Vol.1, No.

1 / 2009

ARS AETERNA

Across cultures / across centuries

acknowledging the difference

Constantine the Philosopher University

Faculty of Arts
Vol.1, No.1 / 2009
1

ARS AETERNA
Nzov/Title
ARS AETERNA
Across cultures / across centuries acknowledging the diference
Vydavate/Publisher
Univerzita Kontantna Filozofa v Nitre
Filozofick fakulta
tefnikova 67, 949 74 Nitra
tel. + 421 37 77 54 209
fax. + 421 37 77 54 261
email kangl@ukf.sk

Adresa redakcie/Office Address

Filozofick fakulta Univerzity Kontantna Filozofa v Nitre
Dekant FF UKF
tefnikova 67, 949 74 Nitra
Tel.: +421 37 7754 201
Fax: +421 37 6512 570
E-mail: dekanatf@ukf.sk
fredaktor/Editor in Chief
Mgr. Alena Smiekov, PhD.

Redakn rada/Board of Reviewers

Prof. Bernd Herzogenrath (Germany)
Doc. PhDr. Michal Peprnk, Ph.D. (Czech Republic)
Doc. PhDr. Anton Pokrivk, Phd. (Slovak Republic)
Mgr. Petr Kopl, Ph.D. (Czech Republic)
Redakn prava
Mgr. Simona Heveiov, PhD.
Ing. Mat ika

Nzov a sdlo tlaiarne/Printing House

EVT, a.s. Bratislava
Nklad/Copies
150

Poet strn/Pages
101
ISSN: 1337-9291
(c) 2009
Univerzita Kontantna Filozofa v Nitre

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A word from the editor

Alena Smiekov

Interview with Halla Beloff

Mria Kiov

11

The Old South in Popular Culture

Jozef Pecina

17

Mary Austins Crossing Boundaries

Peter Kopeck

27

The Dangers of Foreign Smells: Olfaction and Immigrant Mobilities

in Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran
Marzena Kubisz

35

Rushdies Claim For Hybridity In His Non-Fiction Works

Titus Pop

42

Exiles on the road: The role of cinematic journeys in the creation of

new structures of belonging and cultural knowledge
Tanja Franotovi

53

Multiculturalism and a Search for Identity in Spanish Film Production

after the Fall of Francoism
Petra Pappov

63

Pardoning Unpardonable - Smiling Discrimination in Canada

Jana Javorkov

72

Relections on Education in a Multicultural Environment

Jos Antonio vila Romero

76

Cosmas Across Cultures

Petr Kopl

82

Reviews

95

ARS AETERNA

A word from the editor

Alena Smiekov
In the contemporary world the words
die easily. They are misunderstood, and
then they are reinscribed by others with
a greater force. Sometimes they are never uttered and then they die even before
they are born. They are misused and
then their power disappears next time
when they are used. They will forever
stand between us and the world and yet
we would not know how to speak about
and know the world without them.
The task of academics is to employ
the words to describe what they have
observed about the world. We are
launching a new academic journal. As
such it is going to be filled with words
whose ambition is to survive, to endure
in the contemporary battle of words, in
the world dominated by images that can
silence the words easily.
The name of the journal speaks in
multiple ways. Its Latin opens up in an
interpretation full of oxymorons. On the
one hand, as a dead language, which no
one in the world speaks anymore, on
the other hand as the language that still
surfaces in a number of disciplines and
is traditionally associated with scholarship and science. The word ars delineates the scope of the journal. It is our
aim to discuss the questions of art, the
way it forms and deforms our experience, our perception of the world, our
position in the world. Art here is understood in a broader and more traditional
sense as a skill, stratagem, craft or science and therefore allows for the fusion
4

of discussions from various scholarly

disciplines. The journal is open to contributions of scholars across various
disciplines; we would like to establish
a platform where the linguists could interact with historians, literary scholars
with art historians, philosophers with
mathematicians. There would not be art
without creativity and that is also the
quality we assume that each individual
paper will strive for -- to become intellectually stimulating and illuminating.
The word aeterna has been always
linked to Art. The works of art not only
transgress any time subjective, seasonal, or mechanical. They have the
ability to dislocate their viewers and
percipients from a time flow and in that
touch the eternity. Therefore discussions, analyses, and interpretations of
works of art and other cultural products
generate a discourse where the world
is dealt with as an eternal idea, which
comes to existence in myriad forms
through the culture, people, and politics
or education.
The topic for our first issue is significant. Living and working in the world at
the beginning of the third millennium
we face the challenges of globalization,
IT technologies, the impact of visual
culture, new political and economic organization of Europe and the world. On
the one hand, we can occupy the space
that is easily interconnected, that has
shrunk, we trespass the barriers traditionally insurmountable. Are we able

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

to face these challenges? What can we
learn about ourselves and our home
place living amongst all networks, diversity and diference? Do we see the world
diferently as teachers, pedagogues, artists, historians and philosophers? Do
we remain bound to our essential humanity or do we adopt multiple selves?
Dehumanized, cyborg-like, alienated?
How much of a change and rupture can
we acknowledge?
The word shibboleth, which entered
English through Hebrew and the Bible, is
used today to distinguish the members
of a particular group from the outsiders. Bolivian artist Doris Salcedo used
the term to name her installation in the
Tate Modern in London in 2007/8. The
exposition was staged in the Turbine
Hall, monumental entrance of the gallery, which as it is widely known, used
to be a power plant built after WWII. As
many other expositions presented there
within the free admission Unilever Series, this also was not a traditional exposition. The installation touched the
very foundations of the building in a
long oblique crack that revealed the
texture underneath. The concept of the
exhibition incorporated the past and
the present of London, England and the
world. The past, which on the one hand
was evolving, developing and opened
to progress, for all these qualities the
building of the power plant stands for,
but which was also colonial, marginalizing and unfair. It spoke about the past,
which many times remains hidden and
unrevealed, and comes to light only under dramatic circumstances. The past
which made the present world so diverse and multiculturally intertwined.

It also reflected on the present when we

do respect diversity not in spite of the
diference but we learn to respect the
diference.
This is the thin red line, which we can
find in the current issue of Ars Aeterna.
All contributions, though written by
specialists from various disciplines,
explore the questions of contemporary
cross culture identities. Whether they
deal with the present cultural products
or phenomena or they refer to the past,
the authors investigate what cracks remain in the mind, in the self marked by
the colonial power and thought. Their
articles discuss the examples of art,
sociology, history or pedagogy where
the colonial thinking is defied by the
moments of hybridity when the world
without frontiers, personal inhibitions
and boundaries may rise to exist.
The border line between the North
and the South of the USA is linked to
the most painful chapter of American
history. As Jozef Pecina from The University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in
Trnava in Slovakia points out in his article: When in 1761 two English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah
Dixon, marked out the border between
the colonies of Virginia, Delaware and
Maryland, they could not suspect that
their line will some time later divide
the so-called free and slave states of the
USA. The South, the territory of the USA
loaded with memories, unaccomplished
dreams, and the lost cause battle comes
to a new view in his article. He discusses
the fascination with the Southern culture and history through the examples
of American popular culture: the novel
Uncle Toms Cabin (1952), the film Birth
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ARS AETERNA
of a Nation (1915) and the novel and
consequently film Gone with the Wind
(1936, 1939). Pecina discloses to what
extent these cultural artifacts shaped
the understanding of American South
and formed the romanticizing view of
Southern mythology. His interpretations analyze stereotyped and even racist representations of the South and its
population, he, however, also discusses
the role popular culture played in the
support of the abolitionist movement.
As he quotes Cullen in his article Abraham Lincoln acknowledged the significance of the popular novel Uncle Toms
Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
with these words: So this is the little
lady who made this great war (1995, p.
14) For Beecher Stowe the recognition
of her work together with social and
political consequences came almost immediately. But sometimes it takes longer, much longer to canonize works of
art.
The story of Mary Austin, whose
portrait Peter Kopecky from Opava University in the Czech Republic delineates
in his article, is a story of an exclusion
from the cannon. Her works speak from
the past, but her views are very topical.
In spite of that, the journey her literary
works took to achieve recognition lasted almost 60 years. Her literary voice
advocates the unity between the subject and object, human and nonhuman.
Using the impersonal narration she
erased the borderline between the observer and the observed. She represents
an isolated voice that in early 20th century was more suggestive than the language of political banners in the eighties or nineties. She saw the possibilities
6

for the imaginable evolution or revolution in the cultural syncretism of ethnic

groups living in the area of Southwest.
The cultural coexistence of Hispanics
and Native Americans, the social organization of their pueblos was for her the
world beyond the boundaries of law,
restrictions and inhibitions, which the
dominant white culture spread around.
The colonial power and the law did
not touch these territories completely
and she saw in them the hope for the
prospect development. Her fruitful and
imaginative ideas were, however, left
for a very long time aside. She did not
fit the literary canon and expectations
of her times. Not only that she was a
woman, a writer, but also because her
works transgressed the limitations of
literary studies. As Petr Kopecky in his
conclusion asserts: Only today, thanks
to the growth of interdisciplinary studies, can we fully appreciate the deep insights based on her erudition in a host
of fields of knowledge.
Marzena Kubisz from Poland and Titus Pop from Romania discuss contemporary literature in their articles. The
examples they present, writers Marsha
Mehran and Salman Rushdie are wellknown and recognized representatives
of what can be called today postcolonial writing in Great Britain. As we have
suggested above, postwar Great Britain
went through dramatic changes. The
colonial empire has become a multicultural country whose present is a mosaic
of ethnic varieties. The situation inevitably afects the lifestyle, politics, social
habits and manners. The supposed tradition and fixity one associates Great
Britain with crumbles and gives way to

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

fluidity, changeability and new sensory
perceptions.
Marzena Kubisz in her article writes
about the cross-cultural encounters and
mobilities as we can find them described
in the debut of Teheran-born novelist Marsha Mehran Pomegranate Soup
(2005), now living in Ireland. Kubisz
discusses food as a metaphor, which
can be equally revealing to the stories
of movement and mixing as in other
books these are the stories of growing,
alienation, personal struggle and reconciliation. Her interpretation asserts
that in the world where the borders
are crossed literally in a search for the
new beginning, the immigrant culture
becomes an inevitable challenge to the
normative codices the culture of reterritorialized country represents: What
we witness in Ballinacroagh [the setting
of the novel] is the process of becoming:
it is the New that is becoming in front of
our eyes.
Titus Pops contribution brings to
the eye of the reader less known side
of a renown writer Salman Rushdie.
Selecting Rushdies non-fiction works
as the focus of his interest, Pop discloses the consistent and ultimate efort
Rushdie makes, not only as literati but
as a public figure, an intellectual and a
spokesman for all unheard and silenced
voices coming from formerly colonized
countries or contemporary immigrant
communities.
Rushdies case is indicative of the situation in the contemporary world. He
creates a work of art, which seems to be
harmless in comparison with the arms
and weapons the world is equipped
today. What he employs are only the

words but those words, paraphrasing

Vclav Havel, become the power of the
powerless. No wonder that he has been
put to banishment after the publication
of his novel The Satanic Verses (1988).
He shatters the established status quo
and reveals the fanaticism, manipulation, and the systems of power that restrict and degenerate the free, individual spirit of the Self. He does so not on a
national basis but as a literary fantasy,
in an imaginary and imaginative world,
which unfortunately for him, speaks so
openly about the limitations of the real
one that there are those who feel to be
threatened by it. The case of The Satanic Verses is double indicative; it also
reveals the shallowness with which we
may approach a literary text. As Milan
Kundera has it: everybody speaks about
it but no one actually has read it [The
Satanic Verses]. It is self-revelatory that
our contemporary discourse employs
the catchwords, catchphrases, without
their appropriate examination. Thus
Pops article gives the reader a view of
Rushdie as an intellectual in progress,
on a constant move, whose writing
obstructs any attempt to define a national or literary influence for it. But
the fluidity of thought, constant reexamination and reconsideration of roots
and stability also prevent any ossifications, and a possibility to lapse in status quo. Rushdie, according to Pop, has
always questioned historical givens and
beliefs and in order to do so employed
the metafictional trope of migrancy to
invoke an absolute of rootlessness and
hybridity.
As Tanja Franotovic from Croatia
says in her article: No other medium ...
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ARS AETERNA
can capture the issues of travel, mobility and change [...] as poignantly as film.
She and Petra Pappova from Slovakia
focus on the examples from the film and
examine the concepts of home, nation
and identity, through the idea of belonging. While Tanja Frantovic focuses
on diasporic filmmaking and discusses
the film Exiles (2004), the point of departure for Petra Pappovas arguments
is the imaginative world of Spanish film,
which started to flourish after the fall of
Francos dictatorship.
Frantovic advocates the medium
of the film, which she believes has the
representational tools to depict the
fluid, relational Selves. She also deals
with the concept of national and transnational identities and suggests that
in this respect contemporary Europe
should be more humble, less authoritarian. Instead of unifying stories of
EU identity, Europe should learn more
about the changes and challenges of
the multicultural society from smaller,
but specific marginalized stories. In
this respect Europe should learn from
being peripheral, which as Frantovic
says opens up a dialogue between the
margins. Frantovic employs the example of the film Exiles (2004) to present
the very opportunity for Europes new
politics of identity, one which not only
insists on diference and specificity but
also on movement, articulation and syncretism.
The article by Petra Pappova gives a
range of examples, which characterise
the contemporary Spanish cinema in
the period of movida. Appearing in the
period without censorship all film examples, Pedro Almodvars films in par8

ticular, question the social and national

taboos of the past and reveal new, multiple identities. They cross the boundaries of gender and sexual stereotypes as
well as national identity. Therefore the
conflict often takes place between the
strange and familiar. Such conflict is, in
Pappovas view, inevitable for any multicultural environment, which tries to
preserve the individuality.
The articles, which describe the process taking place outside of the arena
of art, are the texts by Jana Javorcikova
from Matej Bel University in Slovakia and
Jos Antonio vila Romero from Spain.
To discuss the perception of transition
in sociological, cultural and educational
environments is equally important, because as we have mentioned before all
these are interrelated. The changes in
art and science condition the changes in
society, culture, and education and vice
versa. The change takes place in a consciousness and in that respect it is never
isolated but related.
Jana Javorcikova speaks about the
phenomenon of smiling discrimination, which is a residuum in the mind
and thinking, a concealed form of racism. To remove the colonial power from
a certain territory is one gradual step,
but the trajectories leading to the removal of colonial thinking can be winding and can take much longer. This is
what we have referred to discussing Salman Rushdie. For the western world he
represents the courage, enlightenment
and fundamental opposition against
fanaticism and fundamentalism. But it
is only a small fraction of the Western
world that can really understand, what
Rushdie opposes, contradicts and ridi-

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

cules in his book. In fact, the majority
of white, Western, enlightened world
remains under certain circumstances
racist and colonial.
In the process of mind transformation the role of teachers and educators
is one of the crucial ones. Learning languages is a way to deconstruct and reconstruct ones mind and identity. The
article by Jos Antonio vila Romero
investigates the specific strategies that
can be used to teach Spanish in a multicultural environment. They are aimed
at self-reflection, on the awareness of
learning process and self-progress and
thus are significant for any kind of consideration about ones identity. Because
learning a foreign language can be a
way to know a foreign country but also
a way to know oneself and the position
of oneself in a dialogue with the Other
and the Self, familiar and unfamiliar, unusual and common.
The knowledge of who I am and
where I belong is closely connected
with the place one occupies in a national state. The article by Peter Kopal
from the Czech Republic leads the readers on a long journey into the past in
order to disclose the significance of the
first Czech chronicler Cosmas of Prague
for the constitution of the Czech nation,
identity and history. His portrait of Cosmas is a complex picture showing what
misinterpretations history is a subject
to in totalitarian regimes. In spite of all
Kopal asserts that Cosmas can be still
perceived a man of words, a scholar,
an artist, a historian who shaped and
formed Czech national identity. As he
asserts in the conclusion: It seems that
the Cosmas chronicle speaks even to us

today, like a new source of inspiration,

thanks to the most topical and significant element of its ideological content,
i.e. thanks to the efort to rationalize the
birth, origin and the essence of the national state. Its constitution then started
the processes, which at the turn of 11th
and 12th C started to accommodate the
Czech society slowly to the standards of
European countries.
The interview, in which Maria Kissova
from Constantine the Philosopher University in Slovakia presents Hall Belof
is a fascinating reading. Belofs training
and experience is in psychology, visual
art and literature. She understands the
primary role identity and culture play in
the contemporary world. She, however,
also warns that the art works, which
employ these concepts as the source of
their conflicts, may easily move from
their privileged peripheral position,
in which they have the quality to be on
the edge, to the mainstream, and thus
loose the cutting edge. Belof has been
lured by visual art and culture. One of
her books Camera Culture discusses
stereotypes in thinking, representation
and the way we perceive and comprehend the world through visual images.
She says that stereotypes are a particularly lazy part of conventional thinking.
They take for granted traditional imbalances of power and the oppression of
vulnerable people. They provide a kind
of justification for these. In this respect
she sees the importance of documentary photography, as the form, which
should give people the impetus to reform. And she does her share in this. As
an atheist, or as she likes to call herself
a militant rationalist, she works for
9

ARS AETERNA
Christian charity organisation, because
as she says I dont believe in Christianity, but I do believe in aid.
The current issue closes with three
reviews. Peter Pecina writes about the
book by Michael W. Schaefer on the civil war, Maria Kissova reviews Hamids
novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist
and Simona Hevesiova discusses the
second novel of the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow
Sun.
Dear readers, we wish the content
of the current issue will inspire you to
think and discuss further on the ques-

10

tions of diversity, and multiculturalism.

These directly influence the social organization of the world we inhabit, may
change our viewpoints, and interact
with our opinions. We believe that the
art, history and education are the means
to learn about them and ourselves more.
In this way we endorse the return to
the tradition of scholarship that honors
the knowledge that appreciates critical
thinking and respects the diference in
opinion, attitudes or styles.
Works cited: Cullen, J., 1995. The
Civil War in Popular Culture. A Reusable
Past. Smithsonian Institution Press.

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

Interviewwith Halla Beloff

Our social identity may change and probably therefore also our personal one. It may be painful
but it is exciting. The skill in life is to be flexible while maintaining values and a moral core.

In the first Ars Aeterna interview the social psychologist Halla Beloff speaks
about her life decisions, identity, atheism, and passion for the Arts.
Born in Stuttgart, she came to England as a refugee in l939. She was educated at Birkbeck
College, University of London, the University of Illinois and Queens University, Belfast. For
many years she taught in the Psychology Department of the University of Edinburgh. Her
research and writing have been concerned with social identity, especially womens positions
and visual rhetoric. Her book Camera Culture (Blackwell, l985) discusses the meaning of
photography and its social representation in society, changing the social world. Halla Beloff
served on many committees of the British Psychological Society (President l983-84), worked
as a free-lance reviewer on BBC Radio Scotland and a member of the Scottish Arts Council.

Motivations behind the choice for

the professional career often tell a
lot about human personality and interests. What ideas shaped your decision towards social psychology?
HB Having first aimed for a degree
in science, I realised this might be boring. Psychology seemed to have a science base, but promised clear human
interest, and would be a new sort of
venture in 1949, so that won out. I have
never regretted my choice for one minute.
You worked as a research assistant at the University of Illinois and
at the Department of Psychology at
the Queens University in Belfast. Do
you recall a specific psychological research you conducted which made a
definite impact on you?

HB At Illinois I worked at statistical analyses of personality traits that

helped one to understand peoples adjustment to the social world. The basic
dimensions of introversion and extraversion still hold do tell us something
important about individual diferences.
Gradually I realised that it was more
profitable to bring in culture. What has
been called the texture of everyday life
in a more humble way beckoned me to
try to understand how we live, if that
is not putting it too highly. Insofar as
one could widen such discussions into
everyday life itself it would be part of a
democratic process in giving away psychology.
Israel Finkelstein is a professor
at Tel Aviv University working at archaeological excavations at Megiddo. Though his research has proved
that several Old Testament stories
11

ARS AETERNA
considered historically accurate are
purely fictitious; it did not change his
faith and he says that it is critical for
archaeology to separate the convictions about his culture and identity
on the one hand and his research on
the other. Is that true about psychology as well? To what extent has social
psychology been personal for you?
HB I think my research has certainly
been on identity and therefore culture
itself. Insofar as I read Sigmund Freud,
who was far, far removed from the official scientific psychology curriculum, I
came across The Future of an Illusion.
His brilliant and succinct arguments
against god, crystallised my own position and I was home as a non-believer.
I believe that little book of his is too little known. His argument that religion is
a form of comfort for our helplessness
and loneliness, seems to me very hard to
refute. And the solution to that problem
is rational endeavour, in all branches of
science and technology coupled with
humanistic values.
Having mentioned your research
on identity and culture, there is also
a great deal of contemporary fiction
which discusses the tensions between the culture and ones identity.
Can you comment on that from the
psychologists point of you?
HB The question of culture and identity is obviously central to the whole idea
of being a person in the modern world.
Here and now we move around, geographically, between statuses and within our culture conceptually. That means
12

we may change country, language, class

and in terms of ideas. Latterly this may
involve moving from conformity to nonconformity, for example, in terms of political orientation and allegiance.
That is surely what makes modernity
constantly on the move. Our social identity may change and probably therefore
also our personal one. It may be painful
but it is exciting. The skill in life is to be
flexible while maintaining values and a
moral core.
Writers have accepted the challenge
of such moves and few modern novels
miss out on aspects of the fracture.
The most central fiction list is surely
the post-colonial category. The writers that I think of first are the women
in Britain whole family of origin are
not English/British. They are not only
popular but serious. You should know
Andrea Levys Small Island, Monica
Alis Brick Lane, Zadie Smiths White
Teeth. (By the way, it is fun to know
that Smiths first name is Sadie, but
she thought Zadie was more exotic and
therefore eye-catching.) Such writers, of
course, eventually move into the mainstream, as Hanif Kureishi has done. The
danger is then that they will lose their
first fire. But they gave and give their socalled host country a powerful stimulus
for thought. It must be noted too that
such novel-accounts are not painful in
terms of the conflicts between the immigrant and the host culture, but more
likely ironic and witty in the English
style.
(On a personal level, I regret that
the German Jewish disaspora from the
thirties did not produce a novelist of
note. My tentative interpretation is

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

that the War meant that our origin was
enthusiasticly hidden. And that was
that.)
Your scholar interest started with
psychology, later you turned towards
art and published several papers on
visual art and literature. What links
have you found between the work of
a psychologist and your critical study
of art?

HB For reasons I cant fathom Ive always been attracted to the visual world.
As a girl on eleven, I saved my pocket
money to buy art postcards when no
one I knew did such a thing and Ive
never looked back!
More recently, after a more serious interest in art and architecture, I
realised that this was a field that psychologists had not in general taken any
interest. Perhaps there might be room
for me. Then photography was today a
universal phenomenon and yet few considered what it was, what it did for us.
What was the social representation of
photography? One social psychologist
encouraged me, the later Henri Tajfel.
That was enough. I had a terms sabbatical from Edinburgh University and I
just sat down in my study and wrote the
book, Camera Culture. It seemed easy; I
somehow had it in my mind. Although
it was nave from the point of view of
the sophisticated theorists, it seemed to
speak to other psychologists and some
of the empirical minded in the trade.
And, of course, because it was well produced and had a lot of reproductions it
was intrinsically attractive, which is one
of the points I was trying to make. Be-

ing able to look at parts of the world and

the people in it is fascinating.

There have been sea changes in

development of art in recent years
using computer technologies and
internet. Is there still place for traditional photography?
HB Now there are obviously opened
up infinite possibilities, for good and
bad. It is easy now to lie in a photograph
where before it was a bit more difficult.
Leninists could air-brush Trotsky out
of that photograph, men and women
could always be beautified, but it took
a bit of efort. Viewers of a photograph
must now be cautious before accepting
its truth value. We have to be more cautious, even more cynical and that seems
a pity, but we will learn the skill.
The traditional image of George
Bernard Shaw is that of a bearded,
smartly dressed, distinguished and
conservatively-looking author. In
your Camera Culture the photography in the nude is used to pose a challenging question if the picture reveals
more of the true Shaw. Does it?

HB Shaw was an exceedingly clever and witty man. He was not afraid to
practice what he said about his peers
hiding behind their suits and their whiskers. In posing as Rodins Thinker in the
nude he is still not full-frontally naked
and the role is highly flattering. So he is
still teasing us and having the last laugh.
We still dont know what hes really like.
His social identity is there again, but not
his personal one. I like the joke.
13

ARS AETERNA
Besides that, the picture shows
the great power of photography to
change stereotypes and conventional
thinking. Why is that important?

and provoke. More conservative audience claims some themes (e.g. pornography) disgusting. What are taboo topics in photography for you?

HB Stereotypes are a particularly

lazy part of conventional thinking. They
take for granted traditional imbalances
of power and the oppression of vulnerable people. They provide a kind of justification for these. The exploitation of
children, women and simply diferent
people, like Roma, then seem part of everyday reality.
The whole documentary movement
within photography aimed to wake up
our consciences. It was designed to
show us what poverty, oppression and
the horrors of war were actually like
and so break the distance between us
and them. That has been the moral centre of traditional photography, over and
above painting. From the beginning of
photography, right until the end of the
twentieth, photographers were creating pictures that were hard to look at
with care, in both senses of that word.
The danger then is that we will end of
feeling good because we are feeling bad.
The point though is to do something.
Reform is a harder job, but that is up to
us not the photographer. They just give
us the impetus.
I remember an exhibition of the work
in Africa and Vietnam of Don McCullin at
the Victoria and Albert Museum where
the large audience moved about in total silence. We were moved. But what
could we do? I think that awareness is a
good in itself, which is all I can say.

HB As Ive just suggested some images must shock us. The motive can be
good and the outcome at least indirectly positive.
But I am not an absolute libertarian.
I think that the presentation of women
and children in obscene poses for the
delectation of a viewers sexual obsession is exploitative. It exploits the objects of the photographs show have to
appear with their vulva on show and
their faces apparently lascivious.
Such pictures provide a horrible
kind of model for what a woman or a
child is supposed to be like. They must
be deleterious to positive human relations, and of caring partnerships. The
trouble is that the demand is infinite,
the gangster marketers profits are astronomical and there seems no end to
the trade.

Photography often wants to shock

14

In Joseph Roths Legend of a Holy

Drinker a small gift of a converted
Christian changes lives of many. You
also do a lot of charity work in which
literature plays a major role. Is there
any story behind the idea of spreading books?
HB We do not live by bread alone.
Books are one of the prime foods of
the spirit. They help us to think in new
ways; they put us in the shoes of others;
they can take us away from mundane
reality and they entertain. They are a
model of currency - small, portable,

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

able to be passed on and are long lasting in material terms, and even longer
in the mind. When we read a book we
are all equal.
Its a privilege to be part of a book exchange. And in Britain we are especially
lucky because there are a whole series
of charity shops which are really book
exchanges. When one has finished with
a book one takes it along to such a shop
and it is sold on in aid of a particular
charity for very small sums. It is part of
the democracy of ideas.
You are a proclaimed non-believer in god. What does being an atheist
mean to you?
HB Yes, I sometimes call myself a
militant rationalist. Not because I wish
to take away anothers faith, but because Im ready to state my own independence from supernatural belief and
any organised religion. One of the highest functions of women and men is to
think, to reason as well as to empathise
with others. And as Ive said, when I
evaluate what has gone on in the world
and what continues to go on, I cannot
believe that there is a presence which
in any sense whatsoever is behind this.
I rather see religion used to give false
consolation and resignation to those
sufering. I cannot credit that there will
be our reward in some future world.
As a thinking person I could advance the argument that there is a devil
at work in the world, not a god of the
western tradition; a devil or perhaps
the gods sitting on Mount Olympus and
using us as their playthings. That seems
also a possibility.

For more than fifty years I was the

wife of John Belof, a scholar and a man
of high principles. He too came from
a Jewish background and too lost any
faith in a presence that was supposedly
all knowing, all-powerful and benign.
That the presence did not appear to be
so and it was all a mystery did not make
sense to his valued reason. Although
we did not live in each others pockets,
we did agree on fundamentals and he
was a model for me.
I think we are indeed alone and
must work to comfort each other and
to strive to make our community a better place, even if each of us can only do
little. Perhaps three good commands to
live by are: be kind, be kind, be kind.
My friends think it a bit strange that
I do work for Christian Aid, but that
agency does not press the Christianity at the point of need and that is the
important part for me. I dont believe in
Christianity, but I do believe in aid.
I guess that as a keen reader there
are at least two books which you are
reading these days. Could you give us
some advice?

HB I like to have one hard book and

one diverting one on the go. At the moment Ive suddenly decided to go back
to Elizabeth von Arnim, an Australian/
English proto-feminist novelist of a
hundred years ago, who in Elizabeth
and her German Garden observed the
foibles of mere males and the intelligence of women in a blithe and witty
style (and went on to write many bestselling novels). Whenever I re-read her
she lifts the heart.
15

ARS AETERNA
But I have also got my teeth, at last
into Lanark by the great contemporary
Scottish writer, Alasdair Gray, who certainly challenges us. Its a four volume
phantasmagoria of Glasgow life and the
human condition. Fortunately he does
himself sometimes appear on the Scot-

16

tish literary scene and so some of us in

a position to hear him read it to us in
our minds ear. But even without that
it is worth the struggle to witness such
an original, intelligent world-view. If
you cannot agree with it, that is your
right.

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

The Old South in Popular Culture

Jozef Pecina
Jozef Pecina teaches American studies at University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava,
Slovakia. His main fields of interest are 19th century American history and Popular Culture.
He is writing his PhD. dissertation on the image of war in 19th century American novels. He
has published articles on Captain John Smith, Stephen Crane, John William DeForest and antebellum sensational novels.

