• Introduction: Peninsular Identities, Transatlantic Crossings and Iberian Networks

      Rocha Relves, Susana; Gant, Mark; Edwards, Sian; Politecnic of Viseu; University of Chester; Cardiff University (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024-03-07)
      This volume promotes recent and innovative research in different areas of knowledge within the scope of Iberian studies, contributing to the deepening and dissemination of this expanding research area. This book makes available new approaches to the study of Iberian and Ibero-American spaces and cultures, with particular emphasis on Portuguese-Galician, Basque and Catalan identities produced in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and during dictatorship. A considerable number of chapters discuss issues of memory, reflecting the impact of the Historical Memory Law in Spain and its lively discussion in the public sphere. Social mobilization and economic dynamics also play an important role in this volume. In addition, transatlantic contacts with Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries are covered, giving expression to the most recent trends in Iberian studies, which is broadening its scope to exchanges and influences between the Iberian Peninsula and South America and Africa. This volume will be of interest to students, developing and established researchers, and experts in Iberian studies.
    • Year Abroad (A Dialogue)

      Illingworth, James; Gant, Mark; Fukurawa, Akiko; Puzey, Guy; Institute for Study Abroad; SOAS University of London; University of Chester; University of Edinburgh (Liverpool University Press, 2023-12-12)
      This article is the product of an exchange that took place over the course of two months between March and May 2023 and offers reflections on how the year abroad in Modern Languages has changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The four contributors each bring a distinct expertise in year abroad provision and represent different language areas and geographical regions of the United Kingdom. The core themes explored in the discussion are the need for flexibility and resilience in degree programmes, the importance of accessibility and inclusion, and the challenges and opportunities of digital developments in a mobilities context. As well as reflecting on the impact of the pandemic on year abroad provision, the contributors also dwell on how the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union has altered the year abroad landscape.
    • Nicolas Mathieu entre le restaurant Drouant et la France périphérique

      Obergöker, Timo; University of Chester (Freie Universität Berlin, 2023-10-31)
      Space is a central factor in Nicolas Mathieu's novels. Notably his last ones Leurs enfants après eux et Connemara present a threefold spatial divide: the little city of peripheral France, the major regional capital and Paris. This divide is presents both through the lense of his fictional texts, but also in the light of the paratext. Whilst some attention is carried to the idea of posture as theorised by Meizoz, we endeavour to show that the paratopie (Maingueneau) of Mathieu is that of a mediator between classes and postions stemming precisely from his position inbetween places.
    • Slavery and Collective Memory: The Case of Liverpool’s Statue of William Huskisson

      Millington, Richard; University of Chester (Indiana University Press, 2023-09-10)
      In 1982, residents of Liverpool pulled a statue of William Huskisson from its plinth. Today, a plaque at the site states that the sculpture was removed by “activists offended at Huskisson’s role in supporting slavery.” Less than a mile away, however, one finds Huskisson’s effigy, re-erected, with no reference to slavery. This article traces the history of the rise, fall and rise of the Huskisson statue. It concludes on how collective memory shapes the urban landscape and informs interaction with it. It also reflects on the nature of memory conflicts and the processing of unresolved events in the past.
    • The ‘People’s Sport’: Petty Theft in the German Democratic Republic, 1963-1985

      Millington, Richard; University of Chester (Brill, 2023-04-24)
      This article examines petty theft in the GDR. It considers offences committed from the early 1960s to 1985. It shows that GDR citizens stole a range of items including money, vehicle parts, clothes, food, cigarettes, alcohol, and construction materials and/or equipment from places such as factories, construction sites, shops, staff rooms, private homes, and colleagues’ bags. Many of these thieves were apparently motivated by a lack of money to buy the things that they desired. Though petty theft did undermine the vision of socialist society that the Party hoped to create, there is little evidence to support the conclusion that it constituted an act of outright resistance. Thieves stole for personal gain rather than in order to thumb their nose at Party bosses.
    • Der Aufstand vom 17. Juni 1953 im kollektiven Gedächtnis und Bewusstsein der Magdeburger vor 1990

      Millington, Richard; University of Chester (Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2023-03-01)
      Eine Untersuchung und Analyse der kollektiven Erinnerung an den Aufstand vom 17. Juni 1953 unter Bürgern der Stadt Magdeburg.
    • Introduction: Memory, transition and transnationalism in Iberia

