DOCSLIB.ORG

Of Revolutionaries and Geeks

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Of Revolutionaries and Geeks OF REVOLUTIONARIES AND GEEKS MEDIATION, SPACE AND TIME AMONG ESPERANTO SPEAKERS A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2019 GUILHERME MOREIRA FIANS Department of Social Anthropology | School of Social Sciences This page intentionally left blank 2 „Not all people exist in the same Now‟ Ernst Bloch (1990 [1962]: 97) „We‟re not as numerous as we wanted, but we‟re more than you can imagine‟ Ĵak Le Puil, Esperantist from Île-de-France, 2017 3 This page intentionally left blank 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. 7 GLOSSARY AND ACRONYMS ......................................................................................... 10 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... 13 RESUMO (ABSTRACT IN ESPERANTO) ......................................................................... 14 DECLARATION ................................................................................................................... 15 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ................................................................................................ 15 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... 18 INTRODUCTION, OR WHERE TO BEGIN? ..................................................................... 22 In the beginning was the word ........................................................................................... 28 Encounters: on community, movement and mediation ...................................................... 33 Babbling some initial questions and navigating the field .................................................. 43 Researching in La République ........................................................................................... 47 Overview of chapters ......................................................................................................... 51 CHAPTER 1. FOLLOW THE (NON-)NATIVE: (DIS)LOCATING ESPERANTO IN TIME AND SPACE ......................................................................................................................... 54 1.1. A long and winding road ............................................................................................. 55 1.2. The birth of a new contender ...................................................................................... 59 1.3. Among neutralists, leftists and polyglots .................................................................... 68 1.4. The social life of cardboard boxes .............................................................................. 70 1.5. Territorialising Esperantoland..................................................................................... 75 1.6. On the move, in the making ........................................................................................ 84 CHAPTER 2. WHEN ESPERANTISTS MEET, OR WHAT REMAINS WHEN THE OTHER IS GONE? ................................................................................................................ 92 2.1. Countries without queens, can you imagine? .............................................................. 93 2.2. The making of a community ..................................................................................... 101 2.3. From humanism to internationalism, with many differences in between ................. 108 2.4. Fellow Esperantists, national others .......................................................................... 114 2.5. L’étranger et l’étrange .............................................................................................. 125 2.6. The ephemerality of the sociability ........................................................................... 131 5 CHAPTER 3. ON MOVING AND STANDING STILL: THE MOVEMENT FROM THE STANDPOINT OF AN ESPERANTO ASSOCIATION .................................................... 135 3.1. Where have all our members gone? .......................................................................... 136 3.2. The rise and fall of la vie associative ........................................................................ 141 3.3. On unsettled traditional settings ................................................................................ 146 3.4. A movement that is not moving well enough ............................................................ 154 3.5. When time gains centrality ........................................................................................ 163 CHAPTER 4. MOBILE YOUTH: AGE GROUPS, GENERATIONS AND NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES ............................................................................ 171 4.1. The invisible networks .............................................................................................. 172 4.2. The old and the new Esperanto communities ............................................................ 176 4.3. Mind the gap .............................................................................................................. 185 4.4. On rhythms, timings and seasons .............................................................................. 193 CHAPTER 5. ESPERANTO IN THE MAKING, MAKING THROUGH ESPERANTO . 200 5.1. Deleuze and the Esperantology of becoming ............................................................ 201 5.2. Doing things differently: Esperanto as a powerful alternative .................................. 208 5.3. Deeds, not words ....................................................................................................... 217 5.4. A language not meant to become universal: Esperanto as a powerless alternative ... 221 COMING TO A CLOSE: TOWARDS AN EMPOWERMENT OF EPHEMERALITY ... 230 On communication and mediation ................................................................................... 231 A matter of space .............................................................................................................. 233 A matter of power and choice .......................................................................................... 