ability and demand obedience, the caveat being that prestige is wholly dependent on the success and dissipates upon failure. groups are by nature conservative, bound by tradition, and highly suspivitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 109108 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies cious of any new advances and innovations (freud, 1923, p. 15). hence, it was no surprise that the faculty did not welcome the transition to e-learning. at first, the working group moved from a state of depressive anxiety to one of mistrust. this was made clear via official and unofficial channels such as private online forums; when told to deliver all scheduled lessons via the zoom online platform, many of the longstanding staff took to make their positions clear. although some of this discontentment might be attributed to unwelcome change and the staff’s reluctance to fully engage in the practice of teaching during a time of crisis (james, 2010 as cited in dale & james, p. 43), the reasoning behind the complaints is no less sound; teachers felt undertrained as relates to zoom, an unfamiliar platform (one of three others mandated by the school for e-learning). in this regard, recent studies bring to light very many reports of hardware and software compatibility issues, a common problem for educators transitioning to e-learning worldwide (aboagye et al., 2020, as cited in akpinar, 2021). there was one specific challenge to this organisation: a vertiginous drop in student attendance though this problem was justified by educators and students operating under different time zones. much like in the case of sergeant neill’s party, the school’s faculty was compliant at first with the higher levels of monitoring either under the guise of drop-ins (a minimum requirement of two lesson observations per week was set by the leadership team), and the expectation that every lesson required a granulated version of a written lesson plan. however, the distrust of the leadership team’s ability to steer the school through the e-learning transition led teachers to adapt to the circumstances of each class. the expectation of delivering every lesson in its entirety via zoom proved unsustainable to many; thirty percent of students were outside of china at the time and required to attend classes under the china time zone. at the same time, many were also dealing with personal adversities of their, own not least of which, depression which, according to some studies, was experienced by a third of students worldwide (akpinar, 2021) as a normal consequence of uncertainty on when a return to school would be possible and being cut off from their schoolmates and friends for an extended period of time, and in the case of this school and other international schools, cut off from their family in many cases. the school performed well in this regard, providing a virtual space for mental health support, and having the full-time mental health counsellor to reach out to students who were alone in shanghai. unfortunately, the same support was not extended to the staff members. such feelings were projected onto the teachers and manifested during virtual classes in the form of switched-off cameras and very tepid participation during class activities. another concerning trend was the percentage of lower school students producing and uploading any homework. the expectation of having a written lesson plan for each virtual lesson added a voluminous bureaucratic layer to an already stressed and anxious workgroup experiencing a period of transition. increases in bureaucratic workload and more scrutiny at work have been associated with increased stress and anxiety levels among teachers (pearson & moowaw, 2005, p. 49). to make matters worse, and to once again consolidate power, the principal announced that the monetary gratuity included in the school’s contract for foreign teachers would be from then on tied in with e-learning performance and compliance with the new directives in what many teachers received as a clear breach of contract. vitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 111110 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies trust and hope as an alternative strategy a way for leaders to build trust is to avoid using denial as an organisational defence (obholzer & roberts, 1994, p. 142) and recognise the limitations of their decisions and influence as opposed to enforcing further monitoring of their employees. an alternative strategy in the case of this school could have been outreaching to the middle managers and inviting teachers to partake in planning the transition to online lessons. such a change in interaction would have likely created a healthier working culture and encouraged collaborative autonomy amongst teachers which in turn would help foster a more positive attitude from the students and parents. teacher autonomy is a direct result of a leader’s trust and is closely linked to teacher motivation (pearson & moowaw, 2005; vangrieken et al., 2017). autonomy, alongside positive student behaviour and support from management, are effective counters to prevent stress and anxiety and promote teacher satisfaction. in addition, there could have been merit in reaching out to the school’s parent association and providing a forum for teachers (dale & james, 2005, p. 98; obholzer & roberts, 1994, p. 140), thus requiring the school community at large to actively partake in designing a curriculum that would best cater for the needs of the students. in addition, using strategies such as flipped classroom and blended learning (lessons to be delivered partially through face-to-face zoom sessions partly via other online platforms) were standard solutions adopted by many schools during the first lockdowns. finally, providing staff with a space for reflection on the newly adopted measures could have also helped alleviate negative feelings such as anxiety or stress. it must also be acknowledged that most school leaders worldwide did not have to consider the added challenges of their faculty members finding themselves scattered around the globe nor having to weigh in the consequences of border closures, as was the case with international schools based in china. although, ultimately, accountability must lie with school managers. conclusion in this essay, we sought to illustrate how competence, openness, concern, and reliability (mishra, 1996, p. 2) act as the pillars of trust. to varying degrees, the leadership team of this international school failed to find purchase on all four; first by failing to show concern over its employees, neglecting to put systems in place such as a virtual space and allotted time for mental health guidance or offering relocation assistance to those stranded with their families in foreign countries. as a result, teachers were led to a state of self-preservation, ultimately hurting the organisation’s interests in the mediumand long-term. the decision on how to roll out e-learning was a top-down decision and these often fail to gain traction when those who are expected to implement these decisions disagree with the changes and are not invited to partake in the deliberation phase (ingersoll alsalam, p. 7 as cited in pearson & moowaw, 2005, p. 40). there is an intrinsic relationship between reliability and competence which partially unraveled during the school’s handling of the pandemic. the contradictory emails from the principal and vice-principal confounded the faculty, leaving many confused on whether it was compulsory to return to china or not. adding to this, the termination of contracts to a number of those who had, for one reason or another, failed to return a month later created a profound sense of betrayal (webb, 1994 as cited in mishra, 1996, p. 24) that remains to this day in the organisation. such a perceived lack of trust in the school’s leadership team posits the decision taken by the school’s owner to terminate both the principal and the vice principal contracts only three months after the school reopening. some evident limitations of this study include its small sample size making it is difficult to draw generalisations. there was also the difficulty of gathering reliable data during that time as the onset of the pandemic posed an enormous challenge in maintaining consistent communication with both colleagues and students. a different psychodynamic approach could have vitor de passos vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach...trust and hope as a management approach... 113112 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies also been used to analyse this critical incident, for instance, a dual framework of group-work mentality versus basic-assumption mentality pivoted by wilfred bion (1961). this framework could potentially act as an alternative way to explain the low performance of the e-learning measures during the first weeks of the pandemic, stemming from increased levels of fear, anxiety, guilt, and anger felt by most teachers within the organisation. references akpınar, e. 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(2005). the relationship between teacher autonomy and stress, work satisfaction, empowerment, and professionalism. educational research quarterly, 29(1), 38-54. priem, r. l., & nystrom, p. c. (2014). exploring the dynamics of workgroup fracture: common ground, trust-with-trepidation, and warranted distrust. journal of management, 40(3), 764-795. radomska, j., wołczek, p., sołoducho-pelc, l., & silva, s. (2019). the impact of trust on the approach to management—a case study of creative industries. sustainability, 11(3), 816. taylor, e. (2009). the mystery of personality a history of psychodynamic theories. springer. vangrieken, k., grosemans, i., dochy, f., & kyndt, e. (2017). teacher autonomy and collaboration: a paradox? conceptualising and measuring teachers’ autonomy and collaborative attitude. teaching and teacher education, 67, 302-315. emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism... 141 vol. 14 no.2, 2021140 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism from a historical perspective: the early abbasid era emel topçu international university of sarajevo ibrahim halil menek hasan kalyoncu university abstract this study examines the early multiculturalism of the abbasid empire. the purpose is to demonstrate the significance of historical multiculturalism in building a governmental-social system. the analysis of the early abbasid multiculturalism also integrates persian and greco-roman multicultural models. the study argues that the abbasid dynasty, which succeeded the umayyad dynasty after a revolution, had introduced a unique multicultural model by establishing a tolerant and libertarian imperial structure. in effect, the abbasid dynasty rejected the umayyad emphasis on the so-called arab nationalism in its early period (750-833). this study employs a comparative analysis of the early multiculturalism of the abbasid empire and modern practices of multiculturalism for textual analysis and conclusions. it is significant to demonstrate how the early multiculturalism of the abbasid empire could be correlated to modern multicultural practices. in this regard, the policy of support and encouragement of translation activities by the early abbasid caliphs, rulers and intellectuals had strengthened this multicultural system, which was inclusive regardless of ethnicity, religion, and race. keywords: multiculturalism; historical multiculturalism; early abbasid era; scientific-translation activities epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction although multiculturalism only emerged in scholarly works in the twentieth century, multicultural structures existed in the ancient world (foster, 2016). for instance, schumann (2010) notes that multicultural empires existed from ancient times until the fall of the ottoman empire. in addition, he states that multiculturalism cannot be exclusively considered as a concept unique to the modern period. moreover, fay (2001) emphasizes that multiculturalism, from historical and global perspectives, was a general way in which cultures, societies, and civilizations flourished. in this regard, the purpose of this study is to examine the early abbasid period (750833) as a case study to show that multiculturalism is a concept known long before the modern period. multiculturalism challenges the nation-state relationship, which adopts the principle of a nation based on a common history, ethnicity, language, and culture. thus, multiculturalism inherently prioritizes diversity against all forms of uniformity (kymlicka, 1998). the debate about multiculturalism has become especially intense in recent years, leading to the dominating idea that multicultural societies have only recently emerged. from a historical point of view, the possibility of accepting the nation-state as a relatively new concept also supports the belief that multiculturalism is likewise a new phenomenon (schumann, 2010). therefore, another goal of this study is to create a counterpoint to this perception, utilizing a specific historical period as a case study. a thorough literature review shows the multicultural character of the ancient empires and civilizations. pingree (1973) notes that as a result of the success of the abbasid revolution, a new multicultural model emerged which was based on the demographic combination of different social groups in the cities, especially in baghdad. similarly, gutas (2003) states that the early caliphs of the abbasid empire formed a multicultural society by overthrowing the exclusionary umayyad policies. in addition, endress and kruk (1997) argue that the atmosphere allowing different societies to emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism...a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism... 143142 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies come together within the borders of the islamic state was established in the early abbasid empire. likewise, vatandaş (2015) states that classical islamic civilization consists of a mosaic consisting of differences, beliefs, traditions, cultures and values, which coexist in a multicultural environment. one of the important examples of this multicultural unity was established in the early abbasid period. the above studies on multiculturalism do not specifically examine the early abbasid period from the perspective of multiculturalism. therefore, this study examines the multiculturalism of the early abbasid period within the framework of the parameters of modern multiculturalism. although the literature seems to be dominated by the idea that each system should be examined in its own social and historical reality, some studies contain conceptual transitions between periods. various societies and civilizations in the past assumed a multicultural role thanks to some of their features. modood (2014) emphasizes that in the past many multicultural societies existed, especially outside the nation-states of europe (p. 18). while there is a dominant culture in these civilizations, a tolerant environment was established by the leaders of the dominant culture so that other cultures could protect themselves and survive together with their differences (momin, 2010). in this way, the abbasid empire, in its early period (750-833), established a multicultural and pluralistic model of society, which was unprecedented in the history of islam. furthermore, the abbasid multicultural model strongly rejected the tribal logic of the umayyad dynasty and supported translation activities that in turn aided the spreading of multiculturalism throughout the empire. method this study was designed as qualitative research, which is commonly used for the understanding of social systems. qualitative methods offer flexibility to the researchers and lead to the development of new methods and approaches at every stage of the study. they also allow for fictional changes according to the course of the study. the qualitative studies then help the researchers to discover new findings. through this feature, qualitative methods are practical and useful in approaching rarely studied topics from different perspectives (neuman, 2006). strauss & corbin (1998) define qualitative research as one of the stages of knowledge production to make sense of organizational structures and social changes. therefore, this study employs a qualitative analysis and literature review of the early abbasid period from the perspective of historical multiculturalism. moreover, the parameter method was used to determine whether the relevant society retains certain qualities of multiculturalism. from a historical research perspective, empires, uniting different communities through conquests under a single administration, possess unique multicultural elements. these multicultural elements have been studied for the achaemenid (persian) empire (daryaee, mousavi & deckhani, 2014), hellenistic period (grazulis & mockiene, 2017), ottoman “millet sistemi” (nations system) (braude & lewis, 1982), and for the habsburg monarchy (griesser, 2012). by considering these studies, parameters of multiculturalism were developed by combining these historical multicultural examples with modern multiculturalism theorists, such as fleras (2009), benet (2012), parekh (2000), kymlicka (2010), and modood (2014). the early abbasid multiculturalism was studied by matching modern parameters with the multicultural characteristics of the related period. therefore, the opinions of the relevant theorists and the parameters related were purposefully selected and examined. the parameters listed below will be discussed within the framework of the social and political applications: emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism...a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism... 145144 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies modood (2014) states that “the existence of multiethnic dynamics that are perceived as different in a society and remain existing without causing conflict in the society” is one important indicator of multiculturalism (p. 19). accordingly, the first parameter is: in multicultural societies, members of different languages, religions, and cultures should coexist without conflict; according to kymlicka (2001), states are not “neutral.” states are given an identity by cultures and peoples. however, this identity should be used not as an element of uniformization, but as a means of developing positive relationships with different groups (p. 18). accordingly, the second parameter is: multicultural societies should not have a superior cultural structure. even if there is a dominant culture in these societies, the people of this culture should use their power not as an element of oppression, but as a tool to ensure the preservation of differences and make it a state policy to benefit from the accumulation of different cultures; according to fleras (2009), there should be no restrictions on people not belonging to the dominant culture in multicultural societies in terms of their political rights and their election to decision-making mechanisms (p. 25). accordingly, the third parameter is: in multicultural societies, it should be possible for members of different cultures outside the dominant culture to participate in the management and decision-making mechanisms; according to parekh (2002), many common requirements that people have been defined in different ways by different cultures (p. 306). therefore, differences in a society should be approached with an egalitarian idea, taking into account their differences while taking advantage of various opportunities. accordingly, the fourth parameter is stated as such: in multicultural societies, members of different cultures outside the dominant culture should be able to benefit from public and private opportunities without being exposed to any discrimination. this study’s scope and limitations are due to certain historical limitations because of the concept of the early abbasid period. the early abbasid period begins in 750 when the abbasids succeeded the umayyad dynasty after a revolution. this period lasted until 833, when the rule of mamun began, one of the caliphs who made the highest contribution to scientific-translation activities. the two periods in which the socio-political structures of the early abbasid period were shaped, were named “late antiquity” and “early islam.” due to the different ethnicities (greek, indian, and sasanians) and different languages (sanskrit, persian, greek, pahlavi) (clot, 2007; lyons, 2009), early abbasid society gave their scientific works in late antiquity. these activities also supported the flourishing of multiculturalism and translation activities. yet, the preparatory stage of translations and the origins of cultural and multiethnic demographic diversity were laid in the early islamic period (cameron, 1992; gutas, 2003). therefore, these two historical periods are of key importance for the multiculturalism of the early abbasid period. historical background historical multiculturalism flourished in asia minor, mesopotamia, the mediterranean basin, and the persian gulf. these regions remained within the borders of the abbasid empire and the first multicultural contacts appeared and developed in these regions (foster, 2016). moreover, the communities that migrated to these regions integrated into the new cultural structures, thus creating hybrid cultures by combining multicultural values (mieroop, 2004). thus, the traditional way of life and cultural values of the region remained alive constantly. these migrations formed a permanent environment of cultural contact. therefore, the common culture that shaped human relations and social structure in these regions has an ancient history (lendering, 2009). but some administrations in these geographical areas were sceptical towards differences outside the dominant ethnic and cultural structure, believing that they could damage the dominant culture (aktay, 2003). as a reflection of this sceptical approach, many societies and civilizations followed the policy of integrating minorities into the mainstream culture through oppression to preserve their dominant culture (momin, 2010). emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism...a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism... 147146 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the ancient artefacts and archaeological figures depicted the perceived hostile civilization in a derogatory way, which shows that assimilation policies were applied intensively throughout history (foster, 2016). however, numerous examples show the failure of assimilation policies (cassin, 1966). religious, sectarian, cultural, and racial communities that were subjected to assimilation had adhered more tightly to their differences by resisting policies of uniformization. despite the overwhelming implementation of assimilation policies, communities within the dominant culture managed to preserve their cultural values and pass them on to future generations (lendering, 2009). the achaemenid empire, which established a new ruling style on the iranian plateau in the sixth century b.c.e., is considered the first multicultural empire in history (daryaee, mousavi & rezakhani, 2014) because of its religious diversity and freedom of belief. moreover, the first declaration of human rights in history was written during the rule of achaemenid empire. its political system introduced a sociologically multicultural structure based on the administrative, economic, and cultural system developed as a state policy by rejecting the aforementioned assimilation policies (waters, 2014). thus, it can be argued that the multicultural model of governance originated in the achaemenid empire. however, during these periods, multiculturalism was limited and the dominant culture positioned itself over other cultures. a multicultural state mechanism adopting multiculturalism as a state policy had to cope with numerous challenges (foster, 2016). subsequently, the abbasids, influenced by the achaemenid socio-political system, restored the multicultural environment in these regions after about a thousand years (rosenthal, 1995). in the seventh century, when muslims established their rule and bureaucracy, ancient scientific and cultural centers continued to flourish in the middle east, western asia, and in the fertile crescent region (wujastyk, 2016). in addition, the same intellectual environment was prominent in monasteries and religious centers belonging to eastern christianity, which were widespread in the fertile crescent region (lyons, 2009). the multicultural social structure that has emerged in the early abbasid period was established due to the unification, preservation, and continuity of these scientific and cultural centers (pingree, 1973). a few decades after the death of prophet muhammad, arab armies annexed southwest asia and northeast africa, which alexander the great had conquered a thousand years earlier (cameron, 1992; nicolle, 1994). they annihilated the sassanid empire (224-651), the continuation of the persian empire, and united the centers of ancient civilizations under their rule by capturing central asia, the indian subcontinent, egypt, and the fertile crescent region. these centers had been strongly influenced by greek, hellenic, roman, and byzantine culture and intellect (clot, 2007; robinson, 2005). the muslims, with the enthusiasm brought by their newly found religion with a universal message, began to transform these centers. by gathering people of different faiths, creeds, cultures, and ethnicities they established a multicultural structure (graham, 2006). the unification of ancient centers under muslim rule also effectively ended the rule of oppressive governments and established safety within their borders. consequently, these developments contributed to scientific activities which were now carried out in a libertarian environment in which scientists now could disseminate and freely share scientific knowledge (adamson & taylor, 2005; kramers, 1934). after becoming abbasid citizens, many scientists also learned arabic, the language of the dominant culture, and translated works into arabic (van bladel, 2012). as a result of arab conquests, egypt and the fertile crescent were politically, administratively, and economically (re)united with iran and india for nearly a thousand years after alexander the great (gutas, 2003). moreover, two major rivers were separating the civilized world and the ancient centers of civilization before the rise of islam. however, this boundary disapemel topçu & ibrahim halil menek emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism...a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism... 149148 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies peared, thus allowing free movement of products and raw materials as well as of ideas and technical skills (adamson & taylor, 2005; lewis, 2002). this contributed to free movement and the beginnings of challenging the dominant umayyad rule. subsequently, the demographic diversity in the early abbasid society was laid during and before the abbasid revolution (barthold, 1984) which took place after a long period of propaganda by the leaders of various groups that were unsatisfied with the umayyad dynasty. the policies and political practices of the umayyad caliphs during their nearly century-long reign had provoked negative reactions of various groups within islamic society, which spread across wide borders, and became a harbinger of the fall of the dynasty (van bladel, 2012). the abbasid revolution, as mentioned above, was waged against the increasingly autocratic umayyad dynasty by a coalition of various groups and different ethnicities. therefore, this revolution, which succeeded due to rejection of the umayyad nationalistic logic, gave birth to a multicultural abbasid model of society (robinson, 2005). according to kennedy (1981), after the abbasids came to power, calls for an egalitarian society as an alternative to umayyad nationalism grew. thus, islam, under the early abbasid rule, became a universal religion, treating arabs and non-arabs equally. although class differences were strongly felt within society, ethnicity was not ground for discrimination (harman, 2008). after the abbasid revolution, the fatah, the elite groups which participated in the conquests and subsequently controlled the state in remote geographical areas in the umayyad period, disappeared. consequently, a new political structure emerged (lewis, 2002), but ethnic, social, and cultural differences that already existed in the middle east endured within the muslim community. therefore, the need arose for a new imperial structure based on different ethnicities (robinson, 2005). military and political elites of the abbasids were formed by different ethnicities that were later integrated into the abbasid revolutionary army (gutas, 2003). the political elites from different ethnicities successfully abolished the umayyad’s fixed social hierarchy and hereditary nobility. hence, they eliminated the umayyad system of military and political elites based on a tribality. the abolition of the tribal policies paved the way for the formation of the multicultural structure and its strengthening thereafter (robinson, 2005). the muslim conquests spread to the ancient sassanid lands where schools preserved the ancient persian heritage. these various centers enlivened persian-zoroastrian culture by combining it with indian culture and hellenism. moreover, besides the temples located in urfa and harran, which fiercely defended paganism, scientific activities were implemented on the indian side of central asia within the framework of buddhism (nacmabadi, 2017). the presence of a similar scientific environment was noticed in other monophysite and nasturi centers, which were also characterized by a unique cultural mosaic (rosenthal, 1995). following the decision to translate these scientific works into arabic and to support translation activities after the abbasid revolution, a large number of scientists, who could carry out these translation activities, appeared overnight in baghdad, the newly established abbasid capital (clot, 2007). scientific infrastructure and economic power were combined as part of incentive policies, which encouraged unprecedented translation activities from various languages, especially greek. wujastyk (2016) notes that almost all scientific works, except literature and history which can be found in the near east and anatolia, were translated into arabic during the abbasid period. compilations by karl gottlob kühn, based on the arabic translations of galenos, are collected in twenty large volumes and greek commentaries written on aristotle and translated into arabic in the abbasid period cover fifty-four volumes. this example testifies how far-reaching the translation activities were during this period. it should be noted that these constitute only a small part of the translated works (endress & kruk, 1997). scientific translation activities covered other works whose origiemel topçu & ibrahim halil menek emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism...a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism... 151150 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies nals have not survived despite their large numbers in addition to works in greek, aramaic, syriac, and latin, which have survived until today from the ancient greek, hellenistic, persian, egyptian, roman and mesopotamian civilizations (cameron, 2009). findings this study suggests that the most important factor that led to the emergence and strengthening of a multicultural system in the early abbasid period was the translation activities. the islamic state became acquainted with translation activities (from greek, persian and sanskrit to arabic) following the conquest movements towards distant lands after it united in arabia and the consequent various contacts with different societies. moreover, translation activities arose for practical and utilitarian reasons, including the translation of political texts and works in the field of health. it should be noted, however, that these translation activities were not systematic nor covered scientific works (hitti, 1980). although the expansion of the territory of the state during the first four caliphs and contacts with different cultural communities intensified, translation activities still did not go beyond partial efforts. yet, these translation activities were a precursor to those in the early abbasid period. as the open-mindedness of the respective managers and overall society began to blend with this background, systematic translation activities and a multicultural environment emerged in its their meaning (huart, 2010). kramers (1934) claims that during the first 150 years of islamic history, muslims were not scientifically superior to the christian world. according to him, the rise of science among muslims began with the early abbasid period, especially with the translation of works of the ancient greek civilization, and these scientific developments continued to increase with the translation of works of various civilizations. thus, the systematic transformation of translation activities was the most important factor that fed scientific advancement and multiculturalism. the translation activities brought scholars from different ethnicities, faiths, and cultures together in abbasid cities, especially in baghdad. before the islamic conquests, ancient greek heritage combined with ancient hellenistic culture was alive in scientific centers and monasteries in the fertile crescent, mesopotamia, western iran, and the west of central asia. the ancient heritage of hellenism and ancient greek culture, despite being considered enemies by the byzantine orthodoxy, nonetheless survived in the centers of eastern christianity in these regions since the hellenistic period. some settlements in the area also contained scientific centers with a hellenic culture blended with the polytheistic beliefs of mesopotamia. scholars who possess these differences, in the early abbasid period, found a common denominator in translation activities and formed a multicultural interaction with each other in constant communication (adamson & taylor, 2005). moreover, translation activities were responsible for the preservation of the literary culture of different civilizations before the early abbasid period. thus, the various ancient cultures, medieval and islamic ones could be transferred to future generations within a multicultural environment. arabic versions of the seven volumes of galenos’s anatomy and almost all of aristotle’s works help us understand the role of translation activities in the early abbasid period, which enabled the preservation of ancient cultural accumulations until today. moreover, when considering that galenos’s anatomy was largely based on the writings of the ionian physician hippocrates, it can be seen how rich the cultural mosaics were and what a great multicultural environment emerged thanks to these translation activities (nacmabadi, 2017). due to its facilitating effect on the translation activities, the introduction of paper to the islamic world provided great convenience in terms of scientific emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism...a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism... 153152 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies and translation activities, making an important contribution to the establishment and strengthening of the multicultural system, albeit indirectly. no writing material had as much influence on scientific revolutions as paper and the arabs began a new era in the history of civilization by spreading paper-making techniques around the world after learning them from the chinese (clot, 2007). during the early abbasid period, paper, whose raw material was much easier and more abundant to find, quickly began to replace other writing materials. the quick spread of paper led to a rapid spread of translation activities in the early abbasid period. for this reason, paper should be considered as one of the important factors that indirectly triggered the multiculturalism of the early abbasid period due to its effect on popularizing translation activities (cameron, 2009). another factor that allows the social system of the relevant period to be characterized as multicultural is the structure within the governance. in this social system, members of various ethnicities and beliefs took part in management and decision-making mechanisms and were able to benefit from public and private opportunities. thus, the multicultural structure of society was grounded and strengthened. the architect of this social system was the people of the dominant arabic-islam culture. therefore, it can be argued that the multicultural environment in early abbasid society was established as a state policy (nacmabadi, 2017). religious freedom was another indicator of multiculturalism in the early abbasid period. for many years, these regions were under religious and sectarian pressure from the byzantine and sassanid empires. however, the libertarian policies opened the door to a multicultural atmosphere because different religions were united under an administration that established religious freedom. religious debate assemblies, especially held during the early abbasid period, impressively demonstrate the high level of religious freedom and tolerance provided to members of different faiths. thanks to these assemblies, in which the caliph participated occasionally, religious freedom prevailed in all cities of the early abbasid period (graham, 2006). another indicator of multiculturalism is the state system that incorporated the cultural influences of different civilizations. the abbasids’ system of administration combined the sassanid and persian style of administration with the byzantine system where greek was the administrative language. contrary to the abbasids, the umayyad took and applied the byzantine system almost completely. furthermore, the abbasid administrative system enabled talented bureaucrats of different languages to rise through the ranks regardless of their ethnicity or beliefs. in addition to civilian managers and officers, military cadres also included people of different ethnicities, beliefs, and sectarian groups. the commanders and soldiers were ensured that the military structure of the empire took a multicultural form. in this system, where communities belonging to different sects, beliefs, and cultures were present at almost all levels, a multicultural public and social system emerged in all respects (mesudi, 2004). the multilingual atmosphere in the empire was another indicator of multiculturalism. vatandaş (2015) states that muslims, as a result of conquests, came across civilizations and cultures with histories spanning thousands of years and over ten spoken languages. muslims found themselves in a dominant cultural position, as rulers of multilingual and multicultural lands. merging different languages strengthened the interaction and the cosmopolitan structure of early abbasid cities. the interaction of different languages was publicly supported and encouraged. in this way, a multilingual and multicultural society emerged with a wide variety of languages freely spoken and translated (gutas, 2003). discussion modern age multiculturalism practices were used as parameters in this study. the traces of multicultural practices associated with the modern period can also be found in different historical periods. for instance, in the emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism...a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism... 155154 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies ottoman empire multicultural practices were regulated through tolerance and granting autonomy to recognized jewish and christian communities (kymlicka, 1995, p. 156) since the citizenship ties between people and the state were not rights-based. this represents the most important difference between the modern period and historical multiculturalism. different congregations were not subjected to religious coercion in the islamic administrations that ruled before the early abbasid period (huart, 2010). unlike the modern standards of multiculturalism, there were not any intermediary elements that would allow the peoples living in that period to claim rights and freedoms in the early abbasid period. therefore, when examining societies from the perspective of historical multiculturalism, it is necessary to determine whether they had basic characteristics of multiculturalism without looking for intermediary elements. based on the considerations above our analysis will be conducted within the framework of the parameters of multiculturalism determined by the main theme of the study to answer whether the relevant period has the qualities of multiculturalism. the first multiculturalism parameter states that “the members of different languages, religions and cultures must coexist under the same roof without any conflict in multicultural societies.” first, the abbasid revolution was conducted against the arab-based tribal umayyad rule. various groups, which had familiarized themsleves with one another during the abbasid revolution and shared a common denominator, continued their alliances after the successful revolution, forming the founding element of the early abbasid society. this consensus was based on convincing various people to believe that their interests and demands were in the continuity of the abbasid state, which was another factor that complemented the demographic unification (kennedy, 1981). no member of any culture was dominant in the early abbasid society which was built on these dynamics. according to pingree (1973), a new multicultural model of society emerged in the abbasid capital baghdad, which overthrew the exclusionary policies of damascus and ensured the demographic unification of different social groups in iraq. kymlicka (2010) notes that differences in a society cannot originate from a single sending element, but from a combination of a wide range of ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural elements, in a real sense, multiculturalism. this is exactly how the social system of the early abbasids was established by the dominant powers. aramaic-speaking christians and jews, who were the majority of the resident population in iraq (lyons, 2009), iranian people leading settled lives in the city centers, zoroastrian communities from central asia, who resided in the area (nacmabadi, 2017), muslim arabs, who partially settled and came to these geographies with conquests, non-muslims of different ethnicities, turks, who were among the main actors of the revolution, other muslims of a wide variety of ethnicities, who were called mawali, and various peoples of eastern christianity (endress & kruk, 1997) were included within this multicultural social system. harman (2008) describes this multicultural social atmosphere in the early abbasid empire as follows: a multicultural social order, which was based on merchants of different ethnicities, bankers and ulema consisting of religious scholars, teachers, judges and cosmopolitan ruling class, peaceful agricultural and commercial economy, emerged in the newly established abbasid empire, especially in baghdad. (p. 134) the second multiculturalism parameter states that “multicultural societies should not have a superior (dominant) cultural structure. although there is a dominant culture in these societies, the men of this culture should use their power not as an element of oppression, but as a tool to ensure the preservation of differences and they should make it a state policy to benefit from the accumulation of different cultures.” there is no consensus among experts on whether there was a superior cultural structure in the early abbasid period. however, it can be inferred emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism...a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism... 157156 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies from the social conditions of the time that the caliph, his family, and the administrative staff were in a superior position. however, since this dominant position did not develop within the framework of any racial, ethnic, religious, or sectarian superiority, it did not result in damaging the multicultural system because many early abbasid caliphs did not even belong to the pure arab lineage (huart, 2010) and the foundations the early abbasid society was formed on were at a level that was not able to handle a social stratification based on nationalism. in the early abbasid period, it was not necessary to adhere to arab ethnicity, as during the umayyad, or to possess orthodox christian faith, as in byzantium, in order to achieve a high-level administrative position. moreover, there was no social stratification, as during the sassanids, where the transition between classes was almost impossible (christensen, 1939). the third multiculturalism parameter states that “it should be possible for members of different cultures outside the dominant culture to participate in the management and decision-making mechanisms in multicultural societies.” the umayyad administration and decision-making mechanisms were dominated by a system based on nobility and centered around ethnicity. within this system, arabs were in a dominant position and used bureaucrats and civil servants trained under the influence of byzantine orthodoxy to carry out their public affairs (kennedy, 1981). these bureaucrats and officers were brought up under the influence of byzantine orthodoxy, known for its uniformization policies on people belonging to eastern christianity (cameron, 1992). in other words, by bringing these bureaucrats and civil servants into the umayyad cadres another elitist group was brought into an elitist system (kennedy, 1981). the public system of the new caliphate was completely overhauled, and the mechanisms of governance and with the abbasid revolution and the subsequent relocation of the capital to baghdad, decision-making in the new social system were opened to various peoples belonging to different ethnicities (huart, 2010). the names of these bureaucrats and officers of different ethnicities who served in the abbasid bureaucracy and decision-making mechanisms are still present in primary sources. numerous studies on this issue prove this situation (mesudi, 2005). therefore, in the early abbasid period, people outside the dominant culture could participate in management and decision-making mechanisms. the fourth multiculturalism parameter states that “in multicultural societies, members of different cultures outside the dominant culture should be able to benefit from public and private opportunities without any discrimination. however, this opportunity should be provided by the men of the dominant culture.” cameron (1992) states that during the early abbasid period, experts in translation activities were supported by large public and private funds. most primary protectors who provided these funds were the caliphs and senior bureaucrats. moreover, patronage of translation activities by the protectors and their large financial investment to fund these translators indicates respect for these activities. caliphs and senior bureaucrats, who were the representatives of the dominant culture, supported these translators, most of whom belonged to ethnicities outside the dominant culture, which qualifies the early abbasid society as multicultural. given these parameters, the early abbasid society fulfils the conditions necessary to consider a society multicultural; a multicultural way of life that marked history emerged during this period. supporting, encouraging and funding these translation activities played a key role in the emergence of such an environment. conclusion this study examined whether social groups with racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious differences could coexist in certain historical periods just as in today’s world based on the example of the early abbasid period. although the social system of the early abbasid period was based on a multicultural emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek emel topçu & ibrahim halil menek a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism...a challenge to the contemporary multiculturalism... 159158 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies character, it did not possess the modern intermediary elements of universal human rights and democratic practices. however, this past society had advanced libertarian practices. in this structure, communities from various ethnicities, beliefs, and cultures lived together with their differences; an environment that was established by the people of the dominant culture. besides the people of the dominant culture, the tradition of tolerance and acceptance of each other along with their differences was also formed in other groups in society. tolerance for differences entrenched in this way in society is an important social orientation. for this reason, the early abbasid society, which was formed as a result of merging various peoples who were subjected to sectarian oppression and assimilation policies for many years before with the arabs as members of the dominant culture, is a crucial example of historical multiculturalism and provides an important model that can be presented to today’s societies as it involves a culture of coexistence without any control or assurance mechanisms. in this sense, historical multiculturalism research examining the multicultural aspects of other civilizations that have reigned in history can and should be done thereafter. understanding the multiculturalism of islamic cultures that developed as a mosaic of greco-roman and persian-sassanid cultures has implications not only for history but also the presence, as these are the two ancient civilizational traditions that have influenced a large part of historical and today’s social and political systems. thus, this study, which examined historical multiculturalism, showed that the early abbasid period is one of the most important examples of multiculturalism in history. although it is not based on the intermediary elements that existed in the modern era, the multicultural social system of the early abbasid period is notable in many respects and can provide important lessons for today’s pluralistic and multicultural societies. references adamson, p., & taylor, r. c. 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(2016). from balkh to baghdad: indian science and the birth of the islamic golden age in the eighth century. epiphany_new_version_11oct.indd anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 37 vol. 14 no.1, 202136 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry: seeking and forming personal identity in the author´s poems and poetic texts anna slatinská abstract: the primary goal of this paper is to elucidate the attachment to place (topophilia) throughout the poetry of juraj kuniak the slovak contemporary poet. our aim is to focus on the most significant aspects of his poetic discourse pertaining to home, landscape, and identity. the origin of the phenomena is also explored as well as how it affected juraj kuniak and his writing process. from his poetry, we exemplify concepts such as rootedness, birthplace bond, and devotion to native land. the research-based evidence consists of decoding allusions and intertextual meanings which are incorporated in the selected collections of poems. our analysis reveals the diversity of author´s poetic discourse and his interest in global issues. the paper concludes that juraj kuniak´s poetry could be used effectively in terms of cultivating our inner selves, love for landscape, homeland, national culture and language alongside the cultivation of key life values. anna slatinská graduated from her doctoral study in 2015 defending her dissertation thesis titled irish language as part of cultural identity of the irish. she realized her phd program at the faculty of arts which is part of matej bel university in banská bystrica, slovakia. currently, she is a member of department of english and american studies team. she is in charge of irish studies and irish language teaching within mbu. the project started in 2016 and continues till present. besides, she is also a member of erasmus+ project (cherished) and kega project dealing with global skills. she teaches elt practice, english syntax and morphology, cultural heritage and its implementation in schools, teaching english to different age groups, global skills, esp. anna slatinská has published a variety of articles and monographs individually as well as in cooperation with other colleagues. e-mail: anna.slatinska@umb.sk. introduction poetry operates as a dynamic visual reflection of the world outside and inside, being part of an author´s innermost identity (liashuk, 2019). furthermore, thanks to translation, poetry can be described as an effective tool for dialogue between cultures and nations. when reading juraj kuniak´s poems, we have the opportunity to communicate with the author through his work and to tackle the issues connected with the concepts of home, landscape, identity, language, culture, everyday human existence, past and future, emphasizing cultivation of life-supporting values such as tolerance, love towards others, respect and empathy in the context of the 21st century. juraj kuniak belongs to one particular poetic group, i.e. the work of lay spiritual poets (j. kuniak, r. jurolek, e. j. groch, m. milčák, v. kupka, p. milčák, j. gavura, j. palaščák) which reveals the weakening of the historically strong tradition of “symbolic” tendency in favour of “(post)avantguard” approaches (juhásová, 2016: 143). aim of the article the primary aim of this article is to reveal the poetic semantics of the selected author, his opinions, values and beliefs concerning home, landscape and place attachment alongside references to historical and cultural, local and global issues which are deemed as crucial for our interpretation. the proposed analysis reveals the poet´s linguistic mechanisms, common to his poetic discourse, creating implied and sometimes explicit messages to its readers. while exploring the phenomena present in juraj kuniak´s poetry and identifying the sample material, we will be driven by the idea of designating cultural and social interactions located in his works. the cardinal premise of this paper is interlinked with the view that the poems of kuniak generate space for fostering national cultural identity, bond towards landscape, and appreciation of home in the context of the 21st century. our exploration of juraj kuniak´s poems takes place in a context which needs to be uncovered. reading comprehension requires a range of skills to be applied in order to make the most of intertextual and extratextual anna slatinská anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry...home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 3938 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies information as well as our previous knowledge. the act of interpreting the poems makes them more comprehensible to the reader. moreover, many of juraj kuniak´s poems have been translated to english (as well as belarusian, serbian, and other languages) thus making them available internationally. research methods referring to kuniak´s poetic discourse, we take into consideration not only what is expressed explicitly but also what is or might be implied through the power of figurative devices. one of the article´s goals is therefore to interpret and reconstruct allusions and implicit intertextual meanings which are incorporated within the text. this amalgam of lexically articulated meanings provides a challenge to author-interpreter. although certain lines within poems require an experienced reader who is capable of recognizing the context, subtext, and references, generally, the majority of of kuniak’s poems are capable of capturing the attention of anyone who (accidently or otherwise) encounters his poetry. in short, his poems are appropriate for the wider public due to their versatility and varied topics. therefore, they became part and parcel of many contemporary slovak poetically-oriented journals. in our interpretative approach we have tried to look for the most frequent topics recurring in the poems and poetic texts of juraj kuniak and to explore the artistic subtleties as presented in his works like topicality, motifs, themes, repetitive elements, significant historical and cultural events, etc., regarding the concept of home, landscape, and identity. we have applied the principle of hermeneutic interpretation as part of a qualitative research strategy, giving us the possibility to understand the author. analysis of juraj kuniak´s poems and poetic texts the following section explores in detail particular motifs, themes, allusions, and references, as used by the poet in his poems and poetic texts. any interpretations included here are based on the particular excerpted line or verse which underwent a process of analysis of selected collections of poems and poetic texts, namely: pilgrimage to the self (2003), rock rose (2004), a bit of the world´s space (2006), cor cordi (2007), private openair museum – etudes on ethnic (1993), landscape in me (2015), amonit (2019), out past town (2015), lamium album (2012), rosa mystica (2016), 7 poems series (2017), poems of the world no. 3. (2015), poems of the world no. 4. (2015). juraj kuniak in his cor cordi collection of poems mentions milan rúfus profoundly.2 he was a famous slovak poet, a national bard whose poems have been translated to many languages (died in 2009). throughout kuniak´s works we can trace the line of memories through the outstanding oeuvre of milan rúfus, the most translated poet in slovakia, whose poems have influenced immensely the poetic work of juraj kuniak: seven crossings / dear mr. rúfus: / the 7 times blessed poetry / of your life / your valley / of violets / high above the danube (cor cordi, greeting 2007: 9). here juraj kuniak mentions the national river, the danube, which is symbolic and has been used as a literary motif in many literary works for centuries. the valley of violets is a district in bratislava where milan rúfus lived. in his recollections of milan rúfus, kuniak mentions gerlach vale which is a landscape feature of symbolic value to slovak people and is a typical region in which chamois are found (cor cordi, “from the seclusion of kordíky”, 2007:59). in another line within the poem greeting he pays tribute to milan rúfus, again writing … the lark… / oh please / sing to my rúfus / the greeting i have in my heart (cor cordi, greeting 2007: 17). for kuniak, milan rúfus is a true national bard, one who has not been surpassed yet. the poet is begging the lark to sing a greeting to rúfus, which kuniak alone is not able to express. it is evident that home is not only about landscape but also about people who helped to create, remodel, and sustain it during difficult times. throughout his life, milan rúfus subtly opposed the communist regime, fighting cautiously through the medium of word. in his next extended poem called from the seclusion of kordíky, kuniak describes his new home and reveals to milan rúfus his true feelings for the place: in our new “nest” / under the mountain / almost everything seems / 2 note: these are two poetic epistles. epistles as a specific genre are letters addressed to someone. juraj kuniak used a poetic form for his epistles and dedicated them to his much-loved mentor milan rúfus for his 70th birthday. anna slatinská anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry...home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 4140 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies more genuine than before / when there´s a blizzard here / it´s the real thing (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky, 2007: 23). kuniak´s poems belonging to cor cordi3 intertwine the personality of milan rúfus with particular places in slovakia. juraj kuniak often mentions kordíky in his poems. it is the place where he lives and writes. the title of the book cor cordi represents intergenerational emotional interconnection between two hearts (the heart of milan rúfus and the heart of juraj kuniak), hence its origin which is, phonetically, composed of two words, i.e. cor cordi. they create a root declination (nominative and dative) in the village´s title kordíky. he also mentions the original inhabitants who devoted their lives to woodcutting and making tables from wood. they are described as plain people who did not care for material things and did not overindulge in a consumption-oriented way of life, enjoying every minute of life, being mindful: people are scarce – not a feverish mass / but wood-cutters are near… / and makers of tables… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 25). the next insightful piece deals with the typical winter weather conditions in kordíky. indeed, one of the main reasons for kuniak’s love of this district is its bleakness, wildness, and seclusion… winter is grim in kordíky / five months we are snowed under… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 29). the district of kordíky near banská bystrica seems an ideal home for the poet regardless the fact that the landscape here is quite rough: … the metro does not run in kordíky / as you know / to get down there and back / can be a superhuman labour… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 41). except for his remarks concerning slovakia, he also gives his poems global perspective when mentioning and sharing his thoughts and opinions about the current situation and direction of the world´s civilization, he feels that … the world is getting rundown / it needs to strengthen heart / and arms, / legs, / back… / instead it propagates viagra / for what´s not muscle at all… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 31-33). kuniak also admits his doubts about life in the 21st century: … i know that i´m afraid / who is without fear?... (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 33). this goes hand in hand with the memory of his deceased father and other relatives mentioned throughout all his works. 3 cor cordi = heart to heart (latin) the issue of the world´s future has also been raised by him, giving prominence to questions about people’s unreasonable actions: the world is playing its match / to judge by the current score / it does not seem / likely to win the tie / no wonder too / when it evokes the footballer / who throws a kick at the ball / and only then lifts his head / to see / who he´s been beaten by… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 35). here kuniak gives us an example of indifference, vanity, a desire for fame and popularity, which often rule people´s decisions: … but popularity / is a strange patron indeed / shooting to the heights / she´ll change to an ogre / suddenly malign… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 37). kuniak´s poems could be used effectively in reminding people about true life´s values which are worth following … to appreciate pure things… / know how to pick them out… / … someone makes mainly money / he´s worm-eaten inside / outside he wins acceptance… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 45). here he points towards an overindulgent way of life which can cause numbness of the human soul and can hinder intrapersonal, interpersonal as well as intercultural communication, being a hindrance to life competencies development (the ability to think critically, to be creative and genuinely cooperative). these negative human attributes are seen by kuniak as … the latest forms of evil… / tasty on the tongue / and tantalizingly ruddy… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 45-47). the poet also accentuates man´s personal identity interlinked often with confusion and despair over one´s life: … just that no one knows if he is / what he´s cooked in his head / how he´s knotted himself up / why actually he lives… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 49) referring to immense possibilities that people are given. furthermore, he underlines the idea of ocassionally reminding people living in slovakia about the gift they have been given in the form of an ordinary, plain, war-free (if only once also wifi-free) way of life. his poems could be used when teaching the youth (secondary school students and university students) about the advantages and disadvantages of internet epoch and bringing to the fore the importance of home in the turbulent 21st century. … we are flooded with information /… one needs to have a straw stuck over the surface / and not to forget that there´s air / and anna slatinská anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry...home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 4342 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies independence / and privacy and human happiness / the home… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 51). many of kuniak´s poems were translated by john minahane, an irish translator. we suppose that english poetry could challenge and motivate students of different ages to engage in discussions about their beliefs, likes, dislikes, interests, etc., enhancing their creativity as well as their ability to think critically and to coherently articulate their thoughts and feelings, thus fostering their self-confidence and willingness to share their opinions with others. at the very end of his poem from the seclusion of kordíky, kuniak offers some suggestions on how to live responsibly, not waste life on material things, focusing on the need to be and creation of the nest as he did in his beloved district of kordíky. nest is an equivalent of home in his poems. he deduces that without it (nest) … there´s no privacy / and home is not upheld… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 53). there are also passages where he mentions roots and the situation in which a man finds himself when he loses his home (in case of war, ethnical conflicts, natural disasters, nomad way of life). this can lead to feelings of uprootedness … a tree when it is flattened / shows its roots only then… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 55). the final verses seem truly prophetic, holistic, accentuating the importance of roots in human life. he especially highlights those who are the most vulnerable and he wishes them all the goodness in the world and the ability to find their own anchor in life … that you / children / may have roots / deep / deeper / deepest / and each of you be a tree / that the wind cannot level… / everyone can do something / yes and everyone can do more / i think / if we don´t waste life in the grind… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 57). the author believes in the power of young people to overcome burdens and obstacles they meet while growing up. kuniak’s collection of poems cor cordi ends by expressing his best wishes to milan rúfus and a positive look into the future expressing hope for new beginnings. he also takes into consideration the fact that human fate is unpredictable and peace can vanish in a minute if we do not cultivate it in our lives : … i look forward to the future / just ahead / with one foot home… / for we know the future smiles / but one small vacillation / and it´ll push us to the wall… (cor cordi, from the seclusion of kordíky 2007: 67). to conclude, in cor cordi as a collection of poems-as-letter and letters-as-poem, the author defines his spiritual home located in poetry as well as his family roots interweaving with place and landscape attachment (cor cordi 2007). in his cor cordi we are exposed to his self-reflections, descriptions of home in kordíky (the mountain village near district city banská bystrica) which is viewed as a secluded place, a family base, a shelter for the poet´s world. in his poems-as-letter from the seclusion of kordíky one learns a great deal about his family, communication with children during their academic year in america, and about the harsh weather conditions in the region, which reminds the poet of how easily we can become uprooted. furthermore, juraj kuniak contributed to the collection of poems and stories called landscape in me (biarinec et al. 2015). thus, landscape as part of identity dominates his poetic pieces and prosaic reflections. the poet compares a poem to the landscape located in his soul which intertwines with the outer environment, landscape outside soul. he admits that he cannot imagine a poem without landscape nor himself without a poem. the author mentions that he has already chosen his home together with his wife. he finds it important to have a fixed place within the country and to know that this place is the right place to live (biarinec et al. 2015: 103). juraj kuniak is one of the most significant poets who draws inspiration from topics such as: home, attachment to place, country, family, faith, etc. landscape as a symbol for fostering identity dominates his descriptions: … landscape is a wide, deep, full and spacious concept. landscape falls to sleep. landscape rises in the morning. landscape talks to me. landscape opens to me. landscape opens me up. i am rooted in her. i grow up in her. it animates me. landscape is diverse. diversity is divine. disunity is diabolic4 (landscape in me 2015: 116-117). the concept of roots is a recurring one throughout his poetry, interlinked with home and landscape, reminiscing about previous generations of parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. in one of his reflections, he mentions his grandmother: … my grandma, mrs. kaliariková used to talk to me about feng – shui and that our home is also like a living being, therefore it is important to locate it in a right way in terms of the points of the compass… 5(landscape in me 4 from slovak script translated by anna slatinská. 5 from slovak script translated by anna slatinská. anna slatinská anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry...home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 4544 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 2015: 119). the author himself could not believe that his grandmother was familiar with concepts that became popular only in the late 20th century in slovakia; ideas about where to locate one’s house and how to organise one’s rooms, etc. in order to most enjoy the dwelling. as it is evident when reading kuniak´s poetry, he is thankful for what his grandparents taught him and how this knowledge has been transmitted successfully across the generations. juraj kuniak has had a chance to explore the landscape of his home by foot, and other means. being an experienced mountaineer, the poet´s vision has been broadened by taking part in various walks, hiking tours, trips and expeditions in slovakia and abroad. that is why there is a multitude of geographical places and references found in his poems and lyrical prose. the poet frequently mentions amazing winters in kordíky (his home) caused by a lot of sunny days due to inversion as it was indicated in the same-titled poem (inversion) : from this point of view, inversion is time for being happy / a reason to take a breath and relax / water vapors slither down the valleys / swallowing up civilization…6 (landscape in me 2015: 122-123). in 2019, juraj kuniak published amonit; a collection of poems written between 2008 and 2016. amonit is a bilingual book which intertwines belarussian with slovak, kuniak’s first-native language. viktoria liashuk translated the texts (liashuk, 2019). we have found many poetic devices in his poems related to his family, spirituality, honesty, landscape, idea of one´s mortality, intergenerational proximity of relatives, sadness, etc., all through the eyes of a 21st century writer living and creating in today´s turbulent times. kuniak reaffirms repeatedly the existence of god as creator of humanity and calls for the protection of relationships we establish during our life. the poet provides us with descriptions of landscapes in different seasons, memories of his birthplace, memories of his childhood, his parents, the role of mother and father, the raising of a child, the virgin mary, the meaning of life, etc. we have excerpted several passages related to the concept of landscape which is viewed as part of his identity: i see how the landscape, i was born into, has changed / the trees are on retreat and withering away / woodcutters have destroyed nests of herons / there are tree stools in a row, once 6 from slovak script translated by anna slatinská. they were poplars / roads lined with crosses built after fatal accidents…7 (cliff, amonit, 2019: 12). as exemplified in this poem, the author is a sensitive, lyrical hero, empathising with the country, in which sadness and sorrows become prominent because of uncontrolled passions and desires. beside his doubts about nature´s survival and human indifference, he refuses to cultivate negative emotions connected with fighting, conflict, war, and raiding: … growing up in this state where sincerity towards oneself is a weakness and the only / acceptable way of life / seems to be conflict, deceit and fighting 8 (illness of the immature tribe, amonit 2019: 20), he decides not to take part in them. juraj kuniak represents an attentive observer of seasons describing the nuances of weather conditions: … frost is after the water / horizon resembles flat line / rosehips are like drops of blood… exhausted body of country / let snow cover it all! 9 (compassion, amonit 2019: 14). winter hasn’t said its last word yet. / in the hollow the water has frozen, within it a flower / deceived by the heat of preceding days / and a ladybird deceived by the flower. / … the freeze will paint your eyebrows, eyelashes – smile 10 (lateran basilica, amonit 2019: 98). the previous examples of seasons are intertwined with his childhood memories related to his birthplace in the čutkovská valley region in the area of ružomberok: a breeze arose, i recognised it well, / with that same hand it cooled my brow in childhood; / the wood began to rustle, the water mirror / rippled, and i lost and found myself 11 (in čutkovská dolina, amonit 2019: 58). the author often mentions his relatives, his parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who created his past and present home: … lines on the wall at my grandparents´ reveals truth about / how i grew up… 12 (amonit, proglas 2012: 43). the people who looked after him from his early years 7 translated by anna slatinská. 8 translated by anna slatinská. 9 translated by anna slatinská. 10 translation: john minahane (juraj kuniak & ján kudlička: rosa mystica 2016) 11 in cutkovska dolina / juraj kuniak ; translated by john minahane – in: poems of the world. – issn 1092-0897. – vol. 19, no. 4 (summer 2015), s. 22. – palatine, illinois (usa) : international poetry press. 12 translated by anna slatinská. anna slatinská anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry...home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 4746 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies are recurrently used alongside metaphors in his other poems: mother‘s love is at work in me, my spirit / has its origin there, a string well-strung, / cultivation of mercy in the self, / expansion of green, disturbance of limits13 (consciousness, amonit 2019: 100). moreover, his parents laid the basis for the author´s faith in god: … mother said, it’s simple: / to take one’s place in the smallest magnitude, / receive the child into oneself, / open one’s inner eyes and silently / utter: welcome!14 (imagination, amonit 2019: 102). many of his poems reveal lines of gratitude to his mother whom he views as one of the most valuable people in his life: … mother was then far away, / now farther still: always she wanted, and taught him too, / to do something sensitively and exactly, one might say / with a scalpel to cut a drop of dew15 (dewdrop, amonit 2019: 96), stressing that there is someone who guides his steps:… there is a never-ending feeling that someone up there / from where the grass gains energy to grow… / is looking after me / and i retreat to meet him16 (direction, amonit 2019: 38). madonna or the holy virgin are symbols expressing his faith: oh, madonna, / in all languages only a thrown away word / if it doesn’t leave the lips as a small cloud...17 (rosa mystica, amonit 2019: 104). referring to family members who influenced his sprituality, kuniak writes… the eyes look ahead, only behind / is everything clear. my parents, grand and great grandparents / come from a devout country…18 (lamium album, amonit 2019: 86). 13 translation: john minahane (juraj kuniak, ján kudlička: rosa mystica, s. 61, skalnáruža 2016) 14 translation: john minahane (juraj kuniak, ján kudlička: rosa mystica, s. 62, skalná ruža, 2016) 15 dewdrop / juraj kuniak ; translated by john minahane. – in: poems of the world. – issn 1092-0897. – vol. 21, no. 4 (summer 2017), s. 18. – palatine, illinois (usa) : international poetry press. 16 translated by anna slatinská. 17 translation: john minahane (juraj kuniak, ján kudlička: rosa mystica, s. 63, skalná ruža 2016) 18 translation: viera and james sutherland smith (juraj kuniak, ján kudlička: lamium album, s. 46, skalná ruža 2012) kuniak pays homage to his parents depicting them as “two sources / issuing one beside the other: / oľga and matúš” 19 (to my parents, amonit 2019: 54) who symbolize his youth and childhood home. he imagines the home of two people who love and respect each other as: … fixed points / they are two / one for each of us / you for me and me for you / your face, lit by talking / memories can see us20 (fixed points, amonit 2019: 46). his poetry is interspersed with references to his father who used to instruct him in art: try to paint it / my father used to encourage me to sit over the white drawing paper / and he added as if to himself: / the sky is like an open dome / the warble of lark is a line21 (father, amonit 2019: 22). when mentioning home, the author cannot exclude the political past of the slovak nation, especially the year 1969 when it was occupied by the armies of the warsaw pact, recalling “the dark times when even our teachers / pulled blinds down their faces in 1969” 22 (amonit, amonit 2019: 110). kuniak also mentions our present time(s). he is a proponent of peace, tolerance, respect, and love towards others, disillusioned by what is happening, not only at home but worldwide: the same burns, frostbites / the same insensitivity of the world / new forbidden words (father, mother) / another newborn in the drop box for the unwanted…23 (the second advent sunday, out past town 2015: 27). in the following lines, the author has brought to the fore several topics that have not yet been solved, lamenting (some) current habits. on the one hand, kuniak is not afraid to talk about sensitive topics with a great deal of subjectivity, corresponding to his embodiment as a literary hero subject. 19 translation: john minahane (to my parents / juraj kuniak ; translated by john minahane. – in: poems of the world. – issn 1092-0897. – vol. 19, no. 3 (spring 2015), s. 28. – palatine, illinois (usa) : international poetry press.) 20 translated by anna slatinská. 21 translated by anna slatinská. 22 translated by anna slatinská. 23 translated by anna slatinská. anna slatinská anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry...home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 4948 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies on the other hand, he proposes the idea of mindfulness to be fostered in these insecure times, instructing the reader how to start living, by using a good deal of positive thinking: try to recall / anything if small, / no ogre in your imaginations / do not call them into life / an apple-tree petal / in your mind / is more powerful / than the/ bear behind the hill 24 (abreaction, out past town 2015: 25). at the same time the poet reflects on his own mortality and seems emotionally balanced with the fact that there will come a day (probably unbeknownst to him) which will be his last.: the universe glitters in deep peace / i can die the next morning 25 (proximity, out past town 2015: 22). rock rose poems seem to be reflections of home, love, and relationships, as described by the poet himself: only on your own / roots / can you lean / says a tree / and a man? / and a rock rose?26 (rock rose, rock rose 2004: 97), giving philosophical questions and assumptions: for what currency / can love be had today? (gilded banknote, a bit of the world´s space 2004: 16), describing his desires not to walk alone in life:…so that my hand will not clasp / forever / only its own / lifeline27 (the depth of a plunge, rock rose 2004: 74). he is also not indifferent to his roots: where have i come from and where am i bound?28 (situation, rock rose 2004: 69). pilgrimage to the self (púť k sebe 2003) is the penultimate collection of poetical-prosaic stories (prosaic text interspersed with poetry) that we have analysed. it is documentary in character, based on memories of kuniak’s travels in russia and australia, and also describes moments in his family’s history such as the černová massacre of 1907; also known as the černová tragedy. 24 translated by anna slatinská. 25 translated by anna slatinská. 26 translation: john minahane. in: a bit of the world´s space, p. 37, slovak pen centre 2006 27 translation: john minahane. in: a bit of the world´s space, p. 17, slovak pen centre 2006 28 translation: john minahane. in: a bit of the world´s space, p. 15, slovak pen centre 2006 it was part of the slovak nation’s oppression by hungarian troops who shot dead 15 černová villagers who wanted the village’s first catholic church to be consecrated not by martin pazurik but by andrej hlinka, a local priest who first proposed the building of the church and raised money for its construction. a well-known norwegian writer, bjørnstjerne bjørnson, reacted fiercely against this act of suppressing the free will of villagers in černová. thanks to him the message about the national oppression of slovaks by hungary spread quickly across the whole world at a time when the slovak nation existed only within the austro-hungarian empire, without independent status. in his poetic texts juraj kuniak sees his roots in the village of černová. kuniak also mentions his genealogy, the cemetery where his relatives are buried, the kriváň mountain as a national symbol, the heritage of his ancestors, and the country and landscape. he also refers to the idea of language, stressing that “language is the base. only there will you build / house and temple, / feeling and thought, /life” 29 (pilgrimage to the self 2003: 139). the poet describes the cemetery as a place which makes him realize that his role in life is not finished yet, reminiscing about his father who is the author of the painting called tragedy in černová. the poem is dedicated to this specific work of art. the depiction of the černová tragedy went down in history. it can still be seen hanging on the wall in the černová house of culture. moreover, the painting entered the school history-books in slovakia. simultaneously, he ponders reflects upon the message of his dead relatives, figuratively describing his way of life, which is influenced by his predecessors. juraj kuniak represents a mindful hero aware of his life, past and present while anticipating the future step by step: the cemetery is a place where i am reborn/reawakened. every dead body reminds me of the fact that their acting on stage has finished and mine lasts still30 (pilgrimage to the self 2003: 140). the author hopes that he will be able to carry on the familial heritage and contribute to it with his own activities, praising unique places in the life of man. juraj kuniak has found his second home in the village of kordíky near banská bystrica (pilgrimage to the self 2003: 141-143).31 29 translated by john minahane. 30 translated by anna slatinská. 31 translated by anna slatinská. anna slatinská anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry...home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 5150 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the author has frequently travelled around the world. in his arbat 1989 poetical report, he describes his stay in russia. arbat is the name of a significant street in the center of moscow, which was the place for artists and revolting youth in the period of perestroika. many of his accounts and descriptions of this place supertemporal character, speaking to sensitive (and) experienced readers in the 21st century. he describes one moment during his travels around arbat when he met a man in the poet’s corner who was reciting poetry about some of the soviet union’s social tragedies such as overcrowded orphanages, children fleeing from homes, people infected with aids, dysfunctional relationships, and spiritual loss, all as antonyms to sensibility, clear conscience, justice, etc.. (pilgrimage to the self, 2003: 19-20). many of the topics explored by the author are hotly debated nowadays with no universally satisfactory solution reached. while staying in australia, the poet was inspired by the writers’ walk in sydney, describing the literary accomplishments of engraved authors and combining information about them with his reflections on home, his university study in prague, specifically his parents, realizing the special qualities of his home: home is a very simple feeling, one of the most difficult… not carried on the tongue (pilgrimage to the self, 2003: 60).32 kuniak´s latest poems published in 2020 reveal a lot about his family history with direct references to past events concerning the procedure of creating and establishing cooperative farms and his grandfather´s firm stance against the communist regime: he enjoyed himself / stubbornly against the time and fashion. in the village / where he lived, they could never launch a cooperative. // he was pedaling on his bike when he was hit / by the drunk driver of an allegorical wagon / in the first of may parade (binding, sense 2020: 55). 33 in the last lines of the poem, the author adds more facts about his grandfather’s likes, describing him as a man immensely connected with nature: he loved apple tree and jasmine. / me too: the autumn fruit, the fragrance of spring (binding, sense, 2020: 55).34 32 translated by anna slatinská. 33 translated by john minahane. 34 translated by john minahane. in the poem titled ignoramus et ignorabimus (binding, sense, 2020: 55) 35 he again refers to the idea of home: sometimes a thing is revealed only in an urgent echo. / for example, the word “home” spoken by extraterrestrial e. t. / sounds like snow glistening at night in the beam of a torch., playing with words, adding word by word to create an authentic description of things dear to him. in the 2020 series of poems entitled omnia mea mecum porto, kunniak’s poem family history documents another tragic event namely the death of his brother : my brother was four months old when he died... my grandad´s brother died in 1918 in the lowlands (today’s hungary)… he was 20. he never came home, not even in the coffin… / i don´t remember how i perceived the world at four / but when aged twenty i wished to marry (family anamnesis, sense, 2020: 56).36 in his poems, juraj kuniak often ponders the meaning of life and the concept of a soul which are inseparable entities: forming / the soul means nurturing imagination, and vice versa. …crossing by, never stopping over, behind the steering wheel / i stop in myself (waypoint, sense, 2020: 56)37. the series omnia mea mecum porto ends with a poem titled femme fatale (2020: 57) he poetically describes his relationship with his wife, saying “my wife and i have grown together”, emphasizing the importance of cultivating the family relationships. the reference to his wife occurs quite frequently in his poems and acts as a model of a sustainable marriage built on the principle of love, respect, and tolerance. juraj kuniak honors his spouse for the person she is, expressing his deep admiration and recognition of her. thus, the line analyzed above symbolizes the unity of man and woman and their interconnection which was created in the process of sharing and cultivating a life together. 35 translated by john minahane. 36 translated by john minahane. 37 translated by john minahane. anna slatinská anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry...home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 5352 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies while reading, decoding, analyzing, and evaluating kuniak´s poems we encountered detailed descriptions of landscape, as is exemplified in the following: where the stream is now, there was a stream / long ago in my youth and in the childhood / of my great-grandfather ‒ he used to tell / how he went down it to america (contact point, vlna 2018: 26-29).38 the stones our grandchildren throw in, / the stream accepts them with the friendly splash / that´s so important for the joy of the littlest / – i hold that jubilation in my hands! (contact point, vlna 2018: 27). 39 in another place within the same cycle he returns to the landscape again: transcription of the landscape: snow / gives way to prevailing green... / no place. / no word, no memory. / birds trill. to be there is unity (geography, vlna 2018: 27). 40 in the last poem bewildered nietsche he thinks deeply of the fate of man: in the end / what remained was a bare nothing, / an emptied, hollow space with man, / as if he were in a cave and through an opening / gazed at the landscape, to see if something there / would move him: a swallow, the shine of grass / bent by the wind, anything to give life / to the image of god dying in himself (7 poems series, 2018: 29). 41 moreover, kuniak’s private open-air museum (súkromný skanzen 1993) subtitled études on ethnic contains poetically tuned linguistically experimental prose based on village life. they are written in the dialect of černová (in the vicinity of ružomberok city). the act of using this regional vernacular contributed to the preservation and cultivation of the linguistic landscape of the given area. the stories written in this particular form are almost non-transferrable to any foreign language, thanks to their semantic nuances and variations posing a huge challenge for the future translators of historically based slovak dialects. 38 translated by john minahane. 39 translated by john minahane. 40 translated by john minahane. 41 translated by john minahane. results and findings the selected lines and verses extracted from juraj kuniak´s poetry all converge in terms of being the intercultural metonymical substitutes for words like “home”, “identity”, and “landscape.” semantically, his poems are united around the above-mentioned core-meanings while explicating and naming different layers of home, identity, life, landscape, and future. together they form an additional message for the spiritual welfare of society. we have discovered that the addressee of these messages can interpret them as reflections on home, landscape, place attachment, identity, family, roots, past, etc.. we have concluded that his poems contain many playful elements created by using figurative language, but recipients of his message stand to gain important insights from understanding kuniak’s poems and poetic texts as the poet intended them to be undertood. the intertext created by kuniak is apparent not only to himself but also to sensitive readers, who can decipher and understand his messages. juraj kuniak is a poet who does not authorize privilege to his poems, but instead address readers with a variety of topics. we stress the fact that juraj is not the only one who knows all contexts but lends this experience to other readers so that that they can viscerally understand his message. juraj kuniak´s poetology is based on the use of lexical, stylistic, and visual devices, which are challenging for the translator. almost all of his poems are titled. the title is the first clue to understanding the poem. kuniak’s eclectic choices of subject matter are bolstered by an intense intertexuality. kuniak is a lyrical hero who describes many of life’s moments, experiences and phenomena such as childhood memories and (religious) faith, which is of the utmost importance to him. through the medium of rich lexical and syntactic devices, his work is molded into a coherent unit interlinked with many a spiritual message for mankind. his poems have a great capability and power to influence others in a positive, constructive, morality-based way. despite the fact that all his poems are peculiar in their nature and refer to several sources and may allow different interpretations, they converge to yield an intertextual poetic representation of the words “home, identity, landscape, family roots, relatives, and place attachment”. kuniak´s poems anna slatinská anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry...home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 5554 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies include topical issues like the future of humankind, inclusive love towards others, the importance of being respectful, tolerant, sensitive, empathetic, responsible, caring, willing (and able) both to break boundaries between people and to build nurturing relationships. his poems open space for discussions, fostering development of global and life skills (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, etc.). juraj kuniak succeeded in creating a coherent poetic story based on his own life experiences, beliefs, expectations, and good wishes for the future of all humankind. juraj kuniak opens his heart to his readers and reveals his beliefs, ideas, and descriptions of his newly-built home, interlinking inner and outer dialogue and reflections of human subjects, reacting to today´s existence and to unprecedented advances in technologies which can be a double-edged sword. in this way, his poems seem to be not only a form of his own self-reflection and autobiography, but it offers us much more in an intertextual way referring to the context, subtext, references and allusions. those who either read or passively listen to kuniak´s poetry have a chance to take part in his intraand inter-personal dialogue, transcending intersubjective borders, reaching for broader cultural spheres (šabík 2007). kuniak´s poetry is capable of healing human psychological wounds due its invigorating poetic power and energy. he frequently mentions milan rúfus, whom considered a master of poetic craft and a personal guru who help kuniak to mature his own poetry. this is of interest since it could be applied within various spheres of society including education of the youth who are constantly searching for their own identity, which is not easy to find. in this way, we opine that the poetry of juraj kuniak could be used effectively for young people on the verge of maturity, looking for their place in society. milan rúfus, his idol, builds upon slovak, czech and european traditions, bringing his readers closer to our national heritage as well as global cultural heritage. moreover, he is constantly returning to his past childhood, youth, and maturity have found a profound place in his poetry. last but not least, for kuniak, home represents a society of people who are open, genuine, and positively tuned. home can survive all storms if it is firm but peaceful. he confesses to the reader that home without love would have no meaning for him. family and home are interlinked in kuniak´s poems. to be more precise, family is cardinal in his life: i was brought up to cultivate a different set of values (that are opposed to todays´ consumerism which destroys all that is human, makes our feelings shallow and stops our natural agility) such as self-sacrifice, honesty, modesty, rich spirituality, emotionality, fostering creativity, sense for art, and desire for education. i support multiculturalism but only that version which is governed by sense and sensibility (literárny týždenník, literary weekly paper, 2015: 2). 42 juraj kuniak sees poetry as a powerful tool to be able to bring remote cultures and civilizations closer while still remaining genuine to one’s own culture. conclusion juraj kuniak uses poetry as a way of intergenerational dialogue in which readers can encounter his memories and experience and become acquainted with several significant slovak places (černová, ružomberok, bratislava, banská bystrica) and personalities important in author´s life. in his poems and poetic texts we encounter such names as milan rúfus (the slovak national bard famous for his non-violent opposition against the communist regime), andrej hlinka (a slovak priest active in the period of černová massacre), his parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, poet´s spouse, etc.. kuniak´s poetic discourse is highly diverse. the previously mentioned motifs and themes represent a proof of a great attachment-both psychological and physical-to home and to landscape. the poems of juraj kuniak are about local and global issues. on a local level, the author appreciates a non-material, non-consumption-oriented way of life, and highlights that the original inhabitants of kordíky (his second home where he settled down with his wife and family) were devoted to woodcutting, living in the moment, and being mindful. taking the global perspective into account, he is not indifferent to the uncertainty of the 21st century and expresses his doubts and concerns about the fate of humanity. he is not reluctant to metaphorically criticize negative human qualities such as vanity, mediocrity, and desire for fame, money, and popularity, which often outweigh the positive human qualities such as respect, tolerance, honesty, etc.. all in all, kuniak´s poems could serve as a manual for living a better life (in which superciliousness, dishonesty, overindulgence, hatred, and evil do not have a place), simultaneously reminding the reader about the gift of 42 translated by anna slatinská. anna slatinská anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry...home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 5756 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies war-free life that we (the slovaks) were given and the reasons why it is so important to build a nurturing. the poet reminds us of our roots and urges us to remember our predecessors and consider matters pertaining to our origins and future direction in life, emphasizing the fact that there are also people who have been uprooted. furthermore, the poet introduces the reader to a sample of cultural and geographic representations of slovak culture when he mentions the capital city of slovakia bratislava, the river danube, the valley of violets in bratislava, the gerlach vale, čutkovská valley in ružomberok (the area where he was born), kriváň mountain as a symbol of the slovak nation, etc., redirecting the readers to the peculiarities of slovak nature (which are often taken for granted), stressing the significance of our own local environment, and encouraging us to explore our country more profoundly than we tend to. the poetry of juraj kuniak is interwoven with a detailed description and elaborate observations of landscape during different seasons. among other topics, his poetry embraces religious elements which are connected with his faith and beliefs, too. thus, the use of symbols like: saint mary, virgin mary, god, church, faith etc. accentuating the importance of inter-confessional peaceful dialogue and significance of respect and tolerance in communication of any kind. juraj kuniak directs our attention to the way in which his life and the life of previous and current generation have been shaped by the 1907 černová massacre, the communist regime, environmental issues, globalization, etc. kuniak does not leave unmentioned the role of language and language cultivation. he is aware of slovak history regarding the struggle for independence and freedom from the austro-hungarian empire and -in later years the communist regime. last but not least, we note that the author is not indifferent to the current political and cultural affairs in slovakia. experiencing the communist regime and all it entailed, he has been a proponent of intercultural dialogue based on respect and tolerance, proposing the philosophy of mindfulness which he views as worth applying in these uncertain times. in kuniak’s poetry, we have seen how the concept of home and landscape permeate his poems even when viewed through the lens of topics such as childhood, (birthplace), family roots and relationships, genealogy, history, politics, culture, etc. in conclusion, there is a great deal that one can learn from the poetry of juraj kuniak. he is a sensitive observer, careful with words, and is determined to spread peace, respect, tolerance, and love throughout his homeland and the world via his poems and poetic texts. regarding the current life of juraj kuniak, he is the founding father of the rock rose publishing house with the premises in kordíky (near banská bystrica) which supports publication of slovak (mária ferenčuhová, dana podracká, anna ondrejková, marián milčák, mila haugová, ján gavura as well as foreign authors (knuta ødegård, walt whitman, james wright, barbara korun, macuo bašó, czeslaw milosz, tőzsér árpád, octavio paz, louise glück etc.). evidently, the publishing house is not limited to one-nationality authors only, what is more, the published and translated poetic works of art create a sample of different cultures (slovenian, croatian, american, slovak, norwegian, japanese, polish, hungarian, mexican). through the medium of translations realized by the rock rose publishing house, juraj kuniak (a poet, translator, and publisher) contributes to the culturally rich mosaic of local and global poetry. it is worth mentioning that juraj kuniak´s poems and poetic texts transcend time and can be enjoyed by a diverse group of readers who find them to be stimulating and invigorating. as juraj kuniak himself said: “art becomes art when it cultivates, reawakens and softens values, so important in the turbulent 21st century” (literárny týždenník, literary weekly paper, 2015: 2). anna slatinská anna slatinská home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry...home and landscape in juraj kuniak´s poetry... 5958 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies articles (in book) kuniak, j. (2015). krajinovnemy. in biarinec et al., krajina vo mne (landscape in me), pp.101-124. ružomberok: verbum. liashuk, v. (2019). do hĺbky a do výšky. o básnikovi jurajovi kuniakovi a jeho poézii. in amonit, pp. 125 – 132. belarus: mastackaja literatura. šabík, v. (2007). with heart and brain. in cor cordi, pp. 87-97. article (in journal) maršálek, j. (2015). rozhovor s básnikom a spisovateľom jurajom kuniakom o tvorbe, životných hodnotách, cestovaní, horolezectve a zmysle umenia a kultúry. in literárny týždenník pp. 1-2. references books biarinec, r. et al. (2015). krajina vo mne (landscape in me). ružomberok: verbum. juhásová, j. (2016). od symbolu k latencii (from symbol to latency). ružomberok: verbum. kuniak, j. & čech, j. (1993). súkromný skanzen etudy o etniku (private open-air museum – etudes on ethnicity. martin: matica slovenská. kuniak, j. (2003). púť k sebe (pilgrimage to the self). tajov: rock rose. kuniak, j. (2004). skalná ruža (rock rose). bratislava: petrus. kuniak, j. (2006). a bit of the world´s space. tajov: rock rose. kuniak, j. (2007). cor cordi. tajov: rock rose. kuniak, j. (2012). amonit. in kolektív autorov, proglas. preklady a básnické interpretácie, pp. 41-45. bratislava: lic. kuniak, j. (2015). za mestom (out past town). levoča: modrý peter. kuniak, j. (2019). amonit. belarus: mastackaja literatura. kuniak, j. (2012). lamium album. tajov: rock rose. kuniak, j. (2015). poems of the world no. 3. translated by john minahane. palatine, illinois (usa): international poetry press. kuniak, j. (2015). poems of the world no. 4. translated by john minahane. palatine, illinois (usa): international poetry press. kuniak, j. (2017). poems of the world no. 4. translated by john minahane. palatine, illinois (usa): international poetry press. kuniak, j. & kudlička, j. (2016). rosa mystica. kordíky: rock rose. kuniak, j. (2020). poézia. in rozum (sense). no. 3, pp. 54 – 57. kuniak, j. (2018). 7 básní. 7 poems series. in vlna. no. 77, pp. 26-29. 215 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions filip novaković university of banja luka aleksej indžić university of banja luka abstract in this article, we touch on the preambles of constitutions, their importance, and manner of interpretation with a purposeful analysis of these issues as the main objective of this paper. we look at constitutional law in its entirety, as well as preambular issues, to evaluate the segments of the legal act that represent its non-normative part. to significantly contribute to the understanding of the very goal of the constitution and similar acts is the most important issue of this topic. by analysing different methods of interpreting the constitution and its preamble, we provide a comprehensive account of errors in interpreting the constitution that penetrate every segment of our lives. keywords: interpretation of law; preamble; originalism; theory of law; constitution; constitutional law epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies216 introduction the constitution of every country in the world is the foundation of its state’s legal order as the highest legal act. it is the only legal act in the legal order of a state that also exhibits certain political characteristics (kuzmanović, 2007, pp. 11-24; savić, 2000, p. 55). it is the most important formal source of law and can be viewed in a material and formal sense. in the material sense, the constitution is a text that regulates most of the basic issues of social, state, and legal organization of a country. therefore, it is a set of norms that determines the organization and competence of supreme state authorities and sets the principles of state organization and overall legal order (popović, 1997, p. 46). in the material sense, it is determined according to the content, the matter of constitutional norms, and according to the content of social relations which are regulated by those norms. in the formal sense, the constitution is determined depending on the form of the legal act, including its competence, procedure, and materialization. thus, in the formal sense, the constitution is the highest general legal act passed by a special body with constitutional competencies, either a special constitutional body, or political or national representation, under a special procedure, drafted by a strictly defined nomotechnics and amended by a specifically determined procedure (kuzmanović, 2002, pp. 36-44; savić, 2005, pp. 270-272). in addition to these, the constitution has many other important features, for instance as a reflection of the society (slave-owning, feudal, capitalist, socialist), as an act of statehood, and as an ideological-political act. it is precisely these specifics, but also the significance it has for state and society, that raise particularly tricky questions about its interpretation, meaning the interpretation of the most general and most abstract norms in a legal order. who interprets these norms? or rather, who can interpret them? in what way? using which methods? what is the purpose of that interpretation? these are all questions that arise after the adoption of this basic law. according to visković (1981), the basic function of interpretation is to def. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions 217 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 termine several possible meanings of one vague and/or ambiguous legal act and to opt for one, namely the most favorable meaning (harašić, 2011, pp. 61-62; visković, 1981, p. 373). savić (2005) states that the interpretation or hermeneutics of law is a way or procedure used to make something that is vague clearer and more understandable (gadamer, 1978, p. 215; savić, 2005, p. 348). interpreting law is the daily activity of those who deal with legal norms, especially lawyers. indeed, legal norms, and especially constitutional norms, as a psychic creation cannot be understood without interpretation. the interpretation mostly seems imperceptible, because while performing this daily activity, the interpreter does not even notice that he is engaged in some important, but also difficult, special activity. the interpreter does that during the very process of learning legal norms, or as lukić and košutić (2003) state, “imperceptibly, naturally and easily” (p. 396). it is usually only at times when the interpretation becomes difficult, for instance when a certain norm is not clear and comprehensible “in itself,” that the interpretation of law stands out and is recognized as a special activity. interpretation of the constitution as the most general legal act is an even greater and more difficult activity, which can be left only to exceptional legal experts with a wide range of legal knowledge and experience. the constitution is written according to strictly established nomotechnics, which separates it from other legal acts, and must have its own structure. the constitution, as a rule, consists of two parts: the preamble and the normative part. however, practice has shown us that a number of constitutions deviate from this model and have several parts. therefore some constitutions possess a preamable, introductory or basic principles and a normative part, while others have a preamable, a normative part and annexes. the most important part of any constitution is the normative part, which contains the constitutional matter (materiae constitutionis). this part can differ in scope (the constitution of bosnia and herzegovina has 12 articles while the indian constitution has 407 articles) and writing technique (it can be presented in the form of essays or in a short, precisely and clearly way) f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies218 (đorđević, 1977, pp. 127-131; kuzmanović, 2002, pp. 48-50; perić, 1968, pp. 128-140). the notion that the normative part of the constitution has the greatest legal force and that it is the only one that contains constitutional matter has been ruling since constitutions were differentiated as such. but the situation has changed significantly today. perceptions have emerged that other parts of the constitution also contain constitutional matter and as such produce legal force, like preambles. since preambles are usually not included in the operative part of constitutional texts, they were underestimated by legal scholars and researchers, and did not occupy a significant and visible place in legal discussions (ginsburg et al., 2014, p. 104). constitutional preambles are thus somewhat of an enigma. there are many reasons why legal science has neglected them, but the most significant is the exclusively declarative nature of the preamble of the constitution, and that it lacks prescriptive value (frosini, 2012, p. 22). however, as already mentioned, interpreting a constitution’s preamble as a special part of the constitution that has a certain legal force has recently become a trend in law. to contribute to the understanding of the legal nature of the preamble, but also to the interpretation of the constitution in general, we will focus on the issues and theoretical and legal understandings of the legal nature of preambles. this article discusses the types of interpretation of the constitution in general and in the context of the interpretation of the preamble, theories on the interpretation and presentation of problems that have arisen and may arise in national and comparative practice (imaginary but not impossible cases) and those that have already occurred in legal practice. the legal nature of preambles in legal theory, the legal nature of preamables is still controversial and their legal status is not entirely clear. that is why there are different, often conflicting, opinions about it. some believe that the preamble is a political decf. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions 219 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 laration, without any legal significance, that it is not a legal regulation and that as such it is not obligatory, while others believe that the preamble is a legal regulation with more or less legal force. according to kelzen (1998), the preamble has declarative, ideological, and political significance rather than a legal one, because if the preamble was simply rejected, there would be no real changes in the constitution itself, meaning that the legal force of the constitution would hardly change (p. 323). kelzen’s opinion was shared by most legal writers regardless of their legal school or legal field. however, we believe that it would not be out of place to clarify the meaning of the word preamble and its purpose. “preamble” is a word taken from the latin language (lat. preambulum, preambulus) and means “introduction,” something that precedes. so, figuratively speaking, the preamble is an overture to something yet to come. on the other hand, in the formal legal sense, it is a part of a legal act that emphasizes the goal of passing that act, its basic principles, reasons for passing and the like, and which precedes the act itself, i.e. its normative part (savić, 2000, pp. 58-59). its political and declarative character, solemn and informative significance, diversity of content are all reasons for dilemmas about the legal nature of the preamble. the most common elements of preambles show it to be a bearer of sovereignty, historical narrative, main goals, peoples and/or national identity and invocation of god or religion (orgad, 2010, pp. 715718). there is no dilemma about the nature of the preamble only when the drafter of the constitution explicitly and unambiguously determines its significance and legal nature. however, such cases are rare in practice and only in a few countries has the legislator explicitly determined the legal nature of the preamble, such as turkey, croatia, indonesia, togo, and papua new guinea (mikić, 2014, p. 436; radovanović, 2020, p. 97; simović, 2020, p. 17). to provide one concrete example: article 151 of the 2012 constitution of the syrian arab republic states that “the preamble of the constitution is considered an integral part of the constitution.” f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies220 regarding preambles of which the legal effect was not determined by the writer/s of the constitution, three points of view exist in constitutional law theory. the first states that only the solemn declaration of a purely political nature has changed and that a preamble represents a symbolic overture to the normative part of the constitution; therefore, it lacks operational legal value. proponents of the second view believe that the preamble has legal significance, but that it is extremely limited and should be considered only as an aid in interpreting vague and overly abstract constitutional norms by placing them in an appropriate socio-political context. the third opinion considers the preamble as an integral part of the constitution and equates its legal effect with the effect of the normative part of the constitution (simović, 2020, p. 18). authors representing different views on the legal nature of the preamble can be divided into several groups: (a) classicists, (b) formalists, (c) materialists, (d) modernists, and (e) radicalists. the classical doctrine of constitutional law has long denied any kind of legal effect of the preamble because many arguments were in favor of this very thesis. we mentioned earlier that the word “preamble“ originates from latin, meaning “something that precedes something,” therefore, a kind of introduction. thus, the preamble is only an introduction to a legal act without a normative, but only declarative effect. hence, it is considered that elements that should not have a normative character, but which should serve as reasons for adopting what follows, are often included in the preamble (simović, 2020, p. 18). classicists argue that besides constitutions, other legal acts also have certain introductions, such as laws, charters, and decrees. this is more common in the anglo-saxon legal field (jovičić, 1977, p. 124). however, these preambles, while containing some basic principles, reasons, and goals of passing an act, do not produce a legal effect, so classicists question why a constitutional preamble would be an exception. thus, they base their arguments on analogy (roach, 2001; simović, 2020, p. 19). however, there is reason to reject this argument because unlike laws that represent organizational and operational legal acts that more specifif. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions 221 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 cally regulate certain legal areas, the preamble as an act derives its force from the constitution and as such is normatively lower on the hierarchical scale in relation to the constitution (perić, 1968, pp. 140144; savić, 19961997, pp. 93-104). on the other hand, one of the basic characteristics of the constitution and its essential properties is that the constitution is an ideological-political, but also a declarative act (kuzmanović, 2002, pp. 41-42). thus, we conclude that this is not an ordinary legal act that contains only norms that regulate something. at its core, it also contains ideological and political elements that reflect the spirit of the time in which the constitution was adopted and proclaim the basic principles and principles of the state legal order. the formalists, i.e., those who base their arguments on the formal role that the preamble has in the constitution, state that it precedes the constitution and as such is not an integral part of it (marković, 2015, p. 43). as a counterargument to this claim, it is often stated that this would indeed be the case if the preamble precedes the text of the constitution, which in practice is not the case with all constitutions. in addition to this argument, the instrumentalism of the formalists also includes the fact that the preamble differs significantly in its structure from the substantive part of the constitution. the preamble, unlike the normative part, does not contain certain wholes, such as individual parts, chapters, articles, paragraphs, and points, but is written homogeneously, harmoniously, paying attention to the solemnity and declarativeness of each sentence. thus, since the preamble does not consist of several classification units as a substantive part of the constitution, the formalists conclude that it has no legal effect. in addition, the preamble is characterized by insufficiently defined, undefined, or unclear content, which is contrary to the character of constitutional and legal norms in general (jovičić, 1977, p. 125). precisely because of its content, the preamble may not be considered a part of the text, but a separate essence that seeks its own special place (orgad, 2010, p. 716). however, if this is taken as an argument for the negation of the legal effect of the preamble, then f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies222 we could deny any essay and insufficiently defined norm, which would include a substantial part of anglo-saxon and anglo-american law (kutlešić, 2010, p. 74; kuzmanović, 2002, pp. 48-49; simović, 2020, p. 20). as the arguments of the formalists did not provide a complete answer to the questions of the legal nature of the preamble, several authors decided to base their arguments on the shortcomings of the material properties of the preamble. the legislators use the preamble as a tool, as a means by which they introduce citizens to a legal act and communicate something to them. here, the preamble has a more rhetorical, oratorical, and solemn character. through the preamble, the citizens are given reasons for adopting the constitution, and they are introduced to the principles on which the future state legal system will stand so that it can then be considered a political pamphlet. that pamphlet would then have more of an instructive function than it would represent the substantive part of the constitution. the preamable does not prescribe norms for certain human behavior, which is why some authors conclude that it lacks legally relevant content and if it were rejected, almost nothing in the normative part of the constitution would change (kelzen, 1998, p. 360; simović, 2020, p. 20). some authors also conclude that it points to the prepositive basic and/or religious truths of a political community, and as such is more of a scientific, academic introduction to the constitution, a set of proclamations and programmatic principles that should be applied in the future (đorđević, 1980, p. 120; haberle, 2002, p. 185; jovičić, 1977, p. 125; kuzmanović, 2002, p. 41; pp. 49-50; simović, 2020, p. 20). the preamble often emphasizes the irrelevant historical, cultural, and civilizational foundations of a society, emphasizes the basic ideas of the constitution-maker that should be realized through the constitution, reminds and relies on a positive past, marks the present, and projects the future (kuzmanović, 2002, p. 49). the goal of every legal act, including the constitution, is to present the ideas and principles in the preamble and realize them, that is, turn them into a normative form, meaning legal norms, because only they are binding. legal norms are statements about need (gerf. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions 223 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 man, sollen) which, due to the character of the state legal order, most often turn into being (german, sein), whereby the function of the state and law is fulfilled (petrov, 2009, pp. 235-245; savić, 2000, p. 61). materialists, therefore, emphasizing the illegal side of the content of the preamble, believe that it has no legal effect. constitutional preambles, when we apply the comparative law method, seem to differ in their structure, content, scope, and functions they have (simović, 2020, p. 21). these differences vary from state to state, and from legal system to legal system. constitutions with longer preambles include those of the sfry from 1963 and 1974, the constitution of the people’s republic of china from 1954 and 1982, constitutions that contain a shorter preamble include the u.s. constitution, the french constitution, and the constitution of bosnia and herzegovina, whilere there are also cases of constitutions without any preambles. such constitutions, in principle, contain so-called preamble provisions in the first few articles; häberle calls the constitutional norms in these articles “catalogue of preamble articles“ (forsini, 2012, p. 29), i.e. provisions that have no legal but declarative character. for this reason, some authors distinguish between preambles in the formal and preambles in the material sense. such provisions are, for example, the constitution of the kingdom of denmark, the constitution of the kingdom of norway, and the constitution of cyprus (kuzmanović, 2002: 49; orgad, 2010: 715716; radovanović, 2020: 100-104; simović, 2020: 21). it can thus be concluded that the arguments offered by the materialists are not entirely complete and reliable due to the exceptions where the preamble is not necessarily a separate part, but its content can be found in the normative part of the constitution. trying to reconcile opposing views, modernists are of the opinion that not all preambles are the same, and that this is the reason why a final and generally accepted judgment cannot be given. we should look for answers to the question related to the legal nature of preambles in each individual case. therefore, by analyzing structure and content, we can determine whether or not a preamble has a legally relevant character. if it is concluded that f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies224 the text of the preface has legally relevant properties, then its legal effect cannot be disputed. interpreting the preamble of the european convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, bobbio (1974) came to the conclusion that preambles should be divided into “preambles of” and “preambles for” (p. 437). in the first case, the preamble consists of general and introductory principles that form an integral part of the constitutional document, while in the second case, the preamble is a ceremonial introduction to the constitutional act, together with an explanation of why and how the constitution was adopted (forsini, 2012, p. 147; simović, 2020, p. 21). this interesting thinking is often mentioned by the authors with the intention of presenting the different legal significance that too many may have, in order to approach their analysis in more detail. a large number of contemporary legal writers hold that the preamble has a primarily non-legal function, regardless of the growth of the movement for the affirmation of the legal relevance of the preamble. according to them, the preamble does not contain legal norms but ideological and political theses and ideas, and thus should not be treated as a normative part of the constitution. its role is exhausted through the interpretation of constitutional provisions (beoinoravičius et al., 2015, p. 139; simović & petrov, 2018, pp. 87-89). therefore, there is a subtle view that the preamble is an integral part of the constitution, but unlike other parts of the text of the constitution, it does not have a normative character. it does not contain constitutional norms, but ideas from which those norms should originate (fira, 2002, p. 63). thus, some authors believe that with the help of the preamble, and when interpreting them, constitutional provisions should be placed in a certain historical or ideological-political context (voermans et al., 2017, p. 44). some lawyers believe that the legal value of the preamble of the constitution depends on its content. thus, if it is written in legal language and contains legal constructions, even if it were only basic principles, it should be given legal effect. this is even more true if there are constructions in the preamble that identify with legal norms (orlović, 2019, p. 48; f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions 225 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 simović, 2020, p. 22; trnka, 2006, p. 44). preambles more often do not have a normative character, but that does not mean that they should be taken into account during the constitutional interpretation (stojanović, 2007, p. 62). in that sense, judge of the constitutional court of poland, zbigniew cieslak, stated that “the preamble as an integral part of the normative act, at the same time helps the body that applies the act to determine and systematize the content of protected values.“ he also said that the preamble is “an extremely important source for the teleological interpretation of the act“ (simović, 2020, p. 22). the preamble, however, is binding, but in a political way. it obliges the creators of law to translate the principles set out in it into legal norms, of which the constitution, in the material sense, is the only one. observed from the legal aspect, constitutional norms represent the result of the action of a political will which is expressed only declaratively in the preamble, while in the normative part of the constitution it acquires its true meaning (savić, 2000, p. 62). finally, in legal theory, there are those positions that completely equate the preamble with the normative part of the constitution and consider that its legal effect is equivalent to the substantive provisions of the constitution. namely, the authors that advocate this position explain that the preamble was adopted in the same special procedure, by the same, specially authorized body, as the constitution itself (vedel, 2002, p. 326). the 1958 constitution of france is often cited as an example here. namely, in this case, all parts of the constitution were put to a referendum (hence both the preamble and the normative part) and they were confirmed by the citizens so that it is a single whole (rousseau, 2006, p. 125). in addition, as radicals, they cite as an argument the competence of the french constitutional council, which refers to the control of the constitutionality of the law, and that it is not limited to the normative part of the constitution as a measure of constitutionality. the constitutional council adheres to the preamble of the french constitution as a measure of constitutionality, stating that “the french people solemnly proclaim their commitment to human rights and f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies226 the principles of national sovereignty as defined by the declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen of 1789.” because of that, the constitutional council did not adhere to the preamble when assessing the constitutionality of the law, the french legislature could delve deeply into the sphere of basic human rights and freedoms since the french constitution does not contain such provisions in its normative part. the declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen has, over time, grown in the spirit of french constitutionality and as such is inextricably linked to the constitution, and should be interpreted within it. as another argument for this thesis, it is stated that the declaration was adopted by the same body that proclaimed the modern french state – the national constituent assembly (frosini, 2012, pp. 65-66). one of the parents of modern french constitutional law theory, leon duguit (2007), considered that the constitutional position of the declaration was unquestionable, and that any law contrary to the declaration was unconstitutional (p. 218). in philosophical and legal circles, this debate lasted until 1971, when the constitutional council recognized the legal effect of the preamble and used it as a criterion for assessing the constitutionality of the law (simović, 2020, p. 23). thus, this is a position that recognizes the pre-integral character on the basis of the formal characteristics of the constitution, namely: (1) the enactor and (2) the procedure (kutlešić, 2010, p. 75). in other words, if the preamble together with the normative part of the constitution was issued by a specially authorized constitutional body in accordance with a specially established constitutional procedure, then the preamble must be considered an integral part of it and should be interpreted as such. types, methods and problems of interpretation the interpretation of law in general is one of the most complex human activities that is most pronounced when interpreting the constitution as the highest legal act, which explores the meaning and content, as well as the scope of positive constitutional norms and principles (savić, 2017, pp. 14f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions 227 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 15; stojanović, 2005, p. 119). the interpretation of the constitution may initially seem like the interpretation of any other legal act. that would be true, if we had some other, hierarchically higher legal act from which we could draw substantive and formal determinants for interpretation. it is for this reason that the interpretation of what we can see in the constitution is significantly more difficult and requires a special approach (vrban, 2003, p. 457). in this regard, we can cite a few examples from the case law of the u.s. supreme court. in the case of dred scott v. john f. a. stanford of 1857, u.s. supreme court president roger taney argued that “the constitution speaks not only in words, but in the same meaning and purpose it spoke of when it flowed from the hands of its creators and when it the people of the united states voted and accepted.“ similar to taney, justice george sutherland, in the case of the home building and loan assoc. v. blaisdell of 1934, pointed out “that the meaning of the constitution cannot be changed with the ebb and flow of economic events ... the constitution has the meaning as the people made it, until the people themselves, not their official representatives, make it different.“ on the other hand, justice john marshall in 1819, in the case of mcculloch v. maryland, took the position that interpreters must never forget that what they interpret. it is meant to last for years to come and that, for this very reason, it is adapted to the different crises that people will face. the authors believe that justice oliver holmes went the furthest in interpreting the constitution when he warned that the provisions of the constitution are not mathematical formulas that have essence in their form, they are living organic institutions transplanted from english soil, their meaning should not be derived by taking words from the dictionary, but by considering their origins and the line of their growth. however, some authors believe that it was the american lawyer and judge benjamin cordozo when he pointed out that “the constitution it expresses the rules for the time that passes, rather than the principles for the future“ (stepanov & despotović, 2004, pp. 137-138; vasić & čavoški, 1999, pp. 279-280). f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies228 in almost all countries of the world, the interpretation of the constitution is, at least indirectly, binding, and is entrusted to either regular, supreme, or specialized constitutional courts, although the constitution may also be interpreted by its enactor (lombardi, 1985, pp. 67-68). regardless of who is responsible for interpreting the constitution, the question of techniques and methods of interpretation arises. there has long been an opinion that it is impossible to define a general method of interpreting the constitution that will be applied by all interpreters and which all interpreters will unreservedly adhere to, regardless of (legal) space and time. the reasons for this are reflected in the very differences between legal spaces, specific situations in different countries and the self-limitations adopted by the constitutional judiciary in certain countries. interpreters have been working on the so-called traditional methods of interpretation, which originated from the sayings of roman jurists, and now there is a trend that interpretation is done by applying constitutional principles in a less positivist way, and to take as a basis standard, universally valid legal-dogmatic methods of interpretation (lombardi, 1985, p. 69; savić, 2017, p. 19). however, due to the character and level of constitutional norms, and the properties and functions of the constitution itself, general methods of interpretation require significant modification (stojanović, 2005, p. 119). this is supported by the unreservedly accepted position that the constitution is adopted in order to focus on the regulation of the state legal order for a long time, although in practice there are exceptions, e.g. in temporary and transitional constitutions, as well as constant processes of change in the state legal order (savić, 2017, p. 19). these dynamics of state and legal life are primarily the reason why constitutional norms are written with a certain amount of abstractness, vagueness and openness, in contrast to legal texts (stojanović, 2005, p. 119). many of the terms contained in the constitution do not belong to legal life and their definition is often of a social and political nature. these notions are often imprecise, political, and ambiguous. therefore, corrections of the general methods of interpretation that we use when interpreting lower legal acts, i.e., legal acts of lesser legal force, are required. f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions 229 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 special interpretation or correction of standard methods of interpretation is not required if there is no doubt on the part of the interpreter about the literal linguistic meaning of the term in constitutional norms. interpreting the constitution becomes a problem when an answer must be given to a constitutional question which, starting from the literal text of the constitution, cannot be clearly answered. some authors believe that the following modified methods of interpretation should be used in this situation: (1) linguistic interpretation (grammatical or verbal interpretation), (2) systematic interpretation, (3) teleological (or target) interpretation which can be differentiated into subjective (target) interpretation and objective (target) interpretation, (4) historical interpretation, and (5) comparative (law) interpretation (savić, 2017, p. 20). in addition to these methods, we find it equally useful for the interpreter to use: (6) subjective interpretation, (7) objective interpretation, (8) subjective-objective (mixed) interpretation, (9) logical interpretation, (10) static interpretation, (11) evolutionary interpretation, and (12) the method of interpreting exceptions and filling legal gaps. we will explain all the methods of interpretation and demonstrate them using practical examples. when interpreting the constitution, the interpreter must adhere to the following principles: (1) the principle of objective interpretation of the will, (2) the principles of concretization of the constitution, (3) the principle of unity of the constitution, (4) the principles of harmonization of constitutional norms, (5) the principle of state integration (6) the principle of functional immutability, and (7) the principle of constitutional-conformal interpretation of the law (stojanović, 2005, pp. 120-126). two theories of interpretation there are five basic sources that guided the interpretation of the constitution: (1) the text and structure of the constitution, (2) the intentions of those who drafted it, (3) previous precedents, usually court decisions, (4) social, political, and the economic consequences of alternative interpretations, and (5) natural law. there is a general consensus that the first three of these f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies230 sources are suitable guides for interpretation, but they significantly disagree about the relative weight to be given to the three sources when pointing in different directions. many interpreters of the constitution suggest that the consequences of alternative interpretations are never relevant, even when all other considerations are balanced. natural law is now seldom proposed as a guide for interpretation, although many constitution-makers have recognized its appropriateness. people who prefer to rely heavily on original sources are usually called “originalists” as opposed to “non-originalists“ who advocate giving more weight to precedents, consequences, or natural law. in practice, disagreements between originalists and non-originalists often concern whether the enhanced judicial review should be applied to certain fundamental rights that are not explicitly protected in the text of the constitution. in accordance with the above, we can divide the interpreters of the constitution into several groups: (1) textualists (who give primary weight to the text and structure of the constitution), (2) intentionalists (who give primary weight to the intentions of the creators of the constitution), (3) pragmatists significant weight to judicial precedent or the consequences of alternative interpretations), (4) positive law theorists, who give more weight to the thesis that the existence and content of law depend on social facts rather than merit, and (5) natural law theorists who believe that higher moral law needs to transcend inconsistent positive law (murill, 2018, pp. 5-24). each interpreter advocates a different thesis on interpretation, but for the purposes of this paper, we will deal with two, lately, the most interesting ones. so, a multitude of discussions on this topic has given rise to a multitude of different theoretical approaches to interpretation, but we will analyze only a few. we will first deal with the theory of originalism, or the theory of intention. according to this concept of interpreting constitutions, it is emphasized that all provisions of the highest legal act should be interpreted according to the original understanding at the time when the constitution was adopted. proponents of this view argue that the constitution is a stable act f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions 231 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 from the moment of its adoption, and that the meaning of its content can be changed only in a specially prescribed procedure by a specially authorized body (boyce, 1996, p. 915). this theory contradicts the concept of a living constitution which argues that the constitution should be interpreted on the basis of the context of current time and political identities, even if such an interpretation differs from the original interpretations of the document. a common argument in favor of this theory is that this interpretation results in “value-neutral judgment,” a situation in which the personal values of the interpreter do not affect the outcome of the case (chemerinsky, 2001, pp. 3-4). value-neutral judgment is closely related to the idea of judicial restraint. renowned u.s. supreme court justice antonio scalia, who is most associated with the idea of originalism, once defended his approach, writing: “which is not bound by a text or a special, recognizable tradition is not a law at all” (simović, 2020, pp. 24-29; tracz, 2020, pp. 101-102). the theory of originalism has two doctrines: (a) the doctrine of original intention (the doctrine of the subject’s intention) and (b) the doctrine of original meaning (the doctrine of objective intention). one of the earlier understandings of the theory of originalism was known as the doctrine of subjective (original) intention or the doctrine of intentionalism, a theory that predicted that all legal acts should be interpreted based on the subjective intention of the author, including the constitution (thomas, 2011, p. 6). thus, for example, when interpreting the u.s. constitution, the writings written by the authors of the constitution, which were presented at the constitutional convention in philadelphia, should be used, as well as other works authored by the authors of the constitutional matter. criticisms directed at the doctrine of original intent have led to a modification of the doctrine. original authors, judges, and commentators have suggested that instead of trying to discern the subjective intent of the compilers of the constitution, one should focus on seeking the objective meaning of the terms used (thomas, 2011, p. 8). as explained by scalia (1997), who was involved in providing the theoretical basis for this change, the constif. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies232 tutional analysis should focus on “the original meaning of the text, not on what the writers of the constitution originally intended” (p. 38). this doctrine of objective original meaning emphasizes how the text of the constitution should be understood rationally, in the historical period in which the constitution was proposed, adopted, and first implemented. because of the above, this doctrine is widely criticized. namely, some authors state that this doctrine is only one form of historical interpretation of the constitution, but a special method for its objective understanding. as the constitution is a living matter, it evolves and develops, and with that the understanding of its objective meaning should be developed, i.e. its provisions should be objectively understood depending on the moment of interpretation. thus, we interpret the objective intention of the legislators at the time the disputed situation arose. however, this doctrine has also created many dilemmas in practice. the most significant is the one that addresses the question of whether and if the obvious objective meaning of a constitutional phrase would create a flexible standard that could change over time? thus, for example, in the text of the u.s. constitution there are important phrases and sentences that are so widely written that it can be argued that they were intended for interpretation at a high level of generality. although the theory of originalism is somewhat attractive to interpreters of the constitution because it is particularly committed to the intention of the legislator and value-neutral judgment, the authors state that in practice there is a clear circumvention of the basic principles of this theory (tracz, 2020, p. 107). this is the reason why some legal writers have taken the position that it is necessary to find a better method for interpreting the real intention of the issuer of the highest legal act. this is exactly what caused the creation of a new theory, the theory of interpretation of the constitution based on the preamble or preamble-based theory of constitutional interpretation, which is gaining momentum in the united states. it is often presented as a solution to fill the vacuum that can arise in the interpretation of the most general provisions of the constitution. it is a three-part (or tripartite f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions 233 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 analysis) process of interpretation based on the preamble and which would include: (1) determining the constitutional norm according to which the provision of a lower normative act is challenged, (2) determining which of the goals or basic principles of the constitution stated in the preamble, implement or concretize the interpretation of the provision, and (3) determine whether the disputed norm of the lower normative act is in accordance with the purpose that the constitutional provision wishes to implement. the first part of the analysis is based on the identification of the constitutional provision based on which the legal norm from the lower normative act is challenged, and this part is quite simple, and can be taken as a simple formality, as a starting point for further interpretation. the second part of the analysis deals with the purpose of the constitutional provision in question. by some logic of things, constitutional provisions should promote the basic principles and postulates proclaimed by the preamble of the constitution. u.s. supreme court justice stanley reed stated that in the presentation of the u.s. constitution, every word must have its due force and proper meaning, because it is clear from the whole instrument that no word is used or added unnecessarily, just as the legislature takes care of by words through which he communicates his wishes through the law, which is the most convincing proof of his purpose. (tracz, 2020, p. 107). the words chosen by the legislature are often sufficient to determine the purpose of the law. it is reasonable to assume that the same logic applies to constitutional provisions. the words used to express the purpose of the u.s. constitution are found in the preamble. according to the preamble of the u.s. constitution, the purpose of this legal act is to form a more perfect community, establish justice, ensure domestic peace, ensure common defense, promote the common good, and ensure the blessing of freedom (... in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies234 tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…), and american authors state that these should be the guidelines for interpreting constitutional provisions (kuzmanović, 2000, p. 235). the third, and probably the most complicated, part of the analysis is to determine whether the provision of the lower normative act that is being challenged is in line with the purpose of the constitutional provision under which it is being challenged. the language in the constitution’s preambles can often be vague and indefinite, so it is necessary to use modified methods of interpretation to interpret the preamble itself, because each indent in the preamble can often have more meaning, and therefore the interpreted provision of the constitution can have multiple purposes. precisely because of this complexity, it is possible to expand the interpreter’s room for maneuver when using one’s own preferences in interpretation, which can be very dangerous. examples from practice while the theory of interpretation of the constitution based on the preamble can work on paper, the question of practical application, because the theory is as good as its application (each theory has its expression in the practical life of man, and the measure of its success is practical life man). in other words, the truth of an intellectual conception can be discerned only from the practical effects of its application. to this end, we believe that this paper should consider the practical application of methods of interpreting the constitution based on the preamble to real cases, or cases that may arise in practice. in this regard, we will present several cases from domestic and foreign constitutional and judicial practice, specifically from the practice of the constitutional court of bih and the supreme court of the united states. we will first present the position taken by the constitutional court of bosnia and herzegovina in partial decisions u-5/98-i, u-5/98-ii and u-5/98-iii of 29 january, 18 february and 1 july 2000, so-called decisions on the constitutivity of the people. the second case is the one found in the f. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions 235 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 practice of the u.s. supreme court, which refers to the right to hold and carry weapons protected by the second amendment to the u.s. constitution. these cases were not chosen because of their controversial outcomes, but rather because of their recentness and significance for constitutional law. interpreting the bih constitution, the constitutional court of bosnia and herzegovina, whose reason was the appeal of the then bih presidency chairman alija izetbegović to examine more than 20 members of the entity constitutions, took the position that the preamble is equal to the normative part of the constitution, and thus has equal legal effect (vehabović, 2006, p. 77). the constitutional court explained its principled position in the three above-mentioned partial decisions. in the opinion of the bih judges, bosnia and herzegovina has an atypical constitution. first of all, this is a constitution that is not written in the traditional continental nomotechnics that existed in bih. it is written in anglo-american nomotechnics and contains abstract essay-written norms. furthermore, it is the constitution that was adopted as an integral part of an international agreement so one can ask here whether the signatories of the general framework agreement for peace in bih could amend the previous constitution in such a way. this is precisely the reason why the constitutional court considered it appropriate to apply article 31 of the vienna convention on the law of treaties, as it applies to the dayton peace agreement and all its annexes (the bih constitution is annex iv of the dayton agreement). namely, according to article 31, every treaty, including the dayton agreement, must be interpreted in good faith, according to the usual meaning of the terms from the treaty in their context and in the light of the subject and purpose of the treaty. for the purpose of interpreting the contract, in addition to the text, including the preamble and annexes, the context shall include any agreement relating to the contract entered into by all parties in connection with the contract; related to the contract, which the other parties accept as a document relating to the contract. along with the context, the interpreter will also take into acf. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies236 count: any subsequent agreement between the parties on the interpretation of the treaty or the application of its provisions, any subsequent practice in the application of the treaty establishing an agreement between the parties on the interpretation of the treaty and any applicable rule of international law between the parties. finally, article 31 states in paragraph 4 that special meaning will be given to an expression if it is established that this was the intention of the parties. therefore, in accordance with the above, the constitutional court equated the legal force of the preamble to the constitution of bih with its normative part (savić, 2011, pp. 23-38). the second amendment to the u.s. constitution is a good example of how preamble-based theory of constitutional interpretation can be applied for one specific reason: the text of the amendment itself states its purpose (tracz, 2020, p. 108). the text of the second amendment reads: “since a well-organized militia is necessary for the security of a free state, the right of every citizen to keep and carry weapons cannot be violated” (kuzmanović, 2000, p. 122). examining how interpretations are based on the preamble in interaction with the second amendment is best illustrated in the case of district of columbia v. heller. namely, richard heller was a special police officer with the authority to carry a weapon while performing his duties in the court building where he was deployed. heller, meanwhile, asked for a license to hold a handgun because he wanted to keep it at home. d.c. refused heller’s request. heller appealed the decision to the federal district court, which has jurisdiction over the district. the appeal was not upheld, and heller appealed to a higher court. the court of appeals overturned the district court’s decision, finding that the court erred based on district regulations which, in the court of appeal’s view, were inconsistent with the second amendment, guaranteed by that amendment to the u.s. constitution. the supreme court of the usa confirmed the decision of the court of appeals by a majority of votes. judge scalia explained the court’s opinion in this case. namely, scalia divided the second amendment into two parts: (1) the introductory part (“a well-regulated militia, being necf. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions 237 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 essary for the security of a free state”) and (2) the operational clause (“the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”). he subsequently excluded the introductory part because he considered that it did not limit or extend the scope of the operating clause. thus, the introductory part has no material significance in this case. scalia concluded that only the operational part of the second amendment guarantees the right. this case helps us to apply the tripartite analysis we have already talked about. the first thing we need to determine is which provision of the constitution violates the mentioned decision – the decision of d.c. violates the second amendment. the second step is equally simple, we need to determine what the introductory part (preamble) of the second amendment requires – it wants to form a well-organized militia to protect the community and society. here scalia made an interesting maneuver, arguing that the second amendment has its own preamble, by analogy we can conclude that the situation is the same with other amendments, and the preamble of the second amendment, which is an integral part of the constitution, is also part of the constitution. the third and final step concerns the determination of whether the contested act infringes the purpose for which the second amendment was adopted. in this case, the supreme court answered in the affirmative. conclusion the preamble is the most common introduction to the normative part of the constitution, which contains some important elements, in principle, of a declarative nature. as the authors of the paper elaborated on the topic and problem of the preamble of the constitution, several most important attitudes and problems stand out, which must necessarily be addressed. the most important of which is the question of the legal significance and effect of the preamble itself, whether it is binding or not. the three main tendencies boil down to different interpretations of this issue. while the first says that the preamble is a binding part of the constif. novaković & a. indžić the basic problems of interpreting preambles of constitutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies238 tution and is an integral part of the legal act itself, the second refers to the need to consider the legal effect of the preamble, because it is not a normative part of the constitution but only a mere introduction to constitutional matter. the authors, so to speak, adhere to the third tendency and believe that the preamble, like the rest of the constitution, should be interpreted in the spirit of time and social reality. interpreting a constitution based on a preamble, as a practical method of interpretation, relies on the preamble and encourages fidelity to the text of the constitution, a feature that perhaps all jurists might like. equally important, a preamble-based interpretation is a progressive theory that attacks originalism on its own soil. no theory of constitutional interpretation is without flaws, but a theory of interpretation based on a preamble is certainly worth further research. preambles, 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(2003). država i pravo. golden marketing. epiphany: vol. 4, no. 1, 2011 issn 1840-3719 women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina muhidin mulalic * abstract very often conflict and post-conflict images of bosnia-herzegovina overshadow noteworthy developments and changes. similarly the role and contributions of women’s ngos in the process of civil society building don’t receive proper publicity and acknowledgment. therefore, this paper aims to put in the perspective women’s ngos in bosnia-herzegovina by providing historical and theoretical analysis of their contributions towards peace-building and elections, state-building and civil society building. furthermore, this paper aims to analyze origin and developments of gender legal, economic and socio-political framework as such framework is the precondition for actual application and achievement of gender equality. finally, this paper applies theoretical framework of civil society functions on leading women’s ngos. the author uses ethnographic methodology, written sources, ngo and governmental reports and gender related laws. the results of this paper indicate that women’s ngo’s in bosniaherzegovina made significant progress from providing mere humanitarian services to the establishment of gender institutional, legal, economic and socio-political framework. such progress placed women’s ngos at the position of application and achievement of gender equality in bosnia-herzegovina. with regards to the fulfillment of civil society functions, results indicate that women’s ngo’s made significant achievements in advocating values of human rights, tolerance and understanding, offering civic training, promoting civic education and public issues through media, and promotion of conflict resolution and inter-faith dialogue. however, civil society functions such as control of political power, monitoring of political participation and elections and promoting of anti-corruption awareness don’t indicate significant involvement of women’s ngos. keywords: gender, peace-building, civil-society building, women’s ngos and civilsociety functions * corresponding author: faculty of arts and social sciences, international university of sarajevo, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: mmulalic@ius.edu.ba, mmuhidin@hotmail.com mailto:mmulalic@ius.edu.ba mailto:mmuhidin@hotmail.com m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [41] introduction due to post-war ethnic and national divisions, bosniaherzegovina couldn’t affect desired social, economic and political changes and developments and, as a result, women’s ngos role in the process of women’s emancipation was affected too. however, as a result of the state-building process the promotion of gender issues, women’s rights, women’s economic independence, protection from violence, political representation and the adoption of domestic and international laws and conventions, including the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (cedew) have become much more emphasized. therefore, this paper introduces readers to the functions of women’s ngos in the process of civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina. the paper discuss the role of women’s ngos during and after the war, current gender legal, economic and sociopolitical framework and functions of women’s ngos in the process of civil society building. this paper aims to discuss and analyze the role of women’s ngos in the process of civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina with an objective to present to what extent women’s position in the society has changed from 1990s until today. in this regard, the paper will offer clear historical and chronological picture of these developments. then, special emphasis will be placed on the development of legal, economic and socio-political framework. the last part of this paper will present civil society functions such as control of political power, monitoring of political participation and elections, promoting of anticorruption awareness, advocating values of human rights, tolerance and understanding, offering civic training, promoting civic education and public issues through media, and promoting conflict resolution and interfaith dialogue. in order to analyze civil society functions this paper will analyze contributions of the leading women’s ngos in bosniaherzegovina. this paper is based on ethnographic methodology, written sources, reports and direct observation of women’s ngo’s in bosniaherzegovina. an attempt has been made to tackle: the origin, development and transformation of women’s ngos in bosniam. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [42] herzegovina; an establishment of gender legal, economic and sociopolitical framework; women’s ngo’s involvement in analyzing, criticizing and opposing views and policies of political powers; monitoring political participation and election; promotion of the value of conflict resolution, peace-building, tolerance and understanding; promotion of civic education, civic training and human rights. women’s ngos in the war and post-war bosnia-herzegovina from the mid 19 th century the non-governmental organizations have been successfully operating and the term itself began to be used more frequently with successful establishment of the united nations, a period that indeed reflected the need of ngos in fostering of the civil society. since then ngos, as independent societal organizations, began first focusing on assistance and social care services in terms of the distribution of food, shelter and medical assistance. in the following decades due to various needs ngos expanded their scope from mere assistance to the capacity building in terms of education and training. in the past decade or so due to democratization process, ngos promote political and institutional changes and development at local, national and international levels (boli and thomas, 1997, pp. 171-190 and martens, 2002, pp. 271–285). therefore globalization and democratization have contributed to the growing importance of ngos worldwide and, as a result, the conception of the civil society was also popularized. the above historical development of ngos was presented in order to introduce readers to the development of ngos in bosniaherzegovina. since the beginning of the war in bosnia-herzegovina, socialist structured ngos sector began to change and transform rapidly. it is significant to mention that when the yugoslav crisis emerged socialist civil society was unable to counter spreading of nationalism that was one of the major causes that contributed towards conflicts in the early 1990s. sejfija (2006) explains that newly established ngos in bosnia-herzegovina with the assistance of the international organizations and actors in the 1990s were mostly emphasizing humanitarian assistance and social care services. however, after signing of the dayton peace agreement, ngos began to play a significant role in the peace-building, m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [43] post-war trauma and the reintegration of the country (p. 125). nowadays, ngos take an active role in the monitoring of political leadership, political participation and elections, advocating anti-corruption awareness, values of tolerance and understanding, civic education and human rights, and promoting of public issues. certainly, any post-war country, including bosnia-herzegovina, goes through three phases of development namely: peace-building and elections, state-building and civil society building (deacon and stubbs, 1998, pp. 99-115). women’s organizations began playing significant role in bosniaherzegovina immediately by the beginning of the war. the first women’s organizations in sarajevo and tuzla consisted of volunteers who provided services such as food, clothing and shelter for refugees and counseling and medical care for war victims, especially rape victims. some of the women’s organizations became partners of the unhcr, which coordinated humanitarian relief during and after the war. therefore the first ngos were attempting to respond to the crisis of the war and its outcomes. for instance, medica zenica and women to women ngos were the first women’s organizations that provided a place for refugees in the war. they were offering medical, psychological and social support and dealt with war trauma (simić, 2009, p. 5; kleck, 2006, pp. 343-355 and belloni, 2010, pp. 129-153). medica zenica on its website presents itself as an expert non-governmental organisation that continuously offers psycho-social and medical support to women and children victims of war and also post war violence, including victims of war rapes and other forms of war torture, sexual violence in general, domestic violence survivors, as well as victims of trafficking in human beings (medicazenica.org). throughout the years of the war ngos were working together and often under direct control of larger international humanitarian organizations. therefore, due to war circumstances ngos were rather apolitical. however, women’s ngo’s played significant role in peace building process in bosnia-herzegovina. cockburn (1998) holds that, http://medicazenica.org/ m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [44] even prior to the beginning of wars across former yugoslavia, women activists under the name women for peace called for negotiations and peaceful conflict resolution (p. 167). considering the fact that men make wars and women make peace, international organizations and donors targeted women’s ngos for the projects of ethnic reconciliation and the establishment of cross-ethnic communication and dialogue (helms, 2010, pp. 17-32 and helms, 2003, p. 18). a year after signing of the dayton peace agreement the impact and role of ngo-s had significantly changed. in this regard many women’s ngos were registered and they began to have an important role. such change was strongly supported by the international organizations that made the first attempt to bring women to cultural, social, economic and political spheres of life because earlier they had no adequate place in these spheres of life in bosnia-herzegovina. a period after the war also affected the scope and activities of women’s ngos that began to emphasize direct support for refugees and returnees, monitoring of violations of human rights and facilitating the return and reconstruction process. women’s ngos became interested in overall improving the position, status and rights of women in the society. therefore, women’s ngos during this period were not tackling legal and political aspects of life of women in bosnia-herzegovina but on the contrary humanitarian and social aspects of women’s life. in this regard it is important to mention that many ngos were established to secure women’s rights and human rights. in the past decade women’s ngo’s made significant shift from mere humanitarian civil society activism towards direct involvement in shaping a legal, economic and socio-political framework. indeed, women’s ngos began taking a much more active role in seeking an adoption of laws and establishment of ministries and institutions that would guarantee women’s rights in bosnia-herzegovina. since gender, legal and institutional framework has been significantly established, women’s ngos presently take an active role to ensure its application. such an application stage of women’s ngo’s will be clearly illustrated in the last part of the paper that aims at an assessment of women’s ngos functions in the process of civil society building. m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [45] gender legal, economic and socio-political framework this part of the paper attempts to analyze gender legal, economic and socio-political framework and developments as based on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (cedaw) reports from bosnia-herzegovina. beginning from 2004, five reports clearly indicate an establishment of gender framework and developments in bosnia-herzegovina (www.arsbih.gov.ba). as a requirement for the process of european integration, in recent years bosnia and herzegovina has undertaken series of security, legal, economic, social, educational and political reforms. throughout these processes of the reformation gender legal frameworks, policies and reforms have also been developed. by considering challenging post-war circumstances bosnia-herzegovina made significant legal and institutional developments towards fulfilling its domestic and international gender legal obligations. in 1993, bosnia-herzegovina ratified un convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (cedaw), which obliged bosniaherzegovina to eliminate women’s discrimination from legal, political, economic and cultural aspects of life. then, by signing the beijing declaration and the platform for action in 1995 bosnia-herzegovina was obliged to take direct steps towards the elimination of women’s discrimination. this declaration requested each member state, including bosnia-herzegovina, to develop gender national action plan. then, in 2000 the security council adopted un resolution no. 1325 on women, peace and security, which made mandatory women’s participation in all important matters of peace and security. since 1993 in the process of fulfilling its international obligations bosnia-herzegovina made significant progress with regards to the gender legal position. therefore, institutional legal mechanisms have been introduced at all levels of governance. different commissions have been established to coordinate gender issues across the state, entities and cantons. apart from the earliest establishment of the ministry of human rights and refugees in bosnia-herzegovina major breakthrough towards greater institutional tackling of gender issues was the establishment of http://www.arsbih.gov.ba/ m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [46] gender equality agency of bosnia and herzegovina, (www.arsbih.gov.ba), gender center of the federation of bosniaherzegovina (www.fgenderc.com.ba) and gender center of serb republic (www.vladars.net). besides establishing institutional legal gender framework bosnia-herzegovina adopted a law on gender equality, anti-discrimination law (www.fgenderc.com.ba) and the gender action plan (www.arsbih.gov.ba). in the past decade, gender legal reforms and developments point to a significant improvement over the previous period. the adoption of gender legal framework was largely the result of persistent work of women’s ngos in bosnia-herzegovina, which demonstrate efforts in the process of civil society building. however, there is still a need to harmonize a number of laws at the state, entity and cantonal levels as to ensure an application of equal rights and equal treatment of women in bosnia-herzegovina. besides, there is a need of greater coordination of different agencies and institutions in tackling domestic violence, women’s social protection, war victims and women trafficking. as indicated in the above bosnia-herzegovina made significant gender legal changes and reforms as confirmed by general recommendation no. 6 of the un cedaw committee. legal framework in bosnia-herzegovina, though partially, articulated gender issues and as a result perceptions, attitudes and understandings of women’s role in the society are being gradually changed. however, as moranjak-bambura (2007) claims women’s ngos hold that legal changes and reforms couldn’t foster an achievement of women’s rights because gender legal framework and policies are not being implemented on the ground. an economic and socio-political framework has also been significantly adopted across the state, entities and cantons. the law on gender equality and the anti-discrimination law have introduced special provisional measures in order to achieve economic and sociopolitical gender equality. furthermore, article 24 of this law requested state, entity and cantonal authorities to provide special measures, laws regulations, and other related acts, policies, strategies and plans that clearly regulate economic and socio-political aspects of life. in this http://www.arsbih.gov.ba/ http://www.fgenderc.com.ba/ http://www.vladars.net/ http://www.fgenderc.com.ba/ http://www.arsbih.gov.ba/ m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [47] regard, the law must ensure equal representation of women in the governance, decision-making and representation at all levels. women’s political, legal and public rights have been secured in the following laws: election law of bosnia-herzegovina and law on high judicial and prosecutorial council of bosnia-herzegovina. then, women’s maternity rights, rights to work, pension, health insurance and social protection have been secured by the law on civil service, labor and wages in bosnia-herzegovina and the labor law of bosniaherzegovina. the resolution on combating violence against women in the family was adopted to combat violence against women in the family. the strategic plans for the prevention of violence against women have been adopted by both entities, and, as well as, financial support has been provided for 173 safe houses that shelter women violence victims. the criminal law of bosnia-herzegovina also provides the framework for protecting women from human trafficking and sexual exploitation. post-war and economic growth in bosnia-herzegovina was significant; however beginning from 2009 there is a sharp economic decline. such economic decline was due to poor economic planning and the effects of global economic and financial crisis. in the past two years economy in bosnia-herzegovina is characterized with high government expenditures, tax-revenues declines, high rate of unemployment and external borrowings and debts. therefore, the current economic crisis has serious impact on women and their economic and social rights. according to cedaw report, “despite the fact that women comprise 51.7% of the total employable population, only 37.1% of employees are women” (www.rightsforall.ba). employed women are also discriminated with regards to jobs on full-time basis, the rights to maternity leave, illegal dismissals, non-payments of health and pension insurances for the duration of maternity leave, exposure to mobbing, sexual harassment and others (www.rightsforall.ba). finally women’s exercise of political rights and participation in political processes is inevitable for the democratic development of the state. in bosnia-herzegovina there is the inadequate representation of women in elected political bodies at all levels including state, entity cantonal and even municipal levels of government. currently m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [48] a preference is given to ethnic representation rather than gender representation. as clearly illustrated in the above women’s legal, economic and socio-political framework in bosnia-herzegovina has been established. however, bosnia-herzegovina is far away from applying and realizing women’s economic and socio-political rights in particular. for instance, after general elections in 2010 only 17% of women take an active role in the governance. this and similar examples are indeed clearly supported by the statistical data of 2011 cedaw report, which needs not further elaboration. therefore, bosnia-herzegovina has only prepared the ground while state actors and especially women’s ngos must move one step further towards an implementation of gender laws, policies and plans. such position of gender rights is great opportunity for the wider community and especially for women’s ngos to embark on gender’s rights realization because the first step of establishing legal, economic and socio-political framework has been successfully established. functions of women’s ngos in the process of civil society building civil society should become a middle ground between the individual and the state, a space that can check and balance state’s use of power and allow an individual to be expressed. such civil society should also use its role in the process of moderation and dialogue as to counter the nationalist grip on power that often give a preference to national over civic aspects of the state (belloni, 2010, pp. 167-168). in this regard it is significant to analyze civil society functions in bosnia-herzegovina and the contributions of women’s ngos in the process of civil society building. the most important function model of civil society was developed by german political scientists merkel and lauth. their function model of five essential functions of civil society is directly linked to democratic processes within regional, cultural and societal contexts. five essential functions of civil society include protection, intermediation between state and citizens, participatory socialization community building or integration and communication. then, edwards (2007) argued for the synthesis of the different roles of civil society such as civil society as m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [49] associational life, civil society as the good society and civil society as the public sphere (pp. 607-614). these two theoretical approaches indicate key functions of civil society such as control of political power, monitoring of political participation and elections, promoting of anticorruption awareness, advocating values of human rights, tolerance and understanding, offering civic training, promoting civic education public issues through media, promoting conflict resolution and inter-faith dialogue. women’s ngos should monitor how state officials use their political powers as to raise public concern about any abuse of power. they should lobby for access to information, including freedom of information laws and for the adoption of procedures and establishment of institutions to monitor and control corruption. women’s ngos should expose the corrupt conduct of public officials; lobbying for good governance reforms and their support for the implementation of anticorruption laws is inevitable. then, women’s ngos should provide services to the people as to educate them about their rights and obligations as democratic citizens with regards to the political participation. they should encourage people to get involved in public debates by expressing their views. political participation and elections indeed affect legal, socioeconomic and political position of women. therefore, women’s ngos have been very active in promoting political participation. their concern for the establishment of the democratic state government after successful conducting of the general elections is clearly illustrated by activities of udružene žene, banja luka [united women] that organized a protest together with other women’s ngos due to not forming the executive authority at the state level and continuous ignorance of the law on gender equality in bih. 13 months after the general elections in bih, we still have no the executive authority. the council of ministers in technical mandate did not adopt neither the program of work nor the budget for 2011 but it did not distract the members of the council of ministers to receive their salaries on a regular basis (www.unitedwomenbl.org ). m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [50] women’s ngos in particular attempted to involve women in political participation and elections as to increase the gender political representation in bosnia-herzegovina. in this regard, udružene žene, banja luka [united women] supported female politicians in the local elections that were held in october 2008. also women that were elected as delegates in local councils/municipal assemblies in bosnia-herzegovina have been offered supports and cooperation ((www.unitedwomenbl.org). similarly, prior to the general elections in 2010, tpo foundation made a campaign “empowerment of women voters: 101 reasons to vote for women” which was purposefully aimed at motivating women to take an active role in political participation (www.tpo.ba). it is needless to mention that the number of other women’s ngos from tuzla, bijeljina, banja luka, mostar, zenica, bihać and sarajevo made numerous street political campaigns aimed at women’s political participation in the general elections. women’s ngos should get an active involvement in promoting democratic values. obviously the role of civil society is to promote tolerance, moderation, compromise and respect for opposing views. to what extent women’s ngos have been involved in the promotion of the value of human rights, tolerance and understanding through specific projects and activities? do women’s ngos have programs, trainings, debates, seminars and workshops aimed at resolving the socio-political differences among major ethnic groups in bosnia and herzegovina? indeed the promotion and advocacy roles of women’s ngos in bosniaherzegovina have been very impressive. for instance, one of the advocacy roles of medica zenica is to to influence and propose amendments to legislation to ensure the improvement of the status of survivors of war trauma and violence in peacetime in accordance with international standards…for 18 years medica has been advocating for: rights of women, war rape survivors, survivors of domestic violence and other violence forms, and rights of victims of trafficking; human rights and http://www.tpo.ba/ m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [51] gender equality; better position of the safe house and counseling of medica zenica (www.medicazenica.org). similarly žene ženama, sarajevo [women to women] ngo has been involved in many projects directed towards peace building and coexistence in bosnia-herzegovina. in 2011 this ngo worked on a project entitled “women in peace building – reconciliation in the local community.” this project was aimed “to promote good practices and experiences in overcoming social conflicts among members of the constituent peoples, through creating a space for encounter and dialogue among them.” then, žene ženama played significant role in the process of adopting laws that prevent human trafficking and organizing many important campaigns aimed at creating public awareness about human trafficking (www.zenezenama.org). other women’s ngos such as lara, bijeljina, udružene žene, banja luka [united women], žena bih, mostar [women bih] and la strada, mostar also took an active role in fighting human trafficking and providing free legal services. women’s ngos should provide training and services. women’s ngos in bosnia-herzegovina have been involved in the promotion of civic education, civic training and human rights? for instance medica zenica implements a variety of educational, research, advocacy, and publishing projects focused on promotion and protection of human rights, prevention and rehabilitation from war trauma, sexual and domestic violence, combating trafficking in human beings and provision of legal aid through outreach programs… in this regard, professional training is provided…training for hairstyling, tailoring/sewing, and upholstering. the training cycle lasts for 6 months of practical work. upon finished training the trainees take a final exam and upon passing the exam they receive a certificate from the employment office of zenica doboj about the skill acquired. the certificate is validated and recorded in the person's work card. in the past 18 years, medica zenica has enabled 777 women and girls to receive a state http://medicazenica.org/ m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [52] accredited certificate on vocational education (www.medicazenica.org ). žena bih, mostar [women bih] also provides numerous services and trainings. according to the data this ngo provided knitting training for 2000 women and sewing training for 600 women. then, 38 women received professional training and embarked on lifelong learning. numerous trainings have been conducted for both public and civil sectors on multidisciplinary approaches to violence victims (www.zenabih.ba). similarly other women’s ngos as for instance udružene žene, banja luka [united women] also provided numerous trainings and services on leadership organization and management, public advocacy trainings, strategic planning training, project and research training and business and market panning training (www.unitedwomenbl.org). it is essential for women’s ngos to inform the public about important public issues and debates. this is not only the role of mass media, but of ngos which can provide forums for debating public issues and disseminating information about issues before parliament that affect the interest of different groups or society at large. women’s ngos have been involved in informing the public about important public issues and debates. numerous women’s magazines, reports and publications indicate the role of women’s ngos in using the media for the promotion of civic values, especially those related to women. in this regard, among its strategic priorities and objectives udružene žene, banja luka [united women] is “strengthening awareness of women and men citizens about violence against women and gender based violence through media advocacy” (www.unitedwomenbl.org). similarly …in the past 18 years medica zenica issued 42 publications. this area of work includes publishing of advocacy, informational, presentational and promotional materials created in medica zenica...in 2010 medica zenica was present in 33 types of media and had 66 media appearances. out of that number 61 appearance was in 28 media in bih, i.e. 11 hours in electronic media (tv and radio) and 8.5 pages of printed media and web sites, and 5 http://medicazenica.org/ http://www.zenabih.ba/ m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [53] appearances in foreign media. the average monthly appearance of medica zenica in all types of media was 5.5 times (www.medicazenica.org). thorough analysis of women’s ngos reports with regards to fulfilling civil society functions indicate significant contributions especially in advocating values of human rights, tolerance and understanding, offering civic training, promoting civic education and public issues through media, and promoting conflict resolution and interfaith dialogue. however, women’s ngos should increase their involvement in controlling the political power, monitoring of political participation and elections and promoting anti-corruption awareness. conclusion this paper has indicated the continuous activism of women in bosnia-herzegovina that reached its peak during the last decade. beginning from 1990s as a result of socio-political and economic changes, women began to take active role in providing humanitarian assistance and social care services. then, after signing of dayton peace agreement women’s ngos contributed significantly towards the peacebuilding and healing of post-war trauma and the reintegration of the country. for the last decade women’s ngos have taken an active role in civil society building. the establishment of gender legal, economic and socio-political framework, as a milestone and most inevitable precondition for gender equality, was the most significant contribution of women’s ngos in bosnia-herzegovina. by signing and adoption of international gender conventions and declarations bosnia-herzegovina made the first step towards national reforms and the establishment of gender equality framework. at the national level, bosnia-herzegovina adopted laws and established institutions that could facilitate application and achievement of gender equality. therefore, without an establishment of such framework, seeking application and achievement of gender equality in bosnia-herzegovina would have been impossible. this paper also indicated, based on women’s ngos reports and cedaw reports that http://www.medicazenica.org/ m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [54] bosnia-herzegovina is currently at the stage of application and achievement of gender equality. the last part of the paper made analysis of functions of women’s ngos in the process of civil society building. by considering historical and socio-political circumstances of bosnia-herzegovina, women’s ngo’s rightly gave preference for protection, advocacy, service delivery and intermediation civil society functions. then, due to the establishment of gender framework women’s ngos in bosnia-herzegovina will focus more on monitoring role, which has been to great extent neglected. certainly, women’s ngos should increase their involvement in controlling the political power, monitoring of political participation and elections and promoting anti-corruption awareness. references belloni, r. (2010). civil society and peacebuilding in bosnia and herzegovina. journal of peace research, 38, (2), 163-180. belloni, r. and hemmer, b. (2010). bosnia-herzegovina: civil society in a semi-protectorate. in paffenholz t. (ed.), civil society and peacebuilding: a critical assessment. (pp. 129-153). boulder, co: lynne rienner publishers. boli j. and thomas m. g. (1997). world culture in the world polity: a century of international non-governmental organization. american sociological review, 62, (2), 171-190. chandhoke, n. (2007). civil society. development in practice. 17, (4-5), 607-614. cockburn, s. (1998). the space between us: negotiating gender and national identities in conflict. london: zed. deacon, b. and stubbs, p. (1998). international actors and social policy development in bosnia and herzegovina: globalism and the new feudalism. journal of european social policy, 2, 99-115. edwards, m. (2009). civil society. cambridge, polity press. m. mulalić women’s ngos and civil society building in bosnia-herzegovina epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [55] helms, e. (2010). the gender of coffee: women and reconciliation initiatives in post-war bosnia and herzegovina. focaal—journal of global and historical anthropology, 57, 17-32. helms, e. (2003). women as agents of ethnic reconciliation? women’s ngos and international intervention in post-war bosniaherzegovina. women’s studies international forum, 26, (1), 1533. kleck, m. (2006). working with traumatized women. in fischer, m. (ed.), peacebuilding and civil society in bosnia-herzegovina. ten years after dayton. (pp. 343-355). münster: lit-verlag. martens k. (2002). mission impossible? defining nongovernmental organizations. voluntas: international journal of voluntary and nonprofit organizations, 13, (3), 271–285. moranjak-bambura, n. (2007). nepodnošljiva lakoća stereotipa. in moranjak-bamburać, n. et. al (eds.), stereotipizacija: predstavljanje žena u štampanim medijima u jugoistočnoj evropi. (pp. 9-43). sarajevo: media centar sarajevo. sejfija, i. (2006). from the “civil sector” to civil society? in fischer, m. (ed.), peacebuilding and civil society in bosnia-herzegovina. ten years after dayton. (pp. 125-140). münster: lit-verlag. simić, o. (2009). activism for peace in bosnia and herzegovina: a gender perspective. global media journal, 8, (15), 1-19. www.medicazenica.org www.arsbih.gov.ba www.fgenderc.com.ba www.vladars.net www.rightsforall.ba www.unitedwomenbl.org www.tpo.ba www.zenezenama.org www.zenabih.ba http://www.medicazenica.org/ http://www.arsbih.gov.ba/ http://www.fgenderc.com.ba/ http://www.vladars.net/ http://www.tpo.ba/ http://www.zenabih.ba/ epiphany_vol14_no_2_edited_2023.7.3.indd epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies vol. 15 no. 2, 2022 9 unfolding the obscure image of ben in doris lessing’s ben, in the world (2000) zahra rahimnouri ferdowsi university of mashhad abstract � is paper studies the unusual character of ben, who seems not to be adequately understood and is exaggeratedly foregrounded as somebody except a normal human being. in order to reach a more comprehensive picture of ben, we examine di� erent characters’ mental functioning, narrative lines, points of view, and voices, especially ben’s, the story’s protagonist, through the lens of narratology and focalization. furthermore, ben’s clauses are analyzed in more detail through the technique of free indirect thought (fit) to learn more about ben’s mental functioning, his consciousness, and the interactions between him and the world around him. finally, we show that di� erent narrations portray ben as having a simple, child-like, animallike, and deviant mind style or as too passive to alter his situation, but the analysis of his narration shows something di� erent, and it seems that he is not understood adequately by other characters. keywords: narration; focalization; free indirect thought; ben, in the world epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 1110 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies narration of the events. narratology is a � eld of study that consists of various narratological theories, approaches and attempts to analyze the events that happen in images, and spectacles of cultural artifacts that tell a story. narratology helps the reader perceive, evaluate and analyze the narrative text. in narratology, we study the narrative and elements related to it as a genre, and it aims to describe constants, combinations, and the variables that are used a lot in the narrative. in addition, it clari� es how these characteristics are connected within the theoretical models and the framework that these typologies have (fludernik, 2009, p. 8). palmer (2003) notes that narrative � ction is the representation of the � ctional characters’ mental functioning. he asserts that theorists should clarify how di� erent phenomena are studied and analyzed (p. 322). in other words, in palmer’s view, the representation of a character’s mind is considered a crucial feature in the study of narrative � ction. palmer (2003) believes that the notion of mind encompasses various aspects of our inner life, such as thinking, perceiving, and feeling(p. 322). in his view, by analyzing the functioning of the characters’ minds, we can make sense of events and actions. margolin (2003) also highlights a preference of literature for non-standard forms of cognitive functioning. � ese non-standard forms can contain marginal or deviant mind styles with failed standard patterns. he raises the question of which mental functioning patterns are usual and which are not. he discusses that in the study of � ctional minds, the description of the character’s mind and the description of how readers interpret literature, and how readers assign minds and mental lives to characters are all applied (p. 271). � e story might be narrated by the narrator, but not necessarily from his point of view (rimmon-kenan, 2005, p. 73), as is the case in this story. in other words, the reader encounters a form of heteroglossia. � e events of the story are told from a certain point of view and angle. in analyzing a narrative text, it is crucial to notice how the objects are perceived. focalization –synonymous with narrative perspective, vision, and point of view – is an element of narrative study and can be traced back to the nineteenth century. according to bal (2017), focalization is related to the relationship between the vision, the agent who sees, and the object or event, which is seen, and follows this formula: “a says that b sees what c is doing” (p. 135). a, b, or c can be the same person, which leads to di� erent narrations. introduction ben, in the novel  ben in the world (2000),  is an embodiment of human misery and his attempts to � nd meaning and reason for existence in a world of disconnectedness and detachment, a world that slowly diminishes and cruelly demolishes those who are di� erent from others. ben has been the subject of many scholarly works, and each has scrutinized the character from a speci� c point of view; for example, sundberg (2011) argues that in the light of freud’s theories regarding the acquisition of gender roles, this novel represents the prejudice of people against others who do not � t the standard structure of the society and islam (2013), to some extent, also believes in this perspective by claiming that ben is a vulnerable, unknown, marginalized other who occupies the � ctional space of resistance, a viewpoint which is also in line with our analysis in this study. on the other hand, sullivan and greenberg (2011) have a darker view of ben and assert that he is a monstrous child and a disturbing source of terror by taking terror management � eory and kristeva’s theory of abjection into consideration, on the contrary, gin (2009) believes that ben is not a monster but a product of his parents’ treatment.  � is paper attempts to explore more details about ben’s character by scrutinizing di� erent characters’ narrative lines and points of view and comparing and contrasting these views with ben’s narration. it seems that there are some hidden but distinct features of ben’s character which have not been explored deeply. for instance, it appears that ben is a character with cognitive impairment and communication disorder which, to some extent, is contrary to the labels given to him such as an animal, a child, a monster, a fool, or a primitive man. � is study seeks to explore the non-standard forms in ben’s cognitive functioning through narratology, focalization, and the technique of free indirect discourse. � e study traces the clues used in the novel’s content and the narrative lines to show that ben is an extraordinary and odd character with cognitive abilities. narratology and focalization one way to convey the speech and thoughts of characters and their con� icts in a story is through narrative techniques and shi� ing in the customary unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 1312 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies re� ections by doubting himself and causing the reader’s suspicion (herman & vervaeck, 2001, p. 88). on the other hand, rimmon-kenan (2005) discusses the narrator and the unreliability of narration caused by reasons, such as limited knowledge, personal involvement, or personal participation, and the value scheme, which are problematic and puzzling, and also, the di� culty in deciding whether the narrator is reliable or unreliable in a text and if it is unreliable to what extent it is so. he also mentions that some narratives are so ambiguous that we cannot easily decide whether they are reliable (p. 106).  genette (1980) introduces homodiegetic and heterodiegetic narrators within a narrative: “a homodiegetic narrator is an internal participant in the story he/ she is narrating, while a heterodiegetic narrator is external to the narrative action” (pp. 188–192). for example, the narrator in ben, in the world (2000) is identi� ed as heterodiegetic because he/she is external to the narrative actions. narrators within a narrative text are divided into three types according to the person: the � rst-person narrator, the second-person narrator, which is seldom used in narrative texts, and the third-person narrator, which can be third-person limited, objective, or omniscient. moreover, the third-person narrative has three categories: 1) omniscient narrator, 2) objective narrator, and 3) limited omniscient narrator. in an objective narrative, the narrator stays out of the character’s mind and tells the story from an objective and distant point of view. � e narrator is merely an observer or a reporter of the event and cannot enter the other characters’ minds; unless in some speci� c situations. � e focus of a limited omniscient narrator is on the experience of an individual character. � e story’s events are limited to one character’s point of view, and whatever happens in the story is related to what that character feels, sees, thinks, or hears. � is narrative has some advantages over the � rst-person narrator. in the � rst-person narrative, what embellishes the story is the speech, action, and personality of the story’s character. � e � rst-person narrator’s mistakes or lack of knowledge may in� uence the narrative and limits the narrator’s awareness of the signi� cance of the events. � is narrative is more � exible than the other narratives. both narratives take the reader to the character’s mind, but the � rst-person narrative may be subjective and genette (1972) discusses the three forms of focalization and the distinction between heterodiegetic and homodiegetic narrators. � ese three levels are 1) zero focalization, 2) internal focalization, and 3) external focalization. in a zero focalization or non-focalized narrative, the narrator knows more than the characters or, more precisely, says more than any of the characters. � ere is also an omniscient narrator who has a predominant perspective. internal focalization occurs when the narration is perceived by the focalizer, who is also the character (bal, 2017, p. 136). in internal focalization, the narrator only says what a given character knows. “he belongs to the � ctional world” (herman & vervaeck 2001, p. 71), and the elements are viewed from the participant(s) of the narration (bal, 2017, p. 136). � e narration is directed based on the perception of the narrated character and can be � xed, implying that the narration is from the point of view of a single character, known as the focal character. in multiple focalizations, the same event is viewed from the perspectives of several characters (genette, 1972, pp. 189-194).  character focalization can vary in a narrative. it can change from one character to another (bal, 2017, p. 136). when the focalizer and the character are the same, the focalizer has an advantage over the other characters. � e reader watches with the character’s eyes and will, in principle, be inclined to accept the vision presented by that character. such a character-bound focalizer (cf) brings about bias and limitation. in external focalization, the narrator says more diminutive than the character knows. � e narration does not have access to the characters’ consciousness. he is near the narrating agent and is called the narrator focalizer (bal, 2017, p. 136). external focalization (ef) happens when an anonymous agent, not a character in the narration, acts as the focalizer (bal, 2017, p. 136).  genette (1972) distinguishes narrators based on their participation in the narrated events (p. 248). � is distinction is known as characterbound narrator and external narrator, respectively (bal, 2017, p. 13). � e character-bound narrator is a narrator who talks about himself/herself, and such a narrator is usually personi� ed. an external narrator is one who talks about others; as bal says, “the rhetoric of an external narrator can be used to present a story about others as true” (bal, 2017, p. 14). however, sometimes the narrator says something opposite to what he said before on di� erent occasions or weakens the truth of his comments, observations, or unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 1514 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies naïve, or the narrator may deceive herself/ himself in some instances. an omniscient narrator is an all-knowing narrator who has comprehensive knowledge about everything and everybody: the past, present, and future of the characters and what has happened, is happening, or will happen, and the narrator can move from one character to another. � is narrative can subjectively convey or show his/ her attitudes and opinions.  for the � rst time, seymour chatman, in story and discourse (1980), notes the idea of the overt and covert narrator. an overt narrator has a solid subjective consciousness, can be a character within the story or a character who intrudes the story from the outside and directly or indirectly addresses the reader, usually in the � rst person, and is an obvious narrator whom we can easily distinguish. in the covert narrator, the narrator is concealed, but the reader can hear the narrator›s voice, yet there is no sign of the one who speaks. � is narrator does not interfere with the events but has its logic and develops it. � e concealed or covert narrator does not show his/ her attitude and attempts not to contact the reader or tries not to a� ect the reader›s judgment of the characters and events of the story (zhao, 2012, p. 2). booth (1983) discusses the reliable and unreliable narrator. � e reliable narrator is the one who speaks or acts according to the norms of an implied author, while the unreliable narrator does not (p. 159). � e implied author may have some di� erences from the actual author who created the text, and this di� erence can be about referring to the author’s image made by the reader from the text. � e implied author is considered the second self of the author and may have some connection with the actual author. � e signi� cant point about the narrator’s reliability is the investigation of whether the reliable narrator’s norms are following the implied author’s norms or not. unreliability does not mean that the narrator is not sincere or does not tell the truth when he describes the characters or events; it means that the narrator is alienated from the implied author because of his prejudice against the characters or the story’s events for various reasons. � e unreliable author may be morally, intellectually, and physically far from the implied author; in contrast, the reliable narrator acts as a leader who leads the reader throughout the story. � e reliable narrator usually represents the norms of the implied author. to explore ben’s and other people’s narrations in the story, we take advantage of notions already discussed in this section, such as genette’s  (1972), bal’s (2017), palmer’s (2004), etc to unfold ben’s characterization and point of view. in the following section, we present various examples from di� erent characters’ narrative lines and also the omniscient narrator’s, to compare and contrast their narration with ben’s. furthermore, for further analysis, extracts from ben’s narration are brought to examine ben’s characterization through the technique of free indirect discourse discussed by rimmonkenan (2003) to achieve a better picture of this character. delving into ben’s character through narratology and focalization ben, in the world,  the sequel of the novel  � e fi� h child  (1988) written by the nobel prize winner doris lessing in 2000, is considered a controversial novel by various critics from di� erent perspectives ranging from sociopolitical viewpoints to psychological matters. � e story begins with 18-year-old ben, totally abandoned by his family. he encounters the actual world and strives to survive in it. � roughout the novel, ben deals with all kinds of su� ering, betrayal, disloyalty, dishonesty, terror, and abuse by nearly everyone he knows. � e villain and monstrous boy in � e fi� h child turns out to be a helpless lonely human-animal in ben, in the world. all the hardships, betrayals, and feelings of loneliness lead to his suicide at the end of the story. ben in the world  (2000) is considered a postmodern gothic novel and a mixture of several subgenres such as urban gothic, picaresque, and science � ction (kuo, 2014, p. 2), narrated by an omniscient, all-knowing, thirdperson narrator.  nevertheless, the narration is not dedicated to ben only; the narrator also narrates other characters’ intentions and interactions. in this section, we attempt to explore ben’s characterization through narrativity and focalization. � e type of focalization in this story is zero focalization or non-focalized narrative in which the narrator knows more than the story’s characters. in other words, the story has one zero-focalizer and an omniscient narrator who has a predominant perspective and thorough knowledge about all that is in the mind of the characters and their past, present, and future, unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 1716 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies even their concerns, imaginations, doubts, or intentions. in the following sections, we attempt to study each character’s narrative line and � nd out their opinion on ben and see how ben is seen or judged by others. � en we compare and contrast these statements with ben’s narrative section. in the following sections, di� erent examples are brought to show the presence of the omniscient narrator in the mind of each character.  � e narrator in  ben in the world  is overt because he o� en indirectly addresses the reader while, at the same time, he stands outside the story and is detached from the events. � e reader can notice the narrator’s existence in the events he describes. � e narrator not only gives the readers facts about the story but also states his attitude and opinion. as in the following example, the narrator’s attitude and certainty about knowing all about what is in the mind of the character are demonstrated; for example, the narrator uses words such as “surely” to emphasize that he has comprehensive knowledge about everything within the story: 1) so, he took the old, old road to london, rich london, where  surely  there must be a little something for him too […]. (lessing, 2000, p. 15) according to what we discussed previously, the exaggerated omniscient narrator is unreliable. � e reason is that despite never judging the characters, it seems that sometimes the narrator is biased or prejudiced, e.g., apparently, the narrator seems to have a positive attitude towards the women in the story and depicts them as ben’s supporters. meanwhile, the men of the story are described as either abusive or untrustworthy. on the other hand, in line with other characters, the narrator insists on describing ben as an animal, a child, a stupid, or anything except a human being. � e narrator attempts to attract the readers’ sympathy but never tells them why ben is like this or the reason behind this de� ciency. to sum up, the narrator in ben in the world  is omniscient (all-knowing), heterodiegetic/non-character, overt, and unreliable. we already explored who says; now we want to explore who sees through focalization. � e following two examples demonstrate di� erent characters’ ontological questions about what ben is (not who he is, because they consider ben an animal or anything except a human being). each tries to de� ne him as something, but they fail:  2) alex was saying quietly to himself that ben was not human, even if most of the time he behaved like one. and he was not an animal. he was a throwback of some kind. (lessing, 2000, p. 44) in the preceding example, the narrator enters the mind of alex and narrates his concern about what (not who) ben is. he thinks ben is neither a human nor an animal. finally, he concludes that he must be “a throwback of some kind,” or whatever ben is, he does not know or does not care. 3) [the narrator goes into mrs. biggs’s mind] it is not my business — what he is, sums up what she felt. deep waters! trouble! keep out! (lessing, 2000, p. 4) as the excerpt shows, the omniscient narrator enters mrs. biggs’s mind and narrates her soliloquy and what she feels. she is also thinking about what ben is but tries to distract herself from this thought by thinking that whoever or whatever this creature is, he must be dangerous, and she should keep her distance. in the succeeding example, the narrator enters rita’s mind and narrates her anger over johnston for sending ben o� because johnston was somehow jealous of ben and thought that ben’s odd appearance would attract the police’s attention. but rita reminds johnston of their deal and wants him to keep his distance from ben. rita is one of the mother � gures who supports ben in the story: 4) rita had been angry with johnston for sending ben o� . she had reminded him that they agreed that she would please herself with her customers. (lessing, 2000, p. 22)  � en, the narrator goes into johnston’s mind and narrates his intention of abusing ben to smuggle drugs and sees ben as an object or a tool that can make him rich: 5) johnston did not interfere again, but he was waiting for some opportunity he could turn to his advantage. (lessing, 2000, p. 23) unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 1918 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies a� er that, the narrator enters teresa’s mind and narrates her � ashback to her hard times and miseries in the past when she had no other way but to be a prostitute to support her impoverished family in the favela, which was a run-down area: 6) teresa knew she could not take that dress into the favela: her mother would have it o� her, to sell for food. and teresa privately agreed that her mother would be right. (lessing, 2000, p. 58) � en, the narrator enters alfredo’s mind. he has lied to ben by saying he saw his tribe somewhere in the mountain many years ago and that he could take him there (so ben would accept going to the laboratory): 7) and now, this was the moment when alfredo should come out with the truth, which would put an end to this joy. he simply could not do it (lessing, 2000, p. 68). � en, the narrator passes into alfredo’s mind. he has lied to ben by saying he saw his tribe somewhere in the mountain many years ago and that he could take him there (so ben would accept going to the laboratory). � is fake story causes ben’s happiness for a short time by thinking that he is not alone in this world and there are people like him somewhere, that he can live with them and even � nd a mate. before this  saying, ben’s main concern was coming back home, somewhere which does not really exist. � e following extracts are taken from ben’s narration and his attempt to get back to his home in england: “when can i go back home?” (lessing, 2000, p. 36), “and when are we going home?” (lessing, 2000, p. 38), “perhaps i am going home? he thought” (lessing, 2000, p. 45), “i want to go home, he was repeating, silently, in his head. home, home” (lessing, 2000, p. 50). however, a� er what alfredo told him about his people, as the following example demonstrates: “i’ve seen people like you, said alfredo” (lessing, 2000, p. 68); ben’s main concern becomes seeing his people, so he repeatedly (like a child) mentions it or asks where or when they will take him there: “like me? people like me?” (lessing, 2000, p. 68), “people like me. ben was chanting. like me, people like ben. and he interrupted his dance to ask, just like me? […] will you take me to them?” (lessing, 2000, p. 68), “ben believed that alfredo knew where ben’s people were” (lessing, 2000, p. 77). furthermore, besides the sentences’ simple syntax which is foregrounded in the novel, in all these examples, consistent matters are repeated: “home” and  “ben’s people.” in other words, ben is  described as a stubborn child or a simple-minded character with limited cognitive abilities whose only concerns are either going back home or visiting his people.  moreover, it seems that the narrator insists on depicting ben as an extraordinary creature who is more animal than human. when the shi� s of narrative lines occur, nearly all other characters, such as mrs. biggs, rita, teresa, alex, alfredo, and richard, see ben as an animal, a child who needs help and support, or a stupid person easily tricked and abused. ben is constantly humiliated and verbally attacked with labels such as “dog,” “not human,” “a wild man,” “child,” “slow stupid oaf,” “yeti,” “beast,” “stupid,” etc. (lessing, 2000, pp. 6-77) which reinforces islam’s (2013) perspective, “ben is a vulnerable and marginalized other” (p. 279). in other words, who we are dealing with in the novel, is an outsider and a physically and mentally distinct person who is harshly judged and debased by others and will never be considered a human being. � e following examples indicate ben’s abnormality in the eyes of other characters. nearly all of them agree on ben’s di� erence and try to assign something to him to conclude who or what this creature is: ben as an animal � e other characteristic constantly mentioned in the text is ben’s animality. � e following extracts relate to mrs. biggs’ points of view and clues which depict ben as an animal. she considers ben a “dog” for acting like one: his laugh is like a dog’s bark, and his voraciousness for eating cold meat is not what a normal human being does. furthermore, even she imagines his possible animalistic dreams and concludes whatever ben is, “he is not one of us.” 1. he sat there like a  dog  expecting a rebuke, his teeth revealed in that other grin, which she knew and understood now, a stretched, a teeth-showing grin that meant fear. (lessing, 2000, p. 4) 2. she [mrs. biggs] enjoyed hearing him laugh: it was like a bark. long ago, she had a dog who barked like that. (lessing, 2000, p. 5) unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 2120 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 3. […] she knew he was not human: “not one of us” as she put it. perhaps he was a kind of yeti. (lessing, 2000, p. 7) 4. it was how a dog lays itself down, close, for company, and her [mrs. biggs] heart ached, knowing his loneliness. (lessing, 2000, p. 7) 5. she thought he was like an intelligent dog, always trying to anticipate wants and commands. not like a cat at all: that was a di� erent kind of sensitivity. moreover, he was not like a monkey, for he was slow and heavy. (lessing, 2000, p. 7) � e following three extracts are from mary grindly’s narration. she thinks ben is not like humans and looks more like a beast or a yeti who eats the raw � esh of animals, but since he works well, it does not matter “what” he is, and she does not bother to know either. 6. mary said to matthew, “take that beast to market and get what you can for it” (lessing, 2000, p. 9). 7. a kind of yeti he looked like, but he did the work well enough (lessing, 2000, p. 9). � e other signi� cant and dominant point of view in the novel is the zerofocalizer’s. � e examples below are from the omniscient narrator (also the zero-focalizer), who also focuses (with partiality) on ben’s animal-like personality and calls him “a poor beast.” � e zero-focalizer emphasizes that ben has strong animal-like instincts which act as an alarm in dangerous situations or show him the path like a map. signi� cantly, the third extract, which is related to the scene ben hunts the pigeon on the balcony and eats the raw � esh of the bird while blood is dripping from his mouth and the bird’s feathers are scattered around, is considered the acme of ben’s description as a human-animal. 8. ben was going to say something about the money owed to him, but his instincts shouted at him; danger — and he ran away. (lessing, 2000, p. 11) 9. on he went, following instincts that worked well if he did not confuse them with maps and directions. (lessing, 2000, p. 11) 10. ben had leaped out, and the bird was in his hand. he was tearing o� feathers when he heard the cat’s sound […]. ben ripped some � esh o� the bird and � ung it down. � e cat crept out and ate. � e blood was dripping from their mouths […]. � e cat went back in. so did ben. it was not enough, those few mouthfuls of � esh, but it was something, his stomach was appeased. (lessing, 2000, p. 12) 11. it was a need for meat, and he smelled the rawness of blood, the reek of it. (lessing, 2000, p. 15) 12. once he had grabbed up a handful of chops and stood gnawing them, the butcher’s back being turned, and then the sounds of crunching had made the man whip around. (lessing, 2000, p. 15) � e common point in the above and following extracts related to the omniscient narrator is that he/ she without mentioning why and how ben is di� erent, unanimous with other characters, says that ben is not a human being and cunningly eludes the explanations necessary for understanding ben. even in some parts directly says that he/ she does not know the reason which is contradictory to being an omniscient narrator and casts doubt on the reliability of this narrator. in other words, the narrator is � uctuating between reliability and unreliability, and omniscience and limitation. but since the reliability or the omniscience is more dominant, we are compelled to choose them as the main features of the narrator. rita � e other female character who is mentioned as ben’s guardian and supporter is rita. � e following extracts focus on rita’s description of ben. she thinks whatever ben is, he must not be a human; but then, she ironically concludes we are all animals to some extent. she calls him a “human-animal,” “a hairy ape,” “a dog,” or “a chimpanzee.” � e di� erence between her narration with others is that she was too close to ben, and they had some intercourses; she supported him, was kind to him, and somehow liked him the way he was, i.e., his animal-like way: 1. he had his teeth in her neck, and as he came, he let out a grunting bark, like nothing she had ever heard before. (lessing, 2000, p. 20) unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 2322 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 2. she had tried to change him saying, “but ben, let us try it this way, turn around, it’s not nice what you do, it is like animals.” (lessing, 2000, p. 21) 3. she had told him it had not been like being with a man, more like an animal. “you know, like dogs.” (lessing, 2000, p. 21) 4. a human-animal, she concluded, and then joked with herself, well, aren’t we all? (lessing, 2000, p. 23) richard richard (a minor character) is the only male character who (somehow) likes and helps ben. although he thinks ben is extraordinary (as the extract below demonstrates), he cares for him, never deceives or lies to him, and acts like a friend. anyhow, in the end, like others, he betrays him by leaving him alone in the french hotel. � e extract below is richard’s interior monologue, and the technique used for his narration is free indirect thought.  what did johnston think he was doing, letting this loon, this simpleton, loose in the world? (lessing, 2000, p. 41) alex alex, another abusive male character along with johnson, richard, and alfred, is a middle-aged � lmmaker who accidentally sees ben in a hotel in france and is attracted to his odd appearance and starts imagining making a � lm based on him and his primitive people. when he asks the receptionists about ben, they say he is a � lm star from scotland; enough for alex to plan to take ben to rio and make his � lm. during this trip, he wondered what kind of creature ben was. he acts like a human who cares about his appearance (the second example), but he looks like an animal (“dwarfs? yetis?” “beasts,” “cat,” “animal”), reinforcing others’ claims about ben’s character. besides, all the following extracts, which are related to alex’s di� erent points of view, are examples of free indirect thought: 1. � is band of what — dwarfs? yetis? (lessing, 2000, p. 46) 2. he was possessed by those creatures — who? — what? — not beasts, for ben, inhabited the forms of everyday life, used a knife and fork, went every day to have his beard clipped and his hair done, changed his clothes — which were beginning to look a little shabby. (lessing, 2000, p. 43) 3. ben was moving about this room like an animal taking the measure of a new place, trying the bathroom — the shower, the lavatory — opening and shutting cupboards and drawers. (lessing, 2000, p. 47) inez inez is the only antagonistic female character in the story. she is the a� uent and opportunist friend of teresa who reports ben’s existence to her superiors. mercilessly, she considers ben an animal (“yeti”), a primitive, lesser than a human, or a throwback who cannot think or know what is good or bad for him. she supposes that analyzing the di� erent features of ben can help science answer the unanswered questions about the human being and his ancestors: 1) she told him about ben, describing him as a yeti. “something like that, at any rate,” but no one could say what he was. “he is a throwback,” she said. “at least, that is what i think. you ought to have a look at him.” (lessing, 2000, p. 65) 2) she had no feeling for him, did not even think of him as a person — away from the institute at some point, and then he would disappear. (lessing, 2000, p. 76) teresa teresa, another female guardian of ben in the story, also thinks ben does not look like a human being, but despite knowing this fact, she tries to defend him in front of those who attempt to harm or abuse him. she thinks ben looks more like a child who needs care. 1) inez was expecting him to pee in front of them all — like an animal, teresa thought — but ben took the � ask and looked about him for cover. “a screen,” ordered inez. (lessing, 2000, p. 71) 2) “and you put ben into a cage like an animal, without clothes” unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 2524 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies [teresa told the american professor]. ( lessing, 2000, p. 82) ben as a child nearly all characters in the story think ben, despite his old-looking appearance, is immature and child-like. for instance, the following two examples relate to when rita was trying to � nd a job for ben; she thought ben could work as one of johnson’s drivers, but johnson warns her about ben being a mentally-retarded child, but she insists on helping him anyhow. when ben sits in the car, since he does not know how to drive, he mimics driving by moving the steering wheel and making sounds like “brrrr” (the onomatopoeia for the sound of a car), just like a child. when rita sees this scene, she is convinced that ben, despite his appearance, is not more than a child. 1) poor ben, he is like a three-year-old, and somewhere she had been foolishly believing that he could learn this job. (lessing, 2000, p. 26) 2) he was making a noise like brrrr, brrrr, and laughing. (lessing, 2000, p. 26) example 3, which is from richard’s point of view as the focalizer, relates to when ben wears sunglasses for the � rst time and sees his re� ection in a mirror; he thinks his eyes have disappeared (like a child), so he panics and takes o� the glasses quickly. moreover, this example not only emphasizes ben’s childishness but also represents his lack of schema for sunglasses. 3) � ey walked towards their re� ections in a shop window, he stopped, bent forward, looking at himself. “no eyes,” he said, in explanation. “no eyes. my eyes have gone.” and he panicked, taking o� his glasses (lessing, 2000, p. 37) in example 4, which is also from richard’s point of view, ben asks questions like a curious child who has seen a ship for the � rst time and it is interesting for him to know where it goes; richard also answers him in a simple way, as if he is trying to explain something to a child.  4) he said to richard, “where do they go?” “who?” “� ose ships?” “oh, everywhere. all over the world, ben.” (lessing, 2000, p. 37) � e next example relates to the time ben is informed about people like himself. teresa, as the focalizer, sees how ben, like an obsessed child, childishly asks where exactly his people are; and when they will take him there. moreover, the childish phrases uttered by ben also denote that ben has a simple mind style. 5) “like me? people like me?” […] “people like me,” ben was chanting, “like me, people like ben.” and he interrupted his dance to ask, “just like me?” (lessing, 2000, p. 68) � e following examples, from di� erent points of view, also directly mention ben as a child: 6) alex took him to a cinema, a � lm carefully chosen, as for a child, a good strong story, excitement, danger. (lessing, 2000, p. 44) 7) he [alex] was thinking, this is like looking a� er a child. (lessing, 2000, p. 46) 8) she felt that hairy face on her bare upper chest and knew that this was a  child  she was holding, or at least a child’s misery. (lessing, 2000, p. 53) 8) people treated him as if he were younger than that, and he behaved like an obedient child, she thought. (lessing, 2000, p. 61) ben as a strange character many characters describe ben as a strange creature. � e following examples demonstrate ben’s strangeness and otherness from di� erent characters’ points of view, narrated by the omniscient narrator, all of which highlight ben’s odd and extraordinary character and depict him as an outsider: � e people he belonged to, whoever they were, matured early, in which case they would die young, according to our ideas. middle-aged at twenty, and unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 2726 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies old at forty […] she knew he was not human: “not one of us” as she put it. (lessing, 2000, p.7) mrs. biggs (example 1) thinks ben must be another kind of human being whose process of growing up di� ers from an ordinary human (“one of us”). furthermore, even though ben constantly mentions that he is eighteen, his appearance shows a mature man. in example 2, rita sees ben naked for the � rst time, and a� er seeing his odd appearance and actions, she concludes that ben is not a human or at least not like the kinds she has seen before (“a human-animal”). he was outside anything she had been told about, seen on the television, or knew from experience. when she saw him naked for the � rst time, she thought, wow! � at is not human […], yet if he was not human, what was he? a human-animal, she concluded. (lessing, 2000, p.7) � e following examples also highlight ben’s oddness. ben is considered a scienti� c case by inez: “introducing this creature who was a kind of scienti� c enigma, to someone who could solve it” (lessing, 2000, p. 66); or “a polite sort of creature,” not a human: “� is yeti, this freak, was a polite sort of creature, almost like ordinary people” (lessing, 2000, p. 76); or “a throwback,” someone who belongs to thousands of years ago: “� ey [the scientists] say he must be a throwback to — a long time ago. a long time. � ousands of years. � ey can � nd out from him what those old people were like” (lessing, 2000, p. 76). as stated before, what is signi� cant about this novel’s narration is that, apart from ben’s narration, the story consists of multiple narrative lines and points of view, which are embedded and hard to discern. even sometimes, three narrative lines are intermingled into one, like the following example in which the narrative lines of teresa, alfredo, and alfredo’s friend are mixed, while the omniscient narrator is simultaneously in the mind of all three characters who are thinking of the place ben might be, “where was ben? � ey stood at the edge of the trees, looking at the scattered buildings and did not know where to go” (lessing, 2000, p. 78). besides, the extract is an example of free indirect thought that we will discuss more thoroughly in the next section. such oscillations between di� erent narrative lines may create bewilderment for the reader to understand who is narrating a speci� c section.  from the beginning till the end of the novel, ben’s thought is undermined by an omniscient narrator who is also the zero-focalizer; everything and everyone within the story is seen through this focalizer’s eyes. in other words, our knowledge of each character’s point of view stems from the focalizer or the omniscient narrator. however, we should note that some contradictions exist in the picture given to us by the narrator. in parts of the story, the narrator describes ben as an animal or a human-animal with animalistic desires or needs. for example, ben’s extraordinary appetite, sex, hunting and eating raw animals, or strong senses of smell or hearing distinguish him from a normal human being. ben, on the contrary, is depicted as an ordinary human being in other parts of the story. for example, he can think, remember, perceive, or understand what is happening around him; he cares about his appearance, shaves his beard or cuts or trims his hair like a man, wears clothes, or asks and answers questions. nevertheless, ben is usually too passive to stand against those trying to abuse him, i.e., ben knows and understands that he has been tricked or deceived but does not or cannot prevent it. for example, he knows alex has misused him, or johnson has betrayed him, but he does nothing against them, just like a helpless child. � e following two examples indicate that ben can think or perceive his surroundings and has the cognitive ability an animal cannot have: he knew how hard it was for him to inhibit ordinary life […] he wanted to get up and go, but knew he must not until the business was settled. (lessig, 2000, p.25) he was thinking of richard: now it seemed to him that richard had been a real friend and that he liked him. (lessing, 2000, p. 48)  ben is also depicted as a lonely character (pp. 6, 8, 13, 15, 19, 32, 40, 41, 43, 87), innocent, abused (pp. 43, 44, 46, 54, 95), unloved, poorly treated or rejected. it seems that the narrator tries to make the reader sympathize with ben; choosing the technique of free indirect thought in which the narrator unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 2928 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies and the character are close also highlights the close picture the narrator attempts to give and the sympathy he tries to draw. on the other hand, the focalizations demonstrate and picture the protagonist as an outsider. � rough investigating narrative lines related to ben’s relationship with women, one can conclude that, in most cases, he is searching for a mother� gure who can � ll the place of his mother and take care of him or love him (an oedipus complex sort). also, in some examples, the word “like” in ben’s discourse means sex, such as, “rita liked me. she liked me. you do not like me” (lessing, 2000, p. 88). � is example relates to the scene ben and teresa were in the same room a� er their elopement from the laboratory. ben thinks teresa likes him and will give herself to him like rita, but she does not, so he concludes that this means she does not like him. on the other hand, a� er what ben was trying to do, teresa does not shout or escape but tries to understand him and convinces herself by saying, “this … man, whatever he was — strong and full of energy when he was not miserable — had his instincts” (lessing, 2000, p. 88), while, at the same time, she believes he is not more than a child, “she heard his breathing: it was rather like a child’s who is about to burst into tears” (lessing, 2000, p. 88). , exploring ben’s free indirect thought free indirect thought is an approach that helps in understanding a person’s mental functioning. free indirect thought (fit) not only represents an individual consciousness but also depicts the con� icts and interactions between the individual and the world around him. fit is considered the ability to provide insight into the character’s active mind. free indirect discourse grammatically and mimetically intermediates between indirect and direct discourse (rimmon-kenan, 1983, p. 113). golomb (1968) calls free indirect discourse “combined speech” because it consists of not only the co-presence of two voices but also that of the narrator’s voice and a character’s pre-verbal perception or feeling, and bal (1981) uses the term “embedding” for fid, which operates between two utterances, two focalizations, or an utterance and a focalization (qt. in. rimmon-kenan, 1983, p. 114). fid is a toolkit to understand the main themes of a work. � e fid hypothesis is o� en crucial to identify speakers and assign given speech features or attitudes to them, enabling the reader to make sense of deviant linguistic practices, unacceptable attitudes, or even lies without undermining the credibility of the work or the implied author (ron, 1981, pp. 28–9). fid boosts the bivocality or polyvocality of the text by drawing on the plurality of speakers and perspectives (mchale, 1978). furthermore, this technique elaborates the problematic relationship between any utterance and its origin and is a helpful tool for illustrating indirect interior monologue or stream of consciousness. � e fid technique can help the reader reconstruct the implied author’s attitude toward the character(s) involved in the story. nevertheless, still, an ambiguous “double-edged e� ect” might be noted. on the one hand, the presence of a narrator as di� erent from the character may create an ironic distancing. on the other hand, mingling the narrator’s speech with the character’s and his/ her experiences may raise an empathetic identi� cation. � is double-edged e� ect may cause ambiguity, where the reader has no means of choosing between the “ironic” and the “empathetic” attitude (rimmon-kenan, 1983, p. 117). in order to have a free indirect discourse, we should make some changes to the sentence:  1. � e comma and the reporting verb “said” should be removed. so, the reported speech is no longer dependent on the reporting verb. 2. � is dependence is marked by the introduction of the subordinating conjunction “that.”  3. � e � rst and second-person pronouns change into third-person.  4. � e tense of the verb undergoes backshi� ; for example, the time adverb “tomorrow” becomes “the following day.” 5. � e close deictic, e.g., “here” changes to the distant deictic “there.” 6. � e verbs of movement alter from “towards” to “away from.” in the following section, we will analyze ben’s clauses through free indirect thought to learn more about him. � e extract is an example of fid: ben found it hard to believe this was a plane: it was so big. he could hardly see how big. and he understood that he was not going home, but somewhere in that mind of his that was always wrestling with itself to remain in control, to understand, he was telling himself that unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 3130 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies he had been promised he would go home, and that he had been betrayed and that alex was part of this betrayal. brazil. what was brazil? why did he have to go there? why should he be in a � lm? (lessing, 2000, p. 46) � e passage contains several classic markers of free indirect thought. � e entry into ben’s consciousness is signaled by clues, such as stylistics modality (“he could hardly see how big,” “why should he be in a � lm?”), lexical items which suggest a subjective point of view (“ben found it hard to believe this was a plane,” and he understood that he was not going home,” “somewhere in that mind of his that was always wrestling with itself to remain in control […]”), questions which he is asking himself (“what was brazil? why did he have to go there? why should he be in a � lm?”). also, entering ben’s consciousness through fit, is marked by “the characteristic combination,” in leech and short’s words, of “the presence of third-person pronouns and past tense, which corresponds with the form of narrative reports and shows indirectness, along with several features, both positive and negative, indicating freeness” (2007, p. 261) (see also fludernik, 1993, pp. 72–109). � is extract also highlights that ben is able to understand and perceive the world around him (“and he understood that he was not going home”), but what is signi� cant is the following sentence, “somewhere in that mind of his that was always wrestling with itself;” as if somewhere in his mind, not ben, is struggling with itself to remain in control or understand. it appears as if he is apart from that part of his mind, and it is a distinct person who has the authority to control. in other words, ben is not the controller of his mind, but he is controlled by it. � ere are also many other examples in which a part of ben’s body, not ben, is responsible for an action. for example, “his feet were taking him to — he stood outside the tall wire of a building site […]” (lessing, 2000, p.15), which seems ben’s feet are the agent who takes him everywhere, and he has no control over them.  another point about ben in this extract is that he understands what is done to him (“he was telling himself that he had been promised he would go home, and that he had been betrayed and that alex was part of this betrayal”). not only he is not a mentally retarded character like benjy, or an idiot, “mad man” (lessing, 2000, p. 8), “freak” (lessing, 2000, p. 25), or “an intelligent dog” (lessing, 2000, p. 7), or an “animal” as others call him, but also he makes inductive reasoning. ben perceives the cause-and-e� ect relationships, thinks and evaluates the situation, or even asks questions in his mind (“what was brazil? why did he have to go there? why should he be in a � lm?”), but all in simple ways, indicating and foregrounding his simple mind, “ben found it hard to believe this was a plane: it was so big.” � e � nal point is that ben is a passive character who cannot do much to change his situation; in other words, he is dependent on others’ help to do something [e.g., going back home]. conclusion lessing’s postmodern novel ben in the world is a depiction of how di� erence in society is rejected and easily dissolved. as we expect from a postmodern novel, there is no central and de� ned and � xed standpoint to rely on, even deciding on its type of narration is a di� cult job because the narration is constantly � uctuating or contradicting what one has discussed previously, highlighting its postmodernity. but this study, which has built its analysis on narratology, focalization, and free indirect discourse, attempted to excavate ben’s character once more by minute analysis of the other main characters’ focalization and narrative lines and comparing and contrasting these lines with ben’s. � e study reveals that ben, as everyone says, might be a simple, child-like, animal-like, or strange character, who sees the world in a simple way, but he is not a mentally retarded character like benjy in � e sound and � e fury; in other words, there is a gap between the way others see ben and the way he sees the world and himself highlighted through his focalization. despite di� erent claims, ben can think, remember, make simple inductive reasoning, and somehow understand the relationship between causes and e� ects, but he is too passive to change his situation. ben does not seem to be a normative human nor an animal but a hybrid of both. he behaves like an animal, which represents his non-standard form of cognitive functioning and, at the same time, shows his thinking ability, reveals his human personality, and leaves the reader with an unanswered question about who he is or why he is like this. narratology, which has played a pivotal role in the analysis of this study, could contribute to revealing some hidden points about ben’s character and society’s prejudice against someone who unfolding the obscure image of benunfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri zahra rahimnouri 3332 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies does not � t into a standard human category. � rough focalization, we had the opportunity to evaluate the events from each character›s eyes, and by comparing them with ben’s focalization, realize that this character is not understood properly by anyone in the story, even the omniscient narrator intentionally or unintentionally has failed to give a comprehensive image of this character and what we tried to do in this analysis was to � ll this gap of comprehension in ben’s character through narratology. references b al, m., & tavor, e. (1981). notes on narrative embedding. poetics today, 2(2), 41-59. bal, m. (2017). narratology: introduction to the theory of narrative. university of toronto press. chatman, s. b. (1980). story and discourse: narrative structure in � ction and � lm. cornell university press. faulkner, w. (1929). � e sound and the fury. chicago: jonathan cape and harrison smith. fludernik, m. (2009). an introduction to narratology. routledge. genette, g. (1972). narrative discourse: an essay in method. cornell university press. gin, b. (2009). subversive political irony in doris lessing’s � e fi� h child (unpublished master’s thesis). tribhuvan university, kirtipur, nepal. golomb, h. (1968). combined speecha major technique in the prose of sy agnon and its use in the story a di� erent face. hasifrut, 1(25), 1-62. islam, m. s. (2013). anticipating apocalypse: power structures and the periphery in doris lessing’s � e fi� h child and ben, in the world. romanian journal of english studies, 10(1), 278-292. kuo, c. c. (2014). an ethical reading of doris lessing’s � e fi� h child and ben, in the world. wenshan review of literature and culture, 8(1), 1-27. lessing, d. (2000). ben, in the world. flamingo. mchale, b & ronen, r. (1990). narratology revisited. poetics today. mcintyre, d. (2006). point of view in plays. john benjamin. palmer, a. (2004). fictional minds. university of nebraska press. rimmon-kenan, s. (2005). narrative � ction. routledge. ron, m. (1981). free indirect discourse, mimetic language games, and the subject of � ction. poetics today, 2(2), 17-39. sullivan, d., & greenberg, j. (2011). monstrous children as harbingers of mortality: a psychological analysis of doris lessing’s the � � h child. literature interpretation � eory, 22(2), 113-133. epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies vol. 15 no. 2, 2022 35 unfolding the obscure image of benzahra rahimnouri 34 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies sundberg, b. (2011). patriarchy and masculinity in doris lessing’s � e fi� h child and ben in � e world (master’s thesis). university of gävle, gävle, sweden. zhao, k. (2012). a narrative analysis of lessing’s � e fi� h child. � eory & practice in language studies, 2(7), 1498-1502. introduction epiphany: vol. 5, no. 1, 2012 issn 1840-3719 material details in edith wharton’s writings almasa mulalić * abstract edith wharton was among the most prominent writers of her time and could compete with any of her contemporary colleagues. however, she as a female writer rose above her colleagues in her style and attitudes towards novel writing. the central themes in her novels were the conflict between social and individual fulfillment, repressed sexuality, and the manners of old families and the new elite, who had made their fortunes in more recent years. the contradictions in the upper class society were yet another theme that intrigued wharton. the question of what is moral to one part of the society did not necessarily mean that it is moral for the other part of the society. some people could at that time escape without any hidden or open punishment from the rest of the society if they were enough skillful and clever. on the other hand, for some people it was difficult to avoid pressure from the society and behave according what their mind and heart were telling them. this paper in particular deals with the wharton‟s biographical background with the special attention to her family and life experience and how it influence and shaped her style of writing. the paper also deals with material and graphic details in her novels and the reasons behind usage of those graphic details. wharton‟s novel the age of innocence is still one of the most read novels and is required reading in high schools and at the universities. the final part of the paper deals with the abovementioned novel that influenced and shaped the writings of the generations of writers after her death. keywords: material details, upper-class society, style of writing, morality, manners of old families * corresponding author: almasa mulalić, faculty of arts and social scinces, international sarajevo university, bosnia herzegovina, e-mail: amulalic@ius.edu.ba mailto:amulalic@ius.edu.ba a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [96] the impression produced by a landscape, a street or a house should always, to the novelist, be an event in the history of a soul, and the use of the „descriptive passage‟ and its style should be determined by he fact that it must depict only what the intelligence concerned would have noticed, and always in terms within the register of that intelligence (from “constructing a novel”, part iv in the writing of fiction) introduction edith wharton was one of the most prominent writers, whose works were extensively tackling the effect of a social class on behavior and mind, especially that of the upper class elite. in the process of expressing and articulating american progressive ideals, wharton was also addressing european customs, morality and sensibility. therefore, as it will be explored in the paper, wharton was the product of both cultures/civilizations and at the same time was able to write and earn a living from her literary writings. wharton had an impressive forty years career during which she published more than forty books. some of her works include the decoration of houses (1897), the greater inclination (1899), the house of mirth (1905), the valley of decision (1905), ethan frome (1911), the custom of the country (1913), the age of innocence (1920), a backward glance (1934) and the buccaneers (1938). beginning from her early childhood wharton wrote stories and according to many of her admirers she had an innate ability to attract her reader‟s attention with her skillful expressions throughout her literary works. her novels were celebrated and admired at the time when she was alive as they are celebrated today for their vivid setting, satiric wit, ironic style and moral seriousness. besides, her literary characters were often presented as tragic victims of cruel social convictions. she, in a way, criticized double standards in the upper class society at that time. through her novels she tried to present the society as it really is, and didn‟t try to idealize behaviors and attitudes of the proponents in her writings. there is one characteristic in her writing that attracts our attention as readers, the small details that she is particularly paying attention throughout her writing. therefore, this paper deals with wharton’s emphasis on the material details. as a writer wharton was a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [97] immediately recognized by the readers as being very skillful in presenting her literary phenomenon by using tinny details. in order to analyze and discuss the main research question mentioned above, this paper explores wharton‟s biographical background and her milieu that inevitably played significant role in her literary style of writing. then, the greatest novelty in wharton‟s novels was using of architecture and material details, which is the subject of the second part of this paper. finally, this paper also makes an extensive analysis of wharton‟s using of material details in the age of innocence, by special emphasis on the internal and external literary influences on her style of writing. wharton’s biographical background and literature edith wharton (1862-1937) was born during the civil war and certain historical, socio-political and economic developments played significant role in her writings. there are several periods that left significant impact on her writings namely; the gilded age, the progressive era, the ww i and the great depression. immediately after the end of the civil war, america began with the process of political, social and economic reconstruction and in the course this led to the territorial expansion and eventually imperialism. however, rapid economic and industrial growth, urbanization, mass migrations and technological inventions affected all aspects of life, including the scope of the literature, as is the case with wharton‟s novels. therefore, these socio-political and economic transformations had stimulated the emergence of a vast literature on race, slavery, discrimination, segregation, children, women and worker‟s rights. some of the most influential writers on these themes include herbert gutman, leon litwack, john hope franklin, eugene genovese, elizabeth fox-genovese, eric foner and kenneth stampp. then, around the turn of the century, the progressive movement began to respond to the challenge of industrialization, urbanization and immigration. literary works that dealt with these issues included jack london, the iron heel, ignatius donnelly caesar, column, jacob riis, how the other half live, stephen crane maggie, a girl of the streets, w. t. stead, if christ came to chicago, henry james, the bostonians, a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [98] mark twain, huckleberry finn and william dean howells, rise of silas lapham. then, the ww i and the great depression also left significant mark on the writings of wharton. the years after the “war to end all wars” [woodrow wilson] were characterized by social unrest and violence, economic problems and high inflation, labor unrests and strikes, fear of immigrants and communism, racial tensions and riots, prohibition and gangsters. see history of these periods in philip jenkins (1997), a history of the united sates, new york: palgrave macmillan, pp. 147214; alan brinkley (1997), the unfinished nation: a concise history of the american people, new york: the mcgraw-hill companies, inc., pp. 487-528 and 581-603. all this historical developments in the society had a great influence on wharton‟s literary evolution. edith wharton (1862-1937) was born in new york in an aristocratic family (many writers wrote about her biography and among them are grace kellogg griffith, the two lives of edith wharton: the woman and her work (1965); millicent bell, edith wharton and henry james: the story of their friendship (1965); blake nevius, edith wharton: a study of her fiction (1953); irving howe, edith wharton: a collection of critical essays (1962) and louis auchincloss, edith wharton: a woman in her time (1971). and they expected from her to learn and uphold aristocratic norms and values. therefore, her father made a decision to educate her privately at home with the help of the skilful tutors and she was also educated abroad. her family set up certain aristocratic standards and her family was well known by those standards. thus, her family, as many other aristocratic families in america, was characterized with the wealth, power, social standing, connections and family bloodlines. wharton‟s aristocratic background played significant role in her writings as she was in a position to present literary aspects from different, insider‟s and outsider‟s perspectives. this is especially significant because wharton later rebelled against her exclusive aristocratic and wife‟s role in a patriarchal society. in this regard, many writings signal out wharton as one of the early promoters of feminism. (lekesizalin, 2008). besides her passion for writing edith wharton had a lifelong passion for travel, gardening, art, and interior decoration. therefore, a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [99] european impact and experiences were reflected in all her novels, especially in the form of using material details in the literature. for instance, her first book, the decoration of houses (1898), was based on a study of french architectural design. similarly, wharton had a great love of architecture, gardens and design and, thus, wrote numerous articles and essays on these subjects including italian villas and their gardens (1904). she often traveled with henry james to europe, where she was observing european culture by combining it with the american ones. them, in her writing wharton looked at the proponents of her novels as decisive and humorous and, as well as, at their socialpsychological insights. therefore, direct personal experience and sociohistorical developments played significant role in wharton‟s writings. wharton‟s writings have many similarities with the writing of henry james, although she tried to use her distinctive style in writing, which is neither european nor american. therefore, james and wharton were often explored in the comparative literature. as the author of numerous best-selling award-winning works including novels, short stories and travel essays wharton has inspired many other authors. some of her works were adapted to the stage and film and many are still in print today. therefore, her works were extensively used because: wharton developed the keen observational skills and distanced, often ironic perspective that distinguish her social satires. she also acquired early on a sense of history and a visual approach to literature and landscape. place whether it be new york city transforming itself from small town to major metropolis, new england blanketed with snow, or elegant brownstone interiors is the dominant metaphor in wharton's fiction ( singley, 2003). wharton in her novels was concerned with social mores and social reform, which reflected the extremes and anxieties of the gilded age. for that reason wharton's use of material culture also reveals the social and psychological realities of her female characters. in addition, wharton's detailed accounts of late nineteenth and early twentiethcentury life in forms of communication, transportation, architecture and design offer important clues to the dispositions and fates of her heroines. trains, carriages, steam-liners, electric currents, and clocks, for example, all underline the quickening pace of modern life and its pressures. of a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [100] particular importance was fashion, a marker that allows wharton to trace women's shifting social positions (singley, 2003). architecture and wharton’s material details style in the above parts of the paper, an emphasis was placed on the role of biography, history, politics and socio-economics in literary wharton‟s writing. this part of the paper aims to conceptualize literary approaches in the literature, namely realism, and naturalism that partially shaped wharton‟s literary works. however, special emphasis will be placed on an analysis of wharton‟s style of writing characterized by material details, which was perhaps derived from arts and architecture. there is also a feeling that wharton was aware of unusual and superficial attitudes in the society at that time. the fact that the women of that time would order the dress from europe and wait until next year to get the chance and wear it was at least unexpected, but this was the practice in the society. most probably the woman at that time thought that it was exciting to have the dress in the wardrobe hanging there for one year and wear it in the next season. arts and architecture is furthermore associated to realism that is “in general, writing or art that appears to accurately record life, especially everyday or ordinary life. as a trend in european literature it is particularly associated with the mid-nineteenth century novel of middleclass life, pioneered by the french novelists honoré de balzac (1799–1850) and gustave flaubert (1821–1880), and the english novelist george eliot (1819–1880)” (beasley 2007). therefore, realism as “the faithful representation of reality” and naturalism as “an application of scientific natural principles on the study of human beings and social phenomenon,” were used by wharton in her novels. the decoration of houses (1897) was written in collaboration with ogden codman. and is indeed a particular characteristic of wharton's artistic enterprise. therefore, wharton‟s writing style and her ability to present scenery, landscape, interior and even the way people were dressed in such details could also be closely related to her background and her interest in architecture. a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [101] this work was presentation of interior design, which also influenced her later literary works and material detail style in terms of the description of houses, rooms, furniture and fabrics. in the decoration of houses wharton insisted on the structural relationship between the private inside of a home and its public façade (kinmen, 2000). in this work wharton always draws a line between how the houses of her characters were decorated in relation to the emotional feelings of her characters. according to ellen eva frank in the nineteenth century architects began conceiving buildings as „books which can be read‟ (stephenson, 2010). in another work writing of fiction, wharton writes about honore de balzac as the first novelist who investigated the „relation of his characters to their houses (stephenson, 2010). wharton follows de balzac and similarly envisioned literature as an architectural or constructed space. balzac‟s endless curiosity about specificities of business and legal transactions, property rights and the art of decoration is very similar to wharton‟s passion for details of customs and décor and her particularity of the manners of her society. therefore, rubin states that “it is difficult to conceive of the age of innocence ever having been written without the fruitful examples of the great french novelist” (rubin, 1957). there are many examples in wharton‟s novels where windows, thresholds, libraries and other interior space play very important illustrative part. for instance, in the age of innocence archer is most of the time portrayed in his library as “a vigilant hand had, as usual, kept the fire alive and the lamp trimmed; and the room with the rows of books, its bronze and steel statues of “the frences” on the mantelpiece and its many photographs of famous pictures, looked singularly home-like and welcoming” (wharton, 2005). this description reveals some particular characteristics of newland archer which is a passion for reading. from the description it is clear that the house owner is most probably a passionate reader and educated man. then, photographs of the famous people on the wall indicate his artistic inclination. at the same time archer belonged to the upper class society and with a sense of elite constrains of that time. then, diverse and unique furnishing in ellen‟s new york flat differentiates her as free women without elite constrains. a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [102] finally, archer sees her apartment as “small slender tables of dark woods, a delicate little greek bronze on the chimney-piece, and a stretch of red damask nailed on the discolored wallpaper behind a couple of italian-looking pictures in old frame”(wharton, 2005). by describing her apartment in such a way it is obvious that the person living there is someone special and different than some other characters in the novel. wharton clearly distinguishes ellen from the other characters in the novel. ellen is presented as different and without any constrains towards the accepted norms of the society. therefore, by using architectural details wharton describes her apartment, giving it a touch of particularity and specificity affiliated to the person living there. then, wharton‟s description of van der luydans drawing room is also very typical to her architectural details style of writing. she describes drawing room as “high-ceiling white-walled madison avenue drawing-room, with the pale brocaded armchairs so obviously uncovered for the occasion, and the gauze still veiling the ormolu mantel ornaments and the beautiful old carved frame of gainsborough‟s “lady angelica du luc”(wharton, 2005). the above analysis and examples indicate wharton‟s extensive using of architectural details in literary writing. the details that she envisioned and skillfully presented to the reader are on a very high level of architectural competency. indeed, if she was not so keen in using architecture, her novels would, most probably, be less sophisticated and written in a less fissionable manner. therefore, wharton‟s architectural details could be used by contemporary writers especially in view of the fact that contemporary architecture seeks such literary explorations. psycho-sociological aspects of wharton’s material details wharton used extensively technical terms and images from sociology and anthropology that were emerging as a new field of study at that time. in the age of innocence the opening scene communicates more about characters than one may notice. throughout the description wharton brings to the reader social world wealthy people of that time. those small details are so important to wharton that she opens up a novel a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [103] with the scene in which everyone is dressed in their best clothes. furthermore, the fact that lady from the upper class of new york kept their dresses, ordered from the most prestigious shops in the europe, untouched in their wardrobes over one year, show the sophistication and attitudes of those people. this, without any doubt prepares readers for the dramatic settings in the novel. although the narrator does not tell as explicitly about the character‟s attributes, we learn about them from the descriptions of the place and how they are dressed. narrator at the opening of the novel talks about opera house envisioned with splendor and costliness that could match even those of great european capitals. the following passage illustrates social aspects of characters that are described by material details: though there was already talk of the erection in remote metropolitan distance “above the forties” of a new opera house which should compete in costliness and splendour with those of the great european capitals, the world of fashion was still contend to resemble every winter in the shabby red and gold boxes of the sociable old academy (wharton, 2005). wharton was writing about the world that had undergone significant changes and transformations. likewise, wharton compared european and american cultures, the elite aristocratic families and common day-to-day socio-cultural problems. according to her writings, the elite of that time lived outside of reality of the world. therefore, some historical events had played a part in her choices in writing while others did not. wharton worked as a front line correspondent and charity volunteer during wwi, spending several years in france. a son at the front (1922) is wharton's full length novel about world war i (benert, 1996). wharton‟s writings were also influenced by the victorian era. wharton inherited a domestic, often sentimental, literary tradition from harriet beecher stowe, louisa may alcott and sarah orne jewett. she acknowledged her debt to these writers but rejected the “rose-colored” lenses through which they saw the world because wharton was instead interested in moral depth (wharton, 2005). therefore, due to her originality wharton helped to transform nineteenth-century romantic literature into a twentieth-century realism that confronted directly and a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [104] critically the pressing issues facing men and women at the turn of the century. material details in wharton‟s novels establish historical accuracy and differentiate the old new york and the modern world. in the age of innocence wharton directly leads the reader towards future urban, demographic and social changes of the new york. therefore, this novel is product of wharton‟s life experience. in this regard, she once stated: “i found a momentary escape in going back to my childhood memories of a long vanished america, and wrote the age of innocence.” according to singlay: wharton is by critical and popular acclaim one of the united states' finest novelists and short story writers. a consummate stylist and astute critic of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century american social life, wharton often ridiculed the upper-class new york society of which she herself was a member. she also turned her sharp eye to new england and europe, creating incisive portraits of characters deeply affected by their social and physical environments. wharton's ability to combine such cutting satire and irony with compassion for human suffering results in a unique american realism that elevates her characters' struggles against restrictive conventions and circumstances beyond comedy of manners to pathos, and even tragedy (singley, 1957). moreover, wharton was interested in the characteristics of human being and how they connect and react to certain situations, including effects of class on the behavior and the consciousness. wharton examines upper class value and morals in all their convention and tradition, rigidity and hypocrisy, often with delicate sarcasm and humor. therefore, one has to look into material details, which wharton was using skillfully and accurately, which portray upper class morals and values as hypocritical and insincere. wharton‟s using of material details in describing social aspects of life is evident in many passages. for instance, newland archer is represented as an intellectual and cultural embodiment of freedom in contrast to the narrow confines of new york society. then, his love towards ellen is presented as an escape from social hypocrisy and artifice to which he feels trapped. therefore, in ellen he seeks an intellectual and cultural freedom from the shallow restrictions of new york society. however, wharton being artistically shaped in such a way ensures that her character newland‟s social circumstance will never allow him to a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [105] escape from the rules of his society. finally, newland realizes that their society is “self deluded and deeply hypocritical” and “our law allowed divorce but our society does not”(wharton, 2005). as wharton became even more popular her readers recognized that simply a person having an opera seat spoke loudly about her\his social status. her capability to overwhelm reader with the details in her novel, and making every detail meaningful made her writing even more interesting. as she had an american and european personas, she made a commitment to the values of new york at the time of her parents day and on the other hand her need for the acceptance and creativity of new order. for instance, in wharton‟s description of ellen‟s clothes she depicts her personality. her clothes are usually flowing and dark, while on the other hand may‟s fair hair braided and her dress is made of “tulle tucker.” may thoroughly followed the rules of the society and did all to appear completely innocent. she usually wears white dresses; her hair is always firmly in place and she is even presented to blush when necessary. all these details indicates that wharton was deeply connected to her characters from the novels, she wanted readers to feel and sense the emotions inside each of her characters and she succeeded in that effort by offering her readers detail insights and feelings of her main proponents by presenting them as visible and real. concluding remarks there are many critiques, interpreters, scholars and man of pen who had criticized wharton and her style of writing. apparently, they criticized wharton‟s excessive emphasis on an elite people of that time and her significant neglecting of ordinary people. nevertheless, she was, without any doubt, one of the most prominent writers of the 19 th century who had a great influence on the generations of writers to come. in particular wharton‟s skilful using of material details in describing natural, material and psycho-social aspects of life was the greatest novelty of her literary writings. the main objective in wharton‟s writing was the representation of characters by means of situation whereby vivified and enlightened by a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [106] infrequent creative illustrations straight literal method was applied. wharton belonged to a group of writer we call romantic-realistic and, therefore, her writings also signify moral, social and educational lessons. in this regards, after reading her novels, readers like me are often left with many questions. wharton‟s novels are not classical romance novels with the happy ending, but there are always social constrains that the main proponents go through and are unable to brake out from those constrains. this paper pointed out the above particular characteristics of wharton‟s literary writings, with special emphasis on her novel the age of innocence. the paper reaffirmed the role of life experience, arts and architecture, psychological, social and natural aspect of life in the process of literary writing. wharton‟s using of material details in her novels was extensively discussed and analyzed by considering these aspects of life and literary writings. this in turn answers our main question why wharton used so many material details in her novels. a. mulalić material details in edith wharton’s writings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [107] references beasley, r. (2007). theories of modern poetry. new york: routledge. benert, a. l. (1996). “edith wharton at war: civilized space in troubled times.” twentieth century literature, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 322-343. brinkley, a. (1997). the unfinished nation: a concise history of the american people. new york: the mcgraw-hill companies, inc.. jenkins, p. (1997). a history of the united sates. new york: palgrave macmillan. kinmen, a. h. (2000). “the making of professional; edith wharton‟s the decoration of houses.” south atlantic review, vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 98-122. lekesizalın, f. (2008). “feminist perspectives in edith wharton and reşat nuri güntekin: a comparative study of the house of mirth and çalıkuşu.” social and applied science, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 1118. liisa, s. (2010). “ decorating fiction: edith wharton‟s literary architecture.” university of toronto quarterly, vol. 79, no. 4, pp. 1096-1104. rubin, l. (1957). “aspect of naturalism in four novels by edith wharton.” twentieth century literature, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 188. singley, c. j. (2003). a historical guide to edith wharton. new york: oxford university press. wharton, e. (2005). the age of innocence. san diego: icon group international, inc. introduction epiphany: vol. 5, no. 1, 2012 issn 1840-3719 legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion bisera mavrić * abstract this work deals with the relationship between induced abortion and mental health with a special focus on the area of political controversy. this article explores the historical background of the abortion and its legislative implications in europe with special reference to bosnia and herzegovina. this work is based on etnographich, analitical and historical aproaches. it explains abortion in medical terms and analyzes the psychological effects of the abortion. this is a significant and challanging topic for those who find themselves facing the moral dilemma of whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. problems of controversy are numerous. is abortion a murder or not? is fetus a person or not? when it becomes the one if ever till the birth? if abortion is not morally wrong, that doesn't mean that it's right to have an abortion. if abortion is morally wrong, that doesn't mean that it is always impermissible to have an abortion. the comon dilema is whether having an abortion is less wrong than the alternatives. these are some of the questions this paper deals with. keywords: abortion, mental health, psychological effects, responsibility, controversy * corresponding author: bisera mavrić, faculty of arts and social sciences, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: bmavric@ius.edu.ba http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/abortion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mental_health mailto:bmavric@ius.edu.ba b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [121] introduction the abortion debate deals with the rights and implications of deliberately ending a pregnancy before natural childbirth. different expert groups have found opposite scientific evidence of a causal relationship between abortion and poor mental health. human life by itself poses different meanings. it may mean a member of the biological human species having the human genetic code, or something different: a being that possesses certain human characteristics in addition to the human genetic code. what characterizes it is the ability to think, to imagine and to communicate. this goes on and explains the being as a 'moral person', the one that has rights and duties too. the time at which a fetus gets the right to life is achieved from the moment of conception to the time the baby is born. every woman is a unique individual and has her own intrinsic values and sense of morality. despite suppress of remorse and attempts of extenuation, abortions are accompanied with physical tension and disorders that in some cases obtain a form of mental disease. disorders and frustrations make negative influence to relationships towards already born children, partner or social environment. consequences could be even worse as cause searches somewhere else and not in abortion. some societies ban abortion almost completely while others permit it in certain cases. there is no general agreement with regards to the meaning of the word “morality.” for religious people morality is a set of rules laid down by god. some think of it as a set of socially imposed rules with the function of reducing conflict in society. others consider it a set of principles about how we ought to live that applies to everyone impartially, or which can be defended by appealing to the interests of people in general. abortion laws range from complete prohibition to complete liberalization. beside, unwillingness for announcing statistics about abortion in public was always present. the biggest problems are private ordinations which are hiding to make abortions so it is impossible to find out statistics at any level when it comes to number of abortions done. even at state hospitals data are possible to discus because a great number of abortions are made due to private connections without http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/scientific_evidence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/causality http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/child/alive_1.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/child/alive_1.shtml b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [122] adequate evidence. those statistics often alarm some parts of population and draw a question of forcing forbiddance of abortion. historical background abortion has always been an issue of controversy, debates and arguing. abortus provocatus or abortion is a forcible disruption of pregnancy and sacrifice the fetus. very often voluntary abortion, with approval or demand of a pregnant woman, the right of a woman to dispose with her body or both partner’s right to plan a family conflicts with fetus right to live. parents could invoke the right to respect for private and family life or their right to found a family. therefore, the consensus regarding the matter has always been debatable. in the middle of first millennium before new era hippocrates 460 – 371 bce, the father of the medicine declared famous hippocratic oath that represents the base of medical ethics. he talked about serious problems that appear due to abortion. he said “i shall not give a mean for abortion to a woman.” plato also held that a human soul can exist in a wholly independent and disembodied way or can be combined with any sort of substance. aristotelian doctrine of hylomorphism holds that human soul is not an independent substance, but is logically related to the human body, as any object is logically related to the raw material out of which it is made. he writes about ways of making an abortion that were present at the time. he distinguishes early abortion till 7 days and late on after 7 days of pregnancy. he justifies early abortion till fetus does not pose the soul yet (gavrankapetanović 12). similar opinions about abortion could be found in the greco-roman world among scholars pliny, dioscorides, celsus and galen (gavrankapetanović, 9). early christianity condemned abortion. st. augustine allowed that in early abortion “offspring” may die “before it lives”. a great thirteen century philosopher saint thomas aquinas held that a fetus does not have an intellectual or rational soul at conception but acquires one forty days in the case of male fetus, later in the case of female. for many centuries catholic doctrine held that abortion in the early weeks of pregnancy is not a murder because the soul is not yet present. but though early abortion was not considered murder during this long period, it was b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [123] certainly considered a grave sin; as the expression “anticipated homicide” (dworkin 40). traditional jewish view about abortion has been more lenient than christian. until its birth the fetus is not a nefesh. accordingly abortion is not a murder. however, it was permitted only in cases of therapeutic abortion, where existed a grave threat to the life or health of the mother. with very few exceptions the health of the fetus was not a valid reason for abortion. important reason of jewish theology of abortion in contemporary world in particular is related to their need to expand birthrate. among arab doctors who dealt with the abortion the most important were ibn sina (avicena), ali abas and ibn al khaleb. although islam holds that the soul is given to a fetus forty days after conception it allows abortion only in one case: when the life of a mother is endangered. traditionally, abortion was not deemed permissible by muslim scholars (hedayat, 654). shiite scholars considered it forbidden after implantation of the fertilized ovum. sunni scholars have held various opinions, but all agreed that after 4 months gestation abortion was not permitted. recently, scholars have begun to consider the effect of severe fetal deformities on the mother, the families and society. this has led some scholars to reconsider the prohibition on abortion in limited circumstances. for example, therapeutic abortion law was passed by the iranian parliament in 2003 approving it before 16 weeks of gestation under limited circumstances, including medical conditions related to fetal and maternal health. recent measures in iran provide an opportunity for the muslim scholars in other countries to review their traditional stance on abortion (hedayat, 654). social and legal challenges for some sholars very young babies don't really qualify as having earned the right to life by possessing the right characteristics (www.:/bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion). fortunately for young children, these scholars concede that young babies do have the right to life as a result of tradition and law. however, as stataed by ramcharan: the right to life is the most basic, the most fundamental, the most primordial and supreme right which human beings are entitled to b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [124] have and without which protection of all other human rights becomes either meaningless or less effective. if there is no life there is nothing left to human dignity? the right to life is a norm guaranteed in international customary law as well as in various international conventions. it has the character of jus cogens. accordingly the right to life may not be derogated except in exceptional situations. no government may deny the existence of the right to life and a higher duty and standard of protection of the right is imposed upon governments. beside the concept of responsibility and concept of accountability should be taken into consideration (ramcharan, 186). however, the right to life is not a guaranteed against the threats to life, but against intentional deprivation of live. it must be prohibited and punishable by law except for those cases in which such deprivation of life is permitted. the most difficult problem is does the unborn child poses his right to life. if it is the case, than abortus provocatus must in principle be prohibited by the legislator and prosecuted by the authorities (van dijk, and van hoof, 10). some societies ban abortion almost completely while others permit it in certain cases. such societies usually lay down a maximum age after which the foetus must not be aborted, regardless of the circumstances. at various times some of the following have been allowed in some societies: abortion for the sake of the mother's health including her mental health; abortion where a pregnancy is the result of a crime such as crimes like rape, incest, or child abuse; abortion where the child of the pregnancy would have an ' unacceptable quality of life' such as cases where the child would have serious physical handicaps, serious genetic problems, serious mental defects; abortion for social reasons, including: poverty, mother unable to cope with a child (or another child), mother being too young to cope with a child; and abortion as a matter of government policy as a way of regulating population size, as a way of regulating groups within a population, as a way of improving the population (www.:/bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion). most opponents of abortion agree that abortion for the sake of the mother's health can be morally acceptable if there is a real risk of serious damage to the mother. abortion for social reasons is usually least acceptable to opponents. http://www./bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [125] the most difficult problem nowadays is related to the question about the beginning and the end of the physical life of the human person. the question of abortion is variously treated in international documents and conventions such as universal declaration of human rights, declaration of the right of the child. international covenant on civil and political rights, european convention on human rights, american convention on human rights and african charter on human and people’s rights (ramcharan 317-318). beside the declaration of the right of the child only american convention of human rights poses the clausal from the moment of conception. it could easily lead to conclusion that in usa problems of abortion should be minimized due to the law. on the contrary usa is the country with the most controversial point of views regarding abortion. though american law insists on a sharp formal separation between church and state, and though the supreme court has forbade even nondenominational prayer in public schools, the united states is nevertheless among the most religious of all western countries and, in the tone of some of its most powerful religious groups, by far the most fundamentalist (quoted in dworkin 6). conflict is also dramatically immanent in latin-american countries that are almost homogeny catholic. church holds a human life is made by conceive so abortion represents a murder. church influence is high and most of the countries imposed proviso article 4 of american declaration. anyhow principle nature of this proviso enables some of the countries in that region to allow abortion at particular cases. in bosnia and herzegovina interruption of the pregnancy is legal and in accordance with law about terms of abortion. law that pronounces „it is a human right to decide about children born.“ this law implies that the basis and limitations considering abortion till 10 weeks of pregnancy could be done by request. after 10 weeks of pregnancy there is the risk to life and health of the women, risk to physical and mental health of the child that should be born, rape or other sexual crime. after 20 weeks of pregnancy there is an option to save life or health of the women. b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [126] ministry of justice bosnia and herzegovina specifies the following conditions: abortion must be done in the hospital or other certificated facility for medical care; if women is under age, approval of the parents or tutor is requested; after 10 weeks of pregnancy, special permeation of the commission is requested (contained of gynecologist/obstetrician, general practice doctor or specialist of intern medicine and social worker or psychologist; and woman can turn to comitia of second instance if commission of first instance refuse her demand (9). although they are legal, abortions can hardly be done in areas where croat citizens are in majority. it has been reported that those same practitioners that refused to make abortions at public hospitals made those at private clinics with very high prices. in areas where bosnians are majority although it is legal some doctors are refusing to make abortions. pre-war number of legal abortions was smaller than number of registered pregnancies, which leaded to conclusion that interruption of the pregnancy, was the most frequent method of planning a family. other european countries demand a waiting period for the procedure, pre-abortion counseling, parental approval for minors, and in the others there are no mandatory requirements. abortion laws range from complete prohibition to complete liberalization. the accessibility and availability of abortion are a reflection of abortion law and the accessibility and availability of abortion services. in europe abortions are generally well accessible in terms of abortion laws. there are differences in accessibility to abortion services between the countries, and in some countries, also between different areas of the country. abortions are generally performed in authorized facilities by gynecologists or general practitioners. today abortion is still illegal concept in ireland except to save a woman’s life and this ban is written into its constitution. due to it 6000 of irish women travel each year to britain for the operation, high percentage of them in late-term because of the lack of support and advice at home. therefore, anti – abortionists called this type of migration “abortion-tourism”. it could be only stopped by reform. over last decade’s situation has been changed. abortion services in great part of europe are relatively easily accessible in terms of the law, availability of b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [127] facilities and health insurance coverage of the procedure in the netherlands, france and slovenia. abortion service is less accessible in united kingdom, hungary and turkey, as a result of limited accessibility to abortion services or a relatively high abortion fee. in some eastern european countries there has been a tendency in the last decade to limit the availability and access to abortion (pinter 62). the worldwide trend toward liberalization of abortion laws has continued with changes in canada, czechoslovakia, greece, hungary, romania, the soviet union and vietnam. forty percent of the world's population lives in countries where induced abortion is permitted on request and twenty five percent lives where it is allowed only if the woman's life is in danger. in recent years, abortion rates have been increasing in czechoslovakia, england and wales, new zealand and sweden and declining in china, france, iceland, italy, japan and the netherlands (barclay 215). psycho-medical effects pre-existing factors in a woman's life, such as emotional attachment to the pregnancy, lack of social support, pre-existing psychiatric illness, and conservative views on abortion increase the likelihood of experiencing negative feelings after an abortion. some scientists used the term "post-abortion syndrome" to refer to negative psychological effects which they attribute to abortion. however, "postabortion syndrome" is not recognized by any serious medical or psychological organization. since many post-aborted women use repression as a coping mechanism, there may be a long period of denial before a woman seeks psychiatric care. these repressed feelings may cause psychosomatic illnesses and psychiatric or behavioral in other areas of her life. as a result, some counselors report that unacknowledged post-abortion distress is the causative factor in many of their female patients, even though their patients have come to them seeking therapy for seemingly unrelated problems (www://afterabortion.com). b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [128] while psychological reactions to abortion fall into many categories, some women experience all or some of they symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). the lowest incidence rate of ptsd reported following abortion is 1.5%, which would translate to over 600,000 cases of abortion induced by it. approximately half had many, but not all, symptoms of ptsd, and 20 to 40 percent showed moderate to high levels of stress and avoidance behavior relative to their abortion experiences (adler, 1979). ptsd is a psychological dysfunction which results from a traumatic experience which overwhelms a person’s normal defense mechanisms resulting in intense fear, feelings of helplessness or being trapped, or loss of control. the risk that an experience will be traumatic is increased when the traumatizing event is perceived as including threats of physical injury, sexual violation, or the witnessing of or participation in a violent death. ptsd results when the traumatic event causes the hyperarousal of “flight or fight” defense mechanisms. this hyperarousal causes these defense mechanisms to become disorganized, disconnected from present circumstances, and take on a life of their own resulting in abnormal behavior and personality disorders (adler, 1979). as an example of this disconnection of mental functions, some victims may experience intense emotion but without clear memory of the event; others may remember every detail but without emotion; still others may reexperience both the event and the emotions in intrusive and overwhelming flashback experiences (adler, 1979). women may experience abortion as a traumatic event for several reasons. some of them are forced into an unwanted abortions by husbands, boyfriends, parents, or others. if the woman has repeatedly been a victim of domineering abuse, such an unwanted abortion may be perceived as the ultimate violation in a life characterized by abuse. other women, no matter how compelling the reasons they have for seeking an abortion, may still perceive the termination of their pregnancy as the violent killing of their own child (www://afterabortion.com). the fear, anxiety, pain, and guilt associated with the procedure are mixed. still other women, report that the pain of abortion, inflicted upon them by a stranger invading their body, feels identical to rape. researchers have found that women with a history of sexual assault may experience greater b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [129] distress during and after an abortion exactly because of these associations between the two experiences. when the stressor leading to ptsd is abortion, some clinicians refer to this as post-abortion syndrome (pas). the major symptoms of ptsd are generally classified under three categories: hyperarousal, intrusion, and constriction. hyperarousal is a characteristic of inappropriately and chronically aroused “fight or flight” defense mechanisms. the person is seemingly on permanent alert for threats of danger. symptoms of hyperarousal include: exaggerated startle responses, anxiety attacks, irritability, outbursts of anger or rage, aggressive behavior, difficulty concentrating, hypervigilence, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, or physiological reactions upon exposure to situations that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic experience (adler, 1979). intrusion is the reexperience of the traumatic event at unwanted and unexpected times. symptoms of intrusion in pas cases include: recurrent and intrusive thoughts about the abortion or aborted child, flashbacks in which the woman momentarily reexperiences an aspect of the abortion experience, nightmares about the abortion or child, or anniversary reactions of intense grief or depression on the due date of the aborted pregnancy or the anniversary date of the abortion (www://afterabortion.com). constriction is the numbing of emotional resources, or the development of behavioral patterns, so as to avoid stimuli associated with the trauma. it is avoidance behavior; an attempt to deny and avoid negative feelings or people, places, or things which aggravate the negative feelings associated with the trauma (adler, 1979). in postabortion trauma cases, constriction may include: an inability to recall the abortion experience or important parts of it; efforts to avoid activities or situations which may arouse recollections of the abortion; withdrawal from relationships, especially estrangement from those involved in the abortion decision; avoidance of children; efforts to avoid or deny thoughts or feelings about the abortion; restricted range of loving or tender feelings; a sense of a foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect a career, marriage, or children, or a long life diminished interest in b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [130] previously enjoyed activities; drug or alcohol abuse; suicidal thoughts or acts; and other self-destructive tendencies (www://afterabortion.com). barnard’s study (www://afterabortion.com) identified a 19% rate of ptsd among women who had abortions three to five years previously. but in reality the actual rate is probably higher. clinical experience has demonstrated that the women least likely to cooperate in post-abortion research are those for whom the abortion caused the most psychological distress. research has confirmed this insight, demonstrating that the women who refuse followup evaluation most closely match the demographic characteristics of the women who suffer the most postabortion distress (adler, 1979). the extraordinary high rate of refusal to participate in post-abortion studies may interpreted as evidence of constriction or avoidance behavior (not wanting to think about the abortion) which is a major symptom of ptsd. for many women, the onset or accurate identification of ptsd symptoms may be delayed for several years. until a ptsd sufferer has received counseling and achieved adequate recovery, ptsd may result in a psychological disability which would prevent an injured abortion patient from bringing action within the normal statutory period. this disability may, therefore, provide grounds for an extended statutory period (adler, 1979). thirty to fifty percent of aborted women report experiencing sexual dysfunctions, of both short and long duration, beginning immediately after their abortions. these problems may include one or more of the following: loss of pleasure from intercourse, increased pain, an aversion to sex and/or males in general, or the development of a promiscuous life-style. approximately 60 percent of women who experience postabortion sequelae report suicidal ideation, with 28 percent actually attempting suicide, of which half attempted suicide two or more times. researchers in finland have identified a strong statistical association between abortion and suicide in a records based study. the identified 73 suicides associated within one year to a pregnancy ending either naturally or by induced abortion. the mean annual suicide rate for all women was 11.3 per 100,000 (www://afterabortion.com). suicide rate associated with birth was significantly lower (5.9). rates for pregnancy loss were b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [131] significantly higher. for miscarriage the rate was 18.1 per 100,000 and for abortion 34.7 per 100,000 (speckhard, 1987). the suicide rate within one year after an abortion was three times higher than for all women, seven times higher than for women carrying to term, and nearly twice as high as for women who suffered a miscarriage. suicide attempts appear to be especially prevalent among post-abortion teenagers (speckhard, 1987). post-abortion stress is also linked with increased cigarette smoking. women who abort are twice as likely to become heavy smokers and suffer the corresponding health risks (harlap, 1975). post-abortion women are also more likely to continue smoking during subsequent wanted pregnancies with increased risk of neonatal death or congenital anomalies (obel, 1979). over twenty studies have linked abortion to increased rates of drug and alcohol use. abortion is significantly linked with a two fold increased risk of alcohol abuse among women (m. plant, 1985). abortion followed by alcohol abuse is linked to violent behavior, divorce or separation, auto accidents, and job loss. in addition to the psycho-social costs of such abuse, drug abuse is linked with increased exposure to hiv/aids infections, congenital malformations, and assaultive behavior. for most couples, an abortion causes unforeseen problems in their relationship. post-abortion couples are more likely to divorce or separate. many post-abortion women develop a greater difficulty forming lasting bonds with a male partner (www://afterabortion.com). this may be due to abortion related reactions such as lowered self-esteem, greater distrust of males, sexual dysfunction, substance abuse, and increased levels of depression, anxiety, and volatile ange. women who have more than one abortion (representing about 45% of all abortions) are more likely to require public assistance, in part because they are also more likely to become single parent (www://afterabortion.com). women who have one abortion are at increased risk of having additional abortions in the future. women with a prior abortion experience are four times more likely to abort a current pregnancy than those with no prior abortion history (joyce, 1978). this increased risk is associated with the prior abortion due to lowered b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [132] self esteem, a conscious or unconscious desire for a replacement pregnancy, and increased sexual activity post-abortion. subsequent abortions may occur because of conflicted desires to become pregnant and have a child and continued pressures to abort, such as abandonment by the new male partner. aspects of self-punishment through repeated abortions are also reported (leach, 1979). approximately 45% of all abortions are now repeat abortions. the risk of falling into a repeat abortion pattern should be discussed with a patient considering her first abortion. furthermore, since women who have more than one abortion are at a significantly increased risk of suffering physical and psychological sequelae, these heightened risks should be thoroughly discussed with women seeking abortions. a study of the medical records of 56,741 california medicaid patients revealed that women who had abortions were 160 percent more likely than delivering women to be hospitalized for psychiatric treatment in the first 90 days following abortion or delivery (www://afterabortion.com). rates of psychiatric treatment remained significantly higher for at least four years. in a study of post-abortion patients only 8 weeks after their abortion, researchers found that 44% complained of nervous disorders, 36% had experienced sleep disturbances, 31% had regrets about their decision, and 11% had been prescribed psychotropic medicine by their family doctor (ashton, 1980). a 5 year retrospective study in two canadian provinces found significantly greater use of medical and psychiatric services among aborted women. most significant was the finding that 25% of aborted women made visits to psychiatrists as compared to 3% of the control group (badgley, 1977). women who have had abortions are significantly more likely than others to subsequently require admission to a psychiatric hospital. at especially high risk are teenagers, separated or divorced women, and women with a history of more than one abortion (www://afterabortion.com). b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [133] conclusion throughout the history, people have fundamentally disagreed about the moral status of the human embryo. in early times this was because people knew very little about what actually went on in the womb and so had very little idea what an embryo was. later, the problem was that a pregnancy could not be recognised until it was well established and the embryo made its presence felt by causing unmistakeable symptoms in the mother or by starting to move in the womb. at this stage of pregnancy, it was natural to think of the embryo as a being that was able to do things, and they assumed that this was also true of the very earliest (and unknown) stages of pregnancy. this article attempted to gave answer to questions on what is abortion and what are the possible medical consequences, psychological effects, amount of diversity and impossibility of consensus in the world towards this problem. feminist’s central claim on abortion is the right of a woman to control their own bodies. what about the woman as a whole? she is the one that is dealing with the horror decision, and at the end if she decide on abortion she is the one who will bear consequences. abortion releases men from responsibility, sexual responsibility but also from child rising responsibility. moral convictions of many people or at least substantial minority is that abortion could be morally justified for a variety of serious reasons. it is justified not only to save the life of the mother and in case of rape or incest but also in cases in which fetal abnormality has been diagnosed. anyhow moral dilemma remains. who is to be empowered to decide is a women’s life more valuable or the one of the unborn child. it is not a state, nor the parents, nor the society. therefore, this paper indicated that through history abortion was always controversial. scientists were contemplating, writing, women were suffering, children never catch sight of sunlight. even if fetus is not a human being jet and does not have its rights, abortion could be seen as los of the future. the loss of a child during pregnancy can hearth a woman soul. with it comes the loss of hopes and the promise of future generations. each year, over 1.2 million abortions are performed only in the united states. of that number, untold numbers of women grieve the loss of their unborn children. b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [134] today, the future is changing. scientists are modifying plants, animals and their own moods. people are trading their kidneys, their blood and everything else what is possible to be sold. in such “contemporary” world value of a single baby should be greater than ever. b. mavrić legal, social and psycho-medical effects of abortion epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [135] references barclay, linda “rights, intrinsic values and the politics of abortion”. utilitas, vol. 11 issue 2, (1999): 215. academic search premier. ebsco host. accessed 25 apr. 2011 <http://search.ebscohost.com/ b. howe, et al., “repeat abortion, blaming the victims,” am. j. of public health, 69 (12):1242-1246, (1979). catherine barnard, the long-term psychological effects of abortion, portsmouth, n.h.: institute for pregnancy loss, (1990). <http://afterabortion.com/ copelon, rhonda; zampas, 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international law? mirza ljubović international university of sarajevo abstract at a time of progressive development of public international law, the internal selfdetermination of peoples has no alternative, but external self-determination is justi� ed in a situation where, as a result of oppression, dispossession, and collective discrimination, a certain people have full rights to freely determine its political, social, economic, and cultural setting. in the case of kosovo, the right to “remedial secession” based on the right to external self-determination has been achieved. according to many legal scholars, the related right is an exception and could be realized outside the colonial context, in limited circumstances that resemble the colonial paradigm. modern customary public international law provides a legal basis for the introduction of the concept of the right to “remedial secession” and forms an argument that is supported by the “great powers” and is consistent with international institutional practice provided that the people’s fundamental human rights are threatened. � is article aims to explain through the case of kosovo that the external form of self-determination, which includes secession, is possible only exceptionally in the case of grave violations of human rights and freedoms, war crimes, repression, and systematic oppression, and that the internal self-determination of the peoples is a more acceptable form of realizing this collective human right, which should be realized through broad constitutional and legal reforms in every multiethnic state (a certain degree of autonomy or decentralization). keywords: modern public international law, self-determination, peoples, remedial secession, human rights epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction � e � rst great multilateral agreement that established the concept of the right to self-determination of the people was the treaty of versailles. � en the question arose, does the right to self-determination of the peoples lead to in� nitesimal fragmentation and disintegration of states and the emergence of a large number of new national states, which could endanger the existing public international policy in the future? like any other right, the right to self-determination of the people is possible to abuse. it is necessary to understand in which aspects the right to self-determination of the people is positive (a� rmative), in terms of the protection of collective rights of the peoples, and in which aspects this right is negative, and in the function of disintegration processes, distortions of territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of the states, as well as the disintegration of other complex entities under public international law. in this context, we recognize the scienti� c terms of the internal and external form of the self-determination of the peoples and we answer the question of which the a� rmative nature of internal self-determination in relation to the negative aspect of external self-determination, which in modern public international law and in political terms, can also be linked to secession. here, it is suggested that the right to self-determination of the people is divided into external (o� ensive) and internal (defensive) self-determination. how its name suggests this right unquestionably belongs to the people. � e aim of this paper should be an a� rmation of the internal exercise of the right to self-determination of the peoples and its relationship to the manifestation of its external shape which o� en leads to the secession of territories and con� icts with the principle of uti possidetis juris. � e division of this right to external and internal one is determined by the space of exercising the right to self-determination, i.e. whether is it contrary to the principle of uti possidetis juris (cornell law school legal information institute, n.d.) mirza ljubović mirza ljubović � e right to self-determination� e right to self-determination 173172 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies or within the internationally recognized borders of one country (the most common in the matter of a complex multi-ethnic states). � e right to self-determination of the people is stated in a series of international documents, both binding and, in a much larger number, nonbinding. � us, the „right to self-determination“ we � nd in the un charter, the un general assembly on � e right of peoples and nations to selfdetermination (1952), the international covenant on civil and political rights (1966), the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights (1966), the declaration of general assembly on principles of international law concerning friendly relations and cooperation among states in accordance with the charter of the united nations (1970), the un declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (2007), the vienna declaration and program of action (1993), et cetera. � e right to self-determination is today applicable as customary law and is recognized in that form by public international law. it is normative, provided in article 1 of both covenants on human rights (šarčević, 2022), that the right to self-determination becomes the fundamental principle of modern international law with erga omnes e� ect. it prescribes that: „all peoples have the right to self-determination on the basis of which they freely choose their political status.“ political status (šarčević, 2022) represents a constitutional status within the meaning of the establishment of the internal arrangement, while the external arrangement represents an international positioning and obtaining recognition. external self-determination of peoples includes the right of peoples to decide on their international status, i.e. to create their own sovereign and independent state, to unite with an existing sovereign state, or to integrate into an existing sovereign state. (bursać, 2010, p. 279) � is form of selfdetermination of the peoples is most o� en the subject of abuse in modern public international law, which includes secession, and thus the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the existing state are directly violated. demands for the external self-determination of peoples can be established, thus representing an exception that is rarely, but nevertheless, accepted in modern public international law (the case of kosovo), and unfounded under the in� uence of economic, cultural, religious, and ideological reasons, which may indicate the abuse of this right, as in the example of the province of catalonia in the kingdom of spain. however, in the 1960s, this type of external self-determination of the people was not considered as an abuse of right, it was considered the right to be a state in which the people will be liberated from foreign interference and stopped to be under foreign occupation or domination. � is issue was particularly relevant at the time of dra� ing the texts of international covenants on human rights, i.e. at the time of the condemnation of colonialism, and marked the emergence of a much-needed anti-colonial wave in the public international order. in this paper, it is necessary to say that not every external form of selfdetermination of the people that seek secession is illegal and a sort of abuse of that right. it is possible if certain conditions are previously met that would justify the realization of such a right or opportunity, which we also call „remedial secession“, in the case of denying the right of a part of the people to be represented in state authorities. antonio cassese continues and believes that this right exists, but that it is an exception to the general rule that the territorial integrity and political independence of states are protected by international law and as such they must be interpreted narrowly and subjected to strict conditions. (bursać, 2010, p. 299.) cassese continues and lists three conditions that must be met in order to exercise the right to secession: 1. the central authorities of the state must persistently deny the group the right to participate in the government; 2. the group must be subjected to massive and systematic human rights violations, and 3. any possibility of � nding a peaceful solution within the existing state mirza ljubović mirza ljubović � e right to self-determination� e right to self-determination 175174 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies structure must be excluded. (bursać, 2010, p. 299.) in order for a people to submit a request for self-determination against the territorial integrity of a state, it must prove that there is no rule of law in a particular state, that the government did not result from free democratic elections, that the rights of minorities, as well as human rights and basic freedoms, are not respected and that cultural, linguistic and religious rights are suppressed. (bursać, 2010, p. 78.) only when these conditions are met, the right to selfdetermination of the peoples becomes justi� ed. � e demand for self-determination is increasingly justi� ed if the people are aware of their historical position and identity in their ethnic and cultural areas. � at they live in a country that they cannot consider their own and that they are discriminated against by one or more other people (berković, 2021, p. 43.), and there are no prospects that the situation could be changed or improved in the foreseeable future (realization of autonomy). (ibler, 1992, p. 61.) � e � rst step in the abuse of the right to self-determination of the peoples is manifested in the desire to achieve international legal subjectivity (external statehood or independent state), even more so if that people enjoy true autonomy, and the members of that people enjoy all human rights and basic freedoms, in a way that they can participate in the work of representative bodies, the government and the judiciary of the state in which they live (ibler, 1992, p. 61.), as is the case with the people of catalonia. � e importance of this article is seen in the promotion of the internal form of self-determination of the people and the encouragement of the implementation of constitutional reforms that will ensure a certain degree of participation of the people in the legislative and executive authorities in complex multi-ethnic states. signi� cant constitutional reforms will ensure a certain degree of autonomy in certain provinces in which people will be able to successfully realize their political, economic, and cultural rights. all this together will prevent future separatist and secessionist movements, and thus contribute to peace and stability in the world. a brief historical overview on the development of the right to selfdetermination of peoples � e entire history of mankind was characterized by colonialism and foreign domination over certain areas, but also the response to them through the realization of the right to self-determination of peoples. � e historical development of the right to self-determination of peoples is connected with signi� cant events such as the signing of the „pax romana“ peace agreement, the peace of westphalia in 1648, the congress of vienna, the holy alliance, the treaty of versailles, the independence of the british colonies in 1776 on the north american continent and the french revolution in 1789. � e period of imperialism of the 19th century in� uenced the development of the collective consciousness of the people about the unsustainability of an order in which the great powers (perišić, 2013, p. 762.) will dominate other peoples and their territories. (veljković et al., 2014, p. 16.) � e right to selfdetermination of the people, which was proclaimed by the bourgeoisie and con� rmed by the resolution of the london international congress in 1896, a� er wilson’s program or the versailles program from 1919, which entered in the content of the atlantic charter in 1941. since then, the scienti� c community has paid the most attention to the issues of the right to selfdetermination of peoples, as a fundamental human right. (veljković et al., 2014, p. 12.) � e historical development of the right to self-determination of peoples represents an important segment in explaining the origin and application of this right determined through several stages. � e � rst phase is nationalconstitutive and is temporally located in the period from the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, and spatially in north america mirza ljubović mirza ljubović � e right to self-determination� e right to self-determination 177176 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies and western europe, which are characterized by the struggle against foreign domination and the creation of modern european nation-states. (danspeckgruber & gardner, n.d.) at that time, the principle of selfdetermination was the basic political principle of civil revolutions. � e second phase is anti-imperial and represents the period a� er the first world war. (� rontveit, 2011, p. 445.) at the versailles conference, the right to self-determination was recognized for the peoples who lived on the territory of the empires that lost the war: the austro-hungarian monarchy and the ottoman empire. � is period was also characterized by the proclamation of the principle of self-determination through woodrow wilson’s „fourteen points.“ (united states department of state, n.d.) � e third phase in the development of this right is extremely important and we call it the anti-colonial phase, and it took place between the second world war and the end of the 60s of the 20th century. (whelan, 1992, p. 25.) in this phase, the former colonies achieved their independence and freedom through peaceful means or by national liberation struggle. � e last stage in the development of this right is called anti-communism and includes the period from the fall of the berlin wall to the present day. (iacob et al., 2019, p. 173.) it is most important to explain that modern public international law views the principle of self-determination as a legal principle that grows into the right to self-determination of people. with this phase ends the political character of this principle and begins its legal character with the adoption of the un charter, and � nally takes shape with the adoption of the declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples, also known as the united nations general assembly resolution 1514 (1960) the anti-colonial declaration, the international covenants on human rights (1966) and the declaration of general assembly on principles of international law concerning friendly relations and cooperation among states in accordance with the charter of the united nations (1970). a� er a brief historical description of the development of the right to selfdetermination of peoples, in the following text, we will move on to the theoretical and normative de� nition of the internal and external forms of self-determination of peoples. the right to external self-determination of peoples in the declaration of general assembly on principles of international law concerning friendly relations and cooperation among states in accordance with the charter of the united nations (1970) declaration of seven principles, as written in the scienti� c article by p. perišić: „the right to external self-determination of peoples outside the colonial context and the case of declaring the independence of kosovo“, it says that guaranteeing the right to self-determination: „should not be interpreted as authorizing or foster the people to any action aimed at the total or partial destruction or endangerment of the territorial integrity and political unity of sovereign and independent states, which behave in accordance with the principle of equality and self-determination of peoples, and which have a government that represents the entire people of that territory, without differences in terms of race, religion or color of skin.“ (coleman, 2014, p. 24.) by interpreting this provision, it can be concluded that exercising the right to self-determination through coercion is prohibited if the people of a territory can exercise the right to internal self-determination. (perišić, 2013, p. 770.) and in cases where state governments carry out repression against a people, limiting their collective human rights and the exercise of their right to internal self-determination, then that people have no choice but to exercise their right in the context of external self-determination, provided that international peace is not threatened and security and this again depends on the factors of redistribution of power in the international community. (summers, 2004, p. 341.) mirza ljubović mirza ljubović � e right to self-determination� e right to self-determination 179178 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies supreme court of canada dealt with this issue in detail, which gave a very important advisory opinion on „reference re secession of quebec“, to which we will brie� y refer here. � e court took the position that the right to self-determination of the people is exhausted by the realization of internal self-determination, that is, by achieving an appropriate level of political, economic, social, and cultural autonomy within the existing state. (summers, 2004, p. 342.) so, the court interpreted that the right to external self-determination is realized only if it is a people released from colonial rule when the people are subjected to foreign domination or exploitation, and when a certain people are denied adequate participation in government. (perišić, 2013, p. 770.) � is opinion of the court should not be interpreted as if the court gave an exception to the declaration of seven principles or as a justi� cation to resort to the external self-determination of the peoples, but it is only applied if separation from the existing state is the only possible solution (the concept of accepting the consensual theory of secession). (castellino & gilbert, 2003, p. 156.) � is opinion can also be interpreted extensively and that the right to external self-determination could exist if the violation of human rights is massive and discriminatory towards a certain people and that a people are systematically excluded from political and economic life and when it is denied the right to a minimum level of minority rights or autonomy. (castellino & gilbert, 2003, p. 157.) in the papers of some experts in public international law, the opinion that the external self-determination of the peoples, i.e. secession, is the last measure that can be taken only if all other possible solutions have been exhausted, and the state brutally and massively violates the human rights of its citizens or part of its citizens (the concept of advocating „remedial secession“). (gavrilović, 2013, p. 14.) � e right to self-determination of peoples can serve as an example, i.e. secession of east pakistan (bangladesh) from pakistan. we hereby con� rm that the right to secession can only have „peoples who suffer discrimination, waiver of the right to representative government and only if the discriminatory behavior is so pervasive, ramifi ed and systematic that it concretely threatens the survival of such peoples and where there is no strong probability that the discrimination will end.“ (castellino & gilbert, 2003, p. 157.) not every discrimination can justify the right to achieve secession, but the „quality and quantity of discrimination“ is taken into account, as whether the state is ready to stop the violence, and whether e� ective legal means are available through domestic institutions. (gavrilović, 2013, p. 15.) so, in the end, the right to secession can exist if „a discriminated minority is exposed to the actions of a sovereign state that consist in an obvious and brutal violation of basic human rights, e.g. through killing or indefi nite imprisonment without legal protection, the destruction of family ties, expropriation without taking into account the means necessary for life, through special prohibitions directed against a certain religious community or the use of one’s own language, and fi nally through the enforcement of these prohibitions by brutal methods and measures.“ (hannum, 1993, p. 11.) the right to internal self-determination of peoples � e right to self-determination of the people in the post-colonial world is to focus on its internal dimension and the enjoyment of individual human rights. malcolm shaw states that outside the colonial context, the principle of self-determination of peoples was transformed into issues of human rights within the territory of each state. mccorquodale explains the right to self-determination of peoples through international human rights law. mirza ljubović mirza ljubović � e right to self-determination� e right to self-determination 181180 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies (hannum, 1993, p. 11.) � e right to self-determination of peoples is the cornerstone on which human rights rest, and to the greatest extent the international covenants on human rights are responsible for this, which introduced the right to self-determination of peoples into the discourse of human rights. fox states that the internal right to self-determination is „manifested through the structures of domestic political institutions“ which may include „regimes of minority protection, democratic political process, guarantees of cultural rights and various forms of autonomy.“ a� er the decolonization process was completed, emphasis was placed on the internal dimension of the self-determination of peoples in order to reconcile this principle with the principle of territorial integrity of states. (hannum, 1993, p. 23.) now solutions are being sought within the existing state borders, while the exception, i.e. the formation of an independent state is possible only in the case of long-term repression and brutal violation of human rights. (gavrilović, 2013, p. 23.) � e badinter arbitration commission (malgosia fitzmaurice, 2019) stated 20 years ago in its opinion no. 2 that „at the current stage of development, public international law does not specify all the consequences of the right to self-determination of peoples.“ � e internal aspect of self-determination is more relevant because it represents the usual way of exercising the right to self-determination of people in modern public international law. (gavrilović, 2013, p. 26.) in this sense, raic states that the international obligation of the state to act in accordance with the right to self-determination of peoples implies „the obligation on the part of states to negotiate in good faith with the relevant peoples that fall under their jurisdiction in order to reach an agreement on the necessary level of protection, within the fi eld of application of self-determination, which is justifi ed by the relevant circumstances of the case.“ (gavrilović, 2013, p. 26.) a brief review of secession � e only time the international court of justice in the hague discussed the issue of secession was when the un general assembly requested the court to bring an advisory opinion on the issue of kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence (udi) from serbia on february 17, 2008. � e un general assembly asked the court for an answer to the question: „is the unilateral declaration of independence adopted by the temporary self-governing institutions of kosovo in accordance with public international law?“ on that occasion, the court said that the declaration was not in contradiction with public international law. however, the court did not su� ciently explain whether this action of kosovo can lead to the independence of this province. (perry & rehman, 2015, p. 71.) on the other hand, the supreme court of canada, regarding the admissibility of the province of quebec for secession, points out that: „a state whose government represents all peoples living on its territory, on the basis of equality and without discrimination, and which respects the principle of self-determination within the country itself, deserves that public international law protects the territorial integrity of that state and prohibit any attempt of secession.“ (perry & rehman, 2015, p. 72. secession is a way of losing and acquiring state territory, i.e. „secession of a part of the state for the purpose of creating a separate state or joining another, already existing state.“ one thing is certain that the constitutions of all states in the world completely prohibit any form of secession from existing states. on the other hand, modern public international law nowhere explicitly prohibits secession. however, it is evident that the issue of the territorial integrity of states con� icts with the issue of secession, which was highlighted in the 6th principle of the declaration of the un general mirza ljubović mirza ljubović � e right to self-determination� e right to self-determination 183182 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies assembly from 1970. as v. ibler emphasizes: „international law protection of the state and its territorial integrity (protection against secession and separation).“ the case study of kosovo kosovo was an autonomous province within the serbia, which was part of the socialist federal republic of yugoslavia (sfrj). in 1989, slobodan milošević abolished the special autonomy of kosovo, and during the 1990s, the kosovar albanians fought to restore their special autonomy. as a result of these e� orts, serbia launched police and military actions against kosovo albanians, committing widespread atrocities and war crimes throughout the region, leading to nato intervention. on june 10, 1999, the un security council adopted resolution 1244 of the un security council. � at resolution placed kosovo under the united nations interim administration mission in kosovo (unmik), the un transitional administration provided a general framework for resolving kosovo’s political and legal status. headed by the special representative of the secretary-general, unmik began its work on determining the � nal status of kosovo, but serbia and kosovo could not agree on how to proceed. � e un special representative, martti ahtisaari, brought forward a comprehensive proposal to resolve the status of kosovo (known as the „ahtisaari plan“) with the idea that kosovo should become independent under the supervision of the international community. (jamar & vigness, 2010, p. 914.) a� er the autonomy of kosovo was revoked in 1989 (which represented a violation of the right to internal self-determination), international war crimes were committed (marijan, 2021, p. 67.), especially in the period from 1998-1999 (even nato intervened by bombing serbia), and negotiations between kosovo albanians and serbs in rambouillet failed. (arbatov & acheson, 2000, p. 9.) � erefore, undoubtedly, in 1999 the conditions were met for the legal remedial secession1 and independence of kosovo. (ryngaert & gri� oen, 2009, p. 585.) it should be admitted that the independence of kosovo is completely predetermined. (vidmar, 2009, p. 846.) it is almost impossible that the ticking clock will be turned back and that kosovo will somehow return to a „parent state“, even if one can, for now, question the e� ectiveness of kosovo as a state (kosovo is under limited supervision of european rule and law and nato). on the contrary, the more countries recognize kosovo (and it should be remembered that recognition is an irreversible legal act), the more statehood kosovo acquires, the chances of returning to the situation before 1999 are weaker. (ryngaert & gri� oen, 2009, p. 586.) on july 22, 2010, the international court of justice in the hague (icj) published its advisory opinion regarding the legality of the unilateral declaration of independence of kosovo. � e broader signi� cance of the advisory opinion of the international court in the hague that international law was not violated by kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence in 2008 has a profound importance for the development of modern public international law. � e united states and its allies argue that kosovo’s situation is unique and cannot serve as a legal precedent, but other countries facing separatist movements within their borders may have a reason for concern. regarding the situation in kosovo, the international court in the hague considers: „the fact that the kosovo issue has its own political aspect does not deprive it of its character as a legal issue the court does not deal with 1-at the commemoration of the 600th anniversary of the battle of kosovo in june 1989, in his speech in gazimestan, milošević expressed his desire that kosovo remains serbian and announced the possibility of armed con� icts. � e international community, which in the 1990s failed in bosnia and herzegovina, at the end of the 1990s, she was not overly interested in the background of the con� ict, it was important to prevent bloodshed. � e united nations and nato did not want to repeat srebrenica in front of their eyes, and milosevic’s regime exceeded every measure. � e violence of the yugoslav police began, and terrible war crimes and ethnic persecution of kosovars were committed. � e committed war crimes were a valid reason for the international community to accept the secession of kosovo from serbia, thus ful� lling the conditions for remedial secession. mirza ljubović mirza ljubović � e right to self-determination� e right to self-determination 185184 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the political motives behind the request or the political implications that its opinion may have.“ (jamar & vigness, 2010, p. 914.) on february 17, 2008, kosovo declared independence from serbia in a statement declaring: „kosovo will be an independent and sovereign state.“ since this declaration is a very controversial act, the general assembly, on behalf of serbia, requested an advisory opinion from the international court in the hague regarding the legality of the declaration of kosovo. on july 22, 2010, the international court of justice in the hague provided an opinion stating that the declaration of independence does not violate international law, rejecting serbian claims that the declaration violated its territorial integrity. � e international court of justice in the hague carefully addressed the question of unilateral declarations of independence in the narrower sense but avoided giving an opinion on the more related issue of secession. � e in� uence of thought on the world and the potential interpretations of thought, although highly speculative, are problematic. (jamar & vigness, 2010, p. 916.) kosovo illustrates a situation similar to that of east timor, where a minority group fought, seeking self-determination and supported by great powers, eventually achieving independence from its central government, in this case, serbia. (sterio, 2010, p. 165.) without the help of the great powers, namely the military intervention of the great powers through nato, the kosovars would not be able to secede from serbia. moreover, without the political support of the great powers and the willingness of the great powers to recognize kosovo as a new state, the kosovars would not have been able to assert their independence from serbia easily as they did in february 2009. (sterio, 2010, p. 166.) case study of catalonia for centuries, catalonia was part of the crown of aragon, an important mediterranean empire. catalonia emerged as a separate and de� ned territory in the 12th century and became part of spain in the 15th century with the marriage of king ferdinand and isabella of castile. (lulić, 2019, p. 79.) catalonia retained its autonomy, culture, language, and tax system, but its autonomous rule gradually declined over the two centuries that followed. catalonia, as a state, disappeared in 1716 as a result of its loss in the war for the spanish succession. (lulić, 2019, p. 80.) at the beginning of the 20th century, despite the annexation by the kingdom of spain, catalonia became a territory of highly developed industry, culture, and prosperity. it was independent for a short time in the 1930s before being subjugated by spanish dictator francisco franco. in accordance with the constitution of spain from 1931 (article 11), special autonomous regions were organized within spain based on areas with „common history, culture, and economy.“ with the adoption of the statute on the autonomy of catalonia (1932), the newly formed catalan „generalitat“ was given administrative responsibilities, although not legislative power. (lulić, 2019, p. 80.) franco’s brutal repression of catalan culture triggered its revival and cemented catalonia’s separate identity from spain. � e spanish constitution from 1978 and the statute of autonomy from 1979 restored democracy in spain and provided substantial autonomy for catalonia. (lulić, 2019, p. 82.) in the constitution of spain (1978) in art. 2. it is stated, inter alia, that the constitution is based on the unbreakable unity of the spanish nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all spaniards, recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government of the nationalities of the regions of which it consists and solidarity among them. according to the constitution, let’s remind, the spanish army has the right to protect the territorial integrity of the kingdom (article 8). finally, in mirza ljubović mirza ljubović � e right to self-determination� e right to self-determination 187186 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies this context, the provision of art. 472. paragraph 5. of the criminal code of spain, according to which secession (declarar la independencia de una parte del territorio nacional) is a criminal o� ense equated to rebellion. (lulić, 2019, p. 82.) spain is not federally organized, but it is a highly decentralized unitary monarchy. � at is why some scholars the spanish system see as „devolutionary federalism.“ in january 2013, the catalan parliament adopted the declaration on sovereignty and the right of catalan people to decide (declaracio de sobirania i del dret a decidir del poble de catalunya), which called for the organization of a referendum announced for 2014. � e constitutional court of spain declared declaration unconstitutional and null and void. regardless, the court recognized at the same time that the right of the citizens of catalonia to decide is in accordance with the constitution as long as it does not constitute self-determination. � e right to self-determination is not recognized in the constitution. in april 2014, the spanish parliament also rejected the proposal for a referendum on the independence of catalonia. on june 9, 2017, catalan president carlos puigdemont announces a new independence referendum for october 1. what caught the european and world’s attention were the reactions of the central authorities to the referendum. (lulić, 2019, p. 87.) � e spanish parliament passed an unprecedented decision allowing the spanish government to introduce direct rule over catalonia. � e constitutional court played an important role, in de� ning the jurisdictional boundaries between the state and catalonia. it could be felt that the court was constantly suppressing the process based on the main argument: „lack of competence to hold consultations on issues that belong exclusively to the state.“ � e court recognized that spanish constitutional law will allow any a� rmative ideas, given that „no issue is excluded from the area of constitutional reform procedures.“ conclusion � e people should � rst have the right to internal self-determination and only if that right is not respected by the parent state, then the people can resort to the right to external self-determination, i.e. secession. (sterio, 2010, p. 145.) � e catalan case showed that the international community is more likely to resort the solutions that include internal self-determination, and it makes a deviation from external self-determination, i.e. secession, and supports it only as a last resort if all the necessary conditions for it are met. another important court document is the advisory opinion of the international court of justice on the unilateral declaration of independence of kosovo. in that opinion, the court established that the unilateral declaration of independence does not contradict international law because there is no prohibition on the issue of a declaration of independence in modern public international law. (lulić, 2019, p. 99.) in the case of kosovo, the aforementioned conditions for the right to external self-determination of peoples have been met, i.e. remedial secession, which is in its content in complete contrast to unilateral secession. according to cassese, in the period from the founding of the united nations until the end of the cold war, three groups of people that have the right to self-determination crystallized. � ese are a) dependent peoples, b) peoples under racist regimes, and c) peoples under foreign military occupation or annexation. in these cases, it is more or less possible to determine who the peoples are (who have the right to self-determination) and in which procedure (how they can) exercise that right. � e catalan people do not belong to any of these groups of people, but the kosovar people do. (lulić, 2019, p. 99.) oppressed peoples, in theory, have the right to external self-determination, which includes the right to „remedial secession“ and independence. (sterio, 2010, p. 138.) kosovo is such an example. unlike kosovo, the case of catalonia is an example of abuse of the right to self-determination of the people through mirza ljubović mirza ljubović � e right to self-determination� e right to self-determination 189188 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies its external form, and if it had been realized, it would have represented an illegal unilateral secession. � e right to self-determination of peoples, including secession, has exceptionally begun to be tolerated against the will of the central authorities of the states in the case when the con� icts between the central authorities and secessionists have reached the proportions of major humanitarian disasters (lulić, 2019, p. 101.) and serious systematic violations of human rights, as it is on an example of kosovo. in that case, as buchanan previously de� ned in his theory of remedial secession, secession will only be allowed as a last resort when a group in a certain territory within an existing state is denied basic human rights and freedoms and their survival is threatened. in the examples of the case studies, and especially of catalonia, we see that they strongly shook and destabilized the eu and that a signi� cant step was taken towards the disintegration of the european political scene, which will eventually a� ect the whole world. in the case of catalonia, coppieters believes that the „franco’s map“ as a justi� cation for secession is a „fi g leaf“ for social and economic egoism, cultural and national arrogance, and the „bare ambitions“ of local politicians. (lulić, 2019, p. 103.) since in the case of catalonia there is no place for the application of „remedial secession“, because spain has been a democratic state since the end of the 70s, connolly proposes the so-called „consensual secession“, anything beyond that would represent an abuse of that right. (lulić, 2019, p. 105.) according to opponents of secession, catalonia is not a dependent territory or a territory where severe human rights violations occur, unlike kosovo where it was evident. � e internal right to self-determination has been realized and exhausted because they live in a democratic and highly decentralized state. (lulić, 2019, p. 108.) it is necessary to conclude that the issue of kosovo should remain a sui generis case in modern public international law and the last permissible action in achieving independence in the world, and not a precedent in international legal practice. bibliography arbatov, a. g., & acheson, d. c. 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(1992). self-determination and decolonisation: foundations for the future. irish studies in international affairs, 3(4), 25–51. 57 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 income inequality in today’s cuba field research on the cuban people’s quality of life and income structure sándor gyula nagy corvinus university of budapest sejla almadi corvinus university of budapest dženita šiljak international university of sarajevo abstract cuba has been a significant player in international and regional politics for a long while, particularly compared to its size. however, reliable data on the standard of living of its society is scarce. the literature review reflects how the cuban state manipulated certain data forwarded to international organisations. our objective was to implement field research and gain primary data on cubans’ quality of life and income structure that could help to identify the extent of income inequality among the different demographic clusters in the country. we used individual questionnaires, as well as descriptive, frequency and inferential statistics. the results show varying income inequalities among the different demographic clusters and a “perverse effect” in income distribution, leading to the formation of a “parasite” stratum in cuban society. keywords: cuba, field research, income inequality, income structure, quality of life, standard of living epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 58 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction throughout its history, latin america has seen inequalities between different groups of people. as for the standards of living and inequalities in 20th century latin america, datasets and analyses are available. by 2000, illiteracy in the region reached proportions between 5 and 20%, while life expectancy was estimated between 60 and 70 years (kingstone, 2018). meanwhile, in terms of economic performance, measured in gdp per capita, the region has been falling behind the united states. the convergence process in the region is very slow, compared to the countries of the european union (bernardelli et al., 2021). however, unlike economic performance, data on the quality of life show significant convergence. the most intensive period of catching up, both in terms of economic performance and quality of life, was in the period 1940-1970, marked by state-led import substitution industrialisation and the exponential increase of the urban population in the region (kingstone, 2018). nonetheless, factors impacting the quality of life, such as developments in the health and the education sector, depended more on the levels of urbanisation and state intervention than on the fiscal and industrial structure of the country (astroga et al., 2005). the gini coefficient shows that the level of income inequality decreased significantly in the region in the first decade of the 21st century, as a possible result of social and welfare policies introduced by political leaders, especially during the “pink tide” (mesa-lago, 2015). even so, the countries of latin america are second on the ranking of states with the most significant social inequalities, following africa. according to 2017 data, brazil, honduras, haiti, guatemala, paraguay, colombia and panama reached a gini coefficient of 0.5, making these countries part of the 25 least equal societies in the world. for comparison, the worst-performing european country was lithuania with an index value of 0.374 (the world bank group, 2019d). we have to highlight the phenomenon of remittances (incoming unilateral transfers) from family members working abroad. in latin america, there nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 59 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 are several countries where remittances represent a high share of gdp and indispensable income for certain members of society. the countries with the highest levels, as a percentage of gdp, are el salvador (21.4%), honduras (20%), guatemala (12%) and nicaragua (11.3%) (conapo and bbva, 2019). the cuban gdp per capita is in line with the declining trend in other latin american countries, falling behind the us’s economic performance to less than 10.000 usd in 2019 (figure 1), with a life expectancy of 78.8 years in the same year (world bank, 2019b). gdp per capita increased by almost 14 times between 1970 and 2019. the data on the remittances of the cuban people, the income structure, and the standard of living are scarce. it is estimated that remittances from relatives living abroad have increased significantly during the past years, from only 242 million in 1993 to 3.575 billion usd in 2017 (the havana consulting group and tech, 2017; 2018), which counts as nearly 4% of the cuban gdp. however, the exact amount cannot be known as there is no registration by any bank or government (hansing & orozco, 2014). these data are not counting the income of the cuban “missions,” through which thousands of cuban teachers, doctors, nurses, and similar occupations working abroad are paid by the cuban state (deutsche welle, 2020). it is estimated that remittances dropped by 15% in 2020 (economic survey of latin america and the caribbean, 2020). conapo and bbva (2019) highlight that the cost of sending money to cuba is the highest in the region. nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 60 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies figure 1. gdp in usd of cuba and the united states from 1970 to 2019 (in thousand) source: the world bank (2019a) the estimated gini coefficients in cuba increased from 0.24 in the 1980s to 0.38 in the 1990s (espina, 2008), and to 0.41 in 1999. it then decreased again to 0.38 in 2005 (brundenius, 2009). cuba has been a significant player in international and regional politics for a long time, especially compared to its size. and yet, there is a scarcity of reliable data that could give an insight into the standard of living of its society: specific data on household income, its structure, and income differences are not even surveyed on national censuses or at least not published. therefore, after a review of the scarce but available literature on the topic, we analyse key features of the cuban economy, the matter of “equality” in practice after the victory of the cuban revolution, the dual currency system, income statistics and official versus real incomes. we also implemented field research in cuba, conducted between december 2018 and january 2019, to gain primary data on cubans’ quality of life and income structure. this can help to identify the extent to which income inequality exists among the different demographic clusters in the country. nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 61 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 while we mainly aimed to contribute methodologically to the topic, through primary and reliable data, our research also led to theoretical implications. our results reveal income inequality between the examined clusters in the country, e.g., gender, levels of education, skin colour, and occupation. moreover, the results explain how these clusters influence the amount of legal and illegal incomes, as well as remittances. our results not only reinforce some of the former findings on the topic but led us to the supposition that cuban society today is facing a kind of “perverted” distribution of income, where lower-skilled, or even officially unemployed, people could get a higher monthly income than highly skilled workers. characteristics of the cuban economy cuba became independent from the spanish crown in 1902 and went through a very eventful half-century until the victory of the revolution in 1959. according to the calculations by ward and devereux (2012), cuba was on the same level as south carolina or mississippi in 1929 in terms of development and per capita gdp. in 1920, one-quarter of latin american capital goods, specifically machinery and equipment, could be found in cuba. this means that until 1930, the country was home to the highest level of capital investment per capita in the region (ward & devereux, 2012). the country started to copy the communist model in the 1970s, and the expansion of state ownership resulted in a centralised economy. the collapse of the soviet union impacted cuba heavily: in 1990/91, the cuban economy contracted by 33% (brundenius, 2009) and the country lost almost 75% of its international trade (taylor & mcglynn, 2009). during this depression, doctors and lawyers earned salaries of 75 to 100 dollars per month (calderon, 1995). to survive, the political leadership in havana needed to give pragmatic responses to the crisis, introducing the “special period” (periodo especial), in which private companies were allowed to nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 62 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies operate in some two hundred sectors of services and commerce. a limited presence of foreign capital was also permitted, usually in the form of joint ventures (banco central de cuba, 2017). as a result of stabilisation, fidel castro decided that the country’s economy was strong enough to start the program of “recentralisation” in 2004 (sweig, 2007). part of the program saw a parallel introduction of the convertible peso (peso cubano convertible, cuc) and the cuban peso (peso cubano, cup), establishing the dual currency system. cuc was pegged to usd 1 to 1 since its introduction. on 1 january 2021, after years of building up, the system was unified (granma, 2020; sweig & bustamante, 2013). cuba is a small country (11 million inhabitants) with an underdeveloped industrial sector (accounting for 20% of the gdp), a strong service sector (74.5% of the gdp) and an uncompetitive, low-efficiency agrarian sector (contributing only 5% to the gdp). 17% of the labour force works in the industrial sector, 65% in services, and 18.5% in agriculture. in 1989, cuba’s most important export product was sugarcane, but by 2011 industrial production dropped to 55% of the reference year (font & jancsics, 2016). the general academic literature, our field research, and personal experiences all confirm that agriculture and industry both need enormous technological and capital investment to compete on an international level (gonzález alonso & lee, 2016; nagy & drexler, 2017), which is only possible in the long run and with the involvement of significant foreign capital. the only cuban “export product” with considerable competitiveness is tourism, which has been paralysed during the covid-19 pandemic. before the pandemic, up until 2019, the number of visitors to the island tended to grow: in 1990, 340.000 tourists visited the island (kaufmann purcell, 1991/92), and by 2018, this number went up to 4.75 million (perelló, 2019), with a predominance of canadian nationals. the united states would also be an important source of tourists, should the us government ease the travnagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 63 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 el bans to cuba, which were mostly reinstated by the trump administration after lifts by obama. a charter flight service operated for years between miami and havana, which was available for diplomatic, cultural, educational, and religious travels, as well as for family visits. cruise ships would be another important possibility, but no american-owned cruisers call at cuban ports. therefore, cuba could not reap any benefit from an industry that, until 2019, served 22 million passengers per year and had an economic impact of more than 100 billion usd (cruise lines international association, 2017; toro, 2015). all in all, cuba currently presents the features of a hybrid (state-owned and private) shortage economy (kornai, 1980), which operates with a combination of legal forms regarding production, ownership, and investment. cuba is also characterized by a withdrawing “welfare” state and a relative growth of individual freedoms, which coexist with military-run monopolies in strategic industries (sweig & bustamante, 2013). the importance of the latter is confirmed by the 87% share of public employment amongst cuban workers, while in 2019 those working in registered private businesses amounted to 600.000 out of 4.5 million workers (expansión, 2019). literature review questions of equality or the lack of it in cuba can be approached through several dimensions: differences between the capital city and the rural areas, origin and skin colour, professional qualification, as well as income levels, consumption patterns, and available healthcare options of specific social groups. urban areas hosted half of the population in 1899; in 1957 this number was 57%, which was a high proportion in the latin american context. the central role of havana was already obvious in colonial and later in republican times: one-fifth of cubans used to live in the capital city, which was largely nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 64 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies due to its geographical location, and because it was the most important and best-defended port of the island. the castro era brought some changes in this regard: by 1990, the other 15 districts had started to catch up with the capital city, but this did not end social differences between urban and rural areas in terms of access to healthcare, education, electricity, a proper sewage system and even drinking water (díaz-briquets, 1988). cuban society has always attributed importance to origin and skin colour. in theory, the victory of the revolution ended discrimination based on skin colour because castro nationalized the economy to eliminate the middle and upper class, as well as absolute poverty of the lower class, which mostly consisted of afro-cubans (mesa-lago, 2002), who represented almost 50% of the population (gonzales & mccarthy, 2004). the 1981 census was the first to provide some relevant information regarding demography, which did not change much until the next census in 2002: 10 % of the cuban population identified as afro-cuban, 65% as white, and 25% said to be of mixed origin (de la fuente, 2011). in reality, the country is still very far from full equality, especially regarding income. the revolution introduced policies that nationalized education and healthcare, which increased life expectancy and literacy rates (meso-lago, 2002) and in the 1980s, the proportion of afro-cubans and mulattos with secondary education was higher than the proportion of whites (de la fuente, 2001). however, by 2001, 15.4% of afro-cubans had a lower level of education compared to mulattos (6.1%) and whites (3.6%) (gonzales & mccarthy, 2004). it appears to be more relevant to look at the changes in incomes of different social groups to understand inequality in today’s cuba. according to blue’s (2007) survey, 70% of the white, 81% of the mulatto, and 84% of the black population had low-income public-sector jobs in 2000. only 2% of afro-cubans and mulattos respectively were employed in the private sector, compared to 6% of whites (blue, 2007). afro-cubans and mulattos nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 65 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 also rely on more informal and often more ethically compromising forms of income (roland, 2013). access to education was practically equal for all groups, which means inequality in education cannot be the reason for these differences. white parts of the population have better access to hard currencies, partly because they make up a larger part of cubans living abroad than other groups, and partly because afro-cubans and mulattos make up only 5% of people who work in tourism (espina & rodriguez, 2010). whites tend to live in nicer homes in tourist-friendly areas. the majority of those who have fled into exile since the rise of the revolution were white and their (largely) white family members who remained in cuba are the greatest beneficiaries of foreign remittances, meaning they can improve their homes to subsequently rent them to tourists (roland, 2013, p. 404). during the 1990s, almost 90% of cubans who lived abroad were white (mesa-lago, 2002). therefore, remittances are one of the main reasons why income inequality has increased in cuba. 40% of cubans living in havana receive remittances (fitzgerald et al., 2016). the patterns of inequality in cuba are visibly marked by race, but also by class and regional aspects. people who receive remittances and have occupations with access to hard currency enjoy a distinct economic advantage (espina & ruiz, 2010). pensioners, the unemployed, those on sick or maternity leave, people employed in the public sector, medical personnel, and teachers were the ones with lower incomes. people who were receiving remittances, among other groups, saw their income increase (brandenius, 2009). consumption in cuba, unlike income status, is an indicator that is more easily measurable and has been documented. in the 2000s, inflation-adjusted consumption per capita reached 52% of the 1955 level, and in 2007, it approached 72% (ward & devereux, 2011). this growth is due to a remarkably low infant mortality rate of 6, which surpasses that in most developing countries, and even that of the united states (pineo, 2019), and because of free healthcare and education which was outstanding at a regional nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 66 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies and even a global level. related academic literature calls this phenomenon the “cuban (health) paradox.” the main critics of the cuban system are cuban émigré authors, especially from emigrant communities in the united states. morris (2014) formulates a somewhat leftist criticism of these authors, calling them the “pittsburgh-miami axis.” she emphasises that cuba has indeed overtaken the united states and several member states of the european union in some indicators measuring the quality of life, which is remarkable given the us embargos and blockades. however, she equally acknowledges the problems of growing social inequality. according to her calculations, the real value of state salaries was less worth in 2014 than in 1990, and those who did not have access to hard currencies (or cuc) had very limited possibilities for the purchase of even basic everyday products. according to morris (2014), especially pensioners without families were practically bound to live in deep poverty. the best possibilities for earning an income were and are to be found in the grey and black sectors of the economy, above all in havana, which means the rural population is disadvantaged, except for vacation areas or towns frequented by tourists. the author identified that about half of the population have access to some extra income, either through remittances from relatives abroad or through “creative” approaches at their workplace, i.e., theft or undocumented work. most members of the state bureaucracy belonged to this group. those with an even higher living standard make up a very thin layer of society: they are high-ranking state officials and “nouveau-riche” businessmen who obtained their wealth through legal or at least partially legal business activities. their lifestyles reveal inequalities to everyone; inequalities that would otherwise be invisible. while political party leaders tend to enjoy their wealth in a rather secluded way, businessmen usually make no secret of their wealthy lifestyles. while in 1989, there was a 4.5-times difference between the highest and the lowest salaries, this relatively balanced income distribution became a thing of the past within a decade, especially due to the expansion of tourism – so much so, that by 2002, a waiter’s daily nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 67 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 tips were worth more than the monthly salary of a university professor (burchardt, 2002). to examine the livelihood of average people, one needs to understand the cuban monetary and currency system. until 1 january 2021, there were two official currencies in circulation: the peso cubano convertible (cuban convertible peso, cuc) and the peso cubano (cuban peso, cup). apart from these, usd and eur are commonly used, typically in the form of banknotes. the official and actual exchange rates were not identical: the cuc was worth 24 cup at official exchange offices while in the “street” the exchange rate for banknotes was 25 cup. the situation was different for coins: a 25-cent cuc coin was worth 5 cup when paying on the street, which means 1 cuc was only worth 20 cup. however, according to the official set international exchange rate, which was also valid for the entrepreneurial sector, 1 cuc equalled 1 usd, which was a fixed exchange rate. at official exchange bureaus, transactions were taxed at 10%, so in reality, 1 usd bought only 0.9 cuc. to further complicate things, the cuban bureau of statistics indicated a 1:1 cup to usd exchange rate, for example in the yearly reports of the international labour organization (ilo). the cuc was phased out from circulation in the first 6 months of 2021, since july 2021 onwards the currency does not exist anymore. one of the consequences of this dual, or even multiple, currency system is that the yearly reports of the ilo (2019) tend to mention cuba in the group of “upper-middle” income countries, along with countries such as brazil, costa rica, china, and mexico. according to the 2016 report of the national bureau of statistics and information, the average wage in cuba amounted to 740 cup (oficina nacional de estadística e información, 2017), which is less than 30 usd according to the official exchange rate. at the same time, the minimum wage was 16,503 kwanzas in angola and the average salary amounted to 500 usd in 2017 (52.6 usd) (agência annagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 68 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies gola press, 2018; 2019), yet it was categorized as a “lower-middle” income country. this demonstrates the opportunities for manipulation through the dual currency system and the possibility of publishing misleading information even in international statistics and the need to implement field research to uncover the actual situation within the country. most of the literature on the subject highlights the important differences between the legal and actual income of cuban citizens (escobar & martinez, 2017; fitzgerald et al., 2016; mesa-lago, 2015; rapoza, 2016). this is no wonder as it would be virtually impossible to live off the average cuban wages in a shortage economy (numbeo, 2019), since even basic hygiene products, e.g., soap, toothpaste, and food items cannot be bought, or only periodically and after a long queue. the situation has been deteriorating in the wake of the venezuelan crisis and the subsequent american sanctions (bbc, 2019), not to mention the still immeasurably effects of the covid-19 crisis. according to dana (2016), the average monthly income of cubans is much higher (50 to 100 cuc) than the average wages in the country. the difference between wages and actual income derives from foreign money transfers and income that is obtained illegally, e.g., prostitution, or semi-legally, e.g., street vending. research design and methods for our field research in cuba, we used three primary data collection methods: observations, interviews, and questionnaires. observations and interviews were conducted with small samples and were conducted on issues of which we wanted to have a deeper understanding. this, however, opens the door to researcher bias. since this paper wishes to present generalizable research questions and answer the research questions, it also examines the questions from an external perspective. the questionnaire that we finally implemented was suitable for the recording and analysis of big samples, nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 69 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 allowed personal as well as online interaction, and was regularly used to measure certain habits and attitudes (saunders et al., 2016). in our case, using online questionnaires in december 2018 and january 2019 was not possible due to the low level of internet coverage in cuba. cuba legalized private wi-fi networks only in july 2019. only 5% of the population were using these networks, one of the lowest numbers in the world, and they were another privilege of the white population (kahn, 2015) and of those who could afford high prices or have government authorization, for instance, diplomats (hansing, 2017). as such, the personal questionnaire remained the only feasible data collection method. it could involve open-, semi-openand closed-ended questions, depending on the type of expected data. to meet our research objective, we applied close-ended questions that recorded quantitative data or facilitated the quantification of data, both of which contributed to the results’ generalisability. when we designed the questionnaire, we drew two similar surveys (escobar & martinez, 2017; fitzgerald et al., 2016). however, it was not possible to use standardised, conventional surveys that are often found in databases to assess household and income data (see for instance hellwig’s (1968) method). we also aimed to formulate questions that could be answered relatively fast, and that would not embarrass an average cuban citizen. therefore, our questions covered demography, quality of life with questions of residence, and income structure. the field research was implemented in cuba between december 2018 and january 2019 by one of the authors. for the primary data collection, three non-researcher assistants were involved to help record the data. regarding ethics and due to the topic of our research, we targeted the adult population, aged 15 years and above. the sample minimum was 209 persons, at a 95% confidence level, with a 5% margin of error, in the first year of data collection (2018), on the adult population (p=9.500.093) in cuba (n=11.338.145) (population pyramid, 2018). official research requires the nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 70 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies permission of cuban authorities, which would have prolonged our stay and may have needed more assistants. moreover, it was not guaranteed that we would receive this permit. therefore, we conducted a concealed or non-official research. we chose a non-probability sampling technique, snowball sampling (see saunders et al., 2016) to avoid the unwanted spotlight of cuban authorities. the team finally gathered a valid, error-cleared, sample of 231 people, more than the sample minimum, which means it was representative. in line with the principles of research ethics, data recording always occurred informally and anonymously, to prevent malfeasance and any mental, psychological, or physical harm to the subjects. although our data are based on the participants’ declarations, we considered anonymity a good enough guarantee of their truthfulness. the questionnaire was designed to gain both categorical, such as gender, highest level of education, place of residence, and numerical data, such as age, number of people living in the same household, and official income. passing descriptive, frequency and inferential statistics according to the spearman correlation and analysis of variance was another important factor influencing the design of the questionnaire. to increase the internal validity of the results, while simultaneously minimising researcher bias and errors, the compilation of the codebook, the coding and the analyses were conducted by the other author of the paper. methodology the categorical and numerical data were analysed together. first, histograms with a frequency polygon, and contingency tables were used to evaluate and interpret data coherence. we used several measures of income inequality. the most obvious measure is the coefficient of variation, which shows if the dispersion of income is larger or smaller within a specific group. however, the most frequently used measure is the ratio of the first and fifth quantile, which shows the ratio of total income received by the 20% of the population with the highest income to that of the 20% of the nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 71 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 population with the lowest income (european commission, 2018). inferential statistical methods, concerning the type of data, i.e., the spearman correlation and analysis of variance, were applied to show the relationships between variables, i.e., covariance, cause, and effect, which did not occur alone in the sample. we show data on income in usd for better understanding and comparison. for the analysis of variance (anova), which requires the comparison of at least three groups, we built one model for each dependent variable (dv), in this case, official legal income, remittances, and illegal income. the independent variables (iv) were ethnic origin, highest level of education, and occupation. however, since christensen et al. (2015) suggest the use of anova in two groups as well, we also included gender and place of residence as independent variables in the models. we regarded all independent variables as fixed factors in the models. we checked the homogeneity of variance as an assumption of the method using levene’s test. for effect sizes, we calculated partial eta squared. we used the coefficient of correlation to analyse the linear association and strength between the included variables. the spearman correlation was used to find statistically significant (p<.05) correlations among the examined variables. primary data collection and preliminary analysis the concealed data collection with the snowball sampling technique led to a representative sample (n=231) of the adult cuban population. the codebook of the personal questionnaire was composed of three main and one additional section in line with the expected type of data: (1) demography, i.e., gender, ethnic origin, age, education, occupation; (2) quality of life, i.e. place, type and ownership of residence; (3) income structure, i.e., official, legal and other, illegal income, remittances; and as an additional category, own immediate calculations, i.e., the sum of incomes, monthly average income. nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 72 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in the preliminary analysis, numerical data were evaluated by descriptive, and categorical data were evaluated by frequency statistics. there were some variables for which we could not gather data from all subjects, these smaller sample sizes are indicated in brackets. table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the analysed variables. while the results on non-income-related variables refer to relatively normal distributions, the values of income-related variables definitely refer to positive-skewed distributions, meaning they refer to significant income inequalities in the sample, where the majority of the interviewees declared a very low and low income, and only a few interviewees declared a very high income. table 1. descriptive statistics: numerical data n min. max. mean std. d. age 231 19 96 46.81 18.392 no. of people living in the same household 231 1 9 3.66 1.881 official, legal income 211 0,00 25,000.00 1,085.5877 2,287.90970 incoming unilateral transfers (remittances) 31 500.00 5,000.00 1,463.7097 962.41534 other, illegal income 74 200.00 10,000.00 2,064.2568 1,576.32846 sum (non-convertible cuban peso, cup) 231 200,00 25.000,00 1.849,3030 2.420,01660 average monthly income (convertible peso, cuc; 1 usd = 1 cuc) 231 8,00 1.000,00 73,9721 96,80066 source: authors’ calculations nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 73 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 table 2 shows the frequency statistics distribution of the respondents in the sample. table 2. frequency statistics: categorical data gender male 109 (47.2%) female 122 (52.8%) ethnic origin black (afro-cuban) 81 (35.1%) mulatto 109 (47.2%) white 41 (17.7%) highest level of education primary education 41 (17.7%) secondary education (incl. advanced vocational training) 143 (61.9%) university 47 (20.4%) occupation unemployed 22 (9.5%) student 3 (1.3%) public servant 133 (57.6%) entrepreneur 29 (12.6%) pensioner 44 (19%) place of residence havana and its surroundings 200 (86.6%) countryside 31 (13.4%) type of residence apartment 80 (34.6%) part of a house 68 (29.4%) house (detached) 83 (36%) ownership of residence rental 7 (3%) own 224 (97%) source: authors’ calculations main analysis and results we analysed income inequality in cuba regarding gender, ethnic origin, education, and occupation. an average cuban citizen represented in the sample legally earned 43 usd worth of cuban pesos. only one in eight respondents received money from abroad and their income could reach the level of the monthly average legal income, 58 usd. income from other sources, nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 74 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies typically from the grey economy, such as the monetisation of products stolen from the workplace or street vending of handmade products, contributed to the livelihood of one-third of the respondents and represented significant amounts, 83 usd on average. to analyse income inequality, we utilised the most frequently used measures, percentiles, the coefficient of variation and the analysis of correlation, and variance (anova) were used. measuring income inequality while the coefficient of variation is the most obvious measure of inequality, comparing shares of total income received by the top and bottom fifth of households in the population is a widely used measure of income (ehrenberg & smith, 2016, p. 536). income inequality in cuba is reflected by the data. the coefficient of variation for the entire sample is 137%. using percentiles as a measure of inequality, we find that people in the top fifth of the income distribution received 51.9% of all income, while people in the bottom fifth received only 3.4%. people with an income of 20.6 usd or less were in the 20th percentile of the income distribution (33 women and 14 men), while people with an income of 104 usd or more were in the 80th percentile (18 women and 29 men). the ratio of earnings of the two groups shows that people in the 80th percentile of the income distribution earned 15.2 times more than people in the 20th. income inequality between genders is present. on average, men earn 1.5 times more (93 usd monthly average) than women (57 usd). when using the coefficient of variation as a measure of income dispersion, we can conclude that inequality is higher among men than among women, as the official income among men ranges between 8.8 usd and 1000 usd and that of women between 8 usd and 422.4 usd. the income ratio between the two quantiles shows that the total income of men in the 80th percentile is 12.4 times higher than the income of men in the 20th percentile. the ratio is higher for women: the income of women in the 80th percentile is 14.6 times higher than that of women in the 20th percentile. nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 75 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 on average, white respondents have twice the total income (125 usd) than mulatto (68 usd) or black/afro-cuban respondents (57 usd). income inequality is the highest among white respondents as they earn between 9 and 1000 usd and the coefficient of variation is 150.3%. the analysis of the quantiles shows that the ratio of the average income of the white respondents with the highest income to those with the lowest income is 14.3. inequality is almost the same among mulattos and afro-cubans, as they earn between 8 and 422.4 usd and 8.6 and 344 usd, respectively. the coefficient of variation for the two groups is almost identical (89.7% and 89.4%, respectively). however, the analysis of the quantiles shows that income inequality between the 20% richest and 20% poorest within the mulatto group is higher (14) than within the afro-cuban group (10.9). regarding legal income, white respondents earn 2.4 times more than mulattos and 3.2 times more than afro-cubans. the biggest wave of cuban emigration (until 1990) saw primarily white, high-class/rich cubans leave the country. after 1990, lower classes, mostly mulattos and black/afro-cubans were leaving the country. while the overall picture is mixed, it is still apparent that white people have richer families in the united states and the european union, as they receive on average more remittances. so, afro-cubans (35%) and mulattos (31%) in cuba must make money however they can –illegally. these results confirm the findings by blue (2007). this can be explained by the difficulties of obtaining hard currencies on the one hand and by the relatively low representation of mulatto and black population in the tourism industry on the other hand. the author in charge of the data collection personally observed1 that in shops and restaurants frequented by tourists, white salespeople, and waiters were overrepresented compared to their share of the population. after interviews with restaurant owners, it also became clear that “lighter” skin colour was a criterion for hiring because it is perceived as a better “magnet” for tourists. the percentage of whites with illegal income is 29%. mulattos and afro-cubans gather 1the author in charge of data collection has conducted a combined three months of research in cuba in four installments (in 2006, 2016, 2017, and 2018/19). nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 76 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies more illegal income than whites (1.5 and 1.4 times more, respectively). the average illegal income of these two groups combined is 87 usd while the average illegal income is 66 usd for the white population. those with the lowest level of education (elementary school level) gave accounts of a significantly below-average income (40 usd), while the respondents with a secondary level of education reported the highest average income (86 usd). the poorest 20% of the cuban population have mostly primary education (55%), followed by high school graduates (38.3%), and university graduates (6.4%). the highest incomes are earned by high school graduates (76.6%), people with a university degree (12.8%) and people with only primary education (10.6%). the biggest beneficiaries of money transfers from abroad are people with a high school degree (48.2% of all remittances), followed by people with primary education (40.2% of remittances), and those with a university degree (11.6% of remittances). legal incomes are rather evenly distributed between university and high school graduates, but the latter group’s earnings (86 usd) surpass those of the former in terms of illegal and consequently total income (66 usd). using the coefficient of variation, we can conclude that income inequality is very similar in the first two groups (138% and 134%), and it is much lower among the people with university education (48%). regarding occupation, legal incomes were distributed as expected (student, unemployed < pensioner < public servant < entrepreneur), but as for remittances and other illegal income, the results were surprising. the average monthly income of public servants was 66 usd; entrepreneurs earned 2.4 times as much (158 usd), while unemployed people and students earned 1.5 times that amount (97 and 93 usd). this is because state employees, such as teachers, doctors, and members of the police, have fewer opportunagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 77 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 nities to access illegal sources of income compared to these other groups. that is why a business-oriented and well-trained baker, hairdresser, pedicurist, restaurateur, street vendor, and even a student or an officially “unemployed” person could reach higher levels of income than an average university graduate. employed people have a higher income (84 usd) than those who are unemployed or are not counted as labour force, like students and pensioners (52 usd). this means that higher education is simply not “paying off.” teachers and engineers could earn multiple times their state-sponsored income as waiters, bartenders, or street vendors, or could ensure their livelihood only through remittances, the amount of which may equal or supersede their wages. these tendencies are bound to have a deteriorating longor even mid-term effect on cuban society. on the one hand, the esteem of socially important professions could be eroded, and counterselection could occur among teachers, doctors, engineers, and other white-collar positions. someone can earn a much higher income with the remittances from their family abroad than from working hard. furthermore, a part of the society can be “deterred” from work and – to refer to historian irén suskó, who lived most of her life in cuba – turn into a “parasite society” (breier, 2016), where people live off other people’s work, like tourists or relatives living abroad. a sad conclusion is that the cuban communist party prefers having a monopoly on power in a poor country to sharing power in a prosperous country (totten, 2014). income inequality among people who are employed is higher than among people who are unemployed or who are not in the labour force. the coefficient of variation for the first group is 130.8%, compared to the coefficient of 101.7% in the second group. however, the analysis of quantiles within the groups shows a different picture. the ratio of 20% of people with the highest incomes to 20% of those with the lowest incomes is higher among people who are unemployed or not in the labour force (15.9) than those who are employed (9.8). the poorest 10% of respondents (exclusively pennagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 78 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies sioners) lived off less than 10 usd per month. among the poorest 20% we also found many state employees. independent business owners reported a minimum monthly income of 30 usd, while the upper 10% of respondents admitted to an average of 257 usd, and the upper 20% reported an average of 190 usd. 59% of the latter cluster are entrepreneurs, the remaining 41% are public servants. their extra income typically came from sources other than foreign money transfers. the average business owner had a monthly income of 158 usd, which is more than twice the general average. 80 % of them finished middle school education, while elementary school and university graduates accounted for 10% each. a difference in monthly average income between the capital city and the countryside (73 and 79 usd) could not be demonstrated from the collected data. however, official legal incomes and remittances accounted for multiple times more in the countryside, while inhabitants of havana had to “compensate” through other illegal sources of revenue. the total income in the countryside is 1.5 times higher than in havana, and income inequality is lower. coefficient of correlation we used the coefficient of correlation to analyse the relationship between the included variables. the spearman correlation (annex 1) found 22 statistically significant (p<.05) correlations among the examined variables2, among which 6 coefficients reflect a very weak, almost non-existing relationship (yellow cells), 10 reflect a weak (orange cells), and 6 reflect a moderate (red cells) relationship3. positive relationships can be found between ethnic origin and place of residence and the number of people living in the same household, respectively, as well as between place of residence 2 only the three main, individual income variables were examined, the sum and average incomes were not included, since they are made up by the values of the main three income variables. 3 the correlation values are evaluated along saunders et al.’s (2016) correlation scale. nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 79 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 and the number of people living in the same household. afro-cuban people were more associated with living in havana and its surroundings with more people in one household, while white people were associated with living in the countryside. the correlation analysis results show that women were more associated with older age in the sample and males with younger age. older people are more associated with being entrepreneurs and pensioners, while younger people are mostly unemployed and students. most middle-aged people work as public servants. people who graduated from university are more associated with a high official legal income and people with primary and secondary education are associated with less legal income. furthermore, older people and/or entrepreneurs and pensioners were more associated with lower levels of education (younger people and/or unemployed, students and public servants with a higher level of education); black people more with living in apartments (white people living in detached houses); apartments more with being located in havana and its surroundings (detached houses in the countryside); females with less legal income (males with more legal income); unemployed and students with less legal income (public servants, entrepreneurs, pensioners with more legal income); people gaining more illegal income with rentals (people gaining less with ownership). older people were more associated with less legal income (younger with more legal income); unemployed and students with more illegal income (public servants, entrepreneurs, and pensioners with less illegal income); people living in detached houses with fewer remittances (people living in apartments with more money coming from abroad). analysis of variance the analysis of variance requires comparing at least three groups. we built one model for each dependent variable, namely official legal income, remittances, and illegal income. the independent variables are ethnic origin, nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 80 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies highest level of education and occupation. we also included gender and place of residence as independent variables in the models (annex 2). the model for official and legal income shows that there is a statistically significant difference in the dv symptom level for four ivs: ethnic origin, highest level of education, occupation, and type of residence, while gender and place of residence did not contribute to it. hence, whether the fact that the respondents had a diploma, were white or mulatto or afro-cuban, students or public servants or entrepreneurs, lived in an apartment or house, did impact their official earnings, while whether they were male or female, lived in the capital or the countryside, had no impact. the interaction effects show that ethnic origin and type of residence together could contribute to the dv’s variance at an even greater level, while ethnic origin and occupation weakened each other’s power in contribution. pairwise comparisons show that the statistically significant differences are between whites and mulattos, whites and afro-cuban groups in ethnic origins; among all groups at the highest level of education; in terms of education between the groups unemployed and public servant, unemployed and entrepreneur, public servant and entrepreneur, public servant and pensioner, entrepreneur, and pensioner; and between apartment and detached house in the category “type of residence.” the estimated marginal effects show that “white” in ethnic origins, “secondary education” in education levels, “entrepreneur” in occupation, and the “detached house” in types of residence had the greatest impact on the amount of official and legal income. in the model on remittances, the test of between-subjects effects shows that there is a statistically significant difference in the dv symptom level for the place of residence only, and no interaction effects were found. among the places of residence, living in havana and its surroundings had a major impact on the amount of money transferred from abroad. in the model on other, illegal income, the test of between-subjects effects shows no statistically significant differences in the dv symptom level for ivs, but one interaction nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 81 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 effect: gender and ethnic origin, where males and mulattos had the greatest impact on the amount of other illegal income within their clusters. conclusion the field research and the use of a personal questionnaire offered a comprehensive guide to the quality of life regarding residence and the income structure of the cuban people. it generated data that was missing so far when discussing income (in)equality in the country. since our sample could be regarded as representative, we arrived at important conclusions. the preliminary analysis already highlighted huge differences in income structures, which was confirmed later in the main analysis in relation to different demographic clusters. the results showed income inequality between genders, ethnicities, educational backgrounds, and occupation since entrepreneurs, unemployed people, and students earned more than public servants. we also found income inequality within these demographic groups. the inferential statistics revealed statistically significant relationships among the variables. respondents with university graduation were more associated with a high official, legal income; older people with less legal income; unemployed people and students with more illegal income; people living in detached houses with less incoming unilateral transfers. the analysis of variance (anova) shows that a type 1 error possibly violated the variance analyses which is the main limitation of the study. thus, in interpreting the results, we focused solely on cuba without taking other benchmark countries into account. regarding these results and limitations, future research should focus on collecting greater samples, for instance through non-probability, and quota sampling. future research should also be extended to people living outside havana. the research should also be extended to the calculations with equal sample sizes within different clusters. as a result, comparative studies on the chronological horizon of cuba will be possible. also, regional and non-regional countries should be included in the analysis. our literature review reflected how the cuban state had the nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 82 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies opportunity to manipulate certain data forwarded to international organisations, which is important to be noted for future research. our core results admittedly do not differ greatly from those in recently published papers on the topic; rather, they reinforce them. however, it should be added that this could mean that today’s cuban society has to face a kind of “perverted” distribution of income, where highly skilled university graduates are not rewarded with a higher level of income. the results showed a “perverse effect” on income distribution, a phenomenon that leads to the formation of a “parasite” stratum in cuban society. sanctions imposed by the trump administration which saw the hardening of a sanctions-based policy might lead to consequences that are the exact opposite of its objectives, such as more and more cuban refugees trying to leave their country and join their relatives living in the united states, more cubans living in extreme levels of poverty, or perhaps another generation that have to live through a “periodo especial.” there is almost no chance for the shortor mid-term collapse of the regime, no matter what sanctions are imposed by the us government; the party and the forces of order have enough power and money to guarantee survival. thus, the covid-19 crisis is affecting mostly the society rather than the elites and deepens the scarcity of basic goods even more. since our field research took place before the covid-19 pandemic, it would be worth implementing a primary data collection after the pandemic in cuba and preparing a comparative study. another theoretical limitation which was not foreseen prior to the publication of this paper was that the cuban government decided with immediate effect in july 2019 to raise the minimum wage to the equivalent of 17 usd (granma, 2019) and with it the average wage level in cuba, which could have brought some favourable developments to the population, and the elimination of the dual currency system (the so-called monetary unification), which was finally introduced in january 2021. an important detail is that the value of social benefits and pensions will be increased and the nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 83 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 fixed prices of basic consumer goods, mostly food, will be lifted, so the measures will 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(2015). internet access expands in cuba — for those who can afford it, national public radio, october 6, https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/2015/10/06/446230012 kingstone, p. (2018). the political economy of latin america. routledge. kovácsy, t. (1999). kuba: helyben járás mindhalálig. beszélő, 6(1). http:// beszelo.c3.hu/cikkek/kuba-helyben-jaras-mindhalalig. kornai, j. (1980). economics of shortage. vol. a-b. amsterdam: north-holland. mesa-lago, c. (2002) growing economic and social disparities in cuba: impact and recommendations for change. institute for cuban and cuban-american studies, university of miami, available online: http:// www.cubastudygroup.org/index.cfm/files/serve?file_id=162616df1b89-4537-be55-b107e9e37bef gonzález alonso, p., & lee, a. (2016). the potential and pitfalls of doing business in cuba. harvard business review. https://hbr.org/2016/03/ the-potential-and-pitfalls-of-doing-business-in-cuba mesa-lago, c. (2015). la desigualdad del ingreso y la experiencia de américa latina. temas (84), 22-30. morris, e. (2014). unexpected cuba. new left review, 88, 5-45. nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 88 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies nagy, s. g., & drexler, a. (2017) kubai–amerikai kapcsolatok az obama-adminisztráció alatt. külügyi szemle 16 (különszám), 69-90. numbeo cost of living in cuba. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=cuba oficina nacional de estadística e información (2017). panorama económico y social. cuba 2016. república de cuba, april 24. http://www.one. cu/publicaciones/08informacion/panorama2016/panorama2016.pdf perelló, j. l. (2019). se recupera el turismo en cuba al despedir el 2018. excelencias cuba, january 16. https://www.excelenciascuba.com/es/ turismo-turismo-cubano-por-dentro/se-recupera-el-turismo-en-cubaal-despedir-el-2018 pineo, r. (2019). cuban public healthcare: a model of success for developing nations. journal of developing societies, 35(1), 16-61. population pyramid (2018). cuba 2018. https://www.populationpyramid. net/cuba/2018/ rapoza, k. (2016). guess how much cubans earn per month. forbes, april 26. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2016/04/26/guesshow-much-cubans-earn-per-month/#559f698d67a5 rodriguez calderon, m. (1995). life in the special period. nacla report on the americas, 29(2), 18-19. roland, l. k. (2013). tracing belonging through cuban tourism. cultural anthropology, 28(3), 396-419. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2016). research methods for business students. pearson. stusser, r. j. (2012). access to human health, freedoms and other stannagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 89 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 dard of living development in cuba. cuba in transition, 22, 315331. available at: asce. https://www.ascecuba.org/c/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/v22-stusser.pdf sweig, j. e. (2007). fidel’s final victory. foreign affairs, 86(1), 39-56. sweig, j. e. and bustamante, m. j. (2013). cuba after communism the economics reforms that are transforming the island. foreign affairs, 92(4), 101-114. the havana consulting group and tech (2017). remittances to cuba in 2016 grow by 2.7%. july 20. http://www.thehavanaconsultinggroup. com/enus/articles/article/30 the havana consulting group and tech (2018). remittances to cuba diversify and heat up the payment channels. march 3. http://www.thehavanaconsultinggroup.com/enus/articles/article/63 the world bank (2019a) gdp/capita (current us$), cuba, united states. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ny.gdp.pcap.cd?end=2018&locations=cu-us&start=1970 the world bank group (2019b). life expectancy at birth. https://data. worldbank.org/indicator/sp.dyn.le00.in the world bank group (2019c). personal remittances, received (% of gdp). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/bx.trf.pwkr.dt.gd. zs?most_recent_value_desc=true the world bank group (2019d). world development indicators: gini-index. https://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=2&series=si.pov.gini&country= toro, f. (2015). cuba is hoping to replace venezuelan oil with american nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 90 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies tourists. five thirty eight, january 16. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/cuba-is-hoping-to-replace-venezuelan-oil-with-american-tourists/ totten, m.j. (2014). letter from cuba: to embargo or not. world affairs, 176(6), 31-37. ward, m. and devereux, j. (2012). the road not taken: pre-revolutionary cuban living standards in comparative perspective. the journal of economic history, 72(1), 104-133. annex 1: spearman correlation matrix gender ethnic origin age highest level of education occup ation place of residence ty p e of residence ownership of residence no. of p eop le living in the same household official, legal income (cup) incoming unilateral transfers (cup) other, illegal income (cup) gender 1,000 ethnic origin 0,016 1,000 age ,384** 0,097 1,000 highest level of education -,148* -0,013 -,334** 1,000 occup ation 0,109 -,163* ,515** -,262** 1,000 place of residence -0,041 ,216** -,139* 0,095 -0,084 1,000 ty p e of residence -0,031 -,259** -0,002 0,017 -0,075 -,301** 1,000 ownership of residence 0,086 0,041 ,200** 0,048 ,173** -0,070 -0,111 1,000 no. of p eop le living in the same household 0,019 ,263** -0,065 -0,057 -0,026 ,253** -,196** -0,068 1,000 official, legal income (cup) -,349** -0,061 -,487** ,528** -,271** -0,053 0,018 -0,042 -0,042 1,000 incoming unilateral transfers (cup) 0,066 0,322 -0,044 -0,120 -0,125 -0,051 -,399* -0,317 -0,024 0,261 1,000 other, illegal income (cup) -0,133 -0,059 -0,172 -0,074 -,393** -0,070 0,029 -,256* -0,092 -0,176 0,000 1,000 source: authors’ calculations nagy, almadi & šiljak income inequality in today's cuba 91 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 annex 2: test of between-subjects effects at official, legal income ty p e iii sum of squares df m ean square f sig. partial eta squared corrected m odel 1053731165,597a 84 12544418,638 34,723 0,000 0,959 intercep t 68129235,755 1 68129235,755 188,581 0,000 0,599 gender 514964,650 1 514964,650 1,425 0,235 0,011 ethnic origin 25581666,503 2 12790833,252 35,405 0,000 0,360 highest level of education 67997000,762 2 33998500,381 94,108 0,000 0,599 occup ation 19427300,544 3 6475766,848 17,925 0,000 0,299 place of residence 433784,413 1 433784,413 1,201 0,275 0,009 ty p e of residence 11422062,372 2 5711031,186 15,808 0,000 0,201 gender * ethnic origin 240367,195 2 120183,598 0,333 0,718 0,005 gender * highest level of education 401960,937 2 200980,468 0,556 0,575 0,009 gender * occup ation 84913,670 1 84913,670 0,235 0,629 0,002 gender * place of residence 0,000 0 0,000 gender * ty p e of residence 474979,484 2 237489,742 0,657 0,520 0,010 ethnic origin * highest level of education 438047,319 4 109511,830 0,303 0,875 0,010 ethnic origin * occup ation 4865183,618 3 1621727,873 4,489 0,005 0,097 ethnic origin * place of residence 0,000 0 0,000 ethnic origin * ty p e of residence 78538777,358 4 19634694,340 54,349 0,000 0,633 highest level of education * occup ation 76259,411 2 38129,705 0,106 0,900 0,002 highest level of education * place of residence 0,000 0 0,000 highest level of education * ty p e of residence 235022,880 3 78340,960 0,217 0,885 0,005 occup ation * place of residence 0,000 0 0,000 occup ation * ty p e of residence 778520,318 3 259506,773 0,718 0,543 0,017 place of residence * ty p e of residence 15602,500 1 15602,500 0,043 0,836 0,000 error 45520299,531 126 361272,219 total 1347915093,000 211 corrected total 1099251465,128 210 te s ts of be twe e n-subje cts effe cts dep endent variable: source a. r squared = ,959 (adjusted r squared = ,931) source: authors’ calculations 85 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 book review sevasti kyrias dako, my life: the autobiography of the pioneer of female education in albania. compiled by dana stucky. edited by david hosaflook. tirana: institute for albanian and protestant studies, 2016. maria rybakova ph.d., nazarbayev university* sevasti kyrias dako, the woman who founded the first school for girls in albania, and in albanian language as the medium of education, was a fascinating personality in many aspects. for any student of the history of education in the balkans, her autobiography is a treasure trove of information. on top of it, kyrias dako’s educational efforts coincided with the birth of national consciousness in albania, and the albanian struggle for independence. the readers of this book will learn how much a language and, even more intriguingly, the formation of a common alphabet have played a major role in the historical becoming of albania as a country. sevasti kyrias dako is a multifaceted figure: an educationalist, a feminist, a patriot, she was also a convert to protestantism, her brother being one of the first albanian protestant preachers. i first became interested in the history of education in albania when i was teaching in an international school in tirana. on march 7th, unexpectedly, my students presented me with flowers, postcards and home-made jam: it was teacher’s day in albania. this date commemorates the day in 1887 when the first albanian-language school opened in the town of kortcha (korça). it was an immense achievement, for ottoman rule prohibited albanians from educating their children in their own language. four years later, thanks to the efforts of sevasti kyrias dako and her brother gerasim, the first albanian school for girls opened its doors, also in kortcha. the still palpable joy of celebrating the teacher’s day brought home to me the importance that the albanian people give to the educational possibilities in their country. * maria rybakova ph.d., nazarbayev university, e-mail: mrybakova123@gmail.com epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies m. rybakova book review 86 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the delightful autobiography of kyrias dako, originally written in english and detailing the author’s path toward becoming an educated woman and a pioneer of female education, would not have been published if not for the efforts of dana stucky, who compiled it and wrote the foreword. while working in kortcha as a teacher, ms. stucky researched the albanian protestant movement, one of the major figures of which was sevasti’s older brother gerasim kyrias (gjerasim qiriazi in the modern albanian spelling). in 1994 ms. stucky “stumbled,” as she herself puts it, on kyrias dako’s manuscript in the albanian national archives. she decided that this memoir should be edited and published both in its english version and in an albanian translation. thanks to her tireless work (both researching in the archives and interviewing kyrias dako’s descendants and specialists in albanian history) and thanks to mr. hosaflook’s editing, we can now learn the fascinating history of albanian education and its pioneers, the siblings sevasti, gerasim and paraskevi kyrias. these memoirs are also a precious witness of the symbolic importance that a language and an alphabet can have in the national consciousness of a people, vastly superseding, at least in the albanian case, that of religion. it is also a testament to the importance of the protestant missionaries’ activity in the development of the albanian literacy: since the ability to read the bible in albanian was considered especially important by protestants, the development of a common alphabet and the spread of literacy were the matters of utmost importance for the (american) protestant mission in albania, whose first convert was gerasim†. sevasti’s autobiography and gerasim’s biography‡ are invaluable documents for any scholar of the history of protestantism in albania and in the balkans. yet nowhere in her text does sevasti kyrias dako push her beliefs in the foreground: the book is devoid of missionary zeal. it reads like an entertaining and highly informative story of an exceptional balkan woman who had managed to “have it all” (an outstanding career, international fame, a loving husband and family), until the darker forces of history intervened. the kyrias (qiriazi) family originally lived in monastir which was, in the 1 please see “the theological and geographical origins of protestantism in albania” by david hosaflook, occasional papers on religion in eastern europe, george fox university, vo. 38 (2018), iss. 1, article 9 available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol38/iss1/9 2 quanrud, john michael, gerasim kyrias and the albanian national awakening 1858-94, institute for albanian and protestant studies, tirana 2016. m. rybakova book review 87 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 19th century, a multi-national town in the ottoman empire (now called bitola, in the republic of north macedonia). sevasti kyrias was born in 1871. growing up, sevasti spoke albanian, vlach (aromanian), greek, and turkish. her older brother gerasim, a founder of the protestant church in albania and a hero of the albanian national awakening, was a major intellectual influence in her young life. with his support, she was able to escape being secluded until marriage (a practice prevalent in her time) and leave home in order to get further education. her primary schooling, in her home town, was in greek, but she continued her studies in constantinople woman’s college (an american missionary college) where the language of instruction was english. sevasti, with her positive and optimistic outlook on life, remembered the years spent at the college extremely fondly. she was a studious girl beloved by teachers and classmates alike. moreover, she came to the college with the express purpose of getting an adequate preparation for opening a school for girls. the albanian national awakening – trying to establish the albanian cultural, as well as political independence, a movement that started in the 19th century – was never far from her mind. while at college, she visited kotto, a fighter for albanian independence, in the prison of yedikule. at the same time, her brother was translating the bible into albanian and had his translation printed in bucharest (the seat of several balkan independence movements in exile in the 19th – early 20th century) using latin letters. “the story of the first albanian girls’ school reads like a romance of adventure,” writes sevasti kyrias. kyrias and her brother opened the school in the city of kortcha in october of 1891. three girls attended initially; by the end of the year the attendance rose to twenty-seven pupils. the school, accepting girls of different faiths, christian as well as muslim, grew despite the hostility of local authorities (turkish and phanariot greek). the next year, the school had fifty-three pupils. sevasti and her younger sister paraskevi were tasked with translating and authoring many textbooks that had never before existed in albanian language. further adventures awaited sevasti when she took a year off teaching, leaving the school in the hands of paraskevi, and went to the united states. there, she met jane addams at hull house, a women’s community providing education for working class and poor immigrants, and gave lectures at various institutions. on her return, during a stop in bucharest, she met her future husband, christo dako, a mathematician and the general secretary of the albanian society dituria (“knowledge”) with whom she went on m. rybakova book review 88 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies to have two sons. the kyrias sisters encountered many other exciting and difficult things: paraskevi took part in the alphabet congress in monastir, and sevasti was invited to attend the educational congress in elbasan, but could not go due to the sky-rocketing school enrollment. both sevasti and paraskevi kept up the struggle for the right to use the latin alphabet for the albanian language in all educational institutions (as opposed to latin, greek, and arabic alphabets used in the past according to students’ religion, undermining the unity of albanians as a people). paraskevi composed the “alphabet hymn,” and sevasti mentioned being prepared to defend the new alphabet “with the last drop of blood.” they had to face opposition to albanian-language education by the regime of the young turks and the devastation of two balkan wars that drove them into temporary exile in the usa. upon return they reopened their school, but this time in tirana. there they taught girls in albanian and english until 1933, when king zog closed all private schools in the country. disappointed with his decision, sevasti kyrias dako decided to write the autobiography that we now have the opportunity to read and that is a treasure trove of information on albanian women’s history, education, and culture. the appendix includes excerpts from viktoria dako ruli’s (sevasti’s granddaughter’s) letters to dana stucky obtained during the preparation of this book. these letters tell the story of the dako family after enver hoxha’s party took power in albania. the regime arrested sevasti’s sons, then in their 30s, accusing them of being american spies. they were tortured. one allegedly committed suicide in prison; the other stayed in gaol for seven years. his mother, sevasti, was not allowed to see him and died of broken heart in 1949. later, the regime tried to use the kyrias family achievements for its own ideological purposes and gave sevasti (posthumously) and her sister paraskevi the title of “teacher of the people.” this tragic irony of this end provides a harrowing epilogue to the book so full of optimism and sense of purpose. acknowledgement: the reviewer wishes to thank mr. david hosaflook and prof. sharon kowalsky for their help in writing this review. [185] epiphany: vol. 4, no. 1, 2011 issn 1840-3719 dževada šuško prilozi za istraživanje sociokulturnog položaja žene u bih: izabrana bibliografija (1900-2010)[supplements for research on the sociocultural status of women in bih: selected bibliography (1900-2010)]. fejzić-čengić, f., šuško, dž., šeta, đ. et al., 2011 sarajevo: centar za edukaciju i istraživanje nahla. 