Authenticity killed the Fat

Şahin Yaldız

You would understand better if you watched the video first! 

Authentic costumes of villagers from Muğla province of Turkey.

Zeibek is an improvised single dance of Western Anatolia. The dance is known as the dance of the bandits. However, with the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, the dance was declared as ‘the national dance of the new Turkish society’. Influenced by the movements of ballet, the dance was restructured into a new dance that has nothing to do with the authentic one. This ‘invented’ dance is still more popular over its original form. Moreover; due to the economical and sociological changes, the dance began to lose its richness and authenticity in its natural environment: Western Anatolia villages. Although there has not been a thorough documentation project on the zeibek dances of the villages one by one. 

 

I am the prince of myself!

The Turkish youth is still learning the modern form of the dance because the search for the original form requires time and energy. As a result, a group of young scholars created a project named ‘Academical Zeibek Villages’ initiated by me. The conditions for a zeibek ceremony are provided by me and my friends and the whole village reanimates the old tradition of zeibek dances in its original form. The one week taking ceremonies in remote and unknown villages are led by the villagers who witnessed the authentic tradition. As the first and unique way of transmitting and documenting the dance in a dying tradition, the project attracts dozens of students and academicians who want to experience the authenticity and transmit the dance accordingly.

The shared heritage of Anatolia. In that particular dance scene I tell the story of a Muse trying to inspire a famous Turkish traditional musician Hayri Dev

Up to here that is a boring basic introduction. So, my own story begins after that.

I grew up with the myths and stories about some unbelievably courageous people who were robbing the rich and giving what they have robbed to the poor. They were the sons of the mountain. They were suspicious about even the wind. They were the prince of themselves. They were Zeibeks. Nobody knows where they came from, why they were so successful on their Robin Hood like warfare. Some said that they were the last remnants of an indigenous Anatolian warrior tribe who were living in the secret mountains of western Asia Minor, some said they were a tribe who were living in the ships on Aegean Sea, some claimed that they are just a bunch of bastards. We, as the people called them just Zeibeks.

When I think of bloody Zeibeks

The unique dance of these bandits is so impressive that the image of villagers dancing that unique dance having the same name Zeibek(Zeybek) settled in my memory in my childhood. So, I began to practice it. I mastered in the dance in fifteen years. I’ve written lots of dance theatres, complex choreographies, many stories on zeibeks, performed solo performances in this fifteen year. I also founded Turkey’s biggest university folk dance club and taught them for 6 years. This gave me great joy but there is something unique with that I’m most proud of myself: Academic Zeibek Villages.

One morning, I took a walk in the village while everybody was still sleeping.
This guy screamed: You fat guy! We love you so much! Come and have a
morning coffee!

 We always teach the dance with the figures that we learned from other instructors. Nobody in Turkey was seeking the authentic form of the dance. The dance was spreading with a ‘soldier-like’ posture that has nothing to do with the original form. Six years ago, I came up with that idea: Why don’t we go the most remote and the least known villages of Aegean part of Anatolia and live there ten days, bring different traditional musicians every night to the village and watch people dance accordingly? Guess what: Whoa! It worked!

As the summer approaches, I begin to feel a great excitement about the next ‘village’. We rent a car with my friends. Before hitting on the road, we have a cigarette and the journey begins. We have a really strict method to find the most appropriate village that can host nearly 100 academicians and students for a week and have a great cultural richness on dances and costumes. Let me explain the method: the far from the nearest city, the best village it is. We are exploring as many villages as possible. Nearly 3000 km of road and more than 100 villages are inspected every summer in one week by me. The local governors of nearly 10 of this villages are narrow minded guys (sorry to say) that is why we eliminate them. So, we I invented a categorization method for the rest 90. It is that:

a-)You get into the village; you sit on the coffee shop and nobody communicates with you. ELIMINATE! Those kinds of villages are the villages also eliminated for their local governors.

     
b-)You get into the village; you sit on the coffee shop and people sitting there welcome you with a smiling face. That’s a good one. Keep that in the list 

         c-)You get into the village; you sit on the coffee shop and people sitting there welcome you they order some tea for you and don’t let you pay anything. That’s better. We are getting to the desired village.
d-)You get into the village; you sit on the coffee shop and people sitting there rise up and salute you as if they were expecting you for years and force you to eat even though you are not hungry. THAT’S IT. LET’S BEGIN THE PREPARATION!