235 A matter of time ............................................................................................................... 237 AFTERWORD ..................................................................................................................... 240 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................... 242 Word count: 82,181 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Political map of Mainland France (without including the 21 overseas regions), according to regions and departments [Source: website Cartograf.fr, retrieved March 2019]. Figure 2: Comic strip in English, made by young Esperantists, joking 25 about some parent‟s reactions towards Esperanto language learning [Source: Facebook page Steve the silly and vagabond linguist, retrieved September 2017]. Figure 3: Poster saying, in Esperanto: „What are you doing to stop this? 65 Esperantists of the world, put your strength against international fascism‟ [Source: Comissariat de Propaganda de la Generalitat de Catalunya, c.1936. Available at the US Library of Congress. Figure 4: Poster in French, encouraging workers from the world to come 65 together and to break down the wall of languages that keeps them apart [Source: SAT-Amikaro, c.1955. Available at the archives of SAT- Amikaro]. Figure 5: Esperanto associations, in a map made available by UEA and 80 regularly updated by users of the website Esperanto.net. It is worth noticing that this map shows the level of institutionalisation of the use of Esperanto in each place and stands for the geographical distribution of associations, not of Esperanto speakers [Source: website Esperanto.net, retrieved February 2019]. Figure 6: Image of the „sleeping beauty‟ followed by the sentence, in 94 Esperanto: „Find a place to stay anywhere on the planet‟. This image, however, is not on the updated version of Pasporta Servo‟s website [Source: website PasportaServo.org, retrieved November 2017] Figure 7: Picture that was said to exoticise differences, in UEA‟s home 94 7 page [Source: website UEA.org, retrieved January 2018]. Figure 8: The Esperanto flag and the Jubilee symbol [Source: images in 103 the public domain, retrieved February 2018]. Figure 9: Postcard praising the rapprochement of peoples through 109 Esperanto, produced in the United Kingdom. It says, in Esperanto: „Friendly Salutations. Oh, Let us sing a song/ About the language Esperanto/ In poems and odes/ By writers and poets‟. [Source: Raphael Tuck & Sons, 1922. Available at Hector Hodler Library, UEA]. Figure 10: Evolution in the number of associations created in France per 150 year [Source: Bazin et alii 2017: 4]. Figure 11: Advertisement saying, in Esperanto: „Travel by aeroplane / Air 157 France / Transport of passengers, mail, goods‟ [Source: Kongresa Libro de la 29a Universala Kongreso de Esperanto, Warsaw, 1937]. Figure 12: On the façade of an information office in Barcelona, the 157 information for foreign participants was displayed in four languages: Spanish, French, English, and Esperanto [Source: photographer unknown, c.1936. Available at the website SobreHistoria.com]. Figure 13: Timesheet in French with the activities offered by the internees 158 at the internment
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Problems of Learning Languages
    Министерство образования и науки кыргызской республики кыргызско-российский славянский университет кафедра теории и практики английского языка и межкультурной коммуникации о.Ю. Шубина, в.Ш. Хасанова, н.в. курганова PROBLEMS OF LEARNING LANGUAGES учебное пособие для студентов старших курсов языковых специальностей бишкек 2010 уДк 80/81 ббк 81 Ш 95 рецензенты: в.Д. асанов, доц., р.и. кузьмина, доц., г.а. вишневская, доц. рекомендовано к изданию кафедрой теории и практики английского языка и межкультурной коммуникации и ученым советом крсу Допущено Министерством образования и науки кыргызской республики в качестве учебного пособия для студентов высших учебных заведений Шубина О.Ю и др. Ш 95 Problems of learning languages: учебное пособие для студентов страших курсов языковых специальностей / о.Ю. Шубина, в.Ш. Хасанова, н.в. курганова. – б.: крсу, 2010. – 118 с. isbn 978-9967-05-573-5 настоящее учебное пособие “Problems of learning languages” предназнача- ется для студентов старших курсов языковых специальностей. Цель пособия – совершенствование навыков чтения, развитие навыков ре- чевого общения, введение и закрепление лексики по изучаемой теме. пособие состоит из четырех разделов, в каждый из которых включены тематические тексты, определенные задания по различным видам чтения (по- исковое, просмотровое и др.), задания на лексику, задания, направленные на развитие навыков написания аннотаций и эссе. в пособие включены также ролевые игры и тестовые задания для контроля знаний студентов: лексические тесты, тесты к видеофильмам и аудиотесты. в пособие включен словарь-минимум, охватывающий лексику всего мате- риала пособия. задания, предлагаемые в сборнике, предполагают парный и групповой виды работ и предназначены как для аудиторной, так и для самостоятельной работы. Ш 4602000000-09 уДк 80/81 ББК 81 isbn 978-9967-05-573-5 © крсу, 2010 CONTENTS Unit I.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparison Between Natural and Planned Languages
    UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) The Case of Correlatives: A Comparison between Natural and Planned Languages Gobbo, F. Publication date 2011 Document Version Final published version Published in Journal of Universal Language Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Gobbo, F. (2011). The Case of Correlatives: A Comparison between Natural and Planned Languages. Journal of Universal Language, 12(2), 45-79. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:28 Sep 2021 Federico Gobbo 45 Journal of Universal Language 12-2 September 2011, 45-79 The Case of Correlatives: A Comparison between Natural and Planned Languages Federico Gobbo University of Insubria 1 Abstract Since the publication of Volapük, the most important functional and deictic words present in grammar—interrogative, relative and demonstrative pronouns, and adjectives among others—have been described in planned grammars in a series or a table, namely “correlatives,” showing a considerable level of regularity.