170 pages, available at www.nahla.ba supplements for research on the socio-cultural status of women in bosnia-herzegovina, is the first bibliography reference of this kind. structurally, the bibliography is composed of four parts. the first part offers an alphabetical list of all monographs about women in bosniaherzegovina from 1900 to 2010. in order to make access to the research easier, a chronological index as well as an alphabetical name index was included. the next chapter gives a descriptive bibliography about all contemporary publications issued from 1990 to 2010. each monograph during that period of time is briefly presented in a paragraph. this enables the reader to get an insight about contemporary topics related to women and gender. the third part is an alphabetical list of selected articles from leading, most influential and representative periodicals in bosnia-herzegovina. again the researcher’s effort is taken into consideration as there is a chronological and alphabetical name index. the fourth chapter is an appendix containing various original texts and articles from 1900 to 2010. this part offers to the reader an additional information to follow contexts, developments and shifts in meaning throughout a period of 110 years. some of them need to be mentioned because they reflect the social and historical context in which they were written, such as letters to the editor by two women in 1909 (p.115-117), a proclamation issued in 1913 against the increasing presence of women in corresponding author: dževada šuško, faculty of business administration, international university of sarajevo, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: dzsusko@ius.edu.ba http://www.nahla.ba/ mailto:dzsusko@ius.edu.ba [186] the streets (p.120-121), the statute of a muslim women’s organisation in 1924 (123-127), an appeal to send female children to school (p. 131-132), an article about the headscarf in islam in 1950 (p.138-142), a request to take off the niqab in 1950 (143) among other documents. the bibliography is based on all publications and periodicals available at the national and university library of bosnia-herzegovina, archive of the city of sarajevo, library of the national museum of bosnia-herzegovina, library of the centre for human rights in sarajevo, the gazi-husrev-bey’s library in sarajevo, library at the bosniak institute in sarajevo/zurich as well as private and family libraries. when the centre for education and research „nahla,“ which primarily works on strengthening and educating women, established a new research department in 2010, a new project needed to be launched. thus, nahla gathered a group of young female scholars to brainstorm about the needs of women in bosnia-herzegovina when it comes to scientific research. the team of initially five scholars from various fields including journalism, international relations, history, gender studies and islamic theology was extended to seven as it required additional contributors. the result of the workshop and brainstorming was that there is no bibliography, no literature review, nor a systematic overview which offers an insight into what has so far been written about women in bosnia-herzegovina. this book is a vital scholarly resource which will greatly benefit scholars and students alike from various disciplines, particularly social, political and cultural studies. this bibliography shows the path of previous research and the development of knowledge about women in bosnia-herzegovina for the last 110 years. it places women in various, socio-political contexts: austria-hungarian empire, kingdom of serbs, croats and slovenes, kingdom of yugoslavia, communist yugoslavia and the state of bosnia and herzegovina. this long period of time enables the reader to follow the developments and changes in society, politics, family relationships as well as education. thereby the researcher realizes soon that issues relating to religion, nation, language and culture are related to women and have been and are still important today. it is an attempt to gather in [187] one publication books and articles which described, analyzed and influenced the status of women in bosnia-herzegovina. this bibliography is partially funded by the federal ministry of education and science which increases its credibility. what makes this bibliography even more valuable is that prof. dr. fikret karčić, from the faculty of law at sarajevo university and an expert regarding muslims in bosnia-herzegovina, as well as mirela rožajac-zulčić, m.a., librarian at the faculty of law at sarajevo university, reviewed the book before it was printed, so that their comments and suggested changes could be added. karčić’s made significant concluding remarks: “...i congratulate the whole team of researchers and complacently recommend this book to be printed.” epiphany: vol. 12, no. 1, 2019 e-issn 1840-3719 7 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) the forgotten somalia: a key factor for peace and stability in the horn of africa dr. simonetta silvestri, security policy advisor abstract since colonial times, somalia has been going through authoritarian and/or democratic transitions. the transitory position of somalia was determined by geography, religion, ethnicity, tribal origins, socio-economic, and political system. somalia is one of the longest protracted crises in the world and recurrently victim of the violent extremism that breathes into the political, social and economic country’s unrest. somalia remains a major threat to peace and stability in the horn of africa. more importantly, continuous uprisings, violence, and conflicts threaten peace, stability, and security in somalia. this paper examines the root causes of these developments by considering international, regional and domestic actors in state security, peace, and stability. how tackling of terrorism, extremism and organized crime are conditioned by the effectiveness of the system of governance, the rule of law, economic growth and development and, more importantly, state security, police, and defense. this paper also placed the questions of terrorism and conflict within a global security framework and the fight against terrorism, organized crime, and illegal human trafficking and migrations. keywords: security, governance, peace, state-building, ideology. the forgotten somalia: a key factor for peace and stability in the horn of africa 8 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) i n t r o d u c t i o n the uprising in 1986 against the regime of siad barre characterized the beginning of the somalia civil war till 1991. when siad barre was dismissed from the power the conflict expanded among somalia warlords. in response to the humanitarian crises and the ongoing conflict in 1992 the united nations with the security council resolution 792/1992 (unscr) established the united task forces, unitaf, for operation restore hope led by established the united nations operations in somalia, unosom i from april 1992 to march 1993 with the unscr 733/1992 and unosom ii from march 1993 to march 1995 with the unscr 794/1992 the usa (december 1992 – may 1993) and contemporary. the unscr reaffirmed the un commitment to the ceasefire, humanitarian assistance, and tackling of the threats to peace and security. between 2000 and 2008 the somali government was challenged by the union of the islamic courts (uic) midowga maxkamadaha islaamiga and the militant wing of al shabaab link to islamic terrorism of al qaeda. from the year 2008 to 2012, in spite the strong resistance of the somali’s central government, somalis reached an agreement on a government of national transition under which somalia moved in 2012 from a centralized to a federal government of six states, divided into eighteen administrative regions or also called gobollada, which in turn are subdivided into districts. in june 2013, eighteen years later from the united nations operations in somalia the united nations security council with the security council resolution 2102/2013 deployed the united nations assistance mission in somalia, unsom, a political mission mandated to support the state building and the peace process in the country, allowing humanitarian aids to reach a population affected by decades of civil war. the united nations assistance mission supported the federal government of somalia by providing the strategic policy on peace-building and state-building in terms of effective governance, security reforms, rule of law, the functioning of the federal system, constitutional reforms and fair and transparent elections. then, the un was mandated to bring somalis together to rebuild the country in what staub defines “common goals”: the strengths of the existing groups’ identities and previous successes in achieving joint goals affect the extent to which intergroup cooperation reduces conflict and results in positive ties. by focusing on common goals, there is a greater likelihood of successful outcomes which will, in turn, contribute to the nurturing of a positive outlook on the other, thereby resulting in greater trust and caring towards each other, which will promote social cohesion and develop nationalism. unsom ‘s mandate has been renewed up to the unscr 2408/2018 till march 2019 due to the challenges the federal republic of somalia is facing consolidating state formation and federalism. in fact, beside the challenges posed by al shabaab somalia remains extremely divided internally due to clans fighting for territorial power, federal resources appropriation, and federal members states conflicts and armed clashes over borders like somaliland and puntland on the contentious issue of sool, sanaag and ayn or puntland and galmudug over the divided city of gaalkacyo for instance. the destabilizing factor that the inter-regional conflicts can bring about is generally underestimated. the international crisis group reported: somalia’s foreign partners appear to underestimate the risk of conflict in the north. they tend to assess the north’s stability in reference to the south – a low bar that may have meant warning signs slipped under the radar. that the crisis has deteriorated almost to the point of open war speaks to a number of realities. outside powers have mostly preferred “positive” narratives that oversell the north’s recovery – and that of somalia more broadly – and downplay risks. leaders in both puntland and somaliland appear wedded to brinksmanship and believe they have little incentive to make peace. local and international mediation systems are disjointed and mostly reactive. puntland and somaliland are sliding toward a protracted conflict with enormously destabilising consequences for not only northern somalia but the country as a whole. war is still avoidable, but to forestall it both sides need to take a step back, dial down their rhetoric and allow for mediation led by the un. their long-running dispute over soog and sanaag regions will inevitably take time to resolve. but the priority today is for the two sides to deescalate, arrive at some modus vivendi and accept a mechanism for determining that status. the alternative is a war in northern somalia that would be extremely costly to both sides, tarnish their international reputations, worsen an already grave humanitarian predicament and undercut efforts to counter al-shabaab and the small, but deadly isis branch in puntland. simonetta silvestri 9 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) s t a t e o f s e c u r i t y i n t h e f e d e r a l r e p u b l i c o f s o m a l i a the state of somalia collapsed for almost two decades under the attacks of al shabaab violent extremism, preventing the country’s economic, political and social development and has increased the radicalization of young somalis deprived of life opportunities. somalia is the hub for piracy, illegal fishing, human trafficking, import and export of charcoal, arms and ammunition trafficking, import and export of oxidisers use for the improvised explosive devices used by al shabaab in its terrorist attack against security forces and civilians. back in 2006 with the security council resolution 1725/2006, the african union peacekeeping operation amisom entered somalia to maintain and support the peace process and re-conquers the territories controlled by al shabaab. the loss of numerous lives of the ugandans, burundians, sierra leon, kenyans, ethiopians soldiers of the african union extensively proved the 12 years commitment of the regional organization to restore peace in somalia and the region but without fully succeed in defeating al shabaab. amisom peacekeeping operation reached the number of 25.000 units in 2016 and from 2017 has initiated the downsizing leaving the somali national army and the somali police forces to replace the amisom. often the territories liberated by the amisom’s troop were quickly regained by al shabaab that effectively and efficiently provides services to the communities exploiting the absence of the central and federal government to advance its goal and set up a fundamentalist regime terrorizing somali’s institution and civilians across the country and in the region. somali’s central governance and federal states continue to struggle in providing services to those communities liberated by the african union favoring al shaabab return and its quick response to counter community’s need. contrary to international organizations al shabaab does not have to go through any government’s channel, to deliver aid because it can easily approach communities in a bottom up approach enshrining in the community. on the contrary, the international organizations, such as the european union, usaid, and the united nations, must go through government institutions to deliver aid or provide support to the communities in a top down approach that often does not expose them directly to the communities and most of all it is not perceived and received by the communities. the al qaeda affiliated group al-shabaab (as) are constantly engaged in fighting by amisom forces throughout somalia. strongholds for as include extensive parts of jubba, and in pockets of galmuduud and puntland. as has predominantly been restricted to asymmetrical attacks across the country, which were aimed at the security forces and civilians. the most recent attacks of 26 th november, claimed by al shabaab, targeted the mogadishu city centre and the northern city of galkayo, 24 people lost their lives in the attacks. al shabaab continues to demonstrate its ability to launch high profile attacks against state institutions, buildings and hotels, particularly in mogadishu. although al shabaab suffered significant losses and displacement from main bases in areas such as dinsoor and bardheere they enlarge the presence in peripheral districts of mogadishu of specialized cells to conduct asymmetric attacks, possibly to deflect attention from operations in southern somalia. as increased the number of armed fighters for planned complex attacks. their attack procedures showed evolution and possibly an indication of their intent to continue to use a system, the large complex attacks, that has shown positive results since its introduction in june 2015, successfully conducted against the somali national army (sna) and kenyan defence force (kdf). having lost physical control of key areas, including revenue-generating ports such as kismayo and barawe, and a number of key leaders, as has become more focused on terrorist activity and has changed its capability, including types of fighters and weaponry. well-planned targeted political assassinations, as well as attacks on security forces and foreign presence, are currently the main actions undertaken, including in mogadishu. just depriving as of its vast areas of territorial control is not expected to result in an effective end to its activities in somalia. it has proved resilient and is also now well embedded in neighboring states, including kenya, where it can conduct both operations and "back office" activities. the war in yemen potentially opens up new opportunities for as, given its long-standing and trusted links with al qaeda in the arabian peninsula (aqap). in particular, there is a risk of easier transit for terrorist fighters and easier access to arms supplies from yemen through somaliland. although the so-called islamic state (isis) has attempted to change the allegiance of aq (and have had some success at the tactical level) it is unlikely that the as leadership will take such a step. the yemen crisis the forgotten somalia: a key factor for peace and stability in the horn of africa 10 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) has the potential to significantly alter the regional dynamics. a clearly focused yemen analysis, definition of eu objectives, and subsequent measures to address this issue may become key to a broader response. f i g h t i n g t e r r o r i s m a n d t r a n s n a t i o n a l o r g a n i z e d c r i m e somalia’s internal instability is a threat to peace and security in the region also due to the porous border and the uncontrolled 3,300 km of maritime coast due to the lack of maritime security forces infrastructure. the somali coastline is the longest in africa and has three major ports, berbera in somaliland, bosasso in puntland and kismayo in jubaland, which are often illegally used to traffic illegal weapons, charcoal, livestock, and agricultural products as sources of revenue to finance al shabaab. the conflict in yemen has also increased the arms trafficking in berbera, somaliland as a route for transport in and out of somalia. somalia is under the security council sanction 2385/2017 on arms embargo, chemical weapons and import and export of charcoal to and from somalia. al shabaab (as) continues to remain a significant threat to internal stability and security in somalia, though the nature of that threat has changed. president mohamed abdullahi farmaajo, elected in february 2017, adopted a national strategy to counter violent extremism within a new national security architecture engaging civil society, the private sector, and overall the entire community sending a clear signal to endure in the fight against terrorism. the somali police forces supported by the somali national army will be left to continue the fight against terrorism, meanwhile a renew attempt to tolerance, dialogue, and peace has to prevail in somalia as well as in the region. the national security policy, national threat assessment and national policing model in somalia highlight the need to move from a military-led offensive, against al-shabaab, to civilian law enforcement in order to stabilize the country, implementing the rule of law, enabling basic service-delivery and provide the opportunity to the local communities. this broad policy framework has been created for this shift to occur, and the support of the international community is needed to move forward. the united nations and the european union are contributing to this effort, by means of mentoring and giving advice for improved governance and institutional capacity to key line-ministries and related law-enforcement agencies tasked to implement the national security policy and the national policing model. these frameworks reflect the priorities of somali authorities, requesting support to the international community to the development of law-enforcement capacity, with a special focus on capacity in regional administrations. maritime security is one element of the frameworks; however, the biggest gaps and opportunities for significant contribution remain on land, addressing structural challenges, which are key to tackling law-enforcement and governance more holistically. fighting violent extremism remained a priority for somalia and for the governments in the region and to counter violent extremism military actions are not sufficient neither preventive. terrorism exploits governance, poverty, and illiteracy and cannot be fought just with an army; there must be others. somalis are 100% sunni-muslims with the right and peaceful interpretation of islam and a community that struggles to get involved and participate in the political, economic and social development of the country to promote peace and security. the organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd) reports that 740.000 people die because of armed conflict each year and it also seriously undermines the attainment of the millennium development goals. armed conflict and violence undermine peace-building, state-building, development and an effective system of governance. therefore, addressing the terrorism within the armed violence reduction under the principle listed above might effectively contribute to restoring peace and security. somalia continues to be seen as a treat to international peace and security in the region and in the world. in agreement with kizito sabala, aisha ahmad & edwin rutto “domestic conflicts have a propensity to become internationalized. neighboring states are drawn into conflict through refugee flows, humanitarian crises and the trafficking of arms.” somalia remains a major threat to security in the horn of africa. securing the peace of somalia is the most critical task ahead of this government because somalia’s domestic threats and internal security negatively affect region development, peace, and stability. brutal attacks of violent extremism were conducted in somalia and outside somalia territory. lidwien kapteijn considers that in somalia, as for former yugoslavia and rwanda, armed violence broke down law and order, sweeping away many people’s adherence to normative ethical behavior and cultural script. kapteijn argued that “the orchestration simonetta silvestri 11 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) of violence against civilian operated from al shabaab is consciously used as a political instrument: in the absence of another public agenda than their own groups’ political dominance, they could envision no role for member defined as “other”; simple logic demanded their removal.” al shabaab as any other terrorist group in their attempt to change the political and social dimension used the same political instruments, violence, of those regime/leaders they attempt to remove. as attacks increasingly showed the need for the neighboring countries to strategically address the fight against terrorism and transnational organized crime through which terrorism is often funded especially after as pledged allegiance to al qaeda increasing the fear of violent extremism and terrorism threats both in somalia and to the wider region. there is evidence of da'esh courting as allegiance in particular in the northern parts of somalia. to add, as the military conflict against da'esh progresses in syria, and iraq, there is a potential risk that foreign terrorist fighters may either return to their homelands or look towards other 'permissive' areas/countries and potentially impacting on the horn of africa region and its dynamics with as. gulf’s state political influence strongly grows influencing somalia and the horn of africa political development and it is likely to continue to grow as wider regional dynamics involving other key partners such as turkey, ethiopia and recently egypt play out in somalia. thus, somalia's security and stability is vital for the larger horn of africa region and beyond. the protracted crisis in south sudan degenerated, the continued crisis in yemen might further affect somalia’ s instability. s e c u r i t y a n d d e v e l o p m e n t n e x u s in the modern history of somalia, lewis considers that regeneration of social cohesion and nationalism, as opposed to the sectarian nature of somalis, is one of the main challenges somalia has ahead, considering that somalis share the same language, culture, and religion. it will take time for president framajo to rebuild the state’s credibility among somalis because the state itself failed in protecting it’s individual’s interests and security. the rebuilding of security governance is not a process in isolation: the security process needs to go along with the development process due to the nexus between the two. fundamental to this is that the longterm solution for somalia's security lies in the creation of capable and accountable national armed forces in the form of the somali national and rapid economic development to offer employment opportunities preventing terrorism recruitment. with a young population and limited employment opportunities, economic development can create employment reducing the chance of radicalization and ensure that somali security institutions are affordable for the country in the long term. in somalia, the regained territories from as must see the benefits of development assistance to change perceptions and reduce the breeding ground for extremists. according to the world bank in november 2018, somalia’s gross domestic product (gdp) growth weakened in 2017 due to the severe drought. although somalia averted widespread famine in 2017, the drought led to large-scale food insecurity, affecting more than six million people. more than half of the population lives in poverty and a large proportion is sensitive to negative shocks. gdp growth declined to 2.3% in 2017, compared to 4.4% in 2016. economic activity is mainly anchored in agriculture and the services sector. the agriculture sector experienced neartotal collapse with crop failures, a widespread shortage of water and pasture, and increased livestock mortality. inflationary pressure increased in 2017 due to droughtdriven by significant increases in crop prices. implementation of fiscal policy has significantly improved, but challenges remain. domestic revenue grew by 26.5%, from $112.7 million in 2016 to $142.6 million in 2017 driven by trade taxes. donor grants almost doubled to $103.6 million in 2017 from $55.3 million in 2016 – a remarkable performance with 85% of the commitments being realized compared to only 50% realized in 2016. despite the improved performance, the government is still struggling with basic challenges in its fiscal operations. recurrent expenditures account for almost all expenditure, with capital spending accounting for just 3% of total spending in 2016 and 2017. weak expenditure controls result in ad hoc cash rationing to ensure a balanced budget and zero accumulation of arrears hence, affecting overall budget execution. current spending priorities focus on security and administrative services, which account for almost 90% of total spending hence the crowding-out provision for economic and social services. the security and development nexus needs to be glue by the social cohesion. to agree with serageldin (1996) “social cohesion is founded on social capital, glue that holds society together. norms, values, and social relations are the bonds that hold communities together. these are the forgotten somalia: a key factor for peace and stability in the horn of africa 12 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) the means by which to reach across differences and begin to build trust” (p. 196). e u s t r a t e g i c i n t e r e s t s s o m a l i a s e c u r i t y somalia sits on the strategically important corner of the horn of africa. the region sees a considerable amount of maritime activities – it is an important commercial shipping route and has large offshore marine resources – fish stocks and potential offshore oil and gas deposits. in the past ten years, somalia emerged as the world’s foremost source of piracy. international naval presence has suppressed piracy even though it is not eradicated as it is assessed that intent and capacity remain. enhancing somali owned maritime security and law enforcement capacities, in line with the somali national security policy, is necessary. however, there is a growing understanding that maritime crime, linked to transnational organised crime, must be understood in a wider context and needs to be addressed on land the sea. somalia is also an important source (and transit) country of migration to europe. continued or increased instability in somalia, directly and indirectly, affect the eu through (illegal) migration, spill-over of conflicts, organised crime, a proliferation of small arms and light weapons, as well as terrorism. in the context of migration, support to the security sector could contribute to the positive implementation of the valletta plan of action of november 2015. the eu engagement in somalia has been intensified over the years and the eu remains the largest donor in terms of both political engagement and financial and technical support. the eu has played a leading role in the five compact priorities inclusive politics, security, justice, economic foundations and revenues and services. the most notable financial support is directed at supporting amisom, where the african peace facility (apf) has provided support to soldier's allowances and other issues since the launch of the mission amounting to over €1.1b since its launch in 2007. the african peace facilities was founded to respond to the african leader’s request of support and it is financed through the european development fund in support of the african union’s and the african regional economic communities peace and security process. although with a broader pan-african remit, most of its funds have been principally dedicated to amisom however also mali and the lake chad region benefitted of the apf funds to fight boko haram. the eu acknowledged the need to engage in the security sector in somalia as an instrumental factor in the stabilization of eastern africa and for the overall fight against extremist terrorism that is challenging international peace and security. it is also a rallying point for some of the neighboring countries, joint efforts in somalia can contribute to developing a more cooperative regional approach towards security including the greater efforts in the provision of basic services in rescued areas to highlight the benefits of legitimate authorities. there are a number of illegal or illicit traffics in the indian ocean (arms, humans, drugs, coal, etc.) that remain largely unchecked and that fuel instability in somalia and beyond. it is known by now that the long-term battle against as, and for the establishment of state authority more generally, will be achieved through the provision of the rule of law. this argues strongly for international community engagement with a focus on supporting the security apparatus at the central and regional levels, including integrated non-state security actors. the strategic objectives for the eu are unchanged in relation to somalia, however, the new aspect is the increased engagement with non-traditional actors from the gulf states and their involvement is changing the hoa regional dynamics, not least due to the yemen situation. secondly, the relatively unfettered migration seen into europe of the last years since 2011 has increased the need to look at providing deep stability in source countries. eritrea is a significant source country, whereas somalia only accounted for 2% of the total flows to europe in 2014. whilst somalia is not in itself a major source of migration, it is an important migrant route from africa to the arabian peninsula and, sometimes, onwards to europe. the migration risk may also arise in somalia should yemen further destabilize and cause an inflow of somali diaspora back into somalia. the third development has been an increase in radicalization within the hoa, not least due to the rise of the so-called islamic state (or isis), with a risk of further spreading violent extremism into the hoa. s o m a l i s e c u r i t y a n d d e f e n c e f o r c e s there is a general consensus that regional, mostly "irregular" forces are more effective in the fight against al shabab than the somali national army. this stems partly from the fact that the national army is perceived as being developed in a mono-clanic way, instead of simonetta silvestri 13 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) reflecting through its composition the real structure and interests of the country. this raises suspicions at the regional level. the regions themselves have been developing a parallel, more "informal" forces, such as the "darwish". these regional forces are considered by some amisom commanders as the most effective in fighting al shabab, whereas the national army is not really contributing to these efforts. the main challenge ahead is, therefore, the integration between regional and federal military efforts. this could comprise building the national army based on regional forces, or in some way reconverting the regional forces into robust police that will assist in the stabilization of areas recovered from al shabab control or combinations of these options. this key issue needs to be tackled head-on by the somali authorities and reflected on an agreed "security and defence architecture". in addition, security transformation implies civilian oversight of security forces and to offer an “alternative paradigm” as olowama ismail considers that while the principle of civilian rule over the military or more specific operational issues is often tackled in security reform processes, the larger question of defining new national security priorities is not always considered comprehensively and consultative. the priorities are often assumed or defined by an exclusive cohort of national security and political actors. a gendered lens on national security and reform however provides an alternative paradigm and frame of reference. by virtue of directing attention towards individuals and sociocultural contexts, it sheds light on security from the standpoint of the recipient, not the providers. somalia has posed a key security challenge for the international community in recent decades. however, the 22,000-strong amisom force has helped to stabilize the country somehow making notable gains against as. notwithstanding the force's successes, amisom's funding was cut by 20 percent in 2018 due to the lack of funding and 20,000 amisom troops should be drawdown by 2020. uganda has announced that it will pull its approximately 6,700 troops from somalia in 2018 and the same goes for kenya, burundi, ethiopia, and djibouti. however, in a meeting in kampala last march 2018 the head of state from uganda, kenya, burundi, ethiopia, and djibouti met to discuss the serious repercussion amisom drawdown could have and in a communiqué uganda's foreign minister, “sam kutesa, said that the decision to drawdown the amisom troop taken in 2017 is not realistic and shall be re-discussed because the draw-down would lead to a reversal of the gains made by amisom." it is, in fact, uncertain if the somali national army and the somali national police will be able to fully take up amisom functions and fight against al shaabab. as has not been defeated yet, and security concerns remain pre-eminent to allow for development and sustainability in southern somalia. hence, the security umbrella provided by amisom, directly supported by the au, the eu, and un, is required as the main security guarantor. amisom has shifted towards a greater focus on counter-insurgency and in preparing and assisting somali security forces in the fight against terrorism. external funding and support for amisom remain critical as long as it is necessary. the eu's role as the major financial contributor is, however, increasingly problematic and amisom, therefore, is working with others, including the au, the troop contributors, the un, and third countries, to ensure adequate burden-sharing and an eventual exit plan. the somali government has to consolidate its power because security gaps remain throughout the country and terrorist attacks still plague its capital and all the other regions, any lapse in security could result in a reversal of somalia's gains in the last 8 years. the country is fighting an open war, alongside amisom, against islamist that still holds territory. there is a very delicate political balance as regional administrations emerge, federalism has reduced the likelihood of government political decision-making, corruption increased, and the existing institutions are either a very week or they exist in name only. there is growing fatigue within amisom and the broader international community to continue a military offensive against alshabaab when the long-term solution lies in local governance structures and law-enforcement capacity within the regional administration; amisom fatigue, necessitating a rapid shift to civilian law-enforcement and transition efforts from amisom to the sna. c o n c l u s i o n somalia has been often the victim of its geography, from the time of the colonial power to the cold war. the most contemporary regional and international powers made no attempts to prevent and moved from the cold war era to intra-federal state conflicts through a peaceful process transition: from an authoritaria the forgotten somalia: a key factor for peace and stability in the horn of africa 14 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) regime to multi-party democracy and the entrenchment of economic liberalism. somalia collapses and has been unable to successfully manage its rebuilding. to achieve peace among all somalis, regardless of creed, ethnic origin, and social status there must be a nation-building process within the etat de droit and the implementation of a constitutional democracy in which the federal states are fully supported and sustained by the central government in a joint effort to implement a new social contract. it's the application of the principle of constructivism. in this regard, nye considers that “constructivism draws on differences by which leaders, people, and culture alter their preferences, shape their identities and learn new behaviors…constructivism suggests that concept such as nations and sovereignty that give meaning to our lives as well as our theories are socially constructed not just out there but as a permanent reality.” there must be full respect for human rights and governance accountability to the citizens while ensuring socio-political stability. it is unquestionable that president farmaajo is committed to world peace and the preservation of world order engendered and sustained by a renewed domestic politics and through harmonious relations with neighbouring countries and the international community. somali’s peace process is preceding building blocks and addressing the root causes of the social conflict being political, economic or social including the challenges of any incoming factor either through a political resolution including the existence of non-state actors. non-state actors formed in the absence of state security actors have been left behind to radicalize because of their exclusion from the political process and the socio-economic development. kizito sabala, aisha ahmad & edwin rutto agree that post conflict, peace building is a multidimensional process of complex and social, economic, military and political recovery in countries emerging out of conflict or civil war. peacebuilding involves engaging various stakeholders; including sub-and para-state militias in order to resolve ongoing disputes between the warring factions. moreover, peacebuilding includes a variety of social recovery aspects, which target both civilians and militiamen in seek reconciliation between the victims and the aggressors. somali’s governance shall represent and legitimize the constitution and widely respond to the voter’s demand. as federalism continues to develop in somalia, the role and significance of regional administrations continue to grow, especially in relation to security and defense. their capacity to deliver services to citizens within the rule of law is essential to stabilize the country and address criminality, including piracy and other forms of transnational and organised maritime crime. this capacity needs to begin from the governance structures of the regional administrations and be translated into an institutional capacity for local law-enforcement agencies. security for the population is provided and sustained in local communities through the efforts of local law enforcement. the federal government in mogadishu has to create the conditions and frameworks for this to happen. the increasing importance of regional administrations (federal member states) is crucial. somali’s government shall continue its commitment to establish unified, capable, accountable, and right based somali federal institutions, which could provide basic safety and security for its citizens and accountable and sustainable financial institutions. it shall create a more secure, safe and accountable somalia able to maintain peace within its borders and with its neighbors and restoring and maintaining internal security. the somali’s government shall protect its civilians, with special attention to securing the rights of women, youth, and children increasing equitable access to justice and contributing to the implementation of the rule of law, applying human rights standards and adhering to international humanitarian law. in this process, social cohesion is the key intervening variable between social capital and social conflict. strong social cohesion reduces the risk of social disorganization, fragmentation, and exclusion that may lead to aggression and violence (genge 2001:23). most disturbing, however, is the very real possibility that somalia’s fragile security progress could be undone by mismanagement of the political situation. violent extremism and terrorism pose a threat, both within somalia and to the wider region, as witnessed by attacks in kenya and uganda. gulf influence on somali and horn politics has grown and is likely to continue to grow as wider regional dynamics involving other key partners such as turkey, ethiopia and recently egypt play out in somalia. igad and the member states in the horn of africa, legitimized by the au convention on the prevention of terrorism should address terrorism regionally and in a comprehensive manner. simonetta silvestri 15 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) references gardner, j. & el bushra, j. 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(2008). enabling local owneship : participation and capacity building in ssr. local ownership and security sector reform, geneva centre for the democratic control of armed forces (dcaf). transaction publishers, rutgers university, nj, usa. peter l. (2008). peace studies. in paul d. williams (ed.), security studies: an introduction (pp. 73-89). new york: routledge. sabala, k., ahmad, a. & rutto, e. (2008). the somali peace process from arta to eldoret to mbagathi opportunities & challenges edit by james curry in the resolution of african conflicts: the management of conflict resolution & post conflict reconstruction. unisa press, pretoria, sa & athens, ohio, usa. saub, e. (1989). the roots of evil. the origin of genocide and groups violance. new york, cambridge university press. seregelding i. (1996). sustainability as opportunity, and the problem of social capital’. the brown journal of world affairs 3 (2): 187-203. world bank report. (2018). the world bank in somalia’ wb. the forgotten somalia: a key factor for peace and stability in the horn of africa 16 | epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 12, no. 1, (2019) introduction epiphany: vol. 4, no. 1, 2011 issn 1840-3719 media as a vaccine against critical thinking lejla panjeta * abstract human communication is of a persuasive character, since the perspective to determine the difference between fact and opinion differ according to sociological and cultural backgrounds. media sets the ground for building stereotypes by imposing the ideas to the recipients. it makes media a tool for persuasive communication thus producing the effects of what a vaccine injection might do to a human body. as language is one of the most used tools in media, this stealthy persuasion operates on a subtle “antigens” infiltrated in the context of the media text. “mind vaccinating” recipients by media eventually can lead to stereotyped perceptions and produce prejudice. in this metaphor vaccine antigens offer a persuasive perspective on reality immune to other perspectives but that one that is imposed by media. if a recipient in the communication process understands the threat then the persuasive effects are lessened as is explained in inoculation theory. if the threat is candy wrapped in media content, as is done so by the demand of market and recipients themselves (and imposed by politics and corporation interest), then the threat is no longer understood as a threat by the recipient. the immune system is vaccinated and protected from the disease of free thinking. the disease represents a reality that is not shape shifted by someone else. shape shifted reality is distributed through the vaccines. media being the vaccine makes it a powerful tool in the persuasive strategy for shape shifting the reality based on framed and reframed facts and opinions of the majority in democratized media. media is consciously or unconsciously shape shifting the reality, which makes it a tool of persuasion. keywords: media, propaganda, persuasion, vaccine and shape shifting realty * corresponding author: lejla panjeta; faculty of arts and social sciences, international university of sarajevo, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: panjeta.lejla@bih.net.ba; lpanjeta@ius.edu.ba mailto:panjeta.lejla@bih.net.ba mailto:lpanjeta@ius.edu.ba l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [2] introduction this article will evaluate inoculation theory (mcguire, 1961) according to which human communication and the ability to critically think can be manipulated with the metaphor of the media as the human mind vaccine. the main argument is that the media is a vaccine for the human mind and it contradicts the original inoculation theory that presents the human brain as capable of fighting propaganda. if the content is not clearly of a persuasive character, it will have contradictory effects. the character of media as a conveyer of messages generates consciously or unconsciously a “shape shifting” of the reality, thus influencing the presented truth, which therefore makes it a tool of persuasion. human communication is intended to be persuasive. the perspective to determine the difference between fact and opinion differs according to sociological and cultural backgrounds. media sets the ground for building stereotypes by imposing ideas on the consumers. so, media as a tool for persuasive communication can produce the same effect as that of a vaccine on a human body. this persuasion operates subtly as “antigens” infiltrate the media. “mind vaccinating” consumers by media can eventually lead to stereotyped perceptions and produce prejudice. in this metaphor, vaccine antigens are viewed as a persuasive perspective on reality, immune to other perspectives but that one which is imposed by the media. if a consumer in the communication process understands the threat, then the persuasive effects are lessened as is explained by inoculation theory. but if the threat is “candy wrapped” in media content, as is done so by the demand of market and consumers themselves (and imposed by politics and/or corporate interests), then the threat is no longer understood by the consumer. the constant repetition of the content, as one kind of propaganda makes the immune system of our critical thinking vaccinated by media and protected from the “disease of free thinking”. the disease in this metaphor represents a reality that is not shape shifted or created by someone else. media as the vaccine is a powerful tool in the persuasive strategy for shape shifting the reality based on framed and reframed facts and opinions of the majority in democratized media. shape shifted l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [3] reality is distributed through the corporate media vaccines, according to their current position of interest. the article poses the following questions as a starting point for the discussion: what are the methods and media of propaganda? is every type of media persuasive by nature, because human communication is persuasive by nature? is media creating perceptions that are definitive? if so, does it shape shift the reality, vaccinating our mind and producing an immune system based on current or dominant perspective that originates in the interest of the power owners (government and/or corporations)? defining the use of the term propaganda and media propaganda is persuasive. we expect mass and new media communication to be unbiased as they depend on deontology codes that try to discard the persuasive elements in the communication process (tucaković, 2004, 263). while propaganda is dependent on this type of communication, the persuasive methods and elements are often not immediately detectible in mass media. human communication in general is of a persuasive character, since the perspective to determine fact and opinion differ according to sociological and cultural backgrounds. this background is mostly stereotyped by the perception acquired in early childhood and further through the education systems. media creates the environment for building stereotypes by imposing the ideas on the consumers. media becomes a free tool for persuasive communication thus producing the effects of a classical propaganda process. this paper will find the corresponding elements in the process of injecting a vaccine into a human body to be comparative to the effects of the media influences on the human mind. media is the primary tool for propaganda. the name media originates from the latin language. medijus means middle, mediator, interpreter, mean, message transit (enciklopedija leksikografskog zavoda, 1969; klaić, 1978; webster's concise interactive encyclopedia, 1995). the basic classification of media is audio, print and visual. categorized according to the methods of dissemination propaganda (spahić, 1990) it can be: interpersonal (face to face communication); audiovisual (movie, l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [4] tv); audio (megaphone, radio); visual (posters, animations, pamphlets, brochures and similar); or thematic (combined media according to the previously determined themes for the coverage of the consumers workshops, seminars, summits, congresses, rallies, public campaigns and similar). the device for ruling in ancient greece and rome was the speech (taylor, 2003). the most successful propaganda effects are achieved by multimedia. a person remembers 40% of what he/she hears and 80% of what he/she sees. by combining five or more types of media the propaganda effect reaches 86% while the combination of three media only creates a 64% effect while the use of only one type of media only creates an effect of 35% (spahić, 1990). clearly the most efficient propaganda method is through combined audio-visual media. there are also many classifications for methods and means for persuasiveness. one of the most universal classification models of propaganda methods and the one that can be used for all kinds of propaganda (economic, political, and religious) is the classification made in 1937 by the institute for propaganda analysis – ip (delwiche, 2002). these methods were created to promote critical thought in democratic and civil societies and are used as the basis for all propaganda analysis, methods and activities. the ipa devices have been criticized because of over-simplification and because several categories can be included into the same method but also because they do not consider the differences between and among the various kinds of consumers, such as public and masses. this concern was appropriate for traditional media and mass media concepts of communication. however, in the 1980s, media studies created a term for media that evolved to include human and digital technologies, personalized computers, multimedia contents and forms, interactivity, internet and real time (live) participation in the processes of communication. with these tools new media provided democratization and active participation, making the creators also be at the receiving end of communication (consumers), and vice versa. most theoreticians of new media such as shapiro (1999) suggest that the control of information will be radically changed in favor of participants making communication open to everyone. this understanding of the l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [5] notion of new media will be used in this article to describe the phenomenon that has the above mentioned characteristics. by removing the mass media restrictions of time delay and subordination of the participants in the communication process, ipa methods remain efficient guidelines because everyone with access to the technology is both a consumer and a creator of communication. this means that everyone creates media and, due to the concept of “democratization,” the content of that media is determined by the majority. what is the majority’s perspective of reality? how much are notions and events influenced by stereotypes and spread again to the majority of participants and to those who are not in the majority (decision makers in the shaping of reality)? what does that do to our perceptions if they are formed and influenced by the media that makes the reality? concepts of freedom, democracy and non-control interesting youtube research conducted by alexandra juhasz (2011) done as a video-book, states that high expectations were set for new media considering the fact that they are not democratic. therefore juhasz & dietrich (2011) claim that youtube is not democratic. its architecture supports the popular. critical and original expression is easily lost to or censored by its busy users, who not only make youtube's content but sift and rate it, all the while generating its business… free and easy to get on, the mob-rule system by which you get pulled off youtube is user-initiated but corporate-ruled. (http://vectors.usc.edu/projects/learningfromyoutube/texte o.php?composite=159&tour=18, retrieved 20/02/11) by constant communication, how does one separate the propaganda information from truthful data? does the line between the two exist or is it blurred? if participants in new media are not aware that they are being manipulated, then the content and method of new media is persuasive and not democratic. the work of alexander r. galloway (2006) unveils the myth about the free and open new media by analyzing the http://vectors.usc.edu/projects/learningfromyoutube/texteo.php?composite=159&tour=18 http://vectors.usc.edu/projects/learningfromyoutube/texteo.php?composite=159&tour=18 l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [6] engineering behind the network protocols. it offers evidence on how the online media is more controlling than classical media and how it is even designed for surveillance. the postmodern “logic of selection” (manovich, 2001, 129-34) explains that users (media participants) have “photoshop power” previously reserved only for producers of entertainment, art and visual media. the same photoshop shaping of reality is used by those in control of new media, according to their logic of selection of information which is based on cultural and political background, which is nowadays shaped by visual or multimedia content presented in new media, corporate-owned tv and online media. inoculation theory one of the theories that addresses the persuasion psychology and an automatic response from the receiver of the information is inoculation theory (mcguire, 1961), which argues that the effect of the propaganda is less if the recipient of the communication is previously warned about the threat. inoculation theory gave insights into the process of persuasion psychology by using an analogy with medical inoculation. inoculation theory states that to prevent persuasion it is necessary to strengthen preexisting attitudes, beliefs, or opinions. first, the receiver must be warned of an impending attack. this establishes threat (or recognition of vulnerability) and initiates defenses to future attacks. therefore, the idea is that when weak argument is presented in the inoculation message, the process of refutation will prepare the receiver for stronger persuasion later. it is critical that the attack is strong enough to keep the receiver defensive, but weak enough to not actually change those preexisting ideas. this will hopefully make the receiver actively defensive and allow them to create arguments in favor of their preexisting thoughts. the more active the receiver becomes in his or her defense the more it will strengthen their own attitudes, beliefs, or opinions (see mcguire, 1961). if a body is exposed to weakened viruses that are strong enough to produce antibodies, but not strong enough to destroy the body, it will create a new immune system, with new information codes that will protect the body from the deadly virus. used in communication studies l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [7] and sociology, this theory relies on the resistant behavior of the receiver to the persuasive messages if information is received beforehand. supplying information in advance will trigger counter arguing which leads to resistance to the persuasive messages. according to inoculation theory, to prevent persuasion, it is necessary to strengthen preexisting beliefs and / or opinions. the receiver must be warned against the oncoming communication content. this establishes that there is a threat and initiates defenses to the attacks. the most vulnerable in mcguire’s theory are those who are neither critical nor capable of understanding the persuader’s intentions (simons, morreale, & gronbeck, 2001, 42). the “bewildered herd” (lippmann, 1922) needs guidelines, especially in any situation where creators are active participants in communication. therefore media is a tool for reframing the opinion of the majority and shaping the reality. but the consumers today are not warned of these threats and, in fact, media content is packed in such a clever ways so the difference between information and persuasion (facts and opinions) is very difficult to discern. if human communication is under the influence of emotion or a part of it is connected to the emotional sphere of human psychology, then the perceiver makes the connotations of the meaning according to his or her emotional perspective since “communicators are not entirely in control of the effects they produce” (simons, et al., 2001, 67). perceptions differ and individual perceptions depend on language and human senses that enable the framing and reframing of reality (mcdermott & jago, 2004, 22). neuro-linguistic programming theory states that the human brain is constantly working on naming reality and framing it according to the knowledge, information, experience, opinions and beliefs that the receiver has already been exposed to. the reality is therefore shaped by the creators and receivers in the communication process because “message consumers are co-creators of the meaning” (simons, et al., 2001, 68). this means that all the participants are framing and reframing meaning, but the initial frame for the meaning is given in advance by the creators of communication. is media such a creator? does media generate the immune system that will be the platform for all the framing and reframing of reality? if media is l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [8] operating on the framed reality then it does the same as the antigen does in the vaccine. mcguire argued that inoculation theory can be defined as a vaccine against propaganda. how does a participant in communication detect the threat of propaganda? what if a threat is a “candy protected” kind of content and the inoculation cannot work to protect the receiver from the propaganda message? or it can work for vaccinating the beliefs for the purposes of those controlling the communication processes. can the media be a tool for vaccination of the population and creator of an immune system according to the interests and framed reality of those infiltrating the vaccine to the system? if so, the role of media is not a “light persuasion”, but stealthy propaganda injected into the framed reality. vaccine shaped immunity – “shape-shifting” the reality the metaphor suggested in this article emerges from the comparison of the techniques media and process of vaccination against disease. media consumers are subjected to shape shifted reality made that way by the media’s (or the transmitter of the message) perspective. vaccinating our mind by perspectives that are based on politics or economics (corporate interests) media makes us immune to our own perceptions and discoveries of reality. as new media is by principle democratic (shapiro, 1999), the majority’s point of view becomes the dominant perception. using the propaganda repetition model (spahić, 1990), the dominant perception is imprinted in our minds (as is the antigen in the vaccine), thus making the media operate as a tool for vaccination while producing shape shifted reality that is immune to the perspectives of and by the other. shape shifting reality by media is mostly done by using language as a tool. media can demonize or glorify the subject presented within that media and, by blurring the difference between the fact and the opinion, media becomes a tool of propaganda (greenwald, 2004). demonization and/or glorification are ways of organizing the human experience according to neuro-linguistic programming theory (mcdermott, 2004), so these methods are the proof of persuasiveness in human l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [9] communication. the comparative propaganda tools are described in ipa methods (see table 1). these methods are describing major techniques used in political and marketing campaigns, for the purposes of propaganda. the notions of good and evil stereotypes and censorship are usually misinterpreted for propaganda itself. the analysis of propaganda generates the relationship to censorship, which is one propaganda technique. the use of the term “propaganda” became a stereotyped notion for “censorship” imposed through the american movie stereotype. this connotation evokes the communist or nazi censorship boards and editors sitting in dark rooms full of cigarette smoke and giving approval for some texts or tearing up unfavorable scenarios. the censorship used in mass media is much more subtle; interference into the ideological concept of the author's work (artistic or journalistic) can come from the author himself (author's censorship) according to the interest of the tool they use to disseminate the information. in the era of new media and internet, everyone is participating and creating communication. this means that everyone is subject to media influence. politics and corporate business as “hidden persuaders” (packard, 2007) are places of power and influence which makes them shift the perception of everyone else included in the communication process. ipa methods (delwiche, 2002) rely on the simple process of naming the reality and/or creating the perception of reality and perspectives on the notion or process that is subjected to this tool. they are based on shaping the opinions and use the tribal consensus as an easy access for accepting the shaped reality. propaganda methods emerge out of the basic mythological archetypes of enemy and savior. good and evil are designed for the consumers of propaganda communication in the same manner as in the mythological world of cartoons, fables and fairy tales. the membership in the majority pool is as old as tribal philosophy. being part of the group makes the perceiver automatically connected to the good side of the perception. anything that differs is assumed to attack the tribe and thus makes it evil. these are elemental forces behind the psychology of archetypes (jung, 1977). the dualism of positive and negative shifts the l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [10] reality for persuasive purposes and uses the device for the transfer of messages, which occurs in any modern media. an nlp process states that the human brain simplifies the information by deleting, generalizing and distorting it in order to logically process the new data (mcdermott & jago, 2004, 69). in the propaganda process, the reality must be shape shifted. tools for this are demonization, glorification and exclusion. the notion of propaganda (lat. pro, pax, agare – for peace spreading) is a good example of the method of demonization. repetition of the negative connotation to this notion combined with movie representation of the image of dictators in front of microphones speaking to crowds of military, and dimmed lighting with smoke filled rooms full of conspirators, makes a stereotyped negative connotation of propaganda as fascist and communist or any other brutal method of oppression. naming or denominating the reality by glorifying and demonizing is persuasive by nature of human communication and if done by a mediator can have the same effect as a vaccine substance has to a human body. the arguments here employ a metaphor based on the relationship between vaccines and the immune system for explaining how an analogous phenomenon can be found in shape shifting the reality by media. shape shifting is the term that explains the same process as reframing used by nlp theory. a vaccine is a biological material that strengthens immunity against a particular disease. it contains an agent (antigen) that resembles a disease-causing microorganism (encyclopedia britannica; webster's concise interactive encyclopedia, 1995). it is produced by removing the infection but keeping the antigen features. this agent stimulates the human immune system to recognize the disease (in some cases a virus) as foreign, destroy it, and remember it. if the immune system later encounters the same virus it will recognize it, destroy it and discard it. a vaccine acts as the boost to the human immune system. the body that received the vaccine is protected in advance from any possible harm done by the disease itself. the material that the vaccine is made of possesses certain qualities. it should not be dangerous, should effectively protect the human body, and its distribution has to be simple and relatively cheap (see enciklopedija leksikografskog zavoda, 1969). l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [11] the vaccine for the human mind is the media. the creator of the vaccine is the journalist (an active participant in the communication or owner of the information) which makes him the manipulator of reality and consequently of the truth shaping. propaganda method of naming (denominating) the reality uses the tools of persuasion, influencing and changing. persuading factors would be injecting the vaccine into the body. influencing the perception works as formatting antigens in the human body system. as a result the perception of reality is shaped (changed) making a new immunologic system ready to respond to the attack of the virus. the virus is the perception of reality that the human body is immune to. this perception has another perspective on the same subject of reality as does the vaccine antigen material. it is difficult to fight through it and change it, as the opinion is based on the platform of created immunology system. this is the stealthy persuasion platform that any media as a transfer of the message or the mcluhan’s message itself operates on; consciously or unconsciously shape shifting the reality of the subject. creating the immune system makes it the persuasive tool. no matter how objective the vaccine or ethically and democratically conscious, it still operates on the principle of shaping the reality (reframing of an immune platform). sometimes strong side-effects and long term consequences can be proven to be poisonous (mcbean, 1957). new media, mass media and corporate media as immunity viewpoint of reality as language is one of the most frequent forms of communication in media, this stealthy persuasion operates on a subtle “antigens” infiltrated in the discourse of the media text. shaping the reality through processes of glorification and demonization was described in the propaganda terminology in silberstein's “war of the words” (silberstein, 2002). she argues that the mainstream media today are using sensationalistic terminology to produce our consent to the usurpation of privacy, civil rights and spying. the final result is that, as in dictatorships, citizens can be charged for no reason and even punished or humiliated. will this surveillance of the civil society bring us to the l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [12] dystopian worlds of lang's metropolis (1927), bradbury's fahrenheit (1953) or orwell's 1984? the state of global fear is induced and accelerated by media terminology that enables the creation of the feeling that the population is in danger and the actions of the ruling elites and states are justified. news about the enemy includes phrases and "unchecked" terminology and it functions under the principle of the card stacking device (ipa). such phrases in the news about possible terrorist attacks are as follows: alleged, believed to, not confirmed, unknown, suspects, possible, may be linked to, some people say and said to be. this terminology is used by mainstream media such as bbc and cnn news on the occasions of terrorist attacks and threats from 2002 to 2004 (silberstein, 2002). before september 11, this "unchecked" terminology was reserved only for the public relations industries as ipa testimonial device. today it is used by the "independent" and mainstream media attacking all of our senses, distorting it more through interactivity on the net and multimedia communications. do consumers even recognize the crude and unshaped reality of truth or just destroy it and discard it as our immune system is not capable of processing it? words used in media act as the biological material of antigens. they set a platform for the immune system to react to any sign of possible danger. danger is everything the human mind recognizes as a deadly virus (not formatted as an antigen) so the body is prepared to react and discard it. in the case of before mentioned antigens (naming the reality terminology), the body discards common sense and logical reasoning because the system is set to be immune to it. the antigens are carefully disseminated. they are cheap and easily acquired. the formula of stealthy persuasion by the media is not dangerous, as the real vaccine is cheap, easy to get and supposed not to be dangerous. denominating is the psychological process done individually as identified in nlp reframing-reality process (mcdermott & jago, 2004, 89). control and repression are based on the naming – generalizing of the bad and the good. if it is a strategic group framing reality it is no different than the propaganda method of brainwashing. fascism, communism, and today islamic terrorism, went through the same process l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [13] of being demonized in media. islamic terrorism is put in the same pot with islamic culture and religion, as judah and jews, who (allegedly) crucified christ, were generally accepted as traitors and enemies of christian love and peace. this is made possible because of the subtle language of fear in the media (whether media is medieval churches or news seen on the lcd at our home). figure 1 shows the method of journalism used by rupert murdoch’s corporate media (greenwald, 2004). it doesn’t separate the content from the comment. the content of news is fact. the comment is opinion based on the fact. opinion is subjective and/or fact made from a shape shifted perspective of the perceiver. the process of blurring the difference between fact and opinion is elaborated in a documentary film about fox news (greenwald, 2004). according to the linguistic propaganda terminology, the difference between integral parts of the basic journalist unit (news) is blurred. the news is created so that it is impossible to deny it because it is not fact but represents opinion. in such a way and by the repetition of the news, which in fact is not the news but the opinion (the comment) the shape shifted reality is created. the antigen is infiltrated and endlessly repeated (revaccinated) and makes the body immune to reasoning. by constant repetition the media confirms a general opinion which becomes the truth. a line from the film "all the king's men" about how the main character in the film willie stark, a political candidate for a governer came to power, illustrates the repetition method of persuasion. "if you hollered long enough, hard and loud enough people begin to believe. just in case they didn't he organized spontaneous demonstrations. in case anyone hollered back he organized spontaneous slugging." (rossen, 1949). the spontaneous consent is given as our immune system is prepared for in advance. today's media leaves us with the impression that the function of media to check and “guard the passing” does not exist anymore because it seems that there is no visible control since many programs are broadcast live and from the place of the event. media start to look like a circus, which is according to the definition an eclectic conglomerate, because in them, as it seems, everything passes and is possible. new media, as a metaphor for the world of possibility, is a circus full of l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [14] advertising and propaganda messages where only a tiny portion is reserved for the facts and truth as these two categories are conditioned upon the market demands and profit. the audience demand exciting and adrenaline provoking content (see darley, 2000). the result is that the news now more closely resembles reality shows. in such sensationalistic programs (lat. sensation – passing thrill, something that has no importance) we satisfy our need for tension, aggression, fear and bloodshed. sensationalism has become the main foundation of the journalistic profession. earlier, the members of this profession tried to work within the framework of defined standards. today in the internet era, people care less for credibility. all values are subordinate to the sensational values and to the concept of making profit (redfield, 1995). in "utopia of a tired man" (borges, 2000, 102-113) there is a philosophical review of our media reality and the humans in the future within the context of journalistic sensation and advertising industry. the consequence of this journalism is the loss of basic norms of truth and instead there is a victory and celebration of what is only peripheral and persuasive. so it is in fact welcoming to have media shape our immune system into whatever antigens are of interest to those who are offering it. haag (1996) claims that the “media becomes biased because those who dominate with them have mutual origin and experience and so the unique viewpoint” (p. 134). therefore, media ultimately is a tool of propaganda as it represents a defined standpoint of its own world perception. if one tries to use the argument of a remote control, saying that a consumer can make the decision and decide not to accept the shape shifted information (by changing the button on the controller) such a thing cannot be fruitful because by doing so the consumer chooses noninvolvement. one can change the channel on one's remote controller, but the one who switches off the tv does not exist for the new media society any more. making a choice not to be vaccinated in some countries is against the law and can have the effects of isolation. the same applies to the human brain vaccine. l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [15] conclusion the media gives the “illusion of discussions” (chomsky, 1989) suitable for the owners of media, the elite and conglomerate corporations in the global market of ideas to vaccinate our mind. the media as a conveyor of reality is controlling the vaccine material that makes the reality shape shift according to the current interest of corporations and politics. for instance, in the usa, fear of additional terrorist attacks produced the feeling of endangerment. this is a recipe for strategies of control and inducing hatred. for fear to be activated, human mind needs a palpable enemy, which is the emanation of the evil archetype. moral absolutism is essential to the creation of shape shifted reality in media based on archetypes. once the archetype enemy has been established, the mental immune system needs to create a fighting strategy which has to be controlled and monitored. this control in the usa is conducted in the form of the patriot act. the world is united against terrorism in the 21 st century and accepts all kinds of fights with the enemy, including the complete lack of privacy. the consumers have been prepared in advance to fight the virus and destroy it. “mind vaccinating” the population by media can eventually lead to stereotyped perceptions and produce prejudice. in doing so media is a tool of persuasion as it represents a defined standpoint of the perception and offers the re-framed reality. the rapid evolvement of new media makes the participants resemble a frog in the “boiling frog” metaphor. if a frog is dumped in boiling water it will try and escape, but if it is left in the water that is slowly being heated, the frog will not attempt an escape. the frog’s behavior is comparable to the consumers in the shape shifting reality, which makes the decision-making simple manipulative acceptance of the media’s reframed reality. as the vaccination is supposed to be given in small doses, consisting of the dead virus cells, the human body will start brewing the new system in accordance to the new antigen information it has received. the frog sits and adapts to the new circumstances, until it is too late to notice the difference between the brewing and being brewed. l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [16] a good tool in the wrong hands creates a poor result. in this comparison of media as vaccine it is proven that both vaccination processes and media ontogenesis have good intentions. in the metaphor vaccine antigens are persuasive perspective on reality and the body is human brain immune to other perspectives but that one that is imposed by media. that perspective is the vaccine material. it is given from the point of the view of the corporations and profit and / or political interest in the media around the globe today. if a recipient in the communication process with media understands the threat then the persuasion effects are lessened as is explained in the inoculation theory. but, if the threat is candy wrapped in media content, as is done so by the demand of the market and consumers themselves, then the threat is no longer understood as a threat by the consumers. the communicators are not entirely in control of the effects they produce. persuasion theories tend to rely on a psychological operation of imitation and automatism. this proves that behaviorism theories understand that all human perception and thus communication are of a persuasive character. the new media content is made of human language, which makes it a tool for persuasion expanded to everywhere and with no time limits. media vaccinates the human perception of reality in reframing the reality that is presented to the communicators. if everyo ne is a communicator, then the reality in democratized media is framed by the majority. media transfers and creates shape shifted reality. as a vaccine is given in a very early stage of human development, so does the media give clear platforms of perspective on certain subjects in reality. that’s why the majority of participants are immune or almost immune, because no vaccine guarantees a 100% disease-free response. but, generally a vaccinated human body is protected from disease (protected from reasoning and making one’s own viewpoints and conclusions about reality). in this metaphor, the disease represents a reality that is not shape shifted by someone else. as human beings are influenced by a number of factors in their cultural environment and constantly strive to reorganize the perspective of reality, media as a framer is a tool for persuasion l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [17] acting on the principle of vaccination. the media gives the codes for framing and shaping the reality in antigens that are distributed by a vaccination processes. those who really try to break through the “vaccinated” perspective have to educate themselves alternatively, break the stereotypical versions of reality that are infiltrated through the media and do significant traveling in order to experience for themselves the “disease of free thinking”. by overcoming cultural differences they get to enjoy and explore other perspectives, if their body survives the disease. there are also those who don’t survive the side effects of the vaccine infiltration, making them nonexistent in the communication process if they refuse to make their own reality and not succumb to the illusion of the remote control. remote control gives another illusion of freedom of choice. democratization in media is freedom to choose the “virus free” reality. freedom of choice is not given (freedom to create the choice), but the freedom to choose from the evolving interpretations by the media. these interpretations will eventually become facts. shape shifted reality is distributed through the vaccines. media being the vaccine makes it a powerful tool in the persuasive strategy for shape shifting the reality based on framed and reframed facts and opinions of the majority in democratized media. l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [18] list of figures figure 1. greenwald 2004. the image created by the author of the article. l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [19] list of tables no. method description and tools 1 name calling denomination shaping the notions and perceptions 2 glittering generalities glorification generalization coursing the archetypes of good 3 the device of transfer an authority or symbol who give credibility pertinence to the tribe 4 the device of the testimonial people are stating their own experiences "assure yourself as those who have already tried" 5 the device of plain folk make the cause credible by ordinary people mass of followers 6 card stacking editing information to make them fact omitting and adding 7 the band wagon device joining to the majority tribal consciousness table 1. ipa methods institute for propaganda analysis, 1937, created by the author of the article l. panjeta media as a vaccine against critical thinking epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [20] references borges, j. l. 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(1995). cd rom multimedia reference encyclopedia. attica & helicon. 119vol. 15 no.1, 2022 female academics’ role in peace-building, state-building and gender equality in bosnia and herzegovina almasa mulalić international university of sarajevo emina jelešković international university of sarajevo abstract twenty-seven years after the end of the war, bosnia and herzegovina (bih) is still considered a post-conflict state dealing with war memories, genocide, socio-political divisions, and political and socio-economic challenges like ethno-nationalism, unemployment, social inequalities, a complex education system, high levels of corruption, migration, and depopulation. the article aims to investigate the role of female academics in peace-building, state-building and gender equality in bosnia and herzegovina. for this purpose, a survey questionnaire was distributed to female academics aiming to obtain data regarding female academic’s role in the post-conflict society, how they have contributed to peace-building processes and the future of the country, the main issues and challenges they face as women in academia, their engagement in gender equality and women empowerment activities, the ways they cope with the covid-19 pandemic in their professional and private life, and their work-life balance. descriptive statistics and a thematic analysis of the participants’ responses to open-ended questions were conducted. female academics in bosnia and herzegovina hold that women play a pivotal role in post-conflict societies and that they should be actively engaged in peace-building and state-building processes. women themselves should be the leaders of positive changes and female empowerment through education and by providing support to other women. keywords: female academics; bosnia and herzegovina; higher education; gender equality; peace-building; state-building epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 120 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction “men alone cannot rebuild war-torn societies... as countries emerge from the rubble of war, women must be equal partners in rebuilding. supporting women’s participation in reconstruction means giving women access to the rooms where decisions are made.” (rehn & sirleaf, 2002, p. 134) in post-conflict countries, peace-building, state-building, and gender equality cannot be achieved through international intervention and higher authorities alone, but the society at large must play an active role, including industry and business, academia and education, faith-based communities, media, and local ngo’s (mulalić, 2014, pp. 438-448; kivimaki et al., 2012). in the past decades, many attempts have been made to adequately respond to different challenges in post-conflict societies. the role of women in such societies, even though essential, is often overlooked and neglected. it is noteworthy that “women and young people are rarely consulted during the political process of peace negotiations, yet they are often the ones who keep their communities alive emotionally and physically during the times of war” (women’s commission for refugee women and children, 1995, p. 3). women should aim to increase women’s representation in post-conflict governance, secure women’s economic, and social rights and prioritize gender equality in the security sector (true, 2013). when discussing the roles of women in peace-building, they are often referred to as caregivers and nutritionists, which, in a sense, extends their role as mothers and housewives. their role as politicians or decision makers is usually neglected. however, women can contribute to peace-building and state-building in different ways. for example, somali women in mogadishu initiated ngos which, among many other activities, organized peace education for women (jama, 1996). bouta and frerks (2002) wrote extensively on women and their engagement in conflict situations and in working towards peace and stability in their societies. they especially pointed out mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 121 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 that the situation in which women can act “has been identified as a unique opportunity by many women living in conflict situations to become organized at all levels of society, particularly in the non-governmental sector, which in various countries did not even exist before the conflict” (p. 32). women contribute to the connection between individuals and society via their understanding of what is happening in their households and outside of their homes. this connection can then be used by women in their effort to contribute to and achieve peace and transformation in society: “increasingly, women are realizing that, in order to change society, they must begin with the family and the community, for ‘women’s capacity to challenge the men in their families, their communities, or their political movements will be a key to remaking the world’” (enloe, as cited in ferris, 1993, p. 47). according to the united nations (1996), “women make an important but often unrecognized contribution as peace educators both in their families and in their societies.” there are many examples in which women improved their status in society after conflict. one of the examples is rwanda, in which some female entrepreneurs received rights to own land property and equal rights to inheritance. they also changed the approach to education to a great extent. more girls started to go to school and pursue higher education (berry, 2018). women must be seen in light of a positive shift from being housewives and care-givers to a more prominent role, as a source and driving force of change at different levels in society. women in the field of education can initiate dynamic developments in society, especially women in academia. however, there is a huge disparity in equal gender representations at all levels of education and particularly at the universities (macfarlane, 2012). according to howe-walsh and turnbul (2014), the number of women academicians is minikmal and there are many challenges that women encounter in their careers. several reasons are assumed for this: gender institutional cultures, formal and informal gender practices, individual factors, and caring responsibilities. the countries mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 122 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies of former yugoslavia are experiencing different trends regarding women’s roles in peace-building (sorenson, 1998). women face challenges in exercising their political rights and power. those who work at higher education institutions have a personal and collective responsibility to be educated and informed about public life so that they can equally participate in policy-making processes that are relevant for the lives of all citizens (mulalić & karić, 2020, pp. 27-42). the most promising way to increase women’s participation in decision-making processes is through democratization (aganović et al., 2015; mulalić, 2011, pp. 40-55). while some progress has been made, in bosnia and herzegovina democratization processes are still underway. the position of women in bosnia and herzegovina bosnia and herzegovina is a country in the process of a post-conflict transition. as a result of the bosnian war (1992-1995), the country today consists of two entities and the brčko district. even 27 years after the end of the war, bosnia and herzegovina remains deeply divided, not only geographically, but also through a decentralised and fragmented system of government. the latter is one of the major obstacles for the country in its aspirations to join the european union and nato. according to the 2013 census, the population of bih is around 3.5 million people, with 50.9% women and 49.1% men (agency for the statistics of bosnia and herzegovina, 2022). regarding the position of women in its society, the country has made significant progress in ensuring relevant legal frameworks to promote and protect gender equality: the country’s constitution guarantees equal rights to all its citizens and prohibits gender-based discrimination in exercising citizens’ rights and liberties, the law on gender equality was adopted in 2003, and a gender equality agency was established on state-level. however, there is an evident disconnect between the elaborate network of gender equality mechanisms at all levels of government and the real-life issues and experiences of women living in the country. mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 123 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 it is noteworthy that different international organisations, such as usaid and the osce, provide active support to gender mainstreaming processes in bih and the region. the osce mission to bih promotes gender equality in the country by organizing different activities, such as a workshop to strengthen legal provisions for women in the armed forces, workshops to support women working in police and law enforcement, training women candidates from major political parties on media skills in preparation for elections, as well as trial monitoring of cases of gender-based violence and raising awareness of gender equality in education through its work with teachers (osce 2017, 2018a). women themselves have initiated a variety of organisations in the country to promote women empowerment and gender equality, but also general values which need to be addressed in the country, such as a better education system, improved health protection, welfare and social security policies. nevertheless, women still face different forms of gender-based discriminations and issues such as unemployment, lack of adequate political representation, and family violence. regarding the unemployment rate, bih shows the lowest level of women’s participation in the labour market in the region (ministry of human rights and refugees of bih, 2018, p. 26). some of the problems women face include the following: a longer waiting period for the first job, gaps in their career due to maternity leave or care for elderly or sick family members, and an inability to return to labour marker due to old age (ministry of human rights and refugees of bih, 2018). the law on gender equality prescribes that equal representation of men and women exists when one sex is represented with at least 40% in bodies at all levels of authority in bih. however, representation of women at the state and the entity levels in bih is below 25% (agency for the statistics of bosnia and herzegovina, 2022, p. 108). on the other hand, the eu average for national parliament stands at 30.2%, while the percentage of female members of the european parliament stands at 36.1% (eprs, 2019). family violence and violence against mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 124 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies women are one of the prevalent issues in bih society. a study has shown that 47.2% of women were exposed to some form of violence during their adult life (physical, mental, sexual, or economic violence), but only 5.5% of women who were victims of violence sought support from the relevant institutions (babović et al., 2013). the position of women working in academia is particularly important, given the pivotal role of the education system for any society. especially in post-conflict countries in transition, education does not just represent an individual’s human right, but also contributes to transitional justice and reconciliation (osce, 2018b). there is a lack of research about the role of female academics in the peace-building, state-building, and gender equality. how can female academics contribute to these processes? what are the main issues women face in society and how can their position be improved? what is the role of female academics in academic institutions? how did the coivd-19 pandemic affect their lives? how do female academics maintain work-life balance? this paper investigates these issues to shed light on this important topic, using bih as a case study. in bih, female teachers are predominant at pre-school, elementary school, and secondary school levels, whereas at the university level, men make up more than half of the academic staff (agency for the statistics of bosnia and herzegovina, 2022, p. 52). on the other hand, more women than men enrol in and complete tertiary education. in 2020, 34% of women aged between 30 and 34 had a university degree, compared to 23.2% of men (pp. 50-51). methodology the methodology applied in this research is the survey method and the qualitative analysis of the participants’ responses. the survey research method is a means of gathering information through self-reporting using questionnaires or interviews. this is a non-experimental or correlation research design in which there is no manipulation of the variables. the survey method is used to describe a certain condition or to examine remulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 125 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 lationships between variables (miller, 1983). following the literature review, the authors composed a survey questionnaire. we used statistical package for social sciences (spss) for a descriptive statistics analysis of the participants’ responses. in addition, we conducted a thematic analysis of the participants’ answers to the open-ended questions (braun & clarke, 2006). their answers were perused carefully and classified under the four predefined main themes: the role of female academics at higher education institutions in bridging social divides and building peace; their opinion about the main issues women face in society; their suggestions pertaining to improvement of the position of women in the society in general; and suggestions to improve the position of women at higher education institutions in the society. the analysis of the participants’ answers resulted in different subthemes which were identified for each main theme, whereupon the subthemes were analyzed in detail and refined. the instrument of research was the survey questionnaire developed by the researchers. it consisted of three main parts. the first part of the questionnaire explored the participants’ demographic details, such as age, education background, their field of expertise, and years of work experience at higher education institutions. the second part of the survey questionnaire consisted of a series of statements which the participants rated on a 5-point likert scale. the third part of the questionnaire consisted of four open-ended questions, in which participants were asked to reflect on the role of female academics at higher education institutions in bridging social divides and building peace; to share their opinion about the main issues women face in our society; to suggest steps for improvement of the position of women in our society in general; and to suggest steps to improve the position of women at higher education institutions in our society. the survey questionnaire was distributed among female academicians working at both public and private higher education institutions in bosnia and herzegovina. a total number of 40 female academics at higher education institutions participated in the research (n=40). table 1 provides an mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 126 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies overview of the participants’ age, country of formal education, academic title, field of expertise, and years of work experience at higher education institutions. table 1: overview of the participants variable category frequency percent age in their 20s in their 30s in their 40s in their 50s and 60s 3 17 17 3 7.5 42.5 42.5 7.5 formal education completed in bih completed abroad partly in bih, partly abroad 25 2 13 62.5 5 32.5 academic title assistants senior assistants assistant professors associate professors full professors other positions 2 4 18 8 4 4 5 10 45 20 10 10 field of expertise humanities natural sciences economics, marketing and management technical sciences and architecture 15 3 16 6 37.5 7.5 40 15 work experience at higher education institutions up to 10 years between 10 and 20 years 20 years and above 11 24 5 27.5 60 12.5 the average age of the participants is 39, with the youngest participant aged 23 and the oldest aged 60. in total, 7.5% of the participants were in their 20s, 42.5% were in their 30s and another 42.5% were in their 40s, while 7.5% were in their 50s and 60s. regarding the participants’ education background, 62.5% of them completed their education in bih, 5% completed their education abroad, while 32.5% completed their education partially in bih and partially abroad. as for the participants’ academic titles, they were assistants (5%), senior assistants (10%), assistant professors (45%), associate professors (20%), full professors (10%) and other positions in higher education institutions (such as methodologists, research assistants, experts in practice, etc.) (10%). most of the participants were appointed to assistant professor positions. the participants were academimulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 127 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 cians from different scientific fields: humanities (37.5%), natural sciences (7.5%), economics, marketing, and management (40%), technical sciences, and architecture (15%). the academicians from the field of humanities were experts in language, education, linguistics, psychology, law, history, and civilization. the academicians from the field of natural sciences were experts in the field of genetics and bioengineering, biochemistry and microbiology, and food science. most of the academicians were from the field of economics, marketing, and management (40%). the academicians from the field of technical sciences and architecture were experts in electrical engineering, mathematics, and architecture (15%). concerning the participants’ work experience at higher education institutions, 27.5% had up to 10 years of work experience, 60% had between 10 and 20 years, while 12.5% had 20 years of work experience and above. data presentation and analysis the second part of the survey questionnaire consisted of a series of statements which the participants rated on a 5-point likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), neutral (3), agree (4) and strongly agree (5). the statements were related to the following subtopics: the role of female academics in the post-conflict society and the ways in which they can contribute to peace-building processes; their vision of the future of the country; the main issues and challenges they face as women in academia; their engagement in gender equality and women empowerment activities; the ways they cope with the covid-19 pandemic in their professional and private life; and their work-life balance. the descriptive statistics of the results present mean values of each subtopic as a variable subsuming the individual items of the questionnaire, and mean values of the individual statements comprising the subtopics, whereby the central tendency of the answers was established. we also provided median values and standard deviation values for a better insight into the variability of the dataset. when observed as single variables, the subtopics and their means provide mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 128 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies an overview of the women’s perception of their role in the post-conflict society and contribution to peace-building processes, the view of the future of their country, of women’s position at higher education institutions, any mobbing or harassment experiences, their activities in promoting gender equality, the way they cope with the covid-19 pandemic, and their work-life balance (table 2). they neither agreed nor disagreed with the statements related to their role in the post-conflict society and contributing to peace-building processes (m=2.99). the participants agreed with the statements related to positive views of the future of their country (m=3.69). they also agreed with the statement related to the position of women at higher education institutions in bih as being equal with their male colleagues (m=3.89). the participants disagreed with the statements related to experiencing mobbing and harassment at workplace (m=2.39), with the standard deviation value at 1.26 for this item. they were neutral related to the statements about their activities in promoting gender equality (m=3.01). on the other hand, they agreed with the statements expressing worries about the covid-19 pandemic (m=3.65) and their management of their work-life balance (m=3.46). table 2 provides the list of items in this subtopic. table 2: main subtopics of the questionnaire main subtopics n mean median std. deviation the role in the post-conflict society and contributing to peace-building processes 40 2.99 3.00 0.92 the view of the future of the country 40 3.69 3.83 0.91 position of women at higher education institutions in bih 40 3.89 4.20 0.90 mobbing and harassment 40 2.39 2.25 1.26 activities in promoting gender equality 40 3.01 3.13 0.87 coping with the covid 19 pandemic 40 3.65 3.80 0.74 work-life balance 40 3.46 3.50 0.69 mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 129 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 with regard to the role of women in the post-conflict society and their contribution to peace-building processes (table 3), the participants agreed with the statement pertaining to discussing issues related to peace-building and conflict resolution in the post-war society with their colleagues, friends and family members (m=4.15). however, they were neutral regarding participating in activities related to conflict resolution in our society (m=3.02). also, women academicians are neutral relative to the statement that they discuss issues related to peace-building and conflict resolution in the postwar society with their students (m=3.25). with regard to the statements pertaining to their attending and participating in conferences related to post-conflict peace-building, the participants disagreed with the statements (m=2.42; m=2.07). it is noteworthy that the standard deviation values are above 1.0 for each of these items. table 3 provides the list of items in this subtopic. table 3: role in the post-conflict society and contributing to peace-building processes n minimum (1=strongly disagree) maximum (5=strongly agree) mean median std. deviation i participate in activities related to conflict resolution in our society. 40 1.00 5.00 3.02 3.00 1.17 i discuss issues related to peace-building and conflict resolution in post-war society with my students. 40 1.00 5.00 3.25 3.50 1.32 i discuss issues related to peace-building and conflict resolution in the post-war society with my colleagues, friends and family members. 40 1.00 5.00 4.15 4.00 1.10 i attend conferences related to post-conflict peace-building. 40 1.00 5.00 2.42 2.00 1.34 i present papers at conferences related to post-conflict peace-building. 40 1.00 5.00 2.07 2.00 1.25 as for the participants’ view of the future of the country (table 4), their answers reveal their optimism related to the items of this subtopic. the mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 130 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies participants strongly agreed that the future of bosnia and herzegovina is in the eu (m=4.27). also, they agreed that they see the country as an equal partner of the other countries in the region (m=3.92) and as competing with other countries in the region with its economy (m=3.67). they agreed with the statements that they see their country in the future with a leading role in post-conflict peace-building (m=3.52), and that the country would provide equal opportunities to men and women (m=3.47). the participants were neutral regarding the statement that their country would respond successfully to challenges of social inequality in the future (m=3.27). the standard deviation values are above 1.0 for each of these items except for the first item related to the future of the country as the eu member. table 4 provides the list of items in this subtopic. table 4: view of the future of the country n minimum (1=strongly disagree) maximum (5=strongly agree) mean median std. deviation i see my country in the future as a member of the eu. 40 2.00 5.00 4.27 4.00 0.85 i see my country in the future as an equal partner of other countries in the region. 40 1.00 5.00 3.92 4.00 1.19 i see my country in the future competing with other countries in the region with its economy. 40 1.00 5.00 3.67 4.00 1.29 i see my country in the future with the leading role in post-conflict peace-building. 40 1.00 5.00 3.52 4.00 1.22 i see my country in the future responding successfully to challenges of social inequality. 40 1.00 5.00 3.27 3.00 1.22 i see my country in the future providing equal opportunities to men and women. 40 1.00 5.00 3.47 4.00 1.15 as far as the position of women at higher education institutions in bosnia and herzegovina is concerned (table 5), the participants agreed that women are treated well at higher education institutions in the country (m=3.65). mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 131 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 they also agreed that they have the same promotion opportunities as their male colleagues (m=3.87) and the same salary as their male colleagues in the same position (m=4.00). women academicians agreed that they publish articles with male colleagues as co-authors (m=3.95) and that the articles they submit for publication in journals are frequently accepted by their male colleagues (m=3.95). regarding the topic of sexual harassment and mobbing at workplace, the participants disagreed with the statements that they experienced at least one form of sexual harassment at work (m=2.35) and that they were victims of mobbing at their workplace (m=2.42). the standard deviation values are above 1.0 for each of these items. table 5 provides the list of items in this subtopic. table 5: position of women at higher education institutions in bih n minimum (1=strongly disagree) maximum (5=strongly agree) mean median std. deviation women are treated well at higher education institutions in our country. 40 1.00 5.00 3.65 4.00 1.25 i have the same promotion opportunities as my male colleagues. 40 1.00 5.00 3.87 4.00 1.22 i publish articles with male colleagues as co-authors. 40 1.00 5.00 3.95 5.00 1.34 my salary is the same as the salary of male colleagues in the same position. 40 1.00 5.00 4.00 5.00 1.36 articles i submit for publication in journals are frequently accepted by my male colleagues. 40 1.00 5.00 3.95 4.00 1.06 i have experienced at least one form of sexual harassment at work. 40 1.00 5.00 2.35 2.00 1.55 i was a victim of mobbing at my workplace. 40 1.00 5.00 2.42 2.00 1.52 regarding their activities in promoting gender equality (table 6), the participants were neutral relative to the statements that they have been enmulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 132 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies gaged in activities that promote gender equality (m=2.82) and women empowerment in their country and society (m=2.97). they strongly agreed with the statement that women should be more actively involved in politics in their country (m=4.27). however, they disagreed with the statement that they would like to be more involved in politics (m=1.95). the standard deviation values are above 1.0 for each of these items. table 6 provides the list of items in this subtopic. table 6: activities in promoting gender equality n minimum (1=strongly disagree) maximum (5=strongly agree) mean median std. deviation i have been engaged in activities that promote gender equality in our country. 40 1.00 5.00 2.82 3.00 1.34 i have been engaged in activities that promote women’s empowerment in our society. 40 1.00 5.00 2.97 3.00 1.39 women should be more actively involved in politics in our country. 40 1.00 5.00 4.27 5.00 1.04 i would like to be more involved in politics. 40 1.00 5.00 1.95 2.00 1.13 as far as coping with the covid-19 pandemic is concerned (table 7), female academics agreed with the statement that they are worried about the covid-19 pandemic (m=4.17), while they strongly agreed with the statement that they are worried about the threat the covid-19 pandemic poses to their families (m=4.40). the participants were neutral about the statement that they are worried about the threat the covid-19 pandemic poses to their careers (m=3.25). on the other hand, they strongly agreed with the statement that they are worried about the threat the covid-19 pandemic poses to the economy of their country (m=4.57). finally, the participants disagreed with the statement that they are satisfied with the way authorities in their country deal with the covid-19 pandemic (m=1.85). the standard deviation values are above 1.0 for some of these items. table 7 provides the list of items in this subtopic. mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 133 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 table 7: coping with the covid-19 pandemic n minimum (1=strongly disagree) maximum (5=strongly agree) mean median std. deviation i am worried about the covid-19 pandemic. 40 1.00 5.00 4.17 4.00 1.08 i am worried about the threat the covid-19 pandemic poses to my family. 40 1.00 5.00 4.40 5.00 0.98 i am worried about the threat the covid-19 pandemic poses to my career. 40 1.00 5.00 3.25 4.00 1.43 i am worried about the threat the covid-19 pandemic poses to the economy of my country. 40 1.00 5.00 4.57 5.00 0.96 i am satisfied with the way authorities in my country deal with the covid-19 pandemic. 40 1.00 5.00 1.85 2.00 1.03 the final subtopic in this part of the questionnaire investigated the participants’ stance on work-life balance (table 8). they agreed with the statement that they successfully balance their private and professional life (m=3.57). the participants strongly agreed that they have the complete support of their husbands or families in the development of their careers (m=4.30). they were neutral about the statement that they feel guilty for not spending more time with their family (m=3.32). the participants disagreed with the statements that they feel guilty for not allocating more time to their professional obligations (m=2.50). they were neutral about the statement that it is more difficult for women to work at higher education institutions than for men (m=3.32), with the standard deviation value at 1.65 for this item. on the other hand, women academicians agreed with the statement that women are expected to do all the housework in their country (m=3.72). the standard deviation values are above 1.0 for each of these items. table 8 provides the list of items in this subtopic. mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 134 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies table 8: work-life balance n minimum (1=strongly disagree) maximum (5=strongly agree) mean median std. deviation i successfully balance my private and professional life. 40 1.00 5.00 3.57 4.00 1.13 i have the complete support of my husband / family in the development of my career. 40 1.00 5.00 4.30 5.00 1.16 i feel guilty for not spending more time with my family. 40 1.00 5.00 3.32 3.50 1.44 i feel guilty for not allocating more time to my professional obligations. 40 1.00 5.00 2.50 2.00 1.38 it is more difficult for women to work at higher education institutions than for men. 40 1.00 5.00 3.32 4.00 1.65 in my country, women are expected to do all the housework. 40 1.00 5.00 3.72 4.00 1.26 the final part of the questionnaire consisted of four open-ended questions related to the role of female academics at higher education institutions in bridging social divides and building peace; their opinion about the main issues women face in their society; their suggestions pertaining to the improvement of the position of women in their society in general; and suggestions to improve the position of women at higher education institutions in their society. regarding the role of female academics at higher education institutions in bridging social divides and building peace, the total number of 35 participants, 87.5%, answered this question (n=35). their answers can be classified into the following categories (table 9): the role of women academicians is important; the role of women academicians is not any different mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 135 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 from the role of men academicians or people in general; no opinion or no time to have an opinion about it; their role is limited and insignificant; their role is negative. table 9: the view of the role of female academics frequency percent the role of female academics is important. 24 60 the role of women academicians is not any different from the role of men academics or people in general. 5 12.5 no opinion or no time to have an opinion about it. 3 7.5 their role is limited and insignificant. 2 5 their role is negative. 1 2.5 no answer provided. 5 12.5 a total of 60% of the participants noted that the role of women academicians in bridging social divides and building peace is important. the following aspects of their roles have been noted: (i) female academics as initiators of positive changes in society with their activities in education and communication; (ii) female academics as representatives of their ethnic group in the inter-ethnic dialogues, as representatives of their country and as role models to young generations. regarding their role as initiators of positive changes in society, they primarily have the role of educators of young generations. they encourage continuous education of their students, promote peace, living together and the main values of our society. women academicians can build peace by treating all their students with equal respect, and all the people they work with who are of different ethnicities. in addition, they should initiate discussions about the topics which are not discussed enough, and which may contribute to peace-building among different ethnic groups. they may also develop multiculturalism in their students. in addition, they have a responsibility to ensure more rights for women and improvement of their position, especially given the fact that the county went through aggression and genocide. the state institutions should also be involved, but, unfortunately, it is not the case. there is a general mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 136 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies lack of activities aimed at bridging social divides between people of the country. female academics are involved in different activities, such as lectures, conferences, publishing articles in the area of social psychology, and discussing stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination. also, they partake in projects, such as education for peace, conflicts in society, student council in bih, project classes, creative workshops, lifelong learning activities, etc. they promote professionalism, stability, and equality in all aspects of life. women are often much more successful in negotiation processes. the second important aspect of their role that was emphasized by the female academics is the fact that they are representatives of their ethnic group in the inter-ethnic dialogues in the country. women have an important role in bridging social divides in any society, including bih. they are also representatives of their country to the outside world, given their participation in networking activities, academic exchange programs and research cooperation and projects with academicians from the region and beyond. this is important for the motivation of their children and daughters especially. they provide opportunities to others to cooperate with women and to inform them about their opinions on a variety of topics. they represent multicultural society and pluralism. they have an important role primarily because they are role models for young generations of girls and they pave the path for them. they need to set an example for the next generations with their knowledge, success, and behaviour. they set an example to everybody and fight against stereotypes related to social divides by communicating with others, promoting peace, and informing the public about relevant topics. their voice is respected, whereby their support to other women is crucial. the participants highlighted the fact that the role of female academics is important in society. some participants noted that the role of women in peace-building processes is as important as the role of all other academics who work at higher education institutions, but also the role of all people in general. on the other hand, some participants noted that they do not have an opinion of this topic or have no time to contemplate or engage in mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 137 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 peace-building due to work and family obligations. two participants underlined that the role of female academics is very limited. one participant noted that women in general do not contribute to peace-building, but rather deepen conflicts, adding that this was the case throughout history too. in their answers to the second open-ended question, the total number of 39 participants (97.5%) provided detailed answers and listed the main issues women face in society. these may be classified in the following categories: (i) predominant traditional view that women should stay at home and take care of the family and the household; (ii) unequal employment opportunities for men and women; (iii) gender inequality, marginalization, discrimination, misogyny and violence against women; (iv) lack of protection of mothers and poor maternity leave policy; (v) lack of educational opportunities for women; (vi) lack of understanding for women who are not mothers and who are stigmatized for that reason; (vi) the main problem for women are women themselves (noted by one participant). most participants pointed out that the main issues women face in society are traditional roles in which women are responsible for all the housework, even the women who are employed and work full time. the traditional view of women was that they should be confined to the house and in charge of raising children and maintaining family contacts. nowadays, however, many women are also providers and working full time. but the view of their household role has not changed. as a result, women play both parts and try to juggle these roles. a woman is a mother, an educator, a wife, a cook, and a cleaning lady in her own family. consequently, women become overwhelmed, whereby the entire family suffers. the second major issue women face are unequal employment opportunities for men and women. men are generally in a much better position. a woman is observed by potential employers as somebody who may want to use pregnancy leave or maternity leave in the future. personal questions put to women about their marital status or plans for future pregnancy are mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 138 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies not rare in job interviews. men have better chances to be employed, even at higher education institutions. women who are employed experience different treatment and double standards at work. they are expected to work overtime for low pay. their family obligations are disregarded. women academicians note that it is much easier for their male colleagues to be promoted, given women’s family obligations and their housework duties in addition to all their professional duties. sometimes, business arrangements are discussed and agreed upon over dinner or at a bar at night, which gives male employees an advantage, since women generally do not attend such meetings. one participant noted that women are not taken seriously, even in academia, because of the still widely held belief that they should stay at home. in society in general, there is gender inequality, marginalization, discrimination, misogyny and violence against women. women experience different forms of violence: psychological, physical, financial, and economic violence. women are marginalized at different levels of society. only a few women are included in political elites, are in the top positions in companies or in positions of power. they face many prejudices, different forms of discrimination, sexism, disrespect and humiliation. among the most common prejudices is that women cannot be as successful as men, that they should not be entrusted with important positions and that they cannot successfully balance personal and professional obligations. there are socially acceptable jokes about women, while comments about their physical appearance are not rare. women who are mothers are particularly vulnerable, due to the lack of protection by authorities and the government. inadequate and poor maternity leave policies make many young mothers leave their one-month-old babies and go back to underpaid jobs. employers discriminate against mothers, who feel stigmatized for using maternity leave or a leave when their child is ill. the participants are acutely aware of the importance of education for women, and they pointed out that one of the main issues women face is the mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 139 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 lack of educational opportunities for women in the country. the state does not provide adequate support for the education of women. some participants noted that research studies generally discuss women who have their own families, whereas none of the studies discusses women who do not have a husband or children, but who take care of their parents or their wider family. such women are marked as a failure because they do not have children, while nobody even asked them whether they could have children or not, due to an illness for example. women who are not mothers, but who are just workers, are considered unsuccessful and are stigmatized. one participant pointed out that the main issue women face are women themselves, noting that whenever women complain about someone, they are usually other women, be it a teacher, a doctor, a patient, a worker at the court, a worker or a customer at a shop, etc. if an employee experiences mobbing, for example, the mobbing is done by women. in the third open-ended question, the participants were asked what needs to be done to improve the position of women in their society. a total number of 38 participants answered the question (95%). their answers may be classified into the following categories: (i) educating women, men and young generations; (ii) changing the traditional role of women doing all the housework and ensuring better work-life balance for women; (iii) better social policies and family policies; (iv) providing women with equal opportunities as men; and (v) changing women’s perception of themselves. most participants underlined that education is pivotal in improving the position of women in particular and society in general. being pillars of society, women need to be educated, well-read, self-confident and happy in order to fulfil their role. men should be also educated about the importance of the role of women. many participants pointed out that educating young generations of boys and girls is essential for ensuring improvements in the position of women and our society. educated and confident women will be able to resist the pressures of society which are commonplace nowadays, mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 140 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies such as the pressure to “accept their destiny” and to accept other people’s decisions regarding what is best for them. they will be more likely to make their own decisions and choices, pursue management positions in different sectors, to be involved in decision-making processes and politics. the entire society needs to be educated in that regard. only then, deeply rooted stereotypes and inequalities will be eliminated. the traditional view of a woman who does the entire housework, even though she is employed full-time, should be changed. this means educating and changing men too. one participant noted that even when men are involved in chores and housework, the imposed view is that they “are helping their wives”, which is a distorted perception of women needing help to manage the household. instead, even and fair division of chores and household obligations among all family members should be reinforced. women who are employed need to have a high-quality work-life balance so that they would not feel chronic fatigue, dissatisfaction, or guilt. it is essential to have better social policies and family policies in order to ensure women empowerment and improvement of their position in society. the authorities and government have that responsibility, but also non-governmental organizations. more flexible laws may protect women who are employed full-time, enable flexible working hours and better maternity leave policies. unemployed women should be especially protected and provided with adequate welfare. institutionalized support for women is essential. their economic inequality is a major issue, and it is necessary to empower women’s economic position. women need to be provided with equal opportunities as men in terms of education, employment, involvement in politics, positions of power and authority. women are raising the next generations in each society. women’s physical and mental health is of the essence for the entire society. finally, it is necessary that women themselves change the perception of their own roles. they need to stop seeing other women as their enemies. they should mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 141 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 develop true empathy toward others, especially toward other women. also, they need to stop perceiving themselves as victims and need to take initiatives to improve their position. in the answers to the fourth open-ended question, the participants provided their suggestions for the improvement of the position of women in higher education institutions. a total number of 38 participants answered the question (95%). their answers may be classified into the following categories: (i) flexible working hours for women and better work-life balance; (ii) better promotion opportunities, research, education and training opportunities; (iii) accepting women as equal to men at higher education institutors and eliminating stereotypes and prejudices; (iv) the position of women at higher education institutions is satisfying and needs no improvements. the participants underlined that flexible working hours for women working at higher education institutions and better work-life balance would improve their position to a large extent. they should have support from their co-workers and their families, given the importance of their role for a healthy family and society. female academicians also need better promotion opportunities, research, education and training opportunities. women should occupy higher administrative positions at higher education institutions too, such as the positions of deans or rectors. continuous research, education and training opportunities are crucial for the advancement of their career. the participants noted that it is important for women to be accepted as equal to men at higher education institutors and eliminate stereotypes and prejudices towards women. in order to do that, the awareness of women’s position within a family must be changed, as well as the perception of her household duties, work-life balance and support she gets from her family members and her colleagues at work. a total number of 10 participants (25%) noted that they find the position of women at higher education institutions in bih satisfying and that there is no need for any improvements. mulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 142 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies conclusion and recommendations female academics in bosnia and herzegovina hold that women have an important role in peace-building, state-building and gender equality activities in the country. women in academia are educators of young generations of students who will build the future of the country. they promote peace, respect and reconciliation among their students, along with multiculturalism, pluralism and inter-ethnic dialogue in the country that is still marred by the war. women face many issues in society, such as the traditional view of women staying at home and taking care of the family and the household, unequal employment opportunities, gender inequality, marginalization, and violence against women. mothers face poor maternity leave policy and lack of protection by institutions, while women who are not mothers are often stigmatized. the solution for improving the position of women and the entire society is primarily the education of women, men, and young generations. it is necessary to change the perceptions of traditional roles of women doing all the housework and ensure better work-life balance for women and better social and family protection policies. above all, women need to start changing their perception of themselves. concerning women’s position in academia, it may be improved by implementing flexible working hours for women and better work-life balance, along with better promotion opportunities, research, education and training opportunities for women. stereotypes and prejudices against female academics need to be eliminated. when it comes to work-life balance, women are especially struggling to maintain a high-quality balance between their private and professional life in cultures in which women are generally expected to do all the housework. bosnia and herzegovina traditionally has such a culture, as the participants confirmed too. however, the participants in this study overall consider themselves successful in maintaining a work-life balance. they have complete support of their family members in the development of their careers. regarding the covid-19 pandemic, female academics expressed their wormulalić & jelešković female academics’ role in peace-building 143 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 ries, especially about the threat to their families and the economy of their country. on the other hand, they are hopeful and optimistic about the future of the country. future research of the role of female academics in peace-building and state-building may be expanded to include a larger sample and a variety of relevant variables, all with the aim of improving our understanding of the topic and its effects. improvements of the position of women lead to improvements of the entire country and the world. female academics reiterated the importance of education for society. education is crucial for women: they need to be provided with quality education and equal education opportunities as men at all stages of their lives. women themselves should be the leaders of positive changes, including women empowerment through education and mutual support, but also gender equality activities. inspiring young generations to challenge social stereotypes and raising their awareness of the importance of the role of women in society will ensure the country’s steady progress in the future. references aganović, a., miftari, e., & veličković, m. 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the seventeenth century is like a transition period for many countries as  several  changes  concerning  culture,  society,  and  literature  took  place.  these  changes  urged  several  nations  to  know  ‘others’  more.  england,  as  one  of  the  powerful  countries  in  that  time,  also  encountered  the  world’s  incentives  for  knowledge, economic resources and religious objectives, briefly, people travelled  for  ‘power’.  the  word  power,  which  will  be  studied  in  the  following  pages,  signifies energy, money, right and the force to  ‘move’ and ‘lead’ those who are  power‐less  in terms of politics. the english people travelled foreign  lands and  shared their knowledge by writing. in other words, the purpose of writing about  other  lands  and  recounting  one’s  experiences  of  foreign  travel  is  that  these  representations  increase  the  reader’s  knowledge  of  other  cultures  providing  useful information. in this study, the early intimations of colonialism and some  seventeenth century works which can be regarded as  literary  texts displaying  travels’ and colonialism’s influences on literature will be highlighted. therefore,  the importance and purpose of colonialism will be studied through shakespeare’s  othello,  the  tempest,  fletcher’s  the  island  princess,  and  behn’s  oroonoko.  however, this study will not attempt to provide a historical assessment of early  modern travel writing or represent every aspect of texts which depicted foreign  people, cultures and places. rather, it will explore one important purpose of such  69 texts;  namely,  the  way  in  which  they  reflected  upon  contemporary  english  political issues and controversies in terms of attaining power.   for the purpose of travels, markley asserts,    the  widespread  perception  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  that  england’s  resources  were  inadequate  to  support  its  population,  or  that  nature  itself had been corrupted by mankind’s sins, placed the  burden  on  international  trade  to  solve  complex  ecological, demographic, and economic crises. (5)    as bush also states,   for  protestant  englishmen  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth centuries all these motives except the first  [the motives of pilgrim, ecclesiastic, scholar, business‐ man,  diplomat,  soldier,  and  mere  tourist]  were  operating with greater urgency than ever. the political  and  commercial  conditions  of  europe,  combined  with  the  ideals  of  renaissance  humanism,  gave  a  new  importance to study of the history, policy, language, and  manners of foreign countries as a preparation for public  service and international trade. (170‐1)     although in the seventeenth century, people did not, of course, use these  terms ‘travel literature or colonialism’ for this type of writing, it is now named  and accepted as a ubiquitous but “unremarkable category in the english‐speaking  world” (hadfield 1).  as hadfield argues, “very little travel writing as such [unlike  subsequent travel writings of the seventeenth century, these were not opposed  by other writers] was produced until the start of the seventeenth century.” (4) in  this  sense,  francis  bacon  who  used  the  term  ‘plantation’  or  ‘dominion’  as  synonyms for ‘colony’ in his thirty‐second essay, entitled of plantation should be  remembered.  as finley also puts it,    today  the  dominant  sense  of  ‘plantation’  is  that  of  a  large estate, often with monoculture and usually located  in  tropical  or  semi‐tropical  regions‐cotton  plantation,  70 sugar  plantation,  tea  plantation.  that  is  the  etymologically  strict  sense.  but  from  at  least  the  sixteenth  century  into  the  nineteenth,  in  english  the  word  ‘plantation’  took  a  turn  that  was  very  rare  in  ancient and medieval latin and effectively unknown in  modern romance languages. (170)    in his essay bacon describes the ‘proper’ ways of planting and plantation because  ‘people’, not crops, were the objects of the ‘planting’ and the ‘transplanting’ in his  lifetime. this idea is evident in the following excerpts from his essay:    the  people  wherewith  you  plant  ought  to  be  gardeners,  ploughmen,  labourers,  smiths,  carpenters,  joiners,  fishermen,  fowlers,  with  some  few  apothecaries,  surgeons,  cooks,  and  bakers.  in  a  country  of  plantation,  first  look about what kind of victual  the country yields of  itself  to hand; as chestnuts, walnuts, pineapples, olives, dates, plums,  cherries, wild honey, and the like; and make use of them… (from the  norton anthology 1264)    when the plantation grows to strength, then it is time to  plant  with  women  as  well  as  with  men;  that  the  plantation may spread into generations, and not be ever  pieced  from  without.  it  is  the  sinfullest  thing  in  the  world  to  forsake  or  destitute  a  plantation  once  in  forwardness;  for  besides  the  dishonour,  it  is  the  guiltiness  of  blood  of  many  commiserable persons.  (from the norton anthology 1265)    in  the  early  seventeenth  century,  the  topic  of  colonies  took  on  greatly  increased practical  importance  in england because of  the establishment of  the  first permanent english settlements in the new world. thus, it can be argued that  such writings were produced out of  the need to struggle with  the victories of  other rival nations (spain and portugal) to protect the english independence.       71 power/knowledge and colonialism: foucault and nietzsche  there  is  a  genuinely  and  tightly  established  relationship  between  ‘power/knowledge’ and  ‘colonialism’ because the end product of colonialism is  knowledge which equals with power in general. in other words, power is based  on and makes use of knowledge.   although  it  is  not  directly  related  with  the  topic  of  this  study,  michel  foucault and friedrich nietzsche and their long lasting ideas about the concept  ‘power’ should be mentioned when the concept ‘power‐knowledge’ is concerned.  considering their importance in the field foucault and nietzsche will respectively  be mentioned briefly. for foucault, as dreyfus asserts,    power,  like  heidegger's  being,  is  no  fixed  entity  or  institution,  but  is  incarnated  in  historical  social  practices.  “one  needs  to  be  nominalistic,”  he  tells  us,  “power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither  is it a certain strength we are endowed with;  it  is the  name  that  one  attributes  to  a  complex  strategical  situation  in  a  particular  society.”  this  strategical  situation  arises  from  specific  individuals  and  groups  opposing  one  another.  these  actions,  taken  together,  open a social space in which people, things, and the real  are  defined.  like  the  clearing,  power  is  productive.  foucault  tells  us:  “[p]ower  produces;  it  produces  reality,”  that  is,  it  determines  what  it makes  sense  to  believe and to do. (internet)      in  the  literary  texts  studied  in  this  paper  the  power  relations  between  the  coloniser  and  the  colonised  will  be  handled  from  the  afore‐mentioned  perspective of foucault as foucault takes,     [power]  is  everywhere  not  because  it  embraces  everything, but because it comes from everywhere.  and  “power,”  insofar  as  it  is  permanent,  repetitious,  inert,  and self‐reproducing,  is simply  the over‐all effect  that  emerges  from  all  these  mobilities,  the  concatenation  that rests on each of them and seeks in turn to arrest  their movement … power is not an institution, and not a  72 structure;  neither  is  it  a  certain  strength  we  are  endowed with;  it  is  the name that one attributes  to a  complex  strategical  situation  in  a  particular  society.  (foucault: 1990 93)    as power means “relations, a more‐or‐less organised, hierarchical, co‐ordinated  cluster of relations” (gordon 198), it can be taken as the conflict between two (or  more) opposing groups, or the discourse of producing ‘a threatening other’. from  this  angle,  power  becomes  a  concept  which  is  suitable  to  be  applied  to  the  colonial discourse.     the  other  significant  thinker,  nietzsche,  and  his  one  of  the  prominent  concepts  in philosophy,  ‘the will  to power’ or  ‘der wille zur macht’  in german  should be recalled. in his book thus spoke zarathustra nietzsche underlines that  many people have always had numerous goals or virtues, and these virtues are  gained as they have been driven by the will to power. they do not only want to  exceed others’ power but they also want to have more power than they have. in  the part called “the thousand and one goals” zarathustra states that    wherever  i  found a  living  thing,  there  found i will  to  power; and even in the will of the servant found i the  will to be master. (99)    that  to  the  stronger  the  weaker  shall  serve—thereto  persuadeth he his will who would be master over a still  weaker one. that delight alone he is unwilling to forego.  (99)    only where there is life, is there also will: not, however,  will to life, but—so teach i thee—will to power. (100)    nietzsche was influenced by schopenhauer who puts a central emphasis on  will  and  in  particular  has  a  concept  of  the  ‘will  to  live’.  before  nietzsche,  schopenhauer  explained  that  the  universe  and  everything  in  it  is  driven  by  a  primordial will to live, which results in all living creatures’ desire to avoid death  and  procreate.  for  schopenhauer,  this  will  is  the  most  fundamental  aspect  of  73 reality—more fundamental even than being. therefore, nietzsche proposed the  will  to  power  as  the  main  driving  force  in man;  achievement,  ambition,  the  striving to reach the highest possible position in life, these are all manifestations  of  the will  to power. accordingly,  in colonial discourse power  is an  important  impulse that has urged people to take action for the sake of gaining more power.  the concept of power can be handled in several different contexts, and one of  these important areas where power is a remarkably dominant phenomenon is the  seventeenth  century  politics  or  more  specifically  activities  of  ‘plantation’  (in  baconian sense).  in fact, works produced in the seventeenth century can be read in many  ways, and one of which should be the vantage point of the reader for the sake of  restriction  and  relevancy.  it  can  also  be  suggested  that  such  writings  can  be  designated as ‘colonial’. before the colonial connotations in the literary texts of  the seventeenth century are sorted out, one should have a quick look at what the  start of english colonial literature was like, as an introduction to the topic.  colonialism indicates a period of history from the fifteenth to the twentieth  century when people from europe built colonies on other continents. this period  of time is also known as the age of discoveries. as horvath defines colonialism, “it  refers  to  that  form  of  intergroup  domination  in  which  setters  in  significant  number  migrate  permanently  to  the  colony  from  the  colonizing  power.”  (47)  moreover,  the word  ‘colonial’ which is used in this study refers to the specific  sense of promoting and maintaining colonies. that is, a settlement of people from  one territory in another one. in this sense, it is similar to colonialism. as finley  argues,  for  more  than  three  hundred  years,  however  much  disagreement there may have been about the objectives  of colonization or about the ways of governing colonies,  there  was  complete  agreement  that  a  colony  was  a  plantation of men, a place to which men emigrated and  settled.  colon  in  french,  siedler  in  german,  make  the  same point. (171)  74   the  idea  of  travel  as  a  means  of  exploration  and  colonial  enterprise  is  underlined by bauer as in the following:   anxiously conscious of the casual connections between  spain’s  soaring  political  might  in  europe  and  spanish  possessions,  late  sixteenth  century  and  early  seventeenth century english promoters of exploration  and  empire  invested  substantial  intellectual  energies  not  only  in  encouraging  englishmen  to  engage  in  the  colonial  enterprise  but  also  to  make  english  explorations, hitherto conducted mainly in the form of  ‘privateering1’, more useful to the nation at large. as a  consequence, the period from 1580s to the 1620s saw a  proliferation  of  manuals  aimed  at  prescribing,  formalizing,  and  regularizing  the  content  and  style  of  travel  histories  by  urging  travellers  to  adopt  a  more  systematic stance when reporting on their voyages, by  placing less emphasis on their own personal actions and  more  on  geographically  or  ethnographically  useful  information. (138‐9)     as mentioned before, works or ‘manuals’ were written by people who had  travelled foreign countries and for people who intended to travel abroad. in such  writings the main purpose of englishmen was obtaining knowledge which was  useful for ‘political’ strategies of the kingdom. for instance, even as early as 1575,  jerome  turler,  in  his  the  traveiler,  (with  its  original  spelling)  presented  his  recommendations for travellers of foreign countries:  the lande what maner one it is, and … the people that  dwell therin, whether thy bee stronge or weake, many  or fewe, the lande good or bad; what cyties there bee,  walled  or  not  walled;  the  soyle  fertile  or  barreine;  wooddie or champion; so that there bee five principle  poyntes too bee considered in euerie cuntrey: the fame,  figure, bignesse, jurisdiction, and situation. (50)    1 a ship privately owned and crewed but authorized by a government during wartime to attack and capture enemy vessels. (internet ii) 75 early  intimations  of  english  colonialism  in  literary  writings  of  the  17th  century  colonial  writing  was  not  only  popular  in  the  factual  writings  of  the  seventeenth century, but it was also manifest in several literary texts highlighting  the political issues of contemporary england. it is undeniable that several literary  writers in that era dealt with political subjects as they could not stay ignorant to  political  affairs.  to  put  it  differently,  writers  used  their  works  as  a  vehicle  to  explore  contemporary  political  problems.  in  this  respect,  colonial  literature  became another platform in which political  ideas were developed when it was  difficult for it to flourish elsewhere.   in such texts, what will be underlined in this sense is writers’ preference of  setting  their  stories  in  a  distant  land  and  a  distant  time.    the  answer  to  the  question of why writers used foreign settings in their works is that they tried to  establish  their  texts  as  a  more  overt  means  of  political  reflection.  the  contemporary  political  issue  was  mainly  the  expanding  the  boundaries  of  the  kingdom  and  settling  in  foreign  countries,  which  is  now  called  the  idea  of  colonialism. this idea “owes much to the example of thomas more’s utopia, and  that  work’s  use  of  travel  writing,  set  in  europe  or  the  americas,  to  combine  political  reflection  and  fiction.”  (hadfield  136)  in  their  works,  shakespeare,  fletcher and behn experimented with a number of different forms of colonialism  by combining historical and literary subjects.  colonialism in william shakespeare’s two plays  1) othello or the moor of venice (1603):  for this study, the play othello  is chosen to exemplify the colonial  issues of  england because the issues of race and ‘colonial difference’ were central to the  english culture  of  the  seventeenth  century. as  loomba  argues,  “shakespeare’s  plays have been an extraordinarily powerful medium between generations and  cultures,  a  conduit  for  transmitting  and  shaping  ideas  about  colonialism.”  (5)  therefore, because of its setting, and othello’s ethnic origin, the text of the play  76 can be read as a manifest of colonialism. briefly, the issues of othello’s ‘outside‐ ness’ and political implications of colonialism in the play will be underlined in this  part.    shakespeare’s tragedy othello  is believed to be based on the italian short  story  “un  capitano  moro”  (“a  moorish  captain”)  by cinthio,  a  disciple  of boccaccio,  first  published  in  1565.  cinthio’s  gli  hecatommithi (1565)  is  a  collection of one hundred tales in the style of boccacio's decameron. no english  translation of cinthio was available in shakespeare's lifetime, and verbal echoes  in  othello are  closer  to  the  italian  original  than  to  gabriel  chappuy's  1584 french translation. cinthio's tale may have been based on an actual incident  occurring  in venice about 1508. it also resembles an  incident described  in the  earlier tale of "the three apples", one of the stories narrated in the one thousand  and one nights (arabian nights). (internet 3)     for the plot of the play, it can be argued that it revolves around the fragile  issue of individual and national identities. although many shakespearean critics  disagree on othello the character’s skin colour and the play’s meaning, othello is  taken as a text which raises such racial and colonial questions.    the  questions  of  identity  and  difference  became  especially  urgent  in  sixteenth  and  seventeenth‐century  english  culture  because  at  this  time,  as  helgerson argues, “the idea of an english nation developed and was articulated  through a variety of media such as literature, law, cartography, or travel writing”.  (146) in shakespeare’s lifetime, especially richard hakluyt’s great collection of  voyages,  principal  navigations  (1589)  was  available  and  included  some  ‘outlandish’ stories  about other men (in othello’s words) “whose heads/ do grow  beneath their shoulders” (othello i.iii. 145‐6) furthermore, loomba also suggests  that   in the early modern period, englishness was defined, in  part, in opposition to everything not english… the idea  of  difference  is  important  in  complicating  our  understanding  of  the  emergence  of  an  english  nation  77 and in showing to what extent this was the result of an  ongoing  struggle  to  colonize,  marginalize,  or  incorporate different groups of people who lived both  within  and  outside  the  geographic  boundaries  of  england. (2001: 149)    othello is a moor: “a dark‐skinned, arabian or african general” (bevington 1151)  who lives in a european, colour‐prejudiced society, where he holds the rank of  general  in  the  venetian  military.  having  a  moor  character  in  the  plays  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  something  usual.  as  loomba  states,  “some  scholars  suggest  that  blackness  was  viewed  as  the  ultimate  sign  of  degradation,  while  other argue that it began to be viewed negatively only later, as a result of colonial  domination of africans.”  (2)   however, as hankey suggests being a moor may  mean other things:   most  stage  moors  were  devils,  and  their  colour  proclaimed them so. as g. k hunter’s essay “othello and  colour prejudice” has shown, in religious literature, in  the  medieval  romances,  in  pictorial  tradition,  in  mummer’s  plays,  masques  and  processions,  all  the  devils, infidels, saracens, turks, pagans and bogeymen,  were black. the  fact  that  there were white villains as  well  did  not  detract  from  the  force  of  blackness  as  a  symbol… the meaning of moor is in fact ‘mahomedan’,  and terminology was so vogue at the time that, in use,  ‘moor’  meant  no  more  than  someone  living  in  ‘that  outer  circuit  of  non‐christian  lands  where  the  saving  grace of  jerusalem is weakest  in  its whitening power.  (10)    it  can  be  said  that  the  colour  prejudice  was  prevalent  at  the  time  shakespeare was writing othello. after it  is revealed that beautiful desdemona  elopes with othello, her father angrily accuses him of casting a magic spell on his  daughter that ‘seemingly’ underlines othello’s exotic oddness:  brabantio:  o thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?  damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;  78 for i'll refer me to all things of sense,  if she in chains of magic were not bound,  whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,  so opposite to marriage that she shunn'd  the wealthy curlèd darlings of our nation,  would ever have, to incur a general mock,  run from her guardage to the sooty bosom  of such a thing as thou,—to fear, not to delight.  judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense  that thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms;  abus'd her delicate youth with drugs or minerals  that weaken motion:—i'll have't disputed on;  'tis probable, and palpable to thinking.  i therefore apprehend and do attach thee  for an abuser of the world, a practiser  of arts inhibited and out of warrant.—  lay hold upon him: if he do resist,  subdue him at his peril. (i. ii. 60‐80)      othello is an outsider in that he is feared and despised by his detractors  including iago, brabantio, duke, and etc., and he is disparagingly referred as the  “thick  lips”  (i.i.  67),  with  a  “sooty  bosom”.  (i.  ii.  68)  however,  his  ‘oddness’  attracts desdemona as othello also confesses:  othello:  her father lov'd me; oft invited me;  still question'd me the story of my life,  from year to year,—the battles, sieges, fortunes,  that i have pass'd.  i ran it through, even from my boyish days  79 to the very moment that he bade me tell it:  wherein i spake of most disastrous chances,  of moving accidents by flood and field;  of hair‐breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach;  of being taken by the insolent foe,  and sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,  and portance in my travels' history:  wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,  rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,  it was my hint to speak,—such was the process;  and of the cannibals that each other eat,  the anthropophagi, and men whose heads  do grow beneath their shoulders. this to hear  would desdemona seriously incline:  but still the house affairs would draw her thence;  which ever as she could with haste despatch,  she'd come again, and with a greedy ear  devour up my discourse; which i observing,  took once a pliant hour; and found good means  to draw from her a prayer of earnest heart  that i would all my pilgrimage dilate,  whereof by parcels she had something heard,  but not intentively; i did consent;  and often did beguile her of her tears,  when i did speak of some distressful stroke  that my youth suffer'd. my story being done,  she gave me for my pains a world of sighs:  she swore,—in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange;  'twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:  she wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd  80 that heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me;  and bade me, if i had a friend that lov'd her,  i should but teach him how to tell my story,  and that would woo her. upon this hint i spake:  she lov'd me for the dangers i had pass'd;  and i lov'd her that she did pity them.  this only is the witchcraft i have us'd:— (i. iii. 129‐69)  furthermore, although othello is regarded as a man outside the christian  fold,  “the venetian senate responds  in a mild way to  the  inter‐racial marriage  because  othello  is  so  important  to  venice  in  meeting  the  turkish  threat  in  cyprus.” (loomba 2001: 159) when the country’s interest is concerned, political  issues become more  important  than every other  thing. therefore, othello  and  desdemona’s  marriage  is  ‘mildly’  accepted  by  authorities.  shakespeare  successfully  displays  the  idea  that  although  othello  will  remain  as  one  of  the  outsiders within the society, when the colony of italy, cyprus, is threatened by the  ottomans,  othello  is,  nevertheless,  needed  as  an  important  soldier  to  meet  turkish danger in cyprus. as loomba also suggests,   the english attitude to outsiders was not uniformly one  of smug superiority. europeans viewed turks (to take  but one example) with a great deal of anxiety as well as  a  grudging  admiration  of  their  military  strength  and  organisation…  as  successful  imperialists,  the  turks  were regarded as cruel and bloodthirsty, ‘the scourge of  europe’,  but  they were also  overtly  admired. england  tried to establish trading connections with morocco and  other islamic territories. (2001: 159)     othello  is  not  simply  an  alien  who  crosses  over  by  marrying desdemona, he is also the exotic outsider who  alone  is  capable  of  defending  venice  against  other  outsiders such as turks. (2001: 162)  in the play it is also reflected as in the following words of the first senator:  we must not think the turk is so unskilful  to leave that latest which concerns him first;  81 neglecting an attempt of ease and gain,  to wake and wage a danger profitless. (i.iii. 27‐30)  one can easily draw a parallelism between the binary of ‘othello and iago’  and  the  other  binary  ‘cyprus  and  venice’  within  a  colonial  context.  in  other  words, othello may be read as a representative of the weak colonised cyprus and  iago as the cynical and ‘powerful’ coloniser venice. “like cyprus, othello can be  colonised by  venice  – he  can be  put  to  use.  but he  can  never  become  wholly  venetian.” (vaughan 21) for instance, othello’s own words about himself reveal  his inferiority complex as he sees himself through others’ eyes. in spite of being a  general, he considers himself ‘a weak subject’:   othello:  most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,  my very noble and approv'd good masters,—  that i have ta'en away this old man's daughter,  it is most true; true, i have married her:  the very head and front of my offending  hath this extent, no more. rude am i in my speech,  and little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace;  for since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,  till now some nine moons wasted, they have us'd  their dearest action in the tented field;  and little of this great world can i speak,  more than pertains to feats of broil and battle;  and therefore little shall i grace my cause  in speaking for myself. (i.iii.78‐96)  iago is, on the other hand, a man whose head is filled with intrigues and cunning.  he  despises,  hates  othello,  and  envies  him.  like  many  people  who  have  the  inferiority  complex,  iago  tries  to  appear  superior  to  othello  to  conceal  his  inferiority. he plots against othello as it is clearly seen in the following quotation:  82 iago:  in following him, i follow but myself;  heaven is my judge, not i for love and duty,  but seeming so for my peculiar end:  for when my outward action doth demonstrate  the native act and figure of my heart  in complement extern, 'tis not long after  but i will wear my heart upon my sleeve  for daws to peck at: i am not what i am. (i.i. 57‐65)  othello is regarded as the good character, but at the same time he has some  flaws  which  eventually  bring  about  his  fall  and  tragic  end.  othello’s  being  an  outsider  “makes  him  vulnerable  to  iago’s  wiles  and,  like  cyprus,  if  he  is  not  fortified, he will turn turk.” (vaughan 21)  as a colonised, othello cannot survive  under the pressure of the ‘powerful.’ the binary opposition between two poles  renders  one  (venice/iago)  powerful  and  the  other  (cyprus/othello)  weak.  however, as a coloniser, the ‘evil’ but powerful character, iago survives at the end  of the play, while othello dies.   in homi bhabba’s terms othello is a “mimic man” (125) who desperately  wants to become absorbed into his adopted society, but always exposed by his  irreclaimably alien characteristics. he is simply “almost the same but not quite.”  (123)  vaughan carries her argument further by arguing that “on a mythic level  the conflict between venice and ottoman empire was manichaean, symbolic of  the universal struggle between the forces of good and evil.” (27) in this sense,  whatever othello does to make himself into, he serves as a reminder to the people  of venice that “he is a dangerous figure inhabiting the boundary between their  civilisation and the barbarism of others.” (hadfield 229)     one can outline multiple colonial contexts of othello. as another point, the  setting(s) of the play can be taken into consideration as geographical locations of  83 the  play  are  interesting  and  contradictory.  shakespeare  moves  the  play  from  venice to cyprus in order to have a liberty to talk about the colonial activities of  england.  at  this  point,  it  can  be  suggested  that  another  binary  opposition  emerges, which is between venice and cyprus as representatives of england and  ireland.  according  to  hadfield,  othello  can  be  read  as  “an  allegory  of  contemporary england struggling against the dangers of savage ireland.” (201) as  hadfield argues,   othello,  a  play  which  represents  the  ideal  republic  of  venice as the last bastion of european civilisation pitted  against the lure and danger of the barbarous and exotic  orient,  but  which  can  also  be  read  as  an  allegory  of  contemporary england struggling against the dangers of  savage ireland. (201)    moreover, as vaughan maintains,  in  the  opening  scenes  of  othello  the  virtuous  commonwealth  is threatened by the barbarous turk…  venice seems sure of  its  identity as  the play begins –  urbane  and  civilised;  as  brabantio  exclaims,  ‘this  is  venice;/  my  house  is  not  a  grange.’  (i.i.  105‐06)  centuries  of  legal  and  governmental  tradition  have  defined venice as the locus of rational judgement… (21)     in  one  of  the  early  scenes  of  the  play,  it  is  revealed  that  duke  assigns  othello with a duty which  is defending cyprus, a venetian colony, against  the  enemy, ottoman. cyprus represents, in vaughan’s words, “a liminal zone between  venice’s christian civility and the ottomite’s pagan barbarism … cyprus  is  the  frontier, the uttermost edge of western civilisation, simultaneously vulnerable to  attack from without and subversion from within.” (22) “othello expresses exactly  the contemporary  fears  the english had of  ireland as a colonial space and the  irish as a colonised people.” (hadfield 229)     ireland is repeatedly mentioned in many plays of shakespeare such as in  the  comedy  of  errors,  richard  iii,  and  henry  iv.  as  hadfield  claims,  “english  84 writers traditionally regarded ireland as a dangerous colonial space, a land where  they were likely to lose their identity and ‘degenerate’ by going native.” (hadfield  231) if ireland is regarded as a country which is dangerous for english who move  there as they might lose their sense of home left behind,  in the play cyprus is  depicted in the same manner like ireland. if one reads cyprus as analogous to  ireland,  venice  then  should  be  read  as  england.  italy  is  a  setting  that  in  shakespeare’s plays both reflects, and offers a contrast to, the audience’s england.  as loomba also asserts, “italians are ‘southern’ like the asians, different from the  english, but when placed against the moors, they are a part of christian europe.”  (94) however, hadfield claims that “venice cannot be read as a straightforward  representation of england… it functions, yet again, as an ideal to which england  might aspire…” (241) venice in othello  is depicted as a society which is liberal  enough to tolerate the black outsiders. moreover, the council meeting scene also  underlines the democratic nature of venetian government as matters of public  importance are discussed openly and both othello and desdemona are granted a  right to conduct a proper defence of their actions in front of the duke. however,  what  cyprus  lacks  is  in  existence  in  venice.  it  is  constantly  represented  in  contrast to the motherland. while there is liberty, order and individual rights in  venice, there is rumour, slander and violence in cyprus.      briefly, shakespeare’s play othello does not only carry colonial implications  but  it  also  warns  english  politicians  and  court  men  about  the  sensitivity  of  colonial  issues.  as  hadfield  puts  it  forward,  “the  play  serves  as  a  warning  to  england, of the havoc which an uncontrolled colony like ireland could wreak to  the certainties of a (supposedly) established, civilised identity.” (241)   2) the tempest (1610­11):  the tempest is another play, a romance, by shakespeare in which political  implications of english colonial actions can be traced. it is an important play in  the ways it reflects the relationship between european and colonial politics. as  hadfield argues,  “the play demonstrates an acute awareness of  the  interaction  85 and overlap between domestic and colonial politics.”  (243)  in  this part of  the  study,  the  setting  of  the  play  will  be  considered  in  the  context  of  the  english  politics, and the power relations between the dominant and the other, will be  highlighted.  the play is set in exotic mediterranean territories. the island where the  reader  finds  prospero  is  somewhere  off  the  coast  of  africa,  “probably  in  the  region of algeria or tunisia,” (hadfield  243) as gonzalo indicates, “methinks our  garments are now as fresh as when/ we put them on first in afric, at the marriage  of  the/ king's  fair daughter claribel  to the king of tunis.”  ii.i. 66‐8) however,  gillies points out,   shakespeare’s  play  is  vitally  rather  than  casually  implicated  in  the  discourses  of  american  and  the  virginia colony because of  its participation within  the  contemporary  debates  about  colonialism  which  were  inevitably centred on the english colonies  in  the new  world. (149)    it  can  be  argued  that  the  play  revolves  around  ‘an  intrigue  of  dynastic  politics’ because the rightful duke of milan, prospero (and a sorcerer) is tricked  by his ambitious younger brother, antonio, and prospero and his three‐year‐old  daughter, miranda have to live on an island where they meet caliban (the son of a  witch  called  sycorax)  asserts  that  “this  island’s  mine.”  (i.ii.  332)  as  wilson  alleges,  the  play  is  about  the  governmental  problems  that  “europeans  encountered  when  dealing  with  peoples  from  other  continents,  whether  as  trading partners or inferiors whose lands were to be colonised.” (334‐6)   caliban is the representative of ‘uncivilised’ man. when ‘civilised’ prospero  and  miranda  first  came  to  the  island,  they  started  to  construct  a  threatening  ‘other’ which is caliban. the rightful owner of the island is made an outsider by  prospero:    caliban:  this island's mine, by sycorax my mother,  86 which thou tak'st from me. when thou cam'st first,  thou strok'st me and made much of me, wouldst give me  water with berries in't, and teach me how  to name the bigger light, and how the less,  that burn by day and night; and then i lov'd thee,  and show'd thee all the qualities o' th' isle,  the fresh springs, brine‐pits, barren place and fertile.  curs'd be i that did so! all the charms  of sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!  for i am all the subjects that you have,  which first was mine own king; and here you sty me  in this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me   the rest o' th' island.    caliban is angry because prospero, a man of authority from the old world, took  everything  caliban,  a  man  from  the  new  world,  once  had;  and  prospero  transform  caliban  into  ‘a  subject  or  a  slave’  in  his  (prospero’s)  ‘kingdom’.  as  skura asserts, “caliban is the centre of the play because europeans were at that  time exploiting the real calibans of the world, and the tempest was part of the  process.”  (44)   it  can  be  argued  that  when  shakespeare  was  writing  the  tempest,  he  included a lot of information that corresponded with the travels’ reports from the  new world. as kermode states,   reports  of  a  particular  episode  in  british  efforts  to  colonise  north  america  had  participated  the  play’s  major  themes.  in 1609 nine ships had  left england to  settle  the  colony  in  jamestown,  virginia,  and  the  sea  venture,  carrying  all  of  the  colonial  officers  had  disappeared. but its passengers reappeared in virginia  one  year  later,  miraculously saved;  they  had wrecked  off  the  bermudas,  until  then  believed  demonically  dangerous but now found to be providentially mild and  fruitful. these events, much in the news in the year just  87 preceding  the  tempest  have  long  been  seen  as  a  relevant context for the play by all… (xxv)    furthermore,  strach[e]y  asserts  that  “samuel  purchas  asked  ‘can  a  leopard  change his spots? can a savage remayning a savage be civill?’ purchas added this  comment when he published the 1610 document that shakespeare had used as  his  source  for  the  tempest,  and  purchas  has  been  cited  as  an  example  of  colonialist discourse.” (62)    various distortions were discursive strategies that served the political purpose of  making  the  new  world  fit  into  a  schema  justifying  colonialism.”  (skura  45)  prospero is a duke who is a representative of england’s colonising, especially her  (england’s) will to raise savage peoples from superstitions, taboos and witchcraft  to a more enlightened existence. therefore, on the island, prospero secured this  status  by  teaching  caliban  his  own  language  and  religion  because  prospero  regards caliban as “a salvage and deformed slave” (1135) as it  is stated in the  beginning of  the play.   caliban  is always despised and hated by prospero and  miranda as he once attempts to rape miranda. his “bestial lust” is affirmed by this  action, and prospero justifies and rationalizes his acts, his tyranny:  prospero:  thou most lying slave,  whom stripes may move, not kindness! i have us'd thee,  filth as thou art, with human care, and lodg'd thee  in mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate  the honour of my child.  caliban:  o ho, o ho! would't had been done.  thou didst prevent me; i had peopl'd else  this isle with calibans.  miranda:   88 abhorred slave,  which any print of goodness wilt not take,  being capable of all ill! i pitied thee,  took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour  one thing or other. when thou didst not, savage,  know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like  a thing most brutish, i endow'd thy purposes  with words that made them known. but thy vile race,  though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures  could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou  deservedly confin'd into this rock, who hadst   deserv'd more than a prison.  caliban:  you taught me language, and my profit on't  is, i know how to curse. the red plague rid you  for learning me your language!  prospero:   hag‐seed, hence!  fetch us in fuel. and be quick, thou 'rt best,  to answer other business. shrug'st thou, malice?  if thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly  what i command, i'll rack thee with old cramps,  fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar,  that beasts shall tremble at thy din.  caliban:   no, pray thee.  [aside]  i must obey. his art is of such pow'r,  it would control my dam's god, setebos,  and make a vassal of him.  prospero:  89 so, slave; hence! ( i.ii. 346‐76)    prospero thinks that he did a favour to caliban by teaching him ‘how to be  civilised’ and he expects to be respected in return for this favour. however, he  thinks his ‘goodness’ is responded by ‘badness’ and ‘ingratitude’ as caliban hates  him  and  threatens  his  authority  on  the  island.  viewed  from  this  perspective,  caliban can be taken as a colonialist representation of the ‘other’. moreover, as  the quotation above also signifies, shakespeare lets a mistreated native (caliban)  complain onstage. in other words, shakespeare depicts a native from the inside.  shakespeare  uses  the  vocabulary  and  images  of  the  new  world  or  colonialist discourse (in modern sense)  to describe something closer  to home,  england.  prospero  is  an  exile  politician  who  wants  to  take  revenge  on  his  enemies, antonio (prospero’s brother, the duke of milan) and alonso (the king of  naples).  he solves his old problems on the island as he uses illegitimate power  on others. although he is powerful on the island, he is not satisfied with it. he  uses the relationship between miranda and ferdinand (alonso’s son) to ensure  his return to power in milan. as skura also indicates, “when the tempest was  written, what the new world seems to have meant for the majority of englishmen  was a sense of possibility and a set of conflicting fantasies about the wonders to  be found there; these were perhaps the preconditions for colonialism.” (57) in  this sense, prospero finds ‘a second‐chance’ on an island, as at the end of the play  miranda puts, “in a brave new world”, (v.i. 81) not in italy, milan:  miranda:  o, wonder!  how many goodly creatures are there here!  how beauteous mankind is! o brave new world  that has such people in't!  prospero:   'tis new to thee.  alonso:  90 what is this maid with whom thou wast at play?  your eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours;  is she the goddess that hath sever'd us,  and brought us thus together?  ferdinand:   sir, she is mortal;  but by immortal providence she's mine.  i chose her when i could not ask my father  for his advice, nor thought i had one. she  is daughter to this famous duke of milan,  of whom so often i have heard renown  but never saw before; of whom i have  receiv'd a second life; and second father   this lady makes him to me.  alonso:  i am hers.  but, o, how oddly will it sound that i  must ask my child forgiveness!  prospero:   there, sir, stop;  let us not burden our remembrances with  a heaviness that's gone.  gonzalo:  i have inly wept,  or should have spoke ere this. look down, you gods,  and on this couple drop a blessed crown;  for it is you that have chalk'd forth the way  which brought us hither.      91 colonialism in john fletcher’s late jacobean tragicomedy  the island princess (1619­22):    the island princess is a complicated and intriguing play which is “much  more directly concerned with england’s colonial experience in the reign of james  i  than  the  tempest.”  (hadfield  254)  the  play  is  important  as  it  displays  two  different perspectives of colonisers (europeans) towards exotic peoples. the play  also demonstrates the importance of religion in the colonialist discourse.     unlike  the  tempest,  fletcher’s  play  has  a  very  definite  location.  the  action  is  set  on  the  moluccan  island  of  tidore  which  is  a  colony  of  portugal.  tidore  is  a  multicultural  place  with  its  native  islanders  and  the  portuguese  people.     the events start with the evil governor of ternata’s kidnapping the king  of tidore. the king’s beautiful sister, quisara, is tidore’s princess around whom  the story centres. quisara has many suitors, but she is in love with a ‘portuguese’  sailor, ruy dias. however, she announces that she will marry whoever rescues  her brother, expecting the hero to be her lover, ruy dias. the early signals of an  inter‐racial  marriage  are  displayed  at  the  beginning  of  the  play,  and  so  a  parallelism  can  be  inferred  between  this  one  and  the  inter‐racial  marriage  between othello and desdemona. this sort of marriage is often presented in the  colonial writings of the era because an inter‐racial marriage can be taken as a sort  of  treaty  between  ‘us’  and  ‘they’,  and  as  a  kind  of  ‘link’  to  guarantee  the  supremacy of the dominant. besides, quisara is not an ordinary native girl; she is  the princess, an important political figure, so this is also an important factor in  the quest  for power in the eyes of colonisers. therefore,  it can be argued that  marriage is used as a strategy to convert and assimilate the other.   quisara is disappointed by her lover due to his failure because a stranger  (but again a portuguese) man called armusia manages to rescue her brother the  king, not ruy dias. armusia’s success in rescuing the king is achieved via the use  of a barrel of gunpowder. this seems to be a detail in the plot. however, it is not  92 insignificant  because  ‘the  use  of  gunpowder  in  the  fight’  is  an  indication  of  superiority of europeans over the natives whose technology is inadequate. the  cries of citizens also reveal  their  fear when  they confront  this man‐originated  danger and attack:  citizens:   fire, fire!  government:   where? where?  citizens:   suddenly taken in a merchant’s house,   fearful and bigh it blazes.   help, good people!  government:   pox o’ their paper‐houses!   how they smother!   they light like candles!   how the roar still rises! (ii.ii pg. 126)  after that incident, the two portuguese men fight a duel for the princess,  and  ruy  dias  is  defeated  by  armusia  once  more.  ruy  dias  begins  to  respect  armusia  and  decides  to  leave  quisara  and  him  alone.    furthermore,  the  evil  governor is full of hatred to both portuguese men, and so disguises himself as a  priest  to  turn  the people of tidore against  the portuguese. therefore, quisara  demands  armusia  to  convert  to  her  religion,  a  primitive  form  of  sun‐moon‐ worship. however, armusia refuses to convert from christianity to her religion.  at the end of the play, the disguised governor is exposed and armusia and the  93 princess  reunite,  symbolizing  the  reconciliation  between  the  portuguese  and  islanders.    when one reads between the lines of the play, s/he will discover some  other dimensions concerning colonial issues. in the play two extremely opposing  states  of  european  reaction  to  the  exotic  are  obviously  reinforced;  it  is  their  oscillation between fear and fascination evoked by the other. one of the reactions  is the unquenchable ‘wonder or fascination’ that attracts them to natives and the  other is the vicious ‘hostility or fear’ towards the islanders.  the  portuguese  come  to  the  island  with  great  expectations  and  out  of  curiosity. they are so curious about the unknown or undiscovered things on the  island. the concept ‘wonder’, which is enforced by ‘the will to power’, drives them  and fills their heart with excitement as it is manifest in armusia’s words below:   we are arriv’d among the blessed islands,  where every wind that rises blowes perfumes,  and every breath of aire is like an incense:  that treasure of the sun dwels here, each tree  as if it envied the old paradice,  strives to bring forth immortal fruit; the spices  renewing nature…  nothing we see, but breeds an admiration;  the bowels of the earth swell with the births  of thousand unknowne gems, and thousand riches;  nothing that bears a life, but brings a treasure;  the people they shew brave too, civill manner’d,  proportioned like the mastres of great minds,  the women which i wonder at— (i.iii. pg 99)    although europeans are driven by their excitement and admiration for the  exotic, fletcher, at the same time, mentions europeans’ enmity that results in a  94 feeling  of  ‘fear’  in  the hearts of  colonials who are still  subjects  to  the mother  country: they are afraid of the possibility of the conversion from christianity into  barbarian religions rather than vice versa. as hadfield also underlines, “when the  governor of ternate seeks  to  turn quisara against  the portuguese he uses his  bogus  identity  as  a  holy  man  to  suggest  that  religion  is  the  key  to  future  oppression and invasion.” (256) the governor urges quisara to use her beauty to  convince europeans to transform to their religion, and he thinks she should use  her physical gift for the advantage of her own people, not for europeans:  use it discreetly,  for i perceive ye understand me rightly,  for here the gods regard your helpe, and suddenly;  the portugals like sharpe thornes (marke me lady)  sticke in our sides; like razors, wound religion,  draw deep, they wound, till the life bloud followes,  our gods they spurne at, and their worships scorne,  a mighty hand they beare upon our government.  these are the men your miracle must worke on,  your heavenly forme, either to roote them out…  or fairely bring ’em home to our devotions [.] (iv.ii. pg. 119)    the governor suggests that if quisara persuades armusia to convert into their  religion,  she  could  set  an  example  for  europeans,  and  the  portuguese  would  follow armusia’s conversion. armusia  is a calm and balanced man, but  “when  quisara attempts to convert him to the nature‐religion of the islanders under the  watchful eye of the scheming governor of ternata, he reveals the disgust rather  than  the  wonder  of  european  perceptions  of  exotic  people.”  (my  emphasis,  hadfield 259) when quisara implores armusia to offer a sacrifice to her gods, he  clearly discloses his ‘hidden’ disgust as in the following:  to the devill, lady?  95 offer to him i hate? i know the devill;  to dogs and cats? you make offer to them;  to every bird that flies, and every worme.  how terribly i shake! is this the venture?   the tryall that tou talkt off? where have i bin?  and how forgot my selfe? how lost my memorie?  when did i pray or looke up stedfastly?  had any goodnesse in my heart to guide me?  that i should give this vantage to mine enemie,  the enemie to my peace; forsake my faith? (iv. v. pg. 122)    hadfield interprets this quotation that, “in representing the religion of the natives  as  devil  worship,  and  in  expressing  the  fear  that  cultural  traffic  will  flow  the  wrong  way,  armusia  is  rehearsing  widely  held  beliefs  which  were  common  currency  of  the  discourse  of  contemporary  colonialism.”  (259)  it  is  not  only  armusia who hates the natives, but another portuguese man, pynerio also reveals  his  hatred;  “thinke  some  abominable  names  –  are  they  not  devils?  /  but  the  devil’s a great deale too good for ’em’. (v.i. pg. 124)    in fletcher’s play the portuguese can be read as the representatives of  the english because the location he uses as the setting of the play, the moluccan  islands in the bay of bengal, was considerably important for english imperial and  trading interests in the second decade of james’s reign.   there were a number of well‐publicised voyages to the  east indies and japan in this decade, one of which, john  saris’s  account  of  his  voyage  to  japan,  had  been  included  in…  the  editions  of  samuel  purchas’s…  collection of english voyages… saris’s voyage contains  the  description  of  an  incident  which  bears  some  resemblance to the description of the conflict between  the two islands as represented in the island princess…  given  the  topical  importance  of  the  location  of  the  island  princess,  it  seems  likely  that  there  is  some  96 relation between these details of saris’s experience  in  tidor  and  fletcher’s  play,  the  former  probably  providing the basis for the story of the king of tidore’s  kidnap  when  out  rowing  (i.i.  28)  and  the  explosion  which  helps  to  rescue  him.  this  would  suggest  that  fletcher’  eye  was  on  documents  of  english  voyages  abroad,  that  his  play  was  designed  as  a  reflection  on  contemporary english colonization and trade, and that  the  portuguese  can  be  read  as  english,  a  dramatic  convention which stretched back into the second half of  the previous monarch’s reign. (hadfield 261‐2)        the  island  princess  is  a  play  which  deals  with  europeans’  desire  of  colonial expansion, and it is about their anxieties about the unknown. then the  play reinforces the idea that ‘what is unknown is both threatening and alluring.’  in the play it is not only europeans who think the islanders are threatening, the  natives of tidore also regard the colonisers as threatening and domineering. in  other words, “fletcher… suggest[s] that ill‐considered projects would lead only to  a self‐perpetuating cycle whereby european and non‐european cultures would  view each other with mutual suspicion.” (hadfield 263) at the end of the play, the  portuguese  man  armusia  persuades  quisara  to  convert  to  christianity:  “your  faith, and your religion must be like ye, / they that can shew you these, must be  pure  mirrours;  /  when  the  streames  flow  cleare  and  faire,  what  are  the  fountaines? (v.i. pg. 126) moreover, the king of tidore also confesses to armusia  that his noble example has “halfe perswaded me to be a christian” (v.v. pg. 128)  the play ends with the victory of europeans as quisara and her brother seem to  embrace  the  colonisers’  religion,  christianity,  and  the  powerful  and  superior  europeans’  authority is eventually fortified once more.   colonialism in aphra behn’s fiction  oroonoko: or, the royal slave. a true story (1688):    aphra behn in her prose narrative which “cannot be classified as fact or  fiction, realism or romance” (the norton anthology 1865) tells the story of an  97 african prince who becomes a slave. a seventeenth century novel, oroonoko is an  important work both because it is one of the earliest english novels and because  it  is clearly and directly related with the early colonial pursuits of england. as  azim claims “it is read not only as the first novel to be written by a woman, but  also as the first ‘emancipation’ novel, dealing in detail with the misery and plight  of  black  slaves.”  (43)  in  this  part  of  the  study,  the  reading  of  oroonoko  will  concentrate on  the status of  the black man, oroonoko, and  the manner of his  entry into the field of representation as ‘an object of examination’.     oroonoko, which is written by a white female author using a white female  narrative voice, sets itself up as a celebration of a particular black slave. as azim  also states “oroonoko stands witness to and is part of the imperial project, as its  initial admiration for its black subject proves to be flirtatious and frivolous.” (45)  i do not pretend, in giving you the history of this royal  slave, to entertain my reader with the adventures of a  feign’d hero,  whose  life  and  fortunes  fancy  may  manage at the poet’s pleasure; nor in relating the truth,  design  to  adorn  it  with  any  accidents,  but  such  as  arrived in earnest to him: and it shall come simply into  the world, recommended by its own proper merits, and  natural  intrigues;  there  being  enough  of  reality  to  support  it,  and  to  render  it  diverting,  without  the  addition of invention. (129)    the narrator of  the novel  is sometimes  inscribed directly  into the story along  with the hero. however, in some parts she and oroonoko both having their own  reasons  part  ways.  to  show  their  experiences  and  accounts  the  novel  can  be  divided  into  three  parts  according  to  levels  of  narration.  the  first  part  of  the  novel is oroonoko’s life in africa of which the narrator does not have any first‐ hand experience. the first part of the novel is narrated to her as it is understood  by the use of such phrases as   i have often heard him say, had certainly kill’d him, but  for the conversation of this prince and aboan, and the  french governor he had from his childhood, of whom i  have spoken before, and who was a man of admirable  98 wit,  great  ingenuity  and  learning;  all  which  he  had  infused into his young pupil. (my emphasis, 159‐60)    africa is oroonoko’s natural habitat. the narrator sounds like an observer or a  reporter who wants to appear as impartial and adjudging in order to show africa  and its inhabitants as objects of curiosity ‘under western eyes’.     the beginning of the text is also worth mentioning in some detail. the  narrator starts describing surinam, an english colony in the west indies; its flora  and  fauna,  its  inhabitants,  their  traditions  and  its  potential  for  commercial.  moreover, she clearly differentiates natives of surinam from the slaves brought  from africa as there are three communities there; indians, slaves and colonisers:  but before i give you the story of this gallant slave, ’tis  fit  i  tell  you  the  manner  of  bringing  them  to  these  new colonies;  those  they  make  use  of  there,  not  being natives of  the  place:  for  those  we  live  with  in  perfect amity, without daring to command ’em; but, on  the  contrary,  caress  ’em  with  all  the  brotherly  and  friendly affection  in the world;  trading with them for  their fish, venison, buffaloes skins, and little rarities;  as marmosets,  a sort  of  monkey,  as  big  as  a  rat  or  weasel, but of a marvellous and delicate shape, having  face and hands like a human creature; and cousheries,  a little beast in the form and fashion of a lion, as big as  a kitten, but so exactly made in all parts like that noble  beast, that it is it in miniature: then for little paraketoes,  great parrots, muckaws, and a thousand other birds and  beasts of wonderful and surprizing forms, shapes, and  colours: for skins of prodigious snakes, of which there  are some three‐score yards in length; as is the skin of  one that may be seen at his majesty’s antiquary’s; where  are also some rare flies, of amazing forms and colours,  presented  to  ’em  by  myself;  some  as  big  as  my  fist,  some  less; and all of various excellencies, such as art  cannot imitate. then we trade for feathers, which they  order  into  all  shapes,  make  themselves  little  short  habits  of  ’em,  and  glorious  wreaths  for  their  heads,  necks,  arms  and  legs,  whose  tinctures  are  unconceivable…  we  dealt  with  ’em  with  beads  of  all  colours, knives, axes, pins and needles, which they us’d  99 only as tools to drill holes with in their ears, noses and  lips, where they hang a great many little things; as long  beads,  bits  of  tin,  brass  or  silver  beat  thin,  and  any  shining  trinket.  the  beads  they  weave  into  aprons  about a quarter of an ell long, and of the same breadth;  working  them  very  prettily  in  flowers  of  several  colours;  which  apron  they  wear  just  before  ’em,  as adam and eve did the fig‐leaves; the men wearing a  long stripe of linen, which they deal with us for. they  thread  these  beads  also  on  long  cotton‐threads,  and  make girdles to tie their aprons to, which come twenty  times, or more, about the waste, and then cross, like a  shoulder‐belt, both ways, and round their necks, arms  and legs. this adornment, with their  long black hair,  and  the face  painted  in  little  specks or  flowers  here  and  there,  makes  ’em  a  wonderful  figure  to  behold.  some of the beauties, which indeed are finely shap’d, as  almost  all  are,  and  who  have  pretty  features,  are  charming  and  novel;  for  they  have  all  that  is  called  beauty, except the colour, which is a reddish yellow; or  after a new oiling, which they often use to themselves,  they are of the colour of a new brick, but smooth, soft  and sleek. they are extreme modest and bashful, very  shy, and nice of being touch’d. and tho’ they are all thus  naked, if one lives for ever among ’em, there is not to be  seen  an  indecent  action,  or  glance:  and  being  continually us’d to see one another so unadorn’d, so like  our first parents before the fall, it seems as if they had  no  wishes,  there  being nothing  to  heighten  curiosity:  but all you can see, you see at once, and every moment  see;  and  where  there  is  no  novelty,  there  can  be  no  curiosity. not but i have seen a handsome young indian,  dying  for  love  of  a  very  beautiful  young indian maid;  but all his courtship was, to fold his arms, pursue her  with his eyes, and sighs were all his language: while  she, as if no such lover were present, or rather as if she  desired  none  such,  carefully  guarded  her  eyes  from  beholding  him;  and  never  approach’d  him,  but  she  looked down with all the blushing modesty i have seen  in  the  most  severe  and  cautious  of  our  world.  and  these people represented to me an absolute idea of the  first state of  innocence, before man knew how to sin:  and  ’tis most evident and plain,  that simple nature  is  the  most  harmless,  inoffensive  and  virtuous  mistress.  ’tis  she  alone,  if  she  were  permitted,  that  better  100 instructs  the world,  than  all  the  inventions  of  man:  religion would here but destroy that tranquillity they  possess by ignorance; and laws would but teach ’em to  know  offences,  of  which  now  they  have  no  notion.  (130‐2)  the european settlers trade with indians who are portrayed as innocent, pure,  beautiful and honest people. this description reminds one of the ‘noble savage’  idea. “the cult and notion of the ‘noble savage’ arose out a romantic disillusion  with european civilisation and a search for innocence and authenticity.” (azim  40) furthermore, although “’tis a continent, whose vast extent was never yet  known,”  (oroonoko 179) and are regarded as dangerous,  the known/colonised  parts of surinam are likened to a tropical heaven:     groves of oranges, lemons, citrons, figs, nutmegs, and  noble  aromaticks,  continually  bearing  their  fragrancies:  the  trees  appearing  all  like  nosegays,  adorn’d  with  flowers  of  different  kinds;  some  are  all  white,  some  purple,  some  scarlet,  some  blue,  some  yellow;  bearing  at  the  same  time  ripe  fruit,  and  blooming young, or producing every day new. (178)    in this first part of the novel, it is stated that it is not only europeans who become  settlers  in  surinam  but  slaves  from  another  continent  are  also  made  settlers  there.  like  white  europeans,  slaves  also  travel  across  the  atlantic  to  the  new  world. slaves are generally brought from coramantien to make them work in the  plantations of sugar. as the narrator explains it,  coramantien2, a country of blacks so called, was one of  those  places  in  which  they  found  the  most  advantageous trading for these slaves, and thither most  of  our  great  traders  in  that  merchandize  traffick;  for  that  nation  is  very  warlike  and  brave;  and  having  a  continual campaign, being always in hostility with one  neighbouring prince or other, they had the fortune to  2 a british-held fort and slave market on the gold coast of africa, in modern-day ghana. 101 take a great many captives:  for all they took in battle  were  sold  as  slaves; 134at  least  those  common  men  who could not ransom themselves. of  these slaves so  taken, the general only has all the profit; and of these  generals our captains and masters of ships buy all their  freights.     as  europeans  admire  the  physical  strength  of  african  black  men,  oroonoko is brought forward as a handsome seventeen‐year old grandson of the  king of coramantien. when the narrator meets oroonoko for the first time, she  cannot hide her surprise because of his difference:  he came into the room, and addressed himself to me,  and  some  other  women,  with  the  best  grace  in  the  world. he was pretty tall, but of a shape the most exact  that can be fancy’d: the most famous statuary could not  form the figure of a man more admirably turn’d from  head  to  foot.  his  face  was  not  of  that  brown  rusty  black  which  most  of  that  nation  are,  but  a  perfect  ebony, or polished jet. his eyes were the most aweful  that could be seen, and very piercing; the white of ’em  being like snow, as were his teeth. his nose was rising  and roman,  instead  of african and  flat:  his  mouth  the  finest shaped that could be seen;  far from those great  turn’d  lips,  which  are  so  natural  to  the  rest  of  the  negroes. the whole proportion and air of his face was  so  nobly  and  exactly  form’d,  that  bating  his  colour,  there  could  be  nothing  in  nature  more  beautiful,  agreeable  and  handsome.  there  was  no  one  grace  wanting,  that  bears  the  standard  of  true  beauty.  his  hair  came  down  to  his  shoulders,  by  the aids  of art,  which was by pulling it out with a quill, and keeping it  comb’d; of which he took particular care. (136‐7)      the  narrator  finds  oroonoko  different  from  other  ‘negros’  because  of  his  appearance and his royal blood. “the representation of oroonoko  is  typical of  accounts of the colonised subject, where that subject, divided and ruptured by the  processes of colonial domination, is fetishised and held up to view as an object of  investigation, sometimes  fearful and at others desirable.”  (azim 50) the black  woman  of  the  text  is  “fair  imoinda”,  (138)  and  love  between  oroonoko  and  102 imoinda is interrupted because of oroonoko’s grandfather’ (the king’s) lust for  her. although she is given the royal veil3 by the king, oroonoko manages to enter  her  room  with  the  help  of  onahal  and  ravishes  her  in  a  moment.  therefore,  imoinda can be neither the queen nor oroonoko’s wife, so she is sold into slavery.  assuming that imoinda is dead oroonoko becomes very sad, but after a while he  decides to resume his duty which is selling slaves to white merchants. however,  after  the  fraud  of  a  european  captain  oroonoko  is  also  sold  into  slavery  and  brought to surinam like other slaves. [oroonoko is] “this innocent and glorious  prize, who thought of nothing less than such an entertainment.” (162) sold as a  slave to a man called trefry, oroonoko who is baptised as caesar in surinam is  now a royal slave. at this stage it can be argued that one of the statements of the  narrator concerning the act of renaming is interesting: “for the future therefore i  must call oroonoko caesar; since by that name only he was known in our western  world.”  (169)  the  importance  of  this  statement  stems  from  the  narrator’s  drawing a distinction between white men and black men. “oroonoko’s status in  the colony is determined by the system of slavery.” (azim 55)      the  second  part  of  the  text  deals  with  the  reunion  of  imoinda  and  oroonoko or with their new ‘christian’ names clemene and caesar. this part of  the novel praises the practice of slavery and england’s colonial expansion. behn  as a royalist approves the court’s colonial activities as a means of civilising others  while trading. “behn was a lifelong and militant royalist, and her fictions are quite  consistent in portraying virtuous royalists and put‐upon nobles who are opposed  by petty and evil republicans/parliamentarians.” (internet) furthermore, on this  topic, as azim highlights,   though  there  is  a  celebration  of  other  ‘primitive’  cultures, it is nonetheless the products of the european  enlightenment  who  are  celebrated.  trefry  stands  as  representative and symbol of the new order in europe.  however,  the  economic  prosperity  of  that  order  is  based on commercial and colonial expansion. (56)  3 a symbol of invitation to the royal bed. 103 upon imoinda’s pregnancy, oroonoko demands for their liberty and return to the  home land. however, he is refused. ironically enough, a text which claims itself to  be interested in human rights legitimises a system that trade in human bodies.  therefore,  the  narrator  and  oroonoko  start  to  disagree  about  the  concept  of  rights  when  especially  oroonoko  has  thoughts  of  escape  and  rebellion.  “her  admiration for the hero is replaced by suspicion.” (azim 57) in this sense,  the  reader  can  draw  a  simple  conclusion  about  behn’s  thoughts  about  england’s  colonial  expansion:  she  thinks  that  as  long  as  oroonoko  remains  within  the  conditions  laid  down  by  his  white  masters,  he  can  be  loved  and  admired.  therefore,  towards  the  end  of  the  text  the  friendly  and  admiring  european  narrator is shocked at oroonoko’s rebellion. his attempts of escape fade and they  are caught and whipped. at the end of the novel, oroonoko kills his wife and child  to  efface  his  future  in  an  act  of  desperation.  oroonoko  is  tortured,  publicly  executed and his body is torn into pieces.      what  behn  underlines  in  the  colonial  sense  is  the  devastating  experiences  lived  in a colony which  is not ruled by  ‘a good governor’ and she  never  protests  against  slavery.  she  always has  faith  in  king and  his  decisions  regarding  colonialism.  in  a  sense,  aphra  behn,  like  bacon  tries  to  show  the  ‘proper ways of colonising’ others, and she does it illustrating a bad‐ruled colony,  peopled with unlucky slaves such as oroonoko and imoinda.  thus died this great man, worthy of a better fate, and a  more  sublime  wit  than  mine  to  write  his  praise:  yet,  i hope, the reputation of my pen is considerable enough  to make his glorious name to survive to all ages, with  that  of  the  brave,  the  beautiful  and  the  constant  imoinda.     therefore, at the end of the novel behn seems to be sorry for oroonoko but her  pity is just for one man. she does not criticise the whole system of colonization  and slavery.   104   consequently, this paper has claimed that shakespeare’s, fletcher’s and  behn’s colonial writings display a lot of contemporary political issues in england.  besides  they  are  regarded  as  suitable  materials  to  be  interpreted  in  order  to  understand modern/post‐colonialism with modern terminology. this study has  also shown the importance of colonialism in the seventeenth century england to  gain either ‘power’ or reinforce its ‘supremacy’ over other nations.                                            105 works cited    abrams, m. h. ed. the norton anthology of english literature. 6th edition.  london: norton&company, 1993.  azim, firdous. the colonial rise of the novel. london: routledge, 1993.  behn, aphra. oroonoko: or, the royal slave. a true story in the works of  aphra  behn.  e‐text  from  project  gutenberg.  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29854/29854‐h/29854‐h.htm  bevington, david. the complete works of shakespeare. new york: pearson,  2009.  bauer,  ralph.  “travel,  exploration,  and  empire”  in  english  renaissance  literature. ed. donna b. hamilton. oxford: blackwell publishing, 2006.  bhabba, homi. the location of culture. new york: routledge, 1994.  bush, douglas. english literature  in the early seventeenth century, 1600­ 1660. oxford: the clarendon press, 1952.  finley, m. i. “colonies: an attempt at a typology”. source: transactions of  the  royal  historical  society,  fifth  series,  vol.  26  (1976),  pp.  167‐188  published  by:  royal  historical  society  stable  url:  http://www.jstor.org/stable/3679077  fletcher,  john.  the  island  princess.  ed.  george  walton  williams,  in  the  dramatic  works  in  the  beaumont  and  fletcher  canon.  ed.  fredson  bowers.  cambridge: cambridge university press, 1982.  foucault,  michel.  “what  is  an  author?”  in  the  foucault  reader.  ed.  paul  rabinow. harmondsworth: penguin, 1986.  ______ the history of sexuality: an  introduction vol. 1. new york: vintage  books. 1990.  gillies, john. shakespeare and the geography of difference. cambridge: the  press syndicate of the university of cambridge, 1994.  gordon, colin. ed. power/knowledge: selected interviews & other writings  1972­1977. new york: pantheon books, 1980.  106 hadfield,  andrew.  literature,  travel,  and  colonial  writing  in  the  english  renaissance 1545­1625. oxford: oxford university press, 1998.  hankey,  julie.  ed  othello  2nd  edition.  cambridge:  cambridge  university  press, 2005.  helgerson,  richard.  forms  of  nationhood:  the  elizabethan  writing  of  england. chicago and london: university of chicago press, 1992.    horvath,  ronal  j.    “a  definition  of  colonialism”  source:  current  anthropology,  vol.  13,  no.  1  (feb.,  1972),  pp.  45‐57  published  by:  the  university  of  chicago  press  on  behalf  of  wenner‐gren  foundation  for  anthropological research stable url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2741072  hunter  g.  k.,  “othello  and  colour  prejudice”  in  dramatic  identities  and  cultural tradition: studies  in shakespeare and his contemporaries. liverpool  university press, 1978.  kermode, frank. the tempest: the arden shakespeare. london: methuen,  1954.  loomba,  ania.  shakespeare,  race,  and  colonialism.  oxford:  oxford  university press, 2002.  _______  “outsiders in shakespeare’s england” in the cambridge companion  to shakespeare. cambridge: cup, 2001  markley,  robert.  the  far  east  and  the  english  imagination,  1600­1730.  cambridge: cambridge university press, 2006.  nietzsche, friedrich wilhelm. thus spoke zarathustra: a book for all and  none. graham parkes trans. new york: oxford university press, 2005.   shakespeare, william. othello and the tempest in the complete works of  shakespeare. hertfordshire: wordsworth editions, 1996.   skura, m. anne. “discourse and the individual: the case of colonialism in  the tempest”. source: shakespeare quarterly, vol. 40, no. 1 (spring, 1989), pp.  42‐69 published by: folger shakespeare library  in association with george  washington university stable url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2870753  107 strach[e]y, william. “a true repertory of the wreck and redemption of sir  thomas  gates,  july  15,  1610”,  in  purchas  his  pilgrimes.  vol.  xix.  glasgow:  maclehose; new york: macmillan, 1906.  turler,  jerome.  the  traveiler.(1575)  intro.  by  denver  ewing  baughan.  gainesville: fl: scholars’ facsimiles and reprints, 1951.  vaughan,  virginia  mason.  othello:  a  contextual  history.  cambridge:  cambridge university press, 1994.  wilson, richard.” voyage to tunis: new history and the old world of the  tempest.”  elh,  vol.  64,  no.  2  (summer,  1997),  published  by: the  johns  hopkins university press.  for dreyfus’ quotation concerning foucault:   http://ist‐socrates.berkeley.edu/~hdreyfus/html/paper_being.html    for  ‘privateering’:  http://www.thefreedictionary.com/privateering.  also  see kenneth andrews’ elizabethan privateering: english privateering during  the spanish war, 1585‐1603.   for cinthio’s “un capitano moro”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/othello.  for behn as a royalist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/oroonoko        epiphany_vol14_no_2_edited_2023.7.3.indd c. a. patrick et al. a military discourse and stylistic variation 53 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies vol. 15 no. 2, 202252 a military discourse and stylistic variation: language use in odogbo army barracks in ojoo-ibadan nigeria c. a. patrick c. a. adetuyi j. a. adegboye a. a. abiodun-daniel glorious vision university abstract � is study examines language use among soldiers in the odogbo army barracks in ojoo-ibadan during training and parade activities. a good number of scholars have investigated language use in the armed forces, and many of them adopted di� erent approaches and arrived at di� erent conclusions. however, there is a paucity of scholarship on the shared knowledge that soldiers deploy in their language during training, parades, and other special activities. � e study adopts a qualitative method since the data involved are descriptive. � e data used in this study was harvested through participant observations of parade activities by soldiers, as were the audio recordings of army interactions during a parade. odogbo army barracks in ojoo, ibadan, was purposefully selected since it was the � rst barracks in ibadan and was saddled with the responsibility of coordinating the military activities in southwestern nigeria. � e collected data were analysed from sociolinguistic perspective through identi� cation and interpretation in the military context vis-à-vis the interlocutor. � e paper concluded that soldiers’ language in parade involves an authoritative style obeyed by the parade troop as a result of shared knowledge. keywords: discourse, military culture, parade, paralanguage, speech community epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction � ere is less controversy surrounding the idea that languages have di� erent varieties, notwithstanding the debates that frequently follow theories and propositions among linguists. it is widely accepted that human language belongs to the human community and that it has great value in society. every normal child acquires a mother tongue or � rst language (mt or li) soon a� er birth, and there are thousands of languages all over the world. however, each of these languages also has its versions in addition to the main or core languages. variety is nothing more than various forms of the same thing. language variety is a blanket term for all overlapping subdivisions of a language, such as a dialect, register, jargon, and idiolect (nordquist 2020). a distinct group of items or human speech patterns, such as sounds, words, or grammatical traits, that are created by factors such as variances in geographical location or social group associated with a particular group of speakers can be described as diversity in linguistics. we rarely ever take the time to describe speech because it is such a common aspect of daily life. only breathing feels more natural to a guy than it does, second only to walking. nigerian military personnel feel more at ease when they use lexical terms, alphabetical symbols, lingos, slang, cants, and other terms speci� c to their line of work. � ese terms make it possible for them to communicate a lot of information rapidly and create bonds with one another in the face of danger. an outsider was frequently lost in the forest of their slang. sometimes their terms are well-known words inverted to mean something entirely di� erent, such as “pot” and “head,” “massage” and “beating,” “oxygen thief ” and “recruit” who talks too much, “bravo!” “zulu”—a compliment meaning “well done,” clown—a cadet in his or her � rst year, etc. other times, the terms are entirely strange, like “boye” for “garri,” “sama for “lady,” “jikapa” for “cleaning,” “bolo for “someone who can’t pass marksmanship training,” etc. � is kind of language has been called military linguistics. (hawryluk, 2010, p. 231) or military discourse. � e focus of this research, however, is on c. a. patrick et al. c. a. patrick et al. a military discourse and stylistic variation a military discourse and stylistic variation 5554 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the stylistic variation of language use in odogbo army barracks in ibadan. � ere is scarcity of research on the speci� c and interactive use of language based on alphabetical representation, lexical words, and acronyms utilised in many contexts within nigerian military discourse, most notably parade and training embedded with authoritative styles. as a result, an examination of the authoritative use of language on parade ground as well as training, is required. it is this scholarship gap that has necessitated this study. literature speech can be de� ned as a system of arbitrary vocalisations used by humans for communication. within a group of individuals, it is a method of meaning-conveying vocal sound communication. language is conventionally meaning-laden and at the disposal of man; it is used by him to convey ideas, thoughts, and emotions, as well as help him understand his fellow man and the environment around him (akinpelu, okedara, and omolewa, 2005, p. 18). � us, the harmonious functioning of any society in terms of socialisation depends to a large extent on language. � e term “speech community” refers to a language or what is intended by a linguistic community. it is regarded as a group of communitarian speakers, whose shared experiences and behavioural patterns are expressed in a single tongue. as a result, a speech community can be de� ned as either a monolingual or multilingual social group in communication (gumperz, 1968). a speech community is any group of people who regularly communicate with one another using a common set of verbal cues, setting them apart from similar groups. (gumperz, 1972, p. 58). in a comparable vein, lyons (1970), de� nes speech community as “shared language use”, hymes (1972c) sees it as “shared rules of speaking and interpretation of speech performance, while labov (1972) and sherzer (1975) describe it as “shared attitudes and values regarding language forms and use” and “shared sociocultural understandings and presuppositions with regard to speech” respectively. verbal behaviour is characterised by a clear, succinct, and standardised use of language, with an emphasis on e� ectively and e� ciently transferring information. � is is based on � nite sets of grammatical rules that underlie the production of well-formed sentences. a community denotes an aggregate of people with shared experiences expressed and recorded in a language (or dialect of a language) that belongs to them. all the people who use the language or dialect belong to a speech community. it is sometimes referred to by some scholars as a “speech fellowship” (kachru, 1986, p. 10). in contrast, the army barracks investigated in this study is a speech community where the daily conversation is conducted in many varieties of english. although they speak di� erent languages, the military as a whole, which includes the army, air force, and navy, has developed a unique type of english through which their daily tasks are carried out. � is, perhaps, is in concomitance with saville-troike’s (2003:62-64) classi� cation of varieties of language into varieties associated with setting and varieties associated with activity domain. according to him, the former is “a form of register distinguished on the dimension of relative formality”, and the latter is “a variety of language of groups that are organized along lines of shared beliefs, skills or training and interests, and which are used in the conduct of their a� airs as in the case of the military” (italics ours). � ere have been several studies on military institutions and language varieties around the world. many scholars from all over the world have written about military discourse. juhary (2013), for example, investigated english language courses at malaysia’s national defense university. � e study revealed that pro� ciency in the english language is essential for successful military exercises during peacekeeping operations involving malaysian soldiers. also, albright (2020) carried out a study of social dialect features of military speech of fargo-area from sociolinguistics c. a. patrick et al. c. a. patrick et al. a military discourse and stylistic variation a military discourse and stylistic variation 5756 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies point of view. � e study noted that some changes take place in the wat veterans speak a� er training. � e study further established that this infusion of terms to which veterans maintain lasting access leads to the availability of descriptions that can only be understood by the speci� c social group from which they were borne. ali and satti (2021) in their research titled, jagon in military: a comparative analysis of english varieties in pakistan based on hallidayan’s functional perspective revealed that pakistani military o� cers and soldiers use varieties of english that employ phonological di� erences regardless of their regions, exposure, educational background, and mother tongue in� uence. � eir study further shown that macro acquisition may be likely the reason for linguistic variety in english because uniformity prevails at large scale in both military groups. and that many are understood at all levels of military community without any misinterpretation. � e submissions of these researchers presuppose that both military groups possess their peculiar speech community world over. some others investigated military vocabulary (kalashnikova and samoylova, 2021), focusing on the typological features of distinguished genres in order to determine informative propensities. additionally, a signi� cant number of academic studies on language use in nigeria’s armed services have been conducted; (amafah 1990, ayeomoni 2005a, okongor 2015, ogundele 2016, bamigbola 2022, etc.). amafah (1990), for instance, looked into the language style of the nigerian police force. � e scholar reveals that the inspirational role of language in the armed forces is intended to raise soldier morale and mobilise them toward a goal (e.g., masculinity, esprit de corps, national survival, etc.). uwen (2019) studied the interactions between the armed forces in akwa ibom state’s morphological processes. according to uwen, the paramilitary, which consists of the nigerian police force, the federal road safety corps, and the nigerian security and civil defense corps, uses english to spread its paramilitary philosophy (p. 25). okongor (2015) investigated the language of the military, focusing on its specialised variety. okongor revealed that the features of the military language are comparatively di� erent from other varieties of english. he concluded that, despite its oddness, military lingo is important to the � eld. ayeomoni (2005a) also investigated military political language in nigeria, adopting linguistic stylistics approach. his study revealed that language and politics are tightly connected, and that military frames language to cater for di� erent purposes and situations. ogundele (2016) explored how context a� ected how troops interpreted one another’s intentions during exchanges at an army parade. � e scholar revealed that contextual factors make up a variety of assumptions that soldiers operate upon to produce and understand verbal exchanges of parade conversations among nigerian troops, which can facilitate access to exchanges at nigerian army parades when shared. bamigbola (2022) investigated the symbolic actions the nigerian army engaged in during parade drills. � e scholar showed that language is typically powerful rather than persuasive in the military because regular use of authority matches the illocutionary force of a command. it concluded that non-verbal communication, context, and shared contextual assumptions are important pragmatic tools used by the nigerian army when conducting parades. from the foregoing, it is obvious that scholars have investigated language use among the armed forces, especially the military, in a variety of ways. while some (sherzer, 1975; saville-troike 2003; etc.) established the formal styles of issuing order among the military through language use, some others (amafah, 1990) investigated the persuasive nature of language use among the military and some others (bamigbola, 2022) probed the direct style of language use among nigeria military. � us, this study underscores the fact that even though there are common features in military english all over world such as military acronyms, jargon, slang, use of concise communication, standard operating procedures (sops), etc., there are variations because, as a speech community, there are sub-groups with their own peculiar technical c. a. patrick et al. c. a. patrick et al. a military discourse and stylistic variation a military discourse and stylistic variation 5958 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies vocabulary and means of expressions occasioned by cultural and historical factors, pronunciation, accent, peculiar challenges, etc. in our discussions, it is obvious enough that the nigeria military deploy authoritative styles in their language use during parades in order to communicate clearly and assertively so as to give orders and decisions for maintaining discipline and ensuring that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities. methodology and design � e study, which is based on sociolinguistic orientation, adopted a qualitative method since it deals with descriptive data involving people’s written or spoken words and observable behaviour (taylor et al., 2016, p. 7). for this study, qualitative research is best suitable since it identi� es with and empathises with the individuals being understudied to learn how they see things (taylor, 2016, p. 8). to better understand the military use of language, this study looks at how they speak in a variety of settings, including parades, military operations, and everyday conversation. � e study will pay special attention to linguistic styles that are unique to the military culture and serve the purpose of conveying clear and concise information within the military organisation and between military personnel in odogbo military barracks in ibadan. � e study adopted ethnographic method of collecting data involving close interactions, keen observation, � eld research notes and recording of empirical data. � e researchers had close-up observation and interactions with soldiers at the odogbo army barracks in ojoo ibadan during their parades in order to gain deeper insights and detailed account of their language use. considerable time was spent recording and interacting with military o� cials at the barracks; the interactions, observations and recording took three days in order to measure the consistency in the language use. � e choice of odogbo army barracks was motivated by the knowledge that the odogbo army barracks is the second mechanised division of the nigerian army, a� er the � st in kaduna. it was one of the � rst barracks constructed during the civil war and it was charged with maintaining law and order in the southwest of nigeria. and as a combat support and service-attached mechanised infantry saddled with the responsibility of coordinating the military activities in the whole of southwestern nigeria, there are constant training and parade activities during which soldiers manifest all forms of linguistic localization and variation. content analysis was adopted as the method of data analysis and presentation since the study requires breaking down the harvested data into manageable units or codes in order to determine the attitudinal and behavioural responses of the soldiers to directives during parade. relational analysis which is a cardinal aspect of content analysis was adopted to determine the patterns and international di� erences in communication trends since military’s wording is ambiguous on the surface while it is embedded with authority, especially during parade training and patrol. for example, “bloody civilians,” is a term used by military personnel to describe non-military individuals. � is reveals the uniqueness and peculiarities of the language of the military in nigeria. results and discussion � e army, navy, and air force collectively make up the military, which has its own slang, dialect, terminology, and jargon that sets it apart from other groups and organisations. as a result, the government now acknowledges the terminologies used in military parades. according to widdowson (1996), the jargon that encompasses the language used in military parades includes “words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group of people and are di� cult for others to understand.” (p.86). chambers (2002) observes that jargons are the terminology of a profession. � is shows that only those who are in the profession are aware of and can understand c. a. patrick et al. c. a. patrick et al. a military discourse and stylistic variation a military discourse and stylistic variation 6160 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies them. ikenna and isaac (2015) add that jargons are: a derogatory word which denotes the technical, semitechnical or pseudo technical language used by a profession which those outside the group do not understand”. it is the language or mode of communication known and understood by only members of that profession (26). jargon has also been de� ned by hartman and stork (1972) as “a set of terms or expressions used by a social or occupational group but not used or o� en understood by the speech community as a whole” (p. 17). jargon describes a speci� c language or vocabulary used by a speci� c set of individuals, such as members of a profession or trade. � is view � nds support in george packer’s description of jargon: professional jargon — on wall street, in humanities departments, in government o� ces — can be a fence raised to keep out the uninitiated and permit those within it to persist in the belief that what they do is too hard, too complex, to be questioned. jargon acts not only to euphemize but to license, setting insiders against outsiders and giving the � imsiest notions a scienti� c aura (as qt by nordquist, 2020). when communicating among group members, jargon is frequently employed to make it easier and more e� ective. for people outside the group, it might, however, be challenging to understand. jargon can take many forms, including legal terminology, medical terms, and computer phrases. on the other hand, slang is exclusive to or has its roots in the military forces. slang frequently combines elements of o� cial military concepts and words in the form of abbreviations, acronyms, nato phonetic alphabet derivatives, and other forms. � e word “military parade” derives from the ancient practise of “formation battle,” in which soldiers were kept in particularly rigid formations to increase their combat e� ciency. melee combat, which needed rigorous soldier discipline and capable leaders, was viewed as an inferior kind of combat. for ceremonial or non-combat situations, parades are still used by armies today because they are e� ective, simple to organise and promote discipline. firth (1957) described the uniqueness of a military parade’s language as “register,” which, in his opinion “is serving a circumscribed � eld of experience or action and having its grammar and dictionary” (p. 25). � is illustrates how the parade terminologies are acceptable in this circumstance since it is a language with all the di� erent qualities firth listed. � e language was created because it functions di� erently for communication, defence, and combat in addition to communication. along with linguistic elements, the language also uses para-language, a form of communication utilised by the military during a military parade that is referred to as signal language. � e meanings of the phrases used during parade are uttered in a linguistic and paralinguistic blend, making comprehension di� cult. a variation of the english language, through its lexico-semantic, syntactic, and phonological patterns, the language used at nigerian military parades re� ects di� erences in the social situations of the participants. � e military alphabet as recorded by captain jacob (2005) (quoted in ogundele 2016) is analysed below: a – alpha b – bravo c – charlie d – delta e – echo f – foxtrot g – golf h – hotel i – india j – juliet k – kilo llima m – mike n – november o – oscar p – papa q – quebec r – romeo s – sierra t – tango u – uniform v – victor w – whiskey x – xray y – yankee z zulu c. a. patrick et al. c. a. patrick et al. a military discourse and stylistic variation a military discourse and stylistic variation 6362 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies looking at the above military alphabetical analysis, one will observe that it is di� erent from the generally known and acceptable english alphabet. � e military, having formed a linguistic society with a di� erent form of the english language, has concluded that the letter “a” for “alpha,” “b” for “bravo,” “c” for “charlie,” “d” for “delta,” and so on should be substituted. so, they simply and easily form meaningful words from these alphabets. for instance, instead of saying, “d.o. (which means “director of operations”) on the line sir,” when speaking on the phone, they simply say “delta oscar on the line sir.” “kola” would be “kilo oscar lima alpha” “mathew” would be “mike alpha tango hotel echol whiskey” “sunday” would be “sierra uniform november delta alpha yankee” “uche” would be “uniform charlie hotel echo” “musa” would be “mike uniform sierra alpha”. � e analysis of this study demonstrates that one primary style — the authoritative style — is shown by the contextual language use in the nigerian army parade encounter. interactional professional skills (ips) � is type of interaction resulted in instrumental sound, human-focused sound, and paralanguage, all of which are peculiar to the nigerian army’s competition as discussed below: excerpt i (i) instrumental sound � is is an instrumental sound that involves the use of musical instruments such as drums and trumpets. � e sound is used to communicate information or directives between interlocutors, which is aided by the usual professional training provided by the nigerian military academy. � e band corps, therefore, communicates with the concerned soldiers through the use of instrumental sounds. � is is synonymous with “speech signals” in the nigerian military context. � e band corps, for instance, executes this activity during the parade to dress in nigerian army. it has been noticed that the band corps serves as a signal code for the soldiers during parades and also functions as a command order for the soldiers to dress, facing their le� and dressing as expected in the nigerian army. excerpt 2 (ii) human focused sound � e band corps can also conduct sporadic relays of trumpet and drum. present arms are mentioned in excerpt 2 above. � e verb’s synonym. � e drum and trumpet are utilised in the order that reveals the human-focused sound. as a result, the soldiers keep their ri� es erect and o� the ground when they are standing at attention. � e review o� cer and parade commander both put down their swords. excerpt 3 (up) sound: fallooout excerpts 4 (up) command: (indicating)’tion! excerpts 3 and 4 are commands or orders to the two guard o� cers to take their exit from the parade while the parade commander and the soldiers on parade are at attention. members of the nigerian army do this professionally because of their common military training and retraining. paralanguage � e actions displayed by the parade commander, adjutant warrant o� cer, and other soldiers in the nigerian army are body language or paralanguage expressed through gestures and signs or actions alongside the marching, turnings, stern faces, and obedience at the parade. � ey do react to or respond to military orders or commands with serious commitment. � is is evident in the collected data and information in the study. excerpt 5 adjutant: shouuldeeered arms! � ey swi� ly comply with this order by clapping their weapons across their c. a. patrick et al. c. a. patrick et al. a military discourse and stylistic variation a military discourse and stylistic variation 6564 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies shoulders with their right hands. � e review o� cer also nods to allow the march commander to continue leading the parade. given that he and the review o� cer share a comparable understanding of this, the parade leader behaves appropriately. nigerian army parade interaction analysis � e language used in the nigerian army parade interaction reveals primarily an authoritative style. generally speaking, the authoritative style refers to all instances of power and control exerted by a person, given the recognised knowledge or expertise wielded over others to carry out speci� c duties. its use here refers to all forms of language manipulation through speech or signal command by senior soldiers over their subordinates to execute de� nite duties for which total obedience is required. � is style occurs in the formal asymmetrical power contexts of the discourse, especially during parade interactions in the army, where the language re� ects the strict exercise of authority, power, and control by the addressee or on the addressee(s), arising from the status distinction subsisting between them. as revealed in the data, this style is o� en enacted through the deployment of intonation cues, lexical repetition or repetition, collocation, sound signalling, and action-oriented body language, as discussed below: intonation cues in this work, intonation cues refer to all instances of tonal variation that are superimposed on the linguistic items used. � is is one of the distinguishing characteristics of parade interaction in the formal asymmetrical power context of army discourse, where the authoritative style is achieved by their use. � ese linguistic items are used by a commander during a parade purposefully to arrest their attention so that they can be attentive to the instructions relayed and respond accordingly. two types of intonation cues have been observed: rising and falling tones, but with more occurrences of the former than the latter. � e rising tune is prevalent when the addressee or relay relays information on a speci� c order to be carried out as the activities are in progress, while the falling tune usually rides on the actual order. where they are used in the discourse, they serve to direct the addressees to take particular activities. let us examine the excerpts below: except 6 p.c: baaai the left quick march in the excerpt above, the p.c. has just started the parade, with the stress and falling tune placed on “by” and “le� ,” respectively. � e tune starts to rise again from “quick” and continues rising on “march,” but with none of the constituent words attracting stress. � is scenario usually obtains at the commencement of the parade, as observed in the data. � e soldiers understand this because they have a comparable understanding of the cues, and they react appropriately by starting the march past. except 7 p.c: left turn (softly) � e excerpt above indicates unmarked cues as the parade commander issues the order faintly. � is occurs immediately a� er the parade has commenced, as observed in the data. di� erent situations arise when requesting, as illustrated below: excerpt 8 p.c: 22 brigade forms up 3 o� cers, 49 soldiers on parade, ready for the competition may i have your permission to carry on, sir? (he raises his sword, bites it, and brings it down as a mark of request to carry on.) in the above excerpt, the p.c. is seeking authority from the review o� cer to continue with the parade, which the latter ultimately gives through nodding, signalling the authority to carry on with the parade. in seeking this authority, there is a rising tone in all the word groups except “the competition,” which has a falling tone; however, none of the words is stressed. � is indicates a mark of politeness and an asymmetrical relationship c. a. patrick et al. c. a. patrick et al. a military discourse and stylistic variation a military discourse and stylistic variation 6766 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies between the parade commander and the review o� cer; this understanding is also shared by the participants during the parade interaction. � e excerpts below demonstrate a di� erent situation: except 9 adjutant: paraaade will advaaance; baaai the leeeft quick march in the above excerpt, the adjutant, who acted in the position of a parade commander, deploys his authority through the stress placed on “parade,” “advance,” “by,” and “le� .” however, the tune starts to rise on the last syllable of “advance” and starts falling from “baaai,” with the � nal fall on “le� ,” a� er which there is a long pause; the tune starts rising again when the actual order “quick march!” is relayed. � is attracts the rising tune without any stress placed on any of the constituent words. � is is obtained in a situation when a parade wants to resume a� er it has been halted by the pc, and the soldiers understand this and act accordingly. excerpt 10 adjutant: turn to the leeeft hand; siiideleeft turn in the text above, the italicised item is an instruction regarding the order to be carried out; as such, the tune continuously rises from “turn” and does not fall; again, “le� ” and “side” attract stress toward each other. � e adjutant pauses for a while a� er he instructs the soldiers to maintain the status quo. at the time of the actual order, ‘leee� turn!’ the tune starts to fall from “le� ” to “turn.” � is scenario describes a situation when a parade is already in progress and the soldiers share an understanding and act accordingly. � e following example also describes the status of the cues when a parade is in progress. excerpt 11 adjutant: salute to the riight. salute in the above excerpt, the adjutant commands the soldier to greet the audience at the right � ank of the parade ground. here, the tune starts rising from “salute” and does not fall on “right,” a� er which there is a pause; the stress placed on the “right” emphasises the direction to keep when saluting. at the relay of the order “salute,” the tune starts to rise again, and the soldiers understand this and respond by saluting, facing the right � ank of the parade where the audience, which consists of soldiers and civilians, is on standby. let us consider more examples: excerpt 12 adjutant: changiingsteep: change step here, the adjutant deploys an authoritative style by ordering the soldiers to change their steps while marking the time. marking time indicates that they are stationed on a spot while the parade is still in progress; as such, the adjutant wants them to change their steps. � e italicised item communicates information concerning the order to be executed by the soldiers. regarding the items, the tune rises and does not fall, with the words attracting stress placement that reinforces their sonority. however, at the relay of the order deployed in an authoritative style, the tone drastically drops, with the soldiers understanding this and acting accordingly. excerpt 13 adjutant: (from slow march). changing to quick tiiined! (longer pause) baaai the leeeft (pause), quick march � e adjutant orders the soldiers to begin marching quickly in the excerpt above, with the stress placed on and le� elongating his tone, preparing the soldiers for the order to be executed, which is a quick march, with quite attracting a rising tone, thereby marking the march as quick as opposed to slow. lexical repetition/reiteration with regard to this study, this refers to the recurrence, replication, or duplication of lexical items during discourse interaction, where they are employed to achieve the authoritative style. lexical repetition can be partial or total (odebunmi, 2006, p. 50). in the former, only a portion of the clause is repeated, while the entire clause is replicated in the latter type. our � ndings of the lexical repetition in the parade interaction reveal both c. a. patrick et al. c. a. patrick et al. a military discourse and stylistic variation a military discourse and stylistic variation 6968 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies types, but with more occurrences of partial repetition, which indicates the economic use of words to save time. � ey are used to command soldiers to carry out speci� c actions that are strictly restricted to the military. � e excerpts below illustrate this: excerpt 14 rsm: parade will form 2 rounds. form 2 rounds. � e excerpt above depicts parade activity and portrays an instance of partial repetition. � e clause, “parade will form two rounds,” is a declarative statement preparing soldiers for the next line of action to be carried out. however, in “form 2 rounds,” the repeated items indicate imperative sentences without a subject. � e item is repeated to indicate the focal point of the rsm that he wants the addressees to recognise. � e soldiers recognise this and act promptly. excerpt 15 adjutant: changiiingsteeep! change step (low tone) in the above, “changiiingsteeep”, a present continuous verb form, does not depict a continuous action as used here but a simple present declarative statement preparing soldiers for the real action to be carried out, which is the items repeated in a low tone; hence, “change step”. lexical collocation collocation is a meaning relationship in which words co-occur to form a speci� c meaning. � e collocation “is the type of cohesion that is achieved through the association of lexical items that regularly co-occur, especially in a similar environment” (halliday and hasan, 1976, p. 287). collocations are of two types: � xed and free collocations (woodhaugh, 2010, p. 23). fixed collocations are so strong that they cannot be changed in any way, with the ordering of the letters completely � xed. � ey include phrasal verbs (put up with, stand up for, etc.) and idioms (a wet blanket, cross the rubicon, kick the bucket, etc.). words that frequently appear with a wide variety of other words are included in free collation. � ey are subject to restrictions and limitations, which give rise to a wide range of variations. here are a few instances: over-load, lord, look, leaf, grown, head etc. black-sheep, list, mail, man, polish board, etc. � e analysis of parade interaction in odogbo army barracks reveals predominant instances of � xed lexical collocations; this de� nes the � eld of discourse as a parade-oriented one. � e examples below su� ce. excerpt 16 p.c: stand aaat ease! here, the word stand + aaat + ease, indicating a verbal signal used by the parade commander to order the soldiers to unwind. � is is accompanied by the butt of their ri� es touching the ground. as such, soldiers can relax by talking, stretching themselves, and so on, in anticipation of further tasks. due to their shared understanding of the directive with the parade commander, they were able to react appropriately. excerpt 17 p. c: shouldeeered arms soldiers: comply here, the shoulder collocates with the arms, thus constituting a verbal signal vested in the parade commander. as a result of their shared understanding of the directive, the troops on parade obey the command to elevate their ri� es o� the ground and clasp them by their right sides at shoulder height. conclusion � e interactions between nigerian army personnel during parades have shown that the authoritative style is the primary style used by nigerian army members. � is style is deployed through various linguistic and nonc. a. patrick et al. c. a. patrick et al. a military discourse and stylistic variation a military discourse and stylistic variation 7170 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies linguistic devices. � e linguistic resources that mark the style deployed are intonation cues, lexical repetition/reiteration and collocations, while the non-linguistic resources involve life sound signals, constituting instrument and human-based sound, and action-oriented body language. instrumentbased sounds identi� ed are band and trumpet; while human-based sound bifurcates into up and hiz signal sound; gesture such as nodding constitutes action-oriented body language. all these mark the authoritative style deployed by soldiers in parade interaction which must be unquestionably obeyed by the parade troop. � us, there is a close link between the styles deployed by soldiers of the nigerian army during the parade. it can also be concluded, in concomitance with ayeomoni’s (2005a) submissions, that military cra� s di� erent linguistic items, as observed in the current study, to cater for the purpose of her parades and other routine drills in the barrack. we close with nordquist (2020): � e language varieties, or lects, that people speak o� en serve as the basis for judgment, and even exclusion, from certain social groups, professions, and business organizations. as you study language varieties, keep in mind that they are o� en based on judgments one group is making in regard to another. references akinpelu, j. a., et. al. 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(2004). a discourse of gender in the contemporary british army. sage journal of armed forces and society 30(2), 279-301. personal confessions of a rebel: brendan behan’s last book epiphany online journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / volume 1 / no. 1 fall 2008 ©2008, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. humour in the prison: brendan behan confesses enrico terrinoni university of rome evelyn waugh, a british satirical writer with little working class connections, once remarked that ―anyone who has been to an english public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison.‖ accordingly, he argued that it ―is people brought up in the gay intimacy of the slums who find prison so soul destroying‖ (128). for all the wit of the paradox, its patronizing nuances spoil it of much of its intended comic potential. to speak of the ―gay intimacy of the slums‖ is a way of looking down at the people actually living in the slums, as only a person with little knowledge of slum life would be capable of doing. this is why, as a member of the respectable london middle-class, waugh might not have been surprised at hearing what an experienced irish convict, brendan behan, had to say about him in a satirical ballad included in his play the hostage – which took london by storm in 1958: ―in our dreams we see old harrow, and we hear the crow‘s load caw / at the flower show our big marrow takes the prize from evelyn waugh‖ (complete plays 193). the song powerfully mocks at the typically highbrow arrogance of british upper classes, of which waugh seems to be a symbol. not only was behan someone with much knowledge of both slum and prison life, but he was also an irish nationalist and a socialist, and therefore represented in a way identitarian and political values that were in plain opposition to those of waugh. this way of starting a reflection on the comical aspects of behan‘s writings helps us see that humour, especially black humour, often flourishes wherever we enrico terrinoni 63 find conflicts and contrasts. humour is always born out of oppositions, and it can indeed be argued that it always functions as an act of resistance to outside tragedy. alternation of comical and dramatic scenes in the novel, as well as in the theatre tradition, is not only an infallible device supporting the structure of many successful texts, but also something that pertains to the very nature of existence itself. it being a sort of hidden force that keeps us from desperation, it is inevitably connected with the acknowledgement of widespread suffering and wretchedness, and provides a detaching response to it. brendan behan, a writer of slum and working class background, is one of the leading irish prison writers. more than that, as a former ira borstal boy, he is in many ways an exponent of an irish republican tradition based on the idea of prison endurance, alongside john mitchel, ernie o‘malley, bobby sands, gerry adams and many others. 1 he used to boast that he had been ―in every respectable jail in the world,‖ (qtd. in mccann 172) and when he was asked by an interviewer which prison he preferred, english or irish, he answered: ―english jails when you are young, and irish jails when you are older‖ (qtd. in mccann 13). prisons and other institutions of confinement such as industrial schools, magdalene‘s asylums, and english public schools, are places where the convicted guests are forced to deal with all possible restrictions of the concept of intimacy, especially in terms of intimate interactions and relationships. rather than producing always, as one might well expect, general discomfort and despair, such a deprivation may often prompt, at least in fiction, very funny accounts. this is often the case with behan. prison intimacy being mostly a kind of self-intimacy, it can turn into a powerful tool of resistance. the negation of the right to privacy is sanctioned by prison bylaws and enforced by screws, a category of people behan generally 1 see kearney 48-59; farquharson 31-3. humour in prison: brendan behan confesses 64 disliked. one of the contrasts out of which most of the fun emerges in behan‘s representations of prison life, is the ironical otherness – if i am allowed the use of this term in the present context – of the screws. he has often harsh words for them, and tends to address them with funny torrents of abusive language, like in the very beginning of confessions of an irish rebel: ‗you‘re for the governor in the morning,‘ said this dreary red-headed little welsh methodist bastard of a screw. ‗thanks for telling me,‘ said i, in an almost english accent, as sarcastically as i politely could, ‗but i‘m not for ‘im in the morning or any other bloody time, you little welsh puff‘. (13) in behan‘s writings screws are often portrayed as utterly despicable characters, not just because they are those in charge, and as such have complete control on the privacy of the prisoners. even solitary confinement cells hosting those lags who get the ―number one‖, that is, bread-and-water diet, have spy-holes, and screws can decide to check on the prisoner at any moment. this can be particularly annoying on certain occasions, like when the convicted is busy accomplishing very personal tasks such as using the lavatory. in borstal boy behan describes his own feelings in one of those circumstances, in a way that is on the verge between hatred and compassion, but still maintains a wry smile on the face: ―i was anxious about the lavatory. the seat in a corner, in full view of the spy-hole. […] i didn‘t like the idea of using the lavatory and that old john bull‘s bastard of a copper looking in at me‖ (15). a similar awkward situation occurs later on in the book when brendan is left alone in his cold cell and thinks of having some self-produced sexual pleasure. here the reader is gently allowed to perceive, through the lens of a teenager who is jailed in a foreign country for political reasons, not only what prison loneliness and enrico terrinoni 65 discomfort were like, but also the prisoner‘s will to fight, with irony and courage as the only arms at his disposals, the violent threats of alienation of the starkly silent environment surrounding him: it was cold sitting on the chair, after my dinner. […] you were not let make down your bed and lie on it till the bell went at eight o‘clock, but lord jesus, i was perished with the cold. i sat on my chair facing the door and pulled my mailbag up over my legs, and put my hands down the shirt. not too far down, though (save for tonight), and besides it would be dangerous if a screw looked in the spy-hole at me. not that that was against the rules – at least i hadn‘t heard it was – and even if the screws mentioned it, it was in a joke: but it would be embarrassing to have them see you, and they would more nor likely jeer the heart out of you for the rest of time. (ibid. 55-6) another reference to a similar situation occurs in the first chapter of confessions. here the protagonist, after having being released from borstal, indulges his passion for drink with an unlikely drinking bout in the company of a british police inspector. at the end of the day, the two are ―supposed to go straight to the jail‖ in liverpool, but by behan‘s own admission, they ―called the respects to the local publicans on the way,‖ and he ended up getting ―so fughing drunk that they wouldn‘t let me into the prison.‖ behan records the event as ―the first time i was ever refused admittance to the nick.‖ later on, the reader encounters something similar to the aforementioned borstal recollection; but this time the protagonist seems to be a little more mature and self confident, or, to put it in behan‘s own words, ―kind of cocky and sure of myself‖: i looked around the room. bare concrete walls and floor again and the same wooden bench for a bed and a pillow of the same material. i coiled myself up, put my jacket behind my head, pulled the coarse blankets over me, contemplated committing a mortal sin, realised i was too drunk and fell into deep sleep. (21) humour in prison: brendan behan confesses 66 given behan‘s notoriously flamboyant personality and his own talking gifts, it is not hard to imagine that the worst aspect of prison confinement might have been for him compulsory solitude and silence. his exuberant language and larger-thanlife personality can be considered perhaps as a reaction to such partial deprivation of interpersonal relationships during his youth. in borstal boy this is all very clear. in an early passage he admits to the fact that solitary confinement is something he just cannot stand: ―i hoped they would open my door. even if they were distributing nothing better than kicks or thumps, i‘d prefer not to be left out, in my cold shroud of solitude. fighting is better than loneliness‖ (8). in brendan behan‘s island – the first of his three ―talk books‖ or confessional publications which were mostly talked into a tape-recorder with the assistant of an editor – there occurs a powerful reference to a similar idea, which allows us to see the rootedness of behan‘s rumbustiousness in his youthful slum life: ―ria had the hearse go round the block where we‘d all lived years ago – happy, healthy, though riotous betimes – fighting being better than loneliness‖ (58). the need for expressing feelings and ideas that have been silenced for so long due to imprisonment and forced solitude may be one of the reasons for behan‘s ebullient and extravagant language. this might have influenced greatly also the style of his confessional writings, whose publication, we have to acknowledge, was ―dictated‖ by other material circumstances. these were, for example, the writer‘s own difficulty in writing, given his physical illness (a combination of diabetes and love for the bottle), and the poor conditions of his health. other reasons are connected with his publishers‘ despicable eagerness for more and more best-selling titles by the irish turbulent genius, despite his precarious condition. enrico terrinoni 67 confessions usually give utterance to allegedly intimate feelings about some person or event. the process of confessing strongly implies a dimension of intimacy in that it entails the disclosure of aspects of one‘s private life, like sins for instance, or the admission of public acts like offences and crimes. moreover, confessions always imply an audience. this could be an inspector in a police station, a jury in a court, a catholic priest in a confessional box, or even a reading public. in short, confessions are strictly linked to the idea of some sort of personal truth to be revealed. yet, this truth has little to share with reality, it belonging to the realm of fictional representation through literary language. only the last of behan‘s three dictated books refers overtly in the title to that sub-genre of narrative known as confessional writings. confessions of an irish rebel is not strictly speaking the last book on which behan worked, for after he still had some time and mental ability to tape brendan behan‘s new york, 2 arguably the less interesting of the trilogy. in what other sense, then, is confessions behan‘s last book, apart from the fact that it was published a year after brendan behan‘s new york, in september 1965? although most of behan‘s works draw massively on personal experience and recollections, it might be argued that confessions responds partly to an urgent need to say a final word about his own tragicomic life. john brannigan explained that the book, together with brendan behan‘s island and richard cork‘s leg ―produces a kind of epitaphic discourse‖ for death ―was an important theme of his early writings, particularly as the product of political violence, but it became an intense preoccupation in his late writings‖ (153). the critic argues also that the book ―finishes with a kind of epitaph of its own, in which behan declares to his loved one, in sentimental quotation, ‗i‘ve been faithful to thee, after my fashion‘ ‖ (161). i will return to the representation of love and its comical implications, which always go hand in hand with suffering and despair, later on. as humour in prison: brendan behan confesses 68 regards the ever-present autobiographical tendency in behan‘s writings, which is in a way always an effort of self-mockery, as well as a means for ironical critiques of the worlds and society, we need to answer the question of why one should consider confessions a reliable source of information about the writer‘s intimate life. it is a well established cliché among critics to compare the talk books to the rest of behan‘s writings, and therefore consider them rather as publicity ventures which produced poor artistic results. the overwhelming comical register of such texts has much to do with the critical dismissal of them as minor works. they have often been described as anecdotal, repetitive and collaborative writings by which greedy publishers exploited a once-talented celebrity who had been unfortunately brought down by alcohol and publicity. it is indeed rare to find accounts of those works as experiments, no matter how successful, in oral literature. after all, one of the reasons why they were conceived in the first place was behan‘s renowned ability as a storyteller and a raconteur. one can easily agree that stories and tales are always better told if the teller is a mocker. story, especially in ireland, is another term for joke, and one cannot fail to acknowledge that the best of storytellers will always have a repertoire that, although anecdotal and repetitive, has to a certain extent to be funny. moreover, a storyteller must have a listening audience, and an ideal audience for behan‘s talk books, given the amount of songs, poems and bawdy jokes they include, should be a listening audience rather than a reading public. in other words, if those experiments have really proved partially unsuccessful in the eyes of readers, critics should take into account the fact that the very idea of taping behan‘s stories, naturally jars with the filter of the printed page. on the contrary, most of those privileged readers known as critics resorted in behan‘s case to his repetitiveness as a writer, and in so doing showed quite clearly a 2 see o'connor 319. enrico terrinoni 69 bias against someone who was now thought to be a dying alcoholic, and had been in the past an ex-republican and ex-socialist. therefore, he had to have run out of ideas. his last texts, for all the editorial work by behan‘s ―literary midwife,‖ rae jeffs, are still oral books, for all the contradictory nature of the description. accordingly, they would need indeed some sort of an oral performance to be appreciated fully. this is why one feels that comparing behan‘s written works to his talk books is a bit like comparing a footballer to a tennis player. as a matter of fact, when brendan behan‘s island appeared it received wide critical acclaim. cyril connolly praised the book as a testimony to the author‘s ―instinctive kindness and charity‖ and his ―strong personality that may even have a touch of greatness‖ (qtd. in o‘connor 251). this is a book that features clearly many aspects typical of oral literature. it starts with a ballad, and contains powerful jokes such as the following about the sectarian problems in northern ireland: i remember a friend of mine was taking an english catholic priest round the north some years ago and explaining to him how catholics there were subject to intolerance and discrimination. the priest was horrified at the cases that were brought to his attention. one day, they were in this village and the local catholic chief head man had spent a good deal of time talking about the protestants and their lack of toleration. ‗tell me,‘ said the priest, ‗how many protestants have you in this village‘. ―one, father,‘ said the head man, and leaning forward, he tapped the priest on the knee, ‗but, with the help of god, we‘ll have him out by christmas‘ (island 168-9). these words, coming from a man who described himself as an atheist during the day and a catholic at night, help us see how behan‘s orality is a mark of his being a working class writer. the easygoing and fluid style of the story is unmistakably oral, and yet it actually works also on the written page. humour in prison: brendan behan confesses 70 northerner louis macneice, possibly without knowing that massive parts of the book hadn‘t been written at all, captures the oral qualities of the experiment and suggests that behan in this book ―writes like a talker talking with plenty of hyperbole and emphasis, with humanity, gusto and formidable wit‖ (qtd. in o‘connor 251). something similar could be said of confessions, a book in which the work of behan‘s editorial assistant is substantial, as she herself admits in her preface to the text. despite this, it is probably the most successful of the three, it being the funniest, and is still reissued regularly in paperback editions in different countries. having said that in order to reassess the relevance of the talk books in a complete analysis of behan‘s writings, we might turn to the question of confessional writing as a narrative that related to a certain extent to the concepts of admission, truth, and sincerity. such expressions are all the more credible due to irony and jokes that function as exorcising devices on the one hand, while on the other help the reader feel ―at home,‖ so to speak, in the company of the storyteller. behan‘s stories about himself, and his recollections, alongside the many anecdotes about him, are perhaps the only way of inventing, and in fact constructing, a biography of him, no matter how reliable. actually, behan is more famous for what he has not accomplished, rather than for what he has really done. in behan, fiction and truth, like stories and reality, go hand in hand. furthermore, his renowned ―working class‖ scorn for intellectuals – not only shown by the ideas he expressed in his writings, but also by his own way of life – would have surely made him dislike the very idea of some university scholar in charge of writing a biography of him. in an interview, one of his brothers explained this quite clearly: i know people who would come to him and they would say we haven‘t got our electricity bill paid, and he would say, right, and he would go down himself enrico terrinoni 71 with them to esb and he would pay the bill there and then […] and he would pay their rent too – for people living in flats and corporation houses. he‘d pay up all the rent for them. and this is all forgotten; people who don't know any of this, any of this socalled research with regard to brendan never brought that into the public eye, never let the people know the humanitarism of brendan behan […] and this is why, if there‘s going to be any recollection of brendan behan by the people of ireland, it will come from the poor people. it won‘t come from, as he described himself, the intellectuals […] the people whose bills he paid, the number of children he bought shoes for. (qtd. in mikhail 284-5) autobiographical discourse is, in brannigan‘s words, ―controlled disclosure, by which the writer reveals particular masks and performances, but always retains something to tell‖ (160). in recounting one‘s own life, one could of course be sincere and still omit relevant details that would contribute to shaping some sort of a truth. a truth can be complete or incomplete. it can always be incomplete without for this being false. moreover, any kind of relationship, no matter how intimate, always involves some seemingly sincere revelation of intimate thoughts, or, especially in art, the communication of a private message. dominic behan reminds us of somebody who, after a performance of brendan‘s play the hostage, asked the author what the message of his play was, and brendan replied: ―what the hell do you think i am, a bloody postman?‖(188). literature, and fiction in particular, is no place for truth. in fiction, lies, truth, or even mistakes are hard to distinguish. 3 although autobiography cannot be described as pure fiction only, no doubt it shares many of fiction‘s tricks and techniques. a fictional statement can never be absolutely true due to the fictionality of fiction, whereas the degree of truth in an autobiographical statement depends on it being true, false, or incomplete in the first place. in other words, in autobiography the writer can lie and just be believed as if he were sincere all the same. humour in prison: brendan behan confesses 72 the whole idea of an absolute truth in fiction, as well as in autobiographical writing, is then suspect, and this is even truer when jokes and irony are involved. yet there are truths we just feel to be true, and this has more to do with our own perception of what may be true, rather than with the willingness of the writer/speaker to disclose anything of his own private life and experience. such a perception of the truth often depends on the way in which it is told. take for instance the statement ―roma is in italy.‖ this is no doubt true, although only in a relative way, given the existence of another rome in georgia, or somewhere near. however, one may even feel that it is worth committing oneself to the truthfulness of the above statement. still, nobody will loose his temper with somebody else who is ready to swear that the coliseum is in normandy, for this might just be the effect of too much french wine. on the other hand, the statement ―a.s. roma is the best football team in the world‖ may of course be false, especially these days; and yet a very ardent supporter of a.s. roma may well get angry with someone else who is ready to state bluntly that roma is the poorest team around. this shows that a difference between statements is the degree of fervour with which they are, or can be, defended, and this does not depend always on their truthfulness, although very often it does. in other words, this helps us see why some people have always been ready to die for worthy ideas, like equality, solidarity, or the struggle against totalitarianisms, whereas only a few would take arms to defend the primacy of french champagne over italian spumante. it also explains why brendan behan, a lover of all kinds of wine, was ready, at the age of sixteen, to put bombs in britain to defend what he called an ―irish workers‘ and small farmer‘s republic,‖ (borstal 4) and why he was given a jail sentence for that. to sum up, all statements, especially fictional and literary ones, can produce in the listener/recipient strong effects or no effects at all, and this often depends on 3 see eagleton 89. enrico terrinoni 73 the way in which such statements are told, rather than just the actual message they convey. in this context, where fictional and autobiographical truth are kept apart by an unstable divide increased by the abundance of comical interludes and jokes, in what follows i am going to analyse the second chapter of confessions of an irish rebel in order to discuss the way in which behan alternates funny accounts and tragedy in his own autobiographical reports. despite the few jokes, the event narrated in the second chapter is one of the most moving in the whole book. it comes just after the aforementioned noisy recollection of the drinking escapade with a british police officer, after brendan‘s release from borstal. such curious events had ended with brendan being deported to ireland. there, he is welcomed by an immigration officer who asks him if he has a travel permit; to which he answers by handing him his deportation order. the officer wonders at the kind of document he has presented, and asks brendan whether he is irish, to which he responds: ―no […] as a matter of fact, i‘m a yemenite arab‖ (23). in the second chapter, behan tells us of the first meeting with his family in years, and how his mother related to him all the recent gossip and news. after such exchanges of information, she adds: ―maureen is dying from consumption‖ (ibid. 25). the bluntness of the statement serves undoubtedly both as a trick to divert the attention of the reader to a dimension of intimacy, and as a dramatic pretext to interrupt the comical and somehow relaxing atmosphere carefully built in the preceding pages. apparently, maureen and brendan, who are both introduced as persons coming from the same working-class background, have been sharing an intimate relationship in the past. after receiving the sad news, behan seems to speak of the nature of that relationship somehow candidly: hell and heaven and despair and presumption and hope. we had talked together, laughed together, done the things the young boys and girls do humour in prison: brendan behan confesses 74 together. i had been in this girl's house and i knew her father, her mother and her brothers. i'd fought alongside her brothers and we had shared the same battlefields of the poor. how could death come to one so young? (ibid. 25) such apparently frank admissions serve, as i said, to establish the coming confessions as intimate ones. they have to be distinguished from those in the book that concern a more public sphere, such as behan‘s politics or his involvement in revolutionary activities. in the passage, the two dimensions, private feelings and political views, are strictly interlinked, as in the statement about having shared ―the same battlefields of the poor.‖ by the way, the sentence also proves wrong those who questioned behan‘s political ardour in his later years and suggested that he died politically disillusioned. it substantially demonstrates that he remained true to his views. as declan kiberd explains, behan was ―in his origins a socialist as well as a republican,‖ (520) and apparently he stayed so up to his death. a few paragraphs below, there come again new jokes and funny accounts. thus, we automatically face a shift from a sort of sentimental recollection to a comical interlude. behan goes to visit maureen one friday, and she asks him what he would like for his dinner. brendan knows that fish was scarce those years, and decides to tell her a lie. he therefore claims to be protestant and asks for a steak. later on, although we are not given any precise temporal coordinate, she discovers that he is not a protestant, and rebukes him for having sold jesus christ for a pound of beef. the event is indeed unlikely to have happened at all. given her intimate relation, maureen must have known that brendan was not an ira protestant, if such a thing exists at all. this shows that confessions, no matter how sincere in their external form, can never imply truth due to their structural nature of textual utterances. besides, they silently suggest that narrators are always to some extent enrico terrinoni 75 liars. the comic interlude ends with behan‘s offer to paper the walls of maureen‘s home. on that occasion he impersonates a professional liar ready to lie shamelessly also with regards to serious political questions. he explains that ―we fell into talking about this and that and me telling her stories of great bravery for the cause in england and her sitting there and taking it all in‖ (confessions 26). something similar happens when behan goes to visit maureen in the sanatorium. being by his own admission ―a coward by nature,‖ before going there he ―had to take a couple of drinks‖ (ibid. 26). at the end of the visit, and after having kissed maureen on the lips for the last time, he admits to the fact that he has indeed been in the presence of death. this makes him decide to leave and go to the embankment bar for one more drink. here drink is of great help. it does not make one forget, but rather helps one to face the crudity of life by diluting it partly. this happens also with good whiskeys, which need at times the help of a drop of water to become smoother. in the bar, behan, in pardoning fashion, ―reflected sadly on the words of shakespeare, a very great englishman, who said: ‗play the man.‘ he didn‘t say, ‗be a man,‘ he only said, ‗play the man‘‖ (ibid. 27). the process of attaching such importance to performances, and therefore to lies which turn into surrogates for truths, is characteristic of behan‘s narrative and playwriting. it inevitably undermines also the faithfulness of his own autobiographical accounts. this may partly account for his need to always live up to his reputation, which made him become eventually a sad example of the stage-irish, in his later years. and yet, such an accepted and perfect disguise may be just the result of the harshness of his past experiences. as rae jeffs suggests in commenting on behan‘s fondness for personal assault and disorderly behaviour in his later years in her preface to confessions: humour in prison: brendan behan confesses 76 he did not dare reveal that the ugliness of his experiences – death, bloodshed, and prison routine – had not really touched the vital part of him. his essential being was strangely unaffected by the many painful events in his life, and this cloak of violence and abuse was necessary to hide his vulnerability. when the strain of impersonation became too much, a bout of drinking would follow – the best soporific of all. (ibid. 9) after the visit to the sanatorium, behan goes to the house of maureen‘s grandmother. when she enquires about her granddaughter, he replies in lying fashion that she is okay. later on, when the old woman asks him would he have a cup of coffee, in spite of the fact that ―coffee is a drink i particularly detest,‖ he has not the courage to refuse. such a sociable gesture, which implies an ironical acquiescence to the desires of an old lady in the very moment when all he wanted was to be left alone, makes him think of the forced solitude suffered while in prison: it is great to be on your own for a bit, in the sun, for this is something you never are in prison for all their solitary confinements and i had had my share of those. the fughpigs watched you every moment and even at such times when the worst of us would give a dog privacy. (ibid. 27) brendan follows the old woman into the house and stays there waiting for paddy, who is her son, the father of maureen, and also an ira comrade of him. in the meantime, he speaks with her of anything but the condition of maureen, and this is because, as he himself states: ―i have never been able to talk about things that mean a deal to me‖ (ibid. 28). when things mean a lot, one way out is mocking at them. in fact, when paddy comes home and asks about his daughter‘s health, this time behan, using a british slang expression, whispers to him: ―i think maureen has bought it,‖ (ibid. 28) meaning that there isn‘t any hope for her. the bluntness of the admission and the colloquial expression itself both jar strikingly with the enrico terrinoni 77 desperateness of poor girl‘s situation, and contribute comical and farcical tones to the sad recollection. in fact, despite brendan‘s efforts to keep the truth from the old woman, when the two men tell her that they are going to the pub for a drink, she immediately becomes aware of what is actually going on, and asks again about her granddaughter. at this point, all brendan can do is utter one of his own half-truths: ―look […] maybe she is not so well‖ (ibid. 29). the old woman starts weeping, and the two adult men, showing little courage or compassion, leave her alone to her grief. the end of the episode is a sad one. the men start drinking and crying in the bar, and then brendan sings a moving song about the resting place of rose-lipped maidens and light-foot lads. the last words of the chapter are a most powerful epitaph: i did not see maureen again and that is all i want to say about it. but i wish to god she was with me today. and if these are the confessions of an irish rebel, they are indeed confessions. (ibid. 29) if one manages to imagine the scene of their recording, and the sick man of almost forty, with no intention of dying but self-conscious of his fatal physical decline, who said those words, one has indeed the full impression of being in the presence of sincerity. if we compare this private admission to the final address to his wife, in the last sentence of the book – that is, ―i‘ve been faithful to thee, after my fashion‖ (ibid. 259) – we cannot fail to see the distance between the two utterances. perhaps, we would be inclined to give more credit to the one about maureen, for it looks a little more sincere. but of course, given behan‘s established lying fashion, we are left wondering if there is any truth at all in such seemingly direct and candid utterances. humour in prison: brendan behan confesses 78 later on in the book, one more statement produces the same kind of effect. it occurs when behan is informed that he will be released from prison, after he has shot two policemen in the glasnevin area in dublin. it might be recorded that he missed them by some fifteen yards, and his father, in commenting on the fourteenyear sentence inflicted to him, famously remarked that the judge had given him almost a year for each yard. however, the following admission is very much similar to the one about the poor girl with whom brendan was in love: when i knew i was going to be free again, i knew i was going to be free again to hunger and to poverty and to no kind of pyjamas, not even free state army ones. but i knew also i was free to the lights of my native city, which are very large and welcoming, and oh! i don't know – i was young at the time for jesus‘ sake. winter didn‘t bother me as it does now. it is always winter in dublin. (ibid. 81) here we find sadness, and are tempted to see some kind of sincerity in behan‘s statement, especially if we picture the scene where the following confession was recorded, and the sick man who made it. and yet, one cannot fail to spot also some kind of irony in the reference to the other side of freedom, as well as in the taking of god‘s son name in vain. this alternation of smiles and sorrow, of pain and provocative wit, is perhaps the legacy of one of the last irish storytellers, a man who was capable of saying to a nun present at his death-bed: ―may you be the mother of a bishop.‖ works cited behan, brendan. brendan behan‘s island. london: hutchinson, 1962. ---. the complete plays. london: methuen, 1978. ---. borstal boy. london: arrow, 1990. enrico terrinoni 79 ---. confessions of an irish rebel. london: arrow, 1991. behan, dominic. my brother brendan. london: four square, 1965. brannigan, john. brendan behan. cultural nationalism and the revisionist writer. dublin: four courts press, 2002. eagleton, terry. after theory. london: penguin, 2004. farquharson, danine. prison wrtings. oxford: inter-disciplinary press, 2003. kearney, richard. navigations. dublin: the lilliput press, 2006. kiberd, declan. inventing ireland. london: vintage, 1995. mccann, sean, ed. the world of brendan behan. london: four square, 1965. mikhail, e.h., ed. brendan behan — interviews and recollections. london, 1982 o'connor, ulick. brendan behan. london: abacus, 1993. waugh, evelyn. decline and fall. london: chapman and hall, 1928. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 utopian impulses during the english interregnum: john eliot and gerrard winstanley alice manuela martins guimaraes * abstract during the english interregnum john eliot and gerrard winstanley wrote their utopias in different hemispheres, depicting different patterns of utopias which offered alternative models of code laws for a divine platform of government they urged the english to emulate. within this extraordinary historical and political context, political action and utopian literature enjoyed an unparalleled symbiosis. through a close analysis of the parallels and main differences of their works we can get deeper insight the thought and culture of that period. their utopias, the law of freedom and the christian commonwealth, share the same political agenda towards reality and convey a similar plan of realization in their political aspirations, but each author displays a uniquely different emphasis and approach to utopia, differing from one another in epistemology, ideology and social and political emphasis. however by assessing the potential of these utopias we can trace some bridges linking their authors’ perceptions to shape a better future for the same country. their radicalism concerning the royalist power, their concern to eradicate the old civil and ecclesiastical system, the search of a political order and stability, the improvement of social conditions and religious tolerance, were depicted within their utopian texts. a close analysis of these texts which have never been grouped and brought together by scholars, illustrates the range of the political imagination of their authors and provides an opportunity to examine different ways to deal with political and social concerns and different perspectives for ideal solutions by such writers who were so committed to connecting utopia to reality. keywords: utopia; interregnum; eliot; winstanley * corresponding author: alice manuela martins guimaraes assistant professor, the humanities department, the open university, portugal, e-mail: aligui2@hotmail.com mailto:aligui2@hotmail.com a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [30] the word utopia first occurred in sir thomas more’s utopia, published in latin, in 1516, as libellus vere aureus nec minus salutaris quam festivus de optimo reipublicae statu, deque nova insula utopia ―a truly golden handbook, no less beneficial than entertaining concerning the highest state of the republic and the new island utopia‖; but utopias are far older than their name. plato’s republic was the model of many, from more to h. g. wells. although the term is a modern creation, which means that the concept itself of utopia was stranger to ancient greeks; although, in his first usage, the term specifically refers to the politics and to a specific literary genre, the ―literary utopia‖, utopian thought is identifiable in ancient hellenistic literature and culture since its very beginning. the modern utopia itself with its political implications, as first theorized by more, traces back to an ancient greek tradition of searching perfection and the best constitutions whose first model was plato’s republica. since then and over the centuries patterns of uniformity and divergences have been displayed. the literal meaning of ―utopia‖ is not obvious. it is both the ―good place‖ (eutopia) and ―no place‖ (ou topia). this ambiguity has provided the basis for subsequent studies of utopias. to define the ambiguous concept of utopia, much has been proposed. in this paper, however, i will follow the definition advanced by ruth levitas in her work, the concept of utopia, where she takes almost whole book to discuss the reasons this definition surpasses others, whether those formulated descriptively, formally, or functionally: utopia expresses and explores what is desired; under certain conditions it also contains the hope that these desires may be met in reality, rather than merely in fantasy. the essential element in utopia is not hope, but desire — the desire for a better way of living. (191) her definition is particularly helpful for me, in looking at what strikes me as clearly utopian discourse in my chosen writers. i take as my example john eliot and gerrard winstanley intending to redeem the importance of their dynamic utopias which released utopism from its traditionally passive position within the realm of contemplative literature and transposed it into the active realm of a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [31] interregnum politics. the ―desire for a better way of living and the hope that those desires may be met in reality‖ as advanced in levitas’ definition, became aspirations both in england and new england and could expand visions projected into what keith thomas called ―actionoriented utopias‖ (24). it is in this context that i inscribe eliot and winstanley’s utopias. actually, in the seventeenth century utopia reached a unique status. it had become a serious means of both expressing dissatisfaction with the status quo and of suggesting real improvements to it. interregnum utopias were shaped by the expectations and violence of the english revolution, so more than ever, utopia orientated itself to a hopeful and expectant reality, reshaping its former boundaries and reinventing itself as reality utopia. the genre undergoes a transformation and redefines itself in a new and more reality-oriented function (thomas, 24 -43). utopias in the interregnum were no longer fictional or contemplative. the english interregnum the period of english history between the second civil war and the restoration opened up unlimited possibilities for shaping the country’s future and witnessed a supreme surge of political imagination which would develop in utopian visions and writings. much has been written on the period 1640-1660, concerning the utopia model, a time when a crisis in religious, political and social consensus coupled with the resultant breakdown of control of the presses and allowed the expression in print of startling and utopian views. the existence of a variety of utopian texts provides a good opportunity for getting deeper insight into the thought and culture of that period, since different authors addressed these issues differently. despite the abundance of existing scholarship, the interregnum continues to provide fertile ground for new research. in this context my chosen utopias exemplify the variety and diversity of expression available within the utopian writings of the interregnum. although some utopian designs in this period were lofty abstractions, theoretical models of the ideal society and speculations on radical reform in all spheres of life, there were others, such as john eliot and gerrad winstanley’s, that depicted real, active, empirical models a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [32] which seemed to be within the reach of possibility. by delving into these utopias we can find out some parallels and interactions between them, assess their potential and trace bridges which link their authors’ perceptions to shape a better future for the same country. the christian commonwealth and the law of freedom, respectively from john eliot and gerrard winstanley, were written in the very same year (1652 although the former was only published in 1659) in different hemispheres and addressed to the same person oliver cromwell, not yet protector but lord general and the most powerful person in the country. apparently the two utopias have nothing to do with each other, except the occurrence of being written within the same timeframe and thus written within the same historic and political context – puritanism and the english interregnum. as the authors are bound by a shared culture and history, we can easily find evidence of some common concerns regarding the english society of the interregnum, such as political order and stability, eradication of the old rules, improvement of social conditions and religion tolerance, which dominated the political conscience of their culture. sharing the same cultural and historical background inspires some similarities and often results in writers addressing some of the same themes in their utopias. however, while operating within the same culture, the individual manifestation of any utopian vision is still influenced by personal factors of its creator – his ideology, religion, environment and social status. in this respect utopias become a reflection of the author and the epitome of an author’s interpretation of society or, as eliav-feldon puts it, ―the embodiment, the crystallization of the entire weltanschauung of the author‖ (11). while utopia always constitutes a search for a better reality, the specifics of this reality or even how this search should be conducted depend on the individual author. although both eliot and winstanley tried to define the better society offering models of code laws and supporting their rhetorical speech by the scripture, none of them gave the same solution for solving the legal, political, or religious problems that, according to them, lay at the root of social imperfection. a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [33] both authors share the same political agenda towards reality and convey a similar plan of realization in their political aspirations, but each of them displays a uniquely different emphasis and approach to utopia, differing from one another in epistemology, ideology and social and political emphasis. while winstanley is primarily concerned with religious freedom and imagined an agrarian equality, eliot stresses his attempt to build a theocratic commonwealth, the establishment of a scriptural civil policy where all man-made policies would be completely eradicated, particularly the religious ones, and would be replaced by their biblical counterparts. imbued by the same apocalyptic and millenarian expectations of the period, each of them, tried to reshape and regenerate the english commonwealth displaying different dimensions of heterodoxy concerning their teleological and political arguments. the search for a better future and the fulfilment of apocalyptic prophecies were, by then, impulses that flowed from europe to new england and they were part of the apocalyptic design that dominates both the puritan divines in new england and the puritan revolutionaries in england. therefore john eliot, an english puritan missionary in new england and one of the most remarkable missionaries of all time, wrote his christian commonwealth, based upon his experiment with the algonquian indians while gerrard winstanley, the revolutionary leader of the diggers’ movement in england, in his utopia the law of freedom in a platform: or, true magistracy restored, published in 1652 after the collapse of his experimental digger community of shared farming on common lands, preached a revolutionary gospel of social reform, a christian society established by the prohibition of private ownership of real property. he is also remarkable in his eagerness to overthrow and cast out the orthodoxies of theology, government of church and state, traditional english law, social hierarchy, and the entire economic system of monetary exchange and private property rather than merely modifying existing structures. winstanley’s communities of diggers at st. george’s hill and eliot’s praying town of natick with the algonquian indians provided the empirical basis for their writing. in that period no other utopist remained a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [34] so committed to connecting utopian writing and practice. so much as eliot, who worked intensely to convert the proselytes and ―obsessively charts the tansformations between utopian writing and practice‖ (holstun, 103), proposing ―a large-scale repetition of the indian praying towns organization he had already determined experimentally to be possible‖ (ibidem,150), winstanley was a man of action: ―action is the life of all, and if thou dost not act, thou dost nothing‖ (315). and even in his writing he emphasizes action and challenges his reader to move beyond religious orthodoxy and the politics of self-preservation. his utopia is a call to action and pushes readers to act through questioning the status quo and reforming society through law. as nigel smith observes: ―in developing an interpretation of the bible as he did, he dug on the page, as well as in the ground. by reading him carefully, you the reader, dig too‖ (smith, 58). john eliot tried to regenerate that part of the english population with no voice, no law and no discipline whom the new england puritans saw as displaced (the natives) and tried to integrate them into the newly enclosed and rationalized new england landscape. he saw in this group of real persons the raw material to embody his utopia. in the very same way, winstanley saw the raw material to embody his utopia in the people of england who had no land and no voice (the landless people brought about by the enclosure of the lands) preventing them of becoming a cluster of unemployed, homelessness, heathen, vagrants. as james holstun points out, the puritans found displaced and dispossessed people of england and new england the raw material for their utopias: the enclosure of new england proceeded that of england. the indians possessed the lands by natural right… as the enclosure of english commons’ ground often began with a single large landholder overstocking the commons, turning it into private property, so white expansion in new england often began with the indians’ allowing whites the use for settlement and cultivation of indian commons grounds (…) the dispossessed and displaced english tenants and algonquian tribesmen soon found out that enclosure is irreversible. just as winstanley and the diggers responded to the displacement of rural tenants by encouraging them to enclose and cultivate common grounds such as those at st. george’s hill, so eliot and his missionary a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [35] colleagues worked tirelessly to acquire tracts of land for indian praying towns. (107-08) in this context, eliot’s utopian commonwealth was situated within his own work among the algonquians who, like the israelites upon departing from egypt, had no existing law and government. wistanley, by his turn, envisioned a utopian christian society as experienced with the digger community, based on the passages in the book of acts in the new testament (acts 2:44-45) where the early christian community was described as classless, and holding all property in common. therefore they both displayed their utopias with a double authority: their empirical basis and the bible’s authority. in a revolutionary century that mingled political activity with religious profession thousands of people not only believed but also militated to transform the english commonwealth in a sort of replica of the biblical canaan, a simulacrum of god on earth. in this context, the writers of the english interregnum advocated the need to create the necessary conditions prior to the second advent of christ, which, they believed, would be in england. in order to prepare england, the ―elected‖ nation, for this epiphany of redemption and glory, eliot and winstanley drew models of an organized type of government, established according to a divine plan, sanctioned by scripture, under which ―people composed their differences and came into a sweet harmony of obedience and subjection to christ‖ ( eliot, 136-7) . according to holstun: the bible … gave a previously unimagined relevance to social reorganization in such utopian communities and writings as gerrard winstanley’s community of diggers at george’s hill and his law of freedom and john eliot’s indian praying towns and his christian commonwealth. these texts seem to offer themselves as patterns for social organization. (34-35) all along eliot’s text, the quotations of the bible aimed to support his proposals for the utopian division of persons and for the formation of popular government. he drew his civil model from the hebrew theocracy of exodus:18 and his ecclesiastical model from the book of revelation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/acts_of_the_apostles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/new_testament http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/early_christianity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/classless_society a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [36] where the hebrew theocracy returns in a christian form. likewise, gerrard winstanley in the law of freedom supported his rhetorical speech in the bible turning to ancient israel for his model. key texts for winstanley included acts 4:32 or, as he paraphrases it: ―and when the son of man, was gone from the apostles, his spirit descended upon the apostles and brethren, as they were waiting at jerusalem; and rich men sold their possessions, and gave part to the poor; and no man said, that ought that he possessed was his own, for they had all things common‖. he also drew form genesis the argument that since all human beings are descendent from adam and eve, no one is better than another for any reason. in other words, what he depicted is a religious and political program under the new covenant that came with christ. their works seem to offer themselves as patterns for social organization and templates for the english commonwealth as they were supported by their empirical base and authorized by the text of the scriptures. we can deduce from eliot and winstanley’s rhetoric a breviarium of biblical rules, a transliteration from the text of the scriptures to the legislative text, which would shape and reorder the social and political english reality. the authors developed a pure political determinism offering alternative code laws for a divine platform of government which they have tested with their previous experiments and which they urged the english to emulate. john eliot proposed a detailed scheme for a theocracy or ―holy commonwealth‖, a divine platform of government ―taught by god himself‖ as he put it in his christian commonwealth. the author advocated the establishment of a scriptural civil polity in england, the creation of a congregational state church and the adoption of a biblically based code of laws. eliot proposed to divide society into groups of tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands and so forth, each of which should choose its rulers, who in turn should choose their representatives in the higher councils. he worked out this surprising scheme in great detail, going into relative fine points regarding at which level of the pyramid capital crimes should be tried, and so forth. he didn’t provide any geographical map, as more, bacon and campanella did. instead he provided a detailed administrative and legal structure. a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [37] accordingly, in the same spirit, winstanley’s law of freedom offered a complete and detailed code of laws for the immediate achievement of a communist state, a ―platform for the government of the earth without buying and selling‖. throughout his utopia winstanley presents theological justification for the set of laws he lists at the end. he generates a series of compelling arguments supporting the establishment of agrarian communism and the simplified legal structure he outlines. unlike more and bacon who represented and instigated social reform through the geographical organization of their utopian islands, winstanley focuses on the law that will ensure common ownership of land and equal labor for every citizen. a close analysis of winstanley’s ideas reveals the uniqueness of his belief that law had to create the preconditions for the emergence of his communist utopia. the replacement of the old legal system was a high priority for the author. in winstanley’s commonwealth, so much as in eliot’s, everyone should be aware of the law and be able to represent himself in a court law accordingly. he intended to keep the legal system as simple as possible as he believed ―short and pity laws are best to govern a commonwealth‖ (winstanley, 377). the result of his legislative endeavor was a list of sixty-two rules and regulations to monitor all social interactions in the commonwealth. the laws in his community regulated not only the economic and political organization but the social behavior as well. they provided the punishment for all crimes, prescribed the obligation of agricultural work, the distribution of goods and food, the ban on trade and use of currency, the annual elections, officers functions, the family life, education, powers of the parliament, etc. ―there will be rules made for every action a man can do‖ (138). the consequences of breaking any of these sixty-two laws were severe. the law of freedom and the christian commonwealth represented a commonwealth of law where their authors revealed a functional code of laws in order to define the boundaries of their utopias. for eliot as for winstanley popular government was the rule of written law and monarchy the rule of men alone. thus they rely in such a code of strict laws. in their commonwealths laws must be ―few and short and often read (… ) as moses’s laws in israel’s commonwealth: the people did talk of them when a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [38] they lay down and when they rose up, … so that they were an understanding people in the laws wherein their peace did depend‖ (winstanley, vi,378-9) . in winstanley’s political thought, law establishes the foundation of society and law provides the power structure that ensures the continuation of the society’s values. ― and if these be the days of resurrection to power, as we may hope, because the name of commonwealth is risen and established in england by a law, then we or our posterity shall see comfortable effects‖ (ii, 311). as the quotation illustrates, the establishment of an ideal commonwealth through the reformation of law was inextricably linked to his millennial expectations of christ’s ―resurrection to power‖. in the very same way eliot’s utopia displayed much evidence of the importance of the law for the people as well as for the whole commonwealth in defense of the truth and equity. as for such wholesome, just, and wise laws, as any nation hath already made, the wisdome of the lord will teach his people to refer them …demonstrating the truth and equity thereof, by the word of god (….) and great shall be his dominion: for the stone christ shall grow to be a mountain filling the whole earth: all men submitting to be ruled by the word, in civil, as well as church-affairs (eliot, preface, 22-24) as we can deduce by eliot’s rhetoric, in his utopia, all man-made laws should be replaced by their biblical counterparts. therefore, for both authors, law would have to be known by all people of community and for this reason laws should be very clear and simple. in their utopias everyone should be a legal expert. this idea of a simple and plain legal system as advocated by eliot and winstanley was common in the utopian tradition. in plato’s republic, the rulers are to be a group of intelligent, unselfish men called the guardians or philosopher-kings, who conduct public affairs for the good of the whole nation. in more’s utopia boasts a simple and self-contained legal system. likewise in campanella’s city of the sun, it is stated: ―they have but few laws and these short and plain, and written upon a flat table…‖ (197). the exceeding complexity of laws resulted, according to winstanley, in the ignorance of people regarding the law and the a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [39] dependence on lawyers. he states: ― but now if the laws were few and short, often read, it would prevent those evils; and everyone knowing when they did well and when ill, would be cautions of their words and actions; this would escape the lawyers craft‖ (378). as much as winstanley understood lawyers to be the primary enemies of his cause, so eliot thought the slow course of justice in england, was due both to the complexity of english law and to the self-interest of the lawyers (cogley, 39). so, in order to provide for a ―speedy and easy determination‖ of judgment, eliot established as many courts of law as the word of god allowed, and he abolished the profession of the lawyers. no lawyer walked the pages of his christian commonwealth, where all cases were heard only between the rulers, the defendant, the plaintiff, and the witnesses (cogley, 79) . and to avoid the disrespect of social rules and the increase of human sin which was seen by winstanley and eliot alike ―as human iniquity‖, they approved monitoring the human behavior through public surveillance. ―sin will grow apace, like ill weeds, if it be not always watched and often weeded out‖ (eliot, 145). as in traditional utopias, the idea of public surveillance and scrutiny is accepted and encouraged as part of the ideal; it is a way to preserve the ideals of the utopian system. in winstanley’s utopia the presence of governmental monitors or overseers, is ubiquitous; in fact every citizen over the age of sixty becomes automatically an official overseer, ensuring that no citizen neglects his duties to the commonwealth. his tight web of surveillance was complemented by a sophisticated system of communications where the postmasters represented the idea of a national information service. the network of officials gathered information and sent reports about the affairs and happenings of each parish to a central point where the information was collected and redistributed to every parish. such a network allowed the early detection of potential disasters or threats in the commonwealth, such as famines, invasions and insurrections. however, the gathered information was not collected and handled secretly; it was openly revealed to everyone. therefore, the commonwealth became a transparent society – everyone was equally scrutinized and scrutinizing. this high degree of governmental scrutiny and control was an everyday a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [40] life in his commonwealth except for religion that remained surprisingly liberal. likewise eliot’s advocated a similar monitored model for the government of his utopia by mutual surveillance. in his christian commonwealth every order must ―cohabit together as near as may be, because that doth tend to facilitate both the watch and the word of lord’s government‖ (148-9). everyone changing habitations must first obtain the permission of the rulers of the area he was moving to (cogley, 78). their utopias shared a high level of radicalism concerning the whole reorganization of social and political issues and individual regeneration as well. eliot, was an antimonarchical radical who advocated the eradication of all human-made systems including the monarchy. his ideas about government were highly radical. he envisioned the ultimate destruction of monarchy and, in fact, of all governments other than an extended version of the system of rulers. for him, monarchy was a human contrivance. ―monarchs were terror to men because they governed with their own interests and not those of god, in mind‖ (apud cogley, 77). he expressed his high degree of radicalism requiring england to abandon the constitutional theory and deduce its forms of government only from the scriptures. his contempt for human creations led him to see the millennium as the restoration of the primitive institutions in its original splendor. in the christian commonwealth he stated that god had determined that all the institutions created by man would disappear and would be replaced by their biblical counterparts. his commitment to restore the old law of israel reached such proportions that it seemingly entailed the total eradication of all human legal systems of england including the monarchy that he saw as a human invention. what he proposed was a radical reordering of civil government which would free england of the episcopate. in the christian commonwealth there was no room for monarchy or the papacy, and both were, for eliot, surely constructs of the devil: it is prophesied, daniel 2:34,35, etc. thou sawest till that a stone was cut out, without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and wind carried them away, that no a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [41] place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image, became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth, etc. which prophecie doth clearly foreshow the forenamed points; for there is a epitomy of all the monarchies, governments, and polities of men, who have had their humane glory in this world: the last, and strongest of all dominions is the roman, so mixed and interwoven in many states, by the combining of that dirty roman religion, with civil powers...(eliot, 55) he believed that the old testament government he wished to put in natick and the other praying towns was ultimately the form of government that christ desired for the nations of the world. his treatise proposed nothing less than a plan to put the exodus system of incremental rulers in place of the governments of the world. for him, it was urgent to reorder radically the civil government as well as to rid england of episcopacy. his radical views about monarchy also helped him to interpret the rule of massachusetts sachems as a ―tyranny‖ that needed to be thrown off if the work of christ was in progress. the purpose of eliot’s utopia was to convince the revolutionary leaders to establish the millennial civil polity throughout england. likewise winstanley wanted cromwell ―to play the part of a classic lawgiver and remake society in a new image, as lycurgus was said to have entirely recast the constitution of sparta‖ (robert appelbaum, 163), sanctioning his speech in the bible. winstanley informed also radical perspectives as he envisioned what beranard yack calls a ―total revolution‖. ―winstanley was aiming to transform the whole of human character by attacking the fundamental sub-political roots of interaction‖ (yack, 9). appelbaum gives a clear explanation of winstanley’s radicalism when he writes: if a number of his contemporaries wanted distributive justice, winstanley wanted to put an end to distribution. if a number of his contemporaries wanted to make significant adjustments in the organization of resources and political rights, winstanley wanted to transform the meaning of economic resources, and to restructure the relationship between the political individual and the socio-economic community. if a number of his contemporaries were anticipating a new age for the benefits of the saints, winstanley was anticipating a new age for the benefit a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [42] of all. and in this new age the ―all‖ would itself be transformed. (155) appelbaum emphasizes how truly radical winstanley was he didn't just want political change he wanted to alter the human psyche and soul to eradicate the need to differentiate between "mine" and "thine". winstanley wanted to renovate the interior of human beings not just their exterior circumstances, and he had hoped that the digger movement would inspire spiritual reform and sharing of land and farm labor, which would initiate the rising of christ in the hearts of all english people and start the millennial reign of righteous government. in the context of early english utopian thought, even among the millennial revolutionaries, winstanley was by far the most radical in his vision of religious freedom, his determination to eradicate organized churches, and his assertion that a new law would protect and proliferate the reforms he advocated. he believed that believers from all religions will be united in the millennial rule of christ, and he maintained that it was essential to transform england into an ideal commonwealth before the final judgment, so that their nation could be rewarded for its reform by god. he believed in universal salvation in order to prepare for the apocalyptic salvation of all, he wanted to establish god's universal acceptance of all religions as a law that protected freedom of religion. another shared issue is the authors’ similar conception of almost universal suffrage. eliot expanded his proto-democratic program based on near-universal manhood suffrage. his definition of the electoral subjects was, for all practical purposes, the same as that of winstanley: ―all economical self-sufficient males are entitled to vote. women, children and servants, or sons living with their parents, as in the condition of servants‖ were all ―virtually comprehended in their father’s covenant‖ (eliot, 145-46) . for winstanley, the broad sphere of people who were ―fit to choose officers in a commonwealth‖ included ―all civil livers, as drunkards, quarrellers, fearful ignorant men….all these are empty substance, and cannot be experienced men, therefore not fit to be chosen officers in a commonwealth; yet they may have a voice in the choosing‖ (winstanley, iii, 326) . in other words, in winstanley’s community all manhood were fit to vote except those who were a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [43] interested in (or had supported) the monarchical power. those were the only to be proscribed to choose or to be chosen officers. other important parallel in these two utopias is the emergence of a culture of fear as an endogenous reason of the prevailing uncertainty of the revolutionary period. the fear of a revival monarchy, or any other rule that not the christ’s, became a powerful drive in the search for social balance and stability. holstun states: in the christian commonwealth eliot turns his praying-town experiment with the congregational disciplining of sachems into a model utopia promising revolution-torn england a complete democratic transformation that will protect it against the return of any sachemic rule except that of king jesus. (144-45) just like in eliot, the fear of a revival monarchy, was imminent along winstanley’s text and it even borders on the obsession. winstanley suspected royalist conspiracies and kingly supporters everywhere. thus everyone who didn’t share his political views was suspected of supporting tyranny and considered to be an agent of the old monarchical order. indeed, the fear of tyranny is directly reflected in his code of laws where he states: he or she who calls the earth his and not his brother’s shall be set upon a stool, with those words written in his forehead, before all the congregation; and afterwards be made a servant for twelve month under the taskmaster. if he quarrel, or seek by secret persuasion, or open rising arms, to set up such a kingly property, he should be put to death. (winstanley, 383) moreover there was a more ideologically fear than the royalist return of the monarchy. it was definitely the fear of cromwell’s power and the lost of democratic ideals. eliot feared of the threatened secular predominance of cromwell and the rump parliament. he viewed them, so far as the king, as usurper of christ’s political power on earth (holstun, 149). winstanley, also feared cromwell’s misuse of power. he realized that his power represented a considerable threat to the ideas of his cause and he warned him of misusing it: the righteous power of the creation is the same still. if you and those in power with you should be found walking in the king’s steps, can you secure yourselves or posterities from an overturn? a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [44] surely not… for if he [god] would not spare kings who have sat so long at his right hand governing the world, neither will he regard you, unless your ways are found more righteous than king’s (winstanley, 276). with the conviction that his utopian vision represented divine providence, he assumed the role of a prophet, warning cromwell of the consequence of abusing his power and not living up to the ideals of the revolution. however, at the same time, he needed cromwell, as he stated: ―you are in place and power to see all burdens taken off from your friends, the commoners of england‖ (winstanley, 278). he identified cromwell as the political figure to realize his political ambitions. cromwell represented winstanley’s last hope for utopian fulfillment. according to this, cromwell could become either the architect of a new republic or the tyrant enslaving his state. thus, in spite of the fear towards the misuse and abuse of cromwell’s power, both eliot and winstanley knew cromwell’s importance as a central force of the interregnum politics. in the christian commonwealth as in the law of freedom there were no vagrant populations. even in the democratic political system as eliot’s, free persons in free spaces raise the specter of wandering chaos. both authors feared the chaos as a threat to their well ordered utopias. so the law and work became a relevant key for the stability of their utopias. regarding the ―work‖ issue, both authors shared the puritan context of this concept. eliot as a puritan missionary emphasized the work in the context of the puritan asceticism as a means to glorify god. ―and they are to declare the council and will of god, touching war and peace, and accordingly transmit the work to such of the rulers as they judge most meet to accomplish the same. also to take for, and provide means for public welfare and subsistence, by trading, ..fishing… with all other necessary and useful occupations‖ ( eliot, 182-4). winstanley also by stressing the puritan ideal of hard work, understood work to be a blueprint to achieve political and social salvation to map the future of english society. in the law of freedom the idle and vagrants were severely punished. labor was compulsory but not paid. everybody should have a work. in his utopia the work comes up with such integrity that the various modalities of the governments were divided into a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [45] categories called ―works‖ such as: ―the work of a father or master of a family‖; ―the work of a peace-maker‖, ―the work of overseers or postmaster‖. even the task of education was also seen as a noble work. for winstanley freedom would never mean freedom of work, as it was in the milton’s eden. for winstanley freedom was consistently defined as freedom to work, to farm the land. ―the freedom lies where a man receives his nourishment and preservation, and that is in the use of the earth‖( i, 299). and ―work‖ was so fundamental in his utopian vision that even the cromwell’s task was thus defined since what he would have ahead was ―the work of reformation‖. moreover winstanley asked his readers: ―be as industrious bee, suck out the honey and cast away the weeds‖. through this powerful metaphor, he invites the reader himself to undertake a mental work, while reading his utopia, a sort of an intellectual endeavor that will help the reader to find the accurate interpretation of winstanley’s utopian rhetoric. we have displayed some of the most relevant parallels between these two authors, which we can be summarized as follows: both wrote their utopias in 1652; ( despite the fact that eliot’s was only published in 1659) both offered cromwell their utopian models as templates to be emulated by the english nation having each of them the authority of the scripture and of their empirical bases: the indian praying towns of natick and the diggers communities at st. george’s hill; the aspirations and impulses that impelled them to act, allowed them to direct their utopias to an expectant reality and reshape the boundaries of the literary genre. utopia became dynamic and action-oriented. they relied on a biblical code of laws, on a controlled system by mutual surveillance and on the power of the labor/work as primary factors to ensure the achievement of their utopias; they displayed the very same fears: the royalist return of the monarchy and at the same time the fear of cromwell’s predominance and misuse of power. a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [46] in both utopias the authors banned the lawyers as they both saw the profession as the primary enemies of their cause; they both displayed in their utopias an high level of radicalism concerning their intentions to reshape the future of the english commonwealth. since the differences are countless i wouldn’t find room to lengthen them within the boundaries of this paper. nevertheless i should merely focus on their different textual methods, with eliot attempting to exclude all merely human prudence trying to eradicate all man-made institutions and winstanley attempting to incorporate it as he developed a remarkable theory of selfhood and believed that god was in men’s inner life. while eliot conceived a political perfection only achievable by a divine act, winstanley tried to maintain a strictly idiosyncratic methodology supporting an individualistic epistemology: it was individuals, in interaction with inner self, who bore the worldly power. he reconceptualized how humans should conceive of their capacity for choice and change, assert their freedom, and realize their potential as creators. by stressing the possibility of a paradisiacal reorganisation of the social and economic world, he was definite in his assertion that this was to be achieved through the action of the spirit. in conclusion these examples are only two among many that depict the dynamic of these utopias which released utopism from its traditionally passive position within the realm of contemplative literature and transposed it into the active realm of interregnum politics. nevertheless both of the writers were ignored and silenced by their contemporary critics. in fact we can consider they were far in advance their epoch. if we can understand eliot’s utopia as a proto-democratic project ―a hybridism of theocracy and democracy‖ ( holstun 145), of a strict biblical literalism and a radically popular political program based on near-universal manhood suffrage, at the same time, we understand winstanley’s utopia as a protocomunism since the combination of his unorthodox political beliefs and his radical political agenda have marked him as a progressive thinker whose ideas presaged those of later a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [47] communist revolutionaries. as lewis h. berens puts it: ―he was, in truth, one of the most courageous, far-seeing and philosophic preachers of social righteousness that england has given to the world‖ (171). scholarly interest in winstanley in general is relatively recent. in 1984 g. e. aylmer observes the winstanley had been largely forgotten for two centuries, and that even after his work attracted the attention of late nineteenth century historians, he remained obscure until the 1960s. not until the resurrection by bernstein (1985) was attention first directed to the fact that the most advanced thinker of the english revolution had been completely neglected by its historians. by his turn, eliot’s visions articulated in the christain commonwealth, put him far outside the mainstream on either side of the ocean. he was a proto-democratic whose ideas, so much as winstanley’s, put him actually ahead his own time and his contemporaries. according to holstun, his work with the remnants of the algonquian civilization, was the single most ambitious utopian project within the larger puritan utopia of new england (103). nevertheless neither eliot nor winstanley have received much attention from historians of utopian thought. for the most part they have been left to historians of religion, millennialism, political theory, hagiography or historian of indian-white relations (in eliot’s case). in spite of their effort they haven’t had a major place among others of their time, and the historians of utopian thought have not paid them the deserved attention, maybe, as holstun states, because their works were not so much about literature as they were about people. however, both worked intensively to connect utopia to reality. they were, according holstun: ―the most important utopian theorist and practitioner in his respective realm, in the seventeenth century‖. a. m. m. guimaraes utopian impulses during the english interregnum: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [48] references berens, lewis, h. 2007. the digger movement in the days of the commonwealth, wales: merlin press. campanella, tommaso. 1981. the city of the sun, in famous utopias of the renaissance, ed. frederic r. white. putney: hendricks house. cogley, richard. 1999. john eliot’s mission to the indians before king philip’s war, massachusetts: harvard university press, available at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/19/ davis, j.c. 1981. utopia and ideal society: a study of english utopian writing 1516-1700, cambridge: cambridge university press. eliav-feldon, mriram. 1982. realistic utopias: the ideal imaginary societies of the renaissance, 1516-1630, oxford: clarendon. eliot, john, 1846. the christian commonwealth: or, the civil of the rising kingdom of jesus christ, collections of the massachusetts historical society, 3 rd ser. 9; 1659 holstun, james. 1987. a rational millennium, puritan utopias of seventeenthcentury england and america, oxford: oxford university press. levitas, ruth. 1989. the concept of utopia, syracuse: syracuse up1990more, sir thomas, utopia, ed. george m. logan and robert m. adams. cambridge: cambridge university press. smith, nigel. 1989. perfection proclaimed: language and literature in english radical religion 1640-1660, oxford: clarendon press. thomas, keith. 1987. ―the utopian impulse in seventeenth–century england‖ in between dream and nature: essays on utopia and dystopia, amsterdam: dominic baker-smith and c.c. bartfoot. yack, bernard. 1992. the longing for total revolution, berkely: university of california press. winstanley, gerrard. the law of freedom and other writings, ed. christopher hill cambridge: cambridge university press, 1883, available at: http://www.bilderberg.org/land/lawofree.htm lexicon. january 2012. web. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/19/ http://www.bilderberg.org/land/lawofree.htm 117 vol. 14 no.2, 2021 vitor de passos trust and hope as a management approach... 116 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies perceived relational factors in marital stability among married and divorced bosnians: do we understand one another? selvira draganović international university of sarajevo abstract with an increase in divorce rates worldwide, it seems that marriage loses its importance and popularity. still, many people seek romantic partners and marry for many reasons. research points to the beneficial effects of marital and romantic relationships. what factors make a good and successful marital and romantic relationship and why marriages and relationships fall apart remains to be answered. since the divorce rates in bosnia and herzegovina increase, the purpose of this study was to explore factors in good and successful marriages and reasons for divorce. this is a qualitative study in which a survey with open-ended questions was used to explore participants’ responses. with the help of convenience sampling technique, 366 participants, n= 167 married and n=199 divorced with a mean age m= 43±11 and m= 41±10 respectively were recruited. a content analysis of participants’ responses shows that both a good and successful marriage and reasons for divorce are mostly related to relational interpersonal and intrapersonal factors while external, social factors play a less important role. married and divorced participants named understanding, love, respect, trust, tolerance, communication skills, agreement and compromise as the top qualities for a successful marriage. as the leading reasons for divorce, divorced participants listed adultery or affairs and other women, alcoholism, violence and aggression, arguments and conflict, and misunderstanding. keywords: good and successful marriage, reasons for divorce, relational factors, bosnia and herzegovina epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies selvira draganovic selvira draganovic perceived relational factors in martial stability...perceived relational factors in martial stability... 119118 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction many individuals seek romantic relationship and a marriage. these usually start as a source of satisfaction and fulfillment. research shows that psychological adjustment and physical health is better among married adults compared to separated, divorced, and never married individuals (horn et al., 2013). furthermore, healthy, stable and quality relationships are positively correlated with general wellbeing (kansky, 2018; robertson et al., 2018). it also seems that highly satisfying marriages may offer spouses opportunities to feel that they belong and that they are connected to others. belonging and connection are important basic human needs (baumeister and leary, 1995, ryan & deci, 2000) which are successfully met in satisfying marriages and relationships. healthy and quality relationships and marriages are positively correlated with happiness, wellbeing and life satisfaction (lee & ono, 2012; luhmann et.al., 2012) as well as social support. a large body of research suggests that social support is beneficial for both physical health and subjective wellbeing (cohen, 2004; siedlecki et al., 2014). however, what seems to be positively correlated with wellbeing and health and starting off with plenty of love, affection, satisfaction, and fulfillment nevertheless frequently dissolves, resulting in significant individual and societal strains. the current high divorce and separation rates attract attention of researchers of different orientations studying marital and romantic relationships. contrary to previous practices, individual interests take precedence over the interests, customs and expectations of the wider community in the current trends in romantic and marital relationships. whilst sociologists focus on macro-behavioral forms of marital interaction, such as division of responsibilities and friendship, psychologists focus on micro-behavioral forms, trying to understand the interpersonal forms that lead to good and successful or quality and stable marriages or, respectively, dissolution, separation, distress or even divorce. divorce is, in many cases, the culmination of a long process of spousal emotional distancing and growing individual independence. divorce ranks high on the list of major life stressors which often leads to psychological problems, consistent with studies in psychiatric epidemiology which report a relatively high rate of depression, depressive symptoms, and other psychological problems in separated divorced individuals in many epidemiological samples (faye et al., 2013; mcshall & johnson, 2015; slavich, 2016). even more, parental divorce is linked to psychopathology and behavioral problems in their offspring generations later (jackson, rogers & sartor, 2016; nederhof et al., 2012; vousura et al., 2012). this proliferation of evidence suggests that divorce may contribute psychopathological risk in both spouses and their offspring. scientists, researchers, and even therapists raise their concern related to marital stability and divorce rates which seem to increase (draganovic, 2020). likewise, the number of divorces in bosnia and herzegovina has increased for the past five years (federalni zavod statistiku, as cited by draganovic, 2020). studies until now indicate different intra-personal and interpersonal or relational factors associated with marital stability and instability or divorce range personality factors (boertien & mortelmans, 2018; lee & martin, 2019) and attachment factors (diamond, brimhall & elliot, 2018) to individualization (strandell, 2018), relationship factors (finkel, 2018; gottman, 2015) couples’ communication and interaction factors (afrasiabi & jafarizadeh, 2015; mohlatlole, sithole & shirindi, 2018; zaheri et al., 2016), spousal similarities in health behaviors, gene expression, immune profiles and the gut (kiecolt-glaser, 2018), social media, (mcdaniel, drouin & cravens, 2017) and the minding model of love (boniwell, 2012). even though love seems to be the number one factor in marriage (boniwell, 2012), college students are ambivalent about love as necessary to maintain marriage (sprecher & hatfield, 2017), while young couples highly associate sudden character change, lack of and poor communication, financial problems, abuse and infidelity (mohlatlole, sithole & shirindi, 2018) and infidelity related behaviors on social media (mcdaniel, drouin & cravens, selvira draganovic selvira draganovic perceived relational factors in martial stability...perceived relational factors in martial stability... 121120 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 2017) with divorce. to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies on intrapersonal or relational factors in marriage or reasons for divorce in bosnia and herzegovina so far, despite high divorce rates. in the light of the above discussion and highlighting psychological benefits of quality marriage and detrimental effects of divorce, we explore how bosnian married people perceive good marital relationships and the reasons which prompted divorced individuals to dissolve their marriages. method a qualitative research method in the form of a survey was used in this study. the survey contained a socio-demographic questionnaire followed by two open-ended questions (1.“in your opinion what makes a good/successful marriage”, posed to both married and divorced participants, and, 2.“what is the reason for your divorce”, posed to divorced participants only), which were posed in order to explore participants’ experiences. this was followed by an encouragement note to participants to express their opinion and response whilst their privacy is protected. inclusion criteria for the study were: a) married or divorced and b) possession of competence necessary to give consent to participate in the study. participation was voluntary and no material compensation was offered. the survey was distributed following the snow ball principle and data collection took part over several months. open-ended questions do not provide participants with a predetermined set of answer choices but allow participants to provide answers in their own words. this method allows researchers to gain a capacious look at the issue studied. in this particular case, i was interested in participants’ responses regarding their perception of good or successful marriage and reasons for divorce. content analysis was used to analyze gathered data which was then coded into qualities/reasons which were then further quantified and ranked according to their order and occurrence in both groups (as presented in tables 2 and 3). sampling and sample the convenience snow ball sampling method was used to recruit participants for this study which consists of two groups of participants, married and divorced. in total, 366 participants took part in this study, among which n= 167 were married and n=199 were divorced. the divorced participants’ age range was m= 41±10 and that of married participants was m= 43±11. other important demographic characteristics of the participants are presented in the table below. table 1. sample characteristics. sample’s social demographics divorced n=199 married n=167 both groups 366 % age (23-68) 41±10 (22 -78.) 43±11 education level incomplete primary school 2 1 3 0.8 primary school 7 9 16 4.4 high school 96 70 166 45.4 college degree 21 11 32 8.7 university degree 55 60 115 31.4 masters or phd degree 17 13 30 8.2 employment/occupation full time job position 98 94 192 52.5 part time job position 38 22 60 16.4 entrepreneur/craftsman 10 6 16 4.4 unemployed 23 16 39 10.7 self employed 4 3 7 1.9 pension/disability 9 9 18 4.9 housewife 7 11 18 4.9 others 5 3 8 2.2 monthly income no personal income 17 11 28 7.7 less than 400 km 11 2 13 3.6 400 km – 800 km 34 9 43 11.7 800 km – 1200 km 40 13 53 14.5 1200 km – .1500km 49 41 90 24.6 more than 1500 km 48 89 137 37.4 selvira draganovic selvira draganovic perceived relational factors in martial stability...perceived relational factors in martial stability... 123122 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies results the analysis of participants’ responses led to the conclusion that participants perceive relational factors to be leading factors in marital stability and instability. this was also one of the most frequently named reasons for divorce. interestingly, both participant groups, married and divorced, responded similarly, listing several individual interpersonal qualities like understanding (divorced 46%, married 59.2%) as the top quality for a good and successful marriage, then love (divorced 37.1%, married 43.1%), respect (divorced 28.6%, married 28.7%), trust (divorced 17%, married 17.9%), tolerance (divorced 5%, married 17.3%), and communication skills (divorced 15%, married 15.5%), as can be seen in the table below. table 2. what makes a good/successful marriage? in both participant groups (n= 366). what makes a good/successful marriage? married n=167 % divorced n=199 % understanding 99 59.2 92 46.2 love 72 43.1 74 37.1 respect 48 28.7 57 28.6 trust 30 17.9 34 17.0 tolerance 29 17.3 10 5.0 talk and communication 26 15.5 30 15.0 support 20 11.9 17 8.5 compromise 15 8.9 9 4.5 attention 16 9.5 15 7.5 friendship 6 3.0 finances/money 9 4.5 agreement 5 2.9 16 8.0 honesty 8 4.7 10 5.0 harmony 16 8.0 appreciation 9 4.5 common interests and goals 7 4.1 from the participants’ responses it may be concluded that when the quality which participants named as contributing to a good and successful marriage are perceived to be missing, this is a reason to dissolve the marriage, as can be seen in participants responses to the second open-ended question “what is the reason for your divorce?” directed at divorced group of participants. table 3. enlisted reasons for divorce (divorced participants, n=199) reasons for divorce f % adultery/infidelity 50 25.1 alcoholism, drug use 33 16.5 aggression, violence 31 15.5 arguments, conflicts, 30 15.0 jealousy 26 13.0 misunderstanding 23 11.5 finances, money, poverty 17 8.5 discord 17 8.5 lies, mistrust 16 8.0 differences in personality, mentality, character, aims, ideas 15 7.5 disrespect 13 6.5 the in-laws' influence 13 6.5 lack of or poor communication 12 6.0 not having children 10 5.0 no love, emotions, intimacy 9 4.5 gambling 8 4.0 irresponsibility 7 3.5 separation, war, travel 6 3.0 neglect, inattention 6 3.0 cessation of love and connection 5 2.5 stinginess 4 2.0 differences in age, education 4 2.0 becoming parents 1 0.5 selvira draganovic selvira draganovic perceived relational factors in martial stability...perceived relational factors in martial stability... 125124 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies as can be seen from the table above, divorced participants perceive adultery to be the leading reason for their divorce (25.1%), followed by alcohol and drugs (16.5%), aggression and violence (15.5%), conflicts (15%), jealousy (13%), and misunderstanding (11%). all these responses can be categorized as either individual or relational factors. given the traditional bosnian cultural habit of many couples to live together with the in-laws and low socio-economic status, we expected these external factors to be cited frequently. however, this was not the case, contrary to our expectations. discussion as already noted in the method section, participants’ answers to the openended questions can be categorized either as relational, interpersonal, or external factors. an interesting finding in this case is that understanding, as a very important individual and interpersonal variable, is regarded as the most frequently listed and leading factor or quality for a good and successful marriage among both married and divorced participants. at the same time, misunderstanding ranks high as the sixth perceived reason for divorce, after adultery, alcoholism, aggression, conflicts and jealousy, among divorcees. since we do not know what participants mean by understanding, we asked them to further explain. these were their responses: understanding is respecting the partner, loving his / her flaws and tolerance, or adapting to each other, or making compromises, empathy directed at the spouse and suppression of one’s own egoism, whims, and frustrations, which cause most conflicts and conflicts compassion for the other, the opposite of indifference and disregard for other people’s feelings like sorrow, pain, happiness, needs, it is being tolerant, self-renunciation. understanding is when two people are on approximately the same or similar intellectual level, and misunderstanding is, of course, the opposite. participants also elaborated more on what do they mean by misunderstanding, and this is their response: misunderstanding refers to disrespect for a relationship or marriage. understanding is actually a resemblance, insight into the soul of another person or “wearing other person’s shoes”, and depends on emotional intelligence, etc., while misunderstanding is the inability to penetrate other people’s needs or lack of desire for that insight. since each man is a separate person, understanding is to accept him differently and love him with all his flaws and virtues. hence, understanding is respecting each other’s individuality while respecting the institution of marriage and all that comes along with it and simply minding one another. what seems to be reflected in the participants’ responses regarding understanding and the lack of it, as an important relational and personal variable, can be explained by the minding model of love (boniwell, 2012). according to this model, minding means knowing and being known, attribution, acceptance and respect, reciprocity and continuity. the “knowing and being known” component of love in the minding love model includes behaviors aimed at learning about each other: questioning and disclosing, knowing about thoughts, feelings, attitudes and past history. “attributions” are the explanations we have about our partner’s behavior. “acceptance and respect” relate to accepting the partner for who she/he is and respecting him/her for that. “reciprocity” relates to a sense of equality, when one’s gains are approximately equal to one’s investments. this is exactly what our participants reported. finally, “continuity” refers to the need to continue the first four elements as indicated in the term “minding”, which is a process rather than a destination, thus also requiring time, continuity, and interpersonal skills. gottman (2015), one of the most prominent relationships experts, suggests a marriage works when spouses can enhance their love through several interpersonal skills like nurturing their fondness and admiration, turning towards each other instead of away, letting their spouse influence them, solving their solvable problems, overcoming gridlock, and creating a shared selvira draganovic selvira draganovic perceived relational factors in martial stability...perceived relational factors in martial stability... 127126 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies sense of meaning. again, going back over participants’ explanation of understanding, these interpersonal skills are reflected there, so our findings are in line with gottman’s conclusions. contrary to having understanding, the lack of it might be related to the individualization factor which shapes peoples’ perceptions and understandings of the world, including their expectations of marriage and close relationships (strandell, 2018). the factor of understanding from our study findings conforms to nurturing fondness and admiration, turning towards one another instead of away, overcoming gridlock, and creating a shared sense of meaning (finkel, 2018; gottman, 2015). similar to our findings, an iranian study’s findings also points to factors like “understanding the spouse” and “understanding the spouse’s situation” to be positively correlated with marital stability and satisfaction (afrasiabi & jafarizadeh, 2015). looking at participants’ responses, we can see that enlisted relational factors in both, good and successful marriages and reasons for divorce, fit this minding theory of love, particularly respect, reciprocity and continuity, interpersonal skills while the lack of it could be linked to the individualization factor. however, lots of these relational factors are related to a spouse’s personality traits. gottman’s studies (2011; 2012) discuss how negative personality traits have a detrimental effect on a relationship. conflicts and arguments impair marital satisfaction and marital quality. conflicts and arguments usually cause emotional injuries by unkind words and behavior which in turn impairs marital stability and affects marital satisfaction negatively. some research into these issues points to the importance of the presence and nurturing of kindness in intimate and marital relationships, which acts as psychological glue and offers an important form of social support (gable et al., 2006; gottman 2011; gottman 2012; maisel and gable, 2008). independent of gottman’s studies, research shows that kindness, along with emotional stability, is the most important predictor of satisfaction and stability in marriage as it makes each partner feel that the other cares for him or her, that he or she understands, confirms, validates and loves them (aloni, 2010; fredrickson et al, 2008; pressman, kraft & cross, 2015). it is important to note that kindness does not mean that one should not express anger (gottman 2011, 2012), but actually know how to express it. there are two ways to do this: by attacking or by explaining why you are hurt and angry which is the better way. when people talk about kindness, they often think of small acts of generosity, but kindness can be the backbone of a relationship/marriage, through daily interaction, with or without gifts. one way to practice kindness is to follow your partner’s intentions. because, even in relationships in which partners are frustrated, there are almost always some positive things and people often try to do the right thing and not hurt one another intentionally. gottman’s research indicates that a lack of interest in a partner’s joy alienates the partners. although it is known that partners should be there for each other when things are not going well, research (gable and gonzaga, 2006) confirms that being there for each other when things are going well is actually much more important for relationship quality, and that inadequate reacting to someone’s good news can have dramatic consequences for a relationship. in both groups, participants ranked love as the second quality for a good and successful marriage. many people claim that love is an indescribable emotion. maslow and later rogers claimed that the need for love and belonging is at the bottom of the pyramid of basic needs immediately after physiological or biological needs and the need for security, pointing to its importance. the need for love and belonging includes the need for close intimate relationships and admiration. love and belonging to people help to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation, and the very idea of love is a need that drives us to look for partners and commit to them. every living being wants to be loved, except for people suffering from psychopathy. love is essential in all close or intimate relations and relationships, such as marriage. the importance and connection of love with marriage has been shown by the results of a large international survey conducted in eleven selvira draganovic selvira draganovic perceived relational factors in martial stability...perceived relational factors in martial stability... 129128 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies countries, on four continents. to the question “if you met a partner who meets all your criteria, would you marry him/her if you are not in love?” over 80% of participants responded negatively (levine et al., 1995, as cited by čudina-obradović, 2006). however, despite this importance of love for marriage, little is known about love in marriage. although our participants point out the importance of it, we know little about what they think about love, whether they think that love changes over time and how, what are the determinants, types and especially what is the intensity of love in marital periods before and after childbirth, the child’s departure to school or the child’s departure from the family. unrealistic expectations and misconceptions about love, intimacy and sexual behavior, i.e. expectations called romantic myth, also distort the perception. in addition, we must point out that infatuation and love, although both imply strong feelings for the other person, are often two terms that differ qualitatively. infatuation rests on a distorted, unrealistic image of the other person because we still do not know them completely. this is characteristic of the initial phase of the relationship or marriage. love is based on knowing the reality, i.e. positive and negative sides or characteristics, of another person and is found in longer relationships/marriages. unrealistic expectations are formed in the phase of falling in love when the partner still sees things through the infamous pink glasses. these expectations are also related to conflicts and quarrels later, expressed through the complaint “you were not like that at the beginning of the relationship/marriage”, or “why can’t you be like at the beginning of the relationship/marriage”. of course, a person is constantly changing, they will never be the same as at the beginning of a relationship/marriage, through aging and different life experiences in the course of the relationship/marriage, especially after major life events, such as the transition to a parental role and/or personal losses. research on romantic relationship discusses passionate and compassionate love (boniwell, 2012; fehr, harasymchuk & sprecher, 2014; hendrick & hendrick 2006). passionate love (pl) is equivalent to a state of infatuation: an intense desire for another person, which can be completely possessing. pl is often characterized by excitement, moments of exultation, feeling accepted, safe and even a sense of union and transcendence, but also by mood swings, anxiety, despair and jealousy. it is commonly believed that falling in love cannot be helped. however, it is usually triggered by identifying fulfilment of one’s needs and desires with another person, or simply projecting one’s ideal onto the other. pl is temporary, because sooner or later, inevitable differences between the idealized and the actual other become so prominent that they can no longer be ignored. compassionate love reflects a deep affection that people feel for each other. love that begins with the uncontrollable and unpredictable fire of passion usually quietens into a beautiful glow of compassion, provided it survives the first stage. compassionate love may be less intense but is lasting and involves being, doing, staying and growing with the other person (popovic, 2005). being with the other refers to acceptance, care, respect (including self-respect) and mutual equality. doing with the other means having shared goals or activities and mutual interests, alongside and in addition to the individual ones. doing sometimes involves helping, comforting, and protecting the other. staying with the other is based on commitment between people. it is assisted by intimacy and closeness. growing with the other involves transcending one’s own interests and a willingness to change. it is a common wisdom that everyone changes in his or her lifetime. change, therefore, is an essential element of life and relationships. in a partnership, it is important that the rates and directions of change in individuals are, to some extent, compatible. this benefits the relationship and enhances its growth. selvira draganovic selvira draganovic perceived relational factors in martial stability...perceived relational factors in martial stability... 131130 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies our participants also consider respect, trust, tolerance, communication, and conversation as other frequently and highly ranked qualities for a good and successful marriage following love. similar results were found in iran and lebowakgomo (mohlatlole, sithole, & shirindi, 2018; zaheri et, al., 2016). if we go back to how our respondents explained understanding, we can see that these qualities can be viewed both individually but also as a part of different love and also as part of the quality of understanding, which we have already elaborated. interestingly, our respondents also mentioned the following relational factors or qualities as factors or qualities necessary for a successful or good marriage: growing together, partner compatibility, sharing responsibilities, joint decisions, perseverance and persistence or courage, mutuality, equality, selflessness, mutual adjustment, partner’s separation, maturity or readiness for marriage. however, these were listed less frequently and were ranked lower on the list. given the traditional bosnian society and contrary to our expectations, factors like living arrangement, the in-laws, parental roles or not having children were not mentioned as often as reasons for divorce in our study. of course, this could be related to the participants’ socio-demographic characteristics since most of them were fully employed, with an average or higher income than the national average, and have at least a high school or higher degree. next to understanding and love, an iranian study suggests communication to have a positive impact on marital satisfaction (zaheri et al., 2016) and sudden character change, lack of and poor communication, financial problems, abuse and infidelity were associated with divorce among young couples (mohlatlole, sithole, & shirindi, 2018). our findings correspond with these findings. we also notice that divorced individuals enlisted adultery/infidelity as the first and most frequent reason for divorce but also named finances, discord/conflict and poor communication. conclusion bosnians consider good and successful marriage a constant and committed effort requiring both spouses to show understanding, love empathy, respect, communication and similar relational and intrapersonal factors. understanding makes marriage last and successful while the luck of it, next to the adultery, violence and aggression and alcohol are most commonly enlisted reasons for divorce among bosnian divorcees. our study findings go in line with other similar studies so bosnian married and divorced individuals consider common positive relational factors in stable marriage and in divorce, just like their contemporaries word wide. good and successful marriage requires lots of mutual work and effort, nurturing kindness, attention, selflessness, kindness, reciprocity, activity and agility, whilst the lack of such qualities or their opposite might be the reason why people decide to end a marriage, which seems to be true no matter who you are and where you live. this study has some limitations primarily related to the method part, convinience sampling and snow ball recruitment technique. so, generalization is not possible. our findings provide some guidance in regards to relational factors in quality marriage and reasons for divorce. also, variables like personality, attachment style, marital longevity, compatibility and/or sexual satisfaction or marriage/divorce longevity, vital factors in marital stability and divorce were not explored. so, it is recommended that future study be of mixed-method design, consider present study’s missing factors and even perhaps include married and divorced couples instead of individuals. selvira draganovic selvira draganovic perceived relational factors in martial stability...perceived relational factors in martial stability... 133132 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies references afrasiabi, f., & jafarizadeh, m. r. 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(2016). effective factors in marital satisfaction in perspective of iranian women and men: a systematic review. electronic physician, 8(12), 3369. sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 53 vol. 14 no.2, 202152 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies balance of freedom and security in ghana’s democracy during covid-19 pandemic: analysis of president nana akufo addo’s national briefings sufyan musah international university of sarajevo abstract the purpose of this research is to evaluate the balance of freedom and security in ghana’s democracy during the covid-19 pandemic via the precautionary measures announced by the government. ghana is considered as one of the most stable democracies in africa. considering the covid-19 health crisis, via the periodic briefings of the president, this research seeks to find out if and how the president tried to strike a balance between keeping ghanaians safe and maintaining basic freedoms. content analysis is used to analyze the 20 speeches given by the president of the republic of ghana, nana akufo addo, from march 2020 to march 2021 to assess the president’s choice of words regarding freedom and security. the findings indicate that, in times of the heightened security threat posed by the covid-19 pandemic, the president’s speeches included plentiful words of securitization. however, with the help of a detailed analysis and contextualization of the words used, the paper concludes that the president’s initiatives and directives were geared towards striking a balance between keeping ghanaians safe and maintaining basic freedoms. keywords: freedom, security, democracy, covid-19 pandemic, balance epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction freedom and security are two concepts that live side by side. the availability of security provides the atmosphere in which freedom flourishes. people from all walks of lives can freely live their lives the way they are accustomed to in an atmosphere free of threat to such lifestyles. therefore, an ideal situation is where balance is achieved regarding freedom and security. one political, philosophical and social concepts that suits this explanation is the response communitarianism, which basically draws its prime tenet on the thought that a good society is the one that carefully balances freedom and security (social order). this is achieved when pluralistic societal interests are prioritized. even liberalism adheres to this concept regarding liberty and social order (etzioni, 2005). specifically, people should be free to go about their personal businesses, however that does not mean that they have the right to harm others (gordon, 1993). with this, freedom and security are being put to use concurrently, which is how it is often harnessed within a given society. both freedom and security are mostly associated with the state in terms of applicability and maintenance because it is the state that possesses the authority and capacity to uphold them. dinh (2001) relates the state to the concept by saying that “in the same way that an individual’s moral right to property would be meaningless unless the government establishes courts of law in which those rights can be declared and enforced so too…. civil liberties would be a nullity unless they are protected” (p. 400). the protection and enforcement here are rendered by the state. therefore, although it is possible to discuss freedom and security at individual and organizational levels, it is important to point out that the freedom and security being discussed in this research is located at the state level. this research examines how the president of ghana, nana akufu-addo, tried to balance security and freedom during the covid-19 pandemic through his speeches to his country. civil libertarians often claim that sufyan musah sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's...balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 5554 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies governments that seek to limit freedoms take the opportunity to securitize gradually whenever an extraordinary event arises, until people’s liberty has decreased significantly (etzioni, 2005). the president’s speeches offer an indication whether an attempt has been made to use the extraordinary event (covid-19) to securitize or not. extraordinary events are useful as a measure in this respect due to their rare occurrence. additionally, this research serves as one test of the reputation ghana has attained as one of the most democratic and stable countries in africa (australian trade & investment commission, 2017). numerous african countries, including ivory coast and mali, have lost the democratic gains they have achieved over the years and are sliding back into chaos and dictatorship. irregularities in elections, power struggles, and the covid-19 pandemic were some of the key factors leading to securitization in those countries, consequently resulting in the loss of some basic freedoms (campbell & nolan, 2021; smith , 2013; whitehouse, 2012).comparatively, this research helps to determine whether ghana continues to be a beacon of democracy in africa in such extraordinary times. especially in a time where the strength and tolerance of democracies of the world is being tested by the covid-19 pandemic. literature many authors have written about the balance of security and freedoms in democratic societies. after 9/11, numerous scholars have argued that, in times of perceived extraordinary security crises, governments use these circumstances as an excuse to curtail freedoms (baker, 2003; bunyan, 2002; charles, 2020; cole, 2003; haubrich, 2014; silberstein, 2004). benkler’s (2013) argument highlights how freedom is curbed easily by excessive security measures in times of perceived heightened security threat. he uses the case of the u.s. government’s extended surveillance programs on virtually all americans following the 9/11 terrorist attacks which effectively curtailed the freedom to privacy. likewise, others have cited a lack of oversight by the judiciary as an enabler for governments to securitize more in times of perceived security threats (aberbach, 2008; johnson, 2008; ornstein and mann, 2006; owens, 2006). others, however, have argued that in times of extraordinary security threats, conventional security mechanisms may not address the crises at hand, thereby justifying a government’s imposition of stricter measurers (gorman, 2002; price, as cited in cuomo, 2016; mooney, 2020). in relation to health crises, mooney (2020) argues for adopting strict measures if these safeguarded the interest of the public, even if some members of society disagree. in an article in may 2020, mooney utilizes a narrative/interpretive approach to equate the anti-covid-19 restrictions movement of today with those of 1832 in liverpool and 1890 in nottingham (mooney, 2020). analyzing english newspaper contents from that time period, he showed that the contemporary and past anti-pandemic restrictions adherents use a similar language in arguing that the government would take away their freedoms with those restrictions. another academic area focuses on the struggle to balance freedom and security (huysmans, 2010; ovadia, 2006; wagner and kneip, 2018; waldron, 2017). in a conference titled “media freedom and independence in times of covid-19”, organized by the un in may 2020 to tackle disinformation and aid press freedom, un high commissioner for human rights michelle bachelet emphasized that “under international law restrictions on civil liberties in times of crisis should be demonstrated as necessary, appropriate and proportionate” (bachelet, 2020). similarly, the organization for security and cooperation in europe (osce) in may 2020 reiterated that civil liberties curtailment during the pandemic must be “limited to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation” (osce, 2020). most research conducted about ghana and the covid-19 pandemic assessed the pandemic’s impact on education due to school closures (adarkwah, 2021; amanor-mfoafo et al., 2020; agormeda et al., 2020; owusu-fordjour et al., 2020; sabates, carter & stern, 2021; upoalkpajor & upoalkpajor, 2020). others have focused on the socio-economic impact of the pandemic on the country (asante & mills, 2020; bukari, et al., 2020; nakouwo & akplehey, 2020; obese et al., 2021; owusu, frimpong-manso, & kwabena, 2020; saire & panford-quainoo, 2020). closely related to democratic governance, freedom, and security, some have discussed the sufyan musah sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's...balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 5756 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies legislative response of the ghanaian government in the wake of the pandemic (addadzi-koom, 2020), the politicization of the pandemic lockdown (braimah, 2020), and the effect of elections on the easing of the covid-19 restrictions (pulejo & querubín, 2020). evidently, only little research in ghana has directed attention towards assessing freedom and security via content analysing of the president’s speeches. more closely related to freedom and security, and as part of the group of scholars arguing that governments tend to use extraordinary crises to curtail freedoms in times of heightened security threat to the public welfare, charles (2020) argues that the ghanaian government was setting a dangerous precedent by using the covid-19 pandemic to curtail the freedom of religion. using critical analysis of electronics and social media reports, the author stated that, due to the huge impact of religious establishments, they should have been spared closure. furthermore, the government needed the religious establishments to fill the spiritual and logistical gap the country required most in such difficult times. therefore, not only was imposing a lockdown on religious establishments detrimental to the people, but it was also not in the best interest of the government. this paper explores whether ghana falls within the category of democracies curtailing freedoms in times of extraordinary crises or whether they attempt to balance freedom and security. with the covid-19 pandemic as the most significant health crisis threating the ghanaian public since the country’s democratic transition in 1992, this paper illuminates where the country stands in terms of balancing security and freedom in times of extraordinary crisis, testing ghana’s quality of democracy and governance by analyzing the balance of freedom and security in these exceptional times. definitions of freedom and security the concept of security is broad, and there has been no single definition that fits all situations. scholars have, however, developed parameters within which definitions of the term may fall. smith and brooks (2013) define security as “an outcome of risk” (p. 10) to suggest that the need to securitize is propelled by a presence of perceived danger. manunta (1999) gives a broader definition of security to equal the availability of assets, with individuals, groups, or nation-states wishing to protect assets against a perceived threat. security is also defined as “being without unacceptable risk when restricting the concept of risk to intentional unwanted acts by intelligent actors” (amundrud, aven & flage, 2017). other scholars have associated security with safety, an absence of threat, and the presence of a promise of protection from danger (jarvis & holland, 2015). all these definitions share the negation of risk. this research adopts manunta’s (1999) definition due to its broad and encompassing nature, including the nation-state as a protector of assets against a perceived threat. defining the concept of freedom also requires context, as a “naked” definition of the term would not facilitate the intended purpose in a particular instance. agamben’s (1999) context-less definition of freedom, for instance, states that “freedom is freedom for both good and evil” (p. 183). the question then is, should people be free to commit evil and illegal acts as an exercise of freedom? obviously, no society would accept the practicality and eventuality of such a definition. according to prozorov (2007), “freedom is a priori linked to a form of order as the only possible locus for its practice and, moreover, becomes an attribute of that order” (p. 3). if freedom is not viewed as an embodiment of a particular order, then its parameters and constitutions would be chaotic, and could be subjected to abuse. in relation to freedom as an embodiment of a particular system, petit (2000) asserts that the restraints by a lawful and fair regime “does not make you unfree” (p. 5). not only does this indicate that a meaningful definition of freedom is only achieved when the term is associated with a particular order, but it also illustrates a real and legitimate parameter within which it can actually be exercised. therefore, as far as this research is concerned, prozorov’s definition is adopted to conceptualize and operationalize freedom. thus, sufyan musah sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's...balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 5958 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the freedom of ghanaians in relation to the covid-19 pandemic restrictions is defined within the parameters of the laws of ghana. can there be an equilibrium of freedom and security? the definition of freedom above implies that whenever the need for tighter security arises, some freedoms can be curtailed, or at least perceived to be curtailed by those who overly support freedom. for instance, the frequent killing of black people by police in the u.s. has led to a growing call for defunding and abolishing the police (davis, 2020; loader, 2020; o’rourke, su & binder, 2021). these demands partly stem from the fear of a loss of freedom and were not only uttered by ordinary citizens but also by prominent figures, including famous public office holders (davis, 2020). it has always seemed that for security to be upheld in a society, there must be a compromise regarding some freedoms. which freedoms ought to be curbed and to what extent usually divide societies. historically, while benjamin franklin proclaimed that “they that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” (franklin, 1759, as cited in dinh, 2001, p. 399), abraham lincoln, after unilaterally suspending the writ of habeas corpus in 1861, maintained that liberty could be an impediment to proper functioning of the government, and a threat to its existence (dinh, 2001). benjamin franklin’s view applies to this research and to modern discussions regarding freedom and security. essential liberties, such as freedom of movement, to choose what to eat, to own property, to speak one’s opinion, could be a good measurement to judge whether freedoms are being curtailed. when these essential liberties are compromised for the sake of a looming security threat, freedom is lost, unless the circumstances are extraordinary, and a reversal to normalcy when the perceived threat has vanished is guaranteed. however, the latter is rarely attained. for example, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, freedom and liberty have never reversed to the level they were before the attack (bigo & tsoukala, 2008; bird & brandt, 2010; shaheen, 2008). similarly, the covid-19 pandemic might equally lead to a long-term curtailment of freedom and liberty (bauer et al., 2021; brown et al., 2020; mayer, schintler & bledsoe, 2020; repucci & slipowitz, 2020). overall, there should be a balance regarding freedom and security if society is to function orderly. while this equilibrium may be easily achieved and held in times free of crisis, the difficulty arises in extraordinary times with a need of and resort to securitization. the definitions of both freedom and security show that excess of either one of them could be a dangerous slope towards a disorderly society. commenting on the balance of security and freedom, edmond burke emphasized that “the only liberty i mean is a liberty connected with order; that not only exists along with order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them” (burke, 1774, as cited in bork, 1996). this research determines whether the president of ghana achieved a balance of security and freedom from his numerous speeches regarding the covid-19 measures, taking into consideration the above definitions and comparisons. methodology this research collected primary data in form of 20 speeches made by the president of ghana, nana akufo addo, in addressing the covid-19 pandemic, available on the government of ghana’s official website. this research covers the time span of one year (march 2020 – march 2021). the president’s speeches and addresses to the nation regarding the formulation and implementation of the covid-19 pandemic measures were analyzed qualitatively since they serve as directives and orders for the entire country. therefore, assessing the balance of freedom and security via this data provides insight into democracy and governance in extraordinary times in ghana. sufyan musah sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's...balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 6160 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies through the use of content analysis, i analyzed the balance between security and freedom based on word frequencies and their contextual usage throughout the 20 speeches of the president. after adopting a definition of security and freedom, the keywords were then categorized into the groups “freedom,” “security,” and other categories relevant to democracy and governance in ghana. words related to precautionary measures were categorized under “security,” while words indicating a lack or easing of restrictions were categorized under “freedom.” content analysis is not only applicable in both qualitative and quantitative research (elo & kyngäs, 2008; johnson, reynolds & mycoff, 2016) but also aims explicitly for external validity, unlike strictly qualitative research designs (downe‐ wamboldt, 1992). the reliability of this approach lies in clearly laid out definitions, categorizations, coding of key terms, and procedures used. they should be clear enough to promote inter-coder reliability (johnson & mycoff, 2016). to attain reliability, this research has not only categorized freedom related words on one side and security related words on another, but also observed the contextual usage of these words to achieve accuracy in the categorization. for example, if a security related word was used in a context that denotes non-security measures, it was not categorized under “security.” therefore, the measurement and coding of words is based on the observation of both word frequency and contextual usage. theoretical and conceptual framework securitization theory is used to explain the relationship between the two elements of securitizing political agents and the audience, as well as the third element, the context that enabled the political agents to securitize. according to buzan and wæver (2009) of the copenhagen school, the securitizing agents include state and non-state actors, individuals, and groups, while the referent objects can also consist of individuals, groups, or pressing issue(s) of national interest, including sovereignty, environment, economy, public health, and political crises. the speech act is considered a vital component of the concept because the political agents can accomplish an objective via their discourse rather than report an incident. ever since its inception, securitization theory has been developed further so that it can be applied widely, since even wæver admitted to its inherent limitations to explain broader security phenomena (as cited in stritzel, 2014, p. 12). as a result, securitization theory has been explicated and applied to various security related areas, including climate change and security (busby, 2020; corry, 2011; lucke, 2020; mayer, 2012), security and immigration (bigo, 2002; huysmans, 2006; ceyhan & tsoukala, 2002; wæver & carlton, 1993), while others have criticized the theory (ciutǎ, 2009; floyd, 2007; leonard & kaunert, 2011; mcsweeney, 1996; williams, 2003). one of the most recent criticisms sees securitization theory as racist (howell & richter-montpetit, 2020). although the authors admit that securitization theory can be applied to non-western societies, it was nonetheless developed with elements of racial political thought, since the categorization into normal and extraordinary times veils racial violence in “normal” times. therefore, building on previous critiques of the theory, howell and richter-montpetit argue that securitization theory produces a racist, civilizationist and political imaginary. moreover, securitization would also violate liberal political order, threatening to erase liberal progress worldwide. while this premise is relevant, it does not affect the extensive applicability of securitization theory, even in non-western societies, as this research shows. balzacq (2005) criticizes the overreliance on speech act of securitization which leaves out the social consequences associated with it. however, he admits “that an effective securitization is audience-centered.” thus, i draw from this to say that the emphasis on the speech act is paramount since the agent’s speech is the means by which the audience appreciates and assents to securitization. moreover, this paper employs this concept because it is useful to explain the ghanaian president’s speeches to the nation in which he announced securitization, using the covid-19 pandemic as the refersufyan musah sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's...balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 6362 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies ent object. by analysing word choice and frequency, content analysis as a method provides the detail and rigor with which one can conclude as to whether or not ghana balanced the maintenance of freedom and protection of citizens. findings the table below contains the findings of the research. in the 20 speeches examined, the president used words related to securitization more frequently than words related to freedom. another aspect of the findings, and relevant to democracy and governance, is the president’s use of religious related words, in some cases more often than words in the categories of “freedom” and “security.” one such case is the frequent usage of the word ‘god’ (44 times), in each case to invoke god’s blessings on the nation, as shown in the table below. regarding the pandemic, he mentions that “this too shall pass, because the battle is still the lord’s”, and “may god bless us all and our homeland ghana and make her great and strong” (akufo-addo, 2021). in fact, all the speeches ended with such a sentence, next to the other instances where the president mentioned god. ‘restrictions’ is the most frequently used word among all the categories, usually referring to the strict covid-19 pandemic measures imposed by the government. ‘protect’ was used 37 times and was in all cases followed by the mentioning of lives of healthcare personnel, school children, and the nation. the president used ‘protect’ to justify the securitization, as evident in “it is my job to protect you”, “it is very important that we protect all healthcare providers”, “we will…. protect people’s lives, then their livelihoods” (akufo-addo, 2021). public places that were ordered to close per the president’s speeches included schools, nightclubs, beaches, places of worship, as well as the land, sea and air borders of the country, although air traveling was resumed later on. the president mentions that “all universities, senior high schools, and basic schools, i.e., public and private schools, will be closed monday, 16th march, 2020, till further notice” and “our borders, by air, land and sea, remain closed until further notice” (akufo-addo, 2021). words category frequency freedom: free 17 easing 20 permitted 9 operate 4 democratic 4 democracy 1 freedom 7 security: lockdown 3 limited 3 closed 24 restrictions 54 protect 37 security 26 law 14 others: parliament 10 god 44 prophet muhammad 2 jesus christ 1 muslims 5 christians 2 table 1: key words category table (created from presidency of the republic of ghana, 2021) sufyan musah sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's...balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 6564 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies discussion the president used security related words more often than freedom related words. however, a closer analysis reveals that, given the magnitude of the covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed millions of lives (who, 2020) worldwide at this point, it can be argued that the measures were not stringent and excessive. this could also be measured by the fact that the general public, which was also the president’s audience, overwhelmingly followed the covid-19 pandemic measures. while other countries, including finland, france, denmark, norway, romania, and austria (euronews, 2021), had anti-covid-19 pandemic measures protests, ghana had none. it is important to reiterate that the lack of anti-covid-19 pandemic protests in ghana is not because citizens are not free to protest, as can be seen by the numerous post-election protests held in the country in 2020 (ghanaweb, 2020). rather, the absence of protests against covid-19 restrictions is an indication that the president’s speeches resonated with his audience. the magnitude of the securitization object (covid-19 pandemic) to the ghanaian public does not necessarily negate the possibility that the president has securitized to achieve a political goal (osei-appiah, 2021; nugent, asiamah, molony, & selorme, 2020). further analysis below will give a clearer indication whether the president’s frequent use of securitizing words means that he ordered stringent restrictions on the ghanaian public. 1. does the president’s securitizing language equal curbing of freedoms? the frequency of some words in the president’s speeches does not necessarily imply a stringent imposition of security measures against freedoms. for example, of the 54 times the president mentioned the word ‘restrictions,’ almost half of the time the word is preceded by ‘easing’ to announce lifting of restrictions, for instance: “fellow ghanaians, in update no.15, i announced the easing of restrictions in some areas of national life” (akufo-addo, 2020). moreover, ‘lockdown’ and ‘limited,’ indicators of restrictions associated with the covid-19 pandemic, are only mentioned 3 times respectively throughout the 20 speeches. ‘limited’ shows limitations to normal life, including the number of people allowed on vehicles and public transportation, the number of people allowed in stadiums, at burial sites, and at political rallies throughout the country. the word ‘security’ was used 26 times, usually referring to the involvement of security forces by the president, to shoulder the extra burden placed on health officials during the covid-19 pandemic. the word was also used to describe the role of security officials, which is to enforce the laws and covid-19 related measures. as he mentions in one speech: “should anyone be arrested by the security agencies disregarding this directive, that person will be dealt with strictly in accordance with law” (akufo-addo, 2021). ‘protect’ was used frequently to refer to the objects the president deems worth protecting against the ramifications of the covid-19 pandemic, including human lives, property, and health personnel, as well as the country as such. consistent with securitization theory, the president’s use of speech can legitimize securitization of the nation by constantly referring to protection of the nation as his ultimate goal. in this respect, he tried to convince his audience that securitization serves to safeguard their individual interest and that of the nation. he went further to engage the audience by saying, “protect yourself. protect each other. protect your teachers. protect your parents” (akufo-addo, 2021). likewise, he mentions ‘law’ frequently, to inform the nation that the measures are in accordance with ghana’s law, and that citizens are to follow them in order for the country to overcome the common enemy, the covid-19 pandemic. the public places that the president ordered to be closed, as part of the measures to contain the covid-19 pandemic, were considered breeding grounds for spreading the disease, even by world standards. these public places include markets, malls, schools, mosques, churches, beaches, night clubs, and pubs. since some have criticized the closure of religious places (charles, 2020), does that mean that ghana is curbing the freedom of religion during the covid-19 pandemic? after all, many other democracies, including more advanced ones like the usa, the uk, canada, and germasufyan musah sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's...balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 6766 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies ny, have instituted similar, or even more stringent measures, to contain the covid-19 pandemic (bbc, 2020). some see the imposition of measures as curtailing freedom, while others see it as a worthy trade off to secure a safer society (viscusi, 2021). the widespread jubilation that ensued after the announcement of the relaxation of the covid-19 pandemic measures in ghana could indicate that a significant number of the population perceived the measures as a curtailment of freedom. it could also mean that even those who supported the restrictive measures became discontented. 2. is there an attempt to balance freedom and security via the speech act of the president? ‘easing’ is the most frequent word in the “freedom” category and was always followed by the word ‘restrictions’ to inform the audience about the content and time of the covid-19 pandemic measures’ lifting. for instance, the president stated “i am now in a position to outline the road map for easing safely the restrictions” (akufo-addo, 2020). in the context of freedom and security one could infer that the president attempted to balance the two. another indication of this is the systematic procedure of the easing of restrictions, where the easing of the measures followed a decrease of infection rates. only so much can be inferred here about the genuineness of the president’s initiative, since ghana’s capacity for mass testing of the population is limited due to financial and logistical constraint. therefore, the number of infections to justify the president’s securitization may not be accurate, further solidifying the claim that the covid-19 pandemic could have been used to curtail freedoms. ‘free’ was used 17 times, the second most frequently used word in the “freedom” category. contextually, the word is often used to convey to the citizens that ghana is a free country, and that the forefathers envisioned it this way. for example, in one frequency the president mentioned that “with the help of the almighty, we are, today, building a free, independent state, a state that, despite the urgency of the crisis, is governed by democratic institutions” (akufo-addo, 2021). the word is also used to convey the generosity of the government during the covid-19 pandemic by stressing that citizens received free covid-19 tests, electricity, and water, as well as the use of a popular money transfer service (akufo-addo, 2021). thus, not only did the president constantly remind his audience that the country is free despite the strict measures, but he also announced stimulus packages to compensate for the hardship from the restrictions. thus, one could infer that freedom and security were balanced. however, one may also interpret this generosity as not only means for the president to securitize more but also to self-promote or gain a political base, especially since 2020 was an election year. ghanaian electorates perceive their government as especially generous in election years. thus, the president may have capitalized on the covid-19 pandemic to champion his re-election bid. the president’s audience seem to have accepted his call, further legitimizing his securitization. acceptance of the measures by the citizens is paramount, since it could be inferred to as a key measure of what democracy is about (horowitz, 1991). likewise, in reference to an important democratic governance principle, the president mentions ‘parliament’ 10 times; it is one of the frequently used words in the “other” category. the president mentioned the parliament to demonstrate the legislature’s involvement in the decision-making process of pandemic measures. for example, the president mentioned that “the minister for finance has been directed by me to prepare, for approval by parliament, a coronavirus alleviation programme to address the disruption in economic activities, the hardship of our people, and to rescue and revitalize our industries” (akufo-addo, 2020). this indicates that even in extraordinary times, the president was willing to cooperate with the people’s representatives systematically, to find a solution to the looming public threat of covid-19 pandemic. it could also mean that it is an act of balancing, keeping the citizens of ghana safe and maintaining freedoms, since the people’s legislative representatives’ approval was sought in the decision-making process. sufyan musah sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's...balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 6968 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 3. religion as a key reference point in the president’s speeches one needs to recognize the religious composition of ghana in order to fully grasp why the president referred to god in all of his speeches. nearly 71% of ghana’s population identifies as christian, 18% as muslim, and 5% as belonging to traditional african religion, while 6% identify as non-religious (u.s. department of state, 2019). the magnitude of religiosity in ghana also partly explains how ghana’s first president, kwame nkrumah, rose to power: “his early success as a political leader was due to his ability to resymbolize ghanaian politics through religious symbols” (addo, 1999, p. 2). it thus becomes evident why akufo addo mentioned the word ‘god’ 44 times throughout his covid-19 pandemic speeches, so much that it is the second most mentioned word among all the words categorized under freedom and security. with it, the president related to his audience, and appealed to deeply held beliefs, to gain the audience’s cooperation. the president goes as deep as mentioning the names of the two most revered figures in the two largest religions in ghana, respectively, as shown in the table above. not only does this reaffirm the importance of the relationship between the political actor and his audience, according to speech act theory, but it also shows the deep understanding and recognition of the citizens’ freedom of religion. regarding the relationship between the political actor and his audience in the speech act, leonard and kaunert (2011), in reconceptualization of the audience in securitization theory, stressed the need to understand the composition of the audience and deduct a logic of persuasion therefrom (leonard & kaunert, 2011, p. 58). in this situation, the ghanaian president has effectively utilized the speech act of the securitization theory to further his goal. furthermore, the president has recognized the religious composition of his audience and sought their respective cooperation through systematic appeals by referring to their collective reverence figure, god. he also appeals to them by referring to their respective most revered figures and what those figures teach their followers during difficult times, like the covid-19 pandemic. for example, the president cited a prophetic saying (hadith) of the muslim religion in which their prophet directed his followers to stay home and perform prayers there instead of congregating in a mosque because of the hazard of a heavy rain (akufo-addo, 2021). president akufo addo cited this to persuade his muslim audience to follow the prophetic tradition by staying home to pray, and to avoid the usual muslim practice of congregating in mosques in order to curb the spread of the covid-19 virus across the country. conclusion the attempt to balance maintenance of basic freedoms, which is one of the canonical hallmarks of democracy, and providing security would always be an ongoing debate, especially among democratic societies. this is in part due to advanced technological development and the emergence of public health hazards, like the covid-19 pandemic. the response of the president of ghana in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic to effect a balance by keeping ghanaians safe and maintaining their basic freedoms illustrates an apparent continuation of this wider debate. it also depicts the relevance of securitization theory in modern political discourses, especially in the areas of liberty and security. the results of this research validate the theory and its contextual applicability. with the covid-19 global health pandemic providing a legitimate reason to securitize, the government could have carried out excesses with minimal scrutiny. however, this did not happen, underlining the democratic quality of the country in this regard. yet, there is not only one interpretation of the president’s speech and intentions. while some perceive that the president used the covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to securitize, others see it as a trade-off that is necessary to protect the sufyan musah sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's...balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 7170 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies greater good of the ghanaian society. this also crystalizes the division within the ghanaian society, as far as this issue is concerned, and therefore, helps in exploring prospective mechanisms that can bridge the gap in such division. references aberbach, j. d. 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(2003). words, images, enemies: securitization and international politics. international studies quarterly, 47(4), 511-531. sufyan musah sufyan musah balance of freedom and security in ghana's...balance of freedom and security in ghana's... 8180 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies world health organization (2020, april 11). who coronavirus (covid-19) dashboard. retrieved from world health organization official website: https://covid19.who. int/ introduction epiphany: vol. 5, no. 1, 2012 issn 1840-3719 flinging a new star: “fire and cloud” and “bright and morning star” as reflections of richard wright’s changing relationship with communism april conley kilinski * abstract richard wright‟s collection of short novella‟s, uncle tom’s children, was originally published in 1938; in 1940, after the success of native son, a new printing of the text appeared with two additions. the first was the introductory essay entitled “the ethics of living jim crow,” which was written in 1937, and later served as part of black boy. the second was the novella “bright and morning star.” michel fabre notes that harper’s magazine rejected this story, “but since it fit party specifications even better than had the four previous stories, new masses published it as part of a special literary supplement on may 10, [1938]” (164) . in fact, perhaps because new masses originally published the final story, critical attention to the revised edition of book almost exclusively posits that the 1940 edition reflects wright‟s commitment to communism at the time. however, several of wright‟s other writings—including the introductory essay to the 1940 edition, “the ethics of living jim crow;” “blue print for negro writing,” first published in new challenge in the fall of 1937; “i tried to be a communist,” first published in atlantic monthly in august and september 1944; and his responses to the communist party‟s review of native son in 1940—also indicate that his focus in the late 1930s was more on the development of an individual black consciousness than on advancing the causes of the communist party. by juxtaposing the final two stories, “fire and cloud” and “bright and morning star,” and considering them in terms of the other writings indicated above, i argue that the 1940 edition of uncle tom’s children (with the two additions) demonstrates wright‟s growing ambivalence with the communist party between the years of 1937 and 1940. keywords: richard wright, communist party, race, uncle tom’s children. * corresponding author: april conley kilinski, north georgia college & and state university, usa, e-mail: ackilinski@northgeorgia.edu mailto:ackilinski@northgeorgia.edu a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [53] richard wright‟s collection of short novella‟s, uncle tom’s children, was originally published in 1938; in 1940, after the success of native son, a new printing of the text appeared with two additions. the first was the introductory essay entitled “the ethics of living jim crow,” which was written in 1937, and later served as part of black boy. the second was the novella “bright and morning star.” michel fabre notes that harper’s magazine rejected this story, “but since it fit party specifications even better than had the four previous stories, new masses published it as part of a special literary supplement on may 10, [1938]” (164) . much has been made of the addition of the fifth story, with most critics focusing on wright‟s own comments about the book in the introductory essay to native son, “how bigger was born.” timothy p. caron points out that wright‟s criticism of the original text stemmed from his realization that he “had written a book which even bankers‟ daughters could read and weep over and feel good about” (qtd in caron 46). caron goes on to argue that with the addition of the introductory essay and the final story, “wright deprived his readers of the consolation of tears and challenged them with a more unmistakably political work in the revised uncle tom’s children” (46). in fact, perhaps because new masses originally published the final story, critical attention to the revised edition of book almost exclusively posits that the 1940 edition reflects wright‟s commitment to communism at the time. james giles, for example, asserts that the value of “bright and morning star” lies in its completion of the narrative themes since “sue . . . dies a martyred convert to communism and thus triumphs over all the forces which have limited the characters in the first four stories” (266). more recently, critics have not veered much from earlier readings such as caron‟s and giles‟s. in his reading of the revised collection in the death-bound-subject, abdul r. janmohamed contends that the last two stories, which are concerned with examining the effects of death on the interiority of its protagonists, explore the more complex relations between emotions and political resistance (46-47) . . . . after having worked through the relations between religion and politics in the previous story [“fire and cloud”], wright begins “bright and a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [54] morning star” with a very explicit articulation of a transfer of utopian energies from religion to politics . . . . in short, a political rebirth and political organization as such now seem to wright to be the better part of valor. (69) while janmohamed does broaden the scope of the reading to deal with psychological and emotional responses to death, he still concludes that the ultimate fulfillment in the texts comes when the characters align themselves with a political cause, namely communism. however, mikko juhani tuhkanen rightly notes that one would do well to retain a level of skepticism regarding “such propagandistic readings of even wright‟s earliest text” (126). 1 indeed, several of wright‟s other writings—including the introductory essay to the 1940 edition, “the ethics of living jim crow;” “blue print for negro writing,” first published in new challenge in the fall of 1937; “i tried to be a communist,” first published in atlantic monthly in august and september 1944; and his responses to the communist party‟s review of native son in 1940—also indicate that his focus in the late 1930s was more on the development of an individual black consciousness than on advancing the causes of the communist party. in fact, by juxtaposing the final two stories, “fire and cloud” and “bright and morning star,” and considering them in terms of the other writings indicated above, i argue that the 1940 edition of uncle tom’s children (with the two additions) demonstrates wright‟s growing ambivalence with the communist party between the years 1937 and 1940. in “blueprint for negro writing,” wright argues that “[w]ith the gradual decline of the moral authority of the negro church, and with the increasing irresolution which is paralyzing negro middle class leadership, a new role is devolving upon the negro writer. his is being called upon to do no less than create values by which his race is to struggle, live and die” (43). these values changed dramatically for wright during the time that he was associated with the communist party, 1 see especially the note on page 132 of the article “‟a [b]igger‟s place‟: lynching and specularity in richard wright‟s „fire and cloud‟ and native son.” a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [56] and the representations of them in fictionalized form from “fire and cloud” to “bright and morning star” also changed. while i do not discount the thematic development and continuity of the unified whole, i will focus my attention on these final two stories for two reasons: first, because the other three were written before 1937 (kinnamon 82), which was the date of wright‟s first break with the party 2 ; and secondly, because these are the texts which overtly address the presence of the communist party in influencing the actions of the main characters. “fire and cloud,” first published in the march issue of story in 1938, opens with reverend taylor returning from an unsuccessful trip to town to plead for relief from the white government for his black congregation. 3 on this walk back, taylor begins to muse about his early life when he felt the call of god to become a preacher. he says that “god had spoken to him . . . god had called him to preach his word, to spread it to the four corners of the earth, to save his black people . . . he had been called like moses, leading his people out of the wilderness into the promised land” (159). however, in the face of the despair and hunger brought on by the depression, taylor begins to doubt the direction of god‟s leading: god had spoken . . . when he had called him to preach his word . . . [b]ut now the whole thing was giving way, crumbling in his hands, right before his very eyes. and every time he tried to think of some way out, of some way to stop it, he saw wide grey eyes behind icily white spectacles . . . [m]abbe ef we hada demonstration like hadley and green [the communist party leaders] said we could scare white folks inter doin something. (160) 2 fabre points out in the unfinished quest of richard wright that james farrell wrote to wright “on february 9, 1937, saying, „i‟m glad to hear you left the party‟” (138). moreover, fabre notes that “this first break . . . is also mentioned in wright‟s correspondence with margaret walker” (138). 3 in the great depression: america, 1929-1941 robert s. mcelvaine demonstrates that “most early new deal programs included the ideal of decentralized administration or „grass-roots democracy‟ [,which] . . . meant that local elites controlled the federal programs in their areas” (189), often discriminatorily towards blacks. indeed, “relief payments to blacks in atlanta averaged $19.29 per month, while white relief clients in the same city received $32.66, nearly 70 percent more” (190). a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [57] significantly, it is the racism of the whites whose “gray eyes” cause him to question his stance as a biblically passive leader and to consider hadley and green‟s plans in effecting a change. in “i tried to be a communist,” wright identifies this as the same impulse that led him to embrace the philosophy of collectivity in communism as a way to fight racial oppression. he says, it was not the economics of communism, nor the great power of trade unions, nor the excitement of underground politics that claimed me; my attention was caught by the similarity of the experiences of workers in other lands, by the possibility of uniting scattered but kindred peoples into a whole. it seemed to me that here at last, in the realm of revolutionary expression, negro experience could find a home, a functioning value and role. (118) and like taylor, “wright was somewhat torn between his new sympathies and his mother‟s religious beliefs, [but] he came to see in marxism an organized search for truth about the life of oppressed peoples, and this convinced him that the communists were sincere” (fabre 97). although taylor never openly joins the party, he chooses an alignment with them because of the hope that with them he can bring about some results in the fight against racial oppression. in fact, “fire and cloud” seems to fictionally trace wright‟s own encounters with racism throughout the text. taylor‟s admonition of his son, jimmy, that he and his friends not start any trouble with the white folk sounds very similar to wright‟s own admonition from his mother described in the first section of “the ethics of living jim crow” that he “was never to fight any more wars. [he] was never, never, under any conditions to fight white folks again” (2). in the ninth section of this essay, wright says that in memphis, his “jim crow education assumed quite a different form. it was no longer brutally cruel, but subtly cruel. here i learned to lie, to steal, to dissemble. i learned to play that duel role which every negro must play if he wants to eat and live” (13). reverend taylor seems to recognize fully this dual role when he asks may to help him with his plan to protect hadley and green from the mayor and the chief of police in the other room. taylor asks may to tell the white folks that his is sick. her a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [58] response to him is that “god ain wid yuh when yuh lie, dan!” and he responds by telling her that “[w]e gotta lie t white folks! theys on our necks! they make us lie t them! whut can we do but lie?” (170). not only do the whites pressure him into playing a dual role, they cause him to stray from an important tenant of his christian faith by forcing him to lie. significantly, this second move away from christianity brings him closer to the communist cause of hadley and green, since the lie is told to protect them. john lowe‟s insights are useful here: god . . . gets replaced, at least in inspiration, for the march, by the communist party . . . hadley and green, the party organizers, sit in the bible room. their placement there, in the realm of the sacred “word,” made possible by the displacement of the deacons to the cellar, underscores wright‟s intent to reinscribe the gospels with a communist reading, beginning with the harnessing of the voice of christ‟s chief rhetorician, rev. taylor. (67) while the reality of white racism continues to push taylor towards the communist cause, he refuses to fully endorse their actions by allowing his name to be used on a flyer promoting the march to take place the following day. in justifying his reasons for this refusal, taylor tells hadley and greene that he is “ackin as gawd gives me the light to see” (178). communism has not yet fully replaced his christian vision or his conviction that god called him to save his black people. after his kidnapping and beating by white people, however, taylor recognizes more fully the failure of religion to unite people. while walking back from the woods after being beaten, taylor sees a church steeple and recognizes it as houston‟s church. he considers stopping there for help, but decides against it because houston is white and “[e]ven though he preaches the gospel [taylor] preaches, he might not take [him] in . . . he passed a small graveyard surrounded by a high iron picket fence. a white graveyard, he thought and snickered bitterly. „lawd gawd in heaven, even the dead can‟t be together!” (203). wright further emphasizes this segregation under jim crow when, just after this taylor has an encounter with a cop that mirrors one of wright‟s own experiences outlined in “the ethics of living jim crow.” taylor desires to run in order to lessen the time of his suffering, but realizes that “he a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [59] could not run in a white neighborhood. to run would mean to be shot, for a burglar, or anything” (205). in fact, a white policeman does stop him and after taylor lies to him, he tells taylor he may go only if he agrees to keep out of the white neighborhood after dark. taylor‟s responds with “yessuh” (205), the same response that wright gives when a policeman stops him after making deliveries in white neighborhood at night. after being unable to find anything incriminating on him, wright says that he policeman said “[b]oy, tell your boss not to send you out in white neighborhoods after sundown” (10). wright responds with “yes, sir.” eventually, wright‟s own encounters with jim crow living prompted him to flee to chicago and to join the communist party. while taylor fails to commit fully to the party‟s cause, soon after recognizing the failure of the gospel to unite black and white, he does solidify his commitment to fight against his white oppressors in the form of collective action. this commitment causes him to burn “like a pillar of fire [as] he [goes] through the white neighborhood. some days theys gonna burn! some day theys gonna burn in gawd awmighty‟s fire! „gawd ef yuh gimme the strength ahll tear this ol building down! tear it down lawd! tear it down like ol samson tore the temple down!” (204). even though taylor still prays to god for help, by describing him as a pillar of fire, wright puts taylor into the position that god held in the old testament as the pillar of fire by night who led the israelites out of egypt. christianity for taylor—as demonstrated in his prayer with his congregation and his admonition to them to “[h]ave faith, sistahs n brothers. gawd takes care of his own” (168)—has been a passive waiting up to this point. but, the fire instilled in him through his response to white racism pushes him into active doing. wright fully demonstrates taylor‟s action when taylor reveals to jimmy and the congregation his new position on collectivity and the march. despite uncertainty about the “reds,” he tells jimmy to “let nothing come tween yuh n yo people . . . it‟s the people! theys the ones whut mus be real t us! gawds wid the people! n the peoples gotta be real as gawd t us!” (210). as wright outlined in “blueprint,” it seems that the new values being created in this text, through taylor‟s development, are the values of collective action. a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [60] reverend taylor carries these values to the congregation as well when he tells them “ah done seen the sign! wes gotta git together. ah know what yo life is! ah done felt it! its fire! its like the fire that burned me las night! its sufferin! its hell! ah cant bear this fire erlone! ah know now what t do! wes gotta git close t one ernother! gawd done spoke! gawds done sent his sign. now its fer us t ack” (218). this prompts the crowd to begin marching while singing “the sign of the fire by nigh n the sign of the cloud by day.” as neil graves argues, “[t]he symbols of the song—but especially the pillar of fire—are now embodied in the people, as they begin to move out of earthly bondage rather than waiting for a release in eternity” (287). again, the pillar of fire, in the collective voice of the people, has replaced god, and the passive waiting that goes along with christian suffering, with a more active god who encourages collective resistance to injustice, not unlike the philosophies that martin luther king and others espoused during the civil rights movement. as the black marchers move closer to town, they meet the poor whites, and the sight of this interracial collectivity causes “[a] baptism of clean joy to [sweep] over taylor” (220). abdul janmohamed rightly contends that this moment signifies taylor‟s transformation from an “acquiescent, fearful man to one who is proud, rebellious, and politically more sophisticated” (64). after replacing his passive christian faith with an active faith in the people of both races, taylor exclaims, “freedom belongs to the strong!” (220). wright also celebrates the collaboration between blacks and whites in “blueprint” when he says that [on] the shoulders of white writers and negro writers alike rest the responsibility of ending this mistrust and isolation. by placing cultural health above narrow sectional prejudices, liberal writers of all races can help to break the stony soil of aggrandizement out of which the stunted plants of negro nationalism grow. and, simultaneously, negro writers can help to weed out these choking growths of reactionary nationalism and replace them with hardier and sturdier types. (49) taylor‟s victorious end embodies all of the ideals that wright sets down in “blueprint.” taylor overcomes jimmy‟s reactionary nationalism and replaces it with the “sturdier” plant of group action between whites a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [61] and blacks. in a recent article entitled “the integral function of marxist doctrine in richard wright‟s „fire and cloud‟,” larry marshall sams cogently argues that wright not only promotes cooperation between races, but that he intentionally uses marxist principles in this text since “the plot of „fire and cloud‟ proves the marxist dictum that to survive a person must socially interact with others . . . . wright weaves into the plot too many details that allude to details of marxist doctrine for the parallels to be accidents” (16-17). thus, it would seem that wright overtly advocates communist thinking in the story. while this ending seems to confirm the positive role of the communist party in the lives of black people, one should keep in mind that white racism and an attempt to help black people serve as inspiration for reverend taylor to march. his commitment to saving his people, one way or another, prompts him first to be a minister and then to be an activist. these are very similar to wright‟s own motives for joining the party because there “negro experience can find a home, a functioning value and role” (“i tried” 118). as mentioned earlier, “blueprint” was published in 1937, the same year, according to fabre, that wright had his first break with the party when he was not permitted to march in the may day parade (138). however, as fabre is quick to note, “wright was not prepared to abandon completely the ideal that had so inspired and even sustained him for several years” (138). this may account for why the 1938 edition of uncle tom’s children did not include “the ethics of living jim crow” and “bright and morning star.” 4 despite his continued allegiance to the party, wright began to experience some disillusionment about party ideals and his freedom to express the sufferings of black people. he says in “i tried to be a communist” that after he began taking notes on the life of one of his fellow black party members, he was threatened by others with expulsion for being an intellectual. his response to this was an inability to understand “the danger in showing the kinship between the sufferings of the negro and the sufferings of other people” (131). wright experienced 4 according to michel fabre, “the story [„bright and morning star‟] was ready in time to appear in uncle tom’s children, to which it could have been a fifth act, but it was decided to publish it separately” (164). a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [62] further disillusionment with communism when he encountered the problem of racism within the party as well. he tells of going to a writer‟s congress where, when he asked about housing accommodations, “the new york john reed club members, all white members of the communist party, looked embarrassed. i waited while one white communist called another white communist to one side and discussed what could be done about me, a black chicago communist . . . [a]s i stood watching one white comrade talk frantically to another about the color of my skin, i felt disgusted” (137). 5 wright takes up the issue of what to do when collaboration between races and party activism are not enough to end racism in “bright and morning star” in the character of sue. the story opens with the african american sue reflecting on her conversion from christianity to communism while she waits for her son, johnny-boy, to return from doing party work. she remembers that it was suffering that led her to her christian faith: “[l]ong hours of scrubbing floors for a few cents a day had taught her who jesus was, what a great boon it was to cling to him, to be like him, to be like him and suffer without a mumbling word” (224). and, like taylor, the oppressiveness of white racism causes her to doubt that faith. however, unlike taylor, sue‟s sons are the reason she replaces her christian faith with a faith in the communist cause: she had loved them, even as she loved them now; bleeding her heart had followed them. she could have done no less, being an old woman is a strange world. and day by day her sons had ripped from her startled eyes her old vision, and image by image had given her a new one, different, but great and strong enough to fling her into the light of another grace. the wrongs and sufferings of black men had taken the place of him nailed to the cross; the 5 it is difficult to discern the year when this encounter took place since, as fabre notes, “certain confrontations described in „i tried to be a communist‟ are placed in a biased context and out of chronological order . . . . this, of course, is because the article was written in 1943 to answer accusations from former friends, . . . so that even if he was faithful to the psychological truth of what happened, he often combined several episodes into one for effect” (137). however, most important for my purposes, is the fact that despite these inconsistencies, “it can safely be assumed that the thirties was a period of definite evolution for wright in relation to communism” (fabre 137). a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [63] meager beginnings of the party had become another resurrection; and the hate of those who would destroy her new faith had quickened in her a hunger to feel how deeply her new strength went. (225) this conversion does seem to complete what revered taylor began in “fire and cloud” by overtly replacing religious faith with faith in the party. however, sue still retains in her subconscious some elements of her christianity, as demonstrated throughout the story when she finds herself unconsciously singing old hymns. later, the story also reveals that communism cannot save sue either. by the end of the story, she confronts the need for a third option that is neither christianity nor communism; rather, the third option is black pride. in fact, her decision to place her pride as a black person above her communist convictions is strikingly similar to wright‟s own break with the party, which was also fueled by a sense of black pride. the first indication that sue does not adhere to all the party‟s ideals is when she learns from reva that someone has informed the police about a meeting the following night. sue immediately assumes that one of the new white members betrayed them and tells johnny boy that “[i]t wuznt nona our folks . . . ah knows em all from way back. there ain none of em that coulda! . . . son, it wuz some of them white folks! (233-234). johnny-boy responds by telling her, “ah cant see white n ah cant see black . . . ah sees rich men n ah sees po men” (234). this response makes johnny-boy the ideal party member, who, like the model writer outlined in “blueprint,” recognizes the strength of numbers and interracial cooperation. however, unlike in “fire and cloud,” this belief does not bring a triumphant ending. sue realizes that johnny-boy‟s faith in numbers and collective struggle is strong, but her insight that “he believes so hard hes blind” (233) proves true. johnny-boy‟s commitment to fighting classism blinds him to the larger problem facing them— racism. 6 6 kinnamon notes that “‟bright and morning star‟ does not resolve the question of trust or distrust of whites. intellectual conviction and political necessity argue for the former, but experience, the logic of emotions, and the actual events of the story suggest the similar ambivalence in the author‟s own mind and experience” (115). a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [64] several critics have pointed to sue‟s defiance of the white sheriff and his men, when they come looking for johnny-boy, as an example of her commitment to the cause of communism and as a test of her new faith. however, i find it noteworthy that her refusal to reveal her son‟s whereabouts stems not from her desire to protect his mission (to warn his comrades that he police know of their meeting), but from pride in the face of their racism and their belief that they can scare her into giving the information. the sheriff tells sue that they will spare johnny-boy‟s life if she tells them his whereabouts; if they are forced to find him on their own, they will kill him. sue refuses to tell them, despite the fact that her refusal means her son‟s certain death: “she was consumed with bitter pride . . . she gave up johnny-boy, gave him up to the white folks. she gave him up because they had come tramping into her heart demanding him, thinking they could scare her into making her tell where he was. she gave him up because she wanted them to know that they could not get what they wanted by bluffing and killing” (239-240). this pride sustains her throughout the attack by the police and also prompts her, “wanting them to feel the intensity of her pride and freedom” (240), to shout as they are leaving “yuh didn‟t git whut yuh wanted! n yuh ain gonna nevah git it!”(240). significantly, this impulse follows the sheriff‟s taunt that she should bring a sheet to collect her son‟s body because she will never see him alive again. the sheriff exemplifies his racism by calling sue “aunty” and reminding her that her black son will be killed for his involvement in the activities to challenge their authority. additionally, he tells her that her son will only have a decent burial if she goes to collect his body. the pride that causes her to shout at these white men will be the same pride that allows her to use their racism against them in her final act of triumph at the end of the story. sue‟s pride does not come without consequences, though. it leads the sheriff and his men to beat her so badly that she cannot find the strength of that pride again when booker comes to get the names of the other party members. sue instinctively distrusts booker, but he convinces her to give him the names when he says “‟[i]s yuh scarda me cause ahm white? johnny-boy ain like tha. don let all the work we done a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [65] go for nothin‟” (246). by being weak enough to give booker the names, sue allows him to take away her pride in the face of white domination. he, unlike the sheriff, has been able to use her love for her son against her. in contemplating what she must do to rectify her mistake, sue again reflects on her past as a christian and her new belief in communism: “[m]ired she was between two abandoned worlds, living, but dying without the strength of the grace either gave. the clearer she felt it the fuller did something well up from the depths of her for release; the more urgent did she feel the need to fling into her black sky another star, another hope, one more terrible vision to give her the strength to live and act” (252). critics have disagreed as to the significance of this crucial passage. abdul janmohamed, for instance, contends that “for sue, the plan itself is a new morning star, another resurrection of her faith and capacity for resistance, and, if successful, it would mean a resurrection for the party as well. . . . thus, the meaning of her life is now defined not by pride or honor but by the political value of her death” (7273). this reading aligns sue‟s momentum and clarity of will with a communist aim—to give her life for a political cause. yosinobu hakutani claims that the other star that sue seeks to fling into the sky “is for her to be a martyr” (59). thus, he concludes, “sue has . . . acted even more strongly than taylor. as taylor‟s strength lies in the quality of his intellect and his support of others, sue‟s comes from within—her heart” (59-60). this characterization of sue‟s resolve to martyrdom aligns her with a christian ethic of self sacrifice for love. in fact, what is crucial in this passage is that sue rejects both christianity and communism because neither have the strength of grace to sustain her. sue‟s new star is the star of individual action brought on by a sense of racial pride in the face of white racism. in recounting his own break with communism, due in large part because the party was unwilling to encourage him as a black writer, wright says in “i tried to be a communist” that i headed toward home alone, really alone now, telling myself that in all the sprawling immensity of our mighty continent the least-known factor of living was the human heart, the least-sought goal of a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [66] being was a way to live a human life. perhaps, i thought, out of my tortured feelings i could fling a spark into this darkness. i would try not because i wanted to, but because i felt that i had to if i were to live at all. (162 emphasis added) wright‟s impulse to act by “fling[ing] a spark into the darkness” sounds almost identical to sue‟s resolve to act in “bright and morning star” to “fling into her black sky another star” (252). both realize that in order to “sustain the human heart” they must act alone and they must act out of a sense of black pride. as thomas larson notes, “as she [sue] replaces her old hunger, faith, vision, and hope with a new objective identity, based on her own actions, so, too, does she replace the agent of grace giving: she becomes responsible for her own grace” (154). as mentioned earlier, sue loses her sense of pride when booker tricks her into telling a white man, whom she instinctively mistrusts, the names of her son‟s comrades. her decision to shoot him before he has a chance to reveal this knowledge is a way of reclaiming that pride. by shooting him before he is able to tell, she renders mute the very secret that represents her pride— she will ensure that the whites do not get what they want. moreover, the method she uses to save her pride is also important: “the sheet! thas it, the sheet! her whole being leaped with will; the long years of her life bent toward a moment of focus a point. ah kin go wid mah sheet! ahll be doin what he said! lawd gawd in heaven, ahma go like a nigger woman wid mah windin sheet and git mah dead son!” (253). by doing what the sheriff said, sue subverts his racism by acting the way she is expected to act—like a nigger woman—in order to accomplish her own purpose of ensuring that they are never able to get what they want— submission to white authority from her and her son. sue‟s plan works; she goes to where her son is being tortured and thereby gets a chance to shoot booker. while the ultimate result of sue‟s being able to kill booker is the assurance that the party will be able to continue, as fabre rightly points out, “sue‟s heroic character dominates the plot at the expense of the communists. thus, when she gives her life to save her son‟s comrades, her primary motive seems to be because they belong to her race. this fundamental hesitation between the ethnic and marxist perspectives certainly reflects wright‟s own ambivalence at the a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [67] time of composition, in spite of his firm propagandist intentions” (164). in fact, wright was working on “bright and morning star” around the same time that he began writing native son, which also contains an ambivalent communist stance. regarding wright‟s responses to criticism waged against party activists about native son, fabre illustrates that wright‟s words “contain the germs of dissent hidden but growing, which eventually caused his rupture with the party in 1942” (183, 228). sue‟s final impulse to give “up as much of her life as she could before they took it from her” (236) parallels her earlier impulse to give up johnny-boy. she again finds her sense of pride in not relenting to the scare tactics of the white sheriff and his men when she has the sudden impulse to talk and tell them for the final time “yuh didn‟t git whut yuh wanted! n yuh ain gonna nevah git it!” (263). it also parallel‟s wright‟s impulse to leave the party in order to focus more attention on his stance as a black writer rather than a communist one. along with the addition of “bright and morning star” to the 1940 edition of uncle tom’s children wright also added the essay “the ethics of living jim crow.” in light of sue‟s final determination to act alone— reva knows nothing of her plans—wright‟s development as a writer in the communist party and the thematic development of the book are completed. the incidents related in “the ethics of living jim crow” show how wright and others living in the segregated south were forced to behave in the same way that uncle tom from uncle tom’s cabin behaved—showing the utmost respect and deference to white authority without ever questioning it or seeking to challenge it. throughout uncle tom’s children, wright‟s characters try to escape this mold by variously defying white power, moving from the violent and impulsive big boy in the first story, to the calculated and purposeful sue in the final one. wright says in “i tried to be a communist” that after a communist party member called him a fool for not following party decisions that “i stood recalling how, in my boyhood, i would have fought until blood ran had anyone said anything like that to me. but i was a man now and master of my rage, able to control the surging emotions” (147). the characters in the first three stories of the collection are still learning this lesson. however, just as wright recognizes the problems with reactive anger in a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [68] his boyhood (and in the protagonists in the first three novellas), he follows his development as a writer who sought a voice in the communist party in “fire and cloud,” and finally shows that the true course of action for expressing a black consciousness overcoming racism is the one that sue charts in “bright and morning star.” by recognizing the need to maintain individual black pride through rational opposition to white racism, sue becomes the true child of the uncle tom who dictated black behavior under jim crow. she uses the tactics of jim crow to subvert white authority and thereby escapes from the legacy of uncle tom by leaving a new legacy for his children. a. c. kilinski flinging a new star epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [69] references caron, timothy p. “‟the reds are in the bible room‟: political activism and the bible in richard wright‟s uncle tom’s children.” studies in american fiction 24:1 (1996): 45-64. fabre, michel. the unfinished quest of richard wright. new york: william morrow & company, inc. 1973. giles, james r. “richard wright‟s successful failure: a new look at uncle tom’s children.” phylon 34:3 (1973): 256-266. graves, neil. “richard wright‟s unheard melodies: the songs of uncle tom’s children.” phylon (1979): 278-290. hakutani, yosinobu. richard wright and racial discourse. columbia: university of missouri press, 1996. janmohamed, abdul r. the death-bound-subject: richard wright’s archaeology of death (post-contemporary interventions). durham, nc: duke up, 2005. kinnamon, kenneth. emergence of richard wright: a study in literature and society. chicago, il: university of illinois press, 1972. larson, thomas. “a political vision of afro-american culture: richard wright‟s „bright and morning star‟.” richard wright: myths and realities. ed. c. james trotman. new york: garland publishing, inc., 1988. 147-159. lowe, john. “wright writing reading: narrative strategies in uncle tom’s children.” modern american short story sequences. ed. j. gerald kennedy. cambridge: cambridge, up, 1995. sams, larry marshall. “the integral function of marxist doctrine in richard wright‟s „fire and cloud‟.” valley voices: a literary review 8:2 (2008): 10-17. tuhkanen, mikko juhani. “‟a [b]igger‟s place‟: lynching and specularity in richard wright‟s „fire and cloud‟ and native son.” african american review 33:1 (1999): 125-133. epiphany_new_version_11oct.indd ali güneş "corona but freedom": self-discovery... 61 vol. 14 no.1, 202160 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies “corona but freedom”: self-discovery and family in sajeev sasi’s short story discover yourself: a tale of covid-19 days ali güneş abstract: this paper examines the impact of the novel coronavirus (covid-19) on the human in sajeev sasi’s short story discover yourself: a tale of covid-19 days. in doing so, the paper looks at two opposing sides of the covid-19 during the pandemic. first, it briefly argues the negative aspects of the pandemic because it has disrupted the normal flow of life and caused the death of millions of people. secondly, the paper explores how the pandemic has also created opportunities. individuals reconsider their lives and discover themselves, their hidden identity, unknown potentials, and their way of life positively when locked down at home. given the opportunity created by the lockdown, the article also discusses the importance of a warm, safe, and comfortable family life during hardship and difficulties. the paper argues these points through the life and views of the fictional character karihaalan in the story above. keywords: coronavirus, pandemic, patriarchy, identity, and family. ali güneş completed his “diploma in english literature” with “distinction” at dundee university in 1994 and earned his ph.d. degree in 1999 at liverpool john moores university. currently, dr. güneş is working for istanbul sabahattin zaim university, turkey. his research interest includes areas and genres of english literature. he is the author of three books and various articles in the literature. e-mail: ali.gunes@izu.edu.tr. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies the novel coronavirus (covid-19), which occurred in the chinese city of wuhan in december 2019, has highly shaken the entire world with its crippling impacts on daily life, healthcare system, economy, education, social relations, and so on (cohut, 2020; engle 2020; radcliffe, 2020; azhari, 2020 and huang, 2021). as in the previous plagues experienced in different places worldwide, the covid-19 pandemic has caused life to come almost to a standstill and paralyzed the sense of peace, harmony, and community. for instance, as kimberly chriscaden, communications officer at the world health organization (who), argues, “the covid-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems, and the world of work.” she also continues to state that “the economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, while the number of undernourished people, currently estimated at nearly 690 million, could increase by up to 132 million by the end of the year” (2020, para. 1). here, what is essential is that these vast multilevel “devastating” disruptions and impacts, as amiri, pagheh & amiri argue, have not remained local but become global, seriously affecting every corner of the world. thus, although intrinsic policy-making is problem-oriented and aligned with changes in policy issues and contexts, the speed and extent of this crisis have necessitated changes in macro-decision-making systems (2020, para. 7). all these views and arguments above are correct and give us an insight into how the entire world suffers mainly economically and socially. in addition, the fatal contagious covid-19 does not remain there, yet it has traumatized the people mentally and spiritually throughout the world during the pandemic lockdown. kritika poudel and pramod subedi point out that the covid-19 has brought about some psychological problems such as “anxiety”, “fear”, “uncertainty,” “hopelessness”, and “stark spiritual breakdown” not only among those who have been infected and experienced the harsh side of the virus with its severe post-traumatic effect but also among those who have been exposed for a long time to “the lockdown curfews, self-isolation, social distancing and quarantine” (2020, pp. 748–755). these “lockdown curfews” and “quarantine,” as brooks et al. argue, are often linked to “an unpleasant experience for those who undergo it. separation from loved ones, the loss of freedom, uncertainty over disease status, and boredom can, on occasion, create dramatic effects,” sometimes leading to “suicide” (2020, p. 912). ali güneş ali güneş "corona but freedom": self-discovery... "corona but freedom": self-discovery... 6362 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies as seen in the discussions above and in many other studies elsewhere, this lethal virus has severely disturbed the normal flow of daily life and turned everything into hell across the world. in addition, it has caused the death of more than 2 million people, the collapse of the healthcare system, economic recession, the loss of jobs, massive damage to education, social isolation, post-traumatic mental problems, and so on. the scientific world has been working very hard to develop a vaccine to achieve mass immunization again the spread of the deadly virus to leave all these abnormal situations behind. several pharmaceutical companies have promisingly developed some kinds of vaccine, even though an entirely satisfactory result is yet to come very soon. the coronavirus pandemic has given rise to the crisis in almost every aspect of life worldwide. yet, amiri, pagheh, and amiri argue that this compelling situation could also lead to a “point of hope”, which is “the vast ‘accumulated experience’ that the people worldwide have gained in the face of future crises. if the history of epidemics is a guide to humanity, the spread of the disease, like any other, could create a wave of innovation tailored to how lifestyle changes” (2020, para. 4). this paper argues, reflecting on sajeev sasi’s short story discover yourself: a tale of covid-19 days (2020), how the covid-19 pandemic also creates an opportunity in life, an option that enables one to re-”discover” himself/herself, reconsider her/his life and realize what s/he has lost in life as for the meaning of the life and the values that used to give sense to life and keep the community closer together as being safe and sound in every aspect. in so doing, the paper first examines in the story how the covid-19 pandemic causes the main character karihaalan, an english teacher in trichy, tamil nadu, india, to “discover” himself and re-examine his life. he psychologically frees himself from “his routine life,” “subjugation”, and “suppression” imposed on him by “the gender norms” of the male-dominated society (sasi, 2020, p. 56). his lifestyle and perception of his life visibly change. he becomes able to find what was “missing in his life.” he achieves a sense of freedom, realizes his different potentials, and finds space to practice whatever he wants to do in life without being subjected to the routine of everyday life and confinement imposed on him by society. secondly, the paper argues that when he shifts his viewpoint and perspective of life, when he may find what was missing in his life when he controls the center of his life on his own and when he learns how to think differently from others, karihaalan also “discovers” another aspect another value which has been ignored for decades in life – the importance of a warm, peaceful and secure family life, which “turns out to be a place for the uplifting emotional and psychological spirit” (gunes, 2020, para. 16) and the value of the excellent family “relationship” with family members. as the paper debates, sajeev sasi’s short story suggests that a warm family and good family relationships are essential during crises and pandemics. a comfortable family may enable individuals to cope with the crippling effects of trouble; it also connects individuals to and causes them to remain at the center of life and look into future life with hope. sajeev sasi’s short story discover yourself: a tale of covid-19 days takes place in trichy, tamil nadu, india, and talks about the life of karihaalan, the protagonist, during the covid-19 pandemic. friends and students also call karihaalan “kari”. as sajeev sasi represents him, karihaalan “enjoys [his] profession,” but “he did not enjoy his routine life” (2020, p. 56). strangely, his discontent may derive from the fact that he, though a male, feels that “he had been subjugated, dominated and suppressed by the gender norms. he knew that a male-dominated society set up the subjugation” (p. 56) and “even being a male, he couldn’t liberate himself from the misery of the boredom, emptiness and mundane life. he had to breathe within the frame of the society’s freedom” (p. 56). these quotations do not give us a clue about how the “male-dominated society” restricts karihaalan’s life and causes him to feel “the misery of the boredom, emptiness and mundane life.” yet, it seems that “the male-dominated society” may impose many rules and norms on both males and females, in which they may feel that their “freedom” is crippled in different ways. in addition, these quotations may suggest that the routines of rules and norms may always be familiar and stable, which does not let individuals see other aspects of life and enjoy them. still, they have “to breathe within the frame of the society’s freedom”. karihaalan feels that this is indeed the nature of a patriarchal society, which pushes both males and females to align with its expectations differently. however, karihaalan yearns for enjoying his complete “freedom”: “he dreamed to be a cook at home, homemaker and baby sitter at home” by going beyond the rules and expectation of the society, and “he often wanted to hit the roads,” even though “he used to go long drive on the empty roads, he often irritated to pick up the shortcuts and on the messy roads. he preferred chennai by-pass and madurai by-pass where he could hit the road ali güneş ali güneş "corona but freedom": self-discovery... "corona but freedom": self-discovery... 