V članku predstavim zgodovinsko in kulturno ozadje književnosti o maloazijski katastrofi. Vojna in izmenjava prebivalstva med Grčijo in Turčijo leta 1923 sta spremenili strukturo prebivalstva v ...celinski Grčiji, kar je spodbudilo razvoj grškega romana, toda begunska izkušnja se takrat še ni integrirala v grški kolektivni spomin. Grška proza jo je sicer tematizirala od že leta 1924 napisane Številke 31328 I. Venezisa, ki so ji sledili romani S. Dukasa, S. Mirivilisa, D. Sotiriu, K. Politisa, R. Galanaki idr., pa vse do danes. V romanih se ponavljajo trije osnovni tematski sklopi: idealizirano življenje v stari domovini, različni momenti same katastrofe in težavnost zakoreninjanja po prihodu v Grčijo, zato P. Mackridge predlaga njihovo obravnavo v širšem kontekstu izgnanske literature. Prerod tematike v pop kulturi po J. Papadopulosu begunsko izkušnjo naposled vključuje v narodni kolektivni spomin.
Presented are the perceptions of different foreigners who came to Slovene lands in the past or in the present time, as shown in Slovene folk narratives. Despite often stereotyped picture of the ...Others, the research demonstrates an immense complexity of these narratives and the fact that they tell more about Us than about Them. The book ('The Mysteriou Stranger and the Demonic Enemy. “The Other” and Otherness in Slovene Folk Narratives') brings a theoretical overview of the current research on otherness in folklore studies and contextualizes the examples into a wider international folkloristic, anthropological and historical frames. Stories about the Turks, the Napoleon’s French and the Huns reflect an interweaving of historical facts, archetypical imageries of the dangerous Foreigner and ideological influences. These narratives are strongly embedded into the landscape and reinforce the sense of a common identity of its members. The imagery of historic aggressors is understandably quite different from the imagery of Jews and the Roma, with whom the people of the Slovene lands have had a completely different kind of contact.The same goes for contemporary foreigners from other countries. Nevertheless, they all display a high level of stereotypization, generalization and projection of fears upon “the Other”.
Šintoistično svetišče Yasukuni je ena od nevralgičnih točk v japonskih zunanjepolitičnih odnosih s sosednjimi državami, predvsem Kitajsko in Južno Korejo. V recentnem obdobju je bilo deležno izjemne ...medijske pozornosti širom sveta predvsem zavoljo dejstva, da ga je v času svojega vodenja vlade redno obiskoval Koizumi Jun’ichirō, čeprav je njegovi praksi počastitve spomina padlim za »japonsko stvar« oponiral širok spekter posameznikov na Japonskem, da kitajskih in južnokorejskih državnikov niti ne omenjam. Sodim, da je potrebno glorificiranje izbranih žrtev velikega Japonskega imperija, ki ga prakticira konservativni del japonskih političnih elit, umestiti v širši kontekst imperialne nostalgije, ki smo ji na Japonskem priča v začetku 21. stoletja.
Kalejdoskop goriške preteklosti, zgodbe o spominu in pozabi ('Kaleidoscope of the Past - Memories and Forgotten Stories from the Border') is a story about lives of the people living along the ...Slovenian-Italian border. In this area, the idea of the border is manifold, it is a state border, a territorial border, a temporal border between what had happened and the interpretations of past events today. The author discusses the divisive past and the seemingly uniting present permeating the area. She tells a story about the city Gorica, to which both Italians and Slovenians lay claims, a story about the struggle for redemption and freedom, about people who stroll along the same river, shop in the same shops and eat indulge similar cuisines. Still, they manage to retain a thin line of differentiation, a mentally construed abyss invariantly fortifying the distance. Since 2007, the border is visually gone yet it remains the criterion of spatial differentiation and identity formation, the founding stone of respective communities.