      Gant, Mark; Rocha Relvas, Susana; Edwards, Sian; University of Chester; Politecnic Institute of Viseu; University of Cardiff (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023-02-27)
      This volume brings together a wide range of innovative research across the diverse field of Iberian Studies. It will be of interest to academic staff and research students, and will also provide a resource for undergraduate projects and for all those wishing to deepen their knowledge of the Iberian countries and their relationships with other parts of the world. The collection includes cutting-edge work in the fields of memory politics and historical revisionism, peninsular dictatorships, the Spanish Civil War, the Francoist legacy and transition to democracy, and colonial and postcolonial transnational exchanges between Iberia and other continents on a global scale. Within these core themes, pressing topics such as migrations, resistance, memory, exile and trauma, violence, sexuality and feminism, and their literary and artistic representations form the core of the volume. The 16 chapters are written by established and early career researchers from Brazil, India, Ireland, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, the UK, and the USA.
    • Patrick Modiano parolier (1967-1970) : à la recherche d’une voix

      Obergöker, Timo; University of Chester (Universität Innsbruck, 2023-01-23)
      Patrick Modiano, Nobel Prize for Literature 2014, has had an abundant activity as a songwriter between 1967 and 1970. Together with his friend from prep school, Hughes de Courson, they were writing songs for artists as prestigious as Françoise Hardy, Régine and Myriam Anissimov, famous for her biographies of Primo Levi and Romain Gary. In this article, we explore the core themes of some of those songs, asking ourselves to what extent they reflect literary themes and characters Modiano develops in his novels. We argue that his years of songwriting have allowed Modiano to find his voice as an author. With Modiano having found the sober elegance which is still marking his writing in Les boulevards de ceinture, he abruptly stopped writing songs, with one exception in 2018. Modiano dans la chanson1« C’est le soir où près du métro, nous avions croisé Modiano »...Vincent Delerm, chef de file de la Nouvelle scène française du début des années 2000, relate dans sa chanson « Le baiser Modiano » une rencontre nocturne, inattendue avec l’écrivain révéré. Delerm compte parmi les auteurs-compositeurs-interprètes que l’on peut qualifier de littéraires dans le sens où un certain souci de la qualité du texte régit ses chansons, lesquelles abordent, qui plus est, souvent des sujets littéraires. La présence d’un écrivain dans l’univers de Delerm n’a d’emblée rien de surprenant. (Obergöker 2008 ; Remy s.d.)C’est le soir où près du métroNous avons croisé Modiano Le soir où tu ne voulais pas croireQue c’était lui sur le trottoir Le soir où j’avais dit tu vois
    • Navigating the Digital World: Teaching Contemporary Chinese Culture via a Third Space With a Multimodal Approach

      Guenier, Amily; Min, Ge; Lancaster University; University of Chester (IGI Global, 2022-11-01)
      This study explores a multimodal approach to teaching Contemporary Chinese Culture to foster university students’ intercultural awareness and intercultural communication competence via a third space. Two universities in the UK took part in the study where the course contents moved from static notions of culture-as-fact in terms of national traditions to digital presentation of and live discussion about contemporary China. The pedagogy includes discussing Chinese celebrities’ digital videos and films on digital platforms, and students’ digital presentations in multimodal modes. Findings from students’ comments in the module evaluations, students’ reflective essays, and lecturers’ observations prove the viability of this approach and the data analyzed via themes address the function of the third space, the application of multimodality, and approaches to intercultural awareness and intercultural communication competence. The paper suggests that multimodality can be an effective approach to advancing theory and practice in future contemporary culture teaching and research in other higher education contexts.
    • Worlds of evidence: Visualising patterns in witness statements in the aftermath of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster

      Canning, Patricia; Ho, Yufang; Bartl, Sara; University College Utrecht; University of Chester; University of Birmingham (John Benjamins Publishing, 2021-09-15)
      The Hillsborough football stadium disaster (1989) in Sheffield, UK, led to the deaths of 96 football fans and resulted in the longest jury case in British legal history (2016). This article examines the witness statements of two Sheffield residents who claim to have attended the match. Using a mixed-methods approach that incorporates a cognitive linguistic framework (Text World Theory) with visualisation software (VUE) we consider both form and function of a number of linguistic features, such as meta-narrative, evaluative lexis, syntax, and modality to investigate how institutional voices permeate and potentially distort layperson narratives. Our analysis casts doubt on the veracity of the statements and raises questions about what can be considered evidential in a forensic investigation.
    • The Quebec spring, a new May 68?