I am not able to find any word to depict that beauty.

Every year, I’m looking forward to seeking the target village. This year the sixth of this project will be conducted and it has already changed the approach to Turkish folk dances by awakening the authenticity ideas on the dance.

With 60-70 student and 15 academicians we settle in the village. Every morning, we go to the farms and barns to work with the villagers to just feel a little bit like a villager. At afternoon, those folk-dance academicians teach us different dances from other provinces of Aegean region. At night the festival begins! All the villagers of the host village and nearby village comes to the village’s square to see the authentic old dances. We only let people who are over 50 to dance because they witnessed the original form of the dance. These night festivities and dances begins around 20:00 and ends around 01:00. We record the intangible cultural heritage items that has not been documented yet. The songs, stories, epics, dances, costumes and so on. After this one-week participants of the project goes back to their home with their own Renaissance. The village realizes the potential of itself and the importance of their heritage and they have their own Reform!

The Renaissance of the individual, the Reform of the community! That’s the outcome! The outcome which is destined to change the prosaic applications on Turkish folklore. However, I'm the crazy and arrogant young lad for the most of the folklorists because I deny any intermediary between the art of the village and the stage. The history will show whose approach is the right one! 

The intellectuals of Turkish folklore and the creators of Turkish folklore. All together! 

Language as a part of culture. Is it trendy to be good at your mother tongue?

Arina Govorina

Languages surround us everywhere. We start learning them since the first day of life. We study languages at schools and universities, we buy dictionaries and attend private classes to learn a foreign language. According to Eurostat, more than 80 % of the adult working-age population of the EU knows at least one foreign language. Sometimes we pay much more attention to learning a foreign language rather than to our mother tongue. Moreover, moving abroad or modern electronic devices with autocorrect option can make us forget even basic grammar of our native language. Fortunately, these days a lot of cultures try to attract native speakers to their mother tongue with different competitions and dictations which aim is to draw attention to issues of literacy and literature writing.

Scripps National Spelling Bee, USA

Since 1925 this project originated in the United States is aimed to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives. Although most of its participants are teenagers from the U.S., students from countries such as The Bahamas, Canada, the People's Republic of China, India, Ghana, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, and New Zealand have also competed in recent years. Usually, the test contains several rounds and can be held at regional and national levels. Contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty.

The eight co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, 2019

This type of language contest is becoming popular. From only nine contestants in 1925 to 565 participants in 2019! From 500 dollars to 5000 dollars for the first place prize! Also, the idea of spelling bee has spread in the whole world. These days similar tests are also held in some other countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Malaysia, Australia and many others.

Total dictation, Russia

Another interesting language contest takes place in Russia and called Total Dictation. This annual voluntary Russian language literacy test aims to show that it is important to be literate and learning Russian is not easy but exciting and rewarding. Also, one of the main goals of the test is to unite everyone who knows or wants to write and speak Russian. The first test was held in one Siberian city, Russia and had only few contestants who were local university students. It was a great start and now Total Dictation takes place in more than 80 countries with around 230000 participants every year! People can take the test in the middle of April at universities, schools, libraries, online platforms and even during a flight!

People taking language test on board, 2017

Usually, the text for the test is written by Russian famous philologists, poets or modern writers. Everybody who wants to check his grammar skills can join the event and examine his literacy. One person who is "dictating" speaks and another who is "taking dictation" writes down the words as they are spoken. Before the test online and offline free language courses are available for everybody who wants to prepare for the contest or to refresh his grammar skills. Also, there is an annual award ceremony to reward people with the best test results.

No cheating, please!

As current research says, Total Dictation is becoming more and more popular and the number of participants is increasing every year. Total Dictation sponsors promote it through social networks and attract a lot of people of different age and occupation who have already become interested in literacy and their mother tongue.

