Marshall Plan films played a crucial role in US cultural diplomacy. This paper will analyze how European film makers of the Marshall Plan used docudramas to envisage a multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan “young Europe” free from the political baggage of the past.
The relationship between music and identity became a commonplace theme in ethnomusicology beginning in the early 1980s. This article surveys all 17 articles published in the journal Ethnomusicology in the last 25 years with the word ′identity′ in the title in order to understand how ethnomusicologists have treated this subject. The survey reveals that the authors of these articles neither cite the general literature on identity nor one another. As a consequence, this article takes on the task of analyzing the ethnomusicological literature around basic questions found in the general literature, including what is identity, where does identity come from, how many identities do we possess, how is identity created, and who defines and institutionalizes identity. It concludes with some reflections on what music contributes to the construction and symbolization of identity.
Nationalism in Europe resonates through music—from folk song to marches, from operas to anthems—giving voice in this reference resource to the makers of modern history.The Music of European Nationalism: Cultural Identity and Modern Historysurveys the intersection of music and nationalism by tracing its historical development and documenting its persistence today. Contrasting different types of music reveals how music expresses core ideas of nationalism, for example, folk music in the 19th century and popular music in the 21st.
The book also examines music-making that defies easy classification, but rather cuts across class and ideological divisions: national anthems, military music, and national folk ensembles in Eastern Europe. Music that defines ethnic and cultural groups without being explicitly nationalistic, such as klezmer and Roma (Gypsy) music, is also featured. The discussion of the interplay between nationalism and music is accessible to lay and specialist readers alike.
In this significant intervention into the academic and institutional debate on European cultural identity, Monica Sassatelli examines the identity-building intentions and effects of the European Capital of Culture programme, and also looks at the work of the Council of Europe and the recent European Landscape Convention.
This book is an ambitious, original project describing in detail a century of European coping with America: its inventions, personalities, films, armies, business, and politics. It also shows how much the Europeans' ideas of themselves, including those of the British, have grown from their efforts to come to terms with whatever or whoever the Americans were inventing and projecting in the world. Divided in three parts, corresponding to the three postwar periods of the 20th century, the text shows how these decades reveal better than any other how much emotional energy Europeans invested in finding their own ways to reconcile tradition and modernity under the pressure of the ever-evolving American challenge.
1992 was supposed to herald a positive turning point in the history of Europe. However, as one cmmentator succinctly remarked, at the end of 1992 the European Community had to worry about protecting yesterday's accomplishments rather than facing tomorrow's challenges.1 The collapse of the Soviet empire at the end of 1991 raised old and new European demons. These originated from the re-invigoration of the nation-state and of ethno-nationalism in Europe. The continent became embroiled in a sometimes deadly clash between two opposing forces: the logic of global socio-economic interdependence that spells integration and the logic of ethnicity and nationality that demands separation. It is not inevitable that the logic of unity and interdependence will prevail and there is a consequent danger of a return to a dangerously fragmented Europe with potentially devastating consequences.
It is commonplace today to assume that American culture drives global culture, but what is not immediately clear, yet no less true, is that despite the Marshall Plan, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, EuroDisney and "Baywatch," Europe has been able to preserve its cultural distinctiveness and resist embracing the "American way of life." Richard Pells not only shows how the Europeans resisted and altered American culture to fit their own needs and tastes, but how Americans were as attracted to Europe's fashions and consumer goods as Europeans were influenced by America's technology and mass entertainment. The issues he discusses continue to resonate today, as Americans and Europeans alike face the problem of how to enjoy the benefits of a global culture and economy while maintaining their attachments to local, regional and national institutions. With its rich historical narrative and astute cultural observations, "Not Like Us" provides a new paradigm for understanding the survival of local and national cultures in a global setting."The details are fascinating, the insights unfailingly illuminating. This is serious history at its entertaining best."--Allen J. Matusow, Rice University"A bold, beautifully written account of the impact (and surprising limits) of Hollywood and burger King, the Marshall Plan and Disneyland, on Western Europeand the great world beyond."--David M. Oshinsky, Rutgers University
Europe can become 'united in diversity' only by helping its citizens internalise experientially their composite cultural identity as Europeans. Merely conceptual 'understanding' of the other cultures is insufficient to promote genuine mutual respect and real opportunities for synergy across frontiers. An example is given of how experiential internalisation can be facilitated by teaching languages as culture. Europa può diventare 'unita nella diversità' solo se promuove tra i suoi cittadini l'internalizzazione esperienziale delle loro identità culturali composite. Non basta una 'comprensione' puramente cognitiva delle altre culture per favorire, superando le frontiere, la creazione di intese e di sinergie. Viene illustrato un metodo per facilitare l'internalizzazione esperienziale attraverso l'insegnamento delle lingue come forma mentis culturali.
"In this densely imbricated volume Derrida pursues his devoted, relentless dismantling of the philosophical tradition, the tradition of Plato, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heideggerâeach dealt with in one or more of the essays. There are essays too on linguistics (Saussure, Benveniste, Austin) and on the nature of metaphor ("White Mythology"), the latter with important implications for literary theory. Derrida is fully in control of a dazzling stylistic register in this bookâa source of true illumination for those prepared to follow his arduous path. Bass is a superb translator and annotator. His notes on the multilingual allusions and puns are a great service."âAlexander Gelley, Library Journal