    [Show full text]
  • Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism in Catalonia: the Case of the Esperanto Movement
    Student ID: 1560509 Cosmopolitanism and nationalism in Catalonia: the case of the Esperanto movement Student ID: 1560509 INTRODUCTION 3 LITERATURE REVIEW 7 ESPERANTO AND CATALONIA 8 NATIONALISM(S) AND COSMOPOLITANISM(S) 11 CATALAN IDENTITY AND NATIONALISM 17 IDENTITY AND ESPERANTO 21 THE STUDY 24 METHODOLOGY 24 FIRST CONTACTS WITH THE LANGUAGE, KEA AND THE IDEALS OF ESPERANTO 30 CATALAN IDENTITY AND ESPERANTISM 38 NATIONALISM, COSMOPOLITANISM AND ESPERANTO 45 CONCLUSIONS 55 BIBLIOGRAPHY 59 2 Student ID: 1560509 Introduction This essay aims to explore the idea and the practice of cosmopolitanism within the Catalan Esperanto community and its interaction with the strong self- identification of Catalan Esperantists as ‘Catalans’ (Alòs i Font, 2010). More spe- cifically, the study focuses on the members of the Catalan Association of Esperan- to ([eo]: Kataluna Esperanto-Asocio, hereinafter KEA) who reside in Barcelona, where the headquarters of the association are.1 The main research question is the following: How do the members of the Catalan Association of Esperanto balance their nation- alistic sentiments towards Catalonia and the Catalan language with the core cos- mopolitan ideology of the Esperanto movement they are part of? The question is interesting because the strong nationalism of Catalan Esperan- tists, apart from being in contrast with the traditional Esperanto ideology and culture (Zaft, 2003; Blanke, 2015), is not in line with what seems to be the reality of most Esperanto communities in Europe, as emerged from the available empir- ical studies on the subject (Rašič, 1996; Alòs i Font, 2010; Puškar, 2015). These studies show that European Esperantists have in general a weaker national iden- tity than the average citizens of their respective countries.