 Kanji Kentei, Japan

Another language test is called The Japan Kanji Aptitude Test. This is a proficiency test intended for native speakers with 12 possible levels approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education. The test examines not only one's ability to read and write logographic characters that are used in the Japanese writing system. Also, it checks one's ability to understand their meanings, to use them correctly in sentences, and to identify their correct stroke order. Although the test was originally developed for native Japanese speakers, non-native speakers may also take the tests.

Taking language test in Japan

It examines cultural and social knowledge, vocabulary and grammar, listening and reading skills. The test is challenging and not free of charge. However, it is popular among Japanese students who want to obtain a language certificate and make a career in business.

To sum up, literacy tests are popular nowadays. More and more people are getting involved in these projects for different reasons. However, the main interest still is a strong desire to understand and appreciate our history and culture through perfect language skills.

Are you good at your native language? Are there any language contests in your country?

It is hard and easy to talk about my hometown Baku when I am abroad. It is something like a fight with internal love and hate to this city. Now I more clearly understand that even if I belong to this city, this city does not belong to me anymore. I feel internal pain and my memory ready to forget my attachment to its smells, sounds, ambiance, and diversity. 

 In the article “Cosmopolitan Baku” Bruce Grant describes and analyzes the interview with Bakuvian about early 70’s Baku: 

‘It was a fantastic time – you can’t imagine it. The jazz, the cinema, the parties. Mainly, we were all together, people of every possible nationality. It was our golden age’. Bruce Grant describes “I have heard this sentiment foremost from persons in their fifties and older who were naturally describing their youth, and I have heard it rehearsed with impressive confidence from teenagers born in the twilight of the Soviet Union.” Considering that this article was written in 2010 when I was 20 years old, I belong to that generation who hardly could tell that lived in the Soviet Union but was influenced by nostalgic memories about it.  

When I want to talk about Baku, I understand that this city will never be the same city of my parents, my childhood, my adulthood, and the future generation. Baku will be the city that was built and destroyed by historical events, political situations, oil boom, cosmopolitanism, and its citizens.  

I started to ask myself how much I know about you (by you I mean Baku), you who built me as a personality and a betrayer who could not make anything to save you from many paths that changed you. Through mentioned above circumstances, I made brief research of how others reflected and defined you in deferent periods of your existence.

In 1905, J.Henry in his book “Baku, an eventful history” describes your important connection to the oil:

“Baku is greater than any other oil city in the world. If the oil is king, Baku it is the throne...I know of no oil city that will compare with it, or leave the commercial for a moment in the wealth of history and traditions, legend and story.” He symbolizes you with the throne full of gold under it, a throne that everyone wishes to overtake.

You also described a lot of times as a cake with many layers; you are not plane surface which is visible to everyone. To know what inside others need to try you. Audrey Altstadt, American historian proves it by the following:

“For over ten centuries Baku had been part of the Muslim world. During much of this time, it was residence and capital for a seven -hundred-year-old local dynasty, the Shirvanshahs. It belts the stamp of Turco-Iranian Islamic cultural belt in which it lays. By the twenty century, Baku had become an industrial and commercial city. The oil industry and trade like the city’s social-political, and cultural life, were dominated by three major ethnoreligious communities -Muslim Turks, Orthodox Russians and Georgian Armenian” 

This diversity was also described by many others:

Baku, “the city of oil “and the quintessential boomtown built around oil wealth, has been known since ancient times for the black gold bubbling just below its surface. Today the city flame built on the oil industry, its militant labor unions and its association with individuals such as Stalin and Alfred Nobel. [1]Sometimes Baku is described as having been the most international city, sometimes the most cosmopolitan city, sometimes ‘of the whole Caucasus’, and sometimes ‘of the whole USSR’.[2]

An array of large-scale international events was attracted to Baku. Iconic architectural projects by prominent international architects and numerous luxury hotels were also opened to reflect the new glamorous image of the city, and to host, the international visitors attracted by mega-events. In preparation for international events, the government also invested billions from public funds into urban infrastructure projects and venues. These efforts also led to the city's beautification campaign, often triggering displacement from central Baku to the peripheries of up to 80 thousand residents located within areas slated for re-development. [3]

Through all your paths I think oil made you rich, wealthy, cosmopolitan city where West and East met each other and continue this route hanging each other by hands. Also, oil killed you, it brought you to the stage when you forgot your personality and changed to the faceless city without strong character.  Should I love you or hate you after this, I still have a strong connection to you and it is hard to be not biased.  