Abstract:
The paper deals with American South, one of the most distinctive regions of the United
States, and its representation in popular culture. The first part briefly examines the history of the region and origins of Southern mythology and stereotypes, while in the second
part I focus on the image of the South as presented in Uncle Toms Cabin, The Birth of a
Nation and Gone with the Wind.

The Old South, similarly to the Old

West, is looked back through the spectacles of novels, cinema, television and
other fictional sources. While the West
is seen as a land of gun duels, desperadoes and lonely men with no name, the
South has been portrayed as a land of
prosperous plantations and white columned mansions populated by aristocratic chivalrous planters and their
beautiful womenfolk with happy slaves
singing in the cotton fields during the
sunset. Such romantic image is the most
accurately expressed in the opening title card of Gone with the Wind, one of
the most popular movies of all times:
There was a land of Cavaliers and
Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here
in this pretty world, Gallantry took its
last bow. Here was the last ever to be
seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of
Master and of Slave. Look for it only in
books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the
wind..
Both the movie and Margaret Mitch-

ells novel are the chief representations

of such romantic myth. Not even the
counter-image presented for the first
time in Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle
Toms Cabin has been strong enough to
drive out this myth.
When in 1761 two English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, marked out the border between
the colonies of Virginia, Delaware and
Maryland, they could not suspect that
their line will some time later divide
the so-called free and slave states of the
USA. Until the late eighteenth century,
however, both Northern and Southern
colonies underwent almost the same
historical development, including a
rapid expansion to the west, a moving
frontier, and the contact with hostile
Native Americans. Geographically, there
was not any physical obstacle, a river or
a mountain range that would separate
the region causing its isolated development. The language, religion and law of
both North and South were the same
and the South hardly difered in cultural
17

ARS AETERNA
history as well.
However, potential Southern consciousness had been present since the
early colonial period. Despite missing
geographic or cultural diferences, there
always had existed a possibility for distinctive Southern identity. It had existed
in a form of a crucial figure in the history of the Old South the black slave.
It was the existence of chattel slavery
that provided one common bond, one
shared interest that could unify the region of the South and lead it to a war
which brought an end to whole institution. (Ranson & Hook, 1989)
During colonial period, slavery existed in all English colonies. New England ports of Boston and Newport were
not only Americas leading ports of departure for slave ships, they were for
the most of the eighteenth century the
principal ports for entry for new slaves
(Lindsey, 1994, p. 28) In the North,
though, it never became as economically important as it did in the South.
Slaves in the North were usually held
in small numbers and served mostly as
domestic servants. Until the nineteenth
century, the Souths peculiar institution did not arouse much comment.
Several of the Founding Fathers were
slaveowners and although there is no
direct reference to slavery in the Declaration of Independence, it is recognized and accepted by the Constitution.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, it was widely believed that slavery
would gradually die out.
One event changed all hopes for
gradual demise of slavery and helped
to create distinctive Southern way of
life. It was the invention of the cotton
18

gin, patented by Eli Whitney in 1791.

Before the invention, short staple cotton was grown in some parts of Georgia and South Carolina, but it depleted
the soil and was unprofitable to market.
Manual picking out of the cotton seeds
proved both labor demanding and time
consuming and the cotton could not
compete with rice or indigo for commercialization. Eli Whitneys invention
used spikes and later saws to extract the
seeds form flowers and its efect was almost instantaneous. By 1804, the cotton
crop was eight times greater than it had
been decade earlier.2 The demand of
textile mills in Britain, where the industrial revolution was under way, made
sure that the prices were favorable.
The new method of separating cotton
lint form cotton seeds made a vast expansion in the production of cotton possible. As a result, economics of slavery
was transformed and instead of a gradual decline, the number of slaves began
to increase rapidly. American exports in
1850s illustrate how profitable the slave
economy was the cotton accounted for
60 percent of the US foreign earnings.
Two thirds of the worlds cotton supplies were from the American South. By
1860, ten of the Americas richest men
lived not just in the South but in Natchez district of Mississippi alone.3
Slavery in the South slightly difered
from slave systems in other American
countries or colonies. In contrast to
slaves in most parts of the American
continent, those in the South experienced natural population growth. In
regions such diverse as Brazil, Jamaica
or Cuba, mortality rate exceeded birth
rates and growth of the slave popula-

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

tion depended on importation of new
slaves from Africa. In 1808, the US Congress outlawed slave imports, but the
number of slaves grew rapidly. In the
next 50 years, slave population in the
South tripled; from about 1,2 million to
almost 4 million. One of the reasons was
that American slaves were treated better than elsewhere in the New World,
because they were in short supply and
expensive to replace, particularly after
the trade was abolished.4
In 1831, two events strengthened the
feeling of unity in the South. The first
was the publication The Liberator, an
abolitionist newspaper published by
William Lloyd Garrison, which provided a medium through which abolitionist voices were expressed. The other
was the slave revolt led by Nat Turner,
in which sixty whites had died. These
two events electrified the Southerners
who felt that only through unity they
could face enemies from within and
without. In 1830s and 1840, growing
sentiments against slavery aroused in
the North, mainly in New England and
an increasing number of Northerners,
including politicians, demanded abolition of slavery. The abolitionists were
a heterogeneous group, united only by
their idealistic fervor, and there is no
doubt that their sometimes fanatic zeal
only worsened the relations between
the two parts of the country (Ranson
&Hook, 1989, p. 93).
Great deal of Souths intellectual energy was spent in an attempt to find
justification for their peculiar institution, as slavery was sometimes called
by the Southerners. Pseudo-scientific
arguments were produced to prove

that blacks were mentally inferior or

specially suited for agricultural work
and the Bible and the Constitution were
frequently cited as a proof of Southern
academic theories. It was in this period when the South gradually became
aware of its own existence as a distinctive entity. This was precisely the moment when the romantic image of the
Old South was created. In a struggle for
preservation of slavery, upon which the
economy of the whole region depended,
a mythology came into existence.
Around a handful of large plantations
where a distinctive mode of life was
possible, whole sets of theoretical assumptions about the Souths way of life
were developed. These soon passed to
general circulation and were contrasted
with those about the North. The South
presented itself as aristocratic, agrarian civilization. On the other hand, the
North was portrayed as materialistic,
commercial society. The Southerners
possessed values such as honor and personal integrity; the Northerners were
individualistic, money-minded Yankees.
Eventually, a historical basis for the mythology was found in the seventeenth
century English Civil War the Southerners were descendants of gallant,
easy-going Cavaliers, the Northerners
derived from the frowning and reserved
Puritan Roundheads. Since then, it had
been not only slavery that provided one
common bond for the whole region.
The South was defending its way of life,
a culture that was widely and passionately believed to be superior to that of
the North (Ibid., p. 95).
The mythology of antebellum South
often seems to be dominated by the
19

ARS AETERNA
scenes of plantations worked by gangs
of slaves. This image, however, has no
basis in reality. Although there were
thousands of plantations that produced
cotton for export and plantation owners
controlled much of wealth and political
power in the South, numerically, there
were more small farmers that cultivated upland areas. The figures allow us to
question whether the Old South should
be described as a slaveholding society.
In 1860, families that owned more than
fifty slaves numbered less than 10,000;
those who owned more than 100 slaves
numbered less than 3,000 and only a
handful owned more than 500. So, out
of more than a million white families in
the South, only small proportion owned
any slaves at all. A typical Southern slave
owner possessed one or two slaves and
a typical Southern white male owned
none. He was either an artisan or, more
probably, a small farmer. However, the
class of small farmers, constituting
the numerically largest single group in
Southern society, has traditionally been
neglected by this mythology (Engs).
In 1850s, several events drew both
regions more apart but there were
people in both parts of the country who
believed that the diferences could be
settled in a peaceful way. However, after all compromises passed by the Congress failed, and a Republican candidate
Abraham Lincoln was elected president,
the extremists in the South saw no other
way but to break with the Union. South
Carolina was the first state to secede
and eventually ten Southern states ensued.
The civil war that followed is known
by a handful of names, one of them
20

being The War for Southern Independence. The war helped to define the
region geographically eleven seceded
states formed their own political entity,
the Confederate States of America. The
fact is that the war and the defeat had
given enormous boost to the romantic
image of the South. The courage, bravery and self-sacrifice of Confederate
soldiers (vast majority of whom were
farmers, not plantation owners) served
as an incentive for regional, Southern
pride. Final chapter to the mythology
of the South was added in the period of
Reconstruction that followed the war.
The South became a helpless victim of
greedy Yankee politicians and businessmen, their pliant Southern minions and
black allies.
It is no coincidence that the novel
that caused tremendous anti-slavery
sentiment in the North and radicalized
the defense of slavery in the South became one of the most popular American
books ever written. Uncle Toms Cabin,
the most widely read novel of the nineteenth century, is the first true work of
American popular culture. The story
was first serialized in the National Era
and published in a book form in March
1852. The novel was praised by both
secular and sectarian reviewers and
in the first week it sold some 10,000
copies. A true Tom-mania ensued and
300,000 copies were sold by the end of
the year. The book became Americas
first international bestseller, it was
translated to several languages including Czech in 1854, and its popularity
could be compared only to that of the
Bible. The impact it had on abolitionist sentiment in the North is best ex-

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

pressed by Abraham Lincolns greeting
of the author at the height of the Civil
War. The president, according to Harriet Beecher Stowe, strode towards her
with outstretched hand saying So this
is the little lady who made this great
war (Cullen, 1995. p. 14)
The novel was not the first of its kind.
Anti-slavery publications had been produced in the North for decades. One of
them, David Walkers pamphlet Appeal
to the Coloured citizens of the World
from 1829 is thought to have incited
Nat Turner to start his bloody rebellion
(Yellin, 1998, p. XIV). In addition to the
texts of white opponents of slavery, several testimonies of former slaves were
published in 1840s and 1850s. None of
them, however, reached the success of
Harriet Beecher Stowes novel.
By 1861, it had become the most popular book written by an American. The
numbers can only suggest the reach of
the book. More revealing could be the
fury it provoked in the South, where
it was widely banned. It was still possible at the beginning of 20th century
for a South Carolina teacher to make
his pupils raise their right hands and
swear that they would never read Uncle
Tom (Wilson, 1962, p. 4). A storm of
criticism and denial of Stowes graphic
portrayal of slavery followed the publication of the book, and a wide array of
Anti-Tom novels with titles such as Aunt
Phillys Cabin; or Southern Life as It Is or
The Planters Northern Bride appeared
(Cullen, 1996, p. 88) Tom literature,
both pro and anti, became a kind of subgenre of its own. However, as far as antislavery propaganda is concerned, Uncle
Toms Cabin was a devastating blow and

the damage it caused for the Southern

cause was irreparable. The South simply could not find any answer.
However, according to standards of
what followed later, the novel is at least
as harsh on the North as on the South.
From the viewpoint of Southern criticism, it is ironic that Simon Legree, an
archetype of a calculating, ruthless and
evil plantation owner is a Yankee from
New England, while the slave-owning
aristocratic St. Clare is portrayed sympathetically.
In her portrayal of the South, Stowe
created variety of characters that later
became stereotypes. Despite writing the
novel about evils of slavery, she did not
avoid romanticising the Southern aristocracy in the best tradition of the texts
that created Southern mythology. Augustus St. Clare is a Byronic intellectual,
who recognizes that slavery is wrong
but cannot do anything about it. The
Shelby plantation in Kentucky, where
the novel opens, is a homely place, and
the bourgeois Shelbys are decent and
kind people loved by their slaves.
On the other hand, Simon Legrees
Red River plantation, to which Tom is
sold after his masters death, is a place
of horror, a prison, a place of torture,
where Negroes are set to flog other Negroes, and death and punishment are an
omnipresent threat. Legree explains the
situation to Tom during their voyage to
plantation:
Now, said he, doubling his great,
heavy fist into something resembling a
blacksmiths hammer, dye see this fist?
Heft it! he said, bringing it down on
Toms hand. Look at these yer bones!
Well, I tell ye this yer fist has got as hard
21

ARS AETERNA
as iron knocking down niggers. I never
see the nigger, yet, I couldnt bring down
with one crack, said he, bringing his fist
down so near to the face of Tom that he
winked and drew back. I dont keep
none o yer cussed overseers; I does my
own overseeing; and I tell you things is
seen to. Yous every one on ye got to toe
the mark, I tell ye; quick, - straight, - the
moment I speak. Thats the way to keep
in with me. Ye wont find no soft spot in
me, nowhere. So, now, mind yerselves;
for I dont show no mercy! (Stowe,
1998, p. 347)
In twentieth century, Stowe was
blamed for creation of stereotypical
black characters. In the novel we can
find minstrel types Sam and Andy, a
picanniny showgirl Topsy, animal-like
brutal overseers Sambo and Quimbo,
and of course, the central character of
Uncle Tom, a pious slave whose sinlesness stands as admonition to the slave
system. Stowes slaves always show
their true faces to their masters and they
are inevitably subservient. Mixed race
characters such as Eliza or her husband
George Harris combine the sensitivity
of their black mothers with strength of
their white fathers.
The fact is that the only works of twentieth century popular culture that have
rivaled the impact of Uncle Toms Cabin
are The Birth of a Nation and Gone with
the Wind. Both of them represent an
active attempt to disprove the imagery
and message of Stowes novel (Cullen,
1996, p. 90).
The Civil War ended in 1865, but culturally, it was just the beginning. In decades following the war, Southern writers tried to secure ideologically what
22

could not be achieved militarily, and

drew on conventions of the antebellum
plantation novel. Some writers portrayed the Old South as a lost Eden, others sought to emphasize the future over
the past and sought reconciliation with
the North. One of the latter was Thomas Dixon, whose novel The Clansman
(1905) served as a basis for D.W. Griffith
epic movie The Birth of a Nation.
Released in 1915, the movie became
a landmark of film history. It blended
elements of literature, drama and history forging them into something new.
It was the first film to be praised as a
work of art, it legitimated movie-going
for middle-class audiences and finally, it
was one of the most racist movies ever
produced. It caused controversy even
before it was released, provoking censorship and race riots in a number of
American cities. Absent from the group
of people who expressed concern about
the stereotypes and representations of
African Americans were, however, professional historians. Though, the movie
acquired support from Thomas Dixons
former classmate Woodrow Wilson,
who described it as history written
with lightning, adding that my only regret is that it is all so terribly true. Wilson later officially regretted this statement (Cullen, 1995, p. 25).
The movie promotes traditional
Southern values, which is evident even
from the promotional poster, where a
mounted white-hooded Clansman is
riding protectively along a Southern
lady towards the rising moon. Chivalry,
honor and courage are contrasted with
rapacity of Northern carpetbaggers and
their Negro allies.

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

The South is portrayed in accord with
nineteenth century romantic myth. The
title card introducing the Cameron family says: In the southland. Piedmont,
SC, the home of the Camerons, where
life runs in a quaintly way that is to be
no more5 Again, similarly to opening
title card of Gone with the Wind, a sentimental feeling of Lost Cause, a lost way
of life is created. The audience, together with the Stonemans family friends
from the North who call on the Camerons are introduced to the plantation.
They see white mansion and a handful
of smiling slaves leisurely picking cotton. Some of the racial stereotypes already seen in Uncle Toms Cabin appear
black mammy, little pickanninies, and
what is most notable, comic types performing their minstrelsy for their masters and their Northern friends during
the lunch break. However, the stereotypes in the movie are more disturbing
and grotesque because the major black
roles were played by white actors in
blackface.
It is the portrayal of African-Americans in the second part of the movie that
caused much controversy. Title card
introducing the second half says that
This is a historical presentation of the
Civil War and Reconstruction period,
and is not meant to reflect on any race
or people of today and is followed by
the quotation from Woodrow Wilsons
History of American People:
Adventurers swarmed out of the
North, as much as the enemies of the one
race as of the other, to cozen, to beguile,
and use the negroesin the villages the
negroes were office holders, men who
knew nothing of the uses of authority,

except its insolencesThe policy of the

congressional leaders wroughta veritable overthrow of civilization in the
Southin their determination to put
the white South under the heel of the
black South (emphasis in the title card)
The white men were roused by mere
instinct of self-preservationuntil at
last there had sprung into existence a
great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire
of the South, to protect the Southern
country.6
The South is defeated and occupied by
the Carpetbaggers from the North. Former slaves, depicted as ignorant savages
aping white behavior, are given voting
rights and are enjoying power they never had. One of the most controversial
scenes pictures South Carolina House
of Representatives in session. After manipulated elections, the blacks are in
101 to 23 majority to the whites. Black
legislators are depicted as lustful, arrogant and idiotic. The speaker is not able
to keep order in the room, former slaves
are shown shoeless with their feet on
the table, eating and drinking whisky.
Worth mentioning is also Griffiths portrayal of mullatos. While in Uncle Toms
Cabin mullatos are mostly intelligent
and strong, treacherous Silas Lynch, a
mullato friend of Stoneman, a traitor to
his white patron and a greater traitor to
is own people whom he plans to lead by
an evil way to build himself a throne of
vaulting power7, is one of the most evil
characters of Birth of a Nation.
The phenomenal popularity of the
movie partially caused the renewal of
the Ku-Klux Klan in 1920 and Atlanta
became the imperial city of the Invisible Empire, the Klan headquarters in
23

ARS AETERNA
other words. It is no coincidence that a
book, which represented the culmination of almost century-long eforts to
dislodge critical depiction of the Southern culture, and which replaced Uncle
Toms Cabin as the dominant work of
American popular culture, was written
by an Atlanta native.
Stowes image of the South continued
to haunt the region decades following
the Civil War. Until the publication of
The Clansman and release of The Birth
Of a Nation , the South still figured in
popular imagination as a region where
slaves are worked to death. The work of
Margaret Mitchell distilled Dixons and
Griffiths eforts, and whole anti-Tom
tradition creating the ultimate romantic vision of the South (Cullen, 1995, p.
25).
Similarly to Uncle Toms Cabin, Margaret Mitchells novel became an instant
bestseller. Published in June 1936, after
almost a decade of research and writing,
it sold 50, 000 copies in one day, a million within six months and an average
of 3,700 copies for the rest of year. This
numbers are more impressive when taking into consideration the fact that, for a
3$ a copy, they were reached in the middle of Great Depression (Cullen, 1996, p.
223). For most people today, Gone with
the Wind is a movie starring Clark Gable
and Vivien Leigh. It is estimated that 90
percent of the U.S. population have seen
the movie at least once. Many of those
who have seen the movie are aware
that it is based on a novel, relatively
few have actually read the book. David
O. Selznick, the producer of the movie,
paid Mitchell 50,000 dollars one of the
best investments in movie history for
24

movie rights. When released in 1939,

Gone with the Wind became the first
blockbuster and from popular work of
regionalism, it transformed to worldwide symbol of American culture (Cullen, 1995, p. 74).
In several ways, the movie and the
novel are in accord. However, the technical and cultural demands of the cinematic form required much of the novel
to be either compressed or completely
omitted. Certain important characters
from the book are missing in the movie. The controversy over The Birth of a
Nation (the movie was highly praised,
but it had drawn criticism from African American community and a part of
white audience) forced scriptwriters
to soften novels racial politics. Ku Klux
Klan is not mentioned at all; instead
Ashley and Frank attend a political
meeting. There is no mention of Rhetts
killing of a black man and the attack on
Scarlett was not made by a former slave
but by a white man.
Mitchells portrayal of the South reflects her background and the audience
she was writing for. She was a Southerner; she considered her book to be the
romance of the South and wrote it for
white Southerners. Not for all of them,
but those she considered to be ordinary,
everyday Southerners, just like those
who sent her grateful letters telling her
how much they liked the book (Ibid.).
The reader can feel authors hostility towards African Americans and her
blacks are often described as animals,
which is notable in lines such as Jeems
was their body servant, and, like dogs,
accompanied them everywhere (Mitchell, 1965, p. 14)8 Scarletts attacker in

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

Shantytown is squat black negro with
shoulders and chest like gorilla (p.
657) and even Mammy, a positive character is described as having the uncomprehending sadness of a monkeys
face (p.320). The character of Mammy
is continuation of a line of stereotypical slave servants which began in Uncle
Toms Cabin. A scene of happy slaves,
similar to that from the Birth of a Nation, is also shown to the audience.
We can say that the movie romanticises the South more than a book. The
best example is the aforementioned
title card. Though Mitchell did romanticise the antebellum South, such fantasy
as was described in the title card can be
found mostly in works of Thomas Nelson Page and other late nineteenth century writers. In the novel, Tara, home of
Scarlett OHara, is described as clumsy,
sprawling building (p. 45). By contrast,
in the movie, although not as sumptuous as Wilkes home Twelve Oaks, it is
no modest residence. Huge columns of
Twelve Oaks mansion, where county aristocracy meets for a barbecue and ball,
may remind huge State Capitols of several American states.
The post-war South, similarly to The
Birth of a Nation, is portrayed as a victim of vicious white radicals and their
black minions. In Mitchells presentation, the South is hounded by fanatics,

cornered into defending a way of life,

overrun by alien invaders and forced
to withstand a harsh occupation (Cullen, 1995, p. 80). Although the racism is
not as strong and visible as in Griffiths
movie, it still continues to have negative influence.
The myth of the Old South, created
by Southerners to prove the regions
existence as a distinctive entity, quickly
found the way to popular culture. The
fact that the South is a principal setting of Uncle Toms Cabin, Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind, the most
popular works of art of their respective
period, is the evidence of Americas fascination with the culture and with the
myth of the South. Uncle Toms Cabin,
with its portrayal of the evils of slavery,
became a crucial work of abolitionist
literature. The Birth of a Nation helped
to recreate Ku Klux Klan and Gone with
the Wind renewed interest in the Civil
War. In the depiction of the South, both
analysed films share common characteristics - romanticising of the Old
South and complacency of slaves, who
are portrayed as minor stereotyped
characters leading uncomplicated lives.
At least in early 20th century, a romantic image of the South had fixed position
in minds of millions of Americans.
Yellin, J. Introduction. In: Stowe H.,
1998. Uncle Toms Cabin. OUP.

Endnotes:
1 Gone with the Wind, directed by David O. Selznick, 1939, 00:05:58.
2 Burton, V. - Bonnin, P.: King Cotton, http://www.civilwarhome.com/kingcotton.htm, accessed
25.10.2008.
3 Engs, R.: Slavery in the Civil War Era, http://www.civilwarhome.com/slavery.htm, accessed 25.10.2008
4 Ibid.
5 The Birth of a Nation, directed by D.W.Grifith, 1915, 00:05:09.
6 The Birth of a Nation, 01:28:05.

25

ARS AETERNA
7 The Birth of a Nation, 01:41:02.
8 All subsequent references in the text are to this edition of the novel.
Works cited:
Bradbury, M. - Temperley, H., 1989. Introduction to American Studies, Harlow: Longman.
Burton, V. - Bonnin, P.: King Cotton, http://www.civilwarhome.com/kingcotton.htm, accessed 25.10.2008.
Cullen, J., 1995. The Civil War in Popular Culture. A Reusable Past. Washington: Smithsonian Institution
Press.
Cullen, J., 1996. The Art of Democracy. Concise History of Popular Culture in the United States, New York:
Monthly Review Press.
Engs, R.: Slavery in the Civil War Era, http://www.civilwarhome.com/slavery.htm, accessed 25.10.2008.
Lindsey, H., 1994. A History of Black America, Secaucus: Chartwell Books, Inc.
Mitchell, M., 1965. Gone with the Wind, New York: Pocket Books Inc.
Ranson, E. - Hook, A. The Old South. In: Bradbury, M. - Temperley, H., 1989. Introduction to American
Studies, Longman.
Stowe, H., 1998. Uncle Toms Cabin, Oxford: OUP.
Wilson, E., 1962. Patriotic Gore. Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War. Boston: Northeastern
University Press.

26

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

Mary Austins Crossing Boundaries

Petr Kopeck
Petr Kopeck is an assistant professor at the Department of English and American Studies,
University of Ostrava, Czech Republic. In 2003-2004, he was based at San Jos State University
as a Fulbright research scholar. His field of expertise is ecocriticism and California studies.
Kopeck has authored a number of papers exploring the (deep) ecological dimension of literary works. In 2007, he published a book titled The California Crucible: Literary Harbingers
of Deep Ecology, which is a modified version of his doctoral dissertation. He also translated
Orwells novel Coming up for Air into Czech (Nadechnout se, ODEON 2003).

Abstract:
The paper will examine the work of the remarkable Californian woman writer Mary Austin
(1868-1934). It will focus on the notion of boundary-crossing/permeating in her writing.
To be more precise, it will address the syncretistic nature of her vision that pervades all
her publications. Her inclusive approach to life (and literature) resulted in the collapsing
of many a barrier between the cultures of the American Southwest. Among other things,
she can be credited for showing and formulating a viable route toward the cohabitation
of white Americans with Hispanic people and Native Americans. That would not be too
original had not it been done at a time when most WASPs showed little, if any respect and
understanding for the cultures of other ethnicities.

Introduction
Unfortunately, the life and work of
Mary Austin is not familiar even to literature scholars both in Czechia and Slovakia. Neither scholars nor translators
have taken notice of her voluminous
writing. The aim of this paper is not to
castigate the local scholarly community
for this sin of neglect, but to introduce
the multi-faceted writer in relation to
the notion of border-crossing.
Born Illinois in 1868, Austin moved
with her family to homestead in southern California when she was twenty. She
was thus transplanted from the fertile
and cultivated Midwest to the rough desert environment, which had a profound
efect on her psyche. She came to realize
the power such an untamed landscape
exerted on its inhabitants. Her writing
career was prompted by her failed mar-

riage and autistic daughter. She later

revisited this period of her life in an essay called Woman Alone (1927): In a
way this tragic end of my most feminine
adventure brought the fulfillment of my
creative desire, which had begun to be
an added torment by repression. Caring
for a hopelessly invalid child is an expensive business. I had to write to make
money (p. 229). It was indeed writing, and perhaps even more its subject,
that redirected Austins thoughts. In the
spirit of Henry David Thoreau and John
Muir, Austin sought her personal salvation in the wildness of her new home
region. After years of dwelling in and
carefully observing the surrounding
land, it took her only a month to write
her first and arguably most successful
book-length publication, The Land of
27

ARS AETERNA
Little Rain (1903).
In 1908, after she failed to prevent her
community from a megalomaniac water
project, she decided to enrich her horizons in another vibrant city, New York.
While based there, she made numerous
trips to Europe, where she became acquainted with noted writers including
George Bernard Shaw and Joseph Conrad. Herbert George Wells even complimented her stating that, We have no
woman in England [who] can write like
this . . . no woman in Europe (qtd. in Fink,
1983, p. 47). Austin was well established
in New York, too. As an exceptionally prolific author of both magazine articles and
books, she could always find a publisher
regardless of the fact that much of her
writing was un-eastern. Her subject was
very often the Southwest, for instance
in California, Land of the Sun (1914)
and The Ford (1917). These two books,
along with others written between 1912

and 1920, reflect the authors increasing

interest in womens emancipation.
Starting in the late 1910s, Austin traveled widely in the Southwest, especially
in New Mexico. She continued her explorations of Native American and Hispanic
traditions that had fascinated her since
the California years. In 1925, she settled
permanently in Santa Fe and built her
beloved house, which was characterized by simplicity and ecological design.
Yet this did not mean Austins retirement from public life. On the contrary,
Austins house served as an asylum for
Willa Cather who wrote her novel Death
Comes for the Archbishop (1927) in it.
Austin was also one of the writers who
kept coming to nearby Taos following
the pertinacious invitations of Mabel
Dodge Luhan. In the 1920s and 1930s,
Luhan hosted numerous artists in Taos,
most importantly the British writer David Herbert Lawrence.

As a matter of fact, it was another famous artist Luhan invited to Taos, photographer Ansel Adams, that articulated
the most cogent description of Austins
reputation: Seldom have I met and
known anyone of such intellectual and
spiritual power and discipline . . . . She
is a future personone who will, a
century from now appear as a writer of
major stature in the complex matrix of
our American culture (qtd. in Graulich,
p. xi). Almost a century later, Adams
words seem prophetic. In the 1980s, the
process of Austins recanonization was
started. Several streams within literary
criticism have rediscovered Austin as an

innovative writer even by our standards.

The streams in question study literature
through environmental, feminist and
ethnic lens. No wonder she also enjoys
a significant status in the umbrella discipline of cultural studies. This field,
characterized by its interdisciplinary
approach, was able to grasp and appreciate Austins multi-generic work that
deals with boundaryless subjects.
Indeed, Mary Austin was largely preoccupied with boundaries and their
transgression as the titles of some of her
books reveal (e.g. Earth Horizon, The
Land of Journeys Ending, Lost Borders).
Like Thoreau, with whom she is often

Reputation and Inclination

28

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

compared, she had a romantic leaning to
the whole. Her work was a more or less
conscious response to the prevailing
fragmentation of the modern industrial
civilization. Her nature was inclusive and
its expression in art was a (r)evolutionary conception of holism that viewed
the world in its totality. As Austin wrote
in Earth Horizon (1932), I liked the feel

of the roots, of ordered growth and progression, continuity, all of which I found
in the Southwest (p. 349). She sought to
integrate rather than separate diferent
aspects of life. This approach can be documented on several levels ranging from
the polarities within human mind to the
dichotomous relationship between nature and culture.