6564 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in a couple of minutes” (p. 57) so that he feels that the way he lives and acts “was not him, something was missing in his life. he always wanted to find himself” (p. 56). in his story, sajeev sasi writes about the nature of a patriarchal society and how it crumbles identities and destroys dreams of individuals as being repressive, dominant, and uncompromising. sajeev sasi writes that his story mainly relates to the indian society and other patriarchal societies worldwide, where gender identities are constructed in line with the expectations and norms of the community. therefore, in the story, when karihaalan intends to remain at home, do the housework, and look after the baby. still, the patriarchal indian society regards these activities as women’s responsibilities and thus insults men if they act contrary to the patriarchal expectations. moreover, karihaalan wishes “to hit the roads and achieve a sense of freedom without being subjugated to the constraint and decimation of the patriarchal culture and ideology. he experiences a severe identity crisis between two marginal views of life – on the one hand, he feels forced to submit to the patriarchal norms and views, which impede the ways for individuals to act freely and practice what they year for, and on the other hand, sajeev sasi endows karihaalan with a different strategy which allows him to forge the patriarchal “subjugation” and “dominance” so that he becomes able to hit the roads, distance himself from the society and take refuge into nature and to achieve a sense of psychological liberty, even though it is temporary. however, “covid-19 stopped [karihaalan’s temporary] relaxation, his hobbies, his joy and his empty roads” (p. 57) when the pandemic virtually restricts people’s mobility. as well known, the covid-19 pandemic has caused the states across the world to apply sometimes a partial and occasionally total lockdown to keep people at home, which, they have intended, will contribute to avoiding the spread of the infectious virus (kaplan, frias & mcfall-johnsen, 2020). like many other people in different parts of the world, the covid-19 lockdown also initially disturbs karihaalan and interrupts his daily life and teaching at the college. at the beginning of the pandemic, he shows mixed reactions to the new situation. for example, he learns that “the college was going to be shut down, immediately” and thus “he felt relieved from the tedious routine and mundane life” because he, unlike many other men, wants to be “home all the time, cooking the favorite fish gravy, and dry fish gravy” (sasi, 2020, pp. 56-7). however, “his happiness lasted only for a while, he was called for the duty that was, ‘to sign the attendance register’” at college: he wasn’t assigned any work for a couple of days. along with other professors, he also stayed in the department without any role to play. they just discussed the new virus for hours. but after a couple of hours, they felt normal and started bullying each other. most of the normal routine working days, they never had that much free time and general talks. only the lockdown for the students made them be in the department for an unusual task (p. 57). as the quotation suggests, there appears confusion between the college administration and the teachers, in which nothing was clear as to the teachers’ duties during the lockdown. instead of teaching, they constantly talk about the new virus, and uncertainty and confusion occupy their mind, leading them to fight each other because the constant talk about the latest virus and what it has brought to life annoy them psychologically. another point, the quotation suggests, is that being together in the room may also cause them to be infected and thus be in jeopardy. they are just forced to come to college without any practical purpose and duty so that they loaf about. this situation gives karihaalan a feeling that the teachers’ lives and health are not cared for much by the college management and the higher administrative body of the country. finally, the news of the lockdown reaches the college management that “asked [the teachers] to be at home. he felt happy and relaxed” (p. 58). being locked down at home provides karihaalan with one negative outcome and one positive outcome. as for the negative outcome, for instance, the covid-19 pandemic confines him, like millions of others worldwide, to home, where he constantly uses his mobile phone, often reads and listens to the news on the deadly effects of the covid-19, which negatively influences his life and attitudes. he feels isolated, disturbed, and hopeless since the bombardment of the news of the death and the rapid spread of the coronavirus continuously keeps his mind busy. eventually, karihaalan comes to realize that such kind of news will further traumatize him and his sense of peace, so he starts listening less to the news about the coronavirus, which visibly leads him to allocate space to other activities, in which he gradually restores to peace of mind (pp. 59-61). ali güneş ali güneş "corona but freedom": self-discovery... "corona but freedom": self-discovery... 6766 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies this peace of mind gained by the lockdown creates a strongly positive view, which enables him to discover himself – a self-discovery, in which he not only frees himself from the psychological “subjugation” of the patriarchal society, as well as from the routines of everyday business and chronological flow of life from the early morning to the evening mainly in the college but he also becomes able to act in the way he wants and practice what he enjoys the most. in doing so, karihaalan subverts the identity and roles given to him by the patriarchal society, he finds himself amid the distressing lockdown of the pandemic. for example, when he listens less to the news, karihaalan finds time and space to think of other things, other aspects of life, or what he calls a new “relationship” in his life (p. 64). he starts spending much time with his mother; he also watches “the horoscope” together “with his mother” (p. 61), even though he sometimes criticizes and angers his mother. for him, “that was the most important moment of the day as the laughing and happiness stay for a while but think about the laughing for the rest of the day and could be a reminiscence for the rest of the years to come” (p. 61; emphasis added). as seen in the quotation, being together with his mother, being closer to his mother, spending good time together and “laughing” with his mother not only reduces his anxiety and boredom and then removes karihaalan from the adverse effect and feelings of the coronavirus but also makes him happy for a while. as in the romantic sense, he imaginatively free frees him and feels a sense of peace and happiness, which keeps him alive and motivated. the “laughing and happiness,” which karihaalan achieves in his life when he is together with his mother and when he spends good time with his mother, causes him to realize how warm, secure family life and closeness with love and kindness are essential in the time of a crisis and hardship as in the trouble of the covid-19: the covid-19 made him understand his family and be with his family for hours. as he spoke to his mother as much, he could, as much time he could spend. he used to talk to his parents whenever he needed something and whenever he was bored. he didn’t realize before the lockdown he was squeezing his parents’ time. he didn’t know that he was using them, didn’t know they worked and lived for him. after the week pas[sed], he could understand them as they spent their life for him (p. 62). as the quotation suggests, it is true that the coronavirus has disrupted life in many ways and caused the loss of life of millions. still, it may also have reminded us of what we have lost—the importance of a warm, stable and secure family life., the coronavirus has forced us to go back to the basics of life—the values that have been forgotten or ignored for decades. as i argued in my short article on the negative outcome of the corona pandemic, today family life “is no longer the concern of many people, particularly young people: simply, it has no meaning in their lives because they believe that the family life imposes restrictions on them and brings many responsibilities and that it is too hard to manage family life and children dues to the economic hardship” (gunes, 2020, para. 12). the family as an institution, since the advent of modernism at the beginning of the twentieth century, has gradually lost its importance in life because modernism had waged war against what were traditional values and establishments resulted from the radical developments and changes between the last part of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century (daiches, 1967; faulkner, 1977; brown, 1989; eysteinsson, 1990; childs, 2000 & parsons, 2007). modernism disparaged the family, but it also considered it an old-fashioned institution used by society and its ideology as the center of reproduction and control to restrain individual life and freedom. mainly the feminist movement, which gained speed during the modern period, has powerfully slammed the family institution in the sense that the family is a patriarchal construction, which had suppressed and curbed the life of women, while it had given men many privileges over women, so the family has become one of the contentious subjects and then gradually lost its importance and credibility in the eyes of both young men and women. in addition, the economic reasons have led young women and men not to marry or delay their marriages until the age of 35 and even beyond because both men and women have started working. money and economic welfare have become the center of their lives, particularly during consumerism in the wake of world war ii. besides, the divorce rate has enormously increased in recent years, further undermining the basis of stable family life. as taylor brownwell argues, the divorce ratio has increased further during the covid-19 pandemic due to the “financial stress, boredom, disagreements about parenting, and household chores” (2020, para. 4); the family as the cornerstone of a stable society and a haven for its members, the cornerstone of a stable community and a haven for its members have been exposed to a massive disruption in many ways since the beginning of the twentieth century. ali güneş ali güneş "corona but freedom": self-discovery... "corona but freedom": self-discovery... 6968 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in his short story discover yourself: a tale of covid-19 days, however, sajeev sasi suggests that covid-19, though it has given rise to so many negative aspects in life, has also brought about a few opportunities, which have enabled us to understand what we have lost and what we need in the future as a proverb says: “misfortune is better than thousands of pieces of advice.” therefore, through his representation of the life of his fictional character karihaalan, sajeev sasi illuminates that a warm, secure and stable family life is of vital importance during the time of hardship and calamity such as the covid-19 pandemic that has caused the whole world to suffer for more than a year. in the quotation above, for instance, sajeev sasi enables karihaalan to discover what has been lost – a warm family life, which not only saves him from boredom, psychological stress, and the harsh reality of covid-19 throughout the lockdown of the pandemic but also causes him to uncover what he has missed or what he has craved inside him for years. before the lockdown, he did not spend much time with his family; there were more or less formal relationships between him and his parents, suggesting as if they had lived in a hotel room with minimum contact. in addition, before the lockdown, he did not help his parents at home at all with an excuse of saying, “’i need to study”. his parents used to say, “stop your studies, you’ve been studying for many years”. after listening to that, he knew he was excused. being at home, being a boy, he never did any household works before” (pp. 62-3). nevertheless, the covid-19 lockdown makes karihaalan realize that other things are more important than “studying”. these “other things” bind him to life, make his life meaningful, peaceful and happy, he undergoes “self-discovering” that “was like discovering the anatomy of a plant” (p. 65). another “discovery” he perceives in his life is that “the covid-19 made him realize what is important in his life”, “discovering the relationship’ (p. 64), in which “the bonding and understanding in the family grew well as never before” (p. 65). thus, this “self-discovery” and “realization” brings him to the point that a warm family with a good “relationship” is of importance in one’s life and that his parents actually “worked and lived for him”: after the week passed, he could understand them as they spent their life for him” (p. 62). having “discovered” himself and “realized” other vital things in his life, karihaalan strives to act in line with these new perspectives: because of boredom, because of being at home, he volunteered to do household works. even he chopped onions with watery eyes, even he cleaned his toilet and swept the floors with dust behind. though it wasn’t a shock for him, it was a great shock to his parents. being a bachelor, without hitting the gym, he knew he would put on weights. so, he decided to take part in the household works which made his belly stop from protruding. at one point in time, even he felt of having mask-wearing at home, by the way, it was not to stop protecting from the virus but to protect from the habit of the excess of eating, especially of the junk foods (p. 63). this quotation suggests that the difficult times or intolerable crises in life enable one to “discover” themselves, their abilities, find other ways and “relationships” to get out of the deadlock, rejoice in their life and eventually look into the future with hope because it is natural that an individual cannot live forever under anxiety and tediousness. in the story discover yourself: a tale of covid-19 days, for instance, the covid-19 lockdown bestows vital energy and vision on karihaalan to “discover” himself, his other abilities and find other “relationships” under the stressful predicament of the covid-19 lockdown to keep him away from “boredom.” with this new vision, although it is a shock to his parents, karihaalan, contrary to his previous life, starts helping them with household chores; he cleans his toilet and the floors; he starts eating the home-cooked foods, whose importance he did not realize before since “he used to purchase the snacks outside, especially mixtures, murukku, chips, and so on” (p. 64); he also spends time in conversation, particularly with his mother, who is a very knowledgeable woman and who knows much about cooking, horoscopes, the cinema, stars, and their past and present lives. all these activities may help him in two ways. first, they make him forget the monotony and tension caused by the covid-19 lockdown so that he manages to minimize the adverse impact of the plague in his life. secondly, he realizes that family is not a place which its members use like a hotel where they come and sleep with minimum contacts as in a typical modern family but it a place where there is warmness, peace, happiness, security, and uplifting spirit, where its members collaborate, help each other when any need occurs, protect each other when they are in danger and difficulty and spiritually support each other when they are bored and depressed. his perception of home and family shifts, and he becomes more household-oriented. thus, karihaalan reverses what “many claimed covid-19 was ‘freedom but corona’, but for him, it was just the opposite, ‘corona but freedom’” (p. 63). covid-19, unlike anything else, frees him from his old illusions of ali güneş ali güneş "corona but freedom": self-discovery... "corona but freedom": self-discovery... 7170 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the so-called truth that he was shown by the patriarchal society as correct ways of his life: his parents were cooking something which he wasn’t aware of. they gave him mixtures, he liked that one and asked how and where they did get this one. he felt that was too good. to his surprise, they cooked themselves. at the age of 34, he never knew his mother would know how to cook mixtures at home. he had a shocking and surprised look on them. the covid-19 made him not only open himself but his parents, too. the bonding and understating in the family grew well as never before (pp. 64-5). “[d]iscovering the [new] relationship” (p. 64) with his family through “freedom” created by the covid-19 pandemic opens karihaalan’s mind and makes him realize how good and quality relationships with family members are of vital significance in life. his relationship with his mother gradually improves, and he reaches a point where he starts to find happiness in doing chores with his mother. they also comment on the news on the smartphone or facebook; they exchange ideas with each other about so many things related to life; they talk about “cinestars’ past and present life” (p. 64). this new relationship and life overthrow the basis of what he was taught before, how he acted, and what he practiced in his life. this “discovery” of a new relationship with his mother expands his mind and understanding. eventually, it creates a communal perspective, in which both he and his mother entertain themselves and forget the damaging influence of the covid-19 pandemic. in this sense, sajeev sasi suggests that the warm family with its close members is crucial when putting up with the crisis, suffering, and poverty caused by destructive events such as a pandemic, earthquake, flood-related disasters, and so on; family people who act communally help, support and comfort each other: in his story discover yourself: a tale of covid-19 days, sajeev sasi artistically points to the fact that people look for a haven in difficult times and situations. in conclusion, the covid-19 pandemic, though it has affected life negatively worldwide, provides karihaalan in the story with an opportunity to know who he is and what is essential and what is not essential in life. thus, “after the lockdown, his talking was limited only to updating his intrapersonal skills rather than the interpersonal skills” (p. 65), which enables him to explain further “what he needed and what he lacked” in life (p. 65). it is what he calls “self-discovering [that] was like discovering the anatomy of a plant” (p. 65): the lockdown made him watch nearly a hundred films. at a point in time, two movies per day. sometimes movies helped him reduce the boredom and sometimes increased his boredom. it was like, what he did to others was not a matter of concern, but what he did to himself counts a lot. he didn’t know how long the lockdown extend[s] but locking down to himself would continue forever. the covid-19 made the male-dominated society to be at check, it made no gender disparity. it made a male karihaalan be at home as he wished. at last, because of covid-19, he felt, he wasn’t suppressed, marginalized, and, moreover, discovered himself! (p. 65) in his short story discover yourself: a tale of covid-19 days, sajeev sasi suggests through the life of his fictional karihaalan that human beings can change negative situations into positive ones with their inner power, energy, realization, and understanding, which often come in a time of crisis, misfortune, and hardship like covid-19. indeed, sajeev sasi gives the reader hope and vision that it is always possible to find a way out of any trouble and destitution without surrendering to despair and deadlock. ali güneş ali güneş "corona but freedom": self-discovery... "corona but freedom": self-discovery... 7372 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies references amiri, m., pagheh, b. & amiri, m. 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(2020). discover yourself: a tale of covid-19 days. in r. s. r. silves & a. mithilee (eds.), covid-19 pandemic story stories (vol. i., pp. 56-65). tamilnadu, india: cape comorin publisher. retrieved january 29, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342988033_covid-19_pandemic_story_stories_volume_i 26 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the ability of emotion recognition associates with responsive behaviors related to covid-19 among turkish individuals assist. prof. dr. pınar ünal-aydın, international university of sarajevo* assist. prof. dr. orkun aydın, international university of sarajevo canahmet boz, clinical psychologist abstract it has been shown that emotions such as fear and anger may play a role in responsive and preventive behaviors of individuals during the covid-19 outbreak. accurate interpretation of such emotions may contribute to early management of disease spread measures by eliciting avoidance from the risky situations. in this study, we aimed to examine the relationship between emotion recognition (er) ability, responsive and preventive behaviors related to the pandemic among healthy individuals. 520 adult participants were recruited for the study. a sociodemographic data form, a personal information form including responsive and preventive behaviors related to covid-19, and the reading the mind from the eyes test (rmet) were applied to the participants via online platform. the vast majority of the participants indicated covid-19 as a dangerous disease, and they stated their avoidance from outside gatherings and public transportation. additionally, it was found that those who can define neutral emotions better, worry about the disease and take a more active role in responsive behaviors such as eating out and avoiding public places. it has been shown that individuals who are more effective with recognition of negative and neutral emotions during the outbreak are more active in risk-avoiding behaviors during covid-19. attempts to increase emotion recognition skills can be beneficial for both healthy individuals and people with mental illness in the early development of preventive behavior. keywords: covid-19, emotion recognition, preventive behavior, outbreak, pandemic, corona virus * corresponding author: assist. prof. dr. pınar ünal-aydın, international university of sarajevo, e-mail: paydin@ius.edu.ba. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 27 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 introduction in december 2019, a new type of corona virus called sars-cov-2 was reported by the corona virus working group (gorbalenya, 2020) in china (zhu et al., 2020). on february 11, 2020, the disease caused by the new type of corona virus was officially named covid-19 by the world health organization (who). findings have shown that covid-19 is a different type than beta-corona viruses associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars) and middle east respiratory syndrome (mers) (zhu et al., 2020). covid-19 has become a global emergency health condition within a few weeks with its high spreading rate (wang et al., 2020). in addition, the number of detected and suspected cases has increased rapidly in 85 countries outside of china (munster et al., 2020). according to the latest data in turkey until december 6, 2020, the number of cases is 828295 and 14900 of the cases resulted in death (worldometer, 2020). our emotions, which are part of our daily life; constantly interacts with our thinking process, belief and decision-making skills and constitutes a very important place in guiding our behavior (mayer et al., 1999; mayer et al., 1990). recognition of emotional expressions is linked to the theory of mind (tom) of social cognition. this theory aims to understand the mental states of others in order to provide appropriate social interactions (bora & pantelis, 2016). according to this theory, any disruption in perception of emotions can significantly affect the social interaction and lead to a decrease in social functionality (ibanez et al., 2014). impairment in emotion recognition has been reported in many psychiatric disorders such as anxiety (aydın et al., 2019), depression (leppänen et al., 2004), schizophrenia (couture et al., 2006), generalized anxiety and panic disorders (mennin et al., 2005; ünalaydın et al., 2019). in addition, it is argued that there is a bi-directional relationship between stress and emotion perception. according to this hypothesis, long-term exposure to stress decreases emotion recognition ability or inability to define emotion, causing misinterpretation of social cues in interpersonal communication and increasing the stress load on the person (wirkner et al., 2019). after the outbreak of the covid-19, majority of the people began to isolate p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 28 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies themselves from the society and put social distance between them (qian et al., 2020). during the pandemic, with the decrease in social interaction, negative emotional reactions emerged in individuals and these reactions had a negative effect on coping skills by increasing the stress level of individuals (l. huang & rong liu, 2020; li et al., 2020). due to these limitations, it can be considered that excessive stress may affect the individual’s emotion recognition skill, or it can be predicted that individuals with lower emotion recognition skills may have higher perceived stress levels. during the outbreak, limiting measures are focused on identifying, treating, isolating, screening of the chain of contact, quarantine, and promoting pandemic preventive behavior (brug et al., 2004; lau et al., 2003; qian et al., 2020). however, the responsive and preventive behaviors of the society have a crucial role in the control of disease in terms of preventing the disruption of the health services and the spread of the pandemic (basch et al., 2020). responsive behaviors include avoidance from eating out/public transport/ public area; preventive behaviors such as wear mask/vinyl gloves, taking vitamin supplements are examples (basch et al., 2020; oh et al., 2020; zhong et al., 2020). it has been determined that emotional experience as well as socio-demographic variables such as age, education, gender, ethnicity, and religion can be influenced by the exposure and maintenance of these behaviors and may differ among individuals (oh et al., 2020; pakpour & griffiths, 2020). especially fear and anxiety were emphasized about emotions that guided the behavior of the individual. according to the model; these emotions come to the forefront in healthy communication and change the individuals’ health status, attitudes, and behaviors in a way that allows them to improve (tannenbaum et al., 2015). this relationship is also assumed to have a cognitive component (risk perception) related to risk perception. it has been stated that these feelings leading to an increased risk of perceived risk are life-threatening, and therefore individuals show more preventive behavior (moser et al., 2007). for example, in a study conducted during the sars epidemic, the majority of participants stated that they had a fear of infection in public areas. in the vast majority of individuals who experience fear exhibit more frequently hygiene behaviors (wearing a mask, hand washing, house cleaning) than those who did not feel negative emotions. it has been reported that the frequency of hygiene behavior was directly proportionate to perceived emotion intensity (lau et al., 2003). in a study conducted during the covid-19 outbreak was reported that as the perceived fear and threat increase, the individuals have p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 29 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 more preventive behaviors (harper et al., 2020). it was emphasized that this situation may be a factor in increasing the adaptation of society to preventive behaviors in the fight against covid-19 (harper et al., 2020). in this study, it was aimed to find out the effect of covid-19 outbreak on the emotion recognition skills of individuals, to investigate their preventive and responsive behaviors. in the light of our findings we aim to highlight the relationship between positive, negative, neutral emotion recognition skills and those preventive/responsive behaviors. method participants snowball (chain) sampling method was applied for the study. the announcement of the study was made through websites and social media platforms. the data of the participants were collected via online questionnaires. participants did not receive any incentives or allowances (e.g. food, travel). the inclusion criteria were: i) at least 18 years or above, ii) to complete the all online tests, iii) to reside in turkey, and the exclusion criteria were; the presence of any psychiatric disorder that may affect the responses. 520 participants between 18-70 ages who gathered via online surveys were included in the study. 19 participants reported having psychiatric illness and due to incomplete responses, 5 participants were excluded from the study. thus, the analyzes were completed with 496 participants. all participants approved the written consent form. ethics committee approval was received for the current study. instruments sociodemographic data form it was prepared by the researchers to obtain information about sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, marital status, education year, financial status, place of residence, smoking and alcohol habits, psychiatric diagnosis) of the participants. personal information form the form consists of 12 questions about the preventive behaviors related p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 30 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies to the covid-19 outbreak was prepared by the researchers. questions of responsive behaviors include: “how often did you follow news about covid-19 about blogs, facebook, twitter, instagram or youtube in the last week?”, “how worried are you about getting covid-19 disease?”, “how dangerous do you think covid-19 disease is?”, “are you afraid of covid-19 disease?” and “are you angry about covid-19 disease?”. questions about preventive behaviors include: “have you avoided eating outside / using public transport / going to public areas due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?”, “have you increased your frequency of personal hygiene (e.g. handwashing, bathing) due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?”, “have you used a face mask when you were going out due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?”, “have you used gloves due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?”, and “have you taken vitamin supplements due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?”. the questions are in a 5-point likert style and have been rated the “never” (1), “rarely” (2), “sometimes” (3), “usually” (4), “always” (5) responses. reading the mind in the eyes test (rmet) the rmet was developed by baron-cohen et al. (baron-cohen et al., 2001) to evaluate the person’s ability to read the intentions, feelings, and thoughts of others through facial expressions. the test, which is frequently used to evaluate social cognition and tom skills, consists of 36 black and white photographs containing only the eye area (baron-cohen et al., 2001; emery & clayton, 2009). the participants are required to determine the emotion of the eye area in the photo and choose one of the four options (one correct word, three distractor words). the test includes photos with positive (rmet_pos), negative (rmet_neg), and neutral emotions (rmet_ neu), and the overall success score (rmet_total) can also be calculated (harkness et al., 2005). it evaluates 7 positive (e.g. playful, fantasizing, thoughtful), 11 negatives (e.g. upset, worried, preoccupied), and 14 neutral emotions (e.g. desire, insisting, uneasy) and a higher score of the rmet points indicates better emotion recognition skills in the related fields. several studies have shown that the test can measure emotion recognition skills in both healthy and psychiatric groups (guastella et al., 2010; harrison et al., 2010; shamay-tsoory et al., 2009). the turkish validity and reliability study (consist of 32 photos) was conducted by yıldırım et al. (ejder akgun p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 31 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 yildirim et al., 2011). statistical analyses the analysis of distribution plots and shapiro-wilks tests were utilized for the parametric statistical testing. the variables showed normal distribution among the sample. descriptive statistics analysis of the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, answers to the questions related to covid-19 outbreak, and rmet scores were performed. pearson correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between rmet and preventive behavior related to the covid-19 outbreak. statistical significance (p) value was set at 0.05 and all analyzes were calculated using statistical analysis software (ibm spss 25, statistical package for the social sciences). results sociodemographic information of participants in the sample, the age of the participants was between 18 and 70 [32.09 ± 10.93] and the number of female participants was higher than male participants [328 female (66.1%), 168 males (33.9%)]. the average education year of the participants was 15.63 ± 3.73. 40.1% (n = 199) of the sample were married and most of the participants stated their financial status as a middle level [344 (69.4%)] and current location as the city center [407 (82.1%)]. the majority of the participants have present tobacco [345 (69.6%)] and alcohol [398 (80.2%)] use (table 1). distribution of preventive and responsive behaviors related to covid-19 among the sample while 73.6% of the participants stated that they usually and always, follow the blogs, facebook, twitter, instagram, or youtube about the covid-19 outbreak, 90% stated that they usually think that the covid-19 problem is dangerous. while around 40% of participants stated that they sometimes feel anxious and fear of getting infected, and feeling anger is usually a concomitant feeling for 30% of the sample. approximately 80% of the p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 32 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies participants stated that they frequently avoid eating from outside, using public transportation, going to the public areas. increased frequency of personal hygiene also increased due to covid-19 outbreak in the last week. participants seem to have adopted the most frequent wearing of face masks among preventive behaviors (49%), followed by wearing gloves and taking vitamin supplements (table 2). the relationship between responsive and preventive behaviors related to covid-19 outbreak and emotion recognition while the rmet_pos mean score of the participants was 4.55 ± 1.11; the rmet_neg mean score was 7.78 ± 1.79. the average score of the participants from the rmet_neu subtest was 10.02 ± 2.10; rmet_total mean score was found as 22.35 ± 3.62. according to the results, a positive significant relationship was found between rmet_neg and avoiding using public transportation (r = .145, p <0.01). moreover, a positive and significant relationship was found between rmet_neu and having worry about getting covid-19 disease (r=.094, p<0.05); avoidance from eating outside (r=.093, p<0.05); avoiding using public transportation (r=.092, p<0.05); and avoiding from going to public areas (r=.090, p<0.05). there was positive and significant relationship between rmet_total and avoiding using public transport (r = .137, p <0.01); and avoiding going to public areas (r = .094, p <0.05) (table 3). discussion the findings of the current study showed that most of the individuals residing in turkey follow the news about covid-19 very closely and feel intense anxiety and fear due to the outbreak and perceive the disease as dangerous. in addition, it has been observed that individuals have various avoidance behaviors (not eating out/avoiding using public transportation/ not going to public places), and preventive behaviors (increased personal hygiene, wearing masks) in order to protect themselves and reduce the risk of contamination. these findings are consistent with previous covid-19 studies that investigated similar factors and showed an increase in both perceived risk and responsive behaviors (l. huang & rong liu, 2020; qian et al., 2020; zhong et al., 2020). based on this result, it can be considered p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 33 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 that the emotional responses to the pandemic and the measures to reduce the risk do not diverge in different societies. although the number of cases and deaths is different, it can be stated that the reaction of the pandemic is similar in different societies. several researchers have linked this to the widespread use of communication tools (internet, social media), increased speed of access to information, and large data flow related to the pandemic (cinelli et al., 2020; hua & shaw, 2020; vaezi & javanmard, 2020). from this standpoint, individuals in low-risk positions may have an increased risk perception due to sharing information unlike the real situation. therefore, it has been asserted that they can give increased responses as people in highrisk regions. for instances, turkey currently ranked 12th in total cases, while the total number of deaths ranks 17th (worldometer, 2020), however, the emotional and behavioral responses of individuals to the pandemic have been shown to exhibit similar reactions as in individuals in high-risk areas. in our study, emotion recognition ability was measured with rmet which is one of the tom tests. the overall performance of the participants was found similar to that in other studies involving healthy groups (altıntaş et al., 2019; aydın et al., 2019; ünal-aydın et al., 2020; ejder akgün yildirim et al., 2011). the negative interaction between long-term stress and psychiatric disorders and emotion recognition has been shown in previous studies (mennin et al., 2005; ünal-aydın et al., 2019; wirkner et al., 2019). however, the current study indicates that the present participants had high emotion recognition ability. causatively, it may be shown that our sample consisted of healthy people without any mental illness, and stress caused by the outbreak is not long-term. emotion recognition ability measured by rmet was evaluated separately for positive, negative, and neutral emotions. correlation analysis revealed that individuals who have an improved ability to identify negative emotions tend to have more frequent responsive behavior (avoiding from using public transport). moreover, individuals with a better level of neutral emotion recognition ability performed responsive behaviors (avoiding eating outside/public transportation/public places) and worry more about the pandemic. the association between negative and neutral emotions and responsive behaviors and emotional responses towards the outbreak can be explained by the developmental process. positive, negative, or neutral emotions have a central role in obtaining coping strategies compatible with the environment throughout life (demos, 1986). despite the necessity of all emotions, stress which is p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 34 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies an inevitable developmental factor to learn to tolerate, resist, and adapt to negative effects, seems to be more related to negative emotions (kopp, 1989). in another study conducted by lee et al. indicated that the similarity between neutral emotions and negative emotions, and neutral emotions are identifying more negatively by individuals (lee et al., 2008). therefore, it can be concluded that the recognition of neutral emotions along with negative emotions has become more important than positive emotions for the development of coping mechanisms required in the development of the individual (kopp, 1989). risk-reduction behavior in the covid-19 outbreak can also be explained by the activation of these coping mechanisms. for example, a study in south korea during the mers epidemic stated that feelings of fear and anger may lead to an increase in the perceived risk and have an intermediary role in the increase of responsive behavior (oh et al., 2020). from this standpoint, the present study suggested that those who can identify negative and neutral emotions better may increase their level of perceived risk during the covid-19 outbreak. additionally, these people tend to prefer responsive behavior in order to minimize the risk of disease (harper et al., 2020; pakpour & griffiths, 2020). the interaction between emotion recognition and responsive behaviors may be important in terms of taking precautions in the early period during the covid-19 outbreak and limiting the spread of the disease. individuals with limited emotion recognition ability may perceive the risk of the covid-19 outbreak understate and abstain from exhibiting responsive behaviors. on the other hand, the findings provide evidence that emotion recognition ability has decreased or impaired in various psychiatric illnesses (aydın et al., 2019; couture et al., 2006; leppänen et al., 2004; mennin et al., 2005; ünal-aydın et al., 2019). this can reduce the responsive behavior of individuals with psychiatric illness and lead them more vulnerable to contracting covid-19. moreover, taking precautions on the individual level plays a crucial role in preventing the spread of the disease (basch et al., 2020). however, people may be at risk due to decreased emotion recognition ability. the present study has some limitations. the exclusion of individuals with mental illness limits us to assess the emotion recognition and responsive behaviors of this group. emotion recognition was evaluated with only one p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 35 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 test (rmet), different tests that measure different areas of tom may yield different results. the tests were applied with web-based questionnaires. face to face evaluations may conclude different results. the correlational and cross-sectional design of the study precludes us to determine the direction of individual changes during the pandemic. the longitudinal studies are required to provide clearer results. however, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no report has been found so far investigating the relationship between emotion recognition and preventive/responsive behaviors in turkish society. in light of the present data, it has been revealed that emotion recognition ability may be associated with responsive behaviors against the pandemic. in both healthy individuals and individuals with mental illnesses, efforts to increase emotion recognition ability (greenberg, 2004; 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(2020). a novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in china, 2019. new england journal of medicine. p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 41 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 appendix table 1. sociodemographic information of participants variables mean s.d. age 32.09 10.93 education year 15.63 3.73 n % gender male 168 33,9% female 328 66.1% marital status married 199 40.1% in relationship 119 24.0% no relationship 178 35.9% financial situations worse 19 3.8% moderate 344 69.4% better 133 26.8% current location city center 407 82.1% not city center 89 17.9% present tobacco use yes 345 69.6% no 151 30.4% present alcohol use yes 398 80.2% no 98 19.8% p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 42 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies table 2. distribution of preventive behaviors related to covid-19 among the sample never rarely sometimes usually always n % n % n % n % n % covid19_1 9 1.8% 30 6.0% 92 18.5% 198 39.9% 167 33.7% covid19_2 2 0.4% 6 1.2% 41 8.3% 232 46.8% 215 43.3% covid19_3 20 4.0% 62 12.5% 201 40.5% 139 28.0% 74 14.9% covid19_4 29 5.8% 60 12.1% 183 36.9% 149 30.0% 75 15.1% covid19_5 90 18.1% 102 20.6% 148 29.8% 78 15.7% 78 15.7% covid19_6 36 7.3% 20 4.0% 28 5.6% 75 15.1% 337 67.9% covid19_7 36 7.3% 11 2.2% 18 3.6% 50 10.1% 381 76.8% covid19_8 16 3.2% 16 3.2% 47 9.5% 133 26.8% 284 57.3% covid19_9 12 2.4% 21 4.2% 45 9.1% 171 34.5% 247 49.8% covid19_10 147 29.6% 45 9.1% 61 12.3% 78 15.7% 165 33.3% covid19_11 152 30.6% 61 12.3% 97 19.6% 66 13.3% 120 24.2% covid19_12 221 44.6% 53 10.7% 77 15.5% 72 14.5% 73 14.7% notes: covid19_1=how often did you follow news about covid-19 about blogs, facebook, twitter, instagram or youtube in the last week?, covid19_2=how dangerous do you think covid-19 disease is?, covid19_3=how worried are you about getting covid-19 disease?, covid19_4= are you afraid of covid-19 disease?, covid19_5=are you angry about covid-19 disease?, covid19_6=have you avoided eating outside due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid19_7=have you avoided using public transport due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid19_8=have you avoided going to public areas due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid19_9=have you increased your frequency of personal hygiene (e.g. handwashing, bathing) due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid9_10=have you used a face mask when you were going out due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid19_11=have you used gloves due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid19_12=have you taken vitamin supplements due to covid-19 in the last 1 week? p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 43 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 table 3. the relationship between responsive and preventive behaviors related to covid-19 outbreak and emotion recognition notes: rmet_pos= positive emotions subtest of reading the mind in the eyes test, rmet_neg= negative emotions subtest of reading the mind in the eyes test, rmet_neu= neutral emotions substest of reading the mind in the eyes test, rmet_total= reading the mind in the eyes p. ünal-aydın, o. aydın and c. boz the ability of emotion recognition... 44 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies test total scores, covid19_1=how often did you follow news about covid-19 about blogs, facebook, twitter, instagram or youtube in the last week?, covid19_2=how dangerous do you think covid-19 disease is?, covid19_3=how worried are you about getting covid-19 disease?, covid19_4= are you afraid of covid-19 disease?, covid19_5=are you angry about covid-19 disease?, covid19_6=have you avoided eating outside due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid19_7=have you avoided using public transport due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid19_8=have you avoided going to public areas due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid19_9=have you increased your frequency of personal hygiene (e.g. handwashing, bathing) due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid9_10=have you used a face mask when you were going out due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid19_11=have you used gloves due to covid-19 in the last 1 week?, covid19_12=have you taken vitamin supplements due to covid-19 in the last 1 week? vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 55 the validity exploration of general procrastination scale (lay, 1986) anela hasanagic, university of zenica, bosnia and herzegovina cemile busra ozsagir, istanbul family consulting and education center, turkey abstract procrastination is defined as the act of “putting off or delaying an action to a later time.”(bachrach, 2012). measuring procrastination is important for better understanding of this so common habit, but also, for diagnosing and therapy of it. lay (1986) matched procrastination with traits, big 5 theory, perfectionism, anxiety, agitation, dejection, and self-discrepancy etc. his scale general procrastination scale (gps) consists of 20 items. responses across items are summed to obtain a single score, and according to the instructions of gps, the scale is one-factor only scale, with cronbach alpha of 0,82 (lay, 1986) and a retest reliability of 0,80 (ferrari, 1989). the purpose of this research is to explore psychometric characteristics of procrastination scale by lay (1986). for this purpose, the scale was applied to 480 undergraduate students. results of this study confirmed the evidence of high reliability of scale (α= 0.876). factorial analysis at first showed five factors that were not interpretable but rotated factorial analysis by employing equamaxrotation with kaiser’s normalization, showed clearer structure. according to this, there are 5 components of this scale: factor 1. good planning: items 8, 14, 15, 18, and 20. factor 2. delaying: items 5,9,11,12 and 19. factor 3. doing things in last minute: items 16 and 17. factor4. good time management: items 3,4,6 and 13. factor 5: poor time management: items 1,2,7 and 10. key words: procrastination, validity, reliability, factorial analysis. 56 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction we can say that procrastination is defined as putting off, delaying tasks or postponing activities as a psychological term in dictionaries generally. people who postpone can change important activities to the less important activities. they prefer to delay crucial activities to complete for a later time. also, people who procrastinate don’t have any logical reason to postpone or to put activities off. however, they prefer to complete activities which aren’t crucial to do. even though doing less crucial actions or activities give them some disadvantages, they don’t fulfill main duty or task (saulsman& nathan, 2008). if a person procrastinates, he/she can postpone with thousands of reasons. people who procrastinate generally wait until last time to complete a task unnecessarily. on the other hand, procrastination is connected with the personality of a person, habit and ability. according to steel (2010), there is a relationship between personality traits and procrastination such as dimension of conscientiousness of the big five instrument. conscientiousness is negatively correlated with procrastination in terms that if a person have a a high level of conscientiousness, he/she is less prone to procrastinate because a person with high level of conscientiousness has also a high level of controlling their impulses, diligence, sense of commitment, respect, continuity, and well time management. we can say that people who have a high level of conscientiousness are hard-working at their occupation vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 57 (whitbourne, 2012). procrastination is also almost common human characteristic. however, procrastination gives bad outcome to people’s life. people who procrastinate can be fired or they can lose communication with their family and friends because they have a problem to finish their duty or tasks on time or they don’t fulfill their responsibilities. “the tendency to procrastinate also undermines their self-confidence, convincing them that they are lazy or worthless.” (haederle, 1992). nowadays, there is no person who doesn’t know procrastination from its own experience. it isn’t based on how well at using of time a person is or how dutiful person is. we could say that everybody has the tendency of procrastination, but not all people are procrastinators, just as we can say for every psychological trait. when a person prefers to put things off or delay his/her duties instead of completing his or her assignments or tasks it can cause negative effects on many aspects of a person’s life. procrastination can affect a person’s accomplishments badly (cherry, 2014). in today’s life, most people procrastinate, but according to research “20 percent of u.s. men and women are chronic procrastinators.” those people generally postpone in their home, work school and relationship. also for these 20 percent of people choose procrastination as their lifestyle (ferrari, 2010). also, for ferrari, people who are in the 20 percent are more prone to have clinical depression or phobias. those people don’t like to complete hard tasks instead they knowingly look for the turnoff. people who procrastinate doing things 58 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies better when they have lots of things to do, but it is just a reason for them to procrastinate more. in the literature, we can find the following negative effects of procrastination: • higher levels of consumption of alcohol affect people in a negative way that procrastination suggests it, between those people who drink already. procrastinators drink more than they tend to appearance of generalized problems in self-regulation (cherry, 2014). • destroy health and immune system: procrastination can affect some important health problems to occur; it is a behavioral style that may increase defensiveness to sickness and several negative health outcomes (pychyl, 2008). for many reasons, procrastination is not good for people’s health. but delaying something develops higher levels of stress and all those stress hormones release through people’s body, tiring it out faster. and this situation put people at risk for inappropriate health because they are just as likely to postpone seeking treatment for medical problems as they are to postpone everything else. in addition, procrastination makes their immune system weak. they cannot sleep properly at night (marano, 2003). college students who procrastinate have a poor immune system so they have more colds and flu and also they have more gastrointestinal problems (cherry, 2014). • harm teamwork, private relationship and/or social relationshipas vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 59 a procrastinator, people delay something all the time, but on the other hand, they have their responsibility. they can make other people disappointed that who believe in them such as their friends, family, co-workers and fellow students. if they continue to delay and turn in a project late or submit until last minute, they can lose their relationship with loved one, friends, or co-workers. • the igher level of stress: all procrastination occurs at an emotional level, not a logical level. however, people are more inclined to fear what is first concern and people’s emotions have not enough to plan for the future. for this reason, people easily delay something because they feel very nervous or tired in order to complete the tasks. however, in long-term this delaying makes them more distress and worried, but at this time their emotions do not think it at all. there is a finding of stress level and procrastination. students who were procrastinators are stated less sickness and lower distress levels than non-procrastinators. when procrastinators reported higher levels of stress and sickness, this altered dramatically by the end of the term (cherry, 2014). • more discomfort: on the disadvantages, procrastination can also produce distinct kind of discomfort. generally, the more people delay more they might sense guilty or ashamed of their attitudes. they may feel more worried, because a task is getting worse and more overburdened the longer they delay it. they may show 60 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies hopeless, as the longer they do not try it more they consider they cannot handle it (saulsman& nathan, 2008). • affects mental health: procrastination can have a very negative impact on people’s physiological wellbeing. people’s relationship with their friends and their family can be affected negatively because of procrastination so that situation can harm their mental health. in addition, they can feel upset, anxiousness and uncomfortable, when they delay anything. • insomnia: people who are systematically procrastinators can also delay their sleep. people who procrastinate are more likely to have sleep disorders. in other case, people who procrastinate generally have many things to do, but they cannot organize to complete it which is their problem. for this reason, going to bed while they have many things to do so in that case, they detect nervously and worry about these unfinished things. as a result, they are not able to sleep properly and effectively. insomnia can be an issue for those people. however, people fear about life and all its complications and deal with them. they can sleep well if they do this. the most appropriate way to deal with insomnia caused by procrastination is controlling one’s life and trying to stop delaying. if still, these people cannot achieve to procrastinate, they need to get help and support (saulsman& nathan, 2008). vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 61 when it comes about the origin of the procrastination, we could say that nurture is dominant. “people who procrastinate are not born as procrastinators. procrastination is a kind of learned in the family. it is one of response to an authoritarian parenting style.” when parents control their children all the time harshly, those children cannot have the skills to manage themselves (marano,2003). if people postpone something consciously because it is logical to put off some duties, in this situation they are not procrastinating or putting something off. the reason to procrastinate is that they have other things to do more important or they wait for the best moment to finish their task. “procrastination is when people planned or felt that they should have done the thing earlier, and then delayed anyway. in short, it is putting off despite expecting to be worse off.” (steel, 2010). since procrastination is a common trait, but also considering the fact that being procrastinator can cause many unwanted effects in daily life, as the goal of this research, we wanted to explore the construct of procrastination, and psychometric characteristics of the widely used scale for measuring of procrastination. the final intention would be being able to measure procrastination and to distinct procrastinators from people who are not. purpose of the research the purpose of this research is to explore psychometric characteristics of 62 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies procrastination scale by lay (1986), as well as to explore the construct of procrastination among students. methodology participants the sample consisted out of 480 students from different universities. the participants were enlisted from thr faculty of arts and social sciences, faculty of economics and business management, and faculty of engineering and natural sciences, such as medical school and pharmacy school. we used the heterogeneous sample in order to explore factorial structure in the most convenient way. gender structure of the sample can be seen from table 1. table 1: distribution of gender among the participants of the research gender frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent valid male 227 47,3 47,3 47,3 female 253 52,7 52,7 100,0 total 480 100,0 100,0 instruments in this study, general procrastination scale was used (lay, 1986). clarry lay, phd, is the author of this questionnaire, the professor of psychology at york university in toronto. lay made lots of research about procrastination. he matched procrastination with traits, big 5 theory, vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 63 perfectionism, anxiety, agitation, dejection, and self-discrepancy etc. in his research, general procrastination scale consists of 20 items. responses across items are summed to obtain a single score. the scale has a cronbach alpha of 0,82 (lay, 1986) and a retest reliability of 0,80 (ferrari, 1989) points are given based on five points where 1 means extremely uncharacteristic and 5 states extremely characteristics. the 5 point item (1=low, 5=high) version of the scale was used since it yields higher item variance and high scores reflect procrastinators behavior. this version was found effective at measuring characteristics of procrastinators across a variety of situations. for example, lay (1986) reported construct validity information such that gp scores were related to disorganization, tardiness, and independent of the need for achievement, energy level and self-esteem (ferrari, 1992). the gps has been evidenced to be a reliable and valid measure with several relevant constructs. gps can be conducted on both adults and adolescents. there isn’t any required time set to complete gps, but it is estimated that 10-15 minutes will be enough to complete the test because test questions are easy and understandable. there is an instruction at the beginning of the test about how to respond questions. participants are requested to answer questions regarding how they feel these days by including the day of application of gps. the standardization and related studies of gps were conducted by lay (1986). this paper considered three studies designed to examine procrastinators behavior. in study i, a general form (g) of a true-false procrastination scale was created. this form was based on an earlier version of the scale 64 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies containing parallel forms a and b. procrastination was positively related to measures of disorganization and independent of need-achievement, energy level, and self-esteem. high scorers on the procrastination scale were more likely to return their completed inventory late. procrastination was unrelated to grade-point average (r = −10). in study ii, subjects completed form g of the procrastination scale and a variation of little’s (1983) personal projects questionnaire. based on ratings of their personal projects, procrastinators and non-procrastinators were distinguished in a number of ways, foremost being the non-procrastinator’s more positive response to the project dimension of stress and the procrastinator’s greater sensitivity to how enjoyable the project was in terms of time spent. in study iii, after completing a personality inventory, air-passengers awaiting their flight departure were asked to take an envelope with them and to mail it back on a designated date. procrastinators were less accurate in doing so than were non-procrastinators. various aspects of procrastinatory behavior were discussed, including a reconsideration of the defining of the construct. 1.5 procedure and research design; the research is made on a convenient sample of students. students were informed that their participation was voluntary and confidential. all students were ensured that their results will be used only for the scientific purpose and any of the private information will not be shared with a third person. all completed questionnaires were then collected by a researcher. for the analysis of data spss is used. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 65 results and discussion item analyse of procrastination scale table 2.descriptive statistics of all items of the scale descriptive statistics n min max mean std. dev i often find myself performing tasks that i had intended to do days before 480 1.00 5.00 3.2438 1.82906 i do not do assignments until just before they are to be handed in 480 1.00 5.00 3.0646 1.29315 when i am finished with a library book, i return it right away regardless of the date it is due 480 1.00 5.00 2.6083 1.41448 when it is time to get up in the morning, i most often get right out of bed 480 1.00 5.00 2.9375 1.48768 a letter may sit for days after i write it before mailing it 480 1.00 5.00 2.3292 1.22431 i generally return phone calls promptly 480 1.00 5.00 2.3417 1.30357 even with jobs that require little else except sitting down and doing them, i find they seldom get done for days 480 1.00 5.00 2.9542 1.20800 i usually make decisions as soon as possible 480 1.00 5.00 2.4417 1.21092 i generally delay before starting on work i have to do 480 1.00 5.00 2.9229 1.26800 i usually have to rush to complete a task on time 480 1.00 5.00 3.3979 1.21662 when preparing to go out, i am seldom caught having to do something at the last minute 480 1.00 5.00 2.7479 1.33720 in preparing for some deadline, i often waste time by doing other things 480 1.00 5.00 3.3229 1.21142 i prefer to leave early for an appointment 480 1.00 5.00 2.3063 1.29877 i usually start an assignment shortly after it is assigned 480 1.00 5.00 2.8063 1.20799 i often have a task finished sooner than necessary 480 1.00 5.00 2.7229 1.17396 i always seem to end up shopping for birthday or christmas gifts at the last minute 480 1.00 5.00 2.9458 1.27984 i usually buy even an essential item at the last minute 480 1.00 5.00 2.8417 1.27114 i usually accomplish all the things i plan to do in a day 480 1.00 5.00 2.6271 1.18643 i am continually saying i will do it tomorrow 480 1.00 5.00 3.1521 1.29870 i usually take care of all the tasks i have to do before i settle down and relax for the evening 480 1.00 5.00 2.3167 1.20183 valid n (listwise) 480 66 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies from the table above, we can see that total range of all items is as maximal as possible (from 1 to 5). the theoretical mean for all items is 3, and as we can see, all items means do fall into the range from 2 to 4, so if we take as a criterion of discriminativity the range and the means of the items, we can say that discriminativity of all items is satisfying, table 2. item-total statistics for all items item-total statistics scale mean if item deleted scale variance if item deleted corrected item-total correlation squared multiple correlation cronbach’s alpha if item deleted 1 i often find myself performing tasks that i had intended to do days before 52.7875 101.270 -.122 .199 .736 2 i do not do assignments until just before they are to be handed in 52.9042 90.195 .321 .185 .699 3 when i am finished with a library book, i return it right away regardless of the date it is due 53.3604 91.099 .246 .130 .706 4 when it is time to get up in the morning, i most often get right out of bed 53.0313 89.972 .268 .127 .704 5 a letter may sit for days after i write it before mailing it 53.6396 90.803 .319 .169 .699 6 i generally return phone calls promptly 53.6271 93.182 .193 .119 .710 7 even with jobs that require little else except sitting down and doing them, i find they seldom get done for days 53.0146 92.344 .256 .190 .705 8 i usually make decisions as soon as possible 53.5271 91.507 .293 .179 .701 vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 67 9 i generally delay before starting on work i have to do 53.0458 88.027 .425 .304 .689 10 i usually have to rush to complete a task on time 52.5708 94.383 .164 .174 .712 11 when preparing to go out, i am seldom caught having to do something at the last minute 53.2208 99.571 -.060 .134 .734 12 in preparing for some deadline, i often waste time by doing other things 52.6458 90.045 .358 .328 .696 13 i prefer to leave early for an appointment 53.6625 92.629 .217 .167 .708 14 i usually start an assignment shortly after it is assigned 53.1625 87.105 .496 .400 .683 15 i often have a task finished sooner than necessary 53.2458 87.827 .479 .445 .686 16 i always seem to end up shopping for birthday or christmas gifts at the last minute 53.0229 93.158 .201 .221 .710 17 i usually buy even an essential item at the last minute 53.1271 87.481 .448 .375 .687 18 i usually accomplish all the things i plan to do in a day 53.3417 89.136 .411 .301 .691 19 i am continually saying i will do it tomorrow 52.8167 86.889 .462 .411 .685 20 i usually take care of all the tasks i have to do before i settle down and relax for the evening 53.6521 91.050 .316 .225 .699 although discriminativity of items is satisfying, the item-total correlations of all items are not that good. items 1,3,4,6,7,8,10,11,13, and 16 (grey), have item-total correlations that are below the given limit of 0.3, and those that have extremely problematic item-total correlations are items 1 68 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies and 11, and those items will be additionally checked during the further psychometrical testing. in addition, those items (1 and 11), if deleted, the reliability of the instrument would be increased, so as the conclusion, we might say that those items should be revised in a manner that they should be replaced with other items, or improved considering the content of items itself. the reliability of procrastination scale table 4: reliability of procrastination scale reliability statistics cronbach’s alpha n of items .713 20 according to cronbach’s alpha reliability, our result was 0.713 which is slightly below the limit of 0.8, but still acceptable, considering that other researchers report on different reliability coefficients, such as α= 0,82 (lay, 1986) and a retest reliability of 0,80 (ferrari, 1989b). validity of procrastination scale most of the previous studies on this questionnaire (lay’s procrastination scale) were consistent about the fact that this is unidimensional scale as lay (1986) initially proposed and which was confirmed by some researchers (bustinza, cema, garcía, díaz-morales, & ferrari, 2005; díaz-morales et al., 2006). but recently we can find some studies that imply on the fact that this scale might be multidimensional, actually two-dimensional, as it was found in turkish sample (ferrari, özer, & demir, 2009), and those factors were negative aspects of arousal delays and positive aspects of vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 69 arousal delays. while in italian sample (mariani & ferrari, 2012, according to argiropoulou m. i. and ferrari, j. r. 2015), it was found that it is twodimensional with factors: tendency to postpone tasks (6 items) and getting tasks done on time (7 items). argiropoulou m. i. and ferrari, j. r. (2015) found that this scale could be two-dimensional, and they explained two factors: delay and procrastination domains. other scales that measure procrastination offer a different solution based on their factorial analysis results. yockey and kralowec (2015, according to harrington, 2005), mentioned that procrastination has two dimensions: “frequency of procrastination,” which measures how often students procrastinate on various academic tasks, and “reasons for procrastination. in this research, the initial factorial analysis extracted five factors, that totally explained 48,22% of the variance, but this matrix was not interpretable, so we tried the other possible solutions when it comes about the exploration of the validity. table 5:validity of procrastination scale table 8: total variance explained initial eigenvalues extraction sums of squared loadings total % of variance cumulative % total % of variance cumulative % 1 3,826 19,128 19,128 3,826 19,128 19,128 2 2,276 11,382 30,510 2,276 11,382 30,510 3 1,227 6,137 36,647 1,227 6,137 36,647 4 1,205 6,027 42,673 1,205 6,027 42,673 5 1,110 5,551 48,224 1,110 5,551 48,224 extraction method: principal component analysis. the most interpretable solution was when the number of factors was fixed to five, and with equamax rotation with kaiser’s normalisation. the rotated 70 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies matrix can be seen in table 6. table 6:factor analysis with rotation included of the procrastination scale rotated component matrixa component 1 2 3 4 5 i often find myself performing tasks that i had intended to do days before -,164 -,252 ,024 -,047 ,691 i do not do assignments until just before they are to be handed in ,343 ,148 ,312 -,141 ,369 when i am finished with a library book, i return it right away regardless of the date it is due ,042 ,013 ,091 ,624 ,055 when it is time to get up in the morning, i most often get right out of bed ,167 ,021 ,117 ,497 ,013 a letter may sit for days after i write it before mailing it ,347 ,362 ,225 -,056 -,116 i generally return phone calls promptly ,072 ,098 -,062 ,580 -,141 even with jobs that require little else except sitting down and doing them, i find they seldom get done for days ,159 ,442 ,037 -,066 ,481 i usually make decisions as soon as possible ,467 ,212 -,122 ,232 -,084 i generally delay before starting on work i have to do ,344 ,504 ,300 -,056 ,080 i usually have to rush to complete a task on time -,049 ,233 ,024 ,046 ,692 when preparing to go out, i am seldom caught having to do something at the last minute ,333 -,676 ,140 -,069 -,042 in preparing for some deadline, i often waste time by doing other things ,080 ,655 ,276 ,041 ,138 i prefer to leave early for an appointment ,158 -,104 ,012 ,627 -,030 i usually start an assignment shortly after it is assigned ,543 ,196 ,190 ,340 -,024 i often have a task finished sooner than necessary ,615 ,171 ,124 ,342 -,131 i always seem to end up shopping for birthday or christmas gifts at the last minute -,154 -,006 ,785 ,041 -,020 i usually buy even an essential item at the last minute ,101 ,144 ,787 ,120 ,111 i usually accomplish all the things i plan to do in a day ,703 ,033 ,087 ,117 -,027 i am continually saying i will do it tomorrow ,144 ,534 ,498 ,109 ,104 i usually take care of all the tasks i have to do before i settle down and relax for the evening ,616 -,175 -,036 ,214 ,142 extraction method: principal component analysis. rotation method: equamax with kaiser normalization. a. rotation converged in 9 iterations. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 71 based on this table, we can say that their procrastination is not unidimensional trait, or, that this scale is not unidimensional, but multidimensional, and that it measures (consists out of the) five factors, which, based on the content of the items could be grouped and named as follows: • component 1: good planning, • component 2: delaying • component 3: doing things in last minute • component 4: well time management • component 5: poor time management. component 1 consists of the five items, and they could be named as good planning. table 7.a. factor i: good planning no item r 8 i usually make decisions as soon as possible 0.467 14 i usually start an assignment shortly after it is assigned. 0,543 15 i often have a task finished sooner than necessary. 0,615 18 i usually accomplish all the things i plan to do in a day. 0,703 20 i usually take care of all the tasks i have to do before i settle down and relax for the evening. 0,616 component 2 consists of the five items, and they could be named as delaying. table 7.b. factor ii: delaying no item r 5 a letter may sit for days after i write it before mailing it 0,362 9 i generally delay before starting on work i have to do. 0,504 11 when preparing to go out, i am seldom caught having to do something at the last minute. 0,676 12 in preparing for some deadline, i often waste time by doing other things. 0,655 19 i am continually saying i will do it tomorrow. 0,534 component 3 consists of the two items, and they could be named as doing things in the last minute. 72 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies table 7.c. factor iii: doing things in last minute no item r 16 i always seem to end up shopping for birthday or christmas gifts at the last minute 0,785 17 i usually buy even an essential item at the last minute 0,787 component 4 consists of the four items, and they could be named as good time management. table 7.dfactor iv: good time management no item r 3 when i am finished with a library book, i return it right away regardless of the date it is due. 0,624 4 when it is time to get up in the morning, i most often get right out of bed 0,497 6 i generally return phone calls promptly 0,580 13 i prefer to leave early for an appointment 0,627 component 5 consists of the four items, and they could be named as poor time management. table 7.c. factor v: poor time management no item r 1 i often find myself performing tasks that i had intended to do days before 0,691 2 i do not do assignments until just before they are to be handed in 0,369 7 even with jobs that require little else except sitting down and doing them, i find they seldom get done for days 0,481 10 i usually have to rush to complete a task on time 0,692 in comparison to other research findings, we can say that our factorial analysis does not match to any other which raises the question about the validity of this instrument. in the conclusion, we can say that the validity of this instrument needs to be checked further with the regard of the cultural background of the sample. conclusions general procrastination scale by lay is the scale for measuring procrastination, which was developed for that purpose only, and the initial vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 73 research (lay, 1986) on this scale provided the information that scale is reliable and valid, and that it fulfills all psychometrical criteria about all parameters. based on these research findings, we can conclude that: • discriminative power of items is satisfying when it comes about the criteria of the total range of all items and analysis of the means of the items. • item-total correlations for items 1,3,4,6,7,8,10,11,13, and 16 are below the given criteria, but the item-total correlations are extremely low for items 1 and 11 which implies that those items should be revised or even excluded from the final version of the instrument, even more since the reliability of the instrument is increased if those items are excluded. • reliability of the instrument is 0.713, which is satisfying, but still, it is below the criteria of 0.8, which means that some items should be revised and that item-reliability should be increased in general. • the validity of the instrument is checked by employing a factorial analysis, which showed the existence of the five factors, and that was the only interpretable solution. the five factors are grouped and named as: good planning, delaying, doing things in the last minute, well time management, poor time management. • the validity of the scale should be further explored and the scale should be standardized for each population separately because it is evident that there are national differences not only in descriptive statistics measures but in a number of factors and possible interpretations of the results. 74 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies references alexander, s. e. &onwuegbuzie, j. a. (2007).academic procrastination and the role of hope as a coping strategy. personality and individual differences, 42, 1301-1310. argiropoulou m. i. and ferrari, j. r. (2015), chronic procrastination among emerging adults: factor structure of the greek version of the general procrastination scale, hellenic journal of psychology, vol. 12 (2015), pp. 85-104 apa.(2010). american psychological association.psychology of procrastination: why people put off important tasks until the last minute. washington. retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ news/press/releases/2010/04/procrastination.aspx bachrach, a. (2012). understanding the psychology of procrastination and overcoming it.retrieved from http://www.mosaichub.com/ resource_center/resource/understanding-the-psychology-ofprocrastination-an. balkıs m. (2006). öğretmenadaylarınındavranışlarındakiertelemeeğiliminin, düşünmevekarar verme tarzları i̇le i̇lişkisi. dokuzeylülüniversitesieğt. bil. ens. eğt. bil.anabilim dalı reh. vepsik. danış.prog. (i̇zmir: yayınlanmamışdoktoratezi) bernard, m.e. (1991). procrastinate later! how to motivate yourself to do it now. australia: schwartz & wilkinson. beswick, g., rothblum, e. d., & mann, l. (1988).psychological antecedents of student procrastination.australian psychologist, 23, 207-217. brown, j.h. (2014). book review: joseph ferrari’s still procrastinating. retrieved from https://unclutterer.com/2014/01/13/book-reviewjoseph-ferraris-still-procrastinating/ burka, j.b., & yuen, l.m. (1983).procrastination: why you do it, what to do about it now. us: dacapo press. burka, j.b., & yuen, l.m. (1982).mind games procrastinators play. psychology today, 16,32-44. çakıcı, d.ç. (2003). vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 75 perception of economics undergraduate on nonusage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin bello muhinat bolanle, yusuf abdulraheem, amali oteikwu ismail1 abstract this study investigated the perception of economics undergraduate on non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin. descriptive research of survey type was adopted in this study. the population of this study consists of all economics undergraduate in the departments of economic and economics education (of the social sciences education department) which is estimated at 937 students. a sample of 278 respondents was drawn randomly in this study. a researcher’s designed questionnaire with psychometric properties of content validity and 0.71r was used to elicit the needed. data collected were analyzed with descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentages, means, and standard deviation while the hypotheses formulated were tested using inferential statistics of t-test and anova at 0.05 alpha levels. the study revealed that lecturer’s philosophy, lack of appropriate skills, incompatible classroom environment, limited lecture hours and non-satisfaction with ict results, among others are perceived as reasons for non-usage of ict platforms for teaching economics. the study, therefore, recommended that the use of visual google classroom at all levels of the teaching by the university administration should be encouraged. keywords: perception, reasons, ict platforms and non-usage. 1 university of ilorin, kwara state nigeria, nigeria 76 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction the emergence of technologies for learning, conversation media and smart interface, open educational resources (or massively open online courses) and increased awareness of “new generation” have been demanding traditional education and learning systems to be more open, flexible, and customized to what students want to expect. using ict in education has been widely accepted as an effective way of challenging such changes attributed to technological advances, societal paradigm shift, and internationalization. it is based on the strong belief that the potential of ict would bring positive impacts to teaching and learning by providing students and teachers with flexibility, accessibility, more opportunities for participation and collaboration, and more outcomes. now is the right time to respond to a simple but critically important question, “what should be done to fully exploit valuable resources for better education in the future?” it would be to use all resources in a smart way to maximize their potentials to meet the different perspectives on ict from stakeholders: teachers, students, and academic institutions. it is in response to this that the university of ilorin under the leadership of professor abdulganiyu ambali, decided to make available to all students of the instruction for four years a tablet. this is considered to be very portable, internet access and also subscribe to the google apps platform where both lecturers and students are accommodated to effectively carry out their teaching and learning the process. but one question anybody will ask today is how well are lecturers exploring this platform to teach their students? this is because changes in technology, demography, and internationalization are driving education system to evolve to an open flexible education (or learning) environment which provides learners with quality services encompassing formal, informal, and non-formal education. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 77 to this regard the “learning for the future (lff)” project recently initiated by unesco iite is a comprehensive approach to integrate ict in education, renew pedagogy, and enhance learning now and the future, which ensures teachers and students effective use of technologies and resources in strengthening the four pillars of learning for the 21st century: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together. icts have the potential to accelerate, enrich, and deepen skills, to motivate and engage students, to help relate school experience to work practices, create economic viability for tomorrow’s workers, as well as strengthening teaching and helping schools change (davis and tearle, 1999; lemke and coughlin, 1998; cited by yusuf, 2005). in a rapidly changing world, basic education is essential for an individual to be able to access and apply information. such ability must find include icts in the global village. conventional teaching has emphasized content. for many years the course has been written around textbooks. teachers have taught through lectures and presentations interspersed with tutorials and learning activities designed to consolidate and rehearse the content. contemporary settings are now favoring curricula that promote competency and performance. curricula are starting to emphasize capabilities and to be concerned more with how the information will be used than with what the information is. contemporary icts are able to provide strong support for all these requirements and there are now many outstanding examples of world class settings for competency and performance-based curricula that make sound use of the affordances of these technologies (oliver, 2000). the use of information and communication technologies can help revitalize teachers and students. this can help to improve and develop the quality of education by providing curricular support in difficult subject areas. to achieve these objectives, teachers need to be involved in collaborative projects and the development of intervention change strategies, which 78 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies would include teaching partnerships with ict as a tool. according to zhao and cziko (2001), three conditions are necessary for teachers to introduce and use ict in their classrooms or teaching: teachers should believe in the effectiveness of technology, teachers should believe that the use of technology will not cause any disturbances, and finally teachers should believe that they have control over technology. however, research studies show that most teachers do not make use of the potential of ict to contribute to the quality of learning environments, although they value this potential quite significantly (smeets, 2005). harris (2002) conducted case studies in three primary and three secondary schools, which focused on innovative pedagogical practices involving ict. harris (2002) concludes that the benefits of ict will be gained “…when confident teachers are willing to explore new opportunities for changing their classroom practices by using ict. as a consequence, the use of ict will not only enhance learning environments but also prepare the next generation for future lives and careers (wheeler, 2001). the changed pool of teachers will come changed responsibilities and skill sets for future teaching involving high levels of ict and the need for more facilitative than didactic teaching roles (littlejohn et al., 2002). according to cabero (2001), «the flexibilization time-space accounted for by the use of ict in teaching and learning processes contributes to increasing the interaction and reception of information. such possibilities suggest changes in the communication models and the teaching and learning methods used by teachers, giving way to new scenarios which favor both individual and collaborative learning”. the use of ict in educational settings, by itself, acts as a catalyst for change in this domain. icts by their very nature are tools that encourage and support independent learning. students using icts for learning purposes become immersed in the process of learning and as more and more students use computers as information sources and cognitive tools (reeves & jonassen, 1996), the influence of the technology on supporting how students learn will continue to increase. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 79 in the past, the conventional process of teaching has revolved around teachers planning and leading students through a series of instructional sequences to achieve the desired learning outcome. typically these forms of teaching have revolved around the planned transmission of a body of knowledge followed by some forms of interaction with the content as a means to consolidate the knowledge acquisition. contemporary learning theory is based on the notion that learning is an active process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring knowledge and that instruction is the process by which this knowledge construction is supported rather than a process of knowledge transmission (duffy & cunningham, 1996). in this domain, learning is viewed as the construction of meaning rather than as the memorization of facts (lebow, 1993; jonassen & reeves, 1996). learning approaches using contemporary icts provide many opportunities for constructivist learning through their provision and support for resourcebased, student-centered settings and by enabling learning to be related to context and to practice (berge, 1998; barron, 1998). students enjoy learning, and the independent inquiry which innovative and appropriate use of ict can foster. they begin to acquire the important of 21st-century skills which they will need in their future lives. many variables may account for reason lecturers find it difficult to adopt the use of ict for their lecturers in higher institutions, some which are: government, environmental, lecturers, students and lastly parents various (zhao & cziko, 2001). in the work of susman (1998) it was revealed that lecturers’ variable factors influence their attitude and use of ict in teaching negatively. tedla (2012) and tay, lim, lim and ling-koh (2012) confirm that lecturers use ict tools in order to make the lessons more interesting and engage learners according to learners’ potentials. also in the study conducted by flecknoe (2002), the finding revealed 67.5% of respondents’ perceptive teachers’ level of teaching experience determines the extent to which lecturer uses modern technologies in delivering instructions in the classroom. for instance, it was an acclaimed number 80 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies of years of classroom experience reduce certain teachers’ beliefs because experienced lecturers were more likely to believe that classrooms should be lecturers’ centered and that learning did not always need to be fun”. teachers’ age, their level of computer experience and they are lent of years spent at pre-service was and perceived as having serious influence ict integration (teo, 2008). if students are asked to comment on the state or quality of teaching they received without the use of itc platform provided by the school to them despite their assess to tablet portable computer and wi-fi, they are likely to differ in their reasons for avoidance of ict by their lecturers. this is because the international encyclopedia of social sciences, (1992) defines perception as the process by which one comes to know and think about others and their work, characteristics, qualities, roles and functions in the society. it adds that when several individuals confront an object or a thing in their environment, the input of information that impinges on their respective sense organs (e.g. eyes and ears) is the same for every individual, though they may perceive it differently. in hornby’s (1991) view, perception is believed to be the ability to show understanding and insight, to be able to notice and have discernment about a situation. similarly, miller and mccracken (1988) posit that perception is the ability of a person to know about his environment through the use of his sense organs which must be very active. various explanations can be offered as to why the individuals perceive the same thing differently, even when they are confronted with the same stimulus. the encyclopedia britannica (1997) identifies some variables as responsible for differences in the perceptual functioning of an individual, age, status, gender, among others. the gender of an individual is considered an important factor that influence perception in not–usage of university ict platform in the teaching of economics in the university of ilorin, due to the differences which male and female members of these areas experienced. the positions an individual occupies in the society also influence their perception of vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 81 issues and situation (status). perception is the mental function of giving significance to stimuli such as shapes, color, movement, taste, sounds, touch, smells, pains, pressures and feeling. perceptions give rise to individual behavioral responses to particular situations. statement of the problems the study has shown that an estimated percentage of university lecturers do not explore the ict platforms available for them, in order to make teaching and learning more meaningful. this cut across all the faculties and departments, with exception of few departments. this became a source of concern to the school administration which calls for a meeting held with the academic staff of the university trying to create awareness of facilities available to on the university icts platform for effective teaching and learning process. thus, series of workshops, training and re-training of the academic staff of the university by the centre for research development and in-house (credit) on the use of some of the facilities made available for lecturers on the internet such as google app classroom. also, the institute of education organized a training workshop titled “migration of m.ed. sandwich programme to e-learning platform.” all these aimed at exposing lecturers to the integrate icts platform available for them to use in class. but up till now students portable tablets have not been put into proper use since lecturers are not taking them up on how best to use it for learning possess. report of economics undergraduate affirm that out of many courses undergraduate undertakes in the department only two has ever explored ict to teach stata software and sharing of software textbooks for two microeconomics courses briefly. a cursory look at the table of the performance of economics undergraduate revealed thus: 82 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies table 2: performance of economics undergraduates over three academic sessions academic session % passed % failed 2013/2014 84.95 15.05 2014/2015 88.27 11.73 2015/2016 92. 86 7.14 source: data base of university of ilorin 2017 the above table shows a positive trend of the performance of students over the three academic sessions of the introduction of portable tablet pc for students. this shows that despite non-usage of university icts platform economics undergraduates have been performing very well. but in order to compete favorably with global best practices, there is a need for a paradigm shift. not only to better performance but also to make learning more flexible. in lieu of this, the paper seeks the perception of undergraduate economics students on non-usage of university ict platforms for teaching economics courses. purpose of the study the main purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of undergraduate economics of non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin. specifically the study: 1. examine the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin. 2. ascertain whether there is a difference in the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin on the basis of gender. 3. ascertain whether there is a difference in the perception of vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 83 undergraduate economics on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin on t h e basis of the level of their education. research questions the following questions were raised to guide the study. 1. what is the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin? 2. is there a difference in the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin on the basis of gender? 3. is there a difference in the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of the university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin on the basis of level? research hypotheses the following formulated hypotheses were tested in this study. ho1 there is no significant difference in the perception of male and female undergraduate economics on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics at the university of ilorin. ho 2 there is no significant difference in the perception of undergraduate economics on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin on the basis of the level of their education. methodology descriptive research of a survey method was employed in the study. the choice of the descriptive survey was in line with akuezuilo and agu (2003), who maintained that it is concerned with a gathering of information on peoples’ opinion. the population for the study consists of all undergraduates’ of business and social sciences faculty while the target population was the economics department, faculty of business and social sciences, university of ilorin. purposive sampling technique was 84 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies used to select the economics department which comprises of 937 students. proportionate sampling technique was used to draw 278 respondents based on the required sample size as stipulated in the research advisors (2006) table for sample selection. see table below: table 2: sample size selection of economic and economics education students level population sample selected 100 283 84 200 194 58 300 203 60 400 257 76 total 937 278 source: (faculty of education and faculty of social sciences’ it office, 2017) the instrument used for the collection of data was a researcherdesigned questionnaire, which was tagged “perception of undergraduate on non-usage of ict platform in teaching economics questionnaire (punipteq) with psychometric properties of contents validity and reliability index of 0.71. the questionnaire was divided into two sections ‘a’ and ‘b’. section ‘a’ contains demographic information of the respondents like gender and educational level while section b consists of items that elicit information on perception of economics undergraduates on nonusage of ict in teaching economics. the questionnaire was structured on four points likert-type scale as thus: sastrongly agree; aagree; ddisagree; sdstrongly disagree. the coding of the questionnaire was sa = 4; a = 3; d = 2; and sd = 1. the data collected were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics of frequency count, percentage, mean and frequency count answer the only research question, while the two hypotheses formulated, was tested using t-test (t) and anova (f) inferential statistics at 0.05 level of significance. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 85 results research question one: what is the perception of economics undergraduate on non-usage of u n i v e r s i t y ’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin? table 3: responses on the perception of non-usage of ict platform in teaching economics items sa (%) a (%) d (%) sd (%) std. mean the irregular power supply is considered as one of the reasons why some economics lecturers do not use ict platform for teaching. 71 (25.5%) 112 (40.3%) 52 (18.7%) 43 (15.5%) 1.00 2.76 lack of awareness of economic lecturers about available ict platforms in the university contributes to non-usage of ict platform for teaching. 24 (8.6%) 79 (28.4%) 129 (46.4%) 46 (16.5%) 0.84 2.29 the process of setting up ict platform for lectures is timeconsuming to some senior lecturers. 49 (17.6%) 147 (52.9%) 70 (25.2%) 12 (4.3%) 0.76 2.84 fluctuation in the university’s wifi’s connection jeopardizes lecturers’ interest in using ict platform for teaching. 81 (29.1%) 127 (45.7%) 51 (18.3%) 19 (6.8%) 0.87 2.97 incompatible classroom environments to cater for needs of instructors contribute to non-usage of ict platform for teaching. 72 (25.9%) 147 (52.9%) 44 (15.8%) 15 (5.4%) 0.80 2.99 insufficient equipment also hampers usage of ict platform for teaching among economics lecturers. 90 (32.4%) 136 (48.9%) 40 (14.4%) 12 (4.3%) 0.80 3.09 lack of appropriate skills and knowledge in using computers hindered integration of ict platforms for teachings among lecturers. 71 (25.5%) 131 (47.1%) 58 (20.9%) 18 (6.5%) 0.85 2.92 lecturers’ philosophy regarding appropriate teaching methods determined whether and how they used ict platforms for teaching. 85 (30.6%) 136 (48.9%) 47 (16.9%) 10 (3.6%) 0.79 3.07 inadequate staff development opportunities hinder some lecturers from using ict platforms for teaching and learning purpose. 54 (19.4%) 139 (50.0%) 74 (26.6%) 11 (4.0%) 0.77 2.85 86 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies some economics lecturers are not satisfied with the result of the usage ict platform in teaching economics. 50 (18.0%) 120 (43.2%) 87 (31.2%) 21 (7.6%) 1.39 2.78 students attitude towards plagiarizing answers through the internet may discourage frequent integration of ict into lecturing 49 (17.6%) 147 (52.9%) 61 (21.9%) 21 (7.6%) 0.81 2.81 the increase in the level of absence in the classroom by sharing courseware on google drive hampers usage of ict platform for teaching. 76 (27.3%) 121 (43.5%) 62 (22.3%) 19 (6.8%) 0.88 2.91 insufficient lecture hours may not allow the lecturer to cover the content when using ict platform for lecture 67 (24.1%) 116 (41.7%) 68 (24.5%) 27 (9.7%) 0.92 2.80 students using ict platform mostly for leisure purposes may hinder the interest of lecturer for embedding ict into teaching 41 (14.7%) 108 (38.8%) 93 (33.5%) 36 (12.9%) 0.90 2.55 total source: field survey, 2017. *mean >2.5 = agreed, mean< 2.5 = disagreed responses from table 3 showed that the mean of all the items is ≥ 2.5, which means that the respondents perceptive all the items as reasons for non-usage of university ict platform by lecturers on economics department. hypotheses one: there is no significant difference between the perception of male and female economics undergraduate on nonusage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin. table 4: t-test of respondents gender n mean std. d tcal df p-value decision male 148 39.69 4.82 0.468 276 0.640 do not reject female 130 39.42 4.87 p>0.05 vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 87 table 4 reveals that t-value is 0.46 with significant probability value (p-value) of 0.64. since the probability value, p-value = 0.64 > 0.05 alpha level, the null hypothesis is therefore not rejected. this implies that no significant difference existed in the perception of economics undergraduate on the basis of their gender. hypothesis two ho2: there is no significant difference in perception of undergraduate economics students on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin based on level table 5: anova table respondents perception based on level sum of squares df mean square f sig. decision between groups 495.628 3 165.209 within groups 5992.574 274 21.871 7.554 .000 significant total 6488.201 277 p<0.05 level table 5 shows that f-value is 7.55 with significant probability value (p-value) of 0.00. since the probability value, p-value = 0.00 < 0.05 alpha level, the null hypothesis is rejected. this implies that significant difference existed in the perception of undergraduate economics students on non-usage of university’s ict platform in teaching economics in university of ilorin across all levels. this was evident in the posthoc test where variance existed in the different groups of respondents that are, the economic undergraduate of 100, 200, 300 and 400 levels respectively. 88 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies discussion of findings this study has investigated the perception of undergraduate economics students on non-usage of ict platform for teaching economic in the university of ilorin. this study has revealed the perception of the student about non-usage of ict platforms for teaching among which is inadequate power supply as perceived by the majority of students. also, students believed that process of setting up ict platform for lectures is timeconsuming to some senior lecturers. furthermore, the opinion of students signifies the fact that fluctuation in the university’s wi-fi connection jeopardizes lecturers’ interest in using ict platform for teaching and those incompatible classroom environments make it impossible for utilization of ict in some situations by lecturers. this finding corroborates that of lewis and smith (2002) which revealed the barriers for ict adoption as follows: limited equipment in the school/ classroom, inadequate skills, minimal support from the school administration, time constraints and the teacher’s own lack of interest and belief in the effectiveness of ict. lack of appropriate skills and knowledge in using computers is another factor that was found out to be the hindering integration of ict platforms for teachings among lecturers, students also perceived lecturers’ philosophy regarding appropriate teaching methods determined whether and how they integrate ict platforms into their teaching. this is in line with agbamu (2004) whose study revealed that lack of appropriate skills in the use of ict is one of the determinants of lecturer failure to integrate ict into their teaching. also, ololube, umunadi and kpolovie (2014); kpolovie and obilor (2013) study’s shared the same result by revealed that in nigeria today, lecturers non-usage ict services for reasons such as lack of interest, lack of awareness, outrageous rate of service, poor quality of internet service and epileptic power supply. the study also revealed that students’ attitude towards plagiarizing answers through the internet may discourage frequent integration of ict into lecturing while in the same vein, it was brought to a height that increases the level of absence in the vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 89 classroom by sharing courseware on google drive hamper usage of ict platform for teaching. the finding of the study also found that there was no significant difference in the perception of economic undergraduates on non-usage of university ict platform by their lecturers on the basis of gender. this means that the respondents perceived reasons for non-usage the same way. this could be because all the respondents were exposed to the same teaching and learning situation which could influence them to believe, behave, or feel the same way about issues and challenges. this is confirming the findings of hall and langton (2006) who found out that the situation which an individual is exposed to can determine or influence his/her level of perception either positively or otherwise. thus, this could account for why there was no significant difference in their perception. while significant difference existed in the economic undergraduate›s perception on the basis of their educational level. this difference could be as a result of the grouping which respondents belong (100, 200, 300 and 400 levels) as well as the characteristics of each group of respondents. this finding is in agreement with the finding of samar, azimi and dadvand (2007) on socioeconomic status and class perception. their study reveals that differences existed in the perception of people in the society on the basis of their socioeconomic status, even if they are exposed to the same condition. conclusion and recommendations in conclusion, how economics undergraduates perceived the non-usage of university icts platform for effective teaching do not differ on the basis of their gender but differ on the basis of their educational level (100,200,300 and 400 level). the following recommendations were drawn: 1. lecturers should try as much as possible to integrate every relevant university icts to maximum use to teach. 2. the university administration should entry into memorandum of 90 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies understanding (mou) with software package producers for have access to more software for lecturers to use. 3. there should be adequate provision of facilities and equipment that will enhance using of ict for teaching economics in university of ilorin. 4. encourage the use of visual google classroom at all levels of the teaching by the university administration. vol. 11 no. 1, 2018 91 references agbamu, t. p. 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(1996). learning with technology: using computers as cognitive tools. in d. h. jonassen (ed.), handbook of research for educational communications and technology (1st ed.). retrieved from http://www.aect.org/edtech/ed1/ oliver, r. (2000). creating meaningful contexts for learning in webbased settings. proceedings of open learning 2000. (pp; 53-62). brisbane: learning network, queensland samar, r. g., azimi, h. & dadvand, b. (2007). socioeconomic status and class perception. retrieved from: ww.ijls.net/volumes/ volume1issue3/azimi1.pdf susman, e. b. (1998). “co-operative learning: a review of factors that increase the effectiveness of computer-based instruction”. journal of educational computing research,18, (4),303–322. smeets, e. (2005). does ict contribute to powerful learning environments in primary education? computers & education, 44, 343355. tay, l.y, lim, s. k; lim c.p & ling koh, j.h(2012). pedagogical approaches for ict integration into primary school english and mathematics: a singapore case study) tedla, b a. 2012. understanding the importance, impacts and barriers of ict on teaching and learning in east african countries. international journal for e-learning security, 2, 3/4 the research advisors(2006). sample size table. retrieved from: http:// research-advisors.com. wheeler, s. (2001). information and communication technologies and the changing role of the teacher. journal of educational media, 26, (1), 7-17. yusuf, m.o. (2005). information and communication education: analyzing the nigerian national policy for information technology. international education journal, 6 (3), 316-321. zhao, y. & cziko, g. a. (2001). teacher adoption of technology: a perceptual control theory perspective. journal of technology and teacher education, 9,(1), 5-30. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 winstanley’s utopia in literature and in cinema alice manuela martins guimaraes * abstract trying to achieve a perfect or better society for living, men dared, from the very beginning of his existence, to fulfill their own utopias. this was the case of winstanley, a man who during the interregnum envisioned for the future of the english commonwealth the establishment of a rural communism as he believed ―the earth was a common treasure for all.‖ beginning his utopia with an impulse to act and a call for action: ―if you don‘t act, you do nothing‖ winstanley, failed setting up the diggers communities with whom he established proto-socialist communes. however he still continued to act, but this time ―digging in the pages‖ and not in ground as he had done with the diggers. based in his previous experience with diggers communities he wrote then his remarkable utopia, the law of freedom, which he dedicated to oliver cromwell, urging the english people to emulate it. once more he wasn‘t succeeded with his words and only in the twentieth century historians and film makers found in his pamphlets and his literary utopia, a remarkable literary and historic resource to depict the socio-political reality of the interregnum period. so it would be in cinema through the shot of image, that winstanley‘s utopia would be relived and restored it to life. through this remarkable intersemiotic transpose we realize that the process of writing can be regarded as the process of picturing as both try to piece together or, in other words, ―remember‖ fragments of recollections from the past, of haunting guilt and traumas, beautiful dreams and aspirations, or visions of utopias that far from being fixed entities, are, rather, an endless and unfinished process filled with clashes and conflicts. keywords: winstanley, utopia, literature and cinema * corresponding author: alice manuela martins guimaraes; assistant professor the humanities department,open university, portugal; e-mail: aligui2@hotmail.com mailto:aligui2@hotmail.com a.m.m. guimaraes winstanley’s utopia in literature and in cinema epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [56] utopia can be understood as a project for a future society in which man achieves a better and happy way of life. the ability to imagine, dream and speculate about the future, seems to be a defining characteristic of humanity. the creation of perfect worlds of paradises, a remote past, or a better future can be found in different civilizations throughout history. this dream of a fair society seems to haunt the human imagination at all ages, no matter whether it is called the kingdom of heaven, or the classless society, or if it is considered as a golden age, a time that existed in the past and which we can have degenerated (orwell appud kumar, 1987:2). actually, the place of ideal society (utopia) and the place of happiness (eutopia) are represented in the literary traditions either as a nostalgic mode of paradise lost, or on the form of the hopping millennium to come. according to frank and fritzie emanuel "the utopia is a hybrid plant born of the interweaving of judeo-christian belief in a different world and paradise, with the greek myth of an ideal city on earth" (1997:15). this hybrid dates back to the origins of european civilization and the heterogeneity of hellenic origin philosophies and religious-spiritual doctrines, of jewish origin. in the face of this duality, between the nostalgia for a lost past and the anticipation of a hopeful reality, utopia is defined for some, as a distant reality projection of the existing policy at the exact time of the literary text writing, a proactive intelligence related to historical events which will be achieved at a later date, a desire for renewal that collides with the ordinary mentality. however, for others, it is a historical current of social renewal, founded on values and needs that are considered essential such as freedom, equality, justice, brotherhood which have been forgotten or neglected, being therefore the continuous return of these values and needs. but if the utopia thinking dates back to the beginnings of human existence, the utopia as literary genre, will only be coined by thomas more in the 16th century. its long latin title libellus vere aureus, nec a.m.m. guimaraes winstanley’s utopia in literature and in cinema epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [57] minus salutaris quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula utopia (―a truly golden handbook, no less beneficial than entertaining concerning the highest state of the republic and the new island utopia‖; 1516) included the defining neologism, which no lexicon had until then registered, of a fictional place homologous with an ideal society. the definitions that have sprung out of this new literary form are not, however, consensual regarding its thematic scope and formal structure, and even less concerning its genealogy. despite all the differences of criteria, it seems that anthologists and experts of literary utopia are all in agreement in considering fictional texts and politicodoctrinal conceptions whose aims are either the optimum or the worst representation of the organization of a human social community as all belonging to the same category. the neologism utopia invented by thomas more works, therefore, at both a literary-genre level and at a theoretical-doctrinal level (j. e. reis). as there is no consensus concerning the ambiguous concept i will follow, in this paper, the definition advanced by ruth levitas in her work, the concept of utopia, where she takes almost whole book to discuss the reasons this definition surpasses others, whether those formulated descriptively, formally, or functionally. utopia expresses and explores what is desired; under certain conditions it also contains the hope that these desires may be met in reality, rather than merely in fantasy. the essential element in utopia is not hope, but desire — the desire for a better way of living (levitas, 1990: 191). her definition is particularly helpful for me, in looking at what strikes me as clearly utopian discourse in winstanley‘s literary speech and in the eponym film where this visionary man envisioned for the future of the english commonwealth the establishment of a rural communism as he believed that ―earth was a common treasure for all‖. gerrard winstanley, the leader of the digger‘s movement outlined in detail an egalitarian utopia in which a parliament elected by universal suffrage decided the law, and the law was enforced by unpaid officers of the state. everyone had to work and egalitarianism was strictly enforced. a.m.m. guimaraes winstanley’s utopia in literature and in cinema epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [58] with the publication of his tract: the new law of righteousness (1649), winstanley outlined his vision of a different social order. ―action is the life of all,‖ he proclaimed in his digger writings, ―and if thou dost not act, thou dost nothing‖ (1649: 315), for he acutely perceived that in this period of turmoil ―every one talks of freedome, but there are but few that act for freedome‖ (1649:317). in his career as communist, visionary, writer and digger, prophetic words and symbolic actions would interact since ―words and action going together are the declaration of a sincere heart‖ (1649:138). commanded by the voice of the spirit within, he would declare his message of visionary revelation, his new law of righteousness as he called it, both ―by [his] pen‖ and ―in [his] action‖ (1649:194). nowadays we can definitely say that gerard winstanley played a crucial role in a popular revolt in the middle decades of the seventeenth century that saw seven years of civil war a period of the greatest social, political, and religious upheaval in the course of english history. he was an original and passionate thinker and visionary, who asserted that the real split in english life lay between those who worked the land and those who owned it. according to him, the common people should have equal rights to ownership with the gentry and the clergy. in april 1649, not long after the execution of charles i by the parliamentarians, he had led a band of about forty people, impoverished and dispossessed, onto common land on st george's hill in surrey. there they cultivated crops and established a community of 'diggers'. winstanley had expected to witness the restitution of the land to the english people. seeing no evidence for that yet, he trusted that his own community of 'diggers' would show the way. but that wasn‘t actually its end. despite their visionary utopianism, the diggers, found themselves rejected by the larger culture as they encountered intense hostility and mob violence: they were physically assaulted, arrested, and imprisoned; their crops were spoiled, their farm tools destroyed, and their houses pulled down or burned. the diggers‘ experience although dispersed in 1649 by neighboring landlords and the soldiers of general fairfax was a.m.m. guimaraes winstanley’s utopia in literature and in cinema epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [59] winstanley‘s first step in the reclamation by common people of english lands. in his literary utopia the law of freedom in a platform (1652), he supported his rhetorical speech in two sources – his own experience with diggers‘ community and the bible. in the latter he turned to ancient israel for his model. his commonwealth focuses on social equality, with a specific emphasis on the lower classes and on a political and social application of his form of puritanism. furthermore, he based his arguments on the religious doctrine that common possession is more commendable and more christian than private property and also upon an appeal to the code of nature. he defended that private property in land was contrary both to the laws of nature and the will of god. he envisioned the constitution of a communistic society in which all land was held in common, all buying and selling was abolished, all citizens were educated by the state, and all people were eligible for the rotating offices of magistracy. democratic government, economic equality and genuine freedom are outgrowths and manifestations of the inherent human desire for the survival of the species and the attainment of a good society. thus, we definitely see his collectivist theories and practices strikingly anticipating the nineteenth and twentieth-century socialism. nevertheless he was a voice crying in the wilderness of prevailing covetousness and tyranny; a voice which was forcefully muted. the spirit of covetousness could be overcome by the spirit of christ. "there shall be no buying nor selling, no fairs nor market, but the whole earth shall be a common treasury for every man, for the earth is the lord's‖. his perception that political, spiritual, and individual freedom must begin with economic freedom and common ownership of the land has received valuable attention from historians studying the digger movement in relation to his radical sociopolitical environment. however, often more concerned with social, political, or religious ideas, such historical works rarely considers in any detail the rich figurative, and verbal dimensions of winstanley‘s texts. scholarly interest in winstanley in general is relatively recent. a.m.m. guimaraes winstanley’s utopia in literature and in cinema epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [60] his story was virtually forgotten until the late nineteenth century. it was only in the 1890s that winstanley's works were dug up again. later, in the 1940s, a complete edition of winstanley's writings, edited by george sabine, was published for the first time. in 1984 g. e. aylmer observes the winstanley had been largely forgotten for two centuries, and that even after his work attracted the attention of late nineteenth century historians, he remained obscure until the 1960s. not until the resurrection by bernstein (1985) was attention first directed to the fact that the most advanced thinker of the english revolution had been completely neglected by its historians. and only recently, (in the 1960s and 1970s), have historians, novelists, and filmmakers such as christopher hill, david caute, and kevin brownlow, respectively, portrayed him as a radical, christian communist fighting for the rights of the underdog. it‘s my purpose in this paper to redeem winstanley‘s utopia which has been ignored and silenced by his contemporary critics. in fact, we can consider he was far in advance his epoch. his utopia can be understood as proto-communism since the combination of his unorthodox political beliefs and his radical political agenda have marked him as a progressive thinker whose ideas presaged those of later communist revolutionaries. as lewis h. berens puts it: ―he was, in truth, one of the most courageous, far-seeing and philosophic preachers of social righteousness that england has given to the world‖ (171). if only too late did winstanley‘s utopia display in literature a remarkable blueprint, it would be only in the twentieth century that the film paid homage to it. being the relevance of his pamphlets and his literary utopia, a remarkable literary and historic resource to depict the socio-political reality of the interregnum, the cinema, on the other hand, through the shot of image, would revisit his utopia, in a wonderful voyage to the seventeenth century england, through which we learn about the leftist avant-garde. actually, the film tells us a lot about the aesthetics of the radical left, on a period in which, as christopher hill put it: ―the world was turned upside down‖. during this period, the search for perfection a.m.m. guimaraes winstanley’s utopia in literature and in cinema epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [61] was part of the apocalyptic design that dominates the puritan revolutionaries in england and, by extension, winstanley himself. the film, a travel back to the seventeenth century, to the political ambitions of the interregnum society and to winstanley‘s utopia, used a mix of close-up detail and near-fanatical authenticity, with much dialogue drawn from this period writings. it is also a truly amazing account of misery, as it depicts those whose cause is righteous and nonviolent". directed by kevin brownlow and andre mollo (1975) the script was based on david caute's novel, comrade jacob (1961), and had drawn explicit parallels between events of 1651 on st george's hill and the present day. it evokes the civil war mood of the mid 1600s – where cromwell's parliamentary forces defeated and beheaded the king. while retaining key scenes and some dialogue from caute‘s novel, the script turned to additional sources, notably to the historical facts presented by historian christopher hill and to winstanley‗s own writings which survive in the british museum and constitute a real diary of the diggers community spent at st. george‘s hill (the same pamphlets which marx read in the british museum while forming his ideas on communism). so this film is a hybrid of caute‘s novel and the genuine contemporary events described in the literary work of gerrard winstanley. retained from the caute‘s novel are incidents such as the execution of a mutineer by cromwell's soldiers after the suppression of the ware mutiny; fairfax's inspection of the diggers commune; fairfax's dialogue with winstanley and william everard (the remarkable interview in which winstanley refused to take his hat) and winstanley's plea to tom haydon to observe nonviolence rather than food theft by force as was happening in the village. from winstanley's literary utopia are drawn historical elements, his utopian vision and his own words which were frequently reproduced in voice over to set scenes and context. the film reminds us that winstanley is one of the most challenging of english visionaries and (as it includes generous quotations from his pamphlets) one of the finest of english writers. a.m.m. guimaraes winstanley’s utopia in literature and in cinema epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [62] the film opens with a prologue in which prokofiev's alexander nevsky score accompanies a battle scene, punctuated by explanatory intertitles ("1646: the king against parliament" reads the first). in his script foregrounds winstanley's personal, day-to-day struggles in keeping his diggers together, his fight with the authorities for individual rights, and, in the end, his disillusionment and defeat. its authenticity is overwhelming. the sense of time and place, visible in every costume and location, in the rust, the mud and decay, or on the faces of the unprofessional cast who spoke the words with an untrained innocence that makes us believe every second of their interactions, their politics and ideals, is alive in every frame. there are no 'stars' here, just faces. honest faces, plain faces, ugly faces looking at the shadows on the hillside, with a wet-eyed optimism that is touching in its integrity. the extraordinary beauty of the landscapes-especially images of the farmers silhouetted against the windblown skies and meadows. the movie challenged us to become as fascinated and obsessed with the mysteries of the past as the filmmakers were. they even went so far as to scour england and consult animal-husbandry experts to find birds, cows, and pigs that were most likely to resemble those of the 17th century and to transfer a barn from essex. here, there was no sense that history had already happened rather, it seemed to be happening then and lies open to the view and analysis of hindsight. instead of the final image of a humiliated winstanley, as in caute's novel, we are left in the film with only the gentle echo of his words from one of his latest pamphlets on the soundtrack as falling snow softly covers the bleak landscape. and it was with those words that the film concluded: here i end, having put my arm as far as my strength will go, to advance righteousness. i have writ, i have acted, i have peace. now i must wait to see the spirit do its own work in the hearts of others . . . [and learn if] england shall be the first land or some other wherein truth shall sit down in triumph. (a bill of account of the most remarkable sufferings that the diggers have met with from the great red dragons power since april 1, 1649) a.m.m. guimaraes winstanley’s utopia in literature and in cinema epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [63] anyway, as we have seen through his literary discourse, winstanley was always aware that his actions would turn against him people of great influence and power. so he wrote: "freedom is the man that will turn the world upside down, therefore no wonder he hath enemies" (winstanley, 1983: 128). far from expressing a naive desire for the restoration of a long-lost paradise, winstanley‘s recasting of the past provides the basis for a challenging consideration of issues such as natural rights and the law, but also, quite importantly, a fascinating critique of violence that is intricately interconnected with the philosophy and praxis of the digging experiments launched in surrey from 1649 to 1650. even if one doesn‘t enjoy black-and-white movies every moment that we‘re watching in this film, won't be forgotten. they seep into our consciousness like the photos in the most intimate of family albums, redefining who we are in that process. to understand who we are, we need to establish a certain distance from those who came before us; however, we also need to establish certain continuity. the dialectics between continuity and discontinuity in relation to our past must always be renegotiated. the breaking of all canons, the juxtaposition of macro and micro history, the questioning of the ideas of objectivity and subjectivity in the historiographical rendering, as well as in literature, have taught us all to be prudent observers and to use the plural instead of the singular: no longer a unique ―utopia,‖ but many ―utopias,‖ many traces left by the same event which in time sediment in the individual consciousness, as well as in the collective consciousness, and that are often hidden or removed; suddenly re-emerging each time in the historical, political, or cultural context changes. the accent placed on the possibility of ―reconstructing‖ and representing trauma has foregrounded sources such as diaries, autobiographies, pamphlets, testimonies, narrations (fictions), films, not only as individual expressions, but also as cultural structures exposing narratives of imagination and opposition. there is a dynamic and perhaps positive aspect which links past utopias and political issues a.m.m. guimaraes winstanley’s utopia in literature and in cinema epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [64] which today underpin the molding of a european scenario, as they can help to sort out new strategies for assessing controversial memories of the same past. references berens lewis h. 2007. the digger movement in the days of the commonwealth. wales: merlin press. bloch, e. 1976. le principe d‘espérance. trad. françoise wuilmart. paris: gallimard. caute, david. 1961. comrade jacob. new york: pantheon. eliav-feldom, miriam. 1982. realistic utopias: the ideal imaginary societies of the renaissance, 1516-1630. oxford: clarendon. kumar, krishan. 1987. utopia and anti-utopia in modern times. oxford and new york: blackwell. levitas, ruth. 1990. the concept of utopia. syracuse: syracuse up. lewycka, marina author. 2009. new statesman. volume: 138. issue: 4959. manuel, frank / fritzie, manuel. 1997. utopian thought in the western world, cambridge, massachussetts, the belknap press of harvard university press. more, sir thomas. 1989. utopia, ed. george m. logan and robert m. adams. cambridge: cambridge university press. reis, josé eduardo. no year. the gender of utopia and the mode of utopianism. porto: flup richardson, robert. 1969. literature and film, bloomington-london: indiana university press. winstanley, gerrard. 1983. the law of freedom and other writings, ed. christopher hill, cambridge: cambridge university press. ____________. 1649. the new law of righteousness in the works of gerrard winstanley, ed. george h. sabine, new york: russel and russel. winstanley. 1975. film, dir. kevin brownlow and andrew mollo, milestone collection. e.u.a.: british film institute producers. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter hossein pirnajmuddin * omid amani abstract this study sets to examine the applicability of bakhtin‟s theory of the carnivalesque to nathaniel hawthorne‟s the scarlet letter. the canonical novel of the american literature published in the middle of the nineteenth century portrays the genesis of the american puritan culture, while the polyphonic nature of the novel, it is argued, exposes the rifts of and the grotesqueness of this culture. keywords: nathaniel hawthorne, the scarlet letter, bakhtin, carnivalesque, polyphony, heteroglossia and grotesque * corresponding author: hossein pirnajmuddin, assistant professor, english department, university of isfahan, i. r. iran e-mail: pirnajmuddin@fgn.ui.ac.ir; corresponding author: omid amani, lecturer, english department, university of isfahan, i. r. iran email: omida6593@yahoo.com; mailto:pirnajmuddin@fgn.ui.ac.ir mailto:omida6593@yahoo.com h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [105] bakhtin’s carnival as carolyn m. shields has argued, bakhtin, in contrast to many of his contemporaries, does not patently testify that one needs to contravene the “monological, authoritarian, hierarchal patterns of thinking” (97). the questioning of these „patterns of thinking,‟ however is done obliquely, through concepts such as the carnival and its homological and close affinity with the novelistic discourse. by scrutinizing the matter of carnival, laughter and dialogism in the middle ages and authors such as françois rabelais and fyodor dostoevsky, bakhtin leads us to provide, in michael holquist‟s suggestion, “obvious parallels between […] scathing references to the catholic churches in the sixteenth century and stalinism in twentieth century” [rabelais and his world xv]. elsewhere, clark and holquist, refer to this as “political allegory” (315). as a matter of fact, bakhtin puts forth this idea to praise rabelais‟ fiction for the double-voiced mode it has adopted. in recognizing carnival as a setting of liberation, popular protest, and fully democratic social relations, subsequently, bakhtin‟s vision represents an allegorical alternative to the stalinist system. furthermore, even marxist critics have acknowledged the seminal importance of this concept. dominick lacapra, for instance, situates bakhtin resolutely within the traditions of marxist thought and argues that bakhtin‟s study of rabelais “can be read as a hidden polemic directed against stalinist uses of marxism in the soviet regime of the 1930s and 1940s” (321). for him, “the fight to make rabelais a man of people,” in other words, “is a fight to make marx a man of the people” (ibid. 322); bakhtin‟s conception of carnival provides an important vision of an “alternative social context” to the stalinist system (ibid). bakhtin defines carnival as “the second world and the second life outside officialdom” or “people‟s second life, organized on the basis of laughter” (bakhtin, rabelais and his world 6, 8). carnival in short “is festive life” (ibid.). by „officialdom‟, is meant a serious culture, a world marked by the “prevailing truth” of an “established order” with its “hierarchal rank, privileges, norms, and prohibitions,” one filled mostly with dogmatism of religious and ecclesiastical forms of social domination and restraints (ibid. 10). that is “why the tone of the official…was h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [106] monolithically serious and why the element of laughter is alien to it” (ibid. 9). however, carnival, in bakhtin‟s words, is “the temporary suspension of hierarchal rank,” a celebration of the liberation from the “established order” that gives rise to an overwhelming sense of the “gay relativity” of those orders and truths, “the peculiar logic of the „inside out‟ (de l‟envers), of the „turnabout,‟ of a continual shifting from top to bottom, from front to rear, of numerous parodies and travesties, humiliations, profanations, comic crowning and uncrownings” (ibid. 11). during the carnival everything conventional and official is mocked and reversed and seen as happily grotesque. hence, “no dogma, no authoritarian, no narrow-minded seriousness can coexist” during the carnival because this is a “second world” that provides relief from the oppression of institutionalized hierarchy by rejecting and defying the very institutions that proliferated cultural standards (ibid. 3, 196). there are three firmly connected elements in the „carnival sense of the world‟ that require further elucidation. grotesque imagery, folk laughter and the marketplace are the elements that create the ambience of grotesque realism during the carnival. reflecting on grotesque imagery, bakhtin does not consider the grotesque in the context of the accepted views and beliefs derived from romantic novelists such as anne radcliffe. according to him, “the world of romantic grotesque is to a certain extent a terrifying world, alien to man. all that is ordinary, commonplace, belonging to everyday life, and recognized by all, suddenly becomes meaningless, dubious and hostile” (bakhtin, rabelais and his world 39). bakhtin mentions wolfgang kayser‟s conception of the grotesque which includes four basic premises as following: “(1) the grotesque is an estranged world; (2) the grotesque appears to be an expression of an incomprehensible, inexplicable, and impersonal force; (3) the grotesque is a play with the absurd; (4) the creation of the grotesque is an attempt to invoke and subdue the demonic aspects of world” (adams and yates and warren 17) bakhtin holds that kayser is generalizing about the definition of the grotesque in all periods; he contends that the only right meaning of the grotesque is to be found in the renaissance, “linked to the culture of folk humor” (ibid. 46). he further maintains that: h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [107] kayser‟s definition [of grotesque] first of all strike us by the gloomy, terrifying tone of the grotesque world that alone the author sees. in reality gloom is completely alien to the entire development of this world up to the romantic period…. the medieval and renaissance grotesque, [is] filled with the spirit of carnival, liberates the world from all that is dark and terrifying; it takes away all fears and is therefore completely gay and bright. all that was frightening in ordinary life is tuned into amusing or ludicrous monstrosities (bakhtin, rabelais and his world 46). hence, instead of dark „monstrosities‟ of the romantic grotesque, bakhtin thinks of the grotesque as “the festival of spring, of sunrise of morning” (ibid. 41). moreover, this grotesque imagery is imbued with grotesque body, images of “exaggeration, hyperbolism … [and] excessiveness” (bakhtin, rabelais and his world 303). actually, by the „body‟ here, bakhtin does not mean “the body and its physiology in the modern sense,” for it is not “individualized,” but a universal, cosmic and “at the same time an all-people character” (ibid. 19). in contrast with the „classical‟ conception of the body which is associated with the readymade, complete, individual entity, finished, the grotesque conception of the body was of an incomplete, becoming, amorphous entity (ibid. 2829). therefore, for bakhtin the grotesque body becomes a suitable alternative for the classical one within which the classical signifies the ideology of official culture and its fixed conventions and static view toward life, while the grotesque one signifies “a body in act of becoming. it is never finished, never completed; it is continually built, created, and builds and creates another body” (ibid. 317). the most salient feature pertaining grotesque realism is the degradation. according to bakhtin, “the essential principle of grotesque realism is degradation, that is, the lowering of all that is high, spiritual, abstract; it is a transfer to the material level, to the sphere of earth and body in their indissoluble unity” (bakhtin, rabelais and his world 19). touching on this, linda hutcheon maintains that “there is a specific and wholesome transfer from the elevated, spiritual, ideal plane to the material and bodily reality of life” (84). in addition, sue vice notes that “its [degradation‟s] central trait is an ambivalent act…this ambivalence, particularly when it involves the new birth implicit in death, or the h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [108] resurgence implicit in being toppled, is the characteristic principle of both grotesque realism and carnival itself” (155). regarding this ambivalence, bakhtin suggests that “degradation digs a bodily grave for a new birth” (bakhtin, rabelais and his world 24) or, in other words, the death is not merely negative but gives rise to a rebirth and regeneration that is of paramount importance. the other aspect which plays a crucial role in carnival is laughter. for bakhtin carnival rituals are shaped on the “basis of laughter;” “laughter degrades and materializes” (ibid. 7, 20). in his essay “epic and novel,” bakhtin dramatizes laughter in a manner that it “has the remarkable power of making an object come up close,…turn it upside down, inside out” (bakhtin, dialogic imagination 23). elsewhere, he suggests that “carnivalistic laughter […] is directed toward something higher – toward a shift of authorities and truths, a shift of world orders” (bakhtin, problems of dostoevsky’s poetics 127). what issues from laughter is parody that is subversive of authoritative discourses. parody, in bakhtin‟s words, is bound up with carnival and “to the carnivalized genres it is […] organically inherent” (ibid.). one important instance of parody relevant to our discussion is the parody of the sacred in a way that there remains no distinction between the sacred and the profane, hence a dialogic, polyphonic ambience. anthony gash asserts that bakhtin‟s conception is “platonic rather than aristotelian,” that bakhtin maintains the “socratic discovery of the dialogic nature of thought, of truth itself, presumes a carnivalistic familiarization of relations among people who have entered the dialogue, it presumes the abolition of all distance between them” (qtd. in knowles 180). it is also, gash continues, “kierkegaardian rather than hegelian”, for bakhtin adopts kierkegaard‟s assertion that humor is “the incognito of the religious” (ibid). the third element in bakhtin‟s formulation of carnival is the marketplace. this is a location in which grotesquery and laughter are shared in it. bakhtin further elucidates that marketplace as an unofficial site is controlled by people and this is a place where people could experience their collectivity: the carnivalesque crowd in the marketplace or in the streets is not merely a crowd. it is a people as a whole, but organized in their own way, the way of the people. it is outside of and contrary to all existing forms of the coercive socioeconomic and political organization, which is suspended for the time of the festivity. (bakhtin, rabelais and his world 255), (emphasis added) h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [109] reflecting on the historical transformation of carnival, bakhtin “bemoans the demise of „true‟ carnival and its partial transformation into bourgeois frivolity” (gardiner 34). bakhtin’s carnival and the scarlet letter many nineteenth-century american fictions, as gregg crane suggests, “simultaneously embrace and reject various forms of social mobility, such as the greater autonomy and freedom of women or the crossing of class, racial, or ethnic boundaries” (6). one prominent instance is the scarlet letter (1850). nathaniel hawthorne in his illustrious introduction to the house of the seven gables (1851), makes a distinction between the romance and the novel. he comments that an author by calling his or her work a romance “need[ed] hardly [to] be observed that he wishes to claim a certain attitude, both as to its fashion and material;” the romance “as a work of art […] must rigidly subject itself to laws and [it] sins unpardonably, so far as it may swerve aside from the truth of the human heart” (hawthorne, the house of the seven gables ix). michael davitt bell suggests that for “hawthorne the domain of romance is a world of balance or reconciliation” (qtd. in michael mckeon 632). jonathan arac relates this „balance‟ to the public and private domains: “hawthorne‟s romances emphasize the private as the reality that public life either mocks or conceals. in the “custom house” preface … the document about hester prynne left by surveyor pue are available for hawthorne‟s imaginative use” (qtd. in cassuto and eby and reiss 139). because as hawthorne remarks, they were not “official, but of a private nature” (hawthorne, the scarlet letter 26) and “this emphasis on the private,” arac continues, “joins hawthorne to a practice of writing that we usually think of him as opposing” (qtd. in cassuto and eby and reiss 139). obviously, what matters crucially to a bakhtinian reading of hawthorne‟s novel is his scathing criticism of the puritan culture as a sociopolitical and religious ideology, with its strict codes and conventions, those engendering a world with no interaction and flourish of „audible individual voices or utterances‟. thus, the so-called dialogic interaction has turned into a monologic one. yet, by and large, there is a h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [110] „dialogic‟ tendency inherent in the genre of novel, in bakhtin‟s words, thereby allowing the “word to become the arena of conflict between two voices” (bakhtin, problems of dostoevsky‟s poetics 106). therefore, heteroglossia (on which more later) as “a double-voiced discourse” (bakhtin, dialogic imagination 324) is forged, and this monologic view is undermined. according to brook thomas, what distinguishes hawthorne from most of other novelists “is his sense of the tragic and transgressive nature of historical change. figured in the scarlet letter as an act of adultery that threatens the political order of puritan boston, such transgressions both keep history moving forward and undercut hopes of radical breaks with the past” (qtd. in millington 163). writing “the custom house” as the introductory part to the novel, hawthorne makes an attempt to provide the background information to his ancestors, those who were in his view “dim and dusky,” whose past still “haunt[s]” him (hawthorne, the scarlet letter 9). “i know not,” says hawthorne, “whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent, and ask pardon of heaven for their cruelties;” “i, the present writer,” he continues, “as their representative, hereby, take shame upon myself” (ibid. 10). concerning such puritans, joel pfister remarks that “puritan colonizers erect their buildings, and impose their customs, values, and ways of identifying in the hope of making it all seem like the only imaginable legitimate authority and reality. dissenters are imprisoned, pilloried, burdened with halters, and whipped” (qtd. in millington 37). this pertains to the central motif of individual vs. society in the novel which accords with bakhtin‟s theory of carnival in which puritans represent the society and the dissenters the individuals. historically, one of these dissenters was anne hutchinson, mentioned in the first chapter of the novel “the prison door,” who came to massachusetts and soon clashed with the religious authorities. though she “was a woman of strong faith” (stille 9), her views were labeled “antinomian” due to her clash with the authorities and she was banished from the settlement. modeled on anne hutchinson, hester prynne, the heroine of the novel, is, in harold bloom‟s words, “a prime instance of emerson‟s american religion of self-reliance” (6). hawthorne makes an indirect h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [111] comparison between hutchinson, a dissenter religiously and sociopolitically, and hester, “as a woman and a radical” (leland s. person 19). hester‟s violation of commonly held ideas, the so-called codes and conventions, and her clash with the authorities makes her a figure of dissent, the alien, the other. the puritan society in which hester lives is a monologic one and a “monologic […] world,” bakhtin maintains, “does not recognize someone else's thought, someone else's idea, as an object of representation” (bakhtin, problems of dostoevsky’s poetics 79). hester‟s transgression of the stringent rules of her society makes her a figure of carnival condemned to “noncarnival life.” in carnival there appears “a new mode of interrelationship between individuals, counterposed to the all-powerful socio-hierarchal relationships of noncarnival life. the behavior, gesture, and discourse of a person are freed from the authority of all hierarchal positions” (ibid. 123). in the clash between the carnival individual and noncarnival society “became the symbol of unity, and the unsocialized self was designated the symbol of chaos unleashed” (bercovitch 56). it is not for nothing that hester lives in the forest, a “freed from authority” place in the novel which the puritan culture figures as a place of evil. as a place of „transgression‟ the forest contrasts sharply with the town where stringent law and religion prevail. it is the proper place for „a new mode of interrelationship between individuals,‟ hence the rendezvous hester, who “determines to cast off the arts of deception, to act openly on the truths of “impulse” and “individuality”” (qtd. in. colacurcio 52), and the transgressing priest dimmesdale. another transgressing figure, or „forest figure,‟ is arguably, the „leech‟, roger chillingworth. a physician, he is himself, in public, a figure of authority. but he is keen on avenging himself on dimmesdale, who in public stands for law and authority. associated with the inhabitants of the forests, the native americans, he is referred to as “the black man” (hawthorne, the scarlet letter 62). we realize that he has “learned many new secrets in the wilderness” among the indians, those whom puritans label evil and satanic. the imagery highlights this association: “a writhing horror twisted itself across his features, like a snake gliding swiftly over them” (ibid. 49). leech-like and snake-like, this insidious figure gnaws at the h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [112] very foundations of the established order; he turns it inside out by tacitly exposing its very icon, dimmesdale. authority and its defiance in the novel creates, in eleanor ty‟s words, an “interplay of voices” (qtd. in hohne and wussow 98). in his groundbreaking essay “discourse in the novel” bakhtin calls this “heteroglossia” which indicates “another speech in another language […] and it expresses simultaneously two different intentions” (bakhtin, dialogic imagination 324). hester and roger tend to be labeled „alien,” since, to use bakhtin‟s words, their “consciousness awaken[s] to independent ideological life precisely in a world of alien discourses” (ibid. 345); also, the forest can be regarded as an „independent ideological‟ place. as david lodge points out, “it‟s bakhtin‟s point that the variety of discourses in the novel prevents the novelist from imposing a single world view upon his readers even if he wanted to” (21). nathaniel hawthorne‟s novel was published in the period called american renaissance or rather american romanticism. as such, wolfgang kayser‟s views, mentioned above, about the grotesque are relevant to hawthorne‟s fiction. the gloomy, dark and dim ambience dominates the novel. the gloomy ambience and mood right from the beginning of the novel starts contributes to figuring disillusionment with the vision of any human utopia, particularly the „american dream‟ in its nascent stage, such a utopia is what bakhtin calls in his theory of carnival a “people‟s second life” (bakhtin, rabelais and his world 8). from the very beginning one can detect traces of grotesquery like the townspeople whose clothes are “sadcolored” and “gray,” portraying the puritans‟ refusal of anything merry or colorful (hawthorne, the scarlet letter 39). moreover, the contiguity of prison and cemetery has a significant impact upon the inhabitants of the city. such an ambience is unrelenting throughout the novel. in effect, puritan entrenched beliefs, norms and orders make their society seem grotesque. however, we suggest, this „romantic‟ or „gothic‟ grotesquery also paves the way for creating the situation of, in bakhtin‟s words, „grotesque realism,‟ especially, when there is a romantic individual rebel. degradation is a central component of this grotesque realism. the second chapter of the novel, “the market place,” which is also the first scaffold h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [113] scene, can be considered as brilliantly exemplifying „degradation.‟ the narrator illustrates the entering of hester prynne thus: she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbors. on the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold threads, appeared the letter a. it was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the appeal which she wore, and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony (hawthorne, the scarlet letter 43-44). hester as a sinful woman is supposed to wear the „letter a‟ on her dress and a gesture of shamefulness on her face as signs of her degradation. but, neither the gaudy letter nor her demeanor intimates any sense of the required shame; what is demanded by the puritan code is reversed and “a haughty smile” and “a glance that would not be abashed” substitute it. as joseph adamson notes, “instead of surrendering to the instinctive impulse in shame to drop her head and avert her grace, she defiantly smiles and raises her head and looks directly at the crowd” (qtd. in adamson and clark 58). this is also apparent in the spectator‟s comments; “to laugh in the faces of our godly magistrates,” says a female spectator (hawthorne, the scarlet letter 44). that is, degradation is overturned. another instance of the degradation of the magistrates is the scene when hester has “fringed and embroidered” a pair of gloves “to his [governor bellingham] order…which were to be worn on some great occasion of state” (ibid. 79). thus, “the garments … had been wrought by her sinful hands” and even “her needlework was seen on the ruff of the governor; military men wore it on their scarves, and the minister on his hand” (ibid. 66). the degradation is reversed; as a strategy and sign of power, it is turned upon itself. to expand on the subversion of authority, in what follows we say more on the two important features which constitutes a sense of the carnivalesque in the novel, that is, laughter and parody. in bakhtin‟s view, as mentioned in the introduction, laughter and parody are the basic elements of carnival and are subversive of authoritative discourses. h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [114] according to bakhtin, they may create a happily grotesque and dialogic impression removing the boundaries among all strata in society. one of the core ideas of parody in the novel, one of particular interest to bakhtin, is that of the sacred. again, the first scaffold scene, the so-called second chapter, very well instances the “profanation” (bakhtin, problems of dostoevsky’s poetics 123) in the novel. hester with pearl in her arms is likened to a „sinless motherhood‟ or „divine maternity‟ reminiscent of mary with jesus in her arms. the narrator portrays the scene as follows: had there been a papist among the crowd of puritan, he might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of divine maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent; something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world. (hawthorne, the scarlet letter 46), (emphasis added) again the strategy of degradation, the discourse of sinfulness, is turned on its head, the very puritan religious discourse is parodied, the sacred is profaned or rather the distinction between the sacred and the profane is questioned. furthermore, pearl, though a fruit of sin, “an imp of evil” who “could not be made amenable to rules” (hawthorne, the scarlet letter 72, 74) in the puritan discourse, is described by the narrator, whose voice counterposes those of the puritan fathers, and indeed all the characters in the novel, thus: “the infant was worthy to have been brought forth in eden; worthy to have been left there, to be the plaything of the angels, after the world‟s first parents were driven out” (ibid. 71). in the words of harold bloom, “pearl emerges from a deeper stratum of emerson, from the orphism and gnosticism that mark the sage‟s first anarchic influx of power and knowledge” (6) captivatingly, in his first sight of pearl, governor bellingham acknowledges that “i profess, i have never seen the like, since my days of vanity, in old king james‟ times, when i was wont to esteem it a high favor to be admitted to a court mask! there used to be a swarm of these small apparitions, in holiday time; and we called them children of the lord of misrule” (hawthorne, the scarlet letter 86, emphasis added). this acknowledgement refers to one of the key facts h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [115] of carnival: hester and dimmesdale symbolically play the role of „the lord of misrule‟ and pearl that of their child; for they are parodying the normal social order turning it playfully on its head. before referring to the end of the novel which figures another „market place,‟ we must make mention of the chapter “the new english holiday” which illustrates hawthorne‟s feeling of nostalgia for the old english rites and festivals in the festal season of the year. he says: “the puritans compressed whatever mirth and public joy they deemed allowable to human infirmity” (ibid. 179) or: here, it is true, were none of the appliances which popular merriment would so readily have found in the england of elizabeth‟s time, or that of james – no rude shows of a theatrical kind; no minstrel, with his harp and legendary ballads, nor gleeman with an ape dancing to his music; no juggler, with his tricks of mimic witchcraft […] all such professors of the several branches of jocularity would have been sternly repressed, not only by the rigid discipline of law, but by the general sentiment which gives law its vitality. not the less, however, the great, honest face of the people smiled, grimly, perhaps, but widely too (ibid. 179-180). (emphasis added) hawthorne‟s nostalgic account of the old festivities also intimates that the spirit of carnival cannot be totally suppressed – people laugh, „not the less‟. the second scene of the marketplace and the third scaffold scene appear to a certain extent different from the former descriptions. this is the election day and dimmesdale is supposed to bestow a sermon for the crowd. but everything is reversed when he ascends the scaffold and instead reveals the secret of the scarlet letter: with a convulsive motion, he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast. it was revealed! but it were irreverent to describe that revelation […] while the minister stood, with a flush of triumph in his face, as one who, in the crisis of acutest pain, had won a victory.…there was a sweet and gentle smile over his face, as of a spirit sinking into deep repose (ibid. 198, 199). as bakhtin explains, the “primary carnivalistic act is the mock crowning and subsequent decrowning of the carnival king” (bakhtin, problems of dostoevsky’s poetics, 124). here, dimmesdale‟s tearing away his h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [116] ministerial band and revealing his sin is truly an act of “decrowning.” the scene in michael t. gilmore‟s assertions “deconstructs the speaker/ruler divide” (2005, 34), the carnivalistic situation is complete; the monologic discourse of authority is, at least momentarily, subversed. the novel itself ends on a carnivalesque note. concluding remarks nathaniel hawthorne‟s the scarlet letter deftly addresses the puritan culture of the seventeenth-century america as, to use bakhtin‟s terms, a “monological culture.” hawthorne‟s novel is, among other things, the fact that laughter and the spirit of carnival cannot be totally repressed even in the most ideological and monological cultures. although the writer apparently creates a romantic grotesque, that is, one of dark, gloomy monstrosities, to intimate the distorted nature of the society he portrays, the implication is that the bakhtinian conception of the grotesque, one associated with „”light” (bakhtin, rabelais and his world 41), with the carnivalesque, capable of subverting the rule of „darkness,‟ „decrowning‟ it, is in the background too. h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [117] references adamson, joseph. 1999. “guardian of the “inmost me”: hawthorne and shame.” scenes of shame: psychoanalysis, same, and writing. eds. joseph adamson and hilary clark. new york: state u of new york p: 53-82. arac, jonathan. 2011. “hawthorne and the aesthetics of american romance.” the cambridge history of the american novel. eds. leonard cassuto and clare virginia eby and benjamin reiss. cambridge: cambridge up: 135-150. bakhtin, m. m. 1981. the dialogic imagination-. four essays. ed. michael holquist. trans. michael holquist and caryl emerson. u of texas p slavic series 1. austin: u of texas p. ------------------. 1984. problems of dostoevsky‟s poetics. ed. and trans. caryl emerson. theory and history of literature 8. minneapolis: u of minnesota p. ------------------. 1984. rabelais and his world. trans. helene iswolsky. bloomington in: indiana up. bell, michael davitt. 1985. “arts of deception: hawthorne, “romance,” and the scarlet letter.” new essays on the scarlet letter. ed. michael j. colacurcio cambridge: cambridge up: 29-56. ------------------------. 2000. “from the development of the american romance.” theory of the novel: a historical approach. ed. michael mckeon baltimore: the johns hopkins up: 632-656. bercovitch, sacvan. 2007. “the a-politics of ambiguity.” bloom’s modern critical interpretations: nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter. ed. harold bloom. new york: infobase publishing: 35-58. bloom, harold. 2007. bloom’s modern critical interpretations: nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter. new york: infobase publishing. clark, katherine and holquist, michael. 1984. mikhail bakhtin. cambridge: harvard up. crane, gregg. 2007. the cambridge introduction to the nineteenth century american novel. cambridge: cambridge up. h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [118] gash, anthony. 1998. “shakespeare‟s carnival and the sacred: the winter’s tale and measure for measure.” shakespeare and carnival: after bakhtin .ed. ronald knowles. london: macmillan p: 177-210. gilmore, michael t. 2005. “hawthorne and politics (again): words and deeds in the 1850s.” hawthorne and the real: bicentennial essays. ed. millicent bell. ohio: ohio state up: 22-39. hawthorne, nathaniel. 1999. the house of the seven gables. new york: dover publications. -------------------------. 2007. the scarlet letter (oxford’s world classics). oxford: oxford up. hutcheon, linda. (1983). “the carnivalesque and contemporary narrative: popular culture and the erotic.” university of ottawa quarterly. 5.1: 108-130. lacapra, dominick. 1983. rethinking intellectual history: texts, contexts, language. ithaca: cornell up. lodge, david. 1990. after bakhtin: essays on fiction and criticism. london: routledge. person, leland s. 2007. the cambridge introduction to nathaniel hawthorne. cambridge: cambridge up. pfister, joel. 2004. “hawthorne as cultural theorist.” the cambridge companion to nathaniel hawthorne. ed. richard h. millington. cambridge: cambridge up: 35-59. shields, carolyn m. 2007. bakhtin primer. new york: peter lang publishing. stille, darlene r. 2006. anne hutchinson: puritan protester. minneapolis: compass point books. thomas, brook. 2004. “love and politics, sympathy and justice in the scarlet letter.” the cambridge companion to nathaniel hawthorne. ed. richard h. millington. cambridge: cambridge up: 162-185. ty, eleanor. 1994. “desire and temptation: dialogism and the carnivalesque in category romances.” a dialogue of voices: feminist literary theory and bakhtin. eds. karen hohne and helen wussow. minneapolis: u of minnesota p: 97-113. h. pirnajmuddin & o. amani the carnivalesque in nathaniel hawthorne’s the scarlet letter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [119] vice, sue. 1997. introducing bakhtin. manchester: manchester up. yates, wilson. 1997. “an introduction to the grotesque: theoretical and theological considerations.” the grotesque in art and literature: theological reflections. ed. james luther adams and wilson yates. michigan: wm. b. eerdmans publishing co: 1-69. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 is m. duverger’s ‘disparity law’ the rosetta stone of ukrainian partology? yurij shveda * abstract in november 24-25 2011 kyiv hosted international conference “party system of ukraine: evolution, tendencies and perspectives of development,” organized by i. f. kuras institute of political and ethno-national studies at the national academy of sciences of ukraine. the conference assembled a number of scholars from ukraine and abroad, who are engaged in studying political parties. this was probably the first conference in ukraine of such level exclusively dedicated to analyzing political parties, their role and place in the political life of ukraine. the conference was unique and very productive in terms of the level of discussion and geography of participation. it has proved that ukrainian studies of political parties – partology – has already formed and is dynamically developing. one particular point sparking lively discussion was defining the essence of the notion “political party” and whether it could be rightfully applied to ukrainian political associations. the article suggests the author‟s considerations on the essence of the problem, which, in our view, is a central methodological problem (or the rosetta stone) of the ukrainian partology. it may be rightfully stated that the solution of the problem will influence all further development of the discipline. keywords: disparity law, political party, partology and political association * corresponding author: yurij shveda, associate professor, universytetska str. department of politology, philosophy faculty, lviv ivan franko national university, lviv, ukraine, e-mail: shveda@ukr.net mailto:shveda@ukr.net y. shevda is m. duverger‟s „disparity law‟ the rosetta stone of ukrainian partology? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [248] in classical political theory political pluralism and real multiparty system are considered essential features of a democratic political system. in twenty years of its existence ukraine has transformed from totalitarian one-party to multiparty system country. currently over 200 political parties are registered in ukraine representing different ideological positions – practically all shades of political spectrum. having gone all the way from being „a poor relation‟ of power, political parties of ukraine have transformed into the main actor on the political arena. however, does it suffice to say that party democracy as the basis of democratic political regime exists in ukraine? can we talk about ukrainian political parties as fully-fledged political institutes at all? ukrainian researchers of political parties are trying to answer these seemingly simple questions. famous french researcher of political parties m. duverger rightfully stated that relations between power and parties depend to a great extent on the very parties: their power, genesis, structure, autonomy, inter-party democracy, type of leadership etc. despite a great number of existing definitions of political parties the one suggested by m. weiner and g. la palombra in 1966 is considered classical. according to their definition party is: 1) a viable organization, i.e. an organization, the average political life expectancy of which is longer than the life expectancy of its leadership; 2) a local, well organized and viable organization which supports regular and diverse connections with other organizations of the country; 3) a strong wish of state and local leaders of the organization to take and exercise power instead of only influencing it; 4) a wish to get people‟s support through elections or in some other way” (palombara, 1996, 55-57). basing on this definition we may state that ukrainian political parties are not really consistent with these criteria. just few of numerous political parties of ukraine have clear and understandable ideology, which determines their activity. so, out of existing parties only 30 have programs which include references to certain ideology serving the basis for their activities (shajgorodsky, 2005, 20). moreover, not infrequently contradictions can be found in the names, programs and activities of ukrainian political parties. another frequent y. shevda is m. duverger‟s „disparity law‟ the rosetta stone of ukrainian partology? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [249] phenomenon of ukrainian politics is politicians changing their views and, accordingly, their parties or parliamentary fractions. this shows that ideological basis of the activity of ukrainian political parties fulfils instrumental rather than principal role. it is even stranger to observe various party unions (coalitions) which often combine representatives of different (sometimes even ideologically polar political forces) – for example a party of large ukrainian capital – party of regions (pr) and communistic party of ukraine (cpu). political parties of ukraine are mostly parties of leader‟s type. this means that sympathy or antipathy to leaders mostly form the attitude of average ukrainians to the party. the belief in political leaders is caused by the dominating type of political culture of the population, when party ideologies, as m. duverger marked, acquire some of the features of religion bringing a significant component of irrational into politics (i.e. belief). in case of proportional election system with closed lists people actually vote for political leaders and do not influence the list of candidates for deputies. average members of the very parties also have insignificant and only mediated influence on forming lists. eventually this marks the end of voters – their party connection. therefore, the trust to both political parties and bodies of power which include the elected representatives is lost. if we analyze dynamics of the formation of political parties in ukraine we may easily notice the tendency to rapid growth of their number right before parliamentary election. so, in 1997 10 political parties appeared, in 2001 – 11 parties and in 2005 – 24 parties (http://www.minjust.gov.ua/parties). it is of interest that after defeat in the election few of them live until the next election. http://www.minjust.gov.ua/parties y. shevda is m. duverger‟s „disparity law‟ the rosetta stone of ukrainian partology? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [250] dynamics of registration of political parties in ukraine according to kolodij (2007) among the existing political parties there are not more than 20 which, either independently or as a member of some block, have participated in at least three parliamentary elections (p. 83). the new edition of the law of ukraine “about election of people‟s deputies of ukraine”, which denies blocks of political parties the right to participate in the election, is quite likely to decrease their number. simultaneously, the previously existing practice when parties participated in the election as members of a block did not favor strengthening of organizational structures of political parties (http://www.cvk.gov.ua). another widely accepted practice of political parties‟ activity is the phenomenon of the so-called re-branding of parties. it consists in reforming old parties rather than forming new ones with the aim of participating in the election. the reformation may consist in changing the name or leadership (these are, e.g. s. tigipko‟s party “strong ukraine” or n. korolevska‟s party “ukraine – ahead!”). after parliamentary election they do not spark any interest and stop existing or exist in the so-called “frozen” state. transforming political parties of ukraine into “machines for voting” prevents them from effectively developing their organizational structures, and, eventually, changes them into virtual ones. the majority of political parties in ukraine are not numerous and weakly structured organizations. sociological surveys were held by razumkov‟s center during november 25 th – december 5 th 2001 and http://www.cvk.gov.ua/ y. shevda is m. duverger‟s „disparity law‟ the rosetta stone of ukrainian partology? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [251] during june 19-25 th 2008. they showed that only 4,9% and 4,7% of the participants positioned themselves as members of political parties, which is 1-1,5 million people, i.e. only 4-5% of adult population of the country (yakymenko, 2001). according to march 26 th 2005 census the ministry of justice of ukraine registered 126 parties. 39 of them had registered centres in all regions of ukraine (31 %), 63 (50%) had registered centres in most regions of ukraine, and only 6 parties (4,76%) had registered regional centres in less than a half of regions of ukraine. 18 political parties (14,3%) did not have registered centres in any region of the country. with the implementation of proportional election system in 2006 ukrainian political parties have tried to register only regional organizations (as it is legally provided) and do not attend to developing their local networks. even the most developed political parties have only been able to develop their organizational network to the level of districts. according to rjabec (2001) the number of political parties without a single district or city organization rose from 18 in 2003 to 26 in the election in 2006. therefore, the system of party representation is useful for those parties and blocks, which do not have a developed organizational infrastructure (quality structuring on the local level), but have a good financial basis for holding a powerful advertising campaign or economic influence in separate regions (election in 2006 demonstrated regional character of support of different parties and blocks). apart from that, a significant part of local centres of political parties are fictitious. so, a check of the ministry of justice showed that 46 political parties had violated legislation in some way; as a result the registration of 37 political parties was canceled. the most frequent violations included the absence of representation at the place of juridical address and the absence of local juridical organizations in most regions of ukraine. the supreme court of ukraine annulled the registration of 28 political parties which could not provide the formation and registration of their local organizations in most regions during 6 months from the registration date. in 2008 the ministry of justice of ukraine checked the activity of only 4 political parties, which led to their getting the warning; y. shevda is m. duverger‟s „disparity law‟ the rosetta stone of ukrainian partology? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [252] in 2009 the same warning was made to 20 political parties (http//www.parlament.org.ua). the level of awareness of the population about the activity of political parties speaks for itself. so, according to the surveys held by razumkov‟s centre in december 2009 only 42,1% of respondents heard something about the activities of local organizations of parties in their regions; other 50,6% heard nothing about their activities. according to the bulletin of central electoral commission a rather low level of representation of political parties on the local level is also proved by the results of local election. so, at the local elections in 2006 pr and block of yulia tymoshenko each got 27,5 % places in local councils of all levels, people‟s union “our ukraine” got 16,9%, socialist party of ukraine – 6,4%, people‟s block of lytvyn – 4,6%, and communist party of ukraine – 3,7%. it is clear that such “electoral” approach to political parties does not favour their transformation into effective and authoritative institutes of political system. according to the national security and defence report in december 2001 74,9% of respondents claimed that ukrainian political parties did not fulfill their functions in the society, while in april 2003 this number constituted 77,5%. according to the results of sociological survey held by razumkov‟s centre the percentage of respondents who completely distrust and rather distrust political parties fluctuated between 79.5% and 64.8% in the period 2001-2009, and the percentage of respondents who trust or rather trust political parties constituted from 12,4% to 22,5%. y. shevda is m. duverger‟s „disparity law‟ the rosetta stone of ukrainian partology? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [253] do you trust political parties? (dynamics, 2001-2009) in conditions of restricted membership basis and low level of support, absence of state financing and considerable commercialization of politics (especially elections) political parties of ukraine have actually remained devoid of serious resources. this objectively pushed them to „co-operation‟ with large capital. soon enough most of them found themselves dependent on certain financial-industrial groups (fig). another proof of rising commercialization level is expenses for preparation and organization of elections. according to the bulletin of central election commission (2008) the organization of parliamentary election in march 1998 cost 248 million uah, in march 2002 – 172,2 million uah, in march 2006 – 512 million uah and early elections in september 2007 – 347,3 million uah [13]. the general sum of election funds of parties (blocks) at the 2002 election constituted 32,4 million uah, in 2006 – 553,6 million uah, and in 2007 – 581,4 million uah. it is of importance to remark that according to the data provided by public organization the committee of voters of ukraine the expenses of the party‟s election fund constitute only 25-30% of all money spent during the election campaign (http:www.newsru.ua/ukraine). according to the data provided by the project „public monitoring of financing electoral campaign 2002‟ about 40% of general expenses of political parties for electoral campaign were taken from shadowy funds. experts estimate that real expenses for electoral campaign in 2002 constituted 52,9 million uah, in 2006 – 10 billion usd, in 2007 – 1-1,5 y. shevda is m. duverger‟s „disparity law‟ the rosetta stone of ukrainian partology? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [254] billion usd. it is clear that such money could not have been received from democratic sources. during electoral campaign in 2006 and early election campaign in 2007 unofficial expenses constituted about 75 % of all money spent. however, usually these numbers show the expenses of three or four parties (obushny, 2007, 10). on the other hand, the results of recent elections show that a considerable number of electoral process subjects participate in the election only formally due to the lack of financial resources. so, at the 1998 election there were 30 subjects of electoral process 13 of which (43,3%) got less that 1% of votes. the same tendency characterizes the next election. at the election in 2002 there were 33 participants registered, 20 of which (60,6%) got less than 1% of votes. these numbers for the elections in 2006 constituted 45 and 34 (75,5%), and for the early elections in 2007 – 20 and 13 (65%) accordingly. such situation proves that the mechanism of forming the highest representative organ of the state is to a great extent determined by the level of financial support of the interest rather than interests themselves. that is why sociological survey held in december 2001 showed that 45% of respondents thought that political parties served the interests of financial and business structures; 30,5% of respondents were convinced that they serve the interests of political leaders. in april 2003 the numbers of respondents to the same questions constituted 55,7% and 45,6% accordingly (the national security and defence, 2003, 20). the lack of transparency of political financing leads to actual merging of political forces with representatives of shadow and criminal business, which, in its turn, hinders democratic transformations in ukraine. on the other hand, coming to power respective political forces get access to the sources of illegal income and the possibility of legalizing “dirty money”. this is reflected in the results of the expert survey held by razumkov‟s centre in 2009. the question „to what extent do people‟s deputies defend the interests…?‟ was answered in the following way: 95,7% of experts stated that people‟s deputies defend the interests of large business, 87% – of shadow business (the national security and defence, 2009, 48). y. shevda is m. duverger‟s „disparity law‟ the rosetta stone of ukrainian partology? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [255] moreover, the same centre held a nationwide survey on the 2028 th of july 2009, according to which 39,3% of respondents stated that political parties are fully corrupted. other 72,9% think that concealing sources of financing by political parties (blocks) testifies to their being corrupted; 72,5% of respondents think that corruption is manifested in selling and buying places in electoral lists of political parties (blocks) (duverger, 2000, 48). accordingly, the very function of a party as a political institution gets deformed, as it does not direct its activity onto representation or defense of interests of citizens but rather onto satisfying narrow corporative interests of their financial donors. therefore, orientation of political parties on voter‟s interests is often purely symbolic, which violates the basis principles of representative democracy. “if the disparity law is really formulated”, – m. duverger (2000) stated, – the traditional understanding of democracy will be objected, as … ruling bodies of parties formed by their members tend to dominate over parliamentaries who got their authority from voters. it would be fine if the political status of the former and the latter was approximately similar, and the members of the party could be seen as the most conscious part or an avant-garde of voters. however, the disparity law would ruin this illusion showing that essential differences in the behaviour of these two groups absolutely exclude the possibility of one of them to function as an analogue of the other. to measure this disparity means to measure the extent to which oligarchy penetrates into the regimes which we call democratic” (20). therefore, the central methodological problem of ukrainian partologists is the question if we have to deal with political parties which are only being formed and trying to develop into independent subjects of political life (protoparties) or with pseudoparties (simulacras) which only serve the political interests of economically dominant groups. answering this question will, similarly to the rosetta stone, determine the further direction of the development of ukrainian theory of political parties. y. shevda is m. duverger‟s „disparity law‟ the rosetta stone of ukrainian partology? 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[duverger m. political parties.m.: academic project. 2000]. http://www.newsru.ua/ukraine/29oct2007/izbirfond.html 9 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 application of an ecological framework to clinical practice with adolescents: transgenerational transmission of war-related trauma in bosnia and herzegovina assoc. prof. dr. mirsad serdarević, applied clinical psychology, the chicago school of professional psychology, southern california campuses* dr. senija tahirović, private practice psychologist abstract in the period between april 6, 1992 and december 14, 1995, an estimated 102,622 people were found to have died due to war-related causes in armed conflicts in bosnia and herzegovina. of those killed in the war in bosnia and herzegovina it is estimated that 54% were civilians. the war profoundly affected the civilian population, which was subjected to mass killings, the systemic use of rape and sexual violence, and the physical and psychological torture inside concentration camps. this case study paper has four aims. first, it highlights the complexity and severity of the traumatic psychological effects of the war in bosnia and herzegovina on its citizens, including the effects of the war on the generation born during or shortly after the war. second, the paper proposes a heuristic in the form of a broader theoretical approach; an ecological analysis of human development (bronfenbrenner, 1989). this approach aims to provide a framework for research and the development of intervention strategies for the adolescent children of adult war survivors who have been affected by war-related trauma. third, the paper presents a case vignette of an adolescent to demonstrate the application of the ecological framework to clinical practice with adolescents. finally, we explore how the current cultural, political, and societal realities in bosnia and herzegovina affect the population in general and the children of war survivors in particular. the transition from a state of war to peace is a long and continuous process with residual effects of violent conflicts permeating the broader society and its * corresponding author: assoc. prof. dr. mirsad serdarević, applied clinical psychology, the chicago school of professional psychology, southern california campuses, e-mail: mirsad.serdarevic@gmail.com. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 10 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies inhabitants, even after the war’s official end over 23 years ago. the authors argue that roles of psychologists and other mental health providers should expand beyond traditional focus on intrapsychic problems. rather, effective treatment strategies should also include recognition of and attenuation of the larger systemic stressors that patients experience on daily basis. this could be accomplished through collaboration among psychologists and patients, patients’ families, teachers, and community members, all of whom directly or indirectly affect patients’ treatment outcomes. keywords: transgenerational trauma; war-related trauma; ecological framework, psychologist roles; ptsd introduction the war in bosnia and herzegovina profoundly affected the civilian population, which was subjected to mass killings, systemic use of rape and sexual violence, and physical and psychological torture inside concentration camps. in an effectiveness study of u.s.-based bosnian refugees who experienced multiple forms of trauma, it was shown that the sources of trauma included civil war, combat exposure, loss of loved ones, bombings, with nearly two-thirds of respondents also reporting torture (schulz, resick, huber, & griffith, 2006). further, a strong association was demonstrated between psychiatric disorders (depression and posttraumatic stress disorder [ptsd]) and disability among bosnian refugees, both upon initial assessment (mollica, et al., 1999) and upon follow-up (mollica et al., 2001). the war in bosnia and herzegovina was characterized by the use of extreme violence against civilians (mrvic-petrovic, 2001). the psychological effects of trauma are expected to be more severe if the exposure to trauma and traumatic events were prolonged (e.g., herman, 1997), consistently endured, and included several different sources of trauma including death, proximity to death, rape and sexual violence and proximity to rape and sexual violence, and concentration camp imprisonment, along with familial proximity to those imprisoned in concentration camps. in the period between april 6, 1992 and december 14, 1995, an estimated 102,622 people were found to have died due to war-related causes in armed application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 11 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 conflicts in bosnia and herzegovina (tabeau & bijak, 2005). of those killed in the war, it is estimated that 54% were civilians (tabeau & bijak, 2005). further, the war was marked by the systematic use of sexual violence and rape (skjelsbæk, 2006). in addition to the above documentation, attempts to estimate the number of these crimes have also been made (e.g., cid, 2002; meznaric, 1994). according to meznaric (1994, p. 92) there is general agreement on the following points: • there were at least several thousand victims of mass rape; • many rape victims were young girls between the ages of seven and fourteen; • rape was often committed in the presence of the victim’s parents or children; • the rape victim was raped by several assailants (meznaric, 1994, p. 92). skjelsbæk (2006) notes that extant “research literature on these crimes emphasizes that sexual violence was carried out in order to humiliate, or destroy, the identity of the victim, and that this was the way in which the violence constituted a weapon of war” (e.g., allen, 1996; gutman,1993; nikolic-ristanovic, 2000; stiglmayer, 1994, as cited in skjelsbæk, 2006, p. 375). it is important to emphasize that the transition from a state of war to a state of peace is a continuous process, and even though the war in bosnia and herzegovina officially ended on december 14, 1995, the residual effects of violent conflicts are expected to permeate the broader society long after the war’s official end. demeny (2011) argues that the aftermath of a violent conflict such as that in bosnia and herzegovina not only affects individuals, families, households, and their proximal or distal sociocultural environment during the war, but also, for a period after the war—impacts a society’s political context, power relations, and the civilian population’s socioeconomic situation. for example, oberschall (2000) proposes the concept of a cognitive frame to explain that ethnic relations in postwar bosnia and herzegovina, while mostly operating under a cooperative frame, are also influenced by and based on memories from the balkan wars, which the elites use to spread ethnic hatred, insecurity, and fear, all of which activates a crisis frame. it could be argued that, on a broader societal level, such an anxiety-inducing atmosphere could have negative effects on a population application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 12 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in general and on survivors of war-related trauma in particular. this is an important factor to consider when evaluating parent-child dyads of parents with war-related ptsd and their children, as the parent-child dyad may be one in a constellation of causes of distress in children and adolescents in postwar bosnia and herzegovina. this case study has four aims. first, it highlights the complexity and severity of the traumatic psychological effects of the war in bosnia and herzegovina on its citizens, including the effects of the war on the generation born during or shortly after the war. second, the paper proposes a heuristic in the form of a broader theoretical approach; an ecological analysis of human development (bronfenbrenner, 1989). this approach aims to provide a framework for research and the development of intervention strategies for the adolescent children of adult war survivors who have been affected by war-related trauma. third, the paper presents a case vignette of an adolescent to demonstrate the application of the ecological framework to clinical practice with adolescents. finally, we explore how the current cultural, political, and societal realities in bosnia and herzegovina affect the population in general and the children of war survivors in particular. the transition from a state of war to peace is a long and continuous process with the residual effect of violent conflicts permeating the broader society and its inhabitants, even after the war’s official end over 23 years ago. the ecological model studying the experiences of adult war survivors and their children requires a heuristic in the form of a broader theoretical approach. in this review study, we thus selected the ecological analysis of human development (bronfenbrenner, 1989) (see figure 1) to inform our arguments. bronfenbrenner’s (1989) ecological model states that individuals are embedded within multiple levels of ecology, with each ecological level exerting influence on the individual’s development, while the individual may be empowered to exert his or her own influence on various levels of ecology, a concept better understood as bidirectionality. the following levels of ecology make up bronfenbrenner’s framework: the individual, the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and the chronosystem. bidirectionality refers to the environment-individual dynamics that involve the individual’s abilities to exert influence on the application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 13 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 environment, while the environment also exerts influence on developing an individual. the ecological model has been argued as an optimal systems approach that allows conceptualization and responses to trauma at the individual, family, community and societal levels (e.g., awad, kia-keating, and amer, 2019; hoffman and kruczek, 2011). to authors’ knowledge, no such approach has been used in bosnia and herzegovina in provision of mental health services. the microsystem consists of individuals (e.g., parents, teachers) and communities (e.g., school) with whom the individual comes into direct contact. much of an adolescent’s daily experiences occur within the microsystem. the mesosystem represents the quality of relationships in an individual adolescent’s microsystems, but does not include the adolescent. for example, the relationship between an adolescent’s parents would be considered on the mesosystemic level of an adolescent’s ecology. the exosystem consists of one or more interconnected settings in which the individual is not directly involved, but which have an effect on an individual (e.g., state policies that determine funding for mental health services, school enhancement, or prevention programs). for example, an adolescent may not have access to mental health services at school as a result of public health policy. the macrosystem represents society’s social blueprint and consists of cultural norms, values, and social structures. for example, macrosystemic factors may include bosnians’ beliefs about the political system and its ability to bring about positive change, or distrust of opposing political views tied to wartime politics. finally, the chronosystem represents the development of relationships among individuals and their environments over time (e.g., historical eras; political relations) (serdarevic & chronister, 2005). application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 14 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies individual (adolescent) sex cognitive factors biological mechanisms microsystem: family (e.g., father with ptsd) friends; work; school; religious institutions mesosystem: relationship among microsystems exosystem: public policy macrosystem: culture; ses; values note: chronosystem, which represents change over time, is not represented in the figure. figure 1. ecological model (bronfenbrenner, 1989). application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 15 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 extant literature on the transgenerational transition of warrelated trauma the transgenerational transition of war-related trauma has been explored in the past with regard to vietnam veterans and their children. for example, in the study conducted by rosenheck and fontana (1998), children of vietnam veterans with ptsd have shown to be at a higher risk for behavioral, academic, and interpersonal problems. according to the study, compared to children of non-combat vietnam era veterans who do not have ptsd, the children of veterans with ptsd are perceived to be more depressed, anxious, aggressive, hyperactive, and delinquent by their parents. further, the children of veterans with ptsd are perceived to have difficulty establishing and maintaining friendships. according to the authors, family discord and dysfunction can make it challenging for adolescents to establish positive attachments to parents, making it difficult for children to create healthy relationships outside the family. finally, additional research indicates that children may have particular behavioral disturbances if their veteran parent participated in abusive violence (i.e., atrocities) during their combat service (rosenheck & fontana, 1998). veterans with ptsd have been shown to have similar effects on adolescent children as they do on younger children (dansby & marinelli, 1999). compared to adolescents whose fathers were not veterans, adolescents whose fathers served in combat roles in vietnam showed more negative attitudes toward their fathers, poorer attitudes toward school, lower scores on creativity, and higher levels of depression and anxiety (dansby & marinelli, 1999). these findings serve as a key reminder that it is important to not only target our interventions on individual adolescent children, but, ideally, on the entire family. further, given the complex societal effects on adolescents whose parents suffer from ptsd, it is important to propose, informed by the ecological model, an overarching prevention, advocacy, and psychological treatment approach to the treatment of ptsd for both parents with ptsd and children/adolescents of parents with ptsd. suggestions for such an overarching intervention approach are summarized in table 1. rather than focusing intervention on one level of ecology, the model encourages engagement with educators and policy makers to assure better treatment opportunities and reduce factors that may contribute to the retraumatization application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 16 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies of individuals and their children (e.g., tv news format and the emphasis on coverage of aggressive politicians with covertly violent messages). according to the fifth edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental health disorders (dsm-5), for children aged seven years old and older, ptsd diagnostic criteria include four clusters of symptoms that emerge following exposure to various traumatic events. our focus is on a child’s learning about the traumatic event(s) occurred to a parent(s) or caregiving figure, child exposure to a parent’s ptsd symptomatology (e.g., irritability, anger, impulsive behaviors, increased arousal), and societal contributions to a child’s belief that the world is not safe (as a consequence of both the home environment and societal messages). table 1. ecological model and corresponding psychological and psychoeducation/advocacy interventions application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 17 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 case vignette to better illustrate how the ecological model helps inform our clinical practice we present a case vignette, which demonstrates both individual interventions and the additional strategies listed in table 2. note that all case materials are disguised to protect patient privacy and confidentiality. the information is provided for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to direct how treatment should be provided in a particular case. samir is a 13-year-old boy who is currently in the seventh grade. born in germany, he moved with his mother to tuzla in bosnia and herzegovina after his parents’ divorce. at the time of his arrival in tuzla, samir did not speak the bosnian language. after two years of attending a bosnian school, samir is still significantly behind in his bosnian language skills and he speaks with a distinctive accent. moreover, samir had to change school three times over the past two years, due to academic problems as well as his physical and verbal aggression toward his peers and teachers. despite samir’s obvious intellectual abilities, he has struggled to excel academically. at home, samir has a poor relationship with his 39-year-old mother, aida, and they have frequent arguments. he is also verbally and physically aggressive toward his mother. samir also exhibits suicidal tendencies. for example, during a previous argument, samir attempted to jump out of the window. aida was only a teenager when she survived the srebrenica genocide in july 1995. along with her mother and brother, she witnessed several traumatic events in srebrenica, including events in which children were killed by grenades. during this period, she was often hungry and fearful of serbian soldiers entering srebrenica. in addition, her father went missing during this period and she did not know if he was alive. aida, her mother, and brother eventually fled srebrenica in a convoy, and after an arduous journey that took them through macedonia and croatia, they ended up in germany. during the five-month journey from srebrenica to germany, aida and her family stayed in various refugee camps in which they were provided with food and shelter by various humanitarian aid organizations. in germany, aida took care of her family by working several jobs, such as a newspaper carrier and a restaurant waitress, while also attending school. even though aida did not speak german when she first moved to germany, she still excelled in school. after a short relationship with a application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 18 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies german man, they eventually married. although the marriage was initially stable, it deteriorated soon after the birth of samir. in fact, aida stated that she experienced “emotional and physical abuse” from her husband, which eventually spilled over into his relationship with samir. in one instance, he left samir outside of the house all night as punishment. in another instance, he killed samir’s pet hamster in front of him because he had spilled some water on the table. after 10 years of marriage, aida decided to divorce her husband. she subsequently moved with samir to tuzla and found a job. however, she frequently visits srebrenica, where her mother currently resides. aida has never received psychological assessments or psychotherapeutic services. to date, she states that srebrenica is a “past that i do not want to talk about.” although aida has never been formally evaluated for posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd), samir’s clinician suspects that aida most likely suffers from some type of anxiety disorder, due to her self-disclosed behaviors with intimate partners and her obsession with hygiene, which sometimes includes not allowing samir to go to sleep until his room has been completely cleaned. after her return to tuzla, aida formed a relationship with a man who became addicted to some “serious drugs.” during this relationship, the atmosphere at home was rather chaotic, which included frequent arguments to which samir was exposed. over the 10-month relationship, samir also experienced verbal and physical abuse by his mother’s boyfriend. although aida is currently in a more supportive and peaceful relationship, the presence of a “stranger” at home makes samir anxious. also, samir reports feeling “uneasy” when he watches tv news with his mother as she seems very upset whenever the news covers stories related to the war in the 1990s. in addition to the aforementioned situations, samir dealt with emotional and physical abuse by his peers in childcare and kindergarten while in germany. as a result, he refused to go to school and he suffered from psychosomatic symptoms (e.g., vomiting and headaches). his mother eventually moved samir to another school. for case conceptualization of samir, based on the proposed ecological model, please refer to table 2. application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 19 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 table 2. case conceptualization of samir based on the proposed ecological model application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 20 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies discussion the case study presented in this article highlighted the complexity and severity of the traumatic psychological effects of the war in bosnia and herzegovina on its citizens, including such effects on the generation born during or shortly after the war. by using a heuristic, in the form of an ecological analysis of human development (bronfenbrenner, 1989), the present study proposed a framework for clinical research as well as intervention strategies for the adolescent children of war survivors who suffer from war-related trauma. the case conceptualization of the adolescent in this study aimed to demonstrate the application of this ecological framework in clinical practice. the cultural, political, and societal realities in bosnia and herzegovina have greatly affected the population in general, and the children of war survivors in particular. indeed, the transition from a state of war to peace is a long and continuous process in which the residual effects of the violent conflicts permeate society as a whole. in this case, the perpetrators of war crimes and their victims spoke the same language, they often lived close to one another before the conflict, and they even knew one another. for them, transitioning from a state of war to peace is even more complex. moreover, the current political climate of bosnia and herzegovina has not significantly changed (e.g., less, 2016; kartsonaki, 2016; tamkin, 2018) compared to the pre-war and wartime periods, thus making it more difficult for survivors suffering from war-related ptsd to recover and function in society. for example, kartsonaki (2016) describes bosnia and herzegovina as being in “a dire political, social and economic deadlock” (kartsonaki, 2016, p. 497). further, kartsonaki argues that continuous republika srpska’s secessionist claims and referendum rhetoric continue to threaten the country’s security. while the referendum is unlikely in the foreseeable future the mere existence of this rhetoric engenders a sense of insecurity (kartsonaki). in the context of war-related trauma and ptsd, such rhetoric, especially when repeated almost consistently on the local news, could have an effect on people in general and on those who survived the war in bosnia and herzegovina in particular as such rhetoric communicates a realistic threat of future conflicts. application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 21 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 conclusion in sum, the roles of psychologists and mental health providers should be expanded beyond the traditional focus on intrapsychic problems. psychologists should also recognize interaction between their psychiatric symptoms and the larger systemic stressors that patients experience on a daily basis. as such, psychologists must also serve as advocates who urge local and state governments to provide more resources for psychosocial support. finally, psychologists must focus on the larger context in which they collaborate with the patients’ parents, teachers, and community members, all of whom directly affect the health and well-being of the patients themselves. application of an ecological framework...m. serdarević and s. tahirović 22 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies references awad, g. h., kia-keating, and amer, m. m., (2019). a model of cumulative racial-ethnic trauma among americans of middle eastern and north africa (mena) descent. american psychologist, 74(1), 76-87. allen, b. 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(2018, march 21). bosnia is teetering on the precipice of a political crisis. should the united states be trying to stop it? foreign policy, retrieved from https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/21/bosnia-is-teetering-on-theprecipice-of-a-political-crisis-balkans-election-law-dodik/ 25 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 epiphany_vol14_no_2_edited_2023.7.3.indd muhinat bolanle bello understanding pull factors of drug use 99 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies vol. 15 no. 2, 202298 introduction drug use and abuse among nigeria’s populace cut across all categories of population, as it includes both the dependent to independent. � e dependent category is subdivided into two groups. � e � rst group are those under the ages of zero to 14, who are under the custodian of their parents or guardians while the second group are those over the age of 65 that have retired from active service and are now dependent on the working class. � e independent population are those under the ages of 15 to 65, who are also referred to as the active population. � e � rst dependent population group are characterized by total reliance on parents for access to basic needs of life which are food, cloth and shelter. it also includes parental control such as loyalty to parents and those in authority, and obedience to the rules and regulations of the family as well as that of society. another feature is that they are the school-going age. � us, they undergo training in the form of education both at home and in school. informal training in the form of moral education is given at home while the school provides formal training required for life survival and contributing meaningfully to the development of their society. education is the backbone of the development of any nation, as it is capable of improving the quality of society through the re� nement of its potential. education enhances the application of man’s achievement towards the improvement of his environment (oecd, 2020). � e role of education, therefore, cannot be ruled out in the quest for the human capital development of any nation. due to the importance of education, educators throughout nigeria have remained relentless in their continuous strive to � nd means of improving the nigerian child physically, socially, psychologically, emotionally and morally to become useful to themselves and the larger society. � e much-expected ideal situation of e� ective teaching and learning is fading away in nigerian schools today, due to so many factors, that are distracting the much-needed attention required in teaching and learning. understanding pull factors of drug use among upper basic school students: a pathway for human capital development muhinat bolanle bello university of ilorin abstract � e study investigated the understanding of the pull factors of drug use among upper basic school students: a pathway to human capital development. � e study adopted a qualitative form survey design. � e population for the study were public upper basic schools in three area of ilorin metropolis. � e target population were the upper basic seven, eighth and nine (j.s.s i, ii, and iii) students that use drugs. a sample size of 9 secondary schools was purposively sampled. twenty-one basic school students' drug users were sampled through snowballing simple technique. � e study applied a qualitative method using an open-ended interview approach developed by the researcher. � e thematic data analysis technique was used to analyze the interview data retrieved from the participants. qualitative computer data analysis so� ware (nvivo 10) was used to analyze the data. results revealed alcohol, cigarettes, ca� eine, inhalants, methadone, tramadol, codeine, morphine, cannabis or marijuana, opiates, heroin ‘eja’, jedi’, and cocaine among others. parental easy access, peer in� uence, and experimental curiosity were some of the pull factors, while increased enlightenment, parental role, and limited access to the drug are some of the measures drug users need to quit drugs. keywords: drug users; basic school; pull factors; development and human capital epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies muhinat bolanle bello muhinat bolanle bello understanding pull factors of drug useunderstanding pull factors of drug use 101100 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies � e issue of drug use and abuse is a well-known phenomenon among secondary school students in major cities in nigeria, which include kano, lagos, abuja, port harcourt, ilorin, ibadan, and katsina. it has gained public condemnation by all and sundry the federal, state and local governments through the mass media. according to okoye, (2001) drug users are at risk in their academic and career development. drugs create vivid distortion in the sense of the users’ consciousness ( inciardi, horowitz, & pottierger, 2011). it can also becloud the users’ sense of judgment ( maguire & pastore,2012). � e united nations o� ce on drugs and crime (unodc) (2019) gave an estimated 585,000 drug-related deaths, worldwide. between 2010 and 2021, the number of people using drugs increased by 22 percent. based on demographic changes alone, current projections suggest an 11 percent rise in the number of people who use drugs globally by 2030 - and a marked increase of 40 percent in africa, due to its rapidly growing and young population. in nigeria, this would signify that the country will have to grapple with approximately 20 million drug users by 2030 further deepening the public health and public security challenges as well as human capital development. according to the latest global estimates, about 5.5 percent of the population aged between 15 and 64 years have used drugs at least once in the past year, while 36.3 million people, or 13 percent of the total number of persons who use drugs, su� er from drug use disorders. in nigeria, the drug use prevalence is 14.4% which is signi� cantly higher than the global average. drugs that were commonly abused in nigeria include tramadol, opiate, cannabis, amphetamines, barbiturate, benzodiazepines (valium), and bromazepam (lexotan) (yunusa, bello, idris, haddad, adamu, 2017). � e west african commission on drugs (wacd; 2014) � ndings indicated that most secondary students commonly use and abuse a mixture of drugs, results have it that they take a mixture of cannabis with alcohol (known in the ingroup language as combined). others drink a mixture of codeine and tramadol (known in the ingroup language as relie� ne). other combinations � e most recent one today is the rate at which learners are getting involved in the use and abuse of drugs. before now, drugs are consumed by youth and adults (the working population or independent population) that are mostly found in tertiary institutions, or mostly working-class adults. cases of drug use and abuse have been witnessed by young people in senior secondary school over the years, but recently, it has extended to junior secondary school level (upper basic school) to also be involved in drug use. a drug is a substance that can be taken into the human body and, once taken, alters some processes within the body. drugs can be used in the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a disease ( okoye, 2001). it is also considered a substance that modi� es perceptions, cognition, mood, behaviour and general body functions ( balogun, 2013). � ese could thus, be considered chemical modi� ers of the living tissues that could bring about psychological and behavioural changes ( nnachi, 2007). � e word drug use is de� ned as the use of illegal drugs or the use of prescription or over-the-counter drugs for purposes other than those for which they are meant to be used, or in excessive amounts, while drug abuse is the excessive, maladaptive, or addictive use of drugs for nonmedical purposes despite social, psychological, and physical problems that may arise from such use (sussman & ames, 2011). odejide (2000) posited that a drug is said to be abused when its use is not pharmacologically necessary, especially when used in the face of legal prohibition or when a socially acceptable beverage is used excessively. � e majority of nigerian youths ignorantly depend on one form of drug or the other for their various daily activities such as social, educational, political, moral etc. such drugs include tobacco, indian hemp, cocaine, morphine, heroin, alcohol, ephedrine, madras, ca� eine, glue, barbiturates, amphetamines etc (omage, & oshiokoya, 2017). most of the time when drug users can no longer survive without using a drug, it becomes an addiction. muhinat bolanle bello muhinat bolanle bello understanding pull factors of drug useunderstanding pull factors of drug use 103102 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in nigeria (abdu-raheem, 2013; abdulkareeem, mokuolu, adeniyi, 2017) but none was carried out on junior secondary schools, which is the focus of this study. � ese scenarios are a pointer to the main thrust of this paper. a civic education teacher employed by the kwara state universal basic education board in 2021 was posted to one of the public schools in the ilorin metropolis. � e teacher was handling basic seven (junior secondary class 1) in civic education, a� er the explanation of the concepts, and summary notes on the chalkboard. � e teacher noticed that some particular group of three male students were not writing, and upon moving close to inquire why they were not writing. it was discovered that they had just taken igbo also known as indian hemp, other names including marijuana, grass, weed, joint, stone, pot, ganga, hashish, bhang, sinsemilla and morocco and they were unsettled to pick anything from the teachers’ lesson or even copy the summary note on the chalkboard. when they were taken out of the class for proper investigation, other class members told the teacher that, it has been their habit and that other teachers are already aware of their case. � is happened in a basic seven class that is the � rst year in secondary school, among students of 10 13 years, these students are already taking hard drugs. a visit to the guidance and counselling unit of another school in the metropolis on one of the career day programmes organized by a non governmental organization which is faith-based. seven di� erent cases of junior secondary students involved in the use of drugs of di� erent types were presented to the organizers. and the school made a special request for enlightenment talks on the danger of using drugs. � is and many others pose a serious question to the researcher: what will the future of the country be? if students of 10-15 years are readily taking to the use of the drug. how will these students � t into that picture of leaders of tomorrow in this great country? how will the teachers teach? if at year one of secondary school which are popular among them include a mixture of lizard dung with lacasera and inhaling of paint and latrine. � e smoking of paw-paw leaves and the seeds of “zakami” (datura metel) also serve as a stimulant. � e � nding of abdulkarim, mokuolu, and adeniyi (2005) revealed the types and frequency of drug use and abuse among 1200 students in ilorin metropolis between ages 15 and 19 years as having a prevalence rate of 40.1% including mild stimulants such as kolanut and co� ee 294 (26.2%), alcohol 164 (14.5%), sni� ng agents 80 (7.2%), amphetamine and ephedrine 66 (6.7%), cigarette 54 (4.8%), heroin 45 (4%) cocaine 40 (3.6%) and cannabis 38 (3.4%). seventeen years a� er this study, the international society of substance use professionals (issup, 2021) reported the result of a survey conducted by the option2world initiative against drug abuse in collaboration with the o� ce of the � rst lady of nigeria, revealing that kwara state is having the highest prevalence rate drug users and abusers in the north central region with 13.0 % (213,000). apart from the increase in the number of patients hospitalized in connection with drug abuse, addiction, and dependence, drug use and abuse are associated with impaired coordination and the loss of capacity for self-control (west african commission on drugs (wacd), 2014). drug use and abuse can also damage brain cells and make the brain shrink, thus resulting in organic brain damage ( ejikeme, 2010). drugs such as stimulants activate the central nervous system, which results in restlessness, nervousness, increased aggressiveness, and anxiety that may be beyond the control of the user ( lahey, 2004). many researchers have also agreed that emotional breakdown and inability to control oneself as a result of drug use and abuse are associated with inner-city crises, crime, and youth violence which is negative to human capital development ( klantschnig, 2013). despite all these and many negative e� ects of the drug on its users, the rate of involvement among students is still on the increase. several studies have been carried out on drug and drug abuse among secondary school students muhinat bolanle bello muhinat bolanle bello understanding pull factors of drug useunderstanding pull factors of drug use 105104 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies purpose of the study � e study investigated understanding pull factors of drug use among upper basic school students: a pathway to human capital development. research questions � e study was guided by the following questions: a. what are the common drugs used by upper basic school students in three selected areas in ilorin? b. what are the pull factors responsible for upper basic school students’ use of drugs? c. are the upper basic school students who use drugs want to quit? d. how can upper-basic school students who use drugs be helped to quit? methodology � e study adopted a qualitative form of survey design as the study used open-ended questions to produce results. � e population for the study were the public upper basic school students in ilorin metropolis. ilorin metropolis comprises of ilorin east, west and south local government areas. � e target population were the upper basic school students that use drugs in three areas of ilorin metropolis (okelele, adeta and gaa-akanbi areas). twenty-one drug users from nine public upper basic schools were purposively selected using a snowballing sampling technique. � is is in line with sambo (2010) who maintains that a researcher can choose a sample if it meets the researchers’ characteristics of interest. a snowball-sampling approach is a sampling method used by researchers to generate a pool of participants for a research study through referrals made by individuals who share a particular characteristic of research interest with the target population. in this regard a teacher identi� es a current drug user who then helped to identify others. � e characteristics of the sample were current upper basic school drug users with no history of treatment, aged 10–15 years, having used illegal drugs during the past 90 days for upper basic seven (junior school 1), and one year for upper basic eight (junior school 2) and two years for upper basic nine (junior school 3). level they are into a drug, what could be the pull factors for students in the upper basic (junior secondary school) to take to the use of drugs? many researchers such as adeoti (2010), and oluremi (2012) gave the causes of drug use and abuse as experimental curiosity, peer group in� uence, poor parental supervision, personality problems due to socio-economic conditions, the need for energy to work for long hours, availability of the drugs, and the need to prevent the occurrence of withdrawal. mackenzie, annette, jennifer and mark (2013) � nding revealed three risk factors for adolescent substance use such as (1) familiar risk factors; physical and sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect, (2) social risk factors, deviant peer relationships, peer pressure and popularity/gang a� liation, and (3) individual risk factors, depression. � e cause of drug use and abuse according to the world drug report 2018 had been identi� ed as a risk factors category at di� erent levels, micro and macro levels. � e micro-level in� uences include income and resources, poverty, homelessness, refugee status, child labour, lack of access to health care, social environment, antisocial norms, poor informal social controls, lack of social cohesion, disconnectedness, and lack of social capital. con� ict/war, social exclusion, inequality, discrimination. and physical environments such as decay: abandoned buildings, and substandard housing. neighbourhood disorder, access to alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, � rearms, lack of access to nutritious foods, exposure to toxins, and media. similarly, research with a focus on young people has sought to identify motives for illicit drug use. it was evident that their decision to use a drug is based on a rational appraisal process, rather than a passive reaction to the context in which a substance is available ( boys et al.2014). � is study investigated understanding the pull factors that in� uenced children of upper basic schools into taking to the use of the drug to understand develop youth that can contribute to national development. muhinat bolanle bello muhinat bolanle bello understanding pull factors of drug useunderstanding pull factors of drug use 107106 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies results figure 1. � emes and sub-themes of the pull factors of drug use among upper basic school students � e study investigated the understanding of pull factors responsible for drug use among upper basic school students as a pathway for human capital development. � e thematic approach allows the analysis to be presented in themes, sub-themes and sub-sub-themes as well as in graphical models through which the perspectives and the actual words of the 21 participants were systematically presented. � e main aim of this paper is to investigate the understanding of pull factors responsible for drug use among upper basic school students to establish the pathway for human capital development. given this, the study discovered the common drugs used by upper basic school students in the ilorin metropolis, the pull factors responsible for upper basic school students’ use of drugs and the possibility of upper basic school students stopping the use of the drug. � e emerged sub-themes and sub-sub-themes representing the perceptions of the students are visualized in figure 1. � e study applied a qualitative method using an open-ended interview approach developed by the researcher. � e interview has two sections a and b. section a consists biodata information of the participants while section b comprised four questions which are (i) what are the types of drug use? (ii) please give � ve reasons why you are into drug use. (iii) are you ready to quit? and (iv) how can we help you quit? � e instrument was validated by experts in educational research, measurement and evaluation unit of the department of social sciences education, university of ilorin. � e interview was personally conducted by the researcher. it was a oneon-one interview, the recording was made using a recording device a� er permission of such had been granted by the participants. transcription was made using thematic coding. � e researcher followed (creswell, 2012) guidelines to carry out data analysis stages. however, the use of qualitative computer data analysis so� ware (nvivo 10) was adopted. according to creswell (2012), it is used to facilitate the process of storing, sorting, coding, analyzing and perpetration of representation of the data. to protect the con� dentiality of the participants the study used a pseudonym to report the perceptions of the participants in line with the advice of ( mccann & clark, 2003). as noted by creswell (2009), the researcher must be mindful of how to protect the anonymity of individuals, roles and incidents in the research through the use of pseudonyms for both individuals and places of data collection sometimes. muhinat bolanle bello muhinat bolanle bello understanding pull factors of drug useunderstanding pull factors of drug use 109108 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 018, 019, and 021, ‘ma rijuana’ which is categorized under illegal drugs, was what he used most times. finally, under illegal drugs, participants 003, 006, 007, 012, 014, and 020, con� rmed that the drug named ‘sk (skunk)’ is their preferred drug to them. in the categorization of st imulants such as methamphetamines, cocaine and hallucinogens, participant 001,007 and 008 were the few ones taking the drug named ‘al eko (manpower)’. lastly, it was revealed that 17 participants were users of more than one drug, and the remaining four participants were users of only one drug. research question two: what are the pull factors responsible for upper basic school students’ use of drugs? pull factors responsible for upper basic school students’ use of drugs figure 3. pull factors responsible for upper basic school students’ use of drugs figure 3, revealed that parental neglect was very vital as a pull factor responsible for the use and abuse of drugs, this was evident in the con� rmation of the participants, particularly, 001, 002, 004, 006, 008, 011, 012, 013, 014, 015, 017, 018 and 019. � ese participants face parental neglect, their parents were not always around to monitor them a� er school which gave them the opportunity of taking to the use drug(s). easy access to drugs in the community for the users was also a very strong pulling research question one: what are the common drugs used by upper basic school students in the ilorin metropolis? common drugs used by upper basic school students in ilorin metropolis from the � rst � nding, the majority of the participants identi� ed the illegal drugs, legal but over-the-counter drugs, legal but prescription drugs and stimulant drugs as the types they mostly used as shown in figure 2. figure 2. types of drugs used by upper basic school students in three areas of ilorin metropolis based on the � ndings, some of the participants, particularly, 002, 008, 011, 014, 020 and 021 and 006 con� rmed that cigarette is their commonly used vinhalants). concerning sub-theme two, which is about the legal drugs being used, participants 004, 011, 014, 015, 017, and 019 disclosed that trama and r2 is the drug being used (le gal, prescription drugs such as benzodiazepines, barbiturates, methadone, oxycodone, tramadol, codeine, morphine etc. meanwhile, concerning il legal drugs such as cannabis or marijuana, opiates, heroin etc, all the participants revealed that they use them. for instance, participants 001, 002, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 010, 012, 013, 014, 015, 016, 017, 018, 019, 020, and 021 con� rmed their usage of the il legal drug referred to as ‘eja’. from the perspectives of the participants 001, 006, 007,009,011,016 and 018 the illegal drug called ‘je di’ was what they used mostly. however, to participants 002, 005, 016, 017, muhinat bolanle bello muhinat bolanle bello understanding pull factors of drug useunderstanding pull factors of drug use 111110 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies � e possibility of the participants stopping the use of the drug, which is changing from drug user /abuser to non-user is very high. all the participants gave a positive response by con� rming that they are ready to stop. since they all are ready to stop, how do they want to be helped to quit the drug, was the next research question. research question 4: how can upper basic school students who use drugs be helped to quit? pathway figure 5: measures to help drug users to quit drug results from the participants indicated that their parents have a vital role to play in helping them quit the drug, this was a� rmed by all the participants. on the point of, accessibility to drugs in the environment, 20 out of the 21 participants con� rmed that the sales of the drug should be banned from the environment. another point raised regarding measure to take in helping participants to quit drug is that more enlightenment programme on the danger of drugs is required. participants all the participants attested to this. while the last point raised was there is a need for drug users to disassociate themselves from the company of bad friends who will continue to in� uence them into the act of using drugs. factor why the participants were into the use and abuse of drug(s), from the result all the participants that are from 001 to 021 con� rmed that drugs readily accessible to them to buy any time, which makes it easy for them to use. � e factor of the school environment as a place for motivating the use and abuse of the drug was pointed out by only participants 002, 005 and 009 implications all other participant did not consider their school environment as a pull factor. peer in� uence, that is the in� uence of friends and playmates as a pull factor for the use and abuse of drug(s) was con� rmed by almost all the participants except only participant 006. � is implies that peer in� uence is another strong force. on the factors of a spiritual spell, only three participants: 001, 011 and 016 gave spiritual spells cast by a stepmother and grandmother as to why they took to the drug was used. experimental curiosity was con� rmed by participants 007, 017, 020 and 021 among other pull factors, as responsible for their choice of use of the drug. meaning that they only wanted to ful� l his curiosity and it became a habit. � e residential location of parents was disclosed as a reason for the use of the drug by participants 001, 003, 004, 005, 008, 009, 010, 011, 012, 014, 015, 016 and 017. most of the parents are residing in a drug-prone area, where their wards are easily exposed to the danger of drugs because many people around them are into it. lastly, participants 001, 005, 006, 009, 013, 018, and 019 attested to the fact that their parents are also involved in the use of the drug, many con� rmed their father taking alcohol and cigarettes, thus, parental involvement was also a vital pull factor among others. research question 3: are the upper basic school students who use drugs want to quit? possibility of upper basic school students stopping the use of drugs figure 4: possibility of upper basic school students stopping the use of drugs muhinat bolanle bello muhinat bolanle bello understanding pull factors of drug useunderstanding pull factors of drug use 113112 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies children who lack parental attention will associate with any type of friend, and most of the time it is always the bad ones that can in� uence them negatively. � is was the situation upper basic school students � nd themselves in, the majority of them were lured into the use of the drug by their friends. from the report of the interviews, these friends were majorly around their neighbourhood and school, some are much older but they became friends because they share the same feature. � ese � ndings are in tune with the � ndings of adeoti (2010); oluremi (2012) and mackenzie, annette, jennifer and mark (2013) who gave the causes of drug use and abuse among secondary school students and young adults as experimental curiosity, peer in� uence, poor parental supervision, personality problems due to socio-economic conditions, the need for energy to work for long hours, availability of the drugs in the society, and the need to prevent the occurrence of withdrawal. � ey also highlighted parental neglect, peer relationships, and popularity/gang a� liation. it was a unanimous decision of the participants from the study that, they are ready to quit drug(s). � is is because they are aware of the danger that drug use and abuse pose to them as an individual, family, the community where they live, their nation and the world at large. but what measures can be taken to quit drugs becomes an issue? by quitting drugs these students stand the opportunity of acquiring the knowledge and skill needed to contribute positively to national development. � ey stand a chance of becoming an asset to national development. lastly, measures such as good parenting are required as pointed out by the participants. it was revealed that most of the students got into drugs because of the neglect, abandonment, nonchalant and uninvolved attitudes of their parents. it was suggested by these students that, their parents need to give them attention, they need close and good monitoring, and they need a good and conducive home environment. � ey needed parents who can understand them any time they are having issues in school. a parent who can always provide them with advice on the kind of peers to keep and associate with. � ey also con� rmed that they needed parents who will not also use the drug since some take to the drug because they see their parents as a model. � ey needed parents who will provide them with the basic needs of life. discu ssion findings from the study revealed that upper basic school students with an age range of 11 to 15 years and within the school year of one and three who are male are found to be drug users and dependent. � is category of students is considered by society as the leaders of the next generation, who will be well trained in the act and skills required to manage the a� airs of the nation economically, politically, technologically, and socially. � ese students have taken to the use and abuse of drugs of di� erent types as revealed by the study. drugs such as legal, over-the-counter drugs such as: (alcohol, cigarettes, ca� eine, and inhalants). legal, prescribed drugs such as benzodiazepines, barbiturates, methadone, tramadol, codeine, morphine etc. illegal drugs such as cannabis or marijuana, opiates, heroin etc. also, an illegal drug with the street name ‘eja’, jedi’, marijuana, sk (skunk). � ey also use stimulants, like cocaine and aleko (manpower). � is � nding corroborated that of abdulkarim, mokuolu, & adeniyi (2005), and the statistical report of the national drug law enforcement agency (2017) that tramadol, opiate, cannabis, amphetamines, barbiturate, benzodiazepines (valium), and bromazepam (lexotan) were commonly used and abused drugs among secondary students and youth in la� a. � e second � nding on what contributed pull factors to why upper basic school students are into the use of drugs revealed that the parents of the respondents constituted one of the major pull factors. � eir children (the respondents) con� rmed that they are always not available at home to spend quality time in the upbringing of their children. � ey are always out of the house to seek economic means of survival. due to their constant absence, the children are free to do whatsoever they like and wanted. also, most parents’ places of residence are porous and prone to dangers of di� erent kinds, such as violence, gangs, drugs, and assault among others. � is serves as an exposed root to the respondent’s use of the drug. also because of the location of the houses, access to the drug because so easy. drugs were sold in all the nooks and cronies of the environment where the respondents reside. at times drugs were sold very close to the schools. to worsen the situation some of the parents of the respondents were drug users, due to this singular act, their children sees them as a model worthy of emulation and also took to the use of the drug. muhinat bolanle bello muhinat bolanle bello understanding pull factors of drug useunderstanding pull factors of drug use 115114 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies references abdu-raheem, b.o. (2013). sociological factors to drug abuse and the e� ects on secondary school student’s academic performance in ekiti and ondo states, nigeria. contemporary issues in e d u c a t i o n research – second q. 6, 2, 233-240 abdu lkarim, a.a., mokuolu, o.a., & adeniyi, a. (2017). drug use among adolescents in ilorin, nigeria. retrieved from https://journals. sagepub.com/doi/10.1258/004947505774938620 adeoti, y.f(2010), factors in� uencing substance abuse among undergraduate students in osun state of nigeria, an international multi-disciplinary journal of ethiopia, 4,4, 20-29 balogun, s. k. (2013). chronic intake of separate and combined alcohol and nicotine in the body maintenance among albino rats. journal of human ecology, 19, 1, 21 – 24 boys, a., marsden, j., fountain, j., gri� ths, p., stillwell, g. and strang, j. (2014) what in� uences young people’s use of drugs? a qualitative study of decision-making. drugs: education, prevention and policy. 6, 373–389. ejikeme, g. g. (2010). psychological and social support variables in the treatment of alcohol and other drug-dependent patients. jos, nigeria: deka publications. hayes , a. (2021). dependency ratio. retrieved from:https://www. investopedia.com/terms/d/dependencyratio.asp ibrahim, h. (2016, june 26). nigeria: ndlea arrests 63 drug barons in six months. daily trust, p. 16. inciardi, j., horowitz, r., & pottinger, a. e. (2011). street kids, street drugs, street crime: an examination of drug use and serious delinquency in miami. belmont, oh: wadsworth. international society of substance use professionals (issup, 2021). kwara arise against drug abuse is a drug abuse prevention, awareness campaign and sensitization program across the 16 local governments in kwara state which we are partnering with � e o� ce of the first lady kwara state. klantschnig, g. (2013). histories of cannabis use and control in nigeria, 1927-67. in klantschnig, g., carrier, n., ambler, c. (eds.), drugs in africa: history and ethnographies of use, trade and control (pp. 56-77). new york, ny: palgrave lahey, b. (2004). psychology: an introduction. boston, ma: mcgraw-hill. also, the e� ort of government at all levels is highly required to help in the control and sales of the drug in society, communities, the environment and in the country generally. government need to come up with sti� er measures to clamp down on the sales of the drug in the environment. if drugs are no more in circulation and students can no longer see them everywhere, there is a very high tendency to quitting their use, as suggested by its users in this study. and lastly, enlightenment programmes through di� erent means such as the mass and social media, schools, the establishment of clubs, guidance and counselling programmes, and billboard displays on the danger of drug use and abuse were recommended as a good measure. if they are reminded always of the danger it poses to health, and education in the form of their career, social and political life, they will be ready to quit its use. with all these measures in place, society will have drug-free youth, with a good level of intelligence, and stable emotions who will be ready to contribute positively to national development by teaching and training upper students in school to attain the needed skill for human capital development will be possible. conclusion and recommendations upper basic students in the ilorin metropolis constitute a vital group of the nigerian population who can contribute meaningfully to the development of their society and the nation at large, only if they are given the quality knowledge and skills required for this task. � e task of national development is dependent on students and youth that are independent of the drug. it is on this premise that the study recommends among others: a � ere is a need to create awareness among parents about the drug culture in the metropolis, understand their responsibilities towards their children, and need to restrain their children. b. � ere is a need to strengthen the institutions of government in charge of drug control to curb drug production and supply. and also provide an e� ective check on drug use in the metropolis. c. more enlightenment programmes should be embarked upon by the government at all levels, that is, local, state and federal. epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies vol. 15 no. 2, 2022 117 muhinat bolanle bello understanding pull factors of drug use 116 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies yunusa, u, bello, u.l, idris, m., haddad, m.m. & adamu, d. (2017). determinants of substance abuse among c o m m e r c i a l bus drivers in kano metropolis, kano state, nigeria. ajns. 6, 2, 125– 130.  mackenzie w., annette b., jennifer p. & mark, b. (2013) review article familial, social, and individual factors contributing to risk for adolescent substance use. journal of addiction.10, 9 . http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/579310 magu ire, k. f., & pastore, a. l. (2012). sourcebook of criminal justice statistics. washington, dc: u.s. department of justice. � e national drug law enforcement agency (ndlea) (2021) 40% of nigerian youth ‘are deeply involved in drug abuse. available at: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/ morenews/480118-40-of-nigerianyouth-deeplyi nvo l ve d i n drug-abuse-ndlea.html nnachi, r. o. (2007). advanced psychology of learning and scientifi c enquiries, enugu: j. j.classic publisher ltd. oecd . (2013). education at a glance 2013: oecd indicators. oecd publishing. retrieved from http://w w w.o ecd.org/edu/ eag2013%20%28eng%29–final%2020%20june%202013.pdf okoye, n. n., (2001). � e adolescents and hard drugs: a psychological concern in r.u.n, okonkwo & r. o. okoye (eds.). � e nigerian adolescent in perspective. a publication of the nigerian society for education oluremi, d.f.(2012), drug abuse among nigeria adolescents strategies for counseling, the international journal of social research .5, 34-44. omag e, e. i., & oshiokoya (2017). perception of drug abuse amongst nigerian undergraduates. world journal of medical science, 5,1, 29-39 osho di, o.y., aina, o.f. & onajole, a.t. (2014). substance use among secondary school students in an urban setting in nigeria: prevalence and associated factors. african journal of psychiatry, 1, 3, 5257. suss man, s. & ames, s.l. (2009). concepts of drugs, drug use, misuse, and abuse. cambridge university press. unit ed nations o� ce on drugs and crime. (2014). global synthetic drugs assessment: amphetamine-type stimulants and new psychoactive substances. vienna, austria: author. west african commission on drugs. (2014). not just in transit: drugs, the state and society in west africa. geneva, switzerland: ko� annan foundation. retrieved from http://www.wacommissionondrugs. org/report introduction epiphany: vol. 5, no. 1, 2012 issn 1840-3719 perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high autism-spectrum quotient (aq) ervin poljac * abstract autism is characterized by difficulties in social interaction, communication, restrictive and repetitive behaviours and specific impairments in emotional processing. the present study employed the autism spectrum quotient (baron-cohen et al. 2006) to quantify autistic traits in a group of 260 healthy individuals and to investigate whether this measure is related to the perception of facial emotional expressions. the emotional processing of twelve participants that scored significantly higher than the average on the aq was compared to twelve participants with significantly lower aq scores. perception of emotional expressions was estimated by the facial recognition task (montagne et al. 2007). there were significant differences between the two groups with regard to accuracy and sensitivity of the perception of emotional facial expressions. specifically, the group with high aq score was less accurate and needed higher emotional content to recognize emotions of anger, disgust, happiness and sadness. this result implies a selective impairment that might be helpful in understanding the psychopathology of autism spectrum disorders. keywords: autism spectrum quotient, face perception, emotion recognition, facial expression, affective processing * corresponding author: ervin poljac; laboratory of experimental psychology, university of leuven, leuven, belgium; e-mail: ervin.poljac@psy.kuleuven.be mailto:ervin.poljac@psy.kuleuven.be e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [2] introduction interpretation of emotional states of others is essential for establishing normal interpersonal relationships. facial expressions convey very strong non-verbal cues of emotional states and their perception and interpretation is crucial in social interactions. many psychiatric and neurological disorders are accompanied by impaired emotional processing (lembke and ketter, 2002; mcclure, pope, hoberman, pine, & leibenluft, 2003; green, turner, & thompson, 2004; venn et al., 2004; montagne, kessels, wester, & de haan, 2006a). depression or social anxiety, for instance, are known to disrupt the perception and memory of emotional cues, causing a lower sensitivity for the negative facial expressions of anger and disgust (montagne, schutters, westenberg, kessels, & de haan, 2006b). autism is a disorder characterized by specific impairments in social interaction, communication and restrictive and repetitive, stereotyped behavior (american psychiatric association, 2000). these deficits have been repeatedly demonstrated in previous research and in clinical practice (e.g. baron-cohen, tager-flusberg & cohen, 1993; dawson, meltzhoff, osterling, rinaldi & brown, 1998). with regard to their possible origins, there is evidence that autism is related to early dysfunction of brain areas responsible for social cognition and emotional processing (baron-cohen, et al., 1999; dawson, 1996). in particular, amygdala has been related to an altered emotional function in autism, having not only atypical function, but also some structural differences compared to non-patients. in support to this argument, kleinhans et al. (1999) showed a reduced effect of adaptation in the amygdala of autistic individuals due to repeated exposure to faces. the observed lack of adaptation to faces (or the hyperactivity of amygdala, as the authors refer to it) might be an important clue for the deviating processing of faces in autism and used as evidence that autistic people do not treat faces differently than other objects (rosset et al., 2008). in specific, the ability to use or understand facial information is claimed to be an important deficit in autism (baron-cohen, 1993; frith, 1989) with emotional functional deficit as a consequence. hence, these impairments are often e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [3] assumed responsible for distinctive disorders in emotional processing, such as interpreting emotional expressions. a number of studies provide evidence that the processing of basic emotions is indeed altered in autism (bolte & poustka, 2003; celani, battacchi, & arcidiacono, 1999; davies, bishop, manstead & tantam, 1994), however, other studies have failed to find such decline (baroncohen, jolliffe, martimore, & robertson, 1997; grossman, klein, carter, & volkmar, 2000; ogai et al., 2003). one possible explanation for this inconsistency might be related to the employed stimuli: frequently used (static) pictures of fully expressed emotions might have resulted in ceiling effects and thus were not sensitive enough to detect difficulties in emotional processing. cartoon-like presentations of facial expressions usually contain exaggerated representations of emotions, and autistic children seem to process this information in a very typical way, similar to controls (rosset et al., 2008). however, when it comes to real faces, there are noticeable differences. hence, more subtle emotional facial expressions might reveal possible differences in the processing of emotions. recently, montagne, kessels, de haan, & perrett, (2007) developed a novel test for estimating the accuracy and sensitivity of emotional processing, the emotion recognition task (ert). this test makes it possible to estimate emotional processing at different levels of facial emotional expressions and it is more sensitive for possible subtle differences in processing. moreover, because the test involves dynamic presentations, it is likely more ecologically valid compared to static presentations, as it involves more realistic presentations of emotions. the current study examined the recognition of emotional facial expressions in individuals with a high autism-spectrum quotient (aq, baron-cohen et al. 2006) score. these are healthy individuals who share common characteristics with people diagnosed with autism. the perception of what are generally agreed to be the six basic or universal emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise (ekman, 1999), was examined, both in terms of accuracy and the sensitivity. because of frequently observed impairments in emotional processing in individuals with autism, a decline in the accuracy and sensitivity of the e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [4] recognition of these emotions was expected to be observed in the individuals scoring high on the aq. methods participants two hundred sixty students from the undergraduate programs at the international university of sarajevo took part in the current study. the study has been carried out in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 declaration of helsinki. participation was voluntary and all the subjects gave their informed consent prior to the inclusion into the study. autism-spectrum quotient to quantify the amount of autistic traits in a group of 260 students, the autism-spectrum quotient (baron-cohen et al. 2006) was employed. the aq was published in 2001 by autism expert simon baron-cohen and his colleagues at the autism research centre at the university of cambridge. the test consists of fifty statements, each with four (forced) choices to indicate whether subjects ‘definitely agree’, ‘slightly agree’, ‘slightly disagree’, or ‘definitely disagree’ with each statement. eighty percent of people with asperger syndrome has a score between 32 and 50, while in a control group only two percent of people got that score. the scales of the test include willingness of adequate social interaction and interest, the degree of repetition, attention to detail, degree of empathy and imagination. the distribution of the participants’ aq scores in the present study resembled normal, with the average score of 14.95 (sd 5.45). emotion recognition task twelve participants with a score well above the average aq score (29 ± 3.5) and equal number of students that scored significantly below the average (6 ± 2.3) were selected. there were no significant differences in age between the two groups. the participants performed the emotion recognition task, a computer task used to evaluate the emotional e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [5] processing i.e. the recognition of emotional facial expressions, developed by montagne et al. (2007). colour pictures of the faces of four actors (two males, two females), who posed six emotional expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise) and a neutral face, were utilized to create computer-generated morphs of 19 intermediate images between a neutral face (0% emotion) and a full-blown expression (100% emotion). the task was developed from algorithms designed by benson and perrett (1991). in the morphed images, both the dimension of shape and texture underwent gradual transitions. these images were used to construct short video clips that incrementally increase in the degree of intensity of the expression by 10% steps. for each actor, and each of the six emotions, there were nine video clips (0-20, 0-30, 0-40, 0-50, 0-60, 070, 0-80, 0-90, 0-100%; fig. 1). figure 1. the emotion recognition task shows (a) the gradual transition from neutral (0%) to the full-blown emotion of happiness (100%) in steps of 20%, and (b) the gradual transition from neutral (0%) to the full-blown emotion of anger (100%) in steps of 20%. benton facial recognition test the short form of the benton facial recognition test (benton et al., 1994) was administered to assess perception of neutral faces. this test is able to detect possible generalized disorders of face perception and it consists of a booklet with a single target face on each page, and below it, a set of six faces. in the first six trials, an identical face has to be selected among five decoys. in the remaining 7 trials, three different views e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [6] (changed in orientation or lighting conditions compared to the target photograph) have to be distinguished from three incorrect alternatives. the faces are unfamiliar and physically similar, without spectacles or facial hair. the maximum number of correctly identified faces is 27. beck depression inventory (bdi) scores the bdi (beck et al., 1961), a 21-item self-report questionnaire, was used to measure the presence and the intensity of depressive symptoms in the participants. procedure each participant completed the aq prior to the emotion recognition task. the task started with four practice trials, followed by the main experiment. the clips entailing morphed images of emotional expressions were presented in an incremental order, starting with 20% intensity levels and ending with a 100% expression. thus, subjects first saw the 24 presentations of the lowest level of emotional expression (020%), followed by the second set of 24 trials with video clips from 0% to 30%, and so on until they reached the final sequence of clips in which the neutral face changes into a full-blown expression. within each level, the order of presentation of emotions and actors was randomized. on each trial, subjects were required to make a forced choice between one of six emotional expression labels that were displayed on the screen during the time of presentation. the duration of the animation in the video clips varied between approximately 0.5 sec (low intensity) and 2 sec (high intensity). the moving expressions were created in an artificial manner but appear very similar to natural expressions. after the animation, the last frame remained on the screen until the subject made a response, at which time the new trial was automatically initiated. in total each participant performed 216 trials. there was no time restriction. the procedure was identical for both groups. results the performance of 12 students with high aq scores on the emotion recognition task was compared to the performance of 12 e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [7] students of low-score group. the study used a mixed-factor design, with the group as a between subjects factor with two levels (high aq group vs. low aq group), and two within-subjects factors: the type of emotion (with six levels: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise) and emotion intensity (with nine levels 0-20, 0-30, 0-40, 0-50, 0-60, 0-70, 080, 0-90, 0-100%). control tasks there were no significant differences between the groups with regard to bdi scores (p = 0.86). in addition, the short form of the benton facial recognition test did not reveal significant differences between the high and low aq groups with regard to the perception of neutral faces. the accuracy and sensitivity of emotion perception two different measures were used to estimate subjects’ performance; accuracy and sensitivity. recognition accuracy was defined as the percentage of correct answers for each emotional expression at each intensity level. perceptual sensitivity for a specific emotion was defined as the level of emotional intensity that was required for the correct identification of this emotion. the perceptual sensitivity measure was calculated as the percentage of required intensity from which level onwards the emotion was consistently correctly identified. increased intensity of emotional expression resulted in a higher recognition rate of all emotions in both groups, although the slopes differ between individual emotions (figure 2). the percentage of correct answers for each emotional expression at each intensity level was analyzed with a 9 x 2 repeated measures analysis of variance (anova), general linear model (glm) with group (high aq group vs. low aq) as between-subject variable and intensity level as within-subject variable. overall, the accuracy fluctuated for different emotions (f(5, 19) = 18.39, p < .001). most accurate recognition performance was observed for the emotion happiness (significantly more accurate than all other emotions; all f-values > 19.09, p < .001), followed by anger, disgust and surprise. montagne et al. (2005) also found the lowest thresholds for happiness, and the highest for fear and sadness. there were significant differences between the high and low aq groups with respect to the two measures (figure 3). the high aq group was less accurate (f(5, 19) = 27.05; p < e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [8] .001) and on the average required more expression in the face to correctly identify the emotions of anger (f(1, 22) = 8.30; p < .001), disgust (f(1, 22) = 15.06; p < .001), happiness (f(1, 22) = 5.68; p = .02), and sadness (f(1, 22) = 9.63; p < .001). the observed pattern is consistent with the results of the accuracy measure and in line with previous findings. figure 2. the accuracy of recognition plotted for all levels of emotional intensity (xaxis, levels 1-9 represent 20-100% emotional content in the face). a general trend for all emotions is an increase in the recognition rate associated with an increase of the emotional content. in the high aq group, emotions of anger, disgust, happiness and sadness have a lower recognition rate compared to the low aq group. figure 3. the accuracy of responses for the two groups (a) and the level of emotional content necessary to correctly identify each emotion (b). the pattern resembles the findings in previous studies, the emotion of happiness requiring lowest amount of emotional content to recognize it correctly while the emotion of fear is most difficult to identify. there are significant differences between the two groups for the emotions of anger, disgust, happiness and sadness. error bars represent 1 se. e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [9] discussion the current study investigated the recognition of facial emotional expressions in people with high autism-spectrum quotient. the findings showed a decreased sensitivity for the emotions of anger, disgust, happiness, and sadness. the high aq group needed more intense emotional expressions compared to the group that had low aq-scores to correctly identify the facial emotions. in addition, a reduced accuracy was also observed in the high-aq group for the same emotions, anger, disgust, happiness, and sadness. the findings of the present study are in accordance with previous studies that showed impaired recognition of fear, disgust and sadness in other patient populations with disorders in the area of affective functioning (montagne et al., 2005, 2006a, 2006b; poljac, montagne & de haan, 2010), as well as with the findings of law smith, montagne, perret, gill, and gallagher (2010) showing different recognition of disgust, anger and surprise. impaired processing of the emotion of disgust has been previously reported in adults with autism spectrum disorders (ashwin, chapman, colle, & baron-cohen, 2006; ellis & leafhead, 1996). beside the shared characteristics of the high aq score group and autistic individuals, a number of possible alternative explanations of the findings must be discussed. first, deficits in basic face processing can certainly influence the perception of emotions in faces. the neural systems that mediate face processing develop very early in life. babies already respond differently to familiar faces. responses (erp’s) to familiar and unfamiliar faces of children with autism do not differ, which indicates an impaired ability to process faces (dawson, webb, carver, panagiotides, & mcpartland, 2004). however, the observed compromised performance in the high aq group in this study is most likely not related to basic deficits in the perception of faces, as both groups had normative scores and did not differ on the benton facial recognition test. another possible cause of dissimilar processing of emotional expressions might be sought in the level of general cognitive functioning. the ability to recognize emotions usually correlates with general cognition (mathersul et al., 2009). montagne et al. (2005) observed a e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [10] relationship between cognitive performance and the performance on the emotion recognition task in post-stroke depression (psd) patients. a number of studies have linked autism with impairments in cognitive functioning, in particular with impairments in the area of social cognition. for instance, in their recent study coutureet al. (2010) show that individuals with high-functioning autism were impaired on a variety of social cognitive tasks relative to the non-clinical controls. deficits in social cognition are frequently related to a deficient theory of mind (tom), but also to problems detecting emotions in social stimuli, which in turn has been identified as likely contributor to social dysfunction (e.g. muris et al. 1999; couture et al. 2006; crespi & badcock, 2008). tom theory predicts that individuals with asd have difficulties processing emotional expressions that require the ability to represent the mental states of others (baron-cohen et al., 1993). baroncohen, spitz, and cross (1993) used this theory is to explain difficulties amongst children with asd in processing the expression of surprise. impaired perception of basic emotion perception in particular correlates to higher-order tom tasks (baron-cohen, o’riordan, stone, jones, & plaisted, 1999; kaland et al. 2002; brune, 2005). although cognitive functioning was not assessed in the present study, this is an unlikely explanation for the observed dissimilarities, because the two groups did not differ in their abilities to detect facial identity in the benton task (a cognitive task) and it is difficult to see why cognitive decline would result in a selective problem for anger, disgust, happiness and sadness. on the other hand, perception of facial expressions is believed to occur independently from other aspects of face processing (de haan, 2002; hargrave, maddock, & stone, 2002). patients with prosopagnosia have difficulties in identifying faces, but their recognition of emotions may remain intact (stephan, breen, & caine, 2006). the selective disruption of the ability to identify certain emotions has been described before (mcclure et al., 2003; venn et al., 2006). for instance, patients with damage to the amygdale may be impaired in the perception of anger and fear, while insular lesions appear to selectively affect the recognition of disgust (adolphs et al., 1994). there is now converging evidence from neuroimaging studies suggesting e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [11] separate neural substrates underlying the recognition of different facial (emotional) expressions (phan, wager, taylor, & liberzon, 2002). selective deficits have also been observed in psychiatric populations, such as the social anxiety disorder, which is characterized by an attentional avoidance of angry facial expressions (mcclure et al., 2003). anatomical differences (and their functional consequences) represent another possible cause of the different performance of the present study found for the specific emotions. as there are no anatomical data for the participants, it is speculative, yet not unreasonable to suggest a role for the amygdala. impaired processing of emotions is commonly attributed to limbic system, in particular the basal ganglia, amygdale, the insula, the cingulate, and the medial frontal lobe (frewen, dozois, neufeld & lanius, 2008; dolan, 2009). altered amygdala activity has also been observed in other types of disorders, such as psychopathic individuals. amygdala damage has been associated with a selective impairment of fear recognition (rauch et al., 2006), and venn et al. (2006) refer to a number of studies in support of a possible link between the amygdala and sadness perception. even though participant’s emotional state can influence the perception and interpretation of facial emotional expressions, it is unlikely that the found differences are related to differences in emotional state in this study. montagne et al. (2005) showed decreased overall accuracy in the recognition of facial expressions in people with depressive symptoms after a stroke. however, the bdi scores for the two groups were similar, and in addition, the pattern of performance with a selective deficit for certain emotions and not for others has not been related to emotional state (depression for instance, montagne et al. 2005). the present findings may possibly have significant clinical implications. the assessment of emotion perception could become a clinically useful additional tool to neurocognitive assessment of autistic patients. impairments in affective processing in huntington disease (hd), such as deficit in the recognition of disgust, have been observed even in the pre-symptomatic stage when motor deficits are not yet present (speedie, brake, folstein, bowers, & heilman, 1990). a similar suggestion for the measurement of facial expression perception as a e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [12] useful tool for assessing the efficacy of antidepressant treatments was made by venn et al. (2006). the high aq individuals show a very specific emotion recognition deficiency that might be characteristic pattern for autism related disorders. if this is true, then the emotion recognition task may be a useful tool for assessing the possible existence of autism, when other symptoms or instruments cannot provide clear answers. moreover, the observed differences were identified at lower levels of emotional intensity, but when the emotion was fully displayed in the face, these differences were not present anymore. this means that ert is a very sensitive for detecting subtle differences at lower intensity levels. in addition, this tool could be used to improve prognostic models for individual differences in treatment outcome of patients with autism. in sum, the current study demonstrated that a decreased sensitivity of individuals with a high aq score for the emotions of anger, disgust, happiness and sadness, as well as lower accuracy for these emotions, as perceived from facial expressions. this selective impairment might be helpful in trying to understand the psychopathology of autism spectrum disorders. in addition, the emotion recognition task might be used in the clinical practice for assessing autism and as well as the development of more detailed prognostic models. e. poljac perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high aq epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [13] references adolphs r, tranel d, damasio h, and damasio ar. 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(2004) perception of facial expressions of emotion in bipolar disorder. bipolar disorders, 6: 286-93. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10538119 introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 cross-culturalism of harry potter vesna suljić * abstract seven books in the harry potter series by j. k. rowling have broken sales records worldwide. they have been made into films which have also attracted millions of fans, and the harry potter brand has been a hallmark since the beginning of the new millennium. fifteen years after publishing the first book in the heptalogy, e-books again made more than 1 million pounds in just three days in april 2012. the article “cross-culturalism of harry potter” examines what attracted readers to the first and then subsequent books in the harry potter series and presents some of the cross-cultural implications in sociolinguistic, educational and psychological areas. it analyzes the reasons for the sales records around the world and why the books appeal to both young and adult population. it also includes some controversy following the series’ world success. the research methods include: evaluation of the primary sources (seven books in the series), the media coverage, literary reviews by scholars such as bloom and thomas, literary critics’ essays, and a survey of english language instructors in an educational institution. the main contributing factors to the global popularity of the series are: highly entertaining, wellplotted text with fantastic setting but also realistic references to the modern era; the text which continues the archetypal story-telling traditions, incorporating the contemporary socio-economic, political and educational issues; smart marketing; excessive media coverage; the internet; the film industry involvement; and the universal human need to believe that good can triumph over evil. keywords: harry potter, youth and adult readers, crossculturalism, book selling, scio-linguistics. * corresponding author: vesna suljic, phd candidate, faculty of arts and social sciences (fass), sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina e-mail: vsuljic@ius.edu.ba mailto:vsuljic@ius.edu.ba v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [67] introduction 450 million books in print worldwide; translated in 73 languages; 150 million books printed in the usa only; and another record – harry potter e-books made more than 1 million pounds in just three days in april 2012 (flood, the guardian online). setting all the figures related to the sales aside, the harry potter 7-book series made its way to readers across the globe – and is still enchanting its audiences – young and old. this paper will present some of the many reasons why harry potter books stirred a global frenzy and the cross cultural impact of the books in the social, educational, linguistic and psychological areas. background to the popularity of harry potter j. k. rowling’s first work in the series, harry potter and the philosopher‟s stone had a very humble emergence into the wide world. it was published on june 30 th , 1997 by bloomsbury publishing plc, a modest english publishing house which endeavoured to print it in only 500 copies. it seemed that the book would attract young male readers, for which reason the author’s name was not disclosed but put in initials, as it was judged that a female author would not be credible enough for them. more than half of the books were distributed to libraries, and a word-ofmouth marketing strategy had been planned for its promotion. the first publication signed copies are now being sold on the internet from usd 7,000 to 40,000. initial reviews were affirmative and in the same year, the book won a uk national book award. it soon found its place in the children’s hearts, who voted for it so the book won three consequtive smarties‟ prize in the nestle smarties book prize competition. j. k. rowling had tried to offer harry potter and the philosopher‟s stone to various publishers. then, with a stroke of luck, she offered part of the manuscript to an agent, christopher little, who found the book fascinating so consequently he took part in the auction at the bologna book fair and sold the book with exclusive rights to new york scholastic club for a staggering £100,000. the important fact in opening the book’s door to the public was that the new york scholastic club had about 80,000 readers so it was anticipated that the book would attract population aged 9-13 (glaister, the guardian online). the v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [68] information that such an amount was paid for publishing the first-time author could not remain unnoticed, and as a result various publishing houses from other countries showed interest in having the book translated. reviews were also encouraging, and the readers’ community was spreading. it would be too simplistic, however, to attribute the books’ appeal to the young readers due to its commercial effects only. no commercial would make a child who does not like vegetables to eat amounts of carrots, for example. a carrot or two, yes, but not loads of it. the same applies to the harry potter series. to read the first book in the series, harry potter and the philosopher‟s stone (rowling, 1997), a child should read 223 pages more or less, depending on the publisher and/or the language of translation. then, as the series continues, the books become thicker and thicker, growing from 223 to 251 pages in the second volume, harry potter and the chamber of secrets (rowling, 1998), then 317 (rowling, 1999), then to staggering 636 (rowling, 2000) in the fourth, then to even bigger 766 (rowling, 2003), to finally conclude with approximately 600 pages each in the sixth (rowling, 2005) and seventh (rowling, 2007) volumes. all together, there are between 3,500 and 4,000 pages to be read. which child could be forced to read that many pages only because “so-and-so said that”, or because a tv advertisement was shown ten times? socio-psychological and linguistic values of books the main purposes of books are: to entertain, to inform, and to persuade. the authors who are read by the greatest number of children must be examined most carefully because it is not only the plot and the adventure that the children are attracted by, but also the attitudes, values, cultural assumptions, and ideologies which make grounds to form the children of today into the adults of tomorrow. the purpose to entertain is fulfilled by following adventures of various circles of characters intertwined in an interesting plot which subdivides into many branches which form a kaleidoscope of events. further, readers are informed about practices in the world of wizards, which can easily be translated into the world of muggles (ourselves). consequently, it is possible to persuade v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [69] the audience to adhere to certain ideologies or viewpoints offered by protagonists. brycchan carey, in his critical article “hermione and the house-elves: the literary and historical contexts of j. k. rowling’s antislavery campaign” (2003) asserts that the subplot in the harry potter and the goblet of fire where hermione is preoccupied with the campaign to emancipate house elves can persuade the readers, especially the young ones, to take part in school activities, such as to promote tolerance, equality, or anti-discrimination in their own school environment, neighborhood or at a workplace in the future. the educational and linguistic value of the books should not be undermined either. j. k. rowling’s writing is full of linguistic challenges. her lexis is colorful, embellished, and rich in neologisms. the author draws on her familiarity with the classical literature and invents lexis with latin, greek or medieval english resemblances. these are mostly evident in magical spells, for instance in expecto patronum; expelliarmus; lumos, and so on. j. k. rowling is especially innovative with names of people inhabiting hogwarts and the muggles’ world. some of them are humorous; some are referential to their characters. “filch was the hogwarts caretaker, bad-tempered, failed wizard who waged a constant war against the students.”(rowling, 1999, 99) according to the oxford dictionary, “to filch is to pilfer, to steal”. therefore, the caretaker’s petty pilferer’s personality is clearly described. or, the name of madam hooch (hootch = alcoholic liquor, especially of inferior quality, or illicit whisky) hints at madam’s secret inclination to alcohol. madam pomfrey works in the wizard hospital, thus her slightly altered name of a medicinal plant (comfrey) reveals her role as a healer. the name of draco (malfoy, one of the negative characters), brings the resemblance with the antique greek dictator infamous for brutal legislation (draconian laws). school teachers fostered the students’ thirst for reading by assisting them to open harry potter reading clubs. practice of loud reading had been almost abandoned by most teachers due to the demanding school curricula and test preparation practices; however, reading chapters from harry potter books created an opportunity to use the literary text for teaching – language skills, social skills, study skills, v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [70] to name a few. the books are written from children’s perspective, but they are not childish or simple. the characters develop naturally through puberty to adolescence, and on this journey they encounter all sorts of problems – from typical school issues (studying, research, assessments), teacher-student interactions (teacher’s pet, authoritative teachers, punishments), to social issues (bullying at school, government, ministries, and politicians holding power and thus influencing education), or emotional development (from insecurity to self-confidence; loyalty; family relationships). therefore, the array of issues could be used as topics for discussions and thus more children could get interested in reading the book(s). furthermore, the readers can get an insight of how to deal with conflicts when they arise, what could be consequences of their decisions, and so on. however, these ethical and life lessons are not given in a proscriptive, adult-threatening tone, but through situations the young readers could relate to. they may not have been aware of that while they had been first reading the book, but the message, or the “lessons” they had learnt then could have assisted them in conflict resolution strategies later on in their lives. on the surface, these issues may not be the primary reasons why the books attracted young readers, however in the time of crisis, many of them may have referred back to the problem and its solution in the book, thus gaining more self-confidence. youth and harry potter there have been numerous children’s books that featured magic or spells, such as dahl’s the witches, or matilda, or heroes and their adventures, as in blyton’s the famous five series, or c. l. lewis’ the chronicles of narnia; however, harry potter and the philosopher‟s stone book was innovative in the sense that it intertwined the real world with the world of magic in such a way that it looked and felt believable. the books’ appeal was that the reader could feel to belong to something special, something magical. the main protagonists – harry, ron and hermione – were just starting their “high” school, and the new experiences presented before them were also new experiences for the young readers. j. k. rowling wrote about those children’s experiences from the child’s perspective, so that those young readers could easily v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [71] relate to them. in her webcast interview posted on october 17, 2012 at pottermore.com, she refers to one of the first young readers’ comment: “harry doesn’t know what’s going on, and neither do i”. the readers were hooked on such an enchanting terrain that quite a number of them had been waiting for the letter on their eleventh birthday and were disappointed when it failed to arrive. the first as well the subsequent books in the series became a sort of a status symbol. amongst their peers, students were judged as the ones who had read it, or not. events from the book, spells, magic, predictions of what would happen in the following book, all circulated in the schools’ courtyards, in classrooms, at home, so it caused a sense of embarrassment and intimidation if one could not participate in such discussions. instead of being singled out as “ignorant”, young population opted for reading, which served as a tool of inclusion in the circle of friends, and by doing so many have become fervent harry potter fans. those who had been reading the book also liked to be seen carrying the book around, which had to be interpreted as “i’m one of them”. in 1999, around the time of publication of the third book in the series, harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban, a hollywood studio entered the game. warner brothers purchased the rights to the entire harry potter franchise, from the film-making rights, to the rights to the plethora of paraphernalia – toys, t-shirts, stationery, video games, board games – to foreign book translations. this empowered them to control how harry potter would be marketed in the future. however, as a status symbol, harry potter became not only a book to read and talk about, it was also becoming a lifestyle – what you wear, what you carry in your school bag, what you give or get as a birthday gift. as the readers learn from the first book in the series – harry potter and the philosopher‟s stone, the wand chooses the wizard, and there is no control over which wand to take. interpreted in the realm of our real-life situations, our talents, gifts, natural abilities, or skills are determined by our genes; but then it is up to us to use such gifts i.e. wands in the best possible way. thanks to the sorting hat, there is no control over which school house to be in. similarly, in our daily lives people cannot choose the social class in which they are born, or a place of v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [72] living – area / city / country; that is something that others (parents) decide. also, who can choose which family to belong at birth – for instance, whether one’s parents would be educated / “wizards” / nurturing / alcoholics / with many children / with genetic diseases / with longevity / with people in prison, etc. there are so many ways for the protagonists and the events in the story to be so life-like, although wrapped in their magical covers. the books also offer a multicultural perspective and exotic flavor. the world of wizards is inhabited by various european nationals – germans, bulgarians, romanians, french, and albanians. for an average american, australian or british child, countries like romania or albania are as remote as any asian or african country. for young readers from other continents, however, description of students’ life in a boarding school somewhere in england is also as exotic as description of school life in any other remote country in the world. it is important to note though that by bringing these different cultures together j. k. rowling promotes positive aspects of multicultural societies, fostering tolerance, understanding and co-operation. the cross-cultural aspect of harry potter is achieved by crossing the boundaries between the “real” and “unreal” world, a form of parallel universes (once you get on the platform 9 ¾) where magic exists in real-life situations. this captivating book owes a lot to its intricate structure, elaborate relationships between characters and especially to vivid and detailed descriptions of places – buildings, rooms, objects, albeit small – as well as descriptions of various creatures. in harry potter and the goblet of fire, the dragons are described in this way: four fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing on their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick plans of wood, roaring and snorting – torrents of fire were shooting into the dark sky from their open, fanged mouths, fifty feet above the ground on their outstretched necks. there was a silvery blue one with long, pointed horns, snapping and snarling at the wizards on the ground; a smoothscaled green one, which was writhing and stamping with all its might; a red one with an odd fringe of fine gold spikes around its face, which was shooting mushroom-shaped fire clouds into the air, and a gigantic black one, more lizard-like than the others, which was nearest to them (286). v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [73] the hogwarts castle, dark passageways, monsters, secrets, eerie atmosphere, etc. are all elements of a gothic novel which bring magic into our living rooms and so capture imagination of children. it took j.k.rowling seventeen years to write the whole series; nonetheless she remains faithful to the original idea and skillfully connects different parts of the story – bringing light to various previously unnoticed events, statements or clues, thus thrilling the readers who now look at the event from a different perspective, having grown themselves. j.k.rowling employs elements of bildungroman. it follows harry from age 11 – the age when most children in english speaking countries start high school – who starts education in a wizarding school, through his formative years into adolescence, ending when he becomes a legally responsible young adult at 17. the characters develop through puberty to adolescence emotionally, socially, and physically. the story is about their emotional journey, which the readers can associate with through their own learning about themselves and their own pathways, choices, dreams, understanding and learning life lessons. all protagonists have real-life attributes; they have their virtues as well as faults; even harry potter as the main protagonist is not the flawless hero. another reason for its appeal amongst young readers is that the book is obviously very entertaining and humorous. for example, in harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban, harry, ron and hermione are buying some textbooks for their third year in hogwarts. the shop manager has a lot of difficulties to reach the monsters book of monsters because the books are alive and ferocious and they bite those who touch them. the manager had had other problems with selling the books in the past. “i thought we’d seen the worst when we bought two hundred copies of the invisible book of invisibility – cost a fortune, and we never found them…” (45). the school for wizards and witchcraft in the series is also quite different from the mainstream “muggle” school. subjects taught are focusing on conjuring magic, or dealing with magical, such as transfiguration, divination, or care of magical creatures; there is no maths, or english, or other “difficult” subjects. students learn through v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [74] experiments and by observation as well as by studying from heavy textbooks. history subject refers only to the history of the wizarding world, and there is also an atypical wizarding subject – muggle studies. however, to bring the world of the magical school closer to the mainstream “muggle” readers, hogwarts’ students have proper assessments, final examinations, and their attitude to their studies is quite serious. they do their homework regularly, they apply themselves to their studies without being pushed by their parents. they know that learning a particular spell or magical formula can save their life in the future. thus the readers learn that their “regular” subjects like maths, or english, or chemistry are equally important for their future studies, employment, or life in general. subsequent film and video games production popularized the books and the adventures of the protagonists. there are also numerous fan sites, blogs, or other access points for discussions. pottermore is a new interactive website which offers new experiences to the harry potter fans. j. k. rowling added additional information about the characters or events and in order to take part, you have to read more. adult readers of harry potter there may be different reasons why the book series gained its popularity with adults. at first, adults were enticed to reading it because children had been so mesmerized by the first books in the series, and they wanted to know why. emma saunders claimed that the harry potter books are a “crossover” between lewis carroll and roald dahl (bbc online news). adult readers could regress into their own childhoods and find the “missing link” with the past reading experiences. other reviewers also compare the books in the harry potter series with the children’s classics; however, arguing that adults are attracted to the books due to the global “cultural infantilism” (bristow, spiked). in his article in 2000, “can 35 million book buyers be wrong? yes.” (the wall street journal), professor harold bloom from yale university compares j. k. rowling’s popularity with “rock stars, movie idols, tv anchors, and successful politicians”. he criticizes her for the lack of style and for being overly clichéd, albeit that is what attracts the readers because there v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [75] are “no demands upon (her) readers”. it is our popular culture which lowers the threshold of what is favored as “good” literature. he puts j. k. rowling in the same hat with best-sellers like stephen king or john grisham. “easy” literature sells and that is why bloom believes that more than 35 million book buyers, and their offspring, are wrong when they regard the harry potter books worth reading. he concludes that “the cultural critics will, soon enough, introduce harry potter into their college curriculum, and the new york times will go on celebrating another confirmation of the dumbing-down it leads and exemplifies.” this is exactly what has happened. the harry potter books have become a phenomenon which has been discussed at conferences, seminars, symposia, and not only amongst literary circles, but also amongst psychiatrists, or scholars from various fields. “at the 2001 annual meeting of the american psychiatric association, one session was dedicated entirely to the harry potter books.” (reading harry potter. critical essays. introduction xi). in november 2011, the school of writing, rhetoric, and technical communication, james madison university, hosted a two-day conference „replacing wands with quills: a harry potter symposium for muggle scholars’. they invited proposals from scholars and enthusiasts from all disciplines and levels. other similar conventions were held in the previous years, including: convention alley in ottawa, on, canada, which took place from june 19-22, 2008; portus: a harry potter symposium in dallas, tx, from july 10-13 2008; accio at magdalen college, oxford, uk, from july 25-27, 2008; or, recently, “magic is might 2012”, an international conference exploring the cultural influences of the harry potter books, hosted by the university of limerick, department of sociology with the ul interaction design centre, university of limerick, ireland, from july 2324, 2012. academic presentations in such conferences, symposia, or conventions range from cultural and literary analyses, sociological and philosophical interpretations, design practices, to recognized medical publications. the books have been included in the national curricula and undergraduate studies in several countries. erin vollmer, for instance, published her undergraduate research paper “harry’s world: an v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [76] exploration of j.k. rowling’s social and political agenda in the harry potter series” in the university of wisconsin la crosse uw-l journal of undergraduate research x (2007), where she discusses issues such as power and prejudice, racism and the creation of the ultimate villain, or power and ethics, drawing a comparison between voldemort’s and the death eaters’ fight for “blood (racial) purity” and the nazi (hitler’s) ideology of “supernation” and thus brings forward the issue of existence of “a combination of multiple past and present political and social evils”. professor of literature of thirty years, james w. thomas, phd, university of tennessee, in his “repotting harry potter – a professor‟s book-by-book guide for the serious reader”(2011) identifies most critics of the harry potter books as prubon victims (prubon = presumptive reader unworthiness based on non-reading), including professor bloom, “author of dozens of books and a giant in shakespearean studies who read only harry potter and the sorcerer‟s stone (i.e. the first book in the series, however with the american title) before writing his article (in 2000)”. professor thomas reiterates his frustration with those who have not read the book trying to convince the readers of the books’ unworthiness. in 2000, the new york times put the books in both the adults’ and children’s top-selling lists, thus for the first time acknowledging the different readers’ populations of the same opus. professor thomas argues that “a good book is a good book” and that most academicians are reluctant to label it as such because it has to endure “the test of time” first. he is of the opinion, however, that the books have already found their place in the literary world and therefore should not wait until the author is dead for a long time to be appreciated. he also contests those academicians who believe that “popular literature” cannot be “serious literature”. in the introduction to his “guide for the serious reader” he compares tolkien and lewis to j. k. rowling and finds the latter superior to both of her predecessors because she is equally touching the heart and challenging the mind, thus combining the child in the adult and the adult in the child. harry potter and the half-blood prince, the sixth book to appear, was the first in the top ten adult fiction in 2005 in usa, with its first day sale exceeding 4.1 m$, thus leaving behind khaled hosseini’s kite v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [77] runner or dan brown’s da vinci code, other international bestsellers that year. publishers recognized the need of the adult readers’ population not to be labeled as readers of “children’s literature” in public, so different book covers appeared for the same titles, bearing “dark and gloomy” features. another reason for soaring sales of e-books released in april 2012 is that “grown-up fans, who would have loved potter as a child, read the books five or ten or 15 years ago, but maybe do not own copies of all the books in print” (flood, the guardian online). finally, commercial effects of the books, films, and the harry potter franchise must be taken into account when considering why the adult population opted to read the books. there has been so much in the media about the author, the actors, the pros and cons of the books, that any curious person with enough free time on hand can and will be magnetized to it. besides, standing in queues and waiting for a new book to be released, or a film to be watched, has become more of a family affair with more appeal than discussing economics around the dinner table; or, reading together with their children has brought many family members together. the translation of the books into faroese, for example, reinforced community ties and enabled grandparents to read the story to their grandchildren in the language that is being used by fewer and fewer speakers. i personally decided not to be a prubon. i read all the books so that i could discuss them with my daughter who has been a harry potter fan since the first book in the series. having familiarized myself with what else has been written on and about the books, i realized that there are other “serious” readers, but also authors who have made their names in the academicians’ circles by analyzing, criticizing, or building upon j. k. rowling’s opus. i agree with professor thomas that we should not wait until the author dies to start evaluating her work. since harry potter has become part of our popular culture, it is perfectly justifiable to focus on all the positive and negative aspects it leaves on our culture(s). it is the “fantastic reality” that differentiates j. k. rowling’s work from the works of other contemporary writers (including the writers for children). v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [78] the world of adults in the harry potter one may say that the human society is becoming more technologically advanced and globally inter-connected, but that the individual is becoming more and more alienated – from society, from themselves. adult readers may relate to most situations or characters in the story since the interaction of characters with magical powers and the world of common humans – muggles – is realistic but also metaphorical. there are laws, governments, ministries, transportation, communication means, the whole structure of a society with all the corresponding functional strata that adults can relate to. is it in our human nature, as c. g. jung suggests in his theory of collective unconsciousness, to get hooked on sagas about a superpower or a superhuman winning over another superpower. mr. ollivander, who sells the wands to wizards and students at hogswarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, brings out these expectations in the first book: “i think we must expect great things from you, mr. potter… after all, he-who-must-not-be-named did great things – terrible, yes, but great”(rowling, 1997:65). the heptalogy is also in a form of an epic. it is evident that harry potter is a true hero with the qualities such as: acceptance of sacrifice and death; empathy and compassion; recognition of his own limitations and awareness of his own faults. mary pharr, professor emeritus in english at florida southern college, in her essay titled “a paradox: the harry potter series as both epic and postmodern” suggests that harry potter is an epic hero (heroism in the harry potter series, 2011). as his predecessors in the epic narrative tradition (achilles, or gilgamesh, for example), harry must complete an epic mission – find and destroy all six horcruxes in order to save the world of wizards and muggles as well – which puts him under enormous pressure and ensures that the magnitude of accomplishment he manages to fulfill becomes so significant. however, the power or strength is not in the focus of harry potter’s heroic qualities; however, his humanity and benevolence are winning against the cruelty. in the new millennium, harry’s youth makes him a representative of not just the pull between the glorious daydreams and the real-life angst of his younger readers, but also a symbol of the older readers’ hope for a hero v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [79] to appear amid contemporary chaos from the least likely of population (17). the series also possesses characteristics of postmodern culture – interest in the new age spiritualism and fantasy; gender issues; social equality issues; and symbolism, to name a few of those that attract adult readers. the books relay a transformative power to the readers – an opportunity to change themselves, as well as the world, at least those around themselves for a start. as c.g. jung advocated, life is a constant learning process in order to achieve the ideal – a well-rounded individual capable of improving oneself. life challenges are not to be viewed as obstacles, but as the motivation and reason for change to better ourselves (a public lecture, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina). it has been argued that modern generations do not have role models – or heroes – with whom they can associate. modern days’ challenges of the material world emphasize the intellectual-rationalistic views of the world, thus bringing imbalance which consequently leads to pandemics of various psychological disorders, such as depression or neurosis. individuals lose a focal point in themselves – who they are, where they have come from and where they are going to. less weight is put on individuation – improvement of one’s self and obtaining the ultimate goal of one’s selfrealization. adult readers may furthermore feel to have been trapped in the fast pace of life by all the daily, monthly, quarterly assignments to be completed, profits to be made, expectations and demands to be met, so reading books like harry potter series may serve as a form of escapism from everyday stresses. there is a child in all of us who is still developing, and who needs constant care, nurturing, protection, safety. one may argue that modern day adults are extending their adolescence by taking more time to complete their education, start a career, start a family, so when it finally comes to the point when they should become “responsible adults”, they suddenly feel trapped to accumulate the material reserves to “live life fully”. therefore, they purchase a house, a car, furniture, appliances, and the mortgage, credit card repayments, or other forms of debts force them to work more, thus significantly cutting off the time to enjoy life. long working hours, lots of work-related or family responsibilities can cause enormous amounts of v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [80] stress, so one way to cope with it is to dive into the world which is fun, youthful, the place where you feel happy and safe. our personality develops during our formative years. by learning how to control our temperament and impulses, we mature and accept responsibilities of an adult. to realize potentials of our personality we have to listen to our inner voice and make our own moral criteria to mark the pathways of our future. protagonists in the heptalogy, both adults and students, make such decisions, thus identifying their personal issues as universal human problems. harry potter, for instance, becomes aware of his own limitations as well as potentials. the text emphasizes the importance of adhering to ethical values for a healthy psyche. it is interesting to note that harry potter series went on fascinating the readers even though there are only few modern technological devices so to say. no modern day communication gadgets or equipment, such as mobile phones, or computers, are used for fast exchange of information. there are no facebooks, twitters, myspaces, or other social networks. letters are handwritten, delivered by owls, communication is face to face. formal announcements are usually made in the daily prophet, or by placing notices in the school halls. there is a time-space value in communication. there is a gap between the time when the message has been sent and the response received. in the meantime one can ponder how the message will be received, what kind of response it will produce, what could be the consequences of actions required or suggested in the message. in modern-day communication, however, the time is of crucial importance; decisions are made quickly, and so sometimes it takes more time to repair the harm caused by insensitive comments, than to halt and formulate the message properly. an old-fashioned style of letter writing is probably still appealing to many adults (although they themselves are not prepared to apply it in their daily routines) so they may find it relaxing and enjoyable to read about such practices and imagine the time before the internet. the commercial effects of the film adaptations of the harry potter have demonstrated popularity of the books. however, the idiosyncrasy of the films was widely criticized by the readers who wanted to see every small detail from the text in the visual format. most v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [81] readers expressed their disappointment with how the main protagonists were portrayed, or how certain issues were presented. this demonstrates that the readers are not concerned with the plot only and that the literary text has created space for contemplation, imagination, assessment, verification of assumptions, and so on. survey results in november 2012, i ran a survey at an educational institution in sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina † . the participants in the survey were 24 english language instructors and one assistant professor at a local university. out of 25 participants, 20 were bosnian nationals, 4 turkish, and 1 american. only five of them have read all seven harry potter books; five have read one or more books, whilst fifteen participants have not read any of the books in the series. the reasons for not reading the books were: not interested in the topic; not interested in the hp series; harry potter books are scary; watched most hp movies; not interested in fantasy. it is worth mentioning that most bosnian participants in the survey were in their early thirties, so when the books first appeared, they were in their early teens. their country had just come out of the war, so the lack of resources, inadequate english language skills to read the text in the original language, or the lack of access to translated books could also be the reasons why they did not read the books when they were in the “target” age, and then, having become young adults, they may have considered being “too old” for children’s literature. however, six participants said that they would read the book(s) in the future when they have children (1) / have more free time (4) /or, when the books become less popular (1). in other words, they recognized the value of the books in the family environment (1), or that the books should first stand the test of time (1). those who have read the books thought that the books are highly entertaining, with fast-paced action, the characters are well-developed and that the main theme of the fight of the good vs. the evil is eternal (7); † language instructors at english language school at international university of sarajevo and students of a graduate course in english language and literature at ius. november 2012 v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [82] excessive media coverage and harry potter franchise created the need to read it to become a member of the group (3); people like fantasy that creates new ideas, places, beings, which are all far away from ordinary, boring, or threatening daily life (3). this illustration, although the sample of readers and non-readers is too small and restricted to only one institution, shows that the harry potter theme is still attractive and that there may be future readers in the adult population. conclusion the global phenomenon of the series can be viewed as a result of the constant human need to seek a hero to win over evil. the archetypal form of the text continues the tradition of old myths, albeit in the modern context, thus making it recognizable and acceptable to people of different cultural backgrounds. the alienation of modern individuals from themselves and a lack of role models to assist the modern generations face challenges of the new era, created a space to view the main protagonists in the series as the new-age role models. the universality of their contest to stand up against evil makes the text cross-cultural and collectively appealing. what perplexes most “serious” academicians is – why harry potter “infected” so many people. what is more, not why it attracted so many children, but adults as well. if 450 million copies, for instance, of the grimm brothers’ fairy tales had been recently published and sold in a few years, the world literary critics would view it as sudden interest in the traditional, conservative values. would children beg their parents to buy them such old-fashioned, traditional books? would parents yield to their requests? the reality is that the nineteenth century literature for children is not published in such numbers by popular demand, although such stories are still read to children worldwide. therefore, the harry potter is offering something new to the readers. however, the most burning issue is – why are the adults interested in reading the books? what literary value can they see there? professor bloom believes that all of them are wrong, partly because the shallowness of our popular culture created an overall decline in the critical reading perspectives. one must v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [83] ponder here: what fraction of the world population is willing to seek the deeper meaning of life? how much do people know and care about philosophy? is being popular a paradigm of being of a lesser value? where can we put tolkien’s the lord of the rings; or defoe’s robinson crusoe; or jules verne’s twenty thousand leagues under the sea? books are much more accessible and affordable than ever before and most readers regard them more because of their entertaining than educational or philosophical values. how much is there in the contemporary literature to teach about human values? j. k. rowling managed to fill the void, at least in the literature for children. although it may seem on the surface that the books are based only on a good plot and a lot of stereotypes, as she is obviously drawing from different literary traditions, it is undeniable that the harry potter series brought freshness and applicability of the themes in the contemporary context. those who expect that one book will change the world are more unrealistic than all the books in the series combined. harry potter’s community is utopian in the black-and-white (good vs. bad) sense of prevailing justice, but it also demonstrates how the world of muggles functions today. everyone can recognize terrorists in death eaters; institutional deficiencies which are present in all systems and governments of the world; and the materialistic culture described in the dursley family is globally spread. however, the books’ strong point is their focus on the importance of love and care. voldemort is defeated because he is too selfish and not able to love anyone or anything but himself. he is so power hungry that not only does he destruct his enemies, he destructs himself as well. is that message powerful enough for both children and adults? the publishing of the books in yearly installments has contributed to the increase of interest amongst the readers’ populations, and also as a motivational factor for amassing new readers. obviously, the development of technology, the internet, the media, marketing, corporate businesses et cetera have contributed to the world success of the harry potter series. one should remember, however, that there are millions of other writers waiting to be published, but most of them will never be a new j. k. rowling, whose magic marked the beginning of 21 st century. v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [84] although j. k. rowling states in her webcast interview that she had not had readers in mind because she had been too busy creating the story, she admits that “getting the kids reading has been one of the most gratifying outcomes” (rowling, webcast, 17.10.2012). regardless of whether the books will be judged as superficial, cheap, or powerful, there will be those who will in years to come identify themselves as the first harry potter generation. the books have pulled together children from all continents and united them in their zest for reading. at least some of them will find motivation to explore other authors. v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [85] references bloom, harold. “can 35 million book buyers be wrong? yes.” the wall street journal. web.ics.purdue.edu. 11.7.2000 bristow, jenny. “harry potter and the meaning of life”. spiked. spikedonline.com. 19.6.2003. retrieved on 1.12.2012 brycchan, carey. (2003). “hermione and the house-elves: the literary and historical contexts of j. k. rowling’s antislavery campaign” in reading harry potter: critical essays. (ed. giselle liza anatol); greenwood publishing group, inc. praeger publisher, westport. flood, alison. “harry potter ebook sales top £1 mil in three days”, the guardian online guardian.co.uk. 5.4.2012. retrieved 18.10.2012 glaister, dan. “debut author and single mother sells children’s book for £100,000”, the guardian online guardian.co.uk. 8.7.1997, retrieved 19.10.2012. language instructors at english language school at international university of sarajevo, and students of a graduate course in english language and literature at international university of sarajevo, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina. november 2012. pharr, mary. (2011). “a paradox: the harry potter series as both epic and postmodern” in “heroism in the harry potter series” (ed. by katrin berndt and lena steveker); ashgate publishing, ltd. surrey. public lecture: c.g.jung: on personality. nova akropola, sarajevo, 20.11.2012 rowling, j.k. (1997). harry potter and the philosopher‟s stone. bloomsbury publishing plc. london. rowling, j.k. (1998). harry potter and the chamber of secrets. bloomsbury publishing plc. london. rowling, j. k. (1999). harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban. bloomsbury publishing plc. london. rowling, j.k. (2000). harry potter and the goblet of fire. bloomsbury publishing plc. london. v. suljić cross-culturalism of harry potter epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [86] rowling, j.k. (2003). harry potter and the order of the phoenix. bloomsbury publishing plc. london. rowling, j.k. (2005). harry potter and the half-blood prince. bloomsbury publishing plc. london. rowling, j.k. (2007). harry potter and the deathly hallows. bloomsbury publishing plc. london. rowling j.k.virtual author visit – webcast, posted on wednesday, october 17,2012 on www.pottermore.com thomas w. james. (2011). “repotting harry potter”, e-book edition, zossima press, hamden ct. saunders, emma. “why grown-ups go potty over harry”. bbc news online news.bbc.co.uk. 17.6.2003. retrieved on 1.12.2012 vollmer, erin. (2007). “harry’s world: an exploration of j.k. rowling’s social and political agenda in the harry potter series”. uw-l journal of undergraduate research x. university of wisconsin la crosse. http://www.pottermore.com/ epiphany_vol14_no_2_edited_2023.7.3.indd d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa e� ects of manual and computer… 119 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies vol. 15 no. 2, 2022118 introduction without a doubt, the crucial functions and core of education are essential in the development of any nation. as cultures develop, it becomes harder for educators to make a signi� cant in� uence on information recipients. goal 4 of the sustainable development goals (sdgs) emphasizes excellent education. quality education, o� en known as deep learning, uses appropriate pedagogical tools to help students learn. our society’s constant change requires students to use a variety of methods and technology to be more creative and productive. sdg 4 target 4.7 requires a concerted e� ort to ensure that all learners acquire the skills and knowledge needed to enable sustainable development by 2030. � is includes education for sustainable development, improved lifestyle, civil rights, gender equality, the appreciation of cultural diversity, peace and nonviolence, internationalization, intercultural dialogue, and culture’s participatory nature. � e pursuit of knowledge and its implementation empowers people to solve individual, cultural and social, national, and international problems without overdependence on the government, which can only be achieved by successfully implementing economics curriculum in any country (oleabhiele & oko, 2018). as a consequence of its signi� cance, in nigeria, economics inhabits a pride position in the senior secondary school curriculum. however, under the newest national policy on education, it remains one of the choice courses to be taught at the senior secondary school (sss) level. � e proper economics curriculum is essential to the people’s political and economic prosperity. it is recognized because it understands economics and can utilize it to solve huge problems, which are essential to active citizenry in a democratic society like ours (infante & smirnova, 2016). according to ede et al (2016), the new national policy on education is noteworthy not only because of its framework but also because of the substance of education, effects of manual and computerbased concept mapping innovative strategies on academic performance of pre-service teachers in kwara state colleges of education dorcas sola daramola gabriel ayodeji obimiyuwa university of ilorin abstract education is the vital instrument for a nation’s e� ciency, prosperity, and development to increase its inhabitants’ capabilities. � e purpose of this study was to look into the impact of manual-based concept mapping (mbcm) and computer-based concept mapping (cbcm) innovative strategies on the academic performance of pre-service teachers in kwara state colleges of education. � e study used a quasi-experimental pretest post-test approach. � e research population comprised year one economics pre-service teachers all from  three colleges of education in kwara state. � e � ndings showed a signi� cant e� ect of computerbased concept mapping (cbcm) innovative strategy on the academic performance of pre-service teachers in economics at kwara state colleges of education, but no signi� cant e� ect of the treatments on the academic performance of both male and female pre-service teachers in economics. predicated on the study’s � ndings, it was suggested that lecturers at kwara state colleges of education employ the cbcm innovative teaching methodology for their instruction delivery. keywords: manual-based concept mapping; computer-based concept mapping; innovative strategy; pre-service teacher; sustainable development. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa e� ects of manual and computer…e� ects of manual and computer… 121120 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 2016 1,403,907 627,546 44.70% 407,274 29.01% 369,087 26.29% 2017 1,435,801 677,698 47.20% 472,379 32.90% 285,724 19.90% source: waec statistics division, yaba, lagos (2017). from 2010 to 2017, almost 40% of all economics students who enrolled for the � nal test failed, according to waec data. in 2013, 1,025,703 (66.94%) passed at the credit level, and the failure rate dropped to less than 40%. students’ economics performance was average to below-average in the subsequent years (waec statistics division, 2017). economics students may struggle due to many factors. amuda, ali, and durkwa (2016) and muhammad, bala, and ladu (2016) blamed school features, teaching methods, and gender for students poor academic performances. onuoha et al. (2016) as well as robert and owan (2019) ascribed this to numerous factors, including a lack of grasp of some subjects, a lack of syllabus coverage, rubric disobedience, and an inability to accurately design or label diagrams. several scholars attributed this to new methodologies that did not  incorporate learners’ prior experience and reasoning to arrange their information. according to scholars such as arop et al (2020) and isa et al (2020), one of nigeria’s most persistent and fascinating challenges is low teaching quality. to corroborate this viewpoint, oleabhiele and oko (2018) stated that the responsibility of teachers in achieving excellent education is at the heart of curriculum implementation. � ese academics also stated that instructors are considered the “hub” around which all other factors impacting educational excellence revolve. according to aslan et al (2020), what learners learn is inextricably linked to how they are taught. � us, teaching techniques have a major in� uence on students’ academic performance, and academics and educators worldwide are interested in this strategy. � e implementation of any approach to achieve de� ned educational goals necessitates the instructor’s innovation and creativity. particularly that of economics. � ey argued that the new economics curriculum promotes self-reliance among secondary school graduates via comprehension, mastery, and skills, even if they cannot � nd paid jobs a� er graduation. despite economics’ importance, research reveals that wassce economics students’ academic performance has steadily declined over the years (adio et al., 2021; mohammed & pitan, 2022; aliyu et al., 2021). any student who wants to study management sciences (business administration, industrial relation and personnel management, etc.), social sciences (economics, political science, criminology, geography, etc.), and education must pass o-level economics with a credit (economics education, geography education, accounting education, business education, etc.). despite these conditions, waec economics students performed averagely. in 2002, 2003, may/june 2009, and november/december 2004 wassce, the chief examiner found the applicants’ performance to be fair, with certain shortcomings (waec, 2017). figure 1: a table showing the results of economics students in wassce from 2008 2017 years candidates that sat for the subject candidates with pass at credit level (grades 1-6) %with pass at credit level candidates with non-credit passes (grades 7-8) % with non-credit passes candidates with failure (grade 9) % with failure 2008 1,204,515 592,588 49.20% 409,988 34.04% 201,939 16.77% 2009 1,270,557 592,939 46.67% 519,693 40.90% 157,925 12.43% 2010 1,228,401 690,949 56.25% 373,075 30.37% 164,377 13.38% 2011 1,413,886 841,258 59.50% 402,764 28.49% 169,864 12.01% 2012 1,540,902 864,273 56.09% 444,308 28.83% 232,321 15.08% 2013 1,532,194 1,025,703 66.94% 346,564 22.62% 159,927 10.44% 2014 1,363,994 698,669 51.22% 362,863 26.60% 302,462 22.17% 2015 1,476,122 687,983 46.61% 460,605 31.20% 327,534 22.19% d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa e� ects of manual and computer…e� ects of manual and computer… 123122 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies one form of concept mapping innovation strategy is manual-based concept mapping (mbcm). it is essentially the usage of a pen and paper in the creation of idea maps. students need to create new idea maps, as well as revise old ones by adding, deleting, and rewriting information (keiler, 2018). � e mbcm may be used in teaching regardless of students’ computer interest, which is a huge advantage. � e map modi� cation using the mbcm may prove uncontrollable, mussy, and clunky when upgrading the concepts as needed. computer-based concept mapping (cbm) is a graphical, visual, and spatial creative inventive method that assists users in � nding their problemsolving routes (hsu, 2019). � is research has been going on for a while, but computer-based tools made concept map creation and modi� cation easy. � is is utilised in education as a research tool, communication tool, and e� ective teaching and learning approach, especially for creating idea linkages. computer-based concept mapping so� ware (cbcm) may be useful if learners want to make own maps. among the computer tools utilised in this method are smart draw®, cmap®, concept map editor®, and inspiration®. cbcm allows easy corrections, changes, and adaptation without expunging or condemning previously mapped work, addressing mbcm›s main � aws. source: researchers despite these new initiatives, nigeria is still struggling to shi� education from teacher-centred to learner-centred. traditional teaching techniques may save time, but studies demonstrate that spoken words alone will not work. for example, according to pozo-sanchez et al (2019) and other scholars, the conventional teaching methods may not e� ectively foster the creation of novel ideas among students. economics teachers must implement innovative strategies to help students fully understand any principle, concept, or topic in order to meet sdg 4 target 4.1, which is reasonable and achievable of quality secondary education contributing to relevant and e� ective learning outcomes. among the numerous such methodologies are socratic, demonstration,  lecture, idea mapping, and discussion methods. according to jamshidovna and bahodirovich (2021), innovative strategies are tactics and principles that are used in education. � ey are recognised as instructors’ tools for accomplishing educational aims and objectives. however, any approach adopted by the instructor must take into account the maximising of students’ concentration as well as interest, which ausubel (1963) refers to as advance organizer. � is just serves as a link between old and fresh information. � e advance organiser provides students with vital previous information to help them understand and implement the next topics. ideas as links between facts were � rst taught here. novak and cañas (2014) explain that “concept” comes from the latin word “conceptum,” meaning “obtained or formed,” and is used to conceive thoughts or ideas about real or abstract subjects. novak and his colleagues at cornell university developed concept mapping in 1972 to make the curriculum more rigorous as students’ progress. idea maps show concept connectedness. according to micheli et al (2019), concept maps may assist address ambiguities, inconsistencies, and rigours in empirical understanding representation. subandi et al (2018) found that excellent concept maps that move from teacher to student-generated help students identify knowledge gaps and simplify their views, resulting in true innovation. it is important to note, however, that concept mapping can be done manually or with the use of computer so� ware (computer-based) or a computer application (computer-assisted). d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa e� ects of manual and computer…e� ects of manual and computer… 125124 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies many academics believe that the question of gender and student academic performance remains uncertain. for example, adeosun and owolabi’s (2021) � ndings, gender discrimination persists in nigeria and potentially across the african continent. although wu et al (2020) discovered that there is no signi� cant di� erence in male and female performance. many writers, including titus et al. (2016), have found a gender disparity in economics academic achievement. onuoha (2010), yusuf, odutayo, omoragbon, and amali (2014), and ogoing toya et al. (2016) found no gender interaction e� ect on concept mapping creative solutions. while abuseji (2007) found an interaction impact between gender and idea mapping creative methodologies, zheng et al (2020) validated it. � is study arose from an interest in the centre of all learning, preservice economics teachers (a major factor in economics curriculum implementation). � e national policy on education (frn, 2013) states that teachers’ credentials are crucial to educational growth and that the nigeria certi� cate in education (nce) is the minimum requirement for teaching (frn, 2013). according to adebile (2009), well-trained and experienced personnel are essential for providing high-quality education. since they are the game-changer of any nation’s education, there is a need to completely study the in� uence of manual-based and computer-based concept mapping innovative methodologies on pre-service teachers in kwara state colleges of education. figure 2: a cmap structured to explain the concept of production divya and usha (2015) found that the experimental treatment, computerbased concept mapping, improves secondary school students’ selfregulation more than the placebo (constructivist instructional strategy). adu and enumemu (2008) found that neither problem solving nor idea mapping improved students’ economics grades. pozo-sanchez et al (2019) claims computer-based teaching increases schooling. according to onuoha et al. (2016), students who were taught economics using concept mapping had a higher interest rate and performed better than those who were taught via lecture. erdoan (2016) claims concept mapping improves turkish students’ academic performance. in a study, auta (2015) found that concept mapping and inquiry approaches improve preservice teachers’ academic achievement when teaching physics concepts, while adu and enumemu (2008) found that neither problem solving nor concept mapping creative methods a� ected students’ academic progress in economics. furthermore, d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa e� ects of manual and computer…e� ects of manual and computer… 127126 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies ho2-� ere is no e� ect of manual-based concept mapping, computerbased concept mapping innovative strategies on academic performance of kwara state colleges of education pre-service teachers in economics based on gender ho3 � ere is no signi� cant interactive e� ect of manual-based concept mapping, computer-based concept mapping innovative strategies, and gender on academic performance of kwara state colleges of education preservice teachers in economics methodology � is study has a quasi-experimental design. � e study  used a nonrandomized pre-test post-test control group design. � e study is a twoby-two factorial with two treatments (mcm and cbcm) and two degrees of gender (male and female). intact classes were used in their entirety. � e research population consisted of all year one economics pre-service teachers from kwara state’s three colleges of education. � e research included 270 pre-service teachers—144 men and 126 women. � e research collected data using economics performance tests (ept i pre-test and ept ii post-test) based on west african senior school certi� cate examination (wassce) previous questions. ept i, the pre-test, included 20 multiplechoice questions with four answer options on topics pre-service educators had learned from their lectures. for six (6) weeks, the two experimental groups were taught utilising manual-based concept mapping (mbcm) and computer-based concept mapping (cbcm) innovative strategies, respectively. also, for six weeks, the control group was taught using the traditional style of teaching (lecture approach). � e researchers with mbcm creative approach taught the experimental group 1 eco 111 (principles of economics i) purpose of the study � e purpose of the study was to investigate the e� ects of manual-based concept mapping (mcm) and computer-based concept mapping (cbcm) innovative strategies on the academic performance of pre-service teachers in kwara state colleges of education. speci� cally, the study: 1. determine the general academic performance of kwara state colleges of education pre-service teachers in economics 2. probe the e� ect of manual-based concept mapping and computerbased concept mapping innovative strategies on academic performance of kwara state colleges of education pre-service teachers in economics 3.ascertain the e� ect of manual-based concept mapping, computerbased concept mapping innovative strategies on academic performance of kwara state colleges of education pre-service teachers in economics based on gender 4.investigate the signi� cant interactive e� ect of manual-based concept mapping, computer-based concept mapping innovative strategies and gender on academic performance of kwara state colleges of education preservice teachers in economics research questions and hypothesis � e following research questions were answered in this study: what is the general academic performance of kwara state colleges of education pre-service teachers in economics? � e following null hypotheses were tested: ho1 -� ere is no signi� cant e� ect of manual-based concept mapping and computer-based concept mapping innovative strategies on the academic performance of kwara state colleges of education pre-service teachers in economics d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa e� ects of manual and computer…e� ects of manual and computer… 129128 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies groups) in economics were subjected to descriptive statistics as shown in table 2 table 2: pretest and post-test mean and standard deviation of respondents’ general academic performance in economics variable n mean s.d pretest posttest pretest posttest general performance in economics 270 35.93 44.47 10.72 11.78 source: researchers table 2 showed a mean of 35.93 and 44.47 of respondents’ performance in pre-test and post-test respectively. � is indicated that kwara state colleges of education pre-service teachers in economics performed poorly before treatment (pre-test) but improved marginally a� er treatment (post-test). a mean gain of 8.54 was recorded. research hypotheses � e following hypotheses were postulated and tested in the study: hypothesis one: � ere is no signi� cant e� ect of manual-based concept mapping and computer-based concept mapping innovative strategies on the academic performance of kwara state colleges of education pre-service teachers in economics. ancova was used to analyse participants’ economics scores to identify the impact of manual-based concept mapping and computer-based concept mapping creative methodologies. table 3 shows the results. for two hours each contact, using the researcher’s lesson procedures. � e respondents were asked to identify a notion and connect it to the most appropriate prepositions. � e subjects were allowed to independently map out their ideas on cardboards a� er linking concepts to the most applicable prepositions. de� ne, describe, generate, etc. computer-based concept mapping, a novel method, was used in experimental group 2 with the same course eco 111 (principles of economics i), which also lasted two hours each contact following the researcher’s lesson protocols. in cbcm experimental group ii, cmap so� ware was employed. � is programme was taught and acquainted with the topics in this group. a� er learning about the subject and examples from the researcher using cmap, participants were asked to draw their maps in notebooks and then use cmap on the computer. a� er construction, the group was requested to show their results to the class. production subtopics included an introduction to production, forms of production, factors of production, and � exibility of factors of production. � e three groups were post-tested with 30 multiple-choice questions on production using the ept ii (economics performance test ii). wassce items are already standardised, however two scholars in educational measurement and evaluation from the university of ilorin, nigeria, and two economics lecturers from the kwara state college of education con� rmed them. � e mean and standard deviation answered the study question, whereas the analysis of covariance (ancova) tested the three hypotheses at the 0.05 alpha level. results research question one: what is the general academic performance of kwara state colleges of education pre-service teachers in economics? respondents’ pre-test and post-test scores (both in experimental and control d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa e� ects of manual and computer…e� ects of manual and computer… 131130 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies table 4: schefe post-hoc test of signi� cance of treatments on participants’ academic performance in economics group n subset 1 2 experimental ii (cbcm) 130 50.8462 experimental i (mcm) 90 39.4000 control (lm) 50 37.0400 table 4 shows that the post-test mean score of pre-service teachers in the three groups differed, with experimental i (mcm) and control (lm) groups having below-average scores (39.40 and 37.04) in subset 1 and experimental ii (cbcm) participants scoring 50.84 in subset 2. table 4 shows that the post-test mean score of pre-service teachers in the three groups differed, with experimental i (mcm) and control (lm) groups having below-average scores (39.40 and 37.04) in subset 1 and experimental ii (cbcm) participants scoring 50.84 in subset 2. hypothesis two: there is no effect of manual-based concept mapping, computerbased concept mapping innovative strategies on the academic performance of kwara state colleges of education pre-service teachers in economics based on gender. table 3 reveals that a f (1, 269) of 0.250 with a gender probability value (sig./p-value) of 0.617 is not significant since the p-value above the 0.05 alpha criterion (0.617>0.05). the null hypothesis was not rejected. this demonstrates that manual-based concept mapping and computer-based concept mapping do not affect the academic performance of pre-service teachers in economics at kwara state colleges of education by gender. it signifies that there is no statistically significant difference between male and female pre-service teachers’ academic performance in economics. table 3: analysis of covariance showing the e� ect of manual-based and computer-based concept mapping innovative strategies on the pre-service teachers’ academic performance in economics source ss df m e a n square f p-value (sig) corrected model 15522.633 6 2587.105 31.202 .000 intercept 16571.111 1 16571.111 199.856 .000 pretest 4890.386 1 4890.386 58.981 .538 group 10169.230 2 5084.615 61.323 .000 gender 20.748 1 20.748 .250 .617 group*gender 156.747 2 78.374 .945 .390 error 21806.686 263 82.915 total 571374.000 270 corrected total 37329.319 269 source: researchers table 3 shows that the f (2, 269) for the groups (treatments) is 61.323 with a p-value of 0.000, which is signi� cant because the p-value 0.000 is less than the 0.05 alpha level. � e treatments’ unique methodologies (manualbased concept mapping and computer-based concept mapping) improve pre-service instructors in economics at kwara state colleges of education. hypothesis one was  rejected. a post-test means score test was done to locate the signi� cant in� uence. post-test table 4 displays the four groups’ mean scores. d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa e� ects of manual and computer…e� ects of manual and computer… 133132 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies to incremental improvements in education. � e � ndings also showed that manual-based concept mapping and computer-based concept mapping did not signi� cantly a� ect the academic performance of male and female pre-service teachers in economics. � is is consistent with onuoha’s (2010) results showing there is no gender di� erence in the academic success of students taught using the concept mapping instructional approach, while it contradicts the � ndings of ntibi et al (2020) showing that students’ academic achievement was signi� cantly a� ected by gender. finally, the � ndings show that the two innovative strategies (mbcm and cbcm) and gender had no signi� cant interaction e� ect on pre-service teachers’ academic performance in economics. gender did not a� ect preservice teachers’ academic performance in economics when combined with mbcm and cbcm creative techniques (post-test scores). � us, students’ post-test scores increased due to teaching methods, not gender (mbcm and cbcm). � is is consistent with the � ndings of onuoha (2010), yusuf et al (2014), and ogonnaya et al (2016), that discovered no signi� cant relationship between gender and concept mapping creative methodologies. it contrasts the � ndings of abuseji (2007) and ezeudu (2013), zheng et al (2020), who found a strong interaction impact between gender and concept mapping creative methodologies. conclusion and recommendations � e study found that the cbcm innovative strategy had a substantial impact on the academic performance of pre-service teachers in economics. � e innovative cbcm technique appeared to be signi� cantly more successful than the mbcm and traditional educational strategies. however, the task of generating computer maps posed greater di� culty than anticipated, as a result of the apparent de� ciency in computer skills among the students. � e researchers allocated additional time to provide instruction to the hypothesis three: � ere is no signi� cant interactive e� ect of manualbased concept mapping, computer-based concept mapping innovative strategies, and gender on academic performance of kwara state colleges of education pre-service teachers in economics table 3 shows that a f (2, 269) of 0.945 with a p-value of 0.390 is not signi� cant since the p-value is bigger than the 0.05 alpha threshold (0.390>0.05). � us, manual-based concept mapping, computer-based concept mapping, and gender do not interact to a� ect the academic performance of pre-service teachers in economics at kwara state colleges of education. as a result, hypothesis three was accepted. discussion of findings according to the � ndings of this study, preservice teachers’ general academic performance in economics was low prior to intervention but increased marginally a� er treatment. � e innovative treatments (manualbased concept mapping and computer-based concept mapping) also improved pre-service instructors in economics at kwara state colleges of education. � is is congruent with onuoha et al. (2016), who found that students taught economics using a concept mapping teaching technique performed better and had a higher interest rate than those taught using a lecture instructional strategy. it also supports erdoan (2016)’s � ndings that concept mapping improved turkish students’ academic performance. it undermines adu and enumemu’s (2008) � ndings that neither problem solving nor concept mapping improved students’ economics grades. � e data indicated that the impact of the cbcm innovative approach is greater than that of the mbcm innovative strategy. � is is corroborated by divya and usha (2015), who found that computer-based concept mapping improves secondary school students’ self-regulation more than constructivist education. � is statement aligns with the � ndings of pozosanchez et al (2019), which indicate that computer-based instruction leads d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa e� ects of manual and computer…e� ects of manual and computer… 135134 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies since education is a two-way street, teachers should be prepared to learn new skills. colleges of education should provide competent orientation programmes for lecturers and pre-service economics teachers to appropriately utilise the cbcm creative style in teaching economics to attain global aims. sdg 4 proponents should adopt an innovative cbcm approach to include students and teachers, school and post-secondary institution leaders and their representative organisations, communities, parents, civic society, and academics at all stages of sdg 4 progress. experimental group of the cbcm study. also, the potential in� uence of varying levels of computer literacy among the student participants on the outcomes of the study warrants consideration. � e study also discovered that cbcm is gender-neutral. � is would imply that using cbcm to educate pre-service teachers will improve student performance and gender equality. over-reliance on conventional teaching techniques, a dearth of well-equipped computer labs in schools of education, and a shortage of human resources, notably technical support systems, make new approaches di� cult to deploy. � ese innovations, such as cbcm, rely heavily on the availability of skilled individuals, making sta� training and retraining essential. on this note, the following recommendations were made; � e availability of relevant information and communications technology resources for schools to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom is not up for dispute or modi� cation in the drive for sustainable development. � e federal government should enhance the federal ministry of education to make this a reality. once access to su� cient ict facilities is addressed, the federal ministry of education shall monitor and supervise the icts already given to make them accessible to professors and students. � is requires a dependable power supply from the federal ministry of education. curriculum planners (ncce, nuc, etc.) should include cbcm innovative strategy in economics pedagogy of colleges of education, faculty of education, or institute of education to equip pre-service teachers to use this method to maximise learning. d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa d.s daramola & g.a obimiyuwa e� ects of manual and computer…e� ects of manual and computer… 137136 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies divya and usha (2015)e� ectiveness of computer based concept mapping strategy on self regulation at secondary school level. iosr journal of humanities and social science (iosr-jhss) 20(4), 69-72 ede, m.o., oleabhiele, e.o. & modebelu, m.n (2016).fundamentals of economics education.awka: scoa heritage nig. ltd erdoğan, y. 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(2016). school location and gender as correlates of students’ academic achievement in introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 metatheatricalizing communal exploitation in ngugi wa thiong’o and ngugi wa miriis’ i will marry when i want niyi akingbe * abstract metatheatre often refers to the capability of a stage text and performance to ostensibly establish a gamut of commentaries needed to repudiate a pervading social and political quagmire, tellingly obtainable in societies under siege. metatheatre is a long established theatre tradition which has been sufficiently calibrated in william shakespeare’s a midsummer night’s dream, put into a utilitarian proclivity in anton chekhov’s the seagull, and fully aestheticized in jean genet’s the balcony and the blacks. it is also a tradition which has been successfully exploited in wole soyinka’s madmen and specialists; athol fugard’s sizwe bansi is dead; femi osofisan’s the chattering and the song and segun oyekunle’s katakata for sofahead. ngugi wa thiong’o and ngugi wa mirii steeped a metatheatre into the interface of politics and religion in i will marry when i want, in order to foreground the hypocrisy of christianity as underscored by the exploitation of the downtrodden masses, by the land grabbing christian elite of the kenyan society. this paper will be examining how ngugi wa thiong’o and ngugi wa miriis’ i will marry when i want builds on the harvest of the oral, mimetic and metaphoric signification of myth, history and song, to launch a barrage of criticism against a backdrop of land theft. this appropriation is poignantly accentuated by a language of equivocation, usually associated with the christian elite in kenya. the paper will among other things emphasize that, the rapacious gluttony for land grabbing is indubitably faith driven, as clearly demonstrated by the kenyan christian elite in the play. keywords: sloganeering christianity, metatheatre, hypocrisy, communal exploitation, song, commentary, i will marry when i want. * corresponding author: niyi akingbe; assist. prof. department of english, ondo state university of science & technology, ondo state, nigeria; e-mail: deniakingbe@yahoo.com mailto:deniakingbe@yahoo.com n. akingbe metatheatricalizing communal exploitation epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [81] introduction song-text tradition has become an important aspect of post-colonial african literature in the recent time, and its practice has been heightened to the point of obsession. this has ineluctably makes the tradition an indispensable motif in the literary engagement of contemporary african writers across the continent. the significance of song as inexorably grounded in oral literature, has been acknowledged by helen nabasuta mugambi, ‘‘song constitutes a critical component of that ‘matrix of the african imagination’ and deserves to take its rightful place beside other more frequently explored oral forms. its central power lies in its potential to engender a distinct literary genre-‘‘songtext’’that cuts across the conventional (i.e., colonial).genres of fiction, verse, and drama. songtexts exhibit an intricate or systematic incorporation of songs to establish meaning. in other words, ‘‘song-texts’’ exist not necessarily because they can be musically scored and sung, but because they share marked characteristics that traverse conventional genres. authors creating songtexts strategically and systematically employ song in their content, structure, themes, and style, leading to an ideological/decolonizing statement’’ (423). the signification of song in african literature has also been corroborated by daniel avorgbedor, when he observes that ‘‘man is ontologically an expressive being, and both actions and reactions consequently permeate our modes of life and living. artistic diversity, which is a distinctive and distinguishing mark of all cultures, provides indisputable evidence of our basic human need for expression. the songmode is just one of the innumerable artistic avenues through which our latent response energies are released’’ (208). avorgbedor further contends the indubitable power of song to elicit a reaction, ‘‘a response is basically either an action or a reaction. while ‘‘reaction’’ will imply some confrontation and overtness, ‘‘action’’ is of no less status, and differences between the two should be sought from the emphatic qualities of the stimulus involved’’ (208).the use of song in i will marry when i want not only accentuates its brechtian influenced dramaturgy, but it also ostensibly delineates the controversies generated by land tenureship in kenya. ambitiously embedded in these songs are, the repertoire of kenyan pasts, which provide the audience the necessary insights for deconstructing the complexity of kenyan nationhood. a cursory look at the harvest of song-text tradition in african literature, startlingly parades successful literary titles like, john pepper clark-bekederemo’s song of a goat (1961), okot p’bitek’s song of lawino (1972), byron kawadwa’s oluyimba liva wankoko {song of the cock} (1972), ngugi wa n. akingbe metatheatricalizing communal exploitation epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [82] thiong’o’s mother sing for me (1982),niyi osundare’s song-texts:songs of the market place (1983), moon songs (1988),tanure ojaide’s the endless song(1989), sekai nzenzashand’s songs to an african sunset (1997), kofi anyidoho’s song in praise song for the land (2000), marjorie macgoye’s make it sing and other poems (2001),okello oculi’s song for the sun in us (2001) and micere mugo’s my mother’s song and other poems (2001). land as a sphere of contestation in kenya ngugi wa thiong’o and ngugi wa mirii have exegetically utilized the interplay of history, songs and literary consciousness in their three-act play, i will marry when i want, to dramatize the postcolonial narratives of the kenya, and to interrogate the shameless appropriation by the kenyan christian elite, of the land owned by the masses. this interrogation is effectively done to challenge the excesses of the kenyan elites’ unquenchable desire to employ all the means of chicaneries endorsed by the bible passages, to cunningly steal the land which belongs to the poor people in kenya. land in kenya has portentously generated malignant rounds of crisis from the colonial period to the post independence era, with debilitating consequences. the ‘‘ordering of land and its inhabitants becomes a form of epistemic violence to the extent that it involves immeasurable disruption and erasure of local systems of meaning that guide the ownership and use of land’’(simatei, 2005:86).the play’s primary focus on the importance of land in kenyan cultural worldview has been pointedly raised by eustace palmer, when he asserts that ‘‘political freedom in kenya became synonymous with repossession of the land, and this struggle is central to ngugi wa thiong’o’s literary works,(emphasis mine). in kenya land is not only held to be of much greater importance than money or cattle, it clearly has spiritual associations’’ (palmer, 1981:1). this spiritual significance of the land is correspondingly illustrated by ngugi wa thiong’o in his novel, weep not, child (1964): in studying the gikuyu tribal organisation, it is necessary to take into consideration land tenure as the most important factor in the social, political, religious and economic life of the tribe. as agriculturalists, the gikuyu people depend entirely on the land. n. akingbe metatheatricalizing communal exploitation epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [83] it supplies them with the material needs of life, through which spiritual and mental contentment is achieved. communion with the ancestral spirits is perpetuated through contact with the soil in which the ancestors of the tribe lie buried. the gikuyu consider the earth as the ‘mother’ of the tribe...it is the soil that feeds the child through lifetime; and again after death it is the soil that nurses the spirits of the dead for eternity. thus the earth is the most sacred thing above all that dwell in or on it. among the gikuyu the soil is especially honoured and an everlasting oath is to swear by the earth (32). ngugi’s commitment to the tension generated by the issue of land dispossession in the post-independent kenya as grounded in i will marry when i want, is reinforced by the gikuyu’s anthropological ethos, which is poignantly rendered in myth, history and songs. this incisively reflects the influences that the oral tradition exerts on the significance of land in the gikuyu’s orature. the signification of myth in ngugi’s literary oeuvre is underscored by the observation of tirop simatei, who argues that ‘‘...although the gikuyu myth of creation is central of ngugi’s textual strategies of destabilization, he does not use exclusively gikuyu myths in his probing of the colonial hegemonic formation. in his decolonization novels, he often resorts to both indigenous and judeo-christian myths and legends, in order to evolve a grammar of contestation with which to construct not only a counter discourse to colonial ideologies of conquest and domination, but also a liberation aesthetics that justifies anti-colonial violence’’(simatei,2005:88-89).the exploitative propensity of the elite class, as underlined by its christian posturing, is tellingly criticised by gicaamba, a member of the oppressed, landless peasant class of kenya: gicaamba: why didn’t kioi come to tell you that he has increased your wages? or to give you a piece of his own lands? yes, for the earthly treasures are not that important! n. akingbe metatheatricalizing communal exploitation epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [84] or is it a sin to increase a worker’s wages? religion... religion...! religion is the alcohol of the soul! religion is the poison of the mind! it’s not god who has brought about our poverty! all of us were born equally naked. wa gathoni, it’s not that we don’t work hard: i drive a machine all the day, you pick tea-leaves all the day, our wives cultivate the fields all the day, and someone says you don’t work hard? the fact is that the wealth of our land has been grabbed by a tiny group of the kiois and ndugires in partnership with foreigners! accompany them to church, if you like! no one regrets the going as the returning, take care you don’t lose four while running after eight. metatheatricalizing land theft through song in post-lndependent kenya metatheatre is surreptitiously grounded in i will marry when i want, to highlight and parody the kenyan christian elite’s hypocrisy in their attempt to proselytize the kenyan peasants. song and chorus are basically appropriated as the dialogic for explicating the dialectical relationship between the peasants and the elite class in the play. ngugi wa thiong’o and ngugi wa mirii foreground metatheatre in the tension generated by the power relation between the protagonist, kiguunda wa gathoni, an impoverished farm labourer and ahab kioi wa kanoru, a dubious christian elite and businessman. while the former is a traditionalist, a cynic of christianity and a farm hand in ahab wa kioi’s farm, the latter is a self-styled fire brand christian, who doggedly believes in manipulating the bible verses to arm-twist the peasant kenyans, as to make them part with their inherited landed properties. the hypocrisy of n. akingbe metatheatricalizing communal exploitation epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [85] the christian elite reached its crescendo in the play, when ahab kioi wa kanoru deftly equivocates a sermon which deftly range from overt bullying to subtle emotional blackmail against kiguunda wa gathoni to become a christian: kioi: we have brought you the tidings so that when our lord comes back to separate goats from cows you’ll not claim that you had not been warned... becoming a christian implies that kiguunda wa gathoni, would have to be re-married to his wife in the church. kiguunda wa gathoni sought a loan from ahab wa kioi, to facilitate his church wedding, as to authenticate his new-found christian fate. but ahab kioi wa kanoru refused kiguunda wa gathoni , and asked him to obtain a loan from the bank by using his ancestral (land)inheritance as a collateral. shortly after the church wedding, a brief but embarrassing crisis ensued between kiguunda wa gathoni and ahab wa kioi when it was discovered that kioi’s son had impregnated gathoni, the daughter of kiguunda wa gathoni. this development led to a serious altercation between the two, which consequently led to the sacking of kiguunda wa gathoni from the farm by ahab wa kioi. the inability of kiguunda wa gathoni to pay back his bank loan made him lost the ownership of his piece of land, which was bought at auction by ahab wa kioi. the play remarkably tasks ngugi wa thiong’o’s marxist, dialectical-materialistic, artistic consciousness in his representation of kenya’s socio-historical context. characteristic of wa thiong’o’s literary forte which usually foregrounds the application of a clinical class approach to the analysis and evaluation of the production and reception of works of literature, the playwrights did not hesitate to bring the past onto the stage through songs in i will marry when i want: soloist: great our patriots for me... where did the whites come from? chorus: where did the whites come from? where did the whites come from? they came through murang’a, n. akingbe metatheatricalizing communal exploitation epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [86] and they spent a night at waiyaki’s home, if you want to know that these foreigners were no good, ask yourself: where is waiyaki’s grave today? we must protect our patriots so they don’t meet waiyaki’s fate. soloist: kimaathi’s patriots are brave where did the whites come from? kiguunda: how the times run! how many years have gone since we got independence? ten and over, quite a good number of years! and now look at me! ...one and a half acres of land in dry plains. our family land was given to home guards. today i am just a labourer on farms owned by ahab kioi wa kanoru my trousers are pure tatters...(28-29) the infusion of song in the dramaturgy of i will marry when i want is designed to invoke an introspection into the kenyan past, in ways that emphasize the dialogic of the oppressor/oppressed. rather than using song as a latent motif in the play, the playwrights essentially employ it as a major dramatic technique for linking kenya’s present with its past. the employment of song as a technique in the play, underscores richard wagner’s analysis of the complimentary roles of the art in his seminal work, the art-work of the future, where he states that ‘‘true drama is only conceivable as proceeding from a common urgency of every art...in this drama, each separate art can only bare its utmost secret to their common public through a mutual parleying with other arts...’’ (184). the historical tropes embedded in the songs are aptly employed in the play, to critique the socio-political tensions, whose foundations were laid by the british colonial authorities and which are nurtured and sustained by the kenyan political elite. but ngugi wa thiong’o and ngugi wa mirii in following bertolt brecht’s dramatic strategy, decided to render in song, the radical reinterpretations of the trauma experienced by the downtrodden kenyans, who suffered a huge casualty of land loss. the n. akingbe metatheatricalizing communal exploitation epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [87] songs in the play are essentially self-revealing and they serve as a convenient platform to mock, and to expose the high handedness of the british colonial authorities in colonial kenya. the songs are used in lampooning the inequity in land distribution system of the postcolonial kenya and caricature the overt posturing of the christian elite class. helen nabasuta mugambi commenting on the foregrounding of song in the structure of the play, opines that ‘‘ngugi wa thiong’o and ngugi wa mirii’s i will marry when i want signals the song motif in the opening scene of the play, with the drunk’s song, from which the text takes its title. from then on, nearly all the clashes between the people and the colonial and neo-colonial impositions are invoked in song. the play is enveloped in song, and it culminates in the sharp revolutionary choral challenge: ‘‘on whose side are you?’’ (424).song in the play serves as a medium of dialectical dialogue between the elite class and the downtrodden masses, and its potency for resisting the kenya’s postindependent inanities is unambiguously reiterated from the beginning to the end of the play. songs in the play are quite thematic, they evince symbolic and witty rhetoric which constantly shift from colonial subjugation, land theft by the elite class to the hypocrisy of the christian faith which endorses the despicable dispossession of the peasants. the playwrights are able to render the burden of the kenyan nationhood, precariously borne by kiguunda, wangeci, gathoni, gicaamba andnjooki in songs, whose politicization is succinctly rooted in the chorus. since written words would have made the playwrights susceptible to a libel, the songs provide a convenient platform for hurling innuendoes and invective at the anti-peasant forces. the use of song in the play, obviously takes off moral responsibilities from the playwrights. the chorus ubiquitously looms large and serves as a propagandistic conduit for running socio-political commentaries on the difficulties, complexities and frustration suffered by these characters. the visibility of the chorus as a constant character burgeons throughout the play, and retains its legitimacy through its skilful use of repetition. its dexterity at gauging and articulating the social quagmire of the downtrodden masses, in their relationship with the kenya’s oppressive social system is vivaciously underlined by the play’s dramaturgy. the chorus’ determination to forge a cohesion among the peasants in order to assert their stand against a virulent exploitation, is concertedly couched in the vituperation hurled at the kenya’s kleptomaniac elite class. this wake-up call for unity is vociferously amplified towards the end of the play: n. akingbe metatheatricalizing communal exploitation epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [88] soloist: the trumpet all: of the workers has been blown to wake all the slaves to wake all the peasants to wake all the poor. to wake the masses soloist: the trumpet all: of the poor has been blown. soloist: the trumpet! all: the trumpet of the masses has been blown. let’s preach to all our friends. the trumpet of the masses has been blown. we change to new songs for the revolution is near. soloist: the trumpet! all: the trumpet of the masses has been blown. soloist: the trumpet! all: the trumpet of the masses has been blown. we are tired of being robbed we are tired of exploitation we are tired of land grabbing we are tired of slavery we are tired of charity and abuses. soloist: the trumpet! all: the trumpet of the poor has been blown. let’s unite and organize organization is our club... (115-116) n. akingbe metatheatricalizing communal exploitation epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [89] the peasants are perceived as the victims of the conspiracy of christianity and the british neo-imperialism which is vibrantly coordinated by the kenya’s political authorities and their lackeys: the kenyan repressive police, ahab kio wa kanoru, jezebel, ikuua wa nditika, samuel and helen ndugire. the peasant’s physical and metaphysical exploitation by the kenyan christian elite class, is sufficiently reverberated in the oratory and lyricism of gicaamba’s subversive speech and song: gicaamba: and how does religion come into it? religion is not the same thing as god. all the religions that now sit on us were brought here by the whites... when the british imperialists came here in 1895 all the missionaries of all the churches held the bible in the left hand and the gun in the right hand. the white man wanted us to be drunk with religion while in the meantime, was mapping and grabbing our land and starting factories and businesses on our sweat. he drove us from our best lands, forcing us to eke a living from plots on road sides like beggars in our own land, some of us dying in his tea and coffee plantations others dying in his factories. the anger derisively demonstrated in gicaamba’s vitriolic speech against the kenyan christian elite’s exploitative proclivity, as well as the church’s corresponding connivance is further given an eloquent condemnation in his sarcastic song: (song): goats and cows and money are not important. what is important is the splendid face of jesus. n. akingbe metatheatricalizing communal exploitation epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [90] i glance here i glance there and i see a huge bonfire in devil’s hell and i ask myself: what can i do to avoid the hell fire? but they, on this earth, this very earth, they are busy carousing on earthly things, our wealth, and you the poor are told: hold fast unto the rosary, enter the church, lift up your eyes unto the heavens. (56-58) conclusion ngugi wa thiong’o and ngugi wa mirii have demonstrated in their play, i will marry when i want that song as a vibrant tool of metatheatre, is a fundamental dramatic technique in linking the kenyan’s past to its present. the paper has essentially examined how songs have been inherently appropriated by the playwrights to illustrate the dialectical tension between the kenyan christian elite class and the peasants in the post-independent kenya. the relationship between the two is underscored by suspicion and mutual distrust. while the peasants in the play are hopelessly trapped in the throes of misery and abject poverty, the christian elite class is comfortable and exploitative. it is constantly preoccupied with how it could maintain the colonial legacy of subjugating and pauperising the peasants, in order to steal their inherited portions of land. the peasants believed that their misfortune is dialectically caused by the greed and gluttony of the christian elite in collaboration with the neo-imperialistic forces. but the christian elite erroneously believes that its domination over the peasants is biblically endorsed by god. ngugi wa thiong’o and ngugi wa mirii have ostensibly manipulated in the dramaturgy of i will marry when i want, a brechtian inspired revolutionary aesthetics, to deconstruct the biblical assertion that the peasants are poverty stricken because they have not accepted jesus christ as their lord and saviour. the playwrights have through the n. akingbe metatheatricalizing communal exploitation epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [91] appurtenances of history, mythology and song anchored in metatheatre, unequivocally asserted that the poverty and misery of the poor kenyans, was orchestrated by the elite class. the debilitating poverty experienced by the peasants in the play was caused by the socio-economic dislocation they suffered in the hands of the colonial authorities, and the kenyan christian elite class as significantly foregrounded in the play. references avorgbedor, daniel. 1990. ‘‘the preservation,transmission and realization of song texts: a psycho-musical approach.’’ okpewho, isidore. (ed.). the oral performance in africa. ibadan: spectrum books limited, 208-227. chekhov, anton. 1977. the seagull in five plays.trans. ronald hingley. oxford: oxford university press. fugard, athol, john kani and winston ntshona. 1974. sizwe bansi is dead. statements: three plays. oxford: oxford university press. genet,jean. 1966. the balcony. london: faber and faber. --------------. 1960. the blacks: a clown show. london: faber and faber. mugambi, helen, nabasuta. 2005. ‘‘speaking in song: power, subversion and the postcolonial text.” canadian review of comparative literature. osofisan, femi. 1977. the chattering and the song. ibadan: ibadan university press. oyekunle, segun. 1983. katakata for sofahead. london: macmillan education. palmer, eustace. 1981. an introduction to the african novel. london: heinemann. shakespeare, william. 1995. a midsummer night’s dream. oxford: oxford university press. soyinka, wole. 1984. madmen and specialists. six plays. london: methuen. simatei, tirop. 2005. ‘‘colonial violence, postcolonial violations: violence, landscape, and memory in kenyan fiction.’ research in african literatures, 36, 2, 85-94. wagner, richard. 1993. the art-work of the future, pw 1, 184. richard wagner’s prose works. trans. from the german by william ashton ellis. 8 vols. lincoln: nebraska up. wa thiong’o, ngugi. 1965. weep not child. oxford: heinemann. wa thiong’o, ngugi and wa mirii, ngugi. 1982. i will marry when i want. oxford: heinemann. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh, 1971: fire, fury and fragrance md. mohoshin reza * abstract during the liberation of 1971, the city of rangpur received a monstrous genocide having nearly 20,000 houses demolished and approximately 50,000 people killed. indeed, the genocide commenced at rangpur from 3 rd march, 1971, resulting the martyrdom of shanku shamajhdar, presumed to be the first martyr of the liberation movement, and his comrades. after that, people‟s revengeful attack on armies on 17 th march, santal leader bundo odaon‟s joining with the bengalis, their joint attack on rangpur cantonment, their retreat and finally, there occurred the outrageous spread out of genocide at rangpur causing unnumbered mass execution fields. the earlier researches already identified 35-40 execution fields at rangpur. as per the present research, the number of the execution fields is 51 with possibility of more to be identified. this work attempts to find the shape of the genocide at rangpur, explore the unfound execution fields, and describe past and present position of the related affairs. keywords: genocide, liberation war of bangladesh, the mass execution fields, the first martyr of the liberation movement, attack on rangpur cantonment, operation search light * corresponding author: md. mohoshin reza, assistant professor, department of english, bangladesh university of business and technology (bubt), rupnagar, mirpur 2, dhaka, bangladesh, e-mail: mohoshinreza@bubt.edu.bd mailto:mohoshinreza@bubt.edu.bd md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [220] introduction from 3 rd march up to 16 th december 1971, the genocide at rangpur, operated by the pakistani invading army, took a dreadful shape during the liberation war of bangladesh. the process of mass killing was going on randomly everywhere across the district of rangpur; especially, at the proper thana. besides the wide spread scattering assassinations, the invading armies killed thousands of people in a mass in various execution fields. the mass execution fields in rangpur proper thana, where people were taken in masses and killed plan wise, may presumably exceed 100 in number. through physical investigations and interviewing the people, first hand witnesses, it is reported that besides the identified fields, people were killed here and there and now and then. including these types of temporarily marked spots, the total fields of homicide may exceed 200 in number. there are execution fields in rangpur proper thana within and beyond the city corporation area. the present research attempts to explore and survey the number of the mass execution fields, and appraise the common motif of the pakistani armies behind the mass assassination. the research is limited to rangpur proper thana only. research methodology in the process of conducting the research, methods which have been used are: 1. field survey by inspection, observation, interviewing and focus group discussion 2. comparing, contrasting and generalizing the obtained data 3. data collection from secondary sources like books, prior research works, research reports conducted on the execution fields of rangpu following the above mentioned methods, data on the mass execution fields in the liberation war of 1971, limited to rangpur proper thana, have been presented below. md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [221] the city of rangpur on the eve of the liberation war of bangladesh rangpur before the historic 7 th march, 1971 on the march 01, 1971, all on a sudden, the session of the national assembly was postponed. in response to the dissenting call of the leader of the nation bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman, people of rangpur city brought a procession protesting the political gaming by pakistan government. mukhtar elahi, then vice president (v.p) to carmichael college students union (cacsu) was leading the procession. shariful alam, a student of carmichael college, was carrying the national flag of independent bangladesh for the first time at rangpur (ahsan, 1994, 26). when the procession reached the ghoda pir majar area of the city, police and some pro-pakistani biharies (non bengalis) attacked the procession. especially, in cooperation with pakistani police, a non bengali named islam khan and his gang fired at the procession from the roof top of the office of export-import bureau at ghoda pir majar area of the city. the gun attack caused martyrdom of at least 7-8 bengalis on the main road at front of the office of export-import bureau (opposite to the branch of janata bank). martyrdom on the 3 rd march, 1971 in the gun fire of 3 rd march, 1971, shanku shamajhdar, a young man of 17, first, attained martyrdom who is said to be the first martyr in the movement of the liberation. along with shanku shamajhdar, omer ali, abul kalam azad and other 5-6 people died. omer ali and abul kalam azad were students of carmichael college at i. a. class. shariful who carried the flag of independent bangladesh for the first time at rangpur on 3 rd march, 1971, was injured at the gun attack and died in the middle of april ‟71. a direct witness, babu shamajhdar, brother to shonku shamajhdar, informed that due to the terror of pakistani police, militaries and again, the place ghoda pir majar, being adjacent to the alam nagar bihari colony, none dared take away the dead bodies for burial. that time the biharies who were working as spies to pakistanis, became md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [222] increasingly active in collaborating the military and other security forces. as a result, the dead bodies of the martyrs were kept fallen at the road side with receiving no burial. the office of export-import bureau still exists there and presently the place has been occupied by sales men of drugs like fencidyl, cannabis and so on. common people of the city do not know that the place is a field of assassination. before the formal declaration of freedom, even before the historic speech by bangabandhu on 7 th march, 1971, shanku shamajhdar and his comrades laid their lives in the movement of liberation. from this sense, it may be considered that shanku the first martyr on 3 rd march ‟71 at rangpur is the first martyr of the liberation movement. another remarkable thing is that on the 3 rd march, 1971, when the national flag of independent bangladesh was being hoisted for the first time at dahaka university by the student leaders, the same time the flag was being carried in the procession at rangpur city. from 4 th march of 1971, the city of rangpur began to burn in rage of the deaths of shanku and others. every where a slogan spread “bansher lathi tairi karo bangladesh swadhin karo.” (make weapon of bamboo and snatch away the liberty of bangladesh.) rangpur in between 7 th march 25 th march, 1971 the fury of the freedom loving people was on the increase from the very early march of 1971. on 8 th march, 1971, some pakistani military officers entered a village named damodarpur, to arrest some activists of the liberation movement. a lieutenant abbas, a commanding officer of 29 cavalry regiment to rangpur cantonment led the operation. the army team also attempted to pick up two goats and some other foods of the villagers by force. by this time, it was spread out as a rumour that supply of food in the cantonment had come to finish and the armies came to loot away things of the villages. as a result, hundreds of people from surrounding villages rushed to the spot of the village damodarpur and attacked the armies. in the fight, pakistani officers were beaten and killed and their bodies were thrown beside the cantonment of rangpur. a number of villagers were also killed in the counter attack by md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [223] the armies at harirampur area of the village damodarpur. from that time, rangpur city entered into the war-situation. 13 graves of the bengali people should have been identified. in cooperation with baharul alam, brother to a martyr hasanul alam, the researcher found a line of seven graves at harirampur. other six graves of the villagers are still unidentified. beginning of the war and people’s attack on rangpur cantonment at the evening of 25 th march, 1971, a helicopter landed on rangpur cantonment and it was spread among the student community that vutto-iahya sitting had broken bangabandhu and a terrible things might occur at night. it was also spread at the city that the bengali officers were disarmed and were separated from other armies in the cantonment of rangpur. some affluent biharies got shelter inside the cantonment and they were used in spying at the night time operation launched by the pakistani armies at the city. indeed, the presumptions were not incorrect. on the black night of 25 th march ‟71 when the city of dhaka was in a complete blood-bath, at the same time militaries launched massacre at rangpur city as well. arrests and assassinations were on full swing and the biharies launched looting and plundering over the city. after 26 th march, with the formal declaration of the liberation war on behalf of bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman, huge people gathered with great enthusiasm under the leadership of advocate abdul gani and his friend aborigine leader budo odaon alias budo lakda who was a santal leader. budo odaon and advocate abdul gani were planning to attack rangpur cantonment. a. y. mahmud, known as jorreas mian, was an advocate. jorreas mian protested against the attack and assassination on the public procession on 3 rd march „71 by the pakistani police and non bengalis. besides jorreas mian, other ten (10) people were taken to the cantonment on 27 th march, 1971. on the evening of 27 th march, 1971, a great number of santal, farmers and other professionals from mithapukur, pirganj, badarganj assembled in the village of nishbetganj at the camp of budo odaon to attack the cantonment. on the 28 th march 1971, budo odaon and abdul md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [224] gani launched their attack on rangpur cantonment at nearly 8.30 am on 28 th march 1971. the attack was launched from four particular sides. thousands of bamboo rods, arrows and bows, javelins, big iron sickle etc. were used in the attack. a researcher sukumar biswas, with reference to another researcher mahbub rahman mentioned before getting the information about the situation inside the cantonment, thousands of enraged people of the villages, began to assemble to the south-west side of the cantonment at nishbetganj hat and its neighbouring areas with weapons like-bows-arrows-spearsaxe-bamboo rods in hands. on 28 th march, before the noon, the whole area was submerged with people (biswash, 1987: 35-36). on the other hand, along the southern road of the cantonment, 1015 jeeps were set with heavy machine guns (hmg) and every point the armies covered with different kinds of fire arms. within a few minutes, nearly one thousand (1000) patriots fell down at face of fire guns (ahsan, op. cit.: 27). sukumar biswash wrote it was seen that dead bodies after dead bodies were fallen all over the roads, fields, crops fields and the river bank of ghaghat ((biswash, ibid.). after a short while, pak-armies gathered the bodies of the dead and wounded ones and burned the bodies of all living and dead people with petrol and fire. some first hand witnesses informed that many wounded people were bayonet charged and killed. in an interview advocate abdul gani said “inside from the cantonment, showers of bullets were coming towards the attackers. as from all sides, they were attacked, the counter attack was also from all side and nearly seven hundred to one thousand people got martyred. colonel sagir, a bengali dalal (collaborator) officer, brought many dead bodies under the military shed of the cantonment. dead bodies of the martyrs rotted under the shed.” the entire area of the military shed of rangpur cantonment should be marked as an execution field. however, having the cantonment attacked by massive people of rangpur, the military officers were blocked in. people were divided in md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [225] four (04) groups rushing and attacking from particular areas around the cantonmentthe areas were baldipukur, mithapukur, badar ganj, and nishbet ganj. each group consists of at least one thousand (1000) freedom fighters. the cantonment had to face a four sided attacks. by this time, another support of the attackers, epr (east pakistan rifles), ran away. consequence of the cantonment attack inside from the cantonment, militaries replied through a maddening operation over the freedom fighters with machine guns and other heavy weapons. as a result most of the freedom fighters of the four different groups received death at different corners of the cantonment. advocate abdul gani marked already seven hundred to one thousand dead bodies had been taken inside the cantonment by colonel sagir. any more, dead bodies of the martyrs belonging to four particular groups of attackers kept falling at the west side, north-west side, southern part and the south east side of the cantonment. besides, many dead bodies were fallen scattered around the outer boundary of the cantonment. nearly three thousands of freedom fighters laid down their lives in that battle. most dead bodies rotted and were swallowed away with beasts like dogs, foxes and the like. another witness and also a freedom fighter, participating in the cantonment attack, abdul khaleq who presently works as a waiter in a small hotel (aminur‟s hotel) at thikadar para mor in rangpur, stated after the liberation had been over, skeletons were buried wherever found around the cantonment. from the statement of advocate abdul gani and abdul khaleq, it is presumed that the west side, north-west side, southern part and the south east side of the cantonment might be considered as four big execution fields. again, as the dead bodies of freedom fighters were burnt and some were fallen scattered all around the outer boundary of the cantonment, it is a hypothesis of the researcher that through excavation, md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [226] the whole outer border of the cantonment might be found as a mass execution belt. however, losing more and more power at the face of heavy weapons of the pak-armies, finally, the joint group of the bengalis and santals retreated on 30 th march and the pak armies came out with faces of demons. the genocide on full swing and mass execution fields on the increase advocate abdul gani, again, informed from 28 th march to 30 th march, pak-armies were captured and confined inside the cantonment. 30 th march ‟71, being able to come out, they created massacre at rangpur city. they damaged the base camp of the aborigine leader budo odaon at the village nishbetganj. they completely demolished the village nishbetganj and killed presumably one hundred and fifty (150) comrades of budo odaon. after that, they killed at least one hundred (100) villagers, keeping them standing on queues on both sides of the main road of the village nishbetganj. presently, there stands the monument “rakta gaurab” (the glory of blood), in commemoration of the martyrs on the main road of nishbetganj. up through the road of the “rakta gaurab” (west to the monument and back side of rangpur parjatan kendro), the five (5) kilo metre long road is a brutal field of mass execution in which, every after an interval of 15-16 days, the invading armies brought at least one hundred bengalis in trucks, with hands and eyes bound and killed them at different spots of the road. kamal hossen, a teacher of darshana high school, rangpur and the witness said at least 100 people were brought by trucks and were killed at the site each time. during the war of nine months, at least one thousand (1000) people were killed in this execution field. besides that, the execution fields in which hundreds of people were killed are in the villages e.g. manjai, darshana, darshana pahari, upa shahar and at the western side of carmichael college, there remain md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [227] 10-12 mass execution fields. there are needs of more research and investigation to find other mass killing sites. wahiduzzaman chawdhury, a liberation war researcher marks in an article immediately after 25 th march of 1971, rangpur city was affected by the pak-armies. i was an enthusiastic observer of their indiscriminate bengali annihilation process. i recorded the number of the dead ones and dates of the killing by the pak-armies. i am sure about the authenticity of the information (chawdhury, ed. m.r. akhtar mukul: 449). as per his writing 8 th april, 1971: pak-armies brought forty seven (47) farmers with eyes and hands bound to a place called narir hat, two and a half miles west from rangpur city. there at the spot called kholahati, they killed all the people. at present, in this very place kholahati cantonment is situated. he writes 15 th april, 1971: pak-armies killed twenty two (22) farmers at deovog village by brush fire. the place is situated at the south-east side of rangpur cantonment. the execution field is exactly remains at the south-east side of damodorpur village on four decimal lands. 15 th april, 1971: the pak-soldiers killed thirty two musalli (people coming to say prayer). they took the people from deovog mosque and fired them at the north-west corner of the village. 17 th april, 197: the invaders killed seventeen (17) bengali jawans (members) of bengal regiment at an irrigation canal. the jawans were in dress. the canal was two miles north to the ancient origin of rangpur city mahiganj. 19 th april, 1971: one hundred and fifty two (152) e.p.r members were killed through brush fire by the invading soldiers on the bank of the river ghaghat, floating by the side of rangpur cantonment. the pakistani soldiers killed them and pierced bamboos through their dead bodies as if they were making a garland of the dead bengalis and threw the bamboos in the river ghaghat. through interviewing some elderly people of the area, the present researcher predicts that the execution field is situated under water which md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [228] is situated at the left side of the present main gateway of rangpur cantonment, nearly 300 metres away from the village khalifa tari. 28 th april, 1971, the pakistani armies launched an operation to capture especially the hindu families of the teachers of carmichael college and their family members. pak-soldiers grabbed six (6) hindu professors and their family members including ram krisna adhikari, sunil baran chakrabartee, kala chand roy, chitta ranjan roy and others. they took the people to paira band, the birth place of rokeya which is nearly six k. m. north from rangpur city. all members of the families of those six professors were shot down by pak-armies under a bridge, called damdama bridge, presently on dhaka-rangpur road. razib arman, who cooperated in collecting data from the primary field of the present research, informed that later, many people were taken to the place and killed at different times during the liberation war. bashu mia, his uncle, was a victim of the assassinations. 29 th april, 1971, pak-soldiers killed twenty one (21) bengalis including a small boy. at the time of investigation, the researcher met roghunath dom, a sweeper working in the autopsy of rangpur medical college who was a direct witness of the fact. roghunath said there were twenty one people. all were on the run being chased by the armies from the main gate way of the cantonment. they were fleeing towards rangpur medical college. finally they were driven at near the dhap mor, the place exactly where presently; there is the b.r.t.c bus terminal adjacent to rangpur cant. public school and college. there was a boy of about thirteen. all of them were shot down. from the statement of raghunath, it comes that on 31 st april, further, pak armies killed one hundred and twenty four (124) members of e.p.r at darshana pahadi area. their bodies were drifted away in the river ghaghot. raghunath also informed that on the very day, some rajakars convinced 10-12 people of providing with jobs. the people were starving and were seeking foods. the rajakars took all of them to the cantonment. all were killed near garage of the cantonment. liberation war researcher wahiduzzaman has, again, written md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [229] the pak-invading soldiers launched operation at narir hat for second time and killed forty eight (48) on 11 th may, 1971. on 16 th may ‟71 they launched “rape motivated attack” on radha ballav area of the city. from 9.00 p. m to 01.00 a.m. the operation continued. nearly one hundred people were martyred. on 2 nd june, 1971, pak armies took a brahmin family under the zafargonj bridge near the river ghaghot. they raped the women members of the family and then killed all. the most terrible homicide of the sector no. 6 took place at the residence of major bashir. the house was adjacent to the army head quarter of rangpur cantonment. almost every night during the nine months of liberation war, a number of young girls or women were brought. pak armies made them dance and finally killed after seduction. md. sultan, a major habilder, working at the cantonment that time informed captain gul and major bashir piled up the dead bodies of the women under the military shed of the cantonment. conditions provide the notion that the military shed of rangpur cantonment may be considered as the biggest execution fields in rangpur. it is predicted that approximately fifteen thousands (15000) people were killed in the place. on the other hand, liberation war researcher akhtaruzzaman mandal has written the biharies (urdu speaking pro-pakistanis) are killing people, uprooting men‟s eyes, violating women‟s honour, they are cutting out men‟s stomachs; triumphing over these, bringing processions with pieces of human organs from the dead bodies of bengalis. the terror is going on at the suburb area, mahiganj, modern area, rangpursaidpur road and so on. rangpur and dinajpur have been declared as “biharistan” by them (mandal, 1971: 31.). the research of akhtaruzzaman mandal on rangpur region provides that approximately six (06) hundred people were killed and buried down indiscriminately at tajhat, mahiganj and modern areas. his research creates notion that tajhatmahiganj-modernthese three areas might jointly form a big „triangle execution field‟. md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [230] the great student leader and martyr of rangpur city, mukhtar elahi was the chief of the district guerrilla force called “mujib bahinee”. he launched a good number of successful operations on the invading armies and the rajakars and in fear of mukhtar elahi, enemies could not dare go out of the city at day light. his eldest brother manjur elahi was responsible to maintain the main store house of war weapons used in the liberation war at shahebganj in kuchbihar. mukhtar‟s elder brother mushtak elahi organized freedom the freedom fighters at gaibandha and lalmonirhat and then joined sheikh fazlul haq moni as assistant editor to publish the daily banglar bani in kuchbihar and propagated for the liberation war. maudud elahi, another brother studying at durham university at london, then worked as a media to make communication between the bengalis obstructed in pakistan and their relatives. what was the condition of rangpur city was known from a letter, written to maudud elahi by his cousin khairul islam on 4 th may, 1971 pak-millitaries are clutching away the young people of 18 to 30. they are taking blood out from their bodies to use for own purposes. as a result, many of the victims are getting paralyzed. a letter to mr. maudud elahi from his father, written on 6 th june, 1971, described the condition of rangpur te city is desolate, no rail or vehicle……….in towns and villages, everywhere the reign of the devils……….. another letter of the father to the son written on 16 th november, 1971, described a great many homicides had taken place in the city. they burned down our village badiapara. the head master of rangpur zilla school mr. maksud ali committed suicide……some days ago, paksoldiars and rajakars killed his son (engineer farrukh ahmed) recently returned from abroad and others…….biharies changed the name of rangpur as “new bihar”. a bengali e.p.r abdul qadir was caught by pak armies but was able to escape and save own life. here is his statement md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [231] that night we, 33 e.p.r members were fallen bound in a dark room on rangpur-saidpur road. it might be at 3.00 a. m, they switched on the search light to kill all of us and suddenly i began to run away… other thirty two (32) people were killed. 12 th april, 1971, pak-armies brought people with three trucks at a place called balar khal and killed all of them. in that day, the pakish declared at rangpur city “we will make this country a land of prostitutes and slaves and beggars.” to save own life from this genocide, many hindus were bound to convert into muslims. kamala prasad, a business man presently living at saidpur, was one of them. he was also taken to the execution field called balar khal. somehow, he escaped from the spot and was detained for the second time. that time he was forced to convert into muslim. in the genocide at balar khal, a few of the martyrs are-dr. zikrul haq mp, dr. yakub ali, dr. badiuzzaman, abed ali, tulsiram agarwala, jamuna prasad kedia, harihor prasad, rameswar pal and three trucks of people. the eye witness kamala prasad said with my own eyes, i saw the pakistani militaries taking people in two trucks among which i recognized tulsiram agarwala and harihor prasad. they took the trucks to balar khal (canal of sands). beforehand, they took me there with another truck. my hands and legs were bound. when they opened our hands and legs and told to stand on queues, i ran away and could save my life. on 12 th april ‟71, three hundred (300) maroaris (non-muslims) were taken from saidpur to the cantonment of rangpur. all of them were killed inside the cantonment. the place is yet to be identified. 13 th april, 1971, pak militaries killed eleven (11) bengali soldiers on rangpur-kurigram road. the spot is known as nabdiganj execution field. from the supplementary page on liberation of a local weekly of rangpur called “atal”, it is known that in the unions of pairaband at jairam anwar mouza innumerable people were killed in two execution fields. the fields are almost lost into oblivion (the dainik „atal‟, 16 th december, 2000.). md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [232] mafiz uddin (75), a witness from jairam, informs that at the mid night of 22 nd april ‟71, pakistani armies carried people to jairam execution field using five (05) trucks. mafiz uddin lost two of his sons. he said, approximate number of victims was at least five hundred (500). again, through inspection, observation, interviewing and focus group discussion as well as from the book related to rangpur, published by the ministry of information, the following data have been collected 1 st may, 1971, nineteen (19) bengali soldiers were taken five kilo metres east from rangpur city at shahebganj under tapodhon union. this execution field is known as bircharan execution field. here each of the dead bodies was identified as wrapped with ropes. more e.p.r soldiers were killed at night on 14 th may ‟71. the next day, villagers observed sixty (60) dead bodies of e.p.r at the side of the river ghaghot. these dead bodies could not be buried because there was fatwa (directives) by the pak-militaries that –“bengalis are not muslims; they don‟t need to be buried.” asim uddin, an inhabitant of darshana area and a witness claimed the lower part of jafarganj bridge is certainly an execution field. some legendary people like advocate pakhi mitra, roni rahman, shiben mukharjee, aswini ghosh were killed under the bridge. during liberation war, “modern cinema hall” and “rangpur betar kendra” were made torture cells by the pak militaries. the modern cinema hall is the present “town hall” beside the public library of rangpur. beside from the town hall, eighty seven (87) dead bodies of women were obtained from a well. ahsan mia, a rickshaw puller, an inhabitant of gangachara, could escape from being slaughtered at the execution field of rangpur town hall. in his opinion, three hundred and fifty (350) people had been slaughtered on a single day, near about two months before the independence. he said that the homicide began before his eyes. he saw and recognized zinki malika, ali hossen, and farukh mia were being slaughtered. the field is situated at the back side of rangpur town hall. to the east from rangpur city through central road, there is dahiganj shasman (place of burning dead bodies of hindus). on the md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [233] black night of 25 th march, 71, pak militaries began “operation search light” simultaneously on dhaka and, also, on rangpur. that night twelve professionals were taken to dahiganj shasman and were killed including advocate a.y. mahmud alias jorres mian. bankim chandra, a shadhu (who lives in the shasman) living at dahiganj shasman for last fifty years, told the search light was on. the entire area was flashed. twelve people were standing on a line at the western part of the shasman. then they fired and the whole area was terrified. a man known as montu doctor, could escape. md. aminul islam, a reporter of dainik bangla, 1972, marked the entire rangpur district as a mass execution field. he wrote here and there at every town of the district, there are so many execution fields that no one can count up. there are instances that a thousand of people had been killed in a single execution field. indeed, the invaders damaged twenty nearly thousand (20,000) houses and killed approximately fifty thousand (50,000) people at rangpur thana by launching the genocide. till the present time, the research finds fifty one (51) mass execution fields in which thousands of people had been buried down. the researcher predicts that through further researches, more execution fields may be identified with an increased number. present position of the exaction fields physically visiting the places, it has been found that except nabdiganj, nishbetganj, lahirir hat and bircharan, almost all of the execution fields of rangpur are on the way to extinction. most people do not know that there are execution fields in the locations. most of the fields are getting occupied with farming and business entrepreneurs. especially, one of the biggest mass execution fields is located in the present rangpur cantonment and around the cantonment and there are other execution sites scattered. still, the cantonment does not expose any interest to mark the locations of the fields or pay homage to those fields. md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [234] some execution fields are simply neglected. and some, like that of ghoda pir mazar, has become the sanctuary of the druggists. many of the young generations do not know what the word “bodhya vumi” means. new generation people have too rarely any idea of the locations of the execution fields. consequently, most fields are getting lost into oblivion. findings of the research 1. the city rangpur had political turmoil from before the historic speech by bangabandhu on 7 th march, 1971. 2. indeed, genocide started at rangpur city from 3 rd march, 1971 killing a group of people at ghodapir mazar area. 3. shanku shamajhdar, the first of the killed ones on 3 rd march, 1971 may be considered to be the first martyr of liberation movement. 4. the santal revolt at rangpur against the pakistani rulers is a distinguished phenomenon in the war of liberation. 5. people of rangpur attacked the armies and killed all of the team including lieutenant abbas on 17 th march. it demonstrates that the war actually began at rangpur before the formal declaration of liberation on 25 th march. 6. the study finds fifty one (51) mass execution fields created in the genocide at rangpur thana during the liberation war of bangladesh in 1971. 7. the execution fields where thousands of people were slaughtered are nine (09). 8. the execution fields where five hundred (500) to one thousand (1000) people were killed are four (04). 9. the execution fields where one hundred to five hundred people were killed are three (03). 10. the execution fields where less than one hundred people were killed are thirty five (35) in number. 11. mass execution fields where approximately, one thousand (1000) to five thousand (5000) people had been killed are: md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [235] rangpur cantonment mass graves, rangpur radio centre, nishbetganj, lahirir hat, baldipukur, balar khal, modern cinema or present town hall, bank of the river ghaghot, military shed of rangpur cantonment etc. 12. the execution fields where approximately five hundred (500) to one thousand (1000) people were killed are: damodarpur, the five (5) kilo metre long road west to the monument “rakta gaurabi”, back side of rangpur parjatan kendro, main road of the village nishbetganj etc. 13. the execution fields where one hundred (100) to five hundred (500) people were killed are: khalifa tari, residence of major bashir, upa shahar etc. 14. the execution fields where less than one hundred (-100) people were killed are: ghoda pir majar, haragas road, back side of rangpur autopsy, rangpur-dhaka road, chandanpat, c.o bazar, west side of rangpur cantonment, north-west side of rangpur cantonment, southern part of rangpur cantonment, the south-east side of rangpur cantonment, west side of rangpur cantonment, manjai, darshana, darshana pahari, kholahati, deovog, damodorpur, north-west corner of deovog, damdama bridge, dhap mor, darshana pahadi, garage of the cantonment, narir hat, radha ballav, tajhat, mahiganj, modern , rangpur-saidpur road, harirampur, nabdiganj, pairaband, jairam, bircharan, jafarganj bridge, dahiganj shasman etc. 15. in the genocide nearly 20,000 houses were abolished and approximately 50,000 people were killed. 16. the execution fields of rangpur are getting through extinction in two ways: first, with the passage of time, number of witnessing people is decreasing and it is day by day becoming more difficult to get authentic men to identify the locations of the fields and secondly, the fields are changing in their physical structures e.g. being used for cultivation, habitation or occupied by the developers. md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [236] conclusion the pak-invading armies conducted monstrous genocide at the city of rangpur during the liberation war of bangladesh in 1971. the theory of their leader iahia khan “man not, land” had been applied to the point by the invading militaries. the massacre that they made was so arbitrary that the fifty one (51) mass execution fields, which the present research has found, may be on the increase in number through further researches in future. it seems that the undiscovered execution fields may surpass the number of the discovered execution sites in future. the most sorrowful finding of the research, in perspective of the present reality, is that most execution fields are on the way to extinction. that is why; it is high time, more intensive research could be initiated on behalf of the government, policy makers, researchers and the academicians to save the execution fields from being extinct. md. m. reza genocide at rangpur city in the liberation war of bangladesh epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [237] references ahsan, qazi. (1994). shaheed mukhtar elahi abong rangpur e muktijuddha [the martyr mukhtar elahi and liberation war at rangpur], ed. qazi ahsan, rangpur: shaheed mukhtar elahi trust. biswash, sukumar. “‟71-er gana kabarboddhya vumi: rangpur” [mass graves and the execution fields of ‟71: rangpur], in the martyr mukhtar elahi and liberation war at rangpur chawdhury, wahiduzzaman. (1974). bangladesher swadhinota juddher itihas: dalilpatra, {history of liberation war of bangladesh: facts and documents}, ed. m.r. akhtar mukul. mandal, akhtaruzzaman. (1974) uttar ranangane bijoy {1971: victory on the northern front}, dhaka: hakkani publishers. epiphany_vol14_no_2_edited_2023.7.3.indd vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approach 141epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies vol. 15 no. 2, 2022 140 making sense of an uncoordinated approach to curricular transitions and standardisation between two modern languages departments, a case study vítor manuel oliveira de passos university of bath abstract � is case study begins by identifying a need for empirical studies in the � eld of psychodynamics, namely empirical studies on basic-assumption behaviour in schools. it proceeds to explore the causes behind an uncoordinated approach to curricular transitions and standardisation practices between two modern language departments using a psychodynamic approach. by drawing on data provided by focus groups, evidence is provided for the existence of basic-assumption behaviour, which sti� es cooperation and e� ective curricular transitions across two divisions. a range of a� ective containment strategies are suggested to address the basic-assumption behaviour and change the organisational culture. keywords: curricular transitions, tavistock approach, psychodynamics; basic-assumption behaviour, a� ective containment epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies 1. introduction one of the roles of educational organisations is that of managing or smoothening transitions; others may even suggest that this is indeed their primary task, as suggested by the popular adage that schools should prepare students for university and real life.  from a social interactionist lens, the many transitions of young learners across their educational trajectories constitute a very complex subject as personal agency, biographical elements, and ethnic and socioeconomic realities interface with societal, institutional, and cultural factors (cuconato & walther, 2015, p. 286). in the european context, ample research exists on this subject as many in the � eld of educational research recognise the importance of transitions to ward o� against loss of motivation (pohl & walther, 2007; walther, 2009 as cited by cuconato and walther). in the age of lifelong learning, with many young learners and adults prolonging their academic journeys in response to a progressively more competitive job market (tang, zhang, & youyi, 2023, p. 18), the role of e� ective transitions becomes paramount. � is is especially true regarding the transition between middle school and high school; customarily, when more accountability is placed upon students while it is also expected that students take ownership of their learning process. careful planning should thus go into transitions, especially between middle school and high school, as these are critical periods that can forever alter the course of a student’s life. such a transition can be de� ned as “[a] passage [which] confronts young people with new [adult] expectations, status, and practices, and contributes to their positioning in a segmented labour market and an unequal society.” (cuconato & walther, 2015, p. 286) although this study does focus on individual student trajectories, it preoccupies itself with the role that organisational cultures and the underlying group dynamics can encourage or sti� e meaningful organisational change. in its forty years of existence, the international school that is the object of study has not fully smoothened curricular transitions between its three divisions vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 143142 and many departmental iterations. � e reasons behind such incoordination will be theorised by critically analysing the unconscious responses and defences within two of their most well-established workgroups, the high school (hs) and middle school (ms) modern languages departments. a tavistock/psychodynamic approach is the foremost methodology for analysing unconscious processes within workgroups. clinicians and scholars within this � eld have produced voluminous literature revealing that organisations and the groups that constitute them operate within conscious and unconscious realms that negatively in� uence their constituents’ stress and happiness levels (obholzer & roberts, 2019, p. 17). we begin by providing a contextual basis for this study, followed by a literature review on the main tenants and methodological tools of psychodynamics and important ontological considerations. finally, the data gathered from two focus group sessions across both modern language departments are critically analysed, followed by the � nal section, which preoccupies itself with providing a� ective containment (bion,1961) strategies and opportunities for further research. 2. the case 2.1 one school three divisions � e international school in question is in central europe in a germanspeaking country. it caters to upper-class and upper-middle-class children and the children of foreign nationals with international postings. � e school has three divisions: the middle school shares a building with the high school, and the elementary school operates in a separate building. one director oversees three vice-principals, each being the de facto leader of their respective division, operating relatively independently from each other. � e senior leadership team, including the director, answers to a board of governors formed by parents of students or notable alumni.   2.2. hierarchy although this study focusses on the group dynamics of two modern languages departments, it is crucial to contextualise how the school’s hierarchy and power dynamics might have led to the lack of communication between divisions.  � e departure of the previous, former dean of curriculum is of particular interest to this study insofar as she acted as the de facto head of the (hs) modern languages department for two years. merksy (1998) points out that during transitions at a managerial level, feelings of abandonment stemming from the institutional feelings that the departing manager represents o� en lead to unresolved organisational problems being felt more intensely. setting a di� erent course from her predecessor, who prioritised bureaucratic aspects including curriculum, the newly appointed dean of curriculum sought to bridge the gaps between divisions and department areas and establish a more comprehensive collaboration agenda as well as standardisation and moderation habits. some faculty perceived this new appointment as an alteration to the organisation’s external sphere. � e conditions were set for anxiety and fear to take hold, emotions known to lead to basic assumption behaviour, a counter-productive form of group behaviour which sti� es productivity (dale & james, 2015, p. 43). � e new dean of curriculum was given the post as an internal hire, widely regarded by faculty members as highly competent during her tenure at the helm of the international baccalaureate (i.b.) department. in two years, she had vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 145144 created the conditions for the school to reap the best ib results to date. it was evident that the organisation was about to experience signi� cant change.  2.3. two modern languages departments and transitions in the middle school (ms) mfl department, schemes of work and unit plans are based on the progress indicators of the american council on the teaching of foreign languages (actfl). � ese indicators place a higher emphasis on the ability of learners to set individual targets for themselves based on a variety of descriptors. on the other hand, the high school (hs) modern languages department draws from the european common framework for languages (ecfl), highlighting the importance of language learning to promote tolerance and democracy while providing authentic experiences in language learning. � e ecfl also comes with its own assessment requirements and level descriptors. two sets of standards used separately by both departments translate into di� erent assessment criteria and grade descriptors. consequently, some students raised concerns at the beginning of the school year that there existed a signi� cant disparity between their middle school criteria grades (extending to insu� cient) and the high school letter grades (traditional american grade scale a+ to f). further concerns were raised, including that the content of language courses o� en overlaps (and is even repeated) or that the di� culty between levels is overly accentuated, an essential symptom of poor communication and collaboration across departmental divisions.  � e di� erences between departments are also prevalent as concerns assessment policies that, especially in the high school, create acrimony during the transition from grade eight to grade nine. traditional american grading boundaries (e.g., a+, 100%-97%) are used simultaneously with the grade boundaries of the international baccalaureate, which rely on signi� cantly lower grade boundary percentiles (e.g., 7100% 84%). due to the grading so� ware adopted, high school teachers cannot adjust grade boundaries to individual assignments. anecdotally, teachers have reported frustration with the grading so� ware (which is used di� erently by teachers even within the same division). it is no wonder that this instigates confusion and frustration among students and parents, especially those transitioning from grade 8 (ms) to grade 9 (hs) language courses. 3. psychodynamics as a methodology psychodynamics o� ers unique insight into some of the unconscious reasons underlying decision-making. for instance, in the case of political leaders, when decisions are taken in which consequences are clear, authors such as beisel (2003 as cited by meyer, 2015, p. 50) argue that this reveals an inner desire from the leader to see such consequences being exacted. � e role of the psychodynamic researcher is to challenge assumptions including bureaucratic positions and organisational rituals while promoting positive, meaningful mindsets that promote rather than sti� e optimal mental health (bion, 1961). similarly, for meaningful change to occur at an organisational level, researchers should intersect social analysis with psychodynamic research and draw generalisations from their � ndings (obhlozer & roberts, 1994) while also considering how racism, homophobia, and chauvinism may in� uence the outcome of the research.  one of the main critiques against clinicians employing the psychodynamic method is a tendency to � xate on falsi� ability, testability, and validity whilst disregarding the importance of re� exivity, and the aforementioned systemic elements and how these may a� ect research � ndings (meyers, 2015, p. 18). psychodynamics o� ers a platform by which researchers can access the unconscious world where time does not exist and irrational actions, paradoxical elements, and contradictory behaviours are better understood. � us, subjectivity and openness to disconformity testing are essential to the researcher employing a tavistock approach (meyers, 2015, p. 7). � is case study � nds purchase upon the works of wildren bion (1961), a scholar and pioneer of group dynamics. his research helped clinicians identify the long-term adverse e� ects that neurotic group dynamics can have vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 147146 within an organisation.  in experiences in groups  (1961), bion provides evidence of neurotic, irrational and contradicting behaviour of individuals operating in groups which stems, to a great extent, from unconscious processes (p. 53). he remains the most cited author in psychoanalytic scholarship, second only to freud (levine and brown, 2013, p. 1) and his intersubjective theory of thinking helped psychologists understand that trauma originates from the mother-child dyad (p. 245). roberts and oblozher (2019), who suggested a� ective containment strategies as a deterrence to basic assumption behaviour within organisations. 3.1 psychodynamic studies on school organizational cultures despite the re-emergence of psychodynamics in the � eld of education during the last twenty years, empirical studies on the opportunities and challenges that psychodynamics poses for research on teachers are scant (storey, nimroody, prout, rice, & ho� man, 2023, p. 14). � is contrasts with a backdrop of growing studies highlighting the enormous potential that the psychodynamics methodology o� ers to promote optimal mental health in schools. ryan & jenkins (2020), for instance, looked at how partnerships between health professionals and schools help combat basic exclusionary practices and in the school communities and allow for generalised bene� ts. � at study also concludes that schools are organisations where sta� are particularly prone to exhibit paranoid-schizoid states and defences given that many of these institutions are understa� ed, underfunded, and overcrowded as is the case in many schools across the england (p.58). storey, nimroody, prout, rice & ho� man (2023) identi� ed schools in the u.s. as the primary institution for mental health for a staggering three out of four children (p.14). according to that study, there is a growing discrepancy between school managers and teachers; the former tend to prioritise the mental health of children more so than the latter (p.27). however, most educators see the promotion of mental health of a child as part of their role and are the most privileged in spotting potential mental health issues among students. it is, however, important to determine the extent to which teachers, especially in secondary schools, o� en portrayed as conveyors of knowledge, are appropriately equipped to handle the growing number of students with socio-emotional issues among students in their care (dietrich, 2021, p. 323). psychodynamic studies over the last three years address mainly teacher preparedness in the social-emotional � eld (dietrich, 2021; williams & moser, 2021; martin et al.,2022), o� en disregarding organisational and psychological challenges faced by teachers (de passos, 2021). � is study thusly seeks to address this gap in knowledge by looking at the way that basicassumption behaviour (bion, 1961) among teachers acts as a deterrence for important curricular and classroom reforms to take place. 3.2 basic assumption group mentality vs work group mentality it is important to establish what is group mentality, namely the machinery of intercommunication designed to ensure that group life is in accordance with basic assumptions (bion, 1961, p. 66). it is o� en at odds with the individual’s motivations and desires. whenever the individual behaves in a way that challenges the basic assumptions of the group, this will impact them negatively in the eyes of the group.  a basic assumption group (bag) is phenomena that take place when a group (a band of individuals sharing a common goal) � nd themselves under stress caused by external realities which, in turn, leads to the group’s primary task going ignored while group dynamics prevail. bags are the opposite of work groups, consisting of groups which operate more regularly and e� ectively, focussed on completing the main reason for their existence, their primary task. in the case of the basic-assumption group, however, the primary task is subverted by basic assumption behaviour and group survival replaces the primary task. bion (1961) provides a suite of mechanisms for clinicians and researchers to identify basic assumption mentality and how it manifests within a vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 149148 group. � ese will be the primary instruments operationalised in this study to help understand the reasons for the uncoordinated approach between both departments.  � e premise for bag is that a single basic assumption is prevalent at each given time, although these can change within years, months, or hours depending on the bag (bion, 1961, p. 154). another important prerequisite is that every bag has a leader even if, in the case of pairing groups, this leader is unborn or yet to appear; an inanimate object or the very history of the group can act as its leader if no group member rises to assume the leadership role. � is will be especially pertinent to help understand the manifest resistance to change that was so manifest in both modern language departments.  3.3 pairing/dependency pairing happens when bag is convinced that problems can only be adequately addressed by a messiah-like � gure from which the group obtains a sense of security (bion, 1961, p. 67). groups experiencing a stage of pairing have the absence of a leader as a prerequisite. pairing groups exist and function around messianic hope (p. 152), depositing blind faith upon an  unborn  leader who will solve every problem at some unknown point in the future and protect the group from external threats. � is leader does not necessarily need to be a person but can also be an object, existing policy, or simply falling back to the “this is the way we have always done things” prerogative.  an example of pairing was when the hs department functioned without a department head for an entire academic year. � e absence of a leader allowed for important planning tasks to be set aside, especially tasks aimed at promoting better coordination across divisions. � is is interpreted by some adopting the tavistock tradition as forestalling  (bion, 1961, p. 153), albeit such an interpretation of hope is reductive. authors following a freudian school of thought are prone to reduce hope to simple wishful� lment (groarke, 2018, p. 365 as cited by passos, 2021, p.1), leaving out many kinds of hope exist, and that leaders can operationalise the concept itself as a powerful instrument to refocus their sta� . 3.4 fight/flight when a group identi� es a common enemy, they enter a stage of unity that manifests into � ght or � ight (p. 67). when the leader of such a group passes on decisions that do not fall under aggression (� ght) or escaping from a commonly accepted enemy (� ight), their requests go unanswered. during his � eldwork as a clinician, bion (1961) provoked one of his therapy groups into a state of � ght-� ight by simply remaining silent for most of the session, thusly inciting group participants to unite against him as a threat against the group and going so far as attempting to � nd a new leader (p. 71). a practical example was when the new department head, under request from the senior leadership team, requested that high school teachers create a simpler version of a given scheme of work to facilitate planning for middle school ml teachers. only two out of seven department members produced the overviews in three months despite repeated requests. such behaviour reinforces the theory that unwelcome change, spurred by the senior management team, was seen as the enemy, leading to the department head’s multiple requests and reminders going unanswered. 