    [Show full text]
  • Ĉu Vi Konas Ĝian Agadon? | 254
    EsperantoOficiala organo de Universala Esperanto-Asocio (en oficialaj rilatoj kun UN kaj Unesko) 113-a jaro . n-ro 1352 (12) | decembro 2020 La Rezolucio de MondaFest' | 243 Post Malapero de la Nova Koronviruso en Wuhan, Ĉinio | 250 E@I festas sian 15-jariĝon – ĉu vi konas ĝian agadon? | 254 ISSN 0014-0635 Kolofono Esperanto Enhavo Oficiala organo de Universala Esperanto-Asocio (en oficialaj rilatoj kun UN kaj Unesko) 243 Universala Kongreso 244 Fondita en 1905 de Paul Berthelot Donante esperon: (1881-1910). Establita kiel organo de UEA en 1908 La Rezolucio de MondaFest' memoraĵoj el 2020 de Hector Hodler (1887-1920). La Monda Festivalo de Esperanto deba- Oficiala Informilo 245 tis, notis, konstatis, insistas, reasertas, al- UEA Misio: vokas, rekomendas kaj atentigas. 246 Kvazaŭ anteno kaptanta la tendencojn, la ardon, Ne nur EKO, la aspirojn de la esperantoj ĉiulande, la revuo ankaŭ la daŭrigo Esperanto prezentu aktualan, interesan, inspiran 250 Alvoko al partopreno en 247 bildon pri la agado kaj strategio de UEA kaj pri la la 72-a okazigo evoluo de Esperanto en monda skalo. Post Malapero de la Nova de la Belartaj Konkursoj Koronviruso en Wuhan de UEA, en 2021 La Esperanto-Movado komencis aktivi- Fake, Science kaj 248 ĝi post nuligo de la nova koronviruso Profesie tra la mondo Redaktoroj: Dmitrij Ŝevĉenko, Anna Striganova en Wuhan, Ĉinio. Inter la 20-a kaj 22-a Ĉu reviviĝos ISAE? Korektisto: Rob Moerbeek de oktobro la urba asocio oka zigis in te- Persona invito al la IKU 249 ' resajn eventojn. en Belfasto Adreso de la Redakcio: MondaFest’ 252 Revuo Esperanto Revivigi la Virtualan Universala Esperanto-Asocio 254 Kongreson Nieuwe Binnenweg 176, 3015 BJ E@I festas sian 15-jariĝon – Afriko brilas 253 Rotterdam, Nederlando Ideo de senlima amikeco tel.: +31 10 436 1044 ĉu vi konas ĝian agadon? Eventoj 259 http://revuoesperanto.org Tio po vas ŝajni mallonga periodo, ta- [email protected] La Internacia «Retinario» men la organizo jam dum tiu mallonga TEJO Aperas: en ĉiu monato krom aŭgusto.
    [Show full text]
  • La Gramatiko De La Lingvo Sen Gramatiko
    1 2 La Gramatiko de la Lingvo Sen Gramatiko verkis Renato Corsetti 2018 3 4 LA GRAMATIKO DE LINGVO SEN GRAMATIKO Enhavtabelo 1. enkonduko 2. ĉapitro 1-a 3. ĉapitro 2-a 4. ĉapitro 3-a 5. ĉapitro 4-a 6. ĉapitro 5-a 7. ĉapitro 6-a 8. ĉapitro 7-a 9. ĉapitro 8-a Apendicoj Ekzerco 1.1 Ekzerco 3.1 Aldona parto por anglalingvanoj 1 Ekzerco 1.2 Ekzerco 3.2 Aldona parto por anglalingvanoj 2 Ekzerco 1.3 Ekzerco 3.3 Aldona parto por anglalingvanoj 3 Ekzerco 1.4 Ekzerco 3.4 Aldona parto por anglalingvanoj 5 Ekzerco 2.1 Ekzerco 3.5 Aldona parto por anglalingvanoj 6 Ekzerco 2.2 Ekzerco 3.6 Aldona parto por anglalingvanoj 7 Ekzerco 2.3 Ekzerco 3.7 Tio, kion la Akademio de Esperanto diras: Ekzerco 2.4 Ekzerco 4.1 plena teksto de la deklaro Ekzerco 2.5 Ekzerco 4.2 Ĝusta solvo de ekzerco 2.9.2 Ekzerco 2.6 Ekzerco 4.3 (2.10) Ankoraŭ pri "sia" sed nur por apartaj Ekzerco 2.7.A Ekzerco 4.4 maniuloj pri gramatiko Ekzerco 2.7.B Ekzerco 5.1 Ankoraŭ pri nerekta parolo Ekzerco 2.7.1 Ekzerco 5.2 (6.3) Kromaj klarigoj ne nepre legendaj Ekzerco 2.7.2 Ekzerco 5.3 Ekzerco 2.8.1 Ekzerco 6.1 Ekzerco 2.9.1 Ekzerco 6.2 Ekzerco 2.9.2 Ekzerco 6.3 Ekzerco 7.1 Ekzerco 7.2 Ekzerco 7.3 5 6 Enkonduko Ĉi tiu ne estas lernolibro por komencantoj sed lernolibro por komencintoj, por homoj, kiuj jam lernis Esperanton, kaj volas relerni ĝin laŭ la reguloj de la Fundamento de Esperanto.