---

[1] Stanley, Bruce. "Middle East city networks and the “new urbanism”." Cities 22, no. 3 (2005): 189-199.

[2] Grant, Bruce. "Cosmopolitan Baku." Ethnos 75, no. 2 (2010): 123-147.

[3]Gogishvili, David. "Baku formula 1 city circuit: exploring the temporary spaces of exception." Cities 74 (2018): 169-178.

Can be a the Communards' Wall at two places at the same time?

(Károly TÓTH, 2YMA Comparative History, 2nd year)

The 7-days-long period of in Paris started from May 2, 1871 is called as La semaine sanglante (Bloody Week); on its last day 147 communards (means: supporters of the Paris Commune) were shot to a trench dug near the wall of the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Since then that section is referred as Le mur des fédérés (Communards’ Wall) and in 1907 a memorial plaque was placed on it.

Tamás Székely: Paris, Père Lachaise Cemetery – The Communards’ Wall
(Fenyves. “Budapesti Tavaszi Fesztivál: Ezer esemény – százezreknek.” Ország – Világ, 12 March, 1986, 11.)

It is a common misconception that somewhere there is a statue depicting a woman shot and leaning to the wall locate; although the statue exists, it is in a park outside of the cemetery.

The 200-złoty-banknote from the People’s Republic of Poland – with the portrait of Jarosław Dąbrowski, the military commander of the Commune on the other side
(NumisCollection)

Paul Moreau-Vauthier designed it in 1900, and it was erected in 1909 (ironically, it was never inaugurated). Because of its title (Aux victimes des révolutions) it commemorates the victims of revolutions in general, which makes it problematic as a commemorative arena. 

Paul Moreau-Vauthier: Aux victimes des révolutions
(“To the Victims of Revolutions”; own work)

It is interesting to note that the stones used for its wall are from “the” wall, taken by the sculptor’s father, and even its bullet holes are original. Besides that the situation is almost identical to the paradox of Theseus’ ship, it is interesting that despite its location it became associated with the “original” wall outside of France.

So, tell me now, where is the Communards’ Wall exactly?

Nataliia Tomenko

“Child’s face” of history

Illustration to personal story of Vasyl Tomenko done by Nataliia Tomenko

There are dozens of collections of articles and monographs devoted to the military everyday life of the Second World War at the front, rear, in occupation, in partisan detachments, and so on. The Soviet ideological system also did not ignore the children’s experience, but used it in a very specific way, reformatting under its own ideological needs. Thus, in the official Soviet discourse there were frequent scenes about the heroic feats of young Komsomol and pioneers and their place in the struggle against the enemy. The stories of children about their “non-heroic” experience for decades have been excluded from the general narrative of the war, because they did not correspond to the official doctrine. That is why the communicative memory of children about daily life in occupation was long unnecessary and remained to be a “silent history”.

In view of this, I want to bring back the history one more face – the faces of Romani children who, during the Second World War, and their families, were victims of mass extermination by the Nazi occupation regime. Perhaps this approach will allow us to look at the history of genocide from a completely different angle, to find out about things that are not reflected in the pages of official documents. Admittedly, I have personal connection with topic because of a family story which happened to my grandfather. The narrative talks about a period of Second World War, and about an escape from the Nazis in my hometown, Kremenchuk. At the time my family could have been eliminated but, due to humanity, we are still alive. When my grandfather was alive he always shared his personal experience during the time of Roma Genocide which I would like to share with you.