3.5 the four processes: of denial: transference, introjection, projection, and splitting (bion, 1961). � ere seems to be little consensus on the de� nitions of transference, introjection, projection and splitting. � e descriptions of these unconscious defences have evolved signi� cantly over time. introjection was initially de� ned as the absorbing of positive experiences into oneself, while projection was once labelled as the process of wishing bad experiences away (de board, 1978, p. 18). within the context of this study, introjection is the process of incorporating someone else’s feelings as our own, while projection is the transmission vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 151150 of our own feelings to someone else (dale & james, 2015, p. 94). � ese processes are essential mechanisms of personality-building, studied in the � eld of psychodynamics to explain both group and organisational behaviours while remaining exceptionally relevant to measure the e� cacy of leadership approaches. melanie klein (1964) identi� ed a fourth phenomenon: splitting which reduces a range of di� erent emotions to the categories of good/right or bad/ wrong (obholzer & roberts, 1994, p. 13). splitting is of particular interest within organisational settings during periods of change/crisis as employees tend to use splitting as subconscious responses to new expectations or unwelcomed change as is the case in this study with the introduction of new, increased, curricular expectations for faculty members. processes of denial and avoidance stand as common characteristics of the basic assumption group (obholzer & roberts, 1994); in such groups, leaders tend to focus on trivial subjects or resort to narcissistic displays that o� en favour quick e� ortless solutions to external threats over carefully thought, long term solutions. demoralised employees remain doubtful of their own agency and ability to enact meaningful change which helps bag mentality proliferate (p. 43). in organisational settings, formal and informal work contexts interface to create the lived experience of employees. authors such as dejours (2009 as cited by czander, 2017, p. 19) tell us that work is at the very core of our lives and a� ective experiences; work can provide pleasure, subjective expansion, and freedom while also being able to in� ict wounds to the ego and induce pathological su� ering. our own psychic needs will ultimately in� uence our experiences at work. o� en it is not possible for an employee to achieve ful� lment at work due to several reasons be they systemic or individual. � e resulting, frustrated expectations can lead to narcissistic wounds and unintended behavioural responses. according to scholars in the � eld of psychodynamics, when facing psychic con� icts, the individual is le� with two choices: either to seek a di� erent source of psychic grati� cation or resort to the psychological defences (czander, 1993, p. 7). groups are generally averse to change, and external  threats  that might jeopardise the status quo. such resistance is especially salient in educational organisations, conservative in nature (dale & james, 2015, p. 93). 4. symbolic interactionism a symbolic interactionist approach is at the core of this study, and one of its main tenants is that the active construction of meaning, that our interpretations of truth are socially constructed and that we negotiate our own versions of truth with others living as social beings (hammersley, 2019, p. 4). researchers must be prepared for surprises that may even change the course of the research itself. � is concept was � rst coined by blumer (as cited by hammersley, 2019), who postulates that purely quantitative methods are not ideal in sociology as these o� en fail to take context and systemic elements into account.  one of the most salient criticisms faced by symbolic interactionist approaches is how they o� en fail to place hypotheses through rigorous testing (gouldner, 1971, p. 498), as most interpretations hold a fair share of truth and falsehood. � is is an outdated, positivistic perspective that no longer holds merit in a modern, complex world where mental health issues can hardly be addressed with a one-size-� ts-all approach, especially in sociological research.  � e primary data-gathering method employed in this study is the focus group method which directly derives from symbolic interactionism, � nding purchase on the assumption that understanding social phenomena is not undertaken by the individual in isolation but through social interactions (bryman, 2012, p. 504). focus groups have long enjoyed popularity among organisational theorists, including proponents of the tavistock institute in london. in the vast toolkit of qualitative methods, focus groups are o� en perceived as a powerful, participatory method that can o� er a platform to marginalised/ignored elements within the vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 153152 organisation (johnson, 1996 as cited by meyer, 2005, p. 104) and can centre the outcomes of the research on the needs of voiceless minorities.  in the context of group dynamics, focus groups are bene� cial. � is method o� ers an opportunity to gauge the individual’s tendency to forego their personality and personal needs over the needs within the context of this study, some participants tended to control the narrative and course of the session, whilst others were more prone to go silent and avoided di� cult questions. it was also quite challenging to divorce my role of department head from my role as moderator, as i believe some participants could have perhaps contributed further had i been an external researcher. focus groups provide participants with an opportunity to re� ect on their own agency in enacting or sti� ing a� ective change within the organization. incidentally, and despite the social nature of focus groups, very few studies operationalising this method draw inferences from the group dynamics of participants. kitzinger (1994, as cited by bryman, 2012) reviewed over two hundred studies across � ve decades and concluded that most data were reported no di� erently than had the method been individual interviews (p. 514). incidentally, a common expectation of the focus group moderator is to help the conversation stay its course, providing every participant with the opportunity to voice their opinions. � e most powerful argument for adopting focus groups is the method’s suitability for action-research-oriented projects, which is what this pilot research enquiry proposes. as crabtree et al. (1993, p. 146, as cited by barbour, 2008, pg.33) suggest that it is possible to simultaneously use focus groups as a data collection tool and intervention (p. 33). � is is essential in the context of this study, as it is its long-term goal to propose solutions to rectify such basic assumption behaviour. 5. ethical and ontological considerations: as a researcher working for the same organisation that is the object of this study, it was pivotal for me to re� ect on conscious and unconscious biases and how they may a� ect this study’s development and outcomes. when conducting participatory research, there is a risk of aligning one’s research outcomes with the political interests of the researched group. barbour (2008) demarcates the critical di� erence between researching ‘with’ and researching ‘on’ a given group (p. 26), highlighting the ethical need for researchers to re� ect on responsibility and inherent biases, which may hamper the credibility of one’s � ndings. major studies rely on multiple researchers or co-researchers to avoid being overly constrained by biases to deter emotionally led assumptions or conclusions based on past experiences (meyers, 2015, p. 6). given that this is not logistically possible in this study, i will strive for self-disclosure (p. 20), aiming to provide a more natural narrative of the organisation. by informing the reader regarding methodological gaps and ideological biases, i aim to achieve a robust ontological and phenomenological platform that will provide credibility to the data and interpretations resulting from this study. meyers (2015, p. 39) warns against countertransference, a common event within the � eld of clinical psychology, whereby the researcher, guided by memories and fears, projects onto the subject and thus a� ects the outcome and interpretation of the events and research. � roughout this study, i re� ected on such questions, including how answers from my participants a� ected me personally. 6. sampling to reduce potential biases, focus groups will also become the basis used for purposeful sampling (meyers, 2015, p. 102), also known as ‘snowball sampling’, which consists in asking participants whom they believe to be the relevant key stakeholders to interview as opposed to having the researcher choosing the sampling. � is is particularly poignant given that i was relatively new to the institution and am sure to have missed critical incidents that have contributed to the organisation’s current state. � is allows for a chain of enquiry whereby participants set the direction of the vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 155154 study as opposed to a traditional, research-led approach. in this study, all focus groups were capped at a maximum of six participants as experts in the � eld recommended a number between six and ten (morgan, 1998 as cited by bryman, 2012, p. 507). smaller focus groups are encouraged when dealing with controversial matters, as is discovering the underlying reasons for the lack of coordination between two departments. � e small group size helps prevent the discussion � ow from going o� -topic or group dynamics from taking over while permitting salient issues to be raised by the moderator and preventing logistical issues such as the inability to identify who said what in audio recordings and subsequent transcripts. finally, all group members were given a chance to speak, which was only possible given the small number of participants and attentive moderation. to reduce potential biases, snowball sampling (meyers, 2015, p. 102) was employed, asking participants whom they believe to be the relevant key stakeholders to interview as opposed to having the researcher choose. 7. high school department focus group before i o� cially started the session, the most senior teacher in the group in years of service at the school, mr a, noted a couple of late arrivals, leading other participants to agree and speculate on the reasons for the others’ lateness. � e conversation diverted at that point for around seven minutes. such behaviour is not uncommon in groups and seems to validate the thesis that bags exist primarily to maintain and preserve themselves (bion, 1961, p. 63) and that participating to the group is an outcome of itself. absenteeism is a perceived existential threat to the group, which explains why the participant mentioned this early in the session.  a� er a short viewing of a video illustrating the merits of harmonious transitions between grade levels, the group was asked about their own their views. participants were then asked to think of examples of successful transitions and � nally explain what role transitions play in their school’s context. � e tone quickly shi� ed to an accusatory one; one teacher, ms z, raised her hand to point out the school’s lack of support and time provided in facilitating transitions. she was indicating that the slt were responsible for this. � e instinct to � nd a common enemy instead of answering the question led me to believe that the group was transitioning to a di� erent basic assumption, whereby participants identi� ed a common enemy to unite the group.  at the same time, mr x and ms y, who had kept to themselves until that point, began  pairing off  (bion, 1961, p. 72) into a private conversation, scarcely engaging with the questions despite being asked. pairing is a common way for individuals to handle anxiety when tension rises, as was the case with this challenging conversation. and although some authors advocate that casual social interactions lead to a healthy environment among workgroups (obholzer and roberts, 1994), this particular group would o� en go on side conversations risking the primary task of the session going unful� lled. when asked about what decisions relating to transitions were taken in the past, ms y provided her � rst contribution to the discussion, pointing out that she had taught german classes to middle school groups before and therefore had always used the american standards when planning, and failed to see the point in transitioning to ecfl standards despite all other participants using these, and this being an expectation from hs language teachers. here lies a salient example of bible-making (bion, 1961, p. 155), or holding  on to older precedents to resist change; bag participants experience and voice their emotional opposition to any new idea that challenges the status quo.  in the context of a mental health institution, bion provides an example of bible-making when during a session with fellow clinicians, one participant refers to minutes of prior meetings to counteract the employment of a new approach. another critical incident was when one of the participants, a faculty member of longstanding, ms z, pointed out that in her subject area, german, transitions worked well, mainly taking place through informal vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 157156 contacts with her middle-school counterpart. she then pressed on with her theory, stating that curricular transitions were only problematic as regarded french and spanish.  at this stage, it was necessary to mention that it had been precisely ms z’s counterpart in middle school who’d reached out to both department heads two months prior asking for more time for divisional vertical planning. � is was done intentionally to determine which basic assumption the group would revert to and thus avoid the projecting of blame onto the spanish and french teachers.  ms z’s answer surprised me; she said that i was new to the school and could not understand what was going on as i had only joined six months ago. � ere was a clear case of  splitting  whereby the group creates a concrete border between insiders and outsiders, the former being perceived as allknowing and heroic, whereas the latter would the opposite (obhlozer and roberts, 2019, p. 15). at that moment, i had become the target of the group’s frustration, as i myself was an object of the change prompted by the newly appointed dean of curriculum. � e group saw me as a convenient scapegoat, an outsider, whereby the group projected all their anxieties relating to the new ideas, suggestions, and expectations onto me (dale and james, 2015, p. 95). � e group had thus evolved to a � ght-� ight basic assumption.  vega roberts (2019) provides compelling evidence to corroborate such inclinations on behalf of basic assumption groups. clinical data shows that both in the case of therapists at mental health institutions as well in the case of the sta� operating within the context of a social services residential unit for underaged children, there was a: “collective sense of everything good and helpful being inside the organisation, and of the outside world as harmful and dangerous.” (p. 131)  discharging the patients or sending the children o� to their new host families was a decision perceived mostly negatively by sta� members.  � e group quickly turned to splitting feelings between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ (obhlozer and roberts, 2019, p. 131), a common defence from groups experiencing heightened anxiety levels. what followed was e� ectively a contradiction insofar the majority of the group either shi� ed blame / projected to slt or argued against the premise that the need ever existed for a more coordinated approach among departments (denial). it was evident that the prompt i had used had led to some sta� members of longstanding resorting to defences a� er being confronted with the reality that poorly designed transitions negatively a� ected students. � e basic assumption had changed to one of � ght-� ight, and i had become the target as the outsider who couldn’t possibly understand the real issue or what was at stake. 7.1 middle school department focus group � e prompts and questions used for this focus group session were identical to those used during the high school department. � is was a purposeful attempt to identify di� erences in answers, which could indicate the existence and maintenance of basic assumptions preventing better communication and collaboration between the two divisions.  � is session proved challenging almost from the o� set; some department members were familiar to me, although i had had few interactions with them in a professional and social capacity. � e group seemed suspicious of the purpose of the session and pressed on this despite the goal having been explained both by email and individually to each participant.  a� er an awkward silence that lasted around two minutes, the ms department head started by listing the many reasons why the american standards curriculum and the standard-based assessments used in middle school served middle school students better than the letter grade approach used in high school. � is was the main narrative heard amongst middle school sta� and, in fact, the exact words of the middle school principal, who allegedly did not get along with his high school counterpart. � us leading me to consider whether this was a pertinent example of introjection, whereby the vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 159158 department head and the rest of the ms department faculty introjected the middle school principal’s expectations. it could also be argued that this was a case of adherence to the dominant norms in the sta� group or another case of splitting whereby all decisions made in ms were seen as right and the opposite applied to hs decisions. i had heard those exact words from the ms principal very many times. � ere was nothing new to the argument resulting in a di� erent perspective being suggested: many middle school students transitioning to high school found themselves at odds with the di� erences between the academic language and standards in middle school to those used in high school. at this point, the ms department head pivoted to his original argument, expressing disapproval toward the high school grading system, where numerical grades prevailed over criteria ones.  in this early stage of the session, the group seemed to be experiencing a state of dependency on the department head to speak in their stead. � e group e� ectively saw the department head as a  good object  (czander, jacobsberg, mersky, & nunberg, 2002, p. 370). a shield from the unwelcome change that the dean of curriculum seemed to represent in the eyes of the participants.  � e relative listlessness of the group during the � rst half of the session also suggested a case of projective identi� cation (likierman, 2002 as cited by dale and james, 2015, p. 95) whereby the ms head of department’s suspicions toward high school practices were actively projected and introjected; leaving little room for an honest debate about how the lack of coordination was a� ecting rising high school students. � e question relating to common planning time among departments divided the group and invited further discussion. at this point, ms w, herself married to a high school modern languages teacher, pointed out that during the previous academic year, only a single meeting had been dispensed for joint curricular planning and moderation across both departments. � is provides evidence of an absence of dialogue and lack of opportunities for change to be contained but also that this is not a priority for the management team. � e middle school modern languages department followed a similar pattern to their hs counterparts; instead of projecting their frustration and anxiety toward me, as their hs colleagues had, the group’s negative emotions were directed at the school’s leadership team and especially at individuals who had already departed, in what case of projective identi� cation (dale and james, 2015).  � e negative feelings toward the organisation were projected onto a bad object and apparently introjected and  wished away  when the individual eventually le� . � e previous head of school was scapegoated, gaining quite a bad reputation for himself, with rumours of incompetence and � oating in corridors. i proceeded to point out that an entire academic year had passed since the departure of this individual. � is was primarily an attempt at a� ective containment as i attempted to readdress the poor coordination between departments while showing participants that their agency was instrumental in enacting change. indeed, the lack of awareness among work groups of their role and personal agency in driving meaningful change is a common feature of bags (oblozher & roberts, 1994). when asked about potential stakeholders to interview next regarding the lack of coordination issue, the group suggested the name of the former dean of curriculum. one participant volunteered that she’d been the opposite of her successor, a fl exible and spirited individual, which could be seen as an example of splitting where objects and individuals are reduced to good or bad. � ere were also examples of more subtle defences at work, namely when ms y, a faculty member of longstanding, stated, “(i) keep having deja vus in those (vertical) meetings.» � is remark sought to reinforce the dominant vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 161160 view among the group that joint meeting time among both departments was scarce and ine� ective. humour and sarcasm are also defences used to prevent e� ective change (contu and willmott, 2006 as cited by (dashtipour and vidaillet, 2017, p. 32). 8. what obstacles remain for effective cross-departmental collaboration from an organisation-wide perspective? � e role of the psychodynamically-informed organisational researcher is twofold: to � nd the root causes for the projection of negative emotions that sti� e e� ciency within the organisation whilst also to train the groups that make up the organisation to become more aware of these and other unconscious processes. such an approach guards the individual against paranoid-schizoid tendencies that sti� e e� ective collaboration (bion, 1961, p. 14). in addition to recognising both written and unwritten norms and the role that systemic limitations, including race, gender, and sexuality, play in group dynamics, structural organisation-wide limitations must also be considered. in previous sections, the root causes of the (o� en cyclical) basic-assumption behaviour from the high school department were explained. still, it is just as essential to provide context from an organisation-wide level, exposing the impediments to a group working towards its primary task.   data from both focus groups group revealed three main obstacles at an organisation-wide level for a more balanced approach to curriculum: � e signi� cant di� erences between grading systems used in high school (letter grades/percentiles) and middle school (criteria/ standard-based grades) and how such di� erences are misleading the perception of grades from incoming middle school students in addition, di� erences in formative assessment policies include mandatory test retakes and no homework to be assigned during holiday breaks in ms versus professional judgment in hs.  � e complexity of the grading so� ware and marrying the percentages of external course rubrics and numerical grades to traditional american letter grades.  � e lack of time and relevant agendas provided for vertical meetings involving both ml departments to facilitate collaboration and moderation. anecdotally, other departments expressed similar concerns, which led to the newly appointed dean of curriculum pushing to introduce more time for vertical meetings during personal development days. despite these e� orts, faculty members showed little appetite to address this issue actively.  � is raises the question of the extent to which past and existing leaders have provided a consistent message on the merits of standardisation and curricular transitions.  a fourth, and perhaps more pragmatic obstacle that should be added to the list above is scheduling. modern languages departmental meetings take place at the same time across divisions. in addition, there is more than one teacher in either department teaching groups across both divisions, which means these educators must choose which meeting to attend, thus missing vital information and creating anxiety and stress. although these might be perceived as insigni� cant details, they are manifestations of an unconscious, organisational desire to maintain walls between divisions.  managers o� en use scheduling inconsistencies to avoid addressing institutional con� icts and keeping disparaging groups from working together (oblozher and roberts, 2019, p. 90). such is a symptom of basicassumption behaviour, as quick, short-term solutions as the preferred response within bags.  9. affective containment: a blueprint for cohesion among divisions obhlozer and roberts (2019) warn us against the tendency for new managers and clinicians to use the tavistock approach to immediately clamour for change within institutions, which in the case of the former, can be seen as a way for leaders to demarcate their territory and project their expectations vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 163162 upon sta� . such an approach o� en back� res as existing sta� members, faced with an overwhelming push for change, may introject that their work methods until that point were subpar, leading to the corrosion of morale (p. 112). leaders must pay attention to the emotions of their subordinates and make them active parties to institutional change by, for example, providing forums and other means for individuals to express their minds before taking signi� cant decisions. wilfred bion (1961) dubs these strategies as a� ective containment. � e pandemic acted as a catalyser for basic assumption behaviour within many educational organisations. fraser and horden (2021) provide evidence of the nefarious e� ect that unattended negative emotions felt by change among sta� members can have on faculty and managers alike. � e authors point to two possible strategies that managers possess during times of heightened anxiety and stress: a� ective control stands as the opposite of a� ective containment. it consists of the tacit prohibition of outward displays of emotions that may disrupt the smooth running of the school (fraser and horden, 2021, p. 2). such an approach o� en results in unintended consequences as employees dealing with repressed emotions eventually express them in ways they and the organisation did not expect.  � e alternative approach, pioneered by bion (1961) and further developed by sociologist yiannis gabriel (1999), is a� ective containment; the process of accepting that situations of heightened stress and anxiety inevitable happen and that a talking culture within an organisation is paramount to maintaining a healthy working environment.  any member of a group can facilitate a� ective containment, but leaders are undoubtedly better equipped to introduce this strategy. in the context of the hs modern languages department, the absence of a departmental leader explains the high levels of distrust towards the slt and the indi� erence shown by some department members towards the new professional expectations. during periods of a� ective intensity in educational organisations, such as during the introduction of di� erent curricular or pedagogical expectations, providing the adequate means, time, and venues, for emotions and feelings both to be expressed and experienced, is a powerful means for such emotions and feelings to be used productively (dale and james, p. 93). groups within educational organisations o� en do not welcome change and project negative emotions towards other faculty members or students. bion and winnicot (as cited by dale and james, p. 104) refer to two kinds of a� ective containment. � e original theory is that of the container, whereby an individual volunteers to become a container for negative emotions, thus helping the group at large with the handling of unwelcomed change. � e alternative approach is the one proposed by obholzer (1994) in which systems, processes, and the organisational structure itself allows for di� cult feelings and emotions to be experienced, accepted, transformed, and reexperienced by employees in a more constructive way. a� ective containment is one of the many strategies that school administrators can use in times of great anxiety and stress; providing forums for educators and the school community at large exemplify trust in middle managers and educators to maintain a high degree of professionalism among other strategies are in the administration’s toolkit (de passos, 2021). 10. conclusion � is study has contributed to the � eld of psychodynamics insofar it demonstrates how group dynamics operate and shape teachers’ a� ective and subjective lived experiences across two divisions of an international school. it further shows how anxiety and defences sti� e communication and collaboration by driving invisible walls between basic assumption groups and perpetuating practices that prevent meaningful organisational change from taking place. data collected from the focus group sessions points to many teachers who either disagree or fail to see the merits of standardisation and moderating and the importance of transitions to students. � is raises the crucial question: to what extent is the importance of creating e� ective curricular vítor manuel oliveira de passos vítor manuel oliveira de passos making sense of an uncoordinated approachmaking sense of an uncoordinated approach 165164 school. it further shows how anxiety and defences sti� e communication and collaboration by driving invisible walls between basic assumption groups and perpetuating practices that prevent meaningful organisational change from taking place. data collected from the focus group sessions points to many teachers who either disagree or fail to see the merits of standardisation and moderating and the importance of transitions to students. � is raises the crucial question: to what extent is the importance of creating e� ective curricular transitions consistently relayed and promoted amongst faculty. gaining access to the ms department and convincing them to partake was one of the main obstacles to this study. despite being a member of this organisation, i o� en felt like some participants needed to toe the line, not over fear of reprisal, so much as distrust of myself as an outsider and symbol of change. � e speci� c setting of an international school was critically analysed in this study. � is is particularly meaningful in psychodynamics, where the lion’s share of academic literature revolves around healthcare and mental health contexts. some of the limitations of using the psychodynamic approach in the context of this study include the assumption that most behaviours are determined by unconscious processes (bion, 1961) and therefore very di� cult to change. such an assumption makes � nding the root causes behind the incoordination between departments challenging and prolonged. � e same applying to the adoption of an a� ective containment culture within the school. further research is warranted on schools using psychodynamic frameworks to identify and address basic assumption behaviour. bibliography barbour, r. s. 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(2021). � e psychodynamics of distance learning: � e online discussion room. international forum of teaching and studies, 17(2), 5-68. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o sourav kumar nag * abstract my paper excavates the politics of neocolonialism and thiong‟o critique of the same. neocolonialism is the post-colonial perpetuation of colonial practices in different format. ngugi‟s texts like matigari (1987), petals of blood (1986), a grain of wheat (1967) and devil on the cross (1980) encapsulate ngugi‟s resistance of neocolonialism under the fine unraveling of fiction. keywords: neocolonialism, utopia, contact zone * corresponding author: sourav kumar nag, research scholar, the university of burdwan, india, e-mail: souravnaag@gmail.com mailto:souravnaag@gmail.com s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [137] it would be too naive to say that with decolonization imperialism has ended; that when the european empires gave up or were forced to give up their colonies during or after the second world war imperialism had ceased to exist. to use the term „neocolonialism‟ is to accept the perpetuation of the imperialist oppression and colonialist domination in a different and essentially new format even after the achievement of independence. therefore, neocolonialism may briefly be defined as a new form of colonialist oppression that operates in a latent way to continue the imperialist exploitations even after the achievement of independence by the colonies. as a political term neocolonialism was widely used by the late 20 th century critics to refer to a mode of exploitation to perpetuate the empire of colonization, though in a different way. initially, the term was widely used, particularly in reference to africa soon after the commencement of the decolonization process. instead of the formal and direct imperialist control by exerting political exploitation, by implementing administrative structures to rule and dominate the colonized masses, neocolonialism operates indirectly by controlling the economic and cultural dependence of the newly decolonized countries. therefore, neocolonialism perpetuates the scope to paralyze the economic growth of a decolonized nation for the sake of gratifying the imperialist hunger for resources and labour. it is generally accepted that kwame nkrumah, the leader of newly independent ghana, is one of the pioneers to use the term neocolonialism. in neo-colonialism, the last stage of imperialism (1965) nkrumah has offered an in-depth critique of neocolonialism. he argued that neocolonialism is the final and the most perilous stage of imperialism. since the old-fashioned ways of colonization no more exists, the imperialist powers direct their domination indirectly on the economic system, politics and cultural base of a decolonized nation. his observation on how neocolonialism is exercised may be summed up as follows: a neocolonial state is politically governed by stationing the military forces by the imperialist powers. this kind of domination is done in an overt way with the plea to provide military security to ensure peace of the decolonized states. in most of the cases neocolonialism is exercised through economic means. the neocolonial states are often forced to import the products manufactured by the imperialist countries barring the import of other competing products from anywhere else. thus s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [138] neocolonialism affects the economic prosperity of a decolonized state. the administrative policies of a neocolonial state are often controlled by the imperialist powers for their own benefit. the imperialist countries often invest foreign capital to run the government of a neocolonial state. the non-alignment policy adopted by many nations often involves foreign investment resulting in economic dependence. the fabricated notion of welfare state helps the capitalist countries to survive in the postwar scenario. the post-war period witnessed a deliberate attempt by the imperialist countries to break up the colonial territories into small states, so that they may be incapable of independent development and have to rely on greater economic and political powers possessed by the imperialist nations. as a result, the small states have to sell their produce to the capitalist countries dictated by them. besides nkrumah, there are other critics who severely criticized neocolonialism and pointed out many underlying factors. fanon in his seminal text towards the african revolution (1970) has pointed out the crucial factors responsible for the birth of neocolonialism as well as those fallacies rooted in it that will inadvertently bring its obliteration in near future. he posits unequivocally that neocolonialism is the result of an indetermination present in the very decolonization process. the indetermination fanon talks of in towards the african revolution (1970) refers to the lack of collective nationalist consciousness of the people, formerly colonized, who after many years of suffering were struggling to liberate their nations from neocolonial oppression. the nationalist struggle for liberation from the colonial slavery were wrought with a haziness, a myopia , since it (the nationalist struggle) is “a refusal, at once and the same time, of political non-existence, of wretchedness, of illiteracy, of the inferiority complex so subtly instilled by oppression” (fanon 121). the colonialist empires give everything to the colonies but in return extort an absolute economic dependence. fanon underlines that commercial hunger is the most important factor for which the colonialist empires wear the masks of good will and go on exploiting the economy of the nominally sovereign countries. he rightly puts that “in the negotiations on independence, the first matters at issue were the economic interests: banks, monetary areas, research permits, commercial concessions, s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [139] inviolability of properties stolen from the peasants at the time of the conquest etc….” (fanon 121) augmented the insatiable hunger of the west. fanon points out two important conditions in which neocolonialism operates. the first condition he termed as the „“rights” of the former occupant‟ (fanon 120) refers to the „false appeal to the common past‟(fanon 120),„the persistence of a rejuvenated colonial pact‟(fanon 120) that are put as powerful rights with which the former occupant offers economic compromises to the developing countries and thus diluted their economic growth. the second mechanism is called the „zones of influence‟ (fanon 122): the concern to maintain the former colony in the yoke of economic oppression is obviously not sadism. it is not out of wickedness or ill-will that such an attitude is adopted. it is because the handling of their national riches by the colonized peoples compromises the economic equilibrium of the former occupant (122). fanon argues that the necessity to rejuvenate the former economic stability, the colonialist empires „stifle the national aspirations‟ (fanon 123) of the developing country for stable economic base. he has brilliantly pointed out the emerging trends of an essentially humanist concern among the colonized people who now feel the need of stable, non-dependent economic pattern to kick starvation off. this dawning of consciousness now prevents developing countries from playing the role of an „inert panorama‟ (fanon 125) for the sole benefit of the west “and what the west has in truth not understood is that today a new humanism, a new theory of man is coming into being, which has its root in man” (fanon 125). in his seminal book kenya today: breaking the yoke of colonialism in africa (2005) ndiranga mwaura, an author from nairobi, has pointed out the crucial factors that are directly or indirectly responsible for neocolonialism in africa. it is needless to say that the primary objects of neocolonial oppression are economic gain. let us at first concentrate on the economic patterns of the african nations. african economy largely depends on agriculture. agricultural base in africa was mainly invested for the benefit of the european nations during the colonial period. the situation did not change even after the african nations achieve flag independence: s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [140] ever since african countries acquired flag independence, most of their economies have experienced retarded and low levels of growth and many times negative growth. the ruling elites in most of these countries have been similar in their incompetence, short-sightedness, and continued failure to recognize the factors that hinder growth (mwaura 8). the european strategy of trade and commerce affects african agriculture immensely. africa‟s exports are less in value than imports. during the 1970s the african countries started to lose value in exports by 11% (mwaura). even the growth in exports has never been translated to better financial gain for the africans. there are other factors too that ruined the commercial base of the african countries, so that they can never come out of the nightmare. again, tourism is believed to be another industry to earn foreign currency. in 1994 tourism earned kshas 25 billion ($ 417 million) (mwaura). but the huge profit did not better the livelihood of native africans. there are many game parks and national parks that are till the exclusive property of the european governments and therefore the annual income goes directly to their treasury. another important factor that keeps african nations continue to bear the yoke of colonialism even after independence was the wrong policy to adopt minor occupation called jua kali. incidentally jua kali’ means “„hot sun‟ in swahili. it refers to an informal system of business production, organization and set up. it is low tech and undercapitalized” (mwaura 8). mwaura comments: while japanese children are able to make digital watches, kenyans busy themselves with the production of pots and pans, repairing shoes, roasting maize and other forms of non-productive work” (13). the defective economy of kenya contributes much to augment the plight. mwaura observes significantly that „the principal producers of wealth acquire the very least but those who provide auxiliary services get the most. an industrial laborer is paid less than a divorce lawyer‟ (14). mawura in an interesting passage has shown how cultural neocolonialism operates in kenya: “foreign musicians promote the vulgar culture of europe and america. one shabba ranks simply brought pornography on stage at a show described in newspaper advertisements as a “family s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [141] show.” singers like coolio show their “coolness” through the profuse use of foul language.”(15) numerous african writers have critiqued colonial and neocolonial practices in africa. chinua achebe, and wole soyinka from nigeria, ngugi wa thiong‟o and meja mwangi from kenya have always steered their literary trajectory towards reconstituting a community that has become shattered during the fiendish colonial days and attempted to recover the african history buried under debris of the colonialist empire. ngugi wa thiong‟o is a kenyan novelist who formerly wrote in english though now he is writing in gikuyu. the unavoidable threat that ngugi faced as a writer is that of linguistic castration. „europhone writing came to be considered the norm‟ (ngugi 90) during the colonial days in kenya and even after independence it continued to be the popular literary choice. in the neocolonial situation in kenya literature suffered greatly and the writers faced the problem of subject selection for writing. the writers, as ngugi observes, were caught in a scylla and charybdis situation. they could „of course adopt silence or self-censorship, in which case he ceases to be an effective writer.‟ (ngugi 101) on the other hand they could „become a state functionary, an option some kenyan writers have now embraced, and once again cease to be an effective writer of the people.‟ (ngugi 101) the second predicament faced by the writers was that of language. if a writer chooses to support the proletariat and the peasantry and writes in english, his voice may not reach the common mass for whom he is writing: „isn't the writer perpetuating, at the level of cultural practice, the very neo-colonialism he is condemning at the level of economics and that of political parties?‟(ngugi 101). in the later part of the essay ngugi has come up with an important suggestion that a writer should choose to align himself with the common mass. he should take part „in the song the people sing as once again they take up arms to smash the neo-colonial state to complete the anti-imperialist national democratic revolution they had started in the fifties, and even earlier‟(ngugi 102). ngugi in writers in politics (1981) wrote: “cultural imperialism which during colonialism often affected the population and the country unevenly depending on the colonial policies of the marauding powers and the degree of resistance in each country and in different parts s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [142] of the country becomes the major agency of control during neocolonialism.”(5) as a writer ngugi wrote more against cultural imperialism and neo-colonialism than economic and political one. it is quite obvious that he was much anxious about kenya`s cultural and literary dilution and exploitation besides economic and political epilepsy. incidentally, cultural neo-colonialism can be defined as a continuation of cultural imperialism in the colonies by the imperialist powers after the achievement of independence. it is evident that cultural neocolonial oppression gained firm foothold by ideological brain washing of the mass. thiong‟o‟s literary corpus is variegated. novel for ngugi wa thiongo is a powerful tool not only for writing back to the colonialist historiography of africa in general and kenya in particular but also for enunciating a „homecoming‟for forming a nationalist consciousness. neocolonialism in kenya has always pained him. the dystopian pitfall of the dreams for independence has threatened his romantic vision projected in the novels like weep not child (1964) and the river between (1964). in his lionized essay writing against neo-colonialism (1988), thiong‟o has recorded the sad annals of kenya`s chronic suffering in the neocolonial situation. the rise of transnational monopolies in the financial sectors in a majority of nations in asia, africa, and latin america triggered the beginning of neocolonialism. the neocolonial regime resorted to imf and the world bank as two crucial tools of exploitation. financial, political and military interference of the colonialist empires, supported by the ruling class of the victimized nations, nullified the significance of freedom stained the unhappy past of anti-colonial struggles: „dependence abroad, repression at home, became the national motto‟ (98). thiong‟o has unequivocally traced the watermarks of the watermarks of those unholy relations that collaborated in the decadence of kenya: at the beginning of the decade kenya was a fairly „open society‟ in the sense that kenyans could still debate issues without fear of prison. but as the ruling party under kenyatta and later under moi cementing the neo-colonial links to the west, the kenya regime became more and more intolerant of any views that questioned neo-colonialism. (100) s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [143] thiong‟o‟s novels like a grain of wheat (1967), petals of blood (1977), devil on the cross (1980), and matigari (1986) successfully capture ngugi‟s attitude to kenyan neocolonialism. each of the four novels mentioned above encapsulates ngugi‟s rancorous critique of neo-colonisation of kenya under the fine unraveling of fiction. ngugi has prescribed certain measures to move the centre from the europhilia to a pan african linguistic consciousness in order to thwart the operation of neocolonialism. his suggestions may be summed up in three points given below: in the schools and teacher training colleges african literature and the literature of african people in the west indies and america should be principally taught. imported literature should be relevant the african situation. a positive critical outlook towards literature should be formed. his first published novel weep not child (1964), published under the name james ngugi, critiques the british colonial rule in kenya. it also deals with the historical event mau mau uprising in kenya and the anti-colonial struggles. interestingly, the novel focuses the disillusionment of njoroge, a student dreaming of offering enlightenment to the enslaved mass of kenya as an alternative to armed anti-colonial struggles. his second novel the river between (1964) extends the theme dealt in weep not child (1964). it offers a kikuyu view of the colonial war, the mau mau emergency and underlines the importance of a lost heritage of east african through the character waiyaki. ngugi seems to emphasize the impossibility of the indigenous kikuyu culture and the christian enlightenment negotiation. in 1967 came his one of the most popular novel a grain of wheat that severely criticizes the native predators like mugo who receives kudos from the innocent natives but connived at the demolition of kenyan anti-colonial movement by betraying kihika, a freedom fighter to the imperialist power. fanon in “the pitfalls of national consciousness” (the wretched of the earth) has significantly criticized these native middle class who embodies the limbo of national consciousness: the national middle class which takes over power at the end of the colonial regime is an underdeveloped middle class. it has practically no economic power, and in any case it is in no way s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [144] commensurate with the bourgeoisie of the mother country which it hopes to replace. in its narcissism, the national middle class is easily convinced that it can advantageously replace the middle class of the mother country. but that same independence which literally drives it into a corner will give rise within its ranks to catastrophic reactions, and will oblige it to send out frenzied appeals for help to the former mother country. (149) ngugi`s embracing of fanonist marxism in the novel aptly points out his maturation process as a novelist who is no more interested in the literary barometering of the armed anti-colonial movements in kenya but longs for a deeper investigation into the psyche of the nationalist consciousness. the retrospection of the past, the conscientization of the „pitfalls of national consciousness‟ (fanon) and the thrilling divulging of mugo`s secrets undoubtedly anticipate his stepping into the realm of neocolonialist criticism. the time frame ngugi used in the novel is that of four days leading up to kenya`s independence in december 1963. the novel faithfully captures the post-emergency period in kenya (the emergency was declared in 1952 to suppress the mau mau rebellion). very surprisingly, despite the promise of freedom (uhuru), reflected on the cornea of every kenyan, to be achieved at last just after four days, the expected jubilation is diluted with suspicion, guilt and anxiety. mugo is the central character of the novel who seems to love to be confined within his private space of silence. mugo becomes a hero after his suffering in the detention camp as a colonial victim. mugo is a recluse who turns away from company and tills his land silently. on the contrary, kihika is the man of spirit who knows how to sacrifice himself to the cause of his country. kihika had fled into the jungle to join the mau mau. after assassinating do robson, kihika had taken refuge at mugo‟s but was captured and hanged in rung`ei market. it is gradually revealed that for kihika‟s capture mugo was responsible. it was mugo who had betrayed him to the imperialist power: you asked for judas‟, he started. “you asked for the man who led kihika to this tree, here. that man stands before you, now. kihika came to me by night. he put his life into my hands, and i sold it to the white man. and this thing has eaten into my life all these years” (218). mugo‟s betrayal can be described as one of the „cracks in the edifice which show the process of retrogression, that is so harmful and prejudicial to national effort and national unity‟ (fanon 149). s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [145] in writers in politics (1981) thiong‟o made a significant comment regarding his novel petals of blood: no country, no people can be truly independent for as long as their economy and culture are dominated by foreigners! … this was what i was trying to show in petals of blood: that imperialism can never develop our country or develop us, kenyans (96-7). ngugi in his phenomenal work something torn and new: an african renaissance has pointed out the chromosomal factors that played crucial role to pave the way for neocolonialism in africa in general and kenya in particular. mugo in ngugi‟s a grain of wheat is such a character who received hero worship from the common mass but connived at the obliteration of the anti-colonial struggle. ngugi has repeatedly complained against the african consciousness that put „whiteness‟ at the centre and denied the class. in other words, the senility of the african people got overpowered by the youthful vigour of the europeans who always attempted to „augment its national coffers (82).‟ ngugi in his theoretical works like writers in politics (1981) has belched his anger for the recent linguistic exploitation in kenya and other african nations. in detained (1981) he continued the same revolting attitude against the neocolonial felony conglomerate: in a neo-colonial country, the act of detaining patriotic democrats, progressive intellectuals and militant workers speaks of many things. it is first an admission by the detaining authorities that their official lies labeled as new philosophy, their pretensions often hidden in three-piece suits and golden chains, their propaganda packaged as religious truth, their plastic smile ordered from abroad….(12) it is evident from ngugi‟s comment that as a writer he has journeyed a long path. his earlier novels dealing with his scathing critique of colonization widened his literary scope to criticize neocolonialism in kenya in particular and africa in general. the political vision of ngugi reflected in weep not child, the river between and a grain of wheat was being oriented towards the contemporary neocolonial situation in kenya. if a grain of wheat captures the ambivalence of nationalism in kenya, petals of blood caricatures the myths of independence in the post-independence arena. banking heavily on flashback technique the novel deals with multiple themes like the malice of s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [146] capitalism, modernization and neocolonialism, the post-independence crisis and disillusionment and finally the exploitation of women. set in ilmorog, an underdeveloped village suffering from grinding poverty, petals of blood (1977) is a heart rending tragedy of four characters, munira, karega, wanja and abdulla. abdulla, the demystified mau mau rebel runs a wine shop, an occupation that is ironic to his past heroism. both munira and karega are untrained organised teachers at the new ilmorog primary school. karega is the only character who speaks the author`s voice. it was karega who organized the mammoth journey to the village mp in nairobi to seek respite for the impoverished villagers. wanja is the only female character of the novel that is given a voice. her marginalization is ambivalent. she works at the wine shop of abdulla as a barmaid. clearly, ngugi used wanja as a representative of thousands of kenyan women. two men, munira and karega play significant role in her life. her romantic or rather anti-romantic trysts with both of them fall flat. disillusioned she opened a brothel. wanja is ngugi‟s symbol of kenya itself suffering under the yoke of a new disease, the cankerous neocolonialism. brendon nicholls in “paternity, illegitimacy and intertextuality”, figuring in ngugi wa thiong`o, gender and ethics of postcolonial reading has commented: “the novel`s generic predicament and its ideological predicament both emerge out of its gendering of the nation .its privileged model of gikuyu femininity is „mother kenya‟, and its subordinate construction is of the gikuyu woman as a fallen woman who translates a prostituted economy” (122). wanja, „equipped with an extremely durable vagina‟ (boehemer 193) symbolizes the „ravaged state of kenya‟ (boehemer 47). the voyeuristic desires of both karega and munira for wanja are telescoped into the male chauvinism that has ever privileged culture over nature. despite her individuality as a woman she fails to rise above the androcentric system and ended up accepting the role of a prostitute. ngugi has made a significant comment in the „preface‟ to detained: a writer`s prison diary (1981): in a neo-colony, foreign capital aided by a corrupt bourgeoisie becomes so arrogant that it even pokes its fingers into the noses of fledgling national capital and growls: 'out of my way, fellah! let me and me alone exploit the labour of your workers.' when some of the nationals complain, the owners of foreign capital, s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [147] i.e., the imperialist bourgeoisie or their spokesmen, act hurt and uncomprehending: 'what's wrong with some of you? (xv) devil on the cross (1982), written during ngugi‟s days of solitary imprisonment, critiques the fossilization of kenya and kenyan people. the title words parody the christian myth of sacrifice and at the same time anticipates poetic justice for the devils of neocolonialism. the main action of the novel centers round a journey undertaken by a group of six protagonists by a matatu taxi to ilmorog. the protagonists, namely wariinga, wangari, gatuiria, muturi, mwireri and mwaura, gradually discover that they have been mysteriously invited to a devil‟s feast arranged for the election of seven cleverest thieves and robbers. the local thieves, the kenyan natives, collaborate with their foreign allies to loot and rob the country. the portrayal of the grotesque in depicting the physical deformity of the devils caricatures the institutions of neocolonialism. in moving the centre: the struggle for cultural freedom, studies in african literature ngugi records his return to linguistic nativity by choosing gikuyu language and abjuring english to write matigari: then in 1983/4 i wrote matigari, a novel of return, in the gikuyu language, and i felt a sense of belonging such as i felt when in 1978 at kamiti maximum security prison in cell no. 16, i had written caitaani mutharabaini (devil on the cross) as an attempt to reconnect myself to the community from which i had been so brutally cut by the neo-colonial regime its kenya (124). the publication of matigari (1986), as ngugi records in the selfsame text, triggered astute controversy. rumours spread about the fictional protagonist matigari that he is a real life heroa representative of millions of kenyans. president moi ordered matigari‟s arrest and “matigari was „arrested‟ and removed from all book shops in nairobi and from the publisher`s warehouse” (175). matigari opens with a utopian dream that every kenyan must have dreamt during the sooty colonial daysthe dream of kenya as a land of joy, brotherhood and emancipation. matigari came out of a dense forest with a hope that „the last of the colonial problems had disappeared with the descent of settler williams into hell‟ (3). needless to say, the irony of matigari‟s hope constitutes neocolonial kenya. njoroges` dreams (weep not, child) did not turn to be true after the achievement of flag independence. s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [148] however, matigari buried his arms under a huge mugumo, a fig tree and wore the girdle of peace to „go back to my house and rebuild my home‟ (5). home and homecoming become the chief motif of the novel and the possibility of homecoming is deferred eternally to suggest the impossibility of nationalist negotiation. ngugi was evidently rebuilding his dream of real independence on a symbolic aspectwith the reconstruction of the myths of home and homecoming. an important remark from thiong‟o‟s homecoming is worth mentioning: “we must in fact wholly africanize and socialize our political and economic life. we must break with capitalism, whose imperialistic stage that of colonialism and neocolonialism”(12). ngugi‟s call for pan-africanism is firmly rooted in his vision of home and homecoming. in matigari home becomes a tropea desire of return: “he tried to visualize his home. in his mind`s eye he could see the hedges and the rich fields so clearly. just another climb, the final climb, and then he would be homehis home on the top of the hill” (2). but the possibility of matigari‟s homecoming is threatened by the marks of neocolonial oppression and exploitation visible everywhere he visits. the cultural and economic death of the kenyans is sarcastically telescoped into the death of language. if petals of blood is chiefly founded upon physical action and journeys to survey the post-colonial kenya, matigari is a search for the „imagined communities.‟ the reiterated references to the „voice of truth‟ (thiong‟o‟s satire is palpable!) construct a postmodern simulated space of the imperialist power that rules remotely not only with capitalism but with voices also: “…this is the voice of truth… all gatherings of more than five people have been banned by a decree of his excellence ole excellence. no explanations were offered for the ban.” (7) the use of cacophony becomes a significant motif in the text. ngugi was freely using phonetic discordance probably to paint a typical neocolonial situation in kenya, when human voices of truth are over shrouded with multiple synthetic and simulated voices of power. the palimpsest of sound is woven brilliantly within the corpus of the novel to critique neocolonial cultural hegemony, to protest the theft of voices by the imperialist powers. matigari‟s search for the home space constitutes ngugi‟s nostalgic vision of nation myths. his innocent bafflement to see the bare bodied children suffer annihilates the dream of cultural, economic and linguistic emancipation: „but why are the children running away from the tractor? my s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [149] children…!‟ (10) the struggle of the children in the rubbish heap for patches of clothes, bits of rubber, shoe soles, leather etc. distinctly indicates the perpetuation of colonial exploitation even after kenya‟s independence. matigari‟s love for the children is almost maternal. his dreams of home are severely castrated by the anti-oedipal threats of neocolonialism. besides matigari the representation of guthera attracts much critical attention. guthera is a prostitute who hates the policemen since they are responsible for the death of her father. but in the course of the novel she sleeps with one to free matigari from the prison. the presentation of guthera may seem to be objectionable but it is a common fate with many women in the neocolonial situation. guthera symbolizes the „prostituted economy‟ (nicholls) of kenya terrible dependent on the imperialist powers. all the four novels namely a grain of wheat (1967), petals of blood (1986), matigari (1987), and devil on the cross (1980) capture ngugi‟s nationalist vision brilliantly. fanon`s criticism of the nationalist bourgeoisies and their neocolonial mentally find an impetus in these four novels by ngugi in which he has critiqued neocolonialism in unequivocal tone. he has catapulted caustic criticism against the middle class of africa who derived power from the common people during the anti-colonial struggles and after independence derived it to „form a cozy relationship with the western bourgeoisie‟ (ngugi 81). s. k. nag fighting neocolonialism: a case study of the selected novels of ngugi wa thiong’o epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [150] references boehmer, elleke. 2009. “the master`s dance to the master`s voice.” stories of women: gender and narative in the postcolonial nation. uk: manchester library press. print. fanon, frantz. 1969. towards the african revolution: political essays. trans. haakon chevalier. new york: grove press. print. ---. 2005. “the pitfalls of national consciousness.” wretched of the earth. trans. constance farrington. new york: grove press. print. nkrumah, nwame. 1980. neo-colonialism: the last stage of imperialism. new york: international publishers. print. mwaura, ndiranga. 2005. kenya today: breaking the yoke of colonialism in africa. new york: algora publishing. print. nicholls, brendon. 2010. ngugi wa thiong’o gender and ethics of postcolonial reading. england: ashgate publishing limited. print. thiong‟o, ngugi wa. 2002. a grain of wheat. london: penguin books. print. ---. 1981. detained: a writer`s prison diary. kenya: heinemann educational books ltd. print. ---. 1987. devil on the cross. east africa: heinemann. print. ---. 1981. homecoming. london: heinemann. print. ---. 1987. matigari. usa: heinemann. print. ---. 1993. moving the centre: the struggle for cultural freedom, studies in african literature. nairobi: east african education publishers ltd. print. ---. 2005. petals of blood. usa: penguin books. print. ---. 2009. something torn and new: an african renaissance. new york: basic civitas books. print. ---. 1965. the river between. oxford: heinemann. print. ---. 1988. weep not child. oxford: heinemann. print. ---. 1981. writers in politics: studies in african literature. usa: heinemann. print. ---. 1988. “writing against neo-colonialism.” criticism and ideology. ed. kristen holst petersen. sweden: bohuslaningens boktryckeri ab, uddevalla. print. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 personal narrative on the education processes in bosnia-herzegovina j. cynthia mcdermott * lejla panjeta abstract the first section of this paper describes briefly the history of education reform in the former yugoslavia. under the leadership of josip broz tito (1892-1980), who made a significant and lasting commitment to education, vast improvements were made in the educational system. the significant legislative reforms in the education system were introduced under tito’s regime. then, this paper also weaves together the personal narrative of professor lejla panjeta, a student during the 1472 day s iege of sarajevo. students’ commitment to receive t h e education regardless of the physical dangers clearly reflects the role of education in a modern context. the p a p e r concludes with a brief analysis of the post-conflict educational process in bosnia-herzegovina. keywords: bosnian war, university of sarajevo, education, josip broz tito, 1472, siege of sarajevo, conflict and former yugoslavia * corresponding author: j. cynthia mcdermott, ed.d. antioch university los angeles (aula), 400 corporate pointe culver city, ca 90230, usa, e-mail: cmcdermott@antioch.edu corresponding author: lejla panjeta, ph.d., associate professor, international university of sarajevo (ius), faculty of arts and social sciences (fass), sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: lpanjeta@ius.edu.ba mailto:cmcdermott@antioch.edu mailto:lpanjeta@ius.edu.ba j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [273] bosnia-herzegovina’s picturesque and ancient city of sarajevo, host to the 1984 winter olympics, was torn asunder from april 6, 1992 until february 29, 1996 when it was caught in a war that eventually contributed towards breakup of yugoslavia. the city suffered in a siege that lasted for more than four years. during that time, however, many attempts were made to continue with the education process, which in effect demonstrated the deeply rooted belief of the former yugoslavia citizens about the importance of education. receiving an education was so significant that it overpowered the fear and daily brutality of war, giving sarajevo’s citizens the courage to walk to class in the random death and destruction of artillery shells and sniper fire raining down on the population. what drives someone to keep their wits and spirit under such circumstances? lejla panjeta, a student during the time of the sarajevo siege and now a professor, sits in a chair, her back to a window overlooking the city sipping a cup of bosnian coffee. she talks about the importance of education for herself and many fellow students during this time of violence and strife: from home to school you might run into a speck of blood on the sidewalk, a piece of brain in the grass or a part of a liver on a twig. we would avoid the intersection where there was shooting and wait for the right moment to avoid getting shot at and if we avoided a sniper’s bullet, we won a small victory. we would arrive at school and sit quietly while shells burst outside, with the walls shaking, with the glassless windows covered with waving unprofor's nylon foil (united nations protecting forces), which we wanted to believe had the power to protect us from death itself. the territory of the former yugoslavia (the socialist federal republic of yugoslavia sfrj) has a 3000-year history. for centuries, the balkans has been an important geopolitical region, described historically as the crossroads between the east and west. throughout time, the balkans were a prized territory, desired and occupied by romans, ottomans, austro-hungarians, and during the world war ii by nazis. yugoslavia came into existence as a result of world war i and was ruled by kings. with the fall of the austria-hungary empire at the end of wwi, the victors created a new country comprising of many j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [274] different ethnic groups including peoples from serbia, montenegro, kosovo, slovenia, macedonia, croatia and bosnia. the first education institution in bosnia and herzegovina was established by gazi husrev bey in 1531 as the high school of sufi philosophy where three classical academic fields at the time were taught: theology, law, philosophy (čaklovica 2010). the first university library was founded here also. in 1937 josip broz tito, who had established himself as an organizer and supporter of the common person, had become the head of the yugoslav communist party. through his efforts and with the determination of thousands of partisan citizens, yugoslavia was liberated from nazi occupation in 1945. from 1945 to 1963, tito acted as prime minister and president of the federal executive council and the first p resident of yugoslavia. in 1963, tito was named president for life. unlike most socialist leaders at the time, tito was well respected by many inside and outside his country. tito died in 1980, thrusting his unified yugoslavia into civil war, chaos and political instability, eventually leading to the war that engulfed sarajevo and many parts of the former yugoslavia. tito’s life was deeply devoted to the worker and unions as an outspoken supporter of communism. as a result, tito held a firm belief in the concept of self-determination. he created within yugoslavia a form of socialism that was eventually identified as “titoism.” of particular interest for this paper are the education policies and practices during tito’s reign. his aims for education matched his socialistic perspective. according to krste crvenkovski (1961), a minister of education and culture in former yugoslavia, tito believed in the power of education and wanted all citizens to have an opportunity to advance within the limits of their mental capacities throughout their lifetime. the people of yugoslavia enthusiastically embraced tito’s vision. evidence of how important education became for the citizens of yugoslavia can be understood by viewing their risk-taking under unbearable economic and social conditions that the war created. according to professor lejla’s recollection: j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [275] our school life during the siege was bizarre. there were no grades, evaluations, debating or powerpoint presentations. there were no such things as websites or url references. although at the time these were just beginning to sneak into the academic work worldwide. we used worn out pens and old agendas. we borrowed typewriters and used improvised wick lanterns to write term papers or articles since there was no electricity. we didn’t have to worry about violating copyright laws by xeroxing books for one simple reason: there were no books for the students or teachers. they were blown to bits in shelling or burned for fuel to keep people alive. sometimes a stray book saved from the faculty or a university library, or someone's private collection surfaced. we knew the value of what we had, since that book could have been used to warm a room or heat a lunch. the students attending t h e university during this war were not just a dedicated few. there were many who understood that the future to finding a solution to the complex issues facing sarajevo and the region was education. the importance of an open and free educational system was considered a basic birth right for those struggling to educate themselves in sarajevo. in that sense, tito’s ideas about the importance of access to higher education had succeeded on a grand scale. the w r i t i n g a n d d e v e l o p m e n t of the constitution was k e y t o t h e c r e at i o n of a national school system. basic principles were constructed and affirmed: the standard of complete democracy in schooling and the equality of nations and their right to be educated, the principle of school secularization and the principle of the education of youngsters in accordance with the accomplishments of the spirit of the fight for national liberation. after wide discussion and deliberation, all schools and teaching institutions embraced the spirit of these principles. in 1954, committees across yugoslavia adopted the general law on education. a c c o r d i n g t o p e t a r ţ i v o j n o v i ć ( 1 9 5 9 ) d uring the session of the federal people’s assembly in june 1958 the following aims for education were incorporated: to (a) enable the young generation to contribute with their work based on modern scientific and technical results towards the constant development of social and productive forces; (b) strengthen the socialistic social bases in order to increase the common material and cultural situation; (c) improve individual progress of any working man; (d) develop awareness of social j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [276] responsibility in young people’s minds and to provoke their active participation in social life and social self-management; and (e) improve physical education of youths in order to increase working abilities and healthy life of an individual (article 3) (pp. 469-477). tito’s expectations for the country were clear: advance the population through education. concepts such as life-long learning and adult education were incorporated into each education level and access became available to all. article 38 of the constitution of the fnrj (the federal people's republic of yugoslavia) from 31 february 1946 points out: in order to achieve a higher level of the general culture of the people, schools and other teaching institutions are available to all the classes of people. the state owns the schools; they could be private if they are allowed to be, but under the state’s control. basic education is compulsory and free of charge. schools are separated from the church. professor reaches for a cookie from a plate on the table, looks out the window and continues: the complete works of kardelj and tito cooked the most of our food. communism had collapsed, but in a most ironic sense it was still feeding its people. during the siege of the university of sarajevo, material manifestations of knowledge were all destroyed, including every building and all books. classes took place anywhere. there were professors who were afraid to come out into the street so they held classes in their homes. there were some who never left their shelters for a year. on the other hand, the majority of “twisted” professors came to their lectures and pretended that nothing unusual was happening. zivojnović (1959) comments further to elaborate on tito’s vision and states, “the internal life and work of the schools should contribute to the development of initiative, independent activity and the cultural level of the work of the pupil; to getting accustomed to independent, thorough study, development of interest in things, independent judgment and critical spirit to development of social life among pupils and mutual respect and confidence between pupils and teachers” (p. 474). j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [277] crvenkovski (1961) asserted that further efforts of reform occurred with the passage of the law of july 1960 with the intention of creating a system that was coherent and, more importantly, would further democratize the school system. a significant desire on the part of the educational reformers was to have traditional ethnic, religious and the more virulent national identities automatically disappear as greater industrialization, literacy and urbanization ware achieved (noah, 20062007, 49). tomich (1963) insisted that the education in yugoslavia was much more than the mere acquisition of knowledge. it should become a national symbol to a people who, for many centuries, were subjected to foreign domination and prevented from acquiring a high degree of literacy (filipović, 1974, 525-532). filipović furthermore explained that the reform continued and in 1970 the resolution on the development of education on an autonomous basis was passed and further supported the ideals of life long learning, adult learning and self determination at the local level. from 1954 until tito’s death in 1980, education in yugoslavia was guided by these ideals. the professor pours another cup of coffee into her cup and continues: the university had a social responsibility for transferring knowledge and social understanding to the younger generations as described in the 1954 aims for education. as tito understood it, it is through education that a sense of community is developed. that is what the university provided; a sense of belonging. we had nothing during the war, but we were students at the university of sarajevo. we studied in sarajevo. we were part of a community in sarajevo and we had a sense of belonging and support. the university of sarajevo stood because we were the students at the university of sarajevo. the academicians taught because we all belonged to the university of sarajevo. it was there for us, and we were there for it. the strength of the commitment instilled in yugoslavia citizens about the importance of education is remarkably demonstrated in the following account of the former student, now professor, who lived through the siege of sarajevo. j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [278] if there was a massacre, it was an excellent excuse for coming late to the lecture, but these “freaks” were not turning a blind eye. these “weirdoes” (but perhaps we as active students in a war zone were as well) were our true standard of normality. to be normal—where everything is abnormal and turned on its head for such a long time, means to be normal. being abnormal in a world where anything is abnormal, means trying to maintain a modicum of normality. and that norm is not determined by your profession, but by your life calling. being a teacher and a student, but both at the same time (because the real teachers never give up their need for knowledge) meant to hope for life during the siege. not knowing when the next bomb or sniper shot would strike meant living was an attempt to take just a few more moments in this world to explore the important questions in life and to continue to ask questions. being a student meant to fight for the indestructibility of knowledge, not only in material forms, but in that form of spiritual passion for discovery and learning. we needed to feel alive and this was reflected in the experience of survival through the adrenaline rush that the mere attending of the classes created. “being” meant having the curiosity of a child for the world around us, no matter how bizarre or nonsensical that world appeared. we faced the dilemma of a new kind of normality in the state of siege. we had to find something to “be” and in this case the learning is "being." this kind of escapism (which to outside eyes may have seemed odd) helped preserve normality. we lived for the moment! we did not need yoga, fitness classes, fancy gyms, meditation, or other new age "live in the moment” techniques. we were healthy in mind because we lived a surrealist vision of what was abnormal— which become normal. we were looking death in the eye daily and simply made the existential choice worthy of hamlet; we made the decision: “to be." when we were assigned the well-known essay topic “from home to school” the daily journey became a question of “to be or not to be.” to be late at the lecture meant an absence from class, but sometimes for some of us even an absence from life. escapism through learning was a form of gratitude for surviving the moment. imagine yourself under these circumstances. if you were in high school during the siege, at 15 or 16 in 1992, today you would be 35 or 36 in 2012. if you live in bosnia-herzegovina as this part of the former yugoslavia is now called, you most likely have started a family. you will be working, perhaps even finishing up an advanced degree. if you were a university student in 1992, your life as a student was so significantly j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [279] tormented by the war but, as this narrative describes, education made surviving the war less complicated: classes took place and we tried to have fun as before. when there was no shooting we sat in the parks and playgrounds playing unplugged guitar and singing without electricity. all in all, our student days passed by in the illusion of normality. everything was the same, except that everything was different. in fact, we were different, and everything was different, and so it seemed in a strange way that everything was the same. you would answer a question about polyvalent chemical compounds, but condensed air escaped from your mouth because the room was freezing and there was no heat. a professor normally listens to your answer and records a grade. but there were no grade books. some were luckier than others and managed to retain their pre-war grade books or managed to acquire those unused books from before the war that still bore that country image of the ears of corn and the red five-pointed stars, the yugoslavian coat of arms symbol. red colour took on a greater significance; it became a bleeding red symbol. red colour was everywhere, both on our symbols and on our streets. but it was gone, either because there were not books and texts with our symbols or it was the blood of our neighbours. and eventually the blood and the red were gone, because either the rain washed it from the streets or by the solidarity of the citizens. there were so many killed, and each death was known. there was the place where the guy from the fifth floor lost his head; this was where those girls were massacred. we began to feel that a demon hovered in those places and they were avoided. but they soon became something like a sacred place and the more time passed, more of these holy places appeared. each piece of sidewalk became a sacred place and in the holy sarajevo, everything became holy. everything can have dual symbolism. the s iege began on april 6, 1992 and ended on february 29, 1996 and during that horrific time a level of education continued in spite of the destruction of almost every building and the daily death of faculty, staff and students. the professor relates an experience not long ago illustrating the abstract, often surreal differences in conscious acceptance: recently, i visited the u.s. to give a lecture about bosnian film. on the second day of lectures the snow began to fall and all the classes were cancelled. there was not much snow on the streets j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [280] but the university was concerned about the condition of the roads and especially on the campus where a traffic accident could happen. because of these unsuitable conditions, a potential victim might sue the university. this incident reminded me of our university and the dissimilarity of the dramatic situation. we were forced to cancel classes due to heavy showers of shells but in the states it was simply freezing rain. of course we had no one to sue and no one to hold accountable. why did education continue when there was so much to lose by venturing out on the streets within site of the snipers? the answers to that question are the key to understanding the commitment to education that was instilled in the former yugoslavia. russo (2000) states that throughout the war years schools in sarajevo, home to about 400,000 people at that time, remained open. more than 1600 children and 15,000 adults were killed. but given the key role that education played in unifying the former yugoslavia it did not happen by accident that schools, pre-school institutions and faculties were the target of the aggression. it also speaks to the commitment to education of the people under the siege: i was a student during the war, and now i am a lecturer. perhaps there was no state as we knew and fought for, but there was the university of sarajevo. when so much and so many did not survive, when there was no electricity, water or food, and when death was taking its toll, the university continued. my only real sense of belonging, which can be compared with a sense of belonging to a system, is my feeling that i have for the university of sarajevo, based on memories of studying during the siege. the university of sarajevo stood against the insanity of the war, but i r o n i c a l l y it was also clear that three professors were among the group that planned and launched the war. the key figures of the serbian democratic party (sds) were biljana plavšić, professor of biology; nikola koljević, professor of english and most infamously, radovan karadţić, psychiatrist, clinic center of the university in sarajevo. fear of contact with those who are different creates a nationalistic and religious beast of a man, and erases all the knowledge j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [281] and breadth of education. this was what gave the justification for the destruction and madness, devastation and bloodshed. these people and of course many others were madly frightened of others, and they did everything to attack other people so their fear could be justified. the system of general education in the former yugoslavia had more strengths than weaknesses in comparison to other education system throughout the world. the only drawback of the old system of education was that students were not given enough experience to understand the benefits of self-esteem and the consequences of propaganda. tito’s legacy did not last long enough to implement the aims of education to help the nation to stand against such propaganda. in yugoslavia the education system was lacking only one thing—instilling confidence and self-consciousness in students. their fear of the teacher, developed in the early years of the development of a child’s personality, prevented students from developing critical thinking. this allowed the conceptual designers of the siege of sarajevo to manipulate the insecurity of the people. the tribal awareness of the people educated prior to the tito’s reforms was simply connected to the archetypes of good and evil. the people were subconsciously divided between an “us and them.” the result is homogenization with strong nationalist tendencies and stereotyped propaganda about the evils of others (them). this creates an urge to defend us, even if the actual threat is only a manipulated illusion. the need for defence becomes an attack, so it creates war and genocide. tito’s great concern that a nationalistic fever could destroy yugoslavia unfortunately came true. the resistance of the students and professors against the madness that descended from the hills, where the death and mutilation of sarajevo began, was a copy of dali's dreams. surrealism was created as a response to the meaninglessness and absurdity of war, bloodshed and destruction. that was the cry of the subconscious and repressed in dreams for preserving the normality. the reality of our actual possession and manipulated obsession in our "possessors'" subconscious is normality of abnormal in surrealism, which were guarded by professors and students at the university of sarajevo. that is what allowed us to survive the madness of war. we looked at dali’s reality in the eyes j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [282] and saw the meaning and meaninglessness of life and death. if we avoided shelling that day, we pretended to continue living as we did in our previous lives. we played a game with our professors. we pretended that everything was as it had been before. they, in turn, also lived their pre-war lives and enjoyed the authority they previously had. if the work you typed all night by candlelight on an old borrowed typewriter was not good, it could be used as a fire starter in stoves that were heating classrooms in which the sheet of unprofor (united nations protecting forces) nylon waved instead of glass in the windows. this experience should be a constant reminder to the coming generations. such a formula can be recognized in the language of hatred, in manipulating the archetypes of good and evil, and propaganda stereotypes that arouse our tribal consciousness and hatred. the next generations need to recognize and destroy this virus of racism and violence. the fear of the different we can overcome by learning about others and therefore there is no greater joy than winning the battle over pernicious propaganda and ignorance. from these reminiscences there is still a lot more to learn. misfortune, pain and trauma can be the greatest teacher. the normal psyche in each of us tends to forget things, deny and repress reality. because we have survived the trauma, we think it cannot come back. but it can, just as it is happening today in libya, afghanistan, iraq, palestine, bahrain, egypt, yemen, japan and elsewhere. the university of sarajevo survived the siege, thanks to students and teachers for whom learning gave hope and endurance. knowledge enables us, if properly assimilated, to be free. let us hope that no one ever has to endure and experience such a surrealistic nightmare that occurred in sarajevo. the treatise, 1479 days, the siege of university of sarajevo, states: despite the unbearable difficulties of living in the city under the siege, exams were (being) passed, ma/msc, and phd degrees awarded and the most important academic debates were conducted. that grit and resistance in the greatest difficulties and troubles is proof of an unbreakable spirit of this city and this people of power, strength and will to survive the cataclysm with heads up. university teachers living in sarajevo showed the whole world that the dignity of the academic community can be defended even under horrifying conditions, and they showed it by doing their job with love, teaching students about the values of humanity and inheritances of civilization, about antifascism and humanism about patriotism and solidarity. … aware of tragedy, filled with bitterness, pain and contempt for the monsters that conducted the siege of the city and committing countless crimes j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [283] against its citizens, we give you this testimony. hordes, guided by criminal hatred, attempt to wipe out one spirit, one people, one city, one university, through genocide and barbarity. by this overview we want to show them they did not succeed in their attempts. our testimony must not stay untold and it deserves a place in world history annals, as a message, a lesson and a reminder (čaklovica, 2010). an important conclusion can be made about the ongoing concern about the loss of pride and patriotism that the citizens of the former yugoslavia felt toward their education. today it is not uncommon to hear young and old alike state that education before the war was far better than post-war education. since the signing of the general framework for peace in bosnia-herzegovina (also known as the dayton accords) which was completed in november 1995 and signed in paris on december 14 th , 1995, territory divisions were created and in many instances allowed the divisions of ethnic minorities and practices to be supported. several other key factors seem to be at work, as well. first, the education system is no longer centralized, relying instead on a highly regional network of canton education ministries who do not work together on issues such as curriculum and nationalistic concerns. secondly and more problematic is the recent addition of religious education in the public schools. this is a very significant change from the yugoslavia era where church and state were strictly separated. children and their families may choose to participate, however the choice non-participation can be quite difficult for a child who practices a religion that is not taught at their particular school. it is not uncommon for schools to offer 2 separate curriculums in the same building, hence the expression “two schools under one roof.” a third major change is that after the war textbooks began to cover material that is ethnically slanted. local history for one particular ethnic group might well suggest that other groups are inferior in some way. the sense is the creation of the “us and them” dichotomy described previously. from the previous socialist perspective, the education system supported the ideology of brotherhood, patriotism, and selfdetermination for the improvement of the society. today these three new “innovations” can be seen as taking the country backwards and j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [284] perhaps re-establishing the ideals that led to the war and the siege. the hope for the return to a former state of excellent education lies with the many educators who express concern about the segregation and religiosity currently in place. together with the families in the communities, a choice for who governs makes a difference. given the status quo, the system encourages children to disrespect each other. that certainly was neither tito’s expectation nor dream nor that of his ministers. his legacy was to be a united yugoslavia with a highly educated population who could complete successfully on a global stage. the afternoon sun sets on sarajevo professor gets out of her chair to remove the cold cups of coffee and plates on the table. she stops abruptly and for a second of silence, and then begins to speak: we were sold a story about a system that we have adopted as a fictional hot water. according to this logic "if it were good it would last!" i think this logic is flawed because even though we say that "there is no state," we can say with certainty that "there is a university". under shelling or under external reforms, the university survives and will survive because of curious people seeking knowledge. today we say that, “there is no state.” obviously there is a “state” since there are laws with police, traffic is carried out properly, and we have electricity, water, food and heating. on google's map we look fine and you can see our natural beauty, a potential pyramid and the opportunity to build better highways. historical and cultural monuments are attracting people with backpacks and cameras from all over the world. we even have music for our new anthem even though it does not have words. but when we say that our country does not exist, it is because yugoslavia no longer exists. the feeling of belonging and the patriotism that was fuelled with such enthusiasm during socialism is gone. we had a deep sense of belonging, a sense of security and patriotism. human beings are social and school provided that during the war. when we say that there is no state, we are thinking about the present and future, of generations to come and in what ways will they degenerate without the support of a sense of belonging and support by civil society mechanisms. there is much that could change to take us back to the aims of the former state that instilled our sense of pride and effort in education. j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [285] the war was unnecessary; however, there are always reasons for war. once asked about his miracles, and what he abhors the most, jesus (or isaa) said the following: "the lord gave me the power to bring back the dead, to bring back eyesight to the blind and hearing to deaf, but the power to cure a fool he did not give me” (karahodţić, isa u knjigama sufija, 119). ignorance is curable, but human stupidity is not. by being in its sights, we become the victims of the propaganda of those acting to achieve power and profit. such fools are willing to start wars between brothers and neighbours, who are ready to kill children and women, to place a sniper to shoot at civilians and stray dogs on the streets in order to fulfil their goals. what was accomplished by the s iege was clearly a strengthening of the commitment to education through the university of sarajevo, but so much has been lost. j. c. mcdermott & l. panjeta personal narrative on the education processes in b&h epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [286] references beekman, linda flynn. 2004. war cake: a witness in the siege of sarajevo. clearwater, fla.: l.f. beekman. crvenkovski, krste. 1961. "ability and educational opportunity in present day yugoslavia." international review of education 7, no. 4: 1921-2001. čaklovica, faruk. 2010. 1479 days, the siege of university of sarajevo: a documentary overview of events 1992-1995. 2nd ed. sarajevo: university of sarajevo. filipović, dragomir. 1974. "lifelong learning in yugoslavia." international review of education 4, no 20: 525-532. , mehmed. 2002. isa u knjigama sufija. sa . kreso, adila. 2008. "the war and post war impact on the educational system of bosnia and herzegovina." international review of education no 3/4, 54: 353-374. russo, charles. 2000. "religion and education in bosnia: integration not segregation." european journal for education law and policy 4, no. 2: 121-129. sobe, noah. 2006-2007. "u.s comparative education research on yugoslavia education in the 1950s and 1960s." european education 4, no. 38: 44-64. šoljan, nikša. 1978. "the reform of the system of pre-service and inservice teacher training in yugoslavia: towards the educating community." international review of education 1, no. 24: 75-80. tomich, v. 1963. "education in yugoslavia and the new reform: the legal basis, organization, administration and program of the secondary schools." us department of health, education and welfare (20). ţivojnović, petar. 1959. "school reform in yugoslavia." international review of education 4, no. 5:469-477 73 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 the collapse of the white authority over the black in j. m. coetzee’s disgrace in post-apartheid south africa hassan abootalebi, phd student of english literature at kharazmi university* he continues to teach because it provides him with a livelihood; also because it teaches him humility, brings it home to him who he is in the world. the irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to teach learns the keenest of lessons, while those who come to learn learn nothing. (coetzee, disgrace) abstract the present paper is an attempt to investigate and throw some light on j. m. coetzee’s celebrated novel disgrace (1999) in south africa’s postapartheid in order to indicate the ramifications in the aftermath of apartheid in which with the subversion of the white authority, and the change in power structures of the society, the once dominant ideology presupposing the white superiority over the black fades away. through identity crisis, mimicry and violence, the white hegemony shatters and a new power structure comes into being. hence, david lurie, the protagonist along with his daughter lucy are taken as representatives of the whites that suffer both physically and psychologically and go through an identity crisis which leads them to a kind of awareness regarding their current situation in the postapartheid period. having endured and suffered some pains that are going to be presented in the subsequent sections of the current study, david and lucy draw a conclusion that there is apparently no way but co-existence and compromise between the two races. apartheid, indeed, leaves a wound for both the black and the white through conflicts and collisions between them. therefore, lucy can be regarded as the symbol of redemption and * contact: hassan abootalebi, phd student of english literature at kharazmi university, e-mail: aboutalebi.hassan2010@gmail.com. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies h. abootalebi the collapse of the white authority over the black... 74 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies reconciliation between the two races. in what follows, the word apartheid will be first defined and elaborated on, then applied to coetzee’s selected novel in order to examine and demonstrate its overarching effects on both the white and the black. keywords: coetzee, disgrace, apartheid, post-apartheid, identity crisis introduction apartheid it might be helpful, to begin with, to provide a concise introduction to apartheid. coined in the mid-1930s, the word apartheid was first utilized as a way of “expressing the importance of afrikaners maintaining a cultural identity separate from that of englishspeaking europeans in south africa” (clark & worger 2013, p. 4). it today, however, has become associated with a political and social system of segregating the non-white from the white in south africa. this policy was introduced in south africa in 1948 by the ‘national party government’ and it remained official practice until the fall from power of the party in 1994. people of different races were forced to live in separated areas and forbidden to amalgamate or interact with each other. the objective was to deny such seemingly inviolable rights as marriage, education or occupation of the non-white particularly the black. interracial marriage and the black’s owning land were as well prohibited and deemed illegal. furthermore, a large number of apartheid laws “merely elaborated on previous colonial policies and segregation legislation.” it is argued that it made an enormous difference in the south africans’ lives. the mere “brutality of its implementation” in addition to its “overarching impact” signified a ‘dramatic’ change. the change is believed to be due to “shift in race relations” (clark & worger 2013, p. 37). however, during the 1970s, which was a time of strikes by black workers and boycotts against their “oppressive working conditions, a new line of interpretation emerged and rapidly became dominant.” this literature heavily influenced by a reading of karl marx, “remarked on the benefits of apartheid to business and focused on the historical origins of many of apartheid’s most notorious features” including “racially discrimination legislation, urban segregation, migrant labor, rural poverty” promoted h. abootalebi the collapse of the white authority over the black... 75 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 and reinforced by british capitalists (p. 8). in this system people were categorized based on “their socio-economic status and cultural life style,” into three main groups: the white, the black, and the colored, with the white being the dominant and empowered class despite being the minority group compared with the black. in this horrible situation finding and pursuing a suitable career was quite difficult, and the black were coerced into doing such arduous jobs of working in mines for a pittance. moreover, due to lack of basic amenities and the apathy of the preponderantly white class, children were inflicted with a variety of diseases as a result of malnutrition and having to live in deplorable situations. consequently, the rates of mortality were on the rise. apartheid, however, provoked and sparked both internal resistance and universal condemnation through a series of clashes and violent actions with the police aiming at bringing it to an end. in addition, the situation led to coming into being of a number of campaigns and organizations advocating the black cause. in 1989, clerk’s presidency and the release from prison of nelson mandela helped apartheid reach its end. “the creation of national peace accord and democratic election in 1994 brought an end to apartheid.” the objectives of the new government as announced by clerk are as follows: first...to preserve security, safety and identity of every people and grouping south africa...second...to createon the foundation of the safeguarding of group identity, on the preservation of the right of every group to self-determination, to retain its identity and to cherish what is precious to ita spirit of co-operation between the various peoples and population groups, because we perceive that there is a multitude of common interests. (clark & worger 2013, p. 95) the most remarkable achievement of the government of national unity was the “passage of a new constitution” in december 1996. unlike those preceding it which had been mainly based on “principles of racial separation and inequality,” this new one endeavored to “heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.” it also suggested that the government be “based on the will of” its citizens, and every individual be “equally protected by law.” foremost in significance in the new constitution was “a bill of rights” which “recognized the equality of every person before the h. abootalebi the collapse of the white authority over the black... 76 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies law” and forswore discrimination of any kind on any grounds like “race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, color, sexual orientation” (p. 123). it does not mean, however, that the demise of apartheid equaled the end of black inferiority and suppression. some features persist in its aftermath. “material inequalities” and “unequal distribution of income” as well as poverty continue to shape everyday life. apartheid is also echoed in the continual relationship between “race, neighborhood and class.” the white continue to be domiciled in “well-resources areas” and even have managed to reproduce more privileges in post-apartheid. on the other hand, the black and more specifically africans who make up a large portion of population are coerced into residing in places with “compromised infrastructure and services.” it might be true that there were some changes in society engendered by the end of apartheid such as ‘dignity’ for africans, but it has not generated “real opportunity” since deprived african children tend to attend “compromised and struggling schools” entailing no ‘skills’ or ‘qualifications’ and then “enter a labor market that offers no prospects for unskilled workers” and struggle to have access to ‘healthcare’ when they are inflicted with a disease. to put it simply, south africa “remains a highly segregated society” as racial integration is sought for but hard to attain (bray, et al 2010, p. 23). discussion disgrace concerns david lurie, “fifty-two, divorced” who has “solved the problem of sex rather well” (coetzee 1999, p. 2), and who earns a living by teaching at the cape technical university in post-apartheid south africa. once a professor of modern languages, “he has been since classics and modern languages were closed down as part of the great rationalism, adjunct professor of communication” (p. 3). due to “lack of respect for the material he teaches”, david “makes no impression on his students. they look through him, forget his name” (p. 3). the company of women, furthermore, made him “a lover of women, to an extent, a womanizer” existing in “an anxious flurry of promiscuity” (p. 4). dismissed from his position on the charge of sexual harassment, david then takes refuge in his daughter’s lucy’s farmhouse. shortly after settling on the farm, he has to come to terms with the aftermath of an attack by three black men. as a h. abootalebi the collapse of the white authority over the black... 77 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 result, lucy is violently raped and david badly wounded. the novel ends with lucy being pregnant as a result of rape and being forced into marrying the black african man petrus as his third wife. one of the issues that are patently obvious in disgrace is that of identity crisis. according to homi bhabha (1994), one’s identity is constructed through interactions with others in a given community. it is not a pre-given entity which can be referred to. “the question of identification,” he says, “is never the affirmation of a pre-given identity, a self-fulfilling prophecyit is always the production of an image of identity and the transformation of the subject in assuming that object.” therefore, “the demand of identification,” he claims, requires the “representation of the subject in the differentiating order of otherness.” it is the return of an “image of identity that bears the mark of splitting in the other place from which it comes” (p. 59). we often tend to think of our identities as “pre-given and stable facts of our lives.” for bhabha, as smith (2006) puts it, however, “this comfortable feeling of the self-sufficiency of traditions, or of national or personal identity,” masks the much more “tangled and ambiguous processes by which these constructions come to have cultural compulsion.” culture is represented by “virtue of processes of iteration and translation through which their meanings are vicariously addressed to-through an other. this erases any essentialist claims for the inherent authenticity or purity of cultures” (p. 248). david’s identity depends upon the white power. once the white authority and domineering control over the black fade away, so does david’s identity. he finds it extremely difficult to accept the new power structures being unable to forget the once white dominance imposing their ideas on the black with no possibility of resistance and contradiction. furthermore, having to teach communication, and being unable to reach young students, as well as his diminishing appeal to women, make david feel displaced and helpless. david is unable to accept the new power structures, finding it hard to cope with a changing world in post-apartheid africa. he cannot thus abandon his idea of white superiority and continues his promiscuity. as soon as the white lose their power, david loses his identity. his identity, in other words, depends on colonialists’ power. he cannot repel the shadow of the dominant colonialists and separate it from his life. therefore, the forced acceptance of the realities of his existence breaks david to almost nothing. he is unwilling to accept south africa with the black as rulers. the h. abootalebi the collapse of the white authority over the black... 78 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies powerful and respected david is left an old man sitting among dogs, while petrus, the black gardener gains more control in the end. david reduces himself to animal existence: without hopes, without desires, indifferent to the future. slumped on a plastic chair amid the stench of chicken feathers and rotting apples, he feels his interest in the world draining from him drop by drop. it may take weeks, it may take months before he is held dry, but he is bleeding. when that is finished, he will be like a fly-casing in a spider web, brittle to the touch, lighter than rice-chaff, ready to float away. (coetzee 1999, p.46). a second matter to be discussed is mimicry. regarded as a theme of great significance in postcolonial studies, mimicry is employed to “describe a structural ambivalence in colonial discourse” being associated with homi bhabha. bhabha demonstrates how the colonizer “encourages the colonized to copy, internalize or mimic aspects of the colonizing culture, its behaviors, manners and values” in order to make the colonized roughly the same, but it also “opens up a disturbing rupture in the civilizing mission of colonial dominance” for the colonizer is not certain if the colonized “mimics or mocks.” mimicry, says bhabha, is both “resemblance and menace” since the “not-quite sameness” of the colonized “distorts and fractures the identity of the colonizer as he sees traces of himself in the colonized” (cuddon 2013, p. 437). mimicry is often thought of as a negative thing for when one mimics and imitates the colonizer, s/he makes an effort to appear to be like them. however, it could be positive as well for imitation is not complete. it is not one hundred percent according to what the colonizer does. one can assert their own ideas and affect some changes. it thus could be subversive. the black in disgrace try to do exactly the same that was done on the part of the white in the apartheid era. the rape of lucy can be thought of as the black revenge. they intend to retaliate against the white by making them suffer both mentally and physically. this is easily noticeable in the case of david and especially that of lucy. hence the black considers themselves as victims of apartheid who have been deprived of their inviolable rights and who have been regarded as inferiors and objects, in post-apartheid. they, by imitating the white, endeavor to make them suffer the kinds of pain that were imposed on the black by the white. the attack on the farm can, therefore, be regarded as an effort on the part of the black community to h. abootalebi the collapse of the white authority over the black... 79 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 take revenge on the white. beaten by david, pollux, one of the rapists, cries out: “we will kill you all” (coetzee 1999, p. 88). the reader can clearly notice the violence in the novel be it sexual, theft or assault. according to loomba (2005): racial and sexual violence are yoked together by images of rape, which in different forms, becomes an abiding and recurrent metaphor for colonial relations. if colonial power is expressed as a white man’s possession of black women and men, colonial fears center around the rape of white women by black men. certain ant-colonial or ant-racist activities have also problematically appropriated such a possession as an act of insurgency. (pp. 138-9) this is precisely what occurs in the novel. if during apartheid, black women used to be exploited by white men, in post-apartheid the situation is, however, reversed, with white women being raped and used by black men. the violence as depicted in disgrace is, as david concludes, the consequence of the past, apparently the white past or even humanity’s past in which those in power used to sexually abuse their subjects: “it was history speaking through them. a history of wrong. it may have seemed personal, but it wasn’t. it came down from the ancestors” (coetzee 1999, p. 66). therefore, one of the main problems in postapartheid is sexual violence. the novel depicts a disturbing picture of sexual life through david’s intercourses and lucy’s rape. throughout the novel sex remains a problem for david and he tries to solve it by using immoral practices. he takes sex to be an act of exercising his power. other forms of violence are assault and theft. david and lucy are assaulted, the dogs which lucy boards are killed, and david’s car is stolen. lucy, however, asserts that it was “so personal” (having) being done “with such personal hatred” (p. 66) and is not willing to lay the charge of her rape to the police saying that the event was “a purely private matter. in another time, in another place it might be held to be a public matter. but in this place, at this time, it is not. it is my business, mine alone” (p. 48). the violent actions and racial discriminations in post-apartheid south africa are omnipresent happening “every day, every hour, every minute...in every quarter of the country” (p. 42). david and lucy feel insecure in the country where the white have lost their privileges and are no longer in a position of power, but racial discrimination and violence are ubiquitous: h. abootalebi the collapse of the white authority over the black... 80 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies it happens every day, every hour, every minute, he tells himself, in every quarter of the country. count yourself lucky to have escaped with your life. count yourself lucky not to be a prisoner in the car at this moment, speeding away, or at the bottom of a donga with a bullet in your head. count lucy lucky, too. above all lucy. (p. 42) lucy is fully conscious of the fact that the white have been left devoid of their previous power. hence she is, despite her father’s incessant insistence to think things over in order to lay charges against petrus to the police, and to decline his offer of marriage so that he could send her to holland, inclined to compromise and keep living and working on the farm with petrus in order to begin her life from scratch: objectively i am a woman alone. i have no brothers. i have a father, but he is far away and anyhow powerless in the terms that matter here. to whom can i turn for protection, for patronage? to ettinger? it is just a matter of time before ettinger is found with a bullet in his back. practically speaking, there is only petrus left. petrus may not be a big man but he is big enough for someone small like me. and at least i know petrus. i have no illusions about him. i know what i would be letting myself in for. (p. 86) lucy then, as head (2009) claims, becomes the “victim of blackmail and extortion.” a parallel might be drawn by readers between lurie and his daughters’ rapists. this, says head, suggests a “depressing lesson in the legacy of colonialism, as power shifts and petrus’ expansionist designs on lucy’s land mirror the careless acquisitive habits of the colonizer” (p. 77). so, lucy’s refusal to report her rape to the police and her unwillingness to rationalize her decision reflect the fact that she cannot represent herself as a rape victim: ‘i can’t talk any more, david, i just can’t,’ she says, speaking softly, rapidly, as though afraid the words will dry up. ‘i know i am not being clear. i wish i could explain but i can’t. because of who you are and who i am. i can’t. i’m sorry. and i’m sorry about your car. i’m sorry about the disappointment.’ she rests her head on her arms; her shoulders heave as she gives in. (coetzee 1999, p.66). she, therefore, becomes a symbol of redemption and reconciliation to the h. abootalebi the collapse of the white authority over the black... 81 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 black and the white seeking a new accommodation and identity and does not value old conflicts as does her father. she aims to compromise and become the third wife of petrus atoning for the colonizers’ sin and starts on a long journey to her expiation for the past guilt as a scapegoat of the previous colonialists. lucy admits her marriage is humiliating, but believes it is done out of desperation: “petrus is not offering a church wedding. he is offering an alliance, a deal. i contribute the land, in return for which i am allowed to creep in under his wing. i am without protection. i am fair game.” lucy is aware that the white have been stripped of their privileges, and she is incapable of producing any effect: i agree it is humiliating, but perhaps that is a good point to start from again. perhaps that is what i must learn to accept. to start at ground level. with nothing. no cards, no weapons, no property, no rights, no dignity, like a dog. (p. 87) with the fall of apartheid, the world of the white south africans altered enormously, and political and social constructions were reversed. three incidents demonstrate shifting power in post-apartheid south africa. the first one is david’s downgrading from professor of english studies to teaching communication studies. as time elapses, he becomes conscious of the fact that english is an “unfit medium” for the prevailing conditions in south africa. english studies have lost their value and appreciation in south africa due to the fact that the white authority and dominance has come to an end. the second one is posing a sexual harassment case against david by one of his students which leads to david’s dismissal from university. since david is melanie’s professor and more importantly a white man he thinks he has the right to use his student without being charged with any crime. he is even disinclined to confess to his wrongdoings and believes he was “a servant of eros” (p. 38). and the third incident is lucy’s rape and her marriage to petrus. a white woman’s rape by three black men and her refusal to take any legal actions, as well as her pregnancy and marriage to a man who already has two wives indicate how ineffectual and effete the white are left in post-apartheid south africa. it seems that both during and after apartheid women are looked down on. it is evident in the way lurie and petrus treat women, though with different intensions. in the case of petrus, he “gains economic and material winning.” when it comes to david, however, it is not obvious what he obtains from h. abootalebi the collapse of the white authority over the black... 82 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies mistreating women. the motive behind david’s behavior towards women might be a “consequence of his troubled life since he lost his wife. david at least gains sexual pleasure and takes advantage” of his position both as a university professor and a white man when he uses the prostitute and his student (petterson 2014, p. 13). malenie’s inferiority to david is evident especially in their sexual intercourse. david is taken as the ‘subject’ and melanie functions as the ‘object’, and how she feels concerning their relationship does not matter. “david’s objectification of women” in general and melanie in particular is clearly noticeable throughout the novel. melanie “carries no meaning to david.” as stepien argues, “the female voice is constantly silenced” in disgrace. this is a “tool of power” for when women’s voice is not heard nothing prevents men from using women (qtd. in petterson 2014 p. 8). david does not even seek melanie’s approval and just cares for his own satisfaction: he has given her no warning; she is too surprised to resist the intruder who thrusts himself upon her. when he takes her in his arms, her limbs crumple like a marionette’s. words heavy as clubs thud into the delicate whorl of her ear. ‘no not now,’ she says struggling. ‘my cousin will be back.’ but nothing will stop him...she does not resist. all she does is avert herself avert her lips...she decided to go slack, die within herself for the duration, like a rabbit when the jaws of the fox close on its neck... (coetzee 1999, p. 11) disgrace indicates that “old patriarchal structures have remained intact; the roles within it have only been reassigned along racial lines.” as crang argues, “the colonial mindset” considers black men’s “sexuality and desire as deviant, uncontrolled and threatening” particularly when it is “directed at white women.” the rape of lucy, therefore, is “representative of subconscious fear that possibly informed many of the ideologies of colonialism and apartheid” (marais & wenzel 2006, pp. 35-6). she is the only character throughout the novel who is bound to evoke sympathy to a great degree since she is innocently and unwillingly entangled in a situation out of which there is no way out, and ends up marrying ostensibly willingly but indeed out of desperation for there is no alternative. lucy is, to put it in another way, made a scapegoat for the white’s past violence. the novels written during the ‘apartheid era’ aimed at promoting a “special kind of resistance to the pressures of politics,” but it now seems that “that h. abootalebi the collapse of the white authority over the black... 83 vol. 13 no. 2, 2020 pressure issued in an intensityand complexity of meaninghas become less apparent in coetzee’s work in the post-apartheid era. he “has been freed up to treat literary and ethical concerns, without viewing these through the prism of colonial violence, with the particular inflection of personal complicity that lent to the earlier novels” (head 2009, p. 81). conclusion as observed and discussed above, during the apartheid people were categorized according to their socio-economic status and cultural life style into the white, the black, and the colored, while the white were regarded as the dominant and empowered class despite constituting the minority group. the black, however endured extreme poverty and were deprived of their inviolable rights, and as a result were mistreated. coetzee’s disgrace presents a harsh portrait of south africa after the coming to an end of the apartheid system where the white have lost their identity and power and have to accept the truth and begin their life from scratch. david’s identity depends highly on the white power. once the white authority and domineering control over the black fade away, so does david’s identity. he finds it extremely difficult to accept the new power structures and is unable to forget the dominance of the white over the black without any kind of resistance and contradiction. as a result, with the collapse of the white authority and its dominant ideology, david and lucy suffer both physically and psychologically and come to an awareness regarding their current situation in the post-apartheid period and the kind of life they need to lead in south africa. furthermore, they have to come to terms with the fact that the white authority has come to an end. apartheid, indeed, leaves a wound not only for the black but also for the white themselves through conflicts and collisions between the two races. lucy is generally thought to symbolize redemption and reconciliation between the two races. therefore, it seems the only way is cooperation and co-existence. h. abootalebi the collapse of the white authority over the black... 84 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies references bhabha, h .k. (1994). the location of culture. routledge: london and new york. bray, r., et al. (2010). growing up in the new south africa: childhood and adolescence in post-aparthied cape town. hsrc press. clark, n., worger, w.h. (2013). south africa: the rise and fall of apartheid, second edition. routledge, taylor & francis group, london and new york, 2013. cuddon, j.a. (2013). a dictionary of literary terms and literary theory. wiley-blackwell coetzee, j. m. (1999). disgrace. london: vintage. head, d. (2009). the cambridge introduction to j. m. coetzee. camridge university press. loomba, a. (2005). colonialsim/postcolonialism. routledge: taylor & francis group. london and new york. petterson, l. (2014). a gender perspective on the possession of power in j. m. coetzee’s disgrace. karlstads university. smit, s., wenzel, m. (2006). subverting the pastoral: the transcendence of space and place in j. m. coetzee’s disgrace. north-west university. smith, a. (2006). migrancy, hybridity, and postcolonial literary studies. cambridge collections online, cambridge university press. 170 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook fuad abdul muttaleb1 jerash university abstract this article analyzes the poetry of russian poet vladimir mayakovski (1893-1930), renowned as a main figure of the russian futurist movement. the study first introduces the futurist movement in literature that took place at the beginning of the twentieth century and locates it within formalist theory. then, it dwells upon the characteristics of futurist poetry since this was the genre the futurists were mostly concerned with. the study moves towards its main objective by examining two characteristic poems, morning (1912) and a skyscraper dissected (1929), bearing in mind the theme of urbanism which is common in the futurist literary movement. this analysis attempts to prove that mayakovski used the theme of urbanism to criticize modern city life, unlike other futurists who used this theme to glorify it. the study will also look at an important aspect of mayakovski’s poem about this in which he imagines life in the future. to carry out this thematic study, a critically analytical and descriptive method is used. keywords: vladimir mayakovski; futurism; urbanism; modern russian poetry; formalist theory 1 the author can be contacted under fuadmuttalib@jpu.edu.jo epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 171 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 introduction: futurism and formalism it is useful at the beginning to introduce the definition of the two terms futurism and formalism. futurism is generally introduced in the following words: italian futurismo, russian futurizm, early 20th-century artistic movement centered in italy that emphasized the dynamism, speed, energy, and power of the machine and the vitality, change, and restlessness of modern life. during the second decade of the 20th century, the movement’s influence radiated outward across most of europe, most significantly to the russian avant-garde. the most significant results of the movement were in the visual arts and poetry. (white, 2022) in the book key concepts in literary theory, formalism is defined as referring to the “critical tendency that emerged during the first half of the twentieth century and devoted its attention to concentrating on literature’s formal structures in an objective manner” (wolfreys et al., 2006, p. 43). the russian futurist movement and formalist literary theory are two separate literary activities, but they are often juxtaposed because they share some points of similarity. both emphasize form as the main bearer of meaning, and they seek to renew the ways of using language in literary works. however, the objectives of the futurists are different from those of the formalists. one basic difference lies in the fact that formalism is a theory while futurism is a movement. moreover, russian futurism and formalism were directed against the symbolist movement of the late nineteenth century and for what it stood. the difference between futurism and symbolism is that although both attempt to eliminate the boundary between content and form, futurists reject the notion that a word stands for anything more than itself, unlike the symbolists for whom the word stands for something else. “the russian formalists f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 172 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies were linguists and theorists; the russian futurists were poets and artistic practitioners” (palmer, 2014, p. 31). while the formalists regarded the concept of defamiliarization as one way of conceiving the world from a new perspective, the futurists regarded defamiliarization as the only way of representing the world as it is. the common ground between futurists and formalists is that both sought to “revolutionize linguistic perception” (palmer, 2014, p. 31). both wanted the perception of the world to be anew each time by means of reconfiguring the world. what distinguishes the futurists is their preoccupation with form and their critique of time. the futurists, especially the russians, were politically and socially engaged while the formalists did not have any ideology or political concerns. “while the latter [russian futurism] was capitulating politically before communism, formalism opposed marxism with all its might theoretically” (trotsky, 1925, p. 1). the formalists were concerned solely with art. futurists sought to portray in art the historical events from the 1890s to world war i. futurism futurism is a twentieth-century avant-garde and modernist movement in literature, art, and architecture which also has social and political concerns. the movement began in italy on february 20, 1909, when filippo tommaso marinetti (18761944), the father figure of futurism, published the founding manifesto of the movement. futurism spread from italy to france and russia, then its influence was all over europe. trotsky (1925) maintains that “futurism is a european phenomenon” (p. 1) because according to him, futurism flourished first in italy and russia and not in america since the countries which are not advanced are the ones that reflect the achievement of the advanced countries brilliantly. futurist literature was materialistic because it was based on materials that existed in countries far from the countries where futurist literature was written. thus, futurist f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 173 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 literature inflamed the imagination of the people as they read about things they could not see. the manifesto the founding manifesto of futurism marinetti clearly lays out the main features of the futurist movement. futurist literature celebrates “danger,” “energy and fearlessness” (marinetti as cited in rainey et al., 2009, p. 51). futurist poetry can thus be described as courageous, revolutionary, and bold. through their literature, the futurists sought to glorify “movement and aggression” (marinetti as cited in rainey et al., 2009, p. 51) unlike past literature which glorified things that provoked stillness or passion. marinetti claims that the new beauty is the “beauty of speed,” that of cars, automobiles, and other innovations. a masterpiece for the futurists is something that cannot be achieved without including an aggressive element. indeed, the futurists were known for their violent protest through their art against bourgeois culture and art. because the rising of the futurist movement coincided with the revolution in russia and with world war i, the futurist literature “caught rhythms of movement, of action, of attack, and of destruction” (trotsky, 1925, p. 3). an important thing marinetti highlights in his manifesto is the futurists’ rejection of the concept of time and place; they instead live in the “absolute.” consequently, war is glorified by marinetti; destructiveness along with nationalism are required to purify the world. futurists wanted to destroy libraries and museums and to stand against every “utilitarian … cowardice” (marinetti as cited in rainey et al., 2009, p. 51). in another manifesto, marinetti expresses the futurists’ disagreement with the symbolists. he criticizes the symbolists for being obsessed with the bygone past. the symbolists always longed for the past, the very thing that the futurists could not tolerate. similarly, the symbolists curse what the futurists glorify most, the machine. symbolists wrote literary works that should be immortal and everlasting. the futurists, on the contrary, admitted that their works are mortal. in another manifesto, technical manifesto of f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 174 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies futurist literature (1912), marinetti specified his vision about how literary works should be, intending to set the word free from the “prison of the latin period” (marinetti as cited in rainey et al., 2009, p. 119) through the literature he wrote with his fellow futurists. there are eleven rules to be followed by an author for their writings to be considered futurist according to marinetti. this indicates the paradoxical nature of the because he claims that he wants to free literature from past conventions while restricting the process of writing by setting rules to be followed. more specifically, syntax, punctuation marks, adjectives, and adverbs are to be eliminated and verbs are to be used always in the infinitive. for marinetti, the writer should express the world as he or she first perceived it. accordingly, the use of adverbs, adjectives, tenses, and syntax indicates that the author has manipulated his first perception of the world by trying to give it order or harmony. marinetti actually assigns a rule to suit the futurists’ preoccupation with representing movement and speed in their literature. he suggests that instead of using simile, the noun, which stands for an object, is to be followed immediately by another noun that stands for the image that the first noun provokes. these two successive nouns must be analogous. it is an analogy of the technique through which marinetti claims that writers can represent moving objects. a writer is to prove himself as an excellent futurist by using far-fetched analogies through which he expresses his “unwired imagination.” marinetti gives an example of this by linking a woman to a machinegun. marinetti regards it images as the “lifeblood” of poetry. however, he rejects the use of familiar images which are favored by writers as they excite readers. he maintains that these familiar images become stereotypes and lose their meanings with the passing of time. marinetti concludes his rules with the elimination of the “i” which stands for “the man who has been f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 175 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 damaged by libraries and museums,” (marinetti as cited in rainey et al., 2009, p. 122) and to replace it with the “matter.” russian futurism as for russian futurism, a controversial issue concerns whether it is an offspring of the italian movement or an independent movement by itself. at any rate, russian futurism contains two branches, ego-futurism and cubo-futurism. the ego-futurists had the point of view and the artistic aesthetics of the political regime at that time, while the cubo-futurists were interested in the status quo of russia at that time and sought to change it through their literature. the characteristics of the italian futurist movement mentioned in the previous section are applicable to the cubo-futurist movement. however, the cubo-futurists insist on distancing themselves from the italian movement as well as from ego-futurism because their priority was to be a movement which mostly engages with the reality in russia and to spread their ideas in advocating the revolution against the empire. the cubo-futurists added to the bolshevik revolution a third artistic dimension. the cubo-futurists wanted to be close to the reality of the people in russia. through their manifesto a slap in the face to the public taste (1912) they expressed their will to depart from the past with its social, political, and artistic values. to break with conventions and to attract the people to read their works and follow their vision about the future of russia, the cubo-futurists manipulated the use of regular typography. for instance, they used different font sizes on the same page with the words distributed irregularly. they thought that in this way the words will convey their revolutionary spirit. they believed in the “self-sufficient” word which has a message by itself without any referent. a well-known and widely celebrated cubo-futurist is vladimir vladimirovich mayakovski. f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 176 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies vladimir vladimirovich mayakovski (1893–1930) vladimir mayakovski was a leading figure in the cubo-futurist movement. in 1909, he started to write poetry. mayakovski’s poems were different in form, language, techniques from the known traditional poetry of the past. he inclined to “depoetize” poetry. more specifically, his two main poems a cloud in trousers (1915) and the backbone flute (1916) are clearly representative of this new poetical language. he wrote some satirical poems and ironical elegies and spoke of politics and love. concerning his influence, he did not only leave a great influence on soviet literature but also some prominent world poets, including nazim hikmet, louis aragon, and pablo neroda, who started to adopt his poetic style outside of russia. before the bolshevik revolution, the idea of urbanism was dominant in mayakovski’s poetry, wheras after the revolution he used his poetry as a tool to spread his marxist and revolutionary beliefs. as a futurist, he wrote about the way he envisioned the future or how he wished it to be in many of his poems. the theme of urbanism as the futurists, whether italian or russian, were showing interest in the modern city with all its new machines and new transportation systems, the urban theme manifested itself in their writings. the word ‘urbanist’ was used to describe the futurists who depicted the city landscape in their poetry. the urbanists praised the city in their writings as they expressed their fascination for it. mayakovski was one of those poets interested in talking about the city, “considered the only representative of true futurism, primarily because of the predominance of urban themes in his early poetry” (richter, 1998, p. 49). however, unlike other urbanists, mayakovski took the city to be his object to criticize the life and the people in it rather than praising it. i argue that mayakovski has depicted the city as an ugly place through an analysis of two poems, morning (1912) and a skyscraper dissected (1929). it will also shed some light on mayakovski’s vision of the future through an analysis of his poem about this (1923). f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 177 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 in her dissertation, richter (1998) states that “mayakovski [is]… the most prominent urbanist among russian futurists” (p. 49). she refers to chukovsky who distinguishes between two meanings of the word “urbanist.” the first describes the author who uses urbanist landscape in his works. this meaning is neutral as the author in this case depicts the city without promoting or criticizing it. the second meaning refers to the author who portrays the city in his works because he is fascinated with it. according to chukovsky, mayakovski comes under the first meaning and not the second one as he appears in his urbanist poetry (as cited in richter, 1998, p. 50). chukovsky thus contends that mayakovski was not one of those who were fascinated by modern city life. brown (2015) also argues that mayakovski depicted the modern city in his urbanist poetry in a gloomy way as does ball (2004) when he writes that “modern urban settings do indeed occupy mayakovski’s work, but the view is sometimes dark” (p. 45). while other academic works allude to the same idea, none of these works justify this argument through an analysis of the texts of mayakovski’s urbanist poetry. this study fills this gap and will also give an example of mayakovski’s depiction of the future in a hopeful note. morning (1912) here mayakovski depicts the city in a way that makes the readers or listeners feel that the exact words and images used in the poem are intended to evoke the emotions of despair and misery. the persona starts his description of the city landscape with the gloomy image of the rain. starting with rain implies that the tone is not cheerful, it is rather a sad one. the rain is thus personified. it has a face that is “sullen,” glancing at the city with condemnation. it sounds as if the persona is personified by the rain as both seem not to be pleased with the city. f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 178 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies then the persona moves to describe how the sky appears through some framework made of iron which also indicates the poem’s urban theme. it is implicit that the iron wires, symbolizing the city’s buildings, prevent the persona from seeing the cloud, “featherbed,” clearly. the image seems quite beautiful and poetic. the stars, as the morning is approaching, are putting their legs on that cloud as if preparing to leave the sky. just like the rain, the stars are personified as they have legs. thus, the city here is something that is suppressing and distorting the beautiful scene of the sky. afterwards, the persona moves to the scene of the city itself far from the sky and the rain. while the city prevented the persona from contemplating the beautiful scene previously, it now doubles the ugliness of an originally ugly scene. light, conventionally, is a source of illumination. however, for mayakovski, the “streetlamps” are “tsars” which may be the most despised things by the poet who has strong marxist inclinations. the lamps in the street, signaling the urban theme, are apparently something tyrannical. however, when the lamps, which are also personified, start to fade away, they make the originally ugly scene of the drunken people in the streets who are quarreling over trifles “painful for the eyes.” the eye which was first prevented from seeing the clouds and the stars through the wires is now horrified as it cannot see the suspicious people who are moving and shouting in the darkness. in the city, the street at midnight, before the morning arises, is full of people who are making jokes. while the image itself is discomforting, the persona further extends its ugliness. the “laughter” that those jokes cause is “horrid,” “lurid,” and “pecking.” the persona seems tortured to listen to the horrifying sound of the laughter. to make the image even iller, the persona claims that the laughter does not arise from the human beings but from the “poisoned,” “yellow roses”. here, the description bears two interpretations, f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 179 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 none of which is less ugly than the other. first, the image may indicate that the loud and frightening laughter resulted from the “poisoned” roses. this interpretation indicates that the city people made the natural scene seem scary. the second interpretation is to understand that the laughing humans themselves are “poisoned” and “yellow” which indicates their stinky nature. in the final sentence, the persona is finally pleased because the morning has come and with it, the torture of the night will end. however, in the last sentence, the persona continues to intensify the ugliness of the city that the morning will throw away. the sun comes from behind the city scene which is epitomized in the words “wracking horror and squalor.” the sun which indicates the coming of the “morning” covers all the crossroads of moscow: however, the persona explicitly describes the citizens covered by the sun as slave-like. it may be understood here that the persona has chosen the word “crosses” to refer to the automobiles which were becoming more widespread during that time. so, it is those automobiles and other materialistic inventions that made this citizen seen as a “slave” who is suffering calmly without paying any attention to the sun which may present hope. in this sense, the modern human being is depicted as lacking spirituality. even the houses are described as “coffins” which means that the people inside those homes are dead. so, the morning comes to end the ugliness of the night in the city, but it does not appear that even the day hours in the city will be more pleasant. a skyscraper dissected (1929) another poem by mayakovski, a skyscraper dissected, that bears the urban theme, and which validates the argument that mayakovski used the urban landscape to criticize it and not to praise it as other futurists did. the poem is futurist as it includes some important characteristics of cubo-futurist poetry. it is evident from the first sentence that the words are gradually painting a picture in the mind of the reader. the persona invites the reader f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 180 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies to look at the biggest skyscraper in new york city and scrutinize it floor by floor. the manipulation of the use of typography is another futurist element. the words are distributed on the page to take the shape of a building with multi-layers. the theme of the poem, urbanism, is also a chief futurist theme. the poem is also engaged with the social reality of the people. the persona throughout the poem describes what is happening on the floors of a large skyscraper. having the skyscraper as its object of discussion or as the landscape of the poem makes it urbanist in theme. each floor in the building presents one form of corruption in the modern cities’ lifestyle. on the first floor, there are “jewelers” who are dead scared about their fortune. they quickly shut the windows as though to separate the world from their wealth. if mayakovski was not criticizing their materialism, he would have depicted them, for example, as contemplating the beauty of the precious stones. the spread of fortunes in a capitalist society leads to the spread of theft and consequently, more policemen are required. in the poem, even the policemen are depicted in a gloomy way. they spend their lives wearing suits that make them look like “film-star[s]” while simultaneously trying to protect other people’s wealth, and, ultimately, they die “hound-like.” the following floor’s description is a criticism of the capitalist system. the floor is full of “offices” which are witnessing several deals, some win, others lose. the condition of the offices is bad; all office doors bear the name of one boss. the name is written in gold which indicates that the boss is living in luxury while the officers are living in the “slavish sweat”. the fifth floor is inhabited by an apparently unmarried old girl who is depicted in an ugly way. her mind cannot think of anything than what she lacks in her “trousseau” even though she is not married. she seems anxious and disturbed to have “prodigious brooms.” this may be understood as a social criticism of modern men who abandoned marriage, or a criticism of the women who thought that marriage is to be prepared for only through material things. f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 181 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 the floor after is of a “mister” who is living in luxury. he collected his wealth through his own efforts. thus, his fortune becomes the only thing that consoles and interests him. he becomes blinded to the extent that he is able to condone “marital infidelity.” the loss of morality resulting from the interest in wealth is apparent on this floor. the picture continues to be drawn and next, it includes a newly married couple. despite all the hopeful things they are supposed to think of, they are reading a newspaper advertisement. it offers to buy a car on a “monthly basis.” in a capitalist society, people are driven to be obsessed with securing their needs. other forms of corruption and moral deterioration continue to appear. on another floor, “shareholders” gather to collect billions in money. their greed makes them behave like animals. their only way of communication is through shouting and quarreling. the means through which they seek to gain money is to reproduce the remains of animals, “offal” into “ham.” the criticism of modern society and habits even reaches the artists. there is a painter on the nineteenth floor. his paintings are ugly and of no meaning. instead of thinking about how to produce fine art, he is thinking about how to get his paintings bought and how to marry the “landlord’s daughter.” the final floor is depicted in a way that makes the criticism of the capitalist society evident in the poem. the floor is a restaurant. first-class people come and eat fresh food. after that, “negro[s] [sic]” eat the huge remnants of food that the first-class people have not eaten. then next comes the poorest people, represented as “rats” in the poem, to have the “crumbs” that remain from the remnants of food. there are no presentations of any kind of beauty of morality in the whole skyscraper which is a microcosm of the large modern society. the persona expresses his disappointment with the scene and describes the inhabitants of the building as prisoners, “inmates,” who are apparently imprisoned in their greed for material gains. the persona says that his intention before f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 182 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies scrutinizing the skyscraper was to continue his walk, which indicates that he thought that glimpses of positive development were expected to be seen in the skyscraper. however, what he got after contemplating is the sense that greed and corruption are growing at the expense of humanity and morality. from the persona’s viewpoint, the modern cities’ lifestyle controls the minds of people. they have become corrupted, ugly and, more importantly, they lost their sense of humanity. corruption and destruction of social life and morals is a very powerful theme in this poem. the persona shows his dissatisfaction with this life. towards the end of the poem, he draws our attention to the gaps between people in this materialistic world. the title a skyscraper dissected is of noticeable significance here since it connects to the theme of urbanism. burwell (2016) defines a skyscraper as “a staple of development in the modern-day cityscape by which to address the concerns of our growing population and density. the urban landscape of cities has thus been radically trans-formed, enabling staggering density within small land ratios” (p. ii). the poet emphasizes that the skyscraper is a symbol of life where the city is full and dominated by giant towers and buildings. it creates a new lifestyle based only on money, selfishness, and adultery, which brainwashes people and makes them throw their moral values away. although mayakovski depicted the city in a gloomy picture, he intended to depict the future in a hopeful way, possibly suggesting that there the gloomy present must be turned into a hopeful future. to carry out this idea, he wrote several poems, among them about this (1923). this poem begins with the presentation of a case of a modern man who suffers from a lack of love and care. in the last part, mayakovski depicts the future in a hopeful manner as a solution to the misery of the man. the poem’s main theme is f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 183 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 love. the persona, which is believed to be the poet, alludes to his own self in the poem as a man who is attempting to commit suicide by throwing himself from a bridge. the man tries to tell his family, beloved, and friends about his misery hoping that they may help him out of it. however, they seem not to be interested and they are rather distracted. thus, “the man on the bridge is nailed fast, crucified, and suffering for all mankind” (mayakovski as cited in jangfeldt, 2014). the rest of the poem presents the poet’s journey in the future. “the last section of the poem is in the form of a petition to an unknown alchemist in the thirtieth century” (jangfeldt, 2014, p. 252). the poet requests the alchemist to return his life for him. mayakovski expressed his belief that there would be a day in the future when life will be restored to all the dead (jangfeldt, 2014, p. 253), which is seen in the poem. the persona in the poem claims that another life is needed for him as he has not fulfilled his need for love. the important part of our topic is the final one as it is set in the future. the part is entitled “love” in a suggestion that love is the solution to the misery of the modern man. love in the future as envisioned by mayakovski is free from all restrictions. it seems that love becomes the leading force in all aspects of life. even the job that a person will be employed as a caretaker in a zoo will be something he loves, and he will be reunited with his beloved as they both share the love of animals. the poet expresses his eagerness for a future in which he will be able to fulfill his need for pure love as he was deprived of it in his lifetime. he says that his beloved deserves a new life because she is beautiful, and he deserves it because he was able as a poet to liberate himself from the dirt of everyday life. this indicates that the future the poet wants is inhabited only by people who are kind and pure. the distorted forms of love that are found in the present life will have no place in the future. the poet did not want love to be only a means toward achieving other goals. love is not inferior f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 184 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies to marriage it is not only restricted to the confines of the marital relationship. it is a universal value. it should not be a means to get materialistic advantages or to satisfy mere sexual lust. in the future, love “climbs up out of its bed to wander through the universe’s infinity” (mayakovski as cited in jangfeldt, 2014, p. 255). it will spread among all human beings. just then, the man that was begging for love at the beginning of the poem will be happy to fulfill his need for love. he will also keep his dignity because he will not need to ask for love as it will be spread everywhere. people will be freed from earthly constraints. what will replace the old values is a universal relationship that links all human beings together and they will be “brothers and sisters” (mayakovski as cited in jangfeldt, 2014, p. 255). all human beings will have in mayakovski’s future one mother which is “earth,” and one father which is “the world.” conclusion this study showed that the futurist movement and formalist literary theory can be discussed together due their similarities, without neglecting that they are two separate literary activities with points of friction between them. while both the russian cubo-futurists and the italian futurists share the love of speed, dynamism, and the revolutionary spirit, the cubo-futurist movement distinguishes itself through its engagement with the social and political reality in russia. thus, by discussing two futurist characteristic poems of his works, i showed that mayakovski is a futurist poet and uses the city landscape in his poetry to depict his gloomy vision of it. both poems discussed support this argument as they are full of images that present modern city life as corrupted. but nevertheless, mayakovski’s vision of the future is hopeful showing that the poet was not defeated by the gloom of the his present as he was able to imagine a future in which love is the leading force. f.a. muttaleb futurism: vladimir mayakovski’s urbanism and futurist outlook 185 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 references ball, a. (2004). imagining america: influence and images in twentieth-century russia. rowman & littlefield publishers.‏ brown, e. j. (2015). mayakovsky: a poet in the revolution. princeton university press. burwell, t. (2016). towards the skyscraper of the future. carleton university. edward, j. b. (2015). mayakovsky: a poet in the revolution. princeton university press. jangfeldt, b. (2014). mayakovsky: a biography. (h. d. watson, trans.). university of chicago press.‏ palmer, h. (2014). deleuze and futurism: a manifesto for nonsense. bloomsbury publishing.‏ rainey, l. s., poggi, c., & wittman, l. (eds.). (2009). futurism: an anthology. yale university press. richter, v. (1998). literary primitivism: its function in the early works of vladimir mayakovsky and other and other russian cubo-futurists. [doctoral dissertation, university of toronto]. trotsky, l. (1925). literature and revolution. (r. strunsky, trans.). haymarket books. (original work published 1924). tynan, a. (2015). deleuze and futurism: a manifesto for nonsense by helen palmer. symploke, 23(1), 533-534. white, j. j. (2022). futurism. in britannica online. retrieved july 7, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/art/futurism wolfreys, j., robbins, r., & womack, k. (2006). key concepts in literary theory. edinburgh university press. 49epiphany contextual analysis of hilmi baba’s works aydın özkan association of researchers on africa (afam) abstract bosnia and herzegovina has always been characterized by multiethnic and multi-religious diversity. throughout the history montenegrins, serbs and croats from the neighboring countries have also naturally been connected with bosnia and herzegovina. this diversity was also enriched with the influence of great powers, especially by the ottoman empire and the austro-hungarian empire. very often internal diversity and interests of the great powers caused significant upheavals, wars, and migrations. for instance, the austro-hungarian empire later attacked bosnia and herzegovina in order to invade it in 1697, 1737, 1788 and 1791. eventually, the berlin treaty had enabled the austro-hungarian empire to get the exclusive right to administer bosnia and herzegovina. nevertheless, according to the treaty, the region was still legally under the ottoman state. after the annexation of bosnia and herzegovina by the austro-hungarian empire in 1908 the country’s administrative and political system affected the position of bosniaks. in particular, their political and religious status has been changed significantly. these developments also significantly affected and accelerated migration to anatolia. during this turbulent period hilmi baba, a provincial scholar from bosnia discussed whether the muslims living in the region should immigrate to anatolia. he also critically analyzed the impact of the reforms (tanzimat) in bosnia. the main aim of this article is to make a contextual analysis of hilmi baba’s views, approaches, and works. keywords: ottoman, bosnia and herzegovina, bosnian rebellion, tanzimat era, migration, tevfik azabagiç, hilmi baba, meclis-i mebusan. 50 journal of transdisciplinary studies historical context of hilmi baba’s biography on one hand, the ottoman empire symbolically retreated from the balkans with the loss of bosnia and herzegovina after the berlin congress. however, the ottoman empire could concentrate more on the reforms (tanzimat), which brought about some results and problems too. with the proclamation of tanzimat edict, the ottomans initiated the military, financial, economic, administrative, constitutional, and education reforms. in effect, the modernization era began with the edict itself. tanzimat means literally “arrangements”. this term is the plural of ‘tanzim’ which means ‘organizing’ (karal, 1988, p. 61). just as nizam-ı cedit went beyond its literal meanings of ‘new order’ or ‘new military order’ and expressed, in a wider sense, a series of planned reforms with a certain beginning and end (eren, 1979, p. 704), so the term tanzimat means an era of most important reforms in the ottoman empire. these reforms had wider socio-political, administrative, economic, cultural and religious implications and consequences (ülken, 1992, p. 41ff). sultan mahmud ii who was enthroned in 1808 during the power struggle of janissaries and the ayan (notables) dominated against the representatives of the traditionalists who stood against the ottoman modernization of the 19th century. he built the ottoman central system around himself, made the number of military reforms and managed to abolish the janissary corps in 1826, which were the biggest obstacle to the modernization process. mahmud ii, who accelerated the modernization process at a time when the ottoman state fought with crises at home and abroad, carried ottoman westernization further by making use of the historical experience and intellectual legacy of his predecessors. the western way of thinking and understanding which formed the basis of the reforms started first in the military during the reign of mahmud ii and with the passage of time made its impact on many reforms and resulted in the emergence of western-style institutions. in this era, great changes and reforms in administration, the judicial system, society, as well as education were carried out, and, in line with european systems, primary education was made compulsory and rüşdiye schools were opened in various parts of istanbul. while the ottoman empire was busy with reforms, bosnia had to encounter new political, social and administrative realities. beginning from the belgrade treaty (1739), bosnian cities began to experience changes and transformations, especially with regard to some changes in social strata. janissaries who came from castles lost to the enemy and settled in bosnian cities where they gained influence. sarajevo became a privileged center and the urban notables, military classes and local civilian heads called ‘kapudans’ consolidated this situation and became the major representatives of political authority. even during the term of the bosnian governor ali paşa they formed a notables’ assembly (ayan meclisi) which would have the authority to supervise the governor and control some of his revenues. besides, the janissaries, who were in alliance with local forces, were received well by the people. however, starting from the mid18th century, for a decade several rebellions, mainly organized by peasants, broke out (aruçi, 2009, p. 130). nonetheless, in spite of all these rebellions that were supported by the european powers, bosnian people showed their loyalty to the ottoman state. mahmud ii attempted to manage the rebellions with the help of governors of bosnia like silahtar ali paşa, süleyman paşa, celâlettin paşa, and selim sırrı paşa. in the end, their initiatives and attempts could resolve rebellions and apathy of the peasants in bosnia. following a fatwa from şeyhülislam, janissary corps which had often rebelled in istanbul were abolished on 15 june 1826 and the order to abolish the corps was sent to the provinces. thus, on 12 july 1826, in travnik the decision about the abolishment of the janissary corps was announced to the public. yet the elite in bosnia as well as the common people reacted fiercely and rejected the royal decree. leading and influential local notables and kaptans joined and led the rebellion. bosnia was often in the midst of long wars that led to the ruining of the land system, the increase of the taxes as well as the usurpation of the administration by notables and kaptans (bosna-hersek’le i̇lgili arşiv belgeleri (1516-1919), pp. 8-9). together with tanzimat, drastic changes in bosnia occurred with respect to muslims’ privileged status these developments also affected the relations among the notables, landowners, and peasants as well as their relationship with the state. unrest among peasants and landowners and problems with the recruitment of soldiers and avoiding paying off the taxes began to emerge. muslims’ loss of privileges affected the application of tanzimat in bosnia, which was rather 51epiphany delayed (inalcik, 1992, p. 13). further, tanzimat reforms changed the traditional ottoman-islamic model of the state, which was challenged by the bosniaks. the sublime port (bâbıâli) had to struggle with bosnian notables for a long time. finally, in 1833 mahmud hamdi paşa suppressed rebellions, managed to abolish the janissary corps and controlled the affairs in bosnia. then privileges of the local notables and kaptans too were ended. although it was not possible to carry out successful reforms in financial, administrative and cultural fields, the empire’s regaining of control in bosnia prepared the ground for the application of gülhane hattı hümayunu (royal edict of gülhane) which was declared in 1839. this year in effect is also reference to the beginning of tanzimat era in bosnia (eren, 1965, pp. 7-8). the sanjak of herzegovina was brought under bosnia when the latter was made a province (eyalet). herzegovina had to go through an administrative change, following the suppression of hüseyin kaptan rebellion in 1832. herzegovina was ruled until 1851 by ali paşa of herzegovina. in 1851, when a rebellion led by ali paşa was suppressed, herzegovina was made into a vilayet and in 1854 was brought under bosnia again. hilmi baba’s life hilmi baba was educated in istanbul during the tanzimat era. he became a scholar, who lived in saray bosna province’s (vilayet) taşlıca (district). he criticized strongly the tanzimat and islahat edicts, arguing that these reforms negatively affected both the ottoman state and bosnia. hilmi baba was actively involved in the debate about the view that after the invasion bosnia became a dar al-harb (the abode of war) and that muslims living there needed to migrate to muslim lands. the austria-hungarian occupation of bosnia after the berlin treaty brought about a great debate about “migration” from an occupied region to a muslim land. hilmi baba’s biography is limited and it is primarily based on his own pamphlets and also what is shared by tevfik azabagić, who was educated in istanbul together with hilmi baba, and later was appointed as mufti of tuzla after the austria-hungarian occupation of bosnia (lavic, 1990 and 1996). in one of his pamphlets, he tells his name as bosnavi hilmi baba b. hüseyin et-taşlıcavi. this shows that he was from taşlıca (pljevlja) in sandzak region. his stamp too shows that his father was called hüseyin. he had also the title baba which was then used by sufis in addition to titles of şeyh, halife and dervish (süleyman uludağ baba, pp. 365-366). mehmet tevfik azabagić in his work titled hicret hakkında risale [pamphlet about migration] made a reference to a certain person nicknamed deli hafız (crazy hafiz a person who knows the qur’an by heart) who studied at fatih madrasas in istanbul together with hilmi baba. he stated “… i know deli hafiz personally. we studied in istanbul together. that was not his name but his nickname which he got due to his character. he was eager to object to (almost) everything without seeing if it is correct or not” (azabagic, p. 19). these descriptions provide us with an idea about hilmi baba’s difficult life in istanbul as well as why he criticized the ottoman rulers and bureaucrats for carrying out some projects of westernization similar to those done by austriahungarian empire in bosnia. in his risale fi’l-hicret hilmi baba mentioned that for some time he stayed at eyup district in istanbul and sometimes gave sermons at eyup mosque. in the introduction of this work he asserted: when i stayed at eyup district, i gave sermons at the mosque. there i met one clerk. he showed himself religious, but he sent his son to rüşdiye school. one day i was a guest in his house. his son came back from the school and told this to his father: “we believe that god is one, but the french believe that god is three”. father said that “my son! god is one”. (hilmi baba, 1884, 4-5) there are seven works of bosnalı hilmi baba at the süleymaniye library in istanbul. he does not cite the titles of his works fully, but they are registered as follows: kitab mine’l fıkh ve’l-fetava (book of jurisprudence and fatwas), risale fi’s-siyaset (pamphlet on politics), mecalisü’l-bosna, mucizatü’nnebi (miracles of the prophet), tefsirü sureti’d-duha (exegesis of the chapter duha), fethu’lesrar ve’l -müşkilat ala ruhi’l-beyan bi’l-i̇şarat. in addition, hilmi baba has another work on migration: hicret risalesi. the work which is in turkish is kept at gazi husrev-bey library in sarajevo with the registration number r 6172. 52 journal of transdisciplinary studies hilmi baba’s “siyase” and “tanzimat” views the berlin congress caused major political, social and administrative changes and transformations in bosnia and herzegovina. the local peoples were traumatized not only by the occupation by austria-hungary, but also due to the loss of ottoman territories to newly emerging nationalist states like serbia and bulgaria. due to these developments, hilmi baba as a scholar and representative of the muslim people in bosnia started various activities following the austriahungarian occupation. he also thought of seeking asylum in the ottoman state when the austriahungarian empire followed intensive assimilation policies towards bosnian muslims in the 1880s. hilmi baba’s risale fi’s-siyase is a scholarly work that deals with the phenomenon of immigration and tanzimat. this handwritten arabic work is dated at the end of his work to 3 şaban 1293 (24 august 1876). the work does not have chapters, but it has excellent thematic and chronological order. the original manuscript of the work which has 24 sheets is at the süleymaniye library in istanbul and a note at the beginning of it states that it was endowed to fatih sultan mehmet han library in 1303. we have not been able to find out in our research if the work had other copies. hilmi baba explains the reason for writing this work in its introductory by stating: one of them who is a kadiasker tells this: “jews and christians too should be in this parliament because they are part of the prophet muhammad’s ummah. also, because allah tells us that “you are the best ummah”. when i heard of this, i said that it was necessary to reply to it and told this: “your words show your ignorance of hadith and qur’anic exegesis or sheer ignorance. offices often lead the ignorant to injustice…”. (hilmi baba, p. 3) hilmi baba used the qur’anic verses and hadiths to argue that tanzimat is not in accordance with the ottoman way of state administration. he finds it weird to try to justify the entrance of jews and christians to the parliament (meclis-i mebusan) because for him christians are a nation invited to the truth, while muslims are a nation who has already accepted it. according to him, kazasker’s words stem from his ignorance as well as his flattering approach to philosophers and christians (ibid., s4). although hilmi baba provided many qur’anic verses and hadiths in this work, he tells the following: “if i wrote this work by citing all relevant qur’anic verses and hadiths in order to show the falsity, harms and consequences of tanzimat and equality, the work would be a voluminous book and also its humble author would be sent to exile or killed” (ibid., p. 8). after the tanzimat and islahat edicts meclis-i mebusan (the turkish parliament) was established on 23 december 1876 which marked the beginning of the first constitutional era (meşrutiyet). hilmi baba does not find it appropriate for the non-muslims to join this parliament as its members. he thinks that non-muslims may work against the high interests of the ottoman state and therefore some information and policies should be hidden from them (ibid., p. 7). however, the common idea was that non-muslim subjects’ joining the parliament would support the new parliamentary system also for the sake of protection, promotion and improvement of nonmuslim peoples’ political rights under the shadow of the ottoman dynasty. hilmi baba is not against the opening of the parliament, nor against its existence as part of the state mechanism, but expresses his objection to nonmuslims’ joining it as follows: if someone who wants to glorify the parliament says that muslims have many benefits and great public interests in it and that it is a general principle which leads to islam, then we will say the following: if this parliament is composed of ulema who is not hypocritical towards the oppressors, good muslims and believers who do not have sympathy for christian law, then it is alright. the members of the parliament must be knowledgeable about domestic and foreign affairs as well as the just rulers of the past. as explained before in the works of qur’anic exegesis, the parliament should be free from jews and christians and in this form it is such a nice demand. (ibid., p. 7) by considering the above citation one could argue that hilmi baba was not exclusively against the new parliament, but he argued that its members should be educated and learned, should not be pro-western and should know internal and external affairs of the ottoman state as well as its history in order to take lessons from it. however, he states that the non53epiphany muslims in the parliament, with the help of the west, would in the future seize the power completely and the life would turn upside down: in fact just the opposite has occurred. because of these two (tanzimat and equality), mischief and injustice have prevailed. the infidels have gained superiority over the muslims. those who advocated equality have begun to call the infidels as agas, beys, pashas and effendis. the majority of the parliament was formed by christians and now we see christian pashas and directors. in brief, tanzimat and equality are against sharia. (ibid, p. 8) according to hilmi baba, tanzimat and equality brought a lot of problems and troubles to the ottoman society. he expresses some of them at the beginning of his work and later tries to explain them. he also blames the ottoman high class for the literal following of the europeans. further, he also condemns the literal use of european laws and their application instead of islamic law. he argued: … one should know that with the practices like tanzimat, equality and wearing western clothes came out things that can be considered as misfortunes for muslims. some of them are as follows: issues are no longer resolved through fatwas, christians now sit together with muslims in the parliament and discuss matters and in many towns notables are killed for the sake of the application of tanzimat reforms. (ibid, p. 8) according to hilmi baba of bosnia, dismissal of mustafa paşa, the governor of the shkoder was unjust and harmful for the ottoman state. paşa expressed that people of montenegro provided him with support, but that he was dismissed by incompetent administrators in istanbul with unfounded pretexts because he was against the application of changes related to tanzimat (ibid., p. 9). mustafa paşa, the governor of the shkoder belonged to the family buşatlı which was named with reference to the village called bushati. therefore he was called buşatlı or i̇şkodralı (from shkoder). he made great contributions in order to re-establish the order in regions of rumelia which was under his authority and was also charged with the duty of suppressing tepedenli ali paşa’s rebellion against the central administration. he also warded off successfully montenegrin attacks towards northern albania. due to his success in these tasks, he was also given additional authority over ohrid and elbasan cities. he was also successful in the ottoman-russian wars of 1828-1829. however, as he was worried about the changes and re-arrangements which were to be carried out in public administration during the reign of mahmud ii, he strengthened his relations with the prince of serbia, prince of montenegro and mehmet ali paşa, the governor of egypt. this was not welcomed by istanbul and ohrid, elbasan and dukagin sanjaks under him were taken away from his authority. he reacted to this decision by capturing the cities of nis, skopje, and sofia and consequently was declared a rebel, dismissed from office and brought to istanbul (bilge, pp. 344-345). people of bosnia were in general against tanzimat. thus, hilmi baba argued that bosnia is surrounded by austria hungarian empire, serbia, and montenegro, that at the heart of bosnia live non-muslim subjects with a population of 15.100 and that they are all armed. according to him, people of bosnia do not need any help from the empire and they are able to defend themselves as they did in the past, as long as changes which some wanted to bring through tanzimat are not applied (hilmi baba, p. 9). hilmi baba suggests that the system of kaptans/ayans which had been practiced in bosnia for centuries should not be abolished, because for the people of bosnia they are like “spirit in the body”: … oh our sultan! leave us on our own. take whatever you want from us, but do not dismiss the notables (ayans) in our land, because for us they are like spirit in the body. all towns are obedient to them in all their affairs and especially in war against the christians and in each town there is a commander known for his jihad against the infidels. this has happened through the wonder (keramet) of your ancestor sultan mehmed ii, the conqueror as he appointed a commander to every city following his conquest of bosnia … if local commanders are removed from office, some wicked people from among the christian subjects in bosnia will provoke the people to rebel against the central government. nevertheless, instead of accepting this rightful demand of the bosnian people, the ottoman government recruited soldiers from among them, killed most of the notables (ayans), sent many of them to exile and even some of the exiled notables died there for various reasons. the government appointed to bosnian towns many directors and civil servants in a bureaucratic structure. (ibid., p. 9) 54 journal of transdisciplinary studies in january 1840, with the instructions by mustafa reşid paşa, a ferman was issued for the establishment of an advisory council in each province. they were to be called as “consultative assemblies” (meclis-i muhassilin). their first function was taking over administrative affairs from the kadis because, until the tanzimat, only kadis had jurisdiction. these new councils would supervise the application of tanzimat in the region. in addition, they had the authority to inspect compliance of some of the affairs of the governors. the councils were composed of the kadi, mufti, some local authorities and representatives of the non-muslim communities. thus, on 25 january 1840, these councils were established in bosnia (çadırcı, 1991, p. 212). tanzimat brought great reforms in the field of education and the government made great efforts to raise the educational level. one of these reforms was the opening of rüşdiye schools in bosnia. hilmi baba was against them because they would be part of a secular system that would be dominant in the country. in his work risale-i siyaset he argued: “they have opened rüşdiye schools and carried out tanzimat and equality in bosnia by force and with all their reality and dreadfulness.” thus, education was another field in which tanzimat reforms were applied all over bosnia. with a structural change in the school system, the opening of secondary schools for nonmuslims and of rüşdiyes providing secular education were accepted as the most important change and novelty. in 1870 orthodox christians in bosnia had 57 schools with 3.525 students and 75 teachers. catholics had 50 schools run by the churches with more than 2000 students and nearly 60 teachers. in addition, sarajevo had a jewish school. all these schools were newly opened following the tanzimat (karčić, 1999, p. 68). hilmi baba’s criticisms are not limited to political and legal fields and he expresses harsh criticisms and warnings with respect to security and military affairs by arguing that: ottoman central administration has emptied the existing castles and either consumed or eliminated ammunitions and food prepared for a siege. they also sent all the canons in the castles to istanbul. removal of the ammunitions from the castles and widening of the roads on the mountains for easier passage are all in favor of and for the service of christians who will enter bosnia. (hilmi baba, p. 9) hilmi baba argued that the killing of ali paşa (ridvanbegović) (1783-1851), the governor of herzegovina was a direct outcome of the tanzimat, which negatively affected the ottoman image in bosnia. ali paşa of herzegovina was on the side of the ottoman state when in 1830’a rebellion started against ottomans in gradačac, by hüseyin kaptan who benefitted from the collaboration of most of the 39 kaptans. he repaid montenegrin ladikas (a local title used for the person combining religious and political authority) in kind whenever the smallest attack came from them towards herzegovina. it is known that he easily and quickly gathered fighters from kolašin, taşlıca (pljevlja), prepol (prijepolje), foča, čajniče, gaçka, trebinje, nikšić and raided montenegro. he tells the following about ali paşa: and then they killed ali paşa, the governor of herzegovina for the sake of tanzimat and equality. the reason for that was ali paşa’s animosity against christians and especially montenegro. in fact, he was always with sultan. he was with sultan during the rebellion of the person who was known among people as hüseyin kaputan. his death was a cause and factor for montenegro’s gaining of superiority and wars against muslims which continue today. likewise, morea was lost after the killing of ali paşa. ali paşa, the governor of herzegovina received public properties (miri mallarını) every year from the people of montenegro. for example, he could get them from villages like karahu by going there without soldiers with him. during his governorship, one man could travel alone from mostar to tasika (and this is valid for other places too). nobody from montenegro could kill a muslim, because if they did it, ali paşa would send his soldiers and had 20 or more infidels killed in retaliation. but when ali paşa was martyred by an infidel of montenegrin origin, people of montenegro rebelled, killed thousands of muslim soldiers and even cut the noses and ears of many soldiers. in short, when ali paşa was martyred people of montenegro attacked muslims . (ibid., p. 10) hilmi baba cited another shortcoming stemming from tanzimat by arguing that in diyarbakır, where they tried to apply tanzimat and equality, a war was fought against bedirhan bey who was an important ruler who was loved by the people. bedirhan bey was insulted and faced punishment, exile and confiscation of his properties and died in exile and 55epiphany all these resulted from tanzimat policies (ibid., p. 11). bedirhan bey belonged to a ruling family which had been in charge of tax collection in the region before the tanzimat era and became a colonel (redif miralay) following the establishment of redif military organization. he was the emir of cizre-bohtan and served the state loyally. he supported the state in the military operation made in the region (18331839) during the reign of mahmud ii. however, his application of the tanzimat reforms led to outbreak of a large rebellion against the government (doğan, 2010/2, p. 17). after the abolishment of the janissary corps, new armies like asâkir-i mansure and asâkir-i nizamiye were established. thus, with tanzimat, military service was made a civic duty. in this regard, the rebellions in tuzla and zvornik occurred in 1849 due to military service and population census. common people said that there were non-muslim commanders in the army and that they would not let their children fight under their command. when cevdet paşa visited the region for inspection, he recommended that they too should follow the conscription system practiced in bosnia. yet hilmi baba argued that the conscription system originated in istanbul with the proclamation of tanzimat is not suitable for bosnia, since all muslim men in bosnia are already soldiers of sultan without any expectations in return (hilmi baba, p. 9). hilmi baba argued: if we let christian subjects into military affairs, provide them with military training, teach them art of war, let them fight in wars and if they have their weapons, they might start enmity against us, abandon the command of sultan and muslims and fight against us. then what will happen to us, given the shortcomings in many cities? currently, no subject in russia has a weapon in his house, whereas with us it is just the opposite. (ibid., p. 21) hilmi baba compared the tanzimat with the process of colonization of the ottoman empire. britain used a free trade agreement to enter the ottoman empire which was large and rich in terms of markets and raw materials. when mehmet ali paşa of egypt defeated ottoman armies and reached kütahya the ottoman state asked for british help in order to get rid of this rebel governor. consequently, on 16 august 1838 a trade agreement with britain was signed (pamuk, p. 654). the protectionist policy of the ottoman state disappeared and the markets were flooded with the british goods. further, offices were occupied by prowestern bureaucrats. moreover, this situation stroke a blow to the ottoman industry and a lot of industrial plants began to close down. trade advantages granted to britain were later followed by those to france and some other european states. therefore, hilmi baba thinks that all these policies and practices weaken the ottoman state and lead to loss of its territories: we take very little customs taxes for western products. if we tax them properly, as russia does, and consume and export our own products, then our people will be one of the richest people. russia has a very large territory and has so many muslims whose number we do not know. kazan, crimea and daghestan where muslims live are few of them. russia does not let any muslim know about its royal affairs and secrets and keep many practices and knowledge as state secrets… however, muslims [ottomans] gave various ranks like the rank of colonel to christians who served bravely in the army. britain too had 150 million indian muslims under their control, but no muslim state knew britain's secrets nor interfered with its affairs. (hilmi baba, pp. 21-24) hilmi baba also elaborated russian ways of administration and the treatment of the subjects in his pamphlet titled hicret: ... it is peculiar to austrians to make muslims into infidels. on the other hand, russians captured kazan nearly 500 years ago, but they repair muslims' decayed mosques and madrasas, they are sympathetic to those muslims who are religious and do not levy tithe on their produces... (hilmi baba, p. 8) in this pamphlet, hilmi baba expressed his support to the classical ottoman administration and rule. hilmi baba obviously respected the sultan and his orders, but criticized administrators around the sultan for their lack of skills for administration. according to him, for instance, some viziers follow a policy of getting rid of a rising person by finding local collaborators. in his work, he gives an example for the use of such tactics: in the framework of ottoman-serbian relations, local authorities (dayıs) in belgrade were initially supported, but after they started opposing central administration in istanbul, it was decided to get rid of them. for that purpose, collaboration with kara yorgi (karadjordje) was preferred, but he went out of control and killed muslims during a festive 56 journal of transdisciplinary studies prayer in belgrade. because of this and some other development, this time ottoman state dealt with getting rid of kara yorgi (kutlu, 2007, p. 46; ortaylı, 1985, pp. 79-81). hilmi baba's religious works it is known that political, social and juridical views of the religious scholars (ulema) are shaped by the education and socio-political context. hilmi baba’s thought was formed by fatih madrasas in istanbul. he used significantly his education, deductive reasoning, learning of the past and religious scriptures. while he appreciated sufi views, in hadith and narrative methods he adopted more conservative scholastic views. the courses taught at ottoman madrasas were in terms of their nature almost the same as those taught at seljukid madrasas (bilge, 1984, p. 42). ottoman tradition of science was based on birgivi and razi schools (d. 606/1209). birgivi school was continued by kadizadeler, while razi school was adopted and continued in general by the official scholars (ulema) who were close to the state (ocak, 1989, pp. 30-32). hilmi baba devoted his life and works to understanding the causes of the ottoman decline. he called for the return to the essence of the original religion. his famous religious work was risale-i hicret, which was a socio-historical book. there are two copies of bosnalı hilmi baba’s work titled hicret risalesi. the copy at the süleymaniye library in i̇stanbul was written in arabic. it is contained in a volume written by hilmi baba and called mine’l-fıkh ve’lfetava. hicret risalesi has 20 pages in total and is between the pages 56 and 76 in that volume. the other copy which has a few differences from the arabic copy is in ottoman turkish and located at gazi husrev-bey library in sarajevo (with the registration number of r 6172). this copy has 12 pages and the fact that the last sentence in this pamphlet is incomplete suggests that the work is in fact longer. in his hicret risalesi hilmi baba discusses in detail the issue of migration in the light of qur’anic verses and hadiths. the hadiths are cited together with their arabic originals and this is in line with the contemporary book format and style of providing references. his selections of hadiths from the collections of al-bukhari and al-muslim shows that he wants to discuss the issue of migration with reference to reliable religious sources. with the austria-hungarian invasion of bosnia and herzegovina, the social life of bosniaks changed significantly. the austro-hungarian empire used a powerful administrative structure to control the territory. the new local administrators were appointed who introduced heavy taxes and sometimes confiscated their possessions, which contributed to the migrations of muslims. besides, the greatest support was given to the croats who shared the same religion with austro-hungarian occupiers. bosniaks now (in hilmi baba’s words) were under the rule of a state headed by infidels. moreover, doing compulsory military service in the army of non-muslims was a serious problem. such a state of mind facilitated bosniak mass migration to the ottoman state and according to some data between 140.000 to 300.000 people migrated until 1918 (ilic, 1999). austria-hungarian officials promoted muslimserbian animosity in order to rule the country easier. in addition, in 1882 an ulema assembly was composed of one head and four members in order to acquire influence over muslims (basic, 1998, p. 45). finance minister benjamin kalay, who was given special duties by the austria-hungarian state governed bosnia and herzegovina and followed the empire’s policies. although the state pretended to leave the administration of the bosniak religious affairs and schools to bosniaks, it was careful not to lose control over it (georges, 1993, p. 64). while the kalay administration encouraged the enrolment of muslim boys in secular schools, bosnian muslims complained that they were not allowed to administer, organize and reform their schools as they wanted and that the education provided at those schools actually indoctrinated the students according to croat views and policies (boa. y.a. hus, nr. 412/8, 28 r. 1318). in fact, benjamin kalay contributed towards the christianization of bosnian muslims and his initiatives and plans were supported by the emperor. in this context, the government issued an official document in 1891 stating that it accepted people’s religious conversion (bogicevic, 1951, p. 266). besides, the compulsory military service in the austrian army facilitated the fast recruitment of bosniak youth. hilmi baba and some people rebelled in the in 1883 as a reaction to all such decisions. however, when the rebellion failed, hilmi baba continued to use academic and intellectual ways to counter these influences. he authored his risale-i hicret with a language addressing the common 57epiphany people by dealing with following issues that forced muslims in bosnia and herzegovina to migrate: • religious reasons (people’s rejection of living under a non-muslim state) • compulsory military service introduced in 1881 by the austria-hungarian government • austria-hungarian interference with various educational programs in the country • austria-hungarian government’s efforts to christianize bosniaks by making the law on religious conversion (gürbüz and özkan, 2006, p. 168). hilmi baba believed that bosnia and herzegovina is now dar al-harb (abode of war) due to the abovementioned, which in turn accelerated migrations. according to him, a land where muslims are under pressure and oppression and cannot carry out their religious duties is certainly dar al-harb (abode of war) from which people must migrate. he argued: oh muslim brothers who are in charge of protecting their families! there is no doubt that it is obligatory upon those who can afford it to migrate from the abode of war (dar-al harb) to muslim lands according to the verses and hadiths pertaining to migration (hicret) as well as works of exegesis such as tefsir-i beyzavi, tefsir-i keşşaf, tefsir-i ebu suud, tefsir-i hazin, tefsir-i nesefi. (hilmi baba, p. 2) according to hilmi baba, just as the spanish kings forced muslims to convert to catholicism, the austriahungarian empire too would try to christianize muslims. he mentioned two austria-hungarian soldiers of muslims origin he met at the gazi husrev bey mosque in sarajevo. the soldiers told him that they were actually turks from budin (hungary) and that they had to leave islam and become christians because they and their grandfathers were threatened with death. however, they were now happy to hear adhan (muslim call to prayer) at the mosque. according to hilmi baba, it is peculiar to austrians to make muslims into infidels, whereas russians who captured kazan nearly 500 years ago did not oppress the muslims. on the contrary, the russians repair muslims’ decayed mosques and madrasas, are sympathetic to those muslims who are religious, do not levy a tithe on their produces and do not recruit muslims as soldiers. therefore, hilmi baba believes that muslims can migrate to russia, as he compared such a migration to the muslim migration to ethiopia permitted by prophet muhammad (ibid., p. 8). hilmi baba asserts that the immigrants should be received well by the local people who should share their food and clothes with them and even share their houses, if needed. in this context, he expresses the following: it is necessary for the muslims living in muslim lands to love the immigrants coming to their lands. they should offer food and drink to them, give money, clothes, wood and coal as much as they can. they should treat the immigrants with compassion and dignity and provide them houses or rooms. they should see immigrants as brothers and sisters. those who treat immigrants in these ways will be blessed by allah. on the other hand, if an ignorant person says that «why have these dirty, worthless and despicable people come to our land, for if they were good people the infidels could not capture their land?», then he becomes an infidel. if i am asked for evidence of his infidelity, then i will reply as follows: ... when prophet muhammad migrated to medina, the inhabitants of the city were divided into two: the first group welcomed the prophet and the people with him and respected and helped them... whereas the second group was composed of the hypocrites... they said let us send these worthless and despicable people away from medina. if they tell me, «oh bosnian! you talk about the affairs of the immigrants, but if they were like the prophet and his friends around him, we would definitely welcome them», then i would say the following: «oh idiot who talk like infidels! if you saw the companions who migrated together with the prophet, you would look at them with contempt and consider them madmen, because they wrapped themselves in straw dresses or were poor. when you saw them in those clothes, you would escape from them and reject them and thus join the group of hypocrites. now the immigrants match the hosts (ensar). (hilmi baba, pp. 74-76) while hilmi baba supported the idea of migration of muslims due to oppressive administration and policies of the austria-hungarian state, the sublime porte (babıâli) tried to prevent the migration in order to be able to continue its sovereignty rights over the region and also prevent the distribution of the properties of the migrating muslims among the christians in the 58 journal of transdisciplinary studies region. the ottoman state considered the increasing bosniak migration as something dangerous for its existence in the region. the bosniak media of the era too explained the harms which would result from the migration of the muslims from bosnia and asked the people not to migrate (genç osman geçer, 2010, pp. 195-196). hilmi baba wrote tefsirü sureti’d-duha in arabic. the year 1303 a.h. is seen at the end of the work. according to the manuscript, he completed his exegesis in 125 chapters after returning from hejaz to istanbul. the part on the chapter of al-duha is composed of 40 sections (bölüm) and 250 sheets. the original manuscript of the work is currently at süleymaniye library, but at the beginning of the work, it is written that the pamphlet was endowed to the library of fatih sultan mehmet han. we could not find out if the work has other manuscript copies. in the first 18 pages, i.e. first three sections one finds exegesis of verses related to the story of zu’lqarnayn. the fourth and seventh sections mention chapter of cave (al-kahf). the exegesis of the chapter of al-duha starts on page 40. and the last two pages of the work deal with the oaths (qasam) found at the beginnings of some qur’anic chapters. although this work is in the form of a pamphlet in terms of its physical dimensions, it has content with a concise expression. it generally explains the issues through transmission (naql) by quoting references from the sources of islamic tradition, namely exegesis, hadith, and history. he cites varying narratives in accordance with the contents of qur’anic verses. also, he provides one or two narratives which he considers as occasions or circumstances of revelation (asbab al-nuzul). he also quotes hadiths, with or without their chain of narrators. the work analyzes the qur’anic verses by dealing with one or a few words with respect to their grammar, etymology and meaning. hilmi baba penned his work by making use of trustworthy works of exegesis, hadiths, works on theology and jurisprudence as well as views of prestigious historians. among the sources he uses in his work tefsirü sureti’d-duha are the following: tefsir-i suyuti, tefsir-i kurtubi, tizkar fi afdali’l-ezkar kurtubi, tefsir-i hazin, tefsir-i vasıt, ruhu’l-beyan, tefsir-i bağavi, kadı beyzavi, şeyh zade, tefsir-i nesefi, mişkatü’l-envar, futuhat-i mekkiyye, makrizi, tenbihü’l-ğafilin which emphasized admonitions, ravzu’l faik, şerh tarikat-i abdül ğaniy nablusi, kuşeyri, among hadith books zehebi’s telhis ala şerhi müslim, tabarani, beyhaki, i̇mam-ı birgivi’s commentary on forty hadiths, mirkat ala mişkati’lmesabih, behçetü’l-feteva, bahru’l-feteva, feteva ali efendi. he quotes from the sources as they are and then firstly gives religious ordinances and fundamentals, then mentions sufi interpretations and adds aspects related to encouragements and admonishments (terğib ve terhib). in this pamphlet written about exegesis, hilmi baba mentions turks (pp. 15-16) and also virtues of learning languages (p. 69). it seems that he believes that the universe is created out of mohammedan light (nuru muhammedî) (p. 80). he narrates some stories about tamerlane (pp. 84-85) and akşemseddin (p. 108). he also discusses issues related to mesiah (mahdi) (p. 88). he also deals with various fatwas pertaining to jurisprudential matters. he replies to the following question by saying that it is the time of silence: is it permissible to sing some words of praise for prophet muhammad with the purpose of celebrating his birthday? (p. 69) he also provides the views of the four sunnite legal schools about buying and selling dogs (p. 4-3). hilmi baba explains why he authored this work: in one month of ramadan, he saw that some students in istanbul were busy with the exegesis of the chapter al-duha in the qur’an and noticed that they needed some reference books on exegesis, hadith, history of prophets and stories of the saints. out of love and desire to help, he wanted to write a book in 40 chapters (corresponding to the number of 40 saints) by making use of authoritative books in relevant fields. yet he worried about the possibility of authoring such a work in such a short time. nevertheless, like many rulers and the leading figures in the ottoman geography did, one day he had a dream which he narrates as follows: one day in his dream one of the saints came to him and told him to go on what he intended to do, as allah’s help was with him. then he was given a drink and told to drink it, an order that he obeyed. when he woke up, he was in a state of intoxication, but after recovering from it, he started to work on this pamphlet. hilmi baba also wrote pamphlet on the miracles of the prophet (muhammad) (mucizatü’n-nebi) in arabic in 1303 a.h. the original manuscript of the work is currently at süleymaniye library, but at the 59epiphany beginning of the work, it reads that the pamphlet is endowed to the fatih sultan mehmet han library. we could not find out if the work has other manuscript copies. the work has 300 sheets. for this work, he made extensive use of a 3-volume biography of prophet muhammad titled es-siretül halebiyye (i̇nsanü’l-uyun fi sireti’l-emini’l-me’mun), şehab ala şifa-i şerif, ruhu’l-beyan, zürkani’s elmevahib, ali el-kari’s mirkat ala mişkati’l-mesabih, demiri’s (d.1405) hayatü’l-hayevan, müslim are among the other works he made use of. hilmi baba provides an index of subjects at the beginning of the work which has 164 /chapters (bölüm). the following subjects are covered: the miracles prophet muhammad experienced in his childhood, migration of the muslims, phenomena that will appear near the doomsday (saints, mahdi, dajjal). at the end of the work, hilmi baba mentions matters related to tanzimat and equality and asserts that those who say the following will destroy both their world and the afterlife: “quran is the law of the arabs. we must leave the ordinances of the sharia and adopt the laws of the christians.” he wrote mecalisü’l-bosnavi too in arabic. the date written at the end of the first volume is 3 recep 1289 a.h (6 september 1872). the work has two volumes. the first volume has 254 sheets, while the second has 260 sheets. the original manuscript of the work is currently at süleymaniye library, but it is stated the work is endowed in 1303 to the library of fatih sultan mehmet han. at the end of the pamphlet, hilmi baba writes that he took lessons at fatih sultan mosque in istanbul from el-hacc ali efendi el-bigavi (from biga) and received a diploma (icazet) from him. as he mentioned in his pamphlet on chapter al-duha too, once hilmi baba heard a voice in his sleep and saw saints who told him to go to damascus. when he arrived at damascus a wonder (keramet) occurred and druses and christians began to fight with each other. among the sources hilmi baba made use of are şeyh ahmet kalyubi’s (d.1659) nevdirü’l-kalyubi, mizanü şa’ravi, demiri’s (d.1405) hayatü’l-hayevan, ruhu’lbeyan, mefatih şerh mesabih, i̇bni melek’s şerh-i vikaye, mişkat maa mirkat, şeyh zade, tefsir hazin, tefsir kevaşi, tefsir kebir, tefsir kurtubi, tefsir teysir, and tefsir ebu leys. except for the last chapter, kitab mine’l fıkh ve’l fetava is written in arabic. hicret risalesi (pamphlet on migration) in the last chapter has 21 sheets and its last 5 pages are written in ottoman turkish. this work on islamic jurisprudence has 39 sections (bölüm) and 76 sheets, including hicret risalesi. hilmi baba provides an index of subjects at the beginning of the work. some major issues discussed are: 1) issues on prohibition of the voice of müezzin and imamate; 2) saying allahu ekber (god is great) during fires and earthquakes; 3) permissibility of the friday prayer in lands like crimea and kazan; 4) nonmuslims’ entering the mosques; 5) urinating while standing; 6) drinking water while standing; 7) issues pertaining to lust; 8) a view on ibn al-arabi; 9) on the permissibility of smoking, opium, marijuana, coffee, and intoxicating drinks; 10) inclination towards the oppressor. hilmi baba does not inform us about his purpose of writing this book, nor when he started writing it. yet when one examines its content, it might be inferred that he gathered fatwas from various fatwa books in order to answer issues that people face in their social life. the sources he often uses in this work are dürrü’lmuhtar, haşiye tahtavi ale’d-dürri’l-muhtar, tefsirü nesefi, kastallani, fethül bari, şerhü’l-zürkani ala muvatta, fetavay-ı hindiyye, abdülvehhab şa’rani’s letaifü’l-minen, envarü’l-kudsiyye şa’rani, bahrü’lmevrüd şa’rani, el-cevahir ve’d-dürer şa’rani, hadimi ala tarikati’l-muhammediyye, and ruhu’lbeyan. hilmi baba prepared an index for i̇smail hakkı bursevi’s (d.1137/1725) four-volume work titled ruhu’l-beyan. the index provides subjects, headings, sub-headings as well as volume and page numbers. the index ensures easy access to the subjects. at the end of the work, he writes the following: “praise be to allah who made me successful in exposing several states and words of the people of divine love and passion (jazba) as well as various narratives. we have opened the doors of strange stories and special words and expressions written in ruhu’l-beyan and titled our work as “fethu’l-esrar ve’l-müşkilati ala ruhu’l-beyani bi’l-i̇şarati”. 60 journal of transdisciplinary studies conclusion hilmi baba criticizes in a dissenting stand some policies of the ottoman government and undertaken reforms (tanzimat), especially in his work siyaset. indeed, considering contextual writing of this work and time of its publication, it implies that hilmi baba’s work was one of the first exemplary texts that tackled the westernization process in the ottoman empire. in that period only a few members of the ulema who were against westernization had the courage and competence to express their thoughts in writing and, therefore, hilmi baba’s work, which included his views against tanzimat, is very important. it is obvious that the reforms that started in the tanzimat era were influential in the transformation of the identity of the ottoman state. the tanzimat edict brought equality, freedom and property rights for all the regions of the empire. as seen from this perspective, this change brought in the foreground a new “ottoman identity” which transcended the millet system that was dominant in the empire and gathered in itself all the subjects of the empire regardless of their ethnic and religious differences. thus, hilmi baba was among the first who challenged this change of identity. hilmi baba also explained why muslims of bosnia opposed tanzimat because they thought that they would lose their privileges with its application. in particular, high taxes, military service and more importantly equality with christians. in spite of the relative spread of books, newspapers, and telegraph among the social classes, there was a gap between traditional strata of the society and those who adopted western culture and lifestyle (mardin, 2016, pp. 48-49). similarly so, the rulers and the ruled still shared the same religion, language, and daily habits, but the similarity between the two continued to decrease and differentiation became more visible. as the difference increased between the ruling elite who entered a process of losing their traditional cultural identity and customs and the common people who still followed the traditions, cultural polarization and conflict gained momentum (karpat, 2017, pp. 82-83). in such a process where religious values were gradually replaced by worldly values and many started to imitate western culture, some people from among the ulema class like hilmi baba were against such a change. he developed his views during the social and popular awakening in bosnia, balkans, and the whole empire. hilmi baba’s work on migration carries the characteristics of the ottoman turkish language of the 19th century. he wrote his work on politics in arabic due to his desire to send his message to different regions of the empire. the work also contains interesting information on ottoman political history. his other works penned in a simple and smooth style do not aim at bringing something new to any discipline, but try to strengthen the connection with the holy qur’an, of those who are busy with scholarly studies and also continue the traditional form of qur’anic exegesis. hilmi baba used the qur’anic exegesis written by commentators like beydâvî, i̇bn-i kesir, and fahreddin er-razi. hilmi baba’s particular selection of the qur’anic verses and hadiths in his works are also important for identifying the ottoman emerging culture and functioning of muslim collective consciousness. in this light, it is significant to assess hilmi baba’s views on the reforms and migrations in bosnia and herzegovina. 61epiphany references » aruçi, muhammed. (2009). “saraybosna.” di̇a, vol. 36. i̇stanbul. » azabagić, mehmet tevfik. hicret hakkında risale, gazi husrev-bey library. » başiç, kemal. (1998). osmanlı devleti’nin bosna müslümanlarıyla dini i̇lişkileri, ayrılıştan 1914’e, ankara üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü, basılmamış yüksek lisans tezi. » başbakanlık osmanlı arşivi (turkey). (1992). bosna-hersek ile ilgili arşiv belgeleri, 1516-1919. ankara :t.c. başbakanlık, devlet arşivleri genel müdürlüğü, osmanlı arşivi daire başkanlığı. » baba, hilmi. risale min al-hıgra. gazi husrev-bey library, r 6172, 1884. » baba, hilmi. kitab mine'l-fıkh ve'l-fetava. süleymaniye library, i̇brahim efendi, 00358m, » baba, hilmi. risale fi’s-siyaset. süleymaniye library, i̇brahim efendi, 00422 » baba, hilmi. mecalisü’l-bosna. süleymaniye library, i̇brahim efendi, 00517/00518 » baba, hilmi. mu’cizatü’n-nebi. süleymaniye library, i̇brahim efendi, 00211m » baba, hilmi. tefsirü sureti’d-duha. süleymaniye library, i̇brahim efendi, 00137 » baba, hilmi. fethu’lesrar ve’l -müşkilat ala ruhi’l-beyan bi’l-i̇şarat. süleymaniye library, i̇brahim efendi, 00132 » bilge, mustafa. “mustafa paşa buşatlı.” di̇a, vol. 31. » bilge, mustafa. (1984). i̇lk osmanlı medreseleri. i̇stanbul: i̇stanbul üniversitesi edebiyat fakültesi. » boa. y.a. hus, nr. 412/8, 28 r. 1318 (6 kânûn-ı sânî 1900). » boa. y.a. hus, nr. 412/8, 28 r. 1318 (6 kânûn-ı sânî 1900). » bogicevıc, vojisılav. (1951). “emigracija muslimana bosne i hercegovine u tursku u doba austrougarske vladanine 1878-1918 godine”, glasnik vi̇s-a, s.vii-ix, sarajevo. » çadırcı, musa. (1991). tanzimat döneminde anadolu kentleri’nin sosyal ve ekonomik yapıları, ankara: türk tarih kurumu basımevi » doğan, cabir. (2010). “bedirhan bey i̇syanı: tanzimat’ın diyarbakır ve çevresinde uygulanmasına karşı bir tepki hareketi.” süleyman demirel üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi. issue, 12. » eren, ahmet cevat. (1979). "tanzimat", i̇slam ansiklopedisi (i̇. a.), vol. xi, ankara: meb yayinlari. » eren, ahmet cevat. (1965). mahmud ii. zamanında bosna-hersek, i̇stanbul: nurgök matbaası » geçer, genç osman. (2010). “i̇şgal sonrası bosna-hersek'te göç olgusunun vatan gazetesine yansımaları.” tübar, xxviii. » georges, castellan. (1993). balkanların tarihi. trans. ayşegül yaraman. i̇stanbul: milliyet yayınları. » gürbüz musa and özkan, ayşe. (2006). ''bosna-hersek’ten anadolu’ya göçler'', uluslararası suçlar ve tarih, asam. issue 2, ankara. » ilic, slobodan,(1999).“bosna bogomilleri ve i̇slamlaşma: bilimsel bir yanılgıdan ulusal bir mitosa.” tarih ve milliyetçilik i. ulusal tarih kongresi bildiriler, 30 nisan-2 mayıs 1997. mersin: mersin üniversitesi. » i̇nalcık, halil. (1992). tanzimat ve bulgar meselesi. i̇stanbul: eren yayınevi. » karal, enver ziya. (1988). osmanlı tarihi. vol. v. ankara: türk tarih kurumu. » karčić, fikret. (1999). the bosniaks and the challanges of modernity: late ottoman and hapsburg times. sarajevo: el-kalem. » karpat, kemal. (2017). osmanlı modernleşmesi. i̇stanbul. » kutlu, sacit. (2007). balkanlar ve osmanlı devleti. i̇stanbul: i̇stanbul bilgi üniversitesi yayınları, » lavicş, osman. “azapagiç.” di̇a, vol. 28. » mardin, şerif. (2016). tanzimattan sonra aşırı batılılaşma. i̇stanbul: sentez 2016. » ortaylı, i̇lber. (1985). “osmanlı i̇mparatorluğu’nda millet.” tanzimat’tan cumhuriyet’e türkiye ansiklopedisi, i̇letişim yayınları. vol. 4, i̇stanbul. » ocak, ahmet yaşar. (1989). “i̇bn kemal’in yaşadığı xv. ve xvi. asırlar türkiye’sinde i̇lim ve fikir hayatı.” şeyhülislam i̇bn kemal sempozyumu. ankara. » pamuk, şevket. (1985). tanzimat’tan cumhuriyete türkiye ansiklopedisi, vol. 3. i̇letişim yayınları. vol. 4, i̇stanbul. » uludağ, süleyman. “baba.” di̇a, vol. 4. » ülken, hilmi ziya. (1992). çağdaş düşünce tarihi. (3rd edition), istanbul: ülken yayinlari. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 becoming more european after erasmus? the impact of the erasmus programme on political and cultural identity karina oborune * abstract the european commission and scholars emphasize that the erasmus programme is a successful example of european integration and a symbol of construction of european identity. but because of the lack of empirical findings, this paper has been devoted to research of the impact of the erasmus programme on fostering european identity. the quantitative survey of 330 former, potential and non-erasmus students provides partly justification that the erasmus programme has impact on promoting european identity. this study was implemented for the first time in [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process], but the results are important not only in [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process], but also at the eu level. eu officials should take into consideration the fact that potential erasmus students already have greater european self-identification than non-mobile students, therefore the european identity should be promoted in those students who do not take participation in. keywords: erasmus programme, mobility, european identity, european integration, european union * corresponding author: karina oborune, phd candidate, university of latvia, e-mail: oborune.karina@gmail.com mailto:oborune.karina@gmail.com k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [183] “bringing students to europe, bringing europe to students…” motto of the erasmus programme introduction today the erasmus programme is described as one of the symbols of the construction of european identity. moreover, the promotion of european identity contributes to promotion of sociopolitical aspects of european integration. furthermore, strong european identity has impact on believe in eu project and therefore fosters the further economic integration. on the other hand, there is a vicious circle because also growing economic integration will have impact on creating much stronger european identity. the idea of studying the effect of student mobility on european integration was initiated by lijphart (lijphart, 1964, 252) but never implemented. also nowadays several authors (e.g. wallace, jacobs & maier, kamphausen, valentini, green, fligstein, chopin) point to the erasmus programmme as a tool for promoting european identity. but, unfortunately, there is a limited number of empirical studies done in this field. nevertheless, the emergence of research on the erasmus programme in the last years shows the recent interest in studying this field. corradi (2006) has analyzed the erasmus programme in the historical perspective, sauzet (2008) has focused on the pedagogical evaluation of intercultural learning and stereotypes. van mol (2009a, 2009b) and sigalas (2006, 2009) have researched empirically the impact of the erasmus programme on the european identity. sigalas has studied british students who have and who have not participated in the erasmus programme, as well students who have studied as erasmus students in uk. contrarily, van mol has studied non-mobile, potential mobile, future mobile and mobile students in sixteen european countries. interestingly, sigalas came to the conclusion that although it is “widely assumed it plays a pivotal role in the promotion of a european identity”, the programme “does not foster a european self-identity or a sense of european pride”. (sigalas 2009, 1) both sigalas (2009) and van mol (2009b) conclude that european identity feeling is already present before participation in the programme. therefore, i have proposed following statement: the erasmus programme does not have an impact on promotion of european identity. the objective of the present paper is k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [184] to analyze the european self-identification of students of [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process] who have participated/have applied/have not participated in the erasmus programme. to achieve this objective, the following tasks have been drafted: first, to operationalize concept of “european identity”; second, to develop appropriate methodology; third, to conduct a survey of students of [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process]. in the empirical part i have taken into account the limitations of methodological frameworks of previous research. for example, sigalas points to three studies about the erasmus programme as promoter of european identity done by stroebe et al. (1988), krämer-byrne (2002) and king & ruiz-gelices (2003) but to sigalas‟s mind all these researches suffer from some methodological limitations – either unrepresentative sample, or use retrospective rather than longitudinal assessment, or there were studied only erasmus students and they were not compared with nonerasmus students. in this research a quantitative survey of nonmobile, potential-future mobile students (treatment group) and mobile students (control group) was conducted. literature review before analyzing the concept of “european identity” i should specify what i mean by concept of “identity”. however, defining and studying “identity” is a difficult task to accomplish. the three main approaches of theorizing the concept of “identity” are following: 1) universalistic (structural) (habermas); 2) sociological (e.g. easton, nisbet, weber, giddens) and 3) social-psychological approach (e.g. turner, tajfel, oakes). there is also a distinction between 1) social identity (tajfel, williams), 2) cultural identity (clifford, hall) and 3) collective identity (geertz, habermas). however, this distinction is debatable and there are different opinions among scholars. for instance, loukola points out that sociologists distinguish between social, cultural and personal (instead of collective) identity (loukola 2005, 113), but snow argues that there is social, personal and collective identity (snow 2001, 1). from the other side, fearon claims that there is only a distinction between social and personal identity (fearon 1999, 2.) k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [185] furthermore, heikinnen thinks that cultural identity is one of the forms of social identity (heikinnen 2009, 29). thus, identity is a multidimensional concept and dynamic social phenomenon. the definition of identity i prefer: identity is a feeling of belonging to a specific category determined by common characteristics and recognized by other members. despite the fact that there are different approaches of theorizing concept of “identity”, for the purpose of this paper i prefer distinction between individual and collective identity because this distinction is mainly used in the debate about european identity (müller 2007, 102). in the case of european identity we speak about collective and not about individual identity. moreover, european identity is part of multiple identities that one can have. i would rather agree with scholars who argue that european identity is collective identity (hollmann 2009, 48; delanty 2003). in contrast, if we talk about european identity, then the main debate among scholars is not about european identity as social, cultural, personal or collective identity but rather if european identity is individual or collective identity (müller 2007, 102). i would rather agree with scholars who argue that european identity is collective identity (hollmann 2009, 48; delanty, 2003). to justify my opinion, at first, i will elaborate on the main differences between individual and collective identity and then i will analyze the definitions of concept of “identity”. weeks proposes such definition of individual identity (“me–feeling”): “what you have in common with some people and what differentiates you from others” (weeks 1990, 88). tajfel defines individual identity in the following way: “part of the individual‟s self-concept which derives from knowledge of membership of a social group/s together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership” (tajfel 1981, 255). collective identity requires interaction between individuals (“wefeeling”). valentini provides following definition: “a feeling and belief that one belongs to a specific category determined by common characteristics”, and this feeling and belief should be recognized by other members (valentini 2005, 5). furthemore, i would like to emphasize that collective identity can be analyzed as active or passive element (baki 2009, 5). collective identity as an active element means that we study k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [186] how does identity as a political tool affect european integration. a passive element means that we study how does identity as a social process change european integration. the erasmus programme is both a political tool and a social process therefore in this research both active and passive elements are studied. there is a vast amount of definitions of the concept of identity. in this part i would like to emphasize one concrete definition. žagar provides a definition of “identity” which combines elements of individual and collective identity. žagar‟ s definition is the following: “identity is the feeling of belonging to a certain entity, defined by different (in the case of collective identities – agreed upon and shared) objective and subjective criteria”. (žagar 2001, 2-3) moreover, as žagar and other scholars have emphasized, identity (either individual or collective) is not fixed, but can change and transform (žagar 2001, 3; valentini 2005, 9). therefore, identity is a social phenomenon that can be in the process of formation rather than static. thus identity is a dynamic phenomenon. moreover, identity is a multidimensional concept and i do agree with scholars that multiple identities do exist (risse 2004; huyst 2008; caporaso & kim 2009). european identity can be part of such multiple identities together with national identity. from this discussion of the concept of “identity” i would like to emphasize four aspects. first, despite the fact that there are different approaches of theorizing concept of “identity”, for the purpose of this thesis i prefer distinction between individual and collective identity because this distinction is mainly used in the debate about european identity. second aspect i would like to emphasize is that in the case of european identity we speak about collective and not about individual identity. moreover, european identity is part of multiple identities that one can have. third, identity is a dynamic social phenomenon that can change. last but not least, the definition of identity i prefer: identity is a feeling of belonging to a specific category determined by common characteristics and recognized by other members. this definition reflects the “collectivity” element that is prescribed to the european identity. there is a vast amount of literature on the issue of european identity and in the past decades it has become one of the most k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [187] researchable and highly debatable topics. “additionally, in the new member countries the very notion of european identity seems to be more widely discussed than in the old member states” (valentini 2005, 10). historians, political scientists, sociologists and social psychologists have studied concept of european identity, thus it has become an interdisciplinary field to observe. however, to my mind, because of the latter there are shortcomings in the literature a lack of in-depth theoretical and empirical analysis taking into account many dimensions and perspectives of this phenomenon. i agree with huyst‟s argumentation why studying the european identity is a comprehensive task: it is hard to define european identity and to measure it (huyst forthcoming, 6; herrmann & brewer 2004). indeed, defining the concept of european identity is a tough task. even nowadays there is a debate if european identity does exist (see kielmansegg 1996; offe 1998). however, i would argue that the european identity exists and there are scholars who agree with that. another failure is that some scholars associate “europe with european union (..) which is reflected also in the general definition of the word “european”” (valentini 2005, 4). therefore i agree with rollis that each of the words in the concept of “european identity” taken individually may be ambiguous (rollis 2005, 163). moreover, i disagree with fokion et al. that “european identity tends to be meaningful only when it is contrasted against anything considered as non-european” (fokion et al. 2006, 8) because this argument rather separates “european” and “identity” but does not take into account the specific meaning of these words together. van mol points to two approaches for the study of european identity: 1) top-down; and 2) bottom-up approach (van mol 2009a, 9). top-down approach focuses on what unifies europeans (e.g. cultural heritage, values) (bruter 2005, 5). bottom-up approach focuses on feelings of europeans toward europe. similarly as van mol, also in this study will be used k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [188] bottom-up approach: the influence of the erasmus programme on individual‟s european identity feeling. taking into account the discussion of the concept of “identity”, i would agree with castells that european identity is the set of values and feeling of belonging to a distinctive european entity, for example, european culture (castells 2000, 3). however, there are scholars who conclude that european identity is an elite project (bancks 2007, 12; guibernau 2001, 27). furthermore, fuchs argues that “for a further emergence of european identity a stronger political integration of the eu is necessary”. (fuchs 2006, 18) nevertheless, we agree with this opinion or not, i share my point of view with academians who conclude that the creation of european identity is still an ongoing, very difficult, complex and time consuming process (öner 2004, 35; bakke 1995; 26; jasson 2001, 157). kohli distinguishes four levels of analysis of european identity: 1) constitutional 1; 2) discursive (political); 3) cultural; 4) individual (kohli 2000; 120). scholars (e.g. niedermayer and sinnot, mclaren, green, fligstein) and also eurobarometer use the selfidentification it could be all levels of analysis of european identity except the first. however, i would agree with madeker that kohli‟s fourth level of analysis “individual‟s feelings of belonging to europe as a social or political entity” is the interest of scholars in the most cases (madeker 2006; 3). on the other hand, according to bruter we can distinguish between political and cultural european identity. both identities are important for the thesis because the political european identity implies that an individual identifies him/herself with the european union, but the cultural european identity implies that individual “shares a certain common culture, social similarities, ethics, values and religion.” (bruter 2004, 2005, 2008, 279) interestingly, based on qualitative interviews in belgium and spain, van mol concludes that students who have participated in the erasmus programme refer to cultural european identity, but students who have not taken part in to political european identity (van mol 2009a, 10). on the contrary, mondrasse has emphasized that only common cultural european identity does exist (buzaianu 2006, 78). k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [189] there are three different opinions about the relationship between european and national identity. first point of view is that european and national identity are competing (fuchs et al. 2009). therefore some scholars see a strong national identity as the main reason for a week european identity but, on the other hand, there are academians (e.g. eisenstadt & giesen 1995; risse 2004) who argue that “the relationship between the two forms of identification is mutually exclusive” (kaelble 2009, 207). second view is that european and national identities are complementary. for instance, fossum, grundy and jamieson argue that one can have both national and european identity (fossum 2001, 375376; grundy & jamieson 2007). also other political scientists emphasize that european identity cannot substitute national identity (laffan 2008, 98-99; prisacariu 2007, 5; järve 2005, 34). moreover, the project of european identity does not mean the loss of national identity (müller 2007, 107). additionally, hedetoft (1994, 19) and sedláček (2009) conclude that people who feel a strong european identity could also feel a 11 strong sense of national identity. this conclusion was also drawn by king and ruiz-gelices (2003, 247). the last point of view is that on one hand national and european identity can be seen as complementary but on the other hand – contradictory (öner, 2004, 34). this is similar argument brought by smith who distinguishes two levels of debate: at the practical and at the conceptual level (smith 1992, 56). he argues that european and national identity are competing with each other at the practical rather than conceptual level. i rather disagree with smith because to my mind these identities are not competing but rather can exist complementary both on the conceptual and practical level. therefore taking into consideration the analysis of the concept of “european identity” above i would like to point to five viewpoints. first, to my mind european identity does exist. however, it is a tough task to study and measure european identity. second, european identity is a feeling of belonging to a distinctive european culture (cultural european identity) and/or european union (political european identity). third, bottom-up approach will be used in this research. fourth, to my mind european and national identities are k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [190] complementary. finally, the formation of european identity is a complex project to accomplish. methodological framework green (2007), moes (2008), and huyst (forthcoming) conclude that quantitative approach is more often used to study european identity, especially using the data of eurobarometer. but eurobarometer has both advantages and limitations. on one hand, it allows generalizing data, on the other hand, there is criticism of the measurement used in eurobarometer (sinnot 2005; bruter 2008). moreover, questions on european identity are rather questions concerning attachment (to bruter‟s mind attachment is not the same as identity (bruter 2008 in huyst forthcoming, 10)) and most questions neglect the fact that people can have multiple identities, for example, bruter argues that national and european identity is in tension in eurobarometer questions (bruter 2008 in huyst forthcoming, 10). furthermore, cerutti and lucarelli (2008) and bruter (2008) recommend using not only a quantitative but also a qualitative approach in the study of the european identity. there are both advantages and limitations in using the two approaches together. for example, cropley points to the main weakness of the qualitative research method: it gives far less emphasis to the idea of causation (cropley 2002, 10). at first, i have considered using both approaches, but for this research it is enough to use survey, especially because of time limit. the population students of [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process] who have not participated/have applied to participate/have participated in the erasmus programme (2009/2010). sample size: 100 non-mobile, 100 future mobile, and 100 mobile students. a questionnaire was sent to the 1) non-mobile students, 2) future mobile students (who would participate in the erasmus programme in the autumn term of the academic year of 2010/2011) and 3) mobile students (students who have participated in the erasmus programme in the academic year of 2009/2010). the questionnaire was distributed via e-mail list with the help of ba, ma and phd coordinators of the erasmus programme of universities of [name deleted to k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [191] maintain the integrity of the review process]. i have used simple random sampling in my survey. online survey (http://erasmusaptauja.questionpro.com) was conducted in may of 2010. i have constructed indexes based on the proposed index by the baltic institute of social sciences in the research “ethnic tolerance and integration of the [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process]n society” (2004). i have also taken into account other research studies about the influence of the programme on european identity. i have created following two indexes: (1) the multicultural background index h0: erasmus [former and future] students are more multicultural than non-erasmus students h1: erasmus [former and future] students are same multicultural as non-erasmus students i have a good knowledge of at least one foreign language (e.g. english, german, french, spanish, italian etc.) i have participated in exchange, workshop, conference or similar international events abroad i have lived abroad for more than one month (except the erasmus programme) i have friends from another culture (or nationality, or ethnic minority) there are different cultures (nationalities, ethnic minorities) in my family (2) the european identity index h0: erasmus [former and future] students feel more european than non-erasmus students h1: erasmus [former and future] students feel same european as non-erasmus students i feel european i am proud of being european in the near future i see myself as european i can trust europeans i feel close to europeans [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process]‟s eu membership is a good thing http://erasmusaptauja.questionpro.com/ k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [192] european unification is a good thing analysis of survey results reveal that non-mobile students have a similar desire to uphold a national identity to that of mobile students and future mobile students. similarly to sigalas‟s survey results former and future erasmus students fare much better in the field of foreign languages than non-mobile students (2006: 20). if we compare future and mobile students, we can see there is no difference because 95% of mobile and 94% of future mobile versus 83% of non-mobile students have agreed that they have a good knowledge in at least one foreign language (e.g. english, german, french, spanish, italian etc.). moreover, speaking more than one european language is indispensable for “learning about the particular foreign culture which is also instrumental in the formation of a common european identity” (sigalas 2009, 11). consequently, those who apply for exchange programmes already have a good knowledge of foreign languages. on the other hand, this is an obstacle for nonerasmus students. students could also be affected by previous international exchange. i can draw conclusion that there is a huge difference between future mobile and non-mobile students and, thus, previous exchange or living abroad experience can promote a student‟s interest in application for the programme. also murphy-lejeune‟s conclusion is proven that previous experience in a foreign country or culture influences the decision to participate in the programme. if we look at the conclusions drawn above about knowledge of foreign languages, previous international exchange experience and the experience of living abroad, then fligstein is right that people who speak foreign languages, have traveled and lived in other european countries, tend to adopt more european identity and think of themselves as europeans more than those who have not (2009, 133). mobile and future mobile students had more previous experience of international exchanges and living or studying abroad than non-mobile students. mobile and future mobile see themselves as more european than non-mobile students. interestingly, mobile students identify themselves more as europeans and also have more national identity than non-mobile k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [193] students. hedetoft, sedláček, king and ruiz-gelices are right concluding that people who feel a strong european identity could also feel a strong sense of national identity. furthermore, it means that the erasmus programme does not mean the loss of national identity. moreover, the argument discussed in the conceptual part is proven: people can have both strong european and national identity and these identities are complementary rather than excluding each other. the results of the component of “political european identity” prove kaelble‟s statement that the programme reinforces loyalty to europe (2009, 209). but, on the other hand, it also approves papatsiba‟s argument that “the analysis of the observations at the end of the exchange period does not reveal a strong european identity” (2004, 6). this could be explained by the fact that the erasmus students already have european identity before participating in the exchange programme and exchange students differ from non-mobile students (for example, mobile students have more multicultural background etc.). on the other hand, erasmus programme adds the loyalty to eu as a political organization. if we look at the responses of “community feeling” in detail, then results also are similar to responses of trusting people from different nationalities where non-mobile students trusted less people from other cultures than mobile and future mobile students. results also prove sigalas‟s conclusion that socialising with other people promotes a feeling of community (2006, 23) because mobile students trust and feel close to europeans more than future mobile students. as sigalas adds “the more people socialise with each other the more they trust each other and the closer they feel” (ibid). the last two statements divide into euro-sceptics vs. euro-optimists (sigalas 2006, 2425) depending on if students agree or disagree with the following two statements: [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process]‟s eu membership is a good thing; european unification is a good thing. there is more euro-scepticism in the group of non-mobile students than mobile and future-mobile students. there are more eurooptimists among mobile students than non-mobile students. moreover, we should take into account fligstein‟s conclusion that “if a person has some european identity, he/she is more likely to see europe as a good thing for his/her country” (2009, 150). holmes (2000) is right arguing k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [194] that those who have not interacted with people from other european countries are less favorable towards the european integration. discussion on one hand, future mobile students are different from nonmobile students and therefore have already more european selfidentification. but on the other hand, mobile students have more european identity than future mobile students; therefore the programme has an effect on european identity, which could be the result of communication with other europeans during exchanges. furthermore, from these results i would draw the following conclusion: rather nonmobile students than future mobile students would require more intercultural experience and promotion of european identity, because future mobile students already have european identity. nevertheless, the programme plays an important role in promoting the idea that we, europeans, are all alike and foster trust and feel closer to europeans. moreover, the programme has also an impact on the society, which interacts with erasmus students (both the host country during the erasmus exchange and the home country when mobile students accomplish the programme). moreover, exchange students can have an impact on the society they belong to. european identity should be promoted in non-mobile students, therefore exchange of information about erasmus programme is essential. when erasmus students return from the exchange programme, they become ambassadors of european integration and european identity (papatsiba 2005, 5-6; wallström 2007, 4). however, the current number of european students who take participation in the erasmus programme (one per cent) is too low to promote european identity. conclusion and recommendations first, the major conclusion of the paper is the following: on one hand, erasmus programme influences students‟ european identity, but on the other hand, students who take part differ from non-mobile students –have more multicultural background, stronger national and european identity. the programme is a catalyst rather than promoter because future k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [195] mobile students already self-identify with europe more than non-mobile students do. from the analysis of the survey results we can draw the conclusion that good knowledge of foreign languages, previous international exchange experience and multicultural background on the one hand is a potential obstacle for non-mobile students to participate in the programme, on the other hand, these could be pre-conditions for adopting a european identity. indeed, the programme is both a political tool and a social process. former and future erasmus students adopt more political european identity and community feeling than non-erasmus students contrary to previous research studies (sigalas 2006, 2009; van mol 2009b). after exchange programme students become more loyal to eu. but on the other hand, van mol is right arguing that the programme acts as a catalyst for european identity because feeling of european identity is already present in students before exchange (2009b). moreover, it does not mean that if someone has a strong national identity he/she cannot have strong european identity. the survey data show that erasmus students have both strong national and european identity. it is often argued that the programme fosters european identity. on the other hand, there is a limited number of studies which analyze these aspects. besides, there have been previous research studies only in the case of britain (sigalas 2006, 2009) and on the aggregate level in sixteen countries (van mol 2009b). therefore, this case study of students of [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process] using the bottom-up approach and the theoretical framework developed can contribute to and supplement studies done in other european countries. it is noteworthy that this study has disproven some of the statements made by previous studies. for example, the survey results have revealed that sigalas (2006) does not seem to be right arguing that the programme does not have an impact on political european identity and has a small effect on promoting support for european integration. furthermore, sigalas‟s conclusion that the erasmus students are not necessarily more multicultural and „euro-friendly‟ than other students also contradicts the results of the survey. k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [196] next, potential further implications of this paper are provided. first, using the methodology i have developed there can be similar studies implemented in other european countries. second, the results of the survey are important not only for [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process], but also for the european community. especially eu officials should take into account that those students who participate in the programme already feel more european than nonmobile students. the main limitation of this study is the lack of longitudinal assessment. another limitation is the lack of comparison with incoming students because it could be as in the case study of britain (sigalas 2006) that the host country plays a crucial role. the third limitation to emphasize is a lack of qualitative research because the interviews with students would reveal more information about the preconditions for formation of european identity. k. oborune becoming more european after erasmus? 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http://www.bath.ac.uk/esml/conweb/conweb%20papers-filestore/conweb%202_2009.pdf http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=csd http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=csd http://www.ua.ac.be/main.aspx?c=.esm&n=72885 http://www.ua.ac.be/main.aspx?c=.esm&n=86493 http://www.esec.pt/veem/materials/pdf/aditionalreadings/zagar-european_identity.pdf http://www.esec.pt/veem/materials/pdf/aditionalreadings/zagar-european_identity.pdf introduction epiphany: vol. 5, no. 1, 2012 issn 1840-3719 identity construction: a comparison between turkish muslims in australia and germany tuba boz * gary bouma abstract the essentialization of identity coupled with its confused association with loyalty has ensured that issues related to identity are at the forefront of politics, and are used as a platform to generate moral panics which are fuelled by the mass corporate media. different sociopolitical contexts affect identity construction among turkish muslims in germany and australia. based on qualitative interview data collected in 2008 and 2009 in germany and australia, this paper examines the circumstances that influence the self-conception of the turkish muslims in both countries. the different political and demographic circumstances of each country are described and their impact on identity formation taken into account. then we use labeling theory, that is, differences in the language, concepts and official descriptions used by the powerful in each society to label minority groups (akers 1999), in order to examine the impact of top-down government policies on identity construction among turkish communities in australia and germany – a major example of this being the contrast between australia‟s multicultural policies with germany‟s assimilationist integration policies. keywords: identity, labeling, muslim, turkish, australia and germany, multiculturalism * corresponding author: tuba boz, faculty of arts and social scinces, international sarajevo university, bosnia herzegovina, e-mail: boz.tuba@gmail.com corresponding author: gary bouma, school of political and social inquiry, monash university, australia, e-mail: gary.bouma@monash.edu mailto:boz.tuba@gmail.com mailto:gary.bouma@monash.edu t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [96] identity construction: a comparison between turkish muslims in australia and germany the essentialization of identity coupled with its confused association with loyalty has ensured that issues related to identity are at the forefront of politics, and are used as a platform to generate moral panics which are fuelled by the mass corporate media. globalization, the movements of people, cultures and capital through the impact of global events and mass communication technologies (appadurai 1996), have contributed to the politicization of identity raising concerns of loyalty in many parts of the world. different socio-political contexts affect identity construction among turkish muslims in germany and australia. based on qualitative interview data collected in 2008 and 2009 in germany and australia, this paper explores the circumstances that influence the self-conception of the turkish muslims in both countries. interviews were conducted with a range of turkish and turkish islamic organizations including mosques, education centers, cultural organizations, businesses, professional associations, academics, politicians, welfare and women‟s organizations among others, in both countries. the different political and demographic circumstances of each country are first described and their impact on identity formation taken into account. then we use labeling theory, that is, differences in the language, concepts and official descriptions used by the powerful in each society to label minority groups (akers 1999), in order to explore the impact of top-down government policies on identity construction among turkish communities in australia and germany – a major example of this being the contrast between australia‟s multicultural policies with germany‟s assimilationist integration policies. moreover, we do not limit our discussion to the „official‟ labels or policies of government. the politicization of debates concerning migrant integration, identity and loyalty are also framed by those with the means and access to voice who influence public opinion and government policy. labeling groups as deviant or presenting them as unwilling to integrate and contribute to society has an impact on the socio-political environment in which identity is developed and has an impact on the perceptions of the wider-society. the complexities of using such definitions as „muslim‟, „turkish‟, „immigrant‟, „minority‟, „australian‟, „german‟ – and in particular the classification „turkish‟ must be clarified from the outset t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [97] in this paper, the term „turkish‟ includes both turkish immigrants as well as those born in australia with turkish ancestry. similarly, for the purpose of this paper, a distinction is not made between turkish immigrants to germany and those who were born in germany, having turkish ancestry. moreover, we do not exclude in our definition those turkish immigrants and second generation turks who have forgone their turkish citizenship in order to become german citizens. turkish muslims in australia and germany – socio-political differences our interviews and observations revealed that the turkish communities in germany and australia are notably similar in their day-to-day lives, values, cultures and family relations. both communities were primarily concerned with providing for and educating their families, maintaining a satisfactory level of employment and securing health care when needed – the primary concern of most families around the world. the differences between these two groups are most apparent in the relationship between the state and the community in the respective country and demographic differences. the different socio-political circumstances that influence the identity construction of turkish muslims in germany and australia can be traced back to the early days of migration, the 1960s and 1970s, when there was demand for foreign labor to supply and promote the economic development of germany and australia. this demand for people led to the signing of bilateral migration agreements between turkey and these two countries. there was an appreciable social policy difference between the „welcome‟ given in each of these countries. this can be summed up in the difference between the official category of immigration offered: germany offered gastarbeiter (guest worker) status while australia offered „permanent resident‟ status. we propose that the very labels „guest-worker‟ (gastarbeiter) and „permanent migrant‟ play a significant role in influencing identities of turkish muslims in the respective countries. although the term guest-worker may no longer have relevance, its initial use has framed the context of identity construction of turkish immigrants in germany. while the guest-worker may be welcome as a „guest‟ for a period of time, the „permanent migrant‟ has immigrated to a new home, and is welcome permanently. guest workers were expected to be temporary, to return after a period of time and not to become citizens and take a civic role in the t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [98] society. permanent residents were seen as coming to stay, to put down roots, to become part of the society, and to take up citizenship which was available after two years of residence. this difference in social policy is critical to the way the migrants saw themselves. in one case, migrants were allowed and invited to see themselves as part of the society they had come to. in the other, they were not allowed to take on this view. these differences also shaped the way the rest of the society viewed these newcomers and additions to the population. in this context it is interesting to note that many turkish migrants to australia viewed themselves as coming temporarily, with the aim of returning to turkey having saved a sum of money to establish themselves back „home‟. they report becoming „permanent‟ as the accidental outcome of marrying and having a family while in australia and coming to rather like the place (bouma 1994). similarly, the turkish communities in germany found that the plan to return to turkey after working in germany temporarily for several years was not going to transpire. as cited by talip kucukcan (2009), according to a survey conducted in 1980, 40 percent of turks living in germany wanted to settle in germany. in a later survey conducted in 1992 the number of those who wished to settle in germany rose to 83 percent. kucukcan (2009) refers to the establishment of over 50,000 turkish small to medium enterprises as another indicator of permanent settlement in germany. nevertheless, the lack of permanence, particularly with the first generation, is also reflected in the fact that most turks send the bodies of their deceased loved ones back to turkey for burial. the distance and logistical difficulties in doing the same from australia coupled with successful settlement may explain why turkish communities generally choose to be buried in australia. the differences of turkish migration to australia to that of europe are noted by the australian department of foreign affairs and trade: in 1967, turkey and australia signed a bilateral agreement on assisted migration. in contrast to the turkish guest-worker schemes in europe, australia offered migration to whole families, as permanent migrants. the program resulted in an increase of the turkey-born population in australia from 1,544 at the 1961 census to 11,589 in 1971. the 2006 census showed that 59,393 australian residents claimed turkish descent, with 30,495 of those having been born in turkey. this reflection from australia‟s department of foreign affairs and trade highlights a second major policy difference between australia and european countries. australia welcomed and promoted the migration of t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [99] families and „family re-unification‟ which allowed migrants to sponsor members of their extended family to come and join them. this had the effect of promoting the development of families and communities in the new country. germany on the other hand focused primarily on the worker and was not particularly mindful of the needs of families for suitable education, health, or economic support. there is a substantial demographic difference between germany and australia. the disparity in the number of turkish muslims in germany and australia are considerable. a total of 7,116 turks had migrated to germany as guest workers by 1961. the figure reached to 910,500 by 1971 (kilicli 2003). recent figures indicate that there are 2.5 million turks living in germany, making it the largest turkish community in western europe and the largest turkish community outside of turkey. turks form 2.4 percent of germany‟s population of 82 million (kilicli 2003). they also comprise the vast majority of muslims in germany. the identity choices are limited by the failure of official policy to recognize turks as german even if they have been born in germany. the religious base of identity is problematic since islam is not recognized as a religion and is not accommodated in social policy. by way of contrast, in australia, turks make up about 0.3 percent of australia‟s 20 million population. again, by way of contrast with germany, while 1.8 percent of australia‟s population are muslims, turks only comprise about 13% of the muslims in australia. this makes turks a minority among muslims, although one of the larger sub-groups of muslims, with only lebanese at 13% of muslims being a larger subgroup. the fact that over 25% of australians were born overseas and 44 percent of australians were either born overseas or have at least one parent who was born overseas clearly indicates that australia is a settler society characterized by a high on-going rate of migration (australian bureau of statistics, abs 2009). in this case the demographics of australia make identity formation a choice among various combinations: australian-muslim-turkish, australian-turkish, australian, turkish, and muslim. national, birth-place and religious identities compete for salience in identity formation. australian social policy recognizes islam, place of birth and other identity bases as not only legitimate, but as needing to be taken into account in social service delivery. t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [100] policies of inclusion and exclusion a consideration of the larger socio-political context in which identity is constructed provides additional insight into the differences between turks in germany and those in australia. for example, the turkish communities in germany suffer from being stigmatized because they are turkish and because they are muslim. while there are secular, jewish and christian turkish people, the vast majority, 99.8% of turks in turkey are muslim (cia world factbook 2009), and this is also reflected in the diaspora. the anti-muslim fervor sweeping europe, be it in france, denmark, the netherlands and more recently sweden, situates the turkish muslims in germany in an even more challenging context in terms of integration, identity construction, politicizations and conflation of cultural diversity with loyalty to the nation state. the socio-political environment, whether it is one of inclusion or exclusion, plays a part in the formation of identity as indicated in the expressed identities of turkish communities in australia and germany. from the 1960s australian multicultural policy has generally provided an accommodating environment where diversity is increasingly acknowledged, welcomed and even celebrated. such an inclusive atmosphere is typically present when the labour party is in government. however, during the ten years, 1996 2006 when the liberal party with john howard as prime minister was in government, there was a shift away from an inclusive multicultural policy towards an exclusionary monoculture strategy. the introduction of a „citizenship test‟ is an example of howard‟s efforts to move away from a multicultural model to an assimilationist „one nation‟ approach as is his refusal in employing the term multiculturalism (tate 2009). australia‟s multicultural policy was reaffirmed with the election of the labour party in 2007. the prime minister kevin rudd, in his visit to india amid the racist violence against indian international students in australia in mid-2009 reaffirmed internationally australia‟s multicultural policy and provided assurance to the indian prime minister manmohan singh in his statement: "australia is a country of great diversity, harmony and tolerance. we are a multicultural nation and we respect and embrace diversity, diversity which has enriched our nation” although the german immigration act of 2005 is an acknowledgment of germany‟s recognition of itself as a „society of migration‟, it does not present germany as a multicultural society in t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [101] terms of composition, policy or attitude. the approach in germany is one of „integration‟. according to the federal office for migration and refugees (2009) “integration policy should foster good relations between new and old members of society and enable people to cooperate with one another with respect and have equal rights of participation in society” while integration is a positive step forward and is desired by both the government and the turkish communities in germany, the interviews revealed that there is a significant degree of skepticism among the turkish communities who view this as an assimilationist policy rather than one of integration. it is perceived as a political exercise rather a genuine effort to facilitate integration. being stigmatized in the media and labeled as „problematic‟ by government officials ostracizes the turkish community. an interview with members of an international turkish islamic entrepreneurial organization in berlin revealed a sense of mistrust towards the government‟s integration policies. moreover, there was much concern raised over the lack of a comprehensive approach in the study on integration conducted by the berlin institute for population and development where turkish migrants came last on the integration ranking (elger and theile 2009). despite the scope of the organization, they were not consulted in the study conducted by the berlin institute. the organization which is responsible for developing trade and business relations with turkish and muslim businesses in germany internationally by employing their turkish and muslim affiliations taps into various markets and facilitates german business and exports. the members explained that their contributions to germany, and the steps they take toward integration are unacknowledged, and explained that their invitations for official german representation to attend significant trade events were often declined. as such, the recognition of the positive steps taken towards integration, even on a symbolic level was futile. this has led the organization to draw the conclusion that calls for integration are not genuine. this attitude was expressed by a board member who explained: “they want assimilation rather than integration; assimilation under the guise of integration”. these examples of demographic, social policy and socio-political context differences shape the identity formation and degree of commitment to nation and place of turkish migrants to germany and australia. in short, ironically turks, although an enemy in world war i t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [102] have been made to feel welcome in australia; whereas in germany, where they were allies in world war i they have not. labeling and identity construction although labeling theory is frequently employed in the field of deviance and criminology, with particular reference to delinquency, it is appropriate to consider the impact of labeling on identity construction within the context of minority and immigrant groups as it is framed within the context of the imposition of a label by the powerful in society on the less powerful. while a label may not determine one‟s identity, as there are a number of variables that affect one‟s identity, the potential influences of labeling on identity formation are considerable. selfconception can be shaped by societal labeling (akers 1999). the significance of government policy is particularly highlighted when it comes to the framing of issues and labeling people inside or outside of its borders. government policy and official statements have the potential to influence self-conception, the identity and action of its minority residents, but also have the potential to influence the perceptions of the general public towards the minority group. although such influences may not determine the self-conception or the perception of others, the potential it creates must be investigated. the cronulla riot is a case-in-point and will be discussed in the following section. labeling alone will not determine one‟s self-conception. individuals can react differently to labels: they may show defiance or try they may try to disprove them. for instance, non-commercial hip hop and rap in particular, are examples of resistance to oppression, racism, politics and labeling. as explained by andy bennet (1999: 77), hip hop and rap are platforms to disprove labels or show defiance, “a medium for the expression of issues relating to racism and the problem of national identity”. nevertheless, the need for having to disprove or show defiance also illustrates the impact of labeling. moreover, the unfortunate consequences of sustained intense labeling combined with political rhetoric, media sensationalism and underlying xenophobic sentiments can fuel violence to acute levels as experienced in australia in an incident commonly referred to as the „cronulla riot‟. t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [103] labeling: the australian experience the cronulla riot is provided as an example to illustrate (among other variables such as socio-economic circumstances) the impact and the influence of top-down policies and its impact on fuelling racism against the „other‟. although, the people who were targeted were of middle eastern background or muslim, coupled with the fact that the majority of turks are muslims, this case is nonetheless important in taking into account the potential impact of labeling. the cronulla riot in 2005 on the shores of sydney, australia, illustrates the impact of government policy, official statements and media hysteria. the mass racist violence against the muslim or middle eastern „other‟ that erupted is explained by professor scott poynting (2006: 85) as the: „the culmination of a campaign of populist incitements waged in the media and by the state. the battles to reclaim control of the beach for white australia mirrored… the battle that the howard government has waged to reclaim control of the nation itself from asylum seekers and the muslim/middle eastern „enemy‟. of particular significance is that the day after the riot, two-third of the callers to talk-back radio 2gb, expressed their support for what had taken place (poynting 2006). poynting explained this was a result of the „permission to hate‟, which was conferred by the state. racism which lies beneath the surface usually rises in moments where a space is created, and permission is granted for expressions of sentiments of hate, usually through negative labelling by politicians and media hysteria. the fact that the then prime minister john howard refused to recognize the mass violence as racist had the potential to influence how the violence was perceived by the general public, and his refusal to label it as such was a cause for concern among the community groups who were the target of the racist attacks. while violence on such a scale is not a common occurrence in australia, the fact that 5000 people were mobilized in such a short amount of time is indicative of underlying xenophobic sentiments. and it is during these types of events, according to rachel woodlock (2009), that we see „muslim identity and australian identity positioned as being in conflict with each other‟ and hear calls for „muslims to prioritize and demonstrate their loyalty to australia and australian identity‟. while making detailed comparisons of incidences of racist violence in germany is not within the scope of this paper, references will be made to racist violence in germany. notwithstanding t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [104] these incidents of violence in australia, there is also a sense of acceptance and celebration of cultural diversity as encapsulated in australia. it is not uncommon to find in the streets of melbourne, celebratory events being held with a variety of flags, food, music and culture of the diverse communities that make australia what it is today. these community organisations receive assistance from various government departments such as the victorian multicultural commission (vmc), multicultural arts victoria, vichealth as well as from private community businesses that sponsor the celebrations. the victorian multicultural commission has a number of projects and initiatives such „cultural diversity week‟, „supporting refugees‟ and „improving language services‟ (vmc 2009). of particular significance, however, is „victoria's multicultural policy, “all of us” which was launch in march 2009 after extensive state-wide community consultation. the policy sets out a framework for continuing to strengthen and promote multiculturalism across the state‟ (vmc 2009). both community groups and members of the general public get together on these occasions and enjoy each other‟s company and cultures. as a result, feelings of respect and understanding are generated, and communities feel a sense of belonging. further contributing to the sense of belonging, acceptance, and an inclusive environment for identity development are private turkish and islamic schools, which like catholic and jewish schools receive government funding and support. grants are made available to community groups that assist their communities with issues related to health and wellbeing and women‟s groups among others. although there are criticisms concerning insufficient funding, social inclusion and harmony is generally achieved. and it is within this environment that identity is constructed, retained or developed. the time required for settlement, participation and identity formation is politicized, underestimated at best. according to irving (1997) migrants‟ bonds to their country of settlement develop after a period of time, noting that when british settlers arrived in australia, they were proud of british heritage. it is only after having lived in australia for longer periods of time that they began constructing a new australian identity (irving 1997 cited in kabir 2008). an excerpt of a speech given by the premier of new south wales, henry parkes in 1890 at the first federation conference sheds light on identity construction and the settlement process: “make yourself a united people; appear before the world as one and then dream of going “home” would die away. we should create an australian home…” (cited in kabir 2008: 410). kabir t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [105] points out the fact that parkes delivered this speech one hundred years after european-australian settlement indicates the time it takes for the formation of national identity. issues of identity construction within the turkish community in australia are generally not a topic of concern. issues of identity and integration are not framed in the context of the guest worker, or migrant, but rather within the context of muslim identity and the perceived conflict between australian and muslim values. accordingly when issues of identity become the flavor of the month among politicians or in the media, it by default affects the turkish communities who are muslim, more so those who are visibly muslims. in terms if identity, being turkish-australian, or australian with turkish ancestry is generally not perceived as problematic by the wider society or by the turkish communities. this is particularly noticeable in the fact that identity was not raised as an issue in the interviews that were conducted in australia, in contrast to those held in germany. however, the fact that identity was not raised as an issue to the extent it was in germany does not imply that there are no community members who identity themselves as „only turkish‟ in australia. an interview conducted in december 2009 with professionals who work with turkish communities in victoria revealed that, particularly with regard to youth, that when they are not accepted by the wider society, or experience discrimination or racism, they identity with their turkish heritage rather than australian nationality. subsequently, their interactions predominantly remain within the turkish communities where they feel „accepted‟ rather than engaging with the wider society where they are excluded despite having been born and brought up in australia. in contrast, the experience of feeling australian was also noted by another interview participant who runs a turkish islamic education centre, he explained, „we are welcome here, and this is why we can say we are australian‟. while the incidents of discrimination must be addressed, the overall achievement of social cohesion is also highlighted in the 2009 national survey „mapping social cohesion‟ commissioned by the scanlon and conducted by andrew markus (2009: 3) where it is reported that „the overwhelming majority of australians 95% express a strong sense of belonging‟. concomitantly, „about two out of ten australia-born report having experienced discrimination over the course of their lives‟ (markus 2009: 21). albeit with issues of discrimination which require ongoing attention, diversity of cultures in australian society is by and large managed within the multicultural framework. t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [106] labelling: the german experience identity construction among turkish muslims in germany differs significantly from that of australia. the fact that there is no dualcitizenship in germany potentially impacts one‟s identity and selfconception. regardless of having immigrated and settled in germany for decades, one cannot be german unless they relinquish the passport of their country of origin. the perceived injustices, such as discrimination in employment, experienced by turkish muslims in germany enhance their affinity with turkish identity. the vast majority of the turks in germany identified their national identity as being turkish. in addition to not having german citizenship, the geographical proximity between germany and turkey may also be a contributory factor in connecting with turkish identity. the likelihood of travelling to turkey regularly is more realistic than travelling from australia. (regardless of whether the travel is actualised or not – the possibility of travelling from germany to turkey is greater than travelling from australia). it is more costly and takes approximately 20 hours by plane from melbourne. this may explain the reason why there are a greater number of famous turkish musicians performing in germany as compared to australia. these performances may reinforce the “turkishness‟ of the identity of turkish muslims living in germany. while there is a stronger turkish „national‟ / „ethnic‟ identity in germany, there is also a trend in „regional‟ or „local‟ identity which excludes the „nation‟ or ebbs its importance as the core identifier. in an interview that was conducted in essen, germany, the participant explained that when his children are asked, “where are you from?”, they say, “i am from bochum” rather than saying “i am german or turkish” or they say, “i am turkish-german”. a shift away from a migrant focus to a broader multicultural approach may be useful to consider in germany, particularly in education. another experience that was relayed by the interview participant from the essen region sheds light on the general perceptions held towards turkish muslims. his children were given migrant-specific worksheets at school, which they did not want to complete as they were unable to relate to them. further, it is important to note that his children have german passports. the participant‟s sense of belonging is also important to consider, as he explained his sentiment: “germany is my home and turkey is where i was born and where i go to for holidays”. t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [107] the negative attitudes towards turks and muslims in general, according to interview participants are a result of the media‟s coverage of negative stories and disregarding positive success stories. several participants referred to the “the koln issue” where the building of a mosque became a point of controversy, noting that it was framed in a contentious manner and sensationalized in the media. notably, the protesters from the extreme right-wing anti-immigration group, procologne who opposed the building of the mosque were confronted by demonstrators against the extremist group. in this situation, the proactive action taken by both the cologne mayor fritz schramma is noteworthy. the bbc report (2008) on the controversy cites mayor schramma who labeled pro-cologne “arsonists and racists” hiding under the guise of a “citizens movement”. although the building of mosques usually generate controversy and concerns about integration, the establishment of mosques, according to bouma (1994: 63) is „evidence of the degree to which this group [muslim] has settled in australia‟ – noting that it provides a „context for self-identification in the new homeland‟. i despite the controversies, the mosque as a signifier of settlement and integration can also be seen in germany. the marxloh mosque in duisburg exemplifies successful settlement of turkish muslims in the region and the positive constructive relationship with the city of duisburg. this is a mature and inclusive context in which identity is constructed and developed. however, an interview participant in hanover explained that, although muslims constitute the second largest religious community after christianity, they are not recognized by the government as a religious „entity‟. this means that muslim community organizations are excluded from accessing significant state support and funds that are provided to christian and jewish community organizations. this is interpreted as a policy of exclusion which subsequently contributes to a sense of seclusion. this lack of recognition is a barrier to access and integration, coupled with the repeated stigmatisation of the turkish communities in germany has a detrimental affect on the socio-political environment in which identity is constructed. the damaging comments made by berlin‟s former finance minister, dr thilo sarrazin are yet another example of negative labelling of minority groups by the influential in society. appointed by the germany‟s president horst koehler, sarrazin is currently on the board of germany‟s central bank, the bundesbank. sarrazin‟s derogatory statements about the turkish and arabic t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [108] population in berlin, were published in a german cultural magazine, lettre international, where he expressed his views that the berlin‟s turkish and arabic communities have low iqs and “no productive function other than the fruit and vegetable trade” (crossland 2009). although the governor of bundesbank, alex weber has made an effort to distance the bank from saraazin‟s xenophobic remarks and expressed concern about the damage he has caused to the bank‟s reputation, president koehler who has the authority to discharge sarrazin from his position, has refused to exercise this power. nevertheless, sarrazin is reportedly under police investigation for his comments which may be in breach of germany‟s anti-racism laws (evans-pritchard 2009). the concern over the implications of sarrazin‟s comments are highlighted by the chairman of the turkish community in germany, kenan kolat who is reported in the united arab emirates paper, the national as saying: “such remarks are grist for the mill for right-wing extremists. mr sarrazin doesn‟t think about what impact his words have”. the impact of sarrazin‟s words can be seen in light of the „permission to hate‟ conferred by the state. the incident of vandalism in the bavarian town of elsenfeld where balloons filled with animal blood were hurled at the mosque and 30 animal eyes placed at its entrance occurred soon after sarrazin‟s prejudiced statements. according to the spokesman of german islamic council, engin karahan, the attacks against the mosque are connected to the controversial debates which include the divisive remarks made by sarazzin. karahan is reported in the german paper, the local (2009) as saying, in the context of constant disparagement that it is not surprising, that “crazy people feel compelled to carry out such acts”, and explained that the attack emerged within “a certain atmosphere” that is prevalent in society at the moment. the certain atmosphere can be seen in light of the space that is created where „permission to hate‟ is conferred by the state. on the 3 rd of february 2008, nine turkish people living in germany, five children and four adults, died in a fire that engulfed their home. there was speculation over the nature of attack and concern that it was racially motivated. however, german authorities do not deem it to be a racially motivated attack. as reported by m sezer in the associated press (2008), the „neo-nazi graffiti near the door of turkish cultural centre in the same building was unrelated to the fire, german authorities said.‟ nevertheless this did not allay the concern of relatives who suspected that antagonism toward minorities may have played a part in the fire. karanfil calar, the mother of hulya kaplan who died in the fire t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [109] is reported as saying, “there has been hostility towards turks, the german government did not take it seriously”. silence, the lack of action as much as active negative labeling, contributes to the space that is created where not only identity is developed, and self-conceptualization take place, but also where permission is conferred by the state to express sentiments whether it is in the form of racist graffiti, in balloons filled with animal blood or potentially in the form of extreme violence that can lead to physical harm, even death. conclusion in this paper, we proposed that the labeling of minority groups has an impact of identity construction, on the self-conception of the individuals, as well as the perception of the wider-society of the minority group. we have argued that labeling creates a space for the expression xenophobic sentiments giving „permission to hate‟, which is conferred by the state or by people in positions of influence. the socio-political environment in which identity is formed in europe, and in particular germany, is different to that of australia. while the rhetoric concerning identity and integration is played out in australia every now and again, the dominant frame within which it is debated is nevertheless to an extent, even if on a symbolic level, inclusive and multicultural. this however does not mean the state is only responsible for identity construction, integration and for unfortunate incidents of violence and vandalism. the turkish community itself needs to work within the matrix of the german context which is not as conducive as the australian context. note: the research for this paper was supported in part by a grant from the group of eight universities and daad, as well as by an australian research council linkage grant to study „what muslims want‟. t. boz & g. bouma identity construction epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [110] references appadurai, arjun. 1996 modernity at large: cultural dimensions of globalization. minneapolis: university of minnesota press. akers, l. ronald. 1999 criminological theories: introduction and evaluation (2 nd ed.). 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http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2008/02/10/1292756-turks-bury-germany-fire--victims introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 speech act theory: austin, searl derrida’s response and deleuze’s theory of order-word hasan baktir * abstract speech act is an influential theory on the actual communicative function of language and tries to answer to what extend impartial interaction is possible between speakers. the theory was first developed by austin and searl. they argued that order-words have primary meaning and clearly convey the message of the speaker. derrida challenged the theory and disposed the argument. using speech acts and derrida‟s disposal, deleuze and guattari brought a new perspective to the argument and developed a new ideas different from the ones already existed. this paper aims to discuss to what extent austen, searl, derrida deleuze and guattari contributed to the communication theory. keywords: speech acts, communication, order-words, significance, iterability * corresponding author: hasan baktir, assist. prof. erciyes university faculty of education,turkey; e-mail: hbaktir@erciyes.edu.tr mailto:hbaktir@erciyes.edu.tr h. baktir speech act theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [101] is there safe and impartial communication? does speech act theory provide us with the solutions to the problems of safe and impartial communication? these are the questions we are going to deal with in the present paper. firstly, the present paper proposes to discuss austin and searl‟s‟ theory of speech act, then refers to derrida‟s objection. thirdly, deleuze and his theory of language and order-words will be discussed referring to the possibility of safe and impartial communication. the research will be descriptive; we will discuss and explain the possibility of safe and impartial communication in the works of austin, derrida and deleuze. communication is a function of language and it is carried out by speech in spoken language. speech is the shorter or longer strings of linguistic items used in order to express particular purpose and includes both written and spoken text. speech is dependent on the will of the speaker and therefore it is totally individual (gallaway, 1994: 184). language on the other hand, is entirely social and changes from one speech community to another. speech is also social. the communication is a social activity. speech, being the medium of communication, depends on the linguistic knowledge and competence of the speaker. if a speaker knows the language, he can speak and communicate properly. there are some rules that regulate and determine the way we communicate. a speaker of the language has to be careful about the quantity. that is, he/she has to make a statement as informative as it is required. when one is asked „who is that person?‟, the correct answer would be „she is alice, daughter of mr. jon‟. the uncooperative answer to the question would be „she is a girl‟ or „she is alice, daughter of mr. jon, 15 years old, a university student‟. one has to balance his/her speech for a correct communication. the speaker is required to give a true answer to the question. one cannot answer the question above like „she is margaret‟ if she is alice. the clear answer is another requirement. the answer to the question cannot be „she is a man‟. in addition, one has to order the information when speaking. for instance, the answer to the question „who is that person‟ cannot be ordered as „she is a daughter of mr. jon and alice‟. instead, the ordered answer is „she is alice, daughter of mr. jones‟. speech plays many different roles on different occasions. for example, the speech one hears from people shifting furniture „to you … now a bit, h. baktir speech act theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [102] … to right‟. this kind of speech controls and directs people‟s physical behaviour. in a lecture the role of the speech is to influence the thoughts rather than the actions of the listener. another role of speech is to establish or reinforce social relation to recognize the presence of each other (di pietro, 1994: 84). speech, then, might be used to ask someone to do something, to get information, for the expression of emotion and for its own sake. one particular approach to the functional classification of speech is based on speech acts. the philosophers and linguists, following the british philosopher j.l. austin, have developed it. austin pointed out that the study of meaning should not be concentrated on the bald statement taken out of context because language in speech can be used for many functions such as promises, invitations, and requests and so on. in some cases we use speech to perform an action (austin, 1975: 375). in english a set of verbs, which austin termed as performative verbs, enable the speaker, to perform an act by using one of them in the first person present. examples of such utterances, also called performative utterances, are „i sentence you to ten years in prison‟, „i warn you to obey‟, „i beg you to help me.‟ in these examples, the speaker explicitly performs an act through speaking. what austin and his followers have tried to provide is to formulate different functions of speech in terms of general theory of social activity. some forms of speech, even they do not contain explicitly performative verbs, may serve to perform acts implicitly. for example, „i will come to the meeting‟ does not actually contain the verb promise but implies that a promise is being made. the utterance performs an act without explicitly naming it. “an utterance which has the significance of an act is termed an illocutionary act:” (wolffson, 1989: 30). the speech act theorists refer to the force of utterance when they describe the performing of such on illocutionary act. from this they drive the notion that utterances may have illocutionary force so that they are interpreted as specific kinds of acts. this kind of categorization of speech acts has been very useful to describe the problems in communication and in translation. problems of the no translatability of the illocutionary force and indirect speech acts are another point. an indirect speech act is the one in which the form and function do not coincide. „can you close the door?‟ may be an indirect request or may be interpreted as a simple request for h. baktir speech act theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [103] information. austin also mentions about perlocutionary force. in certain cases it is the inherent function of the speech act to explain beliefs. „he will soon be leaving‟ can be classified as a promise if one believes at the news. perlocutionary force concerns the „effects‟ of the act whether intended or actual. social interaction and speech act are categorized according to their inherent properties and their effect. for instance, there is a distinction between fighting and winning. the concepts used in classifying speech acts will be typical of cultural concepts and they change from one society to the other. utterances generally serve for more than one function at the same time; therefore, they are not easily classified. among the speakers of middle-class american english a compliment may serve as a greeting or an expression of gratitude. in addition, utterances may have more than one function and may take several forms. speech act theory tries to capture all the possible functions of language by classifying the kinds of action that can be performed by speech. language becomes a chain of utterances defined in terms of speaker‟s intention and belief and speech is organized in terms of a set of conversational maxims. the intention of the speaker and the context of utterance are the basics for safe and true communication. but how do people know which speech act is intended, if each act can use the syntactic structure typically associated with one of the other? a possible answer is to specify happiness conditions or felicity conditionscircumstances under which it would be appropriate to interpret something as a particular type of speech act. for example, if a genuine command has been given, the hearer must be physically able to identify the object involved. even this partial statement of the felicity conditions for commands would probably enable someone to identify „pick up that book‟ and „that book oughtn‟t to be on the floor‟ as genuine commands, and „go jump in the lake!‟ and „gird up thy loins‟ as pseudo commands. if one can fully identify the felicity condition for each type of speech act, then one is able to move towards safe and impartial communications (aitchison, 1994: 96). there are certain circumstances in which speech cannot perform the presupposed effect. performatives fail when for instance acted by an actor on the stage or introduced in a poem or spoken soliloquy, since we use language in such cases in a special way and we are unserious (austin, 1975: 380). it is important to be able to make distinctions h. baktir speech act theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [104] between the happy and the unhappy; between the normal and the parasitic because without these distinctions speech act theory would not be possible. if one could not maintain a general difference between promises made by people playing roles on stage and promises made by the same people off stage, then one could not say that the „promise made off stage did not entail. these utterances will have context that are proper to them (e.g. one says „i declare you man and wife‟ at a wedding) (eanglais com/thesis.html). for searl, distinction is made solely in terms of the utterer‟s (or writer‟s) intentions. initially, this makes his theory look more impoverished than austin‟s since the differences between plays and novels, and real life, seem to be more than a matter of what their authors intended. indeed such differences seem to be textual and contextual (ibid.). in the fictitious circumstances language is under etiolation which means fictional, pale, quotational, repeatable, parasitical, and therefore never intended to classical-metaphysical procedure. derrida is critical about the felicity condition and argues that the serious language needs a context and the intention of the speaker who is sincere and genuine. in addition to the intention, the speaker has to follow the procedure. the presence, then, in the speech act theory is at the center. in the speech act theory, as opposed to the serious and appropriate use of language, there is also nonserious language consisting of absence of serious intention. the language is non-serious because it is repeated, quoted, reapplied and taken out of the original context. derrida argues that austin‟s theory of language surrounds language like a ditch into which any language might fall. he claims that austin tries to keep language at home and imprisons language into the context. the agony or etiolation that violates the safe and impartial communication becomes the standard case in derrida, since language in such cases can be cut from the sender and receiver. when the sender and receiver of the speech disappear, the third party can decipher the aberrant. the ditch is deciphered through writing which repeats itself. repeatability of the utterance undermines the context and produces as many implications as possible. derrida insists that writing, through citation and grafting, reproduces the context and free the speech from the safe home and prison of austin: „iterability undermines the context as a final governor of the meaning and implies elsewhere the possibility for citation and grafting‟ (derrida, 1968: 152). one can lift out a sequence of words from a h. baktir speech act theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [105] written context and make an extract with it, or one can insert stolen word into other chains of writing. speech is also iterable, citable and graftable. for instance, the sentence „my husband and i‟ can be iterable as „she began the speech „my father and i‟‟, or as „last week i said‟, „she began the speech‟ „my father and i‟. then, speech, like writing, can be cut from its context and from all its presences of its moment of utterance. the effect of speech and the intention of the speaker do not exclude iterability, citation and grafting because repeatability derails the possibility for safe and impartial communication, yet without repeatability there could be no recognizable signs (ibid.). the iterability derails the context; therefore, there is no certain, clear-cut context of speech. yet there is still context but the context is no longer at the center that controls the meaning. likewise, there is still intention but it cannot be completely present in an utterance or in the context. intention, like context, never governs the entire meaning and system of utterance (collins and mayblin, 1996: 51-55). then, communication means transactions, repetitions, quotation and reinsertion. communication cannot be taken as a guaranteed, masterable passage of meaning with a proper context and certain intention, since language is non-masterable dissemination, therefore, cannot convey exactly what someone means or thinks. derrida sees austin‟s characterization of the proper context as ordinary, normal and serious, and thinks that the concomitant exclusion from consideration of non-serious utterances enables conditions of speech act theory. he sees his investigation as showing that this putative foundation and the attempted exclusion of the parasitic are arbitrary and, in fact impossible. he affirms the permanent, structural possibility of parasitism and, as a consequence, the impossibility of austinian and searlean speech act theory. deleuze and guattari are post-structuralists. they deal with the underlying structures that enable written and speaking communication within language. they argue that there is an abstract machine within language, which enables to define it as a homogenous system. it is generally accepted that language is informational and communicational. the study of languagelinguistics as we call it, is divisionary dividing language into specific parts like syntax, semantic and pragmatics and trying to figure out the system that operates within the language. each h. baktir speech act theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [106] pat of language has its own rules and order. students learn rules and orders to communicate through language. compulsory education‟s function is to teach elementary units of language available for communication (deleuze and guattari, 1987:135). deleuze and guattari, unlike austin and searl, and derrida, do not take speech act theory as a separate area for investigation. they take the illocutionary use of language within the notion of order-word, and states that both written and spoken language is ordered. in speech, order has three main rules namely, opening, turn taking and closing. a speaker opens up speech with a statement, the listener carries on and the one, who begins, ends the communication. in written language the order is perpetuated through syntax, grammar and subject+verb+object agreement (ibid.). the structure both in written and spoken language operates through syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations. in syntagmatic relation a sign enters only into association with a certain set of other signs to be grammatically correct and semantically meaningful. for instance „the man cooks the fish can be syntagmatically restated „ali cooks the fish‟ or „the fish is cooked by ali‟ but not „the fish cooks man‟ or „the cook the fish man‟. the first sentences are syntagmatically ordered and grammatically correct but the later statements are syntagmatically wrong-ordered and grammatically incorrect. in a paradigmatic relation a sign has a number of associated meanings and can be substituted by other signs. „i like tulip or i like roses can substitute for instance, „i like flower‟ without changing the category of signs. deleuze and guattari name the process that operates through order-word in spoken and written language as strata and discuss the process of stratification with relation to the notion of subjectification and significance. subjectification operates as follows; there is a subject of enunciation who expresses himself in the form of specific statements like „i think …, i believe …, or i want …‟ . there is another subject what deleuze and guattari calls subject of statement. it is the spoken subject „i‟ which gains its meaning from the syntactical relation it has with the other words in the sentence. the „i‟ of the sentence and the spoken subject are not same. they come together in arbitrary relation through conjugation. descartes‟ cogito „i think therefore i am‟ is an example for this relation. the first i is conjugated with „think‟ and the second „i‟ h. baktir speech act theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [107] refers to the subject of statement. through conjugation one is subjectified and subjectification allows only thinking and desiring proper to the sense of identity (goodchild, 1996:148-151). each citizen learns what he can and cannot do through subjectification and becomes socialized. in this sense education at schools does not „only instruct the rule of grammar but also gives order and command. the significance is the operation of language as syntagmatic and paradigmatic strata. the function of significance is subjectification. according to deleuze and guattari, the speech acts -as predicated by austin and searl for safe and impartial communication and as criticized by derridais what makes subjectification (socialization) possible. language and statement say very clearly what should be retained. that is, language demands and grammar is a power marker before it is a syntactical marker (deleuze and guattari, 1987:83-103). sociability assumes language and it is likely that it will be organized by signs of imperative kinds like command, judgment, and performative words (gatens, 1995) that transmit or engender effect and have pragmatic implications. the meaning and coerciveness of order-word depends upon its socially accepted significance. that is, speech act presupposes social unconscious within the collective assemblage of enunciation. order-word is functional and conjugates certain socially defined actions and changes the social situation with statements that effectively accomplish them (deleuze and guattari, 1987: 85). for instance, „sit down‟, „stop here‟ do not only operate as command but also function to organize acts, effects, desires and state of affairs depending on situation in which they are uttered; when a judge says „i sentence you 10 years imprisonment‟, a defendant may be transformed into criminal. deleuze and guattari do not limit speech act theory within certain situation. they argue that illocutionary use of language may create new kinds of social situation according to the contexts they are used. for instance, „how could he have said such a thing? i will never trust him again‟ does not only operate as a question but also delivers a judgment and marks the end of one situation starting the beginning of new and different one. the speaker promises not to enter any social relation with the listener. every statement refers to further statements. „where were you last night?‟ have different answers for different people; for the h. baktir speech act theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [108] beloved it may connote „do not make me feel lonely‟, for the boss it may refer to order „tell me‟, for a friend it may be warning „ don‟t betray me‟. in this sense, sign always refers to other signs and further statements. the order-word is formed in two ways; conjugation or conjunction. the conjugation is formed by verb „to be‟. in the sentence, „he is guilty‟ a is b and b defines the limit of a. in the second use of order-word the statement is formed by conjunction „and‟. a thousand pleautus (1987) is an example for the second usage where the sentences are not conjugated via signification but by the way in which each sentence acts upon each other to change the meaning and each statement acts as implicit presuppositions for further statements. the proper use of order-word, through conjugation or conjunction, requires linguistic and communicative competence. language and power subjectify through the proper use of language in written and spoken interaction. deleuze and guattari make a distinction between major and minor use of language and like derrida, investigate the lines for escape from the ordinary use of order-word. instead of repeatability or iterability of written language, they argue the predictability of further statements in written and spoken interactions. the predictability of further statements does not restrict enunciation within certain context. when a subject attains linguistic and cultural incompetence and rejects to use the repeated appeal to the same set of order-word, he/she begins to create new text, new order-word and new statements through which language is deterritorialized and the subject of enunciation becomes „foreigner to one‟s own tongue‟. this is common in literature and in art where minor language is used. kafka, for instance, uses minor language and deterritorialized major language. the minor use of language is referential and turns the death-sentence, dead metaphor and verdict and gives the subject the warning to flee from the fixed and socially determined and restricted situations. desire is transformed to its own situation and the outside situation where social unconscious and subject survives becomes standard. the distinction between external and internal circumstances is no longer effective. according to deleuze and guattari, this process is accomplished through signification (syntagmatic and paradigmatic relation) and stratification of the social context. unlike austin and searl -who argue that speech acts are created by certain social institutions and situations, they argue that it h. baktir speech act theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [109] is language that constitutes certain institutions and situations through signification. however, they agree with austin and searl and differ from derrida in that there is a distinction between parole and langue and speech acts break this distinction within the illocutionary use of language. this is the incorporeal transformation of language incorporeal transformation is recognizable by its instantaneousness, its immediacy and simultaneity of the statement (deleuze and guattari, 1987:86). they argue that judge‟s statement that transforms the accused into convict is pure instantaneous act in which the body and the sign act together. in such case the action (crime) and passion (penalty) affect the body of the convict. deleuze and guattari name this is a process incorporeal transformation. in a common usage there is non-corporeal transformation. for instance, the expression „i love you‟ is noncorporeal use of language, since the statement does not affect the body but expresses the attribute of the body (ibid.) whereas, „ready?‟ as a statement of question is an example for incorporeal use of language. it is also argued that the speech acts or illocutionary use of language exists with the presence of other. in the logic of sense (1987) deleuze argues that robinson‟s world is one in which the other is absent and as such the prohibitions or commands embedded in order-word are also absent. robinson is free to compose and command. order-word, in this sense, expresses a possible world as if it were the only and inevitable world, and an appeal to obey. interaction between two characters (ben and gus) in the dumb waiter (1989) by harold pinter exemplifies the relation between authority and language (p, 125-29): ben. go and light it. gus. light what? ben. the kettle. ben. you mean the gas. …….. ben. (powerfully) if i mean go and light the kettle i mean go and light the kettle gus. how can you light a kettle? ……. ben. light the kettle! it is a common usage gus. i think you have got it wrong. ben. what do you mean? gus. they say put on the kettle ben. who says? h. baktir speech act theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [110] gus. my mother …….. ben. who‟s the senior partner here, me or you? gus. you. ben. the kettle you fool! gus. all right, all right. after a while the invisible but authoritative voice speaks from the tube. ben says to gus: ben. you know what he said? light the kettle! not put on the kettle! not light the gas! but light the kettle! (p, 140). the voice most probably belongs to ben‟s senior partner who decides for what it is. austen and searle and derrida would interpret the interaction between ben and gus as a failure of felicity condition. however, deleuze and guattari argue that the subject rejects to use the repeated appeal to the same set of order-word. gus tries to create a new text, a new orderword, new statements which deterritorialise (1987:4) the language and make the subject of enunciation free. according to deleuze and guattari, these kinds of breaks are lines of flight (ibid.,) which give the subject an opportunity to reject the strata. the subject attempts to convey his real desire. yet the subject is stratified by the authority (invisible machine) which instructs to appeal the rules. there is no way to escape in the ordinary language. therefore, the subject has to obey the authority and give the required answer(s) (cooperative principles or illocutionary acts) to communicate properly. there is no place to express one‟s own desire in the strata. the flights of lines (deleuze and guattari, 1989:3) exist in literary language which deterritorialises the common language and flees from the fixed and socially determined meanings. if there are lines for flight desires….are transformed to their own situations and people create opportunity for free and safe communication. deleuze and guattari, like derrida, think that it is not possible to discover the intention of the speaker or statement, since each statement predicates the former and refers to the further ones (deleuze and guattari, 1987). language distorts the intention of the speaker as they exemplify in a thousand pleautus: h. baktir speech act theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [111] the teacher, at the top of the stairs, asks a question that is passed on by servants who distorts it at each step of the way and the student, below in the courtyard, returns an answer that is also distorted at each stage of the trip back (1987:76). derrida claims that the iterability of the utterance derails the channel and the intention is lost. deleuze and guattari seem to agree with derrida. yet they differ in that they dwell on spoken language and pragmatic function of the statement rather than, written signs. like derrida, they claim that there is no certain meaning and reference. each statement refers to further statements. the sentences „jon realizes that mary is a german‟, „jon does not realize that mary is a german‟ predicates and presupposes that „mary is a german‟. then, each statement can be cut off from the moment of utterance and can be used in a different context. each statement has multiple voices and each statement is indirect discourse. in particular, minor use of language unlocks the illocutionary use of language, displaces the context and expresses the existence of different world and possibility for new assemblage of enunciation (deleuze and guattari, 1987:78). references aitchison, j. 1993. linguistics. london, sydney: hodder & stoughton. austen, j. l. 1975. how to do things with words. cambridge, massachusetts: harvard university press. collins, j and mayblin, b. 1996. derrida for beginner. cambridge: icon books. deleuze and guattari. 2005. a thousand plateaus. minnesota: university of minnesota press. derrida, j. 1968. difference. in derrida, margins of philosophy. di pietro, r. j. 1994. strategic interaction. cambridge: university press. gallaway, c. 1994. input and interaction in language acquisition. cambridge: university press. goodchild, p. 1996. deleuze and guattari, an introduction to the politics of desire. london: sage publications. pinter, h. 1991. the dumb waiter. london: faber and faber. wolfson, n. 1989. perspectives in sociolinguistics and tesol. boston: heinle and heinle publisher. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions mehmet ozkan * hasan korkut abstract turkey‘s foreign policy has been drawing considerable attention particularly because of the momentous transformations in the middle east. the visits of turkish prime minister recep tayyip erdogan and foreign minister ahmet davuoglu to egypt, libya, and tunisia in september 2011 and their subsequent visits to the region underscored the rise of turkey‘s involvement in the region. the arab spring came at a time when turkey‘s relations with the united states, israel and the european union were going through significant turbulence. 2010 proved to be a particularly difficult year for turkey‘s place in the transatlantic community. the gaza flotilla crisis in june 2010 — ending with israeli forces killing eight turkish citizens — and turkey‘s ―no‖ vote to a new round of sanctions against iran at the united nations (un) security council that same month triggered a heated debate on turkey‘s relations with the west, which led popular american columnists such as tom friedman to go as far as arguing that ankara was now joining the ―hamashezbollah-iran resistance front against israel.‖ while this was a clear exaggeration, it indicated the scope of debate on the eve of the arab spring. since the arab spring, the western discourse about turkey has dramatically changed. instead of asking ―who lost turkey‖ or complaining about the islamization of turkish foreign policy, analysts began discussing whether the new regimes in the arab world would follow the ―turkish model.‖ this article aims to analyze the turkish approach to the middle east and the arab revolutions, the main determinants of turkish foreign policy and diplomacy in the middle east and the debate on ―turkish model. what has changed, or has not, during and after the arab spring? keywords: turkish foreign policy, arab spring, turkish model, the middle east, diplomacy and new regional order * corresponding author: mehmet ozkan, senior assistant, faculty of business and administration (fba), sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: omehmet@ius.edu.ba corresponding author: hasan korkut, assistant professor, faculty of business and administration (fba), sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: hkorkut@ius.edu.ba mailto:omehmet@ius.edu.ba mailto:hkorkut@ius.edu.ba m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [163] legacy: a periodization of turkey’s foreign policy in the middle east in order to locate turkey‘s diplomacy to the middle east, one has to understand the overall change in turkish foreign policy since 1990‘s (ozkan, 2006, 157-185). the end of the cold war led to fundamental changes in turkey‘s foreign policy. ankara began to exert influence in central asia, the black sea region, the caucasus, the middle east and the balkans. this was a major shift from ankara‘s previous policies of noninvolvement. an important shift occurred in turkish foreign policy towards the middle east in this period. during the cold war years, turkey preferred non-intervention in the middle eastern affairs, but this policy changed dramatically when turkey assumed a central role in the gulf war. the gulf war, coupled with the collapse of the soviet union, brought key changes in turkey‘s understanding of the middle east. turkey started to be much more assertive than before in dealing with the region. however, the last two decades of turkey‘s active involvement in the middle east has been contradictory, if not sometimes has been confusing, if not contradictory. while turkey supported the coalition powers in the gulf crisis in 1991, during the iraqi war in 2003, turkey was one of the countries that tried to stop the war. turkey‘s unexpectedly fast-growing close relations with the israel at the end of the 1990s, however, seems to change after 2002, given the fact that prime minister erdogan did not visit israel until may 2005, and did not give the israeli foreign minister an appointment when he visited turkey in the same year. moreover, although turkey openly threatened to go to war with syria in 1998, syrian president bashar asad visited turkey in 2004, the first of its kind in 65 years and then turkish president ahmet necdet sezer reciprocated this visit in april 2005. ankara‘s overall relations with both countries are at worse level now. conceptually speaking, one can argue that, turkey‘s relations with the middle east since 1990s have been wedged between security and coherence. however, these elements account for relations in general; and there have been three waves of activism in turkish foreign policy in the middle east before the arab spring started. turkey‘s current reaction to the arab revolutions can only be understood within this context. m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [164] pro-western wave: 1991 gulf war and turgut ozal turkey‘s active involvement in the gulf war represented a fundamental alteration of turkey‘s traditional ―balanced‖ foreign policy towards the middle east, a change that continued in the aftermath of the war (sayari, 1992, 13). the gulf war, therefore, represented the beginnings of a transformation of turkey‘s regional policy on its southern and eastern borders. on 6 august 1990, turkey closed the kirkuk-yumurtalik oil pipeline with the adoption of un security council resolution 661 that decided that all states should prevent ‗the import to their territories of all commodities and products originating in iraq‘. turkey‘s closure of the pipeline and the ending of all regular trade with iraq was undoubtedly a vital element in the economic campaign against saddam regime. according to hale (1992) without turkish cooperation ―any effective embargo would have been quite impossible‖ (p. 684). turkey‘s then-president turgut ozal had dominated policymaking on the gulf war and its implementation since the beginning (efegil, 2001, 156). as makavsky (1999) explained, he championed an active foreign policy for turkey on the crisis and indirectly criticized the basis of traditionalist approach of turkey to the region. in this regard, president ozal clearly stated: ―it is impossible for turkey to pursue the hesitant, indecisive policy of waiting for others to make decisions first‖ (robins, 1992, 76). the indirect involvement of turkey in the gulf war took two forms. first, the turkish government gave its permission for the us to use the joint air bases in the southeast of the country, namely the incirlik base. in so doing, turkey remained a platform for the us attacks against iraq for the rest of the conflict. second, turkey played a key and extremely important role in the war by tying down a sizeable proportion of the iraqi army. the gulf war showed that turkey is one of the key actors in the middle east. indeed it was so even before the gulf war because of the issues of water, and the kurdish question. the gulf war, however, served to reinforce the point. most importantly, during the gulf war, certain key principles of turkey towards the middle east were set aside. of the most important one was turkey‘s non-interference in intraarab disputes and the middle eastern affairs (karaosmanoglu, 2000, 210). not only did turkey set aside this main principle, but also the style m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [165] of turkish foreign policy towards the region was changed. the traditional low-key and cautious approaches were replaced by a new confident and high profile style. this policy as mentioned above was mainly promoted and championed by the prime minister (1983-1989) and later president (1989-1993) of turkey, turgut ozal. even after his death, the degree of activism and boldness that ozal introduced to the turkish foreign policy was strong (ataman, 2002, 120-153). this change in turkey‘s regional behavior became distinctive when it began holding meetings with syria and iran. the regular tripartite meetings began in november 1992 mainly to discuss major regional issues, particularly the situation in northern iraq. the main issue that brought the three countries together was the kurdish issue since the three countries have a large number of kurds living in their territory. the primary fear of the tripartite states was the establishment of a kurdish state in northern iraq and its repercussions in the region by encouraging the kurds in their territories to do so. overall, the legacy of the gulf war and ozal in turkish foreign policy is still considered as an important driving force behind turkey‘s active involvement in the middle east. as shown in following pages, the loss and gains resulting from the gulf war became a reference point for turkey‘s involvements in the region. for example, economically, turkey lost approximately $60 billion by closing petrol pipeline between turkey and iraq. this economic loss alone has had an impact on turkish policy orientation towards the middle east as well as vis-à-vis the international community. the anti-western wave: 1996-1997 the refah government and necmettin erbakan the election results of december 24, 1995 shook the kemalist foundations of turkey. for the first time since the establishment of the secular republic of turkey, a party having an islamic orientation, refah (welfare) party, won the election. though it was not able to form a government alone, it secured the majority seats in the turkish parliament. in september 1996, refah party established a coalition government with the true path party. necmettin erbakan became the first islamist prime minister of secularist turkey. once refah got to power, turkey‘s foreign m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [166] policy inclination towards the middle east, in particular, and islamic countries, in general, become persistent. refah party placed emphasis on the development of relations with turkey‘s neighbors. in this regard, refah party put the improvement of turkey‘s relations with its immediate neighbors syria, iran and iraq on its list of priorities. despite its short period in power (only 11 months), refah party was able to increase ankara‘s relations with strong muslim countries radically and even established a grouping among them, the developing 8 (d-8). this has been the result of an activist foreign policy inclination of turkey towards the middle east. the two trips abroad made as prime minister by erbakan, leader of the welfare party, was to the islamic world, where he visited nearly a dozen states, including iran and libya. erbakan‘s major diplomatic initiative was to establish a grouping of the eight most populous muslim countries. the d-8 intended to foster economic cooperation as well as political consultations among the muslim countries (ozkan, 2011, 112-115). the akp government and recep tayyip erdogan: beyond dichotomies turkish politics changed dramatically after november 2002, when the justice and development party (akp) won enough seats in parliament to form a government. according to quinn (2004) having created a ―political earthquake‖, it has been the first single party to rule turkey alone in last 16 years. during this period, ankara seemed increasingly eager to diversify its foreign policy portfolio while acting independently from the united states. this orientation has been accelerated by the iraqi war in 2003, which created a disagreement between turkey and the united states. the iraqi issue led turkey to look for alternative of complementing its relationship with the united states. the march 1, 2003 motion forbidding us troops from using turkish territory in the war against iraq was a historical turning point for turkey‘s relations with the middle east. the turkish parliament prevented the united states from opening a northern front against iraq on the justification that the international community considered the war illegitimate. prior to the iraqi war, turkey adopted an active diplomacy to minimize problems with neighboring states. more specifically, turkey m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [167] developed its relations significantly with iran and syria from commercial and security standpoints. these relations in connection with the iraqi crises moved turkey to convene a meeting with all countries bordering iraq in order to enhance stability in the region and prevent then possible war. while turkey was not able to prevent the war, its decision not to allow us soldiers to be deployed in southern turkey has prolonged the process of the iraqi invasion. after akp‘s assuming power in november 2002, the relations between turkey and syria increased dramatically. in july 2003, syrian president mohammed mustafa miro became the first syrian prime minister to visit turkey in 17 years. three agreements on health, oil and natural gas, and custom matters were signed during his visit to further enhance cooperation between the two countries. at the same time visits at ministerial and technical levels were intensively conducted on a reciprocal basis to further social and economic cooperation. as a sign of improving ties, turkish companies established 12 investment projects in syria in 2003, and trade between the two reached the $3 billion benchmark in 2010. furthermore, the improvement of relations was culminated in the visit by syrian president bashar al-assad in january 2004. this was the first official visit by a syrian head of state in 57 years. during his visit specific measures were taken to improve relations as well as coordination and consultation on regional issues (altunisik, 2004, 369). from 2002 to 2009, syria and turkey signed nearly 50 cooperation agreements and conducted their first-ever joint military exercises. in 2010 syria and turkey signed a counter-terrorism agreement for a more effective campaign against the kurdish worker‘s party (pkk) and turkey became syria‘s largest trading partner. in 2011 the two countries along with jordan and lebanon signed the shamgen agreement for a joint visa that enabled citizens of turkey, jordan, lebanon and syria to travel to any of these countries. the same dramatic increase has also been witnessed in turkey and iran relations. it has improved considerably economically and politically. it was at this time period that turkey‘s relations with israel were in transition ―from hyperactivity to normal ties.‖ unlike the mid-1990s, ankara opted to m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [168] play a low-key profile in its relations with israel beginning in 2002. this has also contributed to the developments of turkey‘s relations with iran rapidly in economic and political arena. turkey‘s relations with egypt, saudi arabia, gulf states and palestine have also improved. turkey‘s refusing to allow the deployment of american troops created an environment in the middle east in which turkey was perceived as having returned to its roots – the middle east. turkey has developed its relations with the regional organizations, namely organization of islamic cooperation, arab league and the gulf cooperation council. turkish candidate for oic secretary-general ekmeleddin ihsanoglu won the election at the 2005 meeting in istanbul. in 2006, turkey was invited to the arab league meetings as a ―permanent guest.‖ the developing relations with the middle east became even clearer when the oic invited turkic republic of northern cyprus as the turkish cyprus state to its meetings. during the akp period turkey has diversified its foreign relations – not only with the middle east, but also with asia and africa (ozkan, 2011, 115-113; ozkan and akgun, 2010, 525-546). stressing that none of the relations is seen as an alternative to another, turkey is keen on playing a key role in its immediate region and further afield. assuming the co-chairmanship of alliance of civilizations with spain by the request of the un secretary-general in order to develop civilizational harmony, instead of clash, is an indication that turkey could even represent or speak on behalf of the middle east in particular, and islamic world at large. it is easy to identify this wave as being more sophisticated and diversified in comparison to previous ones. economic, social and cultural relations have intensified and have had a greater impact. in contrast to previous waves, the akp has added more social and economic dimensions that indicate a different period in turkey‘s relations with the middle east. ankara‘s new diplomacy has also changed the arab perception on turkey. in the past, turkey‘s image in the arab world was characterized by its militant secularism, obsessive westernization, and rejection of its islamic-ottoman heritage under the heavy weight of kemalism. since the akp came to power in late 2002, turkey began moving in a different m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [169] direction, namely pro-islamic, that it was slowly coming to terms with its muslim identity. it was also modifying its foreign policy along a more strategic and multidimensional line. the akp‘s foreign policy has been based on what prime minister erdogan‘s top foreign policy advisor and now foreign minister, ahmet davutoglu (2001), calls ―strategic depth‖ and ―zero-problems‖ with neighbors. davutoglu‘s main argument is that turkey is a great power that has neglected its historic ties and diplomatic, economic, and political relations with the middle east, north africa, the balkans, and eurasia, dating back to the ottoman era. since turkey‘s new-found self-confidence and activism is mostly visible in formerly ottoman territories, the akp‘s foreign policy is sometimes called as ―neo-ottomanism‖ (taspinar, 2008). turkey managed to improve its relations with all of its neighbors and advocated political integration as well as free flow of goods and services in its neighborhood. this policy achieved concrete results in the form of increased and diversified economic relations, heightened diplomacy and political influence. it led closer coordination with neighbors on issues such as terrorism, mediation in international conflicts, and received a broadly positive response to turkish foreign policy. in implementing its neighborhood policy, turkey advocated speaking to all sides, including groups such as the palestinian movement hamas. seen as an honest broker, turkey mediated between israel and syria in 2008, as well as between iran and the international community in the nuclear issue in 2010 (kosebalaban, 2010, 36-50; ozkan, 2011, 2630). turkey‘s diplomatic initiatives were never guaranteed success; but the new turkish foreign policy was no longer a spectator to regional developments but a serious actor shaping and contributing to various difficult issues. the arab revolutions and turkish diplomacy: toward a new regional order before the arab spring, according to kalin (2011) turkey has developed different types of relationships with the countries of the middle east, targeting improved relations with both governments and the public. indeed, turkey is probably the only country that has been able to m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [170] promote relations at the two levels in the arab world without facing too many difficulties. in that sense, one can argue that turkey's policy of engaging different governments and political groups in the arab world has contributed to transform the middle eastern politics. turkish officials have stated on various occasions that change in the arab world is inevitable and must reflect people's legitimate demands for justice, freedom, and prosperity. moreover, change must occur without violence, and a peaceful transition to a pluralist democracy should be ensured. it was in this context that turkish diplomacy has responded to the arab revolutions. tunisia and egypt: risky, difficult, but clear-cut since the beginning of demonstrations in tunisia in december 2010, turkey has followed closely the developments in the region to respond correctly and, if possible, guide indirectly towards a right direction that paves the way democratic regimes flourish. when tunisian revolution was taking place, turkey kept a low profile as many states did in the world but indicated that it is ready to help in transformation and voiced that tunisian leaders should listen to the voice of their people. however, turkey was forthright in its support for democracy when the revolution spirit reached cairo‘s tahrir square. prime minister erdogan was the first leader to call for hosni mubarak‘s resignation in a televised speech on al-jazeera in february 2011, and president abdullah gul was the first head of state to meet with the egyptian supreme council in egypt after the revolution. when demonstrations broke out in egypt, turkey took a very risky position by asking hosni mubarak to leave. prime minister recep tayyip erdogan in a statement to turkish parliament made an emotional appeal to the egyptian leader, saying ―we are all mortal and we must listen to our people.‖ he advised mubarak to respond to the egyptian people's demands to change the political regime. and he urged him to step down and establish an interim authority that would drive the country to a "genuine democratic" change. naturally, erdogan‘s call was not received well by the arab leaders in general and egyptian leadership in particular. egypt‘s then foreign minister ahmad abul gheit in a letter to m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [171] his turkish counterpart ahmet davutoglu expressed dismay at erdogan's advisory and termed it as interference in egypt's internal affairs: ―his (turkish premier‘s) remarks could aggravate our domestic situation.‖ the letter raised the prospects of egypt-turkey relations coming under strain but there was not only relief but ankara also felt vindicated when president mubarak stepped down on 12 february 2011. according to kardas (2011) erdogan‘s advice was considered, and somewhat unexpected, by many as a very strong statement given the fact that promotion of democracy has never been a part of turkey‘s official discourse, because it has its own problems such as the kurdish issue that undermine its democracy. but turkey has made significant strides in terms of democratization since 2002. therefore, it will be fair to interpret erdogan‘s appeal to mubarak as part of ankara‘s increasing self-confidence vis-à-vis its democracy. it also signals the broad contours of turkey‘s approach to global politics and ‗soft‘ promotion of democracy in the region – wittingly or unwittingly. erdogan‘s call for mubarak to step down was also the first european reaction to developments in egypt. this was acknowledged and appreciated by the west and also by the people in the arab world. for example, former prime minister of belgium and current liberal group chairman in the european parliament guy verhofstadt put the appreciation on record when he said ―erdogan is the only one who told mubarak that democracy meant change and that it is now time for mubarak to go‖. some commentators even claimed that erdogan has taught a democracy lesson to europe. turkey showed an outmost interest in developing relations with egypt after the revolution. erdogan and davutoglu visited cairo various times and the new president of egypt mohammed mursi paid one of his first visits to turkey. considering this, turkey is openly seeking to build a regional partnership with egypt, with the goal of establishing a new axis of power in the middle east in the midst of the power vacuum created by the arab spring and as the us influence in the region is waning. in an interview with the new york times published on 19 september 2011, foreign minister davutoglu (2011) said: ―this will not be an axis against any other country — not israel, not iran, not any other m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [172] country, but this will be an axis of democracy, real democracy […] of the two biggest nations in our region, from the north to the south, from the black sea down to the nile valley in sudan.‖ the proposed partnership is to be grounded mostly in economic cooperation at least for now – with an increasingly political outlook. in september 2011, a delegation of egyptian businessmen visited turkey. davutoglu predicted that trade between the two would grow from its current $3.5 billion to $5 billion in two years. he also downplays accusations that an alliance might engender rivalry: ―some people may think egypt and turkey are competing. no. this is our strategic decision. we want a strong egypt.‖ perhaps, as a sign of this, in november 2012, erdogan visited egypt with ten ministers and a huge delegation. both countries did not only sign 27 agreements, but also have established high level consultation mechanism to deepen these relations. libya: diplomacy behind zigzags and reality the developments in libya have placed turkey in a piquant situation. more than 25 thousand people from turkey were living and many turkish companies were operating especially in construction field in all over the libya. understandably therefore, turkey did not take a strong position against the libyan leader initially, while it was busy evacuating its citizens from the troubled country. ankara has advised the libyan leaders not to use state power against the opposition. in a manner of speaking, turkish position was in sync with the international community – from china to india and the us, which, in the initial stages, was trying to understand what was going on in the ground. unlike egypt and tunisia, turkey did not extend full support to the libyan opposition until early august 2011 and did not acknowledge the opposition as legitimate representatives. in libya, turkey was also initially opposed to nato‘s intervention to enforce a no-fly zone, and had participated exclusively in the humanitarian dimension of the intervention. turkey also pursued diplomatic efforts to propose a negotiated ceasefire between muammar gaddafi and the revolutionaries. when this failed, turkey‘s prime minister erdogan urged gaddafi to quit and leave the country on may 3, 2011, approximately three months after m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [173] protests began in libya. there were various reasons for turkey‘s initial position on libya; turkey‘s good business relations with muammar qaddafi‘s regime before the revolts could be cited as one reason for turkey‘s cautious approach to the revolt. turkish construction companies had secured lucrative contracts in libya worth $23 billion and more contracts were to be signed. but it would be unfair to assume that turkey‘s sole purpose was to gain financial benefit. turkey realized the possible danger in the western agenda that wanted to hijack a popular uprising and use it as a pretext to plunder the vast oil resources of libya. however, the fact that turkey confronted by a strong international liberal interventionist discourse, it had some difficulty in explaining itself cogently in its attempt to defend the libyan people and their interests (yilmaz, 2011). after failing to prevent foreign intervention in libya, turkey reversed its position and joined the nato intervention in order to be influential at decision-making process of the intervention and sided fully with the opposition in libya. foreign minister davutoglu visited three times bingazhi to foster relations with the opposition and help them in transitional period. erdogan also visited libya in september 2010 to show his support and sympathy for the revolution and democracy. currently, turkey-libya relations are very good both at social and state level; and it is likely to develop further in future. syria: the biggest and ongoing challenge comparing to other revolutions, syria has been the most complicated and delicate one for turkish foreign policy, because, turkey was forced to offer a concrete solution, as the crisis was much closer to home in many ways. according to yilmaz (2011) turkey had to consider the crisis in syria in the context of its close economic relationship with syria, sunni-alawite tensions, democratization, regional balance, and also more urgently the kurdish question. when the demonstrations broke out in dera‘a, which soon turned into an armed struggle against the ba‗ath regime, turkey was initially cautious. on 25 may 2011, davutoglu said that the syrian president bashar asad must win back the hearts of his people through reform, despite the fact that the increasinglym. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [174] coordinated opposition groups openly rejected negotiation with a regime willing to shoot civilians. turkish officials recommended a national anticorruption campaign and reform of syria‘s feared state security and intelligence services. they also urged asad to undertake a national dialogue inclusive of the syrian muslim brotherhood, which has been brutally suppressed for years. therefore, ankara‘s criticism of syria was measured and continued to support asad at the initial stages. turkey had several reasons for supporting asad. first, syria has taken steps to improve people‘s freedoms after bashar asad inherited the ba‗ath party leadership. he eased political restrictions and introduced a number of economic reforms to improve the country‘s economy which in return secured him the support of the wealthy sunni class despite his alawi background. and he slowly but positively responded to the reform calls. although protesters regularly come out in the streets of some cities to express dissatisfaction with the ruling ba‗th regime which has instituted repressive policies and restricted democracy and freedom of the people, a friendly turkey would be better placed to negotiate between the opposition and the regime to find alternative solutions. second, turkey has huge trade interests in syria as ankara has become the largest trading partner of syria. third is their cooperation against the pkk. syria hosts a significant proportion of the kurdish population, some of whom have joined the pkk. turkish policy makers realize that if syria is destabilized and turns into another iraq, it might also become a breeding ground for pkk recruitment. and of course if the violence escalates, a larger refugee influx will hit the turkish economy. considering above-mentioned reasons, turkey tried to contain the situation in syria through dialogue. soon after protests broke out, turkey sent hakan fidan, head of the national intelligence organization (mit) to damascus twice and on april 7, 2011, turkish foreign minister davutoglu visited damascus to pressure asad for reforms. asad did introduce some reforms but ankara was not satisfied and expressed anger at the violent crackdown against the opposition. turkish policy makers realized that the situation was getting worse and they had to make a decision in the face of increasing pressure from the us and saudi arabia. m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [175] the first signal about turkey‘s changing policy came from foreign minister davutoglu. he conveyed a message to asad‘s special envoy in turkey that ankara‘s support ―hinges on the willingness of the syrian government to adopt sweeping reforms in the country.‖ in the meantime, despite the syrian government‘s strong displeasure, turkey hosted a conference in antalya for syrian opposition groups between 31 may 2011 and 3 june 2011 with the tacit approval of the turkish foreign ministry. the delegates who participated in the conference made it clear that they were not interested in negotiations, and that their aim was to topple the regime. and finally, in an interview on turkish television on 10 june 2011, erdogan openly distanced himself from bashar asad: ―i tell you clearly that his brother, mahir al-asad, the head of the republican guard, reacts in an inhumane way that can only end in massacre. this concerns the un security council which is already coming to the same conclusion. after all this, turkey cannot defend syria.‖ on 16 june 2011, another conference was organized by the syrian opposition in istanbul, entitled the national independence conference. there were some 350 delegates from various opposition groups that formed a shadow cabinet in preparation to take over from the ba‘ath regime run by the asad family. following a clear change from supporting asad to a total disengagement from the current regime in syria, turkey's syria policy focused more on a continuation of its long-standing goal of trying to prevent civil war and sectarian conflicts, while preserving its neutral but constructive position (yilmaz and ustun, 2011). but as the developments on the ground evolved, ankara took a strong anti-asad position and openly declared that he should be removed. grounded in this thinking, turkey now acts with international community and the arab league in its endeavor to bring stability and peace to syria and stop killings. in coordination with the arab league, turkey has announced sanctions for syria on 30 november 2011. these include a ban on transactions with syria's government and central bank and measures against prominent businessmen who support the regime. however, turkey has announced that it will not implement sanctions that directly influence the lives of the syrian people such as cutting electricity, water and trade. during the time m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [176] of writing this article, syrian issue is still at the center of international and regional attention. what will happen in syria has direct regional and global repercussions, because it will shape the regional balances and order. turkey is likely to follow closely the developments in syria and try to play a constructive role in finding a solution. eventually, developments in syria are likely to impact on turkey more directly than other actors. turkish diplomacy and debate on “turkish model” as mentioned in the first section, before and soon after the arab spring began, turkey‘s popularity had been on the rise in the arab world. since the akp were first elected in 2002, turkey with its flourishing democracy and rapidly growing economic and military might has become an emerging regional power. this has already created an interest in turkey from the middle east. however, it can be argued that turkey‘s foreign policy activism in the middle east has contributed to the downfall of authoritarian regimes, by implicitly calling for the end of the ―camp david order‖ and exposing repressive regimes that survived with the help of regional strategic arrangements related to the conflict with israel (ozhan, 2011, 58-59). turkey showed that it is possible to be democratic, have good relations with the west, and still stand up to unjust israeli policies. its ―dignified‖ stance was strengthened after the incident at the world economic forum meeting in davos in 2009 in which erdogan stormed out of a discussion with israeli president shimon peres about israel‘s war in gaza. erdogan‘s gesture, widely acclaimed on the arab street, exposed and undermined arab leaders who had acquiesced to israeli policies and committed to the status quo. turkey‘s stance has had a significant political impact across the arab world. the fact that turkey has succeeded in staging a soft revolution against the once powerful autocracy at home has been very important in arab view of turkey. economic and political achievements made turkey a good candidate as a ―role model‖ to replace the despotic arab regimes. at the time, members of strong opposition groups such as the egyptian muslim brotherhood and the tunisian islamic movement hizb alnahdah, as well as the masses, did not hide their sympathy for the m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [177] turkish model. indeed, turkish prime minister recep tayyip erdogan captured the moment by extending his strong support to egyptian and tunisian revolutionaries, warning arabian leaders that they should swiftly implement reforms and meet the democratic demands of their people. it is interesting to note here that turkey has never presented itself as a model to the arab world. mostly the arab media, civil society and opposition groups in the arab world have presented turkey as a model to the arab world. this has intensified once these actors have become a key player in the new middle east after the revolutions. nevertheless, the debate on ―turkish model‖ is not limited to newly emerging actors in the arab world, but also has been discussed and promoted by the west. for example, britain's former prime minister tony blair said that democratic turkey is a role model for arab spring countries. the western interest in the turkish model seems to be particularly driven by satisfaction with the fact that turkey has been able to achieve a true and lasting reconciliation between islam and democracy, on one hand, and between islam and the west, on the other. it has also managed to realistically address the problems of minorities and religious freedom. the west seems enthusiastic about this model and hopes it can be seen as a model by the arab revolutionaries seeking to establish democracy. nevertheless, it is our contention that turkish model should be analyzed beyond the classical approaches. the most important ―modelhood‖, if there is one, is related to the way ankara positions itself in global politics and approaches issues. for example, egyptian political scientist hassan nafaa (2011) argues that ―turkey‘s foreign policy obviously provides egypt with a model of how a country can, despite being allied with the west, adopt an independent policy consistent with its national interests. this has been one of the most important lessons learned in the arab world thus far from the turkish model‖ (p. 44). undoubtedly, changes in the middle east opened a debate whether turkey could be a model for newly emerging regimes. as mentioned, there is an immense interest whether or not turkey is a model. conceptually speaking, islamists, the west and arab streets see merit in the turkish model for a variety of different reasons. islamists see the m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [178] example of akp as a way of coming to power through elections, while the west sees turkey as a successful mix of islam and democracy, modernization and secularism. for the people in the arab streets turkey is a model of economic development, dignity, job creation, public service and welfare (duran and yilmaz, 2011). whatever are the reasons for proposing turkey as a model, the fact remains that turkey is an inspiration in building the new arab world. so, it is obvious that in the days ahead importance of turkey will increase in the region. diversity of perspectives on turkey also indicates the multiple facets of turkish model, and it is a real indication of turkey‘s own complexity both at domestic and international levels. despite its conservative roots, even after more than 10 years in office, the akp continues to appeal to a much wider electorate including more secular middle class elements in the turkish society and this is what makes it an attractive case study. perhaps, that is why the importance and success of the akp has also implications beyond the middle east. in almost every third world countries and in the muslim world in particular, there exists a center who dominates the power and a periphery that actually deprived of power and decision-making. for example in the middle east, there is a distinctive division between the ruling elite and the public. what is striking is that due to lack of democracy and mostly the power transfer being held between family members, the excluded majorities has no way to channel their voices to the top. so far, the akp has been the only successful experience in the middle east that brought the periphery to the center without alienating or clashing directly with the center. this itself represent a major breakthrough given the existing literature‘s emphasis that islam and democracy is incompatible. the akp example shows that both can coexist peacefully with an increasing legitimacy from the public (cevik, 2011, 121-144). in that sense, the akp can be seen as a model in a way that it has consolidated turkey‘s historical domestic divide between center and periphery. considering that each society has different historical, institutional and structural settings in its political arena, the akp experience in turkey cannot be copied, but can be taken as an inspiring model in the m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [179] third world in general and the middle east in particular. as the leaders behind akp experience made explicit as early as in 2003 and later years frequently, turkey does not want to be a model to any country, but drawing lessons and being ―a source of inspiration‖ in ―finding their own solutions to their own problems‖ are as normal as historical events. conclusion arab revolutions have not ended yet and it will take time to settle their transition. revolutions are still in process, most importantly in syria. turkish diplomacy and foreign policy will also evolve and transform itself as the time goes. what will underline turkish approach to developments are stability, transition from within and regional ownership for revolutions. however, turkey‘s outmost interest will be to define a new regional order based on regional sensitivities and interests. in that sense, the success or the failure of revolutions will also directly influence turkish policy toward the region. needless to say, the arab revolutions have presented the middle east with a historic opportunity for a more democratic and dignified future. while the transition in libya and tunisia are important, egypt‘s evolution into a stable democracy will be crucial for the structural transformation of the region. if the new egypt seizes this opportunity without reverting to a pseudo-democracy for piecemeal strategic arrangements, the prospect of the emergence of a new regional order that turkey wants may turn into reality. the greatest challenge for turkey during this period is to help create the new language and terms of discourse. turkey must not watch but manage this process whenever it can, as it did during the uprisings in egypt, libya, and syria. if turkey can remain involved and relevant in the medium term, then it may help the arab momentum to create a truly new regional order. m. ozkan & h. korkut turkish foreign policy towards the arab revolutions epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [180] references altunisik, m. b. 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"turkish policy and the gulf crisis, adventurist or dynamic?" in clement h. dodd (ed.) turkish foreign policy, new prospects, modern turkish studies programme, occasional paper 2, huntingdon: the eothen press. sayari, s. (1992). "turkey: the changing european security environment and the gulf crisis." middle east journal, 46, (1). taspinar, o. (2008). turkey’s middle east policies: between neoottomanism and kemalism, carneige paper 10. yilmaz, n. (2011). ―new turkey and the arab spring?‖ open democracy. yilmaz n. and ustun, k. (2011). ―turkey's policy towards syria is a success.― al jazeera opinion. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 the ice cracks for frozen flow: comprehending the irony of development through metaphor of water bhumika sharma * abstract water, one of the five elements, runs through the course of evolution as life line. conceived as the source of origin, sustenance and annihilation, it is believed to be the crux of existence. whether scientific or mythical, it serves as the foundation of cyclical nature of life that begins with ice age and ends in great deluge. water, being chiefly conceived as the life giving fluid, is mainly associated with the flow that designates existence. but interestingly, the flow of water does not remain restricted to single form or shape. through its adaptability, malleability and transforming flamboyance, it narrates the beauty, splendour, exoticism, functionality, and dynamism inherent in nature. in literary and cultural discourses water emerges as a chief motif to communicate concrete as well as abstract realities of life. envisaged in myriad forms such as haze, mist, fog, frost, ice, vapour, and so on it appears in various semblances and disguise to whisper some message in human ears. its dripping sound echoes the essence of being. creating a wondrous spectrum of variability, it extends from tiny dew drops to vast oceans. in fact, the metaphor of water serves one of the foundational artistic imagery of visualising life. present paper studies how water is projected in our literary and cultural discourses to comprehend various experiential truths of human civilisation. it probes into the mystery of incredulous development of humankind that amazes with its incredible achievements. human civilisation may boast of its consistent progress over the years, but literary delineations in the metaphorical renderings of water question how far do we agree with the progressive march of humankind. what are the ironies that constitute the dilemma of human rationality and the development of a civilisation across cultures? keywords: cyclical nature of life, literary and cultural discourses, motif, human civilisation, irony, human rationality * corresponding author: bhumika sharma; assistant professor, central university of rajasthan, bandar sindri, ajmer rajasthan, india; e-mail: sharmabhumika@curaj.ac.in mailto:sharmabhumika@curaj.ac.in b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [29] all living beings are formed out of the energies and synergies of the natural power of five elements. named as earth, water, fire, air and space, these forces are said to be responsible for shaping the mould of various organism. each of the elements gifts us with a specific property. earth incorporates firmness whereas space denotes infinity. this is complemented by the lightness represented in the air, blaze imported by fire and flow indicated by water. since these elements are the core of creation composing wonderful symbiosis in nature each of these is a precious resource to be honoured by human beings. these all preserve and promote what is considered to be the quintessential of human civilisation. their symbolic significations turn them into eternal code of human thoughts and actions. their figurative constellation scripts the history of human evolution. one may interestingly navigate various literary and cultural practices to witness how artistic endeavours by man have woven these elemental forces of nature into threads of anthropological and philosophical history of man. as the metaphor of water serves one of the foundational artistic imagery of visualising life, it contours the deep contemplation over the human existence. how does it shape human imagination to understand the present status of human civilisation? we may strive to answer many of such questions in our attempt to understand human history of development. let‟s probe into the mystery of incredulous development of humankind that amazes with its incredible achievements. the issues that may boggle our mind will be numerous. does the progression of mankind evince man‟s victory over nature or simply implies the idea of reckless exploitation of natural resources? how is it reflected in our literary and cultural discourses? what imagery do we use to answer certain dubious questions that evade straight answers? do our discourses impart knowledge to ruminate before leaping into dangers of unknown lands? or these are merely verbal wizardry to play with? is it possible to materialise the desired growth without exploitative approach? or have we really been greedy in our dreaming? which thin line distinguishes a genuine aspiration from a fatal ambition or creepy annihilation? are we on the verge of collapse? or we would like to mock at such stupid apprehensions of weaker hearts? in view of such vital question, perhaps, it is compulsive to sincerely feel our own pulse. does human civilisation is actually conscious of its hazardous status of biological as well as technological superiority or we would just love to revel in our contemporary accomplishments? perhaps, despite phenomenal exhibition b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [30] of human superiority, there lies a vast philosophical domain for self assessment on the part of this superior species called human race. and, perhaps, we may begin our expedition with a perusal of how the literary metaphor of water defines this tremendous experience of human progress. human civilisation may boast of its consistent progress over the years. water, one of these five elements, runs through this course of evolution as a life line. its emblematic connotations correspond to the equivocal nature of human existence; creation juxtaposed with cataclysm. conceived as the source of origin, sustenance and annihilation, water is believed to be the crux of existence. whether scientific or mythical, it serves as the foundation of cyclical nature of life that begins with ice age and ends in great deluge. given that water is chiefly conceived as the life giving fluid, it is mainly associated with the flow that designates existence. but interestingly, the flow of water does not remain restricted to single form or shape. through its adaptability, malleability and transforming flamboyance, it narrates the beauty, splendour, exoticism, functionality, and dynamism inherent in nature. in literary and cultural discourses water emerges as a chief motif to communicate concrete as well as abstract realities of life. envisaged in myriad forms such as haze, mist, fog, frost, ice, vapour, and so on it appears in various semblances and disguise to whisper some message in human ears. its dripping sound echoes the essence of being. creating a wondrous spectrum of variability, it extends from tiny dew drops to vast oceans. its gestures diverge from the stillness of pond to meandering river and from calmly rippling surface to tumult of roaring sea. its presence can be felt from the wetness in soil to uninhibited trajectory of a freely floating cloud. while beholding the transparent shimmering surface of a water body, human heart may be brimmed with curiosity to grasp its deeper secrets. how incredible it appears to imagine that deep secrets can be huddled behind the lucidity of a watery film. it appears as though nature intends to convey secret messages through such paradoxical projections. the exterior shines with brilliance but somewhere in interior there may be the strange and unfamiliar, concealed in the darkness of its depth. with such cultural denotations, water claims to have its own majesty, mystery as well as metamorphic reality to be discovered and known by human b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [31] imagination. carrying numerous facets; shaped and unshaped, tangible and intangible, water imagery in literary and cultural discourses evoke subtle metaphors to comprehend the underlying truths of human experience. these are the revelations that connect concrete realities of life to abstract philosophies of human civilisation. life flows like water, so with the progressive move of humankind over the years. with a firm belief in the rationality of man we began our journey thousands of years back. our literary and cultural discourses depict our experience as starting from scratch to build a palatial facade of human civilisation. perhaps, the man rejoices boasting of such impressive inception of humankind. in his emotional and intellectual discourses he celebrates his rendezvous with destiny that began with the precious drop of water. life must have germinated at the bottom of some water reservoir on the earth and then lifted its face to find out an out let to come forth on the surface. the conception of ice age connotes it sprouting out from a chink in the solidified ice. perhaps, in the chain of creation man stood somewhere amidst freezing cold waiting the warmth of life to let lose the flow from ice. the ice finally cracked and the flow of life thawed out bringing wonderful symphony of divine attributes like beauty, symmetry, equanimity and poise along with. our various cultural discourses illustrate how wonderful it has been to script that experience in the textuality of literature. american writer henry david thoreau‟s master piece walden (1854) is a beautiful example of such narration. thoreau paints a beautiful picture of the natural world and portrays the blooming life at the walden pond. considered as supreme work in transcendentalist writing, walden records how human life fosters around a water reservoir. transcending the specific identity, the narrator gradually assumes the persona of collective humankind. he probes into the relation of the order and beauty of nature to the human mind and spirit. it brings out certain sublime experiences which may be viewed in different light. does water merely represent the substance which, as per the discipline of science, 99% of human body is made of or its power is more subtle than sensually perceived? the exotic charm of walden pond suggests an elevating experience. water not only formulates life but it gives additional meaning to life that has separated human beings from other inferior species. designating the grandeur of walden pond as a great gift of nature, not merely physical but spiritual, the author announces: b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [32] i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if i could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when i came to die, discover that i had not lived. i did not wish to live what was not life... i wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life. (pg. 235) the depth of the pond walden turns into the deep subtle knowledge of life. plumbing its depth becomes the human quest for knowledge. its deep sounding watery province resonate the throbbing pulse of animate body. a physical experience turns into a metaphysical experience. in fact, there is always a close affinity between physical and metaphysical. physical manifestation paves the way for revivifying metaphysical experiences. similarly, what is conceived at spiritual level germinates from the material reality of life. we just need to understand how as well as how far these reflect each other. when a scientist examines the role of water in the evolution of species and explains the chemical composition of h2o, a literary artist in his aesthetic pursuit draws attention to the signified nature of water metaphorically keyed as the nectar of life. their approach may be different, but both, indeed, concede in acknowledging the importance of water for survival. and in their pursuit of knowledge, its meaning evolves from physicality to metal, emotional, intellectual and spiritual realisation of life. one may easily perceive how human mind has scaled the importance of water both in physical and metaphysical terms. undoubtedly, man has always needed water to live physically. his every day begins with it as it was at the inception, the point of origin which goes back into ice age. it was the dawn of civilisation when primordial man stepped on the hard icy surface in his journey to harmonize with nature. he was engaged in collecting basic goods needed to survive. one may find such description in any scientific account of human history of civilisation. but does the image of water remain confined merely to physical necessity of human body or it extended far more in meaning and subtle signification. water is regarded as an emblem of unfathomable mysticism. it is turned into symbol of purification. it also takes man into many more metaphysical revelations. let‟s see, what thoreau‟s description of morning chores reveals us: b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [33] then to my morning work. first i take an ax and pail and go in search of water, if that be not a dream. after a cold and snowy night it needed a diving rod to find it. every winter the liquid and trembling surface of the pond, which was so sensitive to every breath, and reflected every light and shadow, becomes solid... like the marmots in the surrounding hills, it closes its eyelids and becomes dormant for three months and more. standing on the snow-covered plain, as if in a pasture amid the hills, i cut my way first through a foot of snow, and then a foot of ice, and open a window under my feet, where, kneeling to drink, i look down into the quite parlor of the fishes, pervaded by a softened light as through a window of ground glass, with its bright sanded floor the same as in summer; there a perennial waveless serenity reigns as in the amber twilight sky, corresponding to the cool and even temperament of the inhabitants. (pg. 240) it is not just bare animal instinct of looking resources for survival. the first person narrator of the above quoted extract is more conscious of multiple significations configured in the imagery of water. the frozen winter walden pond represent the incarcerated existence. the mild opening denotes the crack in the hard surface assuring an inception, or more accurately, resurrection following the cyclic course of life. exhibited in the form of moving creatures the author glimpses the beauty and velocity of life. it symbolises the dawn of civilisation awaiting a crevice to flow out from beneath the cold solid icy layer. it is the same sentiment suddenly experienced by the ancient mariner who initially forgot to praise the life emanated from the same divine source. he was guilty of disregarding the life, killing the albatross, an animate being created by same natural forces that gave birth to him. his sin is reflected in the transparency of water agonising his heart. the water turned crimson red: but where the ship‟s huge shadow lay, the charmed water burnt always a still and awful red. (lines 269-271) b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [34] but, the moment he realised his mistake and paid regard to the apparent beauty and divinity of life he is forgiven, saved, and restored. his heart felt the wetness of love gushing out in the form of a spring: within the shadow of the ship, i watched the water snakes: ... within the shadow of the ship i watched their rich attire: blue, glossy green, and velvet black they coiled and swam; and every track was a flash of golden fire. o happy living things! no tongue their beauty might declare: a spring of love gushed from my heart, and i blessed them unaware: (lines 272285) perhaps with every diurnal and seasonal cyclical change we experience the perpetual pattern of life that is incarnated by the elemental forces of nature. life peeps from the hole showing the splendour of nature‟s creation. the winter changes into spring and it oozes out in the beautiful melted liquid form of water to prompt vegetation. we grow. we praise our swift assuring gait. we keep moving at same pace carefree, jubilant, and oblivious of side effects. we boast of our amazing scientific accomplishments. we celebrate our present status of superior race. we dream of landing in a fairy tale world full of more astonishing surprises. we rejoice of so many things that perhaps we have forgotten the count even. is it a move towards perfection, attainment of supreme power of a creator? then why do we feel like lamenting and doubt ourselves for making choices. why do we feel driven by the nostalgia and crib against losing something blissful; the purity, the richness, the abundance ... and what not? the loss of the beauty of walden pond is to be mourned. the ancient mariner reappears in the modern man without learning any lesson from the remorse of the earlier one. although the human race is proud of its tremendous development ever since the ice first cracked to glimpse the opulence promised by the first human endeavour, yet there appears something lacking that does not make us trust our own selections. we question ourselves of our own rationality and its idea of progression. we enquire; in our visualisation of future, have we sustained that grandeur envisaged by thoreau in the b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [35] magnificence of walden pond or do we care of what imparted by coleridge in the majestic beauty of the water snakes? where have we dropped it down? human endeavours asserted progression but why today, that proclamation appears dubious to us. why do we sniff ironies in it? have we left behind the real essence of life in the race of becoming superior species? in our attempts of fulfilling physical needs have we forgotten the metaphysical lessons taught by the translucence, depth and flow of water? do we give due regard to those elemental forces which formulate us or we also share the same sin with coleridge‟s ancient mariner, and that too, without any sense of repentance? how have we managed our precious resources which we found through that ice cracked by the first person narrator in thoreau‟s walden? despite our high sounding claims of ascent we may see the pit dug by us around. fatally fallen down on a barren ground of wasteland today our civilisation stinks of commercial and industrial waste. water that served as the source of life is robbed of its purity and vitality. in our frivolous activities we have polluted the flow of life symbolised in water. eliot‟s well known long poem the wasteland is a very good example of what appears as a forecast to the modern period. the third part of the poem “the fire sermon” begins with the picturesque image of river thames that must have witnessed the rising and fall of generations on its bank. human race steps into 20 th century. same water of walden pond with its chemical composition of h2o is now seen flowing in the thames river of england. thames is a favourite picnic spot during summer. the traces of summer excursion left by the inhabitants of london still echo in the rippling sound of its water. its rhythm reverberates the soft sound produced by the putrefied litter striking against the flow of the river. its water bears, “empty bottles, sandwich papers, silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends...other testimonies of summer nights.” (lines: 177-79). during winter, although the river appears deserted and lonesome but the poet can hear the contaminated touch of human presence in “the rattle of the bones,” (line: 186) while “fishing in the dull canal” (line: 189). the images used by the poet exposes the contamination of thames‟ water by londoners. it forecasts what the river stores for future. the fourth part of the poem titled, „death by water” brings out the imminent perils of degenerating civilisation: phlebas the phoenician, a fortnight dead, forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [36] and the profit and loss. a current under sea picked his bones in whispers, as he rose and fell he passed the stages of his ages and youth entering the whirlpool. (lines 311317) throughout the poem the wasteland water is used as a very prominent symbol. water which is usually used to symbolize baptism, rebirth, relief, and regeneration seems to connote its reverse in representing degeneration. in the wasteland, however, projecting the paradox it brings both life and death. it cleanses the earth but also leaves behind the raw imperfections of humanity. eliot delineates the ironies associated with human progression through the water symbol. he evinces a premonition along with a warning: gentile or jew o you who turn the wheel and look to windward consider phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you. (lines 318-320) underlying a sage advice, the poem warns the man of the outcome of his irrational, inconsiderate and slipshod behaviour. with a horrific picture of present reality, it triggers the issue of what will be the final consequences of subsequent degeneration. he who was living is now dead we who were living are now dying with a little patience (lines 328-330) was it the rational choice man made at the inception of civilisation? what did we crack the ice for; to live without fear of death or to make life more fearsome than death? are we living a deadly life? we find numerous questions volleyed in our face. some may be answered but many other float in search of appropriate response. it seems scary but consists of truth. the human civilisation can no more afford to turn its face from the reality of a defaced planet. we all visualise human habitation with certain images worked out in a coherent frame. having learned since school days we draw a beautiful picture of earth. in our intellectual discourse, we intimately describe our habitat made up of solid b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [37] rock with firm ground surrounded by water. abundant water in the form of sea, five oceans outlining the seven continents, and so on and on, the imagery expands. it is like reading the globe which we draw in our mind. our cognitive mapping issues a series of aesthetic metaphors to revel in. with its green trees and running brooks of forest of arden we celebrate the nature‟s promises of a pleasant and carefree life. and this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. (pg. 70) but as stated by david harvey, “there is an omnipresent danger that our mental maps will not match current realities.” (pg. 17) bewares us of our misconceptions. in view of man‟s dilemma of progression, every image comes under questions. shakespeare‟s forests of arden starts disappearing into enlarging wastelands. man no more read the “books in the running brooks” since in the modern wasteland “here is no water but only rock” (line 331). the globe now is constituted of spreading cities hardened into asphalt roads. it has also hardened the hearts of its inhabitants reflecting the insensitivity of modern urban life. since the imagery seems wobbling with unpleasant apprehensions, man realises the urgency of introspection. the degeneration of humankind is not merely physical but also moral, ethical and spiritual. diminishing water flow indicates the dryness of human heart. as eliot describes: here is no water but only rock rock and no water and the sandy road the road winding above among the mountains which are mountains of rock without water if there were water we should stop and drink amongst the rock one cannot stop or think sweat is dry and feet are in the sand dead mountain mouth of curious teeth that can not spit here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit there is not even silence in the mountains but dry, sterile thunder without rain (lines 331-341) repeating the image of „no water‟, „without water‟, „dry sweat‟, „no spit‟, and „sterile thunder without rain‟ the poet reverses man‟s confidence in b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [38] human rationality and his conception of progress. the picture presents a horrific realisation on the part of human civilisation. since the imagery seems wobbling with unpleasant apprehensions, man realises the urgency of introspection. now, one is left with only a wish, a wish that subsequently turn into a request. it may only alter into a prayer, a hope that might regenerate the dwindling humankind. man aspires for dripping drops to instil life in the dying generation. can we find that regenerating drop borrowed from thoreau‟s walden pond in modern times? if there were water and no rock if there were rock and also water and water a spring a pool among the rock if there were the sound of water only not the cicada and dry grass singing but sound of water over a rock where the hermit thrush sings in the pine trees drip drop drip drop drop drop drop but there is no water (lines 345-358) we receive a negative response. the drop seems no more available. and if somewhere the possibility exists, it horrifies with its excessive fearsome force. since water does not drip down as a regenerating element but when it comes, it comes overflowing to wash away every iota of life. eliot‟s imagery of unfertile, famine struck wasteland on the one end and the rippling surface of sea that drowns the sailor on the other end, shows how the human civilisation stands on the verge of destruction. the water considered as a source of life has now turned into the harbinger of death. whether it is the lack of rainfall or increase of sea level, in both the cases the mankind is cursed to vanish. either famine or flood; water assuming extreme form pronounces only „death‟. human being is merely a part of the natural chain. the rational man has forgotten the balance to be maintained for human survival. it is the outcome of man‟s defiling natural resources like water. since the human degradation is not confined to one region or one culture, it comes as collective jolt for entire humankind. inherent in all cultures and civilisations, it yokes together the b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [39] classified east and west. irrespective of mammoth claims about developing or developed status, the whole 21 st century world is destined to bear the brunch of common human folly. like american and british literary traditions, indian literary discourses also use water imagery to muse on the vital social and cultural issues probing into the nature of collective human progress. one of the 21 st century indian writers arvind adiga draws a subtle image to bring out the prevailing darkness of contemporary degeneration. in his novel the white tiger he sketches a black river running through the middle of a modern industrialised city. without disclosing the identity, he calls it the „river of death‟. it is the river that has been flowing since ancient time but now unrecognisable on account of some self explanatory reasons. which black river i am talking of – which river of death, whose banks are full of rich, dark, sticky mud whose grip traps everything that is planted in it, suffocating and chocking and stunting it? (pg. 14-15) placing the narrative into a cultural context, the picture evoked by the author weaves a thin thread of suspense. adiga works out the cultural connection through constructing a dialectics of „i‟ and „you‟ in which two cultures enter into a conversation to comprehend the contemporary reality. the reader‟s curiosity is aroused and he may seem interested comprehending the whole of the conundrum. the author continues gradually unfolding the identity of this mysterious black river. it is the river that juxtaposes the past and present but ironically being used to expose the terrifying truth of future: why, i am talking of mother ganga, daughter of the vedas, river of illumination, protector of us all, breaker of the chain of birth and rebirth. everywhere this river flows, the area is the darkness. (pg. 15) the river which has reflected the philosophy of a civilisation, which imbibes the cultural richness in its origin, which has been a symbol of purity, piety and progress for ages, gradually degenerates into the river of darkness in 21 st century. the river, whose touch was considered healing, is now feared of its noxious contact. now everyone is cautioned to keep away if not to be plagued by its loathing filth and repulsive human waste: b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [40] no! – jiabao, i urge you not to dip in the ganga, unless you want your mouth full of faeces, straw, soggy parts of human bodies, buffalo carrion, and seven different kinds of industrial acids. (pg. 15) the holy water which was a symbol of life now makes one experience the disgusting and nauseating degeneration. it witnesses funeral rites and the subsequent decomposition of human body. the exposition does not end here since we are destined to learn even by such sickening realisations. the archetype of birth-death-rebirth reappears in adiga‟s description of ganga ghat. it parallels eliots projection of the banks of river thames but in more intense form. like eliot‟s tiresias, the protagonist of adiga‟s the white tiger also finds himself enlightened through his first hand experience of physical and moral deterioration of human society. his epiphany is the prime source of his knowledge. as a man of intelligence, now he is in position to discern what is wrong with the current reality. he immediately enumerate the lists of “do‟s” and “don‟t”, confessing: and then i understood: this was the real god of benaras – this black mud of the ganga into which everything died, and decomposed, and was reborn from, and died into again... nothing would get liberated here... i haven‟t been to see the ganga since then: i‟m leaving the river for the american tourists! (pg. 18) in addition to his illumination, he alongside exposes the cultural hypocrisy concealed beneath the glorious facade. whether one acknowledges it or not, the age old flow of water reflects it. how conveniently we may pretend to boast of our cultural richness if it can be en-cashed despite being fully conscious of the hollowness of our big claims. the motifs recurred in adiga‟s river is of human greed, selfishness, deception, degeneration and contamination. one may find the group of swindlers on ganga ghat thriving on tourism industry and stealing money from the pockets of foreign tourists in the name of sacred river. but water reflects the true face of every object it mirrors. one is compelled to contemplate. the same water, with its chemical combination of hydrogen and oxygen, is addressed by different cultural denominations. whether called as american walden, or british thames b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [41] or indian ganga, it has always maintained its dignity. it has always served as the basis of human civilisation. whatever is its cultural identity; it is to be revered, rejoiced and celebrated. how ironical it appears today to see it degenerated in the hands of a progressive 21 st century modern man who manipulates its cultural identity for his vested interests. how it is defaced and derided across the strategically laid borders. the translucent water turns black and abhorring. one can find numerous illustrations of how water is conceived in different shades with subtle metaphorical significations across cultures. the aesthetic construction and reconstruction of water in literary and cultural discourses portrays the realities of human experiences. water has been a witness of both rational and irrational human behaviour. its surface always mirrors his true nature. the sound of its flow echoes the melody and melancholy of human progression as the case may be. matthew arnold announces in his well known poem, “dover beach”: of human misery; we find also in the sound of a thought, hearing it by this diastant northern sea (lines 18-20) whether it is a stream or pond or river or sea or ocean, man can see his true face in its translucence. it discloses the incomprehensible truths underlying the human predicament. what could be possibly attributed to it? a true literary artist always tries to decode it. arnold also attempts to share his detections: the sea of faith was once, too, at the full, and round earth‟s shore lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. but now i only hear its melancholy, long withdrawing roar, retreating...” (line 21-26) water imagery in literature probes into subtle realities of human existence. it raises certain very important issues to bring into debate. self questioning continues, in fact with more persistence. are we actually aware of the issues pertaining to our choices? or we are happy to remain in oblivion to shirk off any responsibility? how far do we acknowledge them? where does lie the dignity of being human? what do we ascribe to b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [42] for erosion of foundational values? where does human civilisation stand in the context of present dogma of rationality and irrationality? water, water, every where and all the boards did shrink; water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink. (lines 119-122) how will we explain the irony inherent in the above lines by coleridge? are we ready to face the present paradox of „scarcity in abundance’? no doubt, present hi-tech world is shaped by the unparallel knowledge of human brain. in this age of science man is far superior to the primitive resource less empty handed man who was ruled by nature. with astonishing scientific discoveries and tremendous technological advancement today human being may claim to control these five elemental forces of nature that have given birth to him. they rejoice the power of assuming the role of creator than being called merely a created object. the very fact instantly releases the paradox as a creator always owes certain responsibilities to the power of creation possessed by him. man may proudly claim to change the course of stream, but, deterring the free flow of water is like chaining a gigantic force. perhaps, man has forgotten the simplistic scientific fact that water oozes out from some other channel if forced to be captivated against the astute laws. the nature may appear under the command of hi-tech man but he is ignoring its repercussions. ice age does not always promise sprouting since past deprived of objectivity does not ensure amelioration in future. nor our predictions are flawless since every talent has its own limitations. today, water which solidifies in ice gives impression of a caged tiger. a tiger that has force, strength, pace, vigour and vitality may pose a threat if not properly taken care of. it looks majestic at the same time stirring a scary sensation. same water which appears pacifying and fulfilling, may lead to doom depending how we treat its natural force. the ice was here, the ice was there, the ice was all around: it cracked and growled, and roared and howled, like noises in a swound! (pg. 35) b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [43] when water is imprisoned it gets stuck. its melodious murmuring turns into helpless anger growling to resent against human misdemeanour. the melting ice of 21 st century warns man of nature‟s revenge. it is not the question of how much science or how much philosophy, but the rationality of thinking without self deceit. it is the courage of acknowledging and accepting one‟s mistakes honestly. it is the matter of resolving the ironies of life created by our own. indubitably, literature being a perennial form to articulate human thoughts and emotions, presents an interesting account of how human mind perceives the manifested as well as deep lying realities of human experiences. it builds an imagery that not only delineates facts but also reflects profound realisations embedded in them. these realisations connect human soul to universal consciousness. their combination stirs the thoughts which resonate at a deep level of human perception. the natural force of the elements like water not only creates life but also sustains it. its perception throughout imparts it symbolic meaning to comprehend the complexities of human experience. what man need to question today is how much we honour the natural elements which have created the world? water has power to heal. it nourishes nurtures, revives and restores. then why does it appear so contaminated and threatening. history may be seen repeating but why does it not suggest any amelioration today? why do we always seem suspicious of our so called progressive experiments? the world sitting on the volcanic reality of imminent conflagration caused by global warming exposes the irony of scientific progress. similarly with an apparent social, moral and ethical degradation we feel compulsive of reiterating the eternal values in altered contexts. we may feel contended to rule over the flow of life through deterring the current of water. but being arrested in ice does not picture the optimism of ice age any more. today ice does not promise to crack for flow but exposes a frigid current recounted in human nerves. is humanity has stuck in its own false assumptions? perhaps, recurring archetypes like the biblical as well as vedic image of great deluge reveal the irony of progressive degeneration encoded in the literary metaphor of water. references adiga, arvind. 2008. the white tiger. new delhi: harper collins. b. sharma the ice cracks for frozen flow: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [44] coleridge, samuel taylor. 1993. selected poetry. london: bloomsbury publishing ltd. connell, liam & nicky marsh. (ed.) 2011. literature and globalisation: a reader. new york: routledge. eliot, t. s. 2003. the waste land and other poems. new york : peguin group. hodgins, francis et al. (ed.) 1989. adventures in american literature. orlando, florida: harcourt brace jovanovich, inc. jain, jasbir. (ed.) 1994. strings of gold. new delhi: macmillan india ltd. jackson, h. j. (ed.) 1994. samuel taylor coleridge: selected poetry. new york: oxford university press. shakespeare, william. 1968. as you like it. new york: penguin books. introduction epiphany: vol. 5, no. 1, 2012 issn 1840-3719 consolidation of the victorian marriage tradition in hardy’s jude the obscure parvin ghasemi * masood keshavarz abstract jude the obscure by thomas hardy has always been considered a novel in which the concept of the traditional victorian marriage is severely criticized through various tones. new historicism and cultural materialism are methodological approaches that provide us with a different interpretation of this novel. therefore , on the basis of these "reading practices," as greenblatt calls them, the researchers attempt to offer another reading of this novel. the present research concludes that jude the obscure at first presents an explicit, reproachful treatment of the conventional victorian marriage but at the end it reinforces this type of marriage by repressing the characters whose views are at odds with the dominant views of the society. in other words, through marginalizing its own major characters as "the others", jude the obscure consolidates the dominant discourse of the victorian society about "marriage". keywords: victorian marriage, new historicism, cultural materialism, consolidation, and discourse * corresponding author: parvin ghasemi, department of foreign languages and linguistics, shiraz university, iran, e-mail: pghasemi2000@yahoo.com corresponding author: masood keshavarz, department of foreign languages and linguistics, shiraz university, iran, e-mail: keshavarz368@yahoo.com mailto:pghasemi2000@yahoo.com mailto:keshavarz368@yahoo.com p. ghasemi, m. keshavarz consolidation of the victorian marriage epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [109] "marriage", as a social institution, has always been considered one of the major themes around which a good number of victorian novels such as jude the obscure revolve. it is believed by many critics that the presentation of "marriage" in this novel has been performed through various literary tones including irony, diatribe, sarcasm, satire or direct criticism. indeed, the bulk of articles and books about thomas hardy and his treatment of "marriage" in jude the obscure indicates the critical reception that this novel has enjoyed in this regard. norman vance in an illuminating introduction to wordsworth classics edition of the book asserts: so at one level this can be seen as a novel of social protest and commentators have laid varying emphasis on three connected social themes in the novel: educational and social disadvantage, marriage and divorce, and the position of women. (vii) patricia ingham in her introduction to the oxford edition of the novel observes: hardy denied the novel was an attack on marriage laws and was right to discard this superficial reading; but his assertion in the 1912 postscript that 'the general drift' in relation to such laws was that 'the civil law should only be the enunciation of the law of nature' is more problematic.(xvii). lance st john butler also writes," the man who fell in love with emma gifford lives to regret his marriage, to write bitterly against marriage as an institution"(13). aeron matz believes that "the destructive energy of jude the obscure is aimed in many directions: at the oppressive victorian strictures of marriage, at the exclusion of the universities, at a society in which the lot of the poor is wretched" (542) moreover, lionel stevenson mentions that havelock ellis's "concerning jude the obscure" was among the first to defend its challenge…to idealized victorian marriage and to victorian ideals of social perfectibility" (384). raymond williams asserts: one of the most immediate effects of mobility, within a structure itself changing, is the difficult nature of the marriage choice. this situation keeps recurring in terms which are at once personal and social:…jude [choosing] between arabella and sue. the specific class element and the effects upon this of an insecure economy, are parts of the personal p. ghasemi, m. keshavarz consolidation of the victorian marriage epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [110] choice….and here significantly the false marriage(with which hardy is so regularly and deeply concerned)can take place either way.(371) in addition, richard gill in his discussion of the english novel dedicates a headline called "marriage" to jude the obscure and by quoting sue's letter to jude emphasizes "but later in the 19 th century, there are indications that marriage might not be so valued" (399). besides, a. abjadian in his comments on the victorian novel mentions that ―jude the obscure is about the inevitable frustration of the human condition, not an attack against the marriage law or the refusal of oxford colleges to admit rustics" (413). karen lawrence also believes, "unlike many nineteenth century novels, which picture marriage as the final fulfillment…hardy's turn of the century novel expresses deep pessimism about the institution of marriage"( 370). finally, maria frawley states that "much of his [hardy's] subject matter—sexual victimization…and unhappy marriage in jude the obscure—exposed him to the wrath of reviewers bent on measuring his fiction against the standards of circulating –library morality" (444). the list of quotations in which thomas hardy's criticism of conventional marriage is discussed can be much longer than this. however, the objective of this paper is to show if there is any other possible reading of jude the obscure and its depiction of the concept of marriage. except for abjadian, all the above mentioned critics and so many other ones maintain the idea that jude the obscure challenges the orthodox system of marriage in its victorian sense. in other words, they claim that it is a "subversive" text, as far as the conventional marriage is concerned. this paper, however, asserts that reading the novel as s subversive text does not refute the possibility of its being read as a "consolidatory" one. such a possibility is provided for us by the tenets of new historicism and cultural materialism. these critical approaches, greenblat says, "should be viewed as a reading practice" (bressler 216). therefore, the researchers attempt to present a re-reading of this seemingly subversive text and to point to the parts in which the opportunity of reading it as a consolidatory text is at our disposal. "consolidation," according to new historicism, refers to ideological means whereby a dominant order seeks to perpetuate itself p. ghasemi, m. keshavarz consolidation of the victorian marriage epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [111] while subversion is the discovery of the means to resist it and subvert the order. as david lodge believes, "to be aware of the historical basis of all discourses is inevitably also to become conversant with the dialectical way a significant text might mirror codes as well as mould and often resist them" (495). thus, it can be reasonably surmised that jude the obscure not only "resists the dominant code" (the victorian concept of marriage) but also "mirrors" and "moulds" and consolidates it. in order to clarify what we mean by "consolidation of the dominant code," we can investigate a number of relevant questions about this novel and its writer. the first question is about hardy himself: does hardy take sides with his own fictional characters (jude and sue) or does he support the conventional side? it is already known that sue and jude's ideas do not conform to the dominant definition of marriage in the victorian era. however, at the end of the novel, we have sue define herself as "a poor wicked woman who is trying to mend"(319; pt.6, ch.4) and we observe jude musing, "what does it matter what my opinions are, a wretched like me!" (340; pt.6, ch.8). these two shattered characters are created by thomas hardy in his exploration into women’s attempts at self-discovery. they used to be the paragons "of the highest and purest loves that ever existed between man and woman"(314; pt.6, ch.3). one may ask oneself if the novel could have had a different ending. the one suggested by jude, for example, could have been an option, "let us then shake off our mistakes, and run away together!"(344; pt.6. ch.8) . obviously enough, it is hardy who seems to have already decided about the ending of his novel. according to nemesvari, in thomas hardy: a biography, michael millgate notes that, "jude seems, in manuscript, to have been first called jack…but hardy had on his shelves a copy of charlotte m. young's then standard history of christian names ,and in finally deciding to call his hero jude he was well aware of the ill omen attaching to the name" ( 54-5). in other words, hardy's choice of his characters’ fate seems to be somehow predestined. this predestination of jude and consequently that of sue confirms the hypothesis of this paper that if one can try to give the novel a fresh re-r p. ghasemi, m. keshavarz consolidation of the victorian marriage epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [112] reading, the thematic outcome of jude the obscure might be interpreted differently as well. in the victorian atmosphere of the novel, jude and sue form minority. their ideas about marriage and religion are in open opposition to the dominant ideas of their era. to put it differently, jude and sue are the marginalized individuals; they are the "others". greenblat in renaissance self fashioningstates: we define our identities always in relation to what we are not, and therefore, what we are not "sue and jude" must be demonized and objectified as "others". the mad, the unruly and the alien are internalized "others" which help us to consolidate our identities; their existence is allowed only as evidence of the rightness of established order. (selden 161) accordingly, when sue confesses that she is "a poor wicked woman who is trying to mend" and jude emphasizes that his opinions do not matter, they are condemning their own "otherness" and in this way they confirm what they are not. that is, the dominant discourse which eulogizes the "conventional marriage" is verified ,even if , indirectly by the characters who are supposedly against this kind of marriage. thus, it can be argued that even though jude the obscure has always been discussed as a text against the authority of the victorian marriage (a subversive text), it can also be viewed by the dominant discourse to confirm its own righteousness. in other words, even if hardy aims to criticize the conventional institution of marriage, the outcome of his novel is not necessarily limited to this single interpretation. as binion says, "even a work of creative genius may convey a message other than its author intended. to tease arguments out of fiction can be tricky" (679). that is, although hardy, as it is generally believed, has meant to criticize the status quo of his time, his text may not merely convey criticism. it is jude who says, "…the time was not ripe for us. our ideas were fifty years too soon to be any good to us. and so the resistance they met with brought reaction in her, and recklessness and ruin to me!"(355;pt.6,ch.10). it seems that hardy is conveying something different from what we have already read in the critics' notions mentioned above. is he not p. ghasemi, m. keshavarz consolidation of the victorian marriage epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [113] implicitly encouraging the readers to surrender to the status quo because "the time [is] not ripe" yet"? widdowson believes, thomas hardy has been produced and reproduced in history in a certain guise and for certain purposes by the dominant cultural apparatuses-not of course ,consciously or conspiratorially, but in the silent and naturalizing process which tirelessly confront us with the images of human life and experience we genuinely believe to be true. (6) therefore, we can conclude that the "hardy" we have known as a critic of "institutional marriage" is not the only "hardy" we may find in jude the obscure. it is evident that the tragic fate of sue and jude can be the example to be used to convince the victorian readers that there is no chance of happiness for those who choose an unconventional marital state. according to bertens, in this foucauldian context, power works through discourses and, like ideology, gives the subject the impression that to comply with its dictates is the natural thing to do and thus a free autonomous decision. it does not need to appear repressive because it effectively turns the subject[the readers of the novel] into its own watchdog. (179) hence, widdowson 's idea seems to be very to the point when he asserts: "modern hardy criticism, then generally reproduces a ‘thomas hardy’ whose lines were drawn early" (43). that is, modern criticism has always told us about the function of hardy as a critic of issues such as education, christianity, marriage, women's position, etc. it has already been shown that by sacrificing his pioneer, avant-garde fictional characters, thomas hardy can be potentially and practically, though unconsciously, consolidating the conventional values. in other words, hardy, the victorian individual, is an example for what louis montrose has defined, "i have a complex and substantial stake in sustaining and reproducing the very institutions whose operations i wish to call into question" (bertens 182). actually what finally happens to the two major characters of the novel and the fact that hardy himself is a victorian author (subject) affirms what bertens states: subjects cannot transcend their own time but live and work within the horizons of a culture constructed by ideology, by discourses. the ideological constructions that authors live in, and have internalized p. ghasemi, m. keshavarz consolidation of the victorian marriage epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [114] ,inevitably become part of their work, which is therefore always political and always a vehicle for power. (185) in other words, hardy' s decision in depicting jude and sue as the "wretched" man and the "poor woman" somehow implies that his pioneer characters' daring personalities are finally influenced and fated by the author's victorian "internalized" conventions. it has already been mentioned that jude and sue represent the resisting discourse within the society. it should be added that according to foucault, this resistance is an inward necessity for the dominant system to consolidate its own discourse. based on the necessity that foucault believes in and considering what we have already mentioned, it is justifiable to say that on the one hand hardy intentionally criticizes the conventional marriage .on the other hand, jude the obscure implicitly supports such an institution of marriage. the victorian period is not the suitable time for the unconventional, marginal discourses of marriage. as jude says, "our ideas were fifty years too soon"(355; pt.6, ch.10). it is obvious that hardy is influenced by the dominant discourse of his own time. he has definitely created an intellectual female character (sue) and a nonconformist male character (jude), has brought them together through an unconventional unity and finally has left them defeated because the time is not ripe for their ideas yet. according to virginia woolf, there is always about them [hardy' s novels] a little blur of unconsciousness…it is as if hardy himself were not quite aware of what he did, as if his consciousness held more than he could produce, and he left it for his readers to make out his full meaning and to supplement it from their own existence. (174) it is evident that the victorian readers' experience combined with the tragic conclusion of jude the obscure bring about nothing except social conformity and this conformity is the inevitable impression of the novel on its own contemporary readers even if the impression takes place in their collective unconscious, and argues that renaissance subversion inevitably plays into the hands of power. in fact, power needs subversion and actively produces it: ―subversiveness is the very product of that power and furthers its ends"(bertens181). p. ghasemi, m. keshavarz consolidation of the victorian marriage epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [115] a new historical reading of this novel suggest that jude the obscure can be considered a text which is potentially capable of being appropriated by the dominant discourse in order to consolidate the conventional concept of marriage. it is significant to remember that sue "whose intellect was to mine [jude's] like a star to a benzoline lamp; who saw all my superstitions as cobwebs that she could brush away with a word" (354; pt.6,ch.10) finally returns to phillotson " trying to mend". it is also sue who says ,"i am getting as superstitious as a savage!...i am cowed into submission. i have no more fighting strength left; no more enterprise. i am beaten, beaten!...we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men! i am always saying that now"(303; pt.6,ch.3). to all these regretful statements jude replies, "i feel the same"(304; ibid.). critics like jonathan dollimore and catherine besley argue that the resistance or subversion may indeed be appropriated by authority for its own purpose, but once installed, it can be used against authority as well as used by it" (fardad 6).consequently, one can propose that jude the obscure like any other text has the potentiality of being appropriated by either the subversive or the supportive discourses of the conventional marriage institution because as bertens suggests: literature does not simply reflect relations of power but actively participates in the consolidation and/or construction of discourses and ideologies…literature is not simply a product of history, it also actively makes history. (177) to substantiate this argument, some of the major questions in cultural poetics can be investigated: "what authorial biographical facts are relevant to the text?"; "what kinds of behavior and models of practice do this work seem to reinforce?" and "whose freedom of thought or movement might be constrained implicitly or explicitly by this work?" (bressler226). in dealing with the first question one can refer to hardy 's own marriage which was not a happy one but he remained faithful to the vow until his wife passed away. that is, the conformity has already been practiced by hardy himself. according to butler, "their [hardy and emma gifford's] views of the world were utterly opposed…in the 1890s hardy added an outside staircase to his house, max gate in dorchester, p. ghasemi, m. keshavarz consolidation of the victorian marriage epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [116] so that he could move between his study and the garden without, it was said, encountering emma"(12). it is rather noteworthy to mention that while hardy maintained his own conventional marriage in spite of all the incompatibilities of the couple, he created the characters whose ideas about the victorian marriage were evidently offensive to the readers. nemesvari states: although he [hardy] constantly denied it, there is little doubt that parts of jude the obscure are autobiographical. like his protagonist, as a young man hardy aspired to a university education and possible career as a clergyman, laboriously teaching himself greek in order to read classical dramatists and the new testament in the original. (52) biographically speaking, while hardy himself did not try the unconventional marital state and made a rather tremendous effort to preserve his own traditional marriage, in spite of its seemingly undesirable condition, his fictional counterpart (jude) is allowed to practice an unusual marital affair. the fact that jude and sue are brutally defeated in their unconventional relation convinces us that for the second and the third questions posed by cultural materialists, we can find suitable answers. that is to say, the kind of behavior and models of practice that the novel implicitly reinforces are the ones that hardy himself practiced in his own personal life as a victorian individual. in fact, by preserving his unhappy conventional marriage, hardy escaped the tragic doom of his pioneer fictional characters. it is important to remember sue's remarks, "for a man and woman to live on intimate terms when one feels as i do is adultery, in any circumstances, however legal"(193;pt.4,ch.3); however, when she tells jude, "we must conform!"(303;pt.6,ch.3), "i have thought that i am still his wife!"(304;ibid.) and the fact that she returns to phillotson, may seem somehow confusing for the reader, especially, twenty-first century one! it is, sue who encourages conformity at the expense of losing their romantic union. it seems that for his own self, as a real person, and for sue, as a female intellectual character, thomas hardy finally prescribes "adultery" as a classic deadly sin. moreover, "the freedom of thought and movement" of the marginalized characters (sue and jude) are constrained explicitly by this novel. it is worthy to mention sue's statement again to p. ghasemi, m. keshavarz consolidation of the victorian marriage epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [117] see whose freedom is constrained, "there is no choice. we must conform!...there is no choice. we must" (303;pt.6,ch.3). consequently, jude the obscure does not solely contain the critical discourse of the conventional marriage, as modern criticism has always claimed. it, rather, presents the possibility of a consolidating narrative in which the institution of conventional marriage is reinforced. in other words, hardy, though unconsciously, has created a novel in which the nonconformists are marginalized as "the others" and are finally suppressed by the dominant social discourse that has influenced the mentality of a victorian writer. according to barry, "discourse is not just a way of speaking or writing, but the whole 'mental set' and ideology which enclose the thinking of all members of a given society. it is not singular and monolithic –there is always a multiplicity of discourses"(154). therefore, it is believed that thomas hardy, as a member of the victorian society presents the subject of marriage in jude the obscure in a two dimensional discourse. the first level, which is explicit, seems to be a critical approach to the victorian marriage; the second one, however, the one that is more implicitly provided, is a consolidatory discourse that supports the traditional marriage. although this conclusion might seem contradictory, it reminds us of what widdowson asserts: ―the discourse of the text…has to be accepted as contradictory"(42). p. ghasemi, m. keshavarz consolidation of the victorian marriage epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [118] references abjadian, amrollah. a survey of english literature .2vols.tehran:samt,2002. barry, peter. beginning theory: an introduction to literary and cultural theory. 3 rd .ed. manchester: manchester up,2009. bertens, hans. literary theory: the basics.london:routledge, 2001. binion, rudolph. "fiction as social fantasy: europe's domestic crisis of 1879-1914" journal of social history,27.no.4(1994) 679-99. bressler, charles e. literary criticism: an introduction to theory and practice . 4 th ed.new jersey:pearson prentice hall,2007. butler, lance st john. studying thomas hardy.essex: longman york press,1989. fardad, m. "marlow's heroes: a study of the protagonists of his major plays in the light of new historicism and cultural materialism" ma thesis .allameh tabatabi u,1995. frawley, maria. english literature in context. ed. paul poplawski. cambridge: cambridge up,2008. gill, richard. mastering english literature.3 rd ed. hampshire: palgrave macmillan, 2006. ingham, patricia. introduction. jude the obscure. by thomas hardy. oxford: oxford up,2002. lawrence, karen, betsy seifter and lois ratner. the macgraw hill guide to english literature. 2vols.new york:1985. lodge, david and nigel wood, eds. modern criticism and theory: a reader.2 nd ed. new york: pearson education,inc.,2000. p. ghasemi, m. keshavarz consolidation of the victorian marriage epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [119] matz, aaron. "terminal satire and jude the obscure" elh ;summer 2006;73,2; proquest central.519-547. nemesvari, richard. "appropriating the word: jude the obscure as subversive apocrypha." victorian review 19(1993):48-66. stevenson, lionel. ed. victorian fiction: a guide to research .london: oxford up, 1964. selden, raman and peter widdowson. contemporary literary theory .london: harvester wheatsheaf ,1993. vance, norman. introduction. jude the obscure. by thomas hardy. london: wordsworth classics,1993. widdowson, peter. hardy in history: a study in literary sociology. london: routledge,1989. williams, raymond. "thomas hardy." the nineteenth –century novel: a critical reader .ed. stephen regan. london: routledge ,2001.363—73. woolf, virginia. "the novels of thomas hardy." victorian literature modern essays in criticism .ed. austin wright. london: oxford up,1961.172-81. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 theory of parental investment: “mothers are the most important" sabina alispahić * enedina hasanbegović anić  dženita tuce  abstract the theory of evolution inevitably directs our thoughts towards classical darwinist concept of the natural selection competition for survival of the fittest. however, darwin was trying to explain that a process of evolution is much more than that. actually survival without reproduction means genetical cul de sac (blind road). looking from evolutional perspective, there is nothing more important than reproduction and parenthood. therefore, by considering earlier evolutionary concepts robert trievers (trievers, 1972) was among the first authors who described basic reproductive differences between sexes in his theory parents' investment. sexual selection is in a very gist of darwin's theory. understanding differences between women and men in their parent's investment has facilitated a start of human reproduction psychology studies. reproduction task could be divided into two phases: finding an appropriate partner and raising descendants till their maturity. men invest more energy in a first phase, while women invest more in a second one. as parent's resources are limited, it is necessary that they invest wisely into their descendants, because if they don't survive and don't spawn invested resources were from evolution point of view wasted. this paper will analyze some of these questions by considering parents’ investment theory and earlier studies on the theory of evolution. keywords: theory of parental investment, robert trievers and evolutionary psychology * corresponding author: sabina alispahić; assist. prof. university of sarajevo, faculty of philosophy, department of psychology bosnia-herzegovina; e-mail: binci85@gmail.com; djenita.tuce@gmail.com  corresponding author: enedina hasanbegović anić, assist. prof. university of sarajevo, faculty of philosophy, department of psychology bosnia-herzegovina; e-mail: binci85@gmail.com; djenita.tuce@gmail.com  corresponding author: dženita tuce, senior assist. university of sarajevo, faculty of philosophy, department of psychology bosnia-herzegovina; e-mail: binci85@gmail.com; djenita.tuce@gmail.com mailto:binci85@gmail.com mailto:djenita.tuce@gmail.com mailto:binci85@gmail.com mailto:djenita.tuce@gmail.com mailto:binci85@gmail.com mailto:djenita.tuce@gmail.com s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [163] human reproduction and transmission of gens according to geary (2005), for most of the species males invest more into reproduction process (typical competition for access to fertile females) than into parenthood, while females invest more into parenthood than reproduction process (andersson, 1994; darwin 1871), although some exceptions could be found (reynolds & szekely, 1997). obviously the more descendants there are more grandchildren people will consequently have. every descendant will inherit half of our genes, while every grandchild will inherit a quarter of it. genetic properties that assist men and women to transmit their gens to their descendants are not identical. strategy that was proven to be effective for men might be counterproductive for women. girls will get genes that will help them to be successful in a reproduction process, while boys will get a different combination of gens that helped their fathers and grandfathers in the past. sexual reproduction is not necessary. there are different ways of reproduction that do not necessary demand fusion of gametes of two persons. for paragenetic species mating is not necessary. with some north american lizards all living units are females and they can get descendants directly. during one mating season they produce about ten non fertilized eggs, which transmit 100% of their mothers dna (ficher, 1993, according to campbell 2002). described strategy has a couple of advantages. those females do not waste time and energy on finding a partner, they do not expose themselves to predators during a sexual act. they show no need to impress opposite sex by being attractive and the most important and they do not divide their genetic inheritance to 50%. that last issue paradoxically has become an advantage in a coupling process. sexual reproduction creates new and unique individuals and that fact has 3 important implications. first, as all descendants are different from their parents, brothers and sisters, they occupy different environmental niches and because of that, present less competition for their relatives. that increases chances that some of them will survive local dangers, such as sudden climate changes. second implication is that every descendant with its unique genotype has a unique immune system. attack of parasites could be lethal for some units from the hatch while some others will survive it. additional advantage of sexual reproduction is genetic recovery. for instance, dna normally consists of ranges of four nucleotides c, g, t and a. if a mistake happens-cgx, best way to find out what should s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [164] stand instead of x is to examine second unit in range on a complementary dna. that will not help us if that second unit comes from the same genetic line as a first one, since there is a good chance that it will have the same genetic deviation. in sexual reproduction, cellular enzym mechanism consults appropriate order on dna branch of another nonrelated parent and corrects the deviation (william 1996; campbell 2002). therefore, it is better to have two parents than just one. question that comes up is what is a role of an ovule and a spermatozoid? an ovule is about million times bigger than a spermatozoid, and much more expensive to produce. beside dna code located in a nucleus, ovule also transmits metabolic mechanisms and nutritional substances for zygote's supply during the period before attachment of a thin cell colony onto uterus and provision of its own supplies through placenta. spermatozoid is little more than nucleus that contains dna with a tail helping it finding a free genetical ride to the ovule. question is why both parents do not give an equal contribution to a zygote formation? multicellular algae reproduce themselves in that way. each alga releases cells into water where they mix with other algal cells and form a second generation of complex algae. what is needed for basic sexual reproduction are organisms capable of emission of haploid gametes (those that have half of adult chromosomes) which can couple with gamete of another organism in order to form a sustainable zygote (cambell, 2002). a story of sperm and ovule evolution starts with the same scenario. gametes must accomplish two goals; find a partner and form a wellsupplied zygote (low, 2000). little gametes handle the first task much better. spermatozoids are cheap for production, light and mobile. big gametes will fulfill the second task better. ovules carry nutritional substances that are essential for zygote survival. middle sized gametes have none of those advantages and because of that, they lose on both. once a process of anisogamy begins (size division between ovule and sperm) gap between them could only become bigger. sperms that are better designed for fast movement while carrying minimum fuel will overcome bigger and slower sperms. ovules that contain more nutritional substances and are better in saving energy will survive longer, form stronger zygotes and be more numerous than thinner and more active ovules (low, 2000). theory of parent's investment s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [165] robert trievers (1972; according trivers, 2006) was the first author who described basic reproductive differences between sexes. he named it parents' investment and defined it as "every investment made by parents into a descendant that increases its chances for survival (and also for reproduction), at the cost of parent's investment in another descendant." what this definition is trying to explain is that parents' investment is every investment of resources, time and care for a descendant which helps him or her to survive, and at the same time giving an accent on a fact that what is invested in one descendant (food for example) could not be invested in any other. therefore it is impossible for any parent to have unlimited number of descendants. parents' investment is absolutely a main subject of all evolutional analysis of gender differences. parents invest into their children (descendants) directly and indirectly (qvarstrom & price, 2001; according to geary, 2005). indirect investment is genetic inheritance, although quality of that investment often varies, depending on parents (savalli & fox 1998;, according to geary 2005). direct investment implies food and protection (clutton-brock, 1991, according to geary 2005). for highly social breeds direct investment could also include assistance in a process of positioning in a social hierarchy and also in development of social and communication skills. more time and efforts an individual spends on his children, less descendants he will have. this simple rule is explaining a difference between quantity and quality of descendants. animals that follow rule of quantity were defined as r-selected kinds. insects lay thousands of eggs, but they invest very little time and efforts into their descendants. instead, they produce more and more new eggs. k-selected kinds like primates give birth to one single baby; they feed and protect it for a couple of years. some animals, like cats, are somewhere in the middle, they give birth to a couple of babies (descendants), provide them with milk and care for some time. conclusion is that in any case it is about an exchange. more time we dedicate to a single child, less time we would have to create other offspring. it seems that r-k distinction stands for both men and women. minimal biological reproduction price is higher for women than for men. every month about 20 ovary follicles prepare oocytes for possible ejection. one of them wins in a selection process and matures and then meiosis process begins. after that, ovum goes to an oviduct. in the meantime, uterus endometrium must be ready to accept fertilized ovum, even if fertilization doesn't happen, which is usually the case). those two processes are so long lasting and expensive in terms of s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [166] calories, as it will take about 14 days (half of menstrual cycle) for them to get completed. if a pregnancy happens, woman's body will be occupied with it for the next nine months. after child's birth, breastfeeding requires even more calories than it was necessary for pregnancy maintenance (almost double of calories than normal nutritious input) and in a context of our evolutional adjustment, process would be continued for up to next four years. for every mother, every child means huge investment of time, energy and certainly emotions. let us compare it with a minimum male's investment. man could ejaculate a couple of times in a day. fact is that a number of spermatozoids will decrease with every intercourse, from high number of 300 million in a first intercourse to 30 million of spermatozoids after couple of hours. however, only one spermatozoid is needed for pregnancy in an appropriate time and place. after he gallantly donated his sperm, every further male's contribution is voluntary and not biologically binding. there is no need of being a mathematical genius to calculate that in an optimal condition a man could create as many descendants in a day that a woman would need a couple of years. psychological differences between males and females originate from a fact that female biological investment is higher than male investment. still, it is important to emphasize that a key element that defines those differences is parent’s investment and not manhood or womanhood per se (cambell, 2002). in our kind, a woman is the one who invests more, but with some animal species like teleost fish, father invests more, which is a result of reproduction mechanisms typical for those fish species (dawkins & carlisle, 1976, according cambell, 2002). however, in human kind, a process of fertilization takes place in a female body where impregnated ovum stays and develops for a couple of weeks of months. although birth control, equal rights and access to information have decreased some gender differences in parent's s investment (in some aspects roles were even switched), modern men and women are still sensitive to different signs, just like their ancestors in an environment of evolutional adjustment. for instance, men around the world wish that their long-term partners are attractive, intelligent and kind. women also want to have attractive, intelligent and kind men for husbands. however, women still assess financial resources as a more important aspect than men do (buss, 1989; feingold, 1992; according to bjorklund & pellegrini, 2002). as a second example, both women and men feel s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [167] jealousy with same passion. however, researches have proven that men get more upset if they think their partner is having an “insignificant” sexual intercourse with another man, than if they think their partner is emotionally (and not sexually) attached to someone else. women show the opposite pattern (buss, larsen, western & semmelroth, 1992). superficially apparent reason for those different reactions is that a man could never be absolutely sure in his fatherhood, since his partner's sexual intercourse with another man poses a serious threat. although women either are not very happy with a possible meaningless intercourse that their partner could have with another woman, bigger threat for them is loss of partner's support and resources, which could happen if their partner gets emotionally attached to another woman (bjorklund & pellergrini, 2002). men and attraction to polygamy an optimal condition for male success in reproduction process is to have access to as many fertile women as possible. if a man stays with a same woman for whole of his life and is being absolutely faithful, he will have as many descendants as his partner is able to give birth to. her intensive investment period with every child will limit his success in a reproduction process. however, life with one single woman has its own advantages; man can provide protection and resources that will increase probability of their offspring’s’ survival. having in mind that proportion between men and women is about 1:1, every man who impregnate more than one women theoretically leaves another man without a partner. that means that men have to compete for their partners, in order to access as many women as possible and be able to create stronger male descendants in several generations (big males have many children, half of them are sons that will inherit their "big genes". small males will have fewer children and therefore fewer sons that will carry "small genes". number of big males is increasing through generations (campbell, 2002). why do men invest at all? knowing advantages of polygamy, it is reasonable to question why would men get attached to one single woman and their common offspring? for some animals, answer is simple: their children would die without care from both parents. for some bird species, it is necessary that s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [168] both parents provide food and protection to their offspring. in that case male does not have another choice. he could have thousands of partners, but if none of them is able to raise their gentry by herself, his reproduction success would be worthless. because of that patrimonial care for those birds’ species is typical and mandated (westneat and sherman, 1993). however, it is not the case with most mammals. single parent could raise his children with more or less success, which makes male's abandonment an attractive option. why then some male still stay? important factor is if and to what extent patrimonial care increases probability survival of children. does father's presence increase chances that his offspring will experience maturity? although father could offer a great advantage for children (increased resources and physical protection), fact is that majority of children could survive without father's presence. on the other side, there is an agreement that a mother's loss is much more serious than loss of father. another powerful factor related to father's investment is doubt in fatherhood. trend is very clear: higher the doubt male's willingness to invest time and energy into offspring is getting lower. with the human kind, internal insemination and unclear time of ovulation does not contribute to a phenomenon of doubt in fatherhood. when an insemination takes place inside woman's body, man could never be sure that his own sperm inseminated her ovule. since exact time of ovulation is not known, male never knows whether he donated his sperm at the "right" time. couple of researches have proved that fathers, more than mothers, decide on their investment into posterity based on their perception of resemblance between father and a child. (apicella & marlowe 2004; burch & gallup 2000; plater, burch, panyavin, wasserman & gallup 2002; plater et al. 2004; according to geary, 2008), although results on a question of newborn and small kids' taking after their fathers more than mothers were not completely clear (chistenfeld & hill 1995, mclain i al. 2000; according to geary, 2008). some other evidence has indicated that men even before they became fathers are having similar preferences. doubt in fatherhood is not unjustified. when male investment is mandated a female will not risk her gentry by committing adultery. however with human kind, where woman is able to raise her children by s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [169] herself there is always a challenge for women to find another partner who will offer resources and provide better genes than the other partner, but will not invest into her gentry. studies on blood types of newborns have shown that between 5-30% of newborns did not have a same blood type as their fathers (bellis and baker, 1990 according to campbell, 2002). hence, men will rather invest into offspring if they are relatively sure that it is their own. this certainty could be increased by "protecting" a partner. if a man stays with a woman through her entire menstrual cycle preventing her from dating with other men he could be pretty sure that it is he who is responsible for her pregnancy. however, it usually takes a couple of unprotected cycles before a pregnancy happens and pregnancy itself is not visible for first couple of weeks, that fact ties a man to a longer period of monogamy. it brings us to the third factor of parents' investment – female behavior. knowing advantages of father's presence for mother and the price that father pays, women have developed several strategies in order to "force" men to invest exclusively into their gentry. those strategies were increased incentives for monogamy or increased cost of polygamy. according to bjorklund & pellegini (2002), in the past women were forced to develop "political" skills, in order to hide their sexual interest for other men from their partner. male's response on suspicion of adultery could be violent and even if female's adultery doesn't lead to aggression, it often leads to a divorce that was through history and still is more harmful for woman and children than it is for man (fisher, 1992). in addition to that, there is limited evidence that women could better control their sexual excitement than men do (cerny, 1978; rosen, 1973) and strong evidence that women could better control their emotional expressions, although it is well known that women express their emotion much more than men do. women as picky investors in most of modern societies, people expect mothers to love and care about all her descendants equally. however, studies in both modern and traditional societies have proved that those social expectations often were not met. several factors, including mother’s and child's characteristics, as well as environment they live in, afect quantity of mother's investment into her children. different level of mother's care for different descendants has its evolutional explanation. mothers would invest the most into those kids that have the best chances to experience their s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [170] reproductive age and transmit mother's genes on a next generation (bjorklund & pellegrini, 2002). after a conception, from biological point of view man's investment is over and he is free to go into new expeditions. however women are, unlike men, specialists for quality and quantity. their investment is not limited on couple of moments of pleasure. they have to live with its consequences for years and have limited number of descendants. first of all, woman needs to insure that her body has good chances to keep a pregnancy. also, she has to select carefully which man she will allow to do a free genetic ride into her parental investment. there are two ways by which woman's body could make such a choice; hidden time of ovulation and giving an advantage in a conception process to a man who is healthy and attractive (campbell, 2002). function of a hidden ovulation has always fascinated evolution scientists. while females of many primate species are showing physical signs of sexual attraction and fertility (for example swelling of genitals), women do not show any of those sexual signals. not just that men could not know the exact time of their partners ovulation even majority of women do not know it either (bjorklund & pellegrini, 2002). it has been speculated that one of the functions of the hidden ovulation is to mislead women themselves. if our forefathers would have known the exact time of ovulation and if they would have been familiar with a pain and death related to a delivery, they could have used abstinence as a powerful contraception method (burley, 1979; according to campbell 2002). another useful function of hidden ovulation could be decrease of level of aggressiveness between males and also toward females. if everyone would have known when female is fertile, when all their attention and competition would be directed on that single female and therefore number of injuries would be high. however, more obvious consequence of hidden ovulation is that it is forming a doubt in fatherhood. that is bringing us to two opposite hypothesis. first advantage of that doubt in fatherhood is that it is a way of promoting monogamy. man had to keep his partner for longer period of time (in order to prevent a possible adultery). however, hidden ovulation also allowed women with multiple partners to deceive every of them by convincing them about their fathering and in that way providing resources for their descendants. interesting question is why men haven't found a way to disable women strategy by detecting ovulation. in that s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [171] way, they could have improved their reproduction success (campbell, 2002). woman would have to asses carefully not just physical characteristics of a potential father of her children (is he healthy, strong and fertile?), but also his access to resources (is he rich, if he has high social status or does he have some other way to support his family?) but also a probability that he will invest his resources into their common offspring. on the other side, men are less worried for resources of their future partner, they care more about her genetic eligibility (is she healthy?) and her ability to conceive, give birth and care about their child (clutton-brock, 1991; trivers, 1972, 1985, according to bjorklund & pellegrini, 2002). even after a sexual intercourse, women have methods to control whether a conception will or will not happen. only 60% of fertilized ovum will be successful in a process of implementation into uterus. about 60% will not survive longer than 12 th day of pregnancy and women will get either normal or more voluminous period. about 20% of those fertilized eggs that have survived past the 12 th day of pregnancy will be aborted during a first trimester of pregnancy (baker, 1996). even when a pregnancy happens, woman could still decide whether she will keep it, even more, if she will continue to take care of a child, after child birth. decision on keeping a child or waiting for better emotional and financial condition is closely related with mother's age. younger women have longer reproductive career ahead of them and they could afford to wait for the optimal time for pregnancy. financial, personal and interpersonal resources, as well as mother's psychological profile also play an important role in a decision-making process regarding abortion. once baby is accepted by her mother, woman makes commitment for about two decades of care and nurture so it is no surprise that decision about such an investment should be taken very seriously. women as hard investors for a woman, delivery is just a beginning and not the end of story. key factor in securing survival would not be just mother's ability to protect and feed her child, but also to secure her existence as well. without mother, probability of children survival is tragically low. mealey stated that “mother's abandonment means almost certain death for children, while father's departure means reduction of resources” (2000, according to campbell, 2002). breastfeeding was and still is the best predictor for child's survival (hrdy, 1999). in order to feed her baby, mother would s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [172] have to add about 600-700 calories to her daily menu. composition of breast milk is a factor which secured that a mother will always take her child with her. breast milk contains only 3-4% of fat and about 88% of water. in order to keep a newborn on such a light nutrition, mother had to take her baby with her all the time and feed it several times a day. breastfeeding would bring benefits to both mother and a baby. for mother it has secured optimal age difference between her kids, as it stopped ovulation. for the baby breastfeeding was providing not just an optimal combination of nutritional substances, but also immunity defense. for both, breastfeeding develops pleasant touch and mutual love. apart from breastfeeding, men are equally capable to satisfy children needs as women are. why they do not care about their kids as much as mothers do, especially in cases when fatherhood is unquestionable and both parents are employed, remains unclear. sarah hrdy (1999) believes that a reason for that is a small and probably inbred difference in parent’s reactions. researchers were asking parents to listen to two recordings of children cry (stallings and sur 1997, according to campbell 2002). on the first recording was a cry of a hungry baby, while on second was more soul-stirring cry of a baby that was to be circumcised. after listening, researches were following their reactions and hormonal changes that mothers and fathers had. while both reacted the same way to painful baby cry, mothers have demonstrated more sympathy for cry of a hungry baby. hrdy explains that above mentioned difference is also present in a real life. when baby cries, mother reacts little faster than father does. father decides that he will not interfere, as the baby has already calmed down and at that point baby develops a bit stronger cohesion with her mother than before. shortly after, baby shows different preference toward her mother and father gets ejected out of the story (to his liking or not). however, for men there is an additional evolutional force that does not allow them larger involvement in kids care. namely, human newborns demonstrate more fears in presence of unknown men than women (greenberg and coworkers, 1977, according to campbell, 2002). maybe the most critical factor for importance of motherhood is a nature of male's reproduction strategy. even in officially monogamy societies, men have more pre-marital and adulterine relationships than women (daly & wilson 1988; fisher 1993; according to campbell, 2002). more often than women, men decide to divorce, and after that they usually get s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [173] re-married and have children with other women. just one out of six divorced fathers keeps regular contacts with his children, while half of divorced fathers do not pay any financial support for sustainment of their children. sometimes men decide to abandon their families, while in some other cases they get abandoned, as they are not capable to provide sufficient financial or emotional support to their families. after father's departure, most mothers continue to raise their children alone, or in some cases, they find another woman (often their mother to help them in that (campbell, 2002). for all those reasons, nature has awarded special relation between a mother and a child. fathers contribute to child's security in their own way. a good father could improve child's social and economic future (although good fathers usually connect with good mothers, therefore obvious advantages of their kids are more result of good choice of a partner, rather than their direct investment into parenthood (geary, 2008). mothers know that it is worth to have a good partner and therefore they compete for high-quality fathers. however, through our evolutional history, mothers were, through child's perspective always the most important while fathers were considered as useful add-on. references baker, r. 1996. sperm wars. london: fourth estate. bjorklund, d. f. & pellegrini, a. d. 2002. the origins of human nature: evolutionary developmental psychology. washington, dc, us: american psychological association. buss, d. m., larsen, r. j., westen, d., & semmelroth, j. 1992. “sex differences in jealousy: evolution, physiology, and psychology.” psychological science, 3: 251-255. campbell, a. 2002. “mothers matter most: women and parental investment.” in a mind of her own. the evolutionary psychology of women (34-64). oxford university press. geary, d. c. 2005. “evolution of paternal investment. in d. m. buss (ed.). the evolutionary psychology handbook (pp. 483-505). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. geary, d. c. 2008. “evolution of fatherhood.” in c. a. salmon & t. k. shackelford (eds.), family relationships. an evolutionary perspective (pp. 115145). oxford university press. hrdy, s. b. 1999. mother nature: natural selection and the female of the species. london: chatto and windus. s. alispahic, et.al. theory of parental investment: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [174] low, b. s. 2000. why sex matters: a darwinian look at human behavior. princeton, nj: princeton university press. trivers, r. l. 2006. “parental investment and sexual selection.” in b. campbell (ed.). sexual selection and the descent of man: the darwinian pivot (pp. 136-189). new brunswick, new yersey: transaction publishers. westneat, d. f. and sherman, p. w. 1993. “parentage and the evolution of parental behavior.” behavioral ecology, 4, pp. 66–77. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?%5fencoding=utf8&sort=relevancerank&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=bernard%20campbell http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?%5fencoding=utf8&sort=relevancerank&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=bernard%20campbell http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?%5fencoding=utf8&sort=relevancerank&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=bernard%20campbell epiphany_new_version_12oct.indd 9 vol. 14 no. 1, 2021 debates on turkey’s soft power in the austrian public discourse ružica čubela bajramović şule dursun-akdeniz abstract: this paper provides a brief overview of turkey’s soft power in austria through the example of the faith-based public diplomacy institution ati̇b (avusturya türkiye i̇slam birliği‚ türkisch-islamische union in österreich), a branch of the presidency of religious affairs of turkey (diyanet i̇şleri başkanlığı). it addresses the significance of ati̇b with regard to the religious and cultural needs of the turkish muslim community in austria and the negative perceptions of turkey’s soft power strategy in this country. the paper also focuses on the current challenges faced by the ati̇b, as well as by austria’s muslim community in general, as a result of the law on islam that was adopted in 2015 (islamgesetz 2015) and the accompanying discussions around muslim associations financed from abroad. the research design is primarily based on a critical discourse analysis of political and academic debates about the ati̇b, the 2015 islam law, and their catalyzing effect on islamophobia in austria. keywords: soft power, public diplomacy, diyanet, ati̇b, turkey, austria, islamophobia 1 ružica čubela, phd candidate in international relations. she graduated at university of vienna in cultural and social anthropology, with a specialization in migration and integration. currently she is scientific and commercial manager at bildungsverein – offene gesellschaft. previously she served as university lecturer in croatia and bosnia and herzegovina. she published in the area of migration and nationalism. e-mail: ruzica.cubela@ gmail.com. şule dursun-akdeniz, earned her doctoral degree in islamic religious education at the university of vienna. besides her activity as islamic teacher of religion at public and vocational schools and as researcher in the study quranic schools in austria she teaches kindergarten pedagogues in the subject of islamic religion. her research interests are: islamic religious education, interreligious dialogue and religious beliefs of muslims with turkish provenance. e-mail: dursun_sule@hotmail.com. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies debates on turkey’s soft power ...debates on turkey’s soft power ...ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz 1110 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies due to the large numbers of muslims in austria3, the public discourse is also focused on the integration of the muslim population in europe, and islamophobic incidents including discrimination against muslims in the areas of employment, education, and religious practices. as we can see from the ‘anti-muslim racism report’ for 2020, anti-muslim hate crimes and islamophobic incidents in austria rose by a third over the course of the reporting period, from 2019 to 2020 (antimuslimischer rassismus report, 2020). in recent years, origin-oriented religious institutions have also featured more and more frequently in the austrian public discourse. defined for the purposes of this research as origin-oriented institution we understand associations that are initiated by diaspora living in austria or foreign state organized associations manly for promoting culture, language and religion of the country of origin. among the most prominent and controversial of those currently operating in austria, noteworthy examples include islamische föderation (if) and österreichisch-türkische föderation (atf) – avusturya türk federasyonu (addendum, 2020, may 18). in this context, the turkish faith-based institution ati̇b is of particular interest, due to its important role in the turkish state’s expanding soft-power approach to foreign policy. the following paper takes a closer look at the origin-oriented faith based public diplomacy institution ati̇b (avusturya türkiye i̇slam birliği‚ türkisch-islamische union in österreich), a branch of the turkish presidency of religious affairs (diyanet i̇şleri başkanlığı) — hereinafter referred to as diyanet. the aim of this paper is not to deal with political developments in turkey, but to explain the backlash against turkey’s soft power in austria, the allegations against the ati̇b, and the challenges faced by turkish muslims in the country since 2015, when the islam law ignited a new wave of public discussions and restrictions (islamgesetz 2015). before starting with the core content of the paper, it is necessary to explain the theoretical concept of soft power and its main instrument, public diplomacy (nye 2004, 2011). 3 according to the research report ‘muslim diversity a compass on everyday religious practice in austria’ from 2017, around 202.901 muslims have austrian citizenship, and 114.119 muslims have turkish citizenship. muslims in austria with turkish migration background are the biggest muslim group in austria followed by the muslims from bosnia and herzegovina (50.995) former yugoslavia (21.419) and macedonia (14.722) (aslan et al., 2017, 25-29) introduction after the first coup of the freedom party in austria (fpö) in 1999, which was preceded by an anti-foreigner (and especially anti-muslim) campaign and followed by the 9/11 attacks, islamophobia in austria intensified (hafez, 2010). muslim immigrants in particular continued to be a focus of political debates, where islam was represented and stereotyped as incompatible with european values in the public discourse (wets, 2006). due to the long historical presence of islam in europe which has been expanded considerably by recent migrations, the discussions also focus on the outstanding features of islam, as basam tibi emphasizes: “[t]he problem is not the number of muslim people living in europe, but rather what islam is coming to europe. is it european islam, enlightened islam compatible and consonant with the civilizational identity of europe, or is it shari’a-islam? this is the real issue and this is what the future of europe is all about.” (tibi, 2008, 71). the content of the debates held in public space varies in regard to the topics encompassed and the conclusions commonly reached. particularly since the phenomenon of radicalization associated with the islamic religion has become an increasingly tangible element of public discourse in austria, the breadth of these debates has widened. we can see this, for example, in the response of the former interior minister, herbert kickl (freedom party of austria), to the decision to declare the headscarf ban in elementary schools unconstitutional: “in its decision on the headscarf ban, the constitutional court seems to have forgotten for which type of state the constitution, the guardian of which it is intended to be, was written namely for a democratic constitutional state, in which fundamental and freedom rights are guaranteed, and not for an islamic republic” (freiheitlicher parlamentsklub – fpö, 2020, december 11).2 2 translated by the author. debates on turkey’s soft power ...debates on turkey’s soft power ...ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz 1312 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies ments. therefore, it is said that “soft power […] is hard to use, easy to lose, and costly to re-establish” (nye, 2011, 83f). additionally, brannagan & giulianotti (2018, 1140) identify the phenomenon of “soft disempowerment” which refers to the potential “unintended and weakening consequences” which can result from soft power strategies. they go on to explain that soft disempowerment commonly arises from three practices: “contravening international laws and rules,” “failing to uphold international conventions or standards on global development,” and acting in ways that are perceived to “have direct and negative impacts on other individual nations or communities of nations” (ibd., 1152ff). whereas soft power is an attempt to wield “attraction” in foreign policy, soft disempowerment describes the effects of “unattractiveness,” due to actions that are considered unacceptable, on the perceptions of nations in foreign countries (ibd., 1152). cultural activities which promote the foreign policy interests of a state by building a positive image (hubinger, 2006: 85; pajtnika, 2014, 100) fall under the domain of cultural diplomacy and soft power. apart from promoting the culture and identity of the nation in question, other activities aim to disseminate cultural values and encourage public engagement, such as the negotiation of treaties on cultural cooperation, and the maintenance of ties with expatriate communities (pajtnika, 2014, 95, 103f). cummings (2003, 1) sees cultural diplomacy as an exchange of aspects of culture among nations and their people to achieve a better understanding among states. in order to experience benefits from cultural diplomacy, it is necessary to engender attraction through public diplomacy, which is regarded as one of the key instruments of soft power (melissen, 2005, 4). it is the “government’s process of communicating with foreign publics in an attempt to bring about understanding for its nation’s ideas and ideals, its institutions and culture, as well as its national goals and policies.” (tuch, 1990, 3). along with communicating information and promoting a positive image, public diplomacy aims at building long-term relationships to create a conducive environment for government policies (nye, 2011: 105). some authors do not believe that public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy are one in the same, but nevertheless consider public diplomacy an important soft power and public diplomacy the term soft power is also known as the ‘other face of power’, and as ‘power by attraction.’ it is recognized for its potential to shape the preferences or actions of other countries through benignity (how an agent relates to others), brilliance (how an agent does things to produce admiration or respect), and beauty (agent’s relations to ideals, visions and values) (nye, 2004, x, 5; nye, 2011, 92; vuving, 2009, 8ff). states usually use power to achieve political goals (nye 2011: 81). in contrast to hard power, which relies on the subsidiaries of military power (threat or force) and economic power (payments and sanctions), soft power’s primary currencies are culture, values, policies, and institutions (nye, 2004, 31; nye, 2011, 84). despite criticisms that question soft power’s relevance and its clarity and utility as a theoretical concept (fan, 2008; hocking, 2005; pells, 1997), nye claims that it is actually hard power which is declining in popularity and relevance. this is largely, nye argues, due to the mounting expenses, both financial and social, which are accrued not only through the use of force itself, but also through the measures required for its justification and popular support (nye, 2004, 19f). in the absence of force, soft power can be a source of attraction promoted by governments or non-profit organizations (ibd., 17, 122). according to the author: “it is possible to get many desired outcomes without having much tangible power over others. for example, some loyal catholics may follow the pope’s teaching on capital punishment not because of a threat of excommunication but out of respect for his moral authority. or some radical muslim fundamentalists may be attracted to support osama bin laden’s actions not because of payments or threats, but because they believe in the legitimacy of his objectives.” (ibd., 2). however, an oft-noted weakness of soft power is its difficult and time-consuming implementation into government strategy. furthermore, the instruments of soft-power are such that it cannot be entirely controlled by governdebates on turkey’s soft power ...debates on turkey’s soft power ...ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz 1514 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies tool for the dissemination and exchange of culture and values between one country and the general public abroad (pajtnika, 2014, 101). these efforts can easily be dismissed as an attempt to manipulate of foreign populations (melissen, 2005, 11). public diplomacy targets the general public, non-official groups, individuals, and organizations abroad (ibd., 5) in order to engage with the foreign audience and establish long term relationships (ibd., 21). there are three important dimensions of public diplomacy function to create a conducive environment for government policies: daily communication, strategic communication, and the development of lasting relationships (nye, 2011, 105). as nye observes, the “effectiveness of public diplomacy is measured by minds changed” (ibid., 107). in this respect, several activities must be undertaken in order to influence the public opinion of another state through establishing a positive perception of one country. one of the first examples of a public diplomacy institution is the alliance française, founded in 1883, which sought to popularize french culture and language as well as to restore national prestige after the franco-prussian war abroad (nye, 2004, 102). other noteworthy examples of public diplomacy institutions include the german goethe institute, which promotes german language and culture worldwide (goethe institut, n.d.); the british council, which also works closely with the british foreign ministry to promote the english language and international relations (british council, n.d.); and the austrian agency for international cooperation in education and research, which is an advocate of international cooperation in education, science, and research and owned by the republic of austria (oead, 2021, september 2). faith-based institutions have also become increasingly active in public diplomacy. because religions are often transnational in nature, they have particular potential to transcend national boundaries to promote certain cultures and values. if we start from a broader understanding of culture as a set of practices and values which create meaning for society (nye 2004: 11), religion can be used as a “subject and medium” of cultural diplomacy (lenozowski, 2009, 82, 87) or a cultural element of soft power (golan 2018). examining several transnational religious actors, including roman catholics, american evangelical protestants, the organization of the islamic conference, haynes (2016, 5) came to the conclusion that each actor seeks to use […] ‘religious soft power’ to advance their interests […] all wish to see the spread and development of certain values and norms, which impact on international security and order.” emergence of the muslim religious community in austria the diplomatic relations between austria and turkey extend back as far as 1574, when the first diplomatic mission of the habsburg monarchy (or danubian monarchy) in constantinople was recorded. in 1791, the first ottoman embassy was opened in vienna. with the annexation of bosnia and herzegovina by the “danubian monarchy,” legalized under international law in 1908, the islamic religion has had a long historical presence on austrian territory. to institutionalize islam within the state, austria-hungary issued a law on islam in 1912, pertaining to the recognition and rights of those in the country who were followers of islam.4 one of the outcomes of this law was that the adherents of islam were granted official recognition as a religious community,5 which was unique in western europe at the time. in 1932, the islamic cultural federation (islamischer kulturbund) was established to unite the muslims in austria, including prominent converts (windhanger, 2008, 33f). it was later dissolved by the nazi regime in 1938, after which the 1912 law on islam was largely forgotten until the end of world war ii. since austria needed workers to rebuild the country after the destruction of the second world war, the government began negotiating bilateral agreements with foreign countries to facilitate reconstruction. turkey and austria signed the first agreement on labor recruitment (anwerbeabkommen) in 1969 which enabled ‘guest workers’ (gastarbeiter) to come 4 the basis of the austrian legal framework concerning religious societies is freedom of religion guaranteed in the austrian constitution as well as the guarantee of freedom of religion and conscience found in the basic law on the general rights of nationals (“staatsgrundgesetz”) of 1867 and the law on recognition of religious societies (“anerkennungsgesetz für religionsgesellschaften”) of 1874. (bundeskanzleramt 2019) 5 stggstaatsgrundgesetz basic law of 21 december 1867 on the general rights of nationals in the kingdoms and länder represented in the council of the realm, rgbl. nr. 142/1867. debates on turkey’s soft power ...debates on turkey’s soft power ...ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz 1716 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies to austria from turkey. as a result of the labor migration, the number of muslims in austria, especially those from turkey and ex-yugoslavia, grew significantly during the 1960s. by 1974, approximately 31.270 turkish immigrants had arrived in austria (lichtenberger, 2000). the majority of those workers stayed in the country and were later joined by their families through the process of family reunification. the substantial number of turkish immigrants coming to work and live in austria created a growing demand for organizations which would represent the muslim faith. the islamic law of 1912, which remained in oblivion after the collapse of the monarchy, was rediscovered in the national library by the bosnian scholar smail balić. he and other muslim intellectuals saw it as a basis for the creation of a religious community in austria. together with the association of muslim social service, which was working on religious issues and the provision of humanitarian aid, they campaigned for an appropriate legal framework for incorporating austria’s muslim community (strobl, 1997, 29; sticker, 2008, 3). in 1971, the association applied for approval to establish a religious community based on the islam law from 1912, which resulted in the establishment of the islamic faith community of austria (ifcaislamic faith community in austria or iggiöislamische glaubensgemeinschaft in österreich). it was recognized as a public law corporation (grabherr et al., 2019, 40) responsible for the official administration of religious affairs and the implementation of islamic religious education (ire) in public schools (iggö, n.d.). today, the ifca claims to represent all muslims living in austria (hafez, 2013, 230), however, not all muslim communities are represented in the ifca’s high council. still the ifca has the privilege of playing the role of mediator on issues of government cooperation, thereby limiting the consultation between other muslim communities and the state. the former ifca president, fuat sanac, was heavily criticized for approving the islam law 2015 (grabherr et al., 2019: 42; ortadoğu, 2013,176; stricker, 2008, 9). the faith-based public diplomacy institution atib and its critics the turkish state was increasingly apprehensive of the growing number of non-governmental turkish-islamic associations in austria, e.g. österreichtürkische förderation (atf), union islamischer kulturzentren (uikz) and islamische föderation (if), and their influence “in the islamic religious field” (hafez, 2006, 70; hafez, 2013, 230). for this reason, it established the faith-based public diplomacy institution ati̇b in 1990, as a branch of the turkish diyanet6 (bauer, 2016, 23; grabherr et al., 2019, 40; kroissenbrunner, 2001, 23). this institution soon rose to become the largest7 mosque association of turkish muslims in austria (bauer, 2016, 23f). according to the mission statement of diyanet in turkey, it is a particular concern that its branches abroad “protect muslims from assimilation, strengthen their national identity, and promote integration in their new living space” (diyanet i̇şleri başkanlığı, n.d.). like other diyanet-linked organizations in europe, ati̇b claims to represent ‘turkish islam,’ which is portrayed as compatible with modernity and democracy (çitak, 2013, 177). up until the 2015 islam law (islamgesetz 2015) was passed in austria, the chairman of the ati̇b was always a diplomat from the turkish embassy. additionally, the roughly sixty imams in the ati̇b mosques were sent from turkey as employees of the presidency of religious affairs (bauer, 2016, 24; grabherr et al., 2019, 40). the imams based their work and preaching on legal opinions (fatwas) of the presidency of religious affairs. like in turkey, ati̇b promotes the hanafi8 school of law, one of the four most widespread schools of sunni islamic law. because the hanafi school had also shaped the muslim community of bosnia and herzegovina, it was also the body of law that had been recognized by the islam law of 1912 (grabherr et al., 2019, 41).9 however, ati̇b’s associations didn’t take part in ifca until 2011. one reason for this is the nature of the relationship between state and religion in austria. the internal, self-determined structure of the ifca is defined in its constitution, which contains, among other things, the so-called ‘one-third rule,’ which is heavily criticized by the ati̇b. this clause lays out provisions which regulate the linguistic and ethnic composition of the ifca bodies. 6 diyanet itself was established in turkey in 1924 and is today subordinated directly to the presidency (grabherr et al., 2019, 40) 7 around 75.000 members and around 60 sub-associations (bauer, 2016, 23f). 8 the hanafi school is one of the four schools of law in jurisprudence within sunni islam. it uses reason, logic, opinion, analogy, and preference in the formulation of laws and is distinguished from the other schools through its relatively liberal doctrines (oxford islamic studies online, n.d.). 9 the austrian constitutional court declared this as unconstitutional and the restriction of rights to members of the hanafi school of law was lifted (orf, 2020, september 15) debates on turkey’s soft power ...debates on turkey’s soft power ...ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz 1918 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the ifca community committee consists of nine members, at least half of whom are supposed to have austrian citizenship, and not more than a third of whom may belong to a different ethnic and linguistic group (grabherr et. al, 2019, 42; stricker, 2008, 9; iggö, n.d.). although various austrian institutions accepted the special status of ati̇b as a part of turkish diplomacy, the organization is often considered to be too close to akp (adalet ve kalkınma partisi) government. in its early years, ati̇b was perceived as being oriented against conservative islamic associations. later, however, there was an emerging consensus that the akp had begun to infiltrate the diyanet leadership with party supporters and to assert its influence, both in turkey and among the diaspora, with a conservative interpretation of islam (grabherr et al. 2016, 42f). according to çitak, the turkish government is trying to establish a sort of religious monopoly, in order to promote turkish islam and consolidate national unity among the turkish diaspora. this is in stark contrast to the ambitions of other governments in europe to create ‘european islam’ (çitak, 2013, 169). aslan claims that due to its size, ati̇b has many members in the ifca steering committee which is believed to enable it to expand its influence on muslim and turkish communities in austria (arslan, 2015; aslan et al., 2017). he attributes the high level of participation of austrian turks in the 2015 and 2018 elections to the influence of ati̇b (aslan, 2018, 2f). the attempted coup d’état in turkey in 2016 was met by widespread public condemnation of the gülen movement and calls to boycott the institutions of its members. this in turn has led to indignation by austrian party officials, and the initiation of proceedings to investigate whether the imams of diyanet are agents of the turkish government (aslan, 2018, 8). another trigger for a public debate about the ati̇b was an event in 2018, when uniformed children in a vienna mosque belonging to the ati̇b re-enacted the 1915/1916 battle of gallipoli (çanakkale savaşı) (wiener zeitung, 2018, april 20). although the akp is accused of using religion and nationalism as foreign policy tools (ipek, 2015; ozturk, 2016; ozturk, 2018; ozturk and sozeri, 2018), islamophobia researcher and political scientist hafez claims that the akp has no real religious base. until recently, it consisted of various political movements such as the milli görüs, the gülen movement, the sufi squad, and others. there are also factions within the party which, while nationalistic, are not religiously conservative or associated with political islam (hafez, 2017, february 27). according to muhasilovic (2020, 103ff), turkey’s faith-based diplomacy under the akp differs from western models by using the presidency of religious affairs as the official public diplomacy state institution. however, this has created suspicion around the party’s political influence in austria, and as nye (2004) points out, no country likes to feel manipulated, even by soft power. grabherr et al. (2016, 42f) write that the political developments in turkey do not necessarily have to be reflected in main features of the ati̇b in austria, and that all ati̇b functionaries cannot be automatically assumed to have close connections with the akp. the ati̇b itself repeatedly emphasizes its apolitical status and insists that it does not tolerate politics of any party in its associations. in 2017, ati̇b publicly distanced itself from some positions of the turkish government and for the first time, a non-diplomat was elected chairman. the changing law for muslims (islamgesetz 2015) in austria and islamophobia on the rise parallel to the discussions about the turkish public diplomacy intuition ati̇b in austria, the debate around changing the law on islam from 1912 began in the austrian public and parliament. in 2015, a new islam law was enacted, under the pretext of preventing foreign political and theological influences, as well as to promote an understanding of islam based on austrian and european values. the main regulation of federal law on the external legal relationships of islamic religious societies in the 2015 islam law concerned the legal status of islamic religious societies, including their structure, rights, and obligations, as well as their relations with the austrian state. among these societies are the islamic community in austria and the islamic alevi community. among other things, the 2015 islam law also regulates important issues like the protection of the religion’s name, pastoral care, islamic teleological studies, islamic graveyards, regulation on the interdiction of foreign financing, dietary rules, and the presentation of teachings and sources of faith in the german language (ris, 23.04.2020; federal chancellery, n.d.). however, the most important intention of the law is to train imams in austria (§6 and §24 islam law 2015). another noteworthy regulation places emphasis on a positive general attitude towards society and the state (§11.3 islam law). it is also important to keep in mind that “teachings, institutions and customs are not allowed to contradict statutory rules” and that, in that case, the recognition can be taken debates on turkey’s soft power ...debates on turkey’s soft power ...ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz 2120 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies back (ris, 23.04.2020; federal chancellery, n.d.). this was, among other things, a direct attack on the public diplomacy intuition ati̇b, who would no longer be allowed to receive funding from turkey, and whose imams employed in austria would be denied any extension of their residency permits. in 2021, an initiative started to change the 2015 islam law, which was launched as a part of an anti-terror package. suggesting tighter legislation, the main amendments proposed by the reforms would introduce better control of funding sources of islamic religious societies, an easier process for the closing down of mosques and religious community centers, and means of accessing precise information about which imam is preaching were. this would give the office of churches and religions more control over the ifca (religion orf.at 2021). the amendment passed the austrian national parliament and is currently being discussed by the federal council (republik österreich parlament, n.d.). the efforts to tighten the 2015 islam law, in conjunction with public debates and political discourse accompanying this decision, indicate growing levels of islamophobia in austrian society. this has been galvanized considerably through the new discussions about the proposed amendment. as demonstrated in a 2018 study on islamophobia, conducted by the university of salzburg, hostility towards muslims in austria has increased substantially in recent years. 70% of austrian citizens think that islam does not fit into the western world, and the majority of austrians support stricter regulations on the practice of islam. additionally, 45% of respondents reported that they were in favor of denying muslims certain rights.10 when we take into account that, according to data from 2016, 700.000 muslims live and pay taxes in austria, a number that has consistently trended upwards (wolfgang aschauer, n.d.) the attitudes of the general population towards muslims and islam become an even more delicate issue. numerous examples of these trends can be observed in the political discourse of prominent austrian politicians surrounding the public diplomacy institute ati̇b and the 2015 islam law and its proposed amendment. before the law was implemented for example, mp mag. ewald stadler (alliance for the future of austria, bzö) posed an inquiry (parlamentarische 10the study was conducted with 1.200 respondents, about the opinion of muslims in austria. materialien, n.d.) to the austrian parliament in 2011, arguing that the last ifca elections represented an agenda of turkish domination through lobbying by the ati̇b. he went on to criticize ati̇b representative mr. bozkus his statements that ati̇b “is not an association dealing with integration,” that the “german language does not in itself represent integration,” and that austrian policy needed to be assigned greater “responsibility when it meets integration.” furthermore, he complains about the fact that prayers in ati̇b mosques are still performed in turkish and that there is no german version of the ati̇b homepage. he also points out that bozkus works as a religious official of a foreign state ministry. by comparing mp stadler’s representation of bozkus’ statements with the original interview which boskuz gave in the austrian newspaper ‘die presse’ (kocina, 2011, june 3), we are able to conclude that these quotes were taken out of context. based on these allegations, mp stadler questions the islam law of 1912 and asks the minister for european and international affairs 21 more questions in this parliamentary debate. these questions are primarily related to the reform of that law, examining whether the ifca is pursuing the agendas of private associations. he also questions whether there are grounds for the existence of ati̇b, as a state body of turkey, in austria. we can clearly observe here how the suspicion of the ati̇b and of ifca itself is based on the decontextualized statements of the ati̇b representative and the victory of ati̇b within the ifca elections. furthermore, these arguments are used to mobilize support for the initiative to amend the islam law of 1912 by the mp. in light of the fact that the ati̇b only joined the ifca in 2011, these statements can be understood as expressions of fear regarding the ati̇b’s level of influence in the ifca, as well as an outgrowth of competition among austria’s radical right-wing parties and islamophobic campaigns11 (hafez, 2018, 8). it is not only austrian politicians who catalyze debates around foreign influence in the country. the turkish president, recep tayyip erdoğan, said at a 2014 pre-election campaign event in austria for example that “turks in europe are the grandchildren of sultan suleyman the magnificent,” and proclaimed “you can be proud of this turkey” (herger, 2014, june 19). 11the mp’s party, alliance for the future of austria, came about through the break with the with the radical right austrian freedom party (fpö). debates on turkey’s soft power ...debates on turkey’s soft power ...ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz 2322 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies such rhetoric provides ample opportunity for right-wing parties in austria, who are eager to manipulate such statements to imply the impossibility of turkish integration due to turkish nationalism, or a supposed loyalty to turkey which supersedes their austrian patriotism. similarly, such rhetoric fuels accusations that the ati̇b is involved in turkish elections. a related discourse is embodied by the statements of the former austrian minister of integration, sebastian kurz (austrian people’s party, övp). at the time of the implementation of the islam law 2015, he repeatedly emphasized the need for an islam with “austrian characteristics” (dietrich, 2015, september 22). in a later statement, he claimed that “parallel society, political islam and radicalization have no place in our country.” and that the law would be a “step against political islam” (deutsche welle, 2018, june 8). from his statements, we can affirm the discursive construction of an ‘austrian islam,’ with ‘austrian characteristics’ and under the control of the austrian state. this ‘austrian islam’ is represented as the ‘good islam,’ and juxtaposed to ‘bad islam,’ manifested in muslim associations founded abroad. his framing has the potential to incite islamophobia in austrian society by suggesting the latter organizations have radicalizing potential and should be held under general suspicion. this is also an example how turkey’s soft power efforts are dismissed as an attempt to manipulate austrian population. after the implementation of the 2015 islam law, an ati̇b spokesman criticizes the quick implementation of the financing of the imams from abroad, stating “we have demanded that we have at least three to five years of transition, with which we can also pay off the imams from turkey. now we have to pay the imams ourselves and financially that is a big challenge for the individual associations.” (auerbach, 2017, april 5).12 considering that other religious communities, such as the russian orthodox church for example, are allowed to be financed from abroad (dietrich, 2015, september 22), the provision in the 2015 islam law which bans muslim associations from accepting foreign funds also constitutes discrimination against muslim religious associations. on the other hand, the spokesman expressed enthusiasm for the day when 12translated by the author. austrian-educated imams are in office, because “the children understand the turkish language less and less, it is important that they understand what is being preached. and it is important to us that the imams also receive an excellent german education.” (auerbach, 2017, april 5).13 his moderate attitude, in the end, may be connected to the fact that, apart being an ati̇b spokesperson, he was also a politician of the austrian people’s party. the fact remains that the new islam law came into force in 2015, and the education of imams in austria began in the autumn of 2018. the portrayal of all muslims in austria as a potential danger is accompanied by acts such as when the minister of integration, susane rab, (austrian people’s party) recently presented a “state map of islam,” which identified mosques and organizations, the names of their leaders, and their international connections (orf 2 27.05.2021). this was heavily criticized by, among others, the austrian catholic church (derstandard, 2021, june 1) and is reminiscent of a dark past in austria. according to hafez (2010), right-wing parties see the topic of integration and political islam as an opportunity to collect political points. this precipitates distrust and hostility towards muslims and islam and has an impact on the perceptions and feelings of the country’s muslims. in the 2012 study ‘muslims in austria,’ the authors conclude that six out of ten muslims felt that they were (at least temporarily) disadvantaged in austria because of their religion (bauer, 2016, 38). constitutional lawyers strongly criticize the islam law 2015 for violating the principle of equality by discriminatory treatment of muslims relative to other religious communities (ibd, 2016, 4), who, for example, are not subject to financial prohibitions in austria (orf, 2014, october 3). the law has also been characterized by one islamic legal scholar as “somewhat excessive legislation that may also violate the european convention on human rights,” and as driven by the “basic political direction of a great skepticism about islam” (deutsche welle, 2018, june 8). hafez sees the new restrictions as “institutionalized islamophobia,” (hafez, 2017, february 27) and criticizes the common stereotyping of muslims as disloyal to the state (hafez, 2014, november 3). integration politics have proven highly controversial in austria. when it 13 translated by the author. debates on turkey’s soft power ...debates on turkey’s soft power ...ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz 2524 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies comes to immigrant integration, religion is also heavily politicized. the initiatives are largely driven by the concern that islam is a potential political problem and is incompatible with western society. the loyalty and values of muslim citizens, who view themselves as europeans, are regularly questioned (shakir, 2017, 191). it is important to bear in mind the fact that as the austrian model of religious governance is changing, origin-oriented faith-based muslim minority organizations will become even more relevant. if the state does not succeed in facilitating sustainable integration into society, migrants will turn to those organizations in pursuit of their rights, and these organizations will offer them a social network. the aim of the austrian government should be to promote equality and integration in austria, while seeking a balance between assimilation and cultural imperialism (nye, 2011, 87). this could be done in cooperation with those associations as well as faith-based public diplomacy institutions. in the words of nye: “soft power need not to be a zero-sum game in which one country’s gain is necessarily another country’s loss” (ibd., 2011, 90). conclusion since the second world war, the number of muslim migrants arriving to live and work in austria has continue to rise, creating a need for organized religious representation. in 1990, the turkish faith-based public diplomacy institution ati̇b was established in austria, as a branch of the turkish presidency of religious affairs, diyanet. with over 60 turkish imams in austria, ati̇b was tasked with attending to the religious needs of the turkish diaspora. over the past two decades, as the conservative akp party has consolidated power in turkey, suspicions that the ati̇b is being used as an instrument of the akp agenda have sparked heated debates in austrian politics. however, the implementation of the new islam law in 2015 led to significant changes in the ati̇b’s operations. they are no longer allowed to employ imams from turkey, or to receive foreign funding. these restrictions have resulted in financial difficulties for the institution as well as upended the lives of turkish imams working in austria. the extent to which these restrictions are justified by any concrete effort on the part of the turkish government to instrumentalize the ati̇b as a part of a malign foreign policy agenda remains a subject of political controversy. the debates engendered by this controversy have inevitably exacerbated underlying islamophobia in austrian society, which calls for extensive monitoring. the present research has employed critical discourse analysis to demonstrate the link between the debate surrounding the public diplomacy institution ati̇b, the 2015 islam law, and growing islamophobia in austrian society. by examining the statements of austrian officials, it becomes clear that constructions of islam as a political threat and incompatible with european values is an enormous aspect of the debates around faith-based public diplomacy institutions, religious restrictions, and integration policy. the politics and policies of ‘restriction,’ the politicization of islam in the context of migration issues, and the portrayal of muslim migrants as disloyal or a political threat to the austrian state are all damaging practices by which politicians in austria galvanize islamophobic sentiment. going forward, policy makers should understand the potential of their rhetoric and efforts to tighten restrictions on muslim communities to intensify islamophobia. to this end, the present research has identified problems that should guide policy makers dealing with issues of integration in cooperation with migrants’ associations and faith-based institutions. austrian decision makers should involve representatives of all major associations in the decision-making process given that these associations are not all equally represented in the ifca. greater exchange between government officials involved in integration policy and representatives of muslim communities in austria is an essential part of this process. in dealing with contentious issues such as radicalization and foreign influence, cooperation between these two sectors is especially vital in order to avoid fomenting islamophobia or resentment and ensure an equitable policy towards migrants and minorities in austrian society. finally, in regards to soft power, this paper has shown that turkey’s public diplomacy strategy as embodied in the ati̇b in austria, is an example of “soft disempowerment.” the actual turkish government has acquired a largely negative reputation in western countries like austria, despite its expansive faith-based public diplomacy efforts like the ati̇b. the assumed close ties between the ati̇b and the ruling akp party have engendered suspicion in austrian society that this supposedly cultural and religious institution is actually pursuing a turkish political agenda in austria. this suspicion in turn generates fear of foreign influence in austrian politics, and more specifically, distrust and negative perceptions of the turkish state, as evidenced by the discourse analysis presented in this article. debates on turkey’s soft power ...debates on turkey’s soft power ...ružica čubela bajramović & sule dursun-akdeniz ružica čubela bajramović & sule 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(2018, april 20). atib kinderaufmarsch könnte system haben. wiener zeitung online. https://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/politik/wien-politik/959721-kinderaufmarsch-koennte-system-haben.html. wolfgang aschauer. (n.d.). einstellungen zu muslimen in österreich –ergebnisse des sozialen survey 2018. https://aussda.at/fileadmin/user_upload/p_aussda/documents/einstellung_zu_muslimen_in_oesterreich.pdfintroduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 religious ideology and motivation of action: a study of nature of action in t. s. eliot’s “murder in the cathedral” golbarg khorsand * abstract the aim of the present study is to re-establish the status of archbishop becket as a standard tragic hero of a religious play written by t. s. eliot. various critics have denounced the characterization of archbishop becket as a proper tragic hero, claiming that the entire process of the plot is devoid of „dramatic action‟, which is considered the backbone of any drama. in this paper the author has tried to illuminate on a renewed definition of „dramatic action‟ and consequently prove that the performance and actions of archbishop becket are, in fact, a process of mental action which nevertheless arrive the character to the definitive destination of all other dramatic heroes, i.e. a tragic death. keywords: tragic hero, dramatic action, murder in the cathedral, mental action and t. s. eliot * corresponding author: golbarg khorsand; phd candidate shiraz university, department of english literature, shiraz, iran; e-mail: golbarg_cm@yahoo.com mailto:golbarg_cm@yahoo.com g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [129] what do we expect of a play? what is it that creates our sense of enjoyment of a play? what is it that conjures up the main part of our literal and logical satisfaction of it? is it the plot of the play, the characterization or the conclusion? who is a real hero of a drama? what are his characteristics? the answer to each of these questions has been long debated. it has also varied through ages. in twentieth century, for instance, the focal axis of a drama has shifted from plot to characterization. plots are becoming simpler or even bare; on the other hand, the characters started to have more obscurity and have become a challenge to the mind of the reader. these abstract concepts find their meaning when we talk of them in the context of a particular play. “murder in the cathedral” is a play by t. s. eliot which, similar to a host of his other writings, has as its subject matter a christian topic. quoting ranji singh writing in his book “tennyson and t. s. eliot”, “the basic plot structure appears to be derived from the ritual form of ancient tragedy” (2005, 114). among the play‟s themes are conflict of spiritual and secular power and relation of church and the state. but these themes are subordinated to another underlying theme; that of martyrdom. as gardner points out in her book “the art of t. s. eliot”, “the central theme of the play is martyrdom and martyrdom in its strict, ancient sense.” (1968, 133) since its publication in 1935, the play has been the subject of controversy among critics. hugh some of criticism has been devoted to illuminate its merits and demerits. some have called it “the finest dramatic verse that has been written” (gardner, 1968, 127). still the same author has accused it of failing in affecting the audience and also of incorporating uninteresting and unconvincing characterization. john peter, in his essay titled “murder in the cathedral”, objects to “eliot‟s handling of his psychological and his religious content” (1962, 155). the most underlying defect that critics ascribe to it is the play‟s void of action. they argue that the protagonist of the play is not a man of common errors; rather he is a superman in that no earthly subject can affect him and that he is above temptation. a review of aristotle‟s concept of character reminds us that there are two views concerning this definition. the first one, which is also the most prevalent one, is the definition of character as the “dramatic personage”. but the second and the more important definition is, as tilak mentions in g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [130] his book “history and principle of literary criticism”, “the bent or tendency or habit of mind which can be revealed only in what a dramatic personage says [italic is mine] or does” (1992, 67). what we must not ignore here is that according to aristotle, what a character says is equally as important as what s/he does. a good example of this kind can be found in the character of archbishop becket who has been said to have departed from the prevailing qualities of a „dramatic hero‟. we should bear this point in mind that, as pearce mentions in his book “t. s. eliot” , “becket is one of those persons whom eliot sees as possessing special spiritual insight” (1967, 143). therefore, it is only his “spiritual insight” and not his super powers or extraordinary qualities that enable becket to go through the process of evolution as we find in the play. thus, by so recognizing becket as the appropriate protagonist of a religious play, we can further justify his dramatic actions. in his book “secondary worlds”, auden notes “he [archbishop becket] is preeminently one of those cases of martyrdom over which the question of motivedid he die for the truth or out of spiritual pride and ambition? must rise. this is, from the religious point of view, the most crucial point.” (1967, 23). this paper tries to focus on the miscellaneous aspects of action in both its physical or psychological sense, and to demonstrate how these mental actions have their roots in an ideology which is the backbone of all that is observed in the play. to do so requires us to go slightly beyond the established and acknowledged definition of action and also to keep this pivotal fact in mind that “it is the end which a character desires” and that “characters become actual only when the agent has a definite „end‟ in view and initiates a movement [and not an action] to achieve his end” (tilak, 68). thus while reading the play, we should keep ourselves in accordance and harmony with becket‟s ideology and his „end‟; otherwise we would lose a great share of our enjoyment of it. the play starts with the chorus of women of canterbury mourning and lamenting due to an unknown reason. rajni singh, describes the chorus as apprehensive and intimidated. he goes on to say “they are the wistful, leaderless women of canterbury calling for spiritual guidance in their half-lived lives” (2005, 109). the words “danger” and “fire” are repeated respectively three and four times in the first six lines which delineate a semantic connotative relation between the two words. the “seven years” since the departure of archbishop could be a summing up of the two g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [131] previously mentioned numbers. therefore the arrival of the archbishop is in a way synonymous with the sense of hazard and insecurity felt by the women. they virtually prognosticate what is going to happen to archbishop when they sing of a “winter” that “shall bring death from the sea” (murder, 2). gradually, the main idea of the play is being revealed in the songs of the chorus where they say that “god shapes the still unshapen” and that “destiny waits in the hands of god, not in the hands if the statesmen” (murder, 2). and finally they assert this fact that “for us, the poor, there is no action, but only to wait and to witness” (murder, 2). from the very beginning, there is a sense of hidden horror rooted deep in the expressions and predictions of the women. as carol smith points out in her book “t. s. eliot‟s dramatic theory and practice”, “the women of canterbury express their desire to maintain the quiet sterility of their humble lives, undisturbed by greatness of any kind…the women are conscious of fear and desire only „peace‟ as they understand it; they do not wish anything to happen” (1967, 92-3). throughout the play, it becomes more evident that the women of canterbury are representation of the basic instinctual part of the archbishop himself. they partly share the fears and agonies that lie ahead for becket. however, in a hierarchy of consciousness, they are placed at the intuitive level. psychologically speaking, they represent that part of the man‟s mind which is known as id; with becket himself being the superego. they merely sense the danger, but they are practically unable of any higher level of interaction with that concept. still the very essence of their role as it is, is a verification of the fact that becket‟s mind is concerned with the upcoming issues even prior to his appearance in the play. even before he enters the play, we see the tumult that his future decisions would create. in fact the songs of the chorus enjoy such high level of effectiveness that helen gardner has ascribed to it “the real drama of the play”: “the real drama of the play is to be found in fact where its greatest poetry liesin the chorus” (1968, 136). in the next line, the three priests enter the play. early in their speech and through their conversation with the messenger, some nuances about the character of archbishop are introduced implicitly. the image of becket g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [132] which is thus created in these lines is that of a proud, fierce and decisive man who is returning in order to win glory, fame and victory. the adjective “proud” is repeatedly ascribed to him; a quality which, according to the first priest, is established as his tragic flaw: “his pride always feeding upon his own virtues” (murder, 3). carol smith has interpreted the reaction of the three priests to the news of arrival of archbishop as follows: the reaction of the three priests to the news of thomas‟s return represents the next step on an ascending scale of awareness of the event‟s meaning…within the group of the priests, there is also hierarchy of understanding. the first priest, knowing his archbishop‟s uncompromising nature, fears thomas‟s return… the second priest affirms his loyalty to the archbishop… he differs from the women in wishing the return, but he does not think beyond the comfort of thomas‟s presence. it is the thirst priest who, of the three, most nearly approaches thomas‟ saintly understanding of the events to come. (1967, 93) next, we see the women of canterbury still mourning; but this time they have a reason: becket‟s return. here also, they function as the instinctual aspect of man that can feel the danger before it occurs. they express their fear which is “not of one but of many” (murder, 4). they warn against a doom that is going to befall on archbishop as well as on the world. following this scene comes the appearance of becket. he immediately embarks on the main idea of the play which he ascribes to the women, ignorant of the fact that these will be repeated back to him later: they know and do not know that acting is suffering and suffering is action. neither does the agent suffer nor the patient acts. but both are fixed in an eternal action, an eternal patience to which all must consent that it may be willed and which all must suffer that they may will it that the pattern may subsist, for the pattern is the action and the suffering, that the wheel may turn and still be forever still. (murder, 5) as t.s. pearce notes in his book “t.s. eliot”, “becket speaks this from a position of superiority over the foolish and doubting women” (1967, g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [133] 144). this part of the play, is particularly worthy of attention. becket, in his ignorance, is expressing his central ideology regarding his future decisions. primarily, the dual theme of the “action” and “suffering” is introduced for the first time to the play. he equates action with suffering and describes both the “agent” and the “patient” as passive practitioners of a prime order. he adds that both of them are “fixed in an eternal action”. it is essential here to note the equation of the two concepts of action and fixation in an ideology like that of becket. for becket, a person‟s actions and decisions are meaningful only when they are part of or imbedded in a higher order of actions and decisions. to him, action is defined as something which finds its significance in history or eternity and is not bound to space-time limitation. in becket‟s reply to the second priest, we can find out that at this stage, his mind is more or less occupied by the political issues. as wyman mentions in her essay “plot of diction”, “he arrives in england glorying in that he has overcome the world and failing to realize that that he must allow himself to be overcome by it, for the glory of god” (1975: 136). we can see that he is conscious of, and able to avoid danger. thus, in the first impression, he is not a “super person” as gardner accuses him “mr. eliot has conceived his hero as a superior person” (1968, 136). before anything, he is an astute politician who is aware of the threats of danger, but his knowledge exists at a higher level than that of the women or the priests. as we would see, this knowledge does not secure him a retreat from danger; rather it will move him forward toward it. next we have the appearance of the first temper. as carol smith points out “the first temper offers thomas a return to the life of sensual pleasure of his youth at court” (1967, 94). this is similar to christ‟s temptation in “paradise regained” by satan which is known as food temptation which is in content similar to the worldly pleasure. in his reply to the offers of the first temper, thomas makes a basic statement worthy of isolation: “only the fool, fixed in his folly, may think he can turn the wheel on which he turns.” (murder, 6) this is a manifestation of the deep-rooted philosophy of becket which comes to surface even in face of the trivial matters. thus, he has prepared himself from the very beginning for his ultimate end which is martyrdom g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [134] in the will of god. but we see that throughout the process of appearance of the tempters there is a gradual maturation in the outlook and consciousness of becket toward his purpose. the first instance happens in the dialogues of the first tempter where he accuses thomas of the sin of pride “your lordship is too proud!” (murder, 6) this slight reference to a particular weakness in character of becket may be only the first step in the process of his gaining awareness and moving toward his final action. the second tempter, to quote smith again, “offers earthly power with which to improve the temporal world and urges thomas to seek power for present good and to leave holiness to the here-after” (1967, 94). this part is similar to another of christ‟s temptation in wilderness which is famous as the power temptation. in his dialogue with the second tempter, thomas appears to be to some extent wavering and indecisive at the beginning. he poses forth six “wh” questions successively: who, what, who, what, what, why. this may be a manifestation of the descending process of his internal conflict which is active at a deeper level in his unconscious mind. with a simple comparison between his dialogue with the first tempter and the second tempters, one can detect the changes that have taken place in the character of becket. with the first tempter, there was no question on the part of thomas, only declarative sentences were used in order to reject the demands of the tempter. but when it comes to the second tempter, as it was mentioned, we see a series of informative questions which point to the fact that becket is mentally or characteristically engaged with the matter at hand. it is as if he is debating the matter with himself. he wishes to convince himself of the fact that such a temptation is essentially rejected. immediately after the questions there come the two “no‟s” as thomas‟s reaction to suggestions of the tempter. but psychologically speaking, these types of disjointed short negative answers are not to be that much relied upon as a definite rejection. again it verifies that becket‟s mind is engaged in the matter to the degree that it sometimes brings him to the verge of moral hesitation. following the early short disjointed refusal of becket come a set of reasons for his rejections. he mentions the “bishops” and “barons” who have been punished by him on the same ground which the tempter is suggesting. but again the point with these reasons is that they are more of the nature of justification rather than reasons, they are closer to a type of excuse rather than moral obligation. g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [135] they are not sufficient per se, rather are more associated with outer references. it is as if thomas is looking for exterior evidences to convince himself. it is only in his final words with the second tempter that he begins to develop a self-oriented justification for his refusal of the tempter‟s offers of earthly power. it is only here that we can see an instance of his real personality. here he stops associating himself with kings and his office and instead finds the divine connections that he values most in himself as the pivotal reason for not accepting suggestions of this kind. his final “no” is totally different from his two previous “no”s and it is followed by the imperative verb commanding as “no! go.” (murder, 7) subsequently comes the third tempter with his offer of “both revenge upon the king and domination for the pope if he [thomas] side with the english barons” (carol smith, 1967, 95). presently, the becket of the third tempter is different from that of the second tempter. he holds the upper hand from the beginning of their conversation by telling the tempter that he has been expecting him. it has also been interpreted as another point of similarity between christ and becket in the sense that both of them had three tempters in the similar condition. becket‟s sentences are now short and commanding in nature. he asks no more questions that he did from the previous tempter. his questions are, on the contrary, more ironical and teasing than interrogative. thus, we can see that he is gradually moving toward a more developed self and is building upon his final determination. but it still has to be done. notice becket‟s final words with the third tempter: “to make, then break, this thought has come before, the desperate exercise of failing power samson in gaza did no more. but if i break, i must break myself alone.” (murder, 8) carol smith has noticed a sense of “willing destruction” on the part of becket in these lines; something that would not be overcome until the appearance of the fourth tempter. she goes on to say that the archbishop thus reveals the contradiction in his thinking. he thinks that he is rejecting the temptation of willing “action” by removing himself from the act of vengeance or of seeking power, but his statement reveals that by “willing” his own destruction he is committing an g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [136] act incompatible with making his will complaint with god‟s (1967, 95). but as it was mentioned earlier, we should note that becket is going through a process of maturation and development of his religious identity. his full grown character is not to be completed after the appearance of the fourth tempter and of course after the speech that he makes at the interlude. at this stage, what is important is that becket‟s dialogue with both the second and the third tempters end with a remark on his religious commitments and that he announces himself a subservient to the will of god. this is becket‟s main departure from his earlier flaw of pride which was ascribed to him. in the next step, there comes the fourth tempter who turns out to be a surprise. presently, becket did not expect him “who are you? i expected three visitors, not four” (murder, 8) as carol smith notes what he has to offer is the everlasting glory of martyrdom in the presence of god. in his dialogue with the fourth tempter, becket comes to his final consciousness. having heard his own words addressed to the women of canterbury repeated back to him, becket realizes that what he had been preaching and suggesting has been in fact a willing martyrdom; what he labels later as the “greatest treason”. the fourth tempter in fact uses becket‟s own terms in his plan to beguile him; as becket says “tempting with my own desires?” (murder, 10). he talks of “keys of heaven and hell” and “thread of eternal life and death”. he propagandizes for the “glory after death” and “saint and martyrs who rule from the tomb”. he encourages mammonism and love of worldly glories while he talks of glory “in presence of god”. quoting helen gardner writing in “the art of t.s. eliot”, we would see that “the last temptation is so subtle and interior that no audience can judge whether it was truly overcome or not” (1986, 134). following the theory of identification of characters, it is strongly possible that we interpret him as a part of as becket‟s unconscious pride, that is why he evades introducing himself. consequently he causes the strongest tumult in becket‟s mind. the noteworthy point regarding this part is becket‟s early g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [137] reply to the tempter where he says “i have thought of these” (murder, 9). becket, like any other human being, is subject to desires of any kind. he has mental disturbances and his mind is constantly struggling with miscellaneous ideas. as a result, he cannot be accused of the crime of being a super hero or super human. he has thought of all these possibilities that have been mentioned by the tempter. his mind is actively engaged throughout the play and he sees himself responsible for his actions. even at certain points, he appears to be desperate and perplexed. he yields in anguish “can i neither act nor suffer without perdition?” also in another part: “is there no way, in my soul‟s sickness, does not lead to damnation in pride?” (murder, 10) in these lines, we can see the image of a man who, in his distress, is struggling to find the truth; a man who is not at any rate certain of his ideas; not to the very last moment. the following lines by chorus and priests reveal the sense of tumult and confusion that is going on in becket‟s mind. “the restless house and streets and feet”, “the heavy and thick air and sky” are allegorical representations of his state of mind and his guilty conscious. it demonstrates a transitory period for becket which is a turning point for his religious and personal development. the following lines are crucial to the play in that they capsulate the on-going process of becket‟s development prior to his transformation from a man who serves his own will to a man serving will of god “a man may walk with a lamp at night, and yet be drowned in a ditch. a man may climb the stair in a day, and slip on a broken step. a man may sit at a meat, and feel the cold in his groin” (murder, 11). the transitory section ends with becket‟s declaration that “now my way is clear, now is the meaning plain”: temptation shall not come in this kind again. the last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason” (murder, 11). as paul gannon mentions in his book “t. s. eliot‟s murder in the cathedral a critical commentary”, “the crux of the problem for g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [138] thomas is to determine once and for all the sincerity of his actions” (1965, 36). here, becket is transforming from a religious man of a set of principles and maxims in mind; determined to observe them, to a servant of god who is determined to actually enact those ideologies and become a part of them. as grover smith mentions becket seems to realize that unless the sufferer refrains from willing to suffer and thus from soiling his hands with his own blood, he cannot be a true martyr. after nearly blundering, becket recognizes that not only the women but he himself must be passive. he must only consent to the divine will, so that he shall suffer and shall become for suffering in others the involuntary agent. both action and suffering comes from god” (1961, 188). thus with becket‟s soliloquy ends part i and we are led to the interlude where he is giving a sermon on christmas morning. regarding the significance of the interlude, it is fitting to agree with wyman on this ground that both the events prior to and events after the interlude, are in one way or another, based structurally and thematically upon that. in his sermon, becket point to the underlying themes of the play as well as to the basic christian ideologies. in the interlude, becket mentions once again that a true martyr does not desire the glory of his action; it is, as pearce mentions “an act of atonement for the inadequacies of this world…he must not make this sacrifice out of a desire for selfglorification” (1967, 143). for becket, it is an act of voluntary selfsacrifice which is carried out, as he mentions later, on pure consent on his side. singh comments on the altered character of becket between the first and the second part as follows; “becket‟s movement from part i through the interlude of the christmas sermon to part ii, shows him losing his will in the will of god” (2005, 118). similar to part i, part ii starts with a soliloquy of chorus lamenting the barren and dried atmosphere of their lives. just as in first part, they have their fears of “the hollow note of death”. but we do see a sense of development in their moral disposition. now they talk of an everlasting peace which is realized in the presence of god. they seem to have come to a sort of understanding of this fact that “lord renews death”. they have apparently come to this notion that in order to avoid a “sour spring, a parched summer, an empty harvest” (murder, 13), they have to give something instead, even if it be their g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [139] dearest and nearest. next come the three priests with their representative emblems of three martyrs and each deliver a speech which serves as the introductory part, enriched with the allusions to becket‟s upcoming death. in this part, we also see the appearance of the four knights who introduce themselves best in their very first sentence which is the counterpart to all the notions that had appeared in the play up to this stage: “servants of the king” (murder, 14). they also evaluate becket on the same false ground where they label him as “his [king‟s] servant, his tool, and his jack” and also ascribe all his “power and honour” to the king. in his first encounter with the knights, becket tries slightly to defend himself against the accusations charged on him by them. in his speech with them, becket uses a witty and ironical language which shows his qualifications as a man of politics as well. in his words, his new personality reveals itself and we can see a man of action who is ready to take any (legal) measure needed for his ultimate purpose. but again, here, we should remember that becket does not wish to do so, because he has dedicated himself to a higher order of what he calls “eternal burden” or “perpetual glory”. occasionally, he uses the “shepherd” symbol; something that verifies his further similarities with the christ figure. regarding the similarities of the two, grover smith explains that “as martyr in part ii, becket is a type of christ, who has suffered temptation before entering upon the drama of action through suffering” (1961, 186). between becket‟s first and second encounter with the knights, there is another of the chorus‟ soliloquies which contains a good many of what grover smith calls as “zoological imageries”. there is also a wide range of allusions to the natural elements which, again quoting smith is a sort of identification of chorus with the cycle of creation, corruption and ruin. it could be an interpretive sign of their final perfection which they demonstrate at the end of the play in their final soliloquy. in his comforting advice to the chorus, becket equates “eternal burden” with “perpetual glory” and asserts that once set against a background of “figure of god‟s purpose”, what may seem suffering to them, is but “a moment”. this is an instance of the thematic dualism which grover smith refers to as the “dualism of eternity and time, duration and flux, spirit and flesh, action by suffering and suffering by action” (1961, 187). g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [140] becket uses this device, once again, under a similar occasion. while arguing with the priests, he attempts to convince them and make them understand that what he is doing does not simply fit into “facts” and “results”; it is only through passage of ages that the significance and meaning of his action reveals itself: it is not in time that my death shall be known; it is out of time that my decision is taken. (murder, 19) in this part and in the lines that follow are capsulated becket‟s ideology, his reasons for his decisions as we see them and his justification for his inaction. primarily, by contrasting the two notions of “in time” and “out of time”, he shows the universality of his decisions. after that, he declares his total submission to the will of god by juxtaposing the two laws of god and that of man. becket sees victory not in fighting with the people who are opposing to him; he rather believes that by the materialization of his ideas and by putting them into action, he has truly overcome his (and alternately god‟s) enemies. to him, the realization of his ideas is of primary significance. and at this stage, his only way to bring about this aim is suffering; of course suffering for an exalted reason. in these lines, becket makes bare his ideology by maintaining that fighting has never been his purpose. while the act of fighting contains physical action as its constituting part, we would find out the reason for becket‟s insistence on his inaction. furthermore, as he proceeds to say in the next line, he rejects resistance of any kind. what he put to practice was an instance of negative resistance. according to singh, “becket stands on a higher ethical plane. he will not have god‟s law lowered to the level of man‟s” (2005, 113). but it is not until his second encounter with the knights that the climax of the play is revealed. finally, the doors are open and the four knights enter the cathedral. this section reveals a good many instances of the resemblance between becket and figure of christ. as carol smith mentions the very act of sacrifice (here enacted as murder) is analogous to christ‟s crucifixion. the two figures are similar in their acceptance of martyrdom as a voluntary act in order to bring about the redemption of mankind. subsequently, as he is being slain, we hear his final words in which he, once again, maintains his ultimate reason: “that of the church”. after the murder, the four knights each directly address the audience in a modern language different from that of their original role in the play. the g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [141] most noteworthy part appears in the speeches of the fourth knight who accuses becket of the crime of egotism. what he talks of as “egotism” or “[his] determination upon a death by martyrdom” is exactly the same mistake that becket himself was about to make. the word “determined” here points to a pre-planned act. in other words, it is that “willing martyrdom” which becket avoided and lost his life in order to escape it. the possible reason for eliot‟s inclusion of the four knights‟ direct addresses to the audience can be the deliberate juxtaposition of the two different set of ideologies. it is possible that eliot intended subtly to draw the attention of the audience to the deeper layer of becket‟s decisions by contrasting it to the motives of the four representative knights who share the common errors of the „common man”( as the chorus calls themselves) in labeling becket‟s deed as “a suicide of unsound mind”. following the four knights‟ addresses, there come the speeches of the three priests whom grover smith has compared respectively to knights, women and becket himself: second priest seems close in spirit to the knights, just as the first priest resembles the women and the third becket himself. the second priest typifies the potential moral strength of the knight‟s immoral practicality. he is not bad; he is only unsaintly… although the third priest grasps the final meaning, he, in turn, does so as a spectator rather than as a participant like the women. (1961, 195) in the final scene of the play, both the priests and the women demonstrate a sign of moral improvement in their speeches. they finally come to an understanding of becket‟s martyrdom. there is no more traces of the priest‟s objection or of chorus‟s lamentation; instead, it has been replaced by praising and acceptance. thus, becket, through his inaction and negative resistance succeed in proving the validity and reliability of his beliefs and ideology to others as well as to himself. as it was observed in the discussion, christian notions of humility and meekness are thoroughly connected with the theme of the play. becket withdraws from his will and consequently from taking any action, only to make a higher order of motives come true. he is in fact above the glories, rewards and motives of this kind. he definitely is a man of action, but the g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [142] point is that he views action in a larger scope; he sees it in a background of non-material motives and divine will. as grover smith points out, in an ideology like that of becket, “only god‟s will can be the criterion of right and wrong action and suffering…those who consent with the will of god are as god” (1961, 189). having such manner of religious ideology in mind, we would have a clearer image of what it meant for a man like becket to withdraw from acting and move toward inaction and suffering. it would be helpful here to quote few sentences of joseph chiari on the nature and necessity of his action, written in his book “t. s. eliot poet and dramatist”: the action of the play is neither carried out by the main character nor does it grow linearly in time; it is a cumulative form of action, or-should one rather saya progressive dawning of light or illumination which reinforces upon becket the significance and necessity of his death… .(1972, 122). most importantly, we should not forget that this is not an utterly passive choice resulting from his impotencies. the fact is that, a deep mental process of action is going on in the mind of the protagonist. the evidences can be found among the lines of chorus, pleas of priests and suggestions of tempters. all these three factors are, in fact, a constituting part of becket‟s mental interactions. if eliot conceived his character as a super man or super hero who is independent of the external elements and who is indifferent to outer context of the society, he need not incorporate any of the elements as he did and we would not have the play as it is today. thus, it is almost out of question that each character has his/her own particular role in the process of creation of the dramatic action as well as dramatic outcome of the play. according to singh “the tempters are nothing but the external concretion of the inward state of mind” (2005, 115). as for the chorus, chiari mentions that “the chorus mirrors the hesitation of becket‟s mind” (1972, 121). that becket withdraws from physical action and suffers instead, is the final consequence of a series of decisions and observations which, songs of chorus, advices of the priests, suggestions of the tempter and even the threats of knights are all parts of. thus, we can see that becket‟s refusal to act is not synonymous with the patterns of inaction as suggested by some critics; it is rather a deep pondering on one of the most serious ideological and ethical issues. as g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [143] grover smith puts it “becket recognizes that…he must be passive. he must only consent to the divine will…both action and suffering come from god..” (1961, 188). in such a case we should consider becket‟s deeds in a larger context of ideology that form the background to the protagonist; both in its historical and dramatic terms. to return to aristotle again, it would be of great help to consider his views on the significance of choice. as tilak puts it in his book before making their respective „choices‟, they [characters] will deliberate. and their deliberation may be expressed in their speeches…such speeches are a form of action; they reveal the inward movement toward the choice which the character ultimately makes. the movement or action is there, only it is internal and will ultimately be externalized. such internal movements can be action in the dramatic sense…(1992, 69). similarly, singh, too, believes that “the play at once becomes a tragedy of inward conflicts and inward actions” (2005, 115). this could, indeed, be all we need to apply to “murder in the cathedral” and becket as its protagonist in order to have a full understanding and appreciation of the play. what ultimately happens to him is a product of internal conflicts with his death being only an external manifestation of that. going back again to tilak, we could borrow this helpful note from his book in which he asserts this fact that by and large modern dramatists aim at probing the more hidden recesses of human being in the sense that their plays enjoys less physical than mental engagements. this could be fully applied to a play as “murder in the cathedral” and more fully to an author like eliot known for his subtle and witty language. references auden, wystan hugh. 1967. “the martyr as dramatic hero.” secondary worlds. london: faber and faber. chiari, joseph. 1972. “the plays.” t. s. eliot poet and dramatist. london: clarke doble & brendon ltd. eliot, thomas stearn. 1967. the complete plays of t. s. eliot. new york: harcourt, brace and world. g. khorsand religious ideology and motivation of action: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [144] gannon, paul. 1965. “detailed analysis of murder in the cathedral.” t. s. eliot’s murder in the cathedral a critical commentary. new york: simon & schster. gardner, helen. 1968. “the language of drama.” the art of t. s. eliot. london: lows and brydone ltd. pearce, t. s. 1967. t. s. eliot. london, evans brothers limited. peter, john. 1962. “murder in the cathedral.” t. s. eliot a collection of critical essays. ed. hugh kenner. englewood cliffs, new jersy: prentice-hall, inc. singh, rajni. 2005. “treatment of history in tennyson and t. s. eliot.” tennyson and t. s. eliot: a comparative study. new delhi: sarup & sons. smith, carol h. 1967. “the rock and murder in the cathedral.” t. s. eliot’s dramatic theory and practice. princeton, new jersey: princeton university press. smith, grover. 1956. “action and suffering: murder in the cathedral.” t. s. eliot’s poetry and plays. chicago, illinois: the university of chicago press. tilak, raghukul. 1992. “greek criticism: aristotle.” history and principles of literary criticism. new delhi: rama brothers. wyman, linda. 1970. the plot of diction. modern drama. 13. epiphany_new_version_11oct.indd nejla kalajdžisalihović on inclusive language usage by speakers of english... 77 vol. 14 no.1, 202176 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies on inclusive language usage by speakers of english as a foreign language nejla kalajdžisalihović abstract: the paper discusses language changes in contemporary english with regard to recently introduced inclusive expressions and challenges pertaining to activating their usage. the aim of the paper is to illustrate strategies that students use to activate inclusive language and politically correct vocabulary in english as a foreign language and to discuss whether the lexico-grammatical structures may reveal more about difficulties in activating inclusive vocabulary. for students of english as a foreign language, or even speakers whose l1 is english, what may cause certain problems in activating inclusive language is not only the question of being unsure about the correct expression but also being unsure about the syntactic and semantic structure of inclusive forms or expressions. in terms of the lexico-grammatical structures, it is proposed that inclusive language acquisition needs more attention in the future for speakers of english as a foreign language. keywords: inclusive language usage, politically correct language, contemporary english, vocabulary acquisition. nejla kalajdžisalihović is assistant professor at the department of english language and literature, faculty of philosophy, university of sarajevo. she has delivered lectures abroad as a guest lecturer (matej bel university, university of warsaw, university of skopje) and in bosnia-herzegovina (faculty of traffic and communications, university of sarajevo and faculty of metallurgy and technology, university of zenica). her scholarly research interests include psycholinguistics, contemporary english, english for aviation and forensic linguistics. e-mail: nejlak@gmail.com. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction the present paper is concerned with inclusive language usage in contemporary english as understanding how language changes as times change may be crucial for an academic or business setting. this topic can be studied from various points of view and using different theoretical frameworks. however, the focus of this paper casts light on some aspects of the usage of inclusive language by students whose l1 is not english. in order to address the issue of language production in relation to inclusive language and political correctness, the theoretical framework of the present paper will include references to slobin’s language and thought online–cognitive consequences of linguistic relativity (1987), pinker’s the stuff of thought– language as a window into human nature (2008), burridge’s euphemism and language change–the sixth and seven ages (2012), and teaching politically correct language (tsehelska, 2006). the research also revolves around the claim that cognition plays a dynamic role within the framework of linguistic expression as we are constantly involved in preparing, producing, and interpreting verbal messages (slobin, 1987). in terms of language production, it is important to mention a quote by burridge by which she concludes her research on euphemism and the word formation processes claiming that “modern speakers of english share with their ancestors a profound respect for the close relationship between word and meaning and this remains a powerful motive for language change” (burridge, 2012, p. 89). for that reason and in terms of political correctness and inclusive language, it will also be observed how one fits one’s thoughts into “available linguistic forms” (see slobin, 2003; traxler & gernsbacher, 2006). according to slobin and in relation to linguistic expression, “a more codable expression is more accessible in psycholinguistic terms—that is, it is short, and/or high frequency, and generally part of a small set of options in a paradigm or small set of items” (slobin, 2003, p. 435). in the case of inclusive language acquisition and activation, it is proposed in the present paper that, regardless of instruction or awareness about language change in terms of political correctness and inclusive vocabulary activation, students studying english as a foreign language will face difficulties with regard to activating inclusive pronouns, nouns and adjectives. nejla kalajdžisalihović nejla kalajdžisalihović on inclusive language usage by speakers of english...on inclusive language usage by speakers of english... 7978 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies on inclusive language usage — theoretical background in some cases, even speakers whose l1 is english, as previously mentioned, may be confused about a novel usage as is the case with the term cat’s eyes, now replaced by road studs (nsubuga, 2017). also, the definition of euphemism as “the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant” (merriam-webster, 2021) becomes problematic if learners of english do not recognize what may be offensive or what has become offensive recently. furthermore, it should be mentioned that some attempts to apply inclusive language are considered unlikely to be accepted by speakers of english such as a replacement or change of the word genius, for instance, which is also listed among the words said to carry assumptions of gender inequality, class and ethnicity (see sellgren, 2017). on the other hand, the word forefathers is likely to be semantically shifted to ancestors just like a snowman is likely to be semantically shifted to snowpal. this is, perhaps, not due to a lack of awareness pertaining to political correctness but due to a lack of an accessible linguistic form, a noun in this case. of course, it would be impossible to list all the issues in the present paper as there are numerous examples and hot debates in newspaper articles and blogs on euphemism, language change and political correctness, among the most recent ones being related to gender-inclusive solutions pertaining to the nouns ‘mother’ and ‘father’ suggesting replacements such as ‘gestational parent’ and ‘non-birthing parent’ (see mazzoni, 2021; naumoska, 2010, p. 28). nevertheless, the changing face of what is considered to be inclusive, or politically correct, presents a challenge in terms of how to assess linguistic content in terms of language production as the law of semantic change and pinker’s euphemism treadmill imply that, generally, euphemisms become tainted over time and that “negative associations reassert themselves to undermine the euphemistic quality of the wordˮ (allan, 2019, p. 189). when it comes to inclusive language usage, there are several approaches which could be taken into consideration in order to relate language production to language acquisition with learners of english in mind. what is relevant for an academic or business setting and in relation to the previously mentioned newspaper articles related to inclusive language usage on the campus, for instance, is the emergence of the so-called codes of practice presented to university students in some countries, giving them clear guidelines on how to use the english language to avoid stereotyping, discrimination, making assumptions on ground of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion, or belief. for instance, cardiff metropolitan university code of practice on using inclusive language (2017) raises awareness about the effects of potentially discriminatory vocabulary. other similar examples may be found in the university of warsaw anti-discrimination guidebook for students and employees (2017). although codes of practice may be of relevance as a material for the acquisition of inclusive language and terminology, it could be discussed whether the production of unacceptable or ungrammatical solutions, in some cases, is also a result of the language acquisition process. in other words, students studying english as a foreign language, or studying in english, may unintentionally produce offensive or grammatically unacceptable forms due to a lack of knowledge with regard to inclusive vocabulary and inclusive syntactic forms in the process of fl production. therefore, guides and manuals, such as the previously mentioned codes of practice, may also be used as materials for studying and analysing syntactic structures of the newly introduced forms and may as well be used as a material for translation classes. research framework and methodology in order to assess how inclusive language production operates on a micro-level without labelling sentence elements as (politically) incorrect or lexical items as non-inclusive, an anonymous survey was conducted in april 2019 at the university of sarajevo (department of english language and literature, 25 participants) and the university of warsaw (institute of applied linguistics, 20 participants). a printed handout (see: appendix 2) was distributed to students during the class in order to determine which linguistic strategies they use to change the sentences containing non-inclusive language as to make them more inclusive and as instructed in the handout. in total, 158 responses were collected and examples on how different parts of speech (pronouns, nouns, adjectives) were changed into more inclusive equivalents will be provided in the next section of the paper. the task-oriented research was based on similar tasks (see appendix 1, task 1 and task 4) by thehelska (2006). the tasks were merged and adapted for the purpose of the present research and data collected will be analysed for sentences 1, 3, and 6 from task 1. as for task 4, data collected nejla kalajdžisalihović nejla kalajdžisalihović on inclusive language usage by speakers of english...on inclusive language usage by speakers of english... 8180 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies for paraphrases of sentences 2 and 7 will be also provided and analysed in further text. as for sentences 4 and 5 from task 4, the handout distributed to both groups of students also included these two sentences, but they will not be analysed since the responses were either absent or stated that nothing should be paraphrased as the expressions are idiomatic. the motivation for doing this research is found not only in the previously mentioned papers by linguists on language change, political correctness and activating available linguistic forms, but also in the fact that the author of the inclusive language exercises mentioned the relevance of the subject of inclusive language as one linking historical, cultural, social and linguistic issues. since the article was published in 2006, the suggestions for the tasks provided (see thehelska, 2006, task 4 key) shows how language changes in relation to the current usage and how the responses provided below may reflect such changes. interpretation of data for example (1)—a teacher should be tolerant with his students, the following paraphrases (the number of responses is indicated in brackets) were collected: fig. 1. responses for example (1) as can be concluded for paraphrases provided for example (1), the greatest number of responses (27) indicates that the pronoun ‘his’ was detected as the sentence element, i.e. pronoun, that needs to be replaced by ‘their’. other strategies were used as well, the second most frequent being a replacement of ‘his’ with a more inclusive equivalent ‘his or her’ or even ‘his and her’ (1). still, a number of responses (4) did not focus on the personal possessive pronoun ‘his’ but on other sentence elements that did not require replacement in which case some ungrammatical solutions were also provided. in the greatest number of responses, the participants replaced one pronoun (in singular) by another pronoun (in plural). for example (2)—an actress is usually nervous before the show, students provided the following responses, whereas the responses are reproduced as given (i.e. where no full sentences were provided by the students): fig. 2. responses for example (2) as for paraphrases provided for example (2), the greatest number of responses (15) indicates that the noun ‘actress’ was detected as the sentence element, i.e. the noun that needs to be replaced by another noun and was replaced by the word ‘actor’ in plural. other strategies used included both nouns (i.e. actors and actresses) in 9 responses, which indicates that students do not find the word ‘actress’ carrying negative connotations or are not familiar with the questions raised on whether individual actresses prefer to be called ‘actors’. other responses, as can be seen from fig. 2, show inconsistency or are not correct with regard to meaning. as for paraphrases provided for example (3) —man is destroying our planet, the word nejla kalajdžisalihović nejla kalajdžisalihović on inclusive language usage by speakers of english...on inclusive language usage by speakers of english... 8382 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies ‘man’ was replaced by ‘people’ in 17 responses, followed by ‘humans’ and ‘the humankind’. the responses also indicate that the learners are not sure whether a noun in singular or plural should be provided in the paraphrase. in one response, the participant of the survey was, as it seems, more critical of the claim in the sentence to be paraphrased and provided a more empathetic response to indicate that it is not people who are destroying our planet but their actions (see fig. 3): fig. 3. responses for example (3) interestingly, the greatest number of different responses was collected for the following sentence: (4) fat people need to go on diets, as can be observed from the examples provided below (see fig. 4). in terms of the available linguistic forms and strategies, the greatest tendency to shift towards a ‘people first’ approach on the sentence level was found in example (4). at the same time, the number of numerous and varied responses may indicate that learners are not confident about activating inclusive nouns and pronouns in english as a foreign language as well as that there may be external and culturally-embedded factors involved (e.g. whether ‘obese’ and ‘overweight’ are perceived as offensive words). the answers provided are also in line with the suggestions by thehelska in 2006 (8 responses), but attempts to opt for a ‘people first’ approach are clearly seen from fig. 4 (‘people with obesity’, ‘people who are overweight’, ‘people who struggle with weight’, ‘people with an unhealthy body mass index’, etc.). fig. 4. responses for example (4) therefore, in the case of example (4), as can be seen from the responses above, the participants activated inclusive or non-discriminatory language in a similar people-first manner (see pfl, using inclusive language— guidelines and examples, 2020). although slobin, when referring to “readily encodable in language”, refers to closed-class grammatical morphemes, tense/aspect inflections, particles and prepositions (adjectives excluded), example (4) could mean that more attention needs to be given to understanding patterns of inclusive language in fl/l2 (or the lack thereof) or perhaps ways how exposure to social networks affects language usage. nejla kalajdžisalihović nejla kalajdžisalihović on inclusive language usage by speakers of english...on inclusive language usage by speakers of english... 8584 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in addition, different linguistic strategies were also detected in examples on illness and old age, as can be seen from the responses below. as for ‘the elderly’, the responses provided show that the students usually opted for a less acceptable form from the one provided in the original and there were no responses that would use different and more recently introduced phrases such as ‘senior citizens’ (see thehelska, 2006, task 4 key) or ‘people aged’. however, it is interesting that the word ‘people’ occurs in almost all of the responses, which is why it can be claimed that the people-first approach was observed in example (5) as well (see fig. 5). it is also necessary to mention is that all of the examples collected have not been produced through spontaneous language production and were obtained by means of task-based instruction and submitted in the written form. there is, of course, a possibility that language production, or even comprehension, in a different, more spontaneous spoken or written language activation and usage would have yielded different responses. in terms of translation-based tasks, another activity that could contribute to results when it comes to activating inclusive vocabulary (especially nouns, pronouns and adjectives) could rely on asking students to provide translation equivalents from english into their l1. in that way, a comparison could be made between different language pairs to see if these categories present a problem in speakers’ l1, as well as there are different inclusive expressions used that students may not be aware of or may not be using in their everyday written/spoken communication or academic writing. fig. 5. responses for example (5) furthermore, what could also be tentatively concluded from the responses is that, in the case of pronouns and nouns, l1 could also be contributing to a lack of a ready-to-be-activated linguistic form. in the case of vulnerable categories, such as illness or old age, the responses for example (5) show that there is a variety of responses, some of which are less acceptable when compared to the category of weight and physical appearance for which more types of responses were given. in order to assess what factors motivate correct or more frequent inclusive language solutions, regardless of one’s l1, more extensive research needs to be done in the future using more examples or focusing on one part of speech only (adjectives, for instance). nejla kalajdžisalihović nejla kalajdžisalihović on inclusive language usage by speakers of english...on inclusive language usage by speakers of english... 8786 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies conclusion in the present paper, task-based research on the usage of inclusive language conducted in 2019 at the university of warsaw and the university of sarajevo was presented to discuss how language changes in contemporary english affect inclusive language usage (especially when it comes to the activation of pronouns, nouns and adjectives) and how these changes may affect both inclusive language acquisition and production for learners of english as a foreign language or students studying in english. the material collected on the usage of recently-introduced inclusive language expressions was assessed for linguistic forms and their frequency for five sentences (see tsehelska, 2006). in total 158 responses to five sentences were collected and analysed for the linguistic strategies used by 45 participants. it could be understood from the examples provided above that the students of english as a foreign language / students studying in english as a foreign language who completed the task are unsure about the usage of language that is considered inclusive, especially when it comes to gender-neutral / inclusive language in contemporary english, as well as whether to use adjectives before the noun, in a relative clause, or in a prepositional phrase. however, based on the responses collected for the purpose of the present paper, it may be said that adjectives present a lesser challenge in terms of inclusive language usage than nouns or pronouns and that the people-first approach is generally observed. the paper also suggests that learners of english as a foreign language / students studying in english as a foreign language are struggling when choosing the correct inclusive language equivalent, aside from ungrammatical responses. as a solution, codes of practice and inclusive language manuals may be used to assist the learners in the process, as well as translation-based tasks. furthermore, texts that discuss ageing, illness and disease, occupations, and other relevant topics may significantly contribute to a more insightful inclusive language acquisition. appendix 1 task 1 the following phrases use sexist language. rewrite them to make them inclusive. 1. a teacher should be tolerant with his students. 2. a child needs the love of his parents. 3. an actress is usually nervous before the show. 4. mary is a camerawoman. 5. the committee elected a chairman. 6. man is destroying our planet. 7. today man-made fibers are used for manufacturing stockings. 8. this substance is not known to man. task 4 many people are sensitive about their abilities, age, culture, and appearance. make the following phrases sound inoffensive to the persons being spoken about. 1. she is looking after her insane mother. 2. the program offers long-term care for the elderly and immediate care for the mentally retarded. 3. a new clinic for the care of geriatrics is being proposed. 4. he is as blind as a bat. 5. my neighbor is as deaf as a post. 6. jane is an emotional cripple. 7. fat people need to go on diets. nejla kalajdžisalihović nejla kalajdžisalihović on inclusive language usage by speakers of english...on inclusive language usage by speakers of english... 8988 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies appendix 2 rewrite the following sentences to make them inclusive: 1. a teacher should be tolerant with his students. 2. an actress is usually nervous before the show. 3. man is destroying our planet. 4. the program offers long-term care for the elderly and immediate care for the mentally retarded. 5. he is as blind as a bat. 6. my neighbor is as deaf as a post. 7. fat people need to go on diets. references allan, k. (2019). the oxford handbook of taboo words and language. oxford: oxford university press. burridge, k. (2012). euphemism and language change: the sixth and seventh ages. lexis, (7), 65-92. cardiff metropolitan university—study in cardiff. (n.d.). retrieved from https://www. cardiffmet.ac.uk/about/structureandgovernance/documents/code%20of%20practice%20 and%20guide%20to%20inclusive_language_2013.doc euphemism. (n.d.). meriam webster dictionary. retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/euphemism. inclusive language guide: definition & examples. (2020, january 23). retrieved from https://online.rider.edu/online-bachelors-degrees/liberal-studies/guide-to-using-inclusive-language/ kedziora, k., & gredzinska, a. (2017). we are all equalanti-discrimination guidebook for students and employees of the university of warsaw. warsaw: warsaw university press. mazzoni, a. (2021, february 15). academics from nation’s top university tell staff to call mothers the ‘gestational parent’ and fathers the ‘non-birthing parent’—and there is even a gender-neutral term for breastfeeding”. retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-9262007/academics-australian-national-university-told-staff-stop-using-word-mother.html naumoska, a. (2010). родовата обележаност во англискиот јазик. skopje: vinsent grafika. nsubuga, j. (2017, august 14). council renames ‘cats eyes’ after american tourists thought they were made from real cats. retrieved from https://metro.co.uk/2017/08/14/council-renames-cats-eyes-after-american-tourists-think-animals-are-being-hurt-6851958/?ito=cbshar. pinker, s. (2008). the stuff of thought: language as a window into human nature. london: penguin books. sellgren, k. (2017, june 13). term genius alienates women, says cambridge lecturer. bbc news. retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/education-40259449 nejla kalajdžisalihović nejla kalajdžisalihović on inclusive language usage by speakers of english...on inclusive language usage by speakers of english... 9190 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies slobin, d. i. (2003). language and thought online: cognitive consequences of linguistic relativity. in d. gentner & s. goldin-meadow (eds.), language in mind: advances in the investigation of language and thought. cambridge, ma: mit press, 157-191. traxler, m. j., & gernsbacher, m. a. (2006). handbook of psycholinguistics. boston: elsevier. tsehelska, m. (2006). teaching politically correct language. english teaching forum, pp. 20-32. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1107901.pdf epiphany_new_version_11oct.indd 117 vol. 14 no. 1, 2021 kübra baysal sars cov11 and other calamities in... 116 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture? adisa ahmetspahić damir kahrić abstract: the basic role of this paper is the representation of the new emerging subculture among the bosnian youth population, and that is hookah bars. this paper presents some theoretical depictions of hookahs in popular culture, definitions of subcultural trends and the connections formulated between hookahs and subcultures, but this paper also relied on a descriptive research, a survey which analyzed the notion of whether or not hookah bars are the new subculture in bosnia. the paper concludes that hookahs can be perceived as a phenomenon heading towards a subculture, as well as the idea that hookah bars remain a fashionable part of young people’s lives in bosnia and herzegovina. keywords: hookah, subculture, b&h, auto-tune rapping adisa ahmetspahić holds ma in anglophone literature and is currently a phd student of literature at the faculty of philosophy, university of sarajevo. her scholarly interests encompass contemporary american literature and intersectional identity politics. she works as a part-time teaching assistant at english language and literature department, faculty of philosophy, university of zenica, where she teaches anglophone literature and history. e-mail: adisa995ahmetspahic@gmail.com. damir kahrić earned his ma degree in english language and literature and he is currently a phd student: doctoral studies in literature (dos lit), at the faculty of philosophy, university of sarajevo. his research interests include shakespearean drama, victorian and high-fantasy literature. damir kahrić published four academic papers which are available online. he worked as the translator and editor of the book shakespeare again visits my home. e-mail: damir95484@gmail.com. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture?hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture? 119118 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction every day various lifestyle modifications, activities and trends change the manner in which we perceive our surroundings on the (sub)cultural level. in bosnia and herzegovina, a new trend is emerging – the trend of smoking hookahs. numerous club-owners adjust their cafes in order to better satisfy the trend of shisha smoking, whereas various club-goers can be noticed relaxing, listening to music, chatting and simply enjoying the water-pipe experience throughout bosnia and herzegovina. as hookah bars started gradually appearing in bosnia and herzegovina, it became evident that shishas were not the only elements giving color to such environments. rather, some standards of musical taste changed, the general special design of such cafes was adapted, as well as the overall trend of using hookahs began to grow. the oriental features of hookah bars slowly transformed when music is taken into account. from oriental music styles to auto-tune, folk, and pop music and thereby such alterations definitely impacted our understanding of the hookah lounge environment. however, it should be noted that the ‘ritual’ of using shishas was not merely reserved for the twenty-first century, because the motif of hookah had been present even earlier. for example, in disney’s cartoon adaptation of alice in wonderland, the caterpillar is seen enjoying his shisha while speaking with the heroine, and also, in the star wars franchise, jabba the hutt is also depicted smoking a hookah filled with a greenish liquid2. certain forums (“smokers; a subculture”, “among the rich, sexy, chic, and even gangsta – hookah is a common ritual”) discussed the idea of hookah turning to a newly-formed subcultural trend, or even a new ritual. therefore, the basic aim of this paper is to examine the idea of hookah smoking as a new subcultural trend in bosnia and herzegovina visible in the lives of many (young) people. the notion of using shishas is also closely followed by a keen interest in a new musical taste marked by the previously-mentioned auto-tune rapping, but also by a change in fashion and clothing among hookah smokers. the role of this paper will be to observe whether such popular trends hold any merit for the subcultural sphere in bosnia and herzegovina. prior to discussing the hookah subculture in b&h, it is important to make a basic outline of the concept ‘subculture’, which is the topic of the next section. 2 for more pieces of information, see disney’s adaptation of alice in wonderland from 1951, and lucas’s motion picture “star wars episode 6”. literature overview the term ‘subculture’ is usually applied to smaller groups of people who share the same lifestyle, mainly musical and sartorial, which is at great odds with the mainstream society and its culture. as suggested by ken gelder (2005), although the term has risen to prominence in the 1940s, the concept of subculture is not neoteric if one thinks of various movements throughout history in music and literature associated with particular behavioral pattern and clothing style (pp. 1-3). the subcultural theory is traced to the early 1920s and the chicago school which examined immigrant and ethnic groups as well as the working class with the aim of ascertaining the liability of the groups to crime. the chicago school also established overviews of the groups’ “non-normative, (i.e., deviant) collective behavior”. for example, african-americans and italians were seen as strike-breaker subculture that argued for their rights in a non-standardized way. it can be inferred that the understanding of subculture is related to ethnic background, behavioral patterns, and class (williams, 2011, n.p.). in the same vein, milton m. gordon described subculture in 1946 as a: subdivision of a national culture, composed of a combination of factorable social situations such as class status, ethnic background, regional and rural or urban residence, and religious affiliation, but forming in their combination a functioning unity which has an integrated impact on the participating individual. (gelder, 2005, chapter 3, p. 46) the definition above shows that subculture formation is influenced by a range of factors including ethnic, social, and religious ones. studies conducted by scholars from the centre for contemporary cultural studies (cccs), founded in 1964, at the university of birmingham argued that youth subcultures emerged as reactions to standardized mass culture (gelder, 2005, p. 67). in subculture: the meaning of style (1979) dick hebdige analyzes british post-war youth subcultures (beats, teddy boys, mods, skinheads, and punks) in the light of cccs’s arguments as subcultures that emerged to subvert parental and institutional control evident in the deviant behavior that some of the groups displayed. nevertheless, the post-subcultural thought maintains that subcultures need not be deviant and need not share the same social class or ethnic belonging which puts forward that one’s background does not influence their subcultural identity. hebdige scrutinizes the above-mentioned groups’ mannerisms, argot, sartorial and musical tastes with their influence on mass consummation and industry adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture?hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture? 121120 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies (pp. 94-96), and other aspects of the subcultures’ collective identity. it follows that subculture is a complex concept with various taxonomies and their subtaxonomies. for example, john irwin proposed that a subculture can be classified as: a social world, an explicit lifestyle, and an action system (gelder, 2005, pp. 73-77). the complexity of the definition is also reflected in its prefix ‘sub’ which summarizes the above-mentioned interpretations of subculture. gordon explains that ‘sub’ refers to a subdivision of a culture (46), while sarah thornton sees ‘sub’ as denotative of a subterranean or subaltern culture in comparison to the mainstream culture. furthermore, hebdige postulates the problematic of defining culture itself (1979, pp. 5-19), showing the difficulty in arriving at a precise definition of subculture due to the fluidity of ‘culture’. the aim of the present research is not to challenge any of the definitions above or to take rigid stances. the paper aims to investigate the hookah goers in bosnia and herzegovina as a subculture in accordance with the essence of the literature overview. the methodology section that follows will provide a more in-depth presentation of the research conducted. methodology in order to identify hookah as a subculture among bosnians and herzegovinians, wecarried out an online research via google forms. we opted for a descriptive research and its methods to avoid any bias in analyzing hookah as a subculture. according to stephen tripodi and kimberly bender, descriptive research is used to describe “characteristics of a sample and relationships between phenomena, situations, and events” (thyer, 2010, p. 120), especially local social phenomena that are new by answering the questions “who, what, when, where, how” (p.120). tripodi and bender further propose that descriptive research is rooted in ethnography yet does not aim at describing causal relationships of a phenomenon observed (thyer, 2010, p. 120). this correlates favourably with our research since our aim is not to reach conclusions on neither the impact of hookah subculture nor the repercussions of consuming hookah but to investigate hookah as a subculture in b&h with its main traits. as explained by tripodi and bender, there is a number of descriptive research methods, one of them being questionnaire surveys (thyer, 2010, p. 209) with random sampling (thyer, 2010, p. 207). in line with tripodi and bender’s explanation, our research was conducted online via google forms and included a total of a hundred random and anonymous respondents, all hookah consumers and goers, between the ages of 18-40 from federation of bosnia and herzegovina, the republic of srpska, and brčko district. the respondents did not receive any kind of payment for completing the questionnaire, thus more honest and trustworthy answers were expected. the questionnaire was conducted in b/c/s for the sake of clarity. all the statements were translated into english upon the completion and closing of the questionnaire. the total number of questionnaire items is eighteen. however, the items were grouped for easier analysis of the respondents’ affiliation with the hookah subculture and the existence of the hookah subculture in b&h in general. the questionnaire was tailored to consist of five introductory or placement questions related to the respondents’ age, gender, residence, income, and hookah visiting frequency, which would determine whether subculture belonging depends on such determinants. the rest of the questionnaire included three groups of statements, each group consisting of four statements. the groups were organized according to the subcultural traits outlined in literature overview: sartorial and music tastes, and identity or subculture belonging, as presented in the table below. adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture?hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture? 123122 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 1. style of dress 1.1.i would describe my fashion style as: a) casual, b) elegant, c) sport-like, d) boho, e) other 1.2. i connect hookah bars with a certain fashion style. 1.3. i most frequently dress in the manner of the music which i listen to. 1.4. on the streets i can easily recognize if someone is visiting hookah bars on the basis of their fashion style. 1. music 2. 1. i more easily and quickly connect with people who listen to the same music type as myself. 2. 2. when it comes to music, i mostly listen to: a) pop, b) foreign (all genres), c) folk, d) autotune rap (jala, buba, rasta, senidah, etc.), e) other 2. 3. the type of music i usually listen to is the same music you can hear in hookah bars. 2. 4. i connect hookah bars with the type of music which can be heard inside of them. 3. identity & belonging 3.1. i am more relaxed in hookah bars than in other cafes/bars. 3. 2. i believe that people who visit shisha bars are often stigmatized as unwanted in other types of bars. 3. 3. i mostly hang out with people who visit hookah bars. 3. 4. i consider hookah an integral part of my life. table iii. 1. groups and items used in the questionnaire. the assessment and analysis of the statements was a combination of descriptive research and likert’s scale. this unidimensional scale of measurement usually consists of a set of items, i.e. statements, to which the respondents express their (dis)agreement on a five-point continuum: strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, strongly disagree. we used this continuum for measuring the respondents’ attitudes to their potential hookah subcultural identity and belonging. furthermore, it was important to measure how often our respondents visit hookah bars to determine whether the frequency of visits influences the membership in hookah subculture or not. for the aforementioned purpose, we also used likert’s five-point frequency scale: very often, often, occasionally, rarely, and very rarely. in addition, as visible from table 1, we have used single-answer multiple choice, also with a five-continuum range, for one statement pertaining to style of dress and two pertaining to music tastes. the aforementioned was done in order to avoid any imposition and stereotyping on our part. the next section of the paper shows that the questionnaire results are organized into four subsections mentioned earlier in this section: placement, style of dress, music, and identity & belonging. the restricted use of individual responses could account for certain inconsistencies appearing within the survey; however, such restrictions do not impede the research from reaching its needed goal. individual opinions, subjective perspectives could provide a better overview concerning the relationship which may be formulated between subcultures and industries. such detailed replies could explain the reasons why the subculture of hookahs could be perceived as an industry, but they could additionally give more insight into the connection between hookah bars, clothing styles, music preferences, all of which may be adapted into a new, rising hookah industry. additionally, any detailed individual elaborations provided by the non-hookah goers could also explain why certain individuals want to dissociate themselves from the new trend, or why in general they refuse to be perceived as members of the new subculture, regardless of their age, sex or residence in bosnia and herzegovina. adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture?hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture? 125124 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies discussion of the results iv.1. placement table iv. 1. 1. the first placement question of our research focused on the age group of our respondents. out of 100 respondents, 52% belong to the age group between 18 and 25 years, 39.8% belong to the age group of 25-35, while 8.2% fall in the age group of 35-40. the results in this case created a positive correlation between the b&h youth and the subcultural notions regarding hookahs. although the 8.2 % show that hookah subculture may include individuals outside the “youth” scale, it is important to note that the subcultural context in this paper is focused predominantly on the bosnian youth. table iv. 1. 2. the second question focused on the gender of the participants, and the results obtained showed that 54.6% of the participants were women, while 45.4% were men, implying that there is not much difference in gender when it comes to membership in the b&h hookah subcultural scene. table iv. 1. 3. the third question determined the place of residence in bosnia and herzegovina and the gathered results showed that the majority of the examinees come from the federation of bosnia and herzegovina 87.9%, while 7.1% come from the republic of srpska and 5.1% come from brčko district. although the percentage scale in this case is lower for both the republic of srpska and brčko district, our research substantiates the idea that hookahs are present in all parts of bosnia and herzegovina, therefore the presence of the hookah subculture is evident at the level of the entire country. table iv. 1. 5. the next question of the survey focused on the monthly revenue of our examinees. 37.5% participants said they have monthly revenues higher than 1,000 bam, 22.9% have monthly income on the scale between 800 and 1,000 bam, 20.8% between 500 and 800 bam, 16.7% respondents to 500 bam, while 2% named other amounts. although the gap between the rich and the poor is wide, the overall b&h community is not clearly defined and grouped into various social strata, which suggests that the hookah subculture is not solely formed within the working-class community as was the adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture?hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture? 127126 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies case with most subculture around the world. such results corroborate the post-subcultural thought mentioned in literature overview which argues that members of contemporary subcultures need not share the same racial, ethnic, and class affiliation. therefore, based on the results above, it can be concluded that hookah subculture in b&h comprises different social echelons. table iv. 1. 6. in response to hookah visit/consummation frequency question, 22.2% of those surveyed answered they do it very often, 24.2% often, 35.4% do so occasionally, while 8.1% and 10.1% said they go there/consume hookah rarely and very rarely. the overall response to this question points to a positive rise in hookah’s popularity due to the fact that the majority of the respondents said that they visit hookah bars. furthermore, it indicates that one does not necessarily have to visit hookah bars very often in order to belong to a particular subcultural group or trend, but rather occasional visits and flexible timing may also situate a person within a subcultural sphere. iv.2. style of dress table iv.2.1. table iv. 2. 1. shows that the majority of 38.1% said they dress casually, 32% elegantly and 22.7% sport-like, while other 3.1% opted for different styles, such as sporty elegant style. the results in this case present the idea that the clientele of hookah bars dress mostly casually, however people who enjoy going to hookah bars also prefer elegant or sport-like attires. hence, the hookah subculture then may have several taxonomies or sub-subcultures in terms of clothing styles, which refutes our argument that sport-like attires are the usual types of fashion recognizable inside hookah bars and hookah subculture in b&h. table iv. 2. 2. the statement in the table above aimed at finding the connection between hookah bars and a particular style of fashion. 16.2% of those questioned said that they completely agree, 33.3% said they agree with the statement, 29.3% said that they do not agree, 10.1% said they completely disagree, while 11.1% were undecided. the results are ambiguous since, according to those who agreed with the statement, a particular correlation can be adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture?hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture? 129128 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies formed between hookah bars and fashion designs. this further substantiates the idea that the hookah subculture, like other types of subcultures, can be expressed through fashion and be recognizable. on the other hand, the percentage of those who disagreed confirms the results of table iv.2.1. and the conclusion that hookah subculture has sub-subcultures and cannot be recognized solely by sport-like fashion. table iv. 2. 3. the statement above shows that 13.1% of the respondents completely agree, 30.3% agree, 25.3% disagree, 14.1% disagree completely, while 17.2% were undecided. results of this item are inconsistent with the results obtained in table iv. 2. 2. where the majority of subjects expressed their disagreement with hookah bars being associated with a particular style. this inconsistency exemplifies some drawbacks of this type of a survey; however, such responses indicate that certain members of the hookah subculture may not be easily recognizable outside hookah bars. table iv. 2. 4. the item above relates to the previous item in the questionnaire and in this part, 32.3% replied that they agree, 26.3% that they disagree, 21.2% that they completely disagree, 14.1% that they completely agree and 6.1% were undecided. this indicates that sometimes, in everyday practice, it may be very difficult to discern which person prefers/listens to a particular music style on the basis of their clothing. iv. 3. music table iv. 3. 1. the majority expressed their liking for the auto-tune music trends, 20.2% for pop music, 19.1% for music outside the bosnian language sphere, 16% for folk music, and the rest prefer either all of the mentioned or some other music genre. there is a satisfactory agreement with the idea of how music contributes to hookah bars’ popularity since this survey indicates a clearcut bound between the young listeners of auto-tune (buba, jala, etc.) in bosnia and local bars which serve shishas. evidently, certain subcultural trends such as hookah are entwined with fashion and music tastes which mark their popularity in the current day and age. the previously mentioned connection is endorsed with the results of the next item. adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture?hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture? 131130 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies table. iv. 3. 2. 29.3% participants said that music is often the same, 23.2% said very often, 26.3% said occasionally, 17.2% said rarely, 4% said very rarely. taking into consideration the popularity of auto-tune rapping, the connection between hookah bars and the rising interest in auto-tune becomes obvious. furthermore, if results from table iv. 3. 1. are taken into consideration, it follows that the type of music hookah goers listen to in private life is not necessarily the same as the one played in hookah bars. nevertheless, this does not jeopardize their membership in the hookah subculture. table. iv. 3. 3. a bit more than two-thirds of the participants expressed their agreement (67.3%), while 19.4% and 8.2% expressed their disagreement and complete disagreement, while 5.1% remained undecided. such results offer compelling evidence that music, for example auto-tune, is tied closely with shisha bars and that hookah subculture does have recognizable music tastes. table iv. 3. 4. when asked about bonding along the lines of music tastes, the majority of 35.4% said that they agree about bonding more easily with people who listen to the same music type, 29.3% completely agree, 21.2% disagree, 10.1% undecided, while very few participants 4% disagree completely. these results support the notion that people who enjoy certain types of music styles easily connect with others of the same view, and this moreover indicates that certain subcultural groups more freely ‘flock together’ if their taste in music is similar/identical. the most striking resemblance is the tripartite link which exists between the hookah subculture, fashion and musical tastes which formulate a rising popularity between the bosnian youth and contemporary trends. iv. 4. identity & belonging table iv. 4. 1. adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture?hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture? 133132 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies as visible from the chart above, the response rate to the statement above is the following: 29.3% said that they agree, 28.3% replied that they completely agree, 25.3% disagree, 10.1% are undecided and 7.1% completely disagree. as a very subjective statement, this result further explains that the definite majority of respondents opted for the positive replies in which they praise shisha bars as environments where they feel more at ease. table iv. 4. 2. the responses to the statement indicated that 32.3% of the respondents disagree with the statement, 28.3% agree, 17.2% completely disagree, 12.1% completely agree, while 10.1% are undecided. although the results differ only slightly, it should be noted that the majority still disagree with this statement and that persons frequenting hookah bars are not stigmatised as was the case with some subculture over the world, e.g. teddy boys in uk. it should be taken into consideration that the results numerically do not differ vividly. table iv. 4. 3. in response to the statement above, 32.3% said that they agree, 26.3% that they completely agree, 23.2% that they disagree, 11.1% that they completely disagree, 7.1% were left undecided. this perpetuates an important element because the majority of the answers indicate that the examinees meet with people who are in one way or another clients of various hookah bars, further establishing the notion of the popularity among the bosnian youth, but also of the identity, a collective identity especially. table iv. 4. 4. the survey question from table iv. 4. 4. presented an interesting contrast where 33.3% said they disagree, 28.3% agree, 20.2% agree completely, 12.1% disagree completely and 6.1% were undecided. the ratio between the two opposing views is nearly identical which indicates that smoking hookahs or going to hookah bars can, but may not necessarily, be the integral part of the mainly young people’s subculture in b&h. such results indicate that the examinees are not necessarily ‘immersed’ within the hookah subcultural trend utterly, albeit the subcultural trend remains highly prominent on a general scale. conclusion this paper presented the idea of a new rising subcultural trend realized in the form of hookahs. it should be noted that particular shortcomings always exist in descriptive researches. in this regard, descriptive research was not suitable for finding out the manner in which hookahs are able to adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić adisa ahmetspahić & damir kahrić hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture?hookah and b&h youth: towards a subculture? 135134 vol. 14 no.1, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies influence industry or rather if hookah bars are the new, emerging, industry. nonetheless, in our paper we discovered the following: the age group, sex, residence, and monthly income of our participants, but also the style of dressing which correlates to the hookah subculture, musical preferences and the issue of identity-belonging within the subcultural context. we discovered that sub-subcultural elements realized through dressing and music can also be integrated within the overall sphere of the hookah subculture. in other words, the hookah subculture consists of additional sub-subcultural taxonomies, such as elegant, casual and sport-like attires, as well as auto-tune rapping songs. this paper showed that people who visit hookah bars or generally associate themselves with the hookah subculture are not stigmatized or unwanted in other types of locales, even though certain members of any subculture may be perceived thus by a larger community. further research could be developed in terms of hookah as a new subculture, especially in regards to how subcultures affect industry as a whole. in order to explore relations between industry and hookah subculture, interviewing hookah-goers could also be useful because such a research would grant better insight into the subjective ideas of the hookah clientele. moreover, even non-hookah goers could be interviewed in order to gather more diverse opinions in regards to one topic. individual responses could be analyzed in order to see if there are any logical fallacies and/or inconsistencies when a particular issue is presented from various sides and viewpoints. by granting more space for the examinees to openly express and describe their opinions in detail, future research could find logical inconsistencies and resolve any setbacks in discovering what a subculture is or is not, within the perception of wider audience. the survey was done on the basis of male-female sex division, but future surveys of similar type may encompass more diverse responses in terms of the examinees’ sex. this paper showed that even though hookah may be a new rising trend, it is not exclusive or reserved solely for one gender group, but rather that it remains open for various members. although we discovered that not all members of the hookah bar clientele perceive themselves as fully immersed into the hookah subculture, it is safe to conclude that hookah can be observed as a new subcultural trend, encompassing different sub-subcultural elements, or at least as a rising subculture in the twenty-first century bosnia and herzegovina. therefore, as the very title implies, hookah can be classified as a phenomenon heading towards a new, prominent subcultural trend, albeit there will always be some inconsistencies as explored in the previous segments of this paper. hookahs may or may not be an exclusive part of the bosnian youth and their lifestyle; however they still remain a fashionable part of the community. references: “smokers; a subculture”, “among the rich, sexy, chic, and even gangsta – hookah is a common ritual” gelder, s. (ed.). (2005). the subcultures reader london, uk: routledge. hebdige, d. (1979). subculture: the meaning of style. london: routledge. thyer, b. (ed.). (2010). the handbook of social work research methods. thousand oaks, usa: sage publications. williams, p. (2011). theoretical and methodological traditions. in subcultural theory: traditions and concepts. cambridge, uk: polity press. elçin parçaoğlu & arda acemi possible analogues of invented plan species... 25 vol. 14 no.2, 202124 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies possible analogues of invented plant species of tolkien’s middle-earth in earth’s current flora elçin parçaoğlu kocaeli university arda acemi kocaeli university abstract tolkien’s mythology of middle-earth is a highly studied corpus in ecology and environmental studies. due to the cosmogonic nature of this mythology, ecological patterns are both similar and different to our world. especially in terms of biodiversity, the flora and fauna we encounter in the corpus are at the centre of ecological and environmental approaches. plant biodiversity supports the unique habitat formation of many regions in the history of this mythology. being interested in botany, tolkien paid particular attention to plants’ geographical distribution and location and broke new ground in terms of diversity. in this diversity, there are also some plants that he invented. the purpose of this paper is to compare some plants tolkien invented – athelas, mallorn, elanor, niphredil, and simbelmynë – with their companion plants in earth’s current flora. in addition, these plants’ geographic locations in middle-earth will also be revealed in terms of climate and vegetation diversity. keywords: flora, the lord of the rings, middle-earth, plants, j. r. r. tolkien introduction middle-earth mythology, designed by the british writer j. r. r. tolkien (1892-1973) in almost 60 years, has a dynamic content in terms of ecology. in this mythology, in which the formation process of the universe named eä is explained, and the continuity of the formation is emphasized, biodiversity and ecosystems change considerably over the ages and are remarkable. it is observed that ecological and cosmological formations act together and affect each other, resulting in the diversification of plant species. this interaction is hidden within the purpose of the creation of the universe. ilúvatar’s designation of the universe and valar’s creation of it serve this purpose: the beauty and goodness of the universe itself. when these concepts are examined a little more, how biodiversity and ecosystems support these concepts can be understood. biodiversity – especially plant biodiversity – created for the good and beauty of the universe contributes significantly to the universe’s cosmology. some of the plants, especially in the lord of the rings, make an outstanding contribution to the book’s plot. although some of these species are found in the earth’s existing flora as widely distributed cosmopolitan plants, tolkien imagined others as unique and native species for middle-earth as well. since ancient times, plants have been used for various purposes, such as foods, natural sources for medicinal treatments, wooden buildings and furniture materials, and natural fiber sources for clothing (christenhusz et al., 2017). these multi-purpose benefits of plants make them one of the essential natural resources in human life. to date, around 390,000 different plant species in 452 families have been identified in earth’s flora (willis, 2017). in the taxonomical classification of plant species, very detailed identification keys are used. these keys include morphological data from various organs and parts of plants. scientists examine whether the plant under investigation fits in the descriptions given in the keys and identify plant elçin parçaoğlu & arda acemi elçin parçaoğlu & arda acemi possible analogues of invented plan species...possible analogues of invented plan species... 2726 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies species. even changes in the millimetric scale might lead to a difference in the identification. with the enhancement in molecular biology techniques, these identifications are now being made at the dna level (bog et al., 2019). therefore, tolkien’s narrowed descriptions of the plants make it difficult to use these scientific techniques to precisely identify the correct names of the species. however, the limited descriptions in the lord of the rings allow assuming the analogue species. thus, this study aims to discuss these species’ analogues, which are specially invented and appear in the lord of the rings, correspond to in earth’s flora. in this context, the five plants – athelas, mallorn, elanor, niphredil, and simbelmynë will be discussed from botanical, medical, and literary perspectives. athelas where to find: the athelas plant appears in tolkien’s the lord of the rings. leaving bree to reach rivendell under aragorn’s leadership, the hobbits arrive at the ruins of the arnor kingdom tower built by elendil on amon sûl. searching for gandalf’s trace at weathertop, where the watchtower was located, the company is met by the ringwraiths instead of gandalf, and frodo is mortally wounded. this wound instantly paralyzes frodo’s arm: “frodo dozed, though the pain of his wound was slowly growing, and a deadly chill was spreading from his shoulder to his arm and side” (tolkien, 2004, p. 198). aragorn then leaves frodo with the other hobbits. when he returns, aragorn explains why he left with these sentences: “‘these leaves,’ he said, ‘i have walked far to find; for this plant does not grow in the bare hills; but in the thickets away south of the road i found it in the dark by the scent of its leaves.’” (tolkien, 2004, p. 198). this plant that aragorn found is athelas. the geographical location, climate, and vegetation of the place where this plant grows will help us understand which plant species it is a reference to in earth’s current flora. weathertop is in the region of middle-earth called eriador, which lies to the north of middle-earth. located on a hill, weathertop is surrounded by undulating plains. in terms of climatic conditions, it is seen that winters are cold and summers are mild. this region receives a warm and moist wind from the southwest, during a cold and dry wind from the north. in terms of vegetation, it is a place full of scrub and thickets (fonstad, 1991, pp. 180-185). botanical characteristics: the species is an evergreen herb with long leaves. these are the only known botanical and morphologic characteristics of the species. to expand the identification of the plant, the illustrations on the internet have been searched. however, it is seen that most of them are wrongly illustrated from a botanical perspective. for example, in one of the illustrations, the species is drawn with five petals (the colourful part of a flower) – a property of dicotyledonous plants – with pale white or whitish colour, and long leaves with parallel veins, which is a property of most monocotyledonous plants (phelan, 2011). also, based on the drawings of the plant on the internet, the species morphologically looks similar to lysimachia sp. (loosestrife) from the primulaceae (primrose) family. however, leaves of lysimachia species have no such medicinal properties as described below. the long leaves of the species might correspond to the botanical terms “linear” or “lanceolate” that defines its morphological characteristics. as mentioned before, the habitat of athelas is designated as woodlands and dense forests. medicinal properties: according to tolkien, the species’ leaves have analgesic properties when applied as an infusion to cure “black breath.” also, this medicinal property of the species might be a sign of its restoring activity on the nervous system. the fresh scent arising from the infusion of the leaves should be a sign of the rich essential oil (volatile oils) content of the leaves, a general property of the species from the lamiaceae (mint; labiatae) family known for its aromatic herbs and shrubs (karpiński, 2020). elçin parçaoğlu & arda acemi elçin parçaoğlu & arda acemi possible analogues of invented plan species...possible analogues of invented plan species... 2928 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies possible analogue species: tolkien’s description of the plant’s botanical and medicinal properties should be taken into account to find the analogue of the species from today’s flora. this hypothesis suggests species of six potential genera of the lamiaceae family, namely mentha sp. (mint; herb), salvia sp. (sage; herb), rosmarinus sp. (rosemary; shrub), ocimum sp. (basil; herb), thymus sp. (thyme; herb), and laurus sp. (laurel; shrub). however, thymus, rosmarinus, ocimum, and laurus species should be discarded since they do not have many long-leaved individuals. also, laurus and rosmarinus species are in shrub form but not an herb. considering their scents of leaves, medicinal uses, and healing effects on the nervous system mentha and salvia species with longer leaves might have better possibilities than the other species. mint species have rich menthol and menthone contents in their leaves, which are volatile oils with strong analgesic properties and fresh scents (singh e al., 2005). in contrast, salvia species’ leaves have camphor, cineole, and thujone as volatile oils with similar medicinal properties and anti-cancer activities (kammoun el euch et al., 2019). on the other hand, there are other species from different plant families that include species with such medicinal properties as foeniculum sp. (fennel) from apiaceae (carrot) family (rahimi & ardekani, 2013). however, these species do not fit into the botanical characteristics narrowly described by tolkien. as mentioned before, in botanical identification keys of plant species, definitions of the morphologic characteristics of plant species are given in full detail with precise descriptions, measurements in numbers, and colours. thus, to the best of our conclusion, the species with healing effects and long leaves found among trees should be one of the mentha or salvia species. the meaning of the latin name “salvia” was derived from “salvus, salus, salutis,” which means “healthy, health, heal” in english, which is in line with its medicinal uses. however, the members of this genus prefer dry habitats and mostly grow on limestones, calcareous rocks, and rocky slopes, which makes it incompatible with tolkien’s habitat description. in contrast, mentha species are found near streams and other wet areas, and also they can grow both in partial shade, the ambient created by surrounding trees (davis, 1982). in conclusion, mentha species are the only remaining possible options to define the botanical name of athelas. mallorn where to find: mallorns are the golden trees of lórien. lórien, a realm ruled in the third age by galadriel, one of the noldor elves, is like a reflection of valinor in the west. galadriel, a horticulturist, has a unique soil and plant species in her garden, lórien. mallorns are the most spectacular of these types, as they are also home to the galadhrim elves. lothlórien provides a rest for the fellowship of the ring who escaped from the moria mines. it is a region that should be examined in terms of plant diversity. legolas says the following about the most famous trees of this region, which allows resting to the fellowship of the ring, members of whom were in grave danger: “[i]n the autumn their leaves fall not, but turn to gold. not till the spring comes and the new green opens do they fall, and then the boughs are laden with yellow flowers; and the floor of the wood is golden, and golden is the roof, and its pillars are of silver, for the bark of the trees is smooth and grey” (tolkien, 2004, p. 335). the most prominent feature of the galadhrim elves is that they live on these trees. this region is in the middle of middle-earth. it consists of undulating lowlands. in the region where lothlórien is located, the climate is cold in winters and warm in summers, but since lothlórien is ruled by galadriel, the climate and vegetation vary in their own way. in terms of vegetation, it has a dense forest area. botanical characteristics: the species is a tree with leaves that do not fall in autumn but turn yellow in the season. when the spring comes, and fresh green leaves occur, its yellow leaves fall, and the tree flowers are yellow. the bark of the tree is grey. no further descriptions are found about the tree elçin parçaoğlu & arda acemi elçin parçaoğlu & arda acemi possible analogues of invented plan species...possible analogues of invented plan species... 3130 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in the lord of the rings. medicinal characteristics: there is no medicinal property of the plant indicated in the lord of the rings. possible analogue species: the fallen yellow leaves on the ground and yellow flowers on their branches in spring give a golden look to the tree. also, the tree is expected to have strong branches since sheds are built on them. upon the limited information given, the species might be eucalyptus sp. (eucalyptus or blue gum) from myrtaceae (myrtle) family with yellowish-white flowers and grey bark. also, the species is considered to be an evergreen tree. elanor where to find: the two flowers (elanor and niphredil), like mallorns, are exclusive to lothlórien, the realm of galadriel. haldir talks about these flowers as follows: “here ever bloom the winter flowers in the unfading grass: the yellow elanor, and the pale niphredil” (tolkien, 2004, p. 350). however, they could have originated in the elder days since they bloomed in the northern beleriand. botanical characteristics: the species is an herb with star-shaped yellow petals. no further descriptions of the plant in the lord of the rings are found. medicinal characteristics: there is no medicinal property of the plant indicated in the lord of the rings. possible analogue species: the shallow and minimal information about the species make it hard to associate with a good plant. however, in the light of illustrations found on the internet, the species seems like lysimachia sp. (primulaceae), hypoxis sp. (common goldstar) from hypoxidaceae (star-grass family), and zephyranthes sp. (rain lily) from amaryllidaceae (amaryllis family) with yellow petals. niphredil where to find: niphredil is an ancient flower. niphredil and elanor could be found in doriath, the north of beleriand, in the first age of middle-earth. galadriel may have kept their seeds for ages since she dwelt in doriath with elven-king thingol and maia melian in the first age. in the poem “the lay of leithian,” the flowers are mentioned as follows: “there mirth there was and voices bright / there eve was peace and morn was light / there jewel gleamed and silver wan / and red gold on white fingers shone / and elanor and niphredil / bloomed in the grass unfading still” (tolkien, 2015, p. 333). in addition, these flowers are associated with lúthien, daughter of king thingol: “in the forest of neldoreth it is said that she was born and cradled under the stars of heaven, and the white flowers of niphredil came forth to greet her, as stars from the earth” (tolkien, 1994, p. 10).1 botanical characteristics: the species is an herb with pale-coloured white petals. it blooms during winter. no further descriptions of the plant in the lord of the rings are found. medicinal characteristics: there is no medicinal property of the plant indicated in the lord of the rings. possible analogue species: the winter-blooming flowers with white petals limit the possible species to galanthus sp. (snowdrop) and leucojum sp. (snowbell) from amaryllidaceae family, cyclamen sp. (alpine violet) from primulaceae family, and crocus sp. (possibly crocus vernus; dutch crocus) from iridaceae (iris family). considering drawings of the species on the internet, the species might be one of the galanthus or leucojum species since these plants flower during the winter season. especially, galanthus sp. prefers snowy and cold weather to bloom. 1 our pagination. elçin parçaoğlu & arda acemi elçin parçaoğlu & arda acemi possible analogues of invented plan species...possible analogues of invented plan species... 3332 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies simbelmynë where to find: it means “ever-mind,” and it is a “small white flower in rohan, growing thickly on the burial mounds of the kings of the mark” (drout, 2007, p. 513). the land of rohan is located in the south of middle-earth. while there are plains and bottomlands on its northern border, the white mountains draw its southern border. the winters are mild, and the summers are warm. while the warm and moist wind blows from the west, the cold and dry wind blows from the east. there are tall grasslands (fonstad, 1991, pp. 180-185). additionally, this flower is mentioned in the city of gondolin, the hidden city, in the first age. when tuor reaches the city under the guidance of voronwë, he sees these flowers before the gate of silver: “like stars bloomed the white flowers of uilos, the evermind that knows no season and withers not” (tolkien, 2014, p. 64). “uilos” is the elven name of simbelmynë. it is understood that this flower’s origin is based on elder days when the elves ruled in a large area such as beleriand of middle-earth. botanical characteristics: the species is considered a shrub with a thick stem. it grows on the burial mounds and has small white flowers. no further descriptions of the plant in the lord of the rings are found. medicinal characteristics: there is no medicinal property of the plant indicated in the lord of the rings. possible analogue species: the thick stem, small white flowers, and its shrub nature might be the indicators. however, these are minimal descriptions. it might be evergreen and flowers often. these properties of the plant might be associated either with nerium sp. (oleander) from apocynaceae (dogbane family) or jasminum sp. from oleaceae (olives family) with white flowers. however, the thicker stems of nerium sp. increase the possibility of analogism. conclusion as seen in the analogues, these invented plants of tolkien are distributed in a wide range of families. thus, it is undeniable how wide the limits of tolkien’s imagination are, although he was not a botanist. in particular, the analogue species given for the two plants, athelas, and mallorn, have a much higher rate than the others in terms of accuracy. in addition, their presence in middle-earth cosmology reflects tolkien’s ecological perspective, especially as seen in the athelas plant. it can be emphasized that middle-earth mythology, in addition to its contributions to literature with ecocritical theory, may also prioritize contemporary interdisciplinary studies in terms of offering fields of study that include many scientific fields, including botanical science. elçin parçaoğlu & arda acemi elçin parçaoğlu & arda acemi possible analogues of invented plan species...possible analogues of invented plan species... 3534 vol. 14 no.2, 2021epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies references bog, m., appenroth, k. j., & sree, k. s. (2019). duckweed (lemnaceae): its molecular taxonomy. frontiers in sustainable food systems, 3, 117. christenhusz, m. j. m., fay, m. f., & chase, m. w. (2017). plants of the world: an illustrated encyclopedia of vascular plants. university of chicago press. davis, p. h. (1982). flora of turkey and the east aegean islands, (vol. 7). edinburgh university press. drout, m. d. c. (ed.), (2007). j. r. r. tolkien encyclopedia: scholarship and critical assessment. routledge. el euch, s. k., hassine, d. b., cazaux, s., bouzouita, n., & bouajila, j. (2019). salvia officinalis essential oil: chemical analysis and evaluation of anti-enzymatic and antioxidant bioactivities. south african journal of botany, 120, 253-260. fonstad, k. w. (1991). the atlas of middle-earth. houghton mifflin company. karpiński, t. m. (2020). essential oils of lamiaceae family plants as antifungals. biomolecules, 10(1), 103. phelan, j. 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(1994). the war of the jewels: the later silmarillion, part two (the history of middle-earth) (vol. 11). houghton mifflin harcout. willis, k. j. (ed.) 2017. state of the world’s plants 2017. report. royal botanic gardens, kew. microsoft word volume 7 for print epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 the prospects of intercultural education in bosnia and herzegovina elvira islamović ∗∗∗∗ nermina blažević abstract throughout history, education has not only been a carrier of culture, but also an integral part of communication between different cultures. challenges faced by educational and cultural institutions in most modern pluralistic societies are higher than in earlier societies. the legacy of ethnic conflict in the war in bosnia and herzegovina, in which traditional value of multicultural and multireligious life was undermined, had immediate implications for social, cultural and educational policies. educational policy, based on the assumption of a national culture that promotes national exclusivity through textbooks and educational practice, should overcome in recognition of cultural diversity and dialogue in a globalized world where differences should be considered an advantage and not deemed an obstacle to common life and cooperation. the paper highlights the importance of introducing interculturalism as an important component of the overall educational practice. teaching the value of diversity, the affirmation of universal values that underlie a democratic society, a sense of responsibility to themselves and to each other, the rejection of exclusion and differentiation of others on any basis, solidarity and cooperation, are current issues of the modern pedagogical and sociological discourse. these concerns must receive a stronger affirmation and application in the educational process of bosnia and herzegovina. keywords: cultural diversity; bosnian society; intercultural education ∗ corresponding authors: elvira islamović and nermina blažević; masaryk university; e-mail: nermina_blazevic@yahoo.com e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 48 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction many countries, not just today but also in the past were culturally pluralistic and socially divided. changes taking place in the modern globalized world developed into the different cultures and societies which became much more interconnected and interdependent. one of the most important problems of these contemporary times is to build mutual trust, cooperation, solidarity, respect for others, and the reduction of social prejudices and stereotypes, such as nationalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. often highlighted humanistic values such as the protection and promotion of human rights and the values of pluralist democracy, show that their nature is characterized as more declarative, then applied in „real world.“ many countries are concerned because of the appearance of violence, racism, xenophobia and an aggressive nationalism that threatens the integration and stability of many societies. it is generally known that the education and upbringing can cause an increase or reduction of social exclusion and prejudices towards others who are different. education is an important part of communication that shapes the patterns of behavior between different cultures and enables the development of society and the individual. challenges faced by educational and cultural institutions, in most modern pluralistic societies, are higher than in earlier societies. the school plays a decisive role in the process of socialization. the society seeks to develop certain e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 49 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences values and traits for children emphasizing on them in schools through education. cultural differences: multicultural or intercultural education multiculturalism can be described as a way of applying democratic rights in this contemporary diverse world, it is a way of expressing diversities in the society. cultural diversity and multicultural citizenship can be considered as one of the preconditions for the integration of all in a democratic society. multiculturalism as a term is used to denote a cultural policy that seeks equal coexistence of cultures and respect of other people's cultures, customs and values. multicultural public policies seek to improve the social and economic position of minorities of all kinds. in a specific case of bosnia and herzegovina multiculturalism could be considered as a key solution for the joint existence of this heterogeneous and multiethnic country. however, such policy implies that multiculturalism also relies on the ethnosocial disparities, ethnic tensions and conflicts (kukić, 1995, 79). multiculturalism as a cultural policy, therefore, arises as a reaction to this fact in order to ensure conditions for the survival of culture in these confronted situations (kukić, 1995, 79). in particular, it relates to ethnic and racial minorities and indigenous peoples who have historically been the target of harsh discrimination, oppression and injustice. multiculturalism, by e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 50 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences definition, means life next to each other. multiculturalism is, according to sociologist kukić, the lowest level of connection between ethnicities which, without disturbing each other, live and coexist in the same territory. the situation is different in the case of inter-culturalism, a cultural policy whose essence is reciprocity, equal and full-fledged exchange, expansion and connectivity among different cultures in a society. therefore, it is important to highlight that interculturalism rather than multiculturalism is a form of cultural life in multinational and multicultural environments, which has no adequate alternative. in modern democratic societies, understanding and acceptance of members of different cultures is becoming one of the important and basic roles of the educational system. according to the brian barry (2006), a researcher of multicultural process, the term "multicultural education" includes two educational policies that are contrary to its origins and implications. the first assumes that all children should have equal application, regardless of race or ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, religious beliefs or any other characteristic. the program should be multicultural and inclusive, taking into account the past and present and the position of all the group. another approach excludes the joint program and advocates for various programs at the school with a "separate clientele." "normal kids", "normal students" will then live in small closed communities as a rule within the school and school district surrounded by those who for whatever reason are defined as different (p. 285). e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 51 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences the council of europe advocates in the last fifteen years the intercultural education because of the multicultural composition of european countries. the term "intercultural education" is associated with the european tradition of education, as opposed to the "multicultural education," a term which is mainly associated with the anglo-saxon countries (britain, canada, usa). although the two terms are often used interchangeably, it is important to distinguish between interculturalism which means interactive links between cultures, dynamic / qualitative dimension of the interactive relationship between cultures and multiculturalism, which indicates the simultaneous existence of multiple cultures in an area, it means "static quantitative dimension of multiculturalism; condition, not a relationship" (puzić, 2008). the first studies of the council of europe on intercultural education were focused on the education of immigrant populations in european schools. at the same time the focus was on learning the language, which was not so emphasized because of the lack of prior education and specific experiences of socialization. however, such programs for "culturally different," served as a means of segregation and stigmatization; not taking into account the relationship between the culture from which they came and the culture of the country of origin. later, in the 1980s as a major task of intercultural education was provided help to students to acquire a positive selfimage and self-respect. until the 1990s, the focus was on the issue e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 52 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences of relations between cultural groups, there was a need to engage in intercultural education and the majority of the children. white paper (council of europe) on intercultural dialogue (2008) argues that one of the five approaches for the promotion of the intercultural dialogue are learning and teaching intercultural competences (in all levels of education) through a various subjects, religion, non-formal and formal education, teacher education and family environment. intercultural education includes and assumes: • education for empathy you need to learn to understand others and empathize with them; • education for solidarity requires greater sensitivity to the problems of inequality and social marginalization; • education for recognition and respect for diversity it is necessary to respect different lifestyles as well as personal and social wealth; • education against ethnocentrism, nationalism, racism and other factors of discrimination it is necessary to encourage the development of intercultural sensitivity and awareness of self and others (piršl, 2008). intercultural education involves a holistic and lifelong learning process and focuses on the development of competence and intercultural communication. the presence of the idea of interculturalism in education can be seen in three ways: 1) the declaratory affirmation of the principles and objectives of interculturalism in the law and regulations of education fields; 2) through a declarative representation of the principles and objectives of interculturalism in the school documentsl; 3) the practical application of these principles and objectives in the schools the school can be considered as a fertile environment together with teachers with the intercultural competencies (piršl, 2008). e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 53 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences work in an intercultural school environment enables the students and the teachers to feel important, valued and unique; they enjoy their own independent behavior; develop empathy, friendship and respect for each other, encouraging cooperation and individuality of the labor to create the conditions for understanding themselves and communicate their ideas and feelings about themselves and others (piršl, 2008). intercultural education based on these settings should result in the development of intercultural identity ("open identity") (lukic, 2010, 59-75). for most modern contemporary cultural complex societies, it is necessary to develop their own democratic and pluralistic model. therefore, the establishment of a form of intercultural education for diversity in society is formed for learning and accepting diversities as something valuable. cultural pluralism implies mutual understanding, tolerance and dialogue, intertwining all different cultural traits (spajić-vrkaš, 2004). according to spajićvrkaš (2004) notion of interculturalism includes interactive links between cultures, and appeared as a result of having a need to organize multicultural societies according to the principles of cultural pluralism and social dialogue. "it will be valid not only to learn together, but also to live together, what excludes any institutional separation.'' the co-existence will have to avoid the classic segregationist policies which bosnian society experience today in our so-called ''unified'' school system. therefore the secular schools have to try, at least within the compulsory education, to take into account the diversity of students in e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 54 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences heterogeneous groups. students are different, but the goals must be shared, and the basic one is dealing with diversity without exclusion and without separation. dual society produces dual school. but the dual school is not a school of moral and social education. on the other hand, the "intellectual" coexistence must be strengthened by active common living in joint projects (legrand, 1995, 61-62). education and training institutions are important agents of socialization and therefore stand out as an important factor of the formation and elimination of prejudice and social exclusion. some courses at the school in particular, can contribute to the creation of social prejudice and irrational interpretations, such as national history, national literature and others, especially if they are relying on legends and myths rather than on the facts. schools are often accused of not respecting enough diversity. they must show sufficient flexibility between individual and group differences, and also have to bring together individuals around common rules. in order to achieve this, it is important to emphasize the importance of the introduction of interculturalism as an important component of the overall educational practice. respect for pluralism in education, the recognition of cultural diversity and equality, and the question of maintaining a balance between the necessary integration, while respecting and preserving their own identity, are the questions that encourage many discussions. e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 55 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences intercultural education in bosnian context socio-cultural milieu of bosnia and herzegovina is marked with interculturalism for centuries. the historical experience of living together in bosnia and herzegovina, confirms that it is possible to live together and make the preservation of ethnic and cultural characteristics of each group individually. the nationalist discourse formed during the breakup of yugoslavia, sought to permanently delete and destroy this longstanding cohabitation among religious and ethnic groups in bosnia and herzegovina. destruction, nationalism and the establishment of ethnic displacement, were aimed at destroying of the collective memory and cultural traditions. the war wanted to destroy all rules which were built in order to make relations with those who are different ethnically. these issues have direct implications in the social, cultural and educational policies even today in bosnia and herzegovina. in the post-socialist and post-war bosnia and herzegovina, the key problem of educational systems is their pronounced ethnic nationalist dimension and divisions. ethnic divisions are an integral part of education, and the implications of the strongest divisions and exclusion are visible through the so-called national group of subjects: language and literature, history, geography and religious education (all of these subjects are named differently depending on ethnic affiliation). "since the end of communist rule, there are three periods of renewal of curricula: 1990-1992, when the curriculum was nationalized by the three main ethnic e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 56 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences groups; then in 1992 and by the end of the war in the 1995, when three totally new plans were developed, and post-war period through which three separated curricula were consolidated in education systems. three types of curricula determine future of education of bosnian citizens. firstly, it has to be emphasized that every of these curriculas are national in the sense that they focus on language, culture and history of only their own ethnic group. positioning of education towards ideological and concealing veil of the ruling parties in order to manipulate, always moves away education systems from its true mission, meaning of the true human emancipation. "what is not successfully carried out during the war, continues to be carried out in these contemporary times through ethnic nationalist separation in the educational system. these ''different'' education systems promote a particular ideological and political objectives of a certain ethnic group“ (kapo, 2012, 144). "education is often abused in practice, giving students different interpretations of the same facts," and "often schools divide students on the basis of their ethnic identity, language and religion" (pasalic-kreso, 1999, 7). these disorders are common in places where minority refugees took place and where the education is organized for the purpose of the majority of the population. there were some cases when students and teachers who belong to a minority group were banned and could not even enter the school building because the school curriculum completely ignores the cultural identity of these minority ethnic groups, on the other hand; minority boycotted the majority school e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 57 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences system and established a parallel one to members of their own ethnic group (pasalic-kreso, 2004 , 9-10). the so-called "two schools under one roof" were formed for the purposes of national homogeneity, segregation and design of exclusively ethnic identity. educational policy based on the assumption of a national culture, homogenization and ethnic mobilization around cultural symbols and beliefs, which manipulate etnocracy aimed at further separation and segregation of social relations. two schools under one roof are far away from the social and educational appreciation of ethnic diversity in a globalized world in which differences should be considered as an advantage, not a hindrance to cohabitation and cooperation. promoting national exclusiveness through textbooks, denying cultural differences, lack of dialogue and mutual cooperation is aimed at raising awareness of ethnicity in order to manipulate ethnic identities for various nationalist projects. even bosnia and herzegovina has reduced the number of segregated schools, however, continue education systems continue to suffer from institutional separation of children by ethnicity and the presence of mono-ethnic schools. national dichotomy is inadequately developed for the multiculturalism and tolerance, which are so necessary for bosnian society. building a democratic school that educates the citizen instead of members of the nation or religion should be one of the basic aims for whole bosnia and herzegovina. extracted potentiation on differences as a basic value, exclusivity and manipulation feeling of endangerment of e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 58 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences others, have long been the only form of policy. decades behind us left deep wounds for the whole bosnian society. bosnia and herzegovina still confront with the question how to re-learn to live together and to encourage the transformation of public discourse about others. political and ideological constraints and exclusivity in bosnian society during and after the war, did not bypass the educational systems which are supposed to design and to produce cultural uniformity. the education systems in bosnia and herzegovina have to be transformed, through the integration of intercultural components in the curricula which has to be unified. with regard to religious, ethnic and cultural diversity that is present in bosnia and herzegovina, the question of establishing an intercultural, multilingual education model, which develops integration and democratic connectivity, promotes the tolerance, unity and understanding, stands the question of the survival of bosnian society. "schools have the role to explain to young people all the historical, cultural and religious backgrounds of the various ideologies that are scrambling for their attention in a society that surrounds them, or in the school and classroom" (delors, 1998, 63). globalized world in which we live, seeks not only to understand the variability of our social position, but to understand the world around us, people and culture that we have and that is different and varies from the interaction. it is essential that school systems and other institutions of education and culture, develop forms of work that will prevent exclusion, nationalism, e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 59 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences anti-civilization and anti-democratic tendencies, and to promote democratic values, common life and cooperation. educational institutions must be saved from daily abuse and ideological manipulation. they must be the place where universal human values, human rights and dignities, the value of a pluralistic and democratic society are kept and applied. this educational concept represents an ethical imperative for a society in which the memory of the "ethnic cleansing" is still fresh, and the ominous political message about the impossibility of co-existence of people of different ethnic backgrounds, is still present, unfortunately. the state in which nationalist ideologies teach children and young people cannot live together with each other and the existence of "two schools under one roof" won the important role of education for pluralism, which is based on an understanding and appreciation of other cultures and helps in winning the trust and cooperation. in a democratic society, diversity is seen as an asset, not as a reason for bias or divisions in society. because of these reasons, the purpose of education is to prepare individuals not only to shape their own cultural identity and understand their culture, but also to accept, understand and respect other cultures. discussions on current issues such as multilingual education, the content of school textbooks of history and literature in a multicultural society, are current in bosnia and herzegovina which had more effectively the issues of ethnic and national, religious, cultural and linguistic diversity. already advocated intercultural education could be the approach to this e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 60 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences problem and could be considered as the best solution. the exit from this bosnian complex maze requires a greater sensitivity and understanding of ethnic diversity within the educational field, the recognition and appreciation of another, of different children and young people who have to be trained in intercultural communication and action. indicating the need of shaping public education system that does not suppress the national cultural, linguistic and other characteristics and identities, but only foster civic culture which is common to everyone is the access to educational and cultural aspects of the current bosnian problem. however, that among other things, requires a change in the political process in the country, but also the change of the education system and the media presentation of different social groups in order to reduce the negative effects of ethnocentrism. it goes without saying, that this is a long social process. multiculturalism is a complex social phenomenon, often accompanied by tensions and misunderstandings that highlight the differences between certain collectives within society. these conditions represent a growing challenge to the educational and cultural policy. conclusion both in the past and today, education enjoys its special role as the main carrier of the culture. therefore, education has a major role in the dialogue between cultures. it should help to perceive existing social contradictions in a new light, find a way e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 61 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences out of ethnic exclusion in order to create a pluralistic and democratic civil society. in this sense, it is expected that the educational policies contribute to improved understanding, solidarity and tolerance among individuals, ethnic, social, cultural and religious groups, with the affirmation of knowledge, values, attitudes and skills that lead to human rights and an active commitment to defend those rights. educational institutions at all levels should encourage reflection, critical distance, intercultural communication and action. doing so, education institutions may allow the development of sociability and solidarity. for this reason, it is extremely important that schools in bosnia and herzegovina as one of the basic educational tasks, encourage the development and awareness of the importance all human rights, intercultural learning and its competence which is necessary to respect cultural differences and pluralism in a multicultural environment. education should enable the harmonious development of personality with respect to its individuality, social and cultural identity. equal rights and equal opportunities for optimal development for all students, regardless of their social origin, nationality, religion, the right to education in their mother tongue, the right to choose schools, freedom to choose their individual educational programs, language learning, teaching religious education, a fundamental principle of education must be strongly emphasized in the educational system of bosnia and herzegovina. e islamović & n. blažević the prospects of intercultural education in b&h. 62 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences references bauman, z. 1995. life in fragments. cambridge: polity press. barry, b. 2006. kultura i jednakost. egalitarna kritika multikulturalizma. zagreb: naklada jesenski i turk. delors, j. (ur.) 1998. učenje: blago u nama: izvješće unesco-u međunarodnog povjerenstva za razvoj obrazovanja za 21. stoljeće. zagreb: educa. kapo, m. 2012. nacionalizam i obrazovanje: studija slučaja bosne i hercegovine. sarajevo: program podrške obrazovanju. fond otvoreno društvo bosna i hercegovina. kukić, s. 1995. sociologija. mostar: hkd napredak. legrand, l. 1995. moralna izobrazba danas, ima li to smisla? zagreb: educa. lukić, n. 2010. identitetni i interkulturalni odgoj i obrazovanje u hrvatskoj. u: obrazovanje mladih za ljudska prava i demokratsko građanstvo. mreža mladih hrvatske. studiji o mladima i za mlade. zagreb: nacionalna zaklada za razvoj civilnoga društva, 59-75. pašalić-kreso, a. 2003. geneza sazrijevanja ideje inkluzije ili inkluzija u funkciji smanjivanja neravnopravnosti u obrazovanju. u: pašalićkreso, a., bevanda, m. et al. (ur.), inkluzija u školstvu bosne i hercegovine. put prevazilaženja neravnopravnosti u odgoju i obrazovanju. zbornik radova. sarajevo: tepd teacher education and professional development i odsjek za pedagogiju ff u sarajevu. piršl, e. 2008. interkulturalni odgoj i obrazovanje. pula: sveučilište jurja dobrile. www.ffpu.hr/fileadmin/dokumenti/interkulturalni_odgoj.ppt (20. 9. 2012.). puzić, s. 2008. intercultural education in the european contex: analysis of selected european curricula. metodika, 15: 390-407. spajić-vrkaš, v. 2004. the emergence of multiculturalism in education: from ignorance to seperation through recognition. u: mesić, m. (ur.) experience and perspectives of multiculturalism: croatia in comparison to other multicultural societies. zagreb: ffpress i croation commission for unesco, 87-101. indira hasanović* introduction gender is a social construct that outlines the roles, behaviors, activities and features that a particular society believes are appropriate for men and women. according to anker (1997) “it is the fact that gender is used as criteria of social classification. thus, is mainly determined by natural instincts of people to classify everything, where a great attention is paid to categorization as to gender features” (p. 2). the main theoretical perspectives are focused on labor market segregation, wage differences and aspect of gender equality in the labor market. the labor market segmentation theoretical approach is related to the existing explanations of present labor market processes by defining the existing problems of gender equality. the feminist approach has anthropological character and it concerns notion of social process, norms and concepts of society in gender equality. this topic has been most researched by economic scholars and their main focus was on economical causes of the gender inequality in labor market. from social point of view the unfavorable position of women in labor market is nothing more than reflection of their social position, role and expectation. the basic statement of gender theory reflects the disadvantageous position of women in patriarchal society. the same position has been created thanks to unequal and subordinated position of women in a family and in the society in general. the reality perceptions of what is practiced in real social construct appears misleading compared to what is theoretically framed. therefore, the labor market is a location where gender inequalities can be visible and sustained. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies volume 7, number 2, 2014 p-issn 2303-6850 e-isnn 1840-3719 gender equality & work: are we there yet? abstract gender is a social construct that outlines the roles, behaviors, activities and features that a particular society believes are appropriate for men and women. gender equality is necessary in order to ensure a fair and productive labor market. even though, bosnia and herzegovina has established legal framework including gender equality laws, women are still facing barriers to participation in the labor market. this research paper will indicate what are the main challenges behind the low participation of women in the labor market. it will provide information on gender differences; the main challenges, and also emphasize gender stereotypes which are contributing the gendered division in labor market. keywords: gender; inequality; work; bosnia and herzegovina and labor market. *corresponding author: indira hasanović, phd candidate, international university of sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: ihasanovic@indiana.edu in shaping power and status for both women and men, work plays a significant component. this generates gender inequalities in the division of everyday jobs. in case of bosnia and herzegovina, current economical changes are perfect base for discrimination in sphere of work and employment. according to world bank group, the extent to which b&h has installed institutions and programs to enforce laws and policies that promote equal access for men and women on cpia gender equality rating scale in period of 2010-2014 is 4.0 (from scale 1.0 low to 6.0 high). the question is does this reflexes reality? generally speaking, no country do women enjoy the same opportunities as men, irrespective of a country’s income level. although over the years some aspects of women’s situation have improved, their opportunities in economic and political areas are still clearly limited. the conception of gender equality and work gender inequalities and the promotion of women’s rights, interests and issues, are the common basis of the feminist studies. butler (2010) claims that, “what is seen as general truth, as common knowledge, is instead naturalized through the workings of power.” butler’s view of gender difference and importantly are not natural or authentic, but rather, “are constructs that are produced and maintained through the workings of power in societies.” (p. 3). then according to begley (2000) “stereotypes present a trap into which many people can fall. gender stereotypes are very influential; they affect conceptualizations of women and men and establish social categories for gender. these categories represent what people think, and even when beliefs vary from reality” (pp. 66-67). the beliefs can be very powerful forces in judgments of self and others. cross-cultural research on gender roles and gender stereotyping indicates that all cultures delegate different roles to men and women. overall, there is no significant difference between the sexes when it comes to global unemployment rates but the female rate is consistently slightly higher than the male (olgiati and shapiro 2002, 6). when it comes to the transformation of men’s and women’s work roles it stands out among the many technological, economic, social and cultural changes. despite this progress in the last half of the 20th century, inequality remains after all across the three main dimensions– work outside the home, the kinds of jobs men and women do, and the relative pay they receive. we can say that, labor force participation is often seen as the prime indicator of changes in women’s status. as far back as fredrich engels’ or charlotte perkins gilman’s writings on the subject in the late 1800s, social scientists and other observers have identified employment outside the home as the starting point for understanding women’s position in society. social theory often focuses on women’s employment because it determines their access to resources and their ability to make independent decisions (cotter, hermsen and vanneman, 2004, 4). even if there is improvement of gender scores in recent years, b&h is still far behind in terms of gender equality in labor market. previously, few studies have 56 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences i. hasanović gender equality & work: are we there yet? been conducted to explore different types of labor discrimination. according to the major findings of conducted studies, women continue to face many barriers on their way to the top that are unique to their gender. they are often under-represented in organizations, nearly in all categories of jobs in b&h (somun-krupalija, 2011, 21). competence and accomplishment of women is widely acknowledged, but despite this woman in the b&h situation is often exposed to some form of gender discrimination. the legal and policy framework, in article ii of gender equality law b&h states that: “it prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex and sexual orientation. it also promotes equal participation of women in areas where they are considered less advantaged then men, namely education, economics, social security, health, sport, culture, public life, media as well as labor and employment.” (article ii, gel, b&h, 2010) women’s representation in the public sphere in b&h still remains low. also, women who experience discrimination is more likely to quit or change their jobs rather report the case to the responsible institution. position of women in the labor market has weakened: the employment rate of women is lower than the employment rate of men, and the gender gap is present in all indicators that frame the labor market. demanded employment is often not only sex and gender specified, but also associated with physical looks, which in practice usually means discrimination. according to agency for statistics b&h for the year 2013, women possibilities to access to the labor market are still low. based on report, women are still lagging behind significantly from men. in year 2013, unemployment rate for men is 26.5%, and women rate is 29 %. another impact on the employment rate of women is parenthood, which is considered as one of the main reason for the withdrawal of women from the labor market. according to research, women in their 1920s and 1930s are asked in interview whether they are married or plan to have children, so they can see if women can spend time outside of office and travel. the issues of women’s exclusion must be considered against the backdrop of stereotypes concerning the roles of man and women. this division of roles and responsibilities are mirrored in workplace relations (somun-krupalija, 2011, 14). girls and women in their reproductive age are undesirable labor force in b&h. a child born more often means losing the job. all of this has placed women in position of choosing between motherhood and carrier. differences of the dominating motivation among men and women influence the choice of profession and position and involvement in the labor market. the most important conditions for women are good wage and safe work environment. these conditions are social aspects and possibilities to coordinate job with free time and family life. men often express a viewpoint that sometimes they are made to work more in order to earn more and realize his role of bread winner superior. women in this respect more often perceive 57 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences i. hasanović gender equality & work: are we there yet? work as a possibility to realize her personal, social and mental needs” (wdr, 2012, 198). in framed by gender: how gender inequality persist in the modern world, ridgeway has given a true contribution to field of gender inequality. she provides a theoretical framework to explain gender inequality on the workplace. the central premises is that, most fundamental to her argument is recognition that because we are all social actors, we view ourselves and others through gender lens. it permeates and shapes all of our interactions. according to research provided by international labor organization women are paid especially little in “women’s jobs” such as those in cleaning and child care (ilo, 2003, 6). a research provided in b&h examined the socio-cultural determinants of the low representation of women in top managerial positions in public sector of b&h. findings revealed that both male and female respondents perceived that societal culture has an important bearing on both thought processes and nature. the study concluded that if effective work-life policies are adopted, which support dual-earner couples, employers would get benefits in turn (brankovic, 2013). in 2013, ministers of all nine ministries of bosnia and herzegovina were men. chairman of the council of ministers is a man. gender representation of deputy ministers is equal five women and five men, which is more women than in the previous term, when there were only two women deputy ministers (agency for statistics, 2013, 45). managers reported organizational culture to be favorable to men. male respondents believed more in hierarchical relationships, which support the notion that bosnian society is hierarchical in nature, and affects interpersonal relationships of people. in bosnian society, men are perceived to be assertive and commanding, where as women are expected to comply, obey and be submissive and inactive. having said that, what seems to be emerging is a view that there is a correlation between a number of women at the top of an organization and better organizational performance generally. there is, however, contention as to why this might be so. there is an ongoing dialogue about women’s leadership and management style and how it might differ from that of men. while many comment actors support there being a difference, there is a different view that this constitutes gender stereotyping which lacks validity. the fact is that there is evidence of an association which is sufficient to support having an increased representation of women in leadership roles (conway, 2012, 4). gender equality in employment today is not only a question of social justice, but it represents an economic necessity. in fact, there are strong economic reasons for the increased presence of women in the workforce, and its working age population aging. due to an aging population, we will not be able to count on the young generation as before, the woman is expected active role at all levels and in all sectors of the labor market. thus, 58 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences i. hasanović gender equality & work: are we there yet? the need for more active policy that would allow more women to participate in the labor market. it will contribute to such a policy, which will go convened the family, i.e., which will help establish a balance between the worlds of work and family commitments, and allow an easier return to work after absence from the labor market. due to demographic changes it will be necessary to think about higher economic activity of women (kerovec, 2003, 275-279). survey of relevant data on status of gender equality in b&h particularly interesting is the analysis of the underlying gender stereotypes which shape the gendered division of employment in labor market. the subject of research is perception of gender equality in b&h based on categories of an unequal employment possibilities, unequal social status and unequal possibilities regarding working rights. all data collected for this research is secondary data. data for this research is collected from world bank data bases and agency for statistics of the bosnia and herzegovina. time period of data analyzed is from referent period of 2007 2011 mainly collected from labor force survey (lfs) from year 2009, 2012 by agency for statistics of bosnia and herzegovina. this date covered around 10,509 households and the age of people who were included in survey is 15 or more. all the data collected and analyzed is in accordance to european statistics office (eurostat) standards. data used for this research is not normally distributed; therefore nonparametric tests will be used. these tests will be conducted in statistical software named statistical package for the social sciences (spss). therefore, test that will be used is wilcoxon signedranks samples test or in spss test named mann whitney for two independent variables. this research centers on the idea of judging the understanding reality of gender in the labor market. according to the literature, people’s views of the gender issue are affected by different factors or situations. the preformed analysis examines whether the finding is relevant to the b&h, and if so, which are the factors that have major impact. it is easy to expect women to have less supportive approaches toward gender inequality than men. in this article, the mann-whitney test is conducted to see whether the result makes a difference in people’s perceptions of gender equality. if it is significant, this means that these factors have a major impact either positive or negative on gender perception. throughout the analysis we present only the p-value for the mann-whitney test. summary of the results in table 1 it is measured principle population characteristics, possible inequality or equality of activity rate, employment rate and unemployment rate by gender criteria on the labor market. 59 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences i. hasanović gender equality & work: are we there yet? table 1. principle population characteristics by activity and gender in b&h year a c t i v i t y rate e m p l o y m e n t rate u n e m p l o y m e n t rate 2007-2011 male(avg) 56.7 42.9 24.5 female(avg) 32.1 22.7 29.0 p-value 0.008 0.008 0.032 source: agency for statistics of bosnia and herzegovina from the results, we can conclude that, throughout all categories there is evident inequality of genders by activity rate, employment rate and unemployment rate. from this, a category of rate to which person belongs to, we can see that there are more males employed than females. in the table 2 analysis is preformed on persons in employment by groups of sections of economic activities attained by gender. there are three groups of sections of economic activities of persons who are employed (agricultural, industry, services). all of these groups are classified by gender. table 2. persons in employment by groups of sections of economic activities and gender in b&h year agricultural industry services 2007-2011 male(avg) 18.7 39.3 41.9 female(avg) 22.6 17.1 60.2 p-value 0.008 0.008 0.008 source: agency for statistics of bosnia and herzegovina according to this analysis, there is gender inequality in all three groups. in terms of the overall labor market, industry and services are the main areas of employment. the service sector is still the leading sector of employment in the country. in the table 3 analysis is preformed on persons in employment by highest level of education attained by gender. there are three groups in the classification of education level of persons who are employed (primary school, secondary school, higher (higher level of education covers college, university, master, doctoral degree)). all of these categories are classified by gender. table 3. persons in employment by highest level of education attained by gender in b&h year primary secondary higher 2007-2011 male(avg) 21.9 62.9 15.0 female(avg) 23.4 60.1 16.4 p-value 0.548 0.222 0.690 source: agency for statistics of bosnia and herzegovina 60 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences i. hasanović gender equality & work: are we there yet? throughout all groups there is evident equality of genders by employment related with level of education. from the category level of education to who person belongs to, there are more female employed than male in primary and higher level of education. also, the largest proportion of working population in country has completed secondary education. since p value is more than 0.05 we can say that persons in employment by highest level of education attained by gender in b&h. in the table 4 analysis is preformed on persons in unemployment by highest level of education attained by gender. there are three groups in the classification of education level of persons who are employed (primary school, secondary school, higher (higher level of education covers college, university, master, doctoral degree)). all of these categories are classified by gender. table 4. unemployed persons by the highest level of education attained by gender in b&h year primary secondary higher 2007-2011 male(avg) 23.8 71.3 4.6 female(avg) 23.4 68.6 7.9 p-value 1.000 0.016 0.056 source: agency for statistics of bosnia and herzegovina in the group primary and higher level of education according to analysis preformed genders are equal by employment rate according to level of education. in the group secondary, genders are not equal by employment rate according to level of education; more males are unemployed then females. the largest proportion of unemployed population in country is persons with secondary education. since p value is less than 0.05 we reject the ho hypothesis for secondary level of education. since p value is more than 0.05 we retain the ho hypothesis for primary and higher level of education. conclusion in b&h employment trends shows that women have been and continue to be employed less than men. some of the barriers that women face in terms of employment are related to the unequal distribution of labor in the family, a lack of appropriate enforcement of legal regulations and the impact of the traditional norms and values in society. even though it is prohibited discrimination based on gender in all areas including employment procedures, the real problem is in the lack of implementation of the law. we should not forget to mention that society has different expectations for men and women in fulfilling their social roles. deviation from these roles is not encouraged, and traditional norms and values are clearly proscribed. because of this, there is inability of women to enter the labor market. based on analysis that we preformed, gender inequality persists. the findings outlined above showed that women are still somewhat less likely than men to be active in the labor force. 61 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences i. hasanović gender equality & work: are we there yet? the journey for gender equality in labor market in b&h is still long way to go. in shaping the 21st century, women and men should be equal partners. the results showed that the research confirmed our assumptions, particularly the general hypothesis of gender discrimination and treatment of women compared to men. also, women in the labor market are discriminated because of their gender, not because of lack of skills or abilities to particular job. gender inequality, marked imbalanced distribution of power, resources and privileges at the expense of women, present not only in the private sphere and family relationships, but also in the so-called public patriarchy. unequal social treatment of women and men in the labor market in b&h is partially conditioned by biological differences such as, women’s pregnancy that may differently reflect the status of women in society in general. in the struggle of to keep their jobs, common opinion, again to the expenses of women, implies the acceptance of the present irresponsibility of the society/state in ensuring the occurrence of sex or gender based discrimination in all spheres of social life. the fact presented in this paper suggests that a socially determined issue does a better job than efficiency detriment ones in explaining many existing patterns. the question is will women because of the presence of discrimination be forced to return to their “origins” (role of mother who takes care of the children)? it is clear, the path to full gender equality is not easy; thus, the future of gender equality will depend significantly on how we use these facts to guide the choice we make as societies. references anker, richard. 1997. “theories of occupational segregation by sex: an overview,” international labor review, 136(3). branković, azra. 2013. “femininity cultural dimension in bosnia and herzegovina”. international conference on education, culture and identity. 6-8 july, 2013. international university of sarajevo. sarajevo. begley, sharon. 2000. newsweek, vol. 136 issue 19. berenson l. mark., levine m. david and kathryn a. szabat. 2010. “basic business statistics. concepts and applications.” pearson education. boesten, jelke. 2010. “inequality, normative violence and livable life judith butler and peruvian reality”, polis working papers 2010 (1), university of leeds, web. http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/assets/ files/research/working-papers/working-paper-no1-2010.pdf, 1.12.2014. conway, helen. 2012. “gender in the workplacethe journey to equality.” the 20th annual kingsley laffer memorial lecture. the university of sydney. cotter, david, hermsen, m. joan and vanneman, reeve. 2004. “gender inequality at work.” web. http:// www.vanneman.umd.edu/papers/cotter_etal.pdf. 10 nov. 2013. labour market studies. 2006. “gender equality aspects in the labor market “ esf. web. http://www. lm.gov.lv/upload/darba_tirgus/darba_tirgus/petijumi/10_pet_en.pdf 20 dec. 2013. 62 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences i. hasanović gender equality & work: are we there yet? international labor organization (ilo). 2003. “time for equality at work.” geneva. international labor office. web.http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/ publication/wcms_publ_9221128717_en.pdf 14 nov. 2013. kerovec, nada. 2003. “(ne)jednakost žena na tržištu rada.” revija za socijalnu politiku. no. 10.3 zagreb. web. http://www.rsp.hr/ojs2/index.php/rsp/article/view/105/109 10 jan. 2014 labor force survey 2009. agency for statistics of the b&h. sarajevo. 2010 web. http://www.fzs.ba/ anketa/ars_2009bh.pdf 21 jan.2013. labor force survey 2012. agency for statistics of the b&h. sarajevo. 2013 web. http://www.bhas.ba/ tematskibilteni/lfs_bh.pdf 21 jan.2013. labor force survey 2013. agency for statistics of the b&h. sarajevo. 2014 web. http://www.bhas.ba/ tematskibilteni/bhas_ars_bh_press.pdf 26 dec.2014. olgiati, etta and shapiro, gillian. 2002. “promoting gender equality in the workplace.” luxembourg: european communities. ridgeway, l. cecilia. 2011. framed by gender: how gender inequality persists in the modern world. 1st ed. oxford university press. somun-krupaijla, lejla. 2011. “gender and employment in the b&ha country study.” international labour office. united nations development program. gender inequality index. 2012. web. http://hdr.undp.org/en/ statistics/gii 26 dec. 2013. wolfe, a. douglas., & hollander, myles. 1999. nonparametric statistical methods. 2nd ed. wileyinterscience. world bank, cpia gender equality rating 2012 in b&h. web. http://data.worldbank.org/country/bosniaand-herzegovina 26 dec. 2013. world development report 2012. gender differences in employment and why they matter. web. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/intwdr2012/ resources/7778105-1299699968583/7786210-1315936222006/chapter-5.pdf 03 jan. 2013 63 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences i. hasanović gender equality & work: are we there yet? 186 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the “american” skyscraper: perceptions of the skyscraper in british media during the first decades of the twentieth century carl haddrell international university of sarajevo abstract the absence of the skyscraper from the british skyline in the first decades of the twentieth century is notable. this paper contributes to an understanding of some of the reasons for this by analysing how perceptions of what was seen as an essentially “american” form of architecture within british contemporary media, influenced architectural practice in britain at the time. it will be seen that apathy if not overt hostility met the calls for the skyscraper to be adopted to alleviate some of the pressing urban issues being faced in britain, resulting in the skyscraper remaining absent from the british urban skyline. keywords: skyscraper; american and british architecture; urban design; media epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 187 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 introduction at a time when skyscraper construction was an ever-increasing phenomenon in the united states of america, the absence of similar constructions in great britain is notable. this paper examines how perceptions of the skyscraper, represented through contemporary media influenced architectural practice in great britain in the interwar period. this article illustrates how perceptions of the “american” skyscraper developed in great britain, in response to an apathetic narrative presented in the british media, resulting in, at best a reticence to adopt the architectural form and at worst, hostility towards what was seen as an alien building typology. as will be seen, debate concerning the skyscraper and its suitability, specifically to the london skyline, provided a context within which the adoption of the “american” skyscraper would have been seen as contentious. yet, the relaxation of prevailing building height regulations becomes much more realistic. american architecture and british attitudes an awareness of american architecture was increasing within british architectural circles in the first decades of the twentieth century, through american architectural technologies being tentatively employed in a limited number of buildings in england, reporting of architectural development in cities such as chicago and new york in the national press, academic and professional presentations, and a number of influential architectural exhibitions. one such exhibition took place in 1921 with an exhibition of north american architecture held at the galleries of the royal institute of british architects (riba). the exhibition was reviewed in the journal of the royal institute of british architects (hall, 1921, pp. 47-51) allowing a significant amount of exposure for exhibits of a new architectural tradition. the editorial of the journal reviewed the exhibition favourably. recognising that london was in a period of architectural redevelopment the journal was keen to allay the fears of those who were uneasy about the form carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 188 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the new developments were taking. referring to the new york municipal building, by mckim, mead and white, the journal describes the building as a skyscraper of “great beauty, and probably the most successful of the tall buildings in america” (hall, 1921, p. 48). this admiration for an american skyscraper falls short of a direct call for the adoption of skyscrapers in britain’s cities. however, when reference is made to the goram building, the editorial gives a clearer indication of some of the prevailing british attitudes towards tall buildings and skyscrapers. this shop building in fifth avenue possessed the admirable qualities of simplicity and proportion, and as a result, was much imitated within the united states. the journal called for its imitation within the streets of london: it is 130 feet high to the top of the cornice, facing on a street 100 feet wide and a side street 60 feet wide. such a building is impossible in london with the existing restrictions upon the height of buildings, and it is important that all who are interested in this subject should see this example of the proper use of freedom. consider the eminently satisfactory shape it gives us – neither a “skyscraper” nor too low for good proportion. is not the time ripe for some alteration in our own buildings acts whereby architects may arrive at the right height both for architectural treatment and for meeting the growing requirements of healthy commercial activity? (hall, 1921, p. 48) the exhibition also benefited from addresses given by two american architects, bertram goodhue and donn barber, in which the european antecedents of american architecture appear to have been offered as a form of palliative to those anxious about the implications of architectural innovation in america. these addresses reflected the content of the exhibition so far as the significance of the skyscraper within american architecture was subdued. a favourable review of the exhibition, based mostly upon the accompanying addresses given by american architects goodhue and barber, carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 189 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 was published in the architectural review. the review reproduced many of the photographs exhibited, none of which, however, were of skyscrapers (the architectural review, 1922, pp. 31-39). in addition, architectural developments in america were reported in the national press. as the skyscrapers of new york and chicago reached ever higher, their construction was reported to the british public. it was frequently the case that the reporting of each new building proposal merely noted building specifications and costs. rarely was there any comment upon the architectural merits of the skyscraper. evidence for this is shown in a number of articles in the times, including the largest “skyscraper” (the times, 1924, p. 9), another new skyscraper for new york (the times, 1926, p. 12), new york’s tallest skyscraper (the times, 1928, p. 15) and tallest skyscraper in the world (the times, 1929, p. 16). however, when american architecture was the subject of evaluation, the perception of the skyscraper and its role in defining twentieth-century american architecture is pronounced. in an article entitled architecture in new york, the beauty of the skyscraper which appeared in the times in 1925 there is evidence that the skyscraper had become a more familiar and accepted architectural form (the times, 1925, p. 13). however careful interpretation of the perception of the skyscraper represented in such reports is required to assess the extent to which there remained the presence of a prejudicial subtext. it is reported that the aesthetic inadequacies of earlier designs, which failed to disguise successfully the steel-frame construction of the earliest skyscrapers, had been overcome. according to the times correspondent, no beauty was to be found in these engineered constructions whose only merit lay in their size. these opinions, which dismissed the aesthetic qualities of the visual articulation of construction methods, provide an interesting insight into the aesthetic thinking which remained and dominated within britain. it is reported that “the skyscraper, from one of the ugliest things, has grown into one of the most beautiful” and that “it is in the skyscraper that native talent found its most original expression” (the times, 1925, carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 190 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies p. 13). the zoning laws of 1916 are credited with alleviating many of the problems of overcrowding associated with skyscraper development, however, in charting the development of the skyscraper, the article succeeds in detailing these problems, together with all the others which were being employed by those opposed to the introduction of the skyscraper in british cities. the coverage in the british press of the continuing development of the american skyscraper emphasised and, it could be argued, sought to maintain the geographical distance between the skyscraper and britain. what was suitable for american cities would appear for many, not to have been suitable closer to home. this point is emphasised in a times article of 1929 which provided an illustrated account of the “modern treatment of the skyscraper” (the times, 1929, p. 13; 19). photographs of a number of the more recent skyscrapers constructed in america were provided to support the claim that the design of american skyscraper had improved to the extent that it more adequately served the requirements of a modern american city. the tribune tower at chicago was considered to be of a far superior design to the “old type” of skyscraper. however, support for the skyscraper was not unequivocal. the question remained “whether in the growth of the modern metropolis, the skyscraper’s undoubted advantages have been outweighed by, or have outweighed, the congestion of the streets and the public transport which has resulted” (the times, 1929, p. 13). the zoning laws were once again held responsible for encouraging improvements in skyscraper design, but nevertheless, the article addresses issues of architectural practice and proportion conceived with the aid of unprecedented economic prosperity and in response to problems of which “the old world had no conception” (the times, 1929, p. 13). great architecture, it was argued, was formulated to meet the specific requirements of its age. in other words, the skyscraper was seen as an american solution to an american problem. carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 191 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 debates within riba the favourable perceptions of the american skyscraper contained in the reviews of the exhibition of american architecture were made within the context of the more specific debate that was ongoing within the riba concerning building height regulations. increasing economic pressure to allow the construction of taller, and as it was argued more profitable, buildings was accompanied by an increasing, if sometimes sporadic, faltering and ultimately ineffectual call for a legislative change. it was reported that in the years after the end of world war one, as the economy improved, there was a significant increase in demand for commercial property. this was evidenced in london by sharp increases in the volume of leasehold and freehold transactions, together with a rise in the value of the properties involved (the times, 1920, p. 7). as a result, it was reported that “there may be so great a demand for central properties that in time a new type of building may be sanctioned in london – new to london, and probably peculiar to it – something intermediate between the larger structures, such as those in kingsway, and the ‘skyscraper’” (the times, 1920, p. 7.) in a paper titled higher buildings for london presented to the riba in 1920, the architect delissa joseph called for provision within the building regulations to be made for the erection of buildings of increased height (the times, 1920, p. 4). it was reported that the matter was the subject of a lively debate notable for the contribution of sir martin conway. whilst he claimed not to be calling for the introduction of the “skyscraper,” wishing that the word could be left out of the discussion, he lamented the fact, that in his opinion, the maximum use of london’s finite number of building plots would not be possible within the framework of current building height restrictions. conway “did not care what the height of the new order of buildings might be – 200 ft., 500 ft., or 5000 ft., but there must be ascertainable what might be called an ‘economic height’” (the times, 1920, p. 4). this call for the introduction of taller buildings for economic reasons followed an earlier call for their construction for residential purposes when he addressed the carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 192 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies london society. he delivered a speech titled “london as i should like to see it,” in which he argued for a city of giant towers allowing for the clearance of the “mean streets” of the east end whilst retaining the same levels of accommodation (conway, 1920 as quoted in gilbert, 2004). in the same year, conway addressed a meeting at the lyceum club where he “returned to his pet contention ‘that london should stretch up, not out’” (the architectural review, 1920). once again, it was claimed that conway was not calling for skyscrapers. instead, he asserted the pressing need for tall buildings to house london’s rapidly expanding population. joseph returned to the subject of taller buildings, skyscrapers and buildings of “economic height” in another address to the riba the following year, 1921. he received criticism within the national press for promoting the introduction of skyscrapers into london and felt it necessary to defend himself and clarify his position (joseph, 1921). it had been suggested that the introduction of the skyscraper for economic reasons would have been mistaken. the increased cost of foundations and of building above a certain height, it was claimed, would not show an economic return. joseph insisted that there had been “no serious talk of introducing the ‘skyscraper’ into london,” and that in his paper he had suggested the selective use of taller buildings of up to 200 ft in height, and not the construction of “’skyscrapers” which are anything up to 750 ft in height” (joseph, 1921). in buildings of up to 200 ft the question of “economic height” does not arise. it becomes clear that the type of tall building proposed by joseph was different from that proposed by conway, who as we have seen, championed the economic benefits of taller buildings. the architect oswald p. milne provided one of the more strident calls for the adoption of taller buildings within the future architecture of london. writing in the london mercury milne outlined his reasons why he believed the prospect of the future adoption of skyscrapers should excite every londoner (milne, 1923, pp. 33-34). milne was keen to emphasise the carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 193 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 merits of the existing architecture in london. he was well aware of the city’s attraction, describing it as a “great city that one can live in under pleasant conditions” (milne, 1923, p. 34). he refrained from criticising the city in the way hall had done in the same year (hall, 1921, p. 48). both were aware of the major changes ahead for a city in the middle of a phase of rebuilding, yet the reasons for promoting taller buildings adopted by each man differed. hall saw a london of staleness and endless repetition, where the imposition of building height restrictions, unrelated to architectural design or street width mitigated against the creation of fine street architecture (hall, 1921, p. 48). hall’s call for the awareness of and in certain cases the adoption of american forms of architecture was born out of a concern for the aesthetic qualities of the architecture constructed in london during the period of rebuilding after world war one. warning against aesthetic stagnation he lambasted his contemporaries for “deliberately creating banality on every hand by which future generations will remember us, and the only chance of escape is by realising it in time” (hall, 1921, p. 51). milne, on the other hand, had other motives for his calls for a relaxation of the building height regulations. his call for taller buildings was in response to the perceived requirements of business for increased accommodation. the pressure for change outlined by milne was not grounded in aesthetics, instead, he refers to pressure being applied by bodies such as the incorporated association of retail distributors, the city lands committee, and the medical officers’ association, all hoping for a relaxation of the existing act. all agreed that extra accommodation, particularly within the square mile of the city must be found. unless taller buildings were allowed to be constructed, creating much-needed extra accommodation, it was claimed that the great national businesses of banking, insurance and shipping, amongst others, would be irrevocably damaged. the unfairness of a system which indiscriminately applied the same building height restrictions to buildings proposed for commercial and residential areas was called into question by milne, who also pointed out that having imposed a building height restriction of 80 feet, carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 194 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies the authorities had no power to stop a developer using his full allowance even for a building proposed in the narrowest of streets. milne’s suggestions remained pragmatic. he was mindful of london’s unique architectural heritage and the heterogeneous nature of london’s constituent parts. for milne, the blanket imposition of building height regulations had not worked, and the blanket relaxation of these restrictions would also not work. an acceptable building height in the commercial districts of the city would not necessarily have been acceptable in the then residential areas of the west end. milne was calling for a selective relaxation of the building height regulations that would have allowed for the creation of taller buildings, in certain commercial areas, which would have, in his opinion, benefited those businesses occupying those areas. the question at issue had been one concerning an amendment to building height regulations that would have allowed for the erection, under certain circumstances, of taller buildings. milne’s choice of language is quite particular and echoes the reticence of conway in using the word “skyscraper.” this avoidance is indicative of the sensibilities involved in the discussion of these matters at this time; reference is made predominantly to the provision of taller buildings or to the removal of the 80 feet building height restriction. where mention is made of the word “skyscraper” it is done so within a context of reassurance: for instance, milne acknowledges the word’s association with american architecture, and then assures his readers that that form of architecture was not what was intended for london. indeed, milne’s only overt praise of the “skyscraper” occurs with its first mention, referred to above. milne was at pains to disassociate the relaxation of the building height regulations from an imminent adoption of american-style skyscrapers. he acknowledged the association of the skyscraper with new york and mentioned the period of seemingly uncontrollable skyscraper development within that city, but maintained that such development had been discredited and would therefore never be allowed in london: carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 195 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 the day of the uncontrolled skyscraper in new york is past, and whatever evils it may have had in the past, no-one who has visited the city will deny that some of them are magnificent in architectural effect and that they give a romantic gesture to the capital. we may not want buildings 500 feet high – we certainly do not – but buildings considerably higher than our 80 feet of today, in the proper places and properly managed, would add valuable accommodation to the town. (milne, 1923, pp. 40-41) milne called for the adoption in london of a zoning plan, similar to the one implemented in new york, which regulated the development of their skyscrapers in accordance with the principles of setting back. such a zoning plan would identify and differentiate london’s districts and each would then have a maximum building height imposed in accordance with their individual requirements. in outlining these plans milne was once again careful not to use the word “skyscraper,” despite the fact that his proposals had their origins in new york, the city then seen as the home of the skyscraper. decorum and legislation as hindrances for the adoption of the skyscraper within london the two major obstacles of decorum and legislation remained. during the years after world war one, the royal institute of british architects examined the possibilities of a relaxation of the building height regulations. perhaps following the precedents set by the construction of the selfridges building, which resulted in an increase in the permitted cubic capacity of buildings, this call for a possible increase in the permitted height of building construction could have resulted in a legislative change that would have legally allowed for the construction of skyscrapers in london. this examination of the planning legislation came at a time when the planning authorities had been faced with legislating for the construction possibilities afforded by the implementation carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 196 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies of new technologies. the result was that in the years after world war one planning legislation was subject to a certain amount of interpretation. philip booth details how the role of the british planner had changed (booth, 1999, pp. 277-289). he shows how twentieth-century development control arose from the experience of nineteenth-century public health standards in new buildings and from leasehold control, indicating how planning control emerged as an ad hoc administrative response to a particular problem. local government planning policy is seen as one of discretionary control, where planning regulations were open to subjective interpretation. however, as we have seen there is little evidence to support the view that there was much that was discretionary about the building height restrictions. an indication that a reliance upon the subjective view of individual planners or planning offices was not viewed as a reliable method to ensure innovative architectural development was given by the time spent by the riba in considering the question of a relaxation of the building height regulations. the period of building activity that had followed the architectural inactivity of the war years had prompted building regulations to come under increased scrutiny. as has been mentioned, lobbying for the relaxation of the building height regulations came from a number of quarters, usually from those commercial property owners with a vested interest. in addition to these in 1921, the royal institute of british architects appointed a committee to address the issue. as an outcome of papers read before a committee meeting of the riba in march 1920 by austen hall on american department stores and the architect delissa joseph on higher buildings for london, the riba created a committee, known as the building act committee to consider and report upon the reform of the london building acts. a deputation from that committee attended the building act committee of the london county council and submitted certain suggestions for the amendments of the act and to gauge the opinions of the council on the matter. these suggestions included: carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 197 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 1. in the case of a building in a street of greater width than 80 feet, an increased height should be permitted, equal to the greater width of the street, with two fire-resisting roof storeys above the same, but in no case a greater height than 150 feet, exclusive of the two storeys in the roof. 2. that in the case of buildings opposite parks, squares and public gardens not less than 150 feet wide, or facing commons, open spaces and the riverside, or when facing down the length of a street, such buildings should be permitted to a height of 150 feet exclusive of two storeys in the roof. (journal of the royal institute of british architects, 1921, p. 334) the committee had an area of enquiry concerning primarily the question of building height but also the additional question of cubic capacity in an attempt to find satisfactory solutions to the problems created by the unsatisfied demands for commercial and residential accommodation. the deliberations of the committee, lasting some eighteen months and concerning the pragmatic rather than aesthetic issues at question resulted in the publishing of an interim report, in which it recommended that a general increase to 120 feet should be allowed in the city, and that the lcc should be asked to grant their discretionary powers more freely for buildings up to 150 feet, both in the city and in london as a whole. in addition to the interim report of the building acts committee, there followed a report from the art standing committee of the riba, which articulated their concerns arising out of that report. this report maintained the precedent set by the interim report by not mentioning by name “skyscrapers.” the report objected in the strongest possible terms to the proposals and recommendations of the building act committee. despite an expressed admiration for the architecture of new york, where tall buildcarl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 198 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies ings had vied for prominence in conditions of superior sunlight and atmosphere, the art standing committee expressed the concern that should higher buildings be permitted throughout the city without regard to even the width of the street or regard for the character of the neighbourhood, neighbouring buildings, and the general appearance of the back of these buildings, a preposterous situation would be created which would turn the city streets into badly lighted, badly ventilated areas (journal of the royal institute of architects, 1921, p. 221). the art standing committee did express the opinion that in certain cases exceptions could be made and a relaxation of building height regulations could be made to allow for the construction of the occasional taller building relieving the monotony of a long stretch of buildings of equal height. the art standing committee had not been persuaded by the opinions of the building act committee. the council or main body of the royal institute of british architects did not accept the findings of the building act committee, and as a result, they did not formally press for any legislative change that would have permitted the erection of a skyscraper. the proceedings and reports of both committees had been reported by the journal of the riba, and within these official accounts of their deliberations, little mention was made of the word skyscraper. indeed, for the most part, both committees concerned themselves with incremental changes to the building height restrictions; describing the height of a building in quantitative terms rather than through the employment of emotive terminology. however, the minutes of a general business meeting of the riba, held on the 20 february 1922, and reported in their journal, (journal of the royal institute of architects, 1921, p. 221) provide an insight into the deliberations of the institute and the way in which the term “skyscraper” had become so emotive. the meeting was convened to discuss the question of higher buildings and in particular, the two motions; firstly “that … [the riba] approves the action taken by the council in connection with the report of the london building act committee,” a discussion of council procedure appertaining carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 199 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 to the council’s procedures and deliberations on the building act, moved by maurice webb and seconded by raymond unwin. secondly “that this meeting approves the general principle allowing buildings to be erected in certain positions of a greater height than is the present practice, subject to proper safeguards as to construction, fire escape, and fire attack,” moved by delissa joseph. interestingly, it should be noted that delissa joseph objected to the discussion of the first motion. this meeting had originally been scheduled for the sole discussion of building height regulations within the framework of the second motion, however a further motion was introduced by webb and unwin which called fro approval of council procedures, which would link the discussion to the prevailing pragmatic nature of a wider range of building regulations. joseph perceived to be a tactic designed to attract attention away from the issue of building height deregulation. despite this, the minutes remain as interesting documentation of varying opinions of the skyscraper. responding to criticism from those who were opposed to any increase in allowable building heights that they had employed the term skyscraper in an emotive fashion, forewarning against an influx of american scale architecture, maurice webb discussed his opposition to the relaxation of building height regulations without specific use of the term skyscraper. however, by highlighting those criticisms of delissa joseph, the question of taller buildings had already been raised within a framework and ongoing discourse concerning the americanization of british cities. in seconding the motion, the eminent planner raymond unwin was not so reticent about associating taller buildings with american architecture. frequent references to the architecture of new york were made in an attempt to persuade those in attendance that any relaxation of building height regulations would lead to a london skyline dominated by new york style skyscrapers, obscuring and in many cases destroying the existing architecture of the city. carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 200 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies conclusion as the introduction of the skyscraper continued to shape the skylines of america’s expanding cities, the prospect of their introduction into britain’s cities at the beginning of the twentieth century, although subject to a certain amount of speculation, remained a distant prospect. the building techniques that would have facilitated their construction had made their way across the atlantic. however, the principles of architectural decorum and the practical considerations concerning the impact skyscrapers would have upon the british urban infrastructure meant that, in london, the most probable location for their construction, there remained a reluctance to relax the building height regulations, which would have allowed for their introduction. for the time being, the skyscraper remained an american phenomenon. the word “skyscraper” was symbolic of an american form of architecture, responsible for creating the towering skylines of chicago and new york. despite evidence of some favourable perceptions of the skyscrapers of new york, seen by some as proof of aesthetic and technical advancement upon the earlier and to some “uglier” examples found in chicago, (the times, 1921, p. 145) they were still regarded as unsuitable for britain’s narrower streets. references american architecture, the architectural review, august, 1922, pp. 31-39. another new skyscraper for new york, the times, december 20, 1926, p. 12. architecture in new york, the beauty of the skyscraper, the times, march 27, 1925, p. 13. booth, p. (1999). from regulation to discretion: the evolution of development control in the british planning system 1909-1947, planning perspectives, 14, 277-289. gilbert, d. (2004). london of the future: the metropolis reimagined after the great war. journal of british studies, 43(1), 91-120. carl haddrell the “american” skyscraper 201 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 hall, h.a, (1921) exhibition of american architecture, journal of the royal institute of british architects, december, 47-51. higher buildings for london: deputations to the london county council and the city lands committee, journal of the royal institute of british architects, 9 april, 1921, p. 334. higher buildings for london?, the architectural review, june 1920. joseph, d, (1921) letter published in the observer, february 6, and republished in the journal of the royal institute of british architects, february 19, 1921, p. 233. london land and buildings, steady increase in values, the times, january 1, 1920, p. 7 lucas, e. v. (1921) letter to the times, in, the journal of the royal institute of british architects, january 8. milne, o, p. (1923) the london mercury, 8, may, pp. 33-44. new american building 1, an expression of the age, the times, april 20, 1929, p. 13 new american buildings 2, a daring break with precedent, the times, april 23, 1929, p. 19 new york’s tallest skyscraper, the times, october 18, 1928, p. 15 tallest skyscraper in the world, the times, april 10, 1929, p. 16 the largest “skyscraper,” the times, january 4, 1924, p. 9 the sale of a london site, “economic height,” the times, march 31, 1920, p. 4 introduction epiphany: vol. 5, no. 1, 2012 issn 1840-3719 ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors neda raefipour * abstract the research discusses kristevan concepts of “thetic break”, “loving father”, “society of spectacle” and “stranger” in the two novels of doris lessing; the fifth child (1988) and ben in the world (2000). the study is actually an attempt to illustrate how all characters of the novels, especially ben, become successful in completing their psychic cycle. the characters’ failure or success in making their “thetic break” by the help of their imaginary fathers is the main concern of the researcher. being compelled to live in a society which is replete with mirrors, the subjects are afflicted with the lack of stable identities. the lack entails the entrance of a stranger in society, so all the features of such a person among other residents of society is the work under analysis by the researcher. at first step, the researcher does her best in analyzing all characters, especially ben, psychoanalytically. the second step taken by her is to find traces of kristeva’s society of spectacle in ben’s society. the important and pivotal fact that makes such a study a novel one is that unlike other studies that focus upon kristeva’s internal psychoanalytical notions, the study concentrates on the social factors influential in identity formation such as kristevan power and society of spectacle .from the researcher’s perspective, it is not only internal factors, but also external and social ones that make a subject different from other ones. keywords: thetic break, imaginary father, love, stranger and society of spectacle, subject in process * corresponding author: neda raefipour m.a. student of english language and literature at islamic azad university at tehran central branch; e-mail: bamegely@yahoo.com mailto:bamegely@yahoo.com n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [71] introduction doris lessing was born on 22 october 1919 in kermanshah of iran , her fiction in the word of margaret rowe and in her book dreaming fathers, practical mothers and lessing’s fiction(1995), is a kind of tension between paternal and maternal elements, in the researcher’s notion in all novels of lessing “ the father is as a dreamer and the mother as a regulator”(8), in other words, the writer believes that there is a battle between “action and reflection” in both lessing’s life and her literary works. what is so considerable in row’s analysis of lessing’s fictions is her capability to show how skillfully the marvelous writer blends the paternal and maternal roles in her novels. ultimately she concludes that all maternal concerns in lessing’s novels are ascendant as in some of her novels such as the fifth child, readers can explore the unconventional maternal atmospheres in the mother-child bond. the fifth child and its sequel ben in the world are fictions which really open a new lease of life for the readers. the fifth child was published in 1988 and after two years its sequel ben in the world appeared. lessing’s the fifth child portrays the life of an intimate couple called david and harriet, whose life is loaded with happiness. after a while the couple decides to have children, so harriet gives birth to four healthy babies, but their fifth child becomes a drawback, a retarded boy. the event shatters the unity of lovatt’s family; in other words, the presence of ben changes everything in his family; therefore, he leaves his home and in ben in the world enters the outside world i.e. his society. ben, as the protagonist of these two novels, makes lance with many excruciating pains and problems and at the end of the novel commits suicide. argument from kristeva’s point of view, the society in which modern subjects live is different from other kinds of societies; she calls it the society of spectacle. the society is founded upon images and spectacles; as a consequence, the residents of the society are obsessed with some n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [72] dictated, fixed and manipulated images which have been constructed by those in power. immersion in the society takes the inner psychic lives of its individuals away; therefore, all subjects become like automatons doing what their society desires. there are many reasons for the unconscious, automatic obedience; one of those is that in the society the individuals are devoid of any real, subjective self; their inner identity has been replaced with a fixed and petrified image shaped by ideology. therefore, the subject is not a real one but an actor who can obtain a variety of personalities; he is in fact nobody but just a spectacle without any stable identity. accordingly, the society is a dead one, without any live subjects in it. the fifth child and ben in the world are the exact portrayal of individuals who live in kristeva’s society of spectacle. it is better to enumerate and explain the prominent elements of the society in ben’s community, either in the fifth child or in ben in the world. the first case is the existence of some fixed criterions for living; in ben’s society, financial prosperity is one of the most important factors for a successful subject; in other words, in the society happiness and social state revolve around the factor. johnston and richard do their best to gain more and more money, even by illegal activities such as smuggling, david works from day to night to remain rich. the subjects in their community have become the tools of economic satisfaction of those in powers, consciously or unconsciously. in ben’s community, the desires are not their own but those of ideology which are artificially produced; in other words, the culture of the society has obliged its residents to have a value and its opposite, a self and other, the identical and alien. economic prosperity and a healthy family without any retarded child in it are some examples of values in ben’s society. as mentioned before, self-alienation of subjects is another side effect of the society; nearly all characters of the novels are self-alienated and as a consequence completely stranger to their real needs. the alienation is observable from harriet who just for giving birth to a drawback always calls herself criminal, to female characters who for the fear of being rejected by their males, dispense with their inside stranger (ben). the females such as harriet and rita finally leave ben behind; because, they don’t desire to become detached from their symbolic life. in researcher’s n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [73] notion, the self-alienation of all subjects of the novels has a main reason and it is the dissolution of their families. in ben’s society, there are individuals who are deprived of any stable and proper family; in other words, the subjects lack a proper family which from kristeva’s perspective is a vital element for the construction of a perfect identity. the effect of the canon and its vital role in people’s psyche can be illustrated in the examples of david and harriet who are utterly different from each other psychoanalytically. the main reason for the difference is their family background: “harriet’s parents had taken it for granted that family life was the basis for a happy one while david’s background was a quite different matter, his parent had divorced when he was 7” (13).as readers can obviously observe, david unlike harriet doesn’t have a calm and relaxed character, he is a strict father and husband , without any real sense of imaginary, as kristeva explains “conjunction to unsatisfactory family relations lead to an impoverishment of the capacity to fantasize, drives are not represented in the psyche, they find expression in acts, acts of violence” (oliver 46); therefore , the main reason for david’s violent actions is concealed in his family. the savageness also exists in teenager’s gang, john’s group and ben; what is common between all the characters is their lack of a suitable family. this lack manifests itself in self-alienated subjects having aggressive behaviors. kristeva believes that the society which is replete with self-alienated, violent and outrageous subjects use some of its tools to maintain its dominance and control over individuals. some of these elements are mass media and visual representations ,which act in support of the society’s ideological purposes; “technology such as media provides us cliché images –the ready-made ones that act as softener-cleaning anxiety and with the bombardment of images the effect is to saturate the purpose of psyche that the image stops any questioning” (letche 152). the individuals mesmerized by media and technology, unconsciously stop any form of resistance and questioning, like ben’s people. ben’s society is loaded with ideological tools which function so perfectly in support of ideological ends; one of the tools is tv, which plays a pivotal role in every part of individuals’ lives. there are many n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [74] scenes in which tv teaches the subjects how to act and even how to speak, like ben and his siblings who imitate exactly what happens in serials. in kristeva’s notion, the society of spectacle has two features: the first one is the status of power and the second one is the status of the subject. she believes that in society of spectacle, residents experience a new version of power; in the sense that it is so much in favor of business and mafia activities and at the same time is completely invisible. individuals in the case don’t feel any justice exerted by the power; instead of justice and reality they observe media theatricalization. thus, the individuals become a kind of property without any fixed identity. ben’s society has the exact features mentioned above; power in the society has entrapped individuals in different ways. david is mad for business, to the extent that he has dedicated all his life to it, johnston and richard are other characters whose deeds are in support of the invisible power governing them. to put it in another words, all characters of the novels from johnston and david up to richard and alex act as their invisible power’s tools; some have merged with its economic tricks, others have taken its instrument as their instructors. in a nutshell, nearly all characters of the novels are like actors; every new day they wear a new mask and act obediently based on their invisible teachers’ orders. ben as a stranger the other or stranger from kristeva’s perspective is a kind of challenge to the order of society and its main feature is its heterogeneity. she believes that those who can’t embrace their strangers within will be unable to embrace the strangers outside .the novels of the fifth child and ben in the world are full of others and strangers who have been portrayed by lessing as outcasts. the fifth child begins by the introduction of two strangers who are completely different from others; the foreigners are david and harriet. harriet is a virgin in her era, always ridiculed by her friends, while david seems peculiar from his peers’ perspective; because, he is not so much in favor of making love with girls: “so what was it about these two that n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [75] made them freaks and oddballs: it was their attitude to sex” (the fifth child 9); therefore, these two foreigners find each other familiar and get married. the strangers start challenging the normal by their way of living, such as their choice of home, their decision to have six children and other myriad cases. little by little, the novels reveal other strangers such as ben and females of the novels. most of the novels’ characters are females who are considered in their society as others, but the most prominent stranger is ben, who as a retarded child is always despised by other people. the only subjects embracing him are females such as rita, teresa and old woman who from kristeva’s point of view are as crucial elements for the creation of respect to foreigners both inside and outside: “women today are called upon to share in the creation of a new society, where by choice rather than origin, through lucidity rather than fates, we should assure our children living space that within our tenacious national and identity forcing traditions will respect the strangeness of each person”(kristeva 35). as mentioned above, the best friends of ben are females .the main reason for the interest is that all the females are respected in their society as second sex, behaved as foreigners; therefore, they try to embrace ben in a hope to make a union with their within stranger. from kristeva’s perspective, all females of ben’s society are mature, for in her idea “the maturity of the second sex will be judged according to its ability to modify the nation in the face of foreigners, to orient foreigners confronting the nation towards as still unforeseeable conception of a polyvalent community”(kristeva 35). in researcher’s notion, all women of the novels are mature and intend to create a society in which strangers are respected like other people. ben is loved just by females and not males, but what is the reason for it? the main cause is that all males consider ben just as a scapegoat; in other words, they desire to sacrifice ben outside not to merge with their stranger inside. it is not really important for any of male characters if ben is killed by police while carrying drugs. the society of males is like narcissistic image in which the child doesn’t want to lose it and at the same time is worried for his social position. n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [76] poor banished ben ben in fact as a stranger or a banished subject tries his best to choose his banishment voluntarily. in kristeva’s notion, he, as a subject, makes himself completely separated from his paternal, meaningful and petrified society in which there is a permanence of meaning and goes somewhere else to get rid of his world. in other words, ben goes in quest of somewhere in which paternal role is dead and this is the world of females. in the stage: what the banished man needs most from a woman is someone to accompany him into the death’s void, into the third person’s void, he needs to gentle touch of a mute partner, renunciation of the body, waste, sublimation and in order to be faithful to his dead father to the end a double suicide. (kristeva 152) as discussed earlier, having rejected by his family, ben becomes the same banished subject of kristeva who is separated from paternal realm and is in an urgent need of a female partner, who can guide him toward death. the female in researcher’s idea is no body but teresa, who accompanies him to his last moment of life. having banished from the paternal world, ben experiences different kinds of females’ love, but in order to remain faithful to his dead father he commits suicide, of course by the help of teresa as his imaginary father. ben the only stranger without any history ben is the only stranger in the novels, who is without any ancestor and history, always yearning for it. as it is clear, from the first pages of the novel, ben has become an outcast and alien; he has become completely distinct from his family to teresa, rita and alfred, whom he thought capable of providing him with love. as a matter of fact, none of the characters can offer him the love, all of them just manipulate him consciously or unconsciously, so he as a stranger goes in quest of his history and people, but the search is of no avail. the only objects of love who promise him to show his people are alfred and teresa, but they show him just some rock figures engraved on mountain, and this is the n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [77] moment in which ben finds himself a real wanderer, devoid of any history, rejected and manipulated by all even those who pretend to be his friends. in the catastrophic state, kristeva believes that the subject “ finds nothing but death as the healing for his pain; no longer god or politics or others, but death alone becomes the source of an individuation that takes the form of radical severance” (77). as a matter of fact, no body helps ben in finding his history and individuality; neither his mother nor men and women of his society could help him to pave the way toward his individuation. thus no way remains for him but death; by death he probably can gain his self what he never became successful achieving during his life. ben’s choices as a stranger from kristeva’s point of view, the stranger has some options for living among other people as an individual: he can assimilate others, leave physically his home, reshape himself psychologically or reject the social codes which exist in his society. as a matter of fact, ben is a real stranger in some social behaviors such as eating, clothing ,laughing, etc but by degrees he finds that in order not to be rejected there remains no way but assimilation. in the state, he does his best to become similar to other people; in his family he starts imitating his siblings in every manner even in eating: “he scrambled energetically on to a chair, and set himself to be like them. he knew he must not talk with his mouth full…he carefully obeyed such imperatives, the energetic animal movement of his jaws confined behind close lips; waiting till his mouth was empty…” (ben in the world 115). after leaving home, ben tries to imitate other people’s behavior and actions, but it is of no use. accordingly, he finds himself completely different from others and cannot conceal the fact: “ben is really trying very hard. he doesn’t seem to fit in with the others it’s hard to put one’s finger on it” (ibid 120). having accepted his differences, ben finds no other way but redefining himself psychologically; in other words, he accepts that both in his thought and action he is a big difference: “i have never seen anyone like me, i don’t have any people. i am not like my family at home; they are all different from me” (ben in n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [78] the world 126). he ,as an other, internalizes the fact that he is an other, but nobody respects his otherness. the main reason for the lack of understanding of those around ben is that all of them lack the ideal love in which the subject can identify with others and simultaneously maintain his otherness .all the people are deprived of love, so there remains no way for ben as a stranger but leaving physically; he leaves a place to another one and as a consequence leaves the world and commits suicide. ben in exile ben, as the protagonist of these two novels, does his best to be welcomed as an ordinary subject in his society which according to kristeva’s logic of exile : “all aims should waste away and self destruct in the ward even insane stride toward an elsewhere that is pushed back, unfulfilled , out of reach” (6 ).based on kristeva’s concept of exile, ben while finding nothing in common between himself and all those around him, goes in quest of people like himself; a place where his people live, a nowhere: “ the lost paradise is a mirror of the past that the foreigner will never be able to recover, the foreigner is a dreamer making love with absence” (ibid 10).ben is the same kristevan foreigner or better to say dreamer who is in search of his past. he even makes love with the rock figures engraved on the mountains: “ben stood forward and stroke the outline of a female who seemed to be smiling at him, then he bent forward and nuzzled at her…letting out short cries that were greetings” (ben in the world 175). to put it in kristeva’s word, it can be concluded that ben as a stranger desires to embrace his people and his past, but while joining with his people, it becomes impossible for him to recover from his past, so he chooses death as the only remedy for the excruciating pain. ben’s paradise lost in kristeva’s notion, stranger belongs to nowhere and lives according to his relation to his paradise lost. regarding the quality of the relation, kristeva categorizes two groups of strangers: ironists and believers. ironists are those foreigners who are completely hopeless and in favor of n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [79] emptiness; while believers are meliorists, they are in search of improving their situation. in researcher’s idea, ben is a believer in every stages of his life; he tries very hard to make his situation better and to learn some vital social skills, he kills himself for being called a good boy. ben does any act to improve his situation, but while finding other people completely reluctant to his attempts he craves for his paradise. the quest for the paradise lost is ben’s search for his imagined identity; since, his symbolic identity has been shattered to pieces by others as: “today’s values crisis is because of a clash between our symbolic identity having strong demands and our imaginary identity rooted in original call (race, biology)” ( kristeva 4).regarding the quotation, ben in the novels is the only individual who solves his self’s clash, for his symbolic identity is annihilated in his symbolic society ,so he goes in search of his original call which is his rocky people . ben as a bomb of hatred hatred is the prominent feeling of ben, especially, in his relation with those who have rejected him such as his mother: “his eyes looked up at her in a glare of hate” (the fifth child 104). the same feeling exists when he has relationship with his siblings such as paul and his father david. according to kristeva: “hatred makes the foreigner real, authentic so to speak, solid/ simply existing” (strangers to ourselves 13). the strong hate always accompanies ben; he is born with hatred, lives with it and dies by it. the hatred from kristeva’s notion, causes the subject to speak less and to be silent : “yet he spoke a little when he did say something it was never much more than yes or no” (the fifth child 146), of course, the main reason for the taciturnity is that people are not receptive to the stranger; all of them are deaf to his pains, so when he cannot utter his internal conflicts he recedes into his own world : “he was so sad, so lonely, but the darkness was his home, night was his place and people didn’t look at you so dangerously at night” (ben in the world 146). ben has walled himself in darkness. it seems that a peaceful coexistence is between ben and others, but there is a chasm between the foreigner and his deaf listeners; a gap which nothing can fill it, the n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [80] stranger is always alone: “the knowledge of his aloneness was beating into him, you are alone, you are alone…” (ibid 77). actually, the selfimprisonment causes the foreigner to have difficulty in confronting the others, exactly like ben’s problem; he is forced to imprison himself, to be silent and consequently to be replete with detestation because nobody understands him, nobody listens to him and ultimately nobody even values him as a subject. conclusion the psychic cycle has many levels to be completed. from kristeva’s perspective, one of the stages is thetic break which is acquired by the help of imaginary father. ben in the two novels of the fifth child and ben in the world is a subject in process who tries to make his thetic break perfect by the help of his imaginary fathers, but the society which he steps into is a society of spectacle, full of individuals who are similar to automatons, doing submissively what their power orders them. in other words, in ben’s society every thing is under the gaze of the invisible power and for the strong control of ideology, some deeds become criterions for a successful person. one of those is financial prosperity which entraps subjects such as johnston, david and richard; in other words, in the society drives are not subjects’ desires but those of society artificially produced, so in the catastrophic state, selfalienation of individuals and creation of stranger occurs. .ben is the most obvious example of a stranger in the novels, who because of his peculiar physical and mental condition is excluded by all characters of the novels except women. kristeva is known to be a cosmopolitan, and as a cosmopolitan she is completely against any exclusion and is so much in favor of inclusion and embrace of the strangers. she claims that a flexible nation can create the ideal situation, and it is through the establishment of the utopian nation that her dreams can come true: indeed i am convinced that in the long run, only through investigation of our remarkable relationship with the other and strangers within ourselves can lead people to give haunting for the scapegoat outside their group, a search that allows n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [81] them to withdraw into their own “sanctum” thus purified, is not the worship of one’s very own of which the national is the common denominator that we imagine we have as our own along with other own and proper people like us? (kristeva, strangers to ourselves 51) as a conclusion of what explained in previous pages, the researcher would like to finish the part by the following statement that according to kristeva’s notion should be engraved on the wall of all schools, and become a touchstone for all cosmopolitans: if i know something useful to myself and detrimental to my family, i would reject it from my mind. if i know something useful to my family, but not to my homeland, i would try to forget it. if i know something useful to my homeland and detrimental o europe, or else useful to europe and detrimental to mankind i would consider it a crime. (ibid 63) it is hopeful and exhilarating to envisage the future world as an integrated nation in which all others such as ben and females find themselves capable of being respected and welcomed as ordinary individuals. n. raefipour ben, a stranger in the dark society of mirrors epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [82] references ---.black sun.trans.leon s.roudiez . new york: colombia university press,1980 ---.hatred and forgiveness.trans.jeanine herman. new york: colombia university press,2010 . ---.nations without nationalism. trans.leon s.roudiez. new york: colombia university press,1993. ---, power of horrors.trans.leon s.roudiez.new york: colombia university press,1982:2 120. ---. “revolution in poetic language." the kristeva reader.ed.moi.new york:colombia university press,1986. ---.strangers to ourselves. trans.leon s.roudiez.new york: colombia university press,1991. letche, john, and maria margaroni.julia kristeva,live theory .new york:continuum,2004. mcafee, noelle. julia kristeva. new york and london: routledge ,2004. oliver, kelly. "the crises of meaning." the kristeva critical reader.ed.letche and zournazi.edinburg:edinburg university press ltd,2003:36-92. rowe, margaret. "dreaming fathers, practical mothers and lessing's fiction ." science fiction studies 22,2 (november 2011 ):291-293 yi-ping, ong . "existentialism, realism and novel. " diss. university of harvard.1999. epiphany: vol. 4, no. 1, 2011 issn 1840-3719 international political actors and state-building process in bosnia-herzegovina ahmed kulanić abstract this article analyzes the post-war period in bosnia-herzegovina and the role which international actors, mainly represented through the office of high representative (ohr), and local political actors played. the primary aim and significance of this article is to present to what extent ohr and local political actors contributed to the establishment of rule of law, security, stability, self-sustainability and creation of modern-functioning state. therefore, the research questions of this paper address the role of international and local actors in state-building process and their contributions in the creation of a democratic state of bosnia-herzegovina. furthermore, this article examines the roots, causes and results of the political crisis in bosnia-herzegovina. the international community, on one hand, never brought their objectives to the state of completion and full implementation, on the other hand, due to the excessive involvement of international community local political actors never held themselves accountable for current political predicaments. therefore, both, the international community and local political actors must find a way and means to transform dpa bosnia and herzegovina towards possible eu member state bosnia and herzegovina by using bottom-up step by step state-building strategy. key words: office of high representative (ohr), local and international political actors, state-building, exit strategy, eu, nato. corresponding author: ahmed kulanić, faculty of arts and social sciences, international university of sarajevo, sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: akulanic@ius.edu.ba; ahmedkula@yahoo.com mailto:akulanic@ius.edu.ba mailto:ahmedkula@yahoo.com a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [168] introduction since october 2011 general elections bosnia-herzegovina has been encountering with serious political crisis. more than one year after the elections, state-level government has not been formed and the question of legality and legitimacy of entity government in the federation of bosnia-herzegovina, challenged by the croat political parties especially by hdzbih and hdz1990, has continued. current political predicaments, coupled with indifference and unwillingness of the international community to act and to seek solutions, are obvious indicators of current political crisis. political scene is furthermore complicated due to the special position and an involvement of the international community and the high representative into the political affairs of bosnia-herzegovina. different perceptions about such involvement among local political actors have been apparent since signing of the dayton peace agreement (dpa). however, international involvement reached its climax due to political differences regarding the april package, the high representative‟s “full capacity,” and last general elections in october 2010. the april package represented first significant initiative for constitutional changes since signing of dpa made by local political actors under significant involvement of the international community. it is significant to indicate that since 2006 many reforms have been initiated but most of them ultimately failed, which had significant impact on bosnia-herzegovina‟s path towards the eu. the international political actors began the transition of ohr in 2002 by appointment of the first european union special representative (eusr), and the transition continued as a result of the adoption of “five plus two platform” significant momentum occurred for the closure of ohr in 2008 (abaspahić & bajrović, 2010, p. 2). therefore, the past three years both international and local political actors have been focusing on the closure of the ohr. an emphasis on this issue became the most important and, as a result, affected all the other reforms and political processes. current political predicaments in bosnia-herzegovina put the international political actors in difficult position. the sixteenth year of a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [169] the international community presence and its‟ high representative resulted in very dependent and passive role of the local political actors in bosnia-herzegovina. therefore, it is inevitable to ask to what extent and how international community and local political actors could respond effectively to the challenges of joining the eu and nato, and how the socio-economic conditions of citizens in bosnia-herzegovina could be improved? the international community and state-building process in bosniaherzegovina the international community diverted from its focus from bosniaherzegovinian as result of a relative peace, satisfying level of security, relative guaranties from returning to the conflict and the emergence of new conflicts worldwide. the major success of dpa, as many authors argued, was stopping the bloodiest war on european soil since world war ii (holbrooke, 1998; chollet, 2005). richard holbrooke (1998) argued that the dpa did not aim to create a stable, functional and selfsustainable state but, simply, to end a war, as the title of his book clearly indicated (farkas, 2003, p. 96). similarly carl bildt (1998), first high representative in bosnia-herzegovina, argued that dayton was “the most ambitious document of its kind…aimed at the setting up a state on the basis of little more than ruins and rivalries of bitter war” (p. 352). dpa reaffirmed the continuity of the republic of bosnia-herzegovina within internationally recognized borders. internal organization is based on the entity model with two regions: entity federation of bosniaherzegovina and entity serb republic. however, the entity model as a unique state-organization after the conflict, affirmed ethnically based division of the unified country. such a model hardly affirmed the sovereignty of bosnia-herzegovina and gave excessive powers to two entities, which at times act as „sovereign states‟ (ibrahimagić, 1999; trnka, 2000, p. 319; šarčević, 2009, p. 12). the first phase after signing dpa represents mostly the period of consolidation of the international community in bosnia-herzegovina and an establishment of peace and security. during the first phase also led to the formation of peace implementation council (pic) and organization of a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [170] international conferences, which were aimed at the implementation of dpa. the bonn conference, held in 1997, was marked as the most important because powers and jurisdictions of the high representative increased, which contributed to the removal and ban of politicians who violated the provisions of the dpa (peace implementation council (pic), 1997a). another significant peace conference was the sintra meeting which additionally gave a mandate to the high representative to interpret “letter” and “spirit” of the dpa (pic, 1997b). the main objective of the international community during this phase was strengthening the role and position of the ohr in bosniaherzegovina. furthermore, in the period from 1995 to 2000, ohr led to the establishment of vital laws such as: the law on citizenship of bosnia and herzegovina (16 december, 1997); the law on the flag of bosnia and herzegovina (3 february, 1998); the law on the national anthem of bosnia and herzegovina (25 june, 1999); the law on state border service (13 january, 2000) and the law on the human rights ombudsman of bosnia and herzegovina (14 december, 2000) (belloni, 2001, p. 172). these laws contributed significantly towards the statebuilding of bosnia-herzegovina (de guevara, 2009, p. 16). the international community also managed to establish several vital institutions such as: indirect taxation authority (ita), the state border service (sbs), the state investigation and protection agency (sipa), the armed forces of bosnia and herzegovina (afbih), the high judicial and prosecutorial council (hjpc) and the civil service agency (csa). newly emerging crisis in kosovo in 1999 turned the focus of the international community away from bosnia-herzegovina. then, the attacks on the world trade center on the 11 th of september 2001 and the invasions of afghanistan (2001) and iraq (2002) have been marked as the most important crisis areas in the world (hromić, 2006, p. 23). such worldwide conflicts diverted an attention and focus of the international community from bosnia-herzegovina. the most obvious illustration of such shift is eminent in the reduction and decrement of the budget of ohr from 35 million euros in 1999 to 25 million euros in 2001 (ohr, 1998; pic, 2001). brussels‟ conference in may 2000 was a turning point in the transition process of the ohr and a milestone of the role of the a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [171] international community in bosnia-herzegovina. from this period onwards the dpa implementation became subordinated to the road map of european union (pic, 2000a). the pic brussels‟ meeting in 2000 gave more significant power to the european union to monitor the implementation of dpa (ramel, 2008, p. 11). furthermore, the road map to the eu stabilization and association in march 2000 strengthened the european union involvement and role (hadžikadunić, 2005). such developments have been perceived as the transition from pic to the eu implementation of dpa. in addition, eu‟s requirements for the candidate status and membership have been associated with the implementation of the dpa. the eu paved the way towards the „road map” by excessively using powers of the high representative (turčalo, 2008, p. 22). however, certain international and local political actors have been lobbying for restructuring the ohr because, as gerald knaus explained, “the imposition of constitutional changes by an order is a draconian measure” (as cited in tuathail, 2005, p. 63) would transform bosniaherzegovina to a full protectorate, which is not the ultimate aim of the eu (tuathail, 2005, p. 63). consequently, brussels meeting in september 2001 specified ohr‟s role on institution building, economic reform, refugee return and the rule of law. though ambitiously, the year 2005 was set for the implementation of these conditions and the withdrawal of the international community from bosnia-herzegovina (ohr, 2001). preoccupation of the international community with global hotspots primarily in iraq and afghanistan, as well as the eu taking over the leadership position in bosnia-herzegovina, eventually led to a decline in coherent politics of the international community and a delay in the establishment of the effective, stable and self-sustainable state of bosniaherzegovina. another factor that contributed towards questionable credibility and authority of the international community in bosniaherzegovina was the introduction of so-called “five plus two” platform for closure of the ohr. ultimately such platform targeted an achievement of a functional state and the closure of ohr. however, as outcomes indicate such platform was adopted without proper analysis of a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [172] how to establish, in effect, an effective, functional, stable and selfsustainable state of bosnia-herzegovina. high representative and state-building process in bosniaherzegovina lerner‟s (1989) view of political action indicated in sentence: “what is hard for them, is to govern themselves” (p. 88) indicates the position of local political actors in bosnia-herzegovina. the current political crisis in bosnia-herzegovina is partly due to excessive dependency on the international community and the high representative by the local political actors. therefore, the international community and the ohr are often considered as being responsible for resolving all political and socio-economic predicaments of bosnia-herzegovina. furthermore, some perceptions have the extreme view that the ohr should act for the benefit of peoples in almost all affairs of the state. the beginning of ohr‟s mission in bosnia-herzegovina is ambivalent. the ambiguity of its mission and disunity of the international community highly affected the role and position of ohr in bosniaherzegovina. misunderstanding of annex 10 and the overwhelmingly complicated political situation led to several meetings of the pic steering board with an aim to clarify the position and the role of ohr. the early phase of ohr was characterized by self-search and self-defining (bildt, 1998, p. 352. the significant inclusion of the ohr began with the general elections in 1996 (international crisis group (icg), 1996). bosnia-herzegovina for the first time since 1992 got a central government, which consisted of representatives of all people and citizens, from the entire territory of bosnia-herzegovina. warring parties had to sit together in the offices of central government. these parties grabbed the opportunity to launch the process of ethnicisation instead of democratization, which had legalized their war gains. this is well described by david chandler (2000) who holds that: democratisation strategy in bosnia has relied heavily on the institutionalisation of ethnic division through the use of the „ethnic key‟, the allocation of seats in advance on the basis of ethnicity…while the ethnicisation of politics has been welcomed, and multi-ethnic administration a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [173] formed at all levels, the politicisation of ethnicity, the success of political parties which appeal to on ethnic group, has been roundly condemned as a central barrier to democratisation and the dayton process. (p. 111) in such complex governance framework exemplified by the division and disagreement on the ethnic grounds, an active participation of the ohr was both desirable and necessary. however, ohr‟s inclusion in the process of the establishment of a functional state eventually led to “the bell jar.” therefore, bosnia-herzegovina has been perceived as “a protectorate”, semi-protectorate”, “colony” and “controlled democracy,” which was in contradiction with the conception of western democracy. in this regard, bojkov (2003) argues that: the political system of bosnia and herzegovina would elicit the following definition of controlled democracy – a compact of external democracy promotion whose nondemocratic elements, often inconsistent with each other, are directly inserted in the target country and enjoy farreaching powers of control, constituting a direct, nondefiable, and certainly nonjustifiable, influence over its political development (pp. 42-3). as a result of the “controlled democracy,” with excessive involvement of the international community and the ohr, local political actors could not often reach agreement on important political issues and instead, the high representative had to make inevitable decisions. similarly, since bonn conference and until 2000 numerous decisions (ohr, www.ohr.int/decision/archive.asp) for the sake of building the functional democratic state have been made. the most significant laws have been imposed by the ohr because of disagreement and the inability of local political actors to adopt them. adoption of these laws was the earliest intention of hr to create a more functional state. besides, these laws represented an important step towards political reconciliation as bojkov argued: “the hr has had to impose laws important for creating conditions for reconciliation and for the functioning of a multiethnic state administration” (bojkov, 2003, p. 58). high representatives have also practiced the „removal‟ mechanism for political actors that violated the http://www.ohr.int/decision/archive.asp a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [174] dpa (ebner, 2004) the hr „removed‟ around 60 officials and political authorities from political scene (ohr, 1998-2000. retrieved september 13, 2011, www.ohr.int/decision/archive.asp) in the economic sphere the crucial and critical decision of pic was the establishment of a state treasury. this became the base for further common state economic space in taxation, standard, banking system, a unified currency and competition policy (pic, 2000b). such economic unification also led to greater re-integration of bosnia-herzegovina at state, entity and cantonal levels. for instance, the introduction of km as state currency was one of the most significant unification factor: the k-mark has been well received, one of the few unifying institutions in bosnia. a currency board prevented the entities and politicians from manipulating the money supply, which would have generated inflation, endangering bosnia‟s economic recovery (dobbins et al., 2008, p. 150). in 2003, high representative paddy ashdown paved the way for the establishment of army force, state intelligence agency (sipa) and indirect taxation, all as the part of bjelašnica declaration (cousen & harland, 2006, p. 116-119; tuathail, 2006). the ohr period from 2000 to 2005 could be assessed as the most important and most productive. during this period high representatives successively, imposed 757 decisions, removed 119 officials and enforced 286 laws or amendments to the laws (woekl, 2011, p. 17). therefore, all these changes which were imposed or made under ohr supervision were tolerated, with the existence of different opinions about its impact in the future, at the international scene. it is important to emphasize the fact that all these changes initiated by ohr, as well as reforms of judiciary and prosecutorial councils, were either accepted or tolerated at the domestic level. they were accepted due to the requirement on the path to eu accession and nato partnership for peace program. during this period, bosnia-herzegovina was presented as a successful mission at the international scene, especially its progress towards euro-atlantic integrations. however, the international community overstated the role of local political actors and http://www.ohr.int/decision/archive.asp a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [175] underestimated the role of ohr, which resulted in strong calls for its termination/transformation. in this regard, paddy ashdown was seen as the last high representative who exercised his full capacity. his successor, christian swartz schilling, therefore exclaimed “you are aware that i may be the last high representative. this function and this office will disappear in the near future.” however, in spite of the above significant developments, as lerner argued in his work, it was hard for local political actors to govern bosnia-herzegovina without international help. yet, the international community, being politically divided itself, had difficulty to position itself accordingly. therefore, the international community has been often criticized: rather than state-building, it would appear that „informal trusteeship‟ or „shared sovereignty‟ under the framework established by the dayton agreement, have done little to either build the capacity of the bosnia state or to legitimate it in the eyes of the population (chandler, 2006, p. 33). the above discussion indicates that the high representative contributed to the effective and focused institutions-building in bosniaherzegovina. ohr played a significant and crucial role in the process of the establishment of the state institutions. the warring parties and presence of hostilities would result in delayed building of state institutions if the ohr did not intervene in paving the way (ohr, 1997, paragraph 19). “the constituent people” and the “april package” the earliest local political initiative was introduced by alija izetbegović – chairman of bosnia-herzegovina presidency. he made an appeal on the issue of “constituent people” (bojkov, 2003, p. 41-67) to the constitutional court of bosnia-herzegovina. 1 apparently, the constitutions of entities on this issue collided with the constitution. the constitutional court made the decision requesting revisions of entities constitutions. however, this decision represented only one more “decision on paper” whereby entities acted indifferently upon this a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [176] decision. considering the situation the ohr had to act to pave the way for the implementation of court‟s decision by forcing the local political actors on the issue of the “constituent people.” this agreement, made with high ohr pressure became known as the “sarajevo agreement.” its significance was also highlighted by pic steering board as “a decisive step forward in terms of bosnia and herzegovina‟s democratic development and commitment to the rule of law” (pic, 2002, www.ohr.int/pic). sarajevo agreement set “symmetrical” limits to the entities in term of power-balance and, as well as, the protection of vital national interests of constituent peoples in both entities (mujkić, seizović & abazović, 2008, p. 24). public opinion and the opinion of the judges of the constitution court of bosnia-herzegovina differed. for instance, snežana savić one of the constitutional court judges said: if the decision of the constitutional court of bih on the constituent peoples in republika srpska and in the federation is implemented, then the survival of the structures defined in the bih constitution will be called into question. this decision opens the possibility of changing the constitution of bih, which is very dangerous, because it calls into question the dayton agreement. (as cited in icg, 2002, p. 7). the politicians from the entity serb republic held that the decision of the constitutional court of bosnia-herzegovina on “constituent peoples” was devastating for dpa and entity serb republic. vitomir popović argued “this agreement leads to the disappearance of the rs and it will, insofar as it is accepted, remain but dead words on paper” (as cited in icg, 2002, p. 8). the public opinion created by politicians and the media in entity rs saw this as loosing the advantages gained during the war and in dayton. the croats also assessed the sarajevo agreement, even though it was acceptable for government of republic of croatia. they viewed it negatively as “treason of croatian people.” “vrbošić‟s mostar intervention and hdz‟s appeal to sign the agreement, was assessed as final punch of zagreb by “the knife in back” to the croats in bosniaherzegovina, and finally the “hand-washing” from the attempt of seeking the equality of croats with other constituent people in bosniahttp://www.ohr.int/pic a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [177] herzegovina” (http://arhiv.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20020408/temedana02.asp). the bosnian croats advocated that bosniaks would manipulate with the category of “others” in fbih in order to achieve the majorization through „phony‟ others (icg, 2002, p. 14). such change in a course of international community politics, now mainly led by european union, significantly contributed towards current crisis in bosnia-herzegovina. the efforts made by the international community in the past now by one serious constitutional change, which is basically the root of the bosnia-herzegovinian problems, failed. by the collapse of the negotiations on the amendments to the constitution of bosnia-herzegovina, so called “april package,” nationalism reemerged as in early 1990s (fethagić & mustajbegović, p. 21-22). furthermore, “since the unsuccessful voting on the „april package‟ of the constitutional reforms in 2006, the only topics which have been subject to political negotiations are those related to the territorial reorganization of the country” (vpibih, 2009, p. 7). in all this whirlpool of nationalistic ideas the international community looked as it “lost strings” and exhausted all the ideas related to the solution of the issues in bosniaherzegovina. that passivity of the international community will highly effect the position, mandate and authority of ohr in forthcoming years. cluelessness of the politics of international community was largely manifested through the creation and adoption of the “exit strategy” on closure of the ohr and transformation of its authority in the office of the special representative of european union (eusr) to bosniaherzegovina. “exit strategy” of the international community the international community issued the “package” of objectives needed to be fulfilled for the closure of ohr by the beginning of 2008. the objectives needed to be delivered by the local political actors of bosnia-herzegovina included: acceptable and sustainable resolution of the issue of apportionment of property between state and other levels of government; http://arhiv.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20020408/temedana02.asp a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [178] acceptable and sustainable resolution of defence property; completion of the brčko final award; fiscal sustainability (promoted through an agreement on a permanent ita co-efficient methodology and establishment of a national fiscal council); entrenchment of the rule of law (demonstrated through adoption of national war crimes strategy, passage of law on aliens and asylum, and adoption of national justice sector reform strategy) (pic, 2008) although pic has already decided on a closure of ohr, current political reality in bosnia-herzegovina is entirely different. besides, the ohr is a part of a dpa and pic was established later as a body responsible for peace implementation led by high representative. therefore, ohr as an institution is older and higher ranked than pic, and this is supported by the fact that high representative submits reports directly to the un security council (chandler, 1998, p. 11) this situation results in the question does the pic steering board have the mandate to change the dpa without the consent of the signatories of the agreement, among which are bosnia-herzegovina, serbia and croatia? apparent contradiction often emphasized is 5+2 strategy, which is actually considered as sufficient for the closure of ohr. however, the resolutions of un security council, as a top world organization, are, gently said, superior in every aspect to all bodies which are under the auspices of this organization. therefore, the pic conclusions are subordinated to the security council. in this regard, the resolution 1031 on peace implementation in bosnia-herzegovina is superior to pic conclusions. therefore, the emphasis of the resolution on full peace implementation is superior to the pic decision on “5+2 strategy” which narrows the framework of the resolution. to allay any doubts in this regards, it is important to emphasize that the bonn conference and its conclusions adapted in 1997 in the regard of increment of the capacity, a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [179] authority and mandate of ohr were also confirmed by un security council. based on the resolution 1031 the condition for the closure of the ohr is the fulfillment of its mission. however, by considering the mission and apparent list of the tasks entrusted to the ohr in annex 10 of dpa, 2 it could be deduced that ohr failed in its mission dpa has been only partially implemented. by considering the complexity of the political situation and power struggle among both international and local political actors, early exit strategy would have been disastrous for the future of bosniaherzegovina. it is obvious that the international community is currently involved in many conflict areas around the world but it‟s ultimately responsibility is to shoulder peace, security and state-building processes in bosnia-herzegovina. however, former strategies of the international community have been proven partially successful and perhaps current political predicaments of bosnia-herzegovina should be considered by developing new much more functional strategies. discussion and recommendations during the pre-war period in bosnia-herzegovina the fear has been used as a key factor in the process of segregating and ghettoizing the people. as a result of such politics even the constituent peoples in bosnia-herzegovina are ghettoized within its territory and ethno-politics. therefore, bosnia-herzegovina is currently facing its gravest political crisis. i would like to use strong emphasis to illustrate the situation by stating that the war in bosnia-herzegovina has only been transformed from military to political war, which currently reached its climax. the causes of political crisis in bosnia-herzegovina are due to inability of both international and local political actors. the responsibility of international community lies in a fact that their changeable objectives have never ever been brought to the state of completion and implementation. in addition, such an excessive involvement of the international community created a fake sense among local political actors who held themselves of being not accountable for the current political crisis and overall the situation. their dependency politics resulted in a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [180] being accountable neither to the international community nor to its own citizens and electorate. furthermore, interventionism of the international community and emphasis on a dialogue-culture and consultations among local political actors has never given solid results. then, advocacy for the ohr continuing or leaving role in bosnia-herzegovina had opened many unanswered questions. the international community facilitated the process of institutionbuilding which has been a vital for making an image of bosniaherzegovina as being a stable and self-sustainable european state. however, the international community must find ways and means of engaging the local political actors to transform dpa bosnia-herzegovina to bosnia-herzegovina as eu member state. therefore, the top-down system of state-building should rather be reverted to bottom-up step by step strategy. references books and articles: asim mujkić, zarije seizović and dino abazović, the role of human and minority rights in the process of reconstruction and reconciliation for state and nation-building: bosnia and herzegovina, eurac research, 2008, 24. berit bliesman de guevara, states of conflict: a case study on peacebuilding in bosnia and herzegovina, london: ippr, 2009. carl bildt, peace journey: the struggle for peace in bosnia, london: weidenfeld and nicolson, 1998. christian j. ebner, “the bonn powers –still necessary?” in (ed.) predrag jurekovi and frederic labarre, from peace making to self sustaining peace –international presence in south east europe at a crossroads? vienna: national defence academy, 2004. david chandler, “democratization in bosnia: the limits of civil society building strategies,” democratization, (vol.5, no.4, december 1998). david chandler, bosnia: faking democracy, 2 nd ed., london: pluto press, 2000. a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [181] david chandler, “state-building in bosnia: the limits of „informal trusteeship‟” international journal of peace studies, (vol. 11, no. 1, spring/summer, 2006). derek chollet, the road to the dayton accords, new york: palgrave, 2005. edin šarčević, dejtonski ustav: karakteristike i problemi, ljubljana: ifimes, 2009. elisabet cousen and david harland, “post-dayton bosnia and herzegovina”, in (ed.) william j. durch, twenty-first-century peace operations, washington: united states institute of peace, 2006. emir hadžikadunić, od dejtona do brisela, sarajevo: acips, 2005. evelyn farkas, fractured states and us foreign policy: iraq, ethiopia and bosnia in the 1990s, new york: plagrave macmilan, 2003. gearoid o tuathail, “geopolitical discourses: paddy ashdown and the tenth anniversary of the dayton peace accords”, geopolitics, (11: 141-158, 2006), taylor and francis group. haris abaspahić and reuf bajrović, perspektive politike evropske unije prema bosni i hercegovini, centar za politike i upravljnje – heinrich boll stiftung bih, sarajevo, 2010. haris hromić, “pregled vanjske politike sad-a”, foreign policy review, sarajevo: fondacija friedrich ebert, 2006. james dobbins, seth g. jones, keith crane, christopher s. chivvis, andrew radin, f. stephen larrabee, nora bensahel, brooke k. stearns, benjamin w. goldsmith, europe’s role in nationbuilding: from the balkans to the congo, santa monica: rand corporation, 2008. jens woekl, “bosnia-herzegovina: trying to build a federal state on paradoxes” in michael burgess, alan tarr (eds.), constitutional dynamics in federal systems: sub-national perspectives, mcgillqueen‟s university press, 2011. karl bildt, misija mir, sarajevo: zid. kasim trnka, ustavno pravo, sarajevo, 2000. marcus cox, state-building and post-conflict reconstruction: lessons from bosnia, casin, geneva, 2001. a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [182] max lerner, it is later than you think: the need for militant democracy, new jersey: transaction publisher, 1989. omer ibrahimagić, supremacija bosne i hercegovine nad entitetima, sarajevo: vijeće kongresa bošnjačkih intelektualaca, 1999. reberto belloni, “civil society and peacebuilding in bosnia and herzegovina”, journal of peace research, 2001: vol. 38, no. 2. richard holbrooke, to end a war, random house inc., 1998. sead s. fetahagić and saida mustajbegović, evropski pokret za evropski ustav, sarajevo: acips. sead turcalo, “međunarodna zajednica i izgradnja neuspješne države”, status, no. 13 mostar: dijalog, 2008. sylvie ramel, “od neokolonijalne međunarodne zajednice do posthegemone europe”, status, no. 13, mostar: dijalog, 2008. victor d. bojkov, “democracy in bosnia and herzegovina: post-1995 political system and its functioning”, southeast european politics, no. 1, (2003). reports and analysis ohr, 2011. 40 th report of the high representative for implementation of the peace agreement on bosnia and herzegovina to the secretary-general of the united nations, available at: http://www.ohr.int/other-doc/hrreports/default.asp?content_id=46579; (01.12.2011); ohr, recalibrating the activities of the international community – the challenges of partnership, (brussels, 13 september 2001) available at: www.ohr.int ohr, 5 th report of the high representative for implementation of bosnian peace agreement to the secretary-general of the united nations, 1997, paragraph 19. ohr, 6 th report of the high representative for implementation of bosnian peace agreement to the secretary-general of the united nations, 1997, paragraph 18. ohr, bjalašnica declaration, 2003, available at: http://www.ohr.int/archive/bjelasnicadeclaration/default.asp?content_id=29804 http://www.ohr.int/other-doc/hr-reports/default.asp?content_id=46579 http://www.ohr.int/other-doc/hr-reports/default.asp?content_id=46579 http://www.ohr.int/ http://www.ohr.int/archive/bjelasnica-declaration/default.asp?content_id=29804 http://www.ohr.int/archive/bjelasnica-declaration/default.asp?content_id=29804 a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [183] ohr, plans and funding requirements for 1999, sarajevo: ohr, 1998, available at: www.ohr.int/print/?content_id=4677 ohr, presentation to pic steering board political directors, recalibrating the activities of the international community – the challenges of partnership, brussels, 13 september 2001. ohr, removals and suspensions from office, 1998-2000, available at: www.ohr.int/decision/archive.asp, (13.09.2011). pic, 2011. statement by the steering board of the peace implementation council, available at: http://www.ohr.int/pic/default.asp?content_id=46469, (03.10.2011) pic, declaration, brussels, september 2001. pic, “bosnia and herzegovina: self-sustaining structures”, pic conclusions, bonn: pic, 1997. available at: www.ohr.int/pic pic, “economy” in: annex to the pic declaration: required actions, may 2000a. pic, communiqué by pic steering board, sarajevo: pic, 2001, available at: www.ohr.int/pic. pic, communique of the pic steering board, 27. mart 2002. dostupno na: www.ohr.int/pic pic, pic communiqué, 27. february, 2008, available at: http://www.ohr.int/pic/default.asp?content_id=41352 pic, pic declaration – annex, brussels: pic, 2000b. available at: www.ohr.int/pic pic, sintra declaration, communiqué, sintra: pic, 1997, par.70. available at: www.ohr.int/pic vpibih, uloga civilnog društva u reformi ustava u bih, 2009. available at: http://www.vpi.ba/eng/content/documents/role_of_civil_society _in_bih_constitutional_reform.pdf icg, implementing equality – the “constituent peoples” decision in bosnia and herzegovina, 2002, available at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/files/europe/bosnia%2045.pdf icg, elections in bosnia & herzegovina, sarajevo: icg, report no. 16, 1996. available at: http://www.ohr.int/print/?content_id=4677 http://www.ohr.int/decision/archive.asp http://www.ohr.int/pic/default.asp?content_id=46469 http://www.ohr.int/pic http://www.ohr.int/pic http://www.ohr.int/pic http://www.ohr.int/pic/default.asp?content_id=41352 http://www.ohr.int/pic http://www.ohr.int/pic http://www.vpi.ba/eng/content/documents/role_of_civil_society_in_bih_constitutional_reform.pdf http://www.vpi.ba/eng/content/documents/role_of_civil_society_in_bih_constitutional_reform.pdf http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/files/europe/bosnia%2045.pdf a. kulanić international political actors and state-building process epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 4, no. 1, (2011) © faculty of arts and social sciences [184] http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/files/europe/balkans/bosniaherzegovina/bosnia%202.pdf 1 article vi of the dayton constitution mandated the establishment of a bih constitutional court. it has nine justices: four selected by the federation house of representatives, two by the rs national assembly and three by the european court of human rights “after consultation with the [bih] presidency”. in practice, this has meant that the court is composed of two bosniaks, two croats, two serbs and three foreigners. part of the court‟s remit is to determine “[w]hether any provision of an entity‟s constitution or law is consistent with this constitution”. in addition, article xii of the state constitution required that within “three months from the entry into force of this constitution, the entities shall amend their respective constitutions to ensure their conformity with this constitution…” the general framework agreement for peace in bosnia and herzegovina, annex 4, article vi,1(a), article vi,3(a) and article xii,1. 2 monitor the implementation of the peace settlement; maintain close contact with the parties to the agreement, to promote their full compliance with all civilian aspects of the agreement; co-ordinate the activities of the civilian organisations and agencies in bosnia and herzegovina to ensure the efficient implementation of the civilian aspects of the peace settlement. the high representative shall respect their autonomy within their spheres of operation while as necessary giving general guidance to them about the impact of their activities on the implementation of the peace settlement; facilitate, as the high representative judges necessary, the resolution of any difficulties arising in connection with civilian implementation; participate in meetings of donor organisations; report periodically on progress to the united nations, european union, united states, russian federation and other interested governments, parties and organisations; (www.ohr.int /mandate) http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/files/europe/balkans/bosnia-herzegovina/bosnia%202.pdf http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/files/europe/balkans/bosnia-herzegovina/bosnia%202.pdf http://www.ohr.int/ introduction epiphany: vol. 5, no. 1, 2012 issn 1840-3719 the role of intercultural education in fostering cross-cultural understanding senad bećirović * abstract in today’s globalized world mono-cultural societies have been gradually disappearing. a trend towards the creation of multicultural societies began in 1960s. migration, the impact of globalization and modern technology played decisive role for the creation of multicultural societies. for instance, new multicultural societies were forced by the virtue of new conditions to engage themselves with others. therefore, people were purposefully trained for quality communication and peaceful coexistence with societies that possessed different cultural traits. for this purpose, the number of international institutions has adopted documents, which became the backbone of new education policy. therefore, the school systems began to work intensively on the promotion of intercultural values among young people. schools had to curb all forms of intolerance, discrimination, segregation, xenophobia and racism. yet nowadays many multicultural nations encounter with difficulties in holding together multicultural diversity and in establishing harmonious interpersonal relationships. therefore this paper deals with multiculturalism and the role of the education system in fostering cross-cultural understanding. if multiculturalism is accepted as an asset not as a burden, with its proper utilization within the education system, multicultural nations would inevitably continue to benefit from their diversity. keywords: intercultural education, values, teaching, competencies, culture, coexistence, tolerance and understanding. * corresponding author: senad bećirović, phd, bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: senad7@gmail.com mailto:senad7@gmail.com s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [139] introduction it is worth to mention that multicultural societies have been prospering throughout the history and as such they are not novelty. however, more intensive cultural diversity was accelerated in the past few decades. new multicultural trends were mainly caused by different economic conditions and as a legacy of the colonization and decolonization. the 21 st century, a century of diversity, made significant impact on the schools. the schools had new challenge to enable pupils to successfully participate in the democratic and pluralistic societies. new societies had to deal with diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, religion and nationality, color of skin, language, economical status and abilities. democratic societies ought to allow those who were different to enjoy full rights and freedoms, and to actively and effectively participate in social activities. intercultural education represents a key factor for efficient interaction and quality coexistence of members who culturally differ. therefore, intercultural education plays special role in pluralistic societies. however, unlike the earlier periods, when the colonization, decolonization and migration were the main factors for fostering of cultural diversity, today by the development of digital technology the world has become a global village and almost everyone has an opportunity, most often a necessity, to establish the communication with culturally different people. therefore, the educational system must develop intercultural competence among young people in order to develop harmonious societal relations. the education system as such is the precondition for quality coexistence within a nation that has different religious, national, ethnic and linguistic identities. this paper will clearly define the concept of intercultural education based on the international documents. the main purpose of this paper is to determine guidelines and to provide educational policies for intercultural education. therefore, this paper pays special attention to the promotion of multiculturalism through the educational system at the local and regional levels, respectively in bosnia-herzegovina and the balkans. taking into consideration multicultural gap as a result of the past wars, the promotion of multiculturalism and therefore greater understanding, s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [140] respect, appreciation and acceptance of others are inevitable for the future prosperity of the balkans as a whole. the conception of intercultural education special importance intercultural education gained in the past decades as a result of labor migrations and the population growth. therefore changes in the world, caused also by globalization, had a significant impact on education around the world (friedman, 2005). globalization and migration have increased the racial, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity in the education systems around the world (banks, et al, 2007). thus, the globalization, global competition and new business in the digital world will inevitably contribute furthermore towards the reconsideration of intercultural education (mahir, 2004). before defining the term "intercultural education" it is necessary to introduce to the readers the meaning of the term culture. culture, defined differently, originated from the latin word culture which means to take care of and to preserve. in general sense it involves any kind of growth and development (pedagoška enciklopedija, 1989). broadly speaking culture can be also defined as a "set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional patterns of a society or group of people, along with their art, literature, lifestyles and ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs" (unesco universal declaration on cultural diversity, 2001). on the other hand, hofstede (1991), one of the great experts in the field of intercultural education, believes that culture is more frequently source of conflict than of synergy. according to him, the cultural differences are the source of challenge and often lead to conflict and disaster. a particular culture is inevitably linked with other cultures. differences that could be observed among the people and the wider society indicate that culture is very difficult to conceptualize as a term. similarly intercultural education is diverse as a culture. therefore, in order to satisfy multicultural needs the intercultural education developed different approaches, programs and requirements for educational institutions. intercultural education thus attempted to adequately respond to numerous requests, needs and aspirations of different cultural groups. s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [141] new conception of the intercultural education held that it is not enough just to transfer knowledge it is necessary to develop constructive relations among people whose cultural background differ. actually, the constructive relationship is the essence of intercultural education. intercultural education encompasses and supports diversity in all areas of human life. intercultural education makes students sensible to the existence of different ways of life, traditions, customs and worldviews. multiculturalism is rather presented as an asset not as a liability. therefore, enriched with multicultural values, intercultural education promotes equality, respect for human rights and ensure equal opportunities for all, while it opposes injustice and discrimination (gošović, et al, 2007). actually falang (1993) holds that intercultural education also includes the education for peace, education for development, education for democratic coexistence and education for human rights. then, perotti (1995) believes that intercultural education allows children to manage the relationships with others and broadens their range of experience within the multicultural environment. intercultural education prepares children to communicate, especially in conflict situations in which relationships are not automatic. there are diverse objectives of intercultural education. teaching within the intercultural education emphasizes on tolerance and respect for others. goals of intercultural education include: promotion of the conditions that lead to pluralism in society by increasing sensitivity towards other cultures and value systems; developing respect for the lifestyles that are different from theirs as to enable children to understand and appreciate one another; cultivation of a commitment to equality as to enable children to act responsibly in making choices and taking actions directed against discrimination and prejudice; and respecting the similarities and differences in terms of value and training all children to speak for themselves and to articulate their culture and history (gošović, et al, 2007). intercultural education integrates all participants equally namely individuals, teachers, students, adolescents, foreign students or immigrants. therefore, intercultural education is not closed within the categories of state, religion, nation or nationality. it also does not include s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [142] specific single culture but all existing cultural elements. intercultural education emphasizes on ability to cope with cultural diversity in the very form of thought. therefore, intercultural education is based on the idea of a better and more humane society and the future free from any kind of racism and discrimination. the role of international institutions in the promotion of intercultural education the international community has attached special attention to education, especially in the part concerning human rights, equal education opportunity and cultural diversity. in the recent past there has been a need for transformation of educational approaches that will promote educational equality. on this basis this paper surveys the number of international documents that promote equality and condemn and prevent all forms of intolerance, discrimination, segregation, xenophobia and racism in education. since the 1948 a number of documents that contain references for the implementation of intercultural education have been adopted. most of these documents have been developed within the framework of international organizations like the un, unesco, osce and council of europe. although these are legal documents the public at large, teachers and policy makers are often familiar with these materials. however, sometimes due to ignorance and lack of familiarity with these documents discrimination occurs in the education system. the united nations adopted a number of documents on education. these documents serve to guide educational policies of its member states. the basis for most international documents on education can be found in the universal declaration of human rights which was adopted by the general assembly of the united nations in 1948. article 26.2 strives to ensure intercultural values: education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. it shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the united nations for the maintenance of peace. s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [143] the above paragraph is very important from the perspective of intercultural education. it encourages the full development of the human personality and the promotion of understanding, tolerance and coexistence among the people. since 1948 the present provision has been stated and elaborated many times in other international documents, conventions and recommendations. the united nations adopted a number of other documents that seek to direct the education policy to promote intercultural values. some of these documents, which explicitly require the development of intercultural education include: convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (adopted in 1965), international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights (adopted in 1966) declaration on the elimination all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief (adopted in 1981), the convention on the rights of the child (adopted in 1989) and united nations decade for human rights education (adopted in 1994). several important texts on the promotion of intercultural education were adopted by unesco. in paris, the 1974 th general conference of unesco adopted the unesco recommendation concerning education for international understanding, cooperation and peace and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms. part iii of this recommendation deals with the intercultural education with reference to the educational goals that were set forth in article 26, paragraph 2 of the universal declaration. this document also sets out a list of principles for education policy. one of these principles is to promote understanding and respect for all people, their cultures, civilizations, values and ways of life, including domestic ethnic cultures and cultures of other nations. detailed ideas on the intercultural education, can also be found in paragraph 17, which states that the member states of unesco need to promote, at different stages and in different types of education, the study of different cultures, their mutual influences and ways of life in order to encourage mutual respect and respect for diversity. paragraph 17 states: member states should promote, at various stages and in various types of education, study of different cultures, their reciprocal influences, their perspectives and ways of life, in order to encourage mutual s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [144] appreciation of the differences between them. such study should, among other things, give due importance to the teaching of foreign languages, civilizations and cultural heritage as a means of promoting international and inter-cultural understanding. the council of europe has also been very active in promoting the teaching of intercultural values. documents of the council of europe give instructions to member states for the promotion and development of intercultural education. for this purpose, the council adopted a number of important documents. such documents protect the rights of immigrants and minority rights. the council of europe also made recommendations for the training of teachers who will work on the development of intercultural education. certainly education can make a major contribution to the development of intercultural dialogue, understanding, respect and tolerance among people from different cultures. in 1981, the deceleration regarding intolerance was adopted. this document is very important for the promotion of intercultural education. on the basis of this declaration, the council of ministers made recommendation for the promotion of awareness of the requirements of human rights and responsibilities of democratic societies. for this purpose, through human rights education, recommendation was made as to encourage creativity in schools from primary level, establishing a climate of active understanding and respect for qualities of other cultures (2.7). very important document on education was adopted within the framework of the osce. in a document titled "helsinki process" (adopted in 1990) the representatives of the participating countries agreed on the need to take effective measures to promote understanding and tolerance, particularly in the fields of education, culture and information. these measures should be in accordance with the constitutional systems at national, regional and local levels. country representatives were requested to ensure that the goals of education pay special attention to the problem of racial prejudice and hatred, and to develop respect for different civilizations and cultures (3.1). s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [145] due to increased migration during the past few decades a large number of documents were adopted by the council of europe and unesco. such documents were decisive for the development of intercultural education and religious education (kodelja, bassler and rek, 2007 & perotti, 1995). then, after the inclusion of religious education in public schools, expert analysis on effects and character of religious education in europe has intensified (schultze, westerman and holt, 1996). the development of a culture of peace became the ultimate goal of all the efforts of intercultural society. as a result international institutions continued to strongly emphasize the need for the development of intercultural education. education can make a distinct contribution to the development of understanding, respect, appreciation and tolerance among people from different cultures. adopted documents, as mentioned in the above, emphasized the need to respect the rights of all, regardless of race, religion, nationality, skin color, ethnicity, gender and social status. intercultural competences within the teaching processes multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism is one of the main characteristics of the contemporary world, which brings about a need for intercultural education and the inclusion of all. multi-religious context is the most common multicultural and multiracial element. multi-religious context was brought about as the result of migration and various historical, economic and changes at the local and at the global levels. therefore, phenomenon of appreciation of multiculturalism in education is not novelty. many multicultural countries such as germany, england, france, spain, belgium, switzerland, usa, canada and many others emphasize on intercultural education. besides, the balkan region has also been emphasizing on intercultural education (pašalić-kreso, 1999). in the region multicultural values within the education system have been respected throughout the centuries. common agreement among experts is that the school cannot remain neutral and cannot ignore ethnic, social, religious and other characteristics of their students and, as well as the apparent diversity of the society. therefore, many researchers enriched educational, psychological, and sociological dimensions of intercultural education. s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [146] such education prospects and solutions contributed towards the development of multilingual and multicultural education that emphasizes democratic values, tolerance, unity and mutual respect (banks, 1999). multicultural education symbolizes the essence of new educational philosophy that is clearly advocated not only in europe but also in many other multicultural countries (perotti, 1995). the intercultural education and training are inevitable for overcoming societal and national differences. therefore, policy makers, educators and teachers should pay special attention to intercultural education because the global world is multicultural (milat, 2009). certainly if intercultural education is restricted only to support diversity it will not give meaningful results but on the contrary it should also develop the conditions for thriving of the diversity. in order to appreciate other cultures it is not enough just to know them theoretically. for the sake of cultural acceptance it is necessary not only to know cultures but also to develop sympathy towards them. to deepen the knowledge about others it is necessarily to explore people in question both as individuals and at as a group. in this regard being intercultural involves understanding and accepting people from other cultures together with their own cultural identity. according to piršl (2002) intercultural education means to communicate and listen to the others, regardless of race, nationality, religion, and way of life and accepting the others by recognizing their uniqueness. according to perotti (1994) the special feature of intercultural education is the formation of attitudes, skills, feelings and ways of relating to culturally different person. intercultural educated also emphasizes on communication and to listening well to others. therefore, intercultural education should not be seen as a transfer of school culture, but as an education that will enrich the culture, which will allow and approve the universal values values of the person. such values are common to all, regardless of race, color or the way of life. the first and fundamental value of a person should be directed towards accepting societal diversity. therefore, accepting societal diversity should become also the essential and integrative part of intercultural curricula. such s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [147] education will bring about societal coexistence, cooperation and cultural integration. multicultural education includes at least three factors: the idea or concept, the educational reform movement and the process (banks, 1999). multicultural education incorporates the idea that all students, regardless of their gender, social class, ethnicity, race or any other cultural specificity should have an equal access to learning. multicultural education is also a reform movement as it attempts to prepare schools and other educational institutions for all students regardless of their social class, race and ethnicity as to enable them to have an equal chance for success. multicultural education involves a total change in schools and educational environment and is not limited to changes in the curriculum only. multicultural education is a process whose goal will never be fully realized. equality in education, the freedom and fairness are among the ideals that people always aspire to but they are not often fully realized. racism, sexism and discrimination against certain individuals and targeted groups will always exist to some extent, no matter how hard the education system tries to curb them. when prejudice against one group is eliminated another group is immediately being targeted. therefore, an absolute goal of multicultural education can never be fully realized and it is essential to continuously work to increase equality, respect and appreciation within the education settings. intercultural education pays special attention to the relationships among the students. when interacting with others, the child recognizes personal similarities and differences. thus, it is not enough to teach or just convey knowledge about others but it is important to cultivate the relationships with others. children oppose instructions and preestablished identities of parents and teachers. since individual and collective identities also consist of interacting with others it is not appropriate to teach students only about single culture (perotti, 1995). children are constantly faced with different cultural specificities. children require development of positive relationships with others. this relationship should provide equal opportunities for all and to enable students to function in a multicultural world. s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [148] intercultural education should help the individual to know themselves by the virtue of cultivating a real, genuine sense of a self. however, at the same time it is significant to develop the student as to recognize and to appreciate diversity through building of interpersonal relationships in which differences are accepted as a principle of achieving unity in diversity. in this sense, intercultural education cannot be accomplished if it does not allow different ethnic or societal groups to affirm their identity. actually an awareness of the importance of their own culture allows them to recognize wider cultural diversity. confirmation of the rights and values of different cultures do not exclude but rather requires recognizing diversity and respecting of the world community. in order to establish and develop this kind of interpersonal relations, it is necessary to develop intercultural identities. kim (1991) considers that intercultural identity is reflected in the acceptance of existing and new cultural elements, increasing the width and depth of vision, greater selfunderstanding, self-acceptance and self-esteem, increased openness and flexibility and enhanced creativity that allows coping with new challenges. when working with children, the teacher should keep in mind that young people often try to create identities as they are seen by others. however, they sometimes create opposing identities to resist the inferior status created by others and to find alternative solutions to improve their position (carter, 2005). a particular care should be taken where there are students of minority cultures. people from other cultures need to train and enable them to be active and effective citizens in society without their alienation from their own culture and language (wong-fillmore, 2005). if the teacher aims to develop successfully intercultural competence in children he/she is necessary to be familiar with the principles upon which multiculturalism is based. banks' dimensions of multicultural education and bennett's model of intercultural sensitivity made a significant contribution to the theory of intercultural education. bennett's developmental model of intercultural sensitivity describes the stages that people go through difficulties when encountering with other cultures (bennett, 1993). people and society as a whole, differ in their ability to recognize and accept cultural differences. subtle treatment of s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [149] cultural differences could develop from the stage of denying difference to the stages of perception and acceptance of cultural differences, which bennett called ethno-relativism. bennett distinguishes three main stages of ethnocentrism (denial, defense and minimization) and three stages ethno-relativism (acceptance, adaptation and integration). bennett warns that many institutions and organizations strive to build a world where people share the same values and have a common starting ground (mrše, petrović, et al, 2007). besides bennets model of intercultural sensitivity, a large contribution to the theory of intercultural education gave banks. according to banks (1999) a multicultural education is a broad concept with several important dimensions that teachers should use guidelines while school should make necessary reforms as to accommodate the implementation of multicultural education. these dimensions are: integrated content, the process of constructing knowledge, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy, strengthening school culture and social structure. intercultural education should not be reduced to the content or as a primary source for the development of education. instead, intercultural education should be defined and understood more widely. intercultural education should promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among students of different ethnic, racial, ethnic and religious groups. this will not be achieved only through joint sitting and listening to the teacher who stresses that student should be tolerant towards each other. it is necessary to organize different forms of communication, cooperation and to establish real contacts among students (batelaan and coomans, 1999). schools might have a maximum impact if they set up cooperation with numerous partners outside the school. education about the relationship cannot be achieved in the narrow class context, among students and teachers. therefore, the educational community should intervene directly in the role of teachers, parents, associations, organizations and youth movements, representatives of business circles, artists, various cultural communities, universities and scientific institutions. cultural worlds with which the youth and the old should acquaint with are not immutable entities but a living organism, endowed s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [150] with the ability to customize and continuous renewal (perotti, 1995). even the culture of immigrant communities, culture of their home countries, often changes as soon as they engage with the local cultures. immigrants contain the foundation and they can easily fit into their new environment. the contact with the dominant cultures in which they settled is essential. children are often prone to get involved into new culture because they have very little or no knowledge about local culture and their home country practices. the key to their future will not be found in books but in lively practices and social integration. young people, therefore, have an access to the dynamics of culture that provides new opportunities. in addition to accepting diversity, intercultural education must teach young people to take an active role in the society and to fight against all forms of discrimination, segregation and xenophobia. human rights should also be emphasized among students, educators and researchers. such universal reference could direct us to transcend ideological differences. according to human rights we should aim to develop the world "without any discrimination based on sex, race, color, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status "(article 14 of the convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, council of europe, 1950). intercultural education is not novelty but its new methodology attempts to seek new findings within psychological, anthropological, social, economic, historical, political and cultural aspects of life. therefore, intercultural education as a subject is closely connected with social sciences, humanities and natural sciences. yet there are no special application areas that are distinctively intercultural. intercultural approach draws strength from access to individual cases and provides them with incentives. intercultural education cannot avoid the transfer of useful knowledge for the education of the citizens of multicultural society. three key elements of intercultural education according to the council of europe include the role and responsibility of schools, history and identity, religious or spiritual dimension of multicultural society s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [151] (maksimović, 2005). there is also a need for the religious or spiritual dimensions of education. in order to live in harmony with their neighbors and among various nations it is necessary to know more about others, to be more sensitive and more open and to know more about other religions and cultures. after september 11, 2001 the special place in intercultural education got a religious education (jackson, 2009). international institutions and other relevant subjects invested great effort in order to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence through religious education in public and private schools. many experts believe that learning about other religions contribute to their tolerance and reduce discrimination and that religious education can contribute significantly to world peace. through religious education in public schools in an efficient way it is possible to develop a respect and appreciation of others. cultural diversity in bosnia-herzegovina and the necessity of interculturalism cultural diversity can be one of the greatest assets of a state but at the same time it can be a constant source of various conflicts. the pluralism of different cultures and traditions of the people who live in mutual respect and appreciation is the characteristic of the democratic societies. balkan is a symbol of ethnic, national, religious and linguistic diversity. southeast europe is a place where historically pervaded catholicism, orthodoxy and islam and as well as other denominational traditions. the balkans also cultivates a rich and diverse religious culture (koprivica, 2001). bosnia and herzegovina is a multicultural country and its multiculturalism should not be considered as the burden but as an asset. multiculturalism should be constantly emphasized as an asset of this country that needs to be furthermore nurtured and developed. according to hall future will depend on the willingness of people to transcend the boundaries of their own culture (hull, 2001). bosnia and herzegovina can be proud of rich diversity that all together constitutes huge cultural treasures. however, this distinction is often misused and is often used as an instrument for achieving certain political gains. s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [152] according to cvitković (2005) bosnia and herzegovina is the place in which the relations between christians (catholics and orthodox) and muslims often turned into conflict, but it is also the place that provides a chance for true solidarity, dialogue and communication. this is the place where religions face, clash, collide and interpenetrate. the history of these relations, particularly during the recent past, is not the best guide to the people of bosnia and herzegovina. however, people of bosniaherzegovina as members of different nations and religions must share the same space and this requires mutual understanding and tolerance (cvitković, 2005). complex distribution of religions in this region is accompanied by ethnic diversity, which may or may not identify with the confessional communities. all this complicates the spatial relationships and gives them one, for the european framework, the specific stamp. as in any democratic society, one of the key objectives of education is promoting democratic values in the community. the education system must take into account the multicultural character of the society and should strive to actively contribute to the peaceful coexistence and positive interaction among different cultural groups. diversity seen as richness or diversity seen as challenge is one of the most important topics of intercultural education. at the social level, understanding of diversity as richness contributes to quality of the individual's life in a multiethnic, multicultural society (husremović, powell, et al, 2007). also contemporary religious pedagogy clearly indicates that culturally, politically, religiously, and even racially mixed environment is a future that is already on the verge (pranjić, 1996). taking into account the balkans history the people of this region should invest much more efforts into the development of tolerance and coexistence. separation, segregation and all other forms of discrimination will eventually harm all people of the balkans. experience tells us that whenever there is a conflict all national or religious communities paid heavy price. it is therefore essential to make every effort to develop intercultural awareness among the citizens, respectively in way to strengthen tolerance, understanding, respect and reconciliation. the best way of achieving these values is education. young generations need to be educated to tolerate and to accept others. s. bećirović the role of intercultural education epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [153] conclusion due to the mobility of the population and demographic changes societies are changing rapidly. as a result, multiculturalism plays a role of making dynamic and interactive links and relationships among different cultures. it is based on the idea of a better and more humane society and the future in which racism and domination will be eliminated. therefore, intercultural education emphasizes on empathy, solidarity, recognition and respect for diversity. it is also education that curbs ethnocentrism, nationalism, racism and discrimination. as this paper indicated, many international organizations like the un, unhcr, osce and council of europe have made significant efforts to ensure the development of multicultural values through education. besides providing knowledge and skills to students, education emphasizes also on values of tolerance, respect, understanding and acceptance of others. certainly, the most effective way of spreading these values is through education. international institutions through the adoption of key documents requested nations to eliminate all forms of racism, discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance. states should ensure equal rights for everyone under its jurisdiction, regardless of differences such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political affiliation, nation or social origin and economic status. bosnia-herzegovina is richer with ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. by considering such diversity bosnia should promote intercultural values through the educational system. history has shown that a very low level of tolerance often leads to conflicts and wars as was the case with the former yugoslavia during the 1990s. young people simply must develop intercultural sensitivity and competence since they live in a pluralistic society. experts in the field of intercultural education believe that, in addition to other forms of education, religious education can contribute significantly to the development of intercultural values and thus improve the quality of coexistence. s. bećirović the role of 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(2005). when learning a second language means losing the first. the new immigration: an interdisciplinary reader. new york & london: routledge, pp. 289-307. http://www.ffzg.hr/hre-edc/zd_prisl.htm http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001271/127160m.pdf http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/49/a49r184.htm http://www.unesco.org/education/nfsunesco/pdf/peace_e.pdf 36 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies the issue of marriage in jane austen’s emma emina lagumdžija international university of sarajevo abstract this article examines the issue of marriage in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in jane austen’s emma. the article focuses on the issue of marriage in victorian england in general illustrated with the marriages in the novel. emma, the protagonist, gets involved in matchmaking while, at the same time, believing that she will never get married. furthermore, the article aims to discuss the views, status and condition of the woman in family and marriage during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and to show how jane austen represents these views in the novel. keywords: austen; marriage; family; choice; dependency; victorian england, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 37 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 introduction firstly, we could start with the fact that women in victorian england were supposed to get married, obey their husbands, be in charge of their homes as well as take care of children besides being ideal women both on the inside and on the outside. all in all, they needed to be “an angel in the house” (showalter, 1978, p. 14). domestic chores for women without servants meant a great deal of washing and cleaning. they would usually wash the clothes and sheets once a week, whereas the curtains, which would turn black because of coal smoke, would be washed every other week (horowitz, 1982, pp. 177-179). secondly, many women did not have a choice about a partner because it would meet the disapproval of the family, and it meant financial insecurity (since, naturally, the partner chosen by the family was “the best choice” for their daughter, and for the family as well – mainly financially). what is also important to emphasize here is that the young women of that time could not get a proper education, putting them in an inferior position and forcing them to obey men all their lives (fathers, brothers, husbands, etc.) because they did not have an independent financial means, among other things. a wealthy widow or spinster was a lucky exception. a woman who stayed single had to face social disapproval and pity. it was socially unacceptable as well to have a partner, let alone children, outside of marriage. all in all, as we can see, the woman’s only purpose in life was to marry and have children. thirdly, a woman could not obtain a divorce, even if she lived in the worst possible marriage, while men could get it – which clearly indicates the moral inequality of that time. what is more, if women had showed any signs of self-awareness, they would have been harshly sanctioned by the male members of the family. divorce was difficult to obtain; the only acceptable reason for divorce was adultery, and even then it was a valid reason only for emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 38 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies a man. a woman could use adultery as an excuse to divorce her husband; however, she had to supplement it with evidence proving her husband engaged in incest, bigamy, or excessive cruelty. even though this was a clear double standard, the reason for something like this was as follows: men were supposed to take care of their wives, and thus their fidelity was not as important and as terrible as that of a woman; if women, on the other hand, had been caught cheating, this would have been interpreted as them not respecting the care they were provided with by their husbands. however, things started to change in the 19th century in terms of giving women more rights to get a divorce as well as to gain custody of their children, especially with the introduction of the custody of infants act (1838 and 1873) as well as the matrimonial causes act (1890) (hurvitz, “women and divorce in the victorian era”, n.d.). as we can see, the woman in the nineteenth century was clearly dependent on her father and, logically, on her husband once she got married. getting married was also a necessity for a woman to survive at all since women were deprived of proper education. consequently, they could not have careers as such, and would not have been able to provide for themselves, had they stayed single, or without any male members of their families. another point worth mentioning here is how women were not equal to men in the eyes of the law of that time. it was much more difficult for a woman to get divorced than for a man. what is more, even when she did decide to get divorced, the consequences of such an act were extremely harsh on her. fernando (1977), when talking about george eliot, states that she makes some nice distinctions. the woman is not all feeling; she herself must find a union of the two perceptions within her. women, by virtue of their sex, can play an important role in the progress of the human race, since they are naturally gifted with more feelings and emotions, which have been thought to be more intellectually and morally valuable. eliot never believed that emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 39 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 men’s and women’s interests and pursuits needed to be similar, or that women needed to change their personalities to fit the male pattern. at the same time, eliot was aware of the difficulties of setting out a conception of a woman’s place in such a way and of giving it such importance (pp. 3031). furthermore, the woman had to accept all the baggage of her marriage, even if it meant that she would be unhappy for the rest of her life, and getting divorced was not going to make her feel happy again (p. 51). discussion when it comes to emma, it is interesting to consider to what extent austen accepts or questions the idea that marriage represents a woman’s maturity and fulfilment of identity in life – the same identity that men have in a patriarchal society. emma revolves around a number of marriages, which are all recently anticipated or consummated, and in which the participants’ social status is definitely more important than their mutual affection and relationship. in austen’s time, marriage was one of the main ways by which one could climb the social ladder. marriage was determined by a combination of family background, reputation, and wealth. women were denied a chance of improving their social status through their hard work or personal achievements, so marriage was the method of social advancement that was of the utmost significance to women. although the novel is narrated by the third person narrator, austen often lets us see things from emma’s point of view and describes them in the language used by emma. the result of this kind of narration is a complex mixture of the sympathy for emma and the ironic judgement of her behaviour. the reader does not always find it easy to share emma’s points of view or to disagree with them. it is also not clear whether austen expects us to judge emma’s behaviour at all. even though the reader may be faced with some problems of interpretation, the style of narration makes emma a emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 40 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies richly multi-dimensional character. it becomes even more obvious thanks to the implicit distinctions made between her and the other women in the novel and the context of the novel as well. jane fairfax and emma are very similar to each other in many ways; they are intelligent, educated and very dedicated to their families, but jane fairfax is not financially independent or privileged like emma. mrs. elton, just like emma, is independent and imposes her will upon her friends, but her crudeness and vanity reinforce our sense of emma’s refinement and fundamentally good heart. emma’s sister, isabella, is a typical young woman of her time – feminine, gentle, completely devoted to her family, dependant, and not very bright. the novel clearly favors emma’s independence and intelligence over her sister’s more traditional manners and behaviour, but the paradox still remains that though emma is clever, she is almost always mistaken. emma is eventually “ashamed of every sensation but the one revealed to her – her affection for mr. knightley. every other part of her is disgusting” (gilbert & gubar, 1979, p. 159). austen does not have any problems pointing out all the great characteristics of her heroines as well as all their weaknesses. she likes her heroines, but she does not make them perfect because she is aware of the fact that nobody is perfect and neither are her heroines. this is what makes austen’s characters so realistic. another equally important point is that austen allows her main female characters to regret some of their decisions, to feel sorry for making the mistakes they make, and in doing so, she makes them human with all their imperfections. so, austen allows them to learn from their mistakes, to try to polish their imperfections, and to seek the ideal of perfection. austen knows it is not an easy task, especially because her heroines live in a world dominated by men, and to achieve something, anything for that matter, they have to work twice as hard as their male counterparts. mr. knightley nicely explains the difference between emma and her sister isabella, but also, and more importantly, tells us more about emma herself when he says the following: emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 41 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 [...] emma is spoilt by being the cleverest in her family. at ten years old, she had the misfortune of being able to answer questions which puzzled her sister at seventeen. she was always quick and assured; isabella slow and diffident. and ever since she was twelve, emma has been mistress of the house and of you all. in her mother, she lost the only person able to cope with her. she inherits her mother’s talents, and must have been under subjection to her. (austen, 1993, p. 629) what we witness here is the way mr. knightley admires emma, her intelligence, talent, and skills, but, at the same time, by putting her mother forward as emma’s role model and influence in life, he admires mrs. woodhouse as well. when talking about these two ladies, he actually admires capable and strong women in general. the strongest influence on emma could easily be her father, but austen chooses mrs. woodhouse on purpose to show us the importance of the female influence and strength. despite the fact that emma gets involved in matchmaking all the time, she neither has nor shows any intentions of wanting to get married. mr. knightley makes a good observation: she always declares she will never marry, which, of course, means nothing at all. but i have no idea that she has yet ever seen a man she cared for. it would not be a bad thing for her to be very much in love with a proper object. i should like to see emma in love, and in some doubt of a return; it would do her good. but there is nobody here-abouts to attach her, and she goes so seldom from house. (p. 631) the novel suggests that marrying too far above oneself leads to difficulties and troubles. for instance, mr. weston’s first marriage to miss churchill is a good move for him because she comes from a wealthy, well-connected emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 42 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies family. mr. weston is a tradesman who becomes engaged in trade after he quits his job in the militia of his country, but the inequality of the relationship is hard for both of them. captain weston was a general favourite; and then his military life had introduced him to miss churchill, of a great yorkshire family, and miss churchill fell in love with him, nobody was surprised, except her brother and his wife, who had never seen him, and who were full of pride and importance, which the connection would offend. miss churchill, however, being of age, and with the full command of her fortune – though her fortune bore no proportion to the family estate, was not to be dissuaded from the marriage, and it took place, to the infinite mortification of mr. and mrs. churchill, who threw her off with due decorum. it was an unsuitable connection, and did not produce much happiness. (p. 618) mr. weston marries mrs. weston just before the end of the novel, and this second marriage is happier because their social statuses are more equal. mrs. weston is a governess, and as such is very fortunate because she does not have to work any longer thanks to her marriage. the other characters, especially mr. knightley, also find emma’s attempt to match harriet with mr. elton inappropriate. since harriet’s parentage is unknown, emma believes that harriet may have noble blood and encourages her to reject robert martin, who turns out to be a more appropriate match for her in the end. mr. knightley’s objection to the match of harriet and mr. elton is loud and clear. he states that harriet is inferior to mr. elton, bearing in mind the fact that nobody knows who her parents are, she is not extremely intelligent and has not learnt anything useful nor gained any important experience. the only thing that can be considered an advantage emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 43 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 of hers is the fact that she is pretty and good-tempered and nothing else. hence, in mr. knightley’s opinion, it is harriet who will benefit from this match, not mr. elton, and this is exactly why robert martin is a perfect match for harriet. the advantage of the match i felt to be all on her side, and had not the smallest doubt (nor have i now) that there would be a general cry out upon her extreme good luck. even your satisfaction i made sure of. it crossed my mind immediately that you would regret your friend’s leaving highbury, for the sake of her being settled so well. i remember saying to myself: “even emma, with all her partiality for harriet, will think this a good match” (p. 641). when the truth is revealed that harriet is a tradesman’s daughter, emma has to admit that mr. martin is definitely a more suitable match for her friend. the relationship between marriage and social status is complicated for some other characters as well. frank churchill must not announce his engagement to the orphan jane fairfax, knowing that his rich aunt will disagree with his decision. as a result, jane is forced to consider taking the position of a governess. mr. weston makes a fine observation of frank churchill’s aunt’s character: mr. churchill has pride; but his pride is nothing to his wife’s; he is a quiet, indolent, gentlemanlike sort of pride, that would harm nobody, and only make himself a little helpless and tiresome; but her pride is arrogance and insolence. and what inclines one less to bear, she has no fair pretence of family or blood. she was nobody when he married her, barely the daughter of a gentleman, but ever since her being turned into a churchill, she has out-churchill’d them all in high and mighty claims; but in herself, i assure you, she is an upstart. (pp. 765-766). emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 44 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies from the quotation, we can understand that mrs. churchill has to thank her marriage for everything she has. she has benefited from getting married to mr. churchill since she does not have any special family background. however, what is of significance to us here is that she feels free to order people around and to say who is to do what and how especially in terms of getting married. she has no right to forbid frank to marry jane fairfax, especially to object to it because of jane’s background, since she is not in a better position herself. what makes it even worse is the fact that jane fairfax is an educated, smart, young woman with good manners, who would make a perfect wife for frank churchill. another point worth looking at is how mrs. churchill becomes “a bigger and better churchill” than all the other members of the family, which makes us realize how important this marriage is to her and her social status. in the victorian era, on the other hand, life was not easy for an unmarried girl. she was forced to marry because marriage was considered a means that not only gave her identity but also enabled her to manage financially in life. an unmarried middle or lower-class girl, who did not inherit anything nor had any financial means to support herself, could only become a nun or prostitute later in life. in emma, the unmarried miss bates has to face the threat of living in poverty without a husband who would take care of her and her mother. mrs. bates is an elderly lady who is the widow of the former vicar of highbury. she lives with a daughter who is “neither young, handsome, rich, nor married” (p. 621). she is taking care of her old mother, and due to her good nature, nobody speaks badly about her. miss bates is interested in everybody’s happiness and does not pay too much attention to people’s weaknesses. she simply loves people. “the simplicity and cheerfulness of her nature, her contented and grateful spirit, were a recommendation to everybody, and a mind of felicity to herself. she was a great talker upon little matters, which exactly suited mr. woodhouse, full of trivial communications and harmless gossip” (p. 621). emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 45 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 however, the conversation between emma and harriet clearly shows emma’s views on miss bates in particular, and marriage in general, with a special reference to the difference between poor girls or young women who stay single and unmarried and wealthy girls or young women who stay single or unmarried in the victorian society. the latter, of course, have a choice, as emma nicely explains, due to the fact per se that their wealth enables them to lead a normal life, without being looked at as outcasts, while those poor, unmarried young women are usually rejected by society as being outcasts, considered to be “not normal”, simply because they are not fortunate enough to find suitable husbands for themselves. emma says: never mind, harriet. i shall not be a poor old maid; and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public! a single woman with a very narrow income must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid – the proper sport of boys and girls, but a single woman of good fortune is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else! and the distinction is not quite so much against the candour and common-sense of the world as appears at first; for a very narrow income has a tendency to contract the mind, and sour the temper. those who can barely live, and who live perforce in a very small and, generally, very inferior society, may well be illiberal and cross. this does not apply, however, to miss bates: she’s only too good-natured and too silly to suit me; but, in general, she is very much to the taste of everybody, though single and though poor. poverty certainly has not contracted her mind: i really believe, if she had only a shilling in the world, she would be very likely to give sixpence of it; and nobody is afraid of her; that is a great charm. (p. 654) emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 46 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies finally, the match between emma and mr. knightley is considered a good one, not only because her characters are similar, but also, and maybe even more importantly because they come from the same social class. the very descriptions of emma and mr. knightley give us an insight into many of their similarities both in terms of their characters as well as their social class. in the novel, austen describes emma as follows: “emma woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her” (p. 613). austen describes mr. knightley in the following way: mr. knightley, a sensible man about seven or eight and thirty, was not only a very old and intimate friend of the family, but particularly connected with it, as the older brother of isabella’s husband. he lived about a mile from highbury, was a frequent visitor, and always welcome, and at this time more welcome than usual, as coming directly from their mutual connections in london. he had returned to a late dinner after some days’ absence, and now walked up to hartfield to say that all were well in brunswick square. it was a happy circumstance, and animated mr. woodhouse for some time. mr. knightley had a cheerful manner, which always did him good; and his many inquires after “poor isabella” and her children were answered most satisfactorily. (p. 615) as it can be observed and concluded from the two descriptions, emma and mr. knightley indeed share a lot of similarities. both of them are clever, good-looking and rich. they also have mutual relatives, friends, and connections. isabella, emma’s sister, is married to mr. knightley’s brother, emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 47 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 which makes them even closer friends and more attached to each other because of mr. knightley’s frequent visits to the woodhouse mansion. all these previously mentioned things make the match between emma and mr. knightley seem naturally suitable and absolutely logical. moffat (1991) discusses the issue of marriage and the genre of emma and states the following: “our difficulties with emma reside in part in the resolution of the plot, her marriage to knightley. these really comprise two problems: marriage itself and marriage specifically to knightley” (p. 51). she argues that knightley’s suitability as a lover is an open-end question throughout the whole novel and that it is comical to observe his shift from mentor to lover. bearing in mind the age difference between emma and him, we also recognize the incest taboo in the novel, acknowledging that knightley could be emma’s father in terms of the age difference between the two of them (pp. 53-54). furthermore, moffat (1991) asks if emma had to get married, or if her correction could have happened in some other way. the issue at hand here is that austen usually has a male counterpart to her main female character, and all the flaws of the main female character are pointed out to her or to the reader by her male counterpart in the novel. interestingly enough, in emma, austen not only lets mr. knightley criticize emma, but the narrator does it as well. as a result, it feels like emma needs to be criticized or preached to twice as much as any other austen’s heroine. the narrator in emma is used to direct readers to come to conclusions that might affect their actions in the real world. the power that the narrator possesses is translated from the fictional world to our world. so, it can be argued that emma, in terms of its structure, is written in the form of buildungsroman (pp. 53-55). emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 48 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies apart from the issue of marriage, the novel also describes the nature of a woman’s existence in eighteenth-century rural england, emma is highly intelligent and full of energy, but she uses her intelligence and energy to guide the marital destinies of her friends. this project of hers gets her into a lot of trouble. isabella is the only mother the story focuses on, and her description suggests that the life of a mother gives a woman little use of her intellect. for example, mr. knightley refers to her as “poor isabella”, most probably because her life revolves only around her children and family. the novel is focused on marriage because marriage offers women a chance to exert their power, even if only occasionally and to some extent, and to affect their own lives and destinies without having to adopt the work and efforts, or even the lifestyle, of the working class. accepting or rejecting proposals of marriage is perhaps the most active role women are allowed to play in emma’s world. to illustrate what has been said, let’s look at the following conversation between emma and mr. woodhouse about miss taylor: (mr. woodhouse) “poor miss taylor! i wish she were here again. what a pity it is that mr. weston ever thought of her!” (emma) “i cannot agree with you, papa; you know i cannot. mr. weston is such a good-humoured, pleasant, excellent man, that he thoroughly deserves a good wife; and you would not have had miss taylor live with us forever, and bear all my odd humour, when she might have a house of her own?” (p. 614). unlike marianne in sense and sensibility and elizabeth in pride and prejudice, emma woodhouse’s problems in emma mostly lie in the fact that she is unable to understand her own personal flaws. during her matchmaking debacle between mr. elton and harriet, emma does not understand – or even accept – the fact that she is not the right person to completely understand the human personality; she does not even understand her personality emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 49 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 and is blind to her own mistakes for that matter. this leads to mr. elton admitting that he is actually in love with emma, not harriet. however, this does not change emma at all. the moment that completely changes emma occurs when mr. knightley expresses his discontent with emma’s cruelty that she expresses towards miss bates. this moment of self-discovery is followed by emma’s continuous efforts to change herself in all the ways possible. the misunderstandings in the novel are all the result of the conventions of social propriety to which all the characters are subjected. the characters are unable to express their feelings directly and openly because of the social pressure, norms and moral values, which construct victorian society and its culture, and, as a result, their feelings are misunderstood. austen seems to prefer knightley and martin’s tactfulness to the sometimes ironic, cynical and sarcastic comments of emma, mr. elton and frank. however, they have a major influence on the story as a whole. the conversation between emma and mr. knightley seems to be a valid example of what has just been stated: “pray mr. knightley,” said emma who had been smiling to herself through a great part of this speech, “how do you know that mr. martin did not speak yesterday?” “certainly,” replied he, surprised, “i do not absolutely know it, but it may be inferred. was not she the whole day with you?” (p. 640) obviously, emma enjoys knowing more or being better informed than her male counterparts. this gives her the joy of feeling superior to them by showing them that they do not possess the knowledge she does, and she feels needed at the same time, which generally makes her feel good about herself. emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 50 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies in victorian england, men were dominant and were in charge of all important work, while the role of the woman was quite minor, and was mostly concentrated on doing housework and ensuring the right upbringing of children. thus, women would get married very young, mostly by the choice of their parents, or sometimes and rarely to the man of their own choice, if they were lucky enough. austen’s most important works are about young women who want to marry and go through a lot of troubles on their journey to achieving their goals. however, she herself never got married. her relationship with tom lefroy broke up due to the circumstances in her life which were beyond her control, such as her finances, family background, and many other things. she also decided to reject her only potential suitor, and the one that proposed to her, harris bigg-wither, because she would not ignore her feelings (tomalin, 1997). what is also important is that she, as an early feminist, paid much more attention to one’s personal independence, as it can be seen in all her works; all her protagonists are women who have dominant roles in her novels, and austen conveys all her important messages by using different satirical devices (irony, humor, exaggeration, to name just a few), which are all the tools used by feminist writers. brown (1969) states that the didactic and sentimental tradition of eighteenth-century fiction has been well documented, and so has jane austen’s parody of that tradition. given austen’s preference for the realistic possibilities of fiction, and given the opposing standards of some reviewers and readers, she is left with the problem of how to conclude her story without sacrificing her comic view of reality to the rigid canons of poetic justice. she solves the problem by applying her moral judgement so that the characters and narrative details convey the relevant moral values as much as they embody a vision of life and reality. in emma, for example, the resolution of the plot and themes does not depend on the celebration of marriage. emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 51 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 the crucial resolution is the process of emma’s development. it is austen’s conclusion that we must look for her reaction to the didacticism and sentimentality of the “happy ending”, since the mocking self-consciousness of these essentially comic conclusions evokes a contrast between a literary convention and a novelist’s preoccupation with reality. moreover, this parody of a “hackneyed artifice” is supplemented by austen’s insistence on the kind of ending that is logically consistent with her characters and narrative. in emma, where this kind of formal and self-conscious conclusion is absent, there is an implied contrast between the actual outcome and the conclusion envisaged by emma in her earlier misinterpretations of characters and situations (pp. 1582-1583). throughout the novel, emma realizes her own self-centeredness and admits that it is wrong to take an active part in bringing any two people together. at the end, she feels ashamed and very worried about what she has done and decides to never do it again. what austen does here is let us see the good qualities of being oneself, but also the bad qualities that come with it. she also lets emma change the weakness of her character, but does not compromise her for who she really is. when the reader reads emma and compares the plot with austen’s life, it is very obvious that austen put a part of herself into the character of emma. like austen herself, emma is absolutely sure she will never marry because of the issue of independence, which is very much blocked by husbands in traditional societies. in this respect, emma becomes a spokeswoman for austen’s feelings. however, austen stayed single all her life, while emma gets married at the end of the novel (tomalin, 1997). gilbert and gubar (1979) describe emma, or to be more precise austen’s “avatar” as they call her, as someone who “manipulates people as if they were characters in her own stories” (p. 158). emma gets involved in matchemina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 52 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies making and stories of romance that she smartly resists in her own life. however, emma does it out of boredom, and it is understandable why she does it – since she is an intelligent and imaginative girl who is capable of changing and willing to transform her dull reality into something more entertaining. she is also capable of figuring out people’s personalities quite fast, even without getting to know them too well. showalter (1978) states a very interesting thing about the “the dangerous woman” whose resemblance to emma is striking: “the dangerous woman is not the rebel or the bluestocking, but “the pretty girl” whose indoctrination in the female role has taught her secrecy and deceitfulness, almost as secondary sex characteristics. she is particularly dangerous because she looks so innocent” (p. 165). this goes to show that being a rebel is not the only way to be dangerous, but that deceitfulness and secrecy of innocent-looking young girls are even more dangerous. it is because we know exactly what to expect from rebels and how to deal with them, but we are not usually careful enough and do not pay too much attention to people, in this case women, who look innocent and unable to hurt anyone or anything. these women can change themselves, people around them, and even whole societies, and their deceitfulness, secrecy, and innocent looks are the tools they use to achieve their goals. as we mentioned earlier, marriage is the main theme in almost all of austen’s works. what we need to understand here is how austen uses marriage as a theme and the tone in her works. marriage is always seen through the main female character’s point of view – elizabeth bennet’s in pride and prejudice, marianne dashwood’s in sense and sensibility, and emma’s in emma. what we also need to notice here is that austen is very ironic in the way she wants to get her messages across as to the role, status and condition of the emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 53 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 woman in the victorian era. this is exactly the reason why her works are so popular all around the world and have remained popular for so long after her death. so, the question is: why did she use irony? she used irony to convey messages to the people of her time. she would do this by introducing an unexpected event into the plot to direct her readers to the message she wanted to convey. by using irony, austen chose to direct her readers to the main message in her stories because of the “controversial” topics she portrayed in her novels, such as the rejection of marriage, a girl not wanting to get married at all, or even the female dominance in general. furthermore, she uses comedy of manners as another segment of the tone of the novel in order to describe different characters, and to portray people’s characteristics (usually those negative ones) through it (bradbury, 1962, pp. 86-87). since austen was not just an author but also a critic (she criticized the social hierarchies of the time, gender roles, marriage and/or the behaviour of the wealthy), she was able to present her point of view to the reader in a more appealing way. she managed to portray her female characters in a dominant position, and the public did not seem to mind, object or take offense. or if so, it was at a very low level. austen’s women are strong, independent and ambitious, and they still manage to keep their reputations spotless, just like austen was and did during her own life. austen is often derided because of her reputation of only writing about young women whose sole interest in life is to get married. however, this is not true. she wrote about relationships between men and women, and different problems women faced in her day, and she included some scathing criticism of society – especially as it affected women. bradbury (1962), when talking about emma, also states that the whole novel is centred around the social and family life of that time. austen is the author whose novels are about common people and common life – the emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 54 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies people and life she knows well. obviously, marriage plays a vital role in her novels, so a lot of commentaries and moral discussions are about trying to define a good marriage (or the conditions of a good marriage), and then contrasting it to all the other marriages in the novel. “but marriage is a social pact, and so must answer to the public dimension. the general expectations of this book are that people will make the marriages they deserve, and that the climax will be emma’s marriage, made when she has answered to her faults and resolved her dilemmas” (p. 83). this goes back to the fact that emma is criticized twice as much as the other austen’s heroines and that she has to come to terms with, accept and acknowledge all her flaws before she marries mr. knightley. the end, indeed, puts an end to emma’s flaws and leads her to self-realization, and austen, obviously, wants to finish her novel with a sort of a happy end; however, the question remains if this end is ideal for emma herself. conclusion despite the fact that most of austen’s characters do want to marry, they always want to choose their own life partners and marry for love, which is something that was unthinkable (or hardly so) during austen’s lifetime. for example, elizabeth bennet (pride and prejudice) will stay dependent on her family or at the mercy of mr. collins, who will inherit the bennet family house if she does not marry him, still decides not to marry him because she can only get married to someone she will love with all her heart and soul. elizabeth is very intelligent; however, she is not the only smart female who has this strong feminine notion about marrying for love rather than for someone’s wealth or inheritance. what we can observe here is austen breaking some ground rules of the laws and social norms and standards of her time and culture, which leads us to think that this can be interpreted as a sign of feminism in her works. emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 55 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 although she criticized the social conduct of her time and culture, austen was never an activist because she did not want to destroy the reputation and good name of her family. however, what perhaps can be looked at and discussed is the fact that maybe austen was a forerunner of feminism, especially in terms of her literary corpus. what we have to acknowledge is that without the box hill episode, in which emma is severely and openly criticized by mr. knightley that helps her progress to her self-realization, this novel would not be as important today (moore, 1969, p. 585). at the same time, the theme of dependency is depicted by using different characters, their lives and life stories. frank churchill and harriet derive from the goodwill of others the status which is usually given or ensured by birth. miss bates and mr. woodhouse exemplify the reliance of age on youth. mrs. weston and jane fairfax must obtain the support of others to preserve their gentility. finally, emma, who believes to be independent of all dependent needs, cultivates a society of individuals of whom this is obviously not true. references austen, j. (1993). the complete works of jane austen. magpie books. bradbury, m. (1962). jane austen’s emma. in j. o’neill (ed.), critics on jane austen (pp. 78-90). george allen & unwin ltd. brown, l. w. (1969). the comic conclusion in jane austen’s novels. pmla, 84(6), 1582–1587. https://doi.org/10.2307/1261504 fernando, l. (1977). “new woman” in the late victorian novel. pennsylvania state university press. gilbert, m. s., & gubar, s. (1979). jane austen’s cover story. in k. flint (ed.), the madwoman in the attic (pp. 146-187; 2nd ed.). croom helm world & word series. emina lagumdžija the issue of marriage in jane austen's emma 56 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies horowitz, m. j. (1982). strong-minded women and other lost voices from nineteenth-century england. pantheon books. hurvitz, r. (n.d.) women and divorce in the victorian era: retrieved from http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/agunn/teaching/enl3251/vf/pres/hurvitz.htm moffat, w. (1991). identifying with emma: some problems for the feminist reader. college english, 53(1), 45–58. https://doi.org/10.2307/377968 moore, e. m. (1969). emma and miss bates: early experiences of separation and the theme of dependency in jane austen’s novels. studies in english literature, 1500-1900, 9(4), 573–585. https://doi. org/10.2307/450033 showalter, e. (1978). a literature of their own; british women novelists from bronte to lessing. virago. tomalin, c. (1997). jane austen: a life. vintage. epiphany_vol14_no_2_edited_2023.7.3.indd linguistic performancenermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović 75 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies vol. 15 no. 2, 202274 introduction studies on linguistic performance in healthy and individuals su� ering from a certain impairment range from large scale studies to case studies. � is is a normal procedure in terms of methodology although there can be no overgeneralizations provided due to the very nature of research and the fact that people become more diverse as they age and due to the fact that language cannot be observed as a separate skill as it interacts with memory, perception and emotion (de bot & makoni, 2005). when it comes to linguistic aspects of three dementia syndromes (alzheimer’s disease, semantic dementia and progressive non-� uent aphasia), studies reveal that there is a signi� cant di� erence in terms of language production deteriorating not as a cause of a cerebrovascular accident and language comprehension, whereas production seems to be least a� ected at the morphosyntactic level (kempler & goral, 2008). it is precisely this di� erence between comprehension and production as well as an increased usage of function words in both typical cognitive aging and dementia that this paper focuses on. � erefore, we � rst describe the linguistic aspects of typical cognitive aging and then contrast it to cognitive aging characterized by neurodegeneration in dementia. theoretical framework language comprehension and production in typical cognitive aging in terms of language comprehension at the word-level as well as the sentence-level, online studies show that it is fairly preserved in typical aging (burke & mackay, 1997). for example, comprehension studies that relied on lexical priming showed a comparable degree of automatic activation of the meaning of words in older and young adults (laver & burke, 1993). moreover, ratcli� et al. (2004) show that even though slower in the lexical decision task, the elderly group showed higher accuracy scores than the group with younger participants. concerning phonological aspects, using prosodic cues during comprehension seems to be preserved in aging as well. as sensitivity for higher frequency tones declines over the life-span, linguistic performance in typical cognitive aging and dementia1 nermina čordalija nejla kalajdžisalihović university of sarajevo abstract � e paper discusses studies on language in typical cognitive aging and dementia conducted on english language processing. for the most part, the studies on language in aging and dementia presented in the paper have been done with speakers of english. we describe language comprehension and production of two groups— typically aging individuals and individuals with dementia. we provide betweengroup comparisons with regard to language comprehension and production and point out di� erent levels of impairment a� ecting comprehension and production. moreover, taking the � ndings of the studies into account, which observe language impairments as secondary to motoric, although they may constitute early markers of an undiagnosed condition (kemper et al. 1995), it is tentatively proposed that content and function words need to be given special attention in analysing language comprehension and language production, respectively. at the same time, cognitive reserve through language learning and in the case of bilingual and multilingual speakers is proposed as a strategy to delay the onset of dementia (de bot & maconi, 2005). finally, we discuss elderspeak and its impact on the quality of life of typically aging individuals and individuals with dementia. keywords: dementia; aging; language comprehension; language production; content words; function words; cognitive reserve; elderspeak 1-� is paper is dedicated to patients su� ering from dementia and their caregivers. epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies linguistic performancelinguistic performancenermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović nermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović 7776 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies be rather robust in old age, age-related decline e� ects are observed in language production which entails mapping of a lexical concept onto a phonological or orthographic form. for the sake of comparison, the next section de� nes dementia and discusses important linguistic aspects of this neurodegenerative condition. language comprehension and production in dementia dementia as a term may be considered a loose label for a variety of typically progressive symptoms such as memory or language de� cits caused by neurodegenerative processes in the brain (see marx, 2006; kempler & goral, 2008, strandroos & antelius, 2017). alzheimer’s disease is probably the most well-known type of dementia but there are also other types such as vascular dementia, or frontotemporal dementia that di� er in impairment patterns and the distribution of the cell damage in the brain (kempler & goral, 2008). in this paper, we use the term dementia as an umbrella term for all dementia types as we are interested in discussing general linguistic aspects of dementia as described in studies rather than correlating linguistic de� cits to di� erent types of dementia which is beyond the scope of this paper. language production and language comprehension are observed separately in the studies conducted so far and certain conclusions have been made. in terms of comprehension, colombo et al. (2000) showed that individuals with dementia displayed a rather intact ability to translate orthography onto phonology. however, research on how phonological aspects of language are a� ected in dementia is scarce. at the lexical level, just as typically aging individuals, in priming experiments, patients with dementia show automatic activation of the word meaning with somewhat larger priming e� ects than younger subjects as patients with dementia are generally slower (de bot & makoni, 2005). nevertheless, patients with a type of dementia labelled as semantic dementia do show severe impairment in word recognition and processing (rogers et al., 2006). schneider et al. (2000) assert that comprehension di� culties of the typically aging elderly seem to arise from hearing problems rather than a cognitive decline or a linguistic impairment. concerning language production, a number of di� culties arise which are correlated with factors such as working memory capacity and functions, education and language skills. such age-related decline occurs in both spoken and written production (burke & mackay, 1997). some studies on written language production showed lower accuracy scores in older than in younger adults in spelling tasks despite higher levels of education among older adults (burke & mackay, 1997). what is frequently reported as the most common symptom of typical cognitive aging are di� culties in word retrieval during spoken language production (au et al., 1995). burke et al. (1991) as well as burke and mackay (1997) suggest that lexical knowledge itself is preserved but it is the access to that knowledge that is taxing. more precisely, burke et al. (1991) argue that the locus of retrieval de� cit is not to be found at the concept level or the lemma level as conceptualization itself is not troublesome but rather at the lemma-lexeme interface—translating concepts into actual words and sentences. however, in verbal � uency tasks, the factor of age correlates strongly with education levels as higher � uency scores are found for participants with higher level of education (kempler et al., 1998). interestingly, studies also report a somewhat increased usage of pronouns and more di� culties in noun retrieval during language production (burke & mackay, 1997). � is tendency for simpli� cation is also present at the syntactic level as the elderly tend to avoid producing complex syntactic structures (kemper, 1992). finally, whilst speech � uency seems to be lightly a� ected, there are moderate to severe changes a� ecting phonological aspects of speech in the elderly group. more speci� cally, changes in the vocal tract lead to increased vocal roughness and poorer quality of the acoustic voice signal (de bot & makoni, 2005). � erefore, whilst retrieving and comprehending the word meaning seems to linguistic performancelinguistic performancenermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović nermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović 7978 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies more precisely, performance in sentence-picture matching tasks shows no impairment which testi� es to a rather preserved semantic system (kempler & goral, 2008). what is characteristic of the speech of individuals with dementia is verbosity which stems from a dementia-related disinhibition to suppress competing but irrelevant information (de bot and makoni, 2005). kempler and goral (2008) showed that dat patients and patients with semantic dementia resort to using conceptually related but contextually inappropriate words, (e.g., dog for horse) which entails the loss of � ne distinctions between conceptually related words. language production of individuals with dementia is also characterized by preference for simpler syntactic structures. � is was observed in typical cognitive aging too. however, kemper and colleagues (2001) suggest that the decrease in using syntactically complex structures is much more rapid in individuals with dementia. chapman et al. (1998), among others, found that dementia is also characterized by progressively poorer usage of structures that achieve coherence and cohesion in speech. furthermore, almor et al. (1999) demonstrated that the speech of dat patients contained more pronouns (compared to full nouns) than the speech of healthy participants (kempler & goral, 2008; burke & mackay, 1997). nevertheless, the morphosyntactic structure is referred to as mostly intact (kave & levy, 2003), at least when it comes to subject-verb agreement, in comparison to aspects of language production that we discussed above e.g., selection errors in recalling a name or remembering a word (anomia) or below-ceiling participation in picture-naming tasks, which are widely used in assessing language production in aging. � is hypothesis may be related to the language acquisition process as implicit or explicit as it may be suggested that “the lexical knowledge is basically explicit knowledge in paradis’s view, while morpho-syntactic knowledge may be explicit or implicit. � e vulnerability of lexical knowledge results from its explicit character” (de bot & maconi, 2005, p. 62). in terms of the syntactic level of language, bickel et al. (2000) performed a picture-matching task and showed that the performance correlates with the degree of cognitive decline. syntactic comprehension was spared in the early stages of dementia but progressively impaired with the progression of dementia symptoms. bickel et al. (2000) argue that this re� ects de� cits in the working memory of such patients. kempler et al. (1998), for example, showed that when the task minimized the confounding variable of working memory, patients with dementia of the alzheimer type (dat) were able to comprehend complex syntactic structures. similarly, almor et al. (2001) showed that dat individuals’ performance was comparable to those of the healthy elderly when extralinguistic factors such as working memory burdens were eliminated. in addition to processing di� culties being directly related to working memory capacity, in a neuroimaging study (monitoring regional brain activity with fmri (functional magnetic resonance imaging)), grossman et al. (2002) showed that di� erent regions of the brain are activated during comprehension in typically aging individuals and individuals with dementia. not much is known about phonological aspects of speech in dementia, however, croot et al. (2000) found a decline at this level of language production too and a number of articulatory di� culties. george and mathuranath (2005) also noted an increased number of phonological errors in speech of patients with a type of dementia labelled as progressive non-fl uent aphasia. as language production of typically aging individuals, the speech of individuals with dementia is characterized by di� culties in lexical retrieval. de bot and makoni (2005) suggest that at the core of this de� cit is the inability to map concepts/lemmas onto lexemes and that lexical knowledge itself is preserved which is also the case with typical aging. linguistic performancelinguistic performancenermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović nermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović 8180 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies usage of function and content words in dementia: cues to language as evidence it is proposed that another perspective from which language production may be observed in patients su� ering from dementia is that which gives a special attention to the usage of function words primarily and not content words. whilst content words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that denote speci� c lexical meanings belong to open-class categories, function words such as pronouns, determiners, auxiliary verbs, modal verbs, prepositions are classi� ed as closed class words (quirk et al., 1985). � eir number is � xed and their usage is not paid attention to when writing or reading unless the author is metalinguistically aware. according to research done in morphostylistics and forensic linguistics, their presence, especially in the written form, may reveal emotional and psychological states of the conveyor of the message. for languages that are not pro-drop languages, or those in which there is one explicit form for the � rst-person pronoun, the � rst-person pronoun used for conveying self-reference may be referred to as “cognitive access to oneself� (chierchia, 1989, as cited in jaszczolt, 2013, p. 6). furthermore, studies have been conducted worldwide on the usage of � rst-person singular and plural in: private and public accounts of relationship break-ups, personal narratives on domestic abuse and the distribution of pronouns (e.g., i, you, he, she), the usage of the � rstor second-person pronoun in self-talk to enhance performance (telling yourself that you have to do something and writing to-do lists), etc. (see kalajdžisalihović, 2020). what is interesting in this approach is that a question arises whether we acquire function or content words “� rst”. kempler and golar (2008) also observed the overuse of pronouns was present in language production in dementia. furthermore, they report insensitivity to incorrect pronouns in language comprehension but they note that individuals with dementia react to nouns rather than pronouns when addressed. note that this further supports based on the � ndings presented above, linguistic impairment characteristic of typical cognitive aging is only aggravated in dementia. whilst language comprehension seems to be spared in typically aging individuals, moderate to severe impairments characterize language comprehension in dementia. with regard to language production, impairments that apply to typical cognitive aging are also present in the speech of patients with dementia including other symptoms such as verbosity that further a� ect and complicate language production. finally, in dementia, language production seems to show more impairment than language comprehension. consequently, kemper et al. (1995) suggest that it is precisely language abilities that may be crucial in detecting early stages of dementia. despite their tremendous importance in detecting and describing the severity of dementia, language functions cannot be observed in isolation as it has been shown that language performance heavily depends on factors such as working memory (syntactically complex structures are di� cult to process because they impose a load on the working memory), auditory and visual perception (comprehension di� culties may not be language-related but may stem from problems in the auditory and visual systems), cognitive slowdown (slower word recognition and prolonged priming e� ects), education (higher level of education may delay cognitive decline) and inhibition capacities (verbosity problems) (de bot & maconi, 2005; kempler & goral, 2008). most importantly, even though all levels of language are a� ected to some degree, the semantic system that underlies lexical processing is most impaired in dementia particularly so in semantic dementia (kempler & goral, 2008). as pronouns seem to prevail in frequency in the language of patients su� ering from dementia (as well as typically aging individuals to a certain extent) (au et al., 1995; baressi et al., 2000), in the next section we de� ne content and function words and discuss the di� erence in the usage, focusing on patients su� ering from dementia in order to make certain conclusions related to the critical period hypothesis used in the present paper to illustrate the language acquisition milestones, relate them to language attrition, and suggest solutions that may assist in slowing down the process of language attrition. linguistic performancelinguistic performancenermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović nermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović 8382 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies proposed that language attrition is a process opposite to that of language acquisition or that one gradually deteriorates from sentences to the twoword stage, one word-stage (where function words dominate) and � nally, to syllables. for this reason, and in order to compare the � ndings to the theoretical framework, the theory of the critical period hypothesis and other factors relevant for understanding the relationship between language acquisition and spoken language production will be presented brie� y in further text as most studies on language comprehension and production have used oral presentation of test material (de bot & makoni, 2005). � e critical period hypothesis as proposed by lenneberg (1967), who argued for a link between a critical period and lateralization of brain function (the proposal that language is localized to critical anatomic sites of the brain, such as broca’s and wernicke’s areas), suggests that humans have a window of opportunity for language acquisition between the ages of 2 and 14. a� er this period, the ability to master syntax is fully gone as has been the case with attic children (e.g., genie) regardless of general intelligence. what is also interesting to mention here and in relation to language acquisition by children is that their language comprehension is ahead of their production (see references to the cookie monster example, hirsh-pasek & golinko� , 1996). if we observe dementia as a state similar to this window of linguistic opportunity closing, it is puzzling as to why function words feature more prominently, as earlier acquired. for instance, in the case of children who were not exposed to linguistic stimuli early enough, it is syntax that is not triggered but the possibility to learn and activate vocabulary whereas in the case of dementia patients one could propose that syntax may be activated whilst di� culties arise with content words in picture-naming tasks and lexical retrieval. in these studies, it is assumed that dementia patients were exposed to language earlier, which is why the attrition process is more likely to be compared to the deterioration from sentences to the two-word stage, the one word-stage (where function words dominate) and � nally, to syllables, as mentioned earlier (see aticheson, 2008, p. 80). however, the claim we made in the previous section: language production is more impaired than language comprehension in dementia. importantly, what this suggests is that in language production, people su� ering from dementia resort to what we might refer to as “a function word one-word stage” and when it comes to language comprehension, they resort to what we might refer to as “a stage with more attention to content words”. � e phenomenon we have just described can be related to processes that unfold during language acquisition. in the case of language acquisition and the one-word stage, the child is uttering single words which might stand for whole sentences, i.e., holophrases (sentences in embryo, see mcneill, 1970). if we relate this process to language attrition (decline in language abilities) that characterizes dementia, then we tentatively propose that function words, e.g., pronouns, or even syllables seem to have the role of holophrases and stand for whole sentences in the cases when no sentence can be produced (e.g., a syllable standing for the whole content word denoting a name (of one’s spouse or daughter, for instance) or a sentence attempted to be generated (without success). what is relevant for the present paper and may be an argument against the hypothesis that has just been proposed is that pennebaker and stone (2003) looked at a compendium of text samples from interviews with over 3,000 volunteers ranging in age from 8 to 85. � ey found a progressive decline in � rst-person singular pronouns, and a corresponding increase in � rst-person plural pronouns, over the course of the life-span. however, if we take into account that they analyzed text samples and not spoken language of people su� ering from dementia, the argument about language production being more salient in terms of cognitive access to shorter words, i.e., function words in the case of the english language, may still be taken into consideration and in relation to coping strategies to alleviate burden in the working memory by resorting to “holophrases” of what is activated in the mental lexicon but cannot easily be retrieved either due to issues related to reduction in working memory capacity and processing or to selection issues. moreover, it may also be linguistic performancelinguistic performancenermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović nermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović 8584 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies content words and more research that needs to be done on which aspects of language or which “segments” of language are more robust when it comes to content and function words in particular. at same time, it is important to mention that in normal aging, most core language processes are robust to brain aging (sha� o & tyler, 2014). in summary, a plethora of studies assert that cognitive reserve postpones cognitive decline and prevents or postpones neurodegenerative changes in the brain (e.g., bialystok et al., 2004; perani et al., 2016 as well as many others). perani et al. (2017) suggest that, in addition to bilingualism and multilingualism, a life-long exposure to a variety of cognitively stimulating activities, social and physical activities as well as educational achievements may contribute to building a strong cognitive reserve which helps prevent or delay dementia symptoms. burke and mackay (1997), therefore, conclude that since previously acquired skills and knowledge are preserved in old age, practicing and employing those previously learned skills and knowledge can maximize cognitive functioning in aging individuals. furthermore, burke and mackay (1997) emphasize the tremendous importance of a regular intellectual stimulation and a continued use of language skills. nevertheless, it is extremely important to note that resorting to oversimpli� ed speech, elderspeak, in communication with elderly populations (with dementia especially) may not be bene� cial to the cognitive functioning of di� erent individuals. elderspeak with individuals with or without dementia symptoms can be counterproductive and contribute to low self-esteem and a withdrawal from communication (de bot & makoni, 2005). ryan et al. (2000) refer to elderspeak as communicative predicament of aging that is based on the expectation of incompetence on the part of the elderly. � is type of communication, consequently, sabotages any possibility of a meaningful interaction and reinforces age-related stereotypes. de wilde and de bot (1989) showed that elderspeak is used more intensely with more profound cognitive decline. cognitive decline can be delayed and this can directly be correlated with an individual’s cognitive reserve. bilingualism, multilingualism and cognitive reserve— multidisciplinary approaches in terms of the aspects of language comprehension and production, it is important to mention the term “cognitive reserve” (bak, 2016), or particularly rich neuronal connections in the brains of individuals who have achieved high education levels and engaged in complex mental activity across the life span (kempler & goral, 2008). in this part of the paper, it is also proposed that such cognitive reserve “o� ers protection against the cognitive changes associated with the pathology of dementia” (stern, 2002 in kempler & goral, 2008, p. 80) or, in other words, that bilingualism or multilingualism may act as protective variables against the cognitive changes or at least delay the onset of dementia or should it occur abruptly. at the same time, low literacy is found to a� ect/cause a faster decline of linguistic competences and deterioration associated with dementia (manly et al., 2003). furthermore, bialystok et al. (2004) suggest that switching between two or more languages in bilingual and multilingual brains improves executive function abilities which are part of the cognitive reserve. more precisely, they showed that the onset of dementia for bilingual speakers was delayed 4.1 years on average compared to monolingual speakers despite higher levels of education of the monolingual group. even though bilingualism and multilingualism may act as protective variables, in di� erent cases it has been discovered that language impairments that do occur in these speakers are either of the same type regardless of language, which corresponds to the above-mentioned proposal, or may be di� erent for l1 that is more dominant when it comes to language switching, according to studies by mendez et al. (1999) due to the fact that earlier learned information is more resistant to decline than later learned information (p. 411) which brings us back to the question on function and linguistic performancelinguistic performancenermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović nermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović 8786 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies concluding remarks and suggestions for further research � is paper outlined characteristics of language comprehension and production in typical cognitive aging and aging characterized by neurodegenerative changes in the brain eventually leading to dementia. we showed that in typically aging individuals, language comprehension is relatively spared whilst language production is a� ected especially at the lexical level. in individuals with dementia both language comprehension and production were a� ected with production showing severe impairment. we asserted that at the core of the production impairment lie factors such as memory de� cits and a progressively diminished ability to translate concepts into words and sentences. with regard to language attrition that characterizes language processing in aging, we drew a parallel with language acquisition and raised a question if language attrition may be observed as a process opposite to language acquisition. importantly, we outlined studies that show the e� ect of bilingualism, multilingualism, mental and physical stimulation on building a cognitive reserve that delays and protects against cognitive decline. finally, we emphasized potential positive aspects of elderspeak and how language communication can improve the quality of life of typically aging individuals and individuals with dementia. however, several important issues linger. � e impact of language learning in old age on cognitive reserve, for instance, is an understudied yet tremendously important topic. moreover, not unfrequently the elderly may � nd themselves in nursing situations in which their language has deteriorated and where actually no one speaks their � rst language (mother tongue) (see de bot and maconi, 2005, p. 19-26). for that reason, de bot & maconi (2005) emphasized the importance of using adequate tests and batteries for the assessment of language in aging and dementia and their (if used) translation equivalents to patients’ l1, such as mini mental state examination (mmse) or montreal cognitive assessment (moca) gould et al. (2002), however, showed that the elderly group can have a positive attitude towards elderspeak as it eases language processing. sachweh (1998) showed that in german nursing homes elderspeak was, to a certain extent, perceived positively which may raise the question of cultural di� erences too. kitwood (1997) showed that in long-term care facilities, using language that includes negotiation (consulting the patient about their preferences which satis� es an important psychological need of control), validation (empathy and understanding), collaboration (working together, sharing tasks) and facilitation (even in the form of simpli� ed sentential structures) is more valued by the individuals with dementia over directives whether they were overly simpli� ed or not. ripich and wykle (1996) and santo-pietro and ostuni (1997) also recommend concrete communicative strategies such as yes-no questions and simpli� ed syntax without compound or complex sentences in communication with the elderly su� ering from dementia. in conclusion, even though the term elderspeak carries a negative connotation, using simpli� ed language with the elderly with and without dementia can also be extremely productive. however, other factors have to be considered: the elderly must feel validated and included so that simpli� ed language must be jargon-free, inclusive, tolerant and non-judgmental (swa� er, 2014). otherwise, poor communication either in nursing homes or in private settings leads to isolation and deterioration of linguistic and cognitive skills that are already declining by age and/or neurodegenerative changes. � e quality of life of typically aging individuals and individuals with dementia can be drastically improved by communication, inclusion and in the case of patients with dementia, with dementia-friendly communities such as societies that will allow the authentic voice of the individuals su� ering from dementia to be heard (swa� er, 2014). linguistic performancelinguistic performancenermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović nermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović 8988 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies references almor, a., macdonald, m. c., kempler, d., andersen, e. s., & tyler, l. k. 