    [Show full text]
  • O Języku Pomocniczym Międzynarodowym” 111 Lat Później
    425 BULLETIN DE LA SOCIÉTÉ POLONAISE DE LINGUISTIQUE, FASC. LXXVI, 2020 ISSN 0032-3802 IDA STRIA Uniwersytet Warszawski, Warszawa ORCID: 0000-0002-7715-0758 ♦ DOI: 10.5604/01.3001.0014.6657 „O języku pomocniczym międzynarodowym” 111 lat później Streszczenie W 1908 roku Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay wygłosił publiczny odczyt „O języku pomocniczym międzynarodowym”, w którym to prezentował tytułowe zagadnienie, skupiając się na językach sztucz- nych. Niniejszy referat ma na celu analizę powyższego tekstu i stwierdzenie, w jakim stopniu aktualne jest stanowisko tego wielkiego językoznawcy w świetle nie tylko dzisiejszej wiedzy językoznawczej, ale także pod kątem faktycznego rozwoju języków przez niego opisanych. Słowa kluczowe: międzynarodowy język pomocniczy, esperanto, volapük, języki sztuczne, lingua franca “On an international auxiliary language” 111 years later Summary In 1908, Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay gave a public lecture entitled “O języku pomocniczym międzynarodowym” (‘On an international auxiliary language’), in which he focused on artificial languag- es. This paper aims to analyse the ideas presented in Baudouin de Courtenay’s lecture and verify to what extent the great linguist’s views are still valid in the light not only of current linguistic knowledge, but also in terms of the actual development of the languages he described. Keywords: international auxiliary language, Esperanto, Volapük, artificial language,lingua franca W 1908 roku nakładem drukarni Literackiej ukazał się publiczny odczyt Jana Niecisława Baudouina de Courtenay „O języku pomocniczym międzynarodowym”. W jedenastu sekcjach autor prezentował tytułowe zagadnienie, omawiając kwestie historyczne, społeczno-polityczne, czysto językoznawcze czy pedagogiczne, aby w pełni zobrazować złożoność problemu. Niniejszy artykuł ma na celu przybliżenie tego dość mało znanego tekstu.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: in Search of Esperanto
    Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems 13(2), 182-192, 2015 INTRODUCTION: IN SEARCH OF ESPERANTO Humphrey Tonkin* University of Hartford West Hartford, USA DOI: 10.7906/indecs.13.2.12 Regular article ABSTRACT After almost one hundred years of continuous use, Esperanto has achieved the status and character of a fully-fledged language, functioning much as any other language does. Research on Esperanto is hampered because knowledge of the subject is often regarded, ipso facto, as evidence of a lack of objectivity, and also because Esperanto, as largely an L2, is elusive, and its speakers hard to quantify. The problem is compounded by the rapid shift in its community from membership-based organizations to decentralized, informal web-based communication. Also shifting are the community’s ideological underpinnings: it began as a response to lack of communication across languages but is now often perceived by its users as an alternative, more equitable means of communication than the increasingly ubiquitous English. Underlying these changes is a flourishing cultural base, including an extensive literature and periodical press. There is a need for more research – linguistic, sociolinguistic, and in the history of ideas. In intellectual history, Esperanto and related ideas have played a larger role than is generally recognized, intersecting with, and influencing, such movements as modernization in Japan, the development of international organizations, socialism in many parts of the world, and, in our own day, machine translation. KEY WORDS Esperanto, Esperanto community, interlinguistic research, language ideology CLASSIFICATION JEL: O20 *Corresponding author, : [email protected]; +1 860 768 4448; *Mortensen Library, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT 06117, USA Introduction: in search of Esperanto INTRODUCTION In an influential essay some years ago, the late Richard Wood described Esperanto as “a voluntary, non-ethnic, non-territorial speech community” [1].