      Obergöker, Timo; University of Chester (Lexington Books, 2021-02)
      May 68 seems to have become the global matrix for youth protest and indeed one of the first globalised rebellions. Powerful images of young people challenging the establishment circulated quickly around the globe , thus creating a language of dissent encapsulated in slogans, posters, music, happenings. In 2012, when students in the province of Quebec protested massively against an increase of their tuition fees, many commentators in the media compared this event to “May 68”. Indeed, we find striking similarities between Paris 1968 and Montreal 2012. But are things really that easy? We will explore in how far a common set of signs and symbols might, potentially, hide deep structural differences..
    • Introduction: Transcultural spaces and identities in Iberian studies

      Gant, Mark; Rocha Relves, Susana; University of Chester; Politecnic Institute of Viseu (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020-11-05)
      This volume brings together innovative research across the diverse field of Iberian Studies, including insights from economics, society, politics, literature, cinema and other art forms, either in a revisionist perspective or incorporating new data. Reflecting recent developments in the field, the subject matter extends beyond the boundaries of Spain and Portugal, as it also includes transnational and transatlantic interconnections with Europe, Africa and the Americas and its scope ranges from the nineteenth century to the effects of the Catalan independence crisis and Brexit. The 18 chapters here are authored by established academics and early career researchers from the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Japan and the USA. The book will appeal to students, researchers and all who have a particular interest in deepening their understanding of the countries of the Iberian Peninsula.
    • Book review: Black French women and the struggle for equality, 1848–2016. F. Germain & S. Larcher (Eds.). Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2018, ISBN 978-1-4962-0127-0

      Griffiths, Claire H.; University of Chester (emerita) (Taylor & Francis, 2020-10-29)
      This articles reviews fourteen essays focusing on the often unacknowledged contributions Black women have made, and are continuing to make in the fight for equality in metropolitan and 'overseas' France.
    • The Limits of Anglo-American Cooperation in Cuba, 1945–1959

      Hull, Christopher; University of Chester (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020-10-14)
      Before the 1959 Cuban Revolution, British governments and diplomats in Havana sought to protect their interests in Cuba, always sensitive to reactions from Washington – a vital transatlantic ally with a significant political and economic stake in the Caribbean island. After the Second World War, the allies continued their wartime cooperation over sugar supplies, with Cuba’s mainstay export still important to Britain’s refining industry and ongoing food rationing. Following two democratically-elected but highly corrupt Cuban governments, both the US State Department and the British Foreign Office came to recognise the benefits of strongman Fulgencio Batista’s abrupt return to Cuba’s political scene in 1952. Everything changed, however, when the Fidel Castro-led anti-Batista insurgency gained strength between late 1956 and 1958, and London and Washington became increasingly concerned about a political upheaval beyond US control. The issue of arms sales to Cuba became a touchstone not only of US and British policy toward Batista’s regime, but also of Anglo-American cooperation. When it came, Castro’s revolutionary triumph questioned the strength of US hegemony in its hemisphere.
    • The Anniversary Politics of 17 June 1953 since 1990

      Millington, Richard; University of Chester (Wiley, 2020-07-21)
      This article analyses the politics of anniversaries through examination of the role that the anniversary of the East German uprising of 17 June 1953 has played in German politics since 1990. Prior to reunification, West Germany commemorated the date as the ‘Tag der deutschen Einheit’. This annual public holiday was a chance for politicians to express their views on the possibility of German unification and to lambast the East German regime. After 3 October became the ‘Tag der Deutschen Einheit’ in 1990, German politicians all but ignored the anniversary of 17 June until political commemoration of the date enjoyed a revival in 2003. This article shows that the ‘genre memory’ (Olick) of a commemoration ensures that continuities in political commemoration of an anniversary persist, even after long periods in which an historical event is not commemorated. Significantly, the analysis demonstrates further that consideration of the drivers of political mnemonic activity in the twenty-first century must now take into account the technology-led ubiquity of the media in motivating politicians to act. Moreover, the article concludes that politicians’ internationalisation of anniversaries has enabled them to find new political capital in dates that may appear to be politically redundant.
    • State Power and 'Everyday Criminality' in the German Democratic Republic, 1961-1989