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(2014). cognitive reserve. taylor and francis ltd. https:// linguistic performancelinguistic performancenermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović nermina čordalija & nejla kalajdžisalihović 9594 vol. 15 no.2, 2022epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies appendix emine sahin.pdf � � � epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 a qualitative study revealing the relationship between cultural indicators and attitudes toward the ads emine sahin * abstract the companies, in international markets, are required to examine the attitudes and the behaviours to recognize the consumer to be able to make their products preferable under constantly growing competitive conditions. therefore, it is of great importance to know cultural values of the customers in the country's where global brands compete and to shape ads which is one of the marketing communication tools in this direction. in this respect, knowing the cultural similarities or differences of the countries where the ads are used (such as that country's religion, language, norms and cultural values) gains importance. the consumer attitudes towards the ads change in accordance with their cultural similarities or dissimilarities and this attitude change determines the tendency of shopping. according to geert hofstede, social anthropologist who analyzes the cultural levels and the relationships among them the basic elements of the culture consists of symbols, heroes, rituals and values underlying them. thorough symbols, a number of cultural values are conveyed to ads. the problem of this study which was carried out in order to determine attitude change towards the ads including cultural differences is “is there a difference in the attitudes towards the ads including different cultural symbols? how it is distributed according to gender differences?" in this study, a qualitative research method was applied and interviewed with 20 test subject. 20 students studying in one of the universities in turkey were selected with formal sampling, they were asked questions, and it was tried to determine the difference between the ad of do�u� çay-a tea brand which uses the symbols and local accent of black sea region in turkey in its adsand the ad of lipton which is an international british tea brand. at the end of the study, it was found out that sample’s the attitude was positive towards ad of do�u� çay, not lipton. keywords: attitudes; cultural values; hofstede; different cultural symbols ����������������������������������������������������������� * corresponding author: emine sahin, research assistant at the gumushane university and phd candidate, turkey; e-mail: esahin@gumushane.edu.tr e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads �� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ introduction foreign companies started to emerge in turkey as well with disappearance of national boundaries after worldwide developments in marketing in 1980s. companies have to know consumers and analyse their attitudes and behaviours to come to a place in which they can be known and preferred in international markets. in this respect, knowing cultural values of consumers in the target country’s market and using advertisements gain importance. cultural differences and factors such as religion, language and cultural values of the countries in which advertisements are published become important. on the other hand, turkish companies entered into competition with foreign companies and started similar works to protect their place both in turkish market and in the world market. advertisement messages used to increase brand awareness must be parallel with values of the target country. advertisement strategies are defined accordingly. basic method to put forward turkish identity is created by benefiting factors reflecting turkish culture. in this respect, values which are belong to turkish culture, language, life style, traditions and religious practices gain importance. factors which shouldn’t be forgotten in international companies such as country’s economic situation, target audiences’ demographic and socio-cultural situation influence advertisers. also, messages should be arranged according to these factors. perhaps, the most important variable among these is culture. while culture, which have been defined countless, is defined by turkish communicator mutlu as “everything reflecting to codes, dressing styles, lifestyle and beliefs of a society (mutlu, 2008:194), it is defined as purification of e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads �� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ civilization and mind by hofstede and he points out that this purification can be realized by literature, art and education (hofstede, 1997:5). cultural differences are important factors for global advertisement’s messages to be understood. commercial films in turkey give partially foreign and turkish brands’ demonstrations. in this respect, advertisements gain importance in cultural harmony because giving messages in advertisement based on a language and communication tools (schütteve ciarlante, 1998). the closer the language and the fictional scenes used in advertisement to the society, the more people understand it. speaking the same language with the target audience, benefiting from the same sensibility and components such as names, images, behaviour patterns influence attitudes both for advertisements and companies. studies done on culture makes several definitions to reveal diversity of culture based on the fact that culture differs in each country. while edward hall defines cultural diversity according to “information systems model”, hofstede explains it according to “cultural dimensions model” and kuluckhohn and strodbeck explains it according to “value tendency model” (kartari, 2001). when hosftede expresses cultural diversity, he claims that culture is not only different in economical and judiciary terms but also in management system. he divides countries into two groups according to their similarities and differences and he separates these two groups by criteria that he defines as cultural dimensions. e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads &� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ literature review advertisement, which is a marketing tool for companies in global market, is entitled as glocal advertisement and global advertisement (elden, eri�imtarihi: 10.08.2012). while glocal advertisements have the same messages for all the countries that the advertisement is published, global advertisements have messages including cultural differences. also, there are national advertisements including cultural values of local company’s target audiences. when glocal or international advertisements ignore country’s cultural values, they get reaction from society and in the upcoming days it can even be removed because of the fact that it does not comply with publication principles. for example, in several arabic countries using holy symbols such as cross, mecca and using alcohol and naked women pictures unless it is obvious that she is western is forbidden. in a recognized tea company advertisement, the actor was using his left hand and saudi arabian people had negative attitude for the brand because of this (dereli, 2002:95-96). çaykur commercial film in which, müslüm gürses played sparked a debate. in the days when he was struggling for life after his by-pass, this commercial film was being published frequently. this situation got a big reaction in social media (http://www.haber7.com/televizyon/haber/999572muslum-gursesin-reklami-yayindan-kaldirildi). after claims that the company takes advantage of his fans, the commercial film is removed. culture defining brands’ advertisement and message strategies is the most extensive subject of social sciences and a fact that is defined and explained countless. every researcher studying in an area e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads '� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ of culture explains it based either on ethnic or humane or social classes (lull, 2001:97). culture is transferring symbols, behavioural patterns, social lows, moral principles and religious views belong to the society to future generations by individuals. society’s values explain experiences in addition to learned behaviours (giddens, 2010:30). anthropologist malinowski makes a definition of culture which is in the anthropology’s area of investigation in this way; culture is a basic complement which is composed of usage and consumption items, groups’ rights and duties, people’s thoughts, abilities, beliefs and habits (malinowski,cited byyaylagülvekorkmaz, 2008:188). individuals’ thoughts and beliefs lead their habits and these habits become their lifestyles. in culture’s definition which hofstede summarizes as “unwritten rules of a social play” individual’s complying with general structure of his society (giddens, 2010:35). unwritten norms are valid for general individuals and force them to obey these rules. these rules can vary not only among societies but also within these societies. therefore, culture is a total of symbols and behavioural patterns of society’s laws, moral principles, traditions and religious beliefs. it consists of concrete and moral components. accordingly, concrete components include art, theatre, literature, music, language, dressing, architecture, food, history, climate, and geography. moral components include ideas, behaviours, ideals, norms, values, beliefs and habits (ügeöz, 2003:21) while giddens states that people attribute a meaning to objects, relations and ideas by means of symbols (giddens, 2010:34), hofstede likens culture to an onion and classify cultural elements as: e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads � � ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ symbols, heroes/leaders, rituals and values (ügeöz, 2003:21; soyda�, 2010:56). he based this classification on his definition. the elements that he defines as culture components come from the culture’s meaning “unwritten rules of the play”. he supports that culture come in existence in four ways as symbols, heroes, rituals and values in “cultural onion”. each layer affects the other and demonstrates itself as a symbol in the final stage. according to hofstede what differentiates people from other people and other societies is how they interpret and code these cultural values (soyda�, 2010:56). there are numerous studies about culture in multi-cultural countries such as united states of america and canada. graham (2005) made a research by e-mail questionnaire to find out effects of advertisements using english as a first language and spanish as a second language on acculturation in the states which has a lot of immigrants from mexico. it is found out that americans of spanish origin have positive attitude towards the advertisements in spanish and they prefer spanish in the advertisements. caillat and mullar (1996) made a research on american and british accents and found out that direct statements are more effective in commercial films using american accent and indirect statements are more effective in the ones using british accent. moreover, cheng and scweitzen (1996) made a research on commercial films published in primetime in china which is not an american and a western country and found out that while symbolic values are given more importance in the country, daily life values are given more importance in the states. also, han and shavitt (1994) put forward that american and korean advertisements have differences. hofstede reveals that american e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads ��� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ advertisements include individualism and korean ones includecollectivism. according to him while american society is individualistic, korean society is a collective society. garcia (2004) in his study revealing culture’s effects in fashion advertisement on mexican immigrant students living in the states and american students found out that nation is not the only variable in cultural differences. in addition, it is revealed that while students of both nations like advertisements including reasonable sexuality, they do not like the ones including high level of sexuality. cultural differences play an important role in international marketing as well as in international advertisements. therefore, there is obvious link between culture and language. understanding culture without understanding the language spoken is impossible but language is not the only determiner. individual manners among the values are determiners of brand choosing. one of the values determining consumers’ behaviours is attitude, but of course it is not the only one. attitude is a tendency to react either in a negative or in a positive way to objects, beliefs and environment that people have (odaba�ıvebarı�, 2010:157). there are numerous attitude studies in the field of social sciences but attitude first enter this field as an analysis tool by thomas and florian znanienki’s (1927) studies. they define attitude as an “individual consciousness process” (mutlu, 2008:285). attitudes are determiners of behaviours. therefore, attitude researches gain importance in the fields of communication, marketing, sociology and psychology. there are a lot of attitude e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads ��� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ analyses of advertisements in literature. because attitude alteration realized by persuasion come forward as behaviour alteration. the most cited study in this field is bauer and greyer’s study. these researchers contribute to the field by the first study revealing people’s attitudes for advertisements and they used in-depth interview method (�spir and suher, 2009:7). the study reveals that there are many positive attitudes to advertisements but there is also respondents’ doubt in advertisements’ persuasiveness. also, alwitt’s and praphaker’s study (1992) and andrew’s study (1989) put forward that persuasiveness of advertisement messages is low (shavittve ark.1998:8). lutz (1985) supports that there are five processors and there are advertisement persuasiveness, advertisement perception, attitude for advertisers, general attitude for advertising and mood (durvasulaakt, onay, 2013:55). however, it is seen that culture is ignored in these processors. in attitude studies, la tour and henthorne’s study (1994) is an outstanding one as well. in china, tai (1999) made an attitude research for sexual appeals and he found out that negative attitude was developed for the advertisements and brands using high level of sex appeal. it is observed that there is a positive attitude towards the advertisement having medium level of sex appeal. in turkey, ödül (2008) made a research to analyses attitudes for turkish and foreign advertisements. he applied a questionnaire to turkish students. ma students say that foreign advertisements do not convince them to buy their products and they do not lean to standards e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads �(� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ in advertisements. moreover, they say that they frequently encounter the concept of family unity in turkish advertisements. they think that foreign ones do not appeal to every education level in turkey. undergraduate students find foreign advertisements more creative. in �ener’s research (2007) related to the advertisements about sexual appeals, he made high and medium levels of attitude analyses related to the advertisements of two national brands on students. the result is that the attitude towards the brand that uses high level of sexual appeal is positive; while, the attitude is negative towards the same brand. women’s negative attitude turned out to be low level. bergman (2006) and dursun (1997) deal with demographic elements in their studies done in two different countries. in his study, bergman finds out that gender is not important in consumption behavior. old consumers look for information about production in advertisements, and also individuals having low education level give importance to information in advertisements. in dursun’s research, it is revealed that women have more positive attitude in terms of advertisement’s economical effect and men have powerful positive attitude in terms of advertisement’s social effect (onay, 2013:56-57). as it can be seen both culture and attitude studies vary. especially, international and global companies inevitably have to take these analyses into account to remain in the market. professor gray and dr. run made a research in 2005 to benefit from it in multiculturalism and multi-ethnicity studies. they found out that iban, chinese and malay societies have differences in their attitudes towards advertisements (grey ve run, 2005:14-18). e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads �!� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ problem are there any differences in attitudes towards advertisements including different cultural symbols? what is the contribution of gender to attitudes? purpose the purpose of study is to prove that cultural values, which constitute the last layer, are represented differently by symbols as hofstede says and explain differences in attitudes towards two different commercial films –one of them is an advertisement of do�u� çay which is produced in the eastern black sea region and the other is an advertisement of international brand do�u� çay . limitations in addition to limitations stemming from qualitative study, this study is restricted to 20 students studying in the department of communication in university of gumushane. 10 of them were born and lived in the area in which local values are symbolized and national tea company make production. other 10 of them were born and raised in different parts of the country. 14 of the students are males and 6 of them are females. other variables restricted the study are statements expressing cultural differences in the commercial films and gender. research method method gains importance after literature review of the study and conception explanations is done. in-depth interview method was used in the study. formal sample was chosen. 20 students who are e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads �)� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ nearly in the same ages were interviewed. thus, age and profession factors are ignored and only the places they had lived before they came to the university became important. interviews are carried out one-to-one in different rooms far away from the images which can affect their concentration. each interview was recorded and the participants were given this information beforehand. they were also told that this is voluntary and all the information was going to be secret. therefore, false names were used instead of their real names and findings were represented in table-1. table 1-participants’ features participants nickname gender dateofbirth vocation residence income 1. tuncay male 1991 student trabzon 800 tl 2. abdullah male 1991 student trabzon 350 tl 3. esra female 1991 student artvin 500 tl 4. erdal male 1991 student trabzon 500 tl 5. gülcan female 1989 student trabzon 300 tl 6. sümeyye female 1992 student trabzon 350 tl 7. murat male 1992 student trabzon 500 tl 8. emre male 1990 student trabzon 300 tl 9. elif female 1988 student trabzon 500 tl 10. ayça female 1992 student rize 300 tl 11. gözde female 1990 student tokat 280 tl 12. halit male 1992 student erzurum 400 tl 13. can male 1990 student adana 350 tl 14. orhan male 1990 student u�ak 15. özkan male 1991 student tokat 400 tl 16. ali male 1991 student çorum 600 tl 17. yavuz male 1992 student �stanbul 400 tl 18. ahmet male 1992 student tokat 300 tl 19. ercan male 1988 student i�dır 800 tl 20. mahmut male 1993 student gümü�hane 220 tl e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads ��� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ before interview, two advertisements were analyzed according to hofstede’s “cultural onion”. advertisements analysis as follows: do�u� çay: (figure 1) in the advertisement of national brand do�u� çay, which is produced in the eastern black sea region, “yazma” a kind of scarf is used. however, “yazma” which belongs to the black sea region, is a scarf that women use traditionally rather than religiously. also, actress in the commercial film is wearing a “pe�temal”. this is a cloth that is used only in the black sea region. “pe�temal” is not worn in daily life; it is worn in weddings in rural parts of the region. on the other hand, the film is recorded in a tea garden. the actress is speaking in a black sea accent. she is using local statements like “daldurma, yerinkulavardur, ha buçay”. lipton çay: (figure 2) lipton took its place in turkish market in 1986 with its factory in pazar, in rize after tea sector’s being privatized. contrary to do�u�çay’s commercial films, a woman blonde with short hair and having european appearance (probably, her role is a business woman) plays in lipton’s commercial films. even though, it is emphasized that the production place of tea is the black sea region, the place where the film is recorded is a kitchen having the most developed kitchen tools. moreover, voice-over is speaking in �stanbul accent. as it can be seen, both films have differences in performers, accent and the place that they are recorded. both of the brands are produced in the eastern black sea region and have the same taste but they are presented in different ways. findings e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads ��� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ while attitudes of the participants towards the advertisements were expected “positive, negative and indecisive”, their attitudes were only positive or negative. positive attitude means “approving the commercial film, enjoying it and finding no missing”, negative attitude means “not approving it, not enjoying it, and finding some missing”. findings consist of answers of questions regard two scales used in la tour, henthorne and nataraajan’s researches. the questions are such as “how do you evaluate advertisement in general terms?”, “which advertisement is a good one, which one is interesting?”, “if s/he likes/doesn’t like, the ways s/he likes/doesn’t like”, “which advertisement/brand is closer to you in terms of culture?”. table 2: attitudes of respondents to advertisement participants nickna me attitude towards the ad of do�u�çay attitude towards the ad lipton çay 1. tuncay positive negative 2. abdullah positive negative 3. esra positive negative 4. erdal positive negative 5. gülcan positive negative 6. sümeyye positive negative 7. murat positive negative 8. emre positive negative 9. elif positive negative 10. ayça positive negative 11. gözde positive negative 12. halit positive negative 13. can positive negative 14. orhan positive negative 15. özkan negative positive 16. ali positive negative 17. yavuz positive negative 18. ahmet negative positive e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads �&� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ 19. ercan positive negative 20. mahmut negative positive as a result of in-depth interview all of 6 female respondents (5 of them are coming from the cities in the eastern black sea region) and 11 out of 14 male respondents like do�u�çay’s advertisement. 3 of males (ahmet, özkan and mahmut) like lipton çay’s advertisement. ahmet and özkanare from tokat and mahmut is from a place which is far away from the eastern black sea region. the first question of the research is that whether attitudes are positive towards advertisements including local culture. the symbols and the language used in do�u�çay’s advertisements make respondents feel the brand closer to them. the second question of the research is that whether gender has any effects on attitudes. it is answered as no, because 6 of the females like do�u�çay’s advertisement. as it can be understood from the table above, only one of 14 males (he is from trabzon), 4 of 6 females (four of them from eastern black sea region) do not like lipton brand. in total, 4 females and 13 males like lipton brand. the facts that 5 of the respondents have lipton çay in their houses and 8 of them have difficulty in remembering advertisement are among the additional information. abdullah, one of the participants, described do�u�çay as “marvellous”. he says: “it tells of our area“. however, he said that he likes lipton more as a brand. erdal also thinks the same: “it tells of our area. clothes and the dialog among them and tea gardens are from our area. however, in terms of in formativeness, i prefer lipton. e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads �'� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ tuncay and murat like the advertisement of do�u� çay; however, they find clothes and language exaggerated. emre stated that the accent of black sea region makes the advertisement more attractive and he likes the advertisement. however, he finds the advertisement of lipton sufficient as it states the importance of hygiene and it is pure in terms of information content. elif, one of the participants from trabzon, likes the advertisement of do�u�çay and she adds: “the advertisement of lipton is chillier; the characters are european and snob. the woman from the advertisement and the environment in which she acts seem chilly to me. whereas, do�u�çay, costumes, the wasp wasted tea cup and plateaus are closer to us”. ayça also finds the advertisement of lipton chilly and she claims: “it is more elite, i think it does not tell something that belongs to us. it does not tell about turkey, it is like a tea of another place”. ali, on the other hand, likes do�u� çay more and emphasizes the phrase of “daldurmaçay” and then says that the advertisement hits the target. ahmet, on the other hand, says that he likes the advertisement of lipton more and thinks it is natural but he finds the advertisement of do�u�çay artificial. ercan says: “i am on the side of localness, if lipton came up with a local advertising campaign, it would be more successful. i look to localness; however, the one that i am satisfied when i drink is lipton”. results e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads � � ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ although evaluating attitudes towards advertisements depending on one or several variables limits the research it reveals how culture is effective on attitudes. besides 10 people living in the eastern black sea region, other 7 (total 17) people develop positive attitudes towards the advertisement using local language, clothes and place. this inference shows that nationalism as well as localness gain importance. it is revealed by researches that attitudes influence shopping behaviours. however, as an answer of additional questions participants told that 3 of them had do�u�çay and 6 of them had lipton çay in their houses. this situation necessitates a new research centred on “brand image” which can develop a new point of view for researches. the result is that cultural differences and cultural symbols used in advertisements is a very important factor, but it is not the only one. figure 1 e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads ��� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ figure 2 references barı�, g. ve odaba�ı, y. 2010. tüketici davranı�ları. mediacat, �stanbul caillat, z. ve muller, b. 1996. “the influence of culture on american and british advertising: an exploratory comparison of beer advertising.” journal of advertising research, 36(3), 79-87. cheng, h. ve schweitzer, j. c. 1996. “cultural value reflected in chinese and u. s television commercials.” journal of advertising 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of the mind. mcgraw-hill, new york. e. sahin cultural indicators and attitudes towards the ads ��� ������� ��� ������������������������ ��� ����������������������� �!"�#�$�� �� ����%������������������������ �spir, b. n, suher, k. h. 2009.“sms reklamlarına yönelik tüketici tutumları”, selçuk �leti�im, cilt 5, sayı 4, (eri�im tarihi: 12.05.2013). kartari, a. 2001. farklılıklarla ya�amak, ürün yayınları, ankara. korkmaz, n. ve yaylagül l., 2008. medya popüler kültür ve �deoloji, dipnot yayınları, 1. cilt, ankara. lull, j. 2001. medya �leti�im kültür, (çev: güngör n.), vadi yayınları, ankara. mutlu, e. 2008. �leti�im sözlü�ü, ayıraç yayınları, ankara onay, a. 2012. reklamlara yönelik tutumlar: nitel bir ara�tırma, e-gifder, www.e-gifder.gumushane.edu.tr., cilt:1, sayı:4, 51-66 ödül, d., 2008. uluslararası kültürel farklılıkların reklamlar üzerine yansıması ve bir uygulama, �stanbul üniversitesi sbe, yüksek lisans tezi, �stanbul. run, c. ve grey, b., 2005. “attitude towards the ad: assessing measurement invariance in cross-ethnic research.” in marketing in international and cross-cultural environments, 14-20, 2005 (anadolu üniversitesi veri tabanından 22 nisan’da ula�ılmı�tır.). schütte, h. ve ciarlante, d. 1998. consumer behaviour in asia, new york university press, (5 eylül 2012). soyda�, a.u. 2010. kültürlerarası �leti�im: farklı kültürel ortamlarda çalı�ma ve �leti�im, par�ömen yayıncılık, �stanbul. shavitt, s.,lowrey, p., ve heafney, j. 1998. “public attitudes toward advertising: more favorable than you might think”, journal of advertising research, july/august, 7-22. �ener, g., 2007. “reklamlarda cinsel çekicilerin �leti�im etkisi ile ahlaki de�erlendirmesine yönelik tutum ara�tırması”, anadolu üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü yüksek lisans tezi, www.belgeler.com. tai, h. c. s., 1999. “advertising ethics: the use of sexual appeal in chinese advertising.” teaching business ethics, 3(1), 87-100 ügeöz, p. 2003. kültürlerarası �leti�im, �stanbul üniversitesi yayınları, �stanbul. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity nafi yalcin * abstract in a globalised world with different languages and cultures, learning foreign languages is a necessity for ensuring international communication and understanding. considering the fact that language and culture are inseparable, learning a language also involves learning the associated culture. the close interdependency between culture and language can be used to contribute to social cohesion and stability, in areas where cultural bias, political and religious hostility is prevalent. therefore, language teaching practices can be used to eradicate stereotypes and to promote intercultural understanding, universally shared values, which will serve to the peaceful coexistence of different people in the world. movies chosen appropriately for this purpose, with a rich source of cultural events and varying patterns of human behaviors, seem to be an appropriate tool to enhance the understanding of cultural diversity. this study describes the rationale, ways and activities of using movies in language classrooms as a means of developing the understanding for cultural diversity. keywords: movies, language classrooms, teaching, learning and cultural diversity * corresponding author: nafi yalcin, assistant professor, melik shah university, kayseri/turkey, e-mail: myalcin@melikshah.edu.tr mailto:myalcin@melikshah.edu.tr n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [260] introduction rapid advancement in information, telecommunications and transportation, has transformed societies, with different languages and cultures, into bilateral and multilateral relationships of a globalised world. therefore learning foreign and second languages has become a great need for ensuring international communication and understanding. language and culture cannot be separated. therefore, learning a language, in a way comes to mean learning the culture of people speaking that language. the close interdependency between culture and language can be used as a vehicle to contribute to social cohesion and stability everywhere, especially in parts of the world where cultural bias, political and religious hostility seem strong and influence people‟s motives, beliefs and behaviors. language teaching practices can be used effectively in order to eradicate stereotypes and to promote intercultural understanding, universally shared values and human rights. classrooms of language education seem to be appropriate medium to play a key role in forming the base for mutual understanding and collaboration in terms of cultural pluralism. movie films chosen appropriately for the purpose of learning or teaching a foreign or second language are a rich source of cultural events. therefore using movies with rich content describing different aspects of culture of different people in language classrooms seems to be a very appropriate tool to enhance the understanding of cultural diversity and to get the sense of cultural awareness and the sense of the humanity of other people. in this study, we will describe the rationale, ways, and activities of using movie films as a means of developing an understanding for cultural diversity while teaching a language (basically english) in classrooms. language and culture the national center for cultural competence defines culture as, an integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, languages, practices, beliefs, values, customs, courtesies, rituals, manners of interacting and, relationships and expected behaviors of a racial, ethnic, religious and social group; n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [261] and the ability to transmit the above to succeeding generations. (goode, sockalingam, brown & jones, 2000) according to this definition language is an integral part of the culture. in the 2nd unesco world report, the diversity of human cultures is described as including “the wealth of languages, ideas, beliefs, kinship systems, customs, tools, artistic works, rituals and other expressions they collectively embody” (unesco 2009, p.25). in both explanations above, culture seems as a broad concept that is deeply linked to language concepts. it is indicated in baker (2003) that halliday‟s socio-semiotic view of language emphasizes the social meanings that language both represents and shapes, "the social structure is not just an ornamental background to linguistic interaction…it is an essential element in the evolution of semantic systems and semantic processes." (1979, p.114) according to this view every language will reflect the values, beliefs and assumptions of the culture it represents. thus learning a language will also involve learning the culture that the language expresses. kramsch (2006, pp.6-10) on the other hand, defines culture as “membership in a discourse community that shares a common social space and history, and common imaginings”. members of that community may retain a common system of standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating and acting, which is their „culture‟. common attitudes, beliefs, and values are reflected in the way members of the group use language. this is a view of culture that focuses on the ways of thinking, behaving, valuing currently shared by members of the same discourse community. thus culture is implied to have influence over the use and development of language. there is significant interdependency between language and culture. language being the main medium of expression of the culture, as we use language we often represent a particular identity and give clues of our roles and memberships in social environment. culture does not exist apart from language or from us, as language users. therefore no use of language and no individual language user can be considered to be „culture-free,‟ rather we are always carriers and agents of culture. hence learning a language means learning the culture of the people who speak that language. n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [262] learning culture also contributes to and enhances the learning of the language and, therefore, there are many benefits of teaching culture in language classes. it gives students a reason to study the target language. it helps learners to relate the forms of languages to real people and places. these benefits, however, are not limited to learning the target language, but they are also related to understanding cultural diversity and peaceful coexistence of different people in the same world. some of such benefits of teaching culture were listed in genç and bada (2004) as: increasing learners‟ curiosity, interest, and motivation in target countries, nurturing tolerance towards different ideologies, religions, and cultures, giving learners a liking for the native speakers of the target language, playing a useful role in learning the geography, history, etc of the target culture, helping learners to observe similarities and differences among various cultural groups. in short teaching culture would lead the language learners to get a sense of the humanity of other people. teaching culture in language classrooms seems to play a key role in forming the base for mutual understanding and collaboration in terms of cultural pluralism. furthermore there is an indispensable link between understanding cultural diversity and peaceful coexistence of different people in the globalizing world, which seems closely related to getting over the problems of social stability, national security, the maintenance of human rights and humanistic values. this practice will also be in line with the tasks of the unesco concerning the world community, and its aim of elaboration of innovation strategies of a modern cultural policy. for these reasons, intercultural understanding poses itself as an important issue in language learning and teaching. incorporating the study of culture into the curriculum of foreign language teaching has been considered a matter of priority by language educators in the united states. in fact it is believed that students cannot really master a language unless they have also mastered the cultural contexts in which the language occurs (peterson and coltrane, 2003). cultural awareness involves an understanding not only of the culture of the target language but also that of the learners' own culture. n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [263] according to byram and fleming two important communicative competences in language learning require the development of cultural awareness: while communicative competence requires an understanding of the norms of social interaction of one socio-cultural community, intercultural communicative competence necessitates an understanding of the differences of interactional norms between different speech communities and an ability to "reconcile or mediate between different modes present" (1998, p.12). therefore the notion of 'cultural awareness' is central to intercultural communicative competence. without considering this cultural awareness as a basic part of language learning a successful communication may be impossible. when people with different cultural sets come together, confrontation of different cultural elements and values may often end up in mutual understanding and compromise, while in other cases it may result in clash and conflict. if we look at the case of mutual understanding and compromise we may consider the development of the process most probably in the following order: after a certain period of cohabitation, members of these different cultural elements may begin to look for the reasons behind those cultural behaviors and actions. once the process of recognition starts, it is carried to a further point of understanding each other. as soon as the mutual understanding is reached, the empathy follows and finally comes sympathy and appreciation at the end of the gradual proceeding of the natural development. but this is not always the case. sometimes the opposite happens and the confrontation of different cultures concludes in a crisis. in other words, members of different cultures, in some cases, may misunderstand and misinterpret each other‟s behaviors and cultural values. the second case of learning about the other culture and of recognizing the members of the other group may turn out to be very expensive in the end. therefore another less risky, but a secure method should be sought to introduce a new culture to the learners of a language without leaving them in discouraging confrontational situations. one of these methods can be the use of movie films in language classrooms for the purpose of getting acquainted the learners of that language with the n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [264] cultural elements of the speakers of that language. thus novice language learners may learn a lot about the traditions, manners, and the other cultural elements of the native speakers of the new language in the peaceful medium of the classroom, with no fear of criticism. this practice will also be in line with the tasks of the unesco concerning the world community, and its aim of promoting the cultural diversity through innovative strategies of a modern cultural policy. the promotion of cultural diversity – the "common humanity heritage" according to the unesco universal declaration on cultural diversity, 2001 has become one of the most important issues in maintaining dialogue and peace in the world. intercultural dialogue was considered as the guarantee of peace and of preventing “the inevitable clash of cultures and civilizations” (unesco 2002, p.11). cultural diversity is a driving force of development, not only in the growth of economic life but also in the growth intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual life. in order to provide a solid basis for the promotion of cultural diversity, a number of international conventions have been promoted by unesco since 2001. 21 may has been celebrated as the world day for cultural diversity for dialogue and development. the aim of this day is to nurture the experience of the diversity with curiosity, by engaging in dialogue and listening to one another through cultural enterprises, creative industries, cultural tourism and protecting cultural heritage. the year 2008 was declared by unesco as the international year of languages, which proves that languages and multilingualism is a vital item, having considerable effects on the making and practice of national language policies. at the same time, acceptance and recognition of cultural diversity – in particular through innovative use of media and icts – are conducive to dialogue among civilizations and cultures, respect and mutual understanding. it is believed that this approach will recover the sense of a joint commitment to promoting the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. (the ideas and information mentioned in this section were taken from the portal of unesco http://portal.unesco.org). using movie films in promoting cultural http://portal.unesco.org/ n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [265] understanding in language classrooms can be regarded as a part of these innovative strategies. movie films as rich sources of culture movie films chosen for the purpose of learning or teaching a foreign or second language may enable us to observe varying patterns of human behaviors, including thoughts, beliefs, values, customs, courtesies, rituals, manners of interacting, etc. thus using movies with rich content describing different aspects of culture of different people seems to be a very appropriate tool to enhance the understanding of cultural diversity and to get the sense of cultural awareness and the sense of the humanity of other people. there are many reasons for why movie films and video documents are believed to be good means to enhance the understanding of cultural diversity. first, movie films are windows into culture. they highlight particular sectors from the general cultural life of a society. while watching a film with a topic describing presidential elections in the united states, we also come up with information about let us say, american political system, the ways of motivating american voters, the social and political circles that are influential in the presidential elections, etc. similarly when we watch a movie film with a topic on the school life of the hero, we learn and observe many things about the educational environment, the interracial relations, and the traditions and details about the routines of the daily life in that society. in the same way we may acquire knowledge and information about particular places and times, about how people live, think and behave, about body language, styles of dress, table manners, gender roles, ways of treating children and talking to bosses, elders and peers, etc. second, all kinds of discourse showing the use of language in most contexts, can be found in movie films. this is something which cannot be provided in textbooks and classroom with much effect. the context in which the discourse take place display very clearly to the viewer the contextual variables of the language such as status, age, and sex of participants, the speaker's feelings and communicative intentions, the relationship the speaker has with the hearer, the content of the n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [266] utterance, and the situation where the utterance occurs, etc. therefore the viewer can easily set up a relationship between the above contextual variables and the stylistic differences such the language‟s being tentative vs. direct, polite vs. impolite, formal vs. informal, strong and blunt, etc (arnold & harmer; 1984). third, as a moving picture book, video gives access to things, places, people, events, and behavior, (regardless of the language used) and is worth thousands of picture dictionaries and magazines it is difficult to fulfill this range of functions except by living in an englishspeaking country. it brings the english-language world to the learner. now let us describe some of the ways of using movie films in language classrooms as a means for the purpose of developing in students‟ minds an understanding for cultural diversity. the movie films must be selected appropriately in terms of types and content of the material to be used. first of all, the video resources that can be used is not limited to popular feature films but they may show a wide range of variation such as drama programs (films, sitcoms, soaps), documentaries on interesting subjects, daily news and weather broadcasting, sports programs, talk and game shows, commercials, movie trailers and tv cartoons (animated cartoons). secondly, when selecting material for students from different cultures, videos containing taboo language and taboo subject matter should be avoided. therefore the language teacher must be aware of the taboo issues in the culture of the students. finally, language teachers should not forget that feature films are not always suitable for all ages. so the rating systems must be taken into consideration. now let us consider certain general activities that the teacher may perform or that the teacher may encourage the students to perform before, during or after viewing the video material (sherman, 2003, pp.123-170). after choosing an appropriate video material, the teacher may prepare the students by doing certain general activities, before viewing, such as: making some research in internet about the cultural topics and themes covered, n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [267] finding some background information about these cultural topics and themes, preparing a list of key vocabulary related to cultural subjects in question, generating some class discussion on the cultural elements covered in the movie. passing out some worksheet about the cultural elements discussed in the class. similarly the teacher may carry out some general activities during or after viewing like: assigning written homework on subjects concerning culture, analyzing behaviors, habits, customs of characters, letting students talking about cultural events, letting students talk about the way the theme is dealt with, explaining the characteristics of the language, (i.e. the stylistic properties of the discourse), discussing the traditions and beliefs of people etc, letting students act out the roles in some scenes, generating some class discussion on students‟ impressions about the cultural elements in the movie or video elements. some specific activities in using movie films could contribute towards learning different cultural elements. the teacher should watch the movie together with students episode by episode and ask them to find out the unusual, strange or different behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and body language they were able to observe during viewing. then the teacher may ask the students to explain why they are like that. after the students‟ replies are given and compared in the class, the teacher should relate his own answer and explain what they mean and what message should be understood from them. such a specific cultural element can be, for instance, greetings. the teacher may give students a form or an outline to complete while they watch and listen to a dialogue in the video. after the class views the episode, the teacher can invite students to discuss the cultural norms and values of greetings in that society. topics may be extended to cover nonverbal behaviors like, the physical distance between speakers, gestures, mimics, eye contact, social roles, and how people in different social roles relate to each other. students can also describe the behaviors n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [268] they observe and they can discuss which of them are similar to their native culture and which are not. then the class can talk about the ways of an effective communication with the native speakers of the target language. another effective way of raising awareness in the different cultural elements is the teacher‟s asking students to act out certain roles based on miscommunication and cultural differences. the aim is learning about ways of addressing different groups of people in the target culture, such as people of the same age and older people. after watching scenes where such dialogues take place, students learn their roles of speech in a situation in which an inappropriate greeting is used. other students observe the role play and try to identify the reason for the miscommunication. then they replay their roles in the same situation using a culturally appropriate form of address. the aim of this activity is to recognize and describe body language. any sequence where gestures and body language are very clear and reveal significant feelings and reactions in drama, speeches, sports, and competitions can be chosen. the teacher views with the sound off, gets the students to observe carefully and say what the characters do with body, hands, legs, face and head. then the teacher asks the students to imitate the body language and then write down in two columns what the person does and what this reveals. conclusion in this research, first the need for learning foreign and second languages was stressed as an inevitable part of life in a globalizing world where communication has to be maintained among nations speaking different languages. then the possibility of benefitting from the close and interdependent relationship between language and culture for the purpose of contributing to social cohesion and peace in the world, particularly in parts of the world where all sorts of cultural biases and hostilities are strong and threaten a peaceful cohabitation of different people in the same area. this possibility was explained to be realized in the language teaching practices through using various types of video materials, especially movie films to eradicate cultural stereotypes and to promote n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [269] intercultural understanding, universally shared values and human rights. video materials chosen appropriately and with rich content describing different aspects of culture of different people in language classrooms was considered to be a very appropriate tool to enhance the understanding of cultural diversity and to get the sense of cultural awareness and the sense of the humanity of other people. this practice of using movie films in promoting cultural understanding in language classrooms was claimed to be in line with the tasks of the unesco and its aim of promoting the cultural diversity through innovative strategies. then the reasons for why movie films and video documents are believed to be useful in enhancing the understanding of cultural diversity were explained and an account of the ways, certain general and specific activities of using movie films as a means of developing an understanding for cultural diversity while teaching a foreign or second language was given. it is believed that the practice of using movies in learning about the other culture and of recognizing the members of the other groups by means of observing the cultural elements in video documents in the peaceful environment of a classroom is a secure and beneficial way to enhance intercultural understanding among members of different cultural groups. without considering this cultural awareness and understanding in language learning, a successful communication cannot be achieved. n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [270] references arnold, j & harmer,j. 1984. advanced writing skills. england: longman group ltd. baker will. should culture be an overt component of efl instruction outside of english speaking countries? the thai context. asian efl journal december 2003. retrieved february 5, 2010, from http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/dec_03_sub.wb.php byram, m. and fleming, m. 1998. language learning in intercultural perspective. cambridge: cambridge university press. genç, b. & bada, e. 2005. culture in language learning and teaching. the reading matrix vol. 5, no. 1, april 2005. pp:73-84. retrieved february 5, 2010, from http://www.readingmatrix.com/archives/archives_vol5_no1.html goode, sockalingam, brown & jones. 2000. culture in second language teaching. eric digest edo-fl-03-09. center for applied linguistics. retrieved march 10, 2010, from www.seasite.niu.edu/jsealt/vol13no12007/pdf/editcultureboun d.pdf halliday, m. a. k. 1979. language as social semiotic: the social interpretation of language and meaning. london: edward arnold. international year of languages activity report. (2008). paris: unesco. retrieved march 10, 2010, from http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.phpurl_id=38467&url_do=do_topic&url_ section=201.html kramsch, c. 2006. language and culture. new york: oxford university press. peterson, e. & coltrane, b. 2003. culture in second language teaching. eric digest edo-fl-03-09. center for applied linguistics. retrieved march 10, 2010, from www.seasite.niu.edu/jsealt/vol13no12007/pdf/editcultureboun d.pdf http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/dec_03_sub.wb.php http://www.readingmatrix.com/archives/archives_vol5_no1.html n. yalcin using movies in language classrooms as means of understanding cultural diversity epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [271] sherman, j. 2003. using authentic video in the language classroom. cambridge: cambridge university press the 2nd unesco world report: investing in cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue, (2009). paris: unesco. retrieved march 10, 2010, from http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.phpurl_id=46748&url_do=do_topic&url_section =201.html unesco universal declaration on cultural diversity, (2002). paris: unesco. retrieved march 10, 2010, from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001271/127160m.pdf. (microsoft word dilek sarikaya representation of female poetics in anne finch\222s poetry) epiphanyepiphanyepiphanyepiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 3 – special issue: identity fall 2009 ©2008, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. representation of female poetics in anne finch’s poetry dilek sarıkaya hacettepe university anne kingsmill finch, the countess of winchelsea (1661-1720), holds an established position in the history of women’s writing. although she was a very wellknown poet during late 17th and early 18th centuries, anne finch went into obliteration in time and has only recently received the appreciation and the praise that she deserves. anne finch’s exploration of her poetic capability encourages her to question the assumptions of the 18th century poetics. described as “a highly selfconscious poet who reflected on her art” by charles h. hinnant, anne finch is preoccupied with an attempt to redefine the dominant discourses of her time about the concepts of femininity, womanhood and authorship (the poetry of anne finch 99). therefore, the poetry of anne finch, which seems to be personal in its exploration of the experiences of a woman poet in the 18th century, is, in fact, fully replete with ideological arguments, as she attempts to change firmly established conventions of writing in her own time. therefore, through a detailed analysis of her poetry, the major concern of this article will be to demonstrate that anne finch’s poetry is specifically committed to the creation of a consciousness for women writers, distinguishing herself and her poetry from the general trend of her own period which attempts to eliminate women writers from the domain of the male writing tradition. adopting ardelia as her pseudonym (barash 9), anne finch mainly concentrates on the negative stereotypes which humiliate women by ascribing dilek sarıkaya 21 passive roles to them and she attempts to undermine these assumptions, and thus, becomes outspoken in her critique of male resistance to the poetry of women. in this regard, “the appology” can be considered as a poem which confronts the prevailing gender stereotypes about women in the 18th century. from the very beginning of the poem, the subversive attitude of finch can be clearly observed. although the title of the poem gives the reader an impression of a woman poet’s apology for writing poetry, which is accepted as a platform for males only, the very first line of the poem highlights the poet’s proclamation of her authority to write by saying that “ ‘tis true i write and tell me…” (finch 1). hence, rather than apologising for her attempt to write, finch imprudently paves her way in the domain of a writing career. finch continues to retain her challenging attitude in the following lines where she claims that: why shou’d it in my pen be held a fault whilst mira paints her face, to paint a thought whilst lamia to the manly bumper flys and borrow’d spiritts sparkle in her eyes, why shou’d it be in me a thing so vain to heat with poetry my colder brain. (5-11) as it is indicated in these lines, anne finch refers to the activities which are generally expected from the women in her age, and develops her argument against the constructed gender stereotypes like women’s make up and drinking habits in public circumstances. rejecting to deal with the traditionally accepted trivialities as most of the women in her time usually engaged in, finch affirms her determination to deal with the activities which will feed her intellect by expressing her desire to heat her brain with poetry. similar to “the appology” which brings forth a confrontational argument to the prejudiced opinions about women’s creative poetic capabilities, “the representation of female poetics in anne finch’s poetry 22 introduction” is another poem which illustrates finch’s challenging attitude to the dominant ideologies of her age: did i intend my lines for publick view, how many censures wou’d their faults persue, some wou’d, because such words they do affect, cry they’re insipid, empty, uncorrect. (1-4) the poem begins with a complaint about the critical opinions about women’s creativity. she talks about the obstacles that woman writers confront when they attempt to embrace the career of a writer which was generally accepted as a male occupation. she states that just because it is written by a woman, her work will certainly be approached with prejudice and will receive harsh critical response from the public. her lines are like a warning for woman writers about the censure that will attend any woman’s entrance into the public sphere, and she tells them that they should be ready to face these prejudices. she anticipates the fact that men will condemn women’s writing as “insipid, empty and uncorrect” (4). finch in this poem focuses on the gender-based assumptions and acknowledges the function of socially constructed ideologies which force women to accept their secondary positions: alas! a woman that attempts the pen, such an intruder on the rights of men, such a presumptuous creature is esteem’d, the fault can by no vertue be redeem’d. they tell us, we mistake our sex and way; good breeding, fassion, dancing, dressing, play are the accomplishments we shou’d desire, to write, or read, or think, or to enquire wou’d cloud our beauty, and exaust our time. (9-17) describing her attempt at writing as an intrusion into the male terrain of writing, finch insists on undermining the negative stereotypes about the women who are expected to be preoccupied with “good breeding, fashion, dancing, dressing and playing” (finch 14), and continues to underline her aim to write, read, dilek sarıkaya 23 think and inquire. the poet later continues to speculate on what is considered as appropriate deeds for women and tries to undermine the stereotypes which are created for women such as the ideology of women being too simple-minded to indulge in intellectual matters. according to this ideology, the main concern of women should be to preserve their beauty, wear fashionable clothes and learn dancing. and every woman should behave in accordance with the patterns of her own gender. the poem thus, tries to deconstruct the concept of women as beautiful but insignificant creatures. she later traces the origins of these false assumptions and declares that: how are we fal’n, fal’n by mistaken rules? and education’s more than nature’s fools; debarr’d from all improve-ments of the mind, and to be dull, expected and dessigned; and if some one would soar above the rest, with warmer fancy, and ambition press’t, so strong th’opposing faction still appears, the hopes to thrive can ne’er outweight the fears. (51-58) finch in these lines tries to offer an explanation for the secondary position of women and refers to the fact that throughout centuries women are always subordinated and are specifically left uneducated. refusing to accept the subordinate role for her, finch emphasizes the fact that women are not naturally born as the weaker sex but it is a socially and culturally constructed identity for women. describing anne finch as a displaced poet who is unfit for her time, ruth salvaggio points out that: in asking what it means for finch to write ‘as a woman’, i have found that it means to write simultaneously in the historical predicament of an actual woman, and through the process of disruption that was suppressed in the discourse of newton, pope, and swift. anne finch, it seems to me, is one of many woman writers who challenge us representation of female poetics in anne finch’s poetry 24 to explore the connections between the largely feminist concern with recovering the lost women of history, and largely theoretical concern with figuring loss and absence as feminine. (2) significantly enough, anne finch as a displaced poet from the age of enlightenment challenges the hierarchical masculine discourses of her own age. from this perspective it may not be wrong to claim that finch exceeding her own historical context with her confrontational arguments about the prevalent discourses of her time, becomes one of the pioneers of women writers. in addition to finch’s argument about the right of woman to be poet and rejecting to accept woman as a sexual object in “the introduction”, another poem “the bird and the arras” symbolically represents the imprisonment of a female poet by the restrictions of convention: by neer resemblance see that bird betray’d who takes the well wrought arras for a shade there hopes to pearch and with a cheerfull tune o’re-passe the scortchings of the sultry noon. but soon repuls’d by the obdurate scean how swift she turns but turns alas in vain that piece a grove, this shews an ambient sky where immitated fowl their pinnions ply seeming to mount in flight and aiming still more high. (1-9) the poem depicts a bird which is imprisoned in a room in which a tapestry is hung on the wall. deluded by the figures of the sky and groove woven on the tapestry, taking them as real, the bird, unavailingly, tries to fly high over the sky, aiming to reach the grove. unfortunately, its futile attempts result in falling on the ground which the poet expresses with the words, “till the dash’d cealing strikes her to the ground” (12). the symbolic use of the bird in the poetic tradition is not a new phenomenon. jean mallinson comments on the image of the bird as symbolic representation and points out that: dilek sarıkaya 25 the bird is of a very old emblem in english poetry. it has a range of signification as wide as that of any of the old, central images in our literature: harbinger of spring, figure of transience of life, embodiment of freedom, symbol of the singer and poet. in anne finch’s poetry, the bird often occurs in the figures of speech about herself. (70) the bird’s imprisonment in a tapestried room is interpreted by jean mallinson as symbolic representation of finch’s “sense of herself as a poet and woman” (75). remarkably, the poet’s choice of “she” as a pronoun for the bird rather than “it”, also supports mallison’s assumption. it may further be argued that the bird’s struggle to fly higher than the other birds, and its falling on the ground can be considered as a depiction of anne finch’s first attempts to become a poet and her struggle to open a place for herself in the terrain of male writers. as jennifer keith also remarks, “it is through her identification with the bird that finch repeatedly defends her authority to write” (6). her exclusion from the tradition of writing which causes her to fall on the ground does not discourage her and she never loses her hope which, in the end, leads her to success: but we degressse and leaue th’ imprison’d wretch now sinking low now on a loftyer stretch flutt’ring in the endless cercles of dismay till some kind hand directs the certain way which through the casement an escape affoards and leads to ample space the only heav’n of birds. (16-21) although the first attempts of the poet result in failure, in the last part of the poem, she finally achieves to liberate herself from the imprisonment in the closed room and proves herself as a female poet in the literary arena of her time. generally speaking, the bird may be taken as a representation of anne finch’s process of becoming and proving herself as a female poet after a long period of obstacles and representation of female poetics in anne finch’s poetry 26 difficulties on her way to success. she uses the male convention of writing and never deviates from it, yet her poetic style is determined by a woman’s interpretation, inquisition and further subversion of that tradition. therefore, it may be claimed that she writes within the borders of male tradition only to undermine it. the voice of the social norms which prevent women from writing is also heard in another poem “to the nightingale”: cease then, prithee, cease thy tune; trifler, wilt thou sing till june? till thy bus’ness all lies waste, and the time of building’s past! (26-29) in these lines, there is an implication of reprimand for the bird which persists in singing and neglecting its major duty of building its nest. the poet expresses the voice of masculine tradition which forbids women to write poetry by reminding them their domestic duties which should not be neglected. in charles hinnant’s words, “the nightingale is no longer the symbol of an ideal that transcends gender but rather the emblem of a deluded and implicitly feminine effort to escape one’s place in domestic economy” (“song and speech in anne finch's ‘to the nightingale’” 508). disregarding the rebukes of the masculine society, anne finch still expresses her desire to compose poetry, as free as the nightingale’s song as she expresses as follows: “free as thine shall be my song / as thy musick, short or long” (5-6). similarly, “the unequal fetters” deals with the issue of marriage which causes a biased entanglement for women. the poet argues that women can love and be loved by somebody as long as they preserve their beauty and youth. once women have lost their beauty and physical attraction, men immediately try to find love and affection in younger and more beautiful women: but since we must loose those graces which at first your hearths have wonne dilek sarıkaya 27 and you seek for in new faces when our spring of life is done it wou’d but urge our ruine on. (6-10) she thinks that it is unfair for a woman to be deserted by her husband when her youth has gone away. the persona in the poem does not believe in men’s love which is useless and brings emotional destruction to woman and ruins her life afterwards since man’s love only depends on woman’s preserving of youth and beauty. for this reason, she decides that she will remain as nature made her, and will not allow herself to be caught in such an unfair institution, in her own terms she does not “yield to be in fetters bound / by one that walks a freer round” (14-15). she protests against the marriage institution and its biased rules and conventions which are binding for women while providing endless freedom for men. she declares her own natural freedom and rejects to be the prisoner of marriage: marriage does but slightly tye men whil’st close pris’ners we remain they the larger slaves of hymen still are begging love again at the full length of all their chain. (16-20) what finch cannot accept is the double standards which allow men to fall in love with other women without the restriction of marriage, while obedience and loyalty are expected from women in their marriage throughout their lifetime. katharine rogers elaborates on finch’s conception of love and marriage and her critical attitude to them and points out that: as a woman, winchilsea could not treat love and marriage as flippantly as did men for whom they were a minor part of life; respectively, pastime or dull obligation. because it was impossible for a woman to be comfortable in the convention, she could not follow it without question as they did. (36) representation of female poetics in anne finch’s poetry 28 being aware of the restrictions on woman’s social position in the society in which they lived, ann finch yearns for something which is beyond the bondage of the standards of her own society and thus, diverts from the general pattern of her own period. finch continues to undermine the traditionally accepted patterns of behaviour and conventions of writing poetry in “a letter to daphnis”. finch expresses her love for her husband during his absence from court. she reacts against the idea that married people cannot be passionate lovers, and thus, challenges the dominant ideology of the time which does not associate marriage with love. she expresses her opinion by saying: they err, who say that husbands can’t be lovers. with such return of passion as is due, daphnis i love, daphnis my thoughts pursue; daphnis, my hopes and joys are bounded all in you. (6-9) finch later draws a correlation between passions of love and writing poetry and indicates that neither is complete without the other one. and she gives an explanation about the reason of her writing. it was her love for daphnis that provoked her to take up an occupation which was considered to be unsuitable for a woman: even, i for daphnis’s and my promise’ sake, what i in women censure, undertake but this from love, not vanity, proceeds; you know who writes, and i who’tis that reads. judge not my passion by my want of skill: many love well, though they express it ill; (10-15) she states that what awaits women who attempt to write is “censure” (11), and she defends herself by claiming that her motivation results from her love for her husband not from vanity. as it is clearly observed in this poem, finch’s love poems dilek sarıkaya 29 written to her husband also include ideological arguments which try to change strongly established conventions of writing poetry with the aim of solving problems that these conventions pose to the expression of a woman’s intimate thoughts of love or other personal emotions. in conclusion, after a detailed analysis of ann finch’s poetry which also provides insight into her personal life, it can be seen that her poetry is committed to the creation of woman’s consciousness, with its repudiation of “the role of the objects of representation” for women (keith 9). she distinguishes herself and her poetry from the general trend of her own time by creating her own alternative forms of representation for women, and thus, confronts the masculine ideology which tries to eliminate women from the domain of male writing tradition. one can observe her critical attitude to the gender-biased assumptions about a woman poet and challenges these assumptions by paving her own way in this tradition. works cited barash, carol. “the political origins of anne finch’s poetry.” huntington library quarterly.54.4 (1991): 1-10. 21.2.2008 <http://galenet.galegroup.com>. finch, anne. the poems of anne, countess of winchilsea. 1903. ed. myra reynolds. 21.02.2008. < http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/finch/finch anne.html#to_poems>. hinnant, charles h. the poetry of anne finch: an essay in interpretation. london: delaware up, 1994. -----. “song and speech in anne finch's ‘to the nightingale.’” studies in english literature, 1500-1900 31.3 (1991): 499-513. keith, jennifer. “the poetics of anne finch.” studies in english literature: 1500 1900. 38.3 (1998): 1-12. 21.02.2008. <http://galenet.galegroup.com>. mallinson, jean. “anne finch: a woman poet and the tradition.” gender at work: four women writers of the eighteenth century. detroit: wayne state up, 1990. 34-76. representation of female poetics in anne finch’s poetry 30 mintz, susannah. “anne finch’s fair play.” the midwest quarterly 45.1 (2003): 74-83. rogers, katharine. “ann finch, countess of winchilsea: an augustan woman poet.” shakespeare’s sisters: feminist essays on women poets. eds. sandra m. gilbert and s. gubar. bloomington: indiana up, 1979. 32-46. salvaggio, ruth. “anne finch placed and displaced.” early women writers: 1600 1720. ed. anita pacheco. london: longman, 1998. 21.03.2008. <http://galenet.galegroup.com>. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 the dystopic vision: a study of the spatial politics in e. m. forster`s a passage to india sourav kumar nag * abstract this paper attempts to bracket together two extensive areas of enquiry: on the one hand what we might call the philosophy of space in the postmodern theories by foucault, lafebvre and edward soja, and on the other, the study of postcolonial space with direct reference to bhabha and said to locate these two mutually embracing fields in e. m. forster`s a passage to india. a passage to india is undoubtedly a novel of journey, both physical and ideological. mrs. moore and adela`s curiosity to see „real india‟ is a result of the colonialist discourse impacting upon their consciousness. it is a passage to more than india. the novel combines several post-colonialist issues theorised by bhabha and said as well as postmodern ones philosophised by foucault, lefebvre and soja. postmodernism and postcolonialism go hand in hand often overlapping each other in matters of spatialisation. in the postmodern analyses of space or „heterotopologies,‟ space becomes abstract, more „conceived‟ than „perceived‟. the common ground shared by both postmodern and postcolonial spatialisations is the in-betweenness. bhabha`s doctrine of the thirdspace as a result of hybridity and lefebvre`s lived space in his trialectics of spatialisation tend to intersect in matters of cultural and spatial inbetweenness. this paper will focus on the mutual contamination of these two otherwise distinct concepts reinforced by a postmodern and postcolonial analyses of forster`s a passage to india. keywords: postmodernism, postcolonialism, e. m. forster, philosophy of space and spatial politics. * corresponding author: sourav kumar nag, research scholar the university of burdwan, india; e-mail: souravnaag@gmail.com mailto:souravnaag@gmail.com s.k. nag the dystopic vision: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [93] introduction postmodern re-evaluation and reassertion of space critique the conventional presentation of space in literature as a mere backgrounda backdrop; and re-present space as an active part of human existence and consciousness. with the emergence of „postmodern geographies‟ space was preferred to time, abstract to concrete, and history to geography. postmodernism and post-colonialism go hand in hand often overlapping each other in matters of spatialisation. postcolonialism talks of „perceived‟ spaces – for example the colonies and also conceived spaces such as the hegemonic representation of the colonies. in the postmodern analyses of space or „heterotopologies,‟ space becomes abstract, more „conceived‟ than „perceived‟. these two evaluations of space often overlap one another as will be discussed in later part of this paper. in said`s orientalism the orient is a living, perceived space but his doctrine of orientalism inadvertently makes the orient an abstractiona hegemonic representation produced by the occident. on the other hand, in lefebvre`s dialectics of the „perceived‟ and the „conceived‟ or the „central‟ and „peripheral‟(soja) the abstract space often crosses the shadow lines of perceived space and vice versa to make a cocktail of place and space. evidently the postcolonial and postmodern doctrines of spatialization seem to differ from each other in matter of their focus though both of them deal with an essential „in-betweenness.‟ postmodern concepts of space the study of space both as a physical and psychological entity starts with the onset of postmodernism. the nineteenth century obsession with time and the temporal was replaced by space and the spatial as is already stated above. in the very first chapter of postmodern geographies: the reassertion of space in critical social theory edward soja seems to regret the predominance of time over space, frequently quoting from foucault and lefebvre: “the critical hermeneutic is still enveloped in a temporal master-narrative, in a historical but not yet comparably geographical imagination.” (11) the heterogeneous feature of space, its power to combine in one real place several spaces undoubtedly critique the notion of space as a void which exists as its own kind. foucault was the pioneer in this line of thought. in his lectures and especially in his interviews: ‘questions of geography’ (1980) and ‘space, knowledge and power’ (1984) foucault disseminates his doctrine of „heterotopias‟. he claims that the heterotopia s.k. nag the dystopic vision: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [94] is capable of juxtaposing in a single real space several incompatible spaces. this foucauldian spatialization projects space both as abstract and concrete. foucalut`s theorisation of heterotopias, as we may call, is not a science but a sort of over worked and over used term that needs systematic description. foucault describes heterotopias in terms of its characteristics like heterotopias of crisis, of deviation, of juxtaposition, etc. in the primitive societies heterotopias of crisis can be traced. there were places privileged, sacred, and forbidden for individuals who live in a state of crisis. for example the boarding school may be called heterotopias of crisis where the first manifestations of virility or puberty were supposed to take place „elsewhere‟ away from home. the prison houses, retirement homes and psychiatric hospitals are the heterotopias of deviation where the normalcy of human culture, the regularity of social life is suspended on temporal basis. again the garden where various kinds of plants are grown to make as sort of microcosm is a heterotopias of juxtaposition. very strangely, an existing heterotopia may have functions that unfold themselves gradually with the passage of time. the example of the cemetery testifies to the ever changing characteristic of heterotopias. in the 18 th century when people believed in posthumous life, the dead bodies were kept under tombs and graveyards built in the heart of the town adjacent to a church. but in the 19 th century people started to doubt the very existence of the posthumous existence and every dead body was given an individual coffin and the graveyard was shifted from the centre to the periphery of the town with the on growing consciousness that the dead spreads death. places like libraries and museums are heterotopias that are connected to the process of accumulation of time. on the contrary, festivals, carnivals are sorts of heterotopias that are interested in the temporal unlike in the eternal. edward soja, the postmodern geographer brilliantly extended foucault`s concept of „hetertopias‟ and lefebvre`s „the production of space.‟ in his seminal works namely the postmodern geographies and thirdspace. in the first chapter of thirdspace: journeys to los angeles and other realand-imagined places (blackwell) soja refers to the „extraordinary voyages of henri lefebvre‟ and his continuous vacillation between paris and pyrenees. soja claims: “the center-periphery relation echoed another dialectic that threads simultaneously through lefebvre`s life and writings. this was the relation between the “conceived”(concu) and the “lived”(vecu), or as he would later describe it, between the “representations of space” and the “spaces of representation”. (soja 30) s.k. nag the dystopic vision: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [95] he conceives three modes of spatial thinking: perceived space, conceived space, and lived space. soja`s concept of the thirdspace is something beyond mere physical form or mental construct, but an alternative that combines the two; „perceived space‟ and „conceived space‟. soja`s conceptualisation of the „thirdspace‟ significantly transgresses the binaries of spatiality and offers trialectics of spaces. „perceived space‟ or soja`s firstspace is „materialised‟, „socially produced‟, and „empirical.‟ it is directly sensible and can be mapped and therefore limited. this perceived space figures in our mappable geographies such as households, neighborhoods, villages, cities, and nations. conceived space or soja`s second space is „imagined‟ (as lefebvre put it) or „conceptualised‟ (soja). the conceived space is expressed in systems of signs and symbols and operates as a centre of power and ideology. for example, the orientalist representations of the eastern countries as exotica are a conceived space. to illustrate the lived space or thirdspace soja offers an analogy of lefebvre`s aleph: “lived social space, more than any other, is lefebvre‟s limitless aleph, the space of all inclusive simultaneities, perils as well as possibilities: the space of radical openness, the space of social struggle” (soja 68) . for lefebvre lived space was both distinct from perceived space and conceived space. it is an all-encompassing mode of spatial reckoning. soja puts it as a "transcending composite of all spaces." this space is "directly lived," the space of "inhabitants" and "users," containing all other real and imagined spaces together. postcolonial concepts of space the postmodern geographies in connection with foucult, lefebvre, soja and few others tend to offer trialectics of spatiality and thus liberate space from its monolithic structures. however, the postcolonial theorisation of space, on the other hand, provides interesting modes of analyses which often overlap the postmodern heterotopology. said`s orientalism critiques the artificial and ideological construction spaces that are not lived but present only in the discourse of colonialism. the ideological representation of the orient as „other‟ confined within the boundaries of stereotypes legitimate the run of the colonising mission also produces space that appears only in the complex matrix of signs and symbols and dissipates politics of power. lefebvre`s conceived space bears striking similarities with what said`s calls orientalism. the binary divisions of the orientalist discourse, as pointed by said, are questioned by bhabha. in his of mimicry and man: the ambivalence of s.k. nag the dystopic vision: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [96] colonial discourse bhabha argues that in the colonialist representations the colonised subjects are always in motion between the binaries of similarity and opposition. in the location of culture (routledge, 1994) bhabha gives the notion of hybridity and the third space in the context of postcolonialism. referring to those who live border lives bhabha theorises that these people living in a transition in an in between space is always on the motion. their transitional spatial and cultural existence is never complete in it and always undergoes change. these people are produced from a process of hybridisation erasing forever the idea of subjectivity as real, stable and complete: but for me the importance of hybridity is not to be able to trace two original moments from which the third emerges, rather hybridity to me is the „third space‟ which enables other positions to emerge. this third space displaces the histories that constitute it, and sets up new structures of authority, new political initiatives, which are inadequately understood through received wisdom (rutherford, 1991: 211). like postmodern geographies, it seems, postcolonialism affirms a sort of in-betweenness. the preceding accumulation of the postmodernist and postcolonialist discourse of space will now help to analyse forster`s a passage to india as novel that consists of the mutual contamination of postmodern and postcolonial spatialisation. at first i shall analyse the novel under the lens of the postcolonialist spatialisation and then of the postmodern and show how these two distinct modes intersect one another. the ideal and the real: a passage to india and the politics of space a passage to india is undoubtedly novel of journey both physical and ideological. mrs. moore and adela`s curiosity to see „real india‟ is a result of the colonialist discourse impacting upon their consciousness. it is a passage to more than india. the novel combines several postcolonialist issues theorised by bhabha and said. incidentally, bhabha`s concept of third space in the post-colonialist discourse is closely related to his theories of mimicry and hybridity. in the colonial and postcolonial literature mimicry is seen when a member of the colonised society imitates the linguistic, cultural, political and other attitudes of the colonisers in hope of gaining access to the power of the man in s.k. nag the dystopic vision: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [97] power(here the members of the society of the colonisers) whom he imitates. in this novel the most prominent example of such powerimitation (mimicry) is mr. amritrao. a minor character in the novel, amritrao is lawyer from calcutta. a foreign educated man amritrao is an english speaking indian lawyer whom even the british anglo-indians dread because he has learned enough of the british law. originally he is an indian but his educational upbringing under a western roof has at once dragged him closer to the coloniser and dissociated him from the colonised, though in many ways he is loved by his people. hybridity refers to any mixing of east and western culture. in other words hybridity apart from its biological significance refers to a typical cultural balance between the colonizer and the colonized. homi bhabha initially thought of hybridity as an insurgent tool for the colonised to challenge the various forms of oppression. however, the term hybridity refers to any kind of cultural mixing or mingling between east and west. hybridity asserts the presence of a third space –an in-between which subverts said`s binaries such as orient/occident, colonniser/colonised etc. in this novel dr. aziz shares a cultural fondness for european dressing. another example of hybridity is the bridge parties deliberately arranged for the east-west cultural encounter. there are characters in this novel like mrs. moore, dr.aziz and mr. fielding who belong to an in-between space. bhabha`s notion of hybridity as a spatial in-betweenness partly resembles lefebvre`s concept of the thirdspace. lefevre`s trailectics of spatialisation may be clearly traced in the context of analysisng a passage to india. the novel starts with a geographical description of the physical aspects of chandrapore. the description of the perceived spaces – the undecorated bazaars, muddy wood and the bony incongruous outlines of chandrapore constitutes the opening chapter: “there is no painting and scarcely any carving in the bazaars. the very wood seems to be made of mud, the inhabitants of mud moving” (forster 9). the so-called physical aspects of the geographies of chandrapore are sometimes overlapped by the conceived spaces. the description of the geographies of chandrapore testifies to the fact that the perceived spaces coexist with the conceived spaces as exemplified in the following statement: “there are no bathing-steps on the river front, as the ganges happens not to be holy there” (forster 9). s.k. nag the dystopic vision: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [98] the metaphorical description of the marabar caves as „fists and fingers‟ defamiliarises them from their real presence. the novel undoubtedly deals with a central themea passage to india which mrs. moore and adela undertake. the india they have come to see is never found. india exists in the ideology of mrs. moore and adela as a trope, a conceived space and not an actuality. the typical orientalist bias can be traced in ronny in his nocturnal discourse with his mother. he talks about the indians with a strangely abusive air of which he himself was unaware: india isn‟t home,‟ he retorted, rather rudely, but in order to silence her he had been using phrases and arguments that he had picked up from older officials, and he did not feel quite sure of himself. (forster 34) it is quite evident that india which ronny is aware of is not the real india but its conceived form; a twisted and represented description of the perceived space. very naturally, the india as conceived space is stored in the vision of the western people in the novel which never conforms to the real indiaas a perceived space. in the last paragraph of chapter three similar kind of ideological manifestation is found when mrs. moore went to hang her cloak on a peg: she had known this wasp or his relatives by day; they were not as english wasps, but had long yellow legs which hung down behind when they flew. perhaps he mistook the peg for a branchno indian animal has any sense of an interior. bats, rats, birds, insects will soon nest inside a house as out (forster 34). mrs. moore`s attitude to the indianised wasp contends directly with her attempt to reconsider ronny`s abusive description of the indians to see whether it is true. she is incessantly caught in a vacillation regarding the true shape of the real india. her doubting of ronny`s representation of india puts her in an ambivalent situation. the foucauldian heterotopias like the bridge party, court room and the tennis court, the mosque, the caves and finally the temple are spaces-the embodiments of privileged discourse with its underlying ambivalences. lefebvre in his critique of „double illusion‟, as mentioned by soja in her thirdspace, talks of mutual contamination of the perceived and the conceived spaces. such a spatial confusion may be traced when adela entered into the marabar caves. mrs. moore feels choked in the caves and adela molested when she heard a terrifying echo: „boum‟ the sound „boum‟ traces adela`s state of spatial crisis when the perceived and conceived spaces get overlapped. the law court may be called the lived space in lefebvre`s s.k. nag the dystopic vision: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [99] trialectics which remains distinct from the perceived india and conceived india and yet, encompasses the two. to summarize, then, forster`s novel can be seen as a complex matrix where postcolonial and postmodern spaces are reproduced. these spaces combine, intersect and superimpose one another in significant ways. chandrapore, a microcosmic representative of india exists as perceived space. it‟s very physical aspects are challenged by the conceived spatial ideologies of the white characters present in the novel as is already discussed above. chandrapore exists as a perceived space in itself, as a conceived one in the ideologies of mrs. moore and other white characters and as a lived space dispersed among the british as well as the native characters in the novel. references bhabha, homi k. 1994. the location of culture. new york: routledge. forster, e. m. 2006. a passage to india. india: pearson. foucault, michel. 2002. “of other spaces” the visual culture reader. london: routledge. soja, edward. 2003. the postmodern geographies. new york: verso. ----------------. 2004. thirdspace.. uk: blackwell publishing. rutherford, j. (ed.). 1991. identity community, culture, difference, london: lawrence & wishart. 147 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 from one nest to another: how does attachment style relate to ethnic and religious in-group attachment for bosnian-herzegovinian youth? mersiha jusić international university of sarajevo abstract this study builds on a long-standing interest in (social) psychological outcomes of adolescent attachment styles and attachment patterns with parents. one of the outcomes i explored is in-group identification and in-group attachment, which are especially salient in the divided society of bosnia and herzegovina. the present cross-sectional study involved a stratified convenience sample of 735 participants (51.7 % female), aged 16 to 21 years (m= 18.72, sd=1.54). a significant positive correlation was found between current attachment style and in-group identification (r=.17, p<.01 for ethnic, and r=.13, p<.05 for religious). the present study points to further investigations and subsequent cross-field theoretical advancements regarding the possible effects of attachment on group identification and group attachment. keywords: attachment style; in-group identification in-group attachment; identity; bosnia and herzegovina; youth epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies mersiha jusić from one nest to another 148 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction although primarily risen from a developmental psychological perspective, the concept of attachment has been applied to other contexts as well, such as interpersonal, social, and political settings. the present study aims to examine the relevance of attachment perspectives to understand youth in-group identification and in-group attachment in a post-conflict society, bosnia and herzegovina, characterized by a constant reiteration of identity-based division1. albeit identity development in adolescence is a normative process, there are important differences on an individual, group, and cultural level (motti-stefanidi, 2015). this article examines some individual differences that might be associated with social identification, more specifically, the correlations between both current attachment style and retrospective parental caregiving attachment styles, with the strength of ethnic and religious in-group identification and in-group attachment. my objective is therefore to explore whether an individual’s level of in-group identification/in-group attachment is associated with their self-report measures of attachment style. originally, bowlby (1973) proposed infants’ innate behavioral system strives to maintain proximity with the primary caregiver, to provide survival and security. such attachment behaviors activate the caregivers’ complementary behaviors of protection, creating a particular relationship pattern between the two. based on these primary attachment experiences with caregivers, an internal working model is established that includes the mental representation of the self, a significant other, as well as the infant’s relationship with them. this internal model becomes a part of a developing personality, on which subsequent representations of the self, the world, and the others, are based (bowlby, 1973; munholland, 2008). if primary 1ethnic identity is explicitly mentioned in the constitution of bosnia and herzegovina, which states that there are three constituent peoples: bosniaks, serbs, and croats. regarding religious affiliation, bosniaks are predominantly muslim, serbs are orthodox christian, while croats are catholic. mersiha jusić from one nest to another 149 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 caregivers consistently provide comfort from distress, a secure attachment is fostered. on the other hand, caregivers who do not respond to children’s needs and seem unreliable, tend to contribute to the development of insecure types of attachment. while securely attached infants use their primary attachment figures as a secure base from which to explore the environment (ainsworth, 1985), the insecurely attached ones seem to be burdened by the relationship and lack confidence to do the same. in the following sections, i will briefly present basic tenets of attachment perspectives relevant for understanding the current study. subsequently, i will tackle the links of attachment theory with social identification variables. attachment types over several decades, extensive research on various age groups established three major attachment patterns: secure, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent (hazan & shaver, 1987). however, depending on the measurement type and the age of the subjects, other patterns or styles have been proposed as well, for example, disorganized in children and infants, and avoidant/fearful in adults. more commonly, attachment has been conceptualized through two underlying dimensions, anxiety and avoidance (fraley et al., 2011), enabling a continuous rather than categorical measurement. the secure attachment pattern includes a sense of trust in the significant other and their availability in case of distress. the avoidant (or dismissive) attachment pattern, on the other hand, is characterized by discomfort when being close to others and depending on them. avoidantly attached infants and children ignore their primary caregiver, and are neither distressed when separated from them, nor show joy when reunited. ambivalently attached adults exhibit hyperactive and anxious attachment behavior, they fear abandonment, but at the same time, they wish to be close with other people (hazan & shaver, 1990). notwithstanding the complexity of available taxonomies in the literature on attachment, this study will use the terms secure, avoidant, and ambivalent attachment style. it seems that over time some attachment mersiha jusić from one nest to another 150 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies figures’ functions diversify and may come to include romantic partners, friends, coworkers, etc. moreover, it is proposed that over the lifespan, even other entities like god, leaders, and different social structures and groups may hold similar functions to that of a secure base (see mayseless & popper, 2007). therefore, people may rely on these entities for protection and security, social order, predictability, and fulfillment of their basic needs (mayseless & popper, 2007). bowlby (1982) argued that “a school or college, a workgroup, religious group, or a political group can come to constitute for many people a subordinate attachment ‘figure‘ and for some people a principal attachment “figure” (p. 207). therefore, the attachment pattern developed with caregivers seems to be relevant not only for interpersonal but also for sociopolitical contexts. in that sense, a bulk of studies have shown that the attachment style affects not only interpersonal relationships and processes but also political and ideological orientation (gaziano, 2017; koleva & rip, 2009). most correlational studies have linked secure attachment to conservatism or its covariants and, on the other hand, insecure attachment with liberalism or its covariants (see koleva & rip, 2009). application of attachment theory to social psychology an internal working model of the self and others might be considered a general concept, and therefore applicable in many contexts. however, although it is not unprecedented to apply a theory or a concept from one area to another, the expansion of a primarily developmental attachment theory in the social-psychological realm has not generated “convincing theoretical integration” (boccato & capozza, 2011, p. 26) so far. likewise, there has been criticism of attempts to use bowlby’s (1982) and ainsworth’s (1985) perspectives as a general framework for understanding human security or personality, arguing that the attachment concept refers to very specific phenomena within the relationship context (waters & cummings, 2000). still, the interest of social psychologists in this application remains evident in the past two decades (boccato & capozza, 2011; koleva & rip, 2009; maymersiha jusić from one nest to another 151 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 seless & popper, 2007). regardless of that, studies specifically addressing attachment style and in-group identification have been less common. one of the rare studies explicitly tackling this is a study by milanov et al. (2013), which found participants with a secure attachment style to have a significantly higher social identification compared to participants with a dismissive-avoidant attachment. group belonging, identification, and attachment pattern the present study seeks to explore how attachment relates to one of the key psychosocial variables, social identity, more specifically, ethnic, and religious identity. social identity theory (tajfel & turner, 1979) proposes that by categorizing the self into social units an individual satisfies basic psychological needs, among which is the achievement of a positive self-concept. studies of adolescents have indeed found correlations between social identity and numerous variables relevant to their development (sani, 2012). regarding attachment, group belonging seems to be fundamental for survival in the same way as closeness to a caregiver (boccato & capozza, 2011). group membership may satisfy the definitional criteria for attachment, namely, (a) a group can be the target of searching for proximity, especially in times of need; (b) a group can satisfy the needs for support, (c) a group can facilitate exploration and the practice of social and emotional skills (rom & mikulincer, 2003). there is empirical evidence that attachment style affects individuals’ perceptions of similarity with others (mikulincer et al., 1998), which is at the core of in-group identification. the correspondence hypothesis posits that securely attached individuals tend to form secure attachment ties with groups, applying internal models accordingly, i.e., considering themselves as valuable members and others as trustworthy fellow members of the group. when threatened individually, they rely on other group members for support. lower attachment anxiety is indeed associated with higher identification with groups (crisp et mersiha jusić from one nest to another 152 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies al., 2008). in a pioneer experimental study, smith et al. (1999) empirically established that anxiety and avoidance emerge as underlying dimensions in group attachment. individuals who scored higher in anxiety showed over-preoccupation with acceptance by valued groups, and therefore tried to conform to their prototypes. on the contrary, individuals scoring high in avoidance considered closeness to groups undesirable, and avoided ties or dependence, focusing their efforts on acting independently. securely attached individuals, i.e., those scoring low on both anxiety and avoidance, perceived group membership as valuable and expected acceptance. the same research showed that insecure attachment was negatively correlated with group identification. security is also associated with harmonious relations with outgroups (koleva & rip, 2009). experimental activation of a secure attachment scheme triggers fewer negative reactions to other groups (mikulincer & shaver, 2001). in sum, although groups lack a clear attachment figure per se, similar background attachment dynamics are suggested (mayseless & popper, 2007). i expect that attachment style will affect in-group identification and ingroup attachment since these social-psychological concepts represent an extension of the self-concept to include the group (roccas et al., 2006). this is based on the correspondence hypothesis, according to which individual differences in in-group identification and in-group attachment parallel those in attachment style (mayseless & popper, 2007) and the theoretical concept of the internal working model of the self and others, the present study building on the attachment-fulfilling functions of groups, the present study seeks to expand the scope by including larger social formations and identification with them. in-group identification is defined as the degree to which people’s membership in a social group is psychologically affecting and socially consequential (ellemers et al., 2002). if interaction with primary mersiha jusić from one nest to another 153 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 caregivers experienced in childhood affects trust beliefs later on, my rationale is that it also affects the relationship with groups that are lower in entitativity, even if it is only in terms of identification strength. although in this case close emotional bonds are made only with a limited number of members of such social groups, young people nevertheless develop strong symbolic relationships with them, since they are becoming a part of one’s identity. therefore, the strength of in-group identification/attachment may reflect differences in attachment. consequently, by making this “leap” and examining the role of attachment in in-group identification and in-group attachment, the current study presents a cross-breed between developmental psychology, social psychology, and sociology. so far, a convincing theoretical integration of attachment theory with group psychology is lacking (boccato & capozza, 2011). therefore, this study adds to current efforts to understand the attachment basis of in-group identification, especially considering the scarcity of studies addressing this issue. furthermore, exploration of attachment impact on in-group identification seems to be an especially relevant endeavor in a socio-politically fragile and complex context that is bosnia and herzegovina, marked by chronic ethnic and/or religious identity salience. involving conceptually and empirically different constructs, this study seeks to explore how both current attachment style and retrospective parental caregiving attachment styles, affect levels of ethnic/religious in-group identification. no similar studies exploring the association of attachment style with in-group identification have been conducted with a sample including bosnian-herzegovinian youth. i expect that this study will shed light on potential determinants of young people’s ties to the group. mersiha jusić from one nest to another 154 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies methods sample a stratified convenience sample of 735 adolescents was recruited in junior high, senior high, and university freshman classes. strata were created based on official data of the most recent census (agency for statistics of bosnia and herzegovina, 2016) socio-demographic characteristics of age group 16 to 20 (involvement in education, type of education, urban/rural area). the main part of the sample recruited through public educational institutions was supplemented through exponential snowball sampling in case of underrepresentation of some strata. the sample included 735 adolescents, 380 (51.7 %) of which were female. the age of the participants ranged from 16 to 21 years (m= 18.72, sd=1.54). 62.7 % of the sample were secondary school students, 32.9 % university students, and the rest 4.4% were neither. 53.3% of the participants resided in rural areas. most of the participants come from two-parent families (88.2%), 10.9% from single-parent families, and 1% of them lived with guardians. procedure the questionnaire was administered in accordance with ethical principles of psychological research from december 2017 to may 2018, following the approval of the ethical committee from the international university of sarajevo. participants were informed about the research objective and no coercion to participate was used. it was made clear that anyone could quit participation at any point of the survey administration. participants were guaranteed anonymity as well as safeguarding the materials. the questionnaire was administered during regular class time. instruments 1. socio-demographic/family questionnaire including personal and familial variables: age, gender, year of study, gpa, place of residence, family composition (two-parent, single-parent, or guardian family), number of mersiha jusić from one nest to another 155 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 family members, level of parents’ education, parental employment status, subjective assessment of family`s financial situation, family composition history, data about adverse experiences (separation from parents, loss of home, loss of a family member or a loved one, domestic violence targeted at other family members, domestic violence targeted at oneself, serious illness). 2. collective identification scale is aimed at measuring in-group identification and in-group attachment, i.e., one’s positive feelings about the group. it combines a nominal group identity question for assessing primary group identification (“people see themselves in many different ways. using this list, which one best describes you?”) (a) bosniak, croat, serb, roma, jew, or some other ethnic group; (b) muslim, orthodox, catholic, or some other religious group; (c) i do not see myself as a part of a particular group, with likerttype items assessing strength of these associations i.e. in-group attachment. two items from doosje et al. (1995) were adapted to the bosnian-herzegovinian context with two additional items included to tap religious identification equivalently: (a) “my ethnic/religious background is very important to me.” (b) “i am proud of my ethnic/religious background.” participants were asked to indicate the level of agreement with these statements on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly disagree). the study yielded a high internal consistency of the instrument (0.85 cronbach alpha). 3. attachment style questionnaire (hazan & shaver, 1990) is a straightforward categorical instrument, that includes brief prototypical descriptions of each attachment style (secure, avoidant, and ambivalent), with participants selecting the style that best describes their feelings about relationships with peers/partners (“close persons”). secure, which describes their relationships as friendly, trusting, and happy. they accept their partners regardless of faults and tend to have long and fulfilling relationships. anxious/avoidant is characterized as being afraid of intimacy, experiencing emotional highs and lows during relationships, along with much jealousy. anxious/ ambivalent refers to the strong need for constant reciprocation and validation in interpersonal relationships, along with emotional highs and lows. mersiha jusić from one nest to another 156 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies 4. parental caregiving style questionnaire (hazan & shaver, 1986) taps the characteristic features of parenting through a choice of three categories depicting avoidant, secure, and ambivalent history with each parent. the three descriptions are as follows: (1) “she was fairy cold, distant, and rejecting, and not very responsive; i often felt that her concerns were elsewhere; i frequently had the feeling that she just as soon would not have had me.“ (2) “she was generally warm and responsive; she was good at knowing when to be supportive and when to let me operate on my own; our relationship was almost always comfortable, and i have no major reservations or complaints about it.“ (3) “she was noticeably inconsistent in her reactions to me, sometimes warm and sometimes not; she had her own needs and agendas which sometimes got in the way of her receptiveness and responsiveness to my needs; she definitely loved me but didn’t always show it in the best way.“ corresponding paragraphs were used to assess paternal avoidance, paternal security, and paternal ambivalence. results an overview of the sample characteristics regarding gender, place of residence, and schooling level is presented in table 1 below. table 1. sample characteristics regarding gender, place of residence, and type of educational institution male female total place of residence urban 168 (49.3%) 173 (50.7%) 341(46.5%) rural 186 (47.4%) 206 (52.6%) 392(53.5%) educational institution vocational second.sc. 76(80.9%) 18(19.1%) 94(12.8%) technical second.sc. 126(51.4%) 119(48.6%) 245(33.4%) grammar school 31(25.6%) 90(74.4%) 121(16.5%) university 107(44.2%) 135(55.8%) 242(33.0%) not in school 15(46.9%) 17(53.1%) 32(4.4%) note: due to 1.77% of randomly missing data total n might defer. mersiha jusić from one nest to another 157 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 before attending to the study’s main research question, i will consider the basic descriptive statistics of the key variables and their correlates. in-group identification and in-group attachment regarding in-group identification and in-group attachment, most of the participants declared identification with both an ethnic and a religious group (40.95%), 26.8% with religious, 20.41% with ethnic, while 10.07% chose no collective identification. furthermore, the strength of the collective identification was high as well. there was a notable tendency toward agreement and strong agreement with statements regarding the importance of one’s ethnic/religious background and the sense of ethnic/religious pride, i.e., in-group attachment (see table 2 below). this tendency was especially prominent regarding religious identification. table 2: percentages of responses to items indicating the strength of collective identification strongly disagree disagree somewhat disagree neither agree or disagree somewhat agree agree strongly agree my ethnic background is very important to me. 5.9 2.7 4.4 11.6 10.6 25.5 39.3 i am proud of my ethnic background. 3 1.8 2.8 11.5 8.5 22.5 49.5 my religious background is very important to me. 4.3 1.1 2.4 3.8 6.8 16.9 64.7 i am proud of my religious background 2.8 1.1 1.1 5.5 3.3 12.5 73.6 distributions of both in-group identifications were negatively asymmetric, significantly differing from normal, as indicated by shapiro-wilk`s test statistics of .82 for ethnic, and .6 for religious identification (both p<.001). mersiha jusić from one nest to another 158 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies therefore, further analyses were based on non-parametric statistics. to explore categorical differences, i used the mann-whitney u test. males displayed statistically significantly higher ethnic identification than females (u=56889.500, z=-2.00, p<.05), while no gender difference was found regarding religious identification (u=58641.000, z=-1.430, p>.05). both ethnic and religious identification were significantly higher in males residing in rural than in urban areas (u =11812.500, z=-2.66 and u=11745.500, z=2.99 respectively, both p<.01). in females residing in rural areas, there was a significantly stronger religious (u=15039, z=-1.98, p<.05), but not ethnic in-group identification (u=16379, z=-.48, p>.05). levels of ethnic and religious identification have been found to correlate negatively with socio-economic status (sesoperationalized as a combination of family income, parents’ educational level, employment, and subjective assessment). this correlation was much stronger for religious (rs(683)=-.22, p<.001) than for ethnic identification (r(683)=-.10, p<.01) controlled for gender. age was not significantly correlated with neither ethnic, nor religious identification (both rs(701)=.01, p>.05), controlled for gender. also, religious identification was significantly lower among those with divorced parents, compared to others (table 3). table 3: religious identification with regard to parental divorce gender parental divorce n mean rank sum of ranks mannwhitney u z asymp. sig. (2-tailed) males no 322 171.03 55071.50 1761.500 -1.999 .046 yes 15 125.43 1881.50 total 337 females no 350 187.19 65516.50 2208.500 -2.498 .013 yes 18 132.19 2379.50 total 368 mersiha jusić from one nest to another 159 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 when controlled for gender, age and ses, the correlation between divorce and in-group attachment remained significant, with rpb(690)=-.12, p<.01) for ethnic, and rpb(690)=-.19, p<.001 for religious identification. a kruskal-wallis h test showed that there was no statistically significant difference in in-group identification levels based on the reported number of adverse experiences (h=1.91 for ethnic, and h=4.63 for religious identification, both p> .05). however, among participants choosing not to identify with an ethnic/religious group, there was more of those with domestic violence exposure, but only among females (χ2 (1, n=374)=16.35, p<.001). the two in-group identifications were strongly positively correlated, in both males (rs(n=337)=.62, p< .001) and females (rs(n=369)=.52, p< .001), indicating a more general factor of social identification. attachment regarding their current attachment style, most participants chose a secure attachment style (59.5%), 30.6% chose avoidant, and 7.9% ambivalent2. furthermore, the secure attachment style was more frequent in males, while the ambivalent one was more frequent in females (χ2(2, n=720)=29.32, p<.001). when the avoidant and ambivalent attachment style were combined into one category (insecure attachment style), a secure attachment was found more frequently in males, and insecure in females (χ2(1, n=720)=28.48, p<.001). furthermore, when measures of current attachment style were combined with parental caregiving style thus yielding an overall attachment security score, the same conclusion followed. the mann-whitney test indicated that attachment security was higher in males (u=53026.500, z=-3.810, p<.001). regarding parenting caregiving style, mothers were evidently perceived as providers of secure attachment with 82.5 % of participants describing them as such. on the other hand, fathers have been identified as such by 66.4% of participants. adolescents with divorced parents were significantly more 2 2% missing data mersiha jusić from one nest to another 160 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies frequent in the category of insecure attachment, compared to those with nondivorced parents (χ2(1, n=720)=8.58, p<.05). interestingly, perceived parenting caregiving maternal style did not differ between those with divorced parents and others (χ2(2, n=731)=4.16, p>.05), contrary to the paternal caregiving style which was more frequently qualified as insecure in adolescents with divorced parents (χ2(2, n=724)=42.22, p<.001). i also examined if the current attachment style depended on the reported number of adverse experiences. the greater the number of adverse experiences, the greater the frequency of insecure attachment styles in the sample (χ2(4, n=718)=21.05, p<.001). furthermore, the perception of parental caregiving style with both mother (χ2(4, n=729)=36.85, p<.001) and father (χ2(4, n=721)=43.75, p<.001) showed a similar pattern, i.e., those reporting more adverse experiences in childhood significantly more often reporting insecure attachments as well. attachment and in-group identification/in-group attachment point-biserial correlation coefficients were calculated controlling for gender, age, socio-economic status, and schooling level. strong positive correlations between both current attachment style and parental caregiving style with ethnic and religious identifications are evident (table 4). security of current attachment style and both parents’ caregiving style is associated with stronger in-group identification. moreover, if i look at identification per se (operationalized as ethnic or religious identification, or both), among those who chose no in-group identification there was significantly more of those with insecure maternal (χ2 (1, n=718)=9.43, p<.001), as well as paternal caregiving style (χ2 (2, n=711)=7.05, p<05). however, current attachment style did not differ between identified and unidentified participants. mersiha jusić from one nest to another 161 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 table 4: spearman’s correlations between in-group identifications and attachment variables current attachment caregiving style (m) caregiving style (f) ethnic identific religious identific current attachment caregiving style (m) .23*** caregiving style (f) .15* .23*** ethnic identification .17** .20*** .14* religious identification .13* .22*** .14* .50*** note. attachment variables were coded as 0-insecure and 1-secure; *** p< .001; **.p<.01; *p<.05 to explore this intriguing finding further, the jonckheere-terpstra test for ordered alternatives was employed. i dichotomised attachment security as “insecure-secure” on all three attachment measures (current attachment style, maternal caregiving style, and paternal caregiving style) and combined it into a single ordinal measure, spanning from 0 to 3 (0-insecure, 1-predominantly insecure, 2predominantly secure, and 3secure). there was a statistically significant trend of higher median ethnic and religious identification scores with higher levels of attachment security (table 5). mersiha jusić from one nest to another 162 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies table 5: results of jonckheere-terpstra test for ordered alternatives with levels of attachment security as the grouping variable ethnic identification religious identification number of levels in attachment security 4 4 n 684 683 observed j-t statistic 93528.500 85212.500 mean j-t statistic 78957.000 78746.500 std. deviation of j-t statistic 2738.477 2448.581 std. j-t statistic 5.321 2.641 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .000 .008 discussion the present study aimed to explore a rarely studied question, whether adolescent attachment correlates with their in-group identification and in-group attachment (ethnic and religious). i posited a correspondence hypothesis, expecting that the attachment style (both current one and retrospective parental caregiving style) will reflect on social-psychological domain, i.e. the security of attachment will positively correlate with in-group identification and in-group attachment. firstly, the majority of participants identified themselves with ethnic/religious groups (88%), and showed high levels of in-group identification regardless of their age and gender. considering that adolescence is a time of identity exploration followed by identification, a lower percentage of collective identification would be expected, as well as a weaker attachment to ethnic/religious identities. however, this finding is not surprising for bosnian-herzegovinian society characterized by ethnic and religious identity salience, that presumably catalyses the process of identity achievement, notwithstanding the complexity of other social and situational factors. an immediate bosnian-herzegovinian context marked by diversity mersiha jusić from one nest to another 163 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 likely makes the process of identity development more complicated. a high positive correlation between ethnic and religious identification is understandable considering their overlap in bosnian-herzegovinian context, and indicates a higher-order dimension of social identification. in addition, both identities are of particular importance in a diverse and often conflicted setting, that reinforces a narrative of “us” and “them.” the results are in line with comprehensive research that involved all three dominant ethnic groups in bosnia and herzegovina, showing a high degree of agreement with items referring to national attachment in youth (majstorović & turjačanin, 2013). secondly, regarding the distribution of attachment styles, these results fit into the general consensus that secure attachment is a strong majority, avoidant attachment is a strong minority, and anxious attachment is a smaller minority (ainsworth et al, 1978). using self-reported measures (attachment style questionnaire and parental caregiving style questionnaire) i have been able to categorize the participants as either securely or insecurely attached (avoidant and ambivalent) and explore how these individual differences relate to their social identifications. controlled for important background variables (gender, age, socio-economic status, and schooling level) attachment security (current attachment style combined with parental caregiving style) was associated with stronger in-group identification. likewise, among participants who chose no collective identification per se, there were more of those with insecure parental caregiving styles. confirming the correspondence hypothesis, securely attached individuals seem to form secure attachments with groups as well, therefore expressing their belonging, and perceiving themselves as valuable members, and others as trustworthy. this might indicate that interpersonal security “spills over” even to a more general type of groups, high in identity salience. this finding is in line with some empirical studies demonstrating that higher levels of identification with the dominant culture were related to lower anxiety, and higher levels of identification with any culture with lower avoidance mersiha jusić from one nest to another 164 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies (agishtein & brumbaugh, 2013), implying that a strong identification corresponds to more secure attachment in intimate relationships. milanov et al. (2013) found that participants with a secure attachment style had significantly higher social identification compared to participants with a dismissive-avoidant attachment. similarly, it seems that adolescents who identified their attachment style as secure, and who perceived their attachment pattern with parents as such, as well, have also more frequently expressed belonging to their ethnic/religious group, thus projecting relationship trust onto a more general social entity. on the other hand, adolescents with an insecure attachment style seem to “avoid” or are “ambivalent” regarding in-group identification, as well as an appreciation of their in-group identity. this might reflect their reluctancy to perceive themselves as similar to others, as well as a lack of trust in them. therefore, these findings reintroduce a wider perspective on in-group identification, calling for a more thorough examination of its link with attachment and developmental history in general. for instance, correlations i found between adverse experiences (especially domestic violence in females) with attachment and in-group identification call for a genuinely individualized approach to understanding how young people come to (strongly) identify with dominant social groups, and to grasp the complex interplay of a wide range of factors more fully, some of which are, as i have seen, profoundly marked by individual experiences. to give an illustration, i found weaker religious identification in adolescents with divorced parents. it seems that stability and strength of religious identification are associated with the stability and strength of family bonds, which are potentially weakened by divorce. when controlled for gender, age, and socio-economic status, correlation between divorce and in-group identification remained significant and negative, indicating possible long-term effects of family structure on social identification. studies have shown links between attachment insecurities and religious instability, i.e., sudden-intense religious conversion occurring in life contexts of turmoil (granqvist & kirkpatrick, 2004) which can be roughly considered the mersiha jusić from one nest to another 165 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 opposite of strong religious identification. weakening bonds with parent(s) induce questioning of society`s values as well, as parents are usually representatives of a wider social group as holders of its values. in that sense, these results confirm existing ones. family composition, as rough as it is as a measure, seems to be an important factor in the development of adolescent social identification in general. lack of the stability of the parental marriage institution reflects on the long-term perception of society as an institution, that should take over the secure base role. in its simplest form, this finding confirms lay views of family as the “basic cell of the society.” it seems that the number of adverse experiences, especially those reflecting distressed family life (like domestic violence), plays a role, not only in the development of attachment style but also in the development of in-group identification and in-group attachment. more research is needed to further examine the gender differences in the effects of domestic violence exposure and in-group identification, since this link is established only in females. to summarize, adolescent social identification seems to be influenced, among other factors, by family stability as such. this study has potential limitations. as mentioned, self-report measures were used, one of which referred to the assessment of parental caregiving style. this retrospective assessment might have been biased for several reasons. moreover, the attachment instruments i used due to their brevity and straightforwardness, were categorical, and therefore only a rough indicator of the variable itself, therefore limiting statistical procedures. however, these results were significant despite this. a relatively large sample that reflects the structure of the population, and the fact that the link has been established despite such rough measures of attachment, speak for the plausibility and robustness of the finding. nevertheless, future studies may extend this work by employing continuous (dimensional) measures of attachment to set the ground for fine-grained analyses of the posited link and enable more sophisticated theoretical advancements in this thrilling cross-field issue. also, including additional variables would enable a more mersiha jusić from one nest to another 166 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies thorough understanding of their interplay in determining the factors behind youth social identification. references agency for statistics of bosnia and herzegovina. 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(2000). a secure base from which to explore close relationships. child development, 71, 164–172. https:// doi.10.1111/1467-8624.00130. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory sardar m. anwaruddin * abstract literary critics admire george eliot‟s touching portrayal of maggie tulliver in the mill on the floss. many readers prefer to read maggie‟s character as a reworking of eliot‟s own life. in this article, i compare maggie with another famous literary heroine, tess durbeyfield of thomas hardy‟s tess of the d’urbervilles. tess is a “low-born” country girl whose suffering begins as soon as her family discovers that they have noble connections. both maggie and tess go through hardship and humiliation due to their sense of responsibility and commitment to do the best for their families. looking at these two characters through the lens of feminist standpoint theory, i argue that maggie and tess‟ social locations, imposed gender-roles, and families‟ expectations are among the primary causes of their tragedy. as members of the oppressed (gender) group, their epistemologies to understand the reality and to make sense of their social relationships contradict with those of the dominant group—masculine. keywords: maggie, tess, femininity, masculinity, standpoint theory, epistemology * corresponding author: sardar m. anwaruddin, phd student,university of toronto, canada, e-mail: s.anwaruddin@mail.utoronto.ca mailto:s.anwaruddin@mail.utoronto.ca s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [121] as a postmodern method of inquiry, standpoint theory offers insights into how one‟s views of the world are shaped by where and when s/he is located in the socio-political landscape. in the broadest sense, “standpoint theory argues that the world may be known only in partial perspectives given to us by where we are situated in the world in terms of class, race, gender, geography, sexual identity, and so forth” (brummett 173). feminist standpoint theorists such as nancy hartsock and sandra harding argue that women‟s socio-political positions are powerful sites of epistemology as well as methodology for understanding their material and emotional relationships with those around them. methodologies based on feminist standpoint theory shed light on the struggles of womanhood in patriarchal societies. such struggles have been delineated in many literary works. for example, referencing to george eliot and her heroines, virginia woolf wrote: the burden and the complexity of womanhood were not enough; she must reach beyond the sanctuary and pluck for herself the strange bright fruits of art and knowledge. clasping them as few women have ever clasped them, she would not renounce her own inheritance—the difference of view, the difference of standard. (woolf 204) here, woolf implies an important aspect of feminist literary criticism, i.e., women‟s access to the knowledge of their society and culture. the access, however, has never been easy. rather, this “access to a male-dominated culture may equally be felt to bring with it alienation, repression, division—a silencing of the „feminine,‟ a loss of women‟s inheritance” (jacobus 27). women‟s difference of view that woolf mentions is a significant point in feminist standpoint theory. many theorists in this tradition argue that boys and girls experience their social and physical environments in qualitatively different ways, which lead to differences in their personality. for example, nancy chodorow concludes that “in any given society, feminine personality comes to define itself in relation and connection to other people more than masculine personality does” (368). how might this feminine personality relate to what jacobus characterizes as the “silencing of the feminine” (27)? how can relations based on feminine affections bring alienation s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [122] and repression to women? in this article, i engage these questions by focusing on two literary heroines: maggie and tess. i shall argue that the norms and expectations of society in which george eliot‟s maggie grows up do not let her attain the full human potential. years of self denial teach her to repress her desires to an extent that she cannot restore her internal resources any more. she has to depend on others for their approval, fear their criticisms, and learn to stay away from risks. as elizabeth ermarth succinctly describes, “by internalizing crippling norms, by learning to rely on approval, to fear ridicule and to avoid conflict, maggie grows up fatally weak. in place of a habit of selfactualization she has learned a habit of self-denial which philip rightly calls a „long suicide‟” (587). i contend that she commits this long suicide due to the pressures of social expectations stemming from her gender roles. like maggie, thomas hardy‟s tess suffers terribly because of her affection for others, her way of interpreting the reality of outside world, and social and familial expectations. it is not my intention to portray the characters of maggie and tess as flawless. in fact, they go through many tormenting human impulses. i shall argue that the factors that play crucial parts in their sufferings include family values, gender roles and limitations, i.e., what a girl should and should not do, love as a reward of submission, society‟s obstinate view about marriage, rigid masculine attitudes toward forgiveness, and a lack of independent exercise of personal delight and agency. using feminist standpoint theory as a conceptual framework, i argue that maggie and tess face grave tragedies because of their gender roles in social contexts where women are deprived of a full growth of humanity. as such, it is tess and maggie‟s unique standpoint in society that not only provides them with a method of analyzing social reality, but also brings them their plight and suffering. the origin of standpoint theory can be traced in the works of hegel and marx. based on the marxist thought that explained how the bourgeoisie and the proletariat experienced alienation in different ways, lukacs elaborated the proletariat standpoint, which was later taken up by scholars in various fields. according to au, “in the 1970s and 80s critical feminist scholars…sought to use the framework provided by lukacs‟ (1971) proletarian standpoint to develop a feminist standpoint to s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [123] challenge both masculinist norms and regressive gender politics” (53). one of the central tenets of the standpoint theory is that the epistemologies of the dominant groups are different from, and often contradict with, the epistemologies of the oppressed groups. human experiences are shaped by various systems of domination that are organized around issues such as gender, race, sexuality, economic class, nationality, language and so on. in other words, persons‟ view of the world is determined by their specific social locations and often oppositional to the views of those who are in different social locations. for this, knowledge is always fragmented and our socially located epistemologies limit our ability to understand other people‟s commonsense view of the world. in short, standpoint theory is premised on the belief that knowledge and power are inextricably intertwined and that human relationships are not clearly visible and understandable “because of the differential power relations relative to knowledge production and because of the epistemological limits carried with the viewpoint provided by specific social locations” (au 53). although standpoint theory was originally a product of hegelian dialectics and marxist thought, feminist standpoint theorists have placed much emphasis on the justification of truth-claims by focusing on the epistemological domains of feminist politics and theories. according to heckman, “throughout the theory‟s development, feminist stand-point theorists‟ quest for truth and politics has been shaped by two central understandings: that knowledge is situated and perspectival and that there are multiple standpoints from which knowledge is produced” (342). these two understandings of the nature and production of knowledge indicate how every human activity is itself an epistemology, and at the same time is subject to different interpretations. this also leads to an understanding that individuals create their own realities through their activities, which inform their own unique ways of understanding the world around them. hartsock provides us with a framework to see how women and men create different realities by taking diverse standpoints. in this regard, there is always a class conflict between the ruling and the ruled. hartsock explains that “a standpoint, however, carries with it the s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [124] contention that there are some perspectives on society from which, however well-intentioned one may be, the real relations of humans with each other and with the natural world are not visible” (the feminist standpoint 107). additionally, she makes clear that our material life and social locations determine how we understand our relationships with other individuals and the world around us. however, there exists a relation of domination between various social groups because the dominant groups always label their views as “real” and “authentic” and reject or undermine the views of subaltern groups. thus, feminist standpoint theory sheds light on our understanding of how women‟s experience and epistemology are qualitatively different from those of men. if we look at the tragedy of maggie and tess through the lens of feminist standpoint theory, we will be able to see how their material experiences and social locations dictate their activities. first of all, their roles in family provide them with methods of analysis which are fundamentally different from those of their male counterparts. maggie has to be very careful of her family values because “there were particular ways of doing everything in that family: particular ways of bleaching the linen, of making the cowslip wine,…so that the daughter of that house could be indifferent to the privilege of having been born a dodson, rather than a gibson or a watson” (eliot 47). what is important here is that it is the dodson females who have to play all roles to uphold their family values and prestige, although the family does not give them power and autonomy in their activities. the dodson values do not let the family members distinguish between right and wrong from an objective point of view. maggie‟s friendship with philip, or transformation of the friendship into love, is evil in her family‟s eyes. moreover, being a kin to dodson family is more important than being a non-kin good person: “there were some dodsons less like the family than others—that was admitted—but in so far as they were „kin,‟ they were of necessity better than those who were no „kin‟” (eliot 48). mrs. tulliver warns maggie about certain behaviors to be a good dodson girl. at the same time, she sends her a cautionary message that if she fails to fulfill her responsibilities, nobody will like her. further, mrs. tulliver tells her, “what is to become of you, s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [125] if you‟re so naughty? i‟ll tell your aunt glegg and your aunt pullet when they come next week, and they‟ll never love you any more” (eliot 31). while maggie has to pay for violating her family values and principles of kinship, tess‟ tragedy begins with her endeavor to discover a kinship. she tries to put “two branches of one family…on visiting terms” (hardy 27). john durbeyfield, tess‟ father, meets a local parson who tells him that the durbeyfields are descendents of the famous d‟urbervilles. joan durbeyfield, tess‟ mother, proposes that tess go to the d‟urbervilles and seek money or work. although tess initially does not like the idea, she has to accept it in order to save her family. thus, family has tremendous influences on both maggie and tess. their stories can be compared with those of ancient girls and women who gave up their chastity in order to survive periods of famine and protect their families. in those times, impoverished parents/husbands sold their daughters/wives into slavery which led them to (forced) prostitution. in this way, “by the middle of the second millennium b.c., prostitution was well established as a likely occupation for the daughters of the poor” (lerner 134). although prostitution may seem an extreme analogy to describe maggie and tess‟ sufferings, it clearly shows how these two young women face humiliation and sacrifice their personal delights and agency to protect their families. both maggie and tess are unable to claim the greatness of soul due to their imposed gender-roles and expectations. maggie‟s family does not recognize her genius. the way her mother treats her is indicative of her inferior position in the family. her unruly hair and physical robustness are among her shortcomings as a dodson girl. although she is very clever, by ignoring her genius and not taking her education seriously, her family gives her an impression that she is inferior to tom. when maggie goes to visit tom, the latter says, “girls can‟t do euclid: can they, sir?” mr. stelling, tom‟s teacher, replies, “they can pick up a little of everything, i daresay. they‟ve a great deal of superficial cleverness: but they couldn‟t go far into anything. they are quick and shallow” (eliot 158). being intelligent and beautiful is a double-edged sword for maggie. mr. tulliver thinks, “it‟s no mischief much while she is a little un, but an over ‟cute woman‟s no better not a long-tailed s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [126] sheep—she‟ll fetch none the bigger price for that” (eliot 15). in spite of natural genius, beauty, and responsibility toward family, maggie is portrayed as a mistake of nature. similarly, we see tess beaten down by both internal and external forces that play the part of fate in her tragedy. tess shows great responsibility for her family, but at the same time she has to face alec‟s evil motive. although tess is severely wronged by alec, she is unable to protest against it. she suffers everything silently, and her growth as a complete human being becomes limited. this limitation of the external growth of self helps develop a soul capable of great feeling and exaltation. hiding all sorrows in her heart, she starts working in a dairy farm. this suffering makes her feelings very keen and sharp. when angel stops loving her, she cries, “i thought, angel, that you loved me— me, my very self! if it is i you do love, o how can it be that you look and speak so?” (hardy 228). in her speech we see a certain exaltation and nobility of soul and how she feels the pain in her highly sensitive soul. in this sense, the genius and greatness of soul bring suffering for both maggie and tess. this story of suffering relates to one of the foundational claims of feminist standpoint theory that “if material life is structured in fundamentally opposing ways for two different groups, one can expect that the vision of each will represent an inversion of the other, and in systems of domination the vision available to the rulers will be both partial and perverse” (hartsock, money, sex, and power 232). the vision of happiness and pain that maggie and tess possess is qualitatively different from that of the male characters in the novels. the women‟s standpoint enables them to feel the sufferings caused by both internal and external forces, and the loftiness of their heart offers them a unique way of looking at others who surround their lives. however, the vision of ruling gender—masculine—becomes partial and perverse as it fails to see the agony of maggie and tess. in both the mill and tess we see love as a reward of submission. tom‟s love for maggie is a reward of her submission. maggie cannot imagine her existence without her brother‟s love, but tom enjoys his sister‟s dependency on him. the narrator describes maggie‟s mental condition by saying: “what use was anything if tom didn‟t love her?” s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [127] (eliot 40). tom never realizes the depth of his sister‟s love for him until they drown at the end of the novel. sometimes he seems to be affectionate to maggie but his affection is very shallow and temporary. the narrator reminds us that tom “was very fond of her sister, and meant always to take care of her, make her his housekeeper, and punish her when she did wrong” (eliot 44). in tess, alec seems to be caring for tess, but he does everything to fulfill his erotic desires. he does not mind the “foolish thing” of tess because she is dependent on him. while explaining her reason for coming to the d‟urberville family, tess says, “it is so very foolish; i fear i cannot tell you.” alec kindly replies, “never mind; i like foolish things. try again, my dear.” in the same conversation, we also see alec looking at tess “in a way that made her blush a little” (41). in actuality, alec does not care for tess as a human being; he only wants the femininity that exists in her. we notice alec “giving far more attention to tess‟s moonlit person than to any wayside object” (73). tess‟s moonlit person is more desirable for him than her complete being. he does not truly love her; he only wants to fulfill his sexual desires. similarly, angel‟s love for tess is nothing but a reward for her submission. when angel wants to marry tess, she proposes that they wait until angel is “quite settled” in his farm. angel answers: “to tell the truth, my tess, i don‟t like you to be left anywhere away from my influence and sympathy” (hardy 203). in angel‟s eye, tess is a person whom he can influence to do what he wants her to do, and at the same time he can sympathize her if she does anything against his will. angel does not want tess to live a fully independent life. her individual growth and independence are subject to angel‟s “influence and sympathy.” the narrator also informs us that tess catches angel‟s “manner and habits, his speech and phrases, his likings and aversions” (hardy 204). angel loves tess as long as she is a passive recipient of his influence and sympathy. however, as soon as she reveals her past, angel ceases to love her. this revelation seems to contradict with his idealized persona of tess. he does not want to see a tess any different from his own vision. both alec and angel exploit tess‟ helplessness, one economic and the other emotional. alec accepts her “foolish things” so long as her s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [128] “moonlit person” pleases him, and angel loves her as long as she is receptive to his influence and sympathy and does not contradict with his own idealized vision of beauty. thus, both maggie and tess receive love as a reward of their submission. when viewed through the lens of feminist standpoint theory, it seems that maggie and tess‟ vision of love is constructed by their social locations. their material conditions as well as socially felt need to be loved by men provide them with a unique vision of love. this vision of love is fundamentally different from that of the men whose standpoint is shaped by their own social locations. like love, marriage is also used as a tool of convenience for men. in the mill, we do not see any marriage as what margaret fuller would call “a union of souls” (1639). mr. tulliver explains why he chose his wife, “i picked the mother because she wasn‟t o‟er ‟cute—bein‟ a goodlooking woman too, an‟ come of a rare family for managing—but i picked her from her sisters o‟ purpose ‟cause she was a bit weak, like; for i wasn‟t a-goin‟ to be told the rights o‟ things by my own fireside” (eliot 22). we also see how people prioritize family over personal virtue and righteousness when it comes to marital decision making. when philip wants to marry maggie, his father disagrees. the former tries to present maggie as “a helpless girl, who has too much sense and goodness to share their narrow prejudices” and who “never enter[s] into the family quarrels” (eliot 443). all these praises are not enough to convince mr. wakem who clearly expresses his view that, “we don‟t ask what a woman does—we ask whom she belongs to” (443). this is how mr. wakem ignores all of maggie‟s good qualities due to her parentage. we also see marriage of convenience in tess. angel explains the purpose of his marriage to his father: “in the farming business he would require eyes in the back of his head to see to all matters—some one would be necessary to superintend the domestic labours of his establishment whilst he was afield” (hardy 162). angel does not dare to tell his father that he loves tess and this is why he wants to marry her. mr. clare, angel‟s father, replies, “i was going to add that for a pure and saintly woman you will not find one more to your true advantage, and certainly not more to your mother‟s mind and my own, than your friend mercy, whom you used to show a certain interest in” (hardy 163). mr. s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [129] clare‟s diction indicates that he wants a woman for his son‟s “advantage,” and his own religious belief is also very important here because the woman should be “pure and saintly.” while his father emphasizes a “pure and saintly” woman who will be an “advantage” for him, angel needs a good worker for his farm. the important thing for him is the extent to which she can contribute to his economic prosperity. when angel and his father have these attitudes, mrs. clare, angel‟s mother, asks him, “is she [tess] of a family such as you would care to marry into—a lady, in short?” (163). her opinion resonates with that of mr. wakem of tess who says, “we don‟t ask what a woman does—we ask whom she belongs to” (eliot 443). this is how marriage becomes a tool of family convenience rather than a union in the souls. looking at this issue of marriage from the perspective of standpoint theory, i argue that the male characters in the mill and tess define good brides in terms of their ability to produce subsistence. i support this argument by hartsock‟s illustration of mode of production and its role in standpoint theory. building on marxist thought, she writes that humans are “what they do in the course of production of subsistence, each means of producing subsistence should be expected to carry with it both social relations and relations to the world of nature, which express the social understanding contained in that mode of production” (the feminist standpoint 108). thus, while men are concerned with division of labor and production of subsistence, both maggie and tess cherish marriage as a relationship of love and affection. with shattered vision of love and marriage, maggie and tess are denied forgiveness throughout their life. when tom learns that the rabbits are dead, he becomes very angry with maggie and says that he does not love her any more. this breaks maggie‟s heart; she begs his forgiveness, but tom refuses to forgive her. maggie cries, “i‟d forgive you, if you forgot anything—i wouldn‟t mind what you did—i‟d forgive you and love you” (eliot 39). in the beginning of book seventh, maggie comes back to tom and wants to tell him everything, but tom rejects her: “you will find no home with me….you don‟t belong to me” (eliot 503). one might argue that maggie is aimless and her sudden falling in love with stephen does not show socially acceptable development of her s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [130] intelligence and wisdom. but, i would counter-argue that this claim ignores the difficult situations maggie goes though. she cries, “tom, i am perhaps not so guilty as you believe me to be. i never meant give way to my feelings. i struggled against them” (eliot 504). maggie‟s passionate cry bears no fruits as tom does not forgive her. like maggie, tess faces the same situation when she begs forgiveness. she tells angel, “i am not that deceitful woman you think me!” angel replies, “h‟m— well. not deceitful; but not the same. no, not the same” (hardy 231). tess forgives angel for his past, but angel does not. tess shares the same greatness of heart with maggie who tells tom that she would forgive him if he made the same mistake. however, we see both tom and angel as pitiless individuals who are devoid of compassion and ability to forgive others. the following conversation between tess and angel shows the latter‟s rigidness and lack of empathy. “„angel!—angel! i was a child—a child when it happened! i knew nothing of men.‟ „you were more sinned against than sinning, that i admit.‟ „then will you not forgive me?‟ „i do forgive you. but forgiveness is not all.‟ „and love me?‟ to this question he did not answer” (hardy 232). in both stories of maggie and tess, it is clear that only women forgive men, but not vice versa. the vision available to maggie and tess as members of an oppressed group does not let them fulfill their personal delights by exercising their agency. both of them show the greatness of heart, but tom and angel do not compromise with their own vision of love, marriage, and family. their rigid masculine mentality fails to recognize the affection and grace that maggie and tess possess. this can be explained by george eliot‟s own words written to her friend mrs. robert lytton: we women are always in danger of living too exclusively in the affections; and though our affections are perhaps the best gifts we have, we ought also to have our share of the more independent life— some joy in things for their own sake. it is piteous to see the helplessness of some sweet women when their affections are disappointed….they have never contemplated an independent delight s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [131] in ideas as an experience which they could confess without being laughed at. (qtd. in ermarth 595) a lack of this contemplation of “an independent delight” leads maggie to a sea of misery. melancholia becomes her constant companion, and she likes to take the side of rejected lovers in stories. her self-torturing is clearly audible in philip‟s speech: and you are shutting yourself up in a narrow self-delusive fanaticism which is only a way of escaping pain by starving into dulness all the highest powers of your nature… stupefaction is not resignation: and it is stupefaction to remain in ignorance—to shut up all the avenues by which the life of your fellow-men might become known to you…you are not resigned: you are only trying to stupefy yourself. (eliot 340) we see the same kind of melancholia in tess as well. she cannot make any choice for her personal delight and happiness. if one compares her with a puppet, then the strings are in the hands of alec and angel. how she is oppressed and how she feels melancholic are apparent in angel‟s speech, “i fancy you seem oppressed, tessy.” tess replies, “yes….i tremble at many things. it is all so serious, angel” (213). thus, maggie and tess are always denied an independent exercise of their personal delights and agency. when viewed from the perspective of feminist standpoint theory, their sufferings relate to their affective relations with others. most theorists in this tradition believe that boys and girls grow up with different types of relationships with individuals around them. regarding the contrasts in developing gender identity between girls and boys, chodorow believes that “because her mother is around, and she has had a genuine relationship to her as a person, a girl‟s gender and gender role identification are mediated by and depend upon real affective relations” (374). angel is paired, at the end of tess, with liza-lu, “a spiritualized image of tess, slighter than she, but with the same beautiful eyes” (396). we do not know how long tess‟ death will haunt angel, but at least his life does not stop. he feels sorry, but “as soon as they [he and liza-lu] had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on” (398). maybe one day tess‟ memories will become blurry in his mind and he will be s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [132] happy with liza-lu, but it is tess, a woman, who pays all prices. maggie, too, dies with all her desires unfulfilled. throughout her entire life, she desperately wants her brother‟s love. she loves tom selflessly but never gets his love in return. in addition, the family and society impose various values on maggie and tess, assign them particular gender roles, and thus make them vulnerable. they are also deprived of love; if they get any, it is a reward of their submission. moreover, society‟s rigid view about marriage brings their tragedy to the climax. mr. wakem rejects maggie, and angel wants a wife who can be a good worker for his farm. angel‟s and tom‟s attitude toward forgiveness is another cause of suffering for tess and maggie. both men are too prejudiced and rigid to forgive others, whereas both women are always willing to forgive. a reading of maggie and tess through the lens of feminist standpoint theory enables us to see how their femininity is constructed in sharp contrast with the masculinity of their male counterparts. the activities of maggie and tess give them epistemologies to understand the material reality, and their understanding of the reality is shaped by their specific social locations. their vision of reality and fulfillment of personal and social desires always contradict with those of the men they encounter. as hartsock explains: women and men, then, grow up with personalities affected by different boundary experiences, differently constructed and experienced inner and outer worlds, and preoccupations with different relational issues. this early experience forms an important ground for the female sense of self as connected to the world and the male sense of self as separate, distinct, and even disconnected. (the feminist standpoint 117) thus, individuals in one particular socio-economic location can hardly realize the pain and sufferings of those in a different social location. the plight of maggie and tess attests to the claim of feminist standpoint theory that material life and class positions structure and influence individuals‟ ability to understand social relationships. in spite of having greatness of heart, two young women studied in this article are always tormented by external forces such as maggie‟s responsibility for her father and tess‟ waiting for angel when he is abroad. in conclusion, s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [133] all these factors play their parts in the tragedy of maggie and tess mainly because they are females in a social context where women are deprived of a full and independent growth of humanity. by making the characters of maggie and tess extremely tragic, george eliot and thomas hardy probably send this message to us. s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [134] references au, wayne. critical curriculum studies. new york: routledge, 2012. print. brummett, barry. rhetoric in popular culture. thousand oaks, ca: sage, 2006. print. chodorow, nancy. “family structure and feminine personality.” feminist literary theory and criticism: a norton reader. eds. sandra m. gilbert & susan gubar. new york: norton, 2007. 368-388. print. eliot, george. the mill on the floss. ed. a. s. byatt. new york: penguin, 2003. print. ermarth, elizabeth. “maggie tulliver's long suicide.” studies in english literature, 1500-1900 14.4 (1974): 587-601. print. fuller, margaret. “the great lawsuit.” the norton anthology of american literature. eds. nina baym et al. new york: norton, 2007. 1620-1654. print. harding, sandra, ed. the feminist standpoint theory reader. new york: routledge, 2004. print. hardy, thomas. tess of the d’urbervilles. ed. tim dolin. new york: penguin, 2003. print. hartsock, nancy. money, sex, and power: toward a feminist historical materialism. new york: longman, 1983. print. hartsock, nancy. the feminist standpoint revisited and other essays. boulder, co: westview press, 1998. print. hekman, susan. “truth and method: feminist standpoint theory revisited.” signs 22.2 (1997): 341-365. print. jacobus, mary. reading woman: essays in feminist criticism. new york: columbia up, 1986. print. lerner, gerda. the creation of patriarchy. new york: oxford up, 1986. print. lukacs, georg. history and class consciousness: studies in marxist dialectics. cambridge, ma: mit press, 1971. print. s. m. anwaruddin (re)viewing maggie and tess through the lens of standpoint theory epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [135] spivey, ted r. “thomas hardy‟s tragic hero.” nineteenth-century fiction 9.3 (1954):179-191. print. woolf, virginia. collected essays of virginia woolf. ed. leonard woolf. london: hogart press, 1967. print. 1 epiphany online journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / volume 1 / no. 1 fall 2008 ©2008, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. from coolie hinterland to babu stardom: an interview with tabish khair nilanshu kumar agarwal feroze gandhi college born and educated mostly in gaya, india, tabish khair is the author of various books, including the poetry collection, where parallel lines meet (penguin, 2000), the critical study, babu fictions: alienation in indian english novels (oxford up, 2001) and the novel, the bus stopped (picador, 2004), which was short-listed for the encore award. his honours and prizes include the all india poetry prize (awarded by the poetry society and the british council) and honorary fellowship (for creative writing) of the baptist university of hong kong. other routes, an anthology of pre-modern travel texts by africans and asians, co-edited and introduced by khair (with a foreword by amitav ghosh) was published by signal books and indiana university press in 2005 and 2006 respectively. khair's latest novel, filming: a love story, examines memory and guilt against the backdrop of the partition and the 1940s bombay film industry. currently, he is associate professor, department of english, university of aarhus, denmark. this perceptive literary figure discusses with dr. nilanshu kumar agarwal some tangling issues, concerned with indian writing in english. nka: indian english fiction is pervaded by the element of alienation in it. a whole breed of the contemporary novelists talks about the disturbed psychological condition of the individual on account of the enormous alienation. are these novelists suitable enough to display this mental state of the man? most of them are from the upper strata of life. anita desai was born to a german mother. salman rushdie was born of an affluent muslim family in bombay. he was educated, first at cathdral school in bombay, a classic neo-colonial enclave that „groomed‟ him, he says, for the exclusive british public school, rugby, and england, where he was headed next. john mee in his essay „after midnight: the novel in the 1980s and 1990s‟ has talked of a group of writers identified nilanshu kumar agarwal 81 with delhi‟s elite st. stephen‟s college. allan sealey, amitav ghosh, shashi tharoor, upmanyu chatterjee, rukun advani, mukul kesavan and anurag mathur were all students of this college in the early 1970s. kiran desai, the daughter of anita desai, was born in new delhi, india, and lived there until she was 14. she and her mother then lived in england for a year, and finally moved to the united states where she studied creative writing at bennington college, hollins university and columbia university. how can these people from the upper classes of society feel the pains of the people from the lower sections of the society? is it not a sort of intellectual dishonesty to write about an experience, which they have never felt, being members from another group of the society? to use your expression, how can the babus {middle or upper class, mostly urban (at times cosmopolitan), brahminized and/or westernized and fluent in english} internalize the psychology of the coolies {non-english speaking, not or not significantly westernized, not or less brahminized, economically deprived, culturally marginalized and, often rural or migrant-urban populations}? tk: any representation, or claim to represent, is problematic. can i represent anyone other than myself? on what grounds can i speak for someone else? when i speak for someone else, don‟t i actually put my words in his/her mouth? actually, it is worse than that: can i even speak for myself? is my self-understanding so profound that i can claim to understand myself thoroughly, to see myself as transparent enough to be represented fully in my own words? (and yet representation is both an existential and political necessity: we need to represent ourselves, society is run by our „representatives‟ etc.) so, of course, when a privileged class starts writing about a less privileged class, the matter gets even more complicated and dubious. but this is not to dismiss indian english fiction per se. i do not think many indian english writers set out to represent anyone: they basically tell stories as they see them. it is largely in the west that they are considered to be „representative.‟ some of them let this impression stay unchallenged, as it provides them with „authenticity‟ and a larger readership in the west. moreover, any fiction is about things that one has not experienced. that is why it is fiction and not a factual essay, not journalism or a report or an autobiography. fiction does not really make truth claims, at least by definition. so, one cannot really dismiss indian english creativity on those grounds. my book babu fictions argued for an awareness of this problem (which is largely ignored); it did not castigate or dismiss http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/new_delhi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/india http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/england http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/united_states http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bennington_college http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hollins_university http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/columbia_university from coolie hinterland to babu stardom: an interview with tabish khair 82 indian english fiction in general. one can wish (as i do) that indian english writers would address this problem more directly in their fiction – and some, like amitav ghosh, tend to do so. i think that an awareness of the problem will make indian english fiction more complex, varied and vibrant: as it is, much of indian english fiction today is becoming a kind of polished story-telling, with very little cutting edge in terms of form, politics, structure, genre etc. nka: what is the target audience of this babu fiction? sir, the standard of english education india is very low. people can not even easily comprehend english newspapers and magazines. so, how will they follow the creative works of indian writers in english language? does it not mean that this babu literature is also just for the babu audience? is it just for the elite classes and far removed from tastes of the masses? what do you say? tk: i think many creative writers probably write for themselves: they choose to write in the language they are most comfortable with. some writers might have a readership in mind too, and you are right that there is a very limited readership in india: very few indians are fluent in english and even the educated middle class hardly reads fiction in english. so, by default, the readership of indian english fiction is „global‟: not just „western‟, for there is a large indian (even asian) diaspora that seems to be reading these novels in greater numbers and there are „globalised‟ indians in the bigger cities of india, pakistan etc. you know, the term babu has a double edge: it is used as a term of respect by poor indians and it was also often used by the british as a term to scoff at anglophone, middle class indians. „babu‟ fictions seem to have a similar position: for better and worse, they fall between two stools, whether seen in geographical, cultural or class terms. but then written „serious‟ literature, in any language, is at least partly removed from the tastes of the „masses.‟ in the case of indian english fiction the gap is just much wider at times. nka: how is this literature received in the west? do the scholars in the west support it? or is it rejected by the westerners as a sheer attempt by the subjects of the former colonies to be equal with the master? is it taken seriously there or considered merely an nilanshu kumar agarwal 83 imitative subway of the western literature? please respond, sharing your own experiences as a novelist and critic. tk: this is a difficult question to answer, as the „west‟ is just as varied as india, and reactions tend to vary. there is some interest, but not as much as people assume in india. the (limited) interest that exists might be for different reasons: genuine interest in other cultures and literatures, raj nostalgia, cultural exoticism, publishing fads, reaction to some political event etc. again, the response of the „west‟ differs from place to place and genre to genre. for instance, you can see that indian english novels have been accepted far more widely than indian english poetry. one can argue that indian english novels that make structural and critical experiments are less likely to be accepted and promoted than indian english or postcolonial novels that are seen as the work of great smooth „story-tellers‟; or, a „magical realist‟ novel will be accepted more widely than a „modernist-type‟ novel. there are long historical reasons for these slants, most of them rooted in the ways in which many europeans and people of european descent see themselves and other (african, asian etc) cultures. by and large, i think that the earlier interest in postcolonial works – which included some really different narratives by writers like achebe, raja rao etc – has been replaced by a tendency to focus on the multi-cultural west, and hence, say, novels by monica ali, hanif kureishi or zadie smith. i think the „western‟ gaze has become more self-centred in recent years, though the western „self‟ has been largely accepted as multicultural. so, perhaps, we should start seeing writers like rushdie, hari kunzru or zadie smith, largely bred in the „new‟, post-war, self-consciously „multi-cultural‟ west, as basically writing about the „new‟ „multicultural‟ west for the west, even when they write about india. there is nothing wrong with that: these are writers who grew up in the west. why should they have the same critical or artistic or political agenda as writers who grow up in india or nigeria? i think the fault is again how they are seen by others, including by us in india: we need not make such a smug fuss when a rushdie or a naipaul gets a major award. but i guess we in india are also at times starved of western attention and clutch at whatever straw comes floating by, even if that straw is largely from the loft of another land! from coolie hinterland to babu stardom: an interview with tabish khair 84 nka: how will you distinguish between the indian english novels before and after 1981 (the year when midnight’s children was out.)? do you find this babu element to be more prominent in the post 1981 scenario? tk: not totally, perhaps, but there often is a difference of type. most of the major pre1981 indian english writers grew up in india: r. k. narayan, raja rao, nirad c. chaudhuri, manohar malgonkar, khushwant singh, kamala markandaya, shashi deshpande etc. they might have gone abroad to settle or study later on, but they spent most or all of their formative years in india. the situation is different now: many (but not all) the big „indian/pakistani‟ names today have grown up outside india, mostly: rushdie, naipaul, kunzru, kureishi etc etc. surely, they cannot be expected to write similar literature. nka: how far is it possible for the creative/ critical writers from the coolie sections of the society in india and elsewhere to get their works promoted? can a coolie writer easily find a publisher? do the big publishing houses come forward easily to publish these authors? the strong network of the babus does not allow the coolies to get their works published. what do you think about all this? please make a realistic comment. tk: i can see your point, and perhaps more so because i grew up and was educated in the „coolie‟ hinterlands! it is true, if you write in english, you need to get into the big cities of india or abroad, or have very close connections with them. it is not just a question of babu dominance; one‟s exposure to both english and world literature is seriously limited in „coolie‟ contexts. indians do not speak english like people do in jamaica or parts of nigeria: in these places, it is also partly a street language and hence a writer can come up from the streets and use that language to make space for his writings. it would be accepted if the writer, like ken saro-wiwa or sam selvon, was extremely talented. but i do not think that a similar situation exists in „coolie‟ india, which does not speak english or speaks english only on occasions and in a very halting manner. there is no real street culture in english to enable a writer like that to come up in india (manipur and some small areas of places like mumbai are partial exceptions to this). so, it seems to be an uphill journey for a „coolie‟ to break into the world of „indian english‟ (let alone global english) publishing. but then, why should a „coolie‟ indian write in english if s/he can write better in other indian languages?! due to nilanshu kumar agarwal 85 personal reasons, i grew up reading and writing much more english than hindi or urdu, though i know hindi and urdu too. if that had not been the case, i would have preferred to write in hindi or urdu. i still hope to write at least one novel in one of those languages. notes the information about the authors in the first question is borrowed from the following sources:  mehrotra, arvind krishna, ed. an illustrated history of indian literature in english. delhi: permanent black, 2003.  walsh, william. indian literature in english. london: longman,1990.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kiran_desai>. the interviewer dr. nilanshu kumar agarwal is senior lecturer in english at feroze gandhi college, rae bareli, (u.p.), india. he has his doctorate on t.s. eliot from allahabad university. his interviews with a number of contemporary literary figures, as well as his research papers, book reviews, articles and poems have appeared in publications, including the vedic path, quest, the confluence, kafla intercontinental, pegasus, ijowlac, the journal, promise, the raven chronicles, yellow bat review, poetcrit, carved in sand, turning the tide, blue collar review, bridge-in-making, katha kshetre, hyphen and south asian review. several anthologies have selected his poems and articles. his poem “to lord krishna” is in the celebrated anthology, the pagan’s muse, citadel press. several of his literary pieces have been included in the people’s poet: summer community magazine of 2004.he has also edited a critical book on stephen gill, which is to be published shortly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kiran_desai introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 an essay on economic values of akhism agim mamuti * abstract the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the akhism with the special reference to its economic aspects. akhism was effectively functioning from the end of the seljuk to the late ottoman period. akhism, with some modifications, played an important role in the establishment of an effective economic and social structure, by bringing together socio-economic factors such as ethics, production and trade. then, akhism succeeded in creating an effective and reliable network of relationships between citizen and state, rich and poor, producer and consumer and labor and capital. akhism also established the working and corporate principles based on morality and social justice. akhiis is an arabic word which is defined as a “brother” (akca, 2004, 356). in another source it is stated that this word is derived from akı which means in turkish language bravery, heroism and generosity (bayram, 1991, 131). the brotherhood culture prevalent in akhism has also been effective in the formation of social order and spreading of tolerance and understanding in the society. akhism institution and tradition has been influential in economical, financial, social and cultural aspects of life. in the past and even today it has been dominant in organizing craftsmen and artists and in integrating them in a definite system and order. keywords: akhism, economic thought, ottoman empire, balkans and artisans * agim mamuti, assistant professor, faculty of business and administration (fba), sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: amamuti@ius.edu.ba mailto:amamuti@ius.edu.ba a. mamuti an essay on economic values of akhism epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [239] it is questionable to explain the causes of economic development and underdevelopment of nations by using only the material elements because production and consumption are also human activities. thus, human behavior is main subject of fundamental economic activities of production and consumption. the factors that certainly affect human behavior include the geographical conditions, social environment, climate, population, politics, culture and religion. just like each of these may have a separate effect, a very different effect may also occur from their mutual interaction, and their prediction is not easy task. but religion is the most effective one among them and also it has determining features. the social ethics, which is formed in the axis of religion, depends on each element and constitutes the main parameter of the behaviors of a particular society. in this regard, ibn khaldun, by comparing the economic position of different communities, claimed that social progress should not be connected only to the personal property. he emphasized also environmental and cultural factors that must be taken into consideration (kozak, 1984; 152). similarly, weber also accepted that the social environment, the geographical environment, history, culture and religion also affect a society's morality and behavior (weber, 1993; 228). throughout the history the akhi organization depended on a religious and customary education system with the application of a strict discipline. it is known that akhi organization made a great contribution to the ottoman-turkish society. akhism organization also included an education system that is continuous with strict rules and a system of discipline. in this system, akhis begin with a training process by following three stages and ninegrades. "sharia doors," expressed as a first stage, include training of disciples in the professional knowledge, the qur'an, reading and writing, turkish language, mathematics and in the futuwwa as nature of the organization's constitution. “the sect door” as the second stage, involves the highest level of professional knowledge. this stage also includes teaching, knowledge of mysticism, music, arabic, persian and separate military training. at the third stage, as named “trick at the door”, rank of the sheikh is attained, who believes in god, soulnessness, deep moral a. mamuti an essay on economic values of akhism epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [240] training and service to the community. the main purpose, as described “in order, to truth” in the philosophy of akhism, is to be close to god. similarly the education system attempts to realize this goal, because, people will be able to reach “a perfect human being” as a result of such an education system. just like in futuwwa, which can be expressed as ahism’s constitution, akhism depends on nine grades system. degrees that are relevant to the akhism are as follows: valiant, assistant, apprentice, foreman (journeyman), master, akhi, caliph, (khalifa), sheikh, sheikhulsheikh (well-ul meşayıh). valiant and assistant at the first two phases make the preparation of the introduction to akhism organization. the third stage, “apprenticeship”, represents the phase of admission to the organization. other phases that consist of journeyman, master, akhi, khalifa, sheikh and well-ul meģayıh degrees, reflect the ratings mainly of professional administrative degrees. the transition from one phase to another averaged 1000 days, which requires a period of nearly three years. but it is possible to shorten and prolong this period according to the individual skills (öztürk, 1993; 4). during the late medieval and early modern periods virtually every state in the old world had to address a common range of economic problems. the most basic of these problems were related directly to the maintenance of the states. the provisioning of the capital city, the armed forces, and to a lesser extent other urban areas, taxation, support and regulation of long-distance trade, and maintaining a steady supply of money were amongst the leading concerns of the economic policy. even though the capacity of states to deal with these economic problems was initially quite limited, important changes took place during these centuries in the capacities, institutional equipment and even the nature of governments. according to charles (1975) these changes were coupled with a corresponding transformation of the scope and effectiveness of government intervention in the economic affairs. it was precisely this effort to build the organizations and institutions necessary for the detection of these policy goals that led to appearance of more powerful state apparatuses in certain parts of europe and asia. while designing the economic system, the main aim of capitalism is the a. mamuti an essay on economic values of akhism epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [241] maximization of the profit, whereas, the aim of the economic approach of akhism system has been to maximize the social benefits in contrast to the maximization of the profit (ġimģek, 2002; 133). akhism organization that aims at the societal benefit is a civil organization that is often founded by tradesmen and craftsmen. akhism as an organization directly affects the economical life of the society. the functions of the akhism organization in comparison to the equivalent organizations today are quite similar. it is possible to arrange them in order as follows: commerce of industry and chambers aims at solving the industrial and business problems; unions of labor and employees regulate labor and employee relations; competition authority prevents the monopoly; bodies of goods and service standards protect consumers by controls of the quality of goods and services. therefore, akhism organization has carried out similar mission and had similar structure as many modern organizations. actually, akhism principles and business system made significant contribution towards socio-economic flourishing of the ottoman empire. remarkably different results were reached about the relationship between economic growth and social capital by many empirical studies in the recent years. in this regard, putnam (putnam, 1995) found social capital to be effective, on the fall of the crime rates, governments to work more efficiently and to reduce corruption. fukuyama (2000) identified that the cost of the transactions decreased due to the operations related to trust. coleman (1998) identified that success increased in education. wilkinson (1996) identified correction of the income distribution and whitley (2000) identified acceleration of the economic growth that has been established by the positive effects of the social capital. apparently, an internal social conflict in less developed countries is greater in comparison to developed countries that managed to secure social peace and harmony. actually, the economic and political success is closely related to the establishment of the social peace and harmony. it is necessary to analyze the economic, social and cultural factors, which create social capital that is one of the conditions for economic development. in this regard, moral structure, accumulation of social a. mamuti an essay on economic values of akhism epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [242] capital and developed level of interpersonal relations among the people and institutions was clearly envisioned by akhism organization. akhism encourages its followers within organizational unit to emphasize the social peace and to work towards the establishment of trustworthy environment in the society. in this regard, akhism teaches its followers moral values that are inevitable for building social peace and trust. akhism values and social norms include: integrity, generosity, hospitality, tolerance, altruism, respect for people, solidarity, justice, conscience, freedom, equality, humility, living for people, being the devout, having sense of shame, not lying, not drinking, not having adultery and having abstinence (gürata, 1975; 81). the solidarity, tolerance and love in a country depend on the respect of the social traditions, shared values, culture, norms and social moral rules. in the periods during which akhism was taking much more active role in anatolia the right to a fair distribution of income was achieved and thus this laid the foundations of national unity. this peace and prosperity experienced in anatolia also found an echo in the west (demir, 2009). therefore, the social capital concept that is the subject of current economic literature left a mark hundreds of years ago in ottoman turkish society, with the akhi organization (teaschner, 1953; 5). in today’s world, production of harmful products and services for artificial needs are often created by commercialists with the aim to maximize only profit, which are unhealthy and harmful for the individual and the society. excessive emphasis on commercialism caused an environmental crisis and many economic and social problems that threatened the health of the individuals and the society. in contrast, while akhism organization encourages to work and produce at every opportunity, issues of what is produced, how and how much is produced has been subject of the continuous control. production has been evaluated as a function of necessary and lawful requirements according to the akhism teachings. therefore production and trade of goods and services that are non lawful and not necessary are often prohibited. in this context, aim of production in the organization of akhism is not to make excessive profits but to meet the essential needs of the society, to produce high quality and aesthetic products (ġimģek, 2002;134). in this regard, an a. mamuti an essay on economic values of akhism epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [243] economic activity in the akhism organization is based on the moral values. production and trade of goods and services, which were produced illegally, in non-moral ways, and that may be harmful to human, were prohibited. the akhism organization left a mark in the ottoman-turkish community due to its teaching of arts at the workbench and manners in the lodges to its members from the anatolian seljuk state until in the 18 th century. the increasing of non-muslim subjects that lived in the ottoman empire created the necessity of collaboration among people in various religions. as a result, “lonca system” and later “gedik system” were established. that was in the nature of monopolies and without discrimination of religion difference. it was carrying a continuation character of the akhism organization. the turkish word gedik means a monopoly and a privilege. the people who were holders of gedik had guarantee that others cannot do their job, and also had the privilege to use the rights in writing the charter or bill given by the state. this style of trade and artistry career continued until 1860 (pamuk, 1990; 58). akhism organization, which has been functioning successfully for around 630 years, from the last periods of seljuk empire until the last years of the ottoman empire, has been affective to the anatolian turkish society in the areas of art, trade and economics. akhism organization also showed the effects at every stage of life of the community. akhism organization has made very important contributions in economics, social and military aspects of the ottoman empire. there are also claims that akhism took an active role across the three continents of the ottoman empire. besides, this system has brought the solution to the most important problems of today's world such as inequitable income distribution, sale of the fraudulent goods, corruption, bribery and poverty issues, with a higher moral level and comprehensive education system. akhism organization was a professional non-governmental organization that had an aim to educate a society in advanced moral principles. akhism is a strong corporate structure, based on masterapprentice relationship and comprehensive education system, unlimited obedience-based on the elders. also it is an organization that had the purpose to train conscious people who are qualified in responsible way a. mamuti an essay on economic values of akhism epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [244] towards both the community and the state. akhism as the system aims to primarily educate and to produce a high moral person rather than extremely rich person. such a person should achieve the success in the economic, political and military areas. finally, by using educational tools it can construct sincere and trustworthy social relations. a. mamuti an essay on economic values of akhism epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [245] references anadol, cemal 1991. “akhism culture and fütüvvetnameler in the turkish-islamic civilization,” ministry of culture publications, ankara. barro, robert j. 1992. ed. jakson hole, “human capital and economic growth”, policies for long-run economic growth, federal reserve bank of kansas city cahen, claude. 1986. “about first ahi”, (trnsl., m. öztürk), belleten, p.197, agust. 1986. coleman, j. 1998. “social capital in the creation of human capital”, american journal of sociology, 94 supplement pp. 95-120, university of chicago. çagatay, neset. 1974. “the akhism as an turkish institution”, ankara. çagatay, neset. 1989. “the akhism as an turkish institution”, ankara. çagatay, neset. 1990. “what is akhism?, folk culture research department of the ministry of culture publications, no:137, ankara. demgr, galip. 1993. “akhism in the past and present and consumer protection relation”, journal of standard. dogan, mehmet. 1973. “ottoman empire, peak of the turk islam composition”, journal of movement, number. 89. ekinci, yusuf. 1989. “ahi and vocational education”, ministry of education publications”, no: 62, scientific and cultural works series, no.132. ekinci, yusuf. 1991. “ahilik ve esnaf ahlakı”, standart dergisi, number, 350. fukuyama, f. 2000. “trust, social virtues and the creation of prosperity”, gurata, m. 1975. “forgotten traditions and guilds”, ankara. karagul, mehmet. (2002), “the role of human capital in the economic development, and size of turkey”, afyon kocatepe university publications no: 37, afyon. kats, lawrence f. 1992. ed. jakson hole, “commentary: human capital and economic growth”, policies for long-run economic growth, federal reserve bank of kansas city. a. mamuti an essay on economic values of akhism epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [246] kazanci, ziya. 1987. “ihtisap organization in the ottomans”, victor printing, istanbul. kozak, e. 1984. “according to ibn khaldun the society and the economics”, spring publications, istanbul. naganci, gükrü. (2002), “ottoman economic mentality”, okumus man publishing, istanbul. özturk, ibrahim. 1993. “akhism”, journal of akhism road, number, 84. oecd. 2001.the well-being of nations, the role of human and social capital, pp. 41, 43 ,45. putnam, r. 1995. bowling alone – the collapse and revival of american community, new york. sevgenc, necdet. 1978. “socio-economic structure in the ottoman empire 1”, publisher kutsun, istanbul. taeschner, franz. 1954. “organization of generosity the islamic medieval age”, journal of faculty economics, vol. xv, no: iiv. tatar, taner and dönmez, mehmet. 2008. “ahi organization the framework of relationship between mindset and the economic”, research in the eastern anatolia region. ürkdogan, orhan. 1988. sociology of social movements, ankara. ülgener, s. “mentality and religion: islamic mysticism and the economics ethics in the thawing cycle”, der publication, istanbul. ünver, a.s. 1969. “european impressions, three centuries ago a officially registered”, approval publications, ankara. weber, max. 1993. “sociology articles” whiteley, p. f. 2000. “economic growth and social capital”, political studies, vol. 48. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 endgame: a series of endings sara setayesh * abstract samuel beckett's popular play endgame, depicts a prison-like room with two windows that show a dead universe and a "corpsed world". throughout his play, beckett uses ideas, symbols, objects, and actions that reflect an ending. in endgame the characters cannot choose; it seems that everything is coming to an end and they can do nothing about it; they have to accept it. the play's world is devoid of meaning, warmth, humor and all beautiful things. in most of his works beckett shows that human faculties are deteriorating and endgame is no exception. hamm and clov are not mobile; hamm cannot stand and clov just moves in a limited way. nagg and nell are confined in a dustbin totally without action and mobility. hamm's chronicle is an unfinished one and one can generalize it to all beckett's works as they avoid closure. in fact the play starts from the point where it's "nearly finished" and it ends the same. keywords: beckett, endgame, human faculties and ending * corresponding author: sara setayesh, shiraz university, iran, e-mail: setayesh.1214@yahoo.com mailto:setayesh.1214@yahoo.com s. setayesh endgame: a series of endings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [152] samuel beckett's popular play endgame, which was written in 1958, depicts a prison-like room with two windows that show a dead universe and a "corpsed world". throughout his play, beckett uses ideas, symbols, objects, and actions that reflect an ending. kennedy believes that the word "finished" with which the play begins suggests the idea of ending and it implies the ending of a game of chess, a story, a life, or a relationship (48). he also states that the audience is introduced to the last moments of an illness or the last scenes of a play as clov utters these words, "finished, nearly finished" (48). in endgame the characters cannot choose; it seems that everything is coming to an end and they can do nothing about it; they have to accept it. whenever hamm wishes to do something it just happens in his own imagination; in esslin's words "man is no longer asserting a position, but enduring a fate"(114). the play's world is devoid of meaning, warmth, humor and all beautiful things. hamm is a lonely creature in a bare room and he is hardly able to interact with his servant clov. the characters as esslin states try to fill the time with memories of the past, minimal speech and even inaction (159). azarmi compares the condition of the absurd man to that of a swan at the time of death. he declares that some days before his death, the swan goes to a hidden place in a swamp and starts to sing his last song (53-54). one can see this melancholic mood in endgame: hamm and clov are alone and no signs of living creatures are seen; they are absurd men in an absurd world waiting for things to be finished. in most of his works beckett shows that human faculties are deteriorating and endgame is no exception. hamm and clov are not mobile; hamm cannot stand and clov just moves in a limited way. nagg and nell are confined in a dustbin totally without action and mobility. hamm is sitting motionless in a wheelchair and this implies an ending. kennedy believes that although hamm seems to be a victim, a motionless invalid, but he is a master as well. according to kennedy it seems that hamm has a choice to die or not to die:"… it's time it ended….and yet i hesitate… to end" (48). according to kennedy hamm has a dual role: "the sick man of comedy" or "the dying king of tragedy" (48). one can come across many instances of pain that show that things are coming to an ending. hamm's movements are limited to the cell-like s. setayesh endgame: a series of endings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [153] room and even at the end of the play he is motionless. he also suffers loss of vision: "it seems they've {eyes'} gone all white" (3). hamm feels a big sore inside his breast and even his dog lacks a leg. since hamm as a man is coming to an end it seems that all other things are also deteriorating. the characters all show a kind of decay and their ending is emphasized by their physical inability. nagg has lost his tooth. nell and nagg's sight has failed and they can hardly see each other. their hearing has failed, too. they have had an accident and have lost their shanks. they are both cold and freezing. moreover their son, hamm, cannot sleep:' if i could sleep i might make love" (8). clov takes nell's hands and says that she has no pulse. clov's vision is also deteriorating; he has pains in his legs and he thinks that soon he will not be able to think anymore. nature and the living creatures have also reached the end of the line. the images that clov gives of the outer world are all bleak: the zero vision, the dead world, the leaden waves and the grey light. every single living thing seems to be dying like the rat in the kitchen. hamm wants to hear the sea and so asks clov to open the window but clov claims that he cannot hear it. "there are no more navigators," says hamm and so the sea is calm (28). the outside world is dead:" outside of here it's death," and the ending is so close that hamm believes that if clov leaves him, he will be dead too (30). "zero" is what clov thinks of the outside world. it won't rain anymore. "there's no more nature" states clov. the seeds that clov has planted did not sprout and clov believes that "they'll never sprout." (6). the weather is as usual just like the time. the light is sunk. there are no gulls. nothing is on the horizon, the waves are lead and the sun is zero. it is not night but it is grey:" light black. from pole to pole"(14). all these things seems to be a "… farce, day after day" (14). hamm wonders whether there are still fleas and clov suggests that he has one. hamm's story is about a mad man who thinks that the end of world has come:" all he had seen was ashes" (19). hamm says, "the whole place stinks of corpses" and clov adds," the whole universe" (20). while telling his story hamm says," …the sun was sinking down …among the dead… it was a howling day… a hundred by the s. setayesh endgame: a series of endings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [154] anemometer. the wind was tearing up the dead pines and sweeping them…away" (22). he also calls the day bitter, dry and zero. any sign of living makes them surprised since hamm wonders whether there are still rats. the world is stripped of order as clov says," i love order…a world when all would be silent and still and each thing in its last place" (24). the word" last" also implies his desire for an ending. it seems that the seasonal cycle has stopped as the weather is as usual. esslin argues that the endgame may imply an ending for hamm (133). hamm is preparing to face death and his ending enables clov to leave his master. as the curtain falls," the old ego dies," writes esslin, "and the new is about to emerge." (133). when hamm is ready to die the parents have already died. hamm's fondness of the madman who thinks that the end of world has come shows his own desire for death and an ending. hamm repeatedly asks:" is it not time for my painkiller? " (20). it shows that he is waiting for an ending ; maybe one that soothes his pains and aches and makes him relieved but clov's answer to his question is "no"; time is passing very slowly and so is torturous. hamm's desire to die is also shown as he says "me to play… ah let's get it over "; in fact this is an endgame (29-30). hamm is surprised to see clov returning to the room:" what? neither gone nor dead?" (30). they are both waiting for the game to be ended "i want to sing … let's stop …i'm tired of our going on, very tired," (32). hamm agrees with clov that they stop playing:" then let it end,"(32). hamm prepares himself for his last soliloquy; he equates existence with dying suggesting that dying is the result or the ending of existence; when clov claims to see a small boy hamm states:" if he exists he'll die there or he'll come here"(33). hamm also states: "it's the end clov. we've come to the end. i don't need you anymore" (33). clov feels "too old, and too far, to form new habits"(34). hence he wishes to end it. at the very beginning hamm states: " … it's time it ended, in the shelter, too" (2). but actually he hesitates to end and this hesitation continues even after the curtains fall. hamm and clov think that they have had enough of something but they do not know what it really is. ending and dying is both accepted and expected: hamm threatens clov:" i'll give you nothing more to eat";" s. setayesh endgame: a series of endings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [155] then we'll die" is clov's simple answer (3). hamm waiting for the end asks nagg and nell to be quiet:" have you not finished? will you never finish? will this never finish? "(10). before dying hamm predicts a dark ending for clov," one day you'll be blind like me… infinite emptiness will be around you" (15-16). hamm is so tired of the whole situation that he begs clov to end everything, "why don't you finish us?" it seems that hamm is a writer. when his story is finished clov inquires whether he will make up another but hamm feels," …rather drained. the prolonged creative effort" (26). an inevitable slowing down toward an ending is stated by hamm,' …we change! we lose our hair, our teeth! our bloom! our ideals!" (5). as a sign of ending the characters do not seem to have a close relationship with each other. it seems that hamm and clov are father and son. moreover hamm has a father and a mother although they are passive in their ashbins. but it seems that it is not a close-knit family. hamm prepares himself for death; clov is ready to leave and it sounds as though nagg and nell are dead. family disintegration is evident as clov does not like hamm anymore and hamm continuously curses his parents. as things are coming to an end, a spirit of fear and uncertainty pervade the characters' world. kennedy compares the small room to hamm's kingdom that is threatened by a flea that may reproduce (22). hamm's kingdom is "corpsed" and according to kennedy the characters strongly resist any sign of life like the flea or the rat and they seem to be frightened by them (51). he also asserts that the sudden appearance of a boy at the end is feared and regarded as a threat to an expected ending (52). in spite of the fact that the play makes reference to an ending, there is an element of doubt about this ending implied by hamm's nostalgic view of the past and the characters' reference to beautiful images of nature. clov repeatedly states that he wants to leave hamm but he does not; it seems that they both desire and fear the ending. future is considered as a veiled threat and as esslin says it is "at once terrible and fated" (115). present is fading out as it is shadowed by an uncertain future s. setayesh endgame: a series of endings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [156] spiritual despair is another sign of an ending. kennedy believes that the characters are not waiting for future and they do not expect it (23). the act of worship is parodied by hamm. hamm, clov and nagg are unable to pray to "the old father-god" (135). so hamm curses god as if he does not exist. it seems that at the end this old god is replaced by the small boy. just like all other things, love is coming to an end and sadism and hatred take love's place. clov is not able to love hamm and kennedy notes that love is mocked as hamm says: "get out of here and love one another. lick your neighbor as yourself" (51). hamm curses his father by calling him "accursed progenitor" and it seems as if someone has put a curse on the world that is moving down to an ending. their relationship and their dialogue show that clov and hamm have a love – hate relationship with each other and at last their relationship according to kennedy comes to an end by clov's leaving hamm (54). although clov acts as if he is a servant or even a nurse to hamm sometimes in kennedy's words this tenderness borders on sadism (54). reference to past events shows hamm and clov's long-running relationship is coming to an end and at times hamm and clov are so cold toward each other. absence of love or at least the inability to love is at the core of all kinds of relationships in the play: the relationship between a master and his servant, a father and his son, and between the two lovers, nagg and nell. esslin asserts that hamm is a short form of hammer and the names of other characters mean nail in other languages: clov is like clou in french, nell is similar to the italian nello, and nagg is like nagel in german (50). all other characters are being hammered by the sharptongued hamm. he orders clov to do things for him and pitilessly asks clov to shut his parents in their dustbins. hamm and clov's melancholic mood is shown when clov denies having even an instant of happiness. clov resists satisfying hamm's emotional needs: he won't kiss him, nor touch him. they do not even feel like laughing. nell believes" nothing is funnier than unhappiness." (8). the funny story that always made nell laugh does not cheer him up anymore. there is not true love between them; hamm keeps clov as, "there's no one else", "there's nowhere else" (3). s. setayesh endgame: a series of endings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [157] ending of communication is another element in a chain of endings and there is a feeble attempt at communication throughout the play. kennedy states in some parts the language and dialogue is so simple and even is reduced to one word (47); hamm soliloquizes several times throughout the play and in all there is a breakdown in communication. the whole play is about ending and as a result in his soliloquy hamm tells the story of a mad man who thinks that the end of the world has come and in kennedy's words it becomes an, "end-story within end-story (50). hamm tries to tell his story to somebody but clov is reluctant to listen to it. hamm feels the need of communication; he says to clov,' you haven't much conversation all of a sudden. do you not feel well?" (28). symbolic actions in the play echo an ending. kennedy believes that hamm is like a king in tragedy that little by little comes to an end by throwing away his symbols of power like the dog and the whistle (62). it is satiric that clov repeatedly says:" i have things to do "but actually there is nothing to do; the characters fail in their attempt to leave the place or even to cry so action gives way to inaction. hamm discards all his possessions and he wants to be alone; he does not want a companion as he says to clov that he does not need him anymore. clov is tired of obeying hamm's orders and he does not spring to action as he used to; he expresses his dissatisfaction, "if i could kill him i'd die happy" (12) and "soon i won't do it anymore" (18). kennedy emphasizes the ending of meaning besides other possible endings (52). their condition is so absurd that clov laughs at the idea of him and hamm beginning to mean something. hamm wonders, "we're not beginning to … to… mean something?" and clov ridicules the idea, "mean something! you and i mean something!" (14). one source states that hamm is the king being taken to "check mate" (kennedy 53); the implication being that the whole play is about the ending of a game of chess. esslin compares hamm and clov's movements to those of a game of chess (133). they are motionless and at times they make some slight movements. hamm wants to be in the center as in esslin's words he wants to control and manipulate clov; he wants to be master (133). reference to certain objects raises the s. setayesh endgame: a series of endings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [158] possibility of an ending. kennedy suggests that the use of bicycles is itself an indication of an ending because bicycles can fall apart just like mind and body (56). hamm is freezing and he asks for a rug but "there are no more rugs" (28). the time for painkillers finally comes but," there is no more painkiller (30). hamm wants clov to put him in his coffin but" there are no more coffins" (32). the box of painkillers used to be full but now it is empty. as the play starts a whistle is hanging from hamm's neck and a rug is over his knees but at last there are no more rugs and he throws away the whistle among all other possessions such as the dog and the gaff. there are no more bicycle wheels, and there is no more pap for nagg. in all, not many objects are readily available but those that are present are like the alarm clock that is," fit to wake the dead!" (20). hamm expresses a desire to be unborn and to end the game; it shows his dissatisfaction with the idea of begetting and a desire to end it. according to kennedy, nagg, hamm and clov show three generations with the focus not on continuity but on "mistake of begetting" (58). the loveless relationship between nagg and hamm mirrors hamm and clov's sarcastic remarks and manners. it seems that as time slides into an ending, the curse of generating and reproduction passes from one generation to another. kennedy clearly demonstrates the link between begetting and an ending: nagg begat hamm who begat clov who will begat no one" (59). kennedy objects to the idea that the small boy at the end is a sign of hope; he stresses the fact that he is another sufferer coming to the world:" a potential procreator" and in turn, the repetition of the "endless cycle" (60). hamm calls nagg the," accursed progenitor… accursed fornicator" (5). hamm bitterly regrets being born and states, "you're on earth, there's no cure for that!"(22). hamm tells clov to be off and he says, "i'm trying. ever since i was whelped"; in fact he has been trying to resist regeneration (6). the stage direction and the setting show some sort of deterioration. there are a limited number of characters acting throughout the play and most of the time they are described as motionless with fixed gaze. clov describes the kitchen as, "ten feet by ten feet by ten feet" (2). s. setayesh endgame: a series of endings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [159] the stage is decorated with the bare essentials; the overall setting is a cell-like prison with two windows that,"…stinks of corpses" (20). another sign of an ending is frequent reference to time. hamm refers to the end of the day and the fact that it is coming to an end without having any fun: "…that's always the way at the end of the day" (6). time is moving toward an ending since according to kennedy the day that seems to be just begun is referred to as "the end of the day" and he also compares the ringing of the alarm clock to the bells of doomsday (49-50). he also considers hamm's desire for extinction and the effort to kill the last flee as other signs of the end of time (50). hamm cannot remember what yesterday is and there is also no future for him; the characters have no hope for future: "do you believe in the life to come?" says clov; "mine was always that" answers hamm (21). so esslin believes that without past and without any future the universe is meaningless and one cannot think of any progression but just deterioration (115). esslin adds that time has not stopped completely; time is moving very slowly since finally the time comes for hamm's tranquilizers:" it is slowing down towards its standstill "(159). according to the same writer the characters' life is like an evening and they are waiting for the night to come and then time will be stopped. time never comes to a certain ending, and in esslin's words the characters in this sense are "out of time" (160). as time moves toward an ending, it loses its direction and according to esslin the characters are, "on the uncrossable threshold of infinity" (160). hamm's and clov's conversation shows an end to time's progression;" what time is it?" says hamm," the same as usual" answers clov (3). memories are wiped out and hamm thinks,"…it's a day like any other day" (19). time has lost its meaning; hamm says:' …time was never and time is over, reckoning closed and story ended" (35). he remembers a time when clov loved him but clov is surprised: "once!" (4). in the play's world nothing is familiar; they cannot remember things clearly. it seems that this is the first time that they are hearing about the objects of the outer world and they become surprised. hamm cannot even remember what yesterday means: "yesterday! what does that mean? yesterday!" (19). the slow movement of time makes clov thinks that s. setayesh endgame: a series of endings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [160] yesterday was: "…that bloody awful day, long ago," (19). the gradual, merciless and the inevitable movement of time toward an ending as well as the absurd condition of characters is stated by hamm :" moment upon moment , pattering down… and all lifelong you wait for that to mount up to a life… i was never there… absent always. it all happened without me," (29-31). hamm's journey is limited to that confined room and this repeated cycle shows the ending. as to the nature of the ending one can say that there is a circular movement of time, something like a life cycle; hamm believes, "the end is in the beginning and yet you go on" and he also asserts, "perhaps i could go on with my story, end it and begin another," (29). it shows that there is a torturous slowdown toward an ending that is no better than the beginning; hamm also describes the ending as;" …the old shelter. alone against the silence and …the stillness.", "it will be all over with sound and motion, all over and done with," (29). although it is difficult to put an accurate interpretation on the play, kennedy believes that the play's message is, "the ending is an endless process," (48). he adds that "no more" is the key phrase in the play that implies the ending of things (51). the ending excludes the possibility of finding comfort. there are hints that a new life is going to begin or the cycle is going to be repeated. the curtain falls with hamm preparing to die and clov deciding to leave but esslin believes that it is very likely that the curtain rises and everything will be repeated again. he suggests that the characters will be just as they have always been, "only about to die or leave" (160). ruby cohn in the introduction of his book states that hamm's chronicle is an unfinished one and he generalizes it to all beckett's works as they avoid closure (18). he believes that in fact the play starts from the point where it's "nearly finished" and it ends the same (1). s. setayesh endgame: a series of endings epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [161] references aziz azarmi, ahmad. (1972). the theater of the absurd: a study of communication. tehran university press. cohn, ruby. (1987). waiting for godot: a selection of critical essays. the macmillan press ltd. esslin, martin. (1965). samuel beckett: a collection of critical essays. prentice-hall, inc. kennedy, andrew k. (1991). introductory critical studies: samuel beckett. cambridge university press. introduction epiphany: vol. 5, no. 1, 2012 issn 1840-3719 creating the past, and still counting the losses: evaluating narrative of the nigerian civil war in buchi emecheta’s destination biafra niyi akingbe * abstract buchi emecheta‟s destination biafra chronicles happenings of the nigerian civil war. the criticism in the novel is directed at the greed, corruption and sadism of many of the protagonists on all sides which suitably demonstrates the illogicality of seeking to explain the war. this paper articulates how emecheta‟s destination biafra brings new perspectives to bear upon a significant aspect of nigerian history that has been dominated by one segment of society. in this particular case, interpretations of the nigerian civil war, hitherto controlled by men, are moderated by an essentially female account. the paper historicizes the trauma and scars borne by women and children during the war, focusing mainly on how the war is stripped of the glamour which masculinist accounts often endow it with, and how this is seen in all its senselessness and brutality. just as the belligerents fight over resources and territory, so are accounts of what took place during the conflict being fought over between those who prosecuted it and those who were its victims. keywords: creating the past, counting the losses, nigerian civil war, evaluating, narrative * corresponding author: niyi akingbe, department of english, joseph ayo babalola university, ikeji arakeji, osun state, nigeria, e-mail: nakingbe@yahoo.com mailto:nakingbe@yahoo.com n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [32] introduction in destination biafra, buchi emecheta‟s ambitious novel of the nigerian civil war, engrained stereotypes of women are interrogated. by choosing to focus on civil war, emecheta seeks to deconstruct the masculinist assumptions that are inherent in the unquestioned notion of a “fratricidal” conflict in which women and children constitute no more than collateral damage. her outrage then, is not just about the horror and waste of war, but is more fundamentally directed against the testosterone-driven political struggles that make it inevitable. this is in fulfillment of the observation of the celebrated south african novelist and critic, nadine gordimer, who observes that, „writers choose their plots, characters and literary styles; their themes choose them….in this sense, the writer is the voice of the people beyond any glib political connotations of the phrase.‟(1) consequently, an important aspect of nigeria‟s turbulent history therefore becomes a resource for constructing a discourse in destination biafra. this paper seeks to examine how emecheta‟s position as a female writer provides her a privileged point from which to view how the nigerian civil war between 1967-1970, affected women and children in destination biafra. through abundant use of metaphors, allegory and allusive names, the writer demands a second-level reading of the novel as both historical and political statements on an important segment of nigeria‟s political history. my objective in this essay is not only to highlight the use of history in the narrative of emecheta‟s destination biafra, but also to discuss the significance of such use of history in order to establish artistic concern of emecheta as it impinges on the dehumanization of her female characters in the novel. africa‟s most populous nation, nigeria, like many other independent countries in africa with the exception of ethiopia, are products of imperialism and colonialism, its culturally variegated ethnic groupings locked into a nationstate they had had no part in designing. before the european conquest, nigeria was home to an estimated three hundred ethnic groups of sometimes widely differing languages and systems of internal rule. although its constituents had traded and often n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [33] lived among each other for centuries, the land of nigeria had never existed as one political unit. the peoples gathered within its borders had different cultures and stood at very unequal levels of development, a state of affairs that once prompted the yoruba nationalist leader obafemi awolowo to describe nigeria as a „mere geographical expression‟ (maier,7-8). although nigeria became an independent nation in 1960, in the mid to late 1960s, disillusionment gradually crept in to reflect the sense of dismay with corruption and ethnic chauvinism perpetrated by the first generation crop of nigerian politicians, this is represented in chinua achebe‟s a man of the people (1966), a foremost post-independence critical novel, which condemns corruption in nigerian socio-political landscape. in the novel, achebe paints an uncompromisingly scathing portrait of the first generation of nigeria‟s politicians in the figure of the corrupt chief nanga, whose patronage of the young protagonist, odili samalu, exposes him to the temptations of post-independence nigeria political life. this pervading tone of disillusionment with corruption and dismay performance of the politicians developed into discord between various ethnic groupings, internal struggles, and to a number of violent civil conflicts which eventually snowballed into the nigerian civil war of 1967-70. the attempt to build a novel about nigeria‟s political imbalance which led to the historic civil war on the basis of memory has been shown to be irresistible challenge and a compelling necessity for many nigerian civil war novelists. there seems to be a palpable obsession to set down, with or without the help of fiction, the collection of memories that form the writer‟s idea of the civil war, perhaps in an attempt to reconcile both past and present. in one of the recent studies of books on the nigerian civil war, craig mcluckie has observed that between 1970 and 1990 more than „„twenty-nine works have been written about the civil war. moreover, ten autobiographies have also been identified.‟‟ (9) this includes early texts, such as s.o. mezu‟s behind the rising sun(1971),chinua achebe‟s girls at war(1972), kole omotoso‟s the combat(1972) and i.n.c.aniebo‟s the anonymity of sacrifice(1974),isidore okpewho‟s the last duty(1976), cyprian n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [34] ekwensi‟s survive the peace(1976) and divided we stand(1980) buchi emecheta‟s destination biafra(1982), eddie iroh‟s the siren in the night(1982), kalu okpi‟s biafra testament(1982), ossie enekwe‟s come thunder(1984), flora nwapa‟s wives at war(1984), elechi amadi‟s sunset in biafra(1978) and estrangement(1986),festus iyayi‟s heroes(1986),and wole soyinka‟s the man died(1979),season of anomy(1980)and madmen and specialists(1984). in the recent time, new titles have been added to the list: anthonia kalu‟s broken lives and other stories(2003), chimamanda ngozi adichie‟s half of the yellow sun(2006 ) and uzodinma iweala‟s beasts of no nation(2005). emecheta‟s novelistic concerns have stimulated feminism in nigerian literature. she has been able to articulate women‟s position in nigeria‟s social milieu by reconstructing the stereotypical perception of women as objects of procreation and being socially inferior to their male counterparts. some of her works include: in the ditch; second class citizen, the slave girl, the bride price, the family, head above water, the rape of shavi and the joys of motherhood. emecheta has also written two children‟s texts: the wrestling match and the moonlight bride. it is interesting to note that the central theme in most of emecheta‟s novels foreground economic exploitation and denial of opportunity of the female for the expressed benefit of the male, the bride price(1976) and the slave girl(1977) vividly explore this theme in details. emecheta has also interrogated, and reassesed identity crisis foisted upon women, especially the stereotypical portrayal of women as weak and vulnerable in male-authored literary works as evident in, chinua achebe‟s things fall apart(1957), arrow of god(1964) and elechi amadi‟s the concubine(1966).in these novels, emecheta has vehemently criticized the ostensible crafting of the female characters as weaklings and sex objects. alternatively, strong female characters have been created in in the ditch(1972),second-class citizen(1974),the bride price(1976) and the joys of motherhood(1979).in the joys of motherhood, for instance, emecheta portrayed a strong-willed character, ona, who prefers to live with agbadi as mistress rather than wife. emecheta‟s texts re-write earlier male texts by creating female characters who defy cultural barriers, and heroically struggle for survival and n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [35] subsequently make progress in the face of enormous odds placed in their way by a stiffling male-dominated social structure. „„like other earlier african women writers, her texts re-write earlier male texts. they also establish an intertexuality with these earlier women‟s texts, creating and adding to the distinctive tradition of african women‟s writing by direct allusion, and by extending and developing the radical new modes of representation these earlier texts embodied.‟‟(griffiths,300). however, emecheta‟s creation of weak male characters in her works: social misfits in in the ditch, vicious pa palagada in the slave girl, nnaife in joys of motherhood and francis in second class citizen portrayed as effeminate, insensitive and irresponsible heads of families, has attracted sharp criticism from critics. in the view of catherine acholonu, emecheta „„overstepped her bounds in her portrayal of male characters in exaggerated state of idiocy, irresponsibility and insensitivity (which) reduces the plausibility and reliability of her point of view.‟‟(acholonu, 13). an appraisal of nigeria’s historical-political trajectory buchi emecheta‟s destination biafra, eddie iroh‟s toads of war, flora nwapa‟s women at war and chimamanda ngozi adichie‟s half of a yellow sun are few nigerian war novels where women are present and at times play active roles. but emecheta‟s destination biafra is unique, in the sense that it chronicles untold tales of the nigerian civil war. these tales are untold because, while other nigerian war novels where women are involved are replete with accounts of mass deprivation and suffering during the three-year old conflict, but they do not describe them in the necessarily individual terms that is vital if the enormity of the conflict‟s trauma is to be properly understood. since a proper accounting of the war‟s moral cost is also dependent upon a clear identification and indictment of those whose ambition, arrogance and greed made such suffering both inevitable and unnecessary. at a superficial evaluation, the nigerian civil war is symptomatic of a supremacy tussle between general gowon and colonel ojukwu. but at a wider perception, the civil war reflects the divisions between the various ethnic groups carelessly yoked together in the colonial construction of nigeria. tension generated by the n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [36] political divisions among nigeria‟s ethnic groups especially between the hausa in the north, and the igbo in the south-east reached its apogee when major chukwuma nzeogwu kaduna staged 15 january 1966 coup. the coup was perceived by many as an igbo attempt to take over the country. six months later a counter coup was staged on 29 july 1966 by hausa officers, who installed general yakubu gowon as head of state. this led to riots in the north which resulted in to the massive killing of igbos. in 1967, the igbos, under the leadership of colonel ojukwu, attempted to secede as the republic of biafra, but was resisted by the hausa-led federal government. this led to a bloody civil war which lasted until 1970 with attendant hundreds of thousands of casualties. emecheta‟s destination biafra is a vibrant product of the nigerian war literature, which constitutes a major corpus of nigerian literature, and its significance has been evaluated in a question raised by chinyere nwahunanya: „„what is the place of nigerian war literature in the african political and literary experience?‟‟, the answer to this germane question seems to be embedded in an editorial remark of a harvest from tragedy: critical perspectives on nigerian civil war literature : in its re-creation and interpretation of history, nigerian war literature has enriched the existing body of historical writing from africa (,) especially historical fiction. in this way the writers have made literature continue to function as the mirror of society. in the process of mirroring society and criticizing its pitfalls, the war literature also serves as a compass for social redirection. (14) destination biafra revolves around debbie ogedemgbe, who started as a precocious young woman, a daughter of samuel ogedemgbe, nigeria‟s minister of finance. when the war broke out, she was sent on a government-approved mission to see chijioke abosi, as to persuade him to discontinue with his plans for secession. the various experiences she undergoes in her journey to the biafra expose her to the harsh realities of war in such a way that she is able to clearly see the posturing, insincerity and plain viciousness of the men who purport to be in charge. she is faced with the stark reality of the fact that women and children, who have no blame for the outbreak of war, are ironically its greatest casualties. women are raped, bodies are dismembered and vulnerable human beings n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [37] are made to face every form of degradation imaginable. as emecheta is at pains to point out, debbie experiences these things at first-hand: debbie heard the slap on her mother‟s face and it burned into all the nerve fibres of her body. she kicked out at one of the men holding her and heard him cry in pain. her punishment was that the men fell on her. she could make out the figure of the leader referred to as bale on top of her. then she knew it was somebody else, then another person.… she felt herself bleeding, though her head was still clear…. the ibo woman and stella ogedemgbe dug a shallow grave for the dead young mother and her two babies; the soldiers had cut her open and killed her unborn child, saying, “who knows, he might live to be another abosi.” (134-135) the serial violations of debbie and her mother, and the mutilation of the unnamed ibo woman by the militia is a measure of the extent to which emecheta‟s writing strives to discuss graphically the condition and status of women as perceived by their male counterparts in africa during political crises and civil wars: as objects to be pillaged, degraded and exploited, much like any other item of booty. the multiple rape of debbie and her mother, violently inscribed a condemnation of predatory masculinity within the novel‟s sociological evaluation .ostensibly, masculine power is devalued and repudiated. the graphic analysis of the scenario of the rape in the novel, is what ann marie adams has described as „„portions of the war that other narratives only gloss or allude to.‟‟(295) the agonies felt from the brutalisation of the women in the novel could arguably only be vividly captured by a woman writer whose membership of the same gender imbues her with the necessary insight needed to present the inner feelings of women in the light of their experiences from their point of view. this betrays popular persuasion of most female writers in their strive to change the status of women in the society, as succinctly opined by eldred durosimi jones: a significant development since independence has been the increasing importance of women writers and the consequent focus on women‟s situation in society, their pre-occupations with family and work, and their attempts to free themselves from the trammels of tradition. (1) the need to restore dignity of women is what has influenced emecheta‟s preoccupation with the recuperation of past history of the humiliation of n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [38] women in the novel, which in itself is a form of protest. by returning to the past, with all its pain and trauma, she is stating that the story of the nigerian civil war is incomplete if it does not accurately and honestly depict the victimisation, maltreatment and brutalisation of its most vulnerable victims. she demands vehemently that, in the narration of the condition and situation of women as an endangered species during the nigerian civil war, there must be no ruptures, no silences, and no fragmentation. as a significant event occurring in the past, it must be fully narrated within the present moment in such a way that there is no ambiguity, and by extension, no repression of the truth of what happened. the depiction of the grotesque brutality of women in the novel, can be seen as an attempt by emecheta to address the gendered bias of discourse on the war, as exemplified essentially in the novels written by male writers. the dialectics of historical narration are poignantly captured by iniobong i. uko: evidently, the coming of age of african literature is identifiable by the true and pragmatic feminisation of the literary vision as a way of correcting absurd female images in african literature and culture. here, the female explores the inner fibres of the androgynous ideal, thereby establishing and justifying the position of women. (82) this underscores the fact that only female writers could conveniently discuss and meaningfully analyse the physical stress and psychological trauma her fellow woman is subjected to. destination biafra recreates through fictionalisation of an actual occurrence the lopsidedness of power distribution at the attainment of independence in nigeria in 1960, and the way in which it aggravated the tensions and distrust which eventually led to the nigerian civil war. interestingly enough, although the primary focus of emecheta is on the consequences of the nigerian civil war, especially as it affected women and children, she also takes cognisance of the amoral manipulation of nigerian ethnic groups against one another by the british colonial authorities. nigerian history becomes the basis for reconstructing a discourse of nationalism away from the platitudes and insincerities n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [39] recounted in conventional histories. this resonates isabel allende‟s remark that „„in a novel we can give an illusory order to chaos. we can find the key to the labyrinth of history. we can make excursions into the past, to try to understand the present and dream the future. in a novel we can use everything: testimony ,chronicle, essay, fantasy, legend, poetry and other devices that might help us to decode the mysteries of our world and discover our true identity‟‟(45) in this manner, through her literary revision of activities in the short-lived biafra and nigeria itself, emecheta ultimately presents a portrait of the essentially ambiguous nature of nigeria‟s creation, and the vital necessity of clearly identifying who did what to whom during the most trying period of its postindependence history. unlike eddie iroh‟s the siren in the night (1982), which demands that the narrative of the war should strive to make „„an unbiased total assessment of the whole great tragedy.‟‟(hawley,18) iroh ostensibly asks that for any narrative of the biafran war to be taken serious, it must be mediated by the objective rendering of facts; and the war experience be presented as tragedy. though this iroh‟s prescription is idealistic, however in undertaken a seemingly objective narration of the nigerian civil war, emecheta links nigeria‟s history with personal history especially in the relationship of her main characters, saka mohmoh (gowon) and chijioke abosi (ojukwu).this is grounded in allegorical evaluation of abosi and mohmoh‟s wives inability to have children in the novel. while abosi‟s wife suffered repeated miscarriages, mohmoh‟s wife gives birth to a still born (193). this significantly implies that the death of a child signifies that a new nation can not be born: biafra is an abortive effort and the „new‟ nigeria, without its seceded peoples and under an abusive military regime, is monstrous and incomplete. biafra as a creative recollection with its utilisation of fictional names for nigeria‟s three main ethnic groups, destination biafra is anchored in creative recollection. the novel is based on debbie ogedemgbe‟s painful experiences which, in reality, acutally invite repression rather than remembrance. recollection, viewed from a postmodern perspective, always implicates loss or forgetting. even though emecheta interprets nigeria using different codes and from different positions, they are all overshadowed by a prevalent sense of loss. the author has acknowledged in the n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [40] foreword of the novel that she was not in nigeria when the civil war was fought, but participated in the students‟ demonstration against the war at trafalgar square in london at the time. however, her loss in the novel is demonstrated in her dedication of the novel to the memory of many relatives and friends who died in this war, especially “my eight-year old niece, buchi emecheta, who died of starvation, and her four-year old sister ndidi emecheta who died two days afterwards of the same biafran disease at the crisis refuge centre in ibuza” (vi). loss serves as the central metaphor for debbie‟s recollection and the central code to decipher her existence. destination biafra‟s narrative of the biafran secessionist enclave develops into a semiotic of loss for scores of people of igbo extraction who have been brutalized and traumatized, especially women and children who have anticipated that republic of biafra will provide the succor needed to actualize their humanity and dignity, but only for biafra to become short lived. the novel‟s “biafra narrative” is rooted in debbie‟s painful experiences on her way to, and in biafra. indeed, pain and suffering are central to debbie‟s recollection. consequently, the biafra narrative discloses itself as the despicable experience of futility and inexplicable suffering orchestrated by a deep-seated animosity between saka mohmoh and chijioke abosi. whose consequences were borne by hapless women and children like debbie, uzoma madako and the two nwoba boys. debbie‟s resolve not to agonise over biafra‟s problems is underlined at the end of the novel: there are two boys, the nwoba boys, and many other orphans that i am going to help bring up with my share of father‟s money. and there is my manuscript to publish. i shall tell those orphans the story of how a few ambitious soldiers from sandhurst tried to make their dream a reality. (258) for debbie, memory embodies loss or pain so that biafra narrative essentially requires concealing instead of unfolding. remembering inevitably entails pain and, eventually, desires for repression transform into a necessity of repression. debbie‟s experience of biafra is transfigured into a discourse of repression and her recollection of biafran experiences is translated into a narrative of loss. n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [41] memory as a motif of history is further reiterated by derrida, „„the memory we are considering here is not essentially oriented towards the past, toward a past present deemed to have really and previously existed. memory stays with traces in order to “preserve” them, but traces of a past that has never been present, traces which themselves never occupy the form of presence and always remain, as it were, to come – come from the future, from the to come.‟‟ (58) within the contemporary nigerian context, debbie‟s recollection of biafran experiences demonstrates more of a loss of memory rather than a recalling of the past. forgetting, paradoxically, becomes the key to memory. recollection radically alters itself in a creative process. “loss narrative” becomes the unconscious motif for the present remembrance, irretrievably lost beyond recall, made present only through a narrative that invites forgetting instead of remembering. debbie‟s reflection of biafra signifies nothing more than the loss of memories of vanished reality. the wanton killings, malnutrition of the children and the final destruction of biafra, further strengthen debbie‟s resolute decision to forget the memory of biafra, „„i see now that abosi and his likes are still colonised. they need to be decolonised. i am not like him, and a woman of africa. i am a daughter of nigeria and if she is in shame, i shall stay and mourn with her in shame.‟‟ (258) to debbie, a member of the itsekiri minority ethnic group, the doomed biafra is ironically the locus that defines her sense of reality. being a nigerian and a member of a minority group only characterises her marginal existence. recollection for debbie, uzoma madako along with her two surviving children and the two nwoba boys, reveals a process of negotiation with the past, constantly translating and revising the past into a narrative that grants reality to present situations. in a displaced context, these characters have constructed a biafra narrative for themselves and for one another. it is indeed ironic that towards the end of the novel the biafran soldiers who have been compelled to go to the midwest to sue for solidarity at all cost at the risk of their lives, are compelled to tell the truth that they no longer remember, and tell them only after they have lost memory, „„we are biafrans, ibos like you. his excellency abosi sent us to you. look at our uniforms. one woman n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [42] stepped boldly forward and said, biafra. what is biafra? you killed our man from this part, nwokolo; the nigerian soldiers came and killed what your soldiers left. we are ibuza people, but we now live in the bush, thanks to your abosi and your biafra.‟‟ (230) biafra, so to speak, is a mirage, a repository of history with haunting memories and extraordinary experiences. nigeria and biafra narratives in destination biafra, with its attendant lopsidedness in a power equation created by the colonialists, snowballed into a political quagmire that produced inordinate ambitions in the greedy and overambitious political leader that were thrown up in the journey to independence. it further degenerated into a theatre of war that imbued the egos of the nigerian and biafran leaders. a strong will to keep nigeria one even though forgotten to a certain extent, is what constitutes the locale of protest in the novel. thus, the loss narrative is transformed into an authoritative discourse. history as motif of narration the novel‟s complex rendering of remembrance and repudiation, of memory and amnesia underscores nigeria‟s complex stringing together of ethnic groups with incompatible differences, by the colonial authority. manifestations of such differences are crucially important to an understanding of the nature of narrative that goes on within destination biafra. the novel does not protest simply by inveighing against the atrocities pitiless leaders inflict on a helpless populace; it however contends that a nation that is so insensitive as to forget what it did to itself in the name of political unity is indeed in trouble. in the narrative of destination biafra is inscribed semiotics of the physical scars of war and violence which may heal, but those inflicted on the psyche of debbie, uzoma, her children, and the two nwoba boys may never be cured if nigerians choose not just to deliberately forget or downplay the moral failings that led to mass killings on a national scale. to put it another way, a country that fails to remember what it should remember, and forget what it should forget is in danger of reliving its nightmares all over again. this is a complicated form of protest: it apparently lacks the directness of the more common forms of protest that are a staple of n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [43] national life, but it is symbolic of the indirect agitations staged by nigerian expatriates like emecheta, who were helpless to do anything else, given their location in a country six thousand miles away from the conflict. by emphasising the ambivalent nature of remembering and forgetting, she demonstrates that the commitment needed to protest is not contingent upon how close or how distant one is to conflict and trauma, but how genuine one‟s attitude is. debbie is the scion of a well-connected and successful politician, one of those whose dilatoriness and ambition contributed significantly to the worsening of the impending tragedy, in fact. but she does not let this admittedly inescapable fact colour her moral response to the war; indeed, she regards herself as being in a particularly advantageous position to repair the damage done by her parents and their associates. in destination biafra, debbie ogedemgbe serves as emecheta‟s mouthpiece. unlike her creator who by force of circumstances is away from her homeland, debbie is fully involved in the issues, indeed more involved than most people. through debbie, the author is able to carefully trace the political history of nigeria over the decades. in debbie the boundaries between self and other are not clearly defined; in her, nigeria narrative is confronted and re-inscribed. she is forced to negotiate her position between conflicting sets of discourses: of gender, family, ethnicity, culture, history and nationality. in order to reach reconciliation, emecheta similarly has to come to terms with herself in relation to the historical situation she is protesting in destination biafra. debbie refuses to live a hyphenated experience orchestrated by her repeated rape in her determination to get to biafra to stop abosi from continuing with the biafran project. she manages to get to biafra by subverting the burden placed on her by her gender. debbie‟s courage in embarking on a mission to biafra underscores jean block‟s argument that, „„sexual identity means… the earning of a sense of self that includes a recognition of gender secure enough to permit the individual to manifest human qualities that our society… has labeled (manly).‟‟(2) on one hand, debbie resists the societal codification of her gender hegemonic narrative, and on the other hand, she rejects the maledominated notion that the army is an exclusive preservation of men by n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [44] enlisting in the army. in debbie is situated emecheta‟s protest against the distorted history of nigeria‟s past. emecheta‟s use of historical motif in the narrative of the nigerian civil war is aimed at providing historical material for analysing the deprivation, hunger, rape, torture and general social miasma suffered by both men and women during the war. the feminisation of debbie ogedemgbe, who is neither igbo nor hausa, but from the minority itsekiri, is to further underscore her condemnation of the political failings which led to the civil war and to demonstrate her fury at it. ogedemgbe‟s involvement in the civil war started when she enlisted in the nigerian army at the beginning of the war. debbie is somewhat close to abosi, the leader of the breakaway biafra. momoh, the nigerian head of state is convinced that debbie could use her friendship with abosi to persuade him to drop his determination to create the republic of biafra. debbie has her first experience of the pain and anguish of war when she and her mother were raped by the soldiers in spite of her protestation that she is also an officer of the nigerian army. at this juncture in the novel, protest is foregrounded in the transformation of debbie from a complacent oxford-educated daughter of a former minister of finance and one of the major casualties of the first military coup of january 1966. the enlistment of debbie in the nigeria army and the placement of the burden of negotiation on debbie, for peaceful resolution in the tension between abosi and momoh is informed by emecheta‟s feminist consciousness which seeks to deconstruct the stereotype that soldiering is mainly for men. accordingly, emecheta uses debbie as a bridge between men and women, between abosi and momoh; she is a kind of agent of change, a mediator who helps nigeria traverse the strange and uncertain frontiers of political crisis with its attendant challenges, prospect and opportunities. deconstructing stereotypical image of women in debbie‟s heroic movement from nigeria to biafra with its dangers and physical abuses, emecheta neutralises the stereotype of women being seen as “mothers” and “mistresses,” as well as the n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [45] seemingly irreconcilable fissure between women as the “weaker sex” and the struggle for survival. in so doing, emecheta unequivocally in destination biafra inscribes the importance of women in nation-building and national development. women‟s resilience is imbued by the capability to adapt to new situations and circumstances more easily and quickly than men. emecheta has been able to prove prima facie, in the image of debbie, a sacrosanct historical truth about the war, that women can demonstrate the courage needed to survive difficult conditions. grace okereke has aptly commented on women as a symbol of courage in destination biafra, „„by creating a self assertive, politically-informed heroine like debbie ogedemgbe, emecheta has successfully taken woman from the periphery of nigerian politics and made her an article of history …. nigerian woman and indeed, the african woman, emerges from the shadows of history to become herself a subject of history on whom depends the redemption of many lives and the restoration of peace to a nation.‟‟ (149) emecheta thus uses history to protest the ill-treatment of women by men and the need for society to embrace the significant role of women as harbingers of peace and justice. in the text, violence is centred mainly on women, depicting in vivid terms the rape and the torture they experience. the war narrative in the novel provides insights in two main ways: as a pretext to look at the past, at the political crisis created by the politicians who are predominantly male, and to revisit history. in the novel, debbie‟s narrative and her perception of the degradation of women during the civil war serve as a point of departure to step back and reflect on history, on the rapport between memory and history, and how history is shaped by a writer. this notion is further reiterated in the view of barbara w. tuchman, „„good fiction, even if it has nothing to do with fact, is usually founded on reality and perceives truth – often more truly than some historians. it is exactly this quality of perceiving truth, extracting it from irrelevant surroundings and conveying it to the reader or the viewer of a picture, which distinguishes the artist. what the artist has is an extra vision and an inner vision plus the ability to express it. he supplies a view or an understanding that the viewer or reader would not have gained without the aid of the artist‟s creative vision.‟‟ (46-47) n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [46] the characters in destination biafra are fictionalised. they are historical representations of members of the nigerian political class from the colonial administration to the first republic and during the civil war. for instance, mallam nguru kano is alhaji tafawa balewa. sardauna in real life is sir ahmadu bello; chief olusegun odumosu in real life is chief obafemi awolowo; chief durosaro, is chief s. l. akintola; dr. ozimba in real life is dr. nnamdi azikiwe; dr. eze in real life is dr. kingsley mbadiwe; brigadier ene onyemere is general j. t. u. aguiyiironsi; samuel ogedemgbe is chief omimi ejoor okotie-eboh; colonel oladapo is colonel adekunle fajuyi; captain john nwokolo is major nzeogwu kaduna ; colonel saka mohmoh is general yakubu gowon; colonel chijioke abosi is colonel chukwuemeka odumegwu ojukwu .these are historical figures who played outstanding roles in the history of post-independent nigeria. chinyere nwahunanya has explained the fictionalization of these characters as a negotiation between historicism and „imaginative creation‟(428). historically, these characters existed. though fictionalized, the events, situations and characters in the novel are grounded firmly in historical reference, but they do far more than simply convey an ahistorical truth about nigerian civil war. emecheta historicizes violence, depravity and suffering in the novel to expose the manifestation of political imbalance in nigeria. this underscores the notion, that anger, violence and threat of instability as prevalent in contemporary nigeria, are not inherent, innate nigerian characteristics; they are the direct result of years of colonial manipulation, ethinic chauvinism and military adventurism in nigerian political history. it is significant to note that emecheta is not primarily particular about dates, but relied strongly on nigeria‟s historical past to analyse the country‟s political trajectory. emecheta‟s technique resonates akachi ezeigbo‟s argument, that „„the duty of the historian is to record and interpret as objectively as humanly possible the events of the past. but the historical novelist cannot be so restricted for he is at liberty to interpret history to suit his purpose; he could dramatise and reconstruct moments in history which he considers important to the reshaping of his people‟s destiny. above all, his n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [47] interpretation of history is creative and does not have to comply strictly with historical reality.‟‟ (11) emecheta‟s employment of historical materials in destination biafra allows her to manipulate events, situations and characters as to represent the complexities of the past. such representation is fundamental, because it is a story based on the imagination of the writer. by employing nigeria‟s historical past, emecheta has unavoidably imposed herself on the past by inventing narratives that strive to explain what the “past really meant,” what the source-text “really says,” what the author‟s intentions “really were.” (600).this is in conformity with what edmund burke describes as, „„literary images and metaphors that produce a reaction of terror and sublimity‟‟ burke further interpreted such sublimity as that which „excite(s) the ideas of pain,and danger, that is to say whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror‟(131). emecheta in destination biafra interrogated the role of british and american governments in the political affair of nigeria. the mentioning of names like governor macdonald and captain alan grey, with their attendant meddlesomeness in the shaping of nigeria‟s political landscape is strongly criticised in the novel. the manipulation of the first republic‟s election in favour of the hausa-fulani elements by british colonial authorities is protested in the novel. the effects of this manipulation eventually threw up political problems which degenerated into the civil war. also, the role of grey, as a double agent who serves as an adviser to momoh, a friend to biafra‟s nwokolo, and whose advice was rebuffed by abosi, is strongly condemned by emecheta. grey, even in the thick of the war gets to biafra and is able to collate information on the strength of biafra. he is also portrayed in the novel as a male chauvinist and racist. this is vividly captured at the end of the novel, when he asks debbie to move with him to england, so that they could get married. debbie, however, tactically refuses. the nigerian civil war is a sad reminder of the historical reality in nigeria and its use in emecheta‟s destination biafra provides an alternative narrative, which hitherto had been dominated by the maleauthored works, including elechi amadi‟s sunset in biafra; cyprian n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [48] ekwensi‟s divided we stand; chukwuemeka ike‟s sunset at dawn and others. emecheta anchors her civil war narrative on the platform of feminism. even though the novel focuses on the psychological trauma of gender-specific suffering, the narrative achieves its success through the artistic presentation facilitated by the nexus between history and literature. as hugh webb succinctly asserts in his essay, „the african historical novel and the way forward‟, „„in the modern african historical novel the attempted dynamic rendering of these alternatives (by giving a total picture of a society in motion) is an important motivating formal principle. it is clear that african novelists proceed from this principle to create literary works that in their shaping and ordering, give significant insights into the potentialities of a fictional treatment of historical material‟‟(24). emecheta‟s historicization of the suffering of women during the war in conformity with webb‟s assertion, marks a watershed in the corpus of nigerian war literature. in as much as literature is not history, it can be history, as literature is endowed with the facilities to examine the past. history does not have the equivalence of the imaginative literature in the sense that, „„while the historian is preoccupied with actions and delineates the characters of men as much as he can deduce them from their actions, the historian is tellingly interested in the character as the novelist, but he can only comprehend of its existence when the character appears in the narrative.‟‟ (forster 55) the novelist gets more involved than the historian by employing imagination to articulate the inner feelings and thoughts of the character. george lukacs upholds this notion, when he posits that, „„what matters therefore, in the historical novel is not the re-telling of great historical events, but the poetic awakening of the people who figured in these events. what matters is that we should re-experience the social and human motives which led men to think, feel and act just as they did in historical reality‟‟(42). by appropriating appurtenances of history: allegorization of imbalance in distribution of political positions between northern and southern nigeria; political crisis shortly after independence in western nigeria; nigerian civil war of 1967-1970 and ethnic chauvinism among nigerian civilian/military ruling class, constitute semiotics of interplay of history and literature which emecheta n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [49] significantly harnessed to render a scintillating narrative of nigeria project in destination biafra. conclusion it is suffice to note that earlier literary works on the nigerian civil war were written by igbo writers, who largely presented the war from the biased and sentimental point of view of the biafran forces and their supporters, as demonstrated in mezu‟s behind the rising sun, ike‟s sunset at dawn , and munonye‟s a wreath for the maidens . nevertheless, a number of works written by non-igbo writers, like iyayi‟s heroes and okpewho‟s the last duty, with considerable level of objectivity, have also presented the psychological and human trauma experienced by the people from both divides of nigeria and biafra. emecheta‟s destination biafra, as a novel written by an igbo writer, has succeeded in presenting a somewhat fusion of events from nigeria‟s political history, significantly moderated by literary imagination, such presentation unobtrusively created a fair assessment of the nigerian civil war from the two divides. the adoption of debbie ogedemgbe a minority, as a mouthpiece in the novel, affords emecheta a convenient platform of neutrality and non-partisanship. one cannot but acknowledges emecheta‟s pioneering effort at evaluating and assessing from feminist point of view; the devaluation, brutality and transcendental psychological trauma suffered by women during the nigerian civil war, which were glossed over in male-authored war novels. emecheta in destination biafra, through the mediation of feminism and historicism has sufficiently articulated the most traumatic event of nigeria‟s post-independence history in order to retell it from a new perspective that would throw fresh insight on the self-destructive propensities of its people. from the authorial perspective, war is presented as an unmitigated and senseless tragedy, amplified by a relentless succession of gratuitous killings and maiming. n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [50] references achebe, chinua. a man of the people. new york: the john day company,1966. acholonu. catherine .‟buchi emecheta.‟ the guardian literary series, the guardian, saturday, january 25,1986 p.13. adams,marie, ann.‟‟it‟s a woman‟s war: engedering conflict in buchi emecheta‟s destination biafra‟‟. callaloo 24:1 (2001), 287-300. adichie, chimamanda, ngozi. half of the yellow sun. new york: knopf,2006. allende, isabel.‟‟writing as an act of hope‟‟ pp.41-63 in paths of resistance: the art and craft of the political novel, ed. william zinsser. boston: houghton mifflin,co.,1989. block, jeane h. sex role identity and ego development. london: jossey-bass publishers, 1984 burke, edmund. a philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful . ed . j.t . boulton. london ;routledge,1958. derrida, jacques. memoires:for paul de man.trans. cecile lindsay et al. new york:columbia up,1989:58 emecheta, buchi. destination biafra. london: allison and busby ltd. 1982. ezeigbo, akachi theodora. “history and the novel in africa” in ernest n. emenyonu (ed.) african literature and african historical experience, ibadan: heinemann, 1991:11. forster,e.m. aspects of the novel. harmondsworth, middlesex:penguin,1976. griffiths, gareth. african literature in: english east and west. london: pearson education, 2000. gordimer, nadine. the black interpreters. johannesburg: sprocas/ravan, 1973. hawley, john c.‟‟biafra as heritage and symbol:adichie,mbachu and iweala.‟‟research in african literature 39:2(2008).15-26. iroh, eddie.the siren in the night. london: heinemann ,1982. jones, eldred durosimi. „new trends and generations in african n. akingbe creating the past, and still counting the losses epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [51] literature.‟ african literature today, 20 (1996),1-2. lukacs, georg. the historical novel, new jersey: modern humanities press, 1962. maier,karl. this house has fallen. england: penguin books,2001. nwahunanya, chinyere. ‟the aesthetics of nigerian war fiction‟. fiction studies 37.3(1991). nwahunanya,chinyere. „introduction‟ ed. chinyere nwahunanya, a harvest from tragedy : critical perspectives on nigerian civil war literature, owerri: springfield,1997:14. mcluckie, craig w. nigerian civil war literature:seeking an „imagined community.‟ lewiston, ny: edwin mellen press,1990. okereke, grace. “the nigerian civil war and the female imagination” in helen chukwumema (ed.), feminism in african literature, enugu, lagos, abuja: new generation books, 1994: 149. tuchman, w. barbara. practising history, new york: ballantine books, 1981. uko, iniobong i.‟transcending the margins: new directions in women‟s writing‟ african literature today, 25(2006),82. webb, hugh.‟the african historical novel and the way forward‟, african literature today, 11(1980),24-38. introduction epiphany: vol. 5, no. 1, 2012 issn 1840-3719 binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” oscar c. labang * abstract the upsurge of discourses in gender and feminist studies and theories has garnered new levels of consciousness about the place of the woman in contemporary society. the contemporary african society has been greatly impacted by such discourses and this has led to new writings (poetry, fiction and non-fiction) that confront hitherto unchallenged definitions and positioning of women. negative representation of the female gender still continues to surface in contemporary african literary texts by males. this essay explores one of such texts by a cameroonian poet. it discusses various forms of female erasure by showing how binary structures in ezra lim‟s “womanhood” function to reveal profound ideas of female marginality. although the poem like many others in lim‟s collection titled woman (a collection of poems) has a deeply religious tone and mindset, it also conveys strong undercurrents of anti-female sentiments by continually placing the female in a peripheral position. lim conveys a certain reality (typical cameroonian cultural experience) from a particular viewpoint that shows women to exist purposely for the good of the men. lim‟s religious inclinations play a major role in his definition of the position of the woman in the binary equation. keywords: binarism, female erasure, religion, african poetry * corresponding author: oscar c. labang, school of professional studies, avila university, kansas city mo, e-mail: labang@miraclairepublishing.com mailto:labang@miraclairepublishing.com o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [19] the upsurge of discourses in gender and feminist studies and theories has garnered new levels of consciousness about the place of the woman in contemporary society. the contemporary african society has been greatly impacted by such discourses and this has led to new writings (poetry, fiction and non-fiction) that confront hitherto unchallenged definitions and positioning of women. negative representation of the female gender still continues to surface in contemporary african literary texts by males. this essay explores one of such texts by a cameroonian poet. it discusses various forms of female erasure by showing how binary structures in ezra lim‟s “womanhood” function to reveal profound ideas of female marginality. although the poem like many others in lim‟s collection titled woman (a collection of poems) has a deeply religious tone and mindset, it also conveys strong undercurrents of anti-female sentiments by continually placing the female in a peripheral position. lim conveys a certain reality (typical cameroonian cultural experience) from a particular viewpoint that shows women to exist purposely for the good of the men. lim‟s religious inclinations play a major role in his definition of the position of the woman in the binary equation between female and male. in the opinion of structuralist thinkers, a text is a closed order of signs whose meanings are determined by the interplay of its inner order. derrida takes a view that is contrary to such structuralist assumptions about texts and the formulation of meaning. to him the text is not a closed order and its meanings are determined through a relation with other texts intertextuality. in as much as derrida agrees with structuralists‟ ideas on the perception of reality through particular a matrix of meanings, he differs with the idea that the said matrix has a fixed order. derrida questions the idea of a stability, which arises from structuralist thinking that depends on structures that in turn build centres. derrida argues that western thought is based on the idea of a center that generates and guarantees meaning. the centre is often the source of power, the privileged in control and has as one of its defining functions to exclude or marginalize the margin „other'. using derrida‟s idea of a centre that seeks to marginalize or ignore the margin, this paper analysis the ways through which the speaker in the poem lays claims to the centre o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [20] while at the same time pushing the woman to the margin. this marginal experience generates from the viewing of people in terms of binary opposites. the male figure, in the poem, occupies the assumed centre and so defines and places the women insistently at the margin. while reading within the matrix of derrida‟s poststructuralist thinking, it is relevant to raise the postcolonial idea of the double burden or margin in the margin. the postcolonial female bear a double yoke – while the postcolonial world is considered the margin, the male in this male considers the woman another margin. lim situates the root of gender binarism in the biblical story of how the woman was created. it is understandable that as a deeply religious individual, the poet interprets almost everything from and in a biblical light. the bible therefore is a major source of inspiration for his interpretation of life and various existential operations. in the poem “womankind”, lim defines three categories of woman based on the biblical statement made by adam when he was first presented a woman “eve”. the first stanza of the poem is a direct reference to the biblical text, the words of adam as he beholds the beauty and splendor of the companion just presented to him. “this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called „woman,‟ for she was taken out of man.” (lim, 4) the rest of the poem builds on the images adam uses in this passage to establish three types of women and their roles in the life of the man. the poet is in a sense extending the debate on one of the prominent gender/sexual differentiations presented in the bible. although adam defines the woman in integral terms, this very first meeting of the opposite sexes establishes a basis of “otherness” by mere virtue of the fact that the creator leaves the act of naming in the hands of adam. in the poet‟s allusion to the text, the poetic arrangement places emphasis on certain terminologies that accentuates the binary equation. one of such poetic (re)arrangement can be read in the rhyme scheme. the rhyme scheme is built generally on a regular “aa bb” pattern. in the afore cited o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [21] stanza, “my” in the first line rhymes with “my” in the second line and the last syllable of “woman” rhymes with “man” in the fourth stanza. man and woman in the third and fourth lines suggest a level of equality as both genders are given priority positions. this equality is also evokes in the images of “bone” and “flesh”. if the woman is bone of the speaker‟s bone, and flesh of the speaker‟s flesh then the share equal strength symbolised by the bone and equal weakness as symbolised by „flesh”. ironically, these supposed „main‟ words and powerful symbols of equality are undercut and their potency undermined by a determinant. the emphasis on “my” undercuts the equality and gives the speaker the power of possession even as he struggles to establish a base of equality. thispossessive determiner could signal mere association with the speaker but the prioritization and repetition make the idea of belonging/possession a stronger. besides, emphatic position of the possessive determiner, defining who and what eve is and giving her the name by which she shall be called for ages, adam takes the „centre‟, and eve takes the „margin‟. in the marginal equation bill ashcroft et al. say “it is the centre that creates the condition of marginality” (post-colonial studies, 125). in this way adam‟s maleness is established and as phyllis a. bird puts his [adam] maleness is not simply grammatical, however, for he is presented as a peasant cultivator, representing the typical occupation of the ancient israelite male and signalling a division of labor and a stage of social organization with far-reaching social and political consequences. (524) bird‟s observation is valid especially if one considers the various perspectives from which some males and biblical scholars use biblical text to justify claims of male supremacy over women. lim‟s “womankind” presents some of such problematic perspectives with the consequences that bird previews. lim gives an interesting reminder about the source of the text and how it has affected male/female relations: it was old adam said it. long after he said it, wives have been bones of their men. o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [22] wives have been flesh of their men. (lim, 4) the first line seems like a mere reference to the author of the text that makes the first stanza. however, the fact that the line is a run-stop line gives the idea a stronger and independent level of thought that is beyond the mere literary allusion. while it is a way of crediting the words “this is now bone of my bone…” to adam, the statement provides a platform for the poet to escape from the implications or ramifications attributed to it in the latter stanzas of the poem. the poet shirks responsibility of the gender polarity that the text establishes. however, as shown earlier the poet builds new polarities in the choice and position of words. in the lines “wives have been bones of their men. / wives have been flesh of their men. (lim, 4) positions the female at the beginning of the line and the male at the end. in this way he creates both a female start rhyme (anaphoric rhetoric) and a male end rhyme (rhyme scheme). the female and the male are again placed in positions that give both sexes a form of equality. it is credible even to think that the female occupies a better position of priority in the binary – they are first and male is last. this only helps to give impetus to the binaric structure of thought that typifies the poem. the female gender is place at a polar first position separated from the male in the polar last place by five words in each of the verse lines. besides the polarization of male and female in these lines, the poet also chooses words that create problematic gender definitions. the binary structure can be illustrated thus 1. wives = men representing equality 2. wives ≠ men representing equal inequality 3. wives ≤ men representing seeming equality or inequality 4. wives < men representing definite inequality as already established, equation 1 is a possibility which however is undercut by more than one factor. this is however the desired and sometimes erroneous claimed position. equation 2 is not a possibility because, as stated earlier, the very fact of naming the woman places the male in the centre and the female in the margin. also from the word choice, the speaker‟s obsessive use of “my” at a point of emphasis shows o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [23] power of possession and thus control. it represents more of the marxist classless society without an upper class with power and control over a lower class, which is not possible because in every relationship there must be some kind of dominance. equation 3 represents a position of conflicting interests which like the first three is also evident in the poem. by places female and male at the beginning and ending of the verse line, there is seeming equality, which is invaded but inequality as we are about to show. arguably, equation 4 best expresses the binary structure and gender representation in the poem. the choice of words in the lines “wives have been bones of their men / wives have been flesh of their men” (lim, 4) apparently fails to maintain a parallel structure. the major gender terms lack structural balance and these transcends the grammar of it to reflect the absence of balance or the slant in the gender line – a slant that is in the disadvantage of the female. in a parallel structure the terms will correlate thus: wives – husbands / women – men in the poem “wives” is correlated not to husbands but to “men”. wives the plural of wife is defined as “a married woman considered in relation to her husband”. the lectric law library’s lexicon simply says a wife is “a woman who has a husband”. the woman is defined not in terms of individuality but in terms of marital status which logically ties her to a man. the definition of the female in marital terms affects the position of the female in a dangerous ways. take for example of marriage in the legal structure of the united states, based on english common law, which is the acceptable system in many countries and cultures. this passage explicitly explains such dangers of dependence thus: “under common law, when a man and woman [get] married, they became a single person in the eyes of the law that person being the husband” (legal dictionary). this probably is wife the lectrix law library’s lexicon names six consideration about a woman among which is the fact that “she is under obligation to love, honour and obey her husband and is bound to follow him wherever he may desire to establish himself: unless the husband, … renders her life or happiness insecure”. therefore, by simply referring to women or females as wives, the poet ties or limits the o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [24] woman to a particular role or function which is inferior and which the legal system even in advanced nations today does not define fairly. this linguistic imbalance denies the woman certain privileges, a bias phenomenon that is recurrent in language. in the feminist critique of language david cameron shows the role that language has played in creating or promoting a sexist culture. he points out that language could be seen as a reflection of sexist culture; or . . . it could be s e en as a carrier of ideas and assumptions which become, through their constant re-enactment in discourse, so familiar and conventional we miss their significance.... thus sexism is not me rely reflected but acted out and thus reinforced in a thousand banal encounters. (14) lim certainly has become used to feminine nouns but has missed the significance of using one noun in the place of another. the linguistic imbalance (using “wives” to refer to all female) takes away from the female the possibility of being a woman without necessarily being a wife. in this way the poet is suggesting that all females are meant to be wives – to be married. a female becomes a wife only by virtue of marriage; so giving preference to the „wifeness‟ rather than the femaleness or womanness as is the can of the male, the female is again defined in prejudicial terms. the value of independence which some women ascribe to themselves is thus taken away in such parallel equation. it also takes away the possibility of individuality because a wife is a married female (without any prejudice against wives who are married men), yet a man is not by any chance necessarily married. man is a more liberating or free way of tagging the individual whereas wife is given a/n (un)necessary burden of attachment to another person. this can be explained partly from psychosocial and cultural perspective. ezra lim is a postcolonial poet from nso in the north west region of cameroon. in his culture like in that of many peoples of the region and country, a woman‟s worth is measured in her ability to get married and to maintain her home. the womanhood or femaleness from birth is defined largely in terms of how she has to become a wife and how well she has to perform her wife duties o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [25] and obligations. the cultural and sociological psycho-dynamics have therefore influenced the poet‟s perception of women. this also explains why in poems like “joy 2” and “marriage matters”, the poet seemingly advocate the traditional system of marriage whereby the parents of the man choses a wife for him when they think that he has come of age. there is a play with the images that are used earlier in the poem. in the first stanza, the image of bone and flesh occur more as a corresponding pair. these images are taken up in succession and each is made to reflect or represent an exemplar of particular type womanhood and how it affects the man. the bone is made to signify the tough category of women. in it typical female subaltern mode, the tough woman is not seen as a successful woman or one that puts up with the difficulty of men. they are presented as trouble makers as people who make life complex and problematic for men. some are only bones. these, the hard ones, make life difficult for their men, make life hard for the best men. (lim, 4) in this binary structure presented in the above stanza, women are projected in negative terms “bones”, “hard”, “difficult” while men are projected in one word “best” a pleasant superlatives term that places men in a position that is far above the world of cruelty where the women are placed. a similar form of representation repeats in the stanza below and takes an even more demeaning outlook at the relationship between male and female. flesh is the main symbol and is associated with “frail”, and “weak”. interesting, here some men are shown to be weak, a term that has been related to women all along. the weakness of the man is only used to further debase the woman because the weakest man is shown to have the power to “lord over” the woman. the line “taking her here, there, all over” strongly communicates the dominance of the weak man over the woman. there is there excessive denigration of the woman in this stanza, the level of her subalternity is emphasized in most bizarre terms as she is made to be the puppet of even men who cannot command the respect or authority that a man should. some are only flesh; o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [26] frail, weak as flesh, for the weakest man to lord over, taking her here, there, all over.(lim, 4) the separation and discussion of each image is great; however there is a lot of “telling” than showing in the representation. by telling, i mean the unwarranted interpretation of the symbols through subordinate phrases like “the hard ones” referring to bones and “weak flesh” referring to flesh. these explanatory phrases do not add much colour to the poeticity in these chapters; on the contrary, they weaken the symbolic power of bone and flesh. there is a kind of balance at the end but it is again pushed towards gender binaries that place the man at the centre and the woman at the margin. others; bones and flesh hurt or make men fresh. they pay back without reserve, what the men rightly deserve.(lim, 4) the third category of women is defined here to be those who are both bone and flesh, probably those old adam talked about in the first stanza of the poem, and this consoles the reader that no matter how rough or how weak women are there are some who are a blend of both. the idea of “payback” evokes some interesting ideas in the relationship between man and woman, and this can be traced as far back as the beginning as narrated in the biblical story of creation. the hebrew creation myth places enormous blame on woman for the fall of man. the woman is known to have yield to the cunning of the serpent and as a result eat the forbidden fruit, which she also talked her husband into eating, thereby causing the act of disobedience that resulted in the troubles that man has encountered throughout history. the idea of pay back can therefore logically be linked to this pain that the woman caused the man. it is worth remembering that the punishment that was accorded to adam was hard labour, he was told he had to till the earth to feed his family. this is a form of punishment that wears and even tearsthe body. from this focal point, it is easy to understand the reason for which the o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [27] poet thinks that the job of the woman is to make the man “fresh”. to the poet, the woman owes the man a debt service and/or obedience because she is the cause of his fall. consequently, any good service that the woman renders to the man is, in the opinion of the poet persona, a way of paying back for the misfortune that she brought upon him. the man deserves this like many good poems, “womankind” is constructed principally through duplication or reoccurrence: isotaxy repetition of structure; isophony repetition of sounds, and isotopy repetition of theme. these are semantic categories which make possible the uniform reading of the poem. the repetition of sound referred to as isophony deals with the “recurrence of phonomenes, like in rhyme, assonance and alliteration” (eliane kotler). in “womankind” the rhyme scheme follows a regular pattern – stanza one is “aa, bb”; stanza two is “cc, dd”; stanza three is “ee ff” and so on. other phonic devices that repeat in the poem are anaphora and alliteration in lines like “wives have been bones of their men. / wives have been flesh of their men” (lim 40). the repetition of these sounds gives a uniform pattern to the reading of the poem. this uniformity conforms to the gender roles that the poet ascribes to men and women. the poem is also consistent in the repetition of structure – “womankind” is a twenty-line poem divided into five stanzas of four lines each. here isotaxy or the repetition or the same structural division allows each stanza to take up a particular idea which is related to the idea of gender difference and discrimination, and reveals yet another category of repetition known as isotopy, which is the repetition of a basic meaning trait. throughout the poem the stream of thought is somewhat consistent as it develops from adam‟s definition of woman through the categorization of different type of women and how they affect men to the last stanza where the categorization unite in a single form of woman who is performing the subaltern role that women are assigned from the beginning of the poem. intertextual play between texts and subtexts find expression in “womanhood”. poststructuralist critics have established the argument that every text is woven from an endless number of phrases, forms, fragments, expressions. there is therefore no original or pure text o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [28] because every text is made from other texts poststructural intertextuality. the allusion from the bible book of genesis situates “womankind” within this context of poststructuralist intertextuality. the poem is made up of subtext from christian religion, nso cultural wisdom, and the personal experiences of the poet. in this symbiotic interplay between texts the sub-text, which is positioned in a 'new' text, derives new meanings which are in most cases different from the meanings it has in other texts. the biblical passage used in the poem adopts new meanings and the images of flesh and bone resurface in new and refreshing ways. the analysis has focused on the negative representation of the female in one of ezra lim‟s poems “womanhood”. the intermeshing of traditional african cultural values (dominantly patriarchal) and christian religious values are at the heart of female marginalization in lim‟s creative force. in the western urban setup,socialist feminists hold that “female marginalization in the work force is a result of the intermeshing of capitalism and patriarchy”. the biblical base of lim‟s gender binarism is one of those acts that bring people to a sense of greater self-knowledge of how the attempt to define the other leads to the definition of ourselves. be defining the female as the “other”, lim unconsciously makes himself the other “other” which must function with the female other in the binary equation of creation. phyllis bird puts this even better when she says “we grasp our common nature through multiple acts of self-transcendence in which we confront one another as other-but in that confrontation recognize the other as "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” (534).in lim‟s “womanhood”, most of the poetic lines are filled with linguistic expressions that reveal the internal tensions that categorize the male and female genders in distinct hierarchical orders that place the male at the centre and the female at the periphery. cameron says sexist language “cannot be regarded simply as the „naming‟ of the world from one, masculine perspective; it is better conceptualized as a multifaceted phenomenon occurring in a number of quite complex systems of representation, all with their places in historical tradition. (14). lim‟s use of gender divisive language is an example of such “quite complex system of representation” (cameron 14) that denies the female o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [29] the possibility of enjoying some existential privileges. margaret piercey says “through the use of sexist language women are effectively eliminated and excluded from the dayto-day reality that they exist (113). such exclusion and elimination takes multiple forms ranging from naming, through defining and ascribing of particular roles or functions as has been analyzed in lim‟s “womanhood”. o. c. labang binaric structures and female erasure in ezra lim’s “woman” epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 5, no. 1, (2012) © faculty of arts and social sciences [30] references ashcroft, bill et al. post-colonial studies: the key concepts. new york: routledge, 1998. bird, phyllis a. “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”.theology today.50. 4. jan 1994.531-534. cameron, d.the feminist critique of language. new york: routledge, chapman, and hall, 1990. kerbrat-orecchioni, catherine. “problématique de l'isotopie in linguistique et sémiologie”. travaux du centre de recherches linguistiques et sémiologiques de lyon, 1. 1976. 11-34. kotler, eliane. “isotopie”.dictionnaire international des terms litteraires.ed. jean-marie grassin, 1986. piercey, margaret.“sexism in the english language”.tesl canada journal/revue tesl du canada, 17. 2, spring 2000. 110 – 115. postrado, leticia t. “female marginalization: effects of integration of the periphery into the world capitalist system”. dissertation, indiana: purdue university, 1986. web. “wife”.lectric law library’s lexicon.january 2012. web. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 salomé: history and decadence barbara a. brown * abstract this article explores the oppositions and paradoxes of the representation of the story of salome and john the baptist in late nineteenth century french symbolist poetics by basing the discussion on french dandyism and using eliot aronson‟s concept of cognitive dissonance. it engages the literary and artistic representations of salome in joris-karl huysmans‟s á rebors, stéphane mallarmé‟s “hérodiade,” the gospels of matthew and mark, artistic representations of salome by gustav moreau, and the historical account of the death of john the baptist by flavius josephus. i show how, in the late nineteenth century, french symbolists reconciled issues between the “fallen institutions” of politics and religion by focusing on salome and john the baptist to illustrate the dandy‟s reconciliation and substitution of authority within modernism. key words: nineteenth century, french symbolism, french dandyism, salome, modernism. * corresponding author: barbara a. brown, assistant professor, faculty of arts and social sciences (fass), sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina e-mail: bbrown@ius.edu.ba; mailto:bbrown@ius.edu.ba b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [50] the employment of oppositions and paradoxes evidenced in huysmans‟s à rebors reflects the attempt to explain a social consciousness never before witnessed in history. the end of the nineteenth century was arguably the most traumatic in terms of the social psychology of the western world. the individual struggled with beliefs that the heretofore religious explanations of the origin and meaning of existence failed to account for the material advancements of science. conversely, the advancements of science only explained existence within the material realm. in effect, religion and science left gaps of meaning open to question, leaving the individual in a state of cognitive dissonance (aronson, 2003). i eugen weber (1986) explains that [s]ome tried to reconcile science and parascience in a grand philosophical synthesis, but most simply grasped the opportunity to reject (and transcend?) the fallen world around without conforming to one of its fallen institutions (32). the reconciliation of these oppositions and paradoxes in à rebors provides us with a reflective document, or a running social commentary on this phenomenon. specifically, i would argue that à rebors illustrates how the individual reconciled the paradoxes evident in religion and science by substituting them with subjective, personal reality in a society of “fallen institutions.” des esseintes serves as an example of these historical events and practiced substitutive reality at this time in history. thus à rebors paints the picture of the manifestations of the paradoxes created out of crisis, but the book also takes into account the importance of different types of artistic representations. obviously, painters and writers were in direct dialogue with each other, and drew upon each other often to represent the same motif, or tropological construct, albeit within another artistic medium. the best example of this practice is found in huysmans when he conveniently places the painting of salome in des esseintes maisonette and when he directly quotes mallarmé‟s “hèrodiade.” the point of this insertion of the painting and the poem is the most interesting aspect of the fin-de-siècle psyche immersed in the tension of paradoxes. these paradoxes stem from the individual‟s attempt to reconcile and substitute ideas of authority from church, state, and b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [51] science – with all of its subheadings of medicine, psychology, anthropology, geology, etc. i propose that the juxtaposition of art, poetry, and prose in huysmans functions as a method of reflection upon and reconciliation with the power struggles of the fin-de-siècle psyche. of course, these juxtapositions elucidate the choice of one figure posing as a tropological construct that was created out of the tension among all of these “fallen institutions.” the figure chosen was salome, and why she became the ultimate figure of this reconciliation and substitution in à rebors. to understand des esseintes‟ point of view about the tension between authority and the recreation of authority within himself is to identify and define the tactics employed by the individual so that he could find a scope, or a point of reference from which to work through the process of reconciliation. this point of reference can be found in the manifestations of dandyism in western europe. particularly, des esseintes deserves the recognition of being the consummate representation of the dandy in french literature, but an explanation of dandyism is paramount to locate this point of reference within the history from which it came. charles baudelaire (1961) offers a definition of the oppositions and paradoxes of dandyism: le dandysme, qui est une institution en dehors des lois, a des lois rigoureuses auxquelles sont strictement soumis tous ses sujets, quelles que soit d‟ailleurs la fougue et l‟independence de leur caractère (1177). those who consecrate themselves to dandyism situate themselves outside of the laws that other members of society adhere to, yet they are obligated to obey the strict and rigorous laws created by their sect. obviously, this idea is reminiscent of the monastery or seminary where men voluntarily removed themselves from the society of which they were a part in favor of participating in a microcosmic community that was separated from mainstream society. the difference between the seminary and the dandy manifests itself in the need to separate because of illness. des esseintes‟ neurosis is the reason why he exiles himself to his maisonette as opposed to the voluntary internal search for spiritual b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [52] fulfillment that could ultimately be shared with others in need of spiritual healing. this is not to state, however, that neurosis is the only reason why des esseintes participates in this way of life. baudelaire explains that the purpose of self-exile revolves around satisfying subjective passions, senses, and thoughts. the idea of the satisfaction of passions is different from those of a traditional monastery, as baudelaire intimates, because they are completely internalized and exist only for the individual. the aspect of self-exile for des esseintes is necessary because he constantly searches for sensual experiences in which to immerse himself. for example, he looses himself in the portraits of his family, in the smells of flowers, in the taste of chocolate, and in the improvement of a turtle‟s physical appearance, and all for the sake of satisfying his sensual aesthetic passions, senses, and thoughts. thus des esseintes relies upon his own sense of aesthetic preferences to create experiences for himself to enjoy. another correlation between the traditional monastery and the life of the dandy is the necessity of money. consequently, money is the foundation of the paradoxes of dandyism. if a man intends to forgo the trappings of everyday society, then he must have the time and the means to do so. in the monastery, the individual would often pledge his inheritance to the religious order of which he was a part. the emphasis on money for the dandy, baudelaire insists, fulfills the paradox of the pursuit of love. the dandy does not seek only conjugal love or satisfaction and fulfillment in the reverie of another. since the dandy must go outside of the social structure, he closes himself in, and thereby negates the idea that satisfaction, happiness, and contentment that can be found in or through another. lawrence kramer (1990) explains this phenomenon as the nineteenth century shift from what he calls the “‟classical‟ situation, sexual desire, together with its occasional counterpart, erotic love, [which] appears as a physical disposition kindled in one person by another” to the understanding of desire “as a persistent force within the personal subject. desire becomes a basic component of subjectivity itself, one of the cluster of basic forces that establishes subjectivity as the chief institution of personhood” (136-137). hence, the dandy only seeks to satisfy the passions of himself by himself through b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [53] his own means, and therefore the dandy must be independently wealthy so that he can look inward for his fulfillment. des esseintes meets these requirements of the dandy as well since he lives off the money that his family had, he refuses to interact with anyone, even his housekeeper, and each experience he has is carefully contained within the realm of his own mind, thought processes and memories. of course, the problem of finding the means to pursue this way of life manifests itself in the reality that some element of the outside world is necessary to complete the process of total enclosure of the self by the self. baudelaire explains then that money, which comes from the outside world, is but a means for the dandy to achieve his sensorial satisfaction, and the material manifestations of money, such as clothing and accessories, are but a symbol “de la supériorité aristocratique de son ésprit”(1178). this idea presents us with yet another paradox. if the dandy removes himself from the trappings of mainstream social structure and negates the importance of reliance on others, then why does he need symbols of the aristocracy to adorn himself with? one approach to understanding this glaring contradiction would be to take the accent off “aristocratique” and emphasize “ésprit.” the spirit of the aristocracy is not exactly the aristocracy, which opens the door to democratic dogma, yet it sufficiently excludes those who are not of the class that can understand or subscribe to the aristocracy. in other words, it is a perfect employment of the idea of democracy because it holds sufficient reason to keep the riffraff out. as the idea of democracy illustrates, not everyone can aspire to “une originalité contenu dans les limites extérieures des convenances,” which is, of course, the reason why the dandy follows his chosen way of life. the ideas of aristocracy and democracy can coexist because one is represented in practice and the other is represented in spirit. baudelaire goes on to explain that, with the foundation of money and the pursuit of originality, the dandy can partake of le plaisir d‟étonner et la satisfaction orgueilleuse de ne jamais être étonné. un dandy peut être un home blasé, peut être un homme souffrant; mais, dans ce dernier cas, il sourira comme le lacédémonien sous la morsure du renard (1178). b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [54] baudelaire explains that paradoxes are essential to the spirit of dandyism. the sumptuousness of the symbols of aristocracy also function as another form of aesthetic pleasure for the dandy even more than the noble concern with the coexistence of political thought. who wouldn‟t prefer to be outfitted in rich fabrics, like silk, for instance, which holds not only the pleasure of touch, but also the pleasure of sight? the point of view seems more honest given the dandy‟s “artistic” engagement with the paradoxes of deliberately trying to evoke the response of surprise while not revealing the pretense of trying to surprise. the subtle use of aristocratic symbols evokes more of a surprise when worn by someone who openly disagrees with aristocratic politics. in this fashion, the dandy could remain true to the tenets of his sect because the dandy does not participate in the action of being surprised, but rather he is involved only in the evocation of the surprise response in others. and all the while he would be savoring the richness of his aristocratic symbols and, as baudelaire explains, he would be able to straddle the line between spiritualism and stoicism. this represents the spiritual side of the dandy‟s behavior, and his inception of the surprise response, while not participating in the action of being surprised represents his stoic side. these tenets are commensurate with the dandy‟s concern with and immersion in the arts as representations that evoke responses in others while relying upon aesthetic principles of design and materials. the tension and reconciliation between the power struggles at the end of the nineteenth century plus baudelaire‟s explanation of the “art” of the dandy presents a checklist for des esseintes. huysmans employs these concepts by way of the individual man, who represents good, and the traditional guise of a woman, who represents evil, or in fin-de-siècle terms, individual, church, state, and science. i say traditional because the traditional choice for representation of an object of desire is usually a woman. but the object of desire for des esseintes does not hinge upon the actual acquisition of the woman, rather huysmans posits the woman as the vehicle for his metaphoric depiction in order to illustrate how des esseintes desires the process of reconciliation of himself to himself, thereby allowing des esseintes to create his own reality. huysmans succeeds in elevating the figure of a woman to the status of the object of b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [55] art for des esseintes instead of the object of desire. the ultimate goals of reconciliation and substitution are of acceptance and appeasement of authority so that des esseintes is no longer in doubt of authority because the authority exists within himself. thus, huysmans employs traditional notions of good versus evil, but he illustrates the process in nontraditional ways. huysmans chose salome as his vehicle of illustration. of course, there are myriad interpretations of this choice, but i will focus on why he chose this political and religious figure to represent the paradoxes of authority. salome was chosen by many nineteenth century artists and authors as a subject for study. most notably, gustav moreau assayed to capture her in over 70 paintings, including the painting that des esseintes is so taken with in chapter five of huysmans‟s à rebors (metlzer, 1987). the captivating virgin murderess is an excellent trope for the representation of the tensions between authorities at this time in history. i say excellent because there are three historical accounts of her story, all of which leave the endowment of salome‟s appeal to the imagination, thereby allowing des esseintes to recreate her for himself within his own mind. the recreation facilitates des esseintes‟ reconciliation and substitution of authority since, in a way, he plays god, government, and scientist. the first two accounts of salome‟s story are found in the gospels of matthew and mark. the first striking fact about both gospel narratives is that neither of them mentions salome by name. the second interesting observation is that both gospels are completely devoid of any sensuality surrounding salome‟s dance. as well, each gospel writer manages to cast the incident in the light of the tensions that existed between the political and the religious during christ‟s lifetime. matthew‟s account is the shorter of the two, and consequently leaves salome more open to interpretation. matthew states although he [herod] wanted to kill him [john the baptist], he feared the people, for they regarded him as a prophet. but at a birthday celebration for herod, the daughter of herodias performed a dance before the guests and delighted herod so much that he swore to give b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [56] her whatever she might ask for. prompted by her mother, she said, „give me here on a platter the head of john the baptist.‟ the king was distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests who were present, he ordered that it be given, and he had john beheaded in the prison (confraternity of christian doctrine, 1986. italics mine.). notice that matthew frames herod‟s ultimate decision to grant salome‟s request within the context of herod‟s fear of retribution from his subjects due to the popularity of john as a prophet. for matthew, the death of john the baptist remains between religion and politics, and it illustrates the tension between the two in this biblical account. as well, salome‟s name is not mentioned, but her mother‟s name, herodias, is mentioned. interestingly enough, salome is given a line of dialogue in matthew, but the idea of john the baptist‟s head on a platter remains ambiguous. it appears as though herodias, her mother, stipulated this detail, and that salome simply did what she was told, rendering her role in the affair somewhat less violent. nevertheless, matthew‟s biblical account of the incident is significantly reduced in detail when viewed in conjunction with mark‟s account. the gospel according to mark also places the incident between the political and the religious, but mark emphasizes this tension much more than matthew does since mark is considered to be the first gospel written to an audience of first generation converts to christianity during the time of widespread persecution. mark relates herod feared john, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. when he heard him speak, he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him…. [o]ne day when herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of galilee. herodias‟s own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted herod and his guests. the king said to the girl, „ask of me whatever you wish and i will grant it to you.‟ he even swore [many things] to her…. she went out and said to her mother, „what shall i ask for?‟ she replied, „the head of john the baptist.‟ the girl hurried back to the king‟s presence and made her request, „i want you to give me at once on a platter the head of john the baptist.‟ the king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. so he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head (92-93. italics mine.). b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [57] by asserting that herod knew that john was a “righteous and holy man,” mark successfully reassures his audience of converts that even those who were responsible for the death of such prophets recognized their importance and wisdom. he also describes in much fuller detail the scene of the banquet by including a sort of “guest list” that is filled with those that herod relied upon for political support. mark presents the incident as tension between the political factions at play during this period of history. like matthew, mark doesn‟t mention salome‟s name, and he does give both salome and herodias lines of dialogue. i contend that mark‟s account braids more strands of the event together in terms of tension due to the fact that we can read both herodias‟s and salome‟s interaction in the discourse. salome‟s verbal request for the head of john the baptist conveys a deeper tension since her mother puts her up to asking for the head in dialogue, although salome herself adds the part about his head on a platter. thus, her status as a virgin murderess in mark depends more on the fact that this child cannot only make such a request at the behest of her mother, but also adds the violent and gruesome action of executing a man with the insertion of asking for the head to be presented on a platter. the third account of salome‟s existence comes from flavius josephus, the jewish historian, who stipulates that the death of john the baptist came about for purely political reasons. salome is never mentioned as a participant in his execution, rather she is mentioned by name only when josephus lays out the genealogy of herod. regarding the political reasons for john‟s death, josephus states that herod antipas, salome‟s step-father, had a great fear of being overthrown since he was not a jew or a roman (josephus, 1906). when the people of herod‟s territory took such an interest and liking to john the baptist, herod experienced great anxiety about the possibility that john might incite the people to depose him. françoise meltzer (1987) shares josephus‟ claim that the major impetus behind the death of john the baptist was political: herod antipas had good reason to be afraid of john. antipas, to begin with, was tetrarch of galilee. when the roman general of pompey had marched into palestine in 63 bc., he had captured jerusalem and reduced jewish territory to judea, without the coastal cities and the b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [58] confederacy towns of decapolis (central transjordan). several other smaller regions were also left to the jews: galilee and peraea, east of the dead sea…. his political situation was shaky and dangerous: he was neither a jew nor a roman. …josephus‟s claim that antipas killed john because he represented a political threat is quite plausible (30). however, i would argue that herod‟s shaky political situation had more to it than just pompey‟s conquest of jerusalem. consider that herod, who was still married to his first wife, married his brother‟s wife, herodias, who was still married to his brother. upon hearing this, john publicly told herod that “it is not lawful for you to have your brother‟s wife (mark 6:18). given john‟s influence over his followers, there existed more reason for herod to be overthrown by his people for this deed. while i agree in part with meltzer‟s claim that herod killed john for political reasons, i would argue that the fact that herod‟s army had recently been defeated by his first wife‟s father, aretas, who, upon hearing that herod‟s army had committed bigamy against his daughter with herodias, attacked and destroyed herod‟s army, had as much to do with john the baptist‟s death as pompey‟s recent victories (josephus 382). the religious ramifications of herod‟s bigamy rest primarily with the public opinion of why herod‟s army was defeated. josephus links the political with the religious at the end of his account of herod‟s defeat: now, some of the jews thought that the destruction of herod‟s army came from god, and that very justly, as a punishment for what he had done against john, that was called the baptist, for herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards god, and so to come to baptism;…. now, when many others came in crowds about him; for they were greatly moved or pleased by hearing his words; herod, who feared lest the great influence john had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise rebellions (for they seemed to do anything he should advise,) thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not being himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be too late. accordingly, he was sent a prisoner, out of herod‟s suspicious temper, to macherus,…, and was there put to death. now, the jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon herod, a mark of god‟s displeasure against him (382-383). b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [59] the fact that herod‟s father-in-law was responsible for the actual defeat of herod‟s army as retaliation for herod‟s bigamy is as much to blame as herod‟s fear of political upheaval. even josephus‟s historical account cannot discount the religious and political tensions at the time since he includes why the jews of herod‟s territory thought he was defeated. although josephus omits the part about salome‟s dance inciting herod to grant her wishes, he does give evidence to the religious aspect of john‟s death, thereby citing the coexisting political and religious tensions of the day. thus salome‟s story was already pinioned between the tensions of religion and politics as early as the first accounts of western christianity and western politics. her availability to both camps is understandable and justified. but her appeal to artists and writers who wanted to represent the tensions between power structures comes in her dancing because this propels her into yet another realm of sensuality, sexuality, and desire. bram dijkstra (1986) elucidates her appeal to many nineteenth century artists when he explains that in the turn-of-the-century imagination, the figure of salome epitomized the inherent perversity of women: their eternal circularity and their ability to destroy the male‟s soul even while they remained nominally chaste in the body. salome became the endlessly multiplied image of woman as concha, the relentlessly perverse near-adolescent, eighteen-year-old temptress…(384). dijkstra pinpoints the tension concerning salome as both a religious figure and as a tropological construct equipped to embody the reconciliation of the individual to himself at the end of the nineteenth century. telltale paradoxical terms, such as “near adolescent, eighteenyear-old temptress” are used to describe her dual nature “as both exotic and veiled” (showalter, 1990). since the historical and biblical accounts of the story fail to depict the sensuality and sexuality of her dance, this element of the story is left completely to the imagination of the artists who embossed it with their descriptions befitting this tumultuous time in history. huysmans represented these tensions and paradoxes in the finde-siècle with salome in their respective artistic mediums of painting and poetry. b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [60] huysmans‟s employment of salome serves as one of des esseints‟s “escapes” into himself. in this exercise, des esseintes gives himself over to his analyses, which are narrow in scope but nonetheless dense in their suggestiveness, and revolve around the moreau painting of salome. des esseintes stares at the painting, which is located in his maisonette, and he drifts deeper into himself as he contemplates the painting. his examination of the scene elucidates the political and religious symbols that make up moreau‟s composition of the scene: un trône se dressait, pareil au maître-autel d‟une cathèdrale, sous d‟innombrables voûtes jaillissant de colonnes trapues ainsi que des piliers romans, émailleés de briques polychromes, serties de mosaïques, incrustées de lapis et de sardoines, dans un palais semblable à une basilique d‟une architecture tout à la fois musulmane et byzantine (104). the juxtaposition of such terms as “un trône,” “une cathédrale,” “des piliers romans,” and “une architecture tout à la fois musulmane et byzantine” hearken the conflicts between the doctrines that all of these institutions are associated with because they do not necessarily seem to go together, although they are linked to each other through artistic and political influences. it would not be out of the ordinary for a palace to resemble a cathedral or a basilica, but it would seem odd to base the design of a cathedral on the concept of a palace. moreover, the symbol of the cathedral and the symbol of the mosque are both places of power that function as a form of authority in spiritual and political ways. des esseintes begins to scrutinize salome as the central figure in the painting, and as he does so, salome fulfills her participation in her story that is lacking in historical and biblical accounts. mark and matthew may have given salome a place in discourse, but it is des esseintes who brings her to life as he imagines her body moving in the political and religious space moreau has provided for her. la face recueillie, solennelle, presque auguste, elle commence la lubrique danse qui doit réveiller les sens assoupis du vieil hérode; ses seins ondulent et, au frottement de ses colliers qui tourbillonnent, leurs bouts se dressent; sur la moiteur de sa peau les diamants, attachés, scintillent; ses bracelets, ses ceintures, ses bagues, crachent b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [61] des étincelles; sur sa robe triomphale, couture de perles, ramagée d‟argent, lame d‟or, la cuirasse des orfèvreries dont chaque maille est une pierre, entre en combustion, croisedes serpenteaux de feu, grouille sur la chair mate, sur la peau rose thé, ainsi que des insects splendides aux élytres éblouissants, marbrés de carmine, ponturés de jaune aurora, diapers de bleu d‟acier, tigrés de vert paon (105). des esseintes brings the full effect of salome‟s “danse lubrique” before her step-father to life as her body moves in the splendor of light. even the jewels with which she bedecked herself “look back” at des esseintes; he is captivated by the play of light that their facets allow. salome‟s skin takes on a rose tea glow. the sexual implication of the rose tea glow is that her skin is blushing pink due to sexual arousal. even though moreau brought salome into existence within the visual realm, it is des esseintes who adds another dimension to her as he is captivated by the painting. one approach to understanding the layering of existence is to consider that des esseintes participates in the act of perceiving the object of art through the notion of the aura that it produces. walter benjamin (1968) explains the spectator‟s interaction with the aura of the work of art: experience of the aura thus rests on the transposition of a response common in human relationships to the relationship between the inanimate or natural object and man. the person we look at, or who feels he is being looked at, looks at us in turn. to perceive the aura of an object we look at means to invest it with the ability to look back at us in return (188). as des esseintes looks at the painting of salome, he interacts with it on a deeper level of perception as he invests the painting with the ability to respond to him, thereby creating a dialectic with salome in which she can participate. since she can participate in the dialectic, she no longer assumes the status of the object of desire or the object of art. when she is endowed with the ability to respond in turn, salome assumes the status of another subject that is different from des esseintes. because of des esseintes‟s preferences and neurosis, he endows her not only with titillating movements, but also he endows the jewelry that she is wearing with the ability to reflect light since one of his primary fetishes has to do with shiny, reflective objects. the result of this interaction culminates in b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [62] the satisfaction of des esseintes‟s visual pleasures since he has created this dimension of salome. huysmans‟s use of moreau in chapter five allows des esseintes to create an experience that serves to bring the tropological construct of salome to life – he brings her to the status of a subject. this reconciles des esseintes‟s crisis of authority because he creates his own system of perception for himself. des esseintes is free from the tension between the “fallen institutions” of fin-de-siècle culture because, having rejected them in favor of closing himself in his maisonette, he creates his own system of belief that resides in his capability to bring inanimate objects to life within his own imagination. despite the sensual and sexual “layering” that des esseintes projects on salome in chapter five, she is still not represented as being a in totality, which is the reason des esseintes “layers” her in the first place. in order to experience salome in totality, des esseintes gives salome a voice and the ability to speak via stéphane mallarmé‟s “hérodiade.” mallarmé‟s choice of using herodias‟s name is indicative of the fact that he read the gospels as he began his work on “hérodiade.” mallarmé also decided to make salome into a “double hero,” which is what the name means in french, when he chose to use this name. since salome‟s full participation was significantly reduced historically and biblically, and moreau‟s painting cannot grant salome a place in discourse, the door was open for mallarmé to represent her poetically and vocally. mallarmé‟s “hérodiade” describes salome‟s reflections, both literal and figurative, before she goes to dance before herod. huysmans‟s directly quotes salome as she sits before her mirror, preparing herself for her performance: o mirror! eau froide par l‟ennui dans ton cadre gelée que de fois, et pendant les heures, désolée des songes et cherchant mes souvenirs qui sont comme des feilles sous ta glace au trou profound, je m‟apparus en toi comme une ombre lointaine! mais, horreur! des soirs, dans ton severe fontaine, j‟ai de mon rêve épars connu la nudité (219)! it is no wonder that des esseintes is so taken with this portion of “hérodiade” since he is so captivated by shiny objects, like mirrors, and b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [63] that he practices this same exercise each time he delves into himself to create an experience for himself. the experience he creates with salome is something he relates to quite well since he occupies his time contemplating his memories the same way salome contemplates hers when she is in front of her mirror. for des esseintes, however, the mirror is not altogether an essential element for contemplation of himself. it appears that he can use anything as a mirror, even the moreau painting, since he revels in shiny, reflective surfaces that will reflect back his projection on them. des esseintes takes the liberty of elevating salome from an object of art to a subjective entity after he layers the representations of her and she becomes a three dimensional presence. des esseintes‟s ultimate product of his way of life is to create, and he seizes upon an inanimate object of art that is manifested in painting and poetry, and gives it a life of its own. des esseintes brings salome to life for his own enchantment. the reconciliation of authority is achieved because he delights in the creation of his very own mind for own delight. des esseintes‟s sacrosanct analyses of salome give her more life because he layers her portrayals, which gives her historical dimension, visual dimension, and poetic dimension. in other words, des esseintes brings salome into totality and reconciles the tensions of “fallen institutions” within himself through these experiences, creating his own authority while he remains cut off from the outside world. à rebors is but one example of the phenomenon of reconciliation with and substitution of the paradoxes evident in religion and science through the convergence of several types of artistic representations. the importance of salome‟s trope facilitates the process of subjective creation, which stresses the importance of the individual‟s image of reality that he alone has created. since the system rests within the individual, the success or failure of the process again rests within the individual, allowing him to harmonize the conflicts within himself so that he may re-enter the reality of society without cognitive dissonance, or continue the process until he finds a way to make peace with himself and the world around him. b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [64] i eliot aronson, the social animal. ninth edition. (worth publishers, 2003) 174-175. “basically, cognitive dissonance is a state of tension that occurs whenever an individual simultaneously holds two cognitions (ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent. stated differently, two cognitions are dissonant if, considering these two cognitions alone, the opposite of one follows from the other.” b. a. brown salomé: history and decadence epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [65] references aronson, eliot. (2003). the social animal. ninth edition. new york: worth publishers. baudelaire, charles. (1961). œuvres complétes. texte établi et annoté par y.-g. le dantec. édition révisée, complétéé et présentée par claud pichois. paris: gallimard. benjamin, walter. (1968). illuminations: essays and reflections. trans. harry zohn. ed. hannah arendt. new york: schocken books. confraternity of christian doctrine. (1986). the new american bible with revised new testament. mission hills benzinger publishing company. dijkstra, bram. (1986). idols of pervesity: fantasies of feminine evil in fin-de-siècle culture. new york: oxford university press. huysmans, joris-karl. (1978). à rebors. paris: gf-flammarion. josephus, flavius. (1906). the works of flavius josephus. ed. d.s. margoliouth. trans. w. whiston. london: routledge. kramer, lawrence. (1990). music as cultural practice: 1800-1900. chicago: university of chicago press. meltzer, françoise. (1987). salome and the dance of writing. chicago: university of chicago press. showalter, elaine. (1990). sexual anarchy. new york: viking. weber, eugen. (1986). france: fin-de-siècle. cambridge: the belknap press of harvard university press. selvira draganovic.pdf � � � epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 reaching out: social support and mental health problems of bosnian immigrants in switzerland selvira draganovi� ∗∗∗∗ abstract a state of well being in which one realizes own potentials, can cope with every day stressors, can work productively and is able to constructively contribute to community is called mental health. many stressful and negative events can interfere with these abilities and thus endanger someone’s mental health. migration is one of them. with its’ pre and post phases/stages, migration represents great sources of stress and stressors. immigrants need good personal and social resource in order to lessen down negative effects of migration on their mental health. the aim of this study is to explore presence of mental health problems in non clinical population of bosnian immigrants (n=101, f=48, m=53) in switzerland. it was assumed that migration stress acts negatively on immigrant’s mental health. general health questionnaire was used to test this hypothesis. participants mean score results on total ghq28 questionnaire were m=51.06, s.d. =14.30, its subscales on depression m=10.12 s.d.=3.75, somatic complaints m=13.04 s.d.=4.5, anxiety/insomnia m=13.34 s.d. 4.8, and social dysfunction m=14.37 s.d.=3.5. this indicates presence of mental health problems among bosnian immigrants. at the same time, the study shows presence of social support seeking (n=83 subjects listed family and friends) as primary coping strategy used by bosnian immigrants while dealing with difficulties and problems rather than seeking professional help (n=3 subjects listed professional help seeking). thus, social support seeking acts positively on mental health of bosnian immigrants. keywords: mental health; immigrants; bosnian immigrants; social support ����������������������������������������������������������� ∗ corresponding author: selvira draganovi�, phd candidate, faculty of philosophy, university of sarajevo; e-mail: selvirad@hotmail.com ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� � � ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� background to the study according to kakar (fernando, 2001) concept of mental health is a term which covers different aspects and concerns such as: absence of disabling symptoms, integration of psychological functioning, successful leading of personal and social life, and feeling of ethical and spiritual wellbeing. however, for our purpose, mental health defined as the ability to think logically and rationally, to adjust to transitions, stress, trauma and losses which happen to everyone, in a way which allows emotional stability and growth, suites better (hales and hales, 1995). immigrants belong to a risk group for mental health disorders due to many pre emigrational, emigrational as well as post emigrational factors and phases that they go through. acculturation phases, adjustment, immigrants’ age as well as effects of factors such as small income, immigrants’ status, low access to psychiatric treatment etc, are in close relation to the emergence of mental health problems like depression, anxiety, suicide, alcohol and drug use by immigrants. immigrants are at risk for mental health problems due to much pre-migration, migration as well post migration factors and phases which ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� � �� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� immigrants experience. acculturation phase, adjustment, immigrants’ age, interrelated factors such as low income, immigrants’ status, low access to psychiatric care etc. are related to appearance of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, suicide, and alcohol and drug abuse in immigrants’ population. immigrants are risk population especially when they migrate with low or no prior knowledge about country they migrate to. their coping strategies are not always efficient and acceptable. coping strategies represent immigrant’s efforts, mainly psychological and behavioural, which immigrants use, tolerate, decrease or minimize stressful events. lazarus and folkman (horwitz and scheid, 2006) coping strategies define as cognitive or behavioural attempts to cope with situational demands that someone perceives demanding or those that overcome someone’s ability to cope. in other words, coping is actually a process by which people try to cope with perceived difference between demands and own resources which they assess in a given situation. people cope with certain problems by making certain efforts in order to adjust to a problem or change their perception about it. as such, these efforts could be effective ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� � �� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� (seeking social support for example) or ineffective (avoiding problems) leading to problems solving or the opposite. effective coping strategies in a form of social support can decrease effects of permanent stressors and act positively on immigrants’ mental health. on contrary, ineffective coping strategies which could appear in a form of avoidance or retreat when different stressors appear, contribute to emergence of mental health problems (busse and o'mahoney, 2000). coping strategies are usually divided into primary and secondary coping strategies and problem focused and emotion focused coping strategies. primary coping strategies are direct measures or, overt, problem focused behaviour directed to change of disturbing events in stressful environment (looking for social support). unlike primary, secondary coping strategies are more cognitive than behavioural and they are most often related to changing perception and assessment of stressful situations and events. in another words, primary coping strategies mean changing environment so it will suite “me” and secondary, changing “me” so i will suit the environment. ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� � *� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� looking for social support contributes to adjustment and helps individuals to easily cope with problems because persons with social support are emotionally more stable and cope with different environmental demands as well as with mental health problems more easily (horwitz and scheid, 2006). social support is related to someone’s social contacts and relations, social integration and relation inside primary group. social support and relations (resources) and relations with others from where support emerges are not only basis for mental health but also can serve as protective factors from negative effects of different stressors. resources or sources of coping (social support, strong felling of control etc.) and coping strategies reduce or diminish negative psychological effects of stress and stressors (horwitz and scheid, 2006). horwitz and sheid (2006) cite many studies which researched significance of relation between mental health and social support (cohen and willis, 1985; cohen and syme, 1985; dean and lin 1977; gottlieb, 1981; kessler et all 1985; sarason and sarason, 1985; sarason, sarason and pierce, 1990; turner 1983; vaux 1988; veil and bauman, 1992) and great majority of these studies ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� � !� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� shows great correlation with little or no support and ill mental health in general, especially with frequent depression. cassel and cobb with their research have set preliminary foundation for hypothesis which dominates inside these researches: “social support is important moderator in effects of life stressors on mental health” and as such it represents significant protective factor (horwitz and scheid, 2006). ward states that social support is related to improvement of psychological wellbeing (greater social support, better psychological wellbeing and vice versa) (ward, bochner and furnham, 2003). besides, sociological studies in domain of social support suggest abating effect of psychological problems when there is strong or just present social support regardless if it comes from ethnic community or local citizens (khuo and tsai, 1986). aim of this study is to explore presence and role of social support in mental health problems in non clinical population of bosnian immigrants in switzerland. it was assumed that social support has a role in mental health of bosnian immigrants in switzerland. ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� � +� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� participants and methods participants participants (n=200) were 48 female and 53 male, ages between 18 and 60, bosnian immigrants currently residing in switzerland. mean age for the total sample was 32.9±, mainly married, who migrated to switzerland in three periods, before the war (19921995), during the war, after the war. out of total number 129 surveys were completed and delivered to researcher. 28 of them could be only partially used due to incomplete data (demographics or unanswered questions. participants were generally healthy and were not cognitively or perceptually impaired. they were recruited from a large bosnian community in switzerland. procedure participation in the study was voluntary and no compensation was given. the survey, entitled "mental health," consisted of sociodemographic questionnaire and general health questionnaire ghq 28. questionnaires demographic questionnaire, and participants demographics: a few independent variables stated as important predictors which act positively on mental health of immigrants, as proved by former ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� � ,� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� studies and report, were also included in our study: gender, marital status, age, year of migration, immigrants status – visa type (b visa – resident and work permit for a year –can be prolonged, or c visa – permanent work and resident permit or ch visa – swiss citizenship, employment before migration, current employment, length of residency in switzerland. general health questionnaire 28 (ghq 28) (widely used for similar purposes by, jancz, 2000, for example). general health questionnaire 28 (ghq 28): for the purpose of this research we used general health questionnaire with 28 items, shortened version of ghq with 60 items. general health questionnaire 28 (ghq 28) is a multiple choice paper pen questionnaire. it is designed to detect current non psychotic psychiatric disorders in general population. questionnaire has four subscales: somatic complaints, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction, major depression. general health questionnaire can be administered to adolescents or adults of any age. it is diagnostic but it can be used to detect acute conditions (goldberg and hillier, 1979). since 1972 when goldberg first created its’ first version with 140 items, general ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� � �� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� health questionnaire was translated to 38 world languages (croatian is one of them, which we used) it has been validated in more than 50 studies. there are four versions of it at the moment (with 60, 30, 28 and 12 items) available to psychiatrists, qualified doctors, clinical psychologists and experienced counsellors (jancz, 2000). cronbach’s (1951) alpha coefficient for internal validity for ghq 28 version ranges from .84 to .93 in different studies. goldberg and hillier (1979) cite that test – retest probability coefficient on 87 psychiatric cases with six months follow up was .90 and it appears as reliable and valid assessment technique for psychological or mental health (jancz, 2000). results for general health questionnaire (ghq 28) are gained by adding responses on all items and summing them up. higher score implies more mental health problems in form of depression, anxiety, somatic complaints or social dysfunction. these two parts were completed with two open ended questions: 1. who do you talk to about your problems/difficulties, 2. who do you seek to share or talk to when you face any kind of problems/difficulties. ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� � -� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� analysis and categorisation of respondents’ answers to the two, above cited open ended questions, indicate four following categories: family and friends, professionals, myself and no one. results we used general health questionnaire 28 in order to test presence of mental health problems among bosnian immigrants in switzerland. results of means and standard deviations are listed in table below. general health questionnaire ghq 28 n minimum maximum mean std. deviation results on somatic complaints subscale 98 7,00 24,00 13,0408 4,51097 results on anxiety insomnia subscale 100 7,00 28,00 13,3400 4,88911 results on social dysfunction subscale 96 7,00 25,00 14,3854 3,59933 results on depression subscale 93 7,00 24,00 10,1290 3,75391 ghq total results 87 28,00 91,00 51,0690 14,30547 valid n (listwise) 78 table 1. mean results on ghq and its subscales table 2 two shows most frequently cited answers to question “who do talk to share your problems with? frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent valid family and friends 83 82,2 84,7 84,7 professionals 3 3,0 3,1 87,8 no one 11 10,9 11,2 99,0 myself 1 1,0 1,0 100,0 total 98 97,0 100,0 missing system 3 3,0 total 101 100,0 ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� � �� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� table 3 shows most frequently cited answers to question “who do you turn to/ask/ for advice and help when faced with difficulties and problems? frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent valid family and friends 79 78,2 81,4 81,4 professionals 7 6,9 7,2 88,7 no one 11 10,9 11,3 100,0 total 97 96,0 100,0 missing system 4 4,0 total 101 100,0 to test the the difference for variable: talking with family and freinds, and ghq 28 and its subscales anova test of variance. results are presented in table below. variable: who do you talk with about your problems/difficulties? participants-answered family and friends variability source sum squares df variance f ratio sig. general health questionnaire (ghq 28) between groups 3625,568 3 1208,523 7,150 ,000 within groups 13691,208 81 169,027 total variability 17316,776 84 ghq-subscale somatic complaints between groups 122,829 3 40,943 2,069 ,110 within groups 1820,911 92 19,793 total variability 1943,740 95 ghq-subscale social dysfunction between groups 307,292 3 102,431 10,086 ,000 within groups 903,826 89 10,155 total variability 1211,118 92 ghq-subscale anxiety and insomnia between groups 181,622 3 60,541 2,657 ,053 within groups 2141,644 94 22,783 total variability 2323,265 97 ghqsubscale depression between groups 1432,382 2 716,191 8,326 ,000 within groups 7483,573 87 86,018 total variability 8915,956 89 ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� �� � ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� significance p < 0.05 table 4. anova variance test results for variable talking with family and friends and ghq, and its subscales: somatic complaints and social disfunction. note: significant results are emboldened. discussion as presented in tables above, mean scores results on ghq 28 and it’s subscales, indicate mild presence of mental health problems (mean scores=51.07, s.d. 14.31). social dysfunction scale points to the highest mean scores results, mean=14.3854, s.d. 3.593). anova results point significant difference on variable talking with family and friends and general health questionnaire ghq 28, its’ social dysfunction and depression subscales. f-ratio is, 7.15 (with p= .000), 10.09 (p= .000), and 8.33 (p= .000) respectively. considering stressful effects of migration and adjustment processes this results are not surprising. however, in answer to the open ended questions “who do you talk to/who do you seek to talk with when faced with problems”, most frequently cited response was “family and friends (before professionals). this response indicates strong presence of social support, good social ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� ���� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� networking, and reaching out as coping strategy which bosnian immigrants use. reaching out and seeking social support and networking, which appears in a form of the need for instant/immediate talk with family/friends during and after problems (and personal distress) incessant phenomena within bosnian community. stressful and problematic situations have to be shared and discussed right away (bosnian call this “a cup of talk”, a talk while drinking coffee or some other drink). such encounters have many positive outcomes. firstly, utmost important for immigrant’s mental health is a strong sense of emotional relief which follows this “cup of talk” or layman’s therapeutic sessions (immediate sharing/discussion of problems). secondly, reaching out and social support seeking results in diminishing of short and long term stressful issues and problems. still, sharing problems with others results in short stress relief. operational definition of migration in our paper is based on the fact that migration is closely related with psycho social process of loss and change as well as adjusting to a number of stressors. in psychiatric terminology loss is linked to the grieving process (carta, bernal, hardoy, haro-abad, 2005.) grieving is reaction to ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� ���� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� a specific psychosocial stressor (a loss of a loved one for example) but it is not considered as psychological disorder. however, if grieving is severe or prolonged more than it should be, then it belongs to the category of major depressive disorder or adjustment disorder (first, frances and pincus, 1997). this grieving process during migration is explained through seven stages which cause anxiety and distress in immigrants: family, friends, language, culture, homeland, loss of status, loss of contact with ethnic group and exposure to the physical risks (carta, bernal, hardoy and haro-abad, 2005). above this, researchers consider that this emigrational grieving is interrupted/discontinuous because sources of grieving disappear during the contact with homeland and appear again after the return. this is not the case with grieving for the loss of the loved one which is continuous process (contact with a person completely ceased due the death). thus, host country acceptance is of crucial importance in this case because difficulties in showing the grief might cause many psychological problems. the loss of contact with family and friends, loss of status, adapting to the new language, culture, environment and all the ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� ��*� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� other inevitable changes in a process of immigration could be huge sources of anxiety, distress and stress thus endangering immigrant’s mental health. at the same time, regardless of the country’s politics, citizens in some countries fiercely react to foreigners and as a result discrimination, xenophobia, racism, and different stereotypes appear. problems which arise as a result of such reactions make immigrant’s adjustment difficult and may cause adjustment disorders. conclusion even though social support is one of the coping strategies most often used by bosnian immigrants in switzerland, which according to many studies, proves to serve as mediator in manifestation and occurrence of mental health problems, it seems that solely it does not serve the purpose. our results, in line with other studies, indicate that migration stress acts negatively on mental health of immigrants. mean scores on ghq 28 show that bosnian immigrants suffer from mild stress, depression, anxiety, somatic complaints, insomnia and social dysfunction. anova ttest for variance also shows significant results for variable “talking with family and friends “and general health ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� ��!� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� questionnaire ghq 28 and its social dysfunction and depression subscales. family and friends are most frequently sought source of support among bosnian immigrants. this speaks of immigrants’ two very important coping factors: integration and assimilation. integration means shaping up own identity by nurturing own traditional values (ethnic country) and adopting cultural traditions of host country. assimilation is a process which contains three basic elements: learning and adopting new reactions to the host society, irretrievable changes related to adoption and acceptance of cultural, historic and intellectual forms of new, host society and finally, transformation into a full social member of a given new society. strong social support from family and friends of bosnian immigrants in switzerland could mean strong social networking made of members of own ethnicity what indicates confinement inside own ethno group and weak or no integration and assimilation. weak or no integration and assimilation, on the other side, means weak acceptance by host society and adjustment to it, what in turn can result in psychological maladjustment, feeling of being ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� ��+� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� discriminated, feeling of being a citizen of second order, feeling of not belonging there, feeling rejected and unwanted. perceived discrimination is related to increased psychological distress and pain (furnham and shiek, 1993, ying, 1996). such feelings form solid basis for immigrants’ even greater wish to close up and remain within own ethno-group. members of their own ethnogroup understand one another and have the same or similar problems. this leads to immigrants need to meet and associate even more often and discuss their problems. in the end, although they talk about their problems and social support as coping strategy is strongly present, strong feelings of not belonging, discrimination and rejection might still cause distress. thus, mental health problems might appear showing that immigrants are vulnerable and at risk to develop mental health problems. finally, this study indicates that bosnian immigrants turn to mental health professional little or not at all when they face problems or difficulties (only 10 % or participants stated that they turn to mental health professionals when they face problems and difficulties). this data also indicates different beliefs about mental health and illness as well as treatment of mental disorders which ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� ��,� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� is typical for bosnian citizens who turn to mental health professional only as a last resort, when they exhaust all other ways and means. stigma (mental health issues are still related to “being crazy/mad”) related to mental disorders is still present among bosnians, even when they live in society with different orientation towards mental health/disorders. references 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medicine, 9, 139-145. hales, d., and hales, r. e. 1995. caring for the mind: the comprehensive guide to mental health. bantam books, new york horwitz a. v., scheid t. l. 1999. a handbook for the study of mental health: social context, theories and systems. cambridge university press, uk. ���&��'� (�)��������������������� � ���� ���������������� ����������������������� ���� ���� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� jancz m. 2000. social and psychological adjustment of first generation polish immigrants to australia. university of sidney. sidney. kuo w. h.; tsai y. m. 1986. “social networking, hardiness and immigrant's mental health.” journal of health and social behaviour. vol. 27; 2, 133-149. lazarus r., folkman s. 1984. stress, appraisal and coping. springer publishing company, new york. ward c., bachner s., furuhan a. 2001. the psychology of culture shock. routledge, united kingdom. microsoft word volume 7 for print epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 theory, literature, and dialogue: bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature bhumika sharma ∗∗∗∗ abstract emerging new literature has facilitated a dialogue among the alternative aesthetics created by new literature with an interpolation of central theoretical discourses. it opens an avenue for theories travelling across cultures to decipher intricacies involved into contemporary world. today we live with a global consciousness that illustrates the formulation of a new postcolonialpostmodernist ‘i’. bakhtin’s concepts of dialogic consciousness, the unfinalizable self and the idea of the relationship between the ‘self’ and ‘others’ lead us to understand this postcolonial-postmodernist framework as reflected in many indian literary and cultural discourses. it throws light on how we perceive an individual entity in relation to the specific socio-cultural code which inhere multiple intercessions. present article attempts to discover the fundamentals of the ‘postcolonial-postmodernist liberation’ through the case study of two selected indian literary texts by arvind adiga and amitav ghosh. both the texts explain the psychology behind the working of dialogic consciousness and the intercession involved in the formulation of postcolonialpostmodernist subject. it may be elucidated through the understanding of mechanism that always strives to attain a point of equilibrium. representing the postcolonial-postmodernist psychology which questions various cultural norms, it initiates a dialogue between freedom and restrictions, individual and social, and real versus virtual. it turns out an everlasting quest for refined version of the metamorphic ‘self’ shaped by the dialogic consciousness of the postcolonial and postmodernist world. keywords: dialogic consciousness; unfinalizable ‘self’; new literature; theoretical intercession; postcolonial-postmodernist psychology ∗ corresponding author: bhumika sharma, assistant professor, central university of rajasthan, bandar sindri, ajmer rajasthan, india; e-mail: sharmabhumika@curaj.ac.in b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 234 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences the vast realm of emerging new literature opens an avenue for theories travelling across cultures to decipher intricacies involved into contemporary world. today we live with a global consciousness that shape our psychology. theorists have given us many analytical tools to understand the differences and diversities of the 21 st century postmodernist and postcolonial world. it has facilitated a new dialogue among the alternative aesthetics created by new literature with an interpolation of central theoretical discourses. does it illustrate a new postcolonial-postmodernist flux that indicates a complex dialogic embrace between theory and literature? how does such interlacing comprehend subtle implications of cultural crisscross? in fact, it designates a new psychological paradigm which elucidates various postcolonial and postmodernist developments. defining contemporariness in a glimpse, our contemporariness appears a curious combination of east and west, real and virtual, and a process of redefining ‘centres’ in relation to the ‘margins’. being a part of the hi-tech multicultural global world, we experience these juxtapositions at every moment. the world seems to be constituted of images drawn from different sources. holding so many differences together a postcolonial-postmodernist understanding strives to negotiate multiple ‘others’ with reference to one’s defined spatialtemporal positioning. it is the key term ‘difference’ that underlies every ‘post’ theory mosaic. all postmodernist compositions whether at physical or at metaphysical level, are acknowledged as b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 235 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences well as absorbed with a typical psychological bend to the underlying idea of ‘difference’ that resists the process of homogenisation at the same time facilitating a reasonable covert acceptance of it. each response to the prevailing multiplicities of postmodernist time is regulated by the interactive action taking place in the negotiating zone. in fact, it is the irresistible negotiation among various differences that constitutes the key element of postmodernist psychology. it works both at individual and collective level especially when an entity undergoes the process of identity formulation. a dialogic zone: bakhtin’s theoretical explanation of negotiating differences bakhtin’s concepts like carnival, heteroglossia, and polyphony help to explain the nature of contemporary culture where one may find oneself engaged in an everlasting dialogue within and without. perhaps, it is the compulsive human instinct of negotiating differences that generates a dialogic consciousness. every individual, being a unit, constitutes merely a part of the whole. yet, on the other hand, existing as an independent entity one also strives to attain completeness in oneself. in this process of self attainment the dialogic consciousness assumes central role, formulating a typical tendency of talking to ‘self’ with regard to the fragmented ‘others’ around. negotiating differences is a very important term when we open an explorative chapter on postcolonial and postmodernist psychology. since living in today’s era means living with b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 236 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences differences and dissensions, the validity of any kind of uniform coding appears susceptible. with the postmodernist mode of thinking the idea of ‘absolute’ crumbles. monologue gives way to dialogue and we acknowledge the dialogic consciousness as an inherent feature of human sensibility. the historical consciousness which underlies the vast literary and cultural discourses of human civilisation reinterprets the strategic relationship between the differentiating ‘twos’ of binary opposition. with the increasing dialogue ‘twos’ break down into ‘many’ debilitating all the boundaries that create them. it questions the foundational principles of various categorisations that define our contemporariness. intercessional working of postcolonial-postmodernist psychology how do we perceive the conception of identity especially with regard to today’s postcolonial and postmodernist position? do we all collectively inhabit the world as an assortment of individuals living in continuous flux? since the idea of any stable identity founded on original purity does not hold true in the world of multiple centres engaged in continuous dialogue, the process of identity formulation becomes more complex. identifying oneself with such state of incomplete ‘self’ endorses bakhtin’s conception of unfinalizable ‘self’. it substantiates the strong imminence of negotiation, here predominantly with respect to the scattered ‘others’ the ‘self’ chooses to interact with in the postmodernist world of ‘differences’. it calls for an intercessional mode of b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 237 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences working in human psyche. what is important to understand the constitution of postmodernist psychology is to identify this intercessional form, i. e., the nature of bargain and the level of intensity at which socio-political or cultural negotiations are worked out at different levels of human sensibility. while investigating the issue harbouring on bakhtin’s idea of dialogic consciousness, one can easily recognise the multiplicity of perspective and voices and the possibility of their cohabitation at borderline. but there exist two levels of dialogic consciousness where negotiations are enacted in the process of identity formation especially in relation to the postmodernist condition of multiple ‘others.’ how it is worked out anticipates a layered exposition of the consciousness. in view of the complexities involved in a two tier visualisation of human consciousness, one’s enquiry of intercessional working need to be conducted separately, in a phased manner. since it is the two dimensional expansion of the ‘self’ which brings out the attributive difference between the individual and collective consciousness and its characterisation of intercessional working of the postcolonialpostmodernist psychology. at the level of individual consciousness it is the dialogic ‘self’ that undergoes the process of identity formulation making itself responsible for the negotiation. being the double edged postcolonial-postmodernist ‘self’ it, a priori, acknowledges the presence of ‘others’ for address and engagement. its dialogue with multiple others necessarily anticipates closure, notwithstanding b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 238 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences how short lived and unfinalizable, but a closures that anticipates the next level of closure making it an ongoing process. on the other hand, the postmodernist collective consciousness, while engineered with the post-national outlook of postcolonial framework, appears more inclined to erase the borderlines. it passes by the first stage celebration of postcolonial national identity paving the way to global consciousness through a network of statements and responses. in its incomplete and unfinalizable expression it continuously rejects the authoritative discourses to respect the existing world in its autonomy generating a dialogue in which all socio-cultural components are forced to participate for more truthful version of postcolonialpostmodernist reality. who am i? the postcolonial-postmodernist ‘self’ in dialogue human psyche conceives the ‘differences’ with ambivalence. the ‘difference’ creates the idea of ‘other’ and the ‘other’ is always seen an object of embrace as well as resistance. present postcolonial and postmodernist phase definitely blurs, if not erases completely, the boundaries existing between the categorised constructions of different nature. these realities manage to coexist on account of peculiar psychology of embracing the ‘others’ while relieving the apprehensions of losing ‘self’ through dialogic consciousness. since it is a vital question that how far one allows the ‘other’ to be accommodated as a part of the ‘self’ while negotiating differences, one needs to understand the nature of such barter at every level of consciousness. perhaps, there is a dicey borderline drawn by each b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 239 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences one of us in the process of resolving inner and outer contradictions. i am conscious of myself and become myself only while revealing myself for another, through another, and with the help of another. the most important acts constituting selfconsciousness are determined by a relationship toward another consciousness (toward a thou) … the very being of man (both external and internal) is the deepest communion. to be means to communicate … to be means to be for another, and through the other for oneself. a person has no internal sovereign territory, he is wholly and always on the boundary: looking inside himself, he looks into the eyes of another or with the eyes of another … i cannot manage without another, i cannot become myself without another. (287) the above quoted expression of ‘the self’ reveals the importance of ‘other’ in the formation of one’s identity. whatever ‘i’ expresses is always out of its dialogue with ‘other’ as well as its response to the ‘other’. as pointed out by martin irvin, in bakhtin's view, an expression in a living context of exchange--termed a "word" or "utterance"--is the main unit of meaning. it is formed through a speaker's relation to otherness, that is to say, other people, others' words and expressions, and the lived cultural world in time and place. the postcolonial-postmodernist dialogue of the ‘self’ consists of many such expressions. it occurs both at inner and outer stratum since the postmodernist psychology inheres the internalisation of ‘other’ in the ‘self’ as an ongoing process of identity formulation. situated at the hinge, the conversation may take place within the ‘self’. one is the speaker as well as the listener. who speaks here on behalf of the ‘self’ as the postcolonial-postmodernist condition does not leave any place for b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 240 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences original purity? is it the ‘other voice’ experienced within the ‘self’? does it represent those ‘others’ picked up by the ‘i’ from the outside world. perhaps, it is the same ‘other’ existing in the world without, but knowingly or unknowingly, internalised as a part of the ‘self’. it may be denominated variedly, call it the voice of conscience, or internalised stereotypes, absorbed ideologies or to be more scientific, the domain of human psyche termed ‘superego’ by freud in his theory of psychoanalysis. in simpler terms it is the inner resistance or the acquiescence that rein the flight of the ‘self’ giving it desired direction in response to the question “who am i?” the answer to this question can never be monologic. it is always an outcome of inner dialogic consciousness that confers upon the ‘singularity’ to each individual through a distinct identity to the ‘self’ despite sharing numerous common features with others. illustrating the composition of rare ‘i’ in adiga’s the white tiger let’s probe into the formation of a combinative ‘rarity’ that marks the duality of postcolonial-postmodernist consciousness. it consists in choosing the assumptions that suits to the desired liberation of the ‘self’. the postcolonial-postmodernist ‘self’ appears a proportionate composition of various selections of what one would like to be. textual analysis of adiga’s celebrated work the white tiger demonstrates how it is worked out through a dialogic consciousness. according to bakhtin, the ‘i’ cannot maintain neutrality toward moral and ethical demands which manifest themselves as one’s voice of consciousness. freud’ b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 241 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences classification of id, ego and superego also refers to the same while explaining the structure of psychological sections that rift apart the ‘self’ exhibiting a clash between natural drives and social obligations. yet, it is an accepted dictum that one owes to his own feelings and sentiments. an individual is always committed to the liberation of its ‘self’. while confronting any ‘other’ that liberates the ‘self’ from the pressure of such demands, the ‘self’ moves out from already defined territory. it is drawn to embrace the ‘other’ that attracts it for being unconventional, or unfamiliar, or the ‘different’. it seems alluring on account of its liberalising impact. but such lead is always full of apprehension of dismembering the ‘self’ or robbing of its unity. post modernist psychology frees the ‘self’ from such apprehensions facilitating a free dialogue. since the postmodernist world of mosaic multiplicities offers one immense possibilities to drift from the accustomed ‘self’ through a dialogic process, the intercessions become less restrictive and more open, as well as intense and regular both at internal and outer levels. the ‘self’ is free to negotiate with multiple ‘others’ in its constant reification. it facilitates one’s liberation revising the points of equilibrium attained through dialogic consciousness that constantly shapes the transformed ‘i’. being charged with a fascination to attain completeness, the ‘self’ always remains dialogic. bakhtin’s concepts of the unfinalizable self and the idea of the relationship between the self and others help us to understand this postcolonial-postmodernist psychology. it’s reflection in adiga’s the white tiger becomes apparent when the reader discovers its b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 242 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences protagonist engaged in a continuous dialogue which subscribes to the formulation of his identity. whether addressed to the chinese premier or enacted in his own mind, the protagonist of the novel exposes a dialogue at work, working out the new ‘self’ of its protagonist balram. balram is the emergence of new ‘i’ as a postmodernist individual, at the same time, facilitating the indochinese dialogue of collaborative asian understanding against colonial west. what balram attains at postmodernist level reinforces the postcolonial resistance and denial to neocolonialism. adiga christians balram the white tiger for being rare. what makes him ‘rare’? doesn’t the narrative evince that it is balram himself who bequeaths rarity to his ‘self’. he rejects all the prior definitions imposed upon him by various class and caste metanarratives. same holds true for new third world power like india and china. he represents the true postmodernist construction where meta-narratives crumple down giving way to a significant micro narrative generated out of his dialogue with the organic world around him. it is the dialogue between these two that makes him rare since balram’s uninhibited dialogic consciousness endorses the postcolonial-postmodernist psychology of disbelief in fixed definitions. adiga’s white tiger may be treated as an interesting case study of postcolonial-postmodernist psychology of intercession. the rarity of balram exhibits how we can perceive each individual in relation to the specific socio-cultural code. each ‘self’ in postmodernist condition is rare on account of its b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 243 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences combinative quality. it reiterates postcolonial rhetoric of a new negotiated multicultural identity founded on global consciousness. postcoloniality is an ever evolving dialogue with the west. as the dialogue never closes permanently, multi-layered intercessions reify the self, keeping it always in flux and for that matter, anticipating further and, in fact, continuous transformation. as a postcolonial-postmodernist construction balram epitomises affirmation and negation of dialogic consciousness executed by the ‘self’ as it suits to it in its response to other. it is executed at the level of both person and nation in today’s postcolonialpostmodernist world. since the postmodernist displacement of metanarratives with multiple micro narratives evinces loosening of the conceptions like ethics, morality and many such impositions, postcolonial designates the liberated nationalist assumption within reconstructed global liberation. as a sign of it, one can easily experience how to let the other permeate into or release it from one’s ‘self’ when engaged in dialogue. it, in a way, explains the psychology behind the working of dialogic consciousness. comprehended through the mechanism that always strives to attain a point of equilibrium, postcolonialpostmodernist psychology demonstrates an intersection between yeas and nays. what determines the identity of the ‘self’ in question is the attainment of that point, how so ever momentary. let’s see how it works in the case of balram who reveals his dialogic consciousness in the following expression: one day at a traffic signal, the driver of the car next me lowered the window and spat out: he had been chewing paan, and a vivid red puddle of expectorate splashed on the hot midday road and festered there like a living thing, spreading b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 244 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences and sizzling. a second later, he spat again-and now there was a second puddle on the road. i stared at the two puddles of red, spreading spitand then: the left-hand puddle of spit seemed to say: your father wanted you to be an honest man. mr. ashok does not hit you or spit on you, like people did to your father. mr. ashok pays you well, 4,000 rupees a month. he has been raising your salary without your even asking. remember what the buffalo did to his servant’s family. mr. ashok will ask his father to do the same to your family once you run away. but the right-hand puddle of spit seemed to say: your father wanted you to be a man. mr. ashok made you take the blame when his wife killed that child on the road. this is a pittance. you live in a city. what do you save? nothing. the very fact that mr. ashok threatens your family makes your blood boil. i turned my face away from, the red puddles. i looked at the red bag sitting in the centre of my rearview mirror, like the exposed heart of the honda city. (adiga, pg. 245-46) it is the cleft in the ‘self’. it is the part of the ‘self’ trying to shed the ideological burdens of ethics and morality imposed upon it by socio-political norms. these norms anticipate each to follow the rules laid down for classified group or social stratum that structure the system. certain well defined behaviour pattern is expected from each one to make the system work. ‘self’ is pressurised to follow the normative lines that identifies one’s ‘self’ with a particular class or categorisation. only that makes one fit in the system. balram was planning to murder his master for no apparent personal consciously done mistake by him. now what matters most is to understand how far his innocent master resembles the innocent neo-colonial hegemony. this pretended b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 245 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences innocence is to be exterminated for the realisation of a truly liberated ‘self’. so, it was his psychological need to justify his intended act otherwise how will he define his ‘self’ in the light of his acts. it reminds well known african american artist richard wright’s seminal work native son the protagonist of which also undergoes the same dialogic process in defining himself in the context of outside world. such dialogue consists of what he thinks of himself in response to what others think of him. he also undertakes the liberation of ‘self’ which inheres a dialogic nature talking to itself and finding who’s, why’s and how’s of the happenings. how can he justify his present action with special reference to the injustices done to his ‘self’ in the past? the internal quietening extends to the world without, turning into a passionately heated dialogue with the society. the author himself appears intensely engaged in the dialogue raising the question if it is possible to find out an ideological solution of racial debate prevalent in america. adiga’s white tiger balram resembles wrtight’s native son bigger since both exemplifies the dialogic consciousness of the ‘self’ that defines it. their dialogue within the ‘self’ represents a well composed heteroglot. whether it is 20 th century american bigger or 21 st century indian balram, their ‘self’ consists of various voices from different sources, be it social, political, economic, religious, moral or ethical institution of the society. the difference simply lies in the focus and intentionality of the dialogue that dramatises its fictional representation in the text. in wright’s case it is racial oppression whereas adiga picks up the b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 246 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences class conflict underlying the contemporary capitalistic democracy of a developing third world. both of them bring out the psychological underpinnings that shape the behaviour pattern of human character. bakhtin’s concept of dialogic imagination helps to explain the postcolonial-postmodernist psychology of conflicting ideas that simultaneously dwell in consciousness driving the individual ‘self’ into different directions. since the postcolonialpostmodernist world is seen as a fragmented whole, an individual mind turns into a fragmentary composition of ideas. there is neither certainty nor finality. values change with the time; meaning alters with the place; and the text varies with the context since there is no meta-narrative to supply the defined norms. it is the epoch of multiple micro narratives involved in a never ending dialogue. the postcolonial-postmodernist ‘self’ absorbs this dialogue placing itself in relation to the multiple ‘others’ that shape today’s multicultural, multi-linguistic, multireligious, and multi-ethical society. and finally, at any given moment, languages of various epochs and periods of socio-ideological life cohabit with one another... thus at any given moment of its historical existence, language is heteroglot from top to bottom: it represents the coexistence of socio-ideological contradictions between the present and the past, between differing epochs of the past, between different socio-ideological groups in the present, between tendencies, schools, circles and so forth, all given a bodily form... therefore languages do not exclude each other, but rather intersect with each other in many different ways. (dialogic imagination, pg. 291) in the context of the white tiger adiga’s protagonist finds it difficult to obliterate the voice of past existing in his b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 247 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences consciousness in the form of his father’s image and words spoken by him. but he has to resolve the debate to ensure a concrete action. decision is to be taken in either/or and it is important since it is closely associated with the question of the liberation of the ‘self’ from multiple others imposed upon the consciousness of balram. in the words of bakhtin, "the word lives, as it were, on the boundary between its own context and another, alien, context." (dialogic imagination, pg. 284). balram’s dialogic imagination differentiates between ‘honest man’ and ‘man’ in a subtle manner. in the perception of his ‘self’ an honest man can never become a man given the relative position of his ‘self’ to the ‘others’. he makes the language of his ‘self’ an instrument to express his dissension with his defined status and role. it is very much required for its liberation. he constructs a different and contextualised meaning in his expression to himself since the ‘addressivity’ and ‘answerability’ both lie in one’s own perception. it is his own self that engages in the conversation with itself, hence the meaning is to be constructed as well as understood from two different stands. neutral dictionary meanings of the words of a language ensure their common features and guarantee that all speakers of a given language will understand one another, but the use of words in live speech communication is always individual and contextual in nature. (sp e e c h ge nr e s a nd other la te e ssa ys p.88) an author uses various narrative techniques to bring in the dialogic consciousness of the ‘self’. sometimes it takes the form of interior monologue and at other times it simply flows along the stream of consciousness embroiled in the inner thoughts and b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 248 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences opinions of the person in question. whatever the case, it ultimately exhibits the acceptance and rejection of the ‘other’ by the ‘self’. there is adequate complexity in postmodern fiction of the 1980s and 1990s to trace those internal dialectics of complicity and immanent critique without anticipating some ‘unimaginable new mode of representation’ which will somehow make it all easier for us. (the fiction of postmodernity, p. 56) perhaps, it illustrates the complexity of the postcolonialpostmodernist ‘self’ reflected in the fictional works of post 1950s indian literary tradition. postcolonial-postmodernist deconstruction: towards a borderless world besides the negotiations of macro and micro narratives enacted in the multilayered consciousness of the postcolonialpostmodernist self, the intercessional psychology is to be understood at the level of collective consciousness too. since it is the shared sensibilities that give birth to typical inclinations and collective responses, one is required to decipher the formation of group identity. how are the group identities formed? are these fully proportional to the erection or corrosion of various sociopolitical constructs? caused by the emergence of new sensibilities, and performed at community level, indeed these are always subject to altercation. the changed perception of the postcolonial-postmodernist world serves as a demonstration of its deconstructive nature which makes it conducive to the notion of ever changing space-time continuum. b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 249 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences to test the validity of the argument let’s take up a case study of the novel the shadow lines (1988) penned down by the indianbengali writer amitav ghosh. the novel brings out the intricacies of the deconstructive psychology that shapes the virtual reality of the contemporary world. in this world one finds it hard to demarcate the ‘real’ and ‘virtual’. founded on the conception, the novel exquisitely illustrates bakhtin’s questioning of the significance or non-significance of borderlines. demarcation always anticipates division, and division leads to dialogue. does the dialogue generated out of civilizational coding and categorised divisions manifest the working of postmodernist collective consciousness? since the dialogue anticipates a connection, its possibility right away ruptures the idea of segmentation implied in all kind of divisions. constant blurring of the boundaries through such dialogic consciousness explicates the postcolonialpostmodernist move from local to global. the image of the global citizen represents an all inclusive collective identity. it reflects the cumulative projection of a fractured identity caught in the precariousness of negotiating zone. ghosh’s novel the shadow lines interlaces the life of a young boy growing up in calcutta and later on in delhi and london. the narrator adores tridib because of his tremendous knowledge and his perspective of the incidents and places. he loves listening to tridib because tridib's lore is very different from the collection of facts and figures. narrator’s grandmother called tha'mma has a dreadful past and wants to reunite her b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 250 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences family and goes to dhaka to bring back her uncle. later tridbib gets killed by frenzied mob in the communal riots of 1963-64 in dhaka in his attempt to rescue her love may. the novel aptly epitomises the cleft experienced in the new global world emerging out of postcolonial-postmodernist sensibility. those who live that experience pass through a dilemma of being placed between local and global. the postcolonial-postmodernist reality of the world marked with an implicated diasporic consciousness shatters the unity of nationalist identity codified in the ‘self’ in terms of political geography. it is the part of the consciousness that identifies the elements of national as well as cultural ‘otherness’. how does the postcolonial-postmodernist self react to it? what experience does it undergo? it is interestingly captured in the broodings of the narrator of the shadow lines, whose narration captures the dialogic consciousness. the novel evinces the disjointed perspective of time and events, of lines that bring people together and hold them apart, lines that are clearly visible from one perspective and nonexistent from another, lines that exist in the memory of one, and therefore in another's imagination and so on. the author seems to believe that these are the lines that fragment the unified ‘self’ of an individual. the postcolonial-postmodernist psychology lies in questioning all those non-existent lines which are made to appear real, so compelling as well as appalling. it is a postcolonial-postmodernist dialogue between the ‘real’ and the ‘virtual’ as in postmodernist discourse, or ‘real’ and the b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 251 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences ‘imaginary’ in terms of postcolonial diaspora. how much can one believe in these nonexistent lines that demarcate the regions called ‘mine’ and ‘others’. perceived from the global perspective, the dialogue immediately deconstructs all the meta-narratives pertaining to the nationalist constructions of the world. as exhibited in the following passage: the narrator’s grandmother in the shadow lines exemplifies nationalist attitudes towards time and space. she passionately values the idea of a national tradition ... linked to this history teacher’s idealization of tradition is her naive faith in national borders. not realising that borders in maps are conventional constructions, she wonders when she flies back to her home in east pakistan like “the long black line with green on one side and scarlet on the other... in a school atlas.” (“the contradictory sexual politics of the shadow lines”, pp. 117-18) can one trust the demarcations made out of defined territories? in the later stage of postcolonial-postmodernist world where the boundaries of the nations appear shattering down, one is robbed of one’s beliefs in one’s nationalist culture. the whole experience seems disarming and weakening in which a major part of one’s ‘self’ formulated by immediate cultural forces appear cracking down. the text of the novel reconstructs the shadow lines drawn on the map calling into question the very veracity of those defined lines. it throws back to the defined domains of human psyche. evoking a corollary, it draws the segmented psychological realms of human mind. but, how far even these cerebral lines are to be trusted? don’t these also reproduce the feigned image of shadow lines in one’s ‘self’? being constituted of the multiple impressions of ‘otherness’ which assimilate in the formulation of the ‘self, how can one rely only on one’s own b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 252 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences history or celebrated nationalist culture of first phase of postcolonial for define one’s ‘self’? tidib’s model symbolises this distrust: if in a cartesian epistemological model, the observing subject disinterestedly observes the object, and if in one version of nationalist epistemology, historical knowledge is material that is appropriated for the national good, in tridib’s model, the observing subject is unmanned by his desire for the otherness of knowledge. (“the contradictory sexual politics of the shadow lines” p. 123) the narrative of the novel is built out of an intricate, constantly crisscrossing web of memories of many people. it invites the reader to invent an embedded spokespersonship, drawing out of the memories of those involved. presenting a dialogue among the memories that hold mirrors of differing shades to the same experience, it reflects how the dialogic ‘self’ expresses itself out of a precarious negotiation of ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ on the one hand and ‘real’ and ‘imaginary’ on the other. the dialogue lies in weaving the discourse making use of the impressions accumulated and assorted at the level of collective consciousness. conclusion in fact, living in today’s era means living with differences and dissensions, which doubt the very foundation of the existence of these differences. postcolonial-postmodernist literary discourses bring out the characters which represent this tendency of subversion. they appear grappling with the inner dissensions especially when found themselves standing in negotiated zones. it is the dialogic zone constituted of either the multiple viewpoints b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 253 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences of the ‘self’ or the contradictory traits of multiple cultural constructions. as a 21 st century world citizen, one may feel the affinity with the characters like balram, tridib or the middle class growing boy narrator of ghosh’s the shadow lines, who defy the stability of monologue. at the same time formulating and resisting their own parameters, they rebel against any kind of ‘fixity’. it subverts the very idea of the ‘definite’. their emotional and ideological dilemma represent the postcolonial-postmodernist psychology which questions various social and cultural norms evoking a dialogue between freedom and restrictions, ethical and unethical, individual and social, and real and ‘virtual’ versus real and ‘imaginary’. it is an everlasting quest for refined version of human civilisation that can reflect the true spirit of the postcolonial-postmodernist world. as reflected in the post 1950s indian fiction, it always evokes a dialogue posing some very essential questions regarding the contemporary reality: it (postmodernist fiction) foregrounds and thus contests the conventionality and unacknowledged ideology of the assumption of seamlessness and asks its readers to question the process by which we represent ourselves and our world to ourselves and to become aware of the means by which we make sense of and construct order out of experience in our particular culture. (th e p o litic s o f p o stmod e rn ism, pp . 5 3 -5 4) indeed, as above quoted words reveal, it is simply the short term representations that assume any sense or order realised by one at individual or collective level. in today’s world of negotiating differences, it always remains impossible to reach to the final resolution that can assert of monologic unity. bakhtin’s disclaiming of the possibility of finalisation enunciates the open b. sharma bakhtinian consciousness in new indian literature 254 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences ended nature of the dialogue. it may disappoint one but an assumption of paving way to a unified systematically structured realisation of complete ‘self’ is merely a deception. hence the postcolonial-postmodernist ‘self’ is bound to remain floated. affirming finality through accepting the possibility of unity being materialised through transcending differences somewhere will betray the true psychological underpinnings of new world. references adiga, arvind. the white tiger. new delhi: harper collins, 2008. print. baker, stephen. the fiction of postmodernity. ediburgh: edinburgh university press, 2000. print. b a khtin, m ikha il. th e di a log ic i mag ina tion : f ou r e ssa y s. au stin: unive r sit y o f t e xa s pr e ss, 19 92 . pr int. ___ the dialogical imagination. ed. and trans. c. emerson and m. holquist. austin: university of texas p, 1981 _ _ _ s p e ec h ge n re s an d oth e r la te e ssa y s. t r a ns. ve r n w . m c ge e. austin, t x: unive r sity o f t e xa s pr e ss, 1 98 6 . p r int. ___problems of dostoevsky’s poetics. trans. c. emerson. minneapolis: university of minnesota press,1984. da silva, stephen. “‘tridib’s gastric’: the contradictory sexual politics of the shadow lines”. postcolonial indian fiction in english and masulanity. ed. rajeshwar mittapalli and letizia alterno. new delhi: atlantic publishers, 2009. print. ghosh, amitav. the shadow lines. new delhi: penguin books, 1988. print. hutc he o n, li nd a . th e p o litic s o f p o stmode rn ism. lo nd o n: ro utle d ge , 19 89 . p r int. wright, richard. native son. new york: perennial, 2003. print. alma jeftic.pdf � � ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 ethics and dualism in contemporary psychology: from avicenna and descartes to neuroscience alma jefti� ∗∗∗∗ abstract from avicenna and descartes a long debate on the role of mind-body dilemma has left a huge impact on ethics of psychological research. that is especially applicable on researches that include both human and non-human participants, as well as their limitations and constraints that are connected to ethical principles. however, these principles are closely related to the interpretation of mind-body dilemma, which depends on different understandings of connection between soul and senses. the purpose of this paper is to examine the major impact of well-known “mind-body” dualism on ethics in psychological researches, with special emphasis on neuropsychology and neuroscience in general, as well as major constraints related to that dillema. the thought experiment has been recognized as a precursor to rene descartes’ famous ‘cogito ergo sum’, as well as his body-mind dilemma. however, avicenna's argument is more intended to demonstrate conceptually that aristotle’s empirical axiom “there is nothing in the mind which was not first in the senses” is mistaken, since there is at least one thing in the mind which is not contingent upon experience, and that is self-awareness. the major contribution of this paper is the inclusion of two philosophical debates on mind-body dilemma while considering ethical approaches to neuropsychological research on both human and non-human participants. keywords: ethics; neuroscience; dualism; mind-body dillema; human and non-human participants ����������������������������������������������������������� ∗ �corresponding author: alma jefti�, phd candidate, university of belgrade; e-mail: ajeftic@ius.edu.ba� (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� �)� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� introduction according to avicenna theoretical psychology lies outside the province of the physician qua physician. in his experiment which he called the “flying man” or the ‘floating’ man, found at the beginning of his fi’-nafs/de anima (treatise on the soul), he asks us to imagine a human being with absolutely no sensory experience. according to avicenna's opinion, the only thing this person with no experiences would know is that she/he himself exists. therefore, person would be aware of herself/himself (selfaware) quite apart from experiences of other things which stand in some relation to her/him. the thought experiment has been recognized as a precursor to rene descartes’ famous ‘cogito ergo sum’, as well as his body-mind dilemma. however, avicenna's argument is more intended to demonstrate conceptually that aristotle’s empirical axiom “there is nothing in the mind which was not first in the senses” is mistaken, since there is at least one thing in the mind which is not contingent upon experience, and that is selfawareness. suspended in such a state, person is not able to affirm the existence of her/his body because she/he is not empirically aware of it, thus the argument may be seen as affirming the independence of the soul from the body, a form of dualism. however, there is a subject that is thinking, so she/he cannot doubt that self exists therefore the argument can be seen as an (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� �*� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� affirmation of the self-awareness of the soul and its substantiality. this argument does raise an objection, which may be applicable to different understandings of ethics in neuroscientific research: how do we know that the knowing subject is the self and what the major differences and ethical constraints between human and nonhuman participants are. avicenna's psychology and descartes' dualism avicenna's interest in classical psychology is primarily embodied in the kitab al-nafs parts of his kitab al-shifa' (the book of healing) and kitab al-najat (the book of deliverance), which were known in latin under the title de anima. the main thesis of these tracts is represented in his “thought experiment”, also known as "flying man" argument, which resonates with what was centuries later entailed by descartes's cogito argument (nader el-bizri, 2003). avicenna's psychology requires that connection between the body and soul should be strong enough to ensure the soul's individuation, but weak enough to allow for its immortality (rahman, 1981, 40). his psychology is based on physiology, which reveals that his understanding of the soul is one that deals almost entirely with the natural science of the body and its abilities of perception. therefore, the major connection between the soul and body is explained by his understanding of perception, (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� �#� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� where bodily perception interrelates with the immaterial human intellect (rahman, 1981, 40). the perceiver senses the form of the object first by perceiving features of the object by our external senses, but sensory information is supplied to the internal senses, which merge all the pieces into a whole, unified conscious experience. this process of perception and abstraction is the nexus of the soul and body, for the material body may only perceive material objects, while the immaterial soul may only receive the immaterial, universal forms, therefore the soul and body interact in the final abstraction of the universal (rahman, 1981, 41). the soul completes the action of intellection by accepting forms that have been abstracted from matter, which means that a concrete particular (material) must be abstracted into the universal intelligible (immaterial) (rahman, 1981, 68-69). both of them continue interaction through the active intellect, which is a "divine light" containing the intelligible forms (rahman, 1981, 68-69). reason is designed material (or hylic), possible or habitual, and it may be called “material” either in the pure sense, by analogy with the pure matter, which in itself is entirely formless but is the substratum of all possible forms (fakhry, 2004, 145). the most lasting legacies of descartes’ philosophy are his thesis that mind and body are really distinct entities. that thesis is (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� � � ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� now called “mind-body dualism”. he argues that the nature of the mind is completely different from that of the body, and therefore it is possible for one to exist without the other. this argument gives rise to some of the intriguing questions, such as: how can the mind cause some of our bodily limbs to move, and how can the body’s sense organs cause sensations in the mind. in the second meditation, descartes argues that he is “thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling, and also imagines and has sensory perceptions” (descartes, 1985, 19). neither a mind can be understood to be shaped or in motion, nor can a body understand or sense anything. however, human beings are combinations of mind and body such that the mind’s choices can cause modes of motion in the body, and motions in certain bodily organs. according to descartes, a clear and distinct understanding of the mind without the body exists. since the mind must have a surface and a capacity for motion, the mind must also be extended and, therefore, mind and body are not completely different. even though he never described this problem clearly, descartes himself never took this issue very seriously: “these questions presuppose amongst other things an explanation of the union between the soul and the body, which i have not yet dealt with at all. but i will say, for your benefit at least, that the whole problem contained in such questions arises simply from a supposition that is false and cannot in any way be proved, namely that, if the soul and the body are two substances whose nature is different, this (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� �"� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� prevents them from being able to act on each other.” (descartes 1985, 275). it is evident that his response to mind-body problem presupposes an explanation of the union between these two entities, as well as the false presupposition that two substances with completely different natures cannot act on each other. „flying man“ vs „cogito“ one cannot fail to note the striking similarities between the flying man and rene descartes' cogito six centuries later (kaukua, 2007, 14). avicenna's most general definition of the soul conceives it as a perfection of a living body, but it is important to allow differences between the souls of animals and plants on the one hand, and the souls of human beings and the celestian spheres on the other hand (kaukua, 2007, 24). avicenna’s epistemology is based on a theory of soul that is independent of the body and capable of abstraction. this proof for the self in many ways prefigures by 600 years the cartesian cogito and the modern philosophical notion of the self (black, 2008, 65). it somehow demonstrates the aristotelian base and neoplatonic structure of his psychology. the so-called ‘flying man’ argument or thought experiment found at the beginning of his fi’-nafs/de anima (treatise on the soul) can serve as one of the examples: “we say: one of us must imagine himself as creates all at once an perfect but with his sight veiled from observing (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� �+� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� external things, and as created floating in the air or the void so that he would not encounter air resistance which he would have to sense, and with his limbs separate from each other in such a way that they neither meet nor touch each other. he must then reflect upon (the question) whether he would affirm the existence of his essence…” (rahman 1959, 36) the main question is: if a person were created in a perfect state, but blind and suspended in the air but unable to perceive anything through his senses, would he be able to affirm the existence of his self? suspended in such a state, he cannot affirm the existence of his body because he is not empirically aware of it, thus the argument may be seen as affirming the independence of the soul from the body, which represents a form of dualism. but in that state he cannot doubt that his self exists because there is a subject that is thinking, thus the argument can be seen as an affirmation of the self-awareness of the soul and its substantiality (black, 2008, 66). the same objection may also be posed at descartes: how do we know that the knowing subject is the self? this rational self possesses faculties or senses in a theory that begins with aristotle and develops through neoplatonism. according to avicenna, the first sense is common sense, the second sense is imagination, the third sense is the imaginative faculty, the fourth sense is estimation, and the final sense is where the ideas produced are stored and analyzed and ascribed meanings based upon the production of the imaginative faculty and estimation (fakhry, 2004). (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� �$� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� the last move in avicenna’s “thought experiment” is slightly problematic, since it seems to contain the obviously fallacious inference pattern, “if i know x but i do not know y, then x cannot be the same as y” (black, 2008, 11). the question of whether avicenna explicitly or implicitly commits this fallacy, (which is often laid against the cartesian cogito as well), has been much discussed. however, while the flying man argument focuses primarily on the impossibility that self-awareness is a mode of sense perception, the primitive character of the experience exemplified in the flying man poses parallel and equal difficulties for the claim that it could be a mode of intellectual understanding as well (black 2008, 12). ethics of human soul avicenna’s particular interest was in the persistence of the soul’s consciousness of itself and its identity throughout the changing cycle of psychic conditions and states, from dreaming to intoxication to sleep (fakhry, 2004, 164). according to him, even if the soul is supposed to have been suspended in the air, and without any contact with the body or the external world, it would still be fully unconscious of anything but the fact of its existence. by this fact, existence and identity are achieved at once. the soul itself is the basis, of the entire motive, cognitive or the vital functions we associate with it, and as such is logically prior to all these functions (fakhry, 2004, 164). this concept is (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� �,� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� pretty similar to descartes’ cogito, and the similarity has been noted by many scholars. also, both aristotle and plotinus had insisted on the unity or identity of the soul and the fact that, in its inner and outer functions, motive and cognitive, it is diversified purely accidentally (fakhry, 2004, 164). avicenna claims that human souls are subsistent entities in their own right, and yet, since there are multiple individuals in the species “human”, those individuals can only been distinguished from one another by the diversity of their matter (black, 2008, 77). but in that situation, what is happening to the souls of both human and non-human participants in neuropsychological researches? is there possibility for researcher to distinguish causes and effects, or, to be sure that the knowing subject is aware? are there difference between human and animal self-awareness, and, in the same line, differences in ethical principles that should be applied before conducting neuropsychological research on human and/or non-human participants? according to the ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct (2010), “psychologist conducting intervention research involving the use of experimental treatments clarify to participants at the outset of the research (1) the experimental nature of the treatment; (2) the services that will or will not be available to the control group(s) if appropriate; (3) the means by which assignment to treatment and control groups will be made; (4) available treatment alternatives if an individual does not whish (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� ��� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� to participate in the research or wishes to withdraw once a study has begun; and (5) compensation for or monetary costs of participating including, if appropriate, whether reimbursement from the participant or a third –party payor will be sought” (standards 8.02b, research and publication, informed consent to research). however, there is no informed consent when it comes to the non-human participants, but the ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct (2010) contains parts describing “human care and use of animals in research”, as follows: (a) psychologists acquire, care for, use, and dispose of animals in compliance with current federal, state and local laws and regulations, and with professional standards. (b) psychologists trained in research methods and experienced in the care of laboratory animals supervise all procedures involving animals and are responsible for ensuring appropriate consideration of their comfort, health and humane treatment. (c) psychologists ensure that all individuals under their supervision who are using animals have received instruction in research methods and in the care, maintenance and handling of the species being used, to the extent appropriate to their role. (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� ��� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� (d) psychologists make reasonable efforts to minimize the discomfort, infection, illness and pain of animal subjects. (e) psychologists use a procedure subjecting animals to pain, stress or privation only when an alternative procedure is unavailable and the goal is justified by its prospective scientific, educational or applied value. (f) psychologists perform surgical procedures under appropriate anesthesia and follow techniques to avoid infection and minimize pain during and after surgery. (g) when it is appropriate that an animal's life be terminated, psychologists proceed rapidly, with an effort to minimize pain and in accordance with accepted procedures. however, it is evident that research ethics of non-human participants relies upon discomfort, illness, harms, while research ethics of human participants includes informed consent and basic information on research provided by researcher. ethical standards do not include data on human and non-human souls, “knowing subject” and its ability to inform researcher of his/her/its states of awareness, as well as ethical considerations of interpretations of research results. it is a commonplace in the history of philosophy that issues surrounding self-awareness, consciousness, and selfknowledge do not become prominent until the early modern period, since for medieval philosophers, particularly those in the aristotelian tradition, the nature of self-knowledge plays only an (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� �)� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� ancillary role in psychology and epistemology (black, 2008, 63). this is a natural consequence of aristotle’s characterization of the intellect as a pure capacity that has no nature of its own, therefore self-knowledge for aristotle is derivative upon knowledge of other things, and thought is itself thinkable in exactly the same way as its objects are (black 2008, 64). states of awareness: how do we know that the knowing subject is the self? avicenna recognizes two distinct levels of self-knowledge, the most basic of which is exemplified in the experience of the flying man, which deborah black labeled “primitive selfawareness” (black, 2008, 69). primitive self-awareness violates many of the structures placed on self-knowledge by the aristotelian principles, and avicenna differentiates it from the reflexive awareness of oneself via one’s awareness of an object that is characteristic of aristotelianism (black, 2008, 69). he also distinguishes primitive self-awareness from our knowledge of our bodies and psychological faculties and from our scientific understanding of our essential natures as humans; and he explicitly recognizes the capacity for “knowing that we know” as a distinctive form of self-knowledge (black, 2008, 70). it remains unclear whether avicenna is able to provide a coherent account of the relations among primitive self-awareness and the other varieties of self-knowledge that he inherits from the (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� �*� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� aristotelian tradition, but the broad contours of the flying man are generally well-known. through that experiment, avicenna identifies two fundamental sources of sense knowledge: everything previously acquired from experience, that is, all knowledge anchored in memory and imagination, and any ocurrent sensations (black, 2008, 70). avicenna beliefs that no one would deny that his/her awareness of himself/herself would remain stable even in these conditions, therefore the subject would continue to affirm the existence of his self. despite the fact that all sense perception is cut off, person is aware of his/her existence, and affirmation of our existence cannot be dependent upon the experience of having a body. avicenna thus concludes that since “it is not possible for the thing of which one is aware and not aware to be one in any respect,” it follows that the self cannot be either the whole body nor any one of its parts (black, 2008, 74). insofar as the growth of the human body involves development of its faculties, and insofar as consequent changes in self-world relations are brought about through learning based on both exteroception and proprioception, these changes concern the corresponding dispositions in the intellect (kaukua, 2007, 143). corporeal awareness relies on perceptual functions (e.g., tactile, proprioceptive, gravitational, visual) and motor programs for bodily actions (knoblich et al., 2006, 171). also, picture of other people’s bodies give rise to physical and emphatic responses in a (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� )#� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� way that no text can produce (knoblich et al., 2006, 136). experimental paradigms have proves useful in elucidating the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying phantom-limb experiences, especially for the hemiphantom or phantom halfbody (the experience of a defferented/deefferente half of one’s body as an entity living a life on its own, and autoscopic phenomena in which one’s entire body is experienced as a phantom (knoblich et al., 2006, 172). according to avicenna, there are four basic requirements related to the concept of self-awareness: radical temporal continuity of self-awareness, non-reflectivity of self-awareness, immediacy of self-awareness, and lack of inherent objective content of self-awareness (kaukua 2007, 102). however, avicennian animals are capable of intentional apprehension of perceptible objects, therefore one can assume he is not denying the primitive type of self-awareness in animals (kaukua, 2007, 112). if phenomenality is taken as a mental feature. then descartes would have to deny any kind of awareness from animals and argues that animals can feel but that there is no sense of what it is like in this animal capacity of feeling (morris 2000). however, difference between avicenna and descartes is quite obvious, and avicennian animals are more “aristotelian” animate beings. if animals are primitively self-aware in much the same sense as humans, than it seems they should both adhere to the same ethical standards and guidelines prior to neuropsychological (����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� ) � ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� research. since animals cannot provide informed consent, experiments should be organized in a way to include zero harm. however, interpretation of results and conclusions should be analyzed seriously, since one cannot be sure if the knowing subject(s) is(are) the self. whereas in humans the account of primitive self-awareness was most intimately connected to the individuated existence of the incorporeal human soul, this cannot be true of animals whose souls are material souls (kaukua 2007, 114). however, there is no essential difference between animal and human self-awareness. the only difference that should be taken into account is that human self-awareness possesses capacity of taking itself as object of consideration (kaukua 2007, 117). conclusion the main purpose of this essay was to examine different approaches to human soul and self-awareness provided by avicenna and descartes in order to examine its influence on ethics of neuropsychological researches conducted on both human and non-human participants. according to the ethical standards informed consent is necessary for human participants, while researches conducted on non-human participants should exclude harm and life-threatening situations (same is for human participants as well). however, differences between human and animal soul according to avicennian psychology do not imply huge differences when it comes to ethical standards and guidelines for human and non(����� �������������������������������������������������������� � ��������� �� ���������������� �������� )"� ��������������������������������������� ��������������� ��� ��!"# $%�&�'���� �����(� ���������������������� human participants. since awareness is in its essence innate, knowing subject should be considered as a soul that is aware if its action in governing the body of both humans and non-humans. therefore, the interpretation of neuropsychological experiments as well as results should be analyzed through the constraints of researcher to understand the dualism of mind and body united in self-awareness of knowing subject. references black, deborah. “avicenna on self-awareness and knowing that one knows”. the unity of science in arabic tradition. logic, epistemology, and the unity of science, vol 11. ed. rahman, shahid, street, tony, and tahiri, hassan. kluwer academic publishers, 2008, 63-67. descartes, rene. the philosophical writings of descartes, 3 vols., (trans. john cottingham, robert stoothoff, dugald murdoch and anthony kenny). cambridge: cambridge university press, 1984-1991. el-bizri, nader. "avicenna's de anima between aristotle and husserl". the passions of the soul in the metamorphosis of becoming. ed. annateresa tymieniecka. dordrecht: kluwer academic publishers, 2003, 67-89. ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. adopted august 21, 2002; effective june 1, 2003. with the 2010 amendments. american psychological association. fakhry, majid. a history of islamic philosophy. new york: columbia university press, 2004. kaukua, jari. avicenna on subjectivity. a philosophical study. yivaskyla: university of yivaskyla, 2007. knoblich, gunther, thornton, ian m., grosjean, marc, and shiffrar, maggie. human body perception from inside out. london: oxford university press, 2006. morris, katherine. “bethes machines”. descartes natural philosophy. ed. gaukroger, stephen et al. london: routledge, 2000, 401-419. rahman, f. avicenna's psychology. an english translation of kit�b al-naj�t, book ii, chapter vi, with historico-philosophical notes and textual improvements on the cairo edition. london: oxford university press, 1981. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border in the post-cold war era lynn m. tesser * abstract borders in central and eastern europe witnessed stark changes in recent decades. frontiers went from high security zones during the cold war to far more open borders as socialism retreated. yet, the subsequent eastward shift of the european union‟s schengen border control system returned some borders to high security status, with only a few later shedding such status as the system moved further eastwards. beyond discerning how the schengen border undercuts the eu‟s effort to promote non-discrimination and other liberal values, this article also shows how schengen holds the power to further entrench perceptions of ethnic hierarchy. keywords: central europe, eastern europe, borders, schengen, eu enlargement, nationalism, national identity, liberalism * corresponding author: dr. lynn m. tesser, independent researcher l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [184] introduction during the socialist era, borders across central and eastern europe (cee) tended to be high security zones with minimal cross border traffic. it was a stark contrast to communist elites‟ professed „friendship‟ between socialist countries. such strict controls did little to further amicable relations among those separated by borders. when no longer subject to the contradiction between the „socialist brotherhood‟ rhetoric of the communist era coinciding with intensive border policing, newfound freedom of movement catalyzed many incidents of intolerance. visa-free travel nevertheless soon allowed border residents to see that their fears about each other were overblown and, more importantly, to get accustomed to ethnic intermingling as a regular, everyday occurrence. after five years of relative openness, several borders in east-central europe such as the polish-german and czech-german borders were once again subject to substantial increases in policing with the eastward movement of the eu‟s outer schengen frontier. established towards the end of the cold war, „schengen‟ refers to the eu‟s well-fortified outer border control system largely designed to soothe west european fears of sizeable population movements from the east and south. formally speaking, it is an intergovernmental convention among consenting eu member states that lays down common rules for customs, visa, asylum, police, and border control. the construction of this „hard‟ outer frontier has not only been a key part of western europe‟s post-cold war security policy, it has also been instrumental for promoting free movement within „schengenland‟ and the idea of creating a „europe of the regions.