At the individual level, Austin was

concerned with the dissociation of mind
from body. She was convinced that the
gap between the two had turned into
an abyss and sought to reconnect them.
In the spirit of D. H. Lawrences writing, she accentuated the importance of
real passions as distinct from cerebral
emotions. In her view, the repression
of emotions bred anxiety whose symptoms could be observed in the hectic
America of her time. The subdued unconscious, Austin believed, was closely
linked with peoples attachment to the
natural world. It is therefore not surprising that many of her protagonists
are indigenous people who have not
wholly abandoned their physicality and
animality.
It was actually the interrelationship
between the human and nonhuman
world that Austin was most interested
in. She was well-grounded in biology
and conceived of the world as a network of organisms sustained by energy
flow. Moreover, Austin posits that mans
awareness is (in)formed by all that he
sees; all that flows to him from a thousand sources, half noted, or noted not
at all except by some sense that lies too

deep for naming (Austin, 2003, p. 437).

It was again the Native Americans on
whom she demonstrated that the dark
depths of human consciousness had not
completely disappeared. The Natives
were not alienated because they lived
with their land, rather not of it. As she
maintains in her remarkable study about
the impact of landscape on the artistic
expression of its inhabitants titled The
American Rhythm (1930), their consciousness was imbued with a sense
of its relation to the Allness, which is
more important to our social solutions
than our far derived culture of the universities has permitted us to realize (p.
40). In her criticism of the second-hand
character of university education, Austin implicitly criticized the growth of
numerous branches of science, which,
however, lost sight of the actual roots of
the tree of knowledge1. What was even
worse, the urbanizing America was also
losing touch with the land and its vitally
important functions. Nature became a
mere object of peoples exploitative desires and scientific study.
In her lifetime, Austin was one of the
few voices that challenged the objectification of nature in all spheres of life.

Me and It

29

ARS AETERNA
She objected to the dichotomy between
subject and object. She held the view
that the two could not be separated because they mere intellectual constructs.
In reality, there was a continuum, not
a strict boundary between the self and
the nonhuman forms of life. Human
experience was formed through a reciprocal process of communication in
which the subject and object approach
one another. As the influential American philosopher John Dewey wrote in
Art as Experience (1932), Experience
is the result, the sign, and the reward of
that interaction of organism and environment which, when it is carried to the
full, is a transformation of interaction

into participation and communication

(p. 22).
Unlike many other nature writers,
Austin can hardly be accused of colonizing and appropriating nature through
her narration. Her style, that is to say,
is impersonal. She deliberately foregrounds the observed phenomena rather than her personal voice. As the eminent ecocritic, Lawrence Buell, suggests
in his The Environmental Imagination
(1995), the author often lets both native
people and animals interpret the natural world. That is why, the relationship
between the observer and the observed
is that of continuity rather than polarity.

White and Other

Besides breaking the barriers between
humans and the nonhuman realm, Austin also devoted much of her creative
energy to what is commonly described
as cultural syncretism. As she once remarked, it was the Southwest, not the
cafes of Prague that promised the most
interesting possibility of social evolution
that the world scene at present afords
(Austin, 1925, p. 327). The evolution she
had in mind was happening in the frontier region which was still peopled by
non-white population, mostly Hispanics
and Native Americans. She saw a great
potential in the encounter of three distinct cultures in the westernmost sector of America, which had not yet been
entirely engulfed by the rule of law, because she believed that law runs with
the boundary, not beyond it (Austin,
Stories, p. 156). In her eyes, the white
Americas legislation was discriminato30

ry and restrictive toward other peoples

ways of life. It did not leave any room
for the old ways of the ancient societies of America. Austins assessment of
one such a model manifests that social
cohesion is interwoven with equality.
She argued that the Pueblo represented
the only society in the world in which
culture exists as an expression of the
whole, unafected by schisms of class
and caste, incapable of being rated in
terms of power and property (qtd. in
Hall, 1987, p. 365).
Austins cross-cultural project was
non-Eurocentric. She opposed all forms
of forced assimilation and advocated
cultural diversity. It should be noted
that no matter how commonplace these
trends appear now, they were quite
radical in the America at the outset of
the 20th century. Austins ideas were in
clash with the enormous racial prejudice

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

of the Anglos. Native Americans, in particular, bore the brunt of the assimilationist legislation. Although, in the early
20th century, it was not any more legal
to kill a Native, the Native peoples were
regarded as inferior. Even the respected
president Theodore Roosevelt considered the Natives irredeemable and their
conquest necessary. So, Austins alternative to the individualism and self-reliance of the white frontiersmen, who
were at the forefront of Americanization in the West, was culturally diverse
rural communities. As Lois Palken Rudnick claims, women like Austin held
up the folkways of nonwhite, community-oriented peoples whose guardianship of the past and integration of land,
work, play, worship, and art could teach
modern Anglo-Americans how to overcome the psychological fragmentation
and alienating isolation of their modern, industrial society (1987, p. 19).
Yet, in her advocacy of the Natives, Austin occasionally slipped into elitist and
overprotective tone. On one hand, she
called the new emerging Southwestern
race superior and, on the other hand,
she was of the opinion that the Native
society must be protected from its own

inexperience (Austin, 1929b, p. 171).

Concerning the actual character of her
project in cultural syncretism, it was
characterized by the harmonious relationship among the social, economic
and environmental concerns2. She was
convinced that the sense of community
can hardly be maintained in the anonymous urban environment. So, besides
organizing Native American and Hispanic associations at a time when there
was little, if any interest in these cultures, Austin was also instrumental in
setting up village schools with bilingual
instruction. It aimed at crossing social
and cultural boundaries between the
three major ethnic groups in the Southwest. Unlike the vast majority of her
contemporaries, Austin did not see the
non-white children as less intelligent
than the Anglo children. As Thomas
Matthews Pearce points out in his biography of Mary Austin, she believed
that the Spanish and Native pupils were
merely handicapped by the language
factor and also by their environment. Almost no verbal testing could be devised
which did not depend upon experience
with the objects named and identified
(Pearce, 1965, p. 59).

Another fundamental issue Austin

investigated in her work was the dichotomy between nature and culture.
She refused to accept the widespread
belief that culture, associated primarily
with civilization, represented a higher
stage in human development than the
ancient nature-oriented societies. In
fact, she considered nature and culture

as interdependent. Whether consciously or not, she was alluding to the origin

of the word culture which is closely
tied with the land. 3 Therefore, Austin
ruled out the possibility of having an
advanced culture without its sustaining
a bond with the place where it is based.
In Regional Culture in the Southwest,
she proposes that a regional culture

Nature and Culture

31

ARS AETERNA
is the sum, expressed in ways of living
and thinking, of the mutual adaptations
of a land and a people when a people
is aboriginal in any land they mutually
nurse each other into a relationship
of cooperation (1929, p. 474). Austin
believed the uncivilized nature of the
Southwest considerably (in)formed the
manners of the people who had populated it. The landscape was still raw and
unspoiled enough to shape its inhabitants4. It was not cut of from the physical and emotional experience of the region by a bufer of modern comforts
(Schaefer, 2004, p. 33). Simply stated,
it was necessary for any culture to be
deeply rooted in place in order to sustain its vitality and uniqueness4. So, in
place of a dualistic conception of nature
and culture, Austin believed that a culture had to acknowledge its continuity
with the natural environment, otherwise it would be bound to remain confused about its place and purpose in the
world and blind to its nonhuman support system . . . (Schaefer, 2004, p. 23).
This support system, or simply nature,
and its neglect and abuse by human culture are brought onto yet another plane
in Austins work. The author observed
the parallels between the human treatment of nature and mens treatment of
women. In fact, she the first American
writer who probed into the affiliation of
nature and woman. So, long before the
emergence of ecofeminism, she elaborated on the issue of the feminine nature of nature. She saw many analogies
between the mens urge to dominate
and control nature and their desire to
subjugate women. It is not accidental
that Austin began to be aware of these
32

analogies after she settled in California in the 1880s. There and then, that
is to say, the great American colonizing
thrust, which had moved the frontier to
the ultimate West, was just culminating. In literature, this nation-making
process was epitomized by narratives
of conquest that celebrated the manly
manners in which the new lands had
been annexed. Austin, for her part,
points to the feminized images the landscape had been attributed by the male
authors. It is symptomatic that the oppressive behavior of men toward both
nature and women is thus described
by the same lexical means. What was
once a virgin land was deflowered,
stripped of all the vegetation and
turned into a nude landscape. In the
desert environment of the Southwest,
Austin found a territory which could
resist the masculine drive because, as
she wrote in Lost Borders: If the desert
were a woman, I know well what like
she would be: deep-breasted, broad in
the hips, tawny, with tawny hair, great
masses of it lying smooth along her
perfect curves (Austin, Stories from
the Country of Lost Borders, p. 160). In
her remarkable study Mary Austins Regionalism: Reflections on Gender, Genre
and Geography (2004), Heike Schaefer
rightly points out that the writer hoped
that the traditional gender roles may
begin to crumble in the arid West and
more egalitarian gender relations will
emerge (2004, p. 122). Indeed, what
Austin envisioned was not a reversal of
gender roles, as some feminists do, but
their equal status.

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

Conclusion
There are other areas of life in which
Austin broke the boundaries of what
was acceptable for the dominant society. Her mindset represented a countercurrent toward the mainstream mode
of thinking. Her natural response to the
increasing atomization of society was a
conscious attempt at restoring the total
picture. The common denominator of
her eforts was breaking the conventional boundaries or at least making
them porous and permeable. Only today, thanks to the growth of interdisci-

plinary studies, can we fully appreciate

the deep insights based on her erudition in a host of fields of knowledge. For
many decades, the literary scholarship
was not ripe to deal with Austins original and fruitful work. In the past two decades, however, the scrutiny of her writing has helped cross-fertilize diferent
fields and reminded scholars once again
that in their analytical dissection of bits
and pieces, one should not forget their
interdependence and lose the sense of
the whole.

Endnotes
1 In fact, Austin literally showed the importance of the roots in her masterpiece The Land of Little Rain
where she argued that, contrary to the general opinion, the Death Valley was rich in plants. The fascinating struggle for survival, however, was taking place out of people sight, among the root systems underground.
2 Interestingly enough, her model bears striking resemblance to the concept of sustainable development as
it has been implemented across Western Europe in the past years. Its central idea is also equal emphasis
on the three major dimension of human life (social, economic and environmental).
3 Originally, the word culture meant cultivating/tilling the land. Over time, the began to be used metaphorically denoting the idea of cultivation through education as well as other intellectual achievements.
4 Paradoxically, since Austins times, California has developed into one of the most engineered and artiicial landscapes in the world. The term Californication is associated with excessive consumerism and
materialism.
Works Cited:
Austin, M., 1930. The American Rhythm. Boston and New York: Houghton Miflin Company.
Austin, M., 1991. Earth Horizon. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico.
Austin, M., The Indivisible Utility. Survey 55 (1 December 1925), pp. 301-306, 327.
Austin, M., 2003. The Land of Journeys Ending. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Austin, M., Regional Culture in the Southwest. Southwest Review 14 (July 1929a), pp. 474-477.
Austin, M., Why Americanize the Indian. Forum 82 (September 1929b), pp. 167-173.
Buell, L., 1995. The Environmental Imagination. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.
Dewey, J., 1980. Art as Experience. New York: Perigee Books.
Fink, A., 1983. I-Mary: A Biography of Mary Austin. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
Graulich, M., 1999. Introduction. Exploring Lost Borders: Critical Essays on Mary Austin. Graulich M. &
E.Klimasmith (eds.). Reno: University of Nevada Press.
Graulich M., 2003. Introduction: Until TomorrowJourneys Ending and Beginning. The Land of Journeys
Ending by Mary Austin. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

33

ARS AETERNA
Hall, J. D., 1987. Mary Hunter Austin. In: Taylor, J.G. (ed.). A Literary History of the American. Fort Worth:
Texas Christian University Press, pp. 359-369.
Harwell, A.B., 1992. Writing the Wilderness: A Study of Henry Thoreau, John Muir, and Mary Austin. Diss.
U of Tennessee .
Lowe, C. Where the Country of Lost Borders Meets Jeffers Country: The Walking Women of Robinson
Jeffers and Mary Austin. Jeffers Studies 4.4 (Fall 2000), pp. 21-46.
OGrady, J. P., 1993. Pilgrims to the Wild: Everett Ruess, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Clarence King,
Mary Austin. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Pearce, T. M., 1965. Mary Hunter Austin. New York: Twayne Publishers.
Rudnick, L.P., 1987. Re-Naming the Land: Anglo Expatriate Women in the Southwest. In: Norwood, V. &
J. Monk (eds.). The Desert Is No Lady. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Schaefer, H., 2004. Mary Austins Regionalism: Relections on Gender, Genre and Geography. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press.
Zwinger, A. H., 1994. Introduction. Writing the Western Landscape. By Mary Austin and John Muir. Boston:
Beacon Press, pp. vii-xxvi.

34

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

The Dangers of Foreign Smells: Olfaction and

Immigrant Mobilities in Pomegranate Soup by
Marsha Mehran
Marzena Kubisz
Marzena Kubisz is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of Silesia, Poland
where she teaches British cultural studies and contemporary British literature. Her research
interests include sociology of the body, theories of space, food in culture and contemporary
British fiction. She is the author of Strategies of Resistance. Body, Identity and Representation
in Western Culture (2003). She is currently working on representations of speed and slowness
in contemporary culture.

Abstract:
The Dangers of Foreign Smells: Olfaction and Immigrant Mobilities in Pomegranate Soup
by Marsha Mehran explores the issue of multiculturalism from the perspective of the role
food plays in the (re)construction of the meaning of place and cross-cultural communication. Based on a sociological study of mobility carried out by Tim Creswell and John Urry
on one hand and a sociological study of senses by Anthony Synodd, the article seeks to
examine multiculturalism in terms of the diference between sensory worlds: such an
interpretation of cross-cultural encounter makes it possible to map the space of culinary
experience as a significant site of gradual domestication of cultural otherness.

In The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon there is a passage in which changes

in London in the 1950s are described
from the perspective of culinary taste:
Before Jamaicans start to invade Britn,
it was a hell of a thing to pick up a piece
of saltfish anywhere, or to get thing like
pepper sauce or dasheen or even garlic.
[] But now, papa! Shop all start to take
in stocks of foodstuf what West Indians
like, and today is no trouble at all to get
saltfish and rice. (Selvon, 2004, pp. 7677) What the above words highlight,
though they do it neither explicitly nor
ostentatiously, is the variety of ways in
which any cross-cultural encounter can
afect an identity of an individual as well
as the physical landscape of the city,
town and village. In light of Selvons description of London the realm of culinary

practices emerges as a significant site of

gradual domestication of cultural otherness.
Food consumption is a social event
the character of which is defined by the
presence (or absence) of others. The
act of taking Holy Communion is a symbolic representation of an encounter between God and man. In times when the
word encounter is almost always preceded by an adjective cross-cultural
food turns out to be a metaphor of an
encounter between cultures and that is
why Sarah Gibson may be right when
she says that food is good to think mobilities with. (2007, p. 5) When in 2001
Robin Cook, the (then) British Foreign
Secretary, was saying that tikka masala
is a true British national dish(Yousaf,
2002, p. 27) he was actually proving she
35

ARS AETERNA
is right as [t]he food we think of as characterising a particular place always tells
stories of movement and mixing. (Bell &
Valentine quoted by Gibson, 2007, p. 14)
Londons story of movement and mixing
is told not only by writers such as Sam
Selvon, Hanif Kureishi and Zadie Smith
or literary critics such as James Procter
(Dwelling Places. Postwar black British
writing) or Sukhdev Sandhu (London
Calling. How Black and Asian Writers
Imagined a City). It is also told by the
menu and the shelves of local groceries.
The symbolic potential of food as metaphor has been actively used by many
novelists; it is a traditional connection
between women and food that is behind
the fact that among writers who incorporate the issues of food preparation as
well as consumption and nourishment
into the worlds of their literary imagination women novelists constitute a significant group. The Mistress of Spices
(1997) by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni,
Interpreter of Maladies (1999) by Jhumpa Lahiri or Fasting, Feasting by Anity
Desai belong to the stream of contemporary fiction which deals, both explicitly
and implicitly, with a culinary aspect of
cross-cultural encounters showing that
food is always at the heart of culture.
Food and what counts as food is a signifier of belonging, cultural identity and
home says Gibson in her analysis of eating on the move, while Marsha Mehran,
a Teheran-born novelist now living in
Ireland, creates a literary illustration of
this claim in her debut novel Pomegranate Soup (2005). This is a story of three
sisters who escape Iran to eventually
find shelter in the little Irish town of Ballinacroagh where they serve traditional
36

Persian food in a newly opened Babylon

Caf. This is a story about cultural confrontation and transformation it brings.
Ballinacroagh is neither London nor
Dublin. It is none of these big cities
where anonimity rules and where a hectic rhythm of everyday life is moulded by
people of extraordinarily diferent tastes
and backgrounds who jostle against
each other (Sandhu, 2003, p. 246) thus
generating urban energy of diversity. In
the novel the town becomes a space of
the first encounter: it is here that anxieties and concerns caused by a disturbing
presence of the Other pierce the surface
of neighbourhood politeness and reveal
a source from which they often stem.
Small towns and suburbia always decry
change and mobility while they dream
about security, safety and endurance.
Ballinacroagh is the sleepy seaside
town (Mehran, 2006, p. 1) whose inhabitants form a real community whose
stability is believed to be based on the
controlling power of the gaze. Constant
monitoring of all forms of social acitivity seems to be a strategy most eager
inhabitants of the town employ to resist chaos, disorder and anarchy of social misbehaviour, cultural otherness
being one of them. Mutual watching
(Bauman, 1987, p. 39) in a small town
communities is a tool of discipline and
control. In Pomegrante Soup the controlling power of the gaze is embodied by
Dervla Quigley, a proud Ballinacroagh
native through and through, who at
most times of the day except during six
oclock Mass [] could be found spying
out of her bedroom windows, (Mehran,
2006, p. 35) a self-acclaimed gurdian of
the social order whose shoulders have to

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

carry the burden of responsibility for the
perseverance and maintenance of the
values of the place: If she wasnt around
to look after things, just imagine what
sort of scum could come cruising down
her beloved Main Mall! (Ibid., p. 38)
The language of hostility and fear Dervla speaks is translated symbolically to
the language of physiology when [a]
th the height of her autumn years, and
without warning, Derval Quigley had
been stricken with a terrifying incontinence, an embarassing bladder problem
that left her housebound and dependent
on her long-sufering sister. (Ibid., p. 36)
Unable to move, she is on a permanent
watch. It is her beloved street, it is her
place that she has to protect from what
creates most dangerous form of threat:
those on the move. Dervla Quigley is not
only the embodiment of the controlling
power of the gaze; she is also the embodiment of the essence of what Tim
Creswell describes as a sedentarist
metaphysics at the heart of which is
the representation of mobility and displacement as pathology, a disorder in
the system, a thing to control. (Creswell,
2006, p. 26) What remains central for a
sedentarist metaphysics is the valorization of place (Ibid., p. 31) which prioritizes the sense of being rooted in a place
since a place is seen as a moral world,
as an insurer of authentic existence and
as a center of meaning for people. (Tuan
referred to by Tim Creswell, p. 30) For
Dervla Quigley an unchanging character
of life in Ballinacroagh is an emblem of
security which creates a stable vantage
point from which to look upon the world.
It is the stability of the place, this center
of meaning and field of care (Creswell,

2006, p. 31) that Dervla Quigley seeks to

secure through spying out of her bedroom window.
From the perspective of a sedentarist
metaphysics mobility tends to deconstruct and dismantle meticulously erected structures of social order and cultural
continuity. Being on the move suggests
inability or unwillingness to grow roots
and the sense of atachement and commitemment which are seen as indispensable for the development of culture. The
fear aroused by a mobile Other stems
from the fear of the loss of the meaning
of the place as mobility is suspicious
because it threatens the quite explicit
moral character of place threatening to
undo it. (Ibid., p. 33) The Irish travellers
who arrived at Ballinacroagh are seen
by Dervla as [d]irty, disgusting things
(Mehran, 2006, p. 38) and as such require an immediate response in the form
of a telephone call to the town council
office. They are the scum who, she believes, bring with them the germs of
placelesness; their lack of attachement is
the factory farm for chaos and pathology.
Like minstrels, crusaders and Jews during the Middle Ages they are unattached
individuals.(Mumford, 1961, p. 269)
In Notes Towards the Definition of Culture, T.S Eliot, whose work Creswell rereads from the perspective of the praise
of sedentarism (2006, pp.32-33), sketches a disturbing picture of the world to
come in which the rise of universal education is going to lower [] our standards and open the gates of Culture to
the barbarian nomads of the future []
in mechanised caravans. (Eliot, 1948,
p. 108) When the three sisters arrive at
Ballinacroagh to Dervla they are nothing
37

ARS AETERNA
else but the heathen hippie[s] (Mehran, 2006, p. 39) who move around in a
mechanised caravan which, as Dervla
knows for sure, is the site of lewd animal acts and drug use. (Ibid.) Resorting
to a stereotyped image of the Other in
this case this is a stereotype of a hippie
as she believes the three sisters to be
members of the Flower Power Movement is an ordering strategy which
Dervla vigorously adopts in her attempt
to come to terms with novelty and diversity of reality. Stereotypes ofer her a
ready-made knowledge which grant her
exemption from a burdensome efort of
immediate encounter and participation.
Being a particular form [] of the wider
process by which any human society, and
individuals within it, make sense of that
society through generalities, patternings
and typifications (Dyer, 1993, p. 12)
stereotypes arm an individual with absolutness of conviction and ofer a way
to validate ones believes since they are
said to be shared by all members of a society.
The three Amnipur sisters are neither
heathen hippies nor barbarian nomads in mechanised caravans. Having
been brutally deprived of the roots by the
Iranian regime they look for a safe place
to stay. The paradox is that when viewed
from the perspective of metaphysics of
sedentarism they pose a threat to the
stability of the place while what they desire most is the sense of security a place
ofers. They are looking for home and for
the conditions in which they would be
able to reconstruct, at least partially, the
sense of belonging. Suprisingly enough,
they seem to have a lot in common with
Dervla Quigley, for whom continuity is
38

a supreme value. Nevertheless, what is

seen at the surface is that their worlds
are informed by diferent types of metaphysics of mobility which are apparently
incompatible.
The Amnipour sisters are political refugees and migrants and their life experience, though they seek roots and stability,
is permeated by a nomadic metaphysics,
which as Creswell says, rethinks mobility in terms of progress and freedom.
(Creswell, 2006, p. 43) Deterritorialization of the lives of immigrants challenges
hegemonic cultural practices: the sisters
become the symbols of the change in
the way we think about culture. Culture
is no longer seen as a sedentary thing
whose endurance depends upon tradition, roots and fixity of values. It is a certain shape-shifitng and transformation
that is nowadays at the bottom of our
understanding of what culture is. Eliots
stress upon stability and continuity as
indispensable conditions for the growth
of culture is now dismissed as it is mobility that has become a defining feature
of modernity. Dislocation, displacement,
migration are all dynamic processes
which have recently become central to
critiques of the bounded and static categories of nation, ethnicity, community
and state [](Urry, 2007, p. 34) and as
such emerge as central for redefinition
of mechanisms of cultural production.
For Dervla Quigley the arrival of the
Amnipour sisters to her Ballinacroagh is
a challenge as she is forced to confront
the lived experience of three exiles who
become her neighbours, which enforces
upon her the acknowledgement of the
fact that [m]obile lives need nomad
thought to make a new kind of sense.

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

(Creswell, 2006, p. 44) This making of
a new kind of sense is slow and often
happens to be uncomfortable because it
endangers well-known and secure paths
of cognition, nevertheless it is inevitable
in the world in which mobility is recognised as one of the main markers of our
time (Ibid.). What we witness in Ballinacroagh is the process of becoming: it is
the New that is becoming in front of our
eyes.
In Mehrans novel tradition is confronted by novelty. The confrontation is
played out by means of food the three
sisters cook and sell in their restaurant.
The symbolic dimension of food preparation and food consumption serves as
an illustration of the process of transformation, while the evolution of the taste
of the inhabitants of Ballinacroagh is indicative of the change they all undergo.
It all starts with the smell. When before the great opening of the restaurant
the sisters start preparing food in their
kitchen and the smell of cooking reaches
Dervla Quigley, she already knows that
something has changed:
Yes, a nasty reek of foreigness was
definitely in the air. It was diferent to
the smell she remembered coming from
Papas Pastries all those years ago. She
recognised the same unyielding yeasty
scent of rising bread and perky almond
intonations, but there was also a vast
and unexpected array of undertones she
could not name. The wicked, tingling sensation taunted Dervlas sense of decency,
laughing at her as if it knew her deep,
datk secrets; as though it had heard all
about her dead husbands wanton ways.
(Mehran, 2006, p. 40)
Dervla Quigley is not the only inhabit-

ant of the town who feels threatend and

confused by the smells coming from behind the door of the old Papa Pastries,
an Italian bakery now turned into a Persian restaurant. Thomas McQuire, a local
businessmen, is hit by the smell whose
spicy, sinful intonatons reeked of an
unknown evil; a godforsaken foreigness
that set of alarm bells in his head and
froze him to his spot. (Ibid., p. 3-4)
In culture whose character is defined
by the hegemony of sight the symbolic dimension of the smell is often overlooked
regardless of its powerful social and
economic significance. (Synott, 1997, p.
182) In Pomegrante Soup the smell becomes a mediator of social interaction
and it leads to an olfactory consumption of the other.(Ibid., p. 183) The Italian smell of Papas Pastries had already
been tamed and turned into an integral
element of the cultural landscape of Ballinacroagh. The smells the three sisters
produce in their kitchen expose the inhabitants of the town to novelty which
they could not name. Inability to find
proper words to describe an array of disturbing smells and the reaction this fact
produces point at the role the smell plays
in our moral construction of reality and
our construction of moral reality. (Ibid.,
p. 190) Unable to cope with the unknown
smells, both Dervla and Thomas perform
an act of conversion in which physical
sensations are transformed into symbolic evaluation and the foreign smells are
identified as dangerous. Their reactions
to the exotic smells are indicative of the
fact that the Amnipour sisters and the inhabitants of the Irish town inhabit different sensory worlds. (Hall quoted by
Synott, 1997, p. 193) The power of the
39

ARS AETERNA
exotic smell turns out to be transgressive
when it starts to permeate the familiar
smell of the Irishness and when it puts
both Dervla and Thomas in a position in
which the encounter with the otherness
cannot be avoided.
Olfactory intolerance (Urry, 2000,
p. 98) reinforces racial and cultural differences. The foreign smells speak of
change and diversity; they are dangerous because they have a power to destabilize a moral construction of reality.
The convention of magical realism allows Merhan to show how under the influence of unknown smells and the taste
of unknown food people undergo transformations: they rediscover their own
dreams, they find their lost selves and
they prepare themselves for an inevitable moment of change. When Thomas
McQuire talks about the dangers of foreign smells (Mehran, 2006, p. 207) he
reveals the subversive potential of the
smell. From the perspective of sedentarist metaphysics, the foreign smell is
negatively coded because it becomes a
symbol of displacement and uprootedness, a harbinger of change.
In light of the above a change of food
habits may be seen as an indication of
social and cultural change. The success
of Babilon Caf helps to tame the fear
of the unknown and to arouse curiosity
about the exotic. It is the foreign smell
that introduces Ballinacroagh to the
world of mobility and globalization. A
consumerist imperative to try new things
is capable of overshadowing established
conventions and traditonal practices
while awakening curiosity which helps
to come to terms with novelty. The Amnipour sisters awaken new desires on
40

the part of the inhabitants of the town

and thus become envolved in the reproduction of cultural meanings.
The sisters participation in the process
of cultural production makes us rethink
the representation of two metaphysics a metaphysisc of sedentarism and
metaphysics of nomadism as mutually exclusive. On the basis of Creswells
analysis, which he concludes in the subchapter entitled Conclusions: Mobility
Against Place, it seems to be evident that
the reconciliation of two perspectives
seems hardly possible. Nonetheless, the
way the Amnipour sisters influence Ballinacroagh and the way the towns afects
their lives reveal mechanisms of cultural
reciprocity and exchange. Mobility does
not have to be seen in terms of a threat
to a spatial order of a place. All societies
need to have relatively stable boundaries and categories, but this stability can
be achieved within a context that recognizes the relativity and uncertainty of
concepts says Richard Dyer and points
at the fact that the categories of boundaries and opennes are not mutually exclusive much in the same way in which
stability and relativity do not exclude
one another.
People in this world dont know how
other people does afect their lives (Selvon, 2004, p. 76) writes Sam Selvon.
In its most extreme form the change is
brough by revolutions, wars and conquests. It is also brought by the taste of
cardamon seeds and the smell of baklava
which a culinary alchemy of change empowers with the gift of relativizations
of concepts and categories whose fixity
is often in the way of cross-cultural encounters and communication. That is

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

why it is the pomegranate, this flower
of fertility, of new things to come and old
seasons to cradle (Mehran, 2006, p. 39)
that becomes a symbol of the new kind
of sense constructed in Ballinacroagh.
It is no longer tradition versus novelty
nor mobility against place: this time it
is a cultural reciprocity that informs the

quality of change. Marsha Mehran has no

doubts as to what is the outcome of the
alliance between tradition and novelty
and mobility and place: it is that particular sweetness which is brought by
[t]he myriad seedlings that could only,
really, be the flower of new beginnings.
(Ibid., p. 363)

Works cited:
Bauman, Z., 1987. Legislators and Interpreters. Oxford: Polity Press.
Bell, D. & G. Valentine, 1997. Consuming Geographies. London: Routledge.
Creswell, T., 2006. On the Move. Mobility in the Modern Western World. New York London: Routledge.
Dyer, R., 1993. The Matters of Images. Essays on representation. London/New York: Routledge.
Eliot , T.S, 1948. Notes Towards the Deinition of Culture. London: Faber and Faber.
Gibson, S.: Food Mobilities: Travelling, Dwelling, and Eating Cultures In: Space and Culture, vol.10, no
1, February 2007
Mehran, M., 2006. Pomegranate Soup. London: Arrow Books.
Mumford, L., 1961. The City in History. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
Sandhu, S., 2003. London Calling. How Black and Asian Writers Imagined a City London: HarperCollinsPublisshers.
Selvon, S., 2004. The Lonely Londoners. Harlow: Longman.
Synott, A., 1997. The Body Social. Symbolism, Self and Society. London: Routledge.
Tuan, Y., 1977. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minesota
Press.
Urry, J., 2000. Sociology beyond Societies. Mobilities for the twenty-irst century. London/New York: Routledge.
Urry, J., 2007. Mobilities. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Yousaf, N., 2002: Hanif Kureishis The Buddha of Suburbia. New York/London: Continum.

