Sofiia Andrukhovych’s Felix Austria: the postcolonial neo-Gothic and Ukraine’s search for itself

ABSTRACT

Sofiia Andrukhovych’s 2014 novel Felix Austria (Feliks Avstriia) became Ukraine’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work of literature published in the immediate aftermath of the Euromaidan revolution of 2013–14. It combined an ambitious historical reconstruction of daily life in the year 1900 in a mid-size city in the Habsburg-ruled part of Ukraine and an engaging plot skilfully employing multiple devices associated with the Gothic tradition, especially in its latter-day and postmodernist reinterpretations. The novel’s success is especially telling in the context of the rising interest in the Gothic in Ukrainian culture. Told by an unreliable narrator, the novel prompts readers to interrogate their assumptions. In the context of Ukraine, it is particularly subversive in its engagement with the nostalgic myth of the Habsburg Empire as a multi-ethnic utopia of tolerance, and by implication it challenges all imperial myths. The novel’s emphasis on the quest for (self-)discovery strongly resonated with readers in the context of a socio-political crisis, which highlighted the relevance of the distinct postcolonial overtones in its message.     

What makes a Gael? Identity,language and ancestry in the Scottish Gàidhealtachd

Scholars know far less about ‘national identity’ than ‘nations’ and ‘nationalism’. The authors argue that the concept is sociologically important and briefly discuss its relationship with language. They examine empirically how people living in the Gàidhealtachd, the area of Scotland associated with Gaelic language and culture, whether they are Gaelic speakers or not, whether incomers or not, go about their territorial identity business. The article shows how respondents’ Gaelic identity relates to their British and Scottish identity; how people living in the Gàidhealtachd assess putative claims to a Gaelic identity based variously on language, residence and ancestry; and how they see the balance between ‘cultural’ and ‘political’ elements in Gaelic. The authors argue that to study ‘what makes a Gael?’ highlights the key role territorial identity plays in connecting social structure to social action, and also that identity provides a set of meanings and understandings through which people experience social structure and feel empowered to act.     

智库建设的困境摆脱与国家软实力提升

智库是国家软实力的重要体现。改革开放以来，国家软实力的提升为智库建设的机制创新创造了有利条件。但在新时期新的历史条件下，由于体制内官方智库的非自主性、体制外智库发展的滞后性、智库设置和定位的模糊化、智库建设和发展的保障不足等仍影响着国家软实力的提升。不断加强官方智库建设，高度重视半官方智库建设，加大民间智库的扶持力度，引导大学附属型智库的积极发展，建立各类智库的互动合作机制，是我国进一步提升国家软实力的必由之路。     

History lessons: inequality,diversity and the national curriculum

This article explores the continued importance of teaching a diverse curriculum at a time when issues of racial and ethnic equality and diversity have been increasingly sidelined in the political discussion around ‘British’ values and identities, and how these should be taught in schools. The 2014 History National curriculum, in particular, provoked widespread controversy around what British history is, who gets included in this story and how best to engage young people in increasingly diverse classrooms with the subject. The new curriculum provides both opportunities for, and constraints on, addressing issues of racial and ethnic equality and diversity, but how these are put into practice in an increasingly fragmented school system remains less clear. Drawing on the findings of two research projects in schools across England and Wales, this article examines the challenges and opportunities facing teachers and young people in the classroom in the teaching and learning of diverse British histories. We argue that it is not only the content of what children and young people are taught in schools that is at issue, but how teachers are supported to teach diverse curricula effectively and confidently.     

经典剧作的对外传播与中国国家形象建构

经典剧作是我国优秀传统文化的代表，是中国人民智慧的结晶，也是中华民族优良品德的集中体现。做好经典剧作的对外传播，有利于将客观、真实的中国介绍给世界，消除个别国家对我国国家形象的误解，对于我国的社会主义现代化进程和在国际社会树立良好的大国形象，具有积极的推动作用。     

“健康中国”背景下全民健身与全民健康融合研究

结合我国实际，从全民健身和全民健康的科学理念、科学研究、人才培养、体医融合、设施建设、产业发展、“互联网+”运用等措施，实现全民健身和全民健康的深度融合，保障政府工作落地生根，促进全民健康。     

新时代高校国防教育隐性课程开发探究

新时代高校国防教育，在利用好军事理论教学这一显性课程基础上，还需要开发隐性课程。从国防教育隐性课程内涵谈起，阐述了开发国防教育隐性课程的必要性和可行性，进而对高校国防教育隐性课程开发的策略提出了几点看法，认为应该从开发以校园环境建设为基础的隐性课程、开发以制度建设为载体的隐性课程、开发以培育大学精神为核心的隐性课程三方面进行。     

Narratives of national belonging: the domestic,the wild,and the mutant in Australian film

This article explores understandings of postcolonial national belonging through an analysis of cinematic representations of humans, animals and the environment. It does so by analyzing a series of Australian films about plants, animals or people who are out of place or out of control. The article registers some of the changing representations of Australian flora, fauna and, by association people, as native, domesticated, simpatico, feral and wild; interpreting these shifts as recalibrations of a moral hierarchy of cultural belonging. Films including Lantana (2001) Dir. Ray Lawrence; Razorback (1984) Dir. Russell Mulchay; Rogue (2007) Dir. Greg Mclean; and Black Water (2007) Dirs. David Nerlich and Andrew Traucki are read in terms of political anxieties. Drawing on work ‘that insists humans and animals are currently bound in a complex network of relationships’, I use these films to explore issues of the nation, place, belonging in relation to aliens and natives. Given that in the past 20 years there has been increasing recognition of the history of colonialism and its effects on Indigenous peoples but also a different but related blossoming of environmental nationalism, the key question that animates this research is how these understandings are represented in film and what work animals and plants might have played in filmic cultural representations of national belonging.     

以意识形态安全为核心加强高校国防教育

随着习近平总书记提出总体国家安全观，关于国家安全的研究不断丰富和扩大。文化安全作为国家安全的重要保障，意识形态领域的安全又是文化安全的根本要求，高校学生的思维易受外界影响，需要重点教育引导。高校国防教育活动作为意识形态安全教育的主要形式，对于加强国家文化安全有着重要作用。为了切实加强社会主义意识形态安全教育，为国家发展做好文化安全保障，高校国防教育应该从国家安全的高度指导教学，改革教育的内容和方式。     

National Language Capacity in Global Competition

The term national language capacity refers to the sum total of a nation’s ability to grasp linguistic resources, provide language services, deal with linguistic issues, develop the language, and related tasks. Key capacities include the possession of linguistic resources, utilization of language and language services, development and use of linguistic resources, the language of the members of the nation, reserves of linguistic talent, language management, development of language enterprises and linguistic influence. The development of informatization has made national language capacity an important part of national strength. It is hard power as well as soft power, playing a very important role in social progress and cultural inheritance, in promoting economic development and technological innovation, and in protecting a country’s national security and international development.