‟ in april 1998, the austrian-hungarian, austrian-czech, and italianslovenian borders also became hard borders after earlier schengen signatories judged austria and italy fit to conduct the required policing – at least until the czech republic, hungary and slovenia themselves joined schengenland in 2007. taking the polish-german border as an example, evidence of heightened policing comes from the fact that the number of german personal working in border control and funding allotted for this task went from 24,982 and dm 1.3 million ($ 650,000) in 1989 to 40,100 and dm 2.9 million ($ 1.45 million) in 1997 (bort 1999: 84). yet, the schengen system holds the drawbacks for promoting the liberal values central to eu non-discrimination policy for at least two reasons: l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [185] (1) cee countries have had to adopt the system while several older eu member states have the right to opt out, and (2) schengen ironically replicates in a way the illiberal soviet-era border regime (though not within the single market itself). the eu, in fact, only finally established the „wider europe‟ initiative in march 2003 to deal more systematically with its new neighbors. rather diplomatically problematic, however, was the document‟s tendency to associate the western cis with the middle east and north africa (ukraine, poland 2003: 1), an idea congruent with what wojciech sadurski has called the veritable return of the menacing „tartar hordes‟ in the european popular imagination (sadurski 2002: a9). beyond replicating some soviet border control practices, the lack of flexibility in regard to incoming states – particularly when the eu offered present members flexible options – does not breed respect for liberal values and suggests a second class status for new and incoming states. that the eu allows the uk, ireland, and denmark to be partially outside the schengen system (and non-members such as iceland and norway to be partially in) signals a stark difference in treatment. prior to poland‟s joining the schengen zone, wojciech sadurski reflected on the situation in rzeczpospolita: in the past, new member states had easier demands: the schengen system was not as rigorously tied to the conditions of membership. for example, in spite of italy and greece‟s membership in the eu these countries had to wait seven years to be accepted to schengen because for that long the other signatories did not truly trust in their ability to defend the borders. in our case – without certain border security (according to eu criteria) there would not be talk of joining the club. a great asymmetry rules relations between the eu and us that we have to realize and that is particularly apparent in relation to borders and immigration. everything indicates that the eu precedes with seriousness and distrust to our – and in the future their – borders. the costs to the candidate countries will be high. we pay the price of unavoidable decline of border trade while the hungarians‟ require exit visas for hungarians living in romania (sadurski 2002: a9). border trade is key in economically depressed border regions with borders serving as both markers and reinforcers of economic difference. l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [186] hungary faces the rather unique situation of schengen dividing the country from sizeable hungarian minorities in romania and in serbia‟s vojvodina – until at least romania joins the schengen system. this article concentrates on poland and hungary as these countries had to make sizeable preparations on their borders for the shifting schengen system. it has several aims: (1) to show why schengen fits rather awkwardly in post-cold war cee, namely because it was a product of another time and place; (2) to demonstrate that schengen‟s implementation only furthered ethnic hierarchies – in earlier times at the czech-german and polish-german borders and still at the hungarianromanian and polish-ukrainian borders; and finally (3) to show that schengen‟s inadvertent reinforcement of the idea of creating a „europe of the regions‟ suggests a changing balance of power among europe‟s less historically secure nationalities that can appear threatening. in fact, the position of hungary – with the main hungarian center-right party using eu expansion as a means to reunify the hungarian nation – could become especially problematic if interpreted as a security concern for romania and slovakia. european integration can amplify what zsuzsa csergő and james goldgeier have labeled „transsovereign nationalism‟ (csergő and goldgeier 2004: 26) – a form of nationalist politics in which a national centers (such as budapest) develop specific institutions and policies that reinforce and even increase the sense of shared nationhood linking the state (hungary) with kin next door (hungarians in romania, slovakia, etc.). history explains why the idea of creating a „europe of the regions‟ can mean something different in cee. while border regions here generally tend to have poorly developed infrastructure and industry as well as lower concentrations of population – like in western europe, unique to the region are the lingering effects of border shifts as well as population expulsions and transfers based on ethnicity during and after the second world war. not only have societies and elites not come to terms with the expulsions and related movements, but the settlers who replaced those departing to often have weaker ties to their new localities – making them more susceptible to negative stereotypes concerning people living on the other side of the border. such a historical experience ultimately makes border regions a bit different than most of their counterparts in the earlier eu-15 wherein there is a greater degree of knowledge of those living on the other side, ethnic-intermingling, and far fewer recent boundary l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [187] changes – though certainly sharing a tendency to be underdeveloped with respect to the center. the creation of the schengen border system emerging in the second half of the 1980s, schengen was an effort to make good on the goals established at rome in 1957 and reiterated in the 1985 single european act – that is, to bring down borders for the free movement of eu nationals, allowing them to work and live anywhere in the union. signed initially by france, germany, and the benelux countries, the first schengen agreement on the gradual abolition of checks at the common borders from july 1985 aimed to remove controls on movement as quickly as possible, while stopping well short of articulating a general european policy on immigration and asylum. this agreement had two ultimate goals: (1) to harmonize signatories‟ visa regulations, and in certain cases, policies concerning aliens‟ law; and (2) to test the waters for the application of such a border control system along other internal borders (lavenex 1999: 36). prior to extending invitations to other states, however, these same five mavericks furthered their commitment towards border control harmonization by agreeing to extensive regulations concerning immigration and asylum in the 1990 second schengen agreement. formulated largely by national interior ministry representatives preoccupied with internal security (i.e. issues of immigration and crime), the second agreement was a key step in harmonizing this ambitious border control regime by establishing guidelines for dealing with citizens of non-member states categorized as „third country nationals.‟ designed to handle the steep increase in population flows from the east, this second agreement maintains that a schengen signatory may refuse to consider an asylum claim made by a third state national if s/he traveled previously through a „safe third country‟ – a non-member state signatories deem safe for refugees – to reach the desired country of destination. given that many intending to claim asylum in eu-15 countries travel through cee prior to reaching western europe, being categorized as a „safe third country‟ inadvertently drew cee states into the emerging european refugee policy beginning in the early 1990s (lavenex 1999: 51). despite sharp disagreement over harmonizing such policies, most eu member states had, in fact, joined the schengen system by the midl.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [188] 1990‟s. after a 5-year preparatory period following german reunification, schengen controls finally came into force for france, germany, the benelux countries, spain, and portugal in march 1995. not long thereafter schengen became part of the eu‟s framework following the signing of the amsterdam treaty, with special arrangements made for denmark, the uk, and ireland (and norway and iceland that are not eu member states). austria and italy joined in 1997, greece in 2000, before sweden, denmark, finland, iceland and norway in 2001. the year 2007 then brought in nine additional countries: poland, the czech republic, slovakia, slovenia, hungary, latvia, lithuania, estonia, and malta. interestingly enough, schengen continues to be marked more by its cold war era birth than by the post-cold war period when it came into force. the initial steps for launching a fully liberalized internal market came, first, when the cold war provided a clear limit to the eu‟s potential geographical domain, not to mention security-oriented reasons to construct an integrated economic bulwark. even more than a decade after 1989, it is indeed easy to forget how the division of europe into east and west facilitated european economic integration by providing a seemingly natural limit on the number of countries that could be included. the continuing formidableness of the soviet union too facilitated cooperation by providing a shared threat. the idea of allowing free movement had also been around since the 1957 treaty of rome created the common market and allowed the free movement of workers across ec member states‟ borders – though excluding migrant workers from ex-colonies, north africa, and eastern europe. the second part of the equation then lies in the economic liberalization developing since the end of second world war and coming into full swing in the 1980‟s; in combination with a more restrictive attitude towards accepting refugees in western europe commencing in the 1970‟s. the first key move in the direction of liberalizing capital flows came when the oecd drew up the code of liberalization of capital movements in 1961 to end restrictions among member states “to the extent necessary for effective economic cooperation” (goodman and pauly 1993: 51-53). yet, in view of payment imbalances and rigid exchange rates, however, governments of nearly all industrial countries continued to exercise some control over capital flows during the 1960‟s (goodman and pauly 1993: 51-53). even the demise of the bretton l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [189] woods system of exchange rates in the early 1970‟s did not signal deregulation. concerning population flows, on the other hand, west european asylum and immigration policies were comparatively liberal during this same time. governments were anything but against east→west migration as this trend appeared proof positive of capitalist democracy‟s superiority. it was only with the refugee flows accompanying postcolonial conflicts that led to a progressive tightening of immigration and asylum policies. while this was occurring in the 1970‟s, capital markets were beginning to loosen and the free flow of west european labor across borders gained greater importance. two catalysts were key in the liberalization of investment flows: first, the steep growth of international financial markets (combined with technological changes that quickened the transfer process); and second, the fact that more businesses began to think in terms of arranging production globally (goodman and pauly 1993: 51-53). along with other benefits fdi can bring, the desire to avoid capital controls was indeed an important part of this latter trend. when controls in a particular country became comparatively high, for example, firms situated therein could execute their exit option without closing shop by simply shifting some operations to subsidiaries in countries with fewer regulations (goodman and pauly 1993: 58). governments subsequently came to the realization that instituting restrictions thought to decrease predicted return would lead to capital flight, and with it, jobs and part of the tax base scharpf 1999: 39). international events such as the gatt and wto negotiations also furthered this trend by supporting reductions in tariffs and restrictions on quantities of particular imports, not to mention supporting the replication of britishand u.s.-based privatization and deregulation (scharpf 1999: 39). with the added incentive of competing against u.s. economic power, the eu facilitated liberalization through creating the internal market and, given the more restrictive attitude towards refugees and other immigrants, the emphasis on creating geographical limits to it. the first serious mention of allowing greater liberalization of human movement within particular geographic limits came within the summary of the ec‟s 1974 paris conference stating that working groups would be established to help create a passport union for member states. the main issue that hindered the development of the union was the difficulty of l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [190] differentiating between ec nationals and citizens of third countries, particularly since states would not give up any of their ability to make sovereign decisions on immigration and asylum policy without great reluctance. while the european commission began to work on the creation of a european passport, the inflow of asylum seekers after the late 1970‟s did not help increase interest in the idea of harmonization. later, the commission reacted by toning down its emphasis on removing all controls to simply make cross border movement easier (taschner 1997: 16). in the end, it was only through a slow step-by-step process that the idea of harmonizing policies towards third countries gained a modicum of acceptance (outlined in taschner 1997). given that the 1997 amsterdam treaty made the schengen system a part of the eu‟s framework, all cee applicant countries subsequently commencing their negotiation processes with the eu would have no choice but to accept it. given some member states‟ hypersensitivity concerning increased crime and unemployment spurred by immigration from the east, the eu has demanded that incoming states demonstrate their readiness to police these borders by implementing reforms prior to formal entry. it is in this way that the eu uses the schengen system along with its sizeable leverage to provide a second line of defense against unwanted immigration – yet a policy that does not have strong social support in these incoming states. hungarian elites and society hardly wish to cut off ties with hungarians in the near abroad, while their counterparts in poland consider more open borders necessary for stability next door to the east. understanding the particular conditions within which schengen arose signals how much it was a product of its time – the economic liberalization wave gaining speed in the beginning of the 1980‟s, the desire to revive the goals of rome, and caution towards accepting asylum seekers and immigrants during the cold war. though cee too confronts increased economic liberalization, these countries were not involved in the shaping of the single market, nor do they wish to construct hard borders with their neighbors to the east. requiring the adoption of the schengen border ultimately runs against liberal principles that the eu and other international organizations desire to cultivate in cee – yet, within the contemporary context, appear politically crucial for elites in a number of older eu member states concerned about population movements from the east. l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [191] schengen and the reconstruction of ethnic hierarchies ethnic hierarchies in europe certainly pre-dated schengen. yet, the construction of a hard border delineating „europe‟ from „not-europe‟ (or „not-fully-europe‟) furthers the sense of civilizational superiority inside the schengen group and inferiority outside of it. this was certainly true in the case of the polish-german border – until recently, the longest frontier on the eu‟s outer eastern boundary. given its greater length, strict north-south direction, and particular geopolitical location, the polish-german border took on particular importance as symbolic divider between „east‟ and „west‟ after german reunification. polish sociologist zbiegniew kurcz points out the irony of this symbolism. after october 1990, the polish-german border became simultaneously the eastern border of the eu and nato. what is equally important is that in the social consciousness of millions of poles and of our eastern neighbors the polish-german border became the border of two worlds. the first is identified with well-being, increases in economic development, democracy, and consumption, whereas the second, to an equally natural degree, with deficiency and social problems resulting from the departure of a planned economy that until recently exercised near total control. it is of course possible to provide evidence that elements of a market economy and of citizen freedoms existed more in poland than in east germany in earlier years. that, however, does not change the fact that in a relatively short time the east germans accepted the values, aims, and standards practiced in the frd – what, though, only recently confirms the civilizational and cultural function of the polishgerman border as the border between eastern and western europe (kurcz 1992: 2). kurcz rightly points to the importance of associations frequently made between nationality and the level of material culture, leading nationalities associated with richer states to be accorded greater esteem and more positive qualities. such asymmetries matter a great deal for issues of nationality because a higher standard of living automatically builds respect and diminishes the resonance of prejudice. one need only contrast poles‟ respect for germans despite strong memories of german domination and germans‟ more negative attitudes towards poles, not to mention ukrainians‟ greater respect for poles than vice versa. without a doubt, the substantial material inequalities between poland and germany – and later, the shift of schengen to this border – helped to make this the l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [192] preeminent east-west divide. this division was indeed far more natural than the german-german border of the communist era – a construction that is already reproducing itself now that the eu‟s outer border has shifted to poland‟s border with ukraine and belarus. compared to their counterparts in other cee states now within the eu, polish and hungarian elites place the highest value on maintaining a relatively open border with neighbors to the east – meaning that ideally no visas should be required for entry from citizens from neighboring states. polish elites have taken such a border, particularly with ukraine, to be crucial for stability in the region while hungarian elites resist making entry difficult for the large number of hungarians in the near abroad. for poland, making ukrainians in particular face these controls not only contradicts earlier assurances of openness, but impedes any genuine form of polish-ukrainian reconciliation over second world war ethnic cleansing and the possibility of overcoming another great economic divide in europe. even as late as 1998, in fact, polish politicians promised their ukrainian counterparts that the polishukrainian border will be “just as open as it always was” after poland‟s eu entry (pawlicki 2002: 12). this was contradicted not long afterward when the polish government accepted a resolution signaling that visas would be demanded of belorussians and russians – with ukrainians requiring them only the moment poland joined the eu (pawlicki 2002: 12). while the buzek government agreed to have the controls operative in 2001, the succeeding miller government pushed the date to 1 july 2003 – for the introduction of visas for russians, belorussians, and ukrainians (pawlicki 2002: 12). the first explicit signal concerning visa requirements came from the eu‟s 1998 “partnership for membership.” this document mandated visas for belorussians, russians, and ukrainians as one of the policy changes for the polish government to undertake (bielecki 1998a: 9). the promotion of visas, in fact, just happened to follow on the heels of a 1997 law on foreigners that tightened the eastern border. coming into force in december 1997, this legislation required belorussians and russians entering poland to have their vouchers validated beforehand either by a government official or a notary confirming possession of enough funds to cover their stay. the appropriate vouchers could no longer be cheaply bought at a bazaar and rose in cost from $1 to $20 (gęstsze sito 1998: 3). while the introduction of the 1997 law was often taken to be due to eu l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [193] pressure, it would have eventually been undertaken to bring the practice of border control into line with preexisting domestic legislation (bachmann 2000: a9). nevertheless, implementing the law signaled clear intent to increase controls along this border when it was becoming increasingly important to be taken seriously by the eu. financial compensation came in the form of an eu-funded program to modernize the polish eastern border with poland receiving € 15 million ($ 17 million) in 1998 (bielecki 1998b: 3). at least two significant things resulted from the 1997 law‟s coming into force. first, sales at bazaars on the polish side dropped significantly – bazaars being a key source of income and employment in economically depressed border areas, particularly those with some degree of economic asymmetry. 1999 figures indeed show that sales were only 41% of what they had been in 1996. second, a local (to the eastern border area) and national debate took place over the legitimacy of the controls and of the necessity of the bazaars in poland. however, it is difficult to be certain what the general view on the control of the eastern border is as opinion surveys from 1994 and 1998 show that respondents tended not to embrace „free movement‟ (swobodny ruch) across the eastern border. respondents‟ views concerning a fully open border (meaning no controls) cannot simply be assumed to hold for their views on a relatively open border – like the one that has existed since the end of the cold war up until the application of the schengen system. the highest percentage in both years, in fact, agreed with the view that an open border would not be overwhelmingly beneficial. 56% in 1994 and 44% in 1998 said that freedom of movement across the border for polish citizens and nationals of the former soviet union brings more harm than good. 24% in 1994 and 28% in 1998 said that such freedom would bring as much good as bad, while 7% and later 17% thought that it brings more good than bad. most noteworthy in this survey, however, is the positive trend in thinking about an open eastern border. those holding a negative view to free movement dropped 12% during these four years while those holding a positive view increased 10%. what these results show is, first, that respondents are generally against completely free movement across the eastern border, and second, that having a more open eastern border tends to make people favor it. despite this trend in positive thinking about an open eastern border policy, respondents from the 1998 survey chose heightened controls even at the l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [194] cost of harm to the bazaars and markets if their adoption would have led to quicker eu entry. undertaken about two months after the 1997 law came into effect, this survey asked respondents if “we should adopt the conditions the eu is requiring and put forward the appropriate demands on travelers since it might help us to become a member of the eu more quickly even if doing so would have unfavorable effects on trade at the bazaars and markets.” 50% selected this response while 28% agreed instead that “we should not adopt the demands requested by the eu since they would be disadvantageous for trade at the bazaars and markets and poland is still not a member of the eu.” a significant 22% said that it was hard to say (nowe przepisy 1998: 8). despite this high percentage, half of the respondents ranked the goal of gaining eu membership higher than the economic dislocation by tightening the border. while it is indeed difficult to foresee the effects of shifting the schengen border to poland‟s eastern border, two things are clear in the polish case: (1) requirements of adopting schengen to join the eu have been the driving force behind tightened eastern border policies; and (2) that such tightening in and of itself goes against the wishes of polish elites, border residents, and potentially against the general population. when combined with asymmetries in poles‟ and ukrainians‟ views of one another and the sizeable economic differences on either side of the border, schengen will not likely improve polish-ukrainian relations, while also militating against the broader acceptance of liberal values. schengen and the reunification of a greater hungarian nation hungary‟s case against the need to tighten borders was even clearer. the implications of adopting stricter border controls did not sit well with the former hungarian center-right party in power from 1998-2002 and again beginning in 2010 (fidesz). the party has secured its electoral base, in part, through a strong focus on cultivating ties with the large numbers of ethnic hungarians in the near abroad. their formal separation from hungary has been a prominent issue in hungarian politics ever since the 1920 treaty of trianon left hungary with only approximately one third of its former population and territory. thereafter hungary became one of the most ethnically homogenous countries in the region. such homogeneity, however, did not characterize neighboring states such as romania with 1.7 million hungarians, czechoslovakia with approximately 900,000 hungarians, the kingdom of serbs, croats, and slovenes (yugoslavia) with its 550,000 hungarian minority, and austria l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [195] with approximately 26,000 hungarians (kovrig 2000: 25). today approximately 43% of hungarians live outside of hungary, with 34.5% living in the neighboring states of romania, slovakia, and the vojvodina district of serbia (dostal 1996: 12-13). convinced that ethnic hungarian immigration would surge prior to the installation of the schengen border, the hungarian government passed a bill in the summer of 2001 that not only magnified the salience of hungarian identity in neighboring states, but also increased tensions in elite-level relations with slovakia and romania. with a 92% majority, the hungarian parliament approved the so-called „status bill‟ on june 19, 2001. in force as of january 1, 2002, this legislation grants subsidies to hungarians abroad for health care, education, culture, and transportation along with an identity card giving them assistance in traveling to and for finding work in hungary. though the primary reason for considering the status bill was to forestall excessive hungarian immigration prior to the shift of the schengen border, hungarian officials mentioned at least two additional motivations. first, hungarian premier viktor orban noted a need to increase the labor supply, indicating that only hungarians would be allowed to fill these positions. on june 7, 2001, for example, orban stated that the country could take in “up to four million magyar settlers” [rfe/rl newsline (8 june 2001)]. second, hungarian officials have referred repeatedly to a desire to fulfill a historical obligation to the hungarian diaspora in the near abroad. as hungarian foreign ministry state secretary zsolt nemeth explained during a visit to romania, hungary is “repaying an 80-year old debt” by passing the status bill – a clear reference to the trianon treaty [rfe/rl newsline (21 may 2001)]. speaking more strategically, fidesz likely used the law to court two groups of voters: (1) less radical supporters of the far-right hungarian justice and life party (miep) and (2) disillusioned voters from the disintegrated independent smallholder‟s party (fkgp) (kingston 2001: 2-3). under fidesz in particular, hungary‟s push to join the eu was framed as a route to undo the forced split with hungarians in the near abroad through lessening the importance of state borders – again a signal that, for hungary, the idea of „joining europe‟ can be put to the service of the nation. zsuzsa csergő and james goldgeier explain the reaction of slovakia and romania: l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [196] the hungarian effort to „virtualize‟ political borders was highly problematic in an area where neighboring states continued to place strong emphasis on maintaining their territorial sovereignty, which in many cases was newly acquired. the legacies of past relationships between hungarians and their neighbors – a history of dominance and subordination followed by reversals of fortune – contributed to romanian and slovak perceptions that the status law was merely a guise for the desire to reincorporate territories and „imperial‟ ethnic kin that hungary had lost through the 1920 treaty of trianon. hungarians are a formerly dominant group in the neighborhood and may be using eu integration to reclaim their earlier position (csergő and goldgeier 2005: 8-9). repeated references to trianon alone did not make the bill controversial for neighboring states. it was the implied institutionalization of positive discrimination according to nationality directed, to a significant degree, by a foreign government associated with regional domination. this point was not lost on slovak and romanian officials. slovak foreign minister eduard kukan worried aloud that the necessity of differentiating between hungarians and non-hungarians might „introduce discrimination‟ [rfe/rl newsline (16 may 2001)]. the romanian cabinet went farther by arguing that the bill is indeed discriminatory and that it encroaches on international law. it also stated that any aspects of the bill contradicting bilateral treaties between the two states would not be in force “on romania‟s sovereign territory” [rfe/rl newsline (20 june 2001)]. members of the greater romania party in the chamber of deputies, moreover, submitted draft legislation after the status bill‟s passage that would give dual citizenship to all those applying for the hungarian identity card, thus depriving them of the right to hold public or military office (applicable to all those who hold dual citizenship in romania). though members of the diaspora would not have citizenship status, prime minister viktor orban‟s comments from december 2000 certainly imply otherwise. “i hope this hungarian identity card will say very nicely that the person who possesses this document is a citizen belonging to the hungarian nation, a nation-citizen, if you like. the person owning this card will be entitled to enjoy preferences or rights stemming from his/her special status… this will create a special legal situation, a special status for them” (hungary 2001: 21). prior to even dispersing these benefits, however, a process had to first take shape to determine who possesses hungarian identity. the hungarian government‟s office for l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [197] hungarians beyond borders indicated that hungarian identity would be conferred “on the basis of a recommendation by a recommending organization beyond the border [and would include] all those who profess themselves to belong to the hungarian nation and who declare this in writing and those who can make this statement in hungarian, that is to say, they [can prove that they] speak in hungarian…” (hungary 2001: 21). though hungarians residing in the near abroad tend to exhibit a high degree of national consciousness, the process of determining who is a hungarian and of then administering the benefits only increased the political salience of nationality differences – a process that would not have been deemed necessary without pressures to tighten borders to the east and south. a 2001 survey of romanians in transylvania, in fact, showed that almost half of the respondents thought that rights accorded to ethnic hungarians were too generous. many also thought hungarians living in romania – particularly in transylvania – feel greater loyalty to hungary than to romania (kingston 2001: 13). though suggestive of the status law‟s effects, these results were likely influenced by the specific political circumstances surrounding the poll. carried out by an institute recently headed by romania‟s public communications minister, the results were released at a time when the government had a keen interest in sculpting negative public opinion towards the status law (kingston 2001: 13). the coe, the osce‟s high commissioner, and the eu all subsequently issued evaluations of the status law, reports that hungarian elites took seriously. while an october 2001 report from the coe‟s venice commission ruled that no legislation with foreign application could be implemented without involved foreign countries‟ consent [rfe/rl newsline (19 october 2001], osce high commissioner rolf ekeus‟s criticism was far more direct in faulting the unilateral nature of the status law and its potential to create conflict [rfe/rl newline (29 october 2001)]. the eu‟s country report on hungary released on 13 november was also critical, yet did not go so far as to state that the law runs counter to the acquis [rfe/rl newsline (14 november 2001)]. in an apparent change of mind over the venice commission‟s report, a draft of a subsequent coe report released in june 2002 harshly criticized the status law, recommending that it be replaced by a new law passed only after consultations with neighboring states. this report claims that the law l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [198] actually violates eu norms such as non-discrimination, good neighborly relations, and respect for sovereignty [rfe/rl newsline (13 june 2002)]. clearly, the opportunity to observe the law‟s effects on interethnic relations changed the coe‟s view considerably. though the status law was also fidesz‟s tool to retain power (along with eu pressures to tighten borders), the succeeding socialist-led government did not move immediately to abolish it. hungary‟s succeeding socialist-party prime minister, peter medgyessy, in fact appeared no less concerned about the hungarian diaspora. like antall and orban before him, medgyessy claimed feeling responsible for 15 million hungarians, rather than just the 10 million living in hungary [rfe/rl newsline (9 may 2002)]. while the medgyessy government approved an amendment deleting references to a unified hungarian nation [rfe/rl newsline (24 june 2003)], its failure to consult neighboring states that would ultimately implement the law did not diminish contention. nevertheless, improvements were made in hungarian-romanian and hungarian-slovak relations over the status law. in september 2003, the romanian and hungarian prime ministers signed a bilateral agreement concerning the law‟s implementation. it stipulates two important changes that de-emphasize hungarian identity. first, hungarian id cards can only be issued in hungary, must not carry the insignia of greater hungary, nor can they resemble passports. second and more importantly, institutions rather than individuals are to be the recipients of financial aid for preserving hungarian culture [rfe/rl newsline (24 september 2003)]. a similar agreement was reached between hungary and slovakia in december 2003. such changes have ultimately diminished contention over the status law. looking ahead to the future, it will be interesting to see how the opportunity for „hungarian reunification‟ affects identity politics. will the bringing down of borders empower hungarian minorities and make them less likely to organize as hungarians (thus often provoking discriminatory responses)? or will the reality of „reunification‟ be perceived as a threat to romanians and especially to slovaks; the latter holding still-strong memory of a thousand year existence under hungarian rule? l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [199] schengen and the creation of a ‘europe of the regions’ the emergence of the schengen system has given credence to sub-state regionalism manifested in the idea of creating a „europe of the regions.‟ the practical implementation of this idea in cee runs from hungary‟s efforts to re-unite a greater hungarian nation to eu support for „euroregions.‟ euroregions are geographically demarcated areas spanning state borders possessing a very loose institutional structure geared towards furthering collaboration between local governments on either side of the border(s). while the euroregion projects have been perceived as threats to identity and sovereignty in some states, again for hungary they harmonize nicely with the hungarian reunification project. relating this project to the status law, orban notes: i am convinced that the [status law] contains a number of novelties judging even by european standards and it also outlines a hungarian concept about the europe of the future. during the time of de gaulle, the french thought that the european union has to be a union of states belonging to europe. during the time of chancellor kohl the germans came to the conclusion that the union has to be the europe of the regions. and now, we hungarians have come up with the idea that the europe of the future should be a europe of communities, the europe of national communities, and this is what the [status law] is all about (quoted in csergő and goldgeier 2004: 28). hungarian foreign minister janos martonyi advanced a similar view claiming that while states in the new eu-bounded europe would retain their role as primary decision-making bodies, europe‟s future would essentially be determined by its various communities (kingston 2001: 8). though hungary‟s reunification efforts might at times prove unsettling to romanians, the romanian elite similarly employed the reunification idea in the context of european integration with respect to romanians in moldova and ukraine. thus, romanian prime minister adrian năstase advanced the idea of the eu as a „union of nations‟ (csergő and goldgeier 2004: 28), while romanian president ion iliescu claimed that “european borders cannot be changed, but integration into the eu will inevitably relegate the importance of national borders.” illiescu added that “romania supports the integration of the republic of moldova and ukraine into european structures. bucharest wanted to preserve the cultural and linguistic unity of romanians all over the world” (quoted in l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [200] kingston 2001: 8). yet, hungary has pursued transovereign nationalism with greater vigor given two factors: (1) far more ethnically homogeneous hungary has little to fear from similar campaigns coming from other states than multiethnic romania, and (2) nationand statebuilding began considerably earlier in hungary, leaving ethnic hungarians in the near abroad with a stronger sense of hungarian identity (csergő and goldgeier 2005: 15). though appealing to nationalities wanting to reunite a nation spilling well over state borders, the creation of a europe of the regions can also be threatening in two related instances: (1) in states with border areas that recently experienced border shifts and/or population expulsions, and (2) in border areas of weak states, ones that are fragmented given higher degrees of ethnic diversity. both the czech-german and polish-german borders are excellent examples of the former given their repeated shifts in the 20 th century and large-scale german expulsions. both also have shown some concern over the development of euroregions spanning these border regions as being part and parcel of increased german power. czech and polish opponents of euroregions have claimed that they are a mechanism promoted by germany to further economic expansion in the region (bazin 2003: 227). while czech prime minister vaclav klaus characteristically claimed the euroregions as a potential threat to identity, his polish counterparts questioned whether they would lead to the dismemberment of the polish state itself. after voting on the creation of the carpathian euroregion spanning the polish, ukrainian, and slovak borders in 1993, the sejm produced an official statement claiming “euroregions cannot become a means of denying the sovereign power of poland over parts of her territory” (quoted in malendowski 2000: 22). the second situation when creating a „europe of the regions‟ appears threatening concerns border areas of weak, fragmented states, states not holding significant power and legitimacy over a diverse population. judy batt makes this point when discussing the effect of european integration on two of cee‟s historic subregions that lie largely on the other side of the new schengen border: (1) the banat – encompassing the two counties in southeast romania, and (2) transcarpathia – the westernmost region of ukraine. both have developed historically as regions despite border changes and population movements occurring in the 20 th century. given their relative western location and greater identification with europe, elites there have adopted the „central european argument‟ to claim that these areas are more civilized and ultimately culturally l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [201] superior to the more „barbaric‟ russian-controlled areas to the east (batt 2002: 507-508). this sense of uniqueness along with eu efforts to support the development of border regions (even cutting across the schengen border) has created a sense of insecurity among the romanian and ukrainian elite. though romanians like năstase and iliescu might support the idea of a „europe of the regions‟ to forge closer ties with romanians in ukraine and moldova, the same idea can be unsettling in regards to hungarians in hungary „reuniting‟ with hungarians in transylvania – the by product of fidesz‟s own pursuit of crossborder hungarian reunification. ukrainian elites had similar concerns when debating the new constitution. passed in 1996, it continued with the existing system of oblasti and claimed that ukraine‟s territorial structure would be based on “the principle of centralization and decentralization in the exercise of state power” (article 132 quoted in batt 2002: 518). as judy batt points out, this sentence obscures a rather disorganized reality, one that former president kuchma used to justify defacto centralization. according to kuchma: “practically [today] nobody rules ukraine. [at the regional level] everybody is interested in his own welfare. the interests of the people and the practical issues of running the state are pushed to the side. these are the first signs of disintegration of the state… we have to eliminate such manifestations of contemporary local feudalism, take radical measures to restore order, [and] protect our citizens” (quoted in batt 2002: 518-519). kiev was indeed paying attention to demands for autonomy coming from the areas with strong regional identities and with the longest ties to other states (batt 2002: 518). while the idea of creating a „europe of the regions‟ appears appealing to hungarian and romanian elites when thinking of ties with large numbers of „kin‟ in the near abroad, the same idea can also appear threatening to (weak) states with border areas that have also experienced border shifts and/or forced population movements. conclusion while instituted in the name of liberalizing the single market, the continuing development of the schengen system contradicts the liberal, identity-blind ideology behind the market. after showing that schengen was ultimately the product of another time and place and that the l.m. tesser ethnic hierarchies and the shifting eu schengen border epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [202] system‟s implementation only furthers ethnic hierarchies, this article explains why the idea of creating a „europe of the regions‟ can suggest a destabilizing balance of power among europe‟s less historically secure nationalities. by helping hungarian elites in particular to pursue the „reunification‟ of their nation, in fact, this project can be interpreted as a threat to neighboring states with large numbers of hungarians. ultimately, schengen‟s inadvertent support for a europe of the regions, its fortification of ethnic hierarchies, not to mention tightening borders along the new eastern schengen border, only militates 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#129 (n=1050). warsaw: cbos, 1998. zagrodzka, danuta. “na górze róze, na dole... pokrzywy” [roses on top, thorns on the bottom]. gazeta wyborcza, 26 june 1997. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 the effect of sporting habits and different variables on self-esteem of police officers erdoğan tozoglu * gökhan bayraktar  m. ertuğrul ozturk  serkan t. aka  abstract having low or high self-esteem is considered to have an effect on one's attitude to wards himself or her self as well as to wards other individuals in the society. the refore, it is importantto determine the factors that improve individuals' self-esteem. considering that the quality of education obtained by an individual has an impact on selfesteem, it is imperative to pointout what factors in the education process boostone's self-esteem and to execute such factors. the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of sporting activities on selfesteem of police officers with respect to different variables. the total of 266 police officers, 32 female and 234 male, who serve in the city of erzurum in turkey participated in this survey. scale of self esteem, developed by kuzgun (2005), was used in order to gather data. t test and variance analysis were utilized as well. the difference among the groups' choices is evaluated based on p 0.05 significancelevel. based on the evaluation of the survey results, no difference among police officers was observed in terms of average self-esteem with respect to gender and sporting habits, where as, a difference was observed in terms of average self-esteem with respect to the type of sport performed. those who perform individual sportst end to have higher self-esteem compared to those who perform team sports or no sport at all. since, having police officers with high self-esteem serve and interact with individuals will have a positive effect on social interactions in the society. it is imperative to provide opportunities and encoruge policeofficers to do individual sports and to further study the factors that may help increase the self-esteem of such individuals. keywords: self-esteem, individuality, sporting and police officers * corresponding author: erdoğan tozoğlu, assist. prof. atatürk university, agri ibrahim cecen university, turkey; email: etozoglu@hotmail.com  corresponding author: gökhan bayraktar, assist. prof. atatürk university, agri ibrahim cecen university, turkey; e-mail: etozoglu@hotmail.com  corresponding author: m. ertuğrul ozturk, assist. prof. atatürk university, agri ibrahim cecen university, turkey; e-mail: etozoglu@hotmail.com  corresponding author: serkan t. aka; assist. prof. atatürk university, agri ibrahim cecen university, turkey; e-mail: etozoglu@hotmail.com mailto:etozoglu@hotmail.com mailto:etozoglu@hotmail.com mailto:etozoglu@hotmail.com mailto:etozoglu@hotmail.com e. tozoglu, et.al. the effect of sporting habits and different variables epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [176] introduction self-esteem is closely related to one‟s perception of himself/herself. human beings with self-recognition and self-awareness realize his/her potentials and begin acting with self-esteem. if an individual trusts himself/herself, realizes his/her strengths and weaknesses and sees himself/herself worthy at his/her current condition, then that person is considered to have self-respect. self-esteem and self-respect cause a person to respect and value himself/herself. a person who develops selfrespect can get by on his/her own and he/she will be confident in tackling problems he/she is facing. having a sense of wort hand confidence forms the basis of self-respect and people with such quality tend to become a respected member of the soceity. on the otherhand, people who lacks sense of worth or capability stop enjoying life and start feeling down and incompetent, and they eventually develop a negative attitude towards them selve sand people around them. it is imperative to clarify two concepts that are usually mis understood: the soceity‟s perception of a person based on experiences forms selfesteem where as how a person subconciously sees him self/herself determines self-respect, that is, self-respect is a result of an internal selfevaluation. self-respect results in one‟s respect towards himself/herself as well as towards his environment and life in general. self-esteem can not be considered in the absence of self-respect. it‟s a commonsense that sport has positive effects on individuals and communities. it manifasts itself on an individual‟s character as loving, enjoying, seeking his/her rights, being fair, complying with the rules of competition, accepting both failure and success, socializing, making new friends etc (doğan 2004). sicil acceptance brings self-esteem. with in peace and self-esteem, one develop esself-respect. sporting habits result in not only physical endurance and confidence but also spiritual selfawareness and self-discipline, hence self-respect and courage. according to rosenberg, baldwin and hoffman, self-esteem is definedas „‟ the evaluation of the personality positively or negatively‟‟. self esteem is not a static but a dynamic formation (rosenberg, 1965 baldwin and hoffman, 2002). while self-respect is influenced by many factors, it also has effect on many phycological mechanisms. for in stance, the level of self-respect one has causes that individual to have beter social relations, more e. tozoglu, et.al. the effect of sporting habits and different variables epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [177] academic success (varlı 1999. tarhan 1995), higher level of comprehension, less like hood of depression (skinner 1995, 1996), and happier life (deiner 1995, 2000. yorulmaz ve eryılmaz 2006). maslow claims that a person must have a healthy level ofself-respect in order to be productive and successful. according to maslow, self-esteem has two resources: one is the acceptance and appriciation of the love dones, and the other is the sense of competance and accomplishment. (joseph, 1995). police is an armed group in the law enforcement services who maintain public order and safety; it enforces the law equally and fairly, and ful fills the tasks assigned by the law (yasar y. 1996). in the most general sense, police is the person who is responsible for the safety of the citizens and their personal possesions, supporting and maintaining the civil life, public order and social welfare. an ideal police officier should be in a healthy physical as well as pycological state. consistent exercise and sporting habits are essential parts of maintaining such strong and resilient profile (zorba, 1999). a for mentioned arguments reveal the significance of sporting habits in terms of their positive effects on individuals‟ phycological, spiritual and physical condition. data and method of analysis the purpose of this work is to study the effect of various factors on police officers‟ level of self-esteem. self-esteem scale (ses) was developed by kuzgun (2005). self-esteem scale, a likert type scale, is prepared as 5 grades comprising 20 items. among the items, 15 of the them were positive l yar ranged and 5 of them were negative l yar ranged3.4.6.7, and 12. there sponses given to the items were graded as „‟always‟‟, „‟often ‟‟, „‟occasionally‟‟, „‟rarely‟‟ and „‟never‟‟. while „‟always‟‟ is represented by 5 and „‟never‟‟ is represented by 1 in positive items, „‟always‟‟ is represented by 1 and „‟never‟‟ is represented by 5 in negative items. low score obtained from the scale corresponds to a lower self-esteem and high score corresponds to high self-esteem. internal consistency of the self-esteem scale was calculated based on cronbech alpha coefficient, which was 0.81.this shows that scale has a considerably high internal consistency (kuzgun and bacanlı,2005). the sample set of there search included 266 police officers, 32 female and 234 male, serving in different departments of the erzurum police department. e. tozoglu, et.al. the effect of sporting habits and different variables epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [178] results analysis results and the related conclusions are presented in this section. demographic data is given in table 1, and the frequency distribution of individual in relation to sporting habits is listed in table 2. in the study, t test was employed in order to compare the values obtained from ses with respect to gender and marital status; statistical data are reported in table 3 and 4. analysis of variance (anova) was performed to compare the values obtained from ses with respect to sporting habits and the types of sport, the results are shown intable 5 and 6. table 1: demographical quality distribution of samples number (n) percentage gender female 32 12.00 male 234 88.00 total 266 100.0 age 24 and less 76 28.60 between 25 and 30 158 59.40 between 31 and 36 32 12.00 total 266 100.0 marital status single 120 45.10 married 146 54.90 total 266 100.0 family structure elementary family 248 93.20 extended family 14 5.30 decay family 4 1.50 total 266 100.0 duty term in the office 2 years and less 54 20.30 between 3 and 5 years 192 72.20 6 years and more 20 7.50 total 266 100.0 table 2.status of the individuals in relation to sporting habits number (n) percentage do you do sport? i do not do 52 19.50 i sometimes do 186 69.90 i do regularly 28 10.50 total 266 100.0 what kind of sport do you do? individual sport 82 30.80 team sport 132 49.60 i don't do sport 52 19.50 total 266 100.0 e. tozoglu, et.al. the effect of sporting habits and different variables epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [179] should it be compulsory to do sport for work? yes 74 27.80 no 84 31.60 partially 108 40.60 total 266 100.0 does your job keep you from sporting? yes 30 11.30 no 166 62.40 partly 70 26.30 total 266 100.0 table 3.averages female and male police officers obtained from self-esteem test and t values of the variationsbetween standard deviations and averages gender n x ss t p female 32 70.87 7.24 1.59 male 234 68.80 6.83 1.52 0.112 as shown intable 3, there is no significiant difference in p:0.05 level between averages of female and male police officers‟ scores obtained in self esteem scale. table 4.t values, averages and standard deviations for the female and male police officers’ self-esteem test scores marital status n x ss f p single 120 69.43 6.56 0.815 married 146 68.73 7.18 0.822 0.412 total 266 138.16 6.90 data presented intable 4 showsthatthere is no significant difference in p:0.05 level between the averages of married and single police officers‟ scores obtained in self esteem scale. table 5.averages and standard-deviations for sporting habits and self-esteem test scores sporting case n x ss f p i do not do 52 68.50 6.53 i sometimes do 186 68.95 7.09 0.995 0.371 i do regularly 28 70.71 6.22 total 266 69.05 6.90 no significiant difference in p:0.05 level between police officer‟s sporting habits is observed in terms of averages. table 6.averages and standard-deviations of self-esteem test scores for the police officers with individual sport, team sport and no sporting habits e. tozoglu, et.al. the effect of sporting habits and different variables epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [180] kind of sport n x ss f p individual sport 82 70.73 0.76 team sport 132 68.22 0.60 3.603 0.029 i do not do sport 52 68.50 0.90 total 266 69.05 0.42 in table 6, a considerable difference is observed in p:0.05 in terms of self-estee maverages of police officers with respect to individual sport, team sport and no sporting habits ( f=3,603; p>0,029). based on the selfesteem averages given in table 6, among police officers, those who do individual sports (x = 70.73) seem to have higher average than those who do teamsport (x = 68.22) and those who don‟t do any sport at all (x = 68.50). discussion and conclusion in the study, the relationship between police sporting and sporting habits was examined. as a result of analyses made, ıt has been found that there is nosignificiant differences statistically between genders and self esteem averages considering the point averages female and male police officers, involved in the study, obtained from the self esteem scale and t values of the differences between standard deviations and averages. but considering the values, while female police officers self esteem score was (x=70,87), male police officers‟ self esteem score was (x=68,80). according to these results, it could be said that female police officers‟ self esteem was higher than that of male police officers. erman (2004) found that female self esteem rate was higher than that of males in his study, but there was no considerable diffrence statistically. considering averages of points married and single police officers obtained from the self esteem scale and t values of differences between standard deviations and averages, it has been demonstrated that there is no significiant differences marital status and self esteem averages. it was found that married (x= 69,43) and single (x= 68,73) were on close rates. with regard to sporting activities of police officers, averages of points they obtained and their standard deviations , it was suggested that there was no considerable difference between the self esteem averages of those doing sport (x=68,50), doing sport sometimes (x=68,95), and not doing sport (x=70,71). the comment that doing sport doesn‟t have an effect on self esteem has come to light. gould (1995) found no important relationship between e. tozoglu, et.al. the effect of sporting habits and different variables epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [181] involving in sporting activities and self esteem in a study he carried out on high school students (aģçı, 1999). in the findings obtained in the study, not finding a difference between sporting and self esteem is parallel with the other studies made in this field. considering the point averages police officers, doing individual sport, doing team sport and not doing sport, obtained from self esteem scale and standard deviations, it has been demonstrated that there is a considerable variation between kind of sport and self esteem averages. with regard to self esteem point averages, while self esteem score of police doing individual sport was (x=70,73), the score of police officer doing team sport was (x=68,22) and that of police officers not doing sport was (x=68,50). according to these results, self esteem scores of police officer dealing with individual sport was higher than scores of those who don‟t do sport. erģan found that self respect of students doing team sport was lower than that of students doing individual sport in a study he carried out on physical education and sport department students (erģan 2009). the difference observed between kind of sport and self esteem in this study is in accordance with the other studies made in this field. as a proposition, it‟s important to provide required attention and opportunities to attend sporting activiies in order to increase self esteem of police officers as the self esteem has a satisfying effect on individuals‟ attitudes towards himself/herself and people. by making similiar researches, the impotance of positive influence of determining the effective factors on increasing individuals‟ self esteem and high self esteem in social relationships should be studied. references aģçı, f. h. 1999. self concept and sport. sport psychology course. bayar, p. (complier). ankara: bağırğan publisher. baldwin, s. a. & hoffmann j. p. 2002. “the dynamics of self-esteem: a growthcurve analysis.” journal of youth and adolescence. 31 (2), 101-113. deiner, e. and deiner, m. 1995. “cross-cultural correlates of life satisfaction and selfesteem.” journal of personality and social psychology, 68, 653-663. diener, e. 2000. “subjective well-being: the science of happiness, and a proposal for a national index.” american. psychologist. 55, 34– 43. e. tozoglu, et.al. the effect of sporting habits and different variables epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [182] dogan, o. 2004. sport psychology course book. sivas. cumhuriyet university publication. 1: 97. erman k. a, ġahan a and can, s. 2004. “comparison of self respect levels of male and female sporters.” 8th internetional sport science congress. antalya. erģan, e. e, doğan o. and doğan s. 2009). “self esteem level in physical education and coaching department and relationship with some socio-demographical qualities.” clinical psychiatry12.35-42. joseph, j. m. 1994. the resilient child. new york: plenum. kuzgun, y. 2000. vocational counseling. nobel publications and distributions. ankara. kuzgun, y. ve bacanlı, f. 2005. scales used in psychological counseling and guidance. nobel publication, ankara, s.149. rosenberg, m. 1965. society and the adolescent self-image. princeton, nj: princeton university press. skinner, e. a. 1995. perceived control, motivation, & coping. london: sage publications. skinner, e. a. 1996. “a guide to consructs of control.” journal of personality and social pscyhology, 71, 549-570. tarhan, s. 1995. the effects of satisfaction level of high school students with their body images on their self esteem and academical success. unpublished master‟s thesis. hacettepeuniversity. ankara. varlı, o. 1999. examining the self concept level of 4th grade students in private and state schools. unpublished master‟s thesis, hacettepe university. ankara. yasar, y. 1996. police vocational law. ankara. s.152-156. yorulmaz, a. & eryılmaz, a. 2006. examining the relationship between adolescent being well, self esteem and optimistic tencency. international 14th. psychology congress, hacettepe university. ankara. türkiye. yörükoglu, a. 2000. adolescence. özgür publications. ġstanbul. weinberg, r. s, gould d. 1995. fondations of sport and exercise psychology. human kinectics. gata. ankara. zorba, e. 1999. sport and physical fitness for everybody. ankara. 9 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 science-spirituality antipodal debate – resolving long-time clash through syncretism? reading from the accidental santera emmanuel adeniyi federal university oye ekiti abstract the conflict between science and spirituality is an established fact, even though some scholars dispute this reality arguing that it is rather unfashionable for contemporary academic inquiry. the present study interrogates the foregoing position, submitting that the conflict between the two fields of knowledge still subsists. it advocates the recognition of spirituality as an alternative knowledge field, despite its lack of deductive, empirical procedures. the proposition builds on the reality of existential risks threatening humanity which can be adequately tackled if the two domains collaborate to develop mechanisms for ending human misery. using syncretism/hybridity as a conceptual touchstone, the article attempts a postcolonial reading of irete lazo’s the accidental santera (2008) to pontificate about the imperativeness of mutuality between science and spirituality, and the danger inherent in a branch of knowledge displaying hubristic, overweening attitude towards another knowledge field. the study further suggests a new order to reposition the knowledge fields. keywords: santeria; african studies; afro-cuban faith; albert einstein; syncretism; the yorùbá epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 10 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies introduction “i know there are those who are saying that we should depend on science, not prayers. but i want to reassure you that even science needs god” – kenyan president, uhuru kenyatta apart from a few other contentious debates that have dragged on since the dawn of time and yet continue to agitate the minds of scholars, historians of science and religion, scientific materialists, and spiritual scientists till now, the science-spirituality1 dichotomy has proved to be outstanding (albert, 1999, p. 45; evans, 2018, p. 52; benson, 1996, p. 171; scott, 2009, p. 321; smith, 2019, p. 1). the complexity of this dichotomy somewhat makes it topical and compelling, despite the rejection of the conflict thesis between science and spirituality by some thinkers. interestingly, not all scholars believe in the conflictive relationship between science and spirituality. many contend that there is no conflict between the fields of knowledge since they are not related, and the question of a clash of interests may not even arise (dawes, 2016, p. 7; mcgrath, 2004, p. 87; smith, 1999, p. 1). they argue that the 19th-century belief affirming the rivalry between science and spirituality is erroneous and absolutely misleading. gregory dawes (2016), for instance, writes that “the so-called ‘warfare’ or ‘conflict’ thesis has become deeply unfashionable [while a] plethora of books and articles have appeared arguing that it is badly mistaken” (p. 7). alister mcgrath (2004) also argues that the conflictive relationship between science and spirituality is no longer taken seriously by any major historian of science, despite its popularity in the late nineteenth century (p. 87).2 mcgrath further submits that the supposed rivalry is a mere “caricature clearly untrue in the present day, just as historical scholarship has determined it to be misleading and inaccurate even when it first discussed centuries ago” (p. 87).3 however, a number of scholars validate the presence of clash and insuperable disagree1spirituality is used interchangeably with religion and faith in this article. 2 see also gregory dawes (2016, p. 7). 3 ibid. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 11 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 ments between the two fields. in his defense of the validity and reliability of spiritual knowledge as a rival to scientific empiricism, immanuel kant (1998) claims that “i had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith […] and the dogmatism of metaphysics” (p. 117). in the same vein, among his four taxonomies of the relationship between science and spirituality, the conflict mode tops ian barbour’s (1997) typology4 categorizing the relationship between the two fields. barbour’s remaining modes of relationship between science and spirituality include what he identifies as independence, dialogue and integration. by independence, barbour expresses the conflictive view or the existence of rivalry between the two fields. his view underscores the perception that each of the fields of knowledge has its own distinctive domain and characteristic methods of describing and verifying reality (stenmark, 2013, p. 2310). by dialogue and integration, barbour calls for a mutual understanding between the two domains, and the content of science and spirituality as well as an exchange of presuppositions (scientific and metaphysical), methods, and conceptual tools between the two domains (stenmark, 2013, p. 2310). mackenzie brown (2003), sam harris (2004) and richard dawkins (2006) also believe that entrenched conflict exists between the two fields. their positions on the conflict seemingly identify individual convictions as a major determinant of the question of existence or non-existence of science-spirituality rivalry. the two knowledge domains do not agree, and their rift further accentuates the chasm between them. in his comment on thomas huxley’s agnosticism, bernard lightman (2011) corroborates this view that, “while religion belong[s] to the realm of feeling, science [is] a part of the world of intellect” (p. 252). lightman’s exposition probably condemns spirituality to the margins of intellectualism. his approach is nothing short of intellectual and ideological pigeonholing of spirituality, and the construction of 4other models of classification include john haught’s typology (conflict, contrast, contact, and confirmation), and mikael stenmark’s (2013) typology (irreconcilability, contact, independence, and replacement). the two build on ian barbour’s model of taxonomy and on one another, even though each makes attempts to avoid some of the shortcomings noticed in the preceding typology. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 12 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies science as a domain of empiricism or superior knowledge (herndon, 2007, p. 34). jerry coyne (2015) intensifies this debate by arguing that there is a conflict between science and spirituality, since both compete to describe reality, while “the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable […] that of religion – including faith, dogma, and revelation – is unreliable and leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions” (p. 11). the conflict, according to john evans (2018), is moral and systemic, especially on how to name reality or describe knowledge by the two spheres, even though both fields are “perfectly coherent hierarchical structures of knowledge or belief” (p. 22).5 tiddy smith (2019), similarly, posits that the supposed conflict between science and religion is as a result of difference in their functionality and methods of arriving at their respective conclusions. drawing an inference from the biologist stephen jay gould, he maintains that “science aims to uncover empirical knowledge, while religion aims to develop a sense of meaning and normative value” (smith, 2019, p. 3). gregory dawes (2016) also expounds four different domains that may harbor the conflict between the two knowledges. these domains include: conflicting bodies of doctrine, which he calls “religious dogmas, on the one hand, and the theories of science on the other” (dawes, 2016, p. 12); distinct communities comprising individuals who hold and employ “contrastive norms when dealing with knowledge claims, religious beliefs being treated quite differently from scientific theories” (dawes, 2016, p. 14); modes of thought, as indicated in the belief that “religion and science represent differing ways of thinking” (dawes, 2016, p. 14); and epistemic thought, pertaining to the dominant knowledge within religious and scientific communities (dawes, 2016, p. 16). in this article, i counter the prevenient submissions that science and spirituality are unrelated, and that no rivalry or conflict exists between them. while submitting that spirituality is not necessarily anti-science and sci5contrary to the views of many scholars that support the asymmetry between the two domains, evans seems to spot equality in the strength, functions, and powers of the knowledge fields. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 13 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 ence is not anti-religion,6 i argue that the two fields of knowledge “express the same reality” (gyekye, 2009, p. 1) in an attempt to understand cosmic mysteries and solve human problems. the article rejects the dismissive attitude of some scholars whose lack of intellectual empathy possibly blinds them to what john evans (2018) calls “epistemological and moral conflict between religion and science” (p. 707).7 as a matter of fact, the dichotomy between the two mutually exclusive disciplines ingeminates the age-long disagreement between rationalism and fideism. while rationalism advocates reason, knowledge, and evidence-based deductive logic, fideism favors the weaponization of faith as an alternative to reason in describing reality or solving human problems. the present study is anchored in the belief that the gulf between the domains of science and spirituality subsists. it disputes mcgrath’s hypothesis highlighting the ingrained divisions between the worlds of science and faith (dawes, 2016, p. 17), but points out how contemporary scholarship is making attempts to bridge the divisions. i employ santeria, the afro-cuban religious code, to represent the pantheon of global religions and asseverate how the inherent positivity in the two knowledge domains can be harnessed to help define reality and solve human problems. using syncretic/hybrid postcolonial model as a conceptual touchstone of reading irete lazo’s the accidental santera, i point out the advantages of interconnectivity or mutuality between the knowledge fields and the problems of a discipline displaying hubristic, overweening attitude towards another knowledge field. i use syncretism or hybridity purposively so as to advocate a harmonious relationship expected to exist between science and spirituality. this harmony further builds on interdependence that some scholars believe should exist between the two fields of knowledge. petteri 6this is not absolute, though. this is because there are some scientists and scientific propositions that counter the existence of a supreme being. some religious views also run contrary to certain scientific conceptions. 7this is the title of one of his articles. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 14 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies nieminen et al (2020), for instance, posit that “science and religion can share common goals to enhance human well-being [and that] the different types of evidence [they utilize] need not necessarily be obstacles for cooperation” (p. 448). kwame gyekye (2009) also contends that “religion and science will continue to be bed-fellows in the twenty-first century and beyond” (p. 19) as both share “perspectives on cosmic reality” (gyekye, 2009, p. 1) and seek to understand “the wonders and mysteries of the created universe and the limitations of human intelligence” (gyekye, 2009, p. 1), despite having different methods of interpreting reality. consequently, i argue that the two disciplines are enriching knowledge fields that can offer enormous opportunities and approaches for solving certain intractable human problems. peter white (2014) acknowledges this coaction between the disciplines in the african health care system and emphasizes the existence of a symbiotic relationship between them. syncretism or hybridity contemplates the fusion or conflation of ideas, concepts, and beliefs hitherto considered mutually exclusive. i have used it as a conceptual inquiry enabling me to clarify and probe into the possibility of uniting disparate elements from different cultural traditions to foster inclusion, equality and mine the strengths of the elements in a bid to engender and promote social harmony (bentley, 1993; ezenweke & kanu, 2012; gehman, 2001). this article leverages the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration by examining the possibility of conflating spirituality with science to solve some human problems as fictionalized in lazo’s text. the claim of non-verifiability and lack of objective empiricism about spirituality and the mantra of science being overweening and excessively hubristic present a major problem impeding collaborations. an effective way of resolving this contention is to deepen our understanding of the disciplines and encourage the conflation of both knowledge fields in view of the monumental benefits accruable to humanity through it. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 15 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 between materiality, spirituality and knowledge bifurcation the seemingly insuperable rivalry between science and spirituality and the intense scholarly debate generated has polarized scholars into two camps. the camps include that of those who believe science is not a promiscuous field, but a clinical endeavor that is unemotional in its approach to critically study nature, its forces, processes and development. the belief of this group is hinged on the claim that science should detach itself from any field of knowledge that lacks the nuances of empiricism, testability, provability, and observability. the other camp opposes the materialist philosophy in which science is anchored. it suggests a counter-discourse and holds the view that spirituality or religion possesses inherent qualities that enable it to identify and solve human, cosmic or environmental problems. put succinctly, the science-is-unemotional-but-clinical group privileges science and reifies its assumptions as being the unparalleled or testable truth. to the group, science uses experimental evidence to understand nature, the environment, and man with a view to solving human problems through its materialist candor (nieminen et al., 2020, p. 448). spirituality, on the other hand, operates on the basis of experiential evidence (nieminen et al., 2020, p. 448) as well as the revealed knowledge traceable to an incorporeal, immortal god/god whose wisdom is infinite, unparalleled and unquestionable. what those who essentialize spirituality do not want to let go of is that god/god has unparalleled, infinite status. their perception of god/god is that of a numinous being possessing personal or impersonal character and particular properties or possibilities of action essential for the destiny and the welfare of humankind (albert, 1999, p. 46). he/it does not have materiality, but possesses infinite energy, and he/it is the reality beyond human reality (efori & fătu-hartmann, 2019, p. 323). despite his/its lack of materiality, he/it has the ability to turn immateriality into materiality. the knotty point in science-spirituality antipodal debate and the supposed clash between the two fields, therefore, revolves around the possible testability and provability of the immaterial which is the genius science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 16 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies loci of religion or spirituality. in her estimation of the clash between reason and imagination, the relegation of spirituality in nursing practice, and the construction of science/technology as the core of nursing, patricia maher (2006) submits that three fundamental barriers separate the disciplines of (nursing) science and spirituality (p. 423). maher argues that spirituality does not possess objective scientific language to express spiritual concepts. secondly, it lacks theoretical paradigms that can shape it as a “life-giving and integrating force essential for human healing” (maher, 2006, p. 423). thirdly, there is an absence of content in spirituality or religion. despite the polarity of scholars into two groups on the rivalry between science and spirituality, recent academic interest seems to tilt towards engendering synergy between the two domains. the synergy seeks a symbiosis between science and spirituality in order to aggregate the core benefits that the two fields of knowledge offer.8 this certainly holds some significance in view of the fact that some scholars are calling for a paradigm shift from the supposedly science-spirituality dichotomy to an enduring clinical relationship beneficial to humanity. these scholars are of the opinion that “the idea [that] there is a conflict between religion and science is extremely unfashionable within contemporary academia” (smith, 2009, p. 1), and call for “historical and epistemological interplay and exchange” (smith, 2009, p. 4). they posit that science and religion need not be adversaries but complement each other in fundamentally important ways. to them, conflict is a pessimistic option among other optimistic alternatives which may create a more complete or more fulfilling picture of the world (smith, 2009, p. 4). irete lazo, whose text is analyzed in this article, belongs to this category, considering her syncretic advocacy between science and spirituality as a way of describing reality and solving human problems. for modern schol8both science and spirituality are beneficial to society. spirituality, for instance, ensures physical health of individuals by curing health challenges such as lower rates of coronary disease, emphysema and cirrhosis lower blood pressure and longer life expectancy and battle psychological disorders (see mochon et al., 2011, p. 2). the benefits that science offers the society and individuals are not in any way different from the ones earlier highlighted. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 17 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 ars in science and religious studies, they should be concerned with how rationalism can accommodate fideism in naming reality, or how both science and spirituality can borrow and learn from their respective knowledge principles. the present study dwells on this concern and draws from lazo’s authorial voice to expound the possibility of (re)naming reality and solving human problems through a careful utilization of scientific and metaphysical principles as well as research practices. the possible gap from the advocated symbiosis between the two fields may be on the workability of their hybridity, considering the existing gulf arising from their different views of naming reality, methodology, conceptualization, and problem-solution techniques. the study does not discuss this seemingly aporia by advancing propositions and philosophical thoughts needed for teasing out the possible synthesis of faith and science to solve human problems. it rather discusses the possibility of alignment of the two fields as fictionalized in lazo’s faction. the article leverages on the scientific orthodoxy and fideistic unorthodoxy to discuss the emerging collaboration between old and new orders, science and spirituality, and the attendant positivity from the synergy. since literature provides commentaries on society, it is understandable why one of the dominant tropes in lazo’s faction addresses the science-spirituality rivalry. while lazo advocates a mutual understanding and possible collaboration (syncretism) between the two domains, her temperament tilts towards the grossly underestimated values and powers inherent in spirituality. this underestimation of potency of religion or spirituality to solve human problems is often perpetrated by scientists whose approach to arriving at truth is based solely on verifiable facts. it is a long-held belief in science that whatever does not have empirical evidence is outside the purview of science. christine mclolland (2006) upholds this viewpoint, noting that “science takes only the whole universe and any all phenomena in the natural world under its purview […] anything that cannot be observed or measured […] is not amenable to scientific investigation (p. 1). since santeria is a religious code that is built on ancestral worship and animist science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 18 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies tradition, it has no place in the world of empirical scientific inquiry. this is because science is wont to query many of the practices, concepts, beliefs, and methods employed by both santera9 and santero10 to make their claims and confirm mostly their revealed knowledge. it is considered a mere “falsability” (mclelland, 2006, p. 1) and absolutely preposterous to claim that a terminal disease can be cured by carrying ẹbọ11 (ebbo) to appease spiritual beings whom santeria devotees and the yorùbá believe hold the key to their existence, wellbeing, and have powers to heal the sick, cure sicknesses, and provide good health as well as material wealth (awolalu, 1973, p. 81). irete lazo’s the accidental santera throws up the debate through her autobiographical narrative of how spirituality proves efficacious in the face of daunting opposition against its lack of scientific empiricism, while science seems to prove ineffectual despite its vaunted empirical values. told through gabrielle segovia, an ichthyologist and professor of biology at san francisco state university, the novel reinforces the primality of spirituality over science. it opens the reader to the exciting and mystical world of santeria, and the powers of preternatural beings who perform certain feats that defy scientific logic and query empirical knowledge. through her protagonist narrator, lazo does not leave the reader in doubt with regard to her motivation for writing the autobiography. her intention is to advance her conviction that science and religion are part of modern society, and that it is imperative to reconcile the two if human society is going to make any appreciable progress (lazo, 2008, p. 191). she believes in the idea that science and spirituality should mix, because science is an intellectual practice and religion a cultural domain possessing an interactive force that “provides cohesion in social order” (akinfenwa et al., 2014, p. 9). by implication, she believes both disciplines complement each other, maintaining that to detach one from the other is inimical to social health of any 9female devotee of santeria 10male devotee of santeria 11the yorùbá word for sacrifice. it is called ebbo in santeria to reflect spanish orthography. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 19 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 human community in view of the fact that the severance can damage interconnectivity that should exist amongst different social elements. speaking through carol and alex littlefield (gabrielle’s colleagues), lazo claims that “science has done itself a disservice by dismissing religion, paranormal phenomena, and the like” (p. 190). gabrielle expresses her concern about science and scientists whose duplicity and hatred for fideistic beliefs she finds disheartening: the thing about scientists […] is that they think that they make no assumptions. it’s what we tell our students when we teach them the scientific method. often scientists don’t realize they carry around culturally and socially determined assumptions, a worldview that is mostly male, often white, and sometimes anti-religion. they don’t see how they look at the white students differently than they look at the students of color. they assume some kids will do well in their classes and others will struggle. (lazo, 2008, pp. 289-290) if science or scientists make assumptions, it definitely removes from the objectivity, verifiability, and reliability principles that define the knowledge field. gabrielle’s bias is an imputation on the estimable image of science as a clinical discipline that arrives at conclusions through deductive and dispassionate logicality. this must have informed her declaration: “scientists have lost credibility in my eyes. for the majority of them, religion and science are mutually exclusive” (lazo, 2008, p. 306). to further underscore the pre-eminence of science-spirituality antipodal debate in the accidental santera, lazo uses the character of lila wong, gabrielle’s chinese student, to typify the centrality of the dialectics in the text and, most importantly, the importance of ancestral worship, which she confirms to be an archetype in the collective unconscious of races across the globe: “in my culture, we worship our ancestors just as you do. we feed them and make altars and light candles. we also have many lesser gods, just like your saints. every science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 20 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies new year, we give thanks and sacrifices to the kitchen god. it’s kind of the same with your people, my grandfather says” (lazo, 2008, p. 227). in her dialogue with gabrielle, robin – a professor of african studies and santera – avers that spirituality does not need to have scientific basis before proving its possibility, since science describes “life and the path of orisha as living it. it’s only one path, like buddhism and christianity are paths. we’re all going to the same place. we’ve just chosen different ways to get there” (lazo, 2008, p. 290), and as such there should be no rivalry between the two modes of knowledge, since they appear complementary. the leitmotif of mutual antagonism between science and spirituality and pain of contemptuousness likely to be suffered by whoever trapped in the crossfire thrown by the antipodes possibly inform patricia’s warning to gabrielle, albeit jokingly: “seriously gabi. you better watch yourself. you know how the game of science is played. your reputation is everything. if anyone finds out you’re into the religion, you’ll never find another collaborator or get another grant” (lazo, 2008, p. 202). matt flueger – benito’s12 and gabrielle’s guileful and knavish colleague – later confirms patricia’s concern about science and scientists’ snobbishness, more so when the religion in question is steeped in polytheistic paganity. in his characteristic wily manner, flueger says: “one of my students said that one of your students saw you buying live birds in chinatown. apparently, this student thinks you use them for religious purposes. “they were for an inner-city farming project,” i lied quickly. “oh, i see. well, you’d better set your student straight. it’s bad enough we have animal rights people breathing down our necks about research!” (lazo, 2008, p. 236) the disclosure of gabrielle’s secret by lila wong, whom gabrielle has earlier begged not to tell anyone for seeing her in chinatown buying live 12gabrielle’s husband science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 21 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 birds for her entracha,13 leaves benito confused. he does not understand why his wife’s great dreams of becoming a top-notch scientist will suddenly vanish upon her chance encounter with a pagan religion: “i sure would like to know what happened to the hot-shit scientist i married, the one that was going to cure skin cancer and change the face of academia” (lazo, 2008, p. 238). his predicament is further deepened considering the near hatred of their colleagues and university for religion, let alone an afro-cuban spirituality that promotes ancestor worship and séances. in his conversation with gabrielle, benito believes that no one will work with his wife anymore should “flueger [tell] the rest of the [their] committee, they may not want you in the department at all. i don’t need this shit right now, gabi. we’ve worked our whole adult lives on this. your so-called curiosity could cost us both our jobs” (lazo, 2008, p. 237). to situate the debate properly within literary discourse, the conflicting intercourse between the domains of science and spirituality is given postcolonial reading. science is seen as the language or weapon of western hegemony that seeks to explain the world through its intrinsic logic. besides, it seeks to browbeat and cow whatever violates its grammar of operations. religion or spirituality,14 on the other hand, is interpreted as a (psychic) platform of penetration into the metaphysical to connect or commune with the ancients in order to obtain information or ideas needed for solving human problems. since santeria is a religion that is in conflict with science in lazo’s text; the afro-cuban faith, with its conspicuous yorùbá cultural and religious features, takes the center stage of my discussion. seen from the prism of science as the exotic other lacking canonization, recognition and materialist grounding; santeria and its practitioners suffer stereotypes for encroaching on the domain of science. worse still, it operates on the basis of faith and invocation of ancestral spirits, rituals, animal sacrifices, séances and other fetish practices promoting ancestor worship. 13it is a religious performance for spiritual cleansing in santeria. 14the religion or spirituality referred to in the text and in this article is santeria, or better still the yorùbá religion in the americas. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 22 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies rather than manifesting barbour’s modes of dialogue and integrations to facilitate mutuality and complementariness, the domains have been at variance with each other. there is politics of resistance, opposition and inferiorization of religious (santeria) practices by science and scientists. at the center of postcolonial thought, for instance, is the project of creating what peter barry (1995) calls “an awareness of representations of the non-european as exotic or immoral ‘other’” (p. 193). science, being the logic of western hegemony to otherize, inferiorize non-scientific or non-european religious practices, assumes the role of the colonialist or becomes a parallel and metaphor of colonialist ideology seeking to objectify any view lacking empirical validity or material existence. the depth of the clash between science and religion is even worsened by the perceived crudity or absurdly primitiveness of santeria as a mediumistic religion that uses blood sacrifice akin to the old testament practice in the judeo-christian religion. however, science has proved incapable of solving certain human problems. instead of seeking collaboration with religion or spirituality to come up with solutions, it has insulated itself and maintained a snobbish attitude by looking down on any domain of knowledge that operates without a proven empiricism. irete lazo further engages this debate and extends its frontiers to validate the potency of her newfound religion (santeria) that not only surpasses science in solving some seemingly intractable medical problems, but also engenders self-discovery through communion with one’s ancestors. she, nonetheless, believes that what could end the impasse is not the insularity and illiberality of science, but a syncretic condition that engenders a symbiosis between it and spirituality (santeria), since none of the two can claim exclusiveness. irete lazo deflates the overweening influence of science over spirituality by giving primality to santeria (spirituality) in her novel. this primal influence is foregrounded through the incidents that happen at marie laveau’s voodoo shop in new orleans during mr. john’s life reading for gabrielle segovia who is unable to give birth to a child after years of marriage and science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 23 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 three miscarriages: “spirits say, you need help, but not from a doctor. you need to find your true path in life. then the babies will come” (lazo, 2008, p. 43). in her argument with benito on the plan to stop receiving medical treatments over her miscarriages and other gynecological problems, gabrielle restates what mr. john tells her earlier as a confirmation of the helplessness of modern science in solving her medical conditions: then there was our follow-up visit with the fertility specialist. she wanted us to consider iui, intrauterine insemination – the turkey baster method. benito agreed that we were under too much pressure to start the process until after our tenure packets were in. it was a relief that he had agreed to put it off. still, i couldn’t help but worry about the day i would have to tell him i didn’t want to go through with the treatments. mr. john had told me in new orleans that medical science wasn’t the way to go. i had gotten confirmation on that from orula since then. i was more than happy to avoid medical intervention. however, my doubts had grown after my diagnosis. (lazo, 2008, p. 231) as a matter of fact, medical science finds it difficult to establish the cause of her miscarriages, until after her initiation and several life readings where it is revealed that she has unicornuate uterus and a missing ovary (lazo, 2008, p. 208). after her initiation, the cause of her miscarriages is also revealed in her dream by òrìṣà15 in her cousin’s (sofi segovia’s) house in miami, as “a kidney with its artery sticking out” (lazo, 2008, p. 206). her fertility doctor only diagnoses the cause of her barrenness much later in california. before keeping her appointment with the fertility expert whom she and benito go to see, and later orders for histosalpingogram, a live x-ray of gabrielle’s uterus and fallopian tubes (lazo, 2008, p. 203), she has cleaned herself with raw meat (lazo, 2008, p. 203) as advised by 15deities science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 24 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies josé (a babalawo and sofi segovia’s husband) in miami for good luck. besides, she wears one of her collares16 believing that all these rituals and cleansings work out in her favor, as they prepare the road for òrìṣà (osun) to do “her job by allowing the doctors to see the truth” (lazo, 2008, p. 209) about her fertility problem. with gabrielle’s revelation, lazo presents before the reader both ontological and epistemological conflicts. these conflicts reify the rivalry between science and spirituality. the reader is thrust into confusion as to how to validate the truth of life reading (divination) as a way of naming reality and its theory of problem-solving methodology. considering the initiation of lazo’s protagonist into santeria and how her problems receive supernatural solutions from òrìṣà, the ontology of life reading and its epistemology are called to question by science in its clinical approach of verifying and establishing empirical evidence or deductive logicality behind the accurate diagnosis and cure of a serious gynecological problem. spirituality, similarly, wonders at the inability of medical science to solve the same problem. the total transformation that comes upon gabrielle can be recapitulated as the corollary of the conflicts. these conflicts are externalities that produce psychic conflicts in her, as she begins to doubt the empirical values of science, just as her mind increasingly unlocks her ancestral powers to address existential puzzles. in the process, she ends up wrapping her mind around these spiritualties because of their provable efficacies which remain a mystery to science. gabrielle’s apprehension and dubiety of (medical) science is anchored in the transcendental knowledge of (her) self which is beyond the reach of science or empirical medical diagnosis. her gynecological problem and other existential challenges are the upshot of her ignorance of her òrìṣà ancestral roots. this is revealed to her by mr. john during (her) life reading and corroborated by orula17 during her santeria initiation. gabrielle segovia’s disenchantment with science (medical), despite being 16beaded necklace sacred to an òrìṣà 17ọ̀rúnmìlà is the òrìṣà of divination. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 25 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 a scientist of note, is perhaps heightened by robin. her (robin’s) view further underpins the project of stripping science of its superior myth. at gabrielle’s ocha, she claims to have successfully disabused the minds of her students as far as old/new or science/spirituality debate is concerned. while pondering on what will be her fate should her scientist-colleagues find out about her new religious convictions, she gets uptight and notes that: “they would assume that i am crazy to believe in something that has no scientific basis, and that, in turn, will mean that my science is flawed, as well” (lazo, 2008, p. 290). this motif of incertitude runs through the faction revealing the troubled interiority of a character whose consciousness is torn between self-esteem and public image. her mind is buffeted by the images of public shaming and social isolation once the information passes around that she (a scientist) now “communicates with dead relatives through psychics in her spare time” (lazo, 2008, p. 54). this reads much like the effect of culture shock and the mental confusion it imposes on the sufferer. gabrielle is in dire straits as her training as a scientist is in conflict with her newfound spirituality. she finds herself battling with an issue that calls her career to question, and yet leaves her wondering as to how to accentuate her new conviction of science-spirituality hybridity. this confused mental state underlies her statement: “a whole new world had opened up for me – one that both intrigued and terrified me. i was, however, consumed with worry about the consequences of going any further into that world” (lazo, 2008, p. 170). in spirituality, inductive logic/reasoning is employed contrary to the scientific deductive methodology of arriving at conclusion and describing reality. commenting on this with regard to christianity, geran dodson (2016) argues that the basis of inductive reasoning is insights and spiritual experiences, because it uses finiteness to describe infiniteness, even though it cannot prove infiniteness using finite categories (p. 130). dodson also submits that inductive logic expresses the “possibility and necessity of truth science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 26 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies that is based on insight and spiritual experiences that are formulated in propositions believed to be true. theology builds its foundation on an interpretation of god, the world, the condition of humanity, and accepts without question the celestial rules by which everything operates” (dodson, 2016, p. 130). lazo foregrounds the inductive reasoning that undergirds santeria when gabrielle soliloquizes telling herself that she “was operating faith, not facts” (lazo, 2008, p. 256). fact and faith dichotomy is, therefore, central to science and spirituality debate. her statement is surely a reflection of the awareness that her aspirations and conditions may be beyond the grasp of (medical) science, hence her desperate acceptance of santeria, albeit with doubts and concerns about its arcane rituals and cryptic codes. during her initiation rituals, she unfurls her mind: i imagined purging my doubts as i vomited. i realized i wanted all of the good things the religion had to offer: a connection to my family, protection from my enemies, guidance to ease the journey of life, a chance to feed my spiritual hunger – and, of course, i wanted to become a mother. i wanted these things without the embarrassment the ancient rituals would bring to my modern life. (lazo, 2008, p. 271) drawing from the above quote, it is important to note that the thread of lazo’s narrative has narrowed down to her belief in the victory of spirituality (santeria) over science. it is probably her attempt to use the narrative to address the asymmetric relations between the duo. since gabrielle has had several medical tests and treatments over her miscarriages all to no avail and psychics’ predictions seem to be having the coloration of truth, what appears ineffectual has to give way for a seemingly effectual but stereotyped phenomenon, whether it has or lacks materialist candor. the miracle of sofi segovia’s daughter (bella) overcoming her nephrological disorder after her initiation into santeria further sustains gabrielle’s interest in the religion, and clears her doubt about the possible victory spirituality can record where medical science fails. according to sofi: science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 27 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 she was five. we found out she had bad kidneys. we were still in new york. angie and jose were already here. he had just become babalawo. he consulted orula, who said bella had to be initiated as soon as possible. we even told the doctors in new york what we were doing so they would teach us how to bathe her with all the tubes sticking out. […] even during the ceremony, she never cried – not even when they cut her hair. she had already been through worse with all the tests. after we got back, her kidneys began to respond to the treatment that hadn’t been working before. the doctors couldn’t believe it. (lazo, 2008, p. 116) bella’s miraculous recovery from chronic kidney disease (ckd) reiterates the importance of shared knowledge and complementariness between science and spirituality as well as the potency of spirituality to work out solutions to even the most dreaded illnesses, such as kidney failure. it is not impossible that bella might have lost her life if her parents had insisted on medical science to treat her. her speedy recovery from ckd says a lot about the possible primacy of spirituality over science in certain dire instances. as a matter of fact, the result is astounding because bella’s doctors find it difficult believing her miraculous recovery from the disease. the foregoing recapitulates lazo’s concern in the accidental santera, as she calls for an alternative means of naming reality and solving human problems. lazo’s three-world orders in the accidental santera, lazo suggests a three-world order. the orders: old (santeria or ancestral religious worship); new (science); and the hybrid or syncretic order. while characters such as ancestral spirits, grandma segovia and her husband, tia mayte, pantheon of yorùbá gods, and devotees of santeria typify old (religious) order; the new order comprises american university system, world of science, benito, matt flueger, white science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 28 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies americans, and the heavily gendered or racialized american space. the third order is a coalescence of the old and new orders, the conflation or a creation of dialogue between science and spirituality, which santeria also metaphorises in the text. this is probably the thrust of lazo’s concern, calling for an understanding between old and new, ancient and modern, as well as between spirituality and science. the syncretic project that lazo uses the novel to advocate also serves as a metaphor of the fusion of yorùbá cultural traits with catholicism in the americas. the syncretism negotiates harmony between two erstwhile mutually exclusive belief systems (yorùbá òrìṣà worship and catholic christian faith), thus creating a religious unison in which one represents the other using religious ethos of the other, and vice versa, in the americas, especially cuba (see adeniyi, 2010). lazo’s call for syncretism between science and spirituality is reinforced in defense of her newfound religion and decision to be initiated into santeria. according to her, there is nothing bizarre in her becoming a santera, because some of her colleagues pursue their religious convictions without any fear. according to her, if “alex littlefield goes to powwows [and] no one shies away from his lab […] carol wright goes to the unitarian church in oakland [and] nobody questions her science because of it” (lazo, 2008, p. 238), no one has the right to query her afro-cuban religious convictions. the comments of lila’s chinese grandparents, as related by lila, is suggestive of syncretic motif that runs through the faction. while narrating what her grandfather tells her about santeria and its adherents who patronize their store, lila reveals that: the people in your religion are the only ones who are not chinese who go there […] they told me that, years ago, one of their customers, this cuban lady, invited them to a party in oakland. they said the people danced and played drums and ate lots of good food, including some of the birds they bought in our store. there they met a chinese man. he spoke science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 29 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 english, spanish, and cantonese. he explained a lot of things to my grandparents […] my grandfather said that is why he loves this country. we can practice our ways. you can practice yours. he also said we are more the same than different. (lazo, 2008, pp. 227-228) lazo’s quote: “spiritism, having taken the proportions of a science, requires a scientific language” (lazo, 2008, p. 245)18 is suggestive of the motif of syncretism that abounds in the text. syncretism is further demonstrated in the text when an oriate19 during gabrielle’s ita20 delivers the message of obatala to her concerning what will be the state of her health in future: “si siente algo en el seno que vaya al medico a tiempo,” the oriate said. i was being ordered to go to the doctor immediately if i ever felt something in my breast. great. my mother made a funny choking sound. i gave her a brave smile and nodded my head yes. i thought about the advice, trying to imagine a diagnosis of breast cancer in my future. i might get it, but i would not die from it. (lazo, 2008, p. 296) considering the above quote, lazo seems to stress the importance of having spirituality work hand-in-hand with (medical) science. she seems to suggest that before any diagnosis of any disease is made; a santera/santero, through divination or revelation from the ancestors, would have had foreknowledge and prepared adequately for it either through (medical) science or revelation/ebbo and spiritual cleansing. however, the effectiveness of this method is problematic, because science will never approve of faith healing. this does not mean it is impossible as well. for example, gabrielle 18the quote is taken from allan kardec’s (1978) book, the book on mediums: guide for mediums and invocators, and quoted in the accidental santera. 19it is “a santero who delivers the ita during the initiation of a iyawo” (lazo, 2008, p. 313). 20it is “a spiritual consultation or reading using divination systems of either santeria or ifa” (lazo, 2008, p. 312). it also describes life reading performed for a santero or santera during which sterling revelations about their lives are made known to them. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 30 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies informs benito what tia mayte tells her earlier about the powers of ọ̀ṣun21 to cure any form of diseases and her power to give children to the needy, because ọ̀ṣun rules over fertility or infertility and she is the “patron of all things abdominal and medical” (lazo, 2008, p. 205). though an othered domain, santeria still provides an avenue for gabrielle and other santeras or santeros in the text to define her/their selfhood and social relations in a heavily gendered and racialized american space. with this revelation, santeria becomes a weapon of negotiation, identification, and interrogation of western hegemony as symbolized by modern science in the text. through gabrielle’s autobiographical narrative voice, it is clear that santeria eventually affords her the opportunity to find a true path and destiny in life. spirituality seems to take the place of science in her life. even though a foremost scientist, she begins to realize the enormous opportunities that spirituality offers which are out of reach of scientific procedures. though she does not reject science in its entirety, gabrielle also contends that spirituality (santeria) cannot be rejected due to its lack of scientific validity. she believes there are realities which defy scientific explanations, while science can also complement spirituality, hence the imperativeness of synthesizing the two domains for effective health care delivery and betterment of humanity. gabrielle, however, struggles with herself for a long time before discovering this. benito embodies an uncompromising materialist-scientist. his background in science continues to blind him to realities of syncretism, even when confronted with the truth of powers that yorùbá òrìṣà wield over nature and cosmos. gabrielle describes his countenance during her ita, after ọ̀ṣun reveals that she will give birth to twins – a boy and a girl: now that fear in my eyes turned to panic as my head whipped around and i locked eyes with benito. at first, his eyes held a look of shock. he believed in the prediction – for a split 21the yorùbá river goddess highly revered in santeria. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 31 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 second. then, i saw him “come to his senses,” his rational mind visibly taking charge. he shrugged his shoulders and arched an eyebrow, silently saying to me, “we’ll just have to wait and see.” ever the skeptic and scientist, he would keep an open, detached mind. (lazo, 2008, p. 298) gabrielle’s doctor, too, fits into this character typology. apparently for having her diagnosis proved wrong, she gets upset. she has earlier diagnosed gabrielle with a half uterus, noting that that is the cause of gabrielle’s inability to conceive. when it is later discovered that gabrielle has two fetuses in her, she wonders its realness, considering the fact that it is medically impossible, hence the reason she is upset. gabrielle notes that: “my doctor tried not to show that she was upset that a woman with half a uterus was carrying two fetuses” (lazo, 2008, p. 305). either angry or not at having her professional expertise proved wrong by the revelation of her patient having two fetuses in her, gabrielle has got what she wants, and for the first time in her life, she is not going to have a miscarriage. through the help of yemanya,22 her patron goddess; ọ̀ṣun, the goddess of motherhood, and a series of spiritual cleansing she has undergone, gabrielle’s cycle of marital woes and child-bearing frustrations is broken. this cannot be explained scientifically; these events are beyond the grasp of science. besides, her marriage seems to have been restored having won back the heart of her husband, who has earlier expressed reservation over gabrielle’s initiation into santeria. her rival at san francisco state university, matt flueger, has withdrawn his services from the university to another. gabrielle has seen in one of her dreams how “yemanya” kisses the wily, racist academic (flueger), indicating that the goddess has fought on her behalf. her “hatred” or possibly fear of science, ever since santeria creeps into her life, appears to have compelled her to resign her appointment and 22the yorùbá in africa spell it yemọja. yemọja is the name of the yorùbá goddess of the ocean and patron goddess of pregnant women. science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 32 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies possibly take over another job. however, taking a bed rest at home due to her pregnancy and getting more involved in santeria does not mean she has abandoned science for good, or possibly she has seen in santeria solutions to all her medical and spiritual problems. as a matter of fact, she still sees her gynecologist. òrìṣà, too, has alerted her to the possibility of her getting breast cancer during her life reading with a piece of advice that she should see a doctor, and with the assurance that she will not die from it. the syncretic tenor of the text is further punctuated by the foregoing and science-spirituality synthesis that lazo advocates. to irete lazo, the world will become a better place when no ideology, race, religion, belief, or a given system of knowledge (religious, political, economic, racial) hegemonizes itself or lords itself over another. this possibility explains the thrust of santeria and other african-based religions in the new world. conclusion this article has examined the possibility of conflating science and spirituality, leveraging the resultant harmony between the disciplines for the benefit of humanity. it argues that lazo’s the accidental santera sets the tone aright for a rigorous debate of the age-long antipodal science-spirituality relationship. while the debate is considered unnecessary by some historians and philosophers of science, lazo’s text helps to reinforce the relevance of the debate by giving prominence to it in her faction. the debate is important because it provides an opportunity to narrate the efficacy of spirituality to solve human problems that appear to be out of reach of science and narrate her chance encounter with the religion of her progenitors. it also provides her an opportunity to define her identity in a tensely racialized american society, and establish contact with her ancestral roots. lazo succeeds in weaving together a tapestry of events punctuating her faction, such as her experience as a scientist of note, career trajectories, marital problems, and her exploration of afro-cuban religious code to overcome her existential challenges. using authorial voice, she unfolds her interiority to accentuate her advocacy on the construction of hybridity between science and spirituality for greater efficiency to humanity. through the science-spirituality antipodal debateemmanuel adeniyi 33 vol. 15 no.1, 2022 novel, lazo reconstructs a new order of syncretism or hybridity between two knowledge fields hitherto considered mutually exclusive to each other, maintaining that rather than emphasizing the age-long conflict between the domains of science and spirituality, both can share knowledge from each other. her major concern is that instead of science pushing spirituality to the margins because it lacks deductive materialist principles, it should rather explore those enduring features that abound in it, while they jointly name reality and solve human problems. references adeniyi, e. 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(2006). the nature of science and the scientific method. boulder, colorado: the geological society of america. www. geosociety.org/educate/naturescience.pdf mochon, d., norton, m. i., & ariely, d. (2011). who benefits from religion? social indicators research, 101(1), 1–15. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/41476416 nieminen, p., loikkanen, j., ryökäs, e., & mustonen, a. (2020). nature of evidence in religion and natural science. theology and science, 18(3), 448-474. https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2020.1786221 scott, e. (2009). evolutionism vs. creationism: an introduction. university of california press. smith, t. (2019). the methods of science and religion: epistemologies in conflict. lexington books. stenmark, m. (2013). typologies in science and religion. in a. l. c. runehov & l. oviedo (eds.), encyclopedia of sciences and religions. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_1448 white, p. (2015). the concept of diseases and health care in african traditional religion in ghana. hts teologiese studies/theological studies, 71(3), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v71i3.2762 muhidin mulalic.pdf � � ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 the western balkans geopolitics and russian energy politics muhidin mulali� mirsad kari� ∗∗∗∗ abstract the energy politics is today at the center of the russian and the western balkans relations. it is widely known that russia has been playing significant role in world energy supply. therefore, russian energy companies have taken a leading role in the promotion of their businesses in the western balkans. the western balkans region has become geostrategic partner as a transit route for the integration of russia into the global energy world market. with regards to the transportation of gas western balkans as a transit route is determined to fully realize south stream project. in contrast to “a buffer zone” role, in the past few decades the western balkans gained an attention from russia and became an important geopolitical bridge towards western europe. such geopolitical and geostrategic planning of russia is apparent with regards to gas and oil. due to russian south stream gas pipeline project the western balkans became an important european energy transforming center. these new geostrategic games over the pipeline have also revived the russian historical interests in the balkans. this paper aims to analyze russian-western balkans relations with special emphasis on energy politics and geopolitical and geostrategic interdependence of russia and the western balkans. keywords: russia; western balkans; energy politics; geopolitics ����������������������������������������������������������� ∗ corresponding authors: muhidin mulali� & mirsad kari�, international university of sarajevo, e-mail: mmulalic@ius.edu.ba, mkaric@ius.edu.ba '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� ��� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� the russian foreign policy foreign policy is often defined as the strategy of actions chosen and taken beyond the boundaries of the state to achieve certain goals and objectives in relations with other powers in the international system (russett et. al., 2000, p. 117; hudson, 2008, p. 12). such relations are often conducted in very complex, dynamic and ever-changing domestic and international environments. this also contributes to the decision-making process, which results from the work of coalitions of interested domestic, regional and global or international actors and groups. in the light of this foreign policy definition it is obvious that the goal of each state in the international system is to protect and to promote its national interest in terms of country’s security, autonomy, welfare, status and prestige. throughout the history russia and the western balkans have been interconnected and interrelated. the russian foreign policy towards the western balkans was marked throughout the history by the cultural and spiritual closeness. at times such relationship was exaggerated and used to get a mythological character. at the same time often the slavic-orthodox solidarity was rarely a deciding factor of russian policy in the western balkans. since the eighteenth century, the russian involvement in the balkans was largely based on a friendship. for instance, during the 1770s, russia supported the montenegrin uprisings against the ottoman rule. then, in the nineteenth century the national liberation movements of the western balkans gained '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� �&� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� significant support on the ethnic and religious basis. the russian foreign policy was greatly based on an idea of pan-slavism. actually pan-slavism was used as a tool against the ottomans by the slavic and orthodox nations in the western balkans (levine, 1914, pp. 664-686). the russian empire fought for dominance in the western balkans and definitely had strategic interests in the region during the world wars. during the cold war, and especially in the 1950s and 1960s, other great powers feared that the soviet union would surpass the united states as the world’s leading power. the soviet union had the world’s largest territory, third largest population and second largest economy and it produced more oil and gas than saudi arabia. it possessed nearly one-half the world’s nuclear weapons, had more men under arms than the united states and had the highest number of people employed in research and development. in terms of soft power, during the period following the world war ii the communist ideology was attractive in europe because of its resistance to fascism and in the third world because of its identification with the popular movement toward decolonization (nye, 2011, pp. 168-169). due to the triumph of the west and the collapse of the soviet union, russia significantly shrunken in territory (76% of the soviet union), population (50% of the soviet union), economy (45% of the soviet union) and military personnel (33% of the soviet union). moreover, the soft power of the communist ideology virtually disappeared (ibid., p. 169). therefore, after the '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� & � ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� fall of the berlin wall and the collapse of the communist system russia has experienced the economic, social and political crisis. such quick collapse had a strong influence on russian foreign policy too. with the fall of communist regimes in eastern europe and the withdrawal of soviet military forces russian foreign policy had also diminished. there consequently followed the western expansion to the post-communist east. in this regard, there was a tendency that russia will seek ways of stabilizing internal situation without taking too much care about foreign policy and the world politics. russia was preoccupied with its internal affairs, particularly with the consolidation and development of the country's economy. this so-called romantic period in the russian foreign policy under andrei kozyrev was characterized by liberal internationalism that was even ideally seeking the unification with the west (beom-shih, 2009, pp. 124). not willing to renounce its imperialistic ambitions, russia faced very big challenge such as establishment and self-creation of a new cultural, social, economic and political identity. as a result of this there has been a fundamental reassessment of the interests of russia, basic goals of its foreign policy, the means of achieving these goals and the policy process (beasley, et. al., 2002, p. 109). therefore, different forces in russia, beginning from evgeny primakov, began increasingly to seek russian position in the world politics and more dynamic and realist foreign policy that will strengthen russian interests. in this '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� &�� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� context the main premise of russian foreign policy as one of the most important tools to ensure steady development of a country and guarantee its competiveness in the globalizing world under any government has been based on a realistic assessment of the country’s interest which has to ensure the national security, preserve and strengthen its sovereignty and territorial integrity and secure its high standing in the international community as one of the influential and competitive poles of the modern world. in 1999, with the coming of vladimir putin another strong change in russian foreign policy began (lo, 2002, 5-9). since then russian foreign policy and strategy were aimed at stabilization of russian internal affairs, using of oil and gas as diplomatic tools and return of russia as a great power. actually, due to stunning economic growth russia again began to challenge the united states in the global political arena. for instance, average per capita gross domestic product (gdp) in russia has grown from $1,312 in 1999 to $8,842 in 2007 (oliker, et. al., 2009, 1). geopolitics has been taken as the guiding principle for russian foreign policy objectives and interests. for example, russian new geopolitical approach towards so-called ‘southern periphery of russia’ changed to ‘the russian sphere of interest’. therefore, russia started to position itself as returning power to the international arena but with different objective than in the past whereby ideology was replaced with the common interest. russian geopolitical strategists, politicians and diplomats also began highlighting strategic and economic interest of russia in '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� &�� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� relation to neighboring countries that were previously part of the soviet union. russia didn’t do away with her superpower role, especially in her neighborhood. for instance, in order to prevent nato expansion in the balkans russia also made a strategic partnership with beijing based on the idea of multi-polar world (selezneva, 10; mankoff, 2009, 199). then, shaping of new russian foreign policy was greatly affected by world energy crisis. due to world gas demand and its relatively high prices russia managed to undertake significant economic stabilization. actually russia transformed itself into an energy superpower, which contributed to moscow’s much stronger international position and at the same time moscow managed to rebuild the foundations of the national power by using energy revenues. therefore, russian foreign policy is greatly related to the domestic policy by strengthening economic resurgence and ensuring sustenance of the international prestige and the security interests (mankoff, 2009, 31; oliker, et. al., 2009, 6). geopolitics, russia and the western balkans according to holdar (1992) the term geopolitics was coined in 1899 by rudolf kjellin, swedish political scientist. throughout the history this term has had various connotations. at the beginning of the 20 th century term geopolitics was a useful word to describe the geographical base of the state, its natural endowment and resources, which many claimed determined its power potential. with hitler’s rise to power the term was '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� &+� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� associated with expansionist nazi foreign policy, and during the cold war the word was used to describe the global contest between the soviet union and the united states for influence over the states and strategic resources of the world (hanhimaki, 2004; hepple, 1986, pp. 21-36). furthermore, the cold war scholars of international relations described that the main goal of geopolitics was the competitive zero-sum game played by nation-states in their pursuit of power and security. in such circumstances countries were primarily concerned about gains from trade, investment and military action relative to other national competitors. greater territory and resources for one party necessarily crate a loss for others. however, since then the geopolitics has become a much broader concept referring to the influence of geographic, cultural, demographic, economic and technological factors on the political discourse among actors in the international sphere (victor, et. al., 2006, pp. 4-5). based on this it might be said that relative gains do matter but so do joint gains from interdependence which prevails in the world today and possible and necessary cooperation among the states. in russian foreign policy balkans has been a significant area of a steady geostrategic interest. thanks to the cultural, religious and political affiliations, the western balkans is the closest part of russia towards europe. on the other hand, this region has been actively used as a ground for the suppression of turkish and european interests. after the first and second world wars the balkans represented a clearly identified group of six '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� &!� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� countries: albania, greece, bulgaria, romania, yugoslavia and turkey. during the cold war the subsequent six countries were divided into so-called 2+2+2 groups. nato members included greece and turkey, a member of the warsaw pact included bulgaria and romania and the non-aligned and independent blocs included yugoslavia and albania. after the fall of the berlin wall and the disintegration of yugoslavia several new states were founded (mitrovic, 2011, pp. 99-106). after the end of the cold war, russia lost its military, economic, political, ideological and geostrategic importance in the world. consequently, after being a major world power since the end of the wwii russia was forced to accept a ‘second class status’ in the international system. however, a new scenario was unacceptable for russia which tried to find a place in promoting its international status and reputation. russian foreign policy decision-makers have realized that traditional military and political alliances cannot anymore protect against all the existing trans-border challenges and threats. therefore, the bloc-based approach in addressing international issues has been gradually replaced by a ‘multi-vector’ foreign policy and ‘network diplomacy’ based on flexible participation and diversified approach towards every country in the international system in terms bilateral and economic relations. russia’s principal objectives in the area of international economic relations which are consistent with its priorities include strengthening its strategic partnership with major producers of energy resources while '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� &,� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� actively promoting dialogue with consumers and transit countries, based on the assumption that measures to ensure the security of energy supplies should be consistently complemented with reciprocal measures to ensure stable energy demand and reliable transit. imperialistic and hegemonic ideas of russia have become very current again especially over the past decade as russia’s economic position significantly improved, inter alia through large revenues acquired from gas production. rapid economic growth has encouraged further russian investment overseas including the balkans and increased russia’s confidence and activates on the international scene. in russian geopolitics the western balkans remains a link between russia with europe, whereby russia has been taking advantage of this geopolitical and strategic relationship. more active engagement of the eu and the u.s. in the western balkans, as a result of the breakup of yugoslavia, was seen by russia as negative as these influences, according to russians, affected the disintegration of yugoslavia and the creation of independent state of kosovo. with slovenian and croatian joining of the nato the political and strategic interests of russia were greatly limited. in both slovenia and croatia strong and organized serbian minorities do not exist which greatly reduced a chance of russia to built stronger pro-russian policy based on orthodoxy. therefore, because of these limitations the main attention of russian foreign policy has been directed towards serbia, which is believed to be the only eastern european ally. russia used historical relationship '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� &-� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� to keep serbia outside nato and in return russia has been helping serbia in the domain of economic, political and military aspects. therefore, serbia is considered as the headquarters of the russian policy in the balkans in tackling nato member countries and the spreading of turkish influence in the western balkans. russian foreign policy toward the western balkans is threefold. the first and most important instrument of the russian presence in the region is "energy policy," which is coupled with the "identity politics” and “security policy.” with the majority of countries in the region, russia share common slavic origin or orthodox religion which stimulates dialogue in the humanitarian field and encourages mutual cooperation. common traditional and cultural values again after the soviet collapse became the foundation for dialogue at a high political level between russia and the western balkans leaders (lo, 2002, 15-17). frequently, at meetings the heads of diplomatic missions from the western balkans use to acknowledge a special historical significance and spiritual-cultural heritage that unites slavic nations and underscore the importance of their mutual cooperation in the new world order. russia and the western balkans have been searching a way for mutual economic and political cooperation. russia and the western balkans states must re-develop their own strategic and political interests and emphasize on modernization and sustainable development. the third pillar of russia's involvement in the western balkans is a "security policy." russia is a '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� &�� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� permanent member of the un security council, which has been involved in a major security issues, especially related to the western balkans. this policy is often seen as a continuation of "identity politics" in the sense of solidarity with the serbs. in addition to these three dimensions, the western balkans has the potential for trade, economic and military cooperation with russia, taking into account the traditional ties that bind russia and the western balkans states. russian president putin made it clear that “the [gas] pipelines are our legacy from the soviet union. we intend to retain state control over the gas transportation system and over gazprom. we are not going to divide gazprom. the european commission had better forget about its illusions. as far as the gas is concerned, they will have to deal with the russian state” (rosner, 2006, p. 1). there are three "pillars" of russian influence in the western balkans. russia has privileged position as a permanent member of the un security council and blocks all processes run by the united nations in the balkans if they oppose russian political interests and objectives. then, russia has the historical, cultural and political relationship with the balkans there is the growing economic importance of russia for the balkans nations. russian veto has its utility value in organizations such as the osce and russian voice has great significance in other international bodies. the three pillars of russian influences are most evident in serbia. russian privileged position in the un security council brings russia political capital in bilateral '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� &�� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� political relations between her country and the western balkans. then, russian historical, cultural and political relationship with the balkans increased the understanding of russia's priorities in international relations. sometimes, as in the case of serbia, russian electorate request cooperation with russia, because of the historical and cultural relations. russian energy and foreign policy energy has become an integral part of the foreign policy agenda as it guarantees national security. states now desire energy security in the same sense that they desire military and economic security. therefore, according to kalicki (2005) energy security may be understood as “assurance of the ability to access the energy resources required for the continued development of national power… and adequate infrastructure to deliver these supplies to market” (p. 9). following this definition it seems that energy security means different things to different actors in international relations. for the majority of importer states, energy security means security of supply, in which the consistent delivery of affordable energy sources is vital. on the other hand, for exporter states such as russia, security of demand requires access to a developed and reliable market for the long-term sale of energy products. following this, states have economic and political concerns. former concerns are related to maintaining supply and demand between exporters and importers respectively in order to minimize any energy disruption or shortages on the '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� &&� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� premises that such energy shocks might undermine their economic wellbeing. political concerns are more about the potential leverage exercised by exporter states over both final consumer and transit states due simply to their dominant position as energy suppliers (hadfield, 2008, pp. 323-324). so as to avoid having problems and obstructions in delivering the energy to the final destination, exporter countries look for various options to minimize the monopoly of countries across whose territory energy is transported. this has been very obvious since the dissolution of the soviet union which was of crucial importance in realizing the potential of energy in one country’s foreign policy. russia’s “geopolitics of gas” has both, economic and political implications. yes, it brings more investment and extra revenues to the countries involved but it also requires actions of governments, investors and other key actors who decide on the routes to be followed, projects to be built, how the gains will be allocated and how the risks of dependence on international gas trading will be managed. it is widely known that almost half of russian gdp, two-thirds of export profits and half of government revenues comes from the energy sector. energy companies have become the center of the promotion of russian business in the balkans and allow russia to maintain a position in the foreign trade. energy interests also define a platform for politicians and policy allowing the russian energy business to benefit. the main goal of russian foreign energy policy is formulated in the energy strategy of russia for the period till '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� � � ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� 2030. russia aims at a maximum efficient use of russian energy potential for full integration into the global energy market and strengthening its position in achieving the highest possible benefits for the national economy. in this regard, the balkan region has become a strategy for russian integration into the global energy market, which is an important transit route and significant market. as a transit route balkans is the final phase of the russian supplies of oil and gas. russia is interested to continue negotiations on the sale of gas and the use of transport options to the balkans. russian gas sales to the balkans are dominated by "gazprom." russia is a leading player in total exports, resulting in a share of more than 95 % in some balkan countries that are dependent on russian supplies. russian companies are determined to increase gas exports to the balkans and there are plans to develop the gas network in macedonia and expand a gas pipeline to albania, southern serbia and kosovo. therefore, “russia is determined to exercise, through political and economic means, a sphere of influence in its “near abroad,” especially by manipulating energy supplies and prices” (oliker, et. al., 2009, 5). as for the sale of oil, russia's presence in the balkans is primarily made through russian giant 'lukoil'. as far as transport options, primarily for transport of gas, transit potential balkans intended to be used throughout the project south stream pipeline 900 km long, that needs to open in 2015. this pipeline will connect russia to the balkans, where the route is then split north '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� � �� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� to austria and south to italy. this project has so far joined austria, croatia, italy, slovenia, bulgaria, serbia, hungary, greece and turkey. connection deliberately bypasses ukraine to avoid repetition of disputes over gas supplies that prevented the russian delivery to europe in the last four years. in the case of oil, russia has proposed the pipeline, which transported the russian and caspian oil from the bulgarian black sea port to greece bypassing the bosphorus and the dardanelles. however, bulgaria has recently rejected the project on environmental grounds after a referendum held in the region through which the pipeline would run, which is the perspective of the project remains unclear. russia is also interested to build underground reservoirs of gas in a number of balkan countries. the electricity sector is another area in which russia looks for cooperation. one of the most important projects in this field is the synchronization of the energy systems of western, central and southern europe with the energy systems of the former soviet union and the baltic states. there is a growing involvement of russia in the european integration process of the balkans countries, whereby russia bases her relations on cooperation with the european union. russian energy policy is in convergence with eu policies in this area because all the balkan countries, either through membership in the eu or through the signing of the stabilization and association agreement follow eu energy regulations. due to '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� � �� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� such cooperation with the balkan countries russia de facto becomes integrated into the eu internal energy market. the balkans and russian energy since the end of the cold war the balkans has been undergoing uncertain transition which created a source of regional instability. hence, the balkan countries had to look for a new political framework which will provide peace, create new security architecture and bring economic prosperity to the region. in such political turmoil, interests of the countries in the region have been interwoven with the goals and objectives of the major powers, mainly the eu and the united states. however, gradual decline of the usa leadership in the balkans and financial crisis that affected the eu for the last few years created a political vacuum which has been exploited by other active powers such as turkey, china and even israel, but above all russia. among all big powers in the world, only russia does not need to import important energy sources such as oil and gas. at the moment and in the coming twenty years it has enough energy for its domestic consumption and to export too. on the other hand us has to import more than half of its oil consumption and some amount of gas; eu, from its own resources currently covers only about 25% of oil and just over half of gas needs. by the year 2030, countries that make the eu today will be able to cover just 20% and 40% of oil and gas needs respectively. russia is able to export more than two thirds of its oil production and in the case of '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� � +� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� gas capacities are very significant as well (petrovic, 2013, pp. 811). since the dissolution of former soviet union russia has remained a superpower in the field of gas and other natural resources available in russia today. for sometime moscow has tried to convert the balkan region into a strategic hub and a preferential entry point to the western economic zone. in such undertakings russia has always had zero-sum equations in its approach towards the balkans and especially after the nato and eu enlargement eastward, unresolved the kosovo crisis and the permanent post-dayton instability in bosnia and herzegovina. this policy has been driven by kto kogo (who wins over who) style resulting in the fact that “for every winner there must be a loser” (lo, 2002). moscow has seen the balkans as its predominant sphere of influence and the buffer zone where the russian economic and geopolitical interests have to be given priority over the eu and usa. russia’s main goal in the balkans has been to provide stability, security and peace as conflicts and wars in the balkans have not brought any good to russia throughout the history. on the contrary, conflict in the balkans has always been something bad for russia. last wars after the dissolution of yugoslavia showed that russia could not have a significant influence on the aftermath of those wars since usa and nato prevailed at the end. therefore, russia is ready to use all capacities at its disposal to preserve the ideas of sovereignty, to get prevent the spread of the '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� � !� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� western ideas that have prevailed in the west since 1991 that it is legitimate to use force to solve international problems, the most specifically to solve domestic problems in the countries concerned. what is nonetheless important for russia in the balkans is obviously energy aspect. hence, russia has been investing in the infrastructure of some balkan countries which have the role of providing a route for russian gas to get to western europe. serbia has been russian strategic partner in the balkans throughout the history. hence, since the dissolution of the former yugoslavia the key issue in serbian politics has been whether to be closer to the west or russia. almost all political parties in serbia and people of all backgrounds have faced this dilemma. since the end of the cold war russian political elites have tried to facilitate its relations with serbia and thus to attract serbian political elites and people to accept russia as their strategic partner which is of crucial importance in serbia’s regional and international relations (halilovic, 2012, pp. 195-197). thus, in 2009 serbia and russia signed the visa-free regime which envisaged that citizens from one country may enter the territory of the other one and stay there for one month. serbia has always been enjoying a strong russian support and on the other hand serbia has shown among all the eastern european countries signs of friendship to russia. besides historical ties, orthodoxy and economic relations russia is actually trying to stop the penetration of nato in the balkans by '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� � ,� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� using serbia as a proxy power. serbia has thus played a significant role in an international setting of new russian foreign policy. russia is quite aware of the value of serbia in the balkans as a country with a bad experience with nato. serbia also has been dealing with the problems related to kosovo independence. due to these problems russia could strongly count on serbia as its strong and long-term ally. then, russian policy is consistent against the recognition of kosovo's independence, which was forcefully separated and took a legitimate part of serbian territory. russia along with china is able to block the un security council and the admission of kosovo into worldwide international organizations. in the case of russian-american relations serbia and kosovo could be traded in for much higher russian strategic goals. in the case of nato, serbia wants to be a neutral country as to count on russian support. on the economic front, russia seeks to use its position in the serbian capital. russian gas and oil are important energy which is supplied to serbia. for instance, a controversial agreement was signed between gazprom neft and the oil industry of serbia (nis) for a price that many in belgrade considered too low and many consider it as some kind of debt to russia for the support for kosovo (oldberg, 2010, p. 52). pipeline systems that carry out expensive fuels to consumers are certainly very important and their network is being updated constantly. thus, the construction of south stream gas pipeline which implies investment of approximately euro 1.925 billion to serbia will make the balkans in general and serbia in '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� � -� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� particular a regional energy hub. according to the serbian prime minister ivica dacic, the beginning of construction of south stream pipeline is one of the most valuable investments in serbia in recent decades. this project, which is considered to be the gazprom biggest project in europe, is of special importance for the serbian geopolitical position in international politics, geopolitical concerns and energy security. consequently, it gives serbia a status of an important factor not only in the balkan region but in the whole of europe. therefore, construction of the south stream pipeline brings multiple benefits of exceptional importance for serbia. conclusion in russian foreign policy, the western balkans has been seen as a natural and traditional sphere of russian influence. unlike with other parts of eastern europe, where historical and cultural ties were much weaker, the western balkans is perceived as an area where there is orthodoxy as one of the most important links. then, there is a common russian and the balkans historical struggle against different influences. there is also a close geographic proximity, which allows the realization of common economic projects. therefore, russia has been making significant efforts throughout history to keep influence on the western balkans. russian influence in the western balkans and the growing economic importance of russia, which is reflected both in the '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� � �� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� energy sector as well as increasing investment and trade potential of russia in the western balkans, enable russia, through the peculiar bilateral negotiations, to achieve favorable arrangements for their national companies. russia has taken an active role in a variety of industries in the western balkans. apart from the energy sector, russian economic and investment interests were directed towards metallurgy, chemical and petrochemical industry as well as agriculture and military sectors. some western balkan companies made joint ventures with russian companies mainly in industries like pharmaceuticals, food, and light industry, machine and construction industry. south stream pipeline provides safe, continuous and uninterrupted supply of gas what is very important taking into consideration interruption and restriction in the distribution of russian gas for several times in the last few years. with this pipeline serbia gains additional importance in international politics, as it would cease to be the only receiver of energy via pipelines from other countries, and becomes one of the very transit states of this energy source to the central and western europe. besides serbia, one offshoot of the pipeline goes to bosnia and herzegovina, entity of republic of srpska. this further strengthens the entity of republic of srpska, its relations with serbia and russia. construction of this pipeline consolidates the position and role of russia in the whole balkan region especially towards serbia as its long-time ally in international affairs. in relation to bosnia and herzegovina, russian policy is '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� � �� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� quite clear helping by all means the republic of serbs and entering the plea for its existence, and at the same time helping belgrade in order to retain the belief that the serbian territories are preserved in bosnia and herzegovina with strong autonomy and a possibility of succession. this approach enables russia to have a direct control of all processes taking place in the western balkan countries and indirect impact on the eu and nato policies with regards to their possible expansion in the region. references beasley, k. ryan, et.al. (eds). 2002. foreign policy in comparative perspectives: domestic and international influences on state behavior, washington: cq press. beom-shih, shih. 2009. “russia's perspectives on international politics a comparison of liberalist, realist and geopolitical paradigms.” acta slavica laponica. no. 26. pp. 1-24 hadfield, amelia. 2008. “energy and foreign policy: eu-russia energy dynamic.” in steve smith, et. al. (eds). foreign policy: theories, actors, cases, oxford: oxford university press. hanhimaki j. 2004. the flawed architect: henry kissinger and american foreign policy. oxford: oxford university press. halilovic, enver. 2012. postsovjetski geopoliticki prostor i balkan. sarajevo: dobra knjiga. hepple, l. 1986. “the revival of geopolitics.” political geography quarterly. 1986, vol. 5, pp. 21-36. holdar s. 1992. “the ideal state and the power of geography: the life-work of rudolph kjellen.” political geography. vol. 11, pp. 307-324. hudson, m. valerie. 2008. “the history and evolution of foreign policy analysis.” in steve smith, et. al. (eds). foreign policy: theories, actors and cases. oxford: oxford university press. kalicki j. h. and goldwyn d. a. 2005. energy and security: towards a new foreign policy strategy. washington: woodrow wilson centre press. '��'�����()'��*���(��������������� � �� � ��������������� �������� �� ������������� � &� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������� �!"�#�$����� � ��%����� ��� ��������� ���� levine louis. 1914. “pan-slavism and european politics.” political science quarterly. vol. 29, pp. 664-686 lo bobo. 2002. russian foreign policy in the post-soviet era: reality, illusion and mythmaking. new york: palgrave macmillan. mankoff, jeffrey. 2009. russian foreign policy: the return of great power politics. new york: rowman and littlefield publishers. mitrovic, r. ljubisa. 2011. “the geopolitics in the balkans in the 19 th and 20 th centuries.” law and politics. vol. 9, pp. 99-107. oldberg ingmar. 2010. “aims and means in russian foreign policy.” in kanet e. roger, (ed). russian foreign policy in the 21 st century. new york: palgrave macmillan. oliker olga, et. al., (eds). 2009. russian foreign policy: sources and implications. pittsburgh: rand corporation. petrovic dragan. 2013. “napad na srspko-ruski energetski sporazum.” [attack on serbian-russian energy agreement]. geopolitika. vol. 67, pp. 811. rosner kevin. 2006. gazprom and the russian state. london: gmb publishing ltd. russett bruce, et. al. 2008. “world politics: the menu for choice.” in laura neack. the new foreign policy: power seeking in a globalized era (2 nd ed.), lanham: rowman & littlefield publisher. selezneva ludmilla. 2003. “post-soviet russian foreign policy: between doctrine and pragmatism.” in rick fawn (ed). realignments in russian foreign policy. london: frank cass. victor, g. david, et. al. (eds). 2006. natural gas and geopolitics from 1974 to 2040. cambridge: cambridge university press. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 poetic experience shahab yar khan * abstract nature of poetic experience is hereby redefined. the present article initially deals with the perennial nature of true poetic experience and its essential relevance to the world. it attempts to elaborate the process through which a poet is uplifted in a creative moment beyond terrestrial boundaries and is aligned with the „state of perfection‟. the role of successive generations of audiences in rediscovering the meaning of a poetic image is defined as life principle of all great poetry. shakespeare is discussed as the ultimate example of this principle since his popularity remains an irreversible phenomenon. keywords: poetic experience; mysticism; beatific vision; symbolism; naturalism and shakespeare. * corresponding author: shahab yar khan; prof. dr. department of english, faculty of philosophy, universit y of sarajevo; e-mail: shahabyar_khan@hotmail.com mailto:shahabyar_khan@hotmail.com s.y. khan poetic experience epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [46] poetic experience involves a nexus of esoteric and exoteric happenings. total recognition of these happenings makes a true poet to surrender voluntarily his conscious being to those senses that are particular modes of non-duality; this eventually leads him to a „discovery‟. this experience is that unique moment of awareness in which poet discovers and rediscovers a perennial existence of cosmic nature ---the state of „absolute perfection‟. thoughts, then, uninterrupted by a terrestrial barrier flow, to and fro, from the center of poet‟s being to the center of the cosmic being. this „perfection‟-poet alliance, as the result of the poetic impulse, forces the later to feel, understand and trace out all the possible dimensions of the first. this establishes an objective correlative between the two. the poet identifies his own self as one with the existence. if this progression from periphery to center, from finite to infinite, from form to meaning continues the poet would enter the realm of „beatific vision‟, the promised land of the mystics and sufis who remain to this day the selfless, contemplative element of any society. poet‟s impulse to recreate, as compared to a sufi‟s selfless surrender to and timeless glaring at this vision, forces him to withdraw from this loftiest state of human mind and soul. he decides not to break through the terrestrial crust, deprives himself of all the possibilities of becoming one with the beatific vision and returns to begin sharing his experience with his audience. as a matter of fact, all great poetry is a scrambled record of the experience of this moment. that‟s what longynus, the wisest of the thebans, and in our days joan elya (renowned pakistani urdu poet of late 20 th centutry) meant when they suggested 'sole purpose of composing poetry should be the transference of experience (kefiyat in urdu/arabic, ekstasis in greek) from the poet to the audience‟ (eliya, 1996, p. 14). audience, at this stage, becomes formulating factor for the „mode of inspiration‟, distinguishable thoroughly from the „mode of thinking-withpurpose‟. this mode of inspiration is never a result of a plan; it results into a plan. this unintended plan is actually a symbolic set of values of diverse nature, at times vague but always impressive and suggestive. in this way every great poet goes beyond the boundaries he originally sets s.y. khan poetic experience epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [47] for himself. audience is the reciprocal agent to these sets of values. successive generations of this „reciprocal agent‟ give versatile meaning to these values and in the process detach the original poetic experience from its end product. the meaning of the true poetic experience, thus, becomes subject to further deciphering of the poetic hieroglyph ----the poetic image. de-codification of poetic image is the life principle of poetry. lewis (1965) believes that not only image is the constant in all poetry; every poem itself is an image. discussing the nature of poetic imagination he says: „when we speak of imagination, then we speak on the one hand of a sympathy common to all men, though in the poet specialized, cultivated and intensified, and on the other hand, a perpetual reaching out of this sympathy towards objects otherwise unattainable --towards the past, the future, the absent, all that lies beyond the compass of present experience, without which the meaning of this experience must be so much the less distinct and complete. the nature of poetic sympathy is revealed in images, and i do not know any better way of defining it than by selection of images in which poets have embodied this sympathy, or attested to it. we remember shakespeare‟s lines: love‟s feeling is more sensible than are the tender horns of cockled snails. then there is keats: the setting sun will always set me to rights --or if a sparrow comes before my window i take part in its existence and pick about the gravel. and blake: arise your little glancing wings and sing your infant joy! arise and drink your bliss, for everything that lives is holy. and mr. macneice speaking of his days in birmingham: the short square fingers stuffing pipes were not poetic romantic objects abstracted in a picture of picasso, but were living fingers attached to concrete people --were in a sense my fingers. we look as such images as those, and we live in them, „……………………… that sustaining love which through the web of being blindly wove by men and beast and earth and air and sea s.y. khan poetic experience epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [48] burns bright or dim, as each are mirrors of the fire for which all thirst‟. (shelley)‟ (p. 66). this kind of study of a certain text makes shakespeare‟s writings unprecedented in inspiring successive generations of mankind. over the centuries, the textual and inter-textual history of his plays has been written down time and time again. not only the otherwise fossilized elizabethan world finds a life giving force in shakespearean drama but also the literary criticism in general, considered as „barren landscape‟ by ordinary readers, receives fresh air from his art. he as a cliché is „for all ages‟ but his popularity as an ever-growing, irreversible phenomenon has never been the fate of someone merely human, up to this day this is ultrahuman. he, the author of the „secular bible‟ knew well his destiny when he claimed with authority: “… how many ages hence this lofty scene of ours would be acted in lands not yet seen and in accents not yet known (cited in bloom, 2003, p. 3). “he is ranked with the very few, beethoven, mozart, leonardo de vinci, michelangelo, picasso, tolstoy – one of the greatest artists of western civilization” (p. 1). thus says scott (1993), very modestly. the fact is that shakespeare‟s is a caliber that raises him above such labeling as westerner or english only; he is definitely one of the greatest if not the greatest artist of human civilization. if shakespeare were only a westerner or english, the greatest opponents of the british empire and the western culture in india, muhammad iqbal and robindtranath tagore would not have paid their tributes to him. iqbal, the great poetphilosopher and the spiritual father of pakistan, paid tribute to the great genius in the following words: shakespeare “to the rusty morn, flow of the river is the mirror; to the evening song, evening‟s silence is the mirror. beauty is the mirror of truth and heart is the mirror of beauty, to mankind‟s heart the beauty of your words is the mirror. your thoughts ascending to heavens are the apex of existence while meaning of existence is your illuminated being. when the eye, desirous of the vision, searched for you, in the glow of the sun, it did see s.y. khan poetic experience epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [49] the sun inherent. from the eyes of the world your truth remained concealed but the world revealed, your eyes did see. secrecy, a concern of nature, is of such kind that a confidant of your kind will not be born again.” (translated from urdu collection of poems, bang-e-dara). national poet of india, the great religious and social reformer and the first asian ever to win noble prize for literature, rabindranath tagore wrote the following poem on shakespeare‟s three-hundredth death anniversary: “o universal poet! whose sun rose on the distant shore. england found you in her breast, thought you were her own. kept you, kissing your shining brow, in forest boughs a while embraced, where fairies danced and flowers bloomed. the island groves resound with praise, sung for this rising sun. then the sun leaped from its horizon‟s lap, wordlessly called from the infinity, climbed up the centuries hour by hour to reach the zenith of his glory, enlightening the mind of the world. see now from the far off shores of india, from her coconut groves, at this end of the time jingles his song of victory” (www.msci.memphis.edu). shakespeare is universal because of a mystical quest which results always as lewis says, from “congruity of images.” the seeds of his imagery, a perennial quest, lie in the very nature of the things. his poetry is life itself. i will not hold the position that his poetry is criticism of life, which according to matthew arnold, is the very definition of poetry. neither will i go for the proposition that life itself is the criticism of his http://www.msci.memphis.edu/ s.y. khan poetic experience epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [50] poetry, which according to iqbal (1992), is the „truth of all great poetry‟ (p. 34). it is important, though, to mention that the word poetry in both the cases is used in its widest possible sense. it includes all kinds of poetic expressions with which the eastern or the western traditions of arts are familiar. it also includes all kinds of poetic drama whether ancient indo-greek, elizabethan or modern. all such art forms are means through which an artist appeals the unconscious part of us. as e. s. dallas, a victorian poet once said: “the production of imagery belongs to the general action of the mind, in the dusk of unconsciousness.” 1 an image may in fact be another name for the concentration of the „greatest possible amount of significance into a small space‟. this intense feeling, transferred to the audience either through separate image or through the close patterns within which a poem‟s images are related, is even stronger in poetic drama. “in poetic drama, the imagery need not be so carefully selected or closely fused as in the lyric; mixed metaphors, for instance, are more readily acceptable in so far as the dramatic argument it self has enough impetus to jump the gap between them” (lewis, 1965, p. 89). what lewis here is talking about is the discovery of caroline spurgeon‟s „theme image‟ in a play. this important discovery that through a number of variations this image keeps on repeating itself has helped critics to examine the process by which a playwright, particularly an elizabethan playwright, deploys his imagery. the elizabethan deployment of imagery is directly connected with what is called by greenblatt (1984), „fashioning of human identity as a manipulable, artful process‟ (p. 2). shakespearean drama, as a result, is a „ceaseless narrative invention‟; it‟s in fact an attempt to see oneself in the other fellow‟s situation.‟ greenblatt sees shakespearean drama as the supreme purveyor of empathy, the fashioner of narrative selves. montaigne (1958), who shares many of shakespeare‟s most radical perceptions is another good example of non-narrative self-fashioning, „i cannot keep my subject still. it goes along befuddled and staggering, with a natural drunkenness. i take it in s.y. khan poetic experience epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [51] this condition, just as it is at the moment i give my attention to it‟ (p. 122). such flexibility transformed the symbolic structure of elizabethan art. shakespeare used this method to create a kind of drama which is of „no genre‟ and that would in future transcend all geo-cultural and even religious barriers. but the question (is his drama criticism of life or life as its criticism qualifies it?) remains unanswered if we do not analyze the two apparently identical statements by arnold and iqbal. in fact the two statements are two different perspectives of the two thinkers who mirror the differing destinies of the east and the west. in arnold's statement the word life actually means „nature‟, as a site of rational analysis and dissection. poet‟s job is to understand the complexity of this phenomenon and to reinterpret it in such pleasurable way that it would become a fragment of human knowledge. in iqbal‟s statement, however, the word „life‟ stands for that harmony between reason and spiritual perceptions that affect the „imaginal world‟ of a poet. it is because of this oriental attitude that in the east intellectuals “were rarely able to conceive of nature without seeing its roots in god, it cannot be studied without an investigation of the moral and ethical demands that this rooting entails” (chittick, 2001, p. 16). on the other hand, in the west after the dark ages the scholars were looking upon „unrooted knowledge‟ as an object worthy of pursuit (armstrong, 2000, p. 15). as a result of this pursuit a complex process was at work in europe by the time shakespeare appeared on the scene of english stage. in an era when the most influential writer of the world, william shakespeare, was about to bring the continents closer than ever; the world was heading forward towards a split it had never seen before. this unprecedented split, in the last two decades, has attracted the attention of scholars all over the world and enormous amount of work, expounding the nature of eastern mythos and western logos, rationalism and sufism, has been carried out by illustrious figures such as frinthjof schoun, titus burckhardt, henry corbin, martin lings, s. h. nasr, william chittick, etc. all such scholars have a very keen eye on the inner s.y. khan poetic experience epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [52] relation of spiritualism with the eastern art and the lack of „metaphysics and theology of nature‟ in the west: “since giordano bruno has broken the boundaries of the cosmos and hence destroyed the very notion of the cosmos, which means literally „order‟ the universe has become limitless outwardly. but precisely due to a lack of metaphysics or theology of nature in the west, the symbolic meaning of this new vision of the universe has not been made generally known, and moreover, because modern science leaves aside the symbolic significance of things, the content of this outwardly infinite universe remains finite. it is bound to the purely material level of existence. in a sense the situation has become reverse of what existed in traditional sciences (eastern tradition). there the cosmos is outwardly finite but with an inner content that leads to the infinite, whereas in the modern science the universe is outwardly infinite but inwardly finite. hence, on the one hand modern man seeks to conquer the space, due to an unconscious urge or „mystique‟ to transcend his earthly finitude --but in a physical manner which is the only manner modern man believes to be possible -- and on the other hand those modern men who realize the implication of the finiteness of the contents of the universe is subdued by this very realization and seeks an outlet from the tyranny of the physical world through the use of drugs, which they believe will open to them „the doors of perception‟ into another world” (nasr, 1999, p. 19). this perception of difference elaborates the way in which the two worlds of the east and the west primarily depend on their „mythos‟ or „logos‟. this difference, a couple of centuries ago an intellectual stimulus, is now the cause of a mental and moral inertia. as a result, the followers of either belief have become endangered species. today it is a global killer. in 1993, journal of the american academy of religion published the following statement in an article by j. a. burling, “we live and work in cultures that are wrestling with a complex web of issues related to religious pluralism and cultural diversity”. there is no doubt that more than ever now is the need for the revival of sophistication to understand the differences in a world where diversity of opinion is no more a blessing but once again such a heresy, which deserves inquisition. s.y. khan poetic experience epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [53] shakespeare, „the cosmic soul‟, knew that diversity is the essential law for existence and primary principal of all creation. today, he stands as a ray of hope amidst the forces of chaos around us. he is among those who have, consciously or unconsciously attempted to bridge the gulf between the diverse conflicting natures of mankind. in shakespeare, drama rises above the classical clash between the forces of the good and the evil. 'diversity' becomes the soul of drama instead of 'conflict'. this „problem of diversity‟, four centuries before shakespeare was discussed first by ibn arabi (b.1165), who, like shakespeare, believed that diversity (masala-ikhilaf) is that principal which is established by god‟s wisdom and compassion. shakespeare with the help of his characters creates a world of matrix where unlimited dimensions of „being‟ force the reader to see the possibilities within and lead to experience an existence which raises one above the physical barriers of time, space or cast and creed. shakespeare, a universal man, is the only common phenomenon in man‟s diverse cultures today. his insight into the nature of the existence enabled him to win admirers, followers and critics from all the present day cultures specially those which experienced directly the most far reaching phenomenon in human history, the british empire. once more a cliché, „he is of no age‟, in fact, he is an age himself and unto this day the world has not seen an era which could be called „post shakespearean era‟. references lewis c. d. 1965. poetic image. london: cox and wyman ltd. bloom harold. 2003. the poem unlimited. new york: river head books. iqbal javed. 1992. stray reflections. lahore: iqbal academy. eliya john. 1996. shayed. lahore: alhamd publications. armstrong karen. 2000. the battle for god. london: harper collins publishers. scott michael. 1993. shakespeare and modern dramatist. basingstoke: the macmillan press ltd. s.y. khan poetic experience epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [54] of repentance. 1958. complete essays of montaigne. stanford university press. nasr s. h. 1999. living sufism. lahore: sohail academy. greenblatt stephen. renaissance self-fashioning. chicago: university of chicago press. chittick william. 2001. imaginal world. lahore: sohail academy. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 from populism to symbolism: silver age discourse on the nature of russian symbolism barbara ann brown * abstract the goals of the mir iskusstva were to bring about a renaissance of russian literature and art, and to initiate a dialogue with the russian orthodox church. some members of mir iskusstva were interested only in the artistic and literary endeavors of the symbolist movement, while other members wanted to focus on the literary, artistic and religious aspects of the proposed renaissance. ultimately, this paper will show that the monolithic title of mir iskusstva or even the term “silver age” blankets significant divisions between two major threads of discourse. sometimes these divisions intermeshed, but they are still distinctive from one another and should be defined and discussed within the larger context of silver age culture. mir iskusstva contributed to silver age culture throughout russia and western europe long after the journal shut down publication in 1904. this paper will seek to explain the emergence of the mir iskusstva as an important forum for the symbolist artists and writers after the 1898 closure of the journal severnyj vestnik forced them to establish their own, “truly symbolist” journal. a comparison between the two distinct lines of artistic pursuit deserves exploration and discussion. each laid the foundation for what is currently thought of as “silver age culture.” this technical term encompasses a very compelling time in russian culture and history, and its components should be defined and examined in current scholarship. keywords: dmitri merezhkovskii, zinaida gippius, russian silver age culture, russian populism and russian symbolism. * corresponding author: barbara ann brown; assist. prof. faculty of arts and social sciences (fass), international university of sarajevo (ius), sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina; e-mail: bbrown@ius.edu.ba mailto:bbrown@ius.edu.ba b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [66] the russian literary period from 1880-1930 was an exciting time of innovation and invention. zinaida gippius‟s verse contributions to the symbolist movement of this time set the standard for those who followed her and contributed to the movement. most scholars date the advent of russian symbolism at 1894, but i contend that the russian symbolist movement began in 1892, when the literary journal severnyi vestnik (the northern herald) first published poems by gippius and feodor sologub under the editorship of akim vloynsky. additionally in 1892, gippius‟s husband, dmitrii merezhkovskii, published his collection entitled simvoly. pesni i poemy (symbols. songs and poems). in that same year, merezhkovskii read in public on the seventh and fourteenth of december in st. petersburg his famous lecture entitled о причинакх упадка и о новыкх теченииакх современнои русскои литературы (on the causes and the decline and on new trends in contemporary literature), which has long been accepted as the russian symbolist manifesto. this lecture was made up mostly of articles merezhkovskii published in various journals from 1888-1892. it caused great controversy among russian literary figures of the day due to its rejection of russian populism. prior to reading his lecture, merezhkovskii had made quite a name for himself as a poet and critic among the russian populists, most notably the populist critic nikolai mikhailovskii. along with the publication of simvoly and о причинакх упадка, merezhkovskii turned his back on his previous circle of literary friends and intellectual peers. although merezhkovskii‟s early symbolist poetry was symbolist in name only, it did concern fin-de-siècle notions and called for solidarity between russian and french symbolist sensibilities. mikhailovskii, however, maintained that europe was suffering from a reversion to “mysticism,” with “magi,” “neo-buddhists,” “theosophers,” etc., cropping up everywhere. he considered the artistic expressions of these trends to be “symbolism” and “impressionism,” and he contended that “франция одно дело, россия-другое,” which means “france is one thing, russia is another” (mikhailovskii 1900). mikhailovskii‟s ideas regarding the differences between france and russia are enlightening to scholars of russian symbolism due the nature of his approach. when merezhkovskii read his lectures, mikhailovskii had just finished defending lev tolstoi against a personal attack from max nordau, who wrote degeneration. nordau‟s degeneration had been published in 1895 and spoke out against the disease of degeneracy because of his philosophical bent for asking the big questions, such as “why am i alive?” and “what is the purpose of our lives?” in his prose b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [67] (nordau 1895).nordau takes issue with tolstoi‟s philosophical system present in most of his works, but treats the kreutzer sonata with considerable contempt largely due to the fact that the story afforded tolstoi international fame, and nordau considered it an inferior aesthetic effort. mikhailovskii was an ardent populist and deplored symbolism; he disagreed with nordau‟s assessment of tolstoi, but he agreed with the idea that societies should be safeguarded against “the very small minority who honestly find pleasure in the new tendencies.” further, he concurred with nordau‟s idea that literary critics and “all healthy and moral men” should boycott the symbolists. thus his approach began the debate between those who believed symbolism to be socially and artistically detrimental and those who were ready for new ideas and new ways of representing visual and verbal art. nordau defined degeneracy as a pathological condition inconsistent with talent or genius. he considered the appearance of degeneracy in art as symptomatic of a social disease that french critics called fin-de-siècle or fin-de-classe. symptoms attributed to this disease were unhealthy nervousness, moral idiocy, states of depression, exaltation, mysticism, childishness, atavism, feeble intellect, an inability to think in terms of cause and effect, extreme subjectivity resulting in diagnosable egomania combined with a tendency to congregate in groups (nordau 1895). all of these things, according to nordau, were abnormalities of the criminal mind and documented by forensic psychiatrists. these perverted inclinations of the artistic degenerate (as opposed to the criminal degenerate), nordau argued, did not express themselves in actual crimes. rather, nordau stated, the artist infects healthy society with his own dangerous techniques and methods created by a sick mind. one result of creation by the sick mind in question comes in the form of synaesthesia. synaesthesia is the association of an idea perceived, felt, or described in terms of another; it is a combination or substitution of one sense for another. for example, a voice can be described as velvety, or heavy, or sweet; a sound can be described in terms of a color. the blaring fire truck siren can be described as “red.” synaesthesia is also defined as the babbling musicality of the lunatic who strings together words for the sake of their sound without regard to meaning. examples of synaesthesia can be found in any century, any literary medium, and in any culture. percy shelley was the first english poet to use it extensively in his poems “alastor,” “epipsychidon,” and “the triumph of life.” it finally came to be defined as a technical literary term in 1891 (greene and cushman 2012). jules millet was the first to have applied it in 1892. of course, b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [68] baudelaire‟s sonnet “correspondences” and rimbaud‟s sonnet “voyelles” popularized the technique in the poetic form. further, joriskarl huysmans employed it heavily in his novel à rebours (against nature), hence synaesthesia came to be greatly associated with the theory and practice of the symbolist movement. nordau also attacked théophile gautier‟s famous preface to baudelaire‟s les fleurs du mal citing that, “poetry cannot, under pain of death or degradation, assimilate itself to the science of morals” (nordau 1895). nordau maintained that it was dangerous for society when respectable people, like newspaper critics, took the part of degenerate artists. he stated that the task of the “critical police” was to expose and ridicule the propagators of such pernicious opinions. the fact that baudelaire‟s influence had become so great not only in french society, but also in england, germany, scandinavia, north america, and russia irritated nordau greatly. nordau also took nietzsche, tolstoi, wagner, ibsen, the english pre-raphaelites, oscar wilde and many others to task in his book. ivan turgenev seems to be the only russian writer who received a better review, and nordau‟s ignorance of dostoevskii happily spared his audience from more diatribes. merezhkovskii was keenly aware of the tenuous nature of the symbolist movement, but he also understood the excitement attached to such a potentially liberating school of thought. as the title of о причинакх упадка и о новыкх теченииакх современнои русскои литературы implies, merezhkovskii offered an analysis of russian literature and the literary climate in russia during the 1880s and 1890s. he welcomed the ideas regarding the right of art to complete autonomy, to the freedom from other branches of artistic philosophy and embraced the possibilities of the discipline of beauty. he cites the french poets as precursors to a russian idealist school of thought in which critics would approach such authors as tolstoi and dostoevskii from a mystical point of view. merezhkovskii likened paris in the nineteenth century to that of florence in the fifteenth century, “были-ли в россии истинно-великая литература, достойная стать на ряду с другими всемирными литературами?” (merezhkovskii 1893). merezhkovskii continues to describe the contributions of pushkin, tolstoi, turgenev, dostoevskii, and gogol as worthy of world-class literary status, but begs the question of whether the time was ripe for a new, different literary style that could be perceived as russia‟s new cultural force. merezhkovskii‟s definitions of the role of the poet and poetry and his definition of literature are of utmost importance in о причинакх упадка . b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [69] he locates poetic creation within the realm of the individual, and he asserts that the poet and poetic creation do not necessarily have to exert an influence over their readership. поет можеть быть великим в полном одинчестве. сила дохновения не должна зависеть от того, внимает-ли пецу человечествоо или двое, трое, или даже никто (merezhkovskii 1893). for merezhkovskii, the poet and poetry do not have to exert any kind of influence over the public. this idea flies in the face of nordau‟s concern that those involved in the french symbolist movement were risking certain harm to those readers interested in the new poetic trends. further, this notion replaces the age-old position of the poet and poetry as potentially immortal entities responsible for the historic continuity of specific national literatures. moreover, this notion implies that poetic creation does not depend any more on human dominance than on any other acts of nature, as, according to merezhkovskii, “поэзия сила первобытная и вечная, стихийная, непроизвольный и непорсредственный даръ божий” (merezhkovskii 1893). thus, for merezhkovskii, poetic talent is god-given and may appear in anyone; it may appear in the seventeen-year-old arthur rimbaud, or in goethe, or in homer. merezhkovskii views literature as a fundamental cultural force, and he defines literature as an outgrowth of poetry, and more importantly, he considers literature to be superior to poetry: в сушности, литература та-же поэзия, но только, разсматриваемая не с точки зренияя индивидуальнаго творчества отдельных художников, а как сила движущая целыя поколения, целые народы по известному культурному пути, как преемственность ьпоэтических явлений, передаваемых из века в век и объединеных великим историческим началом (merezhkovskii 1893). literature for merezhkovskii is then a unified body of individual poetic creations, spanning centuries, and has emerged as a cultural force. he cites homer as the biggest example of his notion. homer‟s works were written in poetic form, but only centuries later during the golden age of greek civilization were his works considered to be literary and poetic contributions to greek culture. thus homer serves as a “historic foundation” that unifies individual literary contributions to greek b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [70] literature, and conversely, classical greek literature as a whole reflects homer‟s influence. along with this “unifying foundation,” literature, as with any other manifestation of culture, such as painting, sculpture, and architecture, can only develop within the right atmosphere. merezhkovskii observes that the talents of ghirlandaio and verrocchio might have flourished at any time in history, but only in florence during the fifteenth century was the atmosphere right for them to contribute the essence of the national spirit afforded to their students michelangelo and leonardo da vinci. once established, the florentine renaissance permeated italian culture and dominated cultural expression. merezhkovskii points out that the same thing happened during the era of romanticism and the subsequent naturalistic reaction against it in france. this example then implies that the atmosphere necessary to create romanticism in france must have decayed in order for a different atmosphere to foster naturalism. in turn, the atmosphere for naturalism began its decay in the 1880s, thus creating a new atmosphere for the advent of symbolism. merezhkovskii‟s atmospheres appear, flourish, and decay; the atmospheric changes that occur during the decay make for a different favorable atmosphere for something new to begin. merezhkovskii accounts for the idea of this decay with his notion of the “decline” (упадoк) of russian literature. it is important to note that merezhkovskii‟s “decline” is not the same as nordau‟s notion of degeneracy for fin-de-siècle decadence (декаденство). rather merezhkovskii‟s notion of decline resides within the artistic standards brought about by preaching the “useful prejudice” of morality as though it were sacred truth: ...только уодство. только пошлость в искусстве безнравственны. никакая порнография, никакие соблазнительныя картины пороков не разврашают так сердца человеческаго, как ложь о добре, как банальные гимны добру, как эти горячия слезы наивных читателей над фальшиво гуманными чувствами и буржуазной моралью. кто привыкъ над ложью, тот проходить с холодным сердцем мимо красоты (merezhkovskii 1893). for merezhkovskii, prose is superior to poetry and it is based upon individual talent and individual genius. prose is a cultural force, but poetry is not. prose is the expression of national spirit, but as a part of a national culture, it can only emerge given the correct atmospheric elements. the transformation of poetry into literature has occurred in b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [71] each national culture during various historical epochs. if all of these elements of his definition of literature hold true, then merezhkovksii‟s attempt to locate such a period of literary fecundity within russia could not be completed according to his own definition of literature. and most importantly, according to merezhkovskii, the atmosphere for world-class literary production had not yet emerged with russian culture or history. despite merezhkovksii‟s own analysis of russian literature from pushkin up until 1892, he asserts that the conditions necessary for the transformation of poetry into literature had not occurred. russian writers had traditionally flourished in isolation from one another, thus they had never united to lend a national spirit to russian literature. merezhkovskii cites several examples of the isolation of russian writers, most importantly pushkin, lermontov, and gogol. he also refers to the enmity between dostoevskii and turgenev, and between turgenev and tolstoi. he discusses nekrasov‟s and saltykov-shchedrin‟s lack of enthusiasm for dostoevskii, and turgenev‟s aversion for the poetry of nekrasov. merezhkovskii shrewdly observes that, for tolstoi, there was an obvious desire to escape from culture: в пушкин [sic], почерпнувшем [sic] быть может самое смелое из своих вдохновений в диком цыганском таборе, в гогол [sic] с его мистическим бредом, в презрений лермонтова к людям, к современно цивилизаций, в его всепоглошающей буддийской любви к природе, в болезненно-гордой мечте достоевскаго о роли мессии, назначеннойй богом русскому смиренному народу, грядущему исправить все, что сделала европа во всех этих писателях то же стихийное начало, как у толстого: бегство от культуры (merezhkovskii 1893). therefore, literature, which he has already defined as a cultural force, could not come into being because each major russian writer refused the role of the writer who would unite the national spirit of russian literature. russia was in need of a goethe, a representative of historic culture, and merezhkovskii‟s ideal of a “man of letters.” this could not be found in tolstoi, as he withdrew into nature and away from science and culture. despite this need, russia could not produce such a representative of the national spirit as long as it had no literature, no cultural force, as long as it recognized that one nation alone was not enough to carry world literature. the obvious answer to this dilemma, then, was for merezhkovskii to locate the representative of historic culture. whether or b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [72] not he viewed himself in this role, there is no doubt that his analysis of russian literature‟s contemporary situation and his view on the new idealism posits him as one of the pioneers in the creation of a great national russian literature. however, his condemnation of the state of contemporary russian literature continued the prevention of the very thing he sought to find – the emergence of a national literature. he put his efforts into publishing enterprises of his time, to the journals and to the literary circles that grew up around them. throughout this process, he observed that russian culture was indeed in a mire of monotonous boredom, and that it pervaded russian culture. as an advocate of culture and the arts, he could not condone the debasement of the russian literary language, which he attributed to those who imitated the method of dmitrii pisarev and mikhail saltykov-shchedrin. concomitantly, there seemed to be a complete ignorance of the “democratic bohemia” that was developing and was manifested in such literary contributions as ibsen‟s a doll’s house. for merezhkovskii, complete ignorance (or lack of education) was better than incomplete knowledge; but it greatly irritated him that the uneducated commanded a pure, beautiful language: но в среде полуневежественной, полуобразованной, уже оторванной от народа и ещѐ не достигшей культуры, именно в той среде, из которой выходят все литературные ремесленники, вся демократическая газетная богема, язык мертвеет и разлагается (merezhkovskii 1893). merezhkovskii states that not only were the journals responsible for the decay of the russian language, but they also contributed to the decline of the author. merezhkovskii bitterly opposed the idea of honoraria, and he regretted the fact that writers should be paid for their compositions. he felt writers should give their compositions freely to the public. he himself was in the enviable financial position of a literary aristocrat. merezhkovskii indicts the very idea of honoraria as one of the first reasons for the decline of literature. his reasoning spoke to the notion that literature had been given over to the “street crowd” and pandered to the lowest tastes of society. moreover, he cites the “petty press” for fostering this “most degrading form of prostitution” by forcing the author to surrender his freedom and fetter his inspiration (merezhkovskii 1893). obviously, merezhkovskii‟s own experiences with russian literary journals and their editors are revealed with these less than charitable remarks. he encountered great difficulties getting his own work b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [73] published in the periodical press. with о причинакх упадка, his first major critical work, merezhkovskii presented views on literature and delineated the essential features of the symbolist movement in russian literature. of utmost significance, however, was the fact that, at such an early stage in his career, merezhkovskii explicitly outlined his trajectory as a writer and, with typical lack of humility, proclaimed the divine inspiration that was to guide his future course. merezhkovskii‟s lectures were heard by a handful of people, whereas mikhailovskii‟s reverberated throughout literate russia. mikhailovskii‟s statements propagated the myth that is still prevalent in current scholarship, that russian symbolism was a direct transplant from france and that it was nothing more than a trendy version of decadence. although russian symbolism was part of a wider european trend, it was primarily a creative, poetic movement that was not a direct transplant. viacheslav ivanov, in retrospective articles published in 1910-12, emphasizes the importance of its roots in russian culture. ivanov contended that “symbolism does not cut itself off from the soil; its desire is to combine roots with stars and to grow up as a starry flower from familiar, native roots” (ivanov 1971). ivanov identified feodor tiutchev (1803-1873) as the first poet to apply the ideas of symbolist poetry. tiutchev developed the method of poetry that is based upon suggestion rather than on communication, and he began publishing his work in pushkin‟s sovremennik, which was in publication from 1836-1866, and then made a comeback from 1911-1915. tiutchev‟s poetry laid the groundwork for the russian symbolists by his ability to express the inexpressible and to show how “пониатным сердсте иазыком, твердиат о перониатнои муке ” (pain beyond understanding is told in a language that speaks to the heart). tiutchev was also responsible for supplying the symbolist movement with its first slogan, “мысли, когда-то говорили, является ложью.” (“the thought, once spoken, is a lie.”) the slogan was taken from a line of tiutchev‟s poem entitled silentium! another precursor to the symbolist movement was afanasii fet, who was an army officer and landowner. fet had a natural gift for verse, which valery briusov considered to be “a call to the great intoxication of the moment, which suddenly, beyond the colors and the sounds, opens into a transparency through which we can glimpse the „sun of the world‟ – out of time into eternity” (briusov 1913). konstantin bal‟mont was also extremely impressed by fet‟s gift for verbal art. fet became, for the younger symbolists, something of a cult figure. andrei bely, between the ages of seventeen and nineteen, admired fet more than any other poet. b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [74] bely found fet‟s verse to correspond with schopenhauer‟s (whose work, incidentally, fet translated into russian) concept of music and found his poetry to be the epitome of “harmonious meeting of thought and feeling: their transformation into something else again. of course, for me, he is a „symbolist‟ (bely 1969). aleksander blok identified strongly with fet‟s idea of the function of the poet. blok thought fet set the precedent for the concept of self-immolation so central to the poet, and even took the title from his last collection of verse from a poem written by fet, “за граньиу прошлыкх днеи” (blok 1977). fet‟s career, however, suffered during the utilitarian age of populism. fet consciously kept his poetry within the realm of the beautiful and consequently critics of the 1860s dismissed his work as empty-headed and superficial. he continued to publish poetry in russkii vestnik between 1863-1883 and he enjoyed limited attention as, during this period, no collections of his verse had been published. the freshness of symbolist poetics came on the heels of semën nadson. nadson was a friend of merezhkovskii, and he was popular during the 1880s only to be rejected by his former admirers as the epitome of civic sentimentality and flaccid prosody. however, nikolai nekrasov game him a forum in which to publish in his journal otechestvennye zapiski. nekrasov exerted influence over the early symbolists, but viacheslav ivanov did his best to protect blok and bely from his reach. merezhkovksii, however, considered nekrasov to be among the ranks of poets such as tiutchev and stated “[…]in russian squiredom, in russian serfdom – tiutchev, as if on a bed of roses, was lulled by mortal indolence, whereas nekrasov was tormented by mortal anguish, wounded to death by the thorns of those same roses” (merezhkovskii 1915). nevertheless, nekrasov endured harsh criticism by the likes of turgenev and tolstoi, even though he had been, in his heyday, considered a great poet. the popularity of his poetry faded with the entrance of the symbolists as they began to change the face of russian poetry. the symbolists struggled against, and banned outright, superficial civic commitment and sentiment from their poetry. as they identified their poetic goals, they realized the need for a strong forum in which they could produce their art, share ideas, and expand their exploration of suggesting, rather than communicating. in order for this to occur, they had to find a journal willing to back them and their cause and to provide an outlet for their creative work. although severnyi vestnik began publication in 1885 and was a wellestablished populist journal, it was also responsible for publishing the b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [75] earliest symbolist writers, such as nikolai minsky, dmitrii merezhkovskii, zinaida gippius, feodor sologub, and konstantin bal‟mont, not to mention translations from maurice maeterlinck, paul verlaine, and gabriele d‟annunzio. all of this occurred under the editorship of akim volynsky (akim l‟vovich flekser), who took the job as editor in 1891. severnyi vestnik was losing popularity at the time volynsky took it over (vengerov 1914). volynsky was an old-fashioned kantian who, in fact, strongly opposed what these new poets were trying to do in their verse. volynsky would often subject their contributions to extremely harsh criticism in his commentary section of the journal. interestingly enough, he bitterly opposed utilitarianism, materialism, and the cultural complacency of the cultural establishment – all things the symbolists were opposed to as well. although severnyi vestnik can hardly be considered an exclusive forum for the symbolists, it did provide an introduction to the russian literary scene as early as 1892. volynsky became encouraged by the journal‟s publisher liubov‟ gurevich to use his position to further the cause of “idealism in art.” as a literary editor, volynsky gained an acceptance of the new art by challenging the established tradition of radical literary theory. he argued against the most important literary theory. he argued against the most important literary critics of the day, such as vissarion belinsky, nikolai chernyshevsky, nikolai dobroliubov, dmitrii pisarev, and the successors in the 1880s and 1890s (volynsky 1898). volynsky undertook this challenge in defense of the values of russian literature. he contended that russian literature was “austere, simple and serious” against the radical critics‟ views that russian literature “lacked civic merit” (volynsky 1895). volynsky‟s criticism against the radical critics took the form of logical questions aimed at the core of their theories of literature. belinsky, for example, believed that literature should convey a civic moral. volynsky questioned belinsky‟s ability to know where such a “civic moral” could lead. in the case of chernyshevsky, whose utilitarian demands were clearly and concisely presented and whose definition of “content worthy of the attention of a thinking man” was taken very seriously, volynsky asked, “tell me in the name of what you wish people well and i will tell you whether i can be your comrade” (volynsky 1893). volynsky asserted that there is nothing higher than the notion of abstract truth, and he considered political questions regarding literature as superficial. dobroliubov and pisarev, who relied heavily upon realism and usefulness in their literary theories were, in volynsky‟s eyes, “a b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [76] generation of worthy militants” who were “heading in the wrong direction” (dobroliubov 1900). volynsky contended that their ideas, which were strongly held and advocated under great external pressure, had been “handed in for small change” by their successors, “losing all their vital freshness” in the process (volynsky 1895). in summary, volynsky recognized the need for changes in the russian literary climate and in the periodical press; however, he was not certain that the symbolists were the solution to the problem. the difficulties that new poets and artists had in placing their works in the russian periodical press had become untenable. zinaida gippius, dmitrii merezhkovskii, and several others were forced to offer their works to such journals as mir bozhii, which was a monthly illustrated publication with photographs of famous paintings and shiny pen-and-ink drawings depicting melodramatic, sentimental scenes in the style of the new age; trud, which was as uninspiring as the name of the journal itself; and niva, which was barely distinguishable from zhurnal dlia vsekh (martinsen 1997). for both the merezhkovskii‟s and volynsky, severnyi vestnik became a publication haven. volynsky was not afraid of gippius‟s new poetry, even though his decision to publish her work brought him serious troubles with his other editorial colleagues. he also began serializing merezhkovskii‟s first novel otverzhennyi in january 1895, but demanded that the work be radically edited. this did not help the relationship between volynsky and merezhkovskii, nor did the fact that both authors chose to write about subjects such as dostoevskii, tolstoi, and leonardo da vinci . volynsky published gippius‟s poems “pesnia” and “posviashchenie” and feodor sologub‟s first novel tiazhelye sny in the journal. however, volynsky published these works with reservations. he considered the works to be evidence of decadence and moral degeneracy. he refused to publish other “decadent” works, such as valery briusov‟s moskovskie simvolisty and aleksandr dobroliubov‟s natura naturans. he allowed publication of konstantin bal‟mont‟s poetry, even though he greatly criticized bal‟mont‟s first two books for lack of depth and simplicity. at the same time, he repeatedly pointed out bal‟mont‟s superior poetic talent to nikolai minsky and dmitrii merezhkovskii. he charged sologub with moral turpitude and disparaged the nietzschean element in merezhkovskii‟s novels and in his 1896 collection novye stikhotvoreniia (gippius 1951). gippius and merezhkovskii left severnyi vestnik on bad terms in 1897, when volynsky refused to serialize merezhkovskii‟s sequel to his first book on b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [77] da vinci, voskresshie bogi. leonardo da vinci. in 1898, severnyi vestnik closed down. in the spirit of bad-mannered literary criticism, volynsky placed himself among editors of other journals who considered the symbolist contribution to be morally and politically objective. volynsky struggled constantly with rejecting populist critics and criticism, and he agreed with those critics who though symbolism was a deplorable example of a literary movement. one thing the early symbolists were very serious about was the overhaul of back-biting sarcasm and personality assassinations in literary criticism. volynsky disagreed. instead, the symbolists sought to replace these elements with ironic statements, focusing criticism on the merit of the argument rather than the personality of the writer. in later symbolist journals, such as mir iskusstva, novi put’, and vesy, the early symbolists were able to put better-mannered criticism into practice and thus elevate literary criticism to a more civil exchange of aesthetic ideas. although volynsky was opposed to populism and its purported materialism, he shared the populist‟s optimistic views of human nature and their belief in progress. thus severnyi vestnik, although it had served as the early symbolists‟ introduction to readership and crititicism, was still too close to populism to be able to provide a stable periodical environment for the young symbolists. the journal mir iskusstva began as an academic discussion at regular friday receptions hosted by sergei diagilev and dmitrii filosofov. from january 15 through february 8, 1898, diagilev and filosofov arranged a very successful art exhibition of finnish and russian painters. this exhibition fostered introductions and growing friendships of key participants during the inception of mir iskusstva. the group approached princess tenisheva, a noblewoman, and savva ivanovich mamontov, a merchant patron, for funding to bring the journal into publication. on november 9, 1898, they celebrated the publication of mir iskusstva no. 1-2. the journal was always published in double volumes, it was printed on fine-quality paper, and it was filled with opulent illustrations by new artists. the journal also serialized many of the great contributions to the russian symbolist movement. for example, gippius‟s zerkala: vtoraia kniga rasskazov was published during the journal‟s first year of publication. mir iskusstva allowed for a truly creative collection and collaboration for the russian symbolists. the point of this new and innovative journal was aptly determined by its publisher sergei diagilev: “we must force our way through. we must amaze people and not be b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [78] afraid to do so, we must make our entrance at once, reveal our whole selves with all the good and bad qualities of our nationality” (diagilev 1982). it was not critics or poets who began this, the first truly modernist literary journal in st. petersburg, russia. rather, it was painters, musicians, and people who loved the performing arts and who finally found the confidence to break out from populism, naturalism, and romanticism and launch this most successful symbolist journal. the key participants were a cosmopolitan group of amateurs of the fine arts who were closely linked by blood or patronage to the dvorianstvo and the court. the dvorianstvo was the class of “serving nobility” originally created by peter i. the purpose of this class was to counter the power of the old feudal nobility and to provide an educated upper class devoted to the crown. they were rewarded throughout the eighteenth century with land and serfs, and they acquired a great deal of independence. in spite of the root of the word dvorianin, which means courtier, this class became comparable to gentry who owned land and upper-middle-class professionals. thus the goals of the mir iskusstva to bring about a renaissance of russian literature and art and to initiate a dialogue with the russian orthodox church were outlined in the critics‟ debates and letctures, which began in 1892. some members of mir iskusstva were interested only in the artistic and literary endeavors of the symbolist movement, while other members wanted to focus on the literary, artistic and religious aspects of the proposed renaissance. the monolithic title of mir iskusstva or even the term “silver age” blankets significant divisions between two major threads of discourse. sometimes these divisions intermeshed, but they are still distinctive from one another and should be defined and discussed within the larger context of silver age culture. mir iskusstva contributed to silver age culture throughout russia and western europe long after the journal shut down publication in 1904. the mir iskusstva groups members and the journal were an important forum for the symbolist artists and writers after the 1898 closure of the journal severnyj vestnik forced them to establish their own, “truly symbolist” journal. each of the two distinct lines of artistic pursuit deserve exploration and discussion because each laid the foundation for what is currently thought of as “silver age culture.” this technical term encompasses a very compelling time in russian culture and history, and its components should be defined and examined in current scholarship. b.a. brown from populism to symbolism: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [79] references bely, andrei. 1969. simvolism. knigia statei. müchen, wilhelm fink verlag. blok, aleksandr. 1977. byli i inebylitsy. ed. i. paul‟mann and l.s. fleishman. bremen: k-presse. briusov, valerii. 1927. dnevniki 1891-1910. moscow: izd. m.i.s. sabatnikovyx. -----------------. 1910. “o „resi rabskoi‟, v zashchitu poezii.” apollon, vol. 9. -----------------. and a. l. miropol‟skii. 1894. russkii simvolisty. 2 vols. moskva: vozhvizhenka, krestovozd‟, per., d. lusskera. -----------------. 1901. sobranie sochinenii. st petersburg. diagilev, sergei. 1982. sergei diagilev i russkoe iskusstvo. stat’ i otkrytye pis’ma, interv’iu. perepiska. sovremenniniki o diagileve v 2-x tomakh. ed. i.s. zilbershtein and v.a. samkov. vol. 2. moscow dobroliubov, alexander. 1900. sobranie sochinenii. moscow. gippius, zinaida nikolaevna. 1951. dmitrii merezhkovskii. paris. greene, roland and stephen cushman. (eds.) 2012. the princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics. 4 th edition. princeton: princeton up. ivanov, viacheslav. 1971. sobranie sochinenii. vol. 2. briussel: foyer oriental chrétien. ---------------. 1910. “zavetu simvolizma,” apollon. vol. 8. martinsen, deborah a., (ed.) 1997. literary journals in imperial russia. cambridge: cambridge up. merezhkovskii, dmitrii. 1915. dve taniny russkoi poezii. st. petersburg. ----------------. 1901. mir iskusstva, no. 23-24. st. petersburg. -----------------. 1893. o prichinax upadka i o novye techniiax sovremennoi russkoi literaturyri. st. petersburg: b. b. bol‟fa. mikhailovsky, n. k. 1900. literaturnye vospominaniia i sovremennaia smuta. vol. 2. st. petersburg. nordau, max. 1993. degeneration. trans. from the 2 nd edition of the german work. lincoln: university of nebraska press. vengerov, s. a. (ed.) 1914. russkaia literatura xx-veka 1890-1910. moscow: mir. volynsky, akim. 1898. severnyi vestnik. nos. 10-12. st. petersburg. ---------------. 1895. severnyi vestnik. no 5-6. st. petersburg. ---------------. 1893. severnyi vestnik. no. 1-2. st. petersburg. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bosniaherzegovina mirsad karić * abstract this paper provides a critical analyzes of 2012 local elections in bosnia-herzegovina. since 1995 the local elections and its political and electoral system have been based on the dayton peace agreement (dpa). according to dpa bosniaherzegovina has the multiparty system and regular and free elections. these local elections were held amidst continuously renewed political turmoil at the cantonal, entity and state levels. 2012 local elections results have shown that the hdz and sda continued to dominate politics at the local level in the federation of bih while in the rs, position of snsd has been strongly shaken by very good performance of sds. the sda won majority of votes in bosniak majority areas while sds and hdz secured their votes in the serb and croat majority areas respectively. in the federation of bih, sdp and sbb suffered dramatic fall in votes comparing to the last general elections while in the rs, snsd, which has dominated politics since 2006 lost significant number of votes, mayoral posts and municipality seats to sds and some other political parties such as pdp, sp and dns. keywords: bosnia-herzegovina, elections, political campaign, electoral law and political crisis. * corresponding author: mirsad karić, assistant professor, faculty of business and administration (fba), sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: mkaric@ius.edu.ba. mailto:mkaric@ius.edu.ba m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [204] introduction free, fair, regular and competitive elections have always been an integral part of any democracy and essential tool for the peaceful transfer of power and governance. democratic institutions also prosper due to the exercise of choice at regular intervals by the electorate. the fifth local elections in bosnia-herzegovina (bih) were held seventeen years after the end of the bosnian war. as in the previous elections, bosnian political scenario was characterized by a multiparty system with many political parties, coalitions and independent candidates who were competing for the mayoral posts and municipality councils in all municipalities except in the city of mostar. for many observers these elections were considered interesting and in terms of results quite unpredictable ones. furthermore, local elections were held in the context of a deep political crisis that has characterized bosnia-herzegovina post2010 general election‟s political milieu. these elections were conducted generally according to the international standards for democratic elections, although further efforts are needed, particularly with regard to the equal access and usage of media. therefore, the fifth local bosnian elections represented further development in the consolidation of democracy and the rule of law. the aim of this paper is to analyze the 2012 local elections in bosnia-herzegovina by referring to the legislative framework, political background, the role of media, parties, coalitions, candidates, the conduct of elections and finally election results for mayoral positions and municipality councils. legal framework of bosnian electoral system political system in bosnia-herzegovina was a result of the constitution, which is part, annex iv, of the dayton peace agreement (dpa), the peace agreement that ended the 1992–1995 bosnian war. under the constitution, the country is split into two entities: the primarily bosniak (muslim) and croat (catholic) federation of bosnia and herzegovina further divided into ten cantons, and the primarily serb (orthodox christian) republic of srpska (rs). the smallest administrative and political settlement unit is municipality (bojkov, m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [205] 2003, 41-67). according to ibrahimagic and kurtcehajic (2002) prior to the war there were 109 municipalities while in the post-dayton bosniaherzegovina number of municipalities increased to 142, 79 in the federation of bosnia-herzegovina, 62 in the rs and brcko, city located in northeastern bosnia-herzegovina, being a self-governing municipality under the sovereignty of bosnia-herzegovina and formally part of both entities. the 7 october municipal elections were the twelfth elections in bosnia-herzegovina since 1996 and the fifth local elections. according to the annex iii of the general framework agreement for peace in bosnia-herzegovina the organization for security and co-operation in europe (osce) was in charge of supervising the elections at all levels until 2000 (chandler, 2000, 46; solioz, 2005, 48-57). following the adoption of the election law in 2001, the 2012 local elections were the fifth to be both organized and fully funded by bosnia-herzegovina. the elections were held under quite complex legal framework. mayors were directly elected in all 139 of bosnia-herzegovina‟s 142 municipalities and the city of banja luka except in the brcko district and the city of mostar. mayor of the brcko district is usually indirectly elected by the 31 members of the city council. on the other hand and according to the decision of the central election commission of bosnia-herzegovina (cecbih) municipal elections for the city of mostar has been postponed following a verdict made by the constitutional court of the federation of bosnia-herzegovina that declared the statute of the city of mostar unconstitutional with regards to the elections of the city council members (bose, 2002, 95-142). according to basic explanation of biber (2004) members of municipal councils and assemblies were elected under a proportional representation system with a three percent legal threshold. in addition to this and as a result of an amendment to the election law, candidates in 24 municipal councils and 2 city assemblies were reserved for national minorities under a plurality vote system. therefore, on the election day voters could vote either for a political party, candidate(s) from the list offered by political parties or coalition of political parties, independent candidate, joint list of independent candidates and for a national minority m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [206] candidate. all officials have been elected for four-year mandates (schmeet and jeanet, 1997). on the may 7, 2012, election commission of bosniaherzegovina announced that the fifth local elections in the post-war bosnia will be held on the october 7, 2012. elections will be held for the following posts: 1. 78 municipal councils in the federation of bosnia-herzegovina 2. 61 municipal councils in the rs 3. 139 municipal mayors in bosnia-herzegovina 4. assembly for the city of brcko 5. assembly for the city of banja luka 6. mayor for the city of banja luka the total number of 3.144.296 voters was able to take part in the elections. the cost of the local elections was around km 9 million (4.5 million euro). according to the central elections commission (cec) estimation around km 4.3 million was provided from the state‟s budget. municipalities were required to allocate additional km 4.5 million to cover its own direct costs such as payment of local election commissions and election boards, venues, distribution of election material, salaries of poll workers and other expenses based on the number of registered voters. a total of 383 political subjects were endorsed for the elections including 84 political parties, 59 coalitions, 330 independent candidates and 16 lists of independent candidates. out of 30.351 candidates, 550 vied for 135 mayoral posts, 29.652 for municipal representatives and 149 candidates run for the posts designated for national minorities. despite difficulties with regards to funding, staffing and others overall preparations for the 2012 local elections met all preparation and legal requirements. the cecbih enjoyed a high level of confidence and trust among the local political parties. with regards to the quality of the voter lists the task of the cecbih was to a large extent improved due to passive voter registration system, which was introduced in 2006 (pugh & cobble 2001; caspersen 2004 and bieber 1999). citizens were automatically registered for voting in the place of residence recorded. the citizens identification protection system (cips) database in turn m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [207] provided the technical support and data on citizens to the cecbih. bosnia-herzegovina law requires from all citizens older than 18 years to hold a valid cips identification card. according to the election law of bosnia-herzegovina, there are three categories of voters: regular voters, displaced persons (dps) and out-of-country voters. regular voters are recorded in the central voters register and have the right to vote in the municipality of their permanent residence. according to the law on refugees from bosnia and herzegovina and displaced persons in bosnia and herzegovina article 3, the status of displaced persons refers to a citizen of bosniaherzegovina, residing within the country, who has been expelled from his/her habitual residence as the consequence of the conflict, or left her/his habitual residence, after 30 april 1991, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership to a social group or political opinion, and who is neither able to return in safety and with dignity to his/her former habitual residence nor has voluntarily decided to take up permanent residence elsewhere. according to election law of bosnia and herzegovina, chapter 20, a dp who had a right to vote, could register and vote in person or absentee for the municipality in which the person had his or her permanent place of residence according to the last census conducted by the state of bosniaherzegovina. out-of-country voters, including those who temporally live abroad or have a status of refugees, had to register for the elections or to confirm their participation in the elections if registered before. the ministry of foreign affairs undertook some efforts in order to encourage registration of citizens who used to reside abroad whose number according to some estimation reaches one million. however, only 37.359 citizens registered to vote by mail from abroad, slightly more than in 2008 local elections when 33.678 citizens had registered. political background to the local elections seventeen years after the conflict (1992-95) bosnia-herzegovina still struggles to overcome the social dislocations of war. then, bosniaherzegovina remains a post-conflict society whose political system is heavily influenced by the legacy of the war, which prevents the m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [208] establishment of an effective system of governance. although there has been considerable progress in overcoming some of the war‟s effects, however, ethnic nationalism has remained the principal underlying issue in bosnian politics (burg and shoup, 2000, 3-14). in the bosnian political milieu main political parties as one of the most important actors in the process of political mobilization of people are ethnically based or they are publicly perceived as being predominantly associated and supported by one ethnic group. ethnic make-up of regions in bosniaherzegovina was to a large extent changed and reshaped during the war. thus ethnically clean territories resulted in mono-ethnic political parties that are predominantly supported by the followers of one ethnic group. therefore, since the post-war period three ethnic groups are more clearly concentrated in separated regions. although, some political parties claim to possess a multiethnic character, however, election result have shown that all main political parties are predominantly supported by either one of the three ethnic groups and that so far there has not been a political party that was able to muster the support from different ethnic voters(denich, 1996). 2012 local elections were held amidst renewed political turmoil in the country at the cantonal, entity and state levels. namely, after 2010 general elections, after 16 months of various negotiations the leaders of political parties agreed upon to form the parliamentary majority. these delays for setting up the state-level council of ministers and disagreements among the parties hampered legislative reforms in particular with regards to the harmonization of the constitution with the european union convention on human rights and resolving the sajdic & finci human rights ruling. european court on human rights made a decision in the case of sejdic and finci against bosnia and herzegovina (samo, 2009, 309-333). finci is a representative of the jewish national minority and sejdic is a representative of the roma national minority. they are both prominent figures in the public life. they complained that despite possessing experience comparable to the highest elected officials, they were prevented by the constitution of bosnia-herzegovina from fielding candidacies for the presidency and the house of peoples of the parliamentary assembly solely on the grounds of their ethnic origin. m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [209] however, political situation started to deteriorate again few months prior to the elections and due to diverging interests within the governing coalition. the outcome of this process remained uncertain even sometime after the elections as a result of political disputes, and on-going legal challenges. srebrenica as the city where the genocide was committed against bosniaks was in the center of the 2012 local elections. according to the official gazette of bosnia-herzegovina for 2008 local elections, bosnia‟s state parliament adopted changes to the elections law for the city of srebrenica. the amendments allowed all citizens that had residency status in srebrenica before the war, but who did not reside there, to vote in the elections. this change was valid only for the october 2008 local elections and only for srebrenica, not for any other city in bosniaherzegovina. however, few months before the local elections bosniak political elites asked for the law to be extended and applied in 2012 elections too. this proposal was rejected by serb authorities. as a result of this bosniaks launched the campaign “i will vote for srebrenica” in order to lure voters to register and to vote in srebrenica. as a result of ethnic cleansing srebrenica has a serbian majority. all these political happenings were indications that unofficial pre-election campaign had started long before september 7 which election commission declared as an official date for the beginning of political campaign. election campaign: key issues, parties and candidates according to arapovic and brljavac (2012) bosnian election campaigns, for both general and local elections, have typically been dominated by bitter arguments over „high politics‟ and issues such as the country‟s constitutional future, referendum, demilitarization, bosnia‟s accession to nato and eu. pre-election campaign was held at the time of a deep political, economic and social crisis. people were very much concerned about the lack of economic growth, decrease in direct foreign investment, opening of new jobs and reducing high unemployment rate. although 2012 were local elections political parties campaigned as much on national issues as on local issues. however, some political parties and independent candidates made attempts to focus on local issues such as m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [210] reconstruction of city‟s streets, paving the roads, expropriation of land, construction of sport complexes, students‟ dormitories, sewage systems, water supply lines, street-lights, further investment in agriculture, local administration reform, building churches, mosques, medical clinics in the villages and all this for the sake of improving people‟s life condition. it is interesting to notice that all candidates, both from bigger and smaller parties, expected and claimed that their own political option will win elections or that their opponents will suffer a defeat comparing to the results from the previous elections. although nationalist rhetoric was a feature of every bosnian election, the level of intensity seemed higher this time around, particularly in statements made by politicians in the serb-majority entity of rs. thus for example, milorad dodik, rs president and leader of the entity‟s ruling alliance of independent social democrats (snsd), said in the independent newspaper that: “bosnia is a rotten country, as such it does not deserve to exist. it constantly shows elements of being incapable of surviving and therefore it will fall apart as soon as possible.” social democratic party (sdp) replied to dodik that bosnia is rotten because dodik is its worm. during the campaign dodik said that “the question is no longer whether bih can exist [as a unified state], but how we can ensure its peaceful break-up.” furthermore, he said: “i know very well what our [serb] national interest is all about an independent state which will become a common and private property of all of us [serbs].” by such statements dodik, however, wanted to achieve another goals like diverting people‟s attention away from critical and vital issues such as poor entity economy, corruption, high unemployment rate and other social issues. dodik also confirmed his previous stand on the srebrenica genocide committed by serb army and police in 1995. he reiterated that there was no genocide in srebrenica. bakir izetbegovic, bosniak member of the collective presidency and high ranking official in the party of democratic action (sda) replied to dodik that he cannot call for a referendum and secession of rs from bosnia-herzegovina in srebrenica, zepa, prijedor, visegrad, foca, manjaca and other places from where bosniak were cleansed and expelled. furthermore, he declared this and similar statements of dodik as mere political provocations. camil durakovic, an independent candidate for the m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [211] position of mayor of srebrenica claimed that the best answer to dodik would be high turn-out in the elections and giving votes to those candidates who will work for all people of srebrenica irrespective of their ethnicity. party of democratic action (sda) based its political campaign on the platform which specified fight against injustice, poverty and ignorance. this should be achieved by improving local administration, ecology, opening new jobs and securing employment, through culturalhistorical heritage and tourism and paying more attention to human resources and youth. struggle to bring security and equality of all citizens on the whole territory of bosnia will be the mission of sda in the postelection period. for sda, local administration is capable to make bosnia move forward and utilization of human resources is the main tool to accomplish this. opposition political parties concentrated and emphasized mistakes made by those in power and they attempted to base their election campaigns on this. they discussed issues very much related to people‟s everyday life. thus, mladen bosic, leader of serbian democratic party (sds) said during the campaign: “let‟s talk about high unemployment, educational system, health system and agriculture. let‟s not talk about zlatko lagumdzija or anybody else.” party for bosnia (sbih) based its political camping on five economic and five political priorities. economic priorities include dynamic economic growth, development of energetic sector, construction of communication infrastructure, information-technology society, agricultural and food industry. political priorities included: the constitution reform, bosniaherzegovina‟s euro-atlantic integration, reform of social, health and pension sectors, diaspora and protection of values of the defensive war. they called for ending of discrimination against bosniaks and croats in rs. leaders of sbih promised, if entrusted by voters, to develop constructive communication between political elites and grassroots. the entire campaign of the union for a better future (sbb) was based on a harsh critics and ungrounded accusations directed towards the sda. for fahrudin radoncic, sbb‟s president, sda having neither economic nor political knowledge has been the main culprit for very bad sociom. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [212] economic and political conditions in bosnia-herzegovina. therefore, the sbb based its campaign on opening new jobs, fighting against corruption and organized crime and reassessing the post-war privatization. according to the report that was submitted to cec, 45 political parties in bosnia-herzegovina for 2012 local elections political campaign spent around seven million km. sdp spent more than any other political party with the total amount of km 1.1 million followed by snsd which spent km 1.09 million. sds and sbb invested km 789 thousand and km 741 thousand respectively. it is interesting to observe that these two political parties together with nsrzb which spent km 377 thousand invested more money in their political campaign during the local elections than general elections held in 2010. other political parties that achieved significant results in the local elections include sda that spend km 628 thousand, hdzbih km 441 thousand, pdp km 428 thousand, dns km 234 thousand, sbih km 231 thousand and hdz1990 which spent km 170 thousand. amount of money sbih spent in the local elections is more than five times less of what they had spent for the 2010 general elections. critical analysis of election results with the turnout slightly over 56% and by 1% higher than in the previous local elections, 2012 local elections were announced to be conducted according to the rules and regulations prescribed by the local election law and without any serious irregularities. results revealed some changes in mayoral positions and number of municipal seats too comparing to the 2008 local elections. the three major parties sda and hdz in federation of bosnia-herzegovina and sds in rs won control of more mayoral offices than other parties did. sda, in bosniak majority municipalities and hdz, in croat majority municipalities improved their results relative to 2008 elections. on the other hand sds in rs heavily defeated snsd and captured many mayoral posts held by snsd after the 2008 local elections. of the 140 mayoral seats, sda won 37, closely followed by sds, which won 27 mayoral posts, a jump from the previous 13. the hdz secured 14 posts compared to three it won in the 2008 elections. on the m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [213] other hand, snsd, the party of the president of rs milorad dodik secured only 20 posts what marked a huge decrease in comparison to 2008 elections it gathered 41 mayoral posts. sdp won 10 posts, hdz1990 3, dns 2 and sbb 2. independent candidates, political parties or coalitions of various political parties won the remaining 25 mayoral posts. (see table 1) table 1: results achieved by political parties in 2012 bosnia‟s local elections political party number of mayoral posts (fbih) number of mayoral posts (rs) number of municipalit y seats (fbih) number of municipality seats (rs) number of votes (fbih) number of votes (rs) total number of votes sda 36 1 486 42 268.198 23.173 290.931 sds 0 27 1 313 195 146.298 146.493 snsd 3 17 31 358 7.397 178.865 186.262 sdp 10 0 296 17 166.442 20.082 186.524 hdz 14 0 238 9 82.484 6.640 89.124 hdz1990 3 0 80 0 24.549 451 25.000 dns 0 2 8 111 1.470 61.541 63.011 sbb 2 0 137 3 81.631 8.381 90.012 pdp 0 0 2 120 216 59.117 59.333 sbih 0 0 109 5 58.511 5.805 64.316 nsrzb 1 0 62 5 32.064 3.848 35.912 sp 0 0 4 63 722 37.006 37.728 union sda-s bih 0 0 0 16 0 6.026 6.026 independ. candidates 6 1 11 6 2.278 857 3.135 other political parties and coalitions 3 14 299.527 159.387 458.914 total 78 62 1.024.361 711.501 1.743.161 source: central elections commission of bosnia and herzegovina votes included in this table are only from those areas where above mentioned parties participated individually. therefore, votes achieved by political parties in coalition are not included in the votes of particular political parties that made coalition. votes from brcko district are not included in this number sda and sdp won mayoral posts in bosniak majority areas in the fbih. although, sdp declares itself as multi-ethnic party and leans to the left, if that could stand for a party in the bosnian context, however, it is actually bosniak-dominated and its constituencies are predominantly bosniak. snsd and sds secured victories in serb majority areas in rs, while areas predominantly populated by croats in the fbih were mainly won by hdz. two majority croat cities, namely, odzak in the north and vitez in central bih previously held by hdz are rather exceptions as this time they were won by sda candidates. due to a very good results m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [214] achieved by the sda, its president sulejman tihic said that after these elections sda is again the strongest political party in bosniaherzegovina. he claimed that strong people‟s support party got in the elections is an honor but at the same time duty and responsibility to work more for the benefit of all people. according to him these results have given legitimacy to the party to represent its people and none will dare to exclude sda from participating in the government at the state, entity and cantonal levels. sda‟s candidate won in the city of visoko, which marked the history of local elections because mrs. amra babic, has become the first lady-mayor with scarf not only in bosnia-herzegovina but in europe. sdp conceded defeat in bihac in the north-west and in all sarajevo municipalities except for the municipality of centar, which is traditionally considered as sdp stronghold. decline in sdp‟s popularity is often associated with zlatko lagumdzija who got involved in the constant quarrel with the political partners that created numerous political crises. therefore, many sdp voters casted their vote for other political parties. however, the most remarkable turn-back to the political scene of bosnia-herzegovina in general and in rs in particular has been made by sds. namely, people of rs turned their back to snsd‟s symbolic campaign based on fiery ethno-nationalist sentiment, which seemed to bring them votes since this party came to power in 2006. this time around, people turned towards sds program. sds campaign was surprisingly socially and economically oriented, which attracted many voters in rs who felt very much alienated by the snsd. the people of rs to a large extent vote for socio-economic changes. they shouted out loud, “enough is enough!” as a result, snsd lost four out of five biggest cities in rs, namely, prijedor, bijeljina, doboj and trebinje and its incontestable strongholds such as srbac and dubica what makes its defeat even more striking. this re-emergence of sds as quite powerful electoral force in rs will have important political implication in bosniaherzegovina. the hdz mayoral candidates secured 14 posts thus winning almost all municipalities with the croat majority. based on hdz‟s very good performance its president, dragan covic said that results his m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [215] political party achieved in the local elections has made it a significant factor that must not be excluded from the active politics in bosniaherzegovina. newly founded party of sbb with all its printed and electronic media has been one of the biggest disappointments of the local elections as out of 50 candidates for mayoral posts only two were secured, gorazde and stari grad in sarajevo. such results were due to the struggle for the personal interest and power within the party. sbih has continued to lose support among the people and as a result the party was not able to secure any mayoral posts. then, the number of municipal seats this party won in the election has drastically decreased comparing to 2008 local elections. the cec had to postpone verification of election results in some cities due to some irregularities and complains. thus, cec postponed verification of election results in srebrenica for more than one month due to complains from the political parties and politicians from rs. such complaints were mainly based on the claim that significant number of citizens registered for elections in srebrenica and as soon as elections were over they canceled their registration there. finally, on december 12, 2012, the cec verified results in srebrenica, thereby confirming camil durakovic as mayor of srebrenica. conclusion the 2012 municipal elections in bosnia-herzegovina passed largely without any serious incidents. they provided a key test for the current governing parties on state, entity and cantonal levels at the midpoint of their four-year term. voting was fair and cec carried out its duties competently and promptly. election results confirmed the three main political parties, sda, sds and hdz that represent three main constituent peoples in bosnia-herzegovina secured greatest number of votes. sda won majority of votes in bosniak majority areas while sds and hdz secured their votes in the serb and croat majority areas respectively. in the federation of bosnia-herzegovina, sdp and sbb suffered dramatic fall in votes comparing to the last general elections while in the rs, snsd, which has dominated political events since 2006 lost huge m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [216] number of votes, mayoral posts and municipality seats to sds and some other smaller political parties. these results have shown new trend in rs, where people turned their back to the nationalistic rhetoric which dominated almost all political campaigns in rs since 1996. voters gave preference to political parties that focus on socio-economic problems people face every day in the local communities. other political parties such as sbih, sdu and ns in the fbih and pdp in the rs were not able to achieve significant results in order to challenge incumbent political parties. therefore, these elections have confirmed a fact that it‟s very difficult for smaller political parties to make a stronger impact on the political arena in bosnia-herzegovina. m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [217] references arapovic adis and brljavac bedrudin. 2012. “bosnia and herzegovina general elections, 2010: analysis of pre-election rhetoric.” khazar journal of humanities and social science (kjhss), vol. 15. no. 2: pp. bardutzky, samo. “the strasbourg court on the dayton constitution: judgment in the case of sejdić and finci v. bosnia and herzegovina, 22 december 2009” european constitutional law review, vol. 6, 2010, pp. 309-333. bieber, f. 2004. power sharing as ethnic representation in postconflict societies: the cases of bosnia, macedonia, and kosovo. in a. mungiu-pippidi & i. krastev (eds), nationalism after communism, pp. 231-248 ((budapest, ceu press). bojkov v. d. 2003. “democracy in bosnia herzegovina: post-1995 political system in its functioning,” southeast european politics, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 41-67. bose sumantra. 2002. bosnia after dayton. new york: oxford university press. burg s. l. and shoup p. s. 2000. the war in bosnia herzegovina: ethic conflict and international intervention. new york: m. e. sharpe, inc. chandler david. 2000. faking democracy. london: pluto press. denitch bogdan denis. 1996. ethnic nationalism: the tragic death of yugoslavia. minneapolis: university press of minnesota. ibrahimagic omer and kurtcehajic suad. 2002. politicki system bosne i hercegovine. sarajevo: mahistrat. pickering, p. m. 2009. explaining support for non-nationalist parties in post-conflict societies in the balkans, europe-asia studies, 61 (4), pp. 565-591. pugh, m., & cobble, m. 2001. non-nationalist voting in bosnian municipal elections: implications for democracy and peacebuilding, journal of peace research, 38 (1), pp. 27-47. schmeets, h. and exel, jeanet. 1997. the 1996 bosnia-herzegovina elections: an analysis and observations. amsterdam: springer. m. karić critical analysis of 2012 local elections in bih epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [218] solioz christophe. 2005. turning points in post-war bosnia: ownership process and european integration. baden-baden. nomos verlagsgesellshaft. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: sublimating emotional flights in taban lo liyong’s “words that melt a mountain” niyi akingbe * abstract taban lo liyong’s profoundity as a foremost writer from east africa is often showcased by his wilful eccentricity and dogged iconoclasm, which exuberantly dot the lines of his poetry collections. for much of his writing career, liyong has sustained a cultivated equanimity towards the paradox of being widely accepted by the budding african literary critics, and being deliberately neglected by the established critics. his maverick disposition to literary craftsmanship is stridently exhibited in the thematics of words that melt a mountain: an unabashed treatment of controversial subject matters; intrusive and digressive narrative technique; confident assertive ego; an effervescent erudition in his writing and a disturbing frankness in the treatment of sex. this paper is preoccupied with the examination of how the poetics of words that melt a mountain are grounded in the boons and mementoes garnered from the experiences borne out of liyong’s sojourn in japan. it will further look into how the reminiscence of liyong’s sojourn in japan ferments an interplay of themes which oscillate between audacious narrative of erotic explorations and a penetrating introspection into the african mythopoesis. keywords: reminiscing, the blank spaces of sojourn, sublimating, emotional flight, taban lo liyong. * corresponding author: niyi akingbe, assistant professor, department of english, college of humanities, joseph ayo babalola university, ikeji-arakeji. p.m.b 5006.233001, ilesha, osun state, nigeria, e-mail: deniakingbe@yahoo.com mailto:deniakingbe@yahoo.com n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [88] introduction arguably east africa’s most pedantic and controversial writer, taban lo liyong is perhaps south sudan’s most prodigious and colourful poet. poetic of his words that melt a mountain constitutes a landmark in african poetry. it is a poetry collection crowded with weird symbols and libidinous metaphors. embedded in liyong’s poetry is a ringing tone of defiance and sustained air of non-conformism to the established norms of crafting poetry. liyong’ poetic is drugged on anarchic gusto, nuanced by shifts in time and place, and blurred by the intersection of fantasy and reality. his witty philosophy, overbearing pedagogical disposition and suffocating penchant for vulgarity, has earned him unparalleled enmity from the established critics of african literature. adrian roscoe, for instance, has described him as eccentric and curious the way he unconventionally used the lowercase letters, without punctuation in another nigger dead (roscoe, 1977:114). this has a subtle parallelism in the submission of eldred durosimi jones, who considers the maverick poise of liyong’s poetry as ‘‘sometimes straight, sometimes ironic, serious, parallel, contrasting, are massed together to produce a prickly, jumpy effect’’ (jones, 1973:176-77). but the most incongruous of the critical salvos ever fired at liyong, was deleteriously delivered by peter nazareth, when he unabashedly blurted out that, liyong is ideologically irrelevant as a spokesman for the third world peoples and that he is an artistic failure (nazareth, 1978:38). however, f. odun balogun has strongly underscored the artistic significance of liyong, in the distinguished african literary hall of fame, when she relentlessly rallied a deserving support for his literary candidature in the african literary enterprise ‘‘taban does not flatter the people of the third world, just as he does not condone the weakness of the people of the developed nations. rather, he uses his art to challenge the former to match the achievements of the latter. taban believes in the unity of all men, ’in the final analysis’, he says, ‘society is also one’, and he sees the differences in human beings as only a matter of ‘difference in degree’, for, as he points out, ‘ a reliable balance sheet of innate qualities of the blacks and whites and the yellow has not yet been drawn up. for all practical purposes, there are no differences in them. this is why taban n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [89] applies the same rule to all and believes the third world has the capacity to catch up with the developed nations’’ (f. odun balogun, 1998:260261). while this paper does not intend to serve as a propagandistic platform to eulogize the stupendous proclivity of taban lo liyong’s literary provenance, the paper will however highlight how the avantgarde and the iconoclastic disposition of taban lo liyong has shaped the poetics of words that melt a mountain (1996), in capturing the emotional shifts, grounded in the staccato bursts of reminiscences of his stay in japan. words that melt mountain fervently coalesces liyong’s cultural incursion into the japanese society and the attendant social disequilibrium he experienced, during his sojourn in that country. liyong’s position as an outsider affords him a rare privilege of probing perceptively into the socio-cultural fabric of the japanese society. unlike aime cesaire’s cahier d’un retour au pays natal, whose fauna, landscape and images are depressingly emphasized rather than the individuals who occupied the landscape, liyong’s words that melt mountain mediates individuals’ exhibition of cultural nuances. liyong’s often obtrusive voice, reverberates consistently in the poems. none of the poems in this collection has a title, they are rhetorical, loosely structured, and each poignantly narrates the poet persona’s exuberant, hilarious and convivial experiences. they are rendered in verbal erudition, which betrays compelling emotional shifts. the structural-linguistic significance of these emotional shifts in the words that melt mountain strikingly reflects sunday anozie’s submission on linguistic criticism of literary works. he observed that there are two underlined assumptions in the structural-linguistic method of literary crafting: the first is the realization that a poetic work contains a system of ordered variants which can be isolated and represented vertically in the form of superimposed levels, such as phonology, phonetic, syntactic, prosodic and semantic. the second is that modern structuralism-especially in the form of its offshoot, generative grammarprovides an adequate theory and method for accounting for such levels and in dealing with the internal coherence of the given work of art (anozie, 1984:106). n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [90] liyong has adopted this stylized approach of stringing together scraps of experiences rendered in poetry because it is the most convenient way of rendering life lived in fits. while the european and western literatures copiously advocated a reduction of the author’s presence within the work, to reiterate james joyce’s injunction that ‘‘the artist like the god of creation’’, ought to ‘‘remain within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails’’(joyce, 1984: 194), but liyong takes upon himself, the role of obtrusive commentator most often in words that melt mountain, to offer explanations and illustrations when necessary. facilitating dialogue between the writer and the reader in literary production the collection starts with the invitation of the readers by the poet persona, to a literary dialogic. the writer has most often constitutes the cynosure and bastion of literary creativity, but liyong reverses this omnibus role of the writer by emphasizing the collaboration and synergy between the writer and the reader, towards attaining the aesthetic fructification of a literary work. he argues further, that the success of any literary production only thrives on dialogue, rather than on the selfishprone monologue which only justifies the writer’s gratification, thereby alienating the readers: dear reader, writing is an invitation to a dialogue. first the writer chooses the theme and expounds on it. the reader is provoked to respond; silently or loudly, prosaically or poetically. the debate that ensues amplifies the theme... the mind’s empire is enlarged, and the heart can understand what it would never have condoned before. toleration is the answer to a multicultural uni world. (i) liyong has unambiguously demonstrated in this introductory poem, that writing should not be the exclusive preserve of the author, but rather, it should be an exchange of ideas between the writer and the reader. it is only logical for the writer to sustain this link between him n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [91] and the reader, because the reader axiomatically constitutes, the vibrant audience of any literary production. such exchange is deemed beneficial to literary enterprise because, when ‘the writer chooses the theme and expounds on it/the reader is provoked to respond; silently or loudly, and the dividend of such exchange strikingly ‘amplifies the theme’. mythologizing african cultural consciousness in the world literary order the exploration and adoption of mythology in the works of contemporary african writers, is no doubt designed to re-write african cultural consciousness in the world’s new literary order. it will not be out of place to acknowledge the fact that contemporary african writers, even though they write in non-african languages like english, french and portuguese, but have their inspiration sacrosanctly rooted in the african culture, cosmology, the landscapes and the social patterns obtainable in their respective cultural milieu. suffice to say that ‘‘modern african literature right from the beginning has drawn upon two major traditions and their respective thought and imaginative systems: the western literary tradition and the african oral tradition. one insists on the epistemological difference between history and fiction, the other on the pragmatic identicalness of both. for the majority of african writers, the two traditions exist to be of mutual assistance in the evolution of the new literature in africa, and the distinction between history and fiction is accepted as valid’’ (ogundele,1992:9). in a poem whose first line begins with ‘when i hit my right foot against a stone’, the poet creates an interrelationship between man, inanimate objects and the supernatural elements in african cosmology, and africans maintain a corresponding anthropomorphic attitude to stones, water, forest and animals. this is significantly underscored in the words of mazisi kunene ‘‘each society is concerned with its destiny within the cosmic arena. without this perspective, the society can only be stampeded into directions it does not fully comprehend or does not feel ready to follow...myth can take many forms. it can reorganize the historical content in terms of modern perspectives. it can create an attractive vision defining in familiar cosmic terms the future possibilities of society. myth can be used to celebrate the n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [92] achievements of society, making them fall into an acceptable social order (kunene, 1980:190). the poem is deftly anchored on the stylistic influence of african mythopoeic tropes employed in the poem to reiterate african cosmological exegesis: when i hit my right foot against a stone it portends bad news ahead. so it happened as i walked to work. a letter from kampala, a fax message from khartoum, lunch at the canteen; all went well. but you were not at your desk... your friend later told me you had a cold. the secret of your heart is out mother earth already knows. (3) liyong’s almost obsessive, but avowed fidelity to the african mythology is effusively demonstrated in the poem: when i hit my right foot against a stone/it portends bad news ahead despite the poet been away from africa, his mind flits between japan and africa, consequently, myth serves as a conduit for bridging the distance. the poem is grounded in the anthropomorphic signage derived from the african mythology which the poet has telepathically harnessed, to probe accusatorily into a supposed friend’s whereabouts. but the friend’s gender is not disclosed in the poem. however, no sooner did the persona started the pursuit of a line of thought on mythopoeia than the poem got intruded into by another non-mythological discourse which was not conclusively pursued: ‘‘ but you were not at your desk.../ your friend later told me you had a cold/ the secret of your heart is out/mother earth already knows’’. this veering off the discourse of african mythology in the poem, remarkably denotes the eccentric characteristic which usually ricochets off the poetry of taban lo liyong. nevertheless, the signification of african mythology in the poem has a striking parallelism in another untitled poem in words that melt a mountain: the shrines to the ancestors we also have. my mother long ago cleared with my father long dead if in the east he had friends and kindred spirits who would look after me. n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [93] my dear ancestors said man goes by plane but they, the spirits, are all in the air or underground linked and interlinked all the time. they already hobnobbed with eastern spirits. so i went and had a good time. so i came again. (69) here the aesthetics of african culture is explicated from the levels and depths of mythopoeia. the poem essentially reiterates the african belief system, whose signification would be incomplete without its accrued appurtenances that admit the inextricable communion between the persona and his ancestors, there is an invocation of sufficient divination of mysteries of the future concerning the persona as recalled in wole soyinka’s myth, literature and the african world ‘the past is the ancestors’, the present belongs to the living, and the future to the unborn. the deities stand in the same situation to the living as do the ancestors and the unborn, obeying the same laws, suffering the same agonies and uncertainties, employing the same masonic intelligence of rituals for the perilous plunge into the fourth area of experience, the immeasurable gulf of transition. its dialogue is liturgy, its music takes form from man’s uncomprehending immersion in this area of existence, buried wholly from rational recognition’’ (soyinka,1976:148). juxstaposed against the japanese religious belief system, which is also replete with the concept of ancestral veneration, the ubiquity of the ancestors is remarkably emphasized: but they, the spirits, are all in the air or underground linked and interlinked all the time. the african mythopoetic perspective of the divine assistance of the ancestors, as soyinka enthuses, incorporates the protective and filial duties of the ancestors to their wards which is not limited to the shores of african continent, but has further been suggested by liyong to cover other areas of the universe. this ontological relationship between the ancestors and the persona in the poem is accomplished by the conviction of the persona, that the african ancestors can naturally interlink with the japanese ancestors, to ensure his safety and well being. even though the poet persona lives in japan, he is confident that the ancestors’ aura is n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [94] always with him, because the ancestors are ‘linked and interlinked all the time’ and since ‘they already hobnobbed with eastern spirits’, his sojourn in japan will be hitch-free, because they will constantly attend to his spiritual queries. the paraphernalia of african cultural consciousness in the poem: ’the shrines’, ‘ancestors’ and ‘the spirits’ fittingly sublimate the linguistic and cultural enigmas that revolve round the african anthropology. cultivating affection and delineating emotion the notion of ‘love,’ as with all notions that delineate human beings from the animals, is based on a fundamental contradiction, which linearises human emotion, rationalizes individual’s erotic gratification, to the particularity of the bestiality of sex which accompanies the coital performance. among other things, love initiates a wave of affection, blurs racial differences, reinvigorate the universality of humanity and recuperates warmth between lovers. this is ambitiously pursued and sustained on the pages of words that melt a mountain. in an untitled poem, liyong demonstrates the import of a seamless blissful link between man and woman, which needs to be jealously guarded: how does it feel to be in love? it feels liberated: nothing matters any more... not even the whip on the back. it makes one feel warm, and breath quicker; it makes the impossible to look possible. after a while, you cannot see anymore with your outer eyes. you only know the warmth that envelopes you and the pull towards the beloved. for me i start talking-anything that comes to mind. for you i notice the glands make your mouth water. (61) although love is complicated by the passion it generates between two individuals, but neither the tenderness of its cultivation nor the fervency of its consummation is strong enough to obliterate its appeal to humanity. but blissful as love connotes, its capability to generate the problematic of been bogged down in petty bickering and mutual distrust, which interrogates in principle the possibility of infidelity in a relationship is raised in another untitled poem: n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [95] friendship or love involves opening up. baring the heart of one to let in the fire of the other. it is self-obliteration in favour of the other. where there is a seed of suspicion there is distrust. where both are rock-bottom weak and harmless, there will grow a joint strength to protect the duo. since even i distrust myself at times, most times a friendship that gives one some other soul who is as foolish as one is just too good to miss. (66) selflessness in the pursuit of love game is succinctly advocated, and treated in the poem with great mystique. love between a man and a woman is situated between two fundamental trajectories: outright sincerity and wilful deception. between the two are embedded altruism, sacrifice and dedication that are juxtaposed against selfishness, deceit and suspicion. liyong didactically pontificates on the challenges against pure and seamless love, which he rhetorically enunciated in the poem: ‘‘friendship or love involves opening up/where there is a seed of suspicion there is trust’’. these challenges are transposed into words rendered in simple language, and mediated by the poet’s magisterial tone. liyong in advocating a commitment on the part of the two lovers in the poem, however, points out a commendable balance of judgement: baring the heart of one to let in the fire of the other. it is self-obliteration in favour of the other. by deciding to be lovers as to savour the passion accrued from a love feast, liyong suggests that the two individuals engaged in a relationship need to remind each other, that love is naturally demanding, tasking and unconditional. place of sex/love in search of global harmony in most african societies, individuals often choose not to discuss sex openly and whenever it occurs, it is usually expressed through snatches of overheard conversation or in subdued tones. to openly broach sex in traditional african setting represents a daring act which somewhat attracts a prescribed level of sanction. but liyong believes that every n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [96] society must seek out its space and create a convenient platform where sex could be discussed with brutal honesty, for the overall benefit of the society. sex is a topic which paradoxically generates passion and revulsion in liyong’s words that melt a mountain: this is a town where traditions are broken silently. there is a tacit understanding that you understand the hunger within and permit the other, nay, cooperate with the other, in slacking her thirst from the forbidden well. in the bus a girl came and placed her front against my knee. the bus jerked and swerved, she gasped and sniffed. i looked and saw the appeal and let things be. (15) comparative evaluation of the african and japanese reactions to the issue of sex constitutes the locale of this unnamed poem. liyong creates a counterpoint in african and japanese approaches to sex. he obliquely condemns the african girl’s reticent and coyish approach to sex, but he unobtrusively does a clinical riff on the psychological disposition of a japanese society’s brash approach to sex: ‘this is a town where traditions are broken silently/there is a tacit understanding that you understand’. the complementarity between milieu and the japanese girl is strikingly demonstrated in the poem. concomitant with the suggestion of hallie burnett that the ‘’writer must give thought to each word and weigh each one spoken or written for its true sense, its effectiveness, and color, because each word a writer uses must have meaning, weight, feeling, and particularity’’(burnett, 1983:46).to get this point across, the poet chose some erotogenous metaphors and images like: ‘the hunger within’, ‘in slacking her thirst from the forbidden well’, ‘a girl came and placed her front against my knee’, ‘the bus jerked and swerved, she gasped and sniffed’ and ‘i looked and saw the appeal and let things be’. liyong has abundantly demonstrated through these metaphors and images how ‘discourse [...] is in fact one of the places where sexuality [...] exercise[s] in a privileged way some of [its] most formidable powers’ (foucault, 1981: 52). he exploits and manipulates these metaphors and images to heighten the japanese anecdotal evidence of libidinous disposition. n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [97] liyong’s maverick treatment of sex is further reiterated in another untitled poem: sex is tedious. ask a mating dog, mated bitch. saint paul was right; do it for perpetuation of the species for goodness’ sake. holding hands, stirring up the heartbeat, loving by the eye, lying side by side hearing the tom-tom of hearts, kissing caressingly, kissing succulently, kissing vacuumly and letting time pass; feeling the little hairs, the nape, nipple, beckoning the guard. the result is exhalation. (6-7) there is no doubt that liyong is a controversial poet whose audacity most often unsettles the contemporary african literary orthodoxy, but it has to be recognized that his unambiguous treatment of sex calls to mind its paradoxical functions of pleasure and stress: ‘sex is tedious/kissing caressingly’ and ‘ kissing succulently/the result is exhalation’. liyong’s broaching subject on sex, reflects julia kristeva’s opinion on the process of creating a text, when she suggests that the writer needs to lose his or her worldliness, as it were, in the process of writing so as to ensure that : ‘the subject of narration (s)is drawn in, and therefore reduced to a code, to a nonperson, to an anonymity (as writer, subject of enunciation) mediated by a third person, the he/she [here i] character, the subject of utterance’(kristeva,1980:74). even though the ambience of the poem is pervaded with an aura of eroticism, but sex in the poem is synonymous with fun and suffering, and contests the notion of it been an avenue of unlimited hedonism. this paradoxical function of sex is further pursued in another untitled poem: for love of making love is wearing out, is wearing down. it is the tiring of the body, it is the exercising of the body it is driving of the muscles to the rigor mortis of ejaculation. and then the bathing in sweat and the re-forming of the iron files into a future usable instrument. (45-46) as in the other untitled poem, the paradoxical theme of pleasure and exhaustion is tenaciously pursued in this poem. it is imperative for the n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [98] reader to pay an unbiased attention to the layers of meaning inherent in the poem, and comes to terms with the fact that, sexual activities take place in all lands and climes. liyong unequivocally reiterates in the poem, that although every human being is desirous of sex with the opposite sex once in a while, but this human action is nonetheless energy sapping and undoubtedly tiring afterwards. however, sex is believed to be the prelude to the much needed love between man and woman towards building a harmonious world. liyong’s narrative of sex as an antidote to global hatred and acrimony in the poetry collection, reads like a romantic manifesto for harnessing global peace. this is effervescently inscribed in another untitled poem: when man-and-woman come together in the communion of the spirit, and the entanglement of limbs and flesh, there shall have been re-enacted that divine fellowship of the union of kindred spirits to which humanity owes itself; and which alone will keep the world rotating and give humanity an existence guaranteed. (104) liyong basically foregrounds the theme of global harmonious relationship among people of the world on two fundamental motifs in the poem. the first focuses on the bond between man and woman. the second emphasizes the exchange of love between man and woman, which he sees as the harbinger of an enduring affection. liyong perceives love in sum total, as the definitive elixir, ostensibly needed for the transformation of the turbulent world, and sex serves as the much needed tonic that could kick-starts the transformation. appraising transcendental wanderlust through divination liyong appropriates the subtlety and the traditional undercurrents which abound in the african oral tradition in the form of symbols, images, proverbs and divination, to essentially explicate some mysteries peculiar to the african cultural experiences. this practice has been fittingly corroborated by charles bodunde, that ‘‘the influence which the n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [99] various elements of oral traditions exert on modern african writing especially poetry, is indeed tremendous. in fact, major african literary texts indicate attachment to the african cosmic setting’’ (bodunde, 1992:25).divination is a practice common to all african ethnic groupings and societies. as a cultural practice, its signification has attracted an overwhelming subscription from most people living in the continent. like other african writers, liyong utilize divination motif to shed light on his wanderlust trajectory in words that melt a mountain. this motif underscores the influence of african oral tradition in foretelling the future of liyong’s wanderlust, in an untitled poem: after my father had consulted his ancestors and had been told that i would belong to the world... i do not know how hurt he could have been, but i think my elder brother had already gone out into the world and fought a war with other africans, and under the british, against japan and hitler’s men in europe. and, my father had been donated to the colonial government as a policeman in kajokaji... (94) liyong has assiduously prepared to globe-trot right from the infancy, based on the hindsight gleaned from the poem. his sojourn in japan as in other countries where he has sojourned earlier on, only confirms the plausibility of african divination and oracular which he has alluded to in the poem. his continuous sojourn in different countries of the world, is symptomatic of a transcendental wanderlust of his family tree, which he has in turn, taken an insufferable glib attitude towards: and his own father had been a headman in the royal household of limi... we left enclosures over a hundred years ago. and, with all the movement of peoples up and down, east and west all over africa, who knows where we had come from? the berlin conference pegged us in the sudan, but where would we have been by now with our wanderlust? perhaps in japan! (95) n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [100] liyong seems to be in his most impassioned moment in this poem, where his authorial use of language is ostensibly deplored to delineate his ambiguous identity. appropriately, he ingeniously betrays an uncanny attitude to his genealogical migratory survey, which he gregariously hedges about, to reflect the continuous movement of his ancestors from ‘the royal household of limi’, to been ‘pegged in the sudan’ by the berlin conference of 1884-85 which conducted the scramble and partition of african countries among the european colonial powers. this partitioning metaphor is poignantly used to criticise the european colonial powers, for creating a modernist tragedy of the internal displacements in africa, a social crisis suffered by bulk of the african ethnic groupings who were taken from their kith and kin in one country and yoked with different ethnic groupings in another country, who they do not share linguistic and cultural affinities with. liyong essentially sees himself as a victim of this historical misdemeanour, because he has often been mistaken for a ugandan or a kenyan in most cases. but his identity is often complicated by virtue of coming from the fledgling republic of southern sudan, who had to fight a long war of independence with the arab-islamic government of northern sudan. conclusion in examining taban lo liyong’s poetics in the words that melt a mountain, the reader easily comes across a pot-pourri of poetic fermentations, distilled as reminiscences of liyong’s sojourn in japan. however, the paper has been able to analyse how liyong reminisces on the african traditional values as they shape, the collective african attitudes to the issues of identity, culture, sex and religion. the fact that all the poems in this collection are untitled reflects the eccentric and iconoclastic approach of liyong to literary production. this attitude has often pitched him against the contemporary african literary orthodoxy, who often denigrate him and his literary works for non-conformism. but what can not be taken away from liyong is his erudition, penetrating imagination and his unabashed frankness at discussing sexual issues. although, most of the poems in the collection are written like scraps, but they are nevertheless, essentially grounded in germane topical issues n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [101] which bother on the african cultural consciousness in relation to cultures from other lands. n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [102] references anozie, sunday. 1984. ’negritude, structuralism, deconstruction’. in henry louis gates (ed.) black literature and literary theory. new york: methuen. balogun, odun. f. 1998. ‘taban lo liyong’s the uniformed man: a reconstructivist and metafictional parody of modernism’ in edmund l. epstein and robert kole(eds.)the language of african literature. asmara: africa world press, inc. bodunde, charles. 1992. ‘oral traditions & modern poetry: okot p’bitek’s songs of lawino & okigbo’s labyrinths’. african literature today. burnett, hallie. 1983. on writing the short story. new york: harper & row. cesaire, aime. 1983. cahier d’un retour au pays natal/ notebook of a return to the native land. aime cesaire: the collected poetry. trans. clayton eshleman and annette smith. berkeley: university of california press. foucault, michel. 1981. ‘order of discourse’. trans. ian mcleod. untying the text: a poststructuralist reader.(ed.) robert young. new york: routledge. jones, eldred durosimi. 1973. ‘taban lo liyong: review’. african literature today, 6, pp.176-77. joyce, james. 1984. a portrait of the artist as a young man. london: jonathan cape, 1916. reprinted, panther books. kristeva, julia. 1980. ‘word, dialogue, and novel’. desire in language: a semiotic approach to literature and art. (ed.) leon s. rougiez. trans. thomas gora, alice jardine, and leon s roudiez. new york: columbia university press. kunene, mazisi.’ 1980. the relevance of african cosmological systems to african literature today’. african literature today,11. liyong, taban lo. 1996. words that melt a mountain. nairobi: east african educational publishers. --------------. 1972. another nigger dead. london: heinemann. n. akingbe reminiscing the blank spaces of sojourn: epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [103] nazareth, peter. 1978. ’bibliography,or six tabans in search of an author’. english studies in africa, vol. 21.1 (38). ogundele, wole. 1992. ’orality versus literacy in mazisi kunene’s emperor shaka the great’. african literature today, vol. 18. roscoe,adrian. 1977. uhuru’s fire: african literature east to south. cambridge: cambridge university press. soyinka, wole. 1976. myth, literature and the african world. london: cambridge university press. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness alice manuela martins guimaraes * abstract we pretend to revisit and reexamine some of the intercultural encounters between protestant missionaries and native peoples in new england in the seventeenth century. we intend to redeem the role that missionaries, particularly, john eliot, played during the british colonization in the new world, mediating two different cultures, focusing on all the inherent process of intercultural communication. we will argue that during the mission to the ―otherness‖ the english missionary, known as the ―apostle to the indians‖, played an outstanding role as a cultural mediator among the natives. during the british colonization in the new world there were great efforts to educate and evangelize the natives. in addition to the education and training of manpower, the missionaries endeavored in another key role: translating western and indigenous cultures and mediating them. we will try to understand the extent to which a missionary like john eliot could ‗mediate‘ rather than merely ‗translate‘ in order to improve the communication flow. in this sense, we will explore the income of concepts such as culture, cultural mediation and communication code in the construction of new approaches which allow us to think about the inter-symbolic communication processes. yet mediation in the new world was not only about the process of translating, interpreting, educating or evangelizing but was, above all, about the process of regenerating the natives and defending them from the land-hunter colonists. we will display that eliot‘s errand to the otherness allows us to understand the construction of a native epistemology through the endless task of missionaries who were so committed to proselyting, teaching, educating, protecting the natives‘ rights and mediating. keywords: john eliot; cultural mediation; mission and otherness * corresponding author: alice manuela martins guimaraes; assistant professor the humanities department,open university, portugal; e-mail: aligui2@hotmail.com mailto:aligui2@hotmail.com a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [113] although the origin of the term mediation is in the field of anthropology since the mid1900s, when several anthropologists wrote about native people whose role in their society was as a cultural intermediary or cultural broker, cultural mediation among the natives has only been addressed more frequently in the recently works of paula montero ( 2006), david j. hesselgrave (1991), margaret connell szasz (2001) and serge gruzinski (2001), among a few others, who focus on both the natives‘ efforts and on the missionaries‘, to bridge the gaps between two different cultures. tribal communities have practiced mediation techniques for centuries. native americans adopted their own dispute resolution procedures long before the american settlement. american settlers, by their turn, also developed dispute resolution in the early years. on the other hand, the missionaries, as we will argue in this paper, played an outstanding role as dynamic cultural mediators. it is however difficult to chart the precise origin of mediation. one reason is, according hairson, because the history of mediation has often been approached with an "ethnocentric" and "monocultural" viewpoint (1999). it is possible that we may never gain a complete view of the origin of mediation since colonization suppressed or totally extinguished certain cultural practices. on another view, many scholars attempt to address these issues by tracing mediation back to biblical times (kovach, 2000:25). however, scholarly mediation literature existed as early as the seventeenth century, when the german lawyer and archivist, johann wolfgang textor, (goethe‘s grandfather) described essential international mediation standards. the historiography of seventeenth century missionaries is heated and contentious, with historians agreeing on little except that the missionaries came to america determined to impose their religion, ideology, and culture upon the heathens they encountered. these historians often discount the sincerity of religious motivations and instead emphasize the economic and political benefits indian conversion could offer colonists. some of them see the missionaries‘ aims as commendable, other consider them cynical. the studies that best illustrate this controversy are those of researchers such as alden vaughan, francis jennings, dane morrison, richard cogley and james holstun. a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [114] the institutional histories of vaughan and kellaway tended to validate the expressed intentions of the missionaries and their english brethren. later writers such as francis jennings, neal salisbury, and james axtell attempted to place indian concerns at the center of the story by utilizing an ethnohistorical approach. axtell has argued that ethnohistory has been plagued by historians‘ tendency to borrow ―a dash of the anthropologist‘s cultural relativism‖ (1982:36). in other treatments about the missionaries‘ task, most notably in the work of jennings, eliot and his missionary colleagues are portrayed as agents of english imperialism, intent on using the gospel as a means of subjugation. jennings went so far as to describe eliot as a misleading self-promoter (jennings, 1971:197-212). more recently, other scholars such as richard cogley and james holstun have changed completely these taken issues. cogley tried to redeem vehemently eliot‘s contribution to the native‘s and their culture in new england and holstun sees eliot‘s mission of vital importance to the indian‘s civilization. he asserts: ―while it is true that the praying towns aimed to transform the indians‘ mode of economic production, it is also true that the missionaries were not designed to, and never did, turn a profit (. ..) the puritan missions expected nothing from the indians (…) neither the theological nor the political aspect of eliot‘s practice is a mere tool in the service of the other, for the goal of the praying towns was not efficiency but an unprecedented integration of religious and political life‖ (1987: 122) yet there is no known research in attempting to connect john eliot‘s missionary task, within the intercultural and cross-cultural communication and informed it by a cultural mediation approach. in this paper it‘s our purpose to argue that the missionaries‘ goal was a major one. we intend to redeem the role that missionaries, particularly, john eliot, played during the british colonization in the new world, mediating two different cultures, focusing on all the inherent process of intercultural communication. we will argue that during the mission to the ―otherness‖ the english missionary john eliot, known as the a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [115] ―apostle to the indians‖, played an outstanding role as a cultural mediator among the natives. thus we will begin to explore the income of concepts such as cultural mediation and communication code in the construction of new approaches which allow us to think about the inter-symbolic communication processes. as one can easily imagine, successful intercultural communication was by then very difficult to achieve, as it involved a great number of factors, such as language (verbal communication), body gesture (non-verbal communication), the use of time, space and silence, etc., which differ from culture to culture. for all of these reasons, bridging the gap between two people or groups of people who are so different in costumes and cultural issues was a very delicate task. intercultural communication, indeed, is a complex competence that goes beyond the visible aspects of culture and embraces the so-called invisible aspects, namely those which govern behavior based on the beliefs and values of a given social group. therefore, it is the translator and interpreter‘s role to reformulate a message, to communicate ideas and information from one cultural context to another without altering what is expressed in the original text or speech through the language of the writer or speaker. this is the main reason why translators and interpreters actually mediate rather than merely translate, as their task is to facilitate the process of intercultural communication. in this sense, it becomes easy to understand the extent to which a missionary like john eliot could ‗mediate‘ rather than merely ‗translate‘ in order to improve the communication flow. the missionaries who desired to meaningfully communicate the gospel to the natives needed to understand people and the particular influences social, cultural, political that shape them. further, they must understand themselves and the influences that have shaped them, since their own context influenced how they understood and transmitted the gospel message. therefore, they must master not only the skill of biblical exegesis but also the skill of human exegesis. this was what eliot, was able to do soon after he arrived in the new world. we will begin to explore the income of concepts such as cultural mediation and communication code in the construction of new approaches which allow us to think about the inter-symbolic communication processes. in the center of our attention will be the sliding of the cultural concept from the analytic scientific-discourse to the religious and native repertoires in the a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [116] ethnographic context of missions. this is possibly the most important aspect to be considered, concerning the really goals of the missions. effective communication was absolutely necessary for any successful missionary goal, just as it is important in business. according to david j. hesselgrave, communication is the basic term which describes the basic missionary task persuading people to be faithful and reproducing followers of christ, ―because the missionary‘s concern is not for the gospel alone but for the whole counsel of god . . . early missionaries understood their commission to make disciples of all nations involved the ultimate in communication‖ (see hesselgrave, 1991) there are several things to consider about communication and missionary organization. communication is two-way; it is interactive. there is sending and receiving, coding and decoding. as far as models of verbal communication are concerned, they describe how a message is first encoded by the sender by putting it into words and then transmitted to the receiver who has to decode the words to interpret the. regularly, information is lost or indeed added in this process of codifying and decodifying, as individuals intending to communicate with each other attach different meanings to the code: for different individuals, words have different connotations. the problems of communication are exacerbated when communication takes place across cultures. this is not only due to the basic problem of translation or due to the difficulties for non-native speakers of catching nuances when discussing in a foreign language. language as a social instrument reflects a culture. different attitudes to verbal and non-verbal communication are likely to complicate the communication process. to explore the impact of culture on the mediation process in a meaningful way it is now necessary to define an accurate and useful theoretical framework for characterizing "cultural" differences; to examine the goals of the mediation process; and to explore how this framework might be applied in the mediation process to more effectively accomplish the goals of mediation. culture is a concept that seems obvious until one tries to define it. anthropologists have tried different approaches to capturing its essence, and have been unable to reach a consensus. culture embeds the values, the potential, the particularities and the communicative skills of its subjects, their bodies and the type of interactions between different subjects and with the physical a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [117] environment. a culture is eminently relational. it sets up, mediates, and gauges itself by answering to the otherness. it is, therefore, socially, historically and politically surrounded by the relationship the groups keep by interacting with each other and answering to the otherness. kramsh points out, that culture is not about background information, but about acting, interpreting and understanding (1993a). namely, cultural knowledge is not a case of acquiring information about the foreign culture; it is about being capable of interpreting cultural contexts and actually interacting and performing in those contexts. in the context of mediation, culture is a set of values and beliefs acquired from learning, experiences and social upbringing, which creates implicit social rules or a code of ethics and behavior within a specific group. culture shapes the way one perceives the world. it is important to see that by having access to/and direct contact with the new culture the missionaries provided the western world knowledge about the other and, at the same time, influenced them. mediation, by its turn, is the very root and substance of culture and consciousness. so long as people simply take what is immediately given, then there is no space for the development of culture or consciousness. in the section of the science of logic entitled ―with what must science begin,‖ hegel observes: ―there is nothing, nothing in heaven, or in nature or in mind or anywhere else which does not equally contain both immediacy and mediation‖ (hegel 1969:92). the term ‗cultural intermediary‘ was used in some of the literature, with ‗culture broker‘ and ‗cultural broker‘ as alternatives. other terms used include ‗innovator‘ and ‗mediator‘. the genre was given an historical perspective and the field of ethnohistory came into existence. the background to this can be found in the introduction to margaret connell szasz‘s between indian and white worlds: the cultural broker (szasz, 2001). the distinction between intercultural and cross-cultural mediation is that the former involves disputants who are of different cultures, whereas the latter involves disputants who are all of the same culture and a mediator who is of a different culture from the disputants. since we will discuss about the missionaries‘ contact with the otherness of the new world inhabitants and culture, this article will address both intercultural and cross-cultural mediation. a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [118] and again we realize that there is little consensus to define ―mediation‖ at either the normative or existential level. most would agree that the process involves intervention of a third person to help parties resolve a dispute, but definitions of the role of that third party and the structure of the process vary considerably. one thing that is consensual is that a mediator must have a wide range of skills and knowledge in order to be able to implement multiple conceptions of the mediation process. for mediation to be effective, it must accomplish the goals which flow from the participants' conception of the process. as william mazzarella points out, ―the neutrality of such action is an ideological or discursive effect, but a powerful one. it has important social consequences for the credibility, legitimacy, and, the seeming naturalness (or im-mediacy) of a given type of mediation‖ (2004: 356). raymond williams defined the term ―mediation‖ as ―an active process of relations between ‗different kinds of being and consciousness‘ which are inevitably mediated‖ (1977:98). some scholars in the field of media and communication give mediation a strong theoretical frame, stressing the process of negotiation. the spanish scholar martin-barbero, for example, uses the term ―mediation‖ to denote the articulation between the communication practices and social movements and the articulation of different tempos of development with the plurality of cultural matrices (1993:188). moreover he argues (2003) that scholars should attend to mediations (plural) as the cultural processes by which power is negotiated between dominant institutions and popular or resistant movements. martinbarbero sees communication as a process of mediations and he examines the " ‗other' side, namely reception ... the resistances and varied ways people appropriate media content according to manner and use" (ibidem: 189). this approach is not new to north american communication scholars, but what is new here is a thoroughly latin american perspective that unveils a refreshing and stimulating panorama of vibrant mediation processes. recently, the brazilian anthropologist paula montero (2006) has outlined a theoretical and methodological model, which she called ―cultural mediation‖ and that was central to describe the contexts of interaction between missionaries and indigenous peoples. for montero, a a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [119] theory of cultural mediation would be the revealing key to understand the role of the missionary activities in contexts of otherness of a world characterized by interculturalism (montero, 2006:59). the ethnographic description of this type of meeting should consider that the cultural elements present in the interaction and mediation are inserted and also mediated by socio-political and broader economic contexts which are a blueprint in the history of contact between indigenous societies and the national society representatives, otherwise we would be risking to limit its analysis to the field of cultural anthropology. in fact mediation is a dynamic principle at the root of all social life. keeping on the path of the missionaries‘ task in the colonial world, the historian serge gruzinski (2001: 49) considers the concepts of mediation and mediators outstanding as they both refer to the mechanisms developed by individuals as a means to transpose from a known culture to an unknown one. cultural mediation places the intercultural competence at the heart of language teaching, particularly when the language is used for specific purposes, namely for translation and interpreting. in this sense it is the process through which a third party acts as a ―cultural broker‖ by assisting both parties to reach a common understanding and to interact more satisfactorily. cultural mediation aims to identify the role of culture in social processes triggered in response to alterity, such as that observed in the encounter between natives and christians in the new world. having developed ways of theorizing communication, mediation, culture and cultural mediation, we should move toward exploring its conditions and outcomes on social projects and movements such as the role of missions, particularly that of john eliot, with the natives that may not be recognized by some scholars in those terms, but as we will argue, it allows us to understand the construction of a native epistemology through the endless task of missionaries who were so committed to proselyting, teaching, educating, protecting the natives‘ rights and mediating. taking as starting point, the concept of cultural mediation, as argued in paula montero‘s, deus na aldeia: missionários, índios e mediação cultural , (2006) (god in the village: missionaries, indians and cultural mediation) it will be seen how the missionary task, taken on linguistic and cultural mediation, functioned in the new world, during the a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [120] seventeenth century colonization. thus in this paper, we will follow the definition advanced by this anthropologist as she sustains that the process of meaning-making is about what the cultural mediation consists of; a communication process whose result is the establishment of meanings shared in social or intercultural areas. for montero, the locus of cultural mediation is the ―social and symbolic‖ space where relations between indians and missionaries occur, where the process of construction and meaning is, actually, prepared through their interactions (2006: 59). her definition is particularly helpful for me, in looking at what strikes me as a clearly cultural mediation in john eliot‘s errand to the otherness as i intend to redeem the importance of his dynamic as a great local mediator. as we know, during the british colonization in the new world there were great efforts to educate and evangelize the natives. in addition to the education and training of manpower, the missionaries endeavored in another key role: translating western and indigenous cultures and mediating them. yet mediation in the seventeenth-century new world was not only about the process of translating, interpreting, educating or evangelizing but was, above all, about the process of regenerating the natives and defending them from the land-hunter colonists. john eliot was a minister in the adjacent town of roxbury and the first englishman to make a serious effort to learn a new england indian language. he was one of the first missionaries in north america to engage with issues surrounding spoken and unspoken strategies of communication. he began to learn the algonquian language which did not yet have a written form. algonquian was a notoriously difficult language. he first began preaching in algonquian in 1647 (gray, 2007:1). after several fruitful encounters with the algonquians, with eliot speaking to them in their native language, many were christianized. his was the first sermon ever preached on the mainland in the language of the massachusetts‘ natives. after preaching a while, and explaining the word of god, eliot thought that these people ought to have the bible in their own language. it was a very queer and hard to learn language, but the minister was not discouraged by that. he had the help of an indian, taken captive in the pequot war, in the work of translation. it was finished and printed in 1663, and was the very first bible ever printed in america. this was also a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [121] the first bible printed for cross-cultural missionary purpose and translated by one of the earliest protestant missionaries. there are very few copies of this indian bible to be found now. eliot has been revered for his contributions to native american linguistics not only because he was the first who began to understand the massachusetts language on its own terms and not simply in relation to european or asian languages, but also because he translated numerous other religious texts into the massachusetts language, a set of works collectively known as the ―indian library.‖ he brought both literacy and the bible to the algonquian people, and reshaped their communities into fellowships of christ. he believed that they had souls to be saved. it was not easy to win them at first, but by working so hard by and by the natives became devoted to him. he went across the country, once a fortnight, to preach to his indians. one after another he formed settlements of praying indians. he taught them a new way of living, showing them how to raise crops, to build bridges, to make houses and homes, and how to clothe themselves properly. he made them comfortable, and by getting help from others, he made it possible for them to work, and to live as did their civilized brothers. singing psalms was also a vital part of puritan worship in colonial massachusetts and the missionary incorporated psalmody into his efforts to convert indians to christianity. under the auspices of the corporation for the propagation of the gospel in new england, eliot headed the massachusetts bay colony missionary efforts, which included translating the metrical psalter into the massachusetts dialect. beginning in 1651, indian converts in so-called praying towns across the colony were taught to sing the translated psalms. music was heavily weighted with spiritual and cultural significance for both colonists and indians, and sacred music became a mode of cross-cultural mediation between the groups. the newly translated psalms were set to traditional english psalm tunes, exemplifying an uneasy syncretism that discomfited english listeners. yet eliot did not act alone in his linguistic and missionary work. he relied to a great extent on indian translators, interpreters, and teachers. over the course of his lifetime, john sassamon, one of his native scholars, would serve him in each of these capacities. like eliot, sassamon became well known for both his linguistic and missionary a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [122] skills. within some years, indian students learning to read would have benefitted from the indian catechisms and primers that eliot and his assistants, as sassamon, would soon translate. syllable by syllable and word by word, both were mastering new languages, pulling letters apart and pushing them back together again, making familiar meanings out of unfamiliar sounds. after conversion, eliot and his colleagues believed that segregation and isolation were necessary for the converts‘ spiritual growth. the converts must be removed from the negative influence of their pagan relatives and bad white men. eliot established purely christian towns of ―praying indians‖ so that the new converts could live together under the strict discipline and careful nurture of the missionaries and indian pastors and teachers. eliot put his towns under a biblical form of government, a civil model drawn almost exclusively from his reading of the old testament political structures and particularly jethro‘s advice to moses in exodus 18:13–27. within the towns, the indians lived together under a covenant between them and the lord. those towns were known as ―indian praying towns‖. eliot looked upon natick, the first of such a community, as the model upon which not only other praying indian towns would be constructed but potentially as a model for england and the rest of the world to emulate. his aspirations for this tiny polity were not only connected to his hopes for native american evangelism but also to his dedication to a system of government rooted in the old testament. eliot‘s insistence on running the praying communities by the governmental system outlined in exodus was a significantly different setup from that under which the english lived. in this sense, eliot‘s application of an old testament system of government (instead of the new testament so acclaimed by the puritan english settlers) made it clear that he saw his project in terms that transcended the english concerns. his main goal transcended the colonists‘ goal. as we have seen conversion required not only a change of lifestyle and a regeneration of the heart, but a reconfiguring of the mind as well. eliot‘s insistence that heart conversion must follow cultural conversion was his ultimate goal. in order to become literate, seventeenth-century indians had first to make a graduated succession of cultural concessions— adopting english ways and english dress, living in towns, learning to a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [123] speak english, converting to christianity. but these very concessions made them vulnerable. neither english nor indian, assimilated indians were scorned by both groups, and they were even subject to attack. because the acquisition of literacy, and especially english-language literacy, was one of the last steps on the road to assimilation, indians who could read and write placed themselves in a particularly perilous, if at the same time a powerful, position, caught between two worlds but fully accepted by neither. actually, both eliot and his close associate, daniel gookin, faced harsh criticism and even physical danger because their association with the indians. while the apostle and his colleagues certainly attempted to colonize the hearts and minds of their algonquian audiences, they also validated native american land claims at the expense of english neighbors. their association and defense of praying indians garnered them both suspicion and disdain as king philip‘s war solidified radical division in new england. in this context the mission acted as mediator between native americans and land-hunter colonists. in addition to the cultural and literacy improvement eliot brought the natives, his contribution was also remarkable at defending the natives and protecting them from land-hunters. from the very beginning of colonization the white settlers saw the natives as the ―beasts‖ that must be civilized and subdued. proponents of colonization could draw upon a number of powerful biblical arguments that seemed to give support to the policies of the colonizers. biblical narratives and divine imperatives were cited to show that foreign settlements were legitimate and that in most cases they could claim the land property from the natives. the native‘s nomadic lifestyle might even lead to legitimate settlement and occupation. for the white puritan settlers, the lack of agriculture and absence of the notion of private property were prime evidence of the natives‘ ―bestial status‖ and would legitimate them to possess the natives‘ land. yet john eliot tried not only to regenerate but above all to protect that part of the english population with no voice, no law and no discipline, whom the new england puritan settlers saw as displaced people and the ―wild beasts‖. the minister tried to integrate them into the newly rationalized new england landscape. thanks to eliot‘s praying towns, the natives were able to learn and to adapt themselves to a sedentary a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [124] lifestyle and to a newly social organization which would protect them from the land-hunters and would give them the legal right to stay in their lands. as professor james holstun sates: the enclosure of new england proceeded that of england. the indians possessed the lands by natural right… as the enclosure of english commons‘ ground often began with a single large landholder overstocking the commons, turning it into private property, so white expansion in new england often began with the indians‘ allowing whites the use for settlement and cultivation of indian commons grounds (…) the dispossessed and displaced english tenants and algonquian tribesmen soon found out that enclosure is irreversible. just as winstanley and the diggers responded to the displacement of rural tenants by encouraging them to enclose and cultivate common grounds such as those at st. george‘s hill, so eliot and his missionary colleagues worked tirelessly to acquire tracts of land for indian praying towns. (107-08) furthermore, as holstun points out, this missionary worked hard to acquire tracts of land for the natives and even increased the property rights that praying indians held in legal theory. thanks to his mediation, the british government set apart six thousand acres of land for the ―civilized‖ natives. richard cogley, an associate professor of religious studies, stands that eliot‘s mission gave the natives a legal right that pagan indians did not hold, namely, ownership of land that had not been ―subdued‖ through the ―possession or improvement‖ (cogley,1999:234). thanks to eliot‘s mediation with the british government, the general court assigned in 1647 ―hundreds of acres‖ to the proselytes (ibidem: 236). it will be appropriate here to remark the views of some scholars who don‘t see the missions and their goals as a purely hegemonic task and who emphasize the religious motivations within the economic and political benefits indian conversion could offer colonists. as wolfgang gabbert states, ―in any examination of missions it is important not to reduce the proselytes to an ‗undifferentiated mass‘ evangelized by missionaries who functioned as agents of hegemony‖ (gabbert 2001: 293). it is also important to recognize the way in which missionaries could subvert the colonial regime even as they work in concert with it (karen e. fields; 1982: 95-108). a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [125] if the mission represented a noble effort to enable the two races to live together, king philip‘s war, particularly its impact on eliot's converts, "signaled the failure of the english and the native peoples to live together peaceably," as historian jill lepore has noted in "the name of war." richard cogley, has carefully traced eliot's missionary activities, placing them in the context of colonial politics, making it clear that eliot was not out to destroy indian culture, but was actually interested in fostering the survival of the native massachusetts language, which he learned, and of many native customs. cogley stresses that the mission in massachusetts bay was ―a means to an end rather than… an end in itself‖ (1999: 5). thus, we believe that characterizing eliot, his mission and the praying towns in stark imperialist terms is misguided. john eliot was above all an awesome cultural mediator who defended and gave a voice to the muted natives of the new world. as we have displayed all along this paper, the missionary, in addition to his educational and cultural mission, came to play an important role in cultural mediation. the linguistic, social and cultural mediation, led over the centuries by missionaries such as eliot, was instrumental for the peaceful coexistence of very different communities. references axtell, james. 1982. ―some thoughts on the ethnohistory of missions,‖ ethnohistory, vol. 29, no. 1. 36 bellin, david joshua. 2003. ―a little shall i say: translation and interculturalism in the john eliot tracts.‖ reinterpreting new england indians and the colonial experience. collin c. calloway and neal salisbury, eds., boston: the colonial society of massachusetts cogley, richard. 1999. john eliot’s mission to the indians before king philip’s war. massachusetts: harvard university press. fields, karen e. 1982. ―christian missionaries as anticolonial militants‖ theory and society, v.121 no. 1. pp. 95-108. gabbert, wolfgang. 2001. ethnology, vol. 40, no. 4. gray, kathryn napier. 2007. ―written and spoken words and worlds: john eliot‘s algonquian translations‖, in symbiosis: a journal of anglo-american literary relations, volume 7.2 a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [126] hairson, cherise d. 1999. ―african americans in mediation 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review of anthropology, 33:34567 available at http://anthro.annualreviews.org (last access10/09/2013) martin-barbero, j. 1993. communication, culture and hegemony: from the media to mediations. london: sage. ____________________. 2003. ―cultural change: the perception of the media and the mediation of its images.‖ television and new media, 4(1), 85-106. montero, paula (org.). 2006. deus na aldeia: missionários, índios e mediação cultural. são paulo: globo ronda, james p. 1977. ―‗we are well as we are‘: an indian critique of seventeenth-century christian missions.‖ the william and mary quarterly. 3rd. ser., vol. 34, no. 1. salisbury, neal. 1974. ―red puritans: the ―praying indians‖ of massachusetts bay and john eliot.‖ the william and mary quarterly. 3rd. ser., vol. 31, no. 1. simmons, william s. 1979. ―conversion from indian to puritan.‖ the new england quarterly, vol. 52, no. 2. http://anthro.annualreviews.org/ a.m.m. guimaraes cultural mediation: john eliot’s errand to the otherness epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [127] szaz‘s, margaret connell. 2001. between indian and white worlds: the cultural broker. usa: university of oklahoma press. vaughan, alden. 1995. new england frontier: puritans and indians, 1620–1675, 3rd ed., norman: university of oklahoma press. williams, r. 1977. ―from reflection to mediation.‖ in r. williams (ed.), marxism and literature (pp. 95-100). oxford, u.k.: oxford university press. wyss, hillary. 2000. writing indians: literacy, christianity and native community in early america. amherst, ma, university of massachusetts press jahja muhasilović* introduction for a very long time history textbooks in the balkans region are the big matter of discussion and one of the most sensitive issues. especially after the yugoslav wars, history textbooks issue walks hand in hand with the local politics which is full of ethnic tensions. almost in all countries of the balkans region, there is an aim to effect and spread state agendas and deviated view of the past among younger generations through educational system and in this case through history textbooks. textbooks became a tool for brainwashing and building the tensions between socities. some history textbooks are more filled with the nationalism than others, but it is common to almost all of them to have nationalistic and epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies volume 7, number 2, 2014 p-issn 2303-6850 e-isnn 1840-3719 image of the ottomans in bosnian textbooks published after 2007 abstract division of historical consciousness in bosnia and herzegovina started before the yugoslav wars, but this division of historiographies and approaches towards the past resulted with more openly manifestation of the divisions to educational system and history textbooks during the wartime and post dayton era. even though international community tried to change poisonous environment of ethnic hatred in which textbooks are produced, except few successes with bosniak textbooks, not much positive development was achieved. reform period which started in 1998 today is seen as an unfinished project. in bosnia and herzegovina three different versions of history with two of them having the focus point in neighboring serbia and croatia are taught to the students. besides the fact that students are learning three different histories, there is a certain level of hatred and fear of others spreading through history textbooks. history textbooks became an important tool for poisoning the minds of the youth and building the barriers towards the others. this is the case especially with serb and croat textbooks in bosnia and herzegovina. ottoman period in balkans is mainly seen as a ‘’dark age of the balkans’’ as it is underlined in one serbian textbook and to lesser extend in croat ones. even though bosniaks see ottoman period in more positive light than other two ethnic groups, there are certain topics and periods were it is possible to see romantistic and nationalistic tone towards the ottomans. history textbooks in bosnia are having negative contribution for country’s possible future dissolution and it is the one of the main source of stereotype engineering that country is passing in the last decades and which is one of the main reason of the recent wars. in the times where country is confronting with secessionist threat, it is highly important to start building bosnian statehood and understanding of others through history textbooks, otherwise we can expect new turmoil in the region known for its sensitivity towards the ethnic conflicts. keywords: history textbooks; image; ottomans; historiography and imagology *corresponding author: jahja muhasilović, independent scholar, bosnia and herzegovina, e-mail: jahjam87@windowslive.com ethnocentric approach to history. after the collapse of socialist federative republic of yugoslavia some topics of history which were considered as taboo through the socialist period, few years before the war and during the war started entering the academical debates. because historiography is one of the most sensitive areas this negative tone had a huge impact on the formation of new generation of history textbooks. people of ex-yugoslavia were founding alibi in the past for the new ideas that were supposed to build new ethnocentric societies and nation states. one ex republic of yugoslavia that was the most affected by this negative tone and still feels the pressure of romanticist ethnohistoriography certainly is bosnia and herzegovina. it is composed of three different ethnic groups bosniaks, serbs and croats which are affiliated with three different religions, islam, orthodox christianity and catholicism. when the war broke out, these three ethnic groups found themselves on different sides of the trenches. during the war all this hatered that was accumulated through the horrors of the war and in the eras before, had a huge impact on history textbooks. others who are not part of same ethnic group, were shown as a historical enemies and were blamed for all the horrors and sins of the past through textbooks. but if we put internal hatred and internal stereotypes between these three ethnic societies build upon wrong interpretation of the past, what is common for the region as a whole is that they have ‘’common historical enemy.’’ balkans are considered as a part of ottoman legacy which automatically brings ottoman turks as a common enemy. it is important to mention that ottomans are not seemed as a enemy on same level among all people in bosnia and herzegovina. for example bosniaks are looking more favourably to ottoman era, than serbs or croats. after long period of not interfering by the western countries, in the winter of 1995 war in bosnia and herzegovina was stopped by us sponsored peace talks held in dayton, ohio. clinton goverment succeed in bringing the peace to this war thorn country, which suffered huge humanitarian losses which took about 100.000 lives. so after this agremeent country entered post-dayton era. by the agremeent, country was separated into two entities. larger part of the country was under the bosniak-croat federation which formed about 51% of country’s teritory. this entity is separeted between 10 cantons which all to some extend have autonomy. some of the cantons have bosniak and some croat majority. on the other side about 49% of the country is run by serbian entity called republika srpska, which also has huge autonomy, but still part of the bosnia and herzegovina. small part of country which has specific nature of governance and is not dominated by neither of the ethnic groups is called brcko district. dayton peace accords left the country with the weak central authority. the situation with the education system and history textbooks j. muhasilović image of the ottomans in bosnian textbooks 83 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences is not much different then the way how country is organized. history textbooks that entered market during the war and immediatly after the war, were seemed as a threat to multicultural functioning of bosnia by international community. many institutions commonly called as a international community, felt a need for history textbooks to be reformed. atempts to reform history textbooks organizations that took particiption in the project and sponsored whole process were: office of high representative in bosnia and herzegovina, osce, council of europe, unesco and world bank. aim was to creat textbooks that was supposed to build a sense of common history. first step for the normalization of the textbooks was done in 1998. sarajevo canton was chosen as the first place where project was meant to be implemented. after project was successufully implemented in canton of sarajevo, plan was to do same in other places of bosnia and herzegovina. with the sponsorship of international community representatives from federation and republika srpska gathered and signed the agreement regarding textbook review and removal of offensive material. this agremeent was renewed in june. after the agremeent was signed few more agremeents came after. when bosnia applied for membership in council of europe, there was a need to remove offensive materials from history textbooks, so meeting was organized in mostar in 19th july 1999. that year the agreement on removal of objectionable material from textbooks to be used in bosnia and herzegovina in the 1999-2000 school year was signed in mostar. probably becuase of various problems and attempts to evade the actions, implementation of the agremeent of july 19th on the removal of objectionable material from textbooks to be used in bosnia and herzegovina in the 1999-2000 school year, was signed in august in banja luka. without loosing any speed in progress, there were attempts to write common curriculum. agreement regarding the curriculum was signed in 2000 by ministers who gathered and joint declaration was published. now was the time to write a textbook that everyone would be satisfied with. before the starting to write a common textbook, first step was to define objectionable parts of the content. to do this work, committees from the two entities were selected. in parts were they disagree independent committees formed by ohr, unesco and council of europe was supposed to intervene. objactionable passages were selected with two methods. first method was that the passages which are objectionable were to be blacked out and second method was to stamp objectionable passages. stamped parts included this text: “the following passage contains material of which the truth has not been established, or that may be offensive or misleading; the material is currently under review.” there were many tries to evade reformation of the textbooks. in many schools j. muhasilović image of the ottomans in bosnian textbooks 84 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences old textbooks were still in use. in some schools objectionable passages were hung on the bulletin boards, so the students could see those passages. reforms were supposed to include not just history, but geography, language classes, visual culture, music, music culture, economy and society, and knowledge of the society. according to ahmed alibasić a professor at the faculty of islamic studies in sarajevo who researched image of ottomans in bosnian history textbooks, even if he could not get hold of the reports on the revision of history textbooks, fragmentary reports that came to him pointed out that committees had more work to do with serbian and croatian textbooks then with the bosniak ones (moe, 2008, 4). in may 2004 education ministers agreed to form a committee for the development of a guidlines for history and geography. so, year after in 2005 committee prepared ‘’guidlines for writing and evaluation of history textbooks for primary and secondary schools in bosnia and herzegovina.’’ this guidline was accepted by all ministers of education in bosnia and herzegovina. accordig to the guidlines; 1) students should recieve a basic understanding of the history and geography of all three constituent peoples and minorities in bosnia anf d herzegovina 2) main reference point should be bosnia and herzegovina 3) the three constituent peoples and minorites should be represented in a way that doesn’t hurt their feelings. one method to achieve this goal was to lower the level of political history in the textbooks. in 2006 all bosnian education ministers signed this agreement. it was planned that all the proposals listed in guidlines were to be implemented in the new textbooks foreseen for the academic year 2007/2008. after all these positive changes, in years to come expected success didn’t occur. reform was most successful with the bosniak textbooks, but with them some other problems occured. bosniak textbooks entered into a period of hyperproduction. the biggest advance concerning croat textbooks was that their publishing started in bosnia. serbian textbooks improved visual parts of the textbooks but not much improvement concerning the content occured. so, problem of the textbooks in bosnia and herzegovina still is problem that remains to be solved. critical analysis of history textbooks history textbooks is one of the most important topics for the historians in th region. first serious study about the image of the ottomans in bosnian textbooks was conducted by ahmed alibasić professor at the faculty of islamic studies in sarajevo. he researched the image of the ottomans in the history textbooks. alibasić analyzed textbooks of the three ethnic societies published before 2006. so this textbooks were still in use before the last guidelines were published. my work is the thesis that researches the textbooks that are in use after the 2007, where i tried to find out how much progress was done by bringing textbooks on the level forseen by the guidlines. j. muhasilović image of the ottomans in bosnian textbooks 85 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences similar studies on history textbookswere conducted by damir agičić (2003) form croatia who in the same time is writer of some of the history textbooks and dubravka stojanović from serbia (see pešić and rosandić, 1994, 77-105). the international institute that is very active not just in the fields of research but even is part of the textbooks reform in western balkans is george eckert institute for international textbook research from braunschweig in germany. osce mission in bosnia relies on their service concerning the education of textbook authors. from international arena especially active researcher and writer in this field is heike karge form university of regensburg. one of the hardest things while researching the textbooks was the fact that in last years in bosnia we witness a hypoproduction of the history textbooks which brings the number of textbooks to be researced to a several dozen of them. this is the case espacially with bosniak textbooks which are published by nine publishing houses. bosniak textbooks are changed almost annually and it became source of money earning. now we have a situation that publishing houses are lobbying in schools, so their textbooks could enter the curriculum. by doing little changes in the text new textbooks are published almost every year. when it comes to hyperproduction of the textbooks situation with croat and serbian textbooks is not as bad as bosniak ones. croat textbooks are published by three and serbian by one publishing house. but what is bigger problem with croat and serbian textbooks is content. after the guidelines were prepared by experts on this issue, little progress was achieved to change nationalistic content of croat and serbian textbooks. only successful point about croat textbooks is that they are not any more published in zagreb, but in bosnia, but content still is not on satisfactory level. when it comes to serbian textbooks, which probably are the most ethnocentric, also not much progress is achieved. just visual aspect of the textbooks were improved. when it comes to changing the content of textbooks the most successfull are bosniak history textbooks. problem of approach to the ottoman period examining image of the ottoman period in the bosnia is a vast area by itself which includes many sensitive subtopics that have to be disscused in a very qualitative manner if goal is to get close to real picture about the textbooks issue. some of the big number of subtopics that must be examined are islamization process, devşirme system, janissary corps, treatment of non-muslims, ottoman border wars and the role of akıncı troops, independence and autonomy movements and so many other topics. in this text particularly, intention was just to summaries overall approach and view of ottoman period, without dealing with the subtopics already mentioned above. ottoman period lasted for almost 700 years, so there are many processes and happenings, about which is almost impossible to write in a short text like this one was intended to be. j. muhasilović image of the ottomans in bosnian textbooks 86 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences when reading history textbooks in bosnia and herzegovina, it is posible to see totally different aproaches to ottoman past between three ethnic groups. generally speaking serbian textbooks are the most critical about this period, while bosniak one are looking mora favourably. survey conducted in serbian school also proves this view from textbooks. when ottoman empire is mentioned two things that first comes to mind of serbian students is occupier with 49% and enemy with 40% of the answers, compared to bosniak schools where 66% of students thinks ottomans were friendly and just 3% see ottomans as a enemy. as it is said in the guideline, textbooks should focus on a common bosnian history, but with the serbian and croat ones it is not the case. serbian textbooks are totaly focusing on serbian ethnic history. in the research that was conducted, some questions where examined. one of them was to found out what is the most important historical happening during the ottoman past. what came out was that even for the serbian textbooks in bosnia, that battle of kosovo plays crucial role for the serbian past. even in a survey conducted 81 % of serbian kids in eastern sarajevo school answered battle of kosovo is the most important historical happening for them. generally in serbian textbooks ottoman period is seen as a dark age. one title goes that far to say: ‘’the worst of all periods’’ (mihaljčić, 2009, 191). ottoman empire is seen as a state designed to be in state of constant war (ibid., 188). one of the exemptions of the ‘’dark period’’ is the case of mehmet paşa sokullu, who is seen as a serb who succeded in the empire’s hierarchy and became a grand vizier. but is not hard to guess why sokollu is seen as a one bright example. because he is a serb and this goes hand in hand with the overall tone of the textbooks which glorifies the serbian past. mehmet paşa sokollu plays important role in serbian history mainly for the reason because he was the the key figure behind the restoration of pec patriarchate. when it comes to croatian textbooks situation is not much better. even if ottomans are not that important part of the croatian history as they are for serbs or bosniaks, they play important role in the croatian past and the shaping of croatian identity. ottoman era for the big part of the croats starts and finishes earlier then for the bosniaks or serbs. ottoman history is observed from different angle then bosniak or serbian ones. croats for big part of the ottoman period were on two sides of the border between ottoman and habsburg empires. this aspect plays important role for the formation of croat perception of ottoman period. croatia is seen antemurale christianitatis which in latin means bulwark of christianity. croat lands are seen as a last resort of christendom, before the islamicoriental lands starts. in the history textbooks important place is given to the catholic dimension of croat identity. overally looking this period is not percieved as a positive. when ottoman are to be blamed for something in many parts of the croat textbooks, then it is done from the catholic point of view. for croat textbooks, ottomans were prefering orthodox serbs rather than catholics, because pope was the out of the reach for the ottomans and was main promoter of the wars against the ottomans (bekavac, kljajic j. muhasilović image of the ottomans in bosnian textbooks 87 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences and rozic, 2010, 48). for the croat authors that is the reason why ottomans prefered the ortodox christians even allowed them to collects tax from catholics and take their churches (birin, rozic and šarlija, 2012, 156-156).there is one picture given in textbooks where orthodox priest and one ottoman muslim are colaborating and behind them is catholic priest screaming and looking at the burning catholic church. this pictures shows us how ottoman past is precieved by the croatian nationalistic historiography. as it is the case with serbian textbooks, croat ones are also having main focus on ethnic croat history, rather then bosnian history. bosniak textbooks generally speaks positively about the first centuries of ottoman rule. early ottoman empire is seen as one of the most advanced and well organized states of that period, which probably is not far from the truth. it is percieved as a civilization that brings citylife to the region with sofisticated architecture, art and culture (petković and pocrnja, 2010, 124). with ottoman advance into the balkans multicultural and multireligious life was introduced. in bosniak textbooks all these positive aspects of ottoman civilization are described. point that is the matter of disagremeent between bosniak on one side and serbian and croat textbooks on the other side is the nature of islamization. by the bosniak textbooks this process is seen mainly as a peacfull, which is not supported by the serbian and croat textbooks, which look at this process more negatively. in serbian textbooks it is possible to see romantic approach to the problem where sometimes phenomenons like devşirme are describes as a blood tax and percieved as a islamization tool (petković and pocrnja, 2010, 189). but this interpretation of the first ottoman centuries in positive manner in bosniak textbooks suddenly starts to shift in seventeenth century. fields of disagremeent with sublime porte especially extends when reforms were tried to be implemented throughout the empire. as reforms were opposed in eighteenth century by the bosniak elite, textbooks are also defending this point of view. they are full of quatations from the past mainly said by the husein kapetan gradascevic which dwarfs sultan and his reforms (valenta, 2011, 111). this approach is due to romanticist and nationalistic approach by some authors in the history textbooks, which actually reveals when wiritng about the late ottoman era starts. when bosniaks became ‘’endangered’’ by the central ottoman goverment, actuall aproach and intensions in writing the textbooks became clear, which is hard to be observed when writing about the periods when ‘’everything was allright’’ in bosnia. different approaches on reform period in ottoman empire as it was mentioned above, between three ethnic societies in bosnia, we have different approaches to tanzimat reforms. in bosniaks textbooks where about early ottoman centuries general approach is positive and writing mainly in objective manner, shift to opposing the ottoman policy towards bosnia in the last two century starts suddenly. description of reform period in bosniak textbooks reminds the tone which is found in croat and serbian textbooks about ottoman period as a whole. j. muhasilović image of the ottomans in bosnian textbooks 88 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences but what is to be seen is that especially in serbian textbooks, because in croat one it is not the important matter of dicussion, probably for the reason croatia was not part of the empire in those times, is relatively positive approach to reforms. by the serbian textbooks reforms are seen as a positive wind of change but unsuccessful project, which mainly failed because of the ‘’domestic turks’’ who opposed it. when writing about the reforms, sultan is seen as a positive figure, compared to the local bosniak muslims who opposed the idea because they had a fear of losing privileges. reason why some bosniaks at that time where in opposition for reforms is that they thougth defence of bosnia should be in their own hands and that governors sent by sultan where not that adequate to defend the border province of the empire. so they were asking for certain level of autonomy. that is the reason why this movement is called autonomy movement and not the movement for independence of bosnia. according to (valenta, 2011) in bosniak textbooks we can see subjective approach towards the movement and sometimes even exaggeration from the authors where they are giving quotations of husein kapetan himself where he tries to downgade sultan and his whole army. romantically husein is shown as a pious and religious person standing for the idea of bosnia. this is mainly because of the reason during the war and post war period bosniak historiography entered into the trap of romanticist interpretation of the past. also one of the important periods to examine is the republican period, turkish war of independence, ataturk and his reforms. relatively important place about this period is given in croatian textbooks. generally period that came after the dissolution of the empire and ataturk’s fight for turkish nation state and overally his reforms are accepted as a positive change in turkish society (miloš, 2006/07, 46). he is seen as a modernist who introduced modernity and included turkey into a modern civilized world. even in croat majority schools turkey is seen relatively as a positive. when students were asked what first comes to their mind when turkey is mentioned, 46% of the students said islamist, compared to serbian students of whom 60% gave this answer, this result in croat schools has relatively low percentage. 24% of croat students first think of strong country when turkey is mentioned. percentage of croat students who see turkey as a friend is 13%, compared to just 4% of serbian students and very high 51% for bosniak students who think turkey is a friend. croat students who see turkey as a enemy country is 14%, compared to 22% of serbian students and less then 1% for bosniak students. similarly with the textbooks, when we look at the results of survey for bosniak students we see totaly different picture concerning ottoman period and turkey from the results in croat and serbian schools. but not all about the last periods of the empire is seen in a positive way in croat textbooks. for example in of the croat textbook, it is said that turks committed atrocities of genocide towards armenians. some organizations sponsored by the international community tried in different j. muhasilović image of the ottomans in bosnian textbooks 89 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences ways to change negative images that are found in the history textbooks. not just image of ottoman period is bad, but because of the reason textbooks are divided among the ethnic groups and their national histories, almost eveyone who is from other community is target of demonization through the textbooks. topic of researching the images in the textbooks is not just issue of imagology and political problems of today, but it should deal with the negative historiographical habits which are developing for a very long time and have their roots deeply in the past. some are chronical problems for a long time and is impossible to explain them just form the aspect of the last war. even building the negative image of others through teaching history and textbooks today is for big percentage guilty of separational tendencies and hatred among the ethnic societies of bosnia and herzegovina. international community understood the necessity of changing negative perceptions, for the sake of keeping bosnia from the future separations and for the sake of peace. one organization which worked on the educating history teachers is euroclio. what is seen form todays perspective is that all actions done by international community didn’t have deeper impact on the changing textbooks. bosniak textbooks did the most to implement guidlines, but they finished in unhealthy hyperproduction of history textbooks. serbian and croat textbooks didn’t change seriously after all these series of guildlines and the efforts of implementing changes. regarding turkey and her role in changing negative image about ottoman past, not much is done. turkey should take initiative in this projects. as turkey is looking forward to build soft power in the region and tries to change negative image about itself, demonizing her past in the textbooks is one of the main obstacles to achieve this goal. turkey should work with european union and other internatioanl community organizations on this field very actively. center for the balkans and black sea studies which is part of yıldız technical university conducted a work sponsored by govermental institution tübi̇tak, to explore history textbooks in the balkans, black sea region, medditeranean and caucasian countries (http://bal-kar.org/). this project finished successfully and book about the image of the ottoman period in countries surrounds turkey is going to be published very soon. probably there are many more institutions in turkey that can and should be included to cooperate with the local and international institutions already working on normalizing textbooks in bosnia and herzegovina. otherwise we could have new conflicts in bosnia, because of building the notion of separate past full of agony and constantly scaring and blaming the others for the horrors of the past to the students, in long terms could lead to dissolution of bosnia and herzegovina as we know. ignoring national and common history is killing the feeling of bosnian nation and community. to change this much more effort and pushing for reforms must be done, without losing the sensitivity for historical truth. so, with lack of this balance history teaching could finish in another negative extreme of ignoring the facts of the past. j. muhasilović image of the ottomans in bosnian textbooks 90 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences references bekavac stjepan, siniša kljajić, miroslav rozić. 2010. povijest 7: udžbenik za 7. razred osnovne škole. alfa mostar, mostar. birin, ante, miroslav rozić, tomislav šarlija. 2012. povijest 6: udžbenika za šesti razred osnovne škole – 1. i̇zdanje. alfa mostar, mostar. group authors. 2003. zbornik radova: historijski mitovi na balkanu. institut za i̇storiju sarajevo, sarajevo. http://bal-kar.org/ mihaljčić rade. 2009. istorija 7: za 7. razred osnovne škole. zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, istočno sarajevo. miljenko miloš. 2006/2007. povijest novog doba. znanje, mostar, moe christian. 2008. image of the religious others: discourse and distance in the western balkans. novi sad cei̇r. petković, aida, marina pocrnja. 2010. historija 7: za sedmi razred devetogodišnje osnovne škole. klett, sarajevo. pešić v. i rosandić r. 1994. ratništvo, patriotizam, patrijarhalnost; udžbenici istorije kao ogledalo vremena. beograd. valenta leonard. 2011. povijest 8: za devetogodišnje osnovne škole – 1. izdanje, dječija knjiga/bosanska riječ, sarajevo. 91 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 2, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences j. muhasilović image of the ottomans in bosnian textbooks introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 figural representation in the arabic calligraphy meliha teparić * abstract a deep analysis of calligraphic works show deep meaning behind each letter. the most important thing when analyzing such calligraphic works is deep symbolism that each letter carries within itself. a combination of calligraphic letters always show a symbolic message. thus, vision enacted in calligraphic works invites the viewer towards reflection and contemplation. it is hard to determine what is more appealing an image or the text. in reality there is an equal emphasis on the text and form. both complement each other as there is always harmonious balance between the two poles of diversity, male and female, matter and spirit and exoteric and esoteric. yet, it is possible to read the image and to understand diverse messages and visual impressions. therefore, the main objective of this paper is to illustrate the scope of arabic calligraphy by focusing on arabic letters and their use in presenting various artistic figures. keywords: arabic calligraphy, calligrams and symbolism * corresponding author: meliha teparić; assist. prof. international university of sarajevo; e-mail: mteparic@ius.edu.ba mailto:mteparic@ius.edu.ba m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [146] the origin of the arabic calligraphy the islamic art is not characterized with animal and human figures. however, such artistic expressions have often been included in the miniature paintings, the arts of plastics and in the art of calligraphy. rare using of the figurative art in islam was partly due to the prohibition of presenting humans and animals in any kind of painting and sculpture. however, the prohibition of presenting characters among muslim artists was not always absolutely followed. it is important to mention that in islam, as well as in islamic art, there is a clear reflection of islamic spirituality, god cannot be represented in any physical form. the holy qur'an did not ban presenting characters literally, but it is clearly indicated that the faithful themselves should not make and worship idols. human beings cannot show in any way god’s character, power and beauty. then, due to the necessary precaution that people would not be misled towards idolatry, making the portraiture of muahmmad (pbuh) was also prohibited. actually, the religion of islam is greatly god centered religion and the prophet muhammad (pbuh) is but the messenger of god. therefore, muslims are discouraged to turn their faces towards any figure including the figure of the prophet (pbuh). then, due to the fears of creating a cult of man making the portraits of the prophet was prohibited in the very beginning of the emergence of the religion of islam (mehinagić, 1973, 27-36; grabar and natif, 2003, p. 26). moreover, even when the prophet muhammad (pbuh) was presented in an individual drawings and miniatures describing events from his life, his character in the form of his body and face has never been painted. from the descriptions of the prophet, by the prophet’s companions, it can be concluded that they all saw and experienced prophet differently. therefore, for the muslim community prophet’s experience, sayings and lessons are much more important than his physical features. prohibition of presenting the characters is mostly related to the sculptural arts because in the pre-islamic period, idolatry was developed, and through idolatry, the sculptural art flourished. according to burckhardt (1985) and king (1985) when the muslims liberated mecca, the prophet ordered the destruction of all statues and idols, which pagan arabs set up in the courtyard of the ka’aba, and then he entered the shrine. the walls of the shrine were ornamented by the byzantine painter, and among the paintings was the display of the prophet abraham throwing arrows for divination and the painting of virgin and child. the prophet covered two images with his hands and ordered their removal. the prophet muhammad (pbuh) probably did this out of respect for selected and m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [147] honorable people, but not as a sign of approval of painting figures as religious relics, which is contrary to the faith which he was propagating. it seems that muslim artists realized that painting as a creative act, could be considered as undesirable but not strictly forbidden. however, anything in the islamic art that could in any way promote idolatry is literally forbidden and muslims have the consensus about such kind of arts. this could be the reason of conscious avoidance of naturalism and realism in the islamic art. however, even among today’s muslim artists natural and realistic arts are widely accepted because the art is no longer solely in the service of religion. the conception of arabic calligraphy presenting characters is consciously avoided in prayer spaces, because the representations of figures in islamic shrines and mosques have no meaningful or functional purpose. according to islamic teachings, everything is directed towards the confirmation of the unity of god, his glory and greatness. therefore, in so-called sacred art there is no room for the secular art. usually stylized characters and figures, both human and animal, can be found at ornamented facades or miniature painting in secular art. then, besides the character presence everything is reduced to the two-dimensionality. in this regard, it would be significant to point out that there is a difference between the sacred arts, traditional arts and religious art (nasr, 2006, pp. 175-185; elwazani, n.y., pp. 478-485). therefore, some works may include religious theme, but it does not necessarily mean that they represent the sacred art. the fundamental concept of the traditional art is based on the principle of divine originality. for example, the sacred art of islam is calligraphic writing of the holy qur'an. this type of arts has been widely-discussed by rene guenon, titus burckhardt and seyyed hossein nasr. any form of the artistic representation aims at presenting characters and figures in a way as they resemble each other. perhaps, such resemblance and realistic representation was derived from the islamic law which is based on the doctrine of the equality of all people before god. however, such figures are not man-centered and they are not made for the purpose of worship. representing the characters in islamic art was derived from the elitist artistic circles because they originally come from the needs of scientific books, then, as illustrations for stories, traditions, and historical events. burckhardt (2007) argued “it means that every artistic creation must be treated in accordance with the laws and regulations of its domain m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [148] of existence" (p. 130). such treatment of representational art in islam was based on certain kind of hidden spirituality, consciously avoiding closer look at the actual and the illusionary material dimension of arts. this was not the result of lack of neither creativity, as often perceived nor inability to naturalize figure. this was the reason why islamic painting paid less attention to perspective and three-dimensionality. however, it is not possible to overestimate the fact that miniature painting in the islamic arts partially lost its spirit and experienced decadence when the artistic perspective was introduced in islamic civilization as a result of european influence. according to islamic artists the artistic conception of threedimensionality illustrates humane life that is integrative part of the divine creation. in fact, it seems that the three-dimension is a fundamental problem of banning characters in islam. although the statues of the preislamic arabs and other idolatrous nations were three-dimensional, ban was based on the number of the qur’anic verses and the traditions of the prophet (pbuh). therefore, this is another example of less significance of the material dimension of arts in comparison to the spiritual and esoteric dimensions. in part, because of this, islamic art turned to the arabic calligraphy and found fertile ground for various kinds of the development. islamic calligraphy was excellent source of inspiration for the muslim artists because the calligraphic art was directly based on the holy qur’an. according to burckhardt’s (2007) interpretation, the first thing that god created was light, and from one part of that light he created a pen, and the pen was ordered to write what will happen in the future lewha-i-mahfuz (plate closely guarded). therefore, nasr (2005) holds that “the original point and the first drop of the divine pen was beginning of sacred calligraphy, and so the calligraphy began the plastic arts.” nasr (2007) also argued that according to the islamic philosopher ibn sina “the first element ('unsur) in the world was in principio point which, under the action of nature, was laid out in a line, plane, and finally a three-dimensional body (jism)." in this regard, the basic principle of calligraphic art is a dot or a line that would eventually result in a letter. certainly the historical context of origin of calligraphic art in islamic civilization had significant roots in pre-islamic era. overall, throughout the near east, abstract geometric art was more developed, with the spirit of the inscription, than visual figurative contents. according to king (1985) „…in the non-figurative repertoire, art in the near east reserved m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [149] major roles for inscriptions of a religious nature, for symbolic devices and...for crosses, with the rest of the subsidiary areas filled by geometric and foliage motifs“ (p. 276). such artistic practices constituted a fertile ground and, after the arrival of islam, affirmed the written word as an artistic expression as in the case of islamic calligraphy. therefore, the islamic calligraphy started to be viewed as the most dignified way for the transmission and worship of god’s words (el-faruki, 1989, p. 19). actually, this is the most perfect way of how to get closer to god, who is transcendental, by reciting, writing or transmitting his words. such forms of artistic expression became, sacred, religious, or even secular, where presented in the mosques, sacred palaces, public buildings and homes. although calligraphy in islamic art replaced the entire repertoire of paintings and sculptures couldn’t become its mere substitute. with the exception of architecture, calligraphy is the first art that was created under the umbrella of islam, and was affirmed, in a sense, by the revelation. thus due to the need for the collection and transmission of the revelation of god the calligraphy was created. the calligraphic art has remained true to its original need for more beautiful writing of god's revelation. nevertheless, it was released from the format of the book and became an independent art form, which has branched out into all fields and all media, from the calligraphic inscriptions as independent works, then architecture, in which it experienced monumental editions, and through usable objects in everyday life, and so entered, in the secular sphere of life as well. the islamic calligraphy was not only emphasizing copying of the sacred and holy texts. there are early inscriptions of specific people who in the islamic tradition represent the islamic spirituality. there are the names of prophet muhammad (pbuh) then four of the caliphs, names of prophet’s grandsons hassan and husayyin and, as well as, the name of the first muadhin bilali habashi. these calligraphic inscriptions, in addition to certain qur’anic verses, are often placed on the walls in the mosques (elwazani, pp. 478-495). however, calligraphic writing of the names did not stop with those honorable names, but throughout the history of islam there appear other honorable names that represented the pillars of spirituality of their time. they were, actually, considered as an extension and continuation of the spirituality. therefore, very often calligraphic art represents great sufis. of course, calligraphic works with this content are exclusively related to the sufi gathering places, tekke and turbe. m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [150] here arises a question that deserves thorough analysis whether the calligraphic art of islam can be interpreted as a kind of islamic religious painting? similarly, the other great civilizations and their letters were also associated with the sacred and creative. in that sense, letter is considered a sacred science. for example, sacred art in buddhism focuses on writing as a spiritual art form, "a technique of painting in ink characters calligraphy, which is associated with the spiritual method dhyana (contemplation)" (burckhardt, 2007, p. 174). then according to oto bihalji-merin, (1979) writing and painting are not separate skills. alternatively, egyptian art image letters ideograms, as irreplaceable part of artistic expression, were considered as sacred curves. the other letters also experienced various creative formations, but it seems that no other letter can develop to the extent of becoming the leading artistic discipline of a great civilization and art, as is the case in islamic art. thus in that way a special kind of calligraphic art of arabic letters, incorporating figurative motifs or vision, developed without significantly violating the basic postulates and the principles of islamic art. figural representation of arabic calligraphy calligrams or figural calligraphy is most often connected to the turkish art of the 16th century. within this artistic corpus, an art that to some extent identifies with tariqats (sufi orders) is plunged into a folk art. calligrams generally can be found in the sufi circles. although similar works can be found in shi'i circles of persian art, from where an impact for creation and popularization of this style of calligraphy could be traced. sufi circles for the most part, consisted of artists from different domains, so that a large number of them practiced the art of calligraphy (schimmel, 1992, pp. 242-53 and ben-zaken, 2004, pp. 1-28). besides other sufi orders, the largest contribution to the arts had been given by mawlawis and baqtashis (aksel, 2010, p. xvi). the art of calligraphy was interpreted as “spiritual mathematics materialized and developed by application of calligraphic equipment” (hadžimejlić, 2009, 12). therefore, very often calligraphy amplifies the crystallization of spirit, a reflection of the artist's spiritual condition and purity of heart, with the condition that their handwriting becomes more and more sophisticated. in bosnia-herzegovina such calligraphic works were crafted by local artists, calligraphers and amateurs. unfortunately today they have been preserved in an extremely small number. due to the historical, cultural and spiritual connections between turkish and bosnian tariqats local m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [151] artists also began to favor the calligrams. besides, in bosniaherzegovina only few dervishes and shaikhs practiced this form of artistic and spiritual expression. however, they were often pursuing their own path of self-knowledge and insight which contributed towards the emergence of bosnian original calligrams. the authors of calligraphic art are not always considered as artists in a real sense of the term. however, according to sufi tradition in any sense a humble servant of god attempts to come closer to god through his calligraphic works. those spiritual masters do not celebrate or highlight their own personality and their works were mostly unsigned. regardless of the small number of discovered calligraphic works, this branch of calligraphic art played significant role among the bosnian muslims who had a sense of aesthetics, which was noticed and appreciated across the ottoman empire. therefore, this appears that arts, especially or exclusively traditional, reaches its peak only when the spirituality of the people to whom this art belong also reach a certain cultural and spiritual level. this has been affirmed by rare examples of calligraphic works that have survived past heritage destructions, as in the case of the past bosnian war (1992-1995). the development of calligrams might be traced back to the earliest period of islamic art, when floral motifs started to develop in calligraphy, which represented the first connection of abstract shapes of letters with material forms (safadi, 1978, p. 12). thus, the ending of certain letters assumed a leaf form, and later became more and more involved in the intricate network of plant motifs, which sometimes twisted zoomorphic motifs as well. sometimes the calligraphic writing is totally lost in the intricacies of this ornamentation, and it is difficult to recognize the shapes of letters. then, sometimes letter endings received human forms, where the figure was contained in a letter, which culminated in the calligraphic works that acquired figurative form, where the shapes of letters depicted figurative representation as a kind of calligraphic painting (safadi, 1978, p. 158). some of them include ali’s camel, boat ament billah, solomon’s seal, emblem of love, boat of writing, prints in the shape of the mosque , a pitcher, human figures, lions, bird, a glass, paired waw’s (aksel, 2010, p. xvi). the flexibility of the arabic letters has produced within the classical calligraphy the expression of figures and characters through writing because such expression didn’t violate the doctrine of unity. this kind of integration of letters and images, uses primarily sacred elements (the letter), although calligraphic work does not necessarily have to belong to m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [152] the category of sacred art, but they usually have a religious character, depending on the subject of the inscriptions (khatibi, 1996, p. 90). painting with letters is the term associated with the writing of holy verses within materialized pattern of nature. here, calligraphic mediums are not solely used, but there is use of classical painting methods as well. the most common motives of calligraphic lines are zoomorphic forms, human figures and figures, which become allowed motives because they are not the purpose themselves, but one part of a complex and organized composition (figure 1). therefore, calligraphy doesn’t attempt to imitate the nature as the nature is not the measure of reality, and therefore calligraphy just tries to understand “transcendental" essence of nature as a subject matter. the calligraphic call is not “admire the material world," but admire the almighty god. these calligraphic works were created under the influence of symbolism, which artists recognized in the material world. therefore as a result of such relationship so-called pictorial calligraphy or calligramy was introduced in the arabic arts. figure 1. calligraphic expression in the form of a bird by leylek dede (end of the 18th and the beggining of 19th century), turkey. (from ṣevket rado, türk hattatları, istanbul, matbaacılık ticaret limited ṣti., n.y., p. 206.) islamic art in general is the art of character, with symbolic meaning. in the holy qur’an the verse is a sign as in the following verse “we will show them evidence (signs) on our horizons and in themselves ... “(41:53). this reference is to the symbol, the second dimension that is hidden in all things, the attempt to search for signs in the external, visible and in the inner, hidden, apparently inspired the artists, who were able to m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [153] use their insight to produce calligraphic works (grabar, 1992, p. 87-88). thus, calligrams make the relationship between the living beings, their metaphysical dimension and their creator. calligrams stimulate viewers to consider both metaphysical and physical dimensions of the reality. one common example of calligrams that was found even in the mosque premises is boat of salvation (teparić, 2013, p. 300. in calligrams of boats there are usually six printable postulates of faith "amantu billahi wa mala'ikatihi wa kutubihi wa rusulihi wa al-yaum al-akhiri wa al-qadri khayrihi wa sharrihi min allah wa ta'ala" – i belive in god, and in his angels, and in his books, and in his messengers, and in the day of jugment, i believe that whatever happens, happens with god's will and determination (figure 2). it is significant to ask why the motive or symbol of boat was chosen. one possible explanation of this calligram could be linked with noah’s boat. boat as a symbol of the salvation, as noah's boat was purposefully made for those who believed in one god. therefore, the boat in calligraphy, with six-art inscription of postulates of faith, represents a rescue boat, indicating six basic postulates of faith, which, if truly followed, can bring about the salvation for those who believe. therefore, such calligrams primarily focus on the textual content but also with its visual expression they influence the observer's own belief. figure 2. caligraphic expression in the form of a boat by unknown author, buzadži mosque, sarajevo calligrams in the form of stylish writing but at the same time in the form of an image find their places in the mosque. for instance, in gazanferija mosque in banja luka, two calligrams of a boat were placed at the entrance portal to the mosque and in the smaler mihrab on the sofas (photos, husedžinović 440-441.) this kind of unification of writing and drawings of the sacred text with figurative forms and material forms is m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [154] not prevalent in other cultures and civilizations. calligrams, which are organizationally complex, also encourage speculation. they often inspire a search for the discovery of the hidden reality of the manifestations of artistic forms (figure 3). this union of drawing and writing in their linear design hides, dissolves, and dematerialize, material frame, which in turn can be interpreted and understood as a message that there is only god’s creation and that his dominion is over all creation. basmallah is one of the most often written calligrams, but as calligraphic sentence as well. in figurative form basmallah is perhaps the most commonly found in the form of birds (grabar, 1992, p. 86). dashed figural scenes are just a pale silhouettes or mold in which the lines of the letters move, twist, and writhe, stretch, and compress to suggest not only a printed message that has its clear meaning, but also another cloaked, hidden meaning and symbolism. figure 3. calligraphy expression in the form of a jug, family museum hadžimjelić, živčići the arabic letters, written in the realistic and material framework, often decode certain forms within which various meanings are hidden (grabar, 1992, p. 101). some of these motifs on calligraphic works, such as birds or lions actually represent symbols that are associated with individual personalities known for their spirituality, and within calligraphy, there is a text related to the calligrapher or his name. so calligraphically, the names of personalities are usually written in the intricate tangle of arab letters. after their death dervish orders were established and strange m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [155] mystical stories and events were associated with them. there were even such stories which narrate that great sufis sometimes appeared in the same form. during their life, such calligraphic works were not manufactured. only after their death, people out of an honor to their spirituality, righteousness and devotion printed those calligrams. one of these caligrams, which specifically enigmatically operate, is a calligraphic work of dove, within which lies an intricate writings “oh, hazrat haci bektaş“(figure 4). “the calligraphy also refers to the tradition according to which haci bektaş appeard in the shape of a dove (dejong, 1992, p. 234). they reveal themselves as one hidden secret, as an enigmatic mystery or mystical riddle that contains the answer in itself. figure 4. calligraphic expression bird (haci bektaş), by muhamed hadžimejlić (private collection) this bird is a pigeon, which with its voice; pronounce hu, hu, therefore, makes dhikr which glorifies allah, the almighty. people who have seen in the birds a certain spiritual symbolism openly harbored respect for them. they are allah's creatures, but they are nevertheless considered as one aspect, namely the depiction or symbol of angels understandable to the human mind, and accordingly they bring with them good things. symbolically, the bird is the soul that yearns to be free of material bondage, to soar to the heights of eternal residence to the ruler of birds m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [156] or as the sheikh attar. the symbolism of birds has special significance since the beginning of humankind, from adam. raven taught kabil how to bury his brother abel whom he killed. sulayman hung out with birds and spoke with them. then in the sufi texts bird as a symbol has a particular place and meaning, as pigeons that carry news. anqa mughrib a mystical bird or invisible bird is a reflection of the spiritual conditions. therefore, it is a common feature in poetry as a paradigm unobtainable, something that is between heaven and earth (aksel, 2010, p. 60). there are many other similar calligraphic representations (figure 5), in the form of drawings. all of them consist of the figurative concept, material form and, more importantly, the message. then, drawing seemingly disappears before the reader or the viewer whereby multiple images appear, which symbolize multiple versions of the single reality (khatibi, 2000, p. 214 and p. 219). although the first visible form from the prints does not reveal the mystery and symbolism which has a composition, it is in this way just indicated. here, the characters are twisted into a curved shape, and represents the forms of physicality. actually, figure essentially does not exist but only the letters in a figurative concept, which does not compromise integrity and aesthetic beauty. figure 5. wall calligraphic expression which resembles cypress, sinan tekke, sarajevo m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [157] the calligraphic letters are in the form of visual art instrumentation and figuration. lines like the image make the content for “painting in words.” letters make distinctive figurative material shape, which is just borrowed form of a spoken word, and the letters are a medium from which shape is formed. this also shows the flexibility of arabic letters to assimilate to each form, and that is what is recognizably in this material world. in addition, human beings identify themselves with the shapes of individual letters, whether in standing upright position or in the position of prayer. in this regard, letters used for such description are connected with the word “al-hamd,” which in arabic language means to be thankful to god. but in the very structure of man, on his body parts and in his skeleton there are identifiable shapes of letters, and hence the calligraphic inscriptions that look like drawings of a faces, portraits or human figures that represent the perfect man or insan–al-kamil (dejong, 1992, p. 234; teparić, 2013, p. 301), (figure 6). al-hamd is perceived through the basic movements in prayers: standing, prostration and sitting. alif first letter of the arabic alphabet is a symbol of the unity of allah, in this pronouncement al-hamd thankfulness to allah almighty, also symbolizes a person in the prayer. following is the the letter lam, connected with other letters, symbolizes the prayer at qiyam. letter ha represents rukuu. letter mim symbolizes prostration, and letter dal sitting position in the prayer (teparić, 2011, pp. 90-91). figure 6. calligraphic expression in the form of a portrait. (from malik aksel, türklerde dini resimler, istanbul, kitapı, 2010, p.92.) m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [158] such calligraphy, with figurative character possesses multiple meanings: characters have their own symbolism, the message that carries the calligraphic text, and figurative form in which the letters appear. the essential meaning of calligraphic compositions is in the common correlation of these elements. visually, the text is translated into a concept of an image. the text and image are presented as one against the other resembling the conception of a mirror (avner, 2004, p. 17). however, they do not represent two separate entities but a symbolic meaning as a whole. the image itself, presentation of figure without text, would not possess anything but a common figure illusion, while on the other hand, written text without tangible form would not be wearing anything but a literal inscription. another, completely different meaning is hidden behind these mutual correlations, one aesthetic, an enigmatic meaning that is on the higher symbolic-meaning level (schimmel, 1992, p. 247). it can be said that the whole point of this relation depends on the interdependence of words and images. most of the muslim artists were considering that this type of calligraphic expression, both visual and figurative contents, does not contradict the doctrine of their faith. therefore, they connected the religious character of the art with the creative energy, while using the holy script and symbols of artistic content (khatibi, 1996, p. 90). it seems that it was for that reason that the text of the image, which is associated with material figurative concept, emphasized the very mystique and sense of inscrutability of arabic letters in the arabic calligraphy. this approach certainly helps artists to understand that presenting characters is the human need because art is important tool for establishing the relationship between worshippers and god. hence, with this phenomenal world through which human being experience god, the calligraphic art is able to integrate a transcendent character (dejong, 1992, p.229). on the other hand, calligraphic art can be used to map the phenomenal and transcendental worlds that in mysterious ways surround man. one among many unusual shapes of calligrams that are not in the shape of ship or bird is the calligram in the shape of a hat. the question might be posed; why they are in a form of a hat? motif of a hat or taj, is a symbol of spirituality, spiritual teacher, conductor shaikh, a person who has acquired knowledge of himself and through it, god as well. taj is usually drawn with the name of hz. mevlana. in addition, very often there are in prints of household of the prophet, the ahl-i bayt, (figure 7) which is especially respected in the sufi circles, but also sentence m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [159] expressing the unity of god, la ilaha ilallah (hadzimejlic, 2011). as far as the symbol of a hat is concerned, it seems that in islam a great attention is paid to head cover, both women and men, especially at the time of prayer. taj is a very important symbol of tariqats, dervish’s ranks, (laqueur, 1992, p. 284). in general, throughout the history, the hat was an indicator of a status, profession and spiritual hierarchy. it is no coincidence that symbol of a hat had been chosen to be the hallmark of the tombstones for muslims. in tariqahs, hat represents holiness, not all were privileged to wear the taj, only those who possessed sacred knowledge, knowledge of god, are worthy of wearing it and only at religious ceremonies (atasoy, 1992, p. 266). therefore, in islam hat is not a matter of fashion. in the sufi order, there is certain difference in the tajs, which is associated with their founders, certain holders of tariqats by whom the tariqat is named. they usually wore certain symbols, characteristic for the same tariqats. figure 7. calligraphic expression in the form of a taj, bosnian calligrapher muhammad naqshibandy19. c. (mujezinović, 1991, p. 466). symbols on tajs’ are often considered as sacred codes that are not known to the wider public. taj thus, represents a link with the pir of tariqats. m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [160] therefore, it is considered that the taj, a symbol of connection with evlijas holy people, and that these symbols pass certain energy. eventually taj means striving for a "mystical" unification with the lord. therefore, little form of the taj by its shape resembles the arab letter m mim, which refers to muhammad (pbuh), (schimmel, 1970, p. 13). only those who are capable to carry his taç could establish the branches of spirituality that spring from muhammad (pbuh). according to some interpretations, the whole world, the universe, all creation is under god's hat, taj, hence it is interpreted as a liaison with mystical unity with the lord. for sufis and dervishes, out of respect and loyalty hat is kissed when placed or removed from the head. it is known that mevleije were buried with the hat, called sikke. calligraphy in the taj shapes, as the invocation of the presence or association with pirs, has been exclusively related to the tekke and turbets of their members (tanman, 1992, p. 142). references aksel, malik. 2010. türklerde dini resimler. istanbul: kitapı. atasoy, nurhan. 1992. „dervish dress and ritual.“ in raymond lifchez. (ed.) architecture, art and sufism in ottoman turkey. california: university of california press. pp. 253-268. ben-zaken avner. 2004. "the heavens of the sky and the heavens of the heart: the ottoman cultural context for the introduction of post-copernican astronomy." the british journal for the history of science. vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 1-28. bihalji-merin, oto. 1979. re-vizija umetnosti. beograd: jugoslovenska revija. burckhardt, titus. 2007. sveta umjetnost na istoku i zapadu. sarajevo: tughra. buckhardt titus. 2007. alhemija. sarajevo: lingua patria. dejong, frederic, 1992. “pictoral art of the bektashi order.” in: raymond lifchez. (ed.) the dervish lodge: architecture, art, and sufism in ottoman turkey. california: universty of california press, pp. 228-241. elwazani, salim a. „sacral qualities of form in mosque architecture.“ the american journal of islamic social scinece, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 478-495. el-faruki, ismail radži, 1989. „tevhid: princip estetike.“ islamska misao. sarajevo, no: 132, pp. 13-20. grabar, oleg. 2003. "the story of portraits of the prophet muhammad." studia islamica. no. 96. pp.19-38. m. teparic figural representation in the arabic calligraphy epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [161] grabar oleg. 1992. the meditation of ornament. new jersey: princeton university press. hadzimejlic ćazim. 2011. umjetnost islamske kaligrafije. sarajevo: sedam. hadzimejlic ćazim. 2011. katalog: estetika pera. sarajevo. khatibi, abdelkebir & sijelmassi, mohamed. 1996. the splendour of islamic calligraphy. new york: tames & hudson. king g. r. d. 1985. "islam iconoclasam, and declaration of doctrine." bulletin of the school of oriental and african studies. vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 267-277. laqueur, dans-peter. 1992. “dervish gravestones.” in raymond lifchez, (ed.) the dervish lodge: architecture, art, and sufism in ottoman turkey. california: universty of california press. pp. 284-295. mehinagic, ibrahim. 1973. “slike božjih poslanika i veoma čudne priče o njima.” takvim. pp. 27-36. mujezinović, mehmed, 1991. islamska epigrafika bosne i hercegovine. sarajevo: sarajevo publishing. nasr, seyyed hossein. 2005. islamska umjetnost i duhovnost. sarajevo: lingua patria. nasr, seyyed hossein. 2006. “religious art, traditional art, sacred art.” in the essential sophia, (ed. seyyed hossein nasr & khaterine o’brein), world wisdom, inc., pp.175-185. rado, ṣevket. (n.y.) türk hattatları. istanbul: matbaacılık ticaret limited ṣti. safadi, yasin hamid. 1978. islamic calligraphy. london: thames and hudson. schimmel, annemarie. 1992. “calligraphy and sufism in ottoman turkey." in raymond lifchez. (ed.) the dervish lodge: architecture, art, and sufism in ottoman turkey. california: university of california press, pp. 242-252. schimmel, annemarie. 1970. islamic calligraphy. leiden: brill. tanman, m. baha, 1992. “settings for the veneration of saints.” in raymond lifchez, (ed.) the dervish lodge: architecture, art, and sufism in ottoman turkey. california: universty of california press, pp.130-147. teparić, meliha. 2011. “namaz, harf i čovjek.” in: kelamu'l shifa, vii, no. 28-29. teparić, meliha. 2013. “islamic calligraphy and visions.” ikon jurnal of iconographic studies, vol. 6, pp. 297-306. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 1, 2013 issn 1840-3719 rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom amanda moris * abstract this essay examines the results of a cross-disciplinary experiment at auburn university in 2008 and illustrates how the guiding theory of rhetorical sovereignty (from native american studies) created new storyalities for students in auburn university's freshman-level core composition class. keywords: rhetorical sovereignty, composition, university writing and indigenous rhetoric * corresponding author: amanda moris; assistant professor kutztown university of pennsylvania (usa); email: amorris@kutztown.edu mailto:amorris@kutztown.edu a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [2] ‗water: a love story‘ [linda hogan] left me in awe of the author‘s rhetorical talent and personal history. . . the power in her story is the reader‘s reaction to it; vividly disturbing the psyche clarifies her message. student 1 leslie marmon silko‘s storyteller. . .was a story of her heritage, a creation story. it was a story she had heard from her older relatives, a story they wanted to be continued on in future generations. it was a perfect example of what the term rhetorical sovereignty means. student 2 my favorite reading during this semester was thomas king‘s ―‗you‘ll never believe what happened‘ is always a great way to start,‖ because king‘s humor grabbed me. it has been one of the many stories i have read this semester that has taught me about writing. student 3 introduction teaching students the basic concepts behind rhetorical sovereignty and allowing them to use this theory for their own storytelling can connect them in substantive ways to indigenous individuals‘ contemporary stories and improves their awareness about tribal peoples in general, all the while learning to look at themselves, their families, friends, and communities in new ways. this essay illustrates how the guiding principle of rhetorical sovereignty created new storyalities 1 for students in auburn university‘s freshman-level core composition class, english 1100, during the fall of 2008. framing a basic composition course around storytelling may seem common, while including a native american theoretical concept such as rhetorical sovereignty may seem unconventional. however, it is in the breaking of conventions that social, cultural, political, and educational 1 my term, story(ality) is the result of storytelling in a contact zone that creates or alters reality directly or indirectly via (some type of) language. it relies on true or real stories (rather than works of fiction or pure imagination), and depends on the intellectual and ideological tension between the storyteller and the audience. responding to these native american storytellers‘ insistence on the important role stories play in life, i offer this new term as a way of considering the intentions, goals, and results of storytelling in a contact zone where stereotypes and racist beliefs are in play as legitimate pieces on the chessboard of ideas. in other words, story(ality) is only possible during moments of tension when all are voluntarily participating in the storytelling dialectic. a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [3] progress is possible. by providing students a safe contact zone in which to examine their lives and the world around them in a way that both acknowledges students‘ interests but also teaches them how to relate their experiences to that of native americans can work to reduce racial divisions and potentially eliminate the possible perception of american indians as exotic others 2 or as the simplified stereotypes found in sports team names and on product labels. constructing collective meaning and personal identity through stories of experience are issues that native american scholars such as malea powell, angela haas, thomas king, and scott lyons continue to wrestle with in their works. in particular, scott lyons‘ idea is that rhetorical sovereignty is a people‘s control of its own meaning through language. to reiterate his definition: rhetorical sovereignty is ―the inherent right and ability of peoples to determine their own communicative needs and desires. . .to decide for themselves the goals, the modes, the styles, and languages of public discourse‖ (cccc 51.3, 449-50). indeed, this idea should not be limited to the operating theatre of native american studies. a wider application is possible. scott lyons‘ theory of rhetorical sovereignty offers students of all backgrounds the chance to view their own stories through an experience-grounded lens that originates from a cultural perspective previously unknown to many students. 3 in fact, the basic composition classroom 4 is a contact zone 2 not that all students or all americans think of native americans this way. there are many individuals who have seen and read works by and about native peoples, worked with indigenous populations, and know the laws and history. however, this goal is still a legitimate one based on my experience – enough people do seem to be a bit in the dark about native peoples‘ existence in our modern world and have skewed or incorrect impressions about their cultures that my desire to turn on the light is a valid goal. i don‘t expect my students to agree or even like what they read, hear, and experience, but i do expect them to consider these texts with an open mind. conversely, to assume that everyone is equally enlightened and knowledgeable about contemporary native peoples is equally dangerous. in our increasingly global society, more cross-cultural understanding is needed to improve communication of ideas and expectations across the physical and mental borders in minds and hearts. 3 auburn university is a large southern institution with approximately 25,000 enrolled students where i conducted my research for this article. according to the university‘s office of institutional research and assessment‘s fall 2009 new student factbook, a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [4] where students‘ perceptions of reality can be altered and changed by their interactions with native american nonfiction subject matter, thus creating a new story(ality) for these young adults. the use of rhetorical sovereignty as the guiding theory in the classroom also allows auburn university students the opportunity to perhaps learn something about themselves, how they project their own stories into the world, as well as how the world attempts to define them as youth, as southerners, and as women and men. theory to practice examining and analyzing various first nations texts for rhetorical strategies, then using those strategies to create texts provides basic composition students a new way of understanding and experiencing their world. the goal of this class was to give students a better understanding of their own lives by using the idea of rhetorical sovereignty as a framing device. by blending this abstract theoretical approach to experience with the powerful action of rhetorical sovereignty (a people‘s control of its own meaning through language), students learn practical intellectual skills such as accretive thinking, imagination, and storytelling about family, place, and experience. short assignments and major papers emphasize awareness and reflection about representations of self, family, community, and place. the theme, ―my story/our story,‖ focuses on exploring intellectual skills that arise from tribal cultures and go beyond linear, and classic logical ways of thinking. the goals of the scaffolded assignments include helping students understand oral tradition and storytelling, learn to construct and maintain a positive self-identity and develop their individual voices. also, students learn to use storytelling to develop layers of information that gradually develop collective and individual meaning. specifically, these assignments build students‘ intellectual skills, introduce them to native americans in a new way, as well as teach enrollment by race averages for 2007-2009 are 86% white or caucasian, 8% africanamerican, 2% hispanic, and .7% native american. (https://oira.auburn.edu/newstu_factbookfa09.pdf) 4 this theory worked equally well in a world literature ii survey course at auburn in 2009. https://oira.auburn.edu/newstu_factbookfa09.pdf a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [5] them new terms and open the door to new experiences as college writers and citizens of this nation. readings come solely from native american writers and increased in difficulty and controversy as the semester progressed. surprisingly, the most difficult, complex, and controversial readings were some of the students‘ favorites. in particular, anzaldua‘s poems ―el sonavabitche‖ and ―we call them greasers‖ received the most mentions in students‘ final reflective essays. however, i must reiterate the importance of scaffolding when using unfamiliar cultural texts. scaffolding is simply building one assignment into the next, like steps leading up to the top of a building. each assignment builds on the knowledge and skills acquired in the one before. comfort and familiarity grows steadily and students are rarely blindsided by unknown tasks because each new assignment contains some elements of the prior assignment. this tactic is particularly important when introducing difficult or controversial materials and perspectives. it is especially important in this context with native american texts because the experiential information embedded in these texts clashes with students‘ understanding of american experience and history in general and their personal experiences in particular. beginning with lighter fare and moving toward the more difficult and aggressive readings allows students a gently sloping path to climb throughout the semester in order to reach the pinnacle, as opposed to just dropping them on the mountaintop and expecting them to know how to traverse the slopes without prior training. issues surrounding ―american indian ways of knowing,‖ 5 including rhetorical sovereignty, are not the sole domain of native american peoples, but do offer some productive and interesting opportunities for students to examine and explore their own lives, family and community stories, and to learn how to layer information imaginatively to gradually develop meaning for an outside reader. specifically, the ―american indian ways of knowing‖ we used that semester were based on lawrence gross‘s definition in his wicazosa review article: storytelling to maintain a positive self-identity, uniting 5 this phrase comes directly from the title of lawrence gross‘s article in wicazo-sa review (20:2 2005), ―teaching american indian studies to reflect american indian ways of knowing and to interrupt cycles of genocide.‖ a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [6] the past and present to create a more positive future, and using imagination and accretive thinking (layering/building information to create meaning—not necessarily linear a+b+c structure). the purpose of english 1100 at auburn university is to develop students‘ proficiency with key elements of academic discourse, develop their ability to critically and substantially engage with texts, assessing and analyzing those texts‘ rhetorical features, and to create a focused thesis statement supported by a variety of primary sources. these goals were certainly accomplished by using storytelling and rhetorical sovereignty, but the process was neither easy nor comfortable. the southern university classroom might be one of the best-suited locations for such a test with rhetorical sovereignty because my students live with stereotypes placed on them by the rest of the nation and each other. in order to emphasize this stereotype and open a connecting pathway to the stereotypes surrounding indigenous peoples, i start the second class by asking students to get out a piece of paper and divide it into two sections. then i say, ―on the top half of the page, draw me a picture of a typical southerner.‖ that is the extent of my instruction. i do not specify gender, race, or socioeconomic status. amazingly, every time i have conducted this drawing experiment (with approximately 175 students total over two years), 95% of the drawings show a white man wearing a hat (usually a ball cap), a plaid flannel shirt and boots (sometimes cowboy boots, sometimes work boots). in addition, the props usually include a gun, a dog, a truck, and a whiskey jug. the other five percent tend to be simple line drawings of typical auburn students (nike shorts and flip-flops, or long shorts and a polo shirt), self-portraits, or scarlett o‘hara. without discussing what these visual results imply, i then ask the students to draw a picture of an indian chief on the bottom half of the page. at this point, recognition of the intended connection usually occurs to about 30% of the class and those individuals start nodding and chuckling slightly to themselves while drawing a half-naked and shoeless ―indian‖ man with feathers in his long, dark, braided hair, a bone choker around his neck, a loincloth around his waist with either a bow and arrow or spear and fire as the additional elements (sometimes these characters also get the whiskey jug). a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [7] at the sound of the chuckles, i am quick to add that there is no judgment in what they draw; the image that instinctually comes to mind is the important thing to draw and that we will discuss and analyze where that image comes from. when everyone looks around at their neighbors‘ images of the typical southerner, i ask students to raise their hands if what they see visually represents them and their experiences as southerners. usually one or two students raise their hands almost apologetically while the rest look embarrassed as they realize they relied on a stereotype that, for the most part, isn‘t true for them. the disconnect from personal experience that these students feel during the act of drawing the stereotype that comes to their minds compels the discussion into controversial territory – where do these images come from and how are they reinforced and perpetuated by the entertainment industry, media, and even family and friends? but i‘m getting ahead of myself. contact zones and resistance the idea for this theme grew out of my scholarship working with native american scholars and intellectuals in academic and nonacademic contexts, particularly when considering mary louise pratt‘s pedagogical contact zone. pedagogical contact zones inherently contain challenges, especially when using ―unsolicited oppositional discourse‖ in a composition classroom with traditional rhetorical objectives (professing in the contact zone 15). not only that, just as pratt experienced, my theme put ―ideas and identities on the line,‖ which meant anticipating ―rage, incomprehension, and pain‖ as well as ―exhilarating moments of wonder and revelation, mutual understanding, and new wisdom‖ – the challenges and joys of the contact zone (professing 16-17). pratt lists storytelling, identifying with the attitudes and ideas of others, experiments in transculturation, the redemption of the oral, engaging with suppressed aspects of history (including students‘ own personal histories), and ground rules for communication across lines of difference as essential elements of cultural mediation (professing 16). a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [8] the positioning of my classroom as a mediational space that will contain controversial ideas is intended to both warn and comfort students, particularly freshmen, that in college one grapples with difficult ideas and must learn to navigate, negotiate, and articulate opinions and thoughts in new and respectful ways. on one hand, this course philosophy intimidates students because being in college is an overwhelming new experience and few have been directly challenged in precisely this way by a teacher. on the other hand, most of my students usually begin to embrace this liberating and safe environment and learn to express even the most difficult and controversial of thoughts in ways that receive respectful consideration from me and their classmates. this is one of the greatest joys of teaching in a contact zone with challenging material. but the precedent must be set on the first day in written and verbal forms and does not guarantee harmony or easy passage. two reviews of professing in the contact zone: bringing theory and practice together (2002), edited by janice wolff, offer competing impressions of this collection of essays that tackle the implications of pratt‘s ideas in actual classroom situations. for instance, gary kochharlindgren suggests in his effusive reaction, ―writing, as an opening of the space of shared understanding, carries with it a utopian hope for the future of the (perhaps) larger space of society itself. writing creates the possibility of justice‖ (pedagogy 5:1 2005, 153) conversely, bill milligan calls the collection a ―broad but provocative overview of the practice, theory, and approaches associated with mary louise pratt‘s metaphor,‖ but concludes that ―contact zone theory creates a dangerous environment for the teacher unskilled in its subtleties and nuances‖ (pedagogy 5:1 2005, 150). one of the collection‘s scholars, richard miller, provides ample warning about using controversial topics in a composition classroom contact zone. in ―fault lines in the contact zone,‖ an essay that first appeared in college english in 1994 and then in the collection professing in the contact zone (2002), miller addresses the issue of practical action in the classroom when ―unsolicited oppositional discourse‖ is introduced, students react in unpleasant ways, and then the teacher must negotiate a response. what miller characterizes is not safe, pleasant, or comfortable. generally, he examines ―the heuristic value of a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [9] the notion of the contact zone when applied not only to student writing, but also to our own academic discussions of that writing‖ (professing 123). specifically, he begins with a student essay titled ―queers, bums, and magic‖ 6 that was first publicly introduced at a 1991 modern language association workshop and that quickly spun off conference panels at future mla and college composition and communication conferences that responded to it. introducing this student work in his own essay the same way it was fragmented and discussed at these national conferences allows miller the added opportunity of addressing the problem of contextual absence or making judgments based on partial or contradictory information. relevant to my situation was the bold resistance evident in this student writing, the potential professorial responses to it, and the idea that the homophobia and violence articulated by the student writer are ―cultural commonplaces‖ (miller, professing 131). arguably, the frequent absence of native peoples from our modern american public conversation is also a cultural commonplace that leads to the kind of collective ignorance on display in my students‘ drawings of an indian chief. again, this is not a negative judgment, merely reality showcasing the lack of knowledge that perpetuates ignorance. in my experience, after introducing students to contemporary native american perspectives, most walk away with new knowledge and a very different idea about ongoing native presence in this land. essentially, my approach can create a new story(ality) for students once their preconceived notions about native absence is challenged and complicated with new information. therefore, the large-scale ubiquitous lack of knowledge can be corrected 6 according to miller, ―queers, bums, and magic‖ was ―written in a pre-college-level community college composition class taught by scott lankford at foothill college in los altos hills, ca, in response to an assignment taken from the bedford guide for college writers that asked students to write a report on group behavior. one of lankford‘s students responded with an essay detailing a drunken trip he and some friends made to ‗san fagcisco‘ to study ‗the lowest class. . .the queers and the bums‘‖ (professing 124). in addition to asking a man they find on polk street if he is ‗a fag‘, the students portrayed in the narrative then drunkenly urinate on a homeless person, whom they proceed to kick for 30 seconds before running away to their car to leave the city. ―it‘s a haunting piece,‖ miller writers, ―one that gave lankford many sleepless nights and one that has traveled from conference to conference because it is so unsettling‖ (professing 125). a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [10] one class at a time by teachers at all levels if the nonfiction stories by native american writers are introduced and analyzed frequently and consistently. who am i? from the first day of class, my students worked with idea of rhetorical sovereignty without using the term or reading an excerpt of scott lyons‘ essay until several weeks into the semester. it was the idea that i wanted them to slowly engage with and very often when we, as teachers, label and define good ideas with unfamiliar terms, students tune out, become bored or disinterested, or lack enthusiasm because the terms overwhelm and confuse. as a result, i‘m a big fan of getting students to work with an idea without labeling or defining it first. my statement on the first page of the syllabus that ―the framework for considering storytelling in a critical way‖ would be ―rhetorical sovereignty, a term from the field of native american rhetoric meaning ‗a people‘s control of its own meaning‘‖ was all my students needed that first day. it was enough for them to know that a new term would be introduced at some point. this tactic allowed me room to dive into the real work from day one – how does one define oneself or one‘s group and control that meaning? my intention in these classes was to adapt scott lyons‘ theory of rhetorical sovereignty to be useful and relevant to basic composition students as they learn to write about themselves, their families, communities and experiences in richer and more concrete ways. specifically, this theory is useful in helping students to see and understand the interconnectivity and interdependence of their individual identities with the identities of these various groups in which they participate. rhetorical sovereignty sets up the idea of selfand groupidentification, but it is important to note that rhetorical sovereignty means something different to native peoples than what it means to a non-native group of university students in a writing class. it could never mean the same thing to these two very different groups because their material realities and histories are so different. however, this theory has value because it can be usefully adapted to help students review and write a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [11] about their experiences in new and more productive ways, thus increasing their awareness of how their experiences and identities are inextricably linked as they move from self to family to community and back again. a series of three short assignments introduced students to this idea by first asking them to tell their own stories, witness what another student (a complete stranger that early in the semester) would do with their story, then reflect on the experience of having someone take, interpret, and re-tell their stories in words that were not the original storyteller‘s own. during class discussion, most students reported being pleased by the stories their peers told because all of the information they had shared with each other was safe and surface. some students shared fears and memories with a bit of depth and accompanying stories. however, most remained on common ground with details such as where they grew up, what majors they were considering, what their families were like, and names of pets and siblings. this public response to the first short assignment reflected students‘ desire to remain in unchallenged territory, not wanting to become vulnerable by exposing too many of their personal details to unknown peers. this was to be expected for freshman in their first week of college; in fact, i would surmise that this response would occur even if the students were juniors and seniors. on the first day of class, everyone is sizing up the situation and usually acts with restraint and decorum. however, their written reflections on the process of being represented by someone else‘s words complicated their in-class shared reactions. many students indicated that although they were satisfied with how their peers represented their stories, they acknowledged that those were not the stories they would tell about themselves. in the meantime, this assignment established concise and creative storytelling as a primary component for the semester, as well as the expectation that all students would be expected to talk in class, reflect on their own writing, and think beyond the surface details. the second short assignment leaps into more typical territory, asking students to read two essays that ―grapple with identity, perception, and representation issues‖ written by native american authors. far from being secretive about the purpose of this assignment, i chose to be as clear as possible: ―the goal is to ease you slowly into the ability to see a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [12] through someone else‘s lens of experience and be able to not just react emotionally, but also be able to analyze your own reactions to unknown issues and ideas and relate on some level (empathy).‖ being direct, upfront and honest with students has always garnered fairly positive outcomes in my experience, so i knew that this approach must be used in this situation where increasingly contentious writings would be introduced. this time, instead of telling a story of someone else‘s experience, students read about two native authors‘ experiences and analyzed them using my prompt questions. in the first part, key questions included what the author chooses to share and which information seems to be privileged, as well as what differences exist between the author‘s experience and the student‘s. the issue of whether an individual has a right to identify himself or herself in a particular way was also an important question that continued to arise – who has the right to tell someone‘s story and to define that person? what seems like a simple answer (each individual has the right to define themselves in whatever terms and with whatever stories they choose) was thoroughly complicated throughout the semester. one frequent question involved the idea of community and what the individual‘s responsibility to that community might be, and what happens when the individual and community definitions are different? also, whose community has precedence? which individuals get to decide on the stories that will represent the whole group? for being the second week of class, the theme was working well. then students brought their responses to gansworth and francis back to class and their reactions prompted me to introduce rhetorical sovereignty in a more concrete fashion. in ―identification pleas,‖ eric gansworth (onondaga) writes about his ―identity crisis‖ trying to walk across the border from mexico back into the united states after leaving his driver‘s license on the texas side in his friend‘s truck. 7 the story he tells runs the gamut from the arrogant assumptions of the border guard and the politics of hair in the ―indian academic community‖ to the problem he faced when neither his 7 this essay appears in genocide of the mind: new native american writing edited by marijo moore (2003). the lee francis essay for this assignment, ―we the people: young american indians reclaiming their identity,‖ also appears in this collection. a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [13] tribal identification card nor his university id were adequate to prove that he belonged in the united states. gansworth writes about being considered ―ethnically ambiguous in appearance,‖ which has caused much confusion in others: ―over the years the odd looks, vague frowns, and unasked questions have become the routine. it has been kind of interesting, existing as a walking, breathing rorschach text for others‘ perceptions and stereotype templates. i have been mistaken for italian, armenian, middle eastern, hawaiian, russian, polish, german, portuguese, and jewish, but i am often wrongly assumed to be latino‖ (273). this rather bewildering assortment of misidentifications is actually mirrored by many of the native american stand-up comics. one in particular, larry omaha, talks in his ―goin‘ native american indian comedy slam‖ 8 set about his father exclaiming at his birth, ―my god, we had a korean!‖ making these connections across the borders of academe and comedy for my students as they struggled with the idea that anyone could be mistaken for so many different ethnicities was both challenging and rewarding, despite the frequent defensive flare-ups in class. i chose the gansworth essay because of the ambiguity shrouding the writer‘s identity within the context of his story – gansworth is clearly annoyed, but handles the story calmly, assertively, and with humor, which i believed made it accessible for newcomers to native issues. students did not react defensively to this text, merely with curiosity and a slight hesitancy as their lack of knowledge and understanding about modern native peoples became apparent. constant encouragement seemed useful for students to embrace the exploration of these new issues as they learned to write and reflect about new ideas. the francis piece garnered quite a different response. first of all, lee francis (laguna pueblo) refers to indigenous populations as ―the people,‖ with the ―p‖ capitalized. my students noticed this right away and wanted to talk about why he would do such a thing. they were used to proper names and nouns being capitalized, so this privileging of native peoples in writing disturbed many of them and put them on guard. the power and politics of language and its use is unavoidable, perhaps especially in the contact zone of a composition classroom when 8 showtime special (2010) a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [14] discussing contemporary native writers‘ nonfiction narratives. and his very first paragraph helped to reinforce the point of my theme: for the people, whether urbanor reservation-born, it‘s really about story. the ancients among the people understood that all of creation— seen and unseen—tells story. in the long-ago time, from birth to earth, the people learned about their harmonious place in the order of all creation by listening to and telling story. their identity was inextricably interwoven in the stories they were told. for native people, story was and continues to be essential to an individual‘s identity construction and development. (77) francis connects identity to story for native peoples, especially american indian youth, in such a direct, persuasive and eloquent way, that i hoped this essay would initiate students‘ understanding of that connection. their resistance to the privileging of native peoples over non-native by the not-so-subtle use of the capital ―p‖ four times in the first paragraph was something i had not anticipated or foreseen because of my familiarity with seeing such usage in the native-written texts that i study. the rhetorical move by francis to establish a sort of prevalence of perception or dominance of native presence over euramerican presence was much stronger than i had originally considered. voices were raised the day we discussed these essays and the students concentrated primarily on francis‘s essay as offensive and divisive, whereas gansworth‘s garnered sympathy and chuckles. other terms francis uses such as ―massacre,‖ ―disease,‖ ―harmony,‖ ―balance,‖ ―smallpox,‖ ―rape,‖ ―murder,‖ ―abducted,‖ ―indoctrinate,‖ ―brainwash,‖ ―selfishness,‖ ―isolation,‖ and ―tragedies‖ captured my students‘ attention and brought language use squarely to the forefront of our conversations. this was not my intention in my zeal to open my students‘ minds to others‘ experiences. ironically, my students‘ attentiveness to the impact of language mirrors scott lyons‘ attentiveness to the ―duplicitous interrelationships between writing, violence, and colonization developed during the nineteenth century. . .[that] would set into motion a persistent distrust of the written word in english‖ (ccc 51:3 449). a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [15] granted, my students were not picking up on the same implications that lyons discusses, but the fact that francis wrote in english and used terms that call violence to mind, thus drawing the reader‘s attention to that connection, and the fact that students found those written words disconcerting gave me another pathway to helping them understand lyons‘ theory. clearly, my choices had been more challenging and complex than i had anticipated, so i found myself having multilayered inclass conversations discussing such writing issues as the importance and impact of word choice on the reader, the author‘s perception of reality versus the reader‘s perception, the impact that the first paragraph of an essay can make, and why indians were still so angry because this was all in the past after all, right? sadly, as a result of these surface detail conflicts, we never discussed in-depth the more interesting (to me) story/identity connection that francis makes in relation to indian youth of today and his argument, ―it is in the stories, old and new, where urban native youth will be able to reclaim their native identity‖ (79). it was an eye-opening lesson for me to be less cavalier about the opening texts i choose and also prompted me to introduce scott lyons and an excerpt from his essay defining rhetorical sovereignty. to say that students struggled with lyons‘ essay would be an understatement, primarily because their active resistance to the subject matter had flared up thanks to the francis essay and they were wary. i worked for days to break down their resistance by explaining rhetorical sovereignty as many different ways and using as many different examples as possible to make it clear. what became clear, however, was that many students refused to accept the new information; active resistance to education. respectfully breaking down students‘ resistance is essential to helping them learn how to empower themselves to learn about their own stories of experience. this idea of self-empowerment in the composition classroom through using personal experience and the recognition of the individual and communal self is an ongoing conversation in composition studies. in fact, john rouse and edward katz write about these intersections of power and self in the writing a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [16] classroom in unexpected voices: theory, practice, and identity in the writing classroom (2003). 9 in chapter three, ―everyone‘s secret is the same,‖ rouse and katz debate via their letters about the virtues and difficulties inherent in having students talk and write about their personal experiences as they read unfamiliar texts that both challenge and reinforce certain cultural values, how to respond when students reveal extremely personal details and the challenges of negotiating student in-class interactions when two individuals ―actively preach their conflicting views of life at each other‖ because ―they‘re not making it any easier to build the loving classroom‖ (53). katz is the writer of this last quote and he was writing at a time when his south african school, university of the western cape, was experiencing a fairly violent ongoing student boycott of classes in protest of the university withholding food credits from students who hadn‘t paid their fees. this material reality heightened the tension and conflict in his classroom as students discussed and explored their experiences in conversation and in writing, but also represented a fundamental truth that katz puts forward for rouse‘s consideration. he writes, ―in a sense, all reality is part of the human spirit. what do you think of that?‖ (55) rouse responds by addressing the questions raised by katz, requesting an update from that ―unquiet place,‖ and by reporting on the ―rather ordinary, undramatic events‖ in his life and classroom (55). in particular, rouse suggests that katz ―think of the classroom as a field of action where you create a situation in which all those present are involved in the making of new experience, and so are exposed along the way to the possibility of embarrassment or failure. there‘s a risk involved, and why 9 this book considers how teaching is a performance and how schooling worldwide ―directs people to their individual improvement rather than that of the group,‖ as well as broader issues in composition studies such as academic literacy, expressive and cognitive approaches to the teaching of writing (x). the method is an exchange of letters through which a scholarly conversation occurs across vast physical distance as the authors share their classroom experiences with each other, ask questions, and respond to each other. the two writers hail from very different backgrounds: south african and american, and their personal teaching experiences and interactions with students in the composition classroom are used as examples to ground their claims. essentially, rouse and katz propose that value of narrative pedagogy ―as students find a direction or activity suggested by their own concerns and ongoing lives, so that afterward they have a story to tell of their experience together‖ (ix). a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [17] should anyone there be exempt or privileged?‖ (56) the ideas that these two professors are discussing relate to my use of rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom in the following ways: 1) helping students find their voices and learn how to productively express their experiences is a difficult and dangerous undertaking with only the potential for a positive result, and 2) this undertaking is worth the risk inherent in the process as students and teachers converse and conflict, but don‘t run from the challenge of addressing difficult subjects in the composition classroom. simultaneously with my students‘ expression of their own personal experiences, they were introduced to additional texts from an unfamiliar perspective, which challenged them and threw the stark light of self-reflection on those personal experiences. specifically, some students were responding to the introduction of ―unsolicited oppositional discourse‖ in the context of a classroom contact zone, judging the information to be irrelevant, and deciding to resist understanding. in hindsight, i attribute this to not only my selection of the francis essay, but also to my introducing it too early. had i chosen an essay by thomas king or n. scott momaday or leslie silko 10 to companion with the gansworth piece instead, i truly believe our discussion of rhetorical sovereignty, its origins, its purpose, and its necessity would not have been as uncomfortable for any of us. to create a new story(ality), the participants must voluntarily enter the storytelling dialectic with the author and my facilitation of this objective was hindered by the fact that students were in a core class and not there by choice, and also by my selection and assignment of the francis text without warning my students what they should anticipate finding there. it is important to note that most basic composition classes are core requirements of a university education, therefore, this classroom is uniquely situated as a contact zone because of this power differential – students generally do not choose to be there; the university requires them to be there, setting the students immediately at odds with the teacher before any discussion or writing is accomplished. professing in the 10 these writers were introduced after short assignment #2, but before our discussion of lyons‘ article and theory. a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [18] contact zone, the collection that i have cited frequently throughout this essay, is one of many excellent scholarly texts that presents varying perspectives and scholarly practices within the contact zone of the basic composition classroom. 11 i argue that story(ality) can be achieved even within this type of contact zone where students are not there voluntarily because the grappling and clashing of ideas that occurs in the composition classroom set the stage for students to learn and understand a new sense of reality as it relates to themselves, their families, and their communities. by asking students to make connections between rhetorical sovereignty and owning their own meaning within their lives and experiences, i encourage them to learn about themselves through a theoretical lens that is grounded in experience. thus, i discovered my greatest diffusion tool – anytime the conversation started getting a little too political or heated for the rest of the semester, i would guide the conversation (sometimes abruptly) back to the students‘ own lived experiences. in addition to circling around the idea of rhetorical sovereignty, i also spent several class days working on basic storytelling strategies and tactics. not only did students watch and respond to an ira glass youtube video 12 in which he explains the two key components to storytelling (anecdote and a point of reflection), they also considered the similarities and differences of the indigenous authors they had encountered so far to their own experiences. by september 16, 2008, the day we discussed scott lyons and his article on rhetorical sovereignty, students had read and responded to selections by eric gansworth (onondaga), lee francis (laguna pueblo), thomas king (cherokee/greek), and leslie marmon silko (laguna pueblo). this is how we entered the first two major projects of the semester. 11 see works by patricia bizzell, min zhan lu, gloria anzaldua, bell hooks, peter elbow, fan shen, keith gilyard, mike rose, and victor villanueva, to name a few. 12 ira glass produces ―this american life,‖ a weekly public radio show focused on ―mostly true stories of everyday people, though not always‖ for pbs (thisamericanlife.org). glass‘s storytelling lecture was extremely useful for my students because he is such a friendly and honest journalistic storyteller: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7kq4vkinuk) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7kq4vkinuk a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [19] the major projects are scaffolded to change students‘ perspectives and perceptions slowly over the course of the semester by introducing a new layer of information with each assignment. project one asks students to examine themselves through others‘ eyes, which achieves the objective of maintaining a positive self-identity through story; project two asks students to immerse themselves in their families‘ stories and histories by interviewing their oldest lucid relative, which achieves the objective of understanding the oral tradition and stories of their own families; project three asks students to enlarge their view to consider one of their nonfamily communities and their role in it, which achieves the objective of learning collective meaning as a member of a group; and finally, project four takes all of the analysis done on self, family, and community and asks students to apply what they‘ve learned to analyzing a gloria anzaldúa reading and then analyzing their own analyses to help students see how differently they read and assess texts when they are required to look more than once. this last project brings all of the ―american indian ways of knowing‖ together with rhetorical sovereignty as the underlying theory in order to create a new story(ality) for students about themselves and about native peoples. at the end of the semester, more students walked away as allies of native american peoples because of the changes in perception they experienced. for instance, project one asks students to ―enter a dialogue with others and then re-envision that dialogue in writing.