My grandfather Vasyl Tomenko

My grandfather often recollected the story of his childhood, as a German officer saved his family! This event took place at the end of the war, when the German army retreated. My grandfather’s parents lived at that time in the city of Kremenchuk, a small town situated on the banks of the Dnipro River, and is therefore divided into two parts by the river. The only passing across the river was a bridge.

Leaving Kremenchuk, the German army sent its soldiers and equipment through the bridge. When the passing to another bank had been completed, the German command decided to blow up the bridge. A crowd of civilians gathered near the bridge who wanted to move to the other side, as they knew that there would soon be a Soviet army. But Nazi soldiers and policemen (who were Ukrainians) did not let anyone out.

In that crowd there was my grandfather with my parents. He was about 2 years old at that time. He sat on the father’s cart, suddenly police came to them. They realized that my grandfather’ family was the Romani one. The fight started, the policemen began to drag the members of grandfather’s family to the side, far from the road, because they wanted to shoot them. To this hustle a German officer came to find out what was happening. The German officer ordered the policemen to stop!

My grandfather’s memory was captured with a scene when an officer grabbed him into his arms and began to play with him, he threw the child into the air and said “Kinder, kinder”. Then the German came to my great-grandfather’s and showed him a photo with his children. In some way, he explained great-grandfather that he had a few minutes to move the bridge. The officer ordered the soldiers to let Roma go to the other side.

My grandfather’s family quickly, without regretting the horse, began to pass the bridge. A few minutes after they were on the other side of the Dnipro and moved a little bit from the bridge, there was an explosion, the bridge was destroyed. That is, the members of my family were the last ones who crossed the Kremenchuk bridge built by the Germans for crossing.

To conclude I would like to outline that Every story of survivors is so valuable but when we read stories of the children it touches our hearts even more deeply. The concept is also to find connections with children’s role in current military conflicts in Donbas in Ukraine, in Syria and in many regions of Africa. Children’s memory has bright images without any agenda. These stories clearly show us a variety of strategies to survive hunger, child labor and orphandom.

Ruins and power within them: The story of Serabit el-Khadim

Zeinab Abdelhamed

I am trying to remember when it all began, maybe when our professor Joszéf laszlovszky asked us to choose a ruin to present in the ‘power of ruins’ course. The ‘power of ruins’ course is a truly powerful course that inspire me to ask this very question ‘did the ruins really have any power?’ The story begins with the definition of the word (Ruin), which is the physical destruction or disintegration of something or the state of disintegrating or being destroyed. Then I realized that my country, Egypt, had so many of these already. My choice - with the help of professor Joszéf - was Sarabet El khadem. Located in the southwest of the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt (See Figure 1), where turquoise was mined extensively in antiquity, mainly by the ancient Egyptians. Ancient Egypt was one of the oldest and longest lasting civilizations. It was located along the Nile River in the northeast part of Africa and lasted for over three thousand years.

Figure 1 Map of Egypt

The archaeological site is today bounded by the reconstructed original Middle Kingdom enclosure wall built by Senwosret I, and recent conservation work has provided two paths for visitors, which follow the two ancient processional routes to the rock-cut shrines at the eastern end of the site. These routes lead to the sanctuaries of Hathor and Ptah and are lined with many groups of commemorative stelae in various states of preservation. . The ancient miners erected a great number of memorials carrying the dates of their mining expeditions, number and job of each worker and the names of their chief. For this reason, Serabit el-Khadim is often called the Temple of the People. The two main axes of the temple converge in a courtyard before the speos porticos. Because the original plan of the temple was expanded and reconstructed by successive kings, it is not easy to visualize the layout when you are there, especially as the remains are very scattered  halfway down the western coast, around 40 kilometers due east of Abu Zanima, and about ten miles from Wadi Mughara. Ruined and the inscriptions and decoration of the temple are in poor condition. Archaeological excavation, initially by Sir Flinders Petrie, revealed ancient mining camps and a long-lived Temple of Hathor, the Egyptian goddess who was favored as a protector in desert regions.(see figure 2,3,4,5&6)