    [Show full text]
  • In Search of Esperanto
    Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems 13(2), 182-192, 2015 INTRODUCTION: IN SEARCH OF ESPERANTO Humphrey Tonkin* University of Hartford West Hartford, USA DOI: 10.7906/indecs.13.2.12 Regular article ABSTRACT After almost one hundred years of continuous use, Esperanto has achieved the status and character of a fully-fledged language, functioning much as any other language does. Research on Esperanto is hampered because knowledge of the subject is often regarded, ipso facto, as evidence of a lack of objectivity, and also because Esperanto, as largely an L2, is elusive, and its speakers hard to quantify. The problem is compounded by the rapid shift in its community from membership-based organizations to decentralized, informal web-based communication. Also shifting are the community’s ideological underpinnings: it began as a response to lack of communication across languages but is now often perceived by its users as an alternative, more equitable means of communication than the increasingly ubiquitous English. Underlying these changes is a flourishing cultural base, including an extensive literature and periodical press. There is a need for more research – linguistic, sociolinguistic, and in the history of ideas. In intellectual history, Esperanto and related ideas have played a larger role than is generally recognized, intersecting with, and influencing, such movements as modernization in Japan, the development of international organizations, socialism in many parts of the world, and, in our own day, machine translation. KEY WORDS Esperanto, Esperanto community, interlinguistic research, language ideology CLASSIFICATION JEL: O20 *Corresponding author, : [email protected]; +1 860 768 4448; *Mortensen Library, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT 06117, USA Introduction: in search of Esperanto INTRODUCTION In an influential essay some years ago, the late Richard Wood described Esperanto as “a voluntary, non-ethnic, non-territorial speech community” [1].
    [Show full text]
  • Inventors and Devotees of Artificial Languages
    From SIAM News, Volume 43, Number 5, June 2010 Inventors and Devotees of Artificial Languages In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and The Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language. By Arika Okrent, Spiegel and Grau, New York, 2009, 352 pages, $26.00. In the Land of Invented Languages is a remarkably entertaining historical survey of artificial languages and their inventors, from the Lingua Ignota of Hildegard von Bingen in the 12th century through Esperanto and, more recently, Klingon. The depth of the research is impressive. The author, Arika Okrent, attended conferences in Esperanto, Loglan, and Klingon, among others; hunted up obscure self-published tomes available only in a few rare book rooms; worked through scores of these languages in enough depth to translate BOOK REVIEW passages into them; and interviewed hundreds of people, both language inventors and enthusiasts, getting to know many By Ernest Davis of them well. One of the book’s two appendices lists 500 artificial languages; the other offers translations of the Lord’s Prayer into 17 languages and of the Story of Babel into another 11. The text contains samples from many more languages, carefully explained and analyzed. Nonetheless, the book wears its learning very lightly; it is delightfully personal, and as readable as a novel. It is in fact as much about the histories of the inventors and devotees of the languages as about the languages themselves; these histories are mostly strange and often sad. Invented languages can be categorized by the purposes of their inventors.
    [Show full text]
  • Esperanto, Civility, and the Politics of Fellowship: A
    ESPERANTO, CIVILITY, AND THE POLITICS OF FELLOWSHIP: A COSMOPOLITAN MOVEMENT FROM THE EASTERN EUROPEAN PERIPHERY A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Ana Velitchkova Omar Lizardo, Director Graduate Program in Peace Studies and Sociology Notre Dame, Indiana July 2014 © Copyright by ANA MILENOVA VELITCHKOVA 2014 All rights reserved ESPERANTO, CIVILITY, AND THE POLITICS OF FELLOWSHIP: A COSMOPOLITAN MOVEMENT FROM THE EASTERN EUROPEAN PERIPHERY Abstract by Ana Velitchkova This dissertation examines global, regional, state-, group-, and person-level processes involved in the growth of the movement formed around the constructed international language Esperanto. The Esperanto movement emerged in the global arena in the late nineteenth century as a response to inequalities in the nation-state field. In the course of several decades, the movement established a new global field based on the logic of equal communication through Esperanto and on the accumulation of cultural capital. While the field gained autonomy from the nation-state field, it has not been recognized as its equal. Persons endowed with cultural capital but lacking political and economic capital have been particularly drawn to Esperanto. Ironically, while attempting to overcome established unfair distinctions based on differential accumulation of political and economic capital, the Esperanto movement creates and maintains new distinctions and inequalities based on cultural capital accumulation. Ana Velitchkova At the regional level, the Esperanto movement became prominent in state- socialist Eastern Europe in the second half of the twentieth century. The movement found unexpected allies among independent states in the Eastern European periphery.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Esperanto?