41

ARS AETERNA

Rushdies Claim For Hybridity

In His Non-Fiction Works
Titus Pop
Titus Pop works at Partium Christian University in Oradea, Romania.

Abstract:
The content of this paper is a detailed presentation of Rushdies lifelong claim for a hybrid world in his non-fiction work. His non-fictional works, Imaginary Homelands and his
more recent essay collection Step Across This Line ofer enough evidence that Rushdies
lifelong preoccupation is an endless claim for a frontierless, hybrid world.
The first non-fiction volume, Imaginary Homelands, brings many of the essays he wrote
between 1981-1991 together with the several major statements he has written in the
wake of The Satanic Verses to form an extraordinary intellectual autobiography. The deliberately hybrid, mongrel, multireferential nature of the literary and experiential inheritance that Rushdie claims, not just from East and West but from all corners of the world,
is an exciting guide for detecting literary footprints in his work but obstructs any attempt
to define a national or literary influence for it. Rushdie, whose entire career is based on
the questioning of historical givens and beliefs, uses the metafictional trope of migrancy
to invoke an absolute of rootlessness and hybridity. His claim for hybridity is even more
nuanced in his latest volume of essays entitled Step Across this Line. There are speeches,
columns, letters that use a hard-won authority to denounce repression, censorship, fanaticism and, more shakily, religion of all kinds. His fight against fundamentalism and for
freedom of expression is a recurrent theme and it is clearly articulated in many essays.
Over the course of the collection, Rushdie is a Muslim, Indian, New Yorker, Briton, European, American, trans-nationalist, post-nationalist, internationalist, immigrant and exile.

Salman Rushdies
non-fictional
works, Imaginary Homelands and
his more recent essay collection Step
Across This Line ofer enough evidence
that Rushdies lifelong preoccupation
is an endless claim for a frontierless,
hybrid world. Even before The Satanic
Verses provoked international controversy, Rushdie had established himself
as one of the most important writers
in contemporary Britain. His second
novel, Midnights Children (1980), was
awarded the prestigious Booker prize;
his third, Shame (1983), was also highly
praised. Throughout the 1980s, Rushdie
also wrote journal articles and essays,
42

eloquently and often- about the politics

of religion and race in Margaret Thatchers Britain, Indira Gandhis India, and
Zia ul-Haqs Pakistan; about writers and
books from India and Pakistan, Africa,
Britain, Europe, South America, and
the United States; about the vocation of
the writer and the powers of literature,
the potential of the imagination and
the dangers of censorship; and, repeatedly, about migration as the archetypal
experience of the twentieth century. In
his journal articles such as The New
Empire within Britain, She [Margaret
Thatcher] Has Persuaded the Nation
That Everything Which Goes Wrong Is

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

an Act of God, and The Council [subsidized] Housing That Kills, he is clearly
concerned with contemporary political
issues in Britain such as the problems
faced by new immigrants from Commonwealth countries in Asia, Africa, and
the Caribbean or by the poor in general
who must rely on subsidized housing.
Other articles comprise more or less
literary, political or religious issues but
they are all pervaded by a sense of irony
so peculiar to Rushdie.
His main non-fiction work consists of
three volumes of essay and journal collections and travel writings: The Jaguar
Smile, Imaginary Homelands and Step
Across This Line. The Jaguar Smile was
published in 1987 and it was written
when Rushdie took a break from writing
The Satanic Verses the year before and
visited Nicaragua as a guest of the Sandinista Association of Cultural Workers.
This visit took place shortly after the International Court of Justice in the Hague
had ruled that US aid to la Contra, the
counterrevolutionary army the CIA had
invented, assembled, organized, and
armed, was in violation of international
law. Rushdie is quite severe in his criticism of his hosts over the closure of the
opposition newspaper, La Prensa, and is
not by any means ready to accept, either
face to face or in his subsequent written
account, all the justifications they put
forward for that and other questionable policies. He is honest, too, about
how badly served Nicaraguans are by
their government-controlled media and
consequently how ill-informed they are
about the rest of the world. He reports
that, listening to him and a visiting Russian novelist discuss Soljenitzyns The

Gulag Archipelago, Nicaraguan writers

present were incredulous at what they
were hearing. How could such things
be they asked. (Rushdie, 2000, p. 99)
Nevertheless, as one born in a nation
that had thrown of the British yoke,
Rushdies natural sympathies lay with
the Nicaraguans. He found that he actually liked and admired the members of
the government he met as human beings. For the first time in my life, he
writes, I realized with surprise, I had
come across a government I could support, not faute de mieux, but because I
wanted its eforts (at survival, at building the nation, and at transforming it) to
succeed (70).
Imaginary Homelands brings many
of the essays he wrote between 19811991 together with the several major statements he has written in the
wake of The Satanic Verses to form an
extraordinary intellectual autobiography. There are those who find--in
his wealthy middle-class Indian family background, his upper-class English
education, his very English accent, and
even his pale skin--too many barriers to
his really understanding or representing the underprivileged, whether from
the third or the first world .In between,
as this thick book reveals, Rushdies pen
almost never ceased its frenetic scribbling. His thoughts meandered widely:
from migration, religion, esteemed colleagues, travel, India, Pakistan, England,
the United States, racism, gambling, and
film. The themes he explores in his novels also manifest themselves throughout this books twelve sections.
The deliberately hybrid, mongrel,
multireferential nature of the liter43

ARS AETERNA
ary and experiential inheritance that
Rushdie claims, not just from East and
West but from all corners of the world,
is an exciting guide for detecting literary footprints in his work, but obstructs
any attempt to define a national or literary influence for it. Rushdie himself
is scarcely any help. In the title essay
-Imaginary Homelands, he suggests
that migrancy, either as a literal or literary (imaginative) experience, has
marked writers as diverse as Borges,
Heinrich Boll, Gogol, Cervantes, Kafka,
Melville, and Machado de Assis. Unarguable as the list is, it becomes disturbing
when Rushdie claims similar experiences of displacement and minority status,
thus losing the political charge and demographic scale that marks twentiethcentury migration from the periphery
to the metropolitan world:
Let me suggest that Indian writers in
England have access to a second tradition, quite apart from their own racial
history. It is the culture and political history of the phenomenon of migration,
displacement, life in a minority group.
We can quite legitimately claim as our
ancestors the Huguenots, the Irish, the
Jews; the past to which we belong is an
English past, the history of immigrant
Britain. Swift, Conrad, Marx are as much
our literary forebears as Tagore or Rammohun Roy. America, a nation of immigrants, has created great literature out
of the phenomenon of cultural transplantation.... it may be that by discovering what we have in common with those
who preceded us into this country, we
can do the same. (1991, p. 20)
Migrationlosing one country, language, and culture and finding oneself
44

forced to come to terms with another

place, another way of speaking and
thinking, another view of realityis
Rushdies great theme. Metamorphosis is its metaphor. And reflections on
migration and metamorphosis permeate these essays as thoroughly as embodiments of them populate his novels,
making many of these pieces essential
statements about contemporary urban
societys conflicts. The troublesome issue of race in immigration has been
elided entirely by Rushdie in this ode
to the pleasures of migrancy. The freedoms of the literary migrant, (Ibid., p.
21) as he calls them later in the same
essay, scarcely include defining the process of race relations in Britain as a matter of cultural transplantation or the
discovery of common cause between
an Indian grocer and long-dead lights
of English literature. What Rushdie is
doing is arrogating to himself a cultural
tradition based on an elite education
system, both in Britain and India, and
using this tradition to speak prescriptively for a very diverse set of people.
Even if one discounts some of his pronouncements as so much rhetorical
pomposity, it is not untroubling when
he compares his situation to Western writers who have been eclectic in
their selection of theme, setting, form
... raiding the visual storehouses of Africa, Asia, the Philippines, and insists
that we must grant ourselves an equal
freedom (20). It is surely no news to
Rushdie that artistic eclecticism, as he
chooses to call it, was also related to the
raiding of colonies by Western countries. In this case, the concept of equal
freedom is not just ideologically repul-

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

sive but impossible. While the implicit
point of Rushdies argument here is the
justifiable claim that writers should not
have to be held to any literal accounting
of national origins and traditions, and
that a diverse set of influences shapes
a postcolonial writers imagination,
this argument elides the diferences
between migrants. Rushdie, whose entire career is based on the questioning
of historical givens and beliefs, invokes
the metafictional trope of migrancy to
invoke an absolute of rootlessness and
hybridity.
The books title essay discusses exile
from country and culture and the alienation of the dislocated writer. The past
remains elusive enough, never mind
the half-remembered mores and social
codes of ones lost homeland. These
themes remain fundamental to Rushdies work. After excoriating the murder of Indira Gandhi, adumbrating the
Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, the discussion
moves, briefly, to pros and cons of Pakistan. Resurgence of British imperialist
ideology during the Thatcher years disturbs Rushdie in the scathing Outside
the Whale and Attenboroughs Gandhi. On similar lines, The New Empire
Within Britain, apparently a transcript
of a widely distributed videotape, deconstructs British racism (p. 127). The
bulk of the book comprises numerous
literary reviews, most of which run between two to five pages. While streaming through these, readers will learn
that Rushdie appreciates, among other
things, Ishiguros Remains of the Day,
Calvinos work in general, Marquezs
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and Pynchons Vineland. Also, perhaps more

interestingly, readers will discover that

Rushdie was not particularly impressed
by Ecos Foucaults Pendulum, Vargas Llosas The Real Life of Alejandro
Mayta, Vonneguts Hocus Pocus, and
Naipauls Among the Believers. The
reviews read quickly, but the longer essays require more concentration. One of
these, In God We Trust, examines voluminous topics, including the religious
versus the nationalistic atmosphere of
1990, the emergence of reality from
imagination, and the creeping malaise
of the United States
When reading the collection, what
one may efortlessly notice is Rushdies frequent and recurring claim for
multiculturalism and plurality. Thus,
in his third essay called The Riddle of
Midnight: India, August 1987, he asserts his view on ideology. Vehemently
opposing the ideologies of communalities that dominated the political scene
in India after Independence, a position
he first nuanced in his masterpiece The
Midnights Children, he writes: My India has always been based on ideas of
multiplicity, pluralism, hybridity, ideas
to which the ideologies of the communalities are diametrically opposed (p.
32). Later, when commenting on the
ill-fated Indira Ghandhi, who had been
butchered in 1984 by a fundamentalist,
he reiterated his view:
a nation of seven hundred millions to
make any kind of sense must base itself
firmly on the concept of multiplicity, of
plurality and tolerance of devolution
and decentralization wherever possible. There can be no one way-religious,
cultural or linguistic-of being an Indian.
Let diference reign. (p. 44)
45

ARS AETERNA
In another essay entitled Commonwealth Literature does not exist where
he arguably opposes the label commonwealth literature given to postcolonial
literature by the Orientalist scholars,
Rushdie pleads for the need for the
preeminence of hybridity over purity.
After rejecting the so-called authenticity plea required by the school of commonwealth literature, considering the
quest for national authenticity as rather belonging to religious extremists, he
calls for an eclectic cultural enterprise
by bringing as an argument in favor of
his claim the Indian culture which is a
mixed culture:
A mlange of elements as disparate
as ancient Mughal and contemporary
Coca-Cola American. To say nothing of
Muslim, Bhudist, Jain, Christian, Jewish,
French, Portuguese, Marxist, Maoist,
Trotskiist,, Vietnamese, Capitalist, and
of course Hindu elements. Eclecticism,
the ability to take from the world what
seems fitting and to leave the rest, has
always been a hallmark of the Indian
tradition, and today it is at the centre
of the best work being done both in the
visual arts and in literature. Yes, eclecticism is not a really nice word in the lexicon of commonwealth literature. So the
reality of the mixed tradition is replaced
by the fantasy of purity (p. 67).
Arguably, the books most memorable
piece, the one that will stick to peoples
psyches, is In Good Faith. In almost
twenty pages, the author defends The
Satanic Verses against charges of insolence, literary brutality, and heresy
Rushdies claim for pluralism and hybridity is even more nuanced in his latest volume of essays entitled Step Across
46

this Line .The range of topics covered in

these essays, reviews, lectures, and meditations impresses us with the breadth
of Rushdies knowledge: he moves with
ease from contemporary Lebanese novelists to sixteenth-century Indian epic
literature, from Vaclav Havel to Bob Dylan. The exuberance with which he engages every topic attests to the wonders
he can accomplish with his prose. Rushdie deserves a place alongside Nabokov
and Joyce as a pyrotechnic master of
twentieth-century English, and one
who happily cannonades through many
of these pieces. But his gifted prose is,
unfortunately, also his curse. Rushdie is
a paragon of the postmodern mindset;
as engaged by Dorothy in Oz as by the
destruction in 9/11, he is willing and
able to pass between cultural registers
and diverse subjects with an insouciant
disregard for the relative value of the
insights ofered, the consistency of his
arguments, or the durability of his commitments. There are speeches, columns,
letters that use a hard-won authority to
denounce repression, censorship, fanaticism and, more shakily, religion of all
kinds. There are accounts of his life in
hiding; also gratitude for Britains protection uncomfortably juxtaposed with
indignation at her caution in speaking
out for him.
Rushdie begins this second collection
with a brilliant thirty-page take on The
Wizard of Oz -that great rarity, a film
that improves on the good book from
which it came, a film whose driving
force is the inadequacy of adults, even of
good adults(2002:4). This is followed
by nearly seventy shorter essays on
subjects as diverse as censorship, pho-

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

tography, rock music, leavened bread
and adapting for film. The first section
ends with A Dream of Glorious Return,
a diary of his June 2000 visit to India
with his son: This, perhaps, is what it
means to love a country: that its shape
is also yours, the shape of the way you
think and feel and dream. That you can
never really leave.(p. 226)
The dialectic home and away, a recurrent theme in his writing appears once
again in the very first essay from the
volume called Out of Kansas and which
is an impressive comment on the film
The Wizard of Oz, a film which deeply
impressed Rushdie:
Anybody who has swallowed the
scriptwriterss notion that this is a film
about the superiority of home over
away, that the moral of The Wizard of
Oz is as sickly-sweet as an embroidered
sampler-East, West, homes best-would
do well to listen to the yearning in Judy
Garlands voice, as her face tilts up towards the skies. What she expresses
here, what she embodies with the purity
of an archetype, is the human dream of
leaving, a dream at least as powerful as
its countervailing dream of roots. At the
heart of The Wizard of Oz is the tension
between these two dreams (p. 14).
On the whole, this essay is a charming meditation on The Wizard of Oz,
which the author regards as a movie
about the joys of going away, of leaving the grayness and entering the color.
(15) In Dorothy and The Wizard he sees
the condition if the immigrant:
These two immigrants, Dorothy and
the Wizard have adopted opposite strategies of survival in the new strange land.
Dorothy has been unfailingly polite,

careful, courteously small and meek;

whereas the Wizard has been fire and
smoke, bravado and bombast, and has
hustled his way to the top-floated there,
so to speak on a current of his own hot
air. But Dorothy learns that meekness
isnt enough, and the Wizard-as his balloon gets the better of him for a second
time-that his command of hot air isnt
all it should be. Its hard for a migrant
like me not to see in these shifting destinies a parable of the migrant condition.
(p. 30)
Later on, in the same essay, when
mentioning the crowning of Dorothy
and her becoming actual from imaginary, Rushdie draws a parallel between
Oz and his dream world:
So Oz finally became home; the imagined world became the actual world, as
it does for us all, because the truth is that
once we have left our childhood places
and started out to make up our lives,
armed only with what we have and are,
we understand that the real secret of
the ruby slippers is not that theres no
place like home but rather that there is
no longer any such place as home: except, of course, for the home we make,
of the homes that are made for us, in Oz,
which is anywhere, and everywhere, except the place which we began.(p. 33)
In other essays, he is preoccupied
with the contemporary polemics between the Eurocentrist literary scholars
and the defenders of marginality. An interesting standpoint is exposed, in my
view, in the essay called In Defence Of
The Novel where he answers to George
Steiner who ,by reiterating Barthes
thesis on the death of the novel, criticizes the contemporary novel calling it
47

ARS AETERNA
crassly fact|fiction(p. 54) After quoting
Steiner who said that it is most axiomatic that today the great novels are coming from the far rim, from India, from
the Caribbean, from Latin America(p.
56), Rushdie vehemently attacks Steiner
s thesis and celebrates the postcolonial,
cross-cultural fiction:
What does it matter where the great
novels come from, as long as they keep
coming? What is this flat earth on which
the good Professor lives, with the jaded
Romans at the centre and frightfully
gifted Hottentots and Anthropophagi
lurking at the edges? The map of Prof.
Steiner is an imperial map, and Europes
empires are long gone. The half-century
whose literary output proves, for Steiner , the novels decline is also the first
half-century of the post-colonial period.
Might it not simply be that a new novel
is emerging, a post-colonial novel, a decentred, transnational, inter-lingual,
cross-cultural novel; and that in this
new world order, or disorder, we find a
better explanation on the contemporary
novels health than Prof. Steiners somewhat patronizingly Hegelian view.(57)
Rushdie defends the contemporary
novel and celebrates its cross-cultural
hybrid form: There is, in my view, no
crisis in the art of the novel () It is
part social inquiry, part fantasy, part
confessional. It crosses frontiers of
knowledge as well as topographical
boundaries.(58) However, he agrees
with Steiner on two issues. Noticing
that many good writers have blurred
the boundaries between fact and fiction
(p. 58) he exemplifies his point with Milan Kundera, Paul Auster, Tom Wolfe or
Ryszard Kapuscsinski. There is another
48

issue on which he agrees with Steinerthe publication and over-publication of

everything which replaced the ability
to distinguish quality books from bad
writing. This approach is, in his view,
fabulously self-destructive(p. 61) Here
is his comment:
Readers, unable to hack their way
through the rain- forest of junk fiction,
made cynical by the debased language
of hyperbole with which every book is
garlanded, give up. Over-publishing
and over-hyping creates under-reading. It is not just a question of too many
novels actually chasing too few readers,
but a question of too many novels actually chasing readers away.(p. 61)
Commenting on the role of influence in literature, he highlights the
cultural cross-pollination without
which literature becomes parochial
and marginal(76) He makes an impassioned and welcome plea for a return to
judgment in evaluating novels and offers a solution to this crisis: What we
need, however, is the best kind of editorial ruthlessness. We need a return to
judgment (p. 61).
The second section is a selection of
Rushdies various statements on the
fatwa and its consequences-his forced
seclusion, the at times fatal violence
directed towards translators and colleagues, the sour undercurrents in British sympathy towards his situation,
his devotion to free speech at any cost.
Rushdie is defiantly a secular humanist,
convinced that religions only interest
lies in a power-driven, ideological control of believers. Just as he did in Imaginary Homelands , he defends freedom
of speech by supporting the literary fig-

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

ures such as A.Miller , N.Gordimer, Coetzee or Edward Said. In an essay which
was initially a celebration speech on Arthur Millers eightieth birthday, he gratifies Miller for supporting him during
the fatwa years and highlights the need
to re-imagine freedom: When Arthur
Miller says that we must re-imagine
liberty in every generation, especially
when a certain number of people are
always afraid of it, his words carry the
weight of lived experience, of his own
profound re-imaginings (p. 53)
Moreover, he senses the greatest
danger facing literature today-the attack on intellectual liberty. Resorting
to Orwell who claimed that today the
idea of intellectual liberty is under attack from two directions-theoretical
enemies, the apologists of totalitarianism and practical enemies, monopoly
and bureaucracy(Orwell qtd in Rushdie
, 2002, p. 61), he writes:
The pressures of monopoly and bureaucracy, of corporatism and conservatism, limiting and narrowing the range
and quality of what gets published, are
known to every working writer. Of the
pressures of intolerance and censorship,
I personally have in these past years
gained perhaps too much knowledge.
There are many such struggles taking
place in the world today: in Algeria, in
China, in Iran, in Turkey, in Egypt, in
Nigeria, writers are being censored, harassed, jailed and even murdered. Even
in Europe and the United States the
stormtroopers of various sensitivities
seek to limit our freedom of speech. It
has never been more important to continue to defend those values which make
the art of literature possible (p. 62).

He praises transnational literature for

its serving as a means of holding a conversation with the world (p. 165) He
brings evidence to support his point by
considering some great literary names
travels as essential in their writing
style:
James Joyce, Henry James, Samuel Becket, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Mavis Gallant, James
Baldwin,Graham Greene, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas LLosa, Jorge
louis Borges, Vladimir Nabokov, Muriel
Spark, were or are wanderers, too. Literature has little or nothing to do with a
writers home address. (p. 166)

In Notes On Writing And The Nation,

Rushdie writes that good writing assumes a frontierless nation because
writers who serve frontiers have become border guards (p. 67). More than
that he concludes :The frontierless nation is nor a fantasy(67) He also warns
against the writers who write on behalf
of a nation calling them new behalfists:
Beware the writer who sets himself or
herself up as the voice of a nation This
includes nations of race, gender, sexual
orientation, elective affinity. This is the
New Behalfism.It is the murder of
thought. Beware!(p. 66)
His fight against fundamentalism and
for freedom of expression is a recurring theme and it is clearly articulated
in many essays. The bulk of his claim
against oppression of thought and free
speech is hosted by the second part of
the volume entitled Messages from the
Plague Years which is a collection of
speeches and articles he wrote during
the long campaign against his fatwa. In
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ARS AETERNA
these pieces Rushdie both directly campaigns against Khomeinis fatwa (the
appalling Valentine I was sent in 1989)
(264), and writes eloquently on a Sarajevo of the mind, an imagined Sarajevo
whose present ruination and torment
exiles us all(p. 273).
The first speech was delivered at the
International Conference on Freedom
of Expression in Washington DC in April
2002 and begins with a quoted passage from John Stuart Mills essay On
Liberty which applies directly to the
controversial novel. Stuart Mill clearly
stated that the evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race, posterity and the
existing generationof the opportunity
of exchanging error for truth(Mill qtd
in Rushdie, 2002, p. 232) Rushdie associates his situation with the examples Mill provides, namely two cases of
great figures accused of blasphemy and
heresy-that of Jesus and Socrates. Rushdie adds to these two cases a third one,
that of Galileo Galilei observing that the
three men are, as is plain to everyone,
the founders of the philosophical, moral
and scientific traditions of the West (p.
232) More than that, he logically infers
that blasphemy and heresy, far from being the greatest evils, are the methods
by which human thought has made its
most vital advances (p. 232)
The speech concludes with an apology of freedom:
Free societies are societies in motion,
and with motion comes friction. Free
people strike sparks, and those sparks
are the best evidence of freedoms existence. Totalitarian societies seek to re50

place the many truths of freedom by the

one truth of power, be it secular or religious; to halt the motion of society, to
snuf out the spark. Unfreedoms primary purpose is invariably to shackle the
mind.The creative process is rather like
the processes of a free society. (p.233)

Later on, by quoting Nasreem Rehman , Rushdie reiterated his appeal to

judgement and calmness: we must stop
thinking in binary, oppositional terms
(p. 263)
In the article The last Hostage which
is a part of his fatwa diary he calls free
speech life itself(p. 242) In another
speech he delivered at Kings College
Chapel at Cambridge in 1993, after having been embraced by a Saudi Muslim
who told him he had embraced him
because he was a free man , Rushdie,
noticing the irony , remarks: He meant
that freedom of speech, freedom of the
imagination, is that freedom which gives
meaning to all the others(p. 251)
He takes a stand defending other oppressed writers. In a letter written
in support of the Bangladeshi writer
Taslima Nasreen, who has been labelled by many critics as the female
Rushdie, Rushdie expresses his appreciation towards the Bengali culture, a
culture whose main tenet is freedom of
thought:
Bengali culture-and I mean the culture
of Bangladesh as well as Indian Bengalhas always prided itself on its openness, its freedom to think and argue, its
intellectual disputatiousness, its lack
of bigotry.()Bengalis have always understood that that free expression is not

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

only a Western value. It is one of their
great treasures-the imagination and the
word. (p. 277)

On the 24th of September 1998,

Rushdie tells us, during the UN General Assembly in New York, the foreign
ministers of UK and Iran issued a joint
statement that efectively brought the
fatwa to an end (p. 283).
But, as he asks in the next section
of these essays, How can I explain to
strangers my sense of violation? Its
as if men wielding clubs were to burst
loudly into your home and lay it waste.
They arrive when youre making love, or
standing naked in the shower, or sitting
on the toilet, or staring in deep inward
silence at the lines youve scrawled on a
page. Never again will you kiss or bathe
or write () without remembering this
intrusion. And yet, to do these things
pleasurably and well you must shut out
the memory (p. 293).

The brief articles of the third section

were syndicated columns in the New
York Times. They engage with current
issues: political, social and cultural and
are, in my view, less relevant as far as
Rushdies claim is concerned .Still, some
of them bring evidence supporting the
writers plea.
A long final section comprising a recent lecture series at Yale displays the
gravest and most eloquent writing in
the book. Step Across This Line , the
title essay originally delivered as the
2002 Tanner Lecture at Yale University -- turns out to be a long, meandering meditation on the importance of

frontier-crossings in history and the

arts. It encapsulates, in my opinion,
Rushdie unitary vision his claim for
a borderless, hybrid and cross-cultural
world. Over the course of the collection, Rushdie is a Muslim, Indian, New
Yorker, Briton, European, American,
trans-nationalist, post-nationalist, internationalist, immigrant and exile. In
each case, he writes in the first-person
plural. The theme-essay calls on artists
to use their own weapons in the wake
of the Sept. 11 attack and its seeming
power to change our view of the world.
Murder was not the point,(433) he
writes. The creation of a meaning was
the point.(433) And meaning is the
artists province, exercised not through
the current impulse for cautious muzzling but through a permanent tradition of transgression:
The crossing of borders, of language,
geography and culture; the examination
of the permeable frontier between the
universe of things and deeds and the
universe of the imagination; the lowering of the intolerable frontiers created
by the worlds many diferent kinds
of Thought Policemen. These matters
have been at the heart of the literary
project that was given to me by the circumstances of my life, rather than chosen by me for intellectual or artistic
reasons. (p. 434)

Freedom means freedom from

any form of limitation on how we live
in this world (or what we write about).
Barriers are to be overcome, borders
to be transgressed, rules broken, all in
support of the sacrosanct notion of the
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ARS AETERNA
individual liberated from the tyranny
of religious and political authority. The
essay, which concludes with a plea that
the West not become defensive and culturally cautious in the face of terrorist
threats, makes a few interesting points,
but on the whole, it recapitulates arguments about migration, exile and
freedom that Rushdie has dome many
times both in his fiction and non-fiction
works.
To conclude with, Step Across This
Line is a celebration of migration,
commingling, adaptation, hybridization, cultural mongrelization, issues of
boundaries and transgression. There
has never been a period in the history
of the world when its peoples were so
jumbled up, he writes, adding: We
are so thoroughly shuffled together,
clubs among diamonds, hearts among
spades, jokers everywhere, that were
just going to have to live with it.(438)
His relentless plea is for freedom of

speech, of thought because, as he boldly

puts it, Free people cross boundaries;
they step across lines (p. 425).
More than that, he even proposes a
post-frontier thesis:

Time, perhaps , to propose a new thesis of the post-frontier: to assert that

the emergence, in the age of mass migration, mass displacement, globalized
finances and industries, of this new,
permeable post-frontier is the distinguishing feature of our times, and ()
explains our development as nothing
else can (p. 425).

The thesis he proposes is a bridge and

it is meant to close gap between opposing religious views, racial diferences
and ideologies and to the provide new
insights for better mutual understanding among people for, as he puts it, to
cross a frontier is to be transformed for
the better (p. 411).

Works Cited
Rushdie S., 1991. Imaginary Homelands, Essays and Criticism 19811991 London: Granta
Books.
Rushdie S., 1989. The Satanic Verses, London:Vintage.
Rushdie S., 2002. Step Across This Line. Collected Non-Fiction, 19922002, London: Vintage.
Rushdie S., 1981. Midnights Children. London: Granta.

52

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

Exiles on the road: The role of cinematic journeys

in the creation of new structures of belonging and
cultural knowledge
Tanja Franotovi
Tanja Franotovi was born in Zagreb, Croatia in 1980. After studying English and German
Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, she earned a scholarship from
the Bavarian Academic Centre for Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (Bayhost) to
pursue her studies in Germany. She now holds a Masters degree in Literature and Media from
Bayreuth University, where she graduated with a Masters thesis Travel in Contemporary European Cinema: Ismal Ferroukhis Le Grand Voyage (2004), Tony Gatlifs Exiles (2004) and
Michael Hanekes Code Unknown (2000). Her research interests include postmodern travel,
migration and mobility in connection with cultural production and identity, European identity
and contemporary European cinema. She currently lives and works in Zagreb on an EU project
at the Croatian Ministry of the Interior as well as a freelance translator and interpreter.

Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of cinematic journeys in the construction
of new identities and modes of relating to diference needed in the ongoing story of European integration and transition to a multiethnic and multicultural way of life. By taking a
closer look at a recent example of diasporic filmmaking, Tony Gatlifs film Exiles (2004),
it focuses on the way narratives of displacement told by multicultural filmmakers depict
experiences of exile, migration, diaspora and mobility, while at the same time questioning
received notions about home, nation, identity and belonging. In its representation of transnational travel and protagonists who experience diferent kinds of mobility, the film interrogates travel as movement between home and away, showing how both entities are highly
complex and disputed, rather than sites of fixed meanings. In addition, not only does the
film foreground mobile individuals, but also the movement of sounds, images, languages
and ideas across national borders. As such, it sheds light on the nature of global interconnectedness and flows, inviting us to reflect on the changing relationship to place and the
nature of place-bound identities in our present stage of globalization. Finally, by creating a
very personal journey with considerable autobiographic inscription, Gatlif creates a powerful cultural artefact resisting dominant forms of representation, relying on music and the
trope of the road as his main discourses and vehicles of discovery.

In todays globalized world mobility

has become the order of the day. Mobility understood as changing country, nationality, culture as well as ones identity
(Mazierska and Rascaroli, 2006, p. 1) lies
at the core of social, economic and geopolitical transformations that took place in
Europe in the last two decades. Whether

voluntarily or by force, people from outside and inside of Europe were set into
motion, undermining the very idea of Europe as a continent of nation-states and
creating the space for some new national
and transnational identities to emerge.
No other medium, however, can capture the issues of travel, mobility and
53

ARS AETERNA
change as well as explore the ongoing
European story of integration and identity negotiation as poignantly as film.
Film and travel have in fact always been
inextricably linked, each of them ofering
opportunities for exploration, discovery,
transformation and above all, crossing
boundaries. More specifically, given their
iconography and tropes of displacement,
migration and quest as well as its episodic structure and ambiguous symbolism,
cinematic journeys not only have the ability to interrogate key issues of our time,
but also comment self-consciously upon
their own role within them. In light of this
immense potential of the medium, this
paper seeks to examine how contemporary European cinema has imagined the
experience of travel and displacement
as well as the clash of diferent cultures
and identities in new Europe, as reflected
in Tony Gatlifs Exiles (2004). However,
rather than merely focusing on the filmic
representation of diverse intercultural
encounters taking place, my intention
is to investigate the possible role of this
cinematic journey in the creation of new
identities and modes of being-with-difference needed in Europes transition to a
multiethnic and multicultural way of life.
What exactly would those new sensibilities be? Drawing on Europes waning
cultural power in the rest of the world,
Ien Ang in this sense calls for a cultural renewal in which Europes task would be to
redefine itself as particular rather than
universal, as located rather than transcendental, specific rather than general
in short, Europe has to learn how to
marginalize itself so that Europeans can
start relating to others in a more modest,
dialogic way (1992, pp. 25, 29). Hence, if
54

a cultural renewal is to be achieved, then

it is not through grand unifying narratives of European identity, but by telling
smaller, more particular stories that open
up a dialogue between the margins. In
that context, the aim of this paper is to
show how the narratives of displacement
told by increasing numbers of exiles, expatriates and migrants represent the very
opportunity for Europes new politics of
identity, one which not only insists on difference and specificity but also on movement, articulation and syncretism.
According to Stuart Hall, identity is never complete, is always in process and always constituted within, and
not outside representation (Hall, 1990,
p. 224). More specifically, this approach
regards identity in terms of travel, as the
intersection of various histories, journeys and encounters, produced through
memory, fantasy, narrative and myth in
short, all the elements that cinematic narratives thrive on. Thus, as European cinema increasingly recognizes, the device of
journey with its self-conscious portrayal
of movement, change, and the transgression of frontier and frame provides a fitting approach for such an articulation
of identity. In this scenario we can thus
talk of the filmic image as the very site of
identity production, and of cinema not as
a second-order mirror held up to reflect
what already exists, but as that form of
representation which is able to constitute
us as new kinds of subjects, and thereby
enable us to discover places from which
to speak (Hall, 1990, p. 237). In this paper I will argue that Gatlifs Exiles (2004)
ofers exactly such opportunities for the
creation of new subjectivities and forms
of cultural knowledge.

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

Framing exile
Exiles (2004), made by the French
filmmaker of Algerian and Gypsy descent
Tony Gatlif, adopts the traditional selfdiscovery road movie structure to explore
the experience of individuals dislocated
from their roots and celebrate life in perpetual motion. In this vibrant travelogue
we follow two young Algerian-French
lovers, Zano and Naima as they set of
on a journey back to Algeria, the country
of their ancestors. With apparently little
money and lacking a consistent means of
transportations, they sneak onto trains,
trucks and boats, hitching rides, working
where they can, and most often simply
walking towards their exotic destination. Significantly, their unusual quest
for roots and memories leading through
Spanish countryside, Andalusia and Morocco is set against the backdrop of migratory flows to Europe: the fellow travellers they encounter along the way are
all in search of a better future, which they
hope to find in European metropolitan
centres. With its destination, its episodic
narrative structure, thematic focus on a
counter-cultural couple who responds to
the call of the road, with its exploration
of cultural identity, and last but not least,
evocative use of framing devices, landscape, vehicular perspective and music,
Exiles schematically features a number
of traits identified in the European road
movie variant. However, what distinguishes Exiles from its generic precursors is the fact that it is not that much interested in a sustained narrative line and
character development as much as immersing the viewer in the experience of
being lost, rootless and uncertain about

ones identity. Contrary to some of the

voiced criticism, Exiles furthermore goes
beyond merely portraying cultural difference via illuminating shots and forceful music sequences. In fact, I will argue
that Exiles is a road movie stripped to its
existential core, inaugurating movement
as the key identity principle and mode
of being in the world. Finally, the film is
not only imbued with the nomadic consciousness characteristic of filmmakers
life philosophy, but also with his personal experience of exile. By returning
to Algiers Gatlif is also retracing his own
family steps, revisiting the country of his
origins after 43 years of exile. In this paper I will show how by turning to his individual experience shaped by exile, Gatlif has created a third space of alterity,
creativity and insights, a phenomenon
observed among many diasporic filmmakers (Naficy, 2001, p. 82).
As Naficy in his comprehensive study
of exilic and diasporic cinema Accented
Cinema (2001) argued, although there is
nothing common about experiences of
exile and diaspora, films made by deterritorialized peoples nevertheless share
certain features, and these mostly concern their specific modes of production
and style. Rather than originating from
the accented speech of the diegetic characters, the accent of this cinema refers
to its position in relation to the dominant
cinema, thus signifying the displacement
of the filmmakers and their artisanal production modes. In that regard, accented
cinema is both a cinema of exile and a
cinema in exile, as it concerns displaced
filmmakers who are producing their
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ARS AETERNA
films in the interstices of cultures and
cinematic production practices (Ibid., p.
8). For the analysis of Exiles I will focus
on two of its major accented features:
the autobiographical inscription and the
journey narrative.
Authors can inscribe themselves into
their films in many ways. First, on the
level of production, often due to limited
budget, independent filmmakers are
forced to play various roles in their films,
such as write their own script and often
act in leading roles. The film Exiles follows this pattern. Tony Gatlif not only directed the film, but also wrote the script
and composed the music, which, however, also enabled him to control the films
vision and aesthetics. In that respect, we
may regard Exiles as the performance of
the identity of its maker, demonstrated
mostly in his choice of mise-en-scne,
filming style, themes, editing and music.
Second, autobiography is a strong motif
of the accented cinema, finding expression in narratives and iconographies of
memory, desire, loss, longing and nostalgia. These narratives, however, are only
significant insofar as they conjure something new in the very act of looking backward, turning exile into a form of cultural
invention. In Exiles Gatlif embarked on a
very personal homecoming journey. As
he disclosed in an interview, the exile he
experienced felt like a rupture, an amputation, forcing him to leave an incredible richness behind (quoted in theage.
com.au, 2005) In that respect, Exiles
represents not only an attempt to mend
that breach and rediscover this richness
through storytelling, but by doing so also
produces ambiguity and doubt about the
absolutes and received notions of home,
56

nation, identity and belonging.

The film engages with the theme of
exile and migration in multiple ways:
through language, the significant importance assigned to music, and through the
itineraries of the protagonists, which
are presented to go against the flow of
a large number of North Africans who
are depicted heading for Europe. However, exile is not framed as a generalized
condition of alienation and diference;
all displaced people do not experience
exile equally or uniformly. Thus, far from
being a homogenous, unitary and monolithic concept, exile is represented as
consisting of multiple variations: external and internal, forced and voluntary,
and most importantly, it is freed from its
referent the absent home or the homeland. Originally denoting a strictly political expulsion and banishment from the
homeland (Naficy 1999: 9), the form of
exile that the film interrogates is a more
nuanced, culturally driven displacement.
Accordingly, each character in Exiles has
a diferent story of exile to tell.
As Gatlif explains in an interview, Zano and Naima on the one hand
represent all the children of exile who
do not know the country of their origins
and which they decide to visit after the
lapse of a certain period of time, unsure
and anxious about what they are going
to encounter there. On the other hand,
their particular experiences of being
both children of exile and, metaphorically speaking, in exile themselves in
terms of their relationship with their
roots, the past and themselves reveal
the complex nature of exile in the present day. Hence, it is possible to be exiled
in place, that is, to be at home and to

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

long for other places and other times. It
is possible to be forced into external exile and be unable or unwilling to return.
It is also possible to return and realize
that ones house is not the home that
one had hoped for, idealized in the act
of memory. Finally, it is possible to tran-

Mobility as form of resistance

sit back and forth be a nomad and be

in exile everywhere the position that
Gatlif personally finds most appealing,
rejecting the idea of having a homeland
and considering one culture as good
as another. (quoted in theage.com.au,
2005)

In its interrogation of mobility into

and out of Fortress Europe, the film Exiles primarily depicts the roads of marginality, that is to say, illegal routes and
alternative roads through Europe, populated by characters who are all outsiders
by the virtue of their mobility, whether
exiles, modern nomads, itinerant groups
such as Gypsies, illegal workers, immigrants, border crossers or refugees are
involved. Gatlif furthermore constructs
the road as an alternative space of transformative experiences. There is no more
opposition between the centre and the
periphery, as the characters move and
interact within a transnational universe
with no need of a centre. The movement
is no longer one that begins with a liberating escape from a restrictive marginal
environment and ends with a triumphant settling into whatever is perceived
to be the socially or geographically desirable centre. The journey that the characters embark on is not just physical and
territorial but also deeply psychological
and philosophical: both Zano and Naima
have a lot of personal baggage they are
carrying with them, and facing up to who
they are in a land where the language,
customs and religion are alien to them is
inevitably bound to be a tumultuous experience. Likewise, as it happens in most
accented films, their journey is not sim-

ple or homogenous, but rather composite and evolutionary, entailing elements

of homecoming, wandering, exploration,
and most significantly, nomadism.
Zanos and Naimas rejection of being
bound and fixed is mostly emphasized by
their style of travel, that is, their travelling light. As far as we can see, they never
stop to consider that they have no money
at all. While there is never any doubt that
they will ultimately reach their destination, they just set out, primarily on foot,
and instead of having a fixed itinerary,
they let the road lead them, relying on
the kindness of strangers. In as far as
Zano and Naima dispense with the idea
of a fixed home, and we are left to assume that they also avoid the sedentary
authority of state and society, their variation of marginality does bear nomadic
traits (Peters, 1999, p. 30). They definitely possess the capacity of feeling at ease
in various unfamiliar situations, taking
their home with them wherever they
go. This is achieved primarily through
music, which provides them with a site
of dwelling and mediates their understanding of space. On the whole, their life
philosophy could be described as living
one day at a time, living in the continuous present with frightening intensity, or
what Zygmunt Bauman (1996) has described as one of the key characteristics
57

ARS AETERNA
of modern life strategy: Not to get tied
to the place () to forbid the past to bear
on the present (24). This attitude is further addressed through the character of
Naima, who tries to sever the present
from the past, finding enjoyment in sensual pleasures instead and experiencing
things primarily through the body. For
Naima, identity is there only to be played
upon, performed, and eventually discarded. However, although her character
seemingly celebrates the postmodern
nomadism abdicating all responsibility
and socio-historical situatedness, there
is a latent dark undercurrent to her carelessness that becomes more and more
apparent as they approach Algeria. In
her darker moments, Naima is jaded,
wanton, impenetrable and filled with
self-loathing, driving herself into situations that hurt both herself and Zano.
Hence, even the body that provides her
with shelter bears painful scars and
memories she will sooner or later have
to account for. Likewise, the couples
rejection of the idea of home is equally
problematic. Even if the two characters
do not dream of Algeria as their homeland, it is nevertheless a destination that
holds a promise of a truer, more meaningful existence for both of them. In that
sense, the idea of home and belonging
even if only imaginary and transitory
does represent a source of imaginative
power for both.
As much as from the point of view of
sedentary society Zano and Naima may
enjoy the freedom of nomads, their encounter with other itinerants such as
illegal migrants and Gypsies forces us
to reconsider and recontextualize their
form of nomadism. Obviously, the free58

dom granted by the road radically difers

among diferent groups of travellers. Not
all characters share the same degree of
mobility and their degrees of marginality also difer considerably. In that respect, although Gatlif certainly suggests
that the experience of deterritorialization may serve as a binding factor across
diferent nationalities, religions and cultures, he is nevertheless careful to distinguish the specificity of each experience
of displacement. This diferentiation and
careful socio-historical contextualization of each mode of mobility is primarily achieved by the films representation
of space and place, and more specifically,
suggestive framing devices.
On this cross-cultural, two-way trek,
the nomadic pair first meets an Algerian
brother and sister, Leila and Habib, who
left Algeria to study in Paris or Amsterdam. In order to finance their trip, they
go from place to place, seeking work and
living in destitution. When they hear of
Zano and Naimas plan to walk to Algiers,
they burst laughing, not believing that
anybody would want to leave Paris, the
city of their hoped salvation. Although
Gatlif establishes that all four characters
are dispossessed and marginal, a fact
which helps them to bond and interact,
the use of spatial representations and
framing devices, however, suggests an
important diferentiation. More explicitly, I will argue that the double perspective achieved through framing allows the
juxtaposition of the inside and the outside. In this manner the travelling couple
is always split from other immigrants in
the frame, occupying the outside position
that signifies freedom of movement. In
one such emblematic scene shot from the

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

back of a moving truck, Zano and Naima
are shown walking the road, while the
truck drives away, taking the immigrants
to some other location. Contrasting light
and dark, the freedom of the road to the
inside of the truck, this long take thus

Homecoming through music

Although, according to Naficy, the return to the homeland occupies a primary
place in the minds of the exiles and a
disproportionate amount of space in
their films (2001, p. 229), the return in
Exiles, however, is neither glorious, nor
does it constitute a classic homecoming.
Instead, it reflects the unique and complex position of many displaced persons
today, torn between the desire to leave
and the impossibility of ever fully and
completely returning. The more they
approach Algiers, Naima gets more and
more anxious and at times truly terrified
at having to face a culture which does not
hold anything for her except from painful
memories from the past. The feeling of
encountering a foreign culture is further
captured by the changed visual register.
Once in Morocco and Algeria, the camera takes in the dusty, austere landscape
and the film becomes overwhelmed by
people: the overcrowded train, masses
of earthquake survivors searching for
a safer haven, households with several
generations living under the same roof,
long queues of Algerians outside shops
or at taxi stands and a throng assembled
to listen and dance to musicians throbbing beats. Ironically, however, the more
people fill the frame, the more disoriented the spectator gets, as the desire to
match the images with knowledge and

invites reflection on the social diferentiation of experiences of mobility and

displacement. In other words, mobility
does not have any inherent meaning per
se, whereas the road is not occupied by
all participants equally.
some kind of recognition remains unfulfilled.
Hence, instead of familiarizing, idealizing or rendering the Algerian culture exotic, Gatlifs depiction of Algeria is fraught
with the same ambiguity that marked his
own return to the country after 43 years
of exile. As he admits, he was also scared
of going back and after making this film,
he knew that Algeria was not his country.
While he could appreciate it, he could not
understand the land or its people. Consequently, Gatlifs visual style reflects both
the appreciation and the alienation from
this culture: refusing to interpret scenes
and generally ofering the spectator very
few guidelines as to what he/she is seeing, he demonstrates no superior understanding of the culture. Instead he lets
the camera roam and randomly dwell on
grave faces, inexplicably motionless figures in the street and houses destroyed
in the earthquake, creating an unsettling atmosphere of eeriness. In short,
we are presented with an impenetrable
culture, being equally curious and lost as
Zano and Naima themselves, who have
to make sense of what they are seeing,
matching fragments from their memory
and stories with the unfamiliar reality in
front of them.
If anything, the scenes of the homecoming, however, allow us to interrogate
59

ARS AETERNA
the meaning of home and structures of
belonging, as reflected in Zanos and
Naimas opposing attitudes to home. For
Zano, home is connected with memory,
with stories his father used to tell him
and above all with a rich imagery which
enables him to situate himself in the long
line of family history. As such, home is
only accessible in the form of narratives,
which endow it with a sense of mythic
unity and harmony. Coming to Algiers,
Zano is given the chance to retrace these
narratives by visiting his familys former
house. What is articulated in the scene
of Zano inspecting the old family photographs and paraphernalia is not only the
semantics of memory (Naficy, 2001, p.
169), where the lost harmony of home is
recreated retrospectively and symbolically, but also the essentially constructed
and afective nature of home and belonging. Home, in other words, according to
Bachelard, is not only about fantasies of
belonging, but is also sentimentalized
as a space of belonging (quoted in Morley, 2000, p. 19). The inhabited space of
the house thus becomes a palimpsest
of emotions, fragmented narratives and
histories. For Zano, the paintings on the
walls, the piano, still photographs and
the preserved original setting of the
house come to signify as a pars pro toto
the lost harmony and stability of home,
tying together to produce a consistent
family narrative within which Zano can
gain identity anchorage and feel a sense
of belonging. In that respect, the return
to his family house facilitated both a return to himself and a return home, be it
only retrospectively and transiently.
Whereas Zano manages to find some
connection with the culture surrounding
60

him, which is mainly predicated upon

him having found the connection with
his family, Naima feels totally lost. Her
experience of strangeness and discomfort, however, is felt mostly at the level
of the body. After being approached and
scolded by a woman in the street for her
inappropriate clothing, she is forced to
wear traditional Muslim womens attire,
which makes her sufocate. In the house
of Leila and Habibs family she eventually utters: I feel like a stranger. I am a
stranger everywhere (Gatlif, 2004, pp.
1:06:20). On the one hand, this uneasiness, disjuncture and strangeness that
Naima feels in a foreign culture may
indicate a state of in-betweenness triggered by a coexistence of various forms
of identities characteristic of many displaced persons. However, while Naima
certainly feels some of this fragmentation, she is shown as incapable of truly
inhabiting any geography. Thus, Naimas
words that she is a stranger wherever
she goes can above all be interpreted in
terms of being a stranger to oneself, being exiled from oneself and ones body.
Naima is haunted by the past and terrified of facing traumatic family memories
she tried to repress all her life. The trauma signalled by the fact that she cannot talk about it is represented by the
ominous scar on her back underlining
the fact that her body had been violated.
Although we do not know with certainty
what exactly happened in Naimas family, there are clues to suggest that she
had been sexually abused as a teenager.
Hence, contrary to Zanos romanticization of childhood home, her vision of
home contains concealed trauma, that is
to say, elements of the uncanny or the un-

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

heimlich. Far from being a utopian place
of safety and shelter for which we supposedly yearn, here home proves to be a
place of dark secrets, of fear and danger
that we can only inhabit furtively.
A visit to a Sufi mystic confirms these
doubts: she reads Naima, directly addressing her particular condition of
exile: You are here but your spirit is
elsewhere. Get back to the ground. You
have to find your footing (Gatlif, 2004,
pp. 1:21:20). In Naimas case, the body
as site has become a place of exile. For
Naima, far from being an abstract concept, exile is in fact founded in somatic
realities, that is to say, in pain. Disassociating the mind from the body, probably as a form of self-protection, Naima
willingly exiled herself. In that sense,
Naimas flights into one-night-stands
and other intense bodily sensations can
be read as her attempts to regain a connection to the body, as it remains the site
of a perpetual battle for control. In light
of this knowledge, if there is any reconciliation to be made with her past, it is
primarily through the body. The films
penultimate scene featuring a twelveminute Sufi trance provides an opportunity for such a climactic exorcism. Gatlif
emphasizes the community character of
such an event, where music, dance and
song create a space of shared pleasure
and confirmation of identity. This scene
is also significant as it introduces music as the key therapeutic and we can
freely say dramatic factor in the film
that brings reconciliation, emplacement
and helps the person to regain the state
of connectedness with the body.
It is music that ultimately brings resolution, Gatlif seems to be saying through-

out the film. In the films elegiac final

scene shot at the city cemetery, Zano in a
symbolic act puts the headphones on the
tombstone of his grandfather. Music links
past and present as the couple moves on,
hand in hand. They have both achieved a
kind of closure and emplacement necessary for moving on, in whichever direction the road takes them. However, Gatlif
does not provide us with the image of
some unified subjectivity or the primordial identity recovered at the end of the
quest. In fact, if exile facilitates anything,
it is the awareness of the essential constructedness of ones own structures of
belonging. Distanced from familiar and
familial structures, the exiles are thus
in the position to construct, reconstruct
and perform their identities. In addition,
since there is no place except the road
where Zano and Naima clearly belong,
their homecoming journey represents a
form of transit, rather than a return to a
real home or homeland they have been
estranged from. A home thus conceived
primarily in terms of transit becomes a
type of porous home-space that can be
occupied regularly, but that can never
be inhabited in the traditional sense. As
Bammer concludes, home in this sense
is a symbolic habitat, a performative
way of life and of doing things in which
one makes ones home while in movement (quoted in Di Stefano 2002, p.
41).
Finally, it is important to distinguish
between the earlier mentioned concept
of postmodern vagabondage and Gatlifs
vision of nomadism, in what constitutes
the kernel of Gatlif vision of the road. Despite the fact that Gatlifs characters carry the home inside of them and share the
61

ARS AETERNA
dream of radical liberty and roaming at
will implied in the concept of vagabondage, Gatlif nevertheless acknowledges
the fact that they live in a politically, socially and culturally diferentiated world
where the ability to roam is based on
privilege, where not everybody has the
luxury of extravagant identity and where
exile remains a fact of life for thousands
of displaced people across the world.
In other words, he acknowledges that
neither the exilic dream of return to an
organic connection nor the nomadic celebration of rootless liberty provides the
best existential option in a world of difference. In Exiles thus the discourses of
exile and nomadism converge, highlighting as much the necessity and perpetual
postponement of homecoming as the essentially diasporic nature of all identities,
created through travel and in motion.
To conclude, for the filmmaker himself, it is primarily through music that
he inhabits his home-in-movement

and inaugurates his vision of the road.

However, next to its performative function, music also serves as a powerful
film discourse. Having the ability to produce, rather than represent identity, it
functions as the primary agent of crosscultural interaction and the vehicle of
knowledge in the film. As music travels
across countries and gets enriched, inflected and reappropriated along the
way, as it sensuously produces places,
communities and situations connecting
people across their diferences, Gatlif
emphasizes the fact that music, just like
identity, is always a product of movement and cultural interaction. As such, it
is the cultural form best suited not only
to cross, but also to question and transcend cultural boundaries. Exile enacts
this transcultural potential in two ways:
by performing movement as an identity
principle and a way of being in the world
and by using music to create new forms
of cultural knowledge.

Works cited:
Ang, I., Hegemony-In-Trouble. Nostalgia and Ideology of the Impossible in EuropeanCinema. In: Petrie,
D.(ed.), 1992. Screening Europe. Image and Identity in Contemporary European Cinema. London: BFI
Publishing, pp. 21-31.
Bauman, Z. From Pilgrim to Tourist or a Short History of Identity. In: Hall, S. & P. du Gay (eds.), 1996.
Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage Publications, pp. 18-36.
Di Stefano, J., 2002.. Moving Images of Home. Art Journal, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Winter, 2002), pp.38-51.
Gatlif, T., 2004. Exiles.
Hall, S. Cultural Identity and Diaspora. In: Rutherford, J. (ed.), 1990. Identity. Community, Culture, Diference. London: Lawrence & Wishart, pp. 222-237.
Naficy, H.(ed.), 1999.. Home, Exile, Homeland. Film, Media, and the Politics of Place. NewYork: Routledge.
Naficy, H., 2001. An Accented Cinema. Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity
Press.
Mazierska, E. & L. Rascaroli, 2006. Crossing New Europe. Postmodern Travel and theEuropean Road
Movie. London.
Morley, D., 2000. Home Territories. Media, Mobility and Identity. London: Routledge..
Peters, J.D.. Exile, Nomadism and Diaspora. The Stakes of Mobility in the Western Canon. In: Naficy, H.
(ed.), 1999. Home, Exile, Homeland. Film, Media, and the Politics of Place. New York: Routledge, p. 17-39.

62

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

Multiculturalism and a Search for Identity in

Spanish Film Production after the Fall of Francoism
Petra Pappov
In 2005, Petra Pappov graduated in Spanish language/literature and Aesthetics from Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia. She spent the next 3 years as a PhD.
student at the Institute of Literary and Artistic Communication. Her field of research includes
Spanish literature and film, the problems of feminism, intertextuality and translation. Her
dissertation focused on the work of the Spanish writer Arturo Prez Reverte in the context of
postmodern literature and feminist reading. In 2008, she received her PhD. in Aesthetics from
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia and is currently teaching courses on
feminism in literature, interpretation and intertextuality.

Abstract
The fall of General Francos dictatorship and the subsequent opening of the country toward
Europe in the 1980s evolved the atmosphere in society and art. The long awaited freedom
and the absence of censorship caused a frenetic progress of art and de-tabooing of themes.
We are talking about the so called period of movida that pre-showed a new movement of
art courses and themes. The article deals mainly with a film production and an intersection
of universal themes in this area. We perceive in particular a conflict between the influence
of media which open the gate to a globalized world and the micro-space of Spain, its specific identity through the works of Pedro Almodovar, Bigas Luna and Gerard Herrer.