Figure 2 : The map 

Figure 3 Part of Serabit el-Khadim ruins

Figure 4  one of the stelae of Hathor

Figure 5 another figure of Hathor the lady of Turquoise

Figure 6: The Tempel Entrance

After I attended “Creative Practices for Community Engagement in Heritage” I decided to work on this site but not from an archaeological approach only. I dream to teach kids the history of this place in order to enjoy the story and the mystery of it. And I know that unless you study archaeology you will never learn about this site. Through my experience, In order for me to help the communities I serve in a lasting way, there is a need to better understand what creates harmony between the preservation of different cultures and sustainable development. My goal is to help a generation of my people to gain the capacity to value their past, protect their own heritage, and use this foundation to enjoy a bright future grounded in strong cultural identity and understanding. My major concern will always be to stimulate curiosity and interest, and to motivate attention for Egypt’s architectural heritage.  Informal teaching and transmission of knowledge is as important as doing research, because without it cultural heritage becomes an academic abstraction rather than a driving force in our lives.

Ruined wooden heritage of Russia. How can we preserve our past? The case of Irkutsk

Arina Govorina

Wood was always one of the common materials to build houses in Russia. Then architects from the western part were building great palaces and houses of brick and stone during the Russian Age of Enlightenment. However, all eastern regions of Russia still used wood in architecture. Being a small town of the south-eastern part, Irkutsk was not an exception.

In the 18^th century there was a lovely place in Irkutsk near the city centre and a lot of people lived there. The district was called Sloboda which meant the independent trade place. That part of the town was filled with artisans who were dealing with silver, stone and wood. Blacksmiths and potters also had houses there. That place was home for merchants who were buying and selling different goods. Later, their children and grandchildren lived there. Irkutsk Sloboda was inhabited by people until the end of the 20^th century.

Irkutsk Sloboda, the early 20th century

Since the 1990s the building boom began in the region. A lot of new apartment blocks made of concrete were built around Irkutsk Sloboda. People started leaving their wooden houses which were already in poor condition due to frequent fires and floods. It was much more reasonable to buy a new flat rather than spend a large sum of money on wooden house restoration. That was how Irkutsk Sloboda started losing its residents and became totally abandoned and ruined by the early 2000s.

But those buildings were still there! They did not look neat and nice. They lost their original functions. Why were the ruins still in the city centre? The reason was the law which protected old wooden architecture and banned to demolish it. Why did not government do anything to conserve the buildings? The answer was pretty simple. There was not enough money in the local budget to invest in wooden architecture restoration.

Irkutsk Sloboda, 2008

Fortunately, the city 350^th anniversary was approaching. The local government adopted the new law, finally found some money and made a decision to do something with ruined Irkutsk Sloboda. The decision shocked people. They were planning to demolish the whole district and build there 16-storey apartment blocks which would ruin the historical centre view. The local community argued against that idea and in 2010 the project called 130 quarter or Irkutsk Sloboda was launched. The architects decided to keep the wooden style of the 18^th century and to develop the idea of architectural and historical heritage.

Some buildings were restored, some ruins were demolished and new buildings appeared at that place. Also, 16 houses which had been totally destroyed by that time were constructed with the help of archives and museums evidence. 8 buildings from the same historic period were transported from another parts of the city and placed in the district.

After restoration, 2011

Now Irkutsk has a nice place in the city centre with good infrastructure. There are small hotels, cafes and stores both for local people and tourists. In order to save memories about the past of this place, there are museums and cultural centre there. Also, blacksmith and pottery workshops are situated in the district.

During the warm season there is always an outside exhibition which explains the history of this place, how people lived and worked here around 300 years ago, how these buildings started been destroyed and how one wonderful idea changed everything.

The project managed both to renovate this place and save the unique architecture style of that period. Moreover, these days the district is not a nice place only but also a bridge connecting us to our past. People can enjoy the atmosphere of that time and learn more about it with museums and annual events which are holding here.

The place attracts everybody. The residents become more interested in local history when they see these buildings. People going to the cafe usually stop near big posters to read what was happening here several centuries ago. All objects here help us to understand what history and heritage we have and how important it is to preserve it.