‖ the most challenging element was not the three interviews students conducted, but obtaining the criticism about themselves from their families and friends, as directed by the assignment. many students chafed at the idea and some of the individuals they chose to interview also resisted, not wanting to criticize the student in such a public forum as an english assignment. however, receiving honest criticism gave the students something substantive to write back against, giving them a tiny bit of experience with that sort of intellectual tug-of-war that is so familiar to those of us in the academy, and especially to native american writers who constantly write back against how non-natives perceive them. lyons writes, ―discourses of resistance and renewal have never ceased in indian country, and these marginalized narratives of the continuing struggle for a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [20] indian sovereignty are making themselves more and more visible in public representations and talk. it‘s worthwhile to note how to much of this struggle. . .has taken place at what we might call the colonized scene of writing: a site of contact-zone rhetoric at its fullest‖ (cccc 51.3, 453). in order to fully grasp what rhetorical sovereignty means to native scholars, students who are completely unfamiliar with contemporary and historical native american issues must be gently lowered into the maelstrom. if i was to drop them unprepared into gloria anzuldúa or vine deloria, jr., students would likely be unresponsive and shut down faster because these two writers are bold, confrontational, and directly challenging to a knowledgeable reader. my tactic of making these experiential and writing comparisons are meant to integrate new knowledge and perspectives with students‘ existing knowledge in an effort to grow and improve the baseline. in this way, anzuldúa and deloria are not nearly as intimidating or discomfiting. in addition to writing back against criticism, students also flexed their latent creative storytelling skills during project one. the finished forms of the dialogues included a play, a dr. phil script, a jerry springer show, a ―jiminy cricket‖ subconscious narration, a family facebook message exchange, and an episode of the crocodile hunter, just to name a few of the imaginative approaches taken. although some might assume that with all of these creative juices flowing, the main critical assignment objective would become lost, the opposite was true. because students had a bit more creative license, they also took their thoughts and analysis further than they would have in a traditional academic essay. for example, student 4 wrote in the reflective portion of project one: i was sitting alone at the library at auburn when i realized that i‘m almost an adult. i‘m to the point where i am going to have to make all my decisions about my life on my own. i thought this point was either going to feel triumphant or terrifying; but it is regrettably neither. all it means is that i am alone, for the first time in my life i have no one who truly knows everything about me here. and now i can be who i want to be. but, who exactly do i want to be? i want to be happy and successful. i want to be the person my grandmother was. i am not sure how to be more like her; but i‘m going to figure it out if it‘s the last thing i do. a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [21] self-identity was the primary issue in project one and students like this one came away with surprising discoveries that helped further self-awareness. some, like student 5, had a very introspective and poetic response to this assignment: i am not the best at anything, although i wish i could be. i am a people pleaser that cannot make decisions. the simple beauties of the earth are how i remember who i want to become. and most importantly, i love to love. ―this is me,‖ i tell nature. she always accepts me for the person i am. without questions, she chooses to look past my many faults. i look up to the sky and give a slight smile. i see my identity is painted with the clouds. conversely, student 1 experienced a particularly brutal awakening that he wrote about in his reflection: this assignment presented a rare opportunity to ask people close to us important questions that might otherwise go unasked and forever unknown. for example i had always thought i was a fairly diplomatic person when in fact i was the opposite. i thought just because i can argue well and speak somewhat elegantly that meant i was diplomatic, when in reality i was abrasive, aggressive and rash in attempting to get people to see it my way. but through my talks with my [family] i came to realize that was a real weak spot in the way i deal with people. it‘s a two sided sword because i judge people‘s intentions quickly and can usually tell what they are trying to say or get done. but my impatience leads me to not seek the subtle diplomatic way of persuasion but the overt and offensive means; which ends up worse than if i had just kept my mouth shut. i‘m really glad to have gained this perspective on my identity and how i deal with people, and can now start becoming a better, less offensive, colleague, friend, or opponent. as students‘ self-awareness grew, their eyes started opening and seeing others around them in new ways. the way the students achieved this expanded understanding was by interacting with rhetorical a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [22] sovereignty as a guiding principle and by considering the first-person stories of experience from the native american perspective. seeing their own experiences through this uniquely native american lens helped students see the intricate interconnectedness of their own lives in a clearer and more complicated way. further, students‘ willingness to speak up and write about the difficulties they experienced in tackling these major projects suggests that freshmen can be trusted with controversial and challenging ideas. raise the bar as a teacher and students will follow, especially as they see results like the ones above. project 4 on november 11, 2008, we entered the final phase of the semester during which students grappled with chapters and poems from the third edition of gloria anzaldúa‘s book borderlands/la frontera: the new mestiza. beginning with the preface to the first edition, students then proceeded through ―we call them greasers,‖ chapter two, ―el sonavabitche,‖ ―to live in the borderlands,‖ and chapter seven. the three poems were read in class and immediately discussed, whereas the chapters were assigned as homework and then discussed in the next class meeting. project four asked students to take their analytic abilities with self, family, and community combined with the idea of rhetorical sovereignty to critically analyze one of these selections in a formal academic essay. the second part of the assignment was to analyze students‘ own analysis in the project four part one essay in order to find out why they chose certain elements to focus on, why they reacted the way they described, and to figure out if, upon a second reading of the chosen text, they had a different response. this multilayered assignment with concrete and abstract intellectual goals intimidated students, but they asked questions and received help from me. the results were so rich that i continue to use this reflective process approach in my new position at kutztown university in pennsylvania. as student 12 learned after reflecting on anzaldúa‘s stories of experience, i understand that there is a world of difference between the american culture and anzaldua‘s culture, but the beautiful thing about being a part of a community or culture is the accepting nature of all those a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [23] around you. every community is comprised of so many people who share many of the same ideas, but every community is like a puzzle. all of the pieces of a puzzle work together to make a beautiful picture, but every piece is so different. a community, whether they realize it or not, is more different behind closed doors. if your own community is not accepting of you, then who will be? discoveries like this transcend the composition classroom and change how students think about themselves, their families, their communities, as well as communities and individuals with very different life experiences. improving cross-cultural understanding while teaching basic writing skill sets and helping students see and understand their own experiences as less simplistic and more complicated than they had previously considered them to be has value because education is not a one-sided or one-storied experience and it is important to introduce students to as many different perspectives as possible in college so they are not blindsided by those different perspectives after they graduate. essentially, when students understand that both/and is the driving idea instead of either/or, they start to appreciate the complexity and depth of their shared experiences with authors who initially seem so culturally different. however, not all discoveries are positive and student responses are not always what we wish them to be. student 9 admired anzaldúa‘s precise logic and deep emotional appeals to her readers in chapter two, but his reflection reveals the depth of his personal judgment: anzaldua was one of the biggest man haters and she was a little crazy and irrational at times. i think i came to the conclusion of this because i realized a lot of the stuff that she was doing was just complaining about how things are not perfect for her and how everyone has it better, she never sat back and really looked at what good there was in her life. as imperfect as the writing may be, this student‘s response is legitimate. first, not every student who goes through a composition course under these circumstances is going to leave the experience with an entirely different attitude or perception of reality related to self or others. all i expect my students to do is consider the subject matter, consider the a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [24] perspectives, and attempt to honestly respond to them. responses like this one may not validate what some might consider to be an ―enlightened‖ perspective, but it is honest. students who fully completed the tasks as assigned wrote complex, but equally honest and complicated, responses. however, that is one of the greatest challenges for any teacher – how to get the students to fully engage with an assignment? one added obstacle in this case was subject matter that many students deemed irrelevant to their lives. we had conversations in many class periods about how and why this subject matter was relevant to their lives – from their lack of knowledge of an entire group of people still existing in this land to the fact that they can relate to the stories about family and community told by these authors who at first seem so different – in the end, the students did learn and many did understand that many of the stories they read connected to them personally on some level, but it was a struggle all semester long to help them understand why knowing about native american contemporary experiences are relevant to them. these stories were not initially familiar or comfortable for students to read and hear – the stories took students way outside their comfort zones, which should always a goal in the classroom because it assists students‘ selfempowerment. pedagogically, my teaching style borrows many tactics from critical pedagogy, which owes its theoretical underpinnings to paulo freire, whose radical ideas in pedagogy of the oppressed (1970) started the critical pedagogy movement. freire argued that there is no such thing as a neutral education process and freire‘s conviction that every human being, no matter how ―ignorant‖ or submerged in the ―culture of silence‖ he may be, is capable of looking critically at his world in a dialogical encounter with others…[he or she] just needs the right tools. (12-13) in 1992, ira shor develops and explores critical pedagogy in practical classroom situations in empowering education: critical teaching for social change, in which he explores education as a political system, the different types of themes that lead to critical thought, and resistance and empowerment in the classroom. he argues that ―students need a challenging education of high quality that empowers them as thinkers, communicators, and citizens‖ (10). further, the ―teacher is the person a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [25] who mediates the relationship between outside authorities, formal knowledge, and individual students in the classroom. through day-to-day lessons, teaching links the students‘ development to the values, powers, and debates in society‖ (13). and the methods for introducing these debates and materials are only three, according to shor: ―teachers can present knowledge in several ways, as a celebration of the existing society, as a falsely neutral avoidance of problems rooted in the system, or as a critical inquiry into power and knowledge as they relate to student experience‖ (14). critical pedagogy, therefore, informs my teaching style and textual choices when designing a composition class with such a perspective as rhetorical sovereignty, storytelling, and ―american indian ways of knowing,‖ especially when those selected texts show experiences that are so vastly different from students‘ own knowledge and understanding of the world. final perceptions, lessons learned, and implications each assignment during fall 2008 was an unconventional anecdote with a point of reflection as students learned the foreign concepts of rhetorical sovereignty, ―american indian ways of knowing,‖ grappling with identity on four levels: self, family, familiar community, and unfamiliar community. looking in and looking out, acting, speaking, writing and reflecting, students layered new knowledge atop old, changed their perceptions and perspectives, and came away from the semester with a more vibrant attitude about writing and the potential of stories to abolish misconceptions and stereotypes, as well as experiencing a new story(ality) about native peoples in this land. their perception of reality changed because they responded to the challenging and controversial content that i required them to explore. they had no escape and no safety net and yet responded to the challenge day after day. the overall success of this approach to basic composition suggests that it should be employed more often and in more composition classrooms. despite the difficulties i encountered with this subject matter and underlying theoretical approach, mary louise pratt reminds us that contact zones are ―social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [26] power.‖ furthermore, min zhan lu suggests that conflict and struggle are not necessarily the enemy of basic writing (college english 1992), but rather, education is a process of repositioning. and i saw this repositioning in my students as they grappled and clashed with ideas and cultures that were so completely foreign to their experiences. consider some of their written remarks about what they learned as a result of this composition contact zone: student 2: this class has helped me discover a side of me that i did not know of and has opened me up more as a person. stories are what make up our lives. they are what help shape us into who we are now. they are how others learn about us and our identity. it is how i learned so much about my grandmother and gloria anzuldúa. stories, i have learned, are the things that have given me my identity. student 8: this course forced me to look deeper than i had ever bothered to look before at my family, my community, and myself. by looking closer, i found out things that i had not known before. my view on native americans also changed. even though i am part native american (cherokee, represent!), the most i had learned about my roots was in indian education, which was more like native american arts and crafts time than an educational class. i knew of the harsh ways native americans were treated and i knew some of their stories, but the readings showed me native americans from a native american point of view, instead of the americanized versions of them. my perception changed because i had never really had my own perception of these things. student 6: i have learned about the art of telling stories. i have come to see that rhetorical sovereignty is what makes a person‘s story unique and individually theirs. it is the act of making a conscious decision about what they are going to say and the tone in which they are going to say it. i have learned that someday, i will be remembered by my grandchildren. i want to give them something important to remember. student 1: i am in awe of the way you laid out this class. it feels like i was just annihilated by a surgical chess-master. saying under her breath ―check-mate‖ then nonchalantly walked away. the check mate was the epiphany i reached when writing this paper. it became clear to me, a panoramic image flashed through my head where the short a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [27] assignments, storytelling with items, rhetorical sovereignty, the three projects focused on identity in different roles, and the expectation to go beyond one‘s natural ability to think and rhetorically analyze a ¾ english social theory, and finally a meta-cognitive exercise that analyzed our own analysis (which itself pushed me further than i had ever gone) until here. although i did terribly in terms of grades, i did really learn a lot and grew as a reader, writer, and thinker because you were critical of me, that‘s the only way we grow so thank you so much and here we are and as usual…. way over the word limit. conclusion in final summation, as my students discovered, intersections of experience cross cultural, social, economic, and political divides and can be bridged within the context of a basic composition classroom contact zone, as long as the students and teacher become willing participants in the pursuit of this goal. students started off as unwilling and resistant participants because the auburn university composition course is mandatory, thus stripping students of a choice. however, as the course progressed and the ideas of rhetorical sovereignty, the practice of firstperson nonfiction storytelling about lived experiences, and new knowledge about native american perspectives converged, students came away with a new respect for themselves, their families and communities, and the fundamental importance of knowing how to define themselves in each of these groups. ultimately, this can be an achievable goal in any writing classroom whether students are there by institutional requirement or by choice: story(ality) thrives when students begin to understand, share, narrate, and write the truths available to them as they consider, test, and use alternative perspectives and unfamiliar stories. a. moris rhetorical sovereignty in the composition classroom epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 1, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [28] references anzaldua, gloria. (2007). borderlands/la frontera: the new mestiza. 3 rd ed. san francisco, ca: aunt lute books. freire, paulo. (1970). pedagogy of the oppressed. trans. myra bergman ramos. new york, ny: herder and herder. glass, ira. (2009). ―ira glass on storytelling #1.‖ youtube.com. kentj1. 13 aug 2006. gross, lawrence. (2005). ―teaching american indian studies to reflect american indian ways of knowing and to interrupt cycles of genocide.‖ wicazo sa review 20, (2): 125-45. king, thomas. (2003). the truth about stories: a native narrative. minneapolis, mn: university of minnesota press. lu, min-zhan.(1992). ―conflict and struggle: the enemies or preconditions of basic writing?‖ college english 54, (8): 887910. lyons, scott. (2010). x-marks: native signatures of assent. minneapolis, mn. idem. (2000). ―rhetorical sovereignty: what do american indians want from writing?‖ college composition and communication 51, (3): 447-468. moore, marijo, ed. (2003). genocide of the mind: new native american writing. new york: thunder‘s mouth press. pratt, mary louise. (1991). ―arts of the contact zone.‖ profession 91: 33-40. rouse, john and edward katz. (2003). unexpected voices: theory, practice, and identity in the writing classroom. cresskill, nj: press. shor, ira. (1992). empowering education: critical teaching for social change. chicago, il: university of chicago press. student writings. engl 1100: basic composition. auburn university, 2008. wolffe, janice m., ed. (2002). professing in the contact zone: bringing theory and practice together. urbana, il: national council of teachers of english. lejla panjeta.pdf � � � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 the changing soaps and telenovela genre: turkish series impact lejla panjeta ∗∗∗∗ abstract the focus of this work is to establish the inherent features of the genre of series and discuss their importance and impact on society, politics and everyday life. we usually tend to address everything related to tv and sequel featured as series and soaps. this common presumption is wrong on so many levels, because the genre of sequels has many subgenres and mixed genres and they are constantly changing in the light of the new technologies of filmmaking, tv broadcast and demands of the market. the societies in transition are subjected to various media contents among which the greatest popularity is bestowed to the melodramatic narrative of telenovelas. the promotion of cultures and deconstruction of cultural stereotypes inherent to the mass audience is one of the values of this media content. how much does the genre of telenovelas differ in the context of cultural nuances and what is the genesis of the human urgency in retelling the melodramatic and tragic narratives? is this genre based on turkish production now trespassing into the territory of ancient tragedy, thus returning to the roots of all the fiction? is so, why is that happening to this genre? enormous popularity deriving from these stories is reflected in the prime time broadcasting by croatians, serbian and bosnian tv stations since 2010. the paper will explain the ontogenesis of the popularity, reflections and influences on societies and cultures, and features of this hybrid and changing genre of telenovelas produced in turkey. keywords: serials; telenovelas; genre; propaganda. ���������������������������������������� ������������������� ∗ lejla panjeta, associate professor, faculty of arts and social sciences, international university of sarajevo; e-mail: lpanjeta@ius.edu.ba )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� '� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� introduction there is a common joke in bosnia nowadays, made under the impression of the impact that turkish series made in the last couple of years: it is said that when the ottomans retreated in 19 century from bosnia, they claimed: “we’ll come back. in the series!” enormous popularity of these series can be witnessed if nothing else, just by looking at the tv program. there isn’t one public, state or private tv in bosnia-herzegovina, croatia, and serbia that has not at least one turkish series in the daily schedule. the importance of debating this phenomenon rises from these facts. even in the prehistory of feature movies as artistic expression, but also as an entertainment industry, the extraordinary impact that film has on its users was registered. at the same time the effects that film makes, through its immanent persuasive characteristics and identification of audience with film reality, on the opinions, emotions attitudes and behavior of viewers were evident. becoming aware that there is a possibility to manipulate with these effects the censorship boards that control the content shown in the film are created even at the very early stage of film development. even in 1917, the government of the united states has formed the creel committee, the authority that was entrusted to make the influence upon the public opinion on the american engagement in the first world war. one of the important media, through which the government infiltrated its messages, was feature movies. the first showing of the first )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� (� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� feature movie in the history confirms that the film propaganda and, in general, the impact of film contents on the audience, are of big importance. with the approaching train and in close up to a static camera in the lumiere brothers’ film l'arrivée d'un train en gare de la ciotat (1895), the viewers screamed and jumped out of the seats. truthfulness and verisimilitude are the immanent features of narrative in film language. often the film is now used for propaganda purposes. with the advent of television soap operas that combines cinematic narration and literal rules of dramatic tensions to what the media industry for mass audience serves has greater impact to the society and the individuals. relaying on this powerful influence and manipulation related film feature, the narrative structure of tv series can be a useful tool for social, cultural and political impacts. profitable industry and global popularity the popularity of sequels and logies (duology, trilogy, quadrilogy… overwhelming us from bookshops, tobacco shops, and commercials) today is at its peak not only in cinema and tv, but in literature as well. the very first sequels can be found in the ancient storytelling. one of the first stories told in the serial manner is in one thousand and one nights or arabian nights in which scheherazade tells a story open ending it each night so she might live another day for her captor needs to hear how it’s to be continued. many classic authors such as dostojevski, tolstoy, or flaubert published installments of their works in the journals such )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� #"� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� as ruski vesnik or pickwick club. the first known e-book has emerged from the experiment with the new technologies in an epistolary form of a novel. it was created by stephen king. nowadays bestsellers varying from supernatural, to children’s books, even pornographic (labeled as erotic) is done at least in three sequels. recycling ideas and the profit making are the major incentives for authors and publishers or production companies to continue working on the same stuff and make a sequel out of the perfectly normal compact composition. anticipated sequels end up the storytelling before drama epiphany is reached and right on the edge of climax and/or falling action. that is way the resolution of the plot is to be anticipated. this technique in modern storytelling was invented in 19th century. apart from creating the first the paperback charles dickens was the first author who made a serial when he deliberately left the character hanging from the cliff in the third chapter of 1860 novel great expectations. this novel was printed in sequels in a magazine “all the year round.” the dramaturgy device called cliffhanger is named after this invention. one of the first cinema sequels is created by friz lang within the german expressionist period. dr. mabuze is psychological-gothical horror like drama. similar to this, character sequels are popular in literature. poirot, marple, sherlock holmes, robert langdon and harry potter are characters that have many followers, and these days the supporters form a small internet based armies of fans. in tv, the series are often )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� # � � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� made preempting the rights on the lead actors. they become the superstars whose character lives are usually followed with same ardor as their private lives. television series have developed into a profitable industry based on the postulates of film and drama arts but, first of all, on the economic requests and sale that rule in the entertainment industry. as nowadays we have significant improvement in hd film industry, today the television series are more like films and not only regarding the quality of the film narrative but also the manner of directing and film photography. as there is a possibility to work with the equipment which is now chipper and more portable, television series are made with more speed, on many different locations, including the action scenes, with many on locations. all these elements enable almost a film quality of an authors work. an example for this is a brilliant hilal saral’s directing in the fatmagül'ün suçu ne? series. “several years back, ‘i bought a one-hour (one hour of copyright) turkish drama for $600 or $700. today, there are parties who are willing to pay $40,000 for one-hour,’ said adeeb khair, general manager and owner of sama art productions, a syrian tv production company which dubs turkish dramas into colloquial syrian arabic. (al tamimi, 2012) the enormous profits of the series witness their popularity or the rating in turkey as well as in the countries where this cultural product is launched. but as in any other profit industry, it is necessary to have a top-quality product for export. for example )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� #!� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� the soap opera about suleiman is the most expensive television program in turkish history. roughly $500,000 is spent per episode, twice the amount of other serials. the show's launch party was held in cannes, france. its elaborate, 15-room re-creation of istanbul's topkapi palace has real marble floors, handcrafted woodwork and a mock european throne room. actors wear exquisite silk and velvet gowns crafted by a leading turkish costume designer. and the series is directed by durul and ya�mur taylan, two siblings known as the coen brothers of turkey (rohde, 2012). according to data on one of the forum.hr dedicated to the turkish series in the balkans, in 2011 and 2012 the total financial transactions for 39 turkish series was 655 million tl (279,5 million euros). four of them were produced by kerem çatay from ay yapim production company jasmina, 2012). in the countries of the former yugoslavia (bosnia-herzegovina, croatia, serbia), which for the cultural and language similarities have an unique cable tv media, the fight for the prime time airing of turkish series lasts already a year now. in croatia, the turkish series have over flown … the channels of the two private tv stations with national concessions. in its program from 7 to 15 hours, which ranges 15 hours, nova tv airs or re-airs six hours of turkish soap operas: four hours of fatmagül'ün suçu ne?and two hours of hanımın çiftli�i. at that same time period the rtl airs or re-airs seven hours of turkish soap operas: four hours of muhte�em yüzyil, two hours of ezel and one hour of dudaktan kalbe (kasapovi�, 2012). in bosnia-herzegovina the leading private tv station, obn, airs in prime time muhte�em yüzyil, the series with the highest rating in 2012 and 2013. public and state tv stations have also at least one hour of turkish series at different hours during work days. there is also an unprecedented interest for the turkish series with )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� # � � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� highest rating of all times, kurtlar vadisi. the argument for this claim is not only the official rating report, but also the public opinion with regards to the series expressed in local media through various surveys, internet forums and public tv discussions. here are some examples. before the airing hours for the mentioned series were publicly announced at hayat tv station a huge number of viewers called, sent messages or through public nets asked questions when the first episode of the series would be aired. public competition for a look-alike for the sultan suleiman and sultana hurem, who won the trip to istanbul, brought about an enormous interest and that was also a big promotion for the new season of the series. at the address of the obn tv station about 300 registrations arrived and the social networks were actively incorporated into the process of decision making which bosnians were the most a look-alike turkish originals (clipping). all of this media revolution begins with the broadcast of binbir gece (one thousand and one nights) at croatian tv nova in 2010. again there is the same situation of empty streets, low number of phone calls during the airing of the series and opening of language courses, which was registered in 1997 with the appearance of latino-american telenovelas and with unprecedented ratings in the region. the influence of latinoamerican telenovelas in the region of the former yugoslavia resembled a mass hysteria. viewers from serbia sent official letters to the production team of the marisol series requesting the )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� ##� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� justice to be served for the main character of the series while the orthodox church received many donations for the healing of the leading heroine. in goražde a local production made an amateur telenovela based on true events that happened in that small town. this resulted in many quarrels and legal suits. the ratings for muñeca brava telenovela were even higher than those for dnevnik (the news) with up to that time the highest ratings in the history of rtvsa and rtvbih programs. the tv station in priština which aired o clone series received the bomb attack threats if they continue to air that series, which according to the allegations of terrorists undermines the foundations of islam. in sarajevo the visit of the main actress in esmeralda series was followed by euphoria in the main streets of this city like it was during former tito visits to the towns in ex-yugoslavia (panjeta, et al, 2005). only two years after the end of the war in the region tv stations started to broadcast telenovelas in spanish. not being used to spanish language and love plots with characters from middle and low classes the viewers at the beginning were distrustful as they were already used to sweetie rich class plots in american soap operas or american way of life living in sitcoms. this quite new form of plot finds its faithful fans and junkies waiting for many episodes with intriguing 40 minutes daily events somewhere in latin america. bosnian citizens with various religious and national convictions who just went out from the war sit together and watch telenovelas. broadcasting time of these )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� #,� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� telenovelas is the time of collective sedative for these people, the time reserved for trying to forget the horrors of war that they suffered. repression, control of mind and universalizing of free time are the basic argument in many critics of the soap operas, which act as a global sedative during the time period of great recessions and socio-political crisis. on the other hand, popularity is piece of evidence for the quality of mass-products that are designed for mass public. along with everyday airing intended to attract viewers, the basic technical element of directing used in telenovelas are the ending of an episode when action culminates (the so-called “cliffhanger drama technique”), and almost documentary manner for showing real life and love problems of an ordinary person, which by using a close ups as a mean of identification diminishes limits between film fiction and reality. in the 1990-s the mexican telenovelas ruled in the arab world. but in 2008, mbc started to broadcast dubbed turkish series. according to al tamimi (2012) the last two episodes of gümü�, shown on august 30, 2008, attracted 85 million viewers in the middle east and north africa region, out of which 50 million were females… on a daily basis, the series has been watched by nearly 30 million viewers, he said… turkish newspaper hurriyet daily news was quoted as saying that the soap operas have increased the country's influence abroad, especially in the balkans and the middle east, furthering the so-called soft power of turkish diplomacy. according to hurriyet, more than 100 turkish television series have been watched in more than 20 countries this year, earning more than $60 million. globalization and regionalization have found their mutual language through the mass profitable industry of tv series. while )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� #-� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� one stream tries to unify and universalize, the other one uses the oldest manner and through narrative techniques presents the uniqueness of human fate in given circumstances found in special social systems. showing in a different manner one culture, about which the other one has earlier developed stereotypic connotations, and breaking so stereotypes, telenovelas and series can be a form of fight against cultural stereotypes control. therefore, spreading the understanding between cultures, television series and their social networks, through interactions on forums and blog pages become a culture for itself. „the term cult tv would seem to refer to the method of watching and reacting to certain shows rather than referring to the shows themselves“ (fiddy, 2010, p. 230). this series cult is not reserved only for the fans and promotion campaigns of television advertisement agencies. the influence of fiction on reality has spread so much that the series become a subject of parliaments discussions or they cause open conflicts, while in real life the narrative series models are copied so that an individual or a group identify themselves with the fictional characters. soap operas are wildly popular in turkey and are among the country’s most vital exports, both in terms of profit and public relations. before the mavi marmara tried to deliver aid to gaza in may 2010, turkish soap operas had been illustrating the country’s solidarity with palestinians, often by maligning israelis. gümü�, which aired on kanal d, became a popular soap in the arab world, and flaunted turkey’s idealized self-image as a nation balancing its islamic identity with western behavior like drinking wine and kissing. soaps have addressed serious issues—the lives of political prisoners, the decline of rural life, the role of women—with typical innuendo and melodrama (krajeski, 2012). )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� #�� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� political and social impact of the turkish serials having in mind a specific feature of television verisimilitude and huge number of recipients, in some social circles there is a certain concern over historic, cultural or political inadequacy or incorrectness with regards to events or characters shown in tv series. the very fact that a certain concern exists is the argument proving that television series are a serious social issue and not only a creative narrative or entertainment product. the alcohol use by fictional characters in the series became an issue that waved the cleric circles because in the islamic world the religious ban on use of alcohol is important. on the other hand, european viewers are shocked with the fact that there are alcohol beverages in turkey and even more by the manner in which they are consumed, which is identical with the european one. therefore people raised many questions why in that television series the islamic culture is not presented more intensively. really, a drama about attitude of a person who lives an honest and moral life, who preys god five times a day, fasts give sadaka and zekiat, goes to pilgrimage to mecca would be a very boring one as there are no intrigues, cheating or gambling. in so sober and highly raised consciousness condition a person cannot make any big problem. that would be completely uninteresting’, adds as a joke ms. šiljak-jesenkovi�… ‘when the ottomans withdrawn from the balkans they said: we’ll be back in tv series' (derviševi�, 2012). in this interesting comment, interwoven with specific balkan humor, it is true that there is no drama if there is no conflict, or if there are no tensions caused by strives of characters. it is true that no one wants to see happy and normal persons in the series, films )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� #'� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� or literature. this is the law of dramaturgy and the series are based on this. however, it is not true that alcohol is the main incentive of a conflict. comparing turkish and latino-american series, where due to character of christian culture alcohol is not forbidden or comparing series with classic literature pieces we find that the fact of consuming alcohol is not the starting force that provoke tragic fate of characters. we do not see alcohol as the drama plot accelerator or motivator in shakespeare, dostoevsky, tolstoy, or greek tragedies. this tells us that people are the same everywhere and their problems that can inspire the drama for an interesting piece of fiction are deriving from people. this is just the point where the global successfulness of turkish series lies because only cultural set design backdrop is different from the one to which europe and the balkans are used to. however, in islamic and arab world there are many complaints regarding the manner in which islamic culture is portrayed. after the 2011 premiere of muhte�em yüzyil on turkish tv “critics hurled eggs at billboards advertising the program, protested outside the production company's office and filed more than 70,000 complaints with the turkish government television agency. the show's producers shortened kissing scenes and toned down certain elements” (rhode, 2012). just like muhte�em yüzyili, gümü�, translated as noor in arabic, one of the first widely popular series in the middle east, also deals with some predicaments that are not always in accordance with the islamic culture and religion. )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� #(� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� some muslim characters drank wine with dinner and engaged in premarital sex. in one case, a character had an abortion. the lead male character, muhannad, was the show's handsome hero. a loving, attentive and loyal husband, he supported his wife's career as a fashion designer and treated her as an equal. their successful marriage - which combined traditional loyalty and modern independence -was both popular among women and groundbreaking. some arabic-language newspapers reported that arguments and even divorces occurred in several countries as a result… dubbed into colloquial arabic, censored of its raciest scenes and renamed noor, the series was a phenomenal hit. unlike western soap operas, it focused on an extended family, a strong tradition in turkey and the region. in 2008, the show's final episode drew an estimated 85 million viewers over the age of 15, according to mbc, including 50 million women, a figure that represents more than half the adult women in the arab world (ibid). fatwa was issued in saudi arabia forbidding gümü� and the series was labeled as a secular turkish assault on saudi society. according the above mentioned reuters article, leader of a saudi religious council said the owner of mbc should be tried and potentially executed for airing broadcasting this series. nevertheless, the article concludes that beyond breaking cultural taboos, the shows display something else: turkey's rapid economic growth… in its soap operas, turkey is modern, muslim and prosperous at the same time. intentionally or not, though, the makers of turkey's soap operas are creating new roles, new heroes and new cultural norms in a rapidly changing region (ibid.). according the writings of emirates.new.com, divorce rates in uae is increased in percentage of family disputes, for which some experts blame addiction to television programs. in )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� ,"� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� accordance with the number of complaints, it is clear that most women who watched these serials neglected their families. the greater impact of the turkish series with tragic consequences, then the mentioned cultural and religious disputes, is evident in the killings of five people in yemen, inspired by the turkish series kurtlar vadisi. yemeni man has been executed after murdering four men and a woman in an effort to imitate a turkish soap opera. according to israel national news mohamed al-ali al-azab, 31, confessed to his crime prior to his execution, saying he was inspired by the popular turkish television series kurtlar vadisi...the incident began with a dispute between al-azab and an unidentified man in yemen's dawran and resulted in the killing of five people, including the unidentified man's mother (hirshfeld, 2012). the political issues and political background of the cultural influences are not immune to the effects of turkish series. the leader of greece’s far-right golden dawn party openly invites citizens to boycott turkish series. “michaloliakos said it was a shame that turkish shows were being aired in greece, which had a unique cultural heritage and said friendly relations between turks and greeks was against the well-being of greece and its citizens” (kirbak, 2012). kurtlar vadisi caused one more political dispute between israel and turkey. the series depicts mossad agents in a negative context. escalation of the diplomatic crisis between jerusalem and ankara was evident after the broadcasting of the scene in which palestinian women were being raped in israeli prisons. apart from the complaints from the )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� , � � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� prisoners, “the foreign ministry summoned the turkish ambassador to israel for a reprimand in which he was publicly humiliated by being seated at a lower chair than deputy minister daniel ayalon” (nahmias, 2012). in serbia at the end of march 2012, members of the ultra right campaign naši (ours) put up posters all over belgrade protesting against broadcasting of muhte�em yüzyil series, that stated the serb history is dramatically falsified. belgrade did not spread its arms waiting the sultan to come. on the contrary, all 900 defenders were killed while defending it, and he was not a romantic knight but a brutal conquer… for example, 60 ‘unbelievers’ impaled heads were waiting for him in front of šabac fortress! (ili�, 2012). the serb historians assert in public media that the history is forged. there is a similar situation in talk shows and media discussions in bosnia and herzegovina where the scholars and historians are gathered to discuss incorrectness presented about the life in harem and at the ottoman palace where they defend the historic figure of this series character. “master of arts in history and expert collaborator at the history institute in sarajevo … stated that ‘the series gives a distorted picture of events'“ (dežulovi�, 2012, p. 11) and he also said that the top politicians in turkey were not calm about the series fiction (ibid.). turkish prime minister, erdogan, condemned publically the production team of muhte�em yüzyil show. according the todayszaman.com turkish prime minister emphasized „his government issued )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� ,!� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� warnings to the series and he hopes that the judicial mechanism will rule appropriately regarding the series. he said there must be a response within the law to those who mock the values of the people” (anonymous, 2012, november 25). there are many more examples where fiction contents are interpolated into the everyday lives of people and they are with political and sociological consequences. however, the majority negates the influences that series produce. describing the plans for developing a tv entertainment network the hamas leader’s teenage son arrived, “complaining about western music and his sister’s taste for the turkish soap operas. then the son’s cell phone rang. the ring tone was the theme song from noor” (kimmelan, 2010). under no circumstances the propaganda influences that series produce should not be neglected. however, the above mentioned discussions and opinions seem rather funny, because the polemicists prove a historic correctness making references to an entertaining and artistic creation. however, it is possible that the power the series do have, which is known from the very beginning of the film history, has been transferred from the hands that control political power to the hands that control economy, meaning the hands of those who control profit and budget of productions. narrative feature of series and the realism in picturing the life itself, make turkish series a suitable media for discussions about truthfulness in showing. however, “narration )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� , � � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� promises a form of understanding which is not absolute or relative but is somewhere in between” (kearney, 2009, p. 149). confusion and conflict that series provoke with regard to historic trutfulness or untrutfulness is not founded. here we have a fictitious creation which according to an author's vision represents its own narrative (phantasmagoric) world. this is best explained in the statement of the actor who portrays sultan suleiman the magnificent, halit ergenç: "there is no political message or any other cultural message…this is a tv series. it is a soap opera" (rohde, 2012). besides already mentioned effects that the fiction of series brings in real life, we cannot neglect many positive effects that television series made. along with the growth of tourism, a high interest for turkish language studying (derviševi�, 2012) and the expansion of turkish economy and its political influence in the middle east (rohde, 2012, & kimmelman, 2010), the mentioned series broadcasted in bosnia, serbia and croatia are winners of antalya television awards, which is an equivalent to american emmy, and turkish actors get the awards for their work even in vatican, like murat yildirim who won a giusepe sciacca award. fatmagül'ün suçu ne? series is used for therapeutic purposes in american clinic for sexually abused women (canikligil, 2012). according to a post at hurriyet news portal turkish tv series are set to participate in a new campaign from the urban planning ministry to raise earthquake awareness by including scenes that illustrate the dangers of temblors in the country… as part of the campaign, muhte�em yüzyıl, which follows the intrigues of the harem during the )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� ,#� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� reign of süleyman the magnificent, will reportedly be asked to include a dramatization of the 1509 earthquake in istanbul that killed 13,000 people (anonymous, 2012, july 16). popular and profitable television series are a good platform where ideas of public interest can be advertised or social issues raised. therefore, many campaigns for bringing awareness of different illnesses of a person or society, like stereotypes and prejudice, may appear in television series. as modern narrations follow everyday life of characters, television series are a perfect place where a certain cultural context can be popularized. namely, there is no a scientific work or a historical fact that can show a certain living cultural and anthropological feature more faithfully than today’s television series can. the viewers from a different culture will learn through them, along with a language, much about gastronomy and cultural norms that exist during social gathering like weddings, baby deliveries, deaths and everyday communication and how love and hatred can be expressed in a socially acceptable manner. in countries where the foreign programs are subtitled (bosnia, croatia and serbia are among them) turkish television series help a lot in the process of language learning and they also offer possibility to notice cultural linguistic differences. for example, the manner in which two persons greet themselves with a form of “good day” in south-slav languages and culture is rather poor if compared with the one in turkey. in turkish culture this kind of greeting can be expressed in many forms as the language is poetic and kindness culturally immanent compared with the south-slav concreteness and )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� ,,� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� directness. tense episodes about everyday dramas of turkish characters make a contribution for better understanding of cultures and people individually and they also break stereotypes in a subtle and positive manner. what really hooks viewers are the rollicking storylines. the secret of a good soap is that all human joys and troubles are there, usually larger than life. the grapevine mansion (asmalı konak), the first great turkish soap, debuted back in 2002. it was the tale of an urban sophisticate who marries into a small-town family living in an old mansion. there, she comes face to face with the old turkey that most viewers left behind just a generation ago: blood feuds, illegitimate children, the bitter rivalries of the women of the house. noor, turning the same theme on its head, is a cinderella tale of a village girl who marries a rich istanbul hunk, overcomes the envy of his evil mother and sister, and (spoiler alert) eventually saves the family textile business. last year’s crop of turkish soaps were edgier: 1001 nights (binbir gece) follows a widow forced to sleep with her boss to get medicine for her son’s leukemia; forbidden love (a�k-ı memnu) (is a roller coaster of suicide, betrayal, and adultery featuring an immoral mother and a vengeancedriven daughter (matthews, 2012). postmodern genre transgression series which follow the genre of melodrama, and base their story on conflicts and intrigue plots, got a popular name soap opera as the first commercials for the cleaning products were advertized during the series. these series were firstly created for radio programs in the 1930s of the last century and the culmination was seen on television in the form of american series. their expansion started in the 1940s. commercials for cleaners were firstly interpolated in the series because they were originally designed for housewives. derogatory connotations of the term are )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� ,-� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� determined by the irony of the word opera, because in these series everyday life is raised to the level of tragedy and pathos of opera. talking about television genres, there is a clear difference between drama (drama series) and soap opera. this latter one is a product of a happy marriage between the commercial features of media industry and dramatic narration in series. a new episode is possible thanks to an open end which attracts the viewers to watch the next episode. originally oriented to internal family dramas of rich people in 1960s, through the series days of our lives, the plots with a doctor as the main character were introduced. this innovation will have its genealogy in today series that deal exclusively with medical environments. however, the soap opera will wait for another twenty years to get its hybrid genre. this happens when the vast interior space with the houses of rich people, as a connotation of power, are replaced with smaller interiors (and with them come the characters from the middle class) in which the plot other than that of family one is built outside of the home that is in the workplace. bestselling author and a student of medicine, michael crichton, in 1974 gives the idea for a soap that takes place in a hospital. steven spielberg's involvement in the development of the show resulted latter in the worldwide popular series: er. in the 1990s the series are more technologically and visually advanced and more drama and comedy oriented. the new sitcom genre emerges, as well as detective story based serials. nevertheless, the soap opera is primary based on human interrelations and intrigues. )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� ,�� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� however, it is important to emphasize that although the soap opera can have supernatural elements, like the gothic soap opera dark shadow from 1960s, where the main character is a vampire, an essential defference between the series such as true blood of today and the former soap operas exist not only in regard to the technological quality of production (soap opera characteristics: three point lighting, scenes ending with dramatical pause and close-ups, interior grandure, lower visual quality then that of the feature movies and tv mini series), but also in the narrative structure. for example, a diference between soap opera and telenovela is in the structure of the narration, but also in the features of tv industry. both have developed as melodramatic stories, from the very begining of radio broadcasting, with an aim to unite cultural space and integrate latin continent and create national hegemony, but only in 1980-ies the latino-american telenovelas has become known all over the world. essential genre characteristics between telenovelas and soap operas are as folows: • telenovela has a limited duration (usually it is 7 months) while the soap opera is with no limits with regard to duration; • telenovela is a product developed for the prime-time and the soap opera is not necessarily a prime-time product; • the basic plot of telenovela show is love; • telenovela clings firmly to the structure of melodrama with a hapy ending; • evil, obstacles, intrigue, deceit, infidelity are the obstacles that will ultimately guarantee success for the telenovela protagonists (there is a very strong religious and cultural imperative – way of the cross), )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� ,'� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� while in the soap opera these drama tools are invented for entertainment; • telenovela main characters belong to middle class, nationalism is propagated as well as the differences between the classes where the rich are to be blamed for, but in the soap operas the main issue is an intrigue between the rich; • telenovela outlines differences and promotes teamwork, while the soap opera tends unification and globalization, through individualism. therefore, „soap operas are of two basic narrative types: 'open' soap operas, in which there is no end point toward which the action of the narrative moves; and 'closed' soap operas, in which, no matter how attenuated the process, the narrative eventually close“ (allen, unknown). in classification of genres that derived from soap operas it would be more accurate to name the letter one as telenovelas. however, only this differentiation is not sufficient for the classification within this television genre. today, even those serials with five or more seasons, which might correspond to a soap-opera melodramatic narrative structure, are not named „derogatory“ but are labeled with thematic feature and given the hybrid genre label: teen drama, vampire series, historical drama, action series, police series, detective, forensic, etc... soap opera been a boast for generating a number of mixed genres that appear after the exhaustion of certain themes in classical genres. the genre here is not determined only by the self-defining elements of the narrative, but with the regulations of television distributions and broadcasting contracts with productions and advertizing agencies. it is essential not to )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� ,(� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� overlook the narrative components of turkish series. are they really fitting into a soap opera narrative models? turkish series in bosnia and herzegovina are broadcast every day in different parts of a day, and they usually cover prime-time. but in turkey the same series are broadcast differently: once in a week where an episode lasts at least 90 minutes and it resembles dramaturgically and with the form of directing to a feature film. therefore, along with the already mentioned genre characteristics, it is necessary to analyze the structure of the plot and development of characters in order to determine genre classification. the main characteristics of telenovela are as follows: the basic plot and conflict is love; the action has a melodramatic discourse; hero, villain and heroine dramaturgy; a happy ending – wedding (panjeta, et. al, 2005, & mazziotti, 1996). characters' development and plots in telenovelas are comparative to the biblical allegories of the cross way, passion of the christ, and the heavenly kingdom. the reward in heaven awaits those who suffer in this life. such religious dualistic concept of justice and life suffering is not inherent in the islamic world. however, this christian philosophy is the main narrative discourse for the melodrama and telenovela. genre characteristics of turkish series do not require necessarily a happy ending. sometimes it is completely contrary to this. series end tragically, although the melodramatic narrative structure suggested happy ending. the best indicator for this claim is the tragic end of the leading male character halil, who is killed by his )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� -"� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� opponent at the very end of the love plot based series menek�e ile halil. along with the fact that the characters and plots overcome the usual clichés there are also many variations regarding the aforementioned characteristics of soap operas and telenovelas. therefore, turkish series cannot be considered telenovelas because here the very genre goes through the modeling process and some of the main rules of telenovela genre are broken. altman designates the “genre as process” (54-42) and explains that mixed features of classical genres come from rebellion against classicism that was the characteristic of romanticism as a movement and literature genre. “what we perceive as a mixture of pre-existing genres is often nothing less than the liquid lava of new genre still in the creation process” (altman, 1999, p. 143). mixed genre is also a consequence of the postmodern thought. it might be true to call the postmodern transgression of the soap opera genre to new mixed genres of drama serials, for which a good example is the turkish serials. although, we haven’t gotten a new genre here, but the hybrid genre which mixes the tv series narrative structure and tv broadcasting rules with that of the classical narratives. some of the turkish series are based on the classical works of literature or critically acclaimed novels. the examples of these adaptations are as follows: • yaprak dökümü is besed on the novel by re�at nuri güntekin written in 1939; • fatmagül'ün suçu ne? is an adaptation of the vedat turkali novel and the film with the same title made in 1986; • kesanli ali destani is filmed version of the most famous turkish musicle with the same name from 1964; )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� � � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� • the scenario for the hanımın çiftli�i is based on the novel hanımın çiftli�i written by orhana kemal (mehmet ra�it ö�ütçü); • dudaktan kable is an adaptation of the famos novel written by re�at nuri güntekin with the same title published in 1923; • ezel is inspired by the popular novel grof monte cristo written by the french writter alexandre dumas; • leyla ile mecnun is an adaptation of a famos arab love story; • �ubat is based on the classical fairy-tale the beauty and the beast. given that the genre elements, which determine the categorization of soap operas and telenovelas, are narrative and industry related differentiating ones, in case of turkish series it is necessary to make an insight not only into the narration, which uses classic patterns for screenplays, but also in directing and development of characters. the use of film language is different in the turkish series than in telenovelas: • moving camera, often dolly and tracking shots • blocking the dialogs in non stationary and non conservative screen direction • close-ups are in the function of the action, and not the tension elevating tool • slow motion, overlapping and other editing filmmaking techinques are following the basic storyline by building the suspense and surpise, they are completly justified • soundtrack following the action in a movie like manner • deus ex machina dramaturgy solutions and evil characters per se are not so common • script development of the character and acting is more sofisticated • stories are life based, and dramatic creative solutions real, becouse the characters are not dualisticly antagonized betweed good and evil, but rather consequences of the character's decisions are the spin wheel for the plot. determining factor that separates the turkish series out of telenovelas is the vitality of their stories and the manner of technical realization. characters are not set or preset, but evolving, just as in the works of classical literature. almost )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� -!� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� tolstoy characters and shakespeare plotlines are placed into the context of everyday life, but not in an artificial manner of dues ex machina plots. specifically, in the turkish series, compared to soap operas or telenovelas, there is an organic compound of everyday life and tragedy elements. in the series fatmagül'ün suçu ne?, there is a statement that fatmagül (a raped girl) has a strong heart to which she answers: „i must have it to survive“. here the moving force is not an already given character, but she is the character who transforms from gentle girl into a strong woman, but not because it is necessary for the story to develop from it, but because it has to be so in order to continue with life from which the narrative here happens. there is no room for pathos for its own sake, but the action is moved by the rigors of survival. „there is nothing with which stories are intimately concerned, then the conflict between 'dark' and 'light'“ (booker, 2004, p. 700). negative characters in the turkish series are not entirely negative in themselves. they are more like the ancient heroes who, for reasons of pride or arrogance (hybris) are caught in the web of their own actions that end tragically. a good example is the replica of a villain from the aforementioned series, re�at ya�aran: „we live and experience everything. if your child commits a crime, would you let him to the fate to decide. i cannot.“ within the basic clichés of good and evil narrative, the turkish series offer us the new-old patterns of classic dramaturgy. )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� � � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� concluding remarks according to leši� (2005) “human’s confrontation with circumstances that are not controlled by his/her own will but by god’s will, or the very fate (in greek moira) as the force even stronger than the one of gods, which is why any disobedience of a human, his/her violation of given human limits or arrogance, his/her hybris, becomes a ‘tragic guilt’ of his/hers, and he/she becomes victim sentenced to suffering and anguish” (p. 487). this is how the understanding of the heroes flaw in greek tragedies is described. in turkish series we do not expect the wedding of the main character or unmasking of the villains as we would in telenovelas melodramatic stories. not looking forward to see demise of the characters, just as the protagonists (the so-called positive figures) do, but as in a classical tragedy, in the process of catharsis, we are feel pity for the complete situation in which not willingly, but as a result of certain own decisions and fate’s (hybris and moira) the characters found themselves. defining the hero in tragedies, aristotle (2002, p. 77) described him as the one „who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty.“ the development of the character in turkish series is made according to this definition. however, these are not ancient greek heroes, but everyday life people are forced to walk the path of the hero in order to survive in the world that is almost mythically cruel. the narrative taken as mythos (a story deriving from a meaning for a particular culture), and the )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� -#� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� development of the character taken as everyday life hero, are the differentiating elements of this genre, which cannot be called telenovelas. “myths are stories that people have recounted to explain themselves to themselves and to the others. but aristotle developed this insight in philosophical outlook when … argued that the art of storytelling is the one … we owe the experience to share this world with others” (kearney, 2009, p. 13). it is through the turkish drama series, where reality, character evolve, and livingness are inherent as well as the sharing of intimate experience of the world with others, that this global voyeuristic demand for narratives found its embodiment. the tragic concept in contemporary drama was already finished with hegel’s consideration of individuality, which is therefore not a mirror of the higher fatal forces, but a particular case. universality of our pastime today is not comparable with the mythic universality, but the elements of the tragic vision of the world in the highly profitable and popular products, which the turkish series surely are, actually do exist. globalization, social impact and cult that the popularity of series carries with them, and the narrative models found in turkish series raises them to a new higher level, which differs from the genre within which they originally were created. from probably the first serial storytelling, like for example schereherazade's stories in a classic work one thousend and one nights, a visualization techniques, as the cinematic storytelling, have evolved. the genres developed, characters are individualized, cultures damasked and stereotypes )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� -,� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� smashed, identification of audience and development of virtual cults was intensified, and via turkish series the classic narrative forms found their fans among the mass audience. index of tv series and films aksan, b. (writer) & ünlü, o. & boz, e. (directors). (2011-2013). in o. ünlü & f. alp (producers) leyla ile mecnun. eflatun film. alp, f. & ünlü, o. (writers) & kocatürk, v. (director). (2012-2013). in f. alp & o. ünlü (producers) �abat. eflatun film. ball, a. & harris, c. et al. (writers) & lehman, m. winant, s. et al. (directors). (2008-2013). in a. ball (executive producer), true blood. hbo canpolat, e. & ergenekon, s. (writers) & alpagut, t. & uzun, k. (directors). (2005-2007). in i. �ahin (producer), gümü�. ans productions. curtis, d. wallace, a. russell, g. hall, s. et al. (writers) & swift, l. kaplan, h. sedwick, j. sullivan s.d. et al. (directors) (1966-1971). in d. curtis & r. costello (producers), dark shadows. dan curtis productions. deren, k. & bulut, p. (writers) & bayraktar, u. (director). (2009-2011). in k.çatay (producer), ezel. ay yapim. ergun, m. (writer) & irmak, ç. (director). (2002-2004). in a. oguz (producer), asmalı konak. ans productions. lumiere, a. & l. (directors). (1895). in lumiere, a. & l. (producers) l'arrivée d'un train en gare de la ciotat. okay, m. & �ahin, y. (writers), & taylan, y. & taylan, d. (directors). (20112013). in t. savci (producer), muhte�em yüzyil. tims productions. tunç, y. & dede, m.b. & lüftü, m. and yekta, e. (writers) & sabanci, k. (director). (2006-2009). in e. avci (producer), binbir gece.tmc. yörenç, e. & genço�lu, m. (writers) & bayraktar, u. (director). (2007-2008). in k. çatay (producer), menek�e ile halil. ay yapim. yörenç, e. & genço�lu, m. (writers) & erarslan, m (director). (2005-2010). in k.çatay (producer), yaprak dökümü. ay yapim. )��*��+����������������������� ��� �� �� ����������������������������������� �������������� --� � � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� �� !" #$�%�&����������������������������������� yörenç, e. & genço�lu, m. (writers) & haznedaro�lu, a. (director). (20072009). in k.çatay (producer), dudaktan kalbe. ay yapim. yörenç, e. & genço�lu, m. (writers) & saral, h. &yö�. b. (directors). (20082010). in k.çatay (producer), a�k-ı memnu. ay yapim. yörenç, e. & genço�lu, m. (writers), & saral, h. (director). (2010-2012). in k.çatay (producer), fatmagül'ün suçu ne?. ay yapim. yücel, z. (writer), & teber, f. (director). (2009-2011). in f. turgut (producer), hanımın çiftli�i. gold film. yula, ö. (writer) & irmak, ç. (director). (2011-2012). in e. sakarya (producer) ka�anli ali destani. d construction. yurdakul, a. & �a�maz, r. & özderen, b. (writers) & sinav, o. (director). (2003-2005). in r. �a�maz (producer), kurtlar vadisi. pana f�lm. references allen, r. (unknown) soap opera. mbc the museum of broadcast communication. retrieved from http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=soapopera al tamimi, j. (2012, april 2). challenge of the turkish soap operas. gulf news. retrieved from http://gulfnews.com/business/features/challenge-of-the-turkish-soapoperas-1.1002249 altman, r. 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(2012, march 9). the islamic world’s culture war, played out on tv soap operas. reuters. the atlantic. retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-islamicworlds-culture-war-played-out-on-tv-soap-operas/254247/ staff. (2012, april 4). tukish soap opera blamed for uae divorces. emirates.news. retrived from http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/turkish-soap-operablamed-for-uae-divorces-2012-04-04-1.452235 microsoft word volume 7 for print epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 how is culture used as a tool for dissuasion of conflict and consensus: a case of sarajevo (1992-1995) jelena hadžiosmanović ∗∗∗∗ abstract within cities, culture and creativity have often been used as successful tools for dissuasion of conflict and consensus. using the case study of the cultural scene in the city of sarajevo – chiefly focusing on the period of the 1992-95 siege of the city – this paper argues that culture is an arena for creativity and resistance, but generally not an effective tool to end the conflict. i suggest that the role of arts in peace building and reaching consensus within bosnia and herzegovina is rather modest and its primary role is simply the artists’ need to confront beckettian “nothing to be done” while, in a truly lafebvreian manner they, as citizens, are thus expressing their right to the city. to illustrate this, i will start with a short explanation of the history and the complexity of ethnic and cultural structure of sarajevo. the main part of this paper will explore various examples of art forms produced in the besieged city – all examples of socially engaged art created in candlelit basements and cold, heavily damaged buildings, followed by its more peace-building role in the period after the end of the war. after providing several examples of art during the siege, i explain what might have been the reasons for such a rich cultural production during the war, using some of the theories about identity, loss of common memories and urbicide. finally, i discuss the purpose of culture during the war and that only in a less complex conflict arts and culture could be used as tools for dissuasion of conflict and consensus. in general, the paper argues for the affirmative power of cultural production and consumption for a community, which cannot always change the reality of a situation, but provides mental relief and a symbolic performance of unity and togetherness. keywords: identity; culture; memory; history; urbicide. ∗ jelena hadžiosmanović, goldsmiths, university of london; email: jelenainsarajevo@yahoo.com each place has a potential to develop creativity and one can argue that the more complex a place is, the higher creative potential emerges. florida (2005) claims that cities “have long been the vehicles for mobilizing, concentrating, and channelling human creative energy” (p. 1). moreover, within cities, culture and creativity have often been used as successful tools for dissuasion of conflict and consensus. nonetheless, yudice (2003) raises a question, prompted by the september 11 attacks upon the united states: “does culture have the power to remake community when the world is thrown into crisis?” (p. 8). using the case study of cultural scene in the city of sarajevo – chiefly focusing on the period of the 1992-1995 siege of the city – this paper argues that culture is an arena for creativity and resistance, but generally not an effective tool to end the conflict, as some – quite naively – believe. defining art and culture is diverse depending on concepts used in different social sciences – sociology, anthropology, etc. having in mind the difficulty of daily struggles for survival, for people in sarajevo the closest one is probably the anthropological definition of “culture as a whole way of life” (mayo, 2000, p. 13), but in this paper i will mostly analyse art forms created during the war. i suggest that the role of arts in peace building and reaching the consensus within bosnia and herzegovina is rather modest and its primary role is simply the artists’ need to confront beckettian “nothing to be done.” they needed to achieve a catharsis in order to reduce psychological stress as well as offer their stance against violence and absurdity of war. similar to what hayden explains in her exploration of the story of los angeles, in sarajevo “each project deals with bitter memories […] but shows how citizens survived and persevered to make an urban life for themselves, their families, and communities” (hayden, 1995, p. xiv). for sarajevo artists, creating art was the only way to gain freedom from oppression and confirm their connection and affiliation with the city. their art, at the same time, provided a strong message to the rest of the world: “don’t let them kill us”, as was written on a banner held by contestants of the 1992 miss of the besieged sarajevo beauty contest (figure 1). to illustrate this, i will start with a short explanation of the history and the complexity of ethnic and cultural structure of sarajevo. the main part of this paper will explore various examples of art forms produced in the besieged city – the establishment of a film festival, numerous exhibitions, musical concerts, theatre plays – all examples of socially engaged art created in candlelit basements and heavily damaged cold buildings. the artists’ collective memory still does not allow them to deviate from conflict-related topics, which is seen in films they direct, plays they write and other activities they take part in after the end of the war – when arts and culture take on a peace building role. each city and its people are famous for something. war sarajevo stands as a symbol of immense and stubborn human resistance and its people wanted to prove that the city belonged to them. as if, while creating more, the artists agreed with the theory that “the city is everywhere and in everything” (amin & thrift, 2002, p. 1) and more art would create more of a city to defy and proudly stand against the enemy. therefore, i argue for the affirmative power of cultural production and consumption for a community, which cannot always change the reality of a situation, but provides mental relief and a symbolic performance of unity and togetherness. as a non-sociologist, i must emphasize that this is solely an attempt to rationalize why things happened they way they did, while drawing parallels with theories about the city, identity and memories. at the same time, this is an intimate experience of living through the events from more than a decade ago. for me, a citizen of sarajevo, it is my own cathartic journey. figure 1: miss besieged sarajevo “great cities have always been melting pots of races and cultures” (park, 1925 cited in florida, 2005, p. 27), and before the fall of tito’s yugoslavia, sarajevo was for many one of such great cities famous for its ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. the urban landscape of sarajevo has always been extremely complex: the groups were firstly differentiated by different religious backgrounds, but “in the previous century the differences were created among main national groups” (donia, 2006, p. 2): bosniaks, croats and serbs, which was usually accordingly linked to their religious identities – muslims, roman catholics and eastern orthodox, respectively. although some people considered sarajevo to be “an ideal of pluralism” (sontag, 2003, p. 316), and often called it “jerusalem of the balkans,” its once lauded multi-ethnicity and interculturalism developed into a burden to be borne by its war-troubled citizens. the siege started in april 1992, with nationalist serb forces bombing the city ordered not to stop “until [people] are on the edge of madness” (bell in introduction to edge of madness, 1997). suffering the longest siege of a capital city in modern history, lasting 1,395 days, the city’s destiny was a perfect example of a modern war and dreadful ethnic cleansing. the number of civilians who lost their lives reached around 10,000, and the once great city became a synonym for a wasteland spreading on two sides of the miljacka river. and yet, those who were surviving and those who succeeded to survive until the end of the war showed unmeasured spiritual resistance and “a determination to preserve trappings of normal urban life” (donia, 2006, p. 317). among them, as a special community determined not to give up were sarajevo artists. it is known that in times of political crises “[c]onflicts, as in belfast, beirut or sarajevo, can sometimes create incidental innovations” (landry, 2000, p. 148). what happened in sarajevo certainly was not anything similar to a carefully planned rich urban solution for a project within an urban environment. it was a spontaneous and unplanned acting and rise of creativity during a crisis. first such example is definitely the creation of the sarajevo film festival. today, it is the biggest balkan film festival, and, additionally, a very significant film festival in europe, with over 200 screenings, 17 programs and over 100,000 visitors last year (information collected from sarajevo film festival website). kevin spacey, steve buscemi, michael moore, mickey rourke, morgan freeman, wim wenders, angelina jolie and brad pitt are just few names from an enviably successful list of festival’s guests over the years. however, it certainly was not always like this and the festival’s founders have not thought that it could become such a huge event primarily because they were not sure if they would still be alive by the end of the first screening. when the war broke out, electricity supply was cut, and, furthermore, it was too risky to gather in larger numbers and consequently become a better target for shelling. these were the main reasons for all movie theatres to close when the siege started. susan sontag (2003) described: “outside a boarded-up movie theatre next to the chamber theatre is a sun-bleached poster for the silence of the lambs with a diagonal strip across it that says danas (today), which was april 6, 1992, the day moviegoing stopped” (p. 302). however, as dani magazine reports (seksan and hadzovic, 2002), after the first shock, people started organizing various cultural events and two cinemas opened: apollo in 1993 and radnik in 1994. they played what they had, usually films from private collections, later retrospections or even newer films brought by foreign journalists. “obala” open stage continued with activities during the war in cooperation with sarajevo’s academy of performing arts, and dani magazine, and organized screenings in apollo. screenings were operated through a generator; ticket – one german mark or one cigarette, and it was always full. it is said basic instinct was amongst the most popular films, as “everyone wondered if you could really see it” (seksan & hadzovic, 2002). a visitor to this film explains: “i was scared to death, running all the way with my cousin. it was very dangerous, but we did it” (turan, 2002, p. 90). the first sarajevo film festival opened as a logical sequel of the previously organized screenings, on 25 october 1995 – near the end of the war – with today’s jailed iranian film director jafar panahi’s film white balloon. film directors milcho manchevski (macedonia) and leos carax (france) were festival’s guests and dragged 40 kg of film rolls over the mount igman – the only way they could access sarajevo. the foundation of the festival was only a continuation of all other efforts filmmakers and filmgoers did prior to it, and festival director mirsad purivatra recalls it was done “under extremely difficult conditions but with incredible enthusiasm and a dream of freedom" (purivatra cited in zuvela, 2011). the creation of a film festival during the war “could have seemed more like a bizarre act of resistance than a real film festival” (people building peace website). nevertheless, it was real. thirty-seven films were shown, some on vhs, some on film, and every day the screenings were packed with cineastes – 15,000 in total. one of the main organizers haris pasovic explains: there are many things you can live without, food, etc., but you need film or arts for the magic. in the war it was particularly powerful to be watching films and be able to be transported to another world and also release emotions through the film (as many kept them bottled up during the war) (zelizer, 2003, p. 69). musicians ceaselessly appeared in public. sarajevo string quartet never stopped performing or rehearsing. concerts were usually held during the day because of the curfew and lack of electricity. during the siege the members kept changing because some left the city and some lost their lives. the quartet’s leader dzevad sabanagic admits he never thought about leaving the city: “it’s unthinkable for me. it would be like leaving a sick parent or child. i never even think about it [...] my country is crying now. it carries a heavy burden. can you imagine abandoning a sick child?” (cnn world, 1995) he explains. the rehearsals were held wherever they had a chance to meet – usually at someone’s apartment and later, from 1993, when they started the official cooperation with the chamber theatre and were then called “chamber theatre 55 string quartet”, they could practice at the theatre’s premises (information collected from sarajevo string quartet website). during the siege, they held over 250 concerts, always playing, avoiding shells and pieces of shrapnel; never giving up. i still remember well a concert we held in a church in new sarajevo municipality in 1993. outside it was around -17 0 c and inside of the church -20 0 c. after the service we held a concert; people sat in furs, coats, and no one moved – they asked from us to play encore several times (seksan & hadzovic, 2002). figure 2: vedran smajlovic performing surrounded with ruins of the burned city hall building even when people got scared during heavy shelling and would start leaving, the quartet never stopped playing. un’s peacekeeper anne marie du preez bezdrob, recalls in her book sarajevo roses: war memoir of a peacekeeper a visit to a concert by the quartet in 1993. she was impressed by these intrepid people, both performers and the audience, and felt somewhat guilty for shaking under her flak vest (which no one else had). she writes: serb shells were ripping apart their city and their lives, but their souls were their own […] as an intensity of the bombing increased, small groups started leaving. the quartet kept playing as though nothing was amiss; their faces calm and composed, their practiced hands unwavering (du preez bezdrob, 2004, pp. 162-63). figure 3: vedran smajlovic performing at a sarajevo cemetery another musician vedran smajlovic (who played for sarajevo string quartet as well as for the national theatre, sarajevo opera, the sarajevo philharmonic orchestra and the symphony orchestra of rtv sarajevo), also known as “the cellist of sarajevo,” became a symbol of moral undefeatedness all over the world. when a mortar hit a breadline in may 1992, it killed 22 civilians, the cellist’s close neighbours and friends. smajlovic, wearing his concert dress, decided to mourn and honour the innocent by playing for 22 consecutive days on different city locations – usually the ruins, the streets or cemeteries of sarajevo (figures 2 and 3). “smajlovic’s quixotic requiem became an irresistible symbol of european civilization under siege” (the daily beast, 1993), and his performance of albinoni’s adagio in g minor filled the air in the midst of the battle and made a stand against war and violence. two smaller theatres remained open throughout the war: youth theatre and chamber theatre 55, and during the war sartr or sarajevo war theatre (sarajevski ratni teatar) was founded in 1992. actors and associates of the existing professional theatres in sarajevo gathered around sartr and gave around 2000 performances during the siege (information collected form sartr website). among many other titles, youth theatre produced a premiere of samuel beckett’s waiting for godot, directed by susan sontag, who visited sarajevo on several occasions during the war, and staged the play in 1993. when asked why she had chosen that particular play sontag replied: “beckett’s play, written over forty years ago, seems written for, and about, sarajevo” (sontag, 2003, p. 300). classical tragedies usually have a social purpose. this play might not have as strong antiwar message of the theatre of the oppressed where authors like “brecht aimed to provoke precisely such reflections – as the prelude to action for social change, rather than simply wanting to inspire empathy with his characters” (mayo, 2000, p. 104). sontag unassumingly wanted to do a small contribution and make the actors and the audience feel normal, at least for the duration of the performance. figure 5: the cast of susan sontag’s production of waiting for godot, 1993 sontag describes how the entire group was struggling during rehearsals without heating and light, they lacked appropriate props, the actors were malnourished and could not memorise the lines easily and would get tired quickly. nevertheless, the play premiered with twelve candles on the stage, and actors of all ethnic and religious groups delivered the lines without problem. they acted as friends, fellow citizens. “in sarajevo, as anywhere else, there are more than a few people who feel strengthened and consoled by having their sense of reality affirmed and transfigured by art” (sontag, 2003, pp. 301-302). to list all artistic creations would be impossible, and the above mentioned examples serve here just as an illustration of a vast quantity of events during the siege: poetry days, eurovision song contest, documentaries and feature films made by saga production house, international festival ‘sarajevo winter’, chess competitions, football matches between b&h and unprofor forces, children plays and costume parties, etc. and that was not all. each and every citizen contributed to the city’s spirit never to be defeated. sarajevans kept their humour – many jokes from the war are still told, most of them in the famous figure 4: pasovic, sontag and grebo during one of sontag’s visits to sarajevo black humour style (for example, they were joking that americans did not send the air raid but at least they could have sent a pigeon since it could be cooked and eaten). a group of people contributed to fama’s publication of sarajevo survival guide – with inventive solutions for survival in a besieged city, including a list of recipes mostly explaining how to make something out of nothing (with a warning to use the cookbook at your own peril). even the members of the bosnian army showed their ingenuity when “borrowing” four tanks from the sarajevo museum and returning them at the end of the war with a note they were very useful and they had no complains while using them (donia, 2006, p. 311). such are sarajevans, never losing their high spirits, even during the hardest times. after becoming acquainted with the quantity of cultural production during the siege of sarajevo, one cannot but wonder: what makes you want to go to a film screening or a performance of a theatre play when your basic human needs are cut: you live without water, food, electricity, medical supplies or connection with the rest of the world? moreover, what makes you create culture, when the whole cityscape around you seems to be falling to pieces? figure 6: destruction of sarajevo’s cityscape “social scientists and psychologists have noted that preserving a sense of normalcy is a common response to violence” (maček, 2000, cited in donia, 2006, p. 318). artists’ primary role within a society is to create art, which was, according to this theory, the most “normal” reaction to the war around them. additionally, hayden believes that “when the urban landscape is battered, important collective memories are obliterated” (hayden, 1995, p. 9), so in order to protect their memories and the memories of their city from disappearance and destruction, the artists simply decided to create more than ever – in order for their works to outlive them, and memories to be preserved. “a cityscape is not made of flesh” (sontag, 2004, p. 8) but destroyed buildings could almost be added to the number of casualties in sarajevo (figure 6). the people of sarajevo made it clear that the enemy could crumble the entire cityscape, but not its people – the core of the city. after all, city is “a living organism, not a machine” (landry, 2000, p. 8). significantly, it seems the enemy was thinking similarly in terms of the importance of collective memories and identity. as donia (2006) explains in his book on sarajevo, during several first months, the army of the bosnian serb republic did not target most populated places, or places which were strategically and artillery-wise significant for sarajevan inhabitants. they turned their focus on all most visible manifestations of culture and religion and thus the first major victims of the heavy shelling from the surrounding hills were places like the national and university library of bosnia and herzegovina situated in the old city hall building vijećnica (which was the home for around 3 million books – proofs of mutual coexistence of the peoples in bosnia and herzegovina), the olympic museum, the oriental institute, the main daily newspapers (oslobodjenje) building as well as churches, mosques and the old synagogue. landry (2000) explains how “[c]ultural heritage is the sum of our past creativities and the results of creativity is what keeps society going and moving forward” (p. 6). all these buildings, burned to ashes, were cultural symbols of the city and by destroying these symbolic values a part of the city’s significant history of co-existence and common memories would be deleted, which would prevent it to advance and prosper. in a way, as historian robert donia explains, it was a true “memoricide” (donia, 2006, p. 314). besides it being a “memoricide”, martin coward ‘revives’ the term “urbicide” relating it to the 1992-1995 war in bosnia, and describes it as the “widespread and deliberate destruction of the urban environment” (coward, 2008, p. xii). he focuses primarily on the city of mostar and the destruction of the old bridge (stari most), built during the ottoman time and heavily shelled until it collapsed into the river of neretva. coward argues that from an anthropocentric perspective it is difficult to give such importance to destruction of buildings, but one has to understand that it was the integral part of the destruction of cultural property to perform the ethnic cleansing process. the attachment to and importance of the space and place is clear from a croatian writer slavenka drakulic’s ‘obituary’ she dedicated to the old bridge in mostar, when describing her reaction to photographs of a bosnian woman with a cut throat and the image of the destroyed bridge. the answer reads: why do i feel more pain looking at the image of the destroyed bridge than the image of the woman? perhaps it is because i see my own mortality in the collapse of the bridge, not in the death of the woman […] a dead woman is one of us – but the bridge is all of us. (drakulic, 1993, cited in coward, 2008, p. 11) similarly, michael a. sells describes in his book the bridge betrayed: religion and genocide in bosnia a comparable reaction by a sarajevan woman who lived there during the war and saw the cityscape destruction as well as numerous casualties in a hospital. sells notices that the burning of the library struck her with special horror. in the fire of the national library, she realized that what she was experiencing was not only war but also something else. the centuries of culture that fell back in ash onto the besieged city revealed a secret. (sell, 1996, cited in coward, 2008, p. 1) figure 7: the city hall (vijećnica) burning after heavy shelling in 1992 one of the highest achievements of bosnian and herzegovinian culture was disappearing in fire and together with it shared history and memories of co-existence. that hurt some people more than the injuries on their bodies – which could eventually heal. so, to come back to the artistic creation during the war – it must be that, stimulated by the destruction of the collective memories of the city, the citizens answered with a creative endeavour taking them to creation of new memories. and which were the memories that the citizens were trying to protect? which identity, and whose city was it? a nation has been defined as a society that “occupies a particular territory and includes a common identity, history and destiny (johnson, 1995, p. 188). in that sense, due to the complex ethnic structure, the articulation of national or ethnic identity was quite difficult and problematic for people in bosnia and herzegovina, especially for those coming from mixed marriages – many of whom lived in the capital. some of them simply declared only their yugoslav identity (and, absurdly, some still do). just as in the case of cieszyn lutherans in poland described in marian kempny’s study about their locality, in war sarajevo “national identification ceased to be a decisive factor in the process of identity construction” (kempny, 2002, p. 66). communities based on ethnicity, religion, age or social statuses were not the primary ones. of course, there were “connections arising out of shared experiences, relationships, histories, territories and practices” (ibid., p. 15). nevertheless, the people of sarajevo created a new community based on shared locality, i.e. the city, but at the same time they shared same interests and experience. as popple (2003) nicely explains, “communities of interest can be based upon people sharing a common condition or problem” (p. 39). community was never precisely defined, but here it is worth noting anthony p. cohen’s (2002) observation that “[it] has become a way of designating that something is shared among a group of people at a time when no longer assume that anything is necessarily shared” (p. 169, original italics). the sameness of the people of sarajevo was the war oppression. thus, no matter how much the issue of identity was problematic for sarajevans before the war, they all agreed in one – that was their city and they belonged to it, regardless of them being bosniaks, croats or serbs, since there were surely members of all three major ethnic groups defending it – on the front lines, or, as previously mentioned artists, by creating new city culture and memories. their primary important aspect of identity was that they were citizens of sarajevo – the city as it used to be before the destruction. sarajevo as a place became extremely important for all those people who remained there and created strong social bonds between themselves and the city. we can see this in the example of the cellist of sarajevo. in an interview for new york times smajlovic said: “my mother is a muslim and my father is a muslim, but i don’t care. i am a sarajevan, i am a cosmopolitan, i am a pacifist. i am nothing special, i am a musician, i am a part of the town. like everyone else, i do what i can” (people building peace website). of course, here one has to clarify that “citizen” as a term used in the text above relates to an inhabitant of a city and not member of a state, and professor painter affirms “that there is no simple correspondence between citizenship and national identity” (painter, 2005, p. 6). he furthermore explains how “[g]eographies of citizenship have become increasingly dislocated from those of national belonging” (ibid), which coincides with the priority given to this particular definition of “citizen” in this case, due to the complexity of national identity. it might be that the people of sarajevo linked citizenship with the city specifically because that identity was the safest one for all entity groups. another link among the people was their cultural identity. there are different ways to define cultural identity according to hall, and the first position defines ‘cultural identity’ in terms of one, shared culture, a sort of collective ‘one true self’, hiding inside the many other, more superficial or artificial imposed ‘selves’, which people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common. (hall, 1994, p. 393) the second one recognises that, as well as the many points of similarity, there are also critical points of deep and significant difference which constitute ‘what we really are’; or rather – since history has intervened – ‘what we have become’ […] cultural identity, in this second sense, is a matter of ‘becoming’ as well as ‘being’. (ibid., p. 394, original italics) one can say that, during the war, sarajevans who kept many different identities within themselves developed the ‘collective self’ beyond the differences among them and transformed their identity to a common one. one way or another, they were all extremely shaped by the cultural legacy of their ancestors and found the “common language” to unite them in their difference. “for some, culture represents a protective ‘shield’ to guard them against unwelcome change, for others it represents a ‘backbone’ with which to face the future” (landry, 2000, p. 39). in sarajevo’s case, it might have been both – culture guarded the citizens from the horrors around them as well as gave them some hope that one day – hopefully soon – this will all be in the past. in the end, what mattered most to them was not so much what they were, but what they were not – enemies, “them”, “others”. another forced identity to which sarajevo citizens were thrown to was the balkan identity. trying to remove the popular tag “the bloody balkans”, when organizing events like, for example, sarajevo film festival during the siege, the citizens of sarajevo saw it as “a way of reminding the world that this city fought a war because it believed it had earned a place in that cosmopolitan artistic cosmos” (turan, 2002, p. 107). feeling abandoned by the rest of the (mostly western) world, they wanted to revive their european identity, or, even broader, be part of the bigger world again. finally, after explaining various reasons which triggered heightened culture productivity during the war in sarajevo, we come back to the question from the beginning of this essay: “what is the role of culture in times of ongoing crisis, as has been the case in bosnia and colombia?” (yudice, 2003, p. 338). can culture ease the conflict? does it have the power to stop the war? the oxford english dictionary, among other definitions, describes war as “any kind of active hostility or contention between living beings, or of conflict between opposing forces or principles” (the oxford english dictionary – vol. xii, 1933, p. 80), and warfare as “the act or state of conflict” (ibid., p. 97) which defines ‘war’ and ‘warfare’ as a type of conflict. looking back at history and knowing what happened in the case of sarajevo, one knows that, no matter how strong it was, cultural activity did not stop the conflict, it did not stop the war. why did it fail, and should we call it a failure? i believe it did not fail, because its purpose was not to accomplish any bigger impact than it was. arts are often used as a tool for conflict resolution and reconciliation. however, once the conflict is brought to an extreme, as in the case of sarajevo war, we can only talk about arts helping the community keep sanity, show resistance and serve as a confirmation of people’s city identity. once the escalated violence and conflict is kept under control, arts take on another role and help peacekeeping and reconciliation. of course, the example of sarajevo is not sui generis. any severe catastrophe – war, or a natural disaster, would have similar results. it might be that the case of sarajevo is simply extremely complex, as filmmaker srdjan karanovic puts in plain words: “here history is very complicated, there is conflict and remembrance from every period” (karanovic cited in turan, 2002, p. 91). nevertheless, it used to be something extremely positive in past, and sarajevo-born theatre director haris pasovic tried to explain to susan sontag while they worked on waiting for godot together: “you can’t imagine what it used to be like here. it was paradise” (pasovic cited in sontag, 2003, p. 316). even foreigners understood the city’s uniqueness and, to use the words of film director paul alden robinson “[b]efore the war it was the one place where people got along, a combination of small town openness and warmth and big city sophistication; it was the best vision we have of ourselves” (turan, 2002, p. 93). remembering this almost idealised picture of the city possibly motivated artists even more in their struggle to keep the city’s former spirit alive. many journalists and war photographers hope that showing the rest of the world the horrors of war would make a significant change. but the photograph “the napalm girl” by nick ut did not end the vietnam war. susan sontag’ play did not help end the war in sarajevo, as well as all the activities of jews during the ww2 did not have any conflict resolution aim. jean baudrillard wrote: the people of sarajevo are not bothered by such questions. being where they are, they are in the absolute need to do what they do, to do the right thing. they harbour no illusion about the outcome and do not indulge in self-pity. this is what it means to be really existing, to exist within reality […] this is why they are alive, while we are dead. (baudrillard, 1994) all creative solutions within arts and culture section during the war were not there to solve problems and were not catalysts for change. but later, they did and still do play a significant role in peacekeeping and reconciliation processes. since the war ended, sarajevo film festival is dedicating a special part of their program to children, “which started when director purivatra realized that the four-year siege meant that a generation of children hadn’t had the opportunity to see the movies on the big screen” (turan, 2002, p. 108). buses bring children from all over bosnia and herzegovina – both entities – to children matinee program, similar to the later constructed idea of kids’ festival organized every year since 2004. sarajevo film festival brings some of its program outside of the capital too, to areas where people might not even have a cinema to visit – all having “a special role to play in binding the wounds of wars, advancing regional cooperation and reconciliation, and promoting peace and human rights” (people building peace website). some projects exist so that the horrors of war do not fall into oblivion. young actress zana marjanovic leads a project in the last couple of years, where actors and ordinary citizens take part in a performance where they count the number of victims of the srebrenica massacre. artists still carry memories which need to be told. this might be the main reason why they mostly reflect the war in their work. most of the post-war films are about the war or consequences of war. an example could be the recent film by contemporary artist sejla kameric 1395 days without red, in which the main character, played by spanish actress maribel verdú, is reliving the experience of the trauma of the siege. it is her individual journey through the collective memory of the city. “cities have always been, and will always be, places of heterogeneity” (bridge & watson, 2000, p. 255). in this paper, i tried to illustrate the complexity of sarajevo’s heterogeneity and the search of its war troubled citizens for identity within the city. in a truly lafebvreian manner, the citizens expressed their right to the city and i argue that exactly because of the strength of the urbicidal affects, sarajevo’s citizens, and especially artists, were fighting against this war with strong cultural production in the besieged city. after providing several examples of art during the siege, i explained what might have been the reasons for such a rich cultural production during the war, using some of the theories about identity, loss of common memories and urbicide. finally, i discussed the purpose of culture during the war and that only in a less complex conflicts arts and culture could be used as tools for dissuasion of conflict and consensus. sometimes it seems culture in sarajevo is struggling more today than it did during the siege – due to the lack of budget, many institutions might close their doors to public, many artists left the city, and those who are still there, in these times of social poverty and more global problems, are hoping for affectionate audience as was in the time of the city’s siege. on one occasion, actor and director of sarajevo’s youth theatre nermin tulic, who himself became a paraplegic as an early victim of the war, declared that he missed the war because then we were all better people (seksan and hadzovic, 2002). anyhow, it is certain that “[c]ulture helps us to adapt to change by anchoring our sense of being; it shows that we come from somewhere and have a story to tell; it can provide us with confidence and security to face the future” (landry, 2000, p. 39), which was exactly the role of culture during the siege in sarajevo. thus, wilde’s belief that “all art is quite useless” does not hold ground. as described in people building piece ii, it is doubtful whether vedran smailovic managed to save a single life, shorten the bosnian war, or speed the end of the siege of sarajevo by even one day. almost certainly, his brave actions made little impression on the serb gunners who continued their merciless shelling of sarajevo from the hilltops surrounding the city; if they were aware of his existence at all. he did not see himself as a peacebuilder. yet his story has been often repeated and his actions have been held up to the world as a symbol of inspiring courage and nonviolent resistance in the face of horrible violence and human suffering (people building peace website). the time to grasp the entirety of purposes and consequences of artistic production during the war in sarajevo has not yet ended and as long as there are such inspiring people as those described in this essay it gives hope in the brighter future of this “crazy but charismatic town” (purivatra cited in turan, 2002, p. 93). figure 8: (photographer – tom stoddart) burnt unis towers seen through the shattered windows of the holiday inn hotel – the towers were called “momo” and “uzeir”, and these typical bosniak and serbian names were another proof of ethnic and cultural coexistence references amin a. and thrift n. 2002. cities: reimagining the urban. cambridge: polity press. andreas, p. 2008. blue helmets and black markets: the business of survival in the siege of sarajevo. ithaca: cornell university press. baudrillard, j. 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(ed.) 2002. realizing community: concepts, social relationships and sentiments. london: routledge. ch.9. coward m. 2009. urbicide – the politics of urban destruction. new york: taylor and francis group, routledge, retrieved from url http://www.ewidgetsonline.com/dxreader/reader.aspx?token=v+pphsyyi wdigcmc2vu0vw%3d%3d&rand=1838137898&buynowlink=&page= &chapter= donia, robert j. 2006. sarajevo, a biography. london: hurst & company. du preez bezdrob, a. m. 2006. sarajevo roses: war memoir of a peacekeeper. johannesburg: struik publishers. florida, r. 2004. the rise of the creative class and how it's transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life. new york: basic books. florida, r. 2005. cities and the creative class. new york: routledge. hall, s. 1994. ‘cultural identity and diaspora’ in williams p. and chrisman l. (eds.) colonial discourse and post-colonial theory, a reader. london: pearson education limited. hayden, d. 1995. the power of place: urban landscapes as public history. cambridge: mit press. jenks, c. 1993. culture. london: routledge. johnson, a. 1995. the blackwell dictionary of sociology. oxford: blackwell. kempny, m. 2002. cultural islands in the globalising world: community-cumlocality of the cieszyn silesian lutherans. in: amit, v. (ed.) (2002). realizing community: concepts, social relationships and sentiments. london: routledge. ch.4. landry, c. 2000. the creative city: a toolkit for urban innovators. london: earthscan. malcolm, n. 1994. bosnia, a short history. london: pan books. mayo, m. 2000. cultures, communities, identities: cultural strategies for participation and empowerment. new york: plagrave murray, j. et al. (eds.) 1933. the oxford english dictionary vol. 12: v-z. oxford: clarendon press. seksan v. and hadzovic s. 2002. ‘trijumf volje’ dani magazine (no. 251), 5 april. retrieved from: http://www.bhdani.com/arhiva/251/t25124.shtml (accessed: 21 december 2011). sells, michael a. 1996. the bridge betrayed: religion and genocide in bosnia. london: university of california press. sontag, s. 2003. where the stress falls. london: vintage. sontag, s. 2004. regarding the pain of others. new york: picador. stoddart, t. 1997. edge of madness: sarajevo, a city and its people under siege / photographs by tom stoddart and alastair thain. london: south bank centre turan, k. 2002. sundance to sarajevo: film festivals and the world they made. london: university of california press, ltd. yudice, g. 2003. the expediency of culture: uses of culture in the global era. london: duke university press. zelizer, c. 2003. the role of artistic processes in peace-building in bosniaherzegovina. in: peace and conflict studies, volume 10, 2. fall 2003 (pp. 62-75). retrieved from: http://shss.nova.edu/pcs/journalspdf/v10n2.pdf (accessed: 22 december 2011) zuvela, m. 2011. ‘sarajevo film festival awards jailed iranian director’ reuters, u.s edition, 22 july. retrieved from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/23/us-bosnia-festivalidustre76m07520110723 (accessed: 22 december 2011) bisera mavric.pdf � � � epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 psycho-social conception of national identity and collective self-esteem bisera mavri� ∗∗∗∗ abstract this paper deals with the phenomenon of national identity as well as with its connection to personal and collective self-esteem. national identity and associated phenomena have so far mainly been investigated as part of sociology, anthropology and political science, since psychology was less engaged in the issue. the national identity out of all kinds of social identity had the greatest influence on historical events. the consequences for the human race, through history, have been both positive and negative. understanding the importance of this phenomenon has not only theoretical but also practical value for encouraging international tolerance. in recent years, national identity is a topic of interest for many researchers, mainly because of political events and frequent conflicts that are associated with ethnicity. this concept is especially important for bosnian citizens who are still struggling with consequences from the recent conflicts in this multiethnic country. most previous scientific papers explain their results within one of three theoretical frameworks: the social identity theory, theories of acculturation and cultural conflict, and the development of the theory of identity formation. due to geopolitical changes in europe, the growing interest of psychology to national identity is present, and thus the number of diverse research in this area. in many of them, there is a question about whether reinforces strong identification with the national group as a positive self-image and self-esteem contributes to it. key words: psycho-social, national identity, ethnicity, collective selfesteem ����������������������������������������������������������� ∗ corresponding author: bisera mavri�, assistant professor; faculty of arts and social sciences, international univeristy of sarajevo, e-mail: bmavric@ius.edu.ba b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem ���� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� introduction national identity colors numerous aspects of everyday life. awareness of being a member of certain social category and emotional importance of this association builds the social identity. the process of social identification associated with group behavior involve: ethnocentrism, distinguishing into groups, conformity to group norms, appeal of own group and perception of another who is different. social identification leads to these effects as well as to prejudice and stereotypes because it is connected with the social categorization (francesco et al., 2002). through the process of social categorization of people, things and phenomena in environment are placed in a certain categories based on their common heavy features. often the information that people receive from the environment make it easier for human’s knowledge of the world simplified. categorization emphasizes similarities of people within the same category, their different diversity of members of other categories. the process of social categorization leads to the formation of stereotypes and prejudices, attitudes towards members of other categories or groups (francesco et al., 2003). the fact that people identify with their social groups has become almost crucial to the explanation b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem ��&� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� of different intra and intergroup phenomena such as conflicts among different nations (hui, 2004). the human need for self expression, the need for at least a certain aspect of self to be seen as constituted by a sense of collectivity and shared identity and not simply autonomous make it impossible to deny the reality of psycho-social conception of both national identity and collective self-esteem. national identity groups with which people identify among the variety of them are certainly nations. social identity stemmed from the feeling of belonging and identification with particular nation is called the national identity. national identity for an individual has the cognitive, emotional and motivational means of which it makes the subject interests of psychological research (siber, 1998). the theory of social identity made by authors tajfel and turner (1986) is the first theory that fully engulfed the concept of social identity. this study explores its default settings, with the special focus on national identity as a kind of social identity. within the theory i will explain the concepts of personal and collective self-esteem and observe their relationship with national b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem ��'� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� identity. hopefully provided explanations should enlightened the complexity of bosnian national identity as well. the people of bosnia must understand their own position in order to behave and live in accordance with that position. theories social identity theory emerged in the mid-70s of the twentieth century and was made by authors tajfel and turner (1986). it is the first theory that systematically affected the concept of social identity and put it in the focus of social psychology. the theory deals with membership in the group, group processes and intergroup group relations (tajfel and turner 1989). its basic premise is that the most only membership in a group is sufficient for providing the individual development of the feeling of belonging. according to tajfel and turner social identity is defined as the part of individuals sense of self that comes from the awareness that he is a member determined specific group (or groups), but also forms the emotional importance to him as affiliation (tajfel, 1981, p. 255). social identity theory states that individual social identity is based on affiliation to specific groups that his social identity consists of aspects of their self-image which results from b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem ���� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� those groups which human belongs to. certain social categories within the group are excited about social identity (francesco et al., 2003). different authors will agree that the social identity of an individual depends on two processes: recognizing their similarities with members of their group and perceptions of different diversity in compared to members of other groups (brewer, 1993, calhoun 1994, francesco et al., 2002). it is important to emphasize that an individual can have as many social identities as a group with which to identify. they vary in their importance that is salient for self-image depending on the situation in which the individual is located. according to the theory of identity salience stryker et al. (1994), an individual is more likely to identify with those groups that are prominent in their everyday life. in some social situation more pronounced will be the identity that involves relationships with several close people. social identity theory emphasizes the differences between the personal and social identity. personal identity is based on the idea of the uniqueness of each individual and its different diversity from all other people. it stems from the characteristics of the capabilities of the individual and his b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem ���� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� relationships with other people. personal identity is based on the individual values, ideas, emotions, goals, and self perception. social identity, as it is mentioned earlier, refers to the individual self perception as the member of group to which it belongs. however, belonging to a group and social identification are possible only when compared with groups that do not belong to. social identity refers to the distinction from other groups. social identity can be seen as a contradiction as well because it is difficult to understand how an individual can simultaneously feel different from each other but still similar to them. however, researches on real social groups have shown that personal and social identities are associated (s. worchel et al., 1998). according to tajfel and turner (1986) social identity can be positive or negative depending on how the individual assesses their own social group, regardless of personal characteristics or achievements within the group. social identity of an individual depends on his own evaluation of the groups and the perception of how others evaluate the group (s. worchel et al., 1998). in case your own group is estimated as positive compared with other groups, social identity is positive (mummendey, 1985, according b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem ��(� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� to francesco et al., 2003). the fundamental assumption of the theory of social identity is that membership in the group and feelings of belonging are contributing to the positive image of each individual. positive and negative social identity positive social identity provides a person the feeling of security, self-esteem, self-worth and affiliation. future individual self-image will be based on own characteristics and the characteristics of the group to which they belong, so individual seeks group which is evaluated positively. it primarily makes the process of social comparison of own groups with other groups. the negative social identity refers to situation where individual's own group is estimated as negative compared with the comparative groups. it often happens that members of minority groups, in contact with a bigger majority group, develop low selfesteem, because they are perceived as belonging to an inferior group. tajfel and turner (1986) list some of ways in which the inferior group faces negative social identity. these are: social competence / members of a group trying to impartial way increase in the group and in the society. for example, members of ethnic b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem �(!� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� minorities established political parties in order to participate in local government. organizing different cultural happenings and events to the public present their cultural and ordinary drives. individual mobility people with negative social identity may discard and replace certain group as a group that poses better basis for the development of a positive social identity. moreover, it is not possible with category boundaries involved, such as race or gender. different strategy of social creativity: a) comparative neglect of the dimension in which the comparison unfavorable for inferior group and search for new dimension on which will be more favorable comparisons, b) the choice of less threatening will out group comparison. inferior group does not slow with the dominant group than the minorities in a way when the outcome is advantageous. the consequence is the development of pride in the group. discrimination and vilification of other groups to own a group of experienced as superior and better. tajfel and turner states that people, in order to achieve a positive social identity, perceived their own group, not only as positive, but as better than other groups. national identity from all kinds of social identity had the greatest impact and the historical events devices. the b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem �(�� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� consequences for humanity, throughout history, have been both positive and negative. understanding the importance of this phenomenon has not only theoretical but also practical value necessary to encourage international tolerance. in recent years, national identity is the subject of interest of many researchers primarily because of political developments and frequent conflicts that are associated with a national belongingness (siber, 1998). psychological aspect of a nation psychological aspect of a nation is defined as a feeling of belonging, community, and as a system of attitudes towards their own ethnic group. national feeling is a feeling of belonging that is formed within a certain social group. however, besides the national feeling of subjective categories it largely depends on the behavior of others towards us and on their evaluation of our national identification. national identity and associated phenomena have so far mainly been investigated as part of sociology, anthropology and political science, and psychology to a lesser degree. in recent years, due to geopolitical changes in europe, growing interest in psychology to national identity has been present. most previous works b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem �( � ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� explaining their results within one of three theoretical frameworks: the theory of social identity theory of acculturation and cultural conflict, and developmental theories of identity formation (phinney, 1990). according to social identity theory membership in the group in the individual arises the feeling of belonging and built the positive social identity. an individual with their national groups share common beliefs, attitudes, values, ordinary drivers, language and religion. if we take as an example the fusion of religious and ethnic national identity in bosnia and herzegovina the distinction between "us" from "them" leads to understanding of national identity, which is constantly changing and is created through interaction and retreat borders to other groups. different religious groups do not accept the same national identity. subjective identification of the individual with the group is essential for national identity but also the recognition concerned group of by external members (hui, 2004). many studies raised the question if the strong identification with a national group contributes towards a positive image of yourself and higher self-esteem. when the dominant group in society underestimates or demeans a minority b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem �()� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� group member of minority groups can develop negative social identity (phinney, 1990). contact with bigger majority group of members and minority groups can get to the development of low self-esteem because they are perceived as members of inferior groups. there are several different ways to "defense" the inferior group. tajfel and turner (1986) say that the identification with their own group is mostly pronounced when the boundaries between into tight groups, status refers unstable and when differences are perceived as illegitimate (ellemers et al 1988). according to phinney (1990), the identification of the two different groups can occur in people under the influence of two or more cultures. it may adversely affect the development of the national identity of members of minority groups due to a conflict of values, attitudes and norms behavior between them and most majority groups. impact of two cultures or more cultures in some situations can have positive effects on the cultural identity of the individual. it is the most common to happen when cultures are compatible, similar in terms of norms, values and attitudes. acculturation model emphasizes that the national identity can speak just in case when there is prolonged contact between the b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem �(�� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� two or more ethnical group, which then let a broader analysis of the changes in cultural attitudes, values and behavior which is the case in our country. developmental theories developmental theories are the third in the group of theories of national identity. according to them national identity is considered to be dynamic and changing anyone in time and context. based on the theory of development of erikson egoidentity of individual assumes a long process of research and experimentation (fulgosi, 1983). development of national identity is seen as a process where an individual examination of the role of national identity in their lives. the process consists of three phases. the first phase is diffused, unexplored national identity. according to the model, at this stage there are adolescents and those adults who have not been exposed review their own national identity. as quoted in phinney (1990) key term period for the formation of national identity is considered the transition from primary to secondary school. some authors believe that at this stage of minorities occurs preferences the dominant culture. however, it is not necessarily so because it is possible that young people were not interested in national issues b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem �(&� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� and not thinking about them. it is also possible that parents take positive national attitudes and therefore do not show a preference to the biggest group. research of own national identity is the result of experience that has generated awareness of the individual of belonging to a certain group. this process involves various activities such as reading about ethnicity, participation in cultural events etc. for minorities this process can include both acceptance and rejection of the dominant culture. according to the process model, the development of national identity results in a better understanding of their nationality in the internalization of national identity. because of different personal and historical experiences internalized national identity has different apparent means of the different individuals and groups. internalized national identity internalized national identity does not necessarily imply a high degree of ethnicity but includes exposure of an individual who may be aware of their national affiliation. phinney (1990) states that minority at this stage faces supporting with two fundamental problems: a) cultural difference between their own and the dominant group and b) lower to their own group society. b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem �('� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� according to the model phinney, the adoption of national identity does not necessarily end of the process of its development. the model emphasizes the dynamic aspect of adoption of national identity. phinney (1990) says that, when it comes to the dominant group, phase changes slower than at minority groups, because there is a longer stay at the stage of the diffusion of national identity. members of the dominant group simply take the value of their groups and have less need for research of their own national identity as resulting in little change of phase of national identity. deaux (1996) states that positive attitudes are the most commonly expressed and explored through positive affective reactions as pride and satisfaction and acceptance in regard of strengthening of their own group. the lack of positive attitudes and/or express negative attitudes towards their own national group can be seen as a denial of its own national identity. negative attitudes can manifest itself as a desire for it to be become member of another ethnic group (phinney, 1990). according to the international social survey programme (issp) 22 european countries showed interesting results. a higher level of national pride show that participants have a strong feeling of national belonging that is b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem �(�� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� feeling the case "close" to his country. older and less educated participants show bigger national pride, while the difference based on gender was not determined (orcs and kamen, 1998). it also included exposure to the work and life of their own ethnic group and referred to how individuals involved in maintaining the tradition and culture. the research used the most common indicators included exposure to: the use of national language, the way of friendships and intimate relationships, i.e., whether it is for them belonging to the same ethnic important, how is group affiliation determined, particular religion and its practice, participation in activities and the formation of social and national institutions (homeland, clubs, societies), it also included exposure to political activities for the betterment of their own national group, the selection of housing with respect to the national affiliation, the fostering of national values, interest in the country of origin, and knowledge of national history and culture (phinney, 1990). rot and havelka (by siber, 1998) assume that there are five types of national attachment: first is the national attachment, characterized by a distinct awareness of belonging to their own nation, the only score that affiliation is important and means b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem �(�� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� significant, and contempt of other nations. the authors believe that this form of national attachment corresponding terms in the literature signifies concepts as ethnocentrism, nationalism or national chauvinism. furthermore, they are talking about prominent national attachment that involves patriotism and a certain national level of acceptance and strengthening of the existence of other national affiliation. conclusion multiple national attachments are a form of internationalism that is characterized by feelings such as loyalty to their own nation, but also the desire for international cooperation and understanding. loyalty is primarily reflected by mankind, according to what is judged human, valuable and advanced for all nations and peoples. prominent international ties are characterized by attachment to the human community and strive to overcome narrow national interests. this would be the identifying sign of cosmopolitanism. the absence of national attachment or individualism or lack of attachment to any nation or the national feeling is considered unnecessary and harmful. a series of studies b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem �((� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� were conducted in order to verify this theoretical model. in this scope, if bosnia is a name for any kind of identity, its content is not the mathematical sum of nations or national cultures. its content lies in permanent cultural interaction. the name bosnian is not a term for a national order, or only a regional or territorial one. it is a name for the process of civilization that lasts for a millennium, through historical changes and political adversities practiced with vitality by all. in this ongoing process of interaction special identities retained exposing themselves to the continuous culture change. references bray, b. m. (2001). the influence of academic achievement on a college student's self-esteem. http://clearinghouse.mwsc.edu/manuscripts/225.asp. brewer, m. b. (1993). social identity, distinctiveness, and in-group homogeneity. social cognition, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 150-164. calhoun, c. (1994). social theory and the politics of identity, in calhoun, c. (ed.) social theory and the politics of identity. cambridge mass: blackwell publishers. cinnirella, m. (1997). towards a european identity, interactions between the national and european social identities manifested by university students in britain and italy. british journal of social psychology, 36,1, 19-31. corkalo, d. i kamenov, ž. (1998) nacionalni identitet i medjunacionalna tolerancija, izvještaj s viii. ljetne psihologijske škole, odsjek za psihologiju filozofskog fakulteta u zagrebu. deaux, k. (1996). social identitety in: social psychology handbook of basic principles, higgins, e. t. & kruglanski, a. w. (eds.), guilford press. b. mavri� national identity and collective self-esteem !!� ����� ��� ��� ������� ��������� ���������������������������� !��"�#�$ ���������%���� ������ ������ ���� ellemers, n., van knippenberg, a., de vries, n. & wilke, h. (1988). social identification and permeability of group boundaries. european journal of social psychology, no. 18, pp. 497-513. franceško, m., kodžopeljic, j., majstorovic, n. i mihic, v. (2002). aspekti evropskog identiteta operacionalizovani skalom euroid2002, licnost u višekulturnom društvu, vol. 4, str. 105-114. forum bosnae journal, reconstruction and deconstruction, ifb , 2007. fulgosi, a. (1983). psihologija licnosti: teorije i istraživanja, školska knjiga, zagreb. jelic, m. (2003). provjera postavki teorije socijalnog identiteta na etnickim grupama, magistarski rad, filozofski fakultet u zagrebu. international forum bosnia, www. mfb.ba. lackovicgrgin k. (1994) samopoimanje mladih, naklada slap, jastrebarsko. luhtanen, r. i crocker, j. (1992). a collective self-esteem scale: selfevaluation of one`s social identity. personality and social psychology bulletin, vol. 18, no.3, 302-318. miloševic. j. (2003). jedan pokušaj klasifikacije teorijskih razmatranja nacionalnog identiteta, psihologija, vol. 36 (2). phinney, j. s. (1990). ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: review of research. psychological bulletin, no. 108, pp. 499-514. rosenberg, m. (1965). society and adolescent self-image, princeton, new yersey, princeton university press. šiber, i. (1988). psihologijski aspekti medjunacionalnih odnosa. zagreb: kulturno prosvjetni sabor hrvatske. šiber, i. (1998). osnove politicke psihologije, politika kultura, zagreb. tajfel, h. (1981). human groups and social categories: studies in social psychology. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press tajfel, h. i turner, j. c. (1986). the social identity theory of intergroup conflict. the social psychology of intergroup relations. (pp. 33-47). monterey, ca: brooks/cole. weissbrod, l. (1983). religion as national identity in secular society, review of religious research, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 188 – 205. denita tuce.pdf � � � epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 psychological aspects of elopement: a case in bosnia-herzegovina �enita tuce ∗∗∗∗ abstract despite the fact that an elopement becomes declining marriage practice in bosnia, there are still a significant number of women who marry this way and who are able to share their knowledge on this cultural heritage. it is not call into question that elopement has a great sociological significance for young women. after elopement the marriage gains an achieved status and the girl gets stable position in the society as married women. however, the question posed in this paper is what does elopement imply from psychological point of view? could it be considered as a sign of integrated ego-identity or does it just reflect youthful defiance and spirit of exploration. in addressing these questions, we relied on erikson’s work as a theoretical framework and discussed the relation of elopement and ego-identity within his psychosocial theory of development. keywords: elopement; ego-identity; erikson’s psycho-social theory of development ����������������������������������������������������������� ∗ corresponding author: �enita tuce, senior assistant;faculty of phylosophy, university of sarajevo; e-mail: djenita.tuce@gmail.com � �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement �!� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� introduction in general, the term elopement is used to refer to a marriage conducted in sudden and secretive manner, usually involving hurried flight away from one's home together with one's beloved with the intention of getting married. a bosnian phrase for elopement is ukrala se. it is a long-standing practice in bosnian culture, when a woman leaves her home without her parents' knowledge to live a life with her future husband. elopement often occurs as a result of an impending pre-arranged marriage or in defiance to parents' disapproval of a girl’s choice and decision to marry. it is worth to notice that elopement is different from bride abduction, although studies often discuss these two phenomena together (kudat 1974; after doubt, 2012). although, elopement occurs without knowledge or permission of girl’s parents, it involves the consent of a young girl. bride abduction, on the other hand, occurs when a girl unwillingly is kidnapped into marriage (doubt, 2012). elopement is also different from traditional wedding ceremony, which usually follows after a public period of engagement and after the parents’ permission is received. �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement �*� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� although this custom is changing in bosnia and is not as common as it was sixty years ago, there are still a significant number of young women who get married in such a way (doubt, 2014). in the research conducted in 2013 by mareco index bosnia, a survey research group in sarajevo, the result showed 20.5% of 1.875 subjects reported marrying by elopement. of the respondents, 6.8% married, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-seven, reported to have eloped to marry (doubt, 2014). as it was pointed out by doubt (2014), despite the fact that elopement is becoming declining marriage practice in bosnia, there are still a significant number of women who are able to share their knowledge on this cultural heritage. it is a reason why it is important to study this custom today. in the following lines, there is one story about elopement which happened in 2006. it is a story of the young woman's participation in a close friend's elopement. the elopement story the elopement happened in a town of middle bosnia. her girlfriend decided to elope and get married to a guy whom she was dating for four years and was already engaged to. decision �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement �+� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� for such sudden marriage occurred due to unplanned pregnancy, and the couple decided to do it secretly, because they were afraid of girl parents’ reaction. his parents, on the other hand, were acquainted of the plan and he had their support to take the girl to live with them. at that time, the girl was 22 years old college student. they arranged elopement in 15 days. meanwhile, the girl lived with her parents. she attended college, hid the pregnancy and acted like it was all the usual. her parents didn’t suspect anything and had no idea what was about to happen. several of her best friends, including our storyteller, knew about the plan. although, she kept her girlfriend’s secret and tried to be supportive during this “preparation period”, she was also trying to convince her that it was not a way to get married and to encourage her to talk to her parents and tell them the truth. her girlfriend was aware that her parents will be hurt, but still persisted in her decision to elope. she said that, despite the circumstances, she loved her boyfriend and really wanted to get married with him, but she just couldn’t stand their disappointment and reaction, because they would think that this came too early. �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement $� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� few days before the elopement, her girlfriend told her that there would be a modest wedding party in her future husband’s house, just with a few relatives and the closest friends, and she asked her and other girlfriends to come. all of them accepted invitation, except her. she felt it would be wrong to celebrate this act in the groom’s house, knowing that bride’s parents were in the agony at the same time. “i wouldn’t be able to look her parents in the eyes after that”, she said. so, she didn’t go, but she visited her girlfriend in her house just before she planned to go “on regular date” (as her parents thought). she gave her a hug and wished her all best in the future life. next day, she found out that there was a great party in the groom’s house. there were musicians and nice food, and everybody had good time. few hours after bride’s arrival to the groom’s house, they called her parents and told them that she had eloped. just as it was expected, her parents were shocked. her father was so angry and her mother was out of herself. she got so sick, so they had to give her a glass of water and a pill to calm down. �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement �� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� two days after, all brides’ girlfriends, including our storyteller, went to visit her mother, to see how she was doing and to comfort her. they were being prepared to everything – to anger, to disappointment, to rejection. they knew that they were some kind of accomplices in that act. but, when they arrived, her mother welcomed them and was so happy that they came to visit her. although, she was still sad because of everything, she thanked to those who have gone with her daughter to the groom’s house. “i am so happy that she wasn’t alone and that there was someone from her side of wedding guests”, she said. our storyteller remembered how frustrated she was by that statement, because, she was the only one who didn’t go there and obviously the worst one in the eyes of her girlfriend’s mother. the irony was that she decided not to go, precisely because of them and their sadness. but she didn’t say anything. she just accepted that she was “the black sheep” in the group. today, her girlfriend lives in a happy marriage and has two beautiful sons. her parents forgave her all very soon after everything happened. they have good relationship and visit each �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement � ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� other often. her parents enjoy the company of their grandsons and the elopement has been re-told as the anecdote of their life. this story is in line with many other elopement stories (for more examples see doubt, 2012). there are a few main concepts, which are common to the most of them: secrecy, shock and disappointment of the girl’s parents and their acceptance in the end. also, what is obvious in most of such stories is that elopement results in a change of a girl’s social position and has great sociological significance for young girl. as it was pointed out by doubt (2012), in a short period after elopement, marriage gains achieved status and the girl gets a stable position in the society as married women. our question in this paper, however, is what psychological implications of elopement are? is it just a behavior governed by external circumstances and social conditions or is it more than that? what does this act actually come to signify when it comes to personal characteristics of the women who marry this way? could it be considered as a sign of formed ego-identity which is characterized by clear vision of one’s own future, or it just reflects youthful defiance and spirit of exploration? �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement ,� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� in attempt to address these questions, we are going to rely on erikson’s work as a theoretical framework and discuss the relation of elopement and ego-identity within his psychosocial theory of development. in the following lines, there is a brief overview of erikson’s work as an introduction to discussion of these relations. psychological aspects of elopement erikson’s work, which was greatly influenced by freud, is consistent with freud’s ideas about the structure and topography of personality (hall, lindsey & campbell, 1997). similarly to freud, erikson emphasized that personality develops in a predetermined order, and build upon each previous stage. however, while freud was an id psychologist, erikson was an ego psychologist and his main concern was development of the person within a social context (leman, bremner, parke & gauvain, 2012). according to erikson (1980), the environment in which a child lives is crucial to providing growth, adjustment, selfawareness and identity. erikson (1968; after leman et al., 2012) described development that occurs in eight stages throughout the lifespan. each stage is �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement %� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� associated with a specific developmental task, from which than follows a developmental crisis (leman et al., 2012). for erikson (1980) these crises are psychosocial in nature because they involve psychological needs of the individual conflicting with the requirements of society. according to erikson (1980) a crisis is crucial period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential and can be resolved positively or negatively. in other words, each stage involves opportunities for positive ego development as well as deficits in one's character. these stages represent a sequence of ego growth, occurring as the individual meets the challenges of different periods of life and resolves the conflicts that are dominant in those periods (marcia, 1994). according to the theory, successful overcoming of each stage results in a healthy personality and achieving of personality strengths, which the ego can use to resolve current crises (erikson, 1980). failure to successfully overcome a stage, on the other hand, can result in a reduced ability to complete further stages and therefore a more unhealthy personality and sense of self (erikson, 1980). these stages, however, can be resolved successfully at a later time (berk, 2006). �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement -� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� among all stages, erikson put the greatest deal of emphasis on the adolescent period, stressing it is a crucial stage for developing a person’s identity (berk, 2006). during adolescence, the most important developmental task is transition from childhood to adulthood. children are becoming more independent, and begin to look at the future in terms of career, relationships, families, etc. at the same time, they want to belong to a society and fit in (erikson, 1980). this is a major stage in development where the adolescent, in order to integrate resolutions from all previous stages, will reexamine his identity and try to find out who exactly he or she is. during this period, adolescents explore possibilities and begin to form their own identity based upon the outcome of their explorations. according to erikson (1980), what should happen at the end of this stage is a re-integrated sense of self, of what one wants to do or be. failure to establish a sense of identity within society can lead to role confusion, involving the individuals not being sure about themselves or their place in society (erikson, 1980). �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement �� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� up to this stage development mostly depends upon how we resolve the crisis in previous stages. speaking in terms of erikson (1980), the preconditions of integrated sense of self and personal identity are positive resolutions of the previous crisis. these involve establishing a sense of trust in others in the first stage, a sense of autonomy in the second stage, a sense of purpose and initiative in the third stage and a sense of competence in the fourth stage (erikson, 1980). the next stage of psychosocial development, erikson (1980) characterized as the initial stage of being an adult and called it intimacy vs. isolation, according to main developmental task which is related to forming intimate, loving relationships with other people. successfully resolution of this crisis leads to strong relationships, while failure results in loneliness and isolation. but, as in all previous stages, the positive resolution of this crisis has developmental forerunner at the previous one. it means, that precondition of being able to accomplish intimacy with others is integrated sense of self and personal identity (erikson, 1980). while elopements of bosnian women occur within traditional, patriarchic social structures, they defy parental �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement !� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� authority over a young person’s decision to marriage (doubt, 2012). in that sense, although these women seem sensitive to external circumstances and social conditions, they have made their own decision based upon internalized, self-constructed values. taking that into account, it seems justified to assume that there is a positive relation between elopement and ego-identity. there are few reasons for such assumptions. first, decision to elope indicates that unmarried girl, in her attempt to successful transition to adulthood, re-examines her identity and tries to adopt new role as an adult woman, so she could fit in the society. by undergoing elopement, she demonstrates a clear vision into her own future and enough courage to bring it into action. both of that indicate the integrated sense of personal identity. on the other hand, the elopement by itself shows that girl is willing to form intimate, loving relationship with her future husband, which also, according to erikson (1980), wouldn't be possible without stable and integrated ego-identity. as it was pointed out by erikson (1980), without stable identity, it is difficult to achieve intimacy with other person. it requires that person in a certain way �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement *� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� renounces oneself. so, in order “not to lose oneself”, the person must have a deep inner security and be able to return to oneself after having been close with other person (erikson, 1980). in this regard, genuine and stable binding with others might be considered as a result of verification of strong self-determination and integrated identity. individuals, who don’t have a strong identity, are afraid of intimacy, of losing their autonomy and of drowning their own self into others. faced with these fears, they can either isolate themselves of others or look for the intimacy through repetition of trials and errors (erikson, 1980). in these circumstances, many of them enter into marriage, hoping that, by finding each other, they will find themselves. unfortunately, common outcome for the couples who married while still quite young and immature is divorce (leman et al., 2012). in that sense, it is reasonable to take into consideration the maturity of bosnian women who eloped, since the most of them were quite young when they got into marriage (see doubt, 2012). since the adolescence is a period of exploration of different possibilities, it can be argued whether this decision was a �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement +� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� reflection of maturity and clear vision of the future, or it just reflected youthful rebellion and spirit of exploration. in other words, it may be call into question whether elopement really implies strong ego-identity or, on the contrary, only one of the attempts of forming one, or what marcia (1994) called identity moratorium. in this respect, it is important to emphasize that erikson (1980) considered that achieved identity of an individual, does not remain his permanent achievement and that process of identity formation continues through the person’s life. as he pointed out, identity can be in some later stages, weakened or strengthened, as well as changed (erikson, 1980). in that sense, the possibility that elopement gave the young women an achieved ego-identity is not questionable. as it was pointed out by doubt (2014), most of these women reported that they felt stronger and more self-confident, after this act. but, what makes elopement more than just a phase of exploration in order to form ego-identity is commitment, which is clearly highlighted in the narratives of elopements by bosnian women (see doubt, 2012). this virtue is, according to erikson (1980), the main achievement in this stage of development and the most important sign of formed identity. �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement ,$� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� when there is a lack of commitment, as erikson (1980) pointed out, the young person, although sexually mature, cannot become neither spouse, nor parent. this is in line with marcia’s (1994) definition of final identity status, which he called identity achievement. this identity status represents both a high degree of exploration and a high degree of commitment. according to marcia (1994), at this identity status adolescents will experiment with many different beliefs and values, and analyze their pathway in life, but they will be able to prioritize what is important to them and will sort through many possibilities of who they want to be. marcia (1994) also pointed out that in order to fully achieve this type of identity, the young person must feel positive and confident about his/her decisions and values. identity moratorium, on the other hand, refers to the identity status which represents high degree of exploration but a low degree of commitment. at this status, adolescents are in the midst of an identity crisis which has required them to explore and experiment with different values, beliefs and goals. however, they have not made any final decisions about which beliefs and values are most important to them, and which principles should guide their lives. in other �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement ,�� ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� words, they have not been committed to a particular identity yet (marcia, 1994). conclusion a crucial feature of elopement is that the young woman autonomously chooses to elope and form loving, intimate relationship with her future husband. the old values and ascribed roles are seriously examined and new alternatives are explored. the young woman chooses the future and makes a commitment, even as she is determined by social condition and her past. taking into account all of these, as well as the analysis based on erikson’s theory, it seems justified to advocate the assumption that decision to elope implies more than just a reflection of youthful rebellion and spirit of exploration and could be considered as a sign of formed ego identity. of course, these assumptions would be worth verifying through empirical research at some point in the future. references berk, l. 2006. development through the lifespan (4 nd ed.). boston, ma: allyn & bacon, inc. doubt, k. 2012. “elopements of bosnian women.” anthropology of east europe review, 30(2): 91-101 �. tuce psychological aspects of elopement , � ����������� ������ ����������������������������� ���!��" �����# $�%&�'�(������� ��)��������� �������������� doubt, k. 2014. “elopement and ego-identity in the narratives of bosnian women.” in m. adamovi�, b. gali�, a. gvozdanovi�, a. maskalan, d. poto�nik, l. somun krupalija (eds.). young women in post-yugoslav societies: research, practice and policy (pp. 287-304). zagreb and sarajevo: institute for social research in zagreb, human rights centre, university of sarajevo erikson, e.h. 1980. identiy and the life cycle. new york: w.w. norton & company, inc. hall, c. s., lindzey, g., & campbell, j. b. 1997. theories of personality (4 th ed.). new york: john wiley & sons leman, p., bremner, a.j., parke, r.d, & gauvain, m. 2012. developmental psychology. london: mcgraw-hill marcia, j.e. 1994. “the empirical study of ego identity.” in h.a., bosma, t.l.g., graafsma, h.d. grotevant & d.j. de levita (eds.). identity and development: an interdisciplinary approach (pp. 67-80). london: sage publications, inc. introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 james joyce's ulysses: the search for value aouda aljohani* abstract two chapters, "scylla and charybdis" and "penelope," in james joyce's ulysses are crucial to an understanding of the novel as a whole. "scylla and charybdis" stands midway in the novel, the ninth of eighteen chapters, and is designed to serve as a kind of exegesis of the writer's methods and intentions. an analysis of that chapter helps to explain the meaning of the controversial final chapter, "penelope," and to clarify its thematic and stylistic relation to the text as a whole. ulysses is the story of a quest, actually of many quests that all coalesce into a single goal: the search for value in a modern world that is somehow diminished and constructed in comparison with the homeric world where mortals strode the universe in company with gods and goddesses. how, in this dwarfed setting, can men and women redefine heroism in secular humanistic terms relevant to twentieth-century life? almost by definition a quest narrative culminates in the attainment of the goal or in the potential for its attainment; joyce's ulysses affirms this possibility in "penelope." keywords: james joyce; ulysses; scylla; charybdis; penelope * corresponding author: aouda aljohani; assistant professor, institute for research and consulting studies, taibah university, saudi arabia; e-mail: drjohani99@hotmail.com. mailto:drjohani99@hotmail.com a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [2] joyce has provided us with a way to approach "penelope" by explaining the aesthetic, the modus operandi that informs the total work, in "scylla and charybdis," though in relying on "scylla" for a perspective it is essential to make certain discriminations. while the aesthetic theory that stephen annunciates in "scylla and charybdis" is in certain fundamental ways joyce's own, stephen at this point cannot be conflated with joyce. stephen, as we see him in the library, could never have written ulysses, and so the chapter is as much about what is lacking in the would-be artist as it is about the genesis of art. in this most self-reflexive of chapters, thematic threads from the preceding chapters are gathered for us into a more coherent pattern. stephen's problems are highlighted, as are the pitfalls lying in wait for him; we realize more clearly that some experience or relationship must occur if he is to become an artist. above all, we are introduced to a new character who, like the ghost in hamlet, will be the architect and controlling force of all that happens. this character is joyce, the completed artist, who makes his authorial presence consistently felt "scylla and charybdis" to a degree not apparent in the previous eight chapters. here, with his punning, his word play that mimics or parodies the movements and speeches of the characters, and his stage directions, he is very much in the foreground as he will continue to be (at times outrageously so in the tour de force of "oxen" and "circe") in varying degrees until "penelope." in “scylla and charybdis," then, we have a theory of art presented by a character who is not yet an artist, written by an artist who in many ways can be identified with stephen, and who uses, through stephen, the supreme artist, shakespeare, to explain how the book ulysses could ever have been written at all. in other words, there is a lack here that must be filled for the book we are now reading to have been created. "penelope" is the celebration of the force that can rescue "seabedabbled" stephen from the place in which we see him in "scylla and charybdis." in the library scene, stephen is struggling with a lot of psychic pressure. here he is, a young man known to have artistic aspirations addressing a group of literary men, but he is extremely aware that so far he has accomplished nothing. he had left dublin to escape the stifling influences of irish life, catholicism, and his family, but six months later he has had to return, summoned to his mother's deathbed. the flight to paris has produced nothing of artistic significance; he has returned not covered with achievement but as a a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [3] "lapwing," a bird known for scavenging about dung heaps. what a contrast to the lyrical flight that he had envisaged in portrait: fabulous artificer. the hawklike man. you flew. where to? newhaven-dieppe, steerage passenger. paris and back. lapwing icarus. pater, ait. seabedabbled, fallen, weltering lapwing you are." lapwing be (ulysses, ix, 946-7). stephen feels poor and isolated; he owes money to one of the men present and cannot repay it. bitterly he remembers he squandered it on a prostitute. even his appearance gives him pain the almost-mockery of his latin quarter hat, the affectation of his stick, his too-tight boots: stephanos, my crown. my sword. his boots are spoiling my feet. buy a pair. holes in my socks. handkerchief too. (ulysses, ix, 946-7). but these signs of failure are slight compared to the torments of guilt that he feels about his mother's death and his refusal to pray for her. the refusal was part of his credo, his determination not to serve a church that he regards as oppressive. but now that refusal and the vision of his supplicating mother haunt him: mother's deathbed. candle. the sheeted mirror. who brought me into this world lies there, bronzelidded, under few cheap flowers. liliata rutilantium (ulysses, ix, 221-3). grief is always difficult to handle, but it is agonizing when combined with guilt and anger. for stephen does also feel rage towards his mother, as his chain of ideas shows. the lines quoted above follow immediately a description of ann hathaway, adulteress, burying her family. the association comes not just through death but also through the theme of betrayal, for his mother has not reserved the privileged position of son and lover for him. stephen, like hamlet, is both preoccupied with -and repulsed by thoughts of his mother as a sexual being. when he thinks of her, as he does obsessively through the day, the images peculiarly combine death and sexuality. on an unconscious level, was stephen punishing his mother for the sexual life she had led with his father when he refused her dying wish? does he see her sexual life that produced so many other children, so many rivals for his mother• s love, as weakening and leading to death? bridebed, childbed, bed of death, ghost candled... he comes, pale vampire, through storm his eyes, his bat sails a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [4] bloodying the sea, mouth to her mouth's kiss (ulysses, iii, 396-9). there are suggestions of incestuous longings; the mother "betrays" the son who wants to be preeminent with her by taking another man to bed. that man is a "usurper" on one level by taking the son• s place in his mother• s love; on another level, he is a usurper because his claims of paternity are not legitimate. within the hamlet configuration, claudius tries to appropriate a fatherly relationship to hamlet, just as he wrongfully appropriates a place in hamlet's mother • s bed. similarly, stephen wants to reject simon• s paternity because he feels that simon fits in all too well with the paralyzing mores of the dublin whose influence stephen is determined to flee he’s irish (simon dedalus), bold the seaman affirmed…all irish. irish, all too stephen rejoined(ulysses, xvi, 382-3). in stephen's mind, his mother, as quintessential female and therefore as virgin, muse, and mistress, has betrayed him by mating with his father, the man whom he has rejected as alien to his nature: wombed in sin darkness. i was too, made not begotten. by them, the man with my voice and my eyes...they clasped and sundered, did the coupler's will(ulysses, iii, 45-7). stephen longs to escape the flesh, to see himself begotten as the apostolic successor to shakespeare, his true spiritual father. he would appropriate paternity for himself, become his own father to his own sonhood, consubstantial and autogenic. stephen's theories of androgyny, the self-created artist god are in many ways disguised versions of his fear of sexuality, a fear that mulligan, ever watchful for means to deflate stephen, touches on in his ribald parody, "everyman his own wife" (ulysses, ix, 1171). stephen is thus alone, alienated from his country, his church, and his human family, paralyzed by guilt and surrounded by people whom he fears will either betray him or fail to take him seriously. with these pressures what can he do but rely on his formidable intellect, "unsheathe [his] dagger definitions," and do his shakespeare shtick, which mulligan has already mockingly alluded to as their day commenced on the tower (ulysses, ix, 84)? stephen wants to make a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [5] himself felt, for it is galling that mulligan and haines, the usurpers, have admittance to literary gatherings to which he is uninvited. he needs to dazzle here: "composition of place. ignatius loyola, make haste to help me" (ulysses, ix, 153). stephen weaves a complex and sometimes contorted theory regarding shakespeare and the biographical forces that shaped his work. he pictures the young shakespeare as having been seduced by ann, the older woman. she was the aggressor; and, since hers was the conquest, shakespeare never felt truly self-confident as a man: he was chosen, it seems to me. if others have their will ann hath a way (notice the pun here; joyce outdoes himself in this chapter). by cock, she was to blame (ulysses, ix, 256-7). ann, the "boldfaced stratford wench," then went on to betray shakespeare and the marriage now by sleeping with none other than his brothers, the wicked uncles richard and edmund, on whom he revenged himself in richard iii and king lear, just as he rewrote his life and obtained revenge against ann by writing hamlet (ulysses, ix, 973-4). some of stephen's biographical details -such as the incestuous uncles, the london strumpets, the identity of the loved one of the sonnets, the role of marina -would be hard to substantiate. stephen makes mistakes, sometimes intentionally; robert greene was referring to lust, not shakespeare, with the phrase, "a deathsman of the soul" (ulysses, ix, 130). at times, stephen seems only to want to impress and knowingly distorts materials, putting "poison" or misinformation into the ears of his listeners: "and in the porches of their ears i pour..." (ulysses, ix, 465 and hamlet, i, 5, 63). the dating of the love affair between ann and shakespeare is incorrect, but stephen will not reveal his willful misrepresentation: "don't tell them he (shakespeare) was nine years old when it [the supposedly significant firedrake] was quenched (ulysses, ix, 936). but discrepancies such as these, while making us wary and underscoring joyce's ironic detachment from stephen, are really details in comparison with the broad thrust of stephen's theory. stephen, like joyce, is sincere about the relation of the artist, shakespeare, to his work; art has its genesis in the life experience of the artist that is somehow objectified by his genius to achieve universal significance. the character hamlet is particularly attractive to stephen, for he sees him as an a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [6] iconographic representation of himself and the pressures he feels - alienated, paralyzed by grief and gui1t, betrayed and bested by usurpers. in stephen's view, shakespeare is not hamlet, but the ghost who uses the play to rewrite his life and to create his revenge: is it possible that that player shakespeare, a ghost by absence, and in the vesture of buried denmark, a ghost by death, speaking his own words to his own son's name (had hamlet shakespeare lived he would have been prince hamlet's twin), is it possible, i want to know, or probable that he did not draw or foresee the logical conclusion of those premises: you are the dispossessed son: i am the murdered father: your mother is the guilty queen, ann shakespeare, born hathaway (ulysses, ix, 174-80)? stephen and joyce here too -is saying that art springs from the life of the artist, his direct, painful, and bruising contact with the world. for an artist, there are no mistakes in life: "his errors are volitional and are portals of discovery (ulysses, ix, 228-9). stephen, speaking for joyce as well, is defining his aesthetic in opposition to the prevailing platonism of his audience, the rarified atmosphere of the aesthetes, and the withdrawal from real life of the revivalists who would linger perpetually in the romance of the celtic twilight. stephen feels antagonism toward his audience for artistic reasons and because he feels their indifference to him. they also have power, while he is feeling impotent: where is your brother? apothecaries' hall. my whetstone. him, then cranly, mulligan: now these. speech but act. act speech. they mock to try you. act. be acted on (ulysses, ix, 977-9). as a chapter that twice replicates a play in its typeset, "scylla" becomes a reenactment of hamlet in which stephen casts his listeners collectively as claudius, himself as young prince, and joyce, his future father, as the ghost. the terms father and son refer respectively to the ghost and hamlet, to the mature and the young shakespeare, to joyce and to stephen; in all these cases father and son are one and the same being. as in the sabellian view of the trinity, the son, the father, and the holy ghost are not distinct entities, they are consubstantial. the father is his own son, and joyce, the a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [7] ghost of the unquiet father, looks down from the future seeing himself in his own sonhood. there is a growth of the soul from immaturity (where we now see stephen in all his self-doubt and paradoxical hubris) to fatherhood and maturity, the stage at which the soul can turn around upon itself and express a vision of itself in art. to evoke the trinity in an aesthetic discussion shows the exalted, quasi-mystical r o l e that stephen and joyce see for the artist, harkening back without ironic connotations to stephen's view of the artist-priest as forging "the uncreated conscience of my race (joyce, 1966, 253). but stephen here is far from having achieved this stature. his is putting himself in the line of apostolic succession to shakespeare, an appealing thought that enables him to reject simon dedalus' fatherhood and to claim the supreme artist as his true progenitor, as he had earlier with dedalus. biological paternity can be dismissed as a fiction. who is the father of any son that any son should love him or he any son (ulysses, ix, 844-5)? stephen is a lost young man in search of a father, in search of sexual experience that will inspire rather than degrade, and in search of an identity with which he can feel comfortable. right now his poseur, mulligan's "lovely mummer," and though he rejects the abstractions of platonism and the lurking effeminacy of the aesthetes, he still is in many ways drawn by temperament to their styles (ulysses, i, 97). by inclination, he would step back from raw life and try to turn charged emotion into something less threatening. his life is turned inward, and he is too prone to turn a pretty phrase rather than to confront his problems. he feels real grief, for example, but his psychic energy is bent almost narcissistically towards the phrasing of it; in the opening chapter he twice describes his dead mother in the same words, almost as though he were still searching for le mot juste, though he is thinking to himself and not speaking (ulysses, i, 102-5; 270-73). such narcissism, "scylla and charybdis" suggests, can lead to other forms of onanistic sterility. since art is pictured as the act of creation, it implies heterosexual love, as that is the only kind of love that calls forth creation. the chapter is rife with allusions to homosexuality, "the love that dare not speak its name," and with reference to wilde and swinburne, whose sexual proclivities were notorious (ulysses, ix, 659). ironically, it is the false friend, mulligan, the judas, who warns stephen about homosexual love as he signals bloom's departure from the library (ulysses, xvi, 98): …the sheeny! buck mulligan cried. he jumped up a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [8] and snatched the card…what’s his name? ikey moses? bloom ikey moses? bloom …? he knows you. he knows your old fellow. o i fear me, he is greeker than the greeks. his pale galilean eyes were upon her mesial groove (ulysses, ix, 601-7; 614-15). the reference to greeks is buck's pass at homosexuality; "the old fellow" refers both to stephen's father and his penis. "his pale galilean eyes" is one of many phrases pointing to an identification of bloom with christ (an identification stephen himself will make in "eumaeus"),(ulysses, xvi, 1091-3) though mulligan, the anti-semite, is hardly offering it in tribute. swinburne's "hymn to proserpine" contains the line, "thou has conquered, o pale galilean” (gifford and seidman, 1974, 184). swinburne and "pale" both connote a kind of limp-wristedness, the irony, of course, is that buck, with his invidious back-biting and nay-saying, is the real danger to stephen; mulligan's negativity is sterile, and he is the one appearing to flirt with homosexuality. as a false priest whose humor is only a disguise for his malignancy and even envy of stephen, buck mulligan's is the influence that stephen must avoid. bloom's sphere is what he must find since bloom represents the "agenbuyer," or "redeemer” in middle english, for stephen's paralyzing "agenbite of inwit," his remorse of conscience (ulysses, x, 582). bloom, with a "touch of the artist" about him, lives like stephen a lot in his imagination his agendath netai is the eastern oasis of his sensual dreams, but he is also in touch with the external world in a vital, compassionate, and empathetic way that stephen is not. above all, he has a deep bond with a woman, unlike stephen who is basically fearful of woman in the flesh: "eve. naked wheatbellied sin. a snake coils her, fang in his kiss” (ulysses, ix, 541). significantly, in the last scene of "scylla and charybdis" it is bloom who passes between…and thus separates stephen and buck as he exits. in a flash of some sort of psychic recognition, stephen senses on an unconscious level what bloom can offer him, a channel to generosity of spirit and sexuality from which he is now cut off: a man passed out between them, bowing, greeting…good day again, buck mulligan said. the portico. here i watched the birds for augury. aengus of the birds. they go, they come. last night i flew. easily flew. men wondered. street of harlots after. a cream fruit melon he held to me. in. you will see a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [9] (ulysses, ix, 1203-8). with this thought, stephen prefigures his rendezvous with bloom and summons from dimmest memory his enigmatic dream: the man led me, spoke. i was not afraid. the melon he had held against my face. smiled: cream fruit smell (ulysses, iii, 366-8). it is not until the "oxen of the sun" episode that bloom and stephen are really together in the same place at the same time in any kind of meaningful way, and not until their shared mirror image in "circe" followed by their quiet companionship in "eumaeus" and their cocoa communion in "ithaca" that there is some kind of crystallization of their relationship, and even then disappointingly brief on a literal level. however, the function of "scylla and charybdis" is to give insight into why stephen needs bloom in order to avoid the perils of the library circle: a surrender to an uninnovative literary career (let's say a derivative poet or playwright on the order of a third-rate synge or yeats) or a flight from sexual fears and inadequacies into sterile homosexuality. "scylla and charybdis" ties together suggestions, correspondences, and allusions from the previous chapters and defines the direction in which joyce is pointing us: the epiphanic moment on a metaphorical level that awaits stephen and bloom in "ithaca," and finally us, as still questing readers, in "penelope." before "scylla and charybdis," we have had suggestions that bloom and stephen must somehow come together, for their ability to fill one another's lacks is apparent. bloom, as a jew, feels isolated from catholic ireland; socially he is the outsider. he also feels cut off from the home and woman he loves because he knows that the usurper, blazes boylan, will be making love to his wife this very afternoon and possibly supplanting him in her affections. longing thoughts of molly, images of passion and of a cuckold's pain, haunt his day, just as stephen's guilt haunts his. bloom grieves for his dead son and for his father's suicide; stephen longs for a father figure, for a sense of identity, for recognition, and for love. bloom and stephen, like the hamlet who figures in both their thoughts, are obsessed by the themes of paternity and usurpation; both are anticlerical and dismaled by the "irishness" of the irish, their loud but ineffectual nationalism, their history of betraying each other and their leaders, and their cringing submission to their temporal and spiritual rulers. both substitute fantasy for reality in their sexual lives, though bloom does so a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [10] with a kind of creative gusto, while stephen seems to try to abstract himself from even that physical act or to feel ashamed. joyce goes further to presage their eventual coming together by showing us how bloom and stephen's thoughts interpenetrate and by fusing their identities with symbols that overlap or refer to one another. stephen and bloom are both associated with christ. bloom is the "pard" of "scylla and charybdis," an animal that denotes christ (gifford, 1974, 207). like christ, bloom is compassionate and also like christ, he is rejected (bloom is disdained by many of his fellow dubliners). after bloom defends his jewishness against the rabid nationalism of the gaelic barflies ("cyclops") by saying, "christ was a jew," his exit is punctuated by a seismic eruption like that which occurred after the lord's crucifixion. in "eumaeus" bloom confides this painful experience to stephen; he is both pained and proud. his remark is a wonderful example of his resiliency, a quality stephen must assimilate, and of the humor that transforms the novel from satire, cruel and biting, to comedy, mirthful and reflective (in meredith's terms): your god was a jew. because mostly they appeared to imagine he came from carrick-on-shannon or some whereabouts in the county sligo (ulysses, xvi, 164042). the theme of rejection and betrayal ties in with stephen (the artist who would be free in repressive dublin) and with, about whom stephen and bloom both think. the threemasted schooner rosevean (three crosses on calvary) is stephen's emblem, and bloom's emblem floats by: elijah, skiff, light crumpled throwaway, sailed eastward by flanks of ships and trawlers, amid an archipelago of corks, beyond new wapping street past benson's ferry, and by the threemasted schooner rosevean from bridgwater with bricks (ulysses, x, 1096-10). the prophet elijah's relevance to bloom as person is that he is to be the reconciler of sons to fathers and fathers to sons; he is relevant to stephen-christ as the herald of the second coming. this manipulation of symbols is characteristic of the way joyce draws our attention to the connection between stephen and bloom so that we will see their metaphorical coming together as the end of their quest. stephen is telemachus mytho-poetic searching for his father, the wandering a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [11] ulysses-bloom (although the actual extent of bloom's wanderlust is hilariously rendered in eumaeus). bloom, as a dubliner, searches for a son; and as ulysses, strives to regain his home and wife. stephen, as icarus, must find a spiritual father who will help him achieve his artistic potential and become, in terms of “scylla and charybdis,” his own father, emerging as the creator-god who will make the word flesh, or text, in the process by which shakespeare transformed his life experience into art. the crucial role that the encounter with bloom will play in helping stephen go from possible to actual is suggested by the three faces, bloom's, stephen's and shakespeare's, appearing fused in the mirror at the brothel ("circe"). in "eumaeus" and "ithaca" what happens between stephen and bloom on a literal level is disappointing. we, as readers who have voyaged this far, would like to hear words of affection, the kind a commitment to further meetings, and more than of “o you saw that matutinal cloud too” dialogue that establishes the many connections as well as dissimilarities between them. but that would simply not be consistent with the way the novel has worked; throughout we have been asked to convey stature and meaning on ordinary people and events. bloom has a heroic capacity to be compassionate and to love; his quickness to sympathize is in contrast to the hostility and selfish mean-spiritedness that has surrounded him in his encounters during the day. at the same time, we see him in all his foibles and least heroic stances -in the outhouse and masturbating on the beach. what is at work here is an example of stephen's term "hypostasis," literally the doctrine that explains that christ was both god and man (ulysses, vii, 783). with bloom and with the novel as a whole, we are called upon to see the divine, or heroic, as it is consubstantial with the mortal, or ordinary. we must therefore understand the interchange and communion between stephen and bloom in “eumaeus” and "ithaca" on a metaphorical level, even if we are literally only seeing them as they urinate side by side. as "bloom stoom" and "stephen blephen" they express their mutual recognition just as the initials d. b. in murphy's name suggest that we see a union of d (dedalus) and b (bloom), particularly when shakespeare is tossed into the equation: "cicero, podmore, napoleon, mr. goodbody. shakespeares were as common as murphies" (ulysses, xvi, 363-4). now really, how common a name could shakespeare ever have been! but this is joyce, and he will not gratify us with long, solemn, finally tying it altogether statements. a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [12] instead, he will evoke communion with a few stunning images. we see bloom and stephen as two small human figures gazing up together at the vastness of the night sky," the heaventree of stars hung with human night blue fruit (ulysses, xvii, 1039). simultaneously they perceive a sign from the heavens implying stephen's movement toward bloom: a star precipitated with great apparent velocity across the firmament from vega in the lyre above zenith beyond the star group of the trees of bernice toward the zodiacal sign of leo (ulysses, xvii, 1210-13). the image also points to the fulfillment of stephen's artistic potential (he will have the poetic power that orpheus had with his lyre) and to the intensity of love that the later artist, joyce, feels for nora, as well as the role of love in releasing artistic potential and power in men (gifford, 1974, 480). the celestial imagery signifies that the union o f stephen and bloom was destined to be, that it will have profound significance for stephen in his transformation into an artist, and that it will offer bloom a new kind of paternity since he has, on the metaphorical level, helped to create the artist: the appearance of a star (1st magnitude) of exceeding brilliancy dominating by night and day (a new luminous sun generated by collision and amalgamation in incandescence of two nonlurninous exsuns) about the period of the birth of william shakespeare over delta in the recumbent never setting constellation of cassiopeia and of a star (2nd magnitude) of similar origin but of lesser brilliancy which had appeared and disappeared from the constellation of the coronal septentrionalis about the period of the birth of leopold bloom and of other stars of (presumably) similar origin which had (effectively or presumably) appeared in and disappeared from the constellation of andromeda about the period of the birth of stephen dedalus, and in and from the constellation of auriga some years after the birth and death of rudolph bloom, junior... (ulysses, xvii, 118-30). while it is stephen and bloom who are together, the influence of molly is paramount to the meaning of all that transpires. "scylla and charybdis," in its discussion of the trinity, and of the artist's a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [13] position in it, has made the principle of triangulating images and ideas part of our experience of reading the novel. here molly, as muse and generative virgin mary, the queen of heaven, is very much present metaphorically as the third part of the scene, joining the father and the son. bloom's and stephen's climactic moment of recognition comes about under molly's sign, the sign of the lamp shedding light down upon them: …what visible luminous sin through…fellow faces (ulysses, xvii, 1171-1184). we're seeing a revelation: the metaphoric union of the artist-intellectual with twentieth-century everyman, materialistic, vulgar, half-educated, but with vitality which stephen has lacked (schwarz, 1987). it is bloom's passion for molly that distinguishes him above every other characteristic, and so we must turn to molly if we are to understand the power of this transforming force. molly is asked, by the metaphoricity of the text and by her position at the end of the quest narrative, to support a tremendous burden of meaning. joyce further pumps up our expectations regarding molly in letters to his friends that have become so often quoted and so familiar that our response to penelope has become almost preconditioned. we are looking for one of the goddesses whom bloom has inspected at the museum, and this goddess, with her notoriously obscene reputation, will definitely come with holes. in letters to his friend, frank budgen, and to his indefatigable and frequently chagrined and perplexed benefactress, harriet weaver, joyce points to what has become the classical response to the penelope chapter: your description of it [regarding "penelope to weaver who had described it as prehuman] also coincides with my intention…if the epithet post human were added. i have rejected the usual interpretation of her as a human apparition…that aspect being neither represented by calypso, nausica and circe, to say nothing of pseudo homeric figures. in conception and technique i tried to depict the earth which is prehuman and presumably posthuman (ellman). and to budgen: ["penelope"] begins and ends with the female word yes. it turns like a huge earth ball slowly surely and evenly a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [14] round and round spinning, its four cardinal points being the female breasts, arse, womb and cunt expressed by the words because, bottom (in all sense bottom button, bottom of the class, bottom of the sea, bottom of his heart), woman, yes. though probably more obscene than any preceding episode it seems to me to be perfectly sane full amoral fertilisable untrustworthy engaging shrewd limited prudent indifferent weib (scott, 1984, 158). both these passages point to the qualities of "penelope" that are most appealing in giving the book the sense of a search successfully concluded. as the evocations of nature and passion grow in lyrical intensity, the chapter does give a sense of peace, affirmation, and timelessness. molly seems above and beyond history; while bloom is very much a man of his period and stephen is imprisoned in the nightmare of history, ireland's and his own. with her affirmation, molly seems to be a reconciler of opposites. her femaleness is the fluid medium that dissolves difference, and the antagonisms that have permeated he text seem trivial in comparison to her timelessness. william york tindall's description of molly beautifully sums up the way "penelope" does give ulysses a kind of swelling grandeur, of monumentality; and of resolution: as fundamental and symbolic as a cat, she appears as "geatellus" or "earth-earth," fulfilled, recumbent, big with seed. by its redundance this name expresses her meaning. larger than individual mrs. bloom and far older, she is the great mother of the ancients. her monologue which begins with "yes," and uses "yes" as its refrain suitably ends with "yes." from its immediate reference to bloom, this final word is raised by the chapter that precedes it and by the book that it ends to a general affirmation. the last two pages of the book are a hymn to god and nature. the center of natural life, she praises it. bloom's equanimity resolves his private tensions. by her existence and her position at the end mrs. bloom resolves the tensions of the book…by her irrationality she reconciles all rational conflicts. stephen and bloom, conflicting opposites, become one in her. as she thinks of a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [15] them, their differences fall away to leave them united in a common being. she is the great agent of reconciliation and its symbol (tindall, 1950, pp. 36-7). this is true and certainly encapsulates the impression that most readers have of the book as they remember it. the enduring appeal of this interpretation sterns not only from the fact that it is right on in many ways, but also because it gives a surface facility to the novel that is reassuring after the constant obfuscations we have met along the way. but there is another aspect to this chapter that deals with the literal molly and which yields a somewhat different perspective, a less easily summarizable view of what is going on. as "scylla and charybdis" makes clear, joyce believes that art springs directly from the life experience of the artist and that it is wrested from the tensions and conflicts of that life experience, especially those from the sexual arena. it is certainly no secret that ulysses is one of the most autobiographical of books on many levels, and that the story takes place on that day in 1904 that joyce privileges as the date on which nora barnacle made a man of him by initiating him into sexual life that was not simply a commercial transaction with a prostitute. ulysses is joyce's epithalamion, a tribute to the artistically empowering nature of nora's love and to her uniqueness as a personality: through nora barnacle, he found the madonna and muse who could both inspire his art and satisfy his most arcane sexual desires. nora was the imaginary motherjwife whose extravagant sexuality finally released the inhibitions, both artistic and sexual, that once had stifled her shy, but willing sonjlover, jimmy joyce. in a passionate invocation, joyce wrote to her: "guide me, my saint, my angel. lead me forward. everything that is noble and exalted and deep and true and moving in what i write comes, i believe, from you (henke and unkeless, 1982, 8). much of the specificity about the characterization of molly comes from this desire to pay homage to nora; it is not too bad a thing to be portrayed as the muse that liberated an artist's gifts. in "penelope" joyce attempts to step inside the mind of molly/nora, or more exactly, re-create that mind, and for this reason he uses a new a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [16] technique in the chapter. it is the only one in the book that is pure internal monologue with no intrusions or stage directions from the narrator. it is as though this stream of words, unarrested by even the guidance of punctuation, is meant, in its freedom and fluidity, to suggest the freedom of mind and spirit that characterize both molly and nora. "specificity" does seem like an odd term to use in describing a character who is often seen as one huge abstraction, but molly is actually presented as a very specific person, and the originality of her discourse is one aspect of this individuality. molly's rush of words reminds us of nora's volubility, as does her sharp tongue. molly's unpunctuated style comes from nora's letters: well what have you to say to jim now after all our little squabbles he could not live without me for a month...all the people here were talking about him for running after me... ellmann's letters and maddox's biography are helpful in showing exactly how closely joyce did model molly on nora. the word choice, the unpunctuated style, the skepticism, and, above all, the wit are pure nora. evidently her remarks were treasured within the joyce circle; ellmann particularly admired the succinct report she gave joyce after looking at an apartment to let: "the place wasn't fit to wash a r a t i n ” ( e l l m a n , 1 9 6 6 , 3 0 2 ) . but nora did not like the book, and made no secret of her aversion to it. she read only small sections of ulysses, refused to go any further, and told frank budgen that what she had read she found obscene. she must also have been disturbed to see so much of her private correspondence, her obscene letters, in print: for nora some passages were worse than obscene, they were shameful revealing things she cannot have believed joyce wanted to reveal...nora aversion to the book could also have sprung from recognition. too many of the lines were her own. she may even have written some of them (maddox, 1988, 204). joyce himself refused to identify molly as nora and nora pooh-poohed the resemblance by saying that molly was "much fatter." nevertheless, "penelope" is a kind of public tribute to her role as muse, although the novel, and "penelope" in particular, has very private a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [17] meanings as well. "penelope" is a rewriting of significant aspects of their domestic and sexual history, with the tensions and ambivalences exposed. "penelope" reanimates issues from "scylla" and offers a reexamination of some of the trans-sexual and masochistic fantasies of "circe," ostensibly from molly's (or in these terms, nora's) point of view. but every word of this was arranged by a masculine mind; the material came from joyce's psyche and from his memory (what joyce defined as "imagination"). we are seeing "woman" as an abstraction and as an individual from a male perspective, and an extremely idiosyncratic one at that: ...as we know from joyce's letters to nora, his creation of ambiguous molly had little to do with an ethic of scrupulous responsibility toward the truth of "humanity." rather, if there is a principled adherence toward any sort of truth in "penelope" it is to the subjective truth of his own nature (schechner, 1974, 203). in “penelope” molly is not just a placid earth mother, she is an angry, unsure, sarcastic, and frustrated mrs. leopold bloom. and she has a lot of reasons to be angry. molly has not had normal intercourse for ten years. the loss of their son, rudy, has incapacitated bloom with guilt; he sees his inability to produce a living male heir in terms of a loss of virility. in the meantime, however, she and her husband have continued to lead a cozy married life, her mate seemingly content to sleep head-to-tail and to kiss her bottom, her "melons," as sort of evening benediction. occasionally there have been more passionate encounters; but, still and all, she feels she is aging because she is not living fully as a woman: i can’t help it if i’m young still can i its a wonder i’m not an old shrivelled hag before my time living with him so cold never embracing me except when hes asleep the wrong end of me not knowing i suppose who he has (ulysses, xviii, 1388-1401). above all, her husband's passivity and infantilism have made her doubt her womanly attractions. for all her narcissism (she, like gerty, talks about herself as though she were the heroine of a soft porn novel), she has doubts about herself sexually and her main concern is to please her lover: "i wonder is i was too heavy sitting on his knee" (ulysses, xviii, 342). one of the most poignant parts of her a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [18] reverie is her fear that boylan's peaches and pears warm-up basket is actually a put-off, "thinking he was trying to make a fool of me." here we see the actual molly, not the sexpot that has been gossiped about by the strutting dublin males or fantasized about by bloom who sees her as the irresistible hot-blooded spanish temptress. molly is not even very experienced, and she is better at amorous reverie that at amorous activity. hugh kenner, after analyzing the ithaca list of purported lovers, nembers them, before boylan, "between 0 and 1.” (kenner, 1974). blazes is more important to her in terms of validating her attractiveness as a woman than for the stud services he can provide. kenner speculates that molly actually tries to put blazes off by exhausting him. how else, kenner asks, did the heavy walnut sideboard that bloom bumps into ever get moved in the first place? molly couldn't have done it alone, and their present maid is tottering. it is a wonderful theory, and we can only know for certain that it did not work, since molly reports that blazes' sexual vigor must be explained by a large consumption of oysters or even a whole sheep! (ulysses, xviii, 145; 151). molly's view of men is not all that flattering to the male ego; the "usual idiots of men" are anatomically ugly ("no wonder they hide it with a cabbage leaf"), are sexually inexpert and selfish ("they want to do everything too quick and take all the pleasure out of it"), and they are infantile ("they're so weak and puling when they're sick"). (ulysses, xvii, 368; 544; 315-23). molly sees women as better able to bear pain, more adult, and better able to run the world, given a chance: "they [men] haven’t half the character a woman has" (ulysses, xviii, 837). if she has doubts about men in general, she does not flatter boylan either. he seems coarse and unrefined to her; even her view of him as a lover is highly ambivalent. she certainly was not charmed by his bedroom manners, and the phrase "determined vicious look" hardly sounds romantic: "like a stallion driving it up into you with that determined vicious look in his eye” (ulysses, xviii, 152-3). she also was not pleased by his casually slapping her bottom as he left as though she were a horse or an ass. he is vulgar and without real feeling for a woman, an "ignoramus that doesn’t know poetry from a cabbage" (ulysses, xviii, 1370). boylan indeed stacks up negatively against bloom of whom she seems more and more fond as she compares him with other men. molly is far from the loose woman we have anticipated. she does want to "have a bit of fun," but she has not been promiscuous (ulysses, xviii, 8-9). she a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [19] has waited a long time for her first affair; the list of suitors is in bloom's mind and in the prurient talk of the macho men of dublin. the absence of gardiner in bloom's speculations should invalidate the list, for he seems to be the only one, other than mulveu, her first love, for whom she felt any real affection, and his place may be special because she regrets his needless death. what is molly really like then? she is not well educated (though she is oddly proud of bloom's hodgepodge of learning), she is a bit vulgar, and she has a sharp and sardonic kind of wit as she laughs at the world around her: "and his [john henry menton's -one of her alleged suitors] boiled eyes of all the big stupoes i ever met and thats called a solicitor." but she also has a kindness that is like bloom's; she feels sorry for the firemen on trains who are away from horne all night; she pities the horses who are ripped open at the bullfights; she hates the carnage of war and thinks of the soldiers as "poor devils" (ulysses, xviii, 686). she is often criticized for her jealously toward milly, but what mother has not felt a twinge of envy as she sees herself as she once was in the person of her daughter? it is a very difficult period, particularly when her husband does not reassure her sexually. there is a kind of flirtation between milly and her father as the young girl tests out her powers in the archetypal family romance (it is interesting to remember joyce's own jealously with regard to his son giorgio): i noticed he was always talking to her lately at the table explaining things in the paper and she pretending to under stand sly of course that comes from his side of the house...and helping her into her coat...i suppose he thinks i’m finished out and laid on the shelf (ulysses, xviii, 1019-1022). but for all her scolding and irritation, we feel that molly loves her daughter (she prides herself on the care she gave milly during teething and mumps and her daughter's continuing need of her), and we see her suffering from rudy's death with a pain that haunts her. above every other trait, we see in molly a deep and abiding commitment to her poldy, even if she phrases a lot of her feelings about him in ways that sound patronizing: "of course hed never find another woman like me to put up with him the way i do" (ulysses, xviii, 232-3). she is very protective of her position with him, although she disclaims any interest in his sexual comings and goings. her jealousy and competitiveness are a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [20] obvious, whether she is scorning the fired servant as a "slut," relishing her triumph over bloom's former love, josie breen, or just watching bloom s little flirtations. she notices the clifford note just as bloom noticed the boylan billet doux. this element of almost mutual titillation is one of the intriguing aspects of "penelope": there is a kind of sexual collusion between them. there is also more than a bit of the voyeur about bloom; here we see molly s awareness of it just as we had seen in the phantasmagorical pantomime of "circe," where bloom masochistically promotes, watches, and encourages boylan s performance. in "penelope" molly thinks that bloom has sent milly away so that the coast will be clear for boylan: only had do a thing like that all the same on account of me and boylan that's why he did it i'm certain the way he plots and plans everything out (ulysses, xviii, 1008-9). bloom's behavior with stephen suggests a similar intent with connotations of incest as well, since stephen is in some ways to fill the role of the lost son. "penelope" suggestion that bloom may have manipulated the boylan tryst is but one instance of the way joyce wrote some of the sexual dynamics of his own marriage into the text. joyce was aroused by the thought of his wife with other men, as much as he was dismayed by the thought that his wife could be unfaithful. in psychological terms, he used jealously to provoke his artistic urges, and he needed art to assuage the fears that his jealousies provoked; clearly joyce's tex in "scylla and charybdis" is as much about james joyce as it is about stephen and shakespeare: the wish to exhibit his wife, joyce was well aware, masked at the very least yearnings toward adultery...in pursuit of that vicarious thrill, joyce in 1918 and 1919 hoped that nora would be strong where he was weak... nora knew what joyce wanted; she also knew that she was being used and resented it. as so often, she translated joyce's own beautifully worded but veiled thoughts into plain words, with terrifying accuracy. one night, leaving a cafe with frank budgen, as joyce lagged some way behind, nora burst into tears. "jim wants me to go with other men," she told budgen, "so that he will have something to write about (madox, p. 159). a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [21] interestingly, joyce portrays molly's attitude toward bloom as exasperated but ultimately forgiving. she ruefully says, "of course hes not natural like the rest of the world" and gives us a picture of why she can say, "there isn’t in all creation another man with the habits he has" (ulysses, xviii, 268; 1198).the habits include sleeping with his feet toward her face, all curled up like a fetus, and questioning her about all the men she has ever known. he becomes aroused by the inquisition:"question and answer would you do this that and the other with the coalman yes with a bishop yes i would.” (ulysses, xviii, 89-90). she feels he is trying to make a "whore" out of her, and that he is obsessed by dirty words, fetishes (her drawers) and by an association of excrement with sexual arousal (ulysses, xviii, 98; 267). but though these practices seem perverse, there is a way in which they also satisfy an aspect of molly's psychological make-up. while bloom has been almost emasculated by grief and guilt over rudy's death (his feeling of being sexually inadequate because he is sonless), molly too has been devastated as a woman. she has asserted her maternal role by becoming psychologically bloom's mother. she has the kind of fond, superior, but watchful attitude that mothers have for appealing but wayward little boys. molly satisfies bloom's dependency needs, and bloom, for all the surface problems, also satisfies her need to feel powerful and in control. here we glimpse the psychological acuity of "circe;" the surreal is a way to approach the reality of molly's and bloom's relationship as we see it in "penelope," while "penelope" sheds more light on the sexual drama of the earlier chapter. in molly's musings we see a way of living with bloom that redefines traditional sexual roles; the masculine side of her nature, her desire to control, will have expression, and the feminine side of bloom's nature, his compassion and love of domesticity, will also find release: the unfettered musings that reveal her to us as readers also permit her to discover in herself, and to rationalize, repressed tendencies. among these is the need for the sort of relationship she could have with bloom, a duel between de sade and sacher-masoch… much of "penelope" then is remarkably close to the most intimate aspects of joyce's life with nora. nora's exuberant sexuality liberated a shy, unsure, young man. he could not get over how she took the initiative and performed the deft act just as he had molly a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [22] perform the handkerchief trick with mulvey (read mulvagh, nora's galway swain) in "penelope." her sexuality represented for joyce more than just sex; it was part of the rebelliousness of her spirit a defiance of the way "nice" irish girls were supposed to be offering their bodies to their husbands from duty and seeing themselves as vessels for procreation. nora was almost masculine in her sexual assertiveness and this was a source of wonder to her mate who had had very little sexual experience other than with prostitutes: joyce was delighted but slightly over whelmed. one night, naked, she straddled him like a horse, urging, "fuck up, love! fuck up, -love!" her behavior fulfilled all his dreams of domination by a fierce woman, and that nora could release such fervor only three weeks after initiation left him with a lasting sense of awe at the banked fires of female desire (madox, p 57). the joyces' domestic life proceeded harmoniously until the birth of their son giorgio, when joyce became very jealous. did the birth of their son not duplicate the experience joyce had had of displacement earlier, when, as eldest child, his mother had had to turn her attention from him with the births of successive siblings? the theme of mother as betrayer has two parts: mother betrays her child by having other children and thus robbing him of his preeminence (think of the usurping shakespeare brothers in "scylla"), and mother betrays son by having sexual relations with father who is the son's natural rival and who is, in joyce's lexicon, an integral part of the repressive patriarchal order of dublin from which he must escape. joyce's jealousy and fear of betrayal were ignited when, on a visit to ireland, he was told by his old friend vincent cosgrave that he, cosgrave, had had relations with nora. joyce was horrified and lost confidence in himself and in nora. he remembered that there was not a lot of blood on the sheets from their wedding night, though he had proudly written his brother stanislaus about the deflowering (and that's odd in itself). this incident had such significance for joyce that he wrote it into "penelope," but this time it's from molly's wry perspective: and they always want to see a stain on the bed to know you’re a virgin for them all that’s troubling them they’re such fools too you could be a widow or divorced 40 times over a daub of red ink would a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [23] do... (ulysses, xviii, 1125-7). joyce's anguish was horrible and only subsided when his friend j. f. bryne told him cosgrave's story was a lie. joyce did not forget, and cosgrave appears as lynch in portrait, despised name in ireland, the name of a magistrate so cruel that he betrayed his own son and hanged him. on the other hand, bryne, the reconciler, lived at 7 eccles street, which will become the house of reconciliation in ulysses. the parallels with the shakespeare story in "scylla" are striking. there stephen had insisted that shakespeare was taken by a more experienced woman, and is this not our impression of howth as well, in terms of the woman manipulating the man? for bloom, howth is a paradisal memory; for joyce, his "howth" marks both a glorious initiation into a sexual relationship with nora and a cause of anxiety. if she acted so boldly with him is it. because she had practiced with others? tell me. when you were in that field... with that other (a "friend" of mine)... did you place your hand on him as you did on me in the dark and did you say to him as you did to me, "what is it, dear?" (ellmann, pp. 232-3). in "scylla" passion both ignited the creative gift and caused insecurity, since the artist was aware that the woman, not he, had been the aggressor. love, in "scylla," does not seem to be enough; the artist must also be tortured by doubts and jealousies. the wound (the "tusk of the boar") is a necessary condition for the tensions from which art will arise as the artist struggles to re-write his life through his work and thus surmount those tensions (ulysses, ix, 459-60).the interpenetration of art and life went even further in joyce's life as joyce demanded that nora prove her love for him by becoming the woman of his most "circean" fantasies. nora could no longer just be herself; he coached her in writing erotic letters that would be aids to masturbation, just as bloom's were to molly in "penelope." the letters were to be proof of what she would do for him:"write more and dirtier, darling" (maddox, p. 105). above all, the letters written by nora, but ghostwritten by joyce, tapped into the world of sadomasochistic fantasy that joyce found most cathartic. if, he wrote, his obscenity offended her, she was to flog him as she had done in the past. this was nora's cue to reply in an angry letter featuring lots of lashings and a domineering woman who would punish him as a mother would a very bad boy. the references to smutty words in a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [24] "penelope" come from this aspect of their relationship as do the references to fetishism -bloom is "mad on the subject of drawers (ulysses, 289). joyce's letters were evidently very explicit and acted as guidelines toward what nora was supposed to reply. it's all there in "penelope," even the anal and cloacal obsessions that made joyce prefer drawers with brown stains on them to those that were pure white (maddox, p. 104). their correspondence bound them in a way that is hard to understand if we do not remember how really frightened this jesuit-trained young man was of sex. to unleash and reveal his innermost feelings to a woman and to have that woman participate in that psychological disrobing established a private world of commitment for which joyce felt a gratitude verging on wonder. she was his "beautiful wildflower of the hedge,' as molly was the "flower of the mountain" for bloom (schechner p. 281 and ulysses, xviii, 1576). nora represented for joyce a woman whose spirit and sexuality fused the disparate strands of his own desire and reconciled his ambivalences. for him she uniquely combined in one persona the figures of mother, muse, whore and mistress. he wished, like the figures of the trinity in "scylla," to see himself absorbed into her: take me into your soul of souls and then i will become indeed the poet of my race. i feel this, nora, as i write it. my body soon will penetrate into yours, o that my soul could too! 0 that i could nestle in your womb like a child born of your flesh and blood, slee in the warm secret gloom of your body (schechner, pp. 247-8). this fusion reaches its ultimate expression in "penelope" where joyce, the androgynous creator-god from "scylla," explores, in a privileged subtext, his own marriage, and, from the female point of view, affirms a lasting commitment to himself as stephen-bloom. joyce, speaking as a female, acknowledges the torturous twists of his masculine sexuality, but lyrically celebrates the enduring nature of the relationship, a belief that is essential to his survival as man and artist. to read the final chapter then as anything other than a paean to molly or nora as the embodiment of love and its redemptive and transfiguring powers is to disregard the import of "scylla and charybdis." this reading unifies the literal level of the chapter, in which we see a very human woman with very human thoughts and desires, with the mythic level in which we see a woman who is more than human, elemental a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [25] and timeless. the meaning on both levels is the same and presents another aspect of "hypostasis" in which the divine and the human are co-mingled. we are being asked to apprehend that love is a powerful force existing throughout time and present for all men. it is "the word known to all men," but we must choose to feel its power and be transfigured by it. with love as the climactic affirmation of "penelope," we wonder if perhaps it was wise for gabler to have reinserted the phrase, "love, yes. word known to all men," back into "scylla and charybdis," when it had been omitted by joyce in earlier editions, possibly by error (as bagler believes) or possibly by intention (as we do). the quest for meaning, for the "word," has been the motif of the book. stephen asks his mother for the word in the "circe" scene; how does this make sense if he already knows it in the earlier library scene? stephen's mother refuses to tell him then, almost as though she feels he is not yet ready to be receptive. he is still too angry and turned inwards. but the word, "love," with its connotations of reaching out to others through emotional empathy, sounds very much like what she had wished him to find at the end of portrait: she prays now, she says, that i may learn in my own life and away from home and friends what the heart is and what it feels (portrait, p. 252). is it possible that joyce never wished the word to be directly stated at all, but inferred as we are to infer so much else in the text? could our discovery of the word be part of a pattern that he has established? in martha clifford's letter she says she does not like that "world," but she means to say "word." martha, in fact, does not know the "world" or the word "love;" she has accepted the world of fantasy for her romantic life. bloom's name is reported in the newspaper incorrectly with the "l" (that martha inserted incorrectly) omitted. should we be thinking about the letter itself and its significance in certain crucial words? it is, after all, the first letter of the word "love," as well as of "logos." are we to remember also that bloom is referred to repeatedly as the "apostle to the gentiles," the jew who brought the word, or light, to them? the word, for paul, of course, in first corinthians is love. without love even the gift of prophesy is hollow: though i speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, i am become as sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [26] charity from the king james bible is now translated as "love," and "charity" comes from the latin caritas of the vulgate. are we then to perceive that for stephen to be a complete artist, he must recognize the need for caritas as well as the scholastic claritas in his aesthetic, if his work is to combine human significance and moral stature with perfection of form? as tephen parts from bloom in "ithaca," they both heard the ringing of bells, and for each, the sound brought intimations of mortality. stephen and bloom will die; they are mortal and yet, together with molly, they seem to rise above the rest of their fellow dubliners who jostle each other in an empty round of postures, drink, gossip, and fornication without connecting to one another in any meaningful way. through love, or empathy, stephen will, as an artist, connect back into life, to other people, and be able to portray the real lives of men and women, while seeing in the ordinary, the significant and transcendent. it is the power of love that will transform stephen's abstract intellectuality and enable him to surmount his own mortality, to become the "priest of the eternal imagination (portrait, p. 221). references o’brien darcy. 1968. the conscience of james joyce. princeton: university press. budgen frank (ed.) 1966. letters of james joyce. new york: viking. elmann richard. 1966. letters of james joyce. vols. ii-iii. london: faber. -------------------.1977. the consciousness of joyce. london: faber. -------------------. 1972. ulysses on the liffey. london faber. gifford don with seidman robert. 1974. notes for joyce. new york: e. p. dutton. gilber stuart. james joyce’s “ulysses.” (revised edition). london: faber. hayman david. 1970. “the empirical molly,” approaches to “ulysses.” thomas f. staley and bernard benstock (eds.) pittsburgh: university press. henke s. a. and unkeless elaine (eds.) 1982. women in joyce. urbana: university of illinois press. kenner hugh. 1956. dublin’s joyce. bloomington: indiana university a. aljohani james joyce's ulysses: the search for value epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [27] press. ----------------. 1980. ulysses. london. alleo and unwin. joyce james. ulysses: the corrected text. hans walter gabler, with wolford steppe and claus melchior (eds.) new york: vintage books. joyce james. 1966. a portrait of the artist as a young man. new york: the viking press. kenner hugh. 1987. ulysses, revised edition. baltimore: the john hopkins university press. maddox brenda. 1988. nora: a biography of nora joyce. new york: ballantine books schechner mark. 1974. joyce in night town. berkeley: university of california press. schwarz r. daniel. 1987. reading joyce’s “ulysses.” new york: st. martin’s press. scott k. bonnie. 1984. joyce and feminism. bloomington: indiana university press. tindall york william. 1950. james joyce: his way of interpreting the modern world. new york: scribners. tindall york william. 1959. a reader’s guide to james joyce. new york: farrar, straus and giroux. abstract introduction epiphany: vol. 6, no. 2, 2013 issn 1840-3719 turkey`s harmless tango between east and west selma mujanović * abstract turkey got actively involved in world politics and international relations after akp came to power in early 2000s. turkey`s foreign policy since akp came to power, has the theoretical basis in davutoglu`s strategic depth. new doctrines rely on historical right inherited from the ottoman empire, which contributed towards turkish pro-active and multi-dimensional foreign policy. without forgetting traditional western allies, turkey has established itself as a regional power in the balkans, middle east and central asia with significant success. this paper attempts to analyze how turkey has been playing a harmless tango between its traditional allies in the west and regions in the near abroad which had made turkey a global player in the international relations. then, it is important to analyze turkey‟s transformation and its approved role by the western powers as a strong islamic country with secular governance in the middle east and central asia. keywords: turkish foreign policy; neo-ottomanism; akp party; eu; the balkans; the middle east; central asia * selma mujanović; doctoral candidate international university of sarajevo; e-mail: selma.sulejmanovic@gmail.com mailto:selma.sulejmanovic@gmail.com s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [206] traditional turkish foreign policy traditional turkish foreign policy dates back to the period when ottoman empire was close to its demise in the beginning of the twentieth century. during this critical time ataturk emerged as a leader who saved turkish territorial integrity from the greedy western powers who aimed at taking different parts of turkey. during the berlin congress (1878) the ottoman empire was marked as a sick man of europe. therefore, the partitioning of the ottoman empire was a political agreement that took place after the world war i. italy was given southwestern anatolia, greece was given ionia and smyrna(izmir), aegean region and rhodes island were given to britain together with the cyprus, straits and istanbul were under international mandate, russia was given armenia, georgia and azerbaijan. nonetheless, after the end of the world war i germany, austria and ottoman empire were severely defeated by the allied powers that quickly moved forward to partition ottoman territories. then, britain conquered palestine, syria, iraq and southeastern parts of turkey. italy was conceded southwestern anatolia. greece was allowed to occupy of turkish provinces of thrace, izmir and aegean islands turkish straits were put under joint influence of allied powers due to its international importance (turk istiklal harbi, 1992). at that time turkey`s arab neighbors aligned with the western powers against turkey. this was a shocking ``knife in the back`` from the arab brothers, thus kemalist regime after turkey gained independence, always approached arab neighbors with a great suspicion. in addition to this newly established turkish elite, united under the rule of ataturk perceived the ottoman expansion in the balkans and arab countries as a disastrous policy that nearly resulted in demise of the turkish republic. thus, the main aim of newly formed turkish elite was to distance turkey from its ottoman past. the new elite did not recognize turkish past and they introduced certain measures as to make people forget the legacy of the great ottoman empire. they were basically ashamed of their past and rejected entirely past ottoman legacy. nonetheless, the common people and grassroots of the turkish elites did not forget their past and they continued valuing the ottoman legacy as other great world empires. almost all of the works on traditional turkish foreign policy emphasize the real-politics of the turkey`s decision-makers and its foreign policy from the early years of the turkish republic. real-politics in turkey lead to tight security structure and prominent role of military in turkish s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [207] political affairs (karaosmanoglu, 2000). as a result of internal political developments turkey joined nato in 1952 in the wake of communist expansion in order to protect the western world from the communist threat. this move defined the turkish foreign policy for the whole period of cold war that came to close in 1991 (kuniholm, 1980, p. 325). in the vacuum that followed after the fall of iron curtain and the end of cold war turkey continued with its western orientation and nato‟s membership. turkish new foreign policy the emergence of turkish new foreign policy needs to be looked at as a fusion of the international, regional and national actors. the international actors change after the end of the cold war led to a systematic change in the turkey`s near political environment. in fact, the systematic change was to a great extant responsible for the shift in turkish foreign policy and its role in the region. in order to fill the vacuum that emerged in the central asia, turkic republics so closed to turkey, the united states and its european allies presented turkey as a country model that combines moderate islam with secularism, for these newly independent countries of central asia (bal, 2000, p. 232). thus, turkey felt encouraged by the united states to approach central asian states and to promote moderate islam. actually, the us president george h. w. bush proposed that turkey, with its tradition of sufi-influenced islam and secular regime could serve as a perfect model for other islamic countries in the region. the idea that came from the united states was called as ``turkish model.`` in this regards, turkey felt encouraged by the united states to reach out to the governments of islamic countries and to support regimes in these countries. on the other hand, most recently the us administration under obama has tried to find the other approach to islamic regimes in the middle east by redefining islam and its practices by subordinating it to the american interests in the region. for this purpose the new generation of so called ``moderate islamists`` among the arabs were used (rabasa, et. al., 2007). at the regional level turkish foreign policy was affected by the vacuum that was left by the 1991 gulf war and 2003 iraqi war. in addition, the significant impact on turkish foreign policy had the deterioration of kurdish problem and, as well as, the dynamic change in arab-israeli relations. the deterioration in arab-israeli relations provided turkey with the opportunity to become mediator between arabs and israelis. s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [208] turkey has managed to establish itself as successful mediator in the regional conflicts up until the operation cast in gaza during the winter of 2008-2009. effective turkish mediation in the region was accompanied by the united states waning influence as well as stalled negotiations between turkey and the eu regarding turkey`s eu membership. in order to understand the change in domestic policy of turkey that took place under the akp rule it is important to understand the domestic political scene that existed in turkey after the end of the cold war. under the 1981 turkey`s constitution, turkey`s national security council (milli guvenlik kurulu) was established for policy coordination between democratically elected legislative, military and president of the republic. however, turkey`s coalition governments were highly unstable and many corruption scandals and it comes as no surprise that general public saw military as sole guardian of their republic (jenkins, 2001). up to 2007, the constitutional court of turkey and the president of the republic checked the power of parliamentary majority. however, in 2007 when ex akp party member, abdullah gul was elected as a president, a gate for curtailing the power of military and its interference in foreign and domestic policy of turkey was opened. thus, under akp rule the constitutional and institutional changes and reforms have taken place so that power of military came under civic rule as in other parliamentary democracies (cook, 2010). the turkey`s neo-ottomanist vision and new turkish political elite kemalism is still present in turkey nonetheless; it is definitely not ascending in popularity. new political elites, that had role models in turgut ozal (1983-1989) and necmettin erbakan (1996-1997), had emerged and introduced new vision of foreign policy and governance. besides, public interest in the foreign policy and policy in general, has risen to a great extant. the most important contribution to the akp`s new foreign policy orientation was the work titled as strategic depth (strejik derinlik) written by ahmet davutoglu in 2001, which turned out to be a foreign policy guideline of the akp. the origins of strategic depth and key ideas are greatly based on the multidimensional foreign policy of necmetin erbakan and turgut ozal`s neo-ottomanism. the strategic depth is based upon historical and geographical depth. geographical depth of turkish republic lies in the fact that turkey is legal successor of the ottoman empire (murinson, 2006, p. 947). s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [209] after the end of cold war, turkey became a country which was surrounded by the two major zones of instability. first zone was balkans and the second was the middle east. both zones were unstable and consequently they were involved in various wars. in addition, in the 1990s turkey on the brick of war armenia, greece and syria. then, turkey was regularly involved in military interventions in the north iraq. turkish relations with iran deteriorated due to the kurdish conflict and ever present political islam. therefore, turkey‟s overall approach to its neighbors in 1990s was characterized by the mistrust, confrontation and threats. in contrast to this kind of foreign policy, new foreign policy of turkey took place in the 2000s was characterized by rapprochement with syria, iraq, iran, armenia and russia. shortly turkish foreign policy in 2000s was characterized by ``zero problems`` policy with its neighbors which first and foremost aimed at improvement of bilateral relations as well as regional cooperation especially in the ex-soviet republics and the balkan states. as the 2000s progressed this cooperation was extended to the middle east and the north africa (evin, 2010). the architect of new turkish foreign policy davutoglu in his work emphasized the fact that turkey is unique due to two reasons. first is its location in geographical areas that are of great importance mainly thinking about straits of bosporus and dardanelle. second reason is historical and it relates to the fact the turkey is legitimate heir of the ottoman empire (davutoglu, 2001). traditional measures of turkey`s power overlook its cultural heritage as an advantage, which was different with davutoglu`s vision of foreign policy. davutoglu emphasizes the importance of turkey‟s cultural heritage as an asset in approaching the balkans, middle east and central asia. turkey is a legal heir to the ottoman empire that once united the muslim world and therefore turkey as a trans-regional power can once more unite and lead the muslim world (davutoglu, 2001). accordingly, turkey is not just an ordinary nationstate that emerged as a result of the will of the great powers after the world war i rather in davutoglu‟s words ``turkey is a regional power in its own right, having strong tradition of statehood and broad strategic outreach. thus, it has no chance of being peripheral since it is not a sideline country of the eu, nato or asia`` (mourinson, 2006, p. 945964). he continues by arguing that ``turkey is centrally positioned international player, a country with a close land basin, the epicenter of the balkans, the middle east and the caucasus, the center of eurasia in s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [210] general and it is in the middle of rimland belt cutting across the mediterranean to the pacific`` (mourinson, 2006, p. 945-964). one can easily notice from davutoglu`s statements that new foreign policy reflects the newly-acquired self-respect and self-confidence on the part of newly elected turkish leadership under akp rule. the leadership that supported the more proactive approach to the foreign policy particularly in the area of so-called ``ottoman geopolitical space.`` furthermore akp leadership was more than a critical of the myopic turkey‟s cold war foreign policy and neglecting of the ottoman cultural and historical heritage. central issue in the akp‟s revival of ottoman legacies has been the expanding of its economic interests. the central point to this argument involves the emergence of new classes of businessmen from anatolia who were pious and devout muslims. this class of businessmen started to compete with traditional aegean businesses. thus, anatolian businessmen were the ones that forced akp government to focus on middle east whose markets were expanding rapidly. having in mind this it is not hard for many to imagine why turkey had changed this foreign policy toward iran, iraq or syria if it has not been for wealthy anatolian business elite. their economic interests have played a great role in the context of new turkish foreign policy orientation (evin, et. al., 2011). then, since 2000 turkey has sought to counterbalance its dependence on the west by courting different alliances to maintain the balance of power in the region. in davutoglu‟s opinion turkey should not be dependent upon only one actor and should all the time seek to balance it‟s relations and alliances so that it can maintain optimal independence and leverage on global and regional stage (davutoglu, 1994). turkish foreign policy toward eu akp was more than eager to approach turkey to the eu because according to many analysts this party was presupposed to be an islamist party that doesn‟t prefer any alliance with the west and eu. nonetheless, having those negative views in mind akp tried its best to open as many chapters within eu accession framework. in the end due to those reforms turkish military had an important role in protecting turkey`s kemalist legacy that gave upon the idea of turkey`s eu accession since the reforms that were supposed to take place in the case that turkey joins eu were supposed to put military under civilian rule. s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [211] turkey submitted its application to join european economic community, that latter on became to be known as european union, dates back to 1959 which resulted in associate membership not before 1963. full membership has been the final goal. nonetheless, for turkey various problems emerged such as cyprus conflict together with internal political turmoil, which made turkey through all 1970 and mostly 1980s away from the european union. in 1987 turkish official membership application was rejected by the eu. however, rejection did not prevent turkey`s involvement with the eu on various other issues such as customs. turkey and the eu signed customs union which became effective as of 1 st of january 1996. eu confirmed turkey`s status as a candidate country during helsinki summit in 1999. nonetheless, accession talks did not start immediately since turkey needed to make significant reform in the human rights. after the helsinki summit turkey made very important and daring reforms and passed them through parliament with an aim to harmonize turkey with eu standards. formally, turkey started its eu accession talks in october 2005. nonetheless, in december 2006 eu decided to suspend part of the negotiations with turkey by freezing eight chapters because turkey did not recognize the republic of cyprus. turkey also did not grant access of cypriot vessels and planes to turkish harbors and airports. since then the negotiations between turkey and eu are still taking place but they are very slow (christensen, 2009, p. 10). in 2004, as a result of the efforts of the ruling akp turkey became the eu candidate. nonetheless, the eu became great disappointment for turkey because of devaluing of turkey as potential member-country. disappointment with eu contributed towards turkish search for prominent role in the muslim world. no one was more eager and ready to approach turkey to the eu then the newly elected akp government which were described, as soon as they assumed the power, as an islamic party. akp was looked at by kemalist elite and turkish military as a party whose government would distance turkey from the west and its values that kemalist turkey was trying so hard over the years to acquire. nonetheless, akp as soon as they formed government surprised everyone with the eagerness to make turkey eu member as soon as possible. akp new that they would be blamed if turkey don‟t progress on its way to eu. thus, akp pushed for reforms in judiciary and lately in military as well all in order to complete requirement of the eu. s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [212] nonetheless, the more turkey adopted eu reforms the less stimulus came from the eu. some countries of the eu even started to question whether turkey was in europe at all. nicolas sarkozy, president of the republic of france and german chancellor angela markel went that far to propose turkey some kind of partnership which was immediately rejected by the turkish government. turks, whose national sentiments are very high and whose national pride is at the first place beginning to think that eu, with the proposal of something less than eu membership has humiliated turkish republic, have started to look at the turkey`s accession into eu with a great suspicion. in 2004, 73% of turks were in favor of turkey`s eu membership, nonetheless, in 2006 that number dropped to 54%. in 2007 this number fell to only 40%. this coincided with the economic stability and progress which started to take place as the akp came to power. it is widely known that confidence of one country increases as its economic strength increases. turkish foreign policy toward middle east, central asia and balkans under the akp government turkish influence has been growing steadily in the middle east, central asia and the balkans. turkish secular elite has strong cultural ties with the west and they viewed iran and arab countries as hostile neighbors, never forgetting arab knife in the back from the mid nineteenth century until the establishment of the republic of turkey in 1922. nonetheless shift in turkish foreign policy has been evident since akp came to power. during akp years turkey has been trying to develop an intensive relation with all countries especially with its neighboring countries. nonetheless, its relations are based upon rational calculations not on ideological accounts (davutoglu, 2008). turkish foreign policy vision perceived international relations as a whole with no borders. turkey became engaged from chile to indonesia and from africa to central asia, from eu to oic (davutoglu, 2008). in the party program of akp it is expressed that the end of cold war and global restructuring has brought the change in environment and has developed a several alternatives in the area of foreign policy area (akp party program, 2001). pro-active rhythmic diplomacy refers to ``a sustained pro-activism in the field of diplomacy, trying to achieve a more active role in international organizations and opening up to new areas where turkish contacts are have been limited in the past`` (davutoglu, 2008, p. 83). parallel to davutoglu‟s vision akp party program suggests a ``forward looking, proactive, innovative, and ultimately multifaceted s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [213] foreign policy`` (akp party program, 2001) which aims at being more initiative regarding the crisis in the neighboring countries with more concrete contribution to permanent solutions. the re-emergence of new anatolian business elite contributed towards turkish more proactive foreign policy toward the middle east. turkey has been active in promoting diplomatic contacts between syria and israel and it has mediated the talks between the same parties during the israeli occupation of the golan heights (onis, yilmaz, 2009, p. 19). syrian president introduced a peace treaty in return to israel‟s evacuation of heights in april 2008. nonetheless, what followed was gaza attacks and new government under netanyahu declared that ``israel would not code the golan heights for the sake of peace with syria.`` however, the main emphasis in the turkish foreign policy towards the middle east was the palestinian question. turkish policy makers evaluate the palestinian issue as their area of responsibility and at the same time they see a chance to claim a constructive role in the middle eastern peace building process. in this regard, turkey tries to deter israeli aggression against the palestinians and at the same time to reduce as much as possible terrorist attacks on innocent israeli civilians. nonetheless, turkish-israeli relations reached the lowest point on 31 of may 2010 when six turkish ships, called gaza freedom flotilla, entered international waters in the mediterranean sea and were blocked by israeli ships. one of the six ships called mavi marmara showed resistance to israeli soldiers who entered their ships and 9 people were killed by the israeli soldiers. this caused deterioration in turkish-israeli relations and at the israeli ambassador to ankara was expelled from turkish capital. relations were not reestablished up until 22 march 2013 when israeli prime minister called his turkish colleague recep tayyip erdogan and apologized for mavi marmara event. moreover it is very important to look at the turkey‟s involvement in the various islamic organizations that unite islamic countries. turkey has developed institutional and strategic cooperation with the arab league and gulf cooperation council. it plays an active role in the islam conference organization and has an observer status in the organization of african unity. nonetheless, turkey has been disappointed by the eu and its policies. according to turan (2010): the security shield provided by nato for example, enables turkey to deal more confidently with russia as s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [214] an economic partner. turkey continues to rely on the united states as a major source of arms procurement. the fact that around half of turkey‟s exports go to eumember countries and that germany is turkey‟s largest trading partner generate significant interest in retaining a good working relationship with the european union. turkey‟s soft power is considerably enhanced in the middle east, the caucasus, and central asia by the fact that it has a strong western connection. turkey‟s relations with iran have to be balanced with those with saudi arabia and the gulf states that are allied with the united states. turkey‟s strong challenge of israeli policies in palestine has reduced the appeal of iran in the region, while its vastly improved relationship with syria has reduced iranian influence there as well and has rendered turkey more interested in a negotiated solution with israel. these developments are all in harmony with the american and eu policies in the region. turkey shares an interest with the united states and the eu in the development and survival of a united, independent, and stable iraq. similarly, both turkey and its western partners share an interest containing the spread of radical islamic movements and terror under the guise of religion. thus, when evaluating the turkey`s foreign policy toward the middle east one should bear in mind that real-politics in is not marginalized to the extent that turkey would compromise its relations with the west visà-vis its relations with the middle eastern countries. central asia is strategically important region for ensuring the security and stability of the euro-atlantic region and its energy resources are vital for global energy (turkey‟s relations with central asian republics, n.d.). turkey was one of the first countries that recognized the independence of the central asian republics once they proclaimed their independence from the soviet union. due to strong cultural ties between turkey and central asian republics turkey has sought to increase the engagement with the central asian republics on the broad range of issues. in this respect, high level strategic cooperation council mechanisms that have been established with kyrgyzstan and the cooperation council with tajikistan provide a useful base for the further relations between central asian republics and s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [215] turkey. nonetheless, turkey‟s interest in central asia is mainly economic partnership. according to kutlay and dogan (2011) the rise in trade and investment flows with central asia and turkey‟s belated willingness to revive the old "silk road" trade routes mean that ankara has been making real progress in the mutually beneficial economic partnerships turkish firms have established in the five republics of central asia. but this does not mean in any sense that turkey is engaging with its "eastern" central asian neighbors at the expense of the "rest". quite the contrary: turkey aims to position itself as a "central country" at the intersection of a geographically strategic region, a key eurasian power within the eu. hence, ankara acknowledges that the same democratization and europeanization processes that have helped turkey to achieve its remarkable economic and political developments of the past 10 years helped create spill-over commercial and diplomatic effects into its relations with its central asian neighbors. finally, turkey has brought economic and political stability to that crucial part of the world which constitutes a vital link between western europe and asia. what turkey expects from its european friends and allies is simply to be recognized as an equal, equally european, partner as it strives to further the security and welfare of the region.`` turkey has renewed its interest in the west balkans as a part of turkey‟s efforts to enhance ``strategic depth`` doctrine of davutoglu and akp‟s tendencies of neo-ottomanism. during his official visit to sarajevo in 2009 turkish foreign minister davutoglu had explicitly linked turkey‟s foreign policy to the legacy of the ottoman empire stating that ``the ottoman centuries of the balkans were success story. now we have to reinvent this… turkey is back.`` ever since then ankara has been trying to regain lost influence in the region, by showing impressive diplomatic and economic activism. there are three complementary goals of the turkey‟s recent diplomatic activities in the balkans: to strengthen turkeys good relations with its traditional partners in the region; to improve the relations with the countries turkey has had problematic relations before; and to play the role of the mediator and lead the multilateral initiatives to improve regional stability. s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [216] examining the number of official visits turkish foreign minister had made to bosnia-herzegovina one can easily notice that he has been flying a lot to bosnia. turkey has always been in support of bosnian territorial integrity and stability. at the same time turkey has been vocal advocate of bosnia‟s membership to nato‟s membership action plan (map). then, turkish relations with the former yugoslavian republic of macedonia (fyrom) are best understood from the statement of ahmet davutoglu during one of his visits to macedonia where he states ``the citizens of the republic of macedonia, wherever they are in the world, can, if they need help, call the embassies of turkey. they will get help as they are turkish citizens`` (duridanski, 2011). then, turkey has been great supporter of skopje‟s euro-atlantic integration process and has encouraged nato to invite fyrom even before name dispute with greece was settled down. turkey also took the initiative to improve its bilateral relations with serbia. the turkish president abdullah gul paid an official visit to belgrade in 2009. prior to his visit, 23 years turkish head of states have been avoiding serbia. in the joint statement both presidents declared that relations between turkey and serbia have never been better. furthermore, ankara has been thought to have played a great role in encouraging serbian parliament to adopt the declaration of srebrenica on 30 of march 2010. serbia officially apologized for the role in the srebrenica genocide 1995. turkey has also played a great part in the calming down the situation in serbia‟s sandžak region by opposing demands for autonomy from serbia by some local muslim communities. turkey has urged three fractions of bosniaks communities to settle down their differences. for this purpose, turkey has opened a turkish cultural center in novi pazar. in the wake of political turmoil in serbia regarding self-proclaimed independence of kosovo turkish prime minister recep tayyip erdoğan expressed his country‟s willingness to mediate in the bilateral-talks between belgrade and prishtina in november 2010. nonetheless, ankara‟s most significant mediation success was the istanbul declaration on peace and stability in the balkans signed by serbia, croatia, and bosnia-herzegovina on april 24, 2010. with the three balkan countries pledging to improve cooperation and work toward eu integration, ankara appeared as a key player in the stability of southeastern europe. http://daily.tportal.hr/94647/turkey-ready-to-mediate-in-kosovo-serbia-talks.html http://daily.tportal.hr/94647/turkey-ready-to-mediate-in-kosovo-serbia-talks.html http://www.seecp-turkey.org/icerik.php?no=60 http://www.seecp-turkey.org/icerik.php?no=60 http://www.seecp-turkey.org/icerik.php?no=60 s. mujanovic turkey`s harmless tango between east and west epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (2013) © faculty of arts and social sciences [217] references bal, idris. 2000. turkey`s relations with the west and the turkic republics: the rise and fall of the `` turkish model.`` aldershot, england: ashgate christensen, mette buskjaer. 2009. eu-turkey relations and the functioning of the eu. danish institute for international studies. cook, steven a. 2010. ``weakening of turkey`s military.`` expert brief. the council of foreign relations. davutoglu ahmet. 1994. alternative paradigms: impact of islamic and weltanschauungs on political theory. lanham: university press of america. davutoglu, ahmet. 2001. strategic depth. istanbul: kure yayinlari. davutoglu, ahmet. 2008. “turkey‟s foreign policy vision: an assessment of 2007.” insight turkey, vol.10, no.1. duridanski, darko. 2011. “macedonia-turkey: the ties that bind.” balkan insight. evin, ahmet et. al. 2010. transatlantic report „getting to zero.‟ washington dc: transatlantic academy. jenkins, gereth. 2001. context and circumstance: the turkish military and politics. oxford: oxford university press. karaosmanoglu, ali. 2000. “the evolution of the national security culture and the military in turkey.” journal of international affairs. kuniholm, bruce. 1980. the origins of the cold war in the near east. princeton: university press. kutlay, mustafa and salih dogan. 2011. turkey and central asia: modern economic lincages along the ``silk road`` murinson, alexander. 2006. “the strategic depth doctrine of turkish foreign policy.” middle eastern studies, volume 42, issue 6. rabasa, angel, et. al. 2007. building moderate muslim network. california: rand cooperation. onis, ziya and suhnaz yilmaz. 2009. “between europeanization and euro-asianism: foreign policy activism in turkey during the akp era.” turkish studies, vol.10, no.1 turan, ilter. 2010. “turkish foreign policy: challenges to turkey‟s western calling.” turk istiklal harbi mandros mutarekesi ve tatbikati. 1992. ankara: genel kurmay basimevi. mustafa akdag.pdf � ��� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 the impact of internet and social media on kids’ and parents’ game habits mustafa akdag mustafa cingi ∗∗∗∗ abstract internet, already a part of our lives far surpassing its limits as a means of communication, seems to have shaped most fields in human life and changed most of our daily habits and as a consequence the digital natives are observed to be completely living in internet culture. one of the reflections of this culture and arenas in the internet, social media has substantial impacts on gaming habits of digital natives. up to the period in which internet has interfered in man’s life, the games played by parents were passed from older generations to the new ones as a tradition, so generations used to play the same games; when the children of a previous era became parents they described the games they used to play to their kids thus paving the way to the sustainability of this game tradition. while different generations used to play the same games, today with the dissemination of internet and social media caused a change of format in the traditionally played games and street games started to give their places to those played on the computers. therefore, children started to play games on the internet, an endless space whether negative or positive. the fact that parents are alienated from this arena, enabled the children to play violent games without any boundaries and to take place in social media arenas that could have negative impact on children’s worldly and spiritual wellbeing. the study is highly important in the sense that it clarifies the extent to which internet and social media, which is actually the agent of change in children’s gaming habits, environments changed parents’ gaming habits among themselves and with their children. surveys are conducted to the parents of primary school students as a field work to identify the changes originating from internet and social media. according to research results, social media and internet are found to be altering gaming habits of parents with their children. it is identified that parents keep themselves away from online environments in which their kids take place thus possibly breaking off the communication relationships between kids and parents. keywords: traditional games; digital games; internet; social media; parents; digital natives ����������������������������������������������������������� ∗ corresponding authors: mustafa akdag and mustafa cingi, erciyes university faculty of communication; e-mail: mcingi@erciyes.edu.tr m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits �"� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� introduction game, which is considered to be an amusing activity without any long-term goal or satisfaction, (tdk, 2013), is defined as a recreational activity with its own set of rules (www.buyukturkcesozluk.net, 2013). game, an activity which has always co-existed in human life, is treated as the most appropriate “language” for a child to communicate his love, dreams, opinions, happiness, enmity, internal conflicts and to learn about the world outside (http://bote.hacettepe.edu.tr, 2013). whether it’s an infant, or a kid, adolescent or an adult, there are lots of answers to the question why a person plays a game. we can gather these reasons under two titles (duran, 2013): the first, draining the energy from the inside, the second one is helping the communication and sustainability of personal behaviors for a long time. some examples of this might be the girls playing with a doll pretending a mother or boys playing with pot lids imitation the steering wheel in the hands of a driver. it is possible to analyze kid’s games, which are also called traditional games, in two main categories like "open-air games" and "in-house games". lots of other groups of games might be listed such as those played with papers and pencils, sportive games, musical games. while these game groups are called kids games, people from all ages might be playing games like football, basketball or skittles. such games, which emerge traditionally and passed from one generation to another, have evolved since the stepping of m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits �'� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� internet and especially social media into our lives and their format is continuously changing. while in traditional games the individual becomes a social being, in internet and social media games this social aspect is brought to a different dimension. although they have the same names, their type of playing, rules and similar changes are submitted to the pleasure of new generations and most of them approve of such a new style. a game named farmville provides the kids a chance to plough and harvest the farm, milk the cow and collect eggs with one click not even having any idea of what these are in real life. unfortunately, the parents who are supposed to rescue for such a generation which get to know animals in their new formatted visions, took their place in this new world of change. parents, who couldn’t transfer their gaming habits to new generations and couldn’t keep up with the new era, now cannot take their kids out of internet and social media arena and stay indifferent to their traditional habits. this study aims to observe to what extent the internet and social media, the agent of change in playing habits of kids, have changed the habits of parents to play with their children. surveys are conducted on parents who have kids in primary schools under the scope of field work and internet and social media sourced changes are put forth. conceptual framework no matter what era or culture it is, wherever is a child, there is a game. like love, game is one of the most fundamental m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits ��� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� needs of a child. game, a means of understanding and trying the life for children, not only prepares them for life, but also reflects their experiences, feelings and desires. the children try to understand life, make empathy through games thus shaping identity through the roles they take. the knowledge they get through gaming is much effective and long-lasting. for children, game is thinking through trials and they gain experience through gaming (e�sizer, 2013). they learn knowledge, skills and experiences for life in games by themselves. therefore, the most influential way of educating children is through gaming. games form the first step in children’s learning by fun. games are also useful for kids to manage their feelings. according to psychologists, it is possible to relieve the fear from doctor by making the children play with doctor equipments and similarly to comfort a child in fear of ghosts by playing with him in ghost costume. for this reason, it is important to let the children play their games. children should be encouraged to play with all types of toys freely (gencer, 2006). 15-20 year ago, streets were very convenient for children to play, but now this is not the case. as a result of rapid and widescale urbanization policies, people now have to live in flats and with roads full of cars rather than the peaceful houses with large fields; this resulted in limitations on children’s playgrounds. this leads children to play games on the computer, internet and social media. m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits ��� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� having its stamp on the 21st century, providing the world with a network of communication, reporting, education, broadcasting, entertainment, the internet has already become an alternative means for individuals to discuss, negotiate, chat, learn and shop whenever and wherever they want (akgül, 1999:2). it’s particularly a matter of concern when it comes to its wide-spread use among children and youth, (ülger, 2012:286) the main group who are the most worried being the parents. the opinions and behaviors of parents are of high importance when it comes to the use of each technology, not just the internet (odaba�ı ve vd., 2007:71). in a research on parent’s opinions about internet use, it is found that families don’t have any information on security, but they see this medium as a necessity of economical and modern life (odaba�ı, 2005:43). among the results of this research, is the fact that the society does not have sufficient knowledge about the dangers of internet. parallel to the advancement of internet technologies, social media has become so popular being one of the mostly invaded fields by children and nearly the most enthusiastic arenas of game for them. social media is defined as web based applications providing participants to create and share videos, words and audios along with applications, actions and behaviors developed to share information and opinions through interactive media (pelteko�lu, 2012:4). people, who lived in a rapid transformation of computer technology, the internet and social media, can now make friends, m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits �(� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� share their photos, opinions and videos with those who they have never met or known but who have the same ideas, hobbies and fields of interests. they can make their voices heard simultaneously by everybody in the world; they can play games interactively, do shopping and work together in professional office environments. it is one of the most important responsibilities of parents to monitor how their kids communicate with whom and over which sites. this is important for their worldly and spiritual well-being and to ensure that they develop positive attitudes and behaviors (güvenç, 1997:28). it’s crucially important that parents develop positive attitudes towards growing-up their children for the kids to improve their behaviors, form their personal identity and selfrespect, and identify their goals for the future and to have their decisive skills matured (özyürek ve �ahin, 2010:38). parents are the first source of interaction for children. the children of families in which tolerance is dominant, mutual feelings of love and respect are demonstrated, decisions are taken together, opening and discussing about their problems from time to time, avoiding from violent fights and quarrels, will surely complete their social and spiritual development more comfortably and in compliance with the needs of society (çetinkaya, 2010:80). however advanced the technology might be, the children of those families with such a communicative environment will have a high level of self-respect and dependence and they will themselves much more valuable. m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits �)� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� recently emerging communication environments and changes in habits in parallel with technological advancements have played crucial roles in the perception of childhood and the interaction between parents and kids with respect to its conclusions for family and social structures. by 1950, the increase in the variety of in house media caused the house environment, the source of happiness as the coral point of love, privacy, morality, freedom and etc., to have two types of changes. while the first change commenced with the introduction of various elements of entertainment into our households, the second alteration was seen in the free use of these entertainment elements by all family members in the house (ülger, 2012:295). it is possible to provide an example for the first alteration as the parents wanted to have their kids play inside home looking at the dangers on the streets (hill ve tisdall, 2007:178). parents in fear of their kids getting into bad habits like drug addiction, gambling etc. and a bad environment outside can’t be regarded as unjust in their desires. in addition, the scaling down of play grounds and increase in the number of vehicles on the roads justify parents in their worries about the security of their kids. the transformation causing children to prefer games at home particularly computer and internet games rather than street games, triggered the second transformation environment at home and opened the way for privatization and personalization of entertainment means which were previously for common use at home (livingstone, 2002:166). the privatization of entertainment m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits �!� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� accounts for a change in the place of entertainment devices such as television and computer from common places like living rooms and salons to private individual places like bedrooms or kids rooms. there was almost one tv for each room and this was the case with computers, as well. today computer and internet use is no longer a recreational niche, but an integral part of our colloquial lives. as a consequence of this privatization, the children could go to their rooms and use their computers and televisions for hours without any control from the parents side, entering to whatever sites they prefer and get to know so many people they don’t know before without thinking who they actually are on the social media. however, children can encounter so many harmful content and challenges for their cognitive and psychological well being on the internet and social media from sexuality to terrorism, addiction, pirating, gambling and fraudulence. leaving their kids alone on this arena without any control might lead their kids to contact with malevolent people out of curiosity and excitement or even exposure of their children to physical violence or death (özsoy, 2010:263). particularly parents in turkey have to be very cautious about this (özsoy, 2010:35). we are doubtful as to how children will complete their spiritual development upon watching this undesired and harmful content in front of their computers. according to a different research conducted in ankara, the mostly preferred games on the internet are counter-strike, knight m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits ��� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� online, call of duty, warcraft, gta, age of empires, half-life which are full of bloody scenes (binark vd., 2009:214) this is the case with social media environment. according to a report, dated 5th of june 2013 containing data on facebook for turkey, the list for mostly preferred games on social media goes like daily life games such as “farmville 2” and “pet rescue saga” chance games like “okey” and “okey plus, mynet çanak okey” and gambling games like “texas holdem poker” (metricsmonk, 2013). according to the same report, the first line of facebook applications is occupied by “your daily horoscope” full of harmful content like fortune telling and videos that are harmful to children’s cognitive development in “�zlesene” and “mynet” apps. social media actually works like a casino and gaming house when it comes to games. parents, who cannot tolerate their kids spending time in such places in real life, might remain indifferent to their kids’ existence in such virtual environments. it is up to parents and educators to protect kids from the harmful content on internet and social media. it is up to the parents at home and educators at school to decide and check what is useful and convenient or not for kids. below are some measures to be taken against harmful and inconvenient content which are likely to provide ease and help parents and educators (odaba�ı, 1999:321): • a filtering program might be applied to let them enter educational sites but not those with harmful and unwanted content. • as families teach their kids how to cope with unexpected negative behaviors in life, they should do this for the internet, as well. � m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits � � ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� • schools or internet cafes should inform the children to get out when they enter an inconvenient site or else they will clearly have some kind of sanctions.� • site builders shouldn’t forget that there are kids among users and filter their content in a way to make sure that kids are kept away from harmful content and materials. � • when educators take a child to an internet café, they should have them sit in groups of three. by this way the screen control might be ensured. on the other hand, their behaviors and dialogues between themselves might give an idea on what they might be doing!� • the teacher might want to give the key words for a research to be conducted by students on the internet on any subject to make sure which sites could come up in the search.� � in addition, a time should be allocated for gaming between the parents and their kids, for 10-15 minutes not to keep parents for long. the children should be given the chance to choose what game will be played, the children should be observed carefully in a way that they can realize that they are given so much care, and their good acts and words should be rewarded with “well done” or similar phrases. no questions should be asked in order to let them direct themselves and inclusion in the game should be up to them and not intervening in the game structure (http://www.makaleler.com, 2013). when parents cannot educate and raise their children well, they shouldn’t find the problem in computer or internet games, but themselves (tarhan, 2011, s. 92). when accurate methods are used computer games might be useful for time management, accurate message perception, critical thinking, improving visual skills and cognitive capacity, keeping cool in stress times. we should teach how to use computer games in a beneficial way rather than just restricting them. getting your children to use the m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits ��� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� internet in a careful way is highly crucial; however, this is also the case between the spouses. online friendship sites and chatting rooms might be harmful for their relationships. similarly, the researches conducted by the general directorate of family and social research (sagem), indicate that the internet could be harmful for families particularly for children when enough care is not given (sagem, 1998). methodology the study aims to clarify the differences between generations, the parents and digital natives who were born to a world of internet and social media, on the scale of kayseri through comparative relational analysis on dependent and independent variables. therefore, the study is limited to the scale of kayseri, instead of taking the whole turkey as universe, thus paving the way for a micro level detailed analysis. the reason to apply such a method is rather than having a macro level study devoid of necessary details with a focus on general, a study method is chosen which enables us to make healthy and satisfactory generalizations with a specific focus. in order to prove the transformation the internet has caused in gaming habits of children and their parents on the scale of social media, data were gathered on the basis of sociodemographical characteristics of research participants and a subsequent field study was conducted on parents of 4th and 5th graders at primary schools on the scale of kayseri. m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits �"� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� the surveys are applied to the parents of primary school students from randomly selected 15 schools (from different provinces under kayseri ministry of education) in a way to reflect the whole central kayseri. both parent groups, 25 from 4th graders and 25 from 5th,, were applied a preliminary test to identify the intelligibility and convenience to prospective analyses before the conduction of survey form on the field. the final shape of the survey is given once the ambiguous and mistaken places are eliminated. then the survey is applied to 650 people, to the parents of 4th and 5th graders in primary schools, throughout kayseri by random sampling method. after the elimination of mistaken and ambiguous answers, 566 healthy surveys were left for analysis. in the data analysis, the study uses some statistically descriptive methods like frequency breakdown and central tendency to identify the data respectively on socio-demographical characteristics of research participants, their game preferences in their childhoods and the times they spent for games, their relationships with their friends, which games their kids play today, whether they prefer street games or digital games, their use of computers, internet and social media; their game preferences on internet and social media; internet connection methods; time they spend on games on social media; social media games which they play most; their reasons for choosing social media games; their preferences on game friendships. and chi-square method is m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits �'� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� applied to measure the difference among games in terms of socio*demographical characteristics. the research objective the main aim of the study is to identify whether the gaming habits of parents among themselves or with their kids have changed along with the expansion of internet and social media use, whether their kids play the games they used to play, to what extent they play digital games, whether they spend more time on street games or digital games and whether they choose to play social media games or traditional street games. in addition, the study aims to observe the effects of social media on gaming along with its impacts on other habits. research variables independent variables include gender, education, job and games. dependent variables: 1) having a computer and internet; 2) frequency of traditional game and internet and social media gaming ; 3) use of new communication technologies. research assumptions assumption 1: kids do not play the games which their parents used to play when they were kids. assumption 2: parents do not play games on the internet. assumption 3: parents prefer digital games to street games. assumption 4: parents who play games on the internet play these games to pass time. research limitations the fact that such a wide-scale issue about what kinds of games parents play with their kids is analyzed in such a limited m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits ��� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� time brought about some limitations to research content and scope. the first limitation of the research is the fact that the research is based on the parents of 4th and 5th graders at primary schools, leaving those in other classes and ages out of scope. another limitation of the study originates from the content scope of the research. the concept of “gaming habits” including a rather vast scope is analyzed over the ownership of new communication technologies such as social media and whether the games are played over them or not leaving the psychological and sociological aspects out of analysis. the inductive reasoning method is applied in the research. research universe and samples the research is conducted in kayseri on the parents of 4th and 5th graders primary school students in kayseri. it is essential that the sample represents the universe in research sampling. sampling groups include the parents of students who get education in 15 primary schools in kocasinan, melikgazi and talas districts with upper, middle and low economy. when it comes to sociodemographical characteristics of research participants, 58,2% are women and 41,8% are men (in valid percent). findings and comments socio-demographical characteristics of 650 parents participating in the research, 566’s data are found convenient for analysis. 58% of participants are mothers, 41,7% are fathers with 0,4% unstated gender. m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits ��� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� average age of mothers is 34,9, and that of fathers is 39,5. 89,9% of mothers are housewives and 84,5% of fathers are selfemployed. the educational background of mothers can be listed as 48,5% primary school, 22,6% high school, 20,1% secondary school and 4,1% university graduates. 4,7% of them are uneducated. whereas, fathers education levels are 35,1% high school graduates, 30,6% primary school, 19,2% secondary school, 13,7% university and 0,5% post-graduate levels. 0,9% of fathers haven’t attended any education institutions (table 1.). table 1. demographical characteristic of parents demographical characteristics of participants frequency valid percent % gender male female unstated total 236 328 2 566 41,8 58,2 100 age 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 and over unstated total 202 290 65 2 0 7 566 36,1 51,9 11,6 0,4 0 100 education uneducated primary secondary high school university post-graduate unstated total 17 223 106 149 43 1 27 566 3,1 41,4 19,7 27,6 8,0 0,2 100 job housewife teacher self-employed civil servants engineer unstated total 287 14 222 25 1 17 566 52,2 2,6 40,4 4,6 0,2 100 m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits �(� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� what games parents used to play in their childhood? according to the research, parents used to lots of games including play hide and seek, skittles, ball games and playing house (table 2). the most preferred ones were respectively hide and seek and skittles while to least are chess and checkers under the category of “other”. table 2. the most preferred games that parents used to play in their childhood most preferred games in childhood frequency valid percent (%) hide and seek skittles playing house ball games most of the above other total 85 78 56 42 298 7 566 15 13,8 9,9 7,4 52,7 1,2 100 when the relationship between gender and the games played is analyzed 72,6% of those who used to play hide and seek and 96,4% of those who played playing house are women and 81% of fathers used to play ball games (table 3). there is a significant difference between the type of game played and gender (p<0,05). table 3. gender differences among games played during childhood mostly preferred games during childhood gender p girl (n=328) boy (n=236) hide and seek skittles 72,6 47,4 27,4 52,6 m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits �)� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� playing house ball games most of the above other 96,4 19,0 55,6 42,9 3,6 81,0 44,4 57,1 <0,05 according to the research data nearly half of parents used to play games for 2-4 hours a day (table 4). average period of playing is 3,1 hours. table 4. time allocated to playing by parents in their childhood time allocated to game frequency valid percent (%) up to 1 hour up to 2 hours up to 4 hours up to 6 hours 6 hours and over unstated total 100 162 171 91 27 15 566 18,2 29,4 31,0 16,5 4,9 100 according to the results, with respect to gaming friendship, parents used to have more friends then their children do now (table 5). the rate of those without any friends in their childhood is ‰5. table 5. the number of friends parents used to have in their childhood the number of friends frequency valid percent (%) many friends there were some but not many no friends at all unstated total 374 186 3 3 566 66,5 33,0 0,5 100 m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits (!� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� almost all of the children play the games their parents used to play in their childhoods (table 6). in the line of mostly preferred games, ball games like football and basketball come first notwithstanding what parents think, the second in the line are hide and seek and playing house. 43,4% of the kids play most of the other games as well as those stated above. today’s children don’t play games like chess and checkers under “other” category as mush as their parents did. the eye-catching point here is the fact that some of the kids never played the games their parents did whether they are in minor rate like 1%. table 6. the games which kids play and their parents used to play the games which kids play and their parents used to play frequency valid percent (%) hide and seek skittles (met) playing house ball games most of the above other none unstated total 107 8 54 136 242 5 6 8 566 19,2 1,4 9,7 24,4 43,4 0,9 1,0 100 according to the above results the assumption numbered 1 wasn’t verified stating “kids do not play the games which their parents used to play when they were kids”. digital game preferences of parents parents prefer to play street games in spite of technological developments and their increasingly intense daily schedules m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits (�� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� (table 7). those who prefer to play digital games account for 25% of the total number. those who do not want to play games are 9,8%. table 7. parents’ preferences about street games and digital games parents’ game preferences (street games / digital games) frequency valid percent (%) i prefer playing street games to digital games. i prefer digital games rather than street games. i prefer to play both. i prefer neither one. unstated total 290 75 140 55 6 566 51,8 13,4 25,0 9,8 100 according to the research data, today parents use computer with a rate of 50% and 57,5% of these group prefer not to use internet (table 8). they reflect their negative attitude against social media use with a rate of 65,9%. they refuse to play internet games with a rate of 82,2% and social media games with 82,1% (table 9). given their kids are addicted to computers games, are always online, even they form profiles on social media showing their ages more than normal and sharing private information about themselves and on the other hand, there are always fraudsters and malevolent people and violent and immoral games on this arenas; the fact that parents do not use these arenas will bring serious problems for communication in the family. table 8. parents use of computer, internet and social media computer, internet yes no m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits ( � ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� and social media use of parents frequency valid percent(%) frequency valid percent(%) do you use computer? do you get connected to the internet? do you spend time on social media? 282 240 131 50,0 42,5 34,1 282 325 369 50,0 57,5 65,9 table 9. parent’s choice of internet or social media games parent’s choice of internet or social media games yes no frequency valid percent(%) frequency valid percent(%) do you choose to play games on the internet? do you choose to play games on social media? 100 99 17,8 17,9 463 455 82,2 82,1 according to this the second assumption is verified which states “parents do not play games on the internet”. parents mostly prefer to get connected to the internet at their homes, the second source of connection being smart phones and the third form of connection is internet café. those who go to their neighbors, relatives and shopping centers indicated their prefences under the category of “other” (table 10). table 10. how do parents connect to the internet internet connection preferences frequency valid percent (%) home mobile phone internet cafe work other i don’t get connected unstated total 211 60 37 27 21 144 66 566 42,2 12,0 7,4 5,4 4,2 28,8 100 m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits (�� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� facebook is by far the most preferred social media by parents who get connected to internet with some 31 million members in turkey (http://www.sabah.com.tr, 2013), while the global number is more than one billion (http://www.sabah.com.tr/2, 2013) (table 11). twitter comes next after facebook. while myspace, bebo and “other”s like linkedin, youtube, instagram, whatsapp are used by parents with close rates, 44% of them choose not to exist in social media. table 11. preferences of parents on social media social media preferences frequency valid percent (%) facebook twitter myspace bebo other i am not on social media unstated total 201 13 3 2 29 195 123 566 45,4 2,9 0,7 0,5 6,5 44,0 100 while 81,6% of parents using social media choose not to play games over this medium, 69,2% of those who prefer to play spend up to 1 hour and 26,9% spend up to 2 hours (table 12). table 12. time spent by parents playing social media games time spent playing on social media games frequency valid percent (%) up to 1 hour up to 2 hours up to 3 hours up to 5 hours those not playing total 72 28 3 1 462 566 69,2 26,9 2,9 1,0 100 m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits ("� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� parents who state that they play games on social media are found to play “backgammon” and “okey” most (table 13). these games are followed by daily life games like “farmville” and “bizim çiftlik”. next come sports games like football and f1 racing; mind games like chess and war games. table 13. games mostly played on social media by parents mostly preferred games on social media frequency valid percent (%) backgammon okey daily life games sports games mind games war games total 45 21 11 7 4 88 51,1 23,9 12,5 8,0 4,5 100 parents indicated their reasons to pass time on social media as to pass time (%48,5) and entertainment (%39,8). other reasons are competing with their friends, and getting frightened and worried under the category “other” (table 14). therefore, it can be said that the fourth assumption stating that “parents who play games on the internet play these games to pass time” is verified. table 14. parents’ reasons for choosing social media to play games reasons for choosing social media to play games frequency valid percent (%) to pass time enjoy oneself competing (with friends) other total 50 41 8 4 103 48,5 39,8 7,8 3,9 100 m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits ('� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� the parents who choose to play digital games with a high rate, find the friendships on the street much more sincere (95,9%) with respect to ones in digital environments (%95,9) and believe that digital environments are virtual and do not reflect reality (table 15). table 15. parents’ preferences on game friendship game friendship preference frequency valid percent (%) i find friendships in street games more sincere i find friendships in digital games more sincere the internet, in which digital games are played, is virtual, i don’t think it represents the reality the internet, in which digital games are played, is real, i have a faith in friendships there unstated total 444 17 70 5 30 566 82,8 3,2 13,1 0,9 100 particularly the third assumption stating that “parents prefer digital games to street games” wasn’t verified. this assumption has its origins in the idea that parents would direct their kids towards digital media games thinking that the streets are insecure now. parents prefer the street games and friendships there with a very high rate. evaluation and conclusion the parents of primary schools students at 4th and 5th grades participating in the research have played street games with their m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits (�� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� friends for so long hours in their childhoods. today, the children of those who then played these traditional games spend a large amount of time playing these games even if their gaming preferences have changed a lot. while the number of parents preferring street games is much higher than those preferring digital games, those who want to play both of these game types or just the digital games are at a really high rate. it seems important that parent’s time with their children online maybe playing games in order to prevent them from behaving in an uncontrolled way on the internet and social media; and to maintain a system of control on their kids in order to take their hands off from those sites with negative and harmful content. experts provide similar recommendations for the sake of communication inside the family. however, research results indicate that parents do not take their places on the internet and social media and the significantly high rates prove that they don’t want to change their attitudes. parents spending time in the social media mostly stay logged on to facebook. social media user parents prefer to play games over this medium. 51,1% of social media users play games like okay game or backgammon. parents might seem to stick to experts’ recommendations to be with their kids checking and monitoring them, however they indeed represent a bad sample to their kids playing such games on their online visits. all the same, m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits (�� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� it is good to see that parents don’t spend time on gambling and similar sites with immoral content. most of the parents today, 95,9% of them, prefer those friendships they had on the streets of their times to the digital friendships of today. in terms of game friendship, given the online fraudulences and abuses, perhaps the most sagacious attitude of parents would be to choose the friendships of their times. still, the existence of a 4.1% of people finding online friendships sincere and secure might be a reflection of an optimist point of view and enthusiasm towards internet and technology. in conclusion, even if the parents participating in the research want to keep away from internet and social media, it seems adversely inconvenient for them to leave their children alone in this arena let alone encouraging them. one of the most important responsibilities of today’s parents is to raise their children in a healthy way from worldly and spiritual respect as the society needs such generations. today it is very important for each child to make use of online media facilities, however the fact that they can reach all kinds of negative content without boundaries makes it necessary that parents take their place in these environments with their children in a controlled way. as today’s generation, who live in a digital world, complain about, the only way to understand, evaluate and communicate with them is to dominate this arena. it may only be possible to ensure communication inside family by this way. m. akdag&m. cingi the impact of internet and social media on game habits ((� ������ ��� �� ��� ����� ��������� �� ����������� ������� ������ !�"#�$�%����� � ��&����� ��� ��������� ���� references akgül, m. 1999. �nternet sunucu araçları ve yönetimi. ankara: bilkent üniversitesi yayınları binark, m., sütçü, g. b., & buçakcı, f. 2009. türkiye'de �nternet kafelerde dijital oyuncular-yeni medya okuryazarlı�ı neden gerekli. m. binark, g. b. sütçü, & i. b. fidaner içinde, dijital oyun rehberi oyun tasarımı türler ve oyuncu (s. 187-224). �stanbul: kalkedon. çetinkaya, b. 2010. ruhsal açıdan sa�lıklı aile sa�lıklı çocuk. ankara: empati yayınları. duran, �. 2013, april 16. http://seymaduran.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/egitsel-oyun-nedir/. http://seymaduran.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/egitsel-oyun-nedir/. e�sizer, ö. 2013, april 24. http://www.onceanneyim.com/cocuklar-oyunoynarken-ogrenmeyi-ogrenir.html. gencer, b. m. 2006. 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for print epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare's the tempest dr. payam abbasi ∗∗∗∗ ali saeedi abstract having been discussed for more than four centuries, shakespeare (1564-1616), believed by many critics to be the most important english dramatist, is still inexhaustible. through these years and especially in the twentieth century, many different approaches have been applied to his plays. this study is an attempt to have a postmodernist reading of the tempest (1610). based on the definition and characterization of postmodernism by ihab hassan and brian mchale, and through a careful language analysis, the postmodernist elements in the speeches of characters are detected and discussed. by using postmodernist elements and techniques such as puns, wordplays, paradoxes, and versal prose, the language becomes anarchic, playful, disperse, polymorphous and indeterminate. by finding and analyzing these features in the language of the play it becomes arguable that the tempest is a postmodern comedy. keywords: shakespeare; the tempest; language; postmodern; wordplay. ∗ corresponding author: payam abbasi; assistant professor and ali saeedi m.a student; department of english literature, faculty of foreign languages, university of isfahan, isfahan, iran; e-mail: a.saeedi1367@gmail.com p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 256 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences introduction up to the recent times, it had been a long-held idea that the tempest is shakespeare's last play. being so, shakespeare put all his knowledge, experience, and talent into it, making it one of his richest plays. the tempest is of such significance that it is included in many shakespeare collections and many anthologies of english and even western literature. in the development of shakespeare’s imagery (1951) a chapter is devoted to the tempest. in this chapter w. h. clemens (1951) discusses the different types of imagery in the tempest and the influence upon the reader's view of the play. he believes the imagery in the tempest serves more than just creating an atmosphere or background or intensifying the theme of the play (clemens 1951, p. 182). clemens believes that since the tempest is among the plays where the supernatural has a significant role, therefore the skillful use of imagery here serves as a mediator of these supernatural elements. in this regard he categorizes the three major groups of imagery as the sea imagery, the animal and vegetation imagery, and finally the olfactory imagery. by carefully examining these groups he concludes that they have a huge role in creating the strange vision of the "nature world", making a counterpart to the world of the supernatural in the play (clemens 1951, p. 194). in the masterpieces of western literature (1966), a chapter is also allocated to the tempest. in this chapter david r. clark (1966) analyses the significance of prospero and his p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 257 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences different roles in the play. by recognizing "personal discipline" and "social responsibility" as the conditions of freedom, he studies prospero’s role in obtaining such a freedom for himself as well as other characters (clark 1966, p. 1). interesting studies have been done in recent decades regarding contemporary and postmodern readings of shakespeare. the originally polish jan kott (1967) in his shakespeare our contemporary (1967) tries to trace modern and postmodern elements in shakespeare. for example, he deconstructs the longlasting belief of regarding the tempest as a play of "forgiveness and reconciliation" (p. 238). he also rejects the popular autobiographical reading of the play (p. 240). his book was so influential that some years later a book named is shakespeare still our contemporary? (1989) was published on his view points. the book is in fact a collection of meetings held by scholars on kott's theories. his ideas received a wide range of responses from the well-known shakespeare scholar helen gardener who called them "outrageous arrogances" to bertolt brecht who insisted that shakespeare should always be regarded a man of his time (elson 1989, p. 4). the aim of this article is to have a postmodern reading of the tempest. in other words, this study is going to analyze the play in terms of language techniques and to show that based on these techniques the play can be regarded as a postmodern comedy. the famous critic and writer ihab hassan (1982) has defined postmodernism as "a new aesthetic formation" (ctd. in p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 258 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences malpas 2005, p. 6). in his momentous book the dismemberment of orpheus: toward a postmodern literature (1982), hassan has made a table of comparison between modernism and postmodernism. in contrast to modernist features he attributes the following elements to postmodernism: "antiform, play, chance, anarchy, participation, dispersal, text / intertext, misreading, mutant, polymorphous, rhetoric, schizophrenia, the holy ghost, and indeterminacy" (hassan 1982, pp. 267-268). all these features are at the service of decentering the language and making it polysemous. by tracing and analyzing these elements in the language of the tempest, it becomes debatable that it has a playful, decentered, and polysemous diction and therefore can be regarded as a postmodern play. with a focus on postmodern elements mentioned by hassan (1982), this study is an attempt to show and analyze these features in the tempest, which results in manifesting that the tempest is a postmodern play. the article is divided into five main sections. the first section deals with the names of characters. in this part a thorough analysis of the names of some of the characters is given. it is shown that through the use of allusive, playful, and polysemous names, shakespeare has enriched the play with a postmodern language, besides making it intertextual which again is itself a postmodern feature. the second part is allocated to versal prose. aristotle believed that in a play, high characters must speak high, refined and elevated language, while the low characters should have a low and base diction (warrington 1963, pp. 12&26). breaking this rule results in p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 259 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences violating the hierarchy of the play, and thus, making the language anarchic. in this part, examples of versal prose are discussed and their role in making the tempest a postmodern play is displayed. the third part is devoted to puns and wordplays. in this part, by a close reading of the play, significant examples of puns, word plays, and paradoxes are detected and analyzed; the play is indeed rich in terms of this technique. by making the diction of the play chancy, playful, anarchic, mutant, polymorphous and indeterminate, this technique is at the service of decentering the language, and therefore contributes a lot in creating a postmodern atmosphere. the fourth part talks about ontological interferences. brian mchale (1987) argues that postmodernism is distinguished by a shift from modernism (mchale 1987, p. 10). that is a change in the point of concentration from epistemology in modernism to ontology in postmodernism. in other words in modernism, there is a focus on the matters regarding knowledge, and how it is acquired, while in postmodernism the focus is on questions and issues regarding the very nature of existence. based on this definition, in this section of the article those parts of the play are analyzed which are important regarding ontological interferences. the fifth and final section deals with another postmodern feature; hassan (1982) attributes "the holy ghost" to postmodernism in contrast to "god the father" which is a modernist feature (p. 268). here, with concentration on the epilogue of the play the manifestation of this postmodern element is shown. this section concludes this study on postmodernist elements in the tempest p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 260 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences believed to be a postmodern play, since it contains many of the postmodernist elements mentioned by major literary theorists. names of characters as mentioned earlier, "play, anarchy, dispersal, and intertextuality" are among the features of a postmodern piece of literary writing. here in this section the names of some characters, are in line with these features, are analyzed. some names are playful: having their roots in greek and latin, their meanings are associated with characters’ occupation, speeches, actions, and mentality. some are allusive. by referring to historical, geographical, mythological and religious figures, events and places, the names make the passage intertextual. finally, some names possess all the above elements. all these features are at the service of decentering the language and making different layers of meaning which is a pivotal postmodern concept. caliban caliban is one of the most interesting and controversial characters of shakespeare. the significance has caused shakespeare critics and scholars to write a numerous number of articles on caliban, scrutinizing the different parts of this shakespearean character. one of them is "caliban's mask" (2003), by kevin pask. here, he tries to have an analysis of the different responses on the tempest from its own time up to the restoration period with a special focus on the character of caliban. for instance, the two contrary viewpoints of addison and jonson are p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 261 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences mentioned, where addison regards the creation of caliban as "artistic creation" and "imaginative control" but, the latter regards it as a large "artistic weakness" (pask 2003, p. 740). another study is "the backward voice of coriol–anus" (2004). here, maurice hunt (2004) discusses the idea of purgation in the speeches of shakespeare characters. in one part of the article he talks about this issue in the language of caliban and other characters in the tempest. for example, he believes this purgation is manifest in the conversations of trinculo and stephano. caliban's curses also function as "symbolic purgation" and "gradual reclamation" of this character (hunt, 2004, p. 225). as manifested in this chapter, and later in other sections of the article, caliban's name as well as his presence, shape, diction, and personality contribute largely to the richness of the play. an important feature of shakespeare’s time was the sea voyages, which resulted in, first, the discovery and exploration of the new islands and continents and, then, the act of colonizing them. many travel writings were produced during that time explaining the adventures of the mariners and voyagers at sea and in the "new world." shakespeare was certainly familiar with them, as he uses the material in the tempest and many of his other plays. among these accounts, two are of utmost importance: the first one is montaigne's essay "of cannibals" (1580) which is believed to be the only undisputed source of the tempest (kermode, 1954, p. xxxiv). montaigne (1533-1592) traveled to brazil in 1557 and wrote his memories of the travel in essays (1580), one of which is "of cannibals." he describes the p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 262 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences supposed practice of cannibalism among the natives with a positive, naturalistic attitude towards them. he is very critical of european culture and believes that they are even savage, as we call those fruits wilde, which nature of her selfe … hath produced: where as indeed those which our selves have altered by our artifice all devices, and diverted from their common order, we should rather term savage. (ctd. in kermode 1954, p. xxxv) the second source is bermuda pamphlets (1610). in may 1609 some ships left england for the virginia colony. one of these ships was lost because of the storm and was driven near the coast of bermudas while the other ships reached the main destination. after sometime in may 1610 the lost ship also managed to reach the main land of america. many narratives of this adventure, regarding the voyagers' confrontation with the nature and inhabitants of those islands were written and published in england. by using the names such as "caliban", "setebos" (kermode 1954, i.ii.375), and "still vexed bermoothes" (i.ii.229) in the tempest, there leaves almost no doubt that shakespeare was familiar with these accounts. based on the information about the sources of the tempest, it is generally accepted that caliban's name is an anagram of the word "cannibal" (skura 1989, p.51). being a distortion of the word "carib," which later became "cannib" and "cannibal," both words refer to the native caribbean and their practice of cannibalism. although some other critics such as chambers have proposed another meaning: it is also believed that the name is derived from the gypsy word "cauliban" meaning p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 263 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences "blackness" (kermode 1954, p. xxxviii). caliban's representation in the play, through the eyes of other characters as well as through his own acts and speeches, resembles both meanings properly. first of all, caliban is described as a "salvage and deformed slave" in dramatis personae, preparing the reader to confront an animalistic, evil creature. the reader confronts caliban, first, in act i, scene ii, where he expresses his wish to rape miranda (i.ii.351-352). later he plots to murder prospero by encouraging stephano to kill him, seize miranda as his wife and become the king of the isle (iii.ii.85-100). caliban is continually referred to as: "slave, villain, earth, tortoise, poisonous, abhorred, capable of all ill, savage, vile race, hag seed, and devil" (i.ii.315-372). just in one scene (ii, ii) he is nineteen times referred to as "monster" and "moon calf" by trinculo and stephano. in all these instances, caliban is associated with being terrestrial, earthly, evil, black, and lowly. caliban was taught language by prospero and miranda, but he even uses this virtue as an opportunity to constantly curse others (ii.ii.1-13)—even caliban himself acknowledges his talent in cursing (i.ii.323-326). finally at the end of the play, prospero, when forgiving his enemies declares caliban as a "thing of darkness" which belongs to him. thus, as the above evidences clarify, caliban's name is in compete accordance with his shape, actions, language and personality. moreover, by being associated with different sources of the tempest, the name adds to the multiple layers of allusiveness and intertextuality of the play. by being meaningful, and related to caliban's character, his name further makes the language of the tempest playful, and p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 264 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences indeterminate. therefore, caliban's name has a huge role in making the language of the play postmodern. sycorax sycorax is also one of the interesting minor characters of shakespeare. though an absent character, she has a great impact on creating a postmodern atmosphere in the play. shakespeare critics are conscious of the importance of absent characters in his works. one study analyzing the absent figures in the tempest is done by sarah annes brown (2008). in "the return of prospero’s wife: mother figures in the tempest" (2008), brown states that the tempest is among the plays that receives a wide range of responses both in older time and modern era. her focus is on the absent characters of the play, particularly the absent mother figures (p. 146). the article studies the importance of sycorax and prospero’s wife in the tempest. sycorax’s name is of latin root, and a combination of two words: "sys" meaning "sow" and "korax" meaning "raven," the animals that are associated with lust, darkness, and evil omen. her name is also in full correspondence with her past and her action. first of all, she was a witch practicing black magic (i.ii.258). in the renaissance time witches were considered evil and unlucky, and the practice of witchcraft was regarded as sinful. many witches were burnt alive or left to drown in the thames in that time because of these reasons. furthermore, sycorax had committed a crime, whose normal punishment was execution, but, because of being pregnant she had been exiled—instead of being p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 265 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences executed (i.ii.261-267). she had continued her practice of necromancy in her exile in the island by confining ariel into a tree (i.ii.285&293). caliban also refers to her black magic as well as her name: cal: "as wicked dew as ever my mother brush'd, / with raven’s feather from unwholesome fen, / drop on you both! / a south – west blow on ye, and blister yon all o'er!" (i.ii.323-325). at a deeper layer of intertextuality, she was also a worshipper of setebos (i.ii.374-376) who was a god of patagonians. it is very likely that shakespeare might have come across the word in robert eden's history of travaile (1577) where narrating magellan's voyages, the writer refers to patagonians and their method of worshipping their god, setebos (kermode 1954, p. xxxii). further, at another level of allusiveness, sycorax has features in common with the ancient mythological witches, particularly circe a greek mythological figure, had been exiled to the solitary island of aeaea because of committing murder. according to homer, she invited odysseus's men to a feast and changed them into swine. so as manifested above, by using different layers of allusions, as well as playing on the word in just a single name of an absent character, shakespeare displays his mastery in the language as well as adding to its richness and multiplicity of meaning. p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 266 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences versal prose in his poetics (335 b. c.), in "definition of tragedy," aristotle (384-322 b. c.) argues that in a play "in some portions verse only is employed, and in others song" (warrington 1963, p. 12). what aristotle means is that verse and prose shall not mix with each other in the language of the play. in "delineation of characters," he further clarifies that "all the characters should remain consistent throughout the play" (ibid. p. 26). in the tempest, shakespeare, particularly, tries to be loyal to aristotle by observing the three unities of time, place, and action. however, deviations are not difficult to be observed. high characters lower their language by cursing and using inappropriate words and phrases, and base characters use highly rhymed verses and/or very courtly and refined diction which is a postmodern feature. by disturbing the hierarchy of language as well as making it mutant and idiolect, the diction of the play becomes chaotic and polymorphous. besides, this technique, by opposing the characters’ language to their social status disrupts the consistency of the characters. in the following part instances of versal prose in the play are detected and analyzed. caliban is an important character regarding the use of versal prose. caliban defined as a "savage and deformed slave" in the list of characters, indeed, satisfies the definition by constant cursing during the course of the play. but, there are some occasions in which his language becomes dignified, elevated, and highly rhymed, showing his ability and skill in using language. p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 267 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences one example is act ii, scene ii where trinculo and stephano find caliban. assuming the king and all his men drowned, they choose stephano to be the king of the island. caliban is also happy of getting rid of his cruel master, prospero, and decides to worship stephano as a god. he promises stephano to show him the wonders and natural sources of food and drink in the isle. happily he celebrates his freedom with the following song: cal: no more dams i'll make for fish; nor fetch in firing at requiring; nor scrape trenching, nor wash dish: 'ban, 'ban, ca caliban has a new master: get a new man. freedom, high–day! high day, freedom! freedom, high–day, freedom! (ii.ii.180-187) though simple and childish, this piece of song shows caliban's ability in using language in other ways than cursing. it also exhibits another dimension of caliban's mentality and personality: the reader is confronted with a caliban who can sing and compose rhymed verses. this side, which is shadowed by his dominant negative personality throughout the play, is very different from the all-time cursing and nagging deformed slave. another example of caliban's elegant and refined diction is in act iii, scene ii where caliban tells his story to stephano and trinculo and encourages stephano to kill prospero and become the king of the isle. after plotting to do so, trinculo and stephano start to sing merrily. but, caliban reminds them that they are not singing "in tune" (iii.ii.122). ariel, invisible, comes and plays the music, and the other two are frightened by the unknown source of the sound. but, caliban is not in horror and comforts them instead: p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 268 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences cal: be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not. sometimes a thousand twangeling instruments will hum about my ear; and sometimes voices, that, if i then had wak'd after long sleep, will making me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, the clouds me thought would open, and show riches. ready to drop upon me; that when i wak'd, i cried to dream again. (iii.ii.133141) caliban’s referring to words and entities such as "airs, music, delight, and dream, " with his love and enjoyment of them, is in sharp contrast with his dominant language and personality throughout the play. as mentioned earlier, caliban also warns the other two that they are not singing "in tune." that an uncivilized and abominable slave is aware of musical tunes and sensitive to deviations from that is of utmost amazement. caliban’s diction, in several occasions, diverges from his social status and dominant language and characteristic in the play. this results in creating an anarchic atmosphere in the diction of the tempest, as well as inconsistency of the characters. these features contribute a lot in facilitating a postmodern reading of the play. p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 269 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences puns/wordlays one of the weightiest elements that make a postmodern reading of the tempest possible is the extensive use of puns and wordplays. by playing on different meanings of a single word, shakespeare intensifies the "chancy", "anarchic", and "indeterminate" tone of the play and "disperses" the language from its center. he further provides an opportunity to have different interpretations and "misreadings" of the play. moreover, puns and wordplays are associated, mostly, with the "rhetoric" aspect of the language which concerns the mastery and talent in representing speech and diction, rather than the "semantic" aspect, concerned mostly with delivering the meaning of the text. this technique also helps to create "signifiers" which lead to multiple "signifieds" at a time. finally, it enriches the "intertexuality" and "allusiveness" of the play in many occasions, as it paves the way for associations between the play and other literary, religious, geographical, and historical texts. all the above mentioned features contribute to the decentering of the language and therefore creation of a postmodern play. act ii, scene i, is so full of puns and language plays that the whole scene may be considered a huge wordplay. here, king and his attendants are searching the isle to find ferdinand. the scene begins with gonzalo,"an honest old councellor," hoping their search to be fruitful. alonso, who is not so much optimistic, asks him to be quite and leave him in "peace" (ii.i.9). sebastian, cynical and sarcastic throughout the scene, puns on alonso's p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 270 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences "peace" by saying that: "he receives comfort like cold porridge" (ii.i.10), with a wordplay on alonso's "peace" and "pease porridge." antonio continues the wordplay by an allusion to the "visitor" or the church official who comforts the ill (ii.i.11) by which he means that gonzalo is like a priest who is vainly trying to console alonso. the language play further continues by sebastian comparing gonzalo to a clock which is striking at every hour and cannot remain quiet (ii.i.13). the scene continues as the following: gon: sir, seb: [aside to antonio ] one: tell. gon: when every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd, comes to the entertainer …………….. seb: a dollar gon: dolour comes to him, indeed: you have spoken truer than you purpo'sd. (ii.i.14-20) here in another attempt, gonzalo tries to cheer up alonso. he states that an entertainer makes his audience happy and what comes to him is, as sebastian interrupts him, a "dollor." gonzalo puns on the word and uses "dolour," meaning "grief". sebastian intends to say that the entertainer gains money as his reward but, gonzalo means that he takes the grief away from the audience. after some chat, adrian, one of the courtiers, comments on the island that: "though this island seems to be deserted […] uninhabitable and almost inaccessible […] it must needs be of subtle, tender, delicate, temperance" (ii.i.34&37&41-42). antonio plays on the word "temperance" saying that "temperance was a p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 271 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences delicate wench" (ii.i.44). by "temperance," adrian means the climate of the island, while antonio means the proper name of a prostitute. in line with his bleak view, and continuing the conversation on the weather of the isle, antonio states that it is "perfumed by a fen" (ii.i.47) producing a huge paradox, by referring to adrian's optimistic view on the "sweet breathe of air" (ii.i.45). paradoxes, that will be further analyzed, later in the scene, contribute a lot to the playfulness of the language. gonzalo, cheerful and optimistic as usual, states that their garments are as fresh as when they left the wedding ceremony (ii.i.59-62). antonio answers that if but one of his pockets could speak, it would reveal his lies (ii.i.63-64). sebastian continuing the mimicry, puns on the word "pocket" and says that it can "pocket up" gonzalo's reports (ii.i.65), meaning that the pockets, which are unlike the outer garments dirty and muddy and also invisible to the viewer, can conceal gonzalo's lies about the freshness of the clothes. the conversation continues as the following: gon: methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we put them on first in afric, at the marriage of the king's fair daughter claribel to the king of tunis. seb: 't was a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return. adr: tunis was never grac'd before with such a paragon to their queen. gon: not since widow dido's time. ant: widow! a pox o'that! how came that widow in? widow dido! p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 272 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences seb: what if he had said "widower aeneas" too? good lord, how you take it! adr: "widow dido" said you? you make me study of that: she was of carthage, not of tunis. gon: this tunis sir, was carthage. adr: carthage? gon: i assure you, carthage. ant: his word is more than the miraculous harp. seb: he hath rais'd the wall, and houses too. ant: what impossible matter will he make easy next? seb: i think he will carry this island home in his pocket, and give it his son for an apple. ant: and, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands. gon: ay (ii.i.66-90). here, adrian comments that such a grace has never been fallen on tunis. gonzalo continues: "not since widow dido's time." this short sentence becomes the source for a chain of word plays, puns, paradoxes, and allusions. dido was the mythological queen of carthage whom elizabethans associated, mostly, as a lover of aeneas, not as the widow of sychaeus who was originally her husband. the mistake paves the way for the two jokers to mock gonzalo. what makes it even worse is adrian's comment. puzzled by the phrase "widow dido," he expresses that: "she was of carthage, not of tunis." in another paradoxical mistake gonzalo assumes carthage and tunis to be the same. antonio and sebastian, seize the opportunity by referring to amphion's harp, which raised the walls of thebes, and continue to make sneering comments on gonzalo. while the group continues the search, p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 273 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences sebastian mercilessly tries to put the blame of ferdinand's loss on alonso. gonzalo warns the harshness of his language because "when he should bring plaster be rubs the sore" (ii.i.134-135). antonio plays on the simple sentence by comparing gonzalo to a surgeon. then, gonzalo contemplates the possibility of colonizing the island: ["had i a plantation of this isle my lord-----------", (ii.i.139)]. again, antonio and sebastian choose to understand him as they like and interpret the word literary, meaning "farming and agriculture" (ii.i.139-140). gonzalo decides to elaborate on the features of his commonwealth: gon: i' th' commonwealth i would by contraries. execute all things; for no kind of traffic would i admit; no name of magistrate; letters should not be known; riches, poverty, and use of service, none; contract, succession, bourn, bound of land, filth, vineyard, none; no use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil; no occupation; all men idle, all; and women too, but innocent and pure: no sovereignty;_____ (ii.i.143152) in this passage, gonzalo, in numerating the elements of his colony, deprives it of all its necessary features and finishes his speech by the paradoxical statement that in his commonwealth there will be "no sovereignty." p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 274 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences after a while by the magical music of ariel, the group falls into sleep except antonio and sebastian. from now on to the end of the scene when courtiers are awakened the reader finds significant examples of wordplays and paradoxes. antonio tries to seduce sebastian that supposing ferdinand to be drowned he is the second line to the throne, and it is a great opportunity for him to get rid of alonso, and become king. sebastian showing his doubtfulness states that he is "standing water" (ii.i.216), not to know whether to ebb or flow. antonio using the same analogy says that he will teach him "how to flow" (ii.i.217). answering him with the same wordplay sebastian says "to ebb hereditary sloth instructs me" (ii.i.217-218). besides continuing the sea imagery, sebastian here puns on the phrase, meaning that because of his natural laziness and being a younger brother it is not appropriate for him to be ambitious. antonio goes on: ant: o, if you but knew how you the purpose cherish while thus you mock it! how, in stripping it, you more invest it! ebbing men, indeed, most often do so near the bottom run by their own fear of sloth. (ii.i.218-223) here, antonio intensifying his seductions suggests that sebastian is in fact willing to become king. since "ebbing men," or men who hesitate and move backwards will get "near the bottom," and will never reach their goal. apart from his intelligent use of paradox (how, in stripping it, you more invest it!), antonio p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 275 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences apparently uses the same sea imagery and word play which lingers in their conversation, in order to persuade sebastian to do his intended evil act. further in the scene, recognizing that sebastian has not yet completely believed that ferdinand is drowned, antonio states: ant: o, out of that "no hope" what great hope have you! no hope that way is another way so high a hope, that even ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond, but doubt discovery there. will you grant with me that ferdinand is drown'd? (ii.i.234-239) here, like the previously-quoted passage, antonio with the skillful use of paradox, plays on sebastian's sense of doubtfulness, that "out of no hope," what "high a hope" emerges. he means that by murdering alonso, sebastian can easily reach his goal to be the king. to conclude this part, it is essential to mention that the vast and extensive use of puns, wordplays, and paradoxes gives the language of the tempest a highly postmodern air, for these techniques cause the diction to become considerably playful, anarchic, uncertain, and indeterminate; all postmodern features. ontological interferences brian mchale in his postmodernist fiction (1987) discusses that the difference between modernism and p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 276 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences postmodernism may be understood based on their focal point. he believes that in modernist fiction there is a focus on epistemological matters, while in postmodernism the focus has been shifted to ontological issues (1987, p.10). in other words, in modernism the concentration is on questions and matters related to knowledge and how they are gained, while in postmodernism the questions are related to the notion of "being" and "existence," such as "what is a world, what kinds of worlds are there, how are they constituted, and how do they differ? what happens when different kinds of worlds are placed in confrontation, or when boundaries between worlds are violated?" (ibid., p.10). as evident in the above questions, in postmodernism, the focus is on the very concept of "reality," "being," "different worlds," "their boundaries," and "the intermingling of these worlds." in this section, based on mchale's definition and characterization of postmodernism, the study focuses on ontological interferences in the tempest. the first part of this section is devoted to detecting this feature in the setting of the play, and the second part to the two worlds of dream and reality, their boundaries and their amalgamation in the play. the setting of the play while keeping the characters real and tangible, shakespeare makes the atmosphere of his plays as imaginary and dreamy as possible. in this section the setting of the play as one aspect of the imaginary quality of the tempest is analyzed. as mentioned earlier, shakespeare is loyal to aristotle by observing p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 277 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences the unities of time, place, and action. the tempest happens in one island and the setting does not change throughout the play. but, the location of that very island is itself ambiguous. there are two sets of information, each supporting a separate island as the setting of the play. based on dramatis personae as well as the evidences in the text, one supportable location for the play is an island in the mediterranean sea. the main characters of the play, prospero, miranda, alonso and his attendants are all of milan or naples and are on their way back from claribel's wedding in tunis to their homeland italy (ii.i.66-68), when they are caught by a tempest and driven to an island. another group of evidences supports a place near americas as the setting. first of all, ariel in reporting to prospero about his mission of drowning the ship, clearly states that he had saved the people on board, and the ship is safe "in the deep nook where once thou cal'dst me upon at midnight to fetch dew form the still-vexed bermoothes" (i.ii.226230). talking about the rest of the crew, who are moving back to naples supposing the king and his attendants all drowned, ariel, very interestingly, in the same passage refers to "mediterranean flot" (i.ii.234), thousands of miles away of bermoothes. another evidence is the reference to setebos—a god of the patagonians. caliban explicitly mentions that his mother was a worshipper of setebos (i.ii.373-376). moreover, caliban himself at the end of the play invokes to setebos to avoid prospero's punishment (v.i.261-263), showing that he also worships the same god. on the other hand, sycorax, caliban's mother, is said to be an algerian who had been banished in an island, presumably in the p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 278 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences mediterranean, where she gives birth to caliban (i. ii.261&267282). it is very curious that an algerian who lives in a mediterranean island is a worshipper of a god of native americans. the third and the last evidence is the presence of caliban himself as an islander. in the renaissance time, europeans associated mostly the "new world" with novelty, secrecy, and exoticism. since ptolemy's geography written in the 2 nd century a. d. in alexandria, europeans had been familiar with the mediterranean, africa, and asia (brotton 2005, pp. 79-81), at least 1200 years before renaissance. they associated darkness, mystery, and weirdness mostly with their newly discovered lands and their people; americas and australia are noteworthy. all of these features are present in caliban whose presence in the play, his name, his shape and color, his deformity, his language, and actions have a close resemblance to that of the inhabitants of the "new world." thus, as argued in this section, the two sets of information in the play each have enough weight to support a separate place as the setting, and finally they leave it equivocal as to where the real island that the tempest takes place is. this absorbing instance of the violation of boundaries between possible existing worlds paves the way for the reader to think of ontological interferences when one is reminded of the fact that this imaginary setting is a construct of shakespeare’s world of the imagination. dream vs. reality p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 279 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences another important case of ontological interference is the existence and intermingling of the two realms of dream and reality. at the end of act ii, scene i, the courtiers are overwhelmed by a magical sleep, put to them by ariel's music. the reader here begins to confront the two domains of dream and reality. when alonso and his party fall asleep, the limit between the two worlds of sleep and reality starts to blur. this confusion is intensified by the conversation between sebastian and antonio whose language is full of sleepy, dreamy, and hallucinatory implications. after all fall asleep, sebastian wonders the strange "drowsiness" which has possessed them (ii.i.194), and does not cause his "eyelids to sink," and make him "sleep;" nor does antonio feel sleepy. his spirits are "nimble" and he fantasizes a crown falling on sebastian's head. sebastian wonders if antonio is "awake," since he speaks "sleepy language" (ii.i.206). he believes antonio's speeches to be strange and fanciful because "this is a strange repose to be asleep with eyes wide open, standing, speaking, moving and yet so fast asleep" (ii.i.208-210). antonio, on the other hand believes that it is sebastian who lets his fortune "sleep" or rather die, and keeps his eyes shut, while he is awake. shocked by antonio's speeches and believing him not to be awake, sebastian compares what antonio says to "the snores of a sleeping person" saying that "there is meaning in" his "snores" (ii.i.212-213). antonio's temptations continue till he says what he means in plain words using the same sleep and dream imagery. addressing alonso's daughter, claribel, antonio asks her to remain in tunis and "let sebastian wake" (ii.i.263). then he asks sebastian to suppose as p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 280 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences if "this were death that now that seiz'd them [the courtiers]" (ii.i.255-256), since even the dead can rule as properly as these men. this "sleep," he believes, is indeed an opportunity for sebastian's "advancement" (ii.i.263). the intermingling of the two worlds of dream and reality reaches its peak at the end of the scene, when ariel sings in gonzalo's ear to wake because while he "snoring lies, open–eyed conspiracy" is taking place. hearing this, gonzalo wakes, and other courtiers rise by his cry, and the plot ends unsuccessfully. shakespeare has stuffed this short passage with as much references to sleep, dream, and imagination as possible, removing the borders of imagination and reality. another significant example of this mixture occurs in act iv, scene i. almost finished with his plan, and granted ferdinand with the marriage to miranda, prospero then summons the goddesses (iris, juno, and ceres), nymphs and reapers, in order to celebrate the happy marriage with their song and music. after they finish, prospero continues: pros: you do look my son, in a mov'd sort, as if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir. our revels now are ended, these our actors, as i foretold you, were all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air: and like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself yea, all which it inherits, shall dissolve, p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 281 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. we are such stuff as dreams are made on: and our little life is rounded with a sleep. (iv.i.146158) here is an amazing instance of ontological confusion. first of all, prospero confesses that all which has happened has been a pure fantasy; it was a play with "imaginary" players, that are going to melt into "thin air" when the play ends. further, he also states that all the locations of the play, such as palaces, temples, and even the globe itself are going to be "dissolved." astonishingly, by blurring the borders of dream and reality, prospero declares that human beings themselves are "such stuff as dreams are made on," and their life is concluded by a "sleep." questioning the very nature of "being," prospero in his last statement clearly mentions that human life is nothing but a fantasy. in this part in the light of brian mchale's characterization of postmodernism, an analysis of the language with regard to ontological confusions in the tempest was given. what follows is a focus on “the holy ghost” which is, believed by ihab hassan, another postmodernist feature. god the father vs. the holy ghost in his famous table, hassan (1982) attributes two interesting features to modernism and postmodernism. he assigns p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 282 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences "god the father" to modernism, in contrast to "the holy ghost" which is a postmodern element (hassan 1982, p. 268). here, with a focus on the epilogue of the tempest it is argued that at the end of the play, prospero as "god the father" is weakened, and ariel as "the holy ghost" is powered up and finally freed. thus, by the decline of "god the father," and giving power to "the holy ghost" another postmodern element is intensified. ariel functions as an archangel to prospero, who appears as god in the island. right from the beginning of the play, prospero promises ariel to set him free (i.ii.242-250). he repeats his vow several times during the play (i.ii.423-424&444-445&iv.i.35&264-266&v.i.87&95). he had promised ariel that after a full year of service he would be liberated. first of all, it is interesting that prospero's power, all throughout the play, seems to be attached to ariel. prospero never performs magic himself. he orders ariel and it is ariel who does the job. in other words, prospero's power is put into action through ariel. all the magical events of the play such as drowning the ship, scattering the people on board in different parts of the island, the magical sleep of the courtiers and their awakening, appearing and disappearing of the banquet, and the summon of goddesses, spirits and reapers, are done either by ariel or spirits under his command. so, ariel is the main tool for prospero to actualize his plans. in fact, prospero is powerless without ariel. interestingly, prospero acknowledges his weakness without ariel when he says that he shall miss ariel when he is liberated (v.i.95). at the end of the play, prospero produces the following epilogue: p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 283 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences now my charms are all o'erthrown, and what strength i have's mine own, which is most faint: now, 'tis true, i must be here confin'd by you, or sent to naples. let me not, since i have my dukedom got, and pardon'd the deceiver, dwell, in this bare island by your spell; but release me from my bands, with the help of your good hands: gentle breath of yours my sails must fill, or else my project fails, which was to please. now i want spirits to enforce, art to enchant: and my ending is despair, which pierces so, that it assaults mercy itself, and frees all faults. as you from crimes would pardon'd be, let your indulgence set me free. exit. prospero’s language is full of the implications of 'weakness, bondage, and sadness.' he must be "confined" in the deserted isle for ever or be sent to naples. but, he is "demanding" to be "released" from his "bonds." in order to avoid his project to "fail" and his ending in "despair," he is asking to be "relieved" and "set free." in sharp contrast to prospero's gloomy and helpless language, there exists ariel's happy and lively diction in his joyful song, when informed that he is soon going to be liberated. he merrily celebrates the occasion by declaring that from now on "merrily, merrily, shall i live now, under the blossoms that hang on the bough" (v.i.93-94). the ongoing tension between prospero as the magician and commander vs. ariel as the agent reaches to the peak in the epilogue. ariel has been released long before the p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 284 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences play ends, but prospero, on the other hand, has been "bounded" and is asking to "be set free." actually, ariel or "the holy ghost" now completely dominates and overpowers prospero or "god the father." ariel has gained his liberty, while prospero in contrast, has been confined, and is asking for his freedom. in fact, the phrase "setting free" makes a pun here. using it for ariel, it indicates freedom, joy, power, and happiness, while on the other hand for prospero, it is a demand for becoming liberated, which adds to the indeterminate quality of the play. conclusion this study was an attempt to show that the tempest is a postmodern play. based on hassan's (1982) table of comparison between modernism and postmodernism (pp. 267-268), and to a lesser extent mchale's (1987) definition and classification of postmodernism (p.10) it was argued that the language of the tempest is full of postmodern elements. divided in five parts the article analyzed the five main techniques which make the tempest open to a postmodernist approach. the method practiced here can be applied to shakespeare's other plays as well. for instance, among the comedies twelfth night (1601) is very rewarding in this regard, since it possesses important postmodern features such as wordplays, versal prose, and disguise. among the tragedies macbeth (1606) is of great significance in terms of ontological confusions, and intermingling of the worlds of magic, dream, hallucination, and reality, all throughout the play. because of being rich in language techniques and the indeterminacy of p.abbasi&a.saeedi on the postmodernist elements in shakespeare′s the tempest 285 epiphany: journal of transdisciplinary studies, vol. 7. no. 1, (2014) © faculty of arts and social sciences language, these plays are apt to be analyzed with postmodernist approaches. references brotton, jerry. the renaissance, a very short introduction. oxford: oxford up. 2005. brown, sarah annes. "the return of prospero's wife: mother figures in the tempest's after life". shakespeare survey. ed. peter holland. vol. 56. no. 12. 2008. 146-160. clarck, david r. "the tempest". in a. page & l. brown (eds.). masterpieces of western literature. (1-19) iowa: w.m.c. brown books company. 1966. clemens, w. h. the development of shakespeare's imagery. new york: a drama book. 1951. elson, john. is shakespeare still our contemporary? london: routledge. 1989. hassan, ihab. the dismemberment of orpheus: toward a postmodern literature. new york: oxford up. 1982. hunt, maurice. "the backward voice of coriol–anus". shakespeare studies. vol. 32. 2004. 220-239. kermode, frank. the tempest. london: methuen and co ltd. 1954. kott, jan. shakespeare our contemporary. london: methuen and co ltd. 1967. malpas, simon. the postmodern. oxen: routledge. 2005. mchale, brian. postmodernist fiction. london: methuen. 1987. pask, kevin. "caliban's mask". elh. vol. 70. no. 3. ( fall. 2003): 27 dec 2011 <http://www.jstore.org/stable/30029897>. skura, meredith anne. "discourse, and the individual: the case of colonialism in the tempest". shakespeare quarterly vol. 40. no. 1. (spring. 1989): 27 dec 2011 <http://www.jstore.org/stable/2870753>. warrington, john. aristotle's poetics. london: everyman's library. 1963. recai.pdf � � ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ epiphany: vol. 7, no. 1, 2014 issn 1840-3719 transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) yılmaz çolak ∗∗∗∗ h. hüseyin tekin ∗∗∗∗ recai aydin ∗∗∗∗ abstract this study aims at exploring the flows of transit migration to north cyprus by type: whether or not it is labour, refugee or asylum. to determine that, the question of which push factors lay behind transit migration in the origin country tries to be answered. also this study seeks to analyze origins, routes and destinations of transit migrants in trnc from 2004 to 2008. in addition, the paper analyzes what kind of measures trnc government was taking to deal with illegal transit migrants, human trafficking and smuggling through its borders, and how non-state institutions in trnc considered and dealt with transit migrants and especially refugees. keywords: illegal migration; refugees; asylum seekers; human trafficking and smuggling. ����������������������������������������������������������� ∗ yılmaz çolak, faculty of security studies, turkish national police academy; ∗ h. hüseyin tekin, faculty of security studies, turkish national police academy; ∗ recai aydin, faculty of security studies, turkish national police academy; e-mail:raydin77027@yahoo.com y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �� � ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ introduction the turkish republic of northern cyprus (trnc) has been attracting the flow of transit migrants in recent times. since 2004 the number of those transit migrants has increased in a relatively massive scale. the last wave of migration in its nature is a totally new form. in the past, majority of migrants came from turkey, great britain and bulgaria to north cyprus and some turkish cypriots migrated to other countries, following the partition of the island in 1974 turkish intervention. however the situation is rather different today. by 2004, when the republic of cyprus (roc) joined to the european union, the green line, cease-fire line that separates the island into two parts (roc and trnc), began to serve as the border of eu. thus, the existing status of north cyprus makes it one of the most favourite routes for irregular transit migrants. this fact finds its clear expression in the words of baldwin-edwards (2005) “for the new eu members, such as malta and cyprus, inclusion in the eu regime has made them attractive for illegal migrants and/or asylum-seekers not so much in their own right, but as transit stages to northern europe.” trnc became a transit country where people from many countries try to migrate to eu countries, first to the roc, illegally as labour migrants, refugee or asylum seekers (�çduygu, 2005, p. 2). since 2000 trnc has received many “illegal” transit migrants from syria, iraq, iran, georgia and other asian and african countries. y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) ���� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ this study aims at exploring the flows of (irregular) transit migration to north cyprus by type: whether or not it is labour, refugee or asylum. to determine that, the question of which push factors lay behind transit migration in the origin country tries to be answered. in parallel to that, this study seeks to analyze origins, routes and destinations of transit migrants in trnc from 2004 to 2008. moreover, it tries to analyze what kind of measures trnc government was taking to deal with illegal transit migrants, human trafficking and smuggling through its borders, and how non-state institutions (united nations high commissioner for refugees (unhcr) and human rights organization) in trnc considered and dealt with transit migrants and especially refugees. and then it is argued that trnc government had a several difficulties in combating and handling the problems aroused from illegal, transit migration because of its internationally unrecognized position. migration, illegal migration, transit migration migration can simply be defined as people’s act of leaving their homeland for another location with a specific purpose. in other words, an individual or a community travels from one region, state or country to another one. in this context migration requires experiencing a life style that is intensified by horizontal mobility. migration can be the result of natural, political, social or economic conditions. the geographical events, need for a shelter and security concerns might also trigger people`s willingness to y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) ��$� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ move. in the early centuries, it was generally the result of people`s need for food, settlement and security which forced them to move from one region to another. towards the beginning of and during the twentieth century the world witnessed huge migration waves where hundreds of thousands of people moved and immigrated into new regions due to great wars, annexations, political disturbances and search for a better life. this trend accelerated with the establishment of nation states. consequently, this led to acceleration of the legal establishment and institutionalization of border and passport controls. western social scientists came up with some explanations for this trend and specified push and pull factors of migration, based on their observation and research in their local communities and historical experience. in this sense there is a common consensus that people`s economic, social, political issues and inability to meet their primary needs within their geographical area, and the absence of optimism to overcome these issues in the near future can be considered as a push factor. on the other hand, when existing problems make their life uncomfortable, these factors drag people away from their place of residence to a new region where they find a hope for living in freedom and better conditions. these positive features are known as pull factors of migration (kushner & k. knox, 2001, p. 1). the immigrants who leave their countries with the fear that they might be the victims of cruelty often are put in the same category with the people who immigrate to find a new job, or to y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) ��*� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ get a proper education or to gather with their families. although they had been practiced for centuries, the terms asylum seeker and refugee gained an institutional framework only in 1919 with the establishment of league of nations. according to dünya mültecilerinin durumu (2001) by 20th century there were around 150 million immigrants who went from their home states for other countries. this number was equivalent to 2.5 percent of world population by then. and around 10 percent of this 150 million people were refugees. united nations defines refugee as someone who has wellfounded fear of torture and/or persecution in his state due to civil conflict or armed rivalry, hence with a legitimate fear of danger he asks for refuge from another state (bmmyk, 1997). the term `asylum seeker` is used in english to define the status of one who seeks for refuge. person is considered to be an asylum seeker if he or she faces a threat or violation of his/her rights in his/her basic living conditions and from an official authority or state institution, and if he/she is left without the protection of his/her state and seeks to be settled up in another country. in general, asylum seekers might face some difficulties until the process is over. especially when the process of granting full refugee status becomes too long the situation gets too deterrent. under state law, rights of asylum seekers are much limited compared to refugees. in some cases, there is overlapping of domestic and international law on refugees, and this leads to misunderstanding and misinterpretation regarding the rights of y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) ��%� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ asylum seekers. because under this category, there are wide range of people whose application for refugee status is about to be completed, those whose application will be rejected, and those who will not be granted a refugee status but can still reside in the host country for a limited time. to overcome this complex situation unhcr receives applications and until given a final verdict all asylum seekers are identified as `presumptive refugees`. under the protection of these statues, people exercise the right of nonrefoulment which forbids states from returning asylum seekers to the regions where they will be subjected to persecution and torture again. asylum seekers live under this protection until they receive a final decision. (hein, 1993, pp. 4344). the term refugee is used for someone who applies for unhcr to be granted official refuge, and whose application is considered by `status determination unit` and approved after all the interviews and investigation. after the aproval of refugee`s application by unhcr there is second round of interview for financial support. unless the second interview ends with the conclusion that refugee is in financial need, certain amount of income is provided for her/him. definitions we refer ti in this work have a clear legal framework for government authorities. however, for social scientist it is not possible to say how they came to a consesnus about the right definition of these words. sociologist hein, who is well known for his studies about y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) ��+� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ refugees, linked refugees to economic reasons and asylum seekers to political dimensions (ibid.,). usually it is not easy to differentiate between asylum seekers and refugees on the bases of political and economic reasons. similarly, it is not so easy to differentiate between immigrant, asylum seeker and refugee from one another with clear distinctions. hence, these words and definitions are often used by social scientists interchangeably (hacket, 1996, p. 9). using immigrant, refugee and asylum seeker interchangeably and analyzing all three categories under the concept of refugee leads to this common conclusion: “refugee is someone who was forced to leave his hometown and bear some threats in order to live in a safe region”. another definition stated that “refugees are often considered as people who lost their home, family connections, friendships, social environments and financial assistances” (williams, 1993, p. 135). the economical and political reasons together with conditions of the 20th century brought about new grievances for people to abandon their own countries. under this circumstance the difference between economic immigrant and political refugee becomes more blurry. what makes this distinction even harder is the fact that all around the world political and economic conditions are interpenetrated and governments` perception of migration and refuge fully relies on political terms. there are no concrete differences among the migrants, refugees and illegal migrants. a person can request the status of y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) ��,� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ asylum seeker due to outrage of his very primary rights and security concerns and meanwhile grant residency and work permit hence granting the status of a refugee. on the other hand an immigrant who settled in the country in a legal way might lose his rights due to breaking some rules or expiration of the time. this person can stay in the country by illegal means (angenendt and edward, 2002). illegal immigrants often arrive in the host country by migrant smuggling and human trafficking and pay huge amounts to people who organized the delivery. throughout the journey they bear the risk of being deported, being a part of an international crime and being sent to the court. they cannot carry any official document for identification. they destroy all the identification documents in order not to be identified. the smugglers organize all the process and make sure it will go smoothly. very often fake passports and visa are used; the journey may last months since they pass through several states. due to the difficulties and possible problems that can be faced at the border passing’s, the illegal human smuggling organizations also arrange the accommodation at the borders (ibid, p. 11). national and international migration laws determine the legal or illegal status of a migrant. for any given legislation the number of illegal migrants depends on the social-political and economic conditions of the sending countries and on the organizations which favor frontier transit, but also on push-pull forces in the host countries. this note elaborates on why y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) ��!� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ employers decide to use irregular workers – be they locals or foreign nationals; why workers decide to reside illegally in another country; why institutions enforce the law; and last but not least how society pushes institutional action or enforces legislation directly. without social enforcement it is very costly to institutionally enforce a law which limits employment and income access to legal workers in societies where irregular employment is common practice (venturini, 2009). a second way of answering the question would be to focus on the sheer number of forced migrants in the world today, which has been estimated at between 100 and 200 million (castles, 2003, p. 15). this phenomenon is a product of wider processes of social and economic change, processes that are normally referred to as ‘globalisation’ and which appear to be creating an ever increasing north-south divide in living standards, human security, and access to justice and human rights protection. it follows that forced migration, including the ‘migration industry’ of people trafficking and smuggling, can provide a kind of window on these processes, a way of examining and understanding them (turton, 2003). my main point in this section is that the distinctions we make within the wider category of forced migrants are an artifact of policy concerns rather than of empirical observation and scientific enquiry. it would be interesting to know exactly when the term forced migrant itself first entered into use in policy and academic circles, but this must have been fairly recently. for it y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) ��-� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ must have been a response to the narrowing down of the range of attribution of the term refugee to a legally defined category through the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 protocol. it then became necessary to treat the term ‘refugee’ which, in the language of everyday speech can mean anyone who has been forced to leave his or her home, as the name of a much narrower category of people, with special rights in international law and with a special call on the assistance of the international community. the term ‘forced migrant’ therefore came into existence as the name of the wider class, from which the legal category of ‘refugee’ had been ‘extracted’. when creating a legal category, of course, it is very important to be clear about its limits, about the membership criteria to be used. the refugee definition provided in the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 protocol is, of course, the main standard of refugee status today. this definition provides two main criteria: persecution and ‘alienage’. the refugee is a person who has crossed an international border because of a well-founded fear of being persecuted’ in his or her state of origin (ibid.,). then you have the new category of ‘asylum seekers’, people who have made a claim for asylum but whose cases have not yet been determined. this category has emerged in response to the growing difficulty of making clear distinctions between people who are moving for political as opposed to economic reasons, since political upheavals go hand in hand with violent y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) ���� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ conflict, economic distress and human rights abuses. asylum seekers are, not surprisingly, found mainly in northern countries, where they are assumed by governments and public alike to be economic migrants using the asylum procedure to circumvent immigration controls. when the number of asylum applications in w europe began to rise in the early 1980s, partly no doubt because of the closing down of the migration channel, the immediate response of states was to introduce so-called ‘restrictive asylum practices' visa restrictions, carrier sanctions, safe third country and safe country of origin concepts, narrower interpretations of the 1951 convention. these restrictions were successfully evaded by a large numbers of migrants using transnational social networks, new transport and communication technologies and people smugglers. it does not, of course, mean that asylum seekers are not 'genuine' just because they use migrant networks to make their way into western europe, nor because they make use of the services of people smugglers. what it does mean is that it has become increasingly difficult, in practice, to separate out refugees from economic migrants, and yet such a separation is seen by governments as an essential condition of an effective asylum and immigration policy. nor is this just a european issue. the afghan refugee crisis of the past twenty years, for example, has been superimposed on a history of seasonal economic migration, within the central asian region and beyond, going back hundreds of years (ibid., pp. 52-53). a profile of transit migrants in trnc y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �$ � ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ the issue of transit (illegal) migration is totally a new phenomenon for north cyprus. for trnc police record, transit migrants began to been seen since 2000. according to unhcr report by that time trnc became one of the preferred routes for those, form middle eastern, african and asian countries, who want to go to one of eu countries in an illegal way. especially syrian illegal migrants are using north cyprus to pass to the roc, due to geographical closeness. there is also some significant number of iraqi and palestinian transit migrants who might be considered as refugees. for the trnc police department (trnc-pd), the total number of the migrants who have entered to trnc in illegal ways and been arrested since 2000 is 1273. it is important to note here that there is a noteworthy increase in the number of detained illegal migrants by 2003. since then 1107 transit (illegal) migrants have been detained; among them 99 migrants came in 2003; 163 in 2004; 111 in 2005; 289 in 2006; 362 in 2007; 83 in 2008. it is clear that there are two main reasons behind this increase. first, the trnc authorities unexpectedly opened up the green line for border crossing in april 23, 2003, which has also an obvious impact on the cyprus question entering in a new unalterable process (frantz, 2002). after lifting the ban on free-crossing a lot of greek and turkish cypriots have crossed the line between the north and the south. such free-crossing also makes human traffickers’ job easy, starting to effectively use the gates to transfer illegal migrants. second, the roc became one of 25 y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �$�� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ members of the eu in may 2004. this makes the green line a de facto external border of the eu. as a result it became an attractive route for human traffickers to maintain illegal migration across the green line. in the increase of human trafficking across the green line, the attitudes of the roc authorities have a greatest part. as reported in daily cyprus mail, “with the opening of the checkpoints in 2003, the government refused to establish anything that might resemble border posts, with scant controls on traffic at the checkpoints. five years, on, officials remain housed in prefabs, and most of those crossing simply walk through unhindered, with no identity control whatsoever.” syrian origin-illegal migrants constitute a large bulk of the transit migration in trnc. the total number of syrians been arrested since 2000 is 847, which drastically increased in recent years. almost two-third of these transit migrants came in last two years and all of illegal migrants, 83, detained in 2008 have syrian origin. we can easily call these syrian migrants as labour migrants, due to the fact that the majority of these migrants have not applied for being considered as refugee and wanted to go back to their country. there are also some labour migrants from iraq, iran, palestine and georgia. iraqi transit migrants constitute the second largest group with detained 295 illegal migrants. when we look at their arrival time, three-fourth of them came in between 2000 and 2002. here one can make a speculation that they escaped from iraq which was under the threat of us invasion after september 11. other y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �$$� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ arrived in and detained by trnc authorities in 2007. the significant majority of these migrants are asylum seekers or refugees. together with them, palestinian illegal migrants, whose number is 20, are also refugees. these iraqi and palestinian refugees usually start their journey from their country origin and come to north cyprus via syria and turkey. and then they tried to cross to the south (www.unhcr.org.tr/mep/ftp). most of these refugees said that they escaped from civil skirmishes, widespread violence, war, and authoritarian rule and their life was under the threat (www.starkibris.net/index.asp). other nationals, comprising just 10 percentages of the total number of detained illegal migrants, include 44 georgians, 17 iranians, 15 afghans, 10 bangladeshis, 8 lebanese, 7 pakistanis, 4 egyptians, 2 jordanians, 2 senegalese, 1 mongolian and 1 lithuanian. almost all of these illegal migrants were arrested after 2003. majority of them seem to fall into the category of labour migrants. according to trnc-pd’s record and star kıbrıs, (2008), when one looks at the nature of transit migrants in terms of age, it is obvious that young people constitute majority. 52.2 percentages of 362 transit migrants detained in 2007 are ages between 21 and 30; 20.7 percentages of those are less than 21. another major group is ages between 31 and 40, constituting 19.9 percentages; and just only almost 7 percentages are over 41. it is important to mention that more than one-fifth of transit migrants are less than 20 years y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �$*� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ old. these figures show that there are many too young migrants; and also, it means that there are many children coming with their parents. but, when we consider the issue of gender, among detained illegal migrants, there are few women migrants who usually accompany their husbands. when we analyze the news appearing in newspapers on the stories of illegal migrants, we discover the fact that the most favourite destination points are the member states of the eu. first they tried to go to south cyprus and then the majority of them want to pass to one of other eu countries. besides that, other major target countries for final destination are australia, canada and scandinavian countries. besides these detained illegal migrants, it is also estimated that many illegal transit migrants crossed to the south in one way. among them there are many transit migrants who enter to trnc in a legal way as tourists and cross to south cyprus in illegal ways. on this issue, kıvanç aktu�, director of unhcr’s human relief mission in the north, said that in 2006, 441 syrians and 272 iraqis came to north cyprus and applied to the mission for asylum; among them 17 syrians and 13 iraqis went back to their countries with their desire, but, after the mission’s rehabilitation of them, their majority crossed to the south with their efforts without informing them. those 86 of iraqis who were arrested while they were crossing over the green line were taken back from the turkish cypriot police and helped them, but later all of them crossed to the south again (star kıbrıs, 2008). y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �$%� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ routes of transit migrants and particular cases there are four main routes human traffickers use in carrying illegal transit migrants. the first main route is from turkey’s southern provinces to north cyprus. here human traffickers use turkey as a transit country to come north cyprus and then cross over it to go to south cyprus and then one of eu countries. in this route, mersin, adana ve hatay are the favourite places to come to trnc north-east coastline, especially karpaz peninsula. usually human traffickers use rented fishing boats to carry transit migrants to north cyprus. local collaborators take these migrants and travel throughout trnc and help them crossing over the green line. the second main route is from syria’s latakia to famagusta coastline. in this route human traffickers use small boats or fishing boats to carry illegal migrants. local collaborators take them who are landed by boats and then transfer them cross over north cyprus. third way is to carry illegal migrants in the trucks from mersin and ta�ucu ports to girne and gazimagusa ports. when we compare with other routes, this one is rarely utilized by human traffickers. the last one is that transit migrants use legal ways to enter the trnc, usually as tourists. usually they get lodged in one hotel and then enter to south cyprus with the help of smugglers. in some cases they are taken from ercan airport and directly transferred to cross over the green line. y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �$+� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ in using the first two routes karpaz peninsula came to the fore as a main geographical area where the most cases of detained illegal migrants happen. these migrants who tried to enter to trnc have used sea routes and especially empty and long coastlines of karpaz peninsula. these are not strictly controlled and so become the most suitable places for human smugglers and transit migrants. ferry link between trnc and syria regarding the last route, the ferry link between north cyprus and syria achieved significance in recent times. in october 2007 syria allowed a ferry link closed since the 1970s from turkish cypriot gazimagusa to latakia. it restarts twice weekly. as gaziamgusa port officials stated, “the ferry service was stopped during the winter time due to bad weather conditions, but it will be restarted when tourism season starts” (kıbrıs gazetesi, 2008). in the case of syrians who came to trnc via ferry in a legal way it is not easy to separate travellers from migrants. some of them did not return in a time envisioned as a visa period. and those are estimated to pass to the south. here, numbers of entries vs. exits help us to estimate transit migration. by early march 2008, 809 syrians entered to trnc in a legal way by 14 ferry services, but just only 200 of them went back to syria (ibid.,). it is estimated that majority of those legal entries went to the south in illegal ways, and some preferred to stay in the north and became part of illegal work force. according to kivanc aktu�, director of unhcr’s y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �$,� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ human relief mission in the north, number of asylum seekers who applied to the mission was 200 in 2006, but then in 2007 the number of asylum seekers increased to 731 since gazimagusalatakia ferry link started. he said that those who came with ferry services paid 1600 us dollars for five nights stay. they stayed at hotel for one or two nights and then, leaving their passport and belongings at hotel, they crossed to the south, but they do not have any idea about which ways they are using in crossing to the south (sözcü, 2008.). the greek cypriot authorities accused the turkish cypriot administration and syria on the ferry services as a responsible for increasing smuggling of illegal immigrants into the north. human smugglers according to crisis group europe report (2008) in smuggling of migrants, in the case of north cyprus, it seems clear that there are various mafia-type structures which look like very organized in turkey, syria, the trnc and the roc. in these mafia-type organizations which are doing human trafficking, drugs and prostitution at the same time, human smugglers are made up of turkish, syrian, trnc and roc nationals. these human smugglers usually first procure the illegal entry of migrants into the trnc from turkey or syria and then, with the help of their local collaborators, transport and transfer them throughout the trnc and then assist them on the green line passing. total money charged from each smuggled migrant as the y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �$!� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ prices of smuggling and the usuries of travel costs, ranges from 1.500$ to 5.000$. case: fake passports at the same time according to the police station; some refugees tried to enter to the trnc with false stamp of their passports. 6 georgian nationals were arrested with the false stamped passports, while entering to trnc from girne port. these passports were prepared in alanya, antalya. these illegal migrants were sentenced for three days (star kıbrıs, 2007). case i: a group of syrian migrants 17 syrian illegal migrants were arrested by british bases police and greek cypriot police in march 26, 2008. they told that, as a group of 40 (illegal) migrants, they started their “journey to hope” from latakia, syria, in march 23 with a fishing boat. later they were transferred to another boat. they landed on a sandy beach in gazimagusa. they had to walk in the sea around 20 meters. three men picked them up by a truck when they arrived in the north and took them to duzce/achna village where one of the men stayed to help them across. while crossing to the south, they were stopped and fired shots by turkish border guards. most of them entered the british bases, some the greek government-controlled areas. there is no any information on other 23 migrants. each syrian migrant paid $2,600 to human traffickers (yenidüzen gazetesi, 2008 and cyprus mail, 2008). y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �$-� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ case ii: story of osama taha hashim and his family according to bacheli (2008) osama taha hashim and his family story start on september 27, 2007 in istanbul airport with 7 family members including his wife, children, his dead brother’s wife and her son. the plane was headed for ercan airport in t.r.n.c. earlier, osama and his family had travelled from iraq to turkey using iraqi travel documents. at this stage, according to the laws of turkey and iraq neither osama nor his family, had done anything illegal but once on the plane, the family were in the hands of human traffickers, who for a fee supplied them with forged turkish travel documents that would, if all went according to plan, enable them to enter northern cyprus with a three-month holiday visa. under instructions from the trafficker escorting them, osama and his family were led through turkish cypriot immigration checks, where their documents were stamped by an allegedly “insider” immigration police official. once in north cyprus, the plan was for them to be smuggled to the south of the island, where they would be able to apply for political asylum – an application that would almost certainly have been granted. but things started to go wrong when the turkish cypriot authorities caught wind of the human trafficking ring that had helped smuggle them. in a matter of days, osama and his seven family members, two suspected turkish traffickers, a turkish cypriot go-between, and a turkish cypriot immigration policeman were all in custody. the children were placed in an orphanage in north y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �$�� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ nicosia, while osama and his wife and sister-in-law were jailed, pending a trial for illegal entry into the north. the turks and turkish cypriots were also jailed, pending their trial for membership of a human smuggling ring. facing legal proceedings against themselves, osama and his family had become key witnesses in a high-profile trial against the human traffickers. osama’s lawyer yusuf tekinay, working with the unhcr representative in north cyprus kivanc aktug, recently managed, under condition of bail, to secure the release of osama’s wife and sister-in-law so that they can look after the children. however, under turkish cypriot law, they and osama could face up to ten years in jail for entering the island with forged documents. aktug says, “this is an exceptional case because osama is the number one witness in the case, and the authorities are afraid he will go to the south if he is released.” aktug is confident, however, that once the case is concluded the judge will not hand down a custodial sentence, and that the unhcr will eventually grant the family political asylum, either in the eu, the us or canada. in fact, aktug says that even though laws on illegal entry and forged documents are strict in the north, the authorities are usually lenient towards those whom the unhcr say are genuine asylum seekers. osama and his family will also be helped by the fact that his case has triggered a report written by young human rights lawyer öncel polili on behalf of the turkish cypriot human rights foundation (ktihv) aimed at applying further pressure on y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �* � ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ the turkish cypriot authorities. it also hopes to lead to an updating of the law that will end all imprisonment for asylum seeker captured in the north. the family’s lawyer yusuf tekinay said that he had received reassurances from the judge presiding over the case that osama’s wife and sister-in-law’s cases would not be taken to the high court. “this means that they are unlikely to spend more time in jail,” tekinay said. osama, on the other hand, remains in jail with no such reassurances, a virtual hostage to the authorities and their ongoing but sometimes erratic mission to smash the smuggling rings. a case: coming from syria: economic reason in september 2007, 47 illegal migrants who were in a 11.5 meters fishing boat were arrested by trnc coast guards in near to �skele, karpaz. together with them, the captain of the boat, aftimous dib (65), was arrasted too. the boat was coming from latakia harbour. gazimagusa district court sentenced the captain for 15 days of priosonment and 47 migrants just only for 2 days. the captain expressed that he agreed with syranian national man and received 400 us dollars from each migrants to bring them to north cyprus. migrants said that they gave 2000 us dollars for per person t go to the roc. they also expressed that the main reason pushing them coming to cyprus illegally was economic; they are poor people and migrating with the hopes of finding better jobs and better life conditions (star kıbrıs,1997). y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �*�� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ case: crossing to the uk base in 2001 and 2003 some migrants entered to north cyprus with illegal ways and later they passed to the uk base where they applied for asylum with a goal to go to england. they made several attempts to have english pasport, but they were refused in every time and they continued to be kept in the base. (www.pratikhaber.com/new/haberdetay.asp). case: wushu teak wondo team iraqi marti alarts wushu team, including 15 people, came to north cyprus as the guest of trnc national team on 9 january, 2008. they remained in the ka�kar court hotel, and in the following day, after the launch, they never came back to the hotel again. as reported by south cyprus daily filelefteros, greek cypriot police captured 7 man, 4 women and 4 children. and then they applied for asylum. these illegal migrants started their journey from northern iraq and then they came to damascus with overland journey and from there they went to mersin. they then entered to trnc from girne by a regular maritime line from mersin. the trnc taekwondo wushu chairman mustafa aktu� said that these people engaging in sport previously joined to the international competition trnc federation organized on october 2007, but later they applied again to come to trnc and they paid their expenses (www.urlax.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id= 79090&itemid_100) y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �*$� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ case: in the truck carried by the ship a group of syrian illegal migrants are captured in the foreign ship, called nancy, in gazimagusa. it brought cigarettes to north cyprus. and later it left from gazimagusa port and sailed around north cyprus water. after that it again entered to the port. upon that, trnc coast guards suspected from it and searched in this ship. they found 14 illegal migrants whose ages were between 20 and 52. the captain of the ship, having both syrian and trnc nationalities, was arrested (www.medyatext.com/print/id/56350). the role of trnc government and ngos trnc immigration policy is only about labour migrants according to which any company may bring and sign contract with foreign nationals as guest workers. the number of legally resident foreign nationals is around 30,000. the significant majority is of the turks from turkey as “quest workers”. there are also some illegal workers from turkey and other countries, especially african countries. in the trnc there is no any special domestic legislation on transit migrants and refugees or efficient protection of asylum seekers or refugees. although the 1951 geneva contract was accepted by the roc in 1961, it can not be implemented in the north, first and foremost because of the international unrecognized, isolated position of the trnc. at that point, the reasons highlighted by trnc officials are that the y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �**� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ trnc government can not establish any direct international relations with other countries and not have enough financial sources to feed and provide accommodation for refugees (star kıbrıs, 2008). thus, it is obvious that these make trnc more fragile in the flows of (irregular) transit migration. the procedure about transit migrants the trnc government mainly has followed is that, after transit migrants are arrested while entering or leaving the country in illegal ways, they are brought to the court and detained usually for three days and in some rare occasion for one to three months. if there are iraqis and palestinians among them or those who want to apply for asylum, the trnc police inform unhcr office about them. usually after three days they are deported and sent to their original country via turkey. the trnc police usually take illegal migrants to mersin port or adana international airport and deliver them to the turkish police. they also pay all their expenditures in this process. in most cases this is done without considering their request for asylum. thus, detained illegal migrants can not apply for asylum officially in trnc. but, with the efforts of unhcr’s office called human relief mission in trnc, iraqi and palestinian transit migrants began to be considered as having a refugee position. it is because that, in accordance with the principle of non-refoulement, those iraqi and palestinian seeking asylum should not be forcibly returned to their countries where they risked serious human rights abuses. the mission provides y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �*%� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ accommodation and financial support to those asylum seekers / transit migrants who are accepted as refugee in north cyprus. and also it tries to find a suitable country, usually australia and new zealand, to send them. kıvanç aktu�, the mission’s director, explained how it works in a following way: “those migrants, before coming, do not have any idea about the unhcr office in the north. we are informed by trnc-pd or trnc migration office about illegal migrants. and then we get involved. we help to those who want to apply for asylum, especially iraqis and palestinians. unfortunately, later, most of them cross to the greek side” (sözcü, 2008). by february 2008, he said, the mission was taking care of 16 refugees. beside the mission, other non-governmental organization which is active in the matters of refugee is the turkish cypriot human rights foundation (kıbrıs türk �nsan hakları vakfı, kthiv). kthiv helps and mediates between those having a refugee position and the unhcr located in the buffer zone. it puts a strong emphasis on the rights of refugees and highlights the obstacles they face to in trnc such as they are immediately deported without any investigation. in this regard, its officials argue that trnc laws must be redesigned to get in harmony with eu laws (www.kthiv.org). transit migrants use trnc as a kind of a buffer zone to enter the eu. to stop the flow, the trnc government has tightened border y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �*+� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ control, but failed to control 180-km buffer zone and 300-km coastline. regarding to the green line, the buffer zone, this is mainly because that the roc government does not willing to make any co-operation with trnc government to take measures against illegal transit migrants. several times, turkish cypriot authorities offered co-operation with the greek cypriots on illegal crossing of the buffer zone; these have not found any echo from the south. the last call for co-operation from the north came in january 2008. hasan ercakica, the spokesman for turkish cypriot leader mehmet ali talat, said that “this is a problem threatening both the north and the south of the island… the greek cypriot side has to understand that they can not free themselves of the responsibility by refraining from adopting effective measures along the green line and refusing to co-operate with the turkish cypriot authorities or by putting the blame of their negligence over the issue of human trafficking on the shoulders of others and making use of it as a means of political exploitation… the turkish cypriot side is ready to co-operate with the greek cypriot authorities (for the prevention of illegal immigration) and demands the assistance of the unficyp on the issue” (christou, 2008). it is clearly mentioned in the recent crisis group europe report that: “(d)iplomats believe the talat government is sincerely trying to combat illegal immigration, but due to recognition sensitivities, greek and turkish cypriot police do not cooperate… the former turkish cypriot negotiator, ra�it pertev, said, ‘the greek cypriots won’t cooperate …especially not with the turkish cypriot police. but bicommunal mafias are much organised, doing human y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �*,� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ trafficking, drugs and prostitution’” (crisis group europe report, 2008, p. 16). the crisis group report condemns the greek cypriot government not wishing to establish “a hard frontier on the green line, which it believes would be contrary to its goal of full reunification, but it detained 5,191 illegal immigrants in 2005 and 3,796 in 2006, most from turkey” (ibid., p. 20). but, the eu commission report (2007) finds it “worryingly high numbers of illegal immigrants” and recommends that “the authorities of the republic of cyprus take concrete steps without delay in order to comply with their obligation under the green line regulation… while the green line does not constitute an external border, the surveillance obligations of the republic of cyprus on the government-controlled side of the green line should be met effectively.” for the greek cypriot authorities, in 2007 the government received 6790 application by asylum seekers who come across north cyprus (christou, 2008). in this increase, sofokleus, minister of roc’s justice and public order, blamed on the north authorities as willingly allowing these illegal migrants to cross over the green line; they use the coastline, ports and airports of turkey and the north to enter to the south. to prevent such flow, he said, the greek cypriot government started to take important measures for controlling of the green line crossings (kıbrısılı gazetesi, 2007). y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �*!� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ conclusion this is clearly observed in the context of cyprus question that transit migration being itself at the centre of political debates gains outmost significance. both sides blame each other not reinforcing enough border control. no further progress has been reported in bringing the two sides together on the issues of illegal immigration, human trafficking, refugees or asylum seekers and also on the security aspects of migration control (borders, asylum, expulsion of illegal migrants). just only the turkish cypriot government, ozan said, is cooperating with the british bases on these illegal crossing. also it improved security at the crossing point at pergamos where a lot of illegal crossing happened. it is obvious that both sides have weak migration control in different vein. trnc immigration policy seems to fail regarding immigration control on illegal migration and political asylum or refugees1. references angenendt s. and edward o. h.. 2002. asian migration to europe and european migration&refugee policies, german council on foreign relations. baldwin-edwards martin. 2005. “migration into southern europe: nonlegality and labour markets in the region.” mmo working paper. no. 6. bahceli,s. 2008. behind the scenes of human trafficking. ����������������������������������������������������������� 1 for analysis of immigration policy and immigration control see terri givens and adam luedtke, “european immigration policies in comparative perspective: issue salience, partisanship and immigrant rights”, comparative european politics, 3 (2005): 1-22, p. 3. y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �*-� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ www.pratikhaber.com/new/haberdetay.asp. bmmyk. 2001. dünya mültecilerinin durumu, �nsani yardımın elli yılı, ankara. bmmyk. 1997. dünya mültecilerinin durumu, bir �nsanlık sorunu, ankara. castles stephen. 2003. “towards a sociology of forced migration and social transformation”, sociology, a journal of the british sociological association, vol. 37, no:1. “catch-22 on immigration.” cyprus mail, 15 march 2008. christou jean. 2008. “north authorities offer co-operation on illegal crossings.” cyprus mail. christou jean. 2008. “france says cyprus needs eu help on immigration.” cyprus mail. “communication from the commission: annual report on the implementation of council regulation (ec) 866/2004”, brussels, 20 september 2007. “cyprus: reversing the drift to partition”, crisis group europe report n°190, 10 january 2008, p. 16. cyprus mail 27 march 2008. frantz, d. 2002. “cyprus: no man’s land cuts a long, sad scar.” nyt on the web. givens terri and luedtke adam. 2005. “european immigration policies in comparative perspective: issue salience, partisanship and immigrant rights.” comparative european politics, 3. hacket nied beatrice. 1996. pray god and keep walking storıes of women refgees, mcfarland & company, inc.,publishers, north carolina. hein jeremy. 1993. “refugees, immigrants, and the state”, annual review sociology. �çduygu, ahmet. 2005. “transit migration in turkey: trends, patterns, and issues.” carim-rr. kıbrısılı gazetesi, 15 october 2007. kushner tony & knox k. 2001. refugees in an age of genocide global, national and local perspective during the twentieth century. frank cass, london, portland. y. çolak, h. h. tekin and r. aydin transit migration in north cyprus (trnc) �*�� ������������������������������������������������ ����!��"������#$ �%&�'�(����������)������������������������ star kıbrıs, 29 february 2008. sözcü, 29 february 2008. turton david. 2003. conceptualizing forced migration. a lecture given at the oxford rsc’s international summer school in forced migration. tumarabalar.com/araba/son-dakika-haberleri/92942-kibritsa-mülteci sorunubuyuyorhaberi. venturini alessandra. 2009. irregular migration: incentives and institutional and social enforcement, carim analytic and synthetic notes, no.3 irregular migration series background paper. williams holy ann. 1993. “self-settled refugees in north-western zambia: shifting norms of social networks”, selected papers on refugee issues: ii, m. c. hopkin & n. d.donnel (eds.), american anthropological association. www.unhcr.org.tr/mep/ftproot/dosyalar/turkiyedebmmyk/protectionng os. www.starkibris.net/index.asp. interview with the chief of trnc police department in march 2008. yenidüzen gazetesi 27 march 2008. microsoft word aline sanfelci cultural categories of identity in virginia woolf's orlando epiphanyepiphanyepiphanyepiphany journal of the faculty of arts and social sciences international university of sarajevo issn 1840-3719 / no. 3 special issue: identity fall 2009 ©2008, international university of sarajevo, faculty of arts and social sciences. all rights reserved. one name, several (wo)men: cultural categories of identity in virginia woolf’s orlando: a biography aline sanfelici federal university of santa catarina this essay elaborates on the cultural constructs depicted in the characterization of orlando's identity in virginia woolf's novel, orlando: a biography. the analysis is conducted through close reading of selected passages in light of the intersections between nation, class, and gender as regards orlando's characterization. the results of the analysis show that the novel seems to challenge and criticize cultural constructs that cause social hierarchies, however, results also show that the novel's subtext ends up reinforcing such hierarchies, and must therefore be criticized on this aspect. to begin the discussion, i must first elaborate on the concept of intersectionality. in "mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color," kimberlé crenshaw asserts that intersectionality points to the relations between several grounds of identities, as they relate to one another, often in prejudicial and oppressive ways. crenshaw claims that identity politics frequently erase the differences between these grounds, ignoring, in consequence, the fact that oppressions are caused not because of one dimension solely: for example, "[i]n the context of violence against women, this elision of difference is problematic, fundamentally because the violence that many women experience is often shaped by other dimensions of their identities, such as race and class." in short, then, intersectionality signals how inter-related factors, once one name, several (wo)men: categories of identity in virginia woolf’s orlando: a biography 2 combined, can constitute multiple levels of discrimination. hence, a reading of intersectionality is important to demystify such discourses of discrimination. further, this notion of intersectionality points to how subjects are constituted by various–often conflicting–positions, and consequently points to the permanent calling into question of pre-established categories, whether they are closed or open labels of identity. this approach recalls that of judith butler who argues, in gender trouble, that it is not correct to conceive "a category of 'women' that simply needs to be filled in with various components of race, class, age, ethnicity, and sexuality in order to become complete. the assumption of its essential incompleteness permits that category to serve as a permanently available site of contested meanings" (15, my italics). in this study, such a perspective of intersectionality allows for an analysis of how orlando's characterization is constituted through the very interruption of identity categories. in what follows, i focus on the categories of nation, class, and gender. 1. nation following werner sollors (1990), by nation i mean a group of people who are born and live in a particular country (territoriality), and have a political and economic unit, as well as a shared history and culture (290). further, following lydia liu (1994), nation is understood as "a historical construct rather than a manifestation of some unchanging essence" (37, my italics), which implies that nations, by being arbitrarily instituted and "invented," can intervene in their own historical trajectories. nation, for liu, is also culturally constructed, through binaries like east/west and first world/third world. finally, referring to timothy brennan's ideas (1990), nation is "historically determined" (45), but also refers to a current usage of being a state, a usage that is built for political purposes; and to "something more ancient and nebulous–the 'natio'–a local community, domicile, aline sanfelici 3 family, condition of belonging" (45). in addition, brennan proposes that since nations are to some extent invented, or forged by culture and history, then they are simply artificial, or mythical (47). in this sense, the component of nationality within orlando's characterization should be considered from the perspective that nations are "imaginary[1] constructs that depend for their existence on an apparatus of cultural fictions" (49). in woolf's novel, the "imaginary community" that orlando seems, in a first moment, proud to belong to is a nation of great men who did remarkable deeds. as will be indicated in the following excerpt, orlando thinks only of men, not of women. this fact suggests a "masculinization" of the nation, which takes place probably because orlando is living in the seventeenth century, and a. g. eyre (1971) tells that up to the eighteenth century, "gentlemen were accustomed to settle their quarrels with the sword" (111), and that "[t]he early victorian father… had fixed ideas, especially about women. a woman's place was in the home… even in the home, her interests and conversation were strictly controlled" (141). what i want to emphasize is that orlando's nation, in this period, is masculinized" due to the roles given to men and women, since these roles implied women to be passive and obedient, with restricted opportunities to contribute to their nations: [s]tanding upright in the solitude of his room, he vowed that he would be the first poet of his race[2] and bring immortal luster upon his name. he said (reciting the names and exploits of his ancestors) that sir boris had fought and killed the paynim; sir gawain, the turk; sir miles, the pole; sir andrew, the frank; sir richard, the austrian; sir jordan, the frenchman; and sir herbert, the spaniard. (57) this feeling of pride would lead orlando to wish to accomplish, though through literature and not physical battles, a remarkable deed of his own, and like the cited men, to contribute to enriching his nation. the masculinization of nation one name, several (wo)men: categories of identity in virginia woolf’s orlando: a biography 4 appears not just in the mentioning of only men by orlando, but also in the idea that one can contribute to enrich the nation through literature and physical battles only. as mentioned, physical battles were men's job. literature, too, was restricted to men. according to sandra gilbert and susan gubar (1994), the literary pen is frequently understood as a sword of battle in the discussions of gender and imperialism in literature. it is a "metaphorical penis," that is, the writer is implied to be constituted by the anatomy of the male sex. in other words, orlando would contribute to the nation through literature, because he, as a young man in this moment of the story, is able to do so.[3] on this account, i point out an intersection between nation and gender within character construction: the gendering of the nation as male is intersectional in that it discriminates and excludes all who, for not being biologically male, cannot take part in this nation in the same ways as those who are male (the "great men" who can enrich the nation). furthermore, the monarchic political system around which orlando's nation is organized is also gendered male: "the odious parliament days were over and there was now a male crown in england again" (74). orlando is then characterized as being devoted to his nation, as can be seen in the sequence: "at this stage of orlando's career, [he] played a most important part in the public life of his country" (84), since he "was english root and fibre" (85). the choice of words used in the narrative suggests a "masculinized" nation, once more: the expression "public life" indicates that the role played by orlando could only be played by a man, since public life can be seen as opposite to domestic life, which was relegated to women, like i exposed before. also, the omniscient narrator's expression "root and fibre" refers to a stereotypical attribute to men, who were supposed to be strong and brave (and therefore were supposed to be the ones who could defend the interests of the nation). on account of the referred stereotypical aline sanfelici 5 attribute to men, i recall alan sinfield's claim that masculinity and femininity, the way men and women should behave and be characterized, are "ideological constructs" that have "no essential relation" to the variable attributes of men and women which are not determined by rules (26). by recalling this argument in contrast to orlando's characterization above, i suggest that the narrator, here, reinforces ideological, cultural categories of gender through the nation's "masculinization," and therefore perpetuates a limiting and problematic conception of men and women identity's legibility. later in the story, orlando awakens as a woman in terms of anatomical features (such event is more thoroughly discussed in section 3 above), and moves to living in the company of gypsies. if nation is an "imagined community" and implies the condition of belonging (brennan's term), orlando seems to belong to the gypsy's nation, now. we should observe, though, that this nation, differently from orlando's previous one in england and constantinople under a monarchic system, is not defined by geopolitical, administrative and institutional fixed boundaries. rather, the gypsy's nation is determined by openness to the non-fixity of the subjects that comprise such nation, and therefore openness to the boundaries of the community. in the process of belonging to this nation, orlando is only accepted by the gypsies if she takes a stand against her class privileges (100); that is, the gypsies accept orlando's lineage and past origins, but reject her classist ideology. orlando then joins the community acting as a sojourner, for she is aware that she can return home if any difficulty might arise. considering that non-fixity is only possible with change, and orlando resists changing her classist privileges and ideology, the gypsies end up rejecting and even planning to kill her (106). in short, her belonging among the gypsies' nation is betrayed by her classist values and the privilege to leave the community anytime: she merely visits rather than crosses over to the one name, several (wo)men: categories of identity in virginia woolf’s orlando: a biography 6 gypsy nation, due to their incompatible conceptions of class. we should notice, however, that before being rejected by the gypsies, orlando does try to take part in their nation, engaging in their activities: she "milked the goats; she collected brushwood" and "stripped vines; she trod the grape" (100). also, orlando respects and engages in this culture, by dressing like them, for instance. furthermore, through the activities i mentioned the character performs, we can see that orlando experiences being an active member of the nation. bearing in mind that the character is in this moment a woman (in anatomical terms), it is important to observe that in the gypsy culture, adults have different roles according to their genders, but both men and women are assigned active roles to contribute to the functioning of the nation. in other words, orlando now is a woman actively contributing within a nation in which gender categories are understood differently, compared to the other community she experienced before, in london, in which nation was portrayed as "masculinized." in this context, intersection becomes central in the way orlando is characterized in crossing the boundaries of nation and class. as i argued before, while experiencing life among the gypsies, orlando refuses to abandon certain classist values, and is therefore rejected by the gypsies. as she realizes how different their values are, she decides to abandon the gypsies, and returns to england. this attitude reinforces the idea that orlando acts as a tourist among the gypsies, for she leaves them when difficulties regarding conciliation arise: "'four hundred and seventy-six bedrooms mean nothing to them,' sighed orlando. 'she prefers a sunset to a flock of goats,' said the gypsies" (105). so orlando reinforces the intersection between nation and class, and then returns to a nation that was argued before to be gendered biased. in other words, what makes this characterization intersectional, in crenshaw's sense, is precisely the fact that aline sanfelici 7 orlando is a subject constituted by several positions that often conflict with each other; specifically, a "tourist" who lives as a gypsy but still carries classist values that differ sharply from the gypsy's values. so orlando's characterization is intersectional for it interrupts identity categories of nation and class, by disturbing closed labels associated with these grounds of identity. 2. class according to james h. kavanagh (1990), class involves the political, economic and cultural elements in the relationships among societies. more specifically, drawing on e. d. hirsch, joseph f. kett, and james trefil (2002), class "usually implies a social and economic hierarchy, in which those of higher class standing have greater status, privilege, prestige, and authority." in addition, hirsch, kett, and trefil signal the importance of class consciousness, which is described as one's identification with members of the same class linked to a realizing of the way this class relates to other classes. orlando's characterization shows him/her at first as a nobleman who participates in a rich and privileged group in society. orlando spends a lot of money reconstructing his house and offering parties. these facts indicate that his characterization, in this moment and as conveyed by the narrative, is of comfort and satisfaction with the class he lives in. as a matter of fact, discussing the context of england in the elizabethan period, clayton roberts and david roberts (1991) report that reconstructed houses were used to "proclaim the ostentation, the extravagance, the self-consciousness, and even the vulgarity of a newly enriched landed class" (313), and that this self-consciousness was also noticed in the "willingness to offer hospitality" (313, my italics). concerning the wealth of orlando's family, we learn in the very beginning of the story that "[h]is fathers had been noble since they had been at all. they came one name, several (wo)men: categories of identity in virginia woolf’s orlando: a biography 8 out of the northern mists wearing coronets on their heads" (11). the tone of the narrative implies that orlando chooses to vary the identity of class he is supposed to have for belonging to a noble, wealthy family: orlando's father wore coronets, but orlando does not necessarily and naturally need to do the same. indeed, orlando enjoys the company of lettered people conceived as "low company" (20), identifies with and acts like them, and therefore shows that it is not natural to be noble. thus, orlando's characterization here challenges the liberal assumption that one's identity is stable and natural, and should therefore be celebrated on this aspect. further into the family's means, it can be observed that the narrator does not indicate the origin of such wealth. this fact is crucial, because the family has not been noble forever, as the narrator characterizes it; obviously there is an origin to such wealth. it seems, at first glance, that being noble is essential, natural, and timeless to orlando's family, because they "had been noble since they had been at all." this is a dehistoricized characterization that quickly hides the fact that the family's wealth was originated due to historically asymmetrical power relations. with a dehistoricized perspective, orlando's characterization here does not engage social historical conflicts and ends up mystifying nobleness and a consequent imperialist privilege of orlando and his family in relation to the gypsies. in this case, it seems that there are great differences between these two groups – and this is precisely what the narrator attempts to suggest. however, if we engage in a historicized perspective that does not assimilate given elements such as wealth as timeless and unquestionable, we will find that the origin of the noble's wealth is similar to the origin of the gypsies' (smaller) wealth, that is, both are originated due to hierarchies and relations of power that either privilege or oppress one. moreover, what the gypsies own is generally considered robbery, but the nobles are so much wealthier exactly because of robbery too, through manipulation, aline sanfelici 9 hierarchy, and privilege. in other words, while the narrator struggles to characterize orlando as so different from the gypsies, they are actually similar in this sense. hence, orlando: a biography presents an imperialist and assimilationist subtext that dehistoricizes conflicts and reinforces the oppressions that cause great differences within nations, classes, and even genders. it is thus possible to see a contradiction in the novel, as it appears to be a transgressive text but, at the same time, hides such a normatizing subtext. later, we learn that orlando is someone "to whom fortune had given every gift – plate, linen, houses, men-servants, carpets, beds in profusion" (52). on this note i want to stress the fact that the narrator here offers a positioning in which materiality matters. the narrator considers as "gifts" material elements such as fine fabrics and numerous (and certainly more than the necessary) habitations. in valuing this kind of life and the materiality it involves, the narrator probably disapproves orlando's experiences in other less wealthy classes. my point is that the narrator is in conflict: before, with the gypsies, the narrator challenged the assumption of a fixed class to be occupied, and now he/she seems to be disapproving the experiencing in other classes like the low lettered people. further, if materiality matters, again the novel's subtext conveys imperialism and classist values. as the story develops, we learn that orlando's characterization within class can be seen as variable; that is, not only does the character shift between classes, but also the positioning within classes shifts. for instance, in his affair with the russian princess sasha, he is both proud of his situation and tries to escape from this life. orlando's pride can be seen when he tells sasha about the history of his family, talking about their privileges with "an orgulous credulity" (33). on the other hand, his contrary positioning of trying to escape his noble background can be noticed every time orlando and are "seen to slip under the silken rope, which railed one name, several (wo)men: categories of identity in virginia woolf’s orlando: a biography 10 off the royal enclosure from the public part of the river and to disappear among the crowd of common people" (30). my point is that at times the character is portrayed as comfortable and satisfied with his positioning within a wealthy class, and at other times he does not live his noble identity and denies it, exchanging it for a new one. still, in this latter case orlando can move within classes keeping the privilege of returning any time. so, again, there is an elitist, imperialist subtext implied in the novel. observing now orlando's attempts at being a writer, such desire, attached to his education and position as a noble (wo)man, at a certain moment in the story, make the character face the fact that his/her noble position offers not only privileges but also limitations or barriers to surpass. this is parenthetically observed by the omniscient narrator in the following passage: "'[n]ot a nobleman; not one of us,' said orlando (which he would not have said aloud, for he was the most courteous of gentlemen; but it shows what an effect noble birth has upon the mind and incidentally how difficult it is for a nobleman to be a writer)" (56). the narrator's comment about the effects of belonging to a certain class points to a reality faced by orlando in the beginning of his life (for the character lives for three centuries). however, orlando's insistence on writing the poem "the oak tree" and publishing it at the end of the novel, signals that the characterization of orlando within class is convenient: it is of both belonging to a specific group and detaching oneself from it, in order to pursue the goals that are considered permissible in each group. therefore, orlando varies classes and blurs the limits of the classes he/she takes part in, but from a liberal standpoint. what i mean is that orlando takes part in different classes so that he/she finds room to write, in one class, when he/she needs to write; and finds room to publish the writing, moving to another class, when he/she needs support to do so. in other words, again orlando has the privilege to aline sanfelici 11 shift within classes according to his/her own needs–and not everybody has such privilege. to illustrate this, it should be noted that parts of "the oak tree" are written while the character lives among the gypsy community, but the poem is published when the character participates again in the noble class. in the following excerpt, the omniscient narrator reflects the character's selfcategorization by occupation, rather than by class: "[e]agerly recalling these and other instances of his unfitness for the life of society… proved that he himself belonged to the sacred race rather than to the noble–was by birth a writer, rather than an aristocrat–possessed him" (58, my emphasis). here, there is the disturbance of the issue of race: the narrator equates being noble with being an aristocrat, whereas being a writer is equated with belonging to a sacred race "by birth." hence, there is an intersection between class and race here, which causes a hesitation between received and constructed identitarian categories, each of which is simultaneously set and rejected. after all, being a published writer seems to be related to class, as explored earlier, but in the excerpt just mentioned, it seems to be related to race. in crenshaw's sense, then, this intersectionality subtracts the radical issue of class within writing, that is, the writing profession is no longer marked by matters of social position. this slipperiness and deferral indicate that the novel politicizes identitarian categories used in orlando's characterization by the omniscient narrator, as these categories are destabilized and not fixed. in short, considering orlando's general characterization within class, the description of orlando's transit between richer and poorer classes reveals that such characterization is unstable, but this instability is made possible by the very class privilege orlando is taken for granted to have transgressed or transcended. 3. gender at the time the novel was written there was no distinction between gender one name, several (wo)men: categories of identity in virginia woolf’s orlando: a biography 12 and sex. woolf and her generation did not have clear theoretical distinctions between gender, sex, and sexuality, and recent theorists have sought to clarify these terms. so, in the following discussion of orlando's characterization within gender, some of the passages quoted should be understood taking into account this earlier context of scarce theorization about the topic. in the beginning of the novel, orlando is described as a man in definite terms, yet ambiguous regarding anatomy and/or behavior, based on genitalia: "[h]e– for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it (11)". in terms of behavior, there are passages that insinuate that orlando behaves as men are expected to behave at the time: orlando gets involved with ladies, writes poems about them and has his name related to their names in marriage. indeed, "orlando's taste was broad; he was no lover of garden flowers only; the wild and the weeds even had always a fascination for him" (20). in short, the initial portrayal of orlando suggests a "correspondence" between his behavior and his genitalia, through his heterosexuality–a correspondence in terms of the cultural constructions and expectations of untroubled gender and sex. however, in the sequence, the narrator makes us pause and see how the character behaves (and feels) in variable ways about gender in terms of sexual attraction: when [orlando] beheld, coming from the pavilion of the muscovite embassy, a figure, which, whether boy's or woman's, for the loose tunic and trousers of the russian fashion served to disguise the sex, filled [orlando] with the highest curiosity. the person, whatever the name or sex, was about middle height, very slenderly fashioned, and dressed entirely in oyster-coloured velvet, trimmed with some unfamiliar greenish-coloured fur. but these details were obscured by the extraordinary seductiveness which issued from the whole person (26, my italics). aline sanfelici 13 in this passage, clothing is a form of contribution to make visible and clear gender (artificial) constructs. orlando is seduced by the person, "whatever the name or sex." however, he feels estrangement of sex/gender, in case the person is a man: "[w]hen the boy, for alas, a boy it must be… swept almost on tiptoe past him, orlando was ready to tear his hair with vexation that the person was of his own sex, and thus all embraces were out of the question" (26, my italics). elizabethan social rules could prevent orlando from certain acts, as he is a man engaged to a woman and should not be seen flirting with another man. the development of this moment is: "[b]ut the skater came closer. legs, hands, carriage, were a boy's, but no boy ever had a mouth like that; no boy had those breasts; no boy had eyes which looked as if they had been fished from the bottom of the sea" (26-7). here orlando does not know who the other person is, but cannot help feeling attracted to that boy. what is implicated here, in other words, is orlando's homosexual desire, repressed by elizabethan society. later on, however, the character finds out that actually the person is not a man, and the seductiveness that came from that person before knowing her to be a woman possesses orlando in such a way that he forgets about his engagement. in other words, orlando considers "all embraces" as "out of question" were the person of the same sex as he; notice, however, that the fact that he is committed to someone else does not interfere in the flirting when he knows the person is of another sex. later in the story, when orlando becomes a woman in terms of genitalia, it can be noticed that his/her attitudes vary between being a man and then a woman. i proceed now discussing these changes in orlando's moral and beliefs. first, orlando takes time to think critically about her situation. "[f]or some time, however, she was too well pleased with the change to spoil it by thinking" (99). after she begins to think about it, orlando's positioning regarding gender changes, as she one name, several (wo)men: categories of identity in virginia woolf’s orlando: a biography 14 becomes aware of the opinions she used to have before the transformation, and modifies them, as if getting adapted by force to the current reality of her new gender role. when orlando was younger and a man, he/she had different ideas towards the opposite sex, which would become her own contestations with the sexual transformation: [s]he remembered how, as a young man, she had insisted that women must be obedient, chaste, scented, and exquisitely appareled. 'now i shall have to pay in my own person for those desires,' she reflected; 'for women are not (judging by my own short experience of the sex) obedient, chaste, scented, and exquisitely appareled by nature. (110) in other words, orlando's experiences in being a woman make her reflect about her previous misunderstanding of gender difference, as a man. this reflection leads orlando to develop critical awareness of her former ("masculine") identity's assumptions about the female gender. in other words, orlando's change demonstrates the way genders are seen at the time and how they rely on a history of beliefs and conventions arbitrarily dictated by society–as argued by several scholars, gender roles are constructed culturally. by the same token, then, orlando changes her opinion not only about women, as just quoted, but also about men: "[a]nd mincing out the words, she was horrified to perceive how low an opinion she was forming of the other sex, the manly, to which it had once been her pride to belong" (113). in short, orlando lives as a man and a woman, and with the transformation he/she becomes aware of the arbitrary gendering of perspective and subject positions. though the shift in gender perspective does not seem as easy for orlando to undergo as does the shift from male to female sex, the narrator suggests that the character learns, eventually, to adapt her behavior to what would be expected from aline sanfelici 15 a woman. this can be noticed in the following passage, when a man cries in front of orlando: [t]hat men cry as frequently and as unreasonably as women, orlando knew from her own experience as a man; but she was beginning to be aware that women should be shocked when men display emotion in their presence, and so, shocked she was (127, my italics). the fact that orlando notices that women "should be shocked" in this situation indicates once more that orlando is aware of genders being culturally constructed: it is not natural for women to be shocked in this situation, only they should be shocked for cultural reasons. however, at the same time that the narrator conveys the character's apparent adjustment to her new condition, orlando also questions this condition and criticizes the limitations of being a woman in elizabethan noble society: "'[w]hat's the good of being a fine young woman in the prime of life', she asks, 'if i have to pass all my morning watching blue-bottles with an archduke?'" (128). here, orlando is disappointed with the cultural reduction of womanhood to such futile roles as paying and receiving court, whereas she expects more from her current condition. on this account, i call attention to the intersectionality between gender and class suggested in the passage. as orlando is now a woman, and participates in a privileged class, there are limitations imposed on her due to the roles assigned to women of the class she is occupying. thus, she as a woman is discriminated within the class she is taking part into, not because of factors related to ability or intelligence to be responsible for other roles in society, but because solely of her gender. in summary, this intersection between gender and class diminishes a group of people (women) in the dimension of roles in a certain class in society. this reading is crucial in order to show how different grounds of identity relate to each one name, several (wo)men: categories of identity in virginia woolf’s orlando: a biography 16 other in ways that can be prejudicial. it is important to observe, also, that orlando tries to adjust herself to womanly habits, but her behavior and critiques of such habits cause her characterization to be ambiguous. this ambiguity indicates that orlando's characterization within gender identity is marked by fluidity, i.e., the non-fixity and indeterminacy of gender roles: [i]f orlando was a woman, how did she never take more than ten minutes to dress? and were not her clothes chosen rather at random, and sometimes worn rather shabby? and then they would say, still, she has none of the formality of a man, or a man's love of power. she is excessively tender-hearted. she could not endure to see a donkey beaten or a kitten drowned. yet again, they noted, she detested household matters, was up at dawn and out among the fields in summer before the sun had risen. no farmer knew more about the crops than she did. she could drink with the best and liked games of hazard... whether, then, orlando was most man or woman, it is difficult to say. (133) what i am arguing is that orlando's behavior as a woman as described above disturbs intelligible conceptions of womanhood, paradoxically developing a new identity/identification, one that is not limited to cultural impositions of dualist thinking. in other words, my point is that orlando is arguably introducing here new ways of being a woman, ways that up to this presentation were not legible to the culture in which the character is inserted. therefore, textual analysis here proposes the challenge to fixed notions of sex/gender articulations and other identities, and treats identities as mutable signifiers. indeed, what takes place is orlando's presentation of a new possibility of identity, an identity until now not legible within cultural constructs. and for this, the text of orlando: a biography, needs to be acknowledged. on account of the findings drawn from the characterizations of orlando aline sanfelici 17 within nation, class, and gender, as well as the intersections and the subtexts discussed before, it is necessary to be critical of orlando's chances to experience different realities and never lose his/her privileges (such as the convenient possibility of returning to the previous nation and class anytime, a privilege of few), added to the fact that he/she often leaves these experiences behind without engaging politically and struggling for changing hierarchies and forms of discrimination. at the same time, though, it is necessary to celebrate orlando's awakening regarding gender. as i demonstrated before, orlando undergoes a significant change in gender perspective, and also incorporates constant questioning and critiquing of gender roles and artificial impositions to each gender, proposing, finally, new perspectives for gender politics. in conclusion, it is crucial to observe that at the same time that orlando: a biography presents a transgressive text–a text that disturbs cultural constructs of gender and creates yet "unintelligible" ways of behaving, for example–it is contradicted by a non-transgressive and normatizing subtext, whenever the narrative suggests imperialism. in other words, on the surface the novel challenges ideological and cultural constructs, and criticizes and disturbs hierarchies that cause asymmetries and forms of violence and oppression. however, in the subtext, as indicated several times, the novel actually reinforces such hierarchies and the notion of superiority and inferiority between people in different and intersectional aspects. notes [1] brennan's notion that nation is forged, artificial, and imaginarily constructed derives from benedict anderson's major argument in imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. new york and london: verso, 1991 [1983]. [2] about the conflation of "nation" and "race," i draw on henri yu's essay "how tiger woods lost his stripes: post-nationalist american studies as a history of race, one name, several (wo)men: categories of identity in virginia woolf’s orlando: a biography 18 migration, and the commodification of culture." yu explains that racial type, geographical location, and nationality became understood as correlated since the nineteenth century, and such an arbitrary "mystic tie" (228) has been useful in the understanding of societies and peoples, but risks missing specificities involving these peoples and races. yu is therefore critical of the conflation between "nation" and "race," for it constructs, naturalizes, and perpetuates hierarchies. [3] what gilbert and gubar claim, further, is that "to attempt the pen," that is, to write literature, is a way of empowering the self, and since women have been denied the pen in patriarchal western culture, they have been marginalized and have also been misrepresented by the writings of men. another consequence, of course, is the impossibility of being empowered and "fighting" (as in a battle) for their interests. works cited brennan, timothy. "the national longing for form." nation and narration. ed. homi k. bhabha. london: routledge, 1990: 44-70. butler, judith. gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. london: routledge, 1990. crenshaw, kimberlé williams. "mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color." the public nature of private violence. eds. martha albertson fineman and rixanne mykitiuk. new york: routledge, 1994. 20 september 2006. <http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/organizations/healthnet/woc/feminisms/cre nshaw.html> eyre, a. g. an outline history of england. london: longman group ltd., 1971. gilbert, sandra, and gubar, susan. the madwoman in the attic: the woman writer and the nineteenth century literary imagination. new haven and london: yale university press, 1984. hirsch, e. d., kett, joseph f., and trefil, james. (eds.). "class." the new dictionary of cultural literacy. third edition. 2002. 20 september 2006. <http://www.bartleby.com/59/17/class.html> kavanagh, james h. "ideology." critical terms for literary study. eds. frank lentricchia and thomas mclaughlin. chicago and london: the university of chicago press, 1990. liu, lydia. "the female body and nationalist discourse: the field of life and death revisited." scattered hegemonies – postmodernity and transnational feminist practices. eds. inderpal grewal and caren kaplan. minneapolis and london: university of minnesota press, 1994: 37-62. roberts, clayton, and roberts, david. a history of england: prehistory to 1714. volume 1. new jersey: prentice-hall, inc., 1991 (3rd ed.). aline sanfelici 19 sinfield, alan. the wilde century: effeminacy, oscar wilde and the queer moment. new york: cassell, 1994. sollors, werner. "ethnicity." critical terms for literary study. eds. frank lentricchia and thomas mclaughlin. chicago and london: the university of chicago press, 1990. woolf, virginia. orlando: a biography. london: penguin books, 1993 [1928]. yu, henri. "how tiger woods lost his stripes: post-nationalist american studies as a history of race, migration, and the commodification of culture." postnationalist american studies. ed. john c. rowe. berkeley and los angeles: university of california press, 2000: 223-244.