      Millington, Richard; University of Chester (OUP, 2020-06-20)
      Friedrich Engels claimed that communists would ‘take an axe to the root of crime’; the removal of the perceived causes of crime in a society - capitalist economic and societal conditions - would automatically lead to its eradication. This did not, however, prove to be the case in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), where instances of ‘everyday criminality’ such as theft, robbery and assault never fell below 100,000 throughout the period of the state’s existence from 1949 to 1989. This article examines the ruling Socialist Unity Party’s (SED) perceptions of the causes of ‘everyday criminality’ in the GDR. It shows that the SED concluded that crime persisted because citizens’ ‘socialist sense of legal right and wrong’ (sozialistisches Rechtsbewußtsein) was underdeveloped. The regime measured this by the extent to which citizens supported and participated in socialist society. Thus, crime could be eliminated by co-opting as many citizens as possible into the Party’s political project. The SED’s ideological tunnel vision on the causes of ‘everyday criminality meant that it dismissed hints about the real causes of crime, such as poor supply and living conditions, identified by its analysts. Its failure to address these issues meant that citizens continued to break the law. Thus, the Party’s exercise of power contributed to the creation of limits to that power. Moreover, analysis of opinion polls with GDR citizens about their attitudes to criminality shows that they accepted crime as a part of everyday life.
    • The Uprooted: Race, Children, and Imperialism in French Indochina, 1890-1980

      Griffiths, Claire H.; University of Chester (Taylor & Francis, 2020-01-09)
      The article reviews recent scholarship on gender, race and imperialism in French Indochina up to and beyond decolonization in 1954.
    • From Postcolonialism to Decolonial Critique? A Visual Discourse of Dissent

      Griffiths, Claire H.; University of Chester (Postcolonial Studies Association UK, 2019-09-30)
      The article explores the critical discourse developing in contemporary African art around issues of development, economic growth and labour exploitation in sub-Saharan Africa.
    • Chinese writing composition among CFL learners: A comparison between handwriting and typewriting

      Zhang, Qi; Min, Ge; Dublin City University; University of Chester (Elsevier, 2019-09-20)
      Situated in the context of CFL (Chinese as a foreign language), the current study examines and compares texts produced by twelve pre-intermediate CFL learners using both pen-and-paper and the pinyin input system. The participants were also invited for interviews to investigate their attitudes towards handwriting and typewriting. Because of the ease of use of the pinyin input system, CFL learners tend to prefer it over writing by hand when composing lengthy texts. Based on the evaluations of fifteen professional CFL teachers, the typewritten texts were rated higher than the handwritten ones. Using the self-report empathy test, there was no significant correlation between an evaluator’s empathy and his/her rating for the texts, whether composed by hand or with pinyin input. Pedagogically, typewriting might better assist Chinese language learning after handwriting has been introduced and practised among non-beginner CFL learners. The empathy effect on handwriting reported in previous literature is not found in the study. The study goes beyond the factors influencing typewriting and typewritten essays, to encourage future research investigating when to introduce computer-based writing and how it would best assist in language learning.
    • Introduction: Revisiting centres and peripheries in Iberian studies: Culture, history and socio-economic change

      Gant, Mark; University of Chester (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019-08-05)
      The centres and peripheries that form the focus of the book are markedly diverse and interdisciplinary in nature. In terms of geography these range from considerations of transnational influences in the wider Hispanic and Lusophone worlds to a closer focus particular regions such as Catalonia or Asturias. The historical and transhistorical processes studied are also varied in character, with consideration given to a number of cases of economic and political change from the late nineteenth century to the present. In terms of cultural representations, more marginal social groups including migrants, children and the elderly are considered as well as those excluded in periods of dictatorship or by the developing democracies. Themes of memory, identity, regionalisms and nationalisms are frequently salient in the interconnectivities across time and space which the volume explores. Contributors are drawn established academics and early career researchers from the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Costa Rica and the USA.