Usually, it takes a lot of time to decide how to save and protect our heritage. Sometimes ruins can be kept in the original forms for enlightenment or inspiration. Sometimes people have to rebuild or even demolish them to create something new. It does not cancel the idea of heritage conservation. It’s just one of the ways to keep memories of our past and history in the modern world.

The story continues, by the very same Catinca Manaila

Chapter 4: The journal of a hard to please girl by Jeni Acterian 

Continuing the navigation through endless materials about the 'once upon a time in Bucharest' theme, in this chapter I want to illustrate some of what I was rambling about before. The source I picked for this is a personal journal of a society lady spanning the interwar period. But it is so much more than that! It covers themes of love and life in a big city, dealing with a father that would not allow her to see three films at the cinema in one day (Shocking!) and discussing books that were popular and about which she wrote with all the candour of a teenager with strong opinions (don’t we all know about that :) ).

I came across her book as I was perusing the shelves of ‘The most beautiful bookshop in Europe’, Carturesti Carusel, in the historic centre of Bucharest, in itself a marvellous example of heritage reuse (but a story for another time).

A hefty volume of almost 1000 pages, Jeni Acterian's journal was a dream come true for the budding romantic researcher in me. She lived between 1917 and 1958 and was of Armenian origin (already an interesting detail). She made a name for herself on the theatre scene of the age, and was friend with  Mircea Eliade, Eugen Ionescu and Emil Cioran, the biggest names in Romanian intellectual circles of the 20th century. 

Chapter 5: Do we read a journal to get a glimpse of the behind the scenes of history or of a personal conscience?

As a historical source, we can look at a journal form multiple viewpoints. First of all, the very fact that keeping a journal was a thing to do back then was significant of many things. The social constraints of the time may have prevented her from publicly voicing her concerns, while the topics approached tell us about the intellectual inclinations of young women in the 1930’s. As a part of a middle class fairly wealthy family, Jeni was concerned with philosophy and literature, theatre and art and found the formal education she was enrolled in constraining, although she excelled at mathematics. She wrote in Romanian, English, French and German and often invented words for feelings she would experience but could not name. She wrote: 

"I wish to read and to write. Only to read and to write. I would renounce any diploma. A waste of time these diplomas. Until now, despite all difficulties, I was attached to my diplomas. Now, I do not want them anymore. I say this without any lack of discipline you would expect from a 16 year old. I want to show them that without schooling, learning by myself, I can pass all exams!" 

So we can already notice that at 16, the life of a young woman was significantly different than from today. 

Second of all, the content is of documentary value as a personal history. It is a vivid testimony of the objects people were surrounded with, what type of house and furnishings were used by different social categories and what the dictates of social interactions were. 

Thirdly, it gives us information about urban society at large. The fact that her friends were intellectuals, writers and journalists from many different schools of thought, which were educated in Western Europe, most in Paris, Berlin or Vienna, shows that at least the ‘high’ society was very intellectually diverse, and the very existence of poetry groups and discussion salons is insightful for imagining Bucharest. 

Coincidentally, the very day I bought the book I went on a guided tour of one of Bucharest most prominent neighbourhoods, Dorobanti, where this woman lived. The guide started with a story of the architectural style of the surrounding areas, then proceeded to immerse us in a history of some of the significant houses, one of which was the one pictured above, in which Jeni spent most of the years covered in her journal. In this house she hosted salons and literary meetings, she fell in and out of love, and sadly also died in middle age. Throughout all this, the house remains, a testimony to a significant yet ordinary life. It is now an apartment building, with no plaque or commemoration of its history whatsoever. While the situation in this case is such that it would not be applicable to my thesis focus, the point remains that there are many of such historical buildings with a rich past but an uncertain future. In a poor state of conservation, often empty and uncared for, the testimony of the past that their continued existence provides would be lost if not for a strategy of sustainable maintenance. 

Hopefully, through this example, I have illustrated the potential for education and research of such buildings. 

Follow up next month for the amazing, the abstract, the daunting, the great next instalment: 

Chapter 6: Research and Methodology