    Fiat Lingua Title: The Contemporary Esperanto Speech Community Author: Adelina Solis MS Date: 01-12-2013 FL Date: 01-01-2013 FL Number: FL-000010-01 Citation: Solis, Adelina. 2013. “The Contemporary Esperanto Speech Community.” FL-000010-01, Fiat Lingua, <http:// fiatlingua.org>. Web. 01 Jan. 2013. Copyright: © 2013 Adelina Solis. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Fiat Lingua is produced and maintained by the Language Creation Society (LCS). For more information about the LCS, visit http://www.conlang.org/ The Contemporary Esperanto Speech Community by Adelina Mariflor Solís Montúfar 1 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 3 1.1 Definitions 4 1.2 Political support for a universal language 5 1.3 A brief history of language invention 9 1.4 A brief history of Esperanto 14 1.5 The construction, structure, and dissemination of Esperanto 17 1.6 Esperanto and the culture question 24 1.7 Research Methods 29 Chapter 2: Who Speaks Esperanto? 34 2.1 Number and distribution of speakers 34 2.2 Gender distribution 47 Chapter 3: The Esperanto Speech Community 58 3.1 Terminology and definitions 58 3.2 Norms and Ideologies 65 3.3 Approach to language 70 Chapter 4: Why Esperanto? 81 4.1 Ideology-based reasons to speak Esperanto 83 4.2 Practical attractions to Esperanto 86 4.3 More than friendship 94 4.4 The congress effect 95 4.5 Esperanto for the blind 100 4.6 Unexpected benefits 102 Chapter 5: Esperantist Objectives 103 5.1 Attracting new speakers 103 5.2 Teaching Esperanto 107 Chapter 6: Conclusion 116 Works Cited 121 2 Chapter 1: Introduction When we think about invented languages, we may think of childhood games.
    [Show full text]
  • LITERATURA EN ESPERANTO UNIVERSALISME I PARTICULARISME Abel Montagut*
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert LITERATURA EN ESPERANTO UNIVERSALISME I PARTICULARISME Abel Montagut* uins objectius i interessos hi ha a la afegir, pel que fa a l’expressió d’una voluntat base de la gestació i l’arrelament de la explícita en el mateix sentit dins l’àmbit català Qllengua internacional esperanto, dona- i ja al segle XIX, Bonaventura Carles Aribau, da a conèixer el 1887? L’esperanto va sorgir Sinibald de Mas i Pere Mata. en un context social i personal ben definit: a la ciutat de Białystok (aleshores dins l’imperi Fins a quin punt hi influïa, en aquestes temp- rus, actualment dins Polònia), a finals del se- tatives i recerques, l’interès per una humani- gle XIX, al si d’una família jueva de parla rus- tat unida, per la pau, per la concòrdia entre els sa, en què el pare era prorus i probablement pobles? agnòstic mentre que la mare era una persona Com es fa compatible religiosa. aquest interès En el cas del doctor Zamenhof el mòbil fo- namental no era la recerca lingüística o universal, El manual de la nova llengua va ser publicat l’especulació filosòfica, sinó que hi predo- en el sentit del conjunt quan Zamenhof tenia 27 anys i exercia com a minava clarament la motivació humanista o de la humanitat, metge oftalmòleg a Varsòvia. Havia estat tre- filantròpica. Aquest és un dels components ballant seriosament en el projecte almenys bàsics, igual o fins i tot més important que el amb l’interès positiu des dels 14 anys i havia començat a rumiar-hi component lingüístic, per explicar la poste- per la pròpia llengua abans dels deu.
    [Show full text]