A distinguished feature of Spanish film

production is an attempt to capture differences of cultures and individuals on
the background of intimate stories. The
social situation of the last three decades
has more than ever put into opposition
terms own-strange, which vibrate in
all areas of Spanish art production. Art
and its development are closely connected with the historical development
of the country where it originates. The
situation in Spain in the period of years
19361979 is specific in many ways. For
instance, the Spanish film industry was
marked by General Francisco Francos
dictatorship and censorship.
In the years 1962-1969, Jos Mara
Garca Escudero had control over the
Spanish film industry. In 1963 he passed

the Censorship Code which remained

valid until 1975. However, in this period
cinematography was strongly supported
by the state. Films which met requirements and limitations following from the
Censorship Code got a financial support
and could be presented at international
festivals. The conditions and situation of
Spanish film producers at that time were
very much similar to our (at that time
Czechoslovakia) cultural context. Some
filiations can also be seen in topics focus on national motifs, banal love stories
narrated by heroines, problems of communication failure and intimate images
of family.
The social politics of General Francisco
Franco presented in its program meant
a comeback of traditions and Catholi63

ARS AETERNA
cism, and thus in conformity with the
Catholic thinking a model of housewife,
mother and perfect spouse was created.
If we compare the presented situation in
the context with cultural and social development in Europe, in the perspective
of spreading ideas of feminism, Spain is
closing itself into nationalism, refuses the
influence of western world and a couple
of decades is mentally turning back.
The mentioned thematic movement
of Spanish cinematography is clearly
related to the given social politics and
producers efort to avoid a topic which
can be characterized as antinational or
socially critical. Nevertheless, in many
cases directors were able to employ precisely these motives in intimate images
of Spanish family.
Carlos Saura, who depicted the Spanish reality through symbols, managed to
free himself from the standard pattern of
this period and thus he became significantly diferent. The metaphoric aspect
and poetics of his work has been misunderstood in Spain until present; however, in the 60s and 70s of the previous
century he received an international appreciation. Although his work copies the
traditional depiction of national and cultural peculiarities of the nation through
the story of individual or smaller group,
the inexactness of symbols and the possibility of free interpretation of ofered
images run up against problems with
censorship.
On the other hand, precisely metaphors
of the film language mark the movement
of Spanish cinematography towards a
wider audience searching for a language
which would be universal and yet individual.
64

The fall of the dictatorship of General

Franco and the consequent opening of
the country towards Europe in the 80s
liberated the atmosphere in society and
art. The long time expected freedom
and the absence of censorship caused
a frenetic development of art and detabooing of themes. This period known
as movida marked a new movement of
artistic plans and themes.
A very distinguished person of this period was Pedro Almodovar. La movida
(Spanish: movement), as it name says,
represents a huge change, movement into
a new direction. The Spanish society has
new problems from which it was falsely
protected by the inner central dictatorship. The opening of borders, the migration of people from villages to towns
and the flow of opinions and thoughts
from surrounding countries brought its
advantages and disadvantages. Spain,
which has always classified itself as one
of the countries with the highest number of people reporting themselves as
catholic, precisely in this period, could
feel a heavy decrease of influence of the
church and its power. The reason of this
is mainly an old-fashioned opinion about
the question of sexual behaviour and the
usage of contraception, which does not
correspond with the theory of free love
coming from the west.
In compliance with the possibility of
free choice regarding sexual partners or
decisions related to maternity, the position of woman changes, so she becomes
freer and able to look for her employment out of household.
Art becomes free of censorship, which
lasted for some decades, and this results
in a free depiction of political themes

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

criticizing Francoism, but also the contemporary situation, and above all, nakedness and eroticism are getting into
the art, which also becomes an invariant
of the artistic language. These aspects
appear in all chosen films which we deal
with in this paper.
The film Kika (1993) boasts with the
abundance of colourfulness and individual depictions of opening Spain to
universalism. Almodovar with a distance
and his individual sarcasm points out the
role of woman in society, who becomes
even more colourful; goes beyond the
stereotype of a catholic Spanish woman
and comes closer to the universal model
of a multicultural and postmodern woman.
Sociologist Gilles Lipovetsky defines a
modern woman as a third woman. In his
book with the same title, which studies
the position of woman from sociological,
historical and political aspect, he deals
with striking changes that have occurred
in the last fifty years. The possibility of
education, work employment, right to
vote, sexual freedom, right to take decisions converted the contemporary woman into a postmodern woman. It is impossible to define her accurately, though.
Postmodern women have many faces
but one common feature - the possibility
of any choice.
The third woman managed to reconcile a woman of radical diferences with
a woman who constantly begins (Lipovetsky, 2000, p. 15).
The character of Kika is personification
of this kind of woman and, at the same
time, she maintains the individuality of
a nation to which she belongs. She is the
owner of a beauty salon and in her, at

first sight, simple life she comes through

failures and victories with a smile on
her lips. The story of Kika is necessary
to perceive from the opposite side of the
mirror. Nothing is like it seems at first
sight. The poetics of the film is clearly
outlined from the first moment:
Kika: Nice. Anna: Lower your head
open your eyes... We took out one eyelash so you can see the diference. Eyelashes make the eyes look bigger make
them expressive. You cannot compare a
woman with shiny eyes with one with
her eyes down. Even with an ugly one,
with eyelashes she shines. Lets hear it
for the eyelashes, girls!
Mockery of superficiality and refusal of
perceiving the reality are the leitmotifs
of the film. Almodovar is not just criticizing the previous historical period, but he
also realizes the negatives of openness
and the flow of consumerism to Spain.
The manifestation of consumerism is a
phenomenon of advertising which is surrounding us and becomes an omnipresent symbol of the postmodern period.
The media play an important role in creating the view on society. Even though
they work on the principle of simulacrum,
the society takes their view on the world
as a rule which is compulsory to keep.
Advertising, which has a strong power of
persuasion, belongs among the biggest
media phenomena. This definition does
not cover the influence of advertising on
the recipient, though. Advertising is not
only a means of communication evoking
shopping stimuli in a potential buyer, but
it is mainly an efective item for spreading ideologies. Indubitably, it takes the
role of cultural value bearer and brings
ethic and aesthetic models. Advertising
65

ARS AETERNA
not only sells products but it also forms
a sociocultural identity of the subject.
That is why it is necessary to watch this
phenomenon not just from the view of
advertising aesthetics, which is closely
related to work with the object, but also
think about the consequences of work
with the subject and the ethics of advertising.
Almodovar sets up a mirror to advertising. In the film Kika advertising and
another television phenomenon reality
show play very important role. They
are presented by Andrea Scarred, a reporter who builds her career by discovering the scandals. The very character of
Andrea is an incarnation of controversy:
on one hand, a professional attitude to
journalistic profession and on the other
hand, the area of interest and the way of
presentation or dressing. Her diction is
pathetic, through which the director just
accents his aim to make a parody from
the genre of the investigative journalism
present in the modern media.
A woman shot herself because they
denied her of a loan. A court member
of Seville is accused of embezzlements.
Juana T. was a victim of sexual harassment. A famous politician kills his wife
and then kills himself. They had an argument about their daughters grades.
His neighbours said he was a great man.
A young girl-rapist committed suicide
in prison out of shame because he had
been raped in jail. Mogia was convicted
for prostitution of mentally handicapped
people. Five anarchists killed two people
from Morocco and one from Dominica.
A porno gang was arrested today at the
childrens care station, Prosperity. They
were forcing six-year olds to film Hard66

core porn. The police is [sic] searching

for the child killer X. Garthia also known
as Portuguese.
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen.
With you Ms. Andrea Scarred. Presenting
you the Worst of the day.4
Journalism based on discovering the
biggest human decays leads in the film to
total anesthetizing of reality, pushing the
borders of stereotyped social behaviour
and losing perception between good or
bad. The climax scene is where Kika is
raped by brother of her maid, who ran
out of prison, and came for help to his
sister. The director is connecting the
motif of media, which create from raped
and tragic events a hyperbolic mockery..
The raping is moved toward the border
of comedy where the perception of reality is altered.
The story is based in a big city, which at
first sight, gives anonymity, but in reality a private place in it is disappearing.
The monotony of housing estates characteristic by building blocks of flats is
an unpopular sign of the modern period,
an efort for the unification of ideas of
optimal survival in life. Almodovar uses
precisely this place for stressing a contrast between monotony, colourlessness
and the variety of people, who share this
space. The explicitness of depiction and
controversial themes, for which the director became famous, are just a sophisticated game of hidden meanings and
messages. Kika is available to a wider audience because its reception is facilitated
by means of ambiguous depiction which
creates some kind of universal language.
As it is clear from the Almodovar production, Spanish identity is always present in his work. Nevertheless, in the area

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

of artistic and aesthetic communication
we can see a movement towards the universalism not just in themes, but also in
content.
The cinematography of the 90s was influenced by thoughts of feminism, which
entered Spain a couple of decades later
than in the neighbouring countries. The
reason of this was the social politics of
General Francisco Franco which introduces in its program a comeback of traditions and Catholicism, and it reserved
a place at household for the woman.
Despite this fact, in the 60s thoughts of
woman identity were formed, which
thanks to Simone de Beauvoirs ideas
(1908 1986)5 found their respond
even in Spain and were gradually reflected in literature and cinematography.
Thoughts of Simone de Beauvoir resonate already in the 60s mainly in the area
of Spanish literature. The problem of the
position of woman in society, her mythology, question of maternity themes
also developed by Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Doris Lessing and later
also Margueritte Duras and Anais Nino
determine the direction of Spanish literature that becomes an inspiration for
many directors.
The 80s bring a striking change and a
relaxation in depicting women characters and picturization of controversial
themes. The stereotype of submissive
young woman gradually vanishes and
is replaced by a young female rebel who
refuses to subordinate to the social dictate.
A strong representative in the area
of literature at the end of the 80s is Almudena Grandes (1960) who was a
pioneer in developing erotic novel and

attracted many film producers. Director

Bigas Luna (1946) in 1990 filmed his
novel Lulu (Las edades de Lul, 1989)
in which he captures the puritan background of Spanish middle class and interfering influence of the western way of
life on an adolescent heroine. Through
the story situated in Madrid in the period of postfrancoism, we get acquainted
with Lulu and perceive the surrounding
world through her perspective. The language itself is very open which is reflected also in its film version.
Taboo themes of pornography, sadomasochism, voyeurism, and open sexuality, which author develops in the novel,
are mainly the metaphor of the censorship of previous period, which is also reflected in this area. In order not to let this
idea stay in the background, Bigas Luna
had to change some parts of artwork.
The director preferred a chronological
narration of the story as opposed to the
novel which begins from the culminating
point of life of the young woman in divorce proceedings. Lulu, retrospectively,
is in her memories trying to find an answer to her incomprehensible sexual addiction during the years spent, at first
sight, in an ideal family full of fake and
suppressed emotions.
The incipit of the film is a detailed display of powdered genitals of a newborn
girl. This motif is also present later in
the relationship of Lulu and Pablo who
perceives her as a toy that he can do anything with. Without her awareness he
invites her brother to join them in their
sexual games. The next day Lulu decides
to leave Pablo:
Lulu: I feel insecure.
Pablo: Insecure? How?
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ARS AETERNA
Lulu: Because Im not the same for you
anymore. I dont want to be a child. Dont
you see? If I had said no, youd have gone
to bed with Cristina.
Pablo: Does it matter?
Lulu: A lot.
Pablo: Do you want to wreck it all?
Lulu: Listen, Im leaving. Why cant you
understand? Im only sure about ...not
wanting to be a child any more.6

Loneliness and freedom bring Lulu to

uncertainty which is presented in even
more bizarre sexual experiences. Many
until then unknown new things surpassing the imagination of society about a
young married woman with a child bring
her to a never ending circle from which
she cannot step out. Only the collision
with reality forces her to awake.
Controversy of the story and adaptation of the theme itself classify the film
as an erotic motion picture, but at the
same time it foreshadowed the openness
of the Spanish film production to depiction of new themes.
In 1995 director Gerardo Herrero was
inspired by other Grandess novels Malena is the name of tango (Malena es un
nombre de tango, 1994). In many aspects
the subject of both stories is the same; it
is diferent only in a degree of explicitness. The director is much clearer in depicting the place which becomes a formmaking aspect of the story. The heroine
Malena lives in the country and town
which predetermine a certain type of
behaviour. The criticism of closeness of
Spanish country, which refuses any kind
of otherness from everyday stereotypes,
is emphasized mainly in the opposition
with urban area, symbol of globalization,
68

ofering freedom and anonymity. The

main motif of the story is family treasure
- a precious emerald - which grandfather leaves to his twelve-year-old granddaughter Malena. He orders her not to
tell anyone about it because one day it
will save her life. Malena has a twin sister Reina who personifies an ideal image
of woman of the post-war period. She
is calm, behaved, humble, patient, and
submissive. In contrast with her, Malena
disposes with confidence, rudeness and
braveness. She lives an intensive life,
learns on own mistakes, but she does
not regret her decisions. Knowing own
personality and accepting own sexuality creates an image of a real woman full
of contradictions and emotions. Malena
does not fit any stereotype; she is individual but also universal. Relationships
with men and her sister, who personifies
an ideal woman and mother, gradually
become tenser. Rebelliousness of Malena
ceases when she realizes that her biggest
rebelliousness will not be refusal of life
but braveness to live and not to lose oneself.
Both adaptations of the novels of Almudena Grandes use motives of body,
physical sufering and discovering borders of sexuality, delight and pain. Despite the controversy of the themes and
their picturization in both films is present an intellectual view of reality full of
irony and sarcasm.
The film production of Julio Medem is
characterized by a totally diferent poetics. He belongs among few directors who
are able to depict contemporary society
political and social life without falling
into shallowness or politicizing with a
very intimate language. He became fa-

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

mous in the early 90s with his first feature film The Cows (Vacas, 1991). The
latest film by Julio Medem Random Ann
(Catica Ana, 2008) was accepted with
enthusiasm; however, it earned some
critical reactions from professionals
and general public. The film was made
as an honour for Medems sister Ann
who died in a car accident in 2001. The
paintings, she made in her entire life, are
employed in the last part of the film and
they make up the story which is based
on the contrast of chaos and destiny. The
story is connecting the motif of regression of hypnosis which also determined
the conceptual dividing of the film in ten
passages.
The director put the story in three

diferent places which also determine

Anns behaviour. She is escapes to her
own world and with an intention she refuses to go over the self-knowledge process. Medem often uses psychology and
he plays with consciousness and unconsciousness. The repeating motif of chaos
and fake painted doors on the walls express fear of something unknown and
distant. Ann grows up in a cave with her
father whom she sees as the beginning
of everything. Anns paintings remained
infantile also in Madrid where she lives
with a group of young artists. She gets
acquainted with new people who difer
in origin and perceiving the world and
through them she begins to know herself.

Medem created a diferent type of hero

from those we are accustomed to in his
films. Even at the end of the story it is
not clear what Ann is like and where
her roots are. Through the regression
of hypnosis she remembers the lives of
many women she has might ever been;
however, she refuses to open the door
of her unconsciousness and accept this
fact which only multiplies the feeling of
chaos in her life.
The author works with the thought
which already Ronald Barthes dealt with
in the context postmodernism definition and the position of an artist in it.

The author in discourse of postmodernism stands in the labyrinth in which one

does not diferentiate between past and
present and everything seems clear but
distant. He stands in front of possibility of any choice which, however, brings
problems, too. In 1967 Ronald Barthes
introduced his thesis about the death
of an author. He just followed the active interest of percipient when reading
particular works and his freedom in possibilities of interpretation. Medem intentionally does not finish some thoughts
but in this created chaos he forces the
perceiver to active reception. It is typical

Place
Cave
Madrid
New York

Language
Father`s language
Art language
Language of past/unconsciousness

Culture
Patriarchal
Multicultural
Multicultural
x
Making a unity

69

ARS AETERNA
for Medem to depersonalize somehow
from depicting typical national themes,
something he is often blamed for (especially by local critics). However, in this
film it is not the case. Depending on the
place where Ann is, it is easy to read its
cultural particularities, even though the
heroine is escaping from stereotyped
depiction connected to a certain nation. We can rather see her relationship
with a life in nature and town to which
she also tries to match her clothes and
appearance. The film is full of contradictions and surprising turnovers what is
actually related to period in which the
story begins7. The film Random Ann can

be seen as a metaphor about postmodernism, about many of its shapes, about

refusing the past which creates it.
The chosen interpreted films are just
an example of Spanish cinematography
of the last twenty years but they clearly
outline the movement of the interest of
producers to actual questions of global
society. The question of a womans position in society gains a wider context in
the poetics of the mentioned films. A turbulent conflict between own and strange
gradually becomes a topical actual theme
for every nation that wants to keep the
individuality in multicultural environment of the postmodernism.

Endnotes:
E.g. works of directors: Basilio Martn Patino, Mario Camus, Miguel Picazo, Francisco Regueiro
E.g. metaphorical depiction of the Civil war in ilm La caza The Hunt
http://www.subtitles-divx.net/d/44383/Kika.html, 13.9.2008
4 http://www.subtitles-divx.net/d/44383/Kika.html, 13.9.2008
5 Simone de Beauvoir is considered to be the representative of liberal humanistic feminism and in her
works she puts an accent on equalization women and men. Now in her already cultish work of feminism
literature The Second Sex she offers the complex view on this problem from aspect of psychology, history,
anthropology and biology. She is against the gender dividing as natural fact which determines position
of person in society on the basis of his/her sex. Woman is considered as cultural product of society, she
is always deined through relationship to someone, for example daughter, sister, mother, mistress, etc.:
Woman is explicitly assigned by her relationship to man. Asymmetry of both categories male and female shows in one-sided creation of sexual myths. Sometimes we say sex and we mean a woman: she
is a body and his passion, and also danger: It has never been reported that truth that for woman is man
sexual and bodily, too; simply there was no one who would report that. An idea of world and world itself is
a creation of men. They describe it through own point of view and this loats together with absolute truth.
(Beauvoir, 1967, pp. 72-73)
6http://www.allsubs.org/subs-download/edades-de-lulu-las-1990-2-5-fps-1-cd-en-divxforever-the-agesof104479/ 12.9.2008
7 According to Jean Franois Lyotard, the paradox of the term postmodernism itself is in the etymology of
this word. The connection of Latin words post (after) and modo (right now) makes by denotation contradicting literal translation after right now. The preix post can be interpreted variously thanks to its more
meanings. The irst meaning which understands the word post as time sequence deining the end of one
period and the beginning of other period. The postmodernism is irst of all the question of expressive forms
of thinking. We can perceive it as certain analogy with Freud psychoanalysis, which expresses the process
of discovering by free associations; it is searching the hidden meanings of its life in the past.
As Lyotard says, the preix post- means: certain process which can be marked with words beginning

70

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

on ana-, the process of analysis, anamnesis, analogy, anamorphous, which processes initial oblivion.
(Lyotard, 1993, p. 72)
Works cited:
Beauvoirov, S., 1967. Druh pohlav. Praha: Orbis.
Grandes, A., 2008. Malena es un nombre de tango. Barcelona: Tusquets Editores, S.A.
Lyotard, J. F., 1993. O postmodernismu. Praha: Filosoick stav AV R.
Morrisov, P., 2000. Literatura a feminizmus. Brno: Host.
Nagl-Doekalov, H., 2007. Feministick ilozoie. Vsledky, problmy perspektivy. Praha: SLON.
Nichols, G. C., 1992. Des/cifrar la diferencia (Narrativa femenina de la Espaa contempornea). Madrid:
Editores S.A.
Pohl, B; Trschmann, J., 2007. Miradas glocales. Cine espaol en el cambio de milenio. Iberoamericana.
http://www.subtitles-divx.net/d/44383/Kika.html, 13.9.2008
http://www.hispagenda.com/articulos/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/unknown.jpeg,10.09.2008
http://www.subtitles-divx.net/d/44383/Kika.html,13.9.2008
http://www.clubcultura.com/clubcine/clubcineastas/almodovar/kika/carteles/grandes/cgr3.gif, 13.9.2008
http://klub1001ejszaka.freeblog.hu/iles/movpic/lasedadesdelulu.jpg, 5.9.2008
http://www.allsubs.org/subs-download/edades-de-lulu-las-1990-2-5-fps-1-cd-en-divxforever-the-agesof/104479/, 12.9.2008
http://www.cinemarx.ro/poze/postere/filme/1996/Malena-es-un-nombre-de-tango-28111-724.jpg
12.9.2008
http://www.lashorasperdidas.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/caotica-ana-poster.jpg, 15.10.2008

71

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Pardoning Unpardonable Smiling Discrimination in Canada

Jana Javorkov
Jana Javorkova is currently teaching at Faculty of Humanities, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. She has been teaching American Studies, Canadian Studies, Modern British literature and Modern American and British Drama. In 2002 she participated in FEP-FRP
program at Trent University in Petersborough, Canada and in 2005-2006 she was teaching at
Minneapolis Community and Technical College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Her field of
research interest includes American literature, especially drama and also cultural studies. In
2008, she published a monograph entitled Parallels of Genres in Eugene ONeills Dramas.

Abstract
The article Pardoning Unpardonable - Smiling Discrimination in Canada deals with a
recent negative social phenomenon, describing a form of treating people on the basis of a
category which might often result in violating their civil and human rights. Smiling discrimination is a form of concealed racism when people do not explicitly broadcast their
racially based intentions; instead, they veil them or provide reasons that society will find
more palatable reasons. Therefore, hidden discrimination is difficult to identify, penalize
and prevent. The analysis focuses on this covert form of discrimination toward visible minorities and immigrants and its forms in schools, real estate market and criminal justice
system. We hope to increase the awareness of this new social phenomenon occurring not
only in Canada but in any multicultural and multiracial society.

Some of many features Canada and the

European Union share is their multiethnic, multiracial and multicultural social
mosaic and various positive and negative social phenomena resulting from
such multilayered structure of society.
One of them is a relatively new, negative and potentially dangerous social
phenomenon called smiling discrimination, denominating a concealed form of
racism, such as housing and job discrimination, promotion restrictions or greater
law enforcement surveillance of visible
minorities. For discrimination in any of
these fields, the sociologist M. Codjoe
suggests the term smiling racism and
understands it in accordance with Scheurich and Young as the covert type [of
racism when] persons making covert,
72

racially biased decisions do not explicitly

broadcast their intentions; instead, they
veil them or provide reasons that society
will find more palatable. (1997, p. 5). It
is the fact that the racial motivation of
smiling discrimination is often hidden
behind socially acceptable explanations
which makes it more difficult to identify,
penalize and prevent. Awareness of cultural, social and historical background
to this phenomenon will help to develop
sensitivity to hidden forms of discrimination in any multicultural society and
enhance fair-play rules for all citizens.
Many experts point out that Canada is
one of the most attractive countries for
immigrants in the world. It is wealthy in
resources, rich in talent, secure in strong
democratic traditions, renowned as a

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

peacekeeper and prized as a land of opportunity for prospective immigrants,
writes C. Lewitt in his article The Morality of Race in Canada3. As a result, there
has been massive immigration to Canada, resulting in its status as a true multicultural and multiethnic society. Canada,
according to the 2001 census, has a total
immigrant population of 5,448,480. The
biggest immigrant populations are those
from eastern Asia (730,6000); Southern Europe (715,370); southern Asia
(503,895); south-east Asia (469,105);
and West-central Asia and the Middle
East (285,585), but they also come from
Central and South America (304,650);
the Caribbean and Bermuda (294,050),
and Africa (282,600). The immigrant
population from the United Kingdom
represents 606,000 immigrants; however, most of them came prior to the
1980s.4
One of the reasons for the popularity of Canada as a destination for immigrants certainly is that, compared to the
USA, committed to the assimilationist
approach, Canada, for those groups of
European origin, has traditionally been
more tolerant of the continued expression of cultural diferences among diverse groups (Marger, 1997, p. 456).
Moreover, the Canadian Human Rights
Act protects anyone living in Canada
against discrimination. Under the Canadian Human Rights Act, it is against
the law for any employer or provider of a
service that falls within federal jurisdiction to discriminate on the basis of race,
nationality or ethnic origin, color, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy or
childbearing), sexual orientation, marital status, family status, physical or men-

tal disability (including dependence on

alcohol and drugs) and pardoned criminal conviction.5 Most importantly, the
Canadian attitude to minorities promises an optimistic future. According to
the Ethnic Diversity Survey, conducted
in 2002, the vast majority of Canadians
(86%) aged 15 years and older (about
19 million), said they had not experienced discrimination or unfair treatment in Canada because of their ethnocultural background during the previous
five years (18).
However, there still exists a number of
Canadians who are still exposed to discrimination in Canada, ranging from minor to more severe cases.6 According to
the Ethnic Diversity Survey, both visible
and invisible minorities still encountered
some forms of discrimination: About
20% of visible minorities or 587,000
people, said they had sometimes or often experienced discrimination or unfair
treatment during the previous five years
because of their ethnicity, culture, race,
color, language, accent or religion. An
additional 15% of visible minorities reported such treatment occurring rarely
(18).
The above-mentioned survey does not
distinguish between direct and indirect
discrimination and to our knowledge, no
such reliable research has been conducted. However, there exist a number of partial studies, analyzing the occurrence of
smiling discrimination among minorities. A study conducted in 2002 among
a group of Vietnamese-Canadian youth
showed that smiling discrimination
occurs at schools, even in ESL classes. A
student reported that white students get
more time and attention than students
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ARS AETERNA
of colour (Phan, 561). Another study,
carried out among South-Asian refugees
revealed that as many as 39% felt they
were subject to subtle discrimination,
including unfair treatment and insulting
remarks. This percentage is substantially
higher that the percentage of those who
sufered overt discrimination (9.75%)
and discrimination against community
(16.8%) and indicates that subtle discrimination might be the most prevalent
form of modern discrimination.7
Other frequent form of hidden discrimination occurs in the field of housing and real estate. For example, in 2005,
in Ontario, a NIMBY (Not-In-Our-BackYard) initiative opposing afordable
housing for Ontarians with disabilities
(including mental illness, developmental disabilities and Alzheimers disease),
families on social assistance, newcomers to Canada, Native and Metis people,
ex-ofenders and youth (4) started many
heated discussions. Other examples of
housing discrimination are mentioned
by Sean Best, a young, African-Canadian,
who mentions several issues of what he
calls subtle, aversive racism (Best, 53).
Among these are difficulties in finding
and renting accommodation, or selling
such for a price equal to the price for a
non-minority owned one.
There are many situations in which
smiling discrimination makes the lives
of people of color difficult. The one that
stands out is greater law enforcement
surveillance. W. Scot and J. Tanner, define
racial profiling as the situation when racial diferences in law enforcement surveillance activities cannot be totally explained by racial diferences in criminal
activity, traffic violations, calls for ser74

vice or other legally relevant variables

(Scot Tanner, 2005, p. 584). In their
research they noticed the correlation
between the frequency of law enforcement among the students of color and
their respective participation in outdoor
or public space activities (Ibid., p. 591).
An alarming number of visible minority
students not involved in any prior criminal activities were stopped by the police
two or more times and were subjects to
questioning and searches (Ibid., p. 589).
Visible minority defendants are also less
likely to be approved for bail than white
ones and sometimes receive longer sentences upon conviction (Ibid., p. 263).
All the examples mentioned represent
manifestations of far more dangerous
discriminatory behavior than the oldfashioned discrimination because each
of them is committed with a smile on
ones face, and, what is worse; in most
cases such behavior is perfectly legal. In
that case, can anything be done in order
to prevent it? One thing that certainly can
be done is to spot and name the enemy.
People should be aware of this dangerous social phenomenon and be able to
identify it. Therefore, several sociologists
and anthropologists have tried to coin a
term that would capture the nature of
this negative phenomenon: smiling racism, quiet racism (Scheurich, Younge,
Codjoe), color-blind racism (BonillaDa Silva), or modern racism (Waller).
The coining of such a term and its legal
recognition would undoubtedly be a giant leap toward eliminating the phenomenon in any society. Another step against
smiling discrimination might be more
laws protecting minorities.
As for laws preventing discrimination,

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

Canada serves as an example for many
other countries. However, smiling face
discrimination is a tricky hidden phenomenon, which stems mostly from prejudice, stereotyping and a lack of critical
thinking. Therefore, citizens of any multicultural society should develop awareness of this subtle form of racism. No

society may be entirely racism-free, but

strong laws and an awareness of problems connected with indirect discrimination will certainly help to regulate this
phenomenon and protect minorities. For
it is the treatment of the powerless and
not the powerful that is a sign of a developed and civilized society.

Endnotes:
1 Wilkinson, Derek. Responding to Discrimination: Inluences of Respondent Gender, Target Race and
Target Gender. Canadian Ethnic Studies; 2000, Vol. 32 Issue 2, p27, In: http://web21.epnet.com./
2 Wortley, Scot. A Northern Taboo: Research on race, crime and criminal justice in Canada. Canadian
Journal of Criminology; Apr99, Vol. 41 Issue 2, p261-274, In: http://web21.epnet.com./
3 Lewitt, Cyril. The Morality of Race in Canada. Society; Sep/Oct97, Vol. 34 Issue 6, p 40-47, In: http://
web21.epnet.com./
4 Statistics Canada, Census of Population. In: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/demo.25.htm
5 The Canadian Human Rights Act. In: http://www.chrc_ecdp.ca/discrimination/grounds-en.asp
6 Statistics Canada, Ethnic Diversity Survey: portrait of a multicultural society. In: http://www.statcan.ca/
cgi-bin/downpub/freepub.cgi
7 Beiser, Morton; Noh, Samuel; Hou, Feng; Kaspar, Violet; Rummens, Joanna. Southeast Asian Refugees
Perceptions of Racial Discrimination in Canada. Canadian Ethnic Studies; Jan2001, Vol.33 Issue 1. p 46,
In: http://web21.epnet.com./
Works cited:
Best, S. Would I Toss a Brick Through a Window? Toronto: The Globe and Mail, 8 May 1992.
Bain, Colin M., 1994. Canadian Society a Changing Tapestry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bonilla-Silva, E. The Strange Enigma of Racism in Contemporary America. In: The Touchstone, Vol. XI,
No. 2, April/May 2000.
Codjoe, H. M. Can Blacks be Racist? In: Pens of Many Colours. Eva C. Karpinski (ed.), 2002. Scarborough:
Thomson-Nelson.
Marger, Martin N., 1997. Race and Ethnic Relations: American and Global Perspective. Boston: Wadsworth.
Phan, Tan. Life in School: Narratives of Resiliency among Vietnamese-Canadian Youths. ADOLESCENCE;
Fall 2003, Vol. 38. No. 151, p 555-566. San Diego: Libra Publishers.
Reitz, J. G. Breton, R., 1994. The Illusion of Difference: Realities of Ethnicity in Canada and the United
States. Toronto: C. d. Howe Institute.
Scot, W. Tanner, J. Inlammatory Rhetoric? Baseless Accusations? A Response to Gabors Critique of
Racial Proiling Research in Canada. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice; July 2005,
Vol 47 Issue 3, p581.
Scheurich, J. J. Young, M. D. Colouring Epistemologies: Are Our Research Epistomologies Racially
biased? Educational Research, 26, 4:4-15, 1997.
Waller, J., 1998. Face to Face. New York: Plenum.

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Relections on Education in
a Multicultural Environment
Jos Antonio vila Romero
Jos Antonio vila Romero, M.A. in Hispanic Philology and a Masters in teaching Spanish as
a foreign language from the Universities of Granada and Seville, respectively, has an experience of 15 years in teaching Spanish as a foreign language and literature. He has worked as a
lecturer at different European universities in countries, such as Spain, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Sweden and Slovakia. Currently he is a titular teacher at Instituto Cervantes of Bucharest
(Romania) where he actively participates in the creation of teaching materials.

Abstract:
The analysis of the concepts of language, culture and communication is often a part
of the basis of new and interesting approaches to research and teaching of any foreign
language. The concepts mentioned are directly associated with multiculturalism and interculturalism in the field of teaching Spanish as a foreign language in multicultural environments. All these elements are closely interlinked and lead to reflection on several language skills to be developed in teaching-learning as a second language, as well as diferent
strategies needed to make them efective.

1. About the concepts culture, language and communication

If we want to seek definitions of the
abovementioned terms, the most practical method is to link them and think
of them as part of a whole, so that we
may perceive their meanings in a fuller
sense. The thread, therefore, can be represented by the transmission of a common good that we call culture, and will
be completed through a system of signs
created for the purpose defined as language.
Culture, in my opinion, can be a term
open to varied definitions, considering
the interpretations that throughout the
history and development of peoples have
been assigned. It is, therefore, a common
good that we can identify with a community, a common good that combines concepts such as identity groups, peoples
and nations. The term can include other
76

notions, such as customs, art, economics,

how to construct the story of a community ... and according to some, particular
patterns marked by it, a concrete perception of reality. Culture could also observe geopolitical studies of a particular
area of the planet, as well as the influence that the weather could have on the
emergence and development of various
present cultures.
Communication represents the second
link in the chain, following the concept
language, in direct dependence on it. For
this reason communication is the result
of wanting to share some common ideas
that mark the patterns and group identity (and what this represents) because
we understand the individual as a social
being that has to adapt to the environment interacting with others now and

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

also in the future. Communication plays
a connector role between language and
culture. These are the individuals themselves or users, which provide concrete
models of communication in accordance
with a set of guidelines, rituals, customs and purposes outlined in terms of
knowledge, ideas, certainties, feelings,
and so on.
Language, according to the foregoing,
becomes the primary element that gives
a rise to the need for communicating (by
making it feasible), so that a group of in-

dividuals, creators of a system of graphics and phonetic signs get to the concept
of culture, development of that culture. It
can be said that a system of signs is created by the need originated in a group of
individuals to shape the idea of culture,
cultural identity. The language can also
be defined as a product of subjectively
created by a community and therefore, is
inescapably linked to the defining characteristics (thinking) that have evolved
to scafold cultures and the concept of
culture.

Because of several ideas and terms

that are necessary to define, we can take
the article by Gustavo Bueno1, among
other reasons because it is imperative
to consider the (re)definition of culture
when it comes to managing others, such
as multicultural and intercultural understanding.
According to the conception that the
word culture is brought by diferent authors, one could make a small sum which

alludes to the experiential, spatial, individual and relational complexity governing human activity and that is built for
the sake of survival, interactivity and
willingness to evolutionism presented by
these members of society. Therefore, the
assumption of interconnection between
all these elements is crucial for scafolding that unit relative we call culture
(culture concerning to the objects, of
people who make them, of animals and

Simplifying the thoughts outlined above, we could show them in the following schema:

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ARS AETERNA
nature, as well as spiritual, psychological, subjective or material culture).
Starting from this anthropological conception of culture, we find it necessary to
consider the concept of communication
as an elemental instrument of interculturalism. Its basic aim is seen in establishing intercultural communication. We
have already defined multiculturalism
(Alsina, M.R.)2 as the coexistence of different cultures in a single real or virtual
space, understood then as diferent entities.
If we think that the basic purpose of
multiculturalism is the communication
between diferent cultures, we must add
a number of mechanisms that it must
serve to become efective. We go well
in the domain of so-called powers as
unavoidable elements for intercultural
communication. Alsina has found three:
1.
Intercultural Competence, defined as those skills necessary to negotiate the cultural meanings and communicative act efectively to meet participants
from multiple identities.
The above can be illustrated in the following table:

78

2.
Cognitive Competence, which
begins with the efort-ability to achieve
self-awareness of the cultural power as
basis. To know yourself as having a culture.
3.
Emotional Competence that
takes control of knowing the possible
reactions of anxiety / aggression generated in a cultural shock. It is the quality
of empathy.
We assume, therefore, that the communicative competence will enable the
deployment of the competences that
Alsina lists as elements for intercultural
communication. We have to clarify that
the basis of communicative competence
includes five other communicative skills
(Isabel Iglesias cites Hymes)3 grammatical, discursive, strategic, sociolinguistics
and sociocultural. These other skills
(second competences) become part of
the curriculum of a second language
teaching.
In a practical sense we must bear in
mind that in a classroom whit students
of diferent nationalities the teacher
should try to reach a rapprochement of
the cultural areas involved (multicultural) for integration (Concha Moreno)4.
This positive approach towards identities of the topics and demystification of
masks, will allow analyze stereotypes
and at the same time working with the
interaction.

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

2. Strategies for teaching a second language
Focusing on the teaching of Spanish as
a foreign language in a multicultural environment it is possible to devise guidelines that address strategies for multicultural education in the classroom. At
the same time curricular implications of
concepts relating to the language (culture, cultural values, language, metalanguage, communication, identity (ies)
culture (s), integration, competences
...) should be considered. Awareness of
this series of concepts will guide the design of an educational curriculum that
can hold their units in various types of
strategies that will be susceptible to
changes. This process depends on educational needs of a multicultural group
(levels of language not totally uniform,
dispositions, economic and personal
situations, etc.).
On the basis of the approach mentioned in Strategies in the teaching of
second language, we ask the following
questions:

What kind of procedural strategies (communicative and cultural) have

to be taken in a multicultural class in
relation to a group of students with a
single cultural reference?

Are there any changes in these

two areas for taken any changes concerning to the strategies in curriculum
design?
The response to this approach outlined in two linked questions is yes.
In my opinion, for acquisition of a second language is essential for students
to have a contact from the beginning
with a written source (whether or not a
multicultural environment). Therefore,

my approach will focus on the essential

role of reading comprehension in teaching Spanish as a foreign language.
The practice of these strategies is
general in both monolingual and multilingual classrooms, with some exceptions, such as the use of translation in a
classroom with a single culture (translation into the mother language). In an
environment of students with diverse
language comprehension the common
language must remain so when they
need to clarify the semantic content of
language expressions.
This approach leads us to some basic
questions in order to be able to employ
this skill:
1. What do you read?
2. Why reading?
3. How to read?
4. In what way are the chosen texts
for reading helpful for students language acquisition and cultural vision on
Spain?
5. What would be the best way to measure success?
The first, second and fourth question
could lead to an interesting diference
when it comes to think of a multicultural group and consequently on the strategies that were more suitable. In those
questions is essential to use negotiation
as a tool for curriculum design.
Another step for the analysis of the
first, second and fourth item in a multicultural environment is provided by the
following three issues:
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ARS AETERNA
1. Is it likely/unlikely that students
feel interest in the contents of a text?
2. To what degree this content might
result in culture shock, denial, silence,
apprehension, aggressiveness or possibility of subtle conflict between students of diferent backgrounds?
3. What is the ideal way to explain
semantic means of words, phrases, sentences or fragments from a common
language without translation into other
greater or dominant language?
At this point we are entering into a
second area of primary strategies that
can be studied on the basis of the multicultural factor. So we know the basics
of cultural languages in the classroom
through the interaction between groups
and between group-teaching. Previously it would be interesting to distribute
tests that summarize:
a) The most important things of each
student country, which is known to the
world.
b) What objects, customs, character
of the peoplethey like in Spain.
c) What would they change their
countries and what not.
d) What would they change in the
country of destination and what not.
e) What are the interests of second
language learning (interest, work, being an immigrant, refugee / a ...)
f) How often they read in their country (magazines, books, articles ...)
g) Why content is more attractive ...

We could appropriately expand this

questionnaire in order to reflect the
goals of a desirable curriculum for
80

teachers which should be implemented

in their course. The factor of approaching to other cultures is the successful
key (among other possible) in making
teaching strategies. Its similar to what
would happen in a classroom with a
single culture where the teacher is an
alien who has to accelerate the process
of cultural assimilation and the number
of problems/cultural misunderstandings is smaller in the teaching/learning.
Mentioning again the use of translation (monolingual groups), reading
comprehension for more efficient,
many experts assert that this issue is a
practice that should be avoided because
it does not always guarantee the real
sense that the author wants to translate
in his writing.
For this reason it is expected to draw a
series of strategies that provide the student with a few tools for reading skill. It
follows that a series of activities5 proposed by the teacher will be more suitable than others, although they all must
lead:
To develop the ability of practicing
lexical relation in a text.
To perceive the main idea in a text.
To continue the thrust although
some signs have not come to understand that at all.
To pay attention to the expressions
used by the author that relate to the
meaning of the text.
That the student gets used to search
for specific information and identify the
item in question, analyzing the titles,
subtitles, leads ... proposing books or
magazines.

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

As it has been explained above, there
are various factors determining the
adoption of diferent strategies for

teaching / learning in a curriculum project that are aimed at developing reading

comprehension skills.

Endnotes:
1 Bueno, G., 1978. Sobre la idea de cultura /On the idea of culture. Oviedo: La nueva Espaa, nmero 4,
septiembre-octubre 1978, pp. 64-67.
2 Alsina, M. R. Elementos para una comunicacin intercultural/Elements for an intercultural communication. Summaries Afers Internacionals n. 36
3 Iglesias Casal, I., 2000. Diversidad cultural en el aula de e / le: la interculturalidad como desafo y como
provocacin/Cultural diversity in the classroom of Spanish as foreign Language: multiculturalism as a challenge and provocation. Espculo. Universidad complutense de Madrid.
4 Moreno Garca, C., 2000. Conocerse para respetarse. Lengua y Cultura, elementos integradores?/
Know yourself in order to be respected. Language and Culture, integrating elements?. Espculo. Universidad complutense de Madrid.
5 Activities mentioned in the article The reading in the context of communicative competence/La competencia lectora en el contexto de la competencia comunicativa, of Radiana Drinova (1998). In: Records of
International Symposium commemorative for 35th anniversary of creation of the Spanish degree. Soia:
University of San Clemente-Ojrid. Embassy of Spain in Bulgaria.

Works cited:
Alsina, M. R. Elementos para una comunicacin intercultural/Elements for an intercultural communication.
Summaries Afers Internacionals n. 36
Bueno, G., 1978. Sobre la idea de cultura /On the idea of culture. Oviedo: La nueva Espaa, nmero 4,
septiembre-octubre 1978, pp. 64-67.
Drinova, R., 1998. La competencia lectora en el contexto de la competencia comunicativa, ACTAS SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONA. In commemoration of 35th anniversary of the creation of the Hispanic Studies
Department, Sofa, Universidad San Clemente de Ojrid-Embajada de Espaa en Bulgaria.
Iglesias Casal, I., 2000. Diversidad cultural en el aula de e / le: la interculturalidad como desafo y como
provocacin/Cultural diversity in the classroom of Spanish as foreign Language: multiculturalism as a challenge and provocation. Espculo. Universidad complutense de Madrid.
Moreno Garca, C., 2000. Conocerse para respetarse. Lengua y Cultura, elementos integradores?/Know
yourself in order to be respected. Language and Culture, integrating elements?. Espculo. Universidad
complutense de Madrid.

81

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Cosmas Across Cultures

(The irst Czech historian as a symbol of the beginning and intersections across cultures, genres, and disciplines)

Petr Kopl
Petr Kopl (1975) specializes in the history of Middle Ages and the history of film. His dissertation focuses on Cosmas chronicle (2008). Currently, he is working on his second dissertation
on film and history. Kopl is the co-author and script editor of an experimental project Film
and history (since 2002). He works in The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in
Prague and also as an external lecturer at Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts
in Prague and at the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts of University of West Bohemia in Pilsen.

Abstract:
If we think about Czech medieval historiography, we have to point out above all two
chronicles, two masterpieces, which belong to European literary treasure: Chronicle of
Bohemians (Chronica Boemorum) of early 12th century and Zbraslav Chronicle (Chronicon Aulae Regiae) of early 14th century. Petr Zitavsky surely wrote a unique piece, the
mature work of elder Czech Middle Ages. However, Cosmas is the first, the founder, Czech
Herodotus (the name given by Frantiek Palack in Ocenn starch eskch djepisc.)
Everyone knows the Chronicle of Bohemians. Everybody was taught about it at the primary school or read Cosmas by Vladislav Vanura. But, what real trace did the first Czech
historian leave in the national memory? What do the present-day historians think about
him? And what can his chronicle tell to Czechs living at the beginning of 21st century?
It appears that Chronicle of Bohemians talks to us with a new inspiratory force, namely
because of the most actual and most important element of its ideological purport - the
efort to substantiate the rise (origin and essence) of Czechs and their national state. The
creation of it had subsequently initiated processes which were slowly adapting Czech
society to the norms of advanced Western European countries since the end of 11th century.
Nowadays, the oldest Czech chronicle should be seen above all through nation and politics.

Historical personalities, events, and

epochs survive in national memory
mostly as symbols, images of more or
less political ideas. It is understandable
that they change from time to time under the influence of various actualizations. The substantial semantic shifts
happened mainly after 1948 when the
Czech history was corrupted to suit the
image of class ideology. Jan Hus was
burned at the stake in Konstanz because he refused to deny the truth. It
82

was not, however, the truth of a religious reformator, but of a social revolutionist. Also the historical portrait of
Jan Amos Comenius, the bishop of The
Unity of Brethren, went through similar metamorphosis. The bishop was
interpreted by the communists as an
atheist ... Jan ika, Jan Hus and also
J.A.Comenius were in short Marxists
(notwithstanding that , had been born
before Marx). Under these labels we
nonetheless more often than less find

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

the reminants of older actualizations.
The communists applied Marxism on
the extreme historicism of 19th C when
the Czech nation was regenerated mainly through its own famous but at the
same time painful history. As far as the
quantity and variety of interpretations
goes, one of the most remarkable cases
is not (as we could easily expect) a typical national hero, that is neither the
Konstanz martyr nor the teacher of
nations but Cosmas of Prague ( 1125),
an almost anonymous author of the oldest Czech chronicle 1
Cosmas actualizations in contrast
to the actualizations of Hus, Comenius
etc. include also discredits. The image
of the first Czech historian, which appeared in the fifties, viewed him as a reactionary, supporter of the West Rome
and bitter man, hating the national
Slavonic liturgy culture. Cosmas was
one of the resolute supporters of the
politics of Rehor VII, who wanted to
annihilate almost every memory of the
Slavonic Christianity in the Czech soul.
The emotive attack written by historian
Vclav Chaloupeck appeared during
the time of so called monster processes with the enemies of the people,
with Roman Catholic religious representatives as well as with the leftist historian, and reporter Zvi Kalandra, as a
spy from the West and a fierce enemy
of his homeland and the USSR. 2 (Chaloupeck, 1950, pp. 65 - 80)
The strictly Marxist evaluation from
the medievalist Frantiek Graus followed. From the point of view of the history of rural people Cosmas was above
all a clergyman, thus the ideologist of
the feudal order: Cosmass chronicle

was a feudal chronicle. The character of

the book is most visible in the depiction
of the pagan times, which is the rigorous rewriting of a folk legend ... about
the times when all the people were
equal, whose purpose was, on the
contrary, to strengthen the rule of feudalists, to advocate their government,
and to strengthen their power. (Graus,
1953, pp. 53nn, 277nn)
The portrait from textbooks, in other
words, the official portrait consisted
mostly of fragments: As a disciple of
western culture ... Cosmas does not
mention Slavonic liturgy and education
in his chronicle ... he followed a political goal and by his work he wanted to
contribute to the power of Czech feudal
state. Cosmas chronicle is thus also the
furthermost source of our knowledge
about our oldest legends. (Forst, 1985,
p. 38)
The brief explication from the above,
however, does not admit certain contradictions. While Graus claimed that
Cosmas rewrote the folk legends substantially, almost violated them to such
extent that nothing historical (pagan
or folk-like) remained in them, according to Zdenk Nejedl, Cosmas levered
the legends up and immortalized them
and thus celebrated the creative force
of people with no rights and from time
to time inadvertently took over also
anti-feudal ideology, for example, in the
legend about Pemysl (pagan origin of
the dynasty). Even in Cosmas rewriting the old historical centre of some legends surfaces the same way as it lived
in the awareness of the people ... and
the production and life forms of the ancient organization of the primitive so83

ARS AETERNA
ciety are reflected (for example, primitive tribe collectivism in the legend on
golden age, matriarchy in the legend
of Libue and her sisters, the transformation to patriarchy in the legend
of Pemysl and the Girls war)... The
old men from the people, some simple
folk story tellers were understandably
Cosmas source. The representation of
the first Czech chronicler as an almost
enlightened collector of folk art, which
we can find in the works by Z. Nejedl
and his epigones, corresponded with
the romantic historicism of the 19th C,
moreover it amateurishly imitated and
trivialized the famous picture found in
fiction and turned it into scholarship.
3 (Nejedl, 1953; karka, 1957, p. 154;
karka, 1959, p. 74n)
Undoubtedly, Cosmas significantly
contributed to Old Czech legends
(even though they are mostly associated with Alois Jirsek). Romantic and
Marxist interpretation of the chronicle
was connected with their folk origin as
well as the historical core of Cosmas
legends, at least of those stories, which
were included in the introductory 13
chapters of the chronicle: Cosmas was
the first one who registered and in writing preserved folk art in our country.
And, certainly, he drew from it not only
knowledge or legends, but also the spirit of a narrator, liveliness and expressivity which his work is attributed with. Of
course, Cosmas was closer to the nobility with his position than to simple people, and thus he advocates the interests
of feudalists and the church in his chronicle. The power of folk art and the richness of folk experience, however, enrich
Cosmas Latin sentences. He listened to
84

the folk experience, which proves the

wisdom and perceptivity of the chronicler. This is how Vladislav Vanura saw
him in the Pictures from the History of
the Czech Nation (in Czech: Obrazy z
djin nroda eskho) (Chaloupka,
1989, p. 13n)
Marxist historians had rather nostalgic (ambivalent) attitude to the pagan
prehistory, primitive society. We uncompromisingly side the people and
pagan society, but we cannot and do not
want to deny that the progress is on the
side of the suppressive state and Christianity We can discern it very well also
in Vlils timeless Marketa Lazarov
(1967), which thematically supports the
conflict between (more appealing) paganism and (more progressive) Christianity. Cosmas image was to a certain
degree influenced exactly by the evaluation of the chroniclers relation to the
folk or pagan culture, mostly to legends.
4 (Kopal, 2005, p. 79)
Kalandra and before him (but no
way probably without his influence) Vl.
Vanura popularized the representation
of Cosmas the chronicler, who at the last
minute captures the remnants of pagan traditions in Bohemia the Prague
dean listens breathlessly to Cosmas and
old wise men it is a vision that has
been imprinted in the imagination of
all readers. Newly, Tetk tries to present a more realistic understanding of
Cosmas personality and his chronicle
the chronicler is no longer a medium
through which the weakening voices
of pagan prehistory speak, it is the
medieval man of letters who masters
the whole register of stylistic devices.
(Krlk, 1976, p. 206)

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

The popularization and Zvi Kalandra, whose works were in the fifties excluded from the libraries, unfortunately,
cannot be considered a very realistic
connection, it is rather an oxymoron. If
we speak about the national memory or
national historical awareness, we cannot count seriously on Kalandras Czech
Paganism.5 (Kalandra, 1947)
In addition to this mostly unknown,
even though an excellently written
book (D. Tetk) we have announced
-- through a quotation by literary historian Oldich Krlk, who outlined the
sources and development of contemporary popularization of Cosmas, his own
vision on the public representations
two other works. We are going to start
with the second, actually third, in short
the last quotation source. A monograph
by Duan Tetk was the result of his
dissertation work in the sixties (it was
published in 1968). Its substantial part
presents the analysis of political and
ideological content of the book. This
time (in contrast to the book of the
previous decade see above) we do
not deal here with the ideology about
ideology (so much as the Czech society
in the sixties lived by the politics and
political thinking see the subtitle of
the monograph) but with the methodology of research of medieval historical
works, which need to be analyzed also
(if not primarily) as literary works. The
popularized historical version was published earlier than the essential scholarly work on Cosmas and his chronicle
(it was published even 2 years earlier).
But the general public recognition had
been already influenced by a diferent
publication:6

Cosmas, as a novella, an extensive chapter from the first volume of

Vanuras Pictures from the History of
the Czech Nation (1939).7 It was a monumental project, designed and accomplished under the growing Nazi threat
(and subsequently occupation). The
author wanted to strengthen the nation
and show it its famous history. Thus he
highlighted the oldest Czech chronicler Cosmas. He called him his teacher,
his predecessor, as well as a comrade.8
(Blahynka, 1978, p. 297nn; Zvodsk,
Brno 1975, pp. 297-302)
This particular portrait is, however,
not a label. Vanura made his Cosmas
out of various interests, mistakes and
passions (he depicted him with some
autobiographical features). He also attributed him materially, Cosmas had a
good place to live, but he was presented
as quick tempered, which did not change
with his status as a clergyman, nor with
his older age. All that passion, determination, arguability, coarsiness and clumsiness is a necessary equipment to countrebalance the man, who is incessantly
going to write a chronicle of his country. And that cannot be accomplished
by words only (they are suitable for
the stories), but by a certain enthusiasm, certain flow of emotions and a
flow of will that can raise one thing and
put it in the place of another and make it
prominent and diminish the other one
so that the honour of the intentions was
preserved and at the same time the intention sounded well in the order of the
things. Even though Cosmas receives
the folk narrators in the capitola dome
to listen to their old stories, his relation
to the simple people and especially to
85

ARS AETERNA
their language is not straightforward
(certainly it could not be called admiring). Constant trivial arguments with
his beloved and loving wife Boetcha,
who is quarrelsome like her husband,
and with his two closest friends, colleagues eb and Bruno, are strangely
interlaced with essentail conflicts and
contradictions. It is, however, only the
conflict between Christianity and paganism, which Cosmas sees as irreconcilable. He is even willing to accept Old
Slavonic (Szava) literature. Right at the
beginning Vanura speaks through Cosmas about the double truth and a bit
later through the character of eb that
there are two sources of our knowledge... (Vanura, 1987, p. 7nn)
Vanura tried to present a realist image, he, however, worked with a certain
degree of idealization. He valued patriotism more than the quarrels. The chronicle was presented as a unifying symbol,
the Idea, which can be accomplished under the contribution of all protagonists:
the Czechs are in their essence and in
the right moment the good. Common
noble goal can help to forget easily the
small doggeries and hatred, fed by the
petty legend bearers who cunningly
butt in. But they also reveal something
about the Czech national character.
Their defamation is of course just an
innocent game: it does not destroy anyones life, or ruin anybody economically. At the birth of the oldest Czech
chronicle they do not play any role. In
this way however, Vanura distanced
himself from the harsh circumstances
of the Cosmas period, vividly presented
in the chronicle, and at the same time
from the reality of the protectorate,
86

where per each rebel existed in average

one informer. Such an unfavorable statistics (referring also to the fact that the
majority of the nation lived in the grey
shell of passive observation), however,
Vanura would not have accepted. Even
though we know what ideas, and images he had on his mind in the moments of
his arrest and during a few days before
his execution . . . 9 (Ibid., p.13nn)
Four old wise men, who inform Cosmas, have a share in the narration and
contribute to bring the chronicle alive.
Their everyday suferings create the
second layer of the story. Vanura modeled the book so that Cosmas was closer
to them than to earls and magnates. We
do not learn anything about the life of
the ruling class in the chapter. The point
of view, which the author employed,
discloses his world view. The history of
every nation depends on the masses of
unnamed people, degraded but always
rising. Marxists actualization of the
figure of Cosmas could not have been
persuasive in total, because it could not
be confronted with the content of the
chronicle. Cosmass classmate eb,
who agitated in favor of shepherds and
farmers and various other servants,
served Vanura to bridge the contradiction at least partially. (I can see all of
them together and can say that I like the
view!) (Ibid., p. 33n)
The actualization and idealization of
Cosmas rests in humanism. Vanura, in
this way, also presented Cosmas in a high
degree of credibility. He did not present
the page from a history text book, but
an erroneous and desiring man. The
whole chapter does not contain a single
character or depiction, which would

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

be flat, purely straightforward. It is as
if Vanura would be saying: yes, but . .
. His critical perception was heightened
because he wrote not only fiction, but
also a chronicle, that The Pictures were
from the very beginning conceived as a
synthesis of art and scholarship. It was
exactly Cosmas whom he considered to
be his role model, the poet, who wrote
the history of the Czech nation.
The intention to put together art and
scholarly disciplines was on the other
hand the main reason why the other
writers, who should have contributed
to The Pictures in their authorial voice,
withdrew from the demanding and extraordinary project very soon. Vanura,
as an ideological leader, and after all the
only author, wanted the used tools that
would correspond with the significance
of the whole enterprise. The memorial to the Czech national history came
to existence as a truthful narrative on
life, war afair deeds and also the spirit
of knowledge (the subtitle). The poet
worked with facts, based on the background of the most recent examination
and with the help of young Czech historians . . . (Blahynka, 1978, pp. 297n,
307n)
The people who provided the historic material to Vanura were Vclav
Husa, Jaroslav Charvt and Jan Pachta,
young Marxists historians associated
in the Historical Group. The writer discussed the facts, including realia, data,
names of historical personages and so
on during numerous meetings with his
professional advisors. The question remains, if Vanura consulted also other
historians, for example medievalist Z.
Kalandra (official advisors, excluding

probably only Hus, did not specialize in

the medieval history), who also claimed
to belong to the Historical Group. (Ibid.
p. 303nn, Petr, 1975, pp. 11 - 45)
Kalandras theories on Czech paganism (unpublished in that time) could
have had the influence on the understanding of legends by Vanura. The
main narrator of the stories, which
took place not only in words, but also
in the mind and which Vanuras Cosmas does not hesitate to compare with
the beautiful parables of Jesus Christ,
is the pagan of animal expression, who
grew older farming on infertile soil. It
is worth noticing that the folklore mediated in this way is an example of the
surprising agreement with Greek mythology, which Cosmas knows intimately from reading classical literature. The
situation is even more complicated by
a monk from Szava, another outsider,
in contrast probably a young man, providing the old wise men with the stories, which Cosmas could be interested
in. (The monk, whose co-operation
with Cosmass informers is not selfless,
represents an interesting figure: even
though he unconsciously causes that
the letter on the history of the Szava
monastery would not be included in the
chronicle, paradoxically . . . he is probably the prospect follower of Cosmas
the Monk of Szava. . .) (Vanura, 1987,
p. 7nn, 26n, 32n, 38n, 46). In short:
Cosmas did not have to borrow the
legends from the world literature and
folklore, but literally he could (and very
easily) get them from the tradition of
his own people. What the pagan narrates does not resemble any old Czech
legend, with the exception of the men87

ARS AETERNA
tioning on the Girls War. It means that
Vanura obviously left a considerable
space also for the Cosmass knowledge.
It is wonderful, how easily the writer
managed to put together the contradictions in an impressive unity. The professional historiography usually presents
the only truth. Positivist historians and
folklorists considered the textual parallels with the Bible, Vergil, and so on automatically borrowings. It was mainly
Vclav Tille who disclosed Cosmass
legends as an unoriginal mosaic of extraneous matters and motives (in 1927
Vanura spend some time with him in
Moscow). In addition the postwar historians responded to Vanura anyway (in
one way or another), even though they
did not admit it openly10
Also Vanura drew the information
from old wise men through three
(four) young men . But how the poet
Jaroslav Seifert wrote: It is sufficient
to read the extensive Vanuras chapter
on Cosmas, the chronicler in the book.
What could historians say to the author
about this historical figure other than a
few rigid data, which the history found?
And what witty and funny concert of
sentences Vanura could make out of
those couple of historical data! (Seifert,
1992, p. 141)
Maybe even more than with the content he was concerned with the form.
(Medieval historians worked on a basis
of this premise as well.) He wrote poetry in prose (on the other hand he interlaced the prose with verses what some
medieval historians, including Cosmas,
did before) full of genuine metaphors
and oxymorons. In the examined chapter he also selected such expressions,
88

word puns and similes intentionally

as they would evoke Cosmas stylistics
(which he knew through the excellent
translation of Karel Hrdina11). This archaic-like stylistics, meant as homage to
the great predecessor, was impressively
complemented by another procedure,
in the essence new, modern and progressive .
The double daring synthesis was accomplished The Pictures: the book is a
synthesis not only of an art and scholarship, but also of literature and film.
Vanura was also an active film maker,
director, and screen writer. And in the
complex work built on the factual exactitude he decided to use the film technique, his great love, in many times
unhappy, very consequentially: The
Pictures . . . are built as a film opus. It is
Vancuras most exquisite, supreme film
even though it is accomplished in word,
as literature. The simulation of film
images, and sequences in the text was
meant to reconstruct historical events
and epochs in terms of the the most
authentic and credible impression. The
practice of Barrandov film studios was
reflected also in a collective working
method or in the employment of professional advisors. Vanura first developed
every chapter as a scenario, which he
consulted with historians. It was no exception that these scenarios had even
several versions. That was the preparation of individual parts of a literary
film. The expert of Vanuras work Milan Blahynka concluded his treatise on
the given topic succinctly: the turn to
film was caused also by the awareness
that film is the most accessible medium
of the time; Vancuras aim was to write

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

for the broadest reading audience.
12 (Blahynka, 1978, p. 299n, p.302;
Bartoek, 1973; Hol, 1991, pp. 69-90;
Petr, 1975, p. 33n)
During the adaptation of Marketa Lazarov Frantiek Vlil came out The
Pictures, almost unfilmable text, and
he used the book as a formal and ideological incentive (the clash between
Christianity and paganism).The chapter
Cosmas was staged by the Czech television as Cosmas and Lady Boetcha
(directed by Jaroslav Balk, script by Jan
Otenek J. Balk). It was screened as
a premiere on Christmas Eve, in 1974 at
20.00 on the channel T2. Originally it
was supposed to be followed by the full
length film on Cosmas. Its production,
however, was never accomplished and
it ended only as a literary adaptation
(script by J. Otenek based on the
film short story by the historian Duan
Tetk!).13
Vanuras representation of Cosmas,
in any way, has been written in the national memory. Since 80-ties of 20th C
the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and
Sciences in Washington publishes the
journal Cosmas, named after the chronicler Cosmas (the title was explained in
the introductory article in the first issue
of the journal). Undoubtedly it was especially Vanuras image that inspired
the title of the contemporary Internet
bookshop, trademark Kosmas s.r.o.
(www.kosmas.cz ), the symbol of Czech
book as well as the unity of artistic
and scholarly literature.14 Everybody
knows Cosmass chronicle. Students
have studied about it at schools, they
read Vanuras Cosmas What is it that
the first historian wrote about actually?

What do the contemporary modern historians think about him? And what can
his chronicle say to the Czechs living at
the beginning of 21th century?
Cosmas is the first, he is the founder,
the Czech Herodotus. It was how he
was called already by Frantiek Palack
in his Wrdigung der lteren bhmischen Geschichtsschreiber. (Palack, 1830,
p. 11nn; Tetk, 1968, p. 9nn)
This is also the reference used by one
of the most renowned world historians
Robert Barlett (University of St. Andrews in Scotland): Bohemia made a
spectacular debut in this respect with
Cosmas of Prague, whose vivid prose
style, gifts of powerful characterization
and ability to convey action, and the
occasional personal touches he allows
(such as the yearning picture of his
long-gone student days) make him not
only a vital historical source for the Premyslid lands but also one of the great
writers of the Middle Ages. He initiated
a tradition which continued, with peaks
and plateaux, throughout the Premyslid period, and this was important, for
a native historical tradition was one of
the marks of a Latin Christian society.
(Bartlett, 2009, p. 16)
Duan Tetk (2007), the expert
of Cosmass chronicle par excellence,
would have never dared to write that
the first Czech chronicler excelles also
in a competition of the best medieval
historians. He knew very well that it
made a diference if the statement like
that was presented by a national or
international medievalist. Within the
context of the Czech history, however,
Tetk boldly linked his evaluation of
Cosmas to Palacks Wrdigung when
89

ARS AETERNA
he compared Cosmas exactly to Palack
himself (who he personally honored
very much, he considered him even the
greatest of the Czechs of all times):
Both were in a way fathers of the nation, its makers, ideologists. Cosmas
. . .did not only want to present a mirror
to his contemporaries, he wanted furthermore to speak to his nation about
what it is and where it goes, he also
wanted the same what seven hundred
years later Frantiek Palack made an
efort about. Or: Cosmas was like a medieval Palacky. He developed the view
of the Czech history, the understanding
of the Czech history, which the Czechs
appropriated until the Palacks times.
Palack did something similar for the
modern Czech nation. But otherwise
they are colleagues. (Tetk, 2005, p.
15, Tetk, 2007)
It seems that the Cosmas chronicle
speaks even to us today, like a new
source of inspiration, thanks to the
most topical and significant element
of its ideological content, i.e. thanks to
the efort to rationalize the birth, origin
and the essence of the national state. Its
constitution then started the processes,
which at the turn of 11th and 12th C
started to accommodate the Czech society slowly to the standards of European
countries.
It is possible to view the oldest Czech
chronicle mostly through the nation and
politic . Cosmas wrote the history of
the nation, the Chronicle of the Czechs,
learned, entertaining, but also politically
engaged work, presenting some kind of
a national programme. The example is
in no way the Czech exception. When we
imagine 11th and 12th C Europe we can
90

see a garden of blooming new nations,

medieval spring of nations. And the
first national states, which are no longer
only the pure bondages of people, but
territorially delineated institutionalized formations, which have their own
historians. We would be looking in vain
for the historians of the German nation
which still remained a dream of the future. In this respect the moment belongs
to the smaller, but more hardworking:
the historians of Norman states in Normandy and in Sicily appear as the first.
Consequently historians in England,
which is conquered by Normans, start
to write. In Denmark Saxo Grammaticus
composes his extensive and rich chronicle and in Norway at the beginning of
13th C Snorri Sturluson contributes in
the national language. At the beginning
of 12th C the national history is created
in our neighbouring countries in Hungarian Empire and Poland. The author, in
either case, is unknown. A Polish chronicler, writing about 1113 is now called
Gallus Anonymus. We can add Kievs
Nestor writing in the national language
the history of Russia in the same period.
Formally the above mentioned historians relate little. Hungarian Anonymus
presents his work in a novelistic form,
Gallus Gesta15 is the celebration of one
ruler and the complicated stylistics of
Saxos chronicle difers very much from
the Cosmas way of expression. All these
works on the contrary are very similar
in their ideological content, the intention to present the history of a nation,
formed only by a political representation, ruler and the noble men. The essence of nationalism of 11th and 12th C
rests exactly in the emergence of politi-

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

cal nations rationalized by history. The
created images of the past correspond
to the real needs of contemporary nationalism. Because of the love for their
homeland, i.e. the nation bound to a
certain territory, the old wise men sit
in the boats woven of thin parchment
and use the quill pen to struggle against
the flow of time. The long, hard journey
leads to the very beginning of the nation,
it means to the inalienable right for the
present territory and to the new explication of tribal myths, old legends in
Czech, Polish and so on. Historians become the ideologists in the service of the
nation. The chronicler the ideologist,
defines all Czechs, in real the power
elite, political nation, by a common ancestor, but mostly by their relation to the
earl, to the ruling dynasty. Even though
the Chronica Boemorum is not barren
of xenophobia and ethnocentrism the
Czechs traditionally saw their neighbors
from the empire and Poland as enemies
undoubtedly Cosmas did not build the
chronicle on a relation to foreign cultural
and linguistic ethnic group (regardless
of this the Polish were in that time almost identical with the Czechs in terms
of the language and culture). (Tetk,
1968, p. 89nn; Koht, 1947, pp. 265-280;
Kersken, 1995)
We know that Cosmas studied in
Lige under the master Frank. The venerable and renown school at the Cathedral of St. Lambert in Lige (at present
in Belgium) belonged to the best what
the present Europe could ofer to gifted young men desiring the education.
(Cosmas, 1923, pp. 237-238)
It is remarkable that already since 10th
C there were lively cultural contacts be-

tween Prague and Lige. Since the times

of the bishop Notker, a friend of the second Prague bishop Vojtech, the Lige
dioceses was dedicated to st. Vojtechs
cult. Foremost German medievalist Johannes Fried made a remarkable discovery in this respect: the first legend on
St. Vojtech, generally attributed to John
Canaparius, Aventian abbot, was probably written in the millieu of the above
mentioned Notker. During the years of
1008 1016, master Hubald taught at
the Prague cathedral school, who was
Notkers pupil and cannonic of the Lige
capitula. In the Czech lands, however,
the cult of St. Lambert was known. We
know from Cosmas that the great worshipper of the patron of Lige was the
Prague bishop Herman. And Cosmas
himsef used Vita Lamberti, written in
10th C by the Lige bishop Stephanus as
a stylistic forerunner for some of the extracts in the chronicle. It is also probable
that one of the three Cosmass readers
(friends) was his classmate in Lige. The
former partner city, situated on the West
border of the Roman Empire, symbolizes today the challenge for the researchers as a potential source of new findings
on Cosmas, as a member of the Lige
intelligentsia and literati. (Tetk, 1968,
pp. 44n., 57n; Wojciechowska, 1968, pp.
5nn, Fried, 2002, pp. 235 - 279)
Their work was more related in the
form than in the content.It was characterized by a trendy interest in Ancient
writers. Maybe thats why Cosmas included in the chronicle the legends, so
called Czech Antiquity. In any way, his
writing can be described almost as a
Renaissance vivid and playful depiction of a number of characters or scenes,
91

ARS AETERNA
fancy combination of styles and genres,
including poetry, and balanced representation of topics, which should not be
intended to educate only but to entertain as well.
As a historian, Cosmas proved that he
had a sense for the criticism of source
literature. He considered the history or
the truth (factum) that, which he learnt
from a credible tradition (vera fidelim relation). The legend (fibula) was
according to the learned tradition the
same as an invention, fiction (fictum),
therefore it was not suitable for the history. Cosmas worked out the problem
like Solomon: legends, senum fabulosa
relatio, were included before the chronicle itself, the credible tradition, and
thus he let the reader to decide what he/
she wants to believe. (Cosmas, 1923, p.

32; Tetk, 1968, pp. 96nn)

The legends are always a problem. Certainly this was not the trivial babbling of
some old men, but a collection of topical pagan tribal myths, related to the
basic rituals of the whole community.
Cosmas historicized the myths according to the learned model of the birth of
the nation (origo gentis) while he did
not forget to dress them up in the fashionable literary mostly ancient style.16
(Tetk, 2003)
Contemporary medieval studies more
or less agree with Vanura. Cosmas is
closely connected to the origin of the
Czech nation, state and history . . . In his
chronicle the cultures, genres and disciplines blend remarkably. Yes, Cosmas is
directly the impersonation and symbol
of the beginnings and intersections.

Endnotes:
1 Scholarly edition of Cosmas chronicle: Cosmas (Bretholz), 1923. Czech translation: Kosmas (Hrdina,
Blhov, Tetk, Kopal) 2005. English translation: Cosmas (Wolverton) 2009. The essential scholarly work
on Comas and his writing: Tetk, 1968. The extensive literature about the oldest Czech chronicle was
complied by Kersken, 1995, pp. 573-582; the latest compilation of information on Cosmas by Kopal, in print
(Oxford).
2 Cosmas supposedly kept the Sazava monastery a secret. The fact is, that Cosmas interest in the institutions of the Church was generally surprisingly low.
3 Naive opinions (mostly those of Nejedl) on Cosmas fables were ironized by Karbusick, 1995, p.
13nn.
4 See also www.ilmadejiny.cz (P. Kopal, Velk Morava pokus o slovensk nrodn velkoilm).
5 Brabec writes on Kalandras life and work, 1994.
6 Tetk, 1966/1972 came out in 1966 in print of 2400 issues and the second time in 1972 in print of 2000
issues to compare the dissertation (Tetk, 1968) was printed in 1500 issues.
7 Vanura, 1981: 11th edition, 20 000 issues (Vanura, 1974: 10th edition, 30 000 issues); Vanura, 1987:
a separate edition of the book Cosmas, moreover together with Markta Lazarov, 12th edition, 19 000
issues. After 1989 Pictures were published twice: in 1995 and 2003.
8 Compare also Hoffmann Tesakov, 1988 (3rd edition, 22 000 issues), p. 54nn: The extracts from Cosmas chronicle are introduced by an extensive extract form Vanuras Pictures (the beginning of the chapter
Cosmas), where the author so nicely depicted our irst and maybe the greatest chronicler. Tich, 1984
(15 000 issues), p. 22nn: The work by a highly educated religious dignitary achieves a European level. V.
Vanura presented him to us in a remarkable portrait: In capitola dome, near the Prague church, 25 canonics stayed. One of them was called Cosmas The introductory paragraphs of the chapter are quated
and then the extracts from Cosmas chronicle follow. After reading even that little from Cosmas chronicle

92

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

we cannot but remain in awe how deeply Vanura put himself in the place of Cosmas artistic representation, in his stylistics, in a way he uses rhetorical questions, similes, irony and so on as if Cosmas himself
was writing in Vanuras work. The past centuries not only went hand in hand with out times but as if they
merged together in that patriotic feeling. It is necessary to add, however, that Vanura wanted to devote a
much bigger space to the author of the irst Czech written chronicle than to Cosmas. Dalimil should have
been a link throughout the whole third part of Pictures.
9 V. Vanura depicts the process of conlict concerning the new prior of the Prague capitola (the selected
candidates are eb and Bruno, but the ofice is eventually held by someone else.)
On the poet in resistance, and about a possible treason, that lead to Vanuras imprisonment in 1942,
Blahynka, 1978, p. 308nn.
10 Czech folklore scholar Vclav Tille is also known for his intensive research in Cosmas legends: Tille,
1928, pp. 81-111; Tille, pp. 255-263; Tille, 1917, pp. 387-391; Tille, 1906, s. 1-2; Tille, 1905, pp. 425-427;
Tille, 1904, pp. 203-206; Tille, 1904, pp. 322-323. It is less known that he was one of the irst ilm theoreticians and aestheticians. He published about 30 essays and articles on ilm (Kinema was the breakthrough
study in 1908 ). See Linhart, 1968. Zvi Kalandra, the author of a number of ilm criticism and essays,
also did not overlook the ilm studies.
11 Cosmas, 1929.
12 See for example: Vanura, 1987, p. 31n: one of the ilm scenes, eb looks from Mlnk, as Cosmas
is approaching riding a horse.
13 At present the ambitious project The Chronicle of the Czechs (directed by David Slab) is in the process
of advanced ilm preparations as a planned cycle of seven acted documentary ilms (footage of one part
is about 50 minutes) representing the corresponding number of Cosmas stories. Compare: Kopal, 2008,
p. 6.
14 Kosmas. Journal of Czechoslovak and Central European Studies. The irst issue came out with the
introductory article presenting Cosmas the chronicler: Horeck, 1982, pp. 3-8.
15 Galli Anonymi cronicae et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum. A parallel Latin and English edition
is available: Gallus, 2003.
16 It is necessary to deal with Comsmas legends on the methodological basis of comparative mythology
of Geoges Dumzil (Tetk, 2003). The legend on girls war was successfully analysed on the basis of this
approach by Slovak literary scholar Golema, 2006, pp. 31-100.
Works cited:
Cosmas, 1923. Cosmae Pragensis Chronica Boemorum. Ed. B. Bretholz (unter Mitarbeit von W. Weinberger, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, Nova series II. Berlin.
Cosmas, 1929. Kosmova kronika esk. Ed. (transl.) K. Hrdina. Praha.
Cosmas, 2005. Kosmova kronika esk. Ed. K. Hrdina, M. Blhov (transl.), D. Tetk (vod), P. Kopal
(komente). Praha.
Cosmas, 2009. The chronicle of the Czechs. Cosmas of Prague. Ed. (transl., introduction and notes) L.
Wolverton, Washington.
Gallus, 2003. Gesta principum Polonorum. The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles. Edd. P. W. Knoll, F.
Schaer (transl. and notes), T. N. Bisson (introduction). Budapest New York.
Bartlett, R., 2009. Evropa a stt Pemyslovc In: Pemyslovci budovn eskho sttu. Edd. P. Sommer,
D. Tetk, J. emlika. Praha, pp. 15-31.
Blahynka, M., 1978. Vladislav Vanura. Praha.
Brabec, J., 1994. Intelektul a revoluce. (Ed. J. Brabec). Praha.
Chaloupeck, V., 1950. Slovansk bohosluba v echch In: Vstnk esk akademie vd a umn 59,
1950, pp. 65-80.
Chalopupka, O., 1989. Setkn s eskmi spisovateli, Praha.
Forst, V., 1985. Literatura pro 1. ronk stednch kol (Pehled vvoje a smr). Praha.
Fried, J., 2002. Gnesen Aachen Rom. Otto III. und der Kult des hl. Adalbert: Beobachtungen zum

93

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lteren Adalbertsleben In: Polen und Deutschland vor 1000 Jahren. Ed. M. Borgolte. Berlin, pp. 235-279.
Golema, M., 2006. Stredovek literatura a indoeurpske mytologick dedistvo. Prtomnos trojfunknej
indoeurpskej ideolgie v literatre, mytolgii a folklre stredovekch Slovanov. Bansk Bystrica.
Graus, F., 1953. Djiny venkovskho lidu v echch v dob pedhusitsk I. Praha.
Hoffmann, B., Tesakov, J., 1988. Literatura pro I. ronk stednch kol (pracovn antologie text), Praha.
Horeck, P. L., 1982. Kosmas (Cosmas) In: Kosmas 1, Summer 1982, no 1, pp. 3-8.
Kalandra, Z., 1947. esk pohanstv. Praha.
Karbusicky, V., 1995: Bje, mty, djiny. Nejstar esk povsti v kontextu evropsk kultury. Praha.
Kersken, N., 1995, Geschichtsschreibung im Europa der nationes. Nationalgeschichtliche Gesamtdarstellungen im Mittelalter. Kln Weimar Wien.
Koht, H., 1947. The Dawn of Nationalism in Europe In: American Historical Review, vol. 52, pp. 265-280.
Kopal, P. Cosmas of Prague In: The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, in print.
Kopal, P., 2008. Kosmova kronika jako televizn seril In: Djiny a souasnost, vol. 30, no. 12, p. 6.
Kopal, P. Velk Morava pokus o slovensk nrodn velkoilm In: www.ilmadejiny.cz
Kopal, P., 2005. Za as Markety Lazarov?: Filmov obrazy stedovku. In: Film a djiny. Ed. P. Kopal.
Praha, pp. 57-83, 353-359.
Krlk, O., 1976. Kosmova kronika a pedchoz tradice. Praha.
Linhart, L., 1968. Prvn estetik ilmu Vclav Tille. Praha.
Nejedl, Z., 1953. Star povsti esk jako historick pramen. Praha.
Palack, F., 1830. Wrdigung der lteren bhmischen Geschichtsschreiber. Prag.
Petr, J., 1975. Historick skupina (Koment k vzpomnkm jejch len) In: Studie z obecnch djin.
Sbornk prac k 70. narozeninm prof. Dr. Jaroslava Charvta. Praha, pp. 11-45.
Seifert, J., 1992. Vecky krsy svta. Praha.
karka, A., 1957. Kosmas: Literrn historick portrt. Studie k djinm esk literatury In: esk literatura
vol. 5, pp. 152-167.
karka, A., 1959. (in:) Djiny esk literatury I. Praha.
Tich, Z., 1984. Cesta star esk literatury. Praha.
Tille, V., 1928. Pemysl Or In: asopis pro djiny venkova, vol. 15, pp. 81-111
Tille, V., 1918. Kristinv a Kosmv Pemysl In: esk asopis historicick, vol. 24, pp. 255-263.
Tille, V., 1917. Pemyslova otka In: esk asopis historick, vol. 23, pp. 387-391.
Tille, V., 1906. O panovnkovi od eleznho stolu In: esk lid, vol. 15, pp. s. 1-2.
Tille, V., 1905. K nejstarm eskm povstem In: esk asopis historick, vol. 11, pp. 425-427.
Tille, V., 1904. Pemyslovy stevce a elezn stl In: esk asopis historick, vol. 10, pp. 203-206.
Tille, V., 1904. K povsti o Pemyslovi In: esk asopis historick, vol. 10, pp. 322-323.
Tetk, D., 1968, Kosmova kronika. Studie k potkm eskho djepisectv a politickho mylen. Praha.
Tetk, D., 1966/1972. Kosmas. Praha.
Tetk, D., 2003. Mty kmene ech (7. 10. stolet). Ti studie ke starm povstem eskm. Praha.
Tetk, D., 2005. O Kosmovi a jeho kronice In: Kosmova Kronika esk. Praha Litomyl.
Tetk, D., 2007. Rozhovor s historikem Duanem Tetkem In: ro 1 Radiournl, 12. 2. 2007.
Vanura, V., 1981. Obrazy z djin nroda eskho I, Praha.
Vanura, V., 1987. Kosmas. Markta Lazarov. Praha 1987.
Wojciecowska, M., 1968. Kosmasa Kronika Czechw, Warszawa.
Zvodsk, A., 1975. Kronik Kosmas a Vladislav Vanura In: Classica atque mediaevalia Jaroslao Ludvkovsk octogenario oblata. Brno, pp. 297-302.

94

Reviews

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

Michael W. Schaefer: Just what war is. The civil war

writings of de forest and bierce.
The Univesity of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1997. 172 p.

Jozef Pecina
Civil War is one of the most traumatic
experiences in the history of the American nation and it influenced and changed
lives of almost all Americans. Besides
producing human and material casualties it also resulted in enormous amount
of literary works. Hundreds of novels,
short stories, poems, songs, pamphlets
or speeches were published during the
war and in following years.
Several veterans from both Federal
and Confederate armies published their
memoirs and as many as forty tried to
exploit their combat experience in writing novels or short stories. Two of them,
John W. De Forest and Ambrose Bierce
stand above the rest with their literary
achievements. Michael W. Schaefers
book, as the subtitle suggests, deals with
writings of these two representatives of
realism in American literature.
The title of Schaefers book is taken
from an article written by De Forest entitled Our Military Past and Future and
published in Atlantic Monthly in 1879. In
the article, De Forest calls for accurate,
detailed accounts (Introduction X) of
what actually happens on the battlefield
and criticizes military historians using
rhetorical generalities (Introduction
X) when describing battles. He calls for
military histories that are not such stuf
as the world has had about war from a
host of ignorant romancers calling themselves historians; but books which show

just what war is, and what to do amidst

its difficulties and perplexities (Introduction, p. X I)
First part of the book, entitled The
Components of Realism in Combat Writing, is divided into three chapters. Here,
using results of research of foremost
British military historians Robert Holmes and John Keegan, Schaefer describes
what soldiers actually feel in combat, do
in combat and how do they behave in
military writings of De Forest and Bierce.
He comes to conclusion that for ordinary
soldier during the battle a sight of the
battlefield is limited and it is impossible
to grasp wider strategic perspective.
Even when a man can see what is going
on around him, he is most likely not able
to remember it accurately enough to put
it into context. Therefore, he concludes,
for a writer describing the battle accurately, it is necessary to supplement his
own memories with other sources in
order to provide realistic picture. Both
Bierce and De Forest managed to capture
truthful aspects, adding their own style,
which distinguishes their literary works
from simple reports from memoirs written by other veterans.
John W. De Forest had already published several books before the War
started. After the Confederate victory at
Bull Run, he raised a company of volunteers in his native Connecticut and later
participated in several battles and skir95

ARS AETERNA
mishes, mostly in Louisiana and Virginia. His literary fame rests mostly on one
novel, Miss Ravenels Conversion from
Secession to Loyalty, published in Harpers Monthly in 1867 and a collection of
Civil War memoirs called Volunteers Adventures. Fourth and fifth chapter of the
book focus on writings of this pioneer of
realistic war fiction. Schaefer returns to
Our Military Past and Future, in which De
Forest ofers an articulate theory about
what constitutes realism in combat literature (p. 24). De Forest believes that
reading accounts of previous battles is
the best way how to prepare prospective
soldier for coming under fire and therefore proposes a set of criteria for good
military writing. Here, William Schaefer
correctly concludes that both fiction and
nonfiction De Forests military writing
meets his own criteria.
Although De Forest cites Caesar and
his Commentaries, as his chief source
of influence and even praises him in
Miss Ravenels Conversion, Schaefer notices several flaws concerning realistic
combat descriptions Caesars memoirs.
He however points out that De Forest
was able to avoid similar flaws, mostly
through his own battlefield experience
and through influence of other military
writers. Among them, Schaefer praises
Alexander Kinglake, British historian
who between 1863 and 1887 published
Invasion of Crimea, history of Crimean
War in nine volumes. However, De Forest
started writing Miss Ravenels conversion in 1864 and it is doubtful whether
Kinglake was able to influence him.
None of the participants who attempted to write about their military
experience saw more action than Am96

brose Bierce. He enlisted Federal army

at the age of eighteen and participated
in almost all important Western Theatre
battles. Twenty years after the War he
began to write short stories in which he
concentrates on men in isolated situations and death on the battlefield seems
to be his obsession. On the contrary to
De Forest, it is rather difficult to find authors who influenced Ambrose Bierce.
He ofers very few clues in his writings,
nothing that could be compared to De
Forests Our Military Past and Future.
Schaefer opposes two American literary
critics (Larzer Zif and Eric Solomon),
who, after failing to find sources that influenced Bierce concluded that he completely invented his own form, and states
that Bierce was familiar with works of
Walter Scott and William Thackeray that
include descriptions of battles. Besides,
in twenty years between the end of his
military career and his first Civil War
short story Bierce must have read several works of military authors. Schaefer
correctly concludes that, however, these
influences had a negative impact on him
and after rejecting them Bierce developed a vision of combat entirely his
own (p. 130)
Analyzing two of Bierces Civil War
short stories (One Officer, One Man and
Son of the Gods), Schaefer ofers comparison between styles of De Forest and
Bierce. In De Forests writing, good
soldier remains in control of himself by
managing battle intellectually, through
recourse to his reading of realistic military history and other forms of preparatory training (p. 127), while in Bierce
such preparation does no good, for battle has no meaning that can be managed

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

intellectually and the good soldier
controls himselfbecause the only alternative is to lose control (p. 127). The
basic diference between two writers is,
according do Schaefer, that De Forest entered the war as an established writer
and he was able to put his experience to
the perspective of his previous reading.
On the other hand, Bierce enlisted in the
age of eighteen and nothing he has read
before or after matched the intensity of

his memories.
Michael Schaefer chose interdisciplinary approach and he combines psychology, military history and literary criticism to treat writings of both authors. In
concluding chapter, he puts their works
to wider perspective of American military literature. The book is substantial
material for all historians of literary critics interested in American Civil War literature.

Disturbing Voices in Mohsin Hamids

The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Mria Kiov
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, London: Penguin Books, 2008

Mohsin Hamids remarkable book The

Reluctant Fundamentalist has been very
positively received by critics as well as
by the mainstream readers in several
countries. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2007 and praised both by Kiran
Desai: A brilliant book and Philip Pullman: Beautifully written more exciting than any thriller Ive read for a long
time the book is currently available in
some Slovak bookshops.
The author of Moth Smoker is a child of
a multi-cultural world. Growing up in the
Pakistani Lahiri, Mohsin Hamid moved
to the US and after attending prestigious
American universities such as Princeton
and Harvard Law School he currently
lives and writes in London. The story of
a young Pakistani Changez would tempt
us to seek for Hamids own experiences;
the idea which the author strongly de-

nied and criticized in several interviews.

As a young promising son from a
wealthy Pakistani family, Changez wins
a scholarship to the US and plans to go
on with the bright future. He enters the
money culture world in full at 22, as he
starts to work for an American financial firm. Successful and widely popular exotic companion for the colleagues,
Changez quickly assimilates and enjoys
pleasures of the Big Apple: I was, in four
and a half years, never an American; I
was immediately a New Yorker. (p. 37)
His initial optimism soon fades and he is
disenchanted with both private life and
work experience. Sufering the heart
break and realizing his own change
so much hated in his later recollections
- Changez confesses: I was a modernday janissary, a servant of the American
empire at a time when it was invading a
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country with a kinship to mine and was
perhaps even colluding to ensure that my
own country faced the threat of war. Of
course I was struggling! Of course I felt
torn! (p. 173) With a little surprise, after
9/11 followed by other disturbing revelations about the true face of his American colleagues and friends, a disappointed Pakistani returns home. The admirer
of America changes into a fundamental
Pakistani university lecturer calling for
the rights of the Pakistani which makes
him a potential terroristic threat for the
once befriended culture.
Complexity of the narrative tackles various politically sensitive issues, including
historical twists and turns: Four thousand years ago, we, the people of the Indus River basin, had cities that were laid
out on grids and boasted underground
sewers, while the ancestors of those
who would invade and colonize America
were illiterate barbarians. Now our cities
were largely unplanned, unsanitary affairs, and America had universities with
individual endowments greater than our
national budget for education. To be reminded of this vast disparity was, for me,
to be ashamed. (p. 38), political correctness: Two of my five colleagues were
women; Wainwright and I were nonwhite. We were marvellously diverse
() and not one of us was either short or
overweight. (pp. 42 43) as well as the
identity struggles and nationalism.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is an ac-

98

count of failing attempts for the dialogue.

The narrative of Changez is a monologue
and his dialogue partner in the novel is
never heard. Hamids Changez provokes
and waits patiently for the response.
Fortunately for Changez, his monologue
is being listened to/ read and it is the
reader who reacts and responds; agrees,
nods and seems to understand. The communication flourishes as the story develops and absorbs the readers mind fully.
Learning Changezs life story, there is no
need to fear his beard and fundamentalism.
Irony seems to be the major and most
powerful tool of Hamids high paced narrative from the very first scene which describes what happens when an American
meets a Pakistani in the after-9/11 Pakistan. The opening question: Excuse me,
sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I
have alarmed you. Do not be frightened
by my beard: I am a lover of America. (p.
1) is mocking and embarrassing at once.
Unjustified cultural prejudices are universal and The Reluctant Fundamentalist skilfully shows it.
What is fundamental and what I liked
most about the book is that it does not
repeat the notorious mantra it is them
who are to blame but rather hints that
culturally and politically colourful world
of today just cannot be mistaken for the
concept of black and white global society. Once again the uneasy truth of fiction reminds us of the reality.

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

Civil war and its naked truth: the compelling

voice of a new literary talent
Simona Heveiov
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun (2007). London/ New York/ Toronto/ Sydney: Harper Perennial.

The Nigerian writer Chimamanda

Ngozi Adichie cannot be regarded as
a newcomer to the literary scene any
more. Following the international acclaim of her debut novel Purple Hibiscus
in 2004, her second book Half of a Yellow
Sun (2006) has managed to amaze the
world-wide readership as well. Growing up in the former house of one of the
greatest African writers, Chinua Achebe,
Adichie seems to be predestined to follow the same path bracing against her
amazing gift of storytelling. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria
in 1977 but she had left for the United
States at the age of nineteen to study
communication and political science. After completing her master degree in creative writing at John Hopkins University,
the writer has decided to live in Nigeria
and United States alternately.
Being based on a historical account of
the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967-70, Half
of a Yellow Sun recounts the individual
narratives and traumas of people involved in the conflict. Adichie, born seven years after the war had ended, wrote
the book because she wanted to engage
with [her] history in order to make sense
of [her] present (p. 2 of the P.S.) since
she feels it is still a potent political issue (p. 3). Even though she has not experienced the conflict herself, Adichie

stated several times that she regarded

the war not as a history but as a memory. With the members of her own family being traumatized and haunted by
the shadows of the war, Adichie felt an
urgent need to reconstruct the destinies
of ordinary people in a written form and
thus reconcile with the traumatic legacy
of her ancestors.
What is appealing about the novel is
that it does not attempt to romanticize
or idealize the past, nor does it provide
a simplistic, black-and-white vision of
the conflict. The narrative oscillates
between the lives of three characters
Olanna, a teacher at Nsukka University;
Ugwu, the houseboy of her lover Odenigbo and Richard, a British journalist and
a great admirer of Igbo culture. All the
characters are engulfed in the war and
face almost unbearable situations. None
of them is, however, heroized Ugwu
rapes a bar girl, Odenigbo impregnates a
young girl and succumbs to drink, Olanna has sex with her sisters lover and
breaks the fragile bond between them,
etc. Despite their lapses, the reader does
not stop to feel compassion for them. It is
the circumstances these characters find
themselves in that challenge their very
humanity.
Apart from the story itself, Half of a
Yellow Sun excels in other aspects as well.
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Adichies amazing storytelling power results in a wonderfully paced story that
combines history with the imaginative
world created by the author. The vibrant
narrative captures the readers attention
from the first page to the last one, while

100

the constant switches from one narrative

perspective to another keep the story dynamic. There is no doubt that the novel
has the potential to become a literary
masterpiece and a classic as the front
cover suggests.

Vol.1